The Texas Chain Saw Massacre launches its next update today, September 12, 2023, and players irritated by those long lobby queues may see some relief.
Patch notes for today’s quick fixes add a lot of little tweaks that add up to big changes. Notably, Gun and Sumo Digital took out the lobby timer that was added in a previous update following community backlash. Sumo intended to give players more time to fill lobbies, but the patch notes seems to acknowledge it backfired:
“The community generally disliked this change, and we have therefore reverted it back to the standard 3 minutes.”
The seemingly endless lobby timer starting and stopping was occasionally my experience, too. There’s quite a few threads hanging out on Reddit and Steam complaining about waits and changes to the system. Now, you’ll wait three minutes, and the Texas Chain Saw Massacre’s community lead, Matt Shotcha, noted player feedback on a few occasions.
“Maybe they can add a prompt or sound if 6 of 7 players ready up or it cuts the timer to a minute or 30 seconds,” wrote one player. Shotcha responded it was “something we can consider for the future.”
Other fixes include the funky matchmaking queue with active players continuing to countdown long after everyone readied up. This happened a few times within my own pre-made groups. But now, assuming everyone selects ready, you won’t have to wait for the full-timer to expire to find another lobby.
As for the rest, they’re mostly things that didn’t impede in my matches, but are noteworthy. Bone scraps now limit players to three uses, and the car battery begins Texas Chain Saw matches fully charged. The full list is worth a read, even if you aren’t adding new victims or family to the roster. Queue hiccups aside, I’ve had a blast in it, terrifying grandpa jokes and all.
