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FFOW 1.03 Patch targeted for May

by on07 April 2008




Another patch to address more issues


Following the recent release of the 1.02 Patch for the PC version of Frontline Fuel of War, Kaos Studios is already hard at work on the upcoming 1.03 Patch, which is targeted to tackle even more issues as well as bring some welcomed enhancements.

Kaos Senior Producer Joe Halper let players know that the list for the 1.03 patch has been pretty much finalized and gave players a sneak preview of what to expect from the 1.03 patch upon release that has been targeted for the first week of May.

The biggest enhancement that will be contained in the 1.03 patch is the addition of Punkbuster anti-cheat support that was announced as ‘coming soon’ back in mid-March. The addition of the Punkbuster anti-cheat system should help ferret out at least some of those that have been taking advantage of the fact that FFOW has not had an anti-cheat system in place for online play.

In addition, the 1.03 patch will introduce what Kaos is calling “phase 1” of the new server browser. One of the weakest areas in FFOW since its release has been the server browser which, besides not really working very well, does not offer some of the most important features that players of other similar FPS titles have become accustomed to using.

Some of the specifics are a new streamlined server browser design, added filtering categories, server IP field, clan/server provider banner support, and the ability to cancel server search, but will display already pulled servers. Hopefully, phase 1 will also make it easer to join up with specific friends and clan mates, which currently is very difficult using the current server browser if you don’t know the exact server name that you are playing on.

A variety of game play revisions will be added to address balance issues as well as fix bugs that currently exist. The player movement will undergo some revisions to address both the “bouncing bunny syndrome” as well as “sliding/worming/dolphin diving” that has been a problem since release.

More tweaks to the user interface are coming, including some clean up of some nagging bugs that have been around since the initial release of the game. A couple of the big “crash” problems will be addressed in the 1.03 patch, including the problems with owners of the ATI X800/X850 series of cards that crash on start up, as well as changing the default of the Vsync to off, which solves the crashing of the game on some low-end video cards. A new “null check” should stop users from inputting illegal characters that cause the game to crash.

Kaos continues to evaluate several things that will not make the 1.03 patch, including additional revisions to the server browser beyond the phase 1 enhancements and Leaderboard for both ranked/unranked servers. They are also looking at a few more things that they hope to announce for a future release beyond 1.03.

Kaos has taken a lot of flack from the PC community over FFOW and the issues that the title has had since release. While Kaos gets high marks for a continued steady stream of patches and good communication to the user community, it seems that many players in the community continue to speak out to Kaos in the forums about their unhappiness with the title.

As we have stated many times before, the game does have a lot of potential, but the game continues to have a variety of nagging issues that need resolved to make it a truly first-rate title. While the continued improvements are welcomed, it just seems that FFOW is losing the attention of the gaming community because of the length of time that it is taking to resolve the issues that the title has. While it appears that the 1.03 patch will not fix everything, it is clearly another step in the right direction.

Last modified on 07 April 2008
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