Generation Zero® News

Greetings, Resistance Member!

Many of you have been asking for it since the beginning of time and now it’s finally happening!
Today’s update adds a Machine Companion in the form of a Runner that you can build yourself, customize, deploy at any time and even pet!
Without further ado, let’s get right into the nitty gritty of the Companion Update.


This adorable Runner will support you in your fight against the Machines.
In the new mission “Making Friends”, which you can pick up at the Vesslan Bunker Warboard, you’ll venture out into the world to find out about the Companion.
After that, you’ll have your very own machine friend who will assist you in combat!
You can change its name, weapons, color scheme and even the voice it uses to communicate with you.
To deploy your Companion, simply make sure you aren't indoors and access it directly from your inventory.

We’re so happy to fulfill this long-standing community wish. The first suggestion of a machine companion we could find was made all the way back in October 2018, during our game’s Closed Beta, by Forum user Crytical here. Since then, we’ve seen many players ask us to add a friendly machine and now it’s finally happening!

[h2]A helper in combat[/h2]
You can equip the Runner with three different weapons: The Machine Gun, the Shotgun and the Rocket Launcher. When the Companion gets damaged, you can repair it using Repair Kits.

[h2]It can carry it for you, but it can’t carry you
[/h2]
That’s right: It has an inventory you can store ammo, equipment or other weapons in!
It can carry up to a weight limit of 30, which is currently not upgradable, but it will take quite a … weight off your shoulders!

[h2]Customization![/h2]
You can change the Companion to fit your personal preferences in multiple ways:

Renaming your Companion
Your buddy is going to need a name. Give them one! You can assemble the Companion’s name by choosing from three lists, each with many options for the ultimate callsign, including formal titles.

Paint Jobs
Four paint jobs are included in the free Companion Update. The latter three have to be earned from looting. The skins are:

Resistance


Prototype


Military


FNIX


Voice Boxes
Modify the way your new friend communicates with you by switching out its Voice Box! Without the Companion Accessories DLC, you have access to:

• “Modulator”: Beeps and boops its way straight into your heart.
  
• “FNIX”: Makes the Companion sound like a FNIX runner for that familiar soundscape.
  

Light Kits
By default, your runner will have the normal machine light color scheme of a runner: White in neutral state, orange when it’s searching for enemies and red during combat. You’re not stuck with that, though! Feel free to switch it up with two more light kits:

• “Hazard”
  
• “Search”
  

[h2]Available now and for everyone![/h2]
We’re so happy to be able to offer this amazing new feature for you to play with. Please let us know what you think on our Social Media channels!


This paid DLC allows you to customize your Companion even further. We’ve made sure to pack plenty of awesome content into this one so you get enough bang - or in this case, flash - for your buck! Here’s what you can expect if you go the extra mile to support the continued development of Generation Zero:

[h2]5 extra Paint Jobs[/h2]

• Grand Prix
  
• Bubblegum
  
• Black Fire
  
• Blue Thunder
  
• Mecha Monster
  

[h2]3 extra Voice Boxes[/h2]

• Digi-dog
  
• Speak & Learn
  
• Astrid
  

[h2]3 extra Light Kits[/h2]

• Toxic Glow
  
• Neon
  
• Hazed
  

[h2]3 Modules for a custom gameplay approach[/h2]

The Companion Accessories DLC also gives you access to an entirely new customization option: Modules. These give your Companion additional capabilities when equipped.

Scavenger Module
Allows your companion to collect items from defeated enemies into its inventory.

Medic Module
Allows your companion to use medical supplies from its inventory to heal you when you’re injured.

Spotter Module
Allows your companion to mark enemies during combat, causing them to take extra damage.

[h2]3 types of Armor to equip[/h2]

• Ballistic Plate Armor
  Reduces damage taken from bullets
  
• Concussive Plate Armor
  Reduces damage taken from explosions
  
• Fire Retardant Armor
  Reduces damage taken from fire
  

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2473770/Generation_Zero___Companion_Accessories_Pack/

[h2]More soon![/h2]
Thank you for your continued support of Generation Zero. Our Community has been growing for the last 4 years and we’re so fortunate to be able to make a game we love for people who love it just as much.

We’re entering a period of Summer vacations now, so our Devs can get some well deserved rest before tackling the second half of the year.

As for our plans, we’ll be working on a public roadmap for the rest of the year, as well as writing a Dev Letter about how roadmaps are made and why it takes so much effort and time to craft one.
We hope you enjoy this summer and look forward to getting back to work as soon as we can! We have many more things to show you in the future, but for now, let’s leave it at that!
Stay hydrated and keep a lookout for evil machines,
The Generation Zero Dev Team


[h3]Crafting[/h3]

• [Community Reported] Fixed a bug where the UI would display billions of schematic points earned and the actual schematic points amount would become negative. Since unfortunately there is no way to know how many points each player had before this bug appeared, those already affected by this have been set back to 0 schematic points.
  

[h3]Machines[/h3]

• [Community Reported] Fixed a bug where the Tank, Harvester and Wolf wouldn't use their Stomp attack.
  
• [Community Reported] Fixed a bug where looting an already owned clothing item using “Loot all” would make the entire loot disappear. This was most prevalent in the Reaper’s loot and known as the “Reaper Loot bug”. Begone!
  
• Minor visual fixes to the armor on the Prototype Tank
  

[h3]Art[/h3]

• Fixed an issue that would keep the Motorbikes’ lights from displaying correctly
  

[h3]Equipment and Weapons[/h3]

• [Community Reported] Fixed a bug where shock ammo didn’t create arcs when attached to a machine, lowering its damage output significantly.
  
• [Community Reported] Fixed some throwables only lasting for half of their intended time after being thrown.
  
• [Community Reported] Fixed the Homing Turrets projectile flying circles around certain enemies. The Homing Turret’s rockets can now rotate and adjust their trajectory faster in order to adapt to and hit moving targets.
  
• Fixed an issue that prevented ammo from applying the Experimental AG4 signature fire DoT
  

[h3]Gameplay[/h3]

• Fixed a bug where holding down handbrake + reverse while on a motorbike resulted in forward movement and a jittering animation.
  

[h3]Mission[/h3]

• Weekly procedural missions no longer appear more often than intended.
  

[h3]Challenges[/h3]

• Fixed a bug where Archipelago missions would sometimes not count towards the "Important Public Announcement" challenge
  

[h3]UI[/h3]

• Preview images of the DLC Schematics from the first column didn’t match the icons. Now they do!
  

[h3]Gameplay[/h3]

• Rocket launcher projectiles hit the ground instead of an enemy
  
• Companion reacts to flares and fireworks
  
• Invoking 'Pet the Companion' emote while aim down sight with any weapon throughout the gameplay causes issues
  
• In some instances the client's Companion might be Invisible to the host of a multiplayer game
  
• Title might crash after opening player inventory while the companion is looting dead machines
  
• Assignment "Destroy 5 Runners with a hunting rifle" does not track
  

[h3]Equipment and Weapons[/h3]

• .44 Magnus and Meusser Hunting Rifle are missing from the inventory after being picked up in the world.
  

[h3]Missions[/h3]

• Progress Lost on Mission "The Home Team" for client completing the mission in Multiplayer
  
• [Community Reported] Building block mission might get broken
  
• [Community Reported] Ghosts of the Past stuck at 9/10 placed Barricades.
  

[h3]UI[/h3]

• Multiplayer Matchmaking - Player fails to join the correct session as per the preferred multiplayer matchmaking settings
  
• Machines can be invisible for certain party members, but not for others
  

[h3]Performance[/h3]

• Tabbing out significantly increases the GPU load on PC
  
• Performance loss while playing Base Assault for both clients and host
  

Ah, It’s that time of the year again: the birds are singing, the weather is stunning, killer machines are roaming the Swedish countryside searching for their next victim. You know – summer!

To celebrate the sunniest season of the year, we decided to give you some shiny discounts to enhance your GZ experience without breaking the bank. Save your money for the important things. Like a cool beverage or machine-proof armor for your apocalypse kit.

“But Carni”, I hear you cry to the skies, “what’s discounted?”
Well, you're in luck because we are having a limited time offer, only on EVERYTHING!

With the whole base game at just $5, it’s less than a bottle of water at the cinema. Looking for a side of story with your machine murder? You’re in luck – the two big story DLCs “Alpine Unrest” and “FNIX Rising” are now at just over $3 a pop.

Not to mention our newest addition, the Tactical Equipment Pack 02, venturing into the wide open world of sales for the first time at 10% off.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2334430/Generation_Zero__Tactical_Equipment_Pack_2/

So wait no longer. Why are you still reading? Tell your friends, text your enemies, call your mom. Get machine murderin’ at a slashed cost while stocks last.

We hope to hear about the shenanigans you'll get into after getting that new weapon or those motorbikes you've wanted for so long!

Enjoy and have a fantastic Summer,
The Generation Zero Dev Team

PS: Here are some nifty direct links to the DLCs mentioned in this letter:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1157550/Generation_Zero__Alpine_Unrest
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1301740/Generation_Zero__FNIX_Rising

...or just go for the full experience with the Ultimate Bundle!
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/32015/Generation_Zero___Ultimate_Bundle/

Greetings, Survivors!

Since we released the Tactical Response Update, you’ve given us a lot of valuable feedback.
As we mentioned in our previous letters, this update didn’t have as much new content as many fans have come to expect from us. To reiterate, this was because we’re working on a big feature that will be added to the game with our next major content release, the date of which we’re not quite ready to announce yet. Once we do, we’ll be able to talk more about the rest of this year’s plans in the form of a new roadmap, but until then it’ll need some more work.
Let’s go through the insights we’ve had and what we’re going to do from here!

Procedural Missions
Overall, Procedural Missions were received well, giving players something new to do on a regular basis.
However, the veterans among you feel that the currently available missions are too short, being completed within a couple of minutes with endgame gear.
We also saw that the missions are spawning more often than initially planned, activating once a day with the mission type on a weekly rotation instead of featuring one mission a week. We recognize that you like this cadence and would like to see more variety in it, but they are intended to be on a weekly rotation, so we’ll change this back to the original design in the future.

We plan to add more mission types to the roster later this year and when we do, we will keep this feedback in mind. This update was a way for us to add this complex new functionality to the game while keeping the first iteration slim so we can detect and identify problems with the new system more easily. Now that we’ve found some issues with how they’re scheduled and read the feedback you’ve provided, we’re ready to design even more fun and engaging missions with appropriate rewards for you to play.

Tactical Equipment Pack 2
We’re delighted to see that the reception for this new DLC has been great!
Seeing our love for these equipment items reflected in our community is a pleasure for us as Devs.
We’ve seen some reports about the Homing Turret not hitting its targets as expected and its rockets sometimes flying circles around enemies, thank you for reporting them to us!
These issues will be resolved as soon as possible.


Video credit: Craber on Discord

A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one
Lastly, the Hacker skill has received a buff which slipped through the cracks when we made the Patch Notes. Hacker now has a much shorter cooldown with no limit to how many machines can be hacked at the same time. We appreciate the enthusiasm of those who have already discovered this, we see you Hacker mains!
This change was done because many players found this skill underwhelming due to its limited usage and long cooldown.
We’re planning to address other grievances players have been having with some of our skills later this year, but we need to do it in a properly balanced way, so it’ll take some time. For now, though, enjoy hacking the world!

Newly discovered Bugs
Some of you, especially the players who have reached the endgame, will surely have noticed that Shock Ammo doesn’t properly tether on Machines anymore, only on terrain.
This is very much a bug, not an intended change. It has been fixed for the next update, which we’ll have more information on soon.

Furthermore, we’ve seen reports of players receiving unexpectedly high amounts of schematic points when defeating a rival, making it impossible to unlock new schematics.
We were able to quickly identify this issue and it will be fixed in the next update. Thank you to everyone who reported this to us, you helped us a lot!

When the Tactical Response Update dropped, we also identified “The Reaper Loot bug”:
A bug where looting a Machine that had a clothing item the player already owned in its inventory using the “Loot All” keybind would prevent the loot from appearing in the player’s inventory. This was most prevalent with the Reaper’s loot, as it has a specific clothing set.
Luckily, we were able to fix this in a hotfix that went out on this Monday, along with some Crash issues on Xbox and Microsoft Store on PC! More fixes to come in the future.

These are the main feedback points we’ve gathered since we released the last update.
As we’re keeping our eyes and ears open for more, please let us know if you have any additional questions or input!

Until then, let’s get to work! We appreciate each and every one of you.

The Generation Zero Dev Team

Greetings, Survivors!

Today, we’re bringing you something we’ve been wanting to do ever since Generation Zero first saw the light of day.

GZ is getting Steam Community Items!

Together with our amazing Marketing Artist Emma, we’ve designed a set of 6 Trading Cards, 5 Emotes, 6 Trading Card Progress Badges and 4 Profile Backgrounds!

How do Community Items work?

You’ll receive 3 Trading Cards as you play Generation Zero. In order to complete the Profile Badge, you can either buy the rest of the cards from the Steam Community Market or trade them with your friends. Once you’ve collected all six cards, you can combine them into the first tier Profile Badge!
Keep doing this to reach higher badge levels, ending with the Foil Badge.
Every time you combine 6 cards into a badge, you also get a few of the other items like profile backgrounds and emotes. Again, you can just trade for the items you don’t get yourself with other players!
Here’s what these items look like:

[h2]Trading Cards[/h2]



For the Trading Cards, we’ve used the Concept Art by Ville Ericsson, who made the Machines look menacing and epic, just as they should! We’re glad to honor his impressive work and show it off to new players.

[h2]Profile Badges[/h2]



No icon is better to show off a progression of badassitude than the Tank. While progressing through the badges, you’ll evolve the Tank into its most menacing form to display on your profile.
If you decide to go above and beyond and get the Foil Badge, you'll be able to show everyone who the leader of the Resistance is!
These were made by our Marketing Artist, Emma Atrens, with posing help from Rich Warner, our Art Lead.

[h2]Profile Backgrounds[/h2]

Resistance The Enemy Search Party Swarm

These were all captured and edited by Emma. We’d love to feature all of them at once on our profiles, if only it was possible!

[h2]Emotes[/h2]



Whether you’re on fire, went to show your appreciation for a friend, or really need to go, these emotes have got you covered!
Designed and produced by Emma, we’re offering you more ways to express yourself - now with GZ flavor!
An even cooler version of these emotes will also be available on our Discord Server and in chat on our Twitch channel shortly!

[h2]Available now[/h2]
So then, go forth and conquer these new items, available immediately on Steam!
Please mark us in your social media posts showing off your Steam profile featuring these items or send them to us on Discord.
We’ll be watching!

The Generation Zero Dev Team

We want to hear about your experience playing Generation Zero! By participating in this survey, you actively help shape the future of our game and let us know how we can make it even better. More details in the survey!
Simply click on the link below or scan the QR code to access the survey. It will take 18-20 minutes to complete. Thank you for your input!

Access the Player Survey