Helix

Class: Light robot specialized in electronic warfare

"The Helix is a good all-rounder when it comes to electronic warfare. While it may not be the toughest bot around, combining a light chassis with an assault-class undercarriage makes it probably the fastest."

Slots

• Head slots: 3
• Leg slots: 2
• Chassis slots: 3 (2x light turret/misc, 1x light/medium misc)

Bonuses (per extension level)

• 3% increase to EW strength
• 3% reduction to EW modules accumulator usage
• -0.10 to surface hit size
• 1% reduction to firearms cycle time
• +2 to signal masking

Notable stats

• Accumulator: 350 AP @ 120sec recharge
• CPU: 220 TF
• Reactor: 170 RP
• Armor: 725 HP
• Passive resistances: 45 points universally (31%)
• Surface hit size: 3 m
• Locking range: 350 m
• Sensor strength: 110 Hw³
• Signal detection: 75 rF
• Signal masking: 120 rF
• Cargo capacity: 3.75 U
• Slope capability: 56°
• Mass: 6000 kg
• Base speed: 129.6 kph

Syndicate Supplies cost

• 80 TM tokens
• 80 ICS tokens
• 80 ASI tokens
• 800,000 NIC

Callisto

Class: Mech specialized in electronic warfare

"Employing our own technologies and incorporating all the knowledge that we have gained from the Nian factions, the Callisto is an elusive and flexible mech for tackling and shutting down enemy units."

Slots

• Head slots: 4
• Leg slots: 4
• Chassis slots: 3 (3x light/medium turret/misc)

Bonuses (per extension level)

• 3% increase to EW strength
• 3% reduction to EW modules accumulator usage
• -0.10 to surface hit size
• 1% reduction to firearms cycle time
• +2 to signal masking

Notable stats

• Accumulator: 2600 AP @ 360sec recharge
• CPU: 450 TF
• Reactor: 700 RP
• Armor: 1350 HP
• Passive resistances: 45 points universally (31%)
• Surface hit size: 6 m
• Locking range: 400 m
• Sensor strength: 120 Hw³
• Signal detection: 110 rF
• Signal masking: 110 rF
• Cargo capacity: 7.5 U
• Slope capability: 45°
• Mass: 16500 kg
• Base speed: 95.4 kph

Syndicate Supplies cost

• 700 TM tokens
• 700 ICS tokens
• 700 ASI tokens
• 8,000,000 NIC

Legatus

Class: Heavy mech specialized in firearms

"Alluding on its appearance our engineers have nicknamed it "Doc". Aptly so, as the Legatus can administer a swarm of good old glowing hot bullets at a relatively long range for those in need. And that without writing out a prescription."

Slots

• Head slots: 4
• Leg slots: 6
• Chassis slots: 6 (2x light/medium turret, 2x light/medium turret/misc, 2x light/medium turret/misc/industrial)

Bonuses (per extension level)

• 3% increase to firearms optimal range
• 3% increase to firearms damage
• -0.20 to surface hit size
• 1% reduction to firearms cycle time
• +3 to passive resistances
• 9% reduction to NEXUS modules accumulator usage

Notable stats

• Accumulator: 3850 AP @ 720sec recharge
• CPU: 370 TF
• Reactor: 1200 RP
• Armor: 3750 HP
• Passive resistances: 45 points universally (31%)
• Surface hit size: 9 m
• Locking range: 350 m
• Sensor strength: 90 Hw³
• Signal detection: 90 rF
• Signal masking: 90 rF
• Cargo capacity: 12 U
• Slope capability: 45°
• Mass: 34000 kg
• Base speed: 72 kph

Syndicate Supplies cost

• 2,000 TM tokens
• 2,000 ICS tokens
• 2,000 ASI tokens
• 20,000,000 NIC

Metis

Class: Heavy mech specialized in combat support

"Exceptional energy output and defense capabilities - two traits that turn this heavy mech into an indispensable powerhouse on the battlefield. The Metis is the holy grail of remote support, which usually makes it a primary target in the eyes of enemy commanders."

Slots

• Head slots: 6
• Leg slots: 6
• Chassis slots: 6 (2x light/medium industrial, 3x light/medium misc/industrial, 1x light/medium turret/missile/misc)

Bonuses (per extension level)

• 3% reduction to engineering modules cycle time
• 3% increase to armor repair amount
• 3% reduction to accumulator recharge time
• 1% increase to armor hit points
• -0.30 to surface hit size
• 9% reduction to NEXUS modules accumulator usage

Notable stats

• Accumulator: 3800 AP @ 360sec recharge
• CPU: 600 TF
• Reactor: 1200 RP
• Armor: 5500 HP
• Passive resistances: 45 points universally (31%)
• Surface hit size: 13 m
• Locking range: 230 m
• Sensor strength: 100 Hw³
• Signal detection: 70 rF
• Signal masking: 70 rF
• Cargo capacity: 21 U
• Slope capability: 45°
• Mass: 60000 kg
• Base speed: 66.6 kph

Syndicate Supplies cost

• 4,000 TM tokens
• 4,000 ICS tokens
• 4,000 ASI tokens
• 40,000,000 NIC

Balancing changes

Tuning module rebalancing

The last patch introduced diminishing returns when using tuning modules in the form of exponentially increasing accumulator usage. The changes were a bit on the brute force side, so in 3.8.3 we are refining this concept further and create some diversity between tuning module tiers.

There is now an efficiency difference between tiers (efficiency meaning what you get from the module for the accumulator used). T1 and T3/T3- have balanced efficiency, T2/T2+ have higher efficiency (meaning the energy usage penalty is less than the provided bonus), and T4/T4+ have low efficiency (energy penalty is higher than the bonus).

In practice this means that if you want to go for maximum bonuses using multiple high tier tunings, you'll experience exponentially higher accumulator usage with every additional tuning. However, if you are concerned about accumulator stability, you can choose lower tier tunings, which provide lower bonuses, but at much better efficiency, with lower accumulator usage penalties.

ARMOR REPAIR TUNINGS

• The additional remote repair accumulator penalty has been removed, as the armor repair penalty also affects remote repair modules.
• To make things more simple, cycle time modification has been removed (hence all the 1s in the "After" table here) so the new balance is done using only accumulator modification and repair amount modification.

BEFORE

TIER	Acc MOD	Repair MOD	Cycle MOD
T0	1.3	1.1	0.97
T1	1.3	1.3	0.95
T2	1.3	1.3	0.95
T2+	1.3	1.35	0.95
T3-	1.3	1.4	0.92
T3	1.3	1.4	0.92
T4	1.3	1.5	0.9
T4+	1.3	1.55	0.9

AFTER

TIER	Acc MOD	Repair MOD	Cycle MOD	Ratio
T0	1.4	1.1	1	0.79
T1	1.2	1.2	1	1
T2	1.1	1.2	1	1.09
T2+	1.15	1.3	1	1.13
T3-	1.4	1.4	1	1
T3	1.4	1.4	1	1
T4	1.6	1.45	1	0.91
T4+	1.7	1.55	1	0.91

INDUSTRIAL TUNINGS

BEFORE

TIER	Acc MOD	Gather MOD
T0	1.3	1.1
T1	1.3	1.3
T2	1.3	1.3
T2+	1.3	1.35
T3-	1.3	1.4
T3	1.3	1.4
T4	1.3	1.5
T4+	1.3	1.55

AFTER

TIER	Acc MOD	Gather MOD	Ratio
T0	1.4	1.1	0.79
T1	1.2	1.2	1
T2	1.1	1.2	1.09
T2+	1.15	1.3	1.13
T3-	1.4	1.4	1
T3	1.4	1.4	1
T4	1.6	1.45	0.91
T4+	1.7	1.55	0.91

EnWAR TUNINGS

• EnWar tunings did not have a diminishing returns factor so far, quite the contrary actually. The more tunings you used, the better your drainers/neutralizers became. This is turned around with the new values, so efficiency is either balanced (T1/T2), or reduced (T3/T4) the more tunings you equip.
• This is more interesting for neutralizers since the used and neutralized energy amounts are more closer; for T4 medium tunings the turning point in efficiency (when you need to sacrifice more energy than the amount you neutralize) arrives at using 3x tunings. (For those curious, in the case of T4 medium drainers this theoretically happens at 17x tunings.)
• The difference between drained and neutralized energy modification has been removed.

BEFORE

TIER	Acc MOD	Drain MOD	Neut MOD
T1	1.1	1.1	1.2
T2	1.1	1.1	1.2
T3	1.1	1.13	1.23
T4	1.1	1.15	1.25

AFTER

TIER	Acc MOD	Drain MOD	Neut MOD	Ratio
T1	1.1	1.1	1.1	1
T2	1.1	1.1	1.1	1
T3	1.2	1.13	1.13	0.94
T4	1.3	1.15	1.15	0.88

WEAPON TUNINGS

• Creating a difference in accumulator usage modifiers between the weapon types was a bad idea, now all types of weapon tunings use the same values. This retains the specific accumulator usage traits of each weapon and creates the same efficiency reduction curve when using multiple tunings.
• The same tier efficiency ratio differences are used here as for repair and industrial tunings.
• Cycle time modification has been removed here as well, efficiency is controlled by only accumulator usage versus damage modification.

BEFORE (magnetic weapon tunings taken as the example)

TIER	Acc MOD	Damage MOD	Cycle MOD
T0	1.5	1.03	0.97
T1	1.5	1.05	0.95
T2	1.5	1.05	0.95
T2+	1.5	1.055	0.95
T3-	1.5	1.075	0.95
T3	1.5	1.075	0.95
T4	1.5	1.075	0.925
T4+	1.5	1.085	0.925

AFTER (for all wapon types)

TIER	Acc MOD	Damage MOD	Cycle MOD	Ratio
T0	1.4	1.05	1	0.75
T1	1.1	1.1	1	1
T2	1.05	1.1	1	1.05
T2+	1.05	1.2	1	1.14
T3-	1.3	1.3	1	1
T3	1.3	1.3	1	1
T4	1.55	1.4	1	0.9
T4+	1.7	1.5	1	0.88

Medium firearm balancing

Long range firearms (autocannons) were using disproportionally less energy than their short range brothers, so their accumulator usage has been brought in line.

BEFORE (Machine gun vs Autocannon)

MG	Cycle	Accumulator	Damage	DPS	Accu per sec	DPS ratio*	Accu ratio*
T1	4	2	160	40	0.50	1.49	2.00
T2	4	1	160	40	0.25	1.49	2.00
T3	4	2	170	42.5	0.50	1.51	4.00
T4	3	2	135	45	0.67	1.44	2.67

AC	Cycle	Accumulator	Damage	DPS	Accu per sec
T1	8	2	215	26.875	0.25
T2	8	1	215	26.875	0.13
T3	8	1	225	28.125	0.13
T4	8	2	250	31.25	0.25

AFTER (Machine gun vs Autocannon - accumulator usage brought in line, tier cycle times equalized)

MG	Cycle	Accumulator	Damage	DPS	Accu per sec	DPS ratio*	Accu ratio*
T1	4	2	160	40	0.50	1.49	1.45
T2	4	1.5	160	40	0.38	1.49	1.46
T3	4	2	170	42.5	0.50	1.51	1.51
T4	4	2.5	180	45	0.63	1.44	1.43

AC	Cycle	Accumulator	Damage	DPS	Accu per sec
T1	8	2.75	215	26.875	0.34
T2	8	2.05	215	26.875	0.26
T3	8	2.65	225	28.125	0.33
T4	8	3.5	250	31.25	0.44

* DPS and Accumulator ratio is MG/AC
** DPS is calculated with using 1 damage ammos for simplicity's sake and doesn't consider ciritical hits

Weapon hit dispersion balancing

In order to widen the gap between light and medium weapons, the hit dispersion of guns and the explosion size of missiles got increased. This increases survivability of light robots against larger robots (if the latter use medium weapons, which they mostly do).

Weapon	Before	After
Short Laser	8	16
Long Laser	8	18
Short Magnetic	10	18
Long Magnetic	10	20
Short Firearm	12	22
Long Firearm	10	20
Compact Missile	8	14
Ballistic Missile	9	16

NEXUS module specialization

NEXUS modules are being rebalanced to become a specialty for heavy-class robots. This is achieved by drastically increasing the accumulator usage of the modules, and adding a strong accumulator usage reduction bonus to the robots themselves. In practice this means that the following robots will be able to use NEXUS modules efficiently:

• Gropho
• Seth
• Mesmer
• Lithus
• Legatus
• Metis
• Riveler
• Symbiont
• Scarab

NEXUS-related extensions will be reimbursed during the patch in order to let players reconsider their usage.

Other changes

• Increased the missile cycle time bonus of Troiar, Ictus, and Gropho from 1% to 3% per extension level.
• Doubled the mass of light armor plates and tripled the mass of medium armor plates.

Deployment

Patch 3.8.3 including the final wave of Syndicate robots and all the above changes will be deployed next week - the exact day and time will be announced soon.

Cronus

Class: Assault robot specialized in mining and harvesting

"The Cronus is the missing link between the light and mech class Nian industrial robots, suitable for both mining and harvesting duties.

Although it can't really compete with the higher robot classes regarding productivity, its versatility makes it the Swiss Army knife of small-scale industrial operations."

Slots

• Head slots: 3
• Leg slots: 3
• Chassis slots: 4 (2x light industrial, 2x light/medium industrial)

Bonuses (per extension level)

• 3% increase to mined amount
• 3% increase to harvested amount
• 3% reduction to industrial module cycle time
• 3% reduction to accumulator recharge time
• +2 to signal masking

Notable stats

• Accumulator: 1400 AP @ 300sec recharge
• CPU: 220 TF
• Reactor: 310 RP
• Armor: 1000 HP
• Passive resistances: 45 points to kinetic/seismic/thermal (31%), 30 points to chemical (23%)
• Surface hit size: 5 m
• Locking range: 200 m
• Sensor strength: 100 Hw³
• Signal detection: 90 rF
• Signal masking: 105 rF
• Cargo capacity: 12 U
• Slope capability: 51°
• Mass: 15000 kg
• Base speed: 99 kph

Syndicate Supplies cost

• 60 TM tokens
• 60 ICS tokens
• 60 ASI tokens
• 750,000 NIC

Hermes

Class: Assault robot specialized in exploration

"The Nians apparently don't care much for their own history, so there wasn't any specialized robot that we could use as our own to discover underground artifacts.

However, with the use of hybrid technologies we were able to build the Hermes - an assault robot that is not only equipped with accurate and high range underground sensors, but also has ample combat capabilities to defend itself when facing an ambush."

Slots

• Head slots: 3
• Leg slots: 3
• Chassis slots: 4 (2x light turret/misc, 2x light/medium turret/misc/industrial)

Bonuses (per extension level)

• 3% increase to artifact scanning range
• 3% increase to geoscanner accuracy
• 3% increase to firearms damage
• 1% reduction to firearms cycle time
• +2 to signal masking

Notable stats

• Accumulator: 450 AP @ 240sec recharge (updated!)
• CPU: 120 TF
• Reactor: 300 RP
• Armor: 800 HP
• Passive resistances: 45 points to kinetic/seismic/thermal (31%), 30 points to chemical (23%)
• Surface hit size: 4 m (updated!)
• Locking range: 200 m
• Sensor strength: 100 Hw³
• Signal detection: 90 rF
• Signal masking: 100 rF
• Cargo capacity: 16 U
• Slope capability: 56° (the same as light robots)
• Mass: 14000 kg
• Base speed: 108 kph

Syndicate Supplies cost

• 60 TM tokens
• 60 ICS tokens
• 60 ASI tokens
• 750,000 NIC

Balancing changes

• Increased the base speed of the Argano and the Laird (including all variants) from 104.4 kph to 109.8 kph.
• Replaced the artifact scanning range bonus of the Argano with a bonus to signal masking.

Deployment

Patch 3.8.2 including the two new robots and the above mentioned changes will be deployed next week - the exact day and time will be announced soon.

Echelon

Class: Mech specialized in firearms

"The big brother of the Locust in every way, employing the same self-adjusting armor plating technology and stabilized machine guns. Syndicate generals usually like to put the Echelon where it belongs: to the forefront of intense battles."

Slots

• Head slots: 4
• Leg slots: 5
• Chassis slots: 4 (2x light/medium turret, 2x light/medium turret/misc)

Bonuses (per extension level)

• 2% reduction to the hit dispersion of guns
• 3% to firearms damage
• 1% to firearms cycle time
• -0.10 to surface hit size
• 2% to demobilizer resistance

Notable stats

• Accumulator: 1800 AP @ 420sec recharge
• CPU: 250 TF
• Reactor: 900 RP
• Armor: 2900 HP
• Passive resistances: 45 points universally (31%)
• Surface hit size: 7 m
• Locking range: 300 m
• Sensor strength: 130 Hw³
• Signal detection: 130 rF
• Signal masking: 90 rF
• Cargo capacity: 9 U
• Mass: 28000 kg
• Base speed: 90 kph

Syndicate Supplies cost

• 250 TM tokens
• 250 ICS tokens
• 250 ASI tokens
• 4,000,000 NIC

Daidalos

Class: Mech specialized in transportation

"We call it 'the hauler with a punch'. The Daidalos is a curious experiment in our efforts aimed to create a versatile transport robot that's more than just a sitting duck when ambushed.

Capacity-wise it fits right between the assault and heavy mech class transports, and while it's not as tough as the Lithus, when aided by a few combat escorts it is more than capable of helping out with some damage-dealing on its own."

Slots

• Head slots: 3
• Leg slots: 5
• Chassis slots: 4 (2x light/medium turret, 2x light/medium industrial)

Bonuses (per extension level)

• 10% to firearms damage (that's no mistake, it is 10% damage increase per level)
• -0.20 to surface hit size
• 1% to armor hit points
• +3 to passive resistances
• +2 to signal masking

Notable stats

• Accumulator: 1800 AP @ 480sec recharge
• CPU: 220 TF
• Reactor: 500 RP
• Armor: 2000 HP
• Passive resistances: 45 points to kinetic/seismic/thermal (31%), 30 points to chemical (23%)
• Surface hit size: 8 m

• Locking range: 200 m
• Sensor strength: 100 Hw³
• Signal detection: 110 rF
• Signal masking: 100 rF
• Cargo capacity: 160 U
• Mass: 48000 kg
• Base speed: 81 kph

Syndicate Supplies cost

• 350 TM tokens
• 350 ICS tokens
• 350 ASI tokens
• 5,000,000 NIC

Balancing changes

Like in the case of the first wave, robot balance has been reviewed within the currently released class, although this time I felt like a small boost to the Tyrannos was the only change necessary.

The already released Syndicate robots have been also revisited, and based on your feedback and my testing sessions, a few balancing changes have been made.

The list of changes:

• Increased the missile cycle time bonus of the Tyrannos from 1% to 3% per extension level.
• Reduced the base surface hit size of the Vektor from 3 to 2.5.
• Reduced the base surface hit size of the Locust from 4 to 3.5.
• Increased the NIC cost of the Locust from 500,000 to 750,000 (token costs remain unchanged).
• Increased the base mass of the Locust from 11,800 kg to 15,000 kg (which means less speed reduction coming from equipped modules).

Deployment

All this is part of patch 3.8.1, which will be deployed tomorrow, September 23 at 15:00 CEST/servertime (13:00 UTC). Downtime is estimated to last about 1 hour.

General traits

In terms of offense, the most notable attribute of the hybrid Nian-Earth tech Syndicate robots is of course their specialization for firearms. These types of guns are famous for their almost negligible energy usage, their damage and versatility coming from the available ammo types, but also for their inaccuracy and short optimal range. Syndicate robots were built with this in mind, and they are also trying to compensate for the shortcomings of these weapons.

Defense-wise their main strategy is basically to not get hit. Their armor is the weakest of all the factions, and armor resistances are universal but not very high. However, this is more than made up by their low hit size, either from the get-go or via bonuses, which can be further reduced by using an evasive module.

Looking at their base speed, they are rather on the slower end, but their relatively high mass means that they won’t lose that much of that speed when you equip them.

Last but not least, their signal detection and masking values are the best in their class, making them exceptionally useful in scouting and covert operations.

TL;DR Syndicate robots are hard to hit bulletstorm glass-ninjas.

These are mostly true for the combat-type robots, but we’ll also have 5 industrial types within the Syndicate faction. They are generally intended to fill some missing roles and industrial classes, and their traits will be a mix of the Syndicate flavor and the robots of the Nian Industrial Trust.

Let’s take a look at the first 3 robots in detail. Note that the parameters can still change and we’ll revisit them once they’ve been in use for a while.

Vektor

Class: Light robot specialized in firearms

"The smallest member of our hybrid-technology fleet of robots. Its armor is weaker than the average, but its small size makes up for it, resulting in a hard to hit target. Coupled with excellent detection and masking systems, the Vektor makes not only a good scout, but a tough opponent in combat as well."

Slots

• Head slots: 3
• Leg slots: 2
• Chassis slots: 4 (2x light turret/misc, 2x light/medium turret/misc/industrial)

Bonuses (per extension level)

• 1% reduction to the hit dispersion of guns
• 3% to light firearms damage
• 1% to firearms cycle time
• -0.10 to surface hit size
• +2 to signal detection

Notable stats

• Accumulator: 200 AP @ 120sec recharge
• CPU: 155 TF
• Reactor: 150 RP
• Armor: 650 HP
• Passive resistances: 45 points universally (31%)
• Surface hit size: 3 m
• Locking range: 150 m
• Sensor strength: 130 Hw³
• Signal detection: 125 rF
• Signal masking: 105 rF
• Cargo capacity: 3.75 U
• Mass: 7850 kg
• Base speed: 104.4 kph

Syndicate Supplies cost

• 20 TM tokens
• 20 ICS tokens
• 20 ASI tokens
• 150,000 NIC

Locust

Class: Assault robot specialized in firearms

"The gist of our firearm-wielding force. A swarm of Locusts can quickly shred enemy groups, but their specialized framework increases their survivability in solo engagements too."

Slots

• Head slots: 4
• Leg slots: 3
• Chassis slots: 5 (3x light turret, 2x light/medium turret/misc/industrial)

Bonuses (per extension level)

• 1% reduction to the hit dispersion of guns
• 3% to firearms damage
• 1% to firearms cycle time
• -0.10 to surface hit size
• 2% to firearms optimal range

Notable stats

• Accumulator: 400 AP @ 180sec recharge
• CPU: 230 TF
• Reactor: 280 RP
• Armor: 975 HP
• Passive resistances: 45 points universally (31%)
• Surface hit size: 4 m
• Locking range: 200 m
• Sensor strength: 110 Hw³
• Signal detection: 110 rF
• Signal masking: 110 rF
• Cargo capacity: 6 U
• Mass: 11800 kg
• Base speed: 106.2 kph

Syndicate Supplies cost

• 50 TM tokens
• 50 ICS tokens
• 50 ASI tokens
• 500,000 NIC

Ikarus

Class: Light robot specialized in transportation

"The Ikarus is a snappy answer to the Perpetuum Project's long-standing need for a fast and light transport. Its main element is a repurposed Argano-chassis, stripped of anything disposable to make room for the relatively large cargo hold. Aided by the agile undercarriage of the Laird, this is the most efficient robot to get fair-sized packages from A to B quickly. Speed comes at a price though, as the construction is very fragile."

Slots

• Head slots: 1
• Leg slots: 1
• Chassis slots: 1 (light/medium turret/missile/misc/industrial)

Bonuses (per extension level)

• +2 to signal detection
• +2 to signal masking
• 3% to demobilizer resistance
• 1% to armor hit points
• +3 to passive armor resistances

Notable stats

• Accumulator: 150 AP @ 240sec recharge
• CPU: 100 TF
• Reactor: 100 RP
• Armor: 500 HP
• Passive resistances: 45 points to kinetic/seismic/thermal (31%), 30 points to chemical (23%)
• Surface hit size: 2.50 m

• Locking range: 120 m
• Sensor strength: 90 Hw³
• Signal detection: 110 rF
• Signal masking: 100 rF
• Cargo capacity: 20 U
• Mass: 8950 kg
• Base speed: 120.6 kph

Syndicate Supplies cost

• 10 TM tokens
• 10 ICS tokens
• 10 ASI tokens
• 100,000 NIC

Balancing and new extensions

We’re introducing two new extensions that will be required to control these robots: Syndicate combat robot control and Syndicate industrial robot control. It’s not hard to guess that these are the equivalents of the Pelistal/Nuimqol/Thelodica robot control extensions (with the same complexity of 9), but since here the combat and industrial types are part of the same faction we felt the need to split it up into two extensions. The rest of the requirements are designed to be on par with the other factions and are using the same extensions, depending on the robot’s class.

Of course the introduction of a whole new faction can’t go without some adjustments to the existing factions and robots. With each patch we’ll take a look at the balance within the actual class of robots and make changes if necessary. This not only means that we’ll balance regarding the newly added robots to try to fit them in, but we’ll also revisit the balance between the existing old factions. Finally, during or after the last waves we’ll check up on the global balance between robot classes and try to fix some long-standing issues e.g. with speeds.

Deployment

This first wave of Syndicate robots is planned to be deployed in patch 3.8, around the middle of next week, along with some fixes as usual. The exact time and date of the patch will be announced soon.

The rest of the robots will be introduced in a similar way over the next few months: a detailed writeup of the actual wave of 2 or maybe 3 robots will precede their deployment, and the waves are currently planned to be 3-5 weeks apart, depending on any additional features or fixes that may come with the patch.

Now, by salvaging and disassembling Nian robots and combining them with good old Earth technology, the Syndicate hopes to surprise the enemy by fielding something they haven’t seen so far.

Soon, the Syndicate will become a full-fledged 4th faction (or 5th if we count the Nian Industrial Trust as one) with its own line of specialized robots that you can use.

Currently 11 new robots are planned, which are assembled from existing Nian robot parts, but each of them will have their own unique stats and bonuses. As you might have already guessed, a common trait, being their faction specialization, are machine guns.

Beyond mirroring the standard line of combat bots of other factions, we’re also trying to fill some roles that we didn’t have robots for thus far, like a light transport or a robot specialized for artifact exploration.

Here is a general list of what you can expect:

• Vektor: light combat robot
• Helix: light robot specialized for electronic warfare
• Locust: assault-class combat robot
• Echelon: combat mech
• Callisto: mech specialized for electronic warfare
• Legatus: heavy combat mech
• Ikarus: fast light transport
• Cronus: assault-class industrial robot suitable for both mining and harvesting
• Hermes: assault-class robot specialized for artifact exploration
• Daidalos: mech-class transport, aimed to fill the gap between the Sequer and the Lithus
• Metis: heavy mech specialized for remote support modules

Introducing these robots into the game will happen through the Syndicate Supplies shop. First and foremost we’re planning a direct purchase for a combination of Pelistal, Nuimqol, and Thelodica faction tokens, plus a NIC fee. These robots are not indended to be rare, so the cost will be more or less in line with the other faction’s robots, and the triple-token requirement should liven up the market a bit.

Over the next few blogs we will take a detailed look at each of the robots, dive into their stats and bonuses, strengths and weaknesses, and everything you'd want to know about your new best friends.

After some public testing, forum feedback, collecting tears, and more number juggling, we now present you the final details.

The main goals of this balancing package are:

• Boost light and assault robots considerably.
• More diverse robot bonuses, but they generally provide less value increase. This also lessens the gap between high-level veteran players and less fortunate newbies.
• Push robots more towards their intended roles.

Colorful spreadsheets coming up.

We're also introducing 3 new extensions under the Robot control category:

• Combat robot specialist - Required extension for all combat robots, and controls the combat role bonuses.
• Industrial robot specialist - Required extension for all industrial robots, and controls the industrial role bonuses.
• Hi-tech robot specialist - Required extension for all Mk2 robots, and controls the special Mk2 bonuses.

The combat and industrial robot specialist extensions are becoming starter extensions, thus every existing character will receive these two on level 1 during the patch.

Additional notes

• The effect of the mass gain of light robots may not be clear for everyone: increased base mass for robots lessens the speed reduction effect of equipped modules.
• We cleaned up some parameters of prototype robots, this means either slight increases or reductions. Compared to normal robots, light/assault prototypes now have +5 CPU/reactor and +10 sensor strength, while mechs/heavy mechs have +10 CPU/reactor/sensor strength.
• Mk2 robots retain their special extra bonuses (so they still have one additional bonus compared to standard bots), but these are now controlled by a new extension.
• The Baphomet loses its lone missile slot, as a consequence we'll remove all modules and ammo from this slot in all existing Baphomets and place them back into the same storage during the patch.
• Although the Waspish gains a second small/medium mixed missile slot to bring it in line with the other two assaults, to make it look badass these have to be on its sides. So instead the top/back slot will lose the medium fitting and as such we'll also remove any equipped module from this slot during the patch.
• Do note that assaults received a considerable reactor boost to make room for those medium modules.

The patch itself will be deployed to the live server today at 14:00 CET/server time. We'll be also performing some server and database maintenance, so the estimated downtime will be about 2 hours.

ps. This isn't the monthly report, that's still coming.

Meanwhile, we’re working on the foundations of the player-built structures system, but we don’t want to leave you without new features and content for the rest of the year, so let’s have a look what we have in store for you in December.

The Scarab

I know most of you are waiting for this, so I won’t tease you any longer. As announced in our last newsletter, a new freighter-type robot is about to make its entry into the world of Nia. Its name is Scarab, and it’s the first member of a new robot class we call gliders.

The common feature of gliders is that they are hovering above the ground, which means they have excellent slope capabilities, and resistance against demobilization. They are also relatively big, which in turn means they make excellent targets too... We have plans for heavy and light glider classes, both in combat and industrial roles as well.

The Scarab specifically is a heavy industrial glider, designed to transport huge amounts of cargo, a whopping 720 units. The bad news is that in order to keep it levitating, it has to have a pretty thin framework and light armoring, so it will be quite vulnerable. It does have 2 universal chassis slots that you can fill with medium weapons too, but heavy escorts are recommended. For support modules you’ll have 4 head slots and 1 leg slot to play with.

As for required extensions, you will need some higher levels in Advanced robot control and Industrial robot control, as well as the new Glider control extension, specific to the new class.

While we plan to have an Mk2 version of it, like for all robots in the game, that one will be only introduced a bit later.

Syndicate Supplies

Have you ever wanted to do a suitable assignment but got turned off by the reward bullets that you don’t use anyway? I know I did.

At first we wanted to give you an option to select your reward items before you accept the assignment, but that felt kinda limiting as well. So we decided to give you complete freedom by adding some universal faction tokens as assignment rewards, which you can exchange for things you really need.

The place where you can do the exchange will be a new base facility called Syndicate Supplies (formerly known as EC-shop). At the start it will offer the well-known advanced ammo types (which have become a bit of a rarity by now) for assignment tokens, but later on we will also include many more items purchasable for Energy Credits (yeah it’s coming a long way), or a combination of currencies. Just to be absolutely clear, this is not a microtransaction store, it uses new ingame currencies which you can gather by various activities.

New robot animations

You saw what we did to the Arkhe, now our animators are close to wrapping up the next bigger package. The 3 light combat robots and the 3 light EW-robots will get the same treatment soon, and will be sporting much better looking walking and running animations.

Beginner assignment improvements

During the past months we have replaced all level 1-2-3 assignments with better and more interesting ones, but before we move on to level 4 and up, we have to take a step back and have a look at the start of the game.

While the general feedback on the 10-part tutorial assignment line has been mostly positive, it is starting to get a bit outdated. The plan is to split it into two branches, one combat and one industrial-oriented, and include some newly introduced objectives, like artifact scanning, distress beacons and manufacturing. Players will be able to complete both branches, one with a combat light bot reward at the end, and the other with an industrial one. Our intention is to give everyone the opportunity to decide which path they want to take (it can be both too!), and to show them all the activities they can do in the game.

We’re also revamping the level 0 assignments; we know they are a pretty bad grind between the end of the tutorial and the start of the level 1 assignments. They will also make sure that you have some more interesting objectives to do than killing drones over and over, if you accidentally lose your first tutorial light bot and have only an Arkhe available.

DEV Alf is also brewing some NPC spawn balancing changes and some new modules and new weapon ammo types using cycle time modification, but the details still a bit hazy, so more on those a bit later :)

Christmas is coming too, so we plan to have some smaller PvE events, and we're starting to pick up some strange artifact signals again, too. Nothing fancy though, we know most of you have better things to do at that time than sitting in front of a computer. Or do you?

Anyways, questions and comments are more than welcome, as always!

Once we're done with the small robots we'll be looking at the big ones of course, which will need to be rolled out in a single, big patch - but that's still some time away.

And how does it compare? Let's have a look:

How do you like the Observers so far, and what do you think of this update? Share your thoughts in the comments!

We’re very happy to announce that the client will be available in two new languages, French and Slovenian after the patch. We’re delighted to see the French community grow so rapidly and hope to see more of you guys online after this update.

Now for the stuff more interesting to most players, the gameplay changes:

One for the money

Be prepared to activate your prototype facilities, as with the patch we’re introducing a new heavy mech class robot, called the Lithus. This robot can be thought of as the big brother of the Sequer, and will satisfy all your hauling needs.

Two for the show

Due to popular demand we’re also introducing a trophies and losses section in the character screen that will show your kills and deaths, and the parties involved in the fights.

Three to get ready

Since the launch of the game the number of people involved in Intrusion events and PvP fights has been constantly growing. We really like this trend, however as the number of players reaches a critical mass in a single fight, tactics seem to go out the window and the fight turns into a simple numbers game.

Our aim has always been to create a PvP environment where tactics, smart maneuvering and coordinated teamwork get you superior results, so we’ve discussed the issue in length over the holidays. We traced the core of the problem back to a simple fact, and that is that for a variety of reasons Perpetuum employs a limited simulation of the real world. The main factors at play are that we don’t have robot collisions or friendly fire, and these two factors allow for large numbers of players to move as a single, small unit and one-shot-kill anyone they see. Fixing this issue is quite a tough challenge, as robot collisions and friendly fire are missing from the game for good reasons. Introducing robot collisions would severely limit the movement of players and give rise to a whole lot of possible exploits with people standing in each others way just for the laughs. We’ve explored the possibility of friendly fire, but all the solutions we looked at would have had a huge performance impact on the server, so this side of the issue can’t be fixed either.

We decided to look at the problem from an other angle and discourage the kind of behaviour we’ve seen. There will be several changes coming in the future, all of which combined will make big fights a lot more tactical than they are today. We’ll be introducing area of effect weapons, and robot explosion area of effect damage/debuffs, but tomorrow's patch only brings the very first of the systems designed to combat the problem: Interference.

The Interference system simulates the effects safely fighting in a close group would have on the combat effectiveness of the group in the real world. Basically members of the group would have to be more careful not to shoot any of their comrades, and thus be slower to fire and would have to devote a lot of their attention to working together with their unit. The Interference system simulates this with locking time and sensor strength debuffs on large groups of robots moving in close proximity. Each robot in the game has an interference range and strength, and emits an interference level which affects each other robot within this range. The interference accumulates and as it reaches critical levels (different for different robot types) it manifests in the mentioned debuffs. This mechanic, coupled with later area of effect mechanics will discourage the one-shot-kill setup that has mostly taken away from the gameplay experience above a certain number of people involved in a fight.

Comments on the patch and the above mentioned issues are welcome!

Now go, cat, go.