Monday Night Combat patch commentary

I've finally decided to read up on the Monday Night Combat patch effects that have been promised.  The best coverage I could find is from an article on Joystiq.com, since I couldn't find it on Uber Entertainment's site.  Below is a copy/paste of the list from that article, as well as how I feel about each of them.

Connectivity and Multiplayer:

• Reworked the way we handle parties in the pregame lobby to avoid splitting them up.
• Fixed several issues where host migration would fail immediately.
• Decreased wait time after a successful host migration.
• Lobbies will now host migrate and not kick you back to the main menu.
• If the host leaves during the end of match sequence, the host will migrate and players will return back to the lobby and not the main menu.
• Optimized the time it takes to migrate hosts, shortening the time to migrate.
• Improved weapon hit detection in high lag situations.
• Fixed endorsements being incorrect after a host migration.
• Fixed getting into private matches without an invite.

      Masked Carnie's note: This all looks excellent.  I've heard some of this being a problem; I personally never paid attention to my endorsements, but it does irritate me when I'm suddenly kicked from a technical issue into the main menu.  It happens a bit too often for my taste.

General Gameplay:

• Fixed players being able to damage the Moneyball's shields. - MC: I've never heard of this.  It's worth investigating.
• Fixed visual effects staying on the player after the effect has worn off. - MC: I never realized this was a problem.  I always considered it as part of the game and never really minded it.  This seems to apply mainly to ShaveIce and Product Grenade.  Most importantly, it affects the ability of the Assassin to cloak effectively.  This is definitely a boon to Assassin.  I have some friends that will love this.
• Reduced the amount of increased damage the Moneyball takes in Overtime, thus reducing the effectiveness of "Juice rushing". - MC: Seems fine to me.  After 2 minutes, the greatest remaining health wins, anyway.  there's no need to force lethality on the game.  Juice rushing will still be the best strategy, but it'll be easier to combat now.
• Fixed Ringouts, Headshots and Grapple Kills not giving the proper amount of money.
• Balanced Ringout money to reflect the change. Message now displays correct total amount of money earned. - MC: I never realized this was going on.  It's always great to see the observation of people who really care about the game.
• New "You Win!"/"You Lose!"; UI for the end of a match. - Although things will still be repetitive, they'll be less so now.
• Fixed juice benefits ending early if the player grapples during juice.
• Fixed juice bar getting stuck full. - MC: I always wondered what the hell was going on with this juice stuff.  I figured somebody would notice.
• Fixed deploying on or near active jump pads.
• Fixed controller sensitivity of 10 not saving.
• Fixed messaging for kill streaks. Ultra and Uber streaks will now be named properly when popping up above your cursor.
• Fixed an instance of the player's skill pick UI going away unexpectedly.
• Fixed an issue with bots walking by enemy turrets and bots without engaging them.  - Never encountered this, but it's definitely worth addressing.  The biggest point of turrets is to stop the bots.
• Fixed upgrading a turret that has been hacked to the opposing team. - MC: Um, fixed to what?  Will it allow an upgrade at all?  Will upgrading remove the hack? 
• Fixed turret collision not going away after being destroyed. - MC: Yeah, this really shouldn't happen.  Once a turret is destroyed, you should be able to shoot through it.  It should basically just be an inactive nub that you can't build.
• Normalized time between a grapple miss and the ability to grapple again for all grapples. The biggest change is the Assassin not having as big of a penalty for a missed grapple. - MC: Eh, I don't care all that much.
• Fixed the "Team Leader" and "Team Player" highlights from being reversed.
• Fixed players being able to mute themselves.
• Fixed idle kicking when standing still but still looking around and/or shooting. - MC: Wait, this was happening?  Wow, some people seem not to know how to deal with snipers.
• Fixed players who cheat and hack their profiles from being able to apply multiple gold endorsements. - MC: I was unaware of this happening, and I'm glad it was caught.
• Optimized main menu ticker for players with large friends lists.
• Fixed HUD showing Moneyball shields as up during over time even though they are down.
• Reduced announcer talking for kill streaks to help reduce the repetition of announcements.
• Various performance optimizations.

Support:

• Reworked Support's bot aura so that it doesn't make the Jackbot appear overhealed. - MC: Well, now I have an answer to this.  I was wondering how this was happening.  I'm still not sure as to whether it really is overhealed or not, but I'll take their word for it.
• Fixed Support's Firebase skill from recharging while the Support is dead but the Firebase skill exists.
• Fixed being able to use the Heal/Hurt gun while taunting. - MC: Wow, how was this supposed to happen?
• Fixed some instances of the Support's Firebase not appearing when thrown.
• Fixed Heal/Hurt gun not being affected by rate of fire endorsements and reduced it's overall healing/hurting ability to compensate for the change.
• Fixed Supports being able to use their Hack skill through walls.
• Fixed Supports being able to throw their Firebases through the wall.
• Fixed Air Strikes sometimes damaging enemies under cover.
• Supports can now only Hack enemy turrets at Hack level 3. - MC: This is the biggest change to me.  This is what I thought it was supposed to be initially.  Honestly, Support doesn't need to be able to hijack at level 2, anyway.
• Increased the time to Hack enemy turrets.
• Decreased duration of Hack on a turret for levels 1 and 2. - MC: This is just unnecessary.  The ability to hack 3 turrets is part of what can make a Support good.

Assassin:

• Fixed Assassins from being able to get permanent sprint and super speed. - MC: I have no idea how this is happening, but I've seen it done.  There's no reason for the Assassin to be that quick.
• Fixed Assassins getting a double smoke bomb allowing them to jump higher than intended.
• Fixed Assassins being able to cloak during a grapple.
• Fixed Assassins from being able to use her smoke bomb during a lunge.
• Retuned damage done by dagger after a lunge.

Tank:

• Tank's Jet Gun alternate fire damage is now reduced depending on the percentage of ammo left in the clip. Increased the full clip damage to compensate. - MC: This should've been there since the beginning.  It makes no sense to get full power from minimum ammo.

Assault:

• Fixed an exploit involving the Assault's Fly.
• Fixed Assault's bomb audio lingering after bomb is gone. - MC: I don't mind this so much, but yes it's something that should be patched.

Monday Night Combat Live Update System:

• Pregame Lobby is now 45 seconds.
• Min Number of Players to start Crossfire is now 6.
• Increased player bot spawing from 5 seconds to 10 seconds. - MC: Bot swarm was never really a problem, but now it's practically useless.