5 Things to Know About the January 2018 Battlefield 1 Update

DICE is rolling out a new Battlefield 1 patch later this month and today we want to guide you through the update’s release date, release time, and changes.

The January 2018 Battlefield 1 update looks like it will be a substantial update for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Windows PC owners.

In addition to the usual set of bug fixes and enhancements, the January patch is set to deliver the second half of the Turning Tides DLC to Premium Pass holders and anyone looking to buy the DLC as a standalone expansion.

Last month, DICE pushed the Turning Tides Gallipoli campaign to Premium Pass holders inside the December patch and this month it will release the DLC’s North Sea content which includes a new faction, two new maps, and a brand new vehicle to use against your enemies.

The release date is extremely close and today we want to go over everything we know, and think we know, about the January 2018 Battlefield 1 patch for your console.

Battlefield 1 January 2018 Update Release Date

DICE’s confirmed an official release date for the January patch.

The North Sea Turning Tides content will arrive alongside the January update on January 30th. This is the release date for the Xbox One, PS4, and Windows PC.

Battlefield 1 January 2018 Update Release Time

The January 2018 update will roll out after some downtime for the Xbox One, PS4 and Windows PC. Here’s what the January 30th roll out looks like for your console:

• PC: Multiplayer will be offline for 2h starting 08.00 UTC / 12.00 AM PST.
• PS4: Multiplayer will be offline for 2h starting 10.00 UTC / 2.00 AM PST.
• Xbox One: Multiplayer will be offline for 2h starting 12.00 UTC / 4.00 AM PST.

North Sea Turning Tides Content

The January patch will be accompanied by the North Sea content from the Turning Tides DLC.

Turning Tides’ North Sea content includes two new maps, Heligoland Bight and Zeebrugge, the British Empire: Royal Marines faction, and a new C-Class Airship.

Battlefield 1 Premium Pass holders will get a two week head start on the North Sea content. Once that period ends, the DLC will go on sale as a standalone piece of content for $15.

For details on those changes, take a look at our guide to Turning Tides.

Bug Fixes

The January patch is also set to bring a long list of bug fixes and tweaks to Battlefield 1. The list is subject to change, but we expect most of these changes on board the finished product.

Rifles

• Fixed slower than intended deploy times on the Vetterli-Vitali and Farquhar-Hill.
• Fixed higher than intended recoil on the Farquhar-Hill.
• The Carcano’s one shot headshot range has been extended to 110m.
• The M1903 Experimental and M1917 Trench Carbine are capable of 3HKs within 12m.
• K Bullet animation refinement for M91 and Carcano.
• Resolved an issue causing M1917 to use Automatic reload time for both and Manual and Automatic reload, resulting in a slower Manual reload.
• Vehicle damage performed by K Bullets fired from the Martini-Henry Sniper are now properly tracked for the Overwatch Service Assignment.

In this update, DICE is slightly tweaking the damage models for several Medic rifles. This is mainly through setting up a damage curve so there’s better control over their Bullets To Kill (BTK) steps.

• Farquhar-Hill Damage Drop-Off Start 34 -> 46.33
• Farquhar-Hill Damage Drop-Off End 52 ->59
• M1907 SL Damage Drop-Off End 55.6 -> 60
• Autoloading 8 .25 Drop-Off Start 19.5 -> 16
• Autoloading 8 .25 Drop-Off End 40 -> 45
• RSC 1917 Vertical Recoil 1.8 -> 1.5
• RSC 1917 Horizontal Recoil 2.2 -> 1.8
• RSC 1917 Rate Of Fire 163 -> 179.9
• The SMG 08/18 Optical’s First Shot Spread Multiplier has been reduced
• Automatic weapon tuning
• LMGs now have slower zoom-in speeds to further differentiate them from SMGs.
• LMGs and SMGs now have slightly increased vertical recoil.
• The vertical recoil bonus on the Storm package for SMGs and LMGs has been reduced slightly.

LMG

The bipod for LMGs will now remove spread increase while firing entirely when mounted, however the reduction in horizontal recoil is smaller than before. Overall this change makes heavy MGs with high first shot spread multipliers benefit slightly more from the bipod, while high fire rate LMGs with high horizontal recoil will receive less benefit.

SLR

• Improved the mid range performance of the shorter ranged SLRs by extending damage dropoff slightly.
• Fedorov Avtomat: +5m to 4 hit kill and 5 hit kill ranges
• Autoloading 8 .25: +5m to 3 hit kill and 4 hit kill ranges
• M1907: +7m to 3 hit kill and 4 hit kill ranges
• Cei Rigotti: +10m to 3 hit kill range

Lever Action

• Increased the 2 hit kill range of the Russian 1895 trench from 47m to 70m.
• Increased one hit kill headshot range from 41 to 64m.
• For the cavalry version of the 1895, two hit kill range is increased to 90m, and one hit kill headshot range to 84m.
• Maschinenpistole M1912/P.16
• Fixed an incorrect first shot spread multiplier.
• Fixed an incorrect first shot recoil multiplier.
• Fixed incorrect recoil decrease.
• Arisaka
• Fixed lower than intended recoil decrease.
• M1917 Trench Carbine
• Fixed moving, crouched hipfire which was less accurate than intended.
• Removed first shot spread increase modifier since this weapon is not automatic.
• Fixed incorrect recoil decrease.
• Martini-Henry Grenade Launcher Tweaks:

• Inner blast radius reduced from 2m to 1m.
• Fixed a bug where the Martini-Henry Grenade Launcher did not use its arm time resulting in higher than intended damage.
• Martini-Henry Grenade Launcher ammo count reduced from 21 to 11. *

AT Mine:

• Damage increased by 50%.
• Blast radius adjusted to 2m.
• Infantry placed mines (both AT and Tripwires) have been adjusted so that players can no longer stack them close together. There is now a minimum radius between each mine that must be cleared for it to be placed. To compensate for this, the power of each individual mine has been increased.

Tripwire Mine:

• HE now deals twice as much damage to sprinting players.
• GAS now has a small 15 damage explosion when it is tripped. This allows it to deal some damage to players who walk through it with the gas mask already equipped. This explosion also doubles its damage against sprinting players.
• Infantry placed mines (both AT and Tripwires) have been adjusted so that players can no longer stack them close together. There is now a minimum radius between each mine that must be cleared for it to be placed. To compensate for this, the power of each individual mine has been increased.

Options/Settings

• Added custom color blind colors settings in the video options.
• World icons size and opacity customization in the gameplay options.
• Hit indicator now can be customized with different color for critical hit kills.
• Detailed minimap/full map customization in the gameplay options added.
• The player outlines now comply with the colorblind settings.

Map/Mode

• Removed all Elite kits from War Pigeons mode.
• Fixed an issue that would allow Defenders to spawn Airplanes for the third sector of Cape Helles in Operation Gallipoli.
• The Ottomans now use the Gotha Bomber on Cape Helles.
• Decreased the amount of tanks to one each, following the feedback from the community received on CTE, on Frontlines Sinai Desert.

Gameplay

• Reduced the requirements of the Ribbon of Justice from 5 kills in a round to 2.
• Fixed issue with medic primary weapons not being available in Armored Kill.
• Fixed a bug that allowed the Bristol Attack Plane and Ilya Muromets Heavy Bomber to utilize weapons from multiple packages.
• Greatly improved the reliability of AA guns when firing against bombers from certain angles.
• Fixed an issue that allowed the player to use some Pistol Carbines while swimming.
• Added mid-round Team Balancer. Currently not activated on Operations and Rush.
• Increased the mine removal radius for the A7V Heavy Tank.
• The AT Rocket Gun and similar weapons can now be fired from the passenger seat of vehicles.
• BF1 no longer exposes interlaced video modes in the PC video options. If you have previously experienced blurry output on PC due to the game running in a full screen interlaced mode, please re-select a mode in video options to update your profile settings to use a progressive display mode.
• Fixed a bug where certain VFX would trigger when colliding with invisible geometry.
• Fixed issue with VOIP volume option not behaving as it should.
• Fixed bug where spectators would be kicked from the game if the last player left.
• Fixed some bugs related to players being disconnected while connecting to a game server.

Due to the size of the list, we expect the January 2018 update to be a fairly sizable download. The update will be a mandatory download for all players, not just those who own the Premium Pass.

What’s Next

DICE’s surprisingly confirmed the rest of its DLC plans for 2018 and Apocalypse is going to follow closely behind the January update and Turning Tides North Sea.

The company is planning to release one more Battlefield 1 DLC expansion after Turning Tides though Apocalypse is still without a specific release date. That said, we do have a release window.

The Apocalypse DLC is scheduled to arrive in February and we expect it to arrive alongside the game’s mandatory February patch for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

Those who can’t wait until February to try the new content can give Apocalypse a spin right now on the Battlefield 1 CTE. The DLC’s replaced Turning Tides.

For more on Apocalypse and its maps, take a look at our roundup below.

Apocalypse DLC Release Date

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DICE initially confirmed the Apocalypse DLC release date for early 2018, but the developer's finally revealed an official release date.  The Apocalypse release date looks like it's set for February 20th for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Windows PC.  This February release date is for Premium Pass holders. Premium Pass holders will get access to the content two weeks before everyone else. That's one of the perks of the game's season pass. We expect the rest of the Apocalypse details to arrive this month as the company looks to keep the ball rolling following the release of Turning Tides.

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