Multiplayer
Additional Game Modes
We now have more game modes, including the Hardcore playlist for the existing modes. The new game modes include:
Search & Destroy Free-For-All Hardcore Team Deathmatch Hardcore Domination Hardcore Kill Confirmed Hardcore Search & Destroy Hardcore Free-For-All
Fireteam: Dirty Bomb
A lot of new changes have been made to the new Fireteam: Dirty Bomb game mode including gameplay changes, loot adjustments, vehicle tuning, ping system changes, and more.
Gameplay
During our playthrough of the Beta, there was no way to acquire ammo for your weapons. The only way to get the ammo for your weapons was by dying and respawning. Thankfully, this is no longer the case as now there are Ammo Caches added across Ruka and Alpine. There are now rappel lines added in Alpine to counter those pesky campers at those heights not reachable otherwise. You can now continue to wear the armor while sprinting. This was not possible during the beta. This was also one of the major issues, where putting on armor always slowed you and made you an easier target for the enemy players. If you do not spawn during the overhead spawn view, you will automatically be air deployed after 15 seconds. When you revived your teammate during the beta, you could move in all sorts of direction, which sometimes caused the revive to fail and even confused some players. Both the downed and the reviving players will be locked in place to avoid any revive failure. You can also call for help while downed. Some more changes were made to the dirty bombs, including the arming progress displayed on the charge itself. It will also have lights to show how many players are in the vicinity and supporting you are arming the bomb. Earlier players experienced their view direction facing towards the radiation gas when respawning, this has been fixed, and the players will no longer face the out of bound areas.
There is a new Radiation Vest, added as loot, that allows the wearer to prevent taking damage from the radiation inside the radiation zones. This is similar to the gas mask in Warzone. High-end Scorestreaks will now be much rarer in addition to the Hind spawn frequency being reduced. You can now ping while downed, when in a vehicle, at downed teammates, field upgrades, and thrown C4s. There is now a center dot while freefalling and parachuting for more accurate pinging. This was also another issue during the beta, where we couldn’t ping properly while freefalling, which lead to a lot of confusion between teammates. Bug fixes include:
Addressed an issue that would prevent objective waypoints from displaying in the overhead spawn view. Addressed an issue where players could be killed as soon as they deployed via air. Addressed a number of issues that would cause a player to spawn away from their intended teammate on the ground from the overhead spawn view. Addressed an issue where players could not deposit Uranium into a dirty bomb. Addressed an issue where the player could be considered out of bounds when deploying from the infil plane.
VIP Escort
We have some welcoming changes in VIP Escort as well. The first new feature added is the ability to quick-deploy your parachute whenever you jump from a high enough location in large maps like Crossroads and Armada.
When the VIP reaches the exfil, the VIP is taken into the helicopter by a winch operator instead of the VIP going in the helicopter alone. Whenever the VIP gets near the exfil site, everyone in the match is notified to give the defending team more time to react.
Weapons
In addition to the newly added weapons, there are many changes to the existing ones to balance the overall gameplay experience.
New Weapons
The new weapons include FFAR 1 (Assault Rifle), Bullfrog (SMG), M60 (LMG), DMR 14 (Tactical Rifle), M79 (Special Launcher), and more.
Weapon Tuning
During the beta, the two most dominating assault rifles (AR) were the XM4 and the Krig 6, the rest of the ARs didn’t seem to matter when you were using these two. This resulted in the other rifles not be used at all due to how ineffective they were. This is now fixed as all the ARs are now tuned closer to the performance of the stated ARs (Krig 6 & XM4).
The AK-47 is a hard-hitting AR, but it seemed to have less recoil during the beta than it is notoriously known for. This is fixed, and the recoil on the AK-47 has been increased to make up for the insane damage it does. Apart from the usual XM4 and Krig 6, the Submachine Guns (SMGs) were also a go-to class for many, especially the MP5k. The SMGs range was equivalent to the assault rifles, which shouldn’t have been the case as they are meant for CQCs. The SMGs already give you increased mobility and quick-draw advantage as needed for quick CQCs. At launch, the SMG lovers can expect reduced effectiveness at longer ranges. The damage output and ADS times of all the Light Machine Guns (LMGs) have been increased. The sniper rifles were probably the most controversial topic during the beta as they had a powerful aim assist on them for controller players. This resulted in many players and content creators raiseing their concerns against the sniper rifles as being too OP when in the hands of controller players. The most renowned snipers such as FaZe Testy, FaZe Dirty, and even Faze Kitty voiced their concerns against the addition of aim assist for sniper rifles. It looks like their prayers have been answered as the aim assist on the snipers have been adjusted to feel smoother, but at the same time require skill and precision. The ADS times have also been increased on the rifles along with consistent scope glint display. Other weapon changes include decreased burst-fire pistol hip-fire accuracy and max damage range, decreased semi-shotgun fire rate, increased the inner damage of the launcher to all for lethal damage when placed accurately sprinting speed with the knife is reduced. You can now dual-wield pistols.
Attachments
More attachments have been added in the Gunsmith along with attachment balances for almost half of the attachments across all the weapons to increase viability. There are new Barrel attachments that offer shorter barrel length for increased strafe speed movement, either when hip-firing or ADS-firing. Bonuses and penalties have been revised to better reflect the relationship between ranges, muzzle velocities, and barrel length. The mounted light attachment was used to reveal the enemy’s name at range. This range is increased. Finally, the names, descriptions, and statistics have been updated to provide functional and authentic information. During the beta, several stats were completely misleading and didn’t correspond to a certain attachment. As you can see in the image below, choosing a flashguard attachment increases the ammo capacity, whereas it has nothing to do with ammo.
The primary weapon level cap has been shifted to level 55 from the previous level 40.
Movement
Many movement balances were made, especially to the sliding maneuver that received a lot of backlash from the beta players. The sliding in the game during the beta was broken. Whenever you slid, you covered a distance longer than you should have and at an abnormally faster speed. These two things have been fixed as the slide length has been shortened, and the slide speed has been reduced. The slide mechanic was over-used during gunfights where anyone could easily evade incoming shots and confuse the enemy player. The overall fast sliding speed didn’t help make it better, either. If you sprinted and slid during the beta, you could fire quickly rather than firing faster when sprinting and ending the sprint. It should have been the opposite, and thankfully it has been fixed as well. Faster firing due to sprinting and sliding added more to the sliding “combat maneuver abuse.” Also, you can now mantle faster.
Scorestreaks
There are new Scorestreaks added in the game and some major changes to the Scorestreak economy to balance out the overall gameplay experience.
New Scorestreaks include:
Combat Bow Armor Care Package Cruise Missile VTOL Escort Gunship
During the beta gameplay, it seemed as though everyone could get the Scorestreaks fast and easily. This didn’t make the streaks feel as rewarding as they are supposed to be. The Scorestreak bonus threshold has been tuned up to 10-kill and 15-kill to make them feel more rewarding and boost the score to higher-end Scorestreaks. The overall earn rate has been decreased to ensure that you’re not bombarded with a low-end Scorestreak every other minute. This also includes the addition of a variation to Scorestreak cooldowns to allow for more interesting player choices and strategy. Chopper gunner duration and damage have been reduced slightly, while the attack helicopter’s damage has been increased from 5-hit kill to a 3-hit kill. A numerical display that appears briefly on respawn has been added to show the remaining score required to earn your next Scorestreak. You can also see it briefly after closing the scoreboard. Scorestreaks that include a tablet’s usage now have improved visibility when dealing with indoor enemies and improved cursor speed.
Perks, Equipment & Field Upgrade Adjustments
Perks
The Flak Jacket and Paranoia perk got a slight adjustment. The Flak Jacket damage reduction is toned down by 5%. The sound you hear when an enemy is aiming at your with Paranoia equipped has been updated for better and clearer hearing.
Equipment
Frag throwback speed has been improved. This is a welcomed change as during the beta, by the time we could pick up the frag to throw it back at the enemy player, it exploded. The Stim Shot cooldown time has been increased from 8 seconds to 11 seconds. Decoy duration has been reduced from 20 seconds down to 15 seconds. Now players will be able to differentiate between the fake and real footsteps thanks to a static sound effect that will be played by a decoy every few seconds. You will still need to be attentive and focus to discern the difference, though.
Field Upgrades
Among the field upgrades, only the field mic got some changes. These changes include:
Listening radius is reduced by 10% Cooldown time increased from 3:00 to 3:30
Audio Tuning
General audio adjustments include polished volumes and sound falloffs for weapons, ambient systems, map transitions, and sound design improvements. Gameplay audio improvements include improved hitmaker sound, player damage feedback sound, weapon, and footstep sounds. Perhaps the most important and highly requested sound improvement comes to the acoustic section. The new and improved acoustics system simulates how the sound travels through and around the geometry of your surroundings. In simple words, you can now distinguish between the sounds coming from outside and inside the room you might be in. You will be able to feel the change between the exterior and interior when you move through spaces. This means full occlusion now sounds more natural, unlike the constant “underwater” sound effect that you experienced during beta. The map acoustics are now based on physical simulation of sound waves traveling through the map. This means you can expect even more immersive and realistic sounds. A music player has been added that allows you to listen to music tracks that can be unlocked by playing the game. These tracks can be set either as your menu music or in-game music. Audio mix presets have been introduced as well.
New Features
In addition to the plethora of overall gameplay, weapons and audio adjustments, we also have a number of new exciting features added to the game that include the following:
Added Military Ranks up to 55 in standard player progression. Added Seasonal Prestige player progression system, beginning at launch after completing Military Rank 55. Added Challenges for Campaign, Multiplayer, and Zombies. Added unlockable Weapon Camos. Player and weapon customization now available. Added Combat Record. Added Theater support. Added Multiplayer bot support. Added Finishing Move support. Added Weapon Inspect support.