Game Rebalance & Player Freedom Update (Patch Notes)

[Cheeseness]

GAME DIFFICULTY & PLAYER FREEDOM UPDATE

Hey everyone,

The Game Difficulty and Player Freedom update is finally here. This update adds a plethora of game improvements, including 2 new difficulty modes, mission specific balance changes, fewer hero specific optional objectives, improvements to stealth, the ability to fast forward during the player’s turn (incl. ultimates!) and much, much more!

With this in mind we have endeavoured to maintain the core game experience we intended to make and a large portion of players are really enjoying, while also addressing the criticisms raised about the game.

This is a large update and we’ve tried to include as much information and context as possible to be as transparent about our goals and approach.

So without further ado let’s get into the big changes!

Best Regards,
Spitfire Interactive & Daedalic Entertainment


Detailed overview of the changes made

GAME DIFFICULTY

It is fair to say that many players have had some issues with game difficulty at some point while playing through Capes. Whether that’s the game's overall level of challenge or specific missions’ unexpected difficulty spikes.

This update addresses game difficulty in a number of key ways including new difficulty settings, mission specific balance changes, and general quality of life improvements to the game at large.

New Difficulty Settings

It’s always a challenge to account for variations in player skill or level of tolerance to the challenge a game presents. As a result this update introduces two new difficulty settings bringing the total difficulty levels to 5.

These settings are:

• Hardcore - For the ultimate problem solvers and tacticians. Missions fail if a hero is KOed.
  
• Challenging - Recommended for players experienced with tactics games. (Formerly Normal)
  
• Normal - Recommended for players familiar with tactics games.
  
• Easy - For players new to tactics games.
  
• Casual - For players wanting to experience the story. Missions cannot be failed.

In addition to the +/- to hero health, team up range, and revive timer, the new difficulties scale the number of enemies in certain missions. Some more powerful enemies have less health based on the level of difficulty. Additionally, certain optional objectives have lower objective targets on the lower difficulties.

Challenging (formerly Normal) and Hardcore more or less remain unchanged from the original game, although they benefit from general quality of life improvements (see below) and mission specific balance changes (see below).

The new Normal difficulty gives players who were finding the previous Normal difficulty too much a new way to play, and generally has fewer enemies in some of the larger missions.

Easy is similar to the previous casual and makes playing the game… easier.

Casual does what it was always meant to, which is provide a way for players a way to experience the game with no fail states (you cannot fail a mission) and greatly reduces the combat challenge.

As before, game difficulty can be adjusted anytime outside of combat.

Mission Specific Changes

Players have called out specific missions as having unfair game difficulty. Sometimes this is due to lack of information on first time play. For example, Rooftop Hostage now has indicators when reinforcements are on their way, showing where they will spawn from when they arrive - something that players previously could not know on their first attempt at the level. In this update this sort of information is now provided to the player more clearly.

In other cases, missions were straight up unbalanced. Home Target has had this criticism and rightly so. It was noted that there are too many enemies, with too many variables that are outside of the player's control and too few options for the player to control how things play out. This update has reduced enemy numbers to make it more manageable and includes a unique Team Up that allows the player to influence the flow of the mission. The supporting character also causes additional damage.

These are two examples of mission changes, but the full list of mission specific balance changes are listed in detail below.

PLAYER FREEDOM

The second area we want to address is Player Freedom. This update aims to push the game further from being puzzle-like to something more tactical and encourage players to tackle missions more freely using the abilities and heroes they like.
We have also strived to preserve the existing game to allow players who are enjoying the current experience to continue to do so.

With this in mind the following core changes have been made:

All in One and Skill Points

The puzzle feeling was particularly prevalent when players were striving for the All in One bonus during their first attempt of each mission, as this bonus provided additional Skill Points (SP) as the primary means for developing their heroes.

In this update we have split the All in One bonus SP reward between the All in One bonus and simply completing a mission. This results in less emphasis on needing to complete the All in One bonus and moves it to more of an optional challenge as was always intended. This also provides players with more SP as they progress through the game, even if they’re not completing the All in One bonus.

For those players who still find the game too puzzle-like, we have added an option to the Difficulty menu that allows players to disable the All in One bonus altogether. This moves the SP reward from the All in One bonus altogether and instead awards those SPs for completing the mission.

Players who select this option will have more freedom in how they complete each mission as they can simply replay a mission and focus on completing the missed objectives only in order to unlock the maximum SP.

Note that the All in One ‘star’ next to each mission is displayed regardless of if the All in One bonus is enabled or not so that players can track if they have completed the challenge or not regardless of how they earned the SP.

Optional Objective Updates

This update removes as many hero specific optional objectives as possible to allow more freedom of team choice and ability use in combat. It also reduces the target value of some optional objectives in certain missions and scales the requirements in some cases based on the difficulty setting. This results in less ‘busy work’ that can sometimes occur at the end of missions.

The Ledge KO optional objectives type has been updated so that more KOs count towards the objective which results in more KOs counting during the natural play of the mission.

OTHER FEATURES

This update also brings a slew of quality of life improvements to the game.

Fast Forward Player Turns

(incl. Ultimates)
To speed up the game, we have added the ability to use Fast Forward during the player's turn, which includes when heroes use their Ultimate abilities.

• Added fast forward during player turns.

Challenge in Combat

To help players complete Hero Challenges we have added a new entry in the Pause Menu to view the current team’s Challenges during combat.
Note that while progress is tracked ‘live’ Hero Challenges do not count as complete until the mission is successfully completed.
Challenges cannot be viewed in Hero Work.

• Added Challenges option to Pause Menu.

Initiative Preview

To help convey what is happening when a character’s Initiative is changed, we have added Initiative value previews to the Turn Order when previewing actions that affect Initiative. This should help explain why sometimes when a target’s Initiative is changed, their position in the Turn Order may be unaffected.
How Initiative works: A character will act when their Initiative value is 10 or more. If more than 1 character has more than 10 Initiative, turns are actioned from highest to lowest Initiative.
Note - Initiative values are not displayed during Stealth.

• Added Initiative values and changes on Turn Order when previewing actions that affect Initiative.

GENERAL BALANCE IMPROVEMENTS

Stealth

Stealth has proved a challenge for players as it has provided outcomes that players did not feel were always intuitive. One such issue that has been resolved is Rebound’s Shadow Blitz ultimate which players expected would not alert an enemy if they were defeated by it during the attack sequence.

• Updated Rebound's Shadow Blitz ultimate so that it does not alert enemies if they're KOed during the attack sequence.
  
• Removed exit cell from enemy perception area in Acquaintance to reduce confusion about if they are seen by another enemy or not, i.e. it was ambiguous if a red square was shown on an enemy’s space was from their own perception or another enemy’s. This should now be more clear.
  
• Defeated Enhanced no longer alert Unaware enemies with their explosion.
  
• Added info and stat to Explosive Barrels and Security Bots to note that they alert Unaware enemies in range when they explode.
  
• Reduced Security Bot Alert Range from 7 to 5.

Optional Objectives

• Updated Ledge KOs objective to be more generous. Defeating an enemy with damage that would otherwise be KOed by a ledge, now counts towards the objective. This includes defeating Security Bots with Disarm.

Experience (XP)

Some players have struggled with getting enough XP from playing through the game. To help with this we have increased the amount of XP some missions provide to help push player levels in the mid to back half of the game.

• Increased the XP rewards on some missions.
  
• Updated Mercurial's XP requirement to reach Hero Level 5 to be consistent with the other heroes (from 100 to 140XP). Note that this will result in all players who had levelled up Mercurial to level 5 to drop back to level 4. All purchased upgrades from level 5 will remain unlocked and usable.

Other UI updates

• Added an option to disable Camera Shake from the Accessibility menu.
  
• Moved Load Quicksave, Load Checkpoint and Restart options to the main Pause menu for more visibility.
  
• Add a Random team option to the Team Select screen.
  
• Updated Missions screen to display remaining SP for each mission entry.

Abilities and Upgrade Costs (SP)

To account for the redistribution of All in One Bonus SP to Level Complete rewards, Act 1 has effectively 5 additional free SP points that affect the early game balance. As a result key Act 1 abilities and upgrades have had their costs modified slightly.

• Adjusted Facet's Shield Shard ability cost to 3SP (from 1SP).
  
• Adjusted Rebound's Teleport Spin Backstab Damage upgrade cost to 6SP (from 5SP).
  
• Adjusted Rebound's Strike Damage upgrade cost to 6SP (from 5SP).
  
• Adjusted Mindfire's Focus ability cost to 6SP (from 5SP).

Ability Balance

• Adjusted Chain Lightning | Hyde Team Up to cause a maximum of 2 Delay to any affected target. Note that this ability is still very powerful, able to reduce Initiative more than any other ability in the game, but it is less powerful against single enemies which was never its intended use.

Challenges

• Challenges for the current team can be viewed in combat from the Pause Menu.
  
• Bug: Fixed issue where Mercurial’s Running Tally Challenge was not always counting.
  
• Reduced Mercurial's Running Tally Challenge requirement from 10 to 6 8.

Enemy Balance

Certain enemies have had their Health Points adjusted based on game difficulty. These are outlined in the mission specific changes below.

• Updated Tech Android and Tech Missiler Cannon Blast range from 7 to 5.

General Game Info Improvements

A number of key game details/info have been improved to help explain how certain elements of the games work that were previously ambiguous or missing.

• Added additional info about reduced Chain Lightning Arc Range to various breakables’ descriptions.
  
• Added info to Primax and Androids to explain that they attempt to Upgrade every second turn.
  
• Updated Energy Baton's Stun status details to include that it affects Move points.
  
• Bug: Fixed Energy Baton’s Stun status to last until the end of the affected hero’s turn so that it is present when the Player is unsure why their hero has fewer Action and Move points.
  
• Updated Energy Baton’s Stun status details to be more clear.
  
• Updated Opportunist trait description to note that it will trigger if an opponent moves away or through the specified spaces.
  
• Added details to Facet's Shard Lockdown Bind upgrade that it does not affect Next Turn actions (Upgrade’s UI only).
  
• Added Immovable status details to Wildstar while he’s preparing to use his Deception ability.
  
• Added more explicit details to Primax’s Shield details to make it more clear that she should not be attacked at all.

MISSION SPECIFIC CHANGES

The following is a breakdown of mission specific balance changes and bug fixes. Included are some key notes from the development team about some of the reasoning behind the changes.

Hero Work

• No balance changes.

• Bug: Fixed a soft-lock when tutorial messages were skipped too quickly during the Use Growth tutorial.
  
• Bug: Fixed Agent rifles being visible when Agents were not.
  
• Bug: Fixed a group of Thugs that could be seen disappearing before a camera cut at the end of the intro.

Fire in the Head

• Reduced the Disarm objective in Fire in the Head on lower difficulties.
  
• Updated Skill Points tutorial to mention 'completing missions'.

Acquaintance

This mission has caused much pain for many players who are trying to understand the Stealth mechanics for the first time, with certain game elements not functioning as they’d intuitively expect. To move things in line with players' expectations, we’ve updated Rebound’s ultimate so that it does not alert an enemy until after all strikes have been resolved. This allows players to strategically unleash her ultimate to wipe a one or two key enemies from the mission, drastically reducing the difficulty.

• [General] Rebound's Shadow Blitz ultimate does not alert enemies if they're KOed during the attack sequence. (see above).
  
• Reduced the number of enemies in Easy and Casual.

• Bug: Fixed issue where an Agent could see the escape region but it was hard to tell, resulting in being spotted without clear warning.
  
• Bug: Fixed an issue where the gameplay camera could get stuck outside the warehouse when reloading Checkpoints/Quick Saves after the tutorial.

Crossed Lines

The Round Limit optional objective has thrown a lot of new players who expect to complete all optional objectives on their first attempt. Further, it has been noted that the Shield Shard optional objective specifically is at odds with the round limit objective and limits player freedom in how the mission can be tackled while chasing the objective. While we have chosen to keep the round limit as is, we now include an explanation for Optional Objectives and that returning once upgraded or having more or different heroes can make a big difference. The Shield Shard optional objective requirement has been reduced.

• Added Optional Objectives tutorial to Crossed Lines. Does not appear when played through Simulator.
  
• Hostage’s Health Points scale based on difficulty.
  
• Reduced Use Shield Shard objective and scaled based on difficulty.

Hitting the Gym

• Adjusted the Speedster’s Health Points based on difficulty.
  
• Prevented the Speedster from being KOed in Casual.

Mugging

This mission’s objectives were intended to be a way to reinforce core mechanics of the game in a relatively short and low stakes scenario. We have removed the specific hero requirement, but have chosen objectives that still lean in to teaching the player similar strategies.

• Updated Mugging objectives to non hero specific objectives to allow any team composition to be valid.
  
• Replaced Use Rebound's Backstab objective with Use an Ultimate.
  
• Replaced Use Facet's Growth optional objective with Avoid Brawler damage.
  
• Replaced Defeat with Mindfire's Telekinesis objective with Avoid Pistol damage.

Which Way the Wind Blows

We removed Mindfire’s hero specific objective here to keep things more dynamic while still reminding new players of the Disarm mechanic. We chose to leave the hero specific ‘Use Facet’s Growth’ objective as it was reinforcing the value of this ability which is invaluable in later missions.

• Changed ‘Use Mindfire’s Disarm’ optional objective to a generic ‘Disarm the Enemy’ objective.
  
• Adjusted new Disarm objective based on difficulty.
  
• Reduced the number of enemies based on difficulty.

• Bug: Fixed an issue where some props in the middle of the arena blocked line of sight for hero abilities. Allows for more gameplay possibilities.

Unusual Sighting

While not a difficult mission, the Disarm objective requirements have been reduced to allow a more optimal approach to defeating the enemy and reduced ‘busy work’.

• Reduced the ‘Disarm the enemy’ optional objective requirement from 4 to 3.

Double Damage

This mission is the first Hard mission in the game and the first boss. We’ve dropped the number of initial Thugs to reduce the initial overwhelm of dealing with Crashdamage and all of the enemies. These enemies are added to the final wave on Challenging and Hardcore.

We’ve also updated Weathervane’s tutorial to not repeat when you retry the mission to avoid frustration and open up more possibilities for how players can tackle the level.
Also, we’ve chosen to keep the ‘Hits with Chain Lightning' objective despite being a hero specific objective, but the target has been reduced to make it easier.

• Updated Weathervane tutorial so that it doesn’t repeat after you’ve completed it once.
  
• Moved two of the initial Thugs to the second phase of Double Damage.
  
• Added Phase counter and Checkpoint.
  
• Reduced Chain Lightning optional objective from 6 to 5.
  
• Adjusted Chain Lightning optional objective based on difficulty.
  
• Reduced the ‘Disarm Crashdamage’ objective from 3 to 2.
  
• Adjusted the Speedster's Health Points based on difficulty.
  
• Reduced Crashdamage's Health Points on Easy and Casual.
  
• Removed some enemies from the final wave for Normal.
  
• Removed the final wave of enemies for Easy and Casual.

• Bug: Fixed an issue where Mercurial would not animate in the outro of Double Damage if the Protect the Speedster objective is failed.

Homecoming

One of the big challenges with this mission was completing the Ledge KOs objective. The fix for what conditions count for Ledge KOs has greatly improved this.

• [General] Updated Ledge KOs objective to be more generous. (see above)
  
• Repositioned a lamp post that was preventing Ledge KO opportunities.
  
• Adjusted the number of reinforcements based on difficulty.
  
• Reduced the spawn threshold for reinforcements on Easy and Casual.

Tech Support

Completing all of the optional objectives has proven challenging for a number of players. Specifically the ‘Disarm an Upgrading Android’ objective has been particularly puzzling for players, and it fights against the Round Limit objective as you would have to leave Tech Androids alive for a round before they’d begin to Upgrade. We have removed this objective and replaced it with ‘Disarm Tech enemies’ in general to allow the disarming of the Security Bots to also count.

• Replaced Disarm Upgrading Android optional objective with generic 'Disarm Tech enemies' optional objective.
  
• Reduced the Use Ultimate optional objective from 3 to 2.

• Bug: Fixed soft-lock that would occur if a Security Bot is destroyed at the same time as they are spawned.

Heard on the News

Despite many players finding creative ways to complete this mission, it continues to be too challenging for some players. We have reduced the initial difficulty across the board and scaled the latter phases across the various difficulty levels. Challenging and Hardcore remain more or less unchanged, but benefit from other general game improvements.

• [General] Tech Androids Cannon Blast range reduced from 7 to 5. (see above)
  
• [General] Ledge KOs are more generous. (see above)
  
• Reduced the number of initial Tech Androids from 4 to 2.
  
• Adjusted the Super's Health Points based on difficulty.
  
• Updated the Super's explosive attack to no longer destroy Facet's Growths.
  
• Adjusted Ledge KO and Team Up objectives based on difficulty.
  
• Adjusted the number of initial Sentinels (turrets) based on difficulty.
  
• Adjusted Sentinel Health Points based on difficulty.
  
• Adjusted the threshold at which Tech Androids spawn in the final phase based on difficulty.
  
• Allowed more Tech Androids to spawn if they're continually defeated. Quantity adjusted based on difficulty.
  
• Removed the round limit to revive the Super on Casual.
  
• Prevented Super from being killed on Casual.

• Bug: Ensure the Super is KOed if the player prevents the Tech Androids from KOing her.

Rooftop Hostage

This mission proved to be more challenging for a number of players that we anticipated. We have attempted to draw more attention to the initial reinforcements arriving for first time players with the addition of the new primary objective and a warning light near the next lift to arrive with reinforcements. The playspace was also adjusted slightly to give an additional route to begin the mission.

• [General] Ledge KOs are more generous. (see above)
  
• Added an additional primary objective that notes; 'Reinforcements arrive at round: (x / y)'.
  
• Added camera transition and warning light to the lift that reinforcements will come from next.
  
• Added an additional fire escape near the starting area to give players more options when starting the level.
  
• Updated breakable skylight visuals to make it more clear they can be used for Ledge KOs.
  
• Adjusted Hostage’s Health Points scale based on difficulty.
  
• Adjusted optional objective targets based on difficulty.
  
• Reduced the number of initial enemies and reinforcement on Easy and Casual.
  
• Applied Delay status effect to initial reinforcements on Casual difficulty so that they take longer to act after they arrive.

Hero in Trouble

• Adjusted the Use Rebound's Ultimate objective based on difficulty.

Greater Powers

• Adjusted Stealth KOs objective based on difficulty.

Nose to the Grindstone

Another challenging mission that has caused issues for some players. Difficulty has been scaled more across the various difficulty settings, which includes reducing the number of enemies. Note that this mission is set as Hard. This mission also benefits from other improvements to Stealth.

• Ended active heroes turn to reset action and move points before reinforcements arrive to ensure all heroes act first.
  
• Adjusted the number of enemies at the start of the second Phase based on difficulty.
  
• Reduced the number of Enhanced Sergeants on Easy and Casual.
  
• Reduced the number of enemies in the first Phase on Easy and Casual.
  
• Removed the final wave of reinforcements for lower difficulties.
  
• Updated 'Avoid setting off the alarm' objective string to be consistent with Acquaintance for clarity.

Friend or Foe

Many players expected Wildstar’s influence to be removed from the civilians when he was defeated, which is a fantastic idea that we have included and it reduces the overall difficulty slightly. We’ve lowered the Disarm Wildstar objective to allow players more freedom in how they approach the level.

• Updated Wildstar to release his influence on all targets when he's defeated
  
• Reduced the number of civilians that can be affected by Wildstar’s Influence at any one time, based on difficulty. Includes civilian's Influenced at the start of each phase.
  
• Reduced the Disarm Wildstar's Distortion optional objective requirement from 5 to 3. Allows for more freedom of how you tackle the mission.
  
• Adjusted the Disarm Civilians objective requirement based on difficulty.
  
• Fail Disarm Civilians and Disarm Wildstar objectives when Wildstar is KOed if incomplete.
  
• Added Cartoon visuals to lodge monitor during intro scene with Facet.

• Bug: Fixed soft-lock that could occur when Wildstar relocated uses Deception or Psychic Blast on a hero.

Fire Report

• No balance changes.

Never Meet Your Heroes

Another stealth mission that has proved challenging for players. General improvements to Stealth gameplay have reduced some of the sticking points and allow players more options to counter the alarm being raised. The number of enemies has been scaled based on the difficulty setting which drastically improves how players approach the mission.

• [General] Enhanced detonation no longer alerts Unaware enemies. (see above)
  
• [General] Rebound's Shadow Blitz ultimate does not alert enemies if they're KOed during the attack sequence. (see above).
  
• Reduced the number of enemies and reinforcements based on difficulty.
  
• Updated optional objective requirements based on difficulty.

Tech Advantage

We have scaled the difficulty of this mission across the various difficulty levels and attempted to make it more clear for first time players that Primax is unkillable and should be avoided.

• [General] Updated Primax’s Shield description to be more clear that she is unkillable. (see above)
  
• Adjusted the number of initial enemies and Bot Dispensers based on difficulty.
  
• Adjusted Server Wall and Bot Dispenser Health Points based on difficulty.
  
• Reduced Team Ups objective based on difficulty.

Supply Drop

• Adjusted optional objective requirements based on difficulty.

Inside Man

• [General] Ledge KOs are more generous. (see above)
  
• Adjusted number of Security Bots and Sentinels (turrets) based on difficulty.
  
• Reduced the spawn thresholds for Tech Androids on Easy and Casual.
  
• Prevented Contact from being killed on Casual difficulty.

Enhanced Powers

• Adjusted Disarm Enhanced and Absorb Ultimate charge optional objectives on lower difficulties.
  
• Reduced Enhanced Giant Health Points based on difficulty
  
• Reduced Nightjar Health Points on Easy and Casual.

• Bug: Fixed Absorb Ultimate Charge objective so that it counts even if a hero has their ultimate fully charged.

City Surveillance

This mission has proven to be a challenge for some players, particularly on their first attempt. This mission has improved by virtue of improvements to Stealth; Security Bots having their Alert Range reduced when they detonate and also having this information communicated in game. The Ledge KOs objective is also more generous.

• [General] Reduced the alert range for exploding Security Bots from 7 to 5. Added this information to their details panel. (see above).
  
• [General] Ledge KOs are more generous (see above).
  
• Added more ladders to allow easier access to the final platform.
  
• Adjusted the number of Bot Dispensers based on difficulty.
  
• Adjusted the Ledge KOs and Disarm objectives based on difficulty.
  
• Reduced Bot Dispenser Health Points on Easy and Casual.
  
• Reduced the rate that reinforcements spawn in Easy and Casual.

Streets of Rage

• Reduced the number of initial PMC and reinforcements based on difficulty.
  
• Adjusted threshold to spawn reinforcements based on difficulty.
  
• Reduced disarm objective based on difficulty.

Home Target

We have seen that this mission has been incredibly frustrating and tedious for a large number of players when first unlocked and attempted. Our intent was that people would return after upgrading Mindfire and the combat would feel more forgiving.

While Mindfire will still likely need to be upgraded further when this mission first becomes available, we have made some changes to improve the experience. We have added a Team Up between Mindfire and Doctrine in the form of Vulnerable | Doctrine. This action allows the player to inflict Vulnerable and have Doctrine attempt to target that enemy on his next turn. This can help reduce the situations where Doctrine may choose to move in an undesirable direction on his turn. Further, Doctrine’s attacks have had a damage buff to make him feel more super powered. We have also reduced the number of enemies at the start of the second phase.

The Use Mindfire’s Ultimate objective has been increased in Hardcore and Challenging, but in practical terms Mindfire will need his Barrage+ upgrades to complete it.

• Added Vulnerable | Doctrine team up action to Mindfire
  
• Increased Doctrine's damage from 2 to 3 to make him more powerful.
  
• Fully heal Mindfire at Checkpoint.
  
• Reduced the number of spaces in which Doctrine could get cornered that would result in more enemies targeting Mindfire.
  
• Adjusted Disarm Wukong and Use Advantage objectives by difficulty.
  
• Increased Use Mindfire's Ultimate objective on Challenging and Hardcore.
  
• Reduced the number of initial enemies on all difficulties.
  
• Removed the final wave of enemies from Easy and Casual.
  
• Reduced the frequency at which Doctrine comments as he revives to speed up combat slightly.
  
• Updated mission difficulty tag from Medium to Hard.

• Bug: Prevented Mindfire from moving inside a space with breakable bins that would prevent him using his abilities.

Industrial Sabotage

It was raised that the Ledge KO objective felt almost impossible as the level included so few Tech Androids. We corrected the spawn rate of Tech Androids in this mission and coupled with the fact Security Bots can now more easily be Ledge KOed makes the objective more achievable.

• Ledge KOs are more generous (see above)
  
• Increased Ledge KOs objective target slightly now that Ledge KOs are easier.
  
• Scaled Ledge KOs objective based on difficulty.

• Bug: Fixed spawners so that reinforcements attempt to respawn every second round (x3).

Dark Justice

• Added Phase counter.
  
• Moved a cage near the starting area to allow more freedom of movement at the start of the mission.
  
• Reduced number of reinforcements by difficulty.
  
• Reduced the number of initial Unaware enemies based on difficulty.
  
• Adjusted Unaware KOs objective based on difficulty.
  
• Adjusted Beano's Health Points based on difficulty.
  
• Removed requirement to rescue the Super within a round limit on Casual.
  
• Prevented Beano from being KOed in Casual.

Justice Served

• [General] Enhanced detonation no longer alerts Unaware enemies. (see above)
  
• Adjusted Disarm Thugs and Disarm Nightjar's Attack optional objectives based on difficulty.
  
• Adjusted the number of enemies throughout the mission based on difficulty.

Anger is an Energy

• Adjusted the number of PMC at the beginning of the mission based on difficulty.
  
• Adjusted the number of Thugs that spawn at each of Wildstar's phases based on difficulty.
  
• Adjusted Wildstar's Health Points based on difficulty.
  
• Adjusted Use Team Ups and Disarm the enemy optional objectives based on difficulty.

Freedom Crossing

Some players have expressed that they found the number of enemies in this fight tedius. As a result we have scaled the number of enemies in the fight out across the various difficulty levels. Grindstone has also had a health boost on lower difficulties to help compensate for her unpredictable movement.

• Adjusted the number of enemies based on difficulty.
  
• Adjusted Disarm the enemy optional objective based on difficulty.
  
• Adjusted Grindstone's Health Points based on difficulty.
  
• Prevented Grindstone from being KOed on Casual.

Conflict Resolution

• Reduced the mission difficulty tag from Hard to Medium.

♥♥♥♥♥ in the Armor

• Increased the # of rounds to complete the Round Limit objective based on difficulty.
  
• Adjusted the KOs with Nano Titan objective based on difficulty.
  
• Adjusted Destroy Dispensers objective based on difficulty.
  
• Added all Dispensers to the objective to avoid confusion about which objects count
  
• Reduced the Bot Dispenser Health Points on Easy and Casual.
  
• Reduced the number of enemies in the final area on Easy and Casual.

Primax (Boss)

To make this boss fight more challenging Primax now spawns a Shield Drone each time her health moves the fight to a new phase. Additionally, to keep the pressure on for players aiming to complete the objectives we replaced the generic Disarm objective with prevent Primax Upgrading.

• [General] Ledge KOs are more generous. (see above)
  
• Replaced Disarm objective with Prevent Upgrades objective.
  
• Updated Primax to spawn a Shield Drone at each phase (not on Easy or Casual).
  
• Removed raised areas on the edges of the level so that Primax cannot get out of range.
  
• Adjusted Disarm, Team Ups, and Ledge KOs optional objectives based on difficulty.
  
• Reduced the number of enemies in each wave in Easy and Casual.
  
• Reduced Primax's Health Points on Easy and Casual.

Old Debts

• Adjusted Wildstar's Health Points based on difficulty.
  
• Adjusted Enhanced Giant's HP based on difficulty.
  
• Adjusted Disarm Enhanced and Team Ups objective based on difficulty.

Reunited

As the final mission of the game, some players have found that the mission is quite manageable. To add some additional challenge a number of Enhanced enemies will emerge from the chambers when the alarm is raised after the initial phase. Also, an Avoid Alpha’s Rifle damage objective has been added to the mix.
Some players expressed that they felt unfairly caught off guard when the alarm unexpectedly triggers. To make this more clear to players (especially first time players), we added a primary objective that informs players when the alarm will automatically be raised.

• Spawned Enhanced when the alarm is raised and adjusted number of enemies based on difficulty.
  
• Added 'Avoid Alpha’s Rifle damage' optional objective.
  
• Added 'Alarm raised at round' objective to warn players of the time limit
  
• Adjusted the 'Alarm raised at round' objective based on difficulty.
  
• Added Phase counter.
  
• Reduced Giant Health Points based on difficulty.
  
• Adjust rounds until support arrives based on difficulty.
  
• Adjusted Stealth KOs and Use Ultimates objective based on difficulty.
  
• Reduced the number of initial PMC and reinforcements in Easy and Casual.
  
• Reduced Nightjar Health Points on Easy and Casual.

• Bug: Fixed initiative values for reinforcements so that they do not act before the hero team.
  
• Bug: Added a checkpoint when Alpha is defeated and he activates an Enhanced Giant chamber.

General Bug Fixes

• Fixed issue where the final Conversation between Ignis and Hyde would not unlock after completing Reunited (and meeting the mission’s other prerequisites).
  
• Fixed crash when a squad of Security Bots gets new members during their turn.
  
• Fixed an issue where Crashdamage’s Debris attack’s range outline was not accounting for the AoE of the attack.
  
• Fixed Persistence trait which was not resisting Initiative as much as it should.
  
• Fixed Rebound/Mindfire Health Challenges on various difficulty levels.
  
• Fixed Mercurial’s Ultimate upgrade Knockback.
  
• Fixed preview/apply damage mismatch of Weathervane’s Gust team ups.
  
• Fixed Weathervane’s Gust | Ignis team up applying to large characters.
  
• Fixed Mercurial punch ult when target breaks from flinch hits.
  
• Fixed Mercurial’s Dash so she can travel through defeated characters.
  
• Fixed Rebound’s Backstab indicator so it doesn't show on defeated characters.
  
• Fixed Ignis’ Ignite | Facet team up dealing double Unaware damage.
  
• Fixed Stun from preventing Sergeant's ult from executing.
  
• Fixed Weathervane’s Leap not triggering Sentinel (turret) attacks.
  
• Fixed Wukong's Assault description range in all languages.
  
• Fixed font size for various text styles including Team Ups.
  
• Added an error sound when a key binding can't be applied/is in conflict
  
• Improved music balance.

CONCLUSION

We’re really excited to have these updates out for everyone to experience and continue to enjoy the game. We also hope that these changes address players' concerns and frustrations with elements within the game and provide more options for players who have found the game to be too ‘puzzle-like’ for their liking.

Again, for players who have been enjoying the game as it is, playing on Challenging and Hardcore difficulties will continue to provide a similar experience, with a number of level specific improvements and overall quality of life improvements.

Thank you everyone for your support, it has been great to see everyone’s feedback and we can’t wait to share more from Capes in the not too distant future! Stay tuned!

Many thanks,
Spitfire Interactive