Early Access Update V0.8.9.3

Very happy to announce my fourth update for December, as collectively the changes from all updates now equals over 100+ crucial game fixes. The game is a lot more polished now, more fun, more challenging and more engaging - with still so much more left to do and so much more to come. Thank you to everybody involved in helping test, and to all new players who have recently purchased - welcome!! I look forward to hearing more from you soon.

New "Ranger Vision" mode which allows you to track animals and poachers, by making their footprints visible to you. Engage this mode by selecting it from the weapon wheel. This mechanic will continue to be expanded upon, and potentially lead to missions that will require the player to track and hunt down poachers instead of just be led to them with a waypoint. For now, you can just use the mechanic for help tracking animals or enemies during battle and also just to preview the mechanics unique aesthetic.
The RPG launcher, which is only used in very few select parts of the game is no longer a stored weapon but used only while carried. The weapon wheel slot that previously was wasted on this weapon is now used for the ranger vision. Switching to a different weapon while holding the RPG will now cause the weapon to be dropped, but you can still pick it up again where you dropped it if you need it, and retain all rockets/ammo you had for it.
Bullet Proof vests can now be purchased from the shop.
Weapon wheel now has text that tells you the name of the selected weapon/item/ability.
Developed a new shader for the obstacle course commanders face that looks good at all angles and doesn't wash out when the sun shine directly on his face.
Improved Gideon/Van Jaarsveld eye shader reflection properties.
Added some general visual polish & miscellaneous fixes to the obstacle course tutorial mission.
Improved quality of "Leaf Rustling" audio that plays when you move through bushes.
New artwork for the "Arsehole Lager" beer item found throughout the world.
Made all Crafting "Ghost" visualizers for placing items in the world such as tents, campfires or growing herbs much more visible.
Fixed issue that caused the sound alert radius made by sniper rifles to get exponentially louder with each shot without a threshold limit.
Added a "Clothing/Gear" section on the left hand side of the inventory to show equipped wearables and other static items and to aesthetically balance the new right hand side "hotkeys" slots. This will be expanded on in future when new gear and features are added.
Fixed more situations where messing around with your weapons too much in your camp would cause poachers to leave their camps and meet you at home before you had a chance to make it to the mission objective.
Balanced some weapon and weapon ammo availabilities in the game for a more fair challenge.
Improved on-screen appearance of equipped shotgun weapon when un-zoomed.
Fixed some terrain seams where the grass between 2 adjoined terrains was visibly different on the seams, making the seam between the 2 terrain tiles noticeably different. Located near Mission 10 start and a few other locations, now normalized across the entire map.
Adjusted distance waypoint calculation for a better sense of virtual game world scale.
Fixed an issue that could cause Zebras and Gazelle to run scared while playing the walking animation instead of the running animation.
Fixed a rare issue with tactical poachers firing from cover that could be blocked by approaching them from a very specific angle that caused them to rotate back and forth in a blind spot.
Improved quality of weapon muzzle smoke, especially during night-time.
Weapon muzzle flashes are now more realistic, subtle and less cartoonish - covering less of the screen and relying more on light effects than over the top particles, and allowing tracers and impact effects to be more visible.
Fixed bug causing enemies in Chapter 2 to get stuck while moving, resulting in them moving in increments of half a meter at a time, also made the enemies move to you quicker to make the engagement feel less like a fetch quest and more like base defense.
Fixed a short flicker in blood spawning where the blood sometimes showed briefly as a full patch for 1 frame before leaking out of the bodies into the ground.
Slightly adjusted R1/FAL weapon on-screen position for better appearance.
Weapons dropped by enemies now have more realistic colliders and physics as well as less likely to penetrate other items when falling. Enemies will also hold on to their weapons for a bit longer and then drop them as they fall more realistically instead of them just exploding out of the enemies hands as they die.
Various other small bug fixes and internal optimizations.

Happy holidays to all! And see you soon with the next update V0.9.4 shortly after Xmas.

- Rob/Twelv (Ingozi Games)