Although Epic Games and People Can Fly recently announced that the highly coveted Jetpack has been delayed for inclusion in the multiplayer sandbox survival title Fortnite, the publisher and developer have still managed to bring a lot of new items to the game by way of a recent patch to keep it fresh. To be more specific, the companies' latest patch, Version 3.1.0, gives Battle Royale mode a new gun, a new location, tweaks to weapon drop rates, and more.

As seen in the first image below, Fortnite Battle Royale players will be receiving bolt-action Hunting Rifles in lieu of Jetpacks so that the development team can focus on fixing a design issue in the latter item before introducing it into the game. What's more is that fans can get a gander at the new location coming to Fortnite Battle Royale that's located on the Southern edge of the island in the second picture, with the area being called Lucky Landing.

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In addition to the aforementioned new weapon and location, Update Version 3.1.0 for Fortnite Battle Royale adjusts the "inconsistent" drop rates of Burst Assault Rifles, Revolvers, and Tactical Shotguns, with the patch increasing the chance of Rare and Epic pickups, while also decreasing common finds within the map. According to Epic Games, "These weapons had unnecessarily low drop rates as they progressed in rarity. This does not change the overall likelihood of finding these weapon types, but it does increase your chances of finding a higher rarity version."

Finally, Fortnite Battle Royale's Update Version 3.1.0 includes a wide range of bug fixes – all of which can be found in full at the end of the article – that aim to improve the gameplay, audio, and general performance of the title. Taking all of this into consideration, it's great to see Epic Games continuing to polish Fortnite to keep fans engaged, especially with the title's Season 3 now in full swing.

Fortnite Battle Royale Update Version 3.1.0 Patch Notes

General

  • Controllers and Mice can now be used in tandem.

UI

  • Notification UI has updated animations and now promptly exits the screen when dismissed by an action.
  • Added a confirmation dialog for exiting the game using the window close button on PC.

Bug Fixes

  • Ping times displayed in the Net Debug Stats panel have been improved to be more accurate by removing frame times from the calculation.
  • Removed some heavy hitching that could occur during texture streaming.
  • Fixed issue that caused location text in Party Finder to clip into buttons, now marquees properly.
  • Fixed issue where the input icon for selecting a lobby player podium slot would disappear after switching tabs.
  • Fixed some memory leaks that resulted in crashes

Weapons + Items

  • Hunting Rifle added!
    • Single shot rifle that has no scope and is effective at medium to long range.
    • Uncommon and Rare rarity.
    • Found in Treasure Chests and Floor Loot.
  • Adjusted inconsistent drop rates for various weapon rarities.
    • Burst Assault Rifle drop chance:
      • Common decreased by 20%.
      • Uncommon increased by 60%.
      • Rare increased by 150%.
    • Revolver drop chance:
      • Common decreased by 10%.
      • Uncommon increased by 33%.
      • Rare increased by 75%.
    • Tactical Shotgun drop chance:
      • Uncommon decreased by 10%.
      • Rare increased by 33%.
      • Epic increased by 75%.
    • These weapons had unnecessarily low drop rates as they progressed in rarity. This does not change the overall likelihood of finding these weapon types but it does increase your chances of finding a higher rarity version. - Developer Comment

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed discrepancies between crosshair location and muzzle firing location when shooting at close range targets.
  • Fixed shotgun collision inconsistencies when aiming through openings or around corners.

Gameplay

  • Minor adjustments to Loot in the following locations:
    • Snobby Shores (removed 13 Floor Loot spawn locations and 4 chests)
    • Industrial Plot north-east of Flush Factory (removed 4 Floor Loot spawn locations and 3 chests)
    • Tilted Towers (removed 8 Floor Loot spawn locations and 4 chests)

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed issues where weapons would not equip because they were not pre-loaded.
    • This resolves the issue in which weapons did not equip / did not function during the early game.
  • Efforts have been made to address an issue where players are suddenly unable to build in rare cases.
  • Fixed a crash that occurred if players kicked the ball out of Greasy Grove or the Soccer Stadium.
  • Fixed some edge cases where players pushed up against ramps / ceilings could toss grenades through to the opposite side.
  • Fixed the Boogie Bomb not properly refreshing its duration on a player who is hit with more than one.
  • Fixed an issue that reduced the distance that the light on chests could be seen.
  • Fixed the soccer scoreboard awarding points to the wrong side in Pleasant Park.

World

  • The new ‘Lucky Landing’ point of interest has been added to the southern edge of the island.

UI

  • You now receive Party Suggestions while in the lobby.
  • Rich presence now provides the player’s party size.
  • Added new intro/outro animations to the party invite notification.
  • Invite notification now closes upon being clicked.
  • Presence text that is too long will no longer overlap the Invite/Join buttons.

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed an issue where you couldn't emote in lobby if a player left.
  • Fixed an issue where changing language to Chinese or Korean would not render text properly.
  • Fixed an issue that caused the ‘60 FPS’ mode to reset back to 30 after relaunching the game on PS4.
  • Fixed an issue where the Party Finder dialog could double spawn.
  • Fixed an issue where full parties would show as solo players and appear joinable.
  • Fixed an issue where sometimes the Invite/Join action wouldn’t show correctly.
  • Fixed an issue where the party bar sometimes wouldn’t show party members while in a filled squad.

Art/Animation

  • Re-enabled sprinting dust effects on low settings.
  • Hip fire positioning is now maintained if a player fired recently and switched weapons.

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed player jittering when sliding against a surface.
  • Fixed an issue causing other characters to not animate while spectating them after being eliminated.
  • Fixed an issue where weapons were unholstered early when using Emotes.
  • Fixed character body parts not animating at low framerates.
  • Fixed shield visual FX not properly displaying on the Alpine Ace and Crackshot outfits.
  • Updated the flag on the arm of the USA Alpine Ace to face the correct direction.

Audio

  • Reduced the volume of the Hand Cannon audio to match that of the Revolver.
  • Reduced the volume of the Windmills found in Anarchy Acres and Fatal Fields.

Bug Fixes

  • Set the volume of hitting weak points back to what it was prior to V.3.0.0.
  • Fixed an issue where building placement sound would play repeatedly while skydiving if you had the Pickaxe equipped in the lobby.
  • Fixed an issue that caused the lobby music to restart every time it was attenuated to 0 volume because of music from emotes.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause the Storm Audio to play from an invalid location in the map.
  • The build mode ‘click’ sound no longer plays while the player is downed.

Performance

  • Improved overall frame rate by using less CPU for characters that are far away.
  • Optimized weapon load times and reduced their memory usage.

Fortnite is available now in early access for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Source: Epic Games