Survive the Nights News

Pre-Alpha Devblog #21 (Weapons | Vehicles | AI +)

Hello all,

Thanks for checking out our 21st devblog! Progress is moving along nicely on 0.11.xx. We hope to have experimental builds out by the end of next week. 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.

Shell Ejection and Weapon Improvements

Weapon attachments are only one part of planned weapon improvements. We've spent some time this week working on shell ejection sounds effects and visual effects on current weapons. You can see some shell ejections and sound effects in the video below. You'll see many of these improvements moving forward, including some in 0.11. Checking out the changelog for all current changes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xns7HL63egE

Vehicle Work

Some of you may remember the 4x4 from our concept videos. Rik has been hard at work this week reworking models and textures. The 4x4 will be introduced early on in vehicle development. Eventually it will feature the fixed storage and tool holsters seen in the original concepts. Mobile loot and mobile bases are still a number one priority after the basic introduction to the mechanics.

Old 4x4

Improved 4x4

Passive AI Work

Passive AI will soon be introduced. The start of the process will include the stag and chicken. Both animals will be harvestable and both will provide meat. Work continues on passive AI this week. Among other things, Jos has been working on AI ragdolls. Below you can see both the chicken and stag ragdoll. You can expect to see the basic introduction in 0.11 and we plan to greatly expand on both animals and mechanics during the alpha stage.

Stag ragdoll

Chicken ragdoll...poor thing

Ragdoll in action

New Day Notifications

Some of you have reported new day notification issues. These have been fixed for 0.11 and are now a bit more informative. The player is made aware of his current status at the day's start. Just after this new day splash screen, the player is greeted with the new notification. This notification will inform the player on how they can improve their situation or what benefits they're currently receiving.

Notifications

Weapon Attachment Work

James has among other things worked out flashlight attachments this week. Flashlights will attach to most long guns and make night time survival a bit more bearable! Below is a gif of the attachment (in this case a large flashlight) receiving additional battery power. You'll not need to remove the lights to do this.

Powering an attached flashlight

These are only a handful of what has been worked on this week. Check out our changelog for a full list of what the team has been up to. Thanks much for checking out the devblog. We hope to have .11 in an experimental stage shortly. 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!

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 #20 (Player Loot | RV Update | Design+)

Hello all,

Thanks for checking out our 20th 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.

Player Loot

James has been cracking along on a few features this week, one of the biggies is player loot. As mentioned in last week's devblog, zombies will be harvestable on death now. They will provide low-level loot. The 0.11 update will also include player dropped loot, something that has been missing since our stress tests. Some of you may remember when we first started testing network backend players would literally explode on death. All of their contents would just fly out of the model. It was rather entertaining.

Our new system is a bit more refined. As you can see in the short video below, players now drop their weapons and backpacks on death. Player loot and weapons will also of course spawn on a zombie related death. It's now possible to track down all your hard earned loot!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tQKz0_6VRw

Radios

Radios haven't functioned for quite a few updates now. They'll be making a return in 0.11. Players can find radios in the world and tune to 3 different channels as of now and communicate globally. In previous builds, radio chatter could be heard by all players even if they didn't have handheld radios. This issue is now fixed. Radios will require a good deal of testing.

Additional Weapons and Weapon Animations

We'll be introducing additional weapons in coming builds and have quite a few planned for alpha builds. We'll also be introducing a pump action shotgun shortly. John has been working on quite a few animation improvements, new zombie attack animations and new player animations along with our passive AI. Below is a preview of his pump action shotgun jam.

Pump action jam animation

Continued Design and Design Map

With each update in the foreseeable future we'll be including world design. Jos has been hard at work filling up the world gaps. In the screenshot below you can see his design map. The southern part of the map is filling in very nicely now and there's still a ton of design to be done and work will continue. We'll do our best to fill up the wilderness and we'll soon be introducing additional bunkers, container forts and roadside points of interest.

Additional design and campsite map

RV Rework and Update

The RV is a massive feature that we're very excited to be working on. Rik has spent the week reworking our concept RV which is nearly 4 years old now. A lot of our concept designs need love and a lot of them are getting it. The RV has had a total rework and will be introduced shortly after the introduction of vehicles. We hope to have all of the functionality working right out of the box.

Our old/concept RV interior

Rik's reworked RV Interior as of today

Our old/concept RV dash

Rik's reworked RV Interior as of today

These are only a handful of what has been worked on this week. Check out our changelog for a full list of what the team has been up to. Thanks much for checking out the devblog. We hope to have .11 in an experimental stage shortly. 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!

Links

Pre-Alpha Devblog #19 (Attachments | Design | Storage+)

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.

Vehicle Animations

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!

Player and Zombie Storage (Coming in 0.11.xx+)

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 Attachments (Coming in 0.11.xx+)

 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
 

Wilderness Design and Bunkers

 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!

Links

Patch Notes 0.10.24 + Devlog (0.10 Update Showcase)

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

Hot fix 0.10.24

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.

Balance

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

General

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.

Default Fortifications

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.

Crafting

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.

Player Vitals UI

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.

Aggressive AI

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.

Hotkeys Overhaul

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.

Animation

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.

Drops

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.

Optimisations

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.

Environment

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.

Props

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.

Admin

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)

Links

Pre-Alpha Devblog #18 (Experimental Build 0.9.23)

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.

Balance

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

General

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.

Default Fortifications

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.

Crafting

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.

Player Vitals UI

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.

Aggressive AI

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.

Hotkeys Overhaul

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.

Animation

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.

Drops

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.

Optimisations

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.

Environment

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.

Props

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.

Admin

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)

Links