Anthem is releasing its latest update to the PTS. This change follows update 1.2.1, which was released a week ago. One change that players can expect is that Anthem is making a limited version of the Seasonal store available. Here players can spend any Crystals that they earn from playing not only Cataclysm, but other events as well.
Other changes players can expect include:
- Shaper Storm Events
- Based on player feedback, creatures now spawn while waiting for the timer to finish counting down.
- Updates to Vara gameplay, VFX and cinematics.
- Boss Phases fully set up
- Transitions now working properly
- Attacks Updated
- Fire wall speed increased from 8 seconds to 4 seconds
- Ice projectile now seeks properly
- Beam now triggers properly after player frozen
- Dominion summon now works more than once
- Close range melee now has an air version for hovering players
- Pillar AOEs now have better timings and clearer VFXs
- Ground fire timing has been made easier to avoid
- Most attacks VFX and Animations have been improved
- Updates to cinematic scenes, including new animations.
- Cataclysm scoring is now affected by the difficulty selected.
- Based on player feedback, notifications were added to inform the player of when each tier in the Shaper Storm Event starts.
- Added/updated Inversion journal entries in the cortex. All current Inversions should now have names and descriptions.
- Added audio cue for when a player is ready in the start of expedition screen.
- The audio will fire if they are anywhere within the Star of Expedition screen (game mode, consumables, map, social, inversions), if they close the screen or navigate to the Forge they currently won't hear it.
The PTS update is already available for download on PC.
Anthem is currently implementing a number of updates to the game in the hopes of enticing players to return. The update released last week, while offering minor tweaks, focused mainly on improving the matchmaking. Jesse Anderson at BioWare revealed that with update 1.2.1, the maximum time limit for matchmaking should not to go beyond 90 seconds. That update was sizeable, given the limited amount of changes it offered. However, Anderson clarified that update 1.2.1 has updates that are aimed at content coming later to the game.
