Dirty Bomb presents… Summer Squash Part II

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

We’ve got one more Summer Squash update to come, which will be heavily focused on optimization. Keep your eyes out for it in the coming weeks!

Balance

Mercs

Aimee

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

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

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

Redeye

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

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

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

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

Sawbonez

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

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

Sparks

The REVIVR Rifle makes Sparks a formidable reviver and the longest range Medic, however her reduced healing capacity means she’s often not as effective as the others.
With that in mind, we’ve increased the amount of healing her Med Packs provide to others, while keeping the self-healing the same.

• Increased health provided by Sparks Med Pack to teammates to 40hp (from 30hp)
• Increased collision box on Sparks Med Packs to make them a little easier to pick up

For the full rundown of the latest patch, check it out on the forum here!