RANKED MATCHES
The ranked PvP matches are back with some improvements.
There are five leagues: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Emerald, and Diamond, each one consisting of four levels - from IV (the lowest) to I. A player starts with 800 ranked points (used to be 300 in the first test season) and needs 1,000 points to progress to another level (thus requiring 4,000 points to progress to another league). The rank points scheme has somewhat changed: 100 points for winning and minus 100 points for losing a match. The penalty for leaving a match is minus 200 points. If you are disconnected from a game session, you will have two minutes to get back into the match.
League demotion. What's changed in regard to the previous test season is that after reaching the Gold and higher leagues, you may be demoted to a previous league (demotion worked only for the Diamond League in the first test season). No worries, there's a demotion protection for several lost games in each of the higher leagues.
After reaching Level I of each league, you will receive a special badge and a unique weapon paint as rewards.
For one month, Ranked Matches will be based on the 3vs3 mode comprising three maps: City Hall, Subway, and Ruins. We would like to see how engaging and fun the 3vs3 can be in the ranked compared to the Escort Mode. Pay attention that weapon perks do not work in the Ranked Matches for the purpose of balanced competitive gameplay.
We added the proper visualization of your progression through ranked leagues and levels, including the rewards you receive by reaching each league. Furthermore, the current rank will be displayed on the end-screen of a ranked match as well as next to your player badge in the game lobby and next to your friends and squad members' badges.
BALANCE TWEAKS
Weapon balance tweaks
- Further shotgun rebalance: Damage at close range slightly decreased for all shotguns. The Black Falcon II: pellet scattering increased by 5% when ADS.
- The Λ-9 Legatus assault rifle: the body damage at long range increased by 7%.
- The Z-940 Drachen submachine gun: damage to the head at close range decreased by 15%.
- The Lupara Compatta secondary shotgun: reload time increased by 30%.
- The G7 Springer pistol: damage to the head at long range decreased by 35%.
- The RPM Boost perk for the XM-40 Conciliator assault rifle: the RPM buff decreased from 7 to 5%.
- The Knockback perk for the Λ-3 Pilum assault rifle: effective knockback distance decreased by 60%.
- The Cowboy Reflexes perk for the U22 Svarog revolver: the first bullet damage multiplier decreased from 2 to 1.5.
- The Magazine Boost perk for the Dragonfly sniper rifle: the perk now increases the rate of fire by 15% instead of adding a bullet to the magazine.
- The Crystallized Ammo perk for the R21 Brute shotgun: range slightly increased.
- The Skater Shooter perk for the M2 Tactical SAS shotgun: the number of buffed pellets decreased from 2 to 1 while the perk time decreased from 8 to 3 seconds.
- The Trigger Upgrade attachment for the Λ-3 Pilum assault rifle: reduced delay between bursts decreased from 20 to 15%.
- The FS Assassin extender for the U44 Culverina revolver: damage at long range increased; the reload time increased as well; and the number of bullets in the backpack decreased from 10 to 6.
- Incendiary Ammo attachment for the Black Falcon II shotgun: range decreased by 40%.
- You can now dodge Chaser's attack in Expedition.
UI IMPROVEMENTS
Weapon customization on the ESC-menu has received improvements:
- Double-clicking on the weapon will select the weapon and close the customization screen.
- Navigating through the menu triggers sound effects.
- The tab and weapon sorting works on the following pattern: assault rifles - shotguns - submachine guns - sniper rifles.
- The "All" category also shows a recent weapon, displaying up to 5 previously used primary weapons.
MISCELLANEOUS
The 3 vs 3 mode is removed from the PvP playlist for a month while the Ranked Matches are played in this mode.
New instant awards:
- Love, Death & Drones: perform three Strafer drone carrier kills in PvE.
- Doctor Evil: perform a revolver headshot in PvP or 10 revolver headshots in PvE.
BUG FIXES
- Fixed issue in Expedition where two Chosen stashes could spawn almost on the same spot.
- Fixed issue in Expedition where grenades failed to explode on hitting Koshchei's weak points.
- Fixed issue in Expedition where a player couldn't use EMP if it spawned near a zip-line.
- Fixed issue in Expedition where a player could sometimes receive the "Clear Strafer outposts" contract when there were no outposts in the area.
- Fixed issue in Expedition where Strafers lacked spawn animation during an extraction encounter.
- Fixed issue in Expedition where completing the Strafer Jammer activity failed to unjam the scanner if one of the players died when the jammer was active.
- Fixed issue in Expedition’s Phantom Core encounter where portal-specific tips were shown on the HUD of the player who was outside of the portal.
- Fixed issue in Expedition where a non-functional interaction prompt “Hold E to interact” appeared at the Memory Crystal if a player reached it during a primary or secondary encounter.
- Fixed issue in the Shooting Range where players could not change their weapon after using the PvE perk box.
- Fixed issue in Expedition where sometimes Soil Probe Defense could not be completed.
- Fixed issue in Expedition where Phantom Spitfire's shield deactivated without destroying the core inside the portal during the “Destroy the Phantom Core” objective.
- Fixed issue on the Promenade PvP map where a player could take advantage of enemy players by shooting through a slit at the bottom of concrete crates.
- Fixed issue where the “Expedition: Fully Stocked” task didn’t work for extracted abilities.
- Fixed issue in Expedition where a player could get stuck if jumped off the helipad on the cliff after the Chaser Hunt dungeon.
- Fixed issue in the Escort Mode where the payload could appear on the MVP screen.
- Fixed issue in Expedition where the “Connect carts to the core to disable the shield” objective message kept displaying under the minimap after the objective had been completed.
- Fixed issue in Expedition where a player that died during extraction at maximum contamination respawned in an extraction encounter that hadn’t started yet.
- Fixed issue in Expedition where sometimes the Fusion Reactor encounter could not be completed because some terrain elements spawned close to the boss.
- Fixed issue in Expedition where sometimes Strix’s shield remained active and she could use her primary weapon after she had been pushed back.
- Fixed issue in Expedition where elite AIs could spawn outside of the sector boss area and were considered mini-bosses. Now they are treated as mini-bosses only if they spawned within the sector boss area.
- Fixed issue in Expedition where an ammo crate was missing in the Strafer Vault dungeon.
- Fixed issue in Expedition where Gardeners could drop resources while there were no active secondary encounters.
- Fixed issue in Expedition where players couldn’t complete the Fusion Reactor encounter if the final Minotaur died within two seconds after spawn.
- Fixed issue in Expedition with a missing sound of the static charge modifier activation.
- Fixed issue with an ambiguous “Expedition: Zone Expert” task description which read “Successfully extract or complete an Expedition” while the only way to complete an expedition is by extraction only.
- Fixed issue where weapon progression didn’t work for selected weapons for a very limited number of players.
- Fixed issue where different tasks for kills in PvP were progressing differently.
- Fixed issue where the kill cam could show enemy outlines only on separate body parts.
- Fixed issue in the Twin Stilts episode where bots failed to spawn in the portal for the second player that entered it after the first one had been killed in it. We also fixed an issue where bots also failed to spawn during the “Clear The Mountain Pass” objective.
- Fixed issue where the player’s character looked out of focus on the Player Profile Info screen.
- Fixed issue where the “Throw grenades as Trooper in Coop” task didn’t count crystalline and frag grenades.
- Fixed issue with an incorrect name of Mongoose’s Tacticool Eyeguard that was called a monocle which it is obviously not.
- Fixed issue with the “Never say die” task requiring to kill 3 bosses in one run which became impossible to complete after the introduction of Expedition difficulties. The number of bosses to kill was changed to 2.
- Fixed issue on the Island PvP map where players couldn’t squeeze through one of the door frames.
- Fixed issue where the slowing debuff of the Λ-1 Centurion’s Burst Mod attachment didn’t work.
- Fixed issue where weapon stickers looked blurry in-game.