Today, we’re launching a new Assault Preview playlist that will allow players to get a look at some of the updates that the multiplayer team has been working on. To get you the details, we hand things over to the multiplayer team:

When we launched Assault with the Hammer Storm release back in February, it was received well by players as it was chaotic and a change of pace from Capture the Flag and Strongholds. Over time, we saw some feedback around the feeling of fairness and scoring, and have been working to make updates to improve the mode.

First, the areas in which players respawned wasn’t as refined as we’d like. Sometimes you’d respawn too close to your base, thus making it trivial to slay the attacker arming the ball, and other times too far away. We’ve made some changes on each map to further refine the locations on where players will respawn to improve balance.

Secondly and partly related to the first issue, was that we found Assault by far ended in the most ties and lowest scoring games than any other game mode. The biggest culprit here was the fact that the arm time was set to 7 seconds. Combine this with the respawn time set to 8 seconds and you can see how scoring would be difficult. Attacking teams were required to slay the defending team over and over again just to get close to scoring. For this update, we’re reducing the arm time down to 5 seconds, which will allow teams with a proper setup to score a bit faster. Additionally, we've increased the amount of time it takes for the bomb to "disarm," or in other words, the amount of time it takes for the arm progress to reset. This will ensure that teams who "clear" the ball do not immediately reset progress.

With these refinements, we’re expecting to see Assault matches feel more fair and higher scoring, and are looking forward to your feedback during this public period. In the coming weeks, we'll be reviewing your input as well as working directly with HCS Pro League teams and players on continued refinements to the mode. Thank you!

- 343 Multiplayer Team

Assault Preview will be available until Friday, July 22. Hop in, play some games, and let us know your thoughts at http://aka.ms/AssaultFeedback. We’ll see you in the playlist!

The mode will be available on the following maps:

Coliseum

Truth

Tyrant

Stasis

Empire