Hello all,
We’re moving our experimental branch to default today. 0.11.26 will become 0.11.31. There have been a good deal of changes in between 0.11.26 and 0.11.31. A lot of work (still more to do of course) has gone into optimizations. Vehicles have been added (a compact hatch), town reworks, lock mechanics, calorie adjustments and fires now provide health buffs and many other additions and tweaks. Below you'll find a few video clips from past devblogs of just some of the work that has gone into the project since .26 along with all of the changes listed. If you're into helping us crush bugs, please report them on our public tracker. [bitbucket.org]
Some Highlights from Recent Devblogs
Vehicle Mechanics
Vehicle Condition
Vehicle Mechanics and Explosions
Weapon Attachments
Improved Lock Mechanics
Changes since 0.11.26
Vehicles
Vehicles now receive use effects.
Now possible to damage vehicles with melee and ranged weapons.
Now possible to damage players that are in vehicles.
Added base set of balances to Cricket. Gears, speed and suspension have all been tweaked.
Stopped player interaction with world items that are outside of the vehicle and hidden their UI.
Added temporary system that allows players to repair their vehicle via the engine GUI with tools and metal.
Zombies can now damage vehicles while attacking players inside them.
It's now possible to kill passive AI with vehicle.
House interiors now load while in a vehicle.
Vehicles now have impact effects when colliding with the environment.
Added functionality for vehicles to spawn with different colours.
Added base set of vehicle spawners around world.
Stopped dropping/placement on vehicles until a better system can be implemented for handling items resting on moving vehicles.
Added visible vehicle damage.
Vehicle horns now work!
Added functionality for enabling and disabling the headlamps.
Implemented engine functionality with various parts and fuel support.
Player backpacks are now disabled while they're in a vehicle seat.
Added audio effects when driving over terrains.
Resolved issue where vehicles being driven would snap to a different rotation when another player joined.
Improved vehicle relevancy so that they can be seen from further away when occupied.
Fixed scenarios where a player wouldn't be visible for other players while in a vehicle.
Added new VFX particles for vehicles.
Added system for playing sounds based on shock absorber compression.
Resolved collision issue between the vehicle and player when exiting seat.
Players now receive damage when exiting a moving vehicle.
Pressing interact key to enter/exit vehicle now only works when the vehicle is stopped.
Hold interact is required while moving to reduce the chance of accidentally exiting.
Removed over bright reflection in rear view mirror on cricket.
Added support for for different engine sounds from outside/inside of a vehicle.
Added system for playing impact sounds for vehicles.
Improved exhaust particles on cricket.
Now have surface support which makes them less effective in shallow water/off road.
Vehicles should be most stable when stepping out of them while they're parked on certain surfaces. Previously they'd pop up and roll.
Vehicle effects like engine sounds and lights now update correctly when the vehicle is updated while there are no players inside.
Vehicles can now be started by pressing 'W'
Vehicle explosions now kill or damage the player.
Engine fires now produce sound.
Engine fires now start small and grow in size before explosion.
Vehicles engine smoke now stops when repairing past 60% condition.
Vehicle controls no longer show in the menu when entering game very quickly.
Vehicles should no longer despawn after server restarts.
Added vehicle explosions to the asset reload.
Vehicles should no longer despawn! Cannot be 100% sure that there won't still be issues with cars going missing.
Increased chance of finding less vibrant coloured vehicles.
Vehicles now start smoking as they take damage. Smoke increases as vehicle conditions becomes lower and explode once fully broken.
General
Ocean water source now infinite.
Fixed issue where items in placement mode would break if moved too far from where they got picked up from.
Eyes no longer glow on female zombie.
Tweaked shotgun spread to make it more realistic.
Resolved issue where shotguns would sometimes miss the target even though the crosshair was over them.
12g ammo and arg15's now spawn!
Players are no longer pulled out of vehicles when driving over a bear trap. Trap does however still trigger.
Fixed issue where hotkeys would break after attaching an items to a weapon that wasn't you're currently equipped item.
Fixed position of wooden club in hand for other players.
Changed VSYNC option so that it is independent from quality setting group.
Fixed issue where melee weapons would hit the ceiling when attacking inside a building.
Fixed issue where attachments would render in position before the weapon was out.
Removed error being caused by particles at various points during play.
Fixed issue where the player wouldn't be frozen in place while loading. Causing the player to start in the ground.
Wooden club in shadows no longer floats.
Zombies no longer continue to play the scream animation while the player is too close.
Animation now transitions to attack.
Added system for showing the most relevant guide hint on connection to the server. This will allow players returning to the game that haven't fully completed the guide to jump back into it.
Fixed issue with rabbit trap where it would never spring closed. Also removed the decay from the object.
Added system for world spawners so that loot can be found outside of houses.
Avoidance now works on baseball bat and club.
Take All button in back pack now works.
Resolved issue where items could spawn and despawn in line of sight of the player.
Added crafting recipe for small animal trap.
Removed errors which were being thrown into the log when item hovers were having issues rendering.
Added overall improved item distance network culling which allows less important objects to load from a closer distance. Specific objects like work lights, propane tanks and generators now have much further loading capabilities.
Changed functionality on doors so that the player can trigger the handle or slam points and move their camera away to another part of the door. Fixes scenarios where a regular open was wanted but a slam would end up happening.
(Regression fix) Fortifications working again.
Resolved issue which caused containers to break over time. Previously broken containers should now work without item loss.
Resolved issue with containers which could cause the server to crash when pressing the 'take all' button.
[All] button now only goes grey in the inventory when you can actually take all the items.
Button also works for a stack of only 1.
Container capacity UI now says 'Slots used' to make it clearer how they work.
Container quantity UI no longer gets clipped.
Resolved issue which would sometimes leave players on the server after they'd disconnected.
Campfire drops no longer spam warning referencing particle systems on the server.
Large workbenches now work.
Trailblazer achievement now gets triggered at appropriate time.
No longer possible to log out while there are zombies nearby.
Locks now remember the player that set the code. This allows them to always retrieve saved pin via notifications.
Player that set a lock can now always auto lock and unlock their locks regardless of code.
Lock combinations now scramble when the lock is snapped shut.
Scrambled lock combinations are now persistent between players.
Improved notifications and hints surrounding lock functionality.
Added overall improvements to lock consistency. Previously there were issues when restarting the server.
Resolved errors being causes by players interacting with locks and trees far away from your player.
Removing weapon attachments while the inventory is full no longer destroys the attachment.
Tweaked various weight related UI in the inventory so that it always displays correctly.
Tweaked inventory weight calculations to make the whole system more stable.
Trying to pickup ammo while inv is full no longer says the item was picked up.
Added 5 new player starting points.
Zombies should no longer disappear when traversing/going through doors. This requires more community testing as it was hard to produce internally.
Zombie behavior transition between night and day should now be more consistent. Night zombies also transition behaviour to day just before the new day UI.
Raised ceiling in house_10 building so that zombies can get up stairs.
Added security glass windows to house_10.
Increased size of global hint reset button in settings and added a warning message explaining what it does.
Improved scenarios where melee attacks wouldn't make contact while stood very close to AI.
Resolved issue which was causing PvP bullet hit detection to be unreliable.
Small alterations to zombie agro, hearing and vision mechanics to improve their behaviour.
Server no longer spams warnings that items cannot be spawned in barber shops.
Players now receive various hints on death which should help them with basic gameplay like crafting bandages and wooden clubs.
Dead zombies no longer appear frozen and animated in place when joining a server between their death and cleanup.
Generators can now be placed in containers when they have no parts or fuel.
Electricity meters and breakers panels now play animations again when being interacted with.
Fixed additional issue which was causing pump action and arg15 to spawn in houses.
Fixed issue which caused maps searching to be global between players. This stopped individual players finding maps.
Rag variants now stack in the inventory.
Disabled oil pump pickup since it currently serves no use.
Fixed sidewalk height on entry into old town.
Chickens now have a small chance of playing a rare idle sound.
Dirty and clean rags now give a hint when picked up for the first time. Indicates that bandages can be crafted.
Trash piles around the environment can now be harvested for various objects.
Large bushes can now be searched for berries.
Small swimming pools can now be searched for dirty water.
Wooden table can now be searched for worn planks.
Increased overall chance of harvesting berries in summer and spring.
Mail boxes can now be searched for tinder.
Fuel can now be pumped from gravity fuel tanks.
Lounge chairs can be searched for planks.
AI hit reactions now play sooner making the zombies will more responsive. (Further melee improvements planned for EA)
Melee damage now always registers. Previously hits were being detected and blood effects would play however no damage would be applied if the limbs were hit. (Further melee improvements planned for EA)
Resolved issue with passive AI which would mean they didn't receive their death effects if killed while they were outside of your relevancy range.
Removed errors being generated when AI was killed by other players far away. Other players no longer still hold their weapons while in the driving seat of a vehicle. Fixed gap in road between terrain and road surface on terrain 51 where the road meets 59.
Fixed issue where a full box of nails would be given when harvesting. This would happen when the amount of nails found was greater than the stack you already had. It would fill up the existing stack and then give another full box.
Added support for tools to be included in recipes that include the item when clicking the [Search] button.
Work benches small and large now work properly.
Items that don't have a crafting recipe now have Greyed out [Recipe] buttons.
Craftables that consume multiple of the same item now stack and only have one label in the crafting recipe page.
Fixed issue where clicking [Search] button when looking for recipes would fail and throw errors into the log.
Fixed issue where consuming items which caused damage would alter health but not actually damage the player. This resulted in being able to achieve 0 health which made the player invincible. Improvements to overall zombie agro functionality. Sneaking near zombies should now be more consistent.
Player now receives a small notification in top left when trying to open a locked door.
Fixed issue causing sidewalks to load incorrectly on the entry into old town.
Resolved issue which could cause water bottles to go to 0 quantity when harvesting water
Melee is now full auto again meaning you don't need to keep clicking in order to attack (Sorry about that one).
Resolved issue which could caused some items to go to 0 quantity when crafting.
Zombies no longer always choose the shortest route in the case that there's an open pathway. This intelligence is only slight and is designed to stop zombies choosing the path that includes a fully fortified window; when there is an open doorway right next to them. Removed crash being caused during loading of 'Oceans and rivers'
Improvements to overall loading times.
Added system for removing limited hints over time so that returning players can see hints that they have had in the past.
Altered snow and season vegetation shaders to improve performance and lower chance of crashes.
Fixed issue which caused winter season to not work on public servers.
Fixed pivot position on various drops to stop them falling in to the ground.
Set all resources category items to stack where possible.
Updated hover icons for various interactions to correctly indicate what action will be performed.
Fixed floating design on terrain 23.
Resolved errors on the client being produced when windows were smashed in areas that weren't loaded for your client.
Fuel station electric doors now use effects audio slider.
Fuel station electric doors now work again.
Tweaked punching reach to improve hit chance (Further improvement still needed.)
Spark plugs no longer break when taking them from a vehicle.
Voip - Microphone UI now shows when pressing to talk. Speaker UI shows when recieving proximity chat.
Fixed texture tiling on fuel station building.
Harvesting from stag no longer wrongly claims "Interaction canceled"
Soup and rice variant food now play animation when consuming.
Drinking from canteen now plays an animation.
Standard item decay increased to 1 day.
Generator should no longer decay!
Removed several errors being caused by the asset preload menu stage.
Fixed issue where zombies would glitch and stop moving correctly when the player was close to a a wall.
Hay bales should now return items correctly.
It's now possible to purify water in a canteen via crafting.
It's now possible to move water between canteen and bottles via crafting.
Water bottle and canteen consumables now provide the same stats.
Zombies can now enter shipping containers.
Radio now has inspect animation.
Resolved issue where zombies wouldn't return items because they'd been deleted on the server.
Stags and chickens now remain in the world for longer after being killed. This gives players longer to harvest items.
'Silencer' label in the inventory now says 'Suppressor'
Searching dead animals no longer turns off the option when searching while you have not combat knife.
Reduced the range in which zombies are drawn to light
Interaction with dumpsters improved.
Removed bush from house on terrain 44.
Stopped hover UI disappearing when looking directly at the interaction icon.
Aggressive and passive AI no longer continue to roll after become rag doll.
Resolved issue where standard planks didn't work on some building windows.
Zombies no longer play the attack animation while climbing through a window while in range of a player that can be damaged.
Hand warming can now be canceled when aiming or firing.
Hand warming over fire animation now plays quicker when first walking up to a fire and now has longer breaks between thereafter.
Stopped the aim accuracy buff being applied for the the weapon is fully aimed in.
Removed error being caused by vehicles loading in.
Teleporting is now possible after you've been killed while in a vehicle.
Players should now always start with full calories on a new life.
Improvements to weapon loot spread. Previously all gun types where spawning at all locations. Weapon locations should now be more balanced.
Flashlight position on pump action shotgun no longer floating.
Added idle override animation when standing near a fire that is on.
Added town name signs to all towns. These are designed to help groups of players figure out where they are on the map.
Add item and IA spawners to buildings that didn't have enough to meet loot spawn requirements.
Resolved errors which happened when loading the bunker areas.
Added several new early game hints to help new players get established.
Tweaked the amount of meat given from stags and also balanced their calories against other items.
Added and tweaked menu hints to show more early game relevant hints.
Fires now slowly regenerate health while stood near them. This feature is designed to help new players with early game difficulty.
Improved quality settings so that options all work and descriptions are easier to understand.
Fixed issue which caused zombie screams to not always play sound.
Fixed issue where zombies would sometimes move sideways.
Altered the /stuck command so that it can no longer be used for cheating.
Added solution for exiting vehicles that are up against a wall. Players now exit via the alternative side.
Fixed issue which was causing small notifications to spam in the top left corner when a container was 1 item short of full.
Can no longer eat while you are the driver of a vehicle.
Optimizations
Removed RAM overhead being caused by shells collision sounds effects.
Changed how trees are saved on the server in order to save overhead and reduce overall server load.
Removed item spawning overhead to reduce overall server build size and cpu intensity.
Removed some of the overhead from stag surface rotation calculations.
Fixes to particle preload scene.
Tweaked quality settings slight in order to optimise.
Fixed issue with Object quality which should show performance improvements for some.
Fixed several small CPU intensive pieces of code.
Optimised the harvest points in the world by pooling them.
Reduced the overall size of the server by removing objects that are not needed.
Disabled and replaced projected decals with static ones. This removes blood splatter however the system was causing extensive overhead.
Tweaked the LODs on multiple objects that were being drawn from too far.
Removed several points of design in Old Town which were causing lag.
Improved world loading system to reduce the amount of world that is loaded at any given time.
AI
Fixed issue which caused zombies to spawn in buildings that had just been cleared. This is not a solution for the greater issue of being able to prevent spawning in a secured structures. This change will be made soon.
Removed zombie spawners from small utility closets that are on the outside of some houses.
Zombies should no longer roam between building during the day.
Fixed are check which prevents zombies spawning in close radius of player.
Fixed issue where zombies would spawn in house you had just cleared of zombies.
Passive AI
Passive AI now fully ignores the player while they are in god mode.
Passive AI should no longer visually die around the player on entry into night time.
Passive AI should no longer traverse fences/windows.
Balance
Harvesting from stags and chickens now requires a combat knife.
Improved loot spawning prewarm system so that loot amounts is more accurate when the server starts.
Tweaks to items spawning cycles to make them more consistent and to help prevent stagnation.
Campfires no longer spawn around the world.
Removed double baseball bat recipes.
Disabled the ARG and Pump action from spawning in houses. These items can be found in police stations.
Created crafting recipe for bandages from clean rags.
Created crafting recipe for wire spool from scrap metal.
Tweaked arg15 stats to make it feel less like a pee shooter.
Tweaked spread and power drop off for shotguns to make them more balanced.
Improved loot spread to ensure that more relevant items spawn at police stations.
Tweaked item spawning so that more less generators and more generator related parts spawn.
Adjusted calories on consumables. Most drops set to a standard of low, medium and high.
Boxed food - Low 150 Med 200 High 250
Cooked boxed food - Low 300 Med 400 High 500
Canned food - Low 50 Med 75 High 125
Cooked canned food - Low 100 Med 150 High 225
Canteen drops adjusted to top highest canned drop
Meat drops adjusted to match or top highest canned/boxed/canteen drop
Adjusted meat names to include the word 'meat' and replace (Fresh) with (Raw)
Disabled all 'rancid' meat drops as they serve no current purpose
Cooked cat food created
Cooked dog food created
Mixed fruit cooked created
Pineapple cooked created
Removed spawnablility on cooked cans
Dog meat name corrected
UI
Fixed issue which caused the campfire UI to break if they were picked and dropped again after they'd had items put in them.
Wooden club now has the correct image in the description area.
Added new display when entering a vehicle which displays the controls and missing parts.
Added built in key binding support!
Clinchester and R-6804 no longer show the option to attach scopes.
[Interact] button in machines is no longer black when the machine cannot be started/activated.
Tweaked hydration notification to make it more clear for new players.
Added useful hints to attachments so that it's easier for new players to get used to.
Arg animation no longer clips while cleaning.
Light switches now give a hint when interacting while there's no live power.
Stopped health going negative during damage that kills the player.
Adjusted grammar on meat drops
Adjusted grammar and spelling on consumables
Adjustment to descriptions on consumables
Meat adjustments, cooking time adjustments making cooking take a bit more time
Added missing gui image to raccoon fresh
Animations
Wooden club now has a grab/take animation.
Full new set of animation for the wooden club weapon. Previously they shared the baseball bat animations.
Fixed finger position on lola and gary hand gun.
Added new animations for hatchet when cutting down trees.
Added animations for flashlight attachments on and off for each weapons.
Cooked cans now play a new animations which doesn't include the lid being taken off (Lids now pop off as they become cooked)
Chopping sections off felled trees now plays the correct chopping animation.
Punch animation no longer plays before wind up flashlight animation starts playing.
Environment
Moved interior doors in various building into the interiors for improved optimizations.
Fixed floating table in scene 61 by raising terrain.
Fixed floating rocks in scene 22 by raising terrain.
Added world filler design on terrain 18.
Increased the loading range of wooden tables.
Optimised and improved design around union point to make it more vehicle friendly.
Optimised and improved design around Black Rock to make it more vehicle friendly.
Optimised and improved design around Sage Creek to make it more vehicle friendly.
Optimised and improved design around Addersfield to make it more vehicle friendly.
Fixed issue where some items that were part of an electricity circuit were being culled too soon (Garage signs, garage doors, shop signs.)
Added weapon attachment spawners in appropriate places around map.
Fixed floating street signs in scene 61.
Fixed floating Car in scene 13.
Fixed floating Cabin in scene 13.
Fixed clipping rest stop in scene 13.
Removed invisible wall on bridge next to old town.
Added doors that were missing on house variant 5.
Lowered floating stone wall on terrain 53.
Lowered floating fence on terrain 53.
Lowered 3 floating houses on terrain 31.
Lowered vehicle that was floating on terrain 37.
Garage doors now have further loading distance.
Lowered grass height overall for improved visuals with stags and vehicles.
Optimized the performance of decals around the camp zones.
Lowered stone wall which was floating on farm.
Added environment filler design on terrains 46 and 52.
Added environment filler design on terrains 39, 40 and 63.
Added environment filler design on terrains 51 and 59.
Props / Drops
Coal, Hose, Metal bar, Metal place, Metal rod and wire spool are now all stackable.
All consumable drops are now stackable.
Setup Pump action weapon.
Setup Pump action drop.
Added new pump action shotgun prop
Drops should no longer drop through rugs.
Sounds
Added sound set for pump action shotgun.
Fixed missing footstep sounds from other players.
Fixed scenario where audio sliders would not work
Added system which dampens footstep sounds of zombies when they're on an upper floor.
Fixed issue where zombie sounds could be cut off too soon.
Added new vehicle impact sounds.
Fixed scenario where empty shell hitting ground wouldn't play a sound.
Added extra variants of glass breaking for window frames.
Added 2 new engine sounds designed from outside and inside of vehicle.
Admin
Fixed issue which could cause a player to be moved slightly when another player teleports.
Resolved issue were players could be seen teleporting. Teleporting is now instant.
Fixed issue where /cleanup would delete vehicles that had players inside.