Survivalist: Invisible Strain News

Hey everyone, happy new year! It's time for a small patch, v224 in publicbeta. I've added a loading screen when you start a new game and select a Story, so the game doesn't just stall for ages when you click Zedmulate anymore. I've changed the Cyrillic font again - so now all Cyrillic text uses the same Komika style as the Roman languages do - thanks to Pavel Borisov for adding those characters!



The rest is just bug fixes but one of them was pretty shocking. It turns out the game was getting updated at a slower tick than it should have, so you would often see longer animations getting out of sync with the sounds or game events they triggered. I think it happened when I upgraded Unity a while back. It didn't affect the framerate per se but you might feel that you move a bit faster now when walking or running. I really should have noticed that one sooner. Here's the full list:

• Loading screen when you load a story (as opposed to stalling for ages, especially for big workshop mods)
  
• Show error messages when a savegame fails (e.g. due to lack of disk space) and return token if one was used. Also show free disk space on SaveGame menu.
  
• Cyrillic characters for Komika text font
  
• Updated Indonesian, Japanese, Latin American Spanish, Polish, Russian and Simplified Chinese translations
  
• NPCs get a memory that you Helped them if you give them free stuff via one-sided trading
  
• Possible fix for being able to knock someone out just after fisticuffs, which then leads to them declaring war on you
  
• Fix for memories of who beat up who being the wrong way round after a feud is finished
  
• Fix for being able to damage NPCs with melee weapons in fisticuffs
  
• Fix for animations getting out of sync with game
  
• Fix for gangs that spawn in Ritzville not being able to get out by attacking the gates
  
• Fix for Intimidation quest not continuing after saying 'I'd watch my back if I were you'
  
• Fix for chef not being able to cook anything when a vehicle was close to their campfire
  
• Fix for a situation where someone with a crafting role gave up because they didn't dump containers in their inventory to make space
  
• Fix for hang when you pick up the green passes after having recruited certain characters
  

I've also moved the previous patch, v223, to the main branch as it doesn't seem to have have had any major problems. That adds the Medic Role and one-sided trading.



[h3]What's this publicbeta thing?[/h3]
v224 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".

Hey everyone, Merry Christmas! I've got a new patch out in publicbeta, and the previous publicbeta patch is going to the main branch. The main new feature in this patch is I've added the Medic role, as it got a lot of upvotes in the discord and wasn't too much of a stretch to implement. You can assign it to your community members with high medical skill so they'll upgrade people's bandages without you needing to do it manually. Also, onesided trading - if you want to help an NPC out by giving them more goods than they have gold to purchase with, you can now do that. It's Christmas!



Another big change is I've changed the Cyrillic fonts to be more in keeping with the comic book style of the default fonts. Someone found a version of the Komika title font that supports Cyrillic characters, and for non-title text I'm using Comic Relief bold which isn't perfect but looks much more similar to Komika than Open Sans (which I was using before) does. Separately, Turkish will now use the same fonts as Lithuanian (called Luckiest Guy and Poetsen One), as they seem to support it better than Komika did. Let me know if you see any font problems, especially in those languages (Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish and Lithuanian).



The rest of the patch is mostly bug fixes. Some of them are quite subtle but important, like Invisible Strain hasn't been spreading nearly as much as it should have been, for a pretty long time I think. Here's the full list:

• Medic Role
  
• Allow onesided trading
  
• Map icons for extortion squads and Trustworthy Tim's Trading Party
  
• Stop armor striped temporarily for fisticuffs from adding to your inventory weight and potentially making you encumbered at an awkward time
  
• NPCs in settlements don't consume bandages when healing the player (previously they didn't consume them when healing themselves and each other, but did when healing the player)
  
• NPCs are more likely to restock bandages when you buy them
  
• Changed Cyrillic (Russian and Ukrainian) fonts to ones that are more similar to the Komika style that English and other Latin languages use, also set Turkish to use the Luckiest Guy/PoetsenOne fonts as they support it better
  
• Updated Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Latin American Spanish, Lithuanian and Simplified Chinese translations
  
• If the player has taken over crop patches in a dead settlement, and NPCs then occupy the settlement, the NPCs will also take over the crop patches
  
• Don't show hints about not being able to kill people with leg shots, and attacks not doing much damage if you're exhausted, if hints are disabled
  
• Fix for Carter Moreno and other long patrol members being able to join you
  
• Fix for Liam and squad getting stuck if the FEMA director is dead by the time they appear
  
• Fix for NPC settlements getting stuck unable to rebuild destroyed buildings if the original builder dies and the replacement doesn't have high enough skill
  
• Fix for yellow status notification showing character has broken up with their ex when you start a Dark Past quest with them
  
• Fix for being able to knock someone out in fisticuffs
  
• Fix for White Hills Gang not giving you keys if you bribe them
  
• Fix for stuff like Advanced DIY book being lowercase in quest descriptions
  
• Fix for a situation where crafters with multiple crafting tasks that depended on each other got stuck in a loop
  
• Fix for Ritz Creek Gang halting their invasion of Weathermen if they see Christina's unconscious body
  
• Fix for Charlie being too depressed to follow you as soon as you get him out of prison
  
• Fix for characters continuing to follow each other after cooking a treat was cancelled
  
• Fix for destroyed fence physics glitches intersecting with ground when driving vehicle into it
  
• Fix for miners sometimes saying 'We've got nowhere to dump this flint, etc' when there's plenty of space to dump it
  
• Fix for invisible strain not spreading properly and occasionally crashing
  
• Fix for option being shown to pour fuel onto trees, even though you can't set them on fire
  
• Fix for out of sync error in snowball fights
  
• Possible fix for crash when saving
  

As mentioned above, v222 is now in the main branch. This means the following features are coming to the main branch:

• Ability to target head/legs in fisticuffs
• Indonesian added to the supported languages (not complete but progressing well)
  
• Under Construction visuals
  
• New features for selection and followers in the Map screen and Command Mode
  

Finally, I'm updating the store page with a new trailer, screenshots and description text that covers all the stuff that's been added over the last 4 years. New year's resolution: I will release this game out of early access in 2025! Merry Christmas again and happy new year!

[h3]What's this publicbeta thing?[/h3]
v223 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 another quick publicbeta patch because someone found a crash in the last one. This adds one new feature though: the ability to target someone's head or legs in unarmed combat. NPCs will change their stance so you can tell if they are going to be targeting your head or legs. If you're in the lower stance you can't block against high attacks, and if you're in the high stance you can't block against low attacks. (You can always dodge, but that uses stamina, while blocking doesn't).



That is, of course, how melee combat with weapons has always worked but unarmed combat was more limited, which I felt was a shame since you tend to need to use fisticuffs quite a lot in the game to raise people's respect for you, as well as earning money. Hopefully this makes it more interesting. It's possible I've made it too easy, not sure, the AI may need tweaking a little to react to your stance more. Let me know how you find it.

Here's the full change list:

• Added ability to aim punches at head or legs in unarmed mode (and you can't block if you aim the opposite way), to make fisticuffs more interesting
  
• Slightly changed how 'presence' is calculated to give less priority to tall structures
  
• Fix for pathfinding bug when fleeing in enemy bases
  
• Fix for player being able to isolate people from extortion squad and assassinate them as they return to their base
  
• Fix for infected melee weapons being combinable (and therefore losing their 'doses remaining' bar)
  
• Dialog fixes for when taking over crop patches
  
• Possible fix for some situations where NPCs blamed the player for attacking them when they were actually helping defend against raiders
  
• Stop NPC community leaders from being lumberjacks as it makes them easy to kill
  
• Fix for walls with health set to 0 in mods not being invincible
  
• Crash fix
  
• Updated Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Latin American Spanish and Simplified Chinese translations
  

[h3]What's this publicbeta thing?[/h3]
v222 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 released a quick patch into publicbeta as I wanted to fix a problem with the previous patch where you would get giant boards on the window of a Shack you took over.

This patch introduces the Indonesian translation! It's not finished yet, but it's a pretty long way along and it looks like you can play most of Sandbox mode with it. Many thanks to translators Electro Javaboy and Felbie!

Here's the full list:

• Fix for Shack having giant boarded up window
  
• Fix for icons not showing for under construction buildings
  
• Fix for someone saying both 'your leadership sucks!' and 'I'm sorry but I've had enough' when leaving your community
  
• Make your community members less likely to automatically start a war if a looter tries to shake them down while you're not controlling them
  
• Reverted previous fix that paused the game when the application lost focus, not everyone wants that
  
• Updated Japanese, Korean, Hungarian, Latin American Spanish and Simplified Chinese translations, and added Bahasa Indonesia!
  

[h3]What's this publicbeta thing?[/h3]
v221 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, I've got a new patch in the publicbeta branch with visuals for buildings under construction. So whereas previously you would just have seen an empty patch of ground with ropes around it, now you'll see the building taking shape piece by piece. It's not exactly Manor Lords as there's no animation, but it's much cuter than it was. Looks particularly nice on the wood cabins!



Also when you take over a building, you'll see wooden boards going up across the windows (if it has windows), to give you a little visual indication that you're doing something.

(Note to mod makers who make buildings - it should be possible get both these effects to show on your buildings if you want, but it would need a bit of setting up. I'll add some details to the guide soon).

The rest of the patch is bug fixes and small quality of life things, e.g. I tweaked some of my previous changes to the map screen, you can now press M as a shortcut for placing markers, whereas before you could hold the right mouse button down. Here's the full list:

• Building construction effect
  
• Show boarded up windows on buildings you take over
  
• Hold shift to transfer all items in a stack when scavenging
  
• Hold shift to add to selection when dragging selection box on map screen (previously only worked in Command Mode), also press M as a shortcut to place markers
  
• Make sorting of inventory items of the same category more consistent when sorting by type
  
• Deprioritize unconscious enemies when aiming
  
• Crippled zombies are less likely go into the frustration animation when their route to you is blocked by others, and more likely to keep trying to pathfind to you
  
• Fix for game not pausing when the application loses focus
  
• Fix for X button not working for Reload/Skip Conversation etc on Steam Deck or gamepads
  
• Fix for chef occasionally getting stuck in a loop when their fire needs more wood and they are also hungry
  
• Fix for gang leader in Loyalty quest starting a feud with you after you successfully bluffed that you had snipers nearby
  
• Fix for Weathermen quest not completing if you convince Jeremy by having high approval/respect
  
• Fix for NPCs sheltering in buildings for ages for warmth because they have no fire lighting equipment even if there is plenty nearby
  
• Fix for not getting the achievement for stealing a chicken
  
• Fix for characters sometimes walking a long distance to find sealed containers
  
• Fix for NPCs who were attacking you sometims getting teleported a long distance if they knock you out and you get rescued by another community
  
• Stopped screen resolution drop-down from displaying multiple different refresh rates for each size, because you can't change them anyway because we're not using exclusive full-screen mode
  
• Some Story Mode map fixes
  
• Some support for modders to increase map size to 2x2km (not officially supported though)
  
• Crash fixes
  
• Updated French, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Latin American Spanish, Lithuanian, Russian and Simplified Chinese translations
  

[h3]What's this publicbeta thing?[/h3]
v220 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".