Alpha Changelog for next test

[Abbysynth]

Lots of new stuff added! Here's some highlights:

* Tunnels!

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Hivelords can now build tunnels on ground map turfs. It effectively works like a two-way vent system, allowing xenos to travel between two points. It takes some time to crawl through, and size DOES matter - large xenos take much longer to crawl, while larva go through near-instantly. The ground map also spawns with 2 tunnels that lead from the cave system down into the jungle.

* New multi-deck Sulaco!

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The Sulaco has now been split into two Z-levels, with the hangar moved downstairs. There's also a telecomms suite, spare armory, morgue, research labs, and mechanic stations.

* Corporate Liason job!

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The Corporate Liason is the go-to between Weyland Yutani and the USCM. Currently they are not a whitelisted job, but that may change in the future. It is an RP-heavy occupation so don't take it if your RP skills suck.


* Sticky resin!

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Any builder xenos can now plant sticky resin, which slows down any humans who walk over it. Like other resins it can be destroyed in various ways.



Plus a whole load of balance tweaks and bugfixes, including:

* Nerfed Queen, damn was she powerful. Shriek sound fixed as well.
* Xeno health regen lowered in general
* Queens, Ravagers, and especially Praetorians now have armor deflection that scales with damage. Use high damage weapons to penetrate their armor more often - M39s just won't cut the mustard anymore.
* Grenade launchers can now carry 5 grenades, and stop you from shooting anything less than 3 tiles from yourself.
* Specialist defense armor relocated to their "premium" item list - but are seriously buffed, and come equipped with 2 on-board tricordrazine injectors.
* Hugger infection time and paralysis tweaked, symptoms show up later, disease progresses slightly differently - you can hide it from people longer now.
* Survivors should now spawn with flashlights.
* Engineer and Specialist rooms are separated.


Plus..











Wait for it...

► Show Spoiler

Ohhhh snap

[Fire and Glory]

What am I looking at that's snapping then?

[MrJJJ]

*passes out from amazing*

[paradox1I7]

http://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/13738 ... _large.jpg

[paradox1I7]

general question time, with the smart gun at the bottom. I'm assume its required to wear all pieces of equipment shown to use the weapon yes?
will it be a auto target locking weapon or something like that? if so how would it work?
And final question will this be a weapon available to squads in the specialist area or something like that?

[Sargeantmuffinman]

HOLY SHIT A SMART GUN

[Anon McAnon]

>Corporate Liason

fuck the smartgun put me on the eventual whitelist

[Sargeantmuffinman]

Also add soup.

[Abbysynth]

general question time, with the smart gun at the bottom. I'm assume its required to wear all pieces of equipment shown to use the weapon yes?
will it be a auto target locking weapon or something like that? if so how would it work?
And final question will this be a weapon available to squads in the specialist area or something like that?

Smartgun works a little different than the movies. Here's how it currently works, though it may be changed or tweaked in the future:

* It works as a specialist heavy weapon choice. You get the crate out of the premium items list in your vendor, which contains the gun, combat harness, eyepiece and powerpack (Not shown, whoops. It's a backpack.)
* The smartgun can't be picked up without the harness on, and it can't be fired without both harness and powerpack. The eyepiece is optional.
* The armor works like a slightly crappier version of the regular marine armor, but it also slows you down when worn like the riot armor.
* The powerpack stores 200 rounds of ammo and a power cell, which powers the whole shebang. The smartgun itself has an internal ammo belt which carries 40 rounds at a time.
* When you wear the powerpack, an icon appears in the top left corner of the screen. When you click it and stand still, you begin feeding a new ammo belt into the smartgun. There are no magazines or any other way of reloading. There is no way to reload a powerpack's ammo, but you can get a new one out of your vendor if you run completely dry.
* The smartgun requires two hands to fire, like any other weapon. It does not track targets, but it DOES fire through anyone holding or wearing an ID, allowing you to hose down an area without fear of friendly fire. The weapon effectively nudges the aim away from friendlies for you.
* The eyepiece works as a short-range night vision goggles, plus can be toggled on and off using another icon in the top left corner.

So because the powerpack and armor setup require you to give up some critical equipment (backpack, marine armor) using the smartgun it's crucial to have team mates around who can carry your stuff for you, particularly since the smartgunner moves slowly compared to everyone else.

[TopHatPenguin]

Love it already Mmmm.I can almost smell the bullets flying everywhere.

[paradox1I7]

whats it like on the damage side of the spectrum? because obviously you are going to be stuck with this and maybe a light side arm of some kind, so I'm assuming lugging this beast around will pay off with dishing out some major hurt?

[Abbysynth]

whats it like on the damage side of the spectrum? because obviously you are going to be stuck with this and maybe a light side arm of some kind, so I'm assuming lugging this beast around will pay off with dishing out some major hurt?

The smartgun does moderate damage itself, but has very quick firing rate. It's effectively the damage of an M41 with the firing rate of the M39. It also has slightly more armor pierce than the damage would suggest.

[UnknownMurder]

I'm not impressed.

When's the next testing?

[Fickmacher]

>Survivors now spawn with flashlights.
Well, I'm sold now.

[Felkvir]

There is much more stuff than this, i bet ...

[TopHatPenguin]

There is much more stuff than this, i bet ...

Probably.

[Butterrobber202]

I wovz

[Screamingstar]

So we should expect the Alpha to be fully up around July the 10th?

Also when is the next test?