Last week we talked about some of the new content introduced with our incoming Patch 1.03 (planned for release on all platforms and storefronts on the week of June 20th). While we'll also communicate the full bugs fix list in a few days, for today we wanted to share with you some of the exciting new features that will find their way into the game with this free update!
Loot: Weapon Perks
In an effort to diversify weapon loot, Patch 1.03 will introduce the concept of weapon perks. Now, each weapon you find in the world has a low chance of having a random perk attached to it, such as, but not limited to, increasing critical damage against non-human creatures, a chance to poison enemies, the ability to ignore some of the target armor, and more. If you upgrade a weapon with the forge, it will preserve the perk that was attached to it and transfer it to the upgraded weapon, too! This is the first part of our loot pass, which will continue with future patches by adding even more unique random gameplay effects to weapons!
Reputation TAB
Patch 1.03 will see the introduction of the Reputation Tab, allowing you to monitor what Vendettas are still active against you, what Friends for Life you have acquired, and also what Vendettas or Friends for Life your Companions have brought along with them into your Posse, adding a clearer understanding of those systems. From this tab you can also check out in what locations you are currently wanted. We hope you enjoy the new Reputation Tab!
New Aiming System Options
In an effort to make the aiming system easier to use for players of all skill levels, we are adding two gameplay options that can be tuned or turned on/off at any point, depending on your preferences. "Aiming Accuracy," when set to Permissive will make the aiming system more forgiving so that you will still hit your target even if you don't very accurately aim at it. A second option, "Slo-Mo while aiming," allows the game to slow down a tiny bit while entering aim mode to make things a bit less overwhelming if you prefer your action a bit less fast-paced.
Revamped Companion AI
A lot of love was given for this patch to Companions' AI to avoid most of the issues related to companions not engaging in combat, getting stuck and not following you, or disappearing altogether. While Companions and AI in general will remain one of our core focuses for the coming weeks, to keep on improving the experience, we are confident this update will make Companions a more reliable part of combat!
New Progression System
Patch 1.03 also introduces a revamped progression system, where Weapon Abilities you acquired now transfer between Journeys (unlike Class Abilities), so the progression between the 5 Journeys feels more connected in term of progression. Note that if you load an existing save file after patching, you will be prompted to opt in or opt out of this new system, but all new games started after this patch will use the new progression system. Similarly, when recruiting your previous Journey Heroes, ammo, money, and even horse ownership are now transferred to the new Hero so you don't feel like your hard-earned dollars and belongings are going to waste. To go along with those changes, we have also done a full balancing pass on the game economy (specifically how much junk items you find in containers and their value), but we have also revised the enemies' level progression in secondary locations so that the game difficulty in those locations doesn't plateau as much after the second Journey. This also means Bounty Targets from the Bounty Board will now correctly scale throughout the game, offering 3, 4, and 5 star Bounties as you progress. You will now also receive a relay from the Marshall when Bounties for key Story Characters are added to the Bounty Board so those don't fully unnoticed!
60 FPS on Xbox Series S
For those of you playing on Xbox Series S, we did a pass on optimization (which will also benefit to lower end PCs, Xbox One, and PS4). The result of that optimization pass is that the game now runs at a steady 60fps on Xbox Series S! We hope you will enjoy the smoother experience!
We will be back in a few days to communicate the full list of bug fixes you can expect to see with Patch 1.03. In the meantime, if you are interested in more Weird West news or want to get involved with the Weird West community, feel free to join the Weird West Community Discord!