Release Notes: Improvements and Fixes For Operation Avalon V0.72

- By the Vanguard Team

Improvements:

New Player Experience

  • The Intro Explainer is now shown on login until dismissed.

  • New players now begin with an easier starting Expedition.

  • New players now start with starter Expedition already activated.

  • All squads now receive a single Reclone per deployment by default.

  • Added Militia-grade variants of the Keshik, Praetorian and Flayer to the default inventory.

Gameplay

  • Improved NPC reaction times.

  • Reviewed and rebalanced Cannon weapon effectiveness.

  • Friendly Fire has been disabled for all weapons, grenades and melee attacks.

  • Updated extraction timings.

  • Improved looting interactions to reduce accidental rapid item collection.

Economy & Balance

  • Increased the purchase costs of some items and blueprints in the Market.

  • Increased the amounts of Marks earned from the Vanguard Retainer after each deployment.

  • Reduced the amounts of Deployable Shields, Proximity Mines and Frag Grenades that players get from each Crafter Program purchase in the Market.

  • Renamed the “Apex Plate" Resource item to the "Arch Plate”.

NPC Combat Improvements

This update includes a major overhaul to NPC combat behaviour, addressing several underlying issues that prevented NPCs from making effective tactical decisions.

  • Fixed an issue that prevented NPCs from finding valid combat positions, allowing them to reposition, seek cover and react more intelligently.

  • NPCs now recover more reliably when they cannot immediately find a suitable position, preventing them from becoming rooted in place.

  • NPCs make much greater use of available cover during combat.

  • NPCs under sustained fire are now far more likely to relocate rather than remaining exposed.

  • NPCs now favour nearby tactical positions instead of making long repositioning movements.

  • Idle NPCs now hold stronger central positions within their combat areas instead of drifting towards the edges.

  • NPCs now respond more effectively during long-range engagements, taking up defensive positions while waiting for players to close the distance.

  • NPCs can now prepare defensive positions before combat begins, creating more believable encounters.

  • NPC squads will now defend the edge of their combat area instead of being easily pulled long distances away from their intended location.

Expeditions & Assignments

  • Improved Assignment selection flow.

  • Assignment UI now automatically focuses the first available Assignment.

  • Updated Faction Warfare messaging.

User Interface

  • Critical actions throughout the player journey are now highlighted more clearly.

  • Added stack splitting button hints.

  • Improved chipset tooltips.

  • Updated wording and interface consistency across multiple screens.

  • Improved deployment flow by automatically selecting a valid deployment location.

  • Clone Death HUD polish.

  • Improved foliage visuals.

  • Improved default resolution scaling based on player hardware.

  • Reduced UI texture memory usage while deployed.

Defect Fixes:

Gameplay

  • Fixed an issue where healing while swapping firmware could leave players unable to perform gameplay actions.

  • Fixed Nemesis Cores failing to drop as loot.

  • Fixed weapons retaining magazine state between deployments.

  • Fixed "Take All" not closing the loot window correctly.

  • Fixed players becoming stuck between environmental objects.

  • Fixed extraction-related interaction issues.

User Interface

  • Fixed duplicated crafting requirements.

  • Fixed incorrect program output quantities.

  • Fixed backpack highlighting.

  • Fixed Fabricator item alignment.

  • Fixed stretched and distorted item icons.

  • Fixed missing loot crate labels.

  • Fixed overlapping weapon images.

  • Fixed deployment cursor issues.

  • Fixed missing healing prompts when on low health.

  • Fixed downed teammate indicators.

  • Fixed extraction screen layout issues.

  • Fixed various tooltip, localisation and text issues.

  • Fixed multiple inventory and frontend inconsistencies.

World & Audio

  • Fixed broken Mordu's Legion Officer visuals.

  • Fixed missing third-person DMR scope animation.

  • Fixed broken environmental crate trail effects.

  • Restored missing Elyan combat voice lines.

Backend & Networking

  • Fixed several backend stability issues.

Stability

  • Fixed numerous client crashes.

  • Fixed multiple UI crashes.

  • Fixed several engine-level stability issues.

  • Improved overall client and server stability.