Survivalist: Invisible Strain News

Hey, it's patch time! I got a few bug reports from the last patch about characters with the auto-deposit items policy or the organizer role being overly eager to deposit stuff in buildings when they actually need it for other roles. This should be fixed now.

I've started to work on morale and community interactions, which is what I want to focus on next. Not much to say about it so far though, as I decided this patch needed to come out now to fix the above issue :-P There's also some other serious bug-fixes, e.g. the satphone quest in Sandbox mode wasn't working which would have stopped you from completing the game. So this is mostly a quick bug fixing patch. Here's the full change list:

• When your characters gossip with each other they can use some of the What's up? lines, and will have memories of people praising or bad-mouthing each other
  
• Memories decay exponentially instead of linearly
  
• Reduced the morale impact of some more minor negative actions like hurting or threatening someone (but not changing how much we disapprove of the person who did it)
  
• Added ability to translate surnames differently for female and male characters, for languages that do that
  
• Shortened time to make sunflower oil
  
• Auto-collect item from bodies respects community crafting limit
  
• Fixed some conflicts between organizer role, auto deposit items policy, and other roles
  
• Fix for satphone quest in Sandbox mode not activating
  
• Fix for characters asking each other for more equipment (e.g. ammo) than their policy allows them to give
  
• Fix for traders losing useful items such as armor that you sold them and they wore, when they restock
  
• Italian translation updated
  
• Crash fixes
  

[h3]What's this publicbeta thing?[/h3]
v200 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 is mostly a quality of life and bug fixing patch. The main change is that your community members who you've assigned roles to can deposit more items in buildings to free up space.

Previously anything accumulated as part of the role would be marked with a little icon of a guy with a backpack, and those marked items could be deposited to free up space. That still happens, and if they need to free up space they will prefer to drop those marked items over anything else, but now if they don't have any marked items they will be able to drop other things as well. They'll try to be smart about it, avoiding dropping their best melee weapon, and any ranged weapon unless they have more than one of it. They'll prefer not to drop bandages, antigen, throwable weapons and skill books. They'll prefer to drop heavier stuff first. If you want to ensure they don't drop something, set the Carry Amount on the equipment policy dialog (which is populated automatically for ammo).



Hopefully it balances the possibility of being annoying because they dropped something you wanted them to hang on to, with the nuisance of them constantly running out of inventory space for their roles (which seemed to be happening a lot before).

Among other things I added are a Select All items option when assigning someone a supply run to a building, which should make that a bit less fiddly. I added a recipe to cook 5 ears of corn at once, and chefs will prefer that if that have enough corn, which makes them a lot more efficient. I made characters with "urgent" roles not sleep or eat for a bit longer.

You can now use a forge to make glass bottles from flint, so there's finally a way to make as many molotovs as you want to, plus it makes flint mines more useful. I always thought you'd need sand to make glass, but wasn't keen on adding another resource that had limited value - this is perhaps a bit of a fudge and I'm not too sure of the science behind it but flint is silica, like sand, and there's also a such a thing as "flint glass" although technically it isn't made of flint itself but rather lead deposits found in flint. So I don't know, but maybe it makes sense.

Here's the full list:

• Made it possible for AI to dump more excess inventory items if they don't have enough space to carry out a role.
  
• Option to Select All items in a building when setting a character to do a supply run.
  
• Added recipe to boil 5 ears of corn at the same time (or fry 3)
  
• Added forge recipe to make glass bottles from flint
  
• Show greyed out option to refuel vehicles even if they are not repaired, so you can see what fuel they take.
  
• When roles are set to Urgent, characters will go for longer before eating/drinking/sleeping etc
  
• New recipe unlock notifications show when you complete construction on a building, not when you first stamp it down
  
• Show equipment notifications when taking and depositing stuff
  
• New icons for repairing and taking over stuff, to distinguish it from building
  
• Allies who have been told to follow you will stop and seek food/water/sleep/warmth if they get very desperate
  
• Characters switch to jogging if they're running somewhere a long way away, they're getting tired, and are not under attack
  
• If you have followers and you move a significant distance outside of their zones, a warning message will show
  
• Dialog to intimidate extorters doesn't work so well on nemesis communities. Dialog to beg extorters to let you off is a little more likely to succeed.
  
• Fix for Cabin People fighting each other
  
• Fix for hungry characters taking food from allies that you have a Don't Eat policy on, so filling up their inventory because they can't eat it.
  
• Fix for being able to steal from allies by letting them follow you into a building then taking their stuff
  
• Fix for Emma not being able to sleep.
  
• Fix for Emma and Kelly's introduction repeating.
  
• Fix for Joe not actually giving you the key if you persuade him.
  
• Fix for Malachi accidentally locking himself in quarantine
  
• Fix for characters still holding equipped item while in repair armor animation.
  
• Fix for way to get to Ritzville without passing through Guardians.
  
• Fix for characters being able to capture buildings from infinitely far away
  
• Fix for NPCs building graves in inaccessible places
  
• Crash fixes
  
• Translations updated - French, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Russian, Simplified Chinese
  

[h3]What's this publicbeta thing?[/h3]
v199 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, happy 2024 :) I've released a new patch in publicbeta. This one is mainly about fixing bugs and addressing feedback for story mode, though there's a few little experiments in there as well.

There's also a lot of new translations, including for story mode which now appears to be complete in Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. It's close to complete in Korean, Italian, Russian, and Lithuanian. Big thank you to all the translators!

One experiment: If you have a top medical skill, you can make something called a biohazard cocktail, which is like a molotov cocktail but instead of burning it infects nearby people. Might be a bit OP, I'm not sure.

Another: when you assassinate or choke hold someone, it makes a sound in a small radius which NPCs can hear (though zombies ignore it). This makes it harder to assassinate extortion squads as they walk home with your gold. Sorry I know a lot of people use that tactic but it felt too easy. I've also added dialog options to beg them to let your off (if they like you), or to intimidate them into leaving you alone (helps if you have a larger community).

I've tweaked the combat AI to make characters with ranged weapons able to aim for the head or legs (previously they could only hit them by chance). Ranged and melee characters will be more likely to attack the legs of zombies who haven't been crippled, and don't have leg armor. Not sure how noticeable it'll be - maybe they'll seem a little smarter. There's still an element of randomness.

Here's the full list:

• Dialog for if you find out the mystery guy has gone before you talk to Carter
  
• Dialog for interrogating Tim in later game
  
• Dialog for interrogating Charlie if you got him out after already finding the treasure
  
• Dialog for ending an alliance
  
• Various small dialog tweaks and fixes
  
• Kelly introduces everyone as assholes
  
• Fix for Tim's group not walking around together in story mode
  
• Fix for quest to talk to Martin not progressing if he dies before you meet him
  
• Stop Cameron Hines from joining the player's community while he still has his helicopter
  
• Made it possible to stash dead or unconscious bodies in vehicles and buildings
  
• Recipe for infected pipe bombs and biohazard cocktails
  
• Tweaked throw trajectory calculation so you can't throw absurdly high to get over walls
  
• Gave Ritz Creek Gang and Guardians wells so they can survive if the river freezes
  
• Stop FEMA from changing leadership away from Malachi due to feuds
  
• Stop people from starting dialog that disables character controls while there are enemies around, unless it's critical
  
• Stop farmers from watering crops if it's raining heavily
  
• Attempted fixes for things that can go wrong with Liam Franks
  
• Increased crops and seeds for AI settlements in story mode
  
• Allowed AI settlements in new Sandbox mode maps to plant sunflower seeds so they're a bit easier to find
  
• Tweaked the way Carry Amount policy works for ammo to try to make it clearer
  
• Some tweaks to combat AI that make NPCs more likely to aim for head and legs of zombies, and make enemies less likely to dodge if you have a high hand 2 hand skill
  
• Fix for rare case where someone could get stuck vaulting over a rock next to a tree and a wall
  
• Possible fix for Kelly sometimes getting inside the highway patrol compound
  
• Possible fix for Carter sometimes not killing all the highway patrol zombies
  
• Fix for stone mines not being available in story mode
  
• Made fences that block entrance and exit roads invulnerable
  
• If an inventory is large, wait till you scroll down before creating icons for everything in it, so it doesn't stall for so long on opening
  
• Fix for lumberjacks trying to chop trees that are inaccessible
  
• Added recipes to melt down tools such as axes or knives for steel, added a 'Disassemble...' section of the action menu for them to be less cluttered
  
• Gates of active (non-hostile) communities open automatically as vehicles approach
  
• Wishkey Falls Militia won't shake you down for a while after asking for your help
  
• NPCs (but not zombies) can hear choke sounds within a small radius, so it's not so easy to assassinate extortion squads on their way home
  
• You can try to intimidate or beg extorters using dialog checks to avoid paying
  
• Increased firearms skill of FEMA guards and others, and gave them better guns
  
• Crash fix
  
• Updated Brazilian Portuguese, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Latin American Spanish, Lithuanian, Russian, Simplified & Traditional Chinese and Ukrainian translations
  

[h3]What's this publicbeta thing?[/h3]
v197 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 to fix some of the bigger issues people have been reporting to me in story mode, especially some bugs that block quests from progressing. Hopefully I got all of those now, and hopefully the next patch will be about more than just hotfixes, but we'll see... Thanks again for reporting them! Merry Christmas!

• Slightly nerfed the infected raiders who appear after 2 weeks
  
• Fix for Ava sometimes never giving you the information in the drinking game, also added more dialog options to make it clearer how to get it (you both need to get drunk)
  
• Fixes for Carter Moreno's squad not taking over the Long Patrol base properly
  
• Possible fix for Tim Arnold quest not proceeding
  
• Fix for dialog not triggering when you enter the cabin
  
• Fix for Joe not giving you a key if you threaten him
  
• Fix for White Hills Gang not having enough outhouses
  
• Fix for backpacks not being auto-worn in mods that have other worn items that increase your carry weight
  
• Fix for not being able to get reward for betraying Paul
  
• Possible fixes for excessive internal fighting in area gangs
  
• Crash fixes
  

[h3]What's this publicbeta thing?[/h3]
v196 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".

People have been finding that certain character won't talk to you at a critical moment in story mode, this should now be fixed. I've also tried to fix some issues with NPCs getting overly hungry or thirsty due to pathfinding failures.

Thanks for all the feedback on story mode! This was the most egregious bug so far but I think this will not be the last of the hotfixes. Looks like there might be some more bugs that are stopping quests from progressing sometimes, and a lot more general issues - that's what I'll be working on this week.

Here's the change list:

• Fix for characters sometimes going hungry or thirsty when they shouldn't
  
• Fix for a character not talking to you at critical moment
  
• Set limit on wood needed for story mode communities
  
• Crash fixes
  

[h3]What's this publicbeta thing?[/h3]
v195 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".