XCOM 2's First Major Patch Out Now, Improves Frame Rate and More

XCOM 2's first major patch has landed, bringing with it new fixes, balance changes, and a handful of "performance optimizations" that should improve frame rate and reduce in-game delays. The patch should automatically install when you boot up Steam, but if it doesn't, restart Steam and you should be good.

The patch also lets players opt in to a new "Zip Mode," which creates a "faster-paced experience that speeds up animations and some delays in gameplay." You can opt in by pausing the game and toggling it from the gameplay options tab.

Firaxis also said today that, after you install the patch, it is recommended that you select "Auto Detect Graphic Settings" from XCOM 2's graphics tab, under options. Today's patch doesn't re-assign your graphics settings however; you must do that manually.

Another thing to note that if you have any XCOM 2 mods enabled--maybe the Star Wars or Bob Ross ones--you should launch the game once, close it, and launch it again. After this process, the game should work with existing mods without issue. The majority of mods will work after you complete these steps, but Firaxis said some "may conflict with patch updates and will need to be updated take advantage of the patch improvements."

Today's XCOM 2 patch won't be the last, either, as Firaxis says it's continually listening to feedback and will tweak the game further in the future.

"The XCOM team has been working hard to improve performance, balance, and stability issues reported by our fans. A big thank you to anyone who took the time to provide feedback and submit reports," Firaxis said. "We will continue to improve the XCOM 2 experience with additional updates and patches over the coming months."

XCOM 2 March 10 Patch Notes:

As posted on XCOM 2's website.

Performance

• Added Zip Mode gameplay option. While Zip Mode is enabled, animation (like step outs & gremlin movements) speeds are significantly increased. Normal movement animations are moderately increased
• Fixed an issue where shadow rendering during glam cam shot transitions was slowing down performance
• Support for Nvidia SLI and AMD Crossfire
• Removed MSAA options from default presets and adjusted autodetect to target 40FPS instead of 30FPS
• Reworked Light Clipping Manager
• Particle Vertex Buffer Reallocation
• Optimization to shadows in the Avenger
• Enable triple buffering to fix VSync performance
• Shadowed light fade out within Avenger; Disabled Post & Pre Mission cinematic lights not being used
• Disabled shadow casting from character lights w/in Avenger
• Reduced High Shadow Resolution - Reduce shadow resolution when set to HIGH to 1536, instead of 2048
• Reduces the impact count of the Avatar Rifle
• Removed a hitch that occurs when the camera enables/disables building visualizer
• Deferred profile saves to next tick. This prevents multiple calls within the same frame from creating multiple requests to save the profile
• After changing graphics settings, based on the selected preset, extra crew will be capped
• Character head mesh optimized

Balance

• Mimic beacon rebalance: Price increased to 75
• Mimic beacons can no longer take cover, and are guaranteed to be hit by enemy shots
• Wet Work is no longer retroactive

• Graze is no longer a chance for 100% shots. Targets being shot by a concealed attacker cannot dodge

Gameplay

• Added a new recommended Steam Controller configuration with support for additional actions
• Fixed an issue where VIP units would take damage when their origin location was damaged
• Fixed an issue where Promotion Earned text appeared before action is seen on screen
• Fixed an issue where civilians pathed to the base of ladders and blocked XCOM units
• Fixed an issue where Character Pool choices like Class, Attitude, and props did not save
• Fixed an issue where weapons did not keep names and customizations upon tier bump
• Fixed an issue causing some scan timers to go into negative time
• Engineering items that are full squad upgrades are now designated in the UI
• Fixed an issue where strategy project timers reset if players started building a radio relay immediately after making contact with a region
• Fixed an issue with POIs not spawning when first visiting the Geoscape if Beginner VO is turned off
• Removed start-of-turn hang during certain missions where enemy units had fallen out of the world. Auto-saves (and ironman saves) made in these situations should now be playable
• Minimized action camera obstructions
• Minimized camera look-at hopping during AI abilities
• Fixed an issue where Psi abilities did not trigger death cams
• Kill Zone now respects concealment status
• Fixed an issue where the Ever Vigilant AWC perk did not work for Sharpshooters
• Buildings don't cut down when tabbing through units
• Fixed an exploit that skips the AI turn by spamming the END/BACKSPACE button while the Player's last action is being visualized
• Rapid Fire and Chain Shot visualization optimized to get the second shot to fire faster
• Fixed an issue where shot HUD wings would fail to re-open after taking an action that required the wings to close
• Fixed an issue where crit chance would be negatively affected by shots with a success chance greater than 100
• Optimized Return Fire hits causing long delays
• Optimized AI reveals causing long hangs
• Optimized Wait actions causing long timeouts
• Optimized falling unit visualization to timeout faster
• Updated the Geoscape save description to use the localized HQ time, instead of previously used GMT game time
• Fixed an issue with an invalid spawn point on a specific Retaliation mission plot
• Destroyed cover does not take reduce % to-hit on enemies

Systems

• New option to only use Character Pool creations until the pool is exhausted
• Bulletproofing bad saves from causing main menu crashes
• Fixed an issue causing hitches in strategy
• Fixed an issue where armor customizations did not save

Graphics

• Unit Highlighting Flash when targeting units

Multiplayer

• Fixes slow communications with internet players resulting in delays between actions, turns, and end-of-game screen.
• Added camera rotation to MP