Hey Runners! 👋 Hope you guys are doing well.
Today marks our biggest content drop yet! The Great Plains Biome is officially live in Funnel Runners, bringing sprawling rural farmsteads, open highway stretches, and intense weather research missions straight into the heart of tornado country!
Alongside this major environmental expansion, we've deployed 4 brand-new data collection quests, 2 terrifying new tornado variations (Multi-Vortex and Fire Tornados!), fresh environmental traps, 2 new APEX uniforms, 3 new van repair mechanics, 9 utility items, +15 Steam achievements, 30 lore entries, and a massive pass of networking, audio, UI, and controller deadzone fixes!
NEW CONTENT & FEATURES 🌾
New Biome: The Great Plains
The Great Plains Biome: Transporting you straight from city suburbs to the heartland of American storm chasing! Launches today with 2 procedural map variations (with a 3rd variation actively on the way). Discover brand-new open rural areas, farmsteads, and hidden company secrets.
New Research Quests
Balloon Problem: Locate and launch weather balloons across the map to sample upper-atmosphere data.
Tornado Reading: Find, prime, and deploy telemetry sensor arrays directly into active tornadoes to capture inner-core measurements.
Weather Observing: Locate and set up P.A.N.I.C. Observation Stations around the map to record atmospheric pressure.
Photographic Evidence: APEX needs photos of your fieldwork in case anyone questions the quality of our services.
New Tornado Types
Multi-Vortex Tornadoes: Also known as the "Dead Man Walking" by weather nerds. Multiple sub-vortices orbit the main funnel, creating unpredictable suction paths.
Fire Tornadoes: When tornadoes pass through heavy fires, they absorb the flames into a raging column of fire. Fire tornadoes move significantly faster and ignite everything in their path!
New Traps & Environmental Hazards
Mud Pools: Slow down player movement and drag your boots down right when you're trying to outrun a funnel.
Rakes: Watch your step in farm yards! Stepping on a rake flips the handle straight into your face.
Flammable Crop Fields & Fallen Transmission Lines: Crop fields ignite easily, especially if high-voltage power line cables drop into them!
New APEX Company Uniforms (Skins)
The Electrical: Built to protect field operatives against high-voltage electrical hazards.
The Gearhead: Designed for field mechanics to lend a fast hand with van repairs.
Note: Added unique moodlets to existing skins that lacked them—Agile for Field Operative, Deputized for Sheriff, and Lifesaver for Life Line.
New Van Repair Issues
Broken Satellite: Disables the van's Doppler Radar and interior monitors until realigned and repaired.
Broken Outriggers: Damaged hydraulic hoses prevent the van's stabilization legs from securing the vehicle.
Broken Door Controls: Fix the door mechanism before the storm breaches your only line of defense!
New Items, Lore & Achievements
9 New Utility Items: Spread across gadgets, consumables, tools, and van repair parts.
+15 New Steam Achievements: Test your survival skills across the Great Plains!
30 New Lore Archives: Deepen your understanding of APEX Corporation's mysterious weather research efforts.
FIXES & QUALITY OF LIFE IMPROVEMENTS 🛠️
Gameplay & Physics Fixes
Fixed several desync bugs occurring when high-ping players ragdolled while picking up items (resolving invisible items, frozen mid-air objects, duplicated ghost items, trapped inventories, and pick/drop failures).
Added burning wrecks for exploded vehicles—fire damage zones now burn nearby players and share a single lifetime with the vehicle flames.
Updated Darts throws: Darts are now thrown upon releasing \[E] and can be canceled by pressing \[Q].
Fixed an issue where a player dying with a heal-over-time moodlet could leave their character stuck in an "undead" state.
Fixed an issue where being stunned while charging a defibrillator caused permanent movement slowdown.
Fixed an issue where players could get stuck in sewage pits if two players attempted rescue simultaneously.
Fixed holding a Portable Conductor improperly protecting players from electric fences.
Fixed live wires failing to play PlayerHitSound when a player had lightning protection.
Fixed lightning moodlet infection failing to spread damage to nearby teammates.
Fixed a bug where a shock moodlet expiring while holding a Portable Conductor disabled the conductor.
Fixed an issue where players were knocked down inside buildings before environmental destruction sounds kicked in.
Fixed an issue where player character meshes clipped through the ground when stunned in front of monitors.
Fixed held items disabling distance field lighting on attach instead of pickup (which caused shadows to vanish while still on the ground).
Fixed held items appearing invisible to client players if picked up from far distances.
Van, AI & Map Adjustments
Fixed Gameplay Van spawning near the center of roads instead of aligning neatly along street edges.
Fixed Outriggers missing from the van during cinematic cutscenes.
Fixed Scavenger I achievement incorrectly requiring only 50 items instead of 100.
Fixed Scissor Jack failing to appear in its proper placement for clients far from the van.
Fixed rare cases where damaged van components appeared fully healthy for clients.
Updated the "Cleared for Entry" quest to guarantee double the required number of locked doors (up to 14 for Nightmare difficulty).
Settings, Controls & UI Overhaul
Reorganized Settings Menu into top-level Gameplay and Accessibility tabs:
Accessibility: CRT Effect Strength, Color Vision Filter, Color Vision Filter Intensity, Flash Intensity, Show Tutorial Subtitles.
Gameplay: Toggle Sprint, Toggle Crouch, Open Doors with Interact, Close Doors with Interact, Disable Tutorial, Replace Effort Minigame, Auto-Skip Cutscenes.
Added advanced Controller settings: Inner Dead Zone, Outer Dead Zone, Dead Zone Shape, Look Response Curve, Aim Assist Strength, and Aim Assist Range.
Added a Trap Volume Slider in audio settings to independently control fire and live-wire loop volumes.
Added a Crash Detector System: Runs for 120 seconds after modifying settings; if a crash occurs, the game relaunches in Safe Mode with a diagnostic warning.
Improved screen layouts on Company Vault, Locker, Session Lobby, Post-Game Data, and Doppler Radar screens when using UI Scaling or non-standard aspect ratios.
Updated Pocket Radar item icons to be distinguishable by shape and color:
Regular Items: Green Circle | Key Items: Blue Diamond | Collectibles: Pink Star | Telemetry Indicator: Purple Ring | Observatory Indicator: Cyan Hexagon.
Updated Task List to dynamically hide "Start the Van" and "Check Mission Board" entries if all sub-objectives are already completed.
Fixed Q and E key prompt labels being reversed in tab lists (Locker, Settings, Post-Game Data).
Fixed keyboard prompts displaying instead of controller button icons when playing on a controller.
Fixed First-Person arm mesh on the Sheriff skin displaying an incorrect glow on the sleeve mask.
Networking, Voice & Performance Polish
Implemented a Save Backup & Recovery System: Saves now feature checksums to detect corruption automatically, maintaining up to 5 rolling backups in SaveGames/Backups.
Added automatic Steam reconnection handling and Sentry telemetry tagging for frame generation, upscalers, and Reflex modes.
Fixed Voice Chat volume glitches (prevented volume resets between lobby/match transitions and resolved mixed-up player volume sliders).
Fixed Push-To-Talk ignoring the initial button press or failing on Post-Game Data screens.
Fixed initial Time of Day, Weather, Threat Level, and Difficulty desynchronizing between hosts and client players.
Fixed Fire Tornado visual effects failing to sync correctly across all connected clients.
Fixed clients getting permanently stuck in the tornado dance emote.
Fixed DLSS and FSR Quality scaling settings being off by one step (ensuring Ultra Performance applies intended render scale).
Fixed FSR Frame Generation plugin interactions causing DLSS Frame Generation crashes.
Improved PSO shader pre-compilation coverage to reduce hitches during weather transitions.
if you’re enjoying the massive Great Plains update and our team's hard work, leaving a Steam review helps our tiny studio HEAVENLY. Would you like to be closer to the community and the devs? Join our discord and you will be on top of everything happening in the game first hand!
👉 Join here: \[Funnel Runners Discord]
Grab your walkie-talkies, patch up the van, and watch out for that lightning. The storm is officially here. See you in the funnel! 🌪️
