Call Of Duty: WWII update 1.09 is due on all platforms at the end of January. Sledgehammer continues to address fans about the fixes that will and won’t be in the patch. In addition to a list of patches addressing hot community topics announced earlier this week, Game Director Michael Condrey took to reddit to discuss sprint-out times and shotgun balance.
Starting with sprint, many players feel it takes too long to transition between running and aiming down sights. For Condrey and his team, this was an intentional design decision based on WWII’s lack of boost and a desire to remove so-called “crutch perks” like Dexterity.
“When there’s a ‘crutch’ perk like this, it results in a non-choice for players since they feel they need to take that perk or Basic Training just to be competitive. This problem was exacerbated with our Divisions CAC system which promotes a more focused playstyle through a sole, meaningful Basic Training choice rather than a multi-choice Pick system…
“The removal of boost / thrust also gave us predictable places from which threats could appear, and a more consistent closing speed between players. The question for us became, ‘Do we want a crutch perk that also makes the game play faster?’ Our answer was no.”
With that in mind, Condrey suggests future updates won’t address the sprint-out issues in any way without the possible long-term addition of a new movement-focused division. Those who want ADS to be faster can use Quickdraw Basic Training, but Quickdraw has no impact on ADS after sprinting.
Something Condrey will consider, however, are weapon balance tweaks to the current shotgun roster. Coinciding with fan demand, SHG is experimenting with a range nerf to the Combat Shotgun by 20 points. The Sawed-Off Shotgun, on the other hand, is in testing for a range increase or reload-time buff. If all goes according to plan, the weapon balance adjustments could be live sometime next week.
Update 1.09 will likely debut closer to the launch of the Resistance DLC on Jan. 30, and early reports indicate it will focus on a wide variety of issues including Domination scores, spectating bugs and health regen time. An exact release date for the update has not been confirmed.
Call Of Duty: WWII players asked for more transparency from Sledgehammer and, even though everyone may not agree with Condrey’s perspective, the team is absolutely delivering on that feedback. Stay tuned for more Call Of Duty: WWII update developments in the coming days.
Do you agree with Condrey’s take on sprint-out times? What do you want to see in update 1.09? Tell us in the comments section!
- Action-packed campaign
- Traditional multiplayer at its best
- A more welcoming Zombies mode
- Predictable story
- Small multiplayer maps
- Post-launch server issues