Changelog Version 0.2.0

Previous changelogs on can be viewed on our Discord announcements channel, as well as on our website.

First off, we’d like to thank our users for being patient. In the last few months, work on the game has been slower than we would have liked. Now that we’ve spent a considerable amount of time organizing the project and cleaning up technical debt, we are in a much better place to be delivering content on a more frequent basis.

A note to WMR users: We are pleased to finally announce that we now support WMR devices! We hope you enjoy the game, and we’d love to hear how the gameplay feels in these headsets.

New Features

• New Level: Primer
  • Previously, Primer and Extraction were the same mission, with the only difference being that Extraction skipped the introductory tutorial provided by Primer; Primer has now been replaced by an entirely new tutorial mission.
  • Primer teaches the player the basics of multi-gravity combat, including how to use and reload weapons, how to use teleportation-based locomotion, how to quick-turn, how to make use of Shift Ramps to change gravity and obtain new perspectives on combat, grenade basics, and how to interact with the environment. The previous tutorial had a slow start to get the player into combat; this one should have better flow and get the player to the enjoyable moments quicker.

• New Level: Excavation
  • Fight your way up the walls of an excavation site while rocks are rushing by you at deadly speeds.
  • Blends combat with brutally hard traversal.

• New Level: Grenade Feat 1
  • A short first grenade challenge to help you practice the multi-gravity grenades.

• Progression and new UI
  • Our levels now have achievements (we call them feats). Some missions will have a simple complete achievement, while others have more specific achievements. For example, Blitz has achievements for incremental scores, and turning on the power. In the coming patches, we will be adding fun little challenges in these levels, like getting sniper kills while falling at terminal velocity or throwing batteries into the payload from a distance. The goal with this isn’t to have you grind for more completion, but rather to show you some things that weren’t thought to be possible.
  • Variants: They are now moved into this Feat system. Once you find a variant, you can play it by hovering the variant achievement in the list of feats.

• WMR Support:
  • As part of this update, we upgraded NeverBound from Unreal Engine version 4.18 to Unreal Engine 4.21, which is the first version of the game engine with official Windows Mixed Reality support.
  • With the help of some of our wonderfully supportive users, we have ensured that the game works properly on Windows Mixed Reality devices.

Major Updates

• Major Mission Update: Extraction
  • The introduction of a new tutorial mission resulted in a major redesign of the Extraction level; while seasoned veterans will recognize parts of the level, several new additions have been made, along with a number of modifications to the existing sections.
  • The additions and improvements have created a slightly longer, more complete mission.

Minor Updates

• All levels now have more grenades placed throughout them.
• Grenades now have orange trails when you throw them to improve their visibility.
• Speed lines around the player’s camera now show up when moving at high speed (falling or dashing for example)
• Reload weapon UI and UX improvements:
  • In order to help guide players through the process of reloading clip-based weapons, such as assault rifles and snipers, we have made a few additions to the UI and UX.
  • In terms of the UI, a flashing “RELOAD” warning is now displayed when a weapon’s clip has been emptied and the weapon contains a spare clip.
  • In terms of the UX, guiding arrows are now displayed when the player grabs a weapon’s reload pin in order to assist them in pulling back the pin.

• Hint UI improvements:
  • In order to make hints more legible, a black background has been added behind the text in order to make the white text more visible, and a blinking green bar has been added to the side of the text in order to draw the player’s attention to the text.
  • In addition, text is no longer used to describe what button the player needs to press; instead, the motion controller is shown with the target button highlighted.

• Improved holstered weapon UI:
  • The weapon icons displayed on the player’s HUD have been replaced with lighter-blue, opaque icons.
  • In addition, the icons are now positioned higher up on the player’s HUD so that they are more visible.

• Improved the way the shield and Gravity Slam Gun are held in the player’s hands on HTC Vive.
• Added “No Power” UI to disabled doors.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that was causing occasional, very long stalls (i.e. from around 5 seconds to over 60 seconds) during gameplay.
• Fixed a bug that prevented players from being able to dash up the stairs on the antenna in Leap of Faith.
• Fixed a bug that prevented grenades from being set to zero-gravity mode when playing the It’s Gon’ ‘Splode variant from a checkpoint.
• Fixed a bug that caused door sound effects to be unaffected by changing the Master or Sound FX volume in the audio options.
• Fixed a bug that made it possible for players to pass through force fields if moving at high speeds (e.g. after falling and landing on a force field).
• Fixed collision in various areas of Leap of Faith that made it impossible to shoot through areas where it should be possible.
• Fixed a bug that would cause weapons to have the incorrect appearance after being made holographic while a hint was displayed.
• Fixed a bug that caused previously-eliminated enemies to reappear after returning from the security room in Extraction.
• Fixed a bug that caused the incorrect music to be played when playing Leap of Faith from the checkpoint located by the hacking station.
• Fixed a bug that caused the objective about deactivating the turret in Leap of Faith to reappear every time the player entered the hall leading to the bridge.
• Fixed a bug that caused “Variant Completed” to be displayed after completing a mission with a variant active, even if the variant had already been completed.
• Fixed the collision of certain walls and floors in Leap of Faith that caused the player and objects to pass through them.
• Fixed a bug that caused Sentinels to not always successfully navigate over shift ramps.
• Fixed a bug that caused Sentinels to occasionally float on the floor.

Known Issues

• Sentinel body parts occasionally get stuck in walls/floors.
• The shield doesn’t block incoming fire if held too close to the player’s body.
• Drones are unable to navigate through small areas.
• The player doesn’t take lethal fall damage if they pause the game before hitting the ground.
• Equipment state is not saved (e.g. if the player dies while holding a gun with low ammo, they will respawn with a gun with full ammo).
• Drones spawn too often in Blitz.
• The location of the player’s holsters feels too low.
• The assault rifle’s red dot sight does not work through the weapon gaps in the shield.
• The player can walk on surfaces with a slope greater than 45 degrees.
• Battery holders play no haptic or force feedback when the player overlaps it with a battery.
• Sentinels have difficulty patrolling on walls.
• Occasionally, when walking over shift ramps slowly, the player “vibrates” or moves in discrete rotational jumps.
• It is possible to walk through walls and other objects in room space while the game is paused.
• Stealing a sniper from a Sentinel causes them to get stuck in their weapon-holding pose.
• The player sinks into the airship’s Shift Pad when it is moving.