Attention Officers,
Welcome the the 86th volume of our Ready or Not Development Briefing, May 30th, 2025.
Today we're going into more depth on the changes and content coming in the free Los Sueños Stories update; new weapon gameplay videos, teasers of the two new missions, and details about how NPC behaviors will change with the new difficulty system. It's been a week longer than the normal 4 week dev brief schedule, but we're back.
Our new lore series "Down The Rabbit Hole" recently launched too, see the first episode on our VOID Interactive YouTube channel!
Speaking of launches, the Ready or Not console release date announcement draws ever nearer. More to come on our socials.
Note: These development briefings serve to keep you in the loop about parts of our ongoing support for Ready or Not, however the briefings do not encompass everything that we’re working on at a given moment. Please keep in mind that the content in our development briefings may still be a work in progress and subject to change.
Down the Rabbit Hole: Episode One
The first episode of "Down the Rabbit Hole," a Ready or Not lore series on the VOID Interactive YouTube channel is now released! Hosted by our community's venerable RoN lore detectives/content creators, "Isaac Morgan" and "Shayne, Please Shut Up." Settle in and listen to their deep lore dive on the RoN mission "Thank You, Come Again." Make sure you like and comment on the episode if you want to see more episodes covering other missions!
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Initial Mission Reveals
Hunger Strike
Hunger Strike is best known as 'Fast Food' from its previous existence in our early access phase. A fan favorite even in its untextured blockout days, it’s now included in a polished state as part of the base game, benefiting from years of additional level design experience.
Pull up with your squad and bring order to chaos in this quick active shooter scenario.
(Image below: This restaurant will definitely pose a health and safety risk to your team)
Stolen Valor
LSPD SWAT responds to a search and rescue mission deep in 213 Hillside Rollers territory. This early mission is little known, just as the threats that lurk inside each level of this compact apartment building. The central staircase serves as an expedient means to traverse the floors as well as a flanking route for occupants.
(image below: This dilapidated building could qualify as a high rise, as far as the Rollers and decaying city of Los Sueños are concerned)
New Weapon Gameplay Videos
M32A1 Multi-shot Grenade Launcher
We're spinning things off with the M32A1 rotary grenade launcher. In this video you can also see the new magazine-check UI element for weapons with a rotary ammo cylinder (e.g. the .357 magnum revolver). Missions like Greased Palms will be a tad bit more manageable with this bad boy.
(Video below: M32A1 in action)
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The M32A1 uses the primary weapon slot on your officer's loadout, capable of firing either CS or Flash rounds. The primary weapon slot is a large commitment for this highly powerful piece of kit, but also means you can take something other than a grenade launcher in your long tactical equipment section. Still.. if you're feeling on a roll you can opt to carry two grenade launchers, the M32A1 as primary and a M320 as long tactical.
Considering the capacity, bulk, and gameplay balance of the six-shot M32A1, you can only carry a couple drums of ammo for this launcher.
MKV .50AE Pistol
Overkill, maybe, but with escalating threats and funds low, LPSD D-Platoon will take what it can get. Confiscated from a weapons shipment in a raid, this oversized 1911 platform can return to sender with the hulking .50AE caliber. Consider attaching the massive custom laser sight that came with this setup to bewilder your opponents further. No, it is not a scope. Yes, there is also a low-profile trigger guard mounted laser sight if you’re feeling plain.
(Video below: Better square up if you're going to be firing the MKV)
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TRPL Less-Lethal Pepperball Pistol
Fire your pepper-based munitions from this sidearm-sized package. Keep in mind how many magazines you may want to carry, though.
(Video below: The TRPL Pepperball pistol in action)
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590M Mag-fed Shotgun
Pump to chamber another round, swap to a fresh magazine for more. The 590M shotgun combines reliable pump action with easy reloading.
(Video below: The 590M feeds a full tube of 12 gauge shells when you need it most)
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Extended Suspect AI Behaviors
With the introduction of our difficulty system we are introducing a substantial amount of changes to Suspect AI. After in-depth playtesting and tweaking, including controlled playtesting that was accompanied with internal surveys and focus groups, we made many tit-for-tat suspect AI changes aimed at addressing feedback directly especially across difficulty levels.
An internal quality assurance team has been attached to our design department, spending months dedicated to testing through all of the Suspect AI behaviors that are currently in the game. This focused effort for the difficulty system has helped us uncover a lot of legacy code and inconsistencies with Suspect AI behavior.
Below are just a few highlights of the general changes, you will find a full list of fixes and changes when the LSS/ronsole update releases :)
Extended Suspect Squad Behaviors
Suspect Squad behaviors like Rally, Support, Attack, and Retreat were previously on seen on Dark Waters DLC levels. Squad behaviors will only be implemented on levels where it makes sense for them to be there according to the factions and mission details, and depending on the faction only some but not all of the Squad behaviors may be present. Professional suspects like those on Sins of the Father will utilize the full suite of Squad Behaviors.
The full suite of these squad behaviors are: Rally on leader, Support, Attack, regroup on ally/location, and Retreat.
On Standard difficulty mode, about half of the missions in the game (including all base game and DLC missions) will have Squad Behaviors newly implemented to some degree depending on suspect type. On Hard, every level except “Thank You, Come Again” will have the entire suite of squad behaviors present. On Casual mode, however, there will be no Squad behaviors present.
Extended Weapons Cache Presence
Weapons caches are now present across many more missions in the game where it may make sense. For those of you unfamiliar, these caches are placed around missions and allow suspects to arm themselves with weapons if they are unarmed. You can secure these caches to prevent them from being used.
Countless Tweaks, Fixes, and Quality of Life Improvements
Ever notice a suspect running at you with a melee weapon as if driven by an other-worldly trance? That may have been caused by their stress level raising continuously because the suspect stress system wasn't properly recognizing their melee as a weapon, instead treating them like an unarmed suspect who are more susceptible to stress gain. That weird hidden discrepancy and many others are gone now.
Suspects of experienced backgrounds with a capable weapon will now intelligently switch between semi-auto and full auto depending on their distance to the player. On harder difficulties this results on professional suspects delivering accurate fire that is hard for the player to pinpoint, as opposed to the long range spray-like behavior currently in the game. On certain levels like Sins of the Father, suspects may be even more deadly at distance than they are up close, encouraging the player to close the gap.
Suspects now have a more granular chance to exit their surrender state and pick up their weapon. On harder difficulties you may need more officers coordinating to watch surrendering suspects in order to keep them in check. The possibility, countdown time, and chance to occur is way more challenging on hard. Securing your downed teammates weapons becomes paramount, since with increased surrender exit behavior you may find your partner's Mk17 being used against you more often.
Conclusion
We know you're patiently waiting for the ronsole release date announcement to drop. Still, we're continuing to cook up some extra polish and fixes for the update. Not to mention a whole bunch other cool stuff. This summer is a big one for Ready or Not.
This concludes our 86th development briefing, thank you for joining us. Be sure to fall in next time for more development news!
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