New patch in publicbeta (v176) with diagonal fences and varied settlement shapes
It's patch day! Say goodbye to those perfectly square AI settlements, because (if you start a new game in v176) the AI communities in the world will all be different randomized polygonal shapes. The game now supports diagonal fences as well - whereas previously if you put two fences on diagonally adjacent tiles they would technically block pathfinding, but would just be rendered as single fence posts and look a bit silly - now a fence will be drawn between them. I've also added some sloping fence pieces so they look a bit more natural on hillsides. And you can build fences (but not other buildings) over rivers, which is really useful.
Aside from the fence stuff I've also done some work on the combat AI, trying to make your followers stick with you better if you run away from a fight or into a building. I've made NPCs a bit less likely to all run away in situations where they outnumber you. And when they do abandon their bases, they'll be less likely to keep returning after a minute or so - instead, they can become vagrants who wander the map looking for a new base. Also I did a playthrough to test all these changes and basically ended up fixing a lot of other things along the way (as always happens).
Finally, there's now a Ukrainian translation by youtuber Survager! And Simplified Chinese has been updated with all the latest dialog.
Here's the full change list:
EDIT - I released a quick follow-up patch to fix a crash, v177:
[h3]What's this publicbeta thing?[/h3]
v177 will be in the "publicbeta" branch for a while, before pushing it to the main game. If you want to try the latest features as they come out (and help test them!) it's a good idea to start using this branch. But keep in mind:
To use publicbeta, just right-click on Survivalist: Invisible Strain in your Steam library and go to Properties, then Betas and in the drop-down select "publicbeta".
Aside from the fence stuff I've also done some work on the combat AI, trying to make your followers stick with you better if you run away from a fight or into a building. I've made NPCs a bit less likely to all run away in situations where they outnumber you. And when they do abandon their bases, they'll be less likely to keep returning after a minute or so - instead, they can become vagrants who wander the map looking for a new base. Also I did a playthrough to test all these changes and basically ended up fixing a lot of other things along the way (as always happens).
Finally, there's now a Ukrainian translation by youtuber Survager! And Simplified Chinese has been updated with all the latest dialog.
Here's the full change list:
- Diagonal and sloping fences
- Give AI settlements varied shapes instead of all being square
- Player can build fences over rivers
- If everyone in an AI settlement under attack runs away from their base, they will form a new nomadic community and wander around, trying to occupy a new base if there is one, instead of continually running back home and getting killed
- If you run away from a fight, people following you should run to catch up with you instead of backing slowly away
- Made NPCs less likely to run away from a fight if they outnumber you
- Don't gossip with nearby characters if crouching
- Added a hint that you can surrender to people you started a war with
- Show morale on brain scan screen (if you have the brain scanner), some tweaks to how it is calculated
- Reduced likelihood of earlier game raiders having guns, which I accidentally increased in v171
- Made toolboxes more common in vehicles and axes more common in stores
- If a builder doesn't have the right tool (e.g. shovel or toolbox) for some buildings in the queue, work first on buildings they do have the tool for
- Ukrainian translation added, and Simplified Chinese updated
- Fix for rifle animation not holding the gun in their left hand properly
- Fix for Dark Past quest not progressing sometimes when the ex dies
- Fix for guard duty taking priority over organizer for NPC that you gave winter food stocks to, so they don't put the food away
- Fix for repairers trying to repair damaged crops
- Fix for characters sitting round an unlit fire with half-cooked food on it, waiting for it to be finished, with no one attempting to light it
- Fix for NPCs sometimes not blaming anyone if a friend was recently murdered
- Fix for cursor jumping around when adding/removing things to basket on trade screen when using a gamepad
- Fix for mercenaries showing on the map sidebar if they've been deactivated and killed, but bodies not yet deleted
- Fix for crafter giving up because they couldn't fit a cooking pot in their inventory, when they should have been able to dump some food to make space
- Fix for gunpowder crafter filling up their inventory with un-needed containers
- Several fixes for extorters speech sometimes not triggering correctly
- Some fixes for relationships being set up incorrectly
- Optimization for slowdown when you have lots of guns in your inventory
- Crash fixes
EDIT - I released a quick follow-up patch to fix a crash, v177:
- Show options on the action menu (when not aiming) for both assassinate and choke hold if you have a knife in your inventory, but not equipped
- You have to hold the button to assassinate or bludgeon an unconscious person
- Latin American Spanish, Italian, Lithuanian, Korean and Hungarian updated
- Fix for people sometimes not following you when they first join you
- Fix for chickens sometimes not keeping warm in a nearby chicken coop
- Fix for occasional crash when miners don't have enough space in their backpack
[h3]What's this publicbeta thing?[/h3]
v177 will be in the "publicbeta" branch for a while, before pushing it to the main game. If you want to try the latest features as they come out (and help test them!) it's a good idea to start using this branch. But keep in mind:
- Because it's the bleeding edge it could be less stable
- If you want to be able to play online co-op with someone you'll need to be on the same version as them
- If you go back from the "publicbeta" branch to the main branch you may not be able to load savegames created on "publicbeta".
To use publicbeta, just right-click on Survivalist: Invisible Strain in your Steam library and go to Properties, then Betas and in the drop-down select "publicbeta".