Get to know - Johanny Clerc-Renaud - Lead Programmer

[Get to know - Johanny Clerc-Renaud - Lead Programmer]

Hello Outlanders!
We are bringing the "Get to know Vigor Team" Interviews back. This week we prepared for you an exclusive interview with our Lead Programmer - Johanny Clerc-Renaud.

 

 

▶ What is your role in the Vigor Team?

I was hired almost two years ago as a Backend Programmer (online services) for Vigor. Since last November, I am the Lead Programmer.

 

▶ What was the biggest obstacle you had to overcome/solve as a Lead Programmer?

I am now leading a team spanning across multiple programming disciplines (backend, gameplay, rendering). I think this is my biggest challenge at the moment. I am a backend guy at my core, but now I also need to lead programmers working in totally different fields. I am doing my best to learn about these various fields in my free time. Luckily the programmers working on the game code are autonomous and able to share some of their knowledge with me. Kudos, guys, you're doing amazing work.

 

▶ What is your contribution to the Vigor Team?

As a backend programmer, I wrote some of the game's online services (Challenges, Battle Pass, Map Rotation). I implemented the server code directly interacting with the game and also made tools for Game Designers to balance these features in the game.

Now, I am primarily responsible for stirring the programming team in the right direction. It's mostly a lot of communication, listening to the community feedback and the rest of the team, and coming up with a plan to reach our goals. I am also providing insights to the rest of the development team on live issues and suggesting ways to address them efficiently. For instance, I am proud of the way we fixed the "bigger groups" exploit. We were able to address it without updating the game, which takes a really long time (weeks). Instead, we updated our Matchmaking servers that we can roll out much quicker, in a matter of minutes, once the fix is implemented and validated by our QA department.

 

▶ What do you like about Vigor?

As a player, I love the slow build-up of tension while visiting points of interest one after the other until reaching the exit and not knowing if I will make it. Sadly, my survival rate is not that great; I am way too greedy and a poor shooter. I also like our various game modes and how each of them feels different and rewarding in their own way.

As a developer, I really enjoy the fact that Vigor is a live game, and we have the chance to improve our game from update to update, react to feedback, and keep on adding new features. There is always a fresh new challenge.

 

▶ What would you like to see in Vigor?

 I would like to improve the shooting experience; at the moment, shooting in Vigor is decent but not great. I would like to improve it, keep its uniqueness and make it feel great.

 

▶ Why did you decide to become a Game Developer?

Back in high school, I had to decide what to do with my life. I knew I had some affinity with computers, and I was playing a lot of video games. I decided to go to a school teaching multimedia. There I made short movies, music, infographics, and programming, and... turns out I sucked at everything but programming, so I naturally followed this path until I eventually got the chance to visit the Ubisoft Annecy game studio. And it was on that day, while I was visiting the studio, that I knew that this is what I wanted to do. It was just too cool.

 

▶ What is your favorite thing about your job? And your least favorite?

My favorite thing is creativity, not just about the content and features we put in the game but also how we get to do it and address issues. It's fantastic. My least favorite thing is when we are unable to achieve our vision because of various reasons; because we have limited time, we are a small team, etc. 

 

▶ What do you like the most about the Vigor team?

Everyone is just so friendly! It's a delight to work with my colleagues; they are friendly and passionate, which is an amazing environment to work in.

 

▶ What do you do when you are not making Vigor?

I spend time with my lovely wife and our puppy - a very cute and moody toy puddle called Lola. We go around Brno for walks and throw items for her. I also play a good chunk of video games on various platforms, mainly PlayStation 4 (I have yet to snatch a PlayStation 5... Ach jo) and PC.

 

▶ Did game dev change your view on the games, and how?

Absolutely, before working in game dev, I was much more tolerant to grinding in video games. I loved to play games like Disgeae or Dark Orbit. But programming made me aware that I was chasing numbers, and it started feeling dull. Now I am looking for games that have unique mechanics that create emotions or require skills. 

 

▶ Your favorite games and why?

The latest God of War on PlayStation, first it has a brilliant story. I want to be a father, and the relationship between Atreus and Kratos resonated well with me. Second, the game is just very well made. The pacing of the game is well tinkered, progressing bits of story at times, battling in challenging fights at others. The game also has a huge emphasis on exploration, and it does it very well. The game never gives you the solution for exploring, but it constantly gives you clues through dialogues, level design, and the camera. Learning to notice them and use them is super rewarding. If you're not convinced yet, ask my wife, I've never ended a single play session without saying, "This game is so great." She was even following the story from a distance because the dialogues are well written and voiced (even in French ).

 

▶ What's your favorite music, movie, show, book, and why?

I am a big fan of Metal; my favorite band is Metallica, followed closely by Parkway Drive and Gojira (that I have yet to see live! Darn you Pandemic). My favorite movie is The Martian. I can watch it dozens of times and still have the same feelings. I don't have a favorite show, but I always come back to The Big Bang Theory. My favorite book is actually a saga, the Royal Assassin. I've read almost everything written by Robin Hobb. I love to escape in the worlds she created.

 

▶ Is there something that you want to say to our community?

The team is working really hard to make the game more stable, more fun, more engaging. It's not always easy, and we make mistakes - as we all do. Please continue to give us your feedback on what we are doing because it helps us choose what to prioritize.

 

▶ You are an Outlander, and you just woke up in the tunnel (you know which one). What would you do as a first thing?

I know my survival basics:

Find potable water

Make a fire

Find food

Build a Shelter

 

▶ What is the most interesting bug you have ever come across in a video game?

I think everybody is tired of reading at this point. A picture is worth thousands of words.

[Get to know - Philip Hilal - Associate Producer]

 

▶ What is your role in the Vigor Team?

I am an Associate Producer.

 

▶ What is your contribution to the Vigor Team?

As a producer, you change your role in the development quite often. Some days you're making sure that the deadlines are met, other days you're resolving issues that came from the development, or you're creating documentation from meetings and Brainstorms. But mostly I'm trying to give our developers the best environment for work and make sure that there is fluent communication between management and different departments. 

 

▶ What do you like about Vigor?

I always saw Vigor as a sort of social experiment. The main goal of the game is to get as many resources as possible, but the way you go about it is totally on you. You don't have to shoot a single bullet and be successful in the game. So meeting other players is always a different experience, some may help you and be friendly, others will shoot you and loot you. My experience is mostly the second option. Wich in my eyes is saying something about human nature. 

 

▶ What would you like to see in Vigor?

So many things.

 

▶ Why did you decide to become an Associate Producer?

Funnily enough I never even dreamed to be a producer in game dev. I kinda believe that the job chose me and not the other way around. One of the best things that ever happened to me tho. 

 

▶ What is your favorite thing about your job? And your least favorite?

• I love it when someone comes to me with a great idea and I can help to make it happened.
• I hate when I have to cut or water down some ideas due to lack of time or other priorities. 

 

▶ What do you like the most about the Vigor team?

That I can consider most of the developers my friends and not just colleagues. Also, I love, that we are moving as one person. Each of us is moving with a different part of the "body", but we are always moving towards our goals. 

 

▶ What do you do when you are not making Vigor? (hobbies)

Well, Covid has reduced most of my hobbies. But I'm trying to occupy my mind to not get totally crazy. So, walks in the forests, drawing, playing the guitar, watching movies and series, and playing games. 

 

▶ Did game dev change your view on the games and how?

I am more understanding when I find bugs or issues in the games I'm playing. Because now I know how many things can go sideways even when you think that everything is good to go. 

On the other hand, I now see every game from the production part. Guessing what they used for this and that feature and how hard it was and how long it may have taken to create it. 

 

▶ Your favorite games and why?

Hard to say. Depends on the day and my mood. But from games, I spend the most time playing I can name Mass Effect Trilogy and Assassin's Creed franchise and Prince of Persia franchise, Warcraft 3, Destiny 2, The Forest, Division 2. But I mostly love games with a good story. 

 

▶ What's your favorite music, movie, show, book, and why?

• Music: I listen to everything, basically. Hip-Hop, Metal, RnB, Pop, Rock, Jazz, sync waves, you name it. But my all-time favorite band was and always will be Linkin Park. 
• Movies: Star Wars (1-6), Django Unchanged and other Tarantinos movies, MCU, Anything from Chris Nolan, Man from Earth, and many more. 
• Show: Family Guy, Scrubs, Game of Thrones (Yeah, yeah the ending was bad but I was hooked for a long long time), The Expanse, Brooklyn 99, Modern Family, The Walking Dead.
• Book: I have a favorite writer which is Pablo Coelho. 

 

▶ Is there something that you want to say to our community?

Stay Strong and Healthy during these difficult times guys.

 

▶ You are an Outlander and you just woke up in the tunnel (you know which one). What would you do as a first thing?

I would probably light a cigarette and try to cope with the situation. 

 

▶ What is the most interesting bug you have ever come across in a video game?

I'm still getting haunted by the Assassin's Creed Unity bug where the characters had only the eyes and teeth without faces.

[Get to know - Ondřej Martinák - Lead Programmer]

 

▶ What do you do on Vigor?
I'm the Lead Programmer on Vigor which basically means that I work with my team to bring all the systemic features which lie under everything else to the game. 

 

▶ What is your contribution to the Vigor Team?
Nowadays, I contribute to the game mostly by enabling my team to work efficiently and without unnecessary hurdles. We discuss technical solutions together and choose the direction for individual features in the game. I'm coordinating our work with other departments, like scripters, because it is closely tied together. And I also write smaller pieces of code when I steal some time for myself (usually during the night when everyone leaves the office 🙂 ). 

 

▶ What do you like about Vigor?
I'm not very proficient in using a gamepad for shooters so I usually prefer to take a safer approach. This gives me a great opportunity to explore areas of our maps that are not frequently visited by other players and enjoy the nordic nature. That's probably what I like most about Vigor - the environment. Be it sunny forests, silent wilderness covered in snow or muddy hills under the storm clouds. 

 

▶ What do you want to see in Vigor?
When we first started working on duos it felt to me like we were able to reinvigorate the game with something new and interesting. I'm really happy we are following it by bringing other game modes focused on team play and cooperation as it brings deeper game experiences. I would like to see a bit more in this regard and it so happens that we have some additional ideas. 

 

▶ What do you do when you are not making Vigor?
I usually sit in my apartment, everything dark, computer screens slightly illuminating the surroundings, another bit of light coming from the streetlamps outside, calm synthwave playing from the speakers, writing experimental code in whatever programming language I fancy at the moment.
The other half of my free time is consumed by social dancing. I mostly focus on Tango Argentino and Zouk but I might be able to remember one or two steps from a couple of other dances as well.
I must say that social dancing is in fact an activity very well suited for (software) engineers 🙂 . 

 

▶ Did game dev change your view on the games and how?
Well, yes and no. Creating games and playing games are two different things for me which don't necessarily overlap. It's true that when I play a game I notice interesting technical solutions here or design decisions there and I might end up with a page full of notes. But I mostly try to let go, enjoy the game and immerse myself in the artificial world. On the other hand, when I'm creating a game my day to day motivation comes from the process of creation itself. I like to write code for the game, I like to help iterate individual game mechanics and I especially love putting release builds together. Even though it might come with some crunch time it's the time when everything falls into place and you finally see the game that was only in your head so far. 

 

▶ Your favorite games and why?
UFO: Enemy Unknown - This is where I learned my h4x0r skillz cracking save games to get a ridiculous amount of money (Pro tip: the difference between signed and unsigned long int does matter 🙂 ).
Baldur's Gate II - Are any words necessary?! Go play it!
Ghost of Tsushima - Beautiful visuals, wonderful stylization, and very well designed game mechanics that take advantage of both. 

 

▶ What's your favorite music, movie, show, book, and why?
Ahh, there's too many, let me pick some in random:
Music - Silueta Porteña performed by the Juan D'Arienzo orchestra from 1936 - listen to the bubbling piano underneath the main melody.
Movie - Star Trek (2009) - I really liked the pacing of the movie, there was always something interesting going on (and yes, I also like all the lens flares :))
Show - I mostly hate shows so I don't watch them much but I liked the first few series of The Big Bang Theory.
Book - Magician by Raymond E. Feist - I grew up reading all the high fantasy books I could. 

 

▶ Is there something that you want to say to our community?
Please don't be too harsh with us because of the bugs. If there are bugs it means we've also (hopefully) added something new and fun into the game :). 

 

▶ You are Outlander; humanity has fallen. What would you do?
Finally time for a vacation! I would move to a tropical island, build a small straw hut and spend the rest of my days watching the sea. Nah! I would get bored quickly and start looking for electricity. 

 

▶ Bonus question from Martin
What do you find different about game development, compared to other kinds of software development?

It's definitely the mindset of people, their interests, and the overall atmosphere in the team. In gamedev, we are all "weird" in the same way and I sooo love that. Basically, everyone here is playing computer, console, or board games, everyone is brewing a fantastic or sci-fi world in their head or is otherwise taking part in our sub-culture. We all want to play and we all want to create. And we all fit together. 

[Update 4.0 Changelog]

Hi guys, we recently started posting our changelogs to vigorgame.com  since from there they are also linked directly to the game and you can access them through your Xbox as well. But some of you were unhappy with the fact that we will no longer post them on the forum - so we will continue posting them here as well. So here is the one Changelog that was missing for Update 4.0  - currently available on Xbox and Nintendo Switch.

Main New Features

New Battle Pass theme

• Battle Pass is now cheaper - 690 crowns instead of 900 crowns

New game mode - Elimination

• 5 vs. 5 - team-based game mode
• Only random teams - friend based teams will come in the future
• Arcade game mode

Armory Cellar

Facepaints

• Customize your character with intense Facepaints
• Cover yourself or stand out!

New Tools

• Jammer
• Mortar strike

New Weapons

• Bugle F1
• Uk vz. 59
• M249
• RM14

New Mementos: Lighters

• A new set of mementos
• Some of the lighters can be found only on a specific map

Comm Station Overhaul

• You can find multiple (3) Comm Stations in the Encounter now
• The Comm Station can newly affect the airdrop in multiple ways (buffs and debuffs)
• It can be used up to 4 times

 

Shooting, Weapons & Tools

Fixed: Shootout - shotgun comes with no shells in the chamber

Fixed: Weapon levitates when switched to the left shoulder and close to an obstacle

Changed: Team kills no longer count as kills (and headshots) for player stats

Changed: Weapon fire mode and ammo is now hidden for weapons/ in cases when it doesn't make sense to have them visible

Changed: FakeGlint, Transmitter and Jammer are destroyable by interaction

Added: Linked new generic string for suicide by contact bomb/mortar

Tweaked: Semi and Autofire now aligned. Recoil slightly increased across the board. Silent weapons no longer flash their muzzles

Tweaked: UK vz. 59 Recoil increased, M249 spread and recoil increased

Tweaked: Adjustments to recoil to emulate older behaviour. Adjusted slight error with Shotgun spread in hipfire

Tweaked: Updated weapon collisions via weapon collision tool

Tweaked: Reduced speed of main heal timer, was too fast

Tweaked: ADS reticle

Removed: Unused score counting from Shootout based on healing - this was causing the majority of Shootout issues

 

Looting

Changed: Looting mementos no longer counts for loot X containers challenges

Changed: Rarities settings of troll mementos and troll memento items

Changed: Pool of troll types per map

Added: Fire troll spawn points

Added: Flower (suave), cave, air and fire troll spawn points

Tweaked: Spawn probabilities in Bared house, Buried cache and Combination lock

 

Shelter

Fixed: It was possible to accidentally trigger Battle Pass level up during connectivity issues

Fixed: Battle Pass Claim Rewards Screen could appear at certain conditions in different Shelter tab

Fixed: Veteran title is now based on airdrops collected rather than matches won

Fixed: Challenges - the system is prioritising new challenges above all else

Fixed: There was a possibility to open a shooting range challenge with the default shooting range, which shouldn't be possible anymore

Fixed: Scoreboard no more bloating memory with unused objects

Fixed: Mementos section in Guide now has a correct icon (instead of a question mark)

Fixed: D-pad up - Widget is visible again on shelter waiting screen (open after both, stash & level, are loaded)

Fixed: Sorting of titles - now sorted by rarity, not alphabetically

Fixed: Texts in the matchmaking notification now correctly differentiates between Encounter and Shootout

Fixed: Warning messages about incomplete loadout are not shown anymore in the Shelter Map in case the Shootout tile is selected

Fixed: Lobby onboarding is not shown anymore if Shootout is selected

Fixed: BattlePass Titles are displayed with incorrect Lawless/Order side in the lobby

Changed: Required killcount lowered for weapon-specific challenges

Changed: Placement of trolls in the preview scene adjusted to reflect new rarities

Changed: Shelter waiting screen -- implementation moved to shelter layer

Added: Optimization for Leaderboards

Added: Highlighting of friends in the Leaderboards

Added: Timeout for read/write leaderboard requests. The lack of it caused the stucked leaderboards

Added: Elemental layers for trolls in the Shelter

Tweaked: Changed position of shelter camera so it reflects the new placement of Crafting Table

Tweaked: Difficulty of some challenges

Removed: 2D map texture from the Shelter

 

Movement & Camera

Fixed: Getting stuck in cylinders

Fixed: Delaying player respawn during force respawn so players won't get stuck

Changed: Interaction dots now fade in the last 40% of radius instead of just last 30%

Changed: Improved visuals, applied to centre to the camera so the player's head is always in the middle of the render target

Added: Blocking volume for interiors

 

Visuals

Fixed: Compass and HealthBar don't blink at the beginning of the tutorial anymore

Fixed: Animation glitch which happened when swapping skeletal meshes

Fixed: FPS issues occurring in Shootout

Fixed: Rebuilt houses

Fixed: The bugs on Luger's toggle joint animation is too slow when firing in 1st person

Fixed: Offset HP bar of your teammate

Fixed: Stamina bar got dizzy and moved incorrectly

Fixed: Consumable - animation system gets confused (when the player is trying to use the item again)

Fixed: Gestures - animations in preview get restarted by themselves before they are finished

Changed: Challenges are no longer shown in UI while the player is in the tutorial

Changed: Character selection in the tutorial

Changed: Warehouse rebuilt 

Added: Contextual ping icons

Tweaked: Weapon and Health UI set to always visible

Tweaked: Objects placement in interiors of houses

Tweaked: Ping icons in compass now distinguish ownership of the ping

Tweaked: Troll positioning in the shelter menu

Tweaked: Wrong combination lock chest replaced 

Tweaked: Garages rebuilt

 

Audio

Fixed: Troll giggle was played only once by troll lootable objects

Changed: Memento preview sounds now fade out when different memento is in focus

Changed: Preview sound of individual mementos is now played only if it has been previewed for at least 0.25s so that scrolling across the whole collection doesn't play all the sounds

Added: Preview sounds are now played for troll mementos in the Shelter UI

 

Other

Fixed: After using a healing consumable server gets spammed and gameplay negatively affected

Fixed: "Typo" caused wrong calculation of the minimum amount of items spawned

Fixed: Scoreboard in shootout respawn screen now correctly shows the score

Fixed: Crash when the player switches user account

Fixed: Tutorial - At the start, there is a twinkle with hints

Fixed: A typo which might prevent users to retry download cloud data if it failed due to the connection issue

Fixed: Challenges - player character looting won't call events for other players

Changed: Pings now ignore open doors, destroyed barricades on doors and open windows

Changed: Phone Duel call is interrupted if calling player dies or leaves match before the duel starts

Changed: Spanish translation of the "Biker helmet"

Added: Optimisation in Shootout- all items which can't be moved to a corpse container (consumables, persistent) are deleted when the player dies

Added: New hints for 4.0

Added: PingMarker to objects - furniture

Tweaked: Added some sublevels to data table for Sawmill map

Tweaked: Ping system now uses sockets on pinged actors

Tweaked: End match result screen time

Tweaked: Grontheim map updated

Fixed: Crafting table -  hovering objects throughout all LODs

Tweaked: Phone duels blink on the compass when a player can see your position

Removed: Consumables - get rid of unused and obsolete code

[Get to know - Martin Gregor - Senior Scripter]

 

▶ What do you do on Vigor?

I'm a scripter / technical designer.

 

▶ What is your contribution to the Vigor Team?

A steady supply of pancakes! And as a thing on the side, I turn design docs into technical solutions and implement them. 

 

▶ What do you like about Vigor?

Exploring the world.

 

▶ What do you want to see in Vigor?

More non-combat and/or cooperative activities. Shooting shouldn't be the answer to every situation.

 

▶ What do you do when you are not making Vigor?

Sleeping, gaming, and acroyoga.

 

▶ Did game dev change your view on games and how?

I find it difficult to enjoy a game as a player, once I've peaked behind the curtain. So I avoid working on genres that I enjoy playing.

 

▶ Your favorite games and why?

That changes a lot  Right now my favorites are Horizon Zero Dawn on console and Battlestar Galactica Deadlock on PC.

 

▶ What's your favorite music, movie, show, book, and why?

Anything sci-fi or fantasy. I like delving into imaginary worlds.

 

▶ Is there something that you want to say to our community?

Found all the trolls yet? 

 

▶ You are Outlander; humanity has fallen. What would you do?

I head for Norway. I heard it's a-ok there.

 

▶ Bonus question from Petra:
 Are there any games that inspired you or had an impact on your profession?

Journey: Great example of storytelling without a single line of text.

[Hotfix 3.2.0.54770]

Fixed: While in the tracksuit uniform the weapon appeared in the wrong position with deformed hands

Tweaked: Recoil changes - Fixed: Crosshair not returning to center after firing a weapon

Changed: Tracked loot is now tracked from the start of the match, not from the moment tracked item is looted from airdrop container.

 

[Update 3.2 Changelog]

 

Main New Features

 

Troll Mementos (collectible items)

• You can find the 90s Trolls in the maps
• If you collect one, it is displayed in the Shelter menu and also on the rocks above the water stream
• You can find hints in the Shelter menu

 

D-pad up takes you to the Outlands menu

• Introduced for easier and quicker matchmaking

 

Ability to set the Shelter appearance based on a level

 

Ping System Changes

• Contextual system

 

Interaction fades

• Interaction dots do not just pop in and out - they fade in and out with distance
• It is less distracting

 

New target types in the Tutorial

• The bottles were replaced with more diverse target types (cans, traffic signs, etc.)

 

Titles are 20% bigger in the lobby and reward screen

 

Shooting, Weapons & Tools

Fixed: Weapons - Shotguns are not loaded from the start of the Encounter

Fixed: Exploit of double usage of painkillers

Changed: Fire mode is now indicated by an image instead of text

Changed: Shooting restrictions loosened (the red cross was removed)

Added: Weapon image was added to the Weapon info

Tweaked: Semi and Autofire are now aligned. Recoil slightly increased across the board. Silent weapons no longer flash their muzzles.

 

Looting

Fixed: Missing airdrop after killing the looter in a precise time

Fixed: Dummy cache no longer completes the challenge of being first to interact with buried cache

Changes: When aiming at ping a hint of action is displayed to the player

Changed: Players cannot ping empty lootable. Contextual pings are placed on the middle of the object. The player cannot ping the same item twice

Changed: Added Ping Marker to objects

Changes: Contextual ping can now show the rarity of the pinged item

Tweaked: Shootout rewards were increased (to 100 and to 50 pieces of food)

Tweaked: Places with Combination Locks were updated

 

Shelter

Fixed: Battle Pass notifications, Welcome Back notification and Onboarding messages in the Shelter can no longer appear during the loading screen

Fixed: Reset Onboarding in "Options -> Game" now correctly initializes onboarding sequence for the first time shelter visit

Fixed: Character no longer jumps after player closes First Shelter Entry Onboarding message

Fixed: Focusing Replay Tutorial button in-game options no longer changes the layout of the UI by collapsing the hint widget

Fixed: Clicking the Replay Tutorial option will no longer close the game options widget

Fixed: Crafting Booster - The player is kicked back to the splash screen when the player does not have enough money for it

Fixed: Texts in the matchmaking notification now correctly differentiates between Encounter and Shootout

Fixed: Warning messages about the incomplete loadout are not shown anymore in the Shelter Map in case the Shootout is selected

Fixed: Lobby onboarding is not shown anymore if the Shootout is selected

Fixed: BattlePass Titles are displayed with incorrect Lawless/Order side in the lobby

Fixed: Battle Pass Reward Screen now shows the correct amount of items in the slots 

Fixed: Remove second Friends List for players in the same game (engine bug) 

Fixed: Onboarding welcoming message was being played again and again and again on each level change

Fixed: Level-up screen in the BattlePass UI shows only when it should

Fixed: Loaded meshes and materials in Titles UI are now stored so that they don't get stuck

Changed: Onboarding that appears when the player visits shelter for the first time now appears only after the player is greeted by a voice-over message

Changed: Welcome Back notification no longer appears the first time player enters the shelter

Changed: For new players who have not visited shelter before, What's New screen is postponed until the second shelter visit

Changed: Unified way of the Battle Pass Rewards Screen and Encounter Reward Screen set and get the data from the Battle Pass slot

Changed: Single and double press for ping was added to controller scheme

Changed: Preview images in Shelter UI look better thanks to additional light sources

Added: 3.0 dashboard icon

Tweaked: "Interact with the world map" onboarding message was removed

 

Movement & Camera

Fixed: Interacting with doors right before using ladders breaks the climbing animation

Fixed: Traversal bugs (movement on the map, overcoming obstacles) 

Changed: Riverbank Erosion assets no longer block the interactions

Changed: Moved prone cam slightly down to accommodate the 3pv discrepancy

Tweaked: Spawn probabilities lowered

 

Visuals

Fixed: Rotation of pumpkins

Fixed: Offset HP bar of your teammate

Fixed: Stamina bar got dizzy and moved incorrectly

Changed: HUD visual polish replaced textures with higher resolution ones

Tweaked: Update welcome screen SFX

Tweaked: Render distance of interiors in garages was changed

Tweaked: Buildings in levels rebuild

Tweaked: Depth of field

Tweaked: Phone Booth visuals

 

Audio

Fixed: Shelter music can no longer start playing during the loading screen

Fixed: Removed footsteps in Shootout countdown

Fixed: Wolves were removed from the match start animation

Fixed: Dial phone duel sound was lowered

Tweaked: Round Start sound changed

Tweaked: The volume of the wind in Batterie Snodekt was increased

 

Other

Fixed: The game crashes when the player switches a user account

Fixed: Scarecrow challenges do not miss the description in Russian

Fixed: Player Controller has it's input disabled when winner screen starts

Fixed: Typo which might prevent users to retry download cloud data if it failed due to connection issue

Fixed: Set Rich presence text as a normal text by default

Changed: Spanish translation of the Biker helmet

Changed: Challenges are no longer shown in Game Info while the player is in the tutorial

Changed: View Profile action in Shootout scoreboard is now mapped to RS (Right Stick press)

Changed: Increased "Save Game" size

Added: Connection error delegate to Session System

Tweaked: Maps were updated

Tweaked: Onboarding texts were updated

Tweaked: Outlands onboarding line was tweaked

[Changelog - Update 3.1]

 

Fill out this survey and let us get to know you: https://forms.gle/SNPTZPYtaRWDVHPj9

 

Changelog:

 

Main New Features

Skill-based Titles

• Based on airdrops optained
• Kill based
• Based on Shelter improvements
• Special Title for Founders

Ping System

• Players can now visually ping a location or a material
• It is displayed on their duos screen

Phone Duel Event

• There are several phones on the map
• Players can interact with it and call to the other phones
• When someone picks up, they become Rivals in a duel - they can see each other on the map

New sorting of weapons, ammo, and consumables in Stash

• Owned
• Craftable
• Unavailable

Consumable Selection Wheel Improvements

• It newly contains only consumables that the player has in their loadout

 

Shooting, Weapons & Tools

Fixed: Weapon doesn't process reload automatically when the player picks it up from the ground

Fixed: Near Miss indicator was too sensitive

Fixed: Weapons - Shotguns are not loaded from Encounter/Shootout start

Fixed: State machine - Players can start sprinting while reloading, resulting in an empty mag

Fixed: Sniper Rifles – SKS, SVD, Mosin Nagant, SSG-82, vz. 52 Reduced rate of fire

Fixed: Disabled Aimpoint socket and manually placed Aimpoint

Added: Missing compatible ammo information

Tweaked: Added LODs with Morph targets

Tweaked: Vz.52 reload animations polish

Tweaked: VSS reload animations polish

Tweaked: SKS reload animations polish

Tweaked: KK 62 reload animations polish

Removed: Autofire UI for M21

 

Looting

Fixed: Consumables - The tools and meds stays in hand when returned to stash

Fixed: Com station - changing the airdrop location changes direction of radiation -- if radiation is already initialized do not reinitialize it on drop change

Fixed: Consumables - Consumables are still visible (even when they should be in "bag")

Changed: Loot amount increased by 12 - 18% depending on a map.

Changed: Tweaked loot screen

 

Shelter

Fixed: Shelter - Starting position changed when switching from the user in the tutorial

Fixed: Shelter upgrade - After upgrading to next shelter level the default bag appears on the outlander's outfit set

Fixed: Titles - Missing shortcut to battle pass for unavailable titles

Fixed: It is not possible to close the Rewards by spamming A during the green Level Up animation

Fixed: Loot Crate - Background & Loot Card Colors Change After Crate Is Opened

Fixed: Titles were missing in the guide in-game menu

Fixed: Caffeine pills and iodine tablets are no longer usable in the shelter

Fixed: Scrolling in the Shelter Builder's details panel

Fixed: Shooting range MessageBox that could remain stuck on the screen at certain conditions

Changed: Encounter - When a player dies after his teammate left the game, he is awarded teammate protected

Changed: Action to equip previously used consumable no longer equips other types of consumables if the player no longer has any consumable of the previously used type

Changed: Made it so gloves do not rotate in buy scene

Changed: Items in Shelter stash are now sorted by craftability (descending) then by rarity (descending) and finally by name (ascending)

Tweaked: Updated Box of Herbs description as we changed the position of improvements

Tweaked: Shooting challenge volume to no longer allow the player to get in front of the wooden pallets during a challenge

 

Movement & Camera

Fixed: Bugfix when player get under the stairs

Fixed: Bugfix when player get stuck between trains

 

Visuals

Fixed: Reward screen - Visible transition animation from default stand to the death

Fixed: Tracers have become invisible

Fixed: Afroamerican archetype female – hair clipping with caps

Fixed: Rotation icon inconsistent

Fixed: Lobby - visual effects -- no more snow cover nor weather lighting in the lobby

Fixed: Lobby - Incorrect female gesture animation

Fixed: Machine gun - Stock clipping with chest

Tweaked: Grip position, replaced socket

Tweaked: Safe return animation updated

Tweaked: Backpack straps clipping with uniform „Hunter“ female variant

Tweaked: Head collision

 

Audio

Fixed: Gesture audio still playing after death

Fixed: Other-player-threat hint won't play for the player when he is the threat already

 

Other

Fixed: Tutorial - Missing archetypes

Fixed: Consumables - hold RT prompt visible after death

Fixed: Several typos in onboarding messages

Fixed: Typo in one of gameplay event descriptions ("Box of Valubles Retrieved" => "Box of Valuables Retrieved")

Fixed: winner screen now shouldn't let you switch back to your character

Changed: Updated Replay Tutorial Localization and UI button functionality

Tweaked: Timer in lobby increased from 42 to 60 seconds

[Get to know - Petra Oravcová - Lead UI/UX Designer]

 

 

▶ What do you do on Vigor?
I'm working as a Lead UI/UX Designer and I'm responsible for the UI of Vigor and overall experience it creates for players interacting with it. 

 

▶ What is your contribution to the Vigor Team?
During the playtests and gaming nights I'm quite an easy target for others so I actively increase the success of my opponents 😄 

 

▶ What do you like about Vigor?
The tension, uncertainty, and overall atmosphere. That every encounter can be totally different. If you go with an empty backpack, you can still return with the best crate. But I need to mention the environment as I was trekking in that part of Norway and gosh! It really looks like that. Great job level designers! 

 

▶ What do you want to see in Vigor?
I'm more of a stealthy player and collector, I also like puzzles. Buried caches are a perfect example so I would like to go even further in complexity, connection to lore and required cooperation with your duo partner to solve it successfully. 

 

▶ What do you do when you are not making Vigor?
You would probably see me sitting by my crafting desk, fiddling with a rotary tool, wood, foam, paints that would eventually turn into a prop from the gaming world. I’ve always been a crafter but games brought this obsession to a completely new level. Being able to bring an object which you are attached to within a game into life is so satisfactory and challenging at the same time. My favorite pieces are Leviathan Axe of Kratos (God of War), silver sword of Geralt (The Witcher), and Banuk Striker Bow of Aloy (Horizon Zero Dawn).

When I’m tired of sitting I love to go outside. Mountains, camping and high altitude, that’s a real adventure for me. Also I like to spent a good time with my family by making a stone-baked pizza with them  

 

▶ Did game dev change your view on the games and how?
Definitely. I learned that so many disciplines need to click together to create such a piece of art. I often get caught in thinking about the reasons behind some mechanics, especially UI, how they were done, and how I would actually recreate them by myself. Also, I’m much more tolerant of bugs. 

 

▶ Your favorite games and why?
Singleplayer action-adventure games where shooting is not a core mechanic or is done in a really good way including aim assist.   I seek games when I want to mostly relax, often I’m a backseat gamer. The Uncharted series, Horizon Zero Dawn, Witcher, Gris are my favorite from the top of my head. All of these have a beautiful environment, amazing music, and story in common. But I also enjoy Resident Evil 2 or 7 if I want to pump my adrenaline. 

 

▶ What's your favorite music, movie, show, book, and why?
Synthwave genre and soundtracks from games and movies. I’m not a huge movie lover or book worm though. I personally prefer shows as I can have them as background while I’m crafting! Like Breaking Bad, Dexter, Stranger Things or various cooking shows. 

 

▶ Is there something that you want to say to our community?
Thank you for playing, your support and feedback, please keep it coming! And even when it sometime looks like we don’t listen, be sure we do. 

 

▶ You are Outlander; humanity has fallen. What would you do?
I would build my shelter somewhere close to the water and mountains and start farming. 

 

▶ Bonus question: What is the weirdest/best bug you have encountered in a video game?
It was during the development of Arma 3 mod Argo, there was this bug with super long necks of characters, maybe 1.5 meters long. That couldn’t stop us from playtesting the game modes of course. So imagine you need to be stealthy, move carefully, report any movement of enemies to your team and be super serious. Then suddenly all you see are floating heads above the buildings, sitting on super long necks looking at you like giraffes in a zoo. 😄 

[Hotfix 3.0.0.52981]

 

Tweaked: Daily challenge distribution  - this should prevent getting challenges of the same kind (we also implemented a system gathering and analyzing data from this)

Fixed: Localization of "select row" in Shootout

Tweaked: Facewear morphs

[Changelog 2.2]

 

Main New Features
 

New Featured map added: Batterie: Snodekt (snow version of Batterie: Draug)

Quick Play + Featured Map (Instead of map selection, to shorten waiting times and prevent teaming)

Leaderboards in Stats screen added 

Season 2 Extention (Season 2 will be extended for 1 week)

New weapon stats added

Occupied Slots in Customizations

Bullet damage over distance revised

Challenges distribution tweaked

Camera improvements

Russian localization
 

Shooting, Weapons & Tools

Fixed: Hits from dead players weren’t ignored, therefore they resulted in a larger number of trade kills

Fixed: Machinegun stance, machinegun arm additive for aimed

Fixed: Tools - Player's position shifted after placing a Tool

Fixed: Tents are now more penetrable

Added: Aimpoint adjustment for weapons

Tweaked: Camera Aim point of ADR

Updated: Aim assist on regular scarecrows is disabled

Looting

Fixed: Deconstruction - Stash UI not updated after deconstructing

Fixed: Spawned loot is now distributed correctly
 

Shelter

Fixed: Survival rate in Personal Stats is displayed as a percentage instead of a decimal number.

Fixed: Charity box - rewards are now properly ordered

Fixed: French localization of the Battle Pass level indicator

Changed: build shelter improvement challenge will no longer be given to players with a maxed out shelter

Changed: Enabled localization and fixed layout related issues from long strings

Changed: Added sale label to individual list items

Changed: Made sale labels look better

Added: Discount Label on Selling Point Button

Updated: Craft X consumables challenges now properly responds to tools

Movement & Camera

Fixed: Initial prone angle is wrong when entering prone in ADS

Changed: Move camera further back

Changed: Tweaked exit 1PV camera transition to clipless with the uniform whilst left shoulder

Added: Female versions of some gestures

 

Visuals

Changed: Different pose in the lobby after buying the first booster

Tweaked: PA md. 86 reload animations polish

Tweaked: Skorpion reload animations polish

Added: RPK reload animations polish

Added: Steyr AUG A1 reload animations polish

Added: M16A2 reload animations polish

Added: Silver Pigeon shotgun reload animations polish

Added: New animations for different match outcomes (won, died, crushed etc)

Added: A new set of prone animations for new prone behavior for RFL PST and UNA

 

Audio

Fixed: Lowered volume on waterfall in the Shelter

Added: Female variant for some gesture sounds

Added: Sounds for headgear and outfit sets equip

Tweaked: Audio volumes in the Shelter

 

Other

Fixed: Crashed fixes (memory)

Fixed: Player stuck in spectator when killed on match start

Changed: A map is now correctly showing teammates movement on the map too

[Get to know - Thomas Schut - Junior Designer]

 

▶ What do you do on Vigor?
I work on Vigor as a Game Designer, working on various aspects related to gameplay & content. Things such as game mechanics, challenges, tools and overall providing content for players to engage with.

 

▶ What is your contribution to the Vigor Team?

As a Dutchman, I am working hard on making the Vigor team culturally diverse.

 

▶ What do you like about Vigor?

I like the tension in Vigor and always having to deal with the risk of losing everything. There is always something on the line as you traverse the Outlands and one mistake is all it takes.
As for the development approach, I like how we try not to always follow what other games do and not shy from trying things we find interesting. It does not always work out, but it makes Vigor unique.

 

▶ What do you want to see in Vigor?

I would love to see more progression systems to expand our meta & provide more goals to pursue outside of your Encounters. Things such as character progression and weapon upgrading.
The more things to grind at for me, the better.

 

▶ What do you do when you are not making Vigor?

I like to be outside & see places. I travel a lot around the country and neighboring countries, go on hikes, mountain trips, visit national parks.
Other than that I mostly play games, write/read poetry and love me some wine & cake time. Also, the gym, to balance out my excessive wine & cake time.

 

▶ Did game dev change your view on the games and how?

Oh yes, certainly. It is really difficult for me to immerse myself in games, unlike before. I now always look past the game as a whole and analyze every single mechanic, decision and how the game as a whole makes me interact with its systems.
I would wonder why certain games did something in a certain manner, or write down clever ways how another game tackled an interesting problem.
Rarely I can pick-up a game and just play it without thinking of it.
But I played “A Short Hike” recently and that was very refreshing.

 

▶ Your favorite games and why?

Strategy: Civilization VI, as it just brilliantly captures everything I seek from a strategy game.

Shooter: the Battlefield series, for just always being superb.

RPG: Skyrim, as this was the first and only time a fictional world felt real to me.

CCG: Magic: The Gathering, for the endless freedom it offers to find your own playstyle.

Guilty Pleasure: anything Pokémon, cause growing up is hard.

 

▶ What's your favorite music, movie, show, book and why?

Music: My music is all over the place and it varies greatly on my mood, also nobody ever seems to appreciate it the majority of it, but if I’d have to point out my favorite artist, I’d say Keaton Henson.

Movie: I recently saw Little Women and that got me crying pretty good so... good job movie.

TV show: Friends and I don’t feel bad about it (talking to you Roman). I’ve re-watched it 12 times now and I will re-watch it till the day I die. There is something about it that makes me feel deeply comfortable from within and I’ve decided it will be my coping mechanism in life.

Book: The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman, as it is the only book that ever truly changed my way of experiencing the world around me and be much more aware of how things are done and how I interact with them.
And Gnomes by Wil Huygen & Rien Poortvliet, for making me want to believe there might be more out there than we can see.

 

▶ Is there something that you want to say to our community?

Thanks for being with us, and please, keep on with your feedback. We are always looking at Facebook, Reddit, YouTube, Mixer, and other platforms to see what you guys think about the game. What do you like, where Vigor can improve, what would you love to see, etc. We appreciate it 🙂

 

▶ You are Outlander; humanity has fallen. What would you do?

I greatly enjoy being in the outdoors, camping and enjoying the solitude. I’d find myself a handful of friends to join our ventures to the edges of the world and enjoy it as long as it lasts.
But only after we had our fun plundering pretty much everything which would now be considered public property (;
It is all about seizing opportunities after all.

 

Bonus Question from Andrej

▶ What makes good game design and what games come to mind first and why? 

That is a very tough question and I’m not sure it has one answer to it, or even a correct one. But for me, a good game never needs to explicitly tell the player what to do, and inherently guides the player through the experience. Many times I play games and find myself lost, follow confusing quest markers, struggle with unclear mission objectives or fail while not understanding why. I look up to games such as Mario, Tetris, Uncharted, or Doom, where the game can take you through huge amounts of content without you ever feeling lost or struggling to find out what you are supposed to do.

Another big thing for me is when games can me feel like every decision of the game is impactful and every second of it matters. Games like Darkest Dungeon where every action is permanent or Stardew Valley where you can only perform a limited amount of actions per day. When one decision rules out another, that is when I feel the most engaged in a game.

 

 

[Changelog 2.1]

 

Main New Features

Personal Stats

New Reward Screen

Wardrobe Shop

Ready Button

Fake Buried Cache

Shoulder Mirroring
 

Shooting, Weapons & Tools

Fixed: Gameplay - After using a consumable, it should load "Last Equipped Weapon" and not "Primary Weapon"

Fixed: Hit indication is displayed even though the player doesn't receive any damage

Fixed: Crossbow - 'Near hit' SFX are not triggering correctly 

Fixed: Fingers obstructing the view in 1ps view

Changed: Less occurrences of the red cross, only showing when ADS or attempting to fire

Changed: Melee damage now counts as a valid kind of damage for challenges

Changed: Improved ADS transition

Tweak: Melee should now hurt players in prone more effectively

Tweaked: Damage over distance values adjusted - min damage now between 40-50% of full

Looting

Changed: Added "for everybody" to loot booster description

Shelter

Fixed: Shelter Builder - focus disappears after Shelter level up screen

Fixed: Charity box - don't skip lines when paging

Fixed: Charity box - when showing the first rank, really start with first

Fixed: Charity Box - Player's position not visible in Leaderboards first page

Fixed: Charity Box - Donating in rapid succession kicks to the Title screen

Fixed: Reward Screen wasn't displayed and the player was moved to Shelter after exiting a match

Fixed: Shelter Stash no longer stops updating after switching sub-tab to 'Deconstruct'

Fixed: Rate of fire value in the Shelter UI is correctly updated even for weapons that have the full-auto mode only

Fixed: The Reward Screen is Blackened when leaving the encounter

Fixed: "None" in character customization screen is now properly localized

Fixed: Broken slot focus in Battle Pass UI

Changed: Battle Pass screen will now hide information about buying/owning battle pass when it is not owned but the premium product is not available

Changed: Battle Pass ui moved to left by 10px to match with other screens, reward icons in tile moved up

Changed: UI - animated arrows tweaked, description position tweaked

Changed: Shelter builder screen X-alignment unified with other screens, obsolete background textures removed

Added: String for Waiting for server timeout added

Added: Challenges for fake glint & portable detector + fixed some improper difficulty parameters

Added: Displaying killer's stats to the Reward Screen Leaderboards

Added: Onboarding to the Shelter Leaderboards

Updated: Set up the difficulty for challenges & adjusted challenge prerequisites

Movement

Changed: Disabling pushing when unable to leave prone (connected to prone changes)

Changed: Change of prone behavior, the head doesn’t sink into walls, blocking the player from going on back, allowing for proning anywhere but pushback only under condition

Added: Chambering for prone and crouch

Tweaked: Carry more, run further, the stamina limits have been lessened

Tweaked: Tweaked mesh and collision to make toilets more accessible

Visuals

Fixed: Camera adjustment at steep angles

Fixed: Camera smoothing on desync

Fixed: Disabled rotation for item types which should not rotate

Changed: Stash scrollbar styled, stash UI moved to the left to match other screens

Audio

Added: Arrow shot whizzes

Other

Fixed: Button for reset onboarding tips doesn't work

Changed: Onboardings positions tweaked to fit new screens layouts

Changed: Blocking volumes bug fixing (maps related)

[Get to know - Andrej Novosad - Sound Designer]

▶ What do you do on Vigor?
Sound design. All the ambiances and guns + lot of other effects and UI here and there. Oh yea, sound for trailers too.

▶ What is your contribution to the Vigor Team?
I record weird creaking sounds that then creep people out in our maps. I also imitate voices of some old Slovak pre-internet meme freaks to keep the morale high in our audio office.

▶ What do you like about Vigor?
The rush of adrenaline and the tension it can build. The rewarding feeling when I return from the match after accomplishing something.

▶ What do you want to see in Vigor?
Some really fun new game modes, ideally with teams. Flawlessly polished gameplay and gunplay. Maybe even some RPG elements? Where I could beside my shelter also upgrade and progress my character. E.g. less weapon sway, faster reloads if I am more of a marksman. Faster looting, bigger inventory, seeing loot indicators further away if I'm more of a scavenger. Hearing footsteps further, maybe even seeing them somehow indicated on the terrain. Who knows, could be a lot of fun 🙂

▶ What do you do when you are not making Vigor?
Producing electronic music, going to parties. Playing first-person shooters. Reading books, drinking beers, researching shitcoins..

▶ Did game dev change your view on the games and how?
I am now a lot more appreciative of what goes into making such a project. How much creativity, skill, and effort it takes in so many disciplines.

▶ Your favorite games and why?
Neverhood comes to mind - I loved it. It was just so adorable and lovely. Hit me right in the feelz. I still have a small Clayman I did 20 years ago lying around somewhere.
Most recently: Journey. Beautiful work of art in all aspects. Worked like a charm for me.
Other than that, the usual stuff - Doom, Quake, Half-Life, Starcraft. Each of them brought something new and revolutionary in its time and all are timeless IMO.
Nowadays it's Day of Infamy, Insurgency. Before those, I played A LOT of old Day of Defeat. Also, CS1.6 should probably have an honorable mention too as I played it on quite a pro-level for like.. 7 years? For defeaters and fu.sk. Good times :')

 

▶ What's your favorite music, movie, show, book and why?
Music: various DNB mostly as I've played and produced it for quite some time. But other than that probably The Cinematic Orchestra, Zero 7, Lulu Rouge, Burial, Trentemøller, etc.
Movie: If I had to choose only one then it's nothing too original - The Matrix. It's all in there. But also things like Casino, Full Metal Jacket, Tarantino movies, etc.
Show: Futurama - I loved how one could find new and new jokes there each time.
Book: Anything from Alan Watts really. One of the top thinkers ever and he really knew it with words. If I had to choose one then probably The Book.

 

▶ Is there something that you want to say to our community?
It's really fun and refreshing to watch you guys play and comment and give feedback. I appreciate it a lot, don't stop!

 

▶ You are Outlander; humanity has fallen. What would you do?
Probably just laugh with the absurdity of it all. Oh and then maybe kill myself, dunno lol

 

▶ Bonus question from Viktor
What videogame sound, sound-cue or ambiance is the most satisfying/memorable for you?
The coin sound from Mario. And now you just heard it in your mind! Great sound design.
Also ambiance from Fallout 1 and 2 and Starcraft 1 OST.

[Season 2: Hunters]

Main New Features :

Season 2: Hunters

New Weapons

• Crossbow
• Mosin Nagant
• The John

New Tools

• Fake Glint
• Portable Signal Detector

Permanent Price Drop

Bullet Penetration revision

Character, Camera and Combat polishing

 

Shooting, Weapons & Tools

Fixed: The situation where contact bomb could trigger twice if triggered by player & bomb at the same time

Fixed: Disabled Hold Breath hint on weapons without a scope – only scoped weapons have this mechanic

Fixed: Can't fire indicator while jumping

Changed: Damage of contact bomb to 45

Added: Portable detector now filters out broken/in-active transmitters & dead outlanders

Added: A hit indicator when damaged by contact bomb

Tweaked: Recoil action speed lowered, spread cooldown lowered, adjusted recoil sequences, recoil sizes, and axis altered

Tweaked: Screen shake upon contact bomb explosion

Tweaked: The damage range of contact bomb

Tweaked: Removed stagger from low rarity knives, adjusted roll on scoped weapons, reduced 9mm damage slightly

Tweaked: Aim points adjusted

Updated: Detonation radius of contact bomb no longer visible in-game

 

Looting

Fixed: Interaction markers invisible for dead player bodies

Fixed: When the player dies with insurance, he should be getting his experience from looted things aswell

Changed: Reward screen now shows new looted gameplay events

Tweaked: Airdrop location is updated after 6 seconds instead of the previous 3

Shelter

Fixed: Charity Box leaderboards show another Gamertag marked as you - filling order and rank detection reworked

Fixed: Charity Box does not refresh in-game after the season ends

Fixed: MessageBox informing about insufficient funds doesn't appear in the Stable Store anymore

Fixed: Charity Box - Leaderboards - Fast page switching breaks leaderboards

Fixed: Targets can't be destroyed after entering the shooting challenge

Fixed: Battle Pass - Infinite looping of claim reward

Fixed: Daily challenge choosing algorithm can no longer pick Story category as the least used category and therefore find no challenge to pick

Changed: Added new challenge condition for when the player leaves the encounter as a threat

Changed: Featured Store - Behaviour when you don't have enough currency

Changed: Matchmaking can no longer be canceled in the "Waiting for server" state

Added: Autorotation & rotation of item in the preview

Tweaked: Ui elements position in the charity box due to long texts

Tweaked: Battle Pass - Position of onboarding messages to fit the new layout

 

Movement

Fixed: Movements attenuation - movements are now centered when ADS

Fixed: Prone body angle

Added: Collision for the side of stairs

 

Visuals

Fixed: Prone camera allows for clipping

Fixed: Better left-shoulder camera

Fixed: PPSh-41 - Left-hand movement during reload animation

Fixed: Knife hands rotation

Changed: Rotation for Pukko knife

Changed: Proper card item images set for tools

Changed: Moved the spectator to be free look camera

Tweaked: Thompson SMG reload animations polish

Tweaked: The birds are spawned more often for hunters season

Tweaked: Suomi KP/-31 reload animations polish

Tweaked: Spectator can now rotate around a killer

Removed: fog from aurora borealis weather

 

Audio

Fixed: Removed looping sound cue of creaks from farms

Fixed: Footsteps attenuation and volume

Added: New jingles for reward screen Hunter season

Added: New wolf howls to start the match (in map animation) - all maps

Tweaked: Slightly higher footsteps volume

Tweaked: Explosion volume lowered

Tweaked: Faster spawning of bird sounds for hunters season

Tweaked: Footsteps volume

 

Other

Fixed: The player must discover all the places again in every encounter

Fixed: Xbox logo in splash screen no longer flicks white

Added: URL for changelog added to the game

Added: Killer statistics should be now part of the match result structure to be able to show values in reward screen

[Changelog 1.2.1]

Main New Features & Fixers

Updated: Santa took Xmas back to the North Pole

Fixed: Connection - leaving with unstable connection doesn't start exit countdown

Fixed: Interactions - Player unable to interact with a dead player's crate. For example when it was inside a bush

Changed: Interaction markers significantly improved - more visible, easier to interact

Added: Welcome notification

Added: New loading screen hints

Added: Welcome notification now shows discount for items that are currently on sale

Tweaked: Adjusted recoil on RPK, PKM, and A-KM
Tweaked: XP can be gained through new activities (Looting the vault, Looting the Buried Cache)
Tweaked: Higher rarity items are rewarded with more XP

 

Shooting & Weapons

Fixed: Weapons remain hanging in the air after the player leaves the encounter

Fixed: Sway not working on weapons equipped at the start

Fixed: IK for pistols

Fixed: Bodyposture in ADS moving

Fixed: Tools - Alarm Trap and Contact Bomb don't interact with each other

Fixed: Tools - Contact bomb can damage you for the 2nd time after destroying it

Fixed: Alarm Trap - the range of the trap is not displayed

Fixed: Killing yourself by contact bomb no longer counts as kill/headshot for match performance stats

Fixed: Contact Bomb Suicide is now displayed correctly

Changed: Fixes to aiming, ragdolling, IK for animations

Changed: Aiming better suited for closer camera

Tweaked: Increased damage for GFK and KDV-1

Tweaked: ADS of most of the released weapons has been improved

Tweaked: Removal of stagger from most weapons

Tweaked: Changed ADS and aim point position on Thompson

Tweaked: Adjusted roll-on scoped weapons

Tweaked: Reduced 9mm damage slightly

 

Looting

Fixed: Interaction not possible with Barred house safe and Comm station

Fixed: It is no longer possible to Interact with cupboard through the wall

Fixed: Second interaction with combination lock container to open the loot UI after solving the code is no longer required; it opens immediately on its own

Changed: More buried cache locations in maps

Tweaked: Exit volumes rescaled, buried caches added to Ridge and Snow Forest maps

 

Shelter

Fixed: Player is displayed in both the global leader board and in his friend’s leader boards as well

Fixed: Overlapping of improvement image and build timer when the time is long

Fixed: It is no longer possible to initiate crafting of a weapon or consumable if the remaining time to craft previously queued item is 0 seconds.

Fixed: Player is no longer kicked out of Shelter to start screen while crafting weapons/consumables in rapid succession.

Fixed:  Interaction point of Battle Pass Mailboxes is better positioned

Fixed: The option to buy premium battle pass no longer disappears when at maximum level

Fixed: Purchasing max level of battle pass no longer always results in an error message being shown

Fixed: Battle Pass Daily Login notification should now correctly appear when entering Shelter

Fixed: Repeated Building Of Same Improvements is allowed and sometimes kicks players to the main screen

Fixed: Player can't exit the Battle Pass Rewards Screen if the claim request fails

Fixed: Row marking friends in Leaderboards stayed on the same spot even after moving the leaderboards

Fixed: Shooting range - Targets can't be destroyed after entering the shooting challenge

Fixed: Correct slot is now selected when changing focus to the left in the main Battle Pass screen

Changed: The navigation in the main Battle Pass screen. It now allows the pages to cycle

Added: Onboarding messages now appear for Battle Pass shelter screen

 

Movement

Fixed: Character getting up from prone when reloading  

Fixed: Prone body bending

Changed: Disabled behavior forcing the player out of prone

Changed: Crouching behavior made more consistent when climbing and vaulting

Changed: Adjusted collision geometry so the player is not getting stuck in the corner

Changed: Cleaned up some spots in interiors for better movement

Added: Can change crouch stance in mid-air

Tweaked: Gestures behavior when other player inputs occur 

 

Visuals

Fixed: Spectator Teamkiller Status Replication

Fixed: Spectator Target Name Replication

Fixed: Stuttering movement of spectator camera

Fixed: Hair clipping females with certain caps

Fixed: Damage Post-Process being visible within Spectator when a player pawn dies from 'one-hit'

Fixed: Animations - Interaction - Left-hand gets broken after repeated interaction with an object

Fixed: Gestures - Female archetype disjoints left-hand elbow in Thumbs up gesture preview

Fixed: Gestures - Slots display mannequin in idle pose after switching tabs

Changed: Upon dying to tool “You were killed” message is displayed

Added: Destructible mesh for headshot flipping target

Added: Headshot target photo for shooting range challenges

Tweaked: Ambiences in Bridges map

Tweaked: Reward Screen now shows rewards that player gets for leveling up and correctly shows it's experience and achieved actions that rewarded him with the XP

Tweaked: Headgear render target preview has hidden some parts of the face

 

Audio

Fixed: Sound: rattrap -The ambient sound doesn't stop when collecting the rat trap. Ambient volume changed to make sound hearable only on a given floor

Fixed: Attenuation set for cookie timer on the start of the match

Fixed: Issue where the wrong sound FX were played when running out of breath to hold

Fixed: Switched loop sounds and interact with sounds on all things I previously worked on. Added different sounds on unequipping ammo and consumables (looted sound).

Added: missing sounds into onboarding, challenge, shelter builder, crafting table and spectator

Tweaked: Made sure other hit sounds cannot play while the last one is playing

Tweaked: Audio layers of gunshots now raise volume and pitch with depleting ammo

Tweaked: Attenuation for all firearms

 

Other

Fixed: Losing 1PV when out of ADS and the network connection is poor

Fixed: Ammo name set to wrap to work properly in all languages

Fixed: Collisions of several versions of the outbox improvement are incorrect

Tweak: Adjusted the tutorial airdrop land location bit up so the airdrop clips into groundless

Tweaked: Made the base XP progress show instantly when the player enters reward screen

Tweaked: Airdrop position in Reward Screen Scene

Removed: Option to swap controller sticks in Controls settings

[Changelog 1.2.48851]

Most Important:

Tweaked: Radiation speed was lowered by 1/4 and starts after 12 minutes now
Tweaked: Amount of loot in all maps was increased

Tweaked: Content of airdrop Crates was improved (higher chance to obtain consumable plans, higher chance to obtain tools..) 
Changed: Weapon parts crafting Value = This makes deconstruction of weapons yield more materials as well

Added: New Type of Pack - Outlander Armory pack available in Store
- Includes: • 5x M21 + 50x ammo • 5x A74-K + 300x ammo • 5x AUR Para + 150x ammo • 5x ZA M72 + 200 ammo • 5x Combat Magnum + 36x ammo • 650 crowns

- This pack may only be purchased once per account and is available for a limited time
 

Other changes: 

Updated: Player must now own plan for respective tool challenges
Tweaked: Made SVD better
Tweaked: Sniper rifles nerfed a bit (except for SVD)

Tweaked: SVD Textures

Tweaked: Pressing retry lets you start from where you stand in shooting challenges
Fixed: Player could remain stuck in the Battle Pass Reward Screen under certain conditions
Fixed: Rewards for leveling up now use the correct level rewards in Rewards screen
Fixed: Crowns bundles are no longer marked as owned
Fixed: Suspending game during loading should work better now

[Changelog Update 1.2: Preppers]

Main New Features

Battle Pass 

Season 1: Preppers 

Tools (Contact Bomb, Transmitter, Alarm Trap)

Crafting Boosters 

Teamkiller Looting Disabled

Charity Box Rewards

Shooting Range Moving Targets

Colour Blind Options

New Guns (SVD, Gewehr 3 SG1, A-KM, GFK, KDV-1)

New Challange Types

Weapon Destroying

Faster Radiation

Christmas Assets

 

Shooting & Weapons

Fixed: WeaponState - full auto fire shows unnecessarily when the player is killed during fire

Fixed: Maschinengewehr 3 magazine clipping with left arm

Fixed: There are no bullets coming from PPSh-41 and PKM

Fixed: Shooting for too long lowers your weapon and you stop shooting

Fixed: State machine - Crash when finished action evokes another action

Fixed: Colt Python pushback to prevent wall-peaking

Fixed: Melee and ranged damage does not interrupt the application of healing consumables

Fixed: Melee does not work in waist-deep water

Fixed: Misaligned weapons in 1st person view iron sights (or scopes)  

Fixed: RPK-74 reload animations desynchronization

Fixed: Unwanted delay present before player switches from weapon to consumable

Changed: Aim assist slows the aiming sooner than before when close to overlapping with character

Changed: Lowered stack sizes for all weapons

Added: HUD message which informs the player that ADS is only allowed in prone (KvKK 62, M60 E3, PKM)

Tweaked: PPSh-41 Recoil lowered slightly, readjusted stack sizes and weight

 

Looting

Fixed: Barricaded House planks no longer block interactions on the client when falling off

Fixed: Looting some containers can cause a crash on other clients

Fixed: Buried cache - Player is able to interact with the buried cache from a distance

Fixed: Buried Cache no longer has an interaction dot, for real this time

Fixed: Character is no longer stuck in looting pose when canceling interaction with buried cache

Fixed: Buried Cache no longer has dirt out visuals when not yet excavated

Changed: Loot in tutorial fixed

Changes: Airdrop and spawn fixes

Changed: Food placement

Tweaked: More loot attached to Tourists Rest point of interest

Changed: New buried cache photos for Grontheim

Added: Objective items in inventory are now displayed with special effect

Tweaked: Loot containers added to several locations, fuel removed from Cabin in the Woods point of interest

Tweaked: Interaction volumes tweaked to be intractable from all stances

 

Shelter

Fixed: Leaderboard now shows all players correctly

Fixed: Unlocked Shooting Range Challenges went back to being locked if the player didn’t own the challenge weapon

Fixed: Shooting range could be reset after completion of a challenge

Fixed: Weapon In 1PV view becomes invisible at a shooting range after completing a challenge

Fixed: Targets remain in the shooting area if you take a challenge during an active one

Fixed: Friends in global Leaderboards now has their rank visible to each other

Fixed: Friends are now highlighted when browsing leaderboards

Fixed: Shooting Range Challenges - Cancelling a challenge by MENU interaction keeps the challenge loadout

Fixed: Shooting Range - Leaving during animation will keep character holding weapon

Fixed: When player is at the bottom of the leaderboard, he is no longer shown twice

Fixed: 3D character preview in wardrobe - smooth transition from main menu to submenu

Fixed: Generators now show correct "material" icon

Changed: Shelter builder progress bar now shows more comprehensible values

Changed: Shooting range challenges HUD improvements

Changed: Shooting range challenges are now grouped per weapon

Changed: Gesture wheel on Customization > Gesture slot enlarged so long names fit better

Changed: Destroy action in Loadout UI can now be performed on any item

Changed: Assigned new photos to challenges

Added: Moving targets on Shooting Range

Added: Thematic sale labels added to both Stable and Exclusive shop

Tweaked: Position of the countdown in Shooting Range

Tweaked: Graphics of  Shooting Range challenges UI

Added Challenges:

Be the last player to leave the encounter

Craft X amount of weapons

Deconstruct X amount weapons

Heal a total of X amount of health points

Loot X amount of resource/item (just loot, not bring back to the shelter)

Be the first to interact with the buried cache

Deal X amount of damage to Players (team members excluded)

Kill X amount players, with a minimal/maximal distance of Y

Use X amount of consumables

Leave with the airdrop with 0 kills

 

Visuals

Fixed: Pinky finger clipping on Pistols and Scorpion

Fixed: Typo in Portuguese localization that resulted in the text not being displayed at all

Fixed: Weapon magazine was disappearing too soon and not synced with the left hand  

Fixed: Spectator Target Name did not refresh when the Spectator Target changed

Fixed: Maschinengewehr 3 position was slightly adjusted so it doesn't clip with the left arm

Fixed: Threat and team killer marker didn’t disappear when the marked player left the level

Fixed: Health post-process shouldn't be visible in the spectator anymore

Fixed: Insurance markers are once again correctly displayed on all relevant items

Fixed: Hand interacting with a magazine looking off during reload animation of M1 Carbine

Fixed: Hand pose when grabbing the radio during the tutorial cutscene

Fixed: When using the PKM, it's chamber door is not animated when empty casings are ejected from the weapon

Fixed: Hand is not interacting with a magazine while reloading Zastava M72

Fixed: PA md.86 Magazine reload animation was playing twice

Fixed: Hand was not interacting with the magazine during reloading of Luger

Fixed: Holding of rifles was not correct when the character is in deep water

Fixed: PKM - Wrong grip when looking down with the gun

Fixed: Localization - Spanish Language: Rubik's Cube - Background Gradient Shorter Than Text

Fixed: Localization - Spanish Language: Button Tool Tip Is Not Centered On Map

Fixed: Display name of Vz.52 rifle now starts with upper case letter, making it consistent with other weapons

Fixed: Encounter notifications that are received while in spectate mode are no longer displayed in the shelter (or possibly even new encounter)

Fixed: Healing progression wheel is visible when using consumables in prone

Fixed: Spectator Target Name did not refresh when the Spectator Target changed

Fixed: The chamber door for empty ammo casings was not animated

Changed: Airdrop parachute falling - visual improvements

Changed: New photos for Buried chase

Changed: Additional text displayed next to "Invite Friend" action in Game Menu no longer mentions Shelter while the player is in Tutorial

Changed: Leave area message is now displayed in the upper half of the screen

Added: Missing recoil animations (PH_M82 / ZA M76) Check if its to be released in 1.2

Added: Wounded post-process effects

Added: Missing RPK-74 Hands reloading animations

Added: Shortcut button to details panel of the exclusive shop to buy HC when the player doesn't have enough

Added: New option that allows the player to change the color of their crosshair to one of predefined colors (White, Aqua, Blue, Green, Red, Yellow, Magenta)

Added: Colour palette table which serves for defining different colors based on the player's color vision deficiency setting

Added: New options for players with color vision deficiency. Players can now optionally select one of 3 modes (Deuteranopia, Protanopia, Tritanopia) as well as strength of the selected mode

Tweaked: Added missing chambering and weapon fire animations

 

Movement

Fixed: Movement network refactor. This should fix multiple bugs, such as characters bugging out on ladders, position desync, also some occasions of the character getting stuck in prone near objects

Fixed: Crouch/Standing transitions with sidearms makes hand overlap with the body

Fixed: Transitions running sideways with the rifle had the wrong ending pose causing some sliding (Stand to Prone)

Changes: Fall damage updated

Added: Transitions running sideways with the rifle (Prone to Stand)

Tweaked: Gesture animations polish

 

Audio

Fixed: Shooting range target plays multiple bullet hits at the same time

Added: Sound for stamina male character

Added:  New music for loading to Brodalen Bridges

Added: Sound layer for more boosters bought

Tweaked: Heartbeat volume lowered

Tweaked: Ambient sounds in Trainstation

Tweaked: Ambient sounds in Brodalen Bridges

Tweaked: Volume up on water bullet hits

 

Other

Fixed: Encounter Hint 'Player Near Airdrop'

Fixed: Encounter Hint 'Other Player has picked up the airdrop'

Fixed: Daily challenges - UI does not refresh when opened, the countdown goes below 0

Fixed: HUD message informing the player about possibility to hold/release breath is now correctly displayed in multiplayer

Fixed: Translation of "Team killer" in the French localization

Fixed: Taking another challenge during an active one keeps the challenge loadout

Fixed: Threat player does not become a team killer after killing his teammate

Fixed: Consumables - Healing continues during interaction (and looting UI)

Fixed: Low Health Post Process remaining in Spectator

Changed: "Leave Team" action in Game Menu is now activated on hold (used to be press)

Added: Plugged in the new health post-process (Hit, Miss and Damage indication)

Added: Unique Spawn in Shelter after Tutorial -- radio lady & achievement

Added: New Credits category and names of employees

[Changelog 1.1.46963]

 

 

Fixed: It's no longer possible to peek through walls with a revolver

Changed: Lobby multiple boosters - Player can buy multiple boosters of the same kind - new feature (Insurance is not influenced, only Better Crate and More Loot)
Changed: The Better crate booster is now cheaper (From 45 to 30 Crowns)

Added: New weapon PKM machine gun

[Get to know - Viktor Jindra - Junior Environment Designer]

▶ What do you do on Vigor?
I do them levels. From sketching ideas on paper, sculpting the terrain and arranging houses to placing individual trees, flowers and also bushes (and to prevent speculation ->  I'm not the one who made them bulletproof! :D)

▶ What is your contribution to the Vigor Team?
Right now I am working on a cool new map while occasionally maintaining and bug fixing on the current ones.
I also personally make sure the coffee maker doesn't get a minute of rest.

▶ What do you like about Vigor?
The freedom you have at the start of every encounter when you're figuring out what your approach is going to be. Also, the fact you can go in empty-handed and still come out on top.

▶ What do you want to see in Vigor?
Maybe an additional quicker game mode á la team deathmatch... something to soothe the nerves after you get out-camped by some [edited] for the third time 🙂

▶ What do you do when you are not making Vigor?
One adorable two-year-old emperor makes me devote all my time running a railway operation around our couch for the Little Mole & gang... and occasionally when I'm not doing that, I like to design houses.

▶ Did game dev change your view on the games and how?
As a kid, I always kinda suspected its not all fun & games as it might have seemed to be.
Now I can tell that it is definitely more fun and more games than most other lines of work, though the enormous scope of these projects can be overwhelming at times.

 

▶ Your favorite games and why?
Half-life is one of the all-time greats for me. Producing custom maps with its Hammer editor sparked my interest in game dev in the first place and no other game will ever have such a massive place in my heart as its mod, the original e-sport, classic Counter-strike 1.6
After some 20 years of playing it and countless keyboards snapped in half, here I am still a regular on my local deathmatch server 🙂



▶What's your favorite music, movie, show, book and why?
Music - definitely my all-time favorite is the electronic duo Boards of Canada
I also really enjoy diving into the obscure subgenres of vaporwave, drone, and ambient. Favorite artists: Nmesh, t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者, HKE, 猫 シ Corp., cv313, Patâgoniå, Sport3000

Movies - apart from the obvious Matrix/Inception/Taxi Driver stuff I also love me some cruel old middle ages in Markéta Lazarová (1967) and for something not so deadly serious there is Sideways (2004) to rewatch once every few years...

Show - trying to avoid the popular ones right now 😄 It can become very time-consuming once you're in... looking at you, Mad Men!

Book - Magician by R.E.Feist

 

▶ Is there something that you want to say to our community?
Thank you for the feedback & all the memes! ❤️

▶ You are Outlander; humanity has fallen. What would you do?
I'd have a blast on those empty roads.

▶ Bonus (From Kamil)
If you had to live in a videogame level, which one would you choose?
The Citadel Island (the city at the beginning of Little Big Adventure 2) - it has the best atmosphere of any videogame place from my recollection.

▶ Viktor also has a Youtube channel so make sure to stop by 😉 
 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_DHBHnqPbPNF0ZmBUwQxhw

 

[Longevity]

Thank you for this interesting discussion guys, your ideas will be passed to the team so we can further discuss them

[Bann monitoring and increse speed abit more its pathatic]

Thank you for your detailed feedback.
We are working on many of these things and obviously we want to make the game better with every single Upgrade. It is always better to provide feature-specific feedback than being straight up negative about the whole picture. I understand that some issues might be especially frustrating, but we are working on it. So please stay tuned. 

[Changelog 1.1.0.46748 (Auto-Fire fix)]

Fixed: Weapons: poor network latency leads to autofire.

[PPSH is back]

No other changes - the quick downtime was just regular cloud maintenance. The only addition we did yesterday was the comeback of PPSH. 

[List of team killers]

Thank you guys for this interesting discussion - team killing has been a discussion topic here in our office for a while now, so make sure to keep the feedback coming it's helping us a bunch as we can see the issue from a different perspective