Hi everyone,

A new update (v0.4.086) is out which includes the new two-handed melee weapon mechanic, optimizations of the blueprint & constructions system, optimizations of the UI and some fixes & adjustments.

Two-Handed Weapon Mechanic

This update will introduce a new combat mechanic for melee weapons, which allows your colonists to wield a bat, axe or sword with 2 hands. This feature is automatically activated for all melee weapons if your colonists are not equipped with an additional shield, and brings with it the following properties:

• +25% melee damage
• +25% melee force
• +10% melee defence
• You can hit 3 enemies at once (the 2 beside the targeted enemy get 50% damage)
• A new animation for attacking and executing

In addition, I have also added a second semitransparent icon to the colonist overview menu, which indicates if the weapon is wielded with both hands.

Optimized Construction System & Menus

In the last weeks, I have also started to optimize some algorithms and menus in the game - which is a work that took / takes a little bit longer. There will come more optimizations in future updates, but I got already rid of some obvious lags & performance drops.

Note:
If you find any lags or situations where the fps go down, feel free to mention it in the comments or on my discord server.

Construction & Stability System

One point which was since a while a thorn in my eye, was a working but very slow algorithm to calculate the stability over the construction layers / building levels. The main problem was here, that even if you have only placed blueprints (floors or walls) beside a building with over 2 levels, you have encountered a noticeable lag when they spawned. A similar lag also appeared, when a colonist with the architect trait has built 3 floors or roofs at the same time.

Therefore I have completely rewritten the old stability calculation algorithm and replaced it with a new and much faster one - there should be almost no noticeable lag anymore.

Note:
This system also improves the impact & performance from explosions on construction elements.

Building Menu

When the building menu had already a lot of researched constructions in it, there was a small lag spike when you switched between the tabs (the reset of the layout was here unoptimized). This should be fixed now.

Colonist & Animal Menu

In addition, I have also optimized the colonist & animal menu, because there was a noticeable lag when you have selected one. The problem here was again the reset of the layout, especially the scroll menus when there were many entries in them (mood, injuries, relationships & attributes).

Construction Info Menu

In the construction & tables info menu were also some improvements on my todo list - primarily for the crafting and resource burner menu, which have enabled all related selecting & scroll menus even if they are not all visible at the same time.

Note:
I have improved some other background systems too (grass placing, searching speed & more) which should increase the general performance of the game a bit.

What's Next?

The next point on my list is (and because I'm still in the implementing phase of all combat related mechanics), to add some kind of dummy & targets constructions which will allow your colonists to train with their weapons to increase their combat skills. Additionally I play here with the thought that you could perhaps use the bodies of dead colonists as training targets too . . . .

Patch Notes

Last but not least, I have here a short list with all relevant patch notes:

• melee weapons will be used two-handed when no shield is equipped now
• two-handed attacks increase damage by 25%
• upgraded and optimized stability manager
• optimized blueprint placement manager
• optimized building manager
• optimized grass place and removement manager
• optimized some ui menus
• power cables can be set invisible in the graphics settings menu now
• optimized animal & colonists menu
• optimized build menu
• optimized constructions info menu
• decreased prices for metal construction elements
• reduced attack force of baseball bats slightly
• fixed grave bug when selecting other grave in active job
• added special animation when execute colonist with two-handed weapon
• fixed that protective vest was sometimes shown in main menu colonist edit menu
• fixed rare transparent mode bug for transporting immobilized colonists over multiple layers
• fixed background error loop when colonists tries to pet eating animal
• fixed rare error when loading single player file after coop session
• updated website (www.zerotris.com)

I hope you all have an awesome day and will enjoy the update,
Cheers!