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Survive the Nights News

1.27 Update (Vehicle Fortifications | Tire Punctures | Christmas Event++)

We’ve spent the last couple of weeks tackling a huge concept feature and probably the most requested feature from the community. Vehicle improvements, fortifications, tire punctures and replacement along with a lock system are being introduced in 1.27.

NOTE: This version requires a database wipe. If you’re hosting a server the system should handle the creation of a new DB automatically.

[h3]Vehicle Locking System[/h3]
Until this update vehicles were not securable beyond the ability to remove a couple (or all) of the parts. The lack of fortifications and locking systems made it difficult for players to hold onto a vehicle for very long. In 1.27 we’ve introduced a basic locking system, owners of vehicles (those that first get them running) will have the UI option to lock that vehicle when looking at the doors.

Along with the lock feature, car alarms now only arm when the vehicle is locked. Vehicles found in the wild will not have their alarms set off by a shot/hit any longer.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Vehicle Fortification System[/h3]
We have wanted to introduce vehicle fortifications since our original concept videos. 1.27 finally introduces the base system we’ll be able to build from. It has been much requested and a long time coming but as you might notice from the last few updates, we’re finally having the chance to get to introducing some fun features now that core gameplay is in decent shape.

Vehicle fortifications work somewhat like freeplaced and structure fortifications. The player can “place” fortifications directly from the inventory now. They can placed on any of our vehicles and on most parts of the vehicle.

Fortifications add their strength to the vehicles base strength. All fortifications must be destroyed from a vehicle before the vehicle is vulnerable to damage. The combination of our freeplaced system and the ability to bolster the strength of vehicles with freeplaced fortifications should allow you all to create some really unique designs.

We plan on expanding on vehicle fortifications and variants. Keep an eye out in the next build for our RV Nomad, a stripped out RV setup for life on the road.

Zombie plow

New vehicle fortifications

RV fortifications

Vehicle fortification placement

Zombie plow on the 4x4

Buggy forts - you can get as crazy as you’d like ːsteamhappyː

[h3]Placement Collider Expansion[/h3]
Along with the fortification additions Andre has spent some time this update cycle working on expanding placement colliders. Players can now place items on top of most vehicle roof tops along with being able to place all over the RV interiors.

Roof Placement

Roof placement and pickup fortification

[h3]Tire Functionality[/h3]
Tires have not up until now been actual vehicle parts. All vehicles spawned with them intact and inflated. This didn’t add too much realism or add to the post apocalyptical atmosphere. Starting in 1.27 you will see vehicles spawns produce vehicles with all kinds of different tire states. Missing tires can be scavenged from other vehicles. There are small and large tires, they can also spawn in punctured. If tires a punctured players will need to find a tire repair kit, found at hardware stores for the time being. We will likely be expanding on this feature and the ability to repair tires in coming builds.

Tire replacement

[h3]Flare Gun Improvements[/h3]
We have heard you and we agree, flare gun was useless and not bright enough. We’ve taken a bit of time and tweaked brightness and distance for the flare light. Making the weapon far more useful for seeing around dark corners and throughout the woods.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]The Christmas Event[/h3]
We’ve updated the event this year, the tree is brighter there’s a firework show if you make it through and we’ve added a few new goodies to the gifts received if you manage to kill all the zombies. Have a watch of the video below as James and Andre take on the challenge (cheating most likely, as they tend to do).

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Holiday Movie [/h3]
We’ve updated the drive-in movie theater movies for the holidays. You can receive the film case as a reward for completing the tree event. This years movie is the cult classic “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians,” a confusing and quite frankly insane Christmas sci-fi/comedy flick from 1963.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Community Spotlight[/h3]
We’ve had some great content come in from all kinds of folk, some on our discord, some on YouTube and our workshop. With every update we’ll try to feature some community content for everyone to check out.

Video of the Week TAS (The Accidental Survivor) has a series of great videos and his latest STN video is no exception. We had a blast watching, go check it out.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Screenshot of the Week
This updates screenshot comes from Erick over on the steam community. It’s a snowy shot in front of one of the islands churches. We should see a few more season themed screenshots with this update and the Christmas event.



Workshop Scenario
There are some fantastic scenarios on Steams workshop currently and we’ve had a good play over most. Today we’d like to feature Steam user WOLFMAN’S “28 Days Later” scenario. As he puts it himself..

  • “Zombies run and the world is screwed!”
  • BEST PLAYED ON THE SETTINGS I LEFT IT ON FOR THE REAL AUTHENTIC FEEL OF 28 DAYS LATER.
  • ZOMBIES ARE FAST AF BOY
  • DAY & NIGHT RUNNER 100%
  • ZEDS STRENGTH VISION AND HEARING IS MAXED AS IS THEIR FORTIFICATION DAMAGE




[h3]Patch Notes - 1.27[/h3]

NOTE: DATABASE WIPE WITH THIS VERSION

Vehicle Fortification
  • Vehicle fortification base implementation
  • Added vehicle zombie plow variants.
  • Added spiked vehicle fortification.
  • Added barb wire vehicle fortification.
  • Removed trunk storage from pickups and 4x4 (place your own)


Vehicle Wheels
  • Added ability to remove vehicle wheels
  • Tires can now be punctured.
  • Punctures can now be repaired.
  • Added puncture repair kit


Vehicle Locks
  • Owned vehicles can now be locked.
  • Unlocked vehicles no longer have alarm.


Vehicle General
  • Improved smoothing to vehicle movement when others are driving.
  • Improved physics on vehicles.
  • Velocity of vehicle is now lowered when running into zombies


Christmas Event
  • Large Christmas tree event in town centers. Kill the zombies and get presents!
  • New Christmas movie at the drive in theatre.
  • Christmas trees in houses


Crafting Recipes
  • Added recipe for Zombie Plow
  • Added recipe for Zombie Plow (Large)
  • Added recipe for Spiked Wall
  • Added recipe for Barbed Wire Wall


If you're enjoying the game and our recent updates, please consider leaving a review. Thanks for your support and happy holidays! :)

Links
Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights

Patreon: https://patreon.com/a2zinteractive

Changelog: https://changelog.survivethenights.net

Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive

Website: https://www.survivethenights.net

Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/a2zinteractive

The Winter Sale is On!

Grab a copy for yourself or a friend at this great price! If you have any questions before purchasing, please join our friendly community on discord. Happy Holidays!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/541300


[h3]Links[/h3]
Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/a2zinteractive

Changelog: https://changelog.survivethenights.net

Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive

Website: https://www.survivethenights.net

Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/a2zinteractive

Patch Notes - 1.26.5 (Hotfix)

[h3]Patch Notes - 1.26.5 (Hotfix)[/h3]

  • 1.26.5 Fix for containers causing crashes.
  • 1.26.5 Fix for being able to walk through vehicles are placing items in flatbed.
  • 1.26.5 Fix - Placing a generator in a vehicle flatbed no longer causes the engine to not work.
  • 1.26.5 Fix Admin UI - Screenshots now work
  • 1.26.5 Fix Admin UI - Drone camera speed increase now nonlinear when scrolling
  • 1.26.5 Fix Admin UI - Readout in admin toolkit for sectors and current weather
  • 1.26.5 Fix Admin UI - Added buttons for pegboard and log to admin toolkit
  • 1.26.5 Fix for mouse not hiding when using drone camera


Links
Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights

Patreon: https://patreon.com/a2zinteractive

Changelog: https://changelog.survivethenights.net

Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive

Website: https://www.survivethenights.net

Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/a2zinteractive

1.26 Update (Vehicle Flatbeds | Graphical Improvements | UI Improvements++)

We’ve been busy listening to everyone and improving some features. 1.26 will have a good deal of graphical improvements, performance tweaks and improvements along with some neat feature adds.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Graphical Improvements (Environmental Changes)[/h3]
Graphical improvements are a big part of 1.26 as is performance, as you can imagine the two go hand in hand. Andre has spent a good deal of time over the past couple of weeks improving vegetation shaders, fog shaders and lighting among numerous other visual changes.

[h3]Fog and Lighting Improvements[/h3]
We’ve improved fog effects in 1.26 leading to a more cohesive and eerie vibe all around. Fog has been a bit of a thorn in our side for some time, causing performance issues and just generally never looking right.

There was a point where we had been happy, however, a river/ocean shader update through a wrench into the works. I would take a good deal of reworking and work around to get our original fog shader working again and that’s exactly what Andre has done for 1.26.

We’ve reintroduced the old fog system which is made to work with our day cycle system. The results speak for themselves, along with the looks we’ve gained some performance which may be noticeable on low end rigs.

Lighting has also been improved, you’ll notice bright crisp mid-day lighting. Colors have been balanced for an improved general atmosphere while also upping the creepy factor. We’ve tweaked lighting to reflect nature render changes.

  • Reduced grain
  • Increased sun mesh brightness
  • General small tweaks to the lighting
  • Reduced AA and sharpening from AA to improve ghosting and fix black edges around some objects
  • Graphical improvements to terrain grass detail rendering
  • Improved sharpening on image effects to fix black outline around objects in the distance
  • Anti aliasing tweaks to fix ghosting and blurriness
  • Improved fog effects.
  • Water improvements to work with new fog
  • SpeedTree shader improvements
  • Sun now always visible when it should be.
  • Increased sun brightness for improved graphics
  • Improved resolution of distant terrain meshes.
  • Improved textures and resolution on terrains in the distance.
  • New distant tree models created for every type of tree.
  • Fix for bright campfire smoke in the distance
  • Fix for dark terrain lighting artifacts on grass and dirt in the distance


Old fog system (with its issues)

Added water fade to remove that rough edge

The results of updated fog/water shaders

Old and new fog comparison 1

Old and new fog comparison 2

[h3]Full Resolution Comparison Shots[/h3]

Mountain Sunset Before

Mountain Sunset After

Power Station Before

Power Station After

Union Point Before

Union Point After

[h3]Graphical Improvement Shots[/h3]

Powerplant

Mount Baron

Dead lighting

RV in the fog

[h3]Distant Terrains and Trees[/h3]
The fog improvements aren’t the only environmental improvements to go into 1.26 another big performance and visual improvements are distant terrains and trees. These terrains and trees are loaded at a distances and drastically help with performances. The new distant terrains and trees are more visually pleasing along with being better on performance.

Distant terrain old/new

In game distant trees/terrain old/new

[h3]Working Vehicle Flatbeds[/h3]
Something we’ve wanted to get into the game since the concept (as seen in the concept) was working pickup beds and trailers. We’re working on the trailers but 1.26 will feature the start of vehicle improvements, fortifications and functionality with the introduction of working flatbeds.

You can now store goods right in the back of the pickup trucks in game. Even the police variant will allow you to physically place and store items. This will increase the value of flatbed trucks greatly, we’ve also re-introduced the log! Cutting down a tree will now yield a larger, heavier log. This log is hard to transport but can be easily stored in the back of your pickup along with all your other gear.

The items on flatbeds aren’t just cosmetic, you can use a campfire for a tailgate, you can run a set of propane traps from the rear and create a rolling wall of fire. We will be greatly expanding on proper fortifications, 1.26 introduced the features and we look forward to your feedback for further additions.

Camping on the go

Power, wood, fuel and more

Night time cook out

Roast Zombie

[h3]Crafting and Inventory Improvements[/h3]
We've watched a lot of YouTube videos and live streams of the game over the past couple of weeks and one major thing that has stood out to us is the need to make our inventory/UI experience cohesive.

We've rolled out category dividers, sorting and click windows to the containers and crafting pages. Streamlined the dropping/moving/moving all flows and introduced a quick craft button via the crafting lists click window. While there's still improvements to be made, these changes should make things nicer to use.

Crafting/UI
  • Crafting categories are opened automatically when filtering items via the search option.
  • Newly unlocked craftables are now labelled so they’re easy to find.
  • Added click window functionality to the craftable items list.
  • Added ability to quick craft via the click window.
  • Crafting complete sound now plays when crafting max.
  • Scroll position is saved when returning to the craftables list from a recipe.


Inventory/UI
  • Player inventory now only automatically returns to the ‘All’ tab after 30s without accessing the inventory.
  • Consumables now show in the relevant tab in player storage.
  • "Take" buttons from containers and updated UI to use the Click window method the same as the inventory.
  • Added 'Take All' button for each stack of items within a container.
  • Containers now have category divider to match the inventory
  • Containers are now sorted in the same way and the inventory.
  • Move All button only shows when moving to container when quantity of item is greater than 1.
  • Containers can now be sorted the same as the Inventory.
  • Click window no longer closes when dropping items if the quantity is over 1.
  • Improved spacing around items in the container window to match the inventory.


Searching now opens categories

Quicker crafting with the updated click window

Crafting sorting and sort by level

Container dividers

Click window and move all in containers

[h3]Community Spotlight[/h3]
We’ve had some great content come in from all kinds of folk, some on our discord, some on YouTube and our workshop. With every update we’ll try to feature some community content for everyone to check out.

Screenshots
The team loved the screenshots on our Discord that our buddy @Snail Tax Informer posted of his rolling fortress while testing out the new vehicle flatbeds!

@Snail Tax Informer’s flatbed setup

The gear

The result ːsteamhappyː

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Workshop Scenario[/h3]
There are some fantastic scenarios on Steams workshop currently and we’ve had a good play over most. Today we’d like to feature Steam/Discord user RXK1NG's “The Walking Dead” scenario. As he puts it himself

  • A hardcore experience for even the best of survivors. This is a true test of your survival skills.


Loot is lowered, headshots only kill zombies, nutrition requirements are higher, and all zombies walk, even on horde. But they do high damage, so choose your encounters cautiously!



[h3]YouTube Videos[/h3]
GameEdged as always been there for us, showing the team and the game a great deal of support through the years. He’s a solid dude and always seems to have a blast playing Survive the Nights. In his (as of now) latest STN build GameEdged takes on the police station!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Patch Notes - 1.26 [/h3]

Hotfix
  • 1.26.4 Further sorting fixes with vehicle containers.
  • 1.26.4 improved guide wording for crafting logs into wood.
  • 1.26.4 Fixed issue with items not always geting gravity correctly.
  • 1.26.4 Campfire grill and cooking pot now move with vehicle on flatbed.
  • 1.26.4 Log models tweaked to improve scale and allow them to be placed in vehicle flatbeds.
  • 1.26.3 Fixed issue that allowed duping/breaking of container storage.
  • 1.26.2 Fixed issue which caused black screen when entering vehicles.


Vehicle Flatbeds
  • Items can now be placed inside of pickup truck beds


Environment & Graphics
  • Graphical improvements to terrain grass detail rendering
  • Improved sharpening on image effects to fix black outline around objects in the distance
  • Anti aliasing tweaks to fix ghosting and blurriness
  • Improved fog effects.
  • Water improvements to work with new fog
  • Speedtree shader improvements
  • Sun now always visible when it should be.
  • Increased sun brightness for improved graphics
  • Improved resolution of distant terrain meshes.
  • Improved textures and resolution on terrains in the distance.
  • New distant tree models created for every type of tree.
  • Fix for bright campfire smoke in the distance
  • Fix for dark terrain lighting artifacts on grass and dirt in the distance
  • Fixed large trash pile that zombies could walk through.
  • Removed tree that was inside house.
  • Removed bushes that were inside strip mall.
  • Removed small decal type details from on top of items that can be recycled.
  • Fixed floating bathtubs
  • Fixed issue where bath colliders were rotated causing weird collision.


Inventory
  • Stew button now greyed when items cannot be stewed.
  • Fixed doubled move button when trying to move weapons to containers.
  • Fixed weapons with attachments moving to containers when using “move all.”
  • Fixed issue which stopped items like nails stacking correctly when moving between inv and containers.
  • Player inventory now only automatically returns to the ‘All’ tab after 30s without accessing the inventory.
  • Consumables now show in the relevant tab in player storage.
  • "Take" buttons from containers and updated UI to use the Click window method the same as the inventory.


Container Storage
  • Added 'Take All' button for each stack of items within a container.
  • Containers now have category divider to match the inventory.
  • Containers are now sorted in the same way and the inventory.
  • Move All button only shows when moving to container when quantity of item is greater than 1.
  • Containers can now be sorted the same as the Inventory.
  • Click window no longer closes when dropping items if the quantity is over 1.
  • Improved spacing around items in the container window to match the inventory.
  • Improved notification when trying to move items that are not allowed into a container.
  • Large carry only objects can no longer be placed in containers.
  • Added recipe for log to wood 1 log = 6 wood 5 sec craft pending wood mill speeds


Crafting
  • Crafting categories are opened automatically when filtering items via the search option.
  • Newly unlocked craftables are now labelled so they’re easy to find.
  • Added click window functionality to the craftable items list.
  • Added ability to quick craft via the click window.
  • Crafting complete sound now plays when crafting max.
  • Scroll position is saved when returning to the craftables list from a recipe.


UI General
  • Fix for Filter By Most Subscribed only showing 2 scenarios in the scenario list browser
  • Large cooking pot name changed to “Cooking pot”
  • Mental health description improved.
  • Changed however descriptions from “Search” to “Recycle” on items that are fully cleaned up.
  • Small localization fixes.


Performance
  • Improved stuttering caused by terrain grass details
  • Lighting tweaks to compliment image effect improvements
  • General image effect improvements and performance fixes


Interaction
  • Fix for difficult interaction with campfire when a grill is placed on top
  • Fix for not being to place items near water
  • Improved campfire placement when trying to place on bumpy ground
  • Improved collision detection on prison draw bridge button.


Pickups / Loot
  • Fixed issue that stopped the campfire grill being able to be picked up in certain circumstances.
  • Changed category on sleeping bag drop so it shows up in building tab with the rest of the home stuff.
  • Loot can now spawn near players when the server has just started.
  • Log/wood weights are now consistent.


Fortification
  • Fix for fortifications disappearing when moving away caused by the combining not working


Admin
  • New player/welcome message config option now implemented.
  • Disabling drone camera smoothing now disables smooth movement and fov changes on top of mouse movement


Links
Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights

Patreon: https://patreon.com/a2zinteractive

Changelog: https://changelog.survivethenights.net

Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive

Website: https://www.survivethenights.net

Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/a2zinteractive

Experimental Hot Fix (Flatbed Functionality | Vehicle Fixes)

We have released a hot fix on the experimental branch. If you'd like to track the patch progress and follow more closely with development, check our changelog and please consider joining our Discord.

How to get into experimental branch:
  1. Open Steam and go to your games library.
  2. Right click on STN and select "Properties"
  3. Navigate to the "Betas" tab and select "experimental" in the drop down menu.
  4. Close the properties window.
  5. You will find a single experimental server titled EXPERIMENTAL_SERVER. Join this for some testing.


[h3]Patch Notes - Experimental Hot Fix[/h3]

Hotfix
  • Fixed issue which caused black screen when entering vehicles.


Vehicle Flatbeds
  • Items can now be placed inside of pickup truck beds




[h3]Links[/h3]
Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights

Patreon: https://patreon.com/a2zinteractive

Changelog: https://changelog.survivethenights.net

Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive

Website: https://www.survivethenights.net

Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/a2zinteractive