Epic has been making big changes to battle royale and beyond!
Updating Fortnite is becoming a bigger task for the developers at Epic Games, with the new experiences LEGO Fortnite, Rocket Racing and Fortnite Festival all getting refreshed alongside the main battle royale mode today (19th December).
It’s been a massive month or so for Fortnite, with these three new launches proving to be popular editions. The LEGO mode, in particular, seems to have massive concurrent player numbers every time we look at the launchers.
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So, what has changed in today’s Fortnite update? How are the experiences and your old favourites changing? Keep on reading and we’ll explain it all!
What changed in the Fortnite update today (19th December)?
Epic Games explained today’s Fortnite update with a blog post: “We’ve cooked up some improvements to Fortnite Battle Royale, LEGO Fortnite, Rocket Racing, and Fortnite Festival.
“Today’s update hits key areas that we want to address before our next update planned for early 2024.”
Each of those modes are impacted, then! We’ve got more details below.
If you’re looking for a little recap, some of the topline changes are:
- In battle royale, movement has been tweaked to increase speed when crouching and running
- In LEGO Fortnite, food adjustments have been made, which should mean your hunger is abated easier
- In Rocket Racing, “incremental improvements” are being made to try and improve queue times
- In Fortnite Festival, fall damage has been removed, amongst other changes!
Scroll a bit further and we’ll run through the full patch notes for you. There’s a lot more to be aware of.
Full patch notes for Fortnite Battle Royale, LEGO and Festival
Epic has shared the full patch notes on its website, and we’re going to include it all below to save you a click!
Fortnite Battle Royale patch notes (19th December)
Movement speed
“Movement speed has been increased when crouching, and running. We also reduced camera movement and adjusted the change in view while sprinting to encourage a smoother experience. Plus, we updated the movement animations to better match the adjustments in speed.
“To help you get adjusted to these updates, we’ve reset everyone’s “Custom Diagonal Movement” settings, so please log in and reconfigure your settings to what feels best.”
Medallions readability
“Society Medallion icons now stand out more on the map and should be easier to spot at a glance. We also reduced the visual noise present in the minimap when several Medallion zones are near one another, especially in the later Storm circles.”
Night visibility
“We’ve brightened certain areas of the map where it was a little too dark during night.”
Storm visibility
“The visibility of the Storm’s edge has been improved so it’s more apparent how close it is, as we heard from the community it could be difficult to see.”
Weapon icons
We’re aware of feedback that the Frenzy Auto Shotgun and the Thunder Burst SMG weapon icons were too similar, making it hard to differentiate them. These icons have been updated to be more visually unique and legible.
Recent balance changes
Last week, Epic also released a lot of balance changes to Battle Royale. Here’s a recap:
- Flowberries now grant more Shield.
- Increased damage for the Ranger Pistol, Shield Breaker EMP, and Ballistic Shield’s pistol.
- Snowball Launcher mag size reduced.
- Thunder Burst SMG mag size increased.
- Reduced the drop rate of the Reaper Sniper Rifle.
- Striker AR deals less damage.
- The circle indicating a Society Medallion holder is smaller.
- Society Medallions now have a brief delay before Shield regen begins. They also have slightly reduced
- regen rates and no longer refill 100% Shield (unless you have all five).
LEGO Fortnite
More filling snacks
We heard feedback that food in LEGO Fortnite wasn’t reducing hunger very much, so we made adjustments to make your snacks more filling!
Elimination while caving
“We fixed a bug that might have made you lose your items after being eliminated in the transition between aboveground and belowground. Thanks for your patience as this was being worked on – we understand it was frustrating to lose your items (we were losing our items too!).”
Rocket Racing
Long queue times
“We heard feedback that high-ranked racers have been experiencing long queue times in Rocket Racing, and our team is working on incremental improvements to help you get into your races faster. We’ll continue to monitor queue times and make adjustments if necessary.”
Car collisions
“Car-on-car collisions have been a major topic among players, especially when a bump from behind spins your car 180 degrees. Today’s update will make those collisions a bit less punishing, and should help keep your car facing the finish line. We’ll continue to work on collision improvements for future updates too.”
Jackie outfit quest
“The Reach Gold rank in Rocket Racing Quest to unlock the Jackie Outfit was rewarding players for reaching Gold II instead of Gold I. We’ve patched this so that racers who have hit Gold I now just need to complete one full race to complete the Quest and receive the Jackie Outfit.”
Fortnite Festival
Missing song library
“We fixed an error that caused players to see an empty song library in the Main Stage after suspending Fortnite on their device. This should also improve the pauses some players were encountering before a song starts.”
Fall damage disabled
“Fall damage has been disabled in the Main Stage’s Backstage. Jump off all the balconies you’d like, rockstars!”
Restart song
“We’ve disabled the ‘Restart Song’ functionality (available to Solo players) temporarily while we fix an error that was causing the game to become unresponsive.”
Incorrect posting to leaderboards
“We fixed an issue where some scores may have been posted to the wrong leaderboard. We will continue to monitor (and potentially audit) leaderboards moving forward to ensure their accuracy.”
And that’s your lot! Time to jump back into Fortnite in all its different forms…
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