AreaZ
Update 0.37.001 Leathers
Left Hand Pickup
Leather Processing
Fireplace
Boat
Animal senses
Clothing spawning
Left Hand Pickup
Now you can pick up items from ground until your inventory is full.
So if you hold coconut in left hand and you decide to pick up a bamboo, coconut will be moved to inventory and you will hold bamboo in left hand. This works until inventory is full.
Right hand prefers items dedicated for right hand - such as tools and weapons. Those will be not replaced - so you will be f.e. still armed with gun in right hand, when picking up items.
Just try it and play.
There is one issue - if you hold torch/flare in left hand - it will put torch in inventory as well and so extinguish it. I will prevent this in future update.
Leather Processing
Animals now drop RAW leather. For clothing you will need dry leather. To dry it - use Leather Frame.
It is build from Construction Step2 (tripod) + 4 small bamboo + liana.
Then just put the raw leather on it - same way as you put food or wood to fireplace.
It will dry if there is no rain and the sun intensity is high.
Fireplace
There is change in fireplace. To start fire - you will need to put stick in fireplace first.
You will be NOT able to light fireplace containing wood, crates etc. only. Once burning you can keep fire with wood, crates, bamboo or even palm leafs.
Boat
Adjusted the boat movement,
The forward swing has been adjusted - so it should look normal. It was swinging too much - did not realized it as I have played it on very old pc.
The boat left/right rotation now has momentum and is smooth.
Animal senses
There was a wrong number for sensing distance. Now player can be sensed on longer distance even when covered by dirt.
Cloth spawning
Clothing spawn in boxes should be fixed now
Thank you for your support! Please do not forget to review the game - it helps a lot!
Please report all issues on our discord:
https://discord.io/areaz
I will be also pleased to answer any questions.
Juraj Bachar
Game Creator
Update 0.37 Clothing
Hi, we are adding major mechanics dedicated to clothing.
Various clothing now can be now found on map. So go explore it.
Additionally to that - some clothing can be crafted from palm leafs or animal leather (dropped when skinning large animals). Also you will need needle from bone and some liana.
Backpack can be found on map as well. Starting inventory size was lowered to 10 slots and equipping backpack will give you additional slot space. When dropping it to ground - those slots will be lowered to default ones and inventory items from those slots will be stored in backpack on ground.
So you can use the backpack as stash as well.
IMPORTANT: Previous Savegames might have issues with lowered inventory and will not spawn clothing/backpack.
I plan to add improvised backpack as soon as I have its 3d model.
In inventory a "Clothing Showroom" was added, where you can see your character dressed up and equip/remove clothing (backpack is equipped automatically).
I plan to add some more functionality:
- improvised backpack
- raw animal skin
- leather stretcher
- more clothing
- showroom character rotation
As this update was done really quickly, I have decided to improve the game graphic to current standards. So it can utilize new RTX cards. I have already done some Raytracing test on RTX3060 and the results are promising. Also It will allow me to increase the density and variability of small foliage - like grass, ferns or reeds.
For those less fortunate, I will make possibility to downscale those parameters in game Video Settings.
Upcoming Updates:
- RTX and foliage upscale
- Barricading
- New map Inland Summer 2021
- New map Mountains Autumn 2021
Thank you for your support! Please do not forget to review the game - it helps a lot!
Please report all issues on our discord:
https://discord.io/areaz
I will be also pleased to answer any questions.
Juraj Bachar
Game Creator
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Update 0.36 Guns
Hi, introducing firearms mechanic to the game! This is really a game changer as survivor becomes hunter instead of prey.
Included firearms are:
- Revolver
- Shotgun
Plus corresponding ammo a and ammo boxes.
More details:
- to shot from gun, hold gun in right hand, aim first with right click, then fire with left mouse click
- pressing left mouse without aiming will result to melee attack
- to reload hold gun in right hand and ammo in left hand and then press R
Also:
- Ammo is very rare
- it is not possible to shot/reload from rowboats or rafts yet
- repeater gun will be available on next map as it too much op for the first map
- holding shift when firing revolver will result to "cowboy style speedfire"
- you can not sprint while aiming, shooting or reloading (same goes for bow, spears or boomerang)
- crouch had to be switched off. Even the mechanic is working fine - the animation I have available for crouch shooting look strange and need to be replaced
- camera placement during shooting will be improved in separate camera update
Tents
A pack-able tent has been added. Tent can be packed and so easily transported within inventory and raised on desired place same way as shelter. Similar to it it provides environmental protection from cold and rain. Tent can be shoot thru with guns.
Important:
For those, who are using older version savegames - guns and tents will be not spawned, as they do not exist within them. There is one exception for revolver, that can randomly spawn within "washed on beach" boxes after completing main missions.
Please report all issues on our discord:
https://discord.io/areaz
I will be also pleased to answer any questions.
Thank you for your support
Juraj Bachar
Game Creator
************************************SPOILER**************************************
Update 0.35.005 Shooting
Hi, smaller but important update. This update is necessary to fully implement incoming Firearms in game:
- fixed some issues when bow pull animation played on other weapons
- fixed some issue when character could not move after firing a projectile
- adjusted bow aim yaw (left right). The pitch up down will be adjusted as well later.
- added proper collisions handling especially for rocks and cliff, that prevent player to place basebuilding structures nearby them.
- added dedicated collision channel for firearms shot, including the physics material detection (shot will play different effect when hitting sand, dirt, grass, water)
also:
- replaced crocodile sounds to deeper scary ones
- reduced volume of initial drum music in main menu
Work in progress (WIP) on Firearms (just dev version):
Firearm items:
- revolver, repeater, shotgun,
- revolver bullet, repeater bullet, shotgun bullet
- revolver ammobox, repeater ammobox, shotgun ammobox
Weapon mechanics:
- holding, aiming, shot (plus cowboy shot for revolver), reloading bullets (according to gun capacity)
- damage to animals
- visual effects on hit
Would be glad for your feedback. Please feel free to join our discord: https://discord.io/areaz
Thank you for your continuous support!
Be safe!
Juraj
Game Creator
Horses Preview
HI,
been working hard on horses for the last month. And want to show you some preview.
Important: Horses will be available ingame on incoming map "Inlands" in late 2021. Therefore there was not an update lately. The currently available first map design is not suitable for horses usage, so players might get wrong impression or being even frustrated if I did so.
Horse mechanics are quite complex and must be incorporated to others game mechanics as well.
They act as animals and simultaneously as "vehicles". Also they allow full interaction, eating, drinking and crafting when mounted on horse. To it character can give orders to horse - to follow, stay or free roam.
Here is video preview, hope you like it.
[previewyoutube="cKgejpc1kxA;full"]
Thank you for you support!
Juraj Bachar
Game Creator
Update 35.004 Outline
Hi,
Just smaller update - highlighted item is now outlined by item quality:
green: 75% and higher
dark green: 50% and higher
yellow: 25% and higher
orange: 1% and higher
red: ruined
I am simultaneously working working on animal companion - horses, firearms and clothing system. Those should be available on spring 2021. As well as on UE5 transfer preparations.
Please join us on our new discord to get help, news or gave feedback and suggestions:
https://discord.io/areaz
Best regards and thank you for you support.
Juraj Bachar
Game Creator
Update 0.35 Crafting Menu Reworked
Hi, reworked the crafting and mission look in inventory menu. I planned to do this later, but a lot players were complaining that it looks too complicated on first sight and not common to other games.
So I have used the free holidays time to make it look much more simpler.
The actual crafting mechanics is still the same - combination of item in left hand, item or tool in right hand, and item the character is standing nearby.
Now the crafting area in inventory menu is expanded. Crafting and Missions Tabs were added - to switch the view between them. Later a "Clothing" tab will be added - displaying the character and clothing slots.
The crafting shows available and all recipes, where:
1) Available show recipes that can be done (if having enough calories)
Underneath it shows similar recipes that can be done but some item is missing.
Similar recipes will not more include recipes showed above within available ones.
2) All shows all recipes. But now they can be selected by categories showing recipes only for eating, drinking, weapons, traps, basebuilding etc.
I will also try to sort them more logically, starting with most common ones.
I hope this will bring much better overview for the players.
Missions Tab:
The missions have been slightly changed as well. You can see Active and Completed missions.
There was some issue with leveling up too fast, this was changed.
Also you can complete the mission without it being assigned. (No need to craft something just for the mission, if you have already done it).
IMPORTANT:
Please keep in mind - this is still under development and I am testing mostly the layout and mechanics.
I plan to hire artist to make nice graphic prior the full game release.
The same goes for translations to other languages as a lot of texts were added.
Doing it now and after each change would be not efficient and highly costly.
Therefore i would like to ask you for your understanding and patience.
Next I would like to continue to work on main mechanics such as horses, firearms and clothing.
Also I plan to introduce game discord soon, so you can directly give feedback, get help or chat/voice with me if you have any issues or would like to propose an idea.
Thank you very much for your support and feedback.
And wishing you all a better 2021 year!
Juraj Bachar
Game Creator
Update 0.34 Boats and Rafts
Hi, Boats and Rafts coming into AreaZ to allow you to travel easily thru swamp and lake.
Even boats were not planned first when I started to created the game, I have decided to implement them in. Now the become a vital part of survival especially in swamp areaz.
[previewyoutube="6w-hPDS2ZoE;full"]
Boat is spawned and can be found in swamp. To move the boat, player needs to have paddle in right hand, while having the left hand empty.
Paddle can be found nearby boat or crafted from wood with knife. It is not a primary recipe - so you need to do it thru inventory.
To enter boat just stand nearby when other loot is not highlighted. You can enter by pressing "F" by default. To disembark boat - press by default "X" key.
(Please note the disembark "X" key has replaced the sitting input. To sit or stand up in "Z" key now assigned)
On boat you can also perform other actions - pick up items from water, craft, eat, drink, drop items or even build. Just use the crafting menu, or hold "F" for primary crafting recipes.
There might be some minor issues. F.e. when lighting fire (torch, flare) it will not light up. Better said it will immediately extinguish as it touches the water line during animation.
The shooting does not yet work when sitting on boat - it is planned after firearms will be added.
You can also build raft within 2 steps.
1) take wooden pile to each hand and look on swamp or lake water (will not work with stream or ocean water). Press "F" to craft , if you have enough calories.
2) Then place the raft on water using "Num Ins" or "Num0". You can also rotate it with numerical controls.
3) Take liana in right hand, and another wooden pile to left hand, and while watching on raft press "F".
4) Place the final raft on water using "Num Ins" or "Num0". You can unlock it with " num/ " and rotate during this step as well.
Enjoy the trip!
Thank you for your support!
Juraj Bachar
Game Creator
Udpate 0.33.008 Food and Hydration Changes
As some players do not comprehend, that a hardcore survival game requires to care for food and water resources and they just give bad reviews, I have made following changes.
Player Stat on Spawn per each difficulty:
1) Eden - Full Food, Full Hydration
2) Hard - Half Food, Half Hydration
3) Hell - No Food, 250 Hydration
Done some fixes to boomerang, now it should better detect collision, especially with terrain. Same goes for bird falling from sky to ground after being hit. Boomerang is currently intended to hunt birds and will be expanded to hit other animals later.
Also I have changed the game to newest stable version of Unreal Engine 4.25. This will help to switch to announced UE 5, which should be available next year.
I had to remove some underwater ambient life, as it does not work with new particle system,
Therefore I will not address following due to heavy changes between UE4 to UE5, until new engine is settled: particle systems, water environment, sky sphere, clouds.
New engine will help me to make new volumetric clouds, water system (ocean, pond, river) and sky. Also particle system will need to be redesigned.
Currently I am finalizing the boat and raft mechanics - which may be available even next weekend within a major update.
Next planned mechanics are: horses, firearms and clothing.
Thank you for your support!
Juraj Bachar
Game Creator
Update 0.33.007 Base Placement and Missions
Hi - thanks to very successful months I got a lot of feedback from players.
So following is updated:
- Missions
- Basebulding Placement
- Fireplace
- Spawn Zone Small Stones
- Loading tips
- Survival Index
- Fixes
Missions:
Missions now will be completed regardless if they are active and assign or not.
No more need to redo same action if mission becomes active later.
Basebuilding Placement:
Fixed issue with placement tool was not active when placing basebuilding item.
Now you can freely place items like fireplace, shelters + upgrades, and traps, rotate and incline them within 20meters radius. Use numerical keyboard and Num Insert to place it. When upgrading shelter - use Num / to unlock its position. All keys keybindings can be customized and shown on Key Map displayed on right
Added new features for fireplace placing:
- fireplace can not collide with trees now
- fireplace will remove most of middle size plants as fern, some grasses and plants.
I will test this functionality and added it to rocks, small grass and plants later. Also other items might receive this functionality as well.
Fireplace:
Fireplace fuel socked where moved aside. So now highlighting fireplace should be easier.
Small Stones:
Small Stones spawn depends on player distance. This shoul prevent stones to be spawned just in distant area(z).
Loading Tips:
Loading tips where added to screen when loading game.
Survival Index:
Survival Index for each player is now saved to Global Leaderboards
Fixes:
Done a lot of small fixes. ADS during swimming is now ignored.
Thank you for your valuable feedback.
Juraj Bachar
Game Creator