Fellow officers,
Later this month, the long-awaited Nightshift with Friends Update will finally release. Now the unavoidable question: Beta, where?
Yes, you're right - usually, the beta phase of the next update should have started by now. It didn't, tho. And that's mainly because we've decided to cancel it this time due to a number of technical reasons.
Wait, why?
As planned, we were working on the Nightshift with Friends Beta until just recently. However, after a bunch of discussions, we realized that it might not make sense to push out the update into beta - mainly because of the multiplayer aspect.
Creating a functional multiplayer is extremely challenging and could bring a lot of potential problems with it. Performance, glitches, bugs... you know? While we're making good progress and have fixed quite a lot in the past few months, we believe that there's still unforeseen stuff that we couldn't anticipate in our internal tests.
That's why we definitely need as much feedback and data as possible - and therefore the largest pool there could be. Which is, obviously, on the public branch! We know that the multiplayer might not run perfectly right from the start but that might be a risk worth taking. Together with you, we'll find out potential issues and improve them further down the line!
RIP Betas? :(
Of course not! Just to make it clear: This is an exception due to the multiplayer aspect.
But yeah, we get it. It must seem weird that after announcing that we'll have a beta before each bigger update, we're skipping it right at the second. Totally understandable.
But no worries, we will continue to host betas in the future and ship them prior to the full release of bigger updates. Hosting the last beta helped us a lot and we certainly can't wait for the next one!
An important notice about savegames
Starting with the Nightshift with Friends Update, we'll change how savegames are handled when playing on both the public and the beta branches. From then on, savegames can not be transferred between beta and public anymore and we'll have two different folders and markings so that you can switch between the branches at any time - without having to hassle with backing up savegames when doing so.
This change brings a side-effect with it: All existing beta save games will no longer be treated as beta savegames and will automatically transform into a public savegame. This means that all previously created savegames, public and beta, are now public savegames.
Should you have primarily played on the beta branch, this savegame can now continue to be used on the public branch. Should you possess both beta and public savegames, we recommend deciding on one to keep for the public branch. It's just the beta branch on which everyone needs to start from scratch after the update.
You can find your current savegame here:
C:\Users\”USER”\AppData\Local\Boston\Saved\SaveGames
You can find these more easily by typing %localappdata% into Windows search.
Here's an overview of the different scenarios:
| Savegame created... | Save game is now... |
|---|---|
| on the public branch before the update | public |
| on the beta branch before the update | public |
| on the public branch after the update | public |
| on the beta branch after the update | beta |
A first look into the patch notes
As we will not offer you a beta this time, we at least wanted to share the current state of the patch notes for the Nightshift with Friends Update with you! It's anything but complete yet and some aspects are still in development, meaning that there's still stuff missing and everything's subject to change.
New Features
- New Feature: Added 2 Player Co-op Multiplayer
- New Feature: Night Shifts
- New Tool: Road Flares
- New Tool: Flash Light for Player
- New Violation: Smoking Exhaust
- New Violation: Engine too loud
- New Feature: Standard key binding for Focus Mode
- New Feature: Customizable shift duration
- New Feature: Hotkeys for frequently used functions (like 1-7 for tools, M for map or H for handbook)
Gameplay
- Reduced the chances for dynamic accidents to happen by ~50% overall
- Implemented pause while handbook, board computer or map is open
- CP loss and SP gain are now displayed immediately
- Adjusted XP calculation to reduce the effect of CP loss
- Added Stolen Car detainment reason in background checks
- Fixed an issue that caused pulling over a vehicle after being verified with speeding gun to be marked as unjustified
- Balanced the priorities of evidence intuition feedback based on the severity of violation types
Police Car & Traffic
- Improved camera when interacting with vehicles
- Disabled super bright white emergency lights on stationary ambulances (we got blind just looking at them)
- Fixed lights on roof of the Arrest Transport Vehicle
- Moved rear license plate of Kirishima Avalanche to a lower position on the trunk cover so it's better readable during parking duty (thanks, GmsGarcia!)
World
- Fixed the outdoor lighting of the precincts Baytown, Beaufort Landing, and Brianna
- Fixed some cases where an interaction camera would clip into the environment
Localization & Texts
- Updated text to reflect 'four' new shifts instead of 'two' new shifts in the handbook
UI
- Added new loading screen tooltips for Handicap Placard and Brighton's private taxi company Shift!
- Added new tutorial images for multiple languages
- You can now open the Police Computer (including the map and background check) while talking to NPCs (e.g. during ID checks)
Miscellaneous
- Added distinction for beta and stable savegames
- Fixed honking while exiting the patrol car causing the game to crash
- Fixed issue that could lead the game to crash when accepting a major accident callout
- Fixed a bunch of other crashes (more than we could ever list here)
- Fixed issue with loading savegames that were corrupted by quitting out of the game during first loading screen
https://store.steampowered.com/app/997010/Police_Simulator_Patrol_Officers/