Warzone DMZ’s Plea for Help mechanic dropped with Season 4. It was quickly overhauled with Season 4 Reloaded and, just days later, has been reverted to match its original form. Don’t worry though, we’re breaking it all down here.
Season 4 Reloaded, dropping on July 12, made two major changes to DMZ. The first came to player hunting other players, with the second being a significant change to the way the Plea for Help mechanic works.
DMZ Plea For Help Changes Reverted
The changes, as per the official patch notes, meant that a player pleading to be revived did not automatically join the reviving player’s team. A “30 second grace period” was added, in which the person revived is immune to taking damage from the reviving squad. The reviver was able to invite the player to join their squad during this period, but is not compelled to.
The major issue came with the following change, however: “The team who killed the Player that is pleading will no longer be able to accept their plea request and then revive. This prevents killing to force assimilation.” It meant players could not kill an enemy and immediately pick them up.
Why Infinity Ward Backtracked
After the changes were made, DMZ players quickly shared their frustrations with them.
The main issue, as outlined by one Redditor, was that it massively reduced the likelihood of being picked up after being eliminated: “The percentage of pleas that are answered by players NOT involved in the killing is incredibly small… You essentially created a situation where you’re wasting a players time hoping some random passing [player] will answer.”
Others echoed the comments, saying that the positivity and the team play allowed by picking up an eliminated player should have been encouraged, not removed as an option. Thankfully, the devs were receptive to the comments.
On July 15, Infinity Ward confirmed they were “reviewing” the changes made amid the negative reception. Then, on July 18, they confirmed that they will be reverting the majority of Season 4 Reloaded’s changes.
They said: “We will be reverting a change made to Plea for Help so that Players may now accept Pleas for Help from enemy Players they have downed or killed in DMZ. This does not auto-assimilate the two squads and the grace period is still active.”
In short, players can immediately revive and loot enemies they have just killed, exactly as it was before the Season 4 Reloaded patch. The grace period remains, meaning players who have revived enemies cannot damage them for 30 seconds. As you’d expect, they do not automatically join the reviving team. This is done via an invitation.
Either way, it’ll drastically increase the amount of revives players experience. We’d encourage players to pick up those they’ve eliminated: it’s so frustrating being close to an exfil with a Gold Skull and $50,000, only to be killed by an unseen enemy squad.
The call is ultimately yours to make though – a point of view the developers have reached as well.
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