Master Changelog
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This is a partial summary of all changes made to the game Evolve since its release in February 2015, current to January 19, 2016.
== UI/Menus ==
* FOV Slider added
* Colorblind Mode added
* Option to hide awards from popping up in game added
* Hunter pings have unique shapes based on what is being pinged
* Monster has identifying symbols for Hunters
* Preferences and ranks are both shown for each Hunter.
* Observer mode added and substantially improved.
* Better Alt-tabbing
* Crashes substantially reduced
== Matchmaking Changes ==
* Hunt mode now has MMR based matchmaking; will always find four hunters and a monster before starting a game.
* Players can list preferences for Hunt and will be matched with different preferences, but classes are chosen on first click, first serve in ranked.
* New ranking system for Hunt mode - Three tiers, five stars per tier.
* Skirmish mode now cycles between the three most popular game types - Defend, Hunt, and Arena.
* Evacuation mode remains as third option.
* Custom game mode options increased
* Many, many bugfixes to Skirmish-type matchmaking.
== Gameplay Improvements ==
* Dramatically reduced the strength of wildlife buffs.
* Elite Albino monsters are stronger and faster than their counterparts.
* Domes take 1 second to drop down from 5 seconds. Dome no longer makes audible click for monster to react to.
* Dome recharge is 70 seconds up from 60.
* Monsters at Stage 1 do more damage but are easier to kill/get permanent health damage on.
* Monsters at Stage 3 are tankier than before, but do less damage.
* Putting points in Monster skills tends to increase their utility more than their damage. ex: Goliaths rocks have more momentum, Warp Blast has more radius.
* Stuns hardcapped at .75 seconds before control is regained; players can no longer be chain stunned.
* Monster melees do the same damage at all stages.
* Monster melees now target the closest target to your reticle vs the closest target to the monster (Gorgon Patch)
* Maps received substantive changes to remove exploitable positions, decrease line of sight on power relays, reduce water levels in most areas and decrease chokepoints
* Trapper dome now comes down if Trapper is not in the dome.
* Proximity detonation of exploding abilities increased to help with flying targets.
* Hunters have more health on incap (3500) and stay up for longer.
* Many AI improvements.
* Jetpacks reworked to be more consistent. Hunters may now jetpack up walls without fuel.
* Knockback and momentum reworks.
* Monsters have 2 seconds reduced Evolve time to help with slower, "hold the dome" games.
* Monsters have 25% armor after Evolve (Gorgon Patch) for same reason as above.
* Reload speed no longer affects class cooldown, allowing for more perk choices for trappers and Assaults.
== Free DLC Content ==
'''Game Type:''' Arena, a best two out of three deathmatch against a Stage 2 monster in a permanent dome.
'''Map:''' Broken Hills Foundry, a small, heavily vertical map with a new boxed food mechanic
'''Map:''' Broken Hills Mines, a large map divided into three large and different areas around a circular hub.
'''Map:''' Broken Hills Murder Pits, an Arena Only map consisting of tailor-made domes such as the Tyrant Pit
'''Monster:''' Meteor Goliath, a variant on Goliath with longer traversals, higher cooldowns, and a focus on area of effect and DoT abilities.
'''Hunter:''' Rogue Val, a variant on Val with a focus on AoE healing, personal survivability, and heavier damage. (Gorgon Patch)
'''Hunter:''' Blitz Markov, a variant on Markov with a focus on careful placement and positioning for accelerating returns in damage. (Gorgon Patch)
'''Hunter:''' Wasteland Maggie a variant DPS focused trapper with a single flame harpoon and a burst fire pistol. Also, someone put a flamethrower on her dog. (EMET patch - upcoming)
'''Hunter:''' Tech Sergeant Hank, a variant support with a continuous fire laser cutter, an orbital drill beam weapon that tracks monsters in its radius, and a personal shield charger that grants temporary shields.
== Paid DLC Characters (included in Monster Race/Ultimate Editions): ==
=== Tier 4 ===
Support: Sunny Yu, a mobility focused support with a jetpack booster, stationary defense drone, and mini-nuke launcher.
Medic: Slim, a combat medic with a health sapping shotgun, defensive spore cloud launcher, and healing drone.
Trapper: 'Khovalyg' Crow, a ranged offensive trapper with a chargeable stasis gun, chargeable armor piercing rifle, and tracking bat familiar
Assault: Torvald, a ranged area control assault with a weak point grenade, automatic shotgun, and targetable mortar cannon launcher
Monster: Behemoth, a tanky combo-heavy monster with a rolling traversal, rock walls, lava bombs, ground-based fissure attack and a tongue grab. (preorder bonus, not in Monster Race but in Ultimate Edition)
=== Tier 5 ===
Assault: Ida Lennox, a melee Assault with a leaping slam attack, comboing plasma lance, and AA cannon with an enormous magazine.
Trapper: Jack [redacted], a blocking/DPS trapper with a laser-satellite for tracking and damage, multiple pistols, and a repulsor gun that blocks monster movement.
Monster: Gorgon, a fast, agile spider monster that can stick to walls and web around the map. Uses a web blast, acid breath, controllable mimic, and spider trap.
Upcoming Medic ("E.M.E.T"), a robotic split personality medic who uses healing buoys, some kind of homing rocket and a respawn beacon for dead hunters.
Support ("Kala") early next year.
== Balance Changes by Character: ==
=== Goliath: ===
<em>The most popular and well-loved monster, Goliath has seen little changes other than the big Hunt 2.0 rework. He's a little less jumpy in domes now, and like any good monster he generally wants to be in the hunters faces to be fully effective.</em>
* In-combat traversal cooldown reduced to reduce mitigation in domes
* Rock Throw speed based on level, not quite as bursty
* Charge does more damage.
* Smaller radius on Leap Smash, scaling per level
* Flame Breath has less duration but more damage.
=== Kraken: ===
<em>A #1 pick in the competitive league, Kraken's changes have generally been focused on making his attacks more readable and either encouraging or forcing him to get close and interact with the hunters.</em>
* Lightning Strike no longer "whips" to target and instead moves at a flat rate.
* Lightning Strike aim time dramatically reduced.
* Aftershock distance increased
* Aftershock no longer cancels momentum.
* Banshee Mines have a brief moment of indestructability before arming.
* Kraken is now properly "dragged down" by tranqs and harpoons, allowing hunters to limit its time in the sky.
* Kraken hitboxes increased/limb hitboxes decreased (Gorgon Patch)
* Lightning Radius increased by 1m at all levels (EMET Patch)
* Homing speed of Banshee Mines increased slightly (EMET Patch)
* Active duration of Banshee Mines increased to 5 seconds from 4 (EMET Patch)
* Basic attack and projectile attack damage increased at Stages 2 and 3 (EMET Patch)
=== Wraith: ===
<em>One of the core influences on the early player drop, Wraith was completely out of control month one and has taken a series of heavy nerfs before being patched back into a more interesting and dynamic monster. No longer able to escape domes with ease, nicely balanced and bugfixed, the new Wraith sees competitive play occasionally but has no major balance issues. Heavy focus on making Decoy less toxic have encouraged the rise of both aggressive and defensive "Sky Wraiths", who usually don't take the skill at all.</em>
* Speed of traversals reduced (no dome escapes)
* Stamina tweaks
* Length of warp blast is based on level of points put into it.
* Abduction code reworked (Gorgon Patch)
* Decoy nerfed, then nerfed, then nerfed again. Does substantially less damage, Wraith now flashes for .5 seconds if shot while invisible.
* Supernova damage reduced, radius now based on level
* Wraith Heavy Air Attack no longer has 360 degree radius (EMET Patch)
=== Behemoth: ===
<em>The Tier 4 release demonstrated quite palpably that T4 characters had not been "held back" from the core game, and indeed, weren't really finished on release. Behemoth has been on the uptick ever since his disastrous launch, with a wide host of bugfixes and power boosts culminating in the new plate armor patch, which hopes to make it a viable competitive choice for the first time ever.</em>
* Issues with weak points being too large resolved.
* Many issues with Rock Wall resolved.
* Cone on tongue grab changed to make for more accurate, better feeling grabs
* Plate armor now provides 50% damage resistance (Gorgon patch). Cracks between plate armor are targetable as normal.
* Roll traversal stretches and breaks harpoons at max range
* Roll-to-heavy attacks put on cooldown to prevent abuse
* Increase to bomblets from 3 to 5 on Lava Bomb.
* Damage retooling.
* Increased Audible Range of roll traversal (Emet Patch)
=== Gorgon: ===
<em>A strong pubstomper but a mostly untested competitive pick, Gorgon enters the field with a host of traps and AoE abilities. Only some bugfixes have been applied to her so far.</em>
* Fixed a bug where Gorgon would appear to teleport while traversing
* Fixed a bug with Spider Traps tier 3 damage not applying
=== Markov: ===
<em>The most reliable assault for damage, Markov's mines have been tuned down a little since launch for damage. Not too much else has been needed over time.</em>
* Mine damage decrease.
* Arm time on mines increase
* Mines increased in strength but reduced to 3 deployables (Gorgon patch)
* Fixed a bug that prevented mines from doing multiple instances of damage in a short period of time (Emet Patch)
=== Maggie: ===
<em>Trappers have been the closest balanced class in Evolve since day 1, and don't tend to see a lot of sweeping changes. Maggie has only seen some slowly increasing harpoon nerfs to prevent abuse cases where she kited the monster endlessly.</em>
* Arm time on harpoons increased.
* Reload speed on harpoons increased.
* Harpoons increased in strength and range but reduced to 3 deployables (Gorgon Patch)
=== Val: ===
<em>Finally, Val is Viable! Always a strong newbie choice but also a juicy target for monsters, a long road upwards has made her an outstanding single target medic with a heavily offensive slant. Some healing burst buffs to prevent her from being the first tasty meal in every game.</em>
* Heal gun heal strength increased - highest single-target heal in game.
* Heal gun capacity reduced.
* Heal gun recharges faster when not empty, slower when completely exhausted
* Self heal on healing burst 75% stronger.
* Heal burst cooldown reduced (12s)
* Sniper Rifle bonus damage reduced (1.9x) (Gorgon Patch)
* Tranq length reduced (4s) (Gorgon Patch)
* Heal Other on Heal Burst slightly reduced (Gorgon Patch)
=== Rogue Val: ===
<em>Rogue Val is the opposite of Val in many ways - her penchant for damage has seen a little tweaking, but her survivability and AoE healing powers remain untouched since release.</em>
* Poison Dart damage reduced to 22.5 per tick from 30. (Emet Patch)
=== Hank: ===
<em>Consistently one of the most popular and reliable support picks, Hank saw some tweakdowns to his shield and orbital barrage to prevent him spiking out of the park in Hunt 2.0. Most notably, his orbital barrage duration was slightly reduced to prevent it from totalling newbies who didn't understand how to jump out of it.</em>
* Damage on hit slightly reduced
* Capacity on shield reduced (Hunt 2.0)
* Shield recharges faster when not emptied, slower when completely exhausted.
* Orbital Barrage duration reduced to be more newbie friendly
=== Hyde: ===
<em>A few simple tweaks to Hyde has made him the crowd favorite assault for reliable damage and area control. He's seen very few patches since the first months.</em>
* Toxic Grenade Duration reduced.
* Toxic Grenade damage heavily increased.
* Grenades no longer slow monsters.
* Minigun accuracy and damage tightened up.
=== Griffin: ===
<em>A competitive darling for his ability to shut down Goliaths, Griffin's seen some harpoon nerfs to make him a little less sticky. As compensation, his sound-based tracking is substantially better than it was at launch.</em>
* Reload time on Harpoons increased (3.5 seconds)
* Hook range on Harpoons decreased (42m) (Gorgon Patch)
* Radius of spikes increased.
* Spikes now detect sneaking monsters within a smaller radius (15 meters)
* Spikes now detect monsters staging up.
* Spikes reduced to 3 deployables but radius substantially increased (Gorgon Patch)
=== Lazarus: ===
<em>Always a pub stomper but only recently a competitive pick, Lazarus' behavior has generally been tweaked to decrease the teams dependency on his glove and decrease the window in which he can use it, making the decision to punish or go for a rez a tougher one.</em>
* Reload time on Lazarus Glove increased
* Corpse decay timer reduced.
* Heal burst radius increased
* Cooldown on heal burst reduced
* Instances of corpses dropping through floors dramatically reduced
=== Bucket ===
<em>The most damaging support of the group, Bucket's tweaks have generally increased his volatility and zone control. The new Gorgon patch deployable changes look to be an interesting change to his overall style.</em>
* Turret lock range increased
* UAV controls reworked and improved
* Rocket damage increased
* Turrets increased in strength but reduced to 3 deployables (Gorgon Patch)
=== Parnell: ===
<em>The least popular Assault but the second most damaging (first, if you count the damage to himself!), Parnell's seen several useability tweaks to allow him to function better at range. He's a niche pick, but a strong one - try a Parnell-Cabot mix for a truly impressive burst.</em>
* Super Soldier self-damage decreased.
* Rocket accuracy increased. Rocket accuracy while zoomed and standing still 100%.
* Bugfixes with super soldier.
* Rockets no longer tumble Parnell when exploding. Explosion radius increased. (Gorgon Patch)
=== Abe: ===
<em>Abe has to do a little more work nowadays to keep the name of "stickiest trapper", but remains a reliable damage dealer and tracking hunter.</em>
* Tracking Dart duration reduced (45s).
* Stasis grenades pull aerial monsters down.
* Stasis grenades reduced to 3 at a time and have larger radius (Gorgon Patch)
=== Caira: ===
<em>Still the most reliable medic in Evolve, Caira's tweaks have mostly been minimal, but a small range decrease means she has to pick her targets a little more carefully and abuse terrain features a little bit less.</em>
* Healing grenade AoE radius decreased (8m)
* Cooldown on Acceleration Field increased.
* Healing burst cooldown reduced (Gorgon Patch)
* Napalm grenade damage increased (Gorgon Patch)
=== Cabot: ===
<em>The dominating force of the original competitive "god squad", it was eventually decided that Cabot could have harrassment power or damage on his rail gun but not both. With the nerfs to his railgun, Cabot comps now rely heavily on comboing his similarly aggressive Damage Amplifier with a good Assault, and while he's no longer a pub favorite he's suffered little for it.</em>
* Rail gun damage reduced.
* Rail gun reload time increased.
* Damage amp capacity reduced (Hunt 2.0)
* Lock-on angle of Damage Amp slightly increased (Gorgon Patch)
=== Torvald ===
<em>Still the highest damage Assault in the game, Torvalds tradeoff comes in inflicting that damage reliably and at the right times - a tradeoff emphasized by his patching</em>
* Gravity on Mortars decreased (mortars take more time to land). Tuned several times.
* Fire rate of Mortars (time between each mortar landing) reduced slightly (EMET patch)
=== Crow: ===
<em>Virtually untouched. The smoothest release character.</em>
* Fixed a bug where uncharged slow gun would cancel charged slows
* Charged slow duration reduced from 8s to 6s (Gorgon Patch)
=== Slim: ===
<em>While Slim is the combat medic of the group, he dealt a little too much damage on release. After tweaking that down, his clouds radius and reload were altered to give the monster the option of leaving the cloud to regroup.</em>
* Shotgun damage reduced
* Spore cloud radius decreased.
* Spore cloud reload increased.
* Shotgun now has increased accuracy at slower fire rates to help with aerial targets.
* Healing Burst heals more.
* Spore cloud has a new particle effect that shows a clearer border (Gorgon Patch)
* Spore cloud duration increased (7s) (Gorgon Patch)
=== Sunny: ===
<em>The problem child of Tier 4, Sunny caused mayhem when she first released. Even after all her nerfs, she's still a fantastic choice for a mobility support.</em>
* Jetpack Booster capacity decreased.
* Jetpack Booster range decreased.
* Jetpack Booster dodge speed boost decreased by 50%.
* Shield Drone range decreased.
* Shield Drone capacity reduced to match Hank at 730 (Emet Patch)
* Minimum Energy to start shielding increased to 375 from 200 (Emet Patch)
* Mini-nuke damage decreased.
* Drones no longer stackable.
* Mininuke radius decreased (Gorgon patch)
* Mininuke flash/screen shake reduced on hit.
=== Lennox: ===
<em>With the slower release schedule, Lennox has needed very little tuning. A few number tweaks and an important day one bugfix keeps her damage right in the sweet spot of balance.</em>
* Bugfix with Lance combo not being interrupted by certain types of damage.
* 3 second increase to Thunder Strike recharge time (18 seconds).
* 1 second increase to Autocannon reload time (4 seconds).
=== Jack: ===
<em>Jacks DPS came on a little strong at release, but is pretty reliant on timing and placing his relays correctly inside domes. A slight damage nerf and some Repulsor tuning has evened his winrate nicely.</em>
* Pistol damage decreased.
* Repulsor ammo reduced, angle increased.
* Relay cooldown increased (60s) (Gorgon Patch)