Steam BuildID: 1125207
(For those who are having issues when patching the game, you can verify that you have the correct version by matching the BuildID above with what you have listed in the "Properties" window, under the "Local Files" tab. If it's the same, you're good! If it's not the same, you would need to force an update by either logging out/in Steam, or choosing "Verify Integrity of Game Cache" from "Local Files" tab.)
New and Noteworthy Additions:
· Updating to Unreal Engine 4.11 (lots of optimizations!)
· Tweaks to melee to reduce stun-locking possibilities!
· Multiple improvements to the respawn system (to prevent vehicle exploits, players being lumped together at the same spot, etc.)
· New feature to allow spawning vehicles from battle map!
· Match imbalance rules for matchmaking updated & match flow now includes a pre-deployment setup phase!
· End-of-match visual improvement (to give a better view of XP, SP and Tokens gained during a match!)
· War Parties second iteration (with lots of bug fixes!)
· Lots and lots and lots of bug fixes!
Gameplay Tweaks/Improvements:
-Melee has been tweaked a fair bit, in order to fix some of the lingering issues we’ve been hearing you guys talking about:
- Stagger times have been reduced in general and stun-locking should be rarer!
- Strong Attacks delivered by Swords and Knives won’t stagger players anymore, but will interrupt them instead.
- Strong Attacks delivered by Axes and Mauls will now cause a short stagger, instead of a longer stagger like before.
- Power Fist is currently unchanged! The Strong Attack will still one-shot most targets... >: )
- The Defensive Bash is now the most staggering attack, but it is now easier to follow-up with an attack after a successful Defensive Bash (due to the shortened stagger).
- When your Defensive Bash is countered/broken by a Strong Attack, you no longer lose all your weapon durability (instead, you lose 20%).
- When melee-oriented classes perform a DBash (currently, Assault/Raptor/Ground Assault/Traitor Assault), this will deliver a long stagger to all players when the kick phase happens.
- When non-melee classes perform a DBash (currently, Tactical/Traitor/Devastator/Havoc/Apothecary/Sorcerer), this will deliver a long stagger to non-melee classes but will deliver a short stagger to melee-oriented characters.
-Global improvements were done to the cover, climbing and vaulting system!
-Players are now awarded tokens equal to 1% of their XP at the end of every match.
-Squad leaders now have a beacon light to help spot them better in the heat of the battle, which should be visible at practically any distance. You should no longer have trouble finding your squad leader when things get messy with lots players around (we hope!).
-Improved spawning by spreading players rather than spawning them at a specific spot.
-Optimized respawning to decrease the duration of the “spinning circles” loading icon.
-Viewing aiming animations of other players should now be smoother.
-You can now throw your grenades further and it should be easier to aim them.
-Added a peek-out from cover for melee classes.
Weapon Tuning:
-There is now a longer cooldown on Axe & Maul attacks before you can act again, so after a swing it'll take longer before you can do a combo, move, evade etc.
-Made it so that it doesn't feel like you can't turn while charging plasma weapons.
Vehicle Changes:
-Vindicator projectile now lasts longer before it explodes to better match up with the aiming arc.
Menu/UI/Chat Window Improvements:
-You can now spawn vehicles directly from the deployment screen. This will spawn you in the map directly inside a vehicle of your choice, if they are available (the same cooldowns for spawning vehicles should still apply).
- Vehicle spawn slots on the deployment screen will only display the available types of vehicles at the stations they cover (i.e. If there are no ordnance vehicles available, there won't be an ordnance slot visible).
-In-game text chat has been re-worked: it received a visual update (to match the rest of the newer UI) and has had its interaction limited to use the keyboard only (no more mouse interaction!). It should be better this way, why would you want to clicky-click while you tappity-tap anyway?
-The Custom Loadout menu has been revamped to increase usability (and to be sleeker and sexier, too)!
-Survivability stats now appear in the Loadout menu.
-In a Tug of War or Fortress Stronghold match, a message is now displayed when the match goes in overtime.
-Updated the deployment screen’s button states when rolling over them with the mouse cursor.
-There is now a Rewards screen at the end of the match to show you your XP and Token gain.
-War Parties (and their UI) should generally work a lot smoother now:
- "Steam Friends" tab was renamed to "Friends" so it would be compatible with all platforms.
- Offline friends are no longer displayed, allowing players to only see those who are in-game to send out invites.
- Public War Parties are now available!
-The look of the Assault/Raptor aerial attack’s ground indicator has been updated.
-Right clicking on the redeployment map now places a ping/waypoint for your team.
-Reduced the opacity of the Armor bar’s background, to create more of a contrast compared to when it’s filled.
-Improved loadout name validity checks.
-There is now an improved way of renaming your loadout by editing a field at the top of the loadout menu.
-Updated the style of spotting icon.
-Deployment screen title will now be hidden when other menus are opened over top of it.
-A warning is now shown in the character selection menu for characters of a faction that could be experiencing long queue times.
-The Mute and Unmute chat commands now include voice chat from that player.
-You can now choose Skirmish (40 players or less) or Grand (60 players or less) battles from the World Map, based on the type of match you want to play (or can play, if your rig has performance issues). Skirmish battles are set to start with a minimum of 5v5, Grand Battles are set to start with a minimum of 20v20.
Art/Visual Improvements:
-Lots of lighting and texture bugs fixed across all maps!
-The Power Axe has a new look – note that you will be able to earn the “double-headed” look in-game later via progression. (The missing electricity particle effects is a bug, however)
Audio Improvements:
-The entire Bolter family of firing and impact sounds have been optimized.
-The quadgun and auto-cannon fire and impact sounds have been optimized.
-Added sound effects for when the maglift starts and stops moving.
Server/Matchmaking Improvements:
-Changed the max player imbalance for a match to be 3 (instead 5).
-There is now a Setup Phase on new matches, which is a timed period at the beginning of a battle before everyone spawns. During this time, you can choose your deploy point, chat and set up your squad.
-Comms and Squad Leader voiceovers now have “first pass” placeholder filters added so players can tell who is speaking, their own character or someone else.
-More server side optimizations were performed to help reduce lag.
Steam/VOIP/Achievements:
-You will likely notice some new achievements, some of them are not unlockable just yet, so please divert your eyes and pretend you saw nothing :) (We have no way of “hiding” them, we tried!)
Bug Fixes:
Too many to list with Steam's character limit! Check out the post on our official forums (along with known issues) here.