BioWare dropped a client-side patch for Anthem during today’s maintenance. The servers have started to fail more and more often and a fix was needed. Update 1.4.0 brings some valuable and interesting changes and fixes to the game and Cataclysm. In this article I will go over the highlights of the update. For the most curious of you, the full patch notes are also listed here.
THE PATCH HIGHLIGHTS
Let me start with the long-awaited news that will make this patch arguably the best of all – Vault limit has been increased from 250 to 350 slots! Damn! About time! The Junk box is now limited to 200.
A great quality of life improvement is that in the Appearance tab, in Vinyls section, the filters have been switched to reflect the types of items, not their size. Now there are Wraps, Graphics and Decals instead of how it was before – large, medium, small.
Several crafting-related things have been improved, but the best is that now when you craft an item, a Primer/Detonator icon will show up. Well, small quality of life improvement, but valuable. Now all we need is for crafting to be useful in general.
It should now be quicker and smoother to salvage items in the Fault. The animation has been shortened, making the Vault slightly more appealing than before.
There are numerous bug fixes, a few exploit prevention actions have been taken by the devs too.
The update does not bring new content. It releases at the same time with Week 5 of the Cataclysm event. Also today BioWare refreshes the Seasonal Store.
The total size of your download may vary. Here are the standard sizes, as announced by Bioware today:
- PC – 9.3 GB
- PlayStation 4 – 17 GB
- Xbox One – 12.5 GB
HOW TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED IN EMERALD ABYSS
What’s that thing in the Emerald Abyss in Bastion (Freeplay)? BioWare tweeted a tease last night before the patch went live that there would be something new and worth checking out near the landmarks of the Emerald Abyss area.
Well… the new thing is now there! A giant metal construct has appeared towering over the Sanctuary Ruins in the far north of this area. The Cataclysm’s storm is visibly stronger and more louder now too.
There isn’t a new Achievement yet. There is nothing worth doing there, except checking out the now burned down ruins. The area reminds me a lot of what the Zerg used to do in Star Craft – as they expanded their territory, they plague the earth beneath and create this purple slime on the ground. Something similar has happened to the Sanctuary Ruins area now too, but instead of purple, everything is dark, kind of black and quite depressing and sad to look at.
I, for one, am very interested to see how this evolves. Is this going to transform into a follow-up event to the Cataclysm? Could this be a result of our continuous failures to close the damn Cataclysm and end it for good?
In the short clip below you can see what the area looks like after the events – the new burned ruins, the remaining fires here and there and most of all – the giant metal construct towering like a monstrous centipede over the ruins.
And in this next clip below you can see the brand new cinematic that plays when you click the overlook terminal in Emerald Abyss. In the beginning of the clip I am showing you exactly where on the map you can find it. This overlook POI spot used to just show the valley and the ruins before this event happened. Thanks to Elendel1 from LSL Discord for the tip!Official Anthem Update 1.4.0 Patch Notes
UI, Cortex, Quality of Life & Cosmetics
- We’ve increasing Vault limit to 350 items. Enjoy the extra space!
- Because of the increase in inventory size to 350, the Vault’s junk tab is now limited to 200 items. The current item count out of 200 on the junk tab is displayed near the inventory count in the lower-left corner of the Vault. Once the junk tab is full, no items can be junked until others are marked to keep or salvage.
- Fixed an issue causing the player to be warned of hitting the Vault space limit too soon.
- Fixed an issue allowing players to craft items when Vault space is full.
- Fixed an issue that prevented some players from making purchases in the seasonal or featured stores.
- Corrected challenges that were incorrectly named menus. (New Dawn, Dark Passage & Hope Shattered)
- The challenge “Weekly: Darkness Falls” now appears correctly in the Path To Glory > Weekly challenge category.
- The Vault now works correctly when players open melee, then switch to Components in the menu.
- Reduced the target number required to complete “Daily: Note Taker” and “Weekly: Storm Chaser” challenges. (Fewer notes are needed to complete these challenges now.)
- Fixed a bug where repeatedly selecting B/Circle while in weapon selection could cause the camera to get stuck.
- Updated Forge vinyl filter titles from Small/Medium/Large to Decal/Graphic/Wrap.
- Icons for the Shield Sigil were updated to now match the crafting recipe icons.
- The storefront icon for the vinyl wrap “Maker of Rain” was lightened.
- Added timer to seasonal store to show when items will change.
- Text no longer overlaps with other UI elements in the Masterwork support gear blueprints.
- The Challenge “Weekly: Darkness Falls” now has a more accurate description.
- The Challenge “Weekly: Storm Chaser” now has a description.
- Fixed an issue where the Cortex did not always appear when switching between categories.
- Updated descriptions for the following challenges:
- Survival: Made of Brass
- Survival: Made of Iron
- Survival: Made of Steel
- Score: On Target
- Score: Target Locked
- Score: Target Eliminated
- Shifted the position of the Freelancer enclave leaderboard away from a door.
- Clarified the UI text for each Grandmaster difficulty level regarding recommended power levels for activities.
- “Friend Bonus” text changed to “Guild Bonus” where applicable.
- Guild invites can no longer be sent to players on different gaming platforms.
- Quickplay is no longer permanently selected on the Start of Expedition screen.
- Freeplay challenges are now sorted into a “Completed” category in the Cortex when finished.
- A Primer/Detonator icon was added to the animation shown after crafting an item in the Forge.
- Updated the icon for the “Victor’s Resolve” component to better reflect its functionality.
- All references to the challenge “Complete all Mission Challenges” was renamed were updated to “Defender of Tarsis.”
- Expedition difficulty information was added to the expedition “Tracked” menu.
- HUD opacity settings now apply to the player HUD in Fort Tarsis.
- Materials sold by the crafting store vendor now specify how many of each material can be purchased.
- Salvaging animation latency in the Vault and Forge was reduced.
- Various quality of life improvements were made to minor user interface instructions and HUD elements.
- Various fixes and visual improvements were made to various armor packs, wraps and decals.
- Various UI fixes were made.
- Various Cortex and journal entry text and image fixes and improvements were made.
Gameplay
- Fixed an issue that caused the Colossus shield to take no damage from projectiles.
- Loot drops were removed from the first Ursix encounter in the “What Harken Wants” mission to prevent an exploit.
- Fixed an issue that could cause enemies to spawn behind walls in the “Temple of Scar” mission.
- An unintended fog wall was removed from a doorway in the “Temple of Scar” mission.
- The large door in the room before the second chest in the “Temple of Scar” mission no longer becomes invisible when the party is defeated.
- Fixed an issue where the Sticky Grenade/The Gambit and Aftershock/Sentinel’s Vengeance would detonate immediately when attaching to an enemy’s weak point.
- Adjusted a teleport pad position to prevent a player spawning partially under the terrain.
- Corrected the location of the echo pool that summons the optional boss during the “Sea of Takaro” event.
- Increased the force field size in the “Casja’s Forge” event to prevent players from squeezing through without dropping the relic shard while the forcefield is active.
- Fixed an issue preventing Eternal Squall (with multiple charges) from both priming and detonating to trigger a combo.
- Moved the boss in the Sentinel Ambush Scar encounter to spawn from a portal instead of a bunker.
- Implemented a change that un-spawns/removes any additional enemies Vara has spawned once she is defeated.
- Interceptor cluster mine now explodes properly when colliding with a Titan.
- Fixed a bug that caused some players to get trapped under the Forge in rare instances.
- Fixed a bug that caused the loot from Seelos’ defeat to be trapped inside her force field.
- Players will now get a party gather warning when standing near the door of the “Temple of Scar” boss arena.
- Party gather messages no longer appear at the edges of the “Temple of Scar” boss arena.
- Players can now use matchmaking to join in-progress trials in the “Fortress of Dawn” mission.
- The Colossus shield bar no longer disappears when the player tries to open the shield immediately after the bar has fully recharged.
- Interceptor and Ranger support pieces no longer drop with combo bonuses that are only apply to specific gear pieces. (Example: Combo Aura Effect % on a Target Beacon)
- Fixed an issue where health and ammo were not spawning correctly in some instances.
- Fixed an issue that caused the elemental icons on a Storm’s ultimate to be off by one when a player repeatedly pressed the right trigger button.
- Fixed geometry at a number of locations to prevent Freelancers from going out of bounds.
- Various fixes and improvements to Cataclysm content update.
- Various fixes and improvements to non-Cataclysm base game content.
Story, Cinematics & Audio
- Added the ability to skip cinematics if everyone in the squad agrees. Hold the appropriate button to vote to skip the cinematic scene. (B on Xbox One, Circle on PS4, Esc on PC).
- Fixed a rare crash in audio loading code.
- Corrected the lighting of the cinematic scene that occurs after Vara is defeated.
- Fixed a bug that prevented the proper music from loading during Vara/Harken cinematic scenes in Cataclysm content.
- Corrected various music cues during some contract missions.
- Interactable content in Brin’s role-playing episodes is no longer gated by ambient radio recordings; these ambient episodes now occur at the end of the role-playing arc.
- Fixed an issue that caused Owen to disappear from a cutscene on rare occasion.
- Various fixes and improvements to audio issues.
Other General Bug Fixes & Improvements
- Fixed an issue that caused an Infinite Load when loading in the Cataclysm if graphics settings were set to “Low”.
- Fixed an issue causing some players to get stuck at the “End of Expedition” screen after exiting the “Start of Expedition” screen.
- Fixed an occasional crash that occurred when changing weapons/gear caused an “Old item not loaded” error message.
- Fixed a bug that stretched game display elements when playing the game on ultrawide monitors (21:9 ratio).
- Visual effects improved to better balanced nighttime visual environment and performance optimization.
- Fixed an issue with the Sniper laser being green at night, and the beam lighting being too intense.
- Various art fixes.
- Fixed an issue that caused players to be stuck at “Recording Victory” after ending Quickplay.
