New Entity AI, New Voice Chat, Walkie Talkies in Public Beta

Heyho PANICORE enjoyers! This year didn't have a lot going on in terms of updates, but the upcoming months will change that a lot!

We're starting today with the new entity AI and the new voice chat system being available in the public beta. Both of them ended up being full rewrites instead of just patches. That alone took us months while working on the new map as well (which will also feature new mechanics).

Please feel free to keep reporting bugs, we've been trying to tackle the most common problems and fix them with this update and if there is more to fix, we will fix it. Of course this version will make its way to the main branch after 1-2 weeks.

How to join the beta: Steam Library → right click PANICORE → Properties → Betas → select"beta"from the dropdown. No password needed. Steam will download the update by itself.

We're especially curious about the voice acoustics. We're still mind-blown by how those turned out c: ❤️ Aside from the new map and the upcoming console release, there's even more exciting news to come. Be ready, the rest of the year will be wild for PANICORE!

Full Patch Notes of beta version 1.4:

Additions

• Added realistic voice acoustics: teammates now sound muffled through walls, carry around corners and pick up reverb in large rooms

• Added a walkie talkie item that transmits all voices around it to other walkie talkies on the same channel; entities hear walkie talkies too: a radio going off in your pocket brings them to you, and one dropped on the floor makes a decent decoy

• Added a Toggle microphone mode plus a HUD mic indicator, so you can always see whether your mic is closed, open, or actually being heard

• Added a talking indicator above players' heads, so you can see who's speaking near you

• Added a player status list showing every teammate's state at a glance: alive, hiding, in a chase, grabbed, downed, dead, escaped or disconnected, including who's talking right now. On PAINCORE and above most of it shows as "???" on purpose

• Added on-screen messages when a teammate escapes or leaves the game

• Camping an unreachable ledge is no longer a free safe room. Once an entity gives up on reaching you it starts "screeching" at you from below instead, every screech leaves you drifting for a few seconds which will sooner or later result in falling to the entity's feet

• The lobby now shows the selected map on screen

Changes

• Replaced the proximity voice chat with a new in-house voice system for clearer, lower-latency communication

• Overhauled the entity AI for smarter, fairer hunting, searching and reactions across the board

• Improved entity memory: entities track your last known position and sweep the area you fled to, including nearby hiding spots, instead of giving up early

• Improved entity target selection so they commit to the most exposed player instead of whoever was noticed first

• Rebalanced entity awareness so you can break line of sight and lose them again with enough distance or cover

• Entities now move with real purpose when a noise pulls them in, instead of shuffling toward it and arriving long after you left. Making noise is more dangerous now

• Walls and cover now muffle you, entities still hear you through a door, just from closer

• Improved difficulty scaling so each difficulty has a much stronger effect on entity sight, hearing, range, persistence, search and movement speed

• Rebuilt the lobby computer

• Reworked most elements of the in-game HUD

• Unselected inventory slots are dimmed so the item you're actually holding is obvious at a glance

• The voice meter now marks your loudest recent moment, so you can see how far a shout just carried

Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug where entities would be confused when you stand on a table or anything else that elevates you

• Fixed a talking teammate's voice trailing behind them while they moved

• Plugging in or freeing up your microphone mid-match now brings voice chat back up by itself

• Fixed the tab overview breaking while downed or spectating

• Fixed lobby computers ignoring your clicks when you stood too close

• Fixed several server browser issues (unreadable hover text, error messages hidden behind the list)

• "Low oxygen mode" is now translated instead of showing English in every language