Defiance 3.0: Alcatraz

Release Date:
NA: 4/14/15 @ 9 AM PDT
EU: 4/14/15 @ 4 PM GMT

== FEATURES ==

NEW ZONE: ALCATRAZ

As the Earth Republic deals with fallout on the east coast, survivors are turning to a new beacon of salvation in the west: The Rock! This prison-turned-island-base has become a staging point for Expeditions, as well as a place for players to congregate!

NEW EQUIPMENT TYPE: CYBER RIGS

Cyber Rigs are implants that augment your natural abilities and improve your performance with weapons, shields, vehicles, and more. Cyber Rigs can be customized by adding Cyber Chips, which impart their own boosts to the Rig. A cyber chip merchant has set up shop in Alcatraz. They'll trade Cyber Chips for silicon shards. Learn more in our article here!

EXPEDITIONS

Expeditions are new, evolving co-op matches that pit players against increasingly tough enemies for ever-increasing rewards. With this update, our first three expeditions – The War Below, Stolen Purpose, and Hellbug Hunt – are available! Learn more about expeditions here!

Want to give expeditions a try? Apply code ALCATRAZ to your account using the account management page to receive the Alcatraz Starter kit.

The Alcatraz Starter kit includes 3 Hunter Requisitions, 3 Chip Pullers, a random uncommon Cyber Rig and 3 random cyber chips!

SALVAGE MATRIX UPDATE

We've added the ability to perform Salvage Matrix operations right on the inventory screen! Right-click or press right trigger to access the in-line salvage operations. You can also purchase resources and bits there as well, in addition to the Regular Salvage Matrix screen!

== GAME UPDATE ==

GENERAL

• Max EGO has been increased to 6000.
• Fixed a situation where certain rewards were not being boosted correctly.
• Fixed a very rare client crash when spawning a vehicle.
• There is now a trade chat!
• Removed Woot Loot and increased the scrip and keys earned from events instead.
• Various server side optimizations to improve stability.
• Modified the end screen for PvE Events, PvP Matches and Siege events, including the ability to make quick purchases.
• Some special weapon pick-ups were not scaling properly to the player's rating. They will now be more useful for high level players in high threat level encounters.
• Prevented several situations where purchased consumable refills would be unintentionally salvaged.
• Fixed a bug preventing some players for acquiring/completing the Cradle to Grave Pursuit.
• Fixed a problem that was causing loot boost effects to be applied incorrectly.
• Top performing players may no longer mute themselves from the scoreboard.
• Players who try to simultaneously interact with an ammo crate will no longer be presented with a dysfunctional interaction prompt.
• Added new options for rolling!
  • Turning on "double-tap to roll" for keyboard controls will allow you to roll by double-tapping that direction.
  • Turning on "double-tap to roll" for controllers will allow you to roll by pressing crouch once while moving. To crouch, press crouch while not tilting the movement stick.
• Resolved an issue that was causing some weapon effects to be incorrectly modified.
• Mute status now persists across gameplay sessions.
• A congratulatory message will now be broadcast to the area when a player earns a jackpot item.

DIFFICULTY ADJUSTMENT

• Warning! Enemies and players above 4500 EGO rating have been greatly adjusted to have much higher damage and health! This was done to compensate for the scaling power growth inside of Expeditions.
• Adjusted the way that player and NPC power grows from EGO 10 - 4500 to alleviate spikes in difficulty.
• These spikes were particularly noticeablewhenfightingNPCs at a higher EGO than you. Power now grows at a steadier rate,bothforPCsandNPCs.
  • Due to this, players may notice a change in their equipment and health stats. Depending on the player's or item's EGO rating, those stats may increase or decrease.
  • NPCs will see the same increases or decreases. The difficulty of fighting a like-EGO NPC is unchanged, but fights against higher-EGO NPCs will generally be easier now.

BOOSTS

• Inventory Stack boosts now apply immediately upon purchase, instead of at login.
• Boostable currencies coming from daily/weekly reward lockboxes now benefit from boosts. Enjoy that extra Arkforge!
• Fixed some missing descriptions for certain boosts in the store.
• Play-time-based inventory boosts now count down correctly.

GROUPS

• The group matchmaking process will no longer put you in groups with people you have muted, nor will it match you with people who have you muted.
• Group votes to kick members are now tabulated and announced to all members of the group.
• Group members who have a vote-kick initiated against them are no longer asked to vote. That was silly.

CLANS

• Resolved an issue that was sometimes causing clan mates to not be able to see messages from each other.
• Fixed an issue that was allowing non-officers to select (but not communicate in) officer chat.

SALVAGE MATRIX

• The scroll position of the inventory and claim item list now stays fixed to the same place when viewing an item in the inventory or claiming/salvaging an item in the claim item list.
• Fixed the incorrect preview stats for the "Reduce Rating" option in the Salvage Matrix.

MISSIONS

• Taming The Wild Part 3: It's now a bit easier to interact with the quest object.
• "Blow up the Volge" encounter should no longer get stuck during an Incursion or Emergency.
• The Soleptor Daily mission "Minor Disruption" has had its name changed for consistency, merit, aptitude and overall awesomeness.
• Season 2: Episode 1 "On Record" should now properly require "Into the Depths" from the Main story line with Cass.
  • It should no longer be blocked from the Replay functionality.

ITEMS

• Updated Warmaster and the Arkbreaker arkfalls to drop new versions of the Arkbreaker weapons that use the new rarity bonus system. Existing weapons are not affected.
• Randomly generated charge weapons will no longer receive Fire Rate rarity bonuses. Existing weapons are not affected.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Armor Damage bonus in the Plate Slicer synergy to be slightly weaker than expected.
• Fix for the 3rd and 4th bonuses of the Scavenger synergy, which did not previously determine "out of combat" correctly.
• Fixed a bug causing the 2nd bonus on the Plate Slicer synergy (triggered +25% damage to armor) to persist longer than the 5 seconds stated in the description.
• Assault rifles, like the VOT Blast Rifle, now show burst count information next to the base damage in the weapon details found inside the Inventory.
• To increase readability for comparing two high-level infectors, burst damage and DOT damage are now broken out into two stats instead of just one.
• Modified Bug Damage stats are given the appropriate color in the Salvage Matrix-Attach Mod screen.
• Adjusting the rating of an item within 100 rating of the player's rating will cause the item to match the player's rating now (although the Arkforge cost is flat).
• Updated the VBI LM-12 Rocker to allow for quicker bursts, improved accuracy, and lower recoil.
• Tuned nano damage:
  • Increased the penalty for base damage on radiation nano weapons from 5% to 10% to match other nano types.
  • Decreased the penalty for health damage on electrical nano weapons from 50% to 25%.
• Updated shields coming from drops and lock boxes so they’ll only drop the most effective shields within the rarity tier. For example, all random legendary shields will either be IV EX or V ARK shields.
• Corrected a problem that was causing some Legendary shields that should have had an electrical resist to not display it.
• Increased the Legendary survivor shield effect to match the description of +20% self-revive refresh.
• Corrected the description for Legendary Energizer shields to match the actual effect: +15% EGO Power refresh.
• Updated the jackpot weapons in the Machine Supply Crate, Outlaw Supply Crate, Survivalist Supply Crate, Veteran Supply Crate, and Special Delivery. They have new names and the rarity bonuses have been updated to the new system.
• Converter mods for biological, electrical, and syphon nanos can be found alongside their radiation and incendiary cousins on the many denizens of Defiance, but merchants no longer sell any converter mod.
• Updated the Saturnalia synergy so bonus 3 also increases damage done by infector dots and bugs.

ENEMIES

• Raider Tankers now apply their armor plates to damage received on their backpacks. Remember to soften them up with bio damage or bypass their armor with radiation damage.

WARMASTER

• The Warmaster is now always Threat Level 10.
• Updated Warmaster loot to be more generous on a win and less generous on a loss. On a win, Warmaster loot will always be rare or better items. On a loss, items will be rare at best.
• Increased the chance of getting an Arkbreaker weapon when defeating the War Master.

OPEN WORLD

• Silicon Valley: Hellfire Invasion: Pacifica Temple Location: Hellbugs should no longer spawn underground.
• Silicon Valley: Water Temple: Added an extraction pointt.
• Mount Tam: Serenity Academy: The ammo crate no longer disappears when approached.
• Sausalito: Diablo Siege: Moved spawn areas away from walls.

UI AND SETTINGS

• Resolution setting changes are now respected if you apply changes to both resolution and quality.
• Corrected the number of chat messages received when an item is sent to the Claim Items window.
• Fixed a bug causing the menu options to disappear after using the salvage matrix many consecutive times without closing the menu.
• A new way to see what's new and popular in our store is available in our loading screens!
• Item tiers in settings drop-downs are now color coded.
• Inventory boosts should no longer be hidden by other UI elements.
• Inventory boost window now scrolls smoothly with the mouse wheel.
• Resized threat indicator so it is no longer cut off.
• Addressed an issue that was causing minimap options to scroll offscreen.
• You can now use the quick recombinator from your loadout equip screen.
• The Inventory's weapons equipping menu works with gamepads again.
• Selecting a weapon for a loadout slot via the Inventory now behaves more consistently.

PS3

• Fixed a PS3-specific client crash in the UI when claiming items.
• Fixed a bug with the PS3 Patcher that could cause a crash or failure to download files.