POSTAL 4: No Regerts News

Hey POSTAL Dudes and Dudettes!

Real quick - we just wanted to let you know we are preparing an update which will increase the base frame rate pretty substantially for many of you; on some configurations we’re seeing as much as 15 - 20 fps improvements in the worst affected areas. Things will continue to improve as the project progresses as we’ve learned a great deal the past month about where best to focus our efforts. In fact, the project lead himself has been assigned to the investigation and fine tuning, as a punishment for letting things stay this bad for so long. Fuck that guy.

For now, things can still get a bit gnarly when you guys and gals start going on rampages, but we’ll turn our efforts to optimizing dismemberment, fire and other effects in the near future too.

No one with a fairly decent gaming rig should have to suffer the indignity of sub 60 FPS gaming, so thanks for hanging in there while we get our shit together!

Love you all x

Running with Scissors Team

Here it is! Hump day, or ‘Wednes-Bidet’, if you prefer. Lots of new features, areas to explore, Errands, and of course, jank! We’ll be following this update up with some more in the coming days and weeks to include a few things that didn’t quite make the cut. For now, feast your eyes on what’s coming down your Steam pipes right now, and we hope you enjoy your visit to Kunny Island. Don’t be sad you can’t ride the roller coaster - you’ll be able to shortly!

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New errands!

Install Bidets

Errand description:

On Wednesday, Mayor Mike J tells the Dude that the next wave of enlightenment in his town will be spreading the word of the bidet, and there’s no better way to convert others than by forcing it on them! Mike sends the Dude to install bidets into the compound of his bitter rivals, the Wipe Militant cult, believers of the toilet paper. Naturally, they’ll be none too pleased at the Dude’s actions, but it so happens that the Wipe Militant also happen to be in conflict with the local Anal Hygiene Matters protest movement. Maybe the Dude can leverage this animosity to lighten the hostilities on himself. Bidets must be installed into the number of toilets scattered around the building, but in the process of doing so, the Dude will eventually run into the central throne room and confront Tinklage, the diminutive Wipe King himself who acts as a mini-boss.

Kunny Island Opening Crasher

Errand description:

On Wednesday, Mayor Mike J informs the Dude that Krotchy Co. is expanding its brand, and the brand new Kunny Island family entertainment park is having its grand opening in town with Kunny herself appearing in person to educate the children (but mainly just the creepy old men who show up) about the wonders of the female body. Mike is none too pleased at this development as he had been eyeing this swamp land for his third mansion. He tells the Dude to head deep into Kunny’s land and crash its opening.

Mexi-Cleaner

Errand description:

On Wednesday, Mayor Mike J informs the Dude that there’s been a massive backup in the town’s sewage system due to the careless overuse of toilet paper, wipes, and other disposables that the proper use of bidets would have alleviated. This backup has unfortunately erupted south of the border within the Mexican side of the town, leading to American sewage bursting out of the streets’ gutters and central fountain.

To delicately handle this sensitive diplomatic situation between the two countries, the Dude has been sent with a hose to clean up the giant piles of human waste spread around the Mexico Town Circle. Sounds simple enough. After all, surely there’s no armed group who’d want to commandeer all this human waste for their own profit, right?

Bidet Petitioner

Errand description:

On Wednesday, Mayor Mike J declares his intent to enforce his planned bidet empire with a hefty dose of political pressure. He takes the first step for any reasonable revolution: a petition! That is, a call for “A Bidet In Every American Home!” Petition in hand, he sends the Dude out into the town to collect nearly a dozen names of support. However, the Dude finds petitioning skills may have become a bit rusty in the last 17 years as he can’t collect even one John Hancock. He’ll have to take some drastic measures, but will it be by force, or by sex appeal?

New factions!



The Wipe Militants

A simultaneously feudal-like and fascistic cult that believes the only thing that should come into contact with man’s rear end is the gentle touch of a dead tree. As such, they consider bidet-believers such as Mike J to be heathens. They operate a compound that the Dude visits in his Mission to install bidets.

Anal Hygiene Matters (AHM)

Shit Banditos

Operatives of a heartless taco-based American fast food megacorporation, the Shit Banditos have been sent to commandeer all of the surplus human waste flooding the Mexico to serve as the filling in their famed “Taco Surprise” meals. Unfortunately for them, Mayor Mike J is adamant this human waste belongs to the town, so unfortunately for the Banditos, you’ll have to clean it up before they succeed in their dastardly intentions. Unfortunately for you, they’re armed and ready to fight for it.

New locations!

Industrial
Overview:

The “Industrial Tile” is located in the south-eastern part of town. This tile is part of the Affluent/Industrial District where a combination of the town’s elite and wealthiest live and heavy industry buildings. In other words, picture large, lavish, and upscale homes placed alongside warehouses and factories. The centrepiece of this tile is the Indoor Sports Arena which hosts events to record breaking non-attendance.

The Affluent/Industrial zone features the “green belt” theme. Unlike its dusty and rocky neighbours to the west and north, this area is host to a great deal of green and grassy foliage. Not an outright forest, mind you, but clearly a lush and lavish contrast to the rest of the town, it being a near oasis in the literal desert.





Affluent

Overview:

The “Affluent Tile” is located in the central easternmost part of town. This tile is part of the Affluent/Industrial District where a combination of the town’s elite and wealthiest live and heavy industry buildings. In other words, picture large, lavish, and upscale homes placed alongside warehouses and factories. The main draw is the Mike J’s Mayoral Estate which sits proudly at the top of the hill:

Mayoral Estate – The grand mansion that’s home to the Mayor Mike J and his delights, namely lots of bidets. Imagine Tony Montana’s mansion at the end of Scarface but with much greater emphasis on anus cleanliness.





Kunny Island

Overview:

An outdoor family entertainment centre akin to a particularly large Chuck E. Cheese establishment with some Disney overtones but with a much larger focus on the female genitalia. Lots of suggestive imagery blended into the attractions. Despite the seeming aim at a young audience, there’s nary a youngster in sight. The main attendees are particularly creepy men.



Quicksave (F5) and Quickload (F9)

"End Day Now" map screen button for Call It a Day (You no longer need to hike it back across town to end the day)

Enter / Exit camera transition for the Scooter as well as ‘Get in’ / ‘Get out’ animations

More interest points for NPCs

Dude cosmetic changes: At fashion stores, such as the errand-specific Phil’s/Lil’s Fashion Funwear, the player can buy clothing items which change their model. Currently, players will only be able to obtain two new outfits, Sexy outfit and Classic Trenchcoat outfit - that’s right, the much requested Trenchcoat get up from POSTAL 2 is now available!



First-Person Weapons and Arms gettin’ dirty! - Blood and Dirt masks. A very cool visual feature which allows for our weapons and Dude’s arms to get splattered with various liquids and dirt such as blood and poo depending on what the player is doing. For ex. Damaging an NPC will splatter blood on the arms as well as the weapon that’s currently equipped. The blood will eventually fade (You can also clean yourself by aiming up with the Hose or Super Soaker!)



Scooter Station markers on the map

Two firing modes for The Fournicator: Primary fires one shell at a time, and the Alternate fires all the remaining shells. Implemented the remaining Super Shotgun reload animations as well

Rusty Trombone bar in place of the old building in the Residential tile (Next to Book store)

‘SSGI’ option to ‘Performance’ settings

Implemented assets for Patience and Rebel AI attributes. If you flip off a bystander enough they'll tell you to go fuck yourself

Rolling fluids! All fluids that are in the game will now dynamically roll down various surfaces. This was also a feature in POSTAL 2, but we’ve made lots of improvements to the P4 version in order to make them look more natural and just generally nicer. Added ‘Flow Quality’ settings to the performance menu







Interactable rides! You will be able to interact with various rides in the Kunny Island. In the current Wednesday release, only one ride will be interactable with the second coming shrotly after. We plan on expanding this number greatly in future updates

The Mop! Similar in utility to the Shovel and reminiscent of the tool in Viscera Cleanup Detail, the Mop’s weaker damage output is offset by its quicker attacks and ability to more reliably stun enemies, the Dude using it like a kendo stick. It can also be used to clean up liquid decals such as spilled blood, vomit, etc., this function being used in a Mission

Vitamin X ability: Alt fire spins the mop, deflecting bullets like a shield







Further level design improvements to Ghost Town level

Level design improvements around Mexican town

Improved performance of NPCs

Added more ambient sounds across levels

Replaced placeholder Fast Travel board with a new model

Tweaked Save/Load menu to make it more intuitive to use

Updated sounds in the Sewers

Improved interiors of buildings in Commercial tile

Melee enemies will now properly retreat to cover spots when available

Adjusted bullet impacts, and updated them so they are louder

Savegame improvements:

• Remember the currently equipped inventory item
  
• Remember the last equipped weapon, even if holstered
  
• Remember view direction and angle of where the player is looking when they save
  
• Remember current states (mag count/ammo types/whatever) of current weapons
  
• Wanted time now saves in save game
  

Enemies attacking in melee will now only engage in pairs, with the rest hanging back in cover

Disabled Catnip, Vitamin X and Energy Drink effects during cutscenes

AI with melee weapons shouldn't attack the air anymore

Improved doors and NPC's raising their hands when opening them

Updated audio in Tag Turf cutscene

Cops are now treated as a special case for combat warnings and other alerts. If not engaging in combat, they will go over to investigate the warning as if somebody had ratted out to them

Adjusted sounds in MikeJ’s Bidets store

Added random variance to AI burst fire duration

AK and M16 should now use the proper third person idle animations

The scooter will now pause when you hit a cutscene trigger

Improved facial animations for cutscenes

Increased the size of the drawing brush on Billboards

Map screen errand reveal now starts where the player is




More mapping bugs

Terminals saving / loading issues in Police Station

Added failsafe for Cat Dude errands marking off before Cat mode activates

Fixed FOV menu, added 3rd person FOV for walking and driving

Numerous crashes

Cops not responding to you putting your weapon away. They will now be able to tell even without line of sight

AI spawning with empty mags instead of full

Fringe case in the AI where a cop could get stuck without line of sight and cause the wanted level to never go down

Various broken doors in levels

Bug where the alt fire dropped Molotov would explode on impact instead of settling on the ground

Duplicate Dude visible in Police Station cinematic

Spike cutscene

The Fournicator shells not spinning when using the Catnip reload

Missing map screen dialogue from Fire Fighter errand

Collision on a bunch of assets such as gates, railings, etc

Multiple autosaves not working at all (Old autosaves will get renamed)

"Border Outline" option not sticking properly

Awkward pause at the start of Bellow cutscene on Monday

NPCs shooting at non-humans and missing wildly

Incorrect rotation of Dude map marker in Phone when riding Scooter

Mouse Sensitivity not working correctly

Scooters popping in close to Player

Issues with vomit footprints

Dual wielding weapons unloaded with '0' magazine count

Cat Dude glasses not using correct texture

Inmates getting stuck in their cells in the Prison map

Interactable prompt appearing on Parking Meters

Wednesday is coming!

Hey the POSTAL fans!

We are a mere 2 weeks away from the biggest update we’ve put out to date - the Wednesday update! We heard your totally valid criticism when we didn’t release the Tuesday on a Tuesday, so you can expect the full Wednesday release on Wednesday the 27th of this month! We don’t want to spoil all the details here, but It will include:

• New errands! (duh!)
  
• A new soon-to-be-iconic character in the POSTAL Zeitgeist! (Krotchy may have competition...)
• A saucy celebrity cameo!
  
• A totally lowbrow celebrity parody!
  
• More Bidets!
  
• 3 new world areas to explore - Industrial, wealthy and an unconventionally themed Amusement park…
  

Wednesday will be the most outrageous update to date!

Before we make our grovelling excuses as to why there has not been an update in a hot while, feast your eyeballs on some of the other new features coming up in the Wednesday update!

2 new Dude outfits! (Yes, including THAT one!)

One of the new outfits will be a surprise, and the other needs no introduction! It’s been a long time coming, and we’re happy to say you’ll be able to acquire the iconic, classic trench coat!



First person weapon and arm spatters

There is nothing more immersion breaking in a game than walking up to a big pile of poo, shooting it, and not ending with excrement covering the weapon and arms. Therefore, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to not only make sure various bodily fluids cover the dude as you’d expect, they also blend in together. Yum!



Fluid trails (For real this time)

An early version of this was supposed to have been in the last update - but some coder fucked up. Since then we’ve developed it further, so now you can watch your public urinations roll down hills and off of other surfaces - as god intended.







Mop!

Have you ever been playing a POSTAL game and thought ‘geez, all this gratuitous violence is fun and all, but I really wish I could clean up after myself’ Probably not, but hey, should the urge take you, you can now whip out your trusty mop and get to work… and then whack someone with its filthy head.

But that’s not all! Chug back some Vitamin X and then use the mop as a badass deflection shield!



And of course lots of smaller things like newer animations, AI improvements, bug fixes and all that jazz.

Now about those excuses for the lack of updates… We know - it’s been a while since we put one out, and we’d like to take this chance to explain why more incremental updates are getting fewer and fewer. Even though we’re in EA, and P4 is in many ways still a janky mess, we do still strive to make sure each update at the very least has as few regressions as possible over the previous update. The trouble is, as the game gets more content, regression testing and fixing becomes more and more time consuming, and so each update we put out becomes a bigger time sync on the team. Obviously we’d need to fix regressions eventually anyway, it’s just pulling team members off their current tasks and breaking their flow on a frequent basis is far from ideal. We’re trying to find a balance between getting you guys more content to play with, while also not slowing down development too much so we’re able to hit that all important 1.0 status later this year. The upshot of this is you do get more content per update, and the new features are generally more polished and complete than if we were rolling them out intermittently. However, this does not mean you will not get anymore updates between the Wednesday and Thursday release - we’ll do at least one content update in between.

And don’t worry, more performance improvements will start to roll in as we get further into the project, especially once we’re finished with the world building. We’re going to need P4 to run on last gen console toasters, after all ;)

Being in EA has been a hell of a learning curve and we thank you for taking this journey with us and having faith we will deliver. We’re excited to get you guys the Wednesday update on the 27th.

Please keep leaving your feedback on the forums (we read it all!) and thanks for enabling us to live the dream!

Running With Scissors Team

It’s update time! We’re still hard at work on Wednesday content for a future update, but in the meantime, here are many of the new features we promised you in the last developer update!

The scooter no longer sucks! Not only can it handle rough terrain better, it will also go up and down curbs like a boss. Furthermore, it will no longer flip over for little or no reason, making it a joy to bumble around on. But the awesomeness does not end there! As you can now live out your wildest mobility scooter drive-by fantasies, because It’s now possible to use one handed weapons while operating the scooter. While we were there, we also improved the model and sound effects as well as adding more colour variations. You’re welcome!

We’ve had many requests to bring back the sawn-off shotgun that was included in a POSTAL 2 update back in 2013. Well, we decided to go one better - Introducing The FOURNICATOR quad-barrel shotgun!

Our ongoing mission to improve the in-game cinematics continues, and this update brings a massive improvement to the Prison Guard intro cinematic.

We had a lot of feedback that people are not too keen on how we have the weapons grouped together currently with the quick selection keys, so we’ve added the option for you guys to customize what weapons are under which numerical keyboard key on the keyboard.

We’ve included two new features that are not yet finished but are still in a good enough place to showcase. Fluids now roll down hills and slopes, and you can expect visual improvements here in a future update. We’ve added a new emote wheel, which you can activate with Alt Fire when you are not currently holding a weapon. We plan to expand on this with more dialogue and better NPC reactions in a future update.

And naturally, we’ve fixed up a lot of bugs and crashes.

Please keep on reporting bugs, giving us your feedback (We read it all and are acting on much of it) and thank you once again for your amazing support.

NOTE: We’ve switched to Vertical FOV calculations which should finally fix the problems ultra wide users were having. You may have to change your settings. Also, going forward, all saves from a previous build will be flagged red. You can still use them, but there may be problems. It’s recommended that you start a new save file to avoid issues.




The Fournicator (Quad-barrel shotgun)





Emote Wheel!



New Scooter! The model and general usability has been greatly improved to make it a lot more fun to drive. We’ve also added the ability to use one-handed weapons whilst on a scooter as well as more color variations!



Here you can see the new suspension system as well as fenders which move and are destructible. You can also see how after falling, Dude will properly ragdoll and the scooter will flip itself up every single time:



New custom weapon switch bindings - It's now possible to customize what weapons are under which numerical keyboard key

Fluids rolling down hills/walls

More NPCs and interest points in Ghost Town level

More Auto-Save slots

New Third-Person reload animations + animated weapon meshes





Ghost Town level (Improved interiors, added props)

Ambient sounds in the Arcade

Enemies should now do a quick patrol of the area after losing their combat target

Police should now remain in patrol state until their target's wanted timer expires

Third person equip/unequip weapon animations

AI will now respond to spotting you and being shot at while patrolling

Improved bidets particle effects!

Bystanders will now get annoyed when you spray them with water

Sound work with NPCs on their mobiles - you will now be able to hear the other side of the conversation

Removed the time slowdowns when opening the color and emote wheel

When firing in an area with bird ambience, the ambience will stop and play a bird flapping away sound

Improved audio design in Animal Catcher cinematic

Greatly improved the Prison Guard intro cinematic

Loading transition into the Sewers is now better

AI should no longer skip patrol state when they lose an enemy, cops will remain on patrol until wanted level goes down

Lots of audio improvements around all levels

Older, incompatible saves will now be marked as red

Replaced various placeholder textures

Made it more obvious that Spike’s dog bowl has been tainted

Tweaked the Shotgun firing animation

Kicking vehicles with Vitamin X kick will no longer make them explode right away, instead they’ll fly up into the sky



Replaced the Molotov's wick particles with a new Material effect




Prison not loading correctly after finishing it and loading from an autosave

Collision on the Big Ship

Keyboard sounds playing if Master slider is set to 0

FOV resetting on game reboot

Blocky Minecraft vomit textures

Broken interactables

Death crawling NPCs spamming their hurt lines

Some clipping in first person weapons

Fixed certain menu settings resetting themselves

Fixed a LOT of crashes (Thank you for all of the reports!)

Bystanders going silent during Sign Beggar errand

Keypad codes turning into '???' after entered

Lightbulbs progress indicator not tracking correctly

Cinematic sound class not respecting volume sliders

Player can no longer trigger the police lockdown more than once (Prevents getting stuck in the station)

Cutscenes running while game is paused

Broken explodable vehicle

Reload breaking when pressing Alt-Fire during reload

Disabled Spawners upon completion of the Slingshot mission (Should not be able to trigger it again now)

Fixed ladders at the back of the Bidet shop, and another ladder in Tag Turf errand

A vast amount of mapping fixes which were reported on both our Steam Forums and Janky forums

CatDude cutscene breaking if skipped

Road barrier popping back up when loading a game after finishing Tag Turf

Broken “reload” animation that was assigned to the Spray Paint Can

Hose’s cable getting stuck in walls and stretching

Parking tickets not saving properly

Player holding a phone as a weapon when loading a save where they were holding a limb instead

First-person jump animations will no longer play while charging melee attack (Machete)

Off-hand weapon in Dual Wielding mode not using the correct cosmetic item

Weapon models not displaying correctly after switching to a different cosmetic item

A bug where the Revolver would switch when no targets were highlighted

Gib Melee weapons not slapping ragdolls in the correct direction

Hey there POSTAL fans!

It’s been a while since we updated you with what's going on behind the scenes! Going forward we will endeavour to offer more developer updates than we have been to date, offering more bite sized bits of information on specific topics, rather than this massive dump of information you’re getting now.

It’s been just over a year since we first hit Early Access, and it’s been a whirlwind year for us, as well as being a rather humbling experience. When the first Janky build went up, we were aware it was an unoptimized, stuttering, barebones mess - but we knew we needed extra funding to expand the team and make P4 the most ambitious project we’ve worked on to date. We approached publishers, many of which were interested yet wanted us to change our vision for the project. We considered a Kickstarter, but ultimately decided we didn’t want to sell you a paper pitch, and that working with the community to create POSTAL 4 was the way forward via Early Access. Despite the game at the time being very undercooked and pretty content bare, our gamble paid off - you all embraced it and have been ridiculously supportive. You believed in us, and we vowed not to let you down.

POSTAL 4 has continued to sell well while in Early Access, and true to our word, we have invested the money right back into the game and our team. This time last year, we had 8 full time developers. We now have 35 with further 3 part timers, most of which are long term avid POSTAL fans working to make the game the best it can be.

In the time we’ve been in Early Access, we’ve improved the visuals, performance, and added far more interesting gameplay mechanics. There is still much to do in all of these areas, and we’re gaining a lot of momentum to be able to do so at a quicker pace.

The Tuesday update brought far better cinematics, better errand/gameplay mechanics as well as more of the outrageous humour that people expect from a POSTAL game. The upshot of this is Monday now seems outright terrible in comparison - but fear not! We’re overhauling Monday to be a far better experience, and our next major update will include gameplay improvements to the sewer level. Further down the road, the Prison level will also see significant improvements. All Monday’s cinematics will be reworked to be of the standard set by the ones seen in Tuesday.

Speaking of the next major update - we’re tackling some of the issues that are hindering the enjoyment of the game. First and foremost - The Mobility Scooter. In its current iteration, it’s horrible to drive to the point most people won’t bother with it. It won’t go over curbs, it handles badly on terrain, and will often flip over for no good reason. All these issues are now addressed at our end. Here's a short showcase of the improved scooter:



Even stairs are not a problem for this badboy!

Also coming in the next big update: The quad barrel shotgun aka The Fournicator!





And have you ever wondered what Krotchy’s female counterpart would look like… you won’t have to wonder for too much longer ;)

And finally, some information about longer term development to address some common concerns. Many people feel the map is too big. This is for two reasons - It’s hard to get around due to the aforementioned crappy scooter, and there is little reason to explore. Do not worry loyal POSTAL fans, we fully intend to make sure most if not all of the buildings are opened up and explorable, and also to make sure there is a good reason to do so. We understand that’s what made POSTAL 2 special in its day, and it’s something we want to make sure carries over to P4.

The NPC’s we are currently using were thrown together quickly in order to get the prototype ready for Early Access, we've added plenty of clothing textures and new face variations throughout Early Access development, but they are just not good enough. For that reason, we have begun the process of rebuilding them from the ground up! They will look better, be more performant, and also use a better dismemberment system with improved gore. We are also turning our focus to really improving the AI and how NPC’s react with the world and the player. More on that in another developer update post!

We understand it’s frustrating we’re not sharing our internal milestone list for when things will be ready. As you are all probably very aware, release dates and deadlines in the games industry often change to the point they are borderline meaningless. We also operate a strict no crunch culture at RWS, and having public milestones would put more pressure on our team to work longer to try and reach them (no one wants to let you guys down!). We will say for now the game is due to hit 1.0 sometime in 2021, and you guys can expect an extended period of free updates after that.

And yes, we will fix the blocky puke and ultrawide support issue ;)

As always, thank you for the continued support!

Running With Scissors Team