Tomorrow sees the first and last major storyline DLC for The Last of Us. In preparation, Naughty Dog are unleashing a major patch which will be required to play the new content.
The Last of Us 1.06 adds some major multiplayer changes, such as balance changes and crash fixes, as well as Network update rate improvements.
Here we go, then. Big things come to those who wait…
UPDATE: According to Naughty Dog, the patch is expected to release today at 10PM PST
Single Player
- Patch 1.06 is required to play The Last of Us: Left Behind chapter
- Adds “Left Behind” to the Main Menu
- Adds 10 new Trophies (1 Silver, 9 Bronze) for The Last of Us: Left Behind
Networking
- Network update rate doubled
- Doubled the rate player movement updates are sent peer-to-peer, reduced latency in game engine to 66ms.
- Increasing the network update rate will increase network traffic on your Internet connection. Let us know if you are having trouble with your Internet connection after this change and/or if you are hitting our Lag Detection Check frequently.
- Lag Detection Check now stricter
- This change is designed to catch situations where a player is lagging significantly and causing severe problems.
- When the Lag Detection Check occurs, your character will be frozen in place and you will see the Network Trouble icon appear on your screen. This is to ensure the lagging player cannot gain an advantage during this time.
- Added Network Trouble icon
- If you are seeing the Network Trouble icon frequently, here are some things you can do to improve your connection:
- Use a wired Ethernet connection instead of Wi-Fi.
- Avoid any major internet usage while playing. Things like torrents, Netflix, YouTube, etc. will have a big impact on your performance.
- Ensure your NAT (Network Address Translation) is not restricted (Type 3). To check if it is, go to the XMB –> Settings –> Network Settings –> Network connection test). Check with your router manufacturer for specific instructions on how to open up your NAT for your specific router model.
- Network Lag Detection Feedback
- Feedback we are looking for:
- Are you still seeing severe lag situations, e.g. dying several seconds after you killed another player?
- Are you getting the Network Trouble icon frequently? Do you see it almost constantly or only a few times during a match?
- Have you tried the above steps to improve your connection?
- Feedback we are looking for:
Interrogation Mode- Forums Thread
- Under certain conditions, the defending team would respawn too quickly and too close to their lockbox, making it too difficult for the attacking team to make progress. To alleviate this condition, we have made the following changes.
- All players will have a minimum respawn time of 7 seconds, if their lockbox has spawned.
- A team will not respawn instantly when the whole team is wiped out, if their lockbox has spawned.
- Spawn exclusion zones around the lockboxes have been adjusted across all maps so defenders don’t spawn too close to their own lockbox.
- Other fixes
- To improve spawning, reduced time that dead allies affect the downweight on spawn points from 40 seconds to 20 seconds.
- Fixed an issue where a player could get downed by a bomb just as they open a lockbox, and continue opening the lockbox while at 0 health.
- Fixed an issue where a lagging player could continue unlocking the box for some time after being attacked or downed.
- Note: Unfortunately this fix introduced a new issue where a player opening the lockbox cannot be shivved properly. This issue was caught after we submitted this patch and we weren’t able to update the patch before going live. This is a known issue and we will issue a fix for this in the next patch.
- Fixed an issue with the end of match music stinger so it plays when the “You Won” or “You Lost” pop-up appears on screen, before the final scoreboard.
- Fixed an issue that prevented the 2×4 to spawn in the center item cache.
Reviving and Bleed-out – Forums Thread
Under certain conditions the revive system can allow teams to get their teammates back into combat too quickly, as when there are multiple players reviving. To address these issues we’ve made the following changes.
- Reduced the speed bonus that a player assisting with the revive gives from 50% to 25%.
- Reviver skill now only applies for the player who started the reviving action.
- Parts for reviving a player are reduced from 100 to 50 after that player has already been revived. Resets to default on player death.
- Supply Raid and Survivors only: Bleed-out time for a player (15 seconds in Supply Raid, 40 seconds in Survivors) is now reduced by 25% each time that player is revived, up to a maximum 50% off. Resets to default on player death.
Melee – Forums Thread
- Fixed where shooting a player who was in process of a melee attack could result in the melee attacker aborting the move after the melee victim already registered the hit.
- Now melee attacks will only abort when the attacker is in the wind-up phase of the attack.
- Note: because of latency, you may be seeing a player in the wind-up phase on your machine, but on their machine the attack is already connecting. In this case the melee attack will not abort.
- Fixed “shiv dance”. If you damage a player, that player won’t be able to shiv you for the next 3 seconds.
- Fixed an issue where downed players would make it more likely for teammates to spawn near them.
Supply Boxes – Forums Thread
- Fixed an issue where the machete could spawn as a comeback item when the player already has a machete.
- When spawning a comeback item, a molotov will only spawn if the player already has 2 bombs. If the player already has 2 bombs and 2 molotovs, no comeback item will spawn.
- Fixed Supply Raid and Interrogation where players with 1 execution and only 1 or 2 deaths would get additional crafting ingredients from a supply box
- Fixed exploit where a player could fire off a couple shots before opening a supply box and get extra ammo.
- Players now receive ammo in more precise quantities, so players won’t get a box of 5 bullets when they should only get 2 bullets.
- As a result, more ammo boxes will spawn with varying amounts of ammo.
- Slight adjustments were made to the ammo given for certain weapons to keep them consistent with the current ammo given under the old scheme.
- Fixed an issue where players could lose a comeback item or weapon by being killed after opening a supply box, but before picking anything up. Now, players will have the same chance of getting that item or weapon at the next supply box.
- Fixed issue in Survivors where players could get additional items by opening a box, not picking up the items, then going to another box to open and pick up items, and returning to the first opened box to pick up additional items.
- Fixed issue where player who was Last One Standing would not get any ammo from a supply box.
- Fixed issue where Flamethrower could not be picked up when it spawned as a comeback weapon.
- Re-balanced ammo in comeback weapon spawns to match the amount when purchased:
- Shotgun went from 5 to 2.
- Assault Rifle from 20 to 10.
- El Diablo from 4 to 3.
- Fixed an issue where two of the supply boxes on Bill’s Town would not respawn in Survivors.
- Fixed an issue in Supply Raid and Interrogation where the supply box behind the Sammy’s sign on Bill’s Town would respawn while players were still close to the spawn point.
- Fixed an issue in all modes on Checkpoint where the item cache in front of the movie theater would not respawn under certain conditions.
- Adjusted regions on High School for supply boxes in Elimination (side boxes) to improve the balance and ensure they respawn at the same rate as the other boxes on the map.
Weapon Balance
Other weapon balance changes are in the works, but with the amount of fixes going into this patch, ND haven’t been able to spend enough time to implement and test them thoroughly.
- Max ammo for Shorty increased from 6 to 8, due to ammo box spawning changes
Loadout Balance – Forums Thread
- Crafter 3 increased from 5 to 6 loadout points.
- Military Sniper purchase weapon decreased from 4 to 3 loadout points.
- Machete purchase weapon decreased from 4 to 3 loadout points.
- Strategist Level 1 decreased from 2 to 1 loadout points.
Crashes
Located one of the more common crashes that occurs when players late-join a match. Unfortunately, this fix didn’t make it in time for this patch, but it will be in the next patch. In addition, ND are still actively working to isolate and fix other reported crashes.
- Fixed late-joining players receiving extra parts after a host migration occurs.
- Fixed where some player outlines (allies or enemies) would fail to draw when enemies were marked using Hawk Eye 2 or 3.