Gears of War 4 Update Adds Quit Penalties and Spectator Improvements

The third title update for Gears of War 4 is dropping today, Jan. 10, The Coalition announced. The update is expected to release around 10 am PT/1 pm ET.

A new feature in the update is players who quit early often will receive suspensions from matchmaking, though now there is a five minute timer to rejoin and complete a multiplayer match if dropped out or quit. On the eSports side, spectator mode is being improved with a cleaner UI and better controls to view the action. The update also brings plenty of bug fixes, increased rewards for Escalation game mode, and an increased energy cost of the Hammer of Dawn Strike ability in Horde mode.

In addition, the studio will be announcing two new maps and Gear Pack Series 2 content sometime today. The maps and hundreds of new cards will come alongside the update, but The Coalition warns players not to buy any Gear Packs for “a few hours following the update” until it confirms that the Series 2 content are available.

The third title update will be about 7 GB on Xbox One and about 9 GB on Windows 10 PC. Check out the full patch notes below.

Combatting Quitters – Phase 1

• Players leaving a Core/Competitive game early will now be suspended from matchmaking
• Players can rejoin a Core/Competitive match within 5 minutes of being dropped or quitting from an option in the main Versus menu
• Rejoining and completing a match will remove the matchmaking suspension time
• Added functionality to display matchmaking suspension time (including to your Squad Leader). You will not be able to matchmake if your Squad contains a suspended user until their suspension has completed.

Spectator Mode Improvements

• Player Cards have been re-designed to take up less visual space
• Player ammo and reloads are now visible in the Spectator Mode UI
• Crosshairs are now visible to Spectators
• Respawn timers are now displayed on Player Cards
• Weapons holstered onto a player’s back can now be seen in Spectator Mode
• K’ keyboard button now removes spectator inputs UI and/or the black bar altogether
• ‘L’ keyboard button toggles Player Cards to the far edges of the screen or normal positioning
• ‘V’, ‘B’ and ‘N’ keyboard buttons now jump to specific Escalation hill battle cameras
• Fixed an issue with X-Ray vision not rendering as intended
• Made X-Ray a ‘toggle’ rather than ‘Press-And-Hold’
• Fixed the ordering of players in Competitive UI to match the Lobby Order
• Pressing B while holding Jump Cam now cancels a pending Jump Cam
• Added new mapping for specific face buttons for specific camera modes, listed below:
  Gamepad ‘A’, Keyboard ‘Z’ -> Switches to Player or Follow Cam. If already in Player Cam, switch to Follow Cam and vice versa. Last used mode is saved as your preference when switching back to Player/Follow Cam from other modes and when using the Jump Cam
  Gamepad ‘X’, Keyboard ‘X’ -> Switch to Ghost Cam
  Gamepad ‘Y’, Keyboard ‘C’ -> Switch to Battle Cam

Other Fixes

• Skill ranking will now be visible again at the end of match scoreboard
• Added ‘Spawns Swapped’ UI when spawns flip in Versus
• Increased the Energy cost of the Hammer of Dawn Strike in Horde
• Increased Escalation Win and Loss bonuses
• Increased Escalation Win Bounty Rewards
• Tuned criteria and rewards for King of the Hill Bounties
• Fixed an exploit that allowed players to teleport Energy to their position in Horde
• Squad Members can immediately see when they have been removed from a Squad
• The ‘Horde Skills’ UI Notification alerting you to new skills now works correctly
• Horde Skill cards can now be equipped and unequipped in the Horde Skills inventory
• Added UI notification to show new Cards in your collection when opening Gear Packs
• Improved UI on Turret Heat bar
• Improved performance when switching tabs in Card view menus
• Added slider to control how long text chat remains visible after a message
• The Longshot can no longer shoot through walls if positioned through a 90 degree corner
• Added a Duplicates Only filter to the Inventory Menu
• Fixed an issue where audio slowly cut out in Horde
• Fixed an issue allowing grenade effects to continue into the next round in Versus
• Removed an exploit allowing users to break the map boundaries in Horde on Foundation
• Fixed an issue that allowed players to respawn out of the map boundaries in Horde
• Fixed an issue where offline customization would reset if user changed characters
• Miscellaneous fixes and improvements

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