Survive the Nights News

Hello all,


Thanks for checking out our 15th 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.




As we discussed a bit last week, we're having a revamp on all the current structure windows. The system in place is universal which allows us to create a prefab that we can constantly update and all in game structures are affected. Our windows have always lacked any depth beyond being able to fortify them. As with most of our features, they've been in place as a base for some time but are now getting some attention and improvements. 


Previously, windows had no glass, no inner structure and were just an open framed hole in the wall. We've added glass and wood cross panels.This adds a great deal of depth to a structure. It also creates an additional barrier and block for the player. Players could previously make a quick escape by jumping through an open window. Now players and zombies alike will need to deal with the glass and framework.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDE64DpHVmo




Our current kitchens are a bit static and they're also rather massive in scale. They're original models from a way's back. The team and community felt the need for an upgrade. @Rik Konings has been hard at work re-working all of our kitchen models. We'll be introducing these in coming updates with continued design work. These kitchen cabinets and appliances/fixtures will be animated. The player will see doors open or animate slightly to add a bit of life to the world.


A bit more modern and with more room for physical loot on shelving



Darker and older


New and soon to be functioning electric stoves




We'll soon be introducing scrap metal piles, a plan we've had from the concept. You'll see them all around the world but mostly at starting camps (also being introduced shortly). These piles will allow the player to scavenge them for chance to pick up some scrap metal. These metal scraps will be used to create a wide variety of starting items in game including axe heads, hammer heads, machetes and the newly introduced canteen. 


Scrap piles to harvest scrap metal from. Rusted out vehicles will also function as scrap metal harvest points.


Crafted metal canteen - this will allow even starting players to easily purify water over a fire




We're reworking and properly introducing our achievement system. There's a core system in place now but it needed to be shored up and Jayty has that sorted now. You'll be seeing working achievements in upcoming builds. Our new media/design intern Ids has also begun reworking our actual achievement artwork below you can see some of his concepts and our current direction with them. 


Bronze Silver and Gold achievement style - easy to understand and well known




Jiras workflow allows us to break what needs to be done up into bit sized pieces. Large tasks are called epics and the team will set out a large set of these to work off. Each epic may have numerous issues within. Cooking Improvements, for example, would be an epic, inside of which could be numerous ‘issues’ - Import New Cooking Grill, Create Tinder from Cloth Recipe and so on. These issues are grouped together and placed into what Jira calls a sprint. The team creates these sprints based on how many points (these points basically set a difficulty level) they feel each task or issue within will take them to resolve or develop. We typically create two week long sprints. Two of them per update with a week or two to allow for revisement.


Yesterday the team finished up the 'Final Fantasy' sprint and begun work on the 'Goldeneye' sprint. Below you can see exactly what went into the coming update's first sprint, Final Fantasy








Here you can see the end and start of the first and second sprints with the expected version completion being mid March (a six week process).




We'll go over how the current sprint is going, talk a little about starting camps and discuss vehicles! Believe it or not the core of the reworked backbone for vehicles will be going in very soon (some already have). The team is reworking all things vehicles and we're very excited to get the ball rolling. Here's what we're currently poking around in, for testing purposes of course! ;) 
 


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

Hello all,


Thanks for checking out our 14th devblog! We’ve released the initial 0.9 build to our default branch on Steam. We've had some feedback, issues found are being worked on. If you're testing 0.9 please share any issues you find on our tracker or come share on our Discord.


We're working on a load of great features, fixes and additions for .10+ feel free to check out our changelog. You'll be able to keep track of development and see all the features in the works for the next build. Below we'll go over a couple of features that are currently being worked on.




For some time now players have asked and the team has wanted a clean way to provide the player with general stat information. In 0.9 we introduced some UI changes in the way of a new notification and hint system, if you missed it there's more info on hints/notifications here. The notification and hint system is far more dynamic than our previous system. We'll also be introducing new player stat notifications and tabs. Currently the player has to open their inventory to get a clue as to how they're doing. Calories, overall health, ammo all of our stats have no on screen UI. We like it this way, we do however realize it's not at all ideal. We're now introducing a visual system however it will only be on screen when called by the player on a button press or when a stat is affected either positively or negatively. If the player takes damage  the health notification will display, if they're hungry the consuming icon etc. Overall we feel they don't take away from the clutter free GUI and at the same time provide the info that's needed. Let us know what you think. If the community sees it fit after testing our next builds perhaps we will make the UI and new hotkeys a toggleable option.


Player stats displayed on button press. If wanted we could make this toggleable in the future


New UI damage tab displayed as the player takes damage


Mental health stat icons being developed




The tab menu has had a revamp. It's cleaner and easier to read now, we've also introduced player gameplay statistics. In future updates we plan on adding both player and global gameplay stats to the games main menu.


New tab (player) menu now with player gameplay statistics




We're making some big improvements to window frames along with improvements to door fortifications. Next week we'll speak in depth about these new features. Thanks much for check in 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

Hello all,

We’re moving our experimental branch to default today. 0.8.21 will become 0.9.22 The update below will go over what we’ve been up to along with what has changed in 0.9. Our next devblog will focus on what to expect in 0.10.x.

This update focuses on many game improvements and quality of life improvements. We’ve put together a 0.9 showcase video and Jay will take you through the majority of our changes for this update.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_TQrFzbR4k

• Disabled Container spawned loot in favor of all physical loot.
  
• Fixed issue where other players would snap to different rotations when they were idling.
  
• Fixed scenario where the player could get stuck in 'Loading' state when connecting to another server while already in one.
  
• First join UI no longer plays while still loading into game.
  
• Melee headshot damage multiplier reduced.
  
• Added new bat melee weapon which can be crafting from wood.
  
• 'V' now works for activating flashlights. Also works with new headlamp.
  
• Lock highlights now move correctly with the doors when open.
  
• Max inventory weight is no longer reset after rejoining a server.
  
• Particles are now pre-loaded during initial game load to help performance.
  
• Flashlights now play put away animations. 
  
• Item dropping and picking up server side performance improvements.
  
• Items dropped from the inventory are now placed where the player is looking rather than a fixed drop point. This functions as a quick way of placing items and stops players dropping objects through walls.
  
• Improved proxy aim accuracy.
  
• Can no longer open the inventory while in placement mode.
  
• Altered physical loot system to allow more control of spawned items.
  
• Changed all battery variants to stackable.
  
• Updated descriptions for AA and D batteries to show their usage more clearly.
  
• 9V and C batteries disabled. Only D and AA batteries will be used for now.
  
• STN logo removed from game screen.
  
• Weapon avoidance is disabled while playing the grab affect.
  
• Added ability to slam doors open/closed by pressing Interact key on the door panel. (Handles still function as a way to open doors normally)
  
• Door handle interaction time is now quicker.
  
• Door handle colliders are now bigger to make interaction easier.
  
• Headlamps and low level battery powered items now use AA batteries.
  
• AA batteries are now harvestable from new battery stand.
  
• New AA battery stand can be searched for batteries.
  
• Sound sliders in menu now fully work!!! (sorry this took so long)
  
• Hatchet now break correctly when reaching 0% condition.
  
• Reaching and grab animation now plays when trying to harvest items.
  
• Weapons no longer always spawn with 0 condition.
  
• Flickering reflections on weapons reduced.
  
• Resolution drop downs now fixed so that players can always select an appropriate resolution.
  
• New headlamp drop added to the game.
  
• Zombies no longer climb out of windows during the day without reason.
  
• Second log of oak tree no longer breaks.
  
• Picking up an item now cancels the animation for consuming.
  
• Fixed issue where the player would fall through the ground when joining the server.
  
• Radiator fan box no longer appears really close to the player.
  

• New headlamp added as a starting item which which is designed to make night gameplay easier.
  

• Cooked pots and meat variants now have clearer textures to indicate when cooked.
  
• Cooking objects now transition to cooked state in the same position rather than just above.
  
• Placing objects on the cooking surface now start cooking quicker.
  
• Items can now be picked up from cooking surfaces.
  
• Added notifications to cooking which aid the player as they learn the system.
  
• Clearer cooking pot variants to indicate when a pot contains uncooked, cooked or burnt items.
  
• Cooking burnt meat no longer spams errors to the log.
  
• Grill now snaps into position over the fire when in placement mode so that it's easier to get it in position.
  

• Old notification system removed as it could become cluttered and confusing.
  
• New unimportant notification systems added which is located in the top left of the screen. This handles repetative information that isn't always needed by the player.
  
• New Hint system added which handles important information the player needs. Located in the lower right corner of the screen.
  
• Added system which limits the amount of times any single hint can play.
  
• Removed old item hover info which we felt was too big and confusing.
  
• Added new hover system which includes icons that animate to show further information when looking directly at them.
  
• Improved notifications for missing parts when trying to place locks.
  
• Player now gets a hint showing the tool they are missing when trying to search for items.
  
• Added new frying sound.
  
• Updated cooking particles to make it more clear what cooking stage an item is in.
  
• Added new boiling sounds for items in pots.
  

• Added info string in the bottom of the inventory that displays the current inventory weight. Field dynamically adjusts to show button for placing when you hovering over the [drop] item button
  
• Removed the [Add] [Minus] buttons next to the item name in the crafting window.
  
• Added [Search] and [Recipe] buttons next to the item name in the crafting window.
  
• [Search] allows the player to 'search' for any recipes that include that item.
  
• [Recipe] show the recipe for that item.
  
• Updated the 'How to craft' section of the crafting page to make it easier to understand.
  
• Craftables that can't currently be crafted now show in the craftables list as grey.
  
• Craftables in the craftables list now hover red to show that they can be clicked on. Grey recipes also hover ready and can still be clicked on to show the player why they cannot craft the item at this time.
  
• Added a string in the crafting list view that explains what the search results reflect.
  
• Added label to craft-able screen that says 'Items produced' so that it's clear you're about to craft.
  
• Changed the functionality of the [clear] button in the crafting page to mean 'clear search' since recipes in the old way are no longer used.
  

• [Take] buttons now go grey when you can't take from the container.
  
• Top title on the items page now says the category name instead of just "Backpack" on all tabs.
  
• Added read out when hovering over consume buttons that display how consuming that item will affect your players stats.
  
• Inventory items now sort automatically on pickup rather than getting added to the bottom of the list of items.
  
• Stats button in the inventory now points to the correct page.
  
• Added support for placement mode right from the inventory. Activated by holding shift while in the inventory and pressing the [place] button.
  
• Added highlights to top category tabs in the inventory that indicate when you have new items per category.
  

• Zombie path finding iterations tweaked. AI should now be faster at calculating closest point to player when they are unreachable.
  
• Zombies can now get on sofas so that players cannot stand on them to get out of reach.
  
• Zombies can now get on dining tables so that players cannot stand on them to get out of reach.
  

• All house interiors redesigned to improve aesthetics and player/ai navigation.
  
• Redesigned Gas station interiors.
  
• Tweaked Gas station models to improve looks.
  
• Added AA battery harvest points in Gas Stations.
  

Consumables that don't have animations now give the player a notification so that it's not as confusing.
Weight change now displays in the inventory when taking items from containers.
Players now receive a hint when logging off which explains the safe log off mechanic.
Starting calories is no longer 0 and is 2000 so that the player doesn't start hungry.
Removed collision with some small trash piles so that the player doesn't bump into them as they walk around the world.
Overall health, Sickness and Mental health value now has an identifying word next to it so that it's easier to understand. Example, Sickness: -1 (Feeling unwell)
Containers now have a 'Take all' button.
Hand and flashlight base damaged increased.
New headlamp feature added. Can be used in conjunction with weapons and is currently setup to be a starting item (replaces the wind up)
Shortened nights create a better game loop balance.
Pain killers have been changed to Antibiotics and now have a 100% chance of improving sickness.
Light switches now have a colored label to show if they are on/off.

• Headlamp added.
  
• New AA battery stand added.
  
• Sleeping mat added.
  
• Melee pad added.
  
• Various hard case suitcases added.
  
• Campsite lean to added.
  
• Log benches added.
  
• Broken down cabins added.
  
• Camping chairs added.
  
• New large fixed campfire type added.
  
• Campsite trail signs added.
  
• Soft travel bags added.
  
• Airport trolley added.
  

• Teleport map now closes when the main menu closes so that it cannot overlap on opening other UI.
  
• Server config description for loot value updated.
  
• ./CleanUp command now works correctly again.
  

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