SCP: Secret Laboratory News

November has begun, we are now entering into the second month of the 12.0 "Mimicry" Patreon Beta!

The threshold to join the beta has been lowered to our Patreon's "Major Scientist" tier ($10 USD).

You can find our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/HubertMoszka

Hope to see many of you there and we hope you enjoy!

~ Northwood Studios

Hello!!

This Patreon post will showcase some of our biggest additions to SCP:SL’s 12.0 ‘Mimicry’ update! We’ll be detailing SCP-939’s full rework, SCP-939’s new containment chamber, and The Operational Guide.

SCP-939’s Full Rework

SCP-939’s full rework aims to move the SCP towards an ‘ambush’ role. It has received a variety of new tools to allow it to better perform this role.

SCP-939 retains its ability to switch between walking and sprinting. This time, SCP-939 will have a stamina bar, similar to that of human classes, though more limited. SCP-939’s base movement (walking) speed is slightly slower than that of a human, though its footsteps are almost entirely silent. By pressing the Shift key, SCP-939 will begin to use stamina and move significantly faster than its base movement speed. SCP-939’s stamina bar allows it to sprint for bursts of approximately ten seconds, before having to wait a further ten seconds for the stamina bar to begin recharging. The lower SCP-939’s stamina bar is, the shorter its range of vision becomes — more on this below.

Claw

SCP-939’s basic attack has been changed into a low-damage Area of Effect (AoE) attack, similar to SCP-096’s attack, though with a more forgiving hitbox. The basic attack (‘Claw’) deals 30 damage, with 75% armour penetration. SCP-939’s Claw key can be held down, allowing a continuous attack, with each attack taking 0.6 seconds to complete.

To put this in perspective, below are statistics on the damage this attack deals to differently armoured targets.:



*Time to Kill describes how fast SCP-939 can kill a target in ideal conditions i.e. no healing items used, no buffs on the target, and no missed attacks from SCP-939.



The current SCP-939 has a unique vision mechanic, using environmental sounds to determine surroundings. The rework keeps this mechanic, but improves it, making it more visually appealing. One of the biggest changes we’ve made is allowing SCP-939 to only see colour within a small range.

The area which SCP-939 can see normally represents SCP-939’s limited sight. In this zone, humans will appear as usual, and will vanish when they walk outside of this radius. Outside of this radius, SCP-939 can no longer ‘see’ humans. Instead, they are represented by the sounds they make. These are sounds such as walking, running, shooting, and using items. Sounds appear as red, expanding circles, emitting from the sound’s origin. Throwing items also produces sound, allowing human classes to distract SCP-939! Images don’t display this mechanic well, so please see the bottom of this post for a video demonstrations



To make SCP-939 more of a ‘hunter’, and to honour the four-legged SCP-939 model, SCP-939 can now retract into an ‘alert’ position on all fours, to prepare a devastating attack.

By pressing the CTRL key, SCP-939 begins to activate Focus. Over the course of two seconds, SCP-939 lowers on all fours, its movement speed crawls to a halt, and its Field of View (FOV) drastically widens. Once SCP-939 is fully Focused, it will be able to see sounds from up to double its original distance, allowing the player to find players to hunt easier. More information on this is below.

Being in Focus also enables a new attack for SCP-939: ‘Lunge’. As the name implies, SCP-939 pounces towards their intended victim. The human hit by this attack will be killed instantly. In addition, humans near the impact radius will take some residual damage. SCP-939 will take a moment to recover from this attack, potentially leaving it vulnerable to attack by militant classes.



Amnestic Cloud is a new ability for SCP-939. SCP-939 can now project a cloud of near-invisible gas that affects the minds of its victims. Humans who walk into this cloud stop being able to perceive SCP-939’s presence, allowing it to set up ambushes and kill a group of humans without them ever noticing its presence.

This ability is not without drawbacks, however. If SCP-939 makes an attack, or is shot by a human, it will become visible for a brief moment. This gives human classes time to react and defend themselves.

Finally, the Amnestic Cloud inflicts the, currently unused, status effect ‘Amnesia’. This status effect was previously inflicted upon receiving a bite from SCP-939, but was removed in an earlier release. 12.0 sees its return! Amnesia stops human classes from being able to perform certain actions, such as reloading, and using healing items.

Please note that this ability is not implimented in the summary video at the bottom of this post!



Our updated version of With Many Voices is our most ambitious ability yet. Previous versions of this ability allowed SCP-939 to communicate with its victims with no drawback. We appreciate the fun memories that have come from this version of the ability, but the old SCP-939 was uninspired, with it being our most ‘generic’ playable SCP. Whilst we have decided to move away from uninterrupted proximity voice chat, our team is open to adding a form of proximity voice chat to SCP-939, should the sub-abilities below feel incomplete. We’ll make our decision based on feedback from both this Patreon post, as well as from the upcoming Patreon beta.

By pressing the Tab key, SCP-939 opens a menu, similar to the inventories human classes have. Here, there are a few options each with their own cooldowns.

Firstly, it can set a Mimic Point. The Mimic Point acts as a set location for SCP-939 to project its prey’s voices for an indefinite period of time (more on this later). This allows SCP-939 to trick its prey, allowing it to ambush them more easily. Mimic Points are marked with an on-screen ping indicator, similar to SCP-079’s ping system. Mimic Points do not disappear with time, instead they are deleted once SCP-939 has moved more than 20 metres away from the point.

SCP-939 gains the ability to steal the voices of the prey it kills, uttering the last four seconds of speech made before death. This ability has a cooldown of ten seconds, and can be projected to Mimic Points. Please note that players have the opportunity to opt-out of this system. Anyone uncomfortable having their voice played by SCP-939 always has the option to disable the feature in settings. The system is voluntary, with information about it being displayed the first time a new user attempts to join a server.

SCP-939 can also activate Footstep Mimicry. Footstep Mimicry is the only type of mimicry that cannot be projected to a Mimic Point, as it replaces SCP-939’s footsteps with those of another class. This ability lasts for ten seconds, before starting a 20 second cooldown period.

Finally, SCP-939 can activate Playable SCP Mimicry. This allows it to mimic the sounds and footsteps of a currently alive SCP. This ability lasts for as long as the copied sound effect does, or, in the case of mimicking SCP footsteps, for a maximum of ten seconds. This ability has a separate 20 second cooldown, and can be projected to a Mimic Point.



With a full SCP rework comes the need to redesign said SCP’s containment chamber. SCP-939’s old containment chamber was a barebones relic of the past. The room is designed using old assets, was far too simple for what it was supposed to be, and does not appear as, or function, as a ‘containment chamber’. Suffice to say, SCP-939’s old containment chamber is the perfect example of what we want to avoid when redoing our rooms.

In contrast, SCP-939’s new chamber aims to fix all of these issues. Here are some images to show the new containment chamber:



Video explanations are at the bottom of this post, with a more in-depth look at SCP-939’s new containment chamber. Please note: some props are still subject to change, and may be rearranged in the final build. We plan to keep SCP-939’s old containment chamber in the game (possibly pending some changes), as it provides a degree of variety to the rooms in the Heavy Containment Zone (HCZ).

The new containment chamber fixes the aforementioned issues with the previous one. SCP-939’s old containment chamber featured a pit with a maze of slopes. The, seemingly, only use for the previous containment chamber was to hide and camp, causing frustration for all. The new containment chamber features possible loot locations, with a set of lockers, as well as the possibility for medical items to spawn. The room is also relatively small, being built in a normal HCZ ‘corner room’. This eliminates many of the problems the previous version saw. It can still be used to hide in to some extent, but it is nowhere near as good of a spot to camp than its predecessor.

As for being a ‘proper’ containment chamber, SCP-939’s new room now features a research facility, attached to a Foundation ‘Containment Cryopod’ to house SCP-939 for study. We believe this makes the room more lore-appropriate, featuring better fitting containment methods the Foundation would use. The opinion of the room being more visually appealing is down to the individual, but we think everyone will find this room far more interesting.

A Video Showcase is attached below.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]



For too long, we’ve felt that the new player experience for SCP:SL was confusing. The game provides minimal direction about your goals and abilities. New players are introduced to a variety of weapons, anomalous items, and other game objects and mechanics they may not be fully understanding of. This is increased if they are not familiar with the SCP universe.

Whilst a full-scale tutorial would be unsustainable due to large changes the game sees between updates, we have elected to create an in-game information bank, known as The Operational Guide (OPG). Our goal is to improve first time user experience, whilst also providing interesting quality of life features for returning players. We plan to continue expanding this system with future updates. Adding new pages to the OPG is more realistic than updating a tutorial system every time an update is released. We won’t spoil all of The Operational Guide in this post, but the below images give a sneak peak of what’s to come:



Wait a second...



Each item page has the option to display the model in greater detail, allowing users to pan, zoom, and examine the model from any angle. We’ve also added a feature to each character page, to allow users to rotate the models. Military classes can be seen in different states, holding any weapon they usually spawn with.

We’ve also added some lore to every page of the OPG. We feel SCP:SL is at a point where we can start expanding on the narrative of the game. Perhaps you can piece together some interesting information about Site-02, or the Foundation? You’ll have to wait for the 12.0 Patreon beta to find out.

Without further ado, the video summary:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Thanks for staying with us ~Northwood Studios

Hello everyone.

We’ve made the Patreon post regarding SCP-049's ‘soft rework’ public! The post showcases upcoming changes to SCP-049 and SCP-049-2 in the 12.0 ‘Mimicry’ update.

SCP-049 Soft Rework Presentation
In the upcoming 12.0 update, players can expect major changes to SCP-049 and SCP-049-2. Unlike the SCP-106 rework, these changes focus on improving abilities, whilst keeping a similar feel and style to the gameplay. The primary goal of this rework is to make SCP-049’s Basic Attack less powerful, all in an attempt to make him more interesting to play. We have a similar goal in mind for SCP-049-2.



Health and Basic Attack changes
Currently, SCP-049 has a total of 2000 HP, with a passive 20% resistance to low penetration weapons. His maximum Hume Shield varies, starting at 200 and slowly increasing to a maximum of 500 (at low HP). SCP-049 retains his current base movement speed.


SCP-049’s Basic Attack has undergone major changes. The main focus is to remove his “instant-kill” mechanic, as it is believed to be the source of many of the character’s current problems. SCP-049’s Basic Attack has been renamed to “Cardiac Attack”. Cardiac Attack does not do a lot of immediate damage, instead it inflicts his victims with the Cardiac Arrest status effect.. Victims inflicted with Cardiac Arrest suffer from blurred vision, tripled stamina consumption, and lose approximately 8HP/s. Cardiac Arrest lasts 20 seconds. Victims suffering from this effect are killed instantly if SCP-049 attacks them again.


Cardiac Arrest can be overcome with the help of specific medical items. Victims who consume a medkit and two painkillers, or two medkits, gain enough health to outlast the status effect. Injecting oneself with Adrenaline or using SCP-500 will cure the status effect.



The first of SCP-049’s new abilities, Good Sense of the Doctor provides SCP-049 with better chase potential. SCP-049 focuses on the closest on-screen target when this ability is activated. This grants him additional movement speed. A HUD element allows SCP-049 to track the distance between itself and its victim, demonstrated in the summary video below this post.
If SCP-049 or SCP-049-2 kills a victim while SCP-049 is tracking them, Good sense of The Doctor goes on cooldown for 40 seconds. Should a tracked victim die in any other way, use SCP-268, or survive for the ability’s duration, Good sense of The Doctor has a cooldown of 20 seconds.

Victims who are targeted and killed by SCP-049 become an instance of SCP-049-2 with 600 total health. These victims will also be revivable one point five times the normal amount of time.




This ability rewards SCP-049 and instances of SCP-049-2 for playing as a team. The Doctor’s Call makes SCP-049 visible to all instances of SCP-049-2. Any SCP-049-2 within a small radius of SCP-049 begins to generate Hume Shield at a rate of 10/sec (up to a cap of 100). The ability lasts for 20 seconds and has a cooldown of 60 seconds. The Hume Shield does not naturally decay or regenerate.




This builds on SCP-049’s ability to resurrect players. Waste Not Want Not allows SCP-049 to rebuild its horde by reviving instances of SCP-049-2 that have recently returned to the grave. An instance of SCP-049-2 that has been revived suffers a permanent debuff, losing 10% of their maximum health. Instances of SCP-049-2 may only be revived twice.


Players have the option to deny being revived consecutively by following the prompt, “Press F to deny further resurrection”.


Changes to SCP-049-2
Many of SCP-049-2’s animations have been adjusted in 12.0. An added ability, Voracity, is directly linked to a new animation. We’ve also drastically improved SCP-049-2’s Basic Attack, making it feel more consistent. The changed attack features improved hit regisration, as well as the attack cooldown indicators shown in our previous SCP-106 rework.



SCP-049-2 can regain health by consuming the corpses of its victims. Upon activating Voracity, SCP-049-2 will devour a corpse over the course of seven seconds. In doing so, it regains 100 health. This ability can only be performed once per corpse and does not prevent SCP-049 from reviving a victim. SCP-049-2 is left vulnerable while using this ability, as it cannot be cancelled once activated.




Instances of SCP-049-2 can now hunt players they spot. We hope this makes SCP-049-2 more threatening and increases the depth of it's gameplay.

Lobotomized Bloodlust increases SCP-049-2’s speed while observing a human target. When a target is present on a player’s screen, it steadily gains a speed boost. After a delay of five seconds, the speed boost rapidly decreases if there is no target in sight. This effect does not stack when observing multiple targets and is capped at a total movement speed of five point five metres per second.



Attached below is a video summary of the presented abilities.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

That’s all for this time! Not quite sure which of two options we will be showing to you all next time, so we’ll elect to keep it a mystery for now.

Patreon supporters get exclusive access to future posts, as well as other benefits. Join our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/HubertMoszka

~Northwood Studios

On Saturday October 8th, at approximately 19:00 UTC, we will be releasing our Patreon beta for the 12.0 ‘Mimicry’ update! If you would like to join this closed beta, you can do so by subscribing to the ‘Zone Manager’ tier on our Patreon ($25 USD). ‘Zone Manager’ and above Patreon supporters will have exclusive access to the beta for at least two weeks. Further information will be given soon.


We hope to see many of you there! You can access our Patreon via the link below:

Subscribe to our Patreon here

Hello everyone.

We’ve made the Patreon post regarding SCP-106's ‘soft rework’ public! The post showcases upcoming changes to SCP-106 in the 12.0 ‘Mimicry’ update.

Not included in the Patreon post are the changes being made to SCP-106’s Pocket Dimension. All items that have been dropped in the Pocket Dimension will have a chance of randomly respawning back in the Facility. The chances of the items respawning in the Facility are based on its rarity. For example, items such as Medkits have a smaller chance of respawning, compared to the Micro H.I.D. Further information will be revealed in the future.

Patreon supporters get exclusive access to future posts, as well as other benefits. Join our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/HubertMoszka


SCP-106 has received large changes to most of its abilities. The playstyle is shifting to better compliment SCP:SL and, most importantly, to make it a more enjoyable character to play.

In 11.0, SCP-106 is the most inconsistent of its class for a variety of reasons. SCP-106 suffers from hitbox disparity. Until recent updates it had difficulty confirming kills, especially later in a round. This was due to the non-random nature of the pocket dimension. SCP-106 is also the only SCP that can be eliminated without taking any damage. Whilst prior patches have attempted to fix some of these issues, we’re now taking a more proactive approach to remedying some of these problems. Meanwhile, we’re focused making SCP-106 more intuitive and impactful.

Core changes, and Vigor
To start, one of the big changes made is that SCP-106 now has a resource meter, much like the human classes’ stamina mechanic. The Health and Hume Shield values shown here are accurate to our current round of internal testing. Our plan is to give SCP-106 250 Hume Shield and 2000 Health whilst also removing his bullet resistance; this makes him less impenetrable, which compliments his new abilities.

A new, spooky blue bar!

SCP-106 uses this resource, Vigor, to utilise his two new abilities — Stalk and Hunter’s Atlas.

Stalk Stalk is a new movement mechanic added to SCP-106’s abilities. By default, Stalking is activated using the shift key, requiring at least 25% Vigor to sink into the floor. Whilst Stalking, SCP-106 is invulnerable and can move at an increased speed. Vigor is used to keep Stalking, draining at a rate of five Vigor per second. SCP-106 can choose to resurface at any time; playing an animation and sound effect (which is not included in the referenced videos). SCP-106 is also forcibly ejected from Stalking mode if its Vigor reaches zero.

Stalking is the only way for SCP-106 to regain Hume Shield, motivating players to ambush human targets, instead of the ‘bullet-shield’ gameplay currently favoured. The ‘ambush’ playstyle is counterbalanced by SCP-106 not being able to see all players. When SCP-106 attacks a player, he inflicts them with a ‘Traumatised’ status effect, which lasts four minutes. ‘Traumatised’ players can be seen whilst Stalking. Non-’Traumatised’ players can be seen by SCP-106 whilst it’s Stalking if they are injured. Players who have taken more damage can be seen from further away.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Hunter’s Atlas
The Hunter’s Atlas gives SCP-106 the ability to flank and retreat. This is a new ability, which also uses the Vigor resource. By pressing tab, SCP-106 can open a minimap, which shows rooms directly connected to his current location. This minimap expands as the Vigor bar fills, to a maximum of a five-room radius. Clicking on any room will drain the Vigor bar, with larger distances draining more Vigor, and SCP-106 will teleport to the chosen location, using the current portal-teleport animation.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Femur Breaker Removal

After careful consideration, the Femur Breaker will be removed in Version 12.0. This change has been made as the focus for this rework has been about removing inconsistency from SCP-106. Due to the Femur Breaker’s accessibility, many players dislike playing as SCP-106. In some games, it is activated early, and, in others, nobody attempts to make a sacrifice. It’s somewhat outside of the SCP-106 player’s control, as the SCP team can be unaware that the relevant keycard is in play.

There have been experiments with a system where multiple sacrifices are required to recontain SCP-106, with each sacrifice giving progressively powerful debuffs to SCP-106 However, this still retained the inconsistency and a lack of counterplay. The Femur Breaker may be added to a future version of the game after an extensive rework.

Entrance Zone Checkpoint Changes

Our Level Design team has taken interest in areas of the map that are considered ‘choke points’. These are places where a team can camp, forcing their enemies to bypass them if they want to go deeper in the Facility. The Entrance Zone Checkpoint has been identified as the biggest ‘choke point’. SCPs blocking the Entrance Checkpoint can deny Class-D and Scientists from escaping, whilst also hindering armed personnel from accessing the Facility. This is being addressed in two ways.


Firstly, the Entrance Zone layouts are being reworked to allow for two checkpoints. This prevents situations where more than three SCPs can co-ordinate to block human classes, forcing them to split their resources.

Secondly, the Checkpoint room has been reworked. This makes it more favourable for human classes. Some art renders are attached below. Nothing shown is the final product and is subject to change.


Here’s a brief video showcasing the changes. This video is taken from a build of the game where the room is a ‘grey-box’, meaning it has not been textured yet.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

~Northwood Studios