Outriders update patch notes revealed, and players get free gifts

A new Outriders update is dropping into the game soon, and the developers are also planning to give some free treats to fans. This special gift is called the 'Community Appreciation Package'.

There will also be bug fixes and other changes in the Outriders update. Keep on reading and we'll tell you all about it.

Outriders update release date: When is the maintenance time?

The big Outriders update hasn't got an official release date yet, but the developers have said on Reddit that it "is currently scheduled for next week".

In the build-up to this update being released, the developers are testing things out, and there have already been a couple of cases of the game temporarily going down for some preparatory maintenance work.

The official Outriders Twitter account declared yesterday that there would be some scheduled maintenance happening at 4:30pm UK time on Thursday 8th April. It only lasted for 15 minutes.

Anyone who was playing the game this morning will have noticed that a further chunk of maintenance occurred at 9am UK time on Friday 9th April. Again, it went on for 15 minutes.

Having just jumped in on Xbox Series X, we can confirm the Outriders maintenance time is complete and the game is live again now. As soon as we have a date and time for the big update, we'll let you know.

Read More:

• Is Outriders down? How to check server status
• Outriders Worldslayer review - our full verdict
• Outriders Worldslayer DLC - release date and details

What's new in the Outriders update?

On the official Reddit forum for Outriders, the developers have summed up the update in a short-but-sweet way for anybody who doesn't fancy reading through reams of patch notes.

The Reddit post tells gamers that there are patches for crashes and matchmaking issues in the update, as well as some rebalancing work that will slightly alter Bullet Skills and other facets of the game.

The developers are also working to improve multiplayer stability and connection issues. And they're working to restore the inventories of some players whose items were wiped from existence.

What is the Outriders Community Appreciation Package and how do you get it?

In another Reddit post, the developers promised to deliver a small "appreciation package" to anyone that played the game between 31st March and 11th April. Furthermore, any players who experienced an inventory wipe, even if it took place outside of that launch window time scale, will also receive the package.

You can't actually get this package yet, so don't load up the game and go looking for it now. We'll let you know when it becomes available and how exactly you can claim it.

We do know what the Outriders Community Appreciation Package will entail, though, with the developers expressing their intention to share the following treats as part of this free gift. In the developers' words, then, this is what you can expect in the package:

"Your highest leveled character will receive:

• A level appropriate Legendary Weapon
• A level appropriate amount of Titanium
• The emote "Frustration", which is otherwise unobtainable at this moment in time. The irony here was not intentional but is fitting.

"These are our intentions, but these details are subject to change based on what is technically feasible for us to do."

Outriders update full patch notes: bug fixes, nerfs and changes

A further Reddit post shared the full patch notes for the big Outriders update. We've included the full details from the developers below. In the words of the team behind Outriders, then, here is everything you need to know about the update.

First Patch:

• This is our first big patch for the main Outriders game.

• The deployment of this patch is currently scheduled for next week, as we are using this week to identify as many severe issues as possible, fix them and then thoroughly test the changes across all platforms. Submission through platform holders adds on a little bit of time as well, which is why we are not able to deploy this patch any earlier.

• We are doing our utmost to deliver you a stable patch as soon as possible and we are continually looking at ways to bring the patch release day earlier. This is why we are not yet committing to a patch release date, as we may still be able to release the patch before such a date.

• We will let you know as soon as we have a confirmed release schedule, so please do keep an eye on our social channels and in particular our Twitter.

PC & Console Platforms:

• Once platforms have been updated to the same patch version, cross-play across platforms will become viable again

• Overall stability improvements for the matchmaking service

• Crash Fixes

  • Will Fix a multiplayer crash that could result in client players having their inventory wiped

  • Will fix the crash when completing the "A Bad Day" side quest.

  • Will fix the crash that occurs in No Man's Land when your language is set to Spanish (Yes, we know. Video game code is a magical thing).

  • Will fix crash on launch issues

  • Will include many more "random" crash fixes

    • We are confident that these fixes will address the majority of crashes reported, as there are only a handful of root causes but the crashes they generate appear in a number of places.

• Will fix the HUD disappearing in certain cases

• Will fix bugs that interfere with players re-spawning in multiplayer Expeditions

• Will fix bugs with players getting stuck on geometry (including when using Gravity Leap) or falling out of the world.

• Will change the default matchmaking setting from "Open" to "Closed".

  • You will still be able to manually change this setting to "Open" through your game settings

  • This change will prevent players from joining games where the host didn't intend to play in multiplayer. It will also cut down on AFK lobbies

  • This will also help improve matchmaking times, as the queues will be less likely to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of constant matchmaking requests generated by "open" games.

• Many other minor fixes and improvements

PC Specific:

• Will Fix a performance issue where GPU is not being fully utilized. This should help with stuttering and DX11/12 issues

And that's everything we know about the big Outriders update for now! We'll bring you more news as we hear it.

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