We're live with another technical patch.

This patch includes general fixes along with a few new mechanic implementations. General stability fixes and additional edge case bugs we're found and resolved.

Full Patch Notes:

• Upgraded base engine from 2019 to 2021 LTS.
  
• Implemented a new 'kick' melee ability when player is equipped with a weapon.
  
• Implemented a new customization system for the player. (available in the main menu)
  
• Fix for the water walking speed and animation playback speed.
  
• Fix for the grenade projectile system for water surface collision detection.
  
• Fix for weapon switching (Transitions are now smoother for animation and IK interplay)
  
• Aiming system fixes for IK (Player now releases aim when too close to a target)
  
• Player can now run and perform a slide ability, and return to running.
  
• Fixed an issue with the gravity modifier, gravity multiplier was compounding each time the player fell.
  
• Simultaneous keyboard and joystick co-op experience improved. (Interface)
  
• Added an additional checkpoint in Level 1 at the Substation.
  
• Fix an issue in the AI system that would cause garbage collection overhead. AI CPU performance is increase.
  
• +Various 'QoL' improvements.
  

We're live with another technical patch.

This patch includes general fixes along with a few new mechanic implementations. General stability fixes and a few edge case bugs we're found and resolved.

Full Patch Notes:

• Fixed a critical issue where rifle and pistol ammo pickups were zeroing out on the item count.
  
• Added an additional checkpoint before the final encounter on 'Arrival' and increased the final encounter enemy count and difficulty.
  
• [Controller] Aim-Lock now stores nearby targets and allows for target switching (Right Joystick (Aim) [X-Axis]) (This is a work in progress. The next revision should will have an additional calculation for retrieving the next best possible target, rather than purely based on available targets in the radius)
  
• Character can enter the running state prior to not moving, rather than having to be moving to enter the running state.
  
• Added an additional velocity curve to running + jumping, improves running and jumping by allowing larger distances to be cleared.
  
• Refactored character jumping and gravity to provide a bit more hang-time before the character lands.
  
• Flashlights now interacts with enemies and alerts them when visible.
  
• Minor improvements to the blended states between running and walking with weapons equipped.
  
• Fixed an issue with opening the inventory and then pausing the session causing the slide ability to be disabled.
  
• Added a new filter option that was missing in the inventory for "Ammo".
  
• Crouching increases the rate of the character's endurance recovery. This does not speed up the recovery period if the character was fully exerted.
  
• Fixed issue with second player inventory when mouse and keyboard controls we're enabled.
  
• Fixed controller support for co-op with players only having one controller. (Primary controller is given to the second player when mouse and keyboard is enabled)
  
• Versus mode can be played with a keyboard and a single controller.
  
• Fixed various issues that arose from implementing keyboard support with versus mode.
  
• Players can no longer lock onto themselves in versus mode.
  
• Changed auto controller assigned to handle input from first to last.
  
• Melee kills to enemies now applies physical force to the ragdolls.
  
• Fixed grenades to apply proper directional damage force on explosion for ragdolls and physics objects.
  
• Fixed edge cases with the running system IK and Animation.
  
• [Visual] Implemented a new visual aid to identify which supply crates are interactable or not.
  
• Fixed various issues in menu UI
  

We're live with another technical patch.

This patch includes general fixes along with the new camera system implementation set to default. You can still access the legacy version if you actually enjoyed that version, but we decided to go ahead with the new version as default as the feedback had been extremely positive.

One of the biggest features to hit this patch is mouse and keyboard support. Yes, amazingly on a PC platform we now support mouse and keyboard. You will find that the controller is still set to default until you switch it in the settings, but if you want to jump right into mouse and keyboard by default, simply hit the Escape key, and the system will enabled M+KB.

The new mouse and keyboard control scheme yields a totally different way to play. From our previous post we were experimenting with different ways to aim, and a lot of our progress didn't pan out because of the difficulties with aiming in a 3D/Side scrolling environment.


[ View Full Sized Image ]

We found that generally the best case would be to keep free aiming to a basic aim-forward stance, and allow enemies and shoot-able props to be able to be aim locked by hovering over the target you want to aim lock onto. (See video for more details on new aiming system)



The only thing remaining that will hopefully be included in the next patch, is the default P1 controller to be set to the P2 player when mouse and keyboard mode is active. This will save you from having to plug in 2 controllers if you want to play with mouse and keyboard in 'Team Duos' or Versus Mode.

Additional Patch Notes:

• Improved grenade projectiles. Movement curve now applies velocity when completed.
  
• Increased the distance for acquiring asdenvironmental pickups.
  
• Fixed an issue with locking on and animation states. ( When aim locking the character will no longer miss the next animations state and no longer appear to slide.)
  
• Explosive barells and gasoline containers can now be aim locked.
  
• Added keyboard input UI for the general menus
  
• Added keyboard input UI for the searchable and interactables
  
• Enemy AI melee attacks do not instantly kill the player, unless your are struck in the head.
  
• Reduced jumping gravity, allows more air time while jumping. Character doesn't feel as "heavy". (Still fine tuning this based on player feedback)
  
• Increased enemy grenade probability, the previous version was set too low.
  
• Reduced the enemy AI recoil.
  
• Fixed a takedown animation variation, enemy no longer is pushed into the air.
  
• Refactored various UI sounds.
  
• Refactored the aiming system to correctly align aiming and firing orientations.
  

Please let us know if you encounter any issues, bugs or technical glitches with the new changes.

It's almost time! We've heard you, and we want you to know we are working on refactoring the system to support mouse and keyboard.

There are still a lot of room to perfect how the mouse and keyboard controls work, specifically for aiming, there are a lot of way to do it, but I think for now we are going to mimic to a certain extent the joystick control, but we will leave it up to you to give us your feedback when the patch drops.

Thanks to everyone who tuned in last night.

We will be hosting another live stream session tonight at 9:30 PM EST.

We will be hosting a live stream session tonight at 9:30 PM EST.

We've got a pretty decent patch rolling out tonight. We've made a bunch of changes based on current player feedback that we thought would improve upon the experience. One of the biggest parts of this update is the new experimental camera mode. You can see an example of the new camera mode in action, read the patch notes below to see how you can enable this mode in the settings.

• Refactored vision system again to ensure that enemies are not engaging with the player before they are visible on screen. The previous iteration was a bit off with the calculation, and allowed the enemy to become active on the camera view boundary.
  
• Added a visual text hint to locked interactions that required an item to be able to use.
  
• Enemies can no longer throw grenades while off-screen. (Requires more testing to confirm)
  
• Fixed an issue with enemy melee collision causing multiple hit stacks on the player from a single melee attack instance.
  
• Visibility pass on [DESCENT] moving around some of the obstructing foreground objects.
  
• Moved fuse location cache on [DESCENT] improving objective visibility
  
• Added hints to the power substation objective on [DESCENT]. Improves visibility for interactable objects.
  
• Balanced enemy minimum and maximum HP values
  
• [Experimental] Refactored the monocular zoom ability (Instead of a full zoom-out, the monocular mode now looks forward in the direction you are facing, offsetting the player) This is purely a speculative experimental change based on some player feedback. You can access this mode in the 'Settings > Controls > Monocular Mode' - Setting the mode to 'Experimental' will enable this mode to try out.
  
• Still no mouse and keyboard support :)
  

We've just pushed a new patch live that improves stability for some core systems. This update provides hot-fixes for the Pathfinding and Enemy AI systems.

• Enemies should no longer jitter when aiming at players
  
• Fixed issue with Enemies switching from aiming and !aiming loop
  
• Enemies collision layers have been changed to stop enemies from getting stuck in place
  
• Enemies will now stop firing when facing away from the players
  
• Enemies vision tracking improved
  
• Enemies will not attack before being visible on screen, or attack when off screen.
  
• Fixed an issue with the pathfinding system generating runtime errors in the final encounter.
  
• Fixed issue with double skipping cutscene intro sequence
  
• Minor environmental fixes
  

Thanks for everyone trying out the demo so far, we have been receiving some feedback and a few reports of some issues currently present that we are working through. We just pushed a new minor patch for the demo which includes fixes for a few problems, and a couple of minor tweaks to the gameplay.

• Fixed issue with enemies actively engaging the player while off-screen.
  
• Fixed issue with target aim lock not resetting to default state after release.
  
• Fixed an issue with the AR and Pistol ammo pickups not depositing ammo into the stack.
  
• Fixed an issue with Settings and Save Data being overwritten when a new patch is downloaded.
  (The data is now stored in 'AppData' - C:\Users\User\AppData\LocalLow\ALTER-BOY\OZARK)
  
• Water Canteens now fully relieve thirst
  
• Enemies have a random buffer time before they appear after an alarm is tripped
  
• Fixed an issue with blood splatter not checking the correct layer (optimization)
  
• Minor fixes and improvements.