I have just released the new update 0.70.0 on Steam under the "Experimental Build". It's opt-in only at the moment because it was rushed to make the release date so it's still very unstable. Expect it to crash a lot, run slowly, and have lots of bugs. I will be releasing updates every day or two for the next few weeks and aim to get it stable and in the normal public release by Christmas.
My recommendation is only to opt-in if you really want to try it out now, otherwise you should wait a few days for a more stable release.
This first version is 64-bit only for now.
As for the main public branch, it's now been updated to the previous "experimental" version, 0.69. Play this one if you want something more stable. It will be updated to 0.70 when it's stable enough.
0.70.0
This is a massive update that changes a lot of stuff. It was rushed out to reassure people we're still working, expect it to be super unstable and buggy while we spend the next few weeks stabilising it.
Most players might want to wait another week or so before playing this version.
Recommend you import to a new game.
FEATURES
- 64-bit version available. 32-bit version will continue, but will be less stable due to the memory limitations.
- Creatures are now mostly coded in. Creatures will be introduced over time, currently we have: -The Beak Thing, a blind carnivorous giraffe/bird creature. -The Leviathan, a giant thing. -Big wolf things
- New dialog/AI hybrid system that takes into account situation details and remembers what you've done in the past.
- Thugs and bandits can now harass and rob you rather than always attacking on sight. Thugs in town can insult you, then go outside the gates and jump you when you leave town. NPCs can follow and chase you while they talk or threaten you, and know the difference if you are running away.
- Changes to relation system, fighting someone in the middle of nowhere has very little effect on faction relations. Individuals can be perceived as temporary enemies or allies.
- A new terrain engine was necessary for the 64bit build (old one was 32bit closed-source). It looks way worse than the old one because we've run out of texture units for the smooth normals, but we will fix that soon.
- Dropped items no longer vanish underground, and they can be easily found with visible labels if you hold the ALT key. They are also saved when you save your game.
- NPC AI now has a schedule. They go to bed at night. Shopkeepers shoo you out of their shop at closing time and lock up for the night.
- Replaced the pathfinding/movement engine with the Havok AI engine.
- New buildings available: -Corpse furnace, to dispose of bodies. -Smelter, to melt down old weapons and armour into iron
- Characters are less disadvantaged by being outnumbered, your lvl50 warrior can now take out a group of starving bandits without getting mobbed. Basically they will miss more often as he moves around and dodges.
- More details added to the GUI, including visible calculations for character stats and penalties.
- Multi-threaded resource loading for smooth creation of models and textures. Shorter loading hiccups when moving around the map.
- Ragdolls fixed up, less crazy ragdoll behavior. Animation blending between ragdoll and non-ragdoll states.
FEATURES ADDED NOT FINISHED PROPERLY OR USED MUCH YET
- Buildings can now have multiple floors, but for now only the large house makes use of it. The staircase will intersect furniture from old games. Waiting on the shift to the new world map in a few months, with the new multi-story buildings to take things any further.
- Added stealth mechanics.
BUGFIXES
- AI follow behaviour has been improved, so squads don't tend to queue up behind the leader and do that stop/start thing
- It's now a little easier to click to enter buildings
- Minor GUI improvements to font size at lower resolutions
- Fixed NPC view range
- Fixes to the AI and pathfinder for dealing with walls and gates.
- Fixed some of the cannibal AI quirks
- Fixed bug where equipment with positive athletics bonuses weren't applied.
- Fixed modded dialogue not loading in the construction set
- Fixed the random crash when switching gender in the editor