SCP: Secret Laboratory News

Today we are releasing a small balance update for our SCP: Secret Laboratory Halloween Event, which focuses on some slight adjustments to SCP-330 (the "Take Only Two" bowl of candies), as well as other minor tweaks.

[h2]The Pink Candy[/h2]
The explosive candy was incredibly fun in the first days of the Halloween event, but its destructive power against SCPs was quickly discovered. Today's update limits the pink candy damage dealt to the SCPs while maintaining similar destructive power against other human classes. We understand if our decision won't be appreciated by all of you, but the Halloween update will continue for about a week, and the pink candy already affects the balance of the game to an extent where SCPs are afraid to attack humans classes. The exact changes are:

• The lethal explosion range is slightly decreased (by 15%).
  
• The maximum damage a candy can deal to humans is now 200 HP.
  
• The damage is tripled for Zombies (one candy can deal up to 600 HP).
  
• SCP damage calculation is new and improved! For every 100 HP worth of damage an explosion would deal to a human, it will take 10% of the SCP's max health.
  
• The spawn chance for the pink candy has been reduced by half.
  

[h2]Other Candies[/h2]
We've buffed almost all candies, to make them more useful.

• [Blue] Stamina addition increased from 15% to 50%
  
• [Red] Health addition increased from 15 HP to 35 HP
  
• [Green] Unchanged, the Invigorated Effect is given for 10 seconds.
  
• [Purple] Artificial health addition increased from 15 AHP to 25 AHP
  
• [Yellow] Health regeneration is no longer linear, it now starts fast and decays over time.
  

[h2]Miscellaneous[/h2]
As requested, we have re-added Mr. Nutty chuckle.

It's almost Halloween, and you know what that means! As the end of October draws closer, it's time for the facility to get a little scarier. This year, we've prepared a temporary update for you, featuring reskins, new decorations, gameplay changes, and more.


These have been active since the beginning of October. During the month of October, the facility will have a spine-chilling flair, including darkened lighting, pumpkins, candles, and other season-appropriate decorations.

These decorations were implemented automatically — which is why you were able to see them before this update — but they’ve received some extra adjustments here. Keep an eye out later this year, too: Halloween isn't the only time of year decorations will appear in the facility.

Note: We're working on an option that would allow server owners to disable recurring decorations. This already partially exists as a configuration option, but it's not fully functional. For the time being, we hope it isn’t too intrusive!


Back in 2018, the Halloween update included changes to the in-game models of SCPs and several human classes. In 2019, Megapatch II may have taken the spotlight, but this year we've once again re-done some models for the holiday season. Most of them are brand new, but you may recognize some making a return.

We've also made some changes to several of the game’s audio assets. Players can expect to hear different sounds when they enter a round, and sound cues where there previously were none — keep your eyes and ears open!




This was by far the most requested change for the Halloween update. For this event only, you can find SCP-330, Take Only Two, somewhere in the facility. It's a bowl of wrapped, seasonal candies, and every one of them that you eat could help or hinder you in a different way.

Take no more than two, please.

For the time being, SCP-330 will remain unique to the 2020 Halloween event. Depending on future feedback, especially impact on gameplay, re-implementation and recurrence could be discussed internally. In the meantime, treat it like an interesting side feature for the holiday!




While making changes for the Halloween update this year, we continued working on and refining version 10.1, which will include SCP-096's rebalance and a plethora of fixes. We're currently planning to release this version very soon after the end of the Halloween event (ideally within a day), but this may change depending on testing results. Until then, enjoy the spooky changes we’ve prepared for Halloween!

We based this update on version 10.0.4. Many changes that are in version 10.1 won't be visible here. This doesn’t indicate that the changes don’t exist, but rather that the Halloween update is built on a version that we know is stable.

• Re-enabled the Halloween achievement, which is awarded at the end of the round
  
• Fixed some lights not correctly being disabled during October
  
• Disposed of a body in the vents
  

"The game isn't scary," we hear people say
"It just isn't dark; all the rooms are so bright"
But we heard your complaints, so starting today
We've made the game spooky, to fill you with fright

You've seen some already, they litter the halls
Candles and pumpkins and flickering lights
Now we've made them darker, and dirtied the walls
And packed the facility with fearsome sights

So many people in costumes, looking for treats
And for this next little thing, we think you'll be fans
A bowl packed with candy, filled with sugary sweets
But don't take too many, or you might lose your hands

Now fear the darkness, close up your door
Because the monsters inside all have costumes now, too
From doctor to statue to doggos and more
Cross your fingers, and pray they don’t find you

But you've been reading enough, it's now time to go
So flick off the lights and turn on fullscreen
It's the update for October, and we want you to know
That we wish you a happy and healthy Halloween.

Hey everyone!

Nostra here, the Feedback Manager at Northwood Studios. On behalf of Northwood Studios, we hope that you are enjoying Scopophobia and 10.0.3’s changes and improvements. In our ongoing effort to improve quality of life, squashing bugs, and adding new features, we would like to hear your feedback on our new small update. In the future, when 096 is re-balanced, we will post another form asking how you feel about the changes so please stay tuned for that. Below are the links to the form, translated into many different languages so we can hear voices from our non-english communities.

[h3]English[/h3]
[h3]Simplified Chinese[/h3]
[h3]Traditional Chinese[/h3]
[h3]Russian[/h3]
[h3]French[/h3]
[h3]Hungarian[/h3]
[h3]Polish[/h3]
[h3]Spanish[/h3]
[h3]German[/h3]

[hr][/hr]
Thank you for playing SCP: Secret Laboratory, and see you in the facility.
~Northwood Studios

Today we are releasing version 10.0.4 of SCP: Secret Laboratory. This is a small update which is mostly focused on some anticheat adjustments.

Whilst not contained within this patch, we are aware of an issue concerning some missing files from the server build. We are currently investigating this and should hopefully have a fix ready soon. We would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who brought this issue to our attention!

SCP: Secret Laboratory is always changing. Version 10.0.3 is our latest update to the game, bringing with it some stability improvements and bug fixes, as well as introducing a new feature for SCP voice chat. You can find the patch notes below.

[h2]Role Indicators[/h2]
When playing as an SCP, voice chat is often critical to your team's success. Players use it to communicate their wins, their losses, and everything in-between. It also has other uses, like letting your teammates know that you've revived someone as SCP-049 or asking them for directions. It's a very important part of playing an antagonistic role.

Something we've noticed lately is the confusion that stems from memorizing your teammates. Every SCP is different, with the exception of SCP-939 being able to spawn twice in a match, and having to memorize what role each player fills can be stressful, especially in the heat of a fight or escaping from an engagement that went wrong.

To fix this, we've added graphical indicators to represent what class a teammate is playing. Whenever a player uses voice chat as an SCP, an image representing their role will display next to their name for all other SCPs. This should play a big part in eliminating the frustration of memorizing your teammates, and even allows teammates that don't speak to show their role by tapping their push-to-talk key!



This extends to all SCP classes, including instances of 049-2 or any SCPs that are created after the start of the round by server moderators or plugins. When a teammate starts talking, you'll immediately know who they are and what role they're playing.

Note that this feature is only available for SCPs right now - other methods of voice chat that display names, such as radio and spectator chat, won't display any icons. This was a deliberate choice, to preserve the uncertainty and paranoia created over radio. If you've been alone for a while, and you suddenly hear somebody asking if anyone is on the radio, you can't be certain whether or not they're an ally, or an enemy trying to lure you out.

[h2]Fixes[/h2]
Version 10.0.3 features a plethora of fixes and adjustments, which are as follows:

• Fixed SCP-096 being unable to leave the intercom room.
  
• Fixed the Epsilon-11's flashlight not appearing when dropped on the ground.
  
• Fixed the Hemorrhage status effect causing damage to stationary players who were holding their Sprint key.
  
• Fixed an issue causing ammo pickups to become "ghost items" if not all of the ammunition was taken from the pickup.
  
• Fixed a duplicate RID in the Entrance Zone.
  
• Improvements to nickname sanitization.
  
• Fixed an exploit causing SCP-079's power to not drain at the correct rate when using a speaker while doors were locked.
  
• Fixed the Motion Blur setting not applying in-game.
  
• Fixed non-civilian classes obtaining the "High on the Wings of Caffeine" achievement while passing the escape boundary with SCP-207 active.
  
• Fixed the audio effect played when attempting to fire with an empty magazine playing twice.
  
• The TIX INFO RA command now requires RespawnEvents permission.
  
• The game client should now work on Wine for Linux players.
  
• MTF Scientists now properly spawn with a disarmer.
  
• Added unique messages for escaping while disarmed, instead of showing the normal escape message for your team.
  
• Players no longer collide with generator doors, which fixes several out-of-bounds exploits.
  
• Anticheat improvements and fixes.
  

[h2]API Changes[/h2]
This segment is for plugin developers. You can safely skip these notes if you aren't involved with the creation of plugins or mods.

• Implements the ForceCuff syncvar on the Handcuffs class. When enabled, the player will be disarmed, even if no other players have interacted with them.
  
• Steamworks has been updated.
  

[h2]What about SCP-096's rebalance?[/h2]
We're still working on the balance of SCP-096. Our survey, run in late August of this year, has been very helpful in diagnosing some of SCP-096’s problems and getting the community's input about them. We've now playtested all of the options we presented in the survey, and we'll likely be releasing a more detailed post soon describing our balancing process and our final decisions. In the meantime, however, keep an eye out.

[h2]Conclusion[/h2]
This is a small update, but it may be a significant one. Being able to see teammates' roles as an SCP should provide a significant improvement to teamwork potential, and we've fixed several long-standing bugs with the game. We hope you keep enjoying SCP: Secret Laboratory!