The developers of Rogue Company released the Arctic Shield update on the retail servers today.
The update brings a new map, rogue, and a number of significant balance changes to the rogues, maps, and weapons in the game.
The balance adjustments, new rogue, and new map were all tested on the public test server before being released to the retail version of the game. The new holiday event, a new spectator mode, and a new solo practice mode called Strikeout were also included in the patch.
Here are the patch notes for Rogue Company’s Arctic Shield update.
New map: Glacier
Today’s update added the new map Glacier to the game. Glacier is set on a large hijacked cable-laying vessel that’s traveling through arctic waters. It’s up to you and your team of rogues to reclaim the vessel.
Since the map is set on a boat, it features a variety of close-range combat angles as well as an emphasis on fast rotations and flanking since all the routes on the map are quite close together and interconnected. The map also features a surprising amount of verticality, with both powerful high-ground positions above the main deck and a large below-deck area as well, splitting the map into three primary sections.
The new map is available in both casual and competitive modes.
New rogue: Sigrid
The biggest addition of the latest update was the release of Rogue Company’s latest playable rogue, Sigrid.
Sigrid is a short-range breacher who specializes in aggression. She has access to a D40-C SMG and an S12 Tactical Shotgun for her primary fire. Her secondary weapon is the Warrant, which is a high fire rate semi-automatic pistol that can hold its own with basically any secondary in the game.
Her first gadget is the Semtex Grenade, which is a deadly grenade that can stick to surfaces and enemies. Her second gadget is the Adrenaline Shot, which provides a small amount of instant health, restarts her health generation immediately, and even gives her a slight speed increase for a few moments.
What really sets her apart, though, is her shield. Her active ability allows her to deploy a Ballistic Shield that blocks 100 percent of all incoming enemy damage from the front. The shield can be deployed for 13 seconds at a time and has a relatively short cooldown, allowing you to use it multiple times in a single round. This shield is one of the best abilities added to the game since it allows her to be reasonably safe while pushing enemy cover or pushing into a choke point, something that no other rogue can do safely.
Her passive ability, Athletic, also serves her breaching role well. This ability allows her to crouch without any movement penalty and she’s immune from slowing effects. This means she’s capable of silent approaches and can easily push past barbed wire and gas grenades. She joins Gl1tch and Dima as the third breacher available in Rogue Company.
Frigid Haul Event
On top of all the permanent additions to the game, Rogue Company also launched its Frigid Haul holiday event for the winter season. The event features a new festive launch screen for the game as well as a number of different unlockable goodies.
Players will be able to unlock a dozen different rewards by playing the game during the event. The rewards include sprays, borders, avatars, weapon skins, and even a couple of rogue skins for Ronin and Talon. Players will unlock the rewards automatically by playing matches and logging enough time in the game. Although these festivities are simple, the addition of some fun holiday-themed content is still more than welcome.
Spectator mode
In a bid to increase the esports potential of its game, Hi-Rez has added a spectator mode to Rogue Company. Under the new system, players can occupy up to two slots as spectators in custom games. Spectators will be able to move between various player perspectives, allowing for better production for community-based tournaments.
Although the current version of the spectator mode is limited, with no access to free-moving cameras or other production tools, it’s still a step in the right direction if Hi-Rez wants Rogue Company to be taken seriously as an esport.
Strikeout practice mode
Today’s update also brought a new practice mode that lets players compete against bots on any of the available strikeout maps. This will be useful for training aim against non-human players and for testing angles and strategies. It will also let players explore specific maps by themself, something that previously wasn’t possible in the game.
Balance changes
The new Rogue Company update includes a number of significant balance changes to various rogues.
Dima saw the biggest changes in this patch. Hi-Rez reworked his passive ability and increased the total damage radius of his MIRV cluster grenade attack to make him stronger. Post patch, enemies hit by the explosion will be revealed to your entire team for a short time. His MIVR Launcher inner radius was increased from 2.75 meters to 3.0 meters, while the outer radius of his cluster grenade attack was increased from four meters to 4.5 meters. Overall, these changes should make Dima more viable.
Fixer saw an indirect nerf in the patch. Before the patch, Fixer could use his Thermal Vision to highlight any enemy in sight with a bright orange hue. Post patch, players who have the Cloaked perk will now show up as dark gray in Fixer’s Thermal Vision instead of orange. The developers also increased the activation and expiration sound effects on his abilities, making it slightly easier for enemies to locate him using sound cues.
Phantom received a buff that should make her a viable sniper against Fixer. Since the release of Fixer, Phantom players have struggled to win sniping duels against Fixer due to his ability to see straight through Phantom’s Nano Smoke using his Thermal Vision ability. Post patch, her Nano smoke now blocks his Thermal Vision, which should make Phantom usable again in higher-level lobbies.
Finally, the developers fixed an issue with Gl1tch’s hacking ability and instituted a minor reduction to the sound range on Scorch’s ability.
There were a number of other small weapon, gadget, and map changes included in the patch.
