After weeks of player backlash, Arrowhead Studios has finally confirmed they are reverting the patrol and spawn rate changes, once again making it possible for solo players to enjoy the game.
In their April 29 patch, Arrowhead implemented some major tweaks to how the patrol spawn systems worked, making it almost impossible for smaller teams to complete runs. While four play squads would feel no difference, the developer decided to increase enemy spawn patrols if you have fewer players in your party.
The change essentially meant that the fewer players you had in your party, the harder the game would become, which didn’t make a lot of sense to many. Once the system went live, it was met with immediate backlash, with solo players suggesting they would stop playing the game because of it. Thankfully, Arrowhead has listened to the community and is reverting the changes, as announced by community manager Thomas ‘Twinbeard’ Petersson.
“As many of you have noticed, something has been off with patrols and spawn rate for some time now,” he wrote. “This primarily leads to more enemies rearing their ugly heads than they’re supposed to, indirectly [leading] to players feeling overrun, kiting, and subsequently less fun gameplay.”
“This has been the case for all players, but predominantly for smaller teams and solo playing. We’ve been aware, but frankly, the past couple of weeks have been so hectic that we haven’t been able to give this the TLC that it required. We now have, and we’ve concluded that it’s not working as intended and we’re changing it. There might be some minor tweaks, but overall we’re reverting back to how patrols and spawn rate worked before the patch that changed them a few weeks ago. We believe that this is more or less how you currently want them to be.”
While the changes are coming, Twinbeard stressed that they’ve heard community feedback about Arrowhead rushing changes, so “implementing this will take some time,” as they want to properly test and review it before pushing it live.
As mentioned by Petersson, it has been a “hectic” few weeks for the Arrowhead team, who faced plenty of controversy following the announcement, and subsequent backtrack, regarding players needing a PSN account to continue playing.
After listening to the community regarding that change, players will be hopeful that the game is back on the right track when the spawn patrol changes are finally reverted.
