In our previous two news bits, we had a look at what new content and bug fixes to expect with Patch 1.02 (aka the "Snake-In-My-Boot Update"). Now, it's time to look into what new features and feature changes you can expect to see when Patch 1.02 goes live later this week on Friday, May 6th!


Melee Lethal Stealth Take Down
You can now one-shot stealth kill unaware NPCs with your melee weapon so you can feel more like an Assassin, in case knocking out and not killing your enemies is not your thing!




Blunt Weapons Non-Lethal Knock Out
If you are more of a non-lethal player, we have made it so that blunt weapons (shovel, clubs) as well as kicks and fists now knock out people when taking them to 0 HP, rather than killing them, so you have more way to get out of combat without murdering enemies all!




New Projectile Aiming System
Found it difficult to throw dynamite and other weapon projectiles where you want? We have totally revamped the projectile system so you now freely control with the mouse or gamepad stick the exact position where you will throw the projectile. Projectile speed and arc were also tuned to make it easier to throw them through doors and windows!




Weapon Scrapping Mode
Finding scrapping weapons laborious? You can now scrap all weapons at once via the new scrap menu, and, even better... you can also directly scrap the ones in your Companions or Horse inventory from there!




Posse Inventory UI Overhaul
Instead of using "container browsing," posse inventory will now be a game-pausing UI with:

• greater grids size
  
• the ability to transfer directly from a posse member to another one, and even from the horse saddle bags
  
• the ability to sort items
  
• the ability to equip weapons on your companion directly from the inventory screen
  

Other Misc Changes coming with Patch 1.02:

• Lowered Relay Decryption cost to avoid having to chain too many bounties at beginning of the game
  
• Made it so that the Bounty Board when very first accessed only has 2 Bounties available, and adds more over time to avoid channeling players into doing 3 Bounties off the bat and create room to breathe for other types of side quests (which would not spawn if the player is simultaneously already working toward 3 Bounty Side Quests at the same time)
  
• Made side quests more likely to appear in small locations like farms, homesteads, and haciendas
  
• Made the Silent Shot cost more AP with Rifle
  
• Tuned Shotgun weapon spread and damage falloff
  
• Knocking out sleeping NPCs won't make this NPC alert other NPCs since they now perceive them as still... sleeping!
  
• Tuning pass on AI reaction times to make it a bit more responsive (further work related to AI and Stealth incoming in the next patch!)
  
• Removed the ability to swap to a previous weapon by tapping the weapon wheel key in favor of making opening the weapon wheel more responsive
  
• Added Auto Save Points in some Journey Locations which had very long stretches without AutoSave, often leaving players with a big chunk of progression lost if they died in the middle of the location and hadn't thought of doing a manual save
  
• GamePad Aiming: Now Only show Aiming Line if the stick is fully pressed to better teach the player to aim with the stick fully pressed, as the aiming system responds better this way
  
• AIs now search in place a bit longer when investigating a threat, creating a bigger window of opportunity for players to sneak up on them without the AI constantly moving around and flipping toward the player as they approach
  
• Full polishing pass on Player character animations
  
• Made player holster animation faster to make the game more responsive
  
• Doubled stock of Arrows and Skinning Tools in all Dagger & Bone Shops
  
• Items Player resold to Weapon Shops will now be flushed upon leaving the location to avoid cluttering them over long term
  
  

What's next?

After Patch 1.02 we will turn our attention toward... patch 1.03 (Shocker!), which, as far as new features and feature changes goes, will be heavily focused on a full game economy and player & difficulty progression overhaul and a strong pass on AI, Stealth, and Companions. We are also experimenting with an alternative aiming system, so stay tuned for more on that... although first... let's release Patch 1.02 :)

In the meantime, if there are any changes you'd like to suggest to the dev team, head over to the Official Weird West Suggestion Board.

You can also join the Weird West Community Discord here!