Zero Caliber - QoL and AI improvements, and a quick poll

Hey everyone,

Happy belated New Year! After a short break we're now back on track - let's open 2023 with an update powered by community feedback!
We've been monitoring your feedback both here on Steam and on our Discord ever since our "GRAND" Update dropped - the following fixes and improvements are all based on y'alls' findings.

In the previous build, the enemy AI could be quite annoying at times: spawing behind you or out of thin air in front of you - that should happen less often now (if at all), thus making the gameplay much much better! (And the same goes for peculiar enemy behaviour, like running into doors or sinking into the ground.)

In the last update we added an option to switch between the grip/trigger buttons to grab smaller items (like mags), and now we've made further improvements to make it even more user friendly. We've also improved the holster system to avoid misgrabs and the "clunkiness".
Another popular request was the music- it could get a bit repetitive before, so we've added quite a few extra combat/gameplay tracks to spice up the OST.

(The HP Reverb G2 controller binding issue should also be fixed in theory, but we currently don't have a working unit so we definitely need feedback on that one.)

Now, before you get to the full changelog, please consider answering this 10-sec poll for us - it's just a short survey on what would you like to see more of in Zero Cal: [StrawPoll link]

FULL CHANGELOG

GAMEPLAY | AI

• Improved friendly AI: they will now try to avoid you at certain areas instead of running through you/your weapon (it's approximately 60% better now)
• Significantly improved AI spawning: in-the-face and behind-you enemy spawning should occur less often (if at all)
• Significantly improved AI behaviour: enemies will not run into doors or sink into the ground anymore
• Significantly improved holster usage: grabbing different items from weapon slots/holsters should now be more comfortable/easier
• Fixed a rare issue where more than 4 friendly AI teammates could spawn at the same time
• Improved small item handling: grabbing small items should feel even better now
• Fixed a rare tutorial issue where players could get stuck in the first shooting booth
• Tweaked gameplay balance here and there
• Improved dedicated server stability

GRAPHICS

• Fixed an SG 552 graphical issue (magazines were popping out of the weapon model)
• Fixed POI visibility on several maps
• Fixed story descriptions in the main lobby world map UI (some of them were clipped before)
• Improved object/environment colliders on several maps
• Improved water textures/effects on several maps
• Minor visual improvements on several maps that no one will notice (probably)

SOUND

• Added moooore combat/gameplay music: it shouldn't feel that repetitive now
• Improved music volume balance

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As always, thank you so much for providing feedback (be it positive or negative), Zero Caliber couldn't be what it is without your help! Please keep them coming under this news post so we can keep track of everything.
And if you like what you see/enjoy the game, or just would like to help us out even more, please consider leaving a review on the game's store page. It'd mean the world to us <3

You can also stalk us on our social channels, great things are coming in 2023!

• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@xrealgames
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/XREALGames
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/XREALGamesVR/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xreal_games/

Thank you so much for the continuous support and for sticking around, we appretiate all of you!

See you on the battlefield,
-Dan & the whole XREAL Games Team-