Mission Control (lower levels) beta is live now

[Vince]

In Chapter 3 go the door with the retinal scanner (in Mission Control ruins) and talk to Shadow. If you have the Eye, you'll be able to open it. If not, Shadow will offer an alternative.

Once inside, interact with a maintenance station to call Romeo (only if the robot is fully fixed). The rest you can figure out on your own.

Changelog:

IMPROVEMENTS

- Grenades preview now show enemy resistances (or potential effects in the case of pulse/stasis).
- Added tutorial tooltips on meds, gadget parts, broken implants and tokens.
- Added text reminders when a new feat is available or tags have not been assigned (goes away when you enter the character screen).
- When a character joins your party for the first time, a reminder appears to check your specialist assignments.
- Improved visuals of the save-load screen.

ADDITIONS

- Tweaked the layout of Depot A2 in the armory, new endgame loot added.
- Expanded the vault in Mission Control's fifth floor (still missing proper loot).
- Added Jimmy's quest in Mission Control.

CHANGES

IMPLANTS

Rebalanced implant extraction, to avoid issues with the economy from harvesting many implants, and to make biotech growth depend more on non-combat actions.

- You can no longer extract "ready to use" implants from enemies, you need to fix them first. Skill check is lower, but failing creates scrap.
- Fixing an implant now uses Biotech and 3 modules.
- Implants from mummified bodies can be extracted "ready to use" with high enough skill, rewards more LP.
- Added more opportunities to extract implants from old bodies.
- Added extraction of implant upgrades in armory, mission control, factory and maintenance levels.
- Added new implant upgrades:

Datajack: Neural Shield: Neural Resistance +10
Heart: Painkiller: Regen +1
Armor: Heat Absorber: Energy DR +2
Spine: Machine Gunner: Recoil Control +4
Motor: Assault Trooper: Movement AP +2
Motor: Combat Reflexes: Evasion +3
Motor: Rapid Response: Initiative +6

These are not mutually exclusive, you can build up your characters implants with them.

FEATS

- Precise Strike: Melee: Aimed Attacks -1 AP Cost, Critical Chance +6%, Non-Regular Attacks Accuracy +12
- True Grit: Ballistic Resistance +2 (from +1), Evasion +6 (from +12), Reaction +12 (unchanged).
- Third Daughter: Lowered to 25% skill gain.

SKILL BALANCE

- Reduced LP requirements for levels, especially the late ones (works retroactively).
- Increased LP gain from training to 100 (from 80) and tokens to 200 (from 160).
- Adjusted LP gain from non-combat interactions, giving a minor increase for harder checks (not retroactive).
- Implemented more instances of dichotomy bonuses (higher skill gain when choosing one skill over another).
- Removed "free" tokens from hydro and mission control, but added a new token machine you can fix.
- Harbinger and Knurl: Adjusted starting skills (Harbinger's have been generally lowered).

LOOT

- Added more heavy armor throughout the game.
- Started work on balancing loot progression.

MECHANICS

- Weapon slot now becomes active after throwing a grenade.
- Stats are now regenerated before HP (heart implant stat regen will trigger more often).
- Stats now regenerate in this order: DEXTERITY - PERCEPTION - STRENGTH - CONSTITUTION.
- Damage to the energy vest capped at 10.

ENEMIES

- Turrets: Lowered initiative, created variations for energy turrets (shielded but slower, unshielded but faster).
- Ballistic turrets: Gained 2 Natural DR.
- Energy turret: Removed extra penetration on critical, increased min damage by 1. Increased shield to 50.
- Desert Spitter: Poison and blindness effect increased to tier 2 (from tier 1).
- Droids stats heavily tweaked to adjust for new mechanics for Romeo.
- Creeper: Leech is capped by damage (won't leech more than it damages) or 6 HP max (before it did 6 HP no matter the damage).
- Creeper: Penetration reduced to 75 (from 80).
- Adjusted stats of creeper in CH1, it got buffed too much from hydroponics changes.

FIXES

- Fixed issue with hydro tower shaft not highlighting.
- Party members now don't detect cloaking companions.
- Fixed "disabled when empty" containers still being highlighted.
- Fixed lack of implants upgrades effect on the item tooltip.
- Fixed typos.

[Elhoim]

Some things to consider:

- LP balancing is a work in progress,
- Fight balance might need some work.
- Stealth sequence in the security station needs to be improved.
- Loot progression is being worked on.
- There's a new area that's missing loot.

[wizard1200]

Are you planning to add new training tokens in the future? The current selection favors some skills (for example rifle) and completely ignores others (for example shotgun).

[Elhoim]

Originally posted by wizard1200:

Are you planning to add new training tokens in the future? The current selection favors some skills (for example rifle) and completely ignores others (for example shotgun).

Yes, we added 4 new ones, and I'm going to go over the options in each machine as some are given quite often (the urban pacification and crisis intervention, for example).

The new ones IIRC are:

Breach Team: Shotgun - Armor - Lockpick
Security Officer: Blunt - Persuasion - Computers
Field Surgeon: Biotech - Blade - Critical Strike
Undercover Training: Impersonate - Steal - Streetwise

[grraf]

Well i'm already on the prowl so to speak and recently hit 8 in comps&locks after a new training token(continuing from a recent save i had before this patch arrived)
https://imgur.com/yvUCY3R.png here's me having to say: 'its dead Jed you can put the down the sledgehammer all ready, its creeping out poor Faythe she's will keep hiding behind those rocks until you put it down ya know'

[Abunija]

AWESOME SOME LVL 9 LOCKS TO GET PAST. LOOKING FORWARD TO THE SHINY BEHIND THOSE DOORS

[grraf]

Well i have finished playing trough it...while the combats are manageable the skill checks are anything but that: despite my zen mutated MC having tags in comps&elctros&lockpicks and have been funneling every token onto him i'm unable to reach lvl 9 in any of those skills. Unless that is the actual intended outcome nobody but a zen mutated mastermind will ever be able to gain access to those resources in the armory

Oh btw potential bug after having a chat with Luther and having him come&take a look at what i found i can no longer progress his quest line any further(journal entry remains the same)

Regarding Romeo hes in limbo land you don't really need him for anything other then 'grand mech battle royale' but due to the high odds of losing either him or another crewman(or at least having them gain the 'penalized for participation prize') you may as well stealth your way trough and avoid what is pretty much a rewardless hassle...well at least the bot is slowly racking up hes upgrades count if nothing else in preparation for a more auspicious use case

[talionthered]

Wow, that was fast compared to the last update. Can't wait until you put on GoG.com.

[Elhoim]

Originally posted by grraf:

Unless that is the actual intended outcome nobody but a zen mutated mastermind will ever be able to gain access to those resources in the armory

Originally posted by Elhoim:

Some things to consider:

- LP balancing is a work in progress.

There's a reason I made it the first point :P

Some things to keep in mind when using old saves:

- Reduced LP requirements for levels, especially the late ones (works retroactively).
- Increased LP gain from training to 100 (from 80) and tokens to 200 (from 160).
- Adjusted LP gain from non-combat interactions, giving a minor increase for harder checks (not retroactive).

This is especially more true for saves made before April's update, which had the first set of LP changes.

We need feedback of new runs to make some adjustments, hence the beta tag (apart from bugfixing).

I can't believe I need to say this but It's obviously not the intent to have a 9 skill only be for "zen mutated mastermind".

Something to keep in mind though, apart from the LP gain changes that work on new saves, is that you need to take the opportunities to level up the tech skills over other solutions (combat or speech) for example, and focus on tokens for them as well. It won't be required to focus solely on them, of course, but also can't be routinely ignored if you want to reach level 10, for example.

[Elhoim]

Originally posted by talionthered:

Wow, that was fast compared to the last update. Can't wait until you put on GoG.com.

It's already up on the "beta" branch (can't recall how it's called there).

[talionthered]

Originally posted by Elhoim:

Originally posted by talionthered:

Wow, that was fast compared to the last update. Can't wait until you put on GoG.com.

It's already up on the "beta" branch (can't recall how it's called there).

I think it's the Public Test branch, and no it isn't. We're still on 0.9.49 (and the patch notes function is really behind, too).

[talionthered]

Ah, it'll probably only update later today on the GoG end. Never mind, waiting with bated breath!

[wizard1200]

Originally posted by Elhoim:

Something to keep in mind though, apart from the LP gain changes that work on new saves, is that you need to take the opportunities to level up the tech skills over other solutions (combat or speech) for example, and focus on tokens for them as well.

This is a great approach, but it is hindered by the artifical skill selection of training tokens (for example Blunt, Persuasion, Computers), which makes it likely that 1 or even 2 of the 3 skills are basically useless for the character, and the lack of trainers for every skill.

[Bill]

Originally posted by wizard1200:

Originally posted by Elhoim:

Something to keep in mind though, apart from the LP gain changes that work on new saves, is that you need to take the opportunities to level up the tech skills over other solutions (combat or speech) for example, and focus on tokens for them as well.

This is a great approach, but it is hindered by the artifical skill selection of training tokens (for example Blunt, Persuasion, Computers), which makes it likely that 1 or even 2 of the 3 skills are basically useless for the character, and the lack of trainers for every skill.

I second this opinion. Something like crisis intervention has great synergy as most of the time having all three speaking skills high can go a long way. On the other hand, unless you are playing a very specific character, having something like wizard1200 has stated might be useless to most. How about being able to "craft" a training token (e.g. with high enough computer skill)? This could be balanced by allowing to train only two of the skills if you choose this way.

[Iluvcheezcake]

Originally posted by Bill:

Originally posted by wizard1200:

This is a great approach, but it is hindered by the artifical skill selection of training tokens (for example Blunt, Persuasion, Computers), which makes it likely that 1 or even 2 of the 3 skills are basically useless for the character, and the lack of trainers for every skill.

I second this opinion. Something like crisis intervention has great synergy as most of the time having all three speaking skills high can go a long way. On the other hand, unless you are playing a very specific character, having something like wizard1200 has stated might be useless to most. How about being able to "craft" a training token (e.g. with high enough computer skill)? This could be balanced by allowing to train only two of the skills if you choose this way.

An idea - training token now AFAIK gives 600 LP total, divided into 3 skills, 200 each.
Why not give us an option to choose what to take?
For example, 200 in each talking skill (classic Crisis Intervention) or lets say 400 in persuasion and 200 in streetwise, OR all 600 in persuasion.
It would prevent skill LPs going into skills we do not use (especially if its combat oriented) and its partial waste :[

[Iluvcheezcake]

Could be tempered with Computer skill check, to "override / hack" the default choice.