Major Feature Additions

12 new levels

The highlight of this update. Many level editor features were made to support the experiences the levels wanted to create. The larger scale of the newer levels necessitated optimization of AI behavior, the benefits of which also carry over to the base levels.

New cannon mode, meta grenade

Given the level reorder and properties of the initial campaign, players ended up entering the final level ‘The Wall’, with a brand new arm cannon type, immediately after unlocking it. The beam flamethrower arm cannon mode was initially also used in the ‘Estate’ level. The sudden confusing and underwhelming nature of the overcharged cannon necessitated the introduction of an improved late-game upgrade. The Meta Grenade has similar uses to the Plasma Grenade, but has more charges, no drop-off, faster travel speed, and more enemy damage. Rather than giving the player something different and unfamiliar in the final levels, we wanted to improve the player’s current ability to express themselves by increasing the usability of the standard arm cannon.

Adds Specialist npc

A recolor of the standard enemy type, but with new guns, doubled movement speed and health, and crouches less often. The majority of enemy types in the game can be killed quickly, even without headshots. Making a tougher, faster, more aggressive enemy type fills a niche that the old enemy roster didn’t have. Their dropped weapons include a mix of new and underused guns, which mirror, but are an improvement upon, the standard enemy loadout.

Added suppressed deagle

The only previous sidearm type weapon that was suppressed was a fast, high capacity, burst fire pistol. A slower weapon with the same damage as the deagle provides a sidegrade option.

Added suppressed mac10

The smg class of weapons didn’t have a suppressed option, and a huge suppressor on a tiny gun looks cool.

Added sawn off shotgun

A requested weapon by bloody, the sawn off is dropped by specialists and heavies. High damage, low range, low capacity weapons are fun. It is capable of 1 shotting a heavy enemy if enough pellets hit.

Added lever action

Guns with manual actions are cool, a one armed protagonist who is also able to use such a gun is even cooler.

Tweaked music throughout campaign

Many tracks created by Floating Door for the OST were unused. Adding new levels interspaced in the campaign provided the opportunity to revise the existing bgm.

New achievements

Editor updates

Editor Trigger Volume updates

Trigger volumes can make events happen
Added more sound choices to campaign volumes
Trigger once only trips if objective valid

Editor Prop updates

Alphabetized id selection in editor
Add new prop move action
Added prop rotate action, can start and stop w/ action or start on spawn
Added prop show action
Shatterables can now take dmg before shattering
Shattering object counts as destroying it for objective
Add invuln related prop actions
New no cannon damage flag (props take hp dmg but no cannon visual dmg)
Add show health bar action for props

Editor Action updates

Add unlimited cannon ammo action
Added kill all npcs action
Added disable AI action
Added bgm related actions: DropPitch, RaisePitch, StopMusic, PlayMusic, PlayIcePrison, PlaySolarpunk
Added lighting related actions: some ambient light events, KillLights, RestoreLights
Add new spawn wave action
Added Portal turn off action
Added kill all npcs action
Added disable AI action

Made rectangle selection more accurate
Can set delay between campaign events
Door and campaign markers snap on spawn
Added more guns to editor spawns
Enabled basic checkpoint setup

Stunt Balancing

Added 0.5 seconds to jump and double jump startup

Jumping from a flat surface gave a small amount of stunt, about 0.15 seconds, at the beginning and at the end of the jump arc. Both trigger because of the passive stunt status granted when being above 850 units of speed. The additional forced stunt time of 0.5 seconds allows the player to stay in stunt mode until near the apex of the jump. This allows a larger and more forgiving window to transfer from sliding or standing to wallrun, behaves more similarly to the stunt time granted from walljumping and doublejumping from a walljump, and overall allows for safer vertical movement.

Kicking door gives 1.0 seconds stunt
Leaving fan gives .5 seconds stunt
Stunt timers now check that they won't interrupt an already longer running stunt timer before activating

Level Balancing

Cleaned tutorial
Added heavy to cafeteria
Removed heavy from cybermed
Added fan to prison
Updated party mansion campaign
Added checkpoints to party mansion
Extended museum objectives
Extended garden objectives
Updated Wall geometry

Enemy Balancing

Gave jetpacks backpack VO
Jetpacks now use burst fire at all ranges
Increased jetpack deceleration
Decreased jetpack move cooldown time
Mech now shatters any blocking props
Added more weapons to ceo office, boosted boss health by 200
Boosted mech hit sound
Boosted triple threat and ng+ simultaneous npc limit to .5 starting number

Weapon Balancing

Many weapons felt underwhelming. Visual tweaks in randomized gun attachments and audio tweaks in gun sounds help distinguish them from each other. All smg type weapons, the most commonly used type in the game, received both a base ROF buff as well as a ROF buff while in bullet time. The DB12’s 2 shot burst fire was seldom useful, changing it into a full auto weapon fills a role not yet seen in the shotgun weapon type. The L86, as a weapon that is only placed in levels and not dropped by enemies, felt ineffective and boring, with rifle tier damage but horrible accuracy. Increasing its accuracy, ROF, and giving it the same ROF buff smgs have in bullet time makes it stand out as a powerful gun to use.

Boosted smg ROF in bullet time
Boosted eon rof by 50 and reduced mag size by 5, increased shot pitch
Changed R-shotgun sound to match other shotguns more
Increased db12 mag size by 4
Tightened bulldog spread, altered sound to match other shotguns
Doubled deacon volume
More eon randomization options
More advanced rifle randomization options
Reduced bulldog mag size
Db12 now automatic, reduced mag size
Boosted l86 rof to 1000, reduced mag size to 60, gives smg bullet time properties
Reduced l86 dmg
Boost smg rof
Adjusted p90 rof and sound
Randomize zip sights
Randomize ru2 sights
Randomize m4 sights and grip
Scale up up m4 model, combat rifle model, r-shotgun model, l85, 92f, db2
Beef up db2 sound
Moved db12 shoulder position
Adjusted shotgun grip and sound

Quality of Life changes

Doubled backpack charge radius
Tweaked gamepad look/move options
Added gamepad deadzone to l and r stick
Elite’s cloak turn off if they are last standing
Clamped slide tilt maximum
Boosted cam follow speed while kicksliding in air
Added shatter sound to shattering props
If player has wide pulse cannon selected they still get to use meta for post museum levels
Hide hand when no gun (hide ugly fingers)
Added .7 seconds persistence to weapon ready state

Bugfixes+Optimization

AI Optimization

Many of the new levels are larger and have higher enemy counts than previous levels, using enemy spawners was necessary to reduce CPU load, tweaking and optimizing spawner properties became necessary. Many older levels did not feature extremely long sightlines, so AI detection and behavior was adjusted to reduce excessive CPU use from AI pathfinding to distant players.

Performance tweak to enemies spawned in during level, no longer spawn in immediately awake
NPCs return to spawn and sleep when cant find player
Reduced NPC sight range for all except sniper
Turn off npcs sight when player is far away
Lowered max npc count for auto waves
Capped npc rof

Fixed being able to kick open locked doors when enemy was behind
Throwing weapon no longer immediately detonates objects
Fix ui bugs with trigger volumes and props
Explosion debris decal now displays in all angles
Fixed issue where objectives would become physics objects
Markers with ids no longer used for random spawning
Fix for first events not working on lvl reset
All objects with id get deleted on lvl reset now
Props with id dont get physics check
Invuln props don't get cannon edits
Fix for chunks getting unhighlighted when shot
Fixed shockwaves letting player pickup gun from far away
Ensure health bar for props removed on death and unload
Fixed mech from hurting self with rockets
Fix for player climbing up stairs when diving
Slide legs now properly tilts depending on camera direction
Removed kick prompt from prototype
Hide rtx toggle when no rtx launch is chosen
Fixed double doors exploding when kicked
Fixed bug where explosives would drain double hp per hit
Fixed bug where firefight music wouldn't play if title track was still fading
Fixed explosive rounds not penetrating glass
Fixed bug with waves spawning on markers w/ id
Fixed replaying levels with checkpoint
Attempt optimize fire
Fixed issue when gun preview would drain frames in gameplay
Toned down spark and plaster particles
Reduced plaster particle lifetime
Reduced memory usage of some ui elements

Severed Steel

Sep 17, 2021

jan hotfix 2

Campaign Update 3.0