Friday, May 14th
Hello everyone, hope you are all well. We’ve had a rather busy week although most of what we’re currently doing is tying up loose ends. 1.8 has been a beast and it’s a challenge to pull it together in the end. We’re aiming for an experimental build this coming week.
Steam Rich Presence
When we first envisioned Survive the Nights it was as a co-op experience, a zombie survival game you could pick up with a couple of friends, hunker down and have a good time killing things. The ability to invite a friend to a game/server has been missing since launch. It didn’t seem reasonable to dedicate development time pre-hosting. Now that players have the ability to host from in-game or via a linux stand alone server/provider, it seems the perfect time to do so. We have now added a good deal of Steam integration.
You will first notice the ability to invite friends directly to the server you’re playing on. You’ll be able to do so whether you’re hosting the server or you’re on a public server. This is made even easier if you’re using the Steam Overlay (shift-tab).
James has also added the ability to invite friends directly from the game. Holding tab will bring up what was previously the in-game player list. Pressing tab now brings up the player/friends list and you’ll be able to invite any of your Steam friends from this menu. We have tried to make this process as easy and seamless as possible. As an example, If you’re hosting a password protected server your friends will be added to a dynamic whitelist this will bypass the requirement for them to enter a password. You will also be able to join friends in this same manner via the Steam friends list or our in game player/friend list.
In-game player/friend list
Improved Weather Effects
1.8 will feature many environmental changes including new vegetation, new biomes and new weather effects. Ahead of weather affecting the player, (something we’ll be working on shortly) we’ve taken some time to improve our current weather effects. The system as it is now does the job but it’s rather drab. Our current rain and snow system only allows for particles to move directly downward due to performance and collision concerns. The new system allows us a bit more freedom and you’ll notice that instantly in both rain and snow. The particles now blow around and move with the storm. This dramatically changes the entire vibe of a storm. We’ll save the rain effects for you to see in game as the gifs don’t really showcase these effects well.
Blowing Snow
Particle Update
Last week we showcased some of our new environmental particles and asked for some feedback. Jos has spent some time this week adding a few more alongside working on weather effects. Additional garbage on the streets along with interior dust particles help to bring both interiors and exteriors to life either further. Jos is also currently putting some finishing touches on environmental effects like small insects and animals. This is something we’d like to greatly expand on in the future. We need a good source for rat meat after all.
Interior dust particles
Interior particles in flash light beam
Spooky nighttime garbage particles
In Summary
It has been a very busy week for the team although we’ve not had all that much to showcase. The last 90% of a build is never very exciting. It’s a lot of breaking and fixing and that’s before we even hit our experimental servers. There’s going to be a vlog along with a rather massive blog covering everything that has gone into 1.8 as it’s a monster. Thanks once again for the continued support. Hope you all have a great weekend. If you have any questions, comments or concerns please reach out on our Discord.