Greetings warriors and welcome to a new week of For Honor updates! Last week we held our second Community Workshop at the Montreal studio with eight community members from around the world. It was a really rewarding experience for the team as we received a lot of feedback from some of our top players. This workshop was incredibly important for our team as our community members gave us feedback that would not have been possible with our internal playtests. We can’t wait to show you the content they have played!
Earlier this week, we updated PlayStation 4 and Xbox One with the v1.05, so now console players can enjoy the latest balancing changes and fixes. You can find the patch notes here. This update also brings Global Daily Orders to consoles (you can now complete Orders by playing PvP or PvE) and the Contract Orders were updated this Thursday, when they reset. Lastly, we are bringing a new AFK detection improvement on console, which means that AFK detection now treats non-changing/constant controller inputs as AFK and will kick players from matches after a certain time. (This does not apply when dead during Brawl and Elimination matches).
To add on that, we are also sharing the patch notes for our upcoming Title Update 1.06 that is focused on stabilizing the game. This update will come next Tuesday on PC and at a later date on consoles. Make sure to watch this week’s Warrior’s Den, Friday April 21st at 1PM EDT, as we are going more into details of these notes.
Finally, we are bringing new Elite Outfits to the game and a new Event Order. You will find more information below.
Emile “SpaceElephant” Gauthier, Community Developer
NEW ELITE OUTFITS
Twelve brand new outfits are now available – one per hero. Each faction gets its own style – Questing Knight for the Knights, Rabid Wolf for the Vikings, and Night Bloom for the Samurais.
These can be found in the heroes customization menu and acquired using Steel.
EVENT ORDER OF THE WEEK – EXECUTIONS
This week, our Event Order is all about Executions! As a community, perform as many Executions as you can in Dominion match (Player vs. Player). The event starts on April 21st at 2PM EDT and ends on April 24th at 4PM EDT. Completing the order will reward all players with 2000 Steel.
FACTION WAR UPDATE
The fifth and final round of the season is in full swing, and has already seen some heated back-and-forth between the factions. A couple of days ago, Knights and Samurais suddenly pushed deep into Vikings territory. But Vikings held their line and were able to push back and take the lead.
The Western front is currently a tense battle between the Knights and the Vikings, but the Samurais are also involved. On the Eastern side, Samurais and Vikings are in a close face-off.
As a reminder, both Vikings and Samurais are tied with two rounds won each. If Knights were to take the fifth and last round, the season winner will be decided based on the amount of war assets deployed. This weekend will be crucial for the Faction War.
COMMUNITY CREATIONS
We are pleased to showcase some cool community creations in this article. If you feel inspired by the game send us your art on Reddit and Twitter!
Disciples of Odin – by TitleTownRelo (https://titletownrelo.tumblr.com/)
The Lovebringer – by Lokhammer (https://www.reddit.com/r/forhonor/comments/66ay99/lovebringer/)
PATCH NOTES – V1.06
This title update will be available on Tuesday April 25th on PC first, consoles version are on their way (certification process) and should be updated at a later date.
Connectivity
Network
- Data exchanges between players are now more resilient to network fluctuations.
- Reduced the footprint of data exchanges to improve match experience under limited networking conditions.
Performance
- Multiple performance improvements increasing the framerate both in game menus and during matches.
- The LODs (Level of Detail) on ambient FX are now dynamically adjusted during matches to help ensure optimal performance.
- [Bug Fix] Fixed a performance degradation when the XBOX Home panel was being opened which sometimes triggered a simulation resynchronization.
Developer comments: We’ve established that in certain situations, when game performance drops below a certain threshold, the simulation could suffer and eventually halt because it has reached a point that is unrecoverable (often seen as errors 06000018 and 06000021). These network and performance optimizations were prioritized because they target areas of the game that are susceptible to cause an impact to game stability. While these errors can still occur, we hope to have addressed a good portion of its root causes. Furthermore, the networking optimizations will help reduce the impact that a player with a bad connection has on the others in the match.
Session/Match
- Reduced the rematch timer from 90 to 60 seconds.
- Join-in-Progress can now be enabled at the end of the match. When we will activate it at a later date, players leaving the session may be replaced by new players, which will allow a new match to occur more frequently.
- [Bug Fix] Fixed a bug causing a session to split, during matches under certain conditions, leaving each player in its own session with bots.
Developer comments: When too many players leave the session after a match, it is not possible to start a new match. By allowing Join-in-Progress during the end flow, the open seats will be repopulated with new players and allow a new match to start.
Messaging
- Expanded resync messages to differentiate between simulation resynchronization and session migration when the host leaves.
Game operation
- Added server-side networking configurations to allow faster stability tweaking.
- Added monitoring of simulation edge cases to improve our ability to further diagnose certain types of problems.
Developer comments: These will help us continue and improve our understanding of the game stability and help us bring more improvements.
Fight
Bleed
- [Bug Fix] Bleed should no longer be applied without contact.
Developer comments: We fixed this bug for the Nobushi in our latest TU but it was still present on the Peacekeeper. We’ve looked at all the Bleed attacks on all characters in order to make sure this is resolved globally. We’ve also made similar changes on Stun attacks even though we hadn’t identified bugs on these.
Fighters
Peacekeeper
- Light Attack Miss recovery branching into Chained Light Attack delayed by 100ms.
- Chained Light Attack recoveries on Interrupt Block increased to 700ms (from 600ms).
- Chained Light Attack recoveries on Hit increased to 700ms (from 500ms).
Developer comments: The current light > light spam of the Peacekeeper is annoying and it’s very hard to react on the second light. We didn’t want to fix this by making the second light slower as we want to keep some fast attacks. Instead, we’re increasing the second light’s recoveries on Block and Hits in order to put the peacekeeper at frame disadvantage if she doesn’t commit to the chain finisher. She will lose the initiative and will get hit by fast attack if she continues spamming light.
Lawbringer
- [Bug Fix] Light attack after Shove can no longer be blocked if opponent changes stance
- Updated Shove attack’s area of effect
- Updated post-Shove Light attack’s area of effect
Developer comments: In our latest update, we’ve introduced an issue with the light post Shove that’s unblockable if you’re in the correct stance but blockable if you switch stance. We’re fixing this so that it’s never blockable. However, the light is still dodgeable. The area of effect updates should make Shove and the Light Attack post Shove easier to dodge.
Warden
- Shoulder Bash cancel timing into Guard Break reduced to 300ms before end of startup (from 100ms before end of startup).
- Uninterruptible Stance timing on fully-charged Shoulder Bash startup reduced by 100ms in order to match the revised Guard Break cancel timing.
- Cancelling Shoulder Bash into Idle now causes a 200ms recovery with no defense (Wardens used to cancel out of Shoulder Bash instantly into Idle).
- The fully-charged visual and audio effects, will now only play once the cancel window is closed.
- Non-charged Shoulder Bash recovery on Miss increased to 800ms (from 700ms)
- [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue causing the Warden to spin around on hit with Shoulder Bash
- [Bug Fix] Shoulder Bash ability to bump external target no longer overlaps with locked target
Developer comments: Warden’s Shoulder Bash was cancellable by Guard Break very late, allowing Wardens to wait for the enemy to dodge and then get a free Guard Break. We want Wardens to put a lot of pressure on their opponent with this move, but we don't want them to have such an advantage that they can force a response, react to the response, and punish the response. Now, the opponent can wait to dodge the Shoulder Bash until after it could still be cancelled into a Guard Break, but that window is intentionally very short to try to force players to have to make a read on each other, rather than simply reacting. Wardens still have a lot of power to choose what to do after initiating Shoulder Bash, but will have to commit more.
Berserker
- [Bug Fix] Fixed issue on Throws causing opponents to get knocked down earlier.
Developer comments: We introduced a regression in our latest update causing the Berserker’s Side Heavy into Top Heavy after knock down not to be guaranteed anymore on forward Throw. With this change, we’re restoring Throw follow ups to their pre-patch 1.05.1 state.
Orochi
- Hurricane Blast has Uninterruptible Stance.
- Added Uninterruptible Stance Icon to Moveset page.
- [Bug Fix] Fixed rotation so that victim of Hurricane Blast always faces the Orochi when stabbed.
Developer comments: Hurricane Blast is a very slow and high damage move. While charging Hurricane Blast, the Orochi has a bunch of options to mind the opponent: cancel into Guard Break, cancel into Dodge, cancel into Wind Gust. Without Uninterruptible Stance on Hurricane Blast, the window of opportunity to use these options was often denied and made the move feel useless. We’re adding Uninterruptible Stance now in order to give Orochis the opportunity to use these options.
Shugoki
- Charge of the Oni no longer knocks down on contact
- Charge of the Oni’s 400ms startup is fully dodgeable
- Charge of the Oni trajectory can no longer be adjusted with the left stick
- Shugoki cannot regenerate stamina during Charge of the Oni
Developer comments: Watching Shugoki play Duels out of lock in order to knock down their enemy and get a free heavy is not really fun. By removing the knock down on contact, we want to maintain Charge of the Oni’s core function as a disruption move while neutralizing exploits in 1v1 situations.
