In this week’s Fortnite v8.30 patch breakdown, there is a lot to cover. Epic is adding and monitoring a lot of things in preparation for the World Cup qualifiers. Frame-rate monitors and a few optimizations are set in place to see how late game frames are impacted by the number of players. There is also a ton of bug fixes, a new respawn mechanic and even a fix for blank hit-markers.
Reboot Van
The Reboot Van is the newest big addition to the Fortnite map. With a van located in every major POI, players can now revive their fallen teammates. Once a player is thirsted, the teammate has to pick up the card from their loot and put it into the van. Players spawn back in at the top of the truck with a common pistol, 100hp, 36 light ammo and 100 wood.
This respawn mechanic is already helping players to keep their teammates interested in the rest of a game. Normally playing with fill, players just leave once they die. Now players are more engaged in the fight since there is a chance to come back. The card has a 90 second period before disappearing, so the teammate who is alive has plenty of time to kill whoever stands in the way of the card. It is exciting to think about how this mechanic will impact World Cup qualifiers in the hands of pro players.
Buccaneer’s Bounty Event
For the buccaneer’s bounty event, all players are given a set of challenges to complete for in-game rewards. The rewards include a new glider, spray, emblem and special emote. Different challenges unlock each day, so it is important to check back to see what the next day’s challenge is.
If doing challenges in public games is too hard, there is also a new LTM every day. The treasure map spawn rate is also double in LTM’s for the duration of the event, so time to go dig.
Bug Fixes
The list of bug fixes is very long for this update. While all of the bug fixes are minor, they all add up to a somewhat smoother experience overall. One good fix is the clinger exploit. Players who were stuck with a clinger could get into a ball and take no damage. This is not the case anymore.
Traps will now go off if they are blocked with a structure and the structure is destroyed. Before v8.30, the trap would not go off in this instance, leaving many players confused and angry when they died.
Balloon audio is fixed and players will no longer hear balloon effects when doing things like entering a vehicle. The best bug fix of them all was the shotguns sometimes not shooting after switching weapons without re-pressing the fire key. Now the weapon will fire normally during switching.
Hitmarkers are now server based so players will not see a hitmarker unless it does damage. This is a change to ensure players do not get blank hitmarkers and will not see anything unless the server confirms the hit.
Aspect Ratios
Stretched not being allowed in the World cup is still a huge debate, but Fortnite is putting their foot down. With only 16:9 resolutions allowed in competitive modes, players are still making adjustments from stretched to native. In lots of streams, complaints flew about not being able to see due to the lacking field of view (FOV). Since stretched players benefited from an increased FOV, it was much easier to see the fight above and below the player.
In v8.30, Epic locked the FOV for every resolution and made Mac/PC FOV the same. In the future Epic plans to limit ultrawide monitors to 16:9 resolutions as well, eliminating the unfair view advantage. These resolution changes just help to make sure everyone is on the same playing field when it comes to the World Cup.
Competitive
The World Cup qualifiers are finally here. With 10 million dollars over the next 10 weeks, Fortnite is about to get insanely competitive. For players who have been training, this is what it is for. With 100 dollars for the top 1500 players in the finals, the money only gets better the higher players place. With alternating solo and duo tournaments, each weekend will be different.
The top players from each region are getting an invite to the world cup, so players need to perform in order to stand out. Region lock is now enabled, which means players can no longer play multiple tournaments in different regions. This limits players to less practice but keeps it fair for players that can only play in one region due to ping. Server replays for competitive matches are also available after they happen. This means players can watch the fight from top tier players’ POV.
Audio
There is a new in air audio tell for enemies that helps make it easier to hear them coming. The audio cue gives players more awareness when a player is dropping from overhead. The volume of the audio for structure building is also lower now and is further lowered when a player hears footsteps or gunfire. This change is great for hearing enemies around during competitive fights or box fights while walls are building. Footsteps below the player are also louder now in hopes to better alert the player of where the enemy is. Landing sounds for players are also slightly louder.
With all of the audio issues Fortnite has, it is nice to see they are still actively working on it. While there is still much more work to be done this is a step in the right direction in terms of locating players gliding and above/below.
UI
The UI changes are small but make a big difference. Vehicle controls can now be hidden from the player’s screen, giving them a cleaner and more clear look at the screen. Min and max values are also a new change, most likely to monitor end game FPS for competitive. Push to talk is here on console and players have the option to turn it on or off.
Wraps can now be equipped to items that do not fit a weapon category under “Misc.” Items that fall into this category are special weapons like the boom bow. Vehicle health bars are now shown as a number rather than a bar as well. This lets the player know just how much HP their vehicle has left.
The full patch notes can be read here.
Feature Image Courtesy of Epic Games
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