Survive the Nights News

Last Pre-Alpha Devlog (Alpha v1.0 Release Date Announcement)

We are super excited to announce that we will be moving forward from unlisted pre-alpha status to a public alpha release v1.0. The launch will be

Thursday, November 21st at 10AM PST/1PM EST/6PM GMT.

The devlog below showcases some of the features that we’ve worked on in the last 2 years of unlisted pre-alpha development. A new alpha gameplay trailer along with a very detailed v1.0 update is coming on Thursday for alpha launch. See you then! ːsteamhappyː

https://youtu.be/KPVxJaF6s9g

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 #39 (Experimental Build Patch 0.11.38)

Hello all,

Thanks for checking out our 39th devblog! We’ve released the 0.11.38 patch to our experimental branch on Steam. We've combined our servers for this patch to just a few in order to due a bit of stress testing before alpha launch. Thanks very much to all the testers finding current issues. There’s a lot of testing and breaking to do so go at it! Below you can find our patch notes. Please do your best to check against the list of changes and report bugs to our tracker.

We will only be doing experimental updates as we approach our public alpha release, v1.0. Thanks much for the continued support! We couldn’t do it without the continued dedication of backers willing to help test for issues and suggest fixes and improvements. If you're enjoying the game, please write a review or update your current one. Thank you! :)

Patch 0.11.38

Fixed issue which could cause the movement to feel jittery when moving the character and the camera at the same time.
Removed floating rock near spawn on terrain 51.
Melee no longer hits exterior lights.
Trash piles now give rancid meat.
Tweaks the shell ejection point for the pump action shotgun.
Fixed the shell ejection position on shotguns for other players.
Tweaked the sparks from muzzle flashes on the pistols for other players.
Fixed muzzle flash position issue for other players weapons.
Fixed the position of the flashlights on the R-6804 for other players.
Improvements to Rauser and Lola pistol cleaning animations.
Axe and machete now take more damage when being used against fortifications and enemies.
Balanced melee weapon damages.
Improved baseball bat attack animations.
RV now takes long oil filter instead of short.
Review of all ranged weapons to balance their damage values.
Chickens now are set to the correct audio mixer.
Explosions now are set to the correct audio mixer.
Fixed particle warning missing mesh warning in the particle preload scene.
Fixed performance issue caused by vehicle smoke particles.
Improved performance at sun rise and set by limiting the max length of shadows.
Improved arg muzzle flash and increased kickback on the ARG15.
Updated arg fire sound on the ARG15.
Added bullet gas to the suppressed variants on the ARG15.
Improved the fire shot animation on Lola hand gun.
AI no longer enters water.
Fixed issue which could cause no cheat to be triggered incorrectly when hitting ai with melee.

Links

Patch Notes 0.11.37

Hello all,
 
We’re moving our experimental branch to default today. 0.11.34 will become 0.11.37. There have been a good deal of changes in between 0.11.34 and 0.11.37. Some highlights include the addition of the RV, the return of container loot, improved melee, new game guide, door mechanic improvements and much more. If you're into helping us crush bugs please report them on our public tracker.

This will be our last default patch before our public alpha launch v1.0.0. We will only be doing experimental patches now as we approach release. If you're enjoying the game, please write a review or update your current one. Thank you! :)

Patch 0.11.37

Improved fall damage calculations to reduce the chance of unfair death.
Resolved issue which could lead to an empty hint on overall health lowering.
Added small info read out under overall health stat which informs the player what they need to do to increase overall health.
Fixed issue which allowed vehicles to spawn very close to other vehicles. This could lead to vehicles being inside of each other or in random positions.
Fixed issue with progressively reloaded weapons getting caught in an infinite reloading loop.
Fixed issue which would sometimes make punch really fast.
Achievement for killing a chicken with a bear trap now works.
Zombies now have hit reactions when being shot.
Exploded vehicles can no longer be pushed around by bumping into or shooting them.
Generators now use ground placement mode.
Performance improvements.
Fixed issue which allowed the player to visually see their backpack weapons when first joining game.
Tree stem sections that can be cut off no longer rotate after tree has already settled. This resulted in a strange visual effect with the green highlights that display where the tree can be chopped.
Using bandages now has animation.
Improved some of the wording in the default server config to improve clarity.
Disabled copper wire and fire cracker drops as they currently have no purpose.
Fixes and stability improvement of weapon penetration functionality.
Player consumable animations can now be canceled after 70% of the animation has played without stopping the actual consume.
All consumable player animations can now be canceled.
Removed coordinates from bottom right corner of screen in preparation of early access.
Added new hint for when the player in dry firing without ammo in their inventory explaining how to change back to unarmed.
Added new hint for when the inventory is full which explains how raising overall health will increase carrying capacity.
Added new hint for how cooking closed cans over a fire to open them.
Fixed the pivot positions on loads of drops so that they don't clip into the ground on spawn.
Sped up consuming times to help game flow/calorie intake time.
Fixed instances were incorrect or no consuming animation would play when consuming an item.
Killing zombies near world traps like bear traps no longer sets them off.
Passive AI can now take damage from melee.
Passive AI now take damage/die from world traps like bear traps.
Headshot damage multiplier increased.
Shotguns now do slightly more damage.
Hasp and staple is now craftable using scrap metal and pliers.
Avoidance now works when switching between looking through a window and back to frame. This would sometimes stop melee working against windows.
Avoidance distance lowered.
Electricity meters now start with a few parts.
Footstep sounds no longer play while in vehicle.
Carrying capacity now increases by 10 when overall health is positive and decreases by 5 when negative.
Jerry cans now only spawn at vehicle part spawner locations as they were too common.
Improved description of campsite campfires to make it clearer how cooking over them works.
Added screenshot option to drone cam.
Resolved issue which could cause players to become stuck on a server. This would stop them rejoining until after the server had restarted.
Interior lights no longer render on terrains as it was causing some shading issues.
Zombies now spawn back in buildings quicker when they are not fortified.
Jerry cans have been removed from hardware item spawners as they were also in vehicle part spawners making them too common.
Tweaks to hardware/electrical item spawners which should make locks kits more common. Less electrical items should now spawn in the hardware stores and instead be pushed to warehouses.
Tuna can disabled temporarily.
Restructured the guide to make it clearer for new players.
Added several new achievements for the guide.
In game UI no longer displays just before loading is complete.
Players no longer show for other players before their own loading screen disappears.
Fixes for vehicle spawn rotation issues.
Shotguns and R-6804 rifle now have shell eject sound effects.
Fixed issue which allowed weapons to jam even while empty.
Fixed issue which allowed for fast firing weapons to fire one additional shot when firing really fast.
Fixed material error which was spamming when shooting red brick variants.
Resolved issue single bullets being able to hit multiple point on the same enemy. This was a fault caused by the penetration system.
Fixed lock position on bathroom sink cabinet that wasn't visible.
Added toggle option for new quick guide in the full guide tab.
Hover icons now have adaptive fade in/out range to bring more relevant interactions to the players attention.
Information hover icon updated to make it more clear.
Lowered vehicle inputs UI slightly so that it fits nicely with the new quick guide.
Resolved spamming error when looking directly at terrains.
Added new destination visited achievements.
Fixed issue with containers which would result in the loss of items in the event they were put in different containers from the same inventory stack.
Reintroduced container item spawning. Containers now spawn highly consumable/common items like food and tinder.
Overall physics stability improvements for vehicles.
Other players head movement range while in vehicles has been reduced to stop it stretching.
Fixed issue which could cause zombies to remain in T-pose position.
Improved UI in drone cam mode, made it so that it can be exited with 'esc' and removed secondary camera mode which didn't work correctly.
Now possible to enter drone cam again (subject to perms)
Chicken sound effects now quieter.
Players no longer bump into dead zombies.
Fixed various particle errors on the server which caused console spam.
Removed trash from forecourt of fuel station in Old Town.
Vehicles found that are under the threshold for smoking no longer smoke unless they are on or are about to blow up.
Camping chairs can now be harvested from for scrap metal.
Camera animation effects are now reduced when hitting fortification objects, trees and when nothing is hit.
Disabled the muffler drop since it is not used in game.
Reduced overall network traffic caused by AI.
PVP disable server config option now works.
Fixed issue which stopped players receiving damage when their limbs were hit.
Locked containers no longer display the amount of items inside.
Locked doors and containers now say "Locked" instead of "Press E to open".
Some item containers around the world have now been converted to player storage which requires a lock to be placed before use.
Reload animation for other players using the FRKS shotgun is now correct speed.
Added new quick guide UI system which should help new players learn the game.
Added extra stats to stats UI thats in the main menu.
RV's and cars should spawn at correct rotation. Previously this was causing them to spawn inside of items.
Added animations for harvesting from stags and chickens with with machete, hatchet and axe.
Wind now works in the new menu scene.
Added new spawn point locations for players who have completed the guide.
Player spawn point improvements location improvements.
Interacting with items is now quicker.
Notification when harvesting while inventor full is now correctly.
Doors now close after time when there are no players near by. This stops server stagnation where all doors end up open.
Conflicting key binds now display in the UI. This helps stop players binding the same keys.
Hand held radios are now shown in hand for other players.
Loading screen inputs helper now bigger with clearer font.
Kitchen taps now provide dirty water instead of clean. They also have the correct message when searching.
Small garage doors now have 'Coming soon' hovers.
Added new Stag and Doe animal type.
When trying to a slam a door while you don't have enough stamina now reverts to the standard open/close instead of doing nothing.
Slamming doors now requires shift plus interact to be pressed.
Doors no longer slam open when pressing interact on door panel. Doors now open instead when pressing interact.
Improved FRKS reload animation.
Nails can now be crafted from scrap metal.
Berries no longer provide health.
Updated game start splash screen.
It is now possible to harvest from stags and chickens without the correct tool. A lower amount of items are retrieved.
Spawn point location improvements to help early game.
Hints now stay on screen for longer so that players have time to read them.
Zombies no longer stand on bridges during the day.
Anti cheat improvements.
Increased brightness and width of cricket vehicle headlights.
Fixed alignment on death message UI.
Fixed structures that were not working with new functionality introduced in 0.11.32 for preventing zombie spawns in structures that are fully fortified.
Vehicles no spawn with fewer parts and fuel.
Weapon reload sound effects now work with master audio sliders.
Vehicles no longer sink in to the ground a fuel stations.
Vehicles can now catch fire and blow up even if they weren't already running.
Fixed errors being caused by shooting red bricks.
Vehicles now take less damage when impacting objects (Including zombies).
Improved zombie vehicle collision calculations so that there's less chance their rag dolls get caught on vehicle.
Zombies now get cleaned up faster when killed by a vehicle.
Improved performance by reducing zombie movement calculations in the distance and stopping their animations.
Improved performance by creating LOD's for vehicles.
Removed some physics calculations for Zombies that were not needed. This should improve performance when near lots of zombies.
Fires no longer warm players through walls.
Hand warming animation only plays when a fire is in the player vision. (Health regen still works without line of sight)
Moving away from fire no longer incorrectly notifies of interaction canceled.
Tweaked loot balance. Reduced the amount of guns slightly. Increase the chances of finding custom location based loot. Warehouses now also have (Electrical/car parts) loot.
Fixed issue which could on rare occasion cause zombies to become invincible.
Player no longer receive damage when switching seats while vehicle is moving.
Passengers no longer receive damage when driver exits vehicle when moving.
Fixed issue where vehicles could slowly roll away from their server instances which would mean players could no longer enter.
Tweaks to zombie loading distances to improve overall performance.
Searching area using F is now quicker.
Hold interact functionality made quicker for all interactions.
Added functionality for adding strength to existing lock using an equipped screw driver and screws.
Fixed floating lamp post in terrain 27.
Resolved issue where engine audio/visual wouldn't update after getting out of a vehicle.
Fixed terrain clipping with road in scene 28.
Warehouses now have improved design and location specific loot.
Added working RV vehicle.
New inputs helper UI added during loading screens.
New loading screen images added in preparation for early access.
New menu scene added in preparation for early access.
Overall loot balance. Less ammo and food. Increased loot in special loot locations like shops and increased likelihood that it's relevant to the location being looted.
Screwdriver weapon added.

Links

Pre-Alpha Devblog #38 (Experimental Build Patch 0.11.37)

Hello all,

Thanks for checking out our 38th devblog! We’ve released the 0.11.37 patch to our experimental branch on Steam. Thanks very much to all the testers finding current issues. There’s a lot of testing and breaking to do so go at it! Below you can find our patch notes. Please do your best to check against the list of changes and report bugs to our tracker.

We will only be doing experimental updates as we approach our public alpha release, v1.0.0. Thanks much for the continued support! We couldn’t do it without the continued dedication of backers willing to help test for issues and suggest fixes and improvements.

Patch 0.11.37

Time cycle length set to 45 minutes across all servers.
Improved fall damage calculations to reduce the chance of unfair death.
Resolved issue which could lead to an empty hint on overall health lowering.
Added small info read out under overall health stat which informs the player what they need to do to increase overall health.
Fixed issue which allowed vehicles to spawn very close to other vehicles. This could lead to vehicles being inside of each other or in random positions.
Fixed issue with progressively reloaded weapons getting caught in an infinite reloading loop.
Fixed issue which would sometimes make punch really fast.
Achievement for killing a chicken with a bear trap now works.
Zombies now have hit reactions when being shot.
Exploded vehicles can no longer be pushed around by bumping into or shooting them.
Generators now use ground placement mode.
AI no longer enters water.
Performance improvements.
Fixed issue which allowed the player to visually see their backpack weapons when first joining game.

Links

Pre-Alpha Devblog #37 (Experimental Build Patch 0.11.36)

Hello all,

Thanks for checking out our 37th devblog! We’ve released the 0.11.36 patch to our experimental branch on Steam. Thanks very much to all the testers finding current issues. There’s a lot of testing and breaking to do so go at it! Below you can find our patch notes. Please do your best to check against the list of changes and report bugs to our tracker.

We will only be doing experimental updates as we approach our alpha launch. The next stable update will be our public alpha release v1.0.0. Thanks much for the continued support! We couldn’t do it without the continued dedication of backers willing to help test for issues and suggest fixes and improvements.

Patch 0.11.36

Sped up consuming times to help game flow/calorie intake time.
Fixed instances were incorrect or no consuming animation would play when consuming an item.
Killing zombies near world traps like bear traps no longer sets them off.
Passive AI can now take damage from melee.
Passive AI now take damage/die from world traps like bear traps.
Head shot damage multiplier increased.
Shotguns now do slightly more damage.
Hasp and staple is now craftable using scrap metal and pliers.
Avoidance now works when switching between looking through a window and back to frame. This would sometimes stop melee working against windows.
Avoidance distance lowered.
Electricity meters now start with a few parts.
Footstep sounds no longer play while in vehicle.
Carrying capacity now increases by 10 when overall health is positive and decreases by 5 when negative.
Jerry cans now only spawn at vehicle part spawner locations as they were too common.
Improved description of campsite campfires to make it clearer how cooking over them works.
Added screenshot option to drone cam.
Resolved issue which could cause players to become stuck on a server. This would stop them rejoining until after the server had restarted.
Interior lights no longer render on terrains as it was causing some shading issues.
Zombies now spawn back in buildings quicker when they are not fortified.
Jerry cans have been removed from hardware item spawners as they were also in vehicle part spawners making them too common.
Tweaks to hardware/electrical item spawners which should make locks kits more common. Less electrical items should now spawn in the hardware stores and instead be pushed to warehouses.
Tuna can disabled temporarily.
Restructured the guide to make it clearer for new players.
Added several new achievements for the guide.
In game UI no longer displays just before loading is complete.
Players no longer show for other players before their own loading screen disappears.
Fixes for vehicle spawn rotation issues.
Shotguns and R-6804 rifle now have shell eject sound effects.
Fixed issue which allowed weapons to jam even while empty.
Fixed issue which allowed for fast firing weapons to fire one additional shot when firing really fast.
Fixed material error which was spamming when shooting red brick variants.
Resolved issue single bullets being able to hit multiple point on the same enemy. This was a fault caused by the penetration system.
Fixed lock position on bathroom sink cabinet that wasn't visible.
Added toggle option for new quick guide in the full guide tab.
Hover icons now have adaptive fade in/out range to bring more relevant interactions to the players attention.
Information hover icon updated to make it more clear.
Lowered vehicle inputs UI slightly so that it fits nicely with the new quick guide.
Resolved spamming error when looking directly at terrains.
Added new destination visited achievements.
Fixed issue with containers which would result in the loss of items in the event they were put in different containers from the same inventory stack.
Reintroduced container item spawning. Containers now spawn highly consumable/common items like food and tinder.
Overall physics stability improvements for vehicles.
Other players head movement range while in vehicles has been reduced to stop it stretching.
Fixed issue which could cause zombies to remain in T-pose position.
Improved UI in drone cam mode, made it so that it can be exited with 'esc' and removed secondary camera mode which didn't work correctly.
Now possible to enter drone cam again (subject to perms)
Chicken sound effects now quieter.
Players no longer bump into dead zombies.
Fixed various particle errors on the server which caused console spam.
Removed trash from forecourt of fuel station in Old Town.
Vehicles found that are under the threshold for smoking no longer smoke unless they are on or are about to blow up.
Camping chairs can now be harvested from for scrap metal.
Camera animation effects are now reduced when hitting fortification objects, trees and when nothing is hit.
Disabled the muffler drop since it is not used in game.
Reduced overall network traffic caused by AI.
PVP disable server config option now works.
Fixed issue which stopped players receiving damage when their limbs were hit.
Locked containers no longer display the amount of items inside.
Locked doors and containers now say "Locked" instead of "Press E to open".
Some item containers around the world have now been converted to player storage which requires a lock to be placed before use.
Reload animation for other players using the FRKS shotgun is now correct speed.
Added new quick guide UI system which should help new players learn the game.
Added extra stats to stats UI that’s in the main menu.
RV's and cars should spawn at correct rotation. Previously this was causing them to spawn inside of items.
Added animations for harvesting from stags and chickens with with machete, hatchet and ax.
Wind now works in the new menu scene.
Added new spawn point locations for players who have completed the guide.
Player spawn point improvements location improvements.
Interacting with items is now quicker.
Notification when harvesting while inventor full is now correctly.
Doors now close after time when there are no players near by. This stops server stagnation where all doors end up open.
Conflicting key binds now display in the UI. This helps stop players binding the same keys.
Hand held radios are now shown in hand for other players.
Loading screen inputs helper now bigger with clearer font.
Kitchen taps now provide dirty water instead of clean. They also have the correct message when searching.
Small garage doors now have 'Coming soon' hovers.
Added new Stag and Doe animal type.
When trying to a slam a door while you don't have enough stamina now reverts to the standard open/close instead of doing nothing.
Slamming doors now requires shift plus interact to be pressed.
Doors no longer slam open when pressing interact on door panel. Doors now open instead when pressing interact.
Improved FRKS reload animation.
Nails can now be crafted from scrap metal.
Berries no longer provide health.
Updated game start splash screen.
It is now possible to harvest from stags and chickens without the correct tool. A lower amount of items are retrieved.
Spawn point location improvements to help early game.
Hints now stay on screen for longer so that players have time to read them.
Zombies no longer stand on bridges during the day.
Anti cheat improvements.
Increased brightness and width of cricket vehicle headlights.
Fixed alignment on death message UI.
Fixed structures that were not working with new functionality introduced in 0.11.32 for preventing zombie spawns in structures that are fully fortified.

Links