1.3.6 - PLAYING WITH FRIENDS (LEAKED PATCH NOTES)

The first post-game launch update arrives this week with lots of improvements on the match selection system and server configuration, making life easier for those who want to play with friends and create teams. This is the first of many planned updates that will enhance the experience of creating teams and interacting with other players. We keep, as always, doing game balancing, bug fixing and content additions alongside these main improvements.





Find Your Friends on Home Screen

This new feature allows you to see, on the game home screen, which of your friends are playing Ballistic Overkill, allowing you to immediately join to the same server that they are playing. This feature will be the foundation of the clan system, that will be available in the future. In order to make this system the best possible, we rewrote a considerable part of the code that connects players into matches, you can learn more about these changes below.





New Queue System

It is now possible to enter in any server you want, even if that server is full. Doing so will make you a spectator in your friend’s match until a vacant position on your team becomes available. This way, newcomers will enter in a queue, joining the match in an organized way. It will be much easier to organize teams then.

Game lobby screen and private matches no longer exist, players can now organize their teams from inside a match. We still offer the ability to create password-protected servers for those who want to play with big groups of friends.





Team Selection

Players are asked to choose a team before their first spawn instead of being automatically placed in the team with less members. We still enforce a minimal difference in team sizes to avoid unbalanced teams. When this happens, you have to wait in the queue until the teams are balanced again. Different from what happened before, however, you will never be blocked from changing teams (with the only excepting of when the match is nearing its end). This change is crucial for the new game modes that are coming.





Spectator Mode Changes

Spectator Mode was remade to let both players and spectators join matches by the same method. Spectator mode is more accessible from the respawn screen, behaving as if it were a soldier class. You can join a match as a spectator at any time, but if you want to join a team to play you’ll be placed in a queue just the same.





Teammate Outlines

We changed characters outlines to allow players to see their teammates through walls, encouraging even better teamplay.





Gold Badges

All classes with level 100 or more will have a golden badge instead of a silver one. Be extra careful when finding one of these in the enemy team!





New Weapon: Sledgehammer

The tank can now unlock a brand new weapon, one that greatly helps him in close quarters combat.The Sledgehammer is a melee weapon with a slow fire-rate, but massive damage. Unaware Shadows may have an unpleasant surprise when getting close to a Tank.





New Melee Animations

Melee weapons received new animations for sequential attacks.





New Weapon Stats Screen

The weapon Information Screen on the Soldiers Tab was redesigned to make it easier to find your available skins to equip.







New Antialiasing Modes

We’re aiming to give more flexibility on game graphics configuration options. Advanced users who want to can now access them through a text file in the Ballistic Overkill installation folder. On top of an improved version for the standard FXAA, we added the possibility of switching to MSAA, of 2x, 4x or 8x. It’s possible to combine both modes, for those who want to take the game graphics to the next level:

- FXAA

- MSAA2X

- MSAA4X

- MSAA8X

- MSAA2X + FXAA

- MSAA4X + FXAA

- MSAA8X + FXAA

See the comparison:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/ballistic-marketing/ballistic-patch-notes/136/antialiasing_comparison.jpg

Custom Server Commands



We added a few commands to help those who create their own servers manage them with ease. If you are a server host you can type these in the chat anytime during a match.

Lists in numeric order, all players in the match.

./kick [player number from the list]



Kicks the player identified by that number.



./blacklist [player number from the list]



Permanently kick and ban the player identified by that number in this server.



./prioritylist [player number from the list]



Includes the player in the priority list. This will give him priority in any future queue in this server.



To manage banned and priorized players in your servers, you can always manually edit the file BallisticConfiguration.serverdata in the custom server folder.

Vulkan and Metal Support

Linux and MacOS users can celebrate! It is now possible to choose the Ballistic Overkill graphic API through a launch command in Steam properties. Vulkan API is relatively new and may have some bugs. The available APIs are:

-force-d3d9

-force-d3d11

-force-vulkan

-force-metal

-force-glcore

You can check out which graphic API is running by clicking in the bottom left corner on the home screen, next to the game’s version.





Balance Changes

Melee Weapon Changes

One thing that made melee weapons tough to get right was their ability to kill anyone instantly with a backstab. This was done automatically, regardless of the weapon damage or the target’s health. We’re changing this system to allows us to balance the backstab itself via a multiplier so we can have more variance to it. On top of that, we changed the valid angle of attack of melee weapons by reducing it across the board to avoid situations where hits seemed unfair or too easy to aim.

Backstab Multiplier added

Melee weapons won’t kill instantly on backstabs. Backstabs are now considered critical hits (similar to a headshot from a regular weapon). This means that each weapon has it’s own multiplier, allowing for extra variety in that weapon class.

You can check the actual values of Backstab Multipliers in the character sections below.

Melee Strike angle reduced slightly on all melee weapons





Tank

We felt that Tank needed an extra option of “fast moving sidearm”. The current only weapon that fits this description is the Blackhawk. We hope that Tanks who want to be a swifter than normal will find the Sledgehammer as a suitable choice. It allows the Tank to serve Shadow some of that sweet melee action he seems to love.

Weapons

Sledgehammer added

Unlocks



Sledgehammer added as the new level 2 unlock



All other weapons pushed up in the progression

Rampart and Brigand unlock position switched



Raging Bull and Last Stand unlock position switched



Skills



Raging Bull damage reduction increased from 30% to 50%

Shadow

Shadow has been very dominant in the current meta. More specifically, a certain kind of Shadow… We hope some of the changes introduced will help players counter this strategy, while still keeping it a viable choice.

Weapons

Xian



150% Backstab Damage Multiplier added instead of an instakill.

Ninjaken



Attack Speed increased from 100 to 120



200% Backstab Multiplier added instead of an instakill.

Shinobi



Movement speed reduced.



50% Backstab Multiplier added instead of an instakill.

Unlocks



Vampire and Shadow Walker unlock position switched

Marksman

Marksman received the current version of Awareness as an extra trait while the skill itself was buffed. We hope this helps differentiate the class from others, while also making the skill itself more reliable.

Skills

Trait buffed

All enemies are revealed on the map for 1 second every 5 seconds. This ability reveals even invisible opponents.



Awareness

Time to activate reduced from 5 to 2 seconds.



Bug Fixes