SCUM News

[h3]Hey everyone happy Thursday! Hope you are all good, this is a surprise post as we want to continue to keep you guys in the loop. So here are some news with the Horde we want to share with you guys. [/h3]



We promised you guys we will give you more news about the hordes as soon as we could, and on that promise we deliver. As you are reading this we have started testing new changes to the Horde system to adjust it properly according to your guys feedback and the issues we seen ourselves over time.

But not only us, as we want the community involvement in this as well. With the soft launch of Dropships we have some pretty good feedback, allowing us to adjust and tweak the feature before full release. So we are adjusting this approach to the horde changes, and all of our Alpha testers have access to the horde changes. And all of them will be adjusted according to their feedback.



The changes include both how and when the hordes get triggered and the puppet spawn proximity depending on the area. We do not want to share numbers at this point as the numbers are not what is important here, what is important is that it feels good and that is the feedback we want. To have it feel right. And on this we have our community and Alpha testers to rely on. For now let's have them check it out and break everything and adjust further as needed, and thank you all for your patience. You will hear from us soon!


- Beda

[h3]Hey there, everyone! You know how it goes. New week - new dev update on your favorite hardcore survival game![/h3]



Our code wizards have been hard at work on a variety of things, ranging from the very technical, such as researching rendering performance and optimizing post-processing, to the very specific, like the headlamp, armband, and turrets. As for the upcoming features, work has also progressed on the new NPCs, and significant strides have been made with the implementation of the quest system and its corresponding user interface. The encounter system is also being further tweaked, with a greater focus placed on the basebuilding encounters. Last but certainly not least, it goes without saying that bug fixing also made up a significant portion of last week's workload.



The level design team is doing their part regarding the quest system as they are setting up quest books and quest boards on levels. Apart from that, work has also continued on several POIs such as the castle, quarry, and prison interior, as well as new distant LODs for the Tuđman bridge and the weapons factory. River banks are still being polished, new basebuilding wall concepts were explored, and much bug fixing and even optimization through asset cleanup has been conducted.



The animation team has been working on the foliage and tree canopies, as well as creating new pushing animations for bikes and the quad. Work has progressed on the new trailer and the end credits, bugs were squashed, and preparations are being made for the Halloween update.

The rest of the art team has been hard at work on the new malfunction UI assets, the RPK and AKM rework, and the texture polish for the improvised rifle. Turrets have undergone texturing, and new lights for the sports bike and the tractor have been developed. Also, the TEC-1 quest items that we mentioned last week? Well, take a look at them yourself at the end of this section.

The soft surface art team continued their work on the new female inmate clothing items and textures for the armband. They've also made significant progress with the garbage ghillie suit, and the masks and materials for the school bag. Additionally, we saw some high-poly screenshots of some interesting tribal-looking characters and their weapons...

As promised, have a look at the rough models for the TEC-1 jammer and relay items that will be part of the new quest system:





As with last week, the sound team’s work has continued on sound designs for the turret and for the quests.



The QA team has been testing new features and ensuring that cheaters are not running amok on the game’s servers.



Our game designers have been setting up the functionalities for the headlamp and the new push functionalities for the dirt bike, RIS, and the cruiser.


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And now, it is time for Q&A:

• First off, shout out to the great franchises that you've mentioned! As for the turrets, dropships, sentries, etc., they are closely tied to the dystopian, near-future theme of the game. There's a literal implant in the base of your character's skull that can reanimate dead prisoners. The turrets themselves are added as an additional means of protecting your base from the dropship and other players when you are away from it.
  

• We completely agree with you, and you'll be pleased to know that the team is actively working on the quests (missions) and that we'll have them ready for the upcoming update. The update is going to be quite significant, and we can't wait for it to see the light of day! NPCs are coming with the 1.0 version.
  

• We completely understand your point of view, and you are mostly correct. However, since the majority of SCUM's in-game systems are greatly intertwined, a fix for an issue today might be compromised by the addition of a new feature or a rework of an existing feature tomorrow. Also, we want to push out these new features as soon as possible so we can release them, test them out internally and with the community, and modify/fix them so that they work properly when we hit 1.0. Make no mistake, we aim to fix the issues that have persisted and introduce a host of optimizations that will make the game run as smoothly as possible.
  

• We're aware of these occurrences with inadequate puppet spawns, and the team is actively working to fix them. As for the puppets phasing through geometry, it's a more complex issue, but we'll also get that sorted out.
  

• The inventory rework is on the table, and we'll have that sorted out in one of the upcoming updates.
  

See you next week!

Fratman

[h3]Hey there SCUM community - it's that time of the week again(+1)! Here's a new dev update for your reading pleasure![/h3]



The programming team is working on a wide variety of features and tasks. They are working on everything from weapon malfunctions, armband and headlamp items, turrets, quests...and I even heard the sound of a familiar female AI assistant voice somewhere from their room. Apart from that, the team was also researching some of the level-of-detail discrepancies in the game and has been optimizing the rendering of the map. Last, but definitely not least, the team was also working on the base building ladder connecting and on additional anticheat functionalities.



Our level designers are still at it with some of the already mentioned reworks of the weapons factory and coal mine POIs. However, they've also been reworking the riverbanks and some of the base building elements, and have been setting some cliffs on the mountainsides.



Our animators are currently focused mostly on bugfixing and on creating a new trailer for the game. They've also completed the animations for the new SCAR weapon and are finishing up the end credits for the game, as well as the Halloween update.

The rest of the art team is working on a wide variety of things. Apart from bugfixing and overall optimizations, they are reworking the AKM and RPK weapons and are working on the Hellrider body for the Cruiser vehicle. Work has also continued on the base building turrets (shown in the screenshots below) and on reworking the dropship, as well as some TEC-1 quest items. The rear lights for the quad are being fixed, while new lights on the sports bike will be implemented.

The soft surface art team is working on the reworking the female inmate pants and shirt. While we're on the subject of clothes, they have also been working on a rework of the folded clothes as well. Work has also started on the armbands and on the armed NPCs.

As promised, have a look at the early work-in-progress screenshots of the turret in all its glory:











The sound team's focus was on creating sound designs for the turret and for the quests.



Nothing new to add here. Same as every week.



Work has continued on the design of the quest system, and work has started on the tutorial. They've also worked on the new weapons scope, as well as the armband functionality.


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And now it is time for Q&A:

• As we've mentioned in the 'art' section, we're making preparations for the Halloween update which will go live sometime by the end of the month.
  

• There was an issue where some of the encounters that were expired were reactivated on server restart instead of being erased from the server's database. I know it's a bit technical, but that's the rough explanation.
  

• First off, you need to make sure that the dropship basebuilding encounter is enabled in the server settings and then your base needs to have the required amount of elements for the dropship to attack it.
  

• Do you have a mask equipped by any chance? When you have a mask on, then you are unable to eat. If that is not the case, then we'd like to kindly ask you to report it via the following link: https://scum.help.jagex.com/hc/en-gb/requests/new?ticket_form_id=22542144743185 As for the night, it lasts proportionately to the daytime (roughly 16:8). Nighttime provides an additional layer of challenge as you need to be adequately geared to do things during the night.
  

• The Brenner is a powerful being that cannot be killed as it literally has phoenix tears for blood. The idea behind him was to create a threat which cannot be defeated and which you can only outsmart or outmaneuver. That's why they can only be found in abandoned bunkers and why the ultimate prize is to get a sample of his blood which you can then use to heal yourself.
  

See you next week!

Fratman

[h3]Hey everyone, the days are getting colder but our hotfixes are getting hotter, check it out![/h3]

• Fixed an issue where sometimes the dropship BB event would not start.
  
• Fixed the issue where you could not vault through some narrow windows.
  
• Fixed the issue where you could not install Motorbike battery after removing it.
  
• Fixed the issue where character foot would sometimes bug out.
  
• Fixed the issue where you could hear other players parachuting down.
  
• Fixed the issue where flying vehicle detection would sometime give false positive reports.
  
• Fixed the issue where #VisualizeVehicleTrajectory command would sometimes cause a client crash.
  
• Fixed the issue where players could sometimes pick up chests through closed doors.
  
• Fixed the issue where admin spawned Razors would follow admin drones.
  
• Fixed the issue where cut interaction would sometimes not work.
  
• Fixed the issue where you could not pick up weapons after removing weeds from the garden.
  
• Fixed the issue where puppets could spawn directly behind you.
  
• Fixed the issue where airplane would not apply parking brakes if a copilot was mounted.
  
• Fixed the issue where some character heads had too much texture brightness.
  
• Fixed the issue where red tool containers in abandoned bunkers could not be looted.
  

• You can now put only 100 items in trader cart per transaction/trade.
  
• Implemented higher bullet spread when shooting from vehicles, depending on the vehicle speed.
  
• Optimized encounter virtualization.
  
• #ScheduleWorldEvent BP_CargoDropEvent will now drop at the exact given coordinates.
  
• Added new commands to compensate the difference:
  #ScheduleCargoDrop
  
  This will spawn a cargo drop around the player that entered the command.
  
  #ScheduleCargoDrop steamid
  
  This will spawn a cargo drop around the player with the corresponding steamid.
  
  If there is no suitable cargo drop location with these commands due to BB flag area/restricted POIs you will receive a message. Couldn't find any suitable nearby location to schedule a cargo drop.
  

[h3]Hey hey everyone happy Monday! Hope you all have a wonderful start of the week. We're in the middle of the big move but still wanted to bring you the news in another Dev update! [/h3]



This will be a different format for this week as a lot of us are in the middle of moving offices to a bigger space. That means I also lost access to my notes for alot of it but still wanted to keep you guys posted, enjoy some photos of Matofski and Daruis looking at the mess we made.





In the meantime the rest of the team continues hammering away on their keyboards on both the new stuff and the bug fixing. As soon as I can access my notes again we will go back to our regular programming.

See you soon!

-Beda