Survivalist: Invisible Strain News

Hey everyone, it's patch day! This patch introduces a small new feature to Hit the Road - your companions will now increase their skill caps by a few stars when you move to another map, perhaps representing their personal growth after having survived one area and travelled to a new one :) Each exit from the map will give you a different skill cap bonus, between 1 and 5 stars each, depending on the supposed difficulty of the new area. So there's a little incentive to go for more difficult areas, or at least more of an interesting choice between areas - and to take companions with you. (Note - since the player's starting character always has full skill caps for everything, it won't have any effect on them).

I've also made it so one Hit the Road exit will always say "Similar Area" and one will say "Harder Area", instead of giving you some stats for urbanization, etc. The Similar Area will re-use exactly the same difficulty settings that you had before, while Harder Area will copy them and then try to make them a bit harder by reducing resources and increasing enemies.



When going between maps you'll see a little UI sequence showing the skill cap stars increasing. I've re-used this to show a similar sequence when you die and lose a Constitution point, as I always felt that needed to be made a bit more clear to new players. Besides that, I've also made the game remember your equipment policies when hitting the road so you don't have to set them up all over again.

Finally, three more translations have been finished and checked for technical errors - French, Lithuanian and Hungarian! Thanks to Jean-Charles Rocher, Audrius Vaidalauskis, and Attila 'Ateszkoma' Kurucz for finishing those off :)

This patch is a bit of a sad one I'm afraid because I'm making it my cutoff point - no more new features from now on! There will be bug fixes, hopefully not too many of those either but we'll see. And of course translations are still welcome. But as for the feature set, the game has been in early access for almost 5 years now and it's time to move on.

That means if all goes well I should probably be able to release it out of early access some time in April. I want to make sure I have a nice, stable build before doing so, so it has to be left to sit and cool down for a while. If things crop up, as they often do, it might take longer but I certainly hope it'll be out before the 1st of June as that would make it fully 5 years since it was launched, and I really don't want to go beyond that.

I have a long wishlist full of great ideas, both my own and suggestions from other people, that I would have liked to have done, but I think at a certain point it becomes easier to implement these things in a fresh new project where I have the ability to break stuff and change the rules, rather than being always afraid of some knock-on effect on existing systems. So that's what I'll be doing - starting a new project! I'm not sure yet if it'll be a sequel or something else (or both) but I'm going to start dividing my time between figuring that out, and whatever bug-fixing is still needed for Invisible Strain. (Also, I'm going to try and bring this game to other platforms - but more on that later).

Here's the full change list for v232:

• When dying and being rescued by another community, show a brief sequence informing you that you have lost a Constitution point
  
• When hitting the road, increase your companions skill caps, using the above mentioned sequence to show them increasing
  
• A couple of Hit the Road exits in Sandbox maps will give you the options of Similar Area (to keep your current settings) and More Dangerous Area (dial the difficulty up)
  
• Equipment policies are remembered when hitting the road
  
• When doing an urgent role, characters will play animations such as wood chopping faster (and chop the tree down faster)
  
• Updated Czech, French, Hungarian, Indonesian, Latin American Spanish and Lithuanian translations
  
• More support for Hungarian cases
  
• Show on the debug menu when achievements are disabled because of mods
  
• Fix for enemies smelling or hearing followers while creeping up on them
  
• Fix for being able to bury two bodies in the same grave by putting one in while someone is walking towards it with another
  
• Fix for followers sometimes playing fists up melee stance while holding a bottle or other item that isn't a weapon, before moving to attack an enemy
  
• Fix for characters and equipment on Community screen showing black squares when you switch the sort type
  
• Fix for characters sometimes freezing at the end of certain animations like hugging or unequipping
  
• Fix for shades sometimes clipping characters' foreheads
  
• Fix for sun lens flare disappearing when highlighting a character and showing the PiP
  
• Fix for terrain cache error sometimes when saving a multiplayer Story Mode game
  
• Fix for incompatibility with SIS Explosive Props mod
  
• Fix for Out Of Sync sometimes when dying and getting rescued
  
• Crash fix
  

EDIT - someone reported a crash, so here's a hotfix, v233.

• Updated Czech, Indonesian, Italian and Simplified Chinese translations
  
• Fix for crash on character inventory screen
  

Lastly, v231 has been promoted to the main branch.

[h3]What's this publicbeta thing?[/h3]
v233 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".

Hello, it's time for another patch in publicbeta. I would say I am pretty close now to releasing the game out of early access, which means pretty soon I'll be locking the build down and only adding essential fixes (as I don't want to be adding instability around launch). There's a small new feature in this patch though - if someone is following you, and you assassinate an enemy, they will assassinate nearby enemies, The Last of Us style (with a bit of fudge factor on the stealth - also The Last of Us style). They'll only do it if they have a hunting knife and enough fitness/hand 2 hand skill to be successful.



I'm mostly doing "tidying up" tasks these days. There are now seven "completed" translations - Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin American Spanish, Russian, Simplified Chinese and Turkish - and I've been running a script on them to check for errors involving formulas, emoticons or missing parameters. (When I say "completed" I mean every line has a translation, though there could still be corrections, so let me know if you'd like to add any). I will do Lithuanian and Hungarian next.

Also I made the smaller backpacks have color variations. Okay no one was crying out for this but it always felt jarring to me that they all looked the same. And I've made vehicles more slippery in snow and mud, but a bit less likely to slide sideways as it always felt like they swung around too easily when cornering. Here's the full list:

• Followers will assassinate (or choke hold) enemies nearby when you do (with a little cheating on the stealth)
  
• Using right-stick on gamepad, or XZ on keyboard, on the Scavenge screen (et al) switches between the two inventories
  
• Smaller backpacks can have different colors
  
• Reduce wheel friction on slippery terrain types and conditions (mud, snow, ice), increase sideways wheel friction slightly so vehicles less prone to sliding when cornering
  
• Optimizations mostly to Community page
  
• Updated Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin American Spanish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish and Turkish translations
  
• More grammar functions to support Czech translation
  
• Fix for trader icons sometimes showing where refugees who have left the map were last
  
• Fix for your followers breaking stealth to attack enemies when you stealth-attack them
  
• Fix for characters using the the wrong indefinite article when saying things like 'I'm getting a slacks' or 'I'm getting some pot'
  
• Fix for not being able to load Huge maps created in mods
  
• Fixes for some languages not being rendered correctly after switching to them, until you restart the game
  
• Crash fix
  

And I've promoted v230 to the main branch!

[h3]What's this publicbeta thing?[/h3]
v231 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".

Hello, it's patch time :) This one's a bit technical. I've upgraded to a more recent version of Unity in the hopes of fixing an intermittent bug where gamepad controllers stopped working after a while. There's fixes for some recently discovered crashes, a few small optimizations, and fixes for mods such as SIS Locked Buildings (which I broke in a previous patch).

In terms of new features there are two main ones, which are both things I should probably have done a long time ago. The game will now autosave every 10 minutes or so. This is an often-requested feature but I've always held off on it because saving always means a small hitch in framerate and I didn't want that to interrupt combat or just the flow of the game. To get round this I've made it so it will try to wait until you're not in combat or in dialog, and you haven't pressed a button (or moved a joystick or mouse) for 1 second. Hopefully that way it'll be less obtrusive. If it still hasn't autosaved after 20 minutes it'll just save regardless though.

The other new feature is a Respawn button for online co-op players who die. I avoided doing that for such a long time because I always wanted there to be a cost for dying, so that you feel invested in your character and there's a sense of tension and weight to your decisions. Since you can always recruit new NPCs - or reload a savegame - it doesn't stop the co-op player from playing.

The problem with that is, as I've now made it possible for co-op players to start relationships and friendships with other community members, if their character dies they lose all ability to do that. That isn't the case for the "main" player, because you can get the community to elect a new leader who then becomes the main player's "avatar" and can do all the stuff they could. There's no equivalent for co-op players.

That sucked because although I want there to be a cost for dying, I don't want to close off any options permanently. Secondly, saying "well you can reload a savegame" goes against the philosophy of living with the consequences of your decisions and embracing the darkness (TM). So I think it's better to allow them to spawn a new character. There still is a cost to dying anyway - you lose your dead character's progression in skills and relationships.

So I added a Respawn button to the pause menu, if you are a co-op player whose original avatar is dead. (I called it Respawn because that's an easily recognizable word to gamers - it's not really respawning though as it creates a new character with starting skill levels).



Here's the full changelist:

• Autosave automatically every 10 minutes or so, if the player is not in combat and doesn't touch the controls for 1 second
  
• Added a Respawn button the Pause menu for online co-op players whose avatar dies
  
• Reinstate the ability to bandage unconscious zombies to raise your medical skill
  
• Made NPCs with high hand to hand skill change their blocking stance more often
  
• Updated French, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Latin American Spanish, Lithuanian, Simplified Chinese and Turkish translations, made game recognise Czech.tsv files
  
• Upgraded to Unity 6000.0.35f1 in attempt to fix bug where gamepad would stop working after a while
  
• Fix for some situations where you couldn't move the cursor with the gamepad in the menus because it continually returned to the button the mouse was hovering over even though you weren't using the mouse
  
• Fix for sometimes getting an error message when you try to save save if you join a multiplayer game in Story mode and then the host leaves
  
• Fix for former members of Survivalists or FEMA being able to have the Loyalty quest, which would break canon
  
• Fix for allied followers not filling water bottles or sitting round fires when you do
  
• Fix for crafters sometimes not dumping their heaviest containers when they are full of the thing they are crafting
  
• Fix for out of sync error when getting jumped by zombies
  
• Fix for crash in mod with prop that wasn't set up to have a model
  
• Fixes for the SIS Locked Buildings mod which I broke in a previous patch
  
• Possible fix for error message taking you back to the menu when starting a game with mods that have the same asset bundle
  
• Crash fixes
  
• Optimizations
  

EDIT - I've released a hotfix, v230, to fix a crash in the SIS Fishing mod that I introduced. A few other fixes also got rolled into it:

• Dialog option to tell traders to move along can also be used with other travelers
  
• Fix for crash when SIS Fishing mod is active
  
• Fix for red damage indicator on edge of screen sometimes staying on after switching to a different character
  
• Possible out of sync fix
  

I've also promoted v228 to the main branch. There are some problems in v228 which are fixed by the "crash fixes" etc above, but they weren't introduced by v228 and it seems otherwise solid.

[h3]What's this publicbeta thing?[/h3]
v229 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".

Hello, it's patch day again! Just another bunch of bug fixes and tweaks :) I feel I'm getting pretty close to being able to release the game out of early access now so a lot of the patches are going to be stuff like this. I'm trying to focus on fixing things and avoid adding new features that then introduce new bugs and also need translation work. Speaking of which, it looks like the Latin American Spanish translation is really close to being finished, thanks Facundo!

I've had some reports of large communities getting into feuds that trigger more feuds until it becomes impossible for anyone to do any work, this patch makes some small changes to try and address that. I've tried to make the AI for fighting from watchtowers better at getting ammo when they run out. And I've made the dump truck knock things over more easily without having its momentum stopped by them, so it feels more like the juggernaut it's supposed to be.



I've also added an Active Mods tab to the Sort Order drop-down when selecting mods, so you can see the ones you have already selected without having to scroll around a lot.



Here's the full list:

• Some improvements to guard AI to make them leave watchtowers and restock ammo when they run out
  
• Some tweaks to memories about feuding to try and make it less likely that a large community will get stuck in a chain of fights with each other
  
• Made dump truck knock things over more easily
  
• Characters doing a task set to urgent won't stop to watch snowball fights
  
• Remove unreciprocated 'In Love With' relationships from a character if they are getting to have too many of them
  
• Updated Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin American Spanish, Lithuanian, Simplified Chinese, Turkish and Ukrainian translations
  
• Fix for player being able to manually pour lumpy liquids like stew or curry into bottles
  
• Fix a situation where characters could get stuck in restraining animation loop
  
• Fix for infected stew not infecting people if they empty the container in one bite
  
• Possible crash fix
  
• Added Active Mods option to sort order drop-down when selecting mods
  
• Fix for recipient of hugging animation instantly snapping to idle pose instead of transitioning out properly
  

The previous patch seems to have been okay so it has been moved to the main branch. This enables online co-op players to start relationships and friendships with your community members, like the main player can do.

[h3]What's this publicbeta thing?[/h3]
v228 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".

Hello, there's a new patch in town! By which I mean publicbeta. It's another mostly bug fixing patch, nothing earth shattering. The biggest change is I enabled online co-op players to have relationships and friendships with community members, and generally have the same dialog options the main player has. Something I always meant to do but never got round to.


There have also been some improvements to the Storage Policy dialog, you can see what buildings something will be stored in by hovering over it, and items you have discovered but have 0 of will still be shown (this applies to the Community screen as well). For convenience you can also cycle through all the buildings (that can have a storage policy) with the Q/E buttons, while in the dialog.


Finally, the Korean and Lithuanian translations are now complete including Story Mode! Thanks so much to Hyun-il Lee, aka 해무아빠 and Audrius Vaidalauskis! (Hyun-il mentioned there might be some more corrections coming on the Korean but all the lines have a translation now)

Here's the full change list:

• Give other online co-op players the same dialog options as the leader when talking to community members
  
• Show time next to date on community screen
  
• Include all discovered equipment and liquids on Community menu and Storage Policy dialog, even if you have have 0 of them
  
• Show what other buildings are set to store something when hovering it on the Storage Policy dialog, and allow you to switch buildings on that dialog
  
• Automatically chop trunk for 1 wood unit after chopping down a tree manually
  
• Trigger Supreme Commander achievement if you wipe out the map without recruiting anyone (and Survivor Camp Density is greater than 100%), this also gets Sole Survivor if you're in Hard mode
  
• Allow you to set Roles once you have any buildings (or community members, or chickens), so it's easier for players on a Sole Survivor run to automate things
  
• Some tweaks to make rabbits less flighty when you throw carrots
  
• Ensure first names are unique in world when spawning new NPCs
  
• Updated Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin American Spanish, Lithuanian, Polish and Russian translations
  
• Fix for people not being damaged when burning
  
• Fix for crafting progress indicator sometimes showing the wrong ingredients, where items in the ingredients are interchangeable (such as different kind of meat in meaty stew)
  
• Fix for a situation where a crafter failed to dump a container of recipe ingredients to free up space, which they had multiple containers with enough of the ingredients
  
• Fix for characters commenting on every corpse they see in a large pile of corpses
  
• Fix for characters feuding excessively with people who reject someone they like, also fix for people feuding with someone they have recent bad memories of but like overall
  
• Fix for not being able to get into your vehicle if it contains a chicken from another community
  
• Fix for 'Park' algorithm to make it not give up so easily on trying to find a valid place to teleport the vehicle to
  
• Fix for player community members getting memories that you poached people from your own community, after you recruit a complex chain of related characters
  
• Fix for people's clothes occasionally disappearing when you recruit them
  
• Fix for characters occasionally being able to teleport through walls after vaulting over something and finding themselves on a tile occupied by another character
  
• Fix for not being able to complete This Here Ain't Venison if you had recruited or killed all the Survivalists
  
• Fix for Charlie attacking you if you steal something from the Survivalists
  
• Fix for character getting into an infinite loop when the rock on the next tile was placed on a slope
  
• Fix for hang if you press Escape while transitioning to the next screen after the loading screen from the Story Select menu
  
• Fix for SetPlayDead event not working if setting it to true (for modders)
  

EDIT - had to do a quick hotfix, so it's v226 now:

• Possible fix for vehicles sometimes sinking through the floor
  
• Fix for crash when highlighting an in-progress building
  

The previous patch (v224) doesn't seem to have had any major issues so it's being promoted to the main branch. Hooray!

[h3]What's this publicbeta thing?[/h3]
v226 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".