The Rivals have been pushed back for the moment, but only just in time for a brand new threat to rear its ugly head. An insidious lithophage, a sickness of the very rock beneath our feet, has struck Hoxxes.
Nicknamed the ROCKPOX, this planetary pathogen is spreading through the caves, infecting the rock and even directly affecting the local fauna. Even the hardy Dwarves can feel its insidious grasp.
Prepare for PLAGUEFALL!
With Love,
The Ghost Ship Crew
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A rogue comet is passing through the system, shedding hundreds of infected meteoroids as the gravitational forces tear it apart. So far, every single one has carried with it a dormant form of Rockpox, and each one represents a clear and present danger to the Hoxxian ecosystem.
Be on the alert for meteor strikes during your normal missions. If one happens during your mission, clear out the impact zone immediately, and get ready to get cracking. Powerful Rock Cracker modules will be sent in from the Space Rig to assist you. These must be hooked up to the meteorite and maintained while they crack it open so you can get at the Plague Hearts inside. But beware the noise is sure to attract the locals!
The hearts themselves are highly prized by the R&D department with a Scrip awarded at the Season Terminal for every 6 Plague Hearts you bring back.
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When you play a mission with a LITHOPHAGE OUTBREAK Warning you will encounter an area in which the Plague Hearts have grown into full Contagion Spikes, rapidly spreading across the cave.
All missions with this warning come with two main objectives:
LITHOPHAGE OUTBREAK OBJECTIVE: First, you will need to destroy the Rockpox Contagion Spikes and the spreading corruption with R&D’s brand-new anti-contaminant tools. Be extra mindful of the creeping tide of Plague Larvae erupting from the infected area as you work, and be prepared for swarms of Glyphids that have already been struck by the Rockpox and seek to disrupt your endeavours.
NORMAL MAIN OBJECTIVE: Second, you will still need to complete the normal mining objective. Fighting the Rockpox is critical, but it does not pay the bills! The order in which you tackle these tasks is entirely up to you.
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As if it’s not bad enough that the Lithophage is devouring the very rock beneath your feet, once a Contagion Spike matures it begins to grow pulsating pods, filled with Rockpox Larvae!
ROCKPOX LARVAE
These squirmy little devils seek out victims en masse in an attempt to take them over. Shoot on sight and watch your backs. So far both Grunts and Praetorians having been sighted stumbling around covered in Rockpox growths.
ROCKPOX INFECTED GRUNTS AND PRAETORIANS
If you happen to come across a Rockpox Glyphid do not bother attacking it directly as the affected creatures can take a tremendous amount of damage and still keep going, we are not even sure if they are still really alive. However, if you aim for the glowing Rockpox boils covering their bodies, you can even take a Praetorian down in just a few shots.
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To help you deal with the Rockpox infection and neutralise the Contagion Spikes, R&D have whipped up some tools: the LithoFoamer and the LithoVac. Both will be needed to neutralise and cleanse an area affected by the Rockpox.
The process is quite simple:
- Apply a generous coating of LithoFoam to Rockpox Blisters surrounding a Contagion Spike. The foam begins working on contact chemically bonding to the Rockpox while loosening the grip it has on the rock.
- Use the LithoVac to suckup both the LithoFoam and any Rockpox it has bonded to.
Once enough of the surrounding Rockpox is cleared the Contagion Spike will collapse, taking any Rockpox remaining in the area with it.
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As has become par for the course, there will be plenty of incentive to do your part. First of those are another round of additions to your arsenal, this time in the shape of new throwables.
VOLTAIC STUN SWEEPER
The Scout has gotten his hands on an Electric Boomerang that bounces from target to target, electrocuting anything hostile on the way. No mentions of shrimps or barbies, please.
SPRINGLOADED RIPPER
The Driller has seen fit to repurpose one of his favorite power tools. He is now in possession of a motorised saw that powers along the ground and even up sheer walls, slicing and dicing anything it hits.
SHREDDER SWARM
The Engineer has worked closely with R&D, and they have successfully made a portable robotic swarm from captured and reprogrammed Shredder Drones. Throw it on the ground to activate your very own posse of hacked drones that attack anything hostile on sight.
TACTICAL LEADBURSTER
And the Gunner gets a grenade with a gun on it – because of course it is. Throw and attach this device to any surface, and it will saturate the surrounding area with a blistering hail of lead.
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As we continue our exploration of Hoxxes, it only makes sense that we get some new sights on occasion. You can expect to see dozens of new cave shapes on missions now, with a special emphasis on Point Extraction missions that have been sorely lacking for a while. Don’t get lost, now.
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On top of all that, a brand new Performance Pass with another 100 levels of unlocks will be activated, alongside an all-new Cosmetic Tree loaded to the gills with Cosmetics.
This of course means Season 02 is coming to an end, but don’t fret. Anything you’ve yet to unlock will simply be added to the ordinary loot pools in the game – nothing goes away.
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With Season 3 focusing on the Lithophage we have modified the various Rival Events, Rival Presence Warning and Industrial Sabotage Mission.
The INDUSTRIAL SABOTAGE MISSION is now treated as any other mission, including a slightly more streamlined lower-complexity version now also available on the Mission Map and in Deep Dives. On top of this we have also tweaked the mission a bit:
- Reduced minimum time to hack a generator
- Increased Transmitter Node connection Range a bit
We have also tweaked the RIVAL PATROL BOTS based on what we’ve been hearing on the grapevine.
- Reduced bot acceleration/deceleration a bit so the bots are now a little easier to track
- Reduced damage of burst shots
- Reduced damage of sniper shots
- Reduced the speed and manoeuvrability of the homing missiles
- While the patrol bots can’t be frozen solid, “freezing” them will still make their metal brittle and impart the standard damage bonus applied to frozen enemies but with all those hot electronics inside they warm back up quite quickly
- Increased the amount of heat damage required to set Patrol Bots on fire
The RIVAL PRESENCE WARNING is now also part of the standard warning rotation and is no longer guaranteed to be present on the mission map at all times.
Lastly, the 3 RIVAL EVENTS have been added to the general event pool with probabilities similar to the other events. The Data Cells which you can get from these events no longer will grant you scrip or bonus Performance Points but instead will give Credits and XP similar to the Korlok Tyrant Shards.
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ASSIGNMENT VARIETY
We have added mission variety to all recurring assignments such as the promotion assignments. This way you no longer need to do the same missions every time you promote. Additionally the Industrial Sabotage mission will now also be available for selection in assignments.
PLAGUEFALL ASSIGNMENTS
We are also doing something a little different for the season assignment this time around. Instead of one long assignment, we are breaking it up into two shorter parts. Also, we have added Performance Points as a reward from these new season assignments.
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Get the new Biohazard DLC now and deal with the Rockpox in style!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2165590/Deep_Rock_Galactic__Biohazard_Pack/
This new DLC pack includes 4 new suits of armor (one for each class), a unique helmet with Full Face & Half Face variants, alongside the usual new paintjobs for other armors, weapons, Bosco, and your pickaxe.
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As usual R&D have found a bit of time to tune and tweak some of the weapons.
EXPERIMENTAL PLASMA CHARGER
T5 Flying Nightmare upgrade
- Removed the damage bonus
- Converted a large part of charged shot damage to fire damage
- Increased the radius penalty slightly
- Merged the T5 upgrade Hot Plasma into this upgrade
- Renamed to Burning Nightmare
New T5 Plasma Splash upgrade
- Normal shots have some of their damage changed from direct to area damage
DEEPCORE GK2
- Increased the base weapon damage
- Removed the base weakpoint damage bonus
- Increased base weakpoint stun chance
- Increased base magazine size
- Adjusted base ammo to match new mag size
- Added a new reload speed upgrade to T1
- Moved some of the RoF bonus from the T1 Supercharged Feed Mechanism upgrade to the base weapon
- Increased the T2 Ammo upgrade bonus
- Increased the bonus of the T2 damage upgrade
- Removed the T3 damage upgrade
- Moved T4 RoF Upgrade to T5
- -ncreased the bonus of the T5 Stun upgrade
- Combined the T5 Battle Frenzy and Battle Cool upgrades into one and kept the Battle Frenzy name.
Electrifying Reload OC
- Adjusted the magazine and ammo penalty to match the new base
- Increased up the damage of the electrocution effect
- Made it do a bit of extra electric damage for every bullet that is in the enemy when you trigger the effect
Bullets of Mercy OC
- Increased the magazine size penalty
- Increased the damage bonus
- Fixed the damage bonus not triggering on: electric arcs, pheromones, corrosion, plasma fields, sticky flames and environmental radiation. The bonus will also trigger when shooting enemies infected with Rockpox, but you really should just aim at the blisters.
AI Stability Engine OC
- Reduced damage penalty
- Increased WP bonus slightly
M1000 CLASSIC
Electrocuting Focus Shot OC
- Increased the damage and duration of the electrocution effect
Supercooling Chamber OC
- Increased focus damage bonus
- Added a large focus weakpoint bonus multiplier
- Added a magazine size penalty
- Reduced the ammo penalty slightly
SUBATA 120
- Tier 5 Mactera Toxin-Coating upgrade now adds corrosive damage. Changed name to Acid-Coated Bullets.
COLETTE WAVE COOKER
- Convex Lense upgrade now works correctly actually increasing the microwave beam width significantly
ZHUKOV NUK17
Gas Recycling OC
- Added a significant Armour Breaking bonus
HIGH EXPLOSIVE GRENADE
- Added ability to “cook” the grenade before throwing it, just don’t hold on to it for too long
- Increased fuse timer slightly
- Increased radius at which the grenade deals full damage
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- New shouts on the Laserpointer
- Added an extra Loadout Slot in the Equipment Terminal
- Added a Miner’s Manual Terminal in each of the cabins on the Space Rig
- Implemented Local Blacklists on Steam: We have now added the ability to block specific players from your games. If you encounter a player who for some reason you never want to play with again, you can go into the kick menu in-game and click the “Ban” button. This will kick the specific player from your game and also send you to their steam profile, from where you can choose to block all communication. Doing this will prevent that player from joining any games that you host.
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- Made fixes to improve game performance
- Implemented more game optimization
- Vanity Items in the Wardrobe are now sorted, DLC first, then by name. Before the items would appear in the order loaded and could change between each run of the game. Pickaxe parts are also sorted in the same way.
- Added a Balaclava that takes colour from the armour paintjob to the shop
- BOSCO can now carry the Oil Extractor
- Added description to GINGER hair color
- Added proper messaging to clients in cases where the host disbands the team or exits to the desktop.
- Improved cashing of certain particles that before would cause the game to stutter the first time you would encounter them.
- Improved the subtitles to make them more readable.
- Small visual tweaks on season challenges, milestone images and the miners manual menu background.
- Increased pick up range on some carriables
- Glyphids who are burned / corroded no longer block shots while playing the death animation
- The orange border on the assignment description box is no longer in front of the mission indicator in cases where assignments have a lot of missions
- The dwarves no longer think the Harvester is an enemy when pointing at it with the Lazerpointer.
- Drilldozer Drop Cage will now kill any leeches in its way on the way down
- Fixed issue with Minimule, Treasure Crate, Lost Pack and old Supply Pod, where they could end up in weird locations because of issues with logic of falling down when terrain is removed below them
- Added Leaf Lovers special beers to the Trash Compactor
- Fixed a crash related to beards
- Fixed a crash related to the crossbow
- Fixed a crash related to status effects on enemies
- Fixed a crash related to the coilgun
- Fixed a bug resulted in push to talk being ignored for Hosts in some cases
- Fixed that clients could not see impact effects on terrain
- Fixed letters not appearing correctly in the Mission Terminal and in the Bar if the game language was set to Ukrainian
- Fixed the dwarf voice to match the class currently selected when buying upgrades for Bosco in the Drone Terminal
- Fixed Lazerpointer shouts on Ommoran Beamers and Liquid Morkite Wells
- Fixed a minor clipping issue in the Milestone Menu
- Fixed a bug that caused Boscos Armor Breaking and Fear Factor upgrades to not apply to its Rockets
- Fixed that fragile salt platforms in Salt Caves did not have a name when pinging them with the laser pointer
- Fixed a bug that caused the temperature icon not to show for the host when hit by instant temperature change
- Fixed a bug in the Promotion logic where players could enter a bad state that made them unable to promote and/or start the Promotion Assignment
- Fixed a bug that made the crossbow fire without ammo in some cases
- Fixed a bug that caused Refinery pipes and Fuel Pod Cords to be unbuildable for anyone if a client disconnected while they were building a segment
- Fixed a bug that made reverting direction on a zipline impossible when multiple ziplines were close together
- Fixed a bug that caused you to get softlocked if you entered a terminal before a pop up appeared
- Fixed a bug that made a red outline and blinking lights on the dwarf in terminals if you spent extended time there while having a mission with Low O2 warning selected
- Fixed a bug where clients crossbow bolts would not stick to terrain
- Fixed a bug in the Shop where a purchase on the ‘Do you want to equip this now’ view, pressing space would repurchase that item again and again, deducting resources each time
- Fixed an ancient bug with pickup on certain beers not being translatable
- Fixed a visual bug where the wrong number of performance points would be displayed when completing more than one Season Challenge at the same time
- Fixed a bug that caused burrowing enemies AI to break if they got stunned while burrowing
- Added an event to the UGCRegistry that is broadcasted when modded blueprints are spawned
- Fixed an issue with weapon paintjobs for DLC frameworks not being consistent when changing the framework.
- Fixed a bug where Flares and Grenades did not collide with the Ommoran Heartstone
- Actually fixed the bug where Pickaxing the Ommoran Heartstones outer layer made no sound
- Fixed Cryo Cannon OC Snowball & Ice Spear displaying incorrect values in gear modification stats.
- Fixed ricochet triggering incorrectly on revolver Magic Bullets OC
- Fixed grameticle errur and spelld more bettr strings
- Fixed the Volatile Guts Explosion being painfully bright
- Dreadnoughts are no longer allowed to shoot fireballs at crazy angles
- Fixed the incorrect Damage Resistance bonus of the Autocannon T5 Damage Resistance upgrade.
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A huge thanks to everyone who has been testing the new update on the Experimental branch. You can enjoy a much more stable update thanks to all the awesome community testers. Rock and Stone!
