The Engine DEVO Patch
Overview: This is the single largest foundational update Vacancy has ever received. We have successfully upgraded the entire project to Unreal Engine 5.6.1 (FREE-955). This was a massive undertaking that required us to rebuild, re-optimize, and re-imagine virtually every single asset and system in the game.
The result is a more performant, beautiful, and seamless experience. We've taken full advantage of Nanite by "devolving" a majority of our meshes, introduced new procedural tech to reduce the game's footprint, and completely eliminated loading screens. This patch sets the stage for everything to come.
Core Engine & Performance Upgrades (FREE-955)
- UE 5.6.1 Upgrade: The game is now running on the latest Unreal Engine.
- Nanite Optimization: A majority of the game's meshes have been rebuilt into smaller, modular pieces to take full advantage of Nanite. This will result in a massive increase in performance and visual fidelity.
- Procedural Stars: The starfield is now a procedurally generated, lightweight Niagara system, dramatically reducing the game's footprint on both disk and in RAM.
- Procedural Glass: The building's glass is now a beautiful, procedural, math-generated hex matrix with a new scanning effect. It's super lightweight and looks fantastic.
- Pre-ISM Tron: The Tron system is now pre-ISM (Instanced Static Mesh), which eliminates that system's build-at-runtime, reducing stutters and improving load times.
New Features & Gameplay
- Seamless Hotel: There is now only one level. As part of this change, the Main Menu is now a live view of your current game, allowing you to jump in and out instantly.
- New Game Start Options: To accelerate gameplay and replayability, you can now start or reset a game at one of three stages. Your Commander's progression always persists.
- "Full Experience": The complete narrative experience from the beginning.
- "Directly to Choices": Start the game at the point where the main storyline branches.
- "Random Quickstart": Jump into a randomized mid-game save.
Art & Environment
- New Faction Load Screens: We've added 6 fresh, new, and flavorful loading screens—one for each Faction.
- Zygnus Retouch: The Zygnus has been completely retouched with new lighting and assets to give it a much more "spacy" and mysterious feel.
Bug Fixes & Adjustments
- Ghast Feeding Fixed: Ghasts now properly and visibly drain Miysst from Guests. This is a critical fix to the Miysst economy—get to them before they feed and evolve!
- Zygnus Key: The key ankcur on the Zygnus was not reporting its "derez" state properly. This is now fixed.
- Bar Cleanup: Uninstalling a Bar will no longer leave residual, ghostly furniture behind.
Known Issues
- Animated Building Walls: The building's animated walls are temporarily disabled while we adapt them to the new engine. They will be back in the next patch.
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