Ho ho ho and welcome to Vivat Slovakia's last update of the year! And what a year it's been! Our game has gone through a lot of changes and improvements; many of those thanks to you - our awesome community! So keep up the great work and read on for the latest round of additions and fixes.
A New Side Story Arc: The House of Joy
Milan receives a strange newspaper in his mailbox with a job ad—another chance to earn some cash and experience a new story arc outside the wild '90s. He’ll be guided by a new character, the mad scientist Radoslav.
Don’t miss the Radoslav’s House of Joy, which doubles as a home lab built on Slavic Science technologies. Our artist Dominik Lopušný modeled it based on quirky buildings like the Hotel Galéria in Bratislava and the Fairy Tale House in Banská Bystrica. Together with Radosť, we’ve prepared five fully voiced missions in both Slovak and English. Radoslav will send you on unbelievable adventures across digital Bratislava to conduct his greatest experiment yet.
Historical Tidbit
In early '90s Czechoslovakia, Škoda Shortcut, an electric car prototype, had a laughable range of 80 km. Enough of that—let's talk games! In Vivat Slovakia, the electric prototype Smola Micron was created, and Radoslav the mad scientist gave it some upgrades. It now features an electric force field ability, so if Rados ever lends it to you, driving around will take on a whole new dimension.
UI Updates
North Icon on the Minimap
Remember when Vivat Slovakia didn’t offer much to do beyond the main story? With more players joining or returning, the map can feel overwhelming. Samuel Potisk showed us where the true north is—literally. Starting with this patch, a north icon will mark the minimap.
Improved World Map
The world map now has a legend in all language versions. Every icon is explained, so you won’t mix up the garage with Ivan’s Cars anymore.
Detailed Item Descriptions
Certain items in garages, wardrobes, or shops needed clearer descriptions. For instance, the fishing suit now explicitly mentions that it makes fishing easier, and the Smola Micron car highlights its electric shock ability. We’ve enhanced the game’s UI to make all information immediately accessible.
Bicycle Season is Coming Soon
A new MTBIKER store has popped up near the bus station, announcing its opening soon. We can already hint that the January update will test Milan’s physical fitness—he’ll need to work off the holiday weight from all those feasts. You can try out bike riding now, though!
Better Graphics
Vivat Slovakia is CPU-bound, meaning it relies heavily on the processor. While we work tirelessly on optimization, we’ve also improved the visuals:
Post-Processing Magic and Road Shaders Revamped
We’ve enhanced the game’s colors to feel less raw, added a subtle vignette, and refined chromatic aberration. Everything is adjustable in the settings. If you’re into videos or photography, color grading and split toning will make sense to you. The result? A more vibrant yet authentically Eastern European tone.
Roads across Bratislava are now sharper and more detailed. Older textures that stretched unnaturally have been fixed, but don’t worry—no potholes or cracks have been erased. This is Slovakia, after all!
New Trees and Grass
Believe it or not, the game used to have just one tree model 😅. Thanks to SpeedTree models, we now have various European tree species typical for the region. Grass models are also fuller but with reduced geometry, boosting performance. With a new texture, the grass looks and blends better than ever.
A Livelier City and Sky
Milan now has idle animations for when he’s not active, like stretching. Pedestrians have more varied walk animations, and some carry briefcases or bags. The sky has also been updated. A Slovak aircraft now flies over Bratislava, leaving chemtrails or contrails. After completing the new side story arc, you may spot another new object in the sky above Bratislava.
Full Release When?
If you’ve joined us on this journey in April this year, when Vivat Slovakia entered Early Access, you’ve seen how rapidly the game has evolved. Our goal is to make Vivat Slovakia shine on the international market in its current intermediate phase. Content, graphics, and optimization are priorities.
After New Year’s, we plan to release one final patch focusing on polishing the game. Quality will improve another notch. During this time, feel free to bombard us with suggestions, even during the holidays. In the new year, we’ll begin communicating the story for Side B and finally announce the release date for the full version of Vivat Slovakia.
Full Patch Notes
New Features:
- Added a new Side Story, comprised of 5 missions (look for a Question mark)
- Added a new car: Smola Micron (can be unlocked via new side story)
- Added one new hidden achievement
- Added litter on ground to add details in most areas
- Added 5 new tree types and removed the old one
- Added new grass with new grass terrain texture for better blend
- Added north icon to the minimap
- Added legend to the world map UI
- Added money counter to world map UI and weapon wheel UI
- Added character idle/bored animations
- Added various new walk animations for all NPCs
- Added ability for NPCs to hold random items based on walk animation
- Added ability (and some other) descriptions to respective context menus
- Added planes with contrails to skybox
Changes:
- Changed navmesh generation so NPCs should have more reliable paths and get stuck less often
- Changed water color to be more realistic
- Improved game randomization system
- Improved road textures and shaders for an overall better look
- Improved post processing visuals
- Optimized car smoke effect
- Optimized road shadow rendering
- Optimized static objects shadow rendering
- Optimized texture memory usage for trees
- Optimized GPU grass rendering
- Optimized and improved ambient occlusion
Bugfixes:
- Fixed NPCs that could shoot while in ragdoll
- Fixed audio problems (audio not playing after certain amount of time/number of reloads)
- Fixed opaque windows on cars with custom skins
- Fixed interaction prompt for CarInteract sometimes not disappearing
- Fixed streetlamps sometimes not turning off when collided with
- Fixed streetlamps not turning back on when respawned
- Fixed audio on tutorial first screen
- Fixed Ivan’s Rides context menu not resetting properly
- Fixed inconsistent car shadow casting
As always, if you've read this far, we applaud your commitment and thank you for your endless support. We wish you a peaceful holiday time and see you in the next edition of Vox Vivat!