World War Z Game: Undead Sea Update Patch Notes Revealed

World War Z has received its first big patch which includes a ton of bug fixes and quality of life improvements, as well as big changes like a new level, new enemy type, and the long-awaited inclusion of private lobbies! Ever since its release in April, World War Z has been demolishing expectations with a positive critical and commercial reception, with the game selling in the realm of around two million units within just one month.

The adventure continues with the Undead Sea Update, a free content drop which should satisfy the game's loyal player base. The patch addresses a number of bugs which have plagued World War Z since launch, including a number of nasty crashes and the issue where Lurker zombies would spawn near players who had joined a game in progress.

Most immediately, The Undead Sea Update adds a brand new level to the Tokyo episode, as well as a new enemy type, The Infector, which can appear in any of the game's earlier levels. It spits a nasty bile which can quickly turn a survivor into a zombie if they don't quickly disinfect themselves with a healing item. This dangerous enemy will surely add a provocative new wrinkle to the typical World War Z experience.

New World War Z Update Fixes Tons Of Issues

The entire patch notes are posted below, but some highlights include modifications to the AI director and balance checks for many weapons. The AI director, inspired by the one seen in Valve's long dormant Left 4 Dead series, has been subtly tweaked to change up the way it throws hordes of enemies at players. The notes include a passage which mentions more zombies being spawned during "short wave" segments, but with those waves having a shorter duration, which should keep the levels moving at a consistently rapid clip.

As for weapon balancing, the Undead Sea Update looks to fix World War Z's infamously underpowered Revolver. This gun cannot be upgraded and can only be found randomly throughout the levels. With a low ammo capacity, long reload animation, and mediocre stopping power, it was easily the worst gun in the game. With the update, the Revolver has been buffed so that, as Saber promises, it can kill a regular zombie on the highest difficulty in a single shot. Likewise, the Double-Barreled Shotgun has been granted a substantial increase to its effective range, this making the cool, if somewhat underpowered weapon much more useful in a pinch.

Finally, the Undead Sea Update includes the addition of private lobbies so groups of fewer than four players can play without having to team up with random players online. As an added bonus, and added challenge, the update also includes the ability to disable allied AI bots while playing with fewer than four players, a much-appreciated feature for many World War Z fans.

Full World War Z Undead Sea Update Patch Notes

New Content:

Added Tokyo 3 level.
Added new special zombie that will spawn on all levels.

New Features

Added private lobbies.
Added ability to host the game locally in private lobbies. (Only on Xbox and PS4 at the moment, same functionality will be available on PC later)
Added ability to disable bots in private lobbies.
Added UI that shows maximum difficulty each level was completed on.
Added FoV scale slider.
Added option to change PvP loadout during the game.

Added feature that will prevent Lurker from spawning near players that are joining the game in progress.
Tripled delay, which governs how often Lurker can spawn in the exact same position.
Constant sprinting will now aggro zombies from a bigger distance.
Reworked “zombie stagger” mechanics. When hit, zombies used to play a long hit animation based on gun caliber and an element of randomness. Now they will play hit animations based on gun caliber and if they are hit repeatedly in a short period. This will make shotguns and fast firing weapons more consistent at staggering zombies.
AI Director will spawn less primary weapons if players are already carrying tier 3 weapons.
When AI Director decides to spawn a small wave of zombies, it will contain more zombies, but the wave duration will be shorter.
Made stealth more consistent across all levels; executing perfect stealth will delay the first wave of non-swarm zombies.
Increased chance of spawning special zombies in idle state.

Weapons

Compact SMG. Non-silenced version deals 8% more damage.
Machine Pistol. Bottom branch version 5 deals 6% more damage.
Machine Pistol. Increased rate of fire by 9% for all versions.
Sporting Carbine. Top branch versions deal 5% more damage.
Sporting Carbine. Bottom branch versions’ mag size is increased by 3.
Advanced SMG. Non-silenced version 5 deals 5% more damage.
Advanced SMG. Increased accuracy of both version 4’s.
Sniper Rifle. Top branch now has a bigger magazine and better handling.
Sniper Rifle. Bottom branch deals bigger damage with more penetration and accuracy.
Heavy Sniper Rifle. Reduced projectile size to prevent accidental detonations.
Revolver. Significantly increased damage. It will be able to kill a zombie on the highest difficulty with 1 shot.
Double-Barreled Shotgun. Doubled the distance at which damage begins to reduce.
Double-Barreled Shotgun. Reduced damage in PvP by 8%.
Secondary Grenade Launcher. Increased max ammo from 3 to 5.Improved hit detection in PvP.
C4 will no longer detonate in midair if hit by a friendly fire (it still can be detonated after it lands on something).
Fixed some of the visual upgrades not showing up properly in weapon customization screen.
Fixed some of the weapon variant icons not reflecting actual visual weapon upgrades on that weapon.
Fixed Pump-Action shotgun displaying LOD model as well as the actual model.
Fixed gun recoil reset when swapping weapons.

Perks

Stim Pistol will now prioritize players in downed state when multiple targets are available.
If multiple players are using “Please Stand Up” perk, only one will trigger if the entire team is down.
All “Spawn with a Heavy Weapon” type perks will now properly adjust heavy weapons that are picked up during gameplay.

Stability

Improved performance.
Fixed several gameplay crashes.
Fixed several issues causing disconnects when joining friend’s game in progress.
Fixed issue that was causing 2 players appearing as the same character in game.

Levels

Fixed a large number of gameplay bugs that were causing inability to progress in levels.
Made some adjustments to AI Director that will make Moscow 3, Tokyo 2, Jerusalem 1, Jerusalem 3, and NY 3 slightly harder and Jerusalem 2 and Tokyo 1 slightly easier.
Improved navigation on Moscow 2 level.
Fixed issue that was causing zombie health scaling to trigger incorrectly for some zombies. In general, this makes Very Hard and Insane difficulties a little bit harder.

General Fixes

Fixed issue that was causing Aim Assist to work even if it was disabled in options.
Improved pickup selection system when multiple objects could be picked up by player.
Fixed issue that was causing player to respawn with 0 ammo.
Fixed issue that was preventing dead players turning into zombies in some cases.
Added backpacks for character models in “Collection” screen.
Fixed crash on party leader change during session start countdown.
Fixed issue that was causing pickup progress bar not to appear in some cases.Fixed player and specialization level display sync in scoreboard and in lobby.
Fixed Barricade defense kit icon display on HUD.
Backstory unlocked UI indicator will no longer display if you have already unlocked the backstory video.
Fixed issue that was causing some weapons to deal less damage with explosive ammo active in PvP.
Fixed friendly/enemy player overhead marker not appearing in some cases.
Fixed “Floor is Lava” trophy not triggering correctly.
Player will no longer drop defense kits when picking up C4 charges in Japan 2 level.

PC Difficulty

Zombies are harder to stagger on Very Hard and Insane difficulty (PC only).
Zombies take 25% less damage from body shots on Insane difficulty (PC only).
Reduced player revive timer from 40 to 20 on Insane difficulty (PC only).

PC Specific Fixes

Fixed friend list displayed as empty for some of the players.
Fixed issue with rebinding Sprint button on right shift button.Added Animation Quality slider that adjusts animation LODs, number of ragdolls, and number of dead bodies in general.
Slightly reduced time to kill other players in PvP for all weapons.

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