The patch’s main priority is improving stability and tweaking performance, as is usually the case. “While the launch has proven stable, we can always get better and you’ll see some miscellaneous fixes for the most frequent crashes in this patch,” Battlefield Hardline’s lead multiplayer designer Thaddeus Sasser said in the post announcing the patch.
Another major focus of the patch is fixing issues important to players. A top five list of priority issues “as identified by the community” is being addressed in the patch.
These issues include a problem with the game’s Punkbuster client — an anti-cheat mechanism — which was causing high CPU usage for some players. Fixes for issues with Nvidia Direct X drivers that were causing crashes are also included in the update.
The rest of the issues are less technical and more related to gameplay. Conquest matches have been increased in length by “increasing the number of tickets on both Large and Small.” Team Deathmatch spawning has been tweaked by adjusting both spawn points and the spawn system in general. Finally, a number of weapons have been tweaked for balance. A number of common complaints have been addressed, and more will be handled soon.
The patch also introduces a “Rent-A-Server” program for all console platforms, allowing players to “customize the multiplayer matches to their liking and then invite their friends to play.”
No release date for the patch has been announced yet, but EA says it will share a date soon. Full notes for the upcoming patch can be found on the Battlelog Forum.
