It's been a long time I've done a substantial update to the public branch since November last year, but I've still been working as hard as always. Since the core game framework within the engine, [the game ecosystem engine within the Unity game engine] needed a migration to the new Unity Input System to allow true support for all gamepads and future Console releases within a single code base and new optimized event subscription based input vs Update based if(statement) polling.
The next update after this shall focus on content added to the game, while this update finally brings controller support to the main branch at the same time as major features including disk streaming based open world exploration and new wildlife entities.
Update Notes:
- 1. New full controller support, including haptic feedback and optional "Aim-Assist" mode as well as customizable controls for all gamepad buttons. (Still not tested on every single controller in the world, but stable enough to release out of Beta into Early Access public branch)
- 2. New weapon wheel for quickly selecting any of your available weapons without needing to remember the exact number. Also useful for controllers. Currently not bindable but can be open by pressing the mouse wheel when using mouse/keyboard or by using the d-pad when using a controller.
- 3. New asynchronous loading for terrain zones outside of the main reserve center to improve memory consumption by streaming in detail from the disk instead of loading everything into memory at once. Also allows much larger amounts of entities such as other animals to be a part of the game.
- 4. New animals friendly animal - Gazelles. These are semi endangered in the reserve, and not to be killed. Killing more than 5 will cause the mission to fail.
- 5. New dangerous animal: Crocodile, currently only one can be found near Waterfall #2, but is very dangerous and can be killed without consequence if it attacks you.
- 6. New improved glass shatter effect for vehicle windows when shot.
- 7. Optimized keyboard/mouse control scheme performance.
- 8. Improved NPC character texture quality inside shebeen.
- 9. Improved quality of dragging items when unarmed. (such as meat!)
- 10. Fixed issues with default settings on each option type not resetting.
- 11. Made options menus slightly less confusing with a few more concise labels.
- 12. Increased legibility of in-game graphics options menu.
- 13. Improved animation procedure for "Noise Complaint" side quest.
- 14. New safeguard to prevent player from being able to use a health kit when they are already at max health to prevent accidental wastage.
- 15. Fixed issue with meat stopping cooking too soon if extended cooking tactics are employed such as dropping the meat on the floor first or trying to burn both sides as evenly as possible. (For realism)
- 16. Improved lighting in final tunnel.
- 17. Fixed missing notepad info in 'Tutorial Part #2 / Hornet Mission' and other side-missions.
- 18. Optimized rhino & zebra rendering from large distances.
- 19. Improved loading screens, loading screens now only use actual screenshots of the game instead of concept art for a thorough consistency.
- 20. Added new DRM to prevent the game being played outside of Steam.
- 21. Added new infinite sprint mod to the mod menu. [Accessible via cheats, apply on Discord]
- 22. Large amounts of code refactoring through every single game module.
- 23. Fixed issue causing scope U.I. to remain on screen if you swap weapons with a pickup item while the scope is engaged as well as reloading at the same time. Extremely rare, but infuriating if it does happen. Resolved.
- 24. Fixed issues caused by exiting the vehicle while in third person driving mode, sometimes causing the next level to either load you inside the car even though you were not in it.
- 25. Fixed issue causing secret stashes to be infinitely respawnable when save/loading the game per mission.
- 26. Improved giraffe tail fur texture material.
- 27. Improved quality of save game thumbnail screenshots, in terms of when the screenshot is taken to prevent thumbnails being shots of the scoreboard more often than not.
- 28. Slight adjustments to final tunnel area lighting and collision geometry.
- 29. Fixed issue with flashlight causing foliage to "pop" in and out of lit/unlit states when playing on higher FOV settings.
- 30. Fixed issue causing master volume setting to be reset every time upon loading a new level or reloading the current scene.
- 31. Improved wandering algorithm for animals to prevent them from just standing still during mid gallop or trot.
- 32. Cursor now hidden during splash screen.
- 33. Fixed an issue with some assets including a shed popping in and out of view in specific areas when loading in near the delta zone of the reserve caused by a deadzone in the delta zone trigger.
- 34. Fixed issue with mouse cursor being able to escape into a second monitor during inventory screen, craft menu and other assorted pause menu-type scenarios if a second monitor is connected.
- 35. Cursor is now invisible in the beginning splash menu.
- 36. Fixed issue causing player position to not save/load inside Mission 9 tunnel.
- 37. Fixed some weird glass material issues found on certain Bulldozer type construction vehicles in Chapter 2.
- 38. Improved overlay for key binding for easier feedback as to when you are in fact re-binding a key or button.
- 39. Improved quality of door model inside warehouse during Mission 6 interior.
- 40. VSync is now enabled by default, to prevent screen tearing and also to prevent GPU overheating in interior scenes. Disable it if you find the game too slow, but should naturally cap the game at roughly 60FPS depending on your monitor.
- 41. Removed all deprecated internal functions for procedural generation, as the game will now be relying on hand crafted outskirts detail streamed in from disk for more reliable outer reserve foliage population and density.
- 42. Fixed an issue with loading the radio time when parsing float with invariant culture using System.Globalization on certain systems. Sometimes causing issues when loading older save games.
- 43. Added a 1-second buffer on tent pickup after placement to prevent the immediate appearance of the sleep menu.
- 44. Removed some redundant functions from shop keeper codebase for optimization purposes and clean workflow as well as preventing an extremely rare null reference exception case.
- 45. Fixed some beer bottles as well as a lantern that appeared to be floating slightly above the crates at the poacher camp zone in Mission 3.
- 46. Adjusted the armor amount to better match the color palette when it changes to green while wearing camouflage armor.
- 47. Fixed a number of floating inventory weapon items found in Mission 9 underground tunnel.
- 48. Fixed issue allowing inventory screen to be brought up while driving which allowed all sorts of other issues to become possible.
- 49. Fixed an issue where loading your game while in the vehicle would cause the game to load in the vehicle even if you didn't save while in the vehicle.
- 50. Refactored save game manager code to read the "Last Modified" DateTime directly from the save game files, instead of storing the save game times in the registry to prevent times from being reset when the PlayerPrefs are reset.
- 51. Added ability to interrupt sleeping during any time by pressing "Escape" during a sleep cycle initiated by bed or tent.
- 52. Added menu options for windowed mode or full screen mode.
- 53. Fixed an issue with jerky weapon movement when playing with VSync on higher-end PC's where the monitor refresh rate is much lower than the GPU's uncapped FPS.
- 54. As always, many other small fixes, improvements and polishes too numerous/minor to mention.
As always, a huge thank you to all my early access players as well as my pre-public early access Beta testers on Discord for your continued support and non-stop help in testing and bug-reporting the end to end polishing of the game and all it's systems. I appreciate you all endlessly.