[GameSpot] - CoD: Warzone 2 Mid-Season Patch Notes Include Major QoL Updates And Nerf For Overpowered AI

[343iBot]

Call of Duty: Warzone 2's Season 1 Reloaded update is live, and Raven Software has revealed the patch notes for the big mid-season update. Season 1 Reloaded adds two more operators and a new assault rifle to the battle royale. There are also several quality-of-life updates, which include changes to XP token menu, bug fixes, and nerfs to riot shields and the game's overpowered AI.

According to the patch notes, the developer made general improvements to lighting and shadows across several major points of Interest on the Al Mazrah map. A new building location named Building 21 was also added for DMZ mode, but players must discover how to locate and access the new area.

While the number of active Stronghold locations has been increased from three to five, the AI enemies should no longer feel overpowered here. Their damage per bullet was reduced by 26%, and the number of AI per site was reduced by 50%. Additionally, AI reinforcements were nerfed to give more time between waves of enemies, and the size of the waves were reduced by 30%.

Warzone 2's weapon balancing includes a pistol nerf, as the Akimbo P890, X12, Basilisk, and .50 GS have received a damage reduction against armored opponents. The riot shield is also nerfed with reduced movement speed and melee damage lowered to a three-hit kill. Changes were made to attachment tuning, but the patch notes vaguely describe the changes as "most beneficial tuning value magnitudes have been increased, and some harmful tuning value magnitudes have been decreased."

DMZ mode is adding perks. Successfully extracting multiple times in a row will award players with random perks for their next match. Other DMZ specific changes include increased spawn rates for items like self revives, gas masks, and field upgrades in first aid kits, and increased rates for plate carriers, backpacks, and field upgrades in weapon stashes.

Quality-of-life improvements across both modes includes an updated social tab with smaller player card widgets for friends, fixes for various bugs impacting the join and/or invite to party features, and an updated XP token menu. The XP tokens menu has been changed to finally display how much time is left on XP tokens.

Although previously announced, the patch notes reveal that Warzone 2's Combat Record feature will not be launching with Season 1 Reloaded, which Raven Software says is due to concerns about the accuracy of the data population. The developer says an update will be provided when available.

There are also several bug fixes included in the update, including fixed audio issues, patched exploits, and more. The full patch notes can be found below, as shared by Raven Software.

Season 1 Reloaded includes a limited-time soccer-themed mode, and here is everything you need to know about the Warzone Cup event. Here we highlight everything announced for Modern Warfare 2's mid-season update.

MODES

General

• The XP tokens menu has been changed to display how much time is left on your XP tokens in the lobby screen.
• XP Tokens can now be equipped in the pause menu while in-game.
• XP Tokens can no longer be accidentally activated during Double XP events.
• Players who join a game in progress will no longer get a loss if their team loses the match.
• Attachments now have a tuning icon on them in preview,, indicating which ones can be tuned and which ones cannot.
• Finishing Moves now count towards the 30 kills in third person Daily Challenge in Special Ops.
• "Stickerbook Challenges” in the After Action Report screen now say “Calling Card Challenge” instead.
• Operator bios are no longer cut off part of the way through.
• Acquiring a new blueprint will now display a pulsing dot next to the associated weapon in Gunsmith.
• Players will no longer seeing a black screen on some platforms when trying to purchase CP.
• Various issues with weapon and attachment unlocks and progression have been addressed, including stats display.

Social

• Merged Hub & Friends tabs together.
• Switched to smaller Player Card widgets for Friends.
• Added support for batch/bulk sending of friend requests.
• Fixed various bugs impacting the join and/or invite to party features.
• Transition to Grid view when scrolling in Friends list.

Showcases

• Camera positions on Operators have been adjusted for better positioning with the UI
• Adjustments to Filter/Sort
• Fixed the Player Browser so it no longer scrolls when it isn’t full.
• Fixed an issue with Calling Cards not showing up in a players Showcase after they have set them.
• Fixed an issue where players weren’t properly sorting by progression in the Player Browser.
• Hides the empty attachments nodes on Weapon Inspection when there are no attachments slotted.

Channels

• Adjusted member list states (muted, talking, connected, etc.) to be more clear
• Adjusted text message states in game channel to be more clear who they were sent to
• Players in member list will now be divided by team in lobbies
• Fixed an issue where lobby players were still able to be heard when connected to a custom channel
• Added the ability to text chat with "Group" members

Groups

• Find or create communities with this new social feature. Check out the most recent COD Blog for more.

WEAPONS

New Weapons

• Chimera
  • With an integrated suppressor and slow, high-energy subsonic .300 BLK rounds, the Chimera is adept at close-quarters combat. Subsonic Ammo hides kill skulls from the enemy team.
  • Unlockable via Weapon Challenge or Store Bundle

Weapon Adjustments

» General «

• Akimbo P890, X12, Basilisk, and .50 GS have received a damage reduction against armored opponents
• Fixed an issue causing shotguns to inconsistently display the broken armor hitmarker

Kastov-74u

Small reduction to close damage; three hits to kill requires at least one chest hit

M13B

Blocking underbarrel launcher and shotgun on 7” Bruen B-M20 barrel

Kastov 545

• Increase to muzzle velocity
• Small decrease to hip spread
• Increase close damage
• Increase to chest damage multiplier

» Submachine Guns «

MX9

Increased movement speed, ADS speed, and sprint to fire speed on the 32 round magazine

VEL 46

• Reduced hip spread
• Increased movement speed
• Increased far damage

» Handguns «

Basilisk

Blocking Basilisk compensators and flash hider on the FTAC ARROW barrel

Adding muzzle attachment usage on the FTAC ARROW barrel: LOCKSHOT KT85, SA LEVELER 55, CRONEN DARK KX30

.50 GS

• Increased 1 hit headshot range
• Increased damage range
• Increased neck and upper shoulder location damage multipliers
• Increased bullet velocity
• Increased damage range on SA LONGSHOT – 50 and SA TYRANT FIFTY barrel

» Shotguns «

Shotguns can no longer kill fully armored players in one shot

Expedite 12

• Added guard category:
• TV CF40 Guard
• AZ-40 Shotguard
• AZAROV T15

» Melee «

Riot Shield

• Reduced movement speed
• Reduced melee damage to 3 hit kill
• Shield movement animation improvement
• Longer switch time pulling out throwing knife when riot shield is equipped

» Launchers «

JOKR

Missiles no longer land out of bounds when targeting a wall on the edge of a map

Improved the thermal readability when aiming in

VEHICLES

Vehicle Balancing Adjustments

• Reduced collision damage taken by the Heavy Chopper, especially from landing.
• Increase health and damage resistance of the UTV.
• Increased falling damage to the ATV & UTV.
• Added custom turret rotation speed for the APC, Light Tank & Heavy Tank.
• Increased damage done by A.I to both LTV versions.
• Reduced distance that boats can be piloted when completely out of water
• Adjusted vehicle exits to limit chances of not being able to exit on steep slopes
• Players will no longer get the “out of bounds” countdown when taking a vehicle from an enemy's restricted area in Ground War, and driving out of the zone
• Fixed an issue where the player would continue to see the countdown if they get into a vehicle just outside the zone

OTHER

• Friendly Player Visibiltiy
  • Friendly player nameplates disappear when an enemy is in the direct path of an ally, to prevent mistaking enemies for allies.
  • In Tier 1 mode, this change only applies to allies behind geo. Allies with line of sight will always show nameplates to prevent friendly fire.

KILLSTREAKS

• Players that have been killed in one-life modes with revive capabilities, such as Knock Out, will no longer be marked as an active player when using the Cruise Missile, Chopper Gunner, or Gunship

• Care Package
  • Fixed an issue that allowed players to spawn on a position where a care package is occupying, resulting in an immediate death

• MGB
  • Fixed an issue that prevented players from calling out the MGB while swimming underwater

• Juggernaut
  • The Juggernaut should now correctly switch between their minigun and pistol when entering and exiting water
  • Explosive weapons that stick to the Juggernaut (such as the Semtex, Drill Charge, etc...) should now inflict more damage against it
  • Fixed an issue where Juggernauts sometimes died to a single throwing knife in Tier 1

• SAE
  • Fixed an issue that prevented explosions from doing damage to neutral and enemy occupied vehicles

• Sentry Gun
  • Fixed an exploit that allowed Sentry Guns to be placed under the map in certain locations

FIELD UPGRADES

• Portable Radar
  • Portable Radars can now stick to vehicles

EQUIPMENT

• Radiation Blocker
  • Now prevents the use of this equipment when performing a number of different actions such as slotting in armor.
  • This should resolve a few issues where players no longer had their weapon, or could not interact with items.

• Thermite Grenades
  • Thermites will no longer persist on a player that was stuck, then died, and respawned again.

ATTACHMENTS

Tuning

• Most beneficial Tuning value magnitudes have been increased.
• Some harmful Tuning value magnitudes have been decreased.

Optics

• Thermal Optics
  • Increased range of all optics thermal target identification range
  • Enemies’ heat signature fades when they are killed
  • DRESXOM PRIME-90
    • Improved quality of thermal image for improved target acquisition (including the Basileus Victus XMR blueprint from the Battlepass)
  • XTEN ANGEL-40
    • Fixed rangefinder to fit in lens on the GS .50
  • SZ HoloTerm
    • Increased contrast on optic thermal rendering for improved target acquisition
    • Added thermal toggle feature
  • THERMO-OPTIC X9
    • Increased contrast on optic thermal rendering for improved target acquisition

BUG FIXES

• Fixed an issue causing the game client to freeze upon unlocking Sector A15 in the Battle Pass.

• Fixed an issue causing reward previews to not appear as intended while navigating the Battle Pass.

• Fixed audio cutting off when skidding.

• Fixed attacking with fists causing players to lean out of vehicles.

AUDIO

• Fixed Dolby Atmos data issue where some sounds were not panning to ceiling speakers.

• Audio occlusion remains disabled in multiplayer as we investigate continuity issues impacting some players.

DEC 14 | WARZONE 2.0

PLAYLIST

Battle Royale

• Solos
  • Max Players: 150
  • Assimilation: Off
• Duos
  • Max Players: 150
  • Assimilation: Refill
• Quads
  • Max Players: 152
  • Assimilation: Refill
• Mini Royale
  • Trios
    • Max Players: 54
    • Assimilation: Refill

• Warzone Cup
  • Trios
    • Max Players: 6
    • Assimilation: Off

DMZ

• Trios
  • Max Players: 60
  • Assimilation Setting: Up to 6 Players Per Squad

For regular updates about the Playlist and other Scheduled Events, check out the dedicated Warzone Trello Board.

MAP

• General improvements to lighting and shadows across several major Points of Interest on Al Mazrah

DMZ

• Building 21 New Area
  • Mysterious new keys have arrived in Al Mazrah… but where do they lead?
  • Limited intel on access to the biological laboratory known as Building 21 will take players outside of Al Mazrah and into a hyper-dangerous new area of DMZ.

GAMEPLAY

Battle Royale Adjustments

• Stronghold & Blacksite AI
  • Increased number of active Strongholds to 5, up from 3
  • AI combatants
    • Damage per bullet reduced by 26%
    • Number of units per site reduced by 50%
    • Further reductions based on Squad sizes
  • AI combatant reinforcements
    • Doubled time between waves
    • Number of units per wave reduced by 30%
  • Black Site
    • AI combatants now have additional Armor
    • Rewards an upgraded version of the Stronghold UAV which will sweep twice as far and about 30% faster

DMZ Adjustments

• Cash Values
  • General changes to valuable items
  • Changes to cash rewards for Contracts

• Container Spawn Rates
  • Increased Self Revives, Gas Masks, and Field Upgrades in First Aid Kits
  • Increased Plate Carriers, Backpacks, and Field Upgrades in Weapon Stashes
  • Decreased electronic components in Computer Towers
  • Decreased Toothpaste in Medical Cabinets
  • Decreased number of items found in Black Markets

• Plea for Help
  • Eliminated Players are now able to request help from enemy Players, resulting in them joining the enemy Squad as a new member

• XP Tokens
  • Can now be activated in the main lobby menu

• Random Perks
  • Successfully extracting multiple times in a row will provide Players with random Perks for their next Infil

• Medium & Large Backpacks
  • These now allow for a third Weapon slot

• Faction Missions
  • Made improvements to descriptions for better clarity

EQUIPMENT

• Bomb Drone
  • Players with 3 Armor Plates on the outer radius of an explosion will survive but receive critical damage.

• Radiation Blocker DMZ
  • Now prevents the use of the equipment when performing a number of different actions such as slotting in Armor Plates.

PERKS

• Perk Packages
  • Default Loadouts have been updated.

QUALITY OF LIFE

• Out of Bounds
  • Time allowed outside of the playable area has been increased to 10 seconds.

• Ammunition
  • When Players drop a Weapon, the respective Ammunition will also drop to the ground. Moving forward, this Ammunition will be automatically looted should other Players with a partial stack of the same Ammunition type walk over it.

• Ground Loot
  • We’ve made improvements to ground loot priority so that interacting with desired items is easier.

• Buy Stations
  • Items purchased via Buy Stations will spawn spread out rather than stacked for easier interaction.

• Gulag Elimination Alert
  • A sound will play to notify the Squad when a member in the Gulag has eliminated an opponent or been eliminated.

UI/UX

• Combat Record
  • Although previously announced, Warzone 2.0 Combat Records will not be launching with Season 01 Reloaded due to concerns about the accuracy of the data population. However, we continue to work on this feature and the implementation of Leaderboards and will provide an update when available.

BUG FIXES

• Fixed various issues that prevented Player nameplates from appearing while spectating.

• Fixed collision issues with various elements across Al Mazrah allowing Players to exploit/peek/shoot through them.

• Fixed an issue that prevented Players from hearing Bomb Drone audio (beeps) at intended distances.

• Fixed an issue that caused the Enemy Marking Your Squad progress bar to not fill correctly when being interrogated.

• Fixed an issue that caused black, widescreen bars to appear at the top and bottom of the screen.

• Fixed an issue that caused Players and AI combatants to not render properly during a match.

• Fixed an issue that prevented Players from editing Custom Loadouts while in the Firing Range.

• Fixed an issue that prevented Players from pinging a Loadout Drop.

• Fixed an issue that caused Players to Redeploy further from their team than intended when a Jailbreak became active.

• Fixed an issue that caused Weapons to function incorrectly when dropped and picked up on the Train.

• Fixed an issue that caused the Daily Challenges to overlap the Squad window.

• Fixed an issue that prevented Players from interacting with Loot Cache while crouched or proned.

• Fixed an issue that caused the Circle Closing countdown audio to not play after opening the Tac Map.

• Fixed an issue that caused a Black Site Person of Interest to follow Players further from the Black Site than intended.

• Fixed an issue that caused Bounty Contract UI to remain on screen after a Player was assimilated.

• Fixed an issue that caused the Resupply Perk UI not displaying its progress bars correctly.

• Fixed an issue that caused placeholder text to appear instead of Player IDs.

• Fixed an issue that allowed Players to operate most vehicles while leaning out of the window.

• Fixed issues with textures on various destroyed vehicles.

• Fixed an issue that allowed Players to use a Finishing Move on their own teammate after a Gulag win.

• Fixed an issue that caused the screen to flash if a Player attempted to return to the main menu during the victory phase at the end of a match.

• Fixed an issue that caused the game client to freeze or remove Players from the match when interacting with Buy Stations.

• Fixed an issue that prevented the defuse option from consistently appearing while interacting with Bombs in Strongholds.

• Fixed an issue that prevented eliminations from appearing in the Kill Feed.

• Fixed an issue that prevented Kill Feed notifications when friendly Players were downed.

• Fixed an issue that prevented Players using keyboard and mouse input from pinging elements on the Tac Map.

• Fixed an issue that prompted Players to install Single Player Campaign content while attempting to queue for Modes in the Battle Royale Playlist.

• Fixed an issue that caused incorrect match placement to appear on screen after a Players Squad is eliminated.

• Fixed an issue that caused Players to skip the downed state despite having a Revive Pistol.

• Fixed an issue that prevented Players from interacting with end of match options including Spectate, Play Again With Squad, Play Again, and Leave Game.

• Fixed an issue that resulted in Contract failure when eliminating the Black Site Person of Interest with a Vehicle, Killstreak, or Bomb Drone.

• Fixed an issue that caused Weapon selections to default back to an M4 or P890 while editing Custom Loadouts.

• Fixed an issue that caused the game client to crash while navigating Warzone 2.0 Playlist options.

• Fixed an issue that caused a performance drop when attempting to navigate the Social menu during a live match.

• Fixed an issue that caused placeholder images to appear in the Vehicle Customization menu.

• Fixed an issue that caused the engine audio of certain Vehicles to disappear while being driven.

• Fixed an issue that caused the screen to flicker during live matches.

• Fixed an issue that allowed Players to max out Cash while interacting with ground loot.

• Fixed an issue that caused Tactical Equipment to not render properly when using the “Strzyga” Gromsko Operator skin.

• Fixed an issue that allowed Players to avoid drowning by holding a Revive Pistol in hand.

• Fixed an issue that allowed a Player to loot multiple Loadouts after completing a Stronghold contract.

• Fixed an issue that prevented ATVs from taking fall damage.

• Fixed an issue that caused Loadout Drops to provide equipment that did not match the intended Custom Loadout selection.

• Fixed various issues that caused performance drops and environmental artifacting while spectating a Squad member.

• Fixed an issue that caused performance drops when a Player was eliminated in smoke from a Smoke Grenade.

• Fixed an issue that caused Contract Phones to not render properly in close proximity.

• Fixed an issue that prevented Players from picking up the Contract Phones on some surfaces.

• Fixed an issue that caused visual corruption while using the VLK x4.0 Scope.

• Fixed an issue that prevented a Squad’s total cash from updating correctly after Assimilating a Player.

• Fixed an issue that caused the HUD to disappear when a Player was eliminated while holding a Precision Airstrike Killstreak.

• Fixed various visual issues with elements across Al Mazrah.

• Fixed an issue that prevented Players from picking up awarded Stronghold Keys from loot piles upon completing a Stronghold.

• Fixed an issue that caused the Infil plane to spawn in the middle of the field and causing Players to receive the Out of Bounds warning while deploying.

• Fixed an issue that caused certain items to float in the air after being placed on a vehicle prior to it moving.

• Fixed an issue that prevented Battle Royale victories from counting towards Mastery Challenge progress.

• Fixed an issue that caused active Players to be incorrectly removed from the match due to inactivity.

• Fixed an issue that allowed Players to use melee attacks while swapping seats in a vehicle.

• Fixed an issue that caused Champion’s Quest HUD elements to disappear during the mission.

• Fixed a visual issue with parachutes while using the Akimbo Grip attachments.

• Fixed an issue that caused the incorrect information to appear on the distance indicator on the left side of the screen when using a Spotter Scope.

• Fixed an issue that prevented spectators from switching between Player View and Helmet Cam while viewing a Player parachuting.

• Fixed an issue that caused Safecracker Contract loot to clip into the area around an opened safe.

• Fixed an issue that caused the Jailer to stand still and not engage Players after appearing in the Gulag.

• Fixed an issue that caused Players to see Loadout Drop icons while in the Gulag.

• Fixed an issue that caused a pinged Stronghold to not appear on the minimap.

• Fixed an issue that caused a Player’s arm to be stuck in the air after hanging on a ledge and jumping off.

• Fixed an issue that caused the Player XP summary to overlap with match placement text after being eliminated.

• Fixed an issue that caused Supply Boxes to drop the same loot after a Restock Event.

• Fixed an issue that caused a safe from a Safecracker Contract to spawn inside an inactive Stronghold.

• Fixed an issue that allowed Players to enter vehicles while uploading data during Intel Contracts.

• Fixed an issue that caused the Champion’s Quest bomb objective to spawn underground.

• Fixed an issue that caused Loot Card icons to overlap.

• Fixed an issue that allowed the turret on the back of the Armored Patrol Boat to damage the boat.

• Fixed an issue with missing descriptions for items in the Buy Station.

DMZ

• Fixed an issue that caused match disconnect messages to appear in the Kill Feed.

• Fixed an issue that allowed eliminations and loot caches in DMZ to count towards Battle Royale Mastery Challenges.

• Fixed an issue that caused some Blueprints to not be usable in DMZ.

• Fixed an issue that caused Lethal and Tactical Equipment to not count towards Faction Missions when extracting.

• Fixed an issue where some “use” prompts did not work correctly for some faction missions.

• Fixed an issue that caused the “Hunt Squad” contract to reward cash when the target squad exfils.

• Fixed an issue that caused the sensitive documents in the “'Caved In” mission to not be usable.

• Fixed an issue that caused caches in the Secure Nuclear Material contract to sometimes spawned in locked areas.

• Fixed an issue that caused destroyed Reinforcement Helicopters to not track reliably in Faction Missions.

• Fixed an issue that caused the Weapons Research mission to not track properly.

• Fixed an issue where players were unable to view tier 3 missions for Legion or White Lotus and tier 4 missions for Black Mous.

• Fixed an issue that caused killstreak elimination missions to track progress when using any killstreak in any game mode.

• Fixed an issue that caused some missions progress to reset when deselected and reselected.

• Fixed an issue that caused charges from the Destroy Supplies contract not doing damage.

• Fixed an issue that prevented players from being able to destroy some contraband weapons properly.

• Fixed an issue that resulted in some key/intel note pickups randomly going missing after a few minutes of gameplay.

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