We hope you've been enjoying Season 3 and that you're getting your fix of the early game grind. We've really enjoyed playing alongside all of you! (If anyone can find an extra Sample Container for me, I would greatly appreciate it - ty ty).
More seriously, we know that for some unfortunate Prospectors, there's been issues with CPU usage, with vanity items not showing up, and some other visual/technical issues. That's why Patch 3.1.0 right here is dedicated to fixing some of these pesky bugs that made themselves known during our Season 3 launch. A huge thank you to all of our players who reported issues, helped us create tickets, and made us aware of these issues. The next Patch, 3.2.0 should have some more interesting details, but in the meantime, if you're in the mood for some technical chatter, let's dive in and get to work!
Miscellaneous
Fixed the "Rattler Crossing" spray vanity item that didn't match its icon.
Fixed the "Trooper Boots" item that didn't match its icon.
Some items in Windfall Shop's display area were distorted/moving on their own. We fixed these weird instances of sentient haunted items.
Fixed the incorrect UI image for "Authority Operative - Gloves".
Fixed the material on the Honeycomb charm. We want it to look sweet, (get it? 'cause honey?) but it was much "shinier" than intended.
On the Fortuna News Network TVs, a Prospector archetype was incorrectly referred to as Unbound Synth. We sent FNN more accurate information about "The Tempest."
A tree near Woodcutter Camp has been adjusted to be no longer climbable. Knocking on wood it remains as intended.
An exploit near Southeast Uplink on Bright Sands has been fixed.
Turned off flashlights that were staying on after death (while realistic, it was unintended).
AI Fixes
Last known position bug was fixed where AI would constantly get an update to your position
Fixed AI seeing through bushes and some other Geo (This is linked to the last known position bug)
Fixed sense time out so AI will get bored of looking for you quicker (linked to the Last known position bug).
This will continue to get tuned in future patches
Reduced hearing Sense and Shared Sense to reduce mobs being pulled in from very far away for unknown reasons to the player
Increase aggro range slightly, this is so that the AI combat Roar/telegraph happens sooner and the player has a little more time to react
Increased far sight slightly, so AI are still fairly inquisitive when they are looking directly at you
Bugfixes
The 100% CPU usage issue on Prospect Station has been fixed. Huge thank you to our players for making us aware that this was happening!
Debugged the tutorial questline randomly locking up and preventing progression.
Fixed an issue causing creatures to occasionally not spawn inside the Crusher Caverns. Back to no pain, no gain!
Some archetypes did not have the global base suits they were supposed to have.
Some items in a keyroom on Crescent Falls could be looted without using a key. We called a better locksmith and this has now been taken care of.
A hole in the ground in Comms Tower has been filled with collision dirt. No more sudden falls! (Also, "filled a hole with dirt" is one of my favorite patch notes entries so far.)
Fixed coatings that did not properly display their patterns.
Fixed cosmetic items vanishing or not showing in the player's inventory.
Multiple "Rogue Thrill Seeker" base suits were not properly appearing in the character customization screen. Now they are.
The "Gambler - Chest" item will now appear in the character customization screen.
Collecting packages from the Special Deliveries tab won't cause infinite loading anymore. Sure, that was making those deliveries very special, but that wasn't exactly the point.
A faulty collision box in Fallen Tree on Crescent Falls has been fixed.
A faulty collision box near Hay Fields on Crescent Falls has been fixed.
A faulty collision issue near Lagoon on Bright Sands has been fixed.
Applied a fix for players experiencing a black loading screen on startup. After all, a game is better when it can be played!
Fixed a stuck spot in Prospect Station near one of the drop pods.
Fixed a bug preventing players from previewing Authority Operative cosmetics smoothly.
Some floating grass in the swamp has been glued back to the surface, thanks to our special Green Grass Glue™. No, we're not making an ad for this one.
As usual, don't forget to join us on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/thecycle) and our Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/TheCycleFrontier/) and make sure to follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/TheCycleGame)
Don't forget: Fortuna Favors the bold!
Hotfix - 3.0.2 - March 31st
Hey Prospectors!
We've just applied a quick hotfix to take care of the following issues:
Took care of unruly monster aggression. Creatures shouldn't aggro you from the other side of the map anymore.
Fixed some matchmaking issues.
Fixed a problem with in-game stuttering.
Made it so players who got the Authority Peacekeeper bundle actually got all the items from the pack, as it should be.
We are still looking into some remaining known issues, including the freezes on launch, amongst others.
Thanks for your patience. Have a great day and enjoy Season 3.
Fortuna Favors the Bold!
Free DLC – Get the Fresh Fortunes Pack now!
Season 3 just started for The Cycle: Frontier and the surface of Fortuna III never looked so inviting. Want to jump in? Then grab yourself a free pack first, before dropping to face the dangers of the planet!
The Fresh Fortunes Pack comes with a weapon skin for the C-32 Bolt Action Rifle, a weapon charm made in a special alloy and a snazzy set of clothes for all your Prospectors. The perfect set to dazzle your opponents with your best looks!
The Fresh Fortunes Pack requires the base game The Cycle: Frontier to be claimed. The pack is available for free until April 13, 2023. After acquiring the pack, log in to the game before April 30, 2023, to claim its full contents. Packs that have not been claimed by April 30, 2023 will expire.
Kintsugi C-32 Bolt Action weapon skin that can be applied to any C-32 Bolt Action you own
Abyss Alloy weapon charm
Leather Thrill-Seeker chest piece
Leather Thrill-Seeker gloves
Tan Thrill-Seeker boots
The pack is delivered to Delivery Station in your player quarters and needs to be claimed in the "Special Deliveries" section.
Season 3 is the best of times to start your prospecting career or dive back into the game. Plus, you'll be looking as swank as ever with this stylish Thrill-Seeker set. Now that mandatory wipes are a thing of the past, new and returning players can expect to join existing players on an equal footing with a rebalanced economy and a lot of new content to discover, like the arrival of the monstrous Howler, the introduction of Mk.II weapons and the possibility to drop with a free loadout, graciously provided by the different factions.
Want to know more? Check out our dedicated article with a full overview of Season 3: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/868270/view/3686799728494602258
Don’t forget the Fresh Fortunes Pack will remain available to grab for free until Thursday, April 13. After grabbing it on the platform, you have to log into the game before April 30 to activate its contents.
What are you waiting for? Go get it, get it now! It's free after all!
See you on the surface, thrill-seekers, and remember – Fortuna Favors the Bold!
Welcome to Season 3!
Greetings and salutations, Prospectors!
What is there to say, apart from WELCOME TO SEASON 3?
Actually, there’s still a few things to talk about, so how about we do just that eh?
Season 3, full speed ahead
This is it; servers are back online and filled with all the content from Season 3!
The first thing you will have noticed with the start of Season 3 is that we went through a global wipe – our last mandatory server wipe in fact. From now on, everything you do and acquire is here to stay, until that gets lost on the surface after a brutal encounter with a Howler that is. Choices matter, but in the form of “don’t get killed, my friends”.
Apart from that, we have a large array of new and updated content to offer you all: the aforementioned Howler, weapon variations, Free Loadout Runs, new campaign missions, an updated Prospect Station and a good pinch of rebalancing and bug fixing. If you want to know more, everything is available in the patch notes we’ve published earlier today. Go check’em out if you haven’t already!
But better yet, don’t hesitate to jump into the game right now and experience all these changes yourself. Fortuna III is your oyster, and there’ll be enough pearls for everyone!
48h stream, starting now
We’re having a biiiig livestream to celebrate the release of Season 3! We’ve been live for a while now, technical difficulties aside, but now the pace is picking up and we have a lot to discuss with you all!
We’ll also have a few dedicated slots for some of our partners. They’ll be running around Fortuna III causing general mayhem and having a good load of fun. You know where to go if you wanna see some surface action!
The full schedule is available right here. Don’t be shy, we’ll be waiting for you!
New arrivals in the shop
By the way, we currently have a sale going on for our packs, both old and new. Here’s a quick list of what good offers you can nab as soon as today:
New packs – Offers available until Wednesday, April 5
Lastly, we will also have a new pack available in the shop. And because we understand that you may not want to spend a dime on it and keep your money for the packs mentioned above (right?), this one will be completely free!
More information on the Fresh Fortunes Pack giveaway will be available very soon, so keep an eye out on our channels.
Don't forget to join us on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/thecycle) and our Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/TheCycleFrontier/) and make sure to follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/TheCycleGame)
Nothing else to add here. Just go and enjoy Season 3.
Until then, have a good one, keep an eye on the skies, and welcome to the Breakthrough.
Fortuna Favors the Bold!
Patch Notes - 3.0.0 - March 29th
Hey Prospectors!
Here we go! Season 3 is here and we have some biiiiig patch notes to share with you all.
But first, a word from our devs!
Have a good read!
NO MORE WIPES
The final wipe is here! Players will start Season 3 completely fresh and on an even playing field. Season 3 will be taking you back to the start of the campaign where your prospecting journey began - except you now have all the knowledge of a seasoned, hardened Prospector to carry you. This, however, will be the last of these so-called mandatory wipes we have planned. Our game has been completely overhauled for a permanent progression system, and we will (after this wipe) no longer be forcing you to reset your progress within the game. You will of course keep any Aurum and earned cosmetics associated with your account. Welcome Packs that were previously purchased will also be regranted to you upon logging in for the first time after this last wipe. As a result of this new era, we've updated our in-game texts and descriptions to reflect this change. We could talk about what happened to the Storm Divers, why all of those flyers have mysteriously disappeared, or why the storm has suddenly gone back to normal. But the work of a Prospector is never done and that's a conversation for when you're older. Now get out there, veteran greenhorn, and earn your K-Marks!
FREE LOADOUT RUNS
Free Loadout Runs are coming! If you've found yourself low on K-Marks or maybe you're just starting out and learning the ways of Prospecting, consider grabbing a Free Loadout Run provided by the various factions. On the Deploy menu screens, players will now be met with an option to select your Prospector's Loadout of gear equipped from your stash or select a free randomized loadout put together by one of the factions. If a player has no gear equipped from their own stash, the free loadout option will be selected by default. If you have a loadout already selected from your stash, your prospector loadout will be selected by default. Note that if you choose to take the free gear, any previously equipped gear will be transferred to your stash, assuming there is room for everything. There is a cooldown on how often you can use a free loadout since it takes some time for the factions to put together what they're willing to give you. A timer will be visible on the loadout selection screen to let you know how long you'll have to wait before another loadout becomes up for grabs. Once selected, these loadouts will function the same as the normal loadouts you're used to. Take the gear down to Fortuna III and, if you survive, it's yours to keep. If you don't make it back without needing to be defoamed, that gear belongs to whomever is able to bring it back to the station.
Each faction should provide Prospectors with at least a weapon, armor, backpack, ammo, and health consumables with a chance for extra goodies to be thrown in by way of a 2nd weapon, weapon attachments, additional consumables, crafting mats, keycards, or helmets. Those greedy factions won't be too eager to give away anything too useful however, so these loadouts will more often than not contain white gear with much smaller chances of getting green or blue items for free. These loadouts may not turn your trips to Fortuna III into a walk in the park, but they should give you an extra boost if you're down bad or don't want to risk losing your hard-earned gear while learning the basics.
LOADOUT PRESETS
This is a long requested feature and we are happy to finally give players a way to equip everything they need for their planet-side ventures with one click. You can customize your preset loadouts with your favorite or most-used gear in the stash section of your inventory. When selecting a preset loadout to equip, any weapons, armor, helmets, ammo or other consumable items will be equipped directly from your stash. Any items that are not your stash will be purchased from the appropriate faction HQ automatically, with a popup asking you to confirm said purchase. New descriptions and UI sections have been added to properly teach you how to assemble and equip a preset loadout. When viewing a preset loadout before equipping, icons will display which items are currently available from a player's inventory, which items need to be purchased, and which items are unavailable. Use this feature to quickly get back into the action between runs and spend less time running between the faction shops to pickup the gear you need to achieve prospecting glory.
A NEW THREAT: THE HOWLER
The Howler is a flying insect-like monster that has emerged on the surface. This large and in-charge addition to the game aims to generate new drama and new player stories by overlapping with other events and happenings in the game. As part of our direction to create a game that is as suspenseful as it is fun, we hope that the Howler will add a new layer to the game in a variety of ways. The Howler is our first roaming creature, traveling through the skies from place to place. When it's idle, you can try to sneak past it or remain motionless, in the hopes that it won't hear you. However, once it's ready for fisticuffs, you'll experience a new type of PvE challenge that we'd like to say is somewhere between the Marauder and the Crusher in terms of difficulty. But we wouldn't quite call it a boss encounter either. One thing we know for sure, is that you won't have a hard time finding it, as you should see and hear it coming with relative ease.
In addition to the Howler, a new in-match activity has made its way to you: the Howler Nests. These nests contain Howler eggs that react to sound by simply exploding and expelling a toxic fume into the air that you'll want to steer clear from. However, if you're quiet and patient, there might just be something worth bragging about inside some of those eggs, assuming you can get your hands in there and survive to tell the tale. We hope that this new organic and reactive element will offer new ways to traverse areas of all three maps that were once free of... what
To top it off, both the Howler and Howler eggs will drop unique items that can be used to complete new quest missions, upgrade your player quarters, and craft new items. As a result, you'll be able to create your own Howler Grenades, new throwing weapons aiming to recreate the Howler's signature move: its disorienting shriek. They affect both Prospectors and wild creatures, and we can't wait to see how you put them to use. Sure, we could have just introduced basic flashbangs into the game, but where's the fun in that eh?
The Howler will also come with it's own brand new questline that you will be able to complete with Osiris, are you sure you'll know how to use that?
Consider rallying other Prospectors on the surface if you're trying to take down a Howler in the early stages of the game. If you can put your hunger for gear aside, you and your new teammates might be able to take it down before anyone else. Although considering the usual human greed, we can't promise everyone will remain friendly after the Howler loot has dropped.
THE WAR ON CHEATING
As with every update, Season 3 comes with plenty of backend improvements to our anti-cheat detections and preventions, some big and some small, to help make cheating even more difficult than it already is. For the sake of security we can't go into exact details here, but these changes include better methods of automatically detecting cheats, better tracking tools for our support team to investigate suspicious players, and more obfuscation measures to make the actual development of cheats more difficult. We have also worked closely with our friends at BattlEye to make sure that the game is in top-top shape for the release of the new season.
Since we know Season 3 will also have many players returning to the game, we will give a quick recap on some of the major improvements we've made to our anti-cheat systems since Season 1:
Shielded Matchmaking: Helps give our Trusted players an added layer of security, and makes the creation of alt-accounts much more difficult for cheaters.
Cheating Victim Compensation: Automatically compensates players who fell victim to a cheater once that cheater is banned.
Data Obfuscation: Makes the creation and development of cheats more difficult and time consuming.
A Dedicated Anti-Cheat Team: Closely monitors and quickly reacts to any new threats the game might face.
Third Party Tools: We have worked closely with anti-cheat specialists like BattlEye to add additional layers of security to the game.
Revamped in-game reports: Makes the process of sending reports much smoother, and gives our team more data to investigate cheaters.
And many more backend improvements to our anti-cheat systems...
If you'd like a more detailed look at how we're actively fighting cheaters in The Cycle: Frontier, please take a look at our blog post we made for The War on Cheats: https://thecycle.game/news-and-media/season-3-the-war-on-cheats
And finally here is a quick message from Toast, the Anti-Cheat Community Manager for The Cycle: Frontier:
"Anti-cheat is a constant back and forth battle, one that we are committed to continue fighting in our game. Even though our anti-cheat is in a better state now than it's ever been, we aren't done yet. We are already hard at work on more improvements to the anti-cheat that we will be releasing in 3.1, 3.2, and beyond. The team has already made great strides in fighting cheaters since Season 1, and I truly believe that Season 3 will be the best state the game has ever been in. I am super excited for you all to experience a much more fair and competitive version of the game, and I can't wait to see you all on Fortuna III. Until next time, Prospectors." -Toast
A NEW HOME: PROSPECT STATION UPDATES
Construction crews have been hard at work lately, giving our refuge floating above Fortuna III a facelift. On your next visit to Prospect Station, you will notice all the familiar hotspots have a brand new, if shadier, look. It's pretty likely that a hub for adventurous Prospectors more focused on surviving than sanitation won't be the cleanest place, but that doesn't mean we can't have some nice things. Take a stroll around the new storefronts and investigate all the new activity that will help give more life to the place we all call home. You will find new NPCs roaming about the station along with plenty of neat additions. Try not to get too distracted though, your main job is still Prospecting and surviving.
ECONOMY TUNING FOR NON-WIPING GAME
Removing mandatory wipes means we'll operate on an economy focused on the long term. Making adjustments to how the economy used to function was imperative. As a result, finding and obtaining exotic and legendary items will be much harder than before and early game can be adjusted to feel far less punishing to new players who are just finding their bearings on Fortuna III. We've overhauled many early game quests to feel less overwhelming (but still challenging), in addition to making late-game accomplishments feel much more rewarding. Players will have a chance, albeit a very small one, to find gear with a tier above the area they're in. Leave no stone unturned on the surface, as opening a weapon crate to find a Voltaic Brute, or checking a jacket to find a rare keycard should now feel like a true jackpot moment and get your heart pumping as you make your way to the evac ship. We do not want late-game players to have infinite access to the best gear in the game. Sure, unlocking something great should be a big milestone, but upkeeping high-level loadouts should be difficult, and bringing a full end-game loadout into a match should be a truly special occasion - this is what makes the infinite gear chase more thrilling. This required us to re-think how easily players can re-purchase gear that they have unlocked, and how often, as well as how deep our money sinks are running.
The new challenge for end-game players will be to maintain the ability to run the highest level gear when it makes the most sense to do so. Purchasing weapons from the factions will now also cost faction scrips in addition to their usual K-Mark costs, so completing jobs and quests for each faction will be more important than ever. The loot pool of items that can be found has been updated to encourage players to be more diligent when searching for goodies at various POIs to have that jackpot moment when finding a rare item.
NEW WEAPONS/AMMO: MKI & MKII VARIANTS
The arsenal of weapons available at your disposal will be expanded to accomplish a few different goals. First and foremost, the new versions of the weapons will help cover some of the gaps we previously had in the weapon lineup with LMGs, launchers, SMGs, snipers, and shotguns. This means you will find more rarities of different weapon types to offer more choices of what you can use on your journeys to Fortuna III. This change also gives players an opportunity to use their favorite weapon skins more frequently on more weapons that sometimes became obsolete as you progressed to higher levels.
You will see two different variants of some guns in the form of MkI and MkII weapons. MkI weapons will be lower tier versions of current versions, while MkII weapons will be higher tier versions of their original counterparts. There will be some differences between MkI/MkII and their current versions in the form of damage or penetration values, types of attachments you can use on each weapon, and types of ammo that will be needed for different tiers.
This will also allow us to make the higher tier guns rarer without diluting the weapon pool too heavily, and still give players the 'jackpot' moment if/when you find a rarer gun from a weapon crate.
BALANCING IMPROVEMENTS
Along with the aforementioned economy tuning, some balance changes needed to be made to accommodate the non-wiping systems. The biggest change you might notice is how quickly armor durability will decrease when attacked by other players and/or creatures during fights. This will make prospectors think twice about engaging potential enemies while affecting decisions about what armor is worth the risk for their goals for each match. Don't forget to repair your armor between matches if you want to stay fully protected during runs. We've also tuned some weapons following the addition of the new MkI and MkII weapons, but there will be more details on that in a later section of the patch notes.
Meanwhile, Prospectors will now have more choices for their methods of destruction (or protection) while exploring Fortuna III. Starting capacity of each prospector's safe pocket has been increased from 5 to 9 to help with progression through some earlier questlines and player quarter upgrades have been adjusted to account for those changes. Creature behavior and health have received some tuning to make them a bit less of a pain to deal with in some cases. Standard variants of Striders and Rattlers had their total health reduced and shouldn't be as spongy to damage as previous iterations. The range at which creatures are able to see and hear prospectors has been adjusted slightly along with the amount of time it takes to de-aggro from a target. Be more aware of your surroundings as stealth and sneakiness will be much more important than it previously was if you want to stay undetected.
We have also made some other smaller balance changes as well. Mid-air accuracy has been reduced for most weapons to help make the combat feel a bit more grounded, many key crafting components have had their crafting timers reduced, and there have been changes across the board to loot drops and rewards to help facilitate the new economy. It's more changes than we can realistically list here, so we encourage you to drop down to Fortuna III and discover them all for yourself.
MATCHMAKING UPDATES
Matchmaking is a topic that is often discussed in Discord, Reddit, and Steam forums. More importantly, it's one that we are not oblivious to. During Season 2, we switched things up from using average evac value to using K/D ratio as the main factor for determining the MMR rating used to place players in different buckets. We found that while this was certainly a step in the right direction towards making matches fairer, there is still room for improvement to avoid brand new players who have a good run from being unfairly matched with more veteran players getting blasted by gear far beyond what they have access to. While matches in TC:F are meant to be somewhat uncertain, we definitely understand how frustrating it can be to constantly die due to an total imbalance of weaponry before you have a chance to react. To combat this, but still maintain some sense of tension and uncertainty about what you might encounter during any given drop to Fortuna III, we will be implementing a form of gear score in combination with K/D when determining a player's MMR calculations. This doesn't mean that you will only see players wearing the same gear as you in a match, as that limits the ability to have score big 'come ups', but it will help keep players more fairly matched and make it less likely that new players will be constantly overpowered while they are learning the ropes.
Another big topic of feedback we received regarding matchmaking is how difficult it is to regularly survive when outnumbered during encounters with other players on Fortuna III. With Season 3, you will now find the separation of buckets based on squad size that was originally implemented for Bright Sands during Season 2, now spread across all three maps. This means that no matter what your skill set or what map you choose you should only see other solos as a solo, duos as a duo, or trios as a trio in trusted matchmaking buckets.
EARLY GAME EXPERIENCE UPDATES
We've made another pass on early missions in order to give new players a better overview of what to expect and the basics of life as a Prospector. This includes more detailed explanations of certain tasks and additional tips for features that should become useful when staying alive after gaining the trust of the factions and becoming a full blown prospector.
Returning players will no longer be required to complete the tutorial missions once they've been completed once. They will only appear when launching the game for the first time on a new account During the first drop and tutorial, Prospectors will now hear gunshot sounds to get them accustomed to more of the sounds they should expect to hear during their time on Fortuna III Popups and voiceover lines for early tasks should better inform users of what their goals should be The flow of the early game has been finetuned to make the process run more smoothly as players progress through each task Early game matchmaking has been significantly tuned to better ease new players into the game
SEASON 3 FORTUNA PASS
New Season, new Fortuna Pass! We've got 100 new tiers to grind through, complete with Prospector Archetypes, Banners, Weapon Skins, Sprays, Aurum, Resource Crates, and more! Fortuna pass is chock full of vanity like the last season. We still wanted to give you as many weapon skins as possible in addition to:
2 main characters with 1 extra variation each
Harvester and his twin BloodFreak - they never get along well
Bloodhound and Rebel Reporter - both willing to take any risk to bring you the latest news!
2 new emotes for color Fortuna even more
Three new Melee Weapons
14 weapon skins
Various sprays, charms, banners, and a drop pod
But that's not all!
Crates have been revised, we added some of the MK2 weapons and new ammo for you to test it out
XP rewards and bonuses were slightly tweaked
XP curve is now non-linear and later levels of the pass need a bit more XP than in season 2, but first 15 levels of the pass are not affected at all with this change
NEW PROSPECTOR ARCHETYPES
All prospectors will have a new customizable default base suit, chest piece, gloves, and boots that can be equipped from the character customization screen. Different from the previous seasons; you can now purchase/acquire single outfit pieces like base suits, chests, boots, and gloves. We will still have some of the outfit bundles available next to these new single (ready to mingle) pieces.
This season, we tried to be a little wilder to explore some different effects for almost all the cosmetic types. You'll see some see-through bellies running around with Unbound Synth, wicked melee, charms and weapons that look like they are taken right out of a Howler's gastric - or rather fun and progressive charms, melee weapons etc. We still would like to expand and improve on this! (you know what? if you press U - you can inspect those kick ass weapons, charms, and melee in match. All of our items have their rarity assigned! Get ready for some epic and exotics!
Unbound Synth: A prospector which is perfect for you! Our first less human, more android prospector with a few emotions (maybe none at all) and the strongest dedication
The Artillery: She will be joining the team very soon - after dealing with her internal reckoning
The Jungle Bandit: A sneaky one that thinks adding a couple of bushes makes him look visible - but in reality it just looks dashing! He'll be with us later in the season - still collecting some bushes to perfect it's outfit
Authority Operative: Without any communication with HQ, and without pay, even the Authority's commandos need to earn a living. Where better to put their skills to use than the planet's hellish surface?
FREE DLC PACK AVAILABLE MARCH 30
The Fresh Fortunes Pack DLC will be available for free download starting at 7pm CEST on Thursday March 30, 2023 (10:00am PST / 1:00pm EST / 2:00pm GMT). Keep an eye out for dedicated publication with all details on the pack and how you can grab it!
SEASON 3 SHOP BUNDLES
Like last season, we have 3 special season bundles, each one complete with a collection of clean cosmetics up for grabs!
Are you a fierce Howler Tamer, or patrolling through Fortuna with your buddies to keep the planet in order? Or rather - you just want to shine, be the most colorful out there to show you have no fear that forces you to be subtle? You will be able to get these beauties through Steam and Epic store - as well as through in game Shop under the Bundles tab. We tried to give you the best selections for you to decide your statements in this season. As per usual, there are many new items specifically made for the new season, you cannot believe how much fun we had preparing all those sprays and banners for you! Also do not miss out from all the new melees, charms and emotes! Some of them will make you spit your drink out!
CHANGES
DLSS 3 has been implemented and will be available for those with compatible graphics processors
To make them a more exciting end-game challenge, Laser Drills will now be exclusive to Crescent Falls. They may return to Bright Sands again in the future with some balancing tweaks
The Crusher Caverns have had a massive overhaul, the caves will now be a significantly more difficult end game activity that will take team coordination and top end gear to survive
Prospectors will now take a short ride on the evac ship before fully extracting. Enjoy the beautiful panoramic views of Fortuna III before returning to the Station, but don't get shot
New grenade with the Howler shriek contained inside will be craft-able using Howler loot drops
Added a new weapon inspection feature with new animations to let prospectors check out their cool skins on weapons and melee sets
Players will now have a chance to find weapons with pre-loaded attachments while looting different areas. The rarity of these attachments will determine its chances of spawning
Attachments, consumables, and items all have clear numerical values about how they affect different mechanics
New and updated questlines
Prospectors will now have the ability to redeem promotion codes and coupons directly from the game to receive promotional items without going to their store launcher
Names and descriptions of armor and helmets are now more descriptive of their functions to better fit with the lore
Weapon description texts have been updated to include distances at which the gunshot sounds are audible
Some crafting recipes have been updated to require Howler loot drops
Tharis Island will not be accessible or unlockable by way of campaign missions immediately at the start of the season. As a result, crafting or player upgrades that require items only obtained on Tharis will be temporarily inaccessible until April 19th when the Island will be globally unlocked
A new keycard has been added to the lineup of keycards available
Possibly related to the new keycard, a new way to enter and exit the Forge has been added to Tharis Island. The door can be dangerous so proceed with caution
Keycard availability and durability received an update
Keycards cost has been updated to include a script cost when purchasable from the factions
Player Quarter upgrades received an update to include higher K-mark investment and new recipes for upgrade costs
Gear durability and repair costs have been changed to work better with a long-term economy in mind
New ammo varieties have been added to the loot pool with unique icon for each variety
Fortuna Pass rewards and icons have been updated for Season 3
Badum's First Drop and Welcome Packages have received an overhaul to make the experience as good as possible
A hard limit of 10 million K-marks have been added to cap the amount of K-marks a player can own at any given time
Our favorite barkeep, Badum, will now give Prospectors a unique questline with rewards after completing the FTUE missions which will be available on April 19th
Improved the prevention of players spawning next to each other to give Prospectors more breathing room when they drop onto Fortuna III
BUGFIXES
Fixed a bug where the speed penalty would persist after switching items from a charged heavy melee attack without performing the heavy melee attack
Removed an invisible collision barrier that prevented players from interacting with Osiris faction leader
Items will no longer visually duplicate themselves when sorting inventory or moving items from backpack to stash
Removed unintended access methods for areas above East Caverns on Bright Sands
Invisible post will not stop you from approaching the Fortuna Pass booth on the station
Adjusted the UI display to prevent overlapping of contract screens when multiple contracts are claimable
A very specific tree in Jungle had some faulty animations that have been resolved by our in-house horticulturist
Weapons, tools, and consumables will no longer vanish from your hands when swapping between grenades and other consumables
Players will now be able to successfully leave a party after removing a friend from friends list while in an active squad
Map updates and removal of several exploit spots across all 3 maps
Many, many more bug fixes but too many to list for the sake of saving space
MISC
In-game notification system has been revamped to better notify players of the most important events and actions while playing the game
Players can now sign up for our TCF email newsletter without leaving the game and see rewards before signing up
New key art has been added to the loading screen
New icons and UI images have been added for new in-game items
Discrepancies in vanity descriptions for various items in Windfall's Shop and Fortuna Pass have been unified
Mission images have been updated
Visibility of tool tip information has been improved
Weight and stack sizes for some items have been adjusted
New Emotes, sprays, character cosmetics and weapon skins will be available from the Fortuna Shop and Fortuna Pass rewards throughout the season
End of season widget has been updated in accordance with no longer having wipes each season
UI Tooltips have been adjusted
New icons have been added to the Feedback section of the menus
Added a UI element to clarify that player's are able to return to a map at any time once it has been unlocked
KNOWN ISSUES
We are currently investigating an issue that causes some crashes when using NIVIDIA 40 series cards on the Epic Games Launcher. A fix will be pushed as soon as it is ready
Sometimes the Crusher Caverns can have issues spawning mobs (or spawn too many mobs), if you encounter this issue please reach out to a community manager with your prospect.log files
There are some cases where a player can get stuck on a Badum FTUE task. A simple restart of the game should resolve that but our team is working on a more permanent fix
Some of the emotes are not previewed correctly in various screens like Fortuna Pass, Special Offers etc. You can still fully see all the amazing moves and our little Leafling, Marauder etc in the station and in match but we will look into how to best preview them
Some of the new items with additional effects are missing an indicator on the icons to imply so. Once you go to the preview or see them in game - you'll be amazed (and we'll be fixing that little marker issue)
That's all for now, prospectors! Thank you all for your support and feedback over the previous 2 seasons, we hope that Season 3 will be fun, exciting, tense, and we cannot wait to see the stories you and your fellow Prospectors create when you drop back down to the surface.
Additionally, we're having a 48 hour livestream to celebrate the launch of Season 3. Stop by our Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/yager_development) and say hello!
Also don't forget to join us on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/thecycle) and our Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/TheCycleFrontier/) and make sure to follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/TheCycleGame)
As always, don't forget - Fortuna Favors the bold!
Season 3 Summary
Hey Prospectors!
We’re getting there now; time is ticking, and the end of the month is here. Which means one important thing: Season 3 is launching as soon as next week!
If you need a quick reminder of what to expect for the new season, we’ve prepared a small summary of all the information we’ve been dumping on you these past couple of months. Great way of refreshing your memory before the big day, or better yet, take a first look at all this info if you haven’t kept up with our updates.
Have a good read!
First info about Season 3 and the end of mandatory wipes
Where we talked about the removal of mandatory server wipes and the economy changes that would accompany that decision. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/868270/view/5252919611947036646
Free Loadout Runs™ and matchmaking updates
Where we talked about dropping on the surface with free loadouts from the factions and how we keep finetuning our matchmaking settings. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/868270/view/3664276023008006263
The Howler, next big threat on the planet
Where we talked about the arrival of the Howler, a new flying monstrosity that's ready to wreak havoc. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/868270/view/3650765858468171758
The War on Cheats and all our progress against them so far
Where we talked about all our actions against cheating so far and how we'll keep fighting the good fight. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/868270/view/3650766491919086605
Upgrades to Prospect Station, the home of your dreams
Where we talked about how the station will get a nice facelift to look grimier, seedier but mostly cooler. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/868270/view/3650767125370207806
The introduction of Mk.I and Mk.II weapons
Where we talked about weapon variations that will be added to the game's arsenal. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/868270/view/3646264166720116302
Feedback from our recent Public Test Server
Where we talked about player feedback received from our PTS days a couple of weeks ago. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/868270/view/3672161126002083217
Oh, and of course, don’t forget our end of season event will be running for a few more days, until Season 3 hits the shelves with our very last mandatory wipe. It’s a great way to revel in pure mayhem and try out some of the rarest weapons, so don’t hesitate to jump in for a bit of fun! https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/868270/view/3711568253850136114
Short one, but that’s basically it for today. Next time we meet, it’s Season 3 all the way. We’ll sure have a lot to talk about.
Until then, take good care of yourselves, enjoy the Storm Diving, and catch you all next time for Season 3.
Fortuna Favors the Bold!
Fancy outfits are on sale in The Cycle: Frontier
Now calling on all the thriftiest Fortuna folks who love bargains and great deals! The seasons are turning, which means it's time for the Steam Spring Sale. And we've sure got some sweet goodies on our shelves, ready to send you straight into Spring with style!
Two of our awesome DLC packs are currently available at a discounted price through the end of the Steam Spring Sale on March 23. With a 35% discount on the Prime Time Bundle, which includes more than 70 different combinations of head gear and masks, and a 40% discount on the Fortuna Veteran pack, there is no time like the present to grab some special swag and give your favorite Prospectors a fresh look for Season 3!
Oh, and don't forget to check out our end of season event that started on March 15. It will run for the remainder of Season 2, until maintenance for Season 3 and the final mandatory wipe kicks in. The new season starts on March 29, and we're excited to see all you Prime Time and Fortuna Veterans explore the bounds of Fortuna III very soon.
That's all for today, and until next time Prospectors.
Fortuna favors the bold!
Season 2 - End of Season Event
Greetings and salutations, Prospectors!
We’ve just had an update today and, since the clock is slowly ticking towards the end of March, you all can guess that this will be the last update for Season 2. But this season isn’t over quite yet and that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about today. And if you’ve seen our patch notes from earlier this week, you probably know what to expect in this announcement.
Distinguished Prospectors, let me introduce you all to Storm Divers, our new end of season event!
Storm Diving for Dummies
An electrifying experience
Okay, so what’s this all about? Storm Divers is the little name that’s given to Prospectors who bravely (and perhaps foolishly) decide to drop onto the surface at a time where the Cycle is at its apex. Because yeah, that’s what’s happening here: the storms are raging strong and more often than ever.
For the duration of the event, Cycle storms will happen a lot more frequently, making the surface a lethal playground for those unwary of the elements’ fury. At the peak of each storm, lightning will strike strong, fast and, more importantly, often. Expect to up your dodging game as skies rain death if you want to come back from a dive alive. At least, each of these storms won’t last as long as they usually do.
Bolts of the violent electric kind aren’t the only gift you can expect from the heavens though. Plenty of meteors will also join the party as they land on the beautiful Fortuna III one after another. And sure, this will make the surface even more dangerous, but think of all the loot and riches you can get from those. After all, Divers aren’t putting their lives on the line for nothing!
The Storm Diver Survival Guide
Authorities are well aware that Storm Divers are taking considerable risks and are willing to support them in their endeavors. I mean, you’ll still pretty much do all the work, but at least they’re pitching in a little something for once.
Divers can expect to find a little gift on arrival whenever they plunge, as a gear crate will be available right next to their drop pod. This crate will contain a couple of items that will help survive the tempest, like night-vision goggles and storm-resistant armor. These will be entirely free, so don’t be shy and nab them as soon as you land!
And of course, I guess the best way to survive the apocalypse is to just not participate in it. The event will only be active on Crescent Falls and Tharis Island. As a result, Prospectors who don’t want to dive will be able to experience the game as they usually do on Bright Sands. We hope you will all appreciate the option to opt out.
A reaction from the station
You know what happens whenever something out of the ordinary arises around the planet: the factions want a piece of it and they’re willing to pay for it. New event-specific questlines will be available from the different faction leaders. These will come with their own flavor of permanent cosmetic rewards, so make sure to tackle them before the end!
The usual greed aside, the whole station is readying up for what’s to come and is willing to lend a helping hand towards courageous Prospectors. Crafting recipes have been adjusted towards the accessible side and crafting timers have been significantly reduced. On top of that, several armors, weapons and attachments can now be crafted using a new event-specific currency. Cherry on top, items sold to the factions will yield a larger amount of K-Marks and faction points than usual.
Everyone on the station is psyched up for what’s to come, and we hope you will be as well!
The last nooks and crannies
There are a last few details about the event that we’ve decided to cram into bullet points. Here you go, eat your heart out.
Tharis-specific changes
Reduced the amount of ingots required to use the Forge from 3 to 1.
Timers for the Forge have been drastically reduced.
Also slightly reduced the chance of side products appearing when using the Forge.
In other words, go grab your favorite hammer and start forging away like there’s no tomorrow!
Other general changes
All details about the event are available in Badum’s Codex.
Dawn, Day and Dusk phases have been shortened, so Night can reign supreme.
On that note, visibility during storm phases has been increased, for the sake of your eyeballs.
Prospectors will enjoy a 60-second grace period from lightning strikes after dropping on the surface, to make sure no one will be zapped while the game’s loading.
Loot tables have been generally adjusted to the event.
The “Incoming Storm” warning timer has been reduced to 3 minutes to avoid interface spam.
Added several voice lines related to the event to Badum’s repertory, so you can enjoy his beautiful booming voice that much more.
Added localization for event-specific text.
That will be all for the Storm Divers event! We hope you’re as excited as we are to dive into the bumpier side of Fortuna III.
The event will last until the start of Season 3, on Wednesday, March 29. Remember that this will be our last mandatory wipe, so go ham on your resources and enjoy your silly fun!
Until then, take care of yourselves, don’t get zapped toooo often and have a great day.
Fortuna Favors the Bold!
Patch Notes - 2.8.0 - March 15th
Hello Prospectors!
Welcome to our last planned patch for Season 2. This patch will include bugfixes, some weapon balancing, and a handful of miscellaneous changes/fixes. More importantly, this patch will contain the content for our end of Season event, which we will dive into all the details of with an additional Blogpost on Wednesday when the event kicks off. We heard that there are some permanent cosmetic rewards up for grabs!
We've had a lot of fun this season, and we're super thankful to all of our players who have been with us reporting issues, bringing points of interest to our attention, and creating exciting conversations as we start to close the curtains on Season 2. Onto the Patch Notes!
Changes
We have adjusted some of the big meta weapons to feel less oppressive. We will of course check how this shifts the current usage % of the weapons and will also keep a close eye on the KBR, due to the Basilisk changes.
Weapon Changes
Melee
Damage reduced from 45 to 40
This is to address the "one-shotting" of our fellow Striders, an unintentional result in 2.7 when we tuned their health.
All SMGs
Default spread increased from 3 to 4
Mid-air spread increased from 3 to 4
Fall off damage now begins and ends sooner, from 20-50m down to 10-40m
Voltaic Brute
Reduced damage from 9 to 8
Increased horizontal and vertical recoil
Basilisk
Fire Rate reduced from 0.5 to 0.6
Projectile speed reduced from 54000 to 45000
Miscellaneous
Updated the description text of the Scanner tool (formerly knows as the Mineral Scanner) to reflect it's additional abilities e.g. showing Prospectors through smoke. This is something that has been talked about by our players a lot and we're very interested in how players have used the Scanner so far. We're all for cool ways to use the Scanner. However, we will be continuing to keep a close eye on this topic and will make adjustments to the usage of the Scanner where necessary.
New player match parameters (beginner matchmaking) have been adjusted to lengthen the amount of time before players on new accounts are moved to the general matchmaking lobbies
Healing speed forge perk values have been reduced from 10%-30% to 6%-20%. We will of course monitor the situation closely, to check if this adjustment keeps the time to regenerate in check.
Our In-game news system received a bit of a visual overhaul
Bugfixes
Fixed an issue with the Alien Forge getting stuck in the 'Forging in Progress' status.
Fixed a visual bug causing Forged items to appear to have no max payout when using Standard Insurance.
Fixed an issue that caused players to mysteriously teleport against their will.
An exploit near Skeleton Skull has been fixed.
An out of bounds exploit near East Collection Point has been fixed.
An out of bounds exploit in Woodcutter Camp has been fixed.
An out of bounds exploit above the entrance to Korolev Quarry has been fixed.
An exploit location near Lagoon Thermal Ponds/Geothermal Plant has been fixed.
An unintended access point to the mountain above Root Rock Tunnel has been made inaccessible.
A collision issue that allowed access to an unintended area in Green's Prospect has been fixed.
An inconsistency between the tooltip information and the actual amount of healing received from Weak Stims has been corrected.
Some spelling errors and translation issues have been adjusted and corrected.
Localization has been fixed for the descriptions of healing consumables in the following languages: DE, ES, FR, IT, JP, KR, PL, PT, RU, and CN.
Fixed an issue that caused the Report UI menu to break when switching between 'Cheating' and 'Behavior' tabs.
Fixed an issue that caused the Contract Progress UI to not properly update when using resources in crafting.
A bug with Cheating Compensation was fixed.
An unintended exploit that allowed Prospectors to survive virtually any fall without dying has been fixed.
Fixed an issue resulting in interaction prompts being invisible when being deployed during a Storm/Peak phase.
Fixed a visual issue with backgrounds in our in-game News system.
Fixed a visual inconsistency with the Tharis Ingot charm and the icon associated with it.
That's it for this round of changes, but stay tuned later this week when we talk more about the event. As usual, don't forget to join us on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/thecycle) and our Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/TheCycleFrontier/) and make sure to follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/TheCycleGame)
Next Patch Notes will be Season 3 Patch Notes! Don't forget: Fortuna Favors the bold!
Season 3 - Your PTS Feedback
Good morrow Prospectors!
We recently gave you all an opportunity to preview and test most of the content we have planned for Season 3 so today we are here to give you a summary of what we learned from that test. Though that build was in quite a good state, there were some issues that were to be expected and we appreciate all those who donned their lab coats to provide feedback with us.
There were several changes from what you have come to know during your time on Fortuna III. While we believe these changes will help bring a healthy flow of new and some veteran players back to improve the overall experience, there was a lot to sort through so we are still reviewing the full scope of all of the feedback that was submitted, but let's jump into some of the changes and how they were perceived.
Campaign overhaul
The first thing you may have noticed is that the First Time User Experience (FTUE) was updated to give new players a better overall view of what they should expect to find on their journeys around Fortuna III. The new beginner tutorial missions are far more achievable for the rookie prospector before they can gain the trust of the factions to earn more responsibility. Having a better feel for the basics of prospecting will help players find their bearings as they adjust to a new life as a prospector of Fortuna III.
Overall there wasn't as much feedback from this change compared to others, but it does seem that the updated tutorial more thoroughly covers a wider overview of the intricacies of life as a Prospector.
More than just the FTUE received an overhaul as the general types of missions and goals of certain missions were adjusted with the goal of long term playability in mind. From what we gathered, we made decent progress towards making campaigns and missions more achievable and worthwhile, while refreshing them and prolonging the progression.
The addition of Badum's new questline with unlockable cosmetic items will give those who have reached the end of the main faction questlines something to continue working for, we have seen that there may be more work to be done in this department. Although we don't want the entire game to feel super grindy, there are some aspects that will require more time commitment than others while keeping things from becoming too repetitive.
The Howler
Never knowing where or when you might run into this new addition to the hostile fauna of Fortuna III, which is meant to land somewhere between a Marauder and a Crusher in terms of difficulty, will give each drop to the planet a new layer of uncertainty and unique set of missions for Prospectors to tackle. While it is possible to encounter the Howler on Bright Sands, there should still be a short grace period without worry until a new player leaves the beginner protection lobbies. The Howler is also the only hostile fauna on Fortuna III which gives players the opportunity to obtain it's unique items without directly engaging in combat if you're sneaky enough.
This addition was widely received as a positive change that will add exciting and worthwhile encounters during matches for Prospectors. A few changes may be implemented in order to help this better achieve the goals we have for this new aerial threat.
Free Loadout Runs This was also a welcomed addition by nearly everyone who submitted their thoughts. Originally when we announced this addition, we mentioned that every free loadout would include "1 weapon with a bunch of ammo, 1 shield, 1 helmet, 1 backpack and a few health consumables", after further consideration we felt this might make these packages a little more useful than they were intended to be. The thought behind this was that Free Loadout Runs should be something to help those prospectors who are down on their luck and need an opportunity to run a quick risk-free drop on occasion, while not being so powerful that they guarantee success on every drop. For the playtest, we removed the 100% chance of meds, shields, and helmets to see if this would be a good starting point for the feature that allows us to make adjustments as we see how often they are used and how helpful they are in practice. There will be an opportunity to re-roll loadouts once every 24 hours if you don't like what the factions have put together for you, but that feature was not implemented during the playtest.
Given the feedback we received, we may have under-tuned the effectiveness just a tad and will be re-evaluating what will be included in these loadouts to better meet their mark.
Loadout Presets We know this is something that has been requested for quite some time and something we are excited to finally bring to life in Season 3 to help you minimize the amount of downtime between matches. This gives you the ability to quickly grab a tried-and-true loadout of gear you enjoy and should save quite a bit of time, getting you back into the action with minimal work in most cases. We did see some unanticipated hiccups with this feature that we will work out prior to the full release of Season 3, but overall this was a hugely positive addition and we're glad to hear you liked it as much as we did.
MK II weapons While we know many of you were hoping to see some brand new, never-before-seen additions to the weapon lineup, this was unfortunately not something that we could feasibly accomplish to fill the several holes in the current selection of firearms prospectors have at their disposal. Instead, we chose to introduce different variants of weapons you already know with slight differences in how they operate. MkI weapons are lower-tier versions of original weapons like an ICA Guarantee with lower penetration and damage values along with fewer options for which attachments can be used. MkII weapons are higher-tier versions of the original weapons like an AR-55 with increased penetration and damage values plus more options for attachments. These 'new' weapons were meant to help fill some holes that currently exist in the meta and give prospectors more choice as to what their selected tool of destruction will be.
While some new variants can be purchased from the faction markets, other variants are only available by finding them during a match in loot rooms or crates. Overall feedback on these additions was mixed between some understandable disappointment that these weren't brand-new weapons or that they were too difficult to find and that the weapons were desirable to find and offered healthy alternatives to other weapons already in the arsenal. We do have some work left to find the perfect balance within the overall weapon landscape.
Economy changes due to non-wiping after S3
Arguably (or obviously) the biggest change coming with Season 3 will be the removal of mandatory seasonal wipes. The current iteration of progression and economy would not be sustainable for a long-term progression model so we will also be adjusting how the economy works in order to make gameplay more work better for an opt-in-wipe system. A few of these changes were previewed during the PTS in the form of ammo varieties for different weapons within each class, armor durability changes, standard insurance expiring after each raid, and overall longer progression through the main questlines.
A current issue during Season 2 has been how quickly the gameplay loop stagnated around end-game PvP with Basilisks, Kinetic Arbiters, and Voltaic Brutes dominating the meta. To combat this, overall 'end-game' gear will be much harder to obtain throughout the course of Season 3. We believe there should be a 'wow factor' of sorts when someone is able to find and successfully extract with exotic guns or armor and there should be a handful of scenarios when it makes sense to run that hard-earned gear during a drop for more difficult missions and tasks. Part of this includes how quickly the protection of armor fades, how expensive certain kits are to feasibly run, and how much risk is involved in running higher end items. Moving forward, several changes will help limit the ability for exotic gear to flood the economy.
Ammo Varieties
Different tiers of ammo now scale in the cost to purchase higher tier varieties, which makes the decision to run higher tier kits more of a luxury and may not be worth it if your goal is just to grab a few materials or hunt a few striders at Dig Site. Running kits with higher tier weapons like Voltaic Brutes, Kinetic Arbiters, and other exotic or legendary weapons will put quite a dent in a prospector's pocket book which ideally will limit the amount that players are able to constantly run top tier kits without repercussions upon being foamed.
Armor Durability
We've seen plenty of suggestions for gear degradation as a system to possibly remove items from the economy over time. Currently overall armor durability has been lowered while the rate at which armor is damaged was increased, however gear degradation is something that we are definitely looking into. This change will of course impact the feel of raids and how long (or short) armor will keep you protected during your time outside of Prospect Station. You will find yourself needing to repair armor more frequently and lower the amount of time that players are likely to spend actively looking for fights rather than focusing on mission objectives.
Insurance changes
One change you might have noticed, and some thought may have been a bug, was standard insurance expiring after each match. This change was intentional and is a measure to combat what we found to be the biggest source of KMark inflation during previous seasons. Now, you will have to make a more conscious decision about when or how you insure items that you might like to be compensated for upon an untimely foaming. Salvage insurance remains unchanged and items insured with Aurum cost will stay insured until they are lost There are many forms of this that we are exploring as possible solutions, but with permanent insurance on items, especially items that were not purchased in-match, there was little reason to never insure your items.
Overall Progression
Overall we want higher tier gear and weapons to be far less used than their low and mid tier counterparts, as they are prestige objects. This will mean that ideally you will meet less players using the highest of gear tiers all the time, even when encountering grinders or sweatlords (no disrespect to them and their dedication), as it will be much harder to obtain that it currently is. You should carefully plan your visit to the surface and when you find a high-tier gun you should get the feeling of "I hit the jackpot!".
The addition of scrip costs to weapons means that players can't endlessly run around only looking for PvP fights relying on their abundance of KMarks to keep them going. Prospectors will now also have to focus on how they budget their faction scrips if they want to keep their arsenals full.
Matchmaking
During the PTS, we disabled the usual squad size separated lobbies that many of you are used to on the current live servers in trusted matchmaking in an effort to minimize the total number of servers that would need to be supported over the weekend. At the end of 2022 (in update 2.6.0 to be exact), we adjusted matchmaking from being a extracted-loot-value-based calculation to a K/D-based calculation which at the time made quite a significant improvement in the feeling of matches for a majority of players, but as we got closer to the end of the season and extension of Season 2, that feeling did start to decline based on feedback we received from players. You can look forward to additional adjustments to our matchmaking formula when Season 3 arrives, as we want to match players against other prospectors on more equal footing and prevent overly mismatched encounters during your time on Fortuna III, while of course still offering a variety of encounters.. There are a few different options that we are currently looking into and will have more information to share with you all as we approach the start of Season 3.
There is so much more feedback that we would love to talk about in greater detail, but better than talking about it we want to implement the changes that will help us achieve the overall goal of The Cycle: Frontier being an approachable game in the F2P extraction shooter genre. We will have more information to share with you in a more in-depth patch note form prior to the start of Season 3 (read when Season 3 starts), but for now that is all we have to share with you all. We cannot thank you enough for participating in the PTS, sharing your feedback in how we can most impactfully achieve our goals, and for joining us on the wild ride that CB1, CB2, Season 1, and Season 2 have been. Here's to more fun and excitement on Fortuna III for a long time to come.
Cheers Prospectors, and as always...Fortuna favors the bold.
