Patch 18

Released: Wed 24th June 2020

Link: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/629760/view/2543919999012407049

Coming with this update is a variety of content and gameplay additions - starting off, we hope you'll enjoy our newest weapon, the Polehammer. This weapon features high damage coupled with considerable reach, although it's definitely not the most agile - make sure to keep a backup for close quarters!

That's not all, however, as Viking-lovers haven't been forgotten - make sure to give the new Round Shield a go for some serious defensive capabilities.

Aside from weapons, we've added quite a bit more in terms of new cosmetics to the game, improved server stability and optimization, some minor horde improvements, and of course a host of balance and gameplay improvements. Also, 80-player Invasion/Frontline servers will be making a return for select regions as well.

While there aren't a ton of major changes this update, there are quite a few minor improvements that we believe you'll enjoy! Make sure to check out the full changelog below. Have fun!

 **Gameplay**

* Servers are now split into 48 and 80 player servers in Europe and North America. Players can now select their desired playercount via checkboxes in the matchmaker
* Added new weapon: Polehammer
* Added new shield: Round Shield
* Added German sallet & variations
* Added Swiss saber skin set for the messer
* Added Archer’s sallet
* Added Archer’s bracer with variations
* Added Italian armet with 7 variations
* Added Short poleaxe skin for heavy handaxe
* Added Knightly coat of plates
* Added two new maille over gambeson skirts
* Added Hauberk
* Added Reinforced greathelm & winged variant
* Added Italian rapier & Decorated Italian rapier skins
* Added Savoyard helmet & variations
* Added Cuirassier arms, pauldrons & gauntlets
* Added Joined hosen & variations
* Added Clad veteran chest
* Added heater shield skin
* Added targe shield skin
* Added short maille sleeves over cloth
* Added hood under helmet as head and/or coif slots
* Readjusted Elizabethan Legs
* Allowed for some missing combinations with the existing armory
* Duel mode no longer allows bandages, medkit and flesh wound. Disabled health regen in duel mode. From now on certain perks will be banned in ranked play and we recommend competitive players to copy these rules.
* You can now select loadouts with banned equipment/perks, those will be removed/disabled on spawn instead.
* Updated mod.io plugin
* Many fixes to mod downloads, should fix problems with joining modded servers
* Server admins of modded servers no longer need to specify ServerModAuthToken and subscribe to mods, instead mods are installed by adding a Mods=<Mod ID> line for each mod under the [/Script/Mordhau.MordhauGameSession] ini section
* Improvements to backend, improving the gold/xp situation and community server stability
* Bots can now use ladders
* Bots can now climb surfaces

 **Combat**

* Added new Miss detector 5000 - this is a new mechanic that will detect misses of enemies while the player is in the parry window and reduce the parry recovery by a huge amount, sending the player to idle much quicker. Plays a sound and faster animation when it triggers. Heavily nerfs missing on purpose in 1vX scenarios and fixes unparryable miss combos in 1v1.
* Added new glancing blow calculation based on who players parried - this will remove spinning with ripostes from duels and make those spins glance now, without affecting teamplay or target switching.
* Maximum lunge reduced by 15cm (15ms) - this makes 120cm the new maximum and means that every weapon shorter than 120cm had its lunge reduced very slightly
* Maximum strike release reduced 25ms, making 500ms the new max. This means weapons with 525ms strike release now have 500ms strike release. Only affects 525ms release weapons. Reduces float.
* Parry window reduced 15ms (recovery increased with 10ms ontop, total parry time now 950ms up from 940ms - also nerfs double parries very slightly)
* Strike chamber window reduced 15ms
* Stab chamber window reduced 10ms
* Strike riposte early release increased 1% (Makes riposte accels hit very slightly slower)
* Reduced knockback across the board
* Chase mechanic activation time increased 100ms (0.4 -> 0.5)
* Undercut glance reduced 5%
* Kicks now ignore hand hitboxes again, fixing “hand kicks” for good
* Slow kick timer is no longer bound to feint lockout and now uses a global 450ms timer instead across all weapons. This should fix very fast kicks right after a feint on slower weapons.
* Jump kick slowed down 75ms
* Jump kick can no longer be feinted
* Morph to kick slowed down 25ms
* Kicks now have bonus damage on headshots again (5)
* Disarms now force slow kick for a short time
* Third person camera changed to a centered view
* Better spawn invulnerability, fixes dying to trebuchets etc.
* Updated CombatTest - now has experimental buckler rework and two new prototype weapons, fix for backparries, experimental new chase mechanic & more
* Added second combat test map (CombatTest\_Casual) with new, more fluid experimental combat based around timed parry with a very short recovery. Full description on the map.

 **Weapons & Equipment**

* Heater, Kite and Round shield now have a significantly bigger parry window compared to regular parry (115ms bigger), making them much stronger against drags etc. Stamina negation has been reduced.
* Shield wall turncap is now less strict, shield wall movement speed now faster
* Shields now cover less of the screen in first person
* Firepot fire now slightly bigger, covers a round area
* Firepot direct hit damage buffed to 10 (from 5)
* Firepot wood damage increased 35% (one pot will now fully destroy toolbox walls that are not being repaired instead of leaving them standing at low health)
* Firepot now starts damage 150ms faster (1.5s -> 1.35s)
* Maul raw damage to armored torsos (T2,T3) reduced by 10
* Maul miss recovery on strike and stab increased 100ms
* Halberd main mode combos 25ms faster
* Halberd alt mode strike damage increased by 2 across the board
* Halberd now cheaper
* Battle Axe main mode strike damage against plate torso increased to 45
* Longsword main mode strike windup slowed down 10ms
* Estoc chamber stamina cost raised to 15 (from 10)
* Estoc stab turncap now slightly more strict
* Arming sword stamina drain reduced slightly
* Rapier strike release reduced 25ms
* Shortspear range reduced 5cm
* Shortspear stab windup slowed down 25ms
* Shortspear stab stamina drain reduced by 1
* Reduced sledgehammer stamina drain slightly
* Smith perk repair bonus reduced to 33% from 50%
* Friendly perk reduced to 1 point cost
* Tenacious perk reduced to 1 point cost
* Wrecker perk cost reduced to 2 points
* Scavenger point cost increased to 2 points
* Flesh wound buffed, no longer sets stamina to 0
* Fixed shovel leg damage
* Toolbox can no longer build directly around players/vehicles

 **Visuals & Misc**

* Added 4 emotes, Point, Wave, Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down.
* Fixed server-side constrain aspect ratio setting messing with FOV
* Fixed exploit relating to 1p/3p camera switch spam
* Fixed some cases of camera mode being remembered wrong on deaths
* Several collision fixes on maps
* Smoothed out failed parry animation slightly
* Improved shield riposte blending
* Fixed lute ragdoll physics appearing jittery on clients
* Reworked how equipment physics are replicated to clients, ensuring better behavior and less oddities like teleporting on death in some instances
* Bots now turn smoother and jitter less
* Bots now face movement during attacks if out of range, prevents awkward strafing when not close enough
* Lowered bot turd spam in Horde
* Fixed bots super-slowly sliding off of edges when trying to drop down
* Fixed Elizabethan legs proportions, making them less skinny
* Fixed Horde bug/exploit with keeping armor
* Fixed jump on head causing crazy knockback
* Fixed mouse smoothing affecting bots in certain cases
* Feitoria - Placed out of bounds volumes on top of the bunk beds, so VIPs don't camp there. Placed ~20 new random weapons and utility items on the map. Added a ladder behind the big house near the port, so there are more ways to get inside. Pushed the last stage INV blue spawns back a bit (right side). On FL pushed the blue castle spawns so they are now behind/inside the town hall. FL red team spawns a bit closer (2nd point). Fixed a dozen stuck spots and adjusted some volumes.
* Several changes to Castello to improve gameplay
* Added slightly more hit freeze effect at end of attack hits

 **Performance**

* Lots of server CPU optimizations
* Lots of client CPU optimizations
* Added experimental new anim/code LOD bucketing system m.CharLODAnimNew 1 in console to enable, handles characters that are further away better by rescaling the buckets
* Added experimental character lod occlusion system m.characterLODOcclusion 1 to enable, reduces quality of heavily occluded characters, best combined with new anim LOD above
* Added several map optimizations

 **Sounds**

* Increased volume of enemy footsteps slightly

 **UI**

* New skins will now appear with an exclamation icon in the armory until the user views them
* Added HUD button prompts to equipment, vehicles, etc (can be disabled by toggling tips in game settings)
* Added server mute duration indicator to chat box (appears only when server muted by an admin)
* Updated post match screen, allowing chat and scoreboard use in the end screen
* Added warning icon to banned loadouts - banned loadouts can now be selected and edited, spawning with one removes banned items
* Removed green health bar from allies
* Menu scoreboard mute/kick/ban dialogs now show selected player's name as hint text