Ready or Not News

Attention Officers,

Welcome to the 53rd edition of our biweekly newsletter! This weeks newsletter will be taking a look at the runner-ups in the mapping contest and give them some of the time in the spotlight that they deserve.

[h2]Hard Won[/h2]

With so much talent on display, it was very difficult to select only three winners from the small field of 12 that were submitted, just about every map on offer had something that another map didn’t and had distinct styles that they held tightly.

However after much deliberation, both the community and all of our Developers that participated in the voting process came to a firm conclusion on who should be in the top three.
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Fourth Place - Olympus Theatre

Olympus has a very strong opening, one that is really only challenged by the opening of Sanctum's Deceit. It drops your team into a stormy night that is lit almost exclusively by the bright lights of the titular Olympus Theatre, and as you approach the civilians that had managed to escape the carnage run to safety. Long halls, large rooms, and constant reminders of the brutality that the attackers have wrought keep even experienced officers on their toes.

Download Link: https://mod.io/g/readyornot/m/olympus-theater
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Fifth Place - Abbatoir

As a stark contrast to the previous map, Abattoir inserts your team into the dark abyss of a meat processing plant where the previous owners of the plant have gone missing and new, dangerous tenants have moved in. With a combination of darkness, numerous nooks and crannies for threats to hide in, and terrifyingly dressed suspects, Abattoir is sure to leave its mark.

Download Link: https://mod.io/g/readyornot/m/abbattoir
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Sixth Place - Blackwood Forest

Coming in sixth is Blackwood Forest, a map that is vastly different from every other entry in the contest and most other maps in the Ready or Not modding scene in general. While Sullivans Slope in the vanilla game, or modded maps like Forest house offer a singular structure and a very limited forest walk, Blackwood inserts its officers into a scattered settlement located deep in a shrouded forest.

Played best with the ‘Max Suspects’ mod to better simulate the Extremist Group that you have been sent to contain, it forces officers to engage large groups of suspects at long ranges, that unfortunately results in a mixed bag. Ready or Not and by extension the AI was not built to handle the ranges that Blackwood presents, but when it works, it shows off the strength of Blackwoods design.

Download Link: https://mod.io/g/readyornot/m/blackwood-forest
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Conclusion

If you’d like to help us test new content during playtesting periods on the Supporter exclusive experimental branch, provide us with your game feedback, and keep up with the Supporter community; you can become a supporter at www.voidinteractive.net or at our Steam store page.

Are you a content creator on youtube or twitch looking for new games? We got you covered; Ready or Not has partnered with Lurkit to elevate gameplay! Make sure to follow us here.

https://www.lurkit.com/games/ready-or-not

Make sure you follow Ready or Not on Steam.

Keep your feet on the ground.
VOID Interactive

Attention Officers!

In anticipation of the forthcoming summer, we’ve put Ready or Not on sale for 20% until May 29th to help you work up a sweat.

If you’ve been waiting for one reason or another, now is your chance to build your perfect squad and make sure all of your friends are up to speed!

If you’d like to help us test new content during playtesting periods on the Supporter exclusive experimental branch, provide us with your game feedback, and keep up with the Supporter community; you can become a supporter at www.voidinteractive.net or at our Steam store page.

Are you a content creator on youtube or twitch looking for new games? We got you covered; Ready or Not has partnered with Lurkit to elevate gameplay! Make sure to follow us here.

https://www.lurkit.com/games/ready-or-not

Make sure you follow Ready or Not on Steam.

Keep your feet on the ground.
VOID Interactive

[h2]Attention Officers[/h2]

Welcome to the 52nd edition of our biweekly newsletter! Today we’ll be giving our community a full rundown on the current state of VOID itself, the upcoming patch, and more!

[h2]Expansion and Optimization[/h2]

Over the past year, both VOID and its community have undergone quite a few changes, with the focus being on improving every facet of VOID Interactive and Ready or Not. However the rewriting of development methods, rearrangement and reinforcement of teams, and adoption of new tools tend to have a negative effect on timelines.

The idea of reorganizing the studio and getting these growing pains out of the way now, as we look at the position that Ready or Not holds in the greater ‘Tactical Shooter’ scene, is to save us much more development time in the future. This re-alignment of development processes is a crucial step in allowing VOID to deliver game patches in a much more regular fashion, be it patches, a map or weapon here and there, or massive content and fix drops much like the form ADAM took.
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[h2]Reorganization[/h2]

Under the watchful eye of our new Producer, our development team are charged with a new direction to target milestones across our roadmap to launch. Specifically, better methods that enable us to refine how we manage our builds, bug triage and predictable development cycles.

The timing of these new internal processes has aided the team during our explosive growth with new talent onboarding monthly, more external studios assisting in specialist areas that opened us up to new opportunities and features within our game which we cannot wait to share with you all soon. As we build our confidence up with these new lines of communication and development cycles our team’s capabilities are growing and we will be very proud to share some behind the scenes of our efforts very soon.
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[h2]Status[/h2]

It has been talked about piecemeal via AMAs, newsletters, and public comments but this will be the place where we collate all of the information for the community at large to reference!

[h3]First[/h3]
We are working on quite a few levels, both new and refurbished. As you all know we are working on the level Coyote, a map based on border-crossing drug tunnels, as well as refurbishing the Station and Dealership entirely. At the same time, other poorer performing maps are being tweaked under the hood to fix some of their performance issues. Finally on the note of maps, yes we are still making the school though we are taking great lengths to present it as conscientiously as possible. However it has been given the more appropriate name of Campus and it will be released alongside other un-announced maps in the future.

[h3]Second[/h3]
PvP is 100% confirmed to be returning however it will not be coming back until post 1.0 as we wish to produce a much more cohesive co-op experience before re-introducing it into the game, the exact form it will take is still not set in stone, but we may take some inspiration from some of the other decisions made very recently by some of our peers in the Tactical Shooter space.

[h3]Third[/h3]
Yes, we are aware of the many issues with both Teammate and Suspect AI, Interactions, and general behaviour and it is all being addressed by our AI-mage Ali and the rest of the incredibly talented programming team. The AI will be even further subdivided based on Maps [i.e. Trained security guards on Mindjot acting like they actually have training.]
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[h2]One last thing[/h2]
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If you’d like to help us test new content during playtesting periods on the Supporter exclusive experimental branch, provide us with your game feedback, and keep up with the Supporter community; you can become a supporter at www.voidinteractive.net or at our Steam store page.

Are you a content creator on youtube or twitch looking for new games? We got you covered; Ready or Not has partnered with Lurkit to elevate gameplay! Make sure to follow us here.

https://www.lurkit.com/games/ready-or-not

Make sure you follow Ready or Not on Steam.

Keep your feet on the ground.
VOID Interactive

Attention Officers!

We have our winners!

After compiling both the popular vote and the development team votes, with the quality on show with the top three maps, it is unsurprising that the dev score mirrored the popular vote quite closely with only a slight upset at third. Given the enthusiasm and skill on display, that is not surprising at all.

Taking third place, just barely beating out the updated version of Vegrivs classic map, Olympus Theater, is StenTheAwesome Their map, Hot Coffee does something that none of the competitors does and offers two separate scenarios, one for a Raid against a vicious terrorist attack centered on the area, the other for the rescue of a wealthy though not squeaky clean real estate mogul.

Nexus link: https://www.nexusmods.com/readyornot/mods/2450/

mod.io link: https://mod.io/g/readyornot/m/hot-coffee

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Coming in at second is RareKiwi and their rendition of Operation Falcon Hour from Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield! Masterfully recreated using HD assets, the map is densely packed with detail encompassing many tight, dangerous corners that hide suspects juxtaposed by the hanger and outdoor section that give well-placed opponents a clear line of sight on any unprepared team.

Nexus Link: https://www.nexusmods.com/readyornot/mods/2458/

mod.io link: https://mod.io/g/readyornot/m/privateairport

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Then, coming in at first and surprising noone that recognizes the names involved, is Sanctums Deceit produced by the powerful trifecta of Reap, Matthew9324, and Xeph. Designed and cloaked in lore to be a sequel to the equally masterful Lustful Remorse, featuring a pre-planning screen with extra selectable deployment locations, an amazing scripted helicopter with spotlight, and a jaw-dropping amount of easter eggs.

Sanctums Deceit is simply the pinnacle of Ready or Not map modding, combining an entire community's worth of capability and knowledge to run away with the 5000$ grand prize and in-game representation of each of the team members. Congratulations to all three of you.

Nexus: https://www.nexusmods.com/readyornot/mods/2454

mod.io: https://mod.io/g/readyornot/m/sanctums-deceit1

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-and congratulations to all the participants!

In the coming days once we contact the winners and get everything delivered, we will be going over the maps again and selecting a handful of honorable mentions to feature in a separate newsletter.

Keep creating, and keep saving lives.
Void Interactive.

[h2]Attention Officers[/h2]

Welcome to the 51st edition of our biweekly newsletter! This week we’re covering another incredibly important system brought to us by our Sound Director Zack and one of our incredibly talented modder-turned-developers QuantumNuke!

Known for his various quality of life and tweak mods such as Max Suspects, No Swat, and the Camera Mod which handily enables a free-cam with built in color grading and point lights that, despite their age, are still recommended to players.
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[h2]Meet Quantum[/h2]

Hey! I'm Quantum, a Junior Gameplay Developer at VOID interactive! You might recognize me from the modding server, or maybe you saw my name pop up on the Discord member list. Whatever the case, I'd like to share a bit on going from a modder to a developer!

It's been quite the exciting journey transitioning from a modder to a game developer. When I first started modding the game back in December 2021 I had absolutely no idea I'd end up here! Modding the game and seeing people's reactions to what I made was rewarding enough, and when VOID reached out to me offering a position within their team, I was ecstatic! Developing for a community this passionate, and working with a team this talented is an incredible experience, and I will continue putting my passion into making Ready or Not the highest quality tactical shooter on the market.
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[h2]The Quantum Sound Manager[/h2]

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATLRmTDEfG8

Understanding sound in Ready or Not is exceedingly important, as determining the directionality and location of a sound can make it easier to identify and eliminate threats.

Knowing where a sound is originating from is comprised of three main elements: direction, volume, and occlusion. Direction gives the effect of 3D sound, where turning your head will allow you to get a general idea as to where the sound is. Volume gives you the needed information to determine how far a sound is from you, and occlusion determines how well the sound can reach you.

Currently, the way volume and occlusion are calculated is simple, with volume being dependent on the direct distance between the sound and the listener. Occlusion is handled slightly differently, taking into account the number and depth of obstacles the sound has to pass through in a straight line to reach the listener. However, this can lead to confusion, and result in many sounds sounding as if they are next to you.

The new Quantum Sound Manager is fundamentally different. Rather than using the direct line between the sound and the listener, we take into account the multiple paths the sound can use to reach the listener. This is accomplished by placing special volumes around the level where sound can pass through easily, like doorways and windows. This new method is both more efficient, being 3x faster the the old method, and more accurate. Additionally, determining where a sound is coming from is much easier. No more footsteps two floors up sounding as if they're next to you, and no more jumps in occlusion values, giving you the granularity and accuracy needed to approach any situation well informed.

As we continue to develop the sound manager, we strive to include more advanced sound processing, such as propagation (how sound bends around corners) and per-sound reverb zones. If we can incorporate these in a way that doesn't interfere with gameplay or performance, we strongly believe that Ready or Not will have one of the most advanced sound systems to date for a modern tactical shooter.

- QuantumNuke
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Conclusion

This concludes our 51st briefing. Be sure to tune in next time for more development news!

If you’d like to help us test new content during playtesting periods on the Supporter exclusive experimental branch, provide us with your game feedback, and keep up with the Supporter community; you can become a supporter at www.voidinteractive.net or at our Steam store page.

Are you a content creator on youtube or twitch looking for new games? We got you covered; Ready or Not has partnered with Lurkit to elevate gameplay! Make sure to follow us here.


Make sure you follow Ready or Not on Steam.

Keep your feet on the ground.
VOID Interactive