Thank you for taking part in the first wave of the OTS! Your feedback was extremely valuable and helped us resolve some of the most pressing issues.

Please note, the second wave of the Operations OTS will be available only to players in the RU region.

Players who participated in the first wave will not receive access to the second or third waves. We’re doing this to test how new players perceive Operations after the changes. It’s important for us to see how clear the steps are for those experiencing them for the first time.

All players who met the OTS criteria on the Global server have already participated in the first wave. We try to avoid situations where the same players take part in testing multiple times in a row after minor changes. Such repeated tests are only appropriate for major updates.

Please, don’t worry! Players from the Global regions will have the opportunity to participate in the OTS for Modules at a later date.

In the meantime, we invite you to join our stream on Discord this Friday and Saturday at 17:00 (UTC). Make sure to stop by to see what's changed or to ask questions.

Now, we would like to share some key takeaways from the first OTS.

OTS technical issues

While testing the new OTS launch system, we ran into a few problems. This was our first time running the test through Steam, and some players had to wait longer for server access than those using the EXBO launcher. On top of that, we made a few mistakes in sending out messages granting access to the test server.

Thanks to your prompt feedback, we were able to quickly resolve these issues, and we’ll do our best to prevent them in future waves.

How did the first wave go?

The most valuable outcome was that we clearly understood how to improve the readability of objectives, environmental elements, boss stages, and other aspects. Unfortunately, even the best testing can’t reveal all issues until the product reaches players.

Thanks to you, we identified several critical bugs that were blocking gameplay and fixed them promptly.

Second wave updates

What’s new?

• Added a time penalty for player deaths;

• Added a kill counter that you saw in Attack on Perimeter;

• Added Access level display in the player interface;

• Added the ability to use the personal storage in the Antechamber;

• Added additional spawn points for Snipers;

• Added new articles in the “How to Play” tab.

Changes

• Updated the appearance of the “Play Solo” button;

• It is no longer possible to carry a pre-inserted armour plate into the mode;

• Updated 3D space markers;

• Updated some enemy names to match the ones in the “How to Play” tab;

• Fixed the Rat hunter’s health bar and added a previously missing stage;

• Redesigned “Murmur’s Hound”;

• Changed Rat hunter’s poison — it now deals damage over time;

• Adjusted enemy spawn points during the Rat hunter battle;

• Changed the mechanics for capturing communication nodes.

The time required to capture a node has been significantly increased. Players can speed up the capture by interacting with the electric shields appearing on the arena. The acceleration only lasts while the shield is active. Once it deactivates, players will need to interact with a new one.

What do we expect from this wave?

First and foremost, we want to evaluate how players’ perception changes with the boss mechanics fully functioning and the updated node capture mechanics — specifically, the electric shields.

We also fixed some bugs that were significantly affecting difficulty, or rather, making it too easy for certain squads.

In the third testing wave, we’ll introduce Operation modifiers that will alter gameplay further.

We really appreciate your activity during the first wave and look forward to showing you the results of our work again!

Respectfully,
EXBO Team