- Stasis effects (both Stasis SMBs and the Stasis Grenade) are less impactful on Mr. Brute now. This is the intended design, but a bug was allowing them to be more effective than intended
- Head accessories will no longer be affected by the gridlines in the Holdout maps
- Holo detonator grenades will now show the head accessory that the player who threw them is wearing
- The weapons that rolled away from players when spawned or dropped will no longer attempt to seek freedom
- Perf fixes for the main menu for players who run at higher resolutions
- Removed the Play tab from the main menu to fix a problem that could get controller-only players stuck in a sub-menu. The Play menu will return once we have a more complete fix
- Fixed several materials on the Sunshot Blaster that were preventing it from rendering properly
- The Plasma Rifle Mk1 now supports weapon charms
The Anacrusis
Update 31 - Son of a Son of a Gun Hotfix
Update 30 - Son of a Gun of an Update
First, a note: While we’re making big changes to the types of weapons that are available, this update doesn’t include the cosmetic changes that are still in the works for the guns. Sound and animation changes, which contribute to a lot of the gun feel will land in a future update.
For this update, we first identified a bunch of different archetypes and sub-archetypes of traditional shooter weapons that made sense given the unique combat environment of The Isolode. Don’t worry though, we’ve kept the airlock weapons you’re familiar with—the SMB, Plasma Rifle, and Blaster—the same as they always have been.
The big change is that we’ve gone back to a limited number of well-defined guns, each with a unique name and a defined role in the game, rather than randomly assembling weapons out of available parts. We’re excited about this because it let’s players experiment with different roles and share information with each other about the guns they find.
We’ve also changed how we distribute guns to players. First off, we’ve removed the traditional airlock guns from the normal loot spawns. That means when you see a gun on the ground, you’ll know that it’s something new and exciting. We’ve also added weapon caches, occasional spawns of multiple different weapons, to make sure everyone gets to try some of the good stuff. The Director likes to keep it real for everyone.
The influx of new weapons and the power curve that they live on means that we now have what we need to make a weapon progression that happens throughout each episode. As you progress deeper into the episode, more powerful weapons are added to the loot pool, which ramps up the overall intensity of the game.
We’ve also pulled a couple of our favorite special weapons into the main weapon slots and adjusted them accordingly. So you know what to look for, here’s the tier list of guns we’ve added to the game.
Tier 1
- Plasma Rifle Mk1 - Burst-fire variant of the Plasma Rifle
- Heavy Plasma Rifle Mk1 - full-auto, high-accuracy, slow-shooting variant of the Plasma Rifle
- Sunshot Blaster - It’s a Blaster but it also lights everything on fire
Tier 2
- Overclocked Blaster Mk1 - A semi-automatic blaster variant that fires as quickly as you can pull the trigger
- Heavy Plasma Rifle Mk2 - An upgraded Heavy Plasma Rifle with better penetration, slightly higher rate of fire, and a bigger magazine
- Stasis SMB Mk1 - A relatively low damage SMB that applies a short-term stasis effect on anything it hits
Tier 3
- Stasis SMB Mk2 - An upgraded damage version of the Stasis SMB
- LMB - A light-machine gun with enormous magazine, high aim-down-sight accuracy, and low rate of fire
- Overclocked SMB - An extremely high rate-of-fire sub-machine gun. You’ll want to use this ADS’d
- Overclocked Blaster Mk2 - Upgraded Blaster with higher magazine capacity
Tier 4
- Overclocked Blaster Mk3 - Extremely upgraded Overclocked Blaster with a much larger magazine capacity, even faster rate of fire, and a larger spread
UI Changes
We’ve also updated the main user interface and added previews to some aspects of the Loadout page. This is a work in progress and will continue being updated in future patches
Minigun Changes
We’ve dramatically reduced the recoil and the movement penalty for the Minigun. While the ammo holds out, it should be the most sustained DPS in the game
Holdout Changes
The new weapons have also been added to Holdout. They change the way Holdout works significantly, so we’d love your feedback on this.
Update 29 - Thanks for the Feedback!
Our next big update will include the next iteration of our weapons system. We've collected a bunch of good feedback from players on the random drop system that's in the game now and are excited to show you what we've come up with.
This week's weekly challenge is Movin' On Up! Make the climb to the top of The Mall and Med Bay amid wave after wave of brutes. Expect more loot, more brutes, more fire, and a ton more fun! Complete the challenge and you'll earn the "Movin' On Up" title!
- We’ve added a new system to control Weekly Challenges. We can now create new challenges out of the existing components without having to update the entire game. We got a lot of great ideas for new challenges from the Discord in the past, so if you have ideas for new challenges (or new pieces to combine), please post them in the #suggestions channel of the Discord
- We’ve removed the “Low Ammo” weapon variants from the weapon mod system. The universal feedback on them was that they weren’t fun. This means you should no longer see weapons that have super-high rates of fire and really tiny magazine sizes. We may have missed some, so if you encounter any, please grab a screenshot of your in-game menu and post them in the Discord or Steam forum so we can remove them from the game
- Airlock Door Change - Airlock doors now open from the top. Players should be able to crouch under them at the last second if the situation calls for it
- Fixed a handful of instances of cosmetic environmental fire that didn’t do damage to players/aliens. Now all fire should cause damage as you’d expect
- We’ve made some adjustments to the Flasher effect in an effort to reduce frame rate drops when he appears. We’d love your feedback on the updated effect, since the appearance effect varies wildly based on your hardware and Windows settings. Please let us know what you think of this change in the Discord
- Matchmaking improvement: If you choose to leave a game session, the matchmaker will avoid putting you back in that same session if you immediately re-queue. If you’re disconnected unexpectedly, you’ll still be re-queued into the same game (assuming it’s still the top-ranked game when you hit the button)
- Mod Support: We’ve added support for custom animations to our mod kit. Modders, update your editor to get the latest version and then you’ll be ready to start making emotes and dances!
- We’ve removed Array Containment from the main game, so Henning373 can get back to work and make changes based on the feedback from players. It’s still available in the Steam Workshop if you missed it!
Bugs
- Fixed an issue with the first door event in Episode 4, which sometimes caused an endless horde to spawn. The intensity tuning for that event is more appropriate for its place in the episode now
- Rebaked lighting in the Episode 1 Mall level to fix some issues that popped up in the last update
- When a player who has selected a non-default skin leaves the game, their character will now revert to the default skin when they leave the game. This works for both built in skins and mod skins
- Fixed an issue that prevented Season Pass progress from updating in-game for the host of the session
- We’ve fixed a bug with the This Is Fine title application. If you finished the Weekly Challenge last week but haven’t gotten the title, you should have it now. Let us know if you have any issues with this, but if you missed it, don’t worry, we’ll bring it back soon
- We’ve fixed several SMB variants that were previously unable to break glass
Update 28 - Array Containment
We've also added a new Weekly Challenge, which should be live by the time you read this. It's This Is Fine, which gives an eponymous title to anyone who successfully completes it. The challenge is straightforward--there are a lot of matter compilers, but they're all broken and summon hordes when you trigger them, there are a lot more flaming goopers, and all the airlock doors are broken. Enjoy!
We took advantage of the second patch this week to add a couple more matchmaking adjustments and some other small perf fixes.
As we close on our first year since our Early Access release, we're really grateful to everyone in the community who has played the game, given us feedback or suggestions, left reviews, or played games with us on the Discord. We're really excited about where the game is today and can't wait to keep pushing it forward. Thanks everyone!
Update 27 - Netcode and Chill
Netcode Improvements
We've made some significant changes to the netcode that should improve network performance in almost all situations. Please try the game out and let us know how the changes are impacting you, either in the Steam forums or on the Stray Bombay Discord.
Matchmaking Improvements
We've also added a host rating system to the matchmaking algorithm. Now, when you hit a matchmaking queue, the game will try to place you in games with the most powerful host computer, which should improve performance. We have more matchmaking fixes coming in future updates, including region-based and ping-based enhancements, but we're hopeful this will result in more people having better games. If you still have trouble finding a good game, you can always go to the Play tab, select the mode you want to play, and press Create Game instead of Find Game. As long as you choose the Public option, players will be able to match into you.
Fixed the Stuck On Orange Window/Game Takes 20-Minute To Launch Bug
Fixed a bug with the Oculus app and other OpenXR clients that caused the game to take a really really really long time to launch. Thank you to everyone in the community who helped us troubleshoot this one this weekend. It's a really weird bug.
Changes to Enemies in Close Proximity to Players
Improved weapon behavior when fighting enemies in close proximity to the player. You should always be able to shoot enemies who are standing extremely close to the player now. This is especially noticeable with weapons with long barrels, like the Minigun.
New Weekly Challenge - This is Fine
We've added our 11th new Weekly Challenge mode (access the Challenge in the Play menu). This Is Fine puts you in an failing Isolode, lousy with flaming Goopers, where every airlock door is broken and takes forever to open. The good news is that players get a TON of special weapons and Matter Compilers, but the Matter Compilers are also broken, and triggering them summons a horde. This will go live on Thursday at noon PST.
Texture Fixes
We've optimized a ton of textures, which will reduce memory churn on low memory GPUs. This is an ongoing process, but people with 4GB GPUs should notice less stuttering in some circumstances.
We're on Sale!
The Anacrusis is still on sale for 67% off! Grab it now for the lowest price you'll see all year!
Devblog 23 - Thank You to the Players!
The Anacrusis is still on sale on Steam for 67% off! Click the box on the right to go to the page where you can get that good good deal!
Join the Stray Bombay Discord and help us test The Anacrusis: https://discord.gg/straybombay • We're recruiting our first wave of modders at https://forms.gle/6Dh5yww5PVf3YJbf9.
Steam Free Weekend is Live Now!
And if you enjoy The Anacrusis, it's on sale for 67% off! That's under $10 in US dollars!
Once you've played, please leave us feedback, either in our Discord or in the Steam forums. We've done 26 updates since we launched almost a year ago, and have integrated countless features based on feedback and ideas from players.
Update 26 - Happy New Year!
We've also added some adjustments to matchmaking to address a handful of edge cases that caused matchmaking failures.
- If matchmaking places you in a session that you can't connect to for whatever reason, your client will start and host its own game rather than kicking you back to the queue.
- Additionally, players can choose to start a new public game when they set up their session. Other players will be able to join using matchmaking. If you don't want players to join your sessions, you can always start a Private game.
- We've fixed a bug that caused some players to fall through the world when they were playing on games hosted by slower computers.
- We've added a crown indicator on the player banner to indicate which player is the game host.
Remember, there's still one day left to get The Anacrusis on sale! The Winter Sale ends at 10AM PST on the 5th!
Update 25 - The Last Patch of 2022!
- We've fixed several bugs that prevented players from earning several achievements
- Players can now accompany Barry to a fiery death and still earn the appropriate achievement
- Resolved a minor bug with Quick Play
For everyone at Stray Bombay, we hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season! We really appreciate everyone's support over our first year, and can't wait to show you what we have planned for 2023!
The Anacrusis Is 67% Off During the Steam Winter Sale!
Don’t be trapped playing games alone this holiday season!
During the Steam Winter Sale, from December 22 to January 5, The Anacrusis is on sale for 67% off the normal price!
This four player co-operative shooter has had more than 24 updates since launch – that's 2 a month!
The Anacrusis now contains:
- Full Workshop support with an active modding community!
- Get free seasonal items just for logging on during the sale period (all items are free! We have zero microtransactions)!
- 17 Steam achievements with too many puns to count!
- Full cross play with your friends on Xbox!
- A new dynamic weapon generation system that generates thousands of weapons!
- A free season pass to unlock cosmetics and dances!
- A whole new episode!
- A whole new game mode - Holdout!
- Tons of new hit and death animations!
- New Community-Made Episodes and Holdout Maps!