Patch 1.020 - Buckshot

Patch 1.020 went live May 23, 2013. The patch fixed a number of bugs and introduced serveral quality of life UI changes for players.

Highlights

Map Text

Text has been added to the main game map indicating:

• Region names are displayed at any zoom e.g. Marin.
• Area names which are fast travel enabled  are displayed at any zoom e.g. Iron Demon Ranch.
• All other area names are displayed as you zoom in.

 

 

Freight Yard

The competitive 16 v 16 capture and hold match Freight Yard is back in the game.

Dam Defense

Hotshot: Dam Defense is back in the game.

Shotgun Changes

Many changes have been made to shotguns, see the full notes for them all.

New Titles

• Chango is available from Caretaker Cabin (Supplies).
• Yelanda Nanggo is available from Hermit's Hideaway (Supplies).

Clock

An in-game clock has been added below the minimap.

 

 

Inventory Loadout Markers

Markers have been added to the inventory screen to indicate which loadout an item is being used with.

 

 

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Patch Notes

GENERAL

• Along with numerous improvements and bug fixes, this update also includes new content that will tie in with recent and future events around the Defiance TV show. This content will be released alongside new episodes. In the interest of avoiding spoilers, we’ve omitted specifics, but it includes new missions, new goals, and a new open world game mode called Sieges!
• We’ve continued to optimize areas around the game world to improve performance.
• Even more updates to improve server performance.
• Continued to optimize voice chat options and functionality. You should hear less robo-voice, stuttering, warbling, and slurring.
• The PvP map, Freight Yard, is back!
• The Dam Defense Hotshot is available again.

MISSIONS

• Added new checkpoints to KTAM and Murder Island.
• Moved the Mount Tam mission offer animus for ‘A.R.M. the Troops.’ Players could sometimes see it on the map but not get the mission.
• Fixed the endlessly respawning Raiders at Verdant Ridge.

CHALLENGES

• Rebalanced Hotshot and Rampage medal score tiers. 
• Corrected rewards given out for the Challenges in Marin.
• Killing yourself no longer successfully completes Challenges.

EMERGENCIES

• Moved an emergency in Marin that was blocking a Time Trial route.
• Moved an emergency in Madera away from an extraction point.
• Set Completion Text to play at end of fight instead of when props despawn for the following Emergencies: Hostage Situation, Hijacked Vehicles, Raider Roadblock, Dark Matter E-Rep Firefight, and Mutant Search Party.
• Added EGO voiceover after completion of the following Emergencies: Mutant Search Party, Dark Matter Camp, and Hijacked Vehicles.
• Removed timer display at the end of Caught in the Crossfire.
• Optimized and fixed some pathing issues in Blockade.
• Fixed a truck that had an odd rotation in Sausalito.
• Fixed some floating objects in Marin Emergencies.
• Fixed a bug that caused trucks to not despawn after Dark Matter Camp.

ARKFALLS

• Optimization addressed to fix flickering or disappearing enemies at arkfalls.
• General balance tuning for Hellbug Destroy Arkfalls.
• General balance tuning for Scrapper Destroy Arkfalls. 
• General balance tuning for Mutant Destroy Arkfalls.
• Added additional rewards and increased the chance to get weapons instead of grenades from Major Arkfalls.

PLAYER CHARACTER

• Nano effects that kill your character should now be cleared after extracting. 
• Fixed cameras while incapacitated so that the camera won’t clip through the character if the player looks up.

ENEMIES AND NPCs

• Monarchs now cause vehicles to explode when collided with.
• Smelters in the Jackleg Joe fight will alert properly on spawn regardless of player position in the arena.
• Friendly Scrapper Forges will now spawn friendly Nanites.
• Friendly Scrappers now have blue effects to distinguish them from hostile Scrappers.

COMPETITIVE MULTIPLAYER

• Fixed several bugs that were causing multiplayer matchmaking crashes.
• Fixed a crash when exiting a multiplayer match.
• Fixed a bug with matchmaking main menu not functioning properly when changing worlds.

CO-OP AND SOLO MAPS

• Swapped and deleted a few objects in Soleptor Excavation, Scrapworks Salvage, Liberate the Lost, and Explosions 101 to improve performance.
• Fixed an issue that caused an EGO voiceover to play out of order in Island of Lost Soldiers.
• Fixed a tilted ammo cache in The Motherlode.
• Fix for Soleptor Excavation to prevent players from falling through the world if they defeat the final boss while standing on a spawn door.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent players from entering Commandeer Cronkhite.

WEAPONS

• Continued to tune weapons to improve balance.
• The 10% EGO power recharge on full reload weapon bonus now has a cooldown.
• Legendary Detonators will no longer be able to have mag size weapon bonuses.
• Reduced rate of fire for the Auto Lobber.
• Reduced damage per shot for the Crash Boomer, Rebound Lobber, and Auto Lobber.
• Gaining or losing a status effect as you finish reloading will no longer cause the reload to cancel and start again.
• Fixed an issue in which the Ground Pounder stats were appearing as zero
• Nano-Effect Resist shields and shields with other special effects will now start dropping at a lower power rating.
• Mods that show up as vendor specials will now be higher quality.
• Mods given as rewards from Challenges will now be higher quality.
• Synergy weapon mod caches purchased from vendors should now include a wider variety of synergy types.

Significant Shotgun Tuning

• Shotguns are being tuned to bring them in line with the other weapons and personalities we want to obtain with each type of shotgun.
• Mag Size Changes: We have made changes to the mag size of all bonus size mods and rarity bonuses. This was largely due to shotguns getting a more shots per magazine then intended.
• 1. Rarity Bonuses that increased Mag Size have been decreased.
• 2. Clip Mods that increased Mag Size have been decreased.
• Elemental Proc Chance Change: We discovered that the shotguns were procing per pellet at the full proc chance. This caused the shotguns to have a much higher chance to proc the elemental effect then other weapons.
• 1. Changed the proc chance per pellet of shotguns. (Excluding Slug based shotguns)
• These two types of Shotguns are being tuned to bring them in line with the other shotguns.
• 1. Rate of Fire change for the Vot Auto Fragger: We have made this change due to speed at which a player could kill its intended target. This weapon now has slightly lower rate of fire to bring it in line with the other Combat Shotguns. 
• 2. Recoil Increase in the TACC Auto-Shotgun: This change was to add a bit more variance in the recoil with the amount of shells it could shoot from its high mag capacity. 

LOOT AND AMMO

• Tuned loot drops for several enemies.
• Looks like Murray dropped off an ammo crate near his docks.

VEHICLES

• Tweaked vehicle physics so they don’t feel quite as bouncy.
• The T4 Titan (mission only vehicle) is no longer invulnerable.
• Store Vehicles now have proper titles denoting tier.
• Fixed an issue in which vehicle stats were appearing as zeros when available as a vendor special.
• Fixed an issue in which your vehicle might be invisible in extremely crowded locations.
• Fixed an issue that caused vehicles to bounce abnormally off some objects.
• Vehicles were being used as weapons with very little risk, so we've increased the amount of damage that colliding with enemies does to vehicles to increase that risk.

VENDORS

• Titles are now available at hidden vendors.

DEFIANCE STORE

• Fixed an issue that prevented purchasing of more than one inventory slot upgrade at a time.
• Updated Bit purchase UI to help clarify the amount of bonus Bits included in the larger Bit packs. 

EGO ABILITIES AND PERKS

• Reduced effectiveness of the Fortitude perk.
• Fixed the Pumped Up perk so that the gameplay effect matches the description.

ACHIEVEMENTS, PURSUITS AND CONTRACTS

• ‘Save Your Ganchis’ achievement can now be completed.
• ‘101 Keys’ pursuit can now be completed. 
• Paradise Daily Explosions 101 contract can now be completed.
• Fixed an issue that caused mutants at the South Radio Tower not to count towards the Atlas Attrition contract.
• Fixed “Equip a [weapon type]” pursuit objectives to trigger off equipping mission rewards.

CINEMATICS

• Continued to polish existing cut scenes.
• Added new cut scenes for episodic story lines.

AUDIO

• Polish for combat music timing.
• Increased Nim’s voice over radius.

USER INTERFACE

• Continued UI polish and bug fixing.
• Added new notifications for players who reach certain EGO ratings without ever using some features such as the social menu, shadow war, competitive multiplayer, co-op maps, and clans.
• Area and region names now appear on the map and fade in and out when zooming the map.
• Searching for a player will now display clan, EGO rating, and their location if they are online.
• Voice settings now save between logouts.
• Added a time and date display below the mini-map.
• Turning remapping on/off will no longer wipe out remappings
• Inventory listing will mark which items are in loadouts other than the current one
• Remove Ctrl+Q from quitting game
• Show inventory at vehicle merchants will list your current vehicles so you can compare them to the ones in the store
• Requirements are now displayed on the CO-OP matchmaking screen.
• New option in Salvage Matrix to reset weapon mastery points.
• Fixed ark salvage spam when exiting menus if you broke down a lot of items in the salvage matrix
• Fixed a map icon at the overpass that disappeared whenever the player was phased.
• Fixed an issue that caused character creation to not always start properly.
• Fixed an issue that sometimes caused mission objective radii to not show up on the mini-map.
• Fixed an issue that caused /whisper text chat messages not to work.
• Fixed an issue that caused the map cursor to shift.

MISCELANEOUS

• Added fast travel point near Coit Tower.
• Optimized ‘Go to Friend’ and ‘Teleport to Shadow War’ functionality.

PC

• Menu wheel now displays automatically when opening the EGO Menu.
• Fixed handling of duplicate account logins on PC.
• Fixed bugs in the login queue.
• Fixed client startup crash when Steam is in offline mode.

XBOX 360

• Kinect Help menu messaging is much more approachable.
• Fixed some Xbox 360 frame rate issues near bodies of water.

PLAYSTATION 3

• Fixed an issue that prevented back to back logins.