Rooftops, here we come.
I logged onto Steam today to find Deadlock downloading a 683MB patch. Wondering what might that patch might contain I looked in Steam’s news feed for Deadlock, which is empty, and Steam’s « Events and Announcements » forum for Deadlock, which is also empty. Turns out the patch notes are being posted in a completely different forum which you can only access by generating a password from the main menu of Deadlock itself, which suggests a weird distaste for Steam’s official ways of disseminating patch notes coming from a game made by the people who make Steam.
Anyway, once you defeat the tiger who guards the basement where Valve have hidden these patch notes, you’ll find a lot in them. The main additions are designed to encourage more vertical play, with a new wall jump move that doesn’t cost stamina, as well as the addition of ropes around the map, which lead to the rooftops and which you can shoot from while climbing. Some of the buildings now have additional passages through upper floors that lead to rooftops as well, and there are more teleporters. It’s a good day to be a sniper.
Since many players were surprised by Deadlock’s adherence to the MOBA mainstay of letting players pause the game, that’s now been patched too. Each player can now pause just one time per match, and a team can pause three times in total. No more pausing the game so you can stream a completely different game mid-match, you trolls.
Meanwhile, a new profile page has been added with a breakdown of recent match statistics as well as all-time stats, though some of those counters will be starting from zero—souls collected and healing—no matter how many hours you’ve managed to squeeze in during the Deadlock alpha so far.
There are a lot of other changes, but many of them are minor. For instance, Monster Rounds have their bullet resistance against NPCs increased from 30% to 35%, while Hollow Point Rounds have their spirit shield buff increased from +80 to +85. If you’d like to read the full patch notes without answering the puzzle master’s three riddles, here they are in full.[ General Changes ]
– Added a new Profile page that displays a breakdown of recent matches and all-time player and hero statistics (Note: the newly added stats ‘Souls Collected’ and ‘Healing’ are starting at 0 for all players)
– Added Report button to ESC menu player list to allow reporting of teammates in-game
– Improved visibility of report button on post-game screen
– You can now drag-and-drop items between categories in Builds
– Added search to the Public Builds list, you can search by keyword within build names
– Newly published hero builds now store the language of the build
– Added ‘Show All Languages’ checkbox in Public Builds list, can be unchecked to only see builds in your language
– Fixed issue with builds list not updating when changing between heroes in sandbox
– Added localization support for German, Polish, and Korean.
– Matchmaking window is now open 1 hour earlier on weekdays and weekends
– Players can only pause once per game
– A team can only pause at most 3 times in total amongst all the players
– The game application now flashes when the game is unpaused
– Various client and server performance improvements
– Added streamer setting to the options panel. Causes player names in the game UI panels to be hidden.
– Added a Melee Trainer bot in the ‘gym’ area of hero sandbox
– Added new « Game out of Date » status message at the top of the hud, so you can quickly know when there is an update rather than finding out at queue time
– Added a checkbox on the post game survey to make it not show again in the future
– Items now show their spirit power impact when using alt
– Fixed profile match history not remembering the history page you were on
– Added Heal Amp and Debuff Resist to the Vitality stats in the shop
– Hero details on the dashboard now show spirit information with alt, rather than requiring you to be in-game (this was added in a hotfix patch recently)
– The game will now prevent any quick ability upgrades for 2 seconds after death, to help prevent against accidental upgrades
– Can now reliably spectate a friend’s game via the Friendlist
– Miscellaneous fixes to friends and party menus
– Added unavailable state to Zipline UI when zipline is on damage cooldown
– Spectating controls now use Left/Right mouse buttons to switch between players on a team and space to switch teams. This now works with free cursor mode, and you can still click on portraits/minimap to spectate individual heroes.
– Added new respawn countdown music 5 seconds before respawn
– Added alternate shop music which plays in the neutral shop
– Spectator count is now shown in-game
– Player names are now shown to spectators
– Added object motion blur
– Optimized performance of distance field ambient occlusion
– Fixed selling an item not removing charges correctly. Now you can’t buy Extra Charge and immediately sell it and keep that readied charge.
– Fixed some tooltips not showing golden statue bonuses if it wasn’t the direct stat (i.e. you got fire rate but bullets per second didn’t show the golden statue)
– Fixed Sharpshooter showing up in stats for bullet velocity even though it doesn’t increase your bullet velocity
– Fixed a bug that caused items in the build page to not be dimmed when the shop was out of range
– Fixed bug with Lash not hearing his own Ground Strike impact explosion sound
– Added new effects for Withering Whip
– Updated Ethereal Shift effects
– Fixed the disarmed spinner not showing up on your crosshair when you get disarmed
– Fixed parts of Shiv’s coat being considered a headshot
– Build list will now refresh if you change heroes in the sandbox
– Fixed Zipline speed from Base Guardian killing and Zip booster ability not stacking properly
– Fixed Base Guardian boost not properly doing its ramp up and instead instantly being fast
– Added custom effects for Abram’s Seismic Impact T3 buff
– Fixed a bug where someone could be holding down M1 and still be attacking when the magic carpet arrives
– Updated Lash Grapple cast sound
– Added Decay impact sound
– Removed wind and city ambient looping sounds
– Volume and playback tweaks to one shot ambient sounds
– Removed vent sounds in places where vents had been removed
– Fixed some spectator music bugs
– Updated negative feedback sound for clarity
– Added hit confirm audio functionality to Warden’s Alchemical Flask
– Updated Majestic Leap sound
– Updated bounce pad sound
– Improved some Binding Word effects to be less noisy
– Increased charged melee volume and falloff for victims
– Reduced likelihood of irrelevant announcer and hero dialog lines playing during combat exchanges
– Improved clarity of Dynamo Singularity sound for team and opponents
– Updated Viscous primary fire sound
– Soul jar return effect tinted red like minimap to make it more clear it’s the return location
– Player’s low health screen effect more visible for longer if you’re below 20% of your max HP
– Teleporter model and effect updated
– Updated Alchemical Flask projectile effect
– Fixed Bebop being able to sprint while his gun is spun up
– Added new voice content for Seven and Lash
– Added Shadow Weave cast and ambush sounds
– Fixed bullets hitting the world immediately when looking sharply upward
– Fixed Sinner’s Sacrifice not always correctly animating
– Fixed an issue where some kill lines that were only intended for the killer were playing for the victim as well (killstreak taunts still play for everyone)
– Some heroes can now comment on being alone in enemy territory, losing sight of an injured enemy, or leaving their teammates alone in a lane
– Fixed a bunch of minor typos / grammar errors in various texts
– Added ‘Express’ state to zipline indicators when speed had increased from defeating Enemy Base Guardians[ Misc Gameplay ]
– Added wall jumping (does not consume stamina, requires input direction away from the wall, can be done once)
– Moved a flex slot from « Set of enemy Base Guardians » to « All Enemy Lane Guardians »
– Added ropes to some buildings to let you climb up (hold jump key to latch onto them).
