Ho, ho, ho!
Happy holidays everybody, and Merry Christmas!
The chilly winds of winter have finally arrived to the island, featuring balancing updates, new weapons, new cosmetics and more! We have a LOT to discuss and explain in today's major update, so without further ado, let's dive right into it.
New Cosmetics!
We've made sure to pack the shop with brand new cosmetics that are available for purchase! Grab a "Ugly Sweater" costume if you're feeling cozy, or snatch of the "Snowed In" costumes for the official Christmas set. Additionally, make sure to grab some extra costumes as part of a "Thank you!" gift in the store, which will be on sale for a limited time.
Keep in mind, cosmetics that are listed as a "Holiday Set" will not come back to the item shop until the next time the holiday rolls around. For example, take the previously released Halloween skins, those skins will not be returning to the store until Halloween next year. This should hopefully make more sense when you see a cosmetic that is label as "Limited Time".
Limited Time Event - Frostivus!
As part of our winter update, we're also introducing a limited time winter event, called Frostivus. From December 22 to January 8, 2023, the Frostivus event will be live and will feature a limited time weapons, cosmetics and item shop sales.
So if you're in the winter spirt, make sure to grab one of the cosmetics for this year's Christmas update, as they won't be back until next year!
Balancing Changes
This update brings alot of changes to our arsenal. Firstly, we wanted to properly adjust the overall damage rate of weapon rarities. Common weapons will now do significantly less damage than before, and so will Uncommon weapons, however not as much. Rare weapons will receive a slight nerf, but should overall still be a viable option. These changes were made to provide the AI with a better chances of eliminating the player, and adjusting weapon damage output should hopefully make the AI more of a threat.
Additionally, weapon recoil effects have been slightly adjusted. Weapons now feature realistic recoil rates, which means that depending on the weapon (for example, think of the submachine gun.) it will feature more or less intense kickback when firing. For example, the double barrel shotgun will still have a decent amount recoil when firing, but not as much as before, even when compared to the submachine gun. It should be noted that not all weapons will be affected by this balancing update, only a few. But the rest of the weapons will be monitored in case they need adjusting.
Tactical Shotgun
A standard, sharp, and powerful shotgun. A nice option to go with when it comes to fighting your opponent. This is quite a common weapon you'll find on the island, which does do quite a bit of damage. These changes should hopefully make it less strong, whilst making it a still viable option. Note that all of these changes affects all of the shotguns that are listed as "Tactical", except the Double Barrel, as they're categorized as the same type of the weapon.
Damage Output Changes:
Legendary: 87 -> 80
Epic: 83 -> 77
Rare: 75 -> 73
Uncommon: 75 -> 60
Common: 71 -> 53
Double Barrel Shotgun
The Double Barrel Shotgun is a powerful weapon, understandably so. But the high damage output that the weapon had lead to matches ending quicker than expected. So we're nerfing it's damage output to better slowdown the pace of the match just a bit. However, the damage output change might be a little overboard, so we'll be closely monitoring it's performance after this change. Additionally, we've also slightly increased the weapon's recoil rate after each fire shot, making it a bit more harder to land your shots due to it's power.
Damage Output Changes:
Legendary: 95 -> 79
Epic: 70 -> 63
Recoil Output Changes:
Recoil: 6 -> 9
Submachine Gun
Although it is a weapon that you might not encounter very often during a match, the submachine was still a viable option because of it's quick fire rate. However, due to it's lackluster damage output, it's pick rates were low, and thus the weapon will be receiving a buff due to it's damage output. Additionally, we'll be slightly tuning the recoil rate, as a bit of compensation for this change.
Damage Output Changes:
Legendary: 19 -> 43
Epic: 17 -> 37
Rare: 16 -> 29
Uncommon: 15 -> 25
Common: 22 -> 24
Recoil Output Changes:
Recoil: 2.5 -> 3.5
Tommy Gun
This weapon is quite rare to find, due to the fact that it only spawns in supply drops, and even there it is not a 100% guarantee that you might get it. Due to it's extremely high rarity, the weapon was dealing higher damage than the rest. While it's reasonable, we felt the damage output was a bit too high and decided to reduce the amount of damage it does, while also slightly increase it's recoil effects.
Damage Output Changes:
Mythic: 105 -> 89
Recoil Output Changes:
Recoil: 4 -> 5
_________________________________________________________
FULL PATCH NOTES - v1.1.0
- New cosmetics added - "Ugly Sweater" set and "Snowed In" set
- New Lobby backdrop
- Winter decorations and snow effect added
- News section added - Featured all relevant in-game events and news
- New and improved loading icon and loading screens
- Further user interface improvements
- Various overall improvements
- Weapon balancing, as listed in above (made to slightly lengthen matches a bit longer and provide more of a challenge.)
- General map improvements and updates; new trees and buildings added
A few more things we wanted to mention is that we'll be on break until January 2024, so this is the last planned update for 2023. Time for some vacation! Additionally, the game is on sale for 50% off, so grab the game on a sweet discount! (And maybe grab an extra copy for one of your friends)
We also wanted to take a moment to just say a big; THANK YOU! You support since the release of the game has been incredible. We're committed to improving this game over the course of the next year, and we can't wait for you to see the evolution of the game during each update. We seriously cannot thank you all enough, here's to another year of patches, new content and overall improvements.
We hope you enjoy this update, and we'll see you next year!