Shadow Warrior 2 patch 1.1.3.0 released, brings some nerfs

Flying Wild Hog have just released another patch (1.1.3.0) for Shadow Warrior 2, focusing on balance changes and a load of bug fixes. The days of earning endless Chi from ‘Serene Mind’ appear to be over, as it gets a nerf in this update along with several other skills.

It’s not spelled out in the patch notes how hard any of these nerfs are, but along with Serene Mind, Auto-Reload and Like the Wind have been reduced in their effectiveness. So too has the Arm of Orochi blade, which gets a “significant” nerf. There will now be more auras on enemies on Hard and Insane difficulties, as well as more enemies attacking at once at those levels. The studio have also added three new “ultra-difficult tiers” on Insane difficulty, with improved loot.

Performance issues in Shadow Warrior 2’s co-op mode have been addressed too, with “Co-op network bandwidth usage optimizations” listed in the notes. There are too many changes and fixes to realistically summarise, so here’s the full log.

Balance and gameplay changes:
– “Serene Mind” skill nerfed
– “Auto-Reload” skill nerfed
– “Like the Wind skill” nerfed, 5th stage added
– “Second Chance” skill 4th stage added
– “Arm of Orochi” weapon significantly nerfed
– More auras on single enemy for Hard and Insane difficulties
– More enemies attacking at the same time for Hard and Insane difficulties
– Enemies speed increased for Insane difficulty
– Added 3 new ultra-difficult tiers for Insane difficulty with much better loot to find
– Upgrade drops quality now better reflects game difficulty – on higher difficulties better drops start occuring right from the beginning of the playthrough
– Added cap for gaining experience speed for every difficulty: after reaching certain character level player gets experience much slower, appropriate information added to difficulty description
– Fixed bug when player could get quest reward Skill Points more than once per quest per character. If character earned more than maximum number of Skill Points (level + all quests reward) – Skill Points will be capped
– Due to skills rebalance player will have all skill reset after map loaded – inventory will be automatically opened and message box will be shown
– Crafting result upgrade quality depends on source upgrades quality now, crafting price depends on expected result quality
– Final boss drop (“Ryuken” weapon) now available as final quest reward
– More special enemies, more respawns and better loot on Free Roam missions
– Elite and Superior enemy “Hellhound” won’t fetch grenades now

General fixes:
– Fixed bug when player could pickup “King Skelletor” weapon before designed mission
– Gauss rifle shot tuned down and smoothed, added alternative reload animation
– Fixed bug when dual melee secondary weapon didn’t inherit primary weapon stats (elemental, damage etc)
– Fixed weapon being removed from inventory when spawned as turret on map change
– Fixed “Destroyer of Realms” weapon turret throw animation
– “Damage resist” player stat now works properly
– Fixed “Second Chance” skill bug when player couldn’t die even if none enemy was killed
– Fixed bug when player frezees or looses weapon when damaged or killed during teleporting
– Enemies with “Swift” aura now return to correct speed after unfreezing
– Fixed “Belly” enemy animation when reacting to Grip of Darkness
– Fixed entering T-pose for enemies with uzi.
– Some cutscene fixes
– Some walkmesh fixes
– Some missions fixes

UI changes and fixes:
– Fixed crash when replacing gems in weapons
– Fixed bug when player couldn’t replace gem when all slots were occupied
– Hint area on loading screen now resizes correctly
– Added option to sell all junks with mouse, added confirmation dialog
– Corrected various translation and textual errors, added missing strings
– Fixed enemy “Tumor” mesh in Wanglopedia.

Multiplayer fixes:
– Performance issue for co-op partners fixed
– Fixed bug when “Bunny Lord” didn’t drop loot for clients
– Co-op network bandwidth usage optimizations
– Fixed bug when using “Emperor’s Touch” weapon produced excessive lags
– Fixed issue when client was not able to open Inventory or change weapons when using teleport during (or directly before) cutscene

Engine fixes:
– Fixed bug when game freezes on loading on 2-core CPUs
– AlienFX is now by default disabled due to crashes on some configs (add -alienfx to properties->general->set launch options in order to enable it)
– Added -nochroma switch (add -nochroma to properties->general->set launch options in order to disable Razer Chroma)
– Fixed shadow and geometry flickering
– Fixed recovering from GPU driver crash
– Non persistent console commands (e.g. r_weapon_fov) can now be loaded from autoexec.cfg
– Fixed crash when mfplat.dll is not present in system
– Optimized weapon switching CPU performance
– Fixed “DX11 Device not found” error on some notebooks
– HDR Display options are now only available when Full-Screen mode is selected (as only in this mode HDR Display works)
– Reduced audio stuttering (VO and music)
– Optimized shadow rendering performance
– On first game start dedicated GPU will be enabled instead of an integrated one

Photomode fixes:
– Increased exposure slider range
– Fixed slowmo after exiting photomode bug
– Fixed screenshot rendering (tile mode and anti-aliasing)
– Fixed FOV when entering photomode with weapon zoom enabled
– Fixed tiled screenshot mode artifacts (screenshot resolution multiplier > 1 screenshots)