SCUM - GOING NUCLEAR 0.8.00.57749

29 Nov 2022Developer post

Source: Steam Community (opens in a new tab)

Aaaaaaaaaaaandddd waiting is done and 0.8 is finally here. Get your hammers ready, your Iodine pills in your system and gather your hoes. Check out all of the deets about the new features! But before that make sure you check out the new trailer as well!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNNRhTcW0tQ

Let's start with the main title feature, the Nuclear powerplant POI and radioactivity system. This whole new area and system will provide a complete new challenge to the game. Let's start with the POI itself.

Nuclear powerplant.

The heart and soul of the new radioactive zone, the ruined Nuclear powerplant is a new highly dangerous POI filled with new dangers both seen and unseen, but also with some high tier rewards. From the surrounding dead woods, across the industrial environment that has been rusted down through time and radiation, to the abandoned facilities with claustrophobic corridors leading you in a maze.

But do not think you will be able to just venture in the POI all willy nilly with no issues. Before you even think about approaching it you will need some preparations. Why? Well radiation of course.

Radiation

I don't really need to explain what radiation is exactly but we will go over how it affects the game. As the core of the Nuclear powerplant exploded it has released a deadly radioactive cloud in the area surrounding it. The closer you get to the core the higher the radiation level you will experience. As the core is still exposed and active, it still actively releases radiation clouds inside of the zone which move randomly and will increase radiation levels on certain spots as well. The intensity of these zones are measured in Sieverts. The highest it can go is 60 Sv/h all to way down to 0.1 Sv/h at the edge of the zone. Now you might be wondering what that radiation will do to you?

Well the radiation level contaminates everything it comes into contact with. As for thee players aka you there are 2 types of contamination it can cause, External and internal.

External contamination is all the radioactivity that the player comes in contact with, through breathing, skin contact, contaminated clothing and any open wounds. It can be prevented by wearing a hazmat suit, more on them below. If you happen to have some external contamination the decontamination methods would be to either wash any of the items contaminated with soap or in players case just take a bath.

Internal contamination is possible when the player consumes a contaminated item. Decontamination can be done through sweat and urine, but depletion will start only when all of the radiation completely clears the body.

How to spot where those zones and radiation pockets are? Well, Geiger counters!

There are 2 versions of Geiger counters in the game. Analog and improvised. The analog counter will produce the sound and give out the exact measurement of radiation while the improvised one will only produce sound depending on the radiation around you. So you have a Geiger counter what now? Well now you need a layer of protection. Enter hazmat suits:

Hazmat suit

The only complete level of protection can be obtained by wearing a hazmat suit. Again there are 2 in the game:

The modern version:

And the vintage version:

The difference between them:

Modern:

+More inventory space.
+An armored vest can be worn below the suit.
-Highly visible.

Vintage:

+Blends with the environment better.
+Looks Cool.
-Less inventory space.
-No armor options.

Both will do the job you need though, as long as you keep them maintained. The hazmat suit will drop it's protection level depending on the durability of the suit, so be careful not to get hit when donning one.

durability >80 provides full protection
durability <30 doesn’t provide any protection

Anything in-between scales the level of protection according to durability. But don't worry, if in any case you have a damaged suit you can repair it with a bit of duct tape.

If you cannot get your hands on a hazmat suit but still find yourself a bit adventurous a gas mask will provide you with a bit of protection but do not expect much.

Now if you leave yourself contaminated for a while and not take care of it you will get more and more severe consequences. These will arrive in form of the ACUTE RADIATION SYNDROM or ARS. There are 4 levels of severity depending on how many cells the radiation obliterated.

C1- 5%-10% dead cells- Symptoms: Fatigue, weakness, leukopenia.
C2- 10%-20% dead cells- Symptoms: Hair loss, random bleeding wounds, moderate leukopenia.
C3- 20%-35% dead cells- Symptoms: Diarrhea, vomiting, dizziness, severe leukopenia.
C4- 35%-100% dead cells- Symptoms: Nausea, vomiting, sever diarrhea, death.

Regeneration rate of the dead cells depends on the severity as well.

C1 - 0.3% regen rate.
C2 - 0.2% regen rate.
C3 - 0.1% regen rate.
C4 - 0% regen rate.

TREATMENT:
There are 2 types of treatment:

Phoenix tears cure all of it, and it is the only possible cure for C4 level of radiation poisoning.

The new item, Potassium iodide pills, are used to block radiation for a determined amount of time. One pill can block 2 Sv for half an hour, and taking multiple pills only prolongs the effect, it doesn’t make it stronger. After that time, the blocked radiation returns.

Now you might be wondering that is all well and done, also thank you for the nightmare fuel. But what is the benefit of going there? Well my friend let me tell you about the loot.

Depleted uranium & Graphite

When you get to the zone you will want to look for special new wardrobes. That's where the money is.

Inside you can find even more hazard protective gear but the real money lies in one of these.

To the left we have depleted Uranium and to the right we have Graphite blocks. Depleted uranium can not only be sold for a hefty sum at trader, it can also be used to make Crafted Armored Piercing bullets or CRAP for short. Graphite can be sold for a good amount of money as well for now, but there are plans for more functionality in the future.

Now both of these items are still highly radioactive. More so graphite than depleted Uranium. So extracting them from the zone will require one more thing. Sealed Uranium container.

This new storage item will be used to safely transport all the contaminated material from the zone to wherever you need to.

Next up we have a highly, HIGHLY requested feature! Finally after all of this time of teasing modular base building elements are making their way in the game! A whole new system that will let you guys be way more creative in your base building and build better bases strategically. Alright to start off we have a couple of new elements which you will find from foundations, different walls, stairs etc. These are the basic new BB elements that you will utilize now with more on the way in the future. We also kept a lot of the old BB elements in the game as well so you will be able to combine the 2 to make your perfect Island getaway before someone blows it up with C4.

First important note right now is that we separated the Building menu from the crafting menu. You will now find a new building tab where you can find all of the fillable blueprints base building or not.

Now that is cleared, let's get to the good stuff. There are a couple of things to note here but most of it will be your own experience with it and experimentation. We cannot see what will come to fruition once you guys get your hands on it.

So let's start with an important part of this feature. Stability. Do not think you will be able to construct structures size of an average medieval castle sitting on top of a tiniest twig possible. You will have to construct a nice layer of foundations and support elements if you want to build bigger, better and higher. You will also have to keep in mind the level of the element. The higher the level of the element the more stability it can have on top of it. Speaking of these levels, yes all of the materials/levels that are possible on the outside walls are now also possible on the modular BB elements.

There are also some restrictions gameplay wise as well. There is a limit on how many modular BB elements you can place per flag. This limit does not count in regular BB elements. An important note is that the more players are in a squad the higher the limit will be for the modular BB elements. This will not only help with the server performance but it also has a gameplay mechanic behind it. So now if you find a really big base you know you can expect gear for a whole team inside. Private server owners can adjust this limit of course.

All that is left now is for you guys to experiment with this awesome new system, as an inspiration here are some of the bases we made.

What is a home without a garden to tend to? How will vegetarians survive in a harsh environment without telling anyone they have their own garden and how you don't need meat in your life? Well have no fear veggie friends! You can now create and tend to your own gardens.

Let's start from the ground up, literally. To start off you will need to build a garden plot. Once you placed the blueprint first time you can adjust the size with your mouse movement. Do keep in mind, the bigger the plot the more care you need to put into it.

Once you placed down your little garden, depending on the size, you will have plots where you can plant your seeds. There are many wonderful seeds to be found including:

Red Onions
Peppers
Carrots
Zucchini
Chili Peppers
Tomatoes
Spinach
Lettuce
Cucumber
Potatoes
Corn
Watermelon
Cabbage
Sweet Melons
Broccoli
Garlic
Apples
Pears
Cherries
Figs

When you get seeds, or seed packages for each one, make sure you check out the tooltip for them as it will show you the perfect conditions for growing them.

Alright so you have your seed now you can plant it.

And that's it for the basics now we go to tending the garden. Well first thing is plants need water. There are 3 different methods you can water your garden with: Interacting with water containers, rainfall and well you can urinate on the soil. You can check the water level on each plot by going in focus mode on it. We also have a cute little item for it. In focus mode you can also check all other stats on that plant including sunlight levels.

Second thing plant needs is fertilizer. You need to enrich that soil. There are 2 types of fertilizer. Organic and industrial.

Organic will increase growth speed of the plant by 25% and increase chance of a successful harvest by 5% while industrial will increase growth speed by 50% and chance for harvest by 10%.

Alright cool, you have your garden. you have your seeds, water, fertilizer everything is nice and planted. You're good right? Nope, surprise! Nature wants to claim your hard field work for itself. There is still a danger of weeds, pests and fungi to grow in your garden and kill your plants. There are different ways you can combat them. First method is good ol fashion chemical warf... no wait that term is illegal. Chemical tools: Herbicide, Pesticide and Fungicide.

Chemical way is the only way you can get rid of pests and fungi while weeds can be rooted out by hand or even, them hoes man!

And that is mostly it, rinse and repeat process. Take care of your garden make sure all of it's needs are met and you will prosper.

Are you ready for this one? Modular vehicles are finally here! Well better to say vehicle. Unfortunately we had major issues in the last few days of testing so in the name of stability we had to remove the Laika car model for now. So you will only see the Wolfswagen right now. Also rest of the vehicles will come back in waves after they are revamped to the new system.

So what's new? Well starting off before you would find a complete vehicle on the map and only had bring fuel to the vehicle and you are off. That really did not make sense in an abandoned island environment. It also made it extremely easy for the first squad to do it, just go around the island and collect all of the vehicles. With the new modular vehicles we can do a lot more.

Vehicles will now spawn in a ruined downed and salvaged state. Some of them will miss some parts some of them other parts, some of them won't even have an engine. From there on you are free to push the vehicle to safe area or to the vehicle mechanic, you can even salvage parts from them if needed it is entirely up to you.

Your friends can even help you push!

Some of the parts you can remove and install immediately if you have them, doors, hood etc. For the engine you need to get to the car mechanic. For wheels you will need a car jack.

All the missing parts can be either looted in the world or bought at the car mechanic. Armored upgrades can only be obtained through the car mechanic.

For car mechanic service make sure you park the car at the car lift station. You can then hold interact key to lift it and do required maintenance.

Now this might not be the most flashy of the features but it is no way less important. So listen up we gathered this one in the rawest data form possible as you might pull it up again to quickly remind yourself as you adjust to the switch. Let's start with:

BANKING

All players have bank accounts set by default.
Default bank account balance is $0
Players can deposit money on the account in outposts by visiting the bank or on the ATM machines which are scattered throughout the island and the numerous POI's
Unlimited amounts of money can be deposited in the bank
ATM machines have a deposit/withdrawal limit which refreshes over time when used out
Players cannot withdraw or deposit money from ATM's without a valid credit card

CREDIT CARDS:

Starter bank card - with each respawn player gets this card (it's in the inventory). It's free, doesn't have any protection which means anyone can add or remove money from the account. It can be disabled from the banker if it's lost. It has a daily limit of $500 for deposit/withdrawal at the ATM machine. No renewal since player gets them for free

Classic bank card - costs $100 and can be purchased at the bank or at any ATM machine. It has a 1 digit pin protection (before every transaction has been made, player has to enter a 1 digit pin). It has a daily limit of $1000 for deposit/withdrawal at the ATM machine. The player gets 1 free renewal if lost, and then he has to pay the full price each time. The previous card is cancelled and a new 1 digit protection pin is assigned.

Gold bank card - costs $5000 and can be purchased at the bank only. It has a 2 digit pin protection and a daily limit of $5000 for deposit/withdrawal at the ATM machine. The player gets 5 free renewals if lost, and then he has to pay the full price each time. The previous card is cancelled a new 2 digit protection pin is assigned.
Most importantly, it unlocks the GOLD purchase option

Gold can be bought only with the gold card at any banker in any outposts. The purchased gold is deposited on the player's account. The initial gold price is $1000 per unit (for purchasing by players).
The gold price is $750 (for purchase by bankers). Yes, you can sell gold also.
The gold buying capability defines how much gold a banker can buy. If this number reaches 0, the banker cannot buy anymore gold. For each 10% reduction in buying capability, the trader will reduce the buying price of gold by 2%.
Total gold units that can be purchased at the banker and the regeneration rate of gold units are determined by the "outpost economy status". In other words, the more players that use the outpost's service, the higher it's economy status will be

Each card has player's nickname on it and an account number. You can also transfer funds between accounts using the "transfer" option at the banker or ATM

For each transaction, banker takes a provision of 2%, while the ATM takes provision of 5%

Now the banking system directly connects to the next one which is:

RESPAWN REWORK:

We have been trying to find a workaround with how fame control respawn points. With time it gets harder and harder to build up fame points, and every death is a costly one.
Our goal is to separate fame points from the respawn options and better define what actions make players more famous compared to all other players on the server.

Here's how the new system works:

Random and sector respawn will be now paid with credits
Random respawn by default will cost $250
Sector respawn by default will cost $1000
Shelter respawn will be now paid exclusively with gold
Shelter respawn by default will cost 1 GOLD unit (more on that later)

PERMADEATH:

To discourage players from overusing the "commit suicide" option without consequence, we've introduced permadeath. Players can go in the negative balance with respawns up to a maximum of $2500, but only for random respawns. If a player passes the $2500 respawn threshold the company will not respawn his/her characters again and the new character has to be created, meaning permadeath has happened and respawn options will not be possible
That means that you should deposit cash you've found/acquired to your account as soon as you can in order to combat this. Alternatively someone can still phoenix tears revive you or deposit some money on your account to get you back into action.

No you might be wondering what will fame be used for then? Well:

FAME REWORK

Players won't go into negative fame points anymore (you can't be less famous then anonymous)

The fame influx is a constant stream of fame points that happens while player is logged into the game. It is set at 0.05 FP per minute (real time). This means that the player gets 1 FP for each 20 minutes spent in the game, 3 FP per hour (real time).

Along with the basic fame influx, players get additional fame points that could be constant or one time only (depending on the activity)

Basically, whatever you do on the island brings you a number of fame points. Depending on the activity, you might not see an immediate change in FP if the action you're doing brings you less than 1 FP, but it's adding in the background with all the other actions so you'll see a change sooner or later.

A few examples of significant actions that bring you fame points:

Looting items (number of FP gained depends on item rarity)
Selling items (number of FP gained depends on item rarity)
Raising attributes to the max
Doing a killbox

A few examples of significant actions that make you lose fame points:

Suicide (player loses 50% of fame points)
Buying loot (number of FP lost depends on item rarity) - the prisoner can't purchase anything at the trader without fame points - item availability depends on number of fame points
Failing a lockpick (number of FP lost depends on lock type)
Getting killed by a another player

And last but not least, we've added 3D audio support.
The goal of 3D audio is to provide the listener with an audio experience that mimics real life. It's aim is to provide a more immersive experience, especially when using headphones.
That means that you should have an easier time figuring out where that damn shot came from, the ambience SFX will provide a much more atmospheric experience, forests will seem even more alive and more.
Basically, it will affect all of the sounds that you hear across the whole island and we're eager to hear your feedback.

Also an announcement, we switched some of the servers to a new provider to check out the performance there. Switched servers are:

SCUM Server Official 1 Europe Monthly Wipe 176.9.123.126:7022
SCUM Server Official 9 Europe 176.9.123.126:7042
SCUM Official Global Europe SCUM 176.9.123.126:7062
SCUM Server Official 6 US East 64.185.227.162:7052
SCUM Server Official 8 US East 64.185.227.162:7072
SCUM Server Official 5 US East 64.185.227.162:7092

Huge shout out to GG Host for letting us see the situation their hardware so if you're looking for a new server or already play on one of these make sure to check them out.