The Garden City Renovation Project has begun. Please see the below map with areas that should be largely unaffected.
Bases built in the green circles should be largely unaffected from large changes, but the other areas may change significantly, including height changes, buildings, points of interest, and more being added around the map outside of the main cities.
Points of Interest currently in development:
Prison
Observatory
Laboratory
Large Dam
Shipping Port
Multiple rivers
Lakes
Cabins, farms, campgrounds, and other small areas in the wilderness
All mountains are being redone to be more traversable, buildable, and more fun to explore with random points of interest
More small roads to the newly created points of interest
Random small caches and bases around the wilderness
I will be posting some snippets and sneak peaks in the coming weeks.
I've said in the past that I don't really fancy modifying the map players are playing on because losing progress is never fun, but at the end of the day, we are still in Early Access, and these changes are very much needed to continue pushing the game forward. The map needs to be a lot more fun to explore and feel much more alive and immersive, and this is the first step towards that goal.
Map making and environment building are by far my weakest skills at the moment, but I'm working on improving this skillset constantly. This transitions in to my next point: I am currently looking for anyone with experience in level design and world building to begin creating maps for DeadPoly. If you have experience in the field and are interested, please shoot me a DM.
Harsh Feedback Request
DeadPoly needs YOU! I am looking for harsh but actionable feedback on things DeadPoly needs to improve upon to make the game better for everyone who currently plays, has played in the past, or might play in the future.
The players of DeadPoly are one of my greatest resources, so I'd really like to grab some harsh feedback on where you feel the game currently sits, where focus should be directed to, and how you feel those changes would positively impact the playerbase.
While suggestions and feedback are always welcome, I'm reaching out right now to provide an open invitation to anyone who doesn't frequently provide feedback. I value your opinions and views on DeadPoly, and I'd really like to gather some additional information on where you feel I should spend a bit more time polishing or adjusting parts of the game.
Please be as specific as possible. The more specific your feedback is, the quicker it can be transitioned in to action and updates!
Patch 0.5.1
Additions
You can now queue stacks while crafting
Stack selector for crafting defaults to a max stack (Shift + Left Click to craft a stack)
Navigation for AI has been reworked to prevent performance dips during large save loads
Texture optimizations to increase overall performance
Networking optimizations to increase multiplayer performance
Many adjustments to world objects, player buildables, items, and more to improve general game stability and performance
Changes
Stamina costs for actions has been adjusted
Blurred vision from Pain effect has been removed
Save System adjustments to increase reliability and hopefully prevent corruptions from happening
Bug Fixes
Big Boy spawns again
Bunker stairs should be a bit more reliable
Shooting a dead player no longer resets the PvP timer
Patch 0.5.0
Additions
Many more of the building on Garden City now have unique interiors
Some of the locked areas around Garden City are now accessible with keys
More quests have been added along with Shay finally arriving (If you're having trouble with any quests, try abandoning and picking them up again)
New collectibles
Multiple new bunkers have been opened on Garden City
Kar98k, Model 12 shotgun, and Glock handgun added (many more guns coming in next update)
Bullets now leave behind hit markers and have particle effects
Sound effects added to some actions
Some new animations for things like drawing weapons (animations are always a work in progress!)
Vendors now restock every hourish, including on servers
Changes
Vehicles now have owners and cannot be looted or entered by non-owners in No Raid and PvE games modes
Vehicles no longer take damage from collision events until the vehicle system is more stable
Adjustments made to item respawn system, there should now be very little performance drop during item respawn pulses
Storm sound effects have been reduced by 75%
Adjusted multiplayer load distances for more reliable PvP experience
Adjusted footstep volume
Camera adjustments to lessen motion sickness (made the camera a bit less jumpy/jerky)
Added brightness to night time during weather events which decrease light such as overcast and rain
Power radius for Generators doubled
Many of the larger buildings on Garden City have had their ground loot numbers increased significantly (2-3x for some that were lower than intended)
Bug Fixes
Fixed bug that caused the final round of a weapon to deal significantly more damage than expected
Fixed issue with military drop chances being awful
Fixed multiple causes for the Salvager having invisible items
Fixed bug that could cause recently acquired items to be lost if kicked by host
Fixed multiple backend issues related to inventory management
Fixed movable UI menus popping to mouse position when double clicking on the menu
Fixed multiple pop up menus not closing when Escape is pressed
Happy Cake Day!
Three years? Not shot. Feels like just the other day I was sitting in my room playing around with what would become the first iteration of DeadPoly, but they say time flies when you're having fun I suppose.
The journey of releasing DeadPoly to the world is still hard for me to describe, and still feels like I'm in an episode of the Twilight Zone living the life I've always dreamed of. In so many ways, it's amazing after spending so many years daydreaming of being a fledging game developer to be sitting here typing this, but this journey also comes with a weight I'm carrying to not let everyone down. To not fail at providing the game so many of you have trusted me to get across the finish line. Every day I learn something new, or fix something that wasn't working, resolve and issue or bug someone has experienced, or implement new features and ideas in to the game, I'm one step closer to that goal and promise I've made to everyone who has joined in on this journey with us.
As we begin yet another year of DeadPoly, there's a lot of fun things nearing completion, as well as some less fun but needed things to push the game ever forward towards full release. Anyone who has been following the game for a bit probably knows I don't like spending an excessive amount of time making random content and usually favor spending that time on the work instead, that's definitely still the case, which is why the 3 year anniversary of the Steam release is just a wall of text instead of a bunch of fancy content. Sorry - but also, not really - I'm working on the game like crazy!
The next update is right around the corner which will finally start to give players a bit more to do and explore.
Systems wise I'm really hoping to get prone finished this year, along with greatly improving the vaulting / mantling system to allow the player to hop through anything you'd realistically be able to. All of the systems that are already in the game should be mostly rounded out and finished within the first two quarters of this year, and I'll start releasing information on the new maps and future plans for the game as well.
Getting DeadPoly on consoles is going to be a big part of this year, as I feel it will really help grow the playerbase and bring some of the PvP community back in to the game with a lot more people to play with.
Here's to another year chasing down this dream with all of you! Thank you for sticking it out with me.
Patch 0.4.3
Additions
Winter Holiday items have been added to the loot pools
Unlocked achievements now add random things to the main menu
Changes
Logout timer after engaging in PvP has been increased significantly
You can no longer build while flagged for recent PvP
Basically all loot containers besides the buildable safe are now lootable in PvP
Random containers like backpacks can now drop random items inside when they spawn
Controller trigger functionality has been swapped between left and right
Removed overscrolling on the interact menu
Bug Fixes
Military zombies should now drop more than a single bullet
More changes to backend systems to prevent Fatal Error crashes, thanks for reporting these, please continue to do so
Note - Sorry for the extended Halloween event, life gets crazy around this time of year! The next update has a lot of good changes and additions that a lot of work went in to between these two updates. Bummer that this update seems small due to the work not being released yet, but excited about the next few updates for sure!
Labor of Love Award
Hey Survivors,
It's Steam Awards time again. I'm normally pretty averse to advertising or promotions of this fashion, but enough of our amazing community has asked me to say something about it, so I figured it was something worth doing.
If you're willing, please nominate DeadPoly for the Labor of Love Award this year.
We are all very aware that DeadPoly is FAR from complete, and there's still a lot of things to be done, but I do feel like completely rebuilding the entire game from scratch in order to provide the best game possible to our amazing players is very in line with what this award is intended for.
I rebuilt the entire game solely because of my love for DeadPoly and everyone who has given their time to the game. Time is one of the truly limited resource we have in this life, and it means more than words could ever fully describe to me that your time has been spent on anything related to DeadPoly. Thank you! For real.
I'm also vividly aware that there are still quite a few in our community who aren't on board with the new version yet, and I promise you, I'm working on making sure there are in game options for those in the community who still miss the original (Legacy) version of DeadPoly. It just takes time, as most things do when being a solo developer, but I'm working on it.
DeadPoly Community Update #5
Hello again, Survivors!
It has been, according to my notes, way too damn long since I posted an update with what's going on with DeadPoly, so first and foremost, I'm sorry for that. For the players who don't hang out in the Discord, you definitely get left in the dark with what's going on with the game. It can be really hard to balance working on the game with creating content about the game when there's still so much stuff I want to get done. I'm hoping to adjust a bit in this regard to start making better, more engaging content with what's coming down the pipe, but that's a whole other post.
I'll never be able to thank everyone enough who has continued to support DeadPoly, and patiently waited for each and every update with excitement and joy, and made my little dream of developing a game a reality. Seriously, though, THANK YOU! Getting to be on this journey with all of you has been one of the most kick ass things I've ever experienced, and we're just getting started! DeadPoly still has a long ways to go, and as long as I'm breathing, it will continue to progress forward at whatever pace I am capable.
Current overall priority list, loosely ordered...
The single largest focus right now is going to be finishing up Garden City's interiors and map as a whole. It is very immersion breaking with how many of the buildings are empty, and it just makes the game feel a lot more unfinished than I'd like. There's a lot of reviews and comments that point this out specifically, and they're absolutely correct.
Overall game polish needs to improve quite a bit. The UI isn't even close to finished, but I'm going to start working on making sure the visuals for the game are in a better spot. I'm not a UX expert by any stretch of the imagination, so any help there with feedback is always welcome.
Console release with full crossplay is inching ever closer. Hope to have some more news about this shortly.
Fishing is getting close and should be making its way in to the game soon. It's not a super advanced system, but getting animation stuff worked out takes me much longer than most things, as animations continue to be my weakest point in terms of my overall knowledge and skills.
Prone and left arm animations should hopefully be getting wrapped up soon as well. Again - animation timeframe limited, but it's getting there. The player character not holding the grips on the guns annoys the heck out of me, so I'll be really stoked to mark that one off the list.
Many of the existing features in the game are going to continue to evolve and expand. Farming will get more complex, vehicles will get more parts like suspension components, radiators, tires, etc... to make them more fun to work on, as well as being able to adjust how they drive!
Vehicles still need a lot of work in how they function and handle. Not happy overall with how ice skatey they still are, but making progress with cleaning it up.
PvP Changes
I know that PvP is a big part of the game for many players, and I've been working with a lot of the more active players to start making some changes to the PvP in DeadPoly and try to provide a smoother, more enjoyable PvP environment. I'm vividly aware the traveling inventory system has thrown a wrench in the PvP gameplay and how the community would like to enjoy the game.
Extended logout timer after engaging in PvP for all PvP servers to prevent players logging out immediately after a fight
Further balancing and number tweaks in terms of damage and resource cost for raiding
Explosives for raiding are in the works
Extraction server setting is on the way along with Official Extract Servers. This will require players to extract from servers that are Extract Enabled in order to maintain their loot. Official Extract Servers will also have increased loot pools and other things to incentivize playing in a higher risk/reward server.
More stuff!
If you're a longtime DeadPoly player, it should come as no surprise that MORE STUFF is always on the way, but for the new players here - new items, guns, collectibles, clothes, objects, quests, events, etc... are always in development and constantly being added with each update. I don't see this changing any time soon. It's a big part of why I created DeadPoly in the first place, and is still one of the things I enjoy the most when playing DeadPoly myself.
Oh, also
If you made it this far, you must actually care about DeadPoly at least a little bit, right? So here's an early reveal - I am currently pushing for DeadPoly to leave Early Access on January 12th, 2025, in just a few short months. I am not saying that DeadPoly is finished or complete by any measure, and I'm still going to be working on the game just as much as I always have, but I do feel that the game as a whole is quickly approaching the Early Access finish line. Most of the features I outlined when the game first launched in to Early Access are getting pretty close to being completed, and I've never wanted the game to perpetually sit in Early Access longer than it needs to.
Patch 0.4.2 - Halloween
Patch 0.4.2 is live, and adds the limited time Halloween items, along with a handful of bug fixes, stability changes, and performance tweaks.
Patch 0.4.1
I've always said perfection is the enemy of progress - I can sit here forever fiddling with these numbers until I feel like it's 'good enough' but y'all have been waiting very patiently.
We're going live with some pretty inflated loot numbers. None of the drop chances are set up, so basically everything will drop in somewhat equal numbers.
The loot tables have been split up so 'normal' items are rolled separately from collectibles. This will make normal items appear much more often, as intended, rather than regular items struggling to appear due to rolling against ultra rare items.
Rare items are also pretty, well, not rare right now, so enjoy that while it lasts!
-Kamron
Patch 0.4.1
Additions
Loot drops and loot tables have changed drastically (fine tuning of this system will continue in to the foreseeable future)
Set Down items can no longer be picked up by non-owners in PvE and No Raid (you will need to set them down again to set up the ownership, existing items won't have an owner until they are re-set)
FOV adjustment added to in game settings
Base Claims can now display their effective radius and can also update owners
Added long buildable ramps for vehicles to get on to built foundations
Keybinds can now be modified in the main menu rather than only in game
New interiors added to Garden City buildings
Electrical systems added
Generators added (larger generators coming in next update)
Door code locks have been added
New build parts added (Car ramps and gates)
Added camera shake to melee hits
New items added
Dedicated server now logs what is built where by who
The game now saves the direction you are facing when logging out
Players can now directly choose their spawn and respawn points
All built bed items now function as spawn points
Corpse icons added to the map UI
Zombies now sometimes randomly yell
Changes
The default flashlight has been significantly improved (press Z)
Crafting items now stack automatically
Max stacks while crafting has been reduced to the max stack of the item being crafted
Items being picked up from the ground will no long automatically go in to nested containers
Server browser now shows all servers by default, including No Travel servers
In game Escape / Settings menu now matches the rest of the UI
Build cost for basically all items in the Build Menu have been increased
Adjusted drop rates for some of the quest items and added specific loot locations for many of the quest items
Hummer speed and acceleration has been increased
Adjusted foundation stair and ramp collision setup
Networking improvements for doors
The standard color light has been adjusted to be less harsh
Grid mode building should no longer follow the camera rotation at all
Photo Mode now disables the interact popup menu
Bed respawn system has been rewritten completely in order to resolve issues with collision when spawning
Increased build range for Foundations
Player body despawn timer increased to 2 hours from 1 hour
The 'snappyness' of the camera has been adjusted to feel more exact
M24 damage has been increased significantly
Looting a player body may extend the despawn timer in order to not despawn while being looted
Zombie corpse despawn timer increased to 10 minutes from 5 minutes
The popup menu for player built objects now correctly shows if the object will be demolished or picked up
Completely reworked item consumption code to fix multiple issues in large scale multiplayer (report ASAP if bugs occur)
Respawn cooldown on beds increased to 5 minutes from 1 minute
Bug Fixes
Fixed bug that could cause players to be unable to loot player bodies if they fall / slide a long distance
Fixed not being able to loot zombies that are hit with cars and slide a long distance
Fixed some incorrect quest texts
Fixed key rebind menu in the settings not working from the main menu on first load
Brass knuckles now hit as hard as their damage indicates rather than counting as a punch
Roof pieces are now able to be walked on
Fixed bug that could occur after dropping partial stacks of items
Fixed bug with a specific type of bushes not removing when joining multiplayer
Med Kits should no longer fail to heal in multiplayer (report ASAP if bugs occur)
Chosen volume settings now apply automatically instead of only after opening the settings menu
Beds should no longer respawn players stuck inside of them (fingers crossed!)
