The Guns Overhaul in SCP: Secret Laboratory

00:16 - We’re gonna start with our next major update.

00:18 - Since it doesn’t have a catchy name yet, We’re just going to refer to it by its numerical version - “11. 0”.

00:23 - As most major updates do, this one will include multiple interesting gameplay changes.

00:28 - Soon after releasing the Scopophobia update, which included a rework of SCP-096, we had a short Q&A stream in which we revealed, that the next major update will either be a guns overhaul, a rework of a playable SCP, or the Surface Zone rework.

00:41 - After much consideration, we’ve decided that the main focus of 11. 0 will be the complete overhaul of weapons.

00:47 - It will not only change the visuals of the guns, but also all mechanics circulating them.

00:52 - This means we’ll completely change how weapons behave, and how they should be operated.

00:55 - SL has already had a weapons rework, in the past. This happened 2 years ago, back in 2018, when the old sci-fi-looking weapons were replaced with more realistic ones.

01:05 - Our current system of weapons isn’t that ‘terrible’, and it is somewhat usable when you get used to it, but our new goal is to create something more predictable for new players.

01:12 - At the same time we want to provide more skill-based mechanics, that advanced players can practice, to get better at the game.

01:18 - Each weapon that currently exists will either get a full revamp (which includes a new model, mechanics and animations) or be completely removed and replaced with a different one.

01:25 - We’re also going to introduce a number of new weapons If everything goes according to plan, we’re going to have a total of 9 firearms.

01:32 - Before we start working on the weapons, though, we’d like to create a more solid inventory system.

01:37 - The scripts responsible for the inventory are one of the oldest in the game.

01:40 - This means that they have to be subjected to a process called “refactoring”.

01:44 - Without going too deep into definitions, refactoring consists of rewriting old scripts to improve the overall stability and reliability of the system, without changing its external behavior.

01:53 - This allows us to implement new features to currently existing items, which the previous system did not facilitate.

01:59 - So… in reality, the 11. 0 update will bring refreshments to nearly all items, with weapons being the main focus. In addition, we’re going to introduce a lot of new gun-related mechanics, such as body armor. Currently in SL, MTF and C. I. have a higher number of maximum health, which was originally made as a way to simulate the body armor they wear.

02:18 - We’ve decided to transform that into a proper gameplay mechanic, by adding wearable armor. Stats of all human classes will be normalized, which means that, by default, all human classes have the exact same stats.

02:29 - This includes things like health, movement speed, ammo limits, damage resistance, and so on.

02:34 - Wearable body armor takes one slot in the inventory and passively reduces damage received from bullets and explosions.

02:40 - Body armor also increases the limits of ammunition and grenades.

02:44 - Armor can be dropped, and then equipped by another player, even if they play as a civilian class, such as Class-D or Scientist.

02:51 - Other than that, you can expect many less exciting, yet still very interesting changes.

02:55 - For example, we’re finally planning to add more subclasses to the Chaos Insurgency.

02:59 - Similarly to MTF, we’re gonna have three classes, each having a slightly different setup.

03:04 - The main reason for adding this is that having spawn-waves of a dozen light machine gunners is simply boring and unbalanced… That was two reasons, actually. Uh, Anyway…

03:12 - Because every C. I. spawns with the Logicer, we can’t make it too powerful, otherwise every wave of Chaos Insurgency would totally tip the scales.

03:20 - On the other hand, the Logicer is currently one of the worst weapons you can choose for a 1v1 fight.

03:25 - The point is - getting more C. I. subclasses into the game would allow us to safely re-introduce this machine gun in its more powerful form.

03:33 - This devlog is getting quite long already, and we still have the Q&A section to cover, so we’ll share more details in the form of Steam announcements, and Patreon posts.

03:43 - As per usual, we’re going to answer a handful of questions posted by you on our YouTube channel and Discord server.

03:48 - While we can’t answer all of them, we’ve chosen a few most frequently asked ones, and a few most voted ones.

03:53 - Starting with a question from Glizzy: Thank you very much for this question.

04:13 - that’s something we really wanted to talk about for a while now.

04:15 - So, let’s start with admitting, indeed, we aren’t fully satisfied about the current speed of development, and the number of delays is a real shame.

04:23 - But, at the same time, I think saying that the game received as many features in 2018 is a bit of an overstatement.

04:29 - If we take a closer look at patches released in 2018, we can see that most of them consisted only of small visual improvements, or other simple changes that didn’t really require any special design or testing.

04:40 - Yes, we did ‘technically’ manage to add three SCPs to the game in 2018 (which included a rework of SCP-079, and additions of 939 and 096) However, according to community surveys, these were the most hated SCPs before Scopophobia due to their poor design. While 2018 indeed had more frequent updates, it was mostly “quantity over quality”, and we still believe we made a good decision to put a stop to this.

05:03 - And believe me - you wouldn’t like to live in the universe, where we continued the 2018 style of updates…

05:08 - the game would be a much bigger mess. So, even though we released ‘fewer’ updates in 2020, they included more ‘actual’ features.

05:15 - If we compare that year to previous years, we can see a clear improvement of quality. In conclusion, we’re releasing new updates less frequently, but they are bigger and, we believe, designed in a much better way.

05:26 - If you find it hard to believe, you can compare the Steam changelogs that we have posted during the past three years, and see for yourself that the game had no direction in 2018; What we called a “major update” was usually just a bunch of bug fixes, with little-to-no actual gameplay changes.

05:40 - Plus, these updates are known to generate more technical debt for us, than features for you.

05:44 - Poorly written, rushed scripts, were actually one of the few reasons for the delays of both Megapatch II and Scopophobia.

05:50 - With that covered, let’s move onto another question.

05:53 - We have a few comments asking for the tutorial to be re-added.

05:56 - Thank you all for asking. The tutorial is definitely one of our main future goals.

06:00 - The reason why we haven’t added the tutorial yet, is really simple, and it’s exactly the same reason why we removed it in the first place.

06:06 - For those who aren’t aware — there used to be an in-game tutorial, but it has been removed.

06:11 - The problem is, as the game mechanics change, we need to update the tutorial maps alongside them.

06:15 - That takes even more time, because changes not only affect the main game, but also need to be tested on the tutorial maps.

06:22 - Despite that, we are planning to bring them back in one of the future updates but it will most definitely not be a feature for 11. 0.

06:28 - We’ve also received many questions related to the Surface Zone rework. We, unfortunately, don’t have any good news.

06:35 - The progress is relatively slow, and we hate to admit, that this project’s requirements have completely surpassed our skills.

06:41 - We are aware that to many of you, the current Surface Zone is probably one of the worst parts of the game, but it has to be understood that it is really difficult to design a believable, visually-pleasing environment, which also works well gameplay-wise.

06:53 - The project is not abandoned, but we wouldn’t count on seeing it completed anytime soon.

06:57 - These are all the questions we’re gonna answer for now.

06:59 - Before we say our goodbyes, we have a short announcement to make.

07:02 - After three years, we’ve finally updated our website, which is now way more functional.

07:06 - The link is in the description - check it out yourself.

07:09 - That’s it for now. Thank you for watching. .