New Servers!

Previously the company hosting my servers were not only pretty expensive once I started looking at the possibility of having thousands of people playing the game, but they also frequently dropped out or quickly disconnected then reconnected, this was the main cause for the "de-sync" issues a lot of players were facing, this will sometimes still happen, but will be a LOT less frequent.

The company hosting my servers now… is Steam! This means it's not only completely free, but they're also extremely fast, and reliable. This also makes joining friends significantly easier, as the host can choose between Public (Anyone who owns the game can see the server in the server list, and join), Friends-only (Only friends can see the game listed in the "friends playing" list, they can freely join if they want, either in-game, or through right-clicking on your name in Steam and clicking "Join Game"), and finally Private (This is invite-only, no one can see your server listed anywhere, and no one can join through the right-click method, you have to go out of your way to invite friends to play through right-clicking on them within the Steam overlay and clicking "Invite to game") the last option is significantly better for streamers who don't want random viewers coming and joining the game.

You no longer need a "lobby code" and everything client and host should be "buttery smooth" (if you're within a reasonable distance from each other), I've also confirmed the launch date with Steam, we're coming on August 15th!

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a bug where players couldn't join friends and needed to restart.
• Fixed a bug where the servers were bad.
• Fixed a bug where players would de-sync massively when taking anti-radiation pills
• Fixed a bug where players wouldn't "drop" their anti-radiation pills after using them, causing them to
• look like they can't interact with any items anymore.
• Fixed a bug where players could interact with other player's items if they previously held them.
• Fixed a bug where players would still be able to use an item they just dropped on the floor.
• Fixed items jittering uncontrollably while being held
• Fixed a bug where players would all be stacked when a new player joins the lobby
• Fixed a bug where player's items would float away upon clicking on certain drawers.
• Fixed a bug where players couldn't use the ghost book as a step in the exorcism.
• Fixed a bug where players could start an exorcism with the book in their hands.
• Fixed a bug where players could reduce their heart rate in the basement of river road.
• Fixed a bug where players wouldn't be able to hear ambiance at certain points of the houses.
• Fixed a bug where players could pick up the bible during an exorcism.
• Fixed a bug where players could start an exorcism with the book in their hands.
• Fixed a bug where interactions would still happen after a ghost has been exorcised.
• Fixed a bug where players couldn't exorcise the rusulka.
• Fixed a bug causing shades to not posses houses (is this really a bug?).
• Fixed a bug where the ghosts wouldn't kill players when they touch them (no more rusulka smooches).
• Fixed a bug where players didn't have any walking backward animations.
• Fixed a bug where players would get stuck in a walking animation loop.
• Fixed Farm Lane not having interactions.
• Fixed a bug that allowed you to grab the Russian doll through walls.
• Fixed a bug where the spirit box would reply even if it was turned off.
• Fixed a bug where the "add XP and Money" screen would loop until you completely closed the game.
• Fixed a bug where the mouse would disappear whenever you opened the buy menu.
• Fixed a bug where the ghost would still hunt during an exorcism.
• Fixed a bug where starting an exorcism wouldn't end an active hunt.
• Fixed the magical shelves on Farm Lane, that would take you into the house walls and trap you there
• forever!
• Fixed a bug where players wouldn't be able to use the contract select menu after ending a mission.

Changes:

• Reduced hunt time to 30 seconds of the ghost being in the house per hunt (this excludes the 5-second warning).
• Removed the end screen showing what clues the ghost gave off, I may look at re-adding that in the future, but in a much cleaner way.
• Changed the position of the night vision camera to make it easier to use and interact with other objects in the world while holding it.
• Removed shadows from the ghost orb.
• Removed the cube from the lighter, and added a little png of a flame. This will be fixed in the future to be something a bit cleaner.
• Significantly reduced the brightness of the candle. (Although this now gets blown out whenever you pick it up, so working on a fix for that).
• Increased the rate the heart rate goes down while outside.
• Changed thermometer font and coloring (thank you Truz).

Sorry for being pretty inactive recently, been extremely focused on making these servers absolutely amazing so they don't completely flop come launch day. Hoping to put out content updates (probably not to this size) everyday this week, leading up to launch day!

Thank you so much to everyone that's reported bugs, sent me videos of them playing the game, or gave recommendations in the discord, I promise I read and see them all, even if I'm extremely busy and forget to reply you're the only reason updates this big are possible so, I'll work on being better at replying.

- Kyle