Welcome, Survivor!
Update 0.8 - "Tools of Mayhem" is live!
This major update adds a new Survivor, a dozen new weapons, awesome quality of life features, and lots of other improvements. We hope you'll enjoy the content we're bringing with this version of Early Access phase, as we get closer to the full release - but more on that further below.
More importantly: Chainsaw goes brrrrrr...
ㅤːfu_skullː New Survivor: Mechanic
Engineer may have degrees, but Mechanic has guts!
The above sentence can be true both figuratively and literally, depending solely on your decision to equip her with a chainsaw. The Mechanic lacks the delicate precision of her aforementioned senior, but she makes up for it with a kit full of crazy homemade contrapoints and a need to under- and overclock everything she comes in contact with.
Mechanic is an advanced support Survivor who's more than capable of taking on the Horde on her own if the need arises. Her equipment deals all kinds of types of damage, but she excels at augmenting her own weapons with the Ice element, applied in addition to the usual slashing and bashing. It's possible that she'll break the game a little bit, as she is not only jack of all trades, but master of many.
ㅤːfu_skullː New weapon for every Survivor!
Counting the Mechanic's crazy arsenal, we've just added 12 new weapons to the game!
With Grenade Launcher, SWAT can now scale even further into explosive builds, in tandem with Tank, whose Super Shotgun should make many players' dreams come true. Engineer can finally enjoy an upgraded version of their tier-two weapon in the form of the Plasma, while Huntresses' paralyzing Poison Arrows complement her now improved bow nicely (more arrows!).
The Ghost can now become the Grim Reaper, wielding the most powerful single-target attack in the game (with a fun area-of-effect twist!), while the Medic makes sure no one escapes her meticulous attention with the dreaded Syringer. Pyro? Well, Pyro trusts his axes as far as he can throw them, and that is exactly what he plans to do with the new hot addition to his kit: the flaming Axerangs.
You'll find these nine weapons as new tier 3 options, available from the third rank of their respective owners. Oh, and don't worry about the existing options being left out in the cold, because we're also adding...
ㅤːfu_skullː Lots of balance tweaks!
Buffs! Buffs everywhere!
Fire burns hotter, electricity stuns better, and toxins linger stronger. Rockets explode harder, katanas cut faster, and grenades explode earlier. All in all, there's something for everyone, so be sure to try options that have felt weak in the past - you might just get surprised. We've been digging through all the feedback reports, suggestions, and analytical data to improve some of the less popular options currently available in the game. Of course, if something still feels a little off, we're here to help! Be sure to let us know what you think requires further adjustments.
As with any balance, there are a few changes that reduce the power of certain things, but these are mostly exploit/bug fixes. These changes were necessary to keep the overall health of the game in a good place going forward. For example, the Icon of Tempest effect was never meant to chain itself endlessly, and some stat stacking items weren't meant to keep their effect after being removed from inventory. We're sorry for any confusion caused by these inconsistencies.
ㅤːfu_skullː Effects Transparency!
Fans of full-screen-exploding-late-game-builds, rejoice!
With the addition of new accessibility options, you'll now be able to control the transparency of most weapon and ability effects in the game. And before you ask, don't worry about missing out on any of the important gameplay details, as we're doing our best to leave the most important indicators either untouched or with their effects slightly tuned down.
Not only have we improved the visual clarity of most enemy indicators, we've also added an option to change their color. All in all, we hope this will help many of you appreciate the fun zombie-killing mayhem even more. These and other changes should not only make the game more stable, but you'll also be able to see the improved ragdoll effects in all their full ragdolly glory! Let us know if these options helped you and how else we can improve your experience!
Patch notes / Changelog
GAMEPLAY CHANGES:
- New Survivor: Mechanic.
- New tier 3 weapon option for every Survivor.
- 8 new items, 3 new badges, 9 new achievements.
- Most pick-ups now have an area spawn, instead of being an enemy drop.
- Rank unlock requirements changed to every 40 & 20 levels (from 20 & 10).
- Skill tree point spent reset due to the above change (no points are lost, don't worry).
- One Hit mode: Leaderboards were added for every map and game difficulty.
- One Hit mode: Is now fully optional, with related Steam achievements removed (to be restored later as optional, in-game challenges).
QUALITY OF LIFE:
- Visual Effects Transparency setting has been added (Options > Accessibility).
- Enemy Indicators Color setting has been added (Options > Accessibility).
- Enemy attack indicators' visibility has been further improved.
- White Power-Ups now have their own on-screen blob indicators.
- Improved ragdoll effects & other tweaks to visual effects/readability.
- Camera no longer flies by when starting a new run (is now centered).
- Many new/improved sound effects, with volume adjustments to others.
- A brand new tune plays in the background while in endscreen interfaces.
- Jukebox: Added tooltips explaining how each of the play modes works.
- Game version is now displayed on game over / endscreen interfaces.
- Improvements to many in-game descriptions (e.g. tag effects).
- 2D bust art touch-ups for every Survivor.
- Other minor tweaks.
BALANCE CHANGES - GENERAL:
- Magnet spawn chance increased & spawn interval decreased (more magnets!).
- Skip function now grants 300 Cash and regenerates 20% HP (from 150 & 10%).
- Cooldown times between Dodges and Parries are now equal to the value of Invincibility After Hit stat.
- Hardcore mode: Horde HP scaling reduced for Isolated City and Vile Wasteland (difficulty reduced).
BALANCE CHANGES - DAMAGE TYPES / TAGS:
- Toxic, Burn, and Electrify (Thunder Strike) status effects damage will now additionally scale from the weapon or ability damage stat of the Survivor that caused the effect.
- Electrify stun base duration increased to 1s (from 0.5s).
- Electric damage 10+ tag Thunder Strike effect has now lower chance per tag scaling, but much greater damage scaling.
- Electrocuted and Frozen statuses will not be reapplied if they already exist on an enemy.
- Burn status effect base damage is now 25 (from 15).
- Bleeding appliance chance changed to +0.5% per tag (from +1% per tag).
- Injured defense reduction effect changed to -0.5% per tag (from -1% per tag).
BALANCE CHANGES - WEAPONS:
- All changes below refer to Damage as a total sum of rank upgrades & skill tree node bonuses. Most changes affect every rank.
- SWAT: Assault Rifle: Damage per bullet increased by +10.
- SWAT: Sniper Rifle: Damage increased by +50.
- Tank: Shotgun: Damage per projectile decreased by -10.
- Tank: Pump-Action Shotgun: Reload time increased by +0.1s, projectiles fired decreased by 1.
- Tank: Minigun: Damage per projectile decreased by -10.
- Tank: Rocket Launcher: Damage increased by +50.
- Engineer: Tesla: Damage increased by +100, and it now more effectively damages all enemies targetted by the beam.
- Huntress: All tier 3 weapons: Now start with 6-7 arrows and can fire up to 3 additional arrows (8 in total).
- Ghost: Thousand Cuts: Cooldown decreased by -0.1s (it now attacks more often).
- Ghost: Windcutter: Damage increased by +25.
- Medic: Syringe Gun: Damage increased by +50. Removed the DPS stat (wasn't working correctly).
- Medic: Antidote Flasks: Damage increased by +100. Removed the DPS stat (same as above).
- Medic: Freezing & Antidote Flasks: Projectile trajectory and speed drastically improved.
- Pyro: Fireaxe: Attacks more often at every rank. Cooldown decreased by -0.1s. Damage increased by +10.
- Pyro: Blowtorch: Damage increased by +50.
- Pyro: Flamethrower: Damage increased by +50.
- Pyro: Infernax: Attacks more often at every rank. Cooldown decreased by -0.5s. Damage increased by +50.
BALANCE CHANGES - ABILITIES:
- SWAT: Grenade Trail: Grenades now explode sooner.
- Tank: Sawblade Drone: Enchantment: Additionally increases damage by +75.
- Tank: Minefield: Mines last for 5 seconds less, but explode when they expire.
- Engineer: EMP Grenade: Electrocution range is now bigger, and its stun lasts for 5s (from 0s, oops!).
- Engineer: Electric Turret: Cooling: Range decreases by -2 (from -2,5).
- Engineer: Electrocution: Passion: Additionally increases damage by +25 (300) and reduces cooldown by -2s (10s).
- Huntress: Arrow Penetration: Barbed: Additionally increases the activation chance +15% (75% max).
- Huntress: Bear Trap: Fire: Additionally increases damage by +25.
- Huntress: Zombie Decoy: Moving: Additionally increases damage by +50.
- Ghost: Pulsar: Damage increased by +150 (That's a ton of damage!).
- Ghost: HoloGhost: Sub Zero: Additionally increases count by +2 (holograms make a snowflake now, aww).
- Ghost: Shuriken: Boomerang: Shurikens now last longer.
- Medic: Resuscitation: Valhalla: Health points restored now increases by +30% (80% max).
- Medic: Medical Drone: Offense: Damage increases by +225 (from +150).
- Medic: Stimpack: Evolutions removed from the One Hit game mode (less level-up clutter, yay!).
- Pyro: Fire Walk: Damage increased by +100.
- Pyro: Makeshift Bomb: Damage increased by +50.
BALANCE CHANGES - ITEMS:
- All items effects are now removed when swapping an item out (Glass of Milk).
- Some achievement rewards as items have switched places (ACME Anvil).
- Ban Hammer: Now additionally grants +10 Luck stat.
- Suspicious Pendrive: Fixed an issue that caused it to deal less damage than intended & explosion range increased greatly.
- ACME Anvil: Slowing effects are now twice as strong (from 50% stronger).
- Scented Candle: Decreases statuses duration by -25% (from -50%).
- Stretcher: Decreases Dodge Chance stat by -2% per stack (from -5%).
- Camping Set: Decreases Movement Speed stat by -5 per stack (from -10).
- Vampire Survivors: Maximal HP regenerated is now 400 (from 500).
- Ring of Power: Cap decreasesd to one less SOS Signal. Offers smaller boost but is easier to stack across all game modes.
- Wooden Stick: The additional passive effect is now +10% EXP (from +20%), doesn't affect the empty slots effect.
- Icon of Pestilence: Effect changed from increasing the Toxify explosion size, to spawning a cloud of toxic fumes on toxified enemy death.
- Icon of Tempest: Effect no longer chain activations for every electrified enemy.
BUGFIXES
- Multiple confirmed and potential fixes for the reported game crashes.
- Fixes for freezes caused by the Huntress Survivor in certain conditions.
- Precautions against situations where some enemies persisted from previous runs.
- Fixes for some Weapon Damage stat boosting effects not updating correctly.
- Additional preventions for Engineer’s attacks causing screen flashes.
- Fix for Item Chests skips not granting Cash properly.
- Fixes for experience gems appearing at certain spots of the maps.
- Fixed inacurrate data display on the Military Training points bar.
- Some weapon sound effects are now correctly attached to Weapon Volume setting.
- Fixed occasional audio volume changes caused by alt-tabbing the game window.
- Fixed some issues related to Jukebox and playing music by a playlist.
- Fixes for some wrong values displayed under item icons in the in-game HUD.
- Mouse cursor should no longer stay on screen when switching to a gamepad/controller.
- Some previously missing weapon stats are now listed correctly in their descriptions.
- "Glass of Milk" item now displays correct amount of stacks/activations.
- Tank: Sawblade Drone: Should now correctly deal Slashing type damage.
- Pyro: No Pain No Gain: Is now correctly disabled in the One Hit game mode.
- Electrified status effect’s duration now scales properly (was always very low before).
- Engineer's synergy with Ghost no longer causes Shuriken ability to display 0 DPS at the endscreen.
- Getting killed by the Big Mummy's projectile no longer displays as if the player died from a Scarab.
- Non-unicode symbols in Steam nicknames no longer print errors in the game’s log file when displayed on the main menu screen.
- Other minor fixes.
What's next?
With only one Survivor and two maps missing, we're getting very close to the full release of the game. While we didn't manage to add everything we had hoped for in this update, we will continue to implement these ideas as we go. You can expect to see some new smaller additions in a minor update (e.g. 0.8.1). After that, we'll switch gears and either work on the last Early Access update - version 0.9 - or even go straight to 1.0! The second approach would take more time than usual, but on the other hand, you'd get a ton of new content at the same time.
For the near future, we plan to work on the things listed below:
- Ninth Survivor & two missing maps (new map is a priority).
- New gameplay mechanics/map interactables within the playable area.
- Team leader's passives and/or perks for even more run customization.
- At least one main boss encounter (one main boss for each map planned).
- More synergies between Survivors, possible item upgrades and/or combinations.
- Additional column (fifth rank) for the general & Survivors' skill trees (more meta-progression).
- New endless-like game mode (non-ranked) focused on fun, instead of the fight for survival.
- Separate, non-cloud save for in-game settings (e.g. graphics options).
- Steam Deck support improvements / verification.
- Full release on Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One/Series & PlayStation 4/5.
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤCheck out this cool Potato we've found!
As always, we will continue to improve the game based on your feedback,
so don't stop letting us know what you like and what you'd like to see improved.
Also, in case you also enjoy games on console platforms, expect the Switch & PlayStation demos to come very soon. We're dedicated to sticking to the plan of releasing the full version of YAZS on all platforms at the same time.
Special thanks to our awesome open beta testers who went above and beyond to help us make this major update to the game <3
See you soon!
ㅤStay awesome,
ㅤㅤAwesome Games Studio
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2163330/Yet_Another_Zombie_Survivors/