The Anacrusis News

This is a small update to fix the following minor issues with The Intenser Update.

• Fixed a bug where the host would end the party upon finishing a campaign
  
• Fixed a bug with the Emote Menu being out of sync with the selection
  
• Fixed a bug with party states getting reset when someone joins the party
  
• Fixed a bug where demo playback would cause you to join a "ghost party"
  
• Fixed a bug where the main menu would get into a weird state as party leader
  
• Mods downloaded during gameplay from other players will no longer show in loadouts unless you are subscribed to them
  

It’s finally here, The Anacrusis Update 32, now with even-more-intense Intenser Mode! What is Intenser Mode? It’s our new, higher difficulty mode. Intenser Mode is designed for teams who work well together and would like to face a higher degree of challenge than the current Normal or Intense modes offer. To ratchet up the difficulty, we’d done the following five things (plus a few more we’ll let you discover on your own):

• Added friendly fire to this difficulty setting. Don’t shoot your teammates
  
• Removed player outlines and player names. Staying together is super important now
  
• We’ve disabled the health stations in airlocks and removed Healing Goo and Overheal from the Matter Compilers. If you see a health kit in the game, you’ll probably want to pick it up
  
• We’ve increased the intensity of spawn events and the likelihood of multiple specials spawning at once
  
• We’ve increased the relative aggression level of the common aliens
  

Because this mode is designed for players actively communicating with each other, it won’t be available in the Quick Play playlist. If you want to play games, you either need to get four friends together to play with or select the Intenser difficulty in the Episode you’d like to play manually.

[h3]We’re On Sale![/h3]
Because the new Intenser mode is designed to be played with friends, we’ve put The Anacrusis on sale for $15 during the Steam Spring Sale. You should tell your friends! (We’re also available on the Humble Store now at the same price, if that’s more your jam for the same price.)

[h3]Changes To Player Bots[/h3]
We also know that a lot of you like to play the game with your bot friends, Guion, Nessa, Liu, and Lance. To that end, we’ve change the way bots work with this update. First, and most importantly, bot characters will now wear the skins and accessories the host has selected in the Loadout screen. For Steam users, this includes mods from the Steam Workshop too. If you only play with bots, this means you’ll finally be able to “enjoy” everything the Steam Workshop has to offer.

We’ve also fixed a long-standing bug that limited the maximum intensity for games that included any number of bots. If you play with 1, 2, or 3 bots you’ll find that the game plays more like it does with 4 human players.

[h3]Episode 4 Updates[/h3]
We’ve had Episode 4 out in beta for a few months now, and have collected lots of good feedback from players about the beta. We’ve been hard at work incorporating that feedback and are ready to show off a major update to the first two levels of Episode 4. We’ve added directional lighting to areas that lacked it before, balanced the intensity of combat and spawns across both levels, done a major art pass to reflect the damage the Isolode has taken due to the alien attack, and reworked several large areas to make them more fun to traverse. We’d love to know what you think in the Steam forums or the Discord. (Don’t worry, the finale will get some much needed love in an upcoming update.)

[h3]Text Chat + Emote Wheel[/h3]
You asked for it, and we delivered. Steam and Microsoft Store players can now communicate to other players in their game using typed text. Steam and Xbox users can opt-out of the text chat in Settings. Xbox and Microsoft Store players will also have text chat disabled if they’ve opted out out in the system-wide communications permissions.

We’ve also added an emote wheel to allow players to use any of the emotes they’ve unlocked or subscribed to in the Steam Workshop at any point in their games. To access it, press and hold the button you have bound to trigger emotes in the game.

[h3]The Mall Holdout[/h3]
This update also includes an experimental Mall Holdout map. Instead of focusing the combat in a single, well-defined arena, players need to traverse the map and explore the entire Mall to capture four points before taking on Mr Brute. And for once, the elevator actually works.

[h3]And the Rest[/h3]

• At the end of a game, when the host returns to the lobby, the people playing in that game will return to the lobby with them. Players who want to leave before the host will return to their own lobby
  
• We’ve exposed a new setting that allows players to choose how long dead aliens linger on screen. In the Gameplay Options tab, look for the Max Ragdolls slider
  
• In two player games, the host is now able to kick the second player, if they choose
  
• Weapons no longer show for certain players when other players trigger emotes
  
• Network performance should be generally improved for all players
  
• The matchmaking engine should never attempt to join a dead or ghost game anymore
  
• When you complete a Weekly Challenge run, the post-game screen will display whatever you’ve earned
  

Just a heads up that we're on sale this week. The game is 50% off on all platforms, so now's a great time to get your friends into the game! We just realized Update 30, which revamps the weapon system to better define the differences between the guns in the game, as well as distribute them more equitably between people who like to run out in the front and the folks who are happy bringing up the rear.

We've also got new (and updated) community content. Henning373 has been hard at work on Array Containment, and CJ Sharkey has done a ton of work to his Holdout map, Infest as well. We were blown away when Henning dropped a surprise Holdout map with Ocean Lab a few weeks ago too..Make sure you check them out in the Steam Workshop.

This is a quick update that includes fixes and some other things that didn’t get in in time for Update 30.

• Stasis effects (both Stasis SMBs and the Stasis Grenade) are less impactful on Mr. Brute now. This is the intended design, but a bug was allowing them to be more effective than intended
  
• Head accessories will no longer be affected by the gridlines in the Holdout maps
  
• Holo detonator grenades will now show the head accessory that the player who threw them is wearing
  
• The weapons that rolled away from players when spawned or dropped will no longer attempt to seek freedom
  
• Perf fixes for the main menu for players who run at higher resolutions
  
• Removed the Play tab from the main menu to fix a problem that could get controller-only players stuck in a sub-menu. The Play menu will return once we have a more complete fix
  
• Fixed several materials on the Sunshot Blaster that were preventing it from rendering properly
  
• The Plasma Rifle Mk1 now supports weapon charms
  

It’s time for a new take on guns! After collecting a bunch of data about how players interact with guns, listening to a ton of feedback on the modular weapon system we rolled out last fall, and testing a bunch of different gun distribution methods internally, we’ve made some significant changes to the weapons that are available and how they’re distributed and we’re finally ready to show you all what we’ve been working on.

First, a note: While we’re making big changes to the types of weapons that are available, this update doesn’t include the cosmetic changes that are still in the works for the guns. Sound and animation changes, which contribute to a lot of the gun feel will land in a future update.

For this update, we first identified a bunch of different archetypes and sub-archetypes of traditional shooter weapons that made sense given the unique combat environment of The Isolode. Don’t worry though, we’ve kept the airlock weapons you’re familiar with—the SMB, Plasma Rifle, and Blaster—the same as they always have been.

The big change is that we’ve gone back to a limited number of well-defined guns, each with a unique name and a defined role in the game, rather than randomly assembling weapons out of available parts. We’re excited about this because it let’s players experiment with different roles and share information with each other about the guns they find.

We’ve also changed how we distribute guns to players. First off, we’ve removed the traditional airlock guns from the normal loot spawns. That means when you see a gun on the ground, you’ll know that it’s something new and exciting. We’ve also added weapon caches, occasional spawns of multiple different weapons, to make sure everyone gets to try some of the good stuff. The Director likes to keep it real for everyone.

The influx of new weapons and the power curve that they live on means that we now have what we need to make a weapon progression that happens throughout each episode. As you progress deeper into the episode, more powerful weapons are added to the loot pool, which ramps up the overall intensity of the game.

We’ve also pulled a couple of our favorite special weapons into the main weapon slots and adjusted them accordingly. So you know what to look for, here’s the tier list of guns we’ve added to the game.

[h3]Tier 1 [/h3]

• Plasma Rifle Mk1 - Burst-fire variant of the Plasma Rifle
  
• Heavy Plasma Rifle Mk1 - full-auto, high-accuracy, slow-shooting variant of the Plasma Rifle
  
• Sunshot Blaster - It’s a Blaster but it also lights everything on fire
  

[h3]Tier 2 [/h3]

• Overclocked Blaster Mk1 - A semi-automatic blaster variant that fires as quickly as you can pull the trigger
  
• Heavy Plasma Rifle Mk2 - An upgraded Heavy Plasma Rifle with better penetration, slightly higher rate of fire, and a bigger magazine
  
• Stasis SMB Mk1 - A relatively low damage SMB that applies a short-term stasis effect on anything it hits
  

[h3]Tier 3[/h3]

• Stasis SMB Mk2 - An upgraded damage version of the Stasis SMB
  
• LMB - A light-machine gun with enormous magazine, high aim-down-sight accuracy, and low rate of fire
  
• Overclocked SMB - An extremely high rate-of-fire sub-machine gun. You’ll want to use this ADS’d
  
• Overclocked Blaster Mk2 - Upgraded Blaster with higher magazine capacity
  

[h3]Tier 4[/h3]

• Overclocked Blaster Mk3 - Extremely upgraded Overclocked Blaster with a much larger magazine capacity, even faster rate of fire, and a larger spread
  

[h2]UI Changes[/h2]
We’ve also updated the main user interface and added previews to some aspects of the Loadout page. This is a work in progress and will continue being updated in future patches

[h2]Minigun Changes [/h2]
We’ve dramatically reduced the recoil and the movement penalty for the Minigun. While the ammo holds out, it should be the most sustained DPS in the game

[h3]Holdout Changes[/h3]
The new weapons have also been added to Holdout. They change the way Holdout works significantly, so we’d love your feedback on this.