Winter Survival News

While we planned to release another update to the game today, we added a bit more to it than initially planned (based on the many suggestions we've received) and will hence release it tomorrow evening.
That being said, I’d like to give you some of the highlights from tomorrow’s update so you’ll hopefully have something to look forward to:

• We will address the problem of Icy Water in canteens allowing you to warm it up and drink warm water.
  
• Storage chest will be craft-able earlier in story mode.
  
• We've rebalanced spears significantly. More in tomorrow's patch notes.
  
• Rebalancing of trauma/insanity generated from Cold Related effects will be reduced as well as trauma/insanity gains from all effects. You will even be able to disable it completely in Endless mode.
  
• Fuel gains from branches and other small burnable stuff will see a significant increase
  
• You'll be able to save at any campfire instead of only beds to make saving more accessible, except during combat.
  

Like mentioned, these are just some of the things from tomorrow’s update. There is quite a bit more that is still being worked on and some even already tested. Rest assured, we're still gathering as much feedback as possible from you, folks, so keep those comments coming. We're reading them almost 24/7.

~Your humble marketing guy - Sewek

[h2]Balance:[/h2]

• Adjusted the amount of food and water given to the player after first Sleep in story mode to make it more forgivable.
  
• Adjusted Cabin Fever to be recovered significantly faster after being gained. (Doing further tuning.)
  

[h2]UI:[/h2]

• Added weight information to Storage Items and animation where it shakes if you try to put extra to notify that it is full.
  

[h2]Crashes:[/h2]

• Fixed a Crash related to Sleeping in the bed that could occur randomly.
  

[h2]Bugfixes:[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where difficulty would not be properly loaded in Endless mode for Animals
  
• Shelter Campfire can now be placed inside shelters.
  
• Fixed an issue when switching difficulty in menus it would visually reset to the previous setting.
  
• Fixed an issue where deleting a save could delete extra saves unintentionally.
  
• Fixed an issue when NUM based keys would not have associated graphics.
  
• Walkie-Talkie Tutorial will now be properly added to Journal once you first pick it up.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Insanity window would overlap with story specific cutscenes.
  
• Fixed an issue where you could get both "Home Sickness" and "Longing" debuffs at same time.
  
• Fixed an issue with Custom Difficulty settings where you could be capped under the maximum value unintentionally on Health and Stamina.
  
• Made the "Last 10 Damage Events" look a bit nicer.
  

[h2]Visual:[/h2]

• Fixed various flying objects on the landscape. (There are still many occasions but we are going through them).
  
• Fixed one of the issues that could cause Joel to rotate oddly in the Introduction cave.
  
• Fixed one of the visual issues related to bear attack.
  

[h2]Other:[/h2]

• Fixed issue in Chinese localization with tag related issues.
  
• Minor music and sound fixes.
  
• Various localization updates.
  

We've have finally come to one of our most important moments on our game development journey. It has been a journey full of ups and downs but thanks to you, we've finally managed to reach its crucial step which is a release day. And what more can I say – I'm more than thrilled to announce, that Winter Survival has officialy entered into Early Access! Don't hesitate and jump into the thrilling adventure where you'll not only have to take care of your body, but also your mind. For those of you who missed yesterday's news, check the trailer to get yourself in the right mood before playing our game.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Keep your feedback coming🙇[/h2]

As an Early Access game we need your feedback more than anything else. Sure, we've already shared a road map with you and we already know what we want to accomplish in the future, but most of it will be adjusted based on our community's feedback. Having said that, if you feel like you have a cool idea for the game or simply have any suggestions on how to make the game better, simply head over to Feature Upvote and add your suggestions there. In this way, not only we'll be able to keep track of those ideas, but it'll make the job way easier for our production team as well. And remeber – there are no stupid ideas, so don't hesitate and post anything that you'd like to see.

[h2]Stay up-to-date📰[/h2]

And that's it! I know that you're cannot wait to jump into the gameplay, so I might as well stop bothering you. Just before you go, I'd like to let you know that we've teamed up with some fantastic developers, and we've prepared a couple of bundles for you. Keep in mind that those bundles won't last forever, so if you're looking to kill two birds with one stone, now it's the perfect time to do so.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/32221/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/38482/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/39274/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/38922/

[h2]General Notes:[/h2]

• Older save games might still contain doubled wolves data or other save game related issues. For a clean experience we recommend starting fresh. After release of early access we will try to keep save games mostly intact unless we make very large changes but keep eyes open on the patch notes in the future.
  

[h2]Features:[/h2]

• Custom Difficulty Settings enabled in Endless mode. (We're still heavily testing this feature, there might be still some issues).
  
• Achievements added (might not be possible to attain until game is released)
  

[h2]Quality of Life:[/h2]

• Added last 10 damage events on death screen (not yet localized, might be missing some events.) for assistance to players who died - to know what they died from.
  
• Added option to the options menu to have sprinting be toggleable by choice.
  
• Added message that you can't start a campfire without fuel when attempting to do so.
  
• Added a warning in story when first approaching the Paratrooper that Sprinting is very loud, to discourage sprinting in dangerous area.
  
• Added message that you are missing a lockpick when trying to loot a locked chest without a lockpick.
  
• Stopped low stat barks from happening until the second day in Story to keep it more immersive.
  
• Increased the size of the zone in first sneak path during Introduction to allow players who sneak past wolves on the left side past the big rock to also complete the objective.
  
• Several crashes were caught and fixed (thank you for sending us the crash reports -> %LOCALAPPDATA%/WSS/Saved/Crashes — [email protected]).
  
• FOV Slider moved from Controls to Display
  

[h2]Balance:[/h2]

• Softwood Axe damage increased on animals by 50% (from 10 -> 15)
  
• Reduced insanity gained from Dread from 1.0 / 6s to 0.25 / 6 seconds. [-400%]
  
• Reduced the Tiredness decay by 50% (on both Explorer and Survivalist)
  
• Added two spearholders and several spears in the Act I area.
  
• Spear throwing damage increased by 125% on Explorer difficulty (Multiplier up from 1.0 -> 2.25)
  
• Increased Stamina on Explorer Difficulty from 100 to 150
  
• Reduced Stench gain by 70% on Explorer difficulty and by 30% on Survivalist difficulty.
  
• Made all food buffs to last 10 minutes instead of 1 minute to increase the worth of cooking.
  
• Added Straw Bedroll recipe unlock in Story mode. (Might need replaying to unlock. Will be retroactive in future update.)
  
• Extra chests added around Hunting Grounds Hot Spring Area (Endless).
  
• Perception Fatigue chance increased to 16% from 10% on both Survivalist and Explorer.
  
• Extra resources added to "Boar Biome" in Hunting Grounds. (Endless)
  
• More Liberty Cap and Flowers added to all areas.
  
• More Medicinal Herbs and Garlic added to all areas.
  
• Less Medicinal herbs are needed now for RRI Cure (5 instead of 20).
  
• Added more Animal Bones and Fur pieces in the Wolf Cave in Act I area.
  
• Added more disorientation objects and plants in Boar Biome in Hunting Grounds (Endless)
  

[h2]Bugfixes:[/h2]

• Fixed one issue with the "Bridge" where sometimes you could trigger the bridge sequence without finishing the quest leading to a soft lock in the story.
  
• Limited-use bed should now be destroyed properly when loading a game created by limited-use save bed.
  
• Fur/Leather Waterskin animations added.
  
• Various localization fixes.
  
• Various music fixes.
  
• Animals should no longer bleed when getting hit by rock or snowball.
  
• Minor tweaks and fixes to "Home" scenario objectives (Endless)
  
• Prevented the dropping the Sausage from the campfire in the Introduction of Story that could lead to being stuck.
  
• Fixed visual of water staying in the world if hit by animal while emptying canteen.
  
• RRI Cure should now properly remove RRI permanently (until regained through bad play).
  
• Fixed the Crow Objective in the Introduction so that it can complete properly even if you run through the section too quickly.
  
• Hopefully prevented players from being able to leave the Introduction cave after entering.
  
• Spear should no longer disappear temporarily when in air.
  
• Preventing Walkie Talkie to be dropped once picked up.
  
• Your smell should no longer be strong enough to carry away your spear if you throw a spear at your smell.
  
• Fixed an issue with rope, that would sometimes not detect ground correctly, allowing you to climb forever into the void.
  
• Fainting should no longer save the game.
  
• Challenge: Comfort should once again work correctly and require you to maintain heat above a certain value for a period of time.
  
• Fixed for Storage Chests to again save items.
  
• Fixed issue where rebinding movement keys to F8 or F9 and pressing them while in Introduction would teleport / lock the player in a place where they could not continue. (Debug Keys were left in by mistake).
  
• Blocked access to Quick Glance [Caps Lock and Tab -> Quickslots] during Shimmy (there are still few situations where it's possible to get stuck with Quick Glance or Quickslots but we are removing them as we find them.)
  
• Minor fix with Fresh Wound so that it turns into Infected Wound a bit more predictably when Sleeping.
  
• Fixed an issue where cooking recipes were showing 'uncooked' version as the cooked result, making it seem like they are not worth making.
  
• Fixed an issue where cooking recipes were not showing buffs that they give you when cooked, making it seem like they are not worth making.
  
• Bonfire should no longer turn off when weather gets worse.
  
• Several gamepad tweaks and fixes.
  
• Fixed odd dithering effect on decals when cutting trees.
  
• Fixed an issue where breaking didn't work on trolley due to error in inputs. (Endless)
  
• Fixed a freeze issue when picking a symptom (there might be more but we definitely removed one of the cases where it happened.)
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause wolves to double up.
  
• Fixed few cases of input loss during various situations (combat, item held in hand) -> still have a few left to resolve. (Please report as many reproductions as you can find.)
  

[h2]Animals:[/h2]

• Wolves will now reset by distance if you don't deal damage to them for a while. It should be significantly easier to disengage from combat.
  
• Tweaked animal movement system to be less glitchy when moving between different importance areas (bushes -> regular navigation or inverse.)
  
• Removed several wolves from the Story Act I. area to make it a bit easier to traverse.
  

[h2]Save System:[/h2]

• Save System has changed to store difficulty in the save game. Meaning once you load the game it will set the difficulty setting that you saved with again. You can always change difficulty setting inside the options.
  
• Fixed an issue related to saving and loading of Production Items (Sap Taps, Skin Drying Racks)
  
• New checkpoint added when starting the Bonfire in Story.
  
• Fixed a bug where fuel would not save on crafted campfires.
  
• Fixed issue where on built drying line the clothes would disappear after save load.
  

[h2]Optimizations:[/h2]

• Optimized culling on Niagara VFX
  

As I promised yesterday, I'm back with another short yet concrete devlog about Winter Survival. Not only do I have the privilege to share with you our brand-new launch trailer, but I'd also like to delve into one particular thing that was heavily requested by our community which is a fully customizable level of difficulty, so you can tailor your gameplay experience according to your needs. As time is a valuable thing, I don't want to keep you waiting, so let's jump straight into it.

[h2]Launch Trailer[/h2]

Dive into the ultimate Winter Survival, and explore your surroundings in the search of valuable things that will heavily enhance your chances of survival. Uncover the story that lies within this bloody place in the Story Mode, or see how long you can survive in the Endless Mode. To be fully aware of the challenges awaiting in the game, check this launch trailer right now🔥

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Adaptive Level of difficulty[/h2]

Do you know that in Winter Survival you'll be able to alter your gameplay experience even before the start of the game? Not only we have a couple of different starting scenarios to choose from, but on release tomorrow we'll also have the possibility for you to adjust the level of difficulty.



Now, Winter Survival is meant to be a very challenging game and we left the Survivalist difficulty pretty much untouched bar some minor tweaks. We did however toned down the game on Explorer difficulty quite a bit. With the ability to customize the game’s difficulty you will be able to adapt the game to your expectations and preferences.



[h2]Stay up-to-date[/h2]

And that's it for today! We're officialy one day away from the release of Winter Survival into the Early Access! We've come a long way and right now we're approaching one of the most important moment in our development journey. Thanks to your feedback we've managed to add and balance a plethora of things in our game already, but we're still counting on you when we enter the Early Access stage. See you tomorrow, folks!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1394960/Winter_Survival/

~ Your humble marketing guy - Sewek