After The Forever Winter's chunky March update, which dramatically overhauled one of the tense extraction shooter's key systems, I just assumed the team at Fun Dog Studios would be having a quieter April. It turns out I was very wrong.
April's Nosebleed update might not be quite as big a game-changer as last month's, but it's certainly shaking things up a bit, bringing in a slew of tweaks, a ridiculous new gun, and the early access game's first DLC. Things are always happening in the gloomy post-apocalyptic battlefields of the far-flung future, it turns out.
The most exciting addition for me has gotta be the new railgun, which is more than just a new bit of kit to help you survive as you scavenge your way across the battlefield. The railgun is actually part of a series of quests that will require quite a bit of teamwork.
You'll need to get the attention of a new pal back at your base, Bunco, who will give you some quests once you're on good terms with him. These quests will send you hunting for components to build a railgun, which can then be used to construct three railgun parts using your crafting terminal.
This is not a solo endeavour. Each railgun part will need to be carried by a player into a mission, and once you construct it and plonk it down, you won't be able to disassemble it. You won't be able to bring it back with you, either. Thus, you'll really need to build a strategy around its use to take full advantage of it. "Recovery operations may be possible in the future," Fun Dog says, however.
One player will also need to man the beast, and they'll be able to take out a tank in a single hit, as well as being able to stun the game's most terrifying and powerful enemies, letting you get some loot from them. So hopefully it'll be worth all the effort.
This update also includes the game's first premium skin pack, letting you give Scav Girl, Bag Man and Shaman new looks. These are purely aesthetic skins, but I'm absolutely digging them. The exceptional art direction of The Forever Winter is one of its big draws, and it's on full display here.
I'm particularly keen on Scav Girl's new skin, which is just straight up unnerving.
"These skins represent veteran Scavs that have evolved on the battlefield in their own ways," says Fun Dog. "They were out so long that they streamlined their kit, their bodies, and their personal protection: each one expressing their personal Scav preference!"
A new map variant is also being flung into the mix, as well as new animations, improved AI, audio tweaks and a whole host of other improvements and changes. Check out the list below.
- DLC: 3 new character skins
- New-skin cinema in the Innards
- Stairway Night Mode
- Heavy weapons first pass
- Bunco as an unlockable quest giver
- Bunco quests to earn components to build railgun parts
- Weapon-part crafting terminal
- 3-player cooperative railgun weapon assembly
- Boss stunning / boss codex loot
- Improved animations for Bagman and Maskman
- Map collision cleanup
- Recruit AI improvements Mk. 1
- Improved Mother Courage AI
- Fixes to Medium Mech patrol logic
- Improved third person camera alignment
- Enhanced music system improvements
- Specific kill-quest enemies improvements
- Drone and Chopper improvements
- Better logic for faction score increases when AI notice you damaging / killing their foes
- Loot containers now have a larger range of potential items (type and count) to drop
- Various hand-positioning and animation improvements to player character weapon poses
- Fixed sync-kill distance bug that would sometimes allow enemies such as the Grabber to sync kill foes from too far away
