Survive the Nights News

Hello all,

Thanks for checking out our 28th devblog! We've released the initial 0.11.27 build to our experimental branch on Steam. We've already received some fantastic feedback and bug reports. If you've not done so already, we suggest switching over to our experimental branch. Please report any issues found to our tracker.


Vehicles are already getting a fantastic test on .27. We're getting some solid reports and fixing issues. Development continues on vehicles and vehicle mechanics. You'll soon see vehicle damage where the end result is an explosion. Obviously maintaining your vehicle should be a high priority. Allowing a vehicle to be damaged to the point where it catches flame will always result in an explosion.

https://youtu.be/dekiVzrjS84


Something Jos has worked on quickly this week is town signs. Some in the community have mentioned that without a map and compass it can be nearly impossible to tell where you are. In response, town signs have been created and will be implemented shortly. They'll be placed at entrance and exit points to all of the islands towns so it should always be evident what town you're in.







We're currently releasing the first patch for 0.11.27. This build will likely remain on our experimental branch while receiving many small patches until the build is stable and solid enough to call alpha. Below are the patch notes for 0.11.28. Please report any issues found on our BUG TRACKER, thanks much!

• Teleporting is now possible after you've been killed while in a vehicle.
  
• Players should now always start with full calories on a new life.
  
• Improvements to weapon loot spread. Previously all gun types where spawning at all locations. Weapon locations should now be more balanced.
  
• Vehicles should no longer despawn! Cannot be 100% sure that there won't still be issues with cars going missing.
  
• Flashlight position on pump action shotgun no longer floating.
  
• Added idle override animation when standing near a fire that is on.
  
• Added town name signs to all towns. These are designed to help groups of players figure out where they are on the map.
  
• Add item and AI spawners to buildings that didn't have enough to meet loot spawn requirements.
  
• Resolved errors which happened when loading the bunker areas.
  
• Added several new early game hints to help new players get established.
  
• Tweaked the amount of meat given from stags and also balanced their calories against other items.
  
• Added and tweaked menu hints to show more early game relevant hints.
  
• Fires now slowly regenerate health while stood near them. This feature is designed to help new players with early game difficulty.
  
• Improved quality settings so that options all work and descriptions are easier to understand.
  
• Vehicles now start smoking as they take damage. Smoke increases as vehicle conditions becomes lower and explode once fully broken.
  
• Fixed issue which caused zombie screams to not always play sound.
  
• Fixed issue where zombies would sometimes move sideways.
  
• Altered the /stuck command so that it can no longer be used for cheating.
  
• Added solution for exiting vehicles that are up against a wall. Players now exit via the alternative side.
  
• Fixed issue which was causing small notifications to spam in the top left corner when a container was 1 item short of full.
  
• Can no longer eat while you are the driver of a vehicle.
  
• Punch animation no longer plays before wind up flashlight animation starts playing.
  

Thanks much for the continued support. We'll keep smoothing out this .11 build and get it into proper shape for a solid alpha build. We couldn't do it without the continued dedication of backers willing to help test for issues and suggest fixes and improvements.


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 27th devblog! We’ve released the initial 0.11.27 build to our experimental branch on Steam. This is our first public build with vehicles implemented and we need some feedback. As of now, you'll only find the cricket car spawning until we're happy with vehicle physics and mechanics. The RV will be in before alpha launch. There’s a lot of testing and breaking to do so go at it! Below you can find our patch notes.

We’ll be updating to default once experimental is tested and stable. Please do your best to check against the list of changes below and report bugs to our tracker.

• Ocean water source now infinite.
  
• Fixed issue where items in placement mode would break if moved to far from where they got picked up from.
  
• Eyes no longer glow on female zombie.
  
• Tweaked shotgun spread to make it more realistic.
  
• Resolved issue where shotguns would sometimes miss the target even though the crosshair was over them.
  
• 12g ammo and arg15's now spawn!
  
• Players are no longer pulled out of vehicles when driving over a bear trap. Trap does however still trigger.
  
• Fixed issue where hotkeys would break after attaching an item to a weapon that wasn't your currently equipped item.
  
• Fixed position of wooden club in hand for other players.
  
• Changed VSYNC option so that it is independent from quality setting group.
  
• Fixed issue where melee weapons would hit the ceiling when attacking inside a building.
  
• Fixed issue where attachments would render in position before the weapon was out.
  
• Removed error being caused by particles at various points during play.
  
• Fixed issue where the player wouldn't be frozen in place while loading causing the player to start in the ground.
  
• Wooden cup in shadows no longer floats.
  
• Zombies no longer continue to play the scream animation while the player is too close. Animation now transitions to attack.
  
• Added system for showing the most relevant guide hint on connection to the server. This will allow players returning to the game that haven't fully completed the guide to jump back into it.
  
• Fixed issue with rabbit trap where it would never spring closed. Also removed the decay from the object.
  
• Added system for world spawners so that loot can be found outside of houses.
  
• Avoidance now works on baseball bat and club.
  
• Take All button in back pack now works.
  
• Resolved issue where items could spawn and despawn in line of sight of the player.
  
• Added crafting recipe for small animal trap.
  
• Removed errors which were being thrown into the log when item hovers were having issues rendering.
  
• Added overall improved item distance network culling which allows less important objects to load from a closer distance. Specific objects like worklights, propane tanks and generators now have much further loading capabilities.
  
• Changed functionality on doors so that the player can trigger the handle or slam points and move their camera away to another part of the door. Fixes scenarios where a regular open was wanted but a slam would end up happening.
  

• Removed RAM overhead being caused by shells collision sounds effects.
  
• Changed how trees are saved on the server in order to save overhead and reduce overall server load.
  
• Removed item spawning overhead to reduce overall server build size and cpu intensity.
  
• Removed some of the overhead from stag surface rotation calculations.
  
• Fixes to particle preload scene.
  
• Tweaked quality settings slight in order to optimise.
  
• Fixed issue with Object quality which should show performance improvements for some.
  
• Fixed several small CPU intensive pieces of code.
  
• Optimised the harvest points in the world by pooling them.
  
• Reduced the overall size of the server by removing objects that are not needed.
  
• Disabled and replaced projected decals with static ones. This removes blood splatter however the system was causing extensive overhead.
  
• Tweaked the LODs on multiple objects that were being drawn from too far.
  
• Removed several points of design in Old Town which were causing lag.
  
• Improved world loading system to reduce the amount of world that is loaded at any given time.
  

• Fixed issue which caused zombies to spawn in buildings that had just been cleared. This is not a solution for the greater issue of being able to prevent spawning in a secured structures. This change will be made soon.
  
• Removed zombie spawners from small utility closets that are on the outside of some houses.
  
• Zombies should no longer roam between building during the day.
  
• Fixed are check which prevents zombies spawning in close radius of player.
  
• Fixed issue where zombies would spawn in house you had just cleared of zombies.
  

• Harvesting from stags and chickens now requires a combat knife.
  
• Improved loot spawning prewarm system so that loot amounts is more accurate when the server starts.
  
• Tweaks to items spawning cycles to make them more consistent and to help prevent stagnation.
  
• Campfires no longer spawn around the world.
  
• Removed double baseball bat recipes.
  
• Disabled the ARG and Pump action from spawning in houses. These items can be found in police stations.
  
• Created crafting recipe for bandages from clean rags.
  
• Created crafting recipe for wire spool from scrap metal.
  
• Tweaked arg15 stats to make it feel less like a pee shooter.
  
• Tweaked spread and power drop off for shotguns to make them more balanced.
  
• Improved loot spread to ensure that more relevant items spawn at police stations.
  
• Tweaked item spawning so that more less generators and more generator related parts spawn.
  
• Adjusted calories on consumables. Most drops set to a standard of low, medium and high.
  
• Boxed food - Low 150 Med 200 High 250
  
• Cooked boxed food - Low 300 Med 400 High 500
  
• Canned food - Low 50 Med 75 High 125
  
• Cooked canned food - Low 100 Med 150 High 225
  
• Canteen drops adjusted to top highest canned drop
  
• Meat drops adjusted to match or top highest canned/boxed/canteen drop
  
• Adjusted meat names to include the word 'meat' and replace (Fresh) with (Raw)
  
• Disabled all 'rancid' meat drops as they serve no current purpose
  
• Cooked cat food created
  
• Cooked dog food created
  
• Mixed fruit cooked created
  
• Pineapple cooked created
  
• Removed spawnablility on cooked cans
  
• Dog meat name corrected
  

• Vehicles now recieve use effects.
  
• Now possible to damage vehicles with melee and ranged weapons.
  
• Now possible to damage players that are in vehicles.
  
• Added base set of balances to Cricket. Gears, speed and suspension have all been tweaked.
  
• Stopped player interaction with world items that are outside of the vehicle and hidden their UI.
  
• Added temporary system that allows players to repair their vehicle via the engine GUI with tools and metal.
  
• Zombies can now damage vehicles while attacking players inside them.
  
• It's now possible to kill passive AI with vehicle.
  
• House interiors now load while in a vehicle.
  
• Vehicles now have impact effects when colliding with the environment.
  
• Added functionality for vehicles to spawn with different colours.
  
• Added base set of vehicle spawners around world.
  
• Stopped dropping/placement on vehicles until a better system can be implemented for handling items resting on moving vehicles.
  
• Added visible vehicle damage.
  
• Vehicle horns now work!
  
• Added functionality for enabling and disabling the headlamps.
  
• Implemented engine functionality with various parts and fuel support.
  
• Player backpacks are now disabled while they're in a vehicle seat.
  
• Added audio effects when driving over terrains.
  
• Resolved issue where vehicles being driven would snap to a different rotation when another player joined.
  
• Improved vehicle relevancy so that they can be seen from further away when occupied.
  
• Fixed scenarios where a player wouldn't be visible for other players while in a vehicle.
  
• Added new VFX particles for vehicles.
  
• Added system for playing sounds based on shock absorber compression.
  
• Resolved collision issue between the vehicle and player when exiting seat.
  
• Players now receive damage when exiting a moving vehicle.
  
• Pressing interact key to enter/exit vehicle now only works when the vehicle is stopped. Hold interact is required while moving to reduce the chance of accidentally exiting.
  
• Removed over bright reflection in rear view mirror on cricket.
  
• Added support for for different engine sounds from outside/inside of a vehicle.
  
• Added system for playing impact sounds for vehicles.
  
• Improved exhause particles on cricket.
  
• Now have surface support which makes them less effective in shallow water/off road.
  

• Fixed issue which caused the campfire UI to break if they were picked and dropped again after they'd had items put in them.
  
• Wooden club now has the correct image in the description area.
  
• Added new display when entering a vehicle which displays the controls and missing parts.
  
• Added built in key binding support!
  
• Clinchester and R-6804 no longer show the option to attach scopes.
  
• [Interact] button in machines is no longer black when the machine cannot be started/activated.
  
• Tweaked hydration notification to make it more clear for new players.
  
• Added useful hints to attachments so that it's easier for new players to get used to.
  
• Arg animation no longer clips while cleaning.
  
• Light switches now give a hint when interacting while there's no live power.
  
• Stopped health going negative during damage that kills the player.
  
• Adjusted grammar on meat drops
  
• Adjusted grammar and spelling on consumables
  
• Adjustment to descriptions on consumables
  
• Meat adjustments, cooking time adjustments making cooking take a bit more time
  
• Added missing gui image to raccoon fresh
  

• Wooden club now has a grab/take animation.
  
• Full new set of animation for the wooden club weapon. Previously they shared the baseball bat animations.
  
• Fixed finger position on lola and gary hand gun.
  
• Added new animations for hatchet when cutting down trees.
  
• Added animations for flashlight attachments on and off for each weapons.
  
• Cooked cans now play a new animations which doesn't include the lid being taken off (Lids now pop off as they become cooked)
  
• Chopping sections off felled trees now plays the correct chopping animation.
  

• Moved interior doors in various building into the interiors for improved optimisations.
  
• Fixed floating table in scene 61 by raising terrain.
  
• Fixed floating rocks in scene 22 by raising terrain.
  
• Added world filler design on terrain 18.
  
• Increased the loading range of wooden tables.
  
• Optimised and improved design around union point to make it more vehicle friendly.
  
• Optimised and improved design around Black Rock to make it more vehicle friendly.
  
• Optimised and improved design around Sage Creek to make it more vehicle friendly.
  
• Optimised and improved design around Addersfield to make it more vehicle friendly.
  
• Fixed issue where some items that were part of an electricity circuit were being culled too soon (Garage signs, garage doors, shop signs.)
  
• Added weapon attchment spawners in appropriate places around map.
  
• Fixed floating street signs in scene 61.
  
• Fixed floating Car in scene 13.
  
• Fixed floating Cabin in scene 13.
  
• Fixed clipping rest stop in scene 13.
  
• Removed invisible wall on bridge next to old town.
  
• Added doors that were missing on house variant 5.
  
• Lowered floating stone wall on terrain 53.
  
• Lowered floating fence on terrain 53.
  
• Lowered 3 floating houses on terrain 31.
  
• Lowered vehicle that was floating on terrain 37.
  
• Garage doors now have further loading distance.
  
• Lowered grass height overall for improved visuals with stags and vehicles.
  
• Optimised the performance of decals around the camp zones.
  
• Lowered stone wall which was floating on farm.
  
• Added environment filler design on terrains 46 and 52.
  
• Added environment filler design on terrains 39, 40 and 63.
  
• Added environment filler design on terrains 51 and 59.
  

• Coal, Hose, Metal bar, Metal place, Metal rod and wirespool are now all stackable.
  
• All consumable drops are now stackable.
  
• Setup Pump action weapon.
  
• Setup Pump action drop.
  
• Added new pump action shotgun prop.
  

• Added sound set for pump action shotgun.
  
• Fixed missing footstep sounds from other players.
  
• Fixed scenario where audio sliders would not work.
  
• Added system which dampens footstep sounds of zombies when the're on an upper floor.
  
• Fixed issue where zombie sounds could be cut off too soon.
  
• Added new vehicle impact sounds.
  
• Fixed scenario where empty shell hitting ground wouldn't play a sound.
  
• Added extra variants of glash breaking for window frames.
  
• Added 2 new engine sounds designed from outside and inside of vehicle.
  

• Fixed issue which could cause a player to be moved slightly when another player teleports.
  
• Resolved issue were players could be seen teleporting. Teleporting is now instant.
  
• Fixed issue where /cleanup would delete vehicles that had players inside.
  

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 26th devblog! We’ve released 0.11.26 build to our default branch on Steam. All branches should now be 0.11.26 so it shouldn't matter what branch you're on. Feel free to check that out as we need some feedback. There’s a lot of testing and breaking to do so go at it! Please check against the 0.11.26 changelog and report findings on our tracker.

Our devblogs will not be as content heavy leading up to our first public alpha build. While there's still much development happening most of what will be going on from this point until the initial release is polish and balance. The team is working on putting some good balance into existing features and smoothing out the general gameplay. The first alpha build coming this summer will feature most, if not all, concept video features in one form or another.


Vehicle spawning is now random along with randomized vehicle parts. While you'll only have access initially to the RV and the cricket for testing, the random part spawning and vehicle condition should add a good deal of variety. All vehicles will have random part spawns and conditioning. The video below outlines a bit of how the mechanic works.

https://youtu.be/acBBAQu_xj4


Our towns are near original. We've gone back to them here and there, adding new props and structures but in the recent weeks Jos has spent a good deal of time and effort on optimization and general looks/improvements. Towns have been 'cleaned' up and roads made a little more accessible. Cleaning the roadways and parking lots up was needed for vehicle introduction as it was a real burden to drive the roads before this. Below are some shots of these improvements, old and new. Eventually, we'll likely be adding an additional town or two. We've concepted and spoken about adding onto smaller existing towns also.

Addersfield Cleanup Old

Addersfield cleanup park added to center of town reducing calls and structure clumping

Union Point old builds featured far too many apartment structures. This was some of the reason performance in Union Point was so rough.


Park added and structure clumping cleaned up. All the towns have had some debris removed but it's still very post apocalyptic.


Sage Creek road cleanup

Sage Creek park


One of our current issues is structure claiming. Not so much from a pvp perspective but more so from a pve view. Structures currently have no 'claim' system. Players are finding zombies spawning inside their fortified buildings. This puts a big damper on things when you're trying to survive. We have concepted a few ideas but would love a bit more insight on to what you guys think would be a good system to avoid this issue. If you have any ideas, please feel free to share them here on this open forum thread.


A few weeks back James and the boys did an interview for BBC's No Filter. If you'd like to check it out the link is right here. Thanks much to the BBC crew and Kofi - the guys had a good time and the interview came out cool.

These are only a handful of what has been worked on in the last couple of weeks. Check out our changelog for a full list of what the team has been up to. Thanks much for checking out the devblog. We hope to have .12 in an experimental stage shortly. As always, thank you for the continued support. The project has come a long way and we're excited for the coming months leading up to our public alpha release and beyond!


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 25th devblog! We’ve released 0.11.26 build to our default branch on Steam. All branches should now be 0.11.26 so it shouldn't matter what branch you're on. Feel free to check that out as we need some feedback. There’s a lot of testing and breaking to do so go at it! Please check against the 0.11.26 changelog and report findings on our tracker.


John has spent some time this week tweaking and creating weapon animations for our attachments. Below you'll see a short video showcasing the flashlight animation on the new T5 pump action shotgun and the ARG. We are aware of the current spawning issues on 0.11.26 and we'll get a fix in for those so weapons are spawning properly again.

https://youtu.be/3CA45TeY4PM


Vehicles in 0.12.6 will spawn with random colors and parts. This wasn't originally planned for the initial release but the mechanics have already been worked in quite nicely. Eventually, you'll see all vehicles spawn not just with random parts and colors but conditions as well.

Vehicle Random Spawn Colors​


A lot of work has begun on design overhaul and we're going through the wilds and filling in the blanks. At the same time, we're optimizing our towns and removing (in some cases) overused props and trash piles. Town and world optimizations are not just visual,. There's a lot of backend performance tweaking going into 0.12 and our first alpha builds. Below is a small example of Addersfield which you'll notice is a bit tidier. Along with that, you'll see some benchmark results. Andre has been working on optimizations and has already seen some fantastic results.

A small park design for Addersfield


Cleaner roads - this is needed for vehicle introductions. We'll eventually introduce destroyable prop mechanics.


Not all rubbish has been removed and towns still feel post-apocalyptic


Our benchmark system does performance checks at several places on the map and spits the results out into a text file which we use in a spreadsheet to monitor performance over time. These results are optimizations and cleanup started towards the end of our last build and into our current 0.12 development build. 0.12 should show some very positive improvements for most and we'll continue to optimize moving forward.


Benchmark Results Low Settings


Benchmark Results Ultra Settings

These are only a handful of what has been worked on in the last couple of weeks. Check out our changelog for a full list of what the team has been up to. Thanks much for checking out the devblog. We hope to have .12 in an experimental stage shortly. As always, thank you for the continued support. The project has come a long way and we're excited for the coming months leading up to our public alpha release and beyond!

Hello all,

Thanks for checking out our 24th devblog! We’ve released 0.11.26 build to our default branch on Steam. All branches should now be 0.11.26 so it shouldn't matter what branch you're on. Feel free to check that out, we need some feedback. There’s a lot of testing and breaking to do so go at it! Please check against the 0.11.26 changelog and report findings on our tracker.


With the basics of vehicles coming in the next few builds, the team has started working on vehicle condition. Vehicles will accept parts even on their initial introduction including fan belts, fuel, oil filters, alternators etc.. As of now, there are quite a few options and a few different concepts in the works for repair, upkeep, improvements and vehicle fortifications. Below you can see some of the initial visible mechanic. Damage occurs to your vehicle as expected the system is already very entertaining. Also making its first appearance is the T5 Pump Action Shotgun..It's a good deal of fun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKl3jP26vCU

Initial vehicle damage mechanic

"Good" condition

Someone has been on quite an adventure ːsteammockingː

Shader forge nodes for vehicle damage and color


Yes, we know...it has been a long time coming but we're finally getting around to adding custom keybindings which you'll see these in the next build or so. The process, while it may seem simple, has turned into quite a beast. Nothing major just very time consuming. The feature is constantly requested and finally getting some love.

Key bindings


We've been working on a few additional animal traps. In the future, the player will use different trap sets for different small game. The current box trap would be for larger game while a snare trap like the one below would be for smaller game.

Concept from way back

Working snare

Working mechanic

These are only a handful of what has been worked on in the last couple of weeks. Check out our changelog for a full list of what the team has been upto. Thanks much for checking out the devblog. We hope to have .12 in an experimental stage shortly. As always, thank you for the continued support. The project has come a long way and we're excited for the coming months leading up to our public alpha release and beyond!
​

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