Jaws of Extinction 0.3.5.11 has arrived! This update contains heaps of new systems, new content, the reintroduction of missing systems and a myriad of fixes.
The new horde system puts an emphasis on stealth - stay under the radar to avoid being overwhelmed.
The playable characters have received more than just visual improvements too. You can now make new use of an array of melee items and clothing options with the new melee and outfit systems. Additionally, remember to take good care of yourself and stay clean with the new hygiene system. Take a shower from time to time or someone - or something - may catch your scent.
The new saving and loading system aims to eradicate any previous issues plaguing the game resulting in progress not being restored correctly.
Remember to keep your weapons handy - new military outposts have appeared across the region. Alerting hostile NPCs might only make matters worse as they call in helicopter reinforcements.
Developer Comment:
Due to some of the game's default keybindings being remapped, it would be advisable to remove your original keybindings before launching the game if you have played before. This can be found in appdata/local/joegame_a/saved/savegames. Delete the file named “DefaultJOEPlayer_KeyBindings”. This file will then be regenerated upon launching the game.
Old saves files will NOT be compatible with this build pre 0.3.5.11a. Old game saves will not display in the load game list anymore, so you will be required to start a new game.
New Save/Load System
The saving and loading system has been completely redeveloped following the persistent problems encountered with the original system. This new system will address the constant issue of quest progress not saving correctly amongst a plethora of other previous issues.
- Load back into your game from the main menu using the “Continue” button.
- Fixed issues preventing quest progress saving.
- Fixed horse loading with its legs in the air.
- Fixed issues with items not saving correctly.
- Fixed issues with player holster/clothing/equipped items not showing.
- Fixed ammo being lost when loading a saved game.
- Fixed ammo selection not saving.
- Fixed map locations not appearing after loading.
- Fixed time of day not saving correctly.
- Fixed bleeding status not saving.
- Fixed wellness status not saving.
- Fixed vehicle inventories not saving and being overwritten.
Infected Horde Redesign
The Horde is back, with a twist. Taking it slow and quietly has never meant so much before now. When infected are close the new horde system will measure your disturbance level and will display on a meter in the top center of your screen. The more the gauge fills, the more disturbance you are causing to the infected nearby. Fill it all the way to the top and the meter will progress to the next level.
There are three levels that will progress. Hit the third and final stage and you will now have to deal with a continuous horde for three minutes. You can either hide, take cover in the nearest safezone or take them all on.
- Fixed horde infected being able to spawn in the safezone.
- Fixed situation causing horde infected to spawn in the ground.
New Melee Weapons
Melee is back with a completely new and improved system. Melee was temporarily disabled while the new system was being developed due to the mirard of issues the old system caused. Most notably, we have addressed the issues with melee weapons not always contacting their targets. With melee re-implemented, so too is harvesting and felling trees with axes.
- New melee system with significantly improved collision detection
- Different weapons deal different amounts of damage and have varying stamina requirements based on their weight.
- Stamina is not consumed if harvesting trees.
- Improved directional hit reactions from enemies
- Works in both third and first person.
- Can swing melee weapons while crouched
- Characters no longer move with the melee attack, improving the feel of first-person melee swings.
- Weapons include:
- Shovel
- Hand Axe
- Police Batton
- Four craftable Baseball Bat variants
New Hygiene & Odor System
What's that smell? It may be you! Wash regularly to avoid your smell giving you away to infected and animals. Doing tasks which might make you dirty or bloody will decrease your hygiene.
- Added new Hygiene and Odor system.
- Over time, oder will increase and hygiene will decrease.
- Doing certain activities will make you smell more, such as getting caught in spore clouds.
- Swimming will reduce odor but also decrease hygiene.
- Infected and animals are now receptive to the player's odor. Be careful of sneaking near them if they can smell you.
- Add new craftable wash stations, these are also available for use in the safezone.
- Added new craftable soap.
New Outfit System
New outfit sets are available. Find outfits in the world then use them in your inventory to add them to your character.
- Twenty starter outfits available to collect.
- Visual improvements over the previous clothing system.
- Customise outfits further using the mod system to change the colours and textures of parts of your outfit.
- Change your outfit any time in the ‘Character’ panel from the selection of outfits you have already found.
- Changing outfits takes a short amount of time.
- Different outfits offer different statistics. Changing out your outfit for the situation may be advisable.
New Enemy Alarm & Reinforcement Event
Military enemies guarding bases now have the ability to call in reinforcements if you do not stop them from raising the alarm at the radio tower.
- Kill enemies before they can interact with radio towers in military bases.
- Disable the radio tower by shooting the power panel to disable the tower.
- If the alarm is raised, a military helicopter will arrive and reinforcements will rappel into the military complex.
Enemy Alert Icons, Sounds & Stealth
Enemies in Jaws of Extinction have received a variety of quality of life improvements, including overhead notifications displaying their current state.
- Added new vocals to hazmat enemies indicating their current combat status.
- Added new icons and sounds to show when enemies change their combat state.
- NPCs now have a vision timer. Previously, enemies would either see you or not. Now, enemies' perception of you will tick up for a second or so while in their line of sight. If the timer reaches maximum and you are still in their line of sight, the NPC will become alerted. This means that if you are caught in the open for a moment, you can duck in to cover to hide. The vision timer can be seen within the new overhead icons.
World Expansions
New lands are available to explore. Part of the new swampy region of bayou, east on Hanouten fishing village is filled with mysterious waterways and creepy shacks. The Garnet Lake Lumber Yard has seen a revamp as well as the Dry Docks on the Hanouten seashore.
- Visit the new mobile safe zone (currently in development) cruising around the waters of the Bayou.
- Take on a new bayou military Thanatos base.
- Unlock precious loot using your intellect by overcoming puzzles to unlock challenge safes and hard to reach locations.
Player
- New Amy’s visuals with improved mesh, hair and material textures.
- Added new dynamic blood, dirt and wet skins.
- Fixed being able to shoot with the inventory open
- Fixed being able to aim while climbing.
- Fixed issues caused when climbing in first person causing the character's body mesh to clip with the camera.
- Fixed inventory items becoming stuck in the character’s hand if equipping a weapon from the inventory
- Fixed unusable iron sights on the MK18
- Fixed rare situation where player is unable to leave the noticeboard.
- Fixed being able to zoom/aim while using the noticeboard.
- Fixed various situations causing the character's bust to stretch.
- Fixed death music continually playing even after respawning
- Fixed death music not being controllable by the setting’s music slider
- Fixed circumstances causing character to get up after dying
- Fixed weapons losing ammo if reloading weapon that was set to use a non-default ammo type
- Fixed weapons modifications being added multiple times to the same weapon.
- Fixed facemasks clipping with the camera in first person.
- Fixed not being able to remove NVGs from head even if not equipped.
- Fixed torso clipping with camera in first person when interacting with cabinets.
- Fixed mesh clipping with body when reloading in first person
- Improved weapon attack disturbances. Lower calibre weapons make less noise.
- New body bag will now spawn at the location of death. The loot can be taken from the body bag or collected using the runner from the safezone
World & Environment
- Dawn now begins at 5am and dusk at 8pm (was 6am and 6pm)
- Added new improved grass, roads and other procedural foliage. Visuals suit the world better and performance cost is significantly improved.
- Added the random chance of setting off car alarms when trying to scavenge fuel from a vehicle or crashing into it with another vehicle
- Points of interest will now display on the inventory map and minimap to indicate locations you have not visited yet with an orange/yellow exclamation mark.
- Improved and reduced difficulty of pick locking doors on some doors
- Fixed collision issues with train bridge supports
- Fixed Drydock and Lumber Yard having no journal entry information or HUD popup.
Game and UI
- New Character management UI implemented, for managing outfits, equipment and weapons
- Fixed weapon hit markers sometimes getting stuck on the screen.
- Fixed problems with subtitles screen padding.
- Fixed missing keybinding for shoulder switch toggle.
- Fixed an issue where the speech system would overlap dialogue on the screen
Quests & Story
- Added new readable notes around the world. Readable notes are added to the journal and can be re-read.
- Added collectable cassette tape recordings around the world. Interact with cassette tape decks to listen to the recording. The entry will also be available from your player guide to listen to at a later date.
- Fixed not being able to close Sen’s safe door after opening it.
- Fixed an issue where you could trigger the dialogue for quests by pressing "Answer Radio" after the quest was added.
- Fixed an issue where dragging a quest item from the vicinity menu, a container or clicking the ‘Take All’ button would not update the quest.
- Fixed the train station ‘Wanted’ quest directing players to the airfield.
- Fixed issues with quest markers not being removed from the map.
- Fixed not being able to answer radio calls and accept quests while in a vehicle or on horseback.
Items, Looting, Crafting and Trading
- Liam Orling now sells vehicle repair kits and will buy car parts.
- Brendan Skillen now sells horse feed and hay bales.
- Added new item - Bars of Soap. Can be looted, crafted and bought. Used to wash outfits and for personal hygiene.
- Added Scrap Brass crafting resource.
- Added Steel, Brass, Bronze, Gold and Iron Ingots. These have been added in preparation for the upcoming workbench update.
- Added Steel Projectiles and Ammo Cartridges.These have been added in preparation for the upcoming workbench update.
- Added various brass items. Can be recycled into Scrap Brass.
- Added Water Butt item. Can be placed for water collection and crafting.
- Fallen branches can now be harvested for sticks and logs.
- Fixed situation where recycling coke cans or food would play a consuming animation and sound at the same time as recycling.
- Fixed welding hose stopping you scavenging from cars if you have one in your inventory
- Locked vehicles will now show the required skill level to open, rather than the required tool
- Fixed locked vehicles requiring hotwiring allowing players to access them.
- Several fixes aimed at improving the Runner utility, located in the Backwater Beacon safezone.
- Added new Potato Plants to the world. Harvest these to gather edible Potatoes.
- Traders will now have a more limited supply inventory.
- Traders are now limited on how much of any one item they will buy on a daily basis.
- Traders will now sell Diving Masks and Oxygen Tanks (a.k.a. Balloons)
- Added Diving Mask. This will allow you to breath under water for twice as long.
- Added Diving Oxygen Tank. This will extend the time in which you can breath underwater by a considerable amount of time, but will require the diving mask to work. On it’s own the tank will do nothing.
NPCs
- Fixed issue where NPC movement could lock up if their next destination was too close to their initial location.
- Fixed NPCs sometimes shooting while in the process of unholstering or while their weapon is holstered.
- Fixed NPC's being too likely to shoot their friends in the back. Improvements have been made to general combat behaviour.
- Deer and boar now have additional hit points, requiring more damage to take down.
- Animals can no longer be heart-shot.
- Added visible trails to NPC's gunshots.
- Human NPCs will now be more aware of threats in the same area if an NPC becomes alerted to your presence.
- NPCs will now become alerted if a bullet flies past them in close proximity.
- Fixed various issues contributing to NPCs getting stuck in a crouching position.
- NPC weapons now have visible muzzle flash.
- Fixed issues sometimes prevent NPCs from moving to their tasks.
- Fixed NPCs sometimes not turning around their central axis to face the player when starting dialog.
- Fixed occasional issue where NPCs could sometimes spawn through the floor and appear as if they had not spawned.
- Fixed NPCs sometimes spawning in unusual combat poses.
- Fixed various issues occuring when NPCs respawn in the safe zone upon revisiting.
- Fixed active infected nests not spawning any infected.
- Fixed issue causing NPC’s audio to stutter or not play
Transport
- All horses can now poop collectible manure again.
- Improved controllability of vehicles. It is now much more difficult to slide out of control when turning corners at speed.
- All wheeled vehicles now have a maximum speed they will reach.
- Added new vehicle - Small Sports car
- Added new vehicle - Van
- Weapons now holster when entering vehicles.
Systems & Performance
- Physics disabled on explosive barrels for improved performance.
- Major improvements to GPU rendering cost on shadows with relatively minimal costs on shadow quality.
- Improved culling on various assets throughout the world.
Known issues & outstanding changes
- Various issues when interacting with a campfire (redesigned campfire to be available in near future).
- Torch doesn’t illuminate directly towards the center of the screen making it difficult to examine objects in close spaces.
- Game is missing left-handed support.
- Various issues with UI text in crafting menus.
- Swapping an item with a Jerry Can in the fuel slot on the quad causes the other item to be placed in the fuel slot.
- When LED light runs out of battery, it unequips but does not re-enable belt chem-light.
- NPCs can have ‘black beams’ coming out of their eyes when running the game using FXAA.
- Sleeping bags placed on foundations or flat ground can sometimes be placed at an unusual angle.
Alpha Version 0.3.5.12a HOTFIX
• Fixed an issues causing noticeboard quest pages to appear in the roof of the noticeboard
• Fixed repeatable quests note being repeatable
• Fixed unavailable quest displaying on the noticeboard
• Fixed collision issue with all doors (Noticeable on Sens basement door) blocking gunfire.
• Fixed being able to abandon complete quests
• Fixed crafting one item making multiple
• Fixed Workbench insta craft only crafting one item when multiple selected.
• Fixed being able to glitch through walls in the medical center
• Fixed missing foliage around the safezone
• Fixed clipping bushes on some buildings
• Fixed some driveways and roads note displaying weather effects.
• Improved performance with distance field mesh generation
• Improved performance drain caused by the steamboat in the Bayou
• Improved performance on flying birds
• Improved shader performance on road surfaces
• And more...