Hello all,
The team is hard at working on player found issues and developing the 1.5 patch. If you’d like to help find bugs and tweak 1.5 features, jump on our experimental branch and check out the 1.4.22 patch. That will eventually become the next stable update. Check our Changelog and feel free to join our Discord. Below we'll go over the progress we've made with fortifications and the horde system. We're very close to pushing an update to the experimental build. This update will likely be a release candidate for 1.5 and should feature everything 1.5 has to offer.
Horde and XP System
We'll be introducing our horde system with 1.5 along side our initial XP system. You'll gain XP by killing zeds, looting, fortifying, harvesting etc. Most of all, you'll gain XP with increasing horde difficulty. The player will receive a notification of an approaching horde. It will provide the general direction of the horde. At this point, you'll have the option to fight or flee. You will not gain XP by fleeing and your horde difficulty will not increase.
1.5 will be the initial introduction to the systems. We'll tweak along with the community as we work on our next build. As of now, XP doesn't really have a meaning outside of the rather addictive nature of receiving it and gaining levels. We'll turn to community input to fill in those blanks. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to share them here, on Discord or in game with the F1 menu. We have concepted some basic systems, higher loot drops on increased horde difficulty levels, character buffs, etc. Below we'll go over a few of the mechanics and features behind the horde system.
Below was our concept for the spawn sphere and offset on our horde system. James has used gizmos to visualize different spawning scenarios and found a spawn radius of 65m offset from the player by 20 with a minimum spawning range to the player of 40m felt the most realistic and fun. This results in an offset circle with a 5m gap around the back of the player where zombies can spawn.
In Game Notifications
The player will receive in game notifications for both hordes approaching and XP/Level notifications. You'll have a limited time to flee before the horde arrives, you'll be notified when you're leaving the hordes reach. Players that choose to flee will not receive the larger XP boost from killing the horde.
Free Placed Fortification Update
We're putting the last touches on fortification mechanics and you'll see all the new barricades in 1.5. These can be crafted and placed anywhere in the world, creating walls around structures or maybe even towns. We'll need to find a nice balance and get some kind of degradation system in place or things could get mess fast. That being said, zombies now attack anything placed in their path and will make their way through barricades to eat your face.
Thanks for the continued support and continued issue and suggestion reporting . We'll have another Devblog out next week with more updates on 1.5 and a new experimental build so you can break all the new features.. Below are some helpful links to anyone new and interested in the game. If you'd like to follow a bit closer, please consider joining our Discord. We're here, we're listening, enjoy your weekend!