The final 4 robots of the new Syndicate line make their debut in patch 3.8.3, alongside of numerous balancing changes. In this blog we'll take an in-depth look at all these updates - spreadsheets warning ahead!

Helix and Callisto

Helix

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
Helix

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

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
Callisto

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 and Metis

Legatus

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
Legatus

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

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
Metis

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.

The 3rd group of Syndicate robots is just around the corner, so let's have a closer look at them. This wave consists of two assault-class robots: the Cronus, specialized in both mining and harvesting, and the Hermes, specialized in artifact hunting.

Cronus

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)
cronus

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

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)
Hermes

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.

So after a little unplanned delay, we're continuing the release of new Syndicate robots. This time we're introducing two mech-class robots: the Echelon, a combat mech, and the Daidalos, a mech-class transport.

Echelon

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
Echelon

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

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
Daidalos
  • 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.

So shortly after setting up our roadmap for the remainder of this year, we dived right into its development. Well, right after figuring out what to do first (with your help), putting out some server fires (not literally, don’t worry) and trying to not die in the summer heatwave (managed). Anyway, here’s what we have in store for you in our upcoming patch.

Beta 1 reworks

After the rework of Alpha 2 islands, Beta 1s are next in line to receive the teleport and highway network treatment, and of course the new assignments and field terminals. Those of you who follow the relevant testing topic have already seen the new network proposals, and provided some useful feedback too (thanks!).

So here are the before/after maps for Hokkogaros, Domhalarn, and Norhoop. These will soon hit the test server (with a few smaller changes based on your feedback) and be part of our next patch.

Hokkogaros teleport/highway reworks
Domhalarn teleport/highway reworks
Norhoop teleport/highway reworks

Distress beacon changes

In the last patch we have temporarily disabled the deployment of distress beacons, in order to allow us to finally remove some much hated mechanics that have been implemented a long time ago to battle the unwanted tricks players could do with beacons.

Distress beacons will be re-enabled in our upcoming patch, although with some significant changes:

Teleport anomaly
  • New teleport anomalies will start spawning on all zones, which are a side effect of enemy teleport activity. You will only be able to deploy distress beacons in the close vicinity of these, which will basically “hijack” enemy teleport jumps and pull them out at your location.
  • Once a beacon is activated, the anomaly will despawn and enemy NPCs will start spawning like before. So one anomaly, one beacon.
  • Teleport anomalies will have 3 levels, which will limit the type of beacons that you can use with them. Level 1 beacons can be used anywhere, level 2 only on beta and gamma, and level 3 will be gamma only.
  • Levels are the equivalent of stripes that we’ve had so far too on the icons. Beacon names and icons have been already updated to be more straightforward, so you don’t have to wonder anymore whether “platoon” or “commando” is the higher one.
  • Teleport anomalies will also emit significant interference (on beta and gamma), so it will also affect PvP a bit. They are destroyable though.
  • The multiple activators requirement will be removed, all beacons can be activated solo.
  • The volume of distress beacons will be reduced from 1 to 0.1 U.
Updated distress beacons

Reworked artifact scanning

Another mechanic that we wanted to give priority to is artifact scanning, mostly due to the relatively high amount of help requests and reports about players getting stuck with it or not really understanding how it worked.

The new artifact scanning breaks away from the triangulation method, and is much more similar to directional geoscanning:

New artifact scanning

As you can see on the screenshot, the scanner provides a list of the artifacts in range like before, but additionally to the range it also gives you a bearing indicator which will guide you to the scanned location. Note that I wrote “scanned location”, since the results can have a significant deviation, depending on your distance from the actual artifact and the accuracy rating of your equipment.

In practice this mechanic still requires multiple scans to narrow down the exact location (unless the random gods really love you), but it should be much more straightforward and intuitive than the old one.

Both the new distress beacon mechanic and the new artifact scanning method will hit the test server in a few days, so you'll be able to get a feel for them soon.

Terminal facility balancing

This is also coming in our next patch, involving some number juggling around terminal and outpost facility efficiency points. Currently there is not enough difference between Alpha and Beta facilities to warrant serious Beta-based facility usage in light of the much higher risk, so we’d like to balance this out a bit. (relevant forum discussion can be found here)

Here is how the new facility points will look like:

Alpha 1 main terminals:

  • All 0 (no change)

Alpha 1 outposts:

  • Current: 0 / 50 (higher on selected facilities)
  • New: 0 / 25

Alpha 2 main terminals:

  • Current: All 50
  • New: 25 / 50

Beta main terminals:

  • Current: All 50
  • New: 50 / 100

Beta outposts:

As you know the facilities here can be manually upgraded 3 times each, using a maximum of 10 points at the highest stability (1 point per 10 stability).

  • Currently the levels are: 0 - 50 - 100 - 125
  • This would be changed to: 50 - 100 - 125 - 150

(Meaning even if you don't spend any upgrade points, all the outpost facilities are at 50)

We’re also working on a facility downgrade option for Beta outposts, so you won’t have to destabilize your own outpost if you want to change around your facility points.

And last but not least, we’ll boost the relation factor in facility efficiencies. With the rebalanced relation progression in assignments, its current influence feels like not enough gain for all the fuss, so we’ll more or less bring it in line with the facility and extension factors.

Closing

So all the above mentioned stuff is coming in our new patch, which is currently slated for around early/mid October.

Our internal robot template editor

I’ll leave you with a picture of our freshly updated internal tool, which we’re using to create robot templates by mixing around their body parts. (You don’t want to know how the old one looked, it didn’t even have a 3D preview.) This is in preparation for the new Syndicate robots mentioned in the roadmap blog, and it really speeds up figuring out the good/useful combinations.

We’d also like to put this this tool into the test client so you can play around with it and show us your ideas, possibly even create a contest around this.

The October status report brought a general preview about an incoming balance package that affects almost all robots in the game.

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.