Nov 22, 2019

Deep Rock Galactic - Soren - Captain of Ghost Ship

Hi Miners,

Hotfix 3 just released and will fix quite a few issues. See change list below for details.

Developer Notes:

Machine Events are currently NOT rewarding players without Blank Matrix Cores: This is more a missing feature than a bug, so it will take a bit more time before a solution is implemented. The plan is to have the Machine Event appear as a Completed Objective and award you on the Mission End screen.
The "Hold-E to pick-up items" feature is hotly debated - thanks for all the feedback! This feature is something we always wanted in the game to create immersion and the feeling of working in the mines, so you are not just sprinting through the scenery. Changes like this are always tricky post-release. The current implementation is a first-pass and there are several ways it can be improved. The verdict is still out on this one, but as always, we want to test it with all of you and then get a feeling of the impact before we react.

Changelist:

Fixed a bug that enabled the Scout to move around in the Escape Pod after grappling into the Exit Zone
Improved the Beer Menu and added other beer sounds
Improved Core Infuser animations
Fixed Jelly Swarmer not getting killed by Voltaic SMG in one hit
Possible fix for not showing reward UI pop up when collecting a skin from a Cargo Crate
Fixed various animation issues with feet sliding while overheating the Cryo Cannon and the Minigun or throwing mugs
Improved the visuals of the Tritilyte Crystal Machine Event lasers
Fixed numerous issues related to Explosive Barrels unintentionally colliding with usables
Resolved music issues with the Machine Events
Cargo Crates is now also affected by physics when terrain beneath them is destroyed (like the Salvage Mission objectives and the Supply Pods)
Fixed a visual bug with the Core Infuser for latejoining players
Fixed projectiles impacting on dead enemies.
Jury-rigged Boomstick: Fixed the blast wave dealing damage to nearby teammates
Fixed a bug that prevented terrain from breaking by a power attack if the terrain was already hit once
Improved the graphics related to purchasing beer licenses
Fixed a bug that caused battery inserters to look ejected for latejoining players when they join with a finished game event present
Polished the handstand Victory Move
Miscellaneous audio bug fixes and tweaks
Fixed a bug that caused the Dreadnought's Cocoon to break from the final pulse of a Machine Event ending
Fixed beard cropping on Driller & Gunner MK5 armor
Fixed cases where new item skin notification wasn't removed when read
Miscellaneous fixes to latejoin issues with Machine Events
Explosive Barrels can no longer be deposited into the M.U.L.E.
Fixed a bug that caused the first stage of the Deep Dives to not register as completed correctly
Fixed a bug that enabled credits to visually turn negative when buying a beer license
Fixed a bug that enabled the Special Beer unlock popup to open even if the player can’t afford it
Possible fix for unsynced beers between menus in the Abyss Bar
Improved the sound on pickup
Improved the sound on the crystal slam Victory Move
Core Hunt assignment description now correctly states that Blank Matrix Cores are part of the rewards
Tweaked the enemy wave timing during Tritilyte Crystal Machine Event
Fixed a Naedocyte Beeder related crash

Nov 21, 2019

Update 26: Endgame Part 2!

Deep Rock Galactic - GSG - Jacob

Attention Miners!
Update 26 is here! In this second part of the Endgame, we’ve added a brand new system of Machine Events to encounter during normal missions, a much needed overhaul and expansion of the Bar, all new Victory Moves, as well as skins for both Bosco and your weapons, plus an absolute ton of minor bug fixes, tweaks, and improvements. Let’s get to work!

--- PATCH NOTES ---

MACHINE EVENTS

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- Deep Rock Galactic is developing strategic operations all around the planet. The company is worried about some strange mutations affecting the creatures of Hoxxes as well as peculiar crystals interfering with scanners and other devices in orbit. To eradicate the threat or simply to take samples, these operations require expert dwarven action to be finalized. If you stumble upon one, give it a go and hope that the reward is worth the risk!

Three different Machine Events can be found in random missions: Kursite Infection, Rock Mutation, and Tritilyte Crystal. Each of them offers a different timed challenge that must be completed in order to get access to the Core Infuser where Blank Matrix Cores can be used.

- To activate a Machine Event, the player must own the Tritilyte Key. You will own a Tritilyte key if you have a Promoted dwarf.

BLANK MATRIX CORES

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- Blank Matrix Cores are part of the rewards for Deep Dives and the Core Hunt assignment. The first section of both Deep Dives will now reward Blank Matrix Cores instead of Mineral Container Cores. They can be infused by doing Machine Events, turning them into Overclock or Cosmetic Matrix Cores that can be used in the Forge.

BAR & BEER OVERHAUL

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- New buff beers with effects in mission added to the “Today’s Special” pool
- A ton of new craftable gag beers to unlock. The effects of these beers will only work in the Space Rig. Management prefers to separate business and pleasure!
- New pricing for the beers based on new ingredients found in caves: Barley Bulb, Yeast Cone, Malt Star, and Starch Nut.
- New Milestone for unlocking Craftable Beers

BOSCO SKINS

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- You can now choose a look for Bosco. For now, there are two new Bosco Skins that will unlock through Mastery: Cyber Ninja and War Veteran

VICTORY MOVES

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- All classes start out with four default Victory Moves that will be played during the Mission Complete screen after a successful mission. Players can equip their favorite move in the Employee Wardrobe.
- 18 new unique Victory Moves have been added for players to unlock. Some can be found as rewards in Cargo Crates while others will be obtained as forgeable Cosmetic Matrix Cores (from Deep Dives and Machine Events).

NEW WEAPON SKIN

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- One new set of weapon skins, Neon Band, has been added to cargo crate rewards

WEAPON, MODS, OVERCLOCKS BALANCE

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M1000 Classic
The purpose of this overhaul is to support a gameplay style in which both fire modes (hipfire and focus shots) are viable and offer the player interesting choices and to make future balancing of the two fire-modes easier.

M1000 Classic Base Tweaks
- Increased base ammo
- Increased base clip size
- Decreased base damage
- Decreased base rate of fire
- Increased base focus-shot damage bonus to 100%
- Focus-shots now consume 2 bullets
- Base armor damage reduced
- Added a base weakspot damage bonus

M1000 Classic Mod Tweaks
- Removed the Tier 3 High Velocity Rounds Damage mod
- Combined the two clip-size mods into one big one on tier 2
- Extended base reload time
- Decreased the spread per shot and increased the speed of spread recovery to make hip-shooting more viable
- Floating barrel mod is now called Better Weight Balance which affects both spread-per-shot and recoil
- Increased the Expanded Ammo Bags mod
- Decreased Hollow-point Bullets mod bonus
- Increased Kinetic Energy Penetrator bonus and renamed it to Hardened Rounds for clarity
- Added Killing Machine mod to tier 5 that grants a very fast reload right after killing an enemy
- Anyone who purchased the two removed mods will be automatically refunded the credits and minerals spent.

Deepcore GK2
- Removed the High Velocity Rounds mod from tier 1 (Owners of the mod will be automatically refunded)
- Increased the base damage of the weapon to compensate

Grenades
- Gunner Sticky Grenade count increased to 6

CRSPR Flamethrower
Mods have been rearranged to offer more varied build options.

Base Weapon
- Increased the speed with which the flame extends so less ammo is spent when shooting targets at range
- Improved the damage of sticky flames
- Improved the speed with which enemies heat up when going through sticky flames

Mods
- Rearranged many of the mods to make sticky flame builds more viable
- Removed the Sticky Heat and Sticky Damage mods
- Improved the two Sticky Duration mods
- Changed the Flamethrower stat display in the equipment terminal to work like the Cryo Cannon

Overclocks
- Changed the Fuel Stream Diffuser OC penalty from lower damage to a slower rate of fire to offset the inherent ammo penalties from using the flamethrower at long range
- Tweaked Experimental Plasma Charger Overclock: Heavy Hitter - Increased the damage bonus significantly
- Tweaked the M100 Classic Overclock: Electrocuting Focus Shots OC - No longer has a weakpoint requirement and the electrocution damage has been rebalanced
- Tweaked M1000 Classic Overclock: Electrocuting Focus Shot - Updated the text to reflect that weak point hits are no longer required for electrocution
- Tweaked Deepcore 40mm PGL Overclock: Hyper Propellant - Removed the ammo penalty
- Tweaked Subata I20 Overclock: Automatic Fire - Increased the fire rate bonus
- Added a Sticky Flame damage bonus to the Sticky Fuel OC and replaced the range penalty with an ammo penalty
- Fixed the stat display of Magnetic Pellet Alignment OC for the Warthog Auto 210 to correctly display its negative impact
- Tweaked the M100 Classic Overclock: Hipster OC - Increased ammo bonus
- Tweaked all the M1000 overclocks to match the overhauled weapon ammo and damage numbers

ENEMY TWEAKS

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- Macteras no longer change targets while charging up attacks
- Stun now cancels attacks from Mactera enemies
- New animation for stunned Mactera enemies
- Heavy enemies like Glyphid Praetorians are more resistant to stun

UI & HUD

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- Enemies’ health bar can now display more than three status effects without cropping the icons
- Enemies’ health bar animation modified so the name disappears faster
- Added a new notification system for unlocking equipment and vanity to make new unlocks easier to spot in the Equipment Terminal and Employee Wardrobe

MISC. & FIXES

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- [COMMUNITY REQUEST] Added physics to the hammer by the Forge so it can now be kicked around on the Space Rig.
- [COMMUNITY REQUEST] Due to popular demand, sound has been lowered a notch on the intro logo movie/splash screen
- [COMMUNITY REQUEST] Added physics to the Salvage Mission objectives so they now fall down when terrain beneath them is destroyed.
- Added an option for the Scout to automatically switch to the previously equipped item after using the Grappling Gun. Disabled by default, it can be activated from the options menu.
- Fixed the Satchel Charge so that the Detonator now shows in a closed-off state when the player is out of Satchel Charges.
- Added some blinking lights to the Satchel Charge when detonating
- Fixed a bug that caused Deepcore 40mm PGL modification “Proximity Trigger” to detonate on Bosco
- Fixed the reload animation of the Zhukov NUK17 reload animation so that the right-hand gun no longer randomly fails to eject the cartridge.
- Fixed a bug that caused excess mineral chunks to not always be picked up. The player now also automatically pick up excess mineral chunks while depositing in the M.U.L.E.
- Fixed a bug that caused the game to lock up upon returning to the Space Rig after completing an assignment
- Fixed a spelling mistake in the Field Medic perk
- Disabled smoke from the Drop Pod when dropping into a mission
- Fixed the Forging Mastery Milestone being off by one in what you have to reach
- Fixed a bug that caused enemies to be frozen for a long time if near a weak heat source. This was most prevalent to the Glyphid Bulk Detonator on Point Extraction
- Picking up items now has animation and involves holding the use button.
- Passing out drunk now correctly increases your stat, not the hosts!
- Passing out drunk no longer increases the downed statistic.
- Fixed some bugs related to resupplying with the Satchel Charge
- Fixed a bug that causes the player to in certain cases, get a Mineral Container Core instead of a Matrix Core. (Requires having received a lot of Matrix Cores)
- Fixed a bug that caused the player to switch weapons after throwing a grenade
- Fixed a bug with the community rewards
- Players will no longer defrost slower while in a blizzard
- Added a short immunity to cold after being freed from ice to prevent players from becoming chain frozen consecutively
- Fixed a bug that prevented some grenades from being purchasable
- Charged up focused shots are no longer canceled when changing weapon
- CRSPR Flamethrower particles now switch correctly with range modifications and also look correct in third person
- Lethal Enemies warning mutator doesn't increase damage from projectiles anymore
- Fixed some cases of the notorious cube terrain artifacts
- Missions rewards now show scaled to hazard bonus in all UI
- Quick Join terminal has been removed since we consider the Mission Terminal more adequate to join and host missions.
- Fixed a bug that enabled the Drop Pod countdown in the Space Rig to be resettable by client
- Fixed Bouncy Plasma modification on the Experimental Plasma Charger not showing impact particles for clients
- Fixed Better Weight Balance modification not being properly shown in the crosshair after a restart
- Fixed Explosive Goodbye and There Can Only be One modifications for the Breach Cutter
- A mic icon is now displayed when local player is voice chatting
- Fixed a bug that caused the reload animation of the Zipline Gun going haywire in both first and third-person
- Minerals left in the pouch are now added at the end of the mission
- Fixed an exploit that caused waves not to trigger when alien eggs are dug out and deposited immediately after
- Added a Respawn Button to the Escape Menu in the Space Rig
- Magazines and fuel canisters are now skinned for the Deepcore GK2, Subata I20 and CRSPR Flamethrower to match the skin applied on the weapon.
- [COMMUNITY REQUEST] All Gantries on the Space Rig finally play footprint sounds!
- Fixed snowstorm effects
- New music added for Machine Events
- Fixed the color of the Gunner’s flare in the Equipment Terminal
- Switching back to the Satchel Charge after retrieving a deployed charge causes the player to switch to the Detonator fixed
- Fixed a bug that caused the modification refund alert window to be shown on first session
- Fixed the Designated Decoy achievement
- Fixed a bunch of barrel hoop game issues including the barrel count as well as the Error Log
- Fixed a bug with resource chunks sometimes dropping with way too much material
- Impact Axe should no longer be consumed if it hits a dead body

Oct 11, 2019

The Beginning of The Endgame

Deep Rock Galactic - Mekill (DRG Dev)

Hello Miners, words from the Game Director's table.
Mikkel Martin Pedersen, here. Time for a little development update on Deep Rock Galactic! It’s been a crazy two weeks since the launch of Update 25, and I think you deserve a little inside information on what’s going on. But first, let me take a moment to express my gratitude for your reception towards the Deep Dives and all the other new features that arrived in the Update. Thank you from the entire Ghost Ship Crew!

Forging the Endgame

Work on what we call DRG’s Endgame has been ongoing for almost 5 months now - from core idea, to implementation, and launch. In fact, It’s always super scary to implement big new systems into a game loop that’s already been established. Update 25 was our biggest update to date, and to see it all in operation is an amazing feeling. We’ve observed how our number of concurrent users on Steam has almost doubled since we launched the update - a good sign you’re all busy completing Deep Dives and collecting Matrix Cores on a weekly basis.

And let me tell you a secret: I'm as excited as you to play the new Deep Dives every week. Like most things in the game, the Deep Dives are procedurally generated, and we are not deciding how they look or feel. That means some weeks they will be harder and some weeks will be easier - and that’s just the way we like it! The fact that the game is able to throw you a curveball once in a while, and that we allow crazy things to happen, that is such an integral part of what we believe makes DRG fun.

“The Mantra of the Curveball” is something we use for pretty much all the procedural systems in the game - from cave generation to enemy spawning, and so on. It's the magic that keeps the experience fresh and, interesting and sometimes brutally unfair, but it also lets you have those epic wins, where you make it out alive against all odds.

So yes, I’m indeed very excited to play the new Deep Dives!

Another secret I’ll let you in on, is that I haven't actually managed to complete an Elite Deep Dive yet. Elite Deep Dives (and Deep Dives in general) are built to be challenging and it is okay if you can't fully complete them...and I'm not just saying this because I haven't managed to complete it myself yet ;-).

Just try the Deep Dives out and see how far you can get, win some Matrix Cores and then if you get tired of playing the Deep Dives go and play the weekly Core Hunt instead, and obtain some Matrix Cores in your own pacing.

Another big part of Update 25 is, of course, the Weapon Overclocks. Designing and implementing those have definitely been a bit of a challenge. It’s been almost impossible for us to fully test how they’d impact the core gameplay, and we’ve been eagerly awaiting getting the update live so we could make use of all your feedback to continue tweaking and balancing all of them. And on that note, once more, thank you for all the feedback. Really. It is an incredible help for us when it comes to making Deep Rock Galactic the best game it can be. Weapons, Overclocks, Difficulty, and so many more numbers are continuing to be tweaked, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, and Update 25 has already received over 10 Hotfix patches just in the short time it’s been out.

Hotfix galore!

So what’s the deal with all these hotfixes, you might wonder? Was the game totally broken, when we released Update 25? The short answer is “no”. Slightly longer answer follows:

Update 25 was, as mentioned, a huge update - our biggest to date. It incorporated a ton of new systems, many of which are dependent on each other, and almost all of which made the game behave in new, unpredictable ways. And the simple fact is that we cannot prepare for every eventuality - that’s where the feedback from you comes in, and what helps us push these many, many rapid hotfixes.

One thing that’s become clear during our now 18 months in Early Access is this: The more time passes between each Update, the more features might end up breaking in unexpected ways, and the more time we need to get the game properly back to its former glory.

Another thing we’ll now have to pay extra attention to is the fact that the weekly Deep Dive needs to stay consistent for the entire week. Pretty much every change we make to the procedural content has a chance to cause the Deep Dives to change in subtle or less subtle ways, or even reset fully. This actually happened last week - those of you that were fast on the trigger might have noticed you were able to complete two Core Hunts in one week, and reap the rewards twice. Lucky you! Now to ensure that doesn’t happen again, knock on wood… ;)

Update 26 Commencing...

Right now our focus is fixing whatever critical bugs remain in the wake of Update 25, and we’re confident we’re almost at the end of that list. Meanwhile, work continues on Update 26, which focuses on wrapping up the Endgame. It’ll likely surprise no one that 26 is named ENDGAME: PART TWO, and here are some of the new features you can look forward to:

Machine Events are by far the biggest of the new features. Machine Events are preset gameplay challenges you can randomly encounter during normal missions - they need a promoted dwarf to activate, but everyone on the team will benefit from it, regardless of promotions. Completing a Machine Event allows you to infuse a Blank Matrix Core with either a new Weapon Overclock or Cosmetic item. Blank Matrix Cores are obtained by completing Deep Dives and Core Hunt assignments in addition to standard rewards.

You’re probably curious about new Beers, Victory Animations, and Bosco Skins too...buuut that’s all we’re gonna say about those right now. :>

We’re aiming for a mid-november release for Update 26, though as always take that estimate with a pinch of salt - we’re done when we’re done - but at least there’ll be plenty of Deep Dives, Core Hunts, and normal missions to complete while you wait!

As always - we urge you to keep in mind that DRG is still in Early Access and that things will keep evolving as work continues on the game. Numbers will be tweaked, things will be changed, some might get more powerful, and others might not. Every change we do happens for good reasons, but as said - if you have feedback, do let us know. We want to hear it and we are listening.

Now...time to go see if I can make it through this week’s Deep Dives…who knows, maybe I will complete the Elite Deep Dive this week! Lock and load, Miners!

Mikkel Martin Pedersen
DRG Game Director