Last Year
Last Year version 1.0.18!
We’ve put together a balance/bug fixing patch for our last major update: Last Year version 1.0.18! If you do not see the prompt to update, you may need to restart your Steam client.
With Patch 1.0.18, we’ve made several balance changes and bug fixes. Here’s a look at the some of the changes we’ve made in this update:
BALANCE CHANGES:
• Increased Utility cooldown on Spider, Slasher, and Strangler to 12 seconds
• Reduced the cooldown on the Giant Charge to 7 seconds
• Reduced Human tank to 50% damage reduction, instead of 80%
• Reduced Strangler Smoke throwing distance
• Reduced the duration of the Strangler Smoke effect on Classmates
• Classmates can walk and run slightly faster
• Slowed down the speed of Giant punches slightly to reduce “cornering”
• Molotov deals more damage
• Increased Flamethrower damage
• Reduced Proximity Mine trigger time
• Increased “Ghost Mode” when players respawn from 5 to 10 seconds
• Cryptid health has been reduced
• Reduced the difficulty of certain challenges, including the Ambush challenge
BUG FIXES:
• Resolved a Fatal Error crash when all Fiend skills are not equipped
• Fixed collisions not behaving properly when thrown by Giant
• Classmates could occasionally fall through trap doors
We’ve also received reports of infinite black screens. This is usually resolved by going into the properties menu of the game in your Steam Client, selecting the “Local Files” tab, and selecting the “Verify integrity of game files” option. If this does not work, uninstalling and reinstalling the game usually fixes the issue.
We’ll be monitoring the community to ensure these changes and fixes are working and being well received. Thank you all again for the continued support of this title, and your faith in this dev team. We’re all working very hard to bring you the best Last Year experience possible!
See you in The Nightmare!
Unitas,
Brother Justin
LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD! UPDATE 1.0.17 IS HERE
It’s finally here! Elastic Games is proud to present Last Year version 1.0.17! If you do not see the prompt to update, you may need to restart your Steam client.
With Patch 1.0.17, we’ve made major improvements to your Last Year experience:
1) BRAND NEW TUTORIALS: Last Year 1.0.17’s major feature are new tutorials for both Classmates and Fiends. The tutorials are short segments that teach the players the basics of the game, so that when they enter a match for the first time, they’re not thrown in the deep end. Both tutorials have four segments each.
2) IMPROVED MATCHMAKING: 1.0.17 adds the Ping of players in the lobby, and now sorts lobbies by the following criteria, in this order: ping, player “rank,” then age of lobbies. The first is so that everyone playing gets the best possible gameplay experience by reducing high pings. The second is to ensure everyone is playing against players of relatively comparable skill, and the final one is to ensure that the people that have been waiting longest are served first. Because there are now more parameters than before, it’s likely that you may wait a little longer for lobbies. However, this is all in service of ensuring that everyone has the best gameplay experience.
3) BRAND NEW COSMETICS: 1.0.17 introduces the first “premium” emotes, “Freeze Frames” for Classmates, and “Photobombs” for Fiends, which can be unlocked with Mystic Ore. The update also contains 4 new sets of collectable skins: “Camping” Skins for all characters, “Heroes and Villains” Skins for all characters, “Frost” themed skins for Fiends Characters and Classmate weapons, and “Gold” themed skins for Classmate weapons.
4) BRAND NEW ARCANUMS: With 1.0.17, both Classmates and Fiends will have their own Arcanums! These include Spells, Challenges, Stash Card Rewards, Mystic Ore Rewards, and exclusive Skin Rewards. Once spells are unlocked and equipped, they will stay equipped until swapped out by the player. All Classmates can equip two spells, and Fiends can equip one spell per Fiend in their Fiend Decks. Since Tokens are no longer needed to unlock/buy spells, they have been removed from the game.
5) REWARD REWORK: Starting with 1.0.17, individual performances now determine the amount of Stash Cards awarded at the end of a match. For Classmates, advancing objectives, killing Fiends, rescuing Classmates, and escaping determine your cards. For Fiends, killing Classmates, springing traps, successful ambushes, and preventing escapes determines your cards. The Team or Fiend performance will now act as a multiplier on the base amount of Stash Cards you received from your performance: 0-2 escapes/kills awards +10% cards, 3-4 awards 25%, and 5 awards 50%. This allows players to continue their progress in a predictable way, no matter what kind of game session they get, with exceptionally great performances on either side getting a bit more of a boost at the end.
6) FIEND UTILITY ABILITIES: Each Fiend now has a distinct Utility Ability that will allow them to engage or disengage with the Classmates more easily, allowing them to set the pace of combat. None of these abilities will do damage to the Classmates but will instead give the Fiends more opportunities to be creative in how they can deal damage, or escape from being damaged, when in combat with Classmates.
7) DAILY TRIALS: These are small challenges that players will receive every 24 hours should they log into the game, and will reward the player with small amounts of currency to help them towards their cosmetics goals. Some challenges are easier, could be completed in 1 or 2 matches, and will reward players with Stash Cards. Others are tougher, probably need 3 or 4 matches to complete, and reward players with Mystic Ore. Each player receives two challenges a day: one for Classmates, and one for Fiends.
We’ve also made several balance changes and bug fixes. While they are very numerous and subtle, here are some of the bigger, more noticeable changes we’ve made:
- All levels now start with the Classmates “locked in” their opening room until The Fiend spawns into the game
- Classmates no longer have collision with one another
- Fiends no longer have collision with Cryptids
- All speed values have been adjusted to compensate for the above changes
- Maximum scrap has been increased to 40, and most scrap costs for items have been adjusted for balance purposes
- Flashlights have been added to levels as items that can be picked up
- The Slasher has been given two more ambushes in The Sawmill map
- Classmates are now invulnerable and lack collision when respawning from a rescue room to allow them to escape The Fiend. Attacking or performing actions will cancel the invulnerability state
- The Slasher’s Cleave ability now knocks Classmates back
- The Spider’s venom now destroys turrets
- The controller layout for Fiends has been improved: both trigger buttons now push or throw the Classmates when they are grabbed by the Strangler and Giant, and the quick execution button for Strangler is now mapped to X
- The helmet now has a health bar displayed for the Fiend similar to the Fiend’s Shield health bar
- Fiends’ basic attack damage has been increased slightly
- The Spider now has both a walk and sprint speed
- Adrenaline no longer provides a speed boost, but now heals for 30 HP. It still gives infinite stamina
- Pipe bombs and Proximity Mines now do slightly more damage to Classmates, killing them instantly if they are at “ground zero”
- Fixed bug in the Belltower escape sequence that blocked Fiends from spawning out
- Fixed performance drop whenever rescue rooms are opened
- Optimized AI to improve framerate and performance
- Fire and explosions no longer destroy objectives
We’ll be monitoring the community to ensure these changes and fixes are working and being well received. This is our most ambitious update to the game so far, and we’ve very excited to see the community’s reaction to it!
Thank you all again for the continued support of this title, and your faith in this dev team. We’re all working very hard to bring you the best Last Year experience possible!
See you in The Nightmare!
Unitas,
Brother Justin
FREE IN-GAME BUNDLE GIVEAWAY!
As we work our way towards our next update for Last Year, 1.0.17, we know a lot of you are stuck at home because of all the COVID-19 madness happening now.
To help in these strange times, Elastic Games is giving anyone who plays Last Year between April 2nd, noon EST and April 6th, noon EST a free gift bundle from the in-game Shop. It includes 2500 Stash Cards, 1000 Ore, and a free Skin! This is our way of saying thank you to our amazing community, who have been incredibly supportive of our indie dev team.
We also know that many of us have friends and family working on the front lines of this pandemic, be they doctors, nurses, social workers, etc. In this difficult time, these heroes are facing their fears every day in the hopes that their work will make our lives better. In honor of them, the free skin included in the bundle is Raj’s “Med School’d.”
So again, from everyone at Elastic Games, thank you for being part of our incredible community, and thank you to all the brave frontline workers doing everything they can to keep us all safe and healthy!
Unitas,
Brother Justin
The Return of The Medic! Update 1.0.16 is here!
Get ready to stand up and fight, Classmates! The medic is back, better than ever before.
Update 1.0.16 brings to a close our “Bloody Valentine” event, which means that the “Bloody Valentine” event skins will no longer be available for purchase... for now. There will be more events in the future, so keep your eyes peeled for future limited-time skins!
We are pleased to announce that Last Year Patch 1.0.16 is now available! It is about 440MB in size. If you do not see the prompt to update, you may need to restart your Steam client.
With Patch 1.0.16, we’ve made major improvements to your Last Year experience:
1) NEW ITEM: The Gas Mask! All medics now sport the Gas Mask as a craftable item instead of the Flashlight. The Gas Mask allows players to ignore the effects of both the Fiend’s Gas Traps and the Scout’s Smoke Grenade. Exposure to gas, or straight damage, will reduce the “health” of the Gas Mask. If a Classmate crafts another Gas Mask while wearing one, it will refill the Mask’s health, but they will not “drop” the 2nd Gas Mask. NOTE: Due to the powerful nature of this item, especially in combination with the Smoke Grenade, we have changed the behavior of Classmates in the Smoke Grenade. Classmates are no longer able to complete objectives or open rescue doors inside of the smoke, unless they are wearing a Gas Mask.
2) NEW SKINS! The Gas Mask also comes with 5 alternate skins, 2 of which are Legendaries! Sport classic looks like “Hot Rod” and “Doosh Beer,” unlock “Field Medic” to match with your MedKit, or earn “The Old Fashioned” and “Safe Word” to show off to your fellow Classmates!
3) NEW EXECUTION! The Spider’s fourth and final execution, “The Rabid Animal,” is now activated by approaching downed Classmates from the “front.” Watch as The Spider plays with his food like a chew toy, sending their limbs flying everywhere!
4) Ore Stickers: We’ve labelled all “Ore” skins with an “Ore Sticker,” so it’s clearer to players which skins need to be purchased with Ore. In the future, all skins that are purchasable with Ore will have this label.
5) Balancing Polish: We’ve been monitoring the community and we’ve made a few small changes to balance to make the experience more engaging and less frustrating for both sides:
a. Fiends can no longer attack or execute incapacitated Classmates in the Smoke Grenade.
b. Fiend’s basic attack hitboxes have been standardized, and are identical to the Pipe’s hitbox.
c. Medics’ MedKit now recharge faster.
d. Flamethrower’s controls have been greatly improved, and its damage has been standardized to 140 health.
e. The Giant’s Goliath Rush is no longer interrupted by small objects or tiny obstructions.
6) Bug Fixes: We’re continuing to address bugs, prioritizing those that have an effect on gameplay and balance. Here is a list of issues we’ve resolved:
- The Giant can now be damaged from the front when holding a Classmate (note: the one exception is the Shotgun. We will address this in a future patch)
- All music states, including the “Chase Music,” have been fixed
- The Escape Gate Closing Cinematic now appears at the end of each round, unless the Fiend kills all Classmates
- Cooldowns can no longer be “hastened” when using a Shocker on a Fiend with a long cooldown triggered
- The Spectator Camera is no longer broken after certain Fiend executions
- Character Models will no longer overlap in the Lobby
- Classmates can no longer have 3 of a given Class
- The loud SFX before an execution has been fixed
- Execution SFX can no longer “stack” and play over each other
- A loot box on the floor of the laundry room of the Gym can now be looted
- Giant no longer loses Grab/Rush functionality after attempting to Jump and Grab simultaneously
- All skins earned in the Rewards Screen unlock properly in The Locker
- Classmates can no longer be attacked by Cryptids while being held by the Giant
We’ll be monitoring the community to ensure these changes and fixes are working and being well received. We’re hoping this patch brings us closer to Fiend & Classmate equilibrium, as the Medic improvements, as well as balance changes, really feel solid for both sides!
We’re still focused on improving the Onboarding Experience for our next few updates, but we’ve also got a few surprises up our sleeves. As always, we can’t wait to share with you what’s coming up!
In that vein, please join us tonight at twitch.tv/LastYearGame from 4-6 PM EST for our latest Live Dev Stream! We’ll be talking about this update, answering questions, and talking about the future of the game and our Dev Streams. We hope to see you all there!
Thank you all again for the continued support of this title, and your faith in this dev team. We’re all working very hard to bring you the best Last Year experience possible!
Unitas,
Brother Justin
FIENDS ASSEMBLE! UPDATE 1.0.15 IS HERE...
As always, Elastic Games is here with another update for the Last Year community!
We are pleased to announce that Last Year Patch 1.0.15 is now available! If you do not see the prompt to update, you may need to restart your Steam client.
With Patch 1.0.15, we’ve made major improvements to your Last Year experience:
1) Ambushes for Sawmill Map: All Fiends now have ambushes in the new Sawmill map! The Strangler and Giant were given two ambushes, and The Slasher and Spider have… more. Additionally, The Slasher’s ambush is completely different than his School Map ambushes, so keep your eyes peeled!
2) Escape Vents for Sawmill Map: Classmates can now more easily evade the Fiend, especially when alone, in the Sawmill map thanks to the addition of escape vents! There are now 8 escape vents throughout the map, 2 in the sawmill area, 2 in the cave area, and 4 in the barn area.
3) Optimization: We’ve done another pass of optimization to help improve performance and reduce drops in FPS. We concentrated on The Sawmill Map, especially in the cave area. We’ll be continuing to see what other improvements can be made without sacrificing quality of experience.
4) “Mercy” mechanic: We’ve added a “mercy” mechanic to the Legendary Skins, which will ensure no one suffers from bad RNG luck. The new system raises the chances of getting a Legendary skin for every complete match played until it reaches 100%. This will make sure that everyone, regardless of luck, will get a steady stream of Legendaries as long as they continue to engage with the title and complete full matches.
5) Hitbox Optimizations: We’ve reworked the hitboxes for both Classmates and Fiends to improve hit registration, fix inconsistencies with crouching and sequences, make the Giant Grab more reliable, and improve the overall “gameplay feel” of combat. We will continue to see what other improvements can be made so everyone feels the game is “fair.”
6) Balancing Polish: We’ve been monitoring the community and made a few small changes to balance to make the Fiends slightly more Fearsome:
a. Strangler will now hold Classmates longer if he chains them from closer. At the closest distances, he will hold Classmates for 2.5 seconds. This decreases until the midpoint of the chain’s max range, where he will hold Classmates for 1 second. Any further will stay at 1 second. Many thanks to Haddix for the suggestion!
b. Spider spits 2x as much venom, lasting for 1.5 seconds of spit time, and its base damage has been increased to 15 without venom, and 20 with venom.
c. Strangler and Slasher can now down Classmates in one less hit.
d. Every cool down, with the exception of The Spider, is now 20 seconds for a successful attack, and 10 for an interrupted or missed attack.
e. The Fiend Shield now begins to recharge after 4 seconds, instead of 8, and will not recharge immediately after an execution.
f. Classmate respawn times now increase by 15 seconds with each kill, and Fiend respawn time starts at 45 seconds, and reduces by 4 seconds with each Classmate alive, making its range of respawn times 41 seconds max and 29 seconds minimum.
g. The taser now “holds” Fiends for a very short time, but puts the Fiend’s ability on a 10 second cool down. It still interrupts Fiends who are holding Classmates.
h. Medics now recharge slightly slower.
7) Bug Fixes: We’re continuing to address bugs, prioritizing those that have an effect on gameplay and balance. Here is a list of issues we’ve resolved:
- The Ice Queen Spider Skin can now be earned through Legendary drops
- Flamethrower “double damage” has been fixed
- Medics can no longer get stuck in 3rd person and lose functionality
- Collision fixes to Sawmill map to reduce players getting “stuck” in areas. We are continuing to monitor for these kinds of bugs
- Giant no longer loses functionality after spawning in from Predator Mode, pressing Grab, and spawning out again
- Giant no longer loses functionality when falling down a ledge during his attempted grab animation
- It is no longer possible to access the escape gate before completing the crank objective in the Sawmill map
- Classmates are no longer able to use the Flamethrower or the Chainsaw while crouched
- Tips on the Loading Screen will no longer fade in, then out, then back in again
KNOWN ISSUES:
- Classmates can “overlap” in lobbies if they back out and re-enter a lobby. This will not prevent the match from starting once 5 players join, even if it looks like 4 or fewer players.
- The Giant cannot take damage from the front while holding a Classmate. He can be hit from the sides or in the back.
- In the Library, Fiends will sometimes miss hitting Classmates inserting Disks.
- The “Escape Gate Closing” cinematic no longer triggers in most cases.
We’ll be monitoring the community to ensure these changes and fixes are working and being well received. We’re hoping this will encourage Fiend players that our intention is to have a fun, engaging experience for both sides!
On that note, we’ll be kicking off our new milestone Monday, where our primary focus will be improving the Onboarding Experience, and ensuring that the Fiend experience is rewarding and living up to its fantasy. We can’t wait to share with you what’s coming up!
Thank you all again for the continued support of this title, and your faith in this dev team. We’re all working very hard to bring you the best Last Year experience possible!
Unitas,
Brother Justin
FIENDS REJOICE! NEW UPDATE, 1.0.15, COMING SOON
While we did announce that we'd like to move to bi-weekly patches, we have been monitoring a few more egregious issues in the current live build and have decided that a patch is needed this week to address them.
We'll be providing in-depth build notes once the patch goes live, as always, but here's a high-level overview of what will be in 1.0.15:
1) Fixes for Crouching/Hitbox issues. We're aware this is causing extreme frustration, especially for Fiend players, so we're doing all we can to resolve these. This includes both the difficulty hitting crouched players and the ability for crouched players to use certain items.
2) Balance updates. While we're very happy with where the overall balance is heading now, we are aware that Fiends got hit particularly hard in the last update. We want to make a few small changes that will be the first step in restoring the overall "flavour" of each Fiend, such as cooldown times and The Strangler's Chain Pull ability.
3) Sawmill polish. We love how much the community has enjoyed the new Sawmill map, but we did have a few polish items and bug fixes that we wanted to prioritize. We hope you'll be excited with the changes we'll be introducing, both for Fiend and for Classmates.
We're hoping to push this fix out tomorrow as early as possible, and will continue to update the community as we know more.
As always, thank you for your support and patience as we try to bring you all the best Last Year experience possible.
Unitas,
Brother Justin
"FREE WEEKEND HOTFIX" NOW LIVE!
Our “Free Weekend Hotfix,” patch 1.0.14, is now available! If you do not see the prompt to update, you may need to restart your Steam client.
With Patch 1.0.14, we’ve made major improvements to your Last Year experience:
- Card rewards for 0-5 escapes/kills will be adjusted to 50, 150, 200, 250, 300, and 350 respectively
- Fixed bug where improper Legendary Cards are displayed in Rewards Screen
- Classmate Crafting time has been reduced from 5 seconds to 3 seconds
- Strangler’s hold time has been reduced from 3 seconds to 0.5 seconds
- Strangler’s elemental resistances have been removed
- Flamethrower damage has been increased from 130 to 180
- Cricket bat base damage has been increased from 10 to 20
- Crowbar damage has been increased from 10 to 15
- Spider Venom damage has been reduced from 15 to 10 damage per second
- Spider “double damage” time has been reduced from 10 to 5 seconds
- Medic Healing has been increased from 2 to 3 per charge
- Medics have been given an additional charge
- Spider movement speed has been decreased by 30
- Strangler movement speed has been decreased by 10
- Giant health has been reduced by 80
- Slasher health has been reduced by 60
- Strangler health has been reduced by 40
- There is now an 8 second delay before a Fiend’s shield begins recharging
- Respawn time for Fiends has been increased
- Strangler’s cooldown stays active after an Execution
- Giant throw damage has been reduced from 50-100 to 40-95
- Smoke Grenade time has been reduced from 7 to 5 seconds
- Spider Nests in the Barn area of The Sawmill map have been reduced
- Number of Spider Cryptids during Cave Crank sequence have been reduced
- The “Harry Potter’s Forest” bug of re-spawning Spider Cryptids near the Chainsaw has been fixed
We’re also going to be hosting our Live Dev Stream today, featuring our Dev #DreamTeam versus #FearsomeFiend Dee, at twitch.tv/lastyeargame from 4-6 PM EST. We will be answering questions about the update, the future of the title, and we hope to see you all there!
Thank you all again for the continued support of this title, and your faith in this dev team. We’re all working very hard to bring you the best Last Year experience possible!
Unitas,
Brother Justin
HOTFIX FOR UPDATE 1.0.13
We’re very excited by the passionate response we’ve seen to the latest update, and we’re energized by all the new players pouring in and playing Last Year for the first time!
We have been monitoring the community, and listening to all the feedback we’ve received, and are working on pushing a hotfix today to address some of the trends we’ve identified.
Here’s a list of the changes and fixes we’ll be addressing:
- Card rewards for 0-5 escapes/kills will be adjusted to 50, 150, 200, 250, 300, and 350 respectively
- Fixed bug where improper Legendary Cards are displayed in Rewards Screen
- Strangler’s hold time has been reduced from 3 seconds to 0.5 seconds
- Strangler’s elemental resistances have been removed
- Flamethrower damage has been increased from 130 to 180
- Cricket bat base damage has been increased from 10 to 20
- Crowbar damage has been increased from 10 to 15
- Spider Venom damage has been reduced from 15 to 10 damage per second
- Spider “double damage” time has been reduced from 10 to 5 seconds
- Medic Healing has been increased from 2 to 3 per charge
- Medics have been given an additional charge
- Spider movement speed has been decreased by 30
- Strangler movement speed has been decreased by 10
- Giant health has been reduced by 80
- Slasher health has been reduced by 60
- Strangler health has been reduced by 40
- There is now an 8 second delay before a Fiend’s shield begins recharging
- Respawn time for Fiends has been increased
- Strangler’s cooldown stays active after an Execution
- Giant throw damage has been reduced from 50-100 to 40-95
- Smoke Grenade time has been reduced from 7 to 5 seconds
- Spider Nests in the Barn area of The Sawmill map have been reduced
- Number of Spider Cryptids during Cave Crank sequence have been reduced
- The “Harry Potter’s Forest” bug of re-spawning Spider Cryptids near the Chainsaw has been fixed
We’re aiming to get this hotfix out by early afternoon, but to ensure it’s properly tested before it goes out, we’ll need to push out today’s Live Dev Stream.
As such, our Live Dev Stream today featuring the #FearsomeFiend Dee will begin at 4 PM EST, and go on until 6 PM EST. We hope to see you all there at twitch.tv/lastyeargame, we will be answering questions about the update, the future of the title, and have Dee face off against our Dev #DreamTeam!
Thank you all again for the continued support of this title, and your faith in this dev team. We’re all working very hard to bring you the best Last Year experience possible!
Unitas,
Brother Justin
LAST YEAR FREE WEEKEND!
NEW MAP: THE SAWMILL!
Get ready for carnage! The first in the “Afterdark” series of Forest Maps, The Sawmill is our introduction to the area of The Nightmare that The Spider calls home. The Sawmill is a completely new environment, and introduces a brand-new mechanic: Environmental Kills!
NEW WEAPON: THE CHAINSAW!
Take on the Fiends with our first devastating Heavy Weapon: The Chainsaw! Classmates will find it in a specific spawn point in the new map, but will be unable to run or carry quest items while wielding this awesomely powerful weapon. Find it and go carve out a name for yourself!
NEW FEATURE: THE SHOP!
The Shop will allow players to spend real money to buy more Stash Cards, get our new hard currency, Mystic Ore, or purchase bundles that include a skin, some cards, and ore for discounted prices! Come one, come all!
NEW COSMETICS: BLOODY VALENTINE AND MORE!
Grind cards to unlock the timed exclusive Bloody Valentine event skins, complete matches to earn brand new Legendary skins, or purchase Mystic Ore to get our first Ore exclusive skins! There’s something for everyone, both new and returning players!
NEW META: COMPLETE BALANCE OVERHAUL!
Last Year is all about the tug of war between our Fearsome Fiends and Dream Teams of Classmates, and we’re doubling down on that with this update! We’ve reworked the second to second experience to maximize play time, encourage experimentation, and increase the fun!
Play for Free between February 13th-17th, and pick up your very own copy of Last Year at a 30% discount!
LAST YEAR - UPDATE 1.0.13 IS LIVE!
The time has come! Our biggest update yet, 1.0.13, is finally here! If you do not see the prompt to update, you may need to restart your Steam client.
With Patch 1.0.13, we’ve made major improvements to your Last Year experience:
NEW MAP: THE SAWMILL!
Get ready for carnage! The first in the “Afterdark” series of Forest Maps, The Sawmill is our introduction to the area of The Nightmare that The Spider calls home. The Sawmill is a completely new environment, and introduces a brand-new mechanic: Environmental Kills! Between sawblades and rushing trains, both Classmates and Fiends will have to be extra careful navigating this new haunted house style experience!
NEW WEAPON: THE CHAINSAW!
Take on the Fiends with our first devastating Heavy Weapon: The Chainsaw! Classmates will find it in a specific spawn point in the new map, but will be unable to run or carry quest items while wielding this awesomely powerful weapon. Find it and go carve out a name for yourself!
NEW FEATURE: THE SHOP!
Want a little extra currency to buy that cosmetic you like? Wish you could support the Last Year Dev Team AND flex with unique skins? Then the Shop is for you! The Shop will allow players to spend real money to buy more Stash Cards, get our new hard currency, Mystic Ore, or purchase bundles that include a skin, some cards, and ore for discounted prices! Come one, come all!
NEW COSMETICS: BLOODY VALENTINE AND MORE!
We’ve introduced brand new cosmetics for players to unlock. Grind your cards to unlock the timed exclusive Bloody Valentine event skins, complete matches to earn brand new Legendary skins, or purchase Mystic Ore to get our first Ore exclusive skins! There’s something for everyone, both new and returning players!
NEW META: COMPLETE BALANCE OVERHAUL!
Last Year is all about the tug of war between our Fearsome Fiends and Dream Teams of Classmates, and we’re doubling down on that with this update! We’ve seen frustrations on both sides of the experience, and we’ve reworked the second to second experience to maximize play time, encourage experimentation, allow players to recover from mistakes, and encourage meaningful choices at every level of play.
Here’s a list of some of the biggest changes we’ve made:
• Player outlines have been restored, and Fiend is now visible in a unique purple outline when engaged with Classmates
• Classmates now have a “restoration” mechanic, which heals them automatically when they are under 30 HP
• The base damage on Pipes and Turret Fire have been increased
• The damage on both the Bat and the Shotgun have been increased
• The scrap costs for the following items have slightly increased: The Bat, The Helmet, The Gas Bomb, Adrenaline, and The Shotgun
• Medics now heal faster, regenerate charges faster, heal stamina as well as health, but heal less HP per charge
• The Scout tracker now fires quicker, blinds for slightly longer, but recharges a little slower
• Technicians are locked in place longer when destroying their turrets
• Successful melee weapon attacks now drain stamina, and Classmates cannot melee attack at low stamina
• Helmet HP has been reduced
• Taser now stops firing much faster when the target is missed
• Base health when getting up from being incapacitated is now 25 HP
• Stamina drain and recharge has been reviewed to prioritize escaping
• Fiends now have a “Nightmare Shield” that recharges when spawned out
• Fiends’ health has been increased
• Fiends’ basic attack damage has been curbed
• Fiends’ special attack damage and cooldown times have been increased
• Fiends now have unlimited stamina
• Fiends are now resistant and/or vulnerable to certain elemental damage types
• Fiends no longer have “blood feedback” when damaged
• The Slasher has been given a brand-new ability, The Cleave, which damages multiple Classmates in front him
• The Strangler’s Chain Grab is now slower, but can only be interrupted with a Scout Tracker’s flash or a Taser
• The Strangler’s Chain Grab also does not automatically remove The Helmet, it simply deals damage until the Helmet is destroyed, and the grab continues
• Shock damage now deals extra damage to the “Nightmare Shield,” and Fiends will take extra damage to their Nightmare Shields while being shocked by the Taser
• The following Spells have been adjusted:
o Human Tank slows Classmates down more, but shields more damage
o Resilient now grants more health
o Last Man Standing gives more health
o Leech restores less health to Classmates
o Lone Wolf now activates within a shorter distance
o Take That does extra damage on its last hit
o Acid Damage has been reduced
o Fire Damage has been reduced
o Shock now deals extra damage to Nightmare Shield
o Carpet Bomb clusters do less damage
o Huddle Up’s health boost has been lowered
o All cooldowns for Spells are now longer
As always, we’ve also done another pass of optimization to help improve performance and reduce drops in FPS, specifically when experiencing the game on lower quality settings. We’ll be continuing to see what other improvements can be made without sacrificing quality of experience. Finally…
NEW BUG FIXES!
We’re continuing to address certain bugs, prioritizing those that have an effect on gameplay and balance. Here is a list of issues we’ve resolved:
• Giant no longer loses functionality after dropping a classmate due to explosion
• "Just A Tip" text no longer moves depending on the size of the tip
• Player's Map Vote Selection is no longer Reset if another player leaves the Lobby
• Classmates can no longer move at walking speed while crouching
• The unlootable loot box on the floor of the laundry room of the Gym has been moved and fixed
• Proximity Mines no longer fail to arm in certain situations
• Giant can no longer throw players out of world in the basement hallway on the Library map
• The Spider can now spawn out while inside a porta potty with a Classmate nearby
• Classmates no longer earn “Kill” rewards for killing other Classmates
• Nick's "Earl Grey, Hot" Skin model now reflects the image on the card
• Using huddle up with the gear now has the proper VFX
• Huddle Up health effect no longer remains after completing a disk objective
• Giant no longer plays the Flash blinded animation when flashed while holding a Classmate
KNOWN ISSUES:
• The comeback mechanic sometimes does not work in the new map
• Creating an unranked party and spamming clicks on "Kill" to bring you to the Lobby might kick users from your party and leave them on the main menu. If the host clicks on the "Back" button thereafter, they might crash. Workaround: Don't spam click "Kill" in Unranked parties! Just click it once.
• Switching items while discarding a broken item could result in the player not being able to do anything except walk. Workaround: keep spamming the switching items button until the discard animation comes back and let it complete.
The new package size is approx. 11 GB in total, which means a download of approx. 3.3 GB for a user who already has Last Year installed on their computer. This size increase is directly related to all of the new content described above.
This is the biggest update we’ve done for Last Year since its launch, but it is definitely not its last! Just like after launch, we’ll be monitoring and playing with the community to see if there are any major pain points that need fixing, and we will react as quickly as possible to those.
We’re also planning a patch for this update which should include not only additional bug fixes, but potentially new features and content as well! We’re hoping to drop this in the following weeks, before the “Bloody Valentine” event comes to a close and the timed exclusive skins disappear for now!
Lastly, we’re going to be hosting a Live Dev Steam at twitch.tv/lastyeargame on Friday, February 14th at 2 PM EST to show off the new content, answer all your questions about the Bloody Valentine event, and get into some Devs vs Fearsome Fiend action with our special guest star, Dee! We hope to see you all there, at our new date and time.
As always, we want thank you all for your continued support and patience. This is just the beginning of the support we’d like to give Last Year throughout 2020 and beyond! We’re already beginning to plan out our future milestones to ensure we’re creating the best possible Last Year experience, and we hope you’ll be with us for this amazing journey!
Speak to you soon, Brothers and Sisters!
Unitas,
Brother Justin