Je n’ai pas vocation à faire du Carnet d’un stratège un site d’actualité, mais je souhaite mettre en avant les nouveautés concernant les jeux évoqués sur le blog.
USC Counterforce continue son bout de chemin, avec aujourd’hui une nouvelle mise à jour majeure. Comme indiqué dans la seconde partie de mon AAR Opération Noël, ce patch ajoute du nouveau contenu dont :
- Un nouvel environnement, Hydroponics, décliné en deux types de cartes : Le laboratoire et le site d’hydro-ingénierie. Cet environnement ajoute une mécanique d’inondation, recouvrant le niveau d’eau jusqu’aux genoux et ralentissant les mouvements des soldats comme des ennemis. Conséquence évidente de la présence d’eau, les incendies auront moins d’impact sur votre mission mais votre lance-flamme ou bio-rifle fonctionnera nettement moins bien.
- Un nouvel ennemi volant, l’Acidya. Sorte de grosse mouche non impactée par les inondations, qui attaque à distance avec un jet d’acide à effet de zone. On imagine bien son degré d’insupportabilité en zone inondée.
- Enfin, les développeurs ont ajouté un nouveau moyen de débloquer l’équipement. C’est une excellente nouvelle, j’avais justement évoqué ma déception quant au précédent système de progression dans mon article de présentation.
Le changelog complet. Pour en savoir plus sur USC Counterforce, sa page steam.
USC:CF v0.60.0a, build 240122
NEW
- New environment type/theme: Hydroponics
- 2 new Single Mission map types:
- Hydroponic labs (Base)
- Hydro-engineering level (Mines)
- New environmental modifier: flooding
- The whole map is flooded with water at waist-height, imposing unique effects on gameplay
- It is only available in the new “Hydro-engineering level” Single Mission map, and in specific missions in the new Operation for now
- Units and objects don’t receive fire buildup and cannot catch fire by any means
- Movement AP cost is increased by 3 for Marines, and by 1 for all non-levitating/non-flying Aliens
- Jumping AP cost is increased by 4 by grid for Marines
- No scorpions, skitters, swarmers, leeches (Reaper Mothers don’t lay leech eggs at all) — wurms, wormpigs, and crawlers can swim, though!
- Dispersion attacks (Flamethrower “Disperse”, Bio-rifle “Cloud spray”), and item dispersion actions (e.g. “spill Hydrazine”) are not available
- New Operation: “Hydroponic hell”
- A 3-mission Operation that takes places in the new Hydroponics environment
- New enemy: Acidya
enemy pool (Horde balance has been readjusted accordingly)
- A flying, agile, insect-like alien that deals a large amount of acid damage with its ranged attacks
- Does not appear in all old Operation missions retroactively, but part of the Single Mission/DTB
- New gear progression mechanic: Gear Tokens
- You can acquire Gear Tokens for completing a game in any non-Campaign mode, based on Difficulty
- You can spend them to unlock additional gear on demand during Squad Assembly (profile-wide)
- You can still directly unlock items by completing the respective challenge (and also earn Gear Tokens)
- New armor items:
- Extra armor plating MKII
- Advanced combat helmet
- AW boots
- These cost more than their regular counterparts, but offer better protection and more mobility (less AP reduction)
- Can be unlocked for purchasing by playing the new Operation (or with Gear Tokens), or for crafting (boots and helmet only) through Defend the Base! mode
CHANGES
- The Xmas 2023 event is now over!
- Players who have collected the required amount of presents during the event will receive the following exclusive unlocks:
- 100+ presents: “Rambo Ducky” squad logo
- 125+ presents: “Golden Ducky” yellow squad livery
- 150+ presents: A Commanducky-inspired, modified Assault rifle, the “Quacker” (simultaneously better and worse than the default AR, see if it suits your needs! 😀 Quack!)
- Wunderwurms no longer wear a Santa hat, but are refusing to leave 😉
- No more Xmas trees and presents on maps
- Don’t be sad if you haven’t gotten all rewards, they will be back next Xmas!
- You can now use ground lock to target hydrazine pools and other volatile substances under other objects (previously you could only target these under enemy units)
- Wunderwurms, Shadow Envoys, and Greater Shadow Envoys are now displayed with a purple marker when bio-scanning them in the FoW
- The pathfinder will now take hazardous alien auras into account (where possible) if the “prioritize safest path” option is on (default)
- Slightly reduced the speed of some of the Organ Shepherd’s animations
- DTB: light emitted from a damaged Light pillar will no longer flicker (i.e. it stays fully on until the pillar is destroyed)
BALANCE CHANGES
- Scoring & rewards:
- Increased “Hardcore” session type score multiplier to 1.35x (from 1.25x) in DTB & Single Mission modes
- Added a small score multiplier (1.1x) for “Not a drill!” sessions in Single Mission mode
- Session type now also affects gained Profile XP in Operations mode
- Successful DTB games grant 5x more XP
- Readjusted Hard difficulty for a better curve (somewhat easier now “on paper”–with all the new recent hazards, it’s still harder than ~6 months ago)
- Jumping in areas with an ongoing depressurization (0 < Atmosphere < 100) now costs +4 per grid (similar to jumping in water)
FIXES
- Fixed a bug where changing the ammo subtype when the current clip/magazine was currently empty (but a subtype is being used otherwise), extra APs for unloading would be spent
- Fixed a bug where on the completion of a two-squad Single Mission the squads were awarded different sets of weapon prototypes
- Fixed a bug where it was impossible to get a prototype version of the Bio-rifle
- Fixed a regression in the Tutorial where you couldn’t select specific items when instructed to in Part 2 (Squad Assembly)
- Fixed the damage effects on some recently added props
- DTB: fixed a bug where the deploypad could be removed by dispersing hydrazine onto it with a Flamethrower, resulting in a game blocking issue in the next Construction phase
- DTB: fixed a bug where the game could hang on the saving screen at the start of the Defense phase when playing on “Not a drill!” or “Hardcore”
- DTB: fixed a bug where session type was not always properly set when starting a new game
- DTB: fixed a bug where the subsurface scanner was not visible after the Defense phase unless reloading the game
- DTB: fixed a bug where Wunderwurms couldn’t retreat if had teleported to an enclosed area, forcing the player to hunt them down way beyond the phase deadline
- DTB: fixed a bug where movement didn’t cost +1 AP in windy weather
- DTB: fixed a few small issues with crafting material rewards (particularly in 2 or 1+1 squads modes)
- Additional minor UI fixes