Alpha 8 got off to a slow start due to an unforeseen issue that came up during our pre-flight checks. The Level Generation Team is in the middle of converting every asset in the game to a Nested Prefab, which made things a bit awkward when it came time to bake and ship maps. Since walls sections are now nested, every wall section inadvertently had the same network ID. With every wall being treated the same by the server, this meant that when wall charges were placed, they would attach to a random wall in the level! Any plan involving an interior breach was risky since you never knew if you were going to win network-ID-roulette. Fixing this issue was simple, but required us to recompile and re-upload to Steam, which didn't finish until almost 9 pm Pacific.

Having missed peak hours on Friday, testers played 215 rounds on Saturday and Sunday. With 125 wins, Defenders came out on top, which has been a continuing trend since the start of Alpha. Weapon adjustments has been one of our stronger tools for helping even out team balance, so Vince took it upon himself to remove both KR82 Assault Rifles from the Defender Weapon Wall. This weapon had no downsides and was good at, well, everything! It may come back one day but would return under different circumstances.