Mercs and Knights - another big update is coming to New Boston! With Update #219, we have added an all new new proc-gen objective, +15 new proc-gen combos tied to it, 7 new boss-level enemies to support it, reduced Light Armor protection by ~5%, split Hacking Drugs out from Combat Drugs officially, further improved the new game experience for controllers, and fixed a heaping pile of your F10s! If you are enjoying the relentless pace of updates, content additions and bug smashing - please take a minute to leave a review. The 3 team members on gamedev are working hard to make all this happen, and we work for your reviews!

New Proc-Gen Objective: Hardened Target

Recently, we've switched from trying to release a new map every week to adding new proc-gen objectives instead. New maps will still be coming, but we're less worried about the weekly drop schedule versus dropping a rapid fire set of new proc-gen objectives to completely blow out the variety of proc-gen combat. With Update #219, we've released a new proc-gen objective - the Kill Hardened Target objective, in which you need infiltrate a location and hunt down a single powerful boss enemy. Unlike other Assassinate VIP missions, this Hardened Target is not going to run away - they are going to turn and fight along with their bodyguards. These missions bring a totally new type of challenge to the game whcih really shakes up the assassination formula in lots of ways. The new Hardened Target objective is supported by 7 new types of powerful boss enemies spread across the factions: the corporate Sentinel Exec, the UltraTek 2X Raptor, the Warner-Braun Rook, the Brave Star Phalanx, the FSC Havoc Jackal, the Syndicate Bloodright and the Gang Street Kings. These enemies are boss-level power, with high HP, wide variety of powerful armor, carrying deadly weapons (including E-Rifles for some of the corp options), and a bevy of deadly Talents, depending on the faction in question - grenades, healing grenades, Full Auto, Overwatch, punishing debuffs and even Vita Shields (which block attacks like Aegis) for some of the corporate options.
We're excited in the new few weeks to expand the Hardened Target options to make more specific bosses for every faction, which will continue to punch up and vary the challenge across the mission set. This new objective is now linked to 15 maps, which adds a total of +15 new proc-gen combos, bringing the game's total of combos (map X objective) to 189 - vastly exceeding the original goal of 80!

Light Armor Nerf

This is a straight nerf - no glossy words will hide it. All Light Armor took a -5% Ballistic Protection hit and in many cases a larger hit to Kinetic Protection %. For Kinetic Protection, the new Light Armor progression sees Kinetic Protection fall behind Ballistic as the armors climb in Power Level, where they used to be in lock step (65% and 65% always). This is a bit painful but is an important move to continue to push the correct balance between Light, Heavy and Stealth Armors and their different advantages and disadvantages. We'll be working on improving the Stealth Armor balance in the coming weeks as well to be sure they have a good place within the trio. Going along with this, we've adjusted some of the armor that enemies have been wearing. There were certain series of enemies who stopped upgrading their armor very early, especially Snipers and the guards who start as patrollers on your maps making them too weak in the mid to late game.

Combat vs. Hacking Drugs

For a long time, all the hacker-focused drugs were lumped under the Combat Drugs listing. As each category has grown, it has become more important to separate them both visually, in text and in the filter. With Update #219, we've split out a separate filter for Combat and Hacking Drugs in the market and all inventory screens.

Continued Controller Improvements

We're continuing to gather feedback from controller players and work down the list of items to improve the flow and speed of play on Steam Deck and standalone controllers. With the last update, we rebuilt the New Game Knight screen to be far easier to use with a controller (removing the messy big scroll to replace it with tabbed sections) and now we've enabled LB and RB to move through those sections smoothly without having to use the D-Pad to go back to the tab list.

Long Tables + Out of Date Icons

We've addressed a big issue with the really large tables - like Cold Storage - where sometimes when you scrolled a lot, the icons could start to get mixed up. You might think you're looking at a Scope Blueprint from the picture but when clicked you'd find an Armor Blueprint. This had to do with some of the grid caching we used to make these really long lists perform well but was pretty confusing for players. Now fixed! Thanks for all the F10s about this!

v1.9.141 - 3/1/2025

- Added new proc-gen objective: Assassinate Hardened Target - find and kill boss protected by bodyguards - 15 new maps available for Hardened Target, +15 total proc-gen combos - 7 new powerful enemy boss types: Sentinel Exec, Braun Rook, UltraTek 2X Raptor, Syndicate Bloodright, Gang Street King, FSC Havoc Jackal, Star Phalanx - Light Armor loses 5% Protection across the board, Kinetic Armor gain across Power Levels slows as well - Improved armor values for some patrol and melee enemies who stopped scaling too early, street sniper armors values - Fixed issue with Contacts not buying files that they should that started in #218 - Split Combat Drugs and Hacking Drugs filter in the inventory system so they are easier to see/shop - Can now use LB/RB to move through tabs in New Game Knight screen - easier for controller/keyboard play - Fixed issue where icons could get out of date (showing an armor but it was a scope) in large inventory tables - Fixed case where character's character Hacking Drugs could not see their full details mid-mission in the character status hover - Fixed missing text for killing enemy secondary objective

[ 2025-03-01 18:33:10 CET ] [ Original post ]