Survivalist: Invisible Strain News

New patch out! This fixes a few things in the last patch, and adds support for Ultrawide screens - if you have anything wider than 16:9 the game should now stretch to fit it instead of showing black bars on the edges. The main menus are still 16:9, but the inventory screens will stretch (which conveniently means you can show more items on-screen at once).



I don't actually have an Ultrawide monitor myself, so although I've tested it by stretching my Unity window I haven't tested it in real world conditions - please let me know if it's not working.

Here's the full change list:

• Ultrawide Screen Support
  
• Some fixes for the equipment policy dialog
  
• Fix for dead communities on fixed maps not being taken over by wandering groups - ability to edit community base rect in debug menu
  
• Updated all translations
  
• Make sure props aren't drawn when they're really far away (optimisation)
  
• Crash fixes
  

EDIT - It was v114 but I borked it so I did another quick patch, it's now v115:

• Added difficulty settings on debug menu
  
• Fix for crash when you throw a piece of meat or carrot
  

It's staying in publicbeta for now - I'm still not moving it to the main branch sadly as some people reported a rare crash when joining online co-op games a few weeks ago and I still haven't tracked it down, do let me know if you get it.

[h3]What's this publicbeta thing?[/h3]
v115 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".

There's a new patch in publicbeta, the main noticeable change is I've improved the equipment policy dialog so you can choose what people are allowed to use an item for - for example you could say they can plant maize or cook with it but they can't eat it raw:



It's been great to see all the big new mods coming out! Check out The New World or A New Dawn, for example. By the way, I've also updated the Importing New Models guide, explaining how to set up new weapons and clothing. And I've added a guide for Making Mods with Custom Code.

I wanted to move the previous publicbeta patch to the main branch, but a couple of people reported a crash when joining multiplayer games and after spending some time on it I still haven't been able to track it down, so I've just added some logging and it'll have to stay in publicbeta a bit longer unfortunately. (Please email me at [email protected] if you do get that crash by the way! :) )

Here's the full changelist:

• New options on Equipment Policy Dialog
  
• Allow editing equipment policy by hovering over ingredients in crafting amount dialog
  
• Added listener and thirdperson functions for translations
  
• Error message if you try to use a Mod which has a dependency on a different Story to the one you have selected
  
• Fix for screenshots sometimes not loading in savegames menu");
  
• Crash fixes, logging, and possible fix for corrupt terrain data
  

[h3]What's this publicbeta thing?[/h3]
v113 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".

This is another small patch, it's mainly to fix an "Out of Sync" error which some people reported happening as soon as they joined the game in Online Co-op. Here's the changelist:

• Fix for some people getting out of sync errors immediately on joining a game
  
• Fix for mod/story names not being displayed on savegames
  

EDIT - v112 now, fixed a crash

[h3]What's this publicbeta thing?[/h3]
v112 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".

I've updated the publicbeta branch again, this one's mainly just a bunch of crash fixes. Some common ones from the last update, and some more rare ones involving online co-op that got reported recently. Here's the full changelist:

• Korean Update
  
• Some fixes for things like joining an online co-op game which uses multiple mods that you haven't downloaded
  
• Many crash fixes
  

[h3]What's this publicbeta thing?[/h3]
v110 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".

The latest patch in publicbeta is all about better mod support. The most obvious change is when you start a new game you can now browse and select any Story from the Workshop (including those you haven't downloaded yet). You can download them in-game, and also Like them if you want. You can sort by Highest Rated, Trending, or Newest:



The second big change is I've split them into two types: Stories and Mods. You can only select one Story, but you can have multiple Mods applied to it. The idea is Mods would be things like "a new gun" or maybe "a new bit of What's Up dialog" which could be applied to any Story. Stories would be custom maps with their own narrative and quests, or variations on Sandbox mode:



Once you're playing a game you can also add more Mods if you want:



Perhaps more importantly, I've added support for new weapon and clothing models, which I'm demonstrating with a couple of small Mods, the Magnum and the Trilby Hat mod:



I'll write a couple of guides for mod-makes who want to do that soon! Lastly I've also changed the structure a bit so either mods or stories can be dependent on each other, meaning if you download one it can force another to be downloaded as well if it's dependent on it. I'll update the guides in the coming days.

I think having done this I've gotten more or less to the end of the Workshop/Editor work that I wanted to do for the time being. There might be a few bug fixes and tweaks to the mod stuff here and there, but I'll be aiming to get back to working on the game itself. I'll be interested to see what new things people are capable of making with the tools now! I see there are a few adaptations of Sandbox mode that have become quite popular already, such as The New Z World.

Here's the full changelist:

• Added support for new weapon and clothing mods
  
• View all workshop items, and download them, from the story selection menu
  
• Split workshop items into two types, Stories and Mods. You can only select one story, but multiple mods.
  
• Stories or mods can be dependent on each other, so you don't have to make a copy of Sandbox to make one small change to it, you can just make it a dependency
  

Meanwhile, I've moved v108 from publicbeta to the main game.

[h3]What's this publicbeta thing?[/h3]
v109 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".