Hey everyone!
We're super excited to announce our third and long awaited Major Update !
I would like remind everyone that the reason this major update has taken longer than previous ones is due to the fact that we've finally taken on the daunting task of redesigning and rewriting a very large portion of the core game-play in order to evolve the game from "lose-on-detection" to a "chance-to-fight-back" model.
Major Features:
A Chance to Fight Back!
So as we mentioned above, this was our primary goal with this update and has thus set the tone for this update and pushed us to add multiple new systems to the game in order to properly support this new and ambitious game-play model.- Players will no longer automatically lose when detected but will instead be given a chance to escape and hide from guards. However! Once detected, guards will start performing perimeter searches and become increasingly aware of the player's presence. This makes getting detected a double-edged blade where on the one hand the player may gain a second chance, while on the other hand he loses the element of surprise and the odds turn against him.
- Guards will be able to attack the player. If the player takes a couple consecutive hits and dies he will restart from the his last checkpoint!
Make Assassinating Guards a More Challenging Task
So before this update, guards were basically sitting ducks if lured into areas of complete darkness since they could not see anything - at all...
This had created an exploit that made it possible to lure guards into these dark hiding spots and kill them off very easily, one-by-one.
We've made several advancement on this front and have every intent to keep iterating and improving based on your feedback.- While a guard is suspicious or alarmed he will gain the ability to see even in complete darkness but his field of view will be significantly reduced. As long as the player sticks to the shadows and keeps a short distance from that guard he should not be detected.
- Some guards will carry shields which they will use to protect their face and body when they feel threatened. This makes them more challenging to handle in face-to-face combat and will instead require flanking and stealth tactics in order to pull off a successful assassination. Note: Right now the guards with shields are not as powerful as we would like them to be and will buffed in an upcoming minor patch.
Increase Guard Cooperation
- Guards are now aware of one another and will react to having heard or seen one of their allies who has a suspicion and come to their aid.
- Guards will cooperate and perform more coordinated perimeter searches. Once a state of "perimeter search" is declared, guards will divide up the area between themselves and each guard will cover part of the area in a methodical non-random way.
Secondary Features:
Added Snap Turn Support
We've now finally added support for snap-turning for both Vive and Rift users. Currently snap turns is set to 45 degrees with more options coming in a subsequent patch! This was a (too) long awaited feature prioritized primarily for players who have a 180 setup, but also for the broader community as a quality of life option to avoid "cable-hell" and we're very happy to finally have it in-game.Stamina System
This one we did not have planed at first, but we quickly realized we needed some way of balancing the climbing mechanic with the new combat system. After brainstorming in-house and with community members we decided to go for a "stamina" as a finite but regenerating resource the player would have to manage in order climb, sprint, jump etc.Hand Model and Animations
We've replaced the previous "place holder" models with proper hand models which not only look way better, but also include beautiful idle, grab, climb animations ! Shout out to our community member "Captaindickhook" for offering to make the model and animations for us - he's undoubtedly done a fine job.
Conclusion and Special Thanks
This update is undoubtedly a major mile-stone in the game's development process.
We're extremely fortunate to have such an amazing and supportive community that keeps pushing us forward and takes an active part in shaping this game by providing us with constant constructive feedback on what they believe we should focus on and where we can improve - for that we are deeply grateful !
Special thanks to a few veteran community members who've played a major role in providing feedback as well as play-testing of the pre-public versions of this update:
SupaDave, WMan22, Caldor, Hoshi, Barba-Q.
As well as a few newer yet very involved community members:
Goblia, Maozee.
It's a true privilege to have such amazing community members on board! <3