Helldivers 2 patch fixes quickplay and crash bugs as Arrowhead work on AFK kick option and login rate limits
"It's like tuning a vespa to compete in F1," says Arrowhead CEO
Last night I tried to host a Helldivers 2 co-op mission and the "ready up" button froze up. I spammed it in a panic while the randos in my voice channel fumed at the delay. Then I popped us out of the drop pods, attempted to quit the game in embarrassment, and the PC promptly crashed. Another blow for managed democracy!
I'm hoping that the ready up problem is one of the "various UI issues [that] may appear when the game interacts with servers" which Arrowhead are addressing in a future Helldivers 2 patch. Before that, there's patch 1.000.10, which fixes PC quickplay match-making bugs, gets rid of a crash issue when displaying mission rewards, and tunes civilian extraction mission difficulty, amongst other things. It's live now, and the full changelog is below.
Fixes
Fixed crash when replicating ragdoll momentum.
Fixed crash when replicating destructions.
Fixed crash when displaying the mission end rewards.
Resolved a 100% block issue for quickplay matchmaking on PC.
Tuned extract civilian mission difficulty.
Improved the way that we handle platform authentication to avoid things like the black screen issue at startup.
Improvements to our client > backend communication for better backend performance.
Implemented an automatic retry mechanism to quickplay.
Added proper login error message for error "10002038."
The patch notes also specify some known issues, including the aforesaid UI problems, "that were either introduced by this patch and are being worked on, or are from a previous version and have not yet been fixed". Here they are. I think "other unknown behaviors may occur" is perhaps a little bit placeholdery, but I get that they want to cover all the bases.
Login rate limiting when many are logging in at the same time.
Players can become disconnected during play.
Rewards and other progress may be delayed or not attributed.
Various UI issues may appear when the game interacts with servers.
Pick-up of certain objects in-game may cause characters to freeze in place for an extended period of time.
Other unknown behaviors may occur.
Japanese VO is missing from intro cutscene and Ship TV.
Armor values for light/medium/heavy armor do not currently function as intended.
Helldivers 2 continues to be 1) very good, and as such, 2) vastly more popular than its creators expected, which is why people are having such a hecking cuss of a time logging in. Posting on Xitter, Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt had words of praise for the studio's backend engineers as the latest patch went live. "I mean, 4 people 5x-ing the max of what they designed for in one week, and are now looking to go beyond," he wrote. "I don't think you understand what a massive feat this is. It's like tuning a vespa to compete in F1." Given that four people is the size of a Helldivers 2 co-op party, I think "it's like going up against a swarm of Bile Titans with a pistol" or similar would have been more appropriate.
He added later that "we all just want the game to be playable by everyone without any limitations as soon as possible. But unfortunately it is a process, especially when everyone feels the stress and pressure."
Pilestedt also confirmed in passing that a future Helldivers 2 patch will introduce an AFK kick option, to stop players from staying signed into the server for hours and preventing others from getting access.
Are you one of those perfidious server campers? Well, given how hard it can be to access Helldivers 2, I can't blame you for hogging a slot. Hopefully, Arrowhead will put together some kind of lasting solution for the game's popularity issues soon. In other news, it looks like they're bringing back the Illuminate enemy faction from the original game.