📢 Attention, citizens!

By decree of the Party, the Prologue advances ever further. Discipline is tightened, enemies grow sharper, and John Holden’s path becomes more perilous. Here is what has been refined for your continued loyalty and vigilance:

AI Changes

• NPC behavior during alerts improved: they now pursue and search for John longer and more actively. Both chasing and searching now happen at running speed. Fixed a bug where NPCs sometimes failed to call allied NPCs for help.

• NPCs whose rank is higher than John’s by +1/+2 levels now spot him +50%/+100% faster. This applies to both normal detection and their Sixth Sense (base detection speed has been slightly slowed).

• NPCs now hear gunshots and the impacts of other NPCs attacks, and will react accordingly.

• If John gets too close, NPCs can now shove and stun him. Even neutral civilians, like doctors, may push him away.

• NPCs are now less precise in tracking John’s exact position and lose him faster when he hides behind cover or in bushes.

• Elite Soldiers can now run even in their heavy armor. With their rank 3 advantage, they are now far deadlier opponents.

• Fixed a bug where NPCs could react multiple times to the same disabled light.

Balance Changes

• John’s movement speed increased by 10% to balance against the more dangerous NPCs.

• Durability of the improvised crowbar increased from 8 to 10.

• Recipes for Smoky Gunpowder, Sparkling Gunpowder, and Pack of Firecrackers have been changed: scrap paper is no longer required. Pack of Firecrackers now additionally requires 6 bullets.

• Reworked the Eyes on the Prize ability: lock picking is now nearly instant, similar to using a Brain Boost (previously: lock picking speed +100%).

• Reworked the Gentle Pressure ability: noise reduction from lock picking now applies to all tools (previously: only brute-force tools). Additionally, with this ability tool durability is no longer reduced.

• Duration of the Forced March ability increased from 30 to 45 seconds.

• More scrap metal has been added across the location to support tool crafting.

Miscellaneous

• Numerous small UI improvements and fixes.

• Mouse cursor now has an interaction animation when hovering over UI buttons.

• Several tutorial tooltips updated, and a bug fixed where hotkeys for controllers were displayed incorrectly.

• You can now activate abilities directly from the Character screen, without assigning them to the quickbar. When hovering with the mouse (or selecting with a gamepad), the Stamina/Focus cost of that ability is displayed.

• A Running Stamina bar now appears when John runs long enough, making it easier to track stamina drain and recovery.

• Audio and music loading no longer causes micro-stutters.

🚩 The Party remains vigilant, comrades. John Holden sharpens his skills, but the State sharpens its teeth. Now is the perfect time to step into Deserter: Prologue, share your impressions, and strengthen the cause with your review - every voice counts in the Party’s ledger.