Big update today: we've been very busy improving the overall gameplay experience, whilst adding some new content and polishing features. We're going to focus a bit on addressing the elephant in the room: the learning curve and lack of rewards that new(er) players experience. Though we've added a bunch of tutorial-esque things to the game (the tutorial, the PDA info, the info screen in the airlock) these do not fix the core issue the game has at the moment: The game is too punishing at first, whilst not really rewarding players, which makes it hard to get into the game. We noticed it takes most players at least 3 missions to decently get to grips with the Infection identification and surviving the monsters it throws at them, all whilst dying quite a lot. Of course the game does need some challenge, but it's too much all at once without any reward. So a lot has been tweaked for the Amateur and Easy missions, giving players more secondary tasks to do and more rewards for doing these tasks, whilst also tweaking the Infection parameters more to ease players into things. However we also realized the tasks is where the game needs a big upgrade: it needs tasks that also teach the mechanics of the game, whilst giving rewards that allow players to build up some funds to buy more Tools and Weapons to tackle the harder missions and tasks once they feel more confident. Currently there's only the Computer Core, Special Item and Crew Rescue tasks which do not really teach much about the game. In coming updates we're going to add a bunch of extra secondary tasks to missions that should help players get to grips with the game more naturally, with a more rewarding feel. More on this soon! For now here's what has already been done:

Bugfixes:

• Fixed door button interfering with dragging doors,
• Fixed lighting on doors,
• Fixed Hunter monster neck stretching out strangely during some animations,
• Fixed bug in infection start location not starting out fully infected on Amateur and Easy missions,
• Fixed bug in infection shaders that made infected environments pure black making it very hard to see anything,
• Fixed missing navigation in roundabout area,
• Fixed issue with navigation in large Cryo room,
• Fixed issue with navigation in medium Reactor Core room,
• Fixed possible issue with navigation in medium Life Support room,
• Fixed possible issue with navigation in medium Computer Core room,
• Possible fix for getting stuck when revived at the end of the mission after having been killed whilst hiding,
• Fixed Reprogrammer instantly killing the Infection when hacking the third node. Now it will take a few seconds before the Infection dies,
• Shop interface is now only accessible outside of missions to prevent issues,
• Fixed some bugs in syncing the Infection visuals in Afterlife,
• Fixed light flickers causing broken lights to get unbroken and lit again,
• Fixed entire ship getting infected when the Infection dies,

Polishes:

• Amateur missions have more secondary tasks so new players have more ways to make money early on. This will be further expanded upon with tasks that help teach the games mechanics along with more rewards to get going,
• Repair Tasks will no longer show up for Amateur and Easy missions to make things more fair for newer players and to add more progression to the gameplay,
• Increased Special item reward to 50,
• Lowered Crew penalty to 10,
• Door button trigger is larger so players no longer have to aim at the button itself,
• Added audio alerts for low oxygen and low integrity,
• Updated collision on several environment assets,
• Updated collision in the Lobby,
• Updated some models in the Lobby,
• Infection spread rate is more balanced for harder missions,
• Source monster now shows up properly in Afterlife,
• Infection death now includes a visual effect which pulses throughout the ship,
• Adjustments to volumetric lighting to improve visuals and atmosphere,
• Performance adjustments for main menu background scene,
• General visual improvements and performance improvements,
• Adjustments to materials to improve reflections and visual quality,
• When power is lost lights now turn off instead of turning red,
• Infection growths now only show up on fully infected areas,
• Infection growths will now vanish when the Infection is destroyed,
• Changed how the Infection spreads which diversifies the spread behavior between Infection types,
• Slightly lowered overall Infection rate to make things more balanced,
• Adjustments in ambient ship sounds,
• Ambient ship sounds now fade out when the Reactor Core breaks,
• Hunter footstep sound are now audible over a larger distance,
• Hunter footstep sounds are now randomized for better realism,
• Hunter breathing now becomes muffled the farther away it is,
• Made player flashlight a little brighter,
• Updated Tutorial to include the new Infection shaders,
• Direct Connect menu option will no longer show if Steam is running/is online to prevent confusion. At a later point we will switch to an invite-code system instead of the Lobby list that we have now.

Achievements:

Environments: