If you have a PlayStation VR, you owe it to yourself to get StarBlood Arena, a game that we coined “VR’s Overwatch” in our review. Now, if you already have it, then go check your update history as a new StarBlood Arena update (1.03) has been rolled out by Whitemoon Dreams.
Some of the changes in the title update include: fixes to the matchmaking, balance tweaks, new control layouts and more. It’s one hefty patch, so go check out the full notes below.
Note: 1.03 is set to go live on Thursday, 4/27/17 at 6AM PST (1AM GMT). Some users may experience temporary downtime for 30-45 minutes, as we are also pushing a server update. Downtime should be no more than 30-45 minutes. Thank you!
Matchmaking
• The number of players required to begin a match is varied based on player availability, with map selection reflected
appropriately.
• Time to find a match within a search bracket reduced before matchmaking widens its search.
• While in the Lobby Lineup before a match, the ready up timer is reduced to 30 seconds, and now automatically
readies players instead of kicking them.
• Fixed an issue that prevented idle players from being kicked if they were killed before timing out.
• Fixed an issue where private match team games could start out with unbalanced teams if a player disconnects
after entering the lineup, but before all players have joined.General
• In Carnage, if two or more players have the same kill score, the player with the least amount of deaths wins,
otherwise if deaths are the same it will tie. For Team based modes if the team scores are tied the game will end in
a tie.
• Fixed an issue with Dregg’s Plasma Ball missile stopping in midair if its target is killed before collision.
• Missiles no longer fire an extra dummy missile.
• Fixed an issue where certain maps can sometimes take too long to load.
• Fix for a rare tutorial crash.UI Updates
• Online friends now be sorted to the top of the Crew Invite Menu.
• Added messaging to Burn Circuit notifying players they need to place first in a Burn Circuit match to progress.
• After navigating to the Ship selection menu, the selection now defaults to “Confirm” instead of “Weapon Systems.”
• “The Carl” control scheme no longer uses SIXAXIS to Ascend/Descend.
• Fixed an issue where it would show the party leader icon for all parties in the lineup instead of just your party.Balance Updates
To better show off the various styles of each ship, we made an overall update to shields and speeds. There are now three tiers of speed (Fast/Medium/Slow) and four tiers of shields (1000/1100/1200/1300) that the ships are categorized into. We have also made character specific updates and balances as outlined below:Alice (Bombardier):
• Grenade Launcher (Secondary)
o Weapon spread per shot (max 8) decreased by 2.5%Notes: The only thing we’ve tweaked with Alice is the secondary grenade launcher spread. This fix makes for a
more reliable and controlled weapon.Apollonia (Hunter):
• Scattergun (Primary)
o Damage increased by 18%
• Harpoon Launcher (Missile)
o Damage increased by 35%
o Ammo decreased from 8 to 5 harpoons
o Ammo regeneration delay doubled
• General
o Shields decreased from 1200 to 1100
o Speed increased to fast-tierNotes: Increasing Apollonia’s primary damage, harpoon damage, and speed should help her to more effectively
destroy her enemies.Blade (Assassin):
• Plasma Launcher (Primary)
o Minimum damage increase by 38%
• Wing Blades (Secondary – Lunge)
o Increased the effective distance of the lunge
• Black Death (Heavy)
o Damage per second increase by 20%
o Heavy ammo gained increased by 6%
• General
o Shields increased from 925 to 1000
o Speed increased to fast-tierNotes: Blade is a high skill cap pilot who didn’t seem to yield the right amount of reward when using his abilities.
Now Blade packs a little more punch and playing him should be a more satisfying experience.
Dregg (Sniper):• Skirmish Guns (Secondary)
o Damage increased by 30%
o Damage falloff increased by 30%
o Ammo cost increased by 50%
o Ammo regeneration delay decreased by 60%
• General
o Shields increased from 875 to 1000
o Speed increased to fast-tierNotes: The Sniper may have felt a bit like a glass cannon without a very effective secondary to handle short to
mid-range encounters. We wanted to give him a better option to respond to close range battles, but also to help
him stay in the fight as he looks to get some distance between him and his target.
Elsa (Soldier):
• Inferno Guns (Primary)
o Heat ammo gained decreased by 21%Notes: As an all-around badass and mid-range pilot, Elsa didn’t seem to need a whole lot be changed. With that
said, we’ve observed that her thermal lance was charging up a little too fast – giving her a more dominant position
than other pilots. Even though it now takes a bit longer to gain heat to charge her secondary, she’s still plenty
dangerous.Gundo (Gunship):
• Proton Guns (Primary)
o Damage decreased by 29%
• Ion Discharger (Secondary)
o Damage increased by 9%
• Shield Drain Array (Heavy)
o Heavy ammo gained decreased by 4%
• General
o Shields increased from 1025 to 1100Notes: Gundo’s primary weapons were dealing more than enough damage, leaving his secondary weapons as an
afterthought for many players. His strength is in performing decently across all fire ranges – with his primary
weapon being ideal for mid-range combat and his secondary being a proficient close-quarters tool. His weapons
have been adjusted to reflect that he has the tools for the job at any range and to encourage players to explore and
master his unique skillset.Baron (Deathnaught):
• Deathbeam (Heavy)
o Heavy ammo increased by 50%
• General
o Shields increased from 1200 to 1300
o Speed increased to medium-tierNotes: The Baron seemed to be underutilized, so we’ve boosted his shields to the top tier and increased his heavy
ammo to make the pain last even longer. He also gets a boost in speed so he doesn’t get left behind in the fight.
He should now be much more of a force in the arena!
Tik-Tak-Toh (Tank):
• General
o Shields increased from 1200 to 1300Notes: Tik-Tak-Toh felt rather solid, but with the addition of a higher top speed tier of ships – they needed to feel a
bit tanky-er, so we beefed up their shields to the highest tier we have.HOTAS Controls
“Charlie Surprise” and “The Frenchy” were remade to more closely resemble traditional flight controls, as requested by the community. “The Sinister” is now a combination of the old and new schemes without the modifiers, as they made it overcomplicated, but we still wanted to keep something there that players might have already gotten used to.Control Schemes:
“Charlie Surprise”:
Throttle Lever
• Rocker – Strafe Left/Right
• Throttle – Move Forward/Back
• Square – Move Up
• X – Move Down
• Circle – Boost
• Triangle – Deploy Mine
• L2 – Scoreboard
• R2 – Activate Ship ModFlight Control Stick
• X Axis – Roll Left/Right
• Twist – Turn Left/Right
• Y Axis – Pitch Up/Down
• Hat – D-Pad (Apollonia’s deployables)
• L1 – Cycle Gun
• L3 – Select Heavy Gun
• Trigger (R1) – Fire Gun
• R3 – Fire Missile“The Frenchy”:
Throttle Lever
• Rocker – Strafe Left/Right
• Throttle – Move Forward/Back
• Square – Move Up
• X – Move Down
• Circle – Boost
• Triangle – Deploy Mine
• L2 – Scoreboard
• R2 – Activate Ship ModFlight Control Stick
• X Axis – Turn Left/Right
• Twist – Roll Left/Right
• Y Axis – Pitch Up/Down
• Hat – D-Pad (Apollonia’s deployables)
• L1 – Cycle Gun
• L3 – Select Heavy Gun
• Trigger (R1) – Fire Gun
• R3 – Fire Missile“The Sinister”:
Throttle Lever
• Rocker – Roll Left/Right
• Throttle – Move Forward/Back
• Square – Move Up
• X – Move Down
• Circle – Boost
• Triangle – Deploy Mine
• L2 – Scoreboard
• R2 – Activate Ship ModFlight Control Stick
• X Axis – Strafe Left/Right
• Twist – Turn Left/Right
• Y Axis – Pitch Up/Down
• Hat – D-Pad (Apollonia’s deployables)
• L1 – Cycle Gun
• L3 – Select Heavy Gun
• Trigger (R1) – Fire Gun
• R3 – Fire Missile
That’s one big update! How are you liking StarBlood Arena so far? What other tweaks should Whitemoon Dreams do in the next patch?
[Source: StarBlood Arena]
