Early Access Patch V0.9

We're blasting off again!

Patch Notes 2023年7月7日

Summary

Patch releasing 12.00 GMT July 11th, 2023.

It’s time to load up, Champions!

The V0.9 Game Update is just around the corner, bringing with it our most Dashing new Hero yet, alongside some substantial improvements to our in-game chat moderation systems, as well as equally substantial changes to our in-game audio mixing!

At the risk of taking our sights off of TwinBlast for a moment, our Sound Team have been firing on all cylinders - making momentous improvements to the way that audio is optimised and delivered during matches. We’ll let Bartosz go into more detail a little later into this blog, but the team’s recent work on the sound front really builds on Predecessor’s immersion.

The other big thing to talk about in V0.9 is arguably one of our biggest pushes to address in-game toxicity to date.

As is all the rage right now, we’re working with an incredibly efficient and effective ( and industry-leading) artificial intelligence tool to fully automate the moderation process for in-game messaging. But what does this mean specifically? Read on for more, and keep an eye out for a dedicated blog on Tackling Toxicity, coming early next week.

And lastly of course there’s our gun-toting new action Hero, TwinBlast! There’s no use waffling on about him here though, so let’s blast right into it!

• Kari, Senior Community Manager

A new hero appears

TwinBlast is locked and loaded!

Blast into battle with the gunslinging extraordinaire, TwinBlast, the latest Hero to join the Predecessor roster!

Evasive, explosive and dashing in more ways than one, TwinBlast is second to none when it comes to gunplay!

Watch TwinBlast In Action!

Before we Rocket Dash into more details, why not watch what TwinBlast has to offer in our latest ability overview video!

ABILITIES:

Gunslinger [Passive]:

Using an Ability will cause TwinBlast's next 2 basic attacks (within 5s) to benefit from 40% increased Total Attack Speed.

Double Shot [LMB]:

Ranged basic attack that fires two projectiles, each dealing 24 (+50% Bonus Physical Power) physical damage and applying on-hit effects at 50% effectiveness.

Vaporize [Q]:

Cooldown: 10/9/8/7/6

Cost: 40

Effect: TwinBlast charges and fires two super-heated piercing projectiles in the target’s direction with each dealing 40/60/80/100/120 (+40% Bonus Physical Power)(+60% Magical Power) physical damage and applying on-hit effects to all targets hit at 60% effectiveness.

Rocket Dash [E]:

Cooldown: 20/19/18/17/16

Cost: 40/35/30/25/20

Passive: When TwinBlast deals damage to an enemy Hero with a Basic Attack or Ability, Rocket Dash’s cooldown is decreased by 0.5s.

Effect: TwinBlast dashes.

Vortex Grenade [RMB]:

Cooldown: 7/6.5/6/5.5/5

Cost: 20

Effect: Launch a grenade in the target direction that explodes upon contact with an Enemy Target, dealing 20/35/50/65/80 (+100% Total Physical Power) physical damage in a small area and Slowing by 15% for 0.75s.

Max Charges: 2.

New

Ventilate [R]:

Cooldown: 120/100/80

Cost: 100

Effect: Transform your guns into fully automatic machine guns, unleashing a barrage of 25 (+6% Attack Speed) bullets over 3s, dealing 12/20/38 damage per bullet (+20% Bonus Physical Power)(+15% Magical Power), for a total of 300/500/700 (+500% Bonus Physical Power)(+375% Magical Power) at 25 bullets.

New Skin - Shadow Ops TwinBlast

It’s a bit of a shot in the dark, but are you a fan of the covert-operative look? You know, the sneaky sneaky, crawling through vents type thing? Well if you are - have we got the skin for you!

No mission is impossible for the new Shadow Ops Skin [ rare] for TwinBlast, available in V0.9 in the store!

Improved Chat Moderation

It’s time to talk about one of the hottest topics we see right now. No it’s not the British summertime causing some of our computers to melt, it’s in-game chat messages.

It’s no secret that in-game chat messages haven’t exactly always been hitting the quality bar we were hoping to see under our current moderation system.

We’re pleased to reveal that as of V0.9 we’re getting with the times and deploying the latest in totally-not-evil AI technology to help shore up our in-game message defences.

Specifically this AI tool has been extensively trained to detect hostile, insulting or discriminatory language and automagically apply appropriate sanctions, scaling from temporary chat bans right the way up to the permanent removal of in-game chat privileges, with repeat offences leading to increasingly harsher results.

Sound Improvements:

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