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Alpha 8 is available on beta branch

Alpha 8

It's been a very busy month, working on alpha 8 and participating in Gamescom. Finally, alpha 8 is here, and we are very happy with this new build.

This build is varied, with new content, new mechanics, usability fixes and even some cool new customization options.

Reminder: To play on the beta branch, right click the game in the steam client, select properties, and then select "beta" from the betas tab.

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Here are the main changes. Full list of changes can be found at the bottom.

Note: Unfortunately with all these major changes we were unable to support saved games from previous alpha versions. You will have to start a new game

Survivor Appearance and Customization

From now you can customize survivor appearance at any time. Don't just rename survivors as friends & family, customize their appearance so they actually resemble them. Beware though, friendships have been ruined in the past when survivors representing friends die horribly.

In addition, survivors now have hats! Hats are randomly generated and can be manually selected from the survivor customization window.

In-game encyclopedia

By right clicking any item, object or tech, you can see detailed information about this item. From the information window you can access the required research or raw materials, allowing you to navigate through the items until you figure out exactly what you need to craft that cool new 50 caliber sniper rifle.

Automatic crafting

No more micro-managing multi-clicking food production. Right click and craftable item and from the information window, set up automatic crafting. You can define minimum and maximum values and make sure you always have a sufficient supply of boards, scraps or any other resource.

Survivor Grouping

Survivors can now be grouped together by clicking CTRL + a number key, just like RTS games. This allows easier control during combat, separate ranged groups from melee and control them all at once.

Random Events

New random events infrastructure allows us to create complex, ongoing, branching, multi-step random events. 5 new random events have been added to make the game more interesting, and many more will follow in our next few updates.

New Creature: Legion

Legion is a huge hulk of a demon, very slow but very durable with strong armor. Weaker weapons can barely penetrate its hide, so use high damage weapons from afar if you want to survive this one.

Weapons, Research, Objects

New mid-game and late-game ranged weapons have been added, and all weapons in game have been re-balanced so that the difference between different weapon tiers is more notable. Some weapons are clearly better suited against stronger, armored enemies while others are better at picking off several weaker creatures.

In addition several new research subjects were added, coming soon subjects were implemented, and new objects such as a passive water collector have been introduced.

Full change list

  • Mechanics - Can now customize survivors appearance.
  • Mechanics - Can now set up items to be crafted automatically within a customizable minimum-maximum range.
  • Usability - Added an in-game encyclopedia that can be accessed by right clicking any item, object or tech.
  • Usability - Can now define survivor groups and select them, similar to RTS games.
  • Usability - Weapons now show their DPS and DPS vs enemies with armor rating of 5. This doesn't take accuracy into account.
  • Usability - Objective part in story now colored blue so it stands out more.
  • Content - Created a new random event infrastructure and added 5 new random events.
  • Content - New mid-game weapons made of iron.
  • Content - New late game firearms.
  • Content - New Creature: Legion.
  • Content - New research technologies and "Coming Soon" techs implemented.
  • Content - Added Rainwater collectors that gather water at a slower pace without survivor interaction.
  • Visual - Random event notifications now have images that describe them.
  • Visual - Changed stone house appearances.
  • Visual - Survivors have more shirt & pant options.
  • Visual - Survivors can have hats.
  • Balancing - When metals or minerals are running out in the map, there is a chance to discover new deposits.
  • Balancing - Rebalanced all weapons so the increments between weapon tiers are more notable.
  • Balancing - Enemy groups are now less likely to be nearby, so engaging one group at a time is more feasible.
  • Fixed Issue - Sometimes rituals that should create trees, rocks or clay would create too little or none at all.
  • Fixed Issue - Grass and other decorations will no longer appear outside of map area.
  • Fixed Issue - Added option to disable environment effects so that the game runs smoothly with intel HD graphics.