Update R78: New Episode and PvP Map

Hello, Shatterliners!

We are happy to present you Release 78.

MAPS/EPISODES

New episode: STORMBRINGER. Delve into the Dubai Impact Zone and investigate a lead from a potential ally among the ranks of the Strafe Witnesses. Or is he an ally after all? It remains for you to discover.

New Versus map: PROMENADE. The Strafe left some of the most prominent Dubai construction plans unfinished. Ravaged by the Crystalline, this particular site proved to be a decent training ground for Shellguard's elite.

GAMEPLAY AND BALANCE CHANGES

Tweaks in jumping from high ground: now the player can aim and shoot during the fall, and there's no switch to a third-person view at landing. Movement speed is reduced for 1.2 seconds after landing on the ground.

Bunny hopping was toned down due to an unfair advantage it was providing in certain gameplay situations.

Weapon perks rebalance:

• Speed Boost for the XM-40 Conciliator assault rifle increased from 12 to 15%.
• Range Boost for the Λ-9 Legatus assault rifle increased from 5 to 7%.
• ADS Boost for the Λ-9 Legatus assault rifle increased from 20 to 25%.
• Precision Damage Boost for the Z-940 Drachen submachine gun increased from 10 to 15%.
• Speed Boost for the Z-940 Drachen submachine gun: sprint-to-fire transition increased from 15 to 25%, and aiming-down-sights speed increased from 5 to 10%.
• Speed Boost for the Cinetech M5 submachine gun increased from 13 to 20%.
• Range Boost for the Firespray submachine gun decreased from 10 to 7%.
• Stability and Accuracy Boost for the Firespray submachine gun: the accuracy part of the boost increased from 5 to 10%.
• Range Boost for the Λ-1 Centurion submachine gun was replaced with the Reload Boost.
• Accuracy Boost for the Tornado submachine gun increased from 10 to 15%.
• Precision Damage Boost for the Berlington TAC shotgun increased from 10 to 15%.
• Accuracy Boost for the R60 Gevaudan shotgun increased from 10 to 20%.
• Pump Action Boost for the Black Falcon II shotgun increased from 7 to 15%.
• Precision Damage Boost for the R21 Brute shotgun increased from 10 to 15%.
• Range Boost for the Impala sniper rifle decreased from 12 to 10%.
• ADS Boost for the Presarm VX-7 sniper rifle increased from 10 to 20%.
• ADS Movement Boost for the Presarm VX-7 sniper rifle increased from 10 to 15%.
• ADS Boost for the SAG-8 Reaper sniper rifle increased from 15 to 20%.
• ADS and Range Boost for the Svarog revolver: the aiming speed boost part increased from 5 to 15%.
• Sprint-to-Fire Boost for the Lupara Compatta secondary shotgun increased from 15 to 20%.
• Precision Damage Boost for the G7 Springer pistol increased from 10 to 15%.
• Accuracy Boost for the G7 Springer pistol increased from 10 to 20%.

EXPEDITION

• We added two new power weapons as well a new secondary weapon available in Chosen Stashes. We are sure you'll love them.
Jericho is a Crystalline chain gun best used against crowded groups of enemies. The larger the group, the higher the damage! Sodom is an isobaric hand cannon powered by Crystalline capacitors. Deals massive area damage to everyone caught in the blast. Chakram is a 3-round revolver you may have already tried as an Invader in the Invasion Mode.
• We added a tutorial explaining Expedition's intricacies to new players.
• The player now starts an expedition with a melee weapon, not a sidearm as before.
• A new encounter: Corrupted Research Station. Crystalline has captured the Research Station and is using its cooling systems to grow.
• Now decontamination not only decreases the contamination level but decreases fog thickness as well.
• Expedition activities rewards were rebalanced in favor of contracts.
• The Deathlab dungeon got a new head bomb model and various gameplay tweaks.
• A restricted amount of power weapons ammo can be obtained from Supply Drops.
• The old Envoy Dungeon has returned, while the overhauled one is of threat level 6, has a separate single entry point, and provides increased rewards.
• World events spawn rate decreased.
• We considerably increased the time the chat messages stay on the screen in Expedition.
• On entering a new sector, you will see a HUD notification showing the sector name, threat level, and resource rarity.
• Visual improvements of the notifications for weapon progression, task completion, and item/perk selection in Expedition supply bins.
• The Cancel button was added to the Supply Box item pick menu.
• New HUD notifications on accepting and completing contracts and goals.
• If after your expedition you have enough resources to unlock a new PvE perk, you will see a notification on the Expedition win/lose screen and in the game lobby on the Hero Selection screen that a new perk is available for unlock.

TECHNOLOGY

NVidia Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) technology was added. If your graphics card supports DLSS, you may choose it in the Options menu.

USER INTERFACE

• The New Items notification blob was added to the Season menu heading and underlying Season Pass and Tasks tabs.
• The Pre-Battle and Esc-menu screens design was overhauled to match the design of other screens.
• We improved the Text Chat design. The chat window now also features channel tabs.
• You can now call the weapon selection screen in-game by pressing the default B key ("down" on the D-pad). But you need to have either a primary or secondary weapon in your hands. Also, you can swap your weapon perks in-game on the weapon selection screen.
• The equipped PvE perks are now displayed on the Esc-menu screen.

MISCELLANEOUS

• We continue adding unique melee weapons. It's time for Malva's Cossack Sabre and Orbit's Crystalline Hammer.
• Ranked Matches leaderboard was added.
• We tweaked the match join rules for PvP and PvEvP modes to avoid situations when the player joins a match at its end.
• We added a unique weapon inspection audio for the Centurion Perforator submachine gun, X-Treme Lone Wolf sniper rifle, and Pilum Ivory assault rifle.
• To help you quickly see what PvE perks in the chain are available for unlock, the perk unlock cost is shown only for the perks that are next in line for unlock.
• When you receive more than one reward box, you can open all of them by pressing the Open All button.
• Improved Crystalline Katana animation.

BUG FIXES

• Fixed issue in Expedition where the ammo dropped by the enemy didn't restock your magazine if you were carrying your primary weapon and it was out of ammo.
• Fixed issue in Expedition where the Chaser could see the player through the smoke.
• Fixed issue in Expedition where sometimes the intel could show an already completed dungeon to the player.
• Fixed issue in Expedition where the player could get stuck on the platform with crates at the Strafer Outpost, in the rocks, in crystalline formation in the Envoy's Chamber, and on top of the tower in the Gravity Tower encounter.
• Fixed issue in Expedition where the Environment Scanner failed to get jammed at full contamination after the Crystalline Treasury activity.
• Fixed issue in Expedition where the Crystalline Treasury and Memory Crystal activities didn't work if activated during an ongoing primary or secondary encounter.
• Fixed issue in Expedition where the Research Station completion cinematic showed spawned resources that blocked the view of the characters.
• Fixed issue in Expedition where the Chosen Stash could spawn inside a rock.
• Fixed issue in Expedition where the Glass Hounds (Bomb Dogs) could spawn in the Strafer's Vault canister room.
• Fixed issue in Expedition where a Glasshead could instantly vanish after spawning on the floating platform in the Envoy dungeon.
• Fixed issue in Expedition where a player could get a duplicate key that releases the boss in the Envoy dungeon.
• Fixed issue in Expedition where a part of the Fusion Reactor sector boss was blocked by terrain.
• Fixed issue in Expedition where the cart in the Deathlab Dungeon could roll through the crystalline on the rails.
• Fixed issue in Expedition where the weapon flashlights continued working after the Deathlab Dungeon completion.
• Fixed issue in Expedition where the scanner wouldn't produce some sounds if Strix was wearing the Deputy Marshal outfit.
• Fixed issue in Expedition where some collisions remained on the map after the Transmutator encounter boss defeat.
• Fixed issue in Expedition where the hazard area outside of the combat area continued damaging the player even after a successful encounter completion if the hazard area had started damaging the player and the encounter had been successfully completed almost at the same moment.
• Fixed issue in Expedition where Goliath failed to spawn during extraction, and the player couldn't extract.
• Fixed issue in Expedition where the player couldn't get out of the cave if the maximum contamination level had been reached.
• Fixed issue in Expedition where the Strife perk sphere sound was missing.
• Fixed issue in Expedition where there were no player’s spawn points close to the extraction location.
• Fixed issue in Expedition where the mule communicator could be used after maximum contamination.
• Fixed issue in PvE where Goliath remained in the air when struck by Pill's Stasis Field grenade mid-jump.
• Fixed issue in PvE where the damage zone remained on the map if the Queen boss was killed during her attack charge.
• Fixed issue where the player couldn't interact with a movable crate at the side that had used to be its top before the crate tumbled down.
• Fixed issue where the perk of the Zangor I-36 laser sight attachment for the Impala sniper rifle showed "+Stability" on HUD instead of "+Damage."
• Fixed issue where the Wrecking It! task could be completed in PvE.
• Fixed issue where Mongoose's task chain could be completed by playing as Brisa.
• Fixed issue where Ram's explosive axe couldn't be destroyed by an enemy.
• Fixed issue where the player couldn't cancel the search for a PvE match if the mission got out of rotation during the search, so the only way to cancel the search was to restart the game client.
• Fixed issue where the VERSUS button became unavailable if there were more than three people in the party and only the 3v3 game mode had been chosen previously in the filter.
• Fixed issue where the screen mode changed from Windowed Borderless to Windowed after the game restart if the Windowed Borderless mode was selected after Windowed.
• Fixed issue where the Rapid Assault task's part of "Throw grenades as Trooper in Coop" didn't count non-lethal grenades.
• Fixed issue where Orbit's ultimate activation sound played twice if the ultimate ability was activated during sprint.
• Fixed issue where the PvE perks video illustration froze if the player had quickly been cycling through different perks.
• Fixed issue on the Escort map where the player could get on top of the lamp post and several other restricted locations. We also fixed several spots on the map where shots either could penetrate some objects or couldn't get through an invisible wall.
• Fixed issue on the Metro map where a placeholder red car was on top of the tunnel roof.
• Fixed issue where the player could be placed in the opposing team after reconnecting to a PvP match.
• Fixed issue where the text chat wouldn't work after the player had reconnected to an expedition.
• Fixed issue where the text chat could superimpose on the Pre-Battle Screen description.
• Fixed issue where the Versus Mode Info Screen showed the player's rank panel from Ranked Matches if the player had navigated to Ranked Matches before going to the Versus mode.
• Fixed issue where Kite didn't hear when an enemy destroyed his remote mine.
• Fixed issue where pistols and semi-automatic sniper rifles continued shooting instead of reloading when the player pressed the reload button while holding the left mouse button from the previous shot.
• Fixed issue where Strix was slowed down by the crystalline grenade shards and small crystalline hazard areas on the ground.
• Fixed issue where sometimes Pill's ultimate wouldn't charge.
• Fixed issue where rail covers were not visible on the X-Treme Lone Wolf and Impala Starfall sniper rifle skins.
• Fixed issue where the Coop missions info screen displayed incorrect rewards for completing episodes.
• Fixed issue where Rams’ hands were distorted in PvE cut scenes if the player was carrying a melee weapon.
• Fixed issue where Pill’s Crystalline Shotgun could fail to deal damage to the enemy if the enemy was among several others staying close to one another.
• Partially fixed issue where the game client screen was cropped. If the screen is still cropped, press Alt+Enter for it to readjust.
• Fixed issue where Ram’s Reflection Overload perk was charging too slow at levels 1-2.
• Fixed issue where the quick melee aim assist missed Malva's pinscher drone hitbox.
• Localization fixes.