July Update (Full Interaction Overhaul | Crafted Storage | Door Fortification+)
It has been two months since our last update and we’ve been hard at work working on 1.18. The update is now on our default branch and it features quite a few fixes, changes and improvements. We’ll go over just some of them in the update below. Be sure to check out our changelog for a full list of changes you can test against. If you find any issues please report them in game using the F1 menu.
[h3]Interaction Overhaul[/h3]
Since our public alpha release in 2019 we’ve been improving and re-designing UI and method of interaction. 1.18 features the right click menu. For some time now, interacting with objects in the game that required parts or fuel as an example was rather cumbersome. The new system allows players to interact directly with the object rather than having to interact with another popup booklet style menu. The system simple feels right, like it has always been there.
This system has quite a few benefits. It removes the constant confusion over what holding E does. Right clicking feels a lot more natural and is consistent across all interactable objects in the game. The system provides quicker accesses to interactions with items, like instant equipping of weapons without having to first pick them up. The UI is much cleaner for machines and you can instantly tell what parts are there and what parts need adding.
Interactions that have been added to the right click menu:
This system feels way more fluid to us and we think you’ll love it just the same as we do. It continues our on going UI and interaction improvements. This is something you will see more of as we move forward.
Vehicle interaction
Generator interaction
Lock interaction
Fire interaction
[h3]Door Fortifications and General Improvements[/h3]
To say this has been a long time coming is an understatement. Fortifications are playing a bigger role in the game now and you have all requested this feature since we introduced window fortifications. It’s not possible to fortify any residential door in the game. The player can still lock doors but as an added (and more easily achievable fortification) quickly planking a door provides another layer of protection. The fortification system isn’t limited to just planks, if it currently covers a window it will work on a door. We’ve intentionally left out commercial doors as to not create an awkward situation.
Along with the addition of door fortifications, we’ve made other improvements to doors. The animation that plays when doors operate has been sped up. Doors open and close much faster creating a far better player experience we moving through them.
The player will also notice that fortifications they place take significantly less damage than fortifications they don’t own. This should help players shooting through their own fortifications while defending a structure.
Weapons now take less wear when damaging fortifications even when not owned by the player. This was just a bit out of hand in previous builds and we’ve taken care of it now.
Hammers now do double the damage to fortifications when they’re owned by the player. This will allow the player to quickly remove fortifications they’ve placed using the hammer.
Fortifying a door
Old door animation speed
New door animation
[h3]Crafted Player Storage[/h3]
Another frequently requested feature is player crafted storage. We’re introducing a craftable container in 1.18 a large wooden crate. This will allow players to easily store items in structures without relying on built in containers i.e. kitchen cabinets, etc. The containers should be stored in a secure room because you’re currently unable to lock them. This is something we’ll likely improve in the future but for the time being a container can easily be secured in the same fashion by locking up and with the introduction of door fortifications, planking up a room.
Crafting a container
Securing a room full of containers
[h3]Vehicle Improvements[/h3]
We have worked on vehicles issues for this update and the improvements should be very noticeable. Players no longer occasionally teleport off to another universe when stepping out of a vehicle so that’s nice. Vehicles shouldn’t glitch and freak out when the player exits them. Vehicles should now roll for a longer period of time when a player steps out. The Cricket (little hatch) shouldn’t roll on to its roof as easily anymore along with other improvements.
The big change here is the improvement to vehicle physics. The system now maintains vehicles after a driver steps out. This leads to improved vehicle physics and the entire system should feel far more polished. There will no doubt still be issues and if you find anything please feel free to report in game with the F1 menu.
[h3]General Improvements[/h3]
There are a good amount of big changes in the update but those aren’t the only changes you’ll find in 1.18. We’ve done a good deal of adjusting, fixing and tinkering to improve the all around game experience.
[h3]Trap Improvements[/h3]
We’ve worked on improving interactions with traps and trap issues themselves. As an example, the bear trap no longer deactivates when placing it down. It also won’t play the animation when first placing it. In addition, the colliders have been tweaked to make it easier to place on uneven terrain and closer to walls or objects.
Bear Trap interaction
Shotgun traps are easier to interact with now we have the right click system. We’ve also taken the time to improve the visual on the shotgun trap. You can now clearly see the trip line. This should help with players shooting their own knees off.
Shotgun trap improved interaction and visual
[h3]Server Optimization[/h3]
We’ve spent some time optimizing during this dev cycle. There have been over 30k objects removed from the server, objects that are no longer needed. Most of these were unused collision objects that were bogging the server down.
[h3]Placement and Navigation Improvements[/h3]
The world left behind isn’t a pretty one, there’s quite a lot of trash around! Some of these piles have caused the player grief and we’ve taken some steps to address these issues. While they do make for a nice backdrop and add to the overall ambiance the trash piles can make placing objects and navigating difficult at times. The team has adjusted colliders and adjusted some of the models to create easier to navigate environments.
Flatter clutter for better navigation
Adjusted colliders for better placement
In addition to design objects like the ones above, we’ve tweaked issues on AI models. The player is now able to place items inside of zombies or passive AI rag dolls. There is no need to wait for the bodies to disappear. There’s also been a fix of the issue where AI sometimes wouldn’t go rag doll on death.
[h3]Patch Notes - Alpha 1.18 [/h3]
Core Interaction System Overhaul
New Interaction UI
This system has a few benefits:
Interactions that have been added to the right click menu:
Added more information when looking at items in the world:
Craftable Player Storage
Fortifications
Traps
Vehicle Improvements
Performance
Crafting
UI
Quality of Life (QoL)
AI
Assets
Environment
Animations
Server
Localisation
[h3]If you're enjoying the game, please consider writing a review or updating your current one. Every little bit helps our small team. Thank you! :)[/h3]
[h3]Links[/h3]
Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights
Patreon: https://patreon.com/a2zinteractive
Changelog: https://changelog.survivethenights.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive
Website: https://www.survivethenights.net
Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/a2zinteractive
[h3]Interaction Overhaul[/h3]
Since our public alpha release in 2019 we’ve been improving and re-designing UI and method of interaction. 1.18 features the right click menu. For some time now, interacting with objects in the game that required parts or fuel as an example was rather cumbersome. The new system allows players to interact directly with the object rather than having to interact with another popup booklet style menu. The system simple feels right, like it has always been there.
This system has quite a few benefits. It removes the constant confusion over what holding E does. Right clicking feels a lot more natural and is consistent across all interactable objects in the game. The system provides quicker accesses to interactions with items, like instant equipping of weapons without having to first pick them up. The UI is much cleaner for machines and you can instantly tell what parts are there and what parts need adding.
Interactions that have been added to the right click menu:
- Interact (Enable or disable: Generators/Vehicles/Fires/Breakers/Meters/Traps/Lights/Lock)
- Place (Place Drops)
- Equip (Equip Weapons)
- Consume (Food and Medical items)
- Repair (Vehicles)
- Open Lock UI + Place Lock
- Eat Portion + Add Items (Stew)
- Remove home (Sleeping bag)
- Open placed crafted container
This system feels way more fluid to us and we think you’ll love it just the same as we do. It continues our on going UI and interaction improvements. This is something you will see more of as we move forward.
Vehicle interaction
Generator interaction
Lock interaction
Fire interaction[h3]Door Fortifications and General Improvements[/h3]
To say this has been a long time coming is an understatement. Fortifications are playing a bigger role in the game now and you have all requested this feature since we introduced window fortifications. It’s not possible to fortify any residential door in the game. The player can still lock doors but as an added (and more easily achievable fortification) quickly planking a door provides another layer of protection. The fortification system isn’t limited to just planks, if it currently covers a window it will work on a door. We’ve intentionally left out commercial doors as to not create an awkward situation.
Along with the addition of door fortifications, we’ve made other improvements to doors. The animation that plays when doors operate has been sped up. Doors open and close much faster creating a far better player experience we moving through them.
The player will also notice that fortifications they place take significantly less damage than fortifications they don’t own. This should help players shooting through their own fortifications while defending a structure.
Weapons now take less wear when damaging fortifications even when not owned by the player. This was just a bit out of hand in previous builds and we’ve taken care of it now.
Hammers now do double the damage to fortifications when they’re owned by the player. This will allow the player to quickly remove fortifications they’ve placed using the hammer.
Fortifying a door
Old door animation speed
New door animation[h3]Crafted Player Storage[/h3]
Another frequently requested feature is player crafted storage. We’re introducing a craftable container in 1.18 a large wooden crate. This will allow players to easily store items in structures without relying on built in containers i.e. kitchen cabinets, etc. The containers should be stored in a secure room because you’re currently unable to lock them. This is something we’ll likely improve in the future but for the time being a container can easily be secured in the same fashion by locking up and with the introduction of door fortifications, planking up a room.
Crafting a container
Securing a room full of containers[h3]Vehicle Improvements[/h3]
We have worked on vehicles issues for this update and the improvements should be very noticeable. Players no longer occasionally teleport off to another universe when stepping out of a vehicle so that’s nice. Vehicles shouldn’t glitch and freak out when the player exits them. Vehicles should now roll for a longer period of time when a player steps out. The Cricket (little hatch) shouldn’t roll on to its roof as easily anymore along with other improvements.
The big change here is the improvement to vehicle physics. The system now maintains vehicles after a driver steps out. This leads to improved vehicle physics and the entire system should feel far more polished. There will no doubt still be issues and if you find anything please feel free to report in game with the F1 menu.
[h3]General Improvements[/h3]
There are a good amount of big changes in the update but those aren’t the only changes you’ll find in 1.18. We’ve done a good deal of adjusting, fixing and tinkering to improve the all around game experience.
[h3]Trap Improvements[/h3]
We’ve worked on improving interactions with traps and trap issues themselves. As an example, the bear trap no longer deactivates when placing it down. It also won’t play the animation when first placing it. In addition, the colliders have been tweaked to make it easier to place on uneven terrain and closer to walls or objects.
Bear Trap interactionShotgun traps are easier to interact with now we have the right click system. We’ve also taken the time to improve the visual on the shotgun trap. You can now clearly see the trip line. This should help with players shooting their own knees off.
Shotgun trap improved interaction and visual[h3]Server Optimization[/h3]
We’ve spent some time optimizing during this dev cycle. There have been over 30k objects removed from the server, objects that are no longer needed. Most of these were unused collision objects that were bogging the server down.
[h3]Placement and Navigation Improvements[/h3]
The world left behind isn’t a pretty one, there’s quite a lot of trash around! Some of these piles have caused the player grief and we’ve taken some steps to address these issues. While they do make for a nice backdrop and add to the overall ambiance the trash piles can make placing objects and navigating difficult at times. The team has adjusted colliders and adjusted some of the models to create easier to navigate environments.
Flatter clutter for better navigation
Adjusted colliders for better placementIn addition to design objects like the ones above, we’ve tweaked issues on AI models. The player is now able to place items inside of zombies or passive AI rag dolls. There is no need to wait for the bodies to disappear. There’s also been a fix of the issue where AI sometimes wouldn’t go rag doll on death.
[h3]Patch Notes - Alpha 1.18 [/h3]
Core Interaction System Overhaul
- Fix for waypoints lagging behind by 1 frame.
- Reduced 1.5 second delay when interacting with machines.
- Allowed exiting vehicles at speed without need to hold down E
New Interaction UI
- Added right click functionality when hovering over objects or machines.
- The new right click menu will show things you can do with the object/machine that’s selected.
This system has a few benefits:
- Removes constant confusion over what holding E does, behaviour should now be a lot more consistent.
- Allows for adding of more interactions to items like the instant equipping of weapons without having to pick it up first.
- A cleaner UI for machines that can tell you how many items you currently have when adding items.
Interactions that have been added to the right click menu:
- Interact (Enable or disable: Generators/Vehicles/Fires/Breakers/Meters/Traps/Lights/Lock)
- Place (Place Drops)
- Equip (Equip Weapons)
- Consume (Food and Medical items)
- Repair (Vehicles)
- Open Lock UI + Place Lock
- Eat Portion + Add Items (Stew)
- Remove home (Sleeping bag)
Added more information when looking at items in the world:
- Ammo amount when looking at guns and ammo drops
- Weapon condition when looking at weapons
- Amount in the box when looking at screw/nail boxes.
- Fuel (jerry cans and vehicles)
- Battery percentage (Flashlights/Drill)
- Item descriptions now show when hovering over the name of the item in the new right click menu
- Added instructions when hovering over repair button for vehicles
Craftable Player Storage
- Added craftable player storage container!
Fortifications
- Fortifications now take significantly less damage if they are owned by the player.
- Weapons now take significantly less weapon if the fortification is owned by the player.
- Weapons now take less wear when damaging fortification even when not owned by the player.
- Hammers now do double the damage to fortifications when they are owned by the player.
Traps
- Bear trap no longer plays close animation when placing it down for the first time
- Tweaked bear trap colliders to make it easier to place on uneven terrain and close to walls/other objects
- Tweaked propane fire trap model to make it easier to place
- Fix for placing propane fire trap tube inside of walls
- Lowered propane tank and propane fire trap weights
- Increased visibility of shotgun tripwire to more clearly indicate that it’s enabled
- Fixed barbed wire being difficult to place on bumpy terrain
- Added free placed fortification to quick guide
Vehicle Improvements
- Players no longer occasionally teleport away when stepping out of a vehicle.
- Vehicles no longer glitch when exiting.
- Vehicles now roll for longer when stepping out while moving.
- Cricket vehicle no longer rolls on to roof as easily.
- Control of vehicles is now maintained after the last driver steps out. This leads to improved physics calculation
- Tweaked the color of the container in the back of the 4x4 vehicle to limit confusion against the new craftable storage.
Performance
- Server - Performance improvements on the when a vehicle is being driven.
- Server- Reduced issue with weather manager that was causing high CPU usage on the server.
Crafting
- Added recipe for craftable player storage.
UI
- Fix for waypoints lagging behind by 1 frame.
Quality of Life (QoL)
- Fixed issue where clicking next to the map would place a map marker. It now closes the map
- Consuming is no longer canceled when the inventory is opened or closed
- Consuming is now cancelled when pressing escape without opening the menus
- Fixed slow movement when trying to climb through a window
- All doors now open and close faster!
- Fixed players getting stuck when walking on top of sofas
- It's now possible to cleanup dead players backpacks.
- Added red/green indicator color to breaker/meter panel levers.
- Allowed exiting vehicles at speed without need to hold down E
- Reduced 1.5 second delay when interacting with machines.
- Tweaked some junk piles and removed collision to improve navigation when walking over them.
- Improved placing on some junk objects by reducing collider height.
- Fix for harvesting not working on large junk pile on low settings.
- It's now possible to place free placed forts inside of dead zombies that have not yet been despawned.
- Removed metal harvesting from the small shed to avoid confusion
- Fixed extreme aliasing when taking upscaled screenshots when using /screenshot
- Improved vehicle engine trigger areas.
- Improved colliders for interacting with doors.
AI
- Fixed issue where AI sometimes didn’t turn into rag doll correctly
Assets
- Crossbow asset added.
- Flarefun asset added.
Environment
- Fixed floating item spawn points at metal refineries.
- Smooth terrain around refinery on terrain 51
- Fixed floating rock on terrain 13.
- Fixed floating rock on terrain 54.
- Moved a floating house to ground level 36
- Cabin doors that didn't work should now function correctly.
Animations
- Core animations for crossbow and flare gun added.
Server
- Removed over 30k objects from the server which are no longer needed.
Localisation
- Updated all translations from crowdin
[h3]If you're enjoying the game, please consider writing a review or updating your current one. Every little bit helps our small team. Thank you! :)[/h3]
[h3]Links[/h3]
Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights
Patreon: https://patreon.com/a2zinteractive
Changelog: https://changelog.survivethenights.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive
Website: https://www.survivethenights.net
Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/a2zinteractive
