[TourGuide]

This is just a short post to keep you up to date with what's been happening since we announced some of the areas of the game currently under redevelopment.

Matchmaking
We've already made a fair amount of progress on developing the On/Off Duty system and had some internal playtesting on it last week. The playtest uncovered various issues which are being worked on at the moment. It also uncovered a number of problems with how the system is presented and explained to players, so we're also working on updating various UI elements to support the system and make it more intuitive.

Work is also proceeding with the Pure Skill district ruleset, and we're hopeful that we'll be able to release this along with the new matchmaking system, or very shortly thereafter.

Vehicle Handling
The new pass on vehicle handling is now largely complete and has been through internal QA as well as a team playtest here. Overall the effect is considered to be a clear improvement on the existing system, with vehicles being much more responsive in most situations.

Combat
We've been playtesting our new weapon values, complete with recoil, for a couple of weeks now and are close to the point of being very satisfied with them. The weapons feel more reactive and have much more individual character, and with the addition of new audio effects the overall experience is a lot more satisfying. There's still some work to be done on the camera and visual effects, but progress has been rapid and I hope that we can have a first round of testing on PTW in the very near future.

Missions
I think I mentioned in the original post that we've already started prototyping and playtesting various changes to some of the contentious stage types to improve the way they play and reduce the imbalance and opportunity for exploits. The VIP-on-both-sides, which is the first of these, is already a much better play experience and leads to much more of a cat-and-mouse game than the current one-sided version. Prototypes for new versions of Checkpoint Capture and Item Capture using a bonus time system are underway and then we'll be looking at the most difficult of the bunch - Escape. As an aside, we're also looking to alleviate problems with vehicle delivery missions by removing the dropoff timer and making delivery instantaneous, so that crazy mad-dash deliveries will be much more viable.