Version 0.9.7.8.12 is now up on the main branch. This adds many, many changes since last month's update, with a focus on fleshing out the Escape from Earlsboro gameplay mode. Read on for details on this update, the upcoming launch of the online mode, and more plans for Cannibal Crossing's updates in January!
Update Summary
A lot of our focus in the past month has been both fleshing out Escape from Earlsboro, and getting the Online Mode ready for public testing. Escape from Earlsboro (EfE for short) is now considered the main gameplay mode of Cannibal Crossing. This is a longer mode than Radio Silence, and introduces some new quest types, and a new way to get the mega loot.
Several Midbosses have been added to the game. They can be found in different locations of the map, and are powerful enemies. You need to defeat a certain amount of them to clear EfE, but you'll want to kill them anyway because they are an easy source of the new Red Stashes.
Red Stashes drop from both Midbosses and Bosses. They have the same amount of slots as a Safe, and similar loot. However, every single slot is always full in a Red Stash, there are no empty spaces. Also, the 6th and last slot of a Red Stash always has a pile of Scrap in it, usually around 5-6 scrap.
If you're lucky, you can get a Golden Stash instead. These are similar to Red Stashes, except the last slot can contain up to 10 scrap. In addition, a Golden Stash has 9 slots of loot instead of the 6 you get from a Red Stash.
This update brings back the old minor missions where you can help someone for a small reward. There is also a new quest type where you have to clear out an enemy stronghold. We are likely adding more enemy stronghold mission types later. Enemy Strongholds also contain a Stash for clearing them out.
Finally, you get a small chance (about 11%) of getting a Red Stash and a tiny chance of a Golden Stash when you defeat an enemy horde. This includes both the Negative Raids you get at night and the Hunting Party hordes. This makes stashes a renewable source of loot, if you're willing to piss off a lot of Cannibal Splitters. We may also later make this apply to killing off Cannibal Splitters.
We have done many tweaks and other changes, many of which are based on requests we've seen from players. This includes a lot of tweaks for lag, and an Effects setting in options to tone down lag you can get from fire, explosions, and bullets. Read the "Changes for This Update" section below for all the details on this.
January Plans
I'm planning on doing more frequent updates in January. We were very active with responding to feedback and posting Testing Branch builds on Discord, but it lead to not a lot of activity here. Due to that, I am going to follow this schedule for January:
Hotfixes and Minor Update
We will likely have to do some kind of hotfix for this update, given the size of it. I will be following comments on this post, and feedback from Twitter and the Official Discord for this.
Around the middle of January, we are also likely to do a minor update, so we're not getting stuck in testing branch updates and waiting a full month for main branch updates.
Online Mode Testing
Around the middle of January, we're going to partially launch the Online Mode for the game. This will likely be a Testing Branch build at first, and the main launch of it will likely be rolled into the big update at the end of January. This will be the Horde Defense mode that supports up to 4 online players, though we may have to reduce this number if there are big problems with it.
Major Update
Around the end of January, I would like to launch the online mode along with a big update that addresses some remaining issues, outside of adding new content. A quick list of things we have been watching:
1. Further work on lag and slowdowns for the game. This update address this partially, but there should be a lot more we can do here, especially for lighting optimization. Let me know if this update helped a lot on this or not, and remaining problems you have.
2. More work on controller support. We need details on this one. I have feedback on this from before, but I'm not sure what still applies at this point that we should look into.
3. AI tweaks for the survivor buddies and the enemies. Survivor buddy AI is particularly crappy right now. Worst case is that we make them more limited in general, like instead of following you around at all times, it's more of a "call for backup" power.
I will need feedback on all of this! Let me know if I missed anything, and let me know details of what we should focus on in regards to this list.
Final Thoughts
Thanks for all the feedback on the game so far! It's starting to shape up into what we want, and the support from everyone helps a lot with this.
As always, I'm particularly active for responding on the Discord and Twitter. I will be waiting for your responses to this update on there, and checking the Steam pages.
Now for the full list of changes this update!
HotFix Changes - Dec 31 (0.9.7.8.13)
- Fix for some tutorial errors
- Piggy Bankers will now only drop their stash when all 3 are dead
- Slightly adjustment to where stashes are generated around player
- Fix for a compass error
- Fix for consuming too many items from crafting screen
- Fix for accidentally creating items from crafting screen
Changes for This Update (0.9.7.8.12)
Major Changes
- Escape from Earlsboro has been expanded. EfE is now the main gameplay mode, with new quest types
- Red and Gold Stashes from defeating Bosses and Midbosses, with a small chance of getting them from defeating enemy waves
- Minibosses added to EfE! They are found in different buildings around the map, and each one has a unique attack style
- When you open a container, you now are able to see and move your weapons and items between yourself and that container
- Player lighting is more powerful, and the nights are a bit less dark
- Achievements added! We will be doing more work on this later
- You can now once again cancel reloads by changing weapons
- Toggle in settings to adjust Effects complexity to reduce slowdowns
- Toggle in settings to set your max FPS to 60, 90, or 120
- Kitchen will no longer automatically close on cooking something, to allow cooking multiple meals easily
Tweaks and Changes
- Splitters take longer to summon Hunting Parties, 4 seconds -> 7 seconds
- Grocery Stores have more food
- Lots of tweaks to things that caused slowdowns, such as the flamethrower weapons
- You can no longer craft weapons beyond tier 0 weapons (sticks, bows, metal pipes, so on)
- Added red arrows for showing wrong turns during lockpicking, but they only show up with less than 1/3 of your lockpick timer remaining
- Clicking on an item with a container open will now consistently move 1 of that item, whether to or from a container. This does not apply to stacks of ammo
- Medkits now take 2 bandages to make instead of 1
- IV Bag healing 80 -> 100
- Syringes now also give 15 seconds of +20% runspeed
- Pharmacy, Hospital, and Clinical Center now are full of healing loot
- Radio Silence is now unlocked by beating your first boss
- Survivor Sandbox is now unlocked by dying once
- Deleting one of your base buildings will recover half the materials
- Your materials tally is now displayed on the main inventory and container screens, instead of just the crafting and workbench screens
- Removed the wood requirement from base lighting
- Automatic healing perk nerf, heals about half the speed that it did before
- Arrow draws for the bow can now be cancelled by changing weapons
- Tier now displayed when hovering over a weapon on the ground
- Sin Special properly boosts your running speed now
- Sin Special will no longer heal
- Most food buffs nerfed to lasting 40 seconds from 60, with Cake lasting 20 seconds
- Alcohol bonuses now last 40 seconds instead of 30
- Reduced hunger rate from 0.036 per second to 0.034
- Human enemies will have a limit on amount of things they can steal at once
- Increased the time it takes for enemies to give up on you after they don't see you, from 3 seconds to 6
- Reduced the chance of a building having enemies in it, 20% to 15%
- Doubled the drop chance of Cooking Recipes when an "other" category loot drops
- Options screen now more centered
- For keyboard users, a tip on how to drag weapons to drop them will be displayed until completing first game
- Movement can now be rebinded in Options menu
- Crapyard cars are now lootable
- Shots now starts with 15 spare pistol ammo, instead of 0
- Settings option to disable autosaves
- Going to the exit screen will now save your game
- Various text changes
Bugfixes
- Liam's final Talent should now work, resurrecting him once with 10% health left and stunning all nearby enemies. This should recharge every few days
- Fixed several turret issues that prevented them from firing
- Fixed a bug that prevented the Mortar from working properly
- Fixed an issue with Fatigue becoming negative
- Fixed more enemies that could move while you were paused
- Fixed floating orange eye enemy attacks
- Enemies that spawn in buildings will now only destroy furniture if they know you're around
- More restrictions for when enemies can spawn in buildings
- When you have an ammo increase perk, this should reflect properly in the inventory hover over values
- Carnage Asada Taco kills should properly give health instead of giving extra XP
- "Find Character" Radio missions will properly clear when you find the character
- You can no longer get all three escape missions at once, getting another one will replace the previous
- Fix for some rebind buttons that weren't working
- Fix for an inconsistency with rebinding previous/next item
- Turret bullets should now go through base lighting
- Fix for some buff timers getting stuck onscreen
- Fix for a character showing their mission status incorrectly
- No more food consumption during pause
- Removed an ability to sit down on chairs that somehow made its way back in
- Burger food buff should display properly
- Fixed a bug with infinite food if eating out of inventory with a container open
- Fixes for building structures by accident
- Tweaks to missions to fix some display errors
Under the Hood Changes
- Lots of work on the Online Mode. You'll see this fairly soon!
- Testing out new ideas on Twitch Integration
- Some work on Midbosses that aren't in the game yet