Space Marine 2 Releases Update 3

Key Takeaways

Space Marine 2 update 3.0 is now available for download.
This release introduces private Operations lobbies and a new Hub Sparring Arena for friendly PVP with teammates.
Ultrawide monitor support and many balancing changes are also part of the package, among other novelties.

As a veteran gamer with decades of experience under my belt, I must say that this update is quite the doozy! It seems the developers have been working tirelessly to balance out the gameplay and address some long-standing issues. The changes to the Tyranid Warrior and Rubric Marines, in particular, are noticeable and will definitely shake up strategy for those who play these factions.

In September 2024, the third update for Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 began being distributed to players. This new version introduces several gameplay elements, such as private Operations rooms, and numerous balance adjustments, in addition to other exciting additions, to enhance the experience of Space Marine 2.

The sequel to “Warhammer 40k: Space Marine,” titled “Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2,” made its debut on both PC and consoles on September 9th. Since then, it has swiftly claimed a prominent spot among top-tier games. Saber Interactive has consistently rolled out updates for their third-person shooter game every week since its launch.

Space Marine 2 Gets Private Operations Lobbies and More Features

The new update for Space Marine 2, version 3.0, became available to players on Thursday, September 26. This latest release introduces several gameplay features, most notably the long-awaited Private Operations mode. As its name implies, this feature enables players to undertake operations without being teamed up with random players during missions. Instead, they can opt to play either solo against AI bots or with a friend. Additionally, this update provides the option to reset custom color palettes and features transparent “What’s New” and “Message of the Day” sections for easy navigation.

In the 3.0 update, the PC version of “Space Marine 2” introduces ultrawide support and presents the Hub Sparring Arena. This arena serves as a platform for Player versus Player (PvP) matches among squad members. You can find this arena on the Battlebarge and it’s accessible in both Eternal War Game and Operations modes. As for gameplay adjustments, Saber Interactive refined the marking tool to be more discerning, ensuring it doesn’t highlight unnecessary objects. The tool has also been made more responsive, as stated in the developer’s changelog.

In this update, there’s an interesting adjustment to the Power Fist – it’s been given a considerable boost in charged attack damage. However, we’ll need to test it out to see how it stacks up against other melee weapons in Space Marine 2, as the developers didn’t provide specific numbers about this buff. Moving on, the Med Stims have been modified in version 3.0, now not only healing but also recovering contested health. Lastly, the Ammo Cache no longer replenishes Aux grenade launcher ammo; instead, you’ll need to use Ammo Boxes for refills after the recent patch.

The update also buffs Heavy Plasma with a +5 base ammo increase, wider blast damage radius, and 10% higher base damage. Its overheating rate has also been decreased from 20 to 15 for base shots and from 50 to 30 for charged shooting. Dozens of bug fixes and general-purpose tweaks are part of the newly debuted patch as well.

Space Marine 2 Update 3.0 Patch Notes

New Features

The Hub Sparring Arena, a new special arena on the Battlebarge available in Operations & Eternal War Game mode where players can compete in friendly PvP with the players in their squad.
Ultrawide support for PC
Private mode for Operation mode that gives players ability to play operation alone with bots or alongside one friend without being matchmaked with random players during the mission.
Added What’s New & Message of the Day
Added option to reset custom colour presets

Gameplay and Balancing Tweaks

The marking tool has been updated:
- Improved responsiveness and comfort of Social Wheel control with a mouse
- Disabled unnecessary objects that do not require highlighting and worked poorly with it
- Several minor bug fixes
Power Fist: Damage for fully charged attacks has been greatly increased
Heavy Plasma:
- Base ammo increased by 5. Blast damage radious increased.
- Overheat per shoot drastically decreased from 50 to 30 for charged shoots and from 20 to 15 for base shooting.
- Base damage slightly increased by 10%.
Med Stims restore contested health in addition to actual healing
Aux grenade launcher ammo now can be refilled only with the Ammo Boxes and can not be refilled from the infinite Ammo Cache

Campaign

Difficulty:
- Enemy aggressiveness on Veteran Difficulty in Campaign decreased for better singleplayer experience.
- Player’s health on Veteran Difficulty in Campaign is slightly reduced to compensate for AI aggressiveness and armor management updates
Bots:
- Various inhibiting restrictions were lifted, allowing bots to be more helpful and effective, while still not beating the game for the player
- Bots will now help focus-firing zoanthropes when the player attacks them.
- Heavily eased restrictions on bots finishing of enemies instead of leaving them for the player, to reduce annoyance.
- Bots are now allowed to help with Gargoyle objectives
- Fixed a variety of bugs related to bots getting stuck
- Fixed a bug where bots can run out of ammo on weapons without a magazine

Operations Mode

Tweaked AI Director and spawn rules of Chaos enemies in Operations mode:
- Max number of Tzaangors With Shield on the arena at the same time reduced from 10 to 4
- Max number of Cultists Snipers on the arena at the same time reduced from 10 to 3
- Max number of Tzaangors on the arena at the same time reduced from 30 to 20
- Max number of Rubric Marines with Boltguns on the arena at the same time reduced from 8 to 5
- Max number of Rubric Marines with Warpflamers on the arena at the same time reduced from 4 to 3
Perfect parry has been updated, now restores armour for killing minoris, not only for countering their special attacks
Regarding Block and Fencing Weapons, a bug has been fixed in perfect parry window for fencing weapons. Now it has 20 frames window for perfect parry and 10 frames of vulnerability at the end of animation, instead of 30 frames of perfect parry for full animation as it was intended originally.
Assault Class: Base groundpound damage increased by 30%
Armor boost drops from destructible crates are now less common (cooldown raised from 30 secs to 60 secs)

PVP

Improved player spawn system. It should make spawn killing more difficult
Reworked Vanguard’s Grapnel Launcher in PVP. Instead of full stun it will now stagger enemy and will slow him down drastically.

AI

Reduced ability to stunlock enemies with ranged attacks across all AI characters
Accuracy of ranged enemies is reduced when attacking from off-screen and accuracy of ranged enemies is reduced when attacking melee-engaged players
Regarding Hormagaunts and Tzaangors: Melee damage now deals specific amount damage instead of removing 1 complete armour segment per attack
Zoanthrope:
- Increased psychic scream damage sparsing time from 0.5s to 2s to prevent one shot damage
- Psychic scream damage reduced from 11 to 8
- Psychic scream effective range reduced from 50 to 40m
- Psychic scream cast range is reduced by 10m
Termagant:
- Fleshborer spray attack damage reduced from 1 to 0.5
- Flashborer spray attack damage reduced from 0.3 to 0.1
Tyranid Warrior with Devourer: Projectile damage reduced from 0.9 to 0.6 per projectile
Rubric Marine With Warpflamer:
- Icon of flame damage reduced from 9 to 6
- Flamer burst damage reduced from 6 to 4 per shoot
- Flamer shooting damage reduced from 6 to 4 per projectile
- Health reduced by 10%
Rubric Marine with Boltgun:
- Spray attack damage reduced from 1.5 to 1
- Precise shot attack (with red indicator) damage reduced from 4 to 2 per projectile
- Reduced frequency of teleports used to disengage players to make them less annoying to fight Health reduced by 10%
Tzaangor With Shield: HP greatly reduced
Carnifex:
- Rage phase updated, carnifex becomes faster and more aggressive
- Taunt frequency reduced
- Fixed a bug where his cone of thorns attack wouldn’t fire projectiles
Hive Tyrant:
- Health slightly increased.
- Resistance to explosives and melta weapons increased by 20%.

Customization

Fixed icon colour for the Administratum Grey, Auric Armour Gold and Celestra Grey colours
Fixed several issues with default colors being wrong on some chapters (i.e. Iron Warriors)
Vanguard Relic Right Greave part now requires 29 victories instead of 36
Added a Colour pattern called “Greaves Pattern” allowing the player to customize bottom and top half of the leg separately

Maps

Fixed several issues that were preventing players from progressing within some levels
Fixed a lot of minor collision issues
Tweaked dust storm density and duration in Ballistic Engine operation
Tweaked Heldrake fire timings on the bridge in Reliquary operation
Trials can be now accessed via Hypnomat in Armoury

General Fixes

Fixed a bug where changing loadout mid operation would restore your health
Improved Jump Pack Ability responsiveness
Fixed several issues in Trials
Fixed a bug where in some rare cases controls would stop working after performing a finisher
Fixed a bug where player does not receive armor data from Hellbrute spawned from chaos portal
Fixed a bug that caused Vanguard’s “Adrenaline Rush” perk description to show 1% instead of actual 10%
Fixed Announcer spam in Eternal War mode
Fixed multiple ways of duplicating ammo in Operations mode
Fixed a bug where Grapnel Launcher would get canceled if overlapped by small geometry
Fixed a bug where Tactical perk EMPEROR’S VENGEANCE did not work with Plasma Incinerator.
Fixed a bug where several weapons could restore more than actual contested health (i.e. Meltas, AoE weapons etc)
Fixed several issues that were causing loss of saves
Fixed an unidentified voice at the end of the story that was assigned to the wrong character.
Lots of minor UI fixes and improvements
Lots of minor animation fixes and improvements
Localization fixes

2024-09-26 21:33