Update 2.4

**Update 2.4** was released 13th of September 2018.

***Version:*** v0.411

***SteambuildID:*** 3116757

***Client patch size:*** 1.4GB

## Highlights

* **Extended graphics settings** - Users can now access a broader range of additional options that can customize performance based on available hardware.
* **Loading time improvements** - Optimized the time to get into matches on both client and server (Potential saving of 20-30 seconds).
* **Resolution scaling** - Players can now scale the game rendering independently for their desired resolution which can significantly improve GPU performance when users are GPU bound.
* **GPU optimizations** - Re-balanced low spec configuration and reduced GPU cost across the board.
* **CPU optimizations** - Mainthread will be more stable and generally more efficient thanks to a collection of smaller improvements in game code and systems.
* **Matchmaking changes** – Added an additional matchmaking bracket. Current brackets are now set to ranks 1 to 33 (with overflow to 50), ranks 34 to 66 (with overflow to 80), and ranks 67 to max rank (including prestige).
* **Solo Missions** – Solo missions will now be single target missions (1 Boss).
* **New weapons**
	+ Nagant M1895 Officer Carbine - A modified version of the Nagant M1895 Officer pistol with a long barrel and a stock.
	+ Specter 1882 Compact - A modified version of the Specter 1882 Shotgun with a foregrip and a sawn-off barrel. Wider spread, but shorter range.
	+ Crossbow Shotbolt - A hand-crafted crossbow that mixes the characteristics traits of a shotgun with those of a crossbow, utilizing bolts tipped with shotgun shells that detonate on impact setting off a cone of shotgun pellets.

## General Updates

### AI

* Reduced the Water devil’s detection range for crouched Hunters.
* Water devils that disable themselves when another is attacking a Hunter will now slightly move towards the attacker before disabling.
* Water devils can no longer damage Hunters on land.
* Increased the size and speed of the Water devil slightly.

### Audio

* Improved impact sound of Dynamite.
* Improved impact and charge up sounds of the Concertina Bomb.
* Improved impact sound of lanterns.
* Improved breaking SFX to electric lights.
* Improved the audio timing of the Mosin Nagant Avtomat reload animations.
* Increased the priority of explosion sounds to prevent them from accidentally being overpowered/silenced by other sounds.
* Increased the Hellfire Bomb's audibility radius to make it consistent with similar explosions.

### Gunplay

* Greatly increased the melee damage of dusters and Nagant brawler.
* Updated Nagant Brawler animations to properly use the attached dusters.

### Performance

***Developer Notes:*** *With this update we wanted to provide more settings for players to use in order to tune their performance with specific focus on GPU. In this patch the graphics options were extended to let players set the quality of different rendering groups such as post-processing and object quality as well as introducing some new features that can benefit GPU performance overall. In addition to these new options, we have spent some time to make the low spec setting cheaper overall on the GPU with both adjustments to the configs and code and asset side optimizations. Med and High spec have also received some small adjustments with respect to the quality of features being rendered.*
The larger of the new features is the introduction of resolution scaling. It is likely that users who are limited by their GPU can get significant gains by down scaling the rendering resolution while retaining their video resolution.

* Added sub-groups and additional options for users to configure their graphics quality versus performance in the settings menu.
* Added resolution scaling: Players can now scale down the rendering resolution independent of the resolution the game is running in. This will have potentially large performance gains for players who have slower GPU's. This setting does not scale the UI.
* Optimized all particle effects
* Re-balanced low spec config to improve GPU performance. By default low spec will have a reduced set of features enabled and rendering quality will be slightly lower. Users can choose which features to enable in the graphics options.
* Allow users to disable some post-process and effects
* Adjusted HDR Bloom quality settings across specs
* Added particle quality settings across all specs
* Added volumetric fog quality settings across specs
* Added descriptions to all menu settings to explain what they will change when different settings are used
* Added a VRAM meter in the graphics options menu to show dynamically the current VRAM usage. This feature is only available on Windows 10.
* Added larger texture-pool configurations up to 8GB
* Optimized Schematyc update scheduler data structures to reduce CPU cost on main thread. This should provide a base improvement for all users constantly as well as reducing spikes in the framerate when entering new areas of the level.
* Adjusted particle screen fill settings to improve performance when particles occupy a lot of screen space
* Optimized ironically expensive display of performance information that could cost too much on the main CPU thread. Heisenberg wept.
* Adjusted shadow casting min-spec setting on some detail vegetation.
* Flagged some detail objects as hidden on lower specs.
* Corrected a number of config settings that were not being set properly.
* Optimized some level features that updated every frame and on both server and client unnecessarily.
* Moved performance HUD settings into graphics setting menu (previously HUD settings).
* Exposed several advanced options for, surface format optimization and 2 pass rendering.
* Disabled FPS limit option when VSYNC is active.

### Meta

**Equipment rank changes:**

* Nagant M1895 – Unlocked at Rank 4 (previously 10)
* Nagant M1895 Brawler – Unlocked at Rank 40 (previously 17)
* Nagant M1895 Officer – Unlocked at Rank 10 (previously 40)
* Fire Bomb – Unlocked at Rank 2 (previously 4)

* Nagant M1895 Officer Carbine - $86 (unlocked at Rank 17).

Shotgun:

* Specter 1882 Compact - $65 (unlocked at Rank 91).

Crossbow:

* Crossbow Shotbolt - $305 (unlocked at rank 85).

### UI

**Endless Bloodline loop:**

* The progress of the endless loop is now visualized on the Bloodline page.
* Increased the threshold for the endless bloodline experience loop. XP required is now 8000xp (previously 4000xp).
* Gaining $666 by retiring a Hunter is now visualized on your bank account.

### World

* Reduced the placement range of bear traps
* Increased Twig AI Audio stimulus from 15m to 25m
* Fixed an exploit where interacting with two clues at the same time, would grant two region shrinks even though one of the clues would be inaccessible afterwards.
* Fixed an issue where AI would not spawn at the Extraction vehicles, even though they should.

## Bug Fixes

* Fixed an issue where bear traps didn't deploy properly, but just got dropped instead.
* Fixed an issue where the Water Devil produced no audible sound.
* Fixed a bug that casued the Water devil to deal more damage than intended
* Fixed an issue where the hunter didn't play audio feedback when jumped at by the Spider.
* Fixed the link of the tutorial video in the main menu to point to the updated version.
* Fixed an issue where players were unable to select their spawn location before a match.
* Fixed a number of issues that would result in the throw helper not being accurate in certain situations or when using specific items(e.g Frag grenade)
* Fixed an issue where players could get stuck between a roof and a tower at Scupper Lake.
* Fixed some view distance issues for shutters, doors and windows on low and medium spec.
* Fixed an issue where the hunter didn't automatically switch back to a weapon after using a syringe.
* Fixed an issue that resulted in it not being possible to interact with world items in instances when these items were used in quick succession.
* Fixed an issue where the water devil could randomly disappear after being aggro’d by a player.
* Fixed the audio that was produced for
* Fixed an issue that caused the (own) death screen not being displayed correctly after spectating another player that left the session.
* Fixed the physics of lanterns when thrown on water, making them behave more realistically and bounce less.
* Fixed an issue where explosives were instantly triggered when hitting concertina wire.
* Fixed an issue that would result in not receiving credit for Hellhound kills if the pack was already agrro’d by another team.
* Fixed a bug that caused a delay to occur when healing with the First aid kit.
* Fixed a bug that resulted in placed Bear traps not reacting if hit with flare pistol or fusee.
* Fixed an issue with the throwable lanterns and Hammer not dealing the correct damage.

## Other fixes

* Fixed a bug that caused depth of field to always cost something even when it was disabled.
* Fixed a bug that caused certain anti-aliasing settings to produce a black outline around objects.
* Fixed texture streaming pool incorrectly selecting high resolution texture mips which could result in constant file access on lower end GPUs.
* Fixed a bug that caused the extraction countdown timer to overlap with Banner notifications.

## Known issues

* AI may become stuck when navigating around certain areas.
* Hunter heads may snap back and forth if too close to other entities or pieces of geometry.
* Hive swarms are able to attack players through solid walls and small lattices.
* Oil pools are invisible.
* Shadows may not blend together correctly on low end systems.
* In rare instances, players may become stuck on the matchmaking screen at the “Loading Map” stage.
* If 2 players invite each other via steam (without one of them accepting) they can be stuck in that invite state and will have to wait for a bit or restart their client in the worst case.
* Dark sight boost can sometimes be consumed faster than intended.
* Direct hits with Fire Bombs and Lanterns will not knock down AI as intended.
* The AOE (self-) damage indicator on the throw helper of the liquid fire bomb is not in sync with the actual AOE/damage range.
* Depending on the area, windows might show incorrect reflections.
* In some cases, you may encounter a strange visual effect from smoke and muzzle flashes. This is more prominent in underground areas, but can occur outdoors as well.