Patch 18.6 - Bugfixes, Big Change, and Improvements
Hey everyone, another patch has now been released hopefully fixing more of your issues, additionally some big changes to our code/engine structure that hopefully doesn't cause any issues down the line, more info below:
We're now using the Unreal Engine Source code version of the engine rather than the Launcher version- with this we'll be able to debug crashes more efficiently and tackle issues we previously wouldn't have been able to. That being said, this change may cause unforeseeable problems like new crashes, etc. if you experience any said issues, please let us know!
Removed: Save Phones, they're now replaced by overlaps so you don't have to bother with saving the game manually!
Balanced: Cathedral 'Boss on the Block' should now be a bit easier, less elite enemy spawns and basic enemy spawns, and should take 15% more armor damage from the front
Optimized: Elevator in Warehouse level and made it a bit more pretty
Optimized: Visuals with certain objects throughout the world, increasing their visual fidelity
Fixed: Enemies should no longer get launched alongside player after releasing grapple
Fixed: A bug that allowed the player to die twice in a row causing additional issues
Fixed: Being able to break doors off hinges just by running into them (shouldn't happen as often anymore)
Improved vision with bricks in the upstairs Cathedral level
Thank you to everyone that submitted bugs and feedback, we'll continue to get work done.
Discuss the game with us and the community on Discord and Twitter. If you want to see the game developed live, catch Crimson on Twitch.
Hey everyone, another patch has now been released hopefully fixing more of your issues, the list of fixes is below:
Improved crash stability even further (hopefully, I'm still investigating the random crashes, apologies for it taking so long!) If you experience any crashes, please let us know how/when and we'll look into it, any information helps
Fixed: Kicking objects should now (properly) complete the tutorial task
Fixed: ESC bugging out at times and not working
Fixed: Issues with some materials breaking when on Low/Medium shadow quality
Fixed: No screen shake with secondary weapons
Fixed/Removed: Grabbing (and some other actions) not working on alternate keybinds- due to the complicated nature of some mechanics in the game and how difficult it would be to keep alternative keybinds, for the time being we've removed/disabled alternate keybinds, if there's enough request for it to be brought back, we can look into it at a later date
Fixed: If no sub-level is assigned for a save when hitting Continue, the level would break and no enemies would spawn, etc.
Thank you to everyone that submitted bugs and feedback, we'll continue to get work done.
Discuss the game with us and the community on Discord and Twitter. If you want to see the game developed live, catch Crimson on Twitch.
Hey everyone, we've got another patch lined up with bug fixes and crash improvements (hopefully, more info below):
A crash has been occurring randomly within the game, usually after level transitions and restarting the game, we've made some attempts at improving some of our code to circumvent these crashes however it's a tough thing to fix- if you come across any crashes, please keep note of what was happening (if you were loading a new level, which level, etc.) so we can investigate further and make more improvements, apologies for all of the crashes!
Fixed: kicking objects in tutorial does not progress the step to move forward
Fixed: enemies can get out of the tutorial bounds
Fixed: objects can get out of the tutorial bounds (let us know if this still happens)
Fixed: AI Navigation not working in some sections of the tutorial
Fixed: Pressing R to restart on Legend difficulty would lock your game in a loading screen
Additionally a few more fixes with levels here and there, we're always looking for more things to improve in the game so please yell at us if you experience any issues!
We'll be looking at adding more content, etc. soon but we want to continue polishing any issues first before moving on to adding new things (aka more bugs).
Thank you to everyone who submitted bugs and feedback, we'll continue getting to work.
Patch 18.3 - More Improvements/Bug Fixes
Hey everyone, we released another small patch today with more bug fixes and improvements:
Fixed: Can grapple enemies while diving
Fixed: Grappling/kicking an enemy to death doesn't reset laser
Fixed: Player can shoot while in loading screen
Added: more visual cues like arrows/lights to doorways in Art Exhibit colosseum area
Added: game version in corner of main menu
Improved: visibility in Subway Trains level (vents now occlude)
Thank you to everyone who submitted bug reports and feedback.
Please keep letting us know about any issues so we can improve the game further!
Patch 18.2 - Improvements and Balancing
Hi everyone, just released a patch that includes a few improvements:
Shortened the final boss fight in the Art Exhibit
Added 2 vests at the final boss fight in the Art Exhibit
Improved the visibility in the first few chapters, more to come
Added collision boxes to a couple areas to stop the player from jumping out
If you're still experiencing any issues with visibility and more, please let us know.
Thank you to everyone who submitted feedback, cheers!
Patch 18.1 - Bugfixes
Hi everyone, this is a short patch fixing a few bugs you've all submitted:
Added: 1 more vest in the Cathedral boss room
Fixed: player flying away/being teleported when grappling an enemy
Fixed: end menu not working after pressing Continue button
Fixed: collision box causing player to not be hit in Level 2 at the garage door button
Fixed: default max FPS 'should' now be 120
If you're still experiencing any of the above bugs, please let me know and I'll continue working on them.
Thank you to everyone who submitted bugs and feedback, cheers!
Update #18: The Miami Debut
Hello everyone!
We're pleased to announce that the Miami Debut update has finally been released and is available on the official version of the game.
We've done extensive testing with the community these past few months so everything should be smooth sailing, if you experience any issues though, please let us know!
Additionally, to celebrate this update, we're also participating in the SHMUP-Fest by doing a 40% discount now until October 2nd!
If you're new to the game or haven't kept up with our past few devlogs, this post will summarize most of what we've added/changed in the game. There were a lot of bugs fixed so we sadly can't cover that but we'll make sure to have our eyes peeled for any bugs reported in the coming weeks.
A New Series
The Miami Debut is only the beginning of the new Miami Series, containing chapters that will challenge you in new and fresh ways. This update currently contains 3 chapters of the 7 that we plan on releasing, and there may be more if we find the time/resources to do so.
The Miami Series is unlocked after completing the Toronno Series (originally named Campaign), get in there and unlock those new primary weapons!
We Need Guns
Alongside new levels comes new weaponry, the loadout menu now holds the ability to customize your primary weapon, both of which can be unlocked by completing chapters throughout the game- the Revolver and Silenced Pistol add new and interesting ways to play the game.
On top of the new primary weapon system, we also added 2 new secondary weapons that you'll find throughout the game and its new chapters.
Get in there and try them out, we have more guns/weapons planned for the upcoming months and we're always listening for feedback to improve the current set of weapons.
New Mechanics
We've added some fun new mechanics and improvements that should add some more spice to your melee combat and gun handling.
Grappling is a new move that you can use (hotkey can be changed in the Settings menu), grapple enemies and use them as a body-shield or throw them at other enemies/the environment- this was a tough mechanic to add so definitely let us know if you're encountering any problems with it!
Countering has also been slightly adjusted to use the grapple key instead of the Interact key, we have BIG plans for the counter system that we think you'll enjoy quite a bit- we can't make promises when that update will happen though as big changes will be made to our AI first.
Aiming has been improved on PC, if you're physically aiming at an enemy with your cursor at a different height, you should be guaranteed to auto-aim at that enemy. This should make hitting enemies on PC a lot better, let us know how it feels.
Kicking and opening doors is a bit more realistic (and dramatic, depending on which option you go with), should add a fun and interesting way to enter rooms!
More can be found in the video below:
... and much more. The game has had many adjustments all throughout, including some improvements in older chapters. We're striving to improve not only new content but old content as well so everyone's experience is a great one. We hope that this new update is fun for everyone and marks a new chapter for the game, we're looking forward to providing more consistent and frequent updates in the months to come with new features, chapters, and more.
We haven't been able to fix a few issues just yet though and we're working away on them or keeping them for a future patch, below are some known issues that we'll be looking into resolving.
KNOWN ISSUES
In the Cathedral/Art Exhibit, it may be a bit difficult for the player to figure out what to do/where to go, we'll be adding some sort of dialogue system or something of the sort to lead the player
Some colors are a bit difficult to see for some players, such as enemies through walls- we'll add some customization for this since it can pose as an accessibility issue
Enemies crouching/staggered are sometimes difficult to hit
Weird issue if the player has multiple monitors and aims at the edge of their screen, the player's aim would freak out like the window lost focus
Audio not resetting in Toronno, Chapter 2
Enemies getting stuck in some spots due to losing navigation (like on the boats in Shipyard)
When a player is executing an enemy, other enemies can kill/hit the executed enemy
Save Phones don't offer much for the game, we'll be removing these in a future patch
Thank you for all of the support these past few months, and a big thank you to everyone who submitted feedback, bug reports, and suggestions leading up to this update. Please send us more so we can make future patches/updates great!
Discuss the game with us and the community on Discord and Twitter. If you want to see the game developed live, catch Crimson on Twitch.
We're finally nearing the beginning of the Miami series, we're going to keep this sweet and short since we'd like to get any feedback you have before we release the new chapters and mechanics on the official version of the game.
We'll go through some more things we added in hopes to improve your experience and known issues that we'll be resolving ASAP to improve QOL and overall direction when playing the new chapters.
Art Exhibit on the Beta Branch
The Art Exhibit is the third and final chapter we're adding to the beta branch that'll kick off the Miami Debut, keep in mind that we'll be releasing more chapters throughout the months to come in this Miami expansion. On that note, it's on the beta branch and we're looking for any feedback you have!
If you're experiencing any bugs in the level, performance issues, and overall gameplay struggles, please let us know on any of our socials found at the bottom of this post.
Height Auto-Aim Assist
Auto aiming at enemies placed at different heights is a tough problem to solve for an isometric top-down game, we technically auto-aim based on the current height that the player is at so at certain angles it gets really challenging to understand what the player is trying to aim at- there's a lot of technical details that we could maybe go into in the future if the community is interested.
Cursor aimed at the enemy above But in reality our system assumes you're aiming at a different spot
Nonetheless, we added an additional measure in a new patch released today to attempt to fix any aim issues that the player may be having on Mouse & Keyboard- no matter what, if your cursor is nearby/on an enemy at a higher/lower elevation than your character, the character should auto-aim at them even with any weird camera perspective issues, thus fixing the above problem.
Please let us know if you have any trouble with this and finding yourself wrangling with aim in this new beta branch update.
We'll be fixing more issues within the next few days as we sprint towards the finish line, we'd appreciate any support/feedback from all of you if you ever have the time!
We haven't been able to fix a few issues just yet though and we're working away on them or keeping them for a future patch, below are some known issues that we'll be looking into resolving.
KNOWN ISSUES
In the Cathedral/Art Exhibit, it may be a bit difficult for the player to figure out what to do/where to go, we'll be adding some sort of dialogue system or something of the sort to lead the player
Some colors are a bit difficult to see for some players, such as enemies through walls- we'll add some customization for this since it can pose as an accessibility issue
Bug with grappling an enemy and kicking them causes them to attack the player during grapple
Enemies crouching/staggered are sometimes difficult to hit
Weird issue if the player has multiple monitors and aims at the edge of their screen, the player's aim would freak out like the window lost focus
A bug with using the Continue button doesn't stop/mute the main menu music
Audio not resetting in Chapter 2
Enemies getting stuck in some spots due to losing navigation (like on the boats in Shipyard)
When a player is executing an enemy, other enemies can kill/hit the executed enemy
Thanks for reading and we hope you're enjoying the new additions/changes to Suit for Hire, thanks for all the support and patience as we finally get things rolling out!
See you in the next devlog, which should hopefully be when the Miami Debut update begins.
Discuss the game with us and the community on Discord and Twitter. If you want to see the game developed live, catch Crimson on Twitch.
Welcome to another Devlog for Suit for Hire, in this devlog we'll catch you up to date on all of the latest things we've done since February.
Before getting started though, I want to express my understanding for anybody who is upset or confused about the lack of updates in the past year or so. Last year I had the idea of doing one big update with new levels and mechanics and that quickly turned into a bad idea as it was quite a bit for the two of us (one of us on the team being just a music artist), that and having other jobs definitely made it take a lot longer than we anticipated to get an update released (hence the test branch, to give an early look at new features).
This definitely wasn't our best decision and it slowed down updates, once we release the Miami Debut update, we'll be returning to a bi-weekly update flow as long as our other jobs don't cut in too much. That should improve things for ourselves and the community, we apologize for the long wait on new content and again, we understand any frustrations that our early access players have in regards to this.
That being said, let's cover what we've done in the past few months!
Cathedral on the Beta Branch
If you haven't checked out the Beta Branch, we recently pushed the Cathedral and it's available for play! We're looking for any bug reports, feedback on gameplay, etc. that you may have. We're doing our best to make the new chapters a fun and challenging experience for everyone.
The Primary Weapons that we showed off in the past few devlogs are now unlockable through completing specific chapters in the game, as time goes on we'll be adding more primary weapons and adding more challenges throughout chapters that unlock them.
Third Chapter: Art Exhibit
We're making huge progress on the third chapter for the Miami Debut update, the Art Exhibit. We're focused on finalizing the final fight area and from there we'll be preparing the level to be released on the Test Branch, at that point onward we'll be heavily looking for feedback and bug squashing to make the Miami Debut have a great start.
Here's a sneak peek at the chapter so far:
New Secondary Weapons
New chapters means new toys to play around with, our goal is to keep adding more secondary weapons that spice up the gameplay and make it more enjoyable for Suits whenever a new chapter is released throughout the Miami Series:
We have a ton more going on behind the scenes, such as improvements to the Shipyard, gameplay, and more. We're hoping to gather more feedback from the community to make sure we're going in the right direction.
For now, thanks a lot for taking the time to read today's devlog, the next one should be when we release the Art Exhibit chapter to the Test Branch and work towards finally releasing this new update into the official version of the game!
Take it easy and see you in the next one.
Discuss the game with us and the community on Discord and Twitter. If you want to see the game developed live, catch Crimson on Twitch.
The last Devlog we posted was back in Nov 2022 so it was only a matter of time that we had to put out a new devlog to update you on what we've been working on.
Shipyard on the Beta Branch
We finally pushed the Shipyard to the Beta Branch and we're looking for any feedback or bug reports that you may have!
We've already received a ton of feedback on things that we plan on improving, but we're always looking for more to make sure we're making changes that will improve the game as a whole and prepares the Miami series for release.
Check out the video below to see what you can expect!
If you've played the newest version of the Test Branch, you may notice that the Cathedral is there, unfortunately it doesn't work just yet but we're definitely getting close to complete on it!
The Cathedral is the 2nd chapter of the Miami Series, tons of close-combat moments and an elite fight at the end is in store for all Suits.
We've been working on a C4 system for the underground segment and much more, it's starting to shape up, take a look below:
Updated UI for Loadouts
As we've been discussing in the past few Devlogs, we've also been working on new main weapons that you can choose from before beginning a chapter, the UI needed an upgrade for this so that's what we went ahead and did:
We do have more primary weapons planned but we're relatively happy with how you select them from a weapon rack, let us know what you think!
... and more!
We're not done there, we've made a lot of other adjustments and improvements including but not limited to:
Updated shaders on vehicles and models throughout the game
Weapon throwing now improved and does not rely on physics (should register hits more consistently)
Doors improved, have to interact to open them so kicking feels better (auto-open door option is in the settings)
Weapon looting animation
Diving animations for 2-handed weapons
Thanks for taking the time to read this devlog, as per usual we're always on Discord and the Community Hub reading your feedback, suggestions and bug reports.
