A Path Beyond APB 3.2.1.0 Changelog

[Pushwall]

 Red Alert: A Path Beyond Update The shotgun/volkov overhaul is done, hope it works out! Next on my plate is some more map fixer-uppers. In the future, expect to see RockTrap revisited as a Fissure-esque barracks/silo map, and Coastal Influence set up so that boats/missile subs can actually attack things going around the ocean side of the central island!

General

• Replaced the incredibly low quality team icons on target boxes with higher-quality RA team flags.
• Reduced frequency of texture cleanup calls (so more performance boosts)
• Sun dazzle actually works now (it was broken the whole past 2 years). Be wary of this beast on sunrise/sunset maps.

 

Infantry

 Engineer

• Mine detection radius reduced (37.5m -> 32m)
• Number of Clearing Charges reduced (5 -> 3)
• Clearing Charge damage to hedgehogs doubled.

 Shock Trooper

• Move speed up (6.5 -> 7m/s)
• Bonus damage vs MGGs increased; now lands a 3-hit kill.

 Shotgunners

• Removed the original secondary firing modes.
• Sergeant's Remington primary is overhauled; it's still dragonsbreath, and is somewhat weaker per shot than the original (-17.5% armoured damage, -45% unarmoured damage), but instead of causing burn damage, it now melts through infantry kevlar rapidly (armour shredding up from 75% to 200%) - making it twice as good at this as the previous armour-shredding top dogs were (the Captain and Flamethrower).
• Starshina's TOZ primary is overhauled; it is now buckshot which acts more like the original dragonsbreath, having medium range and accuracy, but not burning. Combat-wise it acts pretty much the opposite of the Sergeant's dragonsbreath, dealing damage like a pistol; armour penetration and shredding ability are very poor, so performance against armoured infantry is not amazing, especially from midrange where it doesn't burn anymore, but it improves significantly when facing an enemy that lacks armour, like Tanya. (-2.5% armoured damage, +30% unarmoured damage)
• TL;DR these guys are pretty heavily specced towards taking out the enemy commandos, but are a little worse at general combat than before, especially at mid-range.
• Accuracy is now more heavily affected by crouching/jumping (jump inaccuracy up from 4 -> 6, crouch inaccuracy down from 2.75 -> 2)
• Starshina TOZ tracers are smaller than before and do not have the "bullet whiz" sound attached.

 Volkov

• Points value increased (100 -> 125)
• AT cannon range up (90 -> 120m)
• AT cannon ROF up (0.75/sec -> 1)
• AT cannon damage down (70 -> 50)
• AT cannon now uses the same warhead as the Light Tank; this means that it now suffers a damage penalty against the armour of heavy vehicles (Medium Tank, Minelayer) and especially against super-heavy (APC, Ore Truck), but its DPS to buildings is now a little better than the previous Kovtillery (+3%) instead of the terrible damage of the original AT cannon (which took 2 Volkovs to equal the DPS of one rocket soldier).
• Kovtillery no longer exists as the AT cannon now fills the roles of both previous AT modes.
• Shotgun ROF up (1.5/sec -> 2)
• Shotgun damage up (45 -> 50)
• Shotgun inaccuracy down (3 -> 2)
• Shotgun range up (60m -> 70m)
• Shotgun tracers are smaller than before and do not have the "bullet whiz" sound attached.
• Napalm grenades have a delayed explosion at close quarters again. You might want to rely more on the shotgun in such circumstances.
• Napalm grenade splash radius up (10 -> 12m)
• Napalm grenade range up (100 -> 105m)
• Movement speed way down (7.5 -> 6m/s)

 

Vehicles APC

• Armour shredding up (100% -> 150%)

 Artillery

• Points distribution changed; gives 75 points for being killed and 25 points for damage (was 50/50).
• Price down (900 -> 750).
• Damage credit rewards actually reflect its price being increased from 600 now (Soviets get 75 credits for killing it and 75 for doing 300 HP of damage to it, instead of 60 credits each)

 Phase Tank

• No longer has the special armour class that receives extra damage from tesla weapons; that weakness is exclusive to the Mobile Gap Generator now.

 Ranger

• Special armour class that slightly resists tesla damage has returned.

 V2 Launcher

• Points distribution changed; gives 75 points for being killed and 25 points for damage (was 50/50).
• Fixed missile on snow camo still being visible after firing.
• Fixed snow camo variant being considered a "bot-usable" vehicle.

 

Maps

All snow maps

• Fixed rooftop snow being immune to damage on buildings that got new rooftop access routes.

Antlion

• Removed Engineer crate.
• Added Flamethrower infantry and Shock Trooper crates.

[blurb]The shotgun/volkov overhaul is done, hope it works out! Next on my plate is some more map fixer-uppers. In the future, expect to see RockTrap revisited as a Fissure-esque barracks/silo map, and Coastal Influence set up so that boats/missile subs can actually attack things going around the ocean side of the central island![/blurb]

[blurb]The shotgun/volkov overhaul is done, hope it works out! Next on my plate is some more map fixer-uppers. Expect to see RockTrap revisited as a Fissure-esque barracks map, and Coastal Influence set up so that boats/missile subs can actually attack things going around the ocean side of the central island![/blurb]

[thumb]thumb_apb.f.png[/thumb]

[Mojoman]

Why the Engineer Clearing Charges reduction?

[Pushwall]

6 minutes ago, Mojoman said:

Why the Engineer Clearing Charges reduction?

Too easy for Soviets to clear mines compared to how long it takes Allies to set them up.

[Mojoman]

Was there any change to building damage for Starshina? Just jumped into a game and it seemed like the MCT damage was pretty high.

[Pushwall]

6 minutes ago, Mojoman said:

Was there any change to building damage for Starshina? Just jumped into a game and it seemed like the MCT damage was pretty high.

Nope, it's the same as what it's been since the last time I tweaked the shotguns' MCT damage; I forget when that was but it was many versions ago. These new shotgun modes have the same total base damage and damage multipliers as the old dragonsbreath, except against infantry where they're different, so they should be behaving exactly the same as they used to against non-infantry.

[Mojoman]

Just now, Pushwall said:

 so they should be behaving as they used to

Knowing this engine, you could add a piece of foliage to a map and it would cause Yaks to appear and shoot nukes.

[Pushwall]

20 minutes ago, Mojoman said:

Knowing this engine, you could add a piece of foliage to a map and it would cause Yaks to appear and shoot nukes.

Hence the "should".  I just took a look and they seem to be damaging MCTs at the same rate as they used to, which may look a bit high, but that's kind of the idea. I've always felt one of the purposes of the shotgunners should be for staging comebacks - you always have a strong, cheap infiltrator no matter how far on the back foot you are. Of course it helps to also have a transport for them, the means to keep your base safe while some sergeants are infiltrating, or have better infiltrators like flamer or Tanya, so it's not always easy to make said comebacks from a position where you're missing buildings - just more feasible than in say Reborn where all the cheap/free no-barracks infantry tickle buildings so a match where both teams have no production is doomed to be a 20 minute waiting game. The recent reductions in defender's advantage (i.e. no purchasing things while in combat) further mitigate that issue too.

[des1206]

Like the new changes. Just one thing, if Volkov is supposed to be the infantry equivalent of the Mammoth, he should have a harder time against fast and nimble units than say the Shock / TT, which is hit/scan. Maybe lower his ROF (but hold DPS constant) to make missed shots costly? This will further differentiate him from the shock.

[Pushwall]

He's already getting more damage less ROF next patch, in practice the stats above don't work out too well.

Actually I'm reverting him to how he was before the patch but with a couple of nerfs, until we can figure out how to really deal with him (or maybe we'll just leave that as it is if it works out).

[Pushwall]

3.2.1.2: Reverted some stuff until we can get the new stuff right (if ever).

Volkov is now back to his old self, but with the following changes:

• Points reward up from 100 to 125 (same as last patch)
• Only moves at average speed (rifle soldier speed) instead of fast (tanya/starshina etc speed)
• Price up from 1500 to 1750
• Volktillery range reduced from 170 to 150m

Shock Trooper is also back to his old slow speed.

Small Sniper tweaks:

• Now has perfect accuracy when standing - not too significant as its standing inaccuracy before was already 1/5th of what a crouching rifle soldier had, but now you just only have to worry about the delay and drop and nothing else.
• Price down to 500

[delta]

Mmm, so I kinda skimmed over the past few changelogs and didn't see anything about this...when did the Supply Truck and Cargo Truck have their reverse move left-right scheme switched around? I'm assuming it's the same story for the Demo Truck and maybe the Ranger as well...why the change and why only for wheeled vehicles?

[Pushwall]

Are you sure it's not just always been that way? No change in that department has ever been consciously made on my end for those vehicles and the reverse steering of the supply truck is exactly the same now as it was in Gamma, Beta, etc. It's the gunboat/destroyer and forklift that steer differently since they use rear wheel steering. If the ST reverse steering ever became different then it must have been a scripts bug that occurred behind the scenes and then got fixed behind the scenes.

[delta]

I'm pretty sure it wasn't like this before...I dunno, unless someone wants to contradict me?