New Battlefield 1 patch adds Lupkow Pass map, makes horses more reliable

DICE dropped a Battlefield 1 patch yesterday as soon as the EA gamescom 2017 show ended.

You may remember mentions of the Lupkow Pass map during the live show. The map, part of the upcoming In the Name of the Tsar expansion, was made available to Premium members overnight.

Lupkow Pass joined a number of other changes and fixes in a patch, and DICE has now revealed the full list of notes. This update is a bit on the large side, and you'll need to download over 6GB of data regardless of whether or not you own Premium.

In the patch, DICE adjusted the behaviour of horses to make them less prone to stopping and slowing down. This is also the first update in an ongoing initiative that aims to tackle the Spawn Train issue. The name refers to the annoying problem that results in players spawning on their squadmates after they're dead, making certain one-on-one encounters frustrating.

We haven't spotted any other massive changes, but you can see the entire list below.

Maps and modes

• Fixed issue where tank spawns would get blocked by soldiers on Amiens.
• Fixed issue where released pigeon prompt would not go away. Pesky pigeons!
• Fixed issue where a vehicle could not spawn in Operations for attackers on Mountain Fort. Added Frontlines to Monte Grappa and Ballroom Blitz.

Spectator

• Fixed issue where some VFX for the trench periscope would show in 3p mode for spectators.
• Fixed issue where the ammo count for the current weapon and grenades was incorrect when spectating someone on a horse.
• Fixed issue where spectators would see all scores as 0 in End of Round screen.
• Fixed a bug where certain 2d overlays from vehicles would show in tabletop or free cam. Reduced area where spectator camera could fly on Verdun.

Weapons

• Stationary MGs will no longer deal damage to nearby players when destroyed.
• Fixed issue where the receiver of a bayonet charge would not get an audio cue before being hit.
• Fixed issue where a 3p soldier would continue to yell (as if they were charging) after the charge was cancelled.
• Fixed issue where single-fire or semi-auto weapons could have part of their firing sound cut off if the player switched weapons immediately after firing.
• Synchronized weapon firing/muzzle flash correctly to bullet firing and damage screen to improve correctness of replicated bullet logic.
• Fixed issue that could cause weapon loadout UI to disappear under certain conditions.

Vehicles

• Airplane rocket crosshair should no longer be faded.
• Increased the turn speed of the horse by 25% while standing still.
• Triggering a reload while galloping on the horse will no longer cause the horse to stop sprinting.
• Horses automatically jumping over obstacles should now be much more reliable.
• Fixed an animation bug where the reload animation would play when it shouldn't have after getting on a horse.

Rent-a-server

• Fixed the issue that updating the VIP or Moderator list causes map rotation to discard map vote result and return to the first map.
• Fixed an issue where pre-round countdown would not start when players switch team.

Spawning experience

• Squad spawning improvements to reduce spawning into enemies.
• Minor tweaks to minimize the “Spawn Train” effect.
• This is a first part of a bigger initiative to solve squad spawning issues.

UI

• Fixed issue with End of Round scoreboard reordering Premium Trials/Premium Friends players.
• Fixed navigation issue on Codex screen
• Mouse scrolling now works amongst awarded ribbons on the end of round screen
• Platoon tags are now correctly displayed for players already on the game server when searching for platoons
• Player’s K/D ratio is no longer shown as the squad’s KD ratio on the End of Round screen
• Service stars for stationary weapons are now correctly shown as awarded in End of Round screen
• An error is no longer shown after joining a newly added friend from the Com Center
• Performance improvements to the whole UI and in particular to the Codex and Weapons & Gadgets screens.

Options

• Add Network Smoothing Option inside Advanced Gameplay Options for low ping players.
• Added gameplay profile option to select whether on spawn the minimap should be reset to the default zoom or the last zoom state.
• Implemented optional combined map zoom (on press) / big map (hold) functionality in a single button mapping.
• Added a new option under Controls->Basic to switch between a toggle or hold for sprinting with the horse.
• PC - In the keybindings screen mouse mappings are now shown as icons.

Network

• Added fix to prevent late damage effects from lossy high ping connections.
• Fixed Vegetation destruction delays.
• Fixed vehicle destruction so that transition to destroyed state happens flawlessly, this was particularly bad for airplanes when getting destroyed mid-air.
• Prevent stacking damage and suppression from high ping players.

Other

• Fixed an issue where picking up an enemy soldier's kit would cause the player to start speaking the enemy team's language.
• Added DX12 MGPU support.
• Spectating players are no longer prompted with a kicked message when leaving the game server
• Fixed issue with party member receiving in invite to play on the current game server