EA’s development team has heard the outcry from the EA UFC community.
The game’s community manager Mako posted the patch notes for an update that dropped in on Thursday for users.
The first bullet-point in the update addresses the stamina issue that has been plaguing the game’s stand-up encounters since launch.
According to the notes, the new update: “Increased the long term stamina cost of strikes in the stand-up.”
This should hopefully deter the block-breakers who spam 1-2 combinations and hooks without the risk of gassing out while they deplete their opponent’s defense. This change might also make working the body a more viable approach, as stamina drain is a major part of that strategy.
Here are the other bullet points from the update:
- Fixed an issue that applied too much vulnerability on the return from side sways.
- There will now be a lot less vulnerability, even significantly less than in UFC 4, which was our intent along with the sway buffs at launch.
- Fixed an inconsistency between the different types of jabs and straights.
- The regular version/skin had received some nerfs at launch, but these hadn’t been applied to the alternate versions. All versions now have the proper nerfs.
- Removed the stamina drain applied to the submissive fighter in the headlock (standing guillotine) clinch position.
- The dominant fighter still has their stamina drained. This is likely to encourage the strategy of starting the guillotine submission right away, unless you’re close enough to the cage to quickly walk up to it, as starting the submission by reaching the cage results in a slightly stronger entry.
- Decreased how frequently the AI spins and uses spinning strikes.
- Fixed an issue that caused the lead hook to rear leg kick combo to be too slow. The combo should now have a reasonable speed.
- Reduced the range of Major Lunging Punches.
- All four of these major lunging punches now have less range: jab, straight, lead hook, and rear hook. These used to have the same range as when you perform them sprinting. But from a major lunge, such range looked exaggerated and made the moves look way too fast. They should now behave in a much more authentic manner. The sprinting version of these strikes was not nerfed.
- Prevented the flying knee from the submissive fighter in kick catches to be used when the attacker is throwing certain strikes.
- It was possible to throw the flying knee in situations that didn’t make sense, which led to some janky and unfair interactions. The submissive fighter can no longer throw a flying knee when it doesn’t make sense, most notably when the dominant fighter is kicking and already letting go of the submissive’s leg.
This update feels like a push toward realism and gameplay balance.
I’ve played five matches since the update, and I can see a bit of a change with stamina. However, I need a handful more before I can make an accurate assessment of the impact.
I’ll also be monitoring the sentiments from the community to get a gauge on the consensus feeling about the update.
