Dev-Com

Hello, world! Midway Branch of Penkura is now updated to 0.2.0 MW 13

Patch notes are a combination of patches MW 12.1, 12.11, 12.2, 12.3, 12.31, and 13.

First of all, we want to inform all players, that this is officially the last big update to the midway branch followed by a minor price increase as mentioned in the previous patches of the main branch, and possible small bug fixes/content addition. The next big patch is 0.2.0 which will be released on the main branch. The Midway branch will be still available to all players and all saves made on the Midway branch will smoothly transfer to the main branch. Now, let's continue with the update.

Midway update 13 introduces players to a true first-person camera, giving players a new level of immersion, interaction with the world, and full-body visibility.
100% of the old system was removed and remade from the ground up to make sure that all newly implemented animations will perfectly fit with the improved player armor and future content. With that change, we are introducing over 120 new animations, some of which are dedicated to the next feature of the game.

Simple player combat, from now on the player will be able to use his hands for simple combat, which will make the player "armed" from the start of the game.



Each tool (for example scanner), weapon (for example IMP without any ammunition), or anything that can be handheld can also be used in close combat. This system allows us to implement more dangers to the game world, without waiting for the player to finish one of the main missions to receive his first weapon.

While talking about the missions, we are happy to inform the improvement of this system, implementation of new goals will now be much easier and will be fully streamed between every level of the game. Allowing us to create more complex missions between levels (something that was not only very difficult in the previous patch but limited us to simple missions that don't require any complex triggers).
This exact same system will soon be used to create a detailed in-game codex, that will showcase everything that the player scanned with additional information, hints, and hidden messages for those more interested in the lore part of the game.

For those interested more in the combat part of the game, thanks to the new animation system, true first person, and implementation of simple combat, we are also introducing four new weapons to the game, each one of them being a close combat weapon.



Items should balance out early game and give players something new to use in case of emergency.
While talking about new weapons, we also want to inform that from now on player bots, can be damaged, they also register a sense of "pain" that players can inflict from friendly fire. For the moment the enemy NPC still doesn't attack the bots but that will change the moment we will implement hand combat with bots. Please keep in mind that you are able to repair the bots using the MRT, in case of possible player-inflicted "accidents" on to bot.

One last gameplay feature update before we get to technical improvements.

New map system, for some time now we were experimenting with a proper handheld map system for the player, we tested 2d, 3d, full camera render maps, and after long testing, optimization, and addition of player-requested changes, we are able to introduce the final version of the map system.



This 3d camera-rendered map system was designed to provide players with the as accurate position of player/bot and points of interest as possible, it also shows the cave system and in the near future will also present outlines of discovered buildings.
The system renders out the outline of the map in real time, which allows us to easily change the landscape look, and even add new parts of it, without the very time-consuming reimplementation of 3d models. This gives us much more freedom in the construction of the maps without blocking the player from the entrance.

Now to the more technical part of the improvement.

For some time now players were able to "squeeze" themselves between rocks, and boulders in the game, which ended with them being stuck because of the limited accuracy of collisions. From now accuracy of rocks, boulders, cliffs, and stone walls rose from an average of 70% to an average of 97%.



This will drastically improve players' mobility, as previously places that otherwise were inaccessible because of poor collision detection should now be open to the players without the fear of being stuck. (Unstuck feature is and still will be available in the options menu).

The second change is improved motion blur. From now on strength of motion blur will adjust itself to frame rate and object density. This should provide the smoothness of the image without providing visible "smudges". In the future update, we will also add the ability to set the maximum range of blurriness, for those who wish for even more control.

The last major change to the technical side of the game is heavily enhanced TAA ( Temporal anti-aliasing ), players will now have the option to activate Enhance TAA, and Enhance Image Sharpness.



Enhance TAA has a minor performance impact (between 2% to 8% depending on the graphic card) but will increase detail density (that was otherwise blurred out of existence) increase the sharpness of the graphic and drastically lower the amount of ghosting/shimmering.

Enhance Image Sharpness will eliminate minor blur defects when the player lowers the 3D Resolution of the game below 100%. This enhancement is very cheap but its effects are visible mostly below 100% 3D Resolution.

In case of any problems, always feel free to contact me here on Steam in the Sub Forum "Midway Branch of Penkura"

Link ---> https://steamcommunity.com/app/739720/discussions/4/

or contact me personally on Discord.

LINK ----> https://discord.gg/2ukYHQm

A small tutorial on how to access the Midway branch is available in the link below.

Link ---> https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2357998690

Till the next Dev-Com, over and out.

Patch 0.2.0 MW 13
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⊞ Bugs/Errors ⊞
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◈ Dematerializing buildings had a chance to not properly refresh connectors of previously connected buildings.

◈ Fixed double fade at the start of the game.

◈ Fixed lack of text when hovering over an item or interactable in certain locations.

◈ Fixed shadowing issues on Trees.

◈ When starting the game from New Slot, load system didn't properly activate the sound system.

◈ Mission system didn't properly reset the dialog with Sara, after discovering Monorail.

◈ Fixed the Void Door.

◈ Fixed floating player bodies hunting them after death.

◈ Grab and hold item function won't work properly around items we loaded in until we don't go out and back in their detection range.

◈ Player was able to use the Lock override system on permanently locked doors.

◈ Monorail Station reset switch resets the activation sound each time player uses it.

◈ Player was able to wake up before the proper speed of the game was set by swiftly clicking the wake-up button after laying down.

◈ New dialog key inputs duplicated themselves in the options settings.

◈ Fixed check for "It's all in the crystals" missions when talking with Sara.

◈ Fixed password input for doors.

◈ Improved Collision of all Metoses, preventing them from passing through the player.

◈ Old security systems were resetting the player's current power after loading the game.

◈ Some of the 3d user widgets didn't properly refresh when the player is not looking at them.

◈ When dematerializing a building, if the original recipe contained any resource requirement with the amount of 1, there was a 50% chance that C.A.T would give back an item with the amount of 0.

◈ Fixed an error with disappearing items when inventory is refreshed by MMC, Ore Refinery, or C.A.T while dragging that item from the slot BACK to the original slot.

◈ When splitting an item, while being in the Ore Refinery User interface or Blueprint Repository interface, the split item interface was behind the other windows.

◈ When building over growbed, materialization rays dematerializes all the flowers (which is correct) but growbed didn't properly reset its slots, preventing players from planting new flowers until the game load.

◈ Some of the buildings didn't properly attach to the player's main base after using saves from an older version of the engine.

◈ Fix to mouse cursor shake on tablets.

◈ Player was able to interact with bot storage through the body of the bot.

◈ Player was able to pick up items when his hand was already used by something else.

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⊞ Improvements / changes / additions ⊞
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◈ Added new items to the game:
- Knife
- Combat Knife
- Electric Baton
- Security Baton
- Data-Storage Electric Baton

◈ Oxygen Station will now replenish oxygen up to 200% faster.

◈ MRT will now repair and recharge bots 3 times faster.

◈ Added two new soundtracks to the Karenos Forest Day Time.

◈ Added true first-person camera.

◈ New tutorial triggers added to the game.

◈ Improved and added 128 animations to the player character.

◈ Player will now move held weapons and equipment back when detecting collision with another object.

◈ Improve the quality of Motion Blur.

◈ Rock, Cliffs, and Boulders collision improved to 97% accuracy, from around 70%.

◈ Improved quality of TAA with custom Temporal Anty Aliasing method.

◈ Added Enhance Image Sharpness option to the game (located in Options > Video).

◈ Added 14 new sound effects to weapons.

◈ Minor Improvements to AI.
- Bots can now be damaged by the player.
- Bots will now disable themselves if integrity will fall to 0.
- Bots can now sense and show pain.

◈ Improved rain visibility, rain now should be visible when lit by the gas giant, stars, lighting, and ambient lights.

◈ It is no longer possible to sprint backward.

◈ We removed FPS counter in Main Menu (as it was not accurate enough) in favor of the build in the Unreal FPS counter (the option to turn it on/off is located in Options > Video).

◈ CCC will now print an error message if the player tries to activate a bot with integrity off 0.

◈ Added new Options in Game & UI settings.
- The player is now able to switch between an immersive in-game mouse cursor or a standard system cursor.
- The player is now able to toggle instant dialog text print, from the smooth typewriter effect.

◈ Added new Options in Mouse Control settings.
- Added On/Off switch for Weapon/Tool Sway when moving.
- Added toggle from simulated headbobbing with each step, too, only animated head movement

◈ Player is now able to hit with any weapon and handheld item.

◈ Player is now able to hit/punch by pressing Q (default)

◈ Player is now required to AIM his weapons and equipment before shooting/activating.

◈ All objects now register collision and physics when required affecting their movement. (for example, the player is now able to shoot an object to move it).

◈ Improved Gun/Tool swaying.

◈ Improved M.P.S user interface.

◈ Headbobbing is now triggered by footsteps rather than just the On/Off system, it is also scaled by the speed of the player.

◈ Visually improved M.P.S and increased its screen size for easier readability.

◈ Visual improved player Tablet.

◈ Improved recipe requirements for all items and buildings in the game, so they all match the same specific patterns. (for example, bio-chemicals are alphabetically on the recipe).

◈ Scrolling speed in all Command Center Manual Computers speed up by 300%.

◈ Changed notice text when trying to override the lock before we know how to do it, from "I don't know how" to "I don't know how to do it yet." to minimize confusion.

◈ Visual improvement to helmet overlay (less space taken by the graphical overlay)

◈ Added new assets to Monorail Station. (prevents the player from getting stuck on the tracks).

◈ Improved mission "In Search for Answers" by adding additional ways of completing the mission.

◈ Flashlight will now consume 0.2 energy per 1 second. (Flashlight will automatically turn off if energy reaches below 1 energy).

◈ Player suit is now equipped with its own Neurocore which will inform players of critical changes.

◈ Sick debuff name changed to Ptomaine Poisoning.

◈ Optimized Bio-Ring compass (increase in precision and lower CPU load).

◈ Added Suit Voice Volume setting in the Options > Sound.

◈ Player suit will now inform the player when:
- Energy Level is below 10%
- Vitals levels are Critical
- Oxygen is below 10%
- Nutrient level is below 10%
- Hydration level is below 10%
- Chemical Overdose is detected
- Radiation toxicity is detected
- Ptomaine Poisoning is detected
- Minor bleeding is detected
- Lesser Poisoning is detected
- Extensive Poisoning is detected

◈ Bot indicators, in the bot list in Bot Control CCC will now show if the bot is active or disabled.

◈ Players are now able to split item stacks in the main inventory using shift and ctrl (not only between windows).

◈ Changes to the weight of the items:
- All Data Storages weight lowered from 30 to 20.
- Liquid Construction Component weight lowered from 12 to 9.
- Solid Construction Component weight lowered from 10 to 8.
- Battery ST-1 weight lowered from 4.5 to 4.
- Molecular Reconstruction Tool weight lowered from 15 to 11.
- Nutrino Box (Expired) weight lowered from 15 to 10.
- Nutrino Box weight lowered from 15 to 10.

◈ Solid Construction Component now needs 4 heavy metal bars for creation rather than 5.
◈ Containers in Storage ST-1 will now spawn in the amount equal to the amount of used storage.

◈ MMC Inventory IP has risen from 500 to 650.

◈ Minor visual improvement to IMP.

◈ MMC will now show the required resources of all items on the creation list based on the number of items that MMC lacks rather than the overall amount.

◈ Added clean-up system, to make sure that after load, all the models and items that were destroyed, and dematerialized by the player, are properly destroyed and garbage collected by the system.

◈ Nights are brighter by 10%.

◈ In Storms and Super Storms, the sunlight dim effect is 15% weaker.

◈ Game Engine updated to a newer version.

◈ Cleaning up code from the older version of the game Engine.