Summer Squash

Summer Squash
Summer Squash explanation video
Details
Date	July 28th, 2016 - October 6th, 2016
Highlights	Bug fixes Performance improvements Improved game balance
Update chronology
Containment War What the Dickens? Rogue en Vogue Unlock and Load Up Your Arsenal Fine Tuning Update - June 2016 The Classy Art Hole Update Summer Squash The MOFO Update Dickensday: Winter's Meme Event Ranked Season 2 The Dockyard Update Ranked Season 3 Shell Shock Update Final Assault Update Javelin Update Ghostclip Update Guardian Update Ranked Season 4 Jackal's Eve Update Fine Tuning Update - November 2017 Balance Update - November 2017 Nuclear Winter Update Lead and Iron Update Hunter Update MercSERV Melee Mayhem Update Quick Join Update
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Dirty Bomb The Summer Squash

Dirty Bomb: The Summer Squash (Video Explanation)

The Summer Squash event was a set of patches designed to improve performance, squash long standing bugs and improve game balance during Summer 2016. This was a response to growing discontent from the community about the degrading quality of Dirty Bomb. The Summer Squash concludes with The MOFO Update, or The Map Overhaul and Framerate Optimization Update.

History

Since Splash Damage and Nexon launch Dirty Bomb on Steam in 2015 a long standing issue was poor performance for both low and high-end hardware players. While a constant complaint from the community, Splash Damage prioritized features, new Mercenaries and other improvements over game performance.

At the beginning of July The Classy Art Hole Update was launched and changes to the game's Crafting system were implemented. The community was less then pleased with Splash Damage's priorities in the game. Angry responses were post on the Steam forums, Neoxn forums, Warchest forums, Reddit, YouTube and arguments even broke out on the Dirty Bomb Twitch stream against Raziel Warmonic, the Nexon community manager.

After the dust had settled a bit Neil Alphonso, better known as thrmoptc or Exedore or Lead Designer for Dirty Bomb, posted a blog/forum post regarding the responses after the The Classy Art Hole Update.

	We’ve been reflecting on how the Classy Art Hole update has gone so far, and while there have been positives, we feel that we need to be transparent about what we feel were some mis-steps on our part and how we’re going to do things a bit differently in the future.
–Neil Alphonso, a.k.a @thrmoptc or [SD] Exedore

In the blog post Mr. Alphonso address a few things. First Splash Damage would temporally stop updates towards the Execution game mode and instead focus on Objective and Stopwatch, the core of Dirty Bomb:

	With the introduction of Gallery bumping us up to a total of three Execution maps, we’re drawing a line under the mode for a while. We’ll continue to fix bugs and optimise the Execution maps further, but now that we have a few maps for fans of the mode to enjoy, our focus will be primarily on Objective and Stopwatch modes – the core of Dirty Bomb.
–Neil Alphonso, a.k.a @thrmoptc or [SD] Exedore

Second Mr. Alphonso believes they did a poor job explaining the new Crafting system and they wish to improve communication in the future for new features:

	We still believe that Crafting is the future of the Loadout Card system, but we know how controversial it has been to many of you. It was a major failing on our part to not communicate the workings and values of the system much earlier than we did, for which we apologise and stress that it’s a mistake that we won’t make again. We feel that we did a much better job with preparing you for the introduction of 2nd Edition Loadout Cards, and will endeavor to be much closer to that level of communication for these sorts of features going forward.
–Neil Alphonso, a.k.a @thrmoptc or [SD] Exedore

However, they (Mr. Alphonso & Splash Damage) still believe in the changes to the crafting system. The community still seems split on the issue with some liking it while others do not.

	As a way of an apology and a gesture of goodwill, for a week at the end of August (Aug 25th - Sep 1) we'll be temporarily increasing the Fragments gained from Recycling by around 20%, reducing the Fragments needed to Craft by around 20%, and reducing Crafting Kit costs by around 40%. Alongside this, we'll give you a Crate that contains the possibility of a variety of Crafting Kits, Weapon Kits, and Cases for every day you log in during this week. We want to give you a full month's warning this time around, so that you can plan ahead with the management of your inventories.
–Neil Alphonso, a.k.a @thrmoptc or [SD] Exedore

Finally the biggest news of the blog post was the announcement of Summer Squash event.

	[Splash Damage] have decided to put most of our feature work on the back burner and focus the team on improving the game’s performance, fixing bugs and improving balance in a push we're dubbing our 'Summer Squash'. We don’t yet know how long this will be for, as we have bug fix and performance targets that we want to hit first and foremost. Our aim is to release fairly regular updates which you will hopefully feel improves the game substantially.
–Neil Alphonso, a.k.a @thrmoptc or [SD] Exedore

The majority of the team would be focused on fixing bugs, optimizing for performance and improving game balance.

Summer Squash Part 1

Dirty Bomb Summer Squash 'Part I' Update

Dirty Bomb: Summer Squash Part I

The "Summer Squash - Part 1" was the first in a series of patches during the Summer Squash event. The patch was published August 18th, 2016 .

	With our mission set to fix bugs ahead of working on features and complex events, we've been squashing 'em left and right. This patch is the first result of us tweaking under the hood to address issues that have been in the game for some time.
–RazielWarmonic - Nexon Community Manager for Dirty Bomb

Bug Fixes

Gameplay

• Fixed bug where Carryable Objective could be duplicated when swapping weapons
• Fixed bug where overtime could give incorrect results in Stopwatch Mode
• Fixed bug where active C4 could fall through geometry
• Fixed bug where inactivity could result in spammed Vote Kick calls; a single vote will now be triggered
• Fixed bug where you would be unable to call another Vote for 5 mins after automatically triggering a Vote Kick against yourself due to inactivity
• Fixed bug where the game did not message to players that another player had been kicked for inactivity
• Fixed bug where Ammo and Med Packs could get stuck inside geometry
• Fixed bug where shooting deployables or destructible secondary objectives counted as misses for Accuracy in the Profile page
• Fixed bug where Skyhammer would not count as getting Airstrike kills if he died before the Airstrike came down
• Fixed bug where Airstrikes could be called down indoors at certain spots
• Fixed bug where Proximity Mines could disappear when dropped on an enemy
• Fixed bug where using Healing Pulse would not grant any usage XP unless it affected a teammate
• Improved how explosives disperse Molotov flames
• Fixed bug where AFK/Idle Vote could be automatically triggered when interacting with an objective without moving
• Fixed bug where 'Returning Carryable' text could still display after a match had ended
• Fixed bug where UI elements could overlap in Execution Mode
• Fixed bug where C4 indicator would show above an enemy Phantom in line of sight if he had Refractive Armor active in Execution Mode
• Fixed bug where the revive visual effect would not be aligned with the dummy in the tutorial
• Fixed bug where players were able to shoot through pipes in Underground

Ranked Mode

• Fixed bug where a matchmaking lobby could incorrectly be disbanded, with the message 'One or more players failed to join the lobby in time'
• Fixed bug where players could get stuck in a looping message when trying to leave a Party
• Fixed bug where the Party Chat Box would cut off long messages
• Fixed bug where some Friendly Fire penalties were not applying
• Fixed bug where Clan Tags would not appear in lobbies
• Fixed bug where players invited to a Party were not notified if the Party was full
• Fixed bug where client could crash if the game was exiting via console while matchmaking
• Fixed bug where joining players could be listed as '[unknown]'
• Fixed bug where a friendly fire enabled Proximity Mine would not correctly attribute damage to the owner

User Interface

• Fixed bug where Lobby Chat messages could sometimes not display in the seconds before a match begins
• Fixed bug where Mission information would sometimes not display in the notifications dropdown
• Fixed bug where the Lobby Chat Box would not scroll down automatically when new messages were posted
• Updated the Win/Loss/Draw animations to be smaller and at the bottom of the screen
• Fixed bug where Badges earned at the end of a match would not display
• Fixed bug where players could pretend to send messages as the server
• Fixed bug where selection highlight in the Barracks was missing
• Fixed bug where the XP Earned in the Profile section would display incorrect values
• Fixed bug where Lobby text would incorrectly say 'Match starts in...' for matches already in progress
• Fixed several grammar and punctuation errors
• Add missing "Quick Chat" key binding to frontend settings panel
• Add missing "Auto Reload" setting to frontend settings panel
• Fixed bug where clan tags would not appear in lobbies
• Fixed bug where landing screen feature image would sometimes flicker across other screens
• Fixed various casual and ranked matchmaking bugs that would cause matchmaking to fail
• Fixed bug where lobby would incorrectly say "WAITINGFORLOADOUTS" instead of the correct text
• Fixed bug where XP displayed in profile screen would not match XP in other parts of the UI

Audio

• Adjusted audio mix so that enemy footsteps are more audible than friendly footsteps
• Fixed bug where Merc dialogue would sometimes play at an incorrect volume level
• Fixed bug where incorrect music could play in relation to match state

Other

• Added 'Animation Quality' video setting, to help with performance
• Fixed bug where ThreadSync was enabled when any video preset was changed, affecting performance

Known Issues

• On Execution loading screens there is debug text for the number of rounds
• Trainyard (Stopwatch): The Deliverable Container Doors will occasionally fail to open at the third objective. This issue is purely a visual issue and does not impede the offense in delivering the objective.

Credits Boosters

As mentioned in the Summer Squash blog post, we're changing Credits Boosters for good, cutting prices across the board to make give you a much better bang for your buck.

Pricing changes

• 1h Credits Booster – Removed entirely from Store and Arsenal Crates (if you have one already, it'll still work as before)
• 3h Credits Booster – Reduced to $0.79 (from $1.49)
• 6h Credits Booster – Reduced to $1.49 (from $2.99)
• 12h Credits Booster – Reduced to $2.49 (from $5.99)
• 18h Credits Booster – Reduced to $3.49 (from $7.99)

Arsenal Crate Changes

Alongside cheaper boosters, we're removing some of the lower value items from Arsenal Crates to make them more valuable overall. If you open any unopened Arsenal Crates after the patch is live, they will update to the new version automatically.

Removed from Arsenal Crates

• 1h Credit Booster
• 3h Credits Booster
• 5x Equipment Cases

Summer Squash Part 2

Dirty Bomb Summer Squash 'Part II' Update

Dirty Bomb: Summer Squash Part II

The "Summer Squash - Part 2" was the second in a series of patches during the Summer Squash event. The patch was published September 9th, 2016 .

	Another update, another batch of bugs being squashed! The second part of our Summer Squash season also includes key balance tweaks to even the score a little more.
–Patch Notes

Balance

Mercs

Aimee

While Aimee is useful, she hasn't quite been keeping up with the other snipers. We believe part of this is due to the long cooldown of her SNITCH Device once it's destroyed.

We've reduced this cooldown so Aimee can deploy SNITCH's more regularly. In doing so we've also reduced the maximum life-span of the SNITCH to match, effectively making it 'one per spawnwave' when it comes to Stopwatch play.

• Reduced the SNITCH cooldown to 25s (from 30s)
• Reduced the SNITCH lifespan to 25s (from 30s)

Redeye

In the right hands, Redeye has proven to be overly effective, especially when firing through Smoke, leaving his targets with little chance to fight back.

While this behavior is intended, we felt that Redeye could spend too much time in this state, so we've increased the cooldown cost of enabling IR Goggles. This not only reduces the total amount of time the IR Goggles can spend enabled, but also increases the cooldown penalty of constantly switching IR Goggles on and off.

To also provide a better counter to Redeye, we've also reduced the amount of explosive damage it takes to remove Smoke from an area, so now a single Frag Grenade will do the trick.

• Reduced explosive damage required to dissipate Smoke to 170 (from 225)
• Increased the initial Cooldown cost of enabled IR Goggles to 3s (from 1.2s)

Sawbonez

As the current top-dog Medic, Sawbonez needs marginally toning down. Since his healing is heavily based on quick-regeneration, we've reduced the instant 'Direct Hit' healing he provides with his Med Packs. This brings it in-line with the 'Direct Hit' bonus that Sparks' Med Packs provide.

• Reduced Sawbonez Med Pack 'Direct Hit' instant heal to 10hp (from 20hp)

Sparks

The REVIVR Rifle makes Sparks a formidable reviver and the longest range Medic, however her reduced healing capacity means she's often not as effective as the others.

With that in mind, we've increased the amount of healing her Med Packs provide to others, while keeping the self-healing the same.

• Increased health provided by Sparks Med Pack to teammates to 40hp (from 30hp)

• Increased collision box on Sparks Med Packs to make them a little easier to pick up

Assault Rifles

Dreiss AR

The Dreiss has been seen to be the least effective Assault Rifle when it's available. Since the main issue seems to be bullet spread when fired from the hip, we've significantly reduced initial bullet spread and toned down the maximum bullet spread after sustained fire.

• Reduced starting bullet spread by ~20%
• Reduced maximum spread by ~4%

Timik-47

The Timik-47 has been lagging slightly behind the M4. While it is intended to be harder to control, it should be initially more accurate. We've reduced the starting bullet spread a little more to emphasise this, while also toning down the vertical kick after each shot, to make it a little more viable when ironsighting.

• Reduced starting bullet spread by ~6%
• Reduced vertical recoil by ~4%

Sniper Rifles

PDP-70

While The PDP-70 has been seen to be very effective on Redeye due to his ability to hunker down and fire through smoke, it's not seeing nearly the same performance when in the hands of Aimee or Vassili.

With that in mind, alongside the changes to Redeye, we've opted to increase its potential burst damage with higher damage per shot, but lowering it's damage output over time.

This should reduce the effectiveness of spamming through Smoke, while leaving the weapon itself potent.

• Increased damage to 50 (from 45)
• Reduced rate-of-fire to 138RPM (from 180RPM)
• Reduced magazine capacity to 8 (from 9)

Grandeur SR

While it has good killing potential, the Grandeur SR requires a lot of control, often leaving the shooter as a stationary target. We decided to speed up the reload speed and make it more accurate when hip-fired to allow for a bit more mobility.

• Reduced initial bullet spread by ~10%
• Reduced reload time to 2.2s (from 2.6s)

SMGs

Hochfir SMG

While being the most accurate SMG, the Hochfir has been struggling in the damage department. To counter this we've marginally increased the rate of fire to bring its time-to-kill closer to the other SMG's.

• Increased rate of fire to 833RPM (from 811RPM)

Machine Pistols

Compared to the semi-automatic Pistol secondaries, the MP 400 and especially the Empire-9 are both significantly over-performing.

MP 400

The MP 400 is the slowest-firing, hardest-hitting of the Machine Pistols, so we've lowered the rate of fire a little more here to tone it down while further differentiating it from the others.

• Reduced rate of fire to 619RPM (from 632RPM)

Empire-9

The Empire-9 is the fastest-firing Machine Pistol and intended to fill the air with low-damaging bullets. Currently it's vastly out performing all other secondaries so we've increased the maximum bullet spread and recoil, making it harder to control over time.

• Increased maximum bullet spread by ~7%
• Increased recoil by ~10%

Pistols

Both the Caulden and the Simeon .357 are under-performing when compared to other secondaries.

Caulden

We've increased the number of rounds in the Caulden magazine, so it's closer to the other pistols in terms of damage-per-magazine and players will have to reload less often.

• Increased rounds per magazine to 9 (from 8)

Simeon .357

The Simeon is the weaker, and thus easier-to-handle of the two revolvers. We've reduced the kick to make it easier to for players to land those devastating head-shots.

• Reduced maximum bullet spread by ~7%
• Reduced vertical recoil by ~6%

General

• Added an audible 3-second countdown when a match is about to restart due to a Restart Map Vote
• Added Team Chat to Ranked Lobbies
• Added the 'Favorite star' to the Loadout Card prompt when attempting to Recycle a Favorite Loadout Card
• AFK-Kicks no longer temporarily ban players from Server Browser games, they can rejoin when they are active again (if there is still space on the server)
• Automatically triggered AFK-Kick Votes no longer prevent the AFK player from calling other votes
• Estimated queue time is now only shown when there is enough data to predict the waiting time
• * Previously, displayed queue times were incorrect when coming out of downtime
• Optimized Merc models by reducing the number of skeletal bones for Sawbonez, Rhino, Fragger, Thunder & Phoenix when viewed at a distance
• Loadout Cards on Death Ghosts are now introduced to players who reach Level 3, when the game has had a chance to explain how Loadout Card rarities work

Bug Fixes

• Fixed bug where a dropped Carryable objective was still visibly held in-hand by the incapped player
• Fixed bug where C4 couldn't be planted on a Generator if it had previously been destroyed by gunfire
• Fixed bug where completing C4 Objectives was not correctly granting XP
• Fixed bug where completing C4 Objectives were not counting towards Objective Badges
• Fixed bug where the 'One enemy remaining' voice line in Execution was counting incapacitated players as alive
• Fixed bug where Loadout Cards could sometimes appear much darker that they should do in-game
• Fixed bug where the primary weapon could sometimes be equipped twice on a Revive
• Fixed bug where Thunder's Concussion Grenade wasn't fully blinding players
• * The blinding effect is no longer full-white - it has been toned down slightly to help prevent eye strain
• Fixed bug where debug text could appear when players stopped Matchmaking
• Fixed bug where dying during the end of round outro would cause the player to have broken hand animations
• Fixed bug on Chapel where walking on the Secondary Objective ramps could cause the client to de-sync from the server
• Fixed bug where attempting to fire would not cancel a C4 plant
• Fixed bug where Clan Tags would not appear in the post-game lobby of matchmade games
• Fixed bug where Crafting Kits and Weapon Kits would be hidden by default in the Inventory screen
• Fixed bug where the wrong weapon model could be visible when a player was Revived
• Fixed bug where IR Goggles could not be deactivated when running low on energy
• Fixed bug where Martyrdom was reporting as a Melee kill in player stats
• Fixed bug where Molotov icons did not appear in death ghost info
• Fixed bug where Molotov flames could sometimes not be extinguished by explosives
• Fixed bug where player chat was not colored by team in the post-game Lobby of Ranked games
• Fixed bug where players could join another game but remain in a Ranked Party
• Fixed bug where players could not accept Party Invites from a Party that another player had already left
• Fixed bug where players would be prompted to rejoin a Ranked Match they had been kicked & banned from
• Fixed bug where sorting Loadout Cards by Date would not have any effect
• Fixed bug where the background images in the main menu could start cycling quickly at random intervals
• Fixed bug where the incorrect audio would play when attempting to re-activate Phantom's Refractive Armor
• Fixed bug where the 'Moving on Up' Steam Achievement would not unlock when Crafting a Loadout Card
• Fixed bug where the Options menu would move off-screen when changing between 21:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios
• Fixed bug where the screen would flash white when switching between tabs in the Profile screen
• Fixed bug where the weapon stats would overlap with the page numbers in the Profile page
• Fixed bug where the wrong color could appear for player chat in lobbies
• Fixed bug where thrown items would sometimes not spawn when network conditions were extremely poor
• Fixed bug where weapons could constantly keep switching after planting C4
• Fixed potential crash when the game is left on the front end for extended periods of time
• Fixed bug where gaps were visible in the underarms of some Mercs' character models
• Fixed bug where Fragger's trigger finger appeared broken when viewed in third-person
• Fixed bug where the 'Ranked Mode Unlocked' post-match award had missing text

Summer Squash Part 3

Dirty Bomb Summer Squash 'Part III' Update

The "Summer Squash - Part 3" was the third in a series of patches during the Summer Squash event. The patch was published August 6th, 2016 .

We're slashing bugs like it's nobody's business! This update rounds off our bug-focused Summer Squash - We've squeezed tons of fixes into this release, so we'll let them speak for themselves. The cavalry is also on the horizon - Our next release is a map optimization pass that's laser-focused on framerate improvements in matches, and DirectX9EX support for menu and match performance is also in the works. Keep your eye on our Youtube channel for more information in the coming weeks.

General

• Made numerous general optimization improvements
• Greatly reduced negative framerate spikes caused by players joining the game or switching Mercs
• Improved performance of the post-game Lobby screen in Matchmade games
• Reduced the memory usage of many different audio files
• Made several improvements to the death ghost system, making them more reliable and less likely to show bullets passing through walls
• Added Jackal and CDA headers to the two teams in the Lobby
• After dropping a Carryable Objective using Alternate Fire, the previously selected item will now be chosen (rather than Primary)
• Increased Merc selection time in Ranked lobbies to 50s (from 25s)
  • The extra time will allow for a more strategy when planning your team selection
• Added a HUD indicator for when network conditions are considered poor
  • Our initial values can be tweaked in a future update if required
• Disabled & removed the 'Motion-Blur Skinning' video option as it had no effect in-game
• Removed several minor environmental effects on 'Low' and 'Minimal' graphics settings (plastic bags, pigeons, etc.)
• Alt-F4 will no longer close down the game while in a match or connected to a server.
  • This is to discourage rage-quitting, as it prevents closing the game instantly
• Players are now only able to vote once for a Map in the Lobby
  • This is to stop players from spamming the map vote or changing their vote at the last second
• Added Friends support to the post game Lobby in Matchmade games
• Added player-muting support to the post game Lobby in Matchmade games
• Added player reporting to the post game Lobby in Matchmade games

Bug Fixes

• Fixed several commonly reported crashes
• Fixed bug where Kira's character model could be corrupted when crouching or incapped, and viewed from a distance
• Fixed bug where Redeye was unable to disable IR Goggles when they were nearly out of charge
• Fixed bug where players would sometimes instantly respawn when fully killed, regardless of spawn wave timers
• Fixed bug where players on MGs were not affected by Molotovs and Healing Stations
  • Phoenix's Healing Pulse does not yet affect players on MGs - we will address this in a future update
• Fixed bug where crouching could sometimes cancel a reload
• Fixed bug where firing a Shotgun once could consume two shells
• Fixed bug where Ammo Stations and Ammo Caches could provide Ammo through walls
• Fixed bug where enemy indicators would sometimes be visible through Smoke
• Fixed bug where weapon switches could occur with no player input during high network packet loss
• Fixed several issues with preset graphics options applying incorrect settings
• Fixed bug where 'unknown' was listed for the player name when they joined a game
• Fixed bug where unsent chat messages were not saved when returning to the lobby
• Fixed bug where melee attack animations would sometimes not be visible on other players
• Fixed bug where 'TEXTFIELD' could display on players' death ghosts
• Fixed bug where players could not see the Merc selections of others during the Merc selection phase
  • Merc selection is still hidden for the enemy team in Matchmade games
• Fixed bug where teamkills were not punished with negative XP in Ranked
• Fixed bug where players banned from a match would be asked if they wanted to reconnect
• Fixed bug that would cause numbers on the settings screen to be displayed withexcessive numerical accuracy
• Fixed bug where game music would still play when watching YouTube videos in-game
• Fixed bug where the game would say 'has left the game' without a player name
• Fixed bug where un-muted players could generate duplicate chat messages
• Fixed bug where incapacitated Merc bodies would sometimes rotate on the floor
• Fixed bug where players were seeing the incorrect Jackal/CDA loading screen in Matchmade games
• Fixed bug where extra brackets could appear around Clan Tags in join/leave messages in Matchmade games
• Fixed bug where new players were defaulting to 'Custom' graphics options

Notable Known Issues

• Several key environmental effects that play during cinematics are missing on 'Low' and 'Minimal' graphics settings (explosions, etc.)