February Update (Inventory Update | New Scenarios | New Server Configs)
Hey now, hope you are all doing well. We’re cracking away on improvements and additions and you’ll see quite a few of those in the 1.22 build. We’ve introduced two new and exciting official scenarios for you all to try and tinker with. We love some of the scenarios the community has already come up with. We look forward to seeing more from you as we move forward.
Improved Inventory
The current inventory system can be overwhelming for some, especially new players. The text based system has allowed us to focus on interaction and afforded us the ability to easily added in-game items. Ideally the system will eventually have a complete overhaul. For now, James has made some fantastic improvements to the general look and ease of use.
The new system replaces the massive list of uncategorized items with a simple category based option. We’ve added categories, sub categories and dividers to the inventory for easier navigation. This allows the player to quickly and visually see exactly what their backpack contains.
New inventory layout
Improved Inventory Interaction
Along with the visual improvements come an array of functional improvements. We’ve ditched the sloppy [Add/Drop/Place] button in favor of the new method we’re using on other in game interactions. Players can now left or right click on any item to bring up an interaction menu. This allows players to quickly use/drop/place or add attachments/parts quickly. These are all small improvements to a much larger overall improvement we’re working towards with our inventory system.
Font size has also be increased making the text much easier to read. You will also notice an increase in responsiveness when it comes to hovering over each individual item.
Inventory Interaction
Changelog: Inventory
Added category dividers in the inventory for easier navigation
Added sub categories to improve inventory navigation
Added right click system for inventory to simplify UI
Increased font sizes in the inventory to improve navigation
Increased hovering speed for more responsive feel
Removed redundant 'use' buttons from containers
Increased font sizes in the inventory
Improved attaching items to weapons flow
Pressing esc while there’s a filter on the inventory now clears the search
Removed the fav’s craftable system in favor of simpler design
Added move all button when in a container per item stack
Unequipping weapon from the inventory no longer closes the UI
Update Server Config Options
We’ve continued to add options to our server configuration making hosting servers or creating scenarios even more flexible. We’ll be adding new config options in most of the coming updates. We would really like to expand on gameplay customization moving towards a full release.
Constant Hordes Among the changes comes “Constant Hordes” this will allow you to create a constant wave of hordes, creating the opportunity for all kinds of new gameplay scenarios.
We look forward to seeing what the community comes up with now that we’ve added these new options. If you have any server configuration options you’d like to see added for hosting/workshop stuff, let us know and we’ll get it sorted out!
Another exciting addition that will really open up customization is the ability to add custom zombie drops. You can control what zombies spawn when they’re killed. You can limit the amount of spawn items as well, there’s more info on the hover tip via host tab itself.
New zombie config options
Changelog: Server Config
Added: Horde Runner Frequency
Added: Horde Runner Speed
Added: Hordes mode (Switches hordes to real world time based instead of nightly)
Added: Constant Hordes Mode (Whether zombies come during day, night or both)
Added: Constant Hordes Start Delay (Seconds) (The amount of time after server start for hordes to start coming)
Added: Constant Hordes Wait Time (Seconds) (Delay between hordes)
Added: Zombie Item Drops (Controls what items zombies will drop on death)
Custom Spawn Points
We’ve added the ability to create custom spawn points. Allowing players to create scenarios and place the starting spawn anyplace they’d like. It should even store the player rotation so you can spawn players in for example looking directly at a table full of loot, or a locked door etc. etc.
Player config options
Changelog: Custom Spawn Points
Fix for /tppreset list and /tppreset clear commands not working
Rotation is now stored in tp presets
Added /playerspawn commands to allow scenario creation with custom spawn points (“/playerspawn add SpawnPoint” or “/playerspawn list”)
Added “Custom” option to “Initial Spawn Location” and Respawn Location”. This will make it use the spawn points created with the /playerspawn command
Custom Scenario Options
The ability to lock a structure for a scenario seems like it could be an important one. We’ve added the config option to store known lock codes. This will allow you to pre-fortify and lock a structure up. When someone plays your scenario they will automatically be able to open locked doors. Check out the other changes to scenario setup below.
We’ve also added the ability to remove or add ownership of placed items such as fortifications. This will allow players to place free placed fortifications and still permit players of the scenario to move/remove them.
Lock options
Changelog: Scenario/Config options
Added config options for storing known lock codes.
Added option to open world save director/folder.
Added ‘AllowItemOwnership’ option which enables/disables the ability for only owners to move traps/free placed fortifications.
Workshop Improvements and Fixes
We’ve made some significant improvements to workshop integration. Fixing a lot of the issues you all pointed out in the previous release.
Fix for loading lag when browsing workshop scenarios.
Fixed for workshop item filtering not working until refreshing
Added yellow visuals to show that a workshop item is a default scenario
Added green visuals to show that a workshop item is subscribed to
Username of creator now displayed in the workshop scenarios
Removed need to enter tags when creating workshop item
Disabled opening of update scenario page if user is not the owner
Scroll back to right position after refreshing scenarios to improve navigation
Improved workshop item UI to make it more clear how it works
Installed workshop items now instantly update after local copy is synced to steam.
Added info for uploading image with browse button
Fixed mouse hover info showing through overlays
Added warning icon next to play button when scenario is set to delete DB
Added double click support for playing world
Survive the Nights Workshop
New Scenarios
Call of Duty Nazi Zombie Scenario The second scenario is a bit more fun. It’s our take on what was a big inspiration for Survive the Nights, Call of Duty World at War’s Nazi Zombie mode. The addition of a continuous horde option allows us to basically create a wave based game.
We’ve designed a new UI system to display what wave you’re currently fighting. You’ll see the tally marks in the bottom left hand side of the screen. You’ll also notice a start/end sound when waves come and go. You should also notice the zombies in this mode have glowing eyes!
Completely changing the entire standard gameplay to a fast paced arcade style game mode. You start out in a well stocked and semi-fortified structure. You and your friends will be tasked with surviving as many hordes as possible before you all eventually succumb to the inevitable :) Big talk from us considering we’ve not made it beyond wave 8!
Waves start within a minute or so of the first players spawn in. Players will have just a bit of time to stock up and get ready for what’s to come. You will have around 35 seconds between waves to throw a couple of boards up and prepare for the next onslaught.
As with all of our scenarios, feel free to tweak settings to your liking. We can’t wait to see what you all come up with!
Horde Settings
House setup
Intense wave based gameplay
New UI for zombie waves
New audio for wave start/completion
Stocked and semi-fortified structure to hunker down in
Nazi Zombie Scenario
Night of the Living Dead Scenario
Another massive inspiration for Survive the Nights has be George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. This scenario takes place on a well stocked farm, you’ll have the day to prepare for an intense and massive night horde. This scenario also features walkers only to more closely replicate Romero’s zombies.
Walkers only
Large nightly wave (horde level 15)
Well stocked and fortified structure
Weapons provided
NoTLD Scenario
New Player Tutorial
We’re adding an official new player tutorial. This tutorial should be the first world new players check out. It provides a default setup and forces the tutorial on (most private servers have this off). The tutorial worlds allows players to learn basic gameplay mechanics in a semi-controlled environment.
Spawn in a farm house on west side of island
Resource on the property for tutorial complete
Near by car lot
Tutorial Scenario
Patch Notes - Alpha 1.22
Inventory
Added category dividers in the inventory for easier navigation
Added sub categories to improve inventory navigation
Added right click system for inventory to simplify UI.
Increased font sizes in the inventory to improve navigation.
Increased hovering speed for more responsive feel.
Removed redundant 'use' buttons from containers.
Increased font sizes in the inventory.
Improved attaching items to weapons flow.
Pressing esc while there’s a filter on the inventory now clears the search.
Removed the fav’s craftable system in favour of simpler design.
Added move all button when in a container per item stack.
Unequiping weapon from the inventory no longer closes the UI.
QoL (Quality of Life)
Improved dropping/placing. It’s now much easier to enter placement mode.
Server Config
Added: Fortification tool effectiveness option.
Added: Fortification application strength option.
Added: Horde Runner Frequency
Added: Horde Runner Speed
Added: Hordes mode (Switches hordes to real world time based instead of nightly)
Added: Constant Hordes Mode (Whether zombies come during day, night or both.)
Added: Constant Hordes Start Delay (Seconds) (The amount of time after server start for hordes to start coming)
Added: Constant Hordes Wait Time (Seconds) (Delay between hordes)
Added: Zombie Item Drops (Controls what items zombies will drop on death)
Added command line argument for forcing steam relays on or off.
Fix for weather and day length options not correctly syncing over to the player.
Weather persistence now also disabled when time persistence is disabled.
Custom Spawn Points
Fix for /tppreset list and /tppreset clear commands not working
Rotation is now stored in tp presets
Added /playerspawn commands to allow scenario creation with custom spawn points (“/playerspawn add SpawnPoint” or “/playerspawn list”)
Added “Custom” option to “Initial Spawn Location” and Respawn Location”. This will make it use the spawn points created with the /playerspawn command
Scenario/Config options
Added config options for storing known lock codes.
Added option to open world save director/folder.
Added ‘AllowItemOwnership’ option which enables/disables the ability for only owners to move traps/free placed fortifications.
Workshop
Fix for loading lag when browsing workshop scenarios.
Fixed for workshop item filtering not working until refreshing
Added yellow visuals to show that a workshop item is a default scenario
Added green visuals to show that a workshop item is subscribed to
Username of creator now displayed in the workshop scenarios
Removed need to enter tags when creating workshop item
Disabled opening of update scenario page if user is not the owner
Scroll back to right position after refreshing scenarios to improve navigation
Improved workshop item UI to make it more clear how it works
Installed workshop items now instantly update after local copy is synced to steam.
Added info for uploading image with browse button
Fixed mouse hover info showing through overlays
Added warning icon next to play button when scenario is set to delete DB
Added double click support for playing world
UI
Added input for stopping/starting vehicle while driving
Engine help UI now shown when vehicle is stationary
We have released Alpha 1.21.2 on our experimental branch. Please report bugs and issues in game using the F1 menu. If you'd like to track the patch progress and follow more closely with development, check our changelog and please consider joining our Discord.
How to get into experimental branch:
Open Steam and go to your games library.
Right click on STN and select "Properties"
Navigate to the "Betas" tab and select "experimental" in the drop down menu.
Close the properties window.
You will find a single experimental server titled EXPERIMENTAL_SERVER. Join this for some testing.
New Scenarios
We’re adding two new official scenarios with this update. One is a tutorial scenario that all new players should start with. It places the player in a farmhouse and all of the needed gear to work through the first steps of the game can be found nearby.
The second scenario is a bit more fun. It’s our take on what was a big inspiration for Survive the Nights, Call of Duty World at War’s Nazi Zombie mode. The addition of a continuous horde option allows us to basically create a wave based game while completely changing the entire standard gameplay to a fast paced arcade style game mode. You start out in a well stocked and semi-fortified structure. You and your friends will be tasked with surviving as many hordes as possible before you all eventually succumb to the inevitable :) Big talk from us considering we’ve not made it beyond wave 8!
We’ll include a bigger writeup and more info on these scenarios when we go to the default branch and do the official update.
We’re looking forward to seeing how far you can get in our scenario and what you can all come up with with all of the new server configuration possibilities.
Note: For the purpose of this experimental build and until we move to default the scenarios can be found in the browse tab under the following names - null1 = Night of the Living Dead null2 = Nazi zombies null3 = Starting Tutorial
Patch Notes - Alpha 1.21.2 (Experimental Build)
Inventory
Added category dividers in the inventory for easier navigation
Added sub categories to improve inventory navigation
Added right click system for inventory to simplify UI.
Increased font sizes in the inventory to improve navigation.
Increased hovering speed for more responsive feel.
Removed redundant 'use' buttons from containers.
Increased font sizes in the inventory.
Improved attaching items to weapons flow.
Pressing esc while there’s a filter on the inventory now clears the search.
Removed the fav’s craftable system in favour of simpler design.
Added move all button when in a container per item stack.
Unequiping weapon from the inventory no longer closes the UI.
QoL (Quality of Life)
Improved dropping/placing. It’s now much easier to enter placement mode.
Server Config
Added: Fortification tool effectiveness option.
Added: Fortification application strength option.
Added: Horde Runner Frequency
Added: Horde Runner Speed
Added: Hordes mode (Switches hordes to real world time based instead of nightly)
Added: Constant Hordes Mode (Whether zombies come during day, night or both.)
Added: Constant Hordes Start Delay (Seconds) (The amount of time after server start for hordes to start coming)
Added: Constant Hordes Wait Time (Seconds) (Delay between hordes)
Added: Zombie Item Drops (Controls what items zombies will drop on death)
Added command line argument for forcing steam relays on or off.
Fix for weather and day length options not correctly syncing over to the player.
Weather persistence now also disabled when time persistence is disabled.
Custom Spawn Points
Fix for /tppreset list and /tppreset clear commands not working
Rotation is now stored in tp presets
Added /playerspawn commands to allow scenario creation with custom spawn points (“/playerspawn add SpawnPoint” or “/playerspawn list”)
Added “Custom” option to “Initial Spawn Location” and Respawn Location”. This will make it use the spawn points created with the /playerspawn command
Scenario/Config options
Added config options for storing known lock codes.
Added option to open world save director/folder.
Added ‘AllowItemOwnership’ option which enables/disables the ability for only owners to move traps/free placed fortifications.
Workshop
Fix for loading lag when browsing workshop scenarios.
Fixed for workshop item filtering not working until refreshing
Added yellow visuals to show that a workshop item is a default scenario
Added green visuals to show that a workshop item is subscribed to
Username of creator now displayed in the workshop scenarios
Removed need to enter tags when creating workshop item
Disabled opening of update scenario page if user is not the owner
Scroll back to right position after refreshing scenarios to improve navigation
Improved workshop item UI to make it more clear how it works
Installed workshop items now instantly update after local copy is synced to steam.
Added info for uploading image with browse button
Fixed mouse hover info showing through overlays
Added warning icon next to play button when scenario is set to delete DB
Added double click support for playing world
UI
Added input for stopping/starting vehicle while driving
Engine help UI now shown when vehicle is stationary
Survive the Nights is now 50% off for a weeklong deal - now through February 13th. If you have any questions before purchasing, please join our friendly community on discord.
Survive the Nights is now 70% off during the winter sale - now through January 5th. If you have any questions before purchasing, please join our friendly community on discord.
Find big town trees in center of the islands towns. Below the tree you'll notice a breaker panel and an electric meter. If the you place a generator and provide power to the tree, you can hit the big red button to start the challenge. Keep in mind this challenge can only be done at night and it doesn't stop your nightly horde from arriving :)
Once the challenge starts, you'll need to survive 3 separate waves of zombie hordes. Surviving the challenge will result in presents, duh! This year, as mentioned above, we've upped loot rates. You'll also no longer need a lighter for the firework presents and we’ve included the new flare gun and flare rounds, so go crazy! The event will be active until new year's eve and should automatically disable itself.
December Update (Workshop | Scenarios | Server Configuration Update++)
Hello everyone,
We’ll be updating on default branch today and introducing a ton of new features to the game. The 1.21 update includes as much as we could get into it before the holiday break so you’ll have your work cut out for you testing all of this. We have updated our server configuration options, allowing for a wide range of customization. We’re introducing gameplay scenarios, taking advantage of the new server configs to create tailored experiences. Along with this, we’re introducing Steam Workshop! So you can all create scenarios and share them with anyone. Below we’ll discuss a little of what has gone into 1.21.
New Server Configuration Options & Workshop Talk
These options will be the cornerstone of the initial introduction to not just a more custom gameplay experience but Steam Workshop. We’ll discuss this further along in the blog but the changes below are what’s driving these new features.
Take Note! A lot of changes have happened here. We’ve exposed a ton of elements that weren’t previously changeable by the user, or on the fly at all for that matter. There’s a good possibility that there will be some hiccups, even with official servers but we’ll get that sorted as soon as possible.
Here’s a list of the new and improved server configuration options. If you have any suggestions we’d love to hear them. We’re pretty open to exploring the idea of providing way more access to the game via workshop and would love to hear your thoughts.
Server Configuration
Here’s a list of the new and improved server configuration options. If you have any suggestions, we’d love to hear them. We’re pretty open to exploring the idea of providing way more access to the game via workshop and would love to hear your thoughts.
UI Improvements
These new server options are reflected in game with a new and improved UI. You’ll be able to make all the changes above directly via the hosting tab. You’ll be able to create your world here, change all the options and even share it with the community.
UI for Server Configurations
UI Options
Scenarios
Scenarios are templates that can be used to create a new world save. With the addition of all these new server configuration options, we’re now able to create some really unique experiences. You can adjust so much via the server config now you can really have an effect on gameplay. The scenarios aren’t just linked to the server configuration but also the game world and the database save. So the team or any player for that matter can now create scenarios with specific conditions, from zombie amounts to items placed around the world.
Setting up a Scenario
Scenarios are in a sense just world saves. These saves contain a file set that include the basic files to create and launch a world like your server configuration and database file. In the example below we’ll use our pre-installed default scenario template to create a new and unique experience.
Create a World
Clicking browse will open the Gameplay Scenarios window
Here you will find a few things, including access to the steam workshop and all the player created scenarios.
You should see an installed scenario here called Default Template. Use this and click the Create World button.
Gameplay scenarios and world creation
At this point you’ll be able to rename your world and we suggest you do so.
Name your world
You have just created a new world and are ready to begin the scenario creation process. This is where you’re able to get rather creative. You’ll be greeted with the world save and setup configuration screen below. This screen allows you to adjust quite a few features. In our example we’re creating a hardcore world. In our hardcore world we have made server configuration adjustments.
Low loot spawns
Low loot condition
High zombie rates
High zombie health
High zombie strength
Zombie vision, hearing and fortification attack damage are all set to high.
And so on..
Many other adjustments are made to our configuration file here but more can still be done. After we’re happy with our configuration file we move onto server database setup. This setup isn’t necessary, a configuration setup can stand alone and never hast to be tied into a database file.
You can however join your newly created world and place items in specific spots, move vehicles around, alter the general surrounds to limit of your imagination and gameplay mechanics currently allow.
The database saves do however have a limitation. For example, you can place a gun on a specific table in the world and it will be there for you or anyone who plays the scenario however, you’re not able to ‘share’ your personal inventory at this time. In other worlds, if you were to share your scenario your personal on character items would always be unique.
You can overcome this by setting player starting loot in the config file. Allowing players to start with whatever specific items you’d like.
Server configuration options
Creating a Scenario (with an existing world saves already present)
Click the Host tab
Click on Browse to open up the Workshop scenario list
Browse Gameplay Scenarios
Steam Workshop
All of these new features can be adjusted and shared with the community via Steams Workshop. This process is pretty straight forward. You’ve already created your world and scenario following the steps above so now all that needs doing is uploading to the Steam Workshop.
From the configuration page click on the Steam Workshop tab
Steam Worksop Tab
Click on the Create New Workshop Item button
Follow the prompt and once again click Create
Create Workshop item
After hitting the create button you’ll see a confirmation in the results window
Close this window but remain in the Steam Workshop tab
Click the Update button to create a description of your scenario
Update workshop description
Once you’re finished click the Update button
You should be sent to steams workshop webpage
Your scenario in the Workshop
At this point you might notice a warning that content needs checking. Steam handles this rather quickly, please make sure not to include anything offensive. You might also notice that your preview screenshot isn’t very impressive. You’re able to change this screenshot, to do so follow the steps below. Also remember you can take screenshots in game using /screenshot but it does upscale and create a rather large png. There’s a 1mb limit to uploads here so .jpgs are suggested.
Browse for your local world saves. These files are located in appdata/roaming/survivethenightsserver/worldsaves
Replace the ‘preview' image with one of your choice.
Go back to the world configuration screen and click on the Steam Workshop tab
Update your scenario the picture will update shortly after
The Flare Gun
We haven’t had this much fun introducing a weapon in some time. The flare gun was part of our early concept ideas and with the core backbone done and us now being able to move onto polish and fun bits we’ve introduced it in 1.21. It’s a fantastic and surprisingly useful weapon, from setting zombies alight to sparking a campfire up, along with the obvious use of being able to easily find each other.
Survive the Nights is now 50% off during the autumn sale - now through November 29th. If you have any questions before purchasing, please join our friendly community on discord.
Experimental Build - Alpha 1.20.4 (Config Options For Days)
Heyo, Jayty here. Time for the next experimental!
We’ve had a super busy week. That last experimental (1.21.2) actually broke the hordes on default due to them sharing the same file stripping behaviour during the build process. That got hot fixed earlier in the week as version 1.21.3. Sorry about that one.
How to get into experimental branch:
Open Steam and go to your games library.
Right click on STN and select "Properties"
Navigate to the "Betas" tab and select "experimental" in the drop down menu.
Close the properties window.
You will find a single experimental server titled EXPERIMENTAL_SERVER. Join this for some testing.
Experimental Patch Notes - Alpha v1.20.4
Server Configuration
Added multiple server config options (like loads of them).
Today's Experimental Build
Config options! Last update we got all the optimisation stuff out of the way. Over the last week and half, we’ve been adding config options like crazy. We started by gathering community request, figuring what we need for the scenarios we want to make and also considering things we might want to achieve in the future.
Including the existing options, that gives us a total of 115 server configuration options! 89 of these options are implemented for today's experimental. Some of the rest will make it into the 1.21 and some will be in the pipeline for coming versions.
A full list of all the new config options can be found HERE.
What We Need Testing
We really need all of you to jump in and help us validate they all work as expected. Let us know what you like and what you don’t. Please suggest other new config options in the comments.
Additionally, there’s an opportunity to start leveraging these options to create your own scenarios. The full toolset is going to take us a while to get in, but the intent for 1.21 is to introduce Steam Workshop support for the scenarios. So that players can create, upload and have other players try out their experiences.
Steam Workshop
While the workshop isn’t part of today's experimental build, we’re gearing everything up on our side to make the scenarios completely open to the community. Scenarios will be able to store Databases, server config, custom spawn location set by the creator as well as more in depth JSON based balance mods in the future.
We’d love your thoughts for the Workshop, scenario ideas and general advice for what you’d like to be able to modify.
Build Validation & Official Testers
We’re aiming to improve our build validation pipeline to stop regression happening and to stop annoying scenarios like what happened on default earlier in the week. In the coming weeks we’ll introduce some kind of validation form for experimental builds.
We’d love to implement some perk for community members that dedicate their time to helping us validate the quality of builds. If you have any ideas for potential perks, please let us know!
Wrap up
We’ll probably release another experimental a week on Friday (25th) Nov. It’ll likely contain the core of the scenario logic however, it’s unlikely to include a full workshop implementation. We’ll bring some new concepts of the scenarios. By then we should have a clearer idea of how that will all look and function.
We've released a hotfix (Alpha 1.20.3) to our default branch on Steam. You can find our patch notes below. Please report bugs and issues in game using the F1 menu. In case you missed it, the full v1.20 update can be viewed here.
We’ve decided to try and up our experimental branch game. We’re eager to get builds to you in a rawer and in development state. We’re going to kick that off by releasing the first stages of v1.21.x right now! I’ll start by explaining what today's experimental build release (v.120.2) includes followed by a preview of we want to achieve with 1.21.
How to get into experimental branch:
Open Steam and go to your games library.
Right click on STN and select "Properties"
Navigate to the "Betas" tab and select "experimental" in the drop down menu.
Close the properties window.
You will find a single experimental server titled EXPERIMENTAL_SERVER. Join this for some testing.
Servers now built using unity 2021 to match client.
Reduction in server size by stripping files that are not required.
Ram usage reduction for the server. Estimated 1gb idle ram usage reduction.
Faster server load times.
Client
Optimisation pass over in-game textures to lower RAM usage.
Stripping of unused game scene objects to reduce scene size and loading performance.
Server We’ve started tackling this version from boring to fun (in implementation terms). By that, I mean we’ve started with optimisations. I decided to dig straight into the server as they were using 3.5-4gb’s while idle!
File size on disk wasn’t too bad at around 1.2gb but I felt that could also be improved. CPU as a whole isn’t too much of a concern right now but a few slight improvements have been made.
I started by looking at the file stripping for the server. This is simply the easiest thing to tackle. There’s literally no need for textures, sounds, fonts, etc. on the server. Therefore I did another pass over our stripping system and managed to strip away a bunch more stuff.
Previously we had updated the unity engine from 2019 to 2021. That helped the client out of the box with a few performance bits. However, due to a limitation within the 2021 version, we weren’t able to build the server in 2021. I’ve spent some time getting this working for 1.21 and can happily say it’s working well. The biggest improvement here is that we’re able to take advantage of the dedicated server build target that Unity offers. This strips more engine code and such. Making for a more optimised server.
I’ve decided to ditch asset bundles for the server as there’s really no need for them (due to the stripped nature of the build). This simplifies things and allows us to use the LZ4HC compression method meaning faster and smaller builds.
Server Stats v1.20 (Current Release)
Size on disk: 1.2gb
Idle RAM: 3.5-4gb
Startup Time: 25s.
v1.20.2 (Today's Experimental Build)
Size on disk: 582mb
idle RAM: 2-2.5gb
Startup Time: 10s
Client Andre has been digging into client performance as a whole. He’s made a bunch of small optimisations. However the leading focus again has been RAM usage.
A big pass over most of the textures in the game has been done. Size reductions and optimisations have been done on mass to save up to 1-2gb of run time RAM (dependent on location). Our hope is to tip the scales overall and make it easier for players to run both the client and server without bottlenecks.
We started developing STN years before Unity had built in nested prefabs or prefab variants. Very early on we developed a tool to aid level design. The downside of the system is that each ‘design item' had a script and transform parent. These should have mostly been stripped however a bunch were left over as remnants in the active game scenes. Andre has created a tool that strips these away. This removes thousands of empty/unneeded items. Reducing scene size and hopefully frame dips as you move around the world.
What's In Store for 1.21.x
Performance
Server and client have both needed some love for a while. Our primary concern is RAM usage on both the client and server. With a self hosted server, the combined RAM usage of the game and server were creeping to uncomfortable levels.
Server Configuration
We’ve always billed the game as a ‘sandbox' but really, it’s not been all that sandboxie. This has always been down to our need to get the core dev out of the way. We’re in a groove now and with the relays implemented in 1.20. We feel it’s time to start opening things up to the community more and more.
We’re going to introduce a bunch of new config options. Enough that a massive selection of game play scenarios will be possible. Here’s our rough list for version 1.21. We hope to see you on the experimental branch helping out with testing.
Here's our list of new options (So far):
Custom Spawn Location
Config option for choosing different spawn locations (Campsites/Random/houses/Custom)
Ability to choose whether custom locations are used.
System for setting custom spawnpoints.
System for using custom spawnpoint if select config option is chosen.
Add rotation to TP presets
Server Config Options needed
New Config Option Ideas:
Zombies
Zombie runner move speed (Slow-Medium-Fast). Medium keeps up with player.
Electricity shutoff after time (Always Off - After 1 day - After 2 days - Always On)
Water shutoff after time (Always Off - After 1 day - After 2 days - Always On)
House Alarms (Always Off - After 1 day - After 2 days - Always On)
Night Darkness (No Moon - - Always Moon - Cheat mode)
Food Grow Rate (Realistic - low - Medium - High)
Loot
Lock Sharing (Off - On) On = Anyone can open locks without a code
Loot Respawning (Off - On)
Loot Respawn Frequency (Slow - Medium - Fast)
Loot type in containers (Off - Food only/Everything) or text field [1000-1005]
Food container spawns (Off - On)
Scenarios
This is going to be the meat of 1.21. We’re going to implement a wrapper for all the config options that will allow us and you to create awesome gameplay scenarios.
Scenarios Concept
Scenario Ideas for 1.21
Realism The world has fallen to ruin. It’s 3 months post infections and there’s still a lot of loot around. Zombies are becoming slower but there’s still a fair amount of fresh ones. Managing stats and preparing for the inevitable scenario of running out of world loot is key to survival. Hordes randomly stumble on your position.
Single loot spawn (On server startup)
Mostly Walkers
Hard Player nutrition
Random Hordes
Fresh Infection The infection has just happened. Loot is plentiful but so are the dead. Zombies are fresh, fast and hungry for brains.
Fast Zombies
High Loot
Higher Starting Stats
Post Infection (1 year) There’s not much loot around to scavenge now. Zombies have slowed down but are still around in high numbers. It’s essential to make sure you don’t get caught out by them. Their numbers are deadly.
Slow zombies (Mostly walkers)
Low loot
Low starting stats.
Night of the Living Dead A disparate group of individuals takes refuge in an abandoned house when corpses begin to leave the graveyard in search of fresh human bodies to devour. The pragmatic Ben (Duane Jones) does his best to control the situation, but when the reanimated bodies surround the house, the other survivors begin to panic. As any semblance of order within the group begins to dissipate, the zombies start to find ways inside -- and one by one, the living humans become the prey of the deceased ones. ← Use the actual synopsis of the movie!
Start at a farm house
Partially prepared area
2 Hour Day
Single Hard horde comes.
7 Days to Try (7d2T) Yup, we did it. You’ve got seven days to prepare for the mega horde.
Barely Alive
-3 Starting Overall Health
We’re also after your contributions and ideas so please submit them here.
Flaregun (Maybe) It’s functionally very similar to the crossbow right… It’d be crazy not to add this?!??! We’re going to low key start the implementation of this. It might make 1.21 and if not, we’ll squeeze it in before Christmas. Maybe it could be part of the Winter event.
