Battlefield Hardline's first patch reworks team deathmatch spawns
The first major patch for Battlefield Hardline Patch 1.02 includes a broad selection of tweaks, fixes, and additions to Visceral's cops-and-robbers shooter, ranging from revised Battlepacks to reduced RPG splash damage and less-deadly couches.
Speaking of Battlepacks, Patch 1.02 should make them noticeably more rewarding: Bronze Battlepacks have a better chance of giving out collectibles rather than just boosts, and the Silver and Gold tiers are more likely to contain appropriately superior stuff. Hardline also now offers Shortcut Battlepacks, letting players spend in-game cash to unlock new gear faster.
The patch will extend Conquest Mode, boosting Conquest Large's ticket rations to 999 per side and standard conquest to 600. It also significantly reduces the health and repair rate of the drivable couch, making it more of the novel Easter Egg it was intended to be and less of a ridiculous-but-somewhat-effective vehicle.
Several weapons received recoil reductions or boosts to their maximum damage, making each one a stronger choice for your loadout. The K10 and AKM, on the other hand, have been toned down, receiving reduced overall damage and reduced minimum damage, respectively.
Though most of the changes were made across all platforms, the patch notes below refer specifically to Battlefield Hardline's PS4 version. Check the official forums for notes on the PC, PS3, Xbox 360, and Xbox One versions.
Battlepacks
- Bronze packs – changes made to the last slot drop to improve the chances of collectibles and vouchers rather than boosts.
- Silver packs - made the first 3 slots like a Bronze pack, and removed any chances of getting standard drops and increased the chances of collectibles for the last slot.
- Gold packs - made the first 4 slots as Silver pack, and removed any chances of getting standard items, drops advanced vouchers and greatly increased the chances of getting superior or distinguished items.
- Added the Prima Guide's Gold Battlepack.
- Shortcut Battlepacks added.
Battlepickups
- Adjusted the RPG to only have 1 ammo when picked up from a vehicle trunk and to have less splash damage.
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Crash Fixes
- Fixed a crash related to some specific Nvidia based video cards. [Editor's note: this one probably isn't supposed to be on the PS4 list.]
- Fixed crashes in multiplayer based on data from BugSentry (internal crash tracking tool for live servers).
Gameplay
- Bullet impacts near the player no longer cause camera shake in certain cases.
- Fixed an issue in the Hollywood Heights map that allowed players to grab cash through a roof in the Blood Money game mode.
Modes
- Fixed an issue where the Hotwire game mode was showing as available for the Hollywood Heights MP map.
- Adjusted Team Death Match spawns so player is closer to friendlies and further from enemies.
- Adjusted tickets to 600 for Conquest Small and 999 for Conquest Large.
- Added Conquest Large to the Growhouse map.
Servers
- Fixed an issue with server customization settings for certain game modes.
- Rent-a-Server functionality added.
Shortcuts
- Added licenses for all items granted in the DLC shortcuts.
Squads
- Fixed an issue where a squad leader gets disconnected and the new leader cannot kick members of the squad or disband the squad.
UI
- Fixed an issue where players could bypass the timer at the beginning of the round during Rescue and Crosshair.
Vehicles
- Reduced the health of the couch and reduced the rate at which it can be repaired.
- Adjusted the criminal and law enforcement variants of the sedan so that they now take the same damage per bullet from weapons.
Weapon Tuning
- K10 - reduced start damage to 33 and end damage to 8
- Saiga, PTR 91, HCAR, and HK51 - reduced the amount of vertical recoil
- RO993 - increased the rate of fire to 850
- Jury 410 - increased the amount of damage per pellet to 20
- FMG9 - increased max damage to 25
- Battle Rifle ammo - increased min damage to 25
- AKM - bullet min damage decreased to 24
I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.