DEV BLOG - Equipment balancing in Uprising 1.8

What a "news storm" - after long time without important news 3 dev blogs hit us in last 9 days. Say hello to cloacking device.


Equipment in DUST 514 has been rebalanced. You may have heard. Below is a quick summary of the changes, followed by a more in-depth breakdown as well as a look at the Cloak Field, a new piece of equipment being introduced in Uprising 1.8.
Summary

• Cooldown times on active scanners have been increased. Scanner functionality has also been improved to do snapshot scans in order to stop “scannerinas” from doing 360 degree spins.
• The range on repair tools has been reduced.
• Drop uplink spawn times have been increased.
• Nanohive nanite supply have been reduced.
• The Cloak Field will be available in 1.8.

These changes are being made to address issues with the initial numbers: Active scanner cool-down is too short and has resulted in widespread abuse, and drop uplink spawn time is way too fast, taking emphasis away from capturing and protecting CRUs for the team. Additionally, adjustments to the Logistics role’s skill bonuses necessitated tweaks to the equipment.

Logistics Role Bonus: 5% reduction to PG/CPU cost of equipment.

Caldari Logistics Bonus: +10% to nanohive max. nanites and +5% to supply rate and repair amount per level.

Gallente Logistics Bonus: +10% to active scanner visibility duration and +5% to active scanner precision per level.

Minmatar Logistics Bonus: +10% to repair tool range and 5% to repair amount per level.

Amarr Logistics Bonus: 10% reduction to drop uplink spawn time and +2 to max. spawn count per level.

So while the base numbers have been adjusted down, specialists will enjoy performance comparable to earlier iterations. The intent here is to reward specialization and create room for future modules that will enhance the performance of equipment, allowing specialists to further customize their fits in a way that allows them to excel at a specific function.

Equipment Stats
 

 

Cloaking
Cloaking is without a doubt the most controversial of all features being added in 1.8, but a necessary one as we move to improving the electronic warfare aspect of DUST’s combat. Access to and denial of information is a vital aspect of the core design, but one that, to date, we’ve not fully explored. Cloaking is one facet of this and the first major step we’ve made in this regard.

Cloaking works as follows:

• The cloak field is a piece of equipment.
• When the cloak field is selected, the cortex is raised and you press fire to activate it.
• Once activated, the cortex remains on-screen. Switching to any other equipment, weapon or throwing a grenade will deactivate the cloak.
• The amount of cloak "shimmer" is increased as you move. When standing still you will be invisible, but when moving you will be noticeable to an extent. While cloaked, you will have no chevron or health bars, but the enemy reticule will flash red if you run past it.
• When in use, the cloak field’s energy depletes slowly over time.
• Cloak can be manually deactivated by pressing fire or switching to a different piece of equipment or a weapon.
• Once deactivated or the cloak field runs out of energy it will start to recharge.
• You cannot reactivate the cloak field unless you have at least 50% charge.
• You can only fit one cloak field at a time.
• You do not decloak when hacking an objective or vehicle.
• You do not decloak when jumping or falling.
• If shot while cloaked, hit VFX will still be displayed.
• When cloaking and decloaking noticeable VFX are played.

Here are some examples of the cloak in action:

Fully cloaked  - 3P view

Maximum shimmer (full sprint)  - 3P view

Fully cloaked  - 1P view

Maximum shimmer (full sprint)  - 1P view

Cloak/decloak transition effect – 3P

Regardless of the original intent, everything in war ultimately ends up being used to kill, so we’re nervous and excited about cloaking and look forward to seeing how it’ll be used to shape the battlefields of New Eden.

-CCP Remnant


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