Time to bring the game to the next level with 0.9.5 "Advance"! Three major pillars of this release are new Traits (and improvements to old ones), fully perk-based ADV equipment, and a new perk-based item modding system - read all about it below!

Character Advancement

Four new traits have been added, each with an important role to fill. Marine got Army Surplus, which is his way to deal with ammo shortage. Useful on challenge runs, and when Bulletstorm is eating way to many bullets. Scout gets two new traits - first is Executioner, which buffs both early- (and late-) game melee, and also close-range shotgun or SMG play as well! That trait is borderline overpowered right now, so be sure to play around with it before we nerf it :). The other trait is Stealth Hack - which starts off a possibility of hacking builds for Scout - these will become more powerful with the next release (Terminal). Tech gets Toxicologist, which we hope will become a base of builds of its own - starting what we hope will be elemental builds for the various classes (more such traits will come later). Changing your defensive Smoke screen skill to a offensive toxic cloud can be quite fun! Apart from that, there are slight changes in some traits (i.e. Dash and Assassinate got slight nerfs due to Executioner), some overhauls (Tough as Nails now grants raw armor value, like it did in DRL), and improvements (Bloodhound has a short-range heat vision, Powerjack works with stations and ammo terminals), as well as a big buff to Adrenaline - now costs 30 Fury irrespective of difficulty and grants a 5-second buff that protects from pain.

ADVanced Equipment

We removed all non-perk based stat changes for ADV equipment - all stat changes are now based on perks and the perk amount (and quality) depends on the ADV item tier. Those perks are now also displayed in the postmortem for you to brag about if you find a particularly broken piece. All non-ADV AMPs have been removed, and instead ADV general AMPs have been introduced. The perk pool has been significantly increased, mostly for general AMPs but also for headgear, armors and weapons.

ADV Perk-based Modding

The old trio of Accuracy, Bulk and Power packs is still present, but instead of increasing stats, they provide a choice of perks you can apply to your equipment. Usually you pick one of two, but Whizkid increases the pool size. The perk pool is deterministic and depends on the item type and group. ADV weapons have the regular amount of mod slots, so this can get to a ridiculous number of perk counts. We are aware that this, along with the ADV changes, actually makes the game a bit harder, but also allows for more diversity in items (instead of just counting on a high-damage ADV pumped with P-mods). The trait changes offset this a bit, and further balance changes should bring the difficulty back to what it was.

Medkit and Stimpack Improvements

All medkits and stimpacks clear all negative buffs. Additionally, stimpacks protect the user from negative buffs for the duration of the Stimmed buff.

Other Balance Changes

We buffed all mid-tier melee weapons to make the progress between them more fluid. Knife and Demonic Sword stay the same, chainsaw got a small nerf - all others do more damage. Angel of Mercy now won't reduce health from exalted kills which should bring it a bit closer to "doable" on Nightmare.

Bugfixes

Most notably, enemies won't accidentally melee each other - which prevents unintended infighting and protects the player from friendly melee attacks. Assassinate now properly works on the secret level, and there won't be any more secure vaults on Asterius (which could block game progress completely). Read the full changelog below for more:

Full changelog

Beta 0.9.5 - Advance - October 29, 2020 NEW #1210 - Trait - Marine - Army Surplus! NEW #1208 - Trait - Scout - Executioner! NEW #1097 - Trait - Scout - Stealth Hack! NEW #1208 - Trait - Tech - Toxicologist! NEW #1205 - mods overhaul - mods now grant keywords! NEW #1192 - general utility ADV AMPs added NEW #1192 - several new AMP, armor, head perks added NEW #1192 - ADV perks displayed in post mortem CHANGE #1216 - all med and stimpacks clear negative status effects CHANGE #1216 - stims protect from all status effects for duration CHANGE #1205 - Whizkid increases also perk selection when modding CHANGE #1192 - ADV weapons may roll with multiple status effects CHANGE #1192 - removed all non-ADV amps, AMPs are perk-only CHANGE #1192 - all ADV armors, helmets, visors are perk-only CHANGE #1192 - all ADV weapons are perk-only CHANGE #1208 - Nerfed Assassinate due to Executioner CHANGE #1208 - Dash no longer provides a crit-chance bonus CHANGE #1097 - Scout loses packrat, Scavenger now reqs Gun Hoarder CHANGE #1210 - Adrenaline now adds buff that protects from pain CHANGE #1210 - Adrenaline costs 30 Fury independent of difficulty CHANGE #1210 - Bloodhound additionally detects enemies at range 2 CHANGE #1210 - Tough as Nails grants armor instead of pain reduct CHANGE #1210 - Reloader - L1 is -50% when empty, L2 gives 50% DR CHANGE #1210 - Powerjack - works with stations and ammo terminals CHANGE #1215 - buffed all mid-range melee weapon damage a bit CHANGE #1212 - Angel of Mercy wont reduce health for exalted kills FIX #1208 - Energy Leech was giving 1 point too much energy FIX #1207 - Assassinate now properly works on secret level FIX #1208 - no more secure vaults on Asterius FIX #1209 - enemies will no longer accidentally melee attack FIX #1214 - fixed cleared events/levels on Nightmare!

What's next?

Initially, this update was supposed to be "Terminal" with improvements to terminals and hacking, but we got sidetracked with a revamp of the ADV and modding system. Hence, 0.9.6 Terminal is coming next - expect it within 3-4 weeks from now! P.S. There are some issues with OSX builds, we're working on them right now!

[ 2020-10-29 17:00:19 CET ] [ Original post ]