Survive the Nights News

Experimental Patch Notes - Alpha 1.16

We have released 1.16 on our experimental branch. There’s quite a bit of stuff to check over for this update and we’ll have a full devblog out when we hit default.

Please report bugs and issues in game using the F1 menu. If you'd like to track the patch progress and follow more closely with development, check our changelog and feel free to join our Discord.

How to get into experimental branch:

Open Steam and go to your games library.
Right click on STN and select "Properties"
Navigate to the "Betas" tab and select "experimental" in the drop down menu.
Close the properties window.

[h3]Patch Notes - Alpha 1.16 (Experimental Build)[/h3]

Quality of Life

Fixed various admin commands that updated a users account.
Fixed not being able to equip weapons in vehicles when switching from the drivers seat to a passenger seat
Fixed player sometimes being able to equip a weapon while driving
Fixes for harvest machines being marked as harvested when harvesting with a full inventory
Lowered PVP damage overall.
Lowered PVP damage when damaging friends.
Fix for items being picked on accident up when trying to place items
Compass no longer requires an actual compass item in the inv.
New players now start with 80 health instead of 60
Players no longer slow down as much when walking through bushes.
Improved sliding and jumping to fix players jumping up trees, power lines and steep cliffs.
Vehicles are no longer damaged when shooting out of them.
Reduced vehicle damage from small impacts at lower speeds.

Fortification

Fixed issue where fortifications can be placed inside of each other while fortifying.
Fortifying now more responsive overall.
Fixed clipping fortifications when planks go red while fortifying

Increased general response to noise for zombies
Big increase in response to gun shots for zombies
Damage from zombies increased slightly
Fixed issue where zombies would sometimes hit the player when it didn’t look like they attacked
Fix for notification sometimes saying you picked up wood when inventory is close to full

Animations

Fix for lids not popping off cooked cans

SFX

Added sounds when searching for items (wood/metal/cloth/AI).
Headshot sounds are no longer delayed.
Fixed zombie sounds cutting out when zombie dies

General

Players now get stunned by zombies.
Fixed issue where players can glitch into buildings when getting out of vehicle seat
Fix for placement mode not working in some large structures
Fires can now be trampled by AI and players. This reduces their exploitivity when being used as a trap.

Environment

Fixed floating loot where coffee tables used to be.
Added fire places to all structures that were missing them.
Added scrap harvest throughout the world.

Particles

Fixed concrete particles when shooting road surfaces.
Fixed small objects clipping into the road when dropping.

Drops

Pliers, wrenches and screw drivers can now be found at hardware stores.
Maps should no longer spawn.
Compass disabled (The player now has this by default)
Disabled various drops that didn't have a purpose.

Notification when picking up a log now displays the amount of wood picked up.
Removed incorrect notifications about empty bottles when searching for water
Disabled automatic help video popups.
Added health bar in name tag for friends

Thanks for the continued support and continued issue and suggestion reporting :). Below are some helpful links to anyone new and interested in the game. If you'd like to follow a bit closer, please consider joining our Discord. We're here, we're listening!

[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

Devblog 63 - 1.16 Preview

Hello all,

We’ve had a productive week putting together and getting to work on our 1.16 game plan. We’ll be focusing mostly on quality of life issues for this build. We have a really solid foundation now and the game is a good deal of fun so we’re going to focus on some of the more annoying issues that cause inconvenience to gameplay. We’ll also be delving deep into some of the long standing annoyances in the game based on the most reported tickets.

[h3]Fire Improvements[/h3]
We’ve introduced a stomping mechanic to our in game campfires. Players or AI moving over campfire will now extinguish the campfire itself. Players and AI will still take damage of course but the fire itself will not continue to blaze essentially creating a never ending very OP trap. There are still improvements to be made to zombie hit effects as they and players move through burning fires as you’ll notice in the gif below.

Fire Stomping

[h3]Exiting Vehicle Loophole[/h3]
There’s a current bug in game that allows players to bypass fortified structures/locks by parking near a door and exiting a vehicle. This is an issue that was solved in the past but has crept its way back into the most recent builds. 1.16 will see a proper solution and this should be an issue moving forward any longer.

Exiting Car Fix

[h3]Health Bar on Friend Name Tags[/h3]
Many of you have requested this feature. It’s not easy to currently see your friends health to know where everyone stands. In 1.16 friends will have a health bar right below their name tag allowing you and your friends to easily gauge each others current health situation.

Health Bar Below Name tags

[h3]General Improvements and Fixes[/h3]
Below is a short list of some of the other improvements, additions and fixes we’ll be working on for 1.16. We’ll likely go over some of these in greater detail as we work through this development cycle. We’re doing our best to keep these updates meaningful and more important quick. We’ll be sticking to monthly game update doing our best to get them out the first Friday of each month for the foreseeable future.

Fixes

Melee Sounds Fixes
Remove empty bottle hints and notifications from guide/game as they’ve been removed.
Window fortification fixes. Sometimes placing fortifications on windows can be finicky if you’re not standing exactly in front of the window. This has been greatly improved.
Can popping sound and animation fixed!
You no longer damage your vehicle when shooting from it through front windshield.
Removed lag when starting fires
A large sweep over entire island adding more scrap harvest piles and vehicle wrecks to provide player with more access to scrap metal.
Disabled numerous drops that currently have no purpose.

General Improvements

Slower players when they’re attacked by zombies (currently no negative to getting hit making Melee somewhat OP).
Window fortification improvements. Sometimes placing fortifications on windows can be finicky if you’re not standing exactly in front of the window. This has been greatly improved.
Raise players starting health 60 was just needlessly low.
Felling a tree and chopping the trunk into pieces now provides wood rather than a log and additional pointless crafting step.
Reduced vehicle damage from small impacts (very annoying).
Animals now harvestable after you hit them with a vehicle.
Removed the need for a compass, maps works as it does with a compass now right from the start of gameplay. This game is best experienced with friends and we want to make it easier for you to find each other.

Please report bugs and issues in game using the F1 menu. If you'd like to track the patch progress and follow more closely with development, check our changelog and feel free to join our Discord.

[h3]Don't want to wait for an experimental build? Join us on Patreon and gain access to everything in this devblog and 1.15 development builds.[/h3]

Major Update - March (Steam Deck | Chainsaw | Controller Support++)

Hello everyone,

We’re moving our 1.15 builds over to default today. This is a big update it includes a number of nice quality of life fixes along with some major features. Controller support has been introduced in preparation for our Steam Deck release (waiting on ability to submit for review). Along with controller support and quality of life improvements, we’re introducing the chainsaw! Below we’ll review some of the features in 1.15. If you could all please test against the changelog below and report any issues via the in game report feature it would help greatly to improve mechanics.

This update will require a server wipe and all private servers should also wipe databases. New features and controller mechanics call for it and, with an update this large, it’s always good to have a fresh start. Sorry for any inconvenience. We do our best to keep these to a minimum.

[h3]Steam Deck and Controller Support[/h3]
The March update introduces full controller support. This is something that has been requested from the community pretty much since we started development. Controller support is being introduced in preparation for our Steam Deck release.

We’ve spent a lot resources developing controller support and implementing Steam Deck support but sadly we’re unable to progress with the Steam Deck Verification itself. The game is completely playable on the deck and running great on it to boot. But you won’t see the the green ‘verified’ tick.

Steam has gone through the trouble of supplying the team with a Steam Deck dev kit which we are grateful for. The Deck is amazing bit of tech and a revolution for handheld gaming for those who enjoy it. That being said, they’ve not allowed us the ability to submit our game for review. It’s not just us, Steam is very ‘backed up’ when it comes to verifying titles for the Steam Deck. They seem to have decided that more popular titles would be the first to get verification and release on the decks store section. It’s a pretty massive blow for a small team like ours. We’ve spent the last month dedicating the majority of our resources to get things properly running on the Deck. To be told that a massive team like Steam is months away from verifying games, seems a bit silly to us to say the least.

Changes we've made in prep for Steam Deck release and controller support:

Added controller support using Steam Inputs API
Added Controller button glyphs to locations that show key inputs.
Acceleration/Braking in vehicles is now has an analog input. Allows for varied force.
Added on screen keyboard support.
Added custom quality settings for the steam deck.
Gyro support when aiming.
Steering is now an axis meaning it can take analog input.
Controller navigation added to main menus + bumper support for navigating inventory tabs.
Inventory, container and machine UI is placed nicely for Deck support.
Player movement is now an axis for analog joystick support.
Controller binding override so that Steams built in system is used.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Streaming STN to Phone with Controller Support

[h3]Car Alarms[/h3]
Zombies will trigger a car alarm when attacking vehicles + shooting vehicle will trigger the alarm (only when the engine is off). When the car alarm initially triggers it will also work to attract nearby zeds useful as a diversion for a last ditch escape effort perhaps.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Container Forts[/h3]
We’ll continue to ‘fill in’ our map as we move through development cycles. The 1.15 build will feature small ‘fortress’ like structures spread around the world made of shipping containers. These container forts, as we’re calling them, will be the main POI/area for players to find the newly introduced and very fun chainsaw. The forts will likely be upgraded as we move onto future builds and a few more added.

Container Fort Northwest

Container Fort Northeast

Container Fort Central

[h3]Resource and Item Combining[/h3]
We’ve had an issue lurking with item combining for some time now. To break it down in simple terms, the issue was items would combine on pickup. This behavior was intended and is desirable for things like boxes of nails, screws, ammo, etc. As an example, this system is intended to work as follows: the player has a box of ammo in their inventory with 9/20 rounds; they pick up another box of ammo with 11/20 rounds; the player now has a single full box of ammo 20/20 rounds in their inventory. Perfect! That’s exactly what you would expect to happen.

The problem starts with items like fuel cans and actual guns! As an example, you have a revolver in your inventory with 3/6 rounds. You find another identical revolver with 3/6 rounds and pick it up. You would expect to have two separate revolvers. However, the system doesn’t currently function like that. What would happen is, the system would take the ammo from the weapon that was picked up in the world and fill the inventory weapon then discard the second revolver. This is not ideal at all. James has sunk time into fixing this issue and you shouldn’t face anything like it after 1.15.

[h3]Chainsaw[/h3]
Oh boy, this thing is a game changer when it comes to gathering wood for fortifications and well shredding zombies. The chainsaw makes quick work of both trees, fortifications and zombies! It’s a good deal of fun and we’ll improve on the feature as we move along in development.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Chainsaw vs AI

[h3]Inventory Improvements[/h3]
We’re getting around to cleaning up some inventory issues and one the biggest reported issues is a fix for the ‘Move All’ and ‘Take All’ problems. Mainly the fact that under some circumstances the feature simply didn’t work. Moving items from inventory to machines as an example is now fixed. Along with these fixes optimizations allow for the move to be instant.

Optimization to item hovers.
Move all and take all form containers/machines now working fully.
Move all and take all from both machines and containers is now instant.
Sorting the inventory is now instant.

Instant Take All

Move All | Take All working on machines

[h3]Crafting Improvements[/h3]
With the upcoming focus on fortifications we’ve made some small largely requested changes to crafting recipes in the game. The player is now able to craft a hammer and an axe with simple materials like scrap metal and wood. We’ve removed the handle crafting and head crafting along with those drops. This should make felling trees, crafting planks and fortifying structures more accessible to the player early in the game.

We have also adjusted the initial crafting window to include anything that can be crafted with your current inventory right at the top of the list. After that you'll see all craftables again in alphabetical order. This was a much requested feature from the community and you’ll see it in 1.15.

Improved Crafting Layout

[h3]Fortification Improvements[/h3]
Currently fortification strength isn’t something that stands out when looking at say a plank on a window. So little does it stand out that we’ve watched many of you seemingly not even know you could further fortification strengths. Placing a fortification for the first time simply applies it to the window, it doesn’t apply it at full strength. The new system adds a little color to the mix, allowing the player to easily see just how strong the placed fortification is. We’ve also spent some time fixing issues with damaging fortifications. You can see examples of the color change on strength readout and the working fortification damage below.

We will be expanding on fortification ideas in the coming builds so if you have any feel free to share. We plan on expanding on traps also with coming improvements to structure electrical systems it should make things very interesting.

Fortification Strength

[h3]Patch Notes - Alpha 1.15[/h3]

HOTFIX 1.15.3

Fixed issue which allowed tree stems to be chopped from the furthest point first.
Placement mode now shows controller glyphs
Pickup up logs now give wood. This saves one crafting step and confusion.
Fixed issue where the inventory would disappear for a moment when crafting.
Non spawnable items no longer incorrect spawn.
Guide alterations to bring fortifying earlier in the game loop.
Controller input UI now shows on the menu screen.
It's now possible to rotate items in placement mode when using a controller.
Controller glyphs are now shown in the quick guide.
Chainsaws now spawn at container forts.
Container fort locations now show on the map.

Chainsaw

Chainsaw weapon added!!!

Steam Deck / Controller Support

Added controller support using Steam Inputs API
Added Controller button glyphs to locations that show key inputs.
Acceleration/Braking in vehicles is now has an analog input. Allows for varied force.
Added on screen keyboard support.
Added custom quality settings for the steam deck.
Gyro support when aiming.
Steering is now an axis meaning it can take analog input.
Controller navigation added to main menus + bumper support for navigating inventory tabs.
Inventory, container and machine UI is placed nicely for Deck support.
Player movement is now an axis for analog joystick support.
Controller binding override so that Steams built in system is used.

Vehicles

'S' now properly functions as a brake input.
Vehicles can now be started with continuous input through the accelerator. Instead of lifting and pressing for each attempt.

Steam

Controller glyph support so that correct inputs are shown in game.
Initial implementation for Steam Controller Input support.
SteamSDK updated

Car Alarms

Zombies will trigger a car alarm when attacking vehicle while the engine is off.
Shooting a vehicle will trigger a car alarm while the engine is off.
NOTE: Car alarms not settable by players at this time (Something we'll add in the future)

Optimisations

Fix for small lag spike when shooting, hitting zombies or starting a fire.
Optimisations to loaded object amounts to improve load times and general performance.
Optimisations to item hovers.
Optimisations to cabin doors.
Small optimization for rendering of reflections
Terrain rendering optimized slightly
General reduction of shadow casters to improve performance

Quality of Life (QoL)

Items are no longer incorrectly combined when picking up.
Interact hold time slightly reduced.
It’s not possible to exit a vehicle by holding interact key while not looking at the exit point.
It’s now possible to initiate hold functionality with the interact key pressed before looking at the interactable.
Interact press action is now triggered when pressing Interact during the whole hold press sequence. This should limit the amount of frustrating press/hold actions.
Fixed players not being able to damage fortifications with a hammer by right clicking
Sorting the inventory is now instant
Move all and take all form containers/machines now working fully.
Move all and take all from both machines and containers is now instant.
Shooting holes added to cabin doors
Cabin doors optimized
Camera height tweaked for pickup trucks to make it easier to see out.
Fix for harvesting AI not working when killed with a vehicle.
Fix for rag dolls sometimes disappearing towards the edge of the screen
Quick connect function now only tries to connect to servers of the same version.

Tree Chopping

Fixed issue where last logs would take a while to show up when chopping up a tree stem.
Fix for not being able to chop down a tree sometimes even though you have the right tool selected.
Fix for extra logs being incorrectly chopped while cutting tree stem.

VFX

Wood chopping particles improved

Crafting

Hammer now craftable.
Axe now craftable.

Animation

Fix for camera animations being too intense in a lot of scenarios causing difficulties with fortifying, melee and tree chopping
Fix for camera shake not always working properly
Avoidance now cancels idle and inspect animations

Text in item hovers now matches size of text to prevent clipping in different languages
Item hover fonts improved
Quick play button is now slightly wider, 'New' label now fits and title now reads 'Quick Play' instead of 'Quick play'
Craftables that you can currently craft are now displayed at the top of the list.
Ammo is now shown in the weapons category.
Q and E to switch between fortifications now disabled while chat is open
Added red and amber colors to UI on fortifications indicating current strength
Added ping animation to house symbol when opening map
Added animation when placing map pin
Increased brightness of harvest machine hover outline during the night

Environment

Added container fort to northeast
Added container fort to southeast
Added container fort to northwest
Added container fort to southeast
Added central container fort
Fixed grass detail on terrain 32
Added chainsaw spawners to container forts
Added more scrap harvest machines to the entire world
Added scrap harvest machines to farm equipment
Added scrap harvest machines to magazine rack
Removed logout machines from camp beds.

Drops

Disabled matches since they are not used.

Localization

Item hovers are now localized
Updated Crowd in community translations 2nd March 2022
Default language now set to English. Fixes issues with the inventory breaking when launching with an unsupported language.

Please report bugs and issues in game using the F1 menu. If you'd like to track the patch progress and follow more closely with development, check our changelog and feel free to join our Discord.

Experimental Patch Notes - Alpha 1.15.2

We have released 1.15.2 on our experimental branch. There’s quite a bit of stuff to check over for this update and we’ll have a full devblog out when we hit default.

Please report bugs and issues in game using the F1 menu. If you'd like to track the patch progress and follow more closely with development, check our changelog and feel free to join our Discord.

How to get into experimental branch:

Open Steam and go to your games library.
Right click on STN and select "Properties"
Navigate to the "Betas" tab and select "experimental" in the drop down menu.
Close the properties window.

[h3]Patch Notes - Alpha 1.15.2 (Experimental Build)[/h3]

Chainsaw

Chainsaw weapon added!!!

Steam Deck / Controller Support

Added controller support using Steam Inputs API
Added Controller button glyphs to locations that show key inputs.
Acceleration/Braking in vehicles is now has an analog input. Allows for varied force.
Added on screen keyboard support.
Added custom quality settings for the steam deck.
Gyro support when aiming.
Steering is now an axis meaning it can take analog input.
Controller navigation added to main menus + bumper support for navigating inventory tabs.
Inventory, container and machine UI is placed nicely for Deck support.
Player movement is now an axis for analog joystick support.
Controller binding override so that Steams built in system is used.

Vehicles

'S' now properly functions as a brake input.
Vehicles can now be started with continuous input through the accelerator. Instead of lifting and pressing for each attempt.

Steam

Controller glyph support so that correct inputs are shown in game.
Initial implementation for Steam Controller Input support.
SteamSDK updated

Car Alarms

Zombies will trigger a car alarm when attacking vehicle while the engine is off.
Shooting a vehicle will trigger a car alarm while the engine is off.
NOTE: Car alarms not settable by players at this time (Something we'll add in the future)

Optimisations

Fix for small lag spike when shooting, hitting zombies or starting a fire.
Optimisations to loaded object amounts to improve load times and general performance.
Optimisations to item hovers.
Optimisations to cabin doors.
Small optimization for rendering of reflections
Terrain rendering optimized slightly
General reduction of shadow casters to improve performance

Quality of Life (QoL)

Items are no longer incorrectly combined when picking up.
Interact hold time slightly reduced.
It’s not possible to exit a vehicle by holding interact key while not looking at the exit point.
It’s now possible to initiate hold functionality with the interact key pressed before looking at the interactable.
Interact press action is now triggered when pressing Interact during the whole hold press sequence. This should limit the amount of frustrating press/hold actions.
Fixed players not being able to damage fortifications with a hammer by right clicking
Sorting the inventory is now instant
Move all and take all form containers/machines now working fully.
Move all and take all from both machines and containers is now instant.
Shooting holes added to cabin doors
Cabin doors optimized
Camera height tweaked for pickup trucks to make it easier to see out.
Fix for harvesting AI not working when killed with a vehicle.
Fix for rag dolls sometimes disappearing towards the edge of the screen
Quick connect function now only tries to connect to servers of the same version.

Tree Chopping

Fixed issue where last logs would take a while to show up when chopping up a tree stem.
Fix for not being able to chop down a tree sometimes even though you have the right tool selected.
Fix for extra logs being incorrectly chopped while cutting tree stem.

VFX

Wood chopping particles improved

Crafting

Hammer now craftable.
Axe now craftable.

Animation

Fix for camera animations being too intense in a lot of scenarios causing difficulties with fortifying, melee and tree chopping
Fix for camera shake not always working properly
Avoidance now cancels idle and inspect animations

Text in item hovers now matches size of text to prevent clipping in different languages
Item hover fonts improved
Quick play button is now slightly wider, 'New' label now fits and title now reads 'Quick Play' instead of 'Quick play'
Craftables that you can currently craft are now displayed at the top of the list.
Ammo is now shown in the weapons category.
Q and E to switch between fortifications now disabled while chat is open
Added red and amber colors to UI on fortifications indicating current strength
Added ping animation to house symbol when opening map
Added animation when placing map pin
Increased brightness of harvest machine hover outline during the night

Environment

Added container fort to northeast
Added container fort to southeast
Added container fort to northwest
Added container fort to southeast
Added central container fort
Fixed grass detail on terrain 32
Added chainsaw spawners to container forts
Added more scrap harvest machines to the entire world
Added scrap harvest machines to farm equipment
Added scrap harvest machines to magazine rack
Removed logout machines from camp beds.

Drops

Disabled matches since they are not used.

Localization

Item hovers are now localized
Updated Crowd in community translations 2nd March 2022
Default language now set to English. Fixes issues with the inventory breaking when launching with an unsupported language.

Devblog 62 - 1.15 Preview

Hello all,

The team has been hard at work developing 1.15 and we’ve made some great progress. James and Andre have been cracking along on Steam Deck support which includes full controller support, something many have asked for. I’ve spent my time this week designing and placing small container forts around the world. John has worked on animation improvements and chainsaw animations. Below we’ll discuss just a little of what’s going on in this dev cycle. Remember to check out our Changelog for more details.

[h3]Steam Deck (Controller Support)[/h3]
We’re really excited to have the opportunity to work with the Steam Deck. It has also given us the drive to finally wrap our heads around controller support. This is a surprisingly complex feature to integrate into a project that hasn’t been designed from the ground up with controller support in mind. Andre and James have made some great progress and you can expect to see controller support in the 1.15 build.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Container Forts[/h3]
We’ll continue to ‘fill in’ our map as we move through development cycles. The 1.15 build will feature small ‘fortress’ like structures spread around the world made of shipping containers. These container forts, as we’re calling them, will be the main POI/area for players to find the newly introduced and very fun chainsaw. The forts will likely be upgraded as we move onto future builds and a few more added.

Container Fort Northwest

Container Fort Northeast

Container Fort Central

[h3]Resource and Item Combining[/h3]
We’ve had an issue lurking with item combining for some time now. To break it down in simple terms, the issue was items would combine on pickup. This behavior was intended and is desirable for things like boxes of nails, screws, ammo, etc. As an example, this system is intended to work as follows: the player has a box of ammo in their inventory with 9/20 rounds; they pick up another box of ammo with 11/20 rounds; the player now has a single full box of ammo 20/20 rounds in their inventory. Perfect! That’s exactly what you would expect to happen.

The problem starts with items like fuel cans and actual guns! As an example, you have a revolver in your inventory with 3/6 rounds. You find another identical revolver with 3/6 rounds and pick it up. You would expect to have two separate revolvers. However, the system doesn’t currently function like that. What would happen is, the system would take the ammo from the weapon that was picked up in the world and fill the inventory weapon then discard the second revolver. This is not ideal at all. James has sunk time into fixing this issue and you shouldn’t face anything like it after 1.15.

[h3] Chainsaw[/h3]
Oh boy, this thing is a game changer when it comes to gathering wood for fortifications and well shredding zombies. The team is really starting to bring the features together and we’ve tested initial implementation. How can you survive a zombie apocalypses without a chainsaw? Introducing a new weapon, melee item or tool into the game is a process we’ve tried to simplify. However, animations, drop creation, first person and proxy setups do take time. The chainsaw is currently in our development branch.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Don't want to wait for an experimental build? Join us on Patreon and gain access to everything in this devblog and 1.15 development builds.[/h3]

[h3]Links[/h3]
Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights
Changelog: https://changelog.survivethenights.net
Patreon: https://patreon.com/a2zinteractive
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