COMBAT IMPROVEMENTS & NEW RECRUITS
Early Access Update #13 - v0.16 Notes
Important: Key Rebinding
We've rebound some of the controls for combat.
For keyboard and mouse:
Dodge is now on Spacebar.
Vault is now on L Alt.
Sprint is now on L Shift.
Sneak is now on L Ctrl.
(Note that the in-game icons for Vault, Sprint and Sneak will just say Alt/Shift/Ctrl.)
Controller:
Dodge is now on A (XBox) or X (PlayStation)
Sneak is now on Left Trigger
Vault is now on B (XBox) or Circle (PlayStation)
You can rebind your controls in the Controls menu if these don’t suit you.
Combat Improvements
We've made a number of changes to the way that combat works, and how that interacts with infection:
Deep Wound improvement: Survivors will no longer randomly get Deep Wounds when they are hit by zombies. Instead, when a survivor fails a grab, there is a chance of being bitten by the zombie and that will result in a Deep Wound, which can cause infection.
Zombie Grab improvement: We've changed how zombie grabs work. Now when a survivor is grabbed, the player has a quick time event (QTE) to get out of the grab. If the player fails this, there is a chance of being bitten by a zombie, giving their survivor a Deep Wound, which has a chance of being infected. The player’s game difficulty settings will change how many buttons could be in the pool of QTE options, and how quickly players need to complete it. These can also be adjusted in Custom difficulty.
Large and Armored Zombies: These zombies will still stop survivors from getting past them, but instead of just blocking the way, they will put a survivor into a grab if they run into them.
Grabber Zombies: These zombies will have two back-to-back QTEs if they grab a survivor.
Updated Barge: While running, players can press Dodge to Barge, which will consume stamina to run faster and push past zombies or break down doors. Running at doors normally will no longer break them.
Improved Dodge: Survivors can now dodge forwards through enemies or backwards, knocking back any behind them. The window for dodge immunity has been increased slightly as well.
Sprint Attack: If a survivor does a melee attack while sprinting, they will do a unique sprint attack.
Running Vaults: Survivors vault faster if they are sprinting.
Ranged Quick Equip: Added a quick equip button for firearms/throwables.
Firearm and Throwable stats: Added stat indicators for firearms and throwables.
Critical Executions: Adjustments to the range where survivors can trigger critical executions, so that it's less likely for a zombie to be knocked out of that range while in close combat.
Stealth Kills: Adjustments to stealth kill range so zombies are less likely to accidentally wander out of it.
Executions: Added the ability to exit out of execution animations earlier after it completes.
Timer Visual: Added a visual that animates how much time players have to complete a QTE or trigger a critical or ground execution.
New Recruits
Added new recruitables.
Eva. She can be recruited at the Water Treatment Plant during the Network Escape Plan.
Taylor. She can be recruited during Kayla’s survivor mission if you confront her to get the urn and if you have unlocked at least one Escape Plan.
Added a new survivor.
Candy. She can be recruited at a new location, the Queens o’ Country Music Festival. This location can be discovered by examining points of interest in Value Records or the Hitchpost.
Adjustments
When players select a location that a survivor has visited before on the map, it will now show if they’ve discovered any locks and need to bring lockpicks or boltcutters.
Added new trait: Musician. This allows survivors to play music in the communal area to raise morale. Characters with this trait are Candy (starting trait), Vince (unlockable trait) and Dianne (unlockable trait).
Adjusted the Barterer trait. This trait increases the sell price of items when trading. Characters with this trait are Lester (starting trait) and Michelle (unlockable trait).
New location: Queens o’ Country Music Festival.
New weapon: Acoustic Guitar.
Stealth executes have a new icon to make it clearer what interaction it is.
Acoustic guitars and banjos can now be played in the communal area by characters with the Musician trait.
Lootpoint, Point of Interest, Recruitment and Vantage Point popups will automatically close if survivors are attacked or grabbed by an enemy.
Added tabs to the location info on the map screen, so players can sort between scavenging and shelter information.
Updated the layout of the Day Log to reduce the height of various sections and reduce unused space, so that the player is able to see more items at a glance.
Changed the item stack sizes for throwables. This also includes updating how many throwables Ricky has to trade
Increased the amount of throwables survivors might find in locations.
Updated the Graphics menu to allow for more setting changes. Players can now also adjust graphics from the Pause menu.
When a shelter station is selected, it will now show if the selected survivor has a relevant skill for that station.
Adjusted some of Wayne's voice.
Adjusted barks to disappear more gracefully when moving offscreen.
Adjusted the audio of the semi-truck door opening on Route 86 to better match the animation.
Added a portrait for everyone’s favorite trader, Pa.
Changed Cooper’s shelter event to give the Demoralized morale influence instead of Nightmares. Also changed this for the Airlift Escape Plan event that has the same effect. Bottle it up, Coop.
Adjusted the height and spacing for Japanese font to better fit text boxes.
Made adjustments to noise-related throwables so that they are more useful in scavenging, including: - Zombies now vault over obstacles when seeking a noise. - Maximum volume of Alarm Clock, Makeshift Timer and Firecracker are increased. - Fixed a mismatch between when noise-related throwables start alerting zombies versus when their audio can be heard by the player.
Adjusted the reverb for guns being shot outside.
Removed various items blocking line-of-sight in locations.
Optimization of various levels, including: St Bernadette's Hospital, Pickett Stadium, Route 86 and Jay's Motel.
Adjusted the survivor/zombie/NPC hit reacts for various situations like being hit by armoured zombies or the shrapnel ball.
Adjusted portraits for Survivor Eviction UI.
Added audio for when players select buttons with keyboard/controller or highlight them with a mouse.
Adjusted how knocked down enemies see, so that they don't briefly lose sight of survivors while they are down.
Adjusted the loot in 38 Irving Drive.
Adjusted the cost of crafting a Trapping Station so it differs from the Cooking Station.
Adjusted the generator at Guangzhou Wok shelter to only play running sounds after power is cut by disabling the substation transformer in the Airlift plan.
Adjusted sounds for interacting with the Shelter Assignment Wheel.
Reduced the sight range of zombies who are frantically searching but not yet aggro, so survivors have more time to go into cover.
Changed the shape of UI buttons to a more rounded "pill" shape.
Increased headshot damage for the Spirit DDX Crossbow. Made the weapon silent at the survivor’s position and reduced the noise where the bolt lands.
Items that are unusable (e.g. food when the selected survivor is full) in the loot transfer screen no longer appear greyed out, as this was causing more confusion than it was helping.
Adjusted how collisions work, so there is less chance of clipping through doors and walls when the player and an enemy collide with one another.
Removed some duplicated or unneeded cover points in Fire Station No. 8.
A survivor now receives Guilt if they flip the switch at the Walton City Water Treatment Plant.
Stanfield will now accept Improved Healing Kits as part of the Heart of Darkness Escape Plan.
Maddening Thirst curveball now gives players back empty bottles.
Removed a door from the Ashby Hoarder's House shelter.
Added more cover points to 9th Precinct Station and adjusted a lootpoint here.
Added more messaging to the compiling shaders section of the game's startup, so players can better tell what's happening.
Added some new loading tips and removed some old ones.
Adjusted the woodsmoke variant of the Bedbug Infestation shelter event to only appear beyond 20 phases.
Brick knockdown time extended by 1.5s.
Increased the blast radius of Grenades.
Decreased the blast radius of the Sticky Bomb but increased its stickiness.
Reduced the time between shots for the G911 Pistol.
Learning via skill books now takes 3 phases to resolve.
Added an option in the game settings to turn screenshake off.
Updated shin fracture state description in English to no longer mention Barge.
Improved communication in the communal area for when using a romance item won't work due to incompatible survivors.
Updated the input to go back to the Main Menu from Plan epilogue screens to be a hold input instead.
Adjusted the locked loot point in Red Mile Gas Station so players can see better.
Roaming vultures and pigeons will now be sensitive to noise generated by the survivor.
Adjusted throwable projectiles so they are less likely to hit the doorframe when survivors are throwing something with their back to the door.
Various text adjustments including minor adjustment to tutorial text.
Bumped version number to 0.16.
Fixes
Fixed a bug where humans could not be looted if they died at the top of stairs.
Fixed a bug where the “prepare for scavenge” screen doesn't scroll on mouse when pointing to an empty slot.
Fixed the trader UI not showing four-digit numbers properly with the large text setting.
Fixed a bug where survivors can stealth kill from high above an enemy.
Fixed a bug where rival shelter NPCs in High Mesa Cooling would sometimes get stuck next to the vans.
Fixed a repeating audio event at the top of the first staircase in 9th Precinct Station.
Fixed a bug where players could stealth kill a zombie that was standing in the front plane in Texway Gas Green St.
Fixed a bug where keyboard navigation stopped working if the first slot in an inventory was empty.
Fixed a bug where execution prompts could appear while survivors are on a ladder/pipe.
Fixed a light at Rodessa Substation that flickers back on after the power is shut down.
Fixed a bug at Jensen Elementary School where items could not be thrown through a particular window.
Added missing audio for Isaiah's unarmed critical kill.
Fixed a bug in the Network Plan where Eva's route could still be completed after handing items over to Corbin.
Fixed a bug where Milwood Manor showed as having a discoverable location.
Fixed the lead pipe missing blood effects.
Fixed some incorrect human NPC barks.
Fixed bugs where killing Mr Vale near the end of the Network Plan caused parts of it to break.
Fixed a bug where survivors could equip a gun in the shelter.
Fixed a bug with Zombified Pa not being able to see when looking behind.
Fixed a lunchbox floating below the barricade station in Li'l Broncos Daycare Center Shelter.
Fixed a bug where zombies in the second floor window of Value Records could see survivors through the window blinds.
Fixed a bug on the map where the threat level was not being calculated properly for High Mesa Cooling.
Fixed a bug where a trader location would still have a "Prepare Scavenge" button when it was out of range, if players had killed the trader that was there previously.
Fixed a bug where screamer zombies would stay screaming and not go into idle after survivors had left their line of sight.
Fixed a bug where hiding at a particular cover point in 9th Precinct Station would cause a back plane zombie to get stuck.
Fixed a bug where Miguel's shelter event for recovering a Hazmat Suit for the Spill Zone Plan didn't trigger again if players closed the game on the phase it appeared on.
Various level design and art fixes.
Fixed Dianne's Scrapper trait to affect all melee weapons, instead of just blunt ones.
Fixed a bug where Nora could be killed by throwing a single pebble at her.
Fixed a floating telescope at Pogo's Greenhaven.
Fixed an issue where an NPC had Taylor's model and is seen running in the background of the sewers in Walton Taxi Depot.
Fixed a puddle that was clipping through a ceiling at Mitchum Powell Plaza.
Fixed an issue where the game will no longer respond if a survivor dies in the same phase as another survivor turning from a Deep Wound.
Fixed an issue where the Ricky's Request shelter event would take two Defender D9s and 12 pistol bullets if the shelter had them, instead of just one gun and six bullets.
Fixed a line in the HUD appearing and disappearing when survivors equip or unequip weapons.
Fixed some issues where zombies sometimes do not attack the player even when they are standing right in front of them.
Coming for Update #14 in August
A brand new batch of survivor missions for Survivor Missions IV.
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See you in the Discord:
RZ
& the Into the Dead team