Firearms: Source 1.0f Release news

Hey folks, today we bring you the last patch of Firearms: Source 1.0! This patch is intended to fix the damage of explosive weapons, balance armor a step further, and will also include faster movement speeds - a few of the things that make Firearms: Source unique. We felt that 1.0e was a definite step in the right direction, but also that it may have been slightly too far a leap in several places, as reflected in this update. If you are interested in the specific changes coming in this patch, please read below.

Reduced "Spam"

An unforseen byproduct of the 1.0e patch was the dominance of the M67 fragmentation grenade, and more frequently, the M79 grenade launcher in all aspects of the game. As a result of the global drop in armor damage mitigation, all explosives became much more potent in actual play than the team had anticipated, especially compared to their lack of representation in previous patches. Due to their large splash damage and the scale of most of our current levels, they quickly established an overwhelming presence on the 1.0e servers. Accordingly, we have scaled back the damage of explosives for the most part, and are exploring more in-depth solutions to the problem come 2.0.

Faster Movement Speed

One of the reasons for the overall decrease in movement speed following 1.0e was to fix hit registration issues with the Source engine's netcode. However, we found that not only did this slow down gameplay, but it also made returning to engagements after spawning much longer than we were comfortable with. In 1.0f we've brought back the movement speeds of previous versions, relying on 1.0e's increased accuracy to help mitigate these peculiarities with hit registration.

Armor Absorption Increase

Armor mitigation saw a significant decrease in between 1.0d and 1.0e, and while this shifted gameplay to a much more comfortable pace, we came to the conclusion that the reduction may have been a little too heavy-handed. With increased accuracy and lower armor absorption rates, players often tended to die too quickly to even realize what was happening, and were often forced to remain behind absolute cover for fear of sudden and unavoidable death, without experiencing the fun of more lengthy firefights. As reliable accuracy was not a mechanic we were willing to sacrifice, we decided instead to increase the mitigation of Light, Medium, and Heavy chest armor. This change also seeks to raise the bar on effectiveness for lower armor, and tighten the gap between each level, providing more suitable benefits for players who prefer the more expensive support weapons, or who choose to be more diverse with a wider weapon selection.

As is the case with every balancing patch, we found a number of weapons in 1.0e were not being given the attention they deserved, and that others, such as the FAMAS and Remington 870, were seeing too much use by comparison, diminishing the our arsenal's depth and variety. Among other changes, damage has been increased and recoil has been lowered for some of the weapons we believed were being out shined, namely the Sako Rk. 95 and SG550, to ensure that those weapons with too much exposure remain in their proper roles and become less of a default choice.