Hello everyone, it's time for a patch! The main thing in this one is I've added an option to the Online Co-op Settings menu called "Network Protocol". This is a bit of an experiment. The game uses the Steamworks API for networking, but Valve has made some changes since I originally implemented it and the version I've been using is apparently old and maybe due to be deprecated some day. So this option allows you to switch to their newer system. It's just a test for now to see if there are any bugs, but perhaps in future it will become the default.
I'm not sure if it will actually make a difference to the user experience but Valve have built something called the Steam Datagram Relay which I'm theorizing that the new system might make better use of. Or maybe they both use it in the same way. The documentation doesn't seem entirely clear on that point so I'm not sure.
But if you're having problems connecting to someone, or a lot of lag, it might be worth switching this to "Newer System" to see if it makes a difference. Let me know if it does, or doesn't! Thanks! (Note - in order to join a network game, all players must have this set to the same setting - you won't be able to join them otherwise).
Here is the rest of the change list for this patch:
Experimental option to change network protocol in Online Co-op Settings menu
Fix for Community screen closing after you set the limit on an item type
Fix for a few props and bits of land in Story Mode being owned by the wrong community
Stop compassionate members of neutral communities from rescuing people while the player is fighting, as they can get in the way
A few small speech and text fixes
Fix for crash when clicking Repair Armor on a workbench in Command Mode when you have a follower
Fix for car sounds not being affected by gameplay volume slider
Fix for crash when you hit the road with companions that was introduced in v266
Updated Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Japanese, Latin American Spanish, Lithuanian, Spanish and Traditional Chinese translations
Because of the above-mentioned crash when you hit the road with companions being introduced in v266, I won't move v266 to the main branch or XBox. So this is just a publicbeta update today.
EDIT - I released another small update (v268) because I realized the game wasn't providing suitable error messages when you try to join someone with different settings from you, via a Steam invite. Here's that change list:
Error message if you try to join someone via Steam invite, who is using a different Network Protocol from you
Fix for no error message showing if you join someone with mismatched story hashes via Invite
Updated Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Latin American Spanish and Spanish translations
What's this publicbeta thing?
v268 will be in the "publicbeta" branch on Steam for a while, before pushing it to the main game and to XBox. If you want to try the latest features as they come out (and help test them!) it's a good idea to start using this branch. But keep in mind:
Because it's the bleeding edge it could be less stable
If you want to be able to play online co-op with someone you'll need to be on the same version as them
If you go back from the "publicbeta" branch to the main branch you may not be able to load savegames created on "publicbeta".
To use publicbeta, just right-click on Survivalist: Invisible Strain in your Steam library and go to Properties, then Betas and in the drop-down select "publicbeta".