The goal of this update is to make earning Skill Points smoother and easier to understand by replacing Skill Stations with Experience Points (XP). Additionally, we're introducing multiple balance and gameplay improvements. Here's the full list of changes:

Experience Points (XP)

• Developer comment:

  • Our original system for earning Skill Points via Skill Stations on missions was clunky, hard to understand, and, at times, confusing. We are replacing it with a more streamlined and familiar system: you earn XP by killing enemies and "doing quests" (i.e. completing challenges), and when you reach a skill level (a full XP bar), you get a Skill Point.

• You now earn Experience Points (XP):

  • Experience is awarded for killing enemies on
missions, and for completing Challenges.

  • During missions, Experience is awarded for any enemy death, regardless of what caused it – be it a direct attack, friendly fire damage by other enemies, or environmental damage.

  • Harder enemies award more XP, so playing higher-difficulty missions naturally yields more XP.

  • Enemies spawned by other enemies do not 
award any experience.

• Skill Points and Respec Points:

  • A Skill Point is awarded when you reach a skill level – .e. a full XP bar.

  • A Respec Point is now awarded with every 3rd Skill Point.

• UI changes:

  • XP is displayed as a bar at the bottom edge of the screen.

  • XP is also shown in the hub UI as a bar at the top of the Skills screen.

• Other changes:

  • Skill Stations have been removed from the game.
    

Challenges

• Challenges no longer award Skill and Respec Points – they now award XP instead.

• Completion threshold for the Cautious Carrie challenge has been relaxed from 20% to 30%.

• Completion threshold for the Rubbish Rampage challenge been relaxed from 50 до 30.
  

Balance

• Rifles and Miniguns now deal 10% more damage.

• Base hit points of Small Bugs and their eggs have been reduced by 12%.

• Base hit points of Centipedes and their eggs have been reduced by 8%.

• Base hit points of Breakables and Boom Barrels have been reduced by 20%.

• Developer comment: We're introducing these changes to improve the flow of the early game, and to make rifles and miniguns more versatile and useful – for example, now you can more easily clear breakables or detonate Boom Barrels with a rifle. Additionally, this change makes dealing with bug swarms spawned by Maggots less annoying.
  

Gameplay

• Fodder enemy spawns that occur behind the player on regular missions without the Backspawn modifier now always spawn a single enemy type (either bugs or bots, but not both), and the amount of enemies spawned from behind has been reduced.

• The duration of the Rare Item Find buff from the purple orb has been increased from 60 to 120 seconds.

• Dash now works while shooting.
  

Enemies

• Jumping Bugs no longer deal area damage on landing, and do not attack the player within 0.5 seconds after landing.

• Roundshield now has a 90% damage resistance to friendly fire damage from other enemies.

• Bullets fired by Minigun Tank now have a chance to pierce multiple enemies. Additionally, the bullets trails have been made more visible.
  

Item Stats

• The Area of Effect (WIP) item stat has been removed from the game. It will remain on existing items, but will not roll on new items or in Crafting.

• A new stat has been added: Damage vs Breakables – it increases damage you deal to all breakables, including Boom Barrels. The stat will not appear on existing items, but it will roll on new items and in Crafting.
  

Crafting

• Upgrade Parts of all rarities now drop on missions.
  

Audio

• The audio playback system is no longer limited to 32 active voices – we've raised the voice limit to 256. This fixed a lot of audio hitches. In general, the game sounds much smoother now.

• Jumping Bugs now play a sound effect when they land on the floor.

• The Mistake Mitigator ability now plays a sound effect when it activates.

• The shotgun sound has been slightly reduced in volume (by 2 dB). Additionally, we've added a little more bass to it and reduced the middle frequencies.
  

Bug Fixes

• Plasma Turret now correctly plays its sound effect on activation.

• Roundshield now correctly protects Rocket Tanks.

• Mistake Mitigator now correctly displays its texts in bluish-white color, instead of red.

• The Revive orb now correctly displays its texts in yellowish-white color, instead of red.
  

Other Changes

• The game executable now has a correct custom icon.
  

With this update out, we'll be focusing our efforts on the Skill Tree. Meanwhile, grab the update and let us know what you think!

Thank you!
Combat Complex team.