The Vehicle Construction Bay (VCB) can now be crafted in the BCU. This placeable unit is used to construct, maintain, upgrade and manage vehicles. It must be placed within range of a BCU or Range Extender to provide power.


There is currently one vehicle type that can be constructed (the ATV). Players must construct the vehicle in stages, with each stage requiring the previous stage be complete before continuing to the next.

Unlike many other powered crafting items, vehicle stages require no upfront power cost, but instead will consume power throughout each construction stage.

A minimum of 500 power is required for constructing. If power levels drop below 500, it will pause. Construction can be resumed by clicking on the current stage and a resume button will show. In addition; construction can be manually paused at any time using the same process.

The dimentions of the VCB is 2x foundation widths by 1.5x, and can be snapped to existing building pieces.

The ATV (All Terrain Vehicle) provides players with a fast means of transport to traverse the world. As well as providing a 20-slot onboard storage capacity.

It runs on "vehicle fuel" (a new item, see below), and has onboard battery power which is required for engine ignition and headlights. When mounting the vehicle, a driving hud will show top right, giving stats on speed, fuel, battery etc.

There are 3 interactable areas: The engine (at the front), where the player can refuel and jump-start the battery. The driving section (center). And the trunk, where players can access the onboard storage.

The vehicle is designed for travel, rather than combat. So while it is possible to ram players/hunters/animals, this will ultimately build-up damage on the vehicle. As too will impacts with world geometry, so be mindful of your speed and routes.
Players are given the option for driving in 3rd and first person.

You can toggle between the two using the existing "Cycle Camera" key which driving (which is rebindable). The game will remember your choice, so you don't have to keep resetting it.
I opted against an automatic transmission as I feel having it manual creates a more satisfying control mechanic, as well as a higher skill ceiling for traversing terrain effectively and efficiently.

The gears can be shifted using the mouse wheel (or whatever you have bound to next/previous weapon).
The battery will slowly charge over-time based on the speed of the wheels spinning, so sitting idle with the engine running will not produce a charge. If the battery runs dead, you will not be able to fire-up the engine.

The headlights can be operated using the "L" key while driving (or whatever you have bound to your "Toggle Flashlight" key).

I added some subtle lens flares and ambient illumination on the hood and bumpers, which I think looks pretty nice.
Having a high-speed impact will cause the player to be thrown from the vehicle in ragdoll. They will stand back up after a moment and regain control, but this could result in a dangerous situation, so drive carefully.
Only applicable for co-op and dedicated servers, here is how vehicle access is handled: The core ownership of a vehicle is traced back to the player who placed the BCU, which powered the VCB which constructed the vehicle. Thus, any player who shares a base membership with that player will have access to drive the vehicle and access it's inventory and engine.

A new ore is required to build key items for vehicle construction. However players will need to venture into the lava caves to find these new nodes.

Mined with the pickaxe (or axe), the nodes will yield Black Crystal Ore. The ore must be refined in the refinery to produce pure Black Crystal, ready for crafting.

Climbing axes are required to descend down into (and return from) the lava caves.


These new parts are required for vehicle construction and can be crafted at the lathe.

They are also required for vehicle repairs. They can take some time to craft, so best to queue them up and let the lathe do its thing.


Another new item required for vehicle construction. These allow me to balance the yields of standard crystal with late game crafting. Some recipe reshuffling is little overdue at this point.


The VCB will automatically "dock" a vehicle if a player exits the vehicle while it is on the VCB. It will rotate the vehicle to face forward and raise it on the bay feet. Once docked, menus will open up in the VCB terminal to be able to repair/rename/upgrade the vehicle. When you start to drive the vehicle, it will automatically undock.

There may be times when your vehicle becomes disabled out in the field. Either due to taking too much damage, getting plunged into a lake, etc. Within the VCB terminal, under the "All Vehicles" tab, you can view a list of all vehicles you have access to, showing their name, health, skin, distance. Players have the option to recall (teleport back to base) any vehicle, at the cost of power.

The further the vehicle from the VCB, the higher the power cost (although there is a floor and ceiling to this cost). Recalling a vehicle will dock it at the VCB that recalled it.

This mechanical door is intended for use with the VCB (it is 1.5x foundation width), although it can be snapped to any foundation or ceiling. It does not require power to operate and can be crafted at the lathe.


Similar in dimensions to foundation stairs, although is measured to fit the VCB (1.5x foundation width).

Allows for smoothly entering and exiting your base garage.

While a vehicle is docked, in the VCB terminal, under the "Docked Vehicle" tab, there is a sub tab for "Upgrades". Currently there is only one; the Garage Door Fob.

This upgrade can be crafted/attached to an ATV. Once attached, an additional icon will show in the driving hud, and players can use this to remotely open/close the nearest garage door while driving.


I worked hard to add visual detail to the damage stages of the vehicle. The paint and components will take visual dents and burn marks.

I'm using morphing to bend and misshape the geometry of parts of the vehicle as it takes continued damage.

When damage is becoming excessive, the engine will start to hiss and smoke, and eventually catch fire, and ultimately explode once health reaches zero. Once exploded, the tires will also be blown off.

To repair a vehicle it must be docked at a VCB. Either by driving it on, or recalling it (if fully disabled). Within the VCB terminal, under the "Docked Vehicle" tab, there is sub tab for "Vehicle Condition". This will show the vehicle state and the items required to make repairs.

The repair process will consume power throughout the process. If tires are missing, they will automatically be reattached. The vehicle becomes drivable again so long as at least one tire is attached (although missing tires greatly affect handling).

Please note that vehicles are never actually destroyed, simply burnt-out and disabled, and recoverable with repair.

Crafted at the workbench, this new item is required for both vehicle construction and to craft a vehicle jump kit.


If a vehicle runs out of power, the engine will not start. It is required that the player uses a vehicle jump kit, by accessing the vehicle engine hud, and placing the jump kit in the slot provided.

It will provide a minimum charge to start the engine, and the vehicle can charge the remaining % through use. The jump kit will be returned to player, and will need to be recharged using batteries.

In the VCB terminal, under the "Docked Vehicle" tab, there is a sub tab for "Vehicle Paint".

This allows players to switch between the various cosmetics they may own on their Steam account.

Crafted at the workbench. Players can add fuel by accessing the vehicle engine hud, and placing the fuel in the slot provided.

Any excess fuel after the engine it full will be returned to the player (so no need to split).

You may notice there is a section for vehicle attachments under the "Docked Vehicle" tab in the VCB terminal. This is for future features. These are not promises, but would be things such as a passenger seat, mower, trailer.

Providing that you (or one of your teammates) owns a vehicle, you will always be able to see an icon for it on the map, so no need to worry about forgetting where you parked.


I've heavily nerfed the decay rate of bait in traps, so trapping is far less penalized.


Eggs laid by chickens in the animal housing will now last much longer when left in the housing.


So players who have built over loud waterfalls or rivers will now have a more immersive and peaceful experience while inside their base.


As the map has grown a lot, hunters will now build their bases further from player bases. When starting playing the update on existing profiles, they will be reset and start building again from scratch.

I've implemented new UI dropdown menus. These have a larger font, will resize to the textual content, have clearer selections, and have a subtle animation. Much nicer imo.


Some players may have noticed a very annoying subtle shaking of the weapon when raised up to up to aim-down-sights. This was due to the independent FOV scaling between the weapon/arms mesh and world view fighting each other. It is now fixed, so the weapon holds smoothly once raised.

If your server has PVP damage disabled, then players will not be able to inflict damage to vehicles (unless for driving collisions).

Vehicles can be very costly on server performance if left unchecked. Because of this I've implemented a system to temporarily remove vehicles from the world if it's owners are all offline, and then lazy-load and restore them when it's owners log back in. This will prevent servers from degrading over time as abandoned vehicles build up over months/years. It's important to me that servers should be able to run indefinitely without a forced wipe.

The store size for dormant vehicles is currently set to 150. With the longest-dormant vehicle being removed if the cap is reached (likely at that point that the owned stopped playing on that server a long time ago).

Type "help" in console to list available commands.


Some new cosmetics added for clothing items: Combat Helmet Woodland Camo, Shirt Blue Plaid, Heavy Duty Pants Woodland and Snow Camo. Thanks again to anyone supporting the game through the cosmetics system 🙏

Skins can be found on the Subsistence Steam Store.


Lever Action Rifle Nickel Plated & Black Stripes, Recurve Bow Black Camo, ATV Woodland and Snow Camo.

• Fixed craft queue sometimes not showing for clients when accessing an external crafting station (like BCU, workbench, lathe, etc).
  
• Fixed bleeding icon sometimes not disappearing for clients of network games, after bleeding had stopped (finally..).
  
• Using jarred food to feed animals in the animal housing will now return the empty jar.
  
• Weapon/clothing/vehicle cosmetics (skins) can now be accessed in the Steam Store from within the game. Mousing over the skin icon will show a button to open the skin in the Steam Store. If purchased, the game will update your ownership (without having to close and reopen the game).
  
  
• Rotating buildables now allows for 8 points of rotation (rather than 4).
  
• Fixed exploit that allowed players on servers to name their base to be an empty string to hide the hud icon from other players when they were in range.
  
• Fixed bug where weapons and clothing would repair if save was made and loaded while on less than 1% health.
  
• Fixed hunter base placements sometimes building partially through the ground, causing outside ground clipping through the ground floor.
  
• Fixed lakes still having collision for ragdolling animals and humans after the lake had thawed from frozen.
  
• Fixed BCU not showing as being accessed when another player is using it for clients of network games.
  
• Fixed small animals not showing injured animation and sounds when injured (previously they always showed as dead).
  
• Allowed max health and stamina progress bars to fill an extra bar after reaching the max of 125. This prevents the hud notice showing too frequently each time we eat after dropping slightly from max.
  
  
• Fixed freecam sometimes not teleporting to desired/correct location for server admins.

4k image of Alpha 60 title art (for creators): LINK

Discord invite: https://discord.gg/zyy4jQs

Twitter: @playSubsistence
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playsubsistence/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkQZ7vkTiqetTC0_8umY2Pg
Steam Forums: https://steamcommunity.com/app/418030/discussions/

If you would like to host your own dedicated server, I would recommend Nitrado (as I work closely with their team to support the game). You are also free to host on your own hardware, and the server files are freely available on SteamCMD.

You can view a detailed guide to hosting here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2201638184

Continued Translation Support Credits (in no particular order): Thank you so much for the support.
Spanish (David Lascasas)
Hungarian (Erb Ármin)
Portuguese BR (Thiago Schumacke)
German (Philipp J. Rackl (LPCaiser))
Italian (Marcello Brancaccio, Federico D. Ravagli)
French (Anthony Charrault)
Czech (Dílna U mnicha)
Dutch (Damster_NL)
Danish (Jesper Vestergaard Bæk)
Russian (FRAME)
Turkish (Soulkast, Çagla Gurbet)
Swedish (Mattias Gustavsson)
Norwegian (Christer Djuvik, Svein Tore Stegemoen)
Romanian (VaeVictis)
Estonian (Streamerize)
Polish (Robertus Lubin)
Ukrainian (RoW-Team)
Latvian (Martins Plucis)
Finnish (Pewtsku and J4ntteri)

A quick sneak peak at the upcoming Alpha 60 update 👀

https://youtu.be/bHem8wwcglo

Alpha 59 brings a large expansion to the western side of the map, opening up access to a large new lake, streams, ponds, waterfalls, forested regions and beachfront.

It is important the world continues to scale in size, as I want long-haul travel and exploration to play a role leading into future features and development.





Here's a link for a full 4k image of the world map.
I've implemented a new system for trees, moving away from the native SpeedTree libraries available in the engine.

They support wind simulation via vertex animation (with no skeletal meshes), seasonal changes, large-scale instance meshing, etc. They are still a work in progress, but are performant and give me much more control over the code rather than working around a black-box feature set.

The new area is mostly populated with new tree species using the new code. Eventually I hope to transition the old trees on the rest of the map as I introduce more species.










As with the prior South-East expansion, the new area adds a lot more underwater space (including deep water). However there is currently no cave access from the Western lake (yet). This will certainly come in the future.


In the new area I'm using some new techniques to blend rocky ground detail into the landscape geometry.

This does increase the polygonal complexity to the scene rendering, but I'm using some aggressive LOD and lighting transitions to maintain high performance.

The new geometry caused problems with the AI pathing systems, so needed to be updated to accommodate.
There are now triangle variants of foundations and ceilings. They are equilateral in dimension (with each side being the width of a full wall). So 60° at each corner, meaning 6 would complete a circle.

I think these new pieces will open up a lot of new creativity for base designs, so I'm curious to see what players will create!



As hinted at previously, fruit and veg will now perish overtime. This may be controversial, but was necessary and well overdue.

How the system works:

• Items will perish one at a time from a stack.
  
• Splitting the stack would result in both stacks continuing from the same perish state.
  
• Adding an item (or stack) to a stack will result in the stack acquiring whichever had the lower perish state.

In addition, when a stack is at a low count, it will take longer to perish (an example shown above). I think this is an appropriate way to balance/decrease the penalty of food perishing while looting, while still maintaining the necessity for preservation methods when at larger scales of production.

Meats and cooked meals still don't show meters. This is because they still maintain independent perish times for every item in a stack. So I would have to either think of a way to present up to 10 perish times for a single item in the inventory, or switch them over to use the same logic as fruit/veg.

To assist in food preservation, players can now prepare Vegetable Chutney in the oven. The recipe requires a boiling pan. Chutney does not require refrigeration and can be kept indefinitely.


The glass jar is returned when eating the Chutney, so each jar only needs to be crafted once.

Due to expanded world space, player dropped kits will now last for 14 minutes on normal (previously 10 mins) and 20 minutes on easy (previously 15 minutes). On hardcore there are no dropped kits (unless on dedicated servers whereby there is a 2 minute timer).


I've increased the dynamic shadow casting by around 3x. This gives much greater depth to the scene presentation, especially in densely forested areas:


For players that wish to further support the game, some new skins have been added to game's Steam Store Page.




Thanks so much to Pewtsku and J4ntteri for providing the translation :)

• Increased FOV to 100 (previously 95). I will add ability to customize this in the future.
  
• Added culling for distant landscape, reducing a lot of draw calls (better FPS performance).
  
• Increased number of beehives during the summer months.
  
• Greatly reduced noticeable texture seams for snowy terrain on the landscape.
  
• Attempted to resolve reported bug of river sounds cutting out audio.
  
• Changed campfire repair recipe to only require sticks.
  
• Fixed compass showing during loading screen.

If you missed the previous minor-update post, please checkout the new game trailer:
https://youtu.be/-Dx5qabDXdI

Discord invite: https://discord.gg/zyy4jQs

Twitter: @playSubsistence
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playsubsistence/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkQZ7vkTiqetTC0_8umY2Pg
Steam Forums: https://steamcommunity.com/app/418030/discussions/

If you would like to host your own dedicated server, I would recommend Nitrado (as I work closely with their team to support the game). You are also free to host on your own hardware, and the server files are freely available on SteamCMD.

You can view a detailed guide to hosting here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2201638184

Continued Translation Support Credits (in no particular order): Thank you so much for the support.
Spanish (David Lascasas)
Hungarian (Erb Ármin)
Portuguese BR (Thiago Schumacke)
German (Philipp J. Rackl (LPCaiser))
Italian (Marcello Brancaccio, Federico D. Ravagli)
French (Anthony Charrault)
Czech (Dílna U mnicha)
Dutch (Damster_NL)
Danish (Jesper Vestergaard Bæk)
Russian (FRAME)
Turkish (Soulkast, Çagla Gurbet)
Swedish (Mattias Gustavsson)
Norwegian (Christer Djuvik, Svein Tore Stegemoen)
Romanian (VaeVictis)
Estonian (Streamerize)
Polish (Robertus Lubin)
Ukrainian (RoW-Team)
Latvian (Martins Plucis)
Finnish (Pewtsku and J4ntteri)

I just posted an updated trailer for the game. Please check it out 👀



The old trailer was showing it's age and didn't represent the game in it's current state, so this was overdue.

Cheers!
CG

A new animal now flies the skies in the world. Eagles will nest in the high mountainous rocky areas. They will regularly leave their nest to scout the landscape to catch prey. They will fish in the lakes (for all fish types) and also hunt small game (rabbits and chickens).

While they don't generally pose a threat to players, they are opportunistic predators and will snatch a hooked fish or small game kill from players. So keep an eye on the skies while hunting/fishing.

Shooting an Eagle while it is clutching prey will cause it to drop it, allowing the player to trace it down and steal the catch for themselves.

Eagle nests can be found high up on rock formations in mountainous regions.

Usually too high and out of reach, players should use their climbing axes to scale the rockface to gain access to nests.

Looting an nest will yield Pristine Eagle Feathers. You can loot the nest while still attached to the rockface, just get close enough, look an the feather and press the use key.

Eagles will become aggressive if they spot you tampering with their nests, so be careful. Note: Killing an eagle will damage it's feathers, so looting from its nest it the only way to acquire the pristine features. Eagle kills are also now tracked in player stats.


Players can now craft Hang Gliders from the workbench. To use the Hang Glider, it must be placed on the toolbelt and equipt like any tool or weapon. When the player begins to fall, the glider will auto-deploy.

The glider will take slow usage damage over time, so keep your eye on it's health so it doesn't break during a flight. It requires Pristine Eagle Feathers to craft (and maintain), so players will need to loot some nests.

Fliers need to careful! Gliding is a dangerous sport, and the glider will not auto-correct to protect the pilot from a perilous crash. I've tried my best to simulate piloting physics, so pitching down hard will cause rapid acceleration while pitching up will trade velocity for upward lift.

While gliding, players can freely move their head around to enjoy the views, while using the keyboard movement keys to control the glider.

Be mindful of your speed while coming in for a landing. Use careful pitching to control a slow enough speed to ensure a soft touchdown.

Note: It's currently not possible to exploit flying onto exposed hunter bases. The way I've implemented this may seem crude, but eventually I hope to add more natural means of defense from flying raids.

I've added several new hunter base designs of all size varieties.

The new designs take advantage of several new building pieces and base items previously unavailable.

I've also added a system that tracks which bases get destroyed by players, so replacement hunter squads can alternate through the different designs to keep things changing-up.



*This was the largest piece I worked on this sprint*. I've always been aware that when the game world was very densely populated, the CPU would bottleneck performance. This was particularly noticeable for dedicated servers with 10's of thousands of buildables placed, and multiple concurrent players connected.

This would sometimes push the server tick rate down into single digits, and result in extremely delayed response times for clients, high pings (due to the server getting backup-up) and AI teleporting erratically with their movement.

The cause of this was the sheer volume of actors (things in the world) trying to tick (run code) every frame, when the vast majority (over 95%) very rarely needed to update, if ever. I've made some sweeping changes to put almost all actors to "sleep", and wake them only on certain events, rather than each frame.

The impact is huge, as can be seen in these comparison stats, which shows CPU load on a server (at ~75% build capacity) with 4 concurrent players on each. What was previously pinned and constantly running below target tick rate, now sits comfortable with plenty of headroom.

Performance and scaling has always been a top priority. This type of work is hard to express in player-facing patch notes as it doesn't relate to specific features, but I think it's important to mention details when it is such a huge part of the development process.

The mountain rock formations have had their geometric complexity increased greatly, while preserving a the performant low poly collision meshes.


With the new CPU performance boosts, I've greatly increased the build cap for co-op and dedicated servers.

I'm implemented a web server into the dedicated server build. This allows for your server to receive remote calls via HTTP, allowing admins to query and trigger events on their server remotely (not needing to be logged in as a player).

An example use of the API would be to post an in-game alert notifying that the server will shortly be resetting, so players aren't caught off-guard during a reset.

Currently the API only has a couple of endpoints, but now it is implemented, provides me a platform to expand it's functionality moving forward.
Documentation on how to configure and use the API (with examples) is outlined in this guide:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2601952438

Animal bodies will now physically react to the butchering process, jolting and pulling with the movement of the axe.


A highly requested fix from players for a long time. Thanks for your patience.

Also fixed the the animal models blurring for a period of time after they would ragdoll on death.

Domesticated animals will no longer die when all base members log off from a dedicated server. They will cease to feed and level up (and will continue when a base member rejoins).

In addition, bases will cease to consume or produce power, mining drills, generators, fabricators will cease to operate. Plants will also not grow. Fridges will remain active but use no power (so your food will be safe).

Once one of the base members logs back on, all items will function again.

This new piece should add some more variety to base designs.


Tossing a fish from your inventory will now render the proper fish model flapping on the ground.


It's now possible to craft a Christmas tree from the workbench.

The trees must be placed within your base build sphere as they have functioning lights that run off base power.

The option to craft these festive trees runs between Nov 1st and Dec 31st each year (based on your system clock).

I've added various cosmetics for weapons, clothing and items, and integrated with the Steam inventory service. These skins are purely cosmetic and do not affect any actual content or in-game stats. They are intended for players who wish to further support the game's development.


The skins can be found on the game's Item Store on Steam.


To apply a skin in-game, left click on the inventory item and the available skins will show as icons in the item's details box. They can be switched back and forth at any time.


It was not obvious to new players that this mechanic existed.


I think this helps awareness for new players who may otherwise not seek to explore the depths of the lakes.

• Firearm handling sounds have been increased in volume and expanded. Now as the player breaks into a sprint and draws the weapon in/out, sounds will play accordingly. I think makes the weapons feel more weighty and immersive.
  
• Passwords will now save when joining servers, and be auto-populated when rejoining from the server list.
  
• Fixed incorrect curved window snapping location.
  
  
• Fixed scrollbars in all menus not scaling correctly to the length of the content within the scrollable window.
  
• The full alpha version will now show top left while in the menu (previous the decimals were omitted).
  
  
• If trying to join a server running a different version, the error message will now detail the exact version differences (rather than a generic error).
  
  
• Fixed bug where flashlight would continue to drain its battery if removed from a weapon while turned on.
  
• Passwords for previously joined servers will now save (so you don't have to re-enter each time you join). Unfortunately still not for co-op games.
  
• Fixed bug where movement controls could still remain active while in map view.
  
• Replaced unfocalized loading screen with simple loading icon instead.
  
• Fixed audio bug where fire/generator/cooking/etc sounds would not play in heavily populated worlds.
  
• Fixed bug where elevator switch would not call the elevator if the elevator was over 100 floors away.
  
  
• Fixed bug where hunter woodburners would not decay with the rest of their base after being destroyed by a BCU Cracker.
  
• Fixed animals sometimes playing their idle animations while walking for clients.
  
• Fixed mining drill progress meter not updating in real-time for clients.
  
• Fixed sandstone ore nodes not aligning correctly to the surface that are spawned on.
  
• Attempted to fix the random crash while accessing solar panels or wind turbines. I believe this is resolved, but haven't 100% confirmed yet.
  
• Fixed server name not showing in the server stats hud for clients.
  
• Fixed certain sounds not playing while in freecam mode (such as gunshots). Some sounds are still not working, but I will get to those in the future (freecam is lower priority as only affects admins).
  
• Fixed smoke from breaching charge not rendering for clients.
  
• Added many low poly LOD meshes for player models and clothing (performance benefit).
  
• Rugs, floodlights and switches have now been added to existing hunter bases.
  
• Fixed bug where rugs would protect the floor below from explosive damage.
  
• Fixed river sounds still playing after having frozen for the most southern river.

Discord invite: https://discord.gg/zyy4jQs

Twitter: @playSubsistence
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playsubsistence/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkQZ7vkTiqetTC0_8umY2Pg
Steam Forums: https://steamcommunity.com/app/418030/discussions/

If you would like to host your own dedicated server, I would recommend Nitrado (as I work closely with their team to support the game). You are also free to host on your own hardware, and the server files are freely available on SteamCMD.

You can view a detailed guide to hosting here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2201638184

Continued Translation Support Credits (in no particular order): Thank you so much for the support.
Spanish (David Lascasas)
Hungarian (Erb Ármin)
Portuguese BR (Thiago Schumacke)
German (Philipp J. Rackl (LPCaiser))
Italian (Marcello Brancaccio, Federico D. Ravagli)
French (Anthony Charrault)
Czech (Dílna U mnicha)
Dutch (Damster_NL)
Danish (Jesper Vestergaard Bæk)
Russian (FRAME)
Turkish (Soulkast, Çagla Gurbet)
Swedish (Mattias Gustavsson)
Norwegian (Christer Djuvik, Svein Tore Stegemoen)
Romanian (VaeVictis)
Estonian (Streamerize)
Polish (Robertus Lubin)
Ukrainian (RoW-Team)
Latvian (Martins Plucis)

I have finally invested the time to migrate the game over to 64 bit. This is work I've been delaying for some time, however as the game has continued to grow, I was starting to hit the limitations of 32 bit (causing crashes for players with "Out of Memory" errors) and making development much more problematic.

Essentially the 64 bit version removes memory limitations imposed under 32 bit, allowing the game to scale in size far beyond what was previously possible, while offering more stable and improved performance. This may sound less than exciting, but please know how essential this was to the growth and future of the game.

Launching the game from Steam will now launch the 64 bit version. I am still shipping the 32 bit version as part of the game installation. The 32 bit executable can be found in ../Subsistence/Binaries/Win32/UDK.exe.

Profile saves will remain intact. The first time you run the game on Alpha 57 a script will migrate existing saves into a new directory structure: ../Subsistence/UDKGame/SaveData/. So if you make backups, please use this folder moving forward.

A brand new cave system now lies deep beneath the world.

Far deeper than the existing cave system, the new caverns reach veins of volcanically active lava pools and streams. Temperatures in the caves soar and will deplete player hydration levels, so ample water supplies are essential for explorers.

The new cave system connects the two existing caves systems. So it's now possible to travel from the SE Lake all the way to the NW lake entirely underground. However be aware of the risks when attempting this distance. Dying in the caves could make retrieval of your kit difficult and hazardous.

The caves now all being connected makes the entire underground system pretty mammoth. There will certainly be future expansions, linking mountainous ice-caves down into the system.


Players can now craft Climbing Axes at the workbench. These will allow players to ascend/descend any rock face in the world (including frozen waterfalls).

To ascend, with the axes equipped, simply approach and face any vertical rock face and a prompt will popup to begin climbing. To descend, simply approach the edge of a cliff and the same prompt will show, allowing you to climb down and mount the rock face from above.

Once mounted, the player can freely climb the face using the movement keys, while moving their head independently to view their path. You can jump from the face at any time (but be very careful).

The player will automatically unmount the wall when reaching flat ground. When reaching the top of a cliff, a prompt will show to vault up onto flat ground.

This new mechanic required significant development effort, and it will seem underutilized at this point (as for now it's only used to access the new caves). However it is part of a larger (iterative) plan and will take on a more prominent role in the future. High-mountain terrain (as a unique and fully realized biome) has always been on the roadmap, and is still absent from the game. Stay tuned.

As mentioned, climbing axes will be required to access the new caves. Large vertical drops separate the new cave system from the existing caverns.


As mentioned on previous updates, the server build limit is in place due to the number of network channels available during a client connection to the server (rather than as some arbitrary performance measure). If I exceed the limit, then network requests get completely lost and the game essentially breaks.

As done previously, to increase the cap I group/cluster many buildables of the same type to all share a single channel. This time I've switched a lot of buildable types over, and the result is effectively double the cap size of Alpha 56! There is also room for further increases in the future.

A new type of hunter occupie the new deep-cave system. They are identified by their gas masks and grimy bodies from the fumes in the caves.

They typically form in smaller squads than the other mining hunters, and are slightly less armored.

They required a bit of an AI overhaul to avoid suicidal runs into lava pools...
The gas mask is not a craftable item, and is currently only used by the deep-cave hunters. *However* it is possible to find it in the world, although is extremely rare.


I've updated the health system for when a player is too hot (indicated by the HOT hud icon). The increased depletion on hydration levels is the same as before, however now when hydration levels hit zero (and the player is too hot), the player will start taking actual damage. So staying hydrated during hot temperatures is now more important.

Taking a dip in a lake is one way to cool-off, choosing more appropriate clothing, or fitting your base with an AC unit.


While exploring the new cave system, you'll find mining supply crates left around. These crates require players to break them open before accessing (which causes tool usage damage).

I'm using some minor destruction physics on the crate mesh to make it a little more satisfying to smash open.

These crates can contain higher tier items, however they have a high cool-down times on respawns.

Players can now craft jam jars from the workbench. These aren't too cheap, but are permanent and reusable items (for now).

Collecting berries throughout the various seasons now allows players to prepare mixed berry jam at the oven (requires the boiling pan).

The jam provides a boost to max health/stamina, otherwise not provided by eating the berries by themselves.

You may notice the total fruit/veg benefit is less than the total individual berries. This may seem like an oversight now, but will make more sense once perish times are added to fruits/veg (as jams will preserve fruits without the need for refrigeration).

Ore nodes now animate when they take hits whiles mining.

In addition, crates will play a subtle jolt as players interact with them. I think this makes the world feel a little more dynamic and interactive while out looting.

When joining a server, the client now tracks the progress of the initial streaming of world-data, so there's now a handy loading bar!


There was previously a small amount of time when joining a server, where the player would spawn into the world before taking control of their player (sometimes leading to being killed). This is now fixed!

When clicking on a player in the in-game player list, a small button will show over their avatar, allowing players to open their Steam profile in the Steam overlay.

This will help players send friend requests or open chat on Steam if they team up in-game.

I've updated the death screen hud to now slide in the options available to the player.

Previously this was just a paragraph of text, so it was not obvious that easy mode offers the option to reload the previous save. The new design should be much cleaner and more intuitive.

While I continue to add preventative measures to hacking, some players continue to try to use 3rd party hacking software on servers. Because of this I've added a global ban list. This service allows me to ban a player and have that propagate to all servers globally. I sincerely hope to never need to use it, but it is now there as a tool to protect players trying to play fairly.

Previously plants would still grow (although very slowly) with no water. Now growth is halted if the plantbed has zero water.


While entering the underwater cave system at the NW lake, previously I was actually using a portal and projecting an fake image to hide the transition of passing through the landscape layer into the cave environment. The new system handles the collision and physics correctly without the need for the previous hack and smoothly interpolates between the two environments.



Should make them easier to see in snowy terrain or in a blizzard.


Rogues now use green glow sticks, miners use orange and deep-miners use red.


I'm now utilizing the Steam cloud save service to sync all profile save data. So if you switch systems or format and re-install your OS, your profiles will persist. If you currently use multiple computers on the same Steam account and want to maintain separate save data, you can disable cloud saves for the game in the settings in your Steam client.

There were several states where hunters were switching weapons while still in the process of aiming/reloading/etc, so I've cleaned some of that up.

• Added ability to teleport directly to a base via console command:
  
  TeleportToBase [BASE_ID]
• Dedicated server admins can now inspect buildables to check how long until the buildable will start to decay. This will also list how long the player who placed it (or a member of their base) was last online. Simply look at the buildable and enter the console command (also works in freecam mode):
  
  InspectBuildable
• Dedicated server admins can now open the Steam profile of the player that placed any buildable. Simply look at the buildable and use the following console command (also works in freecam mode):
  
  ViewSteamProfileOfPlayerWhoPlacedBuildable
  
  
• Added ability to disable clipping while in freecam mode (console command while already in freecam mode):
  
  NoClipFreeCam
• Base names (that show at bottom right in the hud) will now update while in freecam mode.
  
• The ListBases admin command will now also report on the time since a base member was last online (playing on the server).
  
  ListBases
• Fixed bug where admins couldn't see ore nodes in the caves while in freecam mode.

Reminder that you can type "help" to view available admin commands.
I know some players expected me to enable this feature in the update. I worked a lot on this during the Alpha 56 update and simply needed a bit of break from that code, as there were several additional features needed to accompany it (such as structural support buildables). The feature is all still there and ready for me to finish. I'll pick this back up for a future update.

Two new languages have had support added:

• Ukrainian
  
• Latvian

• Added ultra-high-rez rock materials to cave rock, which blends in at close proximity.
  
• Added localized messages for connection errors while attempting to join servers.
  
• Fixed player shadow casting bug introduced in Alpha 56 (causing overly black shadows on players while in base lighting).
  
• Fixed "Rent a Server" button not opening the Steam overlay on some computers.
  
• Updated silver birch trees bark texture (credit to Gael Romanet for donating these textures, project Dismal).
  
• Fixed bug where stack of perishable food item stacks would disappear when using shift-rightClick to split individual items (while in the default inventory).
  
• Fixed bug where phantom fish could persist in the water with no fishing player or hunter.
  
• Fixed clients hearing the fishing float "plop" sound a second time when starting to reel in a fish.

Discord invite: https://discord.gg/zyy4jQs

Twitter: @playSubsistence
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playsubsistence/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkQZ7vkTiqetTC0_8umY2Pg
Steam Forums: https://steamcommunity.com/app/418030/discussions/

If you would like to host your own dedicated server, I would recommend Nitrado (as I work closely with their team to support the game). You are also free to host on your own hardware, and the server files are freely available on SteamCMD.

You can view a detailed guide to hosting here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2201638184

Continued Translation Support Credits (in no particular order): Thank you so much for the support.
Spanish (David Lascasas)
Hungarian (Erb Ármin)
Portuguese BR (Thiago Schumacke)
German (Philipp J. Rackl (LPCaiser))
Italian (Marcello Brancaccio, Federico D. Ravagli)
French (Anthony Charrault)
Czech (Dílna U mnicha)
Dutch (Damster_NL)
Danish (Jesper Vestergaard Bæk)
Russian (FRAME)
Turkish (Soulkast, Çagla Gurbet)
Swedish (Mattias Gustavsson)
Norwegian (Christer Djuvik, Svein Tore Stegemoen)
Romanian (VaeVictis)
Estonian (Streamerize)
Polish (Robertus Lubin)
Ukrainian (RoW-Team)
Latvian (Martins Plucis)

A new high-tier rifle can now be crafted at the workbench.

The LA Rifle uses the same 7.62mm cartridges as the existing rifle, but deals slightly more damage. However, this is at the penalty of a slower fire-rate due to the lever action between each shot. So it is a more powerful and cost-effective weapon, so long as the shots are accurate.

I've added stats for the LA in the player stats view:

The LA Rifle can also load a new ammo type (which the basic Rifle cannot), please see later in the patch notes for details.

You can checkout a short video of the LA Rifle here: https://youtu.be/5xmkOMUkf0s
I've finally taken some time to work on the night-time visuals and added a dynamic moon cycle.

This isn't a total nerf to the darkness of nights. The moon moves through its own cycles (currently set to 8 days), and the light emitted is dictated by its fullness. So there will still be many near pitch black nights.

It is also tied in with the weather system, such that if the skies are overcast, this will deprive players of brighter lit moony nights. I considered tying it in with months/seasons also, but given the adjustable nature of the seasons, I thought best to leave it as a separate system.

Previously when base items were destroyed, they would simply disappear with a destruction sound. I've now added individual destructible meshes for almost all pieces.

Now during attacks/raids, building pieces will explode/collapse and glass will shatter into physics-based pieces. I think this greatly helps immersion during gameplay.

You can checkout a short video of the new destruction in action here (where I detonate a BCU on my own base): https://youtu.be/kCxeLkBHMxc

Sometimes during clear nights, the northern lights will be visible and light-up the sky. This is not something that will happen every night and the intensity will vary across nights when they are visible.

As with the moonlight, storm fronts will obscure their visibility and their intensity will be muted by overcast skies. I think this adds some cool diversity to the world over the passing of time.

I have made some substantial performance improvements (for worlds that are highly populated with buildings and many light sources). The screenshots below shows a benchmark of these changes, comparing rendering a scene in Alpha 55 to Alpha 56 (using the world data from Europe#2). I will explain the technical changes below (for those interested):

One of the most expensive performance costs are individual light sources. In densely populated profiles there may be hundreds of individual light sources dotted around the map, all casting rays and dynamic shadow cascades. Many having overlapping cascades (which can be extremely expensive).

• Many of these lights may be extremely far from the player to be barely visible, yet still use their same quota of GPU performance.
  
• There may be many lights in close proximity to one another, yet be so far from the player view they only occupy a tiny fraction of screen space (such as a base with 20 lights in the far distance).
  
• Lights would still render, even if they are muted-out by much brighter lights (such as midday sunlight).

I've added an LOD system to drastically reduce the number of light sources required to render the same scene.

• Far distant lights (in close proximity to one another) will now cluster into a single source (reducing the expense of ray casting and overlapping cascades).
  
• Lights that are overpowered by another light (meaning they would not be visible anyway) are now disabled.
  
• Lights that are entirely outside of the current view are disabled completely.

There may be some quirks with this new system, and I will continue to make tweaks moving forward. However the performance increase is huge and should benefit many players.
Another big performance improvement: Previously all buildables would "Tick" with the game engine, meaning each frame they run some logic to check if they needed to do something. When there are many 10's of thousands of buildables placed in the world, this can add a lot of performance cost.

In Alpha 56, buildables are now put to "sleep" when no events are occuring for them, and wake up only when needed. This takes a lot of pressure off the CPU and will allow further scaling of the game.

A new clothing item can now be crafted from the default player crafting menu. The shirt is an alternative to the existing high-tier t-shirt.

However it's properties are slightly different, whereby it offers slightly more warmth at the penalty of slightly less damage protection. So it is a good option for early spring and late fall.

I've always found it very jarring to see bare arms in the first person view when my character is wearing long sleeved clothing. This was especially awkward to see during winter and blizzards.

I've now modeled first person versions of all of the long sleeved clothing items, which I feel helps a lot feeling continuity with your character.

I have now prevented BCU Crackers and Breaching Charges being placed on player BCUs (when the server has PvP base damage disabled).

In addition to this, you can no longer extend the placement range of either item, avoiding the exploit of players placing BCU Crackers by extending their reach through windows etc.
I've added logic to detect players using speedhacks on dedicated servers (and kick them).
Some players reported a physics exploit, allowing players on servers to defy gravity. This should now be patched.
Hackers are an unfortunate reality, but something I'm alway looking to patch/prevent as I continue development, so I appreciate the reports.
Previously server admins could only ban players if they were logged onto the server. You can now use the console to ban players using their Steam id (which is the numeric value in the url of their Steam profile). Type "help" in the console to view the available admin commands.

Once banned, you should see them listed under the Banned list in the server info UI (where you can choose to unban them).

There is now a new ore type that can found while exploring the cave systems.

Phosphate ore is somewhat rare, and can be processed into Phosphorus in the refinery. Each piece of Phosphate Ore yields 3 Phosphorus once processed.

Phosphorus can be used to craft incendiary rifle rounds. These can only be used with the new LA Rifle (press Left-Alt to switch between ammo types).

Incendiary rounds deal the same initial damage as their standard counterparts, however will catch the target on fire for around 10 seconds, dealing continuous damage over that time.

Jumping into water will extinguish the fire.

When splitting stacks, rather than having to right click on the item, you can now simply hold the shift key (or whatever you have bound to your sprint) and right click to split singles into another stack.

Clients of network games were displaying an incorrect warmth reading when near heating sources.

It was either showing 100% or nothing. It was also leading to an incorrect reading on the current world temperature (which displays at top left). This is now fixed.

Strength Boosts can be found under the default medicinal craft menu. These items will increase the player's physical strength by 1.5x for 3 minutes. This increases the speed of harvesting resources (chopping tree, ores, etc), melee damage caused to base items (breaking down doors, etc) and damage to humans and animals.

This can be useful for a burst of wood harvesting, or breaking into bases. A status icon will display on the right side of the hud indicating when the boost is active. The damage incurred to the tool will also increase to match the increased damage dealt.

Previously the Adrenaline boost would simply replenish your stamina, but then (depending on your health stats) would immediately start dropping again.

Now the Adrenaline Boost will provide unlimited stamina for 3 minutes, regardless of your character's physical condition. A status icon will show on the right while it is active.

It's never been very clear that players can level-up their max health and stamina overtime by eating better quality foods. I've added an in-game tip to highlight this mechanic for new players.

It's also not obvious that players protein levels drop faster if the player is cold. So I've also added a contextual tip to explain this.

Players are issued a free heat pack when respawned during winter time. However this is not obvious and often leads to a death loop trying to get back to safety. I've added a one-time prompt to highlight this mechanic.


You no longer need to jump into frigid water to collect water or wash your hands from iceholes. Simply stand next to the ice hole and right click on your canteen to fill with water. Or click use to wash your hands.


I actually spent a full month this update working on a Structural Integrity system for base building. This restricts floating bases and ensures bases are structurally sound (or will otherwise collapse). The system is working well for the most part, however there are many loose ends that need tying up, and I didn't want to dedicate any further time to this one feature.

You can checkout this short video showing the feature in action (running on my dev build):
https://youtu.be/JTZEHli18lI
The blue flashing highlights you see in the video are just for my dev environment, to visualize the SI calculations rippling throughout the structure. I plan to revisit and complete this feature in the future, but right now it's on hold. I welcome feedback from players on the eventual introduction of this feature.

Fixed a bug where the elevator could run off the tracks (and often being lost).


Previously players would be dropped into the world before it had finished initializing (sp) or being fully streamed in from the server (mp). This would lead the player to glitch about on geometry that hadn't fully loaded. Players will now get a waiting screen until the world is ready.

A full battery charge on Flashlight Attachments now lasts 16 minutes (real world time). Was previously 12 minutes.

• Switched to new metallic materials for Double Barrel Shotgun Rifle.
  
• Added weapon handling sounds when raising/lowering weapons to aim down sights.
  
• Fixed ice hole clipping bug, that could result in falling under the world.
  
• Fixed bug where players couldn't cancel and exit out of chat while sitting on ground or in a chair.
  
• Fixed fishing line showing at weird angle if starting to fish while in 3rd person view.
  
• Fixed character standing at weird angle if switching view while exiting an ice hole (thanks Freaky P ;))
  
• Windows will now be destroyed if their wall frames are destroyed.
  
  
• Fixed various buildable's pitch and roll not replicating to clients of net games.
  
• Fixed bug where two weapons would show mounted in the work bench (one below the bench) for clients of net games.
  
• Fixed animation glitch where players could sit while in a falling state.
  
• Fixed clipping bug where players could glitch through geometry while sitting on sofas (sometimes leading to falling to their death).
  
• Inventory item blue highlight flash will now interrupt a previous flash, so feels much more responsive when splitting/transfering items in quick succession.
  
• Log files now capture when admins ban players.
  
• Fixed bug where dedicated servers could get into a restart loop, and machine needing resetting to fix the issue. This was caused by the server attempting to compile shaders (which it never needs anyway).
  
• For humans and animals on fire, the fire particle will now remain attached during ragdolling (previously would float at the death location).

Cheers,
CG

Discord invite: https://discord.gg/zyy4jQs

Twitter: @playSubsistence
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playsubsistence/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkQZ7vkTiqetTC0_8umY2Pg
Steam Forums: https://steamcommunity.com/app/418030/discussions/

If you would like to host your own dedicated server, I would recommend Nitrado (as I work closely with their team to support the game). You are also free to host on your own hardware, and the server files are freely available on SteamCMD.

You can view a detailed guide to hosting here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2201638184

Continued Translation Support Credits (in no particular order): Thank you so much for the support.
Spanish (David Lascasas)
Hungarian (Erb Ármin)
Portuguese BR (Thiago Schumacke)
German (Philipp J. Rackl (LPCaiser))
Italian (Marcello Brancaccio, Federico D. Ravagli)
French (Anthony Charrault)
Czech (Dílna U mnicha)
Dutch (Damster_NL)
Danish (Jesper Vestergaard Bæk)
Russian (FRAME)
Turkish (Soulkast, Çagla Gurbet)
Swedish (Mattias Gustavsson)
Norwegian (Christer Djuvik, Svein Tore Stegemoen)
Romanian (VaeVictis)
Estonian (Streamerize)
Polish (Robertus Lubin)

It is now possible to break through the surface ice on the frozen lakes (using an axe), allowing players to fish during the winter months.

With the axe equipped, look at the ice until a progress wheel displays, then begin chopping to create the hole. This can take a toll on the axe's condition, so keep an eye on its health bar.

Fishing in the ice hole does not require casting with the rod. Simply approach the hole with an equipped rod (and tackle) and an action prompt will display to start fishing.
Players can descend through ice holes, giving new access to water and cave locations throughout the winter. I've added a vault mechanic for pulling yourself out from an ice hole while underwater.

Ice holes will eventually refreeze over. I have code in place to reduce the rate of refreezing if a hole is being actively used, but it will eventually refreeze regardless.

*Be careful to carry an axe while exploring caves during winter, as you may need to break through the ice to exit the frozen lake on your return.
During the summer months, bees will now build hives that can be harvested for honey.

The hives are fairly rare and can be found attached to tree trunks. An axe or pickaxe can be used to harvest the hive to yield the honey.

Honey can be eaten raw and used in cooking recipes. Honey is currently the only food item providing a max-health/stamina boost in its raw form.
Beehives are not dangerous unless a player attempts to harvest the honey.

Attacking a hive will unleash a deadly swarm of bees, so take stock of your current condition (and equipment) before attempting to harvest a hive.

*Many players have suggested a beekeeping mechanic being added. This is certainly something I'm considering for the future.
Catfish can now be caught in the various ponds around the world (they do not reside in the larger lakes). They are less active during the colder months.

They cannot be caught using fish traps, and require rod-fishing.

Pike can be found in all the lakes/ponds in the world. They remain highly active during the winter months, due to being predatory fish.

They also cannot be caught using fish traps, and require rod-fishing.

Perch can be found in all ponds/lakes, however are more common in ponds. They provide slightly more protein than the existing "small fish".

Perch can be caught in fish traps. The can be cooked whole, or harvested for fish oil.

Small animals (rabbits and chickens) can now be killed by a single shot of any live ammunition. However doing so will destroy the potential resource gains and leave you with a mangled corpse (and a satisfying "splat" effect).

The only (current) use for mangled corpses is to allow it to decay into "rotten meat".

I feel this change is a more intuitive means of maintaining gameplay balance (rather than how it was previously).
*Bow-hunting and trapping will preserve the animal's resources for harvesting.
This new glass building piece provides a slanted wall option for the curved variant.

It will attach to any curved foundation, ceiling and wall, and should offer new possibilities for some creative base designs.

I've finally addressed the exploit of guiding predators into trees to attack them with an axe.

I've added new pathing logic to allow them to negotiate trees while chasing prey. There is still a lot of future work I have planned for animal AI, but this should be a big improvement compared to how it was previously.
I've made more seasonal changes to the wild edibles in the world. During the colder months, blueberries will no longer be available, however rosehip berries will persist through the cold.

These tart berries come with a small hydration penalty (effectively making winter a little more of a struggle), so make sure to melt plenty of snow and keep a couple of canteens on you.
The cave systems now have a wild edible. Edible mushrooms can be found/picked, growing on cave rocks while exploring.

They can safely be eaten raw. There currently aren't dedicated cooking recipes for mushrooms, but that will come in the future.
Pork chops now have a dedicated cooking recipe, coupled with honey and grown vegetables.

This dish is the highest tier meal that can be cooked using the frying-pan (typically the baking pan is required for such stats-boosting recipes).
I've added a new white fish item. This meat is now yielded from Bass, Pike and Catfish.

It can safely be eaten raw, but much better cooked. It has slightly lower stats than salmon fillets.

Players can now customize their glow sticks by choosing from a selection of colors.

Simply click on your glow stick to display it's contextual item display (at the top of the hud). Then select from the color-picker to apply your color of choice.

This should help teammates signal-to or identify one another, as well as offering additional visual customization.
Crayfish can now be found in the various lakes and ponds, by catching them in fish traps.

They must be cooked on a fire before eating, or can cause infection.

Crayfish are only small but are a good survival dietary supplement. They offer slightly more protein than small fish or perch (however do not yield fish oil).
This is a cool new feature for admins of dedicated servers. Since Alpha 54, I have heard from many admins that they would like better control to monitor their server and have better access to the world (to perform cleanup etc).

When logged in as an admin, type "freecam" in the console to enter free-cam mode.

This will put you in a detached state, allowing you to fly around the map (even underwater and through cave systems). The speed of camera can be controlled by using the mouse wheel. The camera does react to collision, so you can't just clip through geometry.

While in this state, it is not possible to interact with items, however it is possible to use the "delete buildable" admin command. This allows admins to remove buildables by looking at them and using the "delete buildable" key, which is bindable in the in-game controls.
In addition to free-cam mode. Server admins can now teleport directly to a specific player (they will be switched to free-cam mode to teleport).

To use this feature you must be logged in as an admin on a dedicated server. Open the in-game server stats menu and select the player you wish to teleport to. This will present a button to trigger the teleport with the other admin buttons on the right side.
*The viewed player will be unaware of the camera.
Players can now choose to "take a load off" and sit down (without a chair).

I think this adds some cool immersion while resting by a campfire. This action can be set/rebound in the in-game controls (the default key is "/").
I've made some fairly large changes to water temperatures in the colder months. The water will now get much colder than previously. The temperatures are colder across easy/normal/hardcore.
Found in the default medical crafting menu. This (fairly cheap) item provides temporary protection from insect bites/stings (useful for harvesting honey). While active, a status icon will show on the right side of the hud.

Currently the only insect threat are bee stings, however I have plans for mosquitos on the roadmap (still not totally confirmed yet however).
Since the launch of dedicated servers, extreme pressure was put on the previous save/load system. With many 10s of thousands of buildables populating the map on certain servers, it was leading to some saves being unable to load (caused by multiple 'false' infinite loop detections, etc).

I now have a more robust (async) job-handling system for the game to easily manage these large tasks. This issue became a bit of a "time-bomb" for popular servers, and I had to hurriedly hotfix this in for servers in the weeks after Alpha 54, but it's now polished and is implemented into the singleplayer mode. So if you had a HUGE profile that stopped being able to load, this should fix it. This should also alleviate the "frame-hitch" that can sometimes occur when the game saves during gameplay.

Previously it was common to hit a tree or resource node, see a hit effect/sound, but no progress would be attributed to the harvesting process, feeling very glitchy and frustrating.

I've now addressed this, so what you see/hear should align correctly with what is being harvested.
Many servers were having issues with players/teams building structures over cave entrances, preventing others on the server from accessing them. I've now added no-build zones to these areas, which should solve this problem for server admins..

Note: These no-build zones are not active in single player or player-hosted co-op games.
Medical and ammo crates now have their own unique (and more appropriate) sound when opening.

Previously there was no change in the chances of catching a particular fish type across the months/seasons.

Now, not only do different lake types yield different fish types, but the months/seasons dictate the population/chance of certain fish types (example: it is now rare to catch a salmon during the winter).
Many (myself included) reported that the server list could sometimes crash the game while populating the list.

This was a massive pain to debug, however I believe I now have it fixed. The issue was caused by my aggressive handling of sorting algorithms as server results come in. I will keep an eye on this to verify the issue is closed.
Many players reported inconsistencies with the temperature displayed top-left, their clothing stats and the time at which they may start taking damage from exposure. This should now be fixed (caused by rounding of floating point values in the hud).
Previously I added a placeholder fix, so that lakes would delay freezing if a player was diving or exploring the caves.

Now, since players have a means of escaping the ice, I have removed/altered this. It will still attempt to avoid freezing players/hunters in the surface ice however.
All of the new fish are now tracked in the player stats.

Also rosehip and mushroom picking stats have been added.
In hardcore the temperature penalty is now -5.5°C (was previously -4°C). Easy and normal are unchanged at -2/-4°C respectively.
Previously, after striking and hooking a fish, if you pressed the reel-in key while the strike animation was still in motion, it would ignore the held-down keypress. This felt unpleasant.

Now you can hold the reel-in key during the strike animation, and it will begin reeling once complete.
Animals would sometimes show as alive when looking at them in a trap, but then were actually dead when accessing the trap. This is now fixed.

The menu map has been updated with greater detail/density of foliage and trees.
There was an exploit whereby when first joining a populated server, it would take some time to stream all the buildables in, and it was possible to access base items through a wall. I've now added additional server-side checks to ensure bases are protected from this theft.
If you would like to host your own dedicated server, I would recommend Nitrado (as I work closely with their team to support the game). You are also free to host on your own hardware, and the server files are freely available on SteamCMD.

You can view a detailed guide to hosting here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2201638184
I have added new support for the following 3 languages (bringing total languages supported up to 23):

• Arabic(currently working on addressing some rendering issues for Arabic)
  
• Vietnamese
  
• Thai

• Prevented audio, glitching in/out while the game world is in the process of loading in. Now audio will smoothly transition in when your boots hit the ground.
  
• Console now shows welcome message, displaying the "help" command to list available commands.
  
• Fixed bug where mounted weapon could become misaligned when moving the workbench.
  
• Fixed bug/exploit where base items could be moved out of a base into another, without transferring it's connection from the original base.
  
• Added subtle dark gradient behind bottom-left hud messages (for better contrast/visibility).
  
• Prevented tossed items from sticking to base walls like velcro (they should now drop to the floor as expected).
  
• Fixed "winter-warning" not showing when joining a server in winter.
  
• Added error message when attempting to join a server running a different alpha version.
  
• You can now press escape to exit out of confirm popups.
  
• Fixed bug where a confirm popup would get stuck on the screen, requiring a game restart.
  
• Fixed bug where clients of network games wouldn't recognize a clip-size upgrade on a weapon, resulting in them not being able to reload the weapon if it's clip was above the default clip-size count.
  
• Fixed rare bug where clams and sandstone nodes would disappear when swimming close to them.
  
• Fixed bat hanging animation not playing for clients of network games.
  
  
• Added brief fade from black when entering a profile or respawning after death.
  
• Fixed bug with food perish times, where a complete stack could disappear after just one of it's stack perishes.
  
• Added admin console command to disable all base lights on a server. This is a bit of band aid due to base lights having a performance cost if used excessively on servers with many structures, and players leaving all their base lights on when logging off. A true performance fix will come for this in the future.
  
• Strawberries and rosehips can now be used to bait small animal traps.
  
  
• Fixed bug where it was still possible to access enemy woodburners, even when the server was set to disallow access of other players base items.
  
• Fixed underwater gap in the fenceline in the large eastern lake.

I hope everyone's having a great holiday period (after a pretty tough 2020). I'm excited for 2021 and to continue working on the game and moving it forward. Thanks to everyone that's been supporting the game during its development. I still have a lot planned for its future! Happy New Year!

Cheers,
CG

Discord invite: https://discord.gg/zyy4jQs

Twitter: @playSubsistence
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playsubsistence/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkQZ7vkTiqetTC0_8umY2Pg
Steam Forums: https://steamcommunity.com/app/418030/discussions/


Continued Translation Support Credits (in no particular order): Thank you so much for the support.
Spanish (David Lascasas)
Hungarian (Erb Ármin)
Portuguese BR (Thiago Schumacke)
German (Philipp J. Rackl (LPCaiser))
Italian (Marcello Brancaccio, Federico D. Ravagli)
French (Anthony Charrault)
Czech (Dílna U mnicha)
Dutch (Damster_NL)
Danish (Jesper Vestergaard Bæk)
Russian (FRAME)
Turkish (Soulkast, Çagla Gurbet)
Swedish (Mattias Gustavsson)
Norwegian (Christer Djuvik, Svein Tore Stegemoen)
Romanian (VaeVictis)
Estonian (Streamerize)
Polish (Robertus Lubin)

The Alpha 54 update is primarily focused on adding official dedicated server support, improving the multiplayer client experience, and a number of other fixes and improvements.
The dedicated server files are freely available for any players who own the game. Players can choose to host their own servers, or rent them from a variety of hosting services.

Please view the Server Admin Guide for players interested in hosting and admining their own server: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2201638184
The in-game server browser has had a visual and functional update, and now gives detailed info on servers currently running.

Servers will show an icon indicating whether they are player-hosted or dedicated.

Clicking on a server in the list will now show granular details on the games settings and current in-game state.

There is a text search that filters servers based on their name of hosted-by fields. You can also sort the list by name/hosted-by/ping/player-count. You can also filter by "All" servers, or "History" (which will display only servers you've previously joined, sorted by the most recently joined).

Available in both singleplayer and multiplayer, players can now view detailed stats of their current profile (or server). There is a new button under the clothing UI to open the "Profile Stats" (or "Server Stats" in a multiplayer game).

This new UI will display all players currently on the profile, a summary of their stats, and then a breakdown of various categories.

I actually implemented tracking for many of these stats many updates ago, but never added a UI to expose them. I decided to add it now as I wanted to give server admins visibility of players and their activities on their server.

This means that many of these stats will be populated, even on old profiles. However many are newly added, so will only start tracking once your game has updated. These stats will be a nice foundation for when I implement Steam achievements (future update).
Shows individual kill stats for every weapon.

Shows every single hunting kill made by the player on the current profile/server (including fish caught).

Show stats on many items looted/harvested in the world.


If hosting a player-hosted game, the host will be automatically logged in as an admin. For dedicated servers, admins must log-in with the "AdminPassword" that is set in their server config.

Admins will show in the player list with an icon besides their name.

When logged in as an admin, while viewing a player in the server stats UI, you will have buttons on the right side to kick or kick+ban a player from the server.

As an admin, you will also have a tab above the player's list, to list all banned players (who are now offline). Selecting players in this list will display a button to unban them. You can still view the full stats of a banned player.

Banned players will be banned across all profiles hosted by that server.

In the interest of players having a good experience when choosing a server to join, I've added the ability to flag servers as verified (which I can update anytime on a backend server).

The idea is that servers that become reputable and in good standing with the community can be flagged as "verified" and show at the top of the list. Please reach out if you are a host and would like your server to be considered.

Previously when jumping, the client would wait for the server to respond with their landing velocity, causing an awkward lag (delayed sound and camera shake) when landing.

This is now predictively calculated by the client, and now feels way more responsive for clients.

Previously when unlocking crates, the client would ask the server to unlock the crate, wait for the response that it was unlocked, then send another request to access it. Now the client sends both requests at once, which cuts the lag on opening crates in half.

I've added client-side predictive pickup effects for small animals and dropped items (rather than waiting for the server). So picking up a small-game kill (or hand-catching chickens) now feels as responsive as single player.


This is untrodden ground for me. The simulations I have been running on my dev environment are not sufficient to gauge the real-world performance stats (or the player experience).

I have started with a max count of 32, however this may change once servers have been tested. I would urge server hosts to be gentle with your max counts and monitor your performance stats. As a community, I hope we will soon get an understanding of performance ceilings. If you are a host, please join the "Server Admins" channel in Discord to discuss server performance and so I can notify of hotfixes going out, etc.

I've added settings for dedicated server hosts to customize whether to allow/restrict PvP actions on their servers. In particular these following rules (which can also be viewed from the server list before joining a server):

• PvP damage can be enabled/disabled.
  
• PvP Base Damage: Whether players can damage player-built bases.
  
• Access Enemy Player Base Items: Whether players can access enemy player base items, such as storage crates, refineries, etc (does not include doors/windows/hatches).

Hosts should reference the dedicated server guide to configure these settings.

For players wishing to host a server without having to manage their own hardware, there are now several server hosting services that are setup to host Subsistence servers. I would recommend Nitrado, as I have been working closely with their team to integrate the servers and settings into their control dashboards. Although players are free to use any service or hardware they like.

You can find Subsistence servers to rent here: https://nitra.do/subsistence

Previously I had been using SpeedTree collision primitives for tree collision. As the map continues to expand, this collision has become buggy unreliable, resulting in collision not aligning correctly with trees. Furthermore, it seemed this alignment error would differ between client and server, resulting in some jerky server corrections for clients.

I've abandoned the previous collision primitives and added my own mesh collision for all trees. This seems to have fully solved the issue (for the price of a slightly increased map file size).

A requested feature for a long time, players can now craft labels for their storage chests. Once crafted, the label can be switched between a set of preset labels.

I've tried to include a decent amount of labels, but please let me know of more that are needed. I may consider adding dynamic text to labels in a future update.

A common bug reported by players on established/large co-op games; when a new buildable was placed it would sometime appear as fully damaged for clients (not for the host). This has now been fixed.

In an effort to prevent griefing I have updated the rules around moving or deleting buildables.

I now track which player placed which buildable, which allows for the following new rules:

• Cannot move/delete a buildable if it was placed by another player, unless that player is a member of the same base.
  
• Cannot move/delete a buildable if it is within another team's BCU range of influence (even if they placed it).
  
• Can move/delete any buildable placed by another team if it is within their BCU's range of influence.

For old profiles, previously placed buildables won't know about their ownership, but as long as they are in range of a BCU, will be protected (as per prior to this update).

Note: These same rules are also now applied to opening/closing doors/windows/ladder-hatches.


One regular piece of feedback I receive from current server hosts is that servers can become messy with abandoned bases. There is now an optional setting in UDKDedServerSettings.ini (NumPlayerOfflineHoursBeforeBaseDecay).

This setting allows server hosts to specify a number of (real-world) hours that if no members of a team have been active for this time, then all buildables placed by any of them will start to decay. The decay time takes around 4 to 6 hours once it has started.

I would recommend setting this to something like 5 days (120 hours), or whatever you feel appropriate to keep your servers clean. If set to 0, then the decay feature is disabled.

Please note that there is a keybind available in the controls menu for admins, which when used in game will delete any buildable while looking at it. It is unbound by default.

There are also several admin commands available via the console (type help to list the commands). I plan to expand on admin capabilities/tools in the future.

I always found it a little jarring to be able to harvest an entire bed of plants in almost an instant.

Now grown plants require the use key be held down for a short period to harvest them. I think this is a bit more immersive for players who like to farm.

I've fixed the bug whereby plants would become misaligned after moving the plant bed.

Plant beds have always been a strain on network games. They previously used individual network channels for each plant, so the server was constantly checking if each plant is relevant to every player (which also led to plants disappearing and reappearing for clients). I've re-written it's network code, so now all plants use only a single network channel (that of the plantbed itself) and is very light-weight for the server.

The cougar AI has had some tweaks to prevent certain exploits. I'll be keeping an eye on this to see how it plays out.


I've added new behavior to the hunter AI to respond to certain close-range encounters. They can also now perform melee attacks, so be cautious when rushing in close.


There is now a dedicated save game button in the menu while in single-player or hosting a co-op game.

Sorry this took so long. You can now exit to the main menu when playing on a profile.

A Discord member reported that weapon flashlight attachments were causing shadow artifacts while in their base. This bug was introduced when I switched to using instanced static meshes for base buildables, and should now be resolved:


Previously, while swimming, rain and snow effects would display under the water surface (and be pushed further away from the player). This is now fixed.


Obviously terminating the server if a player dies in hardcore would not work for ded-servers. Instead, the player's dropped kit only lasts 2 minutes (so it is effectively lost for the player, as it previously was), and they will see no HUD beacon.

Fixed a rare bug where bats could attack the player through the cave floor.


I have added network pools for Solar Panels, Wind Turbines, Power and Mass Storage, which results in 20 of each item only using one unit from the build limit (rather than one each). This should drastically increase the amount of buildables that can be placed in a multiplayer game.

This change will apply to existing multiplayer profiles. I'll expand this even further in the future.

• Fixed occasional glitchiness causing the player to get hung-up on base items.
  
• Fixed bug for clients of mp games where doors and crates would not remove once destroyed (and be left with no collision).
  
• Fixed hunters often using the incorrect weapon holding states, leading to odd poses while in combat.
  
• You can now hit Escape to exit the map view.
  
• Fixed bug where the map could open at a strange angle.
  
• Fixed occasional bug of spawning a player too close to a hunter camp, predator (or potentially inside another player's base).
  
• Fixed deer and moose not correctly exiting out of their idle animations when fleeing for clients of mp games.
  
• Made some design changes to the solo and multiplayer profile launch UI to show the individual settings more clearly.
  
• Fixed the clam pickup message showing if clicking on the shell after taking the pearl.
  
• "Game saved" message no longer shows for clients, and now uses the correct hud messaging and localized fonts.
  
• Fixed short period of seeing "is being accessed" message when exiting out of accessing a base item.
  
• Added a proper jump landing sound when landing in snow (previously was the default dirt sound).
  
• The local Steam language will now be auto-selected when first starting the game after installing (so players shouldn't need to manually change the language when they first play).
  
• Fixed month override not working when first starting a brand new profile.
  
• Prevent players stepping up on base items when crouching next to them.
  
• Fixed rare bug that could cause the player to fly into the air when pushing up against the perimeter fence.
  
• Fixed bug that would cause the player to lose movement control when submerging into water while climbing a ladder.
  
• Fixed bug of increasing power cost of bed spawns not showing for clients of network games.
  
• Bed spawns in co-op (player hosted) hardcore servers, now increase in cost after each purchase (same as in single player).
  
• There is now a checkbox in the co-op launch screen to show or hide the game from the public server list.
  
• Added more appropriate sound for when campfires and traps are destroyed from decay.
  
• Fixed exploit that allowed two team members to own two bases that would both auto-generate power/mass.
  
• Fixed UI bug that was preventing players from declining a base invite.
  
• Fixed exploit that allowed a BCU to be linked to another.

To all of the singleplayer players, I'm sorry this update is so largely focused on multiplayer. However dedicated servers are a key, planned feature that I've been promising since launch, so I'm excited to finally add support. Please stay tuned for further updates, and hope everyone has a great week!

Cheers,
CG

Discord invite: https://discord.gg/zyy4jQs

Twitter: @playSubsistence
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playsubsistence/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkQZ7vkTiqetTC0_8umY2Pg
Steam Forums: https://steamcommunity.com/app/418030/discussions/


Continued Translation Support Credits (in no particular order): Thank you so much for the support.
Spanish (David Lascasas)
Hungarian (Erb Ármin)
Portuguese BR (Thiago Schumacke)
German (Philipp J. Rackl (LPCaiser))
Italian (Marcello Brancaccio, Federico D. Ravagli)
French (Anthony Charrault)
Czech (Dílna U mnicha)
Dutch (Damster_NL)
Danish (Jesper Vestergaard Bæk)
Russian (FRAME)
Turkish (Soulkast, Çagla Gurbet)
Swedish (Mattias Gustavsson)
Norwegian (Christer Djuvik, Svein Tore Stegemoen)
Romanian (VaeVictis)
Estonian (Streamerize)
Polish (Robertus Lubin)

There is now a large new cave expansion under the south east area of the map. The new cave system can be accessed via an underwater dormant lava-tube deep in the large lake in the area.

Players will need to use diving equipment to access the caves (same as the existing caves).

The new caves stretch far out towards the north. They currently don't meet with the existing cave system, but I plan to link them in a future update.

The new cave system is larger than the existing one, so has more than doubled the amount of subterranean space in the world.

Some areas are more confined with tight tunnel systems leading deeper in.

The new cave system adds a new source of crystal to the southern area of the map. However crystal spawn cooldown has been increased due to the increased supply.


A new animal type that roams the landscape. Boar will generally avoid players and predators. However if cornered or threatened, will attack, but will typically flee after inflicting damage. They can be seen rooting through undergrowth in wooded areas.

Their attacks will have a high chance of breaking bones and causing bleeding. Boar substitute wolf spawns in their areas, so this will lessen some areas of high predator density.

Hunting and butchering boar will yield pork chops, as well as large quantities of animal fat.


Slanted glass walls can now be crafted from the default player craft menu, along with side panels to fill the gaps.

These new pieces are a full-wall height and have a half-floor depth to the slant.

I think these new angles will give players a lot more freedom for interesting and creative base designs.




A slim variant of the foundation stairs.


The cave systems now have a natural threat beyond the mining hunters. These large bats have a high chance of causing infection and bleeding (which differs across easy/normal/hardcore). However adds a means to harvest meat while within the caves.

While implementing the bats, I needed to create a new AI and navigation system for flying animals, which I plan to re-use for new ground-level flying animals.


I've made some tweaks to slow movement speed when engaged in combat and during base attacks. Previously, during certain navigation hops, they would sprint unusually fast, so this change should help combat feel more natural and fair.

Hunters have always had a nerf on their firepower compared to players. The previous nerf (percentage of damage dealt) was of 65% across all difficulty modes. I've now changed this to 50/59/65% across easy/normal/hardcore respectively. This should help balance hunter gunfights on the lower difficulty modes.

I've updated the logic for how hunter squads choose player bases to target for attack. If they are targeting a base, but then all base members log-off, they will now consider switching focus to another team's base. They will prioritize the most active and established bases.

This change is part of an effort to make servers self-balance as players join/leave, in preparation for dedicated server support. Also putting pressure on powerful player teams, while giving relief to players trying to get established.

I've completely overhauled how base items register with the base BCU. Previously, once a base item was placed it could only be unlinked from the base if the primary BCU was destroyed. Removing a Range Extender would not unlink items using its extended range. Also, placing a Range Extender would not relink items that had become unlinked.

So if the primary BCU was destroyed, this could lead to situations where base items could not be relinked to a base (even when moving the item back within range of the primary BCU).

This all sounds complicated because it is. The new system is much more simple and logical.

• Everytime you move a base item, if unlinked, it will check if it should relink with a base.
  
• When you place a range extender, it will check if base items in its radius should be relinked.
  
• When daisy-chaining Range Extenders, removing one in the chain will disconnect all in the remainder of the chain (and base items). Replacing that gap in the chain, will reconnect it.

Range Extenders that become unlinked from the base will show with a red panel for visual reference:



During the summer months, wild strawberries can be found growing around the world. Strawberries have slightly better stats than blueberries, as well as small hydration boost (handy for the hot temperatures).

Traps will decay at a much slower rate now. They will now last for around 5 days with no repair.


On Normal and Hardcore, exposed campfires will now be extinguished if left in the rain (on easy they will not).

I am just testing this out for now, and may roll this back. I feel it adds a small extra survival consideration and encourages progression, but I'm open to feedback from players.

Campfires will slowly decay over the period of 5 days. They now also have a damage skin to indicate their health.


Reported by players for a long time, this bug would infect clients of co-op games seemingly at random. This was due to an error in accessing the player's persistent state, resulting in some clients essentially acquiring the medical state of another player.


This should now be fully fixed. Please let me know if there are any recurrences of this.

Occasionally clients were not correctly transitioned into cave environments. This resulted in caves being lit incorrectly and also not hearing certain sounds, no ambient reverb, etc. This should now be fixed.


Finally players can craft vertical walls, rather than having to build two quarter walls.

Previously elevators would only stop on floors that were full wall heights from the ground floor. They will now stop at half wall heights also. This will make base designs less restrictive.


Previously the various water shaders for rivers and lakes had some very static panning layers, and would also not move at correct speeds for flowing rivers. I've adjusted the flowing speeds and added a distortion to better simulate a fluid motion. It's a subtle change, but one I notice a lot.

Glass roof pieces have always been slightly misaligned in their height. This is now fixed:


I've toned down the number of birds, and added more variation to wing flapping animations.

This should make them slightly more visible during the fall.


I know many players have been requesting ded-server support for a long time. I actually spent a fair amount of time on this during this sprint, but some more work is needed. I don't have a fixed timeline yet, but the plan is to make the files freely available through Steam CMD, and allow players to host using whatever service or hardware they please. I'll have more info on this in the near future.

• Fixed shadow bug that would result in floating hair shadow for female characters.
  
• Increased the range of weapon flashlights.
  
• Added lighting for white water particles (including when fishing). Previously would be fully lit at night.
  
• Fixed small gaps in the walls of the old cave system.
  
• Increased resolution of loading screen.
  
• Fixed "hunters moving into the world" message showing when building a second base.
  
• Added smooth transition between outdoor and cave environmental lighting (new cave entrance only).
  
• Fixed max health/stamina resetting on death. This was supposed to be included in Alpha 52, but didn't make it in. Decrease amounts are now 2/4/6 across easy/normal/hardcore respectively.
  
• Fixed bugged metal door model when in an open state.
  
• Fixed bug that was causing up to 4 hunter bases spawning to surround a single player base.
  
• Fixed exploit that allowed players to save/reload while low on breath to reset breath timer while diving without diving gear.
  
• Fixed visual bug where held weapon (and arms) would show while in map view.
  
• Increased visibility underwater.
  
• Fixed various underwater impact sounds playing without underwater fx.

Discord invite: https://discord.gg/zyy4jQs

Twitter: @playSubsistence
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playsubsistence/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkQZ7vkTiqetTC0_8umY2Pg
Steam Forums: https://steamcommunity.com/app/418030/discussions/


Continued Translation Support Credits (in no particular order): Thank you so much for the support.
Spanish (David Lascasas)
Hungarian (Erb Ármin)
Portuguese BR (Thiago Schumacke)
German (Philipp J. Rackl (LPCaiser))
Italian (Marcello Brancaccio, Federico D. Ravagli)
French (Anthony Charrault)
Czech (Dílna U mnicha)
Dutch (Damster_NL)
Danish (Jesper Vestergaard Bæk)
Russian (FRAME)
Turkish (Soulkast, Çagla Gurbet)
Swedish (Mattias Gustavsson)
Norwegian (Christer Djuvik, Svein Tore Stegemoen)
Romanian (VaeVictis)
Estonian (Streamerize)
Polish (Robertus Lubin)