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UFC 2009 Undisputed Patch Details

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THQ reveals the details of its upcoming UFC update.

One of these players would rather shut off his system than tap out. I can feel it. 
I think 2008/2009 is going to be the timeframe when people finally sat up and took notice of online issues and unfair play caused by players who disconnect before the end of a competitive match. It's certainly become a more significant issue recently, and I'd say the most dramatic example of why these problems are so unacceptable is UFC 2009 Undisputed. With no penalties programmed in to punish players who quit before their in-game loss can be registered, there was a time when it felt like over half my wins were vanishing out of thin air. And that absolutely ruined a great game.

Not long ago, THQ announced that it was working on a patch to correct this behavior. Today, we've got the list of specific changes that are coming to UFC 2009 Undisputed, courtesy of the game's official blog. Here are said changes:

  • We recognize premature match quitting as the biggest online issue and have taken steps to fix it. The Patch will have integrated code that detects who pulls the cable and will assign a Loss as well as a Did Not Finish to that player. The DNF is only counted for the player who executes the disconnection. The DNF rate will be displayed on the fighter selection screen of the Online Ranked Match. When disconnected the Winning Streak is also reset to 0.
  • We’ve adjusted Ranked Matches to match up players with better connections, which will improve lag issues we’ve seen to date.
  • We’ve adjusted the difficulty of performing submissions against AI opponents to improve the balance of subs vs. striking when playing against the AI.
  • We’ve adjusted the Flash KO rate so that they are less frequent.
  • We’ve increased maximum number of points awarded in online play from 99,999 to 999,999 and we’ve increased the Max Level from 100 to 200.
  • We’ve lowered the Winning Streak Bonus Max from 5 to 3.
  • We’ve removed the decimal places on the Leaderboard Winning Percentage so we only show whole percentages.
  • We’ve addressed the CAF cheat so the skill levels in CAF cannot be cheated and increased. Also any CAF with unfair point values will no longer be able to be used Online.
  • For PS3 users we’ve also fixed a bug that causes a freeze during auto-save; whichever controller was used to Press Start on the Title Screen will be identified as the main controller.

Between correcting how disconnects are treated and removing unfairly created fighters from the online side of the game, this makes it sound like I'll finally be able to get back into UFC and enjoy it again. And all you scum out there with ridiculously overpowered submission stats may want to see about getting good at the game in a more honest fashion. Jeff Gerstmann on Google+
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UFC 2009 Undisputed
42 Comments
Posted by Jeff
One of these players would rather shut off his system than tap out. I can feel it. 
I think 2008/2009 is going to be the timeframe when people finally sat up and took notice of online issues and unfair play caused by players who disconnect before the end of a competitive match. It's certainly become a more significant issue recently, and I'd say the most dramatic example of why these problems are so unacceptable is UFC 2009 Undisputed. With no penalties programmed in to punish players who quit before their in-game loss can be registered, there was a time when it felt like over half my wins were vanishing out of thin air. And that absolutely ruined a great game.

Not long ago, THQ announced that it was working on a patch to correct this behavior. Today, we've got the list of specific changes that are coming to UFC 2009 Undisputed, courtesy of the game's official blog. Here are said changes:

  • We recognize premature match quitting as the biggest online issue and have taken steps to fix it. The Patch will have integrated code that detects who pulls the cable and will assign a Loss as well as a Did Not Finish to that player. The DNF is only counted for the player who executes the disconnection. The DNF rate will be displayed on the fighter selection screen of the Online Ranked Match. When disconnected the Winning Streak is also reset to 0.
  • We’ve adjusted Ranked Matches to match up players with better connections, which will improve lag issues we’ve seen to date.
  • We’ve adjusted the difficulty of performing submissions against AI opponents to improve the balance of subs vs. striking when playing against the AI.
  • We’ve adjusted the Flash KO rate so that they are less frequent.
  • We’ve increased maximum number of points awarded in online play from 99,999 to 999,999 and we’ve increased the Max Level from 100 to 200.
  • We’ve lowered the Winning Streak Bonus Max from 5 to 3.
  • We’ve removed the decimal places on the Leaderboard Winning Percentage so we only show whole percentages.
  • We’ve addressed the CAF cheat so the skill levels in CAF cannot be cheated and increased. Also any CAF with unfair point values will no longer be able to be used Online.
  • For PS3 users we’ve also fixed a bug that causes a freeze during auto-save; whichever controller was used to Press Start on the Title Screen will be identified as the main controller.

Between correcting how disconnects are treated and removing unfairly created fighters from the online side of the game, this makes it sound like I'll finally be able to get back into UFC and enjoy it again. And all you scum out there with ridiculously overpowered submission stats may want to see about getting good at the game in a more honest fashion.
Staff
Posted by Mechanized

This is an awesome update. Worth the wait, imo.

Edited by Trilogy

Fucking finally. I was waiting on the patch to buy the game. I've seen how pointless it is to play in it's current state.

Posted by Fbomb

Wow. Thanks to their update, I'm actually ready to buy the game, and go online. Before, there was no way I was about to tackle that  frustration of idiots who rage quit.

Posted by fillmoejoe

Cool, I should pick this up soon.

Posted by CL60

"We’ve adjusted the Flash KO rate so that they are less frequent."

YES

Posted by Daryl

Maybe I'll bother to check out UFC online now.

Posted by InFamous91

Great

Posted by troyx

And all you scum out there with ridiculously overpowered submission stats may want to see about getting good at the game in a more honest fashion.

relax jeff

Posted by Muttinus_Rump
@CL60 said:
" "We’ve adjusted the Flash KO rate so that they are less frequent."YES "
I know right, those things can be so annoying. I almost came to the point of rage quitting once when I was smashing the other guy, and he came out with one lucky punch and KO'd me. Good news.
Posted by Blood_for_the_blood_God

Im guessing unfair skill values translates into over 100? Although id really like to know the specifics on this point. Other than that I think that all these additions are very welcome and will get me to enjoy this game a whole lot more.

Posted by musdy

Now I can get back into the game.

Posted by francesthemule

Awesome. Been holding off on buying this game to see if they were going to patch it.

Posted by Stargate174

boring for a game that is offal as it is in its current state. The game has no re-playability whatsoever!

Edited by C0V3RT

I may pick this game up now.

Posted by DannyJ
@Stargate174 said:
" boring for a game that is offal as it is in its current state. The game has no re-playability whatsoever! "
... You know it's "awful" right? Offal sounds like it has something to do with the nose.
Posted by ZombieHunterOG

about time 

Posted by Karmum

Oh wow, now they are going to fix the difficulty in the submission system? What is THQ trying to do? Actually make me now buy the game instead of renting it!

Posted by Ouroboros

Yup.  I might buy the game now :)

Posted by NerdyNinja007

Finally!  I hate when I'm about to get a TKO or a submission and the loser that I'm playing with always quits.  Finally I can get someone in mount and they won't cry and quit.  Well... maybe they'll still cry.

Edited by Hulk

Everything in the patch notes is fine except for adjusting the rate of Flash KOs.  Strikers are already disadvantaged enough in the game,  making flash KOs less frequent is only going to skew things further in the favor of grappling.  If anything the flash KO/rocked rate needs to be increased since as is players can already take a large amount of flush punches to the head without getting knocked out.

Posted by HatKing

I hate Flash KOs too frequent...and I might consider putting the game back in the system if they fix that.  I'm sick and tired of dominating an opponent catching a weak jab and hitting the mat.  I understand that sometimes SOMETIMES a fighter can connect a hard punch and turn the tide or even end the fight, but this doesn't happen in every other fight and the hit is a hard one not a weak one.  This patch sounds really good, I'm looking forward to it.

Posted by Daroki
@DannyJ said:
"@Stargate174 said:
" boring for a game that is offal as it is in its current state. The game has no re-playability whatsoever! "
... You know it's "awful" right? Offal sounds like it has something to do with the nose."

If he thinks the game's a waste or rubbish, than offal is fine.  (Offal is the waste or by-product of a process... like when you go to the bathroom.)
Posted by Hannibal
@Jeff said:

  • We’ve adjusted the difficulty of performing submissions against AI opponents to improve the balance of subs vs. striking when playing against the AI.
Thank God, I've been trying to get submission of the night (damn it's hard), and I pretty much have to get a guy right next to being KOed before he'll succumb to a submission, which kinda defeats the purpose
Posted by PhaggyBigNastyMcKill

whatever I already returned my copy

Posted by KimFidler

About F'in time.  Now I can play it again.

Posted by Swish

Fuck sake I just returned this because of the lag... lame

Posted by BoomShanka

YAY i can play online again!! :D

Posted by McBradders

Hmn, this is on sale, maybe it's time to pick it up.

Also love that last line, Jeff. You the man XD

Posted by spiredcrescent

Yay i can finally use submissions against the crazy AI

Posted by Brym

It felt like the developers had never heard of the Internet before.

Ragequitting has been going on in every console game without a disconnect penatly ever since consoles first went online.  Xbox Live turns 6 years old this year, and yet we still keep seeing developers ignoring this issue until a patch.

After getting burned on SFIV and UFC, I'm not buying an online multiplayer game unless they do this right anymore.  I'll buy them once they patch it--and then I'll be getting it used, so they don't get my money.  Game makers need to realize that this matters.

Posted by Everyones_A_Critic
@Hannibal said:
"@Jeff said:

  • We’ve adjusted the difficulty of performing submissions against AI opponents to improve the balance of subs vs. striking when playing against the AI.
Thank God, I've been trying to get submission of the night (damn it's hard), and I pretty much have to get a guy right next to being KOed before he'll succumb to a submission, which kinda defeats the purpose"
I feel your pain! I had the exact same problem getting World Class Grappler, the opponent was basically dead before I could submit him.
Posted by Hairydutchman

I was waiting for this patch to go online.

Posted by XaiaX
@DannyJ:
You know it's "awful" right? Offal sounds like it has something to do with the nose.
No, it isn't, it's offal. Offal is literally organ meats, but is generally used as a descriptive term meaning "garbage", because, obviously, WTF would eat leftover organ bits?

The more you know!
Posted by MushroomStamp

Hopefully now all you dashboarding pussies have to take your ass whoopin like a man. 

Posted by Media_Master

nice patch

Posted by jakob187

LESS FREQUENT FLASH KOs!!!  WOOT!!!  A REASON TO PLAY AGAIN!!!

Posted by SuperDrew

Ah so thats how people were submitting me so easily with CAF's. Think this patch may just get me back into online play.

Posted by REDRUN

2 weeks after the announcement... still not patch and still the game is still littered with disconnecting , CAF hacking scrubs. Not only they have to cheat, they disconnect when they lose when clearly they had glitched a character for the advantage and still fail.

Posted by choffy21
@REDRUN: THQ had something potentially amazing for them and they're completely fucking it up.
Posted by REDRUN

I wouldn't be too surprised if they would finaly release the patch several months from now at talks of having DLC characters added to the roster and the next UFC Undisputed being the franchised MMA game we would expect each year.

Posted by Shocker

Yes! Finally. Maybe now i can get a respectable record...

Use your keyboard!

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