HumanitZ News

Greetings Survivors,

It's been 2 weeks since the last Zeek Feed, let's dive in and see what's being going on


What we have been working on…

Changes to default controls!!! So one of the biggest issues that some players have is the movement and camera controls, most people love it or love it after some time and others just do not like it. We are fully aware of this and it's something we are actively looking at improving and testing these improvements, but it's not easy and if it was we’d have done it already. But when the next update drops in June the default player movement controls will be set to Movement (this will feel more similar to other top down games as the player will only face the direction of the crosshair when aiming), and camera rotation will stay on continuous. For players that don’t like to use Q&E they can set camera rotation to MiddleMouse instead.



Steam Deck!! So recently we added all buildings in our map to our level streaming system to help with performance and loading time. This has been successful and I’m currently testing with my personal steam deck OLED and the game and map loads in seconds which is a huge improvement as previously this device really struggled to load the main map. Now we are working on the controller support to go with the steam deck updates so we move closer to get HumanitZ being fully supported for steam deck.



We’ve been working on a new master material for all our character clothing to allow weather effects, dirt, blood, wear and tear to add some more realism to the character clothing. More info on this when it's ready to be added to the live build.



Brand new menus coming to HumanitZ making them more streamline and work well with both PC and controller/console, here is a WIP sneak peak of how they might look. More info coming soon.



New POI added to the map that was teased on our discord recently is a research lab on a small little island so this will be a cool place to discover when the new update drops. But please note this is not the hidden island that is coming at 1.0 this is just a new location as we look to update the map further.




Future stuff:

• Animal hide will be coming to the game allowing the player to craft certain items like clothing etc.
  
• All houses and buildings have a low chance of an alarm going off when smashing windows for the first time.
  
• Adding the option to use/consume half of something that allows you to share with your teammate. Example a bottle of water you and your friend can share, this will create more fun in scarce loot settings when surviving is a lot harder.
  
• Zooming out the camera a bit further so the player can see further and also the same inside buildings allowing better viewing.
  
• Some changes to crafting and building items as some items will now be tied to in-game recipes you will need to find/unlock. Basically learning how to do something.
  
• Big map updates coming with new towns, neighbourhoods and places to loot with improvements to house layouts and more variation across the map.
  

Thanks for the support and taking the time to read our latest zeek feed.
And we’ll see you on the next one

Regards
HZ Team

Hi everyone!

We're excited to share that HumanitZ is part of the Open World Survival Crafting Fest on Steam that celebrates games where you start with nothing and eventually end up with... well, maybe still nothing. Show off your survival skills starting May 27th to June 3rd!

Now is the perfect time to dive into HumanitZ as it will be 30% off for the duration of the event.

Don't forget to join our Discord to stay up to date with the latest news!


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1766060/HumanitZ/

Greetings Survivors,

It's been a week already so it's time for another Zeek Feed, this week will be a bit of a short one so let's dive in!

What we have been working on…

We tested our first dev build with quests added to the map and it was a lot of fun for the team to dive in and play HumanitZ with quests, we will be continuing to improve and test the newly added quests system over the coming weeks as we edge closer to its release.


We mentioned last week about adding a level streaming system to our houses in our map and we are happy with how this is helping with performance. More testing will continue this week but it's going in the right direction as we work towards helping support lesser PC specs, steamdeck compatibility and just overall game performance.


We’ve been working on a new overgrown location of the map to explore that will have a different feel to it. Not much else I can say right now on this but we plan to do this with more locations in future if it works out well.


We’ve added lots of new items to the game (and I mean lots) for the player to find, some items will be used for new game mechanics and crafting etc, other items will be used later in development and anything that cannot be used right now will be part of the quest system or used as a high value item to use with traders.


Future Stuff:

• Being able to build certain actors in the game will be made harder with unique items, for example CB radio and generator will be harder to build in the future due to new required items.
  
• Changing how rock and mushroom spawners work so they can be added to the map in a more performant way so that players will be able to find rocks etc a lot more easier.
  
• Updates around the player’s health system with more types of illness and bleeding etc coming soon.
  
• Making noise! More actions in game will trigger noises like looting etc more info on this soon.
  

Thanks for the support and taking the time to read our latest zeek feed.
And we’ll see you on the next one

Regards
HZ Team

Greetings Survivors,

We are back with another Zeek Feed, this week we report back on what we worked on last week and what is on our radar for the next couple of weeks.

We released the latest hotfix last week to fix a lot of crash issues and other bugs that have been in our game for a long time, so far this has been a successful patch.


What we have been working on…

Last week more work was done on the quest system creating the quest camps and their locations on the map. Also a host of new quests including NPC quests, random events, world quests and more.


We have implemented and are still testing a new level streaming system for the map that will help improve loading time of joining/starting a game. This will also help solve issues with players with lesser gaming PC’s struggling to load into a game, in turn helping with our steamdeck development as this was one of the stumbling blocks prior to this addition.


Additionally, we’ve also been working on map improvements with new smaller POIs, more house variations and layouts, and also improving the foliage and colour palette with new trees.


The team is also testing new quick slots for watch and compass as this has been a highly requested feature to improve the amount of quickslots the player has.


There has been some work done with play testing with the controller support, we are now working through our list of actions to improve how the controller works and to make sure it’s 100% functional with all aspects of the game and UI.


Future stuff:

Plans to add more parts and items needed for vehicles, for example oil, spark plugs and potential for wheels as well.
SAT NAV item for vehicles that will be used as a mini map feature while driving.
More work on lore and ideas for potentially expanding the map.

Thanks for the support and taking the time to read our latest zeek feed.
And we’ll see you on the next one

Regards
HZ Team

Hey Survivors, this patch fixes some major game issues that we’ve had plaguing our game for some time plus issues found by the community from the latest patch. Below is a list of all the fixes and changes made.

Server owners will need to restart there servers to pull the new update

Loot has been balanced so rare items are harder to find.
Adjustment to durability of weapons making them reduce at a slightly faster rate.
Melee weapons with low durability are now less likely to land a headshot.
Skull marker added to the map on player death.
Added check to prevent player loading in with tilted camera bug.
Reduced melee damage dealt to player built structures.
Balanced the amount of fuel found in gas pumps and water found in toilets.
Increase sound attenuation of window smash sound.
Reduced player punch sound attenuation.
Optimization made to the apple tree.
New items added (can of beans and orange juice).
Now there is a ‘Never’ option when prompted to play the tutorial.
Map improvements and house changes.

Fixed random crash issue linked to melee combat.
Fixed potential crash issue when exiting to main menu.
Fixed issue where sometimes the 2nd melee swing would not register.
Fixed gun attachments disappearing when dropped and logging out.
Fixed not receiving empty bottles when adding dirty water to farm plots.
Fixed issue with seeds spawning at 0% durability.
Fixed issue where you can't interact with car fuel.
Fixed empty can not being removed from inventory when syphoning fuel.
Fixed infection icon not showing up on player HUD when player loads a save.
Fixed camera zooming in too much when loading inside a house.
Fixed issue with resolution quality resetting randomly.
Fixed gold desert eagle gunshot sound.
Fixed issue with infinite honey can spawn.
Fixed human AI ignoring barbed wire damage on upgraded structures.
Fixed issue where player occasionally was unable to fish in the Ocean.


Kind regards
HZ Team