Generation Zero

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah it seems the achievements got put in during an earlier update for some reason, maybe so Steam could be ready? Though that seems odd, other games just update them when they are available, so who knows? Update is supposed to drop Tuesday, then we shall see. I haven't seen yet whether it's an actual DLC you have to buy or is it a free update? Some places are calling it a DLC and others just a regular update, so who knows?

[Art Blade]

I've got a few games that "expanded" their achievements after the original game was released and it didn't always come with the game expansion so yes, I could see achievements before I was able to do them. However, I really don't like achievements being added after the original game release. Hitman 2 did that (don't remember Hitman 1) and Thief Simulator actually kept doing it. It was OK for Hitman, in a way, at least they only did that once (perhaps twice) but TS was really annoying. I used to have 10 "perfect" games on steam, then it was 9 and 8. Doing the Hitman put me back to 9 and then for TS to 10. Then back to 9. Did TS achievements, back to 10. Then back to 9 AGAIN and I thought, you know what? F that S.

[BinnZ]

I feel your pain Art, I had the same with numerous games. I had it happen with Duke Nukem forever, with CoD Black Ops and so many other titles. I refues to get the DLC for it just to get the 100% mark again, but indeed it's lame. They should somehow list it differently, like you keep the credit for the perfect game but they give you the opportunity to get additional credits for DLC completion or something.
You remember my horror with the Doomsday Heist achievements, that was F*ed UP! I would have let it pass if it wasn't a R* title, GTA specifically, but it was.
On this title, the achievements are easy. No hard *bleep* to do, just complete the missions and do some extra stuff, nothing really challenging. So yes I will definitely get back to 6 perfect games.

It is a paid DLC. I don't know exactly what the costs are, but I've seen something like €8,50. The fixes will be there for everybody, but the new content is paid. I will get it. I like the game enough to get that *bleep*, looking forward to new content.

I have the feeling that despite them releasing new stuff on next Tuesday, they DID actually already tweak some things. I've noticed that since a week or so I get lower quality loot from loot crates (the ones that you can find) and fallen low lvl enemies. You can still get 5 star gear from fallen enemies, but it seems restricted to FNIX and Apocalypse enemies. The rest seems to never give you the 5 star rated gear.
So much for the devs getting stable. They are far from it, in fact, nothing is for sure in this game except the stuff you already have

[Art Blade]

The funniest thing about achievements: I never paid attention to them before I met you. I remember our conversations and how I too started to go for achievements.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah the hardest ones to do for this game was finding all the various goodies hidden everywhere and that was just having the online map open and checking off each one as I found it. Took time but wasn't difficult in any way, except when a tank was hanging around an area I needed to search then I had to actually fight something lol

[Art Blade]

 

[BinnZ]

Ye, I think I passed bits of my sick habit to you

Anyway, regarding experimental weapon drops from rivals, I did some extended research. However, nothing for sure to be said until now, I'll explain that later.
After defeating more than half of the rivals in my game, all on the highest difficulty, I decided to farm new ones in the emptied areas. Last week I managed to get back to 64 (max) rivals again. I had read somewhere on the GZ forums that someone was trying to do the same, with tanks exclusively. It's not possible for all areas, since the starting area (Achipelago) and the DLC area (Himfjäll) have Tank maximums of respectively 1 and 6, but the 6 remaining areas can hold the maximum of 8 rival tanks.
I decided it was a fun thing to do in the mean time. So I had lots of Harvester and Hunter rivals to be taken down. This time I didn't bother to switch back and forth between difficulty settings just to make sure I killed the rivals on the hardest difficulty. Firstly because of all the hassle, and secondly because I didn't need the experimental weapon drops that hard any more. I did like to find a second of those I only held one of, like the AG4 and the Kpist, but nothing really urgent.
Again I counted how many rivals I took down, to have a comparison with the rival kills vs exp. weapon drops on the hardest difficulty. This time, I got 2 experimental weapon drops out of 35 killed rivals. That's fewer than I had counted before on the highest difficulty, but, I realised that besides the difficulty change, I also had killed 'only' hunters and harvesters, while tanks are always more likely to drop good loot. So I can't really say anything for sure yet, but it seems that the drops are basically the same no matter on what difficulty you play. I should actually also take out an equal amount of tanks on the easy difficulty and see if that gives me more frequent drops to be sure. I'll leave that to another time

[BinnZ]

Here it is, the list of new features and fixes for tomorrow:

FNIX Risng Patch notes

Looks promising!

[Dweller_Benthos]

Well, looks like they at least did something, looking forward to the new stuff.

[BinnZ]

Yes purchased, installed and did a quick test. The difficulty on adventure mode is now very acceptable compared to what it was. Still challenging, so that's good too. Will report more later

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah me too, I also saw there was a couple free DLC so I added those as well, crafting and clothes or something like that.

Did the first few bits of the new quest line, and it takes you to the place I just was, the resistance base only now Calle is there to talk to and give you the rest of the story. Moved on to the ring fort and then did the side quest for the crafting materials and making blast resistant jackets. Had a good fight with a harvester and it's hunters and was satisfied with how it went. Not easy enough to be a pushover but not so hard as to be frustrating. The harvester didn't have the dead on zeroed in targeting anymore either, firing at the place I was that it last saw me when I attacked and not where I currently was hiding in a house like they did before.

All in all, good update I think. Now to go after the building materials and see what is entailed in making a new base. Also have some rivals to take down, see if I get any good weapons from it. I noticed a prerelease video I saw that the electrical discharge on the new machine gun looks a lot more effective that it did before. Whether that's a tweak for that weapon or just because they changed the overall damage system, I don't know.

[Art Blade]

having followed this topic since its start, right now I had some kind of analogy in my mind's eye as to what this game has been so far:

sold as a bathtub filled with warm water. At first it was warm but not filled more than like a quarter, and then they started to fill with either boiling hot or freezing cold water, every time asking, "is it alright now?" while the reactions were like, "AAAAAHHHRGH, too HOT" and "AAAAAHHHRGH, too COLD!" By now they managed to both get the overall temperature somewhat right as well as the amount of water in the tub so they started to yell, "here's a plugged-in hair-dryer!" Zapp! "And here a toaster!" Zapp! "More water!" "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaargh!"

A proper roller coaster ride so far. I guess not many survived that, except you guys

[BinnZ]

 
Funny analogy Art

It pretty much sums it up indeed. However, in between the water has been of good temperature too, sometimes. And then it really is a good bath

Anyway, to come back to the new update and DLC, I agree with what you noticed D_B. The game seems to be back to normal when it comes to damage and behaviour. I was playing on adventure mode, and I had no problem at all surviving. That's how it should be for a veteran with best weapons and skills on that level. I had to use an adrenaline shot only twice, and that should have been avoidable. Anyway, it was during a fight with no less than 12 harvesters, crawling around on the same bit of foresty slope. Shortly after that fight I found an additional 7, not all together, but the 19 harvesters I found were all in the same area and within a time window of maximum 25 minutes. And of course they had their hunters with them. When I stumbled upon the first group of 12, the hunters were so packed, some were standing on top of each other. Crazy. But somehow they took turns in shooting me, so I could easily survive. Coming to think of it now, it seems to be the case in many encounters. They seem to have reduced the amount of simultaneous attackers to a proper kung fu movie like approach; one at a time, lol

I killed 2 rivals so far. Both not fully levelled up to 4, 1 of them dropped an experimental weapon. They were a harvester and a hunter. I might have been lucky. Or it just got waaay better than it was. Well, they stated it would, so let's just give them credit for that

I also got to the point where I had to collect materials for base setup, and the defence sequence that happens after that. Now I'm gonna check out what's more out there...

[Dweller_Benthos]

lol @ Art   

Yeah I killed a couple rivals and got another experimental AG4 so I stashed that away in my almost full to the brim stash. I essentially have no more room for anything. Funny thing, it wouldn't allow me to put it in even though it only weighs 2kg and I had 8kg free space. What happened was I had AP rounds in the AG4 I was using, so it attached the FMJ rounds I had to the new AG4 when I picked it up. All 4000 of them. So the combined weight was just a smidge over what the storage box can take. Had to remove the FMJ ammo from it and then it would transfer. But consider if it wasn't over the limit, it would have stored all my FMJ ammo with it and I might not have noticed that until later in a fight when I wanted to switch ammo and I had none because it all got stored with the weapon I had put away. Strange system.

You can switch ammo on the fly now, so that's a big help, but switching weapons is still just as awkward.

As for difficulty, on adventure mode the low level hunters are now a one shot with the experimental PVG 90 and even a tank only takes half a dozen rounds or so. Haven't really come up against the high level ones yet though, those probably need a bit more firepower.

One complaint I have and it's an ongoing one is as always, rebinding keyboard controls. With the new prone mechanic, you can lie down and shoot, I hope more accurately, but the key is hard coded to Z, and I have that rebound to walk backwards so every time I try to back up away from something, I go into prone position and have to get back up. Not fun. Looking into loading a mod to be able to customize keyboard binds a bit better. The one I tried last night just crashes the game.

[Art Blade]

maybe get a custom-made keyboard you can switch the (hardware) keys around on.