Unity 2021 and HDRP - Our progress since the last update!
Introduction:
This post was initially exclusive to our Patreon Supporters. Originally published in late February, the post is dedicated to detailing the progress our team has made since the last update. We hope that this will excite you all for our upcoming 13.0 update!
If you'd like to gain access to exclusive Patreon content, please consider subscribing at the link below. Northwood Studio's Patreon
After the Programming team took a short break to celebrate two successful releases, Northwood launched directly into a major technical project, as well as a variety of minor/Quality of Life (QoL) features. Today, we’ll be taking a deeper look into our ongoing technical project, as well as demonstrating a couple of new features coming in the next patch.
Unity 2021 and HDRP
Continuing the ongoing tradition of refactoring a major system for every update, our Programming team wanted to update the version of Unity SCP: SL runs on, whilst also changing the Render Pipeline we use. This is a massive project, as these two programs combined affect every part of the game — updating our engine. This means every mechanic is at risk of breaking and visual components dictated by the Render Pipeline are required to be updated and edited.
Below, I’ll briefly discuss, in simple terms, Unity 2021 and Render Pipelines, explaining specifically why we decided to update both, along with some practical examples.
Unity is the engine that powers SCP: SL. Being our game engine, it defines exactly what we can and cannot do, and provides us with tools that allow us to develop high-quality games. Unity releases a Long Term Support (LTS) product every year. These releases include four years of security fixes, but are otherwise considered ‘feature-complete’. Our current Unity version, 2019.4 LTS, no longer receives any security patches, which presents an immediate problem. Unity 2019.4 simply lacks a vast amount of features compared to other, modern game engines, like Unity 2021 LTS or Unreal 4/5. With this in mind, we chose to update our Unity version to the 2021 LTS. We want to use the latest LTS build exclusively, for stability purposes and plugin/addon support. Unity has yet to release a 2022 LTS.
The Render Pipeline is responsible for taking every element in a Unity project and displaying them on your screen. At a basic level, the Render Pipeline is responsible for rendering, culling, and post-processing. In Unity 2019.4, the only practical option available to our developers is an older variant of the ‘Built-In Pipeline’. It isn’t expandable or properly supported; it lacks a variety of modern features, can be notably slow, and older versions are moderately CPU-bound. Now that we’re moving to a newer version of Unity, we have the option to switch to a Scriptable Render Pipeline. We’ve specifically decided to use the ‘High-Definition Render Pipeline’, or HDRP, as it offers a variety of interesting tools, whilst also being tuned for maximum graphical fidelity (which we’ll demonstrate later). This pipeline offers proper support for modern RTX GPUs, meaning that players on high-end PCs will see a performance increase. In summary, we’re excited about this change because of the boundless opportunities it allows.
Now that we’ve covered the basic technical information surrounding engine updates and Render Pipelines, let’s answer the important question — what does this mean to you, the player? There’s two types of benefits associated with these updates: short and long term. I’ll start off by showing you an image of the entrance to SCP-173’s Containment Chamber. The first image uses the old lighting system on our current Unity version. The second image utilises the new post-processing, ambient occlusion, and lighting systems introduced by the HDRP pipeline.
These images were taken in a development build of the game from February, and may not represent the final product. Note the altered placement of lights, as well as a couple of new environmental props.
For reference, the second image is not using any of the tools we’ll be looking at potentially implementing in the future, such as Ray Tracing, Baked Lighting, or any long-term fine-tuning of our post-processing systems. This was completed by our Art team in just a few hours.
If you’re not sold by these images alone, here’s some more renders created by our art team. This is just a small preview of what is to come. Remember - everything shown here is still a work in progress.
These images are still WIP, and are subject to change. These are just a few examples of what’s coming, we’ll hold onto pictures of our other rooms for now.
The next thing HDRP offers for a better lighting system is a realistic shadow and reflection system. In practice, this means player shadows will be visible when walking near lights, which potentially allows sneaky players some advance notice of what might be lurking around the next corner. Additionally, held items will now properly reflect light sources, adding more depth to our models.
Our goal isn’t necessarily to make everything darker, but to create a more realistic lighting setup instead, which allows for contrast between spaces. In the current live branch, the only times where there is any real shift in lighting appears in the form of a new room, or after SCP-079 Blackout.
Regarding long-term benefits, HDRP and Unity’s new tools offer us access to new technologies which can be implemented in the future. Namely, HDRP allows us to use tools like Ray Tracing and Baked Lighting to further improve the visual fidelity of SCP: SL. Updating our Unity version gives us access to Volumetric Clouds, the built-in 2021 decal system, and a variety of other tools designed to monitor and debug performance issues.
Overall, many of the new tools our programmers and artists can use will allow for smoother development in future updates. A new Unity version means that a plethora of editor-only bugs have been fixed, and new developer tools such as Shader Graphs simplify the more challenging parts of developing SCP: SL
We hope that you’re excited for these technical updates!
Changes to The Jailbird
The Jailbird has undergone a few changes for this update.
First, let's discuss the process of obtaining The Jailbird in-game. Previously, players were only able to obtain The Jailbird through SCP-2536’s (the Christmas tree) presents in our Christmas 2022 update, which has since been transferred over to a Remote Admin item exclusively. Included in this upcoming update, The Jailbird will now have its own SCP-914 recipes that players are able to acquire. This also includes other special weapon upgrade paths, similar to the 3-X Particle Disruptor and the Micro H.I.D.
- The Micro H.I.D. on the ‘Coarse’ setting will now have a 50/50 chance to return either The Jailbird or a 3-X Particle Disruptor.
- The Jailbird and the 3-X Particle Disruptor can now be refuelled on the ‘Fine’ setting, similar to Micro H.I.D.
- Both the 3-X Particle Disruptor and The Jailbird on the ‘Very Fine’ setting will return as a Micro H.I.D.
- The Jailbird and the 3-X Particle Disruptor will turn into each other on the ‘1:1’ setting.
- Putting The Jailbird on the ‘Coarse’ setting will cause it to turn red; its final state. This means that The Jailbird will break/explode after its next use.
- On the ‘Rough’ setting, The Jailbird will return as a flashlight.
Whilst The Jailbird did not receive any other major changes in terms of gameplay, our Sound Design team implemented multiple variation sounds for each inspect animation that will play depending on the degradation of the weapon.
For example, The Jailbird can use its charge ability up to five times before it’s fully destroyed. After each charge, a unique inspect sound is relayed to the player.
Here's a challenge for everyone: try to interpret some of the new voice lines! The Audio team refuses to tell anyone what it might be saying…
Unseen concept art of The Jailbird, courtesy of PurpleGoop.
SCP-939 Mimicry Menu Rework
With the recent rework changes made for SCP-939, we believe that our current UI design for SCP-939’s Mimicry menu is rather lacklustre currently. The sub-menu UI design was first approached for the sake of keeping graphical consistency with our inventory menu. However, we’ve come to realise that this resulted in a more complicated and cluttered mess, which we wanted to fix immediately.
Moving forward, SCP-939 will receive a complete UI overhaul rework of her Mimicry menu. This will not only redesign our UI menu and remove all sub-menus from the ability, but provide all new QoL features (hotkeys and trimming voice clips) that were not present in the previous version.
Hotkeys- As shown in the screenshot above, players will now be able to favourite multiple stored voice clips (maximum of eight) chosen from the menu. When favouriting any voice clip, this will bind a number on your keyboard as a usable hotkey, allowing SCP-939 to play them easily. The numeral hotkeys will remain bound to those clips, even if they are later changed by the player themselves (e.g. removing hotkey #3 whilst keeping hotkey #4). Any favourite voice clips that are saved in the menu will not be overridden by any extra clips currently being stored, meaning you will still be able to keep them for as long as they are saved.
Drag voice clips - Displayed next to the ‘Favorite’ button, players can drag and reorganise any stored voice clips listed to their preference.
Trim voice clips - Players will now be able to ‘trim’ parts of a voice clip, allowing them to play back the specific highlighted audio in-game. All trimmed voice clips will stay highlighted until the player makes any direct change to the clip.
Mimic Point Meter Range - When placing down a mimic point, the system will display a metre range underneath the ability icon at which SCP-939 can freely move before the point reaches its maximum distance (20 metres). Reaching the maximum distance will remove the placed mimic point.
Gunshot variations - Each gun will have multiple sound variations that are played at random chance (e.g. Shotgun with double shot, Crossvec with suppressor, different fire rates, etc.).
Item Mimicry: In the previous Mimicry menu, players had the option to choose two classes to impersonate: either a Class-D or a Scientist. Each class had two variants of different items that were suited best for their roles (e.g. SCP-207 and Com-15 for Class-D, medkits and painkillers for Scientists). This has since been removed, replacing them with more diverse options for SCP-939 to use (grenades, adrenaline, candy, and SCP-1853).
Decreased Mimicry Cooldown - The Mimicry cooldown has been reduced to ten seconds (previously 20 seconds)
Whilst most of this Mimicry menu rework is mainly targeted towards visual aspects, we wanted to provide improved QoL features that will give our SCP-939 players more creativity.
That’s all for this post! We hope you're all excited for SCP: SL's 13.0 update.
12.0 Mimicry Feedback Form
Hello everyone!
We hope you are enjoying the 12.0 release and you’ve had the chance to try out all of the new features coming to SCP: Secret Laboratory. To make sure everything is balanced and working as intended, we are posting a feedback form with various questions about all the new features in the game.
Hello everyone. Today we bring you a small update to round off the holiday season.
This year, SCP: Secret Laboratory’s holiday update was larger than anything we’ve previously done in previous years. We want to give you as much time with the limited content as possible, and, as a result, this update brings some minor needed tweaks and fixes to the holiday version of the game.
SCP-2536 Changes
Adjusted SCP-2536’s overall loot table.
Introduced a new anomalous item — The Jailbird. The Jailbird is a special melee weapon that can be rarely granted by SCP-2536.
Opening a present gifted by SCP-2536 will cause a small cooldown, preventing one player from claiming all the gifts nearly instantly.
SCP-2536 will no longer attempt to spawn for the Chaos Insurgency. Insurgents are still able to open gifts.
SCP-2536 can only give one ‘Last Stand’ gift per round. Expect significantly less Logicers.
Added a SCP-2536 spawn point inside of SCP-096’s containment chamber.
SCP-2536’s gift will now have a disintegration effect whenever it appears and disappears.
SCP-2536’s spawning mechanics will now loop if valid targets cannot be found.
Improved how SCP-2536’s audio works.
Adjusted SCP-2536 visuals. SCP-2536 should no longer disappear when looking at it from a far distance.
Other Changes and Fixes
Added Operational Guide entries for all of the new SCPs.
SCP-956 will now target players affected by SCP-559 significantly faster.
Introduced poppable balloons scattered around the Facility.
You are now able to drink from the various mugs around the Facility.
Rebalanced SCP-106. - Hunter's Atlas now applies sinkhole cooldown. - SCP-106 Vigor regeneration pauses during sinkhole cooldown. - Vigor will no longer regenerate if SCP-106 remains stationary.
Reimplemented third-person animations for the Coin.
SCP-018’s logo now faces the player when held.
Increased SCP-1576 playback volume.
Changed the fog color.
SCP-173’s blink indicator now uses the snowy model.
Fixed volumetric lighting on the Surface Zone.
Updated the Reddit link in the main menu.
Various Remote Admin improvements, including a new Token System window and improved forceclass-related commands.
Conclusion
We hope that you all enjoyed the special update this year. Thank you all for your warm reception and continued support.
Have fun, and see you in the dark. ~ Northwood Studios
Happy Holidays!
Today, in celebration of the holiday season, we are excited to announce a special update we’ve been working on!
From the Christmas season, to the New Year, to our fifth anniversary, we have plenty to be thankful for, and we’re happy to unveil the potentially largest holiday update yet.
We hope you’re just as excited as we are.! Without further ado, let’s get right into it:
SCP-2536 Reimplementation
What’s a holiday update without a Christmas tree?
SCP-2536 is back and better than ever! Featuring a reworked loot table and improved graphics, ‘The Gift That Keeps On Giving’ is ready to spread some holiday cheer.!
SCP-1576 — Edisonian Afterlife Communicator
Some say that knowledge is power, others believe that knowing the right things at the right time can change a life. How about you consult the experts on the matter— the dead!
SCP-1576 is a new item SCP with the ability to communicate with the deceased. After a brief windup, you’ll be given a few seconds to communicate with any spectators waiting to respawn. But, with only one communication output, it may be difficult to tell who’s who! No one said that talking to the countless dead would be easy…
SCP-1576 is an item we’ve been sitting on for a while. Originally intended for a Halloween update, we’ve decided to spice things up this Christmas season. Currently only available as a gift from SCP-2536, the Edisonian Afterlife Communicator will be a special treat not found on every round.
SCP-559 — Birthday Time!
Sometimes, realising your own mortality can be scary. Don’t you wish you could be a kid again? Well, with SCP-559, you can experience the joy for just one more day.
SCP-559 is a new environmental SCP that spawns randomly around the Facility, akin to SCP-2536. Upon getting close, players will be able to blow out the candles, and experience the joy of childhood once again. With this, you’ll receive a shrunken player model, an increase in stamina and movement speed, a decrease in weapon handling stats, and a slight voice pitch shift.
SCP-559 is an SCP made with the intention of being fun, above all else. Whilst it’s not necessarily something you’ll see in the base game, we’re happy to give you all an anniversary we’ll both never forget. Here’s to the fifth year of SCP: Secret Laboratory!
SCP-956 — The Child-Breaker
Now you may be thinking, “Wow, with a name like that, what does SCP-956 do?” That’s a good question.
SCP-956 is a second new environmental SCP, appearing in secret in the corners of most rooms. When a player underneath the effects of SCP-559 stays in a room containing SCP-956 for too long, █████████ █████ ████ ██████.
We’ve also taken the time to introduce some new features. From various holiday decorations to balance changes and bug fixes, this update also brings some well needed fine tuning to the 12.0.0 update.
Holiday Cheer
Added a new main menu background.
Reimplemented the Christmas main menu theme.
Reimplemented the Chaos Insurgency express.
Replaced SCP-173 with a more snowy model.
Retextured SCP-173’s Tantrum effect to be more festive.
SCP-173 explodes into holiday spirit upon death.
Filled the mugs in the Facility with hot cocoa.
Added plenty of festive decorations.
SCP-018 has been converted into a Christmas ornament.
The chilly season is here! You might spot your breath if you look hard enough.
Re-added the Pink Candy. You’re welcome.
Balance changes
Improved SCP-049-2’s hit registration.
Increased SCP-049-2’s melee hit damage.
Increased SCP-939’s melee hit damage.
Increased SCP-939’s stamina regeneration time.
SCP-096 and SCP-079 will now no longer spawn as the only two SCPs.
SCP-096 can no longer spawn as the only SCP.
SCP-079 no longer loses AP to switch to an adjacent camera.
Adjusted SCP-079’s door locking AP cost.
SCP-106 now spawns with zero vigor.
Bug Fixes and Backend Improvements
Reimplemented Overwatch mode.
Improved how PlayerIDs cycle.
Fixed an issue where SCP-173 could result in a game soft lock.
Fixed a bug letting you clip out of bounds at the Heavy Containment Zone-Entrance Zone checkpoint.
Happy holidays, and see you in the dark. ~ Northwood Studios
Mimicry Beta Now Open!
Today, we’re proud to announce that SCP: Secret Laboratory’s 12.0.0 update, ‘Mimicry’, is now in its public beta stage. From overhauling the entire SCP team, to sweeping changes for the average round — Mimicry is at risk of being our biggest update ever.
It’s public knowledge that this update has been in closed beta for a while now, but we are extremely pleased with the amount of support and feedback that the community has brought forward for the duration of this stage. A ton of work was put in by the Development team, but we wouldn’t be where we are today if not for your input. Thank you!
You can opt-in to the beta by right-clicking SCP:SL in your Steam Library, and then by selecting the Properties tab.
From there, select the Betas category, and finally, select the Public Beta option from the dropdown menu.
And now, without further ado, let’s get into the changes!
SCP-939 Rework
SCP-939 has gone through countless balance changes, soft reworks, nerfs, buffs, and everything else that an SCP could possibly receive throughout its lifetime. With this update, we’re proud to announce a complete rework — both visually and mechanically, for SCP-939.
We’ve discussed the rework in a previous Steam post available here, which details the massive amounts of content and unique features that SCP-939 now holds.
The Operational Guide
One of the most unexpected features to come from this update is our Operational Guide. For a long time, we’ve felt that SCP: Secret Laboratory had gone without a proper introduction.
The Operational Guide attempts to help relieve these issues, providing some overview and explanation behind the classes; alongside providing a ton of lore for the world of SCP:SL. Now available from the main menu, feel free to dive right in and potentially learn a lot more about the game.
We’ve discussed the Operational Guide in depth during SCP-939’s full rework presentation. If you’re interested in learning more about the guide, check out the latter half of the post here.
CharacterClassManager and Metrification
Behind the scenes, a massive amount of changes were also carried out for the future of SCP:SL. We’ve spent time refactoring the Character Class Management (CCM) system, one of the core systems for the game.
The old CCM system resulted in a variety of issues and limitations, and as one of the oldest pieces of code in SCP:SL — it was a prime example of the word ‘technical debt’. In fact, as mentioned in a previous Patreon post, it was quite possibly the “worst-maintained script within the entirety of the video game industry”. Thanks to the refactoring, we are now able to do new and extremely interesting things, an example being SCP-939’s new ability to steal voices. With this comes the possibility for incredible new features that were not possible before, so stay tuned for future updates!
Alongside this, we have now properly ‘metrified’ the game. Previously, our measurements did not match any existing metric standard. Although the resulting changes may go unnoticed by the majority of the general playerbase, we’d like to note that this has been a significant improvement to our backend systems, allowing us to properly create and implement content at a much more efficient rate.
SCP Soft Reworks and Improvements
With this update also comes overhauls to nearly every SCP in the game! Although SCP-939 was obviously the shining star for this update, we gave a bit of love to every SCP we could, ensuring that none of them were left behind in the dust. Found below are some highlighted changes for each of the SCPs:
SCP-173
SCP-173 has received improvements to its backend systems. As a result, you should be seeing less desynchronisation, and improved quality in teleportation.
SCP-173’s blink indicator now allows you to more clearly see when a target is in range. The indicator’s neutral colour has been set to red, but will turn orange upon being in range to kill a target.
SCP-173 can now teleport near a window to break its glass. In addition, ramming into a piece of glass with the Breakneck Speeds ability active will now shatter it.
SCP-173’s Hume Shield now scales with health — starting at a lower value, and increasing as his HP reaches critical values. This should provide a bit more longevity to the class.
SCP-079
SCP-079 has received its own soft rework. With this comes a new interface, improved mechanics, new abilities, and numerous quality of life improvements. You can read more about these changes here.
SCP-049
SCP-049 has received a soft rework of his own as well. With this comes new abilities, significant balance changes, as well as improvements to SCP-049-2s. You can read more about these changes here.
SCP-106
In line with the other SCPs, SCP-106 has also received his own soft rework. Of interest is a new core mechanic, Vigor, new abilities, removal of his bullet resistance, the removal of the Femur Breaker, and much more. You can read more about these changes here.
SCP-096
SCP-096 no longer automatically enrages once seen. Instead, after being looked at, players can now choose when to enrage, by pressing R. Following this feature, SCP-096 now has an easier to understand indicator that’ll display how long his rage will last.
SCP-096’s ‘Try not to Cry’ has received improvements. Instead of only being able to use his ability on doors, you may now use it on any flat surface. Additionally, the audio has been improved upon, making it sound like SCP-096 is walking away when in use.
SCP-096 no longer kills a target in one hit with either his melee attack or his charge ability, instead dealing high amounts of damage.
SCP-096’s Hume Shield now scales with health — starting at a lower value, and increasing as his HP begins to dwindle.
SCP-096 no longer has a ‘cooldown’ period after raging. Instead, he can enrage immediately after completing his previous cycle.
SCP-096 has received significant number adjustments to his HP, Hume Shield, damage, and speed; all to be re-adjusted when appropriate, for the remaining duration of this beta.
Patch Notes
Due to the sheer amount of content added within this update, we have decided to list only important or notable features here, specifically those not mentioned in any of the linked Steam posts above.
Gameplay Changes: - SCP-1853 no longer increases stamina consumption. - Spectator mode has been greatly improved. Not only have the missing UI elements been fixed — the mode now includes proper first person viewmodels, better syncing status effects, and better post-processing effects. - Desaturated post-processing changes. - Improved the role intro animations. - Surface Zone has received some lighting changes to improve its visibility. - Heavy Containment Zone and Entrance Zone layouts now have two checkpoints connecting one another. - SCP-207 has received entirely new textures and animations. - Improved decals performance by almost double the original amount. - COM-18 has received an entirely new model. - All human models have received new (temporary) third-person animations. - Improved spawn protection UI. - Modified SCP-106’s room to no longer include the lower section nor the femur breaker. - SCP-939’s old room now has a ‘Death Pit’, and a side office. (Thanks to Dan for the idea!) - Added the COM-45. (Thanks to Oberstrudel for the idea!) - Adjusted lighting of Surface and Entrance Zone.
As a massive amount of code overhauls have been completed this update, it is virtually impossible to list the tremendous number of bugs that have been fixed.
Technical Changes: - CharacterClassManager has been refactored, and its functionality has been split into several different scripts. - Alpha Warhead Controller has been refactored, but its functionality should remain the same. - The voice chat system has been completely rewritten. It no longer utilises Dissonance. - PluginAPI has been implemented into base-game servers. - The entire Facility has been scaled down to utilise metres as a scaling rule. - The Discord Rich Presence system has been re-written, along with anything Discord-related. - Some minor improvements to the Environmental Hazard script.
See you in the dark. ~ Northwood Studios
12.0 "Mimicry" Patreon Beta Ongoing!
November has begun, we are now entering into the second month of the 12.0 "Mimicry" Patreon Beta!
The threshold to join the beta has been lowered to our Patreon's "Major Scientist" tier ($10 USD).
You can find our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/HubertMoszka
Hope to see many of you there and we hope you enjoy!
~ Northwood Studios
SCP-939 Full Rework Presentation
Hello!!
This Patreon post will showcase some of our biggest additions to SCP:SL’s 12.0 ‘Mimicry’ update! We’ll be detailing SCP-939’s full rework, SCP-939’s new containment chamber, and The Operational Guide.
SCP-939’s Full Rework
SCP-939’s full rework aims to move the SCP towards an ‘ambush’ role. It has received a variety of new tools to allow it to better perform this role.
SCP-939 retains its ability to switch between walking and sprinting. This time, SCP-939 will have a stamina bar, similar to that of human classes, though more limited. SCP-939’s base movement (walking) speed is slightly slower than that of a human, though its footsteps are almost entirely silent. By pressing the Shift key, SCP-939 will begin to use stamina and move significantly faster than its base movement speed. SCP-939’s stamina bar allows it to sprint for bursts of approximately ten seconds, before having to wait a further ten seconds for the stamina bar to begin recharging. The lower SCP-939’s stamina bar is, the shorter its range of vision becomes — more on this below.
Claw
SCP-939’s basic attack has been changed into a low-damage Area of Effect (AoE) attack, similar to SCP-096’s attack, though with a more forgiving hitbox. The basic attack (‘Claw’) deals 30 damage, with 75% armour penetration. SCP-939’s Claw key can be held down, allowing a continuous attack, with each attack taking 0.6 seconds to complete.
To put this in perspective, below are statistics on the damage this attack deals to differently armoured targets.:
*Time to Kill describes how fast SCP-939 can kill a target in ideal conditions i.e. no healing items used, no buffs on the target, and no missed attacks from SCP-939.
Ultrasensitive
The current SCP-939 has a unique vision mechanic, using environmental sounds to determine surroundings. The rework keeps this mechanic, but improves it, making it more visually appealing. One of the biggest changes we’ve made is allowing SCP-939 to only see colour within a small range.
The area which SCP-939 can see normally represents SCP-939’s limited sight. In this zone, humans will appear as usual, and will vanish when they walk outside of this radius. Outside of this radius, SCP-939 can no longer ‘see’ humans. Instead, they are represented by the sounds they make. These are sounds such as walking, running, shooting, and using items. Sounds appear as red, expanding circles, emitting from the sound’s origin. Throwing items also produces sound, allowing human classes to distract SCP-939! Images don’t display this mechanic well, so please see the bottom of this post for a video demonstrations
Focus and Lunge
To make SCP-939 more of a ‘hunter’, and to honour the four-legged SCP-939 model, SCP-939 can now retract into an ‘alert’ position on all fours, to prepare a devastating attack.
By pressing the CTRL key, SCP-939 begins to activate Focus. Over the course of two seconds, SCP-939 lowers on all fours, its movement speed crawls to a halt, and its Field of View (FOV) drastically widens. Once SCP-939 is fully Focused, it will be able to see sounds from up to double its original distance, allowing the player to find players to hunt easier. More information on this is below.
Being in Focus also enables a new attack for SCP-939: ‘Lunge’. As the name implies, SCP-939 pounces towards their intended victim. The human hit by this attack will be killed instantly. In addition, humans near the impact radius will take some residual damage. SCP-939 will take a moment to recover from this attack, potentially leaving it vulnerable to attack by militant classes.
Amnestic Cloud
Amnestic Cloud is a new ability for SCP-939. SCP-939 can now project a cloud of near-invisible gas that affects the minds of its victims. Humans who walk into this cloud stop being able to perceive SCP-939’s presence, allowing it to set up ambushes and kill a group of humans without them ever noticing its presence.
This ability is not without drawbacks, however. If SCP-939 makes an attack, or is shot by a human, it will become visible for a brief moment. This gives human classes time to react and defend themselves.
Finally, the Amnestic Cloud inflicts the, currently unused, status effect ‘Amnesia’. This status effect was previously inflicted upon receiving a bite from SCP-939, but was removed in an earlier release. 12.0 sees its return! Amnesia stops human classes from being able to perform certain actions, such as reloading, and using healing items.
Please note that this ability is not implimented in the summary video at the bottom of this post!
With Many Voices
Our updated version of With Many Voices is our most ambitious ability yet. Previous versions of this ability allowed SCP-939 to communicate with its victims with no drawback. We appreciate the fun memories that have come from this version of the ability, but the old SCP-939 was uninspired, with it being our most ‘generic’ playable SCP. Whilst we have decided to move away from uninterrupted proximity voice chat, our team is open to adding a form of proximity voice chat to SCP-939, should the sub-abilities below feel incomplete. We’ll make our decision based on feedback from both this Patreon post, as well as from the upcoming Patreon beta.
By pressing the Tab key, SCP-939 opens a menu, similar to the inventories human classes have. Here, there are a few options each with their own cooldowns.
Firstly, it can set a Mimic Point. The Mimic Point acts as a set location for SCP-939 to project its prey’s voices for an indefinite period of time (more on this later). This allows SCP-939 to trick its prey, allowing it to ambush them more easily. Mimic Points are marked with an on-screen ping indicator, similar to SCP-079’s ping system. Mimic Points do not disappear with time, instead they are deleted once SCP-939 has moved more than 20 metres away from the point.
SCP-939 gains the ability to steal the voices of the prey it kills, uttering the last four seconds of speech made before death. This ability has a cooldown of ten seconds, and can be projected to Mimic Points. Please note that players have the opportunity to opt-out of this system. Anyone uncomfortable having their voice played by SCP-939 always has the option to disable the feature in settings. The system is voluntary, with information about it being displayed the first time a new user attempts to join a server.
SCP-939 can also activate Footstep Mimicry. Footstep Mimicry is the only type of mimicry that cannot be projected to a Mimic Point, as it replaces SCP-939’s footsteps with those of another class. This ability lasts for ten seconds, before starting a 20 second cooldown period.
Finally, SCP-939 can activate Playable SCP Mimicry. This allows it to mimic the sounds and footsteps of a currently alive SCP. This ability lasts for as long as the copied sound effect does, or, in the case of mimicking SCP footsteps, for a maximum of ten seconds. This ability has a separate 20 second cooldown, and can be projected to a Mimic Point.
SCP-939’s Containment Chamber
With a full SCP rework comes the need to redesign said SCP’s containment chamber. SCP-939’s old containment chamber was a barebones relic of the past. The room is designed using old assets, was far too simple for what it was supposed to be, and does not appear as, or function, as a ‘containment chamber’. Suffice to say, SCP-939’s old containment chamber is the perfect example of what we want to avoid when redoing our rooms.
In contrast, SCP-939’s new chamber aims to fix all of these issues. Here are some images to show the new containment chamber:
Video explanations are at the bottom of this post, with a more in-depth look at SCP-939’s new containment chamber. Please note: some props are still subject to change, and may be rearranged in the final build. We plan to keep SCP-939’s old containment chamber in the game (possibly pending some changes), as it provides a degree of variety to the rooms in the Heavy Containment Zone (HCZ).
The new containment chamber fixes the aforementioned issues with the previous one. SCP-939’s old containment chamber featured a pit with a maze of slopes. The, seemingly, only use for the previous containment chamber was to hide and camp, causing frustration for all. The new containment chamber features possible loot locations, with a set of lockers, as well as the possibility for medical items to spawn. The room is also relatively small, being built in a normal HCZ ‘corner room’. This eliminates many of the problems the previous version saw. It can still be used to hide in to some extent, but it is nowhere near as good of a spot to camp than its predecessor.
As for being a ‘proper’ containment chamber, SCP-939’s new room now features a research facility, attached to a Foundation ‘Containment Cryopod’ to house SCP-939 for study. We believe this makes the room more lore-appropriate, featuring better fitting containment methods the Foundation would use. The opinion of the room being more visually appealing is down to the individual, but we think everyone will find this room far more interesting.
A Video Showcase is attached below.
The Operational Guide
For too long, we’ve felt that the new player experience for SCP:SL was confusing. The game provides minimal direction about your goals and abilities. New players are introduced to a variety of weapons, anomalous items, and other game objects and mechanics they may not be fully understanding of. This is increased if they are not familiar with the SCP universe.
Whilst a full-scale tutorial would be unsustainable due to large changes the game sees between updates, we have elected to create an in-game information bank, known as The Operational Guide (OPG). Our goal is to improve first time user experience, whilst also providing interesting quality of life features for returning players. We plan to continue expanding this system with future updates. Adding new pages to the OPG is more realistic than updating a tutorial system every time an update is released. We won’t spoil all of The Operational Guide in this post, but the below images give a sneak peak of what’s to come:
Wait a second...
Each item page has the option to display the model in greater detail, allowing users to pan, zoom, and examine the model from any angle. We’ve also added a feature to each character page, to allow users to rotate the models. Military classes can be seen in different states, holding any weapon they usually spawn with.
We’ve also added some lore to every page of the OPG. We feel SCP:SL is at a point where we can start expanding on the narrative of the game. Perhaps you can piece together some interesting information about Site-02, or the Foundation? You’ll have to wait for the 12.0 Patreon beta to find out.
Without further ado, the video summary:
Thanks for staying with us <3 ~Northwood Studios
SCP-049 Soft Rework
Hello everyone.
We’ve made the Patreon post regarding SCP-049's ‘soft rework’ public! The post showcases upcoming changes to SCP-049 and SCP-049-2 in the 12.0 ‘Mimicry’ update.
SCP-049 Soft Rework Presentation In the upcoming 12.0 update, players can expect major changes to SCP-049 and SCP-049-2. Unlike the SCP-106 rework, these changes focus on improving abilities, whilst keeping a similar feel and style to the gameplay. The primary goal of this rework is to make SCP-049’s Basic Attack less powerful, all in an attempt to make him more interesting to play. We have a similar goal in mind for SCP-049-2.
Health and Basic Attack changes Currently, SCP-049 has a total of 2000 HP, with a passive 20% resistance to low penetration weapons. His maximum Hume Shield varies, starting at 200 and slowly increasing to a maximum of 500 (at low HP). SCP-049 retains his current base movement speed.
SCP-049’s Basic Attack has undergone major changes. The main focus is to remove his “instant-kill” mechanic, as it is believed to be the source of many of the character’s current problems. SCP-049’s Basic Attack has been renamed to “Cardiac Attack”. Cardiac Attack does not do a lot of immediate damage, instead it inflicts his victims with the Cardiac Arrest status effect.. Victims inflicted with Cardiac Arrest suffer from blurred vision, tripled stamina consumption, and lose approximately 8HP/s. Cardiac Arrest lasts 20 seconds. Victims suffering from this effect are killed instantly if SCP-049 attacks them again.
Cardiac Arrest can be overcome with the help of specific medical items. Victims who consume a medkit and two painkillers, or two medkits, gain enough health to outlast the status effect. Injecting oneself with Adrenaline or using SCP-500 will cure the status effect.
Good Sense of The Doctor
The first of SCP-049’s new abilities, Good Sense of the Doctor provides SCP-049 with better chase potential. SCP-049 focuses on the closest on-screen target when this ability is activated. This grants him additional movement speed. A HUD element allows SCP-049 to track the distance between itself and its victim, demonstrated in the summary video below this post. If SCP-049 or SCP-049-2 kills a victim while SCP-049 is tracking them, Good sense of The Doctor goes on cooldown for 40 seconds. Should a tracked victim die in any other way, use SCP-268, or survive for the ability’s duration, Good sense of The Doctor has a cooldown of 20 seconds.
Victims who are targeted and killed by SCP-049 become an instance of SCP-049-2 with 600 total health. These victims will also be revivable one point five times the normal amount of time.
The Doctor’s Call
This ability rewards SCP-049 and instances of SCP-049-2 for playing as a team. The Doctor’s Call makes SCP-049 visible to all instances of SCP-049-2. Any SCP-049-2 within a small radius of SCP-049 begins to generate Hume Shield at a rate of 10/sec (up to a cap of 100). The ability lasts for 20 seconds and has a cooldown of 60 seconds. The Hume Shield does not naturally decay or regenerate.
Waste Not Want Not
This builds on SCP-049’s ability to resurrect players. Waste Not Want Not allows SCP-049 to rebuild its horde by reviving instances of SCP-049-2 that have recently returned to the grave. An instance of SCP-049-2 that has been revived suffers a permanent debuff, losing 10% of their maximum health. Instances of SCP-049-2 may only be revived twice.
Players have the option to deny being revived consecutively by following the prompt, “Press F to deny further resurrection”.
Changes to SCP-049-2 Many of SCP-049-2’s animations have been adjusted in 12.0. An added ability, Voracity, is directly linked to a new animation. We’ve also drastically improved SCP-049-2’s Basic Attack, making it feel more consistent. The changed attack features improved hit regisration, as well as the attack cooldown indicators shown in our previous SCP-106 rework.
Voracity
SCP-049-2 can regain health by consuming the corpses of its victims. Upon activating Voracity, SCP-049-2 will devour a corpse over the course of seven seconds. In doing so, it regains 100 health. This ability can only be performed once per corpse and does not prevent SCP-049 from reviving a victim. SCP-049-2 is left vulnerable while using this ability, as it cannot be cancelled once activated.
Lobotomized Bloodlust
Instances of SCP-049-2 can now hunt players they spot. We hope this makes SCP-049-2 more threatening and increases the depth of it's gameplay.
Lobotomized Bloodlust increases SCP-049-2’s speed while observing a human target. When a target is present on a player’s screen, it steadily gains a speed boost. After a delay of five seconds, the speed boost rapidly decreases if there is no target in sight. This effect does not stack when observing multiple targets and is capped at a total movement speed of five point five metres per second.
Attached below is a video summary of the presented abilities.
That’s all for this time! Not quite sure which of two options we will be showing to you all next time, so we’ll elect to keep it a mystery for now.
Patreon supporters get exclusive access to future posts, as well as other benefits. Join our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/HubertMoszka
~Northwood Studios
12.0 Patreon Beta Coming Soon!
Hello everyone
On Saturday October 8th, at approximately 19:00 UTC, we will be releasing our Patreon beta for the 12.0 ‘Mimicry’ update! If you would like to join this closed beta, you can do so by subscribing to the ‘Zone Manager’ tier on our Patreon ($25 USD). ‘Zone Manager’ and above Patreon supporters will have exclusive access to the beta for at least two weeks. Further information will be given soon.
We hope to see many of you there! You can access our Patreon via the link below:
We’ve made the Patreon post regarding SCP-106's ‘soft rework’ public! The post showcases upcoming changes to SCP-106 in the 12.0 ‘Mimicry’ update.
Not included in the Patreon post are the changes being made to SCP-106’s Pocket Dimension. All items that have been dropped in the Pocket Dimension will have a chance of randomly respawning back in the Facility. The chances of the items respawning in the Facility are based on its rarity. For example, items such as Medkits have a smaller chance of respawning, compared to the Micro H.I.D. Further information will be revealed in the future.
Patreon supporters get exclusive access to future posts, as well as other benefits. Join our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/HubertMoszka
Introduction
SCP-106 has received large changes to most of its abilities. The playstyle is shifting to better compliment SCP:SL and, most importantly, to make it a more enjoyable character to play.
In 11.0, SCP-106 is the most inconsistent of its class for a variety of reasons. SCP-106 suffers from hitbox disparity. Until recent updates it had difficulty confirming kills, especially later in a round. This was due to the non-random nature of the pocket dimension. SCP-106 is also the only SCP that can be eliminated without taking any damage. Whilst prior patches have attempted to fix some of these issues, we’re now taking a more proactive approach to remedying some of these problems. Meanwhile, we’re focused making SCP-106 more intuitive and impactful.
Core changes, and Vigor To start, one of the big changes made is that SCP-106 now has a resource meter, much like the human classes’ stamina mechanic. The Health and Hume Shield values shown here are accurate to our current round of internal testing. Our plan is to give SCP-106 250 Hume Shield and 2000 Health whilst also removing his bullet resistance; this makes him less impenetrable, which compliments his new abilities.
A new, spooky blue bar!
SCP-106 uses this resource, Vigor, to utilise his two new abilities — Stalk and Hunter’s Atlas.
Stalk Stalk is a new movement mechanic added to SCP-106’s abilities. By default, Stalking is activated using the shift key, requiring at least 25% Vigor to sink into the floor. Whilst Stalking, SCP-106 is invulnerable and can move at an increased speed. Vigor is used to keep Stalking, draining at a rate of five Vigor per second. SCP-106 can choose to resurface at any time; playing an animation and sound effect (which is not included in the referenced videos). SCP-106 is also forcibly ejected from Stalking mode if its Vigor reaches zero.
Stalking is the only way for SCP-106 to regain Hume Shield, motivating players to ambush human targets, instead of the ‘bullet-shield’ gameplay currently favoured. The ‘ambush’ playstyle is counterbalanced by SCP-106 not being able to see all players. When SCP-106 attacks a player, he inflicts them with a ‘Traumatised’ status effect, which lasts four minutes. ‘Traumatised’ players can be seen whilst Stalking. Non-’Traumatised’ players can be seen by SCP-106 whilst it’s Stalking if they are injured. Players who have taken more damage can be seen from further away.
Hunter’s Atlas The Hunter’s Atlas gives SCP-106 the ability to flank and retreat. This is a new ability, which also uses the Vigor resource. By pressing tab, SCP-106 can open a minimap, which shows rooms directly connected to his current location. This minimap expands as the Vigor bar fills, to a maximum of a five-room radius. Clicking on any room will drain the Vigor bar, with larger distances draining more Vigor, and SCP-106 will teleport to the chosen location, using the current portal-teleport animation.
Femur Breaker Removal
After careful consideration, the Femur Breaker will be removed in Version 12.0. This change has been made as the focus for this rework has been about removing inconsistency from SCP-106. Due to the Femur Breaker’s accessibility, many players dislike playing as SCP-106. In some games, it is activated early, and, in others, nobody attempts to make a sacrifice. It’s somewhat outside of the SCP-106 player’s control, as the SCP team can be unaware that the relevant keycard is in play.
There have been experiments with a system where multiple sacrifices are required to recontain SCP-106, with each sacrifice giving progressively powerful debuffs to SCP-106 However, this still retained the inconsistency and a lack of counterplay. The Femur Breaker may be added to a future version of the game after an extensive rework.
Entrance Zone Checkpoint Changes
Our Level Design team has taken interest in areas of the map that are considered ‘choke points’. These are places where a team can camp, forcing their enemies to bypass them if they want to go deeper in the Facility. The Entrance Zone Checkpoint has been identified as the biggest ‘choke point’. SCPs blocking the Entrance Checkpoint can deny Class-D and Scientists from escaping, whilst also hindering armed personnel from accessing the Facility. This is being addressed in two ways.
Firstly, the Entrance Zone layouts are being reworked to allow for two checkpoints. This prevents situations where more than three SCPs can co-ordinate to block human classes, forcing them to split their resources.
Secondly, the Checkpoint room has been reworked. This makes it more favourable for human classes. Some art renders are attached below. Nothing shown is the final product and is subject to change.
Here’s a brief video showcasing the changes. This video is taken from a build of the game where the room is a ‘grey-box’, meaning it has not been textured yet.
