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Since the very release of the game, XDefiant has been riddled with the so-called bunny hoppers. Developers promised the patch released on June 12 would solve the jump spam issue in XDefiant. Now, some unsatisfied players are asking for harsher changes.
The New XDefiant Patch Fine-Tunes the Jump
One of the developers, PATTYP, shared a detailed list of what has changed regarding the movements. The jump height was reduced by 30% for each consecutive jump within a period. They also reduced the player speed by 20% for each consecutive landing within a period. The developer reminded the players: “The weapon you are using also affects your base ADS Jump Height”. This means you will jump higher with a pistol than with an SMG, for example.
For the newly instated Jump/Crouch spam penalty, they explained: “Once you reach the minimum number of inputs, we add sway(in ADS) and spread(in hip fire) to your weapon, which will get continually worse until it reaches its maximum amount”. The penalty is triggered by jumping more than three times in one-second intervals. They added: “Both the sway and spread penalty will last 1.25 seconds”.
The developer concluded: “Our philosophy is pretty simple: We want all players to be able to utilize all of our movement mechanics…but keeping in mind it’s possible to have too much of a good thing”. Honestly, in our opinion, this is a fair approach to balancing. Finding the exact point where a trait isn’t OP, but still feels right.
Some players weren’t satisfied with the changes. JoeZocktGames said: “It only applies after four quick jumps. It literally changes nothing, it is a placebo fix. Thanks for nothing”. Esmear18 added: “Yeah I don’t understand the purpose of this patch. The aim penalty doesn’t activate until you’ve done three jumps but by then gun fights are already over. Nothing was changed”.
Some XDefiant Players Know How to Use the Jump Techniques
Fortunately, some XDefiant fans are well-seasoned and they took it upon themselves to educate the younger generations. Adventurous_Bird2730 explained: “Kinda the player base’s fault for referring to jump shooting as “spamming” when in reality they just wanted jumping nerfed in general. The devs heard you and nerfed actual spamming”.
FatalSpore remembered the good old days. They said: “Learning about jump shooting as a kid was a game changer. It’s pretty sad that new gamers are so used to SBMM that they never felt the need to learn these basic techniques”. Level_Measurement749 added: “Movement isn’t supposed to be penalized here, it’s the spamming of one type of movement that was the issue”.
DUNCACCINO summed it all up: “Sounds like a lot of people have a skill issue. There is nothing wrong with sliding and jumping. It’s a huge aspect of a lot of competitive FPS games. If you don’t want to learn to play like that cool! But don’t expect better players to stop just cause it’s annoying to some people. I think the nerf was effective for what was being abused which was spamming”.
We’d say this was a balancing win. The developers actually managed not to compromise their vision for the game but still fulfilled the players’ requests. This new patch effectively takes the jump spam out of XDefiant. If you haven’t tried it out yet, the feeling is definitely different, but not substantially. The weekend is approaching, so we suggest you try it out, and maybe even look up some new techniques, you might be surprised by how effective they could be.