THE FINALS News

[h3]Update 4.4.0 [/h3]

It’s getting spooky in The Arena!

With Halloween taking the spotlight next week, you might start seeing spooky changes around the Arena starting today! Dress up in your most ghoulish get-up, send shivers down enemy contestants' virtual spines as an Underworld Outcast, and get trick-or-treating before the season ends!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

In this patch, you’ll find changes and fixes, including the introduction of a system to reward kills to players based on environmental kills that launch players off the map, among other things!

Check out the changes below and stay tuned for a World Tour update tomorrow that is out of this world, setting a spooky stage for things to come, and a new set of Twitch Drops to collect as we creep closer to Fright Night!

[h3]Balance Changes[/h3]

Weapons

Sledgehammer

• Decreased the sweep duration of the secondary attack by 25%
• Decreased the sweep width of the secondary attack from 30cm to 25cm
• Increased the sweep width of the primary attack from 12cm to 15cm

Dev Note: These changes make the Sledgehammer’s hit sweeps more accurately match the attack animations which hopefully makes the weapon feel more reliable for its victims. We noticed that in some cases players would be hit despite the Sledgehammer’s model not passing near to them at all, which could cause a lot of confusion.

[h3]Content and Bug Fixes [/h3]

Animation

• Fixed an issue where audio was looping when vaulting over certain obstacles
  
  

Audio

• Replaced the Cl 40 grenade impact sound to lessen ear fatigue

Bugs

• Fixed an issue that caused a hang for players using DX11
• Fixed an issue where certain usage of goo could result in players bypassing collision
• Potential fix for players becoming permanently invisible during a round
• Fixed one of the issues which could cause destruction to appear out of sync

Cosmetics

• Fixed an issue where the "Stuck on you" sticker on FCAR skin could be floating when using the Ironsight

Contracts

• Re-balanced some of the distance-based Contracts to make achieving them a better experience

Environmental Eliminations

• Updated the kill system to detect and reward players for ‘environmental kills’, i.e. kills where a player falls out of bounds and dies due to the actions of another player

Examples of the types of falling kills this system can now detect include:

• Removing the floor from underneath a player (e.g. destroying Seoul’s sky bridge or removing it via the Dematerializer)
• Blocking a player with Goo or a thrown carriables
• Destroying ziplines carrying a player
• Firing a player out of the level with a Jump Pad
• Lifting a player out of the level with the Anti-Gravity Cube
• Pulling a player out of the level with the Winch Claw
• Knocking a player out of the level with Charge ‘n Slam
• Causing a player to fall out of the level using the Gateway

Dev Note: This is the first iteration of this system. There's quite a few knobs to turn since there's a huge amount of ways in which players can end up falling out of bounds. We can't track absolutely all types of interactions due to the infinite amount of possibilities, including exceptions such as physics-to-physics interactions (i.e. objects/building pieces pushing at each other), but we've tried to catch most of the common ones. We'll keep on iterating and try to address as much of the feedback as possible in coming releases!



Gadgets

Anti-Gravity Cube

• Fixed various unintended bugs with the Anti-Gravity Cube

Dev Notes: Unfortunately folks, with these fixes the age of the “Goo plane” is over. We loved your imagination with these creations, but this is not a form of locomotion we ever intended for the game and, as well as being very counterintuitive for many players, they can also negatively impact pacing.

Glitch Trap

• Added squad colors to the Glitch Trap

RPG-7

• Fixed an issue where the RPG would restock ammo too early in the reload animation

Game Modes

Practice Range

• Fixed an issue where practice dummies would block explosive damage

Maps

Monaco

• Added additional exit point at the top of the alley zipline, allowing players to jump directly on the opposite rooftop.

Kyoto

• Small flow improvements around the side of the Pavilion, preventing players from getting stuck between bamboos or get snagged on lanterns

Settings

• Added a new option called "Resolution Scale Mode" when TAAU is the selected resolution scaling method. This new setting defaults to the "Auto" option, which selects resolution scaling automatically based on your screen resolution. The alternative "Manual" option allows adjusting the resolution scale value with the "Resolution Scale" slider, just like before
• Adjusted the way the GPUs FSR2 and XeSS are selected by default. Both of these are high-quality techniques that are not suitable for low-end GPUs. For low-end GPUs, TAAU will be the default resolution scaling method from now on

Specializations

Goo Gun

• Goo projectiles from the Goo Gun will now stick to the base of turrets in the same way as goo from barrels

UI

• Fixed an issue where players moving from Platinum 1 to Diamond 4 in World Tour would see the wrong badge and progress bar on the World Tour screen
• Fixed an issue where scoring events would show the score gained twice on the HUD, for example: “Vault Opened 500 +500”
• Fixed an issue where the larger Battle Pass reward images didn’t cover the whole tile
• Fixed an issue where Mouse and Keyboard users could only use the Mouse Wheel to zoom in/out on cosmetics on the Sponsor screen when the mouse was placed in the top part of the screen
• Fixed an issue where game mode tiles could get stuck in the hover state
• Fixed an issue where player names would not update immediately when using the ‘Hide Playernames’ option
• Added friends filter to the leaderboard
• Fixed an issue where friends’ names could show up incorrectly on leaderboards after toggling the friends filter
• Adjusted healthbars back to intended height

VFX

• Fixed an issue that caused the fog at the edge of the screen to flicker occasionally

VOIP

• Fixed an issue on consoles where VOIP would stop working after entering the console overlay after launching the game

Weapons

Alternate Sights

• Fixed an issue where the player’s gun could be offset when playing with a sight

AKM

• Updated the ammo count on the item overview screen

CL-40

• Updated the ammo count on the item overview screen

This week the Arena is back to normal and HOLTOW are treating us to some normal, standard issue, Cashout Tournaments:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

As we thank ENGIMO for their generous sponsorship so far this season, we welcome HOLTOW to take the stage for the next three weeks. With HOLTOW’s insurance packages we feel certain that the World Tour is in excellent hands.

The arena rotation for this week includes the following maps;

• Fortune Stadium
  
• Skyway Stadium
  
• SYS$HORIZON
  
• Seoul
  

HOLTOW - Digitally Insured, Virtually Secured.

[h3]Store Update, Season 3 Rewards and Final Day for the Community Event[/h3]

Let’s get ready to muck up the competition with the Green Gunk Set, or maybe climb your way to the top using the Mean Green Beanstalk Set - both featured in this week’s store update:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Season 3 Ranked Rewards

Following today’s update we will be sending out the missing Multibucks from the Season 3 World Tour. If you made it to Bronze 4 last season, 50 Multibucks will be coming your way shortly - and - if you made it all the way to Gold 1 you can expect 250 Multibucks to find its way to your account.

Alongside the Multibucks, we will also be publishing one final Ranked leaderboard for Season 3, and with it, also hand out the last few rewards which were missing from that leaderboard as well.

Community Event Update

The current Community Event is making good progress, but it’s not been completed yet! Less than 24 hours remain and there’s still a way to go. Make sure to equip any of the Season 4 weapons and head into The Arena! If the community makes it you’ll all receive the ENGIMO community-compliant .50 Akimbo’s!

Check the current progress on our leaderboard right here: https://id.embark.games/leaderboards/ce42

[h3]Welcome to Update 4.2![/h3]

This update comes jam-packed with changes, from a brand new event in the World Tour, ranked rewards, a brand new community event and balance changes!

First, let’s check out this week’s store update:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

World Tour Event - Primetime Buff

Let’s jump into this week’s changes and start it off with a brand new event in the World Tour; “Primetime Buff”! Primetime Buff triggers when you or a teammate inserts a cash box into a cashout station, and it affects your whole team! When affected by Primetime Buff, you and your teammates receive +100 health over your typical max health (e.g. a Light player would go from a max of 150 to 250 health). Some notes about Primetime Buff;

• If taking damage, the extra health does not replenish.
• When the cashout is finished, the buff will disappear.
• The buff cannot be stacked, but it can be replenished if your team deposits another cash box.
• The buff does not apply to teammates that are eliminated when the cash box is inserted.

ENGIMO are truly treating us well on their last stop of the World Tour, which includes the following maps;

• Fortune Stadium
• Monaco
• Kyoto
• SYS$HORIZON

Season 3 Ranked Rewards

We said we'd deliver the post-Season 3 rewards with update 4.2, and we still intend to do that. However, given how important it is that this is handled correctly, we still want to do further testing before handing them out.

We are actively working on dotting the last i’s and crossing the final t’s before we can push the button to hand out the rewards, and our ambition is that this will still happen during update 4.2.

Make sure to stay tuned on our Discord server https://www.discord.gg/thefinals and on our website for more information about when the rewards are paid out.

Community Event!

Lastly we’re introducing the first Community Event of Season 4!

For this event we’re challenging all of you to eliminate 10.000.000 (TEN MILLION!) enemy contestants using the brand new weapons introduced in Season 4, before the time runs out. If you succeed, you’ll all be rewarded with the ENGIMO community-compliant .50 Akimbo’s! We’ll be monitoring your progress closely, best of luck contestants!

Now, let’s get into the Balance Changes and Fixes of this update:

[h3]Balance Changes[/h3]

Gadgets

Data Reshaper

• Added Glitch Barrels to the rotation of reshaped items the Data Reshaper can create

Smoke Grenade

• Increased ‘smoke entity duration’ from 15s to 17.5s. This means enemy health bars and outlines will not show through the smoke until the effect properly begins to disappear

Game Modes

Ranked Tournaments

• Updated the spawn point selection logic in the final round of the tournament, for teams who get wiped. This should reduce the number of long-distance spawns that occur
• Increased the variety of Cashout spawn locations when spawning the next objectives

World Tour

• Updated the spawn point selection logic in the final round of the tournament, for teams who get wiped. This should reduce the number of long-distance spawns that occur
• Increased the variety of Cashout spawn locations when spawning the next objectives

Specializations

Mesh Shield

• Decreased Mesh Shield cooldown from 12s to 8s if the shield is damaged when closed
• Decreased Mesh Shield cooldown from 8s to 4s if the shield is undamaged when closed

Dev Note: We’re still keen to avoid Mesh Shield ‘juggling’ in combat as that is not an intended playstyle for this Specialization, but we feel our changes made in 4.0 have been overly severe. These changes hopefully make the Mesh Shield more usable in 4.2

Weapons

CL-40

• Decreased damage from 117 to 100
• Increased ammo from 4 to 5
• Increased self-damage multiplier from 0.75 to 1.6
• Updated damage fall-off curve so that damage drops to 90% at the edge of the 30cm inner radius, with damage falling off linearly from that point to 0 at the outer edge of the blast radius

Dev Note: We felt our buff of the CL-40 in 4.0 was too much and made the weapon very oppressive in certain combos or when stacked. We’ve now dialed the damage back to a level closer to what we had before 4.0, while retaining the increased size of the max damage inner radius. To prevent the weapon from returning to a time where it took 100% accuracy to take down a Heavy, we’ve given it one additional ammo. As always, we’ll continue to monitor the impacts of this change and adjust further if needed

Pike-556

• Decreased damage from 59 to 52

Dev Note: On reviewing data it’s become apparent that the Pike was fairly overturned in our 4.0 release and this adjustment is intended to move it to a more reasonable place. We suspect it may still be too effective in too many different use cases, so we’ll continue to review the impact of this change and adjust in later patches if we feel more balancing is needed.

V9S

• Decreased fire rate from 430 RPM to 360 RPM
• Increased damage from 37 to 40

Dev Note: These changes have been made to prevent various methods where players could ensure they got the effective maximum fire rate from the weapon through use of specific binds, causing it to be highly effective compared to its intended baseline. The damage increase has been applied to offset some of the ‘effective DPS’ the weapon lost with the decreased fire rate. Overall, the effectiveness of the weapon for regular players should not be massively different

[h3]Content and Bug Fixes [/h3]

Animation

• Fixed an issue where the Dagger’s charged up secondary attack would not play the correct animation in third-person
• Fixed an animation issue caused when inspecting liftable objects while certain weapon inspect animations were equipped
• Fixed a bug that could cause third-person run animations to play at high speeds

Audio

• Fixed an issue that could cause sound from emotes to not play in the game

Characters

• Made it possible to polish the Grit & Glory skin when using weapon inspect

Contracts

• Fixed some issues where gameplay events that give progress on various Contracts could either add extra scoring events or miss some, due to categorizing them as the wrong event, for example back-stabs with the Dagger counting as headshots

Controller

• Fixed an issue where controller aim assistance could sometimes lock on to the location where a player had previously died
• Fixed aim assistance regression due to unsupported third-party software

Crashes & Errors

• Fixed a crash bug that could be caused by a problem with texture arrays
• Fixed an issue that could sometimes cause players to get the TFGE0000 connection error

Gadgets

Healing Beam

• Added some physics-based ‘wiggle’ to the Healing Beam’s hose

Stun Gun

• Players hit by the Stun Gun will now see directional hit arrows, showing the direction of the incoming shot

Game Modes

Ranked Tournament

• Team colors will now be consistent throughout a tournament for teams you have seen in previous rounds. For example, if you progress with the purple team, they will be purple in the next round

Tutorial

• Fixed an issue where bullet dispersion could occasionally become broken during the tutorial

World Tour

• Team colors will now be consistent throughout a tournament for teams you have seen in previous rounds. For example, if you progress with the purple team, they will be purple in the next round
  
  

Private Matches

• Added a second Spectator slot.

Liftables

• Fixed a bug where liftables would sometimes be immediately dropped after picking them up

Maps

Fortune Stadium

• Fixed some missing collision on one of the ISEULT buildings
• Made various improvements and fixes to destruction on Fortune Stadium
• Various lighting tweaks made to billboards in Fortune Stadium
• Added ‘ad jingles’ for HOLTOW in HOLTOW’s areas of Fortune Stadium
  
  

Seoul, Monaco, Skyway Stadium & SYS$HORIZON

• Night settings have been reworked for better visibility in certain areas

Performance

• Fixed a bug that could cause the client to stutter whenever they took damage from an enemy

Security and Anti-cheat

• Added new detection rules
• Tweaked some of the current heuristics for higher accuracy

Specializations

Winch Claw

• Fixed an issue where Winch Claw activation would not be blocked when the player was under the Glitch effect
• Fixed an issue where activating the Winch Claw wouldn’t disable the Vanishing Bomb’s cloaking effect

UI

• Fixed an issue where the Cashout Station symbol turned white when the player picks up the Cashbox
• Fixed an issue where the Sponsor progression reward tile could show the wrong progress on the progress bar
• Fixed an issue in the post-match reward screens where the wrong amount of Fans earned could be shown
• Adjusted the post-match reward screen buttons to make sure players don’t accidentally miss reward, XP and Fan updates by returning to the main menu by mistake
• Updated the ordering of tracked Contracts in the scoreboard, to make it easier to read
• Fixed bug where the game mode name wasn't shown in the matchmaking widget
• Fixed an issue that could sometimes cause a player to see ‘kill’ hit indicators on the crosshair when they were actually only getting an assist
• Fixed an issue where the party widget on the HUD would not show when a teammate was talking
• Fixed bug where the squad respawn timer in the scoreboard could be shown on the wrong team
• Fixed rounded corners on various game mode tiles on the main menu

Weapons

MGL32

• Fixed an issue where the MGL32’s reload time was incorrect in the UI

R.357

• Fixed an issue where, when using the Sticky Situation skin and a sight, the sight picture could become broken and the player would look into their hands

Recurve Bow

• Fixed an issue that could cause the Recurve Bow to do a min damage of 68 rather than 60

SH1900

• Fixed an issue where the SH1900 stats where shown incorrectly in the UI

[h3]Update 4.1 [/h3]

Welcome to the first update of Season 4!

Which comes with the first store update:

[previewyoutube](VIDEO) [/previewyoutube]

We’ve got a fix for the dash bug on Light and for the issue with contestant slots causing matchmaking issues!

Regarding World Tour stops from now on: we’ll start announcing them separately from patch notes, so stay tuned every Thursday for info about the current week’s twist, big or small!

We’re still on track to hand out the Season 3 rewards next week! While you wait, you can join us tonight on the fan-run THE FINALS Reddit for an exclusive AMA with Rob, Gustav (Creative Director), Matt (Design Director), and Joakim (Lead Environmental Artist) with support from Oscar and Dusty! Go submit your burning questions there now and join us live tonight from 18:00-20:00 CEST!

[h3]Content and Bug Fixes [/h3]

Animation

• Fixed an issue where the character mesh would glitch when performing a charged attack with the sword

Performance & Stability

• Fixed issue where players could accidentally create more contestant slots than allowed which could lead to problems with matchmaking
• Fixed some issues leading to the error messages TFGE0000 and TFGE0008 which could lead to players disconnecting from matches
• Fixed an issue which prevented players from matchmaking into the practice range
• Improved client performance on levels with lots of vegetation