Urban Strife News

We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter holiday with their loved ones! To keep the good vibes rolling, we're releasing a substantial patch today, pushing the campaign forward with the Urban F.B.I. scenario (featuring two locations). You'll also get the chance to pay a lovely visit to the Chowder clan—possibly some of the only gunsmiths in Urban who burn through more ammo than they sell.



This update also includes four revamped scenarios where the RPG content has been improved and rewritten: the Gas Station and Motel maps, now joined by Forest Camp and Grocery as mission locations.

In addition to all that, we're rolling out the new and improved Ammo Press upgrade, finally working as intended—producing unique (and highly illegal) ammo just for your base. Light up the night with incendiary shotgun shells, or blow zombies to bits with fragmenting (dumdum) rounds—because who's going to argue with you? You’re the sheriff!



On the code backend, we've spent significant time eliminating lag issues reported by many of you. With memory leaks fixed and smarter inventory queries (now triggered only by change events), the game should run much smoother—even for the biggest and most outrageous hoarders out there. We’ve also squashed a bunch of bugs found through reports and internal testing (a few misc. hangs, missing quest journal info, etc.).

Finally, in the QoL department: a much-requested feature is here—improved visibility for lootable container highlights.



We'll be jumping right back into development, with a nice list of smaller updates on the way, including more keyboard shortcuts, scavenger mechanics, and other goodies.

We hope you have a great time playing! If you can spare a moment, please consider leaving a review—it helps more than you can imagine.

And don’t forget—the game is 20% off until the end of the week!

Thanks to a couple of dedicated players who reported various bugs and were kind enough to send over their save files for debugging, we have identified and fixed several issues that crept into the game with the latest changes. Many thanks to them—and to all of you—who are patiently contributing to the development of Urban Strife, helping it become the great game we all want it to be.

Here’s a list of the improvements and changes included in this update:

• Savefile Auto-Recovery: We are introducing an auto-recovery mechanic for save files in case of power loss or other unexpected issues. Previously, some players found themselves unable to continue due to corrupted save files. This is the first iteration of the system, so while we can't guarantee a 100% success rate, at the very least, you will be alerted if your save files are the problem. As a quick workaround, corrupted saves can be removed to allow the game to start.
  
• Inventory Improvements: We are investigating various reports of lag caused by inventory while looking at other optimization issues. As a first step, we've adjusted how item stacks (such as ammo) are handled. These are no longer treated as unique objects, and inventory data is now stored more efficiently in memory, reducing fragmentation and generating smaller save files. Expect more good news in this area soon, in particular concerning memory consumption and stability.
  

Bug Fixes:

• FIXED – On Adams Villa map, a script bug prevented the cultist leader, Father Joseph, from properly marking his quests as completed.
  
• FIXED – On Little Italy map, Bubba's recruit quest contained a script error that kept his quest objective active, leading to a fatal error when recruiting him with a full squad.
  
• FIXED – On Little Italy map, Honest Joe’s hidden clue lacked an option without checks, which could result in a dead-end dialogue scenario.
  
• FIXED – On Grocery map, shop windows were unbreakable, causing AI enemies to get stuck in an endless loop trying to break through them.
  
• FIXED – On Gas Station map, an optimized animation introduced earlier this year turned out to be faulty, leading to another infinite loop in enemy AI movement.
  
• FIXED – A bug that caused toolboxes to be consumed instantly when dismantling items. They should now properly last for 100 uses.
  

Again, many thanks to those getting involved, actively reporting bugs, writing reviews. We hear you and we take your feedback seriously because we know you care.

PS: We will participate in Steam Spring Sale event that start tomorrow so expect Urban Strife at 20% discount for the entire duration.

We pushed a small hotfix tonight, addressing two reported bugs and improving industry crafting functionality. Please update your game.

• [FRESH RUN] Fixed a bug where killing all Port zombies for the Army wasn't recognized as a quest completion condition.
  
• [OLD SAVE] Fixed an issue where loading an old save and revisiting the Port triggered permanent combat mode due to new quest NPCs spawning in the quarantine zone.
  

If you encountered this bug, you can now revisit the Port and continue or complete your quests.

• Workshop orders are now scheduled on the timeline as specified in the recipe. (This system is still a work in progress—expect further tweaks and balance adjustments.)
  

Our first major update (long overdue) is finally here! To mark this occasion, we’re also offering a price discount so you can fully enjoy it. Here’s what’s new in this patch:

[h2]Non-linear RPG[/h2]

After reviewing player feedback, we realized the start of the game felt too linear. Originally, we designed it as a step-by-step mission, with the map unlocking in small sections. While this worked as an extended tutorial, it ultimately forced everyone down a narrow path—something that didn’t align with our vision for the game. Now, you can bypass (at least for a while) the entire Sheriff Rogers quest and choose where to go right from the start.

DISCLAIMER: We did our best to ensure these script changes do not break your saves, so we don’t have to invalidate them. However, playing from an old save may not provide the optimal experience—unless your only goal is to test the two extra maps. You'll miss many important changes; for example, if you eliminated factions from the suburbs, they will remain eliminated, and hero characters (named NPCs) won’t respawn. Ultimately, the choice is yours, but we suggest starting a new game for the best experience.

[h2]Peaceful Diplomacy and Daily Trader Restocking[/h2]

Another common complaint was that the factions you encounter in the suburbs forced players into overly aggressive choices too early in the story. It didn’t make much sense to drive them away when you could benefit from their services. To address this, these factions now include traders who restock daily with fresh goods, making them worth keeping around. They also provide three recruitable characters—Bubba, Samuel, and Benny—each with new or updated recruitment quests tied to their backstories. Additionally, all bosses now offer new alliance-related quests or, at the very least, have new interactions with added depth.

[h2]More calibers and weapon types![/h2]



Some players felt that ammo variety was too limited early in the campaign. To fix this, we’ve introduced 9mm and .45 caliber rounds, making them more common in the early stages. As a bonus, you’ll also encounter SMGs chambered in these calibers, along with snipers equipped with 5.56mm rifles. We adjusted damage and armor values to balance these weapons within the starting gear range. While addressing this, we also tackled another issue: frequent insta-deaths from headshots. Instead of just tweaking armor values, we increased the shock effect of bullet wounds while reducing direct HP loss. In practice, lighter calibers will now cause significant bleeding and temporarily incapacitate characters/NPCs rather than outright killing them. Smart players and AI can recover by bandaging wounds and using stamina boosters. However, zombies remain highly vulnerable to headshots, so that hasn’t changed.

[h2]Shelter Industry Recipes![/h2]



Industry crafting has been a long-discussed feature, and this update finally introduces the most requested workbench upgrade—the ammo press. It’s still in a proof-of-concept phase, so we’re open to feedback and suggestions on how to expand it. We’re considering adding special ammo recipes as unlocks in future updates. For now, the ammo press will consume some of the recycled junk you donate as materials, mix it with a bit of gunpowder, and yield a decent batch of bullets. Production time is intended to be around 12 hours, but that will come in a future patch. Additionally, recipes for armor, optics, gunsmithing, and explosives workbenches are in development. As a quality-of-life improvement, we’ve also added a favorites system, allowing you to pin your preferred recipes to the top of the crafting list.

[h2]New "sandbox" maps to fight and loot on[/h2]

In keeping the promise to provide more maps without any strings attached, where you can fight and loot freely without worrying you're breaking something in the main campaign, this patch brings two new locations:

A small forest village where something dramatic has taken place. Up to you to discover what and deal with it. Just make sure you bring a lot of hollow point ammo. The locals will NOT welcome you. The map is accessible from the Gas Station.



The small grocery store in across the road from the Motel California has a strange group of fellows, with a twitchy trigger finger and a bad attitude. They don't like zombies, but they aren't crazy about the living either so no red carpet for you.





[h2]Other fixes[/h2]
- A bug that prevented trader Ruby (Motel) to sell you promised gas if you finished the boss quest was fixed
- We removed the locker storage in the Sheriff's Department and replaced it with the already available base stash; also added a tutorial about using the stash properly;
- We removed the map limits in Villa so you can engage anyone at will now;
- Sheriff Rogers burial was moved inside the Shelter since the new Villa map is too dangerous for cutscenes;
- More texts have been proofread, including the recruit stories;
- We're moving from automatically triggered cutscenes (that often overlapped and caused bugs) to cutscenes triggered by dialogue
- And a lot of other minor code tweaks that would make this TLDR...

[h2]Coming next:[/h2]

• We will rework the RPG for the published four T1 maps (Gas Station, Motel, Supermarket, Courthouse), so they function as standalone questlines (storywise they will still be linked, but quests will untangled to make more sense). The ones lacking a sister mini-map will receive one, too;
  
• Shelter industry will be expanded to include more recipes;
  
• Federal and Scrapyard locations will complete the first tier of the campaign;
  
• We are collecting feedback on the forum on key shortcuts you consider must-haves; make sure you go there and have your say;
  
• Stealth will receive its advanced upgrade, adding initiative the model and other improvements;
  
• The promised scavenger mechanic will be added, allowing you to use the idle refugee population as looting parties (maybe even scouts, we'll see). A big bonus of the scavenger mechanic is that it will not depend on the player explored location. They will chart their own routes, your job will be only to assess the risk of the expedition and to adjust the duration/range, the size of the party and their defence equipment. Longer trips will be more profitable, of course but might also result in brutal losses.
  

[h3]THANK YOU FOR PLAYING URBAN STRIFE!
Please remember that if you like this game and want to see it develop into a great product we need your feedback! Get involved, report bugs and leave a review if possible! It all helps![/h3]

We've been planning a major update for the start of the year, originally intended to roll out in multiple patches. This update includes a significant rebalancing of the economy, which wouldn't work well without a series of tweaks and adjustments. However, since it's already February, we've decided to release everything in one go to ensure it's fully functional and ready to play.



The focal points of this update are industry mechanics and a new class of weapons. Most of the work on the industry crafting (code and HUD) is complete, and submachine guns are performing well in our tests. Over the next two weeks, we’ll focus on adding the following:

• Loot distribution and trader restocking will be balanced for a longer, more open-ended campaign, allowing you to take your time and experiment with different approaches.
  
• Diverse weapon classes of of .22LR, 9mm, and .45 calibers will appear more often in the starting zones for better weapon variety.
  
• Damage values will be adjusted to make these weapons more viable in low-tier or bad armor setups.
  
• Headshot mechanics will be reworked to be less of a one-shot kill. Since heads are naturally exposed in combat, they currently cause too many instant fatalities.
  

Another major change we've been planning for some time is streamlining the RPG elements in the first act. Instead of quests primarily pushing factions into conflict, they will now focus more on helping you understand each faction’s unique traits. This means that, for a while at least, it will be possible to maintain friendly relations with three faction groups simultaneously if that’s how you want to play.

We're also working on reducing linearity, giving you more freedom to explore and start the game on your own terms. The first maps to receive improvements will be those set in the suburbs, and we’ll gradually extend these changes to the rest of the first act. Additionally, we hope to release a pair of new maps this month—more details on that soon! Stay tuned!