Survive the Nights News

Experimental Update (Graphical Improvements | Improved Crafting++)

We’ve been busy listening to everyone and improving some features. 1.26 will have a good deal of graphical improvements, performance tweaks and improvements along with some neat feature adds. We have released our latest build on the experimental branch. 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 please consider joining 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.
You will find a single experimental server titled EXPERIMENTAL_SERVER. Join this for some testing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Old Fog System (with its issues)

Added water fade to remove that rough edge

The results of updated fog/water shaders

Old and new fog comparison 1

Old and new fog comparison 2

[h3]Full Resolution Comparison Shots[/h3]

Mountain Sunset Before

Mountain Sunset After

Power Station Before

Power Station After

Union Point Before

Union Point After

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

Distant terrain old/new

In game distant trees/terrain old/new

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

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

Crafting/UI

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

Inventory/UI

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

Searching now opens categories

Quicker crafting with the updated click window

Crafting sorting and sort by level

Container dividers

Click window and move all in containers

[h3]Patch Notes - Experimental Update[/h3]

Environment & Graphics

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

Crafting/UI

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

Inventory/UI

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

Performance

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

Admin

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

[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

The Autumn Sale is On!

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

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

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

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

Changelog: https://changelog.survivethenights.net

Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame

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

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

Website: https://www.survivethenights.net

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

1.25 Update (Quality of Life | Admin Improvements++)

We’ve been talking with many of you on our Discord. The team has been listening and discussing quite a few issues that crop up with player counts and we’ve addressed a good deal of them in this patch. Many of them have been long standing, some introduced in the last version. These are the hurdles a small team has to jump over.

The response to the 1.24 build has been fantastic and the help from the community over on discord has been most useful to us. Thanks to everyone for helping out, some of you even providing servers for continued testing. That’s much appreciated and a huge help to a team like ours.

[h3]Vehicle Fixes[/h3]
Okay, we know this one has been a real pain for some time. You come across a vehicle and it’s 6 feet in the air looking like a weird balloon. This made accessing the vehicle an annoyance at the best of times and impossible.

When vehicles were found near ground level they never actually sat properly on the terrain. This issue has also been addressed in 1.25 and you’ll notice it right away.

We have also fixed the launching your directly into orbit issue many of you will be familiar with :joy:. This was due to incorrect gravity calculations and could cause quite a headache for anyone when it occurred especially if you’re in the RV.

As always, please report any new issues found directly to the team over on Discord when possible.

Vehicles no longer flying into the air from incorrect gravity.
Vehicle pivots and suspensions are now improved so that they spawn with correct wheel position.
Reviewed and fixed all vehicle spawn point positions to make sure they're not floating.

Floating Pickup (Inaccessible)

Floating car

Car on Terrain

Truck on Terrain

[h3]Server Performance Improvements[/h3]
Server performance has been improved. With some digging we realized that there was an optimization to be made with the drop relevance system. Overall this system makes performance better, however the compound affect of the overhead to check for item relevance as the player count raised was outweighing the benefit. We’ve optimized the way that object relevance is done. To create a more reliable and performant implementation as the player count rises and demands on the system increased

[h3]Spawn and Loot Adjustments[/h3]
We’ve done some tweaking based on feedback provided during the 1.24 release. We’ve made some pretty big changes to how loot spawns in the backend.

We have altered the method for creating “rarity” at item spawn point locations. Previously the rarity was handled by how many times and item was added to a specific spawners. This worked but became quite difficult to track and balance over time. This newly implemented system now retains the theory of having an item in a spawn point multiple times, however it is handled automatically via the ‘Rarity' drop down on each drops prefab.

The basic principal is that ALL items at average rarity are in a spawner 3 time. The rarer it is, the less times it’s added and the more common, the more it’s added. This allows us to create rarity without affecting the balance at specialized spawn locations. Since those locations only spawn the items required.

With this change in mind, rarity as been set with the general theme being that consumable items (items consumed for stats and items that a consumed in crafting recipes) are more common than those that are not.

There has been no loot quantity changes, only changes to the loot that spawns.

Loot Adjustments

[h3]Spawn Point Adjustments[/h3]

Hardware Store:

Removed Vehicle parts spawners.
Reduced custom spawners from 25 to 20.
Increased tool spawners from 0 to 5.
Removed tools and duplicate items from spawners.
Adjusted spawners to reflect item consumability (e.g., rarer seeds, more common bolts/nuts).
Removed AA batteries (now in electrical and house spawns).

Pharmacy:

Adjusted to spawn medical items.
Enhanced loot availability.
Rarity and Availability Changes

General:

Hammer, axe, shovel, and machete made rare due to craftability.
Increased overall loot in hardware, pharmacy, and gun stores.
Nails and seeds set to ultra-rare (end-game items).
Reduced melee weapon quantity.

Hardware Store Specifics:

Adjusted rarity for specific items (e.g., mk4, arg, pump action, r-6, arrows, 9mm Burst, auto, flashlights, headlamps, extension cords).
Re-added sniper to farm spawner.
Set flare gun and crossbow to rare, cooking pot and grow pot to ultra-rare.

Gun Store:

Increased availability of firearms.
18gauge set to rare.
Coal set to non-spawnable.

Overall these changes should create a nice re-calibrated base point for us to tweak. Please come share your thoughts on the loot system with us as we continue to polish the feature in future builds.

[h3]Admin Panel[/h3]
Many of you are now hosting your own servers, for the public or just your buddies we previously had no admin control beyond text commands. Andre has spent some time this update creating an amazing in game system allowing server admins quick accesses to all kinds of commands and goodies.

You can bring the admin panel up with the G key as default. Once there you’re greeted with a nicely laid out and graphical control panel. There are 4 main tabs (for now) and all kinds of useful information including build numbers, client/server fps and ram usage along with player positions.

The tabs as it stands are commands, give items, teleports (not yet setup) and drone camera. You’ll find relative buttons for things like spawning items, giving health, giving ammo, providing blueprint requirements etc. Jay plans on doing a nice vlog on the admin panel that you can expect shortly.

Command Tab

Give Tab

Teleport Tab (not setup yet)

Drone Camera Tab

[h3]Simplified Lock Kit Recipes[/h3]
Lock kits are a pretty big part of initial fortification of your structure. Securing windows and doors with planks and throwing locks on keeps your stuff safe and the dead outside (for awhile at least).

We’ve been tweaking crafting recipes and lock kits got some love this go around. We’ve removed the hasp/staple and combination lock requirements for weak and strong lock kits.

We’ve replaced the current recipes with the equivalent of what would be needed to create both removed items. As an example the hasp and staple along with the combination lock required both scrap, pliers, screws and a screwdriver. The new lock kit recipe requires the addition of these tools, extra scrap and screws and no longer requires a hasp/staple and combination lock.

The strong lock kit still requires a found combination lock but the hasp and staple has been removed from the recipe. These leaves a nice bit of progression for the player and hunting for strong locks is always entertaining.

Old Lock Kit

New Lock Kit

[h3]Environmental Fixes[/h3]
1.24 introduced a whole new harvesting and building system. A lot of changes to core code and world interaction, along with them some issues.

The police station and prison interior scenes were not included in the last build. That issue has been addressed in 1.24.

Along with that fix we’ve addressed a couple of issues and improvements raised by the community. The player no long sees interiors load in on start now. This was creating quite a disconnect and just didn’t look nice.

Wooden fortifications no longer appear lighter and darker as you walk away from them this was just annoying and it has been addressed here.

Players no longer see building interiors load after spawning.
Window fortifications no longer appear brighter/darker as you walk closer/further away.
Police station interiors working again
Prison interiors working again.

[h3]UI Fixes and Improvements [/h3]
We’ve gotten a lot of feedback on UI and we’ve also addressed a few long standing issues. We’re constantly making improvements to our UI system and we’re always happy to hear your ideas so feel free to share.

UI

Fixed highlighting in the inventory right click menu.
Machine parts quantity now displays in red to indicate that parts are missing.
Home no longer disappears from the map.
Unarmed UI no longer appears when joining.
Fixed incorrect message indicating that item cannot be placed when entering placement mode.
Hint for using a can opener now only shows when picking up canned items.
Disabled "Show Popular Servers" options by default. This allows player owned servers to be found more easily.
Show/Hide guide button now fits in the guide tab.
Burst and full auto attachments now have the correct icon image.
Yellow highlight now wait 30 sec before showing. Should aid the player only if they’re really struggling.

Red UI when Missing Parts

[h3]Building Blueprints with Tools[/h3]
Blueprints have been a really fun addition to the project. The can however be quite time consuming to create and tools previously provided no benefit to the building process. This doesn’t really flow well with the other fortification mechanics. The window and door fortifications are applied quicker when the player has a power tool so blueprints should follow the same general flow..

Without Tools

With Tools

[h3]Interaction Fixes and Improvements[/h3]
Some of you have reported that explosions in the current build trigger electric doors. This made getting into areas you weren’t meant to rather easy :smile:. We’ve sorted that out for 1.25

Tools can now be used to build blueprints (drill/screwdriver/hammer)
Explosions no longer trigger electric doors do open.
Guide steps that involve crafting can now be achieved by finding the items.
Harvesting fuel is now a hold instead of press.

[h3]Patch Notes - 1.25[/h3]

1.25.3

Gravity on drops is now disabled upon interior unload
Fixed issue where gravity was being applied to drops before the relevant interior was loaded.
Increased weapon and ammo spawns at the prison and police stations.
Fixed scenarios where loot was falling through items.
Fixed several buttons that were not working in the admin toolkit.
Removed harvesting on various shop props that were causing floating decals.
Admin toolkit: Added xp add/remove buttons
Admin toolkit: Added buttons for giving: Cooking Pot - Canteens - Key cards
Admin toolkit: Added buttons for spawning zombies in range
Admin toolkit: Added coordinates in info UI

Major Loot Rebalance

Hardware Store:

Removed Vehicle parts Spawners.
Reduced custom spawners from 25 to 20.
Increased tool spawners from 0 to 5.
Removed tools and duplicate items from spawners.
Adjusted spawners to reflect item consumability (e.g., rarer seeds, more common bolts/nuts).
Removed AA batteries (now in electrical and house spawns).

Pharmacy:

Adjusted to spawn medical items.
Enhanced loot availability.
Rarity and Availability Changes

General:

Hammer, axe, shovel, and machete made rare due to craftability.
Increased overall loot in hardware, pharmacy, and gun stores.
Nails and seeds set to ultra-rare (end-game items).
Reduced melee weapon quantity.

Hardware Store Specifics:

Adjusted rarity for specific items (e.g., mk4, arg, pump action, r-6, arrows, 9mm Burst, auto, flashlights, headlamps, extension cords).
Re-added sniper to farm spawner.
Set flaregun and crossbow to rare, cooking pot and grow pot to ultra-rare.

Gun Store:

Increased availability of firearms.
18gauge set to rare.
Coal set to non-spawnable.

Vehicles

Vehicles no longer flying into the air from incorrect gravity.
Vehicle pivots and suspensions are now improved so that they spawn with correct wheel position.
Reviewed and fixed all vehicle spawn point positions to make sure they're not floating.

Environment

Players no longer see building interiors load after spawning.
Window fortifications no longer appear brighter/darker as you walk closer/further away.
Police station interiors working again
Prison interiors working again.

Server

Performance improvements when there are more than 8 players online.

Fixed highlighting in the inventory right click menu.
Machine parts quantity now displays in red to indicate that parts are missing.
Home no longer disappears from the map.
Unarmed UI no longer appears when joining.
Fixed incorrect message indicating that item cannot be placed when entering placement mode.
Hint for using a can opener now only shows when picking up canned items.
Disabled "Show Popular Servers" options by default. This allows player owned servers to be found more easily.
Show/Hide guide button now fits in the guide tab.
Burst and full auto attachments now have the correct icon image.
Improved wording for surviving the horde step of the guide.
Yellow highlight now wait 30 sec before showing. Should aid the player only if they’re really struggling.

Interaction

Tools can now be used to build blueprints (drill/screwdriver/hammer)
Explosions no longer trigger electric doors do open.
Guide steps that involve crafting can now be achieved by finding the items.
Harvesting fuel is now a hold instead of press.

Crafting

Weak locks can now be crafted with raw ingredients instead of having to craft the combination lock first.

SFX

Fail sound is played when player doesn’t have any build items
Sound is played when adding build materials using E
There is now a sound to indicate you cannot fortify due to missing items.
No longer hear bush rustling sound when walking near blueprints

Admin

Added /blueprint or /bp command for getting all required items for a blueprint (do command while looking at the blueprint)
Added new admin toolskit UI that makes inputting admin commands really quick.
/trygive now works even when the search contains disabled items.

Toolkit UI:

Test toolkit now organized into multiple pages.
Added a new Drone Camera page.
New buttons for giving:
- Individual traps, melee weapons, lights, fortifications, blueprints, tools.
- Generator, Jerry can, Siphon, map, compass, wire spool.
New buttons to modify sickness, mental state, and overall health.
Added icons for stat modification buttons.
Toolkit is now hidden when taking screenshots.
Improved the information display.
Adjustments to layout and color scheme.
Added display for God Mode/Invincible status.
Added display for Server Fps and Ram usage.

Drone Camera Tweaks:

Locking player movement when drone camera is active.
UI is now hidden during drone camera usage.
Player weapon is hidden when using the drone camera.
World loading is now centered around the drone camera.
Resolved issue with depth of field functionality in drone camera.

Experimental Update - 1.25.2 (Major Loot Rebalance++)

We have released 1.25.2 on our experimental branch. 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 please consider joining 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.
You will find a single experimental server titled EXPERIMENTAL_SERVER. Join this for some testing.

[h2]Patch Notes - 1.25.2 (Experimental Update)[/h2]

[h3]Major Loot Rebalance[/h3]

Hardware Store:

Removed Vehicle parts Spawners.
Reduced custom spawners from 25 to 20.
Increased tool spawners from 0 to 5.
Removed tools and duplicate items from spawners.
Adjusted spawners to reflect item consumability (e.g., rarer seeds, more common bolts/nuts).
Removed AA batteries (now in electrical and house spawns).

Pharmacy:

Adjusted to spawn medical items.
Enhanced loot availability.

[h3]Rarity and Availability Changes[/h3]

General:

Hammer, axe, shovel, and machete made rare due to craftability.
Increased overall loot in hardware, pharmacy, and gun stores.
Nails and seeds set to ultra-rare (end-game items).
Reduced melee weapon quantity.

Hardware Store Specifics:

Adjusted rarity for specific items (e.g., mk4, arg, pump action, r-6, arrows, 9mm Burst, auto, flashlights, headlamps, extension cords).
Re-added sniper to farm spawner.
Set flaregun and crossbow to rare, cooking pot and grow pot to ultra-rare.

Gun Store:

Increased availability of firearms.
18gauge set to rare.
Coal set to non-spawnable.

Experimental Update - 1.25 (Quality of Life++)

We have released 1.25 on our experimental branch. 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 please consider joining 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.
You will find a single experimental server titled EXPERIMENTAL_SERVER. Join this for some testing.

[h3]Patch Notes - 1.25 (Experimental Update)[/h3]

Vehicles

Vehicles no longer flying into the air from incorrect gravity.
Vehicle pivots and suspensions are now improved so that they spawn with correct wheel position.
Reviewed and fixed all vehicle spawn point positions to make sure they're not floating.

Environment

Players no longer see building interiors load after spawning.
Window fortifications no longer appear brighter/darker as you walk closer/further away.
Police station interiors working again
Prison interiors working again.

Server

Performance improvements when there are more than 8 players online.

Fixed highlighting in the inventory right click menu.
Machine parts quantity now displays in red to indicate that parts are missing.
Home no longer disappears from the map.
Unarmed UI no longer appears when joining.
Fixed incorrect message indicating that item cannot be placed when entering placement mode.
Hint for using a can opener now only shows when picking up canned items.
Disabled "Show Popular Servers" options by default. This allows player owned servers to be found more easily.
Show/Hide guide button now fits in the guide tab.
Burst and full auto attachments now have the correct icon image.
Yellow highlight now wait 30 sec before showing. Should aid the player only if they’re really struggling.

Interaction

Tools can now be used to build blueprints (drill/screwdriver/hammer)
Explosions no longer trigger electric doors do open.
Guide steps that involve crafting can now be achieved by finding the items.
Harvesting fuel is now a hold instead of press.

Crafting

Weak locks can now be crafted with raw ingredients instead of having to craft the combination lock first.

SFX

Fail sound is played when player doesn’t have any build items
Sound is played when adding build materials using E
There is now a sound to indicate you cannot fortify due to missing items.
No longer hear bush rustling sound when walking near blueprints

Admin

Added /blueprint or /bp command for getting all required items for a blueprint (do command while looking at the blueprint)
Added new admin toolskit UI that makes inputting admin commands really quick.
/trygive now works even when the search contains disabled items.