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Update 0.9.8, Online Co-Op up on Testing Branch, and February Plans

Summary, Online Co-Op, and Feedback Requests


Giant new update! This adds 3 new characters to the game, with their own traits, stories, and bosses. The performance of the game should now also be drastically improved, even in very large fights. We also redesigned both the Notes system, and how Survivor Followers work. A new weapon has been added, some automatic firing weapons have been buffed, and loot numbers have been tweaked including giving Gold Stashes a guarantee that they will have Tier 2 weapons (like the Sniper Rifle, Beretta, Battle Axe, Sword, etc) or better!

Read the full post for a full list of changes since the last main branch update!

Also, we have put up a Testing Branch now that has the Online Co-op mode. This features an all new gameplay mode, Horde Defense, where you rapidly get cash and materials to upgrade yourself and a base you have to defend from large waves of enemies. Let us know what you think! The expected level of bugginess right now is "it should be playable, but maybe pretty janky sometimes".

[h2]How to Access Testing Branch[/h2]
- Right click on Cannibal Crossing in your Steam Library
- Select "Properties"
- Go to the "Betas" Tab
- Select "testbranch" from the "beta you would like to opt into:" menu

[h2]Feedback We Are Looking For[/h2]
  1. Any more requests for tweaks to control customization and gamepad tweaks. We are especially eager to sort out any gamepad controller issues, but we haven't seen any lately.
  2. Your general opinion and stories on the new online mode, including any bug reports or feature requests.
  3. Thoughts on the Open World/Story game modes at this point, especially Escape from Earlsboro. That is getting pretty close to being complete, we need a lot more testing on this from the player base.
  4. Any other observations or requests! We're still actively putting in new features that fans ask for, including some elaborate ones like how we're currently working on character customization for online play!

Post your feedback here, on the Discord, or on our Twitter, all of which have links to them from the game's main menu!

February Plans


If things go well, we may be nearly done with the Early Access period after February is over. Here are our goals coming up, though they can change if we run into difficulties or shuffle things around with other goals:

  1. Post a guide for the Twitch Integration/Round Robin option for online play after making further tweaks to this. This will let viewers line up to join an online game in progress, with the next people in line taking their place if they die. This way, you can have an enormous amount of players in one online game, and still keep the player limit to 4 at a time! We want to flesh this out to also do things like let old players leave their corpse on the map, so you can really see the devastation
  2. Final polishing up and testing of the Open World modes. I would also like to start testing the No Quarter mode before February is over
  3. Adding Custom Characters for the Horde Defense mode. You'd design your own character for online play, including their appearance and a couple of starting traits/perks! The story characters (Liam, Shots etc) would then no longer be an option for the Horde Defense modes
  4. Fixes, responding to feedback, putting in fan requests, tweaks, polish


List of Changes (Update 0.9.8)


[h2]Major Changes[/h2]

- Warden, Sin, and Rosie added to the game. You can unlock them as playable characters by completing their respective quest lines
- New Bosses for the above characters
- Sin's old SUPER replaced with an all new one: Feeding Frenzy. This boosts her running speed by 20%, while also giving enemies a 10% chance to drop food ingredients when they die for 15 seconds
- AI and attack pattern updates for the new bosses

- Removed lighting effects for enemies, enemy projectiles, and both player and enemy bullets that aren't fire-based. This should make the game run much faster, especially with a lot of enemies onscreen
- Tweaks on explosion particles for performance

- Greatly sped up the production times of various Base Buildings
- Smelter gets the biggest buff to build times, and now converts scrap to metal 4x the speed it used to for both versions
- Bandage O Matic is now 90 seconds for basic, 60 seconds for advanced
- All other buildings that make things take 60 seconds for basic version, 40 seconds for advanced (does not include Laser Charger)

- New system for dropped Notes: Instead of leading to survivor quests like Radio missions do, they will now lead to loot stashes. These loot stashes are planned to often have large groups of enemies guarding them, and will be a renewable source of loot and scrap
- Loot notes will give you a quest pointing out the location of a Loot Stash. These are usually Red, but you can also get Gold ones
- When a midboss gets killed, their location can now be used for other quests

- Follower revamp, they will now stay in the base until a boss fight or they are summoned
- Walkie Talkie for summoning followers, lasts 30 seconds currently
- Special animation for Walkie Talkie use

- New Tier 3 pistol can now be found: The "Rich Gun". This is a powerful gold plated pistol, with a big clip, but no other special properties

- Pausing will now let you look up info on your current character's SUPER and Traits

- Restoring saving your horde/hunting party/etc timers when interrupting them with a save and quit or a boss battle. The timers will restart after the battle or on loading the game

[h2]Balancing[/h2]

- Midbosses have about double the health they used to
- Increased some other boss values

- Lots of tweaks to loot tier drop chances as the days pass. Tier 3 will be a lot more rare in general, Tier 2 will initially be more rare, but eventually become more common that Tier 1 as the days go by. Loot Stashes will give the best opportunity to get an early high tier weapon
- Tier 2 and 3 weapons are more rare in normal containers (non-Stash containers)
- Stashes (Red and Gold) have less melee weapons than before
- Safes, lockers, and big metal lockers have their melee weapon drop chance reduced to half
- Gold Stashes are now much more rare
- Gold Stashes now GUARANTEE that if it contains a weapon, that weapon will be Tier 2 minimum!

- Upped Nail Gun damage by 30%
- Upped Uzi and Auto Pistol damage

- Player stats normalized between characters. Other than some slight changes in Stamina for different characters, this mostly means Sin isn't lightning fast anymore when sprinting

- Increase to Conveyer Belt pushing power
- Reduced amount of power of Laser Wall

[h2]Tweaks and Fixes[/h2]

- Weapons on floor will display their upgrade level instead of loot tier

- Reduced the amount of screen shake in general
- AI update to eliminate some errors that were introduced
- Disabling unused lighting and HUD elements
- Fix for a sound issue
- Repair values should now display correctly
- Fixed timer for lockpicking timeout
- Fix for Citizens talking on repeat
- Possible fix for ghost-walking through the front of the Pizza Shop
- Some fixes for enemy camps

- Potential fix for multiple Midbosses spawning
- Tweaks to Clinical Center container amount
- Scumm Factory gates now drop less materials
- Fix for accessing locked characters/classes early
- Fix for Quantum Mail and Storage dropping stored items
- Preventing sidequest characters from spawning when you're completely full on missions
- No more removing ammo from laser weapons when added to inventory

- Fix for an infinite waves bug
- Possible fix for immortal negatives, please report this if you see it

- Cars should take up less buildable space when currently nonexistant
- Fix for Negatives sometimes placing bear traps
- Fix for sometimes shooting behind you
- Protection for automatically unlocking a perk you didn't want to unlock

- Various other fixes

[h2]Under the Hood/Future[/h2]

- Working on Custom Characters for Horde Mode. When we implement this, you will not be able to play as the Open World/Story characters in Horde Mode
- Twitch Integration work for a gameplay mode based around larger groups of players
- More Online Tweaks for balance and bugfixing
- Lots of tweaks and fixes and fleshing out of the Horde Defense online mode