I know, I know. I couldn't stay away knowing that Beta, the first character you meet is just kinda ditched after the voice module is built. That's why I've worked long nights to animate him into the remaining cutscenes and build functions that allow him to be around even during gameplay! 

In doing this, I've also fixed some bugs, made some adjustments to cutscenes, and finally found out why some of our models kept appearing super dark, turns out the normals on most of them were broken somehow. Likely it was an engine bug when we moved to Unreal Engine 5 from 4, but luckily there's a build setting tick that recomputes normals in engine. It fixed most of the issues we were having and now you can see Beta, the Android Structures and more in their proper form and as intended. 

Now that I've spent hours on what I guess we'll call the "BETA UPDATE" haha, I can finally actually really rest now.

We thank you again for your support!

- StolidSnow0 (SS0 Games & Novaverse)

General

• Added Beta during all missions (he will now not just vanish after the 'Fixing The Broken' mission is complete)
• Added some settings from Beta to save files (upon loading from a save or otherwise he should function as normal in all circumstances)
• Added checkpoint in LS_DoorOpen cutscene to Brink, on respawn he will respawn back at the door rather than back at the beginning
• Added Respawn Location to saves to save the players respawn location upon loading in
• Did some secret countdown until arrival stuff...

Cutscene

• Added Beta to all story cutscenes past the 'Fixing The Broken' mission (previously he would disappear and never be seen again)
• Changed used level sequences to 60fps from 240fps (it might finally fix the AI not pathing during the 'Scouting Party' mission's cutscene)
• In adding Beta to cutscenes, various of said cutscenes have been adjusted accordingly, focus should also be fixed on all the cameras now

AI

• Beta will now look at the player if close enough during the 'Fixing The Broken' mission
• Changed Beta walk speed from 700 to 1500 (Brink's sprint speed)
• Changed Beta movement push force factor 500.0 from 750000.0 to avoid sending player flying
• Added a teleport function for Beta if he strays too far
• Removed ChangeNPCSpeed from Beta as it was used for InfectedAndroids only
• Added a BlackBoard check in BT_Beta so that if player is in range, it will stop running 'Follow Player' until player is out of range

Island Omega

• Set SM_GroundRevealRock001 foliage in Island Omega to NoCollision from BlockAll

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where Beta's default for floating was true, causing him to be floating in situations he shouldn't be
• Fixed a bug where Beta would be destroyed before the 'Build Voice Module' cutscene did it's initial fade to black sequence
• Fixed a bug where Beta's movement, mainly his rotation was snapping instead of smooth
• Fixed Collision for SM_MountainRock and SM_LargePlainsBoulder002
• Fixed a bug where you could press the 1 key which would set Brink's health to 0 (this was used for debugging and I forgot to remove it)
• Fixed Subtitle in 'DW_Brink_find_anything' __FInd anything?__ to __Find anything?__

The below issues were resolved thanks to Unreal Engine 5.3.2!

• Fixed Normals on SM_beta_drone
• Fixed Normals on SM_torch_module
• Fixed Normals on SM_lifepod1
• Fixed Normals on SM_android_structure_1
• Fixed Normals on SM_WOOD_FENCE
• Fixed Normals on SM_shadow_sword