Although it’s only been about a week since Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero received the game’s first notable balance and system update, there’s apparently another on the way very soon.
Bandai Namco has revealed new details about the incoming Dragon Ball patch along with server maintenance happening later tonight.
The new Sparking Zero update is aimed at punishing rage quitters more and rewarding their opponents.
It seems the previous approach of increasing timeout penalties for players with high disconnection rates last month was not enough of a deterrent, so now they should at least also lose their points like they would have if they stayed too.
“Regarding rage quits, we will adjust points accordingly (increasing points for the disconnected side and decreasing points for the side that disconnected),” reads the official post. “Please note that it may take some time for the points to be reflected.
“Additionally, we have confirmed that connection errors and online matching issues have been improved.
We hope you enjoy the game.”
It’s not stated if any other changes are planned to be made in the upcoming patch.
The server maintenance for said update is slated to come later tonight / early tomorrow morning starting at 12 a.m. PST / 3 a.m. EST on December 19 though it’ll only last around one hour until 1 a.m. PST / 4 a.m. EST.
During this time, Ranked Matches and Custom Battle: World Library modes will remain unavailable until the maintenance is complete.
Due to this update, maintenance will be conducted on December 19th from 09:00 to 10:00 (CET) / 00:00 to 01:00 (PST).
Unavailable modes:
Custom Battle: World Library
Ranked MatchWe apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding and…
— Dragon Ball Games (@dragonballgames) December 18, 2024
Funnily enough, another Bandai Namco fighter in Tekken 8 just implemented some very similar rage quitting penalties in their latest update this week too alongside Final Fantasy 16’s Clive Rosfield.
Last week’s big update to Sparking Zero changed up a lot of the arena fighter’s skills and mechanics nerfing things like Afterimage Strike and increasing the meter needed to use abilities like False Courage and skills that instantly put you in Sparking! Mode.
Android 19 and Dr. Gero were also notably nerfed so that they can no longer perform their infamous infinite ascend and descend gimmick, which was causing problems during actual tournaments for the game.
Stay tuned for the full patch notes and future updates when they become available.