Outriders Demo Upcoming Changes Outlined (Update)

Outriders Demo Upcoming Changes

It looks like People Can Fly isn’t done with the Outriders demo just yet! The studio has today announced that a new patch is incoming tomorrow, March 5! The Outriders demo upcoming changes has been revealed today, and there’s a lot of fixes incoming, as well as a plug for that farming area that a lot of players are exploiting these days.

Note that the update rolled out tomorrow is a backend one, and the actual client-side patch is due sometime next week (no firmt date has been given yet).

Outriders Demo Upcoming Changes:

Patching the Demo

We currently have a patch in the pipeline and are intending to release it as soon as it has passed testing (likely early next week). Here is what it will address:

Resolutions that apply to ALL PLATFORMS:

  • Added a Motion Blur Toggle [ALL PLATFORMS]
  • Made minor tweaks to frame rate output for certain items in cutscenes, however, we are working on a more comprehensive fix for the future [ALL PLATFORMS]
  • Made improvements to cut down on the time it takes to Matchmake [ALL PLATFORMS]
  • Made other minor improvements and fixes

Additional resolutions that apply only to PC:

  • Fixed a crash that repeatedly occurred when opening the menu or inventory [PC]
  • Fixed a bug that deletes player gear if their connection drops out during a transition [PC]
  • Improved subtitle display and synchronization during the “Bad Day” quest [PC]

Additional resolutions that apply only to Xbox Platforms:

  • Fixed menu prompts not displaying correctly in supported non-English languages [XBOX]

Additional resolutions that apply only to PlayStation Platforms:

  • Fixed store links on the “Buy Now” button in the Lobby [PS4/5]
    • Note that while the ingame button will be fixed with the patch, you can still search the PlayStation store for “Outriders” should you wish to already pre-order it.
  • Fixed bug that was causing an audio desynchronization in cutscenes [PS4/5]

Changes to the Demo

A backend update to the demo will be done during a short maintenance on Friday, March 5th at 3pm GMT. This will affect all platforms.

This change should be quite seamless and will not require you to download a patch. We are pre-announcing it now in order to give your advance notice of the changes.

Some of these changes, specifically those related to enemies, are in response to feedback we’ve seen coming in from players as well as what our own backend metrics are showing us.

Other changes are intended to only affect the demo, and may not be implemented in the full launch build.

We would like to issue a explanatory note of caution before getting into the changes: While we have balanced the main game with a certain progression system, this progression may be impacted by heavy farming of gear and/or mods in the demo. As some players are front-loading a lot of that progression (such as by trying to fill their mod library or acquire multiple Legendaries) within the demo content already, their experience of parts of the main game may well be impacted.

Of course, it’s every player’s decision how to play the game for themselves and we do not want to prevent people from farming the demo for gear if they enjoy it. However, we would like to ensure that this process is not overly simplistic, easy or prone to exploitation.

What’s changing?

  • Changes to Captains
    • The Captain mob ability “Healing Light” will have its effectiveness reduced.
    • The Captain mob ability “From the Ashes” and “Phoenix Aura” will have their cooldowns increased.
      • Some players were finding it hard to fully kill Captains who would trigger these abilities, making for a frustrating rather than a challenging but fun encounter.
  • Changes to Gauss
    • Gauss will have his health points increased for repeat playthroughs.
      • This is to ensure that he remains fun and challenging for players who are overpowered at this point in the story.
    • Gauss healing from his ability “Steel Wall” will be increased.
  • Changes to loot drops
    • While we do not want to prevent farming runs (We get it!), the lootcave discovered via the triple chest-run, as well as the store exploit, do not feel to be within the spirit of the game. To that end, we are redirecting farming efforts to mechanics in the game that may be more enjoyable for players to play through and repeat.
      • Epic items will no longer appear in shops and vendors (within the demo).
      • Chests will no longer drop legendary items.
      • Side quest rewards (on repeat runs) will now have a chance to drop legendary items.

Drop rates for enemies are NOT being changed at this time as we feel these are balanced quite well for the average player experience. RIP that captain.

Note that running this backend update now is also a way for us to pre-emptively ensure that such backend balancing can be a straightforward, low impact method of also rectifying any excessive balance issues in the main game.

For more on the demo feedback the studio has collected and explanation, head on over here.

Once the demo update is out, we ‘ll be sure to let our readers know. Check out what we think of the demo in our impressions piece. There are also Bulletsorm Easter eggs in the game which we’ve compiled.

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