Star Wars: Squadrons v1.1 patch notes: Rank progression fixed, HOTAS deadzone settings, VR and stability fixes

Few games drop with just as much polish as Motive Studio's Star Wars: Squadrons, lauded for its beautiful graphics, sounds and gameplay the space dogfighting simulator has won the hearts of many in the Star Wars community and beyond.

That doesn't mean it is without its problems though, and let's be honest there is no better stress test for a game than having millions of players, across three different platforms (and many more input methods I may add), play your game with the same passion as a pilot whose life depends on destroying a capital ship.

The Star Wars: Squadrons devs have been hard at work since launch to iron out the bugs. (Picture: Motive Studios)

So its perhaps no surprise that a few issues have cropped up. Rank progression was arguably the worst with players reporting being unable to complete their placement matches.

Add to that issues with HOTAS deadszones making it feel like you were flying a tank in space and not a nimble X-Wing and there was more than a few disgruntled players.

• Read more: Star Wars: Squadrons Combat Guide - Offensive and defensive manoeuvres, power management, focus shield, morale, and more

Thankfully the guys at Motive have been hard at work and have delivered a patch that promises to fix many of the issues that have been present since launch. 

Pilots! The latest update for #StarWarsSquadrons is now live. Read more in the Release Notes here: https://t.co/RxKKyq2I30 pic.twitter.com/1kTwc53JJh

— EA Star Wars (@EAStarWars) October 8, 2020

The update is now live across all platforms.

Rank progression fixed

Rank progression now appears to be fixed, though it won't work retroactively and if you did complete your placement matches there is no planned rank reset at the moment.

If you have yet to complete your placement matches but have done some of  them, only the remaining matches will work using the "new" fixed system.

HOTAS Deadzone fix

(Picture: Motive Studios)

For a flight simulator, it was game destroying bug (or feature?), the inability to set the deadzone on your chosen HOTAS.

Players reported that while using a joystick on PC that flying around felt unresponsive with some investigation proving that the hardcoded deadzone was up to 20%.

For those unaware deadzone refers to the amount of movement you can make before the joystick registers it as intentional.

• Read more: Star Wars: Squadrons - The complete guide to Fleet Battles

Well for those worried that no fix was possibly Motive if worked to prove the naysayers and introduced two new options - "Controller Global Deadzone" and "Flight Stick Global Deadzone". These will allow pilots to fine-tune their joysticks and remove the deadzone entirely if they so want. 

Star Wars: Squadrons v1.1 patch notes

Bug fixes & improvements

Fleet Battles Ranks

• Fixed an issue where players could not be correctly placed in a rank after initial placement matches
  • Players who have not started their placement matches will be able to place normally
  • Players who have started their placement matches will have their remaining matches use the corrected system
    • There will be no rank resets at this time

Controls

• Added options in the menu called “Controller Global Deadzone" and "Flight Stick Global Deadzone” which will allow you to modify the deadzone individually for standard controllers and Flight Sticks
• Adjusted the default input curves for Flight Sticks, which should make controls feel more responsive

VR

• Adjusted some of the visual effects in VR mode, specifically addressing the brightness and bloom when dropping bombs from your Starfighter

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the Fleet Battles Tutorial could become incompletable if the player’s starfighter was destroyed at certain points during the exercise
• Fixed an issue where V-Sync would sometimes become disabled upon returning to the main menu
• Fixed a bug where the Imperial squadron was not visible in some instances during the opening cinematic for Dogfight mode
• Fixed an issue that was causing the 3000 series Nvidia GPUs to default to low quality graphics settings
• We’ve removed a couple of instances where development text was appearing in the game
• Fixed an issue ensuring VOIP (voice chat) toggles work as intended
• Fixed an issue on PC where single-player medals could be removed after playing other game modes. (NOTE: We are aware of this issue on console as well and a fix for that will be coming soon)

Stability

• Improved stability in the Spectator feature of online PvP modes
• Other general stability improvements and fixes