Survive the Nights News

Pre-Alpha Devblog #18 (Experimental Build 0.9.23)

Hello all,

Thanks for checking out our 18th devblog! We’ve released the initial 0.9.23 build to our experimental branch on Steam. Feel free to check that out, we need some feedback. 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 along with a devlog update video showcasing all the 0.10.2x feature improvements and additions. Please do your best to check against the list of changes below and report bugs to our tracker.

Balance

Item pickup time reduced to make it feel more fluid.
All crafting recipes times reduced proportionality.

General

Removed lag being caused by incorrect physics on the server relating to zombies.
Fixed issue with item relevance which would throw null refs on the server.
Fixed issue which would stop guns being able to be reloaded.
It's now possible to smash off locks that aren't locked.
Attacks can now be performed with melee weapons with left click even when they don't have an alternative attack. It triggers the normal left click attack.
Improved melee hitting accuracy on fortification objects.
Overall loot percentage and spread balance. This is our first attempt at balancing the loot percentages.
Sealed food cans can now be cooked to get them open.
Melee weapons now break through use.
Fixed scenario where sounds would incorrectly start playing even when sliders were turned down. This happened when returning to the menu.
Now possible to harvest water directly into new camping canteen.
Blood splatter now works again when shooting through zombies!
Added scrap metal points to metal junk piles, scrap truck and motorbike.
Melee weapons now take damage and destroy when using them against zombies.
Created new camping canteen pickup and relevant consumables (Works like water bottle).
It is now possible for items to burnt away on a cooking surface.
Picking up item tweaks to make sure the grab animation always plays.
Tents now function as item harvest points.
Junkpile_Large_Outside_variant_1 clipping issues fixed.

Default Fortifications

Window frames now include frame interior and 4 individually breakable glass pieces.
Frame interiors respawn on server restart to prevent stagnation.

Tutorial/Guide

Added working Guide page to the inventory which helps new players learn the basics of survival.
Added initial concept campsite.
Added base set of achievements for tutorial.

Crafting

Clean rag recipe now returns clean rags instead of dirty.
Tinder from cloth/rags.
Axe head from scrap metal.
Hatchet head from scrap metal.
Hammer head from scrap metal.
Canteen from scrap metal.
Clean pot from scrap metal.
Machete from crap metal.
Bear trap from scrap metal.
Sleeping bag from clothes/rags.

Player Vitals UI

Added new player vitals UI that displays appropriate player information when needed. Can also be called up all at once using the inspect functionality.
Ammo now displayed in new UI.
Removed some notifications that are now handled by new UI.

Achievements

Introduced base steam stats and achievements system.

Aggressive AI

Zombie resistance fixed. They can no longer be walked through.
Fix for scenario where zombies could be spawned floating in the air.
Potential fix for scenario where zombies could float away as though they have zero gravity.
Zombies now climb through windows faster.
Zombies no longer exit out of windows unless they can directly see the player during the day.
Zombies should no longer run to the floor above when they cannot reach the player.
Zombies should no longer run outside of a building when they cannot reach the player.
Zombies now have improved path finding and should be able to reach the player easier.
Zombies during the day are now spread more accurately between buildings allowing for greater amounts.
Zombies now sync their movement quicker with less interpolation when they're closer to the player. This causes them to be position more accurately.
Zombies now react more aggressively to noise.
Fixed several scenarios where zombies would behave strangely with doors.
Zombies should no longer get stuck inside of doors frames.

Hotkeys Overhaul

Tools added to hotkeys.
Current day now displays on the screen while in the inventory.
Hotkeys in the inv now show the correct hotkey index in the inventory.
Individual hotkeys now scroll through types. Currently 1 melee, 2 handguns, 3 rifles, 4 shotguns and 5 flashlights. (Consumables/medicines will be added later.)
Individual hotkey position has memory so that the player can select their favorite weapon of each type and quickly select between them.
Scrolling with the mouse scrolls through and entire weapon group and moves to the next.
Reduced the switching time slightly.

Locks now display condition in their hover UI.
Sleeping bag [Use] button in the inventory now says [Sleep].
Added new UI to main menu which shows players own total stats and personal bests.
Tab list ping now shows correctly.
Tab list now displays each players nights survived.
Ammo hints now downgraded to small notification in top left.
Small notifications no longer stack together.
Hints now play ping sound again when you get the same hint and also play a small animation.
Improved grammar and capitalisation on various hints.
Some hints have been made unlimited.
Some hints have been changed to a limited amount of plays.

Animation

Added door opening and slamming camera animations.
Axe - Improved melee animation.
Base Ball Bat - Improved melee animation.
Hammer - Improved melee animation.
Hatchet - Improved melee animation.
WoodenClub - Improved melee animation.
Combat Knife - Improved melee animation.
Wind up Flashlight - Improved melee animation.
Flashlights - Improved melee animation.
Machete - Improved melee animation.
Opening/closing doors now player a character animation.
Added fps interact slam open animation for the player.
Slamming open/closed now plays character animation.
Fixed Lola and Garry handgun animations that clipped the camera.

Drops

Jerry can now has base weight.
Fixed cleaning kit drop. No longer looks like firewood.
Added scrap metal drops
Removed tent as a drop. It's now a design prop.
packed test drop disabled.

Optimisations

Added all bullet impact particles and decals to the preload scene.
Item relevance optimisations.
Item spawning and checking optimisations.
Removed exit particle on the blood impact particle.
Added the dynamic blood decals to the preload scene.

Environment

Ai no longer walks through glass store counter.
Redesigned police and fire stations.
Redesigned projects building.
Redesigned grocery store 3.
Redesigned grocery store 2.
Redesigned grocery store 1.
Redesigned strip malls 3, 4 and 5.
Redesigned strip malls 1 and 2.
Redesigned Gas stations 5 and 6.
Removed concrete barrier to allow zombie navigation in adders field school
Redesigned Gas stations 3 and 4.
Redesigned house 11 interiors.
Fixed odd tiling on interior gas station wall.
Redesigned cabin variants 1 and 2 interiors.
Redesigned Old house 1.
Redesigned Old house 2.
Redesigned Old house 3.
Redesigned Old house 4.
Redesigned Cabins 3 and 4 interiors.
Redesigned Cabins 5 and 6 interiors.
Redesigned Cabins 7.

Props

Strip mall buildings now have security glass windows.
Updated camping grill tripod so that the cooking surface is larger.
Added a2z Cricket concept/testing car.
Added drinking camping canteen.
Added Scrap metal pickup prop.

Admin

Items can now be given by shift clicking their names in the inventory, machines and containers. (Give perm is required)
Items can now be given by clicking grey [Add] buttons in machines. (Give perm is required)

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 #17 (Vehicle Work | Hotkeys +)

Hello all,

Thanks for checking out our 17th devblog! Progress is moving along nicely on 0.10.xx. We hope to have experimental builds out in the next week or two. We've had some feedback and the issues found are being worked on. If you're testing 0.9.22, please share any issues you find on our tracker or come share on our Discord. Below we'll discuss a few upcoming features and exactly what the team has been working on.

We'll be keeping this devblog on the short side this week. Everyone is hard at working wrapping up the last sprint for 0.10.xx. We have some updates to showcase and talk a bit about.

Hotkey Preview

Hotkeys have been in for some time but not had much attention dedicated to them. We've improved the system now as you can see in the video below. The keys are now item class specific. Each key represents a category, handguns, rifles, shotguns etc. Pressing the key multiple times cycles the category.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gor8DotHjhU

Vehicle Progress

Although vehicles will not be a feature in 0.10 their backbone has been in the works for some time and we'll slowly be introducing the mechanics in the coming updates. James has spent the week working on a number of things, vehicle wise it has been follow through physics. You can see in the .gif below as the player leaves the vehicle, it continues on its path although it's slightly exaggerated for testing purposes ;)

Achievements and Steam

You'll see the initial batch of achievements come in the next couple of updates. They'll tie in to our planned 'tutorial' which involves new players and starting camps. We've been creating a bunch and you've already seen some. Here's test integration getting them working on backend. The ones below are only concept and will likely be changed.

Loot Spread and Crafting Balance

As some of you have noted, loot balance isn't fantastic at the moment. Physical loot is spawn and spawning well, just not in a balanced manner. It's also not area specific which is something we've wanted to do from the start. James has been working on loot spread and you can see some of that work here in action. This among many things will allow us to track and tweak loot around the world. We'll be introducing more loot specific structures/areas and tweaking loot balance as we move through alpha builds.

We've also been tweaking craftables and begun to balance the initial introduction to them. This will be a long road. There are a lot of craftables in the works and even more planned. We'll need to work off some type of base stat. Jos put together a quick system that allows us to track a craftable's difficulty. We'll introduce future craftables and machines based on this or a slightly tweaked system.

Cooking Improvements

You'll see quite a few cooking improvements in the coming builds. Below you can see two of them, the new camping grill and can mechanics. The grill is much easier to craft, place and cook on. The larger surface allows you to cook more and easily place and remove food. The cans no longer require a can opener. You can also place them over a fire and cook them open with a satisfying animation as seen below :)

Can popping fun!

Thanks much for checking out the devblog. We hope to have .10 in an experimental stage in the coming weeks. 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!

Links

Pre-Alpha Devblog #16 (Vehicle Sync | Starting Camps +)

Hello all,

Thanks for checking out our 16th devblog! Progress is moving along nicely on 0.10.xx. We've had some feedback and the issues found are being worked on. If you're testing 0.9.22, please share any issues you find on our tracker or come share on our Discord. Below we'll discuss a few upcoming features and exactly what the team has been working on.

Vehicle Base Re-Work and Improvements (Vehicle Base Introduction Coming Soon)

The team has been busy working on a number of big features but one that we're most excited about is vehicles. Survive the Nights was almost entirely created around the want for vehicle storage. We wanted a survival game where a vehicle was more than just a quick way across the map. Our long term goals for vehicles are big one's, full mobile survival, fortifiable vehicles, an extensive part system etc. All of these will rely on a massive amount of incredibly important mechanics.

We're re-working the entire vehicle system from the ground up in layers so you'll likely be testing the very base of vehicle mechanics shortly. We weren't happy with our initial introduction for the alpha branches (you may have seen this in our trailer). The system is now being built back up with more attention to long term goals. One of the most important mechanics we're working on is vehicle network synchronization. Network sync is noticeably off in the trailer and created a real in game issue. As you can see in the clip below, @Jayty has smoothed the sync out quite nicely. Vehicle physics are a nice treat for the team to work on and something everyone on the team shares is an interest in cars and car games. There's a lot of work to do with vehicles like many of our features but we hope to have you guys breaking the initial introduction in hilarious ways in the next couple of updates.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s0-Zi-qxJs

There are probably going to be a few bugs to work out :p

Starting Camp Visual Development

A few devblogs back we talked about the introduction of starting camps. We plan to guide new players towards 'safer' areas. These starting areas will contain the basic bare bone essentials to get a new player going in the right direction. Below are a few shots of how some of those starting camps are being designed. We're filling out the wilderness. These camps will be a small part of the design goal.

Players only need to follow these markers to find campsites.

Starting Camp Smoke Visuals

Aside from following markers set just off the road, the player will also be able to see the smoke from the camps static fire from a distance on the map. This should make finding your way to starting camps pretty easy and the smoke looks great on the horizon.

Starting camp smoke seen from a distance

Update on Achievement Artwork

Dork has been working on a few things over the last week one of them being some more artwork for our reworked achievements. We've also added our player stats to the main menu which you'll soon see on the website as well!

Some of the new updated achievement art

In game player and global stats are coming to the website soon!

In Game UI Progress

We talked a bit in a blog not that long ago about the new UI system you'll be seeing in 0.10.2X. Below you can see the player taking damage and the damage UI reacting to that. You'll also notice the ammo UI pop up to let you know how many rounds you have in the weapon and in the backpack. The weapon color reflects condition.

UI being displayed for ammo being fired along with damage being received fades quickly

Thanks much for checking on our development of Survive the Nights and, as always, thank you for the continued support. The project has come a long way and we're excited for the coming months leading up to our public alpha release!

Links

Pre-Alpha Devblog #15 (Window and Kitchen Improvements | Workflow+)

Hello all,
 
Thanks for checking out our 15th devblog! Progress is moving along nicely on 0.10.xx. We've had some feedback and the issues found are being worked on. If you're testing 0.9.22, please share any issues you find on our tracker or come share on our Discord. Below we'll discuss a few upcoming features and exactly what the team has been working on.
 

Window Improvements (Coming in 0.10.xx)

 As we discussed a bit last week, we're having a revamp on all the current structure windows. The system in place is universal which allows us to create a prefab that we can constantly update and all in game structures are affected. Our windows have always lacked any depth beyond being able to fortify them. As with most of our features, they've been in place as a base for some time but are now getting some attention and improvements.
 
Previously, windows had no glass, no inner structure and were just an open framed hole in the wall. We've added glass and wood cross panels.This adds a great deal of depth to a structure. It also creates an additional barrier and block for the player. Players could previously make a quick escape by jumping through an open window. Now players and zombies alike will need to deal with the glass and framework.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDE64DpHVmo
 

Kitchen Improvements (Coming in Future Updates)

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

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

Darker and older
 

New and soon to be functioning electric stoves
 

Introduction of Scrap Metal and Metal Canteens

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

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

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

Game Achievement Rework (coming in 0.10.xx+)

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

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

Backend Workflow

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

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

Next Week's Devblog (Staring Camps | Vehicle Development)

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

Thanks much for checking on our development of Survive the Nights and, as always, thank you for the continued support. The project has come a long way and we're excited for the coming months leading up to our public alpha release!

Links

Pre-Alpha Devblog #14 (UI Improvements | Player Stat Visuals +)

Hello all,
 
Thanks for checking out our 14th devblog! We’ve released the initial 0.9 build to our default branch on Steam. We've had some feedback, issues found are being worked on. If you're testing 0.9 please share any issues you find on our tracker or come share on our Discord.
 
We're working on a load of great features, fixes and additions for .10+ feel free to check out our changelog. You'll be able to keep track of development and see all the features in the works for the next build. Below we'll go over a couple of features that are currently being worked on.
 

UI Improvements Coming in 0.10.x +

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

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

New UI damage tab displayed as the player takes damage
 

Mental health stat icons being developed
 

New Tab Menu (coming in 0.10.x +)

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

New tab (player) menu now with player gameplay statistics
 

Next Week's Devblog (Fortification Improvements) 

We're making some big improvements to window frames along with improvements to door fortifications. Next week we'll speak in depth about these new features. Thanks much for check in on our development of Survive the Nights and as always thank you for the continued support. The project has come a long way and we're excited for the coming months leading up to our public alpha release!

Links