Some interesting news from Ubisoft and their recent first-person shooter Far Cry 3: it’s getting some big changes.
A post on the Ubisoft forums from the Community Manager lists some of the changes the team are going to be applying to the game through future patches.
Read on below for the full list of features and goodies that should be added in the near future:
Player feedback is an important part any game’s community. The ability to get first-hand impressions from players and what they think about the product is vital to make a game even more enjoyable. Thanks to the feedback, we are able to expand upon or add to the game experience.
During the games first few months, the Far Cry 3 Team has been collecting feedback from our players; those who enjoy the storyline, those who play online as well as our map makers. New functionality has been requested, and some have suggested improvements to already existing features. So here are some of the features that can be expected in upcoming patches:
Single Player: Ability to Reset Outposts
A big part of Far Cry 3’s single player experience is taking over the outposts manned by Vaas’s pirates and Hoyt’s privateers. These outposts, when taken, offer a safe place to resupply as well as a base of operations when exploring new parts of the Rook Islands.
Taking over an outpost as a player also presents a fun challenge; everything from how to approach the outpost to what weapons and tactics to use. Hence, a lot of community members have requested to be able to ‘reset’ the outposts, so that they can be taken-over again.
Here is how it works:
• After conquering all the outposts and completing the game, the player can reset the outposts by selecting “Reset Outposts” in the gameplay options menu.
• Doing this will reset and make all Outposts hostile again. All incomplete side missions and quests will become hidden. In order to finish the incomplete side missions, you will have to retake the outposts again.Single Player: MASTER – A New Difficulty Setting
For those that have already completed the game on Adventurer, Survivor or Warrior settings and are looking for the next bill challenge, the all-new MASTER difficulty setting will be added in an upcoming patch of the game. Seasoned veterans will find themselves challenged by more aggressive wildlife, tougher pirates, and more deadly privateers. Your skills as a master of the Rook Islands will be tested.
Multiplayer: Feedback on User-Created MapsThe feedback system (while already having some information that is useful for other players looking for maps) has been expanded upon to give more information to the map makers. A new, more intuitive feedback interface and the addition of “feedback tags” have been added.
Multiplayer: New Beta Map Testing and Spectating for Map Makers
The Problem:
With the current system, when a map maker has finished their map, they upload and publish it, essentially just sending it out “into the wild”. They are hoping that it will get sufficient plays in order to get some valuable feedback. With a ballooning amount of user-made maps, this becomes harder and harder. The map maker can also have hard time finding enough players to play the map with, so they can judge for themselves where the map can be improved.The Solution:
1. Someone makes a map in the editor and uploads or publishes it.
2. They start their map with a special option called “Start Beta Test”.
3. Other players who wish to help out with testing new maps, can join the new Beta Test Playlist or go into the Map Archive where all current maps in Beta Test will be displayed.
4. While in Beta test mode, the map creator can use the new spectating feature to monitor how their map is played.
5. After the round is finished, the players give feedback that the mapmaker can then use to improve the map.
Multiplayer: Find Other Maps by the Same AuthorSuppose you play a map you really like, and you want to find more maps by that same author. You’d favorite the map, go to the Map Archive and (after the patch has been implemented) search for more maps from the same author. It shines the spotlight on a good authors’ other maps, and also gives the author an incitement to improve all the maps he/she has uploaded and published.
Multiplayer: Removing Idle Kick Time in Custom Matches
Far Cry 3 removes idle players from a match after a few minutes, to ensure the quality of online play. This works well in the standard playlists to weed out inactive players. But players of custom matches have told us that they typically like a much longer wait time before that happens, or want it removed completely. So in keeping with your requests: from now on, “idle kick” is disabled in private and custom matches (MP and Co-Op).
Multiplayer: “Skip Map” Voting System
The community has told us that the voting system for skipping a map in the user map playlists lacks a certain degree of visibility and provides too short a window for people to cast their vote. We have now made it more visible and also extended the time people have to cast their vote.
Some fresh ideas and some standard ones that should have been included in the first place, but you have to give credit to Ubisoft, when they say they will support a game, they mean it.
My personal favourite aspect of Far Cry 3 and it’s multiplayer has got to be the map making facility, rather than push map packs in the form of paid DLC, you can create and share some of your ideas with the community, a little bit like LittleBigPlanet, only with lots of guns and killing, obviously…
There’s no word on when these changes will come into effect for Far Cry 3, but they should be released within the next few months, maybe not all at once, but they’ll arrive.
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What do you think about these changes coming to Far Cry 3? Excited? Indifferent? Let us know down in the comments below.