v0.29

v0.29 was the 29th major update to the game and was released on December 10, 2015.

Dev Notes

v0.29 – Improved cave entrances, gameplay and pacing balance, book to do list and stats pages added, new bird type, player weight, strength and athleticism simulation added. Posted on 10 December, 2015 by Anna

Hey Everyone.

For this patch we’re introducing a more complex version of the player survival systems. Eat too much for too long? you’ll start to put on weight and stats such as athleticism will go down. Eat too little and exercise too much, strength will eventually begin to go down. It’s important now to keep an eye on how you are eating and your energy levels as they have more gameplay impact. These new stats are available in the new ‘Stat’ page of the survival book.

Also new to the survival book is the To Do list. The player character will write down notes for things that seem important to do as the game progresses, early on functioning as a mini tutorial – build a camp, find food, and later giving more focus to cave exploration

Gameplay balance has had an overhaul pass this patch. We’ve made skinny cannibals weaker, giving players more chance of surviving against them early on. We’ve added a stealth visibility icon whilst crouched to help players understand when visible to enemies, and also to make clear that hiding in a bush is a perfectly fine alternative to combat.

We’ve also tweaked how enemies find you in the world. Previously they would seem to always find you no matter what you did or where you hid. Now, there is a lower chance overall of them finding your base, however lit fires at night, or making lots of noise (such as chopping down trees) can alert enemies to your presence. If you’re finding swarms of enemies attacking your base – try putting out the fires or making less noise.

Additionally there’s some new art, some new plane audio during crash, and lots of other improvements, fixes and additions all listed below.

Although previous save games should all continue to work fine, we recommend starting a fresh game this patch release due to the balance changes made.

As always, please continue to post your bug reports and feedback in the Discussions area of the Community Hub

Additions / Changes / Fixes

• New survival book page: To Do list
• New survival book page: Stats page
• New “Sanity” system. Sanity goes down when killing an enemy, chopping limbs, a lot when eating an enemy and slowly while in caves. Sanity goes up when sleeping, listening to music, eating fresh non limb meat and slowly while restoring energy on bench. Viewable in stats page of book.
• (Multiplayer) Fixed drowning, player can no longer be revived after dying this way
• (Multiplayer) Fixed trees not always properly updated for clients
• Unlit molotov broken on the ground can now be set alight with another lit molotov for a greater fire effect
• Tennis balls can now trigger trip wire traps
• (Performance) Reduced rendering cost of leaf trap particles
• Fixed some instances of rocks floating and some cave models poking through into terrain
• Enemy held club and club crafted now both get bloody when used
• Fixed some structures not cutting grass when placed
• Reworked fern UVs and textures
• Fixed issues with player getting thrown upwards when jumping off raft into water
• (Balance) Reduced respawn rate of enemies in MP, overall increased randomness of enemy encounters
• (Balance) Made it easier to knock enemies to the ground when attacking with melee weapons
• Improved accuracy of enemy pathfinding, should result in less instances of getting stuck on structures/objects
• Fixed rock pit fire and stick marker ghost using wrong icon
• Crow bird type added to game (placeholder art)
• New art added: improved inventory tarp textures
• New art added: Reworked bird texture (bird land on finger)
• New art added: Revised shipping containers
• New art added: Reworked tortoise texture
• New art added: Far back snow terrain cliff type now has partial grass variation
• (Visuals) Improved moss shader
• New “Currently Feeling” system In stats pages, tells which survival stat is currently of greatest concern
• Birds can now land on and peck at dead bodies
• Pond seaweed is now cuttable and has touch bending
• Fixed enemies sometimes getting stuck on unwalkable terrain when spawned a long way from player
• Reworked Snowberry bush
• (Balance) Reduced health of skinny and pale skinny mutants
• (Balance) Meds added to Cave 2
• Removed the tutorial image that first comes up when book is first opened completely.
• Got rid of book auto opening to tutorial pages. Now shows extended tab and sheen when a page should be checked
• Combined Run & Underwater Breathing silent skills into ‘Athleticism’ stat which goes up from both swimming and running
• Added new “Strength” stat. Goes up every day while eating well and chopping trees. Goes down when over exerted and underfed
• Added “Weight” stat. Goes up and down based on food consumption
• Being overweight lowers Athleticism
• (Balance) Tripwire traps now use cloth instead of rope to make building them early on more viable
• (Balance) Large cloth jumpers in suitcase now give 2-3 pieces of cloth
• (Balance) Some laptops have a chance of being around crash site
• More bats added to caves
• Fixed missing wall in cave 3
• (Balance) Lowered log transportation energy cost
• (Balance) Lowered energy loss while hungry
• (Balance) Lowered both cold and not cold constant energy cost
• (Balance) Halved weapon attack energy cost
• Water areas added to cave map
• (Audio) Fixed SFX for felled trees breaking apart being inaudible to multiplayer clients
• (Multiplayer) Fixed skulls not spawning when cooking head for clients
• Added Food Poisoning: has 20% chance of kicking in when getting damage from food. Can be cured with aloe or by sleeping. Lowers fullness/thirst/health/energy regeneration from consuming edible items
• Added Blood Infection: has 25% chance to happen when receiving physical damage while bloody. Can be cured with aloe or goes away automatically after 2 in game days. Lowers Strength
• After being out of fuel 2 times, fires are automatically destroyed
• Windows/doors of procedural walls can only be changed when hands are empty of logs
• It is no longer possible to drink from water collector when water isn’t visible (amount < 1) and balanced amount of water available to compensate
• Fixed logs sometimes spawning bellow terrain (made some trees look like they didn’t provide their full yield)
• Trip wire molotov trap now costs cloth & booze instead of molotov
• (Audio) Crow Sounds added
• Lit fires now have a chance to attract nearby enemies to come and investigate
• Nearby enemies are now attracted by the sound of falling trees
• (Audio) – Fire crackle and pop added
• (Multiplayer) Fixed (hopefully for good) logs sometimes getting stuck mid air
• Added stippling to numerous props
• Player now has a chance to gain seeds when harvesting berries
• Maple bark made darker
• New slide into cave system added to cave entrances!
• Fixed some items in cockpit sunken below mesh
• Fixed extra decorative sticks appearing in sinkhole
• Fixed areas in caves where thin lines of light were coming in from above
• Fixed rock partially blocking cave 5 climb out entrance
• Fixed some issues with cave particles flickering off based on camera angle
• Fixed upgrading crafted club not working correctly
• Treesap balance: increased building repair cost and lowered gain from cutting trees down
• (Audio) Wet footsteps tuned
• (Audio) Plane start sequence improved
• (Multiplayer) Fixed fueling fire with leaves/cash not working for client
• Fixed bonfire destruction not working
• Fixed weapons not becoming bloody when hitting enemies (was only getting bloody when chopping up bodies)
• Fixed thrown spear not always killing deer
• (Multiplayer) Fixed fire arrows sometimes kicking clients
• Passenger manifest now auto closes after 3 seconds after it auto opened upon finding first passenger
• Fixed issue where noose trap could not be reset if sprung by player