It's the New Year Captain! What better way to start it off then to take a nice cruise in the Arctic? Below are the details for what's coming in the short v2.5 Update. Most of the content will be utilized by Prequel Mode as there has been some disagreements over the difficulty of the Spectres.
Work Completed:
Fixed a couple of bugs in the game, nothing major.
Changed the way "Research", "Survival" and the "Scavenger" skills work. They are now more appealing.
Improved "Ghost Stim" and "Recovery Stim" items.
Reduced Jose's Radio call timer in prequel mode so he will call you every 10 minutes instead of every 7.5.
Added new SMG Skill "Blitz" for enemies and the player. Blitz allows a x2 attack on all on screen enemies in an attempt to spread enemy SMG attacks out a little.
Added new status "Ruptured Armor". Whenever you attack an enemy with ammo such as 'AP Ammo' you may have a chance to inflict this status. It will lower enemy DEF by 30% and reduce their resistance to bullets in general. This is useful to counter some of the enemy armour perks.
Gave some enemies "CS Gas" grenades. These may stun/disorient/blind twice as long and have a chance to cause fever.
All Human Soldier Enemies now drop supplies to help in Prequel/Story Mode. Supplies gained in other modes carry forward from most modes on your save anyway.
Added the "Mac-10" Machine Pistol as an SMG type weapon to the game. It is low accuracy but an even higher CRI than the Uzi. It also has a special variant.
Work Planned/In Progress:
The Spectre enemy (the blue one) is being weakened due to complaints about their difficulty. There is also going to be an alternative version with dual handguns.
The Elite Spectre enemy (the red one) is being weakened too slightly. There will also be an alternate version of this one with an assault rifle.
2 New Spectre's are being added (each with an alternate version) which will make up for the lost difficulty of the basic/blue spectre. I will release details of these via screenshots when further intel is available.
Infection chance will be increased by 1 to 2% as I don't feel like it is enough of an issue to annoy the player. It hurts when you loose someone you spent time on but burstouts rarely happen to me personally.
A secret bonus scene is going to be added to a side mission in story mode. It reveals someones identity from Prequel Mode. It's really obscure but will give a special weapon.
A New Melee weapon is going to be added to the game as a special rare drop from a new spectre type.
4 New *Voiced* NPC's are being added to the Prequel Mode ship crew. These guys will appear at a certain point in the story but will not be announced by Jose and will be scattered throughout the ship. They will appear on Normal difficulty and above just to give an extra helping hand to those who can find them.
A new event is being added to Prequel Mode. Something goes wrong in the "Epidemic Prevention Block" on the B4 levels and causes someThing to infest the ship; This will introduce 4 new enemies exclusive to Prequel Mode. By weakening the Spectres I had to add challenge somewhere else :P
A new set of side missions are being added to Prequel Mode. Now when you get an "Incoming Transmission" it might no longer be Jose calling you. You might pick up radio chatter from a special Gen Inc Suicide Squad. Following these transmissions will be able to get you 6 New *Voiced* NPC characters and extra weapons and ordnance that you so desperately need; especially to deal with what's to come. This also introduces a special fights and a human sub-boss to Prequel Mode.
Let's Play
YouTube user Sadonrii is kicking ass in his let's play. It was a slow start for him but on normal he easily mops up the enemy crew. (Spoiler Warnings)
It's unclear if v2.4 saves will work with the v2.5 when it comes out as I've made some changes to the scripts (things that run code) and added new database objects. The v2.5 should come out in February as it's only a short update contributing to Prequel Mode mainly. I'll post screenshots on ModDB as content becomes available.
Gen Inc are still out there Captain and there not giving up just yet. Keep fighting the good fight.
I see... I like the new changes you have made and will trust in your decisions. TBH though I always picked survival whenever I could, NO MAN IS BECOMING ONE OF THOSE THINGS. NOT ON MY WATCH GODAMNIT.
EDIT: Also huh, I wasted the Spectre squads pretty easily... On the other hand, this could be on hard and not normal. Plus I have nearly run dry more then once on a few weapons.
Swedish is balls hard in Prequel Mode. Got as far as the bit when you go to B5 and have the fight with Human Marin. I was pretty much stuck down there afterwards with no ammo, hardly any people and no healing supplies.
The v2.5 will be the final update for the game (aside from fixes) and there is quite an injection of content going into prequel mode. There's still some content waiting to be revealed so stay tuned. The New Spectres aren't all you need to worry about down there...
Oh man. Sounds scary.