WARDOGS Preload Is Live: Season 1 Changelog

The game is downloadable now: BULKHEAD opened Steam preloading overnight on 10 September. Early access still unlocks at 19:00 Kyiv time.

The studio published the Season 1 changelog alongside the preload. Below is the full announcement: balance changes, the XP curve, prices, unlock moves and fixes. The quoted paragraphs are the studio's own words.

Balance changes

Looking at the data we have decided to slow levels down around 10 to 20, and flatten the curve from 35 onward. This means our median players, at 20 to 25 hours, will be around level 20, and those wanting the big ticket items, the top 5%, will need to grind. Artillery moves to Career 90 and Heavy Tank to Driver 35. Driver has also been rejigged to give a satisfying escalation through attack vehicles. Forward Operating Base and Large Hammer vendor prices have gone up to make them more of a choice.

Progressing through levels 10 to 20 now takes longer, and the curve levels off from 35 upward.
Artillery now sits at Career level 90, while the Heavy Tank has moved to Driver level 35.
Vendor prices for the Forward Operating Base and the Large Hammer are higher, so buying either is more of a decision.

XP Bands

Previously our balancing was designed specifically for weekend long beta tests. Now they will be in-line with where we believe they should be. Each season we will have a different XP curve with different item orders.

Everything below level 6 stays exactly as it was.
Level 6 now costs 9,250 XP instead of 8,750, which makes it 5.7% slower to reach.
Level 10 now costs 35,000 XP instead of 25,000, which makes it 40% slower to reach.
Level 15 now costs 110,000 XP instead of 54,750, which makes it 100.9% slower to reach.
Level 20 now costs 250,000 XP instead of 111,500, which makes it 124.2% slower to reach.
Level 25 now costs 325,000 XP instead of 192,000, which makes it 69.3% slower to reach.
Level 30 now costs 400,000 XP instead of 293,750, which makes it 36.2% slower to reach.
Level 35 now costs 500,000 XP instead of 416,500, which makes it 20% slower to reach.
Level 40 now costs 650,000 XP instead of 551,250, which makes it 17.9% slower to reach.
Level 45 now costs 800,000 XP instead of 689,500, which makes it 16% slower to reach.
Level 50 now costs 1,000,000 XP instead of 838,000, which makes it 19.3% slower to reach.

XP Events

Killing a player from an air vehicle now awards 250 XP instead of 300 XP.
Selling a supply crate item for less than $75 now awards 1 XP instead of 25 XP.

Economy Changes

Every price change in one place. Level moves stay with their track.

At the vendor, Forward Operating Base goes from $2,500 to $7,500.
At the vendor, Large Hammer goes from $1,600 to $2,400.
On the Career track, the Artillery Tank goes from $400,000 to $500,000.
On the Recon track, the 6-10x MRAD scope goes from $25,000 to $40,000.
On the Recon track, the 6-10x MOA scope goes from $30,000 to $45,000.
On the Support track, the Medium Hammer goes from $10,000 to $25,000.
On the Support track, the Large Hammer goes from $25,000 to $75,000.
On the Pilot track, the small armored supply crate goes from $5,000 to $10,000.
On the Pilot track, the Little Bird with miniguns goes from $25,000 to $50,000.
On the Pilot track, the Z20 Lakota goes from $50,000 to $35,000.
On the Driver track, the URAL goes from $50,000 to $35,000.
On the Driver track, the Dune Buggy goes from $35,000 to $25,000.
On the Driver track, the Kodiak Flatbed goes from $15,000 to $35,000.
On the Driver track, Music Tape H goes from $5,000 to $2,500.
XP on the role tracks has been retuned from level 6 upward: level 6 now asks for 9,250 instead of 8,750, roughly 5.7% more time, and level 10 sees a bigger jump still.
The purchase curve for supply crates now runs from 1 to 200 instead of 25 to 250, so cheap items carry a sensible price and cannot be exploited.

Season 1.0 Unlocks: Career

The Sports Parachute now opens up at level 35 instead of level 36.
The Large Backpack now opens up at level 55 instead of level 56.
762x54mm AP rounds arrive one level earlier, at level 82 rather than 83.
556mm AP rounds arrive at level 83 rather than level 85.
The Deagle comes five levels sooner, at level 85 instead of level 90.
The Artillery Tank sits far later in the track, moving from level 55 to level 90.

Season 1.0 Unlocks: Medic

The PP-19 50 round drum magazine now unlocks at level 29 instead of level 33.

Season 1.0 Unlocks: Support

Large Hammer now unlocks at level 8 instead of level 7.

Season 1.0 Unlocks: Driver

The URAL now unlocks one level earlier, at level 3 instead of level 4.
Kodiak Assault arrives two levels sooner, at level 6 rather than level 8.
The Dune Buggy opens up at level 8 instead of level 10.
The Kodiak Flatbed has been pushed back from level 2 all the way to level 10.
The large supply crate is now available at level 16, down from level 20.
URAL Covered comes much earlier than before, at level 18 instead of level 30.
Music Tape H leaves the Pilot track, where it sat at level 28, and now unlocks on the Driver track at level 23.
URAL Attack moves down from level 40 to level 25.
The Humvee with minigun unlocks at level 30 rather than level 35.
The heavy tank leaves Career level 35 and now unlocks at Driver level 35.

Exploits

Closed an exploit that allowed players to get onto a spot on the church roof that was never meant to be reachable.

Reporting and moderation

A new system for tracking reports has been added.
Reports now carry different weight, so players who report repeatedly or in bad faith have less influence.
When match termination is switched off, cheater bans are now announced inside the server.
You will now only see the kicked from server message if a ban was actually applied.

Server browser and front end

Filtering in the server browser has been rebuilt.
Community server images no longer render at the wrong size.
Clicking Host a server now drops you straight onto the hosting page.

Voice chat

Voice used to stay dead for the rest of the session once a join failed, and that no longer happens. Recovery is now correct when you rejoin a channel that has gone stale, when push to talk decides where your voice goes, and when you log back in.
Under load, voice is now more dependable, and you can see the communication status.

Gameplay and vehicles

The Z20 Lakota received a balance pass, and its pitch is no longer slow to respond.
No matter which input device you fly with, helicopter damping now applies to it.
Turrets on vehicles now have a cap on how fast an operator can rotate them.
Loadout space taken by 155mm, 122mm and flare deployables has gone up.
A DPI problem that affected aiming in tanks has been fixed.
The rotation rattle on the Z20 Lakota chase camera is now 6 dB quieter.

Performance and stability

Turning DLSS Frame Generation off no longer requires a restart, and the render target pool can now be configured.
The shadow cache refreshes less often, so there is less hitching when you take control of a character.
The frame generation pipeline had two routes that could bring the game down; both of them are now closed.
When the GPU goes down, the report that reaches us carries much more detail than before, so a fix can follow sooner.
The build no longer carries an old graphics dependency it had been dragging along.
A high benchmark score now clamps shadow quality to Low instead of disabling shadows altogether.
Network calls were being queued away from the game thread and could take the game down with them; that no longer happens.
Closing a chatbox entry tooltip no longer causes a crash.
Joining a session through presence is now limited to people on your friends list.
One more crash, this one tied to things players build, is gone.
Firing a weapon whose owner had already left no longer causes a crash.
Items lying on the ground are now ignored by navigation, and that buys back a small slice of performance.
Getting into the game is steadier: when something breaks early, the message explains it in plainer terms and points you towards a way out.

Source: the BULKHEAD announcement on Steam.

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