Backfire Brigade news & patch notes

Hello everyone, This week’s update focuses on stability and polish, addressing several bugs and feedback points identified during our latest QA session.

• Fixed an issue where missions losing money were incorrectly marked as "Successful."

• Resolved a logic conflict when a character was being revived and healed simultaneously.

• Fixed a bug allowing characters to use the fire extinguisher while stunned.

• Fixed "flying" characters being incorrectly affected by ground hazards like oil spills.

• Fixed an auto-failure bug occurring on the Forest Fire map at maximum difficulty.

• Fixed the "Dead" UI indicator not appearing when using healing equipment on a deceased NPC.

• Removed unnecessary button inputs from the Achievement UI.

• Fixed camera movement glitches in the Race Track level.

• Corrected various typos throughout the game.

• Increased priority for grenade sound effects to ensure they trigger in busy scenes.

• The "Heal" button is now hidden for NPCs who are already walking/recovered.

• Slightly increased the capacity of the chemical extinguisher.

• Enhanced the water splash effect (primarily visible at high difficulty settings).

Thanks for reading!

Hello everyone,

I’ve finally added all the features I planned for the full release! I am currently moving into a final testing phase to ensure everything works exactly as intended. If all goes well, Backfire Brigade will be officially leaving Early Access very soon.

To reflect the new content and the game's finished state, there will be a slight price increase at the time of the full launch.

Patch Notes

• Added Night Shift, allowing you to tackle fires under the cover of darkness.

• New Twist, explore the Zombie Mall experience.

• Added new, more valuable objects.

• Numerous small visual improvements to ensure every level is distinct and easily recognizable at a glance.

• Resolved an issue where character colors were removed following the addition of the dog.

• Tweaked victim HP and attrition rates based on chosen difficulty.

• Updated difficulty scaling, Flames are now harder to extinguish as the difficulty increases.

Thanks for reading and for all your support during Early Access!

Hello new release contains:

• Four New Perks: Air Marshal, Dog, Telekinetic, and Necro.

• Truck Upgrade: Added an upgrade to increase the truck's refilling speed.

• Research Station Twist: Added "Creep" spreading mechanics throughout the level.

• New Visuals: Added snow VFX to the Research Station.

• Race Track Addition: Added a mini truck to the Race Track level.

• UI Update: Visuals for upgrade icons now update to reflect their current status.

• Fixed an issue where the character would get stuck when using a fire extinguisher while dying.

• Fixed a bug where the "Door Kicker" perk was not being applied correctly during kicks.

Thanks for reading!

• New Levels: Added the Fire Station and Research Lab. Keep your eyes peeled—something feels a bit "off" at the facility...

Other Small changes

• Added aesthetic details including tyre marks on roads and specific tractor tracks.

• Updated the Tyre Wall collision and visuals to better communicate where players can and cannot pass.

• Slightly reduced the size of kitchen counters to prevent players from getting stuck in narrow gaps.

• Removed the Ottoman as a potential victim spawn point to prevent "bad spawns" and fixed spawning issues in the Truck area.

• The basic tutorial now explicitly encourages obstacle destruction to clear paths.

• Updated the Roll Icon and added new Icon Feedback when attempting to refill a truck that is already at max capacity.

• Conducted a pass on audio feedback for area-based interactions to ensure better player cues.

• Fixed shadow rendering issues.

• Fixed an issue in the Forest level where grass and stones were failing to spawn correctly.

• Fixed Lemming pathfinding errors that occurred when dropping them too close to an exit.

• Resolved Nav Mesh issues within the Corn Maze.

• Added Nav Mesh modifiers to various environmental elements to prevent NPCs from getting stuck on geometry.

Thanks for reading.

This week brings a host of small, focused changes and important bug fixes aimed at improving gameplay flow, visual fidelity, and overall stability. Thank you for your continued feedback!

• Tutorial Level Added: Introduced a new tutorial level specifically for the Lemmings equipment, helping players master this gear more quickly.

• Character Scanning: Slightly increased the scan duration and significantly improved the visual feedback when a character is being scanned.

• Area Visuals: Enhanced the visual clarity for various areas in the game.

• Fire Truck: Updated the visual effects and behavior for the fire truck lights.

• Truck Water Refill: Increased the water refill rate from the water tank and ensured the additional tank capacity is correctly utilized.

• Starting Gear Management: When dropping core equipment (Exosuit and Hoses) in the starting area, they will now be replaced back in their original spawn location.

• Equipment Spawning Logic: Implemented a check to prevent fire hydrants from spawning in the exact same location as ambulance starting gear.

• Clearing Area Display: The clearing area display is now clamped to prevent it from incorrectly showing negative values (e.g., preventing -1 trees to cut).

• Ambulance Spawning: Ambulances will no longer spawn in maps where there are no victims present.

• Player Character Collision: Disabled avoidance behavior for the player character to ensure smoother movement and interaction.

• Hoses Fixed jittering visual issue on the Fire Hose pipe.

• Fire Extinguishing: Prevented extinguishing grenades from splashing effects through solid walls.

• Victim/Valuables Spawning: Reviewed and improved the victim spawning mechanism to significantly limit the chance of them spawning hidden behind walls. Similar logic improvements were applied for the spawning of valuables and explosives.

• NPC Navigation :Fixed an issue with the Nav Mesh to avoid NPCs getting stuck at the back of the fire truck. Fixed the Nav Mesh in the Power Station level to prevent NPCs from walking through fences and added a robust check on the Nav Mesh when an NPC is looking for a target.

Thanks for reading, and we'll see you in the next update!

New Gears:

• Holy Grenade added: This new grenade variant is lighter, allowing it to be thrown further, and may multiply on impact based on the number of victims saved.

• Lemming Gear added: A new system that allows you to guide rescued victims by creating a path for them to follow.

Four new perks have been introduced:

• Grenadier: Allows the player to carry two grenades at once.

• Field Medic: You can now instantly diagnose a victim's state by simply bumping into them.

• Hazardous Material Specialist: Gives the ability to disarm and dispose of propane tanks on interaction instead of having to carry them away.

• Splash on Collapse: A new perk has been added.

Misc

• Splash Screen added to the game.

• Grenade Throw Adjustment: Players can now change the direction of their grenade throw during the throw animation to adjust the trajectory.

Watch the full breakdown of these features in the devlog:

I needed a break from debugging, so I probably added a few new bugs instead.

• Added a bear in the Forest Clearing level that hunts players.

• Added a drug lord NPC in the Clandestine Lab who attacks players.

• Added new difficulty levels (7 to 10). This is the first implementation step; not every level has been fully rebalanced yet, so use with care.

• Added a red danger VFX to indicate when a weapon is about to fire.

• Updated the star rating system to reflect difficulty. Star rewards now scale with difficulty (1–5 stars spread across difficulty levels 1–10).

Thanks for reading.

• Fixed an issue where fire could spawn outside the Fog of War boundaries.

• Reviewed object physics to limit items from flying away too fast when bumped by characters.

• Resolved a bug allowing C4 explosives to be grabbed even after detonation.

• Fixed issues where victims were sometimes spawned in awkward positions, particularly on beds. Still work to be done here

• Corrected a visual issue where the victim area was briefly displayed at the start of a mission before the ambulance arrived.

• Fixed a bug that required an interaction overlap refresh when dropping an object directly in front of a doorway.

🔥 New Exosuits

The brigade has two new pieces of heavy-duty equipment ready for deployment:

• New Destruction Exosuit: Introducing a formidable new Exosuit dedicated to demolition, equipped with a powerful Double Chainsaw!

• New Fire Hose Exosuit: Step into this new suit to utilize superior, focused water-based firefighting capabilities.

See the new suits and changes in action here:

⚙️ Changes & Improvements

• Visual Effects: Added new VFX when your player character successfully extinguishes a fire.

• Economy Tweak: Adjusted the Base Income calculation to result in a slightly reduced income.

• A.I. Movement: Reduced the base movement speed of the "Fat Guy" PNJ.

• Physics Refinement: Tweaked object physics to minimize valuable objects flying away when walking into them.

• Drone Camera: The Drone landing camera will now correctly wait for the drone to explode before zooming, providing a smoother transition.

• Branding: Replaced the default Unreal Engine icon with the official game icon.

🛠️ Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the Bomb was not blowing up correctly on the Oil Rig map.

• Switched the Drone explosion effect from the ground location to the actual drone location.

• Fixed an issue where the Drone didn't explode when the player had other equipment in range.

• Removed the incorrect Oil Rig water splash visual effect upon destruction of objects.

• Fixed a bug where Objects destroyed before the area was displayed were not being correctly taken into account.

• Fixed the Dog PNJ remaining standing after reaching 0 HP.

• Resolved character spawning issues in the Data Center, Police Station, and Mall maps.

• Fixed an issue where PNJs were not affected by movement areas (like web or oil).

• Fixed an issue where released objects and characters within an area appeared behind the player character.

• Fixed the Skull Icon display becoming corrupted after the player took too much damage.

• Fixed an issue where dying while performing the CPR animation resulted in the player getting stuck.

• Fixed the Missing help prompt when using life equipment on victims.

• Fixed some plants and webs spawning through walls.

• Fixed a small visual issue with the Artillery Strike displaying its start location on a previous position.

• Small fix implemented in the stick roll UI.

Thank you for your continued support and feedback!

• New Recon Drone Equipment

• Translation Pass Corrected localized text errors within the tutorial.

• Explosion Damage Increased

  Explosions now deal higher damage to nearby players to ensure lethality for those who get too close.

• Animation Loop Fix

  Resolved an issue where players using the axe/crowbar while catching fire would get stuck in an animation loop.

• Audio Adjustment

  Lowered the volume of the shoot audio.

• Concurrency Fix

  Prevented a concurrency issue that occurred when two players checked health at the exact same time.

• UI Improvement

  Updated and improved the UI for the Stick animation when the player is on fire.

• Victim Carrying Bugfix

  Fixed specific corner case bugs related to carrying victims.

• Community Link

  Added a link to the Discord channel.