A Path Beyond APB 3.1.3.0 Changelog

[Pushwall]

  Red Alert: A Path Beyond Update     

 

[blurb]In which the "old style" Grenadier is given a new lease on life, mid-tier infantry eat their Wheaties, and the Medic is cut down to size AGAIN[/blurb]

Infantry

Health

• All non-Volkov infantry take slightly more damage from direct rocket/tank shell hits (0.3 -> 0.333)
• Health of most infantry has been increased across the board, the main exceptions being free infantry and ones that already have 100+ health:
  • Flamethrower and Spy are up to 60.
  • Thief is up to 80, but no longer has armour.
  • All 60-health infantry are up to 70.
  • All 75-health infantry are up to 80, except the Sniper who is up to 90.
• I'm sure this will be seen as fairly controversial so I'll give you my reasonings ahead of time so you don't need to ask first.

Spoiler

The only infantry that are really impacted by this are:

• Sergeants, counterbalanced by being considerably worse against vehicles, especially the Allied one whose slug no longer deals MORE damage than the primary fire.
• Flamethrowers, counterbalanced by sergeants having almost as much of a proportional increase, the existence of Medics whose gun still has comparable DPS to a captain with more chances for headshots, and their death explosion actually doing HP damage to other flamers now.
• Shock Troopers... well, in TL5 maps I almost never see them because Volkov does almost everything he does SO much better that the extra price is no object, and in TL3-4 maps Soviets seem to be in the shitter anyway (see Metro, Under, Pacthreat, Bonsai). Maybe this will help them endure!
• Mechanics, counterbalanced by not having auto-repair anymore. Auto-repair was pretty minor but its absence means they now HAVE to expose themselves to heal.
• Spies and Snipers, who are generally considered useless anyway. (I really want to find better roles for the Spy in future )
• Thieves having 80 hp but lacking armour means they get whooped by cheap infantry more easily (against rifles and shotties, 80 health without armour is equivalent to having 40 health with armour) but stand a bit more of a chance against more expensive infantry (not that they're built for combat in the first place). So this can hamper the effectiveness of the "instant thief rush" on maps like Pacthreat and Metro as low-tech defenders will have a better chance at dealing with thieves.

Captains going from 75 to 80 is pretty much negligible. For the things I left untouched:

• Medics, Tanya and Volkov are tough enough already - and all have fast regen. Don't act like you wouldn't all be running aneurysms if I gave the Medic 110-120 HP
• Repairmen don't need toughness. Suicidal engineers survive through waves of infantry enough already.
• Rocket soldiers are versatile enough that they're really damn useful even with their current paper durability.
• Rifle soldiers, well, they're free. The power gap between them and expensive infantry is just being widened. Except when it comes to suicide rushing MCTs, they're still decent at that.

 Engineer

• Golden Wrench power down by 12.5% (except when capturing)

 Flamethrower

• Death explosion now hurts health of other flamethrowers.

 Mechanic

• No longer automatically heals armour of occupied vehicles.

 Officers

• M60/PKM damage multiplier to building exteriors down (0.15 -> 0.1), DPS -33.33%
• M60/PKM damage multiplier to no-MCT buildings up (0.1875 -> 0.2), DPS +6.67%
• M60/PKM damage multiplier to heavy vehicles adjusted (0.4/0.4 health/armour -> 0.45/0.3), DPS -10%.
• M60/PKM damage multiplier to mammoth vehicles adjusted (0.275/0.275 -> 0.3/0.2), DPS -12.7%. However in both cases they handle heavily damaged (no armour - heavily into combat or tripped an AT mine) vehicles better.

 Rifle Soldiers, Medic (weapons share same warheads)

• MP5 rate of fire down (15 -> 12.5). DPS to infantry -9.1%.
• AK-47 secondary rate of fire down (10 -> 9)
• AK-47 secondary inaccuracy down (3.75 -> 2.75)
• M16 Trishot ROF up (1.5 -> 2)
• "Spray" damage penalty (used by AK-47 secondary and MP5) to hard targets reduced (-16% -> -10%). For AK-47 this changes nothing; for MP5 this means its DPS to hard targets is only -2.6%.
• M16/AK-47/MP5 damage multiplier to MCTs up (0.18 -> 0.1875). DPS +4.17% for M16/AK-47, +1.5% for MP5.

 Rocket Soldiers

• Soviet one is no longer called the "Grenadier"; he's back to being an RPG Trooper and having a Makarov as a sidearm.

 Shotgunners

• Remington slug damage vs vehicles is now always the same as dragonsbreath damage.
• TOZ flechette damage vs vehicles is now always 50% higher than dragonsbreath damage. (Previously these both had different anti-armour settings to dragonsbreath.)
• Remington/TOZ dragonsbreath damage multiplier to light/air vehicles adjusted (0.5/0.375 -> 0.6/0.3), DPS -6.7% to all the armoured ones, but +20% to Supply/Demo Trucks.
• Remington/TOZ dragonsbreath damage multiplier to heavy vehicles adjusted (0.375/0.25 -> 0.4/0.2), DPS -11.1%. However in both cases they handle heavily damaged (no armour - heavily into combat or tripped an AT mine) vehicles better.
• Remington/TOZ dragonsbreath damage multiplier to mammoth vehicles lowered (0.25/0.15 -> 0.25/0.125), DPS -11.1%.

 Spy

• Fixed bug where radio commands were showing up in the wrong colour.

 Grenadier

• Retooled into a budget anti-tank/anti-building-exterior/anti-infantry splash unit, available to both sides and does not require a Barracks.
  • Against vehicles, its damage varies. Against light vehicles, its damage is similar to the Flamethrower, but against heavier vehicles it's a little better and against mammoth vehicles it's a LOT better, but still nowhere near the power of proper anti-tank units (2 grens take a little longer to kill an ore truck than 1 RS does, but it takes 4 flamethrowers to kill it in that much time). It's a much stronger anti-tank unit than the Captain but also riskier.
  • Against building exteriors, its DPS is slightly better than a Flamethrower, though it has no MCT bonus (not that it's safe to try using it against most MCTs anyway). This is its main area of expertise, and while the RS does it better due to more damage, range and survivability, the Grenadier does it cheaper and defends itself better against infantry.
  • Against infantry, its damage potential is the same as the "RPGrenadier"'s frag grenades, except now it's available in infinite supply. This is a little worse than the flamethrower in DPS and lacks the flamer's perks of afterburn damage, cover penetration, safe CQC use and an easy arc, but is still worlds better at splashing than the LAW/RPG are.
  • Its low price of 150 credits and high movement speed give it a place at the start of the match and during desperate times if your money is low or you lack a WF and need to move fast. Before the overhaul that turned the Grenadier into an "artillery infantry", Soviets didn't really have much of a reason to buy them because Flamethrowers cost barely more than them. Should be a bit of a different case now that there's a 300 credit gap between the two units, and buying a Flamethrower before the first dump pretty much prevents you from buying ANY vehicles for a while, whereas a Gren lets you buy some vehicles and if you cause enough havoc you can even afford a HT.
  • Range is not as ridiculous as before; it can only throw as far as a Shock Trooper can shoot. So it can't outrange base defenses, rifles/captains/flamers, or any vehicle. As a result it should also be easier to detect.
  • Its main downside is a lack of armour - this renders it very vulnerable to splash damage, both its own and that of enemy tanks. This means that smart positioning is very important when dealing with enemy tanks and artillery since you can't just eat up splash damage like an RS can, trying to use them as a CQC splasher like the Flamethrower is not recommended as you'll be hurting yourself more than you hurt them, and Medics can't solve either of these problems with their armour cache. It also lacks a sidearm, so it MUST maintain some distance from infantry in order to hurt them safely.

 

Vehicles

 Light Tank

• No longer has strongpoints/weakpoints, putting it in line with other light vehicles.

 Minelayer

• Adjusted suspension a bit, shouldn't get stuck on Refill Pads anymore.
• AP mines actually kill medics now.

 Ranger

• Damage multiplier to building exteriors down (0.15 -> 0.125), DPS -16.67%
• Damage multiplier to no-MCT buildings up (0.1875 -> 0.2), DPS +6.67%
• Damage multiplier to heavy vehicles adjusted (0.4/0.4 -> 0.45/0.3375), DPS -10% (see Officers)
• Damage multiplier to mammoth vehicles adjusted (0.275/0.275 -> 0.3/0.225), DPS -12.7%

 Tesla Tank

• Damage up (210 -> 240). DPS +14.3%. Can now kill Longbows in two shots!
• Damage multiplier to buildings down (0.2 -> 0.18), DPS only +2.9%
• Damage multiplier to stealth vehicles down (1.5 -. 1.375), DPS only +4.7%

 

Aesthetics

• Added ambient sounds for MCT/new computers in base buildings.

 

Buildings

 Power Plant

• Fixed some fences that did not have collision.
• Fixed a bug that was causing players' weapons to aim strangely when indoors.

 Ore stuff

• Molten ore warhead changed from SplashFire to Fire, so it can actually hurt flamethrower infantry again.
• Silo now has a vehicle blocker on top so helis can't touch its molten ore and get perma-damaged.

 War Factory

• Old props no longer overlap with new ones in certain Soviet interior layouts.

 

Maps

• On all air maps, C4 will now disappear when placed at very high parts of Tesla Coils, Gap Generators and Ore Silos (or floating near said parts, so no C4-Longbow foolishness).

RA_Bonsai

• Removed Allies' WF turret.

RA_GuardDuty

• Raised some of the blockers around the hills.
• Most of the dirt roads are now bifurcated ala RA/various other maps.
• Shrunk a couple of trees that were frequent Yak suicide spots.

RA_Metro

• Soviet service depot is more accessible from the Barracks/War Factory sides.
• Soviet service depot has a miniature concrete wall between it and the bridge, short enough that repairing tanks can shoot at enemies on the bridge, but tall enough that it's very difficult for Allied tanks on the bridge to line up a shot against the SD itself, and impossible for caps/rifles without breaking the wall, making it harder to destroy the SD. Unfortunately, this makes it less accessible from the front, but from what I've seen the Soviet SD rarely survives long enough for Soviets to even use it, so what difference does it make?
• Removed barricades in front of the Soviet Barracks; their existence was vestigial thing from the Beta version - albeit updated with a more modern appearance - but they really just get in the way of Minelayers.
• Exposed Allied truck-side silo a bit more.

RA_Pipeline

• Sandstorm particles are 50% smaller.
• Fixed missing texture on spare pump parts.

RA_RidgeRacer

• Hopefully fixed the map timer (should be 5 minutes)

RA_Zama

• Fixed out of bounds zone not counting as a no-beacon zone.

[NodGuy]

Awesome! Can't wait to try it out.

[Alstar]

54 minutes ago, Pushwall said:

All non-Volkov infantry take slightly more damage from direct rocket/tank shell hits (0.3 -> 0.333)

Totd intensifies.

 

56 minutes ago, Pushwall said:

Retooled into a budget anti-tank/anti-building-exterior/anti-infantry splash unit, available to both sides and does not require a Barracks.

 

 

[GaryOak]

Love the changes and also love that the grenadier is back!

It will probably need some tweaking for better or worse, but thats to be expected 

I really like the idea of its new role

[Raap]

17 hours ago, Pushwall said:

RA_Pipeline

• Sandstorm particles are 50% smaller.

I'm curious, what was the reasoning here? Do large particles have some adverse effect on performance that small ones do not, or was it merely an aesthetic concern due to texture stretching (which could have been solved with the texture in use)?

My question regarding performance aside, Pipeline allowed for some scenes not really seen in W3D, like this;

I wish we had more advanced fog options on W3D as well as particle edge smoothing. Oh well! Add that to the pile of "Things-I-Wish-W3D-Had". 

 

[Pushwall]

48 minutes ago, Raap said:

I'm curious, what was the reasoning here? Do large particles have some adverse effect on performance that small ones do not, or was it merely an aesthetic concern due to texture stretching (which could have been solved with the texture in use)?

Yeah large particles harm performance. Or more accurately, it depends on how much of the screen each particle covers. It's particularly easy to notice if you buy a mammoth tank and a sniper, and scope in on the top of the mammoth's exhaust and zoom in all the way. Those are small particles obviously but if you do that, suddenly your FPS will tank until you look away or even look at the start of the exhaust where particles are even smaller and less numerous as they aren't gathering at that spot.

So dropping the size on the sandstorm helps - except during the one or two frames where they are right up against the camera. But that can't be helped.

[GaryOak]

I took a look at the rankings page today, and noticed that the allied grenadier is not considered to be a valid unit in its own right there yet

 

This ranks very low on the to do list, off course, but I thought I'd point it out. You probably knew anyway
 

Same goes for the soviet ranger

 

 

[Pushwall]

Minipatch notes for 3.1.3.1:

 Rocket Soldiers

• Redeye/Strela velocity down (500 -> 375m/s)
• Redeye/Strela range down (175 -> 170m)

 Flamethrower

• Fuel tank hitbox is less fragile (1.5x damage -> 1.25x)

 Snipers

• Enfield/Dragunov damage up (60 -> 67.5). Kinda forgot to do this along with the health updates for everything. Most importantly this is just enough to two-shot rocket soldiers on centre mass shots, there's not much else that this really affects.
• Added binoculars, to let them more easily warn the team about things they can't handle.
• Pistol removed. It's not like they need it when their rifle is good enough for CQC.
• Move speed down (6.5 -> 6). Speed just helps them killwhore and avoid death anyway and doesn't help much with defense.

 Medic

• MP5 ROF down (12.5 -> 12); overall DPS down 2.22%
• MP5 inaccuracy up (1.25 -> 1.5); forgot to actually include this previously
• Auto-regen is staggered; instead of being a constant 2.5HP/sec, it starts at 1HP/sec after 1 second, becomes 3HP/sec after 8 seconds, then 5HP/sec after 15 seconds - at which point he's regenerating as fast as a Tanya/Volkov. This is both a nerf in that it severely slows his ability to heal when in the middle of (or near) a fight, but also a buff in that he doesn't have to spend as long hiding when he's trying to fully recover from heavy damage.
• Armour cache now increases armour's damage reduction for direct hits from all "heavy" projectiles (12.5% damage reduction -> 25%). Does not affect bullet/flame/tesla weapons. Not significant but it can make a difference... except against V2s which do overkill direct damage anyway.
• Armour cache no longer stops flame weapons (Flamethrower, Flame Tower, Yak splash) from breaking armour.
• Armour cache now only restores 1 armour point per 5 seconds (was 999 armour). Of course, 1 point is still enough for all of armour's damage reduction abilities to kick in, so this mostly just prevents the cache from being used as an emergency full armour refill, makes disarming it more immediately beneficial since most weapons will break that small amount of armour almost instantly afterwards, and further incentivises flamethrowers since they can now armour-break even through the cache.

 Yak

• Range up (120 -> 140m)
• Damage to light vehicle armour up (0.9 -> 1); can now cleanly take out an Artillery in one strafe if all rounds hit.
• Splash damage up (7.5 -> 9)
• Overhauled physics and speed thresholds; speed loss while not holding W is reduced, ascent/descent speed increased, and the speed thresholds for damage/death are 2.5m/s less strict. Now you should never fall below the damage threshold unless you're not accelerating.
• "Reversing" outside the Airfield now causes gradual damage for as long as you hold the S key (10 times as much damage as slow movement) instead of instant death. This feature was originally intended to prevent backwards flying, but it also caused Yaks to die instantly if you happened to tap the S key while flying forward, even at high speeds. So now it still fills its intended purpose without causing that issue. You still shouldn't press S if you want to slow down - just let off the throttle.
• Fixed missing glass impact/bullet hole effects for the canopy.

 Refill Pad

• Simplified collision meshes, Minelayers shouldn't get stuck on them anymore.

RA_CanyonRiver

• The large plateau behind the Allied silos/bar is no longer accessible.

[Pushwall]

3.1.3.2:

RA_Pipeline

• Fixed an exploitable climbable cliff near Allied WF from which Volkov could bombard the Allied base while being unsnipable.