Game Update March 10th

Server Maintenance for Game Update!

All servers will come down for maintenance beginning at 3:00 AM PT (11 AM GMT) for a game update.  Downtime is anticipated to be minimal.  

Server Ruleset Changes

The Cerberus and Bandit servers in the US region have been changed to "Restricted Base Building ruleset."   Both servers are PvP flagged and will prevent building near POIs. 

New Horrors

When society collapsed and zombies became a reality, people believed that their worst nightmares had come true. But that nightmare had just begun, and now, new zombies have arisen to hunt the living. Survivors have spoken of zombies with strange new behaviors and properties, making the already slim possibility of survival that much smaller. New tactics will be needed to confront these emerging threats, and those who cannot adapt quickly will likely meet a terrifying and grisly end.

Zombie Updates

• Zombies now spawn with more visual variety in their clothing and postures.
• Zombies can now properly attack you when they are fast enough to catch up to you.
• Zombie grapple has been removed while we review the way we handle grappling and resolve the various issues the current system creates.

Items

A new type of grenade can now be crafted that will attract the attention of zombies before exploding, killing any zombies within the blast radius.

Quality of Life Improvements:

 

• Hospital spawning issues should be resolved
• Empty repair boxes can now be picked up by those with build permissions (Hold E key).
• Repair boxes are able to be used immediately after being placed.

General

The Wasteland Crate is here!

• Crank the madness to the max with the new Wasteland Crate! Includes 22 new skins to make the end of days a little more stylish.
• Crate Keys to unlock your Wasteland Crates and bundles of Unlocked Wasteland Crates are available for purchase in the H1Z1 marketplace.

Shotgun Consistency Improvements

• The pellet spread patter of the Shotgun has been made significantly more consistent. This should result in more predictable damage output at all ranges. We had the following goals for the Shotgun with this change:
• Close range (less than 5 meters): Our goal is that the Shotgun to be extremely lethal within this range. In the past, the random nature of the Shotgun often resulted in the Shotgun doing significantly less damage than expected in cases where its pellets spread out more than expected. One time it’s a one-shot-kill, the next time it does 15 damage. This change should ensure that well aimed Shotgun shots at close range should, at minimum, deal significant damage and, in most cases, be fatal.
• Medium range (10 to 15 meters): We expect moderate lethality from the Shotgun at this range. Generally speaking, it should be possible to get kills with the Shotgun at this range, but the time it takes to do so will mean the Shotgun is slightly less effective than automatic rifles at medium range.
• Long range (greater than 20 meters): By this range, the Shotgun has moved beyond its expected effective range. With the old, random spread, it was possible for pellets to, at times, clump up more than expected which resulted in the Shotgun occasionally dealing more damage than expected at long range. This change will prevent significant pellet clumping at long range and prevent the Shotgun from being a significant damage threat beyond its expected effective range

Consistent Helmet Functionality

We’ve had two helmets that function differently for some time now. As we analyzed them, it became apparent that, having both were too weak and neither was accomplishing the gameplay goal we had for them. Instead of continuing with distinct helmets that have clear weaknesses, both Tactical and Motorcycle helmets now function consistently across both helmets. Both have 20,000 durability and will break after one shot. In most cases, helmets will nullify all bonus headshot damage, leaving players fairly healthy after a single shot to the helmet. The one exception to that is the Hunting Rifle; headshots with it are lethal whether or not a helmet is equipped.

Combat Feedback Improvements

Crosshair Hitmarks

• Successfully shooting an opponent will cause the reticle to briefly flash, indicating shots which have landed.

Audio Feedback

• Distinct audio will now play when enemies are shot that provides feedback whether the target was struck in their body, head, body armor, or helmet.

Vehicle Updates

The visual effects for smoke and fire on vehicle damage states have been updated. There is also a change to the behavior so that once a vehicle starts burning it will take damage over time.

• Here are the thresholds:
• 100-75% No effect
• 75-50% Light smoke
• 20-50% Heavy smoke
• 10-20% Heavy smoke, light fire – modest damage over time
• 0-10% Heavy smoke, heavy fire, sparks while moving – heavy damage over time and 80% power reduction.

The health/condition resources have been re-calibrated to 3100, so by the time they reach 20% and start taking damage its equivalent to the 2500 points they used to have.

Once the fire starts at 20%, it takes about 45 seconds for the vehicle to expire.

At 10% the damage rate increases and the vehicle drops 80% of its engine torque.

Destructible Objects

• Adjusted the health on many destructible objects in the environment.
• Many objects such as stop signs and barbed wire fences should be easier to destroy, especially when hitting them with vehicles.

Camera Adjustments

• Tweaked the third person camera pitch to lead in and out smoothly when looking up ro down so the character model no longer blocks the reticule. This should improve combat in extreme elevation areas as well as picking up objects off the ground.

Gear Changes:

• Basic backpacks, conveys, incendiary and explosive arrows have new in-world models so they can be more easily identified.

Misc. Fixes:

• Added “Play Battle Royale” button to Server Select Screen
• UI: Marketplace – Spamming the Unlock button when opening Crates will consume a crate and key for each click.
• Hand editing the overall quality in useroptions.ini won’t mess up the setting panel anymore.