Pathogenesis: Overcome News

[p]Peace be with you, people![/p][p]We’re continuing to add new systems while polishing the old ones, and this time it’s all about characters, animations, and the logic that drives them. Here’s why this work is important.[/p][p][/p][h3]Characters[/h3][p]We started making this game back in the days when every extra polygon could snap a GPU’s spine or turn a CPU into an electric fireplace. We had to keep a tight leash on total polycount, texture sizes, and effect juiciness.[/p][p]But technology has come a long way. Today’s hardware can handle much more, so we decided it was time to update our characters: “It’s not right for our players to be distracted by sharp edges and outdated models — especially in the inventory screen!” And so, our lone 3D artist heroically stepped up and gave all the characters a well-deserved smoothing pass, more curves, more polish. and to everything they can wear, including clothes and gear.[/p][p]In addition to increasing the polygon count, we replaced the characters' skeletons with the newer UE5 version. This allowed us to fix various issues with character poses and achieve more natural-looking animations.[/p][p][/p][h3]Animations[/h3][p]More detail and smoother lines aren’t just for eye candy. Characters move. They do stuff. They strike extravagant poses. And when there aren’t enough polygons around the joints... things get ugly. Real ugly.[/p][p]So we made another bold decision: Replace ALL the animations with new ones.[/p][p]A bit of backstory:[/p][p]For years, we didn’t have a dedicated animator. All character animations were stitched together from marketplace packs and Frankensteined by our programmers. While we did our best, the results didn’t fully meet our expectations. Natural, believable animations bring characters to life.[/p][p]So we hunted down an animator, set the goals, cranked the tempo and… All old animations were remade. Tons of new ones added. And we’re not done yet. There's no such thing as too many animations!.[/p][p][/p][h3]Logic[/h3][p]Now we come to the core system:[/p][p]AnimBP (short for Animation Blueprint) is the system that controls animations in Unreal Engine. But that’s not all. It also handles logic, gathers character state data, defines transitions between animations, and much more. (Feel free to dive into the docs if you’re curious.)[/p][p]Basically, AnimBP is the puppet master behind all the fancy moves your characters make. It’s a complex web of subsystems, and if you don’t keep an eye on it, it turns into a tangled, sluggish monstrosity — like a copper-wire cube of chaos.[/p][p]Which is... exactly what happened to ours after years of development. So we made yet another tough call — the third heroic decision: Untangle the mess. Slim it down. Break it apart and make it clean again. Why now? Because there are a lot of characters on screen at once, doing complex stuff. AnimBP has to work overtime to keep up, and performance takes a hit — even modern hardware starts to remember how its ancestors felt back in the Stone Age.[/p][p]Unlike the visual updates to characters and animations, refactoring and optimizing the AnimBP system was a beast. It needed the attention of every engineer on my team. But good news — we pulled it off faster than expected! A huge chunk of logic was also rewritten in C++, which gave the game a noticeable performance boost.[/p][p][/p][h3]In Summary[/h3][p]All of the above might sound routine, and it’s true — most of these changes are behind the scenes and not immediately obvious to players. But they were essential. Without this groundwork, it’d be hard to move forward with the next big step:[/p][p]The Mission and Event System — dialogues, quests, events, trading and more. Everything that’s needed to finally give the game its long-promised story-driven RPG identity.[/p][p]But that’s a tale for the next dev blog. Stay tuned and thank you for being here with us, people![/p][p]
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Peace to you, people!
We’ve been getting questions about controller support for a long time — and often. So, it’s time for a proper, in-depth answer.

In short: controller support won’t be coming anytime soon. At the very least, not until all the core gameplay systems are in place. There’s nothing impossible about implementing it — but it takes a lot of time. And right now, that time is better spent on more important tasks. Let me explain why.

Unreal Engine 5 is a powerful thing, offering a lot right out of the box. But one thing it doesn’t give you is a ready-to-use controller system. Why not? No idea — that’s a question for Epic. So every team ends up building their own controller solution for their game.

And it’s not just about character movement. That’s actually the easy part. But! Our game also includes an inventory system with a complex UI that was originally designed for mouse and keyboard. Adapting it for a controller is possible — but difficult. And we’ll only start doing that once the inventory system is finalized.

There’s another point. No one on our team has real experience using controllers. That’s just how it turned out — we’re all longtime PC players who mostly played genres that work better with a mouse and keyboard. In fact, Pathogenesis: Overcome originally used indirect control, closer to what you’d see in strategy games. So before we even start implementation, we’ll need to spend a good chunk of time studying how modern games use controllers. Only then can we start building our system. We don’t want to end up with some clunky, half-baked setup thrown in just to check a box, right?

In conclusion: we’re always listening to your feedback and suggestions — and we’ve got plenty of proof of that. Just look at how the game has evolved over time. So, be patient.

We’re a small team (just 12 people), working on a big, complex game with a carefully planned roadmap. Everything has its time. We’ve been developing this game since 2019, never abandoned it — and we’re not about to. And you — don’t stop writing us your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions.

For that, you all have our deepest, most chronic thanks!

Minor changes, optimization, and bug fixes.

Peace to you, people!
This update is small but significant, with direct impact on gameplay. Let’s break it down:

[h2]Gameplay Camera Angle[/h2]
After initial testing with armed characters and feedback from players, the limitations of the chosen camera angle became clear. The typical top-down perspective restricted player visibility, making it difficult to control the situation during active firefights against enemies with firearms.
Some adjustments to camera parameters have increased the visibility range to a distance sufficient for effective shooting, situational awareness, and overall convenience.

[h2]Aiming Mode[/h2]
The free-camera aiming mode was a temporary solution to extend player visibility in the top-down view. But with the updated camera angle, the need for a freely flying camera is gone.. So, the wings have been clipped. The camera is now fixed to the character.

At the same time, the optical aiming mode was improved. The optic window is now aligned with the crosshair, instead of floating separately nearby. Players no longer have to strain their eyes trying to follow both the reticle and the optics at once.


[h2]DLSS[/h2]
At this stage of development, deep graphical optimization isn't practical. However, due to the fast-paced gameplay and the need for quick and precise reactions to emerging threats, low FPS significantly impacts responsiveness.

That’s why we decided to implement the "magical" DLSS technology. It provides a noticeable performance boost, greatly enhancing comfort, especially during intense action.


Note: When DLSS is enabled, image scaling and TSR anti-aliasing settings are locked and adjusted automatically based on the selected DLSS options. There's no need to tweak them manually.

Owners of non-Nvidia GPUs — don’t panic! We’ll be adding FSR support a bit later. And of course, we’ll continue improving the game’s overall performance. Relying solely on “magic” technologies isn’t a great strategy — and it’s not our way.

[h2]Control Key Changes[/h2]
Some default key bindings have been changed:
[h3]Tactical Camera[/h3]
(Caps Lock) — Switch between vertical and isometric tactical camera views. (Previously: G)

[h3]Walk / Run Toggle[/h3]
(B) — Switch between walking and running. (Previously: Caps Lock)

[h3]Holster / Raise Weapon[/h3]
(Z) — Toggle between peaceful and combat mode. (Previously: Q)

[h3]Quick Heal Panel[/h3]
(Q) — Open the quick heal panel. (Previously: 8)


[h3]Timer[/h3]
(=) — key on the top number row. (Previously: 0)
The timer interface is now displayed on the main character's tactical watch screen.


[h2]Fixes[/h2]
And of course, a bunch of minor bugs have been fixed — along with the traditional addition of new ones that are yet to be discovered.


Your feedback, suggestions, and ideas are invaluable — we can’t thank you enough for being with us!

Peace to you, people!
The long-awaited update has finally been released. Thank you all for your feedback and suggestions — seriously, we truly appreciate your support and recognition of our work. A quick reminder: no more major overhauls are planned, so from now on we’ll be able to roll out updates regularly.

The next update is expected in the coming days. Based on your feedback, we’ve made changes to the camera angle and aiming system. These tweaks significantly expand the player’s visible area and make shooting feel much more comfortable. It’s still not quite a third-person shooter, but it’s no longer a classic top-down either. Then again, a complete change of perspective was never the goal. I’ll share more details in the patch notes along with the update.



[h2]Further global plans[/h2]
[h3]Storyline, Mission System, Tutorial[/h3]
We're now moving on to the next major milestone — the implementation of the Mission System: dialogues with characters, quests, trading, etc. All the components needed to give the game its promised “Story-Driven RPG” features.

We’ll start with the creation of a dedicated training area — the “Shooting Club”. The game has so many mechanics at this point that we simply can’t go without a proper tutorial. So we’ll be tackling two tasks at once: we’ll add a real tutorial and simultaneously start integrating the Mission System through it. In the Shooting Club, players will be able to explore game mechanics step by step by talking to instructors and completing tasks.

Once the Mission System is integrated into the game's framework, we’ll begin adding the storyline to the main location — Raskolovo Village. This location is actually one of seven future game maps that will be tied together via a global district map. The modular nature of the Mission System means quests can be added incrementally with each update — no need to wait for every quest to be completed all at once.

[h3]Artificial Intelligence[/h3]
Another parallel top-priority task is expanding the AI subsystems. What you see now is just the foundation. Our modular AI system allows us to plug in additional behavior clusters and subsystems.

We’ll be improving combat behaviors — teaching humans to act in groups and use tactical maneuvers, while making the infected behave more cunningly. Next, we’ll add routines and search behaviors, so characters won’t just stand around waiting for enemies. They’ll follow schedules and simulate real activities. In theory, this AI system can do a lot — but what we actually implement depends on the time and resources available.

[h3]Animations and Characters[/h3]
I think we can all agree that lively, varied animations play a huge role in making the game world feel believable. That’s why over the past few months, our animator has been working non-stop creating all the necessary animations from scratch — and then some. A complete animation system overhaul is among our top priorities and will be implemented soon. And since we’re updating animations, our character artist has reworked all characters, outfits, and gear for maximum impact — especially with the new camera view.

[h3]Gameplay Mechanics[/h3]
We’ve got more than enough priority tasks lined up, but that doesn’t mean we won’t also work on smaller — yet important — gameplay mechanics. Development always finds room for quality-of-life or just plain fun additions. The list of potential features is massive. Sadly, not everything will make it into the game, so we’ll start with those that have the most impact. For example, hand grenades — because blowing stuff up is always fun and very effective against enemy groups. I’ll announce every implemented mechanic separately in patch notes or write about it in dev blogs during development.

That's all about global plans for now.
Stay tuned, ask questions, share your thoughts, and report any problems.
Your feedback and support are still just as important to us as ever.