Update Details (2nd March 2018) - Glass structures and more!
New glass building pieces:
Hi guys. It’s been a while since any new base construction options were added. Today’s update introduces an assortment of new glass building pieces, which are now crafted from the default player crafting menu. These pieces will snap onto other wood and metal building pieces.
The glass is fairly tough and will withstand a fair amount of damage. However, just as with all structures, will require repairs to maintain. I’ve added damage skins (cracks) to indicate the health of any piece. The strength sits between that of wood and armor-plated.
I’ve added a subtle distortion to the glass material and a very slight tint. This is to give the sense of enclosure when inside your base looking out. Let me know if you think the effect is too much.
My hope is these new building pieces will open up a ton of possibilities for creative base designs, as well as adding further depth to later-game building. Looking forward to seeing some creations.
The game is configured to understand light passing through the new panels, meaning that glass rooms can be constructed to act as protective greenhouses for plantbeds.
Sandstone ore nodes and glass fragments:
It’s now possible to find sandstone ore nodes beneath the water in the various lakes. They can be harvested with the pickaxe (or axe for less yield) and refined down into glass fragments in the refinery.
The glass fragments can then be crafted down in the workbench to glass panels, which in turn can be used to craft building pieces. Note: Raw glass fragments are required for repairing glass structures.
Animated glass windows and door:
It’s always bothered me that windows were just empty holes. This lead to otherwise cosy and secure bases to feel cold and exposed.
Players can now craft glass windows for both the flat and curved windowed-wall variants. The new windows are fully animated, allowing for player to quickly open/close them while defending against attacks.
While working on the window animations, I also finally added a animation for the door (which was long overdue).
New underwater graphics:
I’ve never been overly happy with the underwater visuals. The water surface would become opaque once submerged (meaning players were unable to spot potential dangers when surfacing) and the image was fairly static.
I’ve added a ripple/distortion post-process effect and updated the water surface material to handle translucency when submerged. I think it looks way better and more immersive when swimming, but let me know what you think.
Getting started tasks/tips:
New players starting out are offered little guidance on how to make progress, often leading to frustration and repeated deaths. I’ve added some basic ‘getting-started’ tasks to better inform new players during the early game.
For experienced players (or those that want to figure things out on their own), these task lists can be disabled in the options under gameplay.
While building this feature, I implemented a substantial system to track detailed stats on player activities (stats are only stored locally in profile saves). I plan to expose these stats for players to view in a future update.
Quick item use:
Having to always right-click on an item to open it’s actions, and then click on the use action can be annoying (especially when in combat or in a hurry). I’ve added a quick-use function that allows players to simply hover the mouse over an item and click their ‘use’ key.
It will attempt to perform the primary ‘use’ action for said item (if the item has one). This will improve and quicken player inventory management.
Hunter base update and loot drops:
I’ve updated the hunter bases to incorporate the new glass buildables. I’ve also updated the loot drops in their bases to include many of the new items that were added in the last few updates.
Hunter loot drops, and locked crates have also been updated to include the new items (including a chance of fish oil on hunters).
Potassium used as fertilizer:
Finally potassium can be used as a rich fertilizer for plantbeds. This should ease the fertilizer demands for players that choose to refine the ore down.
Few notable misc changes:
Fixed exploit that allowed empty canteens to be pre-heated and then sterilize water when filled.
Fixed exploit that allowed players to build in hunter bases.
Fixed delay on items disappearing from inventory when dropped for clients of co-op games.
Added sound and blood-spurts effect for hitting dead animals/humans with melee weapons.
A personal note:
As many of you know, Subsistence has always been a passion project I work on by myself in my spare time, alongside my full-time job. I’ve finally made the decision to leave my employment to focus on the game full-time. I’ve never worked on such a challenging, creative and enjoyable project, and i’m so excited to dedicate myself to its continued development.
It’s been a tough journey to reach this point, and I wouldn’t have got this far without the support and encouragement from such an awesome community, of which I’m deeply grateful. There’s still a long road ahead and tons of work needed, and I’m looking forward to it!
Have a great weekend, and please let me know about any issues with the update.
CG
Update Details (24th Jan 2018) - New Fishing Mechanic and much more!
Hi guys. Today's update introduces a new fishing mechanic into the game. A highly requested feature since the introduction of water into the world, players are now able to craft fishing rods and float-fish in the ponds and lakes (it is not currently possible to fish in running rivers). The rod can be crafted from the default player crafting menu.
Once the fishing rod is crafted, players must craft fishing tackle. Fishing tackle requires a tree grub (a new item), which can be harvested from the large fat-trunked trees dotted around the map. Tree grubs can be eaten by themselves in desperate situations, but provide very little nutrition.
Fish Types:
There are currently two types of fish that can be caught in the lakes and ponds; Salmon and (a generically named) small fish. Salmon can be eaten raw, or can be filleted to produce fillets of meat, and fish-oil (which can be used in medicinal crafting).
Small fish can also be eaten raw, or cooked whole (providing better nutritional value). Being small, they take much less time to cook than other proteins. Instead of being used for meat, players can choose to instead harvest them for oil.
I intend for the variety of fish (and their purpose) to expand over time as things continue to progress.
Medicinal tonic
Medical items now require Medicinal Tonic to craft. The tonic can be crafted using fish oil and medicinal herbs.
Stackable meats:
Meats have always used up way too much inventory space. I had kept them as single items due to complications with handling the various cooked states and perish timers.
Here are the new rules:
Meats can be stacked providing they are at the same cooked state.
Only single pieces can be cooked at a time (per cooking slot).
Perish timers are maintained for each individual piece even when stacked.
I’ve also removed the individual rotten states for each food type, and have simplified it into a single (stackable) “rotten meat” item. This should lead to cleaner inventory management. A greater purpose for this item will be added at a later date (currently you can only recycle it).
Small dead animals now perish:
For a long time, players have been able to store small dead animals without risk of them perishing. This exploit devalued efforts to keep food fresh and presented issues with storage space. This has now been patched. Rotted animals can still be butchered but yield less resources (and no meat).
Smoothed models UV normals:
Various models for base items had some fairly janky UV mapping, so I spent a bit of time cleaning these up. It’s a subtle change, but one that has been bugging me for a while, and i feel looks much cleaner now. Examples:
Capped “Eat All” action:
Many players reported frustration of accidentally clicking “eat all” when extracting tomato seeds etc. I’ve now put limits on all consumable items to avoid this:
Base repairs:
Many players have reported that it takes too much wood to make repairs after hunter attacks. I’ve increased the amount of hit-points per repair. However each standard repair now takes 1 nail. This should help balance the dwindling need for nails during the later game.
Hunters not attacking?:
Thanks to the help of a few community members, I was able to trace down certain conditions that would prevent specific hunter teams from attacking player bases. It was based on the combined locations of the bases, and intersecting bodies of water. The issue is now patched, so if you weren’t experiencing attacks before this patch then you may want to keep and eye out for incoming attacks. This issue was affecting normal and revenge attacks.
Other misc changes:
A splint now takes two sticks to craft.
Fixed bug that was allowing small dead animals held in player inventories to become alive again after reloading a save.
Increased hit-points of floodlights and and solar panels. This will make them more resilient to base attacks.
Fixed bug that was preventing the bleeding icon from showing for hosts of co-op games.
Fixed bullet/water impact fx to play correctly in deep water:
Fixed issue whereby transparent buildable mesh would become invisible when viewed in front of water.
Updated bow so that you can now hold down “aim” while the player is equipping the weapon, then it will transition into the aim state without having to re-click key.
Fixed bug that prevented the profiles launching if there were special characters in the profile name or password.
It now takes less time to cook rabbit and chicken.
Added rocks and other visual tweaks to rivers/waterfall.
Please note that the new fishing system is intended to be iterated and improved on, so I welcome feedback once players have given it a try. I’m excited about the new possibilities this opens up for future updates. Thanks for everyone’s support and patience as the game continues to evolve. I’ll be on the forums as always, so please let me know your thoughts on the new changes.
Have a great week!
ColdGames
Update Details (16th Dec 2017) - Big Map Expansion!
Hi guys. Today’s update introduces a large expansion to the world and offers a much greater space for players to explore, build, hunt, fight and survive. I’ve been meaning to expand the world boundaries for a long time and decided to spend some dedicated time and focus on doing so.
My hope is this expansion and new varied terrain will offer greater immersion and freedom for players. More varied build locations and base design potential, and present a more interesting challenge to orientate and navigate the world.
You’ll find a new river winding down the slopes of the expanded area, running down into a new big lake. Rivers and waterfalls will open up new possibilities for gathering and game-play mechanics for future updates. Many players have requested fishing, and I totally agree this would be awesome. I have some ideas of how the mechanic could work and will be putting more thought into it.
There are also new stretches of open beach and small inlets for players to explore:
The addition of the new lake area has also opened up some areas of deep water. I’m keen to expand on this, and give players meaningful incentives to dive and explore the depths. I personally love when games allow you to explore deep underwater. Please stay tuned for more on this.
New trees (increased performance) I’ve gone ahead and replaced many of the old pine trees throughout the entire map. The old trees were very high-poly and put a lot of demand on hardware with their high alpha calculations for shadows and light shafts. They were also fairly small, making it hard to create a sense of density to forest areas. They were also somewhat dull with a very muted color palette.
The new trees are much lower poly-count (1/3 of the previous trees). They have a more dense foliage spread, meaning certain familiar areas may feel very different. I’m also using a fairly high saturation pallet for the materials, meaning the greens are way more vibrant. This should make the world feel more colorful.
The increased foliage density from the new trees may have an impact on resource gathering and predator/hunter encounters. It will be less easy to spot items and enemies in the world. I’ll be keeping an eye on how this affects balance (may need some tweaks). I welcome your thoughts and opinions on this.
I’ve decreased the fog density at higher altitudes, giving players better visibility. I’ve also decreased the depth of field over distance to account for the larger vistas.
Few other minor tweaks:
Reduced hunter movement speed while sprinting.
Added distance-based low-pass filtering for all footsteps.
I replaced the (annoyingly) loud Unreal logo when booting the game for a quiet one (many players had mentioned this was hard on the ears).
Added correct weapon impact sounds for many base items (campfire, lights, beds, switches, etc).
Fixed issue where hosts of co-op games could not see water-based bullet impacts.
World expansion is something that will continue as the project continues to progress. However with this new expansion now merged to the main build, I’m excited to start focusing on new gameplay features and mechanics for the next update. I have a long list of ideas I’ve been eager to work on.
I hope everyone has an awesome holiday with their families and friends. Thanks so much for all the continued support for the project. I’m really looking forward to continue evolving the game into 2018. See you on the forums!
CG
Update Details (12th Nov 2017) - Hunter Base Destruction and lots more!
Hunter base destruction:
Up until now, hunter bases would remain statically placed once they set-up camp. This could lead to some frustrating scenarios of players not being able to push the hunters out of their area.
Today’s update allows player to completely destroy hunter bases, forcing them to abandon their post and start building from scratch at another location in the world.
This change will hopefully allow players to truly influence the world and the situations they find themselves in.
BCU Cracker:
To destroy a hunter base, players can now craft the BCU Cracker at the workbench.
This device can be placed on any BCU. Once placed it will auto-activate and result in huge damage to the base (and ultimately destroy the BCU). Once hunter BCU’s are destroyed, they will abandon the base and need to find a new building location to start from scratch.
Hint: Destroying a hunter base does produce some additional loot, but it can also attract rogues so keep your guard!
Note: Remains of abandoned hunter bases will slowly decay over-time.
Crafting Materials and Rogues:
Up until now, there was little incentive to hunt down rogue hunters. However the BCU Cracker requires Gears (a new item type), that is primarily found on dead rogues.
The hope is this will provide more interesting and varied later-game goals. Rather than avoiding rogue squads, players will have meaningful reasons to engage in combat (when they choose to do so).
Grenade-tipped Arrows:
Players can now craft grenade-tipped arrows at the workbench. They can be extremely handy for base defence when dealing with groups of hunters, and also do significant damage to base structures.
Hunters are also now trained to use grenade-tipped arrows. They will favour using them when they feel they are unable to get well placed shots with standard grenades. Please let me know if this feels off-balance!
Power/Mass balancing:
Due to the heavy power/mass requirements of the BCU cracker, there are now some additional means to generate power.
Reared animals now produce higher quantities of fat, which can be rendered down into biofuel to power the base.
Growable Medicinal Plants:
Another new means of generating supplemental power, medicinal plant seeds can now be grown and harvested. Once harvested they can be crafted-down into biofuel.
Join Co-op Game By IP:
I’ve added an option to join co-op games via IP. I know that port forwarding has been an issue for many players, so I hope this offers more options for those wishing to host (LAN or VPN).
I know a lot of work is needed to make the hosting/joining process easier. This is high on my list and will continue to be worked on. Thanks for your patience while I continue to work on this.
Co-op text chat client:
I’ve added a basic chat client for co-op games. This can be opened by hitting ‘return’ while in game (which can be rebound in the controls menu).
Animal leveling health tweak:
During co-op games (and singleplayer), it can be frustrating (and unfair) when an animal levels-up after killing a player when on low health, leading to it becoming more powerful and having fully replenished health. Now when an animal levels-up, it only regains 30% of its health.
Base Item Damage Skins:
Previously it was difficult to identify when base items were damaged. This often led to critical items being destroyed during attacks (sometimes entire storage chests full of gear). I’ve added damage skins for nearly all base items so players are more aware of when items need repair.
Other notable changes:
The bow now costs slightly less cordage to craft.
Bed spawns now only cost 350 power (rather than 400).
Slightly reduced power usage of fridge (from 0.25 per sec to 0.20).
Power generator now uses ⅔ the fuel, but generates power at ⅔ the rate (so needs to be run for longer durations).
Ash stack count increased from 200 to 250.
Nails stack count doubled from 100 to 200.
Fixed bug where premium arrows would show as normal arrows for hosts of co-op games.
Added models for premium and grenade-tipped arrows to third-person perspective.
Slightly reduced the volume of the generator running.
Increased detail of Wellhead texturing.
Fixed bug that was causing single-player profile day-counts to be reset.
As always, thanks so much to everyone that has been supporting the project, and welcoming and helping out new players. I excited to continue moving forward with new features. I know there is a ton of work needed, and the road ahead is long, so thank you for your continued patience moving forward!
I’ll be on the forums so please do share and issues and feedback on the new changes. Have an awesome weekend!
Hi guys. Today’s update finally brings co-op multiplayer to the public build. Thanks for everyone’s patience while I worked through this one. MP has easily been the most requested feature since EA launch, so I’m excited to start getting some feedback and moving forward with the project.
Hosting:
For this first step, players are able to host their own games to play with friends (dedicated servers will eventually follow). Any host has 5 multiplayer profile slots (similar to singleplayer), allowing groups to shut down their server and resume any profile at a later date.
Note: In order for hosts to be seen in the game list, they may need to forward their Steam port (27015). For assistance with troubleshooting, please refer to the community forums, where many community members have been helping other players (thanks for all the help!). Also, please be sure to set a password if you intend to play with only friends.
Co-op (PvP?):
Currently the game design is focused around co-op. Building and upgrading a base together, while surviving, fending off hunter attacks, and attacking hunter bases. While it is possible to kill other players, PvP is not a focus at this point.
When a player establishes a base, they can add/remove players as base-members from the ‘Players’ tab in the BCU. A base-member is able to open doors, build, move items etc, whereas non base-members are limited.
Hunter Aggression:
Just as in singleplayer, players can choose to enable/disable hunters at any point. If disabled then re-enabled, they will need to build up from scratch.
In co-op the hunter presence and aggression is greater than that of singleplayer. This is an attempt to balance the difficulty, as players will be able to better defend themselves in groups. Please note that this balance is something I’ll be continuing to iterate on. I’ll be listening to feedback and making changes accordingly.
Focus on fortifying your base walls with armor plating, upgrading your weapons and wearable armor to better resist the pressure from hunter attacks.
Some other changes/tweaks:
Higher resolution skies and sunsets/rises. I’ve reworked the day/night cycle to have higher detail, as well as draw-out the length of transitions during mornings and evenings.
Grenades now only require 1 sinew to craft (3 was way too much).
Fixed audio glitch causing heavy splashing sound when entering/exiting lakes.
There are now 5 single player save profiles. So if you’ve been meaning to try out a new build, you have 2 new slots.
Eating most foods now depletes hydration. There wasn’t enough emphasis on collecting water, as too many foods gave a supplement of water. This change is subtle, but should improve the overall balance (let me know).
Reworked the woodburner model and particle fx. The woodburner model was previously extremely high poly and suffered material artifacting (and flames that clipped through the model). The new model addresses these issues and has 20% of the poly count (so much better performance).
Fixed bug where a phantom glowstick lights would appear in the world.
Hunters now move at a greater speed when closing in on a target player base.
Increased despawn time on fired arrows.
Thanks so much for everyone’s patience and support since the last update. The multiplayer netcode has required much greater work than typical feature updates. As this is the first step into multiplayer, please expect some technical issues while I iron-out the kinks. I’ll be working hard to resolve player issues. Also, a big thanks to everyone who have been helping with connection troubleshooting on the forums.
With this milestone passing, I’m hugely excited to start moving forward with new features and expanding on the gameplay and mechanics. There are many things I’ve been eagerly waiting to start on.
As always, keep me informed with issues or feedback on the new changes (I’ll be on the forums), and have a great week!
CG
Update Details (Aug 18th 2017) - New predator - New items and crafting overhaul - Auto log collection - and more!
New Predator - Cougar:
A new predator now occupies the high-grounds of the world. The cougar is rare and presents a greater threat than the other wildlife, being faster and with heightened senses. Players should avoid encounters unless well prepared.
To help balance the early-game, Cougar’s will not enter the world until the player has established a base (placed their BCU). Unless in hardcore mode, where they will be present from day 1.
As with all other predators, Cougars will engage hunters when necessary, and vice versa (so use it to your advantage where possible).
Some tweaks and nerfing may be required, so I’m keen to hear feedback from players. I plan to further build upon the Cougar’s behavior patterns and stats moving forward.
New items and crafting changes:
Butchering Cougars will yield Sinew (yield size is based on animal level). This is used in many existing crafting recipes. It is also used for crafting Rope, which is now used on many of the advanced weapon, armor and base upgrades. The intention is that these are later-game items; harder to obtain, yet not crucial for early-game (so a new player is not expected to hunt Cougar on their first day).
It’s now possible to craft Metal Ingots in the Workbench using Copper and Iron. The aim here is to simplify the higher tier crafting recipes, while allowing a means to process raw materials down into higher value items.
There has been a sizable restructuring to the craft recipe system (across the board). There may well be some imbalance in item requirements, so I welcome feedback and intend to iterate on these changes.
Auto Log Collection:
Logs will now auto-drop into the player’s inventory while harvesting. I understand that some player may disagree with this choice, but I feel it can be too frustrating when dealing with thick foliage.
To balance this change, planks now require 3 logs to craft. This should not impact the grind by much, as players will spend far less time searching for dropped logs.
Other Changes:
Tightened the spread on the shotgun. This change is subtle, but should make a difference during mid-range combat.
Fixed bug where starter Canteen’s would sometimes not fill the water meter on plantbeds and animal housing.
Fixed bug where dying while in shallow water would cause the player kit to not drop.
Added sound and particle effect for hand-catching chickens.
Improved player death-ragdoll (no more extended fingers etc).
Increased texture resolution of animals, players and hunters at close/medium range.
Smoothed animal movement over angular terrain.
Fixed bug that was allowing animal attacks to be interrupted/reset during a fight. This may impact balance/difficulty (let me know if things are off).
Added low-pass filtering to predator idle sounds at distance.
Added new death camera. Also removed several hud elements during death scene, allowing the player to better assess what happened.
As always, thank you SO much to everyone that has been supporting the project. The feedback (forum comments, uploaded gameplay, etc) has become so essential while working on the game. It really highlights for me how incredibly impactful an early-access community can be for a project, for which I’m so grateful.
Please let me know any issues/thoughts on the update (I’ll be on the forums). Have a great weekend!
*Edit* Hotfix updates (Aug 19th):
Added ability to optionally disable auto log pickups (it's enabled by default). The option can be found under Options->Gameplay.
Added chance of sinew spawning in locked crates.
Dead chickens no longer squawk when picked up.
Updated ambient environment sounds.
Updated cougar falling animation (minor).
Update Details (July 28th 2017) - Water Collection & Purification - Illness and Medical Treatment - Switchable Ammo Types, and more!
Water Collection and Purification:
It is now possible to collect water from the various lakes on the map. Survivors now spawn with a metal canteen (apart from in hardcore mode where players must craft their own).
The canteen can be filled at any water source, and can then be used to boil on a campfire or woodburner to purify the water. Dirty water is still drinkable, but runs the risk of illness (and provides slightly less hydration).
Illness and Medicinal Treatment:
Eating under-cooked or rotten meat, or drinking unpurified water now runs the risk of contracting illness. It’s also possible to become ill through infection from wild animals attacks.
Illness will reduce the player’s max health and strength to 60% of full. However illness is not terminal, and it’s possible to live indefinitely while ill, just with impaired stats. An antidote can be crafted to cure illness (found in default crafting menu):
Switchable Ammo Types:
There are now mechanics for switching through different ammo types on weapons. The bow now has a new ‘Premium’ arrow which is craftable at the workbench.
These new arrows do more than double the damage of standard wooden arrows, and have a higher velocity with less projectile drop. They also have far less chance of breaking, and can even hit rock surfaces without breaking.
Ammo types can be switched while moving around the world (using L-Alt, which is rebindable), or by simply clicking on the ammo type displayed above the weapon while accessing your inventory.
The new arrows require premium features to be crafted, which can only be acquired through domesticating chickens. As chickens level up in the animal housing, they will yield more premium feathers. I’m hoping this will add more value to the mechanics of domesticating animals, and I plan to build upon this further in future updates.
Death Crate Beacon:
One of the most requested features since launch has been a way to find the player’s dropped kit after death. I’ve been reluctant to implement this as I didn’t want to undermine the achievement of successfully surviving. However I could see that the current system was unbalanced and a source of frustration, and that I should experiment with some ideas.
Now when the player dies, a beacon will show, indicating the location of the dropped gear. However a third of the contents of the kit will be destroyed. This does not include weapons, although will affect ammo loaded in the weapon. I’m hoping this change will maintain the satisfaction of evading death, while reducing the frustration from losing a full kit of upgraded gear. Note: In easy mode no items will be destroyed.
Reduced dependency on medical supply crates.
Now that players are able to gather and purify their own water, loot spawning in medical crates has been greatly reduced (typically the primary means of acquiring water). This means players will need a greater focus on actual survival tactics, rather than relying on random supply crates.
Note: The supply crates have always been placeholder, to allow for balancing of resources as gameplay mechanics are slowly introduced during the development process. As the game evolves, the reliance on supply crates will be continuously reduced, allowing for a more tactical survival experience.
Other misc fixes:
Fixed placement-bug when moving a previously placed door.
Increased shotgun shell stack count to 20.
Animal corpses now disappear once looted.
Fixed bug where crafting an item with a maxed out inventory wouldn’t drop the crafted item.
Increased capacity of storage crate by 5 slots:
Thank you so much to everyone that’s been supporting the project. It really makes a huge difference to hear the thoughts and opinions from players playing the game. I know that lots of work is needed, but I’m truly excited for the future of the project.
Please do let me know if you experience any issues with the update, I’ll be on the forums. Have an awesome weekend!
PS: I'm afraid the update will reset controls to default, sorry for the inconvenience here. Also there are a few minor changes I'd like to make following the update, so you may see one or two quick updates following this one.
*Edit* Hotfix update (29th July):
Items issued for free as starting kit no longer drop when the player dies. This should address exploits of using the death beacon to farm starter kits.
Illness now persists after a death/respawn (unless the player is yet to build a base). This should remove the exploit of suiciding to cure illness.
Fixed bug where canteen water would remain clean when refilling after using on the animal housing or plantbed.
Fixed bug where sounds of picking kelp underwater would be silent.
Update Details (July 6th 2017) - Swimmable Lakes
Hi guys, Today’s update finally sees the introduction of swimmable lakes into the world of Subsistence. It’s been one of the top requested features since release, and will open up a huge range of possibilities for future updates, map expansion and new gameplay mechanics. As well as introducing new scenic locations for base building, and battles with the neighbors.
The water is fully swimmable (which also means by predators and hunters). The new underwater areas introduce a new biome that will soon become valuable areas for specific resource gathering. It’s not currently possible to drink the water, but this will come very soon, so please stay tuned.
Harvest-able Kelp is a new resource that can be harvested on lake beds. Kelp has low nutritional value, but in quantity offers a viable alternative when other vegetables are scarce (or you can feed it to your bunnies). This is another step towards removing the reliance on random chance from crate spawns.
Currently there are 3 new lakes of varying size in the existing play area (the largest of which is found on the north side of the map). It seemed necessary to implement several smaller lakes in the existing play area before further expanding the map.
This means there have been some terrain changes that may impact player profiles. It’s possible you may find you have existing hunter bases submerged in water. If this occurs, you can always reset the hunters on that profile. This seemed preferable to forcing a wipe (which I will always try to avoid).
There has been a lot of work on the AI (hunters and animals), to allow them to negotiate the water and incorporate it into their existing behaviours. Especially to avoid opening up new means of exploits. However the extent of the changes will surely introduce some bugs and oddities, so please do let me know on the forums if you spot anything.
Few other unrelated small tweaks:
Added 3d bump-mapping to reinforced metal walls and floors.
Added blood-splatter decals for various surfaces.
Added fallback if player falls out of world. This is very rare, but has led to a few reports of players losing their gear. Now players will simply respawn with all their gear. I'm investigating the root cause of this.
Fixed behavior bug where hunters try to harvest invisible trees.
Thank you so much for your patience with this one, I know the wait has been longer than usual. I don’t like leaving such breaks between updates. I’d been putting this off as I knew it would hold-up other features to make it happen. However this now opens up huge possibilities for future updates. Thank you to everyone that’s been supporting the project, and those active in the community and giving feedback on the current state of the game (I welcome both negative and positive). Please let me know if you experience any issues with the update. Have a great week!
Update Details (8th June 2017) - Map Expansion - Moveable Placed Buildables, and more…
Map Expansion
Hi guys, This update I’ve taken some time to expand the map on the west side. This area was previously a wasteland, but now features some distinctive geometry, which should provide some navigational reference points, as well as opportunities for new base designs.
I plan to put more focus into world expansion and new biomes in the upcoming releases.
Ability to Move Placed Buildables:
A highly requested feature; players are now able to move any placed buildables in their base (apart from BCU’s). This works for base structures and machinery alike. Looking at an item and holding down the ‘Move Buildable’ key (which is now bindable in the controls), allows replacement within a fixed perimeter. Pressing ‘escape’ or any toolbelt slot will cancel movement of a buildable.
This should give players more freedom when items are placed by mistake, or for simply reorganizing a base.
Other changes:
I’ve added an in-game volume control. This was a point of frustration for players streaming/recording.
Greatly increased recoil on the .44 revolver. Also tweaked the handling sounds to make the weapon feel more weighty.
I’ve also fixed it so the weapon sits correctly in the Workbench when upgrading. Also added improved graphic for the .44 rounds in the inventory.
Fix issue whereby hunters would display less aggression towards predators. You can now expect to see/hear way more hunter/animal interactions in the world (and exploit them in your favor).
Fixed bug where mass cost was not increasing through weapon upgrades.
Fixed bug where arm/weapon movement animations would continue to play while player was in their inventory.
Increased the size of the workbench.
Reduced the amount of gunparts dropped by hunters.
Increased the brightness of campfires and woodburners.
Many other small changes and infrastructure work.
Thanks to everyone who’s been supporting the project and giving feedback in the forums (both positive and negative), I really do appreciate it.
I know that many players are waiting for multiplayer. Once I have the core base mechanics down, I will switch my focus to supporting MP (alongside evolving the game). I’m excited for the changes and challenges this will bring, but I want to ensure I have a solid foundation to build upon. *The single-player component will always continue to be supported as new modes are introduced. I hope you can be patient as the project continues to evolve.
See you guys on the forums. Have a great friday/weekend!
Update Details (22nd May 2017) - .44 Revolver - Big Performance Optimizations
.44 Revolver
It's been a long time since a new firearm was added to the game, so I wanted to spend some time implementing one of my favorites.
The .44 Revolver packs some serious firepower, and is ideal for close to mid-range combat. The .44 rounds are a little more expensive than the 7.62's and the weapon itself requires weapon parts to craft. So players will need to open locked crates, kill some hunters, or raid a base before they can acquire the weapon.
I'm hoping the addition of the Revolver will add more depth and variance to the combat, and give players more choice in how they want to arm-up.
Hunters don't currently use the .44, but that will come soon. I want to get some feedback on the firepower before I add it into their load-outs. The Revolver can be upgraded in the WorkBench like the other firearms.
Big Performance Optimizations
Many players are still experiencing low fps (even some with beefy GPU’s). Solid fps is a huge priority for me, as I know how negatively a low fps can impact gameplay. It’s an ongoing mission for me to get the game running as best as it can, even for low-end machines.
Running profiling tests on system resources during gameplay, I discovered a large amount of CPU used by the AI and their thought processes. I’ve done a full overhaul on the system and have trimmed a huge amount of unnecessary calculations being made every game tick. There shouldn’t be any noticeable difference in their behavior from a player’s perspective.
The impact of these changes (on my dev machine) is more than +20% increase to fps. This could be much higher for players currently bottle-necked by an older CPU (or on laptops). I would encourage players to max-out their settings and see how the game runs on the new update.
Fiber visibility (hotfixed last week)
Since the color-grading updates, fibers became even more difficult to spot, leading to frustration for many players. I’ve updated them visually to be more apparent in the foliage, and slightly increased their size. I welcome feedback on this change.
Thanks as always to everyone giving feedback and suggestions in the forums. I try to read all the threads. It helps immensely when players share their thoughts on the current state of the project. Please let me know if you experience any issues with the update.
