Hello Hunters!
It's been a few weeks since our last update went live, so it's about time for another one!
Introducing, the Overload Update.
There's a new late-game mission and it brings its own unique map with it. To ensure this sits cleanly against the existing questline, we've made a small change to an existing mission. And we have also included a large performance pass, giving you a real performance improvement.
So, grab your kit. The Power Plant is been waiting...
New Mission, Unique Map
The Nuclear Power Plant is here. Although, instead of running around the basement, now you can accept the mission, jump on the train and ride in to explore even more of this looming monstrosity. The Nuclear Power Plant is a unique map built solely for this mission, as opposed to being one you can travel to time and time again.
This is extreme late-game work. Come prepared. Bring more ammo and repair kits then you'll ever think you need. Countless enemies and tight interior routes is the point of this place. Do not treat it like a loot run you can shrug off.
Existing Mission Update
After completing 'Machinery' the Barman would send you through Watcher HQ, down to the railroad, into the plant and all the way to the wish in a single raid, but it was not a real quest. More-so it was a conversation that asked you to finish the game in one run.
That path is now two proper missions.
'The Underground Railroad' starts after 'Machinery'. You'll fight through Watcher HQ, reach their underground railroad, follow it to the Power Plant and extract. Getting there and getting out is the job. You do not have to resolve the plant on the same raid.
'The Power Plant' is the new final mission. Once there, you'll need to find and hit four switches to unlock the door and then face the boss to claim the wish. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, the only issue is each switch that unlocks the door is in hidden away a different dungeon. Complete the dungeons, get all four switches and unlock the door, and you're only halfway there...
If you already finished the old 'What Next?' quest line, you won't need to restart the campaign. Just head on over to the Barman and take the new mission.
Performance
A lot of the work in this update is behind the curtain. You should notice this mostly in tree-and-decor-heavy areas, and anywhere a lot of NPCs are.
What you will see:
Trees, grass and decor are now drawn as solid or masked objects instead of soft see-through ones.
Foliage now uses a dithered pixel fade rather than going semi-transparent. This is the only cosmetic change in this pass. The intended look is the same. The performance is not.
Trees fade around you, your cursor and nearby NPCs without the old heavy per-tree check.
Foliage and decor are batched more like grass, so the game is doing less unique work per object.
Decor that needs collision stays in the world, but is no longer drawn when it does not need to be. Decor with no collision has been removed.
NPCs and weapons skip their draw work when they are off screen.
Cover and range checks for NPCs no longer run every frame. NPC-to-NPC target acquisition works the same way. How NPCs notice you and how aggro builds toward the player is unchanged.
What that means in a raid:
Less hitching when a dense clump of trees comes on screen.
No performance drops on enemies you cannot see yet.
AI that still tracks you properly without effecting performance.
A small visual change to how trees part around the Hunter. If something looks off, tell us. This is the one place the optimisation is allowed to look different.
Modding Improvements
We've also included some modding updates, courtesy of Hunter 'rfc_1918'. Their work and additions in this update has helped all the modders out there to:
More easily modify weapon attachments and effect ranges.
A solid contributions which are very much appreciated!
As always, thank you for the reports. A lot of this pass exists because Hunters kept pointing at the maps that chugged and the jobs that felt unfinished.
If you've not seen our announcement trailer yet for this update, check it out here: [dynamiclink href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxIZFqb6lNE"]
See you in the Zone.
