>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>> DOC: ECD-TR-0000-FINAL
>> CAT: EXTINCTION
>> SEC: ALL
>> IMMEDIATE DISSEMINATION REQUIRED
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

New Location: The Plantation

Location: Louisiana Territory - Quarantine Zone

Status: EXTREME DANGER - RESTRICTED

Description:

Antebellum estate transformed into The Abandoned One's hunting grounds. Multiple workforce teams suffered slow, agonizing deaths. Building structure appears intact from exterior but interior has been weaponized into an elaborate maze designed for maximum suffering.

Hazards:

• Tripwire explosives lethal on contact - disarmable with boltcutters
  
• Trapdoors hiding death pits
  

[i]"Two crosses stand in what remains of the garden. Every trap, every trigger, every agonizing death engineered from this place has a single purpose. Vengeance for what lies buried there."

NEW ENTITY ALERT

Designation: "THE ABANDONED ONE"

Classification: DEADLY

Threat Vector:

• Human-Entity hybrid from Tollsman conversion (only known survivor)
  
• Possesses enhanced tactical reasoning with full human intelligence
  
• Employs modified shotgun with extreme stopping power
  
• Engineers scenarios designed for maximum suffering
  
• Methodically hunts ECD personnel throughout Louisiana territory
  
• Demonstrates knowledge of ECD protocols and weaknesses
  

CHARACTERISTICS

• Masters in advanced trap creation and psychological warfare
  
• Maintains complete silence - no verbal communication
  
• Driven by calculated vengeance rather than mindless rage
  
• Shows evidence of methodical planning in all encounters
  

ENCOUNTER PROTOCOL

• IMMEDIATE EVACUATION authorized
  
• Separate rather than group up to divide target priority
  
• Use cover and concealment - avoid open areas at all costs
  
• Maintain heightened awareness of environmental hazards
  

"I've seen what grief does in this endless cold. It doesn't break you, breaking implies pieces that could be reassembled. It transforms you, until the person you were exists only in the pain you inflict on others. His footprints in the snow aren't footprints anymore. They're wounds the winter leaves as it walks wearing what used to be a man."

New Modifier: Paranoia

• The player will suffer from extreme "paranoia-induced hallucinations"
  

"I can keep you safe. Just follow my voice."

"I still remember their faces pressed against the train windows as I stepped onto the Pentagon platform. Eyes widening in realization. Hands pounding glass. Mouths forming my name in silent screams as I forced the departure sequence. The last of humanity pulled away into darkness. My final act of love before I transformed myself into weapon, into sacrifice.

The voice that guided me into hell spoke with my own mouth. Every word carried the rhythm of my heartbeat, the cadence of my breath - but the intentions behind them were never mine. Safety was the sweetest lie I ever heard myself speak.

The ECD called these episodes "paranoia-induced hallucinations." Clinical terminology for communion. They misdiagnosed my connection with The Entity as madness.

The voice still speaks to me even now; our war continues in dreams that bleed through reality's thin skin. I walk endless corridors with faceless shadows. Each day the same stations, the same missions, the same motions - a grotesque puppet show where I perform for my captor, gathering trinkets for a master that feeds on my captivity while I secretly feed it poison."

Pyrotechnic Distraction Unit Distribution

Section Supervisors have approved the following equipment for immediate workforce deployment:

• Pyrotechnic Distraction Units (PDUs) now available through The Supply Officer
  
• Proven 72% effective at redirecting entity focus from personnel
  
• Short ignition delay allows for strategic deployment and withdrawal
  

NOTICE: All workforce members are reminded that unnecessary noise attracts unwanted attention. PDUs are to be requisitioned only when authorized by Section Supervisors for Surface Operations.

"I hold this string of small paper-wrapped tubes between frozen fingers, another 'gift' from our benevolent shepherds. They've weaponized childhood memories now. Fourth of July celebrations corrupted into desperate distractions. How perfectly cruel that the holiday meant to celebrate our independence became the day we lost everything to the entities, and now its symbols serve only to mark time until our deaths.

Their sterile name 'Pyrotechnic Distraction Units' priestly incantations masking ritual sacrifice. These aren't tools, they're admission tickets to our own funerals. We're not distracting entities. We're just choosing where to die.

The Supply Officer's gloved hand brushed mine during the transaction. Was that hesitation I felt? His mask revealed nothing, but I saw his fingers trembling, maybe we're not so different after all.

I pocket the firecracker, its weight insignificant yet somehow unbearable. Tomorrow I'll cast this tiny oblivion into the darkness and flee through corridors that only lead back to themselves. For a moment, the light of its detonation will tear reality open – a brief, violent illumination of our prison walls. A twisted fireworks show with no audience but the damned, no celebration but survival. The entities will converge on its echo, and in their ravenous pursuit I'll glimpse the terrible truth: we're all just noise in the void, momentary disruptions in an endless silence, running from one shadow into another.

Each explosion extinguishes something inside me. Another prayer abandoned, another hope surrendered to the cold. These aren't rockets' red glare lighting the way to freedom – they're funeral pyres marking the graves of everything we once were."

Tactical Environment Marker

Effective immediately, Section Supervisors have authorized distribution of navigation enhancement technology to field personnel:

• Tactical Environment Markers (TEMs) available for requisition from your local Supply Officer
  
• Field tests demonstrate 90% reduction in disorientation incidents during emergency evacuations
  
• Specialized sub-zero formula maintains visibility in extreme cold and resists frost accumulation
  

ADVISORY: Conservation of TEM resources is mandatory due to limited manufacturing capacity. Personnel are reminded that each marker represents valuable material diverted from critical infrastructure maintenance. Document usage in standard field reports. Unauthorized application is grounds for immediate ration reduction.

Nightmare Mode Rework

• Modifiers are always negative
  
• Modifiers are always hidden
  
• Permanent blackout
  
• Dim train lighting
  
• Removed loot value multiplier
  

Nightmare Mode should live up to its name. Previously, the increased loot values and positive modifiers made it even easier than Exploration mode. This rework ensures Nightmare truly represents the most harrowing experience possible - where threats remain unknown until they're upon you, darkness is your constant companion, and mere survival is the only reward.

Added Cosmetics:

Content Creator Cosmetics

• Added new patch and pin bundle for threedave (use code: threedave)
  
• Added new patch for ConchaEater (use code: conchaeater)
  

Added DeckTape:

• America the Beautiful remix by T4t0
  Found among the scattered remains at the Pentagon. A reimagining of the anthem, left behind like so many other fragments of the world that was.
  

Balance Changes

• AI Footstep Detection Near Trains Adjusted: AI will no longer detect or aggro to player footsteps while inside trains. This prevents enemies from perpetually camping outside train cars, addressing a common frustration where players unknowingly kept hostiles aggroed by moving around inside
  
• Shop Item Prices Rebalanced: All shop item prices have been adjusted for improved economy balance
  
• Location Travel & Item Value Rebalance: Travel costs between locations have been rebalanced to reduce the large gaps that previously existed. With costs now more evenly distributed, players have greater freedom to choose their destinations without being heavily penalized for certain routes, creating a more fluid and casual exploration experience. Item values have also been adjusted to be less drastically different between locations
  
• Travel Debt Penalty Reduced: The amount of debt gained from traveling to locations you can't afford has been reduced, making risky progression more forgiving
  
• Metro Resource Recovery Enhanced: The Metro now recovers resources faster than all other locations and has an increased minimum resource threshold (25% → 50%), reinforcing its role as the safest location
  
• The Pentagon Resource Depletion: No longer recovers resources and can now be completely depleted, increasing the risk/reward dynamic for this very high risk location
  
• Bunker & Plantation Resource Recovery Reduced: These high-risk locations recover resources at a slower rate compared to safer areas
  
• Time Progression Increased: The rate at which time advances has been slightly increased for improved pacing
  

General Changes

• Elevator now dings when it arrives (noise that the AI can hear is now transmitted upon arrival instead of when you first call the elevator)
  
• Implemented AudioKit framework improvements for more accurate sound propagation at distance and increased audio playback reliability
  
• Shambler and Hung Shambler sounds now supported with the distant sound system
  
• Improved Packrat distant screams with echo and sound propagation effects
  
• Shambler and Packrat screams as well as other common sounds are now preloaded to improve performance
  
• You can now see the current player count and max players directly in your Steam status
  
• Increased backward and strafe movement speed while sprinting
  
• Reworks to Hotel lighting
  
• Reduced chances for fog modifier
  
• Blast doors on the Bunker now remain open when the location has no power
  
• Nightmare mode starting debt reduced from $2000 to $1500
  
• Quick Cola cost has been halved
  
• The rubber duck now squeaks when picked up
  
• Travel Monitor now informs you to pull the brake and stop the train if you can't afford to pay the overdue debt
  
• Added new messages to the debt terminal
  
• TV's no longer turn off during blackout to match story and lore
  
• Reduced blood drip volume
  
• Decals are now cleared after leaving a location
  
• Significantly increased deck tape spawn chances
  
• DO NOT DRINK FROM THE WATER DISPENSER
  

Fixes

• Overhauled power system for significant performance improvements, resolving frame rate drops when toggling lights
  
• Fixed an issue where distant sounds sometimes played their close variants instead of proper distant versions
  
• Fixed a bug where explosions did not generate noise to alert nearby enemies
  
• Fixed a bug where dropped boltcutters would still receive input commands, causing null reference errors
  
• Fixed the stunlight charge sound
  
• Fixed the old flashlight from still spawning in escape mode
  
• Fixed scaffolding colliders in the Tunnels that were blocking AI pathing and requiring players to crouch through passages
  
• Fixed a bug where players who could transcend before quitting the game were unable to do so after loading back in until gaining more XP. The transcend button will now appear immediately upon loading, as expected
  
• Resolved an issue that limited deck tapes to a single spawn chance. Now, deck tapes will correctly have a chance to appear each time you revisit a location
  
• Fixed a mistake where location supply amounts were incorrectly increasing by the decrease percentage rather than the intended increase percentage
  
• Fixed a bug where the memory access menu would stay on screen after the narrative sequence finished
  

FINAL TRANSMISSION FROM COMMAND

To all surviving Workforce personnel:
DIRECTIVE SOVEREIGN REVELATION: HUMANITY'S LAST HOPE has failed. Our final extraction team sent to the Pentagon is M.I.A. The classified intelligence about The False World Entity's true nature and potential weaknesses is now beyond our reach.

The Entity's influence has breached our defenses. The Pentagon's corruption has spread to Cheyenne Mountain. Command center systems are compromised. We are fighting a losing battle.

The intelligence we sought was our final gambit. Without it, we have no means to turn the tide.

Effective immediately:
- All command structure is officially dissolved
- Surface recovery operations are permanently terminated
- Each shelter is now autonomous; no further directives will follow
- All remaining supplies are hereby released from central inventory control

Those of you reading this message represent humanity's final remnant. We told you to trust in procedure. To trust in protocol. To trust in Command. We have failed that trust.

The Eternal Winter is yours to face alone now.

David Caldwell
ECD Acting President

// SIGNAL LOST // TRANSMISSION TERMINATED //




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