A couple of patches ago, we disabled character abilities (Update 0.3.6). This patch brings them back, with a variety of improvements. When we were reworking the gear system, we decided to separate abilities from passive stats and traits, and gave them their own slots on the character. We also removed any connection to cosmetic appearance in relation to stats and abilities. The final design will have players select their cosmetics from the main menu and lobby screens, and their choices will be locked in for the duration of the match. This is so that player characters will be recognizable to each other over the course of the match. If players notice that an opponent is assassinating their team with invisibility and high damage weapons, they will be able to identify him more easily if he can’t change his skins. For now, however, we will be allowing players to change skins during the match, for testing purposes.
While Update 0.3.8’s main attraction is the return of character abilities, there are a variety of other bug fixes and improvements. Here are the full patch notes:
- Armor modding UI now displays available active armors
- Reworked HUD and BaseCharacter to support 3 active ability slots. Players can equip items in those slots and they will show up in the HUD as ability bar listings
- Disabled the “Mind Control” dev command that somehow made it into all of the builds we shipped to our alpha testers. I don’t think anyone found it, but it was there.
- Reworked death events and the respawn death screen UI to be more reliable and more modular.
- Created Hermes Active Ability, which works just like the old Hermes armor items (double movement speed for 5 seconds, with 10 second cooldown), except this one properly ends the ability if unequipped. No more super speed stacking exploit.
- Un-equipping an ability item should now end any active effects or abilities.
- Changing armor mods should now refresh your equipped armor UI more reliably
- Added grenade throwing ability (and grenades!). They do deal friendly fire damage right now, and aiming them is a bit tricky (no visualization of their trajectory yet)
- Increased character movement acceleration and deceleration to 4000 (was 2048), increased BaseSpeed for characters to 500 (was 400). This means sprinting speed is now 1000 (was 800), crouching and aiming are now 250 (was 200). Trying to get movement to feel snappier and less sluggish.
- Reduced time it takes to swap camera shoulders from 0.4 to 0.2 second
- Created DamageMultiplier stat for characters. Created new Damage Overloader active ability. Spend 5 health to overload your Damage Multiplier by 4 and deal quadruple damage!
- Added “Ogre Helmet” as a cosmetic option.
- Re-rigged the entire “Ogre” armor set to work with the new animation skeleton, and set it as the default cosmetic appearance. More cosmetic system improvements are in the works.
- Created Mana system for active armor abilities
- Headshot detection should be more generous now
- Reworked HUD so that Shields, Health, and Mana are stacked vertically
- Armor items can now grant increased mana max and mana regen. Created SmallManaGenerator item
- Added Mana stat bonuses and Ability Mana Cost to armor tooltips
- Armor Stats block now shows Mana Max and Mana Regen
- Players now retain armor colors when respawning
- Disabled Minion Command Squad Wheel. Lane minions are the new standard AI. Squad AI may return at a later date after more design discussions.
- Moved some blocks around in the LaneMap jungle to improve map flow
- Created Medium Mana Generator passive item
Known Issues
- Grenade Thrower ability deals friendly fire damage, and can even kill the player throwing the grenade. This has been fixed in Patch 0.3.9.
I hope you enjoy the addition of character abilities. We’ve got a lot more planned and I’m excited to expand Revn‘s meta in the coming weeks. I’ll be hosting our weekly community playtest and live stream on Wednesday at 5:00 pm EST, and I hope to see you there!
Silas Talley, Creative Director
