Hello, this is Studio HATCH!
We want to express our gratitude to those who have been patiently waiting for over a month. The reason for the delay in the update was that we needed to review and make adjustments to all aspects of current "The Highrise" Game based on the feedback received so far. Additionally, it took some time to add and test the new Survival Mode and other major and minor mechanics. With many changes from small tweaks to significant mechanics, you will experience a gameplay that is quite different from before. We are confident that those who have cleared it once and play again will have a better impression!
Let us first highlight the major changes.
All zones have been opened.
We removed all card key generators that blocked the way to the existing zones, allowing unrestricted movement between floors in the open world. Now, you can quickly descend to the first floor right from the start, and rare material items that used to be generated only near the shopping mall can be farmed early on without any issues (if you dare). The card key doors that used to block passage between zones have been integrated into the doors of reward rooms.
Conditions for sending rescue signals have been changed.
Now, we have placed the radio in the early zones so you can find it relatively quickly. However, the radio is broken, and you need to fix them to send rescue signals. To do so, you will need radio components scattered throughout the building, with about half randomly spawning in furniture like other items and the rest being fixed spawns in certain rooms, acting as rewards for solving room mechanics.
A survivor's odor state system has been added.
Over time, the player's odor gauge will increase naturally. This odor represents the sweat, blood, bodily fluids, and other byproducts generated as the player survives. When the odor gauge reaches a certain level, the player will periodically emit a foul smell in the surroundings, which can attract nearby monsters. The only way to eliminate the odor gauge is by creating an improvised bathtub and bathing (the improvised bathtub is a new installation added in this update).
Blueprints have been added to the crafting mechanism.
Blueprints have been added to some crafting items. About half of the craftable items now require blueprints. Blueprints are placed throughout the building and also act as rewards in reward rooms. Once you collect a blueprint, it will be permanently stored within your character, similar to the zone maps. (If you play with a character from version earlier than 3.6.5.6.1, all blueprints will be automatically granted.)
The spawning method of seeds has been changed.
Previously, seeds were only found on the bottom floors of buildings, and the crop mechanism encountered just before escaping the building didn't receive much attention from many players. However, from now on, we have designated specific spawn areas to experience the crop mechanism from the early stages. Seeds are the only resource that enters the building from the outside and can be found in open areas where the exterior walls are exposed. Seeds have also been changed to respawn resources like water and oil.
You can sleep on a mattress now.
Sleeping is only possible during the night when the sun sets, and if you sleep, you can pass time quickly until the sun rises again. However, to sleep, you will need the stamina and hydration equivalent to the natural decrease amount of time until sunrise. When you wake up after sleeping, your stamina and hydration decrease, but your health recovers.
Reward rooms have been added.
The most representative ones are the reward rooms via the card key generators for each zone, and there are also reward rooms with simple mechanics. It would be best to play and experience the details yourself. Representative items obtained in reward rooms include blueprints and radio components.
The storage method of important items and character unlocking method have been changed.
The zone maps, item blueprints, zone card keys, and survivor messages are permanently stored within the player character and cannot be transferred or deleted. These items also do not disappear from the inventory. Additionally, the character unlocking method has been changed. Now, to unlock each of the four characters, you need to collect specific items, which are the same as the four items mentioned above. (The game mode is now independent of this unlocking method.)
Lastly, the Survival Mode has been added.
In Survival Mode, the data of the deceased character is completely wiped. The differences between Survival Mode and Sandbox Mode are as follows:
• Adjustment of respawn time for seeds, water, oil, and dirt piles.
• Adjustment of the spawn quantity of raw and food items.
• Adjustment of AI detection speed.
• Adjustment of AI damage.
• The gardening pot system has been changed. Now, clean water no longer reduces the cultivation time, and crops being cultivated in the gardening pot cannot grow without "clean water." Also, after cultivating six times, you need to refill the soil for the gardening pot.
• The bathtub system has been added. You can wash off your odor in the bathtub, but after using it twice (based on single-player mode balance), you will need to refill it with clean water (two units) to use it again.
• The grappling hook item has been added. The grappling hook can be placed on air vents that face downwards or high places. Each time it is installed, durability decreases, and after depleting all the durability, it can be disassembled.
• Crafting materials now indicate their rarity. Rarity indicates only the depth of the material's potential location and does not represent its absolute value.
• The accurate display of respawn cooldown for respawn items and the exact time for crop cultivation has been removed. However, you can check the approximate time left through the icons on the minimap. Additionally, you can expand the minimap by pressing the M button and navigate through other floors.
• The oil in the generator is consumed over time, and when the oil is completely depleted, the generator cannot function or charge the battery of the device, and it needs to be refueled.
• A penalty of stamina and hydration reduction has been added when vomiting due to food poisoning.
• An additional level of weight penalty has been added. If you carry over 60kg of weight, you will be almost unable to move.
• The damage dealt by monsters to breakable objects and installations has significantly increased. Also, when the player stands on breakable objects or installations, monsters will focus on attacking the breakable objects and installations under the player's feet.
• When a monster detects a player, the monster's roar now attracts other monsters to the player's location, not where the monster roared.
• Monsters will no longer flee from the player who has just escaped through air vents during combat, as long as the player is within their attack range.
• The respawn number of Sniffers has been adjusted. From now on, the number of respawning snipers will be about half of the initial spawn quantity.
• Chef now has a tail bite (exploring the player's vicinity upon first encounter).
• Chef's charging judgment has been adjusted more precisely, and the speed has been increased.
• During combat with Chef, running speed has been increased.
• Chef's attack speed has been increased.
• Chef's basic attack damage has been nerfed to 24, but the charge attack damage remains unchanged.
• The rarity of gas burners has been reduced by one level, allowing early zone farming.
• The hydration gauge has been moved to the stamina gauge.
• The spawn quantity of food items has decreased significantly.
• Basic material furniture will no longer respawn.
• The zone map for Sky Lounge will be given to the player immediately at the start of a new game.
• The damage of the Molotov cocktail has been buffed to 200 but the radius has been significantly reduced to 1 meter.
• The battery recharge time has increased to 24 minutes (in-game time, equivalent to one day).
• The spawn quantity of batteries has been reduced to one per zone.
• The number of Sniffers in Sky Lounge has been reduced from 3 to 2.
• Each important door in each zone has been assigned a distinct color from the primary colors.
• Water respawns will be increased to 3 weeks.
• Mushrooms will no longer respawn.
• An offset is applied to all resource respawn times. (1 week has a 1-day offset, 2 weeks have a 2-day offset, 3 weeks have a 3-day offset).
• You will receive one more set of cooked food and water at the start.
• The reduction amount of food poisoning due to clean water has been buffed to 10 from 5.
• The weight of garden pots has been reduced to 6kg.
• The weight of wills has been reduced to 8kg.
• The weight of pipe bombs has been reduced to 300g.
• The weight of nail guns has been changed to 1.1kg.
• Now, you can enter the host's world even without loading all of it.
• In multiplayer, the natural reduction rate (maximum stamina, hydration, battery) of player stats will fluctuate based on the number of players. With two players, the natural reduction rate will be 50%, and with three players, it will be 33%.
• Now, in multiplayer, when players perform specific interactions simultaneously, the preemptive confirmation function prevents bugs.
• The firing delay of pistols, shotguns, and rifles has been reduced.
• You can now check all descriptions of stats in the inventory.
• Collected maps, blueprints, card keys, and messages can be viewed in the inventory (messages can also be opened by clicking on them).
• Some areas now have darkrooms.
• The expansion function of the mini-map has been refined. You can activate it with the M key and check different floors using W, S, or the mouse wheel.
• The clouds, which were deleted at the start of the early access, are now back.
• Constellation effects in the sky have been added.
• Almost all additional translations have been applied and adjusted to all languages.
• Cooked "Sticky Meat" can no longer be used as a substitute for generator oil.
• Both "Sticky Meat" and cooked "Sticky Meat" have significantly nerfed stamina recovery amounts.
• Main menu and option UIs have been refined.
• A frame rate setting feature has been added to the options.
• A separate mouse sensitivity option for scoped aiming has been added for rifles.
• The highlight display distance of interactive objects in the surroundings has been reduced from the previous 15 meters to 10 meters.
• Some UI designs have been modified.
• Various console information has been added.
• Some sound effects have been replaced and added.
• The interaction outline has been added to the long ladders in the central elevator rooms that appear starting from Damper.
• Fixed a bug where the headshot judgment of Elite Snipers did not work correctly.
• Fixed a bug where monsters would intermittently cross through barricades installed on doors.
• Fixed a bug where interacting with barricades more than once intermittently did not properly apply the generator's information after restarting the game.
• Fixed a bug where the player's weapon would explode while running with a pipe bomb above them.
• Fixed a bug where monsters would occasionally show diminished reactions when smelling.
• Fixed a bug where the helicopter appearing in the ending cutscene would intermittently appear in a location other than the rooftop depending on the resolution of display.
• Fixed a bug where the indication of discharge and charged batteries were reversed.
• Fixed a bug where the sound effect for drinking water while holding water in hand would intermittently change every sound to the sound of opening a lid.
• Fixed a bug where some numerical UIs would intermittently display excessive decimal places.
That concludes the update details for The Highrise. We want to express our gratitude once again to everyone who showed interest in our game and waited patiently for the update.
Also, we plan to have a weekly sale in the future, so if you know anyone interested in The Highrise, we would greatly appreciate it if you could let them know about our discounts.
Best regards from Studio HATCH.
