Ready or Not Patch Notes – January 2024

Ready or Not saw its global launch on December 13 on Steam with the 1.0 update. Below I've added the latest patch notes by which the developers have added a series of changes to further polish the gameplay experience.

Ready or Not Patch #1 - December 13, 2023

GAMEPLAY

• Commander mode: “Commander mode” is our immersive Ready or Not single player experience. The mode acts to tie together all elements of the game’s existing design, as well as introducing new features centered around progression and replayability. We will be heavily monitoring feedback surrounding this mode.
  
  • Ironman Mode: A permadeath-style option for hardcore players. Once you’re dead, your save is deleted. There are cosmetic rewards for completing this mode.
  • Exfiltration Mechanic: In order to quit a mission early without accruing as much stress to their officers, players must exfil from their spawn point, being sure to first backtrack safely.
  • Save Slots: 3 save slots have been added that will allow players to experiment with different runs, or for multiple users on one PC.
  • Stress System: A meta-game stress system that punishes the team for acting outside of the Use of Force continuum, or otherwise putting lives in danger. Officers at high stress will have to be benched and put on therapy, or be at risk of leaving the team permanently.
  • Officer Traits: ~12 modifiers that affect your officer or team composition to benefit your select playstyle. Traits become available for each respective officer as you play missions with them.
• New SWAT AI: A remarkable next-generation AI system capable of clearing rooms in a truly lifelike fashion, built from the ground-up by working closely with our SWAT advisory team.
  
  • New AI and Team Commands: A number of new commands are now available for ordering AI (and now your friends) around.
    • Officers will be able to order surrendered and arrested targets to turn around, move to a marked position, or move to the officer’s location.
    • AI can be told to run to the nearest exit and flee the location. They will be automatically arrested upon arrival there.
    • Commands are now able to be used in cooperative, so players without microphones can communicate a little easier with other player teammates.
      • This system is pending some QOL improvements such as UI elements to help see what has been marked. Some commands will also default to Judge’s voice.
  • Police Trailer Units: Automated trailer units have also been added, which are police units that come in after a mission to collect arrested contacts and any relevant people or items. This will occur when “bring order to chaos” is completed.
• New Tablet System: Objectives and other elements of the UI that were previously non-diegetic have been moved to the Tablet, which is able to be opened by pressing “TAB” by default.
  
  • After selecting a mission, players can: Listen to a situation briefing and 911 calls
    • Receive a list of objectives relevant to the mission
    • Preview images that might provide some insight into the threat level
    • Read through a list of known suspects and civilians
    • Access whatever maps the LSPD has available on the location, with the ability to draw and make plans with your team
    • Players can also preview their team cameras and loadouts in this tablet, as well as chat with other players using a built-in screen
• New level selection screen with updated visuals and entry point selection.
  
  • Ability to pick which mission type to play a level on has been removed due to limitations with design and testing, and to avoid narrative conflicts.
• New Evidence Locker: Collectibles in the Evidence Locker will become available as different missions are completed. Each mission has three: one for B, one for A, and one for S. The collectibles will often point to elements of the story or allude to other details.
• 15 Steam Achievements: 15 challenging achievements are available to completionist players upon release.
• Replay Viewer: Missions can be replayed using a viewer that is accessible in the main menu. This viewer allows for players to change camera aperture settings, color grading settings, focal length, spline paths, and speed. A timeline also exists which can be scrubbed back and forth.
  
  • The selection UI for replays is currently WIP, but can be used.
  • Replays are accessible from commander, cooperative, and practice mode gameplay. Will also work with mods.

VISUALS

• New Character Customization: Allows players to change boots, shirts, pants, armor, gloves, wristwear, heads, tattoos, voices, face-wear, NVGs, gas masks, and helmets (along with mod support for players).
• New Characters Added: Over 175 new characters have been added to the game for suspects, civilians, and other NPCs.
• Overhauled Visual Effects: All visual effects have been completely redone. This includes 3D muzzle flashes, impact effects, spalling, destruction, flashbangs, cs gas, pepper spray, OC launcher impacts, tracers, C2 breaches, and much more.
• Tip Screens for new players in the Los Suenos Police Station. Information about new unlocks will also be able to be seen here.
• Replaced a large number of placeholder assets with more bespoke, custom assets with better optimization.
• Headcam perspective now includes the officer’s helmet.
• Low Ready Toggle: New options to set high and low ready.

ANIMATIONS

• New Death Animations: added 100+ death animations (different limbs, arterial bleeds, etc.)
• General animation improvements for footsteps, polish, removal of some sliding.

AUDIO

• Quantum Sound Manager: New system that supports accurate reflections for sound and better simulated occlusion, leading to a more realistic experience when trying to locate targets.
  
  • Audio will also sound different when behind an open or closed door, or when behind a window depending on if it is broken or not.
• New distance layers for gunshots: Allows for a nicer transition as enemies get closer while shooting.
• New OSTs added: Plenty of new soundtracks for your listening pleasure.
  
  • Hospital
  • Coyote
  • Streamer
  • Importer
  • Sins
  • Gas
  • Farm
  • Beachfront
  • Valley / Dealer / Penthouse have all been updated so their OSTs are more dynamic (combat comes in more gradually / certain sections “unlock” once certain things happen)
• New Sound Design Pass: All levels (old and new) have received improvements to their sound design
• New SWAT Voices: 13 uniquely voiced, studio-quality voice lines for different tactical officers operating in the LSPD.
• New Suspect and Civilian Voices: Fully added all remaining voice lines for key characters across each level, with over 50,000 voice lines across more than 120 characters.

Related: All Armor and Headwear gear in Ready or Not game

WEAPONS

• New MCX Assault Rifle
• New LVAR Assault Rifle
• New F90 Assault Rifle
• New SuperbNova Shotgun
• New UMP-9 SMG
• New TLE-1911 Pistol
• New TPL Less Lethal Launcher
• New X2 Taser
• Overhauled 870MCS Breaching Shotgun
• Overhauled UMP-45 SMG
• Overhauled M45A1 Pistol
• Overhauled MPX SMG
• Added MK18 Training Version for Tutorial Level
• Added G19 Training Version for Tutorial Level

UI & EXPERIENCE

• New Main Menu presentation
• New Settings Menu presentation
• Customization and Loadout Screen Overhauled
• Pause Menu Overhauled
• Mod.io changed to use a native explorer which has more options (e.g. search by categories)
• Added support for subtitles: Shows real-time transcripts of voice lines said in-game.
• Colourblind options for protanopia, deuteranopia, and tritanopia.
• Item Highlight: Item highlights can be enabled for an easier time when finding evidence
• Localization additions: New language support for in-game texts.
  • English
  • Chinese (Simplified)
  • German
  • Spanish
  • French
  • New Zealand “Kiwi” Dialect

LEVELS

• New Map: “Elephant”, an active-shooter mission at a college campus.
• New Map: “Rust Belt”, a raid set on the border of Los Sueños and Tijuana.
• New Map: “Sins”, a high-stakes hostage situation in the upper floors of an old hotel.
• New Map: “Streamer”, a hostage situation occurring in an apartment complex.
• New Map: “Beachfront”, a warrant service on a house near Los Sueños' coastline.
• New Map: “Training”, an introductory space to players new to Ready or Not or who need a refresher
• New Map: “Station” has been completely recreated from the ground-up. It includes new spaces such as an improved training area, shooting range with working targets, evidence room, and minigame (although you’ll have to search the halls for this one).
  
  • Station will progressively change as you complete commander mode missions.
• New Map: “Carriers of the Vine” has been completely recreated from the ground-up. Raid a cultist compound and uncover its secrets.
• New Map: “Hide and Seek” has been completely recreated from the ground-up. Go head-to-head against a large international criminal operation.
• Complete Redesign: “Buy Cheap, Buy Twice” has been recreated almost entirely.
• Gameplay Improvements: Level design across all levels has been improved, fixing holes in walls and navigation for AI which would often lead to players being shot through walls and floors. Similarly, navigation through some areas has been adjusted so that it becomes more obvious where players need to go.
  
  • “Thank You, Come Again” has received gameplay improvements to spawns, civilian and suspect AI, objectives, collision, performance, and visibility.
  • “Twisted Nerve” has received gameplay improvements to spawns, civilian and suspect AI, objectives, collision, performance, and visibility.
  • “Relapse” has received gameplay improvements to spawns, civilian and suspect AI, objectives, collision, performance, and visibility.
  • “Neon Tomb” has received gameplay improvements to spawns, civilian and suspect AI, objectives, collision, performance, and visibility.
  • “Ides of March” has received gameplay improvements to spawns, civilian and suspect AI, objectives, collision, performance, and visibility.
  • “A Lethal Obsession” has received gameplay improvements to spawns, suspect AI, objectives, collision, performance, and visibility.
  • “Greased Palms” has received gameplay improvements to spawns, civilian and suspect AI, objectives, collision, performance, and visibility.
  • “Sinuous Trail” has received gameplay improvements to spawns, civilian and suspect AI, objectives, collision, performance, and visibility.
  • “The Spider” has received gameplay improvements to spawns, civilian and suspect AI, objectives, collision, performance, and visibility.
  • “Valley of the Dolls” has received gameplay improvements to spawns, civilian and suspect AI, objectives, collision, performance, and visibility.

IMPROVEMENTS

• If you are running mods, there will be a new “safe launch” option in case any existing mods are crashing the game.
• Overhauled all suspect and civilian AI: This has been done across all levels to make them feel unique to each situation. There are many new details that should allow the AI to appear more intelligent, as well as some unique tells that may give players insight into a situation before they spot any threats. Some of these include:
  
  • Suspects making less noise upon hearing the player, opting to try and surprise players
  • Suspect repositioning in combat to take up unexpected angles or corners of rooms.
  • Civilians surrendering more easily, and occasionally surrendering when suspects are within sight (depending on the level).
  • More sensible changes to decision making when it comes to surrendering, fake surrendering, fleeing, or initiating combat.
  • AI flinching reactions have been improved: AI can still return fire and move while lightly flinching, and can move while heavy flinches are playing, but cannot return fire.
• Optimization Pass: Many levels have received a pass on their optimization, which should result in a solid FPS on most hardware. Other optimizations include:
  
  • Game size has been slashed in half from almost 100gb to ~60gb.
  • Improved settings efficacy: View distance will now cull objects correctly. This is still a work-in-progress, but there are some improvements made.
  • Dynamic shadow improvements and reduction: Reduced the number of dynamic shadows on some levels, and where appropriate changed these to spotlights, which are generally more ideal for performance.
  • Visibility culling pass: Many levels have received a large visibility culling pass to improve FPS in areas that are dense with meshes.
  • Note that optimization changes are ongoing and there are still many improvements to be made.
• Ammunition Overhaul: Ammunition has been updated for all weapons, and numerous bugs have been obliterated in the wake of this new set of changes:
  
  • Slug rounds for shotguns will now penetrate most surfaces, as well as up to level 3 armor. They will also ricochet more.
  • Buckshot and some other rounds will have a chance to severely dismember targets.
    • Players will not be able to arrest a suspect/civilian missing an arm or arms.
  • Some rounds will now have a higher change of causing arterial bleeds.
  • Fixed issue where some weapons had the wrong ammunition tag, causing it to use default penetration values.
  • Re-balanced the damage and armor penetration for each ammunition type to make them more logically consistent and each round more uniquely purposed.
• Armor Improvements:
  
  • Armor is now more consistent in gameplay. Incoming rounds will be blocked based on the direction the player is facing, not their 3d model.
  • Ceramic now has higher durability, but can still break and loses effectiveness with repeated impacts. Don't get blasted by a shotgun.
• Penetration Overhaul: We have now made several significant improvements, including:
  
  • Bullets will do less damage depending on the amount of energy left in the round (eg. shooting through several sheets of plywood will reduce the bullet damage)
  • Flesh is now less easy to penetrate so JHP rounds are more likely to function as intended.
  • Shooting an enemy through two legs used to do the same amount of damage as the bullet made two different impacts on the same target. Now, it will do reduced damage on the second (and third) hit.
  • A large number of bugs related to penetration have now been resolved, as well as several large oversights to do with materials that could not be penetrated.
• Overhauled Loadout Menu: The new loadout menu provides more insight into item selection, less nested menus, and a simpler way of navigating around different areas.
• Ready Up is now done through pressing “Y” by default.
  
  • Players no longer need to stand in a specific area, and can be anywhere in the station when readying up
  • A majority will start the countdown timer
  • If all players ready up, the timer will cut down to 10 seconds before starting
• Chemical Agents Improvements: Rebalance, redesign, and refactor of the chemical-based weapons and tools in the game to be more fun and in-depth. Chemical Agents refer to all chemical-based weapons and tools and grenades in the game: CS Gas, OC Balls, Pepperspray.
  
  • AI will attempt to flee areas that are affected by OC.
  • AI will stumble and move away from OC when hit by it.
  • Suspects that are pepper sprayed can still shoot you, but are blinded.
  • CS Gas will seep out of open doorways and around corners.
• Fine tuning of “stress” system: allow for positive feedback loop when playing using less-lethal weapons. Suspects (on levels where appropriate) will be more likely to hesitate at low stress levels. Stress increases as more firefights and other loud noises occur.
• Use of Force Continnium (aka RoE in-game) has been made more lenient for hostile situations.

KNOWN ISSUES

• We noticed some issues with localisations for the French, German, simplified Chinese, Czech, and Korean language updates and are still diligently working on a fix which will be included in the upcoming hotfixes
• Changing language requires game restart
• The mission end screen upon death currently prevents the player from spectating their SWAT AI
• Comprehensive language expansions for Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Turkish are due to temporal constraints not included in the 1.0 release but will be included in the upcoming hotfixes

Stay tuned to Pro Game Guides for more Ready or Not content. In the meantime, you can visit our article on All Grenades and Tactical Devices in Ready or Not game.