Today we move V14 from the public beta branch to the live branch of the game! While the bulk of this post is dedicated to the changes and additions in V14, please pay attention to the next section of this post so there is no confusion.

• If you want to keep playing your V13 save with the old map, you need to swap to a secondary game branch created by the developer. Your V13 save will not work in V14. The new branch is called "V13 (No Support)" - and, as stated, will allow you to play V13 but will come with no further support.
  No bug fixes, no new content, etc.
  
• If you are playing on the current public beta branch with an established V14 save, you can access that save in the live branch after updating.
  
• If you are brand new to the game, or have no V14 save from the public test (beta) branch, you will need to start a fresh save.

To access the V13 branch OR the public test branch, right-click on The Infected in your Steam library and hit properties. There you will find a BETAS tab. BETA will put you into the V14 public testing branch while V13 will put you into the branch designed for V13 save game files.


Note from the developer: The timing and scale of this update is something that I had never done before for The Infected. I contracted out to two studios for new asset work - one for the map and one for the new AI. Both sets of assets came out great. Unfortunately, as development progressed on the map asset, it became clear there would be a considerable delay due to unexpected circumstances. TLDR: I took possession of the map to stick to my timetable versus delaying the update for what could be months. I have made tweaks to it and will continue to do so because there are still things that can be fleshed out.

Now - patch notes!
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Notable changes:
- This is a far more rocky and rugged terrain with a large amount of new cliff and mountain meshes. The map overlay is just a guide, we encourage folks to explore and look around.
- Fish have been added to most bodies of water.
- New types of POI and buildings.
- New foliage
- Waterfalls and rivers.
- New cave systems.








Many Infected players are used to our typical looting system- where items appear on or around tables, cabinets, etc. Lootable containers have been added to the POIs in V14. You'll want to explore and interact with many objects you encounter in your travels. (Examples; garbage bags, ovens, fridges, and more!)




Added a new early game vehicle type- an All Terrain Vehicle (ATV). While the ATV is at first presented to you in a broken-down state, the new tutorial section will lead you to repair the vehicle- teaching newcomers their keybindings and rewarding all with a faster method of transport. It even comes with a small storage chest! Be sure to check the local environment carefully as you search for vehicle parts, especially the lighthouse.





Say goodbye to poking fish with your spear, and say hello to a new way to fish! A new fishing mechanic has been added alongside a fishing pole & bait. You can now also store your fishing pole on the weapons rack.





The Itempedia has been completely overhauled and now exists as an interactive book in the game. Additionally, you can craft directly from the Itempedia, provided you have the materials in your backpack. Click the item image, and the required materials will automatically be added to the crafting table. There's a filter tab system to navigate alongside a new tab specifically for medical-related items.




Like the new Itempedia, the available technology blueprints are also displayed via an interactive book. However, you no longer need to locate a book to learn a new technology recipe. Instead, in V14, players need to discover pages of the technology book in POIs. Players will be informed of the specific technology they have learned when a page is found, and a green checkmark will appear on the page.





3 new AI types have been added to replace the old vambie models. They have new looks, animations, sounds and behaviors. Fighting each type of AI will require a different strategy or some trial & error. Don't be afraid to head into the settings and adjust them to your liking until you get a hang for things. And don't forget to use that shield!

1) Vapirs: Infected humanoids with vampire traits. (1 boss and 2 minions)
2) Garwalfs: Infected humanoids with the look of werewolves. (1 boss and 2 minions)
3) Diggers: Infected humanoids with brutish aspects. (1 boss and 2 minions)






The Land Claim Pole is a new construction item that resembles a signpost and is required for the construction & placement of some 'placeable' items within the game.

Interaction:
-You can add text to the Land Claim Pole, similar to regular signposts.
-You can toggle on the 'land claim radius,' which shows you the space covered by that specific claim pole and is used to calculate the amount of noise & light being produced within that radius.
-You can choose to display or hide a noise and light meter.

Noise and Light Mechanic:

In previous game versions, the aggressive AI was located in POIs and more randomly worldwide. They would target the player and frequently raid the home/base when the player was in residence.

In v14, we have introduced a new system that puts players in control of their fate. While some tweaks are being made, the overall design is as follows: placeables will generate noise or light, which you can track via the claim pole meter display, and once a meter is maxed out, a base attack is triggered.




The Barn is a new craftable structure (like the greenhouse) that works within the new animal husbandry mechanic. The Barn has its own butcher table and can house two animal types: goats and chickens.

Chickens: Can be tranquilized and, once picked up, are added to the backpack. You can add them to your kept animal list by interacting with the Barn. Chickens produce eggs that are used to craft complex foods.

Goats: Can be tranquilized, picked up, and carried to the Barn. Goats produce milk that is used to craft complex foods.





The garage, previously used to summon the truck, has been updated to also summon the ATV.




Similar to trees, you can cut down with a bush with your axe - they yield 10-15 sticks instead of logs.




- Tires that can be found in the lighthouse (for the ATV)
- Veggie Mix (used in the crafting of some complex foods)
- Milk, drop from goats in the barn. (used in the crafting of some complex foods)
- Eggs, drop from Chickens in the barn. (used in the crafting of some complex foods)
- Tranquilizer Arrow
- Fishing Pole and Fish Bait
- Small Ration


Acquiring ore within caves has been updated!
Placing an extractor inside of a cave is no longer restricted to pulling just one type of ore. Instead, you can gather all three ore types (Aluminum, Cobalt and Copper) by either random acquisition or by specifically targeting a type you desire.
Iron acquisition has not changed - placing an extractor anywhere *not* within a cave system will yield Iron.




NEW- Tree regrowth option in settings.
NEW-- Toggle to disable lighting effects in settings.
NEW - Wind system, wind turbines will no longer give a steady income of power. Probably wise to use a combo of wind and solar now.
NEW - Can now harvest dead animals in the wild without the need for the butcher table - the trade off is that you receive far fewer resources.
NEW - Various UI Button click sounds.
NEW- Added a suicide button to in game pause menu with confirmation buttons, useful if stuck.
CHANGE - New Tutorial/tasks
CHANGE - Log wall meshes texture change
CHANGE - AI settings options changed to accommodate the new AI.
CHANGE - No more shield delays, looks strange but a must to use the shield well.
CHANGE - Various food recipes have changed, consult the itempedia.
CHANGE - Instancing build parts, results in massive performance gains when players have huge bases.
CHANGE - Metal Spikes HP reduced from 500 to 350.
CHANGE - Barbed Wire HP reduced from 750 to 500.
CHANGE - Removed fish oil from the Antidote and swapped it with tallow because in winter only game mode, no fish are available.
CHANGE-Plank size in inventory adjusted from 1 x 6 to 1 x 5.
CHANGE- Default button for BLOCK is now Right Mouse Button. New players will have RMB as default, old players will still have T bound but it is recommended to change to RMB.

The following are descriptions of commonly reported bugs that have been fixed.

BUGFIX - Destroying the Jack O'Lantern ghost when no pumpkin was even added, would return a free pumpkin.
BUGFIX - Various UI Bugs.
BUGFIX - Could grab weapon using the mouse wheel while in the truck.
BUGFIX - Constructing and moving gates would sometimes result in the gate door collisions not properly being set.
BUGFIX - Armor not working against any Vambie Hits
BUGFIX - as soon as you press "E" to use the cart if you immediately press the Shield button you have the shield up while moving the cart, but then if you press E you drop the cart but the shield stays up and you can't interact with anything
BUGFIX - If you're using the Bow, do not try and raise the shield right after firing or it breaks it and you can't use the shield
BUGFIX - Metal Tip Spikes durability would be restored to its max after moving it.
BUGFIX - Build a greenhouse above your base building it will keep 23 degrees below without need for adding any coal or wood.
BUGFIX - Some characters such as (.,/) is new game names would cause loading issues.
BUGFIX- Spamming axe was allowing players to fast chop trees.

Hi everyone,

A few more fixes and changes.

CHANGE - If a player crosses an enemy campfire while exploring, the AI will break chase of the player if the AI get beyond 10k units away from their campfire. This will at least allow players to avoid the battle if they can run away or drive away. In this case, the AI will go back to their campfire.
FIXED - Mike issue with taking stones off the forge, cause forges and mike to be in a bad state.
FIXED - Mike could no longer open/close doors and gates.
FIXED - Mike would not loop through all available AI chest to deposit food he harvests from plant beds.

Regards

Hi everyone,

Just a small update to specifically address the issue of players no longer able to load their files. A couple of other things were also done so I included them too.

FIXED - Some player save game files would not load any longer. The issue was the cut down logs in the way of newly spawned trees. It was a collision issue that is now resolved and your files should load normally.
FIXED - Mike had an issue with repairs if the object he was trying to repair was moved by the player before he reached it. This was causing Mike to be idle and broken.
ADDED - New AI setting "Multiple Boss Attacks" Toggling this option to disabled will result in players no longer getting attacked by potentially 2 minibosses and more minions.

Hey folks!

We just wanted to give a heads up on the V14B content - the new map, the new AI, etc- and some shifts that will occur on Friday the 28th.

If anything changes between now and Friday, we will detail the change in the Friday post.


The V14 content (new map, new AI, etc) will go live on the main/live branch for the game.
Your V13 save WILL NOT work on this content.
Your V14B save is planned to work on this content.

The plan is to open a V13 branch for players to play their V13 saves.
This branch will receive no support, no bugfixes, no new content or changes.
It's simply there for folks that want to remain in the old map with the current iteration of the UI.

The beta branch/public test branch will remain up for a short while longer.

Hi everyone,

A few changes, fixes and balancing.

FIXED - Could no longer get water or wash hands in cave water.
FIXED - Some foliage and trees clipping roads.
FIXED - Gates and door ghosts would block AI as if they were built, causing the AI to behave strangely.

CHANGED - Mineral extractors to allow ore type extraction but at double the extraction time. (from 5 mins to 10 mins)
CHANGED - Metal tip spikes HP reduced from 500 to 350.
CHANGED - Barbed Wire HP reduced from 750 to 500.
CHANGED - Noise/Light meter attacks start only after day 3.
CHANGED - After day 20, chance of 2 mini bosses and between 4 and 6 minions per attack.
CHANGED - Circular Sawbench noise meter value increased from 0.10 to 0.15.
CHANGED - AI attacks from noise/light meters will despawn after player death. Previously they would only despawn after 3 to 5 deaths causing a small death loop.
CHANGED - Armor will degrade slower. Previously each attack would damage armor by 2. Now, they will be damaged by 1 except for the body armor that will be damaged by 0.5.

ADDED - Mike can now replenish your stone crates, provided that there is boulders he can mine within a large radius of 25k unreal units away from his house.
ADDED - Small Ration... 1 x mushroom, egg, raw chicken and melon. Crafted on the food prep table.

Hi everyone,

While this patch brings a short list of general fixes & changes, the change worth highlighting is the update to the current map.

This updated map version has adjusted landscape material and a new roadway cutting between the cliffs on the northeast side. It was necessary to respawn all the ground clutter, meaning trees and rocks are respawned and may clip through your bases until the player removes them.

Your V14 saves files should load with everything safe/intact, unless your structure(s) is in a spot modified by the new road passage.
______


FIXED - Placing mineral extractor on water in caves would result in iron drops.
FIXED - Putting out the Jack O Lantern with flask would turn the dirty water clean.
FIXED - Animals and AI walking at the bottom of water.
FIXED - Right mouse button pressed when looking at dead AI would cause cursor to be active as if a UI was open.
FIXED - Mike would stay idle if did not have any room in his chest to deposit collected food.
FIXED - Animals could open gates and doors.
FIXED - Issues where if a player crosses an AI campfire while exploring, these AI would sometimes go destroy player bases instead of attacking the player.
CHANGE - New map image to reflect the map changes.

Hi everyone,

A few more fixes and changes.

FIXED - Could not delete ghost NPC House.
FIXED - Arrows and bolts would show the harvest widget to delete arrows but that should not have been visible as I do not allow for arrows to be deleted. To discard those, players would need the garbage container.
FIXED - Issue where Mike would loop trying to gather logs.
FIXED - Spear collisions adjusted, they would sometimes be floating in the air.
CHANGE - Move the sign post construction into the build/other filter next to the Land Claim pole to try and avoid confusion. Some players were building the Sign Post by mistake and wondering why they can't place objects.

Hi everyone,

A few more fixes and changes.

FIXED - When Diggers lose their shield its as if they did not and would still block.
FIXED - Quite a few AI bugs related to them getting into your base without destroying defenses. In some scenarios they would jump over fencing or even teleport through.
FIXED - A bunch of Mike related issues. Please let us know if you still see Mike issues after this update is installed.
FIXED - A bug where crafting from the itempedia book would sometimes remove more items than necessary from the players backpack.
FIXED - Some bad cliff mesh placements.
FIXED - Could delete Mikes house leaving him in a bad state on game reload.
FIXED - Can no longer drive the ATV while moving objects. You can still do so while holding animals, mike, food etc.
CHANGE - Removed most blocking volumes ontop of mountains, some wanted to build up there but at your own risk. There are many places to get stuck up there but with the new suicide button, I feel better about letting you guys up there.
CHANGE - Made foundations always buildable if overlapping other base building parts. This may lead to some strange looking placements but will give players more freedom. Especially when trying to add foundations under other parts that got destroyed.
CHANGE - T to flip/reset Thruck has now been changed to P like the ATV.
CHANGE - Increased size of the minions to be a bit taller.
CHANGE - Diggers skin textures color change to be less green.
CHANGE - Reduce ATV sounds volume.
CHANGE - New Vapir mini boss mesh with a long coat.
ADDED - New AI mesh imported to fix some skinning issues with animations.

Hi everyone,

A few more fixes and changes.

FIXED - Some more floating cliffs.
FIXED - Could not repair the barn.
FIXED - Using the suicide button while in god mode would start the depletion stats function.
FIXED - Issue with Mike sometimes getting stuck and teleporting into areas that he should not have. This would result in Mike vanishing from the Map. To fix this, I check to see if mike is stuck and if so he will be teleported back to a safe spot near his bed.
CHANGE - Some changes/balancing to damage dealt on spike traps and barbed wired by the Mini Bosses.

Hi everyone,

A few more fixes and changes.

FIXED - Picking up Tranquilized animals from cart or truck would sometimes display them as dead and could not be added to the Barn.
FIXED - Dropped dead animals into a river could not be recovered.
FIXED - Some info popups when looking at the stove would not go away until you look at another item/object.
FIXED - Cart would sometimes clip through the floors in some POI buildings.
FIXED - More Mike related issues.
FIXED - Could not attack AI with Axes and Pickaxes.
FIXED - AI would sometimes magically jump through doors.
FIXED - Tech book blank page.
CHANGE - More optimization of meshes and textures.