Huge ‘Battlefield 4’ Fall Patch Previewed, Another Attempt At Fixing Netcode And Weapons Balance
DICE hasn’t given up on patching Battlefield 4 for the PlayStation, Xbox, and PC. The developer provided an update on the next Fall Patch coming by the end of September. It’s a massive list, but includes fixes to the always troublesome “Netcode,” plus more weapon balancing and player movement.
Fixes incoming! “Netcode”, player movement, revolver trigger delay, and more. Details HERE: http://t.co/WRUJ7iKeTG pic.twitter.com/OhkjRMXGv4
— Battlefield (@Battlefield) September 19, 2014
The Battlefield 4 Fall Patch has been sent to Microsoft and Sony to be certified for the Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 3. This process normally takes one to two weeks, so it should be released by the end of September.
A partial list of the changes to Battlefield 4 was provided with the promise of the full change list when the patch is released. These are all changes that DICE has tested in the Community Test Environment (CTE) over the last couple of months to get feedback from gamers.
Some of the interesting changes include making player movement in Battlefield 4 “almost identical to BF3 movement.” The animations will remain the same; it’s only the movement that is being changed to resemble the more favorably received previous game.
Players have complained about the “Netcode” for Battlefield 4 since the game was first released nearly one year ago. Actually, those complaints were around during Battlefield 3 too. DICE is addressing the concerns over how hits are detected with the following changes.
– Lowering the setting for how much time difference is allowed when damaging other players (addressing trade kills and behind cover kills where high pings are involved)
– An automatic High Frequency Update setting is now the default for all users
– Added High Frequency update support to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms
– Additional improvements to bullet damage delays between clients compared to Netcode Patch
Weapon changes are also inbound. The following is an excerpt of just some of the changes that are coming to the weapons and their attachments.
Weapon changes
– Bullet velocity increases: Improved bullet velocity for Slugs and nearly all suppressed weapons. Selectively improved base velocity for weapons that were too slow for their intended range
– Damage Model: Many weapons have had their maximum and minimum damage adjusted slightly. It may take 1 extra bullet to kill at extremely close engagements and long range combat
– Trigger Delay: Removed from all revolvers
– Adjustments to slower rate of fire weapons to make them easier to use at longer ranges vs higher ROF weapons
– Carbines and PDWs now have unique bullpup modifiers that give improved bonuses over the rifle counterpart
– Ammo: Gave more ammo to the weapons that were short a mag compared to their counterparts
– DMRs: Audio when being shot at by a DMR has been improved
– SKS and M39EMR no longer allow you to hold breath
– Grenade capacity lowered and resupply times increased.Weapon attachment changes
– Muzzle Brake: Reduced the overall impact of this attachment. Both its positives and negatives have been reduced
– Heavy Barrel: Lowered the buff it gave to minimum moving spread and moved some of that bonus into reduced spread increase. Should be a good option for longer range tap firing
– Lasers: Small buff to standing hip-fire accuracy
These changes will be available in time for the last piece of Battlefield 4 DLC, Final Stand. It doesn’t have a release date yet, but DICE is already working on a “Teamplay Initiative” for the next few updates. The developer is focusing on “teamplay aspects of Battlefield 4. Our goal is to improve, simplify, and make playing the objective (PTFO) more rewarding than it has ever been.”
Battlefield 4 had a very troubled start. Is DICE turning it around with patches like this? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
[Images via Battlefield]
