Dear Diary,
It’s been 6 weeks since our last build update. We know it’s been a while. But, you see, we’ve been very, very busy.
Before you read the spoilers ahead, play. Play first, read this later.
Today’s update is the most significant update since we pushed out our first friends and family build, all those months ago. And boy, is it a doozy. The team has worked incredibly hard to pull all of it together, and we can confidently say that it’s a massive change.
Once you’ve done this, then, introducing, in no particular order:
- Zones!
- Rivers!
- Bridges, and challenges!
- The Garden District!
- Trees and foliage and other green things!
- Stand-in Emerald City buildings!
- Wastrels!
- All new loot and crafting!
- Vastly revamped combat system!
- New shelter!
- Inventory/Holster/Quickslot unlocks!
We’re not holding your hand in this game, so it’s up to you guys to figure out how this all works. We’d love you to come and share your wisdom, tips and tricks on the forums.
For the very detailed orientated, here’s a more detailed but still not exhaustive changelist:
General
- You no longer start with a weapon, or with supporting food and water. It’s the big leagues, now.
- F is no longer both use quickslot and secondary action. This was causing everyone to lose their minds eating health kits when trying to pick something up. Sanity restored!
- F for raise/use quickslot. Some quickslot items now can be aimed and thrown.
- V for secondary interaction.
- If you want to wave to a Wellie, you can now, in certain situations.
- You can now look really-not-suspicious-at-all when sitting on a bench.
- Don’t pretend to be Jesus, walking on water, for you will be heavily smited for pretending to be a false idol.
- Vastly improved controller support, although we’ll keep tweaking this as time goes on.
- New NPC: wastrels. Wastrels are Wellies who have reacted badly to Joy. They’re terribly schizophrenic, and right now are mostly concerned about protecting themselves than seeking out Downers. Their behaviour is just temporary - we’re going to refine these guys a lot - and the males don’t have the correct model yet. They live in the Garden District, and don’t like Wellies. Wastrels are crazy. Like Hooch level crazy.
- Loot reworked - lots of new loot, new craftable items, many items removed. Lots of new places to get loot. Loot now spawns on NPCs properly. Wellies should drop their weapons properly. Loot stacks, and has normal looking sizes now.
- Josh is responsible for bringing this all together, and deserves a special shoutout for all of the awesome that you’re seeing.
Combat:
- Tons of new combat animations, vfx, sound effects, and AI responses.
- New Wellie attack system - be careful getting too close, for they will smite you.
- Shove is now on a separate button - R or mouse 3 for keyboards.
- Parry/block have been tuned.
- Unarmed combat is a bit more fun now.
- Combos exist, both armed and unarmed. As a subtle hint, panicking helps no one.
- Durability added to weapons. No more endless killing sprees, unless you’re a prepared psychopath, of course.
- You can now get closer to nature, with your very own branch. There are many like it, but this one is yours.
World Generation
- Rivers, foliage, two new biomes, bridge placement. I mean, holy hell. Matt has been on fire for weeks, and it’s awesome to share it.
- No more terrifyingly steep in-game terrain, or randomly missing parts of the world. All looking good.
- Slightly nicer terrain textures.
- New water.
- Some genuinely nice vistas now! All a bit randomly generated, of course.
- Train station touched up. Yes, it’s a train station, not a cathedral. You’ll see.
- Trees spawn everywhere still. Will fix when we can, until then, enjoy your arboreal interiors.
- Still some bugs with filler building placement - we appreciate these are an eyesore, but will be fixed when we review the filler system.
- Still have random road intersection art, as our artists were too busy on the Garden District.
- New Garden District Shelter and buildings.
- Craploads of new Bridge challenges.
There really is so much more, but these are the main changes. Good luck, have fun! Don’t die.
Love, Team Compulsion