Update 42 - 0.7.1.0 - Balance, New Players Buffs, and T3 Changes

Hi all, this update wraps up the new player experience as well as balancing a bit with the early gameplay with T1 and T2. Additionally, T3 has become a dedicated Hardcore Mode for Level 90 players which it was always intended to be.

This means that reaching level 90 and unlocking T3 furniture is now something you can do simply by playing Tier 2 (the normal mode of the game). with the exception that players need to reach higher quotas on Tier 2 in order to push past level 60 and purchase T3 furniture.

For those curious, I've made these changes so that all players can experience all of Sketchy's without the need to push into a very difficult mode. The Hardmode Contract is a place for advanced players who simply wish to push their limits and see how far they can get on the hardest difficulty.

And with that said, here is what has changed:

NEW

• Added an Accessibility option for Night Vision Photosensitivity that enables/disables the visual noise affect.

UPDATES

Balance Changes

• Reduced the cost of O2 Reservoirs from 75 to 50 credits.

• Reduced the cost of flamethrower from 100 to 75 credits.

• Lowered the med gen to 250 to 200 credits.

• The number of credits received from a Contract on Tier 1 is no longer scaled down with larger groups (i.e. everyone gets more money). Solo gets more pay for obvious reasons.

• Increased the amount of money made from Tier 1 contracts by 30%.

• Increased credits gained on 4 player groups and up on Tier 2.

• Increased credits gained from mimic pouches by 50%.

• Increase the number of free O2 reservoirs that spawn in Level 2 area on Tier 1 from 3 to 5.

• Increased the min/max range of credits gained from Level 3-coin pouches.

• Players now heal in the Med Bay for 20 health every 3 seconds up from 5 on Tier 2. There is no passive healing in the Med Bay on Hardcore (T3) – that’s the whole point of “hardcore”.

• Increased sun sword speed perk from 25% to 60% on Hardcore and 90% with burger shop enhancement perk.

• Increased sun sword base damage from 75 to 80.

• The Med Bay Burger Shop Perk now additionally increases the passive healing from the Medbay by 150%.

Difficulty Changes

• Reduced the damage done by security level 1 enemies on Tier 1 by 15%.

• Reduced the damage done by security level 2 enemies on Tier 1 by 25%.

• Enemies Levels are now scaled down at the early quota requirement brackets for Tier 1 and 2 contracts. For example, a typical level 9 creature in security level 1 area on Tier 1 contract will now scale down to a level 6 creature and deal 30% less damage if the Quota requirement is below 900. The creature returns to its original level 9 once the quota leaves the early bracket. This should help new players push into security codes a bit easier on initially leveling a new suit.

• Shovel and Pickaxe Doppelgangers no longer spawn on Tier 1.

Sketchy Data Redesign

• Sketchy’s Data has been renamed to “Bestiary” and has been moved into the Tab Menu for easy accessibility.

• The Bestiary has a new cleaner design.

• The Bestiary now shows notification icons when new entries have been added after scanning a creature. This will help new players learn about creatures more easily and more intuitively.

• Lurk Roots can now be killed by all weapons. They take significantly less damage from guns and take significantly more damage from fire and melee weapons.

• Updated the Lurk Root tip description for medical gens.

• Redesigned the new life form discovered popup when scanning something.

Progression Changes

• All T3 Cosmetics have been moved to T2. Cosmetics still require a specific quota to be unlocked but only require T2 Contracts to be obtained.

• Players can now level all the way to 90 on T2 rather than only T3 (Hardcore). However, your required quota must be a certain amount to receive levels past 60 similar to furniture.

  1. At 5100 quota or higher, suit level cap is 70

  2. At 6850 quota or higher, suit level cap is 80

  3. At 8600 quota or higher, suit level cap is 90

• Signing down to T1 now starts the quota requirement at 900 (the initial signing point) rather than 1600.

• Hardcode Mode has its own rules that make it challenging meaning that players will want to use Black Market weapons and Burger Buffs to maximize their chance at survival. This mode IS NOT FOR PLAYERS BELOW LEVEL 90, hence the word "HARDCORE":

  1. All Enemies are Level 90 now.

  2. Enemies are very aggressive.

  3. Enemies grow stronger each day of the Contract (resets once returning to orbit).

  4. No passive Med Bay healing.

• All Hardcode Mode enemies are now scanned as Level 90.

General

• The Buff from Big Bang Burger now increase your damage done by 10%!

• Port Lumin has received some level design updates and a new toxic plant has been added to the level 2 area to make it more consistent with level design in other maps.

• Dropping all loot or one by one via the ship quick drop off will now automatically send it to the drop off rather than needing to manually press send (I made this change because it was easy to accidentally forget to send the loot then finalize with nothing in the box).

• The Tier Description on the Ship Computer is more Information.

• Updated the evolution description for Pew Pew regarding how many missiles it fires.

• Updated the evolution description for Toxy.

• Updated the strength description for Loot Mimics regarding how much damage is reduced from range weapons.

• When free O2 reservoirs are used for the first time then become visible on Night Vision thereafter. A new player TIP will popup explaining to use Night Vision to see them.

• Pew Pew passive song volume is now affected by the Sound Effects audio option rather than Music as it was conflicting with Boombox. It could be hard to hear Pew Pew if you were someone with Music volume reduced to prevent boombox music from being too loud.

• Changed the message when interacting with cooking/coffee when the Burger Shop Perk is not unlocked to be more informative.

FIXES

• Fixed an issue where the Flamethrower was bypassing friendly fire when turned off.

• Fixed an issue where Flamethrowers were not properly lighting the environment on fire for Clients.

• Fixed an issue where Lurk Roots could sometimes still damage players if its animation was triggered shortly after it died.

• Fixed an issue where Pew Pew’s passive music was not turning on or shutting off correctly based on when it was locked on a target or not.

• Fixed an issue where small crabs were taking reduced damage from melee weapons rather than guns.

• Fixed an issue where the Controller was not able to tab over to the Burger Shop Menu button.

• Fixed an issue If you with the jetpack that can cause infinite flying.

• Fixed an issue where Alien Rockets were not killing players with friendly fire disabled.

• Fixed an unreachable access crate in Sahariss Level 0.

• Fixed an issue you where the Derp requirement to cook burgers was not turning red when the requirement wasn’t met.

• Fixed an issue where Lurk root keeps attacking players while they are dead.

• Fixed an issue where non-player installed O2 reservoirs were blocking single target damage from rifles.

• Fixed an issue where scanning multiple creatures would cause overlaps of discovered data popups that could then not be clicked away.

I appreciate those of you who have kindly and respectfully shared ideas and feedback to help make Sketchy's better. -Forsakenhalo