Weapon Tuning, In-Game Leaderboards & More

Update Notes for September patch.

The time has come to bring this build to the Live servers! This particular update has truly benefited from direct and constructive feedback from the community. Let’s jump directly into the improvements coming to the game: 

Weapons Tuning

• Shooting a weapon in aim mode now primarily uses recoil instead of cone of fire to penalize rapid-fire.  More info here.
• Bullet drop has been significantly increased for all weapons (excluding shotguns and bows).
• Hellfire 4-6 SMG Tuning
  • Increased damage per bullet by 16%
    • This reduces the bullets to kill to 6 (from 7), without armor.
    • Headshots to kill is still 3 with helmet, 2 without.
  • Slightly reduced the fire rate
  • Lowered ammo capacity per clip to 24 (from 30)
• Smoke grenade inventory capacity reduced to 50 (from 100).
• Crossbow no longer sways when zoomed in.

Gameplay Updates

• There is now player-to-player collision for teammates and enemies. 
• Loot Distribution
  • We’ve added a new system that makes the distribution of loot much more consistent than before.
  • Overall loot density has been slightly increased to make sure there aren’t buildings that have no loot.
  • Finding the essentials (gun, backpack, helmet) should take less time on average.
  • We are keeping a close eye on this new system and will make adjustments as needed.
• Crouch Tuning
  • It is now faster to crouch down and stand up from crouch.
  • Added a Crouch Fatigue system that will increase the time it takes to stand up from crouch after repeatedly going in and out of crouch.
  • Crouch “spamming” will result in temporarily getting locked in the crouch state.
• Vehicle passengers can now scrap and craft items while the vehicle is moving.
• Vehicles no longer spawn with lootable fuel by default, but now spawn with full tanks.
• Lootable fuel can now spawn at gas stations and in airdrops.
• When using Team Spectate, you’ll now see incoming and outgoing hit indicators.  The camera will also shift to indicate that the person you’re spectating has gone into first person.
• If you have a Heal ticking from a First Aid Kit and use another, the Heal duration will be reset to max duration.  This should eliminate cases of “wasting” a First Aid Kit by using it while a Heal is already in progress.
• Doors should now always open AWAY from the player who is opening it.
• You can now zoom into the Map using the mouse wheel.
• Players no longer spawn in with a Belt Pouch and instead gain the 100 Inventory capacity it gave by default.  Waist Pack now provides 200 capacity (down from 300) – the net result is that if you have a Military Backpack and a Waist Pack, you’ll have the same total capacity provided as you did previously.
• Vehicles now take damage from other nearby vehicles exploding.

The Trickster Crate!

New Crate will begin dropping in-game

 

New Skirmish: The Swagnum Opus 

 

Standard BR mode except for: 

• All players spawn with the Swagnum, a very powerful sidearm that can one shot kill to the body (even in armor). Each player only starts with a single bullet for it.
  • More Swagnum rounds can be found in air drop crates. The number that drop during the match has been increased dramatically, and golden beams will call them out at a distance so they won’t be hard to find.
    • Each crate can contain up to 6 Swagnum rounds, but does not contain any other types of loot
  • You can take extra Swagnum rounds from the bodies of downed players
  • Kills made with the Swagnum will fire off a special volley of golden fireworks
• The only other non-throwable weapon that spawns on the map is the Crossbow, and the only ammo type are the new firework arrows
  • These arrows will launch small fireworks when they hit a target, or will detonate in the air if they don’t hit anything
  • Long reload times and low damage output makes them a novel backup weapon for when Swagnum rounds are low or being saved for other fights
• The only vehicles that spawn on the map are ATVS
• The gas ring starts in place, restricting the map, and advances more aggressively than usual
• Any death in the mode will fire off a firework from the body of the fallen
• Time is adjusted to be closer to sunset

Fort Destiny Leaderboards

We’ve re-added leaderboard displays to Fort Destiny. These will display the top 20 scores of each particular category, as well as call out your own personal placement for each board when applicable.

• Daily Kills
• Daily Wins
• Monthly Kills
• Monthly Wins
• Long-Term Kills
• Long-Term Wins
• Weekly Kills
• Weekly Wins 

Some things to note about these leaderboards:

• Currently they only function in Solo matches. Other modes will display placeholder “Coming Soon” text instead of scores.
• The scores listed in world don’t update in real time, so they are generally more of an updating snapshot than an accurate-to-the second scoreboard.
• There could be a general delay in stats appearing or updating of up to 5 minutes depending on the last time the boards grabbed fresh data.
• Leaderboards currently only show global stats, not region specific. Future updates will bring region specific stats. 

Bug Fixes:

• There are optimizations in this build that improve framerate performance, particularly on high-end machines.
• Fixed an issue where headshots could register as bodyshots if the target is aiming down sights.
• Smoke grenades now properly hide players wearing glowing skins and players who are bleeding.
• Fixed cone of fire expanding when strafing on uneven surfaces such as vehicle roofs.
• Fixed an exploit where you could get zero recoil in first person for a few shots.
• SMG sound effects should no longer incorrectly play as if the shooter were nearby.
• There should no longer be rare occurrences where you can see a faint outline of an opposing player through a tree.
• Vehicle inventory will now always show contents despite rapidly opening and closing it.
• Movement speed is no longer incorrectly reduced after exiting a vehicle with the throwing arch activated.
• Reticle should no longer lock in place while aiming down sights with a bow.
• Items in the inventory should no longer shift when moving while looting.
• Fixed an edge-case that could cause group members to incorrectly be flagged as not ready.
• In the Lobby Friends menu, the red arrow now indicates whether the friend is playing H1Z1, rather than just whether they’re actually in a match.
• Icons on the vehicle HUD (Keys, etc.) will no longer briefly light up when a user exits a vehicle.
• Black and Orange Athletic Hoodie now has its proper interact options.
• Fixed several dozen minor bugs in The Arena

Known Issues:

There are some known issues with this build that the team are working on now.  We expect to roll out hotfixes (and a full patch if needed) in the coming weeks with fixes for all of these issues.

• The dynamic reticle does not properly expand when jumping while aiming down sights.
• The reticle can shift down if you shoot then immediately hold aim down sights.
• The map can briefly flicker when being dragged
• Character shooting animation can remain forward while aiming down when crouched.
• Daily rankings on the Fort Destiny Leaderboards can show inconsistently for players who are tied.
• We are aware of a method to bypass the crouch fatigue penalty which will be hotfixed as soon as it’s ready.