Many bits of feedback

[Zach Fett]

I've only played a little bit, but I'm really, really liking it so far. When it became night and creatures started showing up in the pitch black, it was legitimately unnerving. Also the detail in some stuff like the helicopter monitor is impressive, and it controls better than most AAA games I've played.

I do however have a few minor bits of feedback/suggestions:

Suggestions:

1. I can run the game surprisingly well at a mix of very high/photorealistic settings, though I'd still love to see support for DLSS/FSR 3, especially if you can add frame generation. Would be very helpful for people like my friend who have really old PCs.
   
   
2. It'd be cool to get a setting to disable waypoint markers for immersion, then you'd have to use your map more to orient yourself.
   
   
3. Could we get a single-player option when creating a match, with pausing enabled?
   
   
4. Is there a way to reset progression/"prestige" later? Would be nice for when I inevitably hit max level and have every perk and want to do it again.
   
   
5. Any chance we could get skin inspired by a certain movie where we aren't wearing the gas mask? Just a generic dude's face with a scarf and goggles would be great.

Bugs:

1. After rebinding keys, UI will still tell you to press the default keybind.
   
   
2. If you rebind Map, you can't close it by pressing that new key a second time like you can with "M"
   
   
3. The "Hide HUD" keybind doesn't hide all HUD, like mission waypoints.
   
   
4. You can see your character's head clipping through your view if you jump, or while holding a revolver if you turn to the right. You could perhaps try hiding the character's head model (or at least the hood) while in first person.
   
   
5. When interacting with most things, like generators, your character looks straight down at their feet. I want to use first person interactions for immersion, but it's pretty rough not being able to see forward at what you're doing.
   
   
6. What is the intended way to leave the computer terminals? ESC is the only key I've found that lets me get out of it, but that also brings up the pause menu at the same time. A little odd.
   
   
7. The third person vehicle camera has an issue where if you try to turning too quickly it like, "bounces" back and makes it hard to actually look where you wanted. Hope that makes sense.

Thanks for reading all that, and for the game! I'm glad to finally have a great game inspired by The THING that isn't the 2002 one, and with co-op which is even better.

[bgproductionsoffical]

Thank you so much for playing and your feedback! We will be making sure to try and fix all these issues you have brought to our attention. Also your suggestions on making the game better are great feedback as well. I think all of these thoughts should be implemented.

[Zach Fett]

Glad to hear that, thank you!!

Also thank you for having so many QOL settings day one! I often have to beg devs to add basic stuff like FOV sliders, toggle crouch, and a hide HUD keybind lol.

I did think of one more suggestion: A few of the post processing effects as individual toggles, like how Depth of Field currently has one. Chromatic Aberration and Vignette are the two that come to mind.

[KEPCEPK]

9. Press E many many times

[Zach Fett]

Played some more tonight and I have a few more bits of feedback, including a couple bug reports. I've also edited the OP to split up suggestions/bugs to make it easier in case you ever need to look back over it.

Suggestions:

1. A third person view would be incredibly cool. Just something like the 2002 game would be fine even if you can't aim very well.
   
   
2. More match settings, like being able to set permanent day or adjust the length of the day cycle more (I think enemies during the day + longer days is great but I would like it to be a liiiiittle longer).
   
   
3. Be able to save match settings as presets so I don't have to re-do them each time, perhaps.
   
   
4. Should be able to mouse click when it says to press any key to get to the main menu.
   
   
5. I'd love to bind the inventory slots to both mouse wheel and the 1-4 keys. A few times I've instinctively pressed them and emoted at terrible times lol.
   
   
6. It'd be nice if we could pick up ammo for a weapon we're currently holding if we find another laying around.
   
   
7. If possible, I'd like the Hide HUD keybind to also remove the item shimmering. In general it might be nice to have a setting to disable that actually. For muh immersion.
   
   
8. When starting a match, how about we see our characters either rappel out of the helicopter or it lands for a second and we see ourselves get out? Would look nice.

Bugs:

1. Your left hand when holding a flamethrower isn't quite right, it's going through the grip.
   
   
2. Windows in the distance, as I'm sure you're aware, are rendering over the fog/snow so you can see them from really far away.
   
   
3. Are the spider-like creatures that come out of monsters supposed to be killable? I've tried shooting them many times and they either stand still until I get close enough (then I get killed), or they sprint around the area forever.
   
   
4. I'm not sure what caused this, I've only had it happen once: I died before I could even start moving around at the start of a solo match. I pressed Enter to begin and heard myself immediately die and then I saw this for the game over screen: https://i.imgur.com/f5wgAIm.jpeg

Thanks again for reading all of this, cheers!

[Zach Fett]

Another day, another bunch of feedback! Hope you don't mind.

Suggestions:

1. Text chat, please! My friend doesn't use a mic so we have to use Discord or Steam to communicate, it'd be far more convenient if the game just had text chat itself!
   
   
2. I feel bad when my friend has to spectate me for ages while I try to get enough materials to call in an evac heli, so I usually just quit and restart. How about letting us use those same evac computers to call in "reinforcements" and it respawns dead teammates?
   
   
3. I would like if vehicles didn't turn on as soon as you sit in them. You should have to press the engine start key, that way I'm not wasting fuel when I just want to either check how much fuel is in a vehicle, or waiting for my friend to hop on.
   
   
4. If I ping something on the map, it'd be nice if it also shows for my friend. I figured this was the case, but any time I marked a location my friend couldn't see it until they did so themselves.
   
   
5. The sniper scope is currently extremely hard to use. I'm fine with it not being artificially a super clear view like so many games do, but it either needs to be a bit closer to our face, or a just a little clearer so I can actually make out what I'm aiming at.
   
   
6. Maybe I'm missing something, but a way to actually throw glowsticks (and flares) would be nice. Currently if you drop a glowstick, they don't even light anything around them.
   
   
7. Also I feel like it's almost worse to use a glowstick at the moment. It makes everything outside of the glowstick's range extremely dark. Meanwhile if I unequip it I can see out there better. Though being able to throw them (and they stay lit) would alleviate this a bit and make them useful.
   
   
8. I know there's a perk to increase flamethrower range, but by default I think it's too low. I'd like to see it bumped up a bit. The flamethrower in general feels like it could use a little buff, it takes a while to kill creatures, which would be fine if it didn't also burn through fuel insanely fast. I don't want to have to rely on totally random perks to make it feel decent!
   
   
9. Also let us refuel flamethrowers with the gas cans.
   
   
10. A "Sharpening" slider would be nice, I feel like it's just sliiiightly too strong at the moment but I don't want to entirely disable it.
    
    
11. Setting to disable the fisheye lens effect would be nice.
    
    
12. I found the UFO, is there nothing to do there? I expected a bonus mission to show up, like taking a photograph of it or something.
    
    
13. The FOV slider is odd to me. I always play games at 100 horizontal/68 vertical, but I can't figure out what this game is using. It seems like horizontal, but 90-100 feels extremely zoomed in, while 120 (the default) feels closer to what I'd like at 100? I'm guessing the lens effect is affecting the FOV or something?

Bugs:

1. The view distance specifically for lights at night is extremely low. I have View Distance Quality set to photorealistic, yet at night if you step away from a lit area into the pitch black, it'll look like it's dark all around me and there's nothing nearby. Then I run back and suddenly the lights pop in and it's bright again.
   
   
2. Shadows seem a bit broken at the moment. I have it set to Very High (though changing this up or down doesn't affect the bug) and my player shadow as well as some environment shadows like on stairs are extremely pixelated, while others are smooth. You can see both in this one screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/5BTVLpA.jpeg
   
   
3. Also, setting Shadow Quality to anything below High disables the fog effect, it ruins the look of the game a bit. Not sure why fog would be tied to shadows anyway.
   
   
4. I'm not sure if this is intended, but there's occasionally seagull sounds while outside. I hear it often while waiting for my friend to join a match (staring at the heli) and while running through between locations during daytime. I know Antarctica has birds, but I don't think they'd be around during a blizzard like this?
   
   
5. The "Pain Medication" perk has a typo, "You're temperature" instead of "Your temperature"
   
   
6. This is minor, but the "shine" texture you're using on the main menu, the one on our character's face to resemble a certain movie poster, is low quality and pixelated.
   
   
7. My friend posted this bug separately, but just to have all my encountered bugs in one thread: The options menu can get stuck on screen and I'm not sure what caused it for my friend. They could move around and interact with things, but no matter what they pressed they couldn't get rid of the menu so they couldn't really see what they were doing.

By the way regarding a bug I mentioned last time, I was able to successfully kill the spider creatures twice tonight! So either you quietly fixed it with the most recent patch, or it was just bugged in some of my previous matches.

Sorry for writing up so much each time I do this. It may sound like I'm having a buggy experience or something, but no, I'm loving the game a lot!

[bgproductionsoffical]

Keep it coming, spam us with reports this is how it gets better. Thanks for being so helpful in bug finding and being a supporter! Will try and get these fixed as soon as can.

[Zach Fett]

I'm just glad you're reading them and taking them into consideration, that's all I ask for! Thank you! And no rush, take your time, you've been pushing out updates multiple times a day since release, go take a break for the weekend!

[CDhaos]

One of the unnoing things: very often monsters attack through floors, from below (works also for mutated players). Second is monsters pathfinding in the Underground Silo: big ones often fall through textures and crouching under the floor in the ground. In that case they are impossible to be hit.
Third noticed thing; sometimes dogs can't find the way above monster body. Once mutated, this dog in rear cases can attack through textures and big (10-15 meters) distance. My friend doesn't see this, but for me (as a dead observer) it looks like very stretched texture, which chomp out his head from a distance of dog's body))
Anyway - the game is great))

[Zach Fett]

Daily feedback time. I've also added a "Questions" category for stuff I just am very confused on.

Questions:

1. What's with the robot statue thing here? What is this supposed to be? https://i.imgur.com/6vbv5jy.jpeg
   
   
2. Why is there a keypad at Oil Rig/Plant that sprays you and gets you infected? Why that specific keypad? What is even the lore reason for that??
   
   
3. What's with the temperature indicator? What is that showing a temp of? It's not our body temp, otherwise we'd be dead if our body heat was 70 Fahrenheit lol. It's certainly not the outside temperature either, that's too warm. The temperature it's displaying makes no sense to me!
   
   
4. Why is it called Beef Jerky when the model is absolutely bacon lmao

Suggestions:

1. I think temperature should drop a bit more while outside. I've literally never once seen the bar drop more than halfway, and that was with me being outside for 90% of a long match. There's a frostbite mechanic that I don't think I'll ever see at this rate lol.
   
   
2. I mentioned the sniper rifle last time, but I have some suggestions on how to make it useful. The main issue with using it is that the scope is nearly unusable at night https://i.imgur.com/QG9Jl70.jpeg If it showed heat signatures, that would work well and look neat. Alternatively, the scope looks like it's illuminated during day, and it has a blue filter, but at night both of those go away entirely. Keep those for night and it'd be good! I also think during the day the blue filter could be toned down a little, like how it looks when turning quickly. Here's an example: https://i.imgur.com/BRMcviL.jpeg
   
   
3. I held a flare at night and it's just as bad as the glowstick I previously complained about, you cannot see a damn thing due to the bloom and how bright it is in your face. It's nice for other players, but yeah tone it down a lil for the person holding it! https://i.imgur.com/SzR81H8.jpeg
   
   
4. The FOV issue I mentioned previously, I'm certain now it's just the lens distortion effect that's causing my issues, because even at 80 FOV that distortion doesn't change and things on the edge of my screen are very curved. I'd definitely like to be able to disable that.
   
   
5. A setting to disable just the crosshair would be appreciated. I like playing games without it. I would also recommend disabling the crosshair while using vehicles, and if you have anything other than a firearm equipped.
   
   
6. I mentioned the third person vehicle camera issue in my very first post, where it bounces back when turned quickly, I'd also like to mention that the mouse smoothing setting doesn't affect that third person camera, or while spectating. I'd like to be able to disable that entirely. Maybe this and the bouncing issue are related.
   
   
7. Why is the two-headed creature holding a giant knife? Looks kinda goofy imo. Also that enemy could use some slightly nicer walking animations. All the other creatures look good in that regard, though.
   
   
8. Hotkeys to change a dog's mode would be nice. It is sometimes frustrating trying to tell a dog to go into guard mode while enemies are nearby.
   
   
9. The Research Center mission is kind of difficult. Currently when you get infected, it feels like you only have a few minutes to use a vaccine before you turn, right? I never get infected near Research Center, so I've never been able to do that objective. I dunno if the solution is to increase the infected timer, or to change the objective. I do like the idea of that objective though.
   
   
10. Add some loot to that crashed ship near Base Camp 2. :)
    
    
11. I'd like if the computer documents were readable in the main menu or something down the road. They're really long so I never feel like I have the time to read them during a match, but they seem interesting! The images would be nice too. Maybe down the road you'll add an in-game lobby room to run around in (like Phasmophobia and other games have) and then you can add a computer in there that lets you look through all of that.

Bugs:

1. When spawning at the Oil Rig, the text on-screen instead says "Oil Plant." I'm not sure which is the correct one, the map says Oil Rig.
   
   
2. If the worm shows up at Underground Silo, it's basically game over unless you can get out and drive off. When you're down there it keeps jumping up out of the ground, and sooner or later it'll just instantly explode you from diving back down somewhere near the silo interior. My friend and I both died to this.
   
   
3. Regarding the jaggy shadow bug I mentioned last time, I do want to clarify that I really like that you went with hard shadows in the game (I love me some stencil shadows), I don't want soft shadows, it's just that there are certain shadows in the game currently that are super jaggy on the edges like I showed in that screenshot last time. All of the ones in Underground Silo are another good example.
   
   
4. I could hear myself get attacked by a Wendigo while starting a match during the touchdown transition. By the time we actually got in, there were no enemies near us but I had like 1/5th of my health missing.
   
   
5. The dead worm you have to take photos of has some weird blurry spots on it. Not sure if this is depth of field bugging out on it, or the texture itself being blurry. https://i.imgur.com/U55oQYN.jpeg
   
   
6. Lastly, the scrollbar when looking at computer documents can only be used if you put the cursor a good inch to the left of the bar: https://i.imgur.com/iAHNcj3.jpeg Not sure if it's related to resolution, if so I'm playing at 2560x1440.

Thanks as always for reading and pushing out updates so quickly. I hope you guys aren't crunching and burning yourselves out! Also for future reference, you have a Discord right? Would you prefer if I post my feedback there instead of here? Whichever is more convenient for you guys is fine by me.

[bgproductionsoffical]

Keep it coming! Will be going through all these shortly and implementing the changes.

[Zach Fett]

Thanks, looking forward to it! Also I just realized I mislabeled the first section of my last post, it was supposed to be the questions category so I edited it.

Oh and four more suggestions before I sleep:

1. I think I've mentioned it before, but I'd definitely like to see the left hand hold the flamethrower correctly. I've taken some cool screenshots that irk me because of that damn hand lmao. Maybe you can re-use the shotgun's left hand pose?
   
   
2. I'd like if the bigger creatures took a few more shots before dying. It feels odd that almost all of them die to one shot from a revolver or shotgun. Meanwhile they take what feels like roughly the right amount of time to die with the flamethrower (I just wish its range was longer). For the first time today I saw that creatures can lose a leg and keep crawling toward you, that was cool! I think a dog bit its leg off cuz it wasn't from me shooting. If they had higher health this feature might show up more often!
   
   
3. Doesn't have to be for the current map, but I'd like to see more building variety. Maybe a large Outpost 31-style building. :)
   
   
4. Creatures should break doors down instead of nicely opening them. :p

I feel like I have seen them break the doors, but today I had a dog creature kindly open a door and that looked a bit funny.

[Zach Fett]

I ran into a really ♥♥♥♥♥♥ bug today.

Suggestions:

1. I'm glad to see DLSS support, at Ultra Quality it's given me around 30 extra frames. However my friend can't use DLSS as they have a GTX 970. Could we get FSR support added as well? FSR can be used on any system since it's software level instead of hardware. Bonus points if you can add FSR 3 and DLSS frame generation!
   
   
2. When I disable a tripmine, it should stay disabled for the rest of the match even if the generator goes out and gets turned back on. Was holding out overnight in a building when the stupid tripmine turned itself back on and blew me up. :(
   
   
3. I'm really not a fan of the new sniper scope.. It's painfully bright white, for one thing. I liked the blue filter, mostly. I don't like the laser thing instead of having the previous reticle. I'm also not a fan of how your entire FOV zooms in while using it so you can't see your surroundings, and it's now super disorienting to strafe while scoped. I shared this in my second to last post, but if you missed it, I really think the scope would look vastly better with just this one change (and making it look like this at night): https://i.imgur.com/BRMcviL.jpeg
   
   
4. The small buildings at fuel stations should have loot in them occasionally. Maybe have a higher chance of jerry cans there?

Bugs:

1. My perk menu is completely broken. :( It now says I have nothing unlocked, but I can't buy any perks, not even Gas Guzzler. https://i.imgur.com/IBqzF3e.jpeg
   
   
2. The above happened after a match where I successfully extracted, and during the "Mission Success" cutscene I was killed/infected. For some reason that's possible, so that's a bug in itself, and it may have been what caused my perks to completely break. https://i.imgur.com/v4ORAu6.jpeg
   
   
3. You'll want to add a kill plane to both the ocean and somewhere under the map. While playing as an infected I ran into the ocean and you just get stuck down there, then if you fall through the map you fall forever unable to kill yourself so you can at least spectate.
   
   
4. The gauge needles are tied to view distance, and if you have it set to anything lower than "High" you can't see the needles at all. Very problematic for telling how much fuel you have.
   
   
5. If you're in a snowmobile and not moving, tap left or right movement. For some reason the snowmobile locks into moving that direction until you start moving and correct it, which is a bit annoying.
   
   
6. While playing as an infected, if you look straight up you see this: https://i.imgur.com/ImbOYAz.jpeg

[bgproductionsoffical]

I appreciate the very through feedback you have given here. Unfortunate to hear the new sniper scope is not to your liking. Could we fix it by keeping the currently style scope but moving the fov back a bit more, and bringing back the blue tint? I'm sorry to say but this means your perk file is likely corrupted. Do you know what game this started to occur or what specifically triggered the corruption? Please pm me on discord "Benjamin" in the NN server and I will reimburse your points and perks. Thank you for being understanding, trying to get all these bugs resolved as quick as possible. And your other feedback is still in consideration just trying to resolve the most requested issues first / game breaking bugs. FSR is not supported in UE5.4. However, they did release a version for UE5.1 which I am currently in the process of trying to convert to be used in 5.4.

[Zach Fett]

Thanks, I'll hit you up on Discord in a bit. Yeah I think if the sniper scope brought back the blue tint, instead of being blindingly white, that would be a huge improvement. Same with a bit more FOV.

As for what caused the corruption, I assume it's the bug I mentioned below that, where the match ended successfully but then I died mid-cutscene and it put a mission failed UI on top of it. It was after that match that I immediately noticed my perks menu was broken.

[Shoah Kahn]

+1 for third-person. The game is primarily co-op, nay competitive -- chin-super-glued-to-a-gun-barrel view isn't a gameplay 'necessity'; as some might argue it is for "competitive shooters" 💭