We will be soon releasing our next update in the Hyper Scape Lab – the next big patch is planned to drop on January 26 on all platforms. As was the case with previous updates, our goal with this patch is too continue developing and refining new ways for people to learn and improve key skills for our super fast-paced FPS experience.

As a quick refresher, the Hyper Scape Lab is what we’re calling this current phase of development where we’ve broken the dev team into autonomous development cells focused creating features and improvements based upon the following areas (one cell per pillar): - Combat - Onboarding - Game Modes - Player Goals - Crossplay - World - Shop

DISCLAIMER: As always with game development, all the features and dates mentioned below are subject to change. It might happen that some things take a bit more (or less!) time to be developed and released so we’ll make sure to update you all if that’s the case.

January Update Details

These are highlights of what’s coming in our next update, currently planned for January 26!

COMBAT

With the January Lab Update we are bringing several modifications that will globally decrease the level of aim-assist in the game. The biggest change is on the effective range of the bullet magnet. For most weapons, we are reducing the range at which bullet magnet is active. With this change we want to remove the “aimbot” feeling players had when using weapons with a high rate of fire at long distance – especially the Harpy or the Ripper. The effective ranges were almost halved for most weapons, and this is a good first step at making the aim assist feel less aggressive at long ranges. The second change we made is reducing the size of the “head” volume used by our bullet magnet system. This will reduce the amount of headshots that will be registered once the bullet magnet system kicks in. This is noticeable especially at medium and long range. This should fix the unusually high ratio of critical headshots some of the weapons made. Lastly, all bullet magnet modifiers were flatten out for all platforms. This ensures we have a global behavior that is the same for all players whatever hardware they play on, while globally reducing aim-assist for both consoles and PC controller.

-The Combat Cell

GAME MODES

CROWN RUSH SOLO AND CROWN RUSH SQUAD @ 60 PLAYERS

Starting January 26, the maximum number of players for our Crown Rush Solo and Crown Rush Squad modes will be set to 60 players. The zone closing and sector decay flow has been adapted to take into account this lower maximum player count, in line with what we’ve already implemented with Crown Rush Duo. Our goal with this change is to make it easier to get full lobbies.

TEAM DEATH MATCH (BETA) – START LOADOUT AND DEDICATED CHALLENGES

As was the case before the Holidays, Team Deathmatch has continued to prove a popular mode amongst Hyper Scape players. The mode is still in Beta though, and as for previous Hyper Scape Lab updates we are still iterating on several elements of our TDM experience.

The January Lab update will bring one big change to Team Deathmatch in Hyper Scape, as all players will now start TDM matches with the same loadout of one gun and one Hack. We implemented this change to alleviate the issue of players getting fragged in the first moments of the game before they had time to collect gear but also to make sure that all players have the same chance at the beginning of a TDM match.

• All contenders in the match start with the same weapon/hack loadout
• The weapon and hack are randomly chosen from a set list:
  • Weapon List:
    • Hexfire
    • Riot One
    • D-Tap
    • Dragonfly
    • Harpy
    • Mammoth MK I
    • Ripper
    • Skybreaker
    • Salvo EPL
    • Komodo
    • Atrax
  • Hacks List:
    • Ball
    • Invulnerable
    • Slam
    • Invisibility
    • Wall
    • Teleport
    • Shockwave

On top of this big change, we are also bringing several other improvements to TDM, including dedicated in-game challenges. Starting January 26th, players will have 3 Recurring Challenges for Crown Rush modes and 3 additional Recurring Challenges for Team Deathmatch. This will allow players to be rewarded regardless of the mode they choose to play.

-The Game Modes Cell

ARCADIUM BETA (FREE ROAM) SQUAD SUPPORT

The Arcadium Free Roam mode that we introduced back in November is the perfect destination for players who want to improve their aiming and navigation skills. We’re super happy that starting January 26, players will be able to enjoy all the content of Arcadium – shooting on bots and drones, navigation activities – with their Squad!

• Squads in Arcadium
  • Form a squad then load into the Arcadium training mode
  • Hunt each other across a free-roam Neo Arcadia
  • Use Party Chat to continue communicating with each other

-The Onboarding Cell

GAME MODE ACTIVITY INDICATOR AND LOBBY WAITING TIME

Game Mode Activity indicator on Play Menu

Activity levels will now appear on each of the Game Mode panels within the Play Menu referencing how long it will take to find a match of that game mode. If the wait time is short, the activity level will be referenced as High. The following levels can be displayed: - Very High Activity - High Activity - Moderate Activity - Low Activity Players will now have a frame of reference for how long to expect to wait based on the Activity level within a mode. For example, if the player chooses to play a mode with Low Activity, they may be more prepared to wait longer to find a match of that specific mode.

Display Estimated Wait Time for Matchmaking

Players will now be advised how long to expect to wait before finding a match of the game mode of their choosing. For example, we have seen lots of players cancel Matchmaking after waiting for 60 seconds even if the time to find a match is around 120s. If players had known they needed to wait only one more minute, they may not have cancelled. Additionally, when players cancel matchmaking, they are extending the total wait times for other players, so we hope to see the wait times drop also.

Now players will be greeted with two new additional pieces of info while matchmaking: - Total time looking for a match (a counter counting upwards) - The expected time to find a match (different for each game mode)

Please note that the time shown is just an estimate, and it is possible to wait longer than what is displayed.

-The Player Goals Cell

MARKETPLACE

With the January Lab update we are bringing brand new items in the Hyper Scape Marketplace. Starting Jan 26th, players will be able to discover and purchase new cosmetics, including new Champions and new weekly bundles.

__-The Marketplace Cell __