- Reducing the amount of foliage across the level
- Reducing the render distance on many objects
- Various code optimizations
- Instantiated static meshes where applicable
Loch Ness
Patch Notes for 25th November
Patch Notes for 5th November
- Removed Halloween event cosmetics
- Added new Shark artwork to the Nessie type selector screen
Patch Notes for 28th October
- Added new Nessie selection screen
- A ton of optimization of networking to hopefully make ping lower
- Various tweaks and fixes to Nessie behaviour
- Replaced some obsolete loading tips and added new ones
- Hopefully fixed issue where pier textures do not appear
- Underwater camera photos now look much closer to the underwater camera's view, including using thermal mode
Patch Notes for 28th October
- Added a new Nessie selection screen
- Hopefully fixed issue where the pier's textures wouldn't show up
- Underwater Camera photos now look much more like the camera's original view (incl if you use thermal mode)
- Various tweaks and fixes to Nessie behaviour
Patch Notes for 26th October
- Nessie will react better when killing a speed boat
- Improvements to the panning when using map
- New sounds for fishing rod
- Photos taken by the Underwater Camera will now better represent the in-game view (including using the Thermal overlay)
- Increased range where you can see the thermometer area
HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Halloween Event and Economy Update
On top of this, we're also very happy to release Major Update #5 - The Economy Update! This update makes it so you can earn money by collecting evidence which you use to buy tools from the Requisition Terminal in the RV.
You can also eventually buy upgrades to all your major tools, including the long-awaited:
Speedboat! A much faster and easier to control alternative to the rowboat, but it is pricey!
FInally, we've added a new thermometer minigame and changed the game loop a bit - now you use thermometer readings to eliminate sighting locations and need to get a reading to access all the other evidence to collect. Also, Nessie will now move locations after you gather evidence, meaning you have to stay on her trail and keep using the thermometer to find where she is now.
On top of all of this, there are a bunch of changes and fixes including:
- Fix for crash when entering a game
- Nessie should no longer swim at the player without attacking
- Fixed Client players sometimes not counting when they took pictures of Nessie
- Nessie will kill swimming characters much faster
Thank you once again to all our community for the support and we hope you enjoy this update and the rest of the spooky season! As always, please report bugs and give feedback on any of our social media or in the Steam Community Hub but particularly on our Discord.
As far as future plans; we still have yet to add the two new Nessie types - Eel and Shark! Alongside these will be unique tools needed to defeat them and two new areas - based on Urquhart Castle and Boleskine House which you will need to delve into to unlock these tools. Stay tuned for all of that and more!
Patch Notes for 21st September
- Improved the boat sinking
- Hopefully fixed, but at least much improved, the boat flipping
- When holding the fishing rod ready to cast, a circle of light will appear indicating where you are casting to
- Nessie now swims a certain distance away before chasing or attacking the camera
- Buffed Nessie's speed
Patch Notes for 11th September
- Fixed a crash when using binoculars with a tool equipped
Update #4 - Unreal Engine 5 & LOTS MORE
Main Features
- A completely new map utilizing Unreal Engine 5 technology
- This is what took us so long – but we think it’s well worth it and we hope you’ll agree
- Huge overhaul of Nessie’s behaviour creating a much scarier and omnipresent threat
- Tons of new sounds creating a much more tense atmosphere and scarier Nessie
- Swimming, so that falling into the water isn’t an immediate death sentence
- New Tutorial level
- Evidence collection is no longer about finding obscure spots but is now about completing minigames,
- including:
- Audio Minigame where you have to match up two wavelengths by controlling Amplitude and Frequency
- DNA Minigame where you have to lean left and right to keep your balance
- Replacement of the fishing net with an actual fishing rod you have to cast, hook fish with and reel in
- including:
Tweaks and bugfixes
- Removed the animation driven movement in the walking and replaced it with a more traditional movement driven animation method
- Added a colourblind mode and option to press e instead of press and hold to interact
- Increased the turning circle of the boat and made it dependant on speed for realism
- A bunch of fixes to prevent crashes
- Fixed Pong flickering for clients
- Made Pong throw up a game over screen instead of just kicking you out
- Made the Pong achievement work for clients
- Added a new animation for holding torch and now faces the correct way
- Made it so that the newspaper will appear showing progress when everybody dies
- Made the interaction much better at detecting when you stop looking at one object and look at another
- Slightly increased in-game mic volume
- Can now pan the map and the movement and zoom are stored for when you next open the map
- Tools will now rotate automatically to fill the inventory
- ‘Reset to Default’ will now actually reset to default
- New torch pose and much better torch light
Future Plans
Pending all the bug reports we’re inevitably going to get despite rigorous testing (please do report them before just refunding or leaving a review!) we finally feel satisfied with the basic game of Loch Ness and feel like this is where we should’ve been when we launched early access a year ago.
But we’re not done with Loch Ness – there’s so much more left for us to explore, so look forward to these coming soon:
- Unlockable upgrades to all your tools and a new, faster speedboat
- Two new areas to explore inspired by Urquhart Castle (you can already see the outside on the new map!) and Boleskine House – two haunted locations from the real-world Loch Ness
- Two new Nessie types with completely new routines, behaviours and powers