New Features

• New Level: Primer
  
  
  
  • Previously, Primer and Extraction were the same mission, with the only difference being that Extraction skipped the introductory tutorial provided by Primer; Primer has now been replaced by an entirely new tutorial mission.
    
  • Primer teaches the player the basics of multi-gravity combat, including how to use and reload weapons, how to use teleportation-based locomotion, how to quick-turn, how to make use of Shift Ramps to change gravity and obtain new perspectives on combat, grenade basics, and how to interact with the environment. The previous tutorial had a slow start to get the player into combat; this one should have better flow and get the player to the enjoyable moments quicker.
    
  
  

• New Level: Excavation
  
  
  
  • Fight your way up the walls of an excavation site while rocks are rushing by you at deadly speeds.
    
  • Blends combat with brutally hard traversal.
    
  
  

• New Level: Grenade Feat 1
  
  
  
  • A short first grenade challenge to help you practice the multi-gravity grenades.
    
  
  

• Progression and new UI
  
  
  
  • Our levels now have achievements (we call them feats). Some missions will have a simple complete achievement, while others have more specific achievements. For example, Blitz has achievements for incremental scores, and turning on the power. In the coming patches, we will be adding fun little challenges in these levels, like getting sniper kills while falling at terminal velocity or throwing batteries into the payload from a distance. The goal with this isn’t to have you grind for more completion, but rather to show you some things that weren’t thought to be possible.
    
  • Variants: They are now moved into this Feat system. Once you find a variant, you can play it by hovering the variant achievement in the list of feats.
    
  
  

• WMR Support:
  
  
  
  • As part of this update, we upgraded NeverBound from Unreal Engine version 4.18 to Unreal Engine 4.21, which is the first version of the game engine with official Windows Mixed Reality support.
    
  • With the help of some of our wonderfully supportive users, we have ensured that the game works properly on Windows Mixed Reality devices.
    
  
  

Major Updates

• Major Mission Update: Extraction
  
  
  
  • The introduction of a new tutorial mission resulted in a major redesign of the Extraction level; while seasoned veterans will recognize parts of the level, several new additions have been made, along with a number of modifications to the existing sections.
    
  • The additions and improvements have created a slightly longer, more complete mission.
    
  
  

Minor Updates

• All levels now have more grenades placed throughout them.
  
• Grenades now have orange trails when you throw them to improve their visibility.
  
• Speed lines around the player’s camera now show up when moving at high speed (falling or dashing for example)
  
• Reload weapon UI and UX improvements:
  
  
  
  • In order to help guide players through the process of reloading clip-based weapons, such as assault rifles and snipers, we have made a few additions to the UI and UX.
    
  • In terms of the UI, a flashing “RELOAD” warning is now displayed when a weapon’s clip has been emptied and the weapon contains a spare clip.
    
  • In terms of the UX, guiding arrows are now displayed when the player grabs a weapon’s reload pin in order to assist them in pulling back the pin.
    
  
  
• Hint UI improvements:
  
  
  
  • In order to make hints more legible, a black background has been added behind the text in order to make the white text more visible, and a blinking green bar has been added to the side of the text in order to draw the player’s attention to the text.
    
  • In addition, text is no longer used to describe what button the player needs to press; instead, the motion controller is shown with the target button highlighted.
    
  
  
• Improved holstered weapon UI:
  
  
  
  • The weapon icons displayed on the player’s HUD have been replaced with lighter-blue, opaque icons.
    
  • In addition, the icons are now positioned higher up on the player’s HUD so that they are more visible.
    
    
  
  
• Improved the way the shield and Gravity Slam Gun are held in the player’s hands on HTC Vive.
  
• Added “No Power” UI to disabled doors.
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that was causing occasional, very long stalls (i.e. from around 5 seconds to over 60 seconds) during gameplay.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented players from being able to dash up the stairs on the antenna in Leap of Faith.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented grenades from being set to zero-gravity mode when playing the It’s Gon’ ‘Splode variant from a checkpoint.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused door sound effects to be unaffected by changing the Master or Sound FX volume in the audio options.
  
• Fixed a bug that made it possible for players to pass through force fields if moving at high speeds (e.g. after falling and landing on a force field).
  
• Fixed collision in various areas of Leap of Faith that made it impossible to shoot through areas where it should be possible.
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause weapons to have the incorrect appearance after being made holographic while a hint was displayed.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused previously-eliminated enemies to reappear after returning from the security room in Extraction.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused the incorrect music to be played when playing Leap of Faith from the checkpoint located by the hacking station.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused the objective about deactivating the turret in Leap of Faith to reappear every time the player entered the hall leading to the bridge.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused “Variant Completed” to be displayed after completing a mission with a variant active, even if the variant had already been completed.
  
• Fixed the collision of certain walls and floors in Leap of Faith that caused the player and objects to pass through them.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused Sentinels to not always successfully navigate over shift ramps.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused Sentinels to occasionally float on the floor.
  

Known Issues

New Features

• Mission Variants:
  
  
  
  • When playing a mission variant, players will find themselves rediscovering missions with new and exciting modifications.
    
  • Mission variants are unlocked by finding and acquiring the hidden objects that represent them.
    
    
    
    
  • Currently, there exist three mission variants:
    
    
    
    • It’s Gon’ ‘Splode: Ballistic weapons deal no damage; the player’s only chance of defeating their enemies is to use explosives.
      
    • Weightless World: Dropped objects and annihilated enemies float through the air in zero-gravity.
      
    • Glass Cannon: The player is equipped with the new Arc Launcher… but so are their enemies.
      
    
    
  
  
• New Weapon: Arc Launcher
  
  
  
  
  
  
  • The Arc Launcher is an energy-powered, projectile-based weapon.
    
  • When fired, the gun heats and a projectile is launched that explodes upon impact.
    
  • If the trigger is held, the Arc Launcher builds up charge, increasing the damage dealt and the explosion radius of its projectile, while reducing its speed and causing the Arc Launcher to accumulate more heat.
    
  • Once overheated, the player must wait for the Arc Launcher to cool down before being able to fire it again.
    
  
  
• Perks:
  
  
  
  • In the Blitz challenge level, the player now has the ability to use the points they have acquired in combat to purchase perks.
    
  • Perks give the player the upper-hand in combat by upgrading their weapons and their GravSuit.
    
  • Perks can be purchased at perk stations, which are dispersed throughout the level and can be found in multiple rooms.
    
    
    
    
  
  

Major Updates

• Oculus Control Mapping Change:
  
  
  
  • Due to the recent discovery of a game-breaking bug, the control scheme for triggering a dash or a gravity shift has been changed.
    
  • Previously, the player would dash or shift by pressing forward on the right thumbstick to select the target location, and release it to perform the movement.
    
    
    
    • However, due to the implementation details, if the player was attempting to shift to a Shift Pad while simultaneously performing artificial locomotion with the left thumbstick, they would miss the Shift Pad and fall through the level.
      
    
    
  • Thus, players now have two options for performing a dash or gravity shift: pressing down on the right thumbstick, or pressing the ‘A’ button.
    
    
    
    • While the button is pressed down, the player is able to choose the target location.
      
    • When the button is released, the dash or gravity shift is performed.
      
    
    
  
  
• UI Improvements:
  
  
  
  • Added a shield indicator to the player’s HUD.
    
    
    
    • The shield indicator is faded when the player isn’t taking any damage.
      
    • Once the player begins taking damage, the shield indicator becomes opaque and flashes.
      
    • When the shield breaks, the indicator begins flashing red to warn the player that they have no shield.
      
    • When the player is near a payload, the shield indicator becomes green to inform the player that the payload is boosting their shield.
      
    
    
  • Added UI for the player’s holsters.
    
    
    
    • When no items are being held by a holster, a circular icon identical to the holster itself appears in the bottom corner of the player’s view.
      
    • If a holster that isn’t holding anything is overlapped by a piece of equipment held by the player, the icon will become larger.
      
    • If a piece of equipment is placed in the holster, an icon representing that equipment will take the place of the circular holster icon.
      
    • Overlapping a holster that is holding equipment with a hand will cause the holster’s equipment icon to become larger.
      
    
    
    
    
    
  • Added objective text to aid the player in completing the mission.
    
    
    
    • This currently only applies to the Leap of Faith and Blitz levels.
      
    
    
  
  
• New Comfort Option: Smooth Turning.
  
  
  
  • Players now have the option to choose between smooth-turning and quick-turning (also known as snap-turning).
    
  • Each turning mode has its own turn rate associated with it, which can also be adjusted in the Game options menu.
    
    
    
    • The turn rate for smooth-turning refers to the turning speed, which ranges between 0.2 and 2.0.
      
    • The turn rate for quick-turning refers to the turning angle, which ranges between 45° and 90°.
      
    
    
  
  

Minor Updates

• Added a checkpoint to the beginning of Leap of Faith.
  
  
  
  • This checkpoint is located at the hacking panel at the start of the level.
    
  
  
• Improved appearance of Shift Pads and Shift Ramps to make it easier for the player to tell if they are on or off.
  
  
  
  • Unpowered Shift Pads and Shift Ramps will now turn red when they are off, and they will turn blue when powered on.
    
    
    
    
  • In addition, unpowered Shift Ramps will have “No Power” banners preventing the player from walking over them.
    
    
    
    
  
  
• Added a confirmation menu for menu options that affect the game state (i.e. loading the last checkpoint, restarting the game, returning to the main menu).
  
• Added spacing between menu elements to make it more difficult to accidentally press the wrong button.
  
• Added a circle representing the center of the player’s play space for HTC Vive users.
  
• Changed the default movement acceleration mode to instant acceleration in the comfort settings.
  
• Renamed Experimental menu to “Challenges”.
  
• Moved the Blitz level into the Challenges menu, since it is not a mission.
  
  
  
  • In addition, the description has been updated to indicate that the level is infinite.
    
  
  
• Changed the sniper fire sound.
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that was causing the kill box to not work consistently (i.e. it was possible for the player to fall out of a level and continue falling forever without dying).
  
• Fixed a bug that was causing piston-driven crushers to kill the player when retracting.
  
• Fixed a bug that made it possible to throw a weapon through a wall if it was originally thrown while time was slowed.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented grenades from generating impact sounds.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused the sniper scope blackout effect to become stuck if they player dropped the sniper while looking through the scope.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented grenades from having a pickup line indicator placed on them when they are placed in the environment.
  
• Fixed a bug that made it possible to shoot through the side panels of Shift Ramps.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused equipment in the environment to become outlined, indicating that the player can pick them up, while the player’s hand was overlapping a holster.
  
  
  
  • This was confusing as it indicated to the player that grabbing would cause the equipment in the environment to be picked up, when really it would pick up the equipment in the player’s holster.
    
  
  
• The collision of the stairs in various levels has been fixed, and the player is no longer lifted up before descending them.
  

Known Issues

A note to WMR users:

New Features

• Experimental Levels
  
  
  
  • We have added a new section to the main menu for experimental levels.
    
  • These are levels that do not consist of complete missions, but contain new maps with various challenges for the player.
    
  • The goal of these levels is to have you, our users, try them and provide us with feedback on what you like and disliked about the levels, so that we can continuously improve our level design.
    
  
  
• New Experimental Level: Bipolarity
  
  
  
  • The first training level is a basic combat scenario, where the player must simply survive the onslaught of enemies until time runs out, while attempting to achieve the highest score possible.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
  
  

Major Updates

• Throwing improvements.
  
  
  
  • We reworked the code handling the throwing of objects in-game, and throwing now feels much more accurate, realistic, and intuitive.
    
  
  
• Performance improvements: Several architectural changes were made to our code base in order to prove the overall performance of the game; the major changes are outlined below. Note that no existing functionality was removed during this process.
  
  
  
  • Weapons, as well as their impact effects, were modified to be significantly less costly when they are not held by the player.
    
  • Enemies were stripped of superfluous functionality and components that were hindering performance.
    
  • Environmental objects that were degrading performance were simplified and optimized.
    
  • Player and enemy movement code was significantly improved.
    
  
  

Minor Updates

• The payload now speeds up when there are no enemies present in Blitz.
  
• Added music to Leap of Faith.
  
• The default behaviour for picking up items is now tap to grab.
  
  
  
  • This is currently the only behaviour. The next update will contain a menu option to enable tap-and-hold grabbing functionality for players who desire it.
    
  • The grenade range tutorial has also been modified to reflect this change.
    
  
  
• The trace direction of Gravity Shift Module, which enables the player to dash and change their gravity, was slightly modified.
  
  
  
  • The result is a much more fluid and accurate feeling when attempting to dash or shift to various locations.
    
  
  
• The way the player holds the shield was slightly modified, making it easier and more comfortable to hold.
  
• Modified the location of the checkpoint in Leap of Faith just before the long fall, so that the player can restart from just before the fall. Thanks, Tony, for suggesting this! :)
  

Bug Fixes

• The player’s in-game hands now accurately match the location of the controllers in real life.
  
  
  
  • As a result, objects held by the player in game are correctly positioned and feel much more natural and realistic.
    
  
  
• Fixed a bug that caused the screen percentage to only update when the menu slider was clicked.
  
  
  
  • Screen percentage is now being set to the last configured value at the start of the game, in addition to when the menu slider is moved.
    
  
  
• The music that was previously playing now resumes after loading the game from a checkpoint.
  
• Unreachable battery charging stations are no longer highlighted when payload batteries run out of power in Blitz.
  
• Fixed a bug that made it possible to occasionally get stuck with all movement blocked after dashing.
  
• Fixed a bug that broke configured gravity grenades and caused them to get stuck in zero-gravity after pausing and resuming the game.
  
• The high score shown on the player’s wrist UI in Blitz is now properly synchronized with the player’s Steam leaderboard score.
  
• The checkpoint after the grenade range in Primer now saves the equipment the player was carrying, permitting the player to bring grenades with them into the ensuing combat scenario.
  
• It is no longer possible to get stuck in weapon room after the grenade range when playing from the checkpoint in the weapon room if it is entered with two grenades in the player’s holsters.
  
• The Gravity Slam Gun now awards the player points after destroying a drone.
  
• The objective marker in the weapon disposal room following the shooting range no longer disappears as soon as the player drops their weapon.
  
  
  
  • It now disappears after the weapons have been placed in the disposal bin and destroyed.
    
  
  
• The impact effects that are created when the shield takes fire no longer remain floating in the air until they disappear.
  

Known Issues