A lot of things happened since the release. We’ve worked hard to fix the problems and bugs identified by the community, added a lot of improvements and increased the quality of the game itself.



In the next couple of weeks our team will be focusing mostly on Survival aspects of the game - the diversity of the gameplay elements as well as on extending gameplay. Remember, that the core of Early Access is cooperation with the players, in order to deliver the most fitted for their requirements game. We want you to be able to come back to Chernobylite with pleasure for as long as possible. We care about polishing those elements, to bring the Early Access phase to final shape.

We also encourage you to report the bugs and problems you’ve encountered during the gameplay on our Steam forum - https://steamcommunity.com/app/1016800/discussions/1/ - your feedback will really help us get rid of the issues you experience completely.

If you have an opinion about Chernobylite in your mind, please write a review of the game on Steam. We are trying to reply to every one of them. We take into heart not only the things you like, but also the ones you think we should correct in the future. Thank you for all the reviews so far. Let’s keep up the good work guys!

Work Progress so far:


At the very beginning, a week after the release, we announced our official Roadmap which reveals many details about the content you may expect in the upcoming months. Players were curious about the direction we will take for the game so we decided to announce what we are planning to do and when. Those who missed it can check the Roadmap below.




We added couple of language localizations: Russian, Polish, German, Hungarian, French, Dutch, and Spanish. We also corrected the localization issues from the previous versions. Of course, we know that there are still some things that need to be corrected, but we are doing our best to fix them.
We also added English voice-overs for those who prefer playing the game in English.


Some of you were experiencing problems with the save system, that’s why we modified how it works. From now on the game is also saved after every day, which should make your gameplay experience easier. You don’t need to hold on to the current save, you can start the day from the beginning, as well as go a couple of days back.



We added a lot of optimization fixes which will shorten the game’s launching time on different PC specifications. We also optimized the memory management system which corrected the issues with sounds and reduced loading times of the maps. The FPS count has raised a few % as well. “Ultra” settings are still a prototype but we stabilized their flow so that they can work on computers with lower specifications than before.

The amount of space game requires is also reduced. This means that the patches from now on should be much smaller shortening the time necessary to download and install them.


Players had some problems with a too high difficulty level, that’s why we started implementing changes. We created a system which allows you to set up your difficulty settings on your own. There are 3 levels available: Survival, Combat and Base Management. Additionally, we added an option to skip the tutorials.


Many of you had argued about the quality of the repeatable missions. Therefore we fixed a lot of problems thank to your feedback. That means that the missions at current state are much more playable, and exciting. Let us know in the comments if you like it!



Gameplay:


Many of you asked us if we can correct the way the scanner works, to distinguish those items you are currently searching for from the other ones. You want it, you have it! Now the resources you select in the PDA menu are highlighted in green, while the rest of them are in yellow. It will allow you to easily search for what interests you most during exploration.


The players thought that the system in which the game limits the possibility of moving around the location for a long time is a bit too strict. As a solution we introduced an option to create a special device that allows you to extend the time between thunderstorms. We also got rid of the timer counting down the time to the next storm and allow the players to observe themselves how much time they have until the next storm. The Black Stalker appearing during a storm has been significantly weakened, making the survival of the storm easier.


In terms of the crafting system we added a few very important items, which can be very useful during gameplay:
- Q-Wave Generator which allows player to extend the time between storms.
- Adrenaline Shots to prevent Igor from dying.
- Alcohol, which helps you regain the correct level of Psyche.


First of all, we introduced a system allowing the game to go on forever. During the game, as you progress, it will be getting harder and harder to gather resources. Also due to the increasing level of radiation every day, animals that you can hunt to get food won’t appear as often as before.


You commented a lot about the stealth system. We took it under consideration, divided it down into parts and corrected the general concept. Level design is now significantly improved in order to support stealth better. So far changes in this matter can be found in the Moscow Eye, Pripyat Port and in several places in Kopachi.


We started working on Igor's Psyche mechanics. Please keep in mind that these are prototypical solutions which are just the foundations for what we want to create eventually.
Igor's lack of solid food and hunger now causes mental decline.
When the psyche level reaches zero, Igor's health points will begin to decrease until he has 1 health point left. However, you can defend yourself from the damaging effects of starvation with the help of Alcohol, which you can create in your base.

Other details about latest Chernobylite patches can also be found in the threads:

Major update: Survival and stealth adjusted
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1016800/announcements/detail/1610527415446563562
Major update: customize your gameplay style
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1016800/announcements/detail/1607150351605587307
Major Update: Food drops and Stealth
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1016800/announcements/detail/1607150984614261482




In the meantime we held a virtual photography contest. The community response was amazing with dozens, if not hundreds of entries! The competition was really tight, but in the end we were able to choose the winner and we announced the results of the competition in the thread below:

https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/1016800/announcements/detail/1607150351605587307

That’s all for this update, we’ll meet soon in the “Weekly Report #2!”

Chernobylite Team.

Chernobylite Rev 21569 Patch Change Log

Audio:
We've improved a lot of sound and dialogues that did not play properly. We're still working on it.
We have made a sound balance of English dialogues. They should now be better heard.
Monster sounds should no longer keep playing after his disappearance.

Fixes:
Vagabond dialogue should not be bugged anymore.
Gas trap during “Unearthed documents” should not glitch anymore.
Problem with the perishable quest marker during "Mikhail in trouble" has been fixed.
Fixed a bug that caused some items to disappear with full inventory. Now when we get something from the NPC and we have a full backpack, the item will fall to the ground.
We fixed a random bug that caused items with a value of 0 to remain in inventory

Food Drops polishing:
Our replayable quests - food drops - were visually polished on Pripyat and Moscow Eye locations. Each of them has a dedicated soldiers patrol and an environment adapted to stealth and shooting. Let us know if it’s playing better now!



Stealth:
We have closed almost all stealth arenas at the Moscow Eye. Do you like it? We look forward to hearing from you!

Chernobylite Rev 21432 (updated) Hotfix Change Log

- Problem with different languages mixing after language change in main menu has been resolved.

2019-11-06
Chernobylite Rev 21432 Patch Change Log

Localization:

• The huge number of errors in the location have been corrected. There are still some mistakes, we know about them and we fix them soon.
  
• VO sound balance has been made, now all should be heard

Fixes:

• We solved a problem that caused Tarakan's key to remain in inventory forever.
  
• We've fixed a rare bug that caused players to spawn under the level.
  
• Checkpoints on the Convoy quest should now work correctly.
  
• Mouse sensitivity settings should no longer reset after death.
  
• A lot of small bugs reported by steam have been resolved.
  
• Few smaller bugs related to level geometry have been resolved.

Difficulty Levels:
Our game is not yet in a place where you can balance every element well, which is why many of you complain that it is too easy or too difficult. To improve your game experience, we've decided to create a tool that will allow you to customize the game to your preferences. From today you can balance the level of difficulty in three categories - survival, combat and base management difficulty. Just start a new game. And in addition, so that you don't have to go through the power plant and all tutorials again - we've also added the option of skip them.



Scanner:
We have seen on streams that players have a problem with scanner detection. You ask, "If I choose raw material on it, why do they all light up?" We wanted to make players do not have to perform many scans, and at the same time could easily locate the raw material they are looking for. Navigation on the scanner screen was clearly not readable enough for you. Therefore, now we have changed the raw materials selection method. All raw materials are marked in yellow and those that we are looking for in green. This should help you a lot in your search:



Changes that we have done in level design for combat and stealth have been warmly received by you, which is why we continue working in this direction. This week we've improved several more arenas:

Almost all outdoor at Prypiat Port:



Surroundings of a large building on the Moscow Eye:



And today we’ve selected the winners of our first virtual photography contest!
Let’s make it clear. We thought it’ll be an quite technical task, but it took us several days - so many amazing screenshots have been sent to us, that we spent quite a time on checking them all. Then it was even harder to choose the best pictures, because the quality of work you’ve delivered was simply astonishing.

Today we can reward only few of virtual photographers, but we’ll take care to share your art and honor you within following weeks on our social media.

The winner and the person who’s invited to go with us for a real-life photo session in Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is…

for his depiction of Chernobyl liquidator:



Check more of his work in his galleries on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/141192508@N07/albums/72157711471561538) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/Jack1_1Hammer)


for the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant heist screenshot:



for beautiful portrait of Tatyana:



for capturing the amazing mood of the Chernobyl Zone scenery:



We’ll contact the winners for the delivery of the prizes this week.

And good news for those who’d like to keep fighting on this ground. Looking at what you’ve provided, we’re sure this is not the last of our virtual photography contest.
Stay tuned for the next announcement!

Chernobylite Rev 21240 Hotfix Change Log

- Major issue with game crashing when returning to base has been fixed.
- Quest marker should no longer bug during "Convoy" and "Hack NAR servers"

Chernobylite Rev 21232 Hotfix Change Log

Overall:
- Problem with black screen after using inventory should be resolved
- We have corrected a very annoying bug with the volume of storm and lightning.
- Minor changes on Kopachi should improve optimization
- A lot of small bugs related to level geometry have been resolved
- Resolution scale can be changed by single percent, which gives more freedom. Even a slight decrease in this parameter strongly affects performance.

Important note: to make the whole game working smoother, updating faster and requiring less space on your hard drive, we've strongly altered and optimized the general structure of the game build. This means that with current patch you'll need to re-download the whole game content which is about 28 Gigabytes of data after compression. But from now you'll have more free space on your hard drive and the next patches will be smaller and more effectively downloaded and installed.

General fixes:

• For everybody willing to make perfect screenshot or virtual photography without the game interface: we've added the option to disable UI using the CTRL + ALT + [ combination of keys. This shortcut disables the UI completely and permanently, to invert it you need to reload the game. We are working on a more elegant solution.
  
• Compression and Steam packages optimization made game build much smaller. Instead of 45 GB right now it should occupy about 30 GB on the disk.
  
• Not all gameplay mechanics were clear to you, especially those in Base and after death. We've added some new tutorials to explain them.
  
• Items and containers now have a small overlay that appears before we pick them up. This should facilitate scavenging and looting soldiers when several items are close by.
  
• Compass UI is a little more subtle.

AI and combat:

• Soldiers should now behave more naturally when they find the body.
  
• Takedown produces sound. Killing a few soldiers next to each other should no longer be possible.
  
• Black Stalker uses the laser and no longer shoots using debug tracing lines.

Fixes:

• Beating dolls should no longer cause a crash...
  
• Equipment size can no longer be expanded indefinitely.
  
• Tarakan should now appear correctly in the database when using retrospective branching.
  
• Exiting the game at transition levels should no longer cause damage to save if you do so after the indicator disappears.
  
• We've fixed a whole bunch of smaller bugs you have reported. Thanks!

Survival:
The flow of survival is one of the most important elements of our game. Unfortunately, not all of our design decisions were presented clear to you. Many of you asked, "why if the meaning of the game is to survive in Chernobyl, then the game lasts only 10 days?". Well, the game was not limited to 10 days, we rather wanted you to replay the story missions with branching and retrospections, which is best seen at repeated transitions. Today, we are not sure if this decision was correct. Therefore, as part of the experiment, we raise the limit to 100 days, additionally introducing several changes that should emphasize on survival aspect:

• Over time, Chernobylite storms are becoming more frequent. Build a Q-wave generator to defend against them.
  
• As a result of chernobylite substance activity, the zone is becoming more and more radioactive every day. Moving around it will be more and more difficult.
  
• Raw materials for crafting are slowly diminishing in the following days, which will result in fewer and fewer of them with time progress.
  
• There will be fewer and fewer animals over time. Hunting for food will be more difficult.

Stealth improvements:
We often hear from you that unfinished AI is one of the biggest problems of the game. However, the problem is much more complex. To make AI better, we also need to improve patrol roads, level design and many game balance parameters. So far we’ve chosen 3 places for testing. If you like it, we will improve the rest of the game in a similar way:

Center of military base on Eye of Moscow:



Near the hospital at Prypiat Port:



Western part of the resort on Kopachi:



In addition, we have introduced the following changes in combat:

• When we hide in the bushes, they become slightly transparent. It's easier to move around and watch soldiers.
  
• New takedown animation. Only one at the moment, but it shows the direction in which we want to go. It is slower, more emotional and emphasizes more on the fact that Igor is not a killing machine.

Psyche system:

• We have finally started to work on this mechanics. Treat these solutions as prototypical, it's just a base for the future, which will ultimately hinder survival:
  
• Igor's lack of food allocation results in a decrease in Psyche
  
• When Psyche is at 0 the player starts to drop health points, down to 1 point.
  
• We've added the ability to craft alcohol in a laboratory that raises psyche.

Remember about our virtual photography contest that ends soon:
https://steamcommunity.com/gid/103582791463995837/announcements/detail/1663444077006171888
Many stalkers already provided their great artwork, you can still contribute and win the trip to the real Chernobyl Zone with us!

The only thing you need to do is to make a beautiful virtual photo / screenshot within the game and post it on our Steam community forum or your Twitter with the #chernobyliteVP hashtag. Alternatively, put it on the Discord channel (https://discord.gg/mehRmzY in the special #chernobylite-virtual-photos channel). The deadline is Halloween, October 31st, 24 pm PDT. If you’ve already posted some cool screens from the game, feel free to upload them again with the hashtag to take place in the contest.



Just to let you know, to make a Steam screenshot you press F12 (by default) during playing the game (then you can upload it to the community forums). And if you’re more ambitious and you owe NVIDIA graphic card, you can use the NVIDIA’s Ansel
tool, activated by Alt+F2.



To give you an idea of what you can achieve with these simple steps, check the few screens captured by our talented friend Eul Keke (you can check his Twitter for more beautiful virtual photos he’s making on regular basis).



You don’t need to have any extra software, just your copy of Chernobylite and the will to capture your best game moments. We don’t recommend using Photoshop or other software to make your pictures look better – anyway, we want to let you show what you like in the game at its current state.

The best work judged by the devs will be awarded the trip to Chernobyl Zone together with the dev team (requirements: you need to be +18 years old, you need to have valid international passport and you need to go to Kyiv, Ukraine or Gliwice, Poland on your own – the other things, including travel, food, overnight stay, photo equipment, and permissions will be covered by us and the dates can be anywhere within next 12 months). The winner will also receive a Chernobylite t-shirt and printed physical artbook. At top of it, we’ll give away 3 physical artbooks and 3 Chernobylite t-shirts for the following best photographers.



By the way, if you owe the game but still didn’t review/vote Chernobylite on Steam, we’d like to ask you to do so, especially if you like the game 🙂

Hey stalkers!

It’s been a long week. Likely the most busy and the most fruitful time in the whole project’s history. We’ve finally released the Early Access of Chernobylite on Steam and GOG and it was just the beginning of the next big stage for the project. Now we’re pushing hard to keep improving the game after the feedback gathered from all of you. And because the game became popular with so many players buying it and joining our communities, we’re both extremely happy and quite overwhelmed because of that much of the data to process nowadays.

Please keep playing the game and reporting us any suggestions, issues and ideas – we can’t always answer all of them in real-time, but we’re definitely reading all of them and trying to sort out for the execution of our work plan.

Last few days we’ve prepared and released 3 big patches with several additions, modifications, optimizations and improvements over the existing content. All according to your requests, bug reports, discussions on forums, and the reviews we’ve received. Among others, we’ve added many language localizations as this was one of the main requests: now you can play Chernobylite with English voices (at top of Russian that was already in game) and subtitles/interface in English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Hungarian and Polish. The next localizations are on their way soon. We’ve improved a lot the optimization thanks to your feedback and hardware reports, removed many crash-related issues (thanks to your bug-reports, again).

The key question now would be – what next?

The most important: we plan to regularly update the project with three types of content packs:

• Monthly content updates: every month we want to deliver a huge content update, like a new weapon, location, gameplay feature, mission pack and so on.
  
• Weekly updates: every week we plan to release a smaller patch with the fixes and improvements for the most important aspects of the project that deserve to be delivered as soon as possible (like yesterdays weekly patch with English dialogue voice-overs).
  
• Minor updates: without any time obligations, if we’ll see there’s something worth of throwing update just-in-time, we’ll do it (like it happened twice during last week with optimization and bug-fixes updates).

Please take a look on the preliminary roadmap here once more if you missed it yesterday.



The plans that we’ve originally had are a bit adjusted regarding the order of delivering you different content packs, but the overall game idea shaped earlier together with our Kickstarter backers remains intact. We definitely need to better address few fields of the project that was mostly reported as requiring more attention: AI, combat balance, technical issues, language implementation quality, save and progression system. We plan do add possibility to access different game areas more easily without need to restart the whole game. We’ll keep working on optimization and animations quality, as well as on soundtrack and overall gameplay balance. Basically, almost all of what we’ve done already makes us proud considering the time and budget we had, but personally none of us is 100% happy with the idea to stop fixing, improving and polishing the stuff. So expect small, but noticeable changes to keep popping-up all the time.

Stay irradiated!

Localization:
- We've added English Voice Over. The language of the voices can be changed in the game settings.
- Spanish language version has been added.
- The line about killing “single Russian” changed to non-offending.

Chernobylite Storms:
Bad balance combined with bugs caused that this element is identified by you with time limit. Our goal has never been to make a time limit, but only to let you feel the breath of your main nemesis - the Black Stalker - all the time. We are listening to your feedback on this element of the game. That is why we have made the following changes:
- Now you can build a Q-wave generator in the base, which makes storm less common.
- The Black Stalker is now much weaker, and its appearance time has been reduced from 2 minutes to 30 seconds. Its AI and operation is a prototype. Will change in the coming weeks
- The clock has been turned off. Now, to know when the storm comes you must observe the sky and changes in the world.

Optimization:
- Overall regardless of the settings, the game should work a few percents better.
- We've optimized the memory management method. This should resolve most sound issues and make levels load much faster. FPS drops will also be less frequent and less severe.
- We're working on Ultra settings. Although they are still a prototype, they should work much better on slightly weaker machines.

Retrospective branching (also called “new game plus”):
- Collected evidence should no longer disappear after players death
- Player perks should no longer disappear after his death

Improvements/Additions:
- Adrenaline can now be crafted in the base laboratory

Fixes:
- Fixed an issue where players could get stuck during training with Mikhail
- Due to numerous errors and crashes related to hacking, we decided to temporarily disable it.
- We've fixed a bug that allowed you to gain unlimited experience during the Tarakan quest
- Quest Unearthed documents should now be a bit easier to complete.
- Fixed an issue that prevents Unearthed documents from being completed during the next attempt
- We've fixed several issues that caused the marker to not always work properly during the mission in Pripyat.
- We've fixed a whole bunch of smaller bugs you have reported. Thanks!


If you have any feedback for us, don't hesitate to give it. Finally, a small dessert - we finished work on our Roadmap. You can see it below: