Hello!

We hope that all of you are all right! The world is slowing down, cities are empty and people (hopefully) stay at home playing games and waiting for a better time to go outside. Did you know that the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is now closed? Fortunately, you can still visit it in our game!

Last week was a bit of a challenge for us. We had to face a huge logistics operation and take all of the necessary hardware to our homes, set up new working places there and get used to this whole new situation. At least that is what we can do. Once again - we are still working, not slowing down and trying to create as much content as we can despite the circumstances!

Not only the real world is empty and quiet. We are working on new in-game locations which are also forsaken and scary. Is this an empty playground? And an abandoned car? You may think you are safe when there is no-one around but what if someone is watching you from one of many of those windows? You will be able to find out pretty soon!





Meet our new character who we are working on right now. Kozlov - the perfect man of honor, has two faces - a grandfather, who loves to play with his grandson and a ruthless, efficient military commander. He believes in order, warrior’s honor and the nation. What role does he play in Igor’s life? Will he turn out to be a good or an evil person? Well, that is for you to find out soon!



Last week we showed you a new monster from another dimension. Today we would like to introduce new human enemies - Soldiers. But wait, we already have some of them in the game? That is correct, but this time we've added new variants of soldiers that appear in later days and at higher difficulty levels. They are stronger and shoot more accurately.



That is all for today! Stay safe and healthy guys. And one more time - please stay home! See you next week!

Hello!

We hope that all of you are safe and healthy. We also hope that you decided to stay home, while we keep preparing new content to enjoy. Today we will show you a sneak-peak with a new enemy but let us begin with very important information.

First of all, we would like to calm you down - we do not stop working on the game. We take all the usual safety precautions, such as home office and avoiding personal meetings. Our field of operation lets us develop games remotely and safely. However, there might be some delays in publishing new patches. We kindly ask you for your patience as we all need to get used to this new situation. So, what are we currently working on? Let’s have a look.

We like fighting monsters and trying to survive. But why should we limit ourselves and only have human-like enemies? Who does not love radioactive mutated spiders from another dimension? Covered in a cobweb of chernobylite, trying to surprise you jumping out of their nests? Just look at it, smiling to you! He’s our new cute&ugly dev team pet ;)





Something not very pleasant for your eyes but highly requested. In a short time, you will be able to unleash your fury and rip your enemies from their arms, legs or heads. As we do not want to be brutal and show you sensitive content here we only present colorless images. But you can imagine how do they look in the game - with full colors and shiny textures filled with horror.





Our investigation will be like no other. You will be able to dive deep into the fractal world, look for clues and watch stories from the past. It is very mysterious but also really important for Igor and for you, as a player. We will not show you more of this for now. We will let your imagination work!






Today we end without any funny memes. Please, stay home, watch Netflix, play games (Chernobylite of course!) and take care of each other. See you next week let’s hope healthy as never!

General:

• We've fixed a bug that prevented storage from being used

Improvements/Additions:

• Various optimization works reduced the visual quality of the Moscow eye. We're working to improve it. The effects should be visible now.
  
• Many of you complain about the amount of slots available in the quick menu. So we increased their number from 4 to 8.
  
• After returning from the mission, many of you instead of going to sleep want to use the binoculars immediately after returning to the base. We've added a tutorial that should counteract this.
  
• Weapon modification should now be much more readable. While upgrading weapons, statistics are now displayed in the way that dynamically respond to applied upgrades.
  
• We have added new generic quests. From now on go yourself or send your companions for food, medicine and ammunition. You need to start a new game loop or a new game for them to appear.
  
• We've added miniquests in the base. Now your companions will ask you to solve their problems with the base, while teaching how it works.
  
• From now on, all crafting stations can be built only once. Thanks to this, it will be easier to know what we have already built and what we have not.
  
• We've added an indicator that clearly shows when you can perform takedown on your opponent.
  
• We've improved the notes handling system. Now you can zoom and move them to make them easier to read. But if someone still has problems reading them, we've added a system that displays standardized text in the appropriate language.
  
• We've improved the way we hold the revolver. Now it should be much easier to aim at.

General:

• Storage content should no longer disappear when a player dies. I hope this bug will never come back again…
  
• Now buildings built in the base should be correctly facing the player
  
• Character names in subtitles should no longer be displayed in black. Never.
  
• We have optimized sound banks. In addition to better performance, current build should be much lighter (over 2 GB) and future patches smaller.

Good news everyone! Next week we’re planning to publish a new update - Game Quality Improvement Pass 2 which will contain a lot of visible changes. Also we’ve chosen the winner of the community vote contest!

Now, let’s have a look on what’s coming next.

Visual boost on Moscow Eye

During the optimization process the graphic quality unfortunately decreased (which is normal at some stage of the process) and now we are implementing fixes to boost the quality of graphics on the Moscow Eye level so that FPS will stay good and the visuals will be pleasing to the eye again. The effects should be visible in the upcoming patch and it’s still work in progress. See for yourselves.







After receiving many suggestions from the players about not enough slots in the quick menu we decided to expand the number of slots to 8. Now, you will be able to add more items you find useful without being forced to substitute other items instead.



We made changes to the Weapon Upgrade UI which should be more readable now. While upgrading weapons, statistics will be displayed in the way that dynamically responds to applied upgrades. We hope this will make upgrading your weapons easier and more pleasant.






Sometimes the notes you find in the game can be a little bit hard to read for some people. After all, they are often very old documents on which time has left its mark. That’s why we made some changes in this matter. Soon you will be able to zoom and move a note which will make it easier to read. But if someone would still have problems after all, there will be a new system that displays standardized text in the appropriate language.
This way you will be able to sink into the story more pleasantly ;)





Last but not least, we have chosen the winner of the last community vote contest! The choice was difficult because there were so many really really great answers. But we had to choose one so the winner is… Gökhan Şimşek for his really long and insightful reply about Pripyat Port! Congratulations!
We will reach out to the winner via Twitter. Thanks again everyone for your opinions and see you in the next community vote!

Winner tweet:



A couple of weeks ago there has been a tragedy. Tatyana’s red dress has gone missing after all this time it served us on various events. Fortunately, we have a spare one, but after all, it’s a shame.
BUT! We conducted an investigation with a search party and looks like we have our suspect! This guy.



Not only he’s a scary guy following your steps, but also female garment thief. You should really watch out for him.

That's all for today! See you next week!

Hello!

We hope everyone here is feeling well in the light of recent events.
As for us, we’ve been continuing our war with bugs and errors for the last week and we’ve just published another huuuge update with tons of fixes. Probably it’s the longest changelog we’ve ever made so far!

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1016800/announcements/detail/1711869190683840650

The last weeks were rich with stabilizing updates so, as always, we would like to ask you to check them yourselves and let us know what you think on our Steam forum. Remember, a good bug is a dead bug so let’s catch them all together! Oh, if you like some of the changes, tell us so that we know if we’re going the right direction.



Our first community voting is over and we’re actually surprised with the results. Initially Red Forest was the front-runner, but then Pripyat Port and Moscow Eye began to catch up and eventually we have joint winners: Moscow Eye and Red Forest with 32.4% score! For some of you it was too hard to choose any of the locations which is really great to hear!



Red Forest is praised especially for its views, beauty, realistic foliage and creepy atmosphere at the same time.
Moscow Eye gets thumbs up for its structures great for exploring, realism, scariness and pacing.
Pripyat Port also received lots of kind words especially for its authenticity and dark atmosphere.

We would like to thank everyone who voted in the poll and even bigger thanks for all the comments. It was a pleasure to read them and we’ll be definitely making more such polls in the future :)



Since you like Red Forest so much, we would like to show you something which is coming soon to the location. We’re constantly working on it but have a peek at the WIP village which you will be able to find there. How do you like it?





That’s it for today. See you next week!

Improvements/Additions:

• We have significantly improved the appearance of the Main Menu. New version may have minor problems and bugs, but overall, it is close to its final form.
  
• In building and crafting menus we added information on whether and how many objects of the given type we have already built.
  
• We improved the appearance and lighting of the character. They should have more detail now.
  
• UI for investigation board has been improved graphically
  
• We've added support information that encourages you to address base issues before going to bed.
  
• We added 3 starting perks that tell you about Igor's skills at the beginning.
  
• Many people did not notice the tutorials, which later caused them problems and confusion with the game. Now pop-ups should be definitely more noticeable, although they still do not stop the game.
  
• We introduced a lot of improvements to Level Design related to Power Plant that should break the feeling of ubiquitous "invisible walls" a bit.
  
• We improved the quest draw system. Now, the ones associated with the plot should appear much more often.
  
• Many of you don't know that instead of dying while fighting soldiers, you can just give up and let them capture you. We added a tutorial on how to do it.
  
• We've revised some of the texts in the Journal to make them easier to understand. We are still working on its quality.
  
• In the Journal, new graphics to skills are added. Now everything should be much more pleasing to the eye.
  
• On the second loop of the game Olivier now gives Igor adrenaline. It should make the game easier for those who often die.
  
• Inventory quality of life improvement. You don't have to click on it to see the item description anymore, just move the cursor on it.
  
• We have optimized the operation of videos, we also discarded old prototypes. Thanks to this the build should be almost a gigabyte smaller.

AI:

• We added voice system to AI soldiers. Now they should respond verbally to the player's actions. This prototype may not work very well yet, and VOs are placeholders.
  
• The opponents should behave much better when player disappears from their view. They no longer use suicide rush and don't shoot everything around them blindly.
  
• We've improved the opponents' threat meter. Now opponents react more dynamically to his acquisition.
  
• The way soldiers aim for the player are more polished. Fighting with several soldiers should be a bit easier now.
  
• We eliminated a bug in the path system that caused frequent game crashes.

General:

• The problem generating crashes in Free Play mode is fixed.
  
• We detected an error that caused some data to remain in memory despite starting a new game.It was probably responsible for all very rare and difficult replication errors, such as a broken radiation gate or a disappearing portal generator.
  
• The problem with objects jumping between storage should no longer occur. Only new storage will work properly! If you don't want to start a new game, then demolish the old and create a new one. Thanks to everyone who overwhelm us with all storage problems.
  
• The error that caused endless falling loop (occurs during takedown and low health animation) should not occur anymore.
  
• We have removed old prototype remains from the build menu
  
• We fixed some errors with inventory positioning. We also added signatures.
  
• During the "Meeting with Tarakan" quest, special effects should now activate correctly.
  
• Problem with the inability to interact with items, because the player is in combat, although all opponents are no longer alive, should no longer occur.
  
• Kopachi Vagabond event should no longer block the game.
  
• Dialog menu should no longer conflict with other interface elements.
  
• Chernobylite and Portal Generator now have final icons.
  
• The log now shows us the number of crafted ammo correctly.
  
• During training with Mikhail there were still remains from the first day on the level that made it difficult to focus on the task. Now, it’s fixed.

Our bug fixing offensive is in its bloom and our last week’s main focus was specifically on improving and fixing all the old and new issues.

After the last update we realized that we should pay more attention to stability when adding new content and changes. Early Access game is a living organism and breaking things affects all our player community so it requires care and thorough tests. We took all your recent reviews very seriously and decided to put almost all our manpower to fix bugs and problems.



The first fruit of our labour was the recent major update which solved some problems with CPU and FPS drops, save system, the starting mission, some animations and began the process of rebuilding Moscow Eye to improve its performance. The full list of changes is here:

https://steamcommunity.com/gid/103582791463995837/announcements/detail/3744117349102512645

In the following weeks we will be focusing on improving and fixing e.g. elements of the soldier’s AI, UI (Inventory, Base Building, Tutorials), skill trainings or perk system and, of course, we’ll continue to optimize the game.

Let us know how the recent changes worked for you on our Steam forum. The more details you give us the better! :)



Reviews and forum discussions are one way of learning what you think. But now, we want to add something else. From now on we will be making regular surveys on our social media to learn more globally what things you like about our game. Today we launched our first one on Twitter:

Which of these locations is your favourite and why?
https://twitter.com/ChernobylGame/status/1230853230709657607



All you need to do is choose the place you feel is best in your opinion, and, if you like, share some thoughts why you think so in the comments section.

Now here’s a treat for that! The most interesting answer will win a Chernobylite T-shirt, Artbook and a printed bundle from the game! The poll ends on Wednesday 26 February 2020.



Rules of the contest: http://www.thefarm51.com/chernobylite-contest-rules/

Last Thursday was one of the best days in the whole year - it was Fat Thursday! It’s a special day before the Lent when everyone eat as many donuts as they can. Poland specializes in amazing donuts with various fillings - marmalade, cream, pudding, chocolate - well literally everything!

Our team of course needed energy to keep up the pace and keep fixing the game, so we got a whole bunch of tasty donuts to fill our bellies and heal all those negative emotions with sugar!



And what is magical about this day it that all the calories from those donuts go exactly where you want them to - NOWHERE! At least this is what people believe after eating their 5th donut… But you know…

Improvements/Additions:

• We've added the save versioning system. Now you will be informed when save may not be compatible with the latest changes.
  
• We have added a popup that forces confirmation of the will to delete storage filled with items.

Optimization:

• Optimization of audio content has significantly reduced the size of the game. Build should weigh almost 2 GB less.
  
• Optimization of the CPU and many global settings should greatly increase the FPS of the game. Unfortunately, this was associated with the need to create settings again. If you have significantly modified the game settings (such as advanced graphics options or key mapping), then you will have to do it again.
  
• There have been problems with the Moscow Eye for a long time. This was our first level and object of many tests. To significantly increase its efficiency, we decided to build it again. Not everything is finished yet, some places may be bugged or look ugly, but the level itself works MUCH better than before. We will continue to work on improving its quality.

Localization:

• Language version has been updated for: Hungarian, French, Turkish

General:

• Starting mission should no longer have a problem with FPS drop
  
• Benchmark should now display the average frame rate correctly.
  
• Olivier should no longer stutter during the starting mission. At least he promised to improve very much.
  
• Mikhail should now appear correctly in the base after using "alternate memories"
  
• Quest markets should no longer break in free play mode
  
• Problem with the disappearing loot icon has been resolved
  
• We've improved resources that appeared off the map.
  
• Fixed an issue where soldiers sometimes walked in a very strange way.
  
• Gesture animations and idle animations have been improved for many. Much is yet to come ...

First of all, happy Valentine’s Day! Since love is an important subject in our game, we simply could not resist this ;) We hope that by the next Valentine’s Day Igor will solve the mystery about his beloved Tatyana. And so will you.



Now, let’s move on to our last week’s recap.

Fixes Fixes Fixes!

Last week was veeeery busy for us because we were rushing with fixes to the problems you encountered after the latest mega patch. Big thanks to all of you who reported us their issues. Thanks to you we were able to trace many of them and fix them.



Developing a game can be a really tricky process. Changes and adding new things can cause other things, which used to work so far to stop doing it. We’re very sorry for those problems you faced and we really take all feedback, even negative to our hearts.

There were a couple of hotfix patches released after the patch, so here’s a summary of what has changed with full lists of fixes for those who want to dive deeper:

https://steamcommunity.com/gid/103582791463995837/announcements/detail/1710741388958487135
https://steamcommunity.com/gid/103582791463995837/announcements/detail/1710741388944242460
https://steamcommunity.com/gid/103582791463995837/announcements/detail/1710741388940713545

Man does not live by fixes alone

But this was not only we’ve been working on lately. Some of you probably noticed on our social media some sneak peeks of the new location - The Lenin Square. It’s the place with the famous Energetik Palace and a nearby Amusement Park with even more famous Ferris Wheel. We scanned lots of things and places from there and now we’re finally implementing them into the game. Have a look!







Oh and this is us there on one of our many many trips to Chernobyl :)


Our hardcore Chernobyl veteran team ;) Some of them can’t even count how many times they’ve been there.

Making off goodie

Have you seen those electric cars in the amusement park? Let’s make a quick comparison between a real photo and a 3D scan.



Find 3 differences ;)

# Friday

Sometimes when working on WIP levels, those poor, hard-working PCs can sometimes really gasp for air and one needs to look for all help possible. Unfortunately, this patient died anyway ;(



That’s it folks! See you next week!