The Lost Metro
Chicago, Illinois
You have been here before.
"Focus on the screens. Let the images guide you back."
The Metro you knew was the boundary. This is what lies beyond it.
NEW ENTITY ALERT
Designation: “THE CEILINGMAN”
Classification: HAZARD
Threat Vector: Overhead Ambush / Vertical Predation
CHARACTERISTICS
Stationary entity anchored to ceiling surfaces
Extended prehensile tongue used to snatch personnel from below Targets are pulled upward and consumed
Frequently mistaken for structural debris
ENCOUNTER PROTOCOL
Maintain constant overhead awareness Avoid lingering in dark, narrow spaces
If seized: SEVER THE TONGUE IMMEDIATELY Boltcutters required to escape
Failure to disengage results in fatal consumption
WORKFORCE ENVIRONMENTAL ALERT: WHITEOUT
Environmental stability has degraded beyond forecasted thresholds.
Dense fog saturation and snow infiltration have reduced visibility and erased environmental landmarks. Interior spaces no longer provide insulation from the cold.
Heat loss accelerates rapidly during exposure. Proximity to fire barrels is required to maintain body temperature.
NOTICE: The Endless Winter has entered an unanticipated escalation phase. Remaining survival windows are narrowing. Long-term survival probabilities have declined beyond projected limits.
Resource acquisition is now mandatory under all environmental conditions. Supplies recovered directly support continued survival initiatives.
Casualties are expected.
Operational failure is not.
Explosive Ordinance Authorization
Volatile demolition equipment approved for limited field use
Thrown explosive with an approximately 3-second fuse
Entities caught within the blast radius will be eliminated
PERSONNEL WARNING: Workforce exposure within the blast radius will result in immediate fatality
STABILITY WARNING: Dynamite is unstable. Rapid movement while handling may trigger premature detonation, resulting in immediate fatality
USE WITH EXTREME CAUTION
Valentine’s Observation
Command has permitted a brief acknowledgment of pre-collapse tradition within the metro carriage.
Valentine’s bunting has been hung throughout the train
A box of chocolates has been placed for workforce consumption
A decorative candy bowl has been added
Some bonds are not so easily frozen.
Effective period: February 14th – February 21st
The Spider
Increased the Spider's hearing multiplier from 2.3x to 2.4x
The Spider can now hear player proximity voice chat again
Removed the Spider's sensing ability. This system was originally added to help the Spider track players when alerted due to its lack of vision, but it caused unintended behavior. In some cases, it resulted in unfair player deaths and caused the Spider to incorrectly target players directly instead of sound sources such as thrown soda cans
Cosmetics
Added Patch and Pin bundle for community member Uncle Larry in recognition of their art contributions in the Discord server (use code: unclelarry)
Added Spider Butcher shipping art Pin - art by Uncle Larry (use code: spiderxbutcher)
Codes can be redeemed in the "Edit User" menu from the main menu
Changes
Engine Update to Unity 6
Added The Lost Metro destination
Updated vegetation shader with wind effects, normal map support, rendering and lighting fixes, and performance optimizations
Players now respawn if they die on the train while it is not stopped at a location
Respawn timer changed from 8 seconds to 6 seconds
Added a dedicated volume slider for train audio
Spores no longer affect players while on the train
Increased Spores risk-based loot value multiplier from 1.6x to 1.7x
Reduced Hollow Spider hearing range from 3.6x to 2.4x
Firecracker noise distance increased from 200 to 300 meters
Gasmask and Pickaxe no longer spawn in Escape mode
Increased loot value in the Warehouse and Mineshaft to better reflect their difficulty
Plantation fireplace now provides warmth
Increased Plantation fireplace lit chance from 50% to 65%
Candles in the Plantation now have a chance to spawn lit, improving visibility in darker areas
Vent added to Metro mega cell
Data Deck transcend sound is now networked and audible to all players
Updated textures for the candy bowl
Candy bowl cooldown reduced to 3 seconds (was 6 seconds)
Removed a leftover manually placed landmine from the bunker elevator cell, predating the procedural landmine system
Optimized procedural landmine spawn and cleanup logic
Introduced procedural Ceilingman spawns across all locations, with location-specific spawn chances
Added the ability to cut the Ceilingman’s tongue using boltcutters to escape when grabbed
Entities can now be killed by explosions
Due to time constraints for this update, some entities will disappear on death until animations are completed
Fixes
Fixed an issue where the player's backpack would be dropped during end-of-run execution
Fixed an issue where The Abandoned One could attempt to execute players cocooned by the Spider
Fixed an issue where The Abandoned One could attempt to execute players being carried by the Butcher
Fixed the self-revive prompt to display the correct keybind instead of the hardcoded “M2”
Fixed an issue where the soda can could sometimes be thrown from an incorrect position instead of the player's hand
Fixed an issue where scaffolding prefabs were not appearing in a Metro cell
Fixed oversized colliders on Pentagon chairs that prevented looting nearby items
Fixed an issue where the swimming pool water in the Hotel appeared black and lacked lighting
Fixed a Hotel wall light not being affected by Blackout
Fixed an issue where props behind the Supply Officer were static and did not move with the train
Removed a bunker blast door debug log that was impacting map generation speed slightly
Fixed the Examiner’s shader causing slight transparency
Added a safety check when syncing location data to late joiners
Fixed an improperly configured light under fire particles that was impacting performance
Optimized networking by removing synchronization of object Fairy ID's, reducing unnecessary bandwidth usage
Fixed proximity chat logging so only errors are logged, preventing an unnecessary stutter
Fixed excessive warning logs across multiple systems and netcode methods, slightly improving performance
Internal reworks to lobby creation and joining to improve stability when connecting
Procedural World Generation Fixes
Optimized network object spawning during procedural world generation to prevent redundant spawn attempts
Fixed an issue where cells were being respawned every batch iteration, resulting in excessive network calls
Performance impact - removes thousands of redundant spawn attempts during generation (for example, ~2,500 avoided when generating 500 cells across 10 batches in internal testing)
Result - faster world generation and reduced network overhead
While we had no plans for further major updates,
this one felt necessary.
Thank you for being here for it.
An altar of static.
It does not respond to crowds.
It responds to devotion.
Past the boundary, it waits.