Due Process News

[h2]Devblog[/h2]
We've got a new post on our devblog with a boatload of content, experimental changes, and developer commentary. Come check it out and let us know what you think!

[h2]The TL;DR[/h2]
If you're less inclined to read a blog post, the main takeaway is that our previous update which shipped with PVE, Ranked, Grenade updates, and Hitreg is not a one-off. We don't want you waiting ages for more content, we have a lot of stuff in the works that we couldn't fit into that patch and we'd like to ship these ASAP.

We're hoping to ship some gunplay, maps, and hotfixes soon, with new gameplay mechanics right around the corner.

We took some time to improve them and we're now ready to push features that we tested in the PTE to the public. This means the Ranked Overhaul, Hit Registration changes, PvE content and Grenade changes are now live. If you're not sure about what the PTE is, you can see our blogpost about how we brought changes to public testing and read more about what we are working on.
[h3]Size on Disk[/h3]
The game's size on disk is increasing in size, but this is a change designed to reduce future patch sizes. Maps are split away from the main game files, allowing maps to be patched and replaced individually without forcing users to download 7 or 8 gigs for a small hotfix of two or three maps, and allows us to make and deploy patches in an hour instead of taking up to 18 hours (due to the insane map count)
[h2]Hit Registration and Player Networking Changes[/h2]

• Hit Registration has been completely re-written to give players more confidence that the game will correctly count their hits when shooting at players
  
• As part of those changes, we've improved how player movement is networked to make shooting players easier as well
  
• Player positions are networked with interpolation and extrapolation now to smooth out "laggy" players and reduce the benefits of "peeker's advantage"
  

[h2]Ranked Overhaul[/h2]

• New ranking system with easy to distinguish symbols, names and color coding
  
• Improvements to the way ranks are calculated, including accounting more for individual player performance
  
• Improvements to the ranked leaderboard handling
  
• Added placement matches
  
• Added UI for post match rank changes, ranking up, and placement match progress
  
• Added behavior to penalize players who abandon matches
  

[h2]Co-Op and Singleplayer PvE[/h2]
Still somewhat work in progress, the PvE mode is being slowly integrated into the game

• PvE against bots as Attackers, as practice for Online PvP modes
  
• Players can access singleplayer mode in the Training menu, select different maps and difficulties
  
• Co-Op mode can be done from the Multiplayer menu, invite players into your squad and you will start a private match to practice against bots with you and your friends
  
• Feedback is appreciated, as adding a PvE mode is a big change for our game and will need lots of attention and improvements
  

[h2]Throwable Improvements[/h2]

• Throwables and deployables have gotten animation overhauls for aiming and throwing
  
• Prepping a throwable will now give you an indicator that helps you aim the throwable
  
• Barbed wires have special deployable ghosts that show you how they will be placed
  

[h2]Improvements since PTE:[/h2]
There was a decent delay in moving PTE to prod, we basically gave ourselves an extra month to work on various bugs and issues that popped up while also continuing to develop upcoming features for the next update. The following is a list of improvements to this build specifically that have been borne from that wait time:

[h3]General Improvements[/h3]

• Added Main Menu Home Screen overhaul
  
• Fixed decals from gun hits not showing up
  
• Upgraded to a newer unity version with some bug fixes and minor performance improvements to occlusion culling
  
• Clients will no longer incorrectly predict charge placement, and will wait for the server to reply before placing a charge (adds slight delay on higher ping)
  
• Changed Dome pillboxes to be less problematic for parkour
  
• Fix exploit where attackers can destroy defender fire extinguishers from killhouse midground
  
• Fix bugs with defender room, players not teleporting and items getting left behind on defender room floor
  
• Fix defender item smuggling exploit
  
• Made hit sound testing against smoke grenades more accurate
  
• Fixed various level objects ignoring the audio mixer groups (volume sliders)
  
• Fix direct join prompt showing up or saying wrong text when cannot join
  
• Fixed incorrect region flags for matchmaking
  
• Fixed object destruction on some prefabs which were erroniously getting destroyed by frag grenades
  
• Fixed some cluster based object destruction involving blockers which will only apply to newly generated levels after the patch
  
• Fixed some background parkour on a couple tilesets
  
• Fixed factory fences not blocking hit-sounds
  

[h3]PTE Related Changes[/h3]

• Tweaked lag/prediction values to overlap to fix rejected hits at the lag boundary
  
• Fix issue where extrapolation could force players under the ground
  
• Rank icons are textured instead of flat images, with color coding and easier to recognize naming schemes
  
• Fixed crashes while alt tabbing caused by changes to level loading
  
• Fix various text and image fields not showing correct ranked level data
  
• Fixed 2v2 / Lobby / Singleplayer maps not loading under certain circumstances
  
• Fixed being able to see throwable arc from the map view
  

[h3]Co-Op/PvE Changes[/h3]

• Fixed issue where bots could get orphaned when loading a new co-op map and have no behavior
  
• Reduced issue where bots would get stuck walking in a tiny circle
  
• Fixed issue where bots could break if they saw a player get killed while playing EASY mode
  
• Fixed issue where certain bot behaviors were not applied on Online matches
  
• Fixed issue where bots make hit effects that cover the players screen in Offline
  
• Bots are slightly more aggressive when the bomb is being defused, needs more work still to make them actively attack when the bomb is threatened
  
• Added ability for bots to see through certain types of materials which don't block line of sight or bullets, such as fences
  
• Bots gain a minor amount of prediction so they react faster to quickly peeking players
  
• Tweaks of various bot behaviors, difficulties, accuracy
  

[h3]More to come![/h3]
We will be doing a more detailed post on discord and on Steam soon detailing our plans for our next patch, which we expect to be not too long after this one. Keep an eye on our news for more info.

Thank you to everyone who participated in our PTE! It was a big success. Everyone who played it and experienced our new features and better hit-reg could not stomach playing the main server again, which is a good sign, we think.

We have received lots of comments about our ranked overhaul and have updated the visuals and are continuing to adjust the Elo system in response to the feedback.

The next update will feature everything from the PTE as well as some features we couldn't ship just then, which mostly include new audio and visual effects. Full patch notes will be available when the patch releases, which will be in the very near future.



In case you missed it, details about the update for those who missed the PTE are in our last post on the developer blog which you can find here:


As always, for assistance with technical issues and direct feedback to the developers, you can head over to our Discord.

If you haven't already heard, our new PTE is online right now, and loaded with new content to test including:

• Our new Ranked Overhaul
  
• Grenade animation changes and deployment ghosts
  
• A complete hit registration overhaul
  
• A brand new PvE mode with bots, for both solo and co-op play
  
• Quality of Life improvements and fixes
  

There's a lot in this test, and more content on the horizon, so your best bet is to head on over to our new post on the devblog and read all about it there.

[h2]How to join the PTE[/h2]

1. Open your Steam Library
   
2. Right click Due Process and open its properties
   
3. Select 'Betas'
   
4. Open the drop down menu beside Beta Participation
   
5. Select 'public-test-environment'
   
6. Steam will now download the test branch.
   

Don't fret if you notice all your cosmetics, rank, and your matches played reset! This branch has that data stored separately. You will get your normal account data back when you move back to the standard version of the game.
Please also be aware that only US East and US Central servers are available for the PTE.




All content on the PTE is work-in-progress, and as such, subject to change. For assistance with the PTE and direct feedback to the developers, please head over to our Discord.

This is a minor update that contains a map count redistribution, 46 new maps, and some fixes for issues reported in the bug reports channel on our discord.

[h3]46 New Maps [/h3]

• A few of these 46 new maps are some weird amalgamation maps that will be removed from the pool after a limited time that is TBD.
  
• Lowered the count of the 2v2 maps somewhat, specifically 2v2 Killhouse as there was like way more of those than any other set, as well as slightly lowered the number of 2v2 cstores.
  
• This should put every 5v5 tileset at 20 maps and the 2v2 tilesets at 30 maps each, for a total of around 160 still but instead of having like 11 or 12 of some 5v5 tilesets, and like 40 2v2 tilesets, it's a more balanced ratio. No old maps were brought back to do this, just new maps.
  

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed a bug that prevented startup on the client in some cases where the client would start but not think it was either a server or a client and therefore got stuck
  
• Fixed bug(s) caused by clients attempting to shuffle users to start lobby mode when they don't ever have the appropriate data, causing all sorts of edge cases and bugs. (The cause of most of the recent 6v4 bugs, and some others, but there might be another cause of this.)
  
• Fixed a bug where the first frame of highlighting an object would be wrong if the user used a stretched gameplay resolution that was not a fractional ratio equivalent to their native resolution.
  
• Fixed error in UAV simulation that caused some minor UAV related edge cases
  
• Fixed another error around the same place where the client would erroneously resimulate the UAV killing the player multiple times, which could cause some bad edge cases in some places but was quite rare.
  
• Fixed an error in the phase change UI that was found in some bug report logs, but the actual representation or impact of this bugfix is unknown and is assumed to be minor.
  

Just as a note we are still working on more substative changes for the game, but they are not ready yet. When they are, we will bring them to live.