Weeks of planning, gathering clues and evidence needed to discover THE TRUTH, persuading strangers to join our merry party, gathering supplies and the necessary tools. All these activities, as well as the numerous events that took place along the way, finally led us to the most important point of the journey - the last mission, "Heist".



You have been asking us about "Heist" for many months, demanding specific information, and sometimes also gameplay fragments. We didn't do this for several reasons. The most important of them is, of course, the desire to avoid spoilers (well, this IS the end of the game), and the ability to refine this powerful fragment in even its smallest aspects. You must know that "Heist" shows all the elements that make up the core of Chernobylite gameplay.



"You must gather your party before venturing forth" - this Baldur's Gate quote is a perfect match for the beginning of the Heist mission. During the briefing, Igor has to decide who will go with him disguised as NAR soldiers, who will guard the rear with a sniper rifle, who will hack and who will be doing the diversion. With a full team, the division of duties isn’t a problem. Worse if someone withdraws at the last minute.

Our teammates may choose not to go on the final mission with us. They will turn their noses up if, for example, we won't collect enough tools or evidence to support Igor's theories. In other words, if not everything is 100% finished (i.e. not all the pieces of the puzzle will appear on the board), then there will be doubts among the team, and in the end it may turn out that some will start giving up participation in the mission. Even Mikhail could admit that he may be crazy, but not enough crazy to be part of it.



Another way to discourage people from coming with us on the last mission is to... discourage them from reaching the player himself. During the game, the player will have to make several decisions, which are crucial not only for the development of the plot, but also for the relationship between him and the recruited characters. For example, at the end of the "Hack NAR servers" mission, you must decide whether to delete the data after hacking the NAR servers or look for information about Tatiana. Choosing the second option, the player will worsen his relationship with Mikhail - which is not surprising, because he was risking his life for this mission. There are also missions where making a choice can change your relationship with two characters at once. For example, by deciding to follow the destructive path of Sashko, we’ll gain respect for him, and at the same time we’ll lose respect for common-sense Olga, and vice versa. So it's important to keep the right proportions if we want to have a full team for the last mission.

Everything is planned, the team is tight and ready, the roles are assigned. It's time to go!



We emphasize many times that in Chernobylite, as befits an RPG, all the decisions we make have an impact on the further course of the game. This is something for those who know the game inside out, and you can find another example of it in the chapter above. However, everything that you have seen so far is only a small foretaste of what you can see in "Heist".

In order not to throw words to the wind, we will use examples (avoiding spoilers) to show how our decisions can have a real impact on the game. Well, first of all, you need to be aware that there are so many options to complete this mission. This is evident at the very beginning, when the team has to get to the power plant. The road leads through the main gate, which is guarded by two guards. We have several options to choose from:

a) play a scene in front of the guards about transporting the prisoner



b) shoot the guards from a distance with a sniper rifle



c) choose a different entrance, away from the guards' eyes



Each of these solutions requires a different approach and the right person in the right place. If, for example, the team doesn’t have a sniper, then the choice will be limited to two options, etc. However, if by some miracle we lead to a situation where we’ll be on our own, then it remains a force solution. Very risky and hellishly difficult, but if we've got more than a revolver with us, MAYBE somehow it’ll work.

The phrase "choice is of great importance" can also be seen in the subsequent stages of "Heist". One of the better examples is when a team tries to get through the biogates. These can set off an alarm, which in turn will attract the attention of the guards. So you can ask someone from the crew to hack the gates, and then you can easily pass through them...



...or ask the sniper to distract the guards with a big boom! However, in the latter case, you have to bear in mind that the sniper will have to run away from the guards. This means that he or she will be disconnected from the party, and we’ll lose his or her "services" later in the mission. Maybe they will be useful, maybe not - you won't find out if you don't check it.



However, regardless of the situation, you need to be careful that each step is well-thought-out. One wrong move, and we’ll not only lose one of the options to overcome the next obstacle, but also... one of our companions. Yes, an inappropriate decision made either now or two minutes ago could lead to the death of a member or members of our team. And that’s thought.



As you can see, there are really many ways to go "Heist", and the mutual thread of connections between the decisions made leads to the most diverse consequences. Which path we follow depends entirely on ourselves. Therefore, it is worth going through the small fragment of "Heist" available in the Mega Patch even several times to know what awaits on the day of the premiere. And it's going to be a very long and bloody hard journey.



Take care, Stalkers!

While building the world of Chernobylite, we tried to give it a deeper meaning. Each level, its surroundings or a specific place on the map should, in our opinion, be something more than just a pile of rubble covered with plants and moss. Ideas came to our minds sometimes accidentally, sometimes intentionally. Some places are the result of a combination of these two factors. The best example of this is the village in Red Forest.

There would be no village in the Red Forest at first. It was supposed to be a huge forest area that could be explored at will. Ultimately, we decided that building a fenced off area in the middle of the map could be the perfect opportunity to achieve one of our goals. Our intention was to show samosely, because it is probably the most characteristic element of the zone. First, we had to come up with an outline for the backstory of this place. So initially it was supposed to be a farm of one man, around which people started to gather. Not long after Shadows and Chernohosts began to roam the area, they put up a great wall around the farm.

It was the easiest thing to come up with a story. Now it was necessary to make the concept come true and develop it so that the whole thing had arms and legs. In short, it was about building a village from scratch. The main emphasis was on the fence and the entrance gate to prevent soldiers and monsters from entering the village. We did it not only for architectural but also practical reasons - creating any event that would involve a sudden intrusion of intruders into the village would be very troublesome.







When the village - or rather its foundations - finally came into being, we were able to test the prototype of the Olga quest on it. It worked well, it played well, but another problem arose - the village was too empty. So we add a few side characters that were only supposed to stand and make up the artificial crowd. Then everything went from thread to ball: NPCs got short texts that they said in conversation with the player, each had simple characteristics (e.g. one deals with pigs, the other is a guardian, etc.), and over time there were also character animations. Over time, placeholders replaced newly designed character models - no more Clone Wars! You can see the effects of the changes we are gradually introducing in the game.




At one point, we had the idea to make the village in Red Forest more open and resemble places from RPGs games. One where the player can enter and, for example, talk to traders. Unfortunately, we had other, more priority things on our minds and the idea died. However, when we look at it in retrospect, the decision to abandon this idea seems right. Why?

As you know, to enter the village you have to go through the guarded gate. And here comes a curiosity: the concept of the gate has changed twice. Originally, we thought over an ordinary gate, opened like a castle gate. However, later we analyzed what we had done so far and came to a fairly important conclusion. Well, the people of the village are wary of people from the outside world. Hence the concept of a double gate, that will allow guards to check who passes through it before they enter the village.




If you put all of these together, it is easy to come to the conclusion why the vision of an open village wasn't the best - there is no point in creating a fully functional place with shops, gunsmiths, etc., if its community isn’t very willing to open up to outsiders.

Speaking of the side characters wandering here and there, we had a lot of fun creating them. We had a lot of freedom to act, we could do whatever we wanted. The wilder the event, the better. NPCs for them were created for the moment - if we have a nice idea and we needed a character for it, we could create a prototype of the event using the "puppet". From this huge mass of ideas, we removed those that we thought were stupid, and we combined the rest in such a way that one NPC would appear in several events. More or less this is how the outlines of the first characters - Vagabond and Volodya - were created.




Having already had a few characters, we started to think the other way around - we thought about how to use them so that they would appear in the game more often than just once. In this way, we have created another wave of events that lead to a reunion, for example, Volodya, who does not want to sell us to the soldiers, Evgieniy annoying the villagers, etc.

Finally, we had to give each of these characters their own characteristics. It was a must because it turned out that we had too much fun creating the next characters, forgetting about the need for consistency. In addition, we wanted to avoid the situation of the player dealing with inert puppets with no personality. Fortunately for us, this bug has been fixed and our joyful creativity has gained a soul.

Thanks to this, the player can meet on his way Vagabond, who cut his teeth on capitalism and has the qualities necessary to achieve success in a new, crazy world - he just has the talking. Therefore, in the dialogues, he often mentions his business contacts with, among others, Donald Trump, Bill Gates or Vladimir Putin. Semyon, on the other hand, is a man who has seen many things and experienced many. However, you can see that the staves are in the wrong place. Just listen to his theory that Hitler and Stalin were conspiring to create the NAR and the creatures prowling everywhere to enslave the Ukrainian people. And there is also Locksmith, who, while looking for his brother, is not afraid to enter the darkest and most strange places. He rejects any thought that his brother is dead.




We have created a real gallery of curiosities, impossible to forge. You won't find two of the same characters in Chernobylite. It's worth getting to know them all.

We would like to take this opportunity to encourage you to our new initiative. When we’re doing research the history of our game, we read a whole lot of books and notes about events from the past. We decided that the knowledge we obtained in this way seemed too interesting to hide it in a drawer. That is why we publish short stories every week on our Facebook profile, which were created as a result of reading all kinds of helpful materials. An excerpt from one of the stories can be found below.

“The Fate of Balts - Part One

Fears and Distractions

There was a series of chilly nights in June 1986 in Chernobyl. The continental climate caused a painful difference between daily and nightly temperatures. Fortunately, Sergeant Major Edgars Ozoliņš from the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic and other officers were lucky enough to receive greatcoats. The privates from his company have been issued typical Soviet quilted jackets. They would still freeze anyway at night and sweat profusely during the day while removing radioactive waste in special uniforms that were impossible to wear and caused burns. Only then would the company receive Soviet uniforms from the Afghan War. (so-called Afghankas)

But at least there were a lot of distractions to choose from. Despite the Chernobyl disaster, the FIFA World Cup would still go ahead as planned in Mexico. It's been less than two months since the accident, and the world seemed determined to go back to normal, even though the danger was far from over. No wonder: the Soviet propaganda machine was working overtime to keep the impression that everything was under control. The Americans went with that narration simply because they were interested in not drawing more attention to the possible dangers of nuclear installations in their own country.

And so that summer, the world - very much oblivious to the consequences of the Chernobyl Disaster - watched in awe as Diego Maradonna scored the Hand of God goal against England and led Argentina to win the Cup. Soviet Union footballers put up a good fight in the group phase. They have defeated Hungary 6-0, won against Canada 2-0, and drew 1-1 against France. Dynamo Kyiv's Igor Belanov was a star of the show and was named the European Player of the Year for 1986. But despite his brilliant performance Soviet Union eventually conceded to Belgium 3-4 in the knockout phase."



If you liked it, we encourage you to read the full version of the first part and the second part on our Facebook profile.

Take care, Stalkers!

We've been telling you about what's going on behind the scenes of Chernobylite's development for a long time in our weekly reports. Sometimes we show some concept sketches, we show step by step how we create 3D objects, we talk about the changes we made and what we followed, etc.



There have been cases where changes to one element in the game have gone so far that it has turned into something much bigger. One of them, and perhaps the most important for the entire history of Chernobylite, concerned the fractal worlds. Their design changed several times until we finally worked out the shape you see today. The road the fractals traveled was extremely bumpy. And we have evidence for this.

Before we show what has happened with fractals recently, we need to answer one most important questions: how did it start?

One of the first concepts assumed that after entering the fractal world, the player would walk on the surface of... inside a large sphere. On paper, it was even interesting: while exploring the new world, the whole level rotated together with the player. When he looked up, he saw the rest of the level upside down. However, at times everything broke in almost all possible ways and a few impossible - the player often got lost in where the “up” was at the moment and positioned himself sideways. Also, during testing, people had a hard time getting it all figured out, they got lost, and some people got sick. So at the end the project was thrown into the trash.



Another concept came with the launch of Chernobylite in Early Access. After entering the fractal world, the player was thrown into the very center of a large labyrinth, from where he was to get to the luminous pillars that unlocked parts of the plot.



Along the way, it was necessary to defend ourselves against a horde of soldiers who were to be something like Ariadna's protection or firewall. Again - in theory, everything looked fine. But in practice, the player felt as if he were participating in a Doom deathmatch, which did not fit the style of Chernobylite at all. But who knows, maybe we'll come back to this idea one day.





What does it look like today? Well, as you know very well, each fractal world is a simulation that can be entered with the help of Ariadna - a mysterious, and advanced technological device, created by Igor. However, to use it, you first need to find clues scattered throughout the game that will help you understand what happened to Tatyana: letters, photos, e-mails, newspaper clippings, and items such as a music box. All the evidence and clues go to the blackboard in Igor's room. After collecting all the necessary elements, Igor can see with his own eyes the secrets behind the disappearance of his loved one.



An important part of rewriting the plot and dialogue - as we have informed you many times - were the changes we introduced to the fractal worlds. It not only took a lot of work and time. This task was also a big challenge in terms of coordinating and connecting all the dots again. Also, because many assets for these tips were already done - we wanted to find a solution that wouldn’t require creating everything from scratch when redesigning the fractals. We had to modify a whole complex web of dependencies, linking the clues to Igor's relevant comments, and figure out how they translate into specific parts of the fractal plot.

Secondly, we had to pay close attention to aligning the fractal worlds with the places in the story where the greatest changes occurred and check for contradictions. In other words, we had to make sure that the information we convey through the simulation in Ariadna was consistent with the important plot points in the game, which are most often determined by confrontations and conversations with key characters in the game: Black Stalker, Semonov, Kozlow, etc.



Rewriting the script is relatively simple, but introducing changes in such a way that the entire intricate structure works together despite huge changes is not exactly easy. It’s especially true for the changes concerning not only the written content, but often also the place and time in the game, where we find clues that later activate the fractal simulation through Ariadna.

The changes also meant a lot of work for graphic designers who had to rework (sometimes several times) such assets as letters, documents and e-mails to apply the changed content to them.



It was also a big challenge to avoid spoilers after we introduced changes to some characters, such as Boris and his backstory, and the relationships between him and the main character.

But perhaps the greatest challenge was the fact that the story is non-linear, and the main quests are arranged in such a way that you can complete them in almost any order you want. So we had to think about which quests we could add clues and evidence to, to be sure that the player would be able to collect all of them, no matter how the game was played.

The same goes for our companions - their role in fractal events had to be tailored to take into account that they may or may not appear in a specific playthrough, depending on the decisions made by the player.



The place and time of fractal events also changed. All this needed to be reflected both in the levels themselves and in the dialogues conducted by the characters. The narrative in fractal worlds in particular needed to have rethought its timing. Previously, dialogues were much longer and took place over the course of one scene. It quickly became apparent that forcing the player to watch two talking heads for too long is neither fun nor interesting. You could say it was simply boring.

The effect of the changes introduced by us (e.g. the division of one long level into several smaller ones) can be seen, for example, in the scene of the conversation between Boris and Tatyana, which takes place in the fractal world. Now the course of this sequence is more dynamic. Before that, the player simply stood in front of the café and could not do anything. Now he has to take a walk around to unlock all stages of the fractal and push Igor's investigation forward.



In the diagram below you can see an example of one of the investigations conducted by Igor. You can see how the rudimentary evidence and clues he has gathered lead him to solve one of the cases. What he sees with Ariadna and what he hears is up to them. What is this evidence and what does it mean? We won’t tell you, and we won’t show you - you have to figure it out yourself.



Take care, Stalkers!

So far, we've covered some major changes in Chernobylite that came with the newest Mega Patch. For example, we wrote about the second storyline of the game, about non-one-dimensional characters, about Ariadna technology, about the character's armament system and the new difficulty level. So it's time for us to talk a bit about other changes to the game - those that are invisible to the naked eye, but equally important from the player's point of view.

https://youtu.be/mMByTn2y9bA
The vast majority of new stuff can be found and activated in the main menu. Let's start with the bigger things. As you know, in the options you have the option to disable individual elements of the user interface, such as the health bar, experience bar, ammunition counter or enemy detection indicator. It is useful for those who are disturbed by this kind of things while playing, as well as for amateurs and professionals of virtual photography.

This noble group was joined by the ability to disable the targeting indicator for NAR soldiers. We decided that this option will be especially appreciated by those who want combat with soldiers to be more like a classic action game. Without this "help" and after starting the game in Insane mode, playing Chernobylite will be even more challenging.




But don't worry. To die in on the battlefield doesn't always mean something bad. In the world of Chernobylite, death often means getting out of a hopeless situation, but also a chance to… correct past mistakes. After death, Igor is able to use the chernobylites gathered during his journey to change decisions made in the past in order to influence the present and the future. Complicated? Don’t worry. We've added a small tutorial to the game that explains in more detail what this system is all about. In short, with its help we tell you that in Chernobylite it is sometimes worth dying.





This is a certain novelty which, we must admit, helps us a lot as well. It happens that from time to time we have to check or test something on a map in the game. It often requires us to fight our opponents. We were tormented by the fact that when we wanted to replace the weapon, we had to go deeper into our memory to remember under which key THIS PARTICULAR WEAPON was assigned. In the end, we said "enough" and changed that. The quick access menu can now be called up with the middle mouse button (MMB). In addition, we gave the possibility of using it with a scroll - a convenience especially for those who don’t want or cannot use it in a classic way.



Another minor change: we added an icon in the inventory to denote an item that is currently being used by Igor. A slight change, but it makes a big difference.



It is also worth mentioning some important technical issues. First, we've greatly improved the performance of the game on both low and high FOV. Regardless of whether you set the FOV modifier to mini or max, it will not affect the quality of the game in any way.




We also added ADS support in the game options. From now on, each of you can freely set the aiming sensitivity to whatever value is convenient for you.




And the last important news: we added the ability to turn off head bobbing. A brief explanation for those unfamiliar with the term: head bobbing in FPS games is the swaying of the camera up and down as the character walks to simulate the way a person's body moves when taking steps. A pretty cool effect that enhances realism. But for some players, it can cause motion sickness. Therefore, turning it off may reduce this risk.

Finally, something that all of you have been waiting for. Earlier this week, we announced the winners of our community art contest on our social media! We were impressed with all the works you sent to us and the number of votes cast for them. It was difficult to pick the winners, but we somehow managed to pick the best works!

In the "Art" category on the podium there were:

1. Domingos Galeno


2. NoatakKapech


3. Ghost


The authors of the works awarded by the jury in this category are:
Adam Sokołowski
Mihail Yuriev
Nika Schumankin

In the "Cosplay" category, the following were on the podium:

1. FerdinandMighold


2. Tomasz Szostak


3. Ghost


The authors of the works awarded by the jury are:
lisa_bkv, stevenson soupcan
Stuart Cowell
Jaime Díaz
Poul Hudson

In the "Virtual Photo" category on the podium there were:

1. Ghost and NoatakKapech (ex aequo)



2. FerdinandMighold


3. Draven Redgrave


The authors of the works awarded by the jury are:
Draven Redgrave
David Fall
Jack1_1Hammer
TheGuyInTheSpacesuit

Congratulations to all the winners and the awarded! Now there is nothing else to do but wait patiently for contact from us. ;)

Take care, Stalkers!

In the previous report, we focused on the story of Chernobylite, the most important aspect of the game. Today we have to talk about another quite important element. Because the world of Chernobylite is full of dangers, the levels are filled with monsters and patrolling soldiers. Therefore, it is important to arm yourself and our comrades well before going to the zone. Especially since the new game mode, Insane, takes no prisoners.

Arming yourself is not a big problem for a skilled player - you just have to create weapons and armor in the base and put it on Igor. Simple. Now is the time to arm your comrades as well. You've been asking for this for a long time, so we were finally able to deliver it to you thanks to the last Mega Patch.

How it's working? First, you need to approach the characters and talk to them. Until now, you could only talk about their past, opinions or how they live in the base. Now there is an additional "Show Equipment" option. After selecting this option, the player is moved to the next screen - the inventory screen of our companions.



On the left is Igor's inventory, and in the right column, weapons and NPC statistics. When you hover the cursor over an armament in the inventory, you can see what a given weapon or armor affects the character's stats. These can vary for better or worse - it all depends on what weapon we give the NPC and what improvements it will have.



Okay, but why arm your comrades at all? After all, they don’t follow us, they will not help us in fulfilling tasks important for the plot. So what's the effort for? Well, as you well know, when choosing a mission, we can send our team to other locations in the zone in search of provisions, ammunition or medicines. However, it is not always an easy journey for them - when you want to assign companions to a specific mission, in the bottom corner of their portraits you can see what the chances are that they will be able to complete that mission. Different people have different chances. And it would be good if stocks were always replenished regularly.

Adequate armament of our companions will make it easier for them to complete the missions on which they are sent. Just take a look at this comparison below: you can see how the Kopachi mission is selected before and after arming comrades. You can see a significant difference.



Let's go back to Igor's inventory for a moment. Again: we can give Igor a weapon and put on armor. Especially thanks to the second one, opponents have difficulty dealing damage. Of course, each armor has its "health", which is indicated by the bar under Igor's health bar. After each hit, its durability decreases.



In addition, on the left side of the screen you can find the shield icon. It represents the cooldown, i.e. how quickly armor repairs and how much metal plate we need to repair it.



At this point, it's also worth mentioning that we've added new armors to the game that make it even easier to get through the zone. Among them there is, for example, camouflage armor, which makes us harder to spot. Especially if we enter tall grass.



Not only that, to our advantage we can use the prevailing weather conditions and the fact that the opponents react much better to the environment. Thanks to this, soldiers hear our footsteps worse in the rain (a big advantage when sneaking), and on a foggy day they see much worse at a longer distance. Especially in the second case, we recommend using a combo with camouflage armor - the chances that the enemy will notice you will be close to zero. But we still recommend caution - soldiers can detect our position as soon as they notice the light source from the flashlight.

It is also worth mentioning some of the novelties we have brought to the arsenal with the Mega Patch. Among them is, for example, the possibility of converting a static shotgun into a semi-automatic fire mode. This allows you to fire it almost like a rifle.



Another novelty that we are fans of ourselves in the team is the possibility of adding a thermovision to a rifle or shotgun. It's a damn good device that makes gameplay easier. Not only we can shoot from a long distance, but we are also able to see the position of our opponent, regardless of the prevailing weather conditions.




All these actions can be very helpful especially for those who decided to play the game on the Insane level. As the name suggests, the game will resemble a walk on red-hot Lego bricks scattered along the entire length of the Chinese Wall. In winter. With no clothes. And no Wi-Fi.

By setting "Survival" to the Insane level, the development of our base and crafting will be a torment - it will require much more materials, of which there will be even less on the levels. In the case of "Combat", we made sure that even more opponents appeared on the levels than before. At every turn and around every corner. They are even more aggressive and even more effective in combat.

The Insane level also has a significant impact on our companions. They will have a much harder time completing the mission (the best weapons make it a bit easier. A LITTLE), and what is happening in the base has an even greater impact on their morale and health. In other words, keeping them alive will be a priority. Sometimes it’s perhaps even more important than looking for Tatiana. And yes, we mean it.

Take care, Stalkers!

We are currently focusing on bug fixes, optimization and solving issues that bother you. But we found time to do some new things. Here's a big batch of fixes:

Technology:

• We fixed dozens of different crashes that you reported to us. Game should be much more stable.
  
• We optimized the CPU performance a bit. Framerate should be more stable during combat.
  
• Fixes in game memory management. Game shouldn't have such large spikes in memory usage now.
  
• We threw away a lot of unused audio stuff, which reduced the build size.
  
• During skill training, steaming should no longer be visible on weaker computers

AI:

• Soldiers will now see much worse through bushes during combat.
  
• Soldiers should now have a harder time finding the player's position and start searching for him faster if they don't know where he is.
  
• When soldiers are looking for a player, they no longer run blindly in one place. They split up to cover a larger area.
  
• Knife takedown will now be heard at a slightly smaller distance.

Additional:

• We've added some locked doors for lockpicks and a crystal wall to prison level so the player can discover some new things when they return to it.
  
• We've added 2 new tutorials that should make some situations easier to understand.
  
• We have added the ability to remap the quick save and load functions

General:

• We fixed many bugs related to language versions and VO
  
• Now the player should be able to get out of the prison cell when caught.
  
• Now it's possible to properly save your companions from prison. Markers and animations have also been improved.
  
• Trying to craft something in a tight space should no longer end up getting stuck in a collision.
  
• Tutorial on how to reduce the difficulty of the game that appears in the prison after a few deaths should now correctly disappear.
  
• Fixed a bug where Igor was sometimes guarded in prison by a soldier who could not be overcome with takedown.
  
• We greatly improved the operation of the flashlight. It works better up close and behaves more interestingly while moving.
  
• After loading the save performed after the end of any crate dump quest, we should no longer appear among the soldiers.
  
• We fixed a few crates that did not save after taking a save. Load spamming allowed them to be looted endlessly.
  
• Memento for the past: After loading save, you can no longer talk to Sashko
  
• Some Excuses: After loading save, Semonov will no longer resurrect and the note will not disappear
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed you to get extra adrenaline puffs before entering the base.
  
• Olga's Revolver will no longer behave weird when she targets us.
  
• Notes that can be found on levels should now be correctly marked with a marker
  
• We made a lot of improvements to the music and sound.
  
• We improved the makers of events that were disappearing even though the event isn't over yet.
  
• Fixed a rare bug that made weapons invisible after interacting with the base board.
  
• Fixed a rare bug where we could sometimes see Igor's hands flying through the air after death.

The last few weeks have been extremely intense for us, in connection with the premiere of the Mega Patch and work on bug fixing. However, thanks to this, we brought you the game 95 percent ready. And there is very little time until the full version is released. That is why we decided to focus on these and subsequent reports on specific elements of the game that have undergone huge changes in recent months, if not years. Some of them can be seen with the naked eye, while some need to be told in a broader context.

In today's report, we'll focus on what makes up the core of Chernobylite - the story.

We all know very well that the game consists of many elements: graphics, music, sound design, level design, gameplay, etc. However, we have never concealed that in Chernobylite we attach great importance to the storyline. After the reactions of all players, we can see that the story has drawn a lot of attention. It means we hit the point. However, as the premiere of the last Mega Patch showed, there is nothing that could not be improved.

We’ve mentioned many times that the entire story has been thoroughly redrafted and corrected by us. We didn't just do it for aesthetic reasons - we did this because we wanted to highlight the different layers and aspects of the Chernobylite story we wrote as much as possible. This one is focused on the figure of Igor - a man who tries to solve a mystery from the past and understand his role in the events that took place many years ago.

The attempt to find his beloved Tatyana is not only literal, but also metaphorical - it is a desire to face the past full of riddles and understatements. Just like Tatyana herself. Do we really know who she is? Are the memories of the main character about her real, or are they just his imaginations, fantasies? How do Igor's memories of Tatiana relate to her actual image? A seemingly simple story about a man who is looking for his beloved, with time becomes more and more complex and multi-threaded. Nothing is black and white.



What about side characters? They also play important roles in this game. Because Chernobylite is also a story about dealing with trauma, about trying to give it some tangible dimension and meaning. Each of the characters met in the game experiences something like this. They have to deal with the past and they do it for better or worse. We also have the question of identity. What defines a man? His actions? His past? His origin? His agenda?

To fully exploit the potential of the Chernobylite scenario, we had to make a lot of corrections and changes to the game. We wanted each of the characters to have a personality, and not just an extra in the background. Each of the encountered characters has been rewritten - each of them has new backstories, a new, distinctive way of expressing themselves. They have their own individual attitude towards the player. In addition, we have not only rewritten the plot, but also the dialogues that have been rewritten line by line. In this way, we wanted to better emphasize the mood that we wanted in the game from the very beginning, and also to better reflect the character's individuality. The effects can be seen especially in the dialogues between NPCs and Igor in missions and in the base.






The world of Chernobylite is also made up of other factors that are part of the narrative layer. For example, Ariadna - a mysterious device resembling VR goggles, which is located in Igor's room. With its help Igor can visualize the effects of his investigations that are to lead him to the truth with the disappearance of his beloved.




Ariadna is the heart of the Chernobylite gameplay. All the missions that Igor performs are only an excuse to be able to search the area around the power plant for clues and evidence related to the events of years ago. After collecting all the things needed for the investigation, Ariadna analyzes them and then uses them to virtually simulate the events. Thanks to this, Igor can see the effects of his investigation with his own eyes - memories of events from several decades ago, in which the collected evidence played a key role. This is definitely a more convenient and practical solution than using threads and pins on a cork board.




Only one question remains: how did Igor get such an advanced device? It wasn't like it just appeared in his room. We wanted to expand this thread a bit with Igor's dream, in which it was also important to show who is behind Ariadne's creation.




But wait a minute. Something is wrong. This level is very similar to a level from another game. Specifically, the one from Get Even where Cole Black tries to reconstruct his memories!



Not only that: Ariadna looks like a goggle that someone put on Cole when he was unconscious. Thanks to them, he can visit fragments of his own memories, undergoing "treatment" under the watchful eye of a mysterious observer from a dingy psychiatric hospital.



Goggles are also an inseparable element of the encountered "patients" of this charming place.



So is it possible that the Chernobylite and Get Even worlds are somehow related to each other? Are Igor and Cole characters from the same universe? Maybe yes, maybe no… We encourage you to see for yourself. It is especially worth looking for clues scattered around the game or listening to the dialogues in Igor's dream. You might be surprised.

Take care, Stalkers!

No introductory text. Just a picture.



We did it. We finally did it.

Ok. Let’s move on.

Before we get to the main menu, a quick reminder. A few weeks ago we launched a community art contest. We have been inundated with a lot of different kinds of work. You can see that your creativity has no limits. You can now vote for the best of them. However, we also noticed that among you there are a large number of people who, for various reasons, have not had time to send anything and would like to take part in the competition.

We listen to your voices. That is why we decided to extend the possibility of submitting works in our competition. Regardless of whether they are newly created works, or maybe they were created months or years ago, and you put them in a drawer - we accept everything (of course, everything must be in accordance with the competition rules). Works should be sent by May 3 at midnight CET.

What about the voting? As we mentioned, votes have already started, and it is impossible for us to stop them. Therefore, due to the extension of the time for submitting works, we also extended the time for casting votes. Voting ends on May 9 at Midnight CET.

Don't hesitate! There will be no second chance!

The rules of the competition can be found at THIS LINK. You can submit your works in the following categories: ART, COSPLAY and VIRTUAL PHOTOGRAPHY.



The highlight of the past week, both for us and for you, was the release of the last Mega Patch, which we called "Final Stage". It was created by thousands of hours spent in front of computers, a lot of new, improved elements has been added. It's also a huge support from our community - thanks to the closed testing you took part in, we knew what needed to be improved before we released the Mega Patch. Thank you again for this help!

In total, we’ve introduced several thousand fixes and improvements to the game. They covered every aspect of Chernobylite, from the story, to gameplay, graphics, to technical issues. You can read about all the most important changes in the post below.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1016800/view/3059609427951998126

Last week was also an opportunity to share with you the release date of Chernobylite. The full game will be released on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in July this year. The current generation console version will be released a little later this year.

By the way, we would like to remind you that today is the LAST DAY when you can buy Chernobylite in the PC version with a 20% discount. In our opinion, it is worth doing this for two reasons. First, you'll get the game cheaper, duh. Second, only those who purchased the game in Early Access will be guaranteed access to the free DLC available after the game's premiere. So don't hesitate - we are preparing a lot of cool things for you!



Although the Mega Patch has been released quite recently, it does not mean that our work is finished. We still have a lot of work to do. It consists of all the elements that we are going to give you back on the day of the premiere of the full version of Chernobylite. For example, the remaining ⅔ Heist - ⅓ of the entire level you can play today, as a foretaste of what awaits you in July.

But these are also some bug fixes that you report to us on Steam and Discord. Probably the most common bug you have reported to us was in the area of missing voice overs. It didn't happen often, and only at random moments, but still.

You can read about the latest fixes in the game at this link.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1016800/view/3059610062004794121

By the way, we make small touches to what is already there. Have you seen what the new portal looks like? It already looks cool, but we want to make it even better. We are working on a solution that will allow a smooth transition between the portal and the loading screen.



Additionally, we are working on new things ... but we won't say anything about them. At least for now. We can offer you a small sneak-peek in the form of a detailed head model. Whose? We will tell about it another time.



Take care, Stalkers!

Yesterday's update broke something in the save for some of you. I am so sorry for causing the problems. Return to base should fix this bug. If you have any problems with the save (black screen, spawn in a strange place), load the previous save and get killed in any way - radiation, monsters. Going through the timeline should fix everything.

General:

• After returning to the base, the game misread the information about the progress of quests, which could lead to many strange errors. We fixed it.
  
• The "Old friend" quest should now end correctly
  
• More fixes in the crash reporter
  
• A few smaller fixes reported on steam and caught by us (blends, music, collisions)

This hotfix solves the most common and serious bugs. If your problem has not been solved then don't worry. If you reported it on the steam forum bug it will be fixed. Or at least we'll try hard ;)

Technology:

• Crash raporter did not work properly in many situations. We have improved its operation.
  
• We fixed the position of the weapon in non-standard aspect ratios such as 21: 9 or 32: 9. PDA should no longer be under the screen
  
• Fixed a rare crash related to the incorrect steam initialization
  
• Fixed a crash related to write errors while streaming data
  
• We fixed one of the random engine bugs. Don't worry Epic, we still love you.
  
• We fixed the infinite loading screen bug. If it still happens to someone, send us a save.

General:

• Fixed a blocker that appeared after the power plant exploded during the "dying tutorial".
  
• Fixed problems with music on the base and during training
  
• We fixed many lines with VO not working properly. Both in Russian and in English.
  
• We have fixed many localization issues in different languages.
  
• We have fixed problems with blending various landscape elements.
  
• We solved some bugs with heistline (it's the equivalent of a fratal timeline to Heist itself)
  
• Some events restarted even though the player had already completed them. We fixed it.
  
• The melee beating sounds should perform much better
  
• We've fixed many smaller bugs with collisions and visuals that you reported through Steam