Hey everyone,

It's update day, this time we have some exciting stuff to show off. In this update we've completely adjusted AI perception, added a backstab system, and much more.

Let's get into it.

AI Perception

We've completely adjusted the AI Perception in Suit for Hire, for those that may not understand what this means; AI Perception is essentially how the enemies perceive things within the world using senses like sight and hearing.

Before, we simply had a sphere around enemies and once you've entered that sphere and they had line of sight of you (even behind them), they would become aggressive and run at you.

Now enemies use proper perception by using sight in front of them, alongside that we gave them some simple hearing to start with- once an enemy sees you, they'll call out to enemies nearby them. We imagine this may make the game harder as more enemies will aggro on players right off the bat, so please let us know how it feels as this is a pretty big adjustment.

There's still a lot to do in terms of enemy/AI perception, like being able to see dead bodies in front of them, etc. so we'll be working diligently on this aspect in the next few weeks.

Backstab System

The reason we adjusted the AI perception was to allow players to backstab enemies. This mechanic is still pretty early on and we still have to provide the player with an interface popup when they can do a backstab, but it works and gets the job done for now.

If you ever get the chance to get behind an enemy undetected, you can hit the Execute key behind them to do a backstab (which is essentially a free execution)- we plan on designing levels around this and opening up potential scenarios for this. At the moment, our level design doesn't fully support this as most enemies face in the direction where you come from, we'll work on this a lot in the next few updates!

Improvements and Bugfixes

Other than the AI Perception and the Backstab System, we've improved a few other things and fixed a bunch of bugs that you've submitted (thanks to everyone submitting reports/feedback, you're a big help in making this game better).

• Lowered the brightness in L9 Subway Entrance and L5 Office so it's not as blinding
  
• Fixed up more of the execution animations, making it better when blending back into gameplay
  
• Adjusted main menu movement to be smoother on gamepad
  
• Fixed being able to shoot while loading
  
• Fixed the timer in the ending screen
  
• Fixed gamepad button not showing over difficulty level buttons
  
• Fixed gamepad screwing up in the main menu (more improvements to be made, let us know if you experience any issues)
  
• Fixed an issue where caution prompts could appear multiple times if you're spamming input keys
  
• Fixed the caution prompt not having gamepad support for some scenarios
  
• Fixed an issue where getting a perfect dodge and then executing an enemy played both execution animations at different rates
  
• Fixed mercs being able to fire while being staggered/attacked
  
• Fixed an issue where the "Hold to Throw Weapon" UI got stuck on screen
  
• Fixed a rotation issue when countering and then executing afterwards
  
• Fixed being able to execute enemies while dying
  

That's it for this update, thanks again for all of the support, bug reports and feedback!

Let us know what you think of the new AI Perception and Backstab system through our Discord and Community Hub!

It's been a pleasure working on Suit for Hire and we're super excited to get more going in the weeks to come, we'll see you next week.