Welcome to our first major update to The Anacrusis! We’ve got a ton of big changes, including player requested updates gun play and character animations, fixes for the difficulty and intensity, animation adjustments, and a ton of quality of life and bug fixes.
As always, post bugs and send suggestions for improvements and new features over on our Discord. If you don’t have friends that play the game, it’s also a great place to team up with other folks who like to play The Anacrusis! Join us!
Introducing the Infinity Pass
We’re thrilled to bring our first Challenge Track to The Anacrusis. It adds 42 quests for players to complete over the next 13 weeks. The Infinity Pass includes both free and premium tracks (Steam customers get the Premium version of the Infinity Pass by default!). There are more than 50 total character skins, weapon skins, banners, titles, and emotes, including more than a dozen items that will available for players to unlock. The ultimate reward for all players is the ultimate rocket launcher, a launcher that shoots rockets that shoot homing rockets. It’s our favorite Boris weapon to date.
To thank our earliest adopters, everyone who purchased the game on Steam already has the Infinity Pass and will automatically get the Premium version of all future Challenge Tracks for The Anacrusis for free. Additionally, everyone who gets the Premium Infinity Pass will receive the Infinity Banner, which will let them showcase their OG status for all eternity.
Plasma Rifle Improvements Based on Player Feedback
We’ve increased the damage and decreased rate-of-fire slightly on the Plasma Rifle. Additionally, we’ve increased aim assist (with a more pronounced effect at range), increased zoom while ADSing, and increased critical multiplier from 1.5x to 3x. This puts the Plasma Rifle more in line with our design goals as the preferred weapon for doing damage to specials at range.
Enemy Reaction Changes Based on Player Feedback
- Made adjustments to the death animations applied to common when killed with different weapons. This should result in a “weightier” feel for some weapons. It’s important to note that this is just our first step. We’ll be continuing to work on gunfeel and reaction animations for the forseeable future.
- Slightly reduced frequency of aliens leaping hilariously into the sky when killed.
- Common aliens will play a hit reaction animation when hit with non-fatal damage from any weapon. Additionally certain types of hits will cause a brief stagger reaction on common.
- Hit reactions are now client predicted, which should improve the feel and responsiveness of weapons, particularly in higher latency situations.
Calming the Director Down
We've been seeing that the game's intensity held at too high a level for too long, leading to an exhausting experience. The Director should now give you a bit more breathing room throughout the levels, without sacrificing the game's challenge. We’re experimenting with an even less intense experience internally, which we expect to test in an upcoming patch.
AFK Players
Players who touching their controls for 30 seconds will automatically be toggled into AFK mode, which lets a bot to take over. If this happens, you can leave AFK mode by going to the menu and toggling AFK off.
Grav Lifts That “Just Work”
The blue glowy grav lifts in Episodes 1 and 3 have been updated so they send you (or whatever you throw in them) in the appropriate direction. Now they work for grenades, explosive cans, aliens, and even LanceBot.
Episode 1 Finale Progress Meter
Added a hologram to display finale progress in Episode 1. There are also clear indicators during the event that indicate when the data card is ready for players to pick up.
Various Map Fixes and Enhancements
- Health Boosts pickup on center platform of finale should no longer disappear when you try to grab them.
- Clarified the path to baggage area in Episode 1, Level 1.
- Fix several areas in Episode 2 where the Alien Artifact could roll under debris.
- Progress meter added to Episode 3, Level 1 event.
- Added color to the clothes and shoes on the Episode 1, Level 3 Mall areas.
- Can no longer fall to a spot in Episode 3, Level 1 where your team can't rescue you.
- Lowered LUT settings in post process pipeline.
- Various lightmap fixes in several maps.
Visual FX Changes and Additions
- New VFX overlay for the shield-related perks.
- We added some VFX to make it easier to tell when Gooper is aflame.
- Plasma Rifle hit reaction VFX increased in intensity to reflect its stopping power
- New Ammo Charger FX
Voice Changes
- On first play, players are presented with a screen that explains how they can enable the built-in voice client.
- The built-in voice client now uses the default system microphone instead of the communications device for the microphone on Windows.
- Added an icon to indicate when your microphone is muted. This will also display when you are using push-to-talk, and you are not actively pressing the push-to-talk key.
- Fixed an issue where speaker icons were showing up next to players names who were not in voice chat.
- Fix Push To Talk not working in some menus when bound to a mouse button
- Misc bug fixes including several that reduced stability for voice users.
Perk Changes and Fixes
- Fix a bug where extra ammo (and turrets) granted by perks would be lost when transitioning between levels
- Pulse Overcharge will no longer be offered as a perk choice if you already have it
- Reactive Screen perk does greatly increased damage.
- Fix for Auto Shield perk not appearing in the perk tables.
- Fix for Bounty Protocol perk not granting ammo in some situations.
Voice Line Fixes
- Fixed Guion's lines in the fire room of Ep2M1.
- Fixed wrong person calling out they are hitting the button in Ep2M1.
- Removed cut-off Nessa Line
Miscellaneous
- Added new weekly challenges
- Players who deal excessive amounts of friendly fire to their teammates will receive mirrored damage. This shouldn’t affect players who accidentally shoot teammates in the course of play. More on this to come.
- Added an option to select your language from within the game.
- Players with AZERTY keyboards can now select perks (previously hotfixed)
- Fix an bug where sometimes players would not have full health after a wipe.
- Possible fixes for some situations where the HUD could show invalid or corrupt information. We are still investigating this. At this time, the only way to fix this is to leave and return to the game or transition to a new level.
- Possible fixes for some situations where the camera could become detached from the character’s head and limit vertical tilt movement. We are still investigating this, but going AFK and then leaving AFK mode fixes the issue if you encounter it.
Bugs
- Fixed player bots being unable to hit common which are crouched in a specific pose.
- Fixed pings triggering inconsistent voice over lines.
- Fixed players being able to see through the level in Episode 3: Terminal 2.
- Fixed a gap in world geometry around doorways in Episode 1.
- Fixed enemy AI being able to mantle onto the table in Episode 1: Crew Quarters and getting stuck in the wall or ceiling.
- Fixed "Hide Party Code" not functioning when the party code was pasted into the Join Party field.
- UI is now hidden when a player is dead to prevent confusion.
- Fixed player bots getting stuck in the shop in Episode 3: Terminal 2.
- Fixed Alien Tech being duplicated if a player dies while holding it.
- Fixed missing lightmap UVs in the Airlock.
- Fixed Brutes getting stuck in spawn area on Episode 1: Bridge.
- Fixed foliage appearing tiny on Low graphics settings in Episode 1: Park.
- Fixed clipping geometry on the bunks in Episode 1: Crew Quarters.
- Fixed the victory music repeating after completing Episode 3: Finale.
- Fixed the player bots sometimes not following the player in Episode 2.
- Fixed users that joined via Quick Play not transitioning to the second level in Episode 1.
- Fixed a crash that sometimes occurred when returning to the Main Menu from a game.
- Fixed no starting items in the Airlock when in Marathon mode.
- Fixed the wall materials disappearing in Episode 1: Crew Quarters when playing on lowest settings.
- Fixed enemy AI being able to hide behind geo in Episode 3: Terminal 2 but still attack players, ex: the Gooper still able to goo players while hiding like a coward.
- Fixed missing materials on clothing in shops in Episode 1.
- Fixed victory screen music not respecting the Master Volume settings.
- Fixed health bars sometimes showing inaccurate values after failing and restarting a match.
- Fixed Brute charge attack sometimes getting stuck in a loop and not damaging players.
- Fixed issue of matchmaking not continuing from a completed Campaign to the next Campaign.
- Fixed ground decals displaying over weapons, pickups, etc. in Episode 1.