Black Forest Games has released the first of four major patches for the Steam Early Access build of Fade to Silence that addresses the difficulty of the game. With today‘s “Hope“ update, the developers not only added a big overhaul to the weather effects, but also the first part of their so-called “catch-up mechanism“.

The catch-up mechanism is a system which allows players to collect special shards that increase their abilities, even after you have lost all six lives and have to start over.

These shards come in four different types. Every three shards of the same kind you collect will permanently boost one of your character’s stats. This bonus is permanent and will stay with you even after the last flame of hope has been snuffed out, and you start anew, helping you delve further and further each time. Each shard only needs to be collected once across all playthroughs.

Your current progress can be viewed in the new Unlocks menu, which also contains a teaser for the upcoming reincarnation skill circle.

Unfortunately, though, the game still suffers from major performance issues. As you can see below, Fade to Silence pushed our GTX980Ti to its limits. Our graphics card was unable to offer a stable 60fps experience at 1080p. And no; the game’s visuals do not justify these high GPU requirements. Of course this is still an Early Access game but we believe that we should point out these performance issues.

Here are the key features of this first major patch for Fade to Silence:

Added Features

• Refuge Stash accessible from anywhere in the camp by radial menu.
• Refuge Stashes and Fire Barrels in every building the player can place.
• Added a new Shelter close to the Outpost in the Flats.
• Added some Minor POIs and encounters.
• Collectible crystal shards and relevant menu implemented. 
• Added support for multiple keyboard layouts. 
  If no custom key assignment exists then a default key assignment for the current keyboard layout is generated every time the game starts up.
  If a custom key assignment exists then, the player must first go the Key Assignment section of the Options screen and hit ‘Restore default’. 
  The keyboard layout can be changed in Windows while the game is running. A new default assignment can be generated by hitting ‘Restore default’ in the Key Assignment screen.
• Notification messages are displayed when Followers switch to a new task providing feedback to the player about what they are doing or if they went to rest state.

Optimization

• Cleansing waves now use asynchronous overlaps. 
• Options screen: added cloth quality settings under ‘Video’. 
• Grass/tree shader and LOD optimization.
• Objects dropped by the Eclipse will be less expensive CPU-wise. But it’s still able to kill you! Heads up!
• Slight optimization of the Inner Vision.
• Optimization of the landscape shader.

Changes

• When cleansing a Nest, we now have a cutscene for the wolf recruitment.
• Removed confusing guidance beams on Gathering Areas and POIs.
• Loot has been balanced for smoother progression.
• Updated events objective texts for better consistency.
• Spitter projectile reworks – If a projectile hits the player it will drop to the ground before him, dealing minor damage. 
• Small improvements to the status widget (Construction Resources and Amount of Resources).
• Small changes in construction and upgrade Mode (e.g., also missing Resources are displayed).
• Construction overhead info now shows all the workers assigned to it.
• The worker selection screen for Crafting and Construction now show the required resources and the success estimation.
• Crafting menu and Unlocks menu can now be accessed directly from the main radial menu.
• Improved visual/auditory feedback if worker assignment fails due to the worker being in an expedition or incapable.
• Pick-ups, Loot, Dead-To-Be-Revived follower, removed/moved when overlapping a new placed building.
• Polished navigation at the edge of the refuge.
• Combat now auto locks-on single monster upon melee attack if there are no other monsters nearby

Bug Fixes

• Fixed: Invisible collisions left over by the big tentacles after getting cleansed.
• Fixed: POIs now disappear correctly from the map when looted.
• Fixed: Most monsters now awake by being too close to them, if they are supposed to awaken.
• Fixed: Tabbing from the inventory to the stash and vice versa now also works by just clicking on the tab. The item will also be selected.
• Fixed: Birds spawning during blizzard and blizzard build up.
• Fixed: Campfires spawned by hut not giving heat.
• Fixed: Monsters not dropping loot correctly.
• Fixed: Cleansed nests glowing in Inner Vision.
• Fixed: Discovered shelters disappear from the map.
• Fixed: Inconsistencies on how outposts icons are displayed.
• Fixed: Outposts not correctly blocking visual snow effects.
• Fixed: Issue where containers did not provide the expected amount of resources.
• Fixed: some minor POIs to spawn loot and/or have an encounter.
• Fixed: some unreachable loot placement.
• Fixed: some map exits.
• Fixed: 2s freeze on the intro Ripper.
• Fixed: Ripper getting the last hit before he dies. 
• Fixed: Resources tooltips are now shown for higher tier gear.
• Fixed: The blizzard’s slow movement effect is applied inside shelter. 
• Fixed: Not possible to use “ESC” to leave Construction menu. 
• Fixed: deer resource (loot) were increasing if you leave/enter the zone again. The current set of loot items of a deer is now saved/restored. 
• Fixed: some animal reserve locations should not be treated as spawn locations.
• Fixed: Random crash in construction mode. 
• Fixed: Clock not being shown in Refuge overview menu in some circumstances.
• Fixed: Compass icons not being updated when riding the sled.
• Fixed: button hints not respecting current input device on various popups and menus.
• Fixed: buildings not getting finished despite enough resources in the refuge stash.
• Fixed: Tab buttons in the inventory not responding to mouse clicks.
• Fixed: Tabbing left or right in the inventory menu not working correctly with gamepad.
• Fixed: Player being able to assign a worker to a crafting/construction task, even if they are incapable or in an expedition.

Known Issues

• Region names, player feedback about follower activities, some mission names, some reworked interactibles, and new or reworked menu items have not been localized, will show up in English.
• In rare case, Rhys event may break.
• Razing a building in the construction menu destroys the building but doesn’t remove the construction site.
• In rare cases and certain hardware types game crashes while exploring the third outposts map area.
• In rare cases the follower may be un-revivable.
• The equipped arrows are lost after loading the last saved game.
• Corrupted area may still be present in a specific location in the Flats.
• In rare cases Outpost “respawn” position saved while the outpost is still corrupted.
• An FPS drop is experienced in certain systems throughout the ‘Overview’ section when there are too many entries in the event
• Dismount the sled is triggering “player is resting” message
• Countered Spitter projectiles still spawn bulb below the player
• In rare cases the Crusher can remain stuck in a specific location 
• Unable to damage the Hellvines with the bow and arrows
• Storage_Stack of arrows cannot be stashed if there is another stack equipped
• The game becomes unresponsive if “ALT+TAB” combination is pressed during the loading screen
• The “LS”, “B” and “A” controller pictograms are displayed in the “Available workers” tab when using a keyboard and mouse as input
• After re-spawning the equipment disappears from the character
• Upgrade element partial visible if you select an build that you can’t upgrade and you press several times button “A” / key “E”
• Upgrade element is not correctly displayed if you select a building that you can upgrade (half transparent)
• Firebarrels and Campfires in buildings don’t have the correct camera when you interact with them 
• The Spitter becomes unresponsive after getting hit by an arrow from a long range
• In rare cases followers may be flagged as “resting” when the building they construct is far away
• The Rusher is not responding when it is attacked with arrows by the PC from a distance