Nov 9, 2017

Z1 Battle Royale - Greg

Combat Practice:

Lower max population to 55 from 70
Adjust loadouts by doing the following
First Slot AR
Second Slot AK
Third Slot SMG or Shotty
Decrease vehicle respawn rate

Weapon Tuning:
AR-15

Slight increase in horizontal recoil tolerance to combat spraying
Slight increase in bullet drop from what is currently on Test
Should feel like a blend of pre and post combat update

AK-47

Slight increase in bullet drop from what is currently on Test
Should feel like a blend of pre and post combat update

Daily Challenges (First Version)

Three challenges that, once completed, refresh every 24 hours.
Complete a challenge and receive a set amount of Skulls. Skulls will not be awarded on the Test Server.
You can discard up to one challenge each day and get a replacement.

We revamped the lighting and colors of The Arena to be more visually appealing while at the same time improving gameplay. This change came in part from direct player feedback during the Reverse AMA.

Bug Fix

Can’t ADS with non-scope weapons while reloading. Should be able to ADS now.

Nov 9, 2017

Test Server Update - 11/9

Z1 Battle Royale - Halo117

Combat Practice:

Lower max population to 55 from 70
Adjust loadouts by doing the following
First Slot AR
Second Slot AK
Third Slot SMG or Shotty
Decrease vehicle respawn rate

Weapon Tuning:
AR-15

Slight increase in horizontal recoil tolerance to combat spraying
Slight increase in bullet drop from what is currently on Test
Should feel like a blend of pre and post combat update

AK-47

Slight increase in bullet drop from what is currently on Test
Should feel like a blend of pre and post combat update

Daily Challenges (First Version)

Three challenges that, once completed, refresh every 24 hours.
Complete a challenge and receive a set amount of Skulls. Skulls will not be awarded on the Test Server.
You can discard up to one challenge each day and get a replacement.

Can’t ADS with non-scope weapons while reloading. Should be able to ADS now.

Nov 6, 2017

Server Maintenance 11/7

Z1 Battle Royale - Greg

We’ll be bringing the servers down tomorrow (11/7) at 8am PT for maintenance, the downtime will be approximately 4 hours. This maintenance will not include the content we recently pushed to Test last Friday. That content needs more time for feedback and adjustments tweaks before we push it Live.

While we are performing maintenance on the servers we will push a small number of fixes out as well that we detailed earlier.

• Starting a reload at the same time as entering a vehicle should no longer result in incorrect clip size or situations where the gun appears to be reloaded but is still empty.
• Entering a vehicle while reloading should no longer prevent the player from exiting the vehicle for longer than the normal cooldown.
• Added more loot to several warehouses that were lacking.

The Test Server will remain up during the maintenance.

Nov 6, 2017

Server Maintenance 11/7

Z1 Battle Royale - Halo117

Nov 6, 2017

Jelly Deals: H1Z1 is this month's Humble Monthly early unlock

Z1 Battle Royale

A note from the editor: Jelly Deals is a deals site launched by our parent company, Gamer Network, with a mission to find the best bargains out there. Look out for the Jelly Deals roundup of reduced-price games and kit every Saturday on Eurogamer.

It's that time again, folks. We've survived another month and we're collectively carving a path directly through November. This month brings a whole lot of stuff with it, from the annual Call of Duty release to a potentially terrifying amount of Black Friday games deals headed our way in a couple of weeks.

Over at Humble, of course, a new month means it's time for a brand new set of stuff from the site's Humble Monthly subscription service. If you were a subscriber this time last month, you'll now have access to the previous batch of game keys. Last month's full range ended up being the following:

Nov 3, 2017

Test Server Update - Combat Practice, Weapon Tuning, & More!

Z1 Battle Royale - Greg

The Test Server is now unlocked! General Manager, Anthony Castoro filled in some extra details on upcoming features in a Reddit post here.

Combat Practice

We’re rolling out the new Combat Practice zone! It’s going to be your destination to get your hands on all the weapons in the game so you practice your skills with other players. We think it'll be a great place to sharpen your skills or just to warm up before you get serious in for an evening (or morning) of Battle Royale. It’s a much smaller map than Z2, designed to highlight each of the locals from our current map so you can practice fighting in the hills, neighborhoods and city areas. When you die, just respawn right back in. There won’t be any parachuting in Combat Practice so it keeps the momentum high.

You enter combat practice with a semi-random selection weapons (pistol, rifle, shotty/smg) and some equipment (backpack, helmet, medkits, etc) already on your person. There is no parachute, you spawn directly onto the map in an area determined by the population in the zone. You can then keep looting up or seek out other players to fight. If you die, you’ll have the option to respawn, at which point you’ll go back to the start of this statement.

Combat Tuning

We’ve made some additional adjustments to the weapons based on feedback from you, the players.

AR Recoil Reset reduction- Increased the speed that the AR recoil resets to give the user more responsive 2 taps.
AK 47 Reduced Fire Rate - We decreased the fire rate of the AK to help alleviate closer quarters spammability.
Shotgun Fixed Pattern - Shotgun now features a fixed, non-rotating pattern. We've added a center pellet. Damage has been increased, but damage fall off has also been increased to make it a more reliable close range weapon.
Bullet Drop - We've slightly decreased the bullet drop across pistols and rifles to be more in line with the old bullet drop, prior to the combat update.

Match Pacing

We’re making some pretty interesting changes to the gas pacing early in the game to speed up in initial looting lull. We’re taking out the toxicity system and re-tuning the gas damage to compensate. The gas in the early game will now be easier to see through but much more difficult to see through late game to prevent camping.

Other Items

Improved lighting and color vibrancy
Pre-Season 7 will be coming with the next major game update and during the season we may introduce a "Beta" score that reflects consistency as well as your top 10. More on that soon.
Fall damage - We’ve also made some changes to the fall damage system to make it more consistent. You will take the same damage from the same heights regardless of forward velocity. You will also no longer take 1-2 damage randomly when running and jumping over small objects.
Explosive Arrows are now super effective against vehicles.
It is now possible to loot while reloading.
The fifth passenger in a vehicle can now reload and shoot.
We’ve made improvements to our file system that significantly reduces the download size of the game. This change will require that previous files are downloaded again to receive the new format. However, future downloads will utilize the new format and therefore require a smaller footprint.

Nov 3, 2017

Test Server Update - Combat Practice, Weapon Tuning, & More!

Z1 Battle Royale - Halo117

AR Recoil Reset reduction- Increased the speed that the AR recoil resets to give the user more responsive 2 taps.
AK 47 Reduced Fire Rate - We decreased the fire rate of the AK to help alleviate closer quarters spammability.
Shotgun Fixed Pattern - Shotgun now features a fixed, non-rotating pattern. We've added a center pellet. Damage has been increased, but damage fall off has also been increased to make it a more reliable close range weapon.
Bullet Drop - We've slightly decreased the bullet drop across pistols and rifles to be more in line with the old bullet drop, prior to the combat update.

Improved lighting and color vibrancy
Pre-Season 7 will be coming with the next major game update and during the season we may introduce a "Beta" score that reflects consistency as well as your top 10. More on that soon.
Fall damage - We’ve also made some changes to the fall damage system to make it more consistent. You will take the same damage from the same heights regardless of forward velocity. You will also no longer take 1-2 damage randomly when running and jumping over small objects.
Explosive Arrows are now super effective against vehicles.
It is now possible to loot while reloading.
The fifth passenger in a vehicle can now reload and shoot.
We’ve made improvements to our file system that significantly reduces the download size of the game. This change will require that previous files are downloaded again to receive the new format. However, future downloads will utilize the new format and therefore require a smaller footprint.

Oct 14, 2017

H1Z1: King of the Kill is now called just H1Z1

Z1 Battle Royale

Following H1Z1: Just Survive's recent renaming to Just Survive, I suppose it's not a huge surprise that Daybreak's battle royale shooter H1Z1: King of the Kill is now simply called H1Z1. In past interviews I've conducted with members of Daybreak and pro players, everyone pretty much just calls it H1Z1 anyway (and often just H1), so it makes sense.

The name change may also suggest that H1Z1 could be preparing to leave Early Access, but Daybreak isn't giving any specific details on that yet. From a post on the official site:

"To answer the question many will have: does this mean you’ll be exiting Early Access soon? These updates definitely take us a step closer, but we still have to polish up the core gameplay (with your feedback) before we’re ready for a full launch."

Along with the name change, the UI is getting some tweaks "that simplify the menus and update the game’s look" that you can check out on the test servers before they're officially rolled out, which is planned for October 18. And, H1Z1's annual Invitational tournament is happening on October 20-22, at TwitchCon 2017.

Oct 11, 2017

H1Z1 Pro League announced, will offer players $50,000 minimum salary

Z1 Battle Royale

Daybreak Game Company and Twin Galaxies teamed up earlier this year for the for first H1Z1: King of the Kill team-based pro tournament, with a $300,000 prize pool, including $180,000 for the winning team. Apparently that event was a success, because today they announced an even bigger venture in the form of the H1Z1 Pro League, which will feature 15 teams with a base player salary of $50,000, a "comprehensive Player Bill of Rights," and league-wide revenue sharing.

"Our goal with the H1Z1 Pro League is to create a world-class experience worthy of our incredibly competitive community,” Daybreak's H1Z1 general manager Anthony Castoro said. “We chose to partner with Twin Galaxies because they bring a unique and compelling vision for how H1Z1 can reshape the world of professional esports, and they share our core value of putting players first.”

The H1Z1 Pro League is set to get underway early next year, with 15 teams of five players each competing in 75-player battles over two ten-week splits, followed by finals slated for late 2018. Interestingly, Daybreak said in the announcement that "there will be no fees or buy-in costs for teams to take part in the league": Instead, the lineup will be selected by way of an application process that will begin later this fall. How exactly that will work wasn't made clear in the announcement, but it's quite a contrast to Blizzard's Overwatch League, which also has 15 teams and a $50k base player salary—and a rumored $20 million franchise fee.

The teams taking part in the H1Z1 Pro League will be announced in early 2018, just ahead of the start of the first season. Teams interested in taking part can attended a "private H1Z1 Pro League briefing" on October 20 at TwitchCon in Long Beach, California. There's no mention of an online option but you can RSVP if you'd like to attend (or, one would assume, ask them about connecting online) at H1PL@twingalaxies.com.