Patch Notes 0.9.2

The development and operations teams have focused on a wide range of adjustments to improve the overall pacing and feel of the game. This patch includes more than 50 changes, including revisions to the abilities of 17 characters, as well as adjustments to weapon performance and upgrade costs.

We have also taken another meaningful step toward addressing the long-standing issue of unfairness between party players and solo players. Starting with this update, the maximum party size will be limited to two players (pairs). In addition, if one member of a wolf pair is identified as a wolf, the other member will also automatically be confirmed as a wolf. As for three- and four-player parties, we plan to offer those in the future as part of a separate game mode.

We have also made changes to address overly powerful coordinated tactics that were especially dominant in party play, such as one player locking an opponent down with Grapple while another player shoots and kills the restrained target. With this patch, players affected by Grapple can no longer be harmed or affected by hostile actions from other players. This includes not only direct damage, but also status effects such as poison and bleeding, as well as actions like pickpocketing.

We were also able to fix many bugs, including the long-standing stuck bug that has caused inconvenience for so long. In quite a few cases, the cause was identified and resolved thanks to the information you shared with us. Thank you very much.

We would also thank you for the feedback we receive from you every day. We feel that KILLER INN is taking the right steps toward becoming a fairer and better-balanced game, and toward growing into a better experience overall. Every voice you share reaches the development team. Your warm encouragement and your critical feedback alike have all become a driving force in making KILLER INN better.

We know this progress comes one step at a time, but we would be truly grateful if you continued to walk this path with us.

Custom Lobbies

• The host can now customize spectator cycling options in Custom Lobbies (All Players / Team Only / Fixed Player)

Social

• Players now display an ID number from 1-24 next to their name during matches

This should make it easier to communicate information about a specific player even if their name was hard to pronounce

Parties

• Pre-made casual parties now have maximum 2 players

As for three- and four-player parties, we plan to offer those in the future again as part of a separate game mode.

• Revealing a partied wolf now automatically reveals all players in the same party

• Wolf players can now see the party status of both wolves and lambs in the suspects menu

• Lamb Players can now see the party status of wolves they have revealed in the suspect menu

• The role reveal notification now also indicates party members revealed

We found that parties had an advantage over solo players, both on the wolf and lamb factions. There are many reasons for this advantage, including:

• Ability to coordinate

• When playing lamb, sharing information about who the wolves are, including after death

• When playing lamb, spawning with several known lambs (your teammates) means fewer unidentified players

We have taken some steps to mitigate these advantages. Restricting the total party size to two should limit the power of a larger coordinated group. We now reveal the entire wolf party when one member is revealed, to encourage more stealthy gameplay among wolves. We do not reveal the party status of lambs, as this would advantage lamb teams even further by identifying teammates more easily.

Gameplay

• Improved hit detection when crouching so that shots are less likely to be blocked by low obstacles

• Trap notifications no longer activate when a known teammate enters the area of your trap a. This was done to reduce the odds of remote detonating a trap only to experience bad guess / betrayal, especially for wolves. Note however, trap notifications will still occur for lambs if there is a player whose identity is unknown, so caution is advised.

• Improved the "Fix stuck player" command to help resolve cases where the player is stuck in a menu or animation

• Crates now highlight when viewed in Focus Mode

Interface

• The overhead player bar now indicates the equipped utility items of that player in Focus Mode a. We found in many cases it was difficult to see what defensive items a player had equipped, and this varied heavily depending on the character and skin selected.

• Clues in the staff clue shop now indicate the role of their associated player

• Notifications will now never hide your crosshair under any circumstances

• This also fixes a case where the crosshair could permanently disappear after a clue found notification played

• Removed misleading lamb role icon from Sleuth's Hot on the Trail passive text

• Banners are now displayed as a full preview when viewing gifts in the Inbox

• Revised the "Status" column of the suspects panel to read "Death Cause"

• The Battle Pass screen now shows a countdown to the scheduled start date of the next Battle Pass. * Even after a new Battle Pass is released, players will still be able to continue working on previous Battle Passes as back issues.

Network

• Improved cases where a shot would appear to hit another player but not register damage

Graphics

• Revised the blond and brown hair tints for Author to be more distinctive

• Improved the Sniper's hair to reduce clipping with helmets

Partial Clues

• Partial clues now drop less frequently for wolves when below HIGH guilt

  • LOW drop interval increased from 25-50s -> 35-60s

  • MEDIUM drop interval increased from 20-45s -> 25-50s

  • HIGH drop interval unchanged at 15-40s

• Fingerprint partial clues now only drop when at MEDIUM guilt or higher

• Blood partial clues now only drop when at HIGH guilt

Grappling

• Grapple victims are now immune to damage and statuses from players other than their attacker while grappled

We found that coordinated players were grappling others merely to hold them in place while a teammate shoots them. This left victims feeling helpless and we felt they needed some recourse keep that interaction as more of a 1v1 encounter.

Guns

We were finding that many players were able to fully upgrade their guns to tier 3 immediately after completing their initial 3 quests. This meant that guns were overwhelmingly preferred as the only weapon choice, leaving very little room for early game gear or melee weapons to be used. Those without defensive gear could then be killed very quickly. By midway through the game, you could fairly easily fully upgrade body armor, helmet, and purchase protective gear with plenty leftover for consumables.

By increasing gun and melee upgrade costs and leaving token costs the same, we’re hoping to increase the relative utility of early game gear and create a bit more decision making between where to spend your gold over the course of the match, while still providing fairly quick access to some sort of weapon. We also lowered the damage of Tier 2 gun upgrades slightly (10% off blasting shot) which should leave hits-to-kill (HTK) similar for Rifle, Revolver, and Shotgun. SMG would have had increased HTK but we increased SMG base body shot damage by the same amount (10%) to compensate. This gives a little more room to heal if afflicted with damage over time without changing direct HTK in most cases. This also slightly reduces the overall difference between T2 and T1 weapons, as there is a significant bump in strength from T1-T2 generally.

General

• Gun upgrade Tier 1 cost increased from 50 -> 75 gold

• Gun upgrade Tier 2 cost increased from 75 -> 150 gold

• Gun upgrade Tier 3 cost increased from 100 -> 225 gold

• Blasting Shot (all guns) base damage reduced from 40% -> 30%

Revolver

• Revolver Rapid Shot fire rate reduced from 50% -> 45%

• Revolver Heavy Shot damage reduced from 75% -> 50%

• Revolver Toxic Tipped damage reduced from 50% -> 40%

Rifle

• Rifle Shredder Shot bleed damage reduced from 75% -> 50%

Shotgun

• Shotgun Shredder Shot bleed damage reduced from 75% -> 50%

SMG

• SMG base damage increased from 20 -> 22

• SMG Stacking Shot damage reduced from 15% (max 90%) -> 10% (max 60%)

Melee

General

• Melee upgrade Tier 2 cost increased from 75 -> 125 gold

• Melee upgrade Tier 3 cost increased from 100 -> 200 gold

Thrown Weapons

• Thrown weapon fire rate is now consistent between crouching, standing, and aiming animations

• Improved thrown weapon input queuing when attempting to throw consecutively

• Dart fire rate increased from 1.2s -> 0.8s between throws

• Dart ammo per stack increased from 6 -> 10

• Dart max ammo increased from 12 -> 30

• Dart Sharp upgrade bodyshot damage bonus decreased from 90 -> 70

• Dart Sharp upgrade headshot damage bonus decreased from 125 -> 110

• Dart Sharp upgrade now reduces toxic potency by 50%

• Dart Fast-Acting upgrade toxic potency increased from 25% -> 50%

• Grenade fire rate decreased from 0.9s -> 1.5s between throws

• Knife throw fire rate decreased from 0.9s -> 1.1s between throws

Traps

• Trap placement animation time reduced from 2.7s -> 2.1s

Guardians

• Melee weapons no longer deal double damage against guardians

• Guardian health reduced from 2500 -> 2000

With the higher upgrade costs on guns, guardians became more difficult to complete with Tier 0 to Tier 2 guns, while melee remained very strong for defeating guardians, especially with Strength Pills. We have thus removed the double damage off melee weapons and lowered the Guardian health. This should allow guardians to be defeated somewhat more easily with lower tier gear, hopefully increasing the number of matches that conclude in the Harbor, giving a distinct “end game” to the match where everyone is grouped together and can participate in the victory.

Characters

As we have increased the gold cost of firearm and melee upgrades, many economy-focused characters emerged as too strong. So, we have reduced the strength of several economy-focused characters, while others (like the Handyman) who were on the weaker side haven’t changed directly but will be superior to before relatively speaking. Astronomer

• (revised) Level 4 Passive - Homemade Goggles"Immune to blind, see partially through walls"

Note: The clue vision bonus was moved to Detective's Clue Collector passive Author

• (revised) Level 2 Passive - Privileged"Quests are easier to complete"

Note: The reduction in quest distance has been standardized to -50% for all quest types. Previously, some quests (such as Fetch quests) were reduced up to -75%, while others were not reduced at all

This should result in farther fetch and race quests than before, and closer distances for all other quests, making this passive more consistent, as fetch quests used to be very fast while others were more neutral. Con-man

• (revised) Level 2 Passive - Counterfeit"Gold pickups grant +50 extra gold"

Note: Extra pickup gold reduced from 75 -> 50 Cosplayer

• Agedama the Hedgehog is now unlocked at level 2

• Charming is now unlocked at level 4

Cowgirl

• (revised) Level 2 Passive - Deadeye"Successive hits with the revolver deal +15% damage (max 60%). Missing resets the bonus to 0%"

Note: The damage has been reduced from 25% (max 100%) -> 15% (max 60%) Detective

• (revised) Level 2 Passive - Clue Collector"+25 health per clue found (max 250). See clues from farther away without focus mode"

Note: The clue vision bonus was moved from Astronomer's Homemade Goggles passive to here

• (revised) Level 4 Passive - Eye for Detail"Upgrading clues costs 20 less gold. Concealing is performed without minigame"

Note: The faster clue inspect speed has been replaced with reduced clue upgrade cost Gangster

• (revised) Level 2 Passive - Shoplifter"Can pickpocket items worth up to 125 gold from staff"

Note: Staff no longer need to be distracted by another player in order to be pickpocketed

We found that this ability was very powerful in the hands of partied players, but weak in the hands of solo players. We have now made it easy to use when solo, but reduced its overall strength to mostly be focused on acquiring free low-mid cost items.

• (revised) Level 4 Passive - Decked Out"SMGs automatically have all Tier 1 upgrades unlocked"

Note: The Tier 1 upgrades now only give +10% total damage instead of +30% when using a Decked Out SMG

We found that any improvement to the SMG to balance it for other characters made it overwhelming on the Gangster. By removing this triple damage increase on the Gangster, it smoothed out our ability to balance the SMG for other characters. Healer

• (revised) Level 2 Passive - Healing Herbs"Collect herbs in forest areas that can heal or be sold"

Note: Healing Herbs max stack size decreased from 4 -> 3

• (revised) Level 4 Passive - Restorative Energies"Healing items restore 50% more health, cure all debuffs, and grant up to 150 overhealth"

Note: Healing no longer restores full health; instead healing from healing items is increased by 50%. This healing can overheal for up to 150 points

The Healer at high levels had extreme survivability, so we rebalanced so that her passives are still effective at low levels but from levels 6+ you may need 2 herbs to get to full.

• Fixed Healing Herbs base healing from 175 -> 200 as intended

Hunter

• (revised) Level 2 Passive - Trapper"Traps have +25% potency, +50% damage, and +25% radius"

Note: The extra bonuses such as not leaving clues, not being disarmable, etc. have been replaced by flat bonuses to trap strength

Note: Potency refers to secondary effects such as Stun duration or Poison speed. Damage refers to direct damage (explosive traps) Lawyer

• (revised) Level 2 Passive - Convincing Argument"Choose your own quests"

Note: Your last 2 chosen consecutive quests must now be unique (i.e. "Steal -> Steal -> Steal -> Steal" would now need to become "Steal -> Fetch -> Race -> Steal" or any other combination of 3 unique quests before repeating the same type) Martial Artist

• (revised) Level 2 Passive - Hand to Hand Expert"Cannot be grappled. +25% melee damage"

Note: A general melee damage bonus has been added Ninja

• (revised) Level 2 Passive - Stealthy"Turn invisible while crouched, silent steps. +20% damage while invisible"

Note: Added bonus damage to stealth attacks

• (revised) Level 4 Passive - Throwing Expert"Thrown knives and darts deal +20% damage, grenades explode on impact"

Note: Damage bonus to thrown weapons decreased from 100% -> 20%

We recently improved the usability of darts in terms of their firing rate and ease of hitting others, and we had to reduce the strength of throwing expert to compensate Otaku

• (revised) Level 2 Passive - Deal Finder"Each staff sells one random item from their unique item list for 100 gold less (min 20)"

Note: Different instances of the same staff type will now always have unique discounts (i.e. if one Armorer has a Helmet discount, other Armorers will not discount the Helmet) Physicist

• (revised) Level 2 Passive - Guardian Destroyer"+50% damage against guardians. +50% more gold and XP from guardian rewards"

Note: This passive has been moved to level 2. Instead of bonus quest XP, the physicist now gains extra guardian rewards

• (new) Level 4 Passive - Light Bender"Activate to become invisible for 5s. Cooldown: 30s"

We found the Physicist a little underwhelming to play so decided to give him an active to enhance his combat utility

Steam post image Serial Killer

• (revised) Level 2 Passive - Killing Spree"Killing a wolf grants +20% damage. Killing a lamb grants +10% damage. Max 40% damage"

Note: The temporary bonus to melee damage has been replaced with a permanent bonus to all damage on kills

Locking Serial Killer into melee felt too restrictive, so we have reworked this ability to grow in power with each kill

• (revised) Level 4 Passive - Calling Card"+100 health per identified wolf, +20 health per clue found on you (max 200)"

Note: Instead of unconcealed clues, health now scales based on the number of your dropped clues other players have found (partial clues included). Values increased from 10 per clue (max 150) -> 20 per clue (max 200)

Note: Health per identified wolf now persists even after the identified player dies. Value increased from 75 per reveal (max 150) -> 100 per reveal (max 200)

a. As clues were being concealed by other players, you would often end up with zero bonus from this ability. Similarly, as ID’d wolves were eliminated, you lost your HP bonus, once again reducing you to zero extra HP. So we have reworked it so the bonus will persist and accumulate over the match.

Surgeon

• (revised) Level 2 Passive - Surgical Precision"Rear knife finisher is faster. Front knife grapple only requires 1 hit to kill. Knife throw has +75% bleed potency"

Note: Surgeon no longer prevents becoming bloody from knife kills, which synergized poorly with his second passive.

• (revised) Level 4 Passive - Sadist"+25% damage and +25% move speed when covered in blood"

Note: Now gives move speed in addition to damage

Surgeon is now guaranteed to find a knife first when opening assassin chests Trader

• (revised) Level 2 Passive - Haggler"Sell items for 35% of base value"

Note: The sell value has been reduced from 50% -> 35%

Gameplay

• Fixed toxic and bleed applying an extra tick of damage after being cured

• Fixed items found in crates to properly use the player's selected item skins

• Fixed some quests being interactable through walls

• Fixed players sometimes getting stuck on the elimination menu after death

• Fixed players getting stuck in a menu after rapidly leaving and reentering a minigame

• Fixed tutorial steps failing to proceed if certain keybinds had been remapped in the settings

• Fixed the rotation of darts when placed in assassin chests

• Fixed knives disappearing on impact after being thrown

• Fixed the throw animation sometimes appearing to throw multiple projectiles

• Fixed training dummies being killed when the harbor closes in training mode

• Fixed training dummies sometimes not respawning after bad guessing

• Fixed training dummies running out of ammo

Interface

• Fixed being able to access SQUARE ENIX Members during a match, causing game state to become stuck

• Fixed incorrect alignment of text with hyperlinks

• Fixed squad members sometimes disappearing from the HUD after dying

• Fixed text alignment of items affected by Restorative Energies

• Fixed the voice chat mic icon to correctly only show green when using squad voice chat

• Fixed the HUD ammo display not showing when using an SMG with extended mag

• Fixed bot players appearing as "Unconnected" in the tutorial

• Fixed duplicate quest received messages in the event feed during the tutorial

• Fixed text alignment issues in the key found and key delivered notifications

• Fixed text alignment issues in the MVP score panel

• Fixed text alignment issues in the wolf guilt panel

• Fixed a "block" button prompt sometimes appearing for attackers in the grapple minigame

Animation

• Fixed cases where other players would appear to use a consumable with nothing in hand

• Fixed right arm popping out of place when equipping melee weapons while crouched

• Fixed Focus Mode causing animations to break in certain cases such as on ladders or in smoke clouds

Level

• Fixed a flickering floor piece in Lunum Wing guest room 240

• Revised an area that could cause players to become stuck near the Solarium Wing harbor entrance

• Revised an area that could cause players to become stuck in the Solarium Wing trophy secret hallways

• Revised an area that could cause players to become stuck in the Lunum Wing greenhouse

Localization

• Fixed missing text on the Square Enix Members menu in certain languages

• Fixed the '1' character being misaligned in some languages

Looking Ahead

There are still many character ability updates, game design adjustments, and other improvements that could not be included in this patch, and the development team is continuing to push forward at full speed without slowing down. And of course, we are not only working on adjustments to existing content, but also actively developing new features and new characters to make KILLER INN even more enjoyable. We would appreciate your patience a little longer until we are ready to share more with you.