May 10, 2024

PATCH NOTES 1.13: QoL, Farming, and... Ladders!

Minicology - ben

------------------------- Cosmic Date 10.05.2024 -------------------------

Dear Space Travelers,

Ensuring full customer satisfaction is one of our core values here at E-Corp! To make your interstellar journey as smooth as possible, we’ve been gathering all your feedback to appropriately update our technology. Today, we’re launching a variety of patches & updates that’ll improve your Quality of Life as you traverse & explore the Mini-verse!

TL;DR: We've improved to slot locking, hotbar management, and weapon & armor durability. We also fixed a variety of bugs related to farming & animal husbandry. And finally, we fixed one of the Mini-verse's most futuristic pieces of technology: ladders.

Players can "lock slots" in their hotbar while in the equipment menu, allowing for consistent keybinding to slots 1-10 for various items. Locked slots can ONLY be filled with their locked item, so you won’t have to deal with accidentally picking up unintended items or reshuffling your hotbar with a misplaced click.
Added tooltip hint for SHIFT+DRAG shortcut in EN localization that lets players split stack.
Ammo bar and battery bar now hide while the equipment menu is active.
Picked up items now attempt to fill into their last occupied hotbar slot. This means that the inventory should re-shuffle less on transferring items.
Empty and filled buckets will stay in the same slot on depletion/filling.
Unequipping Nano-tool with [Q] no longer equips the most recently held item.
Tutorial now displays prompt at the top of screen with instructions on how to throw items.

Across-the-board improvements to weapon durability: +25% to all items.
Melee weapons now only use one durability instance when hitting multiple enemies with one swing. This adds a nice extra advantage to lining up multiple enemies.
Armor durability now depletes based on total damage received, rather than per instance. This means lower-level enemies cause significantly less wear on armor compared to high-level foes, making casual exploration safer for endgame gear.
Otto now sells the most recently broken items, at 1% durability (to allow players to repair them), for 50 stars. If Otto doesn't have enough space, he will only sell the last 1-2 items.
Buying books from Otto will now allow more space for item buybacks.
Otto stops selling automation guides after they have been bought. Bought guides can be viewed from anywhere in the ship menu.

Decreased time for mushroom stumps to spawn evil mushrooms on boss planets to 10 seconds after being placed.
Improved handling for animals eating from troughs.
Increased Fronkey breeding attempt rate.
Increased slug domestication points gained from feeding slugs using trough.
Reduced amount of food needed to domesticate slugs.
Changed order in which Helperbot describes farming advice, prioritizes showing players fertilizer craft recipe.
Added Easter Egg when feeding lambcats 24+ food.
Significantly increased spawn rate of space cocoa and corpse flowers on newly generated jungle planets.
Fixed issue where electrified water pump would turn off on saving/loading.
Fixed duplication bug for freshly cooked meals in chests (would only work for recipes that had been invented in that instance of the game - what a strange issue).
Fronkamanders now no longer give birth to Fronkey tadpoles.
Fixed bug for firebush requirement on tier 3 terraform chests where terraform chest was instead configured to search for pine trees.
Fixed auto-saw and auto-planter not dropping items on destruction.
Fixed issue where Ravenbug wild nests would not drop Ravenbug down feathers.
Fixed crash where harvesting/destroying slug eggs after they had been incubated resulted in game hanging and exiting.
Fixed issue where domestication meter showed for baby slugs, even though they are not domesticable until grown.

Last but not least, E-Corp R&D has been working very hard on improving a piece of technology so advanced it’ll blow your mind! That’s right: ladders are getting an update.

Ladders can now be climbed by pressing [UP], or [DOWN] while nearby.
Players can exit ladder climb mode by pressing [LEFT] or [RIGHT], or by pressing [UP] while at the very top of a ladder.
Players no longer have to be facing a wall in order to climb it. This means the awkward behavior where players would be unable to aim a tool backwards while climbing a wall at the same time no longer exists.
If players hold [DOWN] when within 0.66 blocks of a ladder, they'll now snap to that ladder and start climbing downwards.
Disabled ducking and diving for players leaving ladders from the bottom for 0.5s. This means that you'll no longer slam into the ground when exiting a ladder from the bottom.
Placed ropes now match ladder behavior.
Added sounds for ladders and ropes.
Buffed rope/ladder climb speed by ~50%.
Players can now climb to the very top of a ladder chain, rather than stopping 20 pixels from the top.
Tutorial shows large, flashing text prompt with wall-climbing instructions.

Sandsharks health reduced 75->60, max spawn cap per monster cave reduced 3->2, but Sandshark attack value buffed 15->17.5.
Increased drop chances for background block mineral tiles to drop minerals (copper, coal, quartz).
Removed durability from peaceful transmitters.
Increased peaceful transmitter cost to include more copper.
Buffed solarium armor set bonus slightly.
Whirlwind from stormbreaker hammer now gives immunity to fall damage for half a second when interacted with.
Solar panel now starts ~15-20 seconds earlier.
Crystal foundries in blue zones now produce copper instead of coal.
Windmills now drop whole windmills, instead of component parts - the decision to make them fall into parts was made at an earlier stage of development, when windmills were more powerful, and had to be balanced in some way against steam engines. In the meantime, steam engine fuel efficiency has been buffed and construction costs for windmills increased - so having the additional penalty of making windmills non-reusable is no longer needed.
Additional formatting/info for Combinificator UI + ability to see craft recipes of component items on Combinificator craft grid, similar to research menu.
Any missing medi-cells for the "repair medi-bay" objective will now drop by the medi-bay on load, if for some reason due to bug/issue medi-cells fail to load/generate/are destroyed.

Fixed issue where right clicking items in Otto / merchant shop could have unexpected behavior. Right clicking in these shops now does nothing.
Fixed incomplete text description on EN localization for riftwalker boots.
Attempted fix for crash on using energy weapons with expended batteries.
Fixed issue where weapons could sometimes(?) still be fire-able when stunned.
Fixed power module missing +fall damage perk description.
Fixed issue where Woperator modules could not be manually placed in equipment UI.
Fixed issue where geothermal generators would drop when destroyed.
Fixed issue where non-stone stairs and fences were uncraftable.
Fixed scaling issue with some buttons failing to scale correctly after "pop-in" animation played.
Fixed issue in Turkish & Japanese translations where OMNI-bot would be unable to deliver monologue due to misplaced localization flags.
Stabilized structure generation for Med-Bay objective slightly.
Fixed untranslated strings for Medi-Cell.
Fixed issue where Nano-Tool would not properly smart-select hammer for ladders.
Fixed issue where breaking Medi-Bay, then reloading planet, would cause embedded Medi-Cells not to display.
Fixed text error in Refinery Defense event.
Fixed world generation hanging for certain Crystal Foundry generations.
Fixed windmill not being listed as a generator.
Fixed wall items not properly previewing at a 45 degree angle in research menu.
Fixed typo in extrusion machine listing.
Fixed issue where swapping between a tool and Nano-Wrench or Nano-Trowel would cause a bug where arm animations displayed in tool-mode, but equipment but was invisible.
Fixed issue where Nautilus would not consistently drop Green Power Crystals.
Fixed issue where window would center on top left corner on reloading settings (occurred during bootup and on planet load). Now only snaps to top left corner if game size is larger than screen size.

See you in the Mini-verse!

Your friend Helperbot

------------------------- END OF TRANSMISSION -------------------------

To stay up to date join our Discord, and of course, tell your friends about Minicology!

Minicology

May 10, 2024

The F-4E Phantom II Prepares | F-16C Pilot | F/A-18C Operation Green Line

DCS World Steam Edition - OBWKB

F-4E Phantom II

Last chance to save 25%

The much anticipated launch of the Phantom II is just around the corner. Renowned for its capabilities as a highly effective and versatile fighter-bomber, this iconic jet excels in both air-to-air combat and ground attack missions using a wide array of munitions. With Heatblur’s dedication to ultra-realistic simulation, you can expect meticulous attention to detail from cockpit graphics to the flight model. More details will be unveiled soon.

3D Pilot Models

Development Report

The upcoming pilot models for the DCS: F-16C Viper and DCS: F/A-18C are set to significantly enhance the realism and immersion of these aircraft. We are excited to bring these updates to you, and we look forward to your feedback.

The primary objectives for the new pilot models are to:

Enhance visual fidelity and realism in line with new graphical technologies.
Improve animation fluidity for more lifelike pilot movements.
Incorporate detailed flight suits and equipment specific to the aircraft, reflecting actual gear worn by F-16C and F/A-18C pilots in the mid-2000s

Suit Modelling
The flight suits are crafted with high-resolution textures to accurately replicate the fabric and material properties. Special attention has been paid to the reflectivity and roughness maps to ensure that the suits react realistically under various lighting conditions. Harness systems and life support equipment have been carefully modelled. For the F-16C pilot, the harness connects to the ejection seat precisely as it would in the real aircraft. The F/A-18C pilot features a survival vest equipped with pockets and gear appropriate for carrier operations. The helmets are modelled with operational visors that can move up and down, helmet mounted displays, and night vision goggles.

Animations
Subtle in-cockpit movements such as head-turning to check instruments, hand movements for throttle and stick operation, torso movements, and even eye movements are being refined to mimic real-life. We continue to work on making the pilot’s body respond to G-forces more realistically. We hope to include inflation of the G suit during high-G manoeuvres and subtle shifts in weight.

Next Steps
Once these new pilot models are integrated for the first and third person views for the DCS: F-16C Viper and the DCS: F/A-18C, we will implement a similar 3D pilot model to the DCS: A-10C II Tank Killer.

Operation Green Line

Campaign by Badger633

This immersive campaign features 12 unique missions that are interconnected through a continuous narrative across multiple Middle Eastern locations. Both carrier and land-based operations are included. Developed with virtual reality in mind, the campaign eliminates the need for jotting down transient coordinates, thereby maintaining immersion. Optional tanker refuelling is available, though careful fuel management can negate its necessity.

The campaign includes over 1,700 voice-overs, a 'Speed Stop' feature to prevent missing content during time acceleration, and adjustable AI settings for the final four missions to suit different skill levels. Each mission comes with detailed briefings that are accessible in-game and as downloadable PDFs. Customised aircraft skins are included to enhance the personalisation of the gameplay experience.

We hope you took advantage of the F-4E Phantom pre-purchase discount and that the preview of the upcoming F-16C Viper and F/A-18C pilots are to your satisfaction. Also, keep a lookout for Badger633's Operation Green Line campaign, coming in the next DCS update!

Thank you again for your passion and support,

Yours sincerely,

Eagle Dynamics

May 10, 2024

BATTLEFIELD 2042 UPDATE #7.2.0

Battlefield™ 2042 - TOTALfps

Hello there,

It’s time for another Update Notes blog as we are launching Update #7.2.0 on May 14, 2024!

The team has been working on several areas, including Vehicles, Weapons, and additional Visual Recoil improvements for this patch. Below you can find a full list of changes and we are of course looking forward to your feedback once you get your hands on Update #7.2.0 next Tuesday.

// The Battlefield Team

Stay Informed
Follow us on Reddit and @Battlefield to stay informed on the latest news, and on @BattlefieldComm for the rollout of updates and other live service changes.

Deliver Death from Above!

New gear means new ways to tackle the enemy, this May 14th you’ll be able to work towards unlocking the highly versatile DFR Strife LMG and the all-new cutting edge, remote-controlled aerial bomber the XFAD-4 Draugr.

Ingame progression and natural play of Control Unlocked contributes towards the unlocking of the XFAD-4 Draugr (40 Ribbons) and the DFR Strife LMG (80 Ribbons) allowing you to use these cutting edge pieces of hardware across the Battlefield.

Don’t worry if you miss out on this limited time event, as you will still be able to earn them through ingame assignments at a later date.

We look forward to seeing you capture and hold objectives in the limited timed mode Control Unlocked, as you begin to work your way towards delivering death from above with the XFAD-4 Draugr on May 14.

A New Strike Team is formed…

Under the global assault of the Thousand Petals Coalition a new strike team has been tasked to capture and secure Arkangel assets before they fall into the hands of the Coalition.

We'll share full details with you as we get closer to the launch of this all-new event in the coming weeks. Expect new earnable cosmetics to acquire and we look forward to seeing you outsmart the opposition.

Areas of Improvements

Vehicle Improvements
We’re happy to see that Attack Helicopters since our latest changes have become a force to be reckoned with, with players engaging with them more and more, as well as finding out new ways to use them to their advantage on the Battlefield. We think that they are, for most part, in a good spot. However, due to the combined firepower of both pilot and gunner they have been over performing in one aspect: Destroying Armored Ground Vehicles.

We believe at its current state the Attack Helicopter can easily destroy any vehicle in too short of a timeframe and we are toning that down a little by reducing the firepower of some of the more potent weapons vs armored vehicles, to address this:

We have lowered the damage of the TOW missile against heavy and medium armored vehicles (Tanks, Wildcat, Ram)
We have also lowered the damage of Anti Vehicle Rocket Pods to the same category of vehicles by 20%. We believe Attack Helicopters should still be potent and a direct counter to ground armor, however these changes are aiming to give a bigger window for ground vehicles to react and to also push pilots to make more tactical decisions when attacking vehicles.

APS Shootdown Sentinel
We are aware of the long lasting issue of vehicles camping hills and it has become a bit more exaggerated when Irish’ APS Shootdown Sentinel is included into this equation.

With Update #7.2.0 we are removing the capabilities for this Specialist Gadget to shootdown any Anti Vehicle Weapon or Gadgets. This should allow Air Vehicles and Infantry to once again attack such ground vehicles, as well as pushing the gadget itself into a more infantry-focused mentality.

MacKay
This Season in general we are aiming to slightly slow down the pace of the game and the biggest offenders that can oftentimes feel like they are pushing the limits too much. We are starting with MacKay by making his gadget more defensive and strategic rather than having it as an aggressive enabler offensively.

To do that we are increasing the cooldown of the grapple from 11 seconds to 25 and we are also lowering the boost of his trait “Nimble” which grants a boost to movement speed while aiming down sights from 40% to 25%.

Additionally, in a future patch, we will be implementing a force reload animation when equipping the weapon to further emphasize the strategic use of the gadget.

Systemic repair
Continuing with the effort to slow down the pace of the game, we are increasing the time it takes for the systemic repair system to repair the health of a vehicle. The rate at which this repairs is defined by the role and class type of the vehicle in consideration with their gameplay expectations.

All vehicles beside Bolte, EBLC-Ram, the upcoming Draugr and all ground transport vehicles will repair 25HP in 8.6 seconds, up from 5 seconds. This change is meant to emphasize the role of engineers and help slow down the pace in these combat moments, where before it was possible to nullify taken damage nearly instantaneously by pressing a single button.

Changelog

AI, Soldiers & General Improvements

Anti-Tank Mine damage has received a rebalance following recent updates, it will now take 3 Anti-Tank Mines to fully destroy a Heavy Vehicle such as a Tank or MAV. It will still remain possible to destroy Medium Armored Vehicles such as the Wildcat and EBLC-Ram with 2 Anti-Tank Mines.
Fixed an issue with the SOFLAM being unable to deploy on select Battlefield Portal experiences.
Irish’s APS-36 Shootdown Sentinel should no longer stop Underbarrel Smoke Grenades.
Additionally, the APS-36 Shootdown Sentinel will no longer stop Anti Vehicle Projectiles.
MacKay’s Nimble Trait which improves the speed of movement during ADS has been reduced from 40% to 25%.
Grappling Hook reload speed has now been increased from 11 seconds to 25 seconds. In a future update, we will be introducing a reload animation every time this Specialist Gadget is equipped.

Weapon Balancing

Despite the penguins' continued efforts to keep them shiny, the Scope Glint on the Raven and ACOG Sights on the SVD is no more.
Fixed an issue with some magazines on the AK 5C that could cause their models to turn invisible.
Fixed the alignment of the iron sights on the AK-24 skins "Dead-Center" and "Access Memory".
Fixed 12M Auto shell ejection when using the Type 4 Heavy Suppressor.
Fixed pellet spread on SPAS-12 (BC2/BF3) being too low.
The Penguins forgot to reflect the AKS-74u rate of fire change from Update 7.1 in the Collection screen, it is now accurately shown. We’ll get them notepads in the future.
Slightly slowed down hip fire dispersion reset on P90, PP-2000 and AKS-74u.
AM40 Standard Issue damage under 10 meters changed from 26 to 24.
AM40 dispersion and horizontal recoil increased by 5%.
VHX-D3 High Power ammo damage under 20 meters changed from 25 to 24.
LCMG dispersion when using the Shortened barrel attachment increased by 10%. This change should help balance both the attachment against other barrel options while also balancing the LCMG compared to other LMGs.

Visual Weapon Recoil Improvements
SMGs
Further tweaks and improvements for the following Weapon and Scope combinations:

PBX-45: XDR Holo, TV, UH-1, Shan, Bravo, Ghost Hybrid, 8R Holo, Maul Hybrid, M22, K8 Holo, Raven, TR-1 Thermal.
PP-29: K8 Holo, Fusion Holo, Ghost Hybrid, Shan, 8R Holo, TV, XO Smart, Maul Hybrid, M22, XDR Holo, Bravo, UH-1 Smart, TR-1 Thermal.
P90: Reflex, Holographic, XDR Holo, ACOG, Bravo, TV, 8R Holo, Maul Hybrid, XO Smart, TR-1 Thermal, UH-1.
AKS-74u: ACOG, Maul Hybrid, Bravo.
PP-2000: Maul Hybrid, Bravo, XO Smart, Ghost Hybrid.

Sidearms

Improvements to Visual Weapon Recoil on heavy sidearms (M44, etc.) and scopes Raven 4X, TV 2X, XDR

Bolt & Lever Action

Improvements to Visual Weapon Recoil on GVT 45-70 and the following sights for bolt-action weapons: UH Smart 1.5x, SHAN 2.5X, Raven 4X, M22 3.5X, Maul Hybrid 1.5-3X, PSO-1M3 5x

Assault Rifles

Improvements to Visual Weapon Recoil on AEK-971, VHX-D3, GEW-46, MTAR-21 and ACOG sight

LMGs

Improvements to Visual Weapon Recoil on LMGs, particularly when using thermal sights, Raven, ACOG and Bravo sights, and further improvements to keep reticle point close to screen center

Vehicles

Adjustment to the damage vehicles take when colliding with other objects.
Reduced range of attack helicopter thermal gunner from 600 to 450.
Fixed an issue where EMP would permanently disable the Polaris Sportsman.
Improvements made towards lock on missiles missing certain air vehicles that are locked onto.
Improvement to frogfoot rocket pods zero-point.
Removed the Gunner HUD from side passengers of Condor and HIND, going forward only the nose gunner will benefit from this.
Fixed lock-on weapons killing the pilot of Nightbird and not dealing damage to the vehicle.
Lowered main heavy tanks steering sensitivity when the sprint button is held.
Increased rudder responsiveness on 2042-era Jets which will lead to a more responsive yaw input.

Systemic Repair Changes:

Combat vehicles aside from Bolte, EBLC Ram and the upcoming Draugr will take 25HP in 8.6 seconds. Other vehicles will remain at 25HP in 5 seconds.
Increased HMG Weapon Station Velocity from 600 to 690
Lowered Attack Helicopter TOW Launcher damage to Main Heavy Tanks from 30 to 25 and to Medium Armor such as the Wildcat from 35 to 30. This is not a blanket change and will not impact other vehicles such as Transport or Air Vehicles
Helicopter Anti Vehicle Pods will deal 20% less impact damage and further blast damage reduction to Ground Armor.

TOW Balancing Changes:
Air Attack Vehicles

Time to live increased from 5 to 10 seconds
Max speed lowered from 120 to 80
Turn angles and engine time to live have been adjusted for better control

Ground Vehicles

Time to live increased from 10 to 15 seconds
Speed lowered from 120 to 50
Turn angles and engine time to live have been adjusted for better control

This announcement may change as we listen to community feedback and continue developing and evolving our Live Service & Content. We will always strive to keep our community as informed as possible.