After 3 years of game development, growing as company, bug fixes and community suggestions and engagement, Longvinter has now been released with the 1.0 Update. I am personally out of words to describe how great it feels to have finished the game of this scale and even though it is still rough around the edges, it's definitely ready and feature complete. Now let's go over what has changed and what will be next for Longvinter!
What's Happening Next?
As this episode of Longvinter's phase comes to an end, naturally a new one begins, and I know you will have quite a lot of new content to dig through this time. We will be focusing on making the game work great on Steam Deck with refined controller support on all the menus and also fixing bugs that come up with the new update. We also want to keep the performance at its best from here on out.
For our next big feature update, we already teased this but it is now confirmed that we will have Longvinter Farming coming as "1.1" version of the game. We have also planned a big overhaul to new player experience and introducing renting apartments and shared communities. More info on these coming later so as always stay tuned for more!
PlayStation Release Coming in 2026
I am also excited to announce that the game will be releasing on PlayStation next year! The game will provide cross-play options so we don't have two separate player bases limiting player numbers.
New Tackle Catalog: Long Winter
Naturally when we didn't include any new catalog and tackle box last Christmas, it's now time to introduce a new set of winter clothing in style of the game's name. This is our biggest one yet, and we have some unique features like changing ski colors on backpacks and unique decals on mouth pieces. While this time there are no new effects, these items can drop with all of your favorite effects from the past!
1.0 Update Main Features
We wanted the 1.0 update to change something major in the game to really make it feel different for those who have played during Early Access. For that, we implemented new Points of Interest - Oil Rigs, which are large structures with significant verticality, quite challenging to design with our top-down game approach. Since this is our 1.0 update, we wanted to improve every aspect of the game, and we're really happy with how this update turned out. We have almost 100 new items with various mechanics. Let's start with the biggest change - the Oil Reworks.
Oil Rigs
If you visit Sgt. Lake now, you may notice that fuel prices have increased quite significantly since your last visit. That's because the LRI have set up oil rigs around the Longvinter archipelago and are now controlling prices everywhere. You must take destiny into your own hands and process and steal your own fuel while under attack from LRI mercenaries. These new locations are super fun for both PVP and PVE players, and we're excited to see what you like most about them! With the addition of fuel refining, we've added Crude Oil as a new item that needs to be refined before turning into fuel. We've also added a new upgrade tree to the mining rig building - instead of crushing rocks, you can now pump oil yourself and use refineries to bring your own product to the economy.
Heli Crash and Underground Arena
Keeping in style of adding new interesting events, we have now added a heli crash to the map that lets you access new tactical gear that LRI use to try and hunt you down. We also have a new arena that invites all players every hour to fight to the last man in order to access the best loot right below Sgt. Lake base camp.
New Animals and Mounts
Our map now has much greater variety in animals with the introduction of Lynx, Wolf, Wolverine, Fox, Moose and Goats now wandering in Longvinter Island. All of the new animals are also obtainable as mounts, and we have made the saddles unequippable so you can style your mounts as you like it best.
Wildlife Improvements and Map Additions
New small birds have now been included in all parts of the map that bring the island alive with their amusing looks and ability to always escape you no matter how hard you try to catch them. With this amazing new atmospheric addition, we have also added new roads to help starting players travel around first outposts more easily. Vendor catalogs have been upgraded with many new items, and we've improved many other things visually and brought more animations to everything to make the world feel more alive and immersive.
New Equipment & Items
We've added several new equipment options to enhance your gameplay:
- 4 new buff hats:
- Permanent movement speed
- Better item prices
- Cheaper travel costs
- Chance for double loot
- Combat vests with special abilities:
- Hotkey eating from inventory
- Quick reload
- Weapon switching without inventory
- Heavy sniper rifle (20 base damage)
- Hunters Amulet
- New explosives (C-4, Dynamite)
- Craftable sulfur and gunpowder
- New meals for cooking compendium
New Placeable Health System
We wanted to give placeable health more thought since it was previously a bit of an afterthought. Now we're really happy with new mechanics we have in place. You can see every placeable's health when hovering over them in inventory and while they're placed down. When you first place an item on the ground, they initially start with 31 HP and start gaining their health slowly. If a placeable takes damage, it will stop regenerating HP. If the placeable is damaged recently, it cannot be picked up, and if destroyed by shooting while not at full health, it will not drop an item. These changes will make using normal fences in combat less practical and encourage usage of sandbags that are catered for combat situations.
New Placeable Items
- 10 New Paintings to level up your house decorations
- Boat house to store your boats on water bases
- New Marksman Defender turret with longer range and damage
- New Machine Gun Defender that you can control for devastating fire power
- Electricity Pole to distribute electricity between your neighborhood easily
- New Firework with smiley face
- Oil refinery to turn crude oil into fuel
- Refrigerator and microwave to decorate your home with functional items
- New Metallic box building blocks
- New Rugs to decorate your home
- Home Harmony placeable set with lamps, plants, tables and cabinets
- New ramp to easily access water bases if you fall off your boat
General Changes
- Made house upgrade transitions smoother
- Added ability to undo item additions to vendors instead of dismantling the entire vendor
- Cabin roofs can now be painted
- Added option to disable pickup notifications
- Added UI indicator for house area locations to help players navigate between houses and avoid turret fire
- Added new good weapon chest to bunkers and mines
- Grid size adjustable with mouse wheel while placing
- Equipment now goes inside backpack on death instead of dropping on ground
- Players limited to 1 house in safe zone building areas
- Electrical placeables now drop if there's nothing below them
- Optimized server start time
- Most placeables now drop items instead of being destroyed
- Fuel can now be stolen from generators
- Custom map markers can be added and shared with other players
- Added more travel points
- First spawn location randomized instead of tied to Steam ID
- Shop shelves can't be stacked and require spacing between them
- Added slight delay before safe zone effect applies to prevent safe zone abuse
- Houses built on water have larger building area
- Auto-run speed now matches normal running speed
- Optimized cooking and crafting book opening times
- Improved Vintershop purchase reliability
- Players can now exit shops from any location inside
- Shops require clear pathways without placeables
- Turrets now have 30-second charging period after placement
- Added stacks to new items
- Snow health drain reduced by 50%
- Placeables that take over 30 damage in 10 seconds can't be picked up for 120 seconds
- Added placeable health display in inventory and on hover
- Added AFK indicator (Zzz bubble)
- Day cycle duration doubled
- Cosmetic toggle now includes custom backpacks
- Air drops now have plane sound effects and map markers
- Post-travel immortality period added to prevent spawn camping
- Items can't be placed in front of tents to prevent abuse
- Increased bunker loot
- Rain provides fishing buff to all players
- Fishing possible in any water, with spots still providing best results
- Improved AI shooting behaviour
Weapon Balance Changes
- Chainsaw: Fire rate 200 → 190
- Electric pickaxe: Fire rate 300 → 275, movement speed matched to chainsaw
- Auto Shotgun: Ammo/shot 12 → 6, scatter 4 → 3.5, fire rate 150 → 175
- Semi Auto Pistol: Damage 7 → 8
- Full Auto Pistol: Fire rate 260 → 320
- Submachine Gun: Fire rate 300 → 350
- Machine Gun: Fire rate 450 → 475
- Shotgun: Scatter 4.5 → 3
- Sawed Off Shotgun: Scatter 7 → 6
- Grenade: Damage 30 → 50
- Machete: Damage 4 → 5
