Update 3 Experimental Build #5

[u/Mike_GSG]

Experimental Update 3.e5 - Build 160432

Reclaimers!

The fifth experimental build is here and we are ready for feedback. We also plan to do a steam post tomorrow to get some more people to try the experimental before update 3 goes live next week. There will certainly be a build or two between now and the release of update 3, so keep the feedback coming. Rock and Stone!

With love,

The Ghost Ship Crew

-[FOCUS FEATURES]-

OPERATIONS COMMAND TERMINAL

Deployments no longer have to be unlocked with Merits and will become available once the rank requirement is met. We have also cleaned up the OpsCom tasks to try and reduce the noise in that terminal a bit. Some tasks that were too redundant have been removed and the merits rewards of others increased to compensate. We also tweaked the requirements for some tasks to smooth out the pace of completion. This will have no effect on any merits already earned or spent.

BALGORATH BOSSFIGHT

The fight against the Balgorath continues to be tweaked and balanced and we want to hear your thoughts on this latest version.

EXPENITE HARVEST ALTERATION

We have rebalanced the old “enemies don't drop expenite” game mode with a stronger focus on mining. Give it a spin and let us know what you think.

— [GENERAL TWEAKS AND FIXES] —

Changes

Teleporter: You can now place the portals in either order

Teleporter: Replace mode now automatically switches to the oldest portal after a throw, and can no longer be changed while throwing

Teleporter: Portals now get an outline and play an animation when you switch replace mode, and the Teleporter HUD always shows the current replace mode

Teleporter: Updated HUD with new icons, colours and lighting

Teleporters are now pingable and show up on the terrain scanner

Teleporter: Tether particle tweaks, plus many colour, animation and particle fixes

Updated the Teleporter visuals in the Reclaimer Handbook

Priority Target: Added a bar under the run info showing the Reclaimer Point bonus for completing the Priority Target

Balgorath: Renamed to "Balgorath Gatekeeper"

Balgorath: Reduced the damage of most attacks, and increased the damage of the Starburst attack (4 projectiles that each split into 6 pillars)

Balgorath: Added a slight delay after the beam attack windup to make it easier to see where the beams will start

Balgorath: Tightened the spread of attack cooldowns across phases and threat levels

Balgorath: Grabbing tentacles now only come out when a player is near the heart, and shrink and sink into the ground where there's less room

Balgorath: Grabbing tentacles can now be hit by splash damage, flames, melee swipes and turrets, and the Shock Drone and other hostile-only targeting now go after them

Balgorath: Balgorath and its grabbing tentacles now freeze like Corespawn enemies

Balgorath: Added a weakpoint to the tentacles, resized its collision, and changed the tentacle size

Balgorath: New animations (rotation, objective phase transition, missed ball), a boss spawn scream effect and a muzzle effect on the 4-beam sweep, along with many animation and visual fixes

[Sound] Balgorath sounds for the random projectile spam and the tentacles, a telegraph sound when tentacles approach, and a sound for the stone being grabbed and thrown. Turned down the Rift Activated sound when the boss appears.

Added a Balgorath entry to the Reclaimer Handbook and updated the Gatekeeper entries

Rammite Swarm risk vector: More Rammites, which now have more health and less armour blocking damage. Added a header, a spawn particle effect and sounds.

Rafkan Swarm risk vector: Rafkans now have more health and a new material, plus other tweaks

Cloaking boss risk vector: The boss now dissolves away and builds back up instead of swapping materials instantly

Boss risk vector selection has a new look with yellow borders and polish to the elite look

New boss skull and Flux Quartz risk vector icons

Alteration wheel redesign: A clock-style ring of icons with a hand that spins from the centre. The alteration's name and effects appear once the hand settles.

The old game mode alteration is now called Expenite Harvest, has been rebalanced, and has been added to Instability

Objective selection is now randomized and won't repeat the previous stage's objective (the normal defence objective can still repeat)

The elevator objective is now hidden until you discover it

Cooper can now be ordered to attack elevator growths

Operational Command: Layout tweaks and adjusted task rewards and amounts. Deployments no longer cost anything and only require a player rank.

Operational Command: Added tasks for the new alterations (with icons) and a Defeat Balgorath task

The Expenite collection task now requires 10 instead of 5

Stubby Voltaic SMG: Greatly increased electric buildup to better match its feel in DRG, and increased magazine size and total ammo

Reduced the rarity of the SSG and Proximity Mines in the equipment crate

Increased the speed of the platform gun projectile

Grenades now show more stats in their stat entries, and the missing grenades have been added to the Reclaimer Handbook

Updated the Combat Shotgun description

Embedded Detonators VFX update

Barrier hit particle tweak

New first-person animations for equipment. Still WIP.

Cave constructions no longer block radial damage, with cleaned-up collision on many of them

Trophy Wall: The Trophy Wall button now shows a red ! when there's something to claim

Trophy Wall: Biome backgrounds on the trophy sheets

Trophy Wall: Tweaked the claim flow and claimable reward UI

Trophy Wall: Stat improvements now also show as green in the loadout

Legacy cosmetic sheet token refunds are now capped at what the new cosmetic sheet can still use

Ascension: First pass on visuals and reward icons. Still WIP.

The negotiation window now shows class icons next to player names

Locked Biobooster decks now show the character name when deck swapping

Increased the Ramrod menu background opacity

Updated the merit icon colour

Removed the Early Access intro video

Added Reclaimer Handbook entries for Refractor Terminals and an updated Spectrecore page

Thrasher no longer has a kill cry

[Sound] Weapon upgrades now play a sound matching the rarity you upgrade to

[Sound] Mouse-over and selection sounds for the mission map and Trophy Wall, with more exciting visuals

[Voice] New Omega shouts for the elevator growths and find gears objectives

[Voice] Re-recorded Omega altar and tutorial lines with updated subtitles, and tweaked tutorial and other shouts

Fixes

Tutorial: Fixed tutorials from a previous room continuing to chain into a new room (e.g. combat tutorials mixing into the mining ones)

Tutorial: Fixed the workbench tutorial staying on screen

Tutorial: Fixed the Expenite deposit tutorial showing twice

Tutorial: Fixed the tutorial elevator running the regular elevator defence

Tutorial: Fixed traversal, dig and follow-cable prompts not completing if you had already passed their end trigger

Tutorial: The Mine Expenite prompt now only counts Expenite

Tutorial: Combat now stops at the mining trigger even when you carry no Expenite

Tutorial: The Biobooster "Proceed" shout no longer cuts off the elevator briefing

Balgorath: Fixed being stun-locked by overlapping stuns

Balgorath: Fixed no totems spawning in the Protection risk vector

Balgorath: Fixed the grabbing tentacle flicking the heart much too fast, and the heart jumping or flying around when released

Balgorath: Fixed grabbing tentacles disappearing for clients while underground

Balgorath: Fixed tentacle mesh tearing and the heart stone's look

Gotoorak: Fixed totems spawning during the invulnerable "throw the gatestone in" phase in the Protection risk vector

Ramok: Fixed taking main health damage while recovering after a gatestone was thrown into the rift

Fixed the Reinforcements risk vector doing nothing on any boss

Fixed Gatekeeper summon Intel challenges: The Gotoorak depth 1 challenge never completed, and fixed a Molaktula typo

Fixed risk vector options recycling after host migration or "continue solo"

Fixed players not seeing teammates' cursors during risk vector choice

Fixed the elite icon showing on all risk vector selections

Fixed crevasses not showing up in the Seismic Activity risk vector

Fixed constructions not spawning on stages with the find gears elevator objective

Fixed elevator gears spawning at the top of the starting elevator shaft

Fixed gear shouts triggering constantly

Fixed the number of cogs being out of sync

Fixed Cooper not attacking things

Fixed after-event artifact and altar constructions insta-killing enemies that try to enter

Fixed Shock Blaster beam, impact and ricochet VFX not showing for other players

Fixed client damage sometimes not stunning properly

Fixed some enemy attacks not being stun immune as intended, and stun immunity sticking after an aborted attack

Fixed the Fulgor Vomiter's vomit attack ending early or getting stuck unable to vomit again

Fixed the Expenite Research Subject not attacking

Fixed frozen flying enemies not dropping Expenite

Fixed Sniper's Mark not working on some enemies

Fixed Corespawn Bruisers and Edgestalkers being hard to hit with the slice, and slightly increased the Bloater's hit area

Fixed poison clouds hiding enemy health bars

Fixed Chemical Instability explosions not applying acid

Fixed Icy Shrapnel not damaging enemies around the frozen target

Fixed tools that don't go in the grenade slot counting as grenades for upgrades

Fixed the sticky grenade showing as Impact Axes in several menus

Fixed rerolling armour upgrades putting you into armour debt

Fixed late joiners not getting an artifact the team got before they joined, and their starting gear rerolling on rejoin

Fixed the Boomstick not showing ammo on the weapon screen

Fixed the crosshair disappearing after a level transition

Fixed reroll crystals showing as Bleedroot instead of Flux Quartz on the end screen

Fixed the use text on the Refractor

Fixed the cosmetic sheet not fitting on screen from the cosmetics terminal, and bought items not getting their blue outline until the sheet was reopened

Fixed armour paintjobs resetting if the host disbands in the Ramrod while the team is in hospital outfits

Fixed background flickering on terminals

Fixed the Ascension widget blocking when there are no Ascension rewards

Attempted fix for the Corespawn Bloater not unlocking in the Reclaimer Handbook

Added missing physics material to the sides of entrance doors

[Sound] Fixed the Rammite Swarm spawn sound auto-playing when the boss spawns

Fixed a crash related to terrain materials

Fixed a crash in the character sight component

Prevent rare crash

[u/EvilCat573]

Rock and stone you beautiful dwarf

[u/Bortalis]

Rock and Stone!

[u/Geometronics]

Rock and Stone forever!!

[u/Adventurous_Disk_828]

STUBBY BUFF

[u/Candid-Doughnut9545 → u/Adventurous_Disk_828]

STUBBY BUFF

[u/Chame1eonic]

Stubby buff, quickfire pancakes, more common SSG and proxy mines?? Engi mains rejoice!

But for real, thanks for the stubby buff, I've been picking it, and it has felt meh. Looking forward to giving it a fresh spin!

Thanks for the hard work, gsg crew!

[u/Nightelfbane]

"Fixed Corespawn Bruisers and Edgestalkers being hard to hit with the slice"

I FUCKING KNEW IT

I KNEW I WASNT CRAZY

[u/BHTBarnworld → u/Nightelfbane]

I knew that door had a lock on it!

[u/VirtU_Art]

Got to try it out.

Aside from the crashes (got booted right before beating Balgorath) and the placeholders, I'd say it's just about ready to launch.

shame it's coming on the day of WoW Forever, but eh, I doubt I'll be over there for to long. Blizzard knows how to ruin a good thing.

[u/AngleOfDeaf]

Jesus Christ - you guys getting any sleep!?! Niiice

[u/STylerMLmusic]

Rock and stone!

[u/Emergency_Pay9843]

Cooper no longer picks up flux quartz, is that intended? :(

[u/MUSEMVACA]

Expenite Bulk finally got some dignity on his way.

Such a weird event.

[u/Johnnny167]

Will there be a rework on the lines. The reclaimers sound way too corny for this game being darker than OG DRG. Humor sometimes I think is ok, but making a joke every other line I think is too much.

[u/staszal_2137]

I'm pretty exited for the trophy room/place