The Neighborhood Expansion Update

Welcome back to the neighborhood! This update revolves around making the map a little more interactive, while also preparing for a potential map expansion / new exploration mechanics. In addition, I've upgraded the game from Unreal Engine 5.3 to 5.6. Big jumps in versions are always a little risky, but I think I've ironed most of the glaring issues out.

If you come across crashes, please feel free to send me the crash dumps (generally saved in "AppData/Local/CulDeSac/Saved/Crashes"). Also, the cause of the black screen at start up is still unknown, so if you run into it, please let me know. Try verifying game files and restarting the game, 99% of black screen cases have been fixed doing that, the other 1% are still unknown. Obviously best case scenario is getting the issues resolved completely so it doesn't happen at all but at least most cases can be remedied at this point.

Thanks again for the support! Feel free to reach out in the discord if you have any questions or suggestions.

New:

Upgraded Unreal Engine:

• The game has been upgraded from Unreal Engine 5.3 to 5.6.

Expanded Map Mechanics!

• There is a chance that doors on the map will be locked. Each house can have two keys, one for exterior doors and one for interior doors. If exterior doors are locked, the key will be somewhere on the property. If interior doors are locked, the key will be somewhere in the common areas of the house. (Keys are per player, which means in a multiplayer setting, the person who picked up a key for a particular set of doors is the only person who can unlock them for the rest of the team).

• Some new hiding spots that aren't exclusively behind closet doors.

• Added some new areas outside the current boundaries to prepare for a potential map expansion.

• Added significantly more gear spawns (mainly flashlights) around the outside.

• Burn material spawns have been removed from cabinets. Burn materials have been rebalanced back to finding 10 to incentivize exploration.

New Perk!

• Skeleton Key - Using this perk allows you to unlock any door on the map without having to find the corresponding key (including any secret doors that can't be unlocked any other way that may or may not exist [yet]).

Gear Changes:

• Changed how many of each piece of gear you can have in your loadout.

• The Activity Meter is now unlocked at the start and will automatically be provided along with a flashlight on spawn if you have none in your loadout. Providing your own will grant you additional base XP.

Music:

• Added a new music track!

Changes:

User Interface:

• Many display elements on the HUD have been removed or placed elsewhere.

  • The stamina bar has been removed. There is now an audio cue that lets you know if you sprint for too long.

  • The backpack icon indicating if a backpack is being held has been removed. You can access the radial menu regardless of whether or not you are carrying a backpack, but the radial will be empty if you have no backpack.

  • The backpack menu is now toggled with a single button press instead of having to hold the button down.

  • Ghost item and held gear icon indicators are now in the backpack menu.

  • Heartbeat flashing is now a whole screen effect, but can only be seen past a certain heart rate threshold instead of being shown all the time.

  • The deep breath ability meter has been removed. Now, the moment your ability recharges, you will do a quick blink and the bottom of the screen will glow yellow.

• Added subtitles for voice over lines in game.

  • Subtitles for main character voice lines. Can be enabled or disabled in the settings.

  • Subtitles for ghost voice lines. Can be enabled or disabled in settings.

New VFX:

• Added some new VFX to add more atmosphere

  • Nexus Portals have new visuals

  • The environment now changes during the final phase of the investigation.