Closed Beta Game Updates

Closed Beta is here and there’s plenty of new in-game updates for you to check out.

With the help of the invaluable feedback we received from our players in November’s Technical playtest, we’ve made some changes and improvements to Scavengers, including the following:

Explorers

We’ve worked on further optimizing and balancing some features on our Explorers, especially on their weapons:

Jae:
- Ability updates:
  - When you use Jae’s ability, your shield will regenerate to full and increase by one level.
  - When you kill an enemy with a melee weapon, the duration of Jae’s ability will extend. You’ll also regain shield, gain melee attack speed and run a speed buff that can stack up to 4X and lasts 5 seconds per stack.
  - When your shield breaks, Jae’s ability ends.
- Jae’s weapon - Halberd
  - Light attacks slowed by 25%.
  - Heavy attacks have a slightly longer recovery period now.
  - The far range damage of the Base Halberd Shockwave heavy attack is reduced.
  - Thunderblade now only causes chain lightning on heavy attacks, not light attacks.
  - Chain lightning ignores armor, so it’s extra effective against big armored bosses - pro tip!
Kali:
- Improvements have been made to her cloaking effect.
Tarik weapon - Longstriker:
- Projectile velocity has been decreased.
Letty’s weapon - Rosie:
- Damage range has increased.
- Headshot multiplier has also been increased.
Valora’s weapon - Devastator:
- The fire rate has been reduced slightly but reload time has been increased.
- There is now a spread penalty for jumping and shooting - take note!
Halden’s weapon - Strikerifle
- A-Spec has had a slight damage reduction made to it.
- Starblazer:
  - Now uses a first-person scope and has increased magnification. There is also reduced recoil.
  - Projectiles are not affected by gravity, making them easier to land at distance (though making sure that you’re leading your shot - aiming a little ahead of your enemy - is necessary to counter the bullet speed).

Core Gameplay

We’ve refined balancing on melee weapons that are found in-world, making them more competitive against ranged weapons.
We’ve done some tuning on shield values across all levels.
We’ve also tuned the balancing on ammo crates, thermal boost, and reflector shields. Cryo grenades, Reflector Shields, and Thermal boost can now be found in-world.
Wildcard weapon - Voidbarrel:
- The reload time has increased significantly.
- There is also an added spread for reduced accuracy at long range.
Sniper rifles now have a scope glint to indicate when they’re being aimed at you - always helpful!
Crouching now reduces recoil by 25%.
Damage that is absorbed by shields now cause flinch.
There are now increased chances of finding crafted consumables in the world!

General Gameplay Updates

We’ve made a number of improvements to the Research System, compiled from some of the feedback that we received from our players in the last Technical Playtest:
- Salvage breakdown can now be sped up so that players can instantly receive the contents.
- We’ve added tracking to projects that you might want to research. Required resources and materials will now be marked in the menu screens for easy reminders of the recipe.
- Materials can now be crafted instantly and in stacks.
- More research stations will unlock as you level up.
- You can now find salvage in specific drops! Search to figure out who drops what salvage items and go get what you need!
- Research recipes have been simplified.
- There are also a number of general layout and UX improvements.
We’ve improved the foundation and reliability of the main menu and lobby (including matchmaking).
Language selection is now done through Steam - please take note!
The maximum character level is set to Level 20.
There are some changes to vehicle damage:
- Reduced splatter damage.
- Explosion damage has been tuned to prevent player deaths from a single explosion.
- Damage taken to vehicles now transfers through to occupants' shields - drive safely!
- Breakable fences! That’s right, you can now bust through fences and road barriers with vehicles.
The roaming boss Sluka appears more frequently. She also now has a bullrush attack for opponents that get too close, so plan your approach.
Supply Pod updates:
- Scrap value has greatly increased.
- High-end weapon drops have been greatly expanded.
- Supply Pod now appear earlier.

Environment & UI

Players will see a new main menu environment on loading in, while waiting for friends and queuing up for matches. Welcome to Sanctuary!
Improvements have been made to first-time player experience:
- There is auto-detection of best settings on your first log-in of the game.
- There are more settings available to modify on the first log-in.
- Push to talk is enabled by default.
- New account setup flow.
There are now changes to visibility in storms. While the risk of freezing is increased, there’s also the chance to avoid detection from enemy sights. This makes it more viable to utilize the storm as a means of hiding or escape, if you’re opting for that tactical approach.
We’ve made a number of improvements to the map and radar system, including:
- Improved guttering of icons on the minimap.
- Improved spectator map experience.
- Tuning for auto-pings for hunger, cold, and all other vitals.

Please note that all account progression has been re-tuned and accounts have been reset for Closed Beta. With all the new updates, there’s plenty of sweet rewards out there for the taking - so go get to them!

As always, we want to hear all the feedback from our players during Closed Beta! Your thoughts and comments really help shape the game and enable us to make changes, like the above. Closed Beta means we’re still refining and improving Scavengers. You can expect to encounter unexpected bugs, balancing issues and varying performance so your participation and observations are extremely important to us.

Don’t forget to fill out the in-game feedback survey after each playtest - we appreciate everyone’s input, thank you!

November Playtest: Community Feedback

26 November 2020

Read a summary of feedback we received from players in our November Playtest. Find out what we learned and what we’re already working on...

Read on →