Monday Night Combat Updates
PC Product Update 6 -3/25/11

Summary
Today’s update focus is two fold. The first is iterating on and pulling back the visibility of the All Star Rating. The All Star Rating system looks at many different aspects of the player’s play and uses an algorithm to come up with a number that represents their skill level. It’s a system that fluctuates over time depending on how you play in every facet of Monday Night Combat. We will continue to improve the system over time. We also wanted to once again show player level and reintroduced that back into the UI.
Secondly we took aim at some issues surrounding the charge abilities. We fixed several bugs with charge not doing damage, not doing knock-back, or doing knock-back when it shouldn’t. We also retuned it so to make the Ass ault have to choose whether to use it to get into combat or get out of combat, not both.

Fixes
• Fixed enemy players being partially immune to head shots while using the turret purchase menu
• Fixed Assassins doing significantly more damage under certain latency situations
• Fixed Assassins doing lunge damage while dead
• Fixed enemy health bars showing while player is under effects of a smoke bomb
• Fixed Assault’s Charge not doing proper knock-back if the target is in the air
• Fixed a few instances of the Assault’s Charge doing no damage
• Fixed an issue that caused Support’s Air Strike to immediately trigger if thrown out of the world
• Fixed an issue that caused players to get knocked back and damaged from charges when they are standing behind the Assault or Tank
• Fixed explosive projectiles sometimes exploding on a client early and in the wrong location
• Fixed issue that could cause dedicated blitz servers to reach an infinitely high round number
• Fixed issue where user may be unable to purchase Juice
• Fixed issue where charges did not deal proper damage and/or knockback
• Fixed exploit allowing users to spam Tank’s Deathblossom


Balance and Adjustments
• Reduced the recovery speed of the Assault’s Charge Skill.
• Increased the recovery speed of the Assault’s Bomb Skill.
• Normalized the speeds of the Tank and Assault charge
• Players are now awarded less money while juiced
• The Assault Bomb skill no longer recovers while the bomb is in play
• Re-added player levels in the pregame lobby
• Team split will now somewhat use All Star Rating to choose teams
• Removed All Star Rating from the scoreboard
• Enable trilinear filtering on certain texture detail settings
• Undo minor change from previous patch causing charges to feel ineffective in high latency situations
• Voice icon appears on HUD and player names change color when talking
• All Start Rating displays more detail
• Lighting updates on AmmoMule, Grenade III, and LaseRazor Arenas
• Mascot colors changed back to Green and Yellow
• Team split now accounts for All Star Rating


New Features
• New taunts for all classes while wearing Retro or Beta Gear.
• An extra Gunner taunt with dual minigun for any gear.



New Issues
• With the recent change in Steam’s VOIP API we have been having problems with game volume and some Win 7 (and others?) sound settings. If you experience low game volume, please go Control Panel->Sound->Communications and tell Windows NOT to do any muting when it detects communications.

The latest multiplayer jam level pack is now available for download from the Clones Package Gallery. Here's a quick description about each level's unique features:

Arctic Shift - The clones are on a transcendental meditation retreat up north. This is a medium sized 2-player map with exits that move back and forth along the ice. You'll have to master your timing here or else you'll end up feeding your opponents exit and rage quitting.

Atomic - In a post-apocloneyptic world the Light Clones have emerged as the ruling class. This map is good for 2 vs 2 play and is wrapped horizontally. Rescue the frozen clones to boost your score.

Clonedependence Day - The invasion has only begun. The people in the buildings have left hazards in the windows so watch out. This map is for 3-players and is horizontally wrapped.

Finder Keepers - Trillip's moon junk collection contains many rare finds, including some odorous star clones. Dig out your star clone from under the garbage and try to make a path back to your beam out pad while stopping your opponent from doing the same thing. There are 2 star clones to choose from.

Seasick - There is a mighty wind a blowin' and your spawn points will be shifting around during this seaside battle. You can choose either 1 or 3 spawns per movement and 2 sets of beam up pads await you.

These maps will be in rotation during the multiplayer Jam taking place this Saturday. Feel free to open up the maps in the editor and see how the moving start/exit logic was achieved.

Updates to Call of Duty: Black Ops have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Call of Duty: Black Ops

• Improved stability for Zombies, Multiplayer, and Dedicated Servers.
  
• Fixed server hitching when client is kicked for inactivity.
  
• Added server browser Filter for DLC.
  
• Quickmatch will prioritize servers running only the maps you own.
  
• Addressed various MP and Zombies exploits.
  
• Addition of the “Dolly Cam” editing mode in Theater.
  
• Improved reliability of Recent Game films saving properly.
  
• Connectivity improvements for Zombies.
  
• Addressed issue/exploit when removing Counter Spy Plane effects with the Jammer.
  
• Players that put an enemy into Second Chance are now credited with a kill when the downed player is killed or takes the 'coward's way out'.
  
• Players will no longer receive any “hitmarkers” for shooting friendly equipment.
  
• Addressed an issue with switching classes while using a Chopper Gunner / Gunship.
  
• Disable player movement sounds when Ninja perk is equipped.
  
• Players can no longer “spawn tube” with the China Lake at the beginning of a match.
  
• Additional fine-tuning of audio levels for bomb plants/defuses.
  
• Headshot “ping” is now only audible if enemy dies.
  
• Limit the ability to re-roll supply drops using Hardline Pro to Care Packages only, no other killstreak drops.
  
• Addressed an issue where the incorrect perks would appear when spectating another player under certain circumstances.
  
• RC-XD adjustments.
  
• Addressed an issue with calling in Chopper Gunner / Gunship immediately after being shot down from a previous one.
  
• Various improvements to Multiplayer and Zombies leaderboards.
  
  

Rcon 1.0.4.0

• First Strike DLC support added
  

Updates to Arcadia have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Arcadia

• Added error checking for missing files
  
• Fixed return key causing lag
  
• Fixed time stepping glitch
  

Updates to Booster Trooper have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Booster Trooper

• Fixed: "Master Trooper" achievement
  

Updates to Dogfighter have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Dogfighter

• Some minor graphics tweaks
  
• Fixed bug that stopped players keeping pitch inverted
  
• Server stability issues improved
  
• Server Crash on start up on some Windows7 set ups