Inventory Expansion Update (+ Code Optimizations)

Introduction:

Welcome back to the neighborhood! Since the game's launch the amount and diversity of items have had it's ups and downs, with some updates removing items and later updates adding new ones. There are now certain types of items that have persistent state, like flashlights with limited battery power, and items that are stack-able, like Candles and Scrap. With all these changes, I thought it would be fitting to dedicate an entire update to managing these items in a way that isn't just pointing and clicking on a grid of icons in a menu.

Additions:

• Major Inventory Overhaul

  • The inventory has been overhauled, now having a dedicated carousel wheel instead of a Tab Menu. This rotating wheel is used by holding "R" (or your custom bound key), and using Left Click to equip and right click to drop where your cursor is pointing (or if there is no reachable surface, dropped at your feet).

  • When picking up items, they are added to your inventory wheel. If you have room in your equip hand, the item will immediately be equipped for use instead. Flashlights have a dedicated left hand slot while everything else is a normal right hand slot.

  • Items are now usable in a more direct way. Previously, just having an item in your inventory would allow you to interact with the environment to use them.

    • For instance, having the offering bowl in your inventory and interacting with the Altar would automatically place the bowl for the ritual.

    • Now, you must equip the bowl to your equip slot and use it directly on the altar with left click. This principle applies to every item in the game.

  • Now that items need to be used directly, there is a new UI tool tip that shows up at the bottom center of your screen telling you what you can do with the items currently equipped in your hand. The "E" key (or whatever you have "interact" bound to) will be primarily used to pick up items, turn on/off lights, and open/close doors. The left and right mouse buttons are used as Primary and Secondary actions, with most items' Secondary actions being a manual placement option, and the Primary action being specific to whatever item is being held.

  • Equipped items can be dropped with "Q" (or your custom bound key), and holding that same button will unequip items back to your inventory wheel.

Changes:

• UnPleasant Valley Visual Overhaul

  • UnPleasant Valley has been visually changed, now closer resembling how the map originally looked on release, with a little extra flare and improved Nexus visuals.

• Door Key Changes:

  • Keys now display their corresponding door as a UI hint.

  • Keys can now be used to lock doors instead of just unlocking them.

  • Key inventory space is limited to 3.

    • No more hoarding all the keys in the neighborhood. It might be best to be mindful of where you drop your used keys. In future updates, the ghost might be able to be locked in (or out) of certain rooms, or the ghost may be able to re-lock already unlocked doors.

• Candle Changes:

  • Candles can now be carried (up to 5) and used as mobile light source.

  • Can be lit in your hand while a lighter is in your inventory, or a held lighter can light a candle sitting in the environment.

  • Candle flame will be put out if the candle is put away in your inventory. To help prevent accidental extinguishing, candles are one of the items that are not forced into your inventory on pickup, and instead get equipped right away.

    • There is a known bug where picking up an unlit candle while holding a lit candle will put out your flame. It's technically working as designed, as the new unlit candle is being forced into your equip slot like it would normally be in any other scenario, but this will be changed so that the flame will remain lit in future updates.

  • Candles are equipped in the normal, non-flashlight slot. This means the candle needs to be set down before using other items if you want it to remain lit, otherwise unqequipping it back to the inventory will extinguish the candle. This is an intentional downside to using the candle as an infinite, non battery draining light source instead of the flashlight, which can remain equipped and on at all times at the cost of using limited battery.

• EMF Reader Changes:

  • EMF Reader behavior has been reverted back to similar behavior it used to have. It will now detect EMF levels around activity by the ghost, with higher readings correlating with stronger ghost power and closer distance to the ghost.

  • It no longer directly detects the ghost location, unless the ghost was recently active nearby.

  • Developer's Note: Some of the "traditional" ghost hunting equipment like the EMF Reader and Activity Meter still feel somewhat useless in this iteration of the game. There is a chance that unless they can be worked into the flow of the game better, traditional ghost hunting items may be removed permanently at some point. This is a side effect of not focusing on the ghost as an entity to be discovered, but rather the ghost being a personality you must spar with while trying to complete scavenger hunt-esque related objectives. With that being said, it might make more sense for there to be defensive related items added to the game, rather than ghost identification items.

Fixes:

• Perks

  • Perks should now be fixed for multiplayer.

  • Perk unlock levels are now displayed in the perks menu.