After a busy launch week which saw tons of players log into Outriders despite frequent connection issues and some notorious bugs, developer People Can Fly has released an update that outlines the path to improve the game. The update addresses a few different player complaints, but it also includes a plan for balance changes and announces that Outriders players will get a community appreciation package for playing during launch week that includes at least one Legendary weapon. Multiplayer connection issues are being addressed as well, though it's a complicated process.
An Outriders patch update scheduled for next week seems to be People Can Fly's first step to fix issues experienced in the game post-launch. The update is mainly directed at fixing crashing issues, side quest bugs, and will hopefully finally get rid of the nasty bug wiping player inventories. The multiplayer experience in Outriders will also be getting some quality of life updates, with the goal for players to be able to crossplay across different devices rather than just on similar platforms. Upcoming patches are also intended to improve speed and stability for the matchmaking service.
Part of improving multiplayer stability for the future requires successfully analyzing what went wrong during launch week, and People Can Fly has explained what caused the Outriders server issues. Essentially, an external database holding player information kept crashing, but hard work from the development team has improved server capacity for the future. Although multiplayer connection issues are different from single-player connectivity, the server improvements will allow People Can Fly to more successfully identify the source of multiplayer problems in the future.
This means that the upcoming patches are targeted toward specific problems believed to be causing the most stress on multiplayer stability. One of the main patches will involve changing the default matchmaking setting from "open" to "closed." Though this seems like a small fix, People Can Fly believe it will help Outriders multiplayer matchmaking in a number of ways, including fewer AFK lobbies, better matchmaking times, and more player control over matchmaking sessions.
People Can Fly also reminds players that launching a multiplayer session in Outriders is not solely dependent on the developer's systems but is rather a joint effort between multiple service partners. The different steps of the matchmaking process, such as queuing and peer-to-peer relay, are hosted by separate partners, and the functioning operation of the overall multiplayer system requires efficient communication between each party involved. The good news is that People Can Fly believe the majority of multiplayer issues have now been addressed though existing fixes, but the upcoming patches will make sure ensure everything runs smoothly.
Outriders is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Source: People Can Fly