Hey squaddies!

We’ve got some slightly-unusual patch notes for you today.

But first, you can say goodbye to that annoying server filter bug! (The “show full servers” checkbox functionality was inverted. Whoops!)

Additionally, we’re introducing some experimental changes to the “dead dead” mechanic, as well as the way “instadeath” works. Let’s dig in a little.

Pre-Alpha 13

Prior to Alpha 13, the mechanics worked like this:

After dying and being revived, there was a 60-second time frame during which you were extra vulnerable. This meant that if you died again during these 60 seconds, you would become unrevivable (“dead dead”) and be instantly sent to the spawn screen. There was no UI indication of this vulnerability.

Taking a large caliber headshot (such as 50cal) would instantly make you unrevivable (instadeath).

This was a mechanic was originally added to convey some consequence of death, as well as a sense of tension and vulnerability to newly revived players. The goal was (hopefully) to encourage the vulnerable player to stick back with their squadmates.

We had some questions on whether the role of this mechanic was too punishing and negatively impacting the teamwork aspect, especially for new players to an already challenging game. It could be difficult to understand why the “instadeath” black screen occurred and the 60-second timer was not well-exposed.

Alpha 13

With Alpha 13, when dying and being revived, there was no longer a period of extra “vulnerability,” allowing a player to be revived indefinitely. (Or until your medic ran out of bandages, anyway.)

The caliber required to make you unrevivable was increased, meaning you could be revivable after a 50cal headshot, but not after a 30mm headshot.

After 3 months of evaluation with these new changes, including lots of feedback from our community, we’re introducing a new iteration of these mechanics.

As with the previous ones, the effects will be monitored and tweaked. Keep us updated with your feedback!

Alpha 15.4

As of this patch (Alpha 15.4), when you are incapacitated, you have a revive window (5 minutes by default). This revives window will be shortened based on the amount of damage you took as part of your death.

For example, if you got downed by minimal damage from a pistol, your revive timer will be very close to 5 minutes. If you got downed by a rifle headshot, your revive timer will be slightly less than 2 and a half minutes. A 50 caliber headshot will give you a short 30-second revive window. Lastly, anything from a close proximity IED blast to a 30mm headshot and beyond will cause your revive window to be 5 seconds – too short to get revived in, so you’re effectively dead.

On top of this mechanic, the revive window persists through revives until you have been healed by a medic. This means that if you get headshot by a rifle, revived without getting healed, and then headshot again, the remaining revive window will be too short for another revive.

If not getting healed, this “persistent revive window” will automatically slowly increase back to the full 5 minutes as long as you remain alive. If you died, were revived, and managed to stay alive for a few minutes, you would be nearing the five-minute timer again.

Anything that previously sent you instantly sent to spawn screen (“instadeath”) will now instead give you a 5-second revive timer, too short to be revived in. The hope is to give the player more feedback about what happened when he died, instead of instantly disappearing from the map and into the spawn screen.

In the future, we hope to include a 1-2 second ragdoll moment before entering the incapacitated state to provide better feedback about what just occurred in a more intuitive and immersive way.

Please note: there can and will be further tweaks and/or additions to this system. All in all, we hope it is a more flexible way to tune players’ revivability, as well as increase information available to the player.

Our goal is to balance between the game being too forgiving and too unforgiving. In this version, revive trains should be harder to maintain and most catastrophic damage (e.g., headshots, IED explosions) should be more effective as well. However, players will still get a second chance in most cases. We will keep tracking revive statistics as well as your feedback.

Buddy Rally

Finally, we would like to give you some information on our intended gameplay ideas in the future concerning the Buddy Rally system. For the time being, lacking a system to reclaim or reset abandoned vehicles in the field, we will be keeping the buddy rally mechanic.

In the future, we would like to see this replaced with a mechanic that deals with abandoned vehicles in the field, so that respawning at main is a more viable option. The buddy rally mechanic might still become a limited option available to the Commander, giving squads an extra option for situational redeployment. Another option is to make it available only to the Insurgents faction. Please keep your feedback coming on this as well.

Enjoy the patch! Let us know what you think!

Offworld out.