🚀 MASSIVE UPDATE – New Features and more!

📅 Available Now – Discover What’s New in THE DARK SIDE OF CECLON!

Hey everyone! Today, I’m launching a massive update based on your feedback. New mechanics, visual improvements, and quality-of-life enhancements will make your experience even better! 🎉

________________________________________

🆕 MAIN NEW FEATURES

⚔️ New Gameplay Mechanics
✔️ Singularities – Destroy them to shorten the duration of the Dark Night.
✔️ Miasm seals – Find and destroy these hidden seals in underground areas to unlock the zone’s Primordial boss.

👀 Visual & Feedback Improvements
✔️ Dynamic footprints in the sand for greater immersion.
✔️ Reworked feedback for better clarity on game mechanics (for example, in case of an overload of the energy focuser, a red line extends from the focuser to the corresponding electrical panel).
✔️ Richer environments – More details (rocks, grass, improved textures and more), and certain areas of the world have been modified.
✔️ The battle drone's shooting sensations have been improved (vibration, camera shake and animations).

🎮 Comfort & Additional Options
✔️ New resolutions – Added 3 new resolution options for better compatibility.
✔️ New keyboard preset – A 4th preset optimized for directional keys near the numpad.
✔️ Zoom option – Adjust the camera distance from your character.
✔️ Certain aspects of the UI have been standardized and improved.

💬 More Interactions & Dialogues!
✔️ New dialogue lines and interactions to enrich the story.

📷 IMAGE PREVIEW!
Singularities


Miasm seals


Footprints


Energy focuser


💡 Your feedback is essential! Let me know what you think of this update in the Steam comments. Your input helps me make the game even better.

💖 Thank you for your support, and see you soon on planet CECLON!

– SOLIDS Studio

________________________________________

☑️ MASSIVE UPDATE – Full Patch Notes

CHANGES
- The white lines in the tornado regulator puzzle each have a different color in pairs and have been enlarged to simplify and enhance the visual appearance.
- The icon indicating that the difficulty had to be below "Realistic" has been removed from the window interface map next to the word "checkpoint" on the left side and from the word "checkpoint" in the map legend.
- The movement speed that increases over time in the miasm zone concentrated orb full of power has been reduced by 20%.
- The enlargement speed of the miasm zone concentrated orb full of power has been reduced by approximately 23% from its initial speed.
- Crystals in "Semi-Realistic" and "Realistic" difficulty now provide 2% oxygen and no more 2.5%.
- The bar and input fields at the bottom of the screen have been revised in terms of alignment and placement.
- Visual changes have been made to the moving crystals to give more of an aura effect rather than a shield on the white part. The mesh has also been slightly revised.
- The animation of the battle drone's turrets when performing a light or heavy shot has been enhanced. The cannon support now moves as well to reinforce the power of the shot.
- The controller vibration for the battle drone’s heavy shot, which deals 2x damage, has been amplified following the addition of the standard heavy shot, which now also triggers controller vibration.
- The dark energy bonus now lasts until the end of the dark night and no longer ends 10 seconds early.
- On the UI, the danger zone, safe zone, and pressurized zone have been slightly repositioned and slightly redesigned.
- All boss mist gates (doors leading to the boss) have been refined and improved in design.
- Crystals in the player's possession and those lost now appear earlier on the UI, as soon as the battle drone is picked up.
- The oxygen capsules on equipment found in the world, such as the "Helmet and Oxygen Jacket," previously had collisions, which have now been removed.
- Acid protection gear found in the world previously had collisions, which have now been removed.
- Containers that provide various materials when emptied now have a changing top to enhance feedback that the container is empty.
- The walking animation's footsteps are now better synchronized with the animation.
- The left foot stepping sounds in the injured animation are now better synchronized with the animation.
- The speed of light shot projectiles has been increased by approximately 20%, and the Lights Projectiles skill upgrade now boosts it by 25% of the new value.
- The speed of heavy shot projectiles has been increased by approximately 25%, and the Lights Projectiles skill upgrade now boosts it by 25% of the new value.
- Step 9 (regarding the vehicle) of the guidance system has now been moved to step 7. It is a crucial means of transportation on CECLON that players must be aware of before gathering resources.
- The ground of the planet surface has been changed, offering new paths and facilitating movement.
- The surface map of the planet, displayed on various UI elements, has been updated to reflect recent world changes.
- The indicators that appear on the right when using a flashlight battery, respawning the wallpass, or activating a checkpoint have been improved in design and size.
- The controller vibration for the roll has been slightly increased and lasts a bit longer.
- The small dialogue where the battle drone tells you to check your constants now remains visible for a longer time.
- Some keyboard inputs displayed on the screen have been enlarged or standardized.
- When using plasma blades and being lifted into the air, the falling animation triggers more quickly.
- The gauge of the oxygen blocked by sand has been slightly enlarged and repositioned.
- The oxygen blocked by sand of the suit can now also be remove by jumping, not just by running. The text of the tips in the pause menu has also been modified.
- The collision of the tornado regulator's central pillar no longer takes the camera into account, allowing for better visibility of the indicators on the pillars without automatic camera adjustment.
- The damage area of plasma blades has been slightly increased in both width and length.
- The time trial UI has been redesigned and repositioned.

ADDITIONS
- The screen resolutions 1920x1200, 3440x1440 and 3840x1600 has been added.
- Added details on Jensen corresponding to his oxygen stocks.
- The icon indicating that the difficulty had to be below "Realistic" has been added to the window interface map next to the words "current checkpoint" and "crystals lost" in the map legend.
- A specific info text has been created when using a checkpoint in "Realistic" difficulty (replacing the one from Normal and Semi-Realistic difficulties).
- When regenerating mental health, thirst, hunger, weariness, health or oxygen, an effect appears on the icon next to the corresponding gauge.
- A dialogue has been added when using the energy focuser for the first time.
- When there is an overload, a red line extends from the energy focuser to the corresponding electric panel.
- When you press at the right moment during the roll, a yellow arrow appears above the roll gauge. When it's perfectly executed, two green arrows appear above the roll gauge.
- A new option has been added "Player camera distance", allowing the camera to move closer or further from the character. It replaces the previous "Camera distance" option, which has been renamed to "Display distance".
- If we held the run key before moving, we wouldn't run. Now, we can press the key in advance, and running will activate as soon as we start moving.
- Add details to the planet's surface, such as rocks and plants.
- The battle drone’s heavy shot now slightly shakes the camera and triggers controller vibration.
- A brand-new feature is making its way into the game: Singularities now appear on the surface and in the underground of CECLON. Destroying them reduces the duration of the dark night.
- It is now possible to move the vehicle's camera with the mouse by holding down the left click. Previously, this only worked with a gamepad.
- The gamepad stick sensitivity set in the options did not affect the camera when inside a vehicle; now it does.
- You can now see footprints when you walk in the sand.
- When you hide the player and the vehicle on the window interface map, a sound now plays to provide better feedback on the action.
- A brand-new feature is making its way into the game: All boss mist gates (doors leading to the boss) cannot be crossed without first destroying the required number of miasm seals. These must be found and destroyed in the underground areas.
- On the compass at the top of the screen, the green marker indicating where crystals were lost now has a crystal icon over it for better clarity.
- Portraits of dialogues and cinematics (except for small dialogues) now have an outline with an effect.
- The indicators that appear on the right when using a flashlight battery, etc., now also provide an additional indication when resetting Jensen's or the battle drone's statistics.
- A small dialogue has been added when taking a memory for the first time.
- A controller vibration has been added when jumping in place or while moving forward.
- A slight background has been added behind the oxygen gauge blocked by the sand to make it more visible.
- A sound has been added at the start of time trials to indicate the beginning of the race.
- A background sound has been added that plays continuously and speeds up over time during time trials.
- When the time trial timer drops below 10 seconds, it turns red.

BUG FIXES
- Proofreading of texts in French.
- Report number 10, written by the Z-One team, mentions 7 parts of the spaceship, whereas 8 are needed.
- The Visual window in the main menu and pause menu has been centered in relation to the input bar, as have the other windows.
- A bug was preventing the Winged Nocturnes from spawning (moving) if they had been defeated earlier and the next dark night was triggered without leaving the surface of CECLON.
- One of the walls around the base was overlapping slightly with another wall. Some of the walls have been slightly repositioned to correct the issue.
- An issue was causing the Winged Nocturnes to spawn in excessive numbers when they were supposed to follow certain conditions. Additionally, some of them didn't have their health regenerated when they respawned.
- When regenerating health over time, the effect on the health bar changed color but did not revert to its original color.
- A gray active gauge was missing on the thirst bar.
- A shadow was missing on certain weariness icons in the UI and the inventory window interface.
- The collisions of different rocks have been revised to match the visual form in the surface.
- The camera inside the vehicle would reposition when pausing the game or opening the window interface.
- Crystals collected in "semi-realistic" and "Realistic" difficulty no longer ignore the Protector 5 skill; they are now affected by it.
- When zooming in on the map in the window interface map and then exiting it, the mouse would no longer be confined to the current screen where the game was running. It could move to other secondary screens and would not regain confinement.
- If you jumped in motion several times in quick succession, the jump animation didn't always work, even though the character was gaining height.
- If the game was restarted during the last 10 seconds of the dark night on the surface, the condensed dark energy reward window could reappear, granting an additional reward for surviving the dark night.
- Some elements were not resetting properly if we slept immediately after the end of the night / dark night.
- If we had low battery on our flashlights, restarting the game would still give us full light.
- When we were defeated in the vehicle and lost crystals were waiting to be recovered in the world, while already carrying some crystals, we would automatically pick up our lost crystal, which shouldn't have happened. On top of that, it gave the number of crystals we had just lost.
- The "Propagation" skill did not work on the miasm mushrooms of Primordial 2 or on the illusions of Primordial 3.
- If the game was restarted while in the southern central underground at a specific location, the UI did not display the area the player was in.
- If the introductory cinematic for a battle against a Primordial was skipped, all player gauges would remain completely locked in place. For example, players could either run indefinitely or be unable to run at all if the gauge was at 0% or in the red.
- On the interface window map, the crystals lost on the surface remained visible on the underground map and vice versa.
- The two ends of the meshes for artificial water pipes and artificial food pipes had an improper texture when empty.
- When landing after the fall animation and walking immediately while in the deprivation condition, the fall animation would briefly be replaced by the injured walking animation before transitioning correctly to the deprivation condition animation.
- If the PS5 controller inputs were selected along with configurations B, C, or D, keyboard inputs could appear in the info window above the guidance system window.
- A tooltip was missing on the interface window map explaining the different tabs, and the tooltip text has been updated.
- The keyboard inputs for all configurations in the info window that allowed the use of the flashlight/headlight and night vision were not properly adapted.
- The keyboard inputs for all configurations in the info window that allowed switching special weapons were not properly adapted.
- There could be an error if all the objectives of step 10 in the guidance system were completed in the underground and not in surface.
- There could be an error if the cutscenes for Primordial 2, 3, 4 and the Primordial Original were skipped.
- It was impossible to use the left mouse click on the scrollbar of the input settings in the "Keyboard & mouse" and "Gamepad" menus within the pause menu.
- There could be an error if when pressing Escape in the pause menu while on a scrollbar of the input settings in the "Keyboard & mouse" or "Gamepad" menus.
- There could be an error if the oxygen gauge is at 0 in the underground.
- When switching to keyboard and mouse after having previously jumped, the controller vibration would not stop immediately; it had to wait until the jump ended (even if very brief).
- If a certain number of footsteps were generated within a very short time frame, footsteps might not appear for a few seconds while moving.
- When falling from a small height while walking or running, the idle animation could sometimes play instead of triggering the falling animation. Now it's more precise.
- The small dialogue where the battle drone tells you to check your constants would not trigger if oxygen was low; now it does.
- If the wallpass was activated during step 7 and reappeared on a computer other than the outpost one, the objective marker of the guidance system remained at the old position, meaning it was no longer aligned with the new position of the wallpass.
- In the Interface window objectives, the icon to the right of the objective where the Data Beacon needs to be found was the underground icon, whereas it is now on the surface. Similarly, for the objective where the Nocturne Sample needs to be found, the icon was the underground one, but it is now on the surface.
- When triggering the hidden radar on CECLON's surface, it did not display an indicator point before, but now it does.
- The upgrade cost text for the incinerator and electric stasis was displayed even though they hadn't been activated yet.
- The flashlight battery near the west exterior door of the base has been slightly moved to prevent it from being triggered at the same time as the green force field.
- The short dialogue where Jensen says, "I still can't believe I survived the crash." in the underground section was playing too quickly, immediately followed by the battle drone's response.
- If the player forcefully quit the game (e.g., Alt + F4) while in combat, they could never recover their lost crystals.
- The icon that appears when dodging an attack would appear once if exiting the wallpass.

OPTIMIZATIONS
- Some unnecessary shadows have been removed.
- LODs have been added.
- Meshes have been optimized.
- Code has been optimized.