Greetings Runners! The past months we’ve been hard at work in preparing for the PlayStation VR2 launch, parallel to the next content update for After the Fall, and today’s the day! Let’s start off with an introduction to the newest member of the hardware family.
Playstation® vr 2
The PSVR2 headset brings extra levels of immersion to VR, with haptic feedback in the dual sense controllers and the headset, a 4k HDR display and a 110° field of view. PlayStation users who have owned ATF digitally for PSVR1 can play the PSVR2 version on their PS5 at no additional cost, and continue with their progression as long as they play from the same PSN account.
Please note that this free upgrade is unfortunately not available for those who own the PS4 Frontrunner Edition on disc.
New players jumping into After the Fall on the PSVR2 for the first time will be able to cross-play with other platforms (Meta, Steam, Viveport, Pico), but also choose to limit their matchmaking to PSN-only.
We’re also offering the exclusive Road Warrior skin exclusively to PS users who purchase the game during the PSVR2 launch period of two weeks (which includes a 15% launch discount!). This is also available to existing players that have upgraded from PSVR1 to the PSVR2.
And for new players looking for something extra, a Deluxe Edition is also available that includes some digital bonuses as well as the Ultimate Buster Weapon & Player skin. (And again, for existing Runners, PSVR1 Deluxe edition items automatically carry over when playing the PSVR2 version.)
For the record: The PSVR2 version is not hardware backwards-compatible. This means you cannot play this PS5 build using the PSVR1 headset and its available controllers, even if you own a PS5.
To the runners carrying on the journey onto the new platform, we hope the improvements enhance your ATF experience! And to those joining for the first time, welcome to the frozen apocalypse.
all platforms
The Descension Update brings version 1.8 to PlayStation, Meta Quest & Rift, SteamVR, Viveport, and Pico. Included in this update are fixes and changes (listed below), and two brand-new Harvest Maps: Subway Station and Hospital, and a new Quick Play matchmaking option. This update also addresses some chipset configurations and the crashes on Horde Mode that occur after wave 30.
content
Available in the Enlisting machines are two brand-new Harvest Runs!
Harvest run – Subway Station
All aboard! Make your way through the underground subway tunnels of Los Angeles and clear out the Snowbreed infestation! Keep your head on a swivel as they will come at you from all directions in the darkness!
Harvest run – Hospital
Fight your way through the Hospital Harvest site before delving further and deeper into the city underground, where even more hordes of Snowbreed await you on the bottom of the abyss.
Quick Play
We added an additional way of matching up quickly together with other Harvest Runners. Pressing “Quick Play” from the enlisting machine in the lobby will start matchmaking the player with other Runners for any harvest level. The difficulty will be selected based on the most appropriate difficulty level for the player and the difficulty level below that. This level is based on the highest difficulty that the player has completed all levels on.
Example: Let’s say Jimmy has completed all Harvest Runs on Master difficulty, but only half of them on Nightmare; he’ll be added to the Quick Play matchmaking pool for all maps on Master and Veteran, but not for any Nightmare runs or higher.
In the announcement of this content update last year, a new weapon was teased, but unfortunately we had to cut this from the Descension update. Understandably, this will come as a disappointment to Runners that were looking forward to it. The decision to remove it from the update was a difficult, but necessary one in order for our team to stay on schedule for this release.
Bug fixes, Items & Progression
- Fixed that enemies get consistently stuck in Horde Mode past wave 30-40+, preventing players from progressing
- Fixed issue causing Frozen Pool chipset for Shotguns to be applied on each pellet instead of a shell, which caused a high chance of ammo return
- Fixed Chipset Insta-Kill showing as absurdly high damage on the score screen
- Fixed Min-mag chipset stacking damage, but never resetting
- Fixed an issue that added extra ammo when swapping guns with the frozen pool chipset between hands.
- Fixed issue causing players to lose their weapons when using manual grip mode when the host leaves the match
- Fixed various exploits related to the armory
- Fixed issue causing weapons to stop shooting, but the ammo counter still going down
- Fixed Donut Skin not being properly unlocked
- Fixed Neon Yellow skin not being tracked or unlocked
- Fixed Wrist devices being disabled after adjusting ammo belt
- Fixed shotgun visual glitch: shotgun partially inside the player hand
- Chipsets are no longer refundable
- Adjusted safe-room in Downtown to prevent players from locking themselves in and out
- Fixed bug that could cause the game to become stuck at face scanners
- Fixed bug where the party would load into the intro level if this was selected by the host from the Armory
- Fixed issue in Downtown where Failing the level while in the green fog effect would cause the effect to persist
- Fixed exploit for gaining harvest via hub armory
- Fixes to transition to menu; void effect now active
- Fixed issue that caused shockwave device to be fired by shaking your head
- Fixed Downtown zipline often gets players stuck in the floor
- Fixed that Chipsets can no longer be bought when there is no weapon on the stand
- Fixed floppy disk at the start of Relay Tower to not be lootable
- Visual tweaks to the dot laser sight
- Several art fixes in Downtown Level
Balancing
- Shotgun recoil balancing reduction
- Reverted Tommy Gun Recoil to what it was before
- Tweaked Pump Shotgun auto Slide Time to what it was before
- Lowered all Last Stand damage multipliers
PS5 / PSVR 2
- Support for the PSVR2 cross-play version of our game
- Support for PlayStation Network Sessions and Invitation feature; players will be able to join each other quickly and easily
- Players will be able to start missions or levels through the activity card menu from the PlayStation Home screen
- Exclusive Skins that can be unlocked on PlayStation platform: The Road Warrior Player skin, the Buster Player skin and Buster weapon skin
Chinese platforms
Improved networking connectivity for players in China
And that covers it for this update! The team has worked really hard to get ready for this new platform, while simultaneously pack in some fixes. Launching updates can be quite stress-inducing, but always exciting, and we’re looking forward to see new Harvest Runners join the veterans already fighting snowbreed in our snow-trodden Los Angeles. Please don’t hesitate to let us know your thoughts in the meantime over on our Discord channel, where we’ll be happy to catch up with you on the updates, and your reports on any issues you may encounter
Until next time, stay frosty.
TamTu | Community Manager