Hello, I'm Dongsoo Oh, the Creative Director of Blackout Protocol. It's been a while since the 0.12 version update, which featured numerous content updates such as the addition of character passives, new Synaptic Enhancements, and general adjustments to game mechanics. Our development team has been working feverishly since the start of Early Access, and we feel now is the right time to pause, reflect on the game’s development history and current state, and take a fresh look at our current roadmap. Our team is deeply committed to addressing direct player feedback first and foremost. So, in the process of re-examining our current plans for Blackout Protocol's future, we've come to the conclusion that there are some core issues with the game that we need to address as our next, most urgent priority. Or, to put it another way: Blackout Protocol is due for some much-needed renovations that, until now, we've been putting off, either because they require altering the game's core or a significant investment of time. Therefore, we've decided to conduct a cleanup of the game's foundation before piling on more content. We believe this will help make our development processes a bit more efficient, and shorten the amount of time it takes to deliver new content to you with strong confidence that it’s fun. For these reasons, we’ve decided to place a temporary freeze on our current roadmap, particularly the addition of new content, and prioritize the following instead:

• Tightening up character movement and controls[list]
• Enhancing the basic playability and feel of core controls, including movement, rolling, weapon switching, and firing.
• Improving the usability and placement of items and objects throughout the game’s maps.

[*] Adjusting the overall tempo of the game[/*]

• Introducing players to the game’s unique elements gradually and with a more graceful on-ramp.
• Refining some aspects of the game that were originally designed a bit quickly or haphazardly, such as the cost of weapons, the placement of supply boxes, and the quantity of items obtainable from supply boxes.

[*] Game design improvements related to the Panic Gauge[/*]

• Cleaning up aspects of how the gauge is triggered, which currently differs between players and enemies
• Clarifying how the Panic gauge interacts with light or dark areas in the game, and ensuring we’re communicating that relationship to players effectively.

[*] Enhancing essential features for single-player mode

• Looking into various changes related to pausing and resuming gameplay.

[*] Balancing weapons and weapon/Synaptics categories[/*]

• Addressing some basic usability issues with certain weapons
• Improving game balance between weapon-types and Synaptics categories.

[/list] We aim to implement the above by the end of the year. Additionally, we’re looking into the trigger conditions and difficulty levels for certain map variants. Finally, we’re looking into addressing various inconveniences players have reported encountering during co-op in Squad mode. If you've been following Blackout Protocol’s development closely so far, you can probably understand that a lot of these changes have been needed for a while. We’ll be pushing any update that can be applied in isolation directly to the live game as quickly as possible, so please keep an eye out for more info. Our entire team will be working hard to complete these core improvements and resume the development of new content as soon as possible. Sincerely, Dongsoo Oh