Ravenous Horde News

Fellow Hunters,

It's been a while since the last post, so today I'd like to get you all up to date with what I've been working on. And as the new year is in full swing and so is the development of Ravenous Horde! I'll go over what has been done, what will be reworked and what is coming in 2025!

[h2]New map: Casino[/h2]



For the past months I've been working on a new map. (amongst other things) Casino is the 5th map available and is aimed at giving the player some more things to do during gameplay rather than only surviving the horde. Take a good look around in the dark, see if you can find anything that might light up the place, or worse, something fuelling someone's hidden gambling addiction.



Casino is also the first map home to new cosmetics and weapon skins. I'll leave it up the community to figure out how to obtain them.



The previous 4 maps will be looked at as well to see if any interactive things can be added to them. Cosmetics and weapon skins will be added for sure!


[h2]Other improvements[/h2]
While the Casino map was taking up majority of the time, some other things have been added or changed as well.

The time each round takes has been lowered from 20 to 15 minutes.

New music has been added during the game when the round is active. Something to get your blood pumping whilst the zombies are coming for your skin. Also some new character lines have been added.

I've added a flashlight option (as a Hunter) which can be toggled on or off, some areas are very dark and placing a ton of lights into the game doesn't always work well. The default for every map is that the flashlight is on, and it can't be seen by others (so it won't reveal your position to player controlled zombies)

When playing as a zombie there is also something planned to let you see better in the dark. More on that later!


[h2]Character cosmetics and weapon skins[/h2]

Ravenous Horde will be a free to play game, with paid character cosmetics / weapon skins. (because I need to eat)
However I'm no fan of predatory schemes so there will be a mix of ones that can be earned for free and some that are paid.

The plan is to keep the amount of cosmetics and weapon skins in the game limited (both paid and free) so that players will still be able to recognize that some free ones required someone to do a specific challenge, or got very lucky.

This is because some games (mainly MMO's) have so many cosmetics that the "value" of a skin becomes less as other players will not be able to recognize that skin due to there being so many. I believe that if you ever had to do some difficult challenge to get a skin it should always be clear to others that you completed that challenge and didn't get a similar reskinned variant from the store.

That said, I don't have a hard number yet for how many hats there should be, or the exact amount of skins per weapon.

The last thing I'd like to mention is that there is a finite amount of money you can spend on the game. There are no plans to set up a never ending stream of skins / battle passes or stuff that you have to keep paying for in order to have everything unlocked.

As always, you can play with your friends regardless of who purchased what. New maps are free and there's no playerbase fragmenting through DLC's.


[h2]2025 plans[/h2]

First things first: Ravenous Horde will release this year. There will be no delays, in worst case scenario's it will launch with less content than planned but it will be released. The goal is to release the game in Q4 this year.

Now before that happens, there's a Demo release planned. The Demo will have a level cap and will allow you to play on most likely 6 maps. For all the players that have played in a playtest so far, your savefile will be converted to a Demo savefile. The demo (and the demo server) will be available 24/7 until game release. The Demo will also be updated from time to time if content is added that affects the Demo, such as controller support for example.

I'm not sure yet if upon full game release your Demo savefile will be converted to a normal savefile or that you will have to start over. Both ways have their (dis-)advantages.

Before the Demo releases, the game needs polishing.

- The UI will get another overhaul because I can't get it themed right how I want it to be. I'll go for a more generic look.
- The game will be localized in all languages that are displayed on the Store Page.
- The stats tab will be added.
- Another map will be added.
- The in-game UI will be slightly changed so every zombie and hunter ability (like the sentry already has) will show what key bind you need to press and is clearly displayed on your screen.
- The perk icons need updating.
- The last hunter should have his own unique weapon.
- And a ton more, like cosmetics, new perks and special grenades and equipment.

With that being said, thank you all for the support so far and reading this. I'll go back to work :)

- Rinke

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2179490/Ravenous_Horde/

Fellow Hunters!

Here are the patch notes after getting feedback on some bugs and performance issues.

[h2]Patch notes for v0.0.8a[/h2]

- Greatly optimized performance on all maps.
- Your sentry now de-spawns when you die as a hunter.
- Updated the clear night weather condition on the factory map to have lamps to brighten the area a bit.
- Increased the purchase trigger around the ammo refill station
- Zombie characters now use their hats if they had it equipped as a hunter. (AI zombies have random hats)
- Removed the bullet hole / blood decal painting on zombies. (This caused performance issues)
- Added a wishlist button to the in-game pause menu.
- The maximum zombie AI limit changed from 30 to 40.

- Fixed several glitch spots that allowed you to be out of reach of zombies.
- Fixed a bug where people disconnecting from the server would not remove them from the player list in-game. (And would show a full server)
- Fixed a bug where the sentry was louder than nearby allies.
- Fixed a bug where the healing tip on the screen would stay when spawning as a zombie after dying as a hunter.
- Fixed a bug where you could rotate your corpse when dying as a hunter.
- Fixed a bug where player arrows on the minimap would not clamp correctly to the border on wide screens.


Thanks for all the feedback so far!

- Rinke

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2179490/Ravenous_Horde/

Fellow Hunters,

As of now the Month+ Playtest is active! Bring your friends and have a good time!

All access requesters and players who request access at anytime during the playtest will be automatically accepted. If you have played before, your account will be reset at the start of this playtest.

If you encounter anything odd, let me know :)

- Rinke

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2179490/Ravenous_Horde/

Fellow Hunters!

In preparation for the playtest that starts tomorrow several changes have been made to the game!
Please note that all levels are reset upon the start of the playtest.

[h2]Patch notes for v0.0.8[/h2]

- Added more perks to unlock
- Added some more voicelines to the hunter

- Removed the countdown timer for playtests in the browser menu and main menu

- All maps now have the same amount of uniform weather conditions. (6 variants)
- More AI zombies spawn
- AI zombies arrive in "waves"
- Lowered AI zombie HP, but scales upwards as time passes
- Greatly optimized the AI zombies
- Any locked clothing, weapons or perks now always are shown in the loadout menu
- Weapons now don't affect run/walk speed anymore
- Weapons now have limited ammo and can be refilled at specific spots on the map
- XP multiplier is set to 1. (As more zombies spawn now)
- Allies are now clamped to the minimap border
- AI zombies are now also on the minimap if you are a zombie
- The server now immediately disables hitboxes on dead zombies, allowing for weapons which shoot multiple bullets to hit targets behind eachother
- Bullets and explosions now affect dead bodies on the client side

- Fixed a bug where the sentry wouldn't target player controlled zombies
- Fixed a bug where AI zombies would have low resolution skins
- Fixed a bug where throwables would throw weird when looking down or up


[h2]What's next?[/h2]
I'll be working on more content, more maps, perks and new special equipment such as mines, a rocket launcher and a flamethrower! (Along with their respective perks)



Thanks for all the support so far! Hope you enjoy the playtest which starts tomorrow!

- Rinke

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2179490/Ravenous_Horde/

Fellow Hunters!

Today I'd like to talk about a longer period of playtesting, some gameplay updates and other tweaks. Lets start off with the bigger playtest!


[h2]A month+ long Playtest[/h2]
On the 5th of October a long playtest will start to measure progression, playtime and a lot more. During this time the server will be on 24/7 till November 10th. All the players who have requested access or request access during this playtest will be accepted immediately. So bring your friends!

Note: Your progress will be wiped upon start of this playtest to ensure everyone starts at lvl 1.

The server will hold up to 64 players, and will not receive any updates during this time unless there are some game breaking issues.

This does mean that the weekend tests are done for now.


[h2]Ammo Changes[/h2]
Currently, you have unlimited ammo but have to reload. This is changing due to the fact that this allows you to camp in a specific spot. Whilst camping in a spot is not bad, the fact that that would be the same gameplay for 20 minutes is.

Doing the exact same thing in a game for 20 minutes is boring, because you are experiencing a consistent feeling of emotions while doing so. The ideal gameplay loop has variations in it where various emotions come and go.

For example, lots of games have a limited inventory system to force players to not do the same constantly, even if they technically could by dumping their inventory items. Minecraft, Borderlands, Skyrim and so many other games use this system to force you to head back to a town/base and sell or store it all. Otherwise you'd just combat or mine for hours and hours.

The same goes for Ravenous Horde, as mentioned sitting in a corner isn't the way for 20 minutes. So from now on your weapons have limited ammo. And to replenish the ammo you can head to one of the 2 specific ammo refill points on any map to grab some more at a small cost. These replenish points are clearly visible and also marked on the mini-map. They're placed on strategic spots to prevent camping near them.



With this change you have moments where you are actively shooting, but also moments of actively trying to find the shortest route towards a nearby refill point without having to rush through a horde. Next to that this also changes the way you use ammo, probably more conservatively and trying to get every shot to count.

The gameplay of the game will remain more arcade-y than tactical/realistic. The amount of ammo you have per gun is not fully balanced yet around the refilling mechanic. The goal is not to have you constantly having to refill, but rather do so only a few times per match.

This change will be in the new patch before the big Playtest session.


[h2]Other Gameplay Changes[/h2]
Some other changes regarding the AI zombies have changed too. Currently the amount of AI zombies scales with the amount of players. But when playing solo it felt underwhelming. You had a few zombies but not the masses you'd expect reading the game title. This needed to change as I think playing this solo (on a server) should also be fun!

So I've greatly optimized the AI zombies to use less resources and how I could use more of them at the same time without degrading performance. Mainly spawning and deleting the AI zombies took a big toll when trying to instantly spawn or kill 10 with a grenade for example. Now they're being reused (pooled, in game dev terms) and behind the scenes there are always at least 50 of them ready to bite your arm.

AI zombies have less HP and deal a bit less damage. However they come in greater numbers quickly even when playing solo. In addition their health now also increases with time, making them deadlier every second the timer ticks. The AI zombies also more or less come in "waves", you'll have busy periods and periods where there are only 1 or 2. This is done for the same reason as the previous chapter, to have variations in how the game feels. And also to give you some breathing room to go towards a ammo refill station.

AI zombies also still scale in amount/health with more players, but this time I wanted to focus first on the solo experience.


[h2]Perks[/h2]
I briefly mentioned perks in the last post. But more of them are on the way!
About ~40% of all perks are currently in as of typing. But more will be added during this and next week before the playtest starts.

In the screenshot below you can see the ones that are currently in for the Hunter. I've started with the most basic/easy ones to get it all working first. The more prominent ones, such as cluster grenades take a bit more time to get right, so they'll be added among the last ones. (They also require a high level to unlock)



As you might have noticed, there are no values displayed on the perk menu. Or even on the loadout menu. This is done intentionally as often "meta" builds arise after a while when people figure out that X gun with Y perks does the most theoretical DPS but might not be the most fun style to play the game.

A great person once said: "Given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game."

And this is also true for Ravenous Horde. So I've opted to not show the data, in an effort to combat this, you should play with whatever setup you'd like. And that's why the perks lean into various directions.

I also try to make sure each perk (but also weapon & special equipment) is relevant in some degree. All weapons should have a place in this game and none should be the go-to weapon in all cases. The same goes for perks, I try to balance them so that not one perk is either a must have or gets never chosen. If a perk is always picked, then it might be better to remove it or add its functionality into the game by default. Every perk should also have a place in this game.


[h2]Patch Info[/h2]
The rest of the patch notes and changes will be coming next week!

Thanks for all the support so far!
- Rinke