Survive the Nights News

Hello all,

Thanks for checking out our 19th devblog! Progress is moving along nicely on 0.11.xx. We hope to have experimental builds out by the end of the month. If you're testing 0.10.24, please share any issues you find on our tracker or come share on our Discord. Below we'll discuss a few upcoming features and exactly what the team has been working on.


Vehicles and vehicle physics are progressing nicely. The team is working on animating vehicles along with rebuilding the RV. We'll talk more about the RV in an upcoming devblog. Below you'll see the plan still remains the same. All of the vehicles doors and hatches should function. Eventually storage and a part system will relay on some of these animations.

Vehicle Animations - More to Come!​


Something that has been needed and requested for some time is zombie loot. 0.11 will introduce this mechanic along with the base mechanic for player loot and player created storage! Below you can see a dropped backpack's contents being moved. The addition of zombie loot really provides a loop for killing zombies and adds to the entire experience. Zombies currently drop basic items, nails, a few bullets and simple drops. We opted for a 'harvest' method on zombies simply because it's faster and seemed to make more sense. This can be expanded on as we develop and add in game items through alpha.


Portable storage and player dropped loot


Looting zombies for basic items




Weapon attachment progress continues. The system is now in place at its core. Players will be able attach and detach numerous scopes, flashlights and suppressors (including oil filters). Weapons and weapon attachments will expand as we move through alpha. Below you'll see the ARG15 making a return in coming builds along with a few of it's possible attachments.


ARG15 and some attachments




As many of you have requested the wilderness, or 'in-betweens' as we call them, are being filled in as design will continue through pre-alpha and well into alpha. Jos has been busy at work creating roadside and forested points of interest. You will likely see world design in nearly every update moving forward. You can see all of the current 0.11 design changes on our changelog.


Structures on the outskirts of towns and roads


New container 'forts' - these 40 foot long box containers can be powered and locked


Powered container interior


Everything a survivor could ever need


Bomb shelter style bunkers (these things will be very secure)


Bunker interior workbench and storage


Thanks much for checking out the devblog. We hope to have .11 in an experimental stage in the coming weeks. As always, thank you for the continued support. The project has come a long way and we're excited for the coming months leading up to our public alpha release and beyond!


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

Hello all,

We’re moving our experimental branch to default today. 0.9.24 will become 0.10.24. The update below will go over what we’ve been up to along with what has changed in 0.10. Our next devblog will focus on what to expect in 0.11.x.

The 0.10 update focuses on many game improvements and quality of life improvements. We’ve put together a 0.10 showcase video and Jay will take you through the majority of our changes, have a look!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E97ChkkExkE

• Wiki links now point to item name instead of typeName
  
• Resolved issue with bridge near old town which prevented players standing up from crouched while stood on it.
  
• Default fortifications sounds are now affected by the audio sliders.
  
• Felled trees should no longer disapear after cutting the first piece off.
  
• Overall improvements to the consistency of the felled trees to prevent instances where their position did not align on the server.
  
• Fixed issue with crafting where it would only take 1 of the required consumed objects.
  
• Fixed issue which would prevent the world initialising for some players on first join.
  

• Item pickup time reduced to make it feel more fluid.
  
• All crafting recipes times reduced proportionality.
  

• Removed lag being caused by incorrect physics on the server relating to zombies.
  
• Fixed issue with item relevance which would throw null refs on the server.
  
• Fixed issue which would stop guns being able to be reloaded.
  
• It's now possible to smash off locks that aren't locked.
  
• Attacks can now be performed with melee weapons with left click even when they don't have an alternative attack. It triggers the normal left click attack.
  
• Improved melee hitting accuracy on fortification objects.
  
• Overall loot percentage and spread balance. This is our first attempt at balancing the loot percentages.
  
• Sealed food cans can now be cooked to get them open.
  
• Melee weapons now break through use.
  
• Fixed scenario where sounds would incorrectly start playing even when sliders were turned down. This happened when returning to the menu.
  
• Now possible to harvest water directly into new camping canteen.
  
• Blood splatter now works again when shooring through zombies!
  
• Added scrap metal points to metal junk piles, scrap truck and motorbike.
  
• Melee weapons now take damage and destroy when using them against zombies.
  
• Created new camping canteen pickup and relevant consumables (Works like water bottle).
  
• It is now possible for items to burnt away on a cooking surface.
  
• Picking up item tweaks to make sure the grab animation always plays.
  
• Tents now function as item harvest points.
  
• Junkpile_Large_Outside_variant_1 clipping issues fixed.
  

• Window frames now include frame interior and 4 individually breakable glass pieces.
  
• Frame interiors respawn on server restart to prevent stagnation.
  
• Tutorial/Guide
  
• Added working Guide page to the inventory which helps new players learn the basics of survival.
  
• Added initial concept campsite.
  
• Added base set of achievements for tutorial.
  

• Clean rag recipe now returns clean rags instead of dirty.
  
• Tinder from cloth/rags.
  
• Axe head from scrap metal.
  
• Hatchet head from scrap metal.
  
• Hammer head from scrap metal.
  
• Canteen from scrap metal.
  
• Clean pot from scrap metal.
  
• Machete from scrap metal.
  
• Bear trap from scrap metal.
  
• Sleeping bag from clothes/rags.
  

• Added new player vitals UI that displays appropriate player information when needed. Can also be called up all at once using the inspect functionality.
  
• Ammo now displayed in new UI.
  
• Removed some notifications that are now handled by new UI.
  
• Achievements
  
• Introduced base steam stats and achievements system.
  

• Zombie resistance fixed. They can no longer be walked throu
  
• Fix for scenario where zombies could be spawned floating in the air.
  
• Potential fix for scenario where zombies could float away as though they have zero gravity.
  
• Zombies now climb through windows faster.
  
• Zombies no longer exit out of windows unless they can directly see the player during the day.
  
• Zombies should no longer run to the floor above when they cannot reach the player.
  
• Zombies should no longer run outside of a building when they cannot reach the player.
  
• Zombies now have improved path finding and should be able to reach the player easier.
  
• Zombies during the day are now spread more accurately between buildings allowing for greater amounts.
  
• Zombies now sync their movement quicker with less interpolation when they're closer to the player. This causes them to be position more accurately.
  
• Zombies now react more agressively to noise.
  
• Fixed several scenarios where zombies would behave strangely with doors.
  
• Zombies should no longer get stuck inside of doors frames.
  

• Tools added to hotkeys.
  
• Current day now displays on the screen while in the inventory.
  
• Hotkeys in the inv now show the correct hotkey index in the inventory.
  
• Individual hotkeys now scroll through types. Currently 1 melee, 2 handguns, 3 rifles, 4 shotguns and 5 flashlights. (Consumables/medicines will be added later.)
  
• Individual hotkey position has memory so that the player can select their favourite weapon of each type and quickly select between them.
  
• Scrolling with the mouse scrolls through and entire weapon group and moves to the next.
  
• Reduced the switching time slightly.
  

• Locks now display condition in their hover UI.
  
• Sleeping bag [Use] button in the inventory now says [Sleep].
  
• Added new UI to main menu which shows players own total stats and personal bests.
  
• Tab list ping now shows correctly.
  
• Tab list now displays each players nights survived.
  
• Ammo hints now downgraded to small notification in top left.
  
• Small notifications no longer stack together.
  
• Hints now play ping sound again when you get the same hint and also play a small animation.
  
• Improved grammar and capitalisation on various hints.
  
• Some hints have been made unlimited.
  
• Some hints have been changed to a limited amount of plays.
  

• Added door opening and slamming camera animations.
  
• Axe - Improved melee animation.
  
• Base Ball Bat - Improved melee animation.
  
• Hammer - Improved melee animation.
  
• Hatchet - Improved melee animation.
  
• WoodenClub - Improved melee animation.
  
• Combat Knife - Improved melee animation.
  
• Wind up Flashlight - Improved melee animation.
  
• Flashlights - Improved melee animation.
  
• Machete - Improved melee animation.
  
• Opening/closing doors now player a character animation.
  
• Added fps interact slam open animation for the player.
  
• Slamming open/closed now plays character animation.
  
• Fixed Lola and Garry handgun animations that clipped the camera.
  

• Jerry can now has base weight.
  
• Fixed cleaning kit drop. No longer looks like firewood.
  
• Added scrap metal drops
  
• Removed tent as a drop. It's now a design prop.
  
• packed test drop disabled.
  

• Added all bullet impact particles and decals to the preload scene.
  
• Item relevance optimisations.
  
• Item spawning and checking optimisations.
  
• Removed exit particle on the blood impact particle.
  
• Added the dynamic blood decals to the preload scene.
  

• Ai no longer walks through glass store counter.
  
• Redesigned police and fire stations.
  
• Redesigned projects building.
  
• Redesigned grocery store 3.
  
• Redesigned grocery store 2.
  
• Redesigned grocery store 1.
  
• Redesigned stripmalls 3, 4 and 5.
  
• Redesigned stripmalls 1 and 2.
  
• Redesigned Gas stations 5 and 6.
  
• Removed concrete barrier to allow zombie navigation in adders field school
  
• Redesigned Gas stations 3 and 4.
  
• Redesigned house 11 interiors.
  
• Fixed odd tiling on interior gas station wall.
  
• Redesigned cabin variants 1 and 2 interiors.
  
• Redesigned Old house 1.
  
• Redesigned Old house 2.
  
• Redesigned Old house 3.
  
• Redesigned Old house 4.
  
• Redesigned Cabins 3 and 4 interiors.
  
• Redesigned Cabins 5 and 6 interiors.
  
• Redesigned Cabins 7.
  

• Added base set of attachments for ARG15.
  
• Added new ARG15 model.
  
• Stripmall buildings now have security glass windows.
  
• Updated camping grill tripod so that the cooking surface is larger.
  
• Added a2z Cricket concept/testing car.
  
• Added drinking camping canteen.
  
• Added Scrap metal pickup prop.
  

• Items can now be given by shift clicking their names in the inventory, machines and containers. (Give perm is required)
  
• Items can now be given by clicking grey [Add] buttons in machines. (Give perm is required)
  

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

Hello all,

Thanks for checking out our 18th devblog! We’ve released the initial 0.9.23 build to our experimental branch on Steam. Feel free to check that out, we need some feedback. There’s a lot of testing and breaking to do so go at it! Below you can find our patch notes.

We’ll be updating to default once experimental is tested and stable along with a devlog update video showcasing all the 0.10.2x feature improvements and additions. Please do your best to check against the list of changes below and report bugs to our tracker.

• Item pickup time reduced to make it feel more fluid.
  
• All crafting recipes times reduced proportionality.
  

• Removed lag being caused by incorrect physics on the server relating to zombies.
  
• Fixed issue with item relevance which would throw null refs on the server.
  
• Fixed issue which would stop guns being able to be reloaded.
  
• It's now possible to smash off locks that aren't locked.
  
• Attacks can now be performed with melee weapons with left click even when they don't have an alternative attack. It triggers the normal left click attack.
  
• Improved melee hitting accuracy on fortification objects.
  
• Overall loot percentage and spread balance. This is our first attempt at balancing the loot percentages.
  
• Sealed food cans can now be cooked to get them open.
  
• Melee weapons now break through use.
  
• Fixed scenario where sounds would incorrectly start playing even when sliders were turned down. This happened when returning to the menu.
  
• Now possible to harvest water directly into new camping canteen.
  
• Blood splatter now works again when shooting through zombies!
  
• Added scrap metal points to metal junk piles, scrap truck and motorbike.
  
• Melee weapons now take damage and destroy when using them against zombies.
  
• Created new camping canteen pickup and relevant consumables (Works like water bottle).
  
• It is now possible for items to burnt away on a cooking surface.
  
• Picking up item tweaks to make sure the grab animation always plays.
  
• Tents now function as item harvest points.
  
• Junkpile_Large_Outside_variant_1 clipping issues fixed.
  

• Window frames now include frame interior and 4 individually breakable glass pieces.
  
• Frame interiors respawn on server restart to prevent stagnation.
  

• Added working Guide page to the inventory which helps new players learn the basics of survival.
  
• Added initial concept campsite.
  
• Added base set of achievements for tutorial.
  

• Clean rag recipe now returns clean rags instead of dirty.
  
• Tinder from cloth/rags.
  
• Axe head from scrap metal.
  
• Hatchet head from scrap metal.
  
• Hammer head from scrap metal.
  
• Canteen from scrap metal.
  
• Clean pot from scrap metal.
  
• Machete from crap metal.
  
• Bear trap from scrap metal.
  
• Sleeping bag from clothes/rags.
  

• Added new player vitals UI that displays appropriate player information when needed. Can also be called up all at once using the inspect functionality.
  
• Ammo now displayed in new UI.
  
• Removed some notifications that are now handled by new UI.
  

• Introduced base steam stats and achievements system.
  

• Zombie resistance fixed. They can no longer be walked through.
  
• Fix for scenario where zombies could be spawned floating in the air.
  
• Potential fix for scenario where zombies could float away as though they have zero gravity.
  
• Zombies now climb through windows faster.
  
• Zombies no longer exit out of windows unless they can directly see the player during the day.
  
• Zombies should no longer run to the floor above when they cannot reach the player.
  
• Zombies should no longer run outside of a building when they cannot reach the player.
  
• Zombies now have improved path finding and should be able to reach the player easier.
  
• Zombies during the day are now spread more accurately between buildings allowing for greater amounts.
  
• Zombies now sync their movement quicker with less interpolation when they're closer to the player. This causes them to be position more accurately.
  
• Zombies now react more aggressively to noise.
  
• Fixed several scenarios where zombies would behave strangely with doors.
  
• Zombies should no longer get stuck inside of doors frames.
  

• Tools added to hotkeys.
  
• Current day now displays on the screen while in the inventory.
  
• Hotkeys in the inv now show the correct hotkey index in the inventory.
  
• Individual hotkeys now scroll through types. Currently 1 melee, 2 handguns, 3 rifles, 4 shotguns and 5 flashlights. (Consumables/medicines will be added later.)
  
• Individual hotkey position has memory so that the player can select their favorite weapon of each type and quickly select between them.
  
• Scrolling with the mouse scrolls through and entire weapon group and moves to the next.
  
• Reduced the switching time slightly.
  

• Locks now display condition in their hover UI.
  
• Sleeping bag [Use] button in the inventory now says [Sleep].
  
• Added new UI to main menu which shows players own total stats and personal bests.
  
• Tab list ping now shows correctly.
  
• Tab list now displays each players nights survived.
  
• Ammo hints now downgraded to small notification in top left.
  
• Small notifications no longer stack together.
  
• Hints now play ping sound again when you get the same hint and also play a small animation.
  
• Improved grammar and capitalisation on various hints.
  
• Some hints have been made unlimited.
  
• Some hints have been changed to a limited amount of plays.
  

• Added door opening and slamming camera animations.
  
• Axe - Improved melee animation.
  
• Base Ball Bat - Improved melee animation.
  
• Hammer - Improved melee animation.
  
• Hatchet - Improved melee animation.
  
• WoodenClub - Improved melee animation.
  
• Combat Knife - Improved melee animation.
  
• Wind up Flashlight - Improved melee animation.
  
• Flashlights - Improved melee animation.
  
• Machete - Improved melee animation.
  
• Opening/closing doors now player a character animation.
  
• Added fps interact slam open animation for the player.
  
• Slamming open/closed now plays character animation.
  
• Fixed Lola and Garry handgun animations that clipped the camera.
  

• Jerry can now has base weight.
  
• Fixed cleaning kit drop. No longer looks like firewood.
  
• Added scrap metal drops
  
• Removed tent as a drop. It's now a design prop.
  
• packed test drop disabled.
  

• Added all bullet impact particles and decals to the preload scene.
  
• Item relevance optimisations.
  
• Item spawning and checking optimisations.
  
• Removed exit particle on the blood impact particle.
  
• Added the dynamic blood decals to the preload scene.
  

• Ai no longer walks through glass store counter.
  
• Redesigned police and fire stations.
  
• Redesigned projects building.
  
• Redesigned grocery store 3.
  
• Redesigned grocery store 2.
  
• Redesigned grocery store 1.
  
• Redesigned strip malls 3, 4 and 5.
  
• Redesigned strip malls 1 and 2.
  
• Redesigned Gas stations 5 and 6.
  
• Removed concrete barrier to allow zombie navigation in adders field school
  
• Redesigned Gas stations 3 and 4.
  
• Redesigned house 11 interiors.
  
• Fixed odd tiling on interior gas station wall.
  
• Redesigned cabin variants 1 and 2 interiors.
  
• Redesigned Old house 1.
  
• Redesigned Old house 2.
  
• Redesigned Old house 3.
  
• Redesigned Old house 4.
  
• Redesigned Cabins 3 and 4 interiors.
  
• Redesigned Cabins 5 and 6 interiors.
  
• Redesigned Cabins 7.
  

• Strip mall buildings now have security glass windows.
  
• Updated camping grill tripod so that the cooking surface is larger.
  
• Added a2z Cricket concept/testing car.
  
• Added drinking camping canteen.
  
• Added Scrap metal pickup prop.
  

• Items can now be given by shift clicking their names in the inventory, machines and containers. (Give perm is required)
  
• Items can now be given by clicking grey [Add] buttons in machines. (Give perm is required)
  

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

Hello all,

Thanks for checking out our 17th devblog! Progress is moving along nicely on 0.10.xx. We hope to have experimental builds out in the next week or two. We've had some feedback and the issues found are being worked on. If you're testing 0.9.22, please share any issues you find on our tracker or come share on our Discord. Below we'll discuss a few upcoming features and exactly what the team has been working on.

We'll be keeping this devblog on the short side this week. Everyone is hard at working wrapping up the last sprint for 0.10.xx. We have some updates to showcase and talk a bit about.


Hotkeys have been in for some time but not had much attention dedicated to them. We've improved the system now as you can see in the video below. The keys are now item class specific. Each key represents a category, handguns, rifles, shotguns etc. Pressing the key multiple times cycles the category.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gor8DotHjhU


Although vehicles will not be a feature in 0.10 their backbone has been in the works for some time and we'll slowly be introducing the mechanics in the coming updates. James has spent the week working on a number of things, vehicle wise it has been follow through physics. You can see in the .gif below as the player leaves the vehicle, it continues on its path although it's slightly exaggerated for testing purposes ;)




You'll see the initial batch of achievements come in the next couple of updates. They'll tie in to our planned 'tutorial' which involves new players and starting camps. We've been creating a bunch and you've already seen some. Here's test integration getting them working on backend. The ones below are only concept and will likely be changed.




As some of you have noted, loot balance isn't fantastic at the moment. Physical loot is spawn and spawning well, just not in a balanced manner. It's also not area specific which is something we've wanted to do from the start. James has been working on loot spread and you can see some of that work here in action. This among many things will allow us to track and tweak loot around the world. We'll be introducing more loot specific structures/areas and tweaking loot balance as we move through alpha builds.



We've also been tweaking craftables and begun to balance the initial introduction to them. This will be a long road. There are a lot of craftables in the works and even more planned. We'll need to work off some type of base stat. Jos put together a quick system that allows us to track a craftable's difficulty. We'll introduce future craftables and machines based on this or a slightly tweaked system.




You'll see quite a few cooking improvements in the coming builds. Below you can see two of them, the new camping grill and can mechanics. The grill is much easier to craft, place and cook on. The larger surface allows you to cook more and easily place and remove food. The cans no longer require a can opener. You can also place them over a fire and cook them open with a satisfying animation as seen below :)


Can popping fun!

Thanks much for checking out the devblog. We hope to have .10 in an experimental stage in the coming weeks. Always, thank you for the continued support. The project has come a long way and we're excited for the coming months leading up to our public alpha release!


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

Hello all,

Thanks for checking out our 16th devblog! Progress is moving along nicely on 0.10.xx. We've had some feedback and the issues found are being worked on. If you're testing 0.9.22, please share any issues you find on our tracker or come share on our Discord. Below we'll discuss a few upcoming features and exactly what the team has been working on.


The team has been busy working on a number of big features but one that we're most excited about is vehicles. Survive the Nights was almost entirely created around the want for vehicle storage. We wanted a survival game where a vehicle was more than just a quick way across the map. Our long term goals for vehicles are big one's, full mobile survival, fortifiable vehicles, an extensive part system etc. All of these will rely on a massive amount of incredibly important mechanics.

We're re-working the entire vehicle system from the ground up in layers so you'll likely be testing the very base of vehicle mechanics shortly. We weren't happy with our initial introduction for the alpha branches (you may have seen this in our trailer). The system is now being built back up with more attention to long term goals. One of the most important mechanics we're working on is vehicle network synchronization. Network sync is noticeably off in the trailer and created a real in game issue. As you can see in the clip below, @Jayty has smoothed the sync out quite nicely. Vehicle physics are a nice treat for the team to work on and something everyone on the team shares is an interest in cars and car games. There's a lot of work to do with vehicles like many of our features but we hope to have you guys breaking the initial introduction in hilarious ways in the next couple of updates.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s0-Zi-qxJs

There are probably going to be a few bugs to work out :p


A few devblogs back we talked about the introduction of starting camps. We plan to guide new players towards 'safer' areas. These starting areas will contain the basic bare bone essentials to get a new player going in the right direction. Below are a few shots of how some of those starting camps are being designed. We're filling out the wilderness. These camps will be a small part of the design goal.

Players only need to follow these markers to find campsites.














Aside from following markers set just off the road, the player will also be able to see the smoke from the camps static fire from a distance on the map. This should make finding your way to starting camps pretty easy and the smoke looks great on the horizon.

Starting camp smoke seen from a distance


Dork has been working on a few things over the last week one of them being some more artwork for our reworked achievements. We've also added our player stats to the main menu which you'll soon see on the website as well!


Some of the new updated achievement art


In game player and global stats are coming to the website soon!


We talked a bit in a blog not that long ago about the new UI system you'll be seeing in 0.10.2X. Below you can see the player taking damage and the damage UI reacting to that. You'll also notice the ammo UI pop up to let you know how many rounds you have in the weapon and in the backpack. The weapon color reflects condition.


UI being displayed for ammo being fired along with damage being received fades quickly

Thanks much for checking on our development of Survive the Nights and, as always, thank you for the continued support. The project has come a long way and we're excited for the coming months leading up to our public alpha release!


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