You may have read in the Patreon "thank you" e-mail how you may receive a development update from us saying how something will never work, only to get another update mere minutes later saying how it is fixed. This has happened quite a few times. And it just happened to me with the WrathQuest "Return to Soul Tether" bug, which I cringe everytime I see on a YouTube video (and you are a gent for editing out Beardo!)
I won't lie... I was at my wits end with this one. The problem was that the issue was within the QC files, which are pre-compiled into .dat files pre-runtime, meaning that you can't debug them in any way other than printing something out to the screen or just commenting things out to see what happens. I actually was at the point where I was starting to think I would have to tear the renderer apart to find the issue or worse still, never find it.
And here is where I get to single out an oft-unsung hero within Team Beef, Bummser. Many of you have interacted with him as he tirelessly helps many users on Discord and around the web. His trailers are epic.
There is one part of his role that no one sees and is invaluable to us when we are programming: his testing and investigation into engine parameters. Often this is for performance, but also its to help with issues we see in the game. In this case, comparing with pancake Bummser realised the bug only actually occurred when you had died, a return to soul tether prior to that works fine. A subtle distinction for sure, but a key observation. Secondly, and this is where a keen eye can really make the difference, he noted that when dying on pancake, you still see the level, albeit slightly faded. On WrathQuest it was pitch black. Its the type of detail even Red would miss ("how often do you look at a man's shoes" - note to self, must modernise my film references - Auric Goldfinger and Shawshank in a single post!!). This was a guided missile to the offending code and within minutes I had found the culprit... the code means to completely desaturate the scene, which for some reason the slightly janky android renderer took to mean make the scene completely opaque.
So there you have it. Feel free to die at your hearts content knowing you can spring back to life at the flick of a button.
Controls:
Right Grip + Y = Place Soul Tether. Only one can exist at a time and you have a limited amount. You can create more when you find the white skull things.
Right Grip + X = View the load menu
This release also increases the viewmodel size (another Bummser discovery), so your hands don't look like a tiny child's anymore but instead that of the mighty Outlander.
-BaggyG