It's been nearly one whole month since Epic Games dropped the free-to-play, multiplayer version of their world-building third-person shooter, Fortnite. Fortnite Battle Royale has been receiving regular improvements since then, and the latest patch 1.7.2 is doing even more to make the game more enjoyable for players.
What is the Battle Royale genre?
For those of you who don't know, Battle Royale type games have become popular thanks to titles like Player Unknown Battlegrounds and H1Z1.
These games pit players against each other on a map and have them searching areas for weapons and resources to survive.
Fortnite Battle Royale is almost a carbon copy of the same multiplayer action found in PUBG, and it has made waves for being a less intense, fun-for-everyone alternative. Whereas the original Fortnite launched in July at a number of price tiers for Early Access, Fortnite Battle Royale is free for everyone to download on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
What's new in Patch 1.7.2?
The latest patch addresses some quality of life aspects of the game, as well as some minor frustrations users had.
One requested feature was the ability to spectate different teammates in Squad multiplayer. Previously it was only possible to see one teammate upon your death, leaving you unaware of what another team member was doing during that time.
The patch also added new sensitivity options in the settings menu. Two new attributes, Targeting Multiplier and Scoped Multiplier, allow you to fine-tune aiming during ranged combat. Targeting Multiplier adjusts how the crosshair slows when holding the left trigger to aim with any gun. Scoped does the same, but when zoomed in with a Scoped Assault Rifle or Sniper. This allows you to have separate speeds when turning around to shoot behind you and lining up a sniper shot.
Additionally, the camera can be angled higher and lower than what was previously possible.
Ammo spawns also got tweaked. Medium Bullets, what players use to fill their rifles, got their stacks increased from 10 to 20. Rocket abundance also gets reduced by 25 percent, meaning less grumbling when your hard built fort is destroyed instantly by enemy rockets.
Stability tweaks were also added for overall hardware performance. Complaints of long load times and frame rate dips reached Epic Games' ears addresses these somewhat, and will hopefully lead to fewer hiccups during a drawn out gunfight.
Finally, the PC got Voice Over IP chat functionality added in. Push-To-Talk has been enabled by default, but other settings can be adjusted in the menu.
When matchmaking with a squad, Squad VOIP chat is automatically on after the patch, so if you want to remove that feature you'll have to do so in the settings. Epic Games also mentioned in their update that they planned to add VOIP to other platforms in the future aside from PC.
To read a full list of patch notes, see Epic Games official blog.
See the official Fortnite Battle Royale launch trailer