After three months of open map surgery, London’s localities are running better than ever. Read on for gameplay updates, visual improvements, framerate optimizations, new weapon audio and a ton of new bug-fixes!
Framerate Improvements
If you’ve suffered from poor framerates in matches, this will be the single biggest reason to jump back in.
We’ve drastically overhauled our map creation pipeline, using new tricks and tools to optimize the hell out of the nine maps.
Improving performance, especially for those with lower spec machines, has been a huge focus.
Tech Artists BurntKona and East-Eden led us behind the optimization curtain in this Dev Update -
Gameplay Improvements
We’ve still managed to make some significant gameplay tweaks, though. There are too many to list, but here are a few highlights -
Trainyard
The first objective in Trainyard has always been a grind for Jackal attackers. We’ve made some key changes to give you a fighting chance, adding sightlines from the mounted MG and providing more cover.
Both delivery points on the last objective are now on the attacker-facing side of the container. No more running directly into the CDA spawn firing line!
Bridge
Getting the EV moving at the first objective has now been made a little easier for Jackal, by moving it slightly out of the market and shifting the walls to provide less cover for CDA and their deployables.
Collision
To make movement as smooth and fluid as possible, we’ve done a sweep on map objects and collision in the game.
Many that were getting in the way of gameplay have been moved or discarded, and we’ve smoothed out some awkward invisible walls.
Level Designers massE and AK explained some of the improvements in this Dev Update -
Visual Improvements
While attacking map optimization, the artists have also been improving the visual quality across the board.
Lighting
Previously, color filters were layered onscreen to differentiate the maps. They’ve now been removed in favour of a more realistic lighting solution. Colors pop more clearly, and Mercs are more readable at a distance.
Map Assets
We’ve fleshed out some of the more generic spaces in the maps, to make them more believable and to help with identifying them in combat. Look out for CDA-decked corridors and showers, public toilets, Indian restaurants, and more.
Environment Artists The White Lycan and ElectricSheep gave us a peek in this Dev Update -
Community Videos
Over the last week, several content creators in the community were given access to the new maps to give us their thoughts. Check them all out in this playlist!
Audio Improvements
Three of our weapons were sharing their sounds with others in the game. The Ahnuhld-12, Selbstadt .40, and Crotzni have been given their own voices, and now they really sing!
Audio designer Galavant previewed the improvements in this Dev Update -
End of Ranked Season 1
With this update, Ranked Season 1 is officially over. With the many changes to the maps, you’ll have a chance to get used to them before we kick off Season 2 with a bang next year!
We’ll be delivering the Trinket you’ve earned for your Ranked Season 1 placement in another update.
Match Balance
While work on our casual matchmaking continues, we’ve spent some time making small tweaks to the Quick Join functionality to improve match balance:
- Quick Join now factors in region, average player Level and skill of players on servers more heavily
- Updated pre-match team balance to factor in player Level more heavily
- Updated Shuffle Votes to factor in player Level and Current Match performance more heavily
Frame Capping
With this update, we’re capping the framerate of the game to 180fps by default.
At very high client framerates, Unreal Engine 3 starts to run into issues with physics calculations that causes the server to start making frequent corrections to the player position, leading to ‘rubber-banding’. The framerate cap will help prevent physics de-syncs like this from happening, and should result in smoother gameplay for high end machines.
This requires a change to your client .ini files, so there is now a popup warning that will appear if your ini files are read only and an important change has been made:
User Interface
- Added featured community video to Exit Dialog
- Added currently equipped Loadout Card and Trinket to the Merc Profile screen in the Barracks
- Added player names to all relevant Objective notifications
- Added a highlight to your own name in lobbies
- Added ability to press “Esc” key to exit screens within the main menus
- Added more menu options when clicking on player names, including “Add Friend”
- Added ability to type in mouse sensitivity in the main options menu
- Updated loading screens to reflect recent map changes
- Extended Quickchat interface to accommodate longer lines of text
- Unsent chat messages now carry over between the game and the lobby
- Made it easier to change languages in the options menu
Effects
- Added ‘Particle Detail’ video setting to allow lower detailed particles
- Optimized several visual effects, including muzzle flashes and explosions
- Molotovs thrown by teammates will now produce blue flames to more clearly identify friendly fire
- The EV’s headlights now turn off when it reaches its destination
Audio
- Added new weapon audio for Ahnuhld-12, Selbstadt .40 and Crotzni
- Updated Objective notification and Voting audio to be more distinctive
- Added audio when selecting Mercs in matches
- Added Merc dialog that occasionally plays when a C4 charge is defused
- Added audio for primary objectives’ notifications to be more prominent than secondaries’
- Optimized memory usage for several ability and weapon sounds
