Attention Espire Agents!

Developer Digital Lode and Publisher Tripwire Presents are proud to announce the immediate availability of our v1.11 "New Recruits" update on Steam. Espire’s 11th major update delivers a suite of improvements for newcomers and veteran Espire operatives alike!

There has never been a better time to experience Espire 1: VR Operative.

Improved VR Device support
This update includes native support for Meta Quest 3 and Meta Quest Pro. To make the most of the increased visual fidelity and compute power of these newer headsets, we’ve done an uplift pass to the game. Espire 1 now features higher quality assets, effects and rendering features. As part of this work, we’ve also done a polish pass of the game’s Campaign and Virtual Challenge Missions.

We have also finally ensured correct compatibility with the HP Reverb G2. We apologize again for breaking support for this headset in our previous update. We did not have a device on-site to test with so were trying to add support speculatively.

This update also includes a host of input + orientation improvements for all supported headsets.

Visual Improvements
Espire 1 now features higher quality assets, effects and rendering features. These improvements scale across every single supported device. As part of this work, we’ve also done a polish pass of the game’s Campaign and Virtual Challenge Missions.

Removing Competitive Exploits.
We’ve addressed various exploits that allowed some players to obtain cheat times on the leaderboards. As part of this work, we are now removing these ‘unobtainable’ entries from the various leaderboards across the game.

A note on "Controller Bindings".
We have made several updates to the official "SteamVR Controller bindings" for Espire 1. We recommend that you use the "Default" bindings supplied by Digital Lode. If you experience control alignment / input button issues, you may be using a custom community binding. Follow this guide for instructions on how to ensure you're using the default bindings.

Known issues & What's next for Espire 1
We are aware of the following issues with Espire 1 and are working on fixes.

• If playing Espire 1 using SteamVR, when you use the 'artificial crouch' button to make the Espire unit crouch, the HUD will incorrectly lower out of view. This issue was already present in the game before this update.
• If playing Espire 1 using "Meta Quest Link", the controllers in-game will look like the Meta Quest 2 controllers, even if your Meta headset is not the Quest 2.
• If playing Espire 1 using Rift CV1 or Rift S and SteamVR, the headset will be reported as a Quest 2. To workaround this, please ensure the Meta Link app is the "Default XR Runtime" and close SteamVR.
• In the "Gameplay Settings" menu there is an option to 'swap left and right thumbsticks'. This option is broken.
• When using the HP Reverb G2, the 3d models of the controllers do not line up with your real world controllers. There is a discrepancy of ~3cm.

We hope to include these fixes in our next "1.12" update - scheduled for May 2024. This 1.12 update will include various AI feature improvements, and will coincide with the launch of our first ever Espire 1 paid DLC; a series of challenge missions set in 2 new environments. We will share more news in the coming weeks. Share your Espire feedback and join the community at https://discord.gg/EspireVR

Thanks!

LODE + Tripwire

Full Release Notes for Espire 1 v1.11 "New Recruits" update.

VR Hardware support

• Espire 1’s XR device Initialisation logic has been completely rewritten to better support existing headsets and more easily add support for devices that may be released in the future.
• Espire 1 has been updated to support Meta Quest Pro and Meta Quest 3
• Official support for HP Reverb G2 has been added. Previously support was implemented by Microsoft / HP with a custom binding. Please note: Reverb G2 users may need to ensure they're using the "Default Bindings" that we have created. See notes above.
• Improved grip orientation / weapon alignment for Valve Index and HTC Vive controllers.
• We have added support for Quest 2, 3 and Pro users via "SteamVR Link"
• We have fixed an issue where the grip alignment for the E1416 Rifle and various shotguns was incorrect on all supported VR devices.
• Additional logging is added to the game to make it easier to add support for future devices in the future

Visual improvements

• NPC guards now have much higher resolution meshes and higher quality BPR materials applied to them on the Quest + PC platforms.
• NPC support staff including IFA scientists and security staff now render with higher resolution meshes and higher quality BPR materials.
• Mesh + shadow resolution has been increased for many assets throughout the game. Key meshes include primary weapons, Espire cradle units, cradle panels, cradle podiums, doors, large Espire Batteries, Pallets and other common environmental cover.
• The Hand-mounted “HandCam” and throwable “RemoteCam” holographic camera feeds now have a higher resolution and refresh rate, depending on the current Quest device you are using.
  Espire 1 now renders more spent bullet casings and empty weapon magazines on all platforms.
  The holographic waypoint that guides the player to their next objective renders at a higher resolution on the Quest platform.
• The User Interface across the title renders at a significantly higher resolution.
• The User interface across the title has been scaled down and repositioned - much easier to read and navigate.
• Various Scientist, security and support NPCs have been added to the main menu environment.

Audio Improvements

• For NPC soldiers, a significant amount of previously unheard lines of dialogue have been added.
  There are now various versions of the main menu background music that will play.
• Fixed an issue where an NPC guard’s spoken dialogue may not “slow down” when the player slows down time using Espire Instinct.

Gameplay improvements

• Automated Turrets will now trigger a combat alert the moment they detect the player. Note that the automated turret at the very start of mission #1 Espire Labs is configured to not cause a combat alert when detecting the player.
• Security cameras will now trigger a combat alert far quicker than before and this detection time is again halved in Hard difficulty.
• Security camera damage logic has been re-written. It will now take multiple shots to destroy the camera. The lens is a weak spot, with a 1 hit destroy for any bullet - including tranq darts. Explosives and other ‘damage causers' are now able to damage security cameras. The player can only destroy a security camera with a tranq dart if the dart hits the camera's lens.
• The “venting” behaviour for all explosives in the game has been improved - with more random movement and hecticness, based on the explosive mass
• Green-variant explosive canisters have been removed from the game, replaced with red canisters.
  Blue explosive barrels are now red.

Game Content - Polish Pass

• All campaign missions have had a significant polish pass, focused on improving lighting & shadow quality, while addressing collision issues & rendering issues.
• More bodies of fallen IFA security staff and personnel have been added throughout the campaign.
• All 53+ virtual challenge missions have had a significant polish pass, focused on improving lighting & shadow quality.
• The Mitrata virtual challenge is now a ‘shared’ mission between PC and Quest platform with various fixes applied to the environment.

General Fixes

• Fixed a rare issue causing Espire 1 to crash on launch on some PCs
• Various animation issues for guards have been found and removed.
• Fixed an exploit allowing players to cheat in a virtual challenges.
• Fixed an issue in Mission 2: Reech Division where players are able to glitch through a wall and finish the mission early.

Misc Changes

• Espire 1 key art, launch splash screen and icons have been refreshed as part of this update.
• Added a 1.11 news page to the main menu.

Same as Omikron. Jagerhorn disappears from my character list every time I close the game. I then have to leave and rejoin Steam Community to get him back temporarily.

I have friend who has the same issue.

This is getting annoying.

• Playstyle; Half and half (part casual, part competitive)
• Main Agents: Larcin, Hans, Madame Xiu
• I have several hundred hours in the game, actively moderate the discord server and also help with the wiki when I have time.

I understand this application is a bit late to the party, so to speak, but I appreciate your time and consideration nonetheless.

April Update Preview
Agents, before we head into the weekend and close out the month, we wanted to give you a little sneak peek into upcoming changes that will drop with our next update in April. We’ll dive into two subjects that are pretty massive in how they affect the game: Sound Occlusion and NPC Behavior.

Sound Occlusion Rework
A massive rework of how we handle audio is dropping with the april update, enabling occlusion on a wide array of gameplay affecting sounds.

This affects everything from field upgrade chests being open to weapons being fired or gadgets being placed to differing degrees. For instance, you can expect to hear weapons better through walls than a chest being opened.

From a developer perspective, we now have full control on what we want to flag as “occluding” and what should not be, meaning a table in the center of the room won’t occlude a gunshot for instance, but a structural wall will.

This is something we’ll keep a close eye (and ear) on through the patch cycle to gather feedback and see how we iterate on it moving forward, but we are excited to roll this change and see how it affects your experience.

NPC behavior overhaul

There is quite a bit of new on how NPC operate this update, so let’s go through the new systems:

Item Awareness
You probably had a moment in the past where a NPC would stop near an intel and looked very suspicious. Are they hacking? Is it a player? These moments are fun, but they used to happen purely by random chance, a NPC deciding to walk there with no rhyme or reason.

This is no longer the case. NPC can now know where they spawn items and NPC with a high internal “Suspicious” rating will hang around them within interacting distance to better approximate a player’s behavior and blur the line further between players and NPC.

Running Ratio based on gameflow
How much NPC run overall will now be affected by the current state of the game. Running will be more rare in the early game and much more present in the extract for example, scaling as the action ramps up to fit the pace of the game.

Reaction to danger zones
The fear effect on NPC is dictated by what we call danger zones. A danger zone is generated around the shooter and where the shot lands. In the past, these zones were both the same side and would not account for occlusion by walls or floors. This could lead to afraid npc giving away a fight from very far, causing more third parties.

Now, we support different danger zone sizes and we can occlude the danger using the same flag we use for sound occlusion, making the aggro of npc more predictable and closer to what you can hear. This should limit weird situations where NPCs two floors above a fight are afraid if a bullet lands near the top of a wall below for instance.

We will be unveiling more changes and additions you can expect in April very soon, including more map changes, gameplay tweaks, bug fixes and a few other surprises.

Attention Espire Agents! We’re proud to announce the release of our latest Espire 2 “Boundaryless” update!

This update is a small one but aims to address the **#1 issue** players are experiencing during Mixed Reality play - the guardian boundary. This update removes the guardian boundary during Mixed Reality gameplay, and will restore the guardian boundary when you play our Virtual Reality content (Campaign, Co-op missions, Espire Ops, Weekly Challenge).

We know this update has been a long time coming. Espire 2 is a ‘contextual boundaryless app;’ it's a game which includes both VR and MR game modes. During VR gameplay (Single Player Campaign, Multiplayer Campaign, Espire Ops, Weekly Challenges) the guardian boundary is required, but during Mixed Reality gameplay, the guardian boundary actually blocks players from being able to reach the extents of their rooms! This is an issue for all contextual boundaryless apps with both VR and MR modes and while workarounds do exist to disable the guardian boundary, they are cumbersome and complex.

Thanks to the team at Meta, we have the ability to now support the “contextual boundaryless” feature in Espire 2 and the game will disable the Guardian boundary when in MR and re-enable it in VR.

Current issues under investigation
We are aware of the following issues with Espire 2 that we are actively working on fixes for:
- When playing the MR experience, if the player presses the "Abort Mission" button, the player may be asked to return to their guardian boundary.
- After playing MR mode, if the player then plays a VR game mode, there may be performance issues in some VR levels. A workaround is to close the Espire 2 game and launch it again, playing the desired VR mode.

We will hotfix the game to address these issues as soon as the fixes have been tested.

Thanks for your support!
We hope you enjoy the latest Espire 2 "Boundaryless" update! We invite you to join our discord at https://discord.gg/EspireVR where you can find Espire co-op buddies , weekly challenge competitors and share your thoughts and feedback directly with the developers.

Cheers!

Category: Animation
Reproducibility: Always
Summary: Due to the slow animation of ADS shots, Hans is forced to shoot without using the front sight
Description:
I don't know if this is a bug or not, but it is a very critical point. The animation of Hans's ADS shot ends exactly at the moment when he can already fire a follow-up shot. Due to the specifics of the animation, this does not allow you to use the front sight of the weapon to hit the target, forcing you to either artificially reduce your rate of fire by your own, or shoot while trying to roughly estimate where the center of the screen is. Speeding up the animation will fix this problem. Perhaps it will be better clear what I mean in the attached video
Steps to reproduce:
1) Join the game in single or team mode as a Hans
2) Try to shoot as fast as possible at his ADS
3) Pay attention to whether in this case it is possible to use the front sight of the weapon for aiming

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Category: Code
Reproducibility: Sometimes
Summary: Sometimes the UI does not display information about collected field upgrades, key cards, amount of ammo, amount of intel and health (always displayed 100 HP, although this is not the case)
Description:
I remember this bug from the beta days and, despite the fact that it appears much less frequently, it is still in the game. It is impossible to know what exactly causes it, but whenever it happens, it happens from the very beginning of the game, as if the player somehow was incorrectly loaded into the game with this bug. However, the death and resurrection of the player can fix this bug, as will be seen in the attached video

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Category: Code
Reproducibility: Sometimes
Summary: Taking damage while teleporting on Madam Xiu may cause the player's camera angle to change
Description:
This bug was previously fixed, but it seems to have returned with a recent update. Taking damage while teleporting to Madame has a chance to cause the player's camera to tilt. Repeated teleportation does not fix the bug. The bug can be fixed when taking damage, as can be seen in the attached video (unfortunately, the moment the camera tilt changed after teleportation was not included in the video)
Steps to reproduce:
1) Join the game in single or team mode as a Madam Xiui
2) Use your expertise while taking damage
3) pay attention to the player camera angle

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Category: Code
Reproducibility: Sometimes
Summary: Guards shoot at players when they shouldn't
Description:
I noticed that the guards sometimes shoot at me when they can approach me and when I have no heat. This is especially clearly visible in the attached video (and unfortunately this bug was one of the main reasons for my loss here), the video was recorded on March 22 - after the release of the first phase of Operation Overhaul. It also feels like guards sometimes shoot at players if they simply jump while running while on the same level. I don't really know why it works this way.

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Sorry to necro, but I can't find this map anywhere. Does anyone happen to still have it and mind uploading it somewhere?

Archimedes5000 said:

Speaking of macros (I mean that's what 90% of the post is about), what is the issue an why would anyone use them?
Other than full auto and maybe charged melee auto-release I don't see any point in having them, and both of those are pretty harmless.

Click to expand...

It was originally for the first weapon of Larcin as he had a pretty high firerate but you had to single fire. The gun now seems to shoot a bit less frequently, but I still think that having a full auto option would be nice for him.

Category: other (translation)

The Night Hunter title has a wrong french translation: "Chasseur nocture" instead of "Chasseur nocturne"

Octo is great, his character build is exceptional but his Expertise selection and Weapons are awful. For a character who costs 1500 credits, he deserves a lot better.

The damage output on all three weapons is poor, especially outside of ADS. A lot of characters can get away with not needing to aim to kill players, but with such low rates of fire and damage Octo needs to work twice as hard to get kills in the same way as Cavaliere and Madame Xiu.

On Pulpi, it takes AT LEAST 10 body shots to kill a player. This, coupled with the slow rate of fire makes firefights difficult and boring. the ADS allows you to keep firing, yes, but it isn't worth aiming down the sights when you don't get a damage increase or better accuracy in this scenario.

The spin cycle on Nautilo sucks I get the overheat function stops players from firing 300 rounds of fury at any given time, but its slow build up time and weak damage means that players aren't afraid to go toe to toe against you like they should be. There should at least be an option to turn on the spin function so you can prepare in case of a gun fight.

Calamari is the best option and in my opinion the easiest weapon Octo has to use. Being fully automatic is great even if it has terrible DPS and the ADS is super strong.

The only Expertise worth using is Cash Out. On the House is essentially a waste of a slot compared to hack trap and Make 'em Fold doesn't work when you have full intel.
Here are my proposed changes for primary fire weapon damage.

Pulpo: 10 -> 15/20

Nautilo 5 -> 7/8 + option to turn on the spin cycle early

Calamari 6 -> 10

On The House - Allow it to drain intel AND COVER.

Make 'em Fold - Make it drain intel even if your intel or gradually drain their cover.

Just played a game as Larcin with E1. Not sure what caused the interaction, but I was using a drone when an Octo shot me and was using his E3 to neutralise me. After I managed to get out of line of sight to use my E1, I found afterwards that it was instantly possible to use it again with no CD. Don't know exactly what could have caused it. Also this is my first time posting/visiting here so I'm not sure if this is already known or not.

There is a Memory leak in the game when you search up users to add i was just sitting in the menu minding my own business watching a streamer. Play Deceive inc i went to add him while he was still mid game..an Bam froze my game/PC went to task manager its displaying Deceive inc is using roughly 25gb of memory in the system i then closed the game proceeded to Re add the user an once again froze my whole system an 95% of system memory being allocated to deceive inc unsure if the game is just over using resources because its searching for many users or what but yea i can still reproduce the issue many times...not a big deal but yea RAM Hogger!

What game is it you are having issues with?

I'm glad Resilience got a nerf because I always preferred Symbiotic Health anyway, even when playing Combat Medic. Having a bigger HP pool benefits you at all times, while having resistance tied to your current health is much more annoying to maintain the optimal threshold and puts you at a much bigger risk of dying to burst damage. Don't have to even consider Resilience anymore.

125HP happens to be a really good breakpoint for Suicidal mode too. FP's can hit for a maximum of 61, so having 125HP allows you to survive a second direct hit, which can mean the difference between a wipe and barely scraping by.

I like playing Combat Medic fairly often though, particularly when there's another medic taking care of the heals and I can focus on zeds instead. My setup is LRLRR, foregoing Acidic Rounds in favor of a damage buff from my grenades to beef up my Medic Missiles. So my Medic isn't completely selfish, the team still gets a damage buff from my heals, arguably the most important of the three. Since I also rock the HM501, that's fifteen "stim" grenades I have for a damage boost on command (and for crowd control if I get swarmed, the bulk of them I use to help hold a door choke), particularly handy when fighting FP's, as the Medic Missile is scarily effective against them.

Change Acidic Rounds so that it affects all forms of Poison damage (grenades, missiles, Healththrower, Minethrower, etc), not just darts, and there'd be more of an argument for it. At present, it's only worth using with the Incisor.

I think Gunslinger and Sharpshooter are different enough that both are, for the most part, equal. Gunslinger is only redundant if you're playing it purely for headshots, which seems unnecessary considering the deep ammo reserves, movement speed, and the Bone Breaker and Knock Em Down perks. Sharp is my stand-still headhunter who earns his wages on decaps, meanwhile Gunslinger is my run-and-gun limbshooter focused on body shots rather than headshots (RRRRR), and it works well.

IMHO, SWAT is the weakest perk at the moment considering how resistant most ZEDs are to SMG damage. The G36C resolves this critical weakness somewhat, but the weapon still doesn't fare very well against Scrakes or Fleshpounds because of the relatively low output compared to the HRG Nailgun or Kriss. Survivalist was once the weakest perk but the option of self healing with Medic Training, healing nades, or taking the left side perk that increases reload speed with the HM501, makes a Survivalist virtually unkillable unless they get cornered. Commando is way overpowered at present because of the HM501 as well, endless self heals on demand and their perks even boost the poison damage. If any gun needs a nerf, it's that one.

When a live update goes out, some things are not fully updated such as this until a full client update is released at a later date.

It was hard sell at a guard room beside one of the smaller vault entrances. I'm not very familiar will the letters that go with the vault terminals, but it was weird because I could still attack but I could only be attacked by melee attacks from guards (this was before operation overhaul)

I really think the Kaiju landmark in the Gulf would be a great way to introduce a second DLC and if you go underneath inside of that portal it'll take you down to the deeper parts of the ocean allowing bigger badder more prehistoric enemies and things and we could also make it where to make it even more realistic your health slowly goes down kind of like in the radiation zone and there's a second set you can get that reduces that and makes you even more of a prehistoric shark like truly turning you into like closer to megalodon style it could be really nice a lot a lot of potential with that gate to Cthulhu door

Mr Trickle said:

i think we should get more of the standard shark types too would be nice to see more options maybe even a store with in game currency earned through eating special items in order to buy them

Click to expand...

It’s a good idea, to have more of a variety of sharks to play-as but this won’t change the gameplay as much. Players will still be swimming the oceans, eating and killing humans per usual. Unless, the devs can create new shark skins / evolutions which mimic a new species, e.g. Atomic Evolution which looks like a Hammer-head Shark via Truth Quest DLC. Rather than creating a whole new shark from scratch, though it’s a good idea.

You just gave me an idea.

A Saltwater-Crocodile will be more ideal, as it is a land and water reptile. This will allow players to play on land and in water, giving a slight difference in gameplay! Rather than the Shark, spending mere seconds on land. Additionally, this gives players exploration on land, maybe the devs can create battle tanks etc to take on the mutated Croc. Take the (2018 film): Rampage as an example, giant crocodile attacking a city, having its own type of mutation and evolution just like the Bull-Shark in Man-eater. As for its mutation it can breathe in water and on land. Aside that, perhaps the Croc can have its own story-line and DLC.. Here’s the link and reference:

Feel free, to tell me your thoughts.

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Operation Overhaul Live Balance Update
Agents, we are dropping our first live balance update for Operation Overhaul effective immediately. This requires no download from your part and will automatically take effect in-game.

Our current mindset with this update is to keep the most oppressive and unpleasant elements targeted by feedback in check while we continue parsing through feedback for larger overarching changes in the future.

With all this said, let’s have a look:

Damage Falloff
Damage Falloff is one of the biggest changes to DI’s sandbox this update and as such, we are monitoring feedback, analyzing numbers and taking a deeper look at where it should go next. While we are having a larger look at the mechanic, we still wanted to make full-auto weapons more lenient in the meantime as this was highlighted by the community as the most difficult aspect of this new reality.

• Changed start distance on falloff for full-auto weapons 10m => 15m

Guards Behavior
We are aware of player’s frustration around the amount of guards that can quickly crowd around a duel when guards are in melee only mode. We are reducing the amount of guards actively attacking you when you have no heat to one. This should help reduce the chaos when you add this up to all participants in a fight by cutting the aggro-ed guards by half.

• Max amount of actively aggro-ed guard without a heat level 2 => 1

Agents
Ace
Ace received a slew of changes around her passive and we noted a large amount of feedback that the charge now feels clunky because of when it starts when shooting your weapon. We’ll be looking at this in a more in-depth manner in the near future, but we wanted to give Ace players a bit more charge speed to offset this in the short term.

Weapon
Queen of Diamond

• Charge time shortened 1s => .65s

Jack of Diamond

• Charge time shortened .45s => .3s

King of Diamond

• Charge time shortened 1.3s => 1s

Chavez
We received some good feedback on the fact that a tight ammo economy is not a fun gameplay lever, we are moving away from this on two weapons this update, including Chavez’s Duke by giving him a full clip per box.

Weapon
Mod 2: Duke

• Ammo amount gained per box raised 2 => 4

Larcin
In the same spirit as Chavez’s change, we are giving a more lenient ammo economy to Larcin’s Violence to allow it to shine more as a unique option in his arsenal.

Weapon
Mod 2: Violence

• Ammo amount gained per box raised 4 => 8

Expertise
Grande Finale continues to be a very strong tool for Larcin and his team. We are making its cooldown longer than his other options for now to make its use a bit more of a commitment in a fight, but we are looking at fixing a few issues around its potential interactions that makes it stronger than intended in the near future.

Mod 1: Grande Finale

• Cooldown extended 60s => 75s

Red

The oppressiveness and strength of Red’s charm and heartbreak has been a hot topic of discussion recently. We are taking steps to make the ability less annoying to play against while making sure it’s still a useful tool in Red’s arsenal. We are also toning down the Lovebite shotgun which has been highlighted as the most destructive tool in Red’s arsenal in its current state.

Weapon
Mod 2: Lovebite

• Damage 40 => 37
• Fire Rate 1.15 => 1.05 shots per second

Charm

• Reduced Charmed duration 8s => 5s

Heartbreak

• Heartbreak Duration 8s => 6s
• Heartbreak additional damage now in line with vulnerable status effect 35% => 25%

Squire
Squire’s javelin is in a special position with the release of Operation Overhaul. While it’s one of the weapons that is most affected by recoil in the current state of the game, it’s performing extremely strongly for anyone that can control it. We will look into making the weapon less unwieldy in the future since this is beyond the scope of a live update, but we need to calm down the speed at which it melts opponents in the meantime to level the playing field

Weapon.
Mod 1: Trident

• Damage 11 => 10 per bullet
• Burst fire rate 10 => 9 shot per second
• Headshot Damage 15 => 14
• Reload Speed 2s => 2.2s

Maps
Hard Sell

• Fixed a close player spawn on top of the Auction Hall

Fragrant Shore

• Buffed ‘drawers spawn pools’ to have items more consistently.
• Fixed a keycard spawning behind a bed.

Sound Eclipse

• Buffed ‘drawers spawn pools’ to have items more consistently.
• Tweaked some close spawn points in the habitation section.

Known Issue: Due to the nature of live balancing, visual feedbacks on ammo pickup will display the old amount of ammo until we roll a client update in the future. This will affect Chavez's Duke and Larcin's Violence ammo pickup prompt in the meantime.