Welcome to our 83rd Ready or Not Development Briefing as of February 28th, 2025!
After years of honing the difficulty mechanics of Ready or Not, each player still has their unique preferences regarding the challenge level. It’s time for an update. Continue below to see how we’re developing a new difficulty system with ‘Casual’, ‘Standard’, and ‘Hard’ modes, and how we’re gathering and utilizing quantifiable player feedback to guide future advancements.
We were thrilled by your feedback on our previous dev briefing, which delved deep into our design philosophy for Home Invasion levels and the overarching game. This was particularly inspiring for those involved in our modding community and aspiring game developers! For those curious about our level design process, the latter half of this dev briefing dismantles our “Leviathan” mission from Dark Waters with insights from our Level Designer, Tisa!
Note: These development briefings are intended to keep you informed about elements of our ongoing support for Ready or Not. However, they don’t cover every project we’re tackling at any point in time. Please remember that the content in these briefings may still be under development and subject to alteration.
Our game’s difficulty has matured greatly. With our player base expanding and skills improving, it is time to refine the standard experience and provide officers with options to either ease into or intensify the challenge.
Introduce yourself to our evolving new difficulty system featuring modes: ‘Casual’, ‘Standard’, and ‘Hard’.
This is a meticulously refined mission-by-mission process that looks at a plethora of variables impacting Civilians, Suspects, and SWAT officers. This system is evolving and entering the testing phase, thus some elements might be adjusted, and not all potential values will be detailed presently.
Further information will be provided with changelogs upon the release of these modes!
Bear in mind that some achievements may require playing on particular difficulty levels, necessitating gameplay on ‘Standard’ or ‘Hard’ for their unlocking.
- ‘Casual’: Presents a more approachable or ‘casual’ starting difficulty for newcomers and those less acquainted with the genre.
- ‘Standard’: Delivers the quintessential experience for officers, designed to offer a fulfilling and diligent challenge. This is a slightly refined iteration of the existing game difficulty.
- ‘Hard’: Raises the stakes beyond ‘Standard’, focusing heavily on coordinated team dynamics and strategic decision-making.
Overall, these difficulty modes will tweak factors like response time, surrender likelihood, movement accuracy, distance precision, and much more. Specifically, for suspects, adjustments might include threat levels (stimulus processing, reaction times, factors affecting the Suspect’s ‘time to kill’ the player), as well as modifiers for traps, disorientation, engagement protocols, and squad conduct.
Since these difficulty metrics can be configured both globally and on a mission-specific basis, it gives us the flexibility to tailor difficulty according to the context of each mission.
For example, while we have the capacity to increase the maximum number of suspects in a mission, we may elect not to do so for levels that require a particular suspect count for narrative or gameplay purposes, opting instead to modify other aspects of difficulty.
Thank you for sharing your insights in the recent AI sentiment survey. We garnered over 13,000 responses within the days it was available! The feedback has been converted into internal documents and disseminated among relevant departments, supported by graphs and analytical commentaries for continued use as a rich resource.
The survey data complements our existing feedback from other social platforms like Discord.
We are implementing metrics to enhance our understanding of overall player activity (telemetry), gauging data such as the number of players on different DLCs, game versions, and player retention rates. This will enable us to more accurately assess the impact of our development efforts.
In this process, no personally identifiable information is gathered; all data is anonymized, mirroring our commitment to privacy prior to employing this telemetry.
Continuing our series of level design deep-dives, we’re revealing the inner workings behind Leviathan, courtesy of Tisa from our level design team!
In creating the “Leviathan” mission, we aimed to generate an experience significantly diverging from our typical missions while preserving the core gameplay DNA of Ready or Not. Our goal was to envelop players in cold, damp, ominous surroundings, akin to a steel vessel with immense ocean waves crashing upon it, far removed from the familiar comfort of the shoreline.
Rig HeavyWell A-101 marks the inaugural rig authorized to extract oil from the highly valuable reserves off Los Suenos’ coast. The quest for drilling rights, rig construction, and its operation have sparked considerable debate in Los Suenos since the early applications.
The eco-terror group UPF launched an assault on the rig, taking the workers hostage and demonstrating aggressive behavior with shots fired indiscriminately. Some crew members are injured, others killed. Multiple groups of hostages are herded across the rig.
The LSPD SWAT has been prompted to intervene as the rig falls under their jurisdiction due to an amendment to the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act Adjacent State Rule.
Once the level’s concept was finalized, our team conducted extensive research, collecting references on various offshore oil rigs, from diminutive to colossal.
In ensuring the environment and specific room functionalities are grounded, we studied the machinery and tools typically employed on offshore oil rigs.
(Images below: Examples of types of oil rig machinery)
The oil rig depicted in Leviathan does not mirror any specific existing design but combines intriguing rooms from different rigs.
(Images below: Examples of styles of rooms in oil rigs used as inspiration for Leviathan)
Among the various sizes of real-world oil rigs, Leviathan is inspired by the smallest type, surprisingly!
(Images below: Sizes and construction apparatuses of offshore oil rigs, including an example resembling the rig size in RoN)
The Rig is strategically designed with the primary drill tower centrally placed, and we intended to have at least two levels within the Rig, leading to the decision for a classic ‘arena’ style layout.
By using the main landmark as a focal point, I constructed rooms and passages orbiting this landmark, which naturally generated navigational loops for our AI to maneuver, flank, and operate optimally, thereby enhancing the desired gaming experience.
Having this central landmark aids players by offering a consistent orientation point, thus minimizing confusion or disorientation.
With multiple floors present, at least three staircases were incorporated to connect floors, enhancing gameplay diversity and averting bottlenecks in gameplay.
We also planned to showcase our new helicopter system, necessitating ample open areas for helicopter surveillance to spot and report suspect locations.
(Images below: Rig top-down level design layout)
This level provides three distinct starting points at various vertical sections, offering players a varied approach every time they tackle this mission.
The initial starting point is the Helipad; from the loading screen, players can observe their aerial arrival via helicopter, seamlessly integrating into their starting position.
Though the landing area may appear highly vulnerable at first glance, meticulous design ensures players are safeguarded from being targeted at the spawn zone. New recruits commence in the North-East section on the highest tier, expanding to both upper and lower levels.
(Image below: Helipad starting point, featuring the blockout version on one half)
The second starting point is the Bridge.
Players commence on a swaying bridge connecting the main rig to its smaller adjoining section. Here, players can access both the upper and lower levels on the North-West quadrant.
(Image below: Bridge starting point, complete with a mini blockout version photo)
The third starting point is the Boat Landing.
In the loading screen, players are seen arriving via boat, which transitions smoothly into this starting point. At this juncture, players are presented with a disturbing scene of workers hanging perilously from the lowest sections of the oil rig, swiftly signaling the seriousness of the threats. From this point, players can access the South-West lower levels with multiple directional paths available.
(Images below: Boat Landing starting point, with one image including a mini blockout version photo)
Gameplay on this map is predominantly focused on Close Quarters Battle (CQB) despite its scale, though it does offer corridors with extended sightlines. For the first time, we have integrated our Helicopter system which grants players an aerial camera view. The helicopter scouts any visible suspects or civilians on the periphery and illuminates them to facilitate their capture.
Given the arena-style construction of this level, threats may emanate from any corner.
We meticulously planned to ensure the primary target—a chamber densely populated with bound civilians watched over by several suspects—increases the difficulty of clearing the room without harming hostages.
(Image below: Before/after of one of the hostage rooms)
Aside from planning entry strategies and maintaining fire control for hostages, the map also incorporates high-pressure steam pipes that obscure sight upon being shot.
Additionally, environmental elements such as raindrops on the player’s vision and intensified visual sway effects near the rig’s circumference also come into play.
(Image below: A shot high-pressure pipe emitting vapor)
The objectives for this mission are as follows:
- Restore Order in Chaos.
- Rescue all Civilians.
- Terminate the Livestream.
- Disable the Rig Drill.
The core objective is halting the UPF’s livestream, located somewhere onboard. The primary objective location varies with each playthrough, and the livestream area is laden with restrained Rig workers taken captive.
A hidden task involves preventing the main drill from reaching dangerous overheating levels. Players may uncover this mission when exploring the drill room, which emits a conspicuous but (hopefully) tolerable siren throughout the level until completion.
Interactive elements (game components that respond to player actions) were integral in injecting life into this level.
Initially, we included a reportable dead body within player spawn regions to reinforce the notion that unlike the home invasion in our Lawmaker mission involving the UPF faction, the UPF in Leviathan exhibits more extreme behavior.
In addition, we introduced worker voice lines in restricted territories blocked by barricades in the crew quarters. These workers vocally react to any gunfire they hear.
Additionally, the control room features a radio allowing players to update COAST that Rig is seized by UPF terrorists and LSPD SWAT is actively responding.
Notably, a discreet keycard unlocks a computer in the fire control room, suggesting possible internal collusion with the UPF.
These interactives were purposefully integrated to deepen player immersion in the storytelling and furnish the level with Ready or Not’s signature environmental richness.
New challenges lie ahead for you to test yourself against, enhanced by developments informed by your present feedback. Together with improved telemetry data, we are consolidating the foundations upon which Ready or Not’s future support is built.
Now revitalized with new insights into Leviathan, relish the experience once more (further enticing with the ongoing Steam sale on our DLC for those, or lobby hosts, lacking the Dark Waters DLC!)
This concludes our 83rd development briefing. Thank you for your participation. Catch us next time for more development updates!
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