Patch 2.3 out today

IN-DEPTH PATCH NOTES – UPDATE 2.3 – MARCH 30th 2016 (PC) & TENTATIVELY APRIL 5th 2016 (CONSOLES)

The translation of these patch notes will be coming shortly. Since the patch will be live soon, we have opted to share the information as soon as we could. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Take note that we will be releasing Patch 2.3 on March 30th for PC and our tentative date is April 5th for consoles. Thank you for your understanding.

The main goal of Update 2.3 is to improve upon the Ranked experience as well as the general balancing of the game.

General Tweaks and Improvements

Balancing: Operators

Frost's Super 90 Shotgun falloff damage now begins earlier
We tweaked the falloff damage of Frost’s shotgun. The falloff previously started at 5 meters. It will now begin at 3.5 meters, making it roughly on par with the M1014. We have made this choice because Frost’s Super 90 had too much range, making Frost too powerful alongside her Nitro Cells and Welcome Mats.

Buck’s Skeleton Key’s environmental destruction has been enhanced
We have designed Buck with the intention of having him be a versatile Operator that is able to go wherever he desires. We do not believe that the state he currently is in reflects this.

The initial intent was to use his underslung shotgun as a tool and not so much as a weapon. As the pros have shown us in the Pro League, it is working as a tool, but it could definitely be more efficient and useful.

Therefore, we have decided to increase the environmental destruction of Buck’s underslung shotgun. As the following series of .GIFs show, it is now a better tool and will help you get where you want faster.

Killholes Before 2.3:



Killholes After 2.3:


Vaulting through hole Before 2.3:



Vaulting through hole After 2.3:



Balancing: Weapons

SMG-11's recoil increased
We have increased the SMG-11’s recoil. The weapon was too powerful as it was, with recoil that was too easily controlled given the weapon’s rate of fire. We have opted to alter it in two different ways for PC and for consoles:
For PC, we tweaked the SMG-11 in two ways: first, the weapon will not center back after a shot quite as fast as it did before (0.08 seconds -> 0.2 seconds). Second, the recoil will be more unpredictable now. We made that decision because we felt the recoil was too vertical, often giving easy headshots since that weapon’s rate of fire is very high.
For consoles, we have increased the value for the rate at which the camera rises. We have roughly doubled that speed. What that means is that the player will have to compensate downwards more with the joystick in order to control the vertical recoil. We also applied the same tweaks to the vertical recoil as explained above for PC controls.

We have increased the SMG-11's recoil for 2 reasons: the first one is a combination of the fact that the recoil is almost purely vertical and that you can put an ACOG sight on it. We consider this to be too good of a combination, and the Pro League's players seemed to agree, given their loadout selections for Smoke and Sledge. The second reason is simply that it is a secondary weapon. We hope that this will strengthen its role as a secondary weapon, and lessen its use as a primary.

Balance: Spawn Killing Countermeasures

Spawn Location Tweaks

In the last patch, we had altered multiple spawn positions and covers within spawning location areas in order to ensure that players spawning within them are protected from the Defenders.

We are continuing to monitor and improve on this and have added more spawn killing countermeasures with this patch:
Yacht: added an ice block to prevent spawn killing on Snow Mobile.




Bank: added an advertisement panel (2 windows in the Lobby) to block a spawn kill line of sight on the Street.






Hit Registration Improvements
While we do have longer-term plans, which we’re already working on, for improving on hit registration, we had some advancement with this latest patch.

We’re glad to share that lag compensation has been improved in order to give the advantage to lower ping players vs. higher ping players. This means that the "peeker’s advantage" has been reduced and players who are hidden behind cover playing with a low ping will be less vulnerable to high ping players.

We also have improved monitoring of hit registration so that we can better track and diagnose what to improve on further.

Finally, several bugs related to hit volumes on characters, shields and barricades have been corrected. What this means is that from now on, what the players see and experience should more accurately reflect what actually happens on the servers.

Ranked Matchmaking Improvements
We are aware there are multiple issues at the moment with the Ranked playlist, and we’re working on several iterations to make this playlist what it deserves to be. The following fixes are the ones that could be delivered short-term, which we believe will have the biggest impact. Keep in mind that there are several other improvements in our plans for the future – read the top issues section of the known issues list, under ‘Ranked Matchmaking’ for additional information on said plans.

Ranked matches will now only start if there are 10 players in the lobby.
Our intention is that Ranked matches should be fair. Having matches start without having two full teams of 5 goes against the promise of this playlist. Therefore, we have altered the flow of Ranked matches so that if a players leaves during match countdown, the countdown will now reset. The lobby will stay open with the remaining players and the matchmaking will proceed to find new players to refill said lobby.

We do anticipate a problem with this flow: because players can see the rank, K/D ratio and W/L ratio of other players in the lobby, there tends to be lots of “dodging” during this phase. Because of this, we’re currently investigating two other elements that we might revamp in the future:
UI: we will most likely hide some players information in the lobby, as we don’t think they’re necessarily relevant for this specific portion of the match flow.
Abandon system: we’re investigating making it so that abandoning a lobby that is full will count as an abandon – there is additional development needs for this, which is why we couldn’t have this feature in time for this update.


Ranked reconnection mechanics have been improved.
Multiple reconnection bugs have been fixed. In most cases, when players disconnect involuntarily, the reconnection flow does not function as intended. We’re pushing lots of fixes in this update that we believe should address the biggest part of those bugs. We will keep monitoring and pushing this further.
The reconnection flow has been reworked to triggered more frequently and easier to access. Our objective is to let players reconnect to their Ranked matches as long as they’re still running and encourage players to play them till the end.
Reconnection now possible in all circumstances: the new flow will allow players to reconnect no matter how they got disconnected – even if they left for the main menu or quit the game.
Force player commitment to Ranked matches: if a player leaves a Ranked match that is still ongoing, he or she will not be able to queue for another Ranked match. Selecting “Ranked” in the Multiplayer menu will reconnect him or her to the ongoing match, instead of launching matchmaking for a new one.
Abandon penalty to be re-evaluated: if a player leaves a Ranked match and fails to reconnect before it ends, they will get the already existing abandon penalty, which prevents from queuing for Ranked matches for 8 minutes. Note that we do not think this punishment is strong enough to be fully effective, and we intend on increasing it in the future – but we need the reconnect system to be satisfactory before we can move to this step.


Casual Matchmaking Improvements
The general philosophy for the Casual playlist since the launch of the game has been to favor quick matchmaking. We still believe in this philosophy, but we also see an opportunity to improve the balance between teams in matchmaking, for a more pleasant experience, while having little impact on waiting time.

In the March 3rd server side update, we applied a first update to the casual matchmaking criterion. The main effects of this update are that the system now begins with a much stricter skill rating criterion, relaxes them very fast (exponential function), and ends with a cap (a maximum skill rating difference).

What this effectively changes in your Casual matchmaking experience depends on your skill level:
If you’re in the middle of the skill ranks (Bronze to Gold), there should be a global improvement in the balancing of your Casual matches with very little difference in wait time.
If you’re at the bottom or top of the skill ranks (Copper, Platinum and Diamonds), depending on where and when you’re playing, you might be waiting a bit longer on average than you did before. However, it should almost never happen that players will be matched against the other side of the skill rank range. Keep in mind that the Casual and Ranked skill ratings are different, and that squad matchmaking prevents us from avoiding extreme cases completely.

The matchmaking quality metrics that we’re looking at since the March 3rd update are encouraging:
In terms of average wait time, we’ve observed an increase of 7 to 10 seconds (depending on the platform, time of day, data center, etc). Other metrics like cancel rate (the proportion of requests that are cancelled) did not change.
In terms of match quality, we’ve observed a very substantial improvement. Typically on PS4, when about 60% of matches had a team skill difference under 4, this proportion increased to 78% after the update (team skills are between 0 and 50) (the update impact is very similar for Xbox One and PC).


Custom Match Improvements
Reconnection now available in Custom Matches.
We’re introducing the ability to reconnect to Custom Matches in this update. The reconnect will work similarly to Ranked matches: no matter how players disconnect, as long as the match is still ongoing, they’ll be able to reconnect by getting back to the Multiplayer/Custom Match menu (pressing “Custom Match” will automatically reconnect them to the match).

Note that it will be possible to abandon this Custom Match in order to create or join another one. However, if a player disconnects without abandoning, they will need to reconnect to the match in order to abandon it. This is a technical constraint, and not a design intention: we want to improve this by adding the possibility to abandon a Custom Match from the main menu in the future.

Subsequent match within a custom-made playlist is now chosen when the players are returned to the Lobby.
Note that the next match within the playlist is not selected automatically anymore and does not start immediately.

Spectator Camera Improvements
The spectator camera now handles player deaths in a more coherent way.
We changed the transition so that now when a player that is being spectated dies, it switches to a 3rd person view of said player dying instead of immediately cutting to the Tactical View, which caused confusion.

We have intensified color highlights on player cards in order to help with team identification.
By watching our matches spectated in the Pro League, we have noticed that the current Spectator Camera way of displaying teams could be clearer. Therefore, we have opted to intensify the player cards coloring. This is a temporary solution, as we intend to completely revamp the player information display for the Spectator Camera.

Cheating Counter-measure Improvements
As previously announced in this forum post, we have expanded our criteria to identify potential cheaters. If identified as a potential cheater, that player will be immediately removed from the game and receive a temporary suspension, now accompanied with the following messages:

FairFight™ - You have been temporarily suspended for 5 mins - Level 1 Monitoring Active
FairFight™ - You have been temporarily suspended for 1 hour - Level 2 Monitoring Active
FairFight™ - You have been temporarily suspended for 24 hours - Level 3 Monitoring Active
FairFight™ - You have been temporarily suspended for 48 hours - Level 4 Monitoring Active
FairFight™ - You have been temporarily suspended for 1 week - Level 5 Monitoring Active
FairFight™ - You have been permanently suspended

For additional insight into our plans to counter cheating, read the ‘Cheating Concerns’ section of the Known Issues list.

Main Bug Fixes
Please be aware that this is not an exhaustive list and that we are only highlighting fixes that were done about the most commonly raised bugs.

Gameplay Fixes
The incorrect amount of remaining health is displayed for the victorious Operator when a defeated player is viewing the KillCam replay. – FIXED
Idle players on a team will receive an idle kick from the match if the other team quits during Preparation Phase. – FIXED
Players are able to clip through unbreakable walls by running at a wall and lifting a gadget in front of them at the last second before hitting the wall. – FIXED
Thermite can't place an Exothermic Charge on a damaged wall with a hole big enough to fit the charge. – FIXED
Montagne can shoot before finishing the animation for unextending the shield. – FIXED
Parts of Glaz's scope will disappear while entering ADS mode. – FIXED
Sledge's Breaching Hammer has a low and delayed controller rumble when used. – FIXED
Sometimes the drones’ black and white filter is overridden by Mute's colored jammer effect. – FIXED
Players are rewarded with Renown and XP if the other team quits the session before playing at least 2 rounds. – FIXED
Terrorist AI end up in a loop between evade and idle reaction for every damage tick received from poison gas. – FIXED


Level Design Fixes
Wall Reinforcements
We have made some improvements to the placement of wall reinforcements to prevent gaps in some locations. We are working on fixing all inconsistencies in barricades for future updates, but patch 2.3 addresses a lot of these.

Hereford
When the hostage is in the Kitchen spawn point just below the trap door, it can be killed by accident when using a Breach Charge. – FIXED

Bank
Character models can remain stuck behind some objects at the end of the tunnel in the Exterior Sewer Area. – FIXED
Breach Charges will clip through a wallboard in the 1st Floor -Electrical Room. – FIXED

House
Players can shoot through the non-destructible walls of the jacuzzi area in Backyard spawn point. – FIXED
Drones can fall through the environment if thrown in the Exterior Side Street area. – FIXED

Yacht
Defenders can easily get into a good shooting position over the attackers that spawn at the Snow Mobile location on Yatch. – FIXED
Moved hostage position in Engine to avoid players from being stuck in a specific condition. – FIXED
The objective area doesn't cover the entire objective point at 3F Casino. - FIXED
Drones have no collision with the cupboard located on the 2nd Floor Staff Dormitory. – FIXED
Operators can remain stuck behind the hostage when moving behind it at the engine spawn point. – FIXED
Players can fall through the map if they fall in the water near the Zodiac spawn point and walk over the glacier that is next to the spawn location. – FIXED
Players can get stuck under the lifeboat located on the West Deck. – FIXED
Players can remain stuck after vaulting over the yacht's edge and snow blocks near the Snow Mobile spawn. – FIXED
Drones have no collision with the couch in the Cockpit spawn point. – FIXED
Players can get stuck in-between the chairs located on the 2nd Floor Boreal Sub Room. – FIXED

Kanal
Drones can't jump over the water near the garage’s side. – FIXED
Operators can vault on the boat and float in the air. – FIXED

Consulate
Moved the Flares in the front of the building, to more accurately represent the extraction trigger zone.


Online Fixes
[Ranked] There is no reconnect prompt after the player quits a Multiplayer Ranked session. – FIXED
Players are unable to reconnect if they lose connection to a dedicated server Custom Match – FIXED
After starting a PVP or PVE session error 2-0x0000001A will be received by friends when attempting to accept a party invite. – FIXED
Players in a party will not be pulled into the matchmaking lobby if the party leader quits a casual match lobby and enters a ranked lobby. – FIXED
Players can receive error 2-0x00000068 when accepting a party invite. – FIXED


UI & HUD Fixes
Players receive unnecessary Preparation Phase warning when moving too close to barricaded doors and windows. – FIXED
There is no constant visual feedback alerting the player about the contested area in secure area game mode. – FIXED
Wrong objective message is displayed on HUD after the Preparation Phase when defending in Defuse Bomb mode. – FIXED
The Cancel Mute option is not displayed if the muted player doesn't have a microphone connected. – FIXED


Animation & Sound Fixes
Players in a squad could lose voice chat functionality after the squad leader had left. – FIXED
Sound randomly cuts out and then back in. – FIXED
Players can lose all sound effects for the duration of one round and then hear drone sounds playing constantly. – FIXED
While sprinting with a shield, the shield animation doesn't match 3rd person animation and sound effects. – FIXED
The visual effects, such as a flashbang, from the previous session will "stick" and persist through any situation or session. – FIXED
The Silencer for the C8-SFW will at times not have any audio functionality for nearby players. – FIXED


Spectator Mode Fixes
All ballistic shield operators being spectated will have another player's ammo displayed under shield icon. – FIXED
Glaz's Aim Down Sight (“ADS”) animation is not working as intended for spectators – FIXED
UI disappears and fades back in slowly when spectating a flashed player and switching to one that isn't. – FIXED
The damage on the shield's glass is not replicated for spectators in support mode. – FIXED
The Names, Defuser, and objective icons appear under the "Floors" UI when spectating. – FIXED
"Invalid Device" text is displayed for unassigned Spectator Cam key bindings. – FIXED


Miscellaneous Fixes
The Alpha Team Uplay action is not unlocked after completing 50 Ranked matches. – FIXED
If a player experienced this bug before Season 1 (patch 2.0) and has some Ranked progress, they may still experience this issue. However, the issue should be resolved after playing a few more Ranked games.

The Report Player button disappears after the player uses it, instead of showing a checked box. – FIXED
Some settings are grayed out when the player duplicates a match in Custom matchmaking. – FIXED
Missing visual feedback when reporting suspicious behavior while in the lobby or after action report. – FIXED
The subsequent match in a Custom Match playlist is not chosen when the players are returned to the lobby. – FIXED


Additional note:
We have opted to rework the data center grouping for XB1 for South East Asia. The reasoning behind this is that the matchmaking in this region was rather difficult for the players due to the low XB1 population in this region. The effect on the XB1 players from SEA after the change will be a worst ping than before but improved MM times and quality.

Specifics: The data center that has been closed is SouthEast Asia (Singapore). The countries of more than 1000 people that will be the most affected by this change are Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and India. The data centers will be rerouted in order to offer better matchmaking quality than before. This will also improve matchmaking for Taiwan, China, Hong-Kong, Macau, South Korea, Philippines and Vietnam.

Some unlisted tweaks & fixes implemented since Patch 2.2
IP Protection
We have applied IP protection in order to help protect our players’ information, preventing players from being able to access IP information of the opposing team’s players.

PC Crash Fix
Starting March 3rd, some PC players began experiencing in-game crashes more frequently than usual. We have identified the cause of this issue and our team has deployed a successful fix.

Estimated Patch size: 617MB (may vary per platform).

Thank you so much for being part of this with us and sharing your feedback. Next up: Season 2!