PATCH NOTES 2.18.0 – 2.18.1

PATCH NOTES 2.18.0 – 2.18.1

BREACH IMPROVEMENTS

Respawns

• Attacking Team no longer has a limited number of Respawns during phases 1 and 2

• Ram Health will determine the number of Respawns awarded to Attackers during the transition to phase 3:

  • Full Health Ram = 22 Respawns
  • Half Health Ram = 15 Respawns
  • Critical Health Ram = 6 Respawns

• Reduced respawn timings to 20s (+ 3s penalty for Executions) for all phases

Ram

• Ram no longer heals after breaching through the Outer Gate
• Slightly increased Ram movement speeds (default and boosted)
• Reduced the docked Ram default charging speed to 40s (from 50s)
• Reduced the docked Ram boosted charging speed to 12s (from 15s)
• Reduced the Cauldron damage to the Ram to 750 health (from 900 health)
• Reduced the War Banner shield applied to the Ram to 750 health (from 1200 health)

Ramparts

• The state of the Ramparts for the current phase has been added to the top-right User Interface widget
• Reduced the default capture time of an Archer Point to 30s (from 40s)
• Reduced the boosted capture time of an Archer Point to 15s (from 20s)

Guardian

• The Guardian will now spawn 2:30 minutes after the beginning of phase 2
• The Guardian will respawn 2:30 minutes after being killed
• The Guardian will no longer throw “Fire Flasks”

Guardian Buff

• Upon death the Guardian will bestow the following rewards on the killer and allies in a 15m radius:
  • Instant full health
  • 100% shield
  • Instant Revenge Activation
  • Infinite Stamina (2 minutes duration)
  • 1000% damage increase against Pikemen (2 minutes duration)
  • 50% damage reduction from Pikemen (2 minutes duration)
  • We added the Guardian Eyes Visual Effect to indicate that the Guardian Reward is active on a player
  • All Guardian buff modifiers are lost upon death

Custom Match

• Removed the Number of Respawns from Custom Match Settings
• Changed values for Respawn Speed options
  • Slow = 25s
  • Normal = 20s
  • Fast = 10s

Tutorial

• The Breach tutorial video has been updated to reflect the gameplay changes mentioned above. The video will launch before entering Breach for the 1st time

Bug Fixes

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Guardian fighting area to be too small in some maps

Developer Comments: Thanks to your feedback, Breach Testing Grounds allowed us to validate that we were going in the right direction with our update to make Breach more fair and more dynamic.

As a result, we are deploying the updated Breach on all maps.

For more information about the Testing Grounds learnings, you can consult our dedicated blog post on the topic.

IMPROVEMENTS

FIGHTERS

All Fighters

• [Adjustment] Increased all Fighters vulnerability to Guard Break on their Heavy Openers to 433ms (from an average of 400ms)
• [Adjustment] All Fighters now have 600ms of vulnerability to Guard Break on their Out of Stamina Heavies (from 600ms on most of the cast with some exceptions)

Developer Comments: This change across the whole cast aims to substantially reduce instances where the attacker performs a Heavy Feinted into Guard Break and bounces off their opponent trying to parry their attack on the first possible frame and letting go of their Heavy, essentially winning the exchange by falling for the attacker's mix-up.

This has caused frustration at all levels of play, especially when facing Heroes with quick Heavy attacks that used to only have 100ms of Guard Break Vulnerability, such as Gladiator, Aramusha, Conqueror, Orochi and Centurion Heavy Openers.

Note that if the defender tries to parry too early, the attacker is still expected to lose in the same situation.

• [Adjustment] All Chained Attacks now have 100ms of vulnerability to Guard Break across the cast (down from an average of 400ms)

Developer Comments: To encourage attacking in outnumbered scenarios, we have lowered the Guard Break Vulnerability of the whole cast's chained attacks so that external opponents will have a much harder time landing guaranteed Guard Breaks in between a Hero's attacks. This also help Heroes with no Light Finishers who can now opt to throw out Heavy Finishers to beat out Guard Break Attempts.

This also affects moves like multi-hit Zone Attacks and dedicated post-Parry special moves.

Back dodge movement standardization

• [Adjustment] The following heroes have had their back-dodge movement slightly adjusted. They will still move the same distance overall, but move slightly less back in the beginning of their back dodge and slightly more during the end:
• Centurion, Conqueror, Black Prior, Highlander, Hitokiri, Nuxia, Shaman, Shaolin, Shinobi, Valkyrie, Warden and Warlord

Developer Comments: These heroes were able to avoid Light Hit to Heavy Feint Guard Break mix-ups by back-dodging. With these changes, their total back dodge distance remains the same, but they will now be caught by chained Heavy attacks that are feinted into a quick Guard Break.

Reflex Guard Heroes quick Guardbreak comfort

• [Adjustment] Reflex Guard Heroes can now perform quick Guard Break from a Feinted Attack even if they perform a Stance Change during the feint

Feinted Heavy attack improvements

Developer Comments: We have adjusted several Heroes to ensure that they can more consistently land quick Guard Breaks from chained Heavy attacks. The changes are as follows:

Gladiator

• [Adjustment] Normalized knockback of Light Attacks (neutral and in chains) to standard distance
• [Adjustment] Heavy Finishers now move 0.25m forward more during their start-up
• [Adjustment] Heavy Finisher feints now move 0.25m forward

Highlander

• [Adjustment] Knockback distance from opener Lights reduced by 20%
• [Adjustment] Defensive Stance Heavy Finishers now move 0.5m forward more during their start-up
• [Adjustment] Defensive Stance Heavy finishers feints now move 0.5m forward.

Lawbringer

• [Adjustment] Chained Heavy attack now moves 1m forward more during the start-up
• [Adjustment] Chained Heavy feint now moves 0.25m forward more
• [Adjustment] Knockback distance from Opener Light attack, Chained Light attack and Chained Shove reduced by 50%

Kensei

• [Adjustment] Normalized knockback of Opener Light attack to standard distance

Nobushi

• [Adjustment] Knockback distance from Opener Lights reduced by 50%
• [Adjustment] Heavy Finishers movement distance normalized to 2.75m (was different for each)

Shaolin

• [Adjustment] Knockback distance from Light Opener reduced by 20%
• [Adjustment] Knockback distance from Chained Light reduced by 30%

Shugoki

• [Adjustment] Heavy Openers now move 0.5m forward more

Warden

• [Adjustment] Knockback distance from Light Opener reduced by 20%
• [Adjustment] Side Heavy Finisher feints now move 0.75m forward

Fighter Adjustments

Warden

• [Adjustment] Warden can no longer immediately perform Shoulder Bash after a throw
• [Adjustment] Reduced Top Heavy Finisher to 1000ms (from 1100ms)
• [Adjustment] Reduced Shoulder Bash costs to 12 Stamina (from 20)
• [Adjustment] Increased Forward Throw wallsplat window to 600ms into the throw (from 500ms)

Warlord

• [Adjustment] Warlord throwing or using Crashing Charge on an Out of Stamina opponent into a wall will always Unbalance the opponent after applying the Stun. This used to only happen using Crashing Charge
• [Bug Fix] Warlord throwing an Out of Stamina opponent front or sideways into a nearby obstacle can now decide to not apply the Stun and Stamina Damage, instead they can unbalance the opponent by not holding the "Guard Break" input during the throw

MAP

Hallowed Bastion - Commander Phase

• [Adjustment] Moved the Defenders and the Pikemen Spawning locations directly behind the giant sword and shield monument
• [Adjustment] Added a new stealth path connecting the Healing Zone and the Commander platform
• [Adjustment] Added high wall structure around the Ballista
• [Adjustment] Placed a runestone monolith at the base of the stairs leading up to the Commander

Developer Comments: We noticed that the Commander phase in this particular map gave too much visibility on all Player positions, at all times, compared to other Breach maps. This especially favored Defenders, who have the high ground from the Commander’s defense position. We added several visual occluders which should help Attackers make their approach towards the Commander.

Citadel Gate

• [Adjustment] Added a new access ramp to Capture Zone A for Defenders
• [Adjustment] Added railings at the top of the ladder leading in to Capture Zone C

Developer Comments: Defenders have been unable to avoid traps placed underneath the one-way drop from the Defender spawn zone. The broken catwalk has been lowered to fully connect the navigational path. A drop is still present to the right side but does not grant a Drop Attack into to the Capture Zone.

The ladder at Capture Zone C was too unsafe and did not comply with security regulations and practices. Players could easily be ledged simply by coming off the ladder.

Temple Garden

• [Adjustment] Bridges leading in to Capture Zone C have been modified and now have railings
• [Adjustment] Capture Zone C has been reworked so that the Giant Tree roots extend to the extremities of the zone, hence Players will no longer be able to run behind them

Developer Comments: The side bridges leading in to Capture Zone C have been an issue for some time now. They were either too narrow or lead to many ledge kills before the Player could even set foot inside the Capture Zone. They are both now equal in size and have railings along the sides. The Giant Tree roots were being used for stalling tactics as Players could simply run around them. This is no longer possible, and it also helps extend the comfort of the fight space within the Capture Zone.

Shard

• [Adjustment] Added Spikes at Capture Zone A

Developer Comments: We realised that these spikes were not much of an issue of frustration to begin with and their removal wasn’t completely necessary. Enjoy!

USER INTERFACE

• [Adjustment] Greatly reduced the Battle Pass pop-up skip holding time. It is now the same as all other “holds” in the reward screen

CUSTOMIZATION

• [Adjustment] Adjusted the player expression of the Male Raider to make outfits look better

BUG FIXES

BLADES OF PERSIA

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Prince to be unable to use his 3rd feat “Power of Delay”

CUSTOMIZATION

• [Bug Fix] Removed a "Script" from certain shields as their possible interpretations were unintended:
  • Warlord's "Mahre Shield"
  • Nuxia's "Keileena's Hook"
  • Valkyrie's "Mainyu Buckler"

GENERAL

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Shinobi, Highlander, Peacekeeper and Orochi to not perform the right Drop Attack animation
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Health Bar to not display the right amount of Health Points in certain cases, now the Health Bar displays chunks of 25 health points for every character

FIGHTERS

Highlander

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Highlander's Out of Stamina throw punish to not be guaranteed if the player was in the left stance

Aramusha

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused “Blade Blockade” to not refresh for subsequent blocks. This also makes Blade Blockade follow ups more reliable to do timing wise

Jormungandr

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Jormungandr's “Hamarr Slam” to sometimes miss on opponents that are unbalanced by allies

FEATS

Spear Storm

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the “Spear Storm” feat to not have a warning sound effect when using it in offensive stance

MAP

Quiang Pass

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Players to fall through the map at the top of a staircase in Qiang Pass map

ARCADE

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Jormungandr to be able to perform “Hamarr Slam” on bots with the “Never Stumbles” modifier

CUSTOMIZATION

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Viking’s “Dainsleif” execution to continue playing the animation on the opponent even if the player has been interrupted
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the “Elegant Cygnus” sound effect to play in a loop
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Zhanhu’s “Yushi Dafu Helm” beard to show the default skin color instead of the currently used skin color
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the “Aria of Daybreak” Battle Outfit to be named “Destined Distinction”

LOCALIZATION

• [Bug Fix] Fixed multiple issues with the Simplified Chinese localisations for some executions and feats

PC

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the “Purchase Pop-up” to be displayed when previewing materials with mouse and keyboard