The patch notes for Dark Alliance's first big update are frustratingly vague
It's a balance.
Dark Alliance got its first big update today - and its patch notes are frustratingly vague.
The Dungeons & Dragons action role-playing game launched on 22nd June and was met with a mixed reception, so there are a lot of eyeballs on this first patch to see if it remedies some of the game's more immediate issues.
Unfortunately, developer Tuque Games' patch notes for Dark Alliance v1.16 are so vague, players are struggling to work out what the update actually does.
Here's the list in full:
- Improvements to multiplayer latency.
- Voice chat remains enabled after returning to Kelvin's Cairn.
- Improvements to camera lock-on.
- Improvements to user interface.
- Improvements to teleporting attacks made by enemies.
- Instances where progression is blocked when a player respawns as a boss dies has been fixed.
- Balance changes and tethering improvements.
What improvements to the user interface? How exactly have teleporting attacks from enemies been improved? And, perhaps the most annoying line in the patch notes: balance changes and tethering improvements.
What balance changes? This line is key because Dark Alliance launched with some pretty severe balance issues, particularly when played solo. The sheer amount of health on enemies meant it would often take an age to bring them down in solo as opposed to co-op. Has this patch made the Dark Alliance grind easier? Harder?
Some have reported the patch fixes a popular loot run exploit, but that's not mentioned in the notes. I've seen some praise the tethering changes, which seem to have made ranged enemies a bit more aggressive (they'd often stand still waiting for you to attack them, or even stand still while you attacked them).
It looks like Dark Alliance still doesn't have cross-gen cross-play, which means PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 players still can't play together. Steam still doesn't have cross-play with Windows 10 PC and Xbox consoles, either. Tuque Games has said its intention is to allow cross-gen play.
It also doesn't look like the patch lets you play in a party in any configuration of characters (currently, you can only have a party structure of one Drizzt, one Bruenor, one Catti-brie and one Wulfgar, which is annoying). Tuque Games had said this would come shortly after launch.
So! Dark Alliance has seen some improvements. What improvements exactly? Players are trying to work it out.