Servers will be coming offline tomorrow at 3AM Pacific (5/27) for approximately 2 hours

Patch Notes:

• Full server and world wipe (we prefer to give more notice but this came in hot)
• Reduced the ratio of bears and wolf spawns
• Reduced the ratio of predator and prey spawns
• Added a delay for damage on zombie attacks to match animation
• Improved the zombie screamer grenade to attract zombies more effectively
• Walkers and runners now have varied attack speeds
• Walkers attack slower and do more damage per hit
• Runners attack faster and do less damager per hit
• Combat knife headshots should work again
• Set Comfort to start at 100%
• Forced scope is temporarily disabled while we made adjustments
• Containers inside a secure structure do not show up for someone if they no clip into the base. They will reappear once the door is opened.
• New characters and /respawn will now place you relatively near a POI

Source: Reddit r/h1z1

All King of the Kill servers will be coming offline tomorrow (Friday, 5/27) at 3AM Pacific for approximately 2 hours.

Patch Notes:

• Removed “failed interaction” sound effect
• Removed ambient twig-snapping sound effects
• Removed the delay before players can shoot after exiting a vehicle
• Removed voice chat from loading screens for all game modes
• Fixed issue where players are occasionally dying while driving a vehicle*
• Fixed issue where players are occasionally teleporting after falling off an ATV
• Fixed bug affecting bullet-drop for AR-15

Source: h1z1.com

More screen shots from z2 by the illustrious @jcdeebart for @H1Z1KotK pic.twitter.com/9q1QQjeAcq

— Sebastian (@crowempires) May 26, 2016

Servers will be coming offline tomorrow 5/25 at 3AM for approximately 2 hours.

Patch Notes:

• Voice chat should now be disabled during loading screens
• The failed interaction audio should be more subtle
• Box of Destiny music should no longer be suddenly cut-off
• Fixed issue with ambient audio stopping after loading screen
• Fixed issue with AK-47 audio being loud and echoing in and around certain building types
• Safe Zones from Ignition should no longer appear in games of BR
• Vehicles should no longer randomly explode in Safe Zones
• General performance increase

Known issues that are in the process of being addressed:

• Players getting teleported after being ejected from an inverted vehicle
• Players randomly dying while driving a vehicle

https://www.h1z1.com/king-of-the-kill/news/game-update-may-25th

All King of the Kill servers will be coming down tomorrow (5/20) at 3:00AM Pacific for approximately 4 hours. 

Patch notes:

Ignition is now live!  It’s pretty intense, so we’ve turned on the skirmish servers for when you need a break from the action.

New Game Mode: Ignition
Ignition is a high-intensity, frenzied game mode where the clock is always ticking. Players are outfitted with an explosive device that's set to blow unless they gear up fast, jump on their ATV, and gun it to the safe zone. Every second matters in this turbo-charged battle to the death as players race from safe zone to safe zone before their time runs out.

New Ignition Features:

• Players are lowered into battle from a Helicopter on an ATV
• Helicopters will hover over safe zones and mark them with green lights
• Safe zones are locked for 30 seconds at the end of each round
• Special air-drops will be available at the end of each round, marked by purple smoke
• ATVs have been re-tuned for better handling and have Turbo

New King of the Kill Features:

• Updated match rewards for Battle Royale and Ignition
• In 2-man and 5-man BR, teammates will now be outlined and seen through structures and objects
• Signs have been added to the Box of Destiny featuring game mode information and tips
• New loading screens have been added for Battle Royale and Ignition

Gameplay Improvements:
 

• Hip-fire has been re-tuned to make firing while moving and jumping less accurate
• It’s no longer possible to change seats in a moving vehicle
• Shotgun shot distribution should be more consistent
• Shotgun damage will fall off based on distance
• Bombing runs have been re-tuned and should cause less chaos
• Improvements to hit registration
• Added more vehicle spawns to Cranberry
• Kevlar is now called Body Armor

Visuals:

• Incoming hit-indicator is more visible
• Parachutes have a new animation
• Toxic gas should be less dense/opaque
• Molotov’s have a new explosion effect
• New vehicle effects including tire trails and explosive effects

Audio:

• Victory music added during the celebration sequence for winners
• Music added to the Box of Destiny
• New vehicle audio for bottoming out and the helicopter
• Stingers added to Ignition to indicate time remaining and new rounds
• New rifle sounds
• New near-miss sounds
• New ambience sounds

Bug Fixes:

• Added better method of ensuring all players start the game at the same time
• Fixed issue where team auto-fill was not functioning correctly
• Fixed issue where a loot bag could occasionally float in the air when a jumping player was killed
• Fixed issue where buildings would occasionally not render at distance, but players inside would render and could be shot
• Fixed issue where players would sometimes appear to clap their hands or stand awkwardly when riding in a vehicle
• Fixed issue where players were unable to enter vehicles as a passenger from the drivers side
• Fixed issue where the AK-47 would sometimes keep firing while reloading
• Fixed issue where the first-person camera would occasionally shake or lad while riding as a passenger in a vehicle
• Fixed several issues with Spectate mode including mouse-wheel functionality
• Fixed collision issue at the roll-up garage doors at the dam
• Fixed issue that would cause unintended brightness or darkness at lower quality settings levels
• All skinned weapons should be repairable, and all skinned jackets should be re-skinnable
• Mute-all functionality should now persist through log-ins

Known Issues:

Occasionally the helicopter will not spawn in causeing you to fall to your death at the start of the game or show up over a safe zone. Both of these have fixes in various stages of developement and will be rolled out as soon as they are fixed.

More Z2 progress from environment artist Carson Steil working on new churches for @H1Z1JustSurvive pic.twitter.com/bCyD3u9WHU

— Sebastian (@crowempires) May 19, 2016

Daybreak have announced that they will be lowering server capacities in an update tomorrow. We know that the current maximum server capacity is 200 but they have not specified by how much they are loweing this number. Here is what they had to say about the change:  

Hey everyone

We have noticed in the past few days that performance has been taking a hit on the most populated Just Survive servers. We are going to be making a few changes on our end that should boost performance across the board. There will be some minor downtime tomorrow (5/19) at 3AM as we roll out these changes.

In an effort to reduce KOS and crank up the zombie fear factor we are going to be lowering the max player cap per server. This should make encounters with other survivors a little rarer while still keeping the high zombie count. This will come with the minor server downtime. These changes might cause you to see longer than normal queue times at peak hours.

Source: Reddit r/h1z1

We've mentioned Z2, an upcoming new map, a few times. Now, Senior Artist Alen Lapidis is here to give you more insight into the design and the process:

“At this point in the process, the terrain geometry has been generated based on Design's needs for game play. The mountains, internal hills, and valleys are formed to connect the towns and locations on the map. In these shots, we're establishing height/slope rules to ensure rock only appears where rock would be exposed naturally, breaking into rubble at its base and transitioning into grassy fields and dirt in the depressions. A zone-wide mask has to be made for each texture used. Afterwards, a coverage map will be generated to help add color variety and depth to the textures on the terrain. This will give cavities more darkness, rocky peaks a sun bleached quality, and scatter some yellow and green in the fields to help the grass have a natural patchy look rather than being uniformly lush. The mountains along the perimeter of the zone will then get snow-capped peaks and the water bodies their rocky riverbeds.”

As you can see, work continues on Z2 here at Daybreak! Be sure to follow @H1Z1JustSurvive and @H1Z1KOTK for more behind the scenes looks at the development of H1Z1.

Source: h1z1.com

H1Z1: King of the Kill Producer Notes for May 18th, 2016 

Hi everyone, and thanks for taking the time to give this a read.  I know that many of you have poured countless hours into H1Z1 and all of the developers thank you for that.  

This will be one of the largest updates we’ve executed this year and it contains a lot of great changes.  Some of the larger notes are detailed below, but this update also brings with it every change that has been on the Test server for the last couple of weeks. You can expect to see a full list of patch notes on Friday.

Ignition is Going Live FRIDAY!

Really excited to share that Ignition will be launching onto our Live servers this coming Friday, May 20th.  With feedback from the public Test server runs and many, many internal play tests, we have put a lot of work into tuning this new mode to make it as fun as possible.  We think Ignition has turned out great. It truly captures all of the tension and excitement of Battle Royale while encouraging players to engage a new perspective and balance getting to the correct location while also searching for gear, and skillfully outliving the competition.

 For those of you not in the know, rather than parachuting into the action, Ignition starts each player off with their very own ATV and a pack of explosives strapped to their body. To stay in the game, players need to quickly gear up, jump on their ATV, and gun it to the safe zone before the time runs out and your explosives go BOOM!

Two of my favorite streamers, OPscT and AngryPug will be here in studio to livestream the new mode.  Be sure to tune into the King of the Kill Twitch channel at 2pm PST this Friday, May 20 to see Ops and Pug play the new mode and share some giveaways. 

A few tips here for you to help you find some early success.

• As you descend into the arena on your ATV, turn left or right to orient yourself in the direction that you want to head, this way you can set off as soon as you touch the ground.
• Be very aware of the safe zone locations! You will see a helicopter hovering over the safe zones, so look for these to help you find your way.  The ground will be clearly marked for you once you make it.  Red means you are not safe, green means you are.
• Don’t leave getting to the safe zone to the last minute. There is a real balance between gearing up, looting, and getting to a safe zone.  If you are outside of the safe zone when the timer hits zero, it is game over for you, so don’t let that happen.
• Once time expires, you have to remain in the ring for 30 seconds.  If you slip outside of the ring, you explode and are knocked out of the match.
• Look for the special airdrops at the end of the ring locks.  They may contain a loaded-up off-roader to help get you to the next safe zone and give you the extra advantage you may need to get the win.

Small UI Flow Change

In order to make selection of your preferred game mode or type more clear, we made a small change to the UI flow.  The classic server select screen should be thought of as a game select screen.  Remember to filter down to your region at the top, then just pick the game that you want to play.

• Battle Royale
• Battle Royale Team (2 or 5)
• Battle Royale: Zombies
• Ignition
• Skirmish (when available)

The Battle Royale button has been removed.  A lot of people use that button to join a game, but it is really unnecessary and just confusing now that there are various modes to choose from.  Just pick the game you want to play and click the “Join Game” button.

At the end of a match, we removed the “Play Again” button.  It didn’t do what you expect it to do, and will be different in the future with a whole new flow there.  So we simplified it for now and there will be an “Exit to Main” button in the lower right that takes you back to the game select screen where you can pick a game and join right into it.

Team Games

Ignition is not the only change coming to King of the Kill this week.  A number of improvements have gone in to help the team experience.

We have added an always on outline that is rendered around each character on your team.  This is visible through objects, walls, and other obstructions.  Just Survive players take note that this will also apply to groups in Just Survive.  So if you are grouped up you will be able to see those people in your group.

We fixed up some bugs that were resulting in teams getting split up and put into different games.  This is reliable again and you should count on ending up in the same game as a team.  If this ends up happening to you, please send some info over so we can check it out.

Those changes will be on Live with Ignition.  There is one more change working its way through to help with team play.  That is an option to allow you to enter a 5-man game with a team that is less than 5.  There will be an option to auto-fill or not auto-fill the rest of your group to make a 5-man team.  If you want to go in as a 3-man team into the 5-man game, you will be able to do that.

Sync’d Match Starts

I mentioned this last week and you will see changes in the Live environment this Friday.  Players now all begin at the same time at the beginning of a match in both Battle Royale and Ignition.  I saw some concern over sitting and waiting on people with slow machines.  This does have a time cap, initially set to 45 seconds, where it will start the match and stragglers will be at a disadvantage in starting behind the others.  In the majority of instances, the game will start prior to that time cap.  Our data shows that more than 90% of all players load faster than 45 seconds.

Rewards

A few changes to rewards are coming in this update as well.

First, all match rewards are being updated.  There will be all new items to earn by doing well in a match.

Additionally, rewards in the Skirmish are going to be distributed differently to dis-incentivize teaming.  You will now receive a loot bag drop, just like a crate drop, for spending time in the game.  Each reward in the bag should be unique, until you have earned them, all of course.

As a reminder, teaming or colluding of any kind is prohibited.  We are constantly monitoring these games and if you are caught breaking these rules, we will take action on your account.  This is looked at on a case by case basis, but that action can range from a suspension to an all-out account ban.  It isn’t worth it; teaming ruins the game for everyone else.  Don’t do it.  If you see some suspected cheating, please report the instance to[email protected].

Forced Scope

I know this has been a topic of discussion since we first talked about it.  This isn’t quite ready to go Live yet, but let me provide some context here.  Some changes will go in that not all people will agree with; this is one of them.  King of the Kill has a lot of medium to long range encounters given the nature of the experience and the design of the map.  Currently the scoped weapons are too easy and forgiving from long range.  We will be forcing a scoped view to add a bit of a trade-off to the power of the weapon.  If you are going to get the advantage of the scope, then you lose some of your peripheral vision.  It is a trade-off for you to decide on and balance as you are playing the game. 

Recent Bug Fixes

• Bombing run tuning so the area is not filled with bombs. I mentioned this in my last update and it will be Live this Friday.
• Jumping and entering a vehicle could result in a crazy shaky character in the vehicle.  We removed this bug, so expect your character to sit nicely.
• Seat swapping is now fixed.  May that exploit be forever dead.

That’s it for now folks, as always feedback is appreciated! 

Source: h1z1.com

New helicopter model work-in-progress by @cte6 for Ignition. https://t.co/XwQC9O88ax @H1Z1KotK

— Sebastian (@crowempires) May 17, 2016