BioWare has been busy over the weekend, fixing Anthem’s issues and bugs, while preparing for the release of future content. Two live hotfixes were added to the game on 23rd and 24th of February. The studio also expanded their roadmap a little bit with details on Act I contents and announced what they are working on for an upcoming update.
Anthem’s launch was far smoother than the Demo events from a few weeks ago. BioWare’s looter shooter is now officially live and the devs are eager to show how much they are supporting the game already and paying attention to player feedback.A good thing is that Anthem is build in a way that allows the developers to patch certain parts of the game without having to take it offline, even without us having to download anything.
THE FEBRUARY 23 HOTFIX
On February 22nd – Launch Day, there was an announcement of a small hotfix (on the server side – no download) to be applied. It came on the next day and addressed some urgent issues with the final boss of The Heart of Rage Stronghold and some crashing incidents. Here are the patch notes, as posted by community manager Jesse Anderson:
As some of you have noticed there are certain fixes that we can make without any patches (live changes), but there are others that require a client-side fix that needs to be downloaded. We have identified the following issues and are working on a client patch to resolve them:
- The final boss in the “Return to the Heart of Rage” stronghold and crit path mission will now properly appear if a squad of freelancers wipe before reaching it.
- HDR on consoles can now be properly turned on.
- Fixed a number of issues that were causing players to crash.
UPCOMING FEATURES AND FIXES
On February 22 BioWare also revealed what most urgent fixes and changes the studio has been busy working on for Anthem. Here’s the list:
Coin changes for Daily/Weekly
We have fixed an issue that displayed and rewarded the incorrect amount of Coin from various activities
Stronghold Matchmaking
We have extended the timer that allows for matchmaking in a stronghold. This should allow groups to fill easier when matchmaking
Non-stop Rain
We have fixed an issue that was causing it to rain in game more than intended
Fusion Proc Bonuses on Weapons
Weapons were incorrectly applying infusion proc/bonuses from being equipped when they should only have been applying bonuses from the weapon that was in the active slot
Chests found in Missions changes
Chests found in missions now have less of a chance to drop higher tiered items
Emotes Not Properly Saving
We have fixed the issue that was causing emotes not to save properly when bound
Shield Fix
We corrected an issue that was allowing players who still have shields active to be one shot by high damaging attacks
Check the Patch Notes section on VULKK.com to find the latest updates to Anthem. And don’t forget to sign up for new posts notifications to get the news as soon as they are posted.
THE FEBRUARY 24 HOTFIX
The issue that was fixed with the second small server-side hotfix was related to the Appearance tab‘s settings not being remembered as you exit the Forge. Once again, community manager Jesse Anderson updates us on the changes via a Reddit post:
We have deployed a fix that should address the issue some players were facing when trying to personalize their javelins. After personalizing in the Forge your settings should hold now. This fix also addresses the issue where some players were unable to craft the Dawn Shield during the crit path missions.
THE UPDATED ACT I ROADMAP
The “we will give you more info next week” saying hyped me for really new info beyond the already announced Anthem post-launch Roadmap. I was a little disappointed to learn that almost nothing has actually been revealed by BioWare’s updating of the Anthem Acts page on the official site.
Just in case you are curious, though, here’s what we have below. And keep in mind that BioWare does not keep details away from us because they don’t want to share. In Mark Darrah’s own words we learned a few days ago that the real reason is legal – because of the public company that BioWare is part of (EA).
RECURRING EVENTS
FEBRUARY 2019
MARCH 2019
APRIL 2019
MAY 2019
By the looks of it April will be a busy month for all of us Anthem fans. Well, the question is, will you (and me :P) be ready for the Cataclysm when it arrives?
As more information is revealed about future content of Anthem, you will be able to find it all here on VULKK.com!
OTHER FIXES AND ISSUES UPDATES
As you know, Anthem struggles a bit with FPS and performance on PC. It seems many players are complaining of the bad PC port. I wont speak for myself, but my collective Anthem Problems and Fixes post has a lot of info to help at least some of you make the game run and/or run smoother.
While the complaints for stutter and crashing continue, BioWare has some answers to other issues that are actively being reported and discussed by the community.
INSCRIPTIONS NOT WORKING PROPERLY OR BEING USELESS
If you have reached the highest level (30) and are farming your end-game gear and build, you may have noticed that some of the Masterwork and Legendary items are “not quite up to their level” so to speak. Producer Darrin McPherson answers a player’s twitter post with interesting info and a promise to bring changes to how Inscriptions are distributed (rolled) to Masterwork and Legendary items.
Yo Luke. We hear you and we making changes to how inscriptions are distributed. 1. Masterwork, & Legendary items are MUCH more likely to get rolls that improve them. This is happening very soon. 2. Inscriptions on items are more tailored to that item type. Ty for the feedback!
— Darrin McPherson (@TaliskerDev) February 23, 2019
THE NOT-SO-STEALTH LOOT NERF
For a brief period (well… ~11 hours as stated below) BioWare made an error and created a much higher chance for players to receive high tier items as loot from their adventures. As a result, many hardcore players, who have already reached the endgame and are farming the GM difficulties, were extremely unhappy to see what they thought to be a silent nerf (stealth nerf).
It turned out that this was a mistake from the devs and lead producer Ben Irving was quick to explain it:
In our Friday changes, one of the edits we made had the side effect of increasing certain drop chances. This was not intended. Once we identified the problem we changed it back to how it was before. That was about 11 hours later.
Took a little time for that message to make it around internally and to make sure we understood what happened and how to avoid it going forward.
It’s never our intent to make changes without being transparent, so we wanted to come in here to respond and clarify.
Ben
Note: we did intentionally change the drop rates of rare items in certain chests, per the patch notes we posted
This was met with an uproar from the community. Anthem is a looter game and as such it is expected to reward your hard work with cool things. I myself noticed the nerf too, but thought it’s just bad luck. Well, it’s not. The nerf was real, but it wasn’t really a nerf, just returning to normal.
The community liked these bugged 11 hours, as expected. If you open Reddit (I do it a lot every day :P), you would see many posts and threats pleading for increased drop rates of high quality weapons and gear. I mean… it’s not very rewarding struggling through a GM3 Stronghold only to find one Masterwork item in the end and its inscriptions to be completely worthless.
THE TUESDAY RESET ALLIANCE REWARDS DELAY
On Tuesday we will all witness a weekly reset in Anthem’s Alliance system and missions. BioWare’s Jesse Anderson posted on Twitter to warns about a possible delay between the time the system is reset and the moment we all receive your rewards.
When Alliance points reset today in #AnthemGame you’ll notice you didn’t receive any Coin, but worry not, you haven’t lost anything. The dev team has everything recorded and will be granting all of the Coin you earned the previous week by 12pm CT on Feb. 26th.
— Jesse Anderson (@Darokaz) February 26, 2019
What do you think? Are you at the endgame already? Did you get your first Masterwork (or even Legendary?!) build of your favorite exosuit?
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