The events take place in a retro-future world of scrap metal. Arc Raiders. Developers Embark have announced that a new major update called North Line will be released tomorrow, November 13th, at 1:30 am PT, 4:30 am ET, 9:30 am GMT, and 10:30 am CT. It will add Stella Montis, a region outside the Rust Belt that is described as “cold, untouched and filled with the remnants of humanity's lost ambitions.” I imagine a landscape filled with Betamax tapes, Bored Apes, and Soviet space shuttles, with the Raiders ransacking old Toys R Us branches.
Mind you, tomorrow you won't be able to just waltz across the lintel into Stella Montis. You'll need to gain access through the new public event “Breaking New Ground”, which focuses on rebuilding tunnels in a new region, earning a special event currency – Merits. “The timing of the release of Stella Montis will be determined by the community's progress, unlocking the next milestone and launching Phase II of 'Stake Our Claim,' a new progression track with rewards to earn and challenges to complete,” the press release explains. “This new track will be available for a limited time until December.”
The developers are also adding a pair of new ARC enemies – the Matriarch, who is apparently even more formidable than the Queen – and the Shredder, who only appears in Stella Montis and is designed for close combat. Sounds pretty harsh. Players will go up against them armed with the Energy Blast Battle Rifle, several new mines—Pulse, Timed, and Gas Jump, the latter of which sounds like a platforming tool—and some fresh play styles.”Lone wolf and “Trailblazer”. It's not entirely clear to me what these playstyles are, but I don't think you'll be able to become a real wolf. I suspect that the ARC melted down all the wolves for biofuel. However, there is always WolfQuest.
In an effort to maximize the positive atmosphere surrounding the launch of North Line, Embark is also reducing the prices of microtransactions in the game. “We have reviewed our prices and made adjustments to lower prices where applicable,” explains new FAQ on the official website. Prices will be updated when the update launches.
“We will compensate any Raider who has already made a purchase at the old price for the difference,” the developers add. “These Raider Tokens will be automatically returned to your account next week.”
These concessions come alongside the announcement that Embark will soon introduce paid premium Raider decks that focus on “cosmetics and convenience” without the pay-to-win elements. So it appeases people who are unhappy with the prices of microtransactions, and on the other hand offers some more microtransactions.
Lastly and most importantly, Embark says they have “quietly tested and enabled priority matchmaking for Duo starting earlier this week.” To be clear, duet here means a game for two players. “Duo matching will work like this: First, we will prioritize singles and squads to play separately,” the developers explain. “After that, we prioritize duos to play with other duos and threes to play with trios.”
Arc Raiders continues to be the subject of scorn from use of AI-generated voices. There was another social media scandal yesterday and I'm working on a short article because (hint) only articles can be political. There's a non-zero chance that I'll eventually decide it's trash and throw it away.
Meanwhile, Samuel Horthy discussed the use of generative AI in our article. Arc Raiders Reviewcommenting that Embark's research projects into creating weapon models “may very well change my opinion of a game in which the presence of AI voices already makes me feel a little uneasy recommending it.”
