Survive the Nights News

Pre-Alpha Devblog #38 (Experimental Build Patch 0.11.37)

Hello all,

Thanks for checking out our 38th devblog! We’ve released the 0.11.37 patch to our experimental branch on Steam. Thanks very much to all the testers finding current issues. There’s a lot of testing and breaking to do so go at it! Below you can find our patch notes. Please do your best to check against the list of changes and report bugs to our tracker.

We will only be doing experimental updates as we approach our public alpha release, v1.0.0. Thanks much for the continued support! We couldn’t do it without the continued dedication of backers willing to help test for issues and suggest fixes and improvements.

Patch 0.11.37

Time cycle length set to 45 minutes across all servers.
Improved fall damage calculations to reduce the chance of unfair death.
Resolved issue which could lead to an empty hint on overall health lowering.
Added small info read out under overall health stat which informs the player what they need to do to increase overall health.
Fixed issue which allowed vehicles to spawn very close to other vehicles. This could lead to vehicles being inside of each other or in random positions.
Fixed issue with progressively reloaded weapons getting caught in an infinite reloading loop.
Fixed issue which would sometimes make punch really fast.
Achievement for killing a chicken with a bear trap now works.
Zombies now have hit reactions when being shot.
Exploded vehicles can no longer be pushed around by bumping into or shooting them.
Generators now use ground placement mode.
AI no longer enters water.
Performance improvements.
Fixed issue which allowed the player to visually see their backpack weapons when first joining game.

Links

Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights
Forum: https://community.survivethenights.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive
Website: https://www.survivethenights.net

Pre-Alpha Devblog #37 (Experimental Build Patch 0.11.36)

Hello all,

Thanks for checking out our 37th devblog! We’ve released the 0.11.36 patch to our experimental branch on Steam. Thanks very much to all the testers finding current issues. There’s a lot of testing and breaking to do so go at it! Below you can find our patch notes. Please do your best to check against the list of changes and report bugs to our tracker.

We will only be doing experimental updates as we approach our alpha launch. The next stable update will be our public alpha release v1.0.0. Thanks much for the continued support! We couldn’t do it without the continued dedication of backers willing to help test for issues and suggest fixes and improvements.

Patch 0.11.36

Sped up consuming times to help game flow/calorie intake time.
Fixed instances were incorrect or no consuming animation would play when consuming an item.
Killing zombies near world traps like bear traps no longer sets them off.
Passive AI can now take damage from melee.
Passive AI now take damage/die from world traps like bear traps.
Head shot damage multiplier increased.
Shotguns now do slightly more damage.
Hasp and staple is now craftable using scrap metal and pliers.
Avoidance now works when switching between looking through a window and back to frame. This would sometimes stop melee working against windows.
Avoidance distance lowered.
Electricity meters now start with a few parts.
Footstep sounds no longer play while in vehicle.
Carrying capacity now increases by 10 when overall health is positive and decreases by 5 when negative.
Jerry cans now only spawn at vehicle part spawner locations as they were too common.
Improved description of campsite campfires to make it clearer how cooking over them works.
Added screenshot option to drone cam.
Resolved issue which could cause players to become stuck on a server. This would stop them rejoining until after the server had restarted.
Interior lights no longer render on terrains as it was causing some shading issues.
Zombies now spawn back in buildings quicker when they are not fortified.
Jerry cans have been removed from hardware item spawners as they were also in vehicle part spawners making them too common.
Tweaks to hardware/electrical item spawners which should make locks kits more common. Less electrical items should now spawn in the hardware stores and instead be pushed to warehouses.
Tuna can disabled temporarily.
Restructured the guide to make it clearer for new players.
Added several new achievements for the guide.
In game UI no longer displays just before loading is complete.
Players no longer show for other players before their own loading screen disappears.
Fixes for vehicle spawn rotation issues.
Shotguns and R-6804 rifle now have shell eject sound effects.
Fixed issue which allowed weapons to jam even while empty.
Fixed issue which allowed for fast firing weapons to fire one additional shot when firing really fast.
Fixed material error which was spamming when shooting red brick variants.
Resolved issue single bullets being able to hit multiple point on the same enemy. This was a fault caused by the penetration system.
Fixed lock position on bathroom sink cabinet that wasn't visible.
Added toggle option for new quick guide in the full guide tab.
Hover icons now have adaptive fade in/out range to bring more relevant interactions to the players attention.
Information hover icon updated to make it more clear.
Lowered vehicle inputs UI slightly so that it fits nicely with the new quick guide.
Resolved spamming error when looking directly at terrains.
Added new destination visited achievements.
Fixed issue with containers which would result in the loss of items in the event they were put in different containers from the same inventory stack.
Reintroduced container item spawning. Containers now spawn highly consumable/common items like food and tinder.
Overall physics stability improvements for vehicles.
Other players head movement range while in vehicles has been reduced to stop it stretching.
Fixed issue which could cause zombies to remain in T-pose position.
Improved UI in drone cam mode, made it so that it can be exited with 'esc' and removed secondary camera mode which didn't work correctly.
Now possible to enter drone cam again (subject to perms)
Chicken sound effects now quieter.
Players no longer bump into dead zombies.
Fixed various particle errors on the server which caused console spam.
Removed trash from forecourt of fuel station in Old Town.
Vehicles found that are under the threshold for smoking no longer smoke unless they are on or are about to blow up.
Camping chairs can now be harvested from for scrap metal.
Camera animation effects are now reduced when hitting fortification objects, trees and when nothing is hit.
Disabled the muffler drop since it is not used in game.
Reduced overall network traffic caused by AI.
PVP disable server config option now works.
Fixed issue which stopped players receiving damage when their limbs were hit.
Locked containers no longer display the amount of items inside.
Locked doors and containers now say "Locked" instead of "Press E to open".
Some item containers around the world have now been converted to player storage which requires a lock to be placed before use.
Reload animation for other players using the FRKS shotgun is now correct speed.
Added new quick guide UI system which should help new players learn the game.
Added extra stats to stats UI that’s in the main menu.
RV's and cars should spawn at correct rotation. Previously this was causing them to spawn inside of items.
Added animations for harvesting from stags and chickens with with machete, hatchet and ax.
Wind now works in the new menu scene.
Added new spawn point locations for players who have completed the guide.
Player spawn point improvements location improvements.
Interacting with items is now quicker.
Notification when harvesting while inventor full is now correctly.
Doors now close after time when there are no players near by. This stops server stagnation where all doors end up open.
Conflicting key binds now display in the UI. This helps stop players binding the same keys.
Hand held radios are now shown in hand for other players.
Loading screen inputs helper now bigger with clearer font.
Kitchen taps now provide dirty water instead of clean. They also have the correct message when searching.
Small garage doors now have 'Coming soon' hovers.
Added new Stag and Doe animal type.
When trying to a slam a door while you don't have enough stamina now reverts to the standard open/close instead of doing nothing.
Slamming doors now requires shift plus interact to be pressed.
Doors no longer slam open when pressing interact on door panel. Doors now open instead when pressing interact.
Improved FRKS reload animation.
Nails can now be crafted from scrap metal.
Berries no longer provide health.
Updated game start splash screen.
It is now possible to harvest from stags and chickens without the correct tool. A lower amount of items are retrieved.
Spawn point location improvements to help early game.
Hints now stay on screen for longer so that players have time to read them.
Zombies no longer stand on bridges during the day.
Anti cheat improvements.
Increased brightness and width of cricket vehicle headlights.
Fixed alignment on death message UI.
Fixed structures that were not working with new functionality introduced in 0.11.32 for preventing zombie spawns in structures that are fully fortified.

Links

Pre-Alpha Devblog #36 (Experimental Build Patch 0.11.35)

Hello all,

Thanks for checking out our 36th devblog! We’ve released the 0.11.35 patch to our experimental branch on Steam. Thanks very much to all the testers finding current issues. There’s a lot of testing and breaking to do so go at it! Below you can find our patch notes. Please do your best to check against the list of changes and report bugs to our tracker.

Patch 0.11.35

Added working RV vehicle.
Vehicles no longer sink in to the ground a fuel stations.
Vehicles can now catch fire and blow up even if they weren't already running.
Fixed errors being caused by shooting red bricks.
Vehicles now take less damage when impacting objects (Including zombies).
Improved zombie vehicle collision calculations so that there's less chance their rag dolls get caught on vehicle.
Zombies now get cleaned up faster when killed by a vehicle.
Improved performance by reducing zombie movement calculations in the distance and stopping their animations.
Improved performance by creating LOD's for vehicles.
Removed some physics calculations for Zombies that were not needed. This should improve performance when near lots of zombies.
Fires no longer warm players through walls.
Hand warming animation only plays when a fire is in the player vision. (Health re-gen still works without line of sight)
Moving away from fire no longer incorrectly notifies of interaction canceled.
Tweaked loot balance. Reduced the amount of guns slightly. Increase the chances of finding custom location based loot. Warehouses now also have (Electrical/car parts) loot.
Fixed issue which could on rare occasion cause zombies to become invincible.
Player no longer receive damage when switching seats while vehicle is moving.
Passengers no longer receive damage when driver exits vehicle when moving.
Fixed issue where vehicles could slowly roll away from their server instances which would mean players could no longer enter.
Tweaks to zombie loading distances to improve overall performance.
Searching area using F is now quicker.
Hold interact functionality made quicker for all interactions.
Added functionality for adding strength to existing lock using an equipped screw driver and screws.
Fixed floating lamp post in terrain 27.
Resolved issue where engine audio/visual wouldn't update after getting out of a vehicle.
Fixed terrain clipping with road in scene 28.
Warehouses now have improved design and location specific loot.
New inputs helper UI added during loading screens.
New loading screen images added in preparation for early access.
New menu scene added in preparation for early access.
Overall loot balance. Less ammo and food. Increased loot in special loot locations like shops and increased likelihood that it's relevant to the location being looted.
Screw driver weapon added.
Fixed structures that were not working with new functionality introduced in 0.11.32 for preventing zombie spawns in structures that are fully fortified.

Thanks much for the continued support. We’ll keep smoothing out this .11 build and get it into proper shape for a solid alpha build. We couldn’t do it without the continued dedication of backers willing to help test for issues and suggest fixes and improvements.

Links
Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights
Forum: https://community.survivethenights.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive
Website: https://www.survivethenights.net

Patch Notes 0.11.34

Hello all,
 
We’re moving our experimental branch to default today. 0.11.31 will become 0.11.34. There have been a good deal of changes in between 0.11.31 and 0.11.34. Melee and fortification improvements among the other changes listed below are a bit part of the recent update. Below are a few screens, gifs and videos of just some of the progress that has gone into this patch. If you're into helping us crush bugs please report them on our public tracker.

Melee Improvements

Melee has needed some love for some time now. We’ve begun to improve the system in 0.11.34. Melee damage now provides some feedback. You’ll see in the video below zombies react to the direction of your swings and where you hit them. Zombie hit boxes have been tightened up and melee in general has improved. The effects are not just for punching, melee weapon reactions, animations and hit boxes have also been improved.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Propane Tank Damage

Roadside signs will help you navigate the map

Map update and improvements

Fortification Mechanic Update

Fortification mechanics have been altered slightly. Newly placed fortification objects now start with a default strength of 10 instead of 2. This speeds up fortifying overall and gives newly placed fortifications more significance. Locks now have an initial strength of 500 when applied. This makes them much harder for player and zombie to break in through a door or get into a locked container.

Patch 0.11.34 (Changes since 0.11.31)

Fixed issue with database which was incorrectly retaining door states.
Large water storage container no longer spawning. (Future feature content.)
Wrenches no longer fall into some surfaces.
Camera now animates when hammering fortifications.
Potential fix for new day UI and stat changes not always working.
Resolved relevancy issue which would cause nearby objects to turn off for a little while when dropping items.
(Regression) Beartraps are now craftable again. Introduced in - Unknown
(Regression) Vehicles now blow up again. Introduced in v0.11.31.
Vehicles start now start smoking when their condition reaches 30. Previously it was 60.
Melee weapons no longer disappear when hitting locks.
(Regression) Zombies are no longer invisible when moving away and then back to them while another player is nearby. Introduced in v0.11.33
Improved issue where the zombie could still reach the player with their attack after being stunned.
Fixed issue which caused the wrong hit reaction animations to play on zombies when they were hit by another player.
Resolved various null refs on the server.
Arms no longer cast shadows when performing action like warming hands or eating.
Fixed scenario which could allow berry harvesting in the winter even though plant would still be bare.
New roads, structures and points of interest added to ingame map.
Higher resolution textures added to ingame map.
Map key functionality added with info to ingame map.
Resolved error being spammed into log while joining game.
Crafting planks from log now produces 5 planks instead of 8.
Each hit now adds 2 strength to fortifications instead of 1. With this change and other tweaks fortifying is approximately 3x faster.
Newly placed fortification objects now start with a default strength of 10 instead of 2. This speeds up fortifying overall and gives newly placed forts more significance.
Tweaked melee weapon attack rates so that the cooldown is always less than the attack rates. This stops them returning to the static our positions which makes melee feel more rigid overall.
Standard planks now have a max strength of 40 instead of 60. This is in preparation of stronger fort types.
Locks now have a default strength of 500. Previously 100.
Melee weapons now receive varied damage from hitting objects.
Melee weapons now do varied damage to fortifications/locks.
Fixed error which was happening when lock was scrambling after the played had closed lock UI.
Explosions now break window frame glass near the explosion.
Zombie male/female/skinny female/Fat now use random textures for torso/legs/hair.
Can no longer crouch under water surface on terrain 62.
Canteen (Clean) variants of water have been changed to look better.
Attack animation on hatchet now works on chop down animation.
Improved zombie hit reaction animation effects.
Stopped rabbit trap drop from decaying.
Updated alpha disclaimer on game load in preparation of early access.
Improved hit accuracy for flashlight attacks.
Melee spawners no longer spawn flashlights. This means more percentage of melee is usuable weapons. Flashlights now spawn as weapon attachments.
Cricket vehicle camera height increased slightly to allow better view out of back window.
Structures no longer spawn zombies once entry ways are all fortified/locked.
Intersection texture fixed on terrain 29.
Propane fire trap volume lowered.
Added directional player camera animations when attacking with melee.
New AI stunning system added. Zombies now play directional hit effects and become stunned when hit.
Zombies can no longer become crawlers from melee attacks.
Reduced the chance that zombies push the player when bumping into them.
Reduced melee avoidance distance against walls.
Zombies no longer play hit reactions while climbing.
Resolved issue which sometimes stopped zombie hit reactions working.
Fixed issue which stopped melee damage being dealt to zombies when the hands were hit.
Zombies no longer jump through wall in police armory.
Added town distance signs between towns so that players can navigate more easily.
Fixed dupe glitch which was causing weapon attachments to not get removed after a server restart.
(0.11.31 regression) Weapon attachments can now be removed again.
Vehicles no longer play glass breaking sound effect when initializing.
Secondary hammer attack now works again.
Crafting recipe no longer clears back to list after crafting an item.
Baseball bat with nails no longer play the incorrect animations when being used by other players.
Baseball bat with nails no longer casts incorrect shadows.
Road on entry into Union Point on terrain 54 now have collision.
Glass breaking VFX and SFX no longer play when hitting windows while trying to fortify.
Trees that have been cut down no longer produce their autumn falling leaves VFX.
Player no longer bobs up and down when crouched near a fire that is on.
Removed various log errors that were happening due to item relevance.
Crawling zombies no longer transition back to standing zombies when moving far away from them.
Crawling zombies now align with surface they're on.
Players can now move while consuming from canteen.
Credit window improvements.
Small workbenches can now be picked up like other drops. Previously they opend the inventory to the crafting page like large benches. This prevented the item being picked up.
Server no longer throws errors when vehicle condition gets updated.
Resolved issue causing weapon avoidance to not work when equipping a weapon from the inventory.
Overall improvements to melee hit detection while standing near objects.
Avoidance now stops melee attacks.
Resolved issue which stopped player animations playing when looking up.
Player camera now plays animation when taking damage from zombies.
Improved camera shake caused by explosions.
Potential fixes for AI not spawning after several days of up time.

Links

Pre-Alpha Devblog #35 (Experimental Build Patch 0.11.34)

Hello all,

Thanks for checking out our 35th devblog! We’ve released the 0.11.34 patch to our experimental branch on Steam. Thanks very much to all the testers finding current issues. There’s a lot of testing and breaking to do so go at it! Below you can find our patch notes. Please do your best to check against the list of changes and report bugs to our tracker.

Patch 0.11.34

Fixed issue with database which was incorrectly retaining door states.
Large water storage container no longer spawning. (Future feature content.)
Wrenches no longer fall into some surfaces.
Camera now animates when hammering fortifications.
Potential fix for new day UI and stat changes not always working.
Resolved relevancy issue which would cause nearby objects to turn off for a little while when dropping items.
(Regression) Beartraps are now craftable again. Introduced in - Unknown
(Regression) Vehicles now blow up again. Introduced in v0.11.31.
Vehicles start now start smoking when their condition reaches 30. Previously it was 60.
Melee weapons no longer disappear when hitting locks.
(Regression) Zombies are no longer invisible when moving away and then back to them while another player is nearby. Introduced in v0.11.33

Links