NUCLEAR NIGHTMARE V8.1

Nuclear Nightmare v8.1 Update

Hey everyone,

With Halloween coming up, we’ve added something new to watch out for at night: the Bat. Keep an eye on the rooftops and maybe don’t wander off alone...

v8.1 also brings reworked night vision and plenty of fixes based on your feedback from 8.0. I’ve been working on combat, weapons, interactions, and multiplayer issues as we continue toward 1.0 through the 8.x updates.

Happy Halloween!

We’ve added a new enemy: the Bat.

• Bats appear around buildings at night, hunting by sight and sound.
• They circle and swoop at players, including players riding snowmobiles.
• They’re fragile enough to kill with a single shot, but their attacks are instantly lethal on Nightmare.
• After killing a player, a Bat can carry the body into the air before dropping it.
• Bats are disabled by default through the world settings.

Infected players and dogs have had more work.

• Infected players and dogs now roam, investigate sounds, respond to flares, and attack powered generators.
• Improved their patrol routes and pursuit, with smoother turning for infected players.
• Added rare nighttime infected-dog encounters around facilities, with limits on how many can appear together.
• Improved dog bite animations so they reach the player’s body correctly, including when crouching.
• You can now look around during a dog’s lethal attack animation.
• Fixed damage handling for infected players with friendly fire enabled or disabled, including bodies that become infected after death.
• Fixed defeated infected bodies restarting because of delayed actions.

I’ve made another pass on attacks and grabs.

• Added a short reaction window before paired grabs and brief protection from another grab after release.
• Added clearer preparation movements before several enemy attacks.
• Fixed interrupted attacks leaving movement or camera controls locked.
• Improved recovery when a teammate kills an enemy before its lethal hit.
• Corrected close-range stopping distances and improved repositioning around nearby obstructions.
• Fixed canceled or rejected attacks being treated as successful.

Weapons and crouching should feel more consistent.

• Tap your reload key to reload, or hold it for half a second to unload ammunition back into the correct reserve.
• Added unload animations and improved reload and unload sound playback.
• Fixed ammunition syncing while keeping firing responsive.
• Inventory ammunition numbers and bars now show the same whole-bullet count for the correct weapon.
• Reduced scoped sniper sensitivity to 35% of normal sensitivity.
• The flamethrower now applies its first damage pulse immediately.
• Reworked crouching with smoother transitions and more consistent multiplayer movement. You can also walk off ledges while crouched.
• Fixed the pickaxe killing human teammates when friendly fire is disabled. Fully transformed infected remain attackable.
• Fixed frostbite deaths failing to play a death animation.

Night vision and visibility have been reworked.

• Improved how your eyes adjust when moving between bright and dark areas.
• Softened bright lights and improved nearby detail in darkness while keeping flashlights useful.
• Updated the night-vision perk, spectator view, Mimic vision, and playable-enemy vision.
• Fixed windows showing a flat, unlit-looking view of the environment.
• Fixed enemies losing their skin detail and appearing uniformly white in darkness.

Keypads, levers, and a few UI details have been cleaned up.

• Keypad scans and lever actions can now be canceled cleanly with a button press.
• Fixed interruptions, death, and possession changes leaving players stuck in interactions.
• Keypad scan completion now lines up more closely with the hands finishing the action.
• Fixed clients occasionally missing successful keypad scan completion.
• Made the laser interaction bar larger, with a dark border and blue fill that is easier to see against snow.
• The map now closes using your configured keyboard or controller binding instead of always requiring M.

There are several vehicle fixes too.

• Fixed snowmobile engine audio stopping unexpectedly or becoming out of sync with the engine state.
• Improved getting out of vehicles and handling changes between seats.
• Fixed cases involving driver bodies and passengers during vehicle destruction or player disconnects.
• Snowcat runover damage now requires appropriate contact with its moving front or tracks.
• Improved enemy approaches to Snowcat doors.

Voice chat fixes:

• Fixed clients needing to toggle their microphone twice when first joining a match.
• Fixed microphones stopping after a player died while transmitting over the radio.
• Fixed losing radio-channel access after leaving a vehicle while still carrying a radio.
• The microphone indicator now returns when entering a new match with your microphone already enabled.
• Fixed a voice-nameplate crash during level travel.

Other fixes and optimization:

• Spread heavier AI pathfinding and tactical planning across frames to avoid doing too much at once.