Major Update - May (Engine Update | Optimization | Persistence | QoL)
Jayty here,
Another busy period for the team. We had a blast at Insomnia 68 and hope to visit the next event in August. A lot of people asked to take part in the event that we ran. In this update you’ll find instructions for how to set that up!
As mentioned in our previous updates, we’re focusing on a deeper cycle now and most of what you’ll find in the regular updates will be quality of life, bug fixing and smaller gameplay improvements. Expect a bigger funner update in the coming month!
Unity Engine Update
We’ve taken the time to update things from Unity 2019 LTS to the newest ‘safe’ version of unity that we can use. In 1.17 you’ll not tell much immediate difference but the game is running in Unity version 2021 which brings us bang up to date with stable versions of unity! It’s never a fun task to update but keeps things fresh. You will notice some performance improvements with the version too.
Persistence
I know I know, it’s taken us a little longer than it should have to patch this one out. We hit some roadblocks with the engine update which tied us in to finishing those before patching. Vehicles and machines parts will no longer disappear.
Disclaimer! While we’re focusing hard now on through version persistence. There’s likely to be some loss/cleanup of items. We’re working on this all the time and aim to reach near perfect persistence through versions in the coming months. We appreciate all the patience on this front.
Insomnia 68 Finds / QoL
What an opportunity for us! We must have watched over 200 players tryout out the game. All with no experience of the game. It was painful to watch at times, but we learnt a lot about what things need to be more intuitive. We’ll be fixing/improving these things in the coming months but 1.17 does include a bunch of these fixes.
Item hovers are now more responsive and update instantly when looking at them.
Made interactions with small items a lot easier.
Improved issue where player has to hold mouse over items for a while when pressing/holding interact.
Slight increase to interaction distance.
Tweaked colliders on fortifications to allow for easier placing on windows
Fixed FRKS weapon clipping into the camera.
Reduced logoff timer from 10 to 5 seconds
Flashlights no longer turn off when switching weapons. ← wow this one made a lot of people die.
Placement mode is now continuous for all items.
It’s now possible to consume items from your inventory while in a container.
Horde Improvements
No we haven’t brought back fleeing. Rest assured though that it’s on our radar and will will introduce a solution for skipping hordes. Likely in the form of some kind of task… spreading zombie blood on yourself maybe?
We have made a bunch of tweaks though to make hordes more achievable and fun. All things that we were able to balance based on our experiences at i68.
Tweaked colliders on fortifications to allow for easier placing on windows
Fixed hordes not being beatable at later levels caused by delay being too long between zombie spawning.
Zombies now do a bit more damage to fortifications for later horde levels.
Zombie health increased slightly less for later hordes to balance against them doing more damage to fortifications.
Added /hordedifficulty commands for admins
Tweaks to door collider to improve shooting through gap in door.
Lowered damage applied to guns when shooting fortifications
Tweaked collider on barbed wire trap for easier placing
Insomnia Horde Event
Boy the response to the horde event at i68 was overwhelming! A lot of people asked us if they could try it out for themselves after attempting it there. Next time we’ll make it co-op out of the box and take advantage even more of the traps/fortifications (After we make them way better)
Here are the instructions for giving it ago yourselves. It’s built on the foundation of version 1.16 so won’t include the changes listed above. Also note that hordes are tweaked here slightly to make the whole experience more suited to a 20 min play session.
The idea is that you spawn at a mostly fortified/prepared base. You get about 5-6 mins to prep and then a horde comes for you. The default difficulty is pretty doable but you can ramp it up if you really fancy a challenge!
Fixed issue which stopped the player being kicked back to the menu when the server process cannot be started.
Persistence vehicles no longer disappearing.
Persistence parts from items like fires no longer disappearing.
Item hovers are now more responsive and update instantly when looking at them.
Made interactions with small items a lot easier.
Improved issue where player has to hold mouse over items for a while when pressing/holding interact.
Slight increase to interaction distance.
Tweaked colliders on fortifications to allow for easier placing on windows
Fixed hordes not being beatable at later levels caused by delay being too long between zombie spawning.
Zombies now do a bit more damage to fortifications for later horde levels.
Zombie health increased slightly less for later hordes to balance against them doing more damage to fortifications.
Added /hordedifficulty commands for admins
Fixed FRKS weapon clipping into the camera.
Tweaks to door collider to improve shooting through gap in door.
Lowered damage applied to guns when shooting fortifications
Tweaked collider on barbed wire trap for easier placing
Fixed horde difficulty hardcore not fully working. More zombies will now come at once at the hardcore horde difficulty configuration.
Reduced logoff timer from 10 to 5 seconds
Placement mode is now continuous for all items.
Chainsaw no longer spawning at melee container.
Reduced loot amounts slightly in houses.
Flashlights no longer turn off when switching weapons.
It’s now possible to have both flashlight and headlamp on at the same time.
It’s now possible to consume items from your inventory while in a container.
Damage to players from zombies is now halved when the player is in a vehicle.
Players no longer get damaged in vehicles until all windows are smashed.
Tweaked when mental health effects show and tweaked delay
Updated Translations from May 19th 2022
50% Off Sale Reminder
There are just a few days left to get 50% off Survive the Nights. This sale ends on Monday, May 23rd. If you have any questions before purchasing, please join our friendly community on discord.
We have released 1.17.0 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.
Patch Notes - Alpha 1.17.0 (Experimental Build)
Fixed issue which stopped the player being kicked back to the menu when the server process cannot be started.
Persistence vehicles no longer disappearing.
Persistence parts from items like fires no longer disappearing.
Item hovers are now more responsive and update instantly when looking at them.
Made interactions with small items a lot easier.
Improved issue where player has to hold mouse over items for a while when pressing/holding interact.
Slight increase to interaction distance.
Tweaked colliders on fortifications to allow for easier placing on windows
Fixed hordes not being beatable at later levels caused by delay being too long between zombie spawning.
Zombies now do a bit more damage to fortifications for later horde levels.
Zombie health increased slightly less for later hordes to balance against them doing more damage to fortifications.
Added /hordedifficulty commands for admins
Fixed FRKS weapon clipping into the camera.
Tweaks to door collider to improve shooting through gap in door.
Lowered damage applied to guns when shooting fortifications
Tweaked collider on barbed wire trap for easier placing
Fixed horde difficulty hardcore not fully working. More zombies will now come at once at the hardcore horde difficulty configuration.
Reduced logoff timer from 10 to 5 seconds
Placement mode is now continuous for all items.
Chainsaw no longer spawning at melee container.
Reduced loot amounts slightly in houses.
Flashlights no longer turn off when switching weapons.
It’s now possible to have both flashlight and headlamp on at the same time.
It’s now possible to consume items from your inventory while in a container.
Damage to players from zombies is now halved when the player is in a vehicle.
Players no longer get damaged in vehicles until all windows are smashed.
Tweaked when mental health effects show and tweaked delay
Updated Translations from May 19th 2022
Thanks for the continued support and continued issue and suggestion reporting :). Below are some helpful links to anyone new and interested in the game. If you'd like to follow a bit closer, please consider joining our Discord. We're here, we're listening!
Survive the Nights is now 50% off for a weeklong deal until Monday, May 23rd. If you have any questions before purchasing, please join our friendly community on discord.
As the title lets on, the game and the team have been invited to and will be attending and showcasing UK’s largest game convention this weekend. Insomnia is a massive event and everyone is super excited to be going. It is the first major game convention we’ve been asked to attend and we are all rather giddy.
The event takes place over this holiday weekend and if you are attending please come by and see us! Jay, Andre, John and Jean will all be attending. You’ll find the Survive the Nights booth located in the “Indie Zone” that’s section 2 located on the map below.
We’ve spent a bit of time this week preparing for the event, making up some banners (which still haven't arrived) and putting some gear together. We’ve also developed a small challenge for those attending the festival. A 20 minute zombie onslaught taking place in one of our farmhouses. The event places the player in the midst of it all, with all the loot, weapons and fortifications they’ll need to attempt to survive as long as possible. This fun little project the guys have put together really showcases quite a few of Survive the Nights features.
We gave our buddy WIRED GAMING a shot at the event to test it out before we set it loose on the festival goers and he did a fantastic job. Many thanks to WIRED check his channel out here.
Major Update - April (Persistence | Quality | Future of STN)
Jayty here,
It’s been a while! We’ve been mega busy here in the studio. Version 1.16 has become somewhat of a milestone for us. We’ve been focused for so long on quality of life, overall player retention and generally trying to make the game something we can all be proud of.
Together with the community, we’ve created something cool. It’s taken a lot of grind and time but together we’ve finally produced a version of the game that feels like a ‘game'. Don’t get me wrong, there’s loads of improvements to be made.
From here we’re going to change things up again. The monthly updates have been amazing for analyzing how all of you are experiencing the game. It’s allowed us to refine the tutorial and iron out bugs without you having to wait 2 months between updates. The downside is that it puts a lot of pressure on our small team to bash out quality updates. Sometimes resulting in too many small fixes.
We’re going to draw a line under the game for now. v1.16 is stable and implements a lot of fixes that a lot of people have been waiting a long time for. Some are listed below but check out the changelog for more details.
The Plan
A long cycle update. We’re talking 4-6 months on this one. Something that brings in some big ticket features and a bunch of other fun stuff. Maybe we’ll leave Early Access around this time, maybe we won’t. Making STN has always been about producing the game that we and the community want to play, something that we’re 100% still dedicated to.
We’ve always shied away from the prospect of a publisher. We’re going to change that up now. A great publisher could work wonders for the public reception of the game. We’re not afraid to admit that we’re not the best at marketing. We try to put all our limited resources into making the game great. If you have any recommendations for publishers that would suit STN then please let us know. We’ll happily reach out and see if they’d be interested.
Vehicle fortifications, Melee overhauls, POI’s, Cloud servers, Character customization, Structure improvements and new vehicles/weapons/traps are just some of the big ticket things we hope to achieve in the next version. What are some of the features that all of you would like to see? Not everything will make the cut but we’re confident that we can deliver an update that gives our dedicated player base what they really want.
Major Changes in v1.16
Item decay
A long standing issue has been server stagnation. Especially since we added home setting. We’ve finally gotten around to implementing a decay system that gives all the persistence players need while also clearing up after players have moved on. This should make the experience more consistent overall.
It’ll mean that this update requires another DB reset (sorry). This feature lays down the foundation for no more after this point though. We’ll dedicate ourselves to proper DB management so that no more resets are needed unless absolutely essential.
Stunning
Players now get stunned by zombies. We’ve been constantly battling with the balance between zombie amounts, their difficulty and what incentivizes the player to progress from melee. We’ve landed on stunning. when the player gets hit, they’ll slow down slightly. This means that players need to be way more strategic when interacting with the higher amount of zombies the game now has.
Don’t worry though, there’s more ammo overall to counter this so progressing from melee should feel more natural and fun.
Zombie Behavior
This one is tougher than you might think. Even internally it can be difficult to all agree on how zombies should behave. We all have our favorite zombie movie, show or video game and there really isn’t one correct way for zombies to behave.
Over the past updates, we committed to getting the zombies outdoors during the day, having way more and making them varied speed. One thing we didn’t really adjust was their agro system.
Back when zombies were inside during the day, we needed to be really strict with their agro so that it felt balanced and you couldn’t draw too many at once. Some of you probably remember entering the original police station and drawing all 30 zombies out in one go. Now they’re outside, slow and in higher quantities it feels like triggering 1 should trigger more zombies in the area.
Zombies are now way more sensitive to the sound players are making. This means there’s a whole new element of strategy for the player to consider when interacting with large amounts of zombies.
PvP Improvements
You don’t even know how many times I’ve ‘accidentally' killed JB while we’re trying to hold down a house. It’s not my fault if he runs in front of my gun right!? Jokes aside, friends now have health bars so that you can help each other other out in desperate moments.
PvP damage overall has also been nerfed a bit because it was pretty savage in general. Other players still aren’t MMO boss level strong however. Meaning PvP remains a serious threat.
No More Compass
We used to rely heavily on the finding of the map and crafting of the compass. The game's got enough other features to no longer need that as a crutch. It’s more important that players can find each other when getting in game or know where they need to head after death. Players now have access to the map and compass always.
On a side note, we’ll be introducing a hardcore mode that involves proper hardcore survives. AKA no map/compass, lower starting health etc.
Metal Refineries
JB’s been working on design and has introduced a new set of metal factory type buildings over the map. These locations are super useful for finding scrap metal in large quantities. Something that’s going to be needed if you want to start crafting and using free placed forts. 15 new areas have been added in total. You can find them on the map by looking for the anvil/recycling icon.
Interaction Responsiveness
In this update we’ve focused on a lot of the mechanics that still felt clunky. Things aren’t perfect by any means but overall, things like fortifying or using placement mode shouldn’t feel as muted. This just makes general gameplay smoother. We’ll continue this refinement in all the updates to come.
Tutorial Improvements
This is dirty work. It’s not fun but very much needed to get people on board in the first place. We’ve made another set of changes to get players involved with the features the game has. They’re all listed in the changelog but mostly they focus on getting the players through to the fortifying and horde survival game loop.
For now, we’ll not focus on any more early game stuff. It’ll be mid game, fun stuff and fixes.
Overall Health Mechanic
Disclaimer: Still far from perfect! We’re dedicated to making the overall health principal work. We know that players want to develop their character over the duration of their life. It’s just a case of incentivizing it and properly communicating it to the player.
We’ve decided to increment the health and stamina gains in steps of 15 instead of 10. This gives the player more incentive to start managing their overall health. Additionally, we’ve lowered the starting calories requirement and increased the multiplier as the overall health raises. This will allow new life players to onboard with the overall health system much better than before.
Consumable Loot
A major issue with the game for the longest time has been the amount of consumable loot. It kinda made the improvement methods of preparing food pointless. The difficulty is that we want to make sure that new players can always find food.
We’ve nerfed consumable loot by almost 50%. To counter this for new players, we’ve nerfed the starting calorie requirements for the base overall health. This means that players need to find much less food when they first get started. On the opposite end, the calorie requirement multiplier is now higher as you raise overall health.
This change should mean that players naturally have to progress to hunting, growing and stewing to manage their increasing overall health.
Patch Notes - Alpha 1.16
HOTFIX 1.16.2
Updated translations from crowdin on 8th April.
Reduced consumables spawns by up to 50% in houses and similar structures.
Reduced the starting requirements for calories.
Increased the calorie requirements multiplier as overall health raises.
Health and stamina now goes up by 15 per overall health instead of 10.
Slight reduction in container loot to counter the removal of empty bottles.
Changed respawn mechanic to default to home spawns.
Simplified the respawn UI.
Reduced consumables spawns by up to 50% in houses and similar structures.
Reduced the starting requirements for calories.
Increased the calorie requirements multiplier as overall health raises.
Health and stamina now goes up by 15 per overall health instead of 10.
Empty bottles no longer spawning in containers.
Quote symbol doesn’t open the terminal while the chat is open.
Start fortification is the standard plank to save confusion when fortifying for the first time.
Improved the metal refinery map icon.
Fix for weapon equipping while driving when weapon was avoiding (being close to walls or hitting zombies while driving)
Quick guide now fades off as it animates offscreen.
Chainsaw no longer incorrectly spawning at tool spawn points
Metal refinery signs in correct position.
Added strengthening of fortification to the guide.
Added extra cooking step to the guide.
Improved wording in several areas of the guide.
Inventory Guide page UI improved.
Quality of Life
Removed various achievements that were no longer used.
Improved sleeping bag collider to allow placement closer to other items
Improved character slowing down when walking over small objects or steep slopes and stairs
Fix for issue where gun wouldn’t fire/aim/reload caused when close to zombies.
Fixed various admin commands that updated a users account.
Fixed not being able to equip weapons in vehicles when switching from the drivers seat to a passenger seat
Fixed player sometimes being able to equip a weapon while driving
Fixes for harvest machines being marked as harvested when harvesting with a full inventory
Lowered PVP damage overall.
Lowered PVP damage when damaging friends.
Fix for items being picked up on accident when trying to place items
Compass no longer requires an actual compass item in the inv.
New players now start with 80 health instead of 60.
Players no longer slow down as much when walking through bushes.
Improved sliding and jumping to fix players jumping up trees, power lines and steep cliffs.
Vehicles are no longer damaged when shooting out of them.
Reduced vehicle damage from small impacts at lower speeds.
Fixed weird highlighting on oceans and rivers in harvest water guide step
Drop / Placement mode Improvements
Interact Hold down made more consistent across different frame rates.
Interact hold time slightly reduced.
Loading circle more accurate and responsive when holding down interact.
Fix for spamming Inventory Full notification when trying to enter placement mode with a full inventory.
Items in placement mode now flush with the surface to improve placing experience.
Persistence
Added global decay system that cleans up all player related items when the player has not been active for extended period.
Fixed scenarios where disabled items would be carried over in to new versions.
Lowered the tree clean up loop from 500 to 200 trees.
Fixed issue with containers spawning disabled items.
Fortification
Fixed issue where fortifications can be placed inside of each other while fortifying.
Fortifying now more responsive overall.
Fixed clipping fortifications when planks go red while fortifying
AI
Fixed horde zombies not reaching player when moving away
Fix for zombies looking dark when dying outdoors
Increased general response to noise for zombies
Big increase in response to gun shots for zombies
Damage from zombies increased slightly
Fixed issue where zombies would sometimes hit the player when it didn’t look like they attacked
Animations
Fix for lids not popping off cooked cans
VFX
Baseball bat can now be used as a fire torch.
Baseball bat with nails can now be used as fire torch.
Fixed various effects intermittently not working (tree chopping effects)
SFX
Fixed scenarios where footstep sounds weren't working.
Added sounds when searching for items (wood/metal/cloth/AI).
Headshot sounds are no longer delayed.
Fixed zombie sounds cutting out when zombie dies
General
Players now get stunned by zombies.
Fixed issue where players can glitch into buildings when getting out of vehicle seat
Fix for placement mode not working in some large structures
Fires can now be trampled by AI and players. This reduces their exploitivity when being used as a trap.
Environment
Added metal refinery to terrain 51
Added metal refinery to terrain 19
Added metal refinery to terrain 35
Added metal refinery to terrain 58
Added metal refinery to terrain 26
Added metal refinery to terrain 11
Added metal refinery to terrain 61
Added metal refinery to terrain 28
Added metal refinery to terrain 45
Added Metal Refinery to terrain 23
Added metal refinery to terrain 21
Added metal refinery to terrain 53
Added metal refinery to terrain 39
Added metal refinery to terrain 56 (2)
Changed warehouse variant to Metal Refinery (scrap metal super source)
Fixed china cabinet collider to allow placement of sleeping bag next to it
Reduced tree amounts around towns and other dense areas to balance performance.
Fixed floating loot where coffee tables used to be.
Added fire places to all structures that were missing them.
Added scrap harvest throughout the world.
Particles
Fixed concrete particles when shooting road surfaces.
Fixed small objects clipping into the road when dropping.
Drops
Pliers, wrenches and screw drivers can now be found at hardware stores.
Maps should no longer spawn.
Compass disabled (The player now has this by default)
Disabled various drops that didn't have a purpose.
UI
Fix for menu toggles staying selected after closing them
Fix for notification sometimes saying you picked up wood when inventory is close to full
Added health requirements to quick guide steps
Improved “Survive the Night” step
Fortification fonts updated to match other UI.
Notification when picking up a log now displays the amount of wood picked up.
Removed incorrect notifications about empty bottles when searching for water
Disabled automatic help video popups.
Added health bar in name tag for friends
40% Off Sale Reminder
There are just a few days left to get 40% off Survive the Nights. This sale ends on Monday, April 11th. If you have any questions before purchasing, please join our friendly community on discord.
We have released 1.16.1 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.
Patch Notes - Alpha 1.16.1 (Experimental Build)
Quality of Life
Removed various achievements that were no longer used.
Improved sleeping bag collider to allow placement closer to other items.
AI
Fixed horde zombies not reaching player when moving away
Fix for zombies looking dark when dying outdoors
VFX
Baseball bat can now be used as a fire torch.
Baseball bat with nails can now be used as fire torch.
Fixed various effects intermittently not working (tree chopping effects)
SFX
Fixed scenarios where footstep sounds weren't working.
Environment
Added metal refinery to terrain 51
Added metal refinery to terrain 19
Added metal refinery to terrain 35
Added metal refinery to terrain 58
Added metal refinery to terrain 26
Added metal refinery to terrain 11
Added metal refinery to terrain 61
Added metal refinery to terrain 28
Added metal refinery to terrain 45
Added Metal Refinery to terrain 23
Added metal refinery to terrain 21
Added metal refinery to terrain 53
Added metal refinery to terrain 39
Added metal refinery to terrain 56 (2)
Changed warehouse variant to Metal Refinery (scrap metal super source)
Fixed china cabinet collider to allow placement of sleeping bag next to it
Reduced tree amounts around towns and other dense areas to balance performance.
UI
Fix for menu toggles staying selected after closing them
Thanks for the continued support and continued issue and suggestion reporting :). Below are some helpful links to anyone new and interested in the game. If you'd like to follow a bit closer, please consider joining our Discord. We're here, we're listening!
Survive the Nights is now 40% off for two week special promotion until Monday, April 11th. If you have any questions before purchasing, please join our friendly community on discord.
We have released 1.16 on our experimental branch. There’s quite a bit of stuff to check over for this update and we’ll have a full devblog out when we hit default.
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 feel free to join 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.
Patch Notes - Alpha 1.16 (Experimental Build)
Quality of Life
Fixed various admin commands that updated a users account.
Fixed not being able to equip weapons in vehicles when switching from the drivers seat to a passenger seat
Fixed player sometimes being able to equip a weapon while driving
Fixes for harvest machines being marked as harvested when harvesting with a full inventory
Lowered PVP damage overall.
Lowered PVP damage when damaging friends.
Fix for items being picked on accident up when trying to place items
Compass no longer requires an actual compass item in the inv.
New players now start with 80 health instead of 60
Players no longer slow down as much when walking through bushes.
Improved sliding and jumping to fix players jumping up trees, power lines and steep cliffs.
Vehicles are no longer damaged when shooting out of them.
Reduced vehicle damage from small impacts at lower speeds.
Fortification
Fixed issue where fortifications can be placed inside of each other while fortifying.
Fortifying now more responsive overall.
Fixed clipping fortifications when planks go red while fortifying
AI
Increased general response to noise for zombies
Big increase in response to gun shots for zombies
Damage from zombies increased slightly
Fixed issue where zombies would sometimes hit the player when it didn’t look like they attacked
Fix for notification sometimes saying you picked up wood when inventory is close to full
Animations
Fix for lids not popping off cooked cans
SFX
Added sounds when searching for items (wood/metal/cloth/AI).
Headshot sounds are no longer delayed.
Fixed zombie sounds cutting out when zombie dies
General
Players now get stunned by zombies.
Fixed issue where players can glitch into buildings when getting out of vehicle seat
Fix for placement mode not working in some large structures
Fires can now be trampled by AI and players. This reduces their exploitivity when being used as a trap.
Environment
Fixed floating loot where coffee tables used to be.
Added fire places to all structures that were missing them.
Added scrap harvest throughout the world.
Particles
Fixed concrete particles when shooting road surfaces.
Fixed small objects clipping into the road when dropping.
Drops
Pliers, wrenches and screw drivers can now be found at hardware stores.
Maps should no longer spawn.
Compass disabled (The player now has this by default)
Disabled various drops that didn't have a purpose.
UI
Notification when picking up a log now displays the amount of wood picked up.
Removed incorrect notifications about empty bottles when searching for water
Disabled automatic help video popups.
Added health bar in name tag for friends
Thanks for the continued support and continued issue and suggestion reporting :). Below are some helpful links to anyone new and interested in the game. If you'd like to follow a bit closer, please consider joining our Discord. We're here, we're listening!
We’ve had a productive week putting together and getting to work on our 1.16 game plan. We’ll be focusing mostly on quality of life issues for this build. We have a really solid foundation now and the game is a good deal of fun so we’re going to focus on some of the more annoying issues that cause inconvenience to gameplay. We’ll also be delving deep into some of the long standing annoyances in the game based on the most reported tickets.
Fire Improvements
We’ve introduced a stomping mechanic to our in game campfires. Players or AI moving over campfire will now extinguish the campfire itself. Players and AI will still take damage of course but the fire itself will not continue to blaze essentially creating a never ending very OP trap. There are still improvements to be made to zombie hit effects as they and players move through burning fires as you’ll notice in the gif below.
Fire Stomping
Exiting Vehicle Loophole
There’s a current bug in game that allows players to bypass fortified structures/locks by parking near a door and exiting a vehicle. This is an issue that was solved in the past but has crept its way back into the most recent builds. 1.16 will see a proper solution and this should be an issue moving forward any longer.
Exiting Car Fix
Health Bar on Friend Name Tags
Many of you have requested this feature. It’s not easy to currently see your friends health to know where everyone stands. In 1.16 friends will have a health bar right below their name tag allowing you and your friends to easily gauge each others current health situation.
Health Bar Below Name tags
General Improvements and Fixes
Below is a short list of some of the other improvements, additions and fixes we’ll be working on for 1.16. We’ll likely go over some of these in greater detail as we work through this development cycle. We’re doing our best to keep these updates meaningful and more important quick. We’ll be sticking to monthly game update doing our best to get them out the first Friday of each month for the foreseeable future.
Fixes
Melee Sounds Fixes
Remove empty bottle hints and notifications from guide/game as they’ve been removed.
Window fortification fixes. Sometimes placing fortifications on windows can be finicky if you’re not standing exactly in front of the window. This has been greatly improved.
Can popping sound and animation fixed!
You no longer damage your vehicle when shooting from it through front windshield.
Removed lag when starting fires
A large sweep over entire island adding more scrap harvest piles and vehicle wrecks to provide player with more access to scrap metal.
Disabled numerous drops that currently have no purpose.
General Improvements
Slower players when they’re attacked by zombies (currently no negative to getting hit making Melee somewhat OP).
Window fortification improvements. Sometimes placing fortifications on windows can be finicky if you’re not standing exactly in front of the window. This has been greatly improved.
Raise players starting health 60 was just needlessly low.
Felling a tree and chopping the trunk into pieces now provides wood rather than a log and additional pointless crafting step.
Reduced vehicle damage from small impacts (very annoying).
Animals now harvestable after you hit them with a vehicle.
Removed the need for a compass, maps works as it does with a compass now right from the start of gameplay. This game is best experienced with friends and we want to make it easier for you to find each other.
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 feel free to join our Discord.
Don't want to wait for an experimental build? Join us on Patreon and gain access to everything in this devblog and 1.15 development builds.
Major Update - March (Chainsaw | Controller Support++)
Hello everyone,
We’re moving our 1.15 builds over to default today. This is a big update it includes a number of nice quality of life fixes along with some major features. Controller support has been introduced in preparation for our Steam Deck release (waiting on ability to submit for review). Along with controller support and quality of life improvements, we’re introducing the chainsaw! Below we’ll review some of the features in 1.15. If you could all please test against the changelog below and report any issues via the in game report feature it would help greatly to improve mechanics.
This update will require a server wipe and all private servers should also wipe databases. New features and controller mechanics call for it and, with an update this large, it’s always good to have a fresh start. Sorry for any inconvenience. We do our best to keep these to a minimum.
Steam Deck and Controller Support
The March update introduces full controller support. This is something that has been requested from the community pretty much since we started development. Controller support is being introduced in preparation for our Steam Deck release.
We’ve spent a lot resources developing controller support and implementing Steam Deck support but sadly we’re unable to progress with the Steam Deck Verification itself. The game is completely playable on the deck and running great on it to boot. But you won’t see the the green ‘verified’ tick.
Steam has gone through the trouble of supplying the team with a Steam Deck dev kit which we are grateful for. The Deck is amazing bit of tech and a revolution for handheld gaming for those who enjoy it. That being said, they’ve not allowed us the ability to submit our game for review. It’s not just us, Steam is very ‘backed up’ when it comes to verifying titles for the Steam Deck. They seem to have decided that more popular titles would be the first to get verification and release on the decks store section. It’s a pretty massive blow for a small team like ours. We’ve spent the last month dedicating the majority of our resources to get things properly running on the Deck. To be told that a massive team like Steam is months away from verifying games, seems a bit silly to us to say the least.
Changes we've made in prep for Steam Deck release and controller support:
Added controller support using Steam Inputs API
Added Controller button glyphs to locations that show key inputs.
Acceleration/Braking in vehicles is now has an analog input. Allows for varied force.
Added on screen keyboard support.
Added custom quality settings for the steam deck.
Gyro support when aiming.
Steering is now an axis meaning it can take analog input.
Controller navigation added to main menus + bumper support for navigating inventory tabs.
Inventory, container and machine UI is placed nicely for Deck support.
Player movement is now an axis for analog joystick support.
Controller binding override so that Steams built in system is used.
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Streaming STN to Phone with Controller Support
Car Alarms
Zombies will trigger a car alarm when attacking vehicles + shooting vehicle will trigger the alarm (only when the engine is off). When the car alarm initially triggers it will also work to attract nearby zeds useful as a diversion for a last ditch escape effort perhaps.
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Container Forts
We’ll continue to ‘fill in’ our map as we move through development cycles. The 1.15 build will feature small ‘fortress’ like structures spread around the world made of shipping containers. These container forts, as we’re calling them, will be the main POI/area for players to find the newly introduced and very fun chainsaw. The forts will likely be upgraded as we move onto future builds and a few more added.
Container Fort Northwest
Container Fort Northeast
Container Fort Central
Resource and Item Combining
We’ve had an issue lurking with item combining for some time now. To break it down in simple terms, the issue was items would combine on pickup. This behavior was intended and is desirable for things like boxes of nails, screws, ammo, etc. As an example, this system is intended to work as follows: the player has a box of ammo in their inventory with 9/20 rounds; they pick up another box of ammo with 11/20 rounds; the player now has a single full box of ammo 20/20 rounds in their inventory. Perfect! That’s exactly what you would expect to happen.
The problem starts with items like fuel cans and actual guns! As an example, you have a revolver in your inventory with 3/6 rounds. You find another identical revolver with 3/6 rounds and pick it up. You would expect to have two separate revolvers. However, the system doesn’t currently function like that. What would happen is, the system would take the ammo from the weapon that was picked up in the world and fill the inventory weapon then discard the second revolver. This is not ideal at all. James has sunk time into fixing this issue and you shouldn’t face anything like it after 1.15.
Chainsaw
Oh boy, this thing is a game changer when it comes to gathering wood for fortifications and well shredding zombies. The chainsaw makes quick work of both trees, fortifications and zombies! It’s a good deal of fun and we’ll improve on the feature as we move along in development.
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Chainsaw vs AI
Inventory Improvements
We’re getting around to cleaning up some inventory issues and one the biggest reported issues is a fix for the ‘Move All’ and ‘Take All’ problems. Mainly the fact that under some circumstances the feature simply didn’t work. Moving items from inventory to machines as an example is now fixed. Along with these fixes optimizations allow for the move to be instant.
Optimization to item hovers.
Move all and take all form containers/machines now working fully.
Move all and take all from both machines and containers is now instant.
Sorting the inventory is now instant.
Instant Take All
Move All | Take All working on machines
Crafting Improvements
With the upcoming focus on fortifications we’ve made some small largely requested changes to crafting recipes in the game. The player is now able to craft a hammer and an axe with simple materials like scrap metal and wood. We’ve removed the handle crafting and head crafting along with those drops. This should make felling trees, crafting planks and fortifying structures more accessible to the player early in the game.
We have also adjusted the initial crafting window to include anything that can be crafted with your current inventory right at the top of the list. After that you'll see all craftables again in alphabetical order. This was a much requested feature from the community and you’ll see it in 1.15.
Improved Crafting Layout
Fortification Improvements
Currently fortification strength isn’t something that stands out when looking at say a plank on a window. So little does it stand out that we’ve watched many of you seemingly not even know you could further fortification strengths. Placing a fortification for the first time simply applies it to the window, it doesn’t apply it at full strength. The new system adds a little color to the mix, allowing the player to easily see just how strong the placed fortification is. We’ve also spent some time fixing issues with damaging fortifications. You can see examples of the color change on strength readout and the working fortification damage below.
We will be expanding on fortification ideas in the coming builds so if you have any feel free to share. We plan on expanding on traps also with coming improvements to structure electrical systems it should make things very interesting.
Fortification Strength
Patch Notes - Alpha 1.15
HOTFIX 1.15.3
Fixed issue which allowed tree stems to be chopped from the furthest point first.
Placement mode now shows controller glyphs
Pickup up logs now give wood. This saves one crafting step and confusion.
Fixed issue where the inventory would disappear for a moment when crafting.
Non spawnable items no longer incorrect spawn.
Guide alterations to bring fortifying earlier in the game loop.
Controller input UI now shows on the menu screen.
It's now possible to rotate items in placement mode when using a controller.
Controller glyphs are now shown in the quick guide.
Chainsaws now spawn at container forts.
Container fort locations now show on the map.
Chainsaw
Chainsaw weapon added!!!
Steam Deck / Controller Support
Added controller support using Steam Inputs API
Added Controller button glyphs to locations that show key inputs.
Acceleration/Braking in vehicles is now has an analog input. Allows for varied force.
Added on screen keyboard support.
Added custom quality settings for the steam deck.
Gyro support when aiming.
Steering is now an axis meaning it can take analog input.
Controller navigation added to main menus + bumper support for navigating inventory tabs.
Inventory, container and machine UI is placed nicely for Deck support.
Player movement is now an axis for analog joystick support.
Controller binding override so that Steams built in system is used.
Vehicles
'S' now properly functions as a brake input.
Vehicles can now be started with continuous input through the accelerator. Instead of lifting and pressing for each attempt.
Steam
Controller glyph support so that correct inputs are shown in game.
Initial implementation for Steam Controller Input support.
SteamSDK updated
Car Alarms
Zombies will trigger a car alarm when attacking vehicle while the engine is off.
Shooting a vehicle will trigger a car alarm while the engine is off.
NOTE: Car alarms not settable by players at this time (Something we'll add in the future)
Optimisations
Fix for small lag spike when shooting, hitting zombies or starting a fire.
Optimisations to loaded object amounts to improve load times and general performance.
Optimisations to item hovers.
Optimisations to cabin doors.
Small optimization for rendering of reflections
Terrain rendering optimized slightly
General reduction of shadow casters to improve performance
Quality of Life (QoL)
Items are no longer incorrectly combined when picking up.
Interact hold time slightly reduced.
It’s not possible to exit a vehicle by holding interact key while not looking at the exit point.
It’s now possible to initiate hold functionality with the interact key pressed before looking at the interactable.
Interact press action is now triggered when pressing Interact during the whole hold press sequence. This should limit the amount of frustrating press/hold actions.
Fixed players not being able to damage fortifications with a hammer by right clicking
Sorting the inventory is now instant
Move all and take all form containers/machines now working fully.
Move all and take all from both machines and containers is now instant.
Shooting holes added to cabin doors
Cabin doors optimized
Camera height tweaked for pickup trucks to make it easier to see out.
Fix for harvesting AI not working when killed with a vehicle.
Fix for rag dolls sometimes disappearing towards the edge of the screen
Quick connect function now only tries to connect to servers of the same version.
Tree Chopping
Fixed issue where last logs would take a while to show up when chopping up a tree stem.
Fix for not being able to chop down a tree sometimes even though you have the right tool selected.
Fix for extra logs being incorrectly chopped while cutting tree stem.
VFX
Wood chopping particles improved
Crafting
Hammer now craftable.
Axe now craftable.
Animation
Fix for camera animations being too intense in a lot of scenarios causing difficulties with fortifying, melee and tree chopping
Fix for camera shake not always working properly
Avoidance now cancels idle and inspect animations
UI
Text in item hovers now matches size of text to prevent clipping in different languages
Item hover fonts improved
Quick play button is now slightly wider, 'New' label now fits and title now reads 'Quick Play' instead of 'Quick play'
Craftables that you can currently craft are now displayed at the top of the list.
Ammo is now shown in the weapons category.
Q and E to switch between fortifications now disabled while chat is open
Added red and amber colors to UI on fortifications indicating current strength
Added ping animation to house symbol when opening map
Added animation when placing map pin
Increased brightness of harvest machine hover outline during the night
Environment
Added container fort to northeast
Added container fort to southeast
Added container fort to northwest
Added container fort to southeast
Added central container fort
Fixed grass detail on terrain 32
Added chainsaw spawners to container forts
Added more scrap harvest machines to the entire world
Added scrap harvest machines to farm equipment
Added scrap harvest machines to magazine rack
Removed logout machines from camp beds.
Drops
Disabled matches since they are not used.
Localization
Item hovers are now localized
Updated Crowd in community translations 2nd March 2022
Default language now set to English. Fixes issues with the inventory breaking when launching with an unsupported language.
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 feel free to join our Discord.
