[Developer blog] New map “Ashen Ring”, final iteration of the upgrade mechanics and parts of the new faction. Mass testing

[Woodyrojo 4,881]

Survivors! Today we are launching the last test before the big update 0.11.0. This time you can see almost final variants of changes and innovations that we plan to include in this update.

We remind you that all innovations described in the “Developer blog” are not final and may be changed before they are introduced into the game or not appear at all. You can find out more about the changes on a special test server!

New map “Ashen ring”

Even after the disaster, there are those who have not stopped trying to solve all the mysteries of the universe. Dawn's Children are one of them. They believe they can save civilization. But you can't bring back what's already dead. If they do not stop in time, those pitiful particles of life that are trying hard to grow in the cracked and dusty Wasteland, which has become a new home for Man, will die.

And now tens of thousands of reasons why the target never justifies the means fall from the sky. This ash covers the lifeless soil around the science complex with a hot blanket. This ashes wraps up the armoured cars and their owners who have decided to test their luck. Another wanderer who has attempted something more. This ash is a reminder that the most valuable things can be easily lost twice.

New faction parts

Today we are again giving you the parts of a new fraction from the last test and adding to them a new radar “Verifier”, new wheels “Tough” and the long-awaited mechanical legs “Bigram”.

There are also some changes:

The “Blockchain” plasma torch

After the tests and your feedback, we decided to refine the mechanics of the plasma torch's perk. Test, combine it with other tools and different cabins and share your opinion in a special topic!

Drone “Annihilator”

• In order for the drone to start attacking the enemy, it is necessary to aim and press the drone start button again.
• Now the drone attacks only the enemy that is in the special scope area and stops attacking it 1 second after you stop aiming at it.
• If your opponent is hiding behind an obstacle, the drone also stops attacking it 1 second after you stop aiming at it.

We are waiting for your feedback on the updated mechanics of the drone “Annihilator”! Would you like to see something similar for all other drones?

Item upgrade rework

During the test, all owners of already upgraded parts will be able to check how their parts can change with the update. We remind you of the main points of how the already improved parts will be transferred to the new system:

• If the old type of bonus is included in the new upgrade system, it will be saved. Additional random bonuses from other groups will be added to it. The number of additional bonuses depends on the number of upgrade groups for each part.
• If the old upgrade is not included in the new list of possible bonuses, all new bonuses will be randomly selected.
• If you want to upgrade this part again, you will need to use two more of the same parts as usual.
• ATTENTION: if you had multiple same upgraded parts (with the same bonus), then, after the update, they will receive the same additional perks.

Here's a concrete example. Suppose you have the GL-55 Impulse with increased blast damage enhancement. Well, then:

• Your Impulse will still have a bonus for explosive damage. If the bonus is somehow changed in the new system, then your old bonus will also be changed.
• This bonus will be added with two more random bonuses from the other two groups.
• If you had multiple Impulses with the same damage bonus, then all of them will receive the same additional bonuses.

If, however, your Impulse has had an improvement, for example, for the decrease of the recoil (which we plan to remove), the grenade launcher will receive three new random bonuses.

Explosive damage and radars

As a result of two tests, we decided to stop at the first option:

• Now the radars don't absorb the damage from the explosion of the shell hitting them.
• When hit, the projectile deals some damage to the radar, flies through it, and the explosion and blast damage passes through the nearest parts to the radar, following the path of the projectile's flight.
• The explosion occurs either after contact with a structural part or, if there are no structural parts on the projectile's flight path, the last radar in the projectile's path.
• The unique features of the weapon are still triggered by contact with the radars. That is, the very fact of hitting an armoured vehicle is counted (when, for example, only the radar is in the path of the projectile flight and there are no other parts behind it).
• Exploding shells of the Phoenix crossbow are still attached to the radar if they are hit by it. And the same radar is the epicenter of the explosion.

Developer comment: Both variants (both updated mechanics and limit) solve the problem of radar armor, but the introduction of the limit can lead to the fact that many crafts simply can not go into battle until there is only one radar left on the car. Updated mechanics eliminates the need to remove unnecessary parts, acts like the already familiar mechanics of the interaction of explosive shells and decor, and does not introduce additional restrictions in build mode.

Balance tweaks

Hovers

For this test, we fixed all the bugs related to the acceleration of cars that may have been observed during the previous tests. Let us remind you that the only modification of the hover in the nearest update is a 14% drop in altitude of cars with hovers.

“Aegis-Prime”

Now, with several installed Aegis-Prime shields, the duration of the shield is reduced by 30% for each other shield that is currently being recharged:

• You have 3 Aegis-Prime installed and all three are ready for activation.
• The first shield activated will work for 4 seconds and then begin recharging.
• If you activate the next shield while the first one is recharging, its duration will be reduced by 30%.
• If you activate the third shield while the first two are recharging, its duration will be reduced by 60%.

Cabins

In the test, we also offer you to see the changes in the characteristics of "special cabins". We remind you that in this update we do not plan to change the principle of energy distribution in all cabins.

How to get to the test server?

If you have already participated in testing on a special server, then it will be enough to start the Launcher from the folder with the test client and wait for the update to complete.

• Create a new folder for the game on your hard drive.
• Download the Launcher from this link. The file name should not contain numbers indicating that the file is a duplicate. Please note that you should launch the file that does not contain any digits (1), (2), etc. in its name. If, when starting the installed launcher, you get to the live game servers, you need to delete all downloaded launchers from the download folder and try again.
• Start the Launcher and install the game to the folder you created (for example: D:\Public test\Crossout).
• After the installation is complete, start the Launcher and enter the game with your username and password.
• The whole progress of your main account will be transferred to the main server (including parts in storage and levels of reputation in factions).
• After logging in to the server to transfer the progress from your account, you must press the “Esc” key and select “Copy account data”.
• Please note the schedule of the test server:
  • Friday, January 31, 2020: from 14:00 to 19:00 (GMT time)
  • Saturday, February 1, 2020 from 15:00 to 18:00 (GMT)
  • Sunday, February 2, 2020 from 15:00 to 18:00 (GMT)
• Any progress you make on the test server will not be transferred to the live game servers (INCLUDING ATTEMPTS TO BUY PACKS).

After testing the changes, we invite you to leave your constructive feedback on the planned rework in THIS THREAD (it will open a bit later after the launch of the test server).

You may leave your bug reports regarding all the issues you’ve encountered on the test server HERE.

The public test server is intended only for testing of the upcoming update, and may not accommodate all players without exception. However, absolutely anyone can join the server, as long as there are free spots.

---

[VisceraCleaner 2,210]

First comment should be mine!

Guys! This is so amazing!

Spoiler

So Omnibox's second mode guarantees cooling and reload bonus. Accelerating cooling by 15% and reload by 15%.
But i don't think 15% cooling bonus has equal value compared to 15% reload bonus.

Bigram is so amazing movement! How lovely it is! At wheel mode, it does not have speed limit.
But still i believe speed limit of leg mode is too harsh. 35 km/h? As a player who believes ML200 needs better maximum speed, i believe 40 km/h for it would be better.

Verifier is not completed. No texture  But still so cool. It has basic detection range like normal radars.
It seems basic detection range of it should be longer than that. (Oculus also needs better basic detection range.)
Wow! It can deactivate the chameleons of enemies within 200 m!  So cool!

Annihilator is so amazing. New attack mechanism reminds me of Homing missiles. So instead of launch and forget, now player should pay constant attention.
It feels good because it feels like i'm actually commanding drone. New mechanism is perfect.
But now user should risk more than before, and it is hard to check the range where i can target and keep drones attack. It should be improved.
Damage looks fine but range is too short. Considering new mechanism, giving it more range will be fine.
(Targeting range; 150 m, Attack distance; 200 ~ 225 m is my suggestion.)

Assembler. Charging is so efficient that there is no reason to use tap fire to kill enemy.
Small 1 sec charge deal 116 ~ 140 damage with much better projectile speed and accuracy while tap fire did similar damage with awful accuracy and slow projectile speed.)
Of course, tap fire can be used to reveal the hidden enemy. But we will be able to use Verifier. Tap fire will be pointless.

Summator looks good. Damage and durability looks reasonable for me.
The problem is... how nail can fly further then bullets? Maximum range of it is so much superior to range of bullet, the machine guns'.
This is so ridiculous. It does not make any sense. Machine guns need buff.

Trigger is also kinda weird. Heating rate of it is much slower than that of Aurora. I think it should heat up parts faster than now.
Also, i think giving it slightly more range would be fine. (Also, i believe other energy weapons;Plasma emitters, Tesla cannon, Combat laser also need range buff.)

Blockchain is too weak. More basic damage, lower perk bonus will be reasonable.

Spoiler

Aegis Prime change looks kinda weird but also makes sense at same time.
It will be really helpful for reducing Aegis Prime spammers and fusion build abusers.

I like Radar change too. It will fix many problems but at same time, it is absolute nerf for vehicles which has used single radars.
Adjusting mass and durability of radars must be accompanied.  

 

I will write more after appreciating more stuffs. This is so good.

Edited January 31, 2020 by VisceraCleaner

[Waughan27131 380]

For Aegis-prime, you touch the wrong guy...

 

  

On 1/30/2020 at 11:36 AM, Waughan27131 said:

I'll do some more precise calculations:

If I use Aegises without anything else, without any bonuses:

• 1 aegis: 4 secs of active time, 25 secs cooldown (for 3 energy)
• 2 aegises: 4 secs of active time, 25 secs cooldown + 2nd aegis can be active during cooldown = 21 secs without any aegis (for 6 energy)
• 3 aegises: 4 secs AT, 25 secs cooldown, 2nd and 3rd aegises can be active = 17 secs without any aegis (for 9 energy)
• 4 aegises: 4 secs AT, 25 secs cooldown, other aegises can be active = 13 secs without any aegis (for 12 energy

Now same thing with Jade, who has ability to improve active time of Aegis by 10 %

• 1 aegis: 4,4 secs AT, 25 secs cooldown
• 2 aegises: 4,4 secs AT, 25 secs cooldown, 2nd aegis active = 20,6 secs without any shield
• 3 aegises: 4,4 secs AT, 25 secs cooldown, other aegises active = 16,2 secs without any shield
• 4 aegises: 4,4 secs AT, 25 secs cooldown, other aegises active = 11,8 secs without any shield

You can see that without engines, you can get at least 2 Typhoon/Tsunami reloads (with Colossus) in that gap when car is without a shield.

 

Now we can add engines, I'll use Jade as well:

Hot red has +10 % of reload speed, which leads to reduced cooldown: 25/1,1 = 22,7 secs (round number, it's 22,72 periodic)

• 1 aegis: 4,4 secs AT, 22,7 secs cooldown
• 2 aegis: 4,4 secs AT, 22,7 secs cooldown, 2nd aegis active = 18,3 secs without any shield
• 3 aegis: 4,4 secs AT, 22,7 secs cooldown, other shields active = 13,9 secs without any shield
• 4 aegis: 4,4 secs AT, 22,7 secs cooldown, other shields active = 9,5 secs without any shield

So even using Hot red means you can't have infinite shield vehicle (even with 5 shields)

If we have old Golden eagle (which should come back I think, but that's another topic), it had +20 % of  reload speed of modules. So that means 25/1,2 = 20,8 secs (again round number)

• 1 aegis: 4,4 secs AT, 20,8 secs cooldown
• 2 aegis: 4,4 secs AT, 20,8 secs cooldown, 2nd aegis active = 16,4 secs without any shield
• 3 aegis: 4,4 secs AT, 20,8 secs cooldown, other shields active = 12 secs without any shield
• 4 aegis: 4,4 secs AT, 20,8 secs cooldown, other shields active = 7,6 secs without any shield

Again, we are out of infinite aegis! Even with 5 shields, it's impossible

And now, we have Cheetah: Cheetah stacks distance traveled and every charge adds 20 % of reload. 20 % of reload time is 5 secs, so reload time is reduced by 5 secs per 100 m. It doesn't improve reload speed itself.

If you can get 2 charges during cooldown, you get this:

• 1 aegis: 4,4 secs AT, 25-10 = 15 secs of cooldown
• 2 aegises: 4,4 secs AT, 15 secs cooldown, 2nd shield active = 10,6 secs without any shield
• 3 aegises: 4,4 secs AT, 15 secs cooldown, other shields active = 6,2 secs without any shield
• 4 aegises: 4,4 secs AT, 15 secs cooldown, other shields active = 1,8 secs without any shield

Which is very close to infinite one. Notice, that 2 aegises with cheetah with 2 charges per cycle has 10,6 secs without protection...which is very very close to active time of Chameleon Mk II. This is how double bubble helioses work.

With 3 charges, it's all reduced by 5 secs:

• 1 aegis: 4,4 secs AT, 25-15 = 10 secs of cooldown
• 2 aegises: 4,4 secs AT, 15 secs cooldown, 2nd shield active = 5,6 secs without any shield
• 3 aegises: 4,4 secs AT, 15 secs cooldown, other shields active = 1,2 secs without any shield
• 4 aegises: 4,4 secs AT, 15 secs cooldown, other shields active = -3,2 secs without any shield

And we are in infinite state of 4 aegises with some time saved if needed.

 

And now small turn to double bubble helios builds:

These kind of builds uses 2 helioses, 2 shields, Cheetah and Chameleon without Bigfoots. Because Chameleon Mk II is epic module, I would consider people have fused it for water-cool. That means Chameleon has 10 secs of active time and 25-25/5 = 20 secs cooldown.

You can get 2 charges per cycle usually, 3 charges are possible, it depends if you have something pre-stacked:

• Aegis: 4,4 secs, 15 secs cooldown
• Between, you can use 2nd aegis = 10,6 secs without protection
• Then you can cloak for 10 secs, which means you can be shot, but there is significantly lower chance to get hit.
• After 10 secs you decloak and you have 0,6 secs without anything

Practically, that 0,6 secs is a little bit higher. With occasianally 3 charges, you can infinitely cycle between 2 aegises and cloak. But, you can't get close to this with somehing like Hot red.

 

 

 

 

This is in theory, practically, you start your shields a little bit earlier to be sure not get hit between bubbles, so the gap between shields can be a little bit bigger after you use all of them. Also, with Bigfoots, which improve stacking of distance of Cheetah, you usually get 3 charges per cycle.

Of course, there is also fusion possibility, but fusing 4 aegises for water-cool is really an expensive thing. And we also know, that fusion builds with 4 aegises are not some widely spread meta in Silver or higher leagues of Clanwars. Higher-ranked teams know how to deal with more bubbles - focusing fire, teamplay and weapon choice.

We struggled against fusion builds before. We lost several battles. Then we find out how to fight them. This is how people learn.

For me, the source of problem is Cheetah itself, Cheetah is the thing which makes 4 aegis spam working. It's also because of crappy system how to determine speed of vehicle, because fusion can stay still and module guy can go 100 kmph, but that's another problem for other topic.

Change perk of cheetah to be similar to Oppressor - direct dependence of reload speed of modules, turrets and drones on speed.

Please, think about it.

Cheetah reduce cooldown by 5 secs for Aegis every time it's charged. If a car with Bigfoots is capable to get 3 or 4 charges per cooldown, then problem is 40, 60 or even 80 % cooldown reduction provided by Cheetah. That's not problem of Aegis.

Better solution is change the perk of Cheetah to work like Oppressor - 0-30 % reload speed which depends on speed directly.

And yes, I know Cheetah perk works for drones and Chameleons too, but that's the reason why Grenadiers are so overused on lower PS. For Chameleon, this applies mostly for melees which can recharge their wasted Chameleon almost twice as faster as anybody else, because of Bigfoots. If you can't cloak so often, you have to be more careful with using the cloak.

Edited January 31, 2020 by Waughan27131

[Da_Costa_83 460]

17 minutes ago, Waughan27131 said:

For Aegis-prime, you touch the wrong guy...

 

  

Cheetah reduce cooldown by 5 secs for Aegis every time it's charged. If a car with Bigfoots is capable to get 3 or 4 charges per cooldown, then problem is 40, 60 or even 80 % cooldown reduction provided by Cheetah. That's not problem of Aegis.

1 Aegis per build will solve the problem, same for barrier X.

[KonoDioDa89 121]

good, really good. just keep babysitting hovers, and no wonder so many of my friends sold their accounts and keep quitting this mess. 

[Spedemix 9,361]

This is what you wanted to know:

Spoiler

 

 

[Da_Costa_83 460]

“Aegis-Prime”

Now, with several installed Aegis-Prime shields, the duration of the shield is reduced by 30% for each other shield that is currently being recharged:

• You have 3 Aegis-Prime installed and all three are ready for activation.
• The first shield activated will work for 4 seconds and then begin recharging.
• If you activate the next shield while the first one is recharging, its duration will be reduced by 30%.
• If you activate the third shield while the first two are recharging, its duration will be reduced by 60%

 

1 Aegis per build will fix the bubble spamming!

same has to be done with barrier X 

[Waughan27131 380]

5 minutes ago, Da_Costa_83 said:

1 Aegis per build will solve the problem, same for barrier X.

Yes, that's true, but you saw, that devs don't want to limit modules more. Aegis is 3 energy module, which is quite a lot and using 2+ of them really limits your firepower. That's why I wrote this before and post it now with focus on Cheetah's work.

Edited January 31, 2020 by Waughan27131

[lucashc90 10,359]

1 minute ago, Da_Costa_83 said:

1 Aegis per build will solve the problem, same for barrier X.

One of each "everything" would solve a lot of problems in this game but do we really want to go down that slipery path?

[Da_Costa_83 460]

13 minutes ago, Spedemix said:

This is what you wanted to know:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Boom killed! LOL

[Da_Costa_83 460]

14 minutes ago, Spedemix said:

This is what you wanted to know:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Also watching how to setup the legs looks difficult, hope i can remove my 6x legs from my spider and this would fit perfectly in the same spot.... Hope so, can you test that?

[INSANITYd 59]

Quote

Now the radars don't absorb the damage from the explosion of the shell hitting them.

gj on another buff for cannons.

Are you mg user? LOL have fun destroying that 202 durability radar xd

[pehenry 77]

“Aegis-Prime”

Now, with several installed Aegis-Prime shields, the duration of the shield is reduced by 30% for each other shield that is currently being recharged:

• You have 3 Aegis-Prime installed and all three are ready for activation.
• The first shield activated will work for 4 seconds and then begin recharging.
• If you activate the next shield while the first one is recharging, its duration will be reduced by 30%.
• If you activate the third shield while the first two are recharging, its duration will be reduced by 60%.

 

I work in software development too. One thing I have learned is, when you try to be too cute, too perfect, with the solution to provide the best possible solution to please all parties, then your code becomes way too complex to work correctly and be maintainable. 

I think this is one of those situations. I know you don't want to limit people's creativity. But this "solution" just seems way too complex. You already limit engines and stealth to one module. This should be no different. 

[MeanGreenEngi 89]

OK... NO! HELL NO! IT TOOK SOME PEOPLE TO FUSE AMMO BOXES MANY TRIES TO GET 40% BUT 20????

[Zhetesh@psn 2,863]

8 hours ago, Woodyrojo said:

ATTENTION: if you had multiple same upgraded parts (with the same bonus), then, after the update, they will receive the same additional perks.

Thank you for this, some of us really appreciate 

Edited January 31, 2020 by *Zhetesh

[Da_Costa_83 460]

16 minutes ago, WWWWWWWWWWWVWWWW said:

OK... NO! HELL NO! IT TOOK SOME PEOPLE TO FUSE AMMO BOXES MANY TRIES TO GET 40% BUT 20????

Ill keep my 152% will not fuse that ammo box.

[alpha1q 206]

5 hours ago, VisceraCleaner said:

But still i believe speed limit of leg mode is too harsh. 35 km/h?

and unlimited speed when wheeled mode, this new legs are top tier meta even WITHOUT a passive ,

if you think hovers complainers are annoying wait for skilled ppl to get those new legs

Edited January 31, 2020 by alpha1q

[Zhetesh@psn 2,863]

8 minutes ago, WWWWWWWWWWWVWWWW said:

OK... NO! HELL NO! IT TOOK SOME PEOPLE TO FUSE AMMO BOXES MANY TRIES TO GET 40% BUT 20????

Is that 4 real? 

Now I'm happy I didn't spend coins fusing that one 

[alpha1q 206]

16 minutes ago, pehenry said:

“Aegis-Prime”

Now, with several installed Aegis-Prime shields, the duration of the shield is reduced by 30% for each other shield that is currently being recharged:

• You have 3 Aegis-Prime installed and all three are ready for activation.
• The first shield activated will work for 4 seconds and then begin recharging.
• If you activate the next shield while the first one is recharging, its duration will be reduced by 30%.
• If you activate the third shield while the first two are recharging, its duration will be reduced by 60%.

 

I work in software development too. One thing I have learned is, when you try to be too cute, too perfect, with the solution to provide the best possible solution to please all parties, then your code becomes way too complex to work correctly and be maintainable. 

I think this is one of those situations. I know you don't want to limit people's creativity. But this "solution" just seems way too complex. You already limit engines and stealth to one module. This should be no different. 

this literary nerf immortal fusion immortality and nerf double aegis severely ,by limiting to 1 they would have to repay to players 2300 c for each more than 1 aegis players have and they dont want to do that

but still with the chetah engine its not much of a nerf,

better to not nerf aegis but remove the correlation of chetah with aegis

Edited January 31, 2020 by alpha1q

[epm_nwo 81]

1 hour ago, Woodyrojo said:

 

Explosive damage and radars

As a result of two tests, we decided to stop at the first option:

• Now the radars don't absorb the damage from the explosion of the shell hitting them.
• When hit, the projectile deals some damage to the radar, flies through it, and the explosion and blast damage passes through the nearest parts to the radar, following the path of the projectile's flight.
• The explosion occurs either after contact with a structural part or, if there are no structural parts on the projectile's flight path, the last radar in the projectile's path.
• The unique features of the weapon are still triggered by contact with the radars. That is, the very fact of hitting an armoured vehicle is counted (when, for example, only the radar is in the path of the projectile flight and there are no other parts behind it).
• Exploding shells of the Phoenix crossbow are still attached to the radar if they are hit by it. And the same radar is the epicenter of the explosion.

Developer comment: Both variants (both updated mechanics and limit) solve the problem of radar armor, but the introduction of the limit can lead to the fact that many crafts simply can not go into battle until there is only one radar left on the car. Updated mechanics eliminates the need to remove unnecessary parts, acts like the already familiar mechanics of the interaction of explosive shells and decor, and does not introduce additional restrictions in build mode.

 

 

 

@Woodyrojo @Ka1deron How is it going to work against MG shooting or scorpion penetration?

if nothing changes about it, better to rethink on limitation of items again...

 

Edited January 31, 2020 by epm_nwo

[Spedemix 9,361]

Devs. Can you please take the f*cking repair out the test server??

[szefopl 1,636]

Noice, will express my input later.

[Robocraftman 4,519]

I can hardly imagine what kind of player will complain about multi aegis build and what kind of devs will take the suggestion seriously.

while 100% of multi aegis build is on hover, you should think about the hovers, not Aegis.

[Sandrao_M 7]

 

I didn’t like the changes of the drone I’ve already tested and found it crap, I’ll explain I was really finding a viability for this weapon in clans wars, but now it’s impossible besides the low damage or with radar you can get a greater distance and exactly anything that comes between you and the drone make it return which you spend more time marking target than causing damage, I found the changes to the drone horrible because it leaves a yellow gun that was totally adequate to the levels of powers and weapons as for me worse than the blue drone upgraded

[KrissGO 210]

1 hour ago, Woodyrojo said:

We are waiting for your feedback on the updated mechanics of the drone “Annihilator”! Would you like to see something similar for all other drones?

Yes, this is a great way of balancing auto-aim modules, as the deployer will actually have to "participate" to the action, and not just click and run.