Watch Dogs Multiplayer Gets Notoriety Fixes But It's Not Enough

Ubisoft is making some needed changes to the head-to-head multiplayer of open-world game Watch Dogs. They're hoping to fix a very common plaguing those modes: players disconnecting before the end of the match.

"From now on, the victim of a hacking invasion will never lose Notoriety, even if they fail to find the hacker," reads a dev post on Ubisoft's forums for Watch Dogs. "In addition, players losing a ctOS Mobile Challenge will never lose Notoriety. As long as they have passed a few checkpoints, they will gain Notoriety, even if they lose the match."

These changes should discourage players from just quitting the game if they're falling behind in a duel. They also ensure that players aren't penalized for Internet problems.

You could argue that removing the Notoriety penalty will cause some players to just ignore Invasions, though. Why go through the trouble of finding some hacker if you've got nothing to lose? I enjoy the Invasions but there are plenty of times when I just can't be bothered with it. If I'm on my way to starting a mission, an Invasion feels like a hassle more than anything. If I'm not going to lose Notoriety, that's going to make me even more indifferent.

Watch Dogs' multiplayer is still in rough shape, though, especially if you're the one trying to hack another player. Because the location of your target is randomized, you can end up in some really inopportune locations. An ideal hacking location has a crowd for you to hide in or at least some hiding spots. A train tunnel has neither:

Invasions in Chicago's many waterways also don't work too well. Here's one player toying with his hacker:

This isn't just bad luck on the part of the hackers. In some cases, players looking to grind up their Notoriety will find Blume affiliates and hack them to raise their chances of an Invasion. Then they'll head to an inconvenient location like the top of a parking garage, let the hacker spawn, and shoot him in the face for Notoriety.

Watch Dogs. That's going to prevent a lot of aggravation and ensure that players actually participate in the head-to-head modes. However, there's going to be no one hacking these players in the first place if the invaders don't have a fighting chance.