Hello, dear players!
Over the past month, we have focused on expanding combat, improving enemy behavior, polishing the Main Forest, and fixing several multiplayer and interface issues.
This update brings the game to Early Access 0.5.4, Build 168.
Weapons and Combat
Added and integrated the sawed-off shotgun and machete.
Added shotgun ammunition, inventory entries, world pickups, icons, and loot distribution.
Introduced a new melee combat system with randomized attack animations, stamina consumption, hit detection, impact sounds, effects, and camera shake.
Made firearm hit detection server-authoritative for more reliable shooting in multiplayer.
Added separate accuracy settings for hip fire and aiming down sights.
Improved shotgun pellet distribution and damage calculation.
Added surface-specific bullet impacts, including particles, sounds, and decals.
Added muzzle flashes, tracers, shell ejection, and new weapon sound effects.
Improved first-person weapon alignment while aiming down sights.
Added empty and tactical reload variants.
Fixed automatic reload behavior and several cases where firing or reloading could become temporarily blocked.
Fixed remote weapon animations and prevented duplicate effects or animation events.
Reduced friendly-fire damage between players.
Improved weapon noise and damage reporting so enemies can react more consistently.
Improved the flare gun, its animations, projectile behavior, effects, and multiplayer handling.
Fixed world pickup sounds for other players in multiplayer.
Enemies
Reworked and optimized behavior trees for all zombie variants and the Statue enemy.
Improved enemy reactions to sight, sound, and damage.
Reduced unnecessary per-frame AI processing.
Fixed zombie collision and improved weapon hit detection against enemy bodies.
Fixed a Statue enemy runtime error triggered by physical animation after mine explosions.
Adjusted the Statue enemy's balance by reducing its sight and hearing ranges and lowering its chase speed.
Added dedicated navigation blockers to keep Statue enemies inside their intended buildings.
Increased the initial enemy budget for both daytime and nighttime encounters.
Radiation and Healing Rework
Radiation is now significantly less punishing.
Radiation no longer deals damage over time. Instead, accumulated radiation reduces the player's maximum health.
The first 50 points of radiation are completely safe and have no negative effects.
Updated the HUD to clearly show how much maximum health is blocked by radiation.
Medkits no longer require players to hold the left mouse button. Their full healing effect is now applied instantly.
Increased the effectiveness of large medkits and large anti-radiation kits.
Fixed health and stamina bar updates.
Fixed health visualization when maximum health is reduced by radiation.
Added stamina costs for jumping and sprinting.
Reduced stamina consumption while sprinting.
Improved fatigue state handling while driving vehicles.
World and Exploration
Improved geometry and collision throughout the Main Forest.
Cleaned up and repositioned objects at several points of interest.
Moved the evacuation radio to a dedicated location near the helipad.
Replaced lanterns with light sticks in selected areas.
Added extra loot crates around the world.
Updated loot tables, containers, puzzles, evacuation content, electricity placement, and vehicle-related assets.
Improved player spawning and teleportation by waiting for walkable terrain and collision to finish loading.
Fixed visible landscape seams during nighttime.
Rebuilt world optimization data and updated level streaming content.
Added map markers for teleport anomalies.
Improved flare projectile performance by reducing unnecessary lighting and shadow calculations.
Quests, Compass, and Interface
Added compass markers for all currently available objectives, visible from up to 1,000 meters away.
Added dedicated compass markers for the evacuation radio and the active helipad.
Improved compass marker behavior for both hosts and clients.
Quest markers now disappear reliably when an objective is completed, failed, or timed out.
Fixed compass toggling.
Fixed the controls menu so configured input bindings appear correctly.
Added a quick-access information icon near the hotbar.
Improved interaction prompts so they can update while the player continues looking at the same object.
Items and Equipment
Reworked the held-item system for more reliable first-person and third-person presentation.
Improved item attachment, visibility, shadows, animations, and multiplayer synchronization.
Improved medkits, anti-radiation kits, throwable items, the flare gun, and other existing equipment.
Improved refueling feedback with unique interaction prompts for generators and ATVs.
Fuel cans can now be stacked in the inventory.
Refueling consumes one complete fuel can. Partially filled fuel cans no longer exist.
Shoulder lights now have unlimited charge and use occasional randomized flickering instead of battery depletion.
Batteries were removed from loot tables.
Walkie-talkies and megaphones no longer consume charge.
Shoulder lights now switch off automatically when entering a vehicle.
Multiplayer, Loading, and Stability
Added a new loading-screen system that remains visible throughout map travel and initial world streaming.
Added six new loading-screen backgrounds.
Improved loading behavior when joining Steam lobbies and during seamless or regular multiplayer travel.
Improved player initialization after joining a match, including HUD, camera, abilities, radiation, and shoulder-light state.
Fixed several timing issues caused by player data arriving late on clients.
Improved network synchronization after spawning and teleporting.
Removed outdated systems and unused legacy content.
Completed extensive internal cleanup following the Unreal Engine 5.7 migration.
Added numerous smaller fixes to materials, audio, animations, collision, level streaming, and gameplay assets.
Thank you for playing and for continuing to share your feedback. More improvements are already in development!