All King of the Kill servers will be offline on May 17th beginning at 1:00 PM PT / 20:00 UTC (all in process games will end at 1PM ) for a game update. Downtime is anticipated to be approximately 6 hours.
Gunplay & Hit Registration Updates
In our last Producer’s Letter, we outlined a number of the changes that were being made to improve and optimize hit registration and gunplay. In addition to the behind-the-scenes improvements that were made to address “lag compensation,” trajectories, and projectile tracking, we also sought to address specific frustration points among players. Here are some of the specific changes that have been made:
- Lag compensation has been optimized to provide more accurate player movement positioning. This system works best when the players are playing in low ping environments.
- Projectile tracking fidelity has been increased to ensure the hits are registered more quickly and consistently.
- We no longer block you from firing if you are up against and object. Previously, if your character was right up against the collision surface of an object, the system would prevent you from firing entirely. Now, the blocked reticle and gun animation have been removed and you’ll be allowed to fire – though the shot will still strike the blocking object. This is meant to alleviate the distraction of having your gun go in and out of the blocked state as you go in and out of cover.
- Line of sight checks should be more forgiving to reduce frustrating moments where it appears you should be able to shoot a target but can’t. It’s still tuned to ensure that one player should never be able to shoot at another player cannot see or shoot back at them.
- Pointblank shots in first person should be much more consistent.
Shotgun Refinement
In order to ensure the shotgun is fitting its role in close range combat, and to make it as consistent and predictable as possible, we’ve made a number of tuning changes.
- Pellet spread is now systematic, with some variance, instead of completely random
- Increased the number of pellets
- Decreased the damage per pellet
- Removed normal damage fall-off over distance; as the new spread mechanic will reduce the number of pellets that land the further away your target is.
- Added a 2.7x damage multiplier for headshots, which falls off over distance
Skirmishes have returned!
What better way to check out the new Shotgun tuning than by playing in a game where most of the weapons in the game are Shotguns!? But watch out for Snipers… Skirmishes will be available on weekends and will rotate to new gametypes on a regular basis.
The Arena
The Arena had a major update including lighting improvements, terrain changes, and three new POIs.
- Three new POIs have been added around Pleasant Valley to break up some of the larger open areas in the map.
- Hillside Villas are just to the east of PV and offer luxurious comfort and loot. They consist of a variety of larger homes that have been built on various elevations which can lead to unique gameplay and firefights.
- Morton Distribution and Storage is north of PV, it features a large crane that can be seen from far away. Exploration is rewarded as the gameplay spaces span across the shipping containers providing a unique feel for the game through verticality.
- Henninger Plaza was added west of PV on the way to Kurama Hospital. In this location you will find a superstore, gas station, and a few smaller shops making it a good source for loot and intimate gunfights.
- Added nine additional loot spots of new variations, small residential areas south east of The Villas, and major roads connecting Hillside Villas and Morton Distribution & Storage to existing highways.
- Many building interiors have been adjusted for ease of navigation and increased optimization
- Fog has been significantly decreased
- Lootable objects now have a small outline at close proximity
- Fire extinguishers have been removed from the Arena
- Explosive barrels have had their spawn rate decreased by 30%
- Shadows have been lightened for better visibility
Vehicle Skins
The ATV, off-roader, and pickup truck all have three new color variants. They’ll randomly spawn this way in The Arena and should be a bit easier to spot from parachutes and to distinguish from non-drivable vehicles. You can also select these from your appearance menu so that any vehicle you acquire will automatically skin to your preferred color.
Inventory Improvements
Using your Inventory quickly and efficiently is one of the most important elements of gameplay. In this update, the Inventory has been given a well-deserved polish pass with more to come in the future.
The Inventory and Crafting panels have been combined so that all of your item management can take place in a single window. Visually, you’ll notice a few updates to the screen such as a more clear indicator of required ingredients to craft, as well as a preview of how much of your available space will be taken up by crafting or picking up a new item. The crafting process itself has also been simplified as you’ll now be able to craft a single item via left-click or craft max via right-click.
Bug Fixes and Quality of Life Updates
We’ve made a number of quality of life improvements and bug fixes, many of which are the direct result of feedback we’ve received from players.
- Crafting & Healing timer has been moved so it no longer obscures the crosshair.
- Items from the Weekend Challenge (5/13 - 5/14) will be granted with this update.
- When using classic hit markers, the marker will turn bold for headshots
- Incoming hit sounds should more clearly distinguish headshots from body shots
- In team games, teammate chevrons have been removed to lessen the visual distraction they were providing. Activate free look (default: alt) to see teammate nameplates at unlimited range.
- Body armor (laminated and makeshift) now always show up on top of parkas.
- Players can now disable vehicle degradation sound effects in the useroptions.ini by editing the VehicleDegradationVolume=1 line.
- When you get a kill, there is a new UI element that will indicate the name and tier of the player you killed as well as any XP gained as a result.
- Icons on the Main Menu have been added to let you know when you have a new item in your character inventory or when there is a sale in the Marketplace.
- To make navigation easier, we combined the Unlocked and Locked Crates into a single view.
- Items in the Appearance menu now show how to acquire the item (Crate, Scrapyard, etc).
- Ping display in the HUD will update more often than it used to.
- The Inventory “More Info” panel will now be closed by default.
- Parachutes should no longer spin when starting a match.
- Removed collision from arrows once they’re stuck in a target to prevent them from blocking other projectiles.
- You should once again be able to use voice chat after dying using mouse buttons.
- Stun grenades will now affect players in vehicles.
- Adjusted the model of the taxi to more precisely match the police car (the collisions were already identical).
- Fixed camera issues that could occur when entering a vehicle while prone or crouched.
- Fixed the Twitch Prime offroader skin not correctly applying in-game.
- Fixed several HUD elements that were displayed incorrectly in some languages.
- Kill feed should no longer overlap the score elements in team matches.
- Region should no longer change itself after selecting one then accessing Settings.
- Fixed an issue where right-clicking on a skin you don’t own could cause the item you previously had highlighted to be scrapped.
- Button prompt to open/close Inventory will now update based on keybinding selection.
- Pressing escape will now cancel a change in quantity on Inventory stacks.
- Stack-splitting will no longer lose functionality if the menu is exited after changing quantity.
Known Issues
- The Kill Receipt occasionally does not display the name or correct tier of the player you killed.