[2021] UPDATE 34 - Hotfix 3 + ELITE PLANS & CHANGES

Hello Miners!
With Update 34 we introduced a new enemy modification system that allows us to change some of the base properties of an enemy such as movement speed, health and damage resistances. With this we created the Elite variants of many of the foes you can encounter in the caves of Hoxxes. These Elite enemies are mainly encountered when playing missions with the Elite Threat warning but can also occasionally appear in the base game as well.

Since their introduction we have received a lot of feedback from you and we are continuously working on the system and tweaking the Elite enemies based on your feedback and our own playtests. As always, this is an ongoing and iterative process and we will continue working on this until it feels good. Your constructive feedback is an integral part of this process so thanks, and keep it up!

One of the things we have realised is that we need to more clearly communicate what we are trying to achieve with the Elite Enemies. The intention is not to create new enemy variants such as the Oppressor or the Glyphid Slasher and Guard but to instead modify the existing enemies in a way that can occasionally disrupt the flow of combat. Rest assured that we will continue to make new enemy types and variants, the elites are not intended to replace that.

Elites are designed to run with the pack and push through the players defence, or present an immediate and un-ignorable threat, or to displace the players forcing a momentary change in position and tactics. This is not possible without making them harder to kill. We want them to be the last ones standing, the bug heroes going toe to toe with the dwarves (if only for a little while). To do this they need time in which to make their presence felt.

ELITE CHANGES WITH HOTFIX 3
That said we were scaling Elite health a bit too aggressively and we have with hotfix 3 reduced the health scaling with a factor 0.2 for Hazard 4 and 5. Furthermore we have removed the Oppressor as an Elite, since we felt it didn’t really work.

ELITE CHANGES IN UPCOMING HOTFIXES
We are right now developing more ways in which we can improve Elite survivability besides just increasing health. We are looking into enhancing the strength of each Elite enemy such as unbreakable armor for Grunt Guards and Praetorians, and giving Mactera Spawn more evasiveness. Likewise we are expanding the ways in which we can modify their behaviour and attacks so that they bring a bit more to the fight while still being the same enemy at the core, and balancing the elemental resistances and temperature scaling to not break builds focused on elemental weapons and damage.

We’ll have more tweaks and changes in the upcoming hotfixes and look forward to hearing what you think. Together we forge tomorrow. Rock and Stone!

With Love,
The Ghost Ship Crew

--- PATCH NOTES ---
- Fixed a bug that made Platform Gun Platforms carve into terrain, ejecting minerals. (So changed it back to the way it was in U33)
- Fixed a bug that caused Ice Platform Plants in Glacial Strata to carve into terrain.
- Fixed ebonuts being in wrong state if joining a mission after some of them have been collected
- Fixed a bug that caused the impact sound from the Drillers axe to multiply for Clients
- Fixed issue with wave music sometimes not stopping correctly.
- Fixed enemy waves able to trigger while fighting dreadnought in deep dives.
- Reduced Elite Enemies health scaling on Hazard 4 and Hazard 5
- Removed Elite Oppressor.


[WEAPON TWEAKS]
- Moved the Projectile Velocity Transfer mechanic from the base weapon to optional upgrades (Disabled Inertia Inhibitor) on both the PGL and Platform Gun