Hotfix 3: Our backend provider is updating some software which necessitates a client update to support that change. As of this update, cross play is restored between people on Steam and people on the Xbox/Microsoft Store versions of the game.
In addition to the backend changes, this hotfix also adds Discord integration for all of the Windows versions of the game (Steam and Microsoft Store). In addition to rich presence notifications, the Discord integration also lets you send invites in Discord DMs or in Discord channels.
We've also added full Steam Deck support. That's right, the little icon next to The Anacrusis in Steam is green instead of yellow now and all core functionality in the game should work properly. If you find Steam Deck-related bugs, please let us know.
Hotfix 1:
Removed the option for offline play from the game. Private games are functionally equivalent to a private online game in a peer-to-peer world and the offline option was consistently crashing the game. (If you want to play by yourself and not invite friends into your game, please set your Steam status to Offline or Invisible for the time being.)
Weekly Challenges are playable again.
Rich Presence on Steam more accurately reflects party composition and game state. It's more reliable too.
The First Time Player screen won't prevent you from entering the main menu anymore.
The list of available game modes is stored locally now, so you can switch between them.
Various small fixes (typos, graphical inconsistencies, etc)
If you're on the Xbox or Microsoft Store side and still having problems, we have multiple people dedicated to solving those issues, and hope to have an update in certification soon. We keep fixing one problem and finding two more, so it's taking longer than we hoped. Rest assured that we're really sorry it's taking as long as it is, and we're working as fast as we can to fix the problems. So you know, the issues that are showing up here in Steam will also be part of the next patch for the Microsoft platforms, as soon as we can release it.
We have a big patch for you all today, and some huge changes for the game. Update six is adding a ton of new weapons to the game, our first beta release of Episode 4, Holdout Mode version 3, some massive performance improvements, and moving the game from a dedicated server-based architecture to a peer-to-peer setup.
Let's talk about the big change up front--we're moving from a dedicated server back end to peer-to-peer hosted games. We've been testing this extensively over the last few months, and we think it's a pretty significant win for all of our players, especially folks in regions that were far from our dedicated servers. If you're in Asia, Australia, South America, or Africa, playing multiplayer games with friends in your region will feel much better. Even if you were just a few thousand miles from a dedicated server playing with friends in your city, your experience should be noticeably better.
The bad news is that the shift to peer-to-peer requires that we temporarily disable a couple of key features--multiplayer on the Microsoft platforms (Xbox and Microsoft Store) and progression on the Infinity Pass.
For the Infinity Pass, you won't be able to progress until we update the game. You'll still be able to equip and use anything you've previously unlocked while you wait for the patch, but new unlocks will be paused until the next update. Once that happens, you'll be able to pick up your progress on the Infinity Pass where you left off.
Unfortunately, multiplayer on the Microsoft platforms (Xbox and Microsoft Store) isn't working properly while we sort out some back end issues. We're really sorry for the downtime and resolving it is our number one priority and we'll keep this post updated with progress as we work through the issue next week.
With the big changes aside, it's time for the patch notes.
The Patch Notes
There’s a ton of other good stuff in this update, so here are the high points.
Weapon Modifications
We got the message. You all want guns. LOTS of guns! To dramatically increase the number of available weapons, we’ve added a modular weapon system to The Anacrusis. We broke each of the base weapons, Plasma Rifle, SMB, and Blaster, into 5 pieces and built multiple versions of each piece. Those pieces, the receiver, grip, sights, magazine, and barrel, each have unique characteristics and can be combined in different ways to add a massive amount of variation in the available weapons.
To see what components are on each weapon, we’ve added a new user interface widget that highlights the components that make up the weapons you find. Players can press Tab for a more detailed look at their weapon breakdown.
The weapons modification system is our first pass on this system, and we’re excited about how it turned out. That said, it is a first pass and we expect to experiment with everything about it in the coming months--including but not limited to how we distribute the modifications, whether we distribute individual mods or only bundle them in weapons, whether you can remove or share mods, and more.
Episode 4 Beta
We’ve released what we’re dubbing the Super Beta version of Episode 4 with this update. In Episode 4, our heroes learn that the aliens don’t have faster-than-light technology. They realize that destroying the Isolode’s FTL drive will prevent it from falling into the aliens' hands and help protect the rest of humanity from the threat.
Performance
We’ve made significant updates to the game’s performance on all platforms. We’ve optimized the alien horde, which dramatically reduced microstutter on all systems. Everyone should see a much smoother feeling experience, whether you’re playing on a launch Xbox One or a top-of-the-line PC.
We’ve also made some significant progress on load times, optimizing them for both spinning platter machines and SSDs. If your load times were more than 90 seconds before, expect to see them drop into the 10-20 second range on most hardware, including the Xbox One.
Holdout Mode 3.0
We’re shipping our third major revision to Holdout mode since it launched earlier this year. Instead of an infinite challenge, this iteration is a quicker game with 5 rounds. The first four rounds each end with a capture point and crescendo, after which you have a moment of peace to heal, rearm, and collect perks and other rewards. The fifth round is a boss fight at the end, with a bigger, badder, much more dangerous super Brute.
The Smaller Changes
Horde Material update - Dramatically improves the variation found in the alien hordes
AI Backend Rewrite - Specials are able to interact with each other better, which will allow us to add new enemies and behaviors more easily in the future
Alpha support for recording in-game demos. - This is very early and operated with console commands only. There’s a stickied post in the Steam forums with the full instructions.
Sound design changes - We did a pass on all sounds to ensure that the volume levels were appropriate and that the in-game effects, weapon effects, music cues, and more were aligned with our goals.
Mod support (Steam Only)- We’ve added preliminary mod support to the Steam version of The Anacrusis, including support for custom gun charms, custom hats, custom player skins, and custom maps
Minigun - A new special weapon has been added to the game. The minigun is a slow spin-up, high rate-of-fire weapon that’s perfect for clearing a hallway filled with common or going toe-to-toe with the new brute boss in Holdout.
Update 5 special weapons (Stasis SMB, Router, and Sunshot Blaster) have been added to the general special weapon spawn pool.
There are a variety of new visual effects added to the game, including visible options for the health scanner as well as signage in the opening airlocks, capture point indicators in the holdout mode, and a lot more more.
Added new reload animations for Plasma Rifle and SMB
Added animations that give weapons motion when players look around
Game Instructor - Significantly restricted conditions for the "Don't rush ahead" hint to enforce a large minimum distance from other players
Game Instructor - Bumped up the cooldowns on "ping for your team" and "use matter compiler" hints
Game Instructor - Made the "open this airlock" end-of-level hint less "sticky", i.e. we don't keep showing it when you've lost sight of the airlock door for a while
New title screen and main menu shows The Anacrusis barge and illustrates how the survivors actually get to the Isolode from The Anacrusis
Fixed a family of bugs where the HUD would incorrectly reflect the state of the survivors after a wipe or reset
Update 6 Hotfix 2
We've released a quick hotfix for Steam that solves the following issues.
Removed the option for offline play from the game. Private games are functionally equivalent in a peer-to-peer world. (If you want to play by yourself and not invite friends into your game, please set your Steam status to Offline or Invisible for the time being.)
The Weekly Challenges work again.
Rich Presence on Steam more accurately reflects party composition and game state. It's more reliable too.
The First Time Player screen won't prevent you from entering the main menu anymore.
The list of available game modes is stored locally now, so you can switch between them.
Various small fixes (typos, graphical inconsistencies, etc)
If you're on the Xbox or Microsoft Store side and still having problems, we have multiple people dedicated to solving those issues, and hope to have an update in certification soon. We keep fixing one problem and finding two more, so it's taking longer than we hoped. Rest assured that we're really sorry it's taking as long as it is, and we're working as fast as we can to fix the problems. So you know, the issues that are showing up here in Steam will also be part of the next patch for the Microsoft platforms, as soon as we can release it.
Update 6 - Guns! Guns! Guns!
We have a big patch for you all today, and some huge changes for the game. Update six is adding a ton of new weapons to the game, our first beta release of Episode 4, Holdout Mode version 3, some massive performance improvements, and moving the game from a dedicated server-based architecture to a peer-to-peer setup.
Let's talk about the big change up front--we're moving from a dedicated server back end to peer-to-peer hosted games. We've been testing this extensively over the last few months, and we think it's a pretty significant win for all of our players, especially folks in regions that were far from our dedicated servers. If you're in Asia, Australia, South America, or Africa, playing multiplayer games with friends in your region will feel much better. Even if you were just a few thousand miles from a dedicated server playing with friends in your city, your experience should be noticeably better.
The bad news is that the shift to peer-to-peer requires that we temporarily disable a couple of key features--multiplayer on the Microsoft platforms (Xbox and Microsoft Store) and progression on the Infinity Pass.
For the Infinity Pass, you won't be able to progress until we update the game. You'll still be able to equip and use anything you've previously unlocked while you wait for the patch, but new unlocks will be paused until the next update. Once that happens, you'll be able to pick up your progress on the Infinity Pass where you left off.
Unfortunately, multiplayer on the Microsoft platforms (Xbox and Microsoft Store) isn't working properly while we sort out some back end issues. We're really sorry for the downtime and resolving it is our number one priority and we'll keep this post updated with progress as we work through the issue next week.
With the big changes aside, it's time for the patch notes.
The Patch Notes
There’s a ton of other good stuff in this update, so here are the high points.
Weapon Modifications
We got the message. You all want guns. LOTS of guns! To dramatically increase the number of available weapons, we’ve added a modular weapon system to The Anacrusis. We broke each of the base weapons, Plasma Rifle, SMB, and Blaster, into 5 pieces and built multiple versions of each piece. Those pieces, the receiver, grip, sights, magazine, and barrel, each have unique characteristics and can be combined in different ways to add a massive amount of variation in the available weapons.
To see what components are on each weapon, we’ve added a new user interface widget that highlights the components that make up the weapons you find. Players can press Tab for a more detailed look at their weapon breakdown.
The weapons modification system is our first pass on this system, and we’re excited about how it turned out. That said, it is a first pass and we expect to experiment with everything about it in the coming months--including but not limited to how we distribute the modifications, whether we distribute individual mods or only bundle them in weapons, whether you can remove or share mods, and more.
Episode 4 Beta
We’ve released what we’re dubbing the Super Beta version of Episode 4 with this update. In Episode 4, our heroes learn that the aliens don’t have faster-than-light technology. They realize that destroying the Isolode’s FTL drive will prevent it from falling into the aliens' hands and help protect the rest of humanity from the threat.
Performance
We’ve made significant updates to the game’s performance on all platforms. We’ve optimized the alien horde, which dramatically reduced microstutter on all systems. Everyone should see a much smoother feeling experience, whether you’re playing on a launch Xbox One or a top-of-the-line PC.
We’ve also made some significant progress on load times, optimizing them for both spinning platter machines and SSDs. If your load times were more than 90 seconds before, expect to see them drop into the 10-20 second range on most hardware, including the Xbox One.
Holdout Mode 3.0
We’re shipping our third major revision to Holdout mode since it launched earlier this year. Instead of an infinite challenge, this iteration is a quicker game with 5 rounds. The first four rounds each end with a capture point and crescendo, after which you have a moment of peace to heal, rearm, and collect perks and other rewards. The fifth round is a boss fight at the end, with a bigger, badder, much more dangerous super Brute.
The Smaller Changes
Horde Material update - Dramatically improves the variation found in the alien hordes
AI Backend Rewrite - Specials are able to interact with each other better, which will allow us to add new enemies and behaviors more easily in the future
Alpha support for recording in-game demos. - This is very early and operated with console commands only. There’s a stickied post in the Steam forums with the full instructions.
Sound design changes - We did a pass on all sounds to ensure that the volume levels were appropriate and that the in-game effects, weapon effects, music cues, and more were aligned with our goals.
Mod support (Steam Only)- We’ve added preliminary mod support to the Steam version of The Anacrusis, including support for custom gun charms, custom hats, custom player skins, and custom maps
Minigun - A new special weapon has been added to the game. The minigun is a slow spin-up, high rate-of-fire weapon that’s perfect for clearing a hallway filled with common or going toe-to-toe with the new brute boss in Holdout.
Update 5 special weapons (Stasis SMB, Router, and Sunshot Blaster) have been added to the general special weapon spawn pool.
There are a variety of new visual effects added to the game, including visible options for the health scanner as well as signage in the opening airlocks, capture point indicators in the holdout mode, and a lot more more.
Added new reload animations for Plasma Rifle and SMB
Added animations that give weapons motion when players look around
Game Instructor - Significantly restricted conditions for the "Don't rush ahead" hint to enforce a large minimum distance from other players
Game Instructor - Bumped up the cooldowns on "ping for your team" and "use matter compiler" hints
Game Instructor - Made the "open this airlock" end-of-level hint less "sticky", i.e. we don't keep showing it when you've lost sight of the airlock door for a while
New title screen and main menu shows The Anacrusis barge and illustrates how the survivors actually get to the Isolode from The Anacrusis
Fixed a family of bugs where the HUD would incorrectly reflect the state of the survivors after a wipe or reset
Hotfix 5.1 - The MODerately Extravagant Hotfix
We found a handful of bugs in Update 5 that we wanted to get a handful of fixes and updates in before we’ll have Update 6 ready later this summer.
We also have big news on the Steam Deck front! We got word back from Valve that we've moved from "Unsupported" to "Playable"! We have a handful of additional fixes that we'll need to make to move to Verified status, but expect that to come in the few updates.
Without further ado, here’s the MODerately Extravagant Hotfix!
In certain circumstances, a bug was preventing common aliens from spawning in Episode 2, map 1. We’ve fixed the bug, and additionally, we removed the free bagels from the Episode 2 break room, as they were making the aliens logy
We fixed a crash that, in rare circumstances, could crash the game if the entire team died and the team wiped in Episode 3
Fixed several bugs that caused sporadic problems with in-game quest tracking. We believe that now your current progress should always be directly reflected in-game
All players should now see the headgear that they and other players have selected in game
All players should now see the gun charm that they and other players have selected displayed in game
Fixed a WinGDK crash that occurred for some players on launch
Fixed a rare error that caused certain player skins to not display properly for some players
Fixed an error that causes players to see their selected headgear while in the first-person view after transitioning between levels or joining a game. To be honest, we thought this one was pretty funny, but we fixed it despite that
Fixed a gun charm error that caused additional weapon charms to float in space, approximately 3 meters in front of the player
Fixed a holdout bug that prevented matter compiler re-rolls from resetting if you restarted the Holdout from inside the game
Removed a cheese spot in the Ep3 holdout map
Pulled in the latest version of our Community Campaigns, The Cosmos Bridge and StrayBay, and from our mod creators
Update 5 - The MODerately Extravagant Update
Player-Created Mod Campaigns
This is a huge update for The Anacrusis, something we’ve been working toward since well before launch. With Update 5, we’re finally ready to share our first two user-created mod campaigns! That’s right, with Update 5, you’ll be able to play Cosmos Bridge, by Jim Partridge, and Stray Bay, by CJ Sharkey! The mod campaigns are available on all platforms and just like the rest of the game, they support full cross-play, so you can play with your friends regardless of platform!
(If you’re interested in creating mod content for The Anacrusis, join our Discord and use the !modtools command after you join (sorry, Steam at our Google form link). We’re adding new folks to the beta for the tools every day now.)
To celebrate, we’re kicking off our first Steam sale and a Steam Free Weekend. That means it’s a great time to get your friends into The Anacrusis. Because we have full cross-play, whether you’re on Steam, Xbox Series X or S, Xbox One, or the Microsoft Store, you can play with your friends on whatever platform they play on. And everyone who completes episodes during the free weekend will get some special treats--custom sunglasses for each character as well as the fabled cat turret skin!
We kicked off the first week of this patch cycle with an internal game jam, where we broke up into several different teams and each worked on some new aspect of the game. Some of that work will ship in future updates, but this update, we’re shipping…
New Weapon Modifications!
We built a bunch of new weapons modifications in the game jam, and we love the way they work, but we aren’t exactly sure where they fit in the game. To help us understand better how they fit in our combat sandbox and get the earliest-possible feedback from players, we wanted to get them out where you can play with them ASAP. Some may become main weapons, some may be special weapons, and some might be majorly reworked, but for now you can access a handful of them in special matter compilers you’ll find in the Episode 1 and Episode 3 finales as well as in Holdout mode.
Phatsma - This one’s simple, it’s a souped up plasma rifle that adds area of effect damage on hits
Stasis SMB - When you shoot an SMB round through a stasis field, it slows anything you hit waaaay down (but it also does a bit less damage)
Router - This plasma rifle variant fires a big ball of energy that bounces between enemies. It’s like a ping pong ball of doom that is highly-effective against a horde, but weaker against specials
Sunshot Blaster - Sometimes you just need to light a bunch of aliens on fire. That’s the Sunshot’s time to shine!
Holdout Changes
We’ve redesigned holdout to provide a quicker, more-intense experience. To that end, players only get one life per game. Just don’t die, because if you do, there’s no way to get back in the game
Holdout mode is now time-based rather than wave-based
Added a new holdout map: EP3 Escape
Added capture events to holdout. When the zone pops up, find it and get in to capture and get special weapons, mods, grenades, and perks
Gated some audio that’s specific to holdout mode
AI will no longer prioritize their own lives in holdout. They wont pickup meds or special items the player might be hoarding for later
Suggestions From the Community
Added a “What's New!” screen
We’ve added a first-pass vote kick system so you can remove malicious players from your game. When you kick someone, they’ll be unable to rejoin that server and all vote kicks are logged. With great power comes great responsibility
Can complete more than one quest per game
Added more static and physics-based props to Episodes 1 and 2. We’ll hit Ep3 soon
The smaller, mini-pulse is now directional and costs less charge, but it only hits targets in front of the player. Additionally, we’ve added visual FX and animation to support both the full-strength pulse and the mini-pulse
We’ve updated the analog stick control for controller players based on feedback. We’d love to know what you think about these changes, but you’ll need to reset your settings to default to get them
Defaults for controller sensitivity and button layout has been reworked based on player feedback. We’d love to know what you think about these changes, but you’ll need to reset your settings to default to see them too
We’ve updated the skybox to have planets. We haven’t named the planets yet. We were thinking Steve I and Steve II
The Rest of the Changes
There’s a bunch of smaller changes that go into every patch, so here’s a mostly complete list.
Adjustments to Bots
Player Bots better understand health and health resources. They won't use Health Scanners when they have large amounts of temp health
Adjustments to Weapons
The SMB can now one-shot common with a headshot out to 22 meters
Added a Cat skin for the auto-turret
Added geometry to the bottom of the auto-turret, which is visible if it’s placed on ledges
Adjustments to Enemies
Major internal rework of enemy AI to support more behaviors in the future
Brute should not charge if a target is already in melee range
Reduce the range of the grabber to 25 meters, and make it decide to get into range if it is not. This also fixes an issue where it was melee attacking at close range without doing damage. Now it will only melee if it has a target grabbed
Set the max distance a grabber's arms can travel to 30m. This is 5m more than the max range that the grabber can initiate the attack
Common will no longer vibrate when in a large horde near the player
Game Instructor Changes
Fixed a few cases where Instructor hints would pop up when the "Disabled" setting was enabled
The “Choose a perk from the Matter Compiler” hints will now go away after you’ve selected a few Matter Compiler perks
New hint: "Go up" at the bottom of the mall
New hint: "Try going this way" should help get you back on track if you don't make progress towards the end of the level for a while
Animation Changes
Aliens are more likely to play a death animation than go straight to a ragdoll when killed
Doubled the number of potential death animations aliens choose from
Added weapon-specific death animations for shotgun/blaster
Improved common death reactions
Potpourri
Updated the Main Menu 3D background
Server stability and performance fixes
Removed chromatic aberration visual FX on adrenaline effect. This should reduce motion sickness for a large number of people. Please let us know if you still feel motion sickness when playing the game
Optimized performance of the cloth sim on the survivors' outfits
Fixed the head geometry exploding during certain animations, like walking through goo when injured or observing downed players
Disabled mouse smoothing
Added [redacted]
Added [redacted] for [redacted]
The Director will more aggressively target players that have become separated from their teammates, especially if part of the team has reached the ending airlock
Bugs
Fixed a bug that caused some voice lines to be cut off early
Bug fixes and adjustments to voice lines
Fixed several audio-related crashes
The player’s view should no longer get 'stuck' near or over enemies while trying to look around when using an analog controller
Player bots will now consume temp health if using temp health makes more sense than using a medkit
Vortex grenade will now break the Grabber’s grab if they’re in the affected area
We’ve made several fixes which should improve stability in our in-game voice implementation
In some instances where a player was unable to re-enter matchmaking after disconnecting the lobby they’ll be able to rejoin
In certain scenarios, players would place two turrets directly on top of each other. That won’t happen anymore
Fix for an issue where players are not able to buy the choice rewards for the formal skins on the season pass
Fixed a massive performance slowdown when reviving a dead survivor
Fixed occasional stuck loading on a black screen when entering any level
During reload animations, ammo will be put into the magazine at an appropriate moment during the animation, rather than when the animation fully completes
Hit Indicators will now reliably show crits
Hotfix 4.1
But wait, there's more! On Monday, May 2, we'll roll out Update 4.1 with even more fixes, tweaks, and updates, all brought to us by feedback from our fantastic community! Here's what's in 4.1:
AI Bot Improvements
Improved AI logic for deciding when to pulse using the new pulse changes
Player bots will pulse grabbed survivors to free them. (This works for players too!)
Player bots will occasionally look around when idle
Player bots will now make some effort to avoid enemies that encroach on their personal space
Bug Fixes
Fixed player bot behavior when multiple survivors are gooed, grabbed, or downed
Fixed proximate cause of infinite ammo laser rifle. Players can begin the spin-up period for the laser rifle while it's being equipped
Player Bots will no longer consume health boosters
Bots are much better at recovering from being stuck now. If you do notice a bot that's become stuck, it's not a bug. It's due to a flaw in the underlying structure of the universe.
Fixed Ultrawide support - We believe that the game should display properly on even the widest of displays now. Please let us know and share your ultra- and ultra-ultra- wide screenshots in the Discord. (Please, no ultra-ultra-ultra wide screens, though. That would just be gratuitous.)
Fix for matter compiler rerolls not going beyond 1. We know we've said this before, but we're pretty sure we've found everything that was breaking this, for real this time. Please let us know if you're still affected after 4.1 lands on Monday.
Update 4 - The Really Really Big Update
It’s been a busy few weeks, but we’re thrilled to share what we’ve been working on for Update 4! This is an enormous update with a new game mode, long-requested features like private servers and a lower-intensity Flasher effect, and major changes to the combat sandbox! Plus, you’ll be able to unlock the Rocket Rocket Launcher in a few weeks, as well as the usual bevvy of bug fixes, quality of life changes, and stability improvements. Buckle up buckaroos, because it's time for...
Holdout Mode
Boris has built Holdout Mode, a new training regimen to help Guion, Nessa, Liu, and Lance hone their combat skills, and it’s launching in Beta form with Update 4. Defend the Bridge of the Isolode from increasingly rowdy waves of aliens, collect Perks after every round, and replenish your special weapons and health items every three rounds.
Holdout is a perfect place to test out your Rocket Rocket Launcher and the new H-Blaster, a holdout specific variant of the Blaster that ramps up short range lethality in exchange for reduced damage at range. Holdout Mode is designed for a quick ten-minute combat sessions, and is a great way to test out new strategies or get familiar with a new weapon.
Introducing the Rocket Rocket Launcher
In a few weeks, players who have the Infinity Pass (everyone who bought the base game on Steam, Xbox, or Microsoft Store, as well as players who bought the Infinity Pass on other platforms) will gain access to the Rocket Rocket Launcher, which we think is a fantastic one-shot solution to most of your alien-related problems.
Major UI Overhaul
This is our first major update to the user interface since launch, and it touches most of the main menus, as well as the in-game menu and inventory screen. We’ve redesigned the Home screen to prioritize Quick Play, which will put you and your party members into the first available server with the appropriate number of slots available, including games in progress. We’ve also revamped the play screen to accommodate Holdout Mode as well as our first wave of mod content, which will launch in a future update.
Along with the UI changes, we’ve enabled two new options for people who don’t want to play in the public matchmaking pool.
Private Servers
Private Servers are available for folks who want to play online games with their friends, but aren’t interested in filling empty slots in their game with players from the matchmaking pools. You can invite your friends to join your private game using either your platform’s friend list functionality or party codes. For the time being, in order to start a private server game, the person hosting the game must own the Infinity Pass. (We’ll expand that to work if anyone in your party has the Pass in a future update.) Players who join their lobby do not need the pass in order to play in a private game though. We know this UI flow isn’t ideal at the moment, and we’ll continue improving it in future updates.
Offline Mode
Offline Mode is available for players who want to play by themselves with bots or who have laggy experiences right now, either due to distance from server or bad internet. Anyone who has access to the game can start an offline mode game. Unfortunately, because of the way our Season Pass works, you won’t be able to make progress in your Season Pass quests when you play in offline mode. For the time being, you need Internet to launch and log into the game. We’ll add the ability to launch the game in offline mode in a future update, which will enable full offline play.
Community Requests and Suggestions
This is our favorite section of the patch notes. These updates and changes were all either suggested by or requested by the community. There’s a lot of good stuff in here and we really appreciate the players who take the time to tell us what they love (or hate) about the game. Want to toss your feedback in? You can submit bugs here or join the conversation with us in the Discord Server - https://www.discord.gg/straybombay.
Flasher VFX Revamp
One of the earliest notes we got from players is that the Flasher was just too damn bright, especially for players with HDR displays. We’ve made a new visual treatment for the Flasher and liked it so much that we made it the default for all new players. If you like the classic “Eyeblaster” Flasher VFX, you can turn it back on in the Options menu. Disable the “Reduce Flasher Intensity” option and grab your sunglasses.
Character Preference Selector
You don't always get what you want, but now you can at least express your character preference. Choose your top two survivors and using an incredibly complicated algorithm, the game server will attempt to fulfill everyone's desires, at least as it regards the character they get to play. Now, we're setting our character #1 to Liu and #2 to Guion. If we don't get our picks, you can expect lots of angry Tweeting.
New Enemy Animations
We’ve added a ton of new animations for enemies, including death animations, hit reactions, and stumbles for common. We’ve also added pre-fire and celebration animations for the gooper and a bunch of other animations that we’ll let you find as you play. We’ll continue adding to the character animations in future updates. In the meantime, we highly recommend you shoot some enemies as they are jumping down from one level to a lower one.
Fire Burns Hotter
We’ve increased the damage that fire does to common and special enemies.
Game Instructor Instructs About More Things
The Game Instructor has been updated to gently teach new players about several world events, matter compilers, and incapacitated teammates.
Player bot improvements
The bots are much more capable in combat situations without being too capable, if you know what I mean. When you’re in AFK mode, the player bots will now pick up special weapons, although they don’t now how to use them (yet). Bots are also much less likely to get stuck on world geometry. If they do, just ignore them. They won’t try to move if you’re looking at them.
Added Toggle/Hold Options for Several Controls
In the Controller/Mouse and Keyboard Options screen, there are now Toggle and Hold binding options for both crouch and aim down sight.
Combat Sandbox Changes
For this update, we’ve done a huge pass on the combat sandbox, involving changes to weapons, aliens, item spawning, and AI Director pacing. The broad goal of this change is to re-balance the player kit and aliens to be more inline with one another, allowing us (and the AI Director) to make the game more fun!
Weapon Feel & Identities
We’ve changed each of primary weapons - Blaster, SMB, and Plasma Rifle - with the goal of giving them clearer identities and roles within the game. Generally, weapons will feel more powerful when at their best, but weaker when mishandled. Combined with overall improvements to their visuals and sound effects, we think each weapon has a well defined role now.
General Improvements
By player request, we’ve added hit markers (grey) and crit markers (yellow) in addition to previous kill markers (red)
Added hit sounds to common for body shots
Adjusted enemy hit and death reactions across the board
Aim Assist settings which work for mouse users have been split out. Aim Assist is disabled by default for mouse users, but they remain available if player’s prefer them
Crouching will increase weapon stability in most cases
Tracers should now accurately reflect the shot’s impact location
Tracer shots should no longer display HUD outlines
Fixed some animation wonkiness, especially when switching between weapons and non-weapons
Disabled Chromatic Aberration effects when aiming down sights
Softened the automatic recoil recovery curve
We’ve made a first pass on balancing weapon perks to account for the weapon changes, but undoubtedly there will be stuff we’ve missed. We’re watching and will do a full pass on affected perks for update 5. Please let us know what you think in the Discord
Blaster
Added tracers and impact marks that better match how the weapon works. (Tracers effects only show up for the player using the weapon right now. That will change in a future patch)
Rate of Fire reduced around 33%
Damage increased around 30%
Significantly reduced width of cone of fire
Increased range / decreased damage falloff. The range of damage should better match expectations.
Added damage penetration with a steep drop off. Shots will pass through a few common at very close range
Increased the Blaster’s effectiveness at removing goo from incapacitated players
SMB
Increased recoil when hip firing and aiming down sights
Reworked recoil to use a recoil pattern
Reworked weapon bloom to grow slowly when burst firing, but quickly in full auto
Reworked damage falloff. The SMB will generally take more shots to kill enemies, especially at longer range
Improved the visuals of the SMB reticle at all sizes
Plasma Rifle
Increased recoil when hip firing and aiming down sights
Reworked recoil to use a recoil pattern
Reduced weapon spread under almost all conditions. Adjusted targeting reticle to better reflect the spread
Reworked damage falloff. Common will take two body shots to kill past 10m
Alien Improvements
We've also made significant changes to the behavior, look, and feel of several enemy types, to better reflect their intent, reactions to player attacks, and general behavior.
Common Aliens
Ragdolls have been cleaned up to almost completely eliminate cases of popping or jumping on death
Performance Improvement: Ragdolls have been adjusted to go to sleep far more often
Numerous minor adjustments to hit and death reactions have been made
Burning common move at around half speed
Added hit impact sounds when shot in the body
Limited situations where large groups of common could strike a player far more often than intended
Brute
Ragdoll has been cleaned up to reduce popping and jumping on death
Performance Improvement: Ragdoll has been adjusted to go to sleep far more often
The Brute is more aggressively slowed by being hit. Together, a team can bring it nearly to a halt
Improved the Brute’s targeting behavior when preparing a charge attack. Should be much easier to understand and predict
Pulse Changes
We love Pulse, but more than that, you love Pulse. Frankly, you love it much more than we anticipated before launch. Players (especially high-skill players) are using Pulse at a much higher frequency than we saw in our pre-release testing. Pulse is so spectacularly powerful that it's rendered the common aliens virtually harmless in most combat situations.
To help make the common dangerous again, we're dialing back Pulse. That will make common more of a threat and allow other tools to take a bigger role. We know that this is a big change and we know that change is scary sometimes, but we think ultimately this will help us make the game more fun and increase both accessibility for new players and the skill ceiling for more experienced players.
The new Pulse will change the way that you play the game. You will want to stay closer to your friends because you'll need help if you get caught by even a small horde of aliens. And if you get swarmed when you're alone? Good luck.
This seems like a big change, but it’s important to remember that it’s also matched by other changes to the combat sandbox. Even then, it is only the first iteration of pulse. We’ll be trying out different ideas internally that will release in future updates!
Reduced initial charges from 3 to 1 (Pulse Charge count perks still increase the limit by 1 each)
Reduced pulse charge rate by half, from 3.5 seconds to 7 seconds per full charge
Pulse Charge speed perk now reduces the charge time from 7 seconds to 5 seconds
Added Emergency Pulse, which is used instead of a normal pulse when only half a charge is left. This pulse is smaller and pushes back enemies less than a normal pulse. We are working on better UI for this in a future update
Added a helpful sound effect that plays when you try to pulse without enough charge
Other Combat Changes
Flashers are slightly less common
Improvements to the Director so it better understands the impact of the special aliens it spawns. Generally, groups of specials will be better composed and less overpowering. This is especially important when spawning groups of disablers
The Director now has more freedom in how it shapes encounters. Notably, swarms of enemies can be directed to come from a small number of spawn points, giving players more understanding of combat situations
The Director now takes map events into account better for its longer-term pacing
The Director now makes use of more data about what has happened to players in determining pacing
Reduced availability of Turrets and Grenades
The Section With One-Line Changes
Added a new Goo overlay so goo-covered players will unequivocally know that they’re covered in goo
Added fancy pants animated screens to the Health Stations that are available in most airlocks
Added signs to the shops in the Episode 1 version of the Terminal
Added VFX for the Charger
Added VFX for healing items (Health Scanner, Boost, and Healing Goo)
Menu lighting has changed
Visual redesign of the pre- and post-game screens
Visual redesign of the inventory screen
Added UI animations in places where there previously were no UI animations
Updated character skin renders for Loadout and Infinity Pass screens
Added “Reset Hint Progress” option that lets you reset your Game Instructor records. This may be useful if you come back to the game after a break in the future
Separated Gamepad and Mouse and keyboard reticle snap and shot magnetism. Defaulted gamepad to on and mouse + keyboard to off
Push to talk binding is also exposed in the Voice Chat section in Audio so it’s easier to find
Moved the Credits to the Options page (and updated them with the new folks who joined the team since launch)
Improved text legibility throughout the game
Removed DX12 support from the Microsoft Store version of the game. If you’re using the -dx12 command-line flag in Steam, you should turn it off, as the new Charger VFX crash a significant number of PCs running the DX12 version of the game
Grenades and Health Items should now have pickup SFX
Bug Fixes
“SMB Tracking” perk should now work independently of the aim assist and magnetism settings
Common should no longer clip through Airlock doors - they may still die and fall through them
Missing MC re-rolls should now be available
Game Instructor should no longer prompt you to heal an ally who has a health kit
Quest progress should now update live in the inventory [TAB] screen
Fixed performance issues when players joined in progress, and were revived
Charger VFX and SFX no longer trigger when ammo is full
Fixed incorrect preview image shown for Plasma Rifle, and Blaster "White" skin
Fixed enemy corpses floating on the Episode 1: Bridge
Fixed Season rewards sometimes not immediately unlocking when the Quest was to complete an Episode
Fixed instances where Ammo Chargers would pick up wall decal
Fixed bots consistently switching to the Plasma Rifle
Fixed portions of the Episode 1: Mall floor not receiving decals (such as goo)
Fixed Death Counter not incrementing on Episode results screen
Fixed pinged Health Station highlight never going away
Fixed Auto Turret missing polygons on bottom of mesh
Fixed Bots getting stuck trying to give a Health Booster if one is already in the player's inventory
Fixed Bots will continue trying to heal you after you've already been healed
Fixed a server hang when players join mid-game or respawn
Hotfix 3.1 is live now and includes the following changes:
We've added a pistol skin selector to the Loadout page
Updated names and thumbnails for several skin packs in the Infinity Pass
Added another prospective Matter Compiler Re-Roll fix for players with lots of items unlocked. Please let us know if you are still not seeing the correct number of MC re-rolls in game after this update!
As always, we love bugs and feedback! Please share them with us on the Discord!
Update 3: The Intensity Update
Big Changes
Changes to Normal Difficulty/Addition of Intense Mode
We’ve updated the default difficulty mode (aka Normal mode) to be significantly less punishing. We’ve slightly reduced the maximum intensity level that the Director will produce, reduced the liklihood of seeing duplicates of any specials, and made it less likely that the Director will spawn Goopers and Grabbers at the same time. In our playtests, the overall effect is that the game still feels intense and challenging, while dramatically decreasing the chance of a pair of specials wiping the team.
We’ve also added an Intense option for players who have a full team of players. Once you have four people in your party, the party leader can flip the Intense Mode toggle on to play with the same Director tuning that we had from launch through Update 2.2.
We’re going to continue working on difficulty for the foreseeable future, so we’d love your feedback on this update in particular, either on the Discord or through our Bug Report form.
Communication Wheel - First Pass
Sometimes marking an object in the world just doesn’t let your teammates know how urgently you need their attention. Press and hold your ping button to open the communication wheel and select a message to better communicate with your fellow survivors using both an in-game marker and your character’s voice.
We’ve selected 8 default options that players will give you the ability to call for help, get other players to follow you or wait, or simply apologize for a mistake. Additionally, there are another 13 voice lines you can swap out in the Settings menu to suit your unique communication style.
And if you like using our default context-sensitive ping option, fear not, it’s still there. You can still spam that Ammo Charger to your heart’s content. After all, sometimes the best way to help your team is to let them know that there’s a “Charger her… Ammo Charger… Charger Here. Got a Charger here!” when you’re just that excited about refilling your weapons.
In-Game Help Revamp Kickoff
We’ve significantly overhauled our in-game help system, which we call the Game Instructor. It's designed to help players better understand the ins and outs of The Anacrusis, during their first few sessions of the game. The first pass addresses Things Players Can Do In The Airlock, but we’ll add more in subsequent patches. This also is a work-in-progress, so please let us know what you like and don’t like, as well as the bits of the game that you feel we could explain better.
Friendly Fire
Friendly fire is now disabled for all players. You will still be able to kill bots though, in case they get stuck in navigating the level or you just get tired of Lance’s nonsense. (We actually turned this off yesterday, if you happened to notice.)
Controller Bindings/Stick Sensitivity
We’ve done a significant rework of the controller sensitivity settings and button configuration based on feedback from the community and several weeks of internal testing. Please let us know how movement and aiming on the controller feels. We’ve also reset the default button configuration to one that we feel works better for the game. Unfortunately, the nature of the changes required that we reset your bindings and sensitivity settings. Sorry for the hassle, but we’re pretty confident that the new settings will feel good for the vast majority of people. As always, feedback is wanted so let us know if you make changes!
Episode 1 Outro Cinematic
When you complete Episode 1, you’ll notice that we’ve created a new outro cinematic, showing our heroes escaping the Bridge and teleporting back to The Anacrusis. Your characters should show up on the outro screen wearing the costumes you chose for them in your loadout screen, which we think is pretty freaking cool.
Smaller Changes
You can now leave AFK mode by pressing the Fire key.
When a player enters AFK mode automatically, they are notified with an on-screen message.
In safe zones, such as an airlock, or when the game is idling before an event, players will take much longer to be automatically set to AFK.
Added an animation that better telegraphs the gooper attack. Additionally, we’ve made the Gooper’s mouth parts animate in a more believable fashion.
New (temporary) fire and reload animations for the Plasma Rifle
Tuned the alien death animations to be have more weight and be more responsive to gunfire.
Added new visual effects for all forms of healing.
Added new animation when player characters use a med scanner.
The Gooper has gotten a new attack animation to both sell the attack better and give players more time to react to its attack.
Infinity Pass Quests should now consistently show the next quest, even when there are communications hiccups from the back end.
People who use mice set to very low or very high DPI settings will find that the extremes of the mouse sensitivity setting to work better for them.
Renamed "White" skins to "Amber" to better reflect their actual appearance as well as the color of their energy.
Bugs Fixed
Matter compiler re-rolls should work again for all affected parties. Apologies for the temporary loss of agency.
Fixed cases where a player couldn’t pick up items that had moved around.
Fixed holes in the world in multiple episodes and maps.
Fixed a variety of player bot navigation errors.
Fixed several holes in Episode 1: Terminal that could yeet players into space.
Fixed a variety of enemy AI mantling and navigation errors.
Fixed an audio bug that clipped audio at the end of the level loading period.
We’ve fixed some rare instances where loadout settings wouldn’t save between sessions.
The Don’t Stop Now emote plays (and stops) properly when triggered.
Push-to-talk now works properly when bound to a gamepad or mouse button, in addition to the keyboard buttons.
Fixed several preview images in loadouts and the Season Pass page.
We’ve added a prospective fix for the bug that prevents you from equipping cosmetics you unlocked in the previous game.
New Bugs Created
Joining games in progress causes a brief moment of lag. We’re aware of the problem and are working to fix it either in Update 4 or an Update 3.1 Hotfix.
The countdown voice line isn’t currently hooked to the new communication wheel, so it won’t play properly at this time. We’ll fix this in the next update.
