Weekly Dev Activities 9/20

[Strygun]

Drum roll please...

This week, we are finalizing the 2.10.x build for its upcoming release. Since there is a lot to it, it is taking quite a bit of time to make certain it is a solid release. We are particularly watching the Netcode and memory leaks changes so we can verify that they properly address their respective issues without creating new ones. That said, the upcoming release notes are mostly unchanged.

• Standard Assault Pass: The Repeater and Beamer now do more damage, but have a slightly increased Cone of Fire. The Supressor does more damage and now has a clip size of 25.
• Spawn Room Pain Fields: A minor pain field will be in effect for all enemies who enter a spawn room, whether in a facility, tower or Core building. The pain effect will remain if a facility is hacked, but will be turned off if the generator is destroyed. If a Core Combat Pain Module is installed, its damage will not stack with the low level pain field. Instead, the pain field will begin doing the Module's level of damage.
• (updated) Low level pain fields will not affect characters that are running an active Sensor Jammer Implant. Also, the Sensor Shield will continue to protect its users if they hack, use a weapon or take any other action. The Sensor Jammer will also have a slight stamina drain against all armor (even while crouched) except for the Infiltration Suit. This will allow infiltrators to move through pain fields as they did before, but anyone in another configuration will have stamina drain and therefore not be able to stay in the pain field indefinitely.
• Players will earn experience for capturing cavern buildings.
• Switching to the Stellar map will no longer cause the chat channel to switch to local.
• Soldiers will now be able to chat while dead. The only two restrictions to this are local and broadcast channels. All other channels, such as squad, platoon and outfit will function.
• The Geo Warps will no longer require that an Empire maintains control of a connecting facility to pass through them.
• Empires that control a facility linked to a Geo Warp may now use that surface Geo Warp as a Broadcast Warpgate destination (assuming that the continent is already a valid broadcast destination for that Empire). This functionality only extends to Geowarps on the surface. Players cannot use a BWG to warp to a cavern.
• The Rearm function of Vehicle Silos and Airpads will now function at all facilities, whether they are linked to a Dropship Center or not. The Repair function still requires a Dropship Center link.
• Vehicle Deconstruction has been toned down considerably around Vehicle Acquisition Pads. Now, you basically have to be on top of the pad to risk auto deconstruct.
• Fixed an issue that would prevent lock-on weapons from tracking and locking onto targets until they reload or switch firing modes.
• Fixed an issue that caused Lasher projectiles not to lash and Burster and Flak projectiles to not explode when close to aircraft.
• Global Population and Continent Incentives windows no longer automatically hide when you view the global map
• Changes to netcode to prevent packet blocking exploits.

In addition, work is moving forward on the BFR's, primarily balancing, bug-fixing and adding the necessary polish to them for release. Information as to their release date and Public Test debut is still to come. I'll get that to you when we have some reasonable idea of when those events will be. I'm still watching for the weapon renders to be finished for the In Dev article. You may also expect the next and final In Development article to cover the topic of critical events and system damage to BFR's, going to the web site at the end of the week or beginning of next.
Merit Commendations are also being finalized for release. We are still working on assigning values to them from the data we are gathering. I'll keep you posted on when you can expect these to be released to the live servers.

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