Howdy folks! We're back! With another patch!

After we managed to clean up a good few of the major issues plaguing the release build, we were pretty winded from the grind leading up to and following release. As such, I elected to take something of a short rest.

Following that, we got right back on the train of bug hunting and general tweaking/polishing based on notes from watching folks play and general feedback here on Steam as well as elsewhere. We had hoped to release this new patch two weeks ago, but last-minute issues that required extra time to fix kept cropping up, delaying us until now.

Before we get to the patch notes themselves I wanted to take a quick moment to talk a bit about some of the changes coming in this update. So! On that note...

Player Movement

I've seen a few folks complain that the base running speed is a pinch too slow. Now I'm hesitant to adjust this too much, as fiddling with the player's speed a great deal would require the game to be rebalanced, with projectile and enemy speeds all tailored around the player's movement. However, I thought I would give the player's speed a brisk boost in light of the feedback.

The Bunker Buster

I felt the game's double-barreled shotgun needed a slight buffing. It's utility lagged behind some of the other weapons in the arsenal, and as such, the projectile spread has been tightened, and the weapon's damage has been boosted. To make sure that this doesn't completely break the game's balance, some of the enemies' health pools have been adjusted in light of this change.

A Helping Hand

There are a fair few linear levels where players would get turned around and lost fairly easily, levels where the path forward really wasn't meant to be obscured in any way, shape, or form, but where that was the case nevertheless. As such, for a fair number of the offending levels, a variety of changes, additions, and/or tweaks have been made to guide the player forward more effectively. (And we'll likely make a few more changes like this in patches to come)

The Deus Mortis

The Deus Mortis is a weapon a lot of folks struggle to get a handle on, both in how and when to use it; as such, a number of players really fumble through its introduction in C2L1. To help make the weapons intro a little more forgiving, we've added a few more ammo pickups for it to that level.

Reverting the Invisilads Change

In the last patch, we made a significant change to the Assassin and Void Drifter enemy types that meant any and all attacks would instantly knock them into a stun state, even whilst they were attacking. An unfortunate byproduct of this change is that as enemies, they became incredibly ineffective and super easy to cheese. As such, we have reverted this change.

Buffing the Final Boss

We're currently working on buffing the final boss as it's a lot easier than it was intended to be, and I've seen that exact sentiment echoed by a number of players. A fair few changes to said boss have made it into this update, but depending on how the sentiment stands following this update, we may do more to crank it up further.

But with that said, I've done enough prattling on... here are your patch notes!

Patch Notes

Tweaks:

• Increased Players' max running speed from 4.5 to 6.

• Decreased the rate at which the players' running speed builds from 2 to 1.

• Increased the Players' max bunny-hopping speed from 11.75 to 12 when using "Hold to Bunnyhop."

• Increased the Players' max bunny-hopping speed from 10.5 to 11 when using "Toggle to Bunnyhop."

• Buffed the Bunker Buster's per-pellet damage from 2 to 10.

• Buffed the Bunker Buster's explosive damage per pellet from 23 to 27.

• Buffed the Bunker Buster's point blank damage from 275 to 400.

• Tightened the spread of the Bunker Buster's pellets.

• The Bunker Buster weapon pickup now gives 4 shells instead of 3.

• The Crosshair for the Bunker Buster has been tweaked to reflect its new spread.

• Chapter 1's Sub Hub has received a visual overhaul.

• A scientist has laid some traps for you in "C1L3 - Fragmented Folly."

• Increased the opening speed of the broken elevator doors in "C1L4 - Disposable Danger."

• Altered layout of the crate room in "C1L4 - Disposable Danger" to make the path of progression clearer.

• Reworked some level Geometry in "C1L5 - Slipgate Central's" bridge room to give enemies access to areas they were not formerly able to traverse.

• Added visual highlights and moved pickups around the pink key in "C1L5 - Slipgate Central."

• Added extra ammo pickups in "C2L1 - Eastern Evisceration" to give the player more room to experiment with the Deus Mortis.

• Added missing Ranger axe to "C2L2 - Cthonic Crypt." (oops)

• Made tweaks to the layout of "C2L4 - Ethereal Egress" to make finding the yellow key door easier.

• Added an extra save beacon pickup to "C2L5 - Ceremonial Sacrilege."

• Increased the duration of the timer switch for the Sacrifice puzzle in "C2L5 - Ceremonial Sacrilege."

• Added missing ambient audioscape to "C2L7 - Arche Ascension."

• "C2L7 - Arche Ascension's" opening outdoor and ending archegate sections have received a visual overhaul.

• "C2L7 - Arche Ascension's" laser gate to the Archegate now lowers upon defeating the boss.

• "C2L7 - Arche Ascension" has received one new secret.

• Added missing kill volume to "C3L3 - Virile Vanity."

• Tweaked the visible size of a hole that the player could not pass through in "Finale - In the Maw of Madness."

• Removed some ammo pickups from "C1L5 - Slipgate Central" and "C2L6 - Monorail Massacre."

• Added subtle guiding lights in "C1L4 - Disposable Danger," "C1L5 - Slipgate Central," "C2L5 - Ceremonial Sacrilege," "C2L7 - Arche Ascension," and "C3L1 - Theopathic Thoroughfare."

• Rebalanced the health pools of several enemy types to account for the changes made to the Bunker Buster. (I don't remember which)

• Invisible enemies have had their stun mechanics reverted to their state prior to the former patch.

• Added a warning beep to the Assassin's Holograms before they explode.

• Updated the Arachnospud's sprites.

• Tweaked the windup to the Willow Bairns' shockwave attack.

• Tweaked the movement speed scaling across all difficulties of the Shambler.

• Nerfed the radius of the Shambler's area of effect attack.

• Nerfed the aim on the "C1L4 - Disposable Danger" Bosses' full auto hitscan attack.

• Tweaked the movement speed scaling across all difficulties in "Finale - In the Maw of Madness's" boss fight.

• Tweaked the attack damage, projectile speed, aim tightness, and various other features of the attacks of the "Finale - In the Maw of Madness" boss fight across all difficulties.

• Added some extra logic that helps to dictate whether the game should put you in the hub or show the player a cutscene upon loading a profile.

• Improved interaction with Sacrifices to make it easier/more consistent feeling.

• Changed default gamepad aim assist setting to on.

• Changed default gamepad sensitivity.

• Changed default FPS cap from 144 to 120.

Fixes:

• Fixed the Edlritch Walker Powerup not causing enemies to shoot at the player whilst the player has fired a shot if the enemy has never seen the player prior to the powerup being acquired.

• Fixed Melee Charge Indicator staying on screen when melee has been temporarily disabled

• Fixed a window in "C1L3 - Fragmented Folly" which had no collision.

• Fixed a bug where an enemy trigger would cause enemies and their corpses to emit alert sounds in "C1L3 - Fragmented Folly."

• Fixed see-through geometry in "C1L4 - Disposable Danger's" Gun Godz secret.

• Fixed "C1L4 - Disposable Danger's" Boss calling out the incorrect attack type if stunned.

• Fixed the first Watcher in "C1L6 - Wayward Watchers" refusing to pursue the player if the player leaves its line of sight before its spawn animation completes.

• Fixed a secret shoot switch being collisionless in "C2L1 - Eastern Evisceration."

• Fixed invisible wall collision in "C2L3 - Boggy Besiege."

• Fixed some ambient audio not playing in "C2L4 - Ethereal Egress."

• Fixed bars with backface-culling in "C2L4 - Ethereal Egress."

• Fixed Switch in "C2L6 - Monorail Massacre."

• Fixed the Boss of "C2L7 - Arche Ascension" vanishing right upon exiting the level.

• Fixed the placement of skullies in the library present within "C3L2 - Blighted Babylon."

• Fixed the Flame Traps in "C3L3 - Virile Vanity" and possibly other damaging surfaces, hurting the player when the player is not colliding with said surfaces.

• Fixed the final encounter's door, permitting the player to exit the level before the designated enemies are killed in "C3L3 - Virile Vanity."

• Fixed some secrets not triggering in "C3L5 - Damnable Descent."

• Fixed the floor-hatch in the Tree/Shambler fight closing upon loading a save in "C3L6 - Compulsory Contrition."

• Fixed the game not pistol starting the player in "Finale - In the Maw of Madness."

• Fixed Caroline's bust on hud not displaying the right animation after picking up a weapon when the player was on low health and in the level "Finale - In the Maw of Madness."

• Fixed an issue that allowed you to save during the boss fight of "Finale - In the Maw of Madness."

• Fixed the player being able to shoot during the ending sequence of "Finale - In the Maw of Madness."

• Fixed the player's camera constantly shaking during the ending sequence of "Finale - In the Maw of Madness."

• Fixed a typo in the game's End Credits.

• Fixed controller custom preset/rebinding not working properly across all levels.

• Fixed rare occurrences where autosaves would fail to trigger if replaying levels through the hub under certain conditions.

• Fixed the game autosaving at checkpoints even when the player has died.

• Fixed a bug that allowed the player to carry gameplay modifiers and cheats into a new, yet unplayed chapter.

• Fixed NC-17 Modifier not displaying inside the level select's modifier interface.

• Fixed the player retaining the rail gun when the Instagib Modifier is not active. (thanks Hbomberguy)

• Fixed logic for the "Ryse Son of Rome" achievement that should make unlocking it more consistent.

• Fixed "A.W.O.L." achievement.

• Improved consistency of streaming audio. (This should help to fix the music and ambient audio cutting out)

Some Quick Closing Thoughts

In the wake of the above, I thought I might also take a moment to highlight things we are looking to address in the future, as there have been a number of complaints/reports that I wanted to address more directly. I highlighted a couple of issues above, things like the difficulty of the final boss, level navigation, etc... However, there are a few others I think worth bringing up.

The Marionettes' "Sight" Attack

For starters, on the note of the final boss, a few people have rightly pointed out that the final boss uses a very similar line of sight tell to the Shambler enemy type despite the fact that the attack is not dependent on line of sight. As such, especially for first-time runs, the attack can be a little confusing. We're planning to alter the visual aspects of how this attack manifests itself in such a way to visually distinguish it more, which hopefully will help.

The Adopted Night Gaunts

A fair number of players have complained a great deal about an enemy type introduced in chapter 3 known as "The Adopted Night Gaunt." For those not in the know, this enemy is a stationary turret that fires homing projectiles that rather than damaging you, teleport the Night Gaunts next to you. In addition, they have an area of effect around their body that drains your health and slows you down. They also cannot be killed, only momentarily disabled.

Now this enemy won't be getting nerfed, as they're not threatening or dangerous enough to justify such a change. They also probably won't be receiving too much in the way of changes to their behavior. However, I do recognize that they are a very real pain point for a lot of players in chapter 3, and as such, we do plan to make some form of changes to them, likely in how their attack is presented, as well as how the player is notified of said attack. As of right now, we don't have much in the way of a clear idea of exactly how we will be changing them, but the aim will be to make sure the player is better informed of both their presence and, ideally, how to deal with them.

Steam Trading Cards

Moving on from more feedback-related issues, we are currently collaborating with a community member, Matowaar, to add Trading Cards for the game to Steam. I know many people have been requesting this, and I wanted to let you all know that it is indeed something we are working on.

The OST

I felt the need to comment on the state of the OST as I'm sure it's something that's weighing heavily on the minds of a number of people. The fact of the matter is, I still have no updates on that front. I have not heard from our composer, John S. Weekley, for roughly a few weeks now, and as such, really don't have much to report. We're still waiting on him; we'll likely announce when he's back, so everyone can be made aware that we're trucking along on the OST again. But until then, it's probably best to assume not much in the way of motion is being made. I have been considering potentially bringing in yet another composer to help us close things out. I am very hesitant to do this, though, as I would prefer to ensure that the quality, sound, style, and vision are consistent throughout the entire soundtrack of chapter 3, and I really don't want to have to bring someone else in to complete the final three levels. But we'll see what happens.

In Closing

A big, big, big, big, big thank you to everyone who's been supporting us and helping us to track down issues in the wake of the game's release. We hope this update finds you well, and we pray the Lord bless you, keep you, and make his face to shine upon you! God Bless you all! Noah Dickinson,