The Anacrusis News

[p]A year ago we kicked off an experiment with the community.  [/p][p]What happens when you give them access to the source code and set them free?[/p][p]The result is the community comes together and makes a crazy, compelling, and fun update that expands the game with new weapons, creatures, maps, and game modes and opens up a whole new level of customization.[/p][p]Every single part of this update, except for this page, was done by the community.[/p][p]Thanks to everyone in our community at discord.gg/straybombay for making, helping, testing, and giving feedback.[/p][p][/p][p]The best way to see all of what's new is to jump into the game and make sure to hit the settings button.[/p][p]There you will see all the new options available to make the game the way you want, but that doesn't show it all. Make sure to visit the workshop to see all of what is new - it's not just cosmetics and maps anymore. You can now make and use community made weapons, grenades and creatures as well![/p][p]And make sure to join the discord to find active games, test, give feedback, or just hang out and play other games on our game nights.[/p][p] [/p][h3]Highlights of this update:[/h3][p]New Difficulty Mode[/p][p]- Ultraviolent. Harder than Intenser with even more special aliens and buffed up variants
[/p][p]New Aliens[/p][p]- Ultraviolent Aliens appear in Ultraviolet campaign difficulty and you can play as them in versus!
[/p][p]Complete alien skin replacements[/p][p]- This one is hard to explain... so here is a picture instead - Anacroissant (available in the workshop)! [/p][p]New Community Weapons[/p][p]- Community weapons are new to our mod package and you can now choose individual workshop weapons or include complete packs like the ultraviolent weapon pack.[/p][p] [/p][p]New Game Mode[/p][p]- The workshop also contains the original mode for Ultraviolence and the brand new Versus Holdout.  Let us know if you think Versus Holdout should move from workshop experiment to the main game.[/p][p] [/p][p]Community Campaigns[/p][p]- Brand new community campaigns have been added to the workshop. Try out A Thousand Lights and Ascension for original art styles and minigame event experiences.[/p][p] [/p][p]Expanded mod tools[/p][p]- We took what we learned by opening up access and worked those into the community mod kit - join our active discord for access.[/p][p] [/p][p]The list...[/p][p]Ultraviolent Difficulty added[/p][p]Game Settings now have a lot more customization -- tune up special weapons, grenades, matter compilers, eggs, airlock function, and more[/p][p]Added custom weapons players can create & upload to the workshop, enable in Game Settings[/p][p]Added ultraviolent weapons to the base game, enable in custom weapons[/p][p]Added special community aliens in versus[/p][p]Flasher spawns with aliens around them in versus[/p][p]Spawner players can now right click survivors to highlight them and focus their turrets on a single target[/p][p]Gooper players will have an easier time aiming at incoming players now that the firing arc for goo has been smoothened[/p][p]Added four new banners available for all players[/p][p]Changed the Game Settings button in the Main Menu to reflect the gamemode, i.e. from (VERSUS|PUBLIC|NORMAL) to VERSUS SETTINGS[/p][p]Increased the melee radius for the Flasher and Grabber in Versus[/p][p]Added cleanup as players progress through levels to smoothen performance[/p][p]Added a timer in Versus to allow alien players to spawn if survivors aren't ready for a special event in a couple minutes[/p][p]Players have the option to turn on infinite ammo[/p][p]Players can now choose to start with medkits in Versus[/p][p]Ultraviolent difficulty will have unique events, Versus players can turn these events on/off[/p][p]Fixed a bug in Chapter 2 where Versus alien players could accidentally die if running into two separate objects[/p][p]Tightened up AI responses to the player being grabbed, to make sure they will free the player much more often[/p][p]Fixed bug where Brute players in versus couldn't melee if they previously cancelled their melee attack by charging[/p][p] [/p][p] [/p][p]The community modding wiki[/p][p]https://theanacrusis.miraheze.org/wiki/Main_Page[/p][p][/p][p]Join our discord to request access to modding tools and participate in games, testing, and just hanging out - we play more than The Anacrusis there.[/p][p]discord.gg/straybombay[/p][p][/p][p]The Workshop[/p][p]https://steamcommunity.com/app/1120480/workshop/

XBOX PLAYERS
With our new update out, we are currently out of sync with Xbox players, if you want to cross play go into the steam setting for the game and enter XBOX in the beta password.[/p]

Join us testing the next major update - The community Update

You can join us by entering "WeBeTesting" in the beta section of Steam and have access to our external playtest.

Here are the notes on the latest update and what is being worked on for the Candidate build

Bug Fixes:
-> Removed collision for a cable (and rail) used throughout episode 2 which would kill non-host players on the alien team.

-> Adjusted Survivor AI so that a player caught by the grabber is rescued far more quickly and consistently.

-> Implemented a check to ensure a player cannot charge before their secondary melee attack finishes as the brute. Previously this would cause the player to lose the ability to swipe attack after finishing their charge.

-> There are so many new Game Settings options in Versus that they began to overlap the confirm button — this has been fixed.

Base Game Changes:
-> Ultraviolence difficulty now has unique events that happen at specific parts in each episode. In Versus there is a new option in Game Settings for experiencing these events as well.

-> In special events for Versus only, added a timer to the director that will allow players to begin spawning if survivors take longer than two minutes to prepare.

-> The “high” option for special weapons in Game Settings has been increased, as it previously felt underwhelming.

Ultraviolence Changes:
-> The Violent Spawner in versus can now direct its turrets to specific human players with alt fire. Turrets will also be harder to kill while rolling, as an attentive survivor could consistently kill incoming turrets before they had a chance to open and fire.

-> The UltraBrute in Versus accidentally behaved like the older brute model, and is now updated to the current version with an easier to use charge.

-> Fixed the first person material for the end cannon missiles to have the correct fov setting.

Still To Do.
[] fix ui bug where host sees cosmic bots burning
[] fix volatile gooper versus ai spawning in floor
[] grabber and flasher tiny arms when meleeing
[] maybe disable stasis launcher in bottomless clip option
[] ai keeps going back to charger with infinite ammo
[x] get uv episode events finished

We have dropped our game price down to the lowest price we will offer this year - 75% off!

This was at request of players wanting to be able to invite their friends to play and new players wanting to join our beta. To join our beta once you own the game enter - WeBeTestingInHere - in the beta code.

We also want to be clear, our online community is small. You most likely will not find many online matches to match into in the wild. Our game works great with friends, solo, or joining our community at Discord.gg/StrayBombay where people are regularly looking for games or joining our game nights.

If this means this game isn't for you - no worries - you can still join our community as we play many different games and even have modders testing their latest HL2, DoD:S, TF2, L4D2, etc mods.

Which brings us back to where we are on the Anacrusis.

We are working with the community and have expanded what is available for modding.

We just added New Weapons, New Grenades, and even Enemy variants! All of which the community can now add, modify and include as well!

We also are setting up to allow community weapon packs, where you can include a group of new grenade and weapon types.

With the UltraViolence mode being tested in the beta, you also now have a real challenge solo, but to counter that challenge you get new weapons and grenades!

All of this on top of the already existing 5 campaign game, with holdout and versus mode!

The next update will be the "Community Update"

We don't have an ETA yet, but are well on our way to working on and playtesting so I thought we could share here. If you would like to test I would suggest joining our discord - discord.gg/straybombay

You can also test that branch any time by going into steam -> Betas and putting in the password WeBeTestingInHere

That will give you access to the External Playtest Branch.

Another big change is in the workshop we have areas for weapons and grenades. Those will be slowly added as we go through final versions - if you would like to make your own weapon or grenades, let us know. We are also working on a tutorial for this.

We play weekly to test the changes and an example of those changes - here is the changelist for tonight.


This change is for the core game and makes the Flasher more active in versus:
In the base game flasher in Versus has been changed to spawn ten common around the player when starting.

This fixing is a bug of specials not despawning but also not active:
To deal with wandering/stray specials that aren't despawning, BaseEnemy blueprint now checks every few seconds if the nearest player is too far away and said BaseEnemy will be forcibly killed if it both very far away and not player controlled.

This is a community made weapon adjustment - this is just one of many new weapons!
For the special weapon in UV mode → Stasis Launcher’s rockets will now do 0.5 seconds of stasis field if fired very close, then 2 seconds if still pretty close by (roughly blaster effective range), then 4 seconds if detonated further away.

As we test the idea of a new game mode - UV - we are also taking those elements and making them options in the main game.
Added Ultraviolent aliens and corresponding game settings option in versus

UV or Ultra Violent mode has also introduced new enemies and some of those are actively being worked on.
Changed the "Endless Grabber" into a "Silent Grabber".

The Anacrusis is Throwing a pool party and you are invited!

To kick off the summer, we've put The Anacrusis on its deepest discount ever! It's the perfect time to pick up some copies for friends, or dive in for the first time yourself.

Don't worry, you don't need to go it alone, stop by our discord - discord.gg/straybombay where you can find a bunch of folks lounging by the pool, playing games and helping first time players discover everything The Anacrusis has to offer (we also play many old source mods and other fun multiplayer games).

We have recently just updated our mod package to allow more extensive modding, so make sure to saunter on over to the workshop and pick up the latest mods - including the new game mode - ultra violence for versus or the popular snowy Ascension Level Test!

From everyone at Stray Bombay, including Guion, Liu, Lance, Nessa, Boris, and Barry - let's break out the corndogs and start the summer gaming today.