Zero Hour’s Operation Rat’s Den consists of a new map, the addition of CO-OP puzzles, improved loading times light optimizations & more. This update focuses on content updates and quality improvements.
New Map
Rat’s Den
‘Through an interrogation from the terrorists we took in, we have news about a suspicious building located on the outskirts of Sylhet. We received evidence of suspects abducting locals who have been reported missing. We believe they are all ending up in this building here. This base is run by their leader Jubayer Kashem, the brother of Abdul Kashem who we captured in Operation Breaking Meth. He seems to be continuing his family legacy, and along with that, he’s taking in locals subjecting them to forced labor. The convict also mentioned a hideout hidden somewhere in the AO. The objective is to infiltrate the premises, bring in Jubayer Kashem and locate if there are any possible traces leading to a hideout. Be sure to go through the building with your eyes peeled.’
Addition of Co-op Puzzle
We plan to add various puzzle-based objectives in CO-OP, requiring the players to find and solve codes to enter secret locations to complete the mission. This will further add to the experience with an investigating tone of immersion. For this release, we will only include them in Rat’s den. Puzzles for other maps will be added in the future.
Improved Loading Time
We reworked the internal data system to improve loading times. According to our tests, it has cut down the loading time by 1/3. This has fixed prolonged issues such as crashing resulting in heavy memory usage or CPU heating.
Lights Optimization
We used new lighting techniques which got rid of unnecessary rendering time and additions of Realtime GI which will allow the lighting of every scene to reflect the environment in a more realistic & immersive fashion. This is essentially useful for Lights that change slowly and have a significant visual impact on the Scene, such as a slowly pulsating light in a closed corridor.
Leaderboard Reset
The matchpoint leaderboard has been reset to give more accurate readings and scores to players. The issue where players receive inaccurate match points in online matches has been resolved so the points players earn are precise and fair for everyone.
After every operation, we will have a Leaderboard Reset where the top three players will be displayed as milestones. This should push players to be at the top of the leaderboard.
Misc Improvements
These improvements contain better Ambient Occlusion, AI Behavior Improvements, and Environmental SFX and a New CO-OP UI
Conclusion
Many new exciting features such as Squad AI and Motion Capture are still on the way along with more updates which we will announce soon. We always hope to progress through smaller patches until the next major update. Thanks to the private testers team for testing out the builds with every internal update to ensure a more polished experience for the public release of the update.
We really appreciate and thank the community for the unconditional support and love for the game.
Update Logs
ADDED
- New Playable Map "Rat's Den"
- New Realtime GI & Faster Lighting method [Not all maps have it implemented yet/ WIP]
- New environmental SFX for when shots fired
- New Coop Puzzle mode Variants
- New Blue print model for document secure
- New Attack Dog preview in training ground [Functional from next update]
Fixed
- Match Points Back up not retrieving properly when steam fails to fetch data
- Rare crashes resulting from initially loading game
- Long loading times [Even in SSD]
- C2 Damage not working against AI suspects
- Melee applying damage through obstacles
- Reticle texture resolution lowering with quality settings
- Terror House backyard lighting issue
- Camera shake causing internal mild errors
- Scroll bars in menus not working properly
Improved
- Optimized All maps [Should get +(15-30fps)]
- Overhauled Internal asset loading system for more efficient memory usage
- Co-Op AI behavior for active shooter situations
- Co-Op AI reaction differences when lights are turned off
- Co-Op AI weapon handling differences based on movement and firing duration
- Ambient Occlusion effect
- Co-Op Main Menu UI
- Blood Impact VFX
Increased
- Co-Op AI firing spray when shooting in the dark without flashlight
Changes
- Re-adjusted NVG Visuals
- Re-adjusted Laser Sight Visuals
- Reverted Melee System
- Reset Leaderboard
- Occlusion Culling all maps
Thank you for your patience, please make sure to report Toxicity, feedback & suggestions in our Discord server using the following links.
Discord Global Community : Zero Hour Official
Discord French Community : Zero Hour France