Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - First Assault Online
[NOW LIVE] Last Livestream of the Year! - DEC. 16, 2016
Ready yourselves, Operatives! Engage against the enemy team alongside the First Assault team on December 16, 2016 at 4PM PST/ 7PM EST/ December 17 1AM CET. We will be diving on all servers for an hour, and we will also be streaming this event!
Be sure to follow us at http://twitch.tv/firstassault to be notified of when we go live! We'll be giving away even more prizes, so be sure to tune in!
20,000 GP to the winning teams
More prizes to be given away at the livestream
EVENT DATE
STARTS: December 16th 4PM PST/ 7PM EST/ December 17th 1AM CET
ENDS: December 17th 5PM PST/ 8PM EST/ December 17th 2AM CET
*Prizes to be issued the following week after the event is over. Players may only be able to win prizes once during event.
[EVENT] Demolitions Expert
Operatives, your next mission has arrived. Combat the enemy in Demolition Mode and complete the objectives below to earn GP!
Mission: Plant Bomb
Count: 5
Reward: 5,000 GP
Mission: Defuse Bomb
Count: 5
Reward: 5,000 GP
Mission: Plant and Defuse Bomb in a Single Dive Match
Count: 2
Reward: Bronze GP Kit
EVENT DATES
STARTS: December 16th 10AM PST/ 1PM EST/ 7PM CET
ENDS: December 19th 10AM PST/ 1PM EST/ 7PM CET
*Missions can only be completed in Dive Matches.
SA: Niihama Ticket; ALL ABOARD
Greetings, Operatives. We are excited to introduce the long awaited eighth episode from the First Assault team! This week, we are bringing you a new map to combat the enemy in, called Station. We are also introducing two new weapons to add to your arsenal as well as exciting new weapon skins to get you into the holiday spirit. Review the patch notes below.
As a reminder, Nexon is offering bonus NX with purchases between Dec 7th and Dec 21st. When purchasing select packages, you can receive up to 15% bonus NX for free. The more you buy the more you get during this limited time offer. Get your bonus now: http://firstassault.nexon.net/en/news/19491/get-up-to-15-bonus-nx
MAP
Station – Demolition
You may recognize Station from its prototype testing phase, and now we are excited to introduce this map in its fully finished form! Be sure to take advantage of all of the corridors and connected rooms to ambush your enemies. There are plenty of spots to take cover and use tactical strategies to lead your team to victory. As always, be sure to let us know what you think of Station on the forums!
Urban City – Team Deathmatch (LIMITED TIME HOLIDAY MAP)
Get into the holiday spirit this season and dive into the newly decorated Urban City map! We’ve added all sorts of festive cheer such as snow, presents, lights, trees, and more. Be sure to look up and catch Santa in his sleigh flying across the sky with his reindeers!
WEAPON
SR: SR-V97 – A well-rounded sniper rifle good for any situation.
SMG: PP-2200 – Developed as a personal defense weapon, this weapon is extremely light but remains stable and accurate.
LIMITED TIME HOLIDAY WEAPON SKINS
M4A1 / F2020: KRAMPUS – Naughty or nice, he’ll put you on ice.
SC-AR 45: GIFT WRAP – Bag ‘em, tag ‘em, put a bow on ‘em.
Seburo C-30: SAINT NICK – Santa has run out of coal this year but he's got plenty of lead.
CLIENT AND NETWORK OPTIMIZATION
We have made several improvements to the netcode and optimized the game even more to increase performance for our players. Although we hope that these changes will fix many of the current netcode/hit registration issues in the game, we will continue to keep a close eye on the forums to keep improving upon the game’s performance with your feedback.
• Improved client lag spikes (Sound data loading / UI call loading)
• Optimized overall FPS performance
• Increased character and NPC movement packets (10 packets/second → 20 packets/second)
• Improved character and NPC movement interpolation logic
• Increase dedicated server tick rate (30Hz → 60Hz)
• Improved network code for hit registration
• Optimized light shaders and added graphic options (Muzzle Light Reflection)
• Fixed minor optimization bugs and client crash issues
SYSTEMS
Voice Chat Voice Chat has finally arrived! The Voice Chat system includes the option to mute teammates, toggle, or push to talk. Use this system to your advantage and strategize with your team to victory.
Temporary Inventory You can now collect weapon attachments and skins of weapons that you do not own. These types of items will live on the Temporary Inventory page until you purchase the pertinent weapon.
PLAYER SUGGESTIONS
• Added a function to block in-game chat from specific users. Block settings will only be applied to the match in-progress and will reset when the match ends.
• Ghost Assault mode can now be selected and played in Custom Matches.
• Name tag of players using Motoko’s Therm-Optic Camo will no longer be displayed when your crosshair is placed on the character. However, the name tag will appear if the camo is not active (ex: when the player shoots with the camo on).
• Motoko’s Therm-Optic Camo is no longer detectable by Saito’s Heat Sensor while it is active. However, the player will be detected if the camo is not active (ex: when the player shoots with the camo on).
• Saito’s Heat Sensor Balance
- Tier 1 Scan Times are reduced by 1 (4 → 3)
- Tier 2 Scan Times are reduced by 1 (7 → 6)
- Silhouette Detection reduced by 10m (35m → 25m)
- Detection time is reduced by 1.0 sec (2.5 sec → 1.5 sec)
MISCELLANEOUS
• For Nexon Launcher users, DLC Crates can now be purchased using NX currency. Steam users will continue to get the Steam payment pop up page.
• MATEBA weapon has been renamed to MATEBA 2006M.
• “Muzzle Light Reflection” option can now be turned off in graphic settings.
• “MY INFO” button has been relocated to the bottom right of the screen by the name display area.
• Added new Cyber Crate redemption screen for GP Kits.
• Tachikoma max health will decrease when upgraded.
• Tachikoma offensive capabilities have been increased.
BUG FIXES
• Various multi-language strings and UI fixes.
• Fixed a bug where weapon floated in mid-air after character was killed.
KNOWN ISSUES
• After purchasing any DLC Crates, you must restart the game twice in order to receive the DLC in your in-game Inbox.
• Weapon filters do not work in the WEAPON SKINS section of ATTACHMENTS in the MARKET.
• In Ghost Assault mode, the KCZ-85 provides the player with an incorrect amount of ammo (12 instead of 17).
• The Master volume bar does not adjust the volume of players you hear.
• The OWNED ATTACHMENTS MENU makes it feel like each weapon has 256 total attachments. This is not the case.
• In a new match, pressing the hotkey to toggle on voice chat for the first time does not do anything. You have to push it again a second time to turn it on.
• On the result screen, boosts received from the battle card appear separately from the rest of the GP/EXP bonus that the player has received. The amount of GP/EXP obtained is unaffected.
[EVENT] Section 9 Winter Raffle
Dive in and play all month long to earn raffle tickets in the Section 9 Winter Raffle! Simply complete seven matches to earn a ticket every day!
STARTS: December 15th 10AM PST/ 1PM EST/ 7PM CET
ENDS: January 12th 10AM PST/ 1PM EST/ 7PM CET
*A raffle ticket is an item that will help you keep count of how many entries you have. This item will be sent to your Armory as you complete the daily mission.
*The event will be rewarded the following week after it ends.
Scheduled Maintenance - DEC. 15, 2016
We will be performing a scheduled maintenance on December 15, 2016 at 5:00 AM Pacific (8:00 AM Eastern, 2:00 PM CET). We anticipate the maintenance to last approximately 5 hours, concluding around 10:00 AM Pacific (1:00 PM Eastern, 7:00 PM CET).
This is for routine Windows maintenance.
Our December content update is scheduled to release next week.
Please note that the estimated length of time for each maintenance is subject to change without notification.
TIME:
Thursday, December 15, 2016
Pacific: 5:00 AM – 10:00 AM
Eastern: 8:00 AM – 1:00 PM
CET: 2:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Thank you for your patience.
-The First Assault Team
Last Livestream of the Year! - DEC. 16, 2016
Ready yourselves, Operatives! Engage against the enemy team alongside the First Assault team on December 16, 2016 at 4PM PST/ 7PM EST/ December 17 1AM CET. We will be diving on all servers for an hour, and we will also be streaming this event!
Be sure to follow us at http://twitch.tv/firstassault to be notified of when we go live! We'll be giving away even more prizes, so be sure to tune in!
20,000 GP to the winning teams
More prizes to be given away at the livestream
EVENT DATE
STARTS: December 16th 4PM PST/ 7PM EST/ December 17th 1AM CET
ENDS: December 17th 5PM PST/ 8PM EST/ December 17th 2AM CET
*Prizes to be issued the following week after the event is over. Players may only be able to win prizes once during event.
Community Weapon Skin Design!
Greetings, Operatives!
We are excited to kick off our first ever Community Weapon Skin Design poll!
Help create the next community weapon skin for First Assault by submitting your vote for design options. We will select the top most voted options to create the skin.
Community Manager – Lumos
Production Coordinator – Disrespect
WHAT
Join us for an upcoming content stream on Tuesday, December 13 with Lumos and Disrespect! Tune in for giveaways and to see what's coming to the game!
Prizes will include:
- 3x weapon of your choice (from the Market)
- 3x skin of your choice (from the Market)
WHEN
Tuesday, December 13, 2016 at 9:30AM PST/ 12:30PM EST/ 6:30PM CET
WHERE
http://www.twitch.tv/firstassault
Be sure to follow our Twitch channel to be notified of when we go live!
A Letter from the Producer
Dear Operatives,
As we approach the end of the year, we wanted to take a moment and discuss the state of the game, the past 12 months and what lies ahead.
With Open Beta having launched in July, to say that we have learned a lot about our game and our community would be an understatement. We know that there have been points of frustration as we strive to improve the daily service while continuing to build for the future. I’d like to apologize for the time it has taken for this. However, I am also thankful for a community that has provided feedback and support throughout our beta phase. Without you none of this would be worthwhile. I want everyone to know that we are aware of your concerns and that we care very deeply about the game and the community we’ve built together.
In an effort to be more open and transparent, we’ve opened a Developer Q&A thread on the forums and are striving to have monthly Dev Sync Ups. But to many of you, this simply is not enough – we need changes and fixes to happen as well. So here’s what’s been happening behind the scenes:
NETCODE/HIT REGISTRATION
• With our next update – we’re adding a few changes that we hope will improve this. We’re anxious to roll this out and get it in the hands of the community and continue collecting information from our players.
• We recently opened a Private Test Server (PTS) to test and work on future fixes for the netcode/hit registration. It’ll be a great benefit to the game’s development and we look forward to working with our PTS participants to continuously implement improvements into our live servers.
• Lastly, we’ve seen EU and SA players connect to NA servers – we advise our players to connect to the server that is closest to them.
WEAPON/SKILL BALANCING
• We know that we have been lacking in this department – and we need to improve our cadence for adjusting the game balance. We will strive to do at least one balance pass every couple of months as we work with our PTS players.
• To start off the process, we will be balancing Saito’s Heat Sensor skill this month by reducing the number of scans, detection distance, and detection time. We’ll also look at data to see what we can do for weapon balancing.
• Finally, I assure you that we have big plans for early next year that we are all very excited about.
HACKING/CHEATING
• This is something we take very seriously and is very unfortunate that we have players actively ruining the experience of others. We’ve implemented more measures to fight against hacks and cheats in the game, as well as improved our auto-kick system. We ask that if you see any suspicious behavior, please contact our CS team to report it: https://support-firstassault.nexon.net/hc/en-us/requests/new
I hope that I’ve been able to shed some light on what has been going on, and what to expect for the future. 2017 will be an exciting one, and we have some amazing content planned. I think we can all agree that we want to make First Assault a better game, and we are so appreciative for the feedback that you have given us from Closed Beta through Early Access, and now in our Open Beta phase. We will strive to be more open with you about our progress, and keep working hard to rid the game of issues.
Thank you again for your constant patience and support for the game. We’ll see you in-game, Operatives!
Anthony DeLuca
“AntMan”
Senior Producer, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - First Assault Online
UPCOMING CONTENT STREAM! - DEC. 13, 2016
WHO
Community Manager – Lumos
Production Coordinator – Disrespect
WHAT
Join us for an upcoming content stream on Tuesday, December 13 with Lumos and Disrespect! Tune in for giveaways and to see what's coming to the game!
Prizes will include:
- 3x weapon of your choice (from the Market)
- 3x skin of your choice (from the Market)
WHEN
Tuesday, December 13, 2016 at 9:30AM PST/ 12:30PM EST/ 6:30PM CET
WHERE
http://www.twitch.tv/firstassault
Be sure to follow our Twitch channel to be notified of when we go live!
