Hello everyone! I'm so excited to finally share this with all of you.
Included in this patch is a new game mode for you to play, called Cutthroat. This is a randomized score-attack mode. You will work your way through five combat arenas, with enemy density increasing incrementally. Kill them all. Do so quickly, and you will be rewarded.
Cutthroat unlocks after you've Mastered and Dominated all four of the game's contracts, meaning you must complete one run with all medals, and another run with all enemies killed. For those of you who have already done this, you will need only to Dominate the contracts again to unlock Cutthroat. Once this is done, you can access it from the Level Select screen in the hideout.
If you've played the demo for Brush Burial: Bruiseland, you'll recognize this as a vastly expanded version of the 'prototype mode' featured there. If you haven't played that demo, why not give it a try? Anyway.
This game mode isn't the only addition. I've also been steadily polishing the game and adding some quality-of-life features. Namely, a new 'simplified' inventory system!
This can be selected from the settings pane of the main menu. There you can find a detailed description. Please read it, as the new inventory system will not be explained in the game's tutorial. The short version is this: you have far fewer slots for items, but keys and ammo are easier to use. The idea here is to make things as unobtrusive as possible for those of you who don't favor the game's classic inventory. Give it a try; hopefully you all like it.
It's hard to itemize all the other smaller changes I've made, as I've kinda just been picking away at them for the last few months. So, here is a small list of the highlights:
Reworked visual detection for all enemies. They should have a harder time spotting you when you're above them, in their peripheral, or far away. This is most noticeable on Stronghold. Since this changes the game's balance significantly, I will try to be receptive to feedback on whether this 'feels right.' I think it makes the game quite a bit easier, but maybe that's okay.
Speaking of making the game easier, pistol and shotgun enemies fire ever so slightly slower. You may not notice the difference because it's a pretty light tweak, but I figure it's worth mentioning anyway.
Added functionality for ZQSD (AZERTY) and ,AOE (DVORAK) movement axes. This is the best compromise I can come up with, as it's not possible to allow free rebinding of movement keys. If there are other keyboard layouts you'd like to see supported, please let me know on the forums.
Added all the cosmetics present in the Bruiseland Demo. This nearly doubles the amount of options since Gutter World's release. Plenty are palette swaps or mashups, so I don't mean to oversell it. But there are a lot of options here, especially in the way of outerwear and headwear.
Reduced prices on the vast majority of cosmetic items. This does not include Yenneloch's Champion. I still want you to work for that one. However, Cutthroat can grant multiple medals if you score high enough, so the grind should be quicker, less painful, and more rewarding for your effort.
Added the 'wounding' system featured in Bruiseland. Reduce an enemy to half their health, and they will stagger into a kneeling position. Takedowns on these wounded enemies are much quicker. This means ten more takedown animations. I hope you like them!
Lots of other bug fixes, UI/UX improvements, so on and so forth.
That's about it. I hope you all enjoy the new stuff! Let me know if there are any outstanding bugs, balancing issues, etcetera.