PEARS/PEARS 3

ATTENTION! This changelog contains information about a Patreon Early Acesss Rebalancing Session. Not all of these changes will make it into the base game, if any.

PEARS Session 3
Testing Period
10 6月 2023 to 12 6月 2023
Session chronology
Previous Session	Next Session
PEARS 2	PEARS 4
External Links
Original changelogs

Patreon Early Access Rebalancing Session Changelog

Session 3 - (10/06/2023)

This is a Public Document and, as such, may be shared freely outside of Patreon channels. Patreon Early Access Rebalancing Sessions (PEARS) are experimental testing sessions offered to Patreon supporters, ideally on a monthly basis. These testing sessions allow our Development teams to experiment with many things — from simple balance changes, to more complex overhauls. Not all of these changes will make it into the live game, if any. PEARS tests are often used to test highly experimental concepts, with often unpredictable (and fun!) results. Regardless, these sessions and the feedback gathered from them are essential to the proper balancing of SCP: SL.

If you’d like to participate in upcoming PEARS , you can do so by subscribing to the 'Major Scientist' tier or above on our Patreon, found at the link below:

Patreon Link

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For this session, we’ll be testing out a major overhaul to SCP:SL’s ‘early game’, with major changes to Light Containment Zone (LCZ). It should be large enough in scope that one might consider this to be the ‘Soft Overhaul’ of LCZ — a complete overhaul as to how the zone plays, without any major Level Design changes. Additionally, we've made a significant number of tweaks and changes to SCP-106, which includes some new sounds produced by our Audio team. This document contains a full changelog of this month’s PEARS changes. If you have any questions, feel free to ask within any Patreon Discord channel; don’t be afraid to ping a Patreon Representative, or an (active) Game Design member!

Thanks everyone, and here's to another successful PEARS!

- The Lord of Baguettes, on behalf of the Patreon Representatives team.

Light Containment Zone - ‘Soft Overhaul’

Our Game Design team is using this session to tackle the systemic root of a few of SCP:SL’s overarching problems — specifically the dependency on SCP-914, the lack of incentive to explore certain areas, and the inflexibility of the loot spawns throughout the LCZ.

First, let's review the first item on the list of things GD (Game Design) is fixing, which is the player's dependency on SCP-914. SCP-914 is one of the game’s most notorious choke points, with a large degree of reward for human players who can properly utilize it, making it a prime target for the SCP team. Considering the limited amount of loot present in the LCZ, SCP-914 is a necessity for most players who want to escape into the Heavy Containment Zone (HCZ), in addition to accessing the gates leading up to Surface Zone. To remove this dependency on SCP-914, a few more item spawns have been created, offering players with more alternative paths to escape.

• LCZ will now have more guaranteed item spawns that do not require an existing Keycard to obtain:
  • Smaller objects can no longer break glass, you'll need something heavier, such as a Radio or a Flashlight. A Guard Keycard will now always spawn behind the glass in VT-00.
  • A Janitor Keycard is guaranteed to spawn in either of the LCZ washrooms.
• Additionally, both the small room adjacent to SCP-173’s old Containment Chamber and GR-18 now require a keycard with ‘Containment Access Level 2’ to enter. As these rooms are considerably larger in size compared to other keycard-secured areas, an additional button has been installed to enable trapped players to bypass the keycard requirement and open the gate.
  • Both of these areas now contain a Research Supervisor Keycard, and will remain as possible locations for SCP item lockers.
  • Additionally, SCP-173’s old Containment Chamber has ‘malfunctioned’, and can no longer be opened. He will spawn elsewhere, the location of which will be discussed below.

By introducing loot that is more easily accessible, as well as additional cards that will allow players to escape to HCZ, it is hoped that players will have more agency over their individual role within a round. By creating more pathways and options, it is also hoped that Class-D will no longer be forced to simply ‘follow the Scientists’, as many currently are.

However, increasing the base loot spawns and escape pathways can only help so much. On servers with a larger population, there simply will not be enough loot to go around. If we were to add more to compensate for this possibility, servers with a smaller player capacity will have too much loot.

• As such, we’ve decided to implement a dynamic loot scaling system. Prepare for a little bit of math — apologies in advance.

When a round starts, the game will count the number of players present in a lobby, and then perform a calculation.

(5 x [PlayerVar]) +/- 10 = SpawnChance.

For reference, the “+/- 10” indicates a chance for ten to either be added or subtracted, adding an element of randomness to the equation. Additionally, the 'PlayerVar' variable is equal to the number of players in the lobby divided by two, with a maximum value of 18, and a minimum value of one. The 'SpawnChance' variable is used by the game to determine if certain events occur. To summarise a relatively complex system, if the SpawnChance variable is above a given threshold, a change will occur. Potential changes are listed below:

• Keycard upgrade thresholds:
  • If the SpawnChance value is greater than or equal to 60, all Janitor Keycards will be upgraded to Scientist Keycards.
  • If the SpawnChance value is greater than or equal to 75, all Scientist Keycards have a 30% chance to be upgraded to Research Supervisor Keycards.
  • If the SpawnChance value is greater than or equal to 85, all Scientist Keycards have a 50% chance to be upgraded to Research Supervisor Keycards.
  • If the SpawnChance value is greater than or equal to 95, all keycards have a 50% chance to spawn an additional copy of themselves. Additionally, if a locker has a possible spawn location in the LCZ, it will spawn there.
  • Finally, in the event that SpawnChance is equal to 100, all keycard spawns outside of the LCZ have a 60% chance to spawn an additional copy of themselves.

This will add a significant amount of loot on larger servers, creating a more balanced experience for communities that enjoy having players beyond the recommended 25 player cap. We hope that this will reduce the amount of rounds where large groups of Class-D will have little individual control over a round.

Additionally, to round out this overhaul, we’ve implemented some further miscellaneous changes.

• SCP-914 is inaccessible for the purposes of this test. This is a temporary change.

Developer Commentary:

We want to ensure that players are properly motivated to hunt for these new escape routes. As such, we’ll be disabling the use of SCP-914 for the duration of this test. This will limit the player's ability to gather escape-level upgrade cards within the LCZ, but some further adjustments to HCZ (see below), will further alter the flow of the game.

• Players may hold a maximum of one keycard by default. This limit is increased to two whilst wearing Combat or Heavy Armor.

Developer Commentary:

We want to prevent players (especially Guards and Scientists) from hoarding multiple keycards. This will help to ensure that there is enough loot to go around for everyone, as well as encouraging players to make decisions as to which keycard(s) to hold onto.

• The LCZ will now decontaminate after seven minutes have passed.

Developer Commentary:

With SCP-914 disabled, there is little reason to remain in the LCZ for longer periods of time. Expediting the LCZ's Decontamination sequence will encourage a much faster flow to the earliest parts of a round. Additionally, for those unfortunate enough to not find a Keycard, the automatic unlocking of the LCZ’s checkpoints just before Decontamination will offer an alternative exit strategy.

Heavy Containment Zone changes

Alongside the changes to the LCZ, slight adjustments have also been made to the HCZ. Most of the changes made here are with the understanding that SCP-914 will be unavailable.

• The Sergeant Keycards in SCP-106 and SCP-096’s Containment Chambers now use the following formula to determine which keycard they spawn as:
  • 50% MTF Sergeant keycard, 25% MTF Captain Keycard, 25% Facility Manager Keycard. Each Keycard is rolled individually.
  • SCP-049’s Containment Chamber now includes a new Keycard. This card follows the same spawn formula as above.
• Any naturally spawning Scientist Keycard(s) will now spawn as a Containment Engineer Keycard.
• Any naturally spawning Guard Keycard will now spawn as an MTF Private Keycard.

Developer Commentary:

Even with the removal of SCP-914, this offers an abundance of potentially new escape routes for players to take advantage of. It should be noted that in the event of the previously mentioned 'SpawnChance' result being 100, HCZ Keycards will then have a 60% chance of being duplicated — the duplicated keycards being re-rolled (for example, you may get a Sergeant and a Facility Manager Keycard in the same cell). Additionally, the Keycard in SCP-049 is notable for being the only one that does not require another Keycard to access, though there are dangers to getting it, as two SCPs will now spawn in SCP-049’s subsection.

And now, the one you’ve all been waiting for.

• SCP-173 has had a new Containment Chamber designed from the ground up. At the time of PEARS implementation, it is still a work in progress, but has large gameplay implications, earning its inclusion. SCP-173’s new Containment Chamber will be located on SCP-049’s HCZ sub-level.

See below for a map of the sub-zone that incorporates the new SCP-173 chamber:

Please note — the shown 'Guard Keycard' has since been replaced with a Keycard following the Sergeant/Captain/Containment Engineer spawn chance formula.

Developer Commentary:

Overall, moving SCP-173 to the HCZ has been one of our most positively received PEARS changes, from both the Patreon community and within the Game Design team. We hope that this new Containment Chamber will grow to feel just as natural and iconic as the original LCZ one was. We’ve also used this new room as an opportunity to expand upon SCP-049’s sub-zone, creating a space with more flexibility to manoeuver, with additional incentives to enter it.

SCP-106 balance changes

NOTE -

Despite these changes being included in a PEARS, the majority of them have been given full approval for introduction into 13.1. We wish to give our Patreons an opportunity to playtest these changes before they hit the live game.

• SCP-106’s Hume Shield now has a base value of 350 (from 300), with a maximum value of 750 (from 900). His health has also been increased by 200, now having a maximum of 2200.
• SCP-106 now emits a continuous breathing sound, audible to any player within seven meters of the SCP. This breathing noise cannot be heard whilst SCP-106 is stalking.

• SCP-106’s method of attacking players has been reworked, essentially creating a three-step process. As a baseline, SCP-106 has an attack cooldown of 1.5 seconds, and always deals 30 damage on hit.
  • Upon hitting a player without any of SCP-106’s status effects, the player will be given the Corrosion status effect. This will not teleport them to the Pocket Dimension, nor give a movement speed penalty. Corrosion lasts for 20 seconds, and deals 72 damage overall, including the initial attack's 30 damage.
    • Hitting a player who has neither Corrosion nor Traumatized (see below) will not restore any Vigor to SCP-106.
  • A player who is hit by SCP-106 whilst Corrosion is active is teleported to the Pocket Dimension. SCP-106 will then replenish some lost Vigor, if applicable.
  • If any player is fortunate enough to escape SCP-106’s Pocket Dimension and survive the Corrosion damage, they will permanently receive the Traumatized status effect. This effect will visually desaturate a player’s screen. If SCP-106 attacks a Traumatized player, they will instantly die.
• SCP-106 emerges from Stalk 0.6 seconds faster. He also descends into Stalk 0.6 seconds slower.
• SCP-106 now regains Vigor significantly faster. However, to replenish Vigor, SCP-106 must be considered ‘moving’, by our new Anti-Camping system. Effectively, the system forces SCP-106 to continuously move to regenerate Vigor. An image below outlines this system in practice.

Developer Commentary:

SCP-106’s soft rework moved him closer in the direction we wanted his playstyle to fit, but it had also opened up a couple of new playstyles that felt unfair and, most importantly, not fun. By creating a resource system as potent as Vigor, that had no catches to how it regenerated, camping with SCP-106 became a relatively prominent issue. These changes aim to make this style of play unviable, whilst generally tuning back SCP-106’s oppressiveness. SCP-106 remains an ambush-type SCP, but will now feel much more fair to play against. The prevalence of his new audio cue will prevent deaths in which players had no knowledge of SCP-106's presence, whilst also forcing SCP-106 players to be more creative with how they flank their enemies.

The decreased time to emerge from Stalk will allow SCP-106 to retain its potential to consistently hit players, but its new attack system will feel much less RNG-dependent overall. Additionally, SCP-106 will have moments where it is more vulnerable, thanks to its increased time to re-enter Stalk, and its reduced maximum Hume Shield.

• SCP-106’s Operational Guide (OPG) entry has been updated to match his new abilities. These new changes also represent an experiment from our team — to use the OPG as a tool to better inform players about how an SCP works.

Developer Commentary:

We’ve updated SCP-106’s OPG entry to be more descriptive. Please give it a read, and let us know your thoughts!

Addendum - Merged 13.1 changes

For this PEARS test, certain 13.1 changes have been merged into the build being used for this session. These won’t be given developer commentary; that’ll be saved for an upcoming Patreon post, as well as for the final changelog.

• The settings menu has been rebuilt.
• The ‘double-shot trigger’ shotgun attachment has been adjusted. It still deals the same amount of damage, but its overall number of projectiles has been reduced to 16 (from 24), all of which need to hit the target to achieve full damage.
• SCP-018 accelerates slower, but has a tripled velocity cap.
• Our physics system for dropped items has been reworked; it should now be more consistent for players with higher latency.