Medal of Honor: Warfighter’s first day patch notes could fill a novella

Danger Close’s Medal of Honor: Warfighter is released today in the US. If you’re wondering why nobody has reviewed it yet, it’s because EA has specifically withheld early press copies of the game. It’s likely that the publisher didn’t want reviewers basing their opinions on Warfighter’s pre-patched code, because the list of fixes in the day-of-release patch notes is gigantic.

Depending on how you wish to spin this, it’s either shocking that the game was almost released in this state, or a sign of developer dedication that they’ve managed to correct so much in the nick of time.

The full patch notes follow. I think it’s worth replicating them in full, just to show how absurd some of them are. Bring a cup of tea if you intend to read them all.

This patch should already be available for PC and PS3 versions of the game. It’s due soon for the Xbox 360 release.

General

• Now able to add friends and join parties while in-game.
• Can invite others to your platoon or apply to join a platoon while in-game.

Multiplayer Gameplay
Incorporated feedback directly from the Multiplayer beta, including server stability enhancements, weapon improvements and other minor tweaks to the MP experience.

• Removed initial delay to Spec Ops Signal Scan charging.
• Snipers in Recon stance will no longer be visible to enemy RQ7/RQ11 UAVs.
• Increased the accuracy of server-side aiming prediction.
• Fixed an issue with “Fall Back” spawning to improve its behavior.
• Fixed spawn type changing to Buddy Spawn automatically when it is not supposed to. Call in a Blackhawk for the losing team if they are getting dominated in Sector Control.

Single-Player Gameplay
Gameplay improvements including more tutorials, game stability, and overall gameplay enhancements to make your Single Player experience seamless.

• Added tutorial text to first sniper encounter to help teach player about bullet drop.
• Fixed an issue where the default difficulty was set to Easy instead of Normal.
• Fixed an issue where controls would become unresponsive under certain conditions.
• Fixed an issue with one of the in-game cinematics.
• Improved single player stability and fixed progression stoppers.

Matchmaking, Parties and Platoons
Numerous enhancements and bug fixes, including:

• Smoothed out the matchmaking flow between successful matchmaking and joining the player to the game.
• Players can no longer join an invitation only party without being invited.
• Fixed issues with joining single players together into Fireteams.
• Fixed an issue where Veteran platoon members could not reach Elite status.
• Sending a platoon invite when both players are in-game now works properly.

Weapons
Tweaks and fixes to weapon mechanics and functions giving you the most realistic weapon look and feel.

• Fixed “no scope” shooting. Players were getting immediate ADS accuracy without having to wait for the scope to come all the way up. Was very exploitable for snipers.
• Sped up the bolt action on the CS5, since it was longer than the TAC300.
• Reduced the damage/range of the Demolition’s SMGs (Scar PDW, HK 416c, Suchka), as they were overpowered.
• Made switching between primary and secondary weapons much more responsive.
• Fixed an issue where aiming was pushing the player away from the wall they were standing next to.

Navigation
We’ve streamlined the User Interface, making it quicker and easier to navigate.

• Simplified the way players navigate and select in the My Gun and Class Select menus.
• Servers in the Server Browser are now sorted based on ping, giving priority to servers closest to the player.
• Fixed an issue where changes in My Gun and My Soldier were not being retained when joining a game via the Quick Match or Matchmaking options in the MP Lobby.
• Optimized the login flow into Multiplayer.

Visual Polish
Polished up in-game text and artwork for a better visual experience.

• Fixed the Player Banners to display the correct rank icon and number.
• Fixed placement of auto-save icon on CRT TVs.
• Fixed animations in the post-match screens as they show the player’s progression.
• Fixed some camera issues on level entry.

• Fixed a minor issue where the Battlelog social hub introduction was showing every time you opened the Battlelog social hub.
• Fixed VOIP team channel bug to ensure channel is team-only.
• Fixed an issue where Double XP was not being awarded to players who had both logged on to medalofhonor.com and who had played on a multiplayer server.
• Fixed an issue where the Global Warfighter medal was not being awarded after players had completed a tour with each class.
• Localization fixes, in both audio and text.

• Improved the camera for the Apache.
• Improved the aiming of the rockets in the Apache.
• Fixed a couple of out of bounds issues in Sarajevo Stadium.

• Fixed an issue where support action icons were overlapping each other.
• Kill messages should now better match timing within gameplay.
• Improved readability of kill messages and visual fidelity of some of the flag images.
• Smoothed transitions between screens in the Mulitplayer menus.

• Removed Quit Game from the Top Navigation Bar in the in-game pause menu (now found under “Last Resort” in the Respawn Menu.
• Various audio mix updates.
• Improved the handling of memory cards and saved profiles.
• Fixed an issue where, under certain circumstances, brand new players were forced to play with a placeholder weapon in multiplayer until their first death.

Source: Medal of Honor ‘Battlelog’

---