Patch APB 3.0.3.0 Changelog

[Pushwall]

Another patch has been released! Get more information and the changelist in the full update!

Red Alert: A Path Beyond Update

Hey everyone! Another patch has just been pushed to the launcher and server based on your feedback!

Changelist

 

GENERAL

• Mines' trigger range is increased; 4 -> 6 for AT mine, 4 -> 4.5 for AP mine. This makes it much less likely that units will be able to go directly over AT mines without triggering them, and provides more leeway for imperfect AP building mining.
• Nuke damage to mines down by 25% (0.5 -> 0.375)
• Nuke damage to Volkov up by 20% (0.125 -> 0.15). Demo blasts can actually kill him now, but they have to be pretty damn close to him as this translates to 120 damage at point blank range.
• Nuke damage to Engineers down by 25% (0.2 -> 0.15)
• Damage of Explosive weapons increased (Grenade 30 -> 35, Destroyer 75 -> 90, Missile sub 42.5 -> 45)
• Explosive warhead (used only by those 3 weapons) has been overhauled a bit:
  • Damage to buildings down 11% (0.225 -> 0.2)
  • Damage to aircraft down 17% (1.5 -> 1.25)
  • Damage to seacraft down 20% (0.5 -> 0.4)
  • Damage to concrete walls/bridges up 11% (0.45 -> 0.5)
  • Long story short, their damage to aircraft/seacraft is actually almost identical to before, they just have a bit of an easier time against everything else that they can directly hit, and take out bridges pretty quickly too. However Missile Subs now have identical DPS to Destroyers instead of just being better.

INFANTRY

• Grabbing a ladder from the top should be a little easier now.
• Volkov's AP shotgun damage down from 87.5 to 75.
• Volkov's Volktillery ROF down from 1 / 1.33 seconds to 1 / 2 seconds.
• Shock Rifle's accuracy increased; spread when standing/jogging down from 0.4 to 0.33, spread when jumping down from 2 to 1.5.
• Flamethrower's splash damage down from 30 to 27.5
• Flamethrower's accuracy increased; spread when jumping down from 5 to 3.75, sprinting down from 3.75 to 2.5, injured down from 1.5 to 1, crouching down from 0.25 to 0.1
• Flamethrowers are up to Tech Level 3 (now absent from Guard Duty)
• Remington slug velocity down from 500m/s to 375m/s.
• Remington slug accuracy decreased; spread when standing/jogging/crouching up from 0 to 0.25, spread when jumping/sprinting up from 1.25 to 1.5
• Remington slug now has a unique warhead, here's the rundown of its new properties:
  • Damage to armoured infantry down 17% (0.75 -> 0.625)
  • Damage to light/heavy vehicles up 25% (0.5 -> 0.625, 0.4 -> 0.5)
  • Damage to superheavy vehicles up 9% (0.275 -> 0.3)
  • Damage to landmines up 100% (0.5 -> 1)
  • Damage to all types/parts of buildings is now equal to the damage of the primary fire.
  • Basically it's now a little less of a close-quarter sniper clone and more of an answer to non-mammoth vehicles and AP mines. Vehicles get taken down with roughly Captain-tier efficiency but you still have to be in shotgun range.

VEHICLES

• Tesla Tank splash radius up from 5 to 7.5.
• Hind damage to heavy vehicles up by 12.5% (0.2 -> 0.225)
• Longbow damage to buildings (except defenses) up by 11% (0.18 -> 0.2)
• Longbow damage to submerged naval units up by 100% (0.1 -> 0.2)
• Destroyer/Missile Sub range up from 160 to 170.
• Naval units are worth less points (Gunboat/Attack Sub 125 -> 100, Destroyer/Missub 200 -> 150).
• Gunboats now have their depth charges controlled by an AI "turret", which automatically attacks any enemy unit (submarine or not) in a 120 degree cone starting from the back of the depth charge rack and extending out 100m in the direction of the ocean floor. Players will no longer get credit for their depth charge kills because of this, but subs will certainly be discouraged from going too deep if there are gunboats around since charges actually have range now in addition to being automated!
• To accommodate the new delivery system, the depth charge projectile has also had its behaviour overhauled:
  • Is homing, and no longer affected by gravity.
  • Projectile speed increased from 5m/s to 25m/s.
  • Rate of fire reduced: 1 / 1.25 seconds to 1 / 2.5 seconds.
  • Damage reduced from 300 (50 to surfaced) to 120 (30 to surfaced).
  • Splash damage reduced from 100 to 40 and downgraded from Artillery to Normal splash warhead (no burning, negligible armour damage). Not that it'll matter much given how few situations allow infantry to actually get hit by them.
  • Projectile Extension is gone; it doesn't need it anymore and it previously caused the charges to harmlessly clip through everything if there was any terrain nearby.
• Destroyers no longer have depth charges.

BUILDINGS

• If you attempt to stand on the insignias of the Refinery/Power Plant you will slide off. So no flares that are even harder to disarm than normal roof flares.
• Refinery ore piles now have blockers to prevent vehicles from climbing them and getting stuck.
• Flame Tower no longer has projectile extensions. This is both a blessing and a curse; it is harder to exploit around corners, but it's also easier for fast vehicles to dodge.
• Raised Flame Tower anti-vehicle range from 115 to 120 and anti-infantry range from 100 to 105 (same ranges as the Pillbox).
• Destruction of the Radar Dome prevents Tanya/Volkov from being purchased.

AESTHETICS

• Barrels using the flammable material despite not actually being destructible (Guard Duty, Ridge War, Wasteland, Zama, KOTG house) have been turned into normal ones.
• Refinery ore piles are upgraded to piles of the new ore rocks instead of lumps of dirt.
• Fixed Soviet MCV having Allied insignia in Soviet tunnel construction yard.
• Fixed various VIS errors.
• Explosion effects for Volkov's AT weapons and Gunboat cannon have been made wimpier to reinforce the idea of "hey maybe you should be using this against armour and not buildings".
• Adjusted nuclear explosion effect to be more mushroom-cloud-esque.
• Destroyer has a bigger explosion.

PERFORMANCE

• Optimised barrels in WF/Barracks/Ref/CY and various maps which were using more materials/textures/draw calls than necessary.
• Vehicle and infantry models are now pre-loaded depending on what buildings are on the map. This means that maps will take a little longer to load but there will be much less loading (and therefore much less frame stuttering) happening during a game.
• Nuclear explosion effect is less particle-heavy.

MAP CHANGES

• RA_HostileWaters is back in the game! See here for changes since the public beta.
• RA_AS_Seamist: During the endgame event, Soviet aircraft will be shot down by super-long-ranged Destroyers. Hey, it's probably better than being Gulag'd for failing and retreating.
• RA_AS_Seamist: Removed a Light Tank and Ranger from the 10-minute reinforcements.
• RA_Bonsai: Spies can infiltrate the radar dome now.
• RA_Bonsai: Water behind Allied Radar Dome hill has been made too deep for units to traverse safely.
• RA_Bonsai: Allied defenses shuffled; Turret on Radar Dome hill is now a Pillbox, the Missile Silo Pillbox is moved closer to the Refinery, and the frontal Pillbox is now a Turret and is moved back to the Service Depot,
• RA_Bonsai: Put a no-beacon zone in the Allied ore tunnel.
• RA_CamosCanyon: Added a Pillbox/Flame Tower on top of each side's ore hill.
• RA_CamosCanyon: Made the big rock by the Soviet ore field bigger.
• RA_Fissure: Barracks gives no points for damaging/repairing, but gives twice as many points for destruction as normal (500).
• RA_GuardDuty: Added an extra pillbox to the Allied Ore Silo side.
• RA_KeepOffTheGrass: Placed vehicle blocker around a sticky tree stump near the Allied WF side supply truck.
• RA_ForestOfIllusion: Cyborg Commando health down from 200 (player) / 500 (AI) to 150 (player) / 375 (AI)
• RA_ForestOfIllusion: Cyborg Commando move speed down from 5.5 to 5.
• RA_ForestOfIllusion: Cyborg Commando kill points down from 1000 to 500.
• RA_ForestOfIllusion: Temporal trigger items can now take anywhere between 1-6 minutes to spawn (was 1-2).
• RA_ForestOfIllusion: Walking into the Chronosphere will now warp you back to the graveyard surface.
• RA_Under: Removed the Flame Tower overlooking the Sub Pen/Barracks dock.
• RA_Under: Replaced power plant with radar dome.
• RA_Under: Removed gap generator.
• RA_Under: Replaced tesla coil with 2 flame towers.
• RA_Under: Removed archway over Soviet base entrance, giving Artillery more freedom to hit things around it.
• RA_Under: Moved Allied rear pillbox and shuffled some rocks so that it's hopefully more useful.
• RA_Under: Deepened water behind the island.
• RA_Under: Removed deep snow as mines laid inside it were nigh-indestructible.
• RA_Under: Removed Underlying Thoughts and added Creeping Upon to jukebox.
• RA_Wasteland: Barracks gives no points for damaging/repairing, but gives twice as many points for destruction as normal (500).

 

---

Get to the launcher and grab the patch! Be on the lookout for more updates, and we hope to see you on the battlefield!

[Alstar]

 

<insert several changes about infantry, vechs, map changes etc>

[TK-421]

Great thanks for removing one of the purposes why DD's are used (ASW) in RA 1 AND real life.

[Pushwall]

Sorry, would it have been better to make the gunboat redundant by giving the destroyer the newer more useful depth charges, or leave the old depth charge logic in for the destroyer and get barraged by people asking why the destroyer hasn't been updated? Balance and consistency trump realism I'm afraid.

[delta]

Where is the hidden image link? WHERE IS IT? I KNOW THERE IS ONE.

[Einstein]

Actually....as of posting this (before Pushwall gets cute and edits one in ) there isn't one

[Pushwall]

There was actually a hidden link for something already ingame before because I copied an older post.

[Raap]

 

• RA_HostileWaters is back in the game! See here for changes since the public beta.

 

Hope it is enjoyable. Did anything get changed after I handed the files over (besides the overlooked barrels and a twig)?

 

As for the depth charge changes, no comment, I'd have to see it in action first (which is difficult for me, atm). I will say that, besides targeting issues and explosions randomly ignoring targets or doing 1/4th of the damage, I never had any other issues with depth charges. (Come to think of it, that really was/is way too many issues for one weapon...)

Edited March 5, 2016 by Raap

[Pushwall]

Hope it is enjoyable. Did anything get changed after I handed the files over (besides the overlooked barrels and a twig)?

Nope. Well, besides for de-temping a few things.

[GeneralCamo]

Great thanks for removing one of the purposes why DD's are used (ASW) in RA 1 AND real life.

If you want realism, Gunboats would be called Destroyers, Destroyers would be called Frigates or Cruisers, and Cruisers would be called Battlecruisers or Battleships. But this is a game, not real-life.

[FRAYDO]

Where is the hidden image link? WHERE IS IT? I KNOW THERE IS ONE.

I like your Easter profile pic

[TK-421]

 

Great thanks for removing one of the purposes why DD's are used (ASW) in RA 1 AND real life.

If you want realism, Gunboats would be called Destroyers, Destroyers would be called Frigates or Cruisers, and Cruisers would be called Battlecruisers or Battleships. But this is a game, not real-life.

 

 

Actually cruisers would still be cruisers due to them 8in guns and their size (even though the Iowa class portrays them in cutscenes) and Gunboats would be either a corvette or Patrol boat the Destroyers eh depends on how big it is.

[TK-421]

Thanks for making Under Allied BIASED (recently on it and lost) who's idea was it to remove it reverse it it's like removing the OL from Under in TSR and Vanilla, I understand removing the Gap Gen.

[Pushwall]

 

How can you be so sure it's biased from two games that weren't even won by the same team?

[Einstein]

BOTH OF THOSE POINTS REPRESENT BIAS

[SarahNautili]

I will say the match I played of Under earlier felt a lot better (even though I was on the losing soviet) because I felt less helpless. No gap made assaulting the Allied base a thing we could actually pull off even after our war factory was long dead - and the Allies had a lot less trouble pulling off rushes of their own.

 

Honestly the only reason we lost is because they beat us to the first building destruction, too, not because of anything that felt like map bias in their favor.

[Pushwall]

Also, before this patch, Under was the most Soviet-biased map with Soviets winning about 70-75% of games. I'm curious how TK's suggestion of bringing the coil back but not the gap gen would make it less biased.

Hell, Soviets at least get something to replace their lost tesla coil (2 frontal flame towers). Allies don't get anything except the defenses that they already had.

it it's like removing the OL from Under in TSR and Vanilla

Why do you want it to play out exactly the same old boring way as those? APB isn't meant to be a mindless reskin of Renegade anyway.

[Alstar]

Honestly, playign as Allies on Under feels now way better. Field control is not really that soviet biased after changes to Serg, and soviets have no real safe zone where they are almost invulnerable - in the shadow of the coil. Even after it replacement, i can say that those 2 flame towers are doing their job in base defense quite well. In one of matches i played yesterday allies actually won, but soviets were close to base destruction aswell. Im looking forward to see how changes will affect map balance.

[Pushwall]

Yeah I caught some of that match from IRC and both teams were destroying buildings left and right (if you mean the one with all the banter about giving the Soviet WF a makeover after you destroyed it). It didn't look one-sided at all, Allies just happened to destroy a little more.

 

Of course, we'll have to see a lot more matches to see how it plays out, but I feel like it can easily go either way now that the defenses for both sides are much weaker.

[Alstar]

Yeah, exactly that one That was a decent match honestly, with equal chances for both teams to win.

[harvester]

Is killing soviet aircrafts in Seamist endgame necessary? And cyborg commando???

[FRAYDO]

It really drives the feeling of helplessness home. Failure is not an option, comrade.

[ganein14]

What would happen if the killing blow was dealt to the radar dome while the cruisers were shelling the soviets? Would they still lose even if it was there last building?

[Pushwall]

The radar dome becomes invulnerable when the cruiser event starts so that shouldn't be a concern.