Suit for Hire News

Hey everyone,

It's update day, this time we have some exciting stuff to show off. In this update we've completely adjusted AI perception, added a backstab system, and much more.

Let's get into it.

AI Perception

We've completely adjusted the AI Perception in Suit for Hire, for those that may not understand what this means; AI Perception is essentially how the enemies perceive things within the world using senses like sight and hearing.

Before, we simply had a sphere around enemies and once you've entered that sphere and they had line of sight of you (even behind them), they would become aggressive and run at you.

Now enemies use proper perception by using sight in front of them, alongside that we gave them some simple hearing to start with- once an enemy sees you, they'll call out to enemies nearby them. We imagine this may make the game harder as more enemies will aggro on players right off the bat, so please let us know how it feels as this is a pretty big adjustment.

There's still a lot to do in terms of enemy/AI perception, like being able to see dead bodies in front of them, etc. so we'll be working diligently on this aspect in the next few weeks.

Backstab System

The reason we adjusted the AI perception was to allow players to backstab enemies. This mechanic is still pretty early on and we still have to provide the player with an interface popup when they can do a backstab, but it works and gets the job done for now.

If you ever get the chance to get behind an enemy undetected, you can hit the Execute key behind them to do a backstab (which is essentially a free execution)- we plan on designing levels around this and opening up potential scenarios for this. At the moment, our level design doesn't fully support this as most enemies face in the direction where you come from, we'll work on this a lot in the next few updates!

Improvements and Bugfixes

Other than the AI Perception and the Backstab System, we've improved a few other things and fixed a bunch of bugs that you've submitted (thanks to everyone submitting reports/feedback, you're a big help in making this game better).

• Lowered the brightness in L9 Subway Entrance and L5 Office so it's not as blinding
  
• Fixed up more of the execution animations, making it better when blending back into gameplay
  
• Adjusted main menu movement to be smoother on gamepad
  
• Fixed being able to shoot while loading
  
• Fixed the timer in the ending screen
  
• Fixed gamepad button not showing over difficulty level buttons
  
• Fixed gamepad screwing up in the main menu (more improvements to be made, let us know if you experience any issues)
  
• Fixed an issue where caution prompts could appear multiple times if you're spamming input keys
  
• Fixed the caution prompt not having gamepad support for some scenarios
  
• Fixed an issue where getting a perfect dodge and then executing an enemy played both execution animations at different rates
  
• Fixed mercs being able to fire while being staggered/attacked
  
• Fixed an issue where the "Hold to Throw Weapon" UI got stuck on screen
  
• Fixed a rotation issue when countering and then executing afterwards
  
• Fixed being able to execute enemies while dying
  

That's it for this update, thanks again for all of the support, bug reports and feedback!

Let us know what you think of the new AI Perception and Backstab system through our Discord and Community Hub!

It's been a pleasure working on Suit for Hire and we're super excited to get more going in the weeks to come, we'll see you next week.

Hey everyone!

This week's update isn't a crazy one unfortunately due to holidays, but we've made sure to gather any bugs that were found in the last update and fix them ASAP.

We'll quickly cover all of the changes in one simple list so we're not wasting any of your time and you can jump straight into the action:

• Improved Gun Executions blending and placements, there shouldn't be any more flickering/laser issues when exiting a gun execution now
  
• Added UI popup when secondary weapon is empty (for throwing/dropping)
  
• Added loading screen tooltips
  
• Alongside loading screen tooltips, to stop the loading screen from disappearing too quickly, you have to manually close it by pressing any key (we'll be sure to add an option in the Settings menu to bypass this and auto-continue)
  
• Improved kicking objects in a direction, it also is based on the object's weight/mass
  
• Added sound effects to counter attacks
  
• Fixed the gate sounds in L1 not being tied to volume settings
  
• Fixed reloading not being tied to volume settings
  
• Fixed the overwrite menu not working with controller
  
• Fixed the reset key working on Legend difficulty (the R key will now restart the entire run for those in that difficulty)
  

That's it for this week's patch notes, we apologize for not getting more in- we have some new mechanics planned for this upcoming week though- stay tuned for that.

We also have a post coming about our music artist's progress on the soundtrack, that should be coming this weekend!

Thanks again for all of the support, we're working hard on getting more content planned and should have new things coming very soon™.

Hey everyone!

It's finally the weekend which means a new update for Suit for Hire. This update includes one of the most requested mechanics for the game, improvements for melee combat, and a ton of fixes and adjustments.

This should be an update that everyone can enjoy playing with.

Without further ado, here's Update #8:

NEW: Counterattacks [EXPERIMENTAL]

Some type of Counter-Attack was one of the most requested mechanics for the game, it's not perfect but we've come up with one that should help the combat flow a bit. Of course, this mechanic is Experimental since it's so new and fresh, so please let us know how it feels.

At the moment, it's not apart of the tutorial just yet, but essentially it uses the default Interact key as the binding (this can be changed in the Input settings), you press it right before you would get hit and it does a counter.

The counter gives you 25 Willpower which you can use towards executing enemies or going into Time Focus. It also stuns the enemy for a short duration, giving you time to do other things or engage another enemy.

Let us know what you think, we'll most likely adjust the counter throughout development but it'll generally stay the same in terms of how it works!

More Controller Support

As requested, we've added a bit more controller support to the game. We haven't put controller support for every menu (e.g. Settings menu) so we can't deem it as Full Controller Support, but you should be able to navigate the main menu with a controller now and get in the game.

Improved Melee Combat

We've improved the melee combat a bit in this update. The main thing we changed is how we detect who the player might want to lock onto, if you're in the process of attacking an enemy and then aim to swap enemies (maybe an enemy going in for an attack), you should be able to do this smoothly now without having to pause your attacks.

This is great for doing some roundhouse kicks into enemies now!

Additionally, successfully dodging attacks will give you a short duration of Time Focus, allowing you to do some cool moves.

More Additions

• Added a Revert to Defaults button in the Inputs
  
• Grunts now turn a bit during swing attacks
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed the timer not updating properly after dying a few times or when leaving through the pause menu (let us know if this is working properly)
  
• Fixed the Reload input not showing in Keybindings (we're a little dumb and forgot to put it in the inputs, sorry!)
  
• Fixed shooting not working after doing specific actions
  
• Fixed the gun execute causing an instant reload when you have one bullet (now it gives you a reserve magazine)
  
• Fixed being able to navigate to the Level Select with a controller even when it's not unlocked
  
• Improved the brute hitbox (hopefully)
  
• Fixed shaders not appearing in games (you should see enemy outlines through objects again)
  

Let us know what you think of Update 8 through our Discord and Community Hub!

If your curious about the future of the game and what plans we have for it, be sure to check out our latest Status Update.

Thanks a lot for the support these past couple months, we hope to improve the game even further in the months to come- have a great weekend!

Hey everyone!

We'll keep this short, we found a bug that was impacting players so we want to make sure it's resolved ASAP.

The bug happened when you melee'd (like kicking/punching) and then reloaded immediately thereafter, after that you wouldn't be able to shoot until you rolled or did an action that would reset it. This bug should be fixed in this new patch.

Additionally we've been working on controller support in the menus, we do acknowledge an issue where you can navigate to the Level Select with a controller even if you don't have it unlocked- we'll have this issue fixed in the next update.

Thanks for your patience, we hope the reload mechanic is working well for everyone.

Cheers and have a great day!

tl;dr
FIXED Reloading after a punch/kick caused you to not be able to fire
ADDED Progress with full controller support in the main menu
KNOWN ISSUE Level Select (when locked) can be navigated to with controller

Hey everyone!

It's spooky season, you know what that means... an update (unrelated to Halloween sadly)!

It may not be a Halloween update, but it's an update that we think many people will enjoy playing with. In this update, we introduce the new [EXPERIMENTAL] Reserve Magazine- allowing players to hold one magazine so you can quickly reload in a pinch.

NEW: Reserve Magazine [EXPERIMENTAL]

First off, you're probably wondering what Experimental means- for future mechanics that we're uncertain about and need players to provide heavy feedback on, we'll be marking them as Experimental so players understand that it may get massive changes (or be removed altogether if it's that bad of a concept).

In this case, we've added the Reserve Magazine, the reserve magazine allows you to carry one magazine for your protagonist's primary weapon- which in this case is the Pistol.

You can gain a reserve magazine by picking up ammo boxes or executing enemies. If you don't have any ammo in your Primary, it'll instead reload into your weapon right away so you can quickly get back in the fight. Having any ammo (even just one bullet) will instead add a reserve magazine, the player only has a limit of one of these magazines so you'd have to work around and plan how you'll be executing levels.

We hope this mechanic improves the overall game as we've seen quite a few complaints about the gameplay loop being too 'melee-focused'- that being said, the mechanic is still very Experimental so we're looking for any feedback and bugs that you may come across.

Testing Melee Combos

As a fun thing to try out, we've added a couple melee combos which involve roundhouse kicks.

After the 3rd/4th punch, immediately hitting the kick key afterwards will do a roundhouse kick- of course, we won't expand upon this in this announcement because it's not completely finished.

We still need to add the kick key to our buffer so you don't have to spam the kick key and there's a few visual things we'd like to change with the kick, however it's one step forward towards making our melee system a little more interesting.

Adjustments and Improvements

With every update, we always try to add QOL improvements and adjustments that will better the game in the long run, here's this updates improvements:

• Optimized vehicles a bit by reducing the amount of lights
  
• Added a faster way to respawn by hitting the Reload key [Default: R]
  
• If you're not moving and you hit the dodge key, you will dodge-roll in the direction you're looking
  
• Added two new settings in the Video settings, Anamorphic Lens Flares and Comic Wired Effect (perfect things to disable if you have a lower-end PC)
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed the Left Hand IK activating during the throw animation
  
• Fixed being able to spam the spacebar key to open the campaign menu
  
• Fixed dying while resetting level
  
• Fixed melee attacks near walls/surfaces causing issues when hitting enemies (let us know how melee feels in this update)
  
• Fixed the stamina bar increasing while the game is paused (visual issue)
  
• Fixed being able to move around in the main menu
  
• Fixed a teleporting issue when attacking an enemy at a specific angle near a wall
  
• Fixed an issue where enemies that threw grenades could throw two if you shot them while they threw the grenade
  

We won't hold you any longer, try out Update 7 yourself and let us know what you think through our Discord and Community Hub!

If your curious about the future of the game and what plans we have for it, be sure to check out our latest Status Update.

Other than that, have a great start to the month!