WARDOGS Season 01 Early Access Patch Notes: Complete Changelog

WARDOGS’ early access launch is now here, following a vastly successful closed beta period, and there have been some significant updates for the start of Season 01, as revealed in the patch notes.

The closed beta period on Steam for WARDOGS attracted just under 250,000 concurrent players at its peak, with thousands more expected for the early access launch, and developer BULKHEAD has made a wealth of changes across the board.

For the highlights of everything that has changed alongside a deeper dive into every alteration in the patch notes, look no further than our guide.

Biggest Season 01 Changes in WARDOGS

Players jumping into WARDOGS in the early access launch at the start of Season 01 will encounter some significant tweaks across the board from the recently concluded closed beta.

This includes a range of standard changes to exploits, bugs, voice chat, and performance, alongside some tweaks to gameplay, progression, and unlocks.

Progression between level 10 to 20 has been slowed, while the curve has been flattened from level 35 onward, meaning those wanting the big ticker items will need to grind – with Artillery moving to Career 90 and Heavy Tank to Driver 35.

Below level 6, there are no changes, but there have been some significant alterations to XP progression at higher levels, including the grind from level 20 to 25 slowing by over 124%.

Major economy changes have also occured, raising prices on a wide variety of items, but there’s also been some reductions, like the Z20 Lakota, Dune Buggy, and Kodiak Flatbed.

In terms of unlocks, a wide array have seen the required level reduced, but there is the aforementioned huge nerf to unlocking the Artillery Tank, which moves from level 55 to level 90, and the Heavy Tank, which moves from Career level 35 to Driver level 35.

Complete WARDOGS Season 01 Changelog

Here’s the complete changelog for WARDOGS 01, courtesy of Steam.

Exploits

• Fixed an exploit that let players reach an unintended position on the church roof.

Reporting and moderation

• Added a new report tracking system.
• Reports are now weighted so that repeat and bad faith reporters carry less influence.
• Cheater bans are now announced in server when match termination is turned off.
• The kicked from server message now only appears if you were actually banned.

Server browser and front end

• Reworked server browser filtering.
• Fixed community server images scaling incorrectly.
• The Host a server button now links straight to the hosting page.

Voice chat

• Fixed voice cutting out permanently after a failed join. Stale channel rejoins, push to talk targeting and re-login all recover properly now.
• Improved voice reliability under load, and added a visible communication status.

Gameplay and vehicles

• Z20 Lakota balance pass, and a fix for sluggish pitch.
• Helicopter input damping now applies to every input device.
• Vehicle turrets now have a maximum operator rotation speed.
• 155mm, 122mm and flare deployables now take up more room in your loadout.
• Fixed a DPI issue affecting tank aiming.
• Brought the Z20 Lakota chase camera rotation rattle down by 6 dB.

Performance and stability

• DLSS Frame Generation can now be turned off without restarting, and the render target pool is configurable.
• Reduced shadow cache refreshes, which cuts hitching when you take control of a character.
• Fixed two crash paths in the frame generation pipeline.
• GPU crash reports now carry more detail, so we can act on them faster.
• Removed a legacy graphics dependency.
• Shadow quality is now clamped to Low on high benchmark scores rather than being switched off entirely.
• Fixed a crash caused by network calls scheduled off the game thread.
• Fixed a crash when closing a chatbox entry tooltip.
• Fixed a crash involving buildables.
• Fixed a crash when firing a weapon whose owner had left.
• Dropped items no longer affect navigation, which claws back a little performance.
• Improved startup reliability, with clearer messages when something fails early and a route to recovery.

Balance changes

Looking at the data we have decided to slow levels down around 10 to 20, and flatten the curve from 35 onward. This means our median players, at 20 to 25 hours, will be around level 20, and those wanting the big ticket items, the top 5%, will need to grind. Artillery moves to Career 90 and Heavy Tank to Driver 35. Driver has also been rejigged to give a satisfying escalation through attack vehicles. Forward Operating Base and Large Hammer vendor prices have gone up to make them more of a choice.

• Levels 10 to 20 slowed down, with the curve flattening from 35 onward.
• Artillery moved to Career level 90, and Heavy Tank moved to Driver level 35.
• Forward Operating Base and Large Hammer vendor prices raised so they are more of a choice.

XP Bands

Previously our balancing was designed specifically for weekend long beta tests. Now they will be in-line with where we believe they should be. Each season we will have a different XP curve with different item orders.

• Below level 6: unchanged.
• Level 6: 8,750 to 9,250, 5.7% slower.
• Level 10: 25,000 to 35,000, 40.0% slower.
• Level 15: 54,750 to 110,000, 100.9% slower.
• Level 20: 111,500 to 250,000, 124.2% slower.
• Level 25: 192,000 to 325,000, 69.3% slower.
• Level 30: 293,750 to 400,000, 36.2% slower.
• Level 35: 416,500 to 500,000, 20.0% slower.
• Level 40: 551,250 to 650,000, 17.9% slower.
• Level 45: 689,500 to 800,000, 16.0% slower.
• Level 50: 838,000 to 1,000,000, 19.3% slower.

XP Events

• Player kill using an air vehicle: 300 XP to 250 XP.
• Supply crate item sold under $75: 25 XP to 1 XP.

Economy Changes

Every price change in one place. Level moves stay with their track.

• Vendor, Forward Operating Base: $2,500 to $7,500.
• Vendor, Large Hammer: $1,600 to $2,400.
• Career, Artillery Tank: $400,000 to $500,000.
• Recon, 6-10x MRAD scope: $25,000 to $40,000.
• Recon, 6-10x MOA scope: $30,000 to $45,000.
• Support, Medium Hammer: $10,000 to $25,000.
• Support, Large Hammer: $25,000 to $75,000.
• Pilot, small armoured supply crate: $5,000 to $10,000.
• Pilot, Little Bird with miniguns: $25,000 to $50,000.
• Pilot, Z20 Lakota: $50,000 to $35,000.
• Driver, URAL: $50,000 to $35,000.
• Driver, Dune Buggy: $35,000 to $25,000.
• Driver, Kodiak Flatbed: $15,000 to $35,000.
• Driver, Music Tape H: $5,000 to $2,500.
• Rebalanced the role track XP curve from level 6 upward. Level 6 moves from 8,750 to 9,250, roughly 5.7% slower, with a larger increase at level 10.
• Rescaled the supply crate purchase curve from 25 to 250 down to 1 to 200, so low value items are priced sensibly and cannot be abused.

Season 1.0 Unlocks: Career

• Sports Parachute: level 36 to level 35.
• Large Backpack: level 56 to level 55.
• 762x54mm AP: level 83 to level 82.
• 556mm AP: level 85 to level 83.
• Deagle: level 90 to level 85.
• Artillery Tank: level 55 to level 90.

Season 1.0 Unlocks: Medic

• PP-19 50 round drum magazine: level 33 to level 29.

Season 1.0 Unlocks: Support

• Large Hammer: level 7 to level 8.

Season 1.0 Unlocks: Driver

• URAL: level 4 to level 3.
• Kodiak Assault: level 8 to level 6.
• Dune Buggy: level 10 to level 8.
• Kodiak Flatbed: level 2 to level 10.
• Large Supply Crate: level 20 to level 16.
• URAL Covered: level 30 to level 18.
• Music Tape H: moves from Pilot level 28 to Driver level 23.
• URAL Attack: level 40 to level 25.
• Humvee with minigun: level 35 to level 30.
• Heavy Tank: moves from Career level 35 to Driver level 35.