Hello all,
We’ve released the 1.3 patch to our stable branch on Steam. You can find our patch notes below. There’s a lot of testing and breaking to do so go at it! Please do your best to check against the list of changes and report bugs using the in game bug report system. We'll have a devblog out shortly. We apologize for the delay in getting our builds to default. Working at home has taken a bit of getting used to and obviously isn't as smooth as working from the office.
This update includes quite a few fixes and improvements along with a new point of interest. The police stations on the island have been completely reworked. You'll find a new police station in both Union Point and Addersfield. You'll find ammo and area specific weapons now only spawning in the armories of police stations. There are a lot of improvements and changes made for 1.3 please check against the changelog below to see them all.
The Police Station
Our police station reworks includes a total rework to the structure and surrounding area. You'll find it to be much larger, it features a generator room, armory, offices, gun range along with many other corridors and passageways. The structure also features newly designed doors, including electric gates and one way doorways. Door sounds have also been updated across the board.
New Police Station Front
Emergency Lighting
Police Station Armory
Evidence Lockup
Cell Doors (these will open when structure is powered)
New Fortifications
We've introduced a number of new and stronger fortifications. You'll find bars, reinforced planks, plywood sheets, metal sheeting and a few more. The .gif below showcases these new, craftable fortifications.
New Fortifications
Improved Server Stability and Performance
James has made quite a few tweaks to our server performance. We should now see less stutter and the ability to hold more players on each server. These tweaks are all being done with player run servers in mind. We're in the process of optimizing our server builds so you'll be able to host from home for free. This should essentially satisfy the need for those that would like to play alone or just with friends. We'll also be working on a single player wrapper, allowing the player to play without the need to host a server.
These improvements also include a server restart system. This system will automatically restart the servers at least once per day. Players can also now request a server restart with the /restart command.
Discord Integration
Discord has been a massive part of the project since we launched un-listed pre-alpha at the end of 2017. It has provided a great deal of direct 1 on 1 contact with players and a tremendous amount of feedback. You'll be able to see player stats along with joining your friends on servers with a simple, single click! Below is a video of just a few of the newly introduced hooks. We are looking into expanding this with the possibility of Discord replacing our out of date in game voice chat. If you have any other suggestions please use the ingame F1 menu to suggest them.
PVE Improvements
Players playing on our PVE servers have requested some changes and we've introduced them in 1.3. Players will no longer be able to damage locks (unless they're the owners). Vehicles no longer damage players. Player traps no longer damage others, along with a few other changes. This should improve the PVE aspects quite a bit.
Sound Design
We've introduced new ambient tracks and sounds along with improved zombie sounds and design. You'll find they sound design ever evolving as we move through the next few updates. The current improvements should help the general sound feel in the project and we're looking forward to expanding on these changes.
- Improvements to zombie in vicinity system.
- Improvements to zombie alert sound reactions.
- Ambient sounds overhaul
- Wind noise system based on player height in the environment.
- Dynamic storm sounds playing with heavy rain and storm.
- Weather sounds transition system when entering buildings.
- Random ambient events system that plays 3d sounds around the player (frogs/crickets/crows/other birds/wind). Also plays different sounds depending on the time of day.
- Improved sound design by creating pooled audio playing to stop certain sounds getting cut off.
- Audio can now be heard after death (during fall to ground)
- Added new audio control system which muffles and reduces the range of sounds that are behind a wall.
Patch Notes - 1.3.9
- Zombies now play correct animation when climbing through windows.
- Zombies no longer spawn in fortified structures.
- Reinforced plank placement improved.
- Fixes for seeing other players consuming items.
- Fixed issue with navigation through hole in wall on first floor of new police POI.
- Fixed issue with collision on bridge south of union point.
- Shopping carts can now be harvested.
- Hatchet no longer has a floating shadow while equipped.
- Reduced the volume of the interior loud speakers in the police POI.
- Zombies now scream when walking down the cell corridor.
- Moved player spawn point that was inside a closed container.
- Stopped vehicle spawning in kitchen of police POI in Union Point.
- Increased the amount of zombies in the police POI.
- Lowered floating decals at Union Point police POI.
- Fixed issue with discord causing sounds and UI to break.
- Zombie scream sounds now align with animations.
- Door sound improvements.
- Further performance improvements at the police station POI.
- Fixed user reports. They can be submitted again.
- Fixed spamming errors being caused by other players that are far away. This was causing console spam.
- Fixed issue that was causing ambient light to be brighter than it should be.
- Police POI performance improvements.
- Fixes for broken sounds.
- Zombie footsteps working.
Fortifications
- Aluminum Plank added.
- Reinforced Plank added.
- Plywood Board added.
- Plywood Board Reinforced added.
- Sheet Metal added.
- Window Bars added.
PVE Improvement (Only on PVE servers)
- Damaging other player fortifications and locks is no longer possible.
- Damage from vehicles is now disabled.
- Damage from explosions and traps disabled.
Consumables
- Energy drinks now effect stats correctly.
Player
- Added mental health visual effects which get worse as mental health gets worse.
- Other players can now be seen consuming items.
- Death rag doll stability improved
Server
- Added player initiated server restarting via vote system.
- Added scheduled restarting functionality which can be set in the serverConfig.txt
Discord
- Added Discord rich presence support which displays an individuals global stats like zombies killed and nights survived. Once in game the information because specific to the player current actions.
Lights
- Removed the faulty bulb effects from player placed bulbs (Lighting inside of circuits)
- Added faulty bulb flickering for both default and emergency lighting.
Audio
- Improvements to zombie in vicinity system.
- Improvements to zombie alert sound reactions.
- Ambient sounds overhaul
- Wind noise system based on player height in the environment.
- Dynamic storm sounds playing with heavy rain and storm.
- Weather sounds transition system when entering buildings.
- Random ambient events system that plays 3d sounds around the player (frogs/crickets/crows/other birds/wind). Also plays different sounds depending on time of day.
- Improved sound design by creating pooled audio playing to stop certain sounds getting cut off.
- Audio can now be heard after death (during fall to ground)
- Added new audio control system which muffles and reduces the range of sounds that are behind a wall.
AI
- Resolved issue which stopped zombies wandering after they had roamed to a sound.
- Zombies can now open doors that require electricity but only while the door is powered.
Weapons
- Reduced the power slightly on Rauser, Lola, Clinchester and the r-6804 to better balance then against specialist weapons.
- Pump action and FRKS shotguns now use 18 gauge ammo.
- Added new passive carry positions system which lowers the weapon when not in use. Carry position is entered after time without weapon use. It takes longer to enter when the weapon is in use.
UI
- Cleaning kit guide point no longer says you need cloth when it was actually rags.
- Fixed wind up flashlight description.
- Dot in the centre of the screen (crosshair) no longer displays when looking at objects more than several meters away. This was causing confusion as players were assuming bullets would hit at crosshair location when fired from the hip position.
- Lock kits no longer show resources left next to name.
- Lock kits now show their max application strength in the inventory after being removed.
World Interaction
- Resolved issue where items would move slightly after been dropped.
- Stopped entry into placement mode when item would be on top of another item.
- Explosions now have reduced damage when there is a wall between the explosion and the object getting damaged.
- Improved item placement stability. This should hopefully fix any remaining issues around placed items going missing.
- Fixed issue which meant that locks weren't being cleared from the database after being destroyed. This resulted in locks with 1 condition after server restart.
- Fixed issue which stopped explosions affecting locks after first one.
- Added loads of new harvest locations linked to the new police station props.
- Removed the ability to drop certain items that require snapping to the ground surface.
- Improved placement mode by making item snap to the nearest downward surface.
- Added functionality for automatic opening/closing doors for when power gets activated/deactivated.
Loot
- Long weapons can now spawn upright in the gun store and armories.
- Double barrel and hunting rifles now spawn at farm houses.
- Added new 18 gauge shotgun ammo.
- Specialist ammo no longer spawns at non special POI based locations.
- Specialist weapons no longer spawn in non special POI based locations.
- Ammo at POI locations are now full boxes by default.
Props
- Added new police station POI building.
- Added commercial glass sliding doors.
- Added shooting range props.
- Added various new police station props.
Animation
- Improved carry positions for other players.
- Added new eating animations for other players.
- Added new drinking animations for other players.
- Added new pill takin animation for other players.
- Improved pistol carry animations for other players.
Doors
- Added new electric police cell door.
- Added new electric armory door.
- Added new 1 way electric security door.
- Added new black office type door.
Devlog, Progress and Covid-19
As you're all aware, things just aren't normal at the moment. We're doing our best and progress is being made although it has slowed a bit. Working from home is not ideal for the team. We're reworking our Roadmap to reflect the new working conditions and should have something up for you all shortly. James will have a Devlog up as soon as he can record the voice over and we'll publish it on Steam and our Youtube channel. We're hoping you're all staying safe and home if possible. With any luck, we'll be back to normal shortly. Best of luck to everyone in these crazy times!
Thanks for the continued support and continued issue and suggestion reporting :). Below are some helpful links to anyone new and interested in the game. If you'd like to follow a bit closer, please consider joining our Discord we're here, we're listening!
Links
Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights
Forum: https://community.survivethenights.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive
Website: https://www.survivethenights.net