Today I will be releasing patch 1.96, which adds Weapon Optics for both the VR and FPS players. I've also added the Cinematic Filter (which was previously only available for VR) for the FPS player, and a brand new enemy interaction!!!
Weapon Optics This was a feature that was on the experimental build for about a month now. This patch brings a more polished version of that (where the sights aren't oversized on pistols).
Eagle-AR with a Red dot sight
9mm Pistol with Holo sight
We got Weapon Optics for the FPS players too!
Eagle w/ RDS for Desktop FPS player
Cinematic Filter for FPS player The previous patch added a Cinematic Filter for the VR players which I personally felt made the game look prettier. I've now given the FPS player a similar treatment. This Cinematic filter can be toggled on/off in the main menu!
Mission 1 With/Without Filter
Mission 2 With/Without Filter
Mission 3 With/Without Filter
Enemy Surrender Cancel Players will now have a limited time-frame to restrain surrendered hostiles. Take too long and they'll be back to shooting you in the face in no time.
Female Avatars As was shown in the experimental build, we now have Female Avatars for the VR player to select!
Misc Fixes - Fixed VR player death ragdolls in Online Multiplayer - Fixed the "Hostage Rescue" event in Mission 4 - Improved the reliability of Buddy AI. He now does a really good job at shooting hostiles in his Line of Sight. - Officer Low (Buddy) now only uses a UMP. New Animations have been added specifically for this gun - Officer Faust (Buddy) now only uses the Eagle-AR. New Animations have been made for that as well. - Removed the 70+ score requirement to attain a new Level. This game can be quite difficult sometimes, and I did not want to block people from seeing the later levels with the 70+ score requirement. Certain Perks/Weapons upgrades are still locked behind achieving higher scores!
Thanks everyone so far for your feedback and support. With these changes in place, I can now start working on my bonus levels in preparation for my full release >:)
Patch 1.95e - Experimental Build Patch
Hi Everyone,
Just wanted to post a patch that encapsulates the stuff I've been working on before my vacation starts...
As I will be out of the country for the next 3 weeks starting tomorrow, I didn't quite have enough time to fully test everything... Because of that... i'm going to be posting this patch as an "Experimental Build", which can be accessed within Steam.
the screen should look like the above. Just choose to opt into patch_1.95e-experimental build
Weapon Optics
You can now opt for weapon optics in your character load-out. You have a choice between Holographic sights, and Red dot sights! At the moment, this is only implemented for VR players.
The lens still needs a tint of some sort (haven't figured that out yet)!
Female Avatars
I saw on Discord that some players were requesting female avatars. So Alas!
Leah Lo, Ashley Williams, and Diane Hardly reporting for duty! 3 new female avatars have been added (for VR players only atm...sorry).
Misc Fixes - Tweaked lighting for ceiling lights for all the levels. - Fixed bug with Shotgun enemies Left-hand shooting - Fixed bug with grabbing "Start Game" folder - Increased animation speed for "Shooting from Cover" animations
Thanks again for everyone's support so far. Let me know what y'all think of this experimental patch!
Patch 1.94 - New VR Options Board UI, New Graphics Setting, and Misc Changes
Hi Everyone,
Today I'll be releasing Patch 1.94, which adds an updated VR Options board, a new Graphical setting (only for VR players atm), and a slew of changes that will hopefully improve the new player experience.
VR Options Board Rehaul
Looking back at the previous iteration of the VR Options board, I have to admit that it was kind of a mess. Locomotion options were in Page 1, Rotation Options were in Page 3, and the entire Page 2 was just whatever options I wasn't able to find a home for. With Patch 1.94, things are now slightly more organized. Hopefully y'all would find this a bit more user-friendly.
The Main Board
Player Input Settings
Cinematic Filter
The past month, I've been experimenting with color-mapping and post-processing effects for the VR player. This new filter can be toggled On and Off on the Graphics Tab.
Graphics Settings
For new players, this will be ON by default. For existing early access players, you may need to head over to this tab to enable it!
Main Office
Mission 3
Mission 4
Mission 5
The purpose of this filter is inject a bit more character to every existing level. Hopefully y'all can see the differences in-game (the screenshots don't really do it too much justice imo!)
Note: These currently aren't final yet, the lighting and whatnot are constantly being looked at and improved.
Misc Changes - Updated Enemy Shooting animations so they are less static - Seated enemies now stand up before turning towards their threat - Enemies are better at seeing players peeking around corners - Enemies are better at detecting crouched players when running around corners
- Blood is less glowy red and more matte textured - Updated some of the civilian running animations - The fingers for the VR players have been shortened a bit (grip poses have been adjusted to compensate for this change)
- Updated the scale of ground textures for most of the missions - Map 3: Added Curtains to some of the rooms so that killing patrols wont aggro the entire house - Map 5: Added a set of Boxes in the middle of the Warehouse (it was too open without them) - Map 10: Changed the suicide bomb guy in the master bedroom to something else
- FPS Player: Fixed Fade-in effect for wider monitors - FPS Player: Fixed M4 from randomly locking up - VR Player: New SFX for G36 and AK - VR Player: Added new SFX for Arrow impacts (Bow and Arrow)
So about 3 months ago, I initially announced that I wanted to push this game out to Full Release, and work on 2 new maps. Don't worry...the maps are happening....but I wanted to apologize for the big ol tangent that I ended up going on instead haha.
What's Next In addition to the 2 maps; I also be working on Index Controller support (they finally came in!), and to add some Female Officer Avatars. This is currently what I have so far...it's basically a slimmer female Lo! ːwinter2019happyyulː
Also, please note that I'll be out of the country in October, so there may or may not be updates for the next month and a bit!
As always, thanks everyone for your support and feedback so far. Please let me know how y'all feel about this patch or if you run into any bugs, either in the comments or on Discord!
https://discord.gg/mNEBcBM
Hotfix Patch 1.931
Hi everyone,
Just wanted to post a quick hotfix for some issues that were brought up recently. Game version is now 1.931.
Fixes - FPS Interactions that were initially binded to "E" have now been moved to the proper "F" key (these were interactions found in the Gun Range, Mission 1, Mission 2, Mission 6, and Mission 8)
- Improved enemy targeting to check for closest targets more frequently when chasing their primary target. (this makes enemies less likely to run past you when chasing your partner in Multiplayer)
- Improved enemy's ability to switch to next available target, when their current target is down.
- Fixed issue with enemies running out of bullets when put in their grounded state.
- Reverted M4 VR gun audio for now (this is until i can figure out why it doesn't sound as good as the FPS players M4)
- Increased Enemy Pump Shotgun volume and sound range (it sounded too muffled)
Thank you everyone for your feedback! I wouldn't have caught some of this stuff without y'all! :D
Patch 1.93 - First Person Shooter Update
Hi Everyone,
The past 2 weeks, I've been focusing on improving the gameplay for the Desktop PC players. I've added the ability to lean around corners, reworked a lot of the animations, and fiddled around with the recoil and spread to make each of the guns feel more snappy. The game is now on Patch 1.93.
FPS Update
New Animations added for the FPS player.
FPS player models now have different hipfire and aiming down sights poses
Quicker Reload (new animation + shorter reload time) for FPS player when reloading with ammo in the chamber.
Leaning around corners now added for FPS players
Audio Changes - Fixed the spatial audio for Doors. Door opening/closing sounds can no longer be heard from across the map! - Added footstep sounds for enemies and civilians - Added knife "whoosh" sounds for Knife-wielding enemies
VR Gameplay Changes - Opening the Revolver, Sawed-off Shotgun, Double-Barreled Shotgun, & Triple-shotgun now only ejects used ammo. Players can now easily reload to full instead of being forced to expend all their ammo all the time.
Misc Changes - Enemies now have to rotate fully towards you before they start shooting at you - Enemies in the "Standing still and Firing" mode may now run to available cover after a random point - Adjusted enemy projectiles to better collide with walls - Breaking enemy masks now put them in a brief "STUN" state - "Attacking from ground" enemy animations reworked - Fixed Bug in "Map 4" where hostages heads were exploding even when their executioners were killed.
Thank you everyone for their feedback and support. Have a happy summer!
Patch 1.92 - Hotfix Patch
Hi Everyone,
Just wanted to post a small patch that makes some slight improvements to enemy behaviors and fixes some things I've noticed in my playthroughs. Game version is now 1.92
Enemy Behaviour - changes to enemy's player detection code so that they first need to see the player before they start shooting at them. - changes to enemy pathing and their interactions with doorways, so there is less opportunity for firing animations to clip through walls - "Standing Still and Firing" enemy behavior now updated so that they will eventually grow bored of waiting for their target hiding behind cover and will eventually try to charge/kill their target
Overall these changes were made to make enemy gunfights feel even more unpredictable, but at the same time, feel less wall-hackish and unfair
Player Grip Customization VR Players can now tweak the alignment of their hands to better match with their controllers. These adjustments can be made on the "Calibrate Avatar" board.
Misc Changes - Updated Hardwood flooring models in maps 1 and 3 - Updated Model Scaling in Map 5 - Adjusted Recoil and Recoil Recovery timings for all VR weapons to make them feel more impactful - Adjustments to bullet impacts on walls so that smoke particles always move upwards, and added more spark particles
Development Changes I was initially planning to create 3 additional maps have them pushed out with the Final Release of the game. However, when fooling around earlier this week and playing via Desktop Player controls, I was starting to feel that I may have spent too much time making the VR side feel good and did not pay enough attention to the quality/needs of the Desktop player.
As such, I plan to make improvements to the gunplay, the lighting, and the animations for the Desktop FPS player, so that this game will be awesome not only for the VR players, but the Desktop players as well. Since this will probably take some time, I will only be creating 2 new maps to go with the Full Release of the game, and I'll work on the 3rd map for a post-release update.
As always, thank you everyone for your support so far! Hope y'all have a safe summer!
Patch 1.91 - Enemy AI Update, Civilian Animations, Level Updates and More!
Hi Everyone,
Today I'm releasing Patch 1.91, which makes big changes to the enemy AI, adds new civilian animations, improvements to current levels and addresses a bunch of stuff that people have pointed out.
Enemy AI Changes - Enemies will now react more dynamically when an ally dies in their line of sight - New Enemy Shooting animations when missing an arm - Slowed down transition from Fake Surrender -> Shooting you in the face
In previous iterations of Fast and Low, killing a hostile would cause surrounding hostiles to enter an "Alerted" state and look at their dead buddy. In 1.91, hostiles that witness their buddies die in combat will automatically be triggered (as if they saw the player). They would either run for cover, get ready to shoot the player on sight, or straight up charge the player's location.
This makes the game firefights feel more dynamic and it's fun to see the knife wielders (that are patrolling out of LOS of the player) just run around a corner and charge at you in the middle of a firefight.
Civilian Animations
Added a couple new idle and running animations for the civilians.
Look how scared he looks lol.
Buddy AI Improvement
Buddy AI has been improved (still could be better). But at least now he's capable of ordering hostiles to surrender, and killing them if they don't.
Level Updates With the changes in enemy aggression, I've went through all the levels to make sure that they were complete-able. Adjustments have also been made to a lot of the levels, by either adding geometry, adding new textures, or redoing the lighting.
Geometry Changes (Map 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,11) Texture Updates (Map 1,2,3,5,7,11) Enemy Density reduced on Maps 5, 6, 7, 8, and 11.
Misc Fixes - Added Glass Penetration to player bullets - Fixed MP issue where other players gadgets (flashbangs/stingers/frags) would not attach to players (on Spawn) - Remy Shotgun now uses a Pistol Grip. - Remy Shotgun (Pump) handle size increased - Sawed-Off Shotgun now blasts targets back on kill
Sneak Peek!! Here's a sneak peek at one of the levels I'm working on now!
As always, Thank you everyone for supporting Fast and Low so far! Your feedback is greatly appreciated and I do try to address any issues that y'all stumble upon. Please let me know what you think of the enemy AI changes! I'm eager to know if y'all feel that the firefights feel more dynamic with these changes.
Patch 1.9
Hi Everyone,
Today I'll be releasing Patch 1.9, which aims to add more polish to Fast and Low. This patch will bring updated textures for all the character models, new hand poses when reloading weapons, improved death ragdolls, and a bunch of improvements/changes to current existing stock levels.
New Model Textures
I spent the majority of the past few months adding textures and details to all the character models in the game. Counting all the enemy, civilian, and player avatars...i had over 180 models to improve....
Before:
After:
An example of all the updated Player Avatars:
Hopefully these changes are noticeable enough in game!
New Hand Poses
There are now 3 different Hand poses grabbing a weapon magazine. One for rifles, One for handguns/smgs, and another for individual objects like shotgun shells and revolver bullets.
I also updated the model and the bullets for my favorite gun (the magnum) ;)
New Death Ragdolls
One of the things I noticed when playing the previous builds is the lack of oomph when blasting people with shotguns or blowing them up with explosives. With this update, enemy ragdolls get an additional push when they die.
This makes the ragdolls move more dynamically, and make the guns feel like they pack more of a punch!!!
Level Improvements
I've gone through all the levels to adjust the Scaling on all the furniture and clutter, to keep it consistent between all the levels, and to keep the immersion for the VR player. I noticed too many overly thick desks and stuff in the previous builds. I also re-designed the backgrounds for Map 4 and 7
Misc Fixes - Found the cause for enemies shooting through walls when increasing bullet velocity - Fixed issue with Remy-Shotgun not attaching to holster in VR - Adjusted Recoil on most guns, but offset with Increased Recoil Recovery (this gives more pop) when shooting - Added a variable to Pistol-wielding enemies that slightly randomizes their firing rate. This makes Pistol-wielding enemies sound less rhythmic
Whats Next
Buddy AI Update. This was supposed to be in this update....but it turns out...it's a lot more complicated than i anticipated, and it would have delayed this patch much much longer. But this is next on the docket, as well as the new maps to prep for final release.
As always, thank you everyone for your support and feedback! :D
State of Development 1/14/2022
Hi Everyone,
Just wanted to give an update on the current state of development for Fast and Low. Things have been pretty hectic on my end the past month or so. Unfortunately I got hit with Covid, which pretty much put a halt on development since the last hot fix patch. However, after making full recovery, it's time to get back into business! >:D
In my opinion, I believe Fast and Low is in a pretty good spot, and the goal to have it come out of Early Access sometime in the middle of this year is definitely achievable. Minus one of glaring issue that I believe needs to be addressed, which is the Buddy AI. So here is what I will be working on leading up until the release of Fast and Low.
1) Fixing up the Buddy AI, so it's not useless 2) Adding some UI in the main menu to allow me to easily add additional levels in the future 3) I plan to work on 3 additional levels to herald the launch of Fast and Low (if y'all have any ideas, drop it in the comments below and I'll take it into consideration). A lot of the current maps take inspiration from locations in real life...but with pandemic raging on and me being stuck at home for the past 1.5-2 years...it's suffice to say that the well of inspiration has dried up a bit.
Just to note, even after releasing Fast and Low out of Early Access, I still plan on creating additional fun levels for Fast and Low when inspiration hits (hence point number 2 in the road map).
So TLDR; I was sick...but I'm back! Development ain't dead until I am.
Thanks everyone for your support so far! If you have any feedback or suggestions, please leave it in the comments below!
Patch 1.81c
Made adjustments to some level assets in Map 5 (Office Level). - Added more detail to the Desks/Chairs - Reduced the scale of certain objects that seemed too large - Made "Green" quadrant of the map tighter
