Nov 2, 2023

Dying Light 2 Stay Human: Reloaded Edition - jakub.kurowski

Community Update #3 is built around the players’ feedback, mostly submitted via the Community Ideas website feature. It introduces improvements across the categories such as weapons, inventory, enemies, and missions. This update kicks off the process of implementing all the features promised in the earlier Sneak Peek.

Weapon improvements
With the Community Update #3 we’ve taken weapons onto our workshop, and we are introducing a set of changes that will help Pilgrims diverse their arsenal ecosystem.

Weapon Repair system is the first aspect we’ve taken into the consideration - we understood that there might be weapons you don’t want to let go easily and they are just trophies in your inventory - so you don’t need to rely on Korek’s Charm or keeping weapons hidden anymore - swing them as much as you like and visit your local Craftmaster to repair them with couple of original crafting resources and old world money. Keep in mind that price might be higher depending on lost durability.

Enemies dropping their weapons is next on our checklist! There will be a chance for enemies to drop weapon after being defeated, which gives you another trick in the sleeve in combat. Those are mostly simple weapons, but depending on the group of enemies you will face, the rarity of items might change!

Mods dismantling feature will help you receive some resources back and free a mod slot - you don’t need to wait to make your weapon slightly more powerful, you can improve your weapon every step now!

A new weapon rarity is cherry on top! Exotic tier weapons will be distinguished by crimson red color, and increased damage and durability is not the only thing that comes in the package! Those items might have unique affixes like increased damage done if an attack hits the enemy’s head, a chance to deal double damage, a chance to deal double damage on POWER ATTACK, or a chance to stun enemies on attacks. Exotic weapons can be found in Pilgrim's Outpost loot boxes, Daily/Weekly bounties loot boxes, Legend Levels Progression, and Replayable GRE Anomalies. Since they are extremely powerful, there is a small chance for them to drop!

Korek Charm Rework
Korek charm was always a big part of the game, proving its usefulness in The City. As you’ve might figured it out based on the weapons changes, we want to still make it useful by adding an unique modifier. Korek’s Charm will give players an increased damage, when the weapon is at 15% or less durability - balancing on the edge will give you an extra payoff!

Replayable GRE Anomalies
Yes, you heard it right! Now, you can repeat fights with Revenants at night to hoard loot! After completing the GRE Anomaly, it can be activated via the on-spot panel that will begin the encounter again, but this time with GRE Aberration, a stronger version of the previous enemy! Try it out and give yourself some challenge!

New enemy variants
After Good Night Good Luck update Howler did not serve any purpose, and we did not want to leave him hanging for too long. We are introducing a following changes to our fellow: Howler will be present during the day, and his scream attracts Virals to your position! Due to the debuff that his scream applies, it’s better to handle him from a distance!

The improved arsenal of weapons brings more versatile enemies! The first to mention is Armored Viral! When meeting this type of Viral, make sure to equip yourself with a little bit more patience as he will be tough! The second variants we introduce is Electric Viral, and Electric Biter - those fellows with a transformator in the chest will make sure to shock you and bring some thunder to the casual encounters. Virals will spawn occasionally during in-game actions that bring attention, like making noise or attracting enemies by, in example, making car explode. The new variants mentioned above are just a warm-up before next, upcoming zombies that we will introduce to the game!

Don’t be surprised when some enemies might be scared of you, or try to speak on the brink of death - their humanity might want to take control.

Finishers
Enemies deserve to go out in style! In the Community Update #3 we are introducing part of those gory, brutal executions that are a spectacular way to kill someone. Sometimes, when the enemies are stunned, you will be prompted to perform a Finisher - don’t be shy and give it a go! Finishers is a feature that will be explored further in the upcoming updates!

FOV Slider on Xbox Series S
This feature was in your field of view for a long time, and we are happy to introduce FOV Slider on Xbox Series S! Use peripheral vision to the fullest and confront your enemies with an advantage!

Halloween Event
All Hallow’s Eve is back! Get ready to hunt Pumpkintiles, Banshee Witches and other, new unworldly nightmares during the Halloween event! We couldn’t miss the opportunity, and Baka the Unfortunate makes a comeback to lead you through the spooky challenges. The survivors in The City decorated their safe spots so make sure to create memories with Photo Mode!
For completing the Community Goal, you will receive Nightmare Claw Blueprint - 1, 2, Aiden’s coming for you!

Highlights
In addition to the aforementioned changes, we are thrilled to introduce several significant features:
Knives, knives, knives - In the previous update we’ve introduced custom animations for knives that were available in the in-game events or bundles, now find 4 new knives in The City!
Transmog improvements - It’s understandable that some Pilgrims want to slay in style. We are going one step further, with an ability to hide visuals for specific gear pieces (Basic rags are the MINIMUM you will wear). Additionally, we want to highlight a Community Ideas candidate right here - you are able to hide paraglider’s backpack!
Gear dismantling - same as the feature we’ve introduced while back, now you are able to dismantle gear to get those sweet scraps into your hand.
Personal buffet - need a quick snack on the run? We got you covered! The food can be found in The City. Grab halva, chocolate bar, or pierniczki to regain a part of your health instantly!
Rain improvements - we’ve improved both the rain, and storm effect in the audio and visual way, making it more distinct, and unique.
Carrier, and Carrier Leader outfit - everyone knows that postal service in the post-apocalyptic world full of zombies can be hard - that’s why adding outfits for the effort you made to deliver those parcels needs to be rewarded! By completing the first quest for Carriers, you will receive a basic Carrier outfit, and by finishing the entire quest chain you will receive a Carrier Leader outfit!
Legend Levels tweaks - We want to make Legend Levels more accessible and rewarding, that’s why we’ve introduced a series of smaller changes. Feel like you’ve made a grave mistake with distribution of your Legend Levels? Don’t worry! With this update we are giving an option to reset your LP for a fee of 5000 gold coins. From the technical point of view, we are introducing a following changes:

Increased LL XP gain from different sources
Increased buffs from LL skills
“Joker” damage increase now applies to throwing weapons
You can exchange Trophies for LL XP

On top of that we’ve introduced Legendary Thursdays where you can earn 2x Legendary experience!
Stash sorting options - no more items cluttered in your personal stash! We’ve added some sorting options, so navigating through items will be easier and more comfortable. You just need to sort it out and try it out yourself!
Color grading improvements - with the introduction of Darker Nights the differences in color grading were too close to each other. Now, Harran and Gritty nights is tweaked according to the community feedback.
Text Chat (PC Only) - due to the popular request, we are introducing a Text Chat on PC platform, that you will be able to use during your co-op sessions! Feel free to tell us how you like that feature and we will further look into it!
PS. do not use text chat during night chase, unless you want to be teleported back to the safe house by a hand of random Volatile.
Bloom effect - community was vocal about a possibility to turn off that visual effect, and we’ve decided to introduce this option in Community Update #3. We improved the lighting model to rebelance the "bloom" effect according to community expectations plus we introduced three additional advanced lighting options to aloof for further configurations by players - Glow, Light Streaks, Lens Flare

Thank you, Pilgrims for your feedback and ideas passed down by Community Ideas website! Many changes have been, and will be implemented thanks to your voice and support!

Game Update
Apart from all the big news from the Communtiy Update #3 above, we’ve also introduced the following fixes and improvements to the game:

Co-op
Synchronized animation and timing of Volatiles shooting projectiles at the player.

Gameplay

Hag reacts to being hit properly.
Added a “charge” time required for the Weapon Throw. Your items shouldn’t slip from your hands anymore.
Adjusted time needed to receive Gold Medal in Prim-ate Challenge.
Fixed some instances in which the final boss was stuck idling.
Fixed an issue where NPC character would clip with Frank in the Fisheye.
Player can pick up thrown weapons that land on lab crystals.
Patched up exploit that allowed player to “farm” infected on level 4 Chase in a certain spot.
Tweaks to auto aim on bow introduced.
Changed the speed of stabs in takedowns, not player should faster move to back to the gameplay after animation.
Fixed flashlight behaviour during cutscenes.
Lowered the value of magnetic leap during combat.
Reduced the amount of barks in the safety hubs.
You can now overpower Volatiles with powerful weapons, reducing the amount of hits required to kill them.
Changed the FX on the enemies that are under toxic effect.
Fixed an issue where weapons crafted with Craftmasters had lower damage values than intended, effectively increasing damage.
When grabbed, player can detach from falling zombie to a free-fall.
Weapon damage rebalancing for previous in-game events and paid bundles.
Added affix to Dying Laugh Charm, now granting +4% Base Damage Bonus.

Technical

Due to stability issues, we have temporarily disabled the Quality game mode on XSX until they are resolved. If you played on Quality before, the game will run in Balanced mode now. We will update you on the further progress with that case.
Switching from DX12 to DX11 correctly applies all the specific settings.
Fixed an issue where players could get stuck in between rocks inside Prologue cave.
Fixed the texture of the water that is seen from a certain distance.
Controller vibrations should work on all platforms.
Optimization of 3D assets of some buildings, interiors, wind turbines, and others.
Fixed missing textures while looking at the buildings from a certain distance.
Moving items to the stash will no longer reset the inventory list to the top.

Fixed localization text on timers.
Adjusted localized text in dialogues.
Adjusted the size of blueprints icons.
While the compass visibility is off, it will be visible on extended HUD
Added an option to disable bows' and crossbows' reticule in HUD settings.
Added an option to disable “hit mark” while hitting enemies.

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https://store.steampowered.com/app/534380/Dying_Light_2_Stay_Human/

Nov 2, 2023

Dev Blog #1

Dying Light 2 Stay Human: Reloaded Edition - radoslaw.maj

Hi, my name is Tymon Smektała, Dying Light Franchise Director, and I’m glad that we’re launching these Dev Blogs – a place designed for open conversation with our Community, where we’ll be highlighting new & upcoming features as well as telling you a little bit more about Dying Light 2 Stay Human development. I hope that this will be a good place to share more background for our decisions and directions we’re taking with the game.

The best topic for a first Dev Blog post is obviously our upcoming Community Update #3 that will go live on Thursday, November 2nd! Before we continue let me add that a huge part of it is directly inspired by the Community Ideas you shared with us on Pilgrim Outpost.

I want to use this opportunity to thank all of you who participated – you really delivered, submitting more than 10 000 cool ideas, pieces of feedback and inspirations! The first round is officially locked and loaded, with lots of cool stuff already getting put in the game – some in this and the rest in the following updates!

So… how about we take a closer look at some of the cool stuff that we've implemented first? For starters, you were very clear about the need for adjustments when it comes to inventory & resources management – and this is where dismantling of gear and weapon mods comes into play. Below you can see what the change looks like in the game menu.

Both of those actions can be performed on the fly, so whenever you’re missing some crafting resources you can dismantle a mod or an unused gear piece hoping they’ll drop what you need.

Another feature that you asked for the most is the possibility to repair weapons. Well, by popular demand, it’s coming! We’ve added this option to our Craft Masters, responding to your feedback that these NPCs should offer more services. How does it look in the game? See for yourself!

As always we’re very interested in your opinion, so let us know what you think about the balance of weapon repair costs – you can leave your comments on Reddit as soon as you try it out.

Another area on which we focused is our lighting tech. We received a lot of reports mentioning that the bloom effect was too harsh. Another batch of feedback referenced some of our color gradings setups – e.g. stating that you like the feel of the “Darker Nights'' color grading but don’t really find the same atmosphere in "Gritty "or" Harran Sunset”. We updated the lighting parameters trying to solve most of those problems and we also added three new options to the Advanced Graphic settings that give you ability to additionally tweak such effects as Glow, Light Streaks & Lens Flare.
Below you can see what the change looks like in the game menu.

One more cool thing that we’re really excited about is finishers! They work for Biters, Virals, and most Humans, and to perform them you need to lower the enemy stamina. We are adding a bunch of those finishers in this update – 7 different types, depending on the weapon held by the Player in their hands – but the plan is that we’ll add even more over time. That means, as soon as our mo-cap team and animators make them just the right amount of gory and brutal.

Below you can see a screenshot presenting work in progress of the knuckle dusters finisher, dubbed by the Animation Team as "Jaw Destruction".

They say working on them is a lot of fun, I say… they enjoy it slightly too much. If you’re interested in the topic let us know! I’ll try to convince our animation director Dawid Lubryka, main finishers animator Eduardo Calderin and some of our audio and VFX guys to talk more about the feature in the next dev blog. Here's a behind the scenes look at a mo-cap session of one that's coming further down the line.

The update is getting released in a matter of hours, and I don’t really want to spoil everything about it, so I’ll just reveal that we paid attention to our end game players, introducing a few small balance tweaks to legend levels. You can expect bigger LP gains from some of the sources – e.g. encounters, challenges, quests and open world activities, we’ve lowered penalties for dying on selected difficulty levels, and changed some of the buffs that Legend Levels give you. We don’t want to stop here – the next update after this one will also bring some additional improvements to this end game system.

Gosh, I’d really like to spoil it all to you, but the update will go live very, very soon, and you’ll get to see all the features and surprises for yourselves. Please remember that this Community Update is just the first as we're planning to have a couple more dropping in the upcoming months, delivering everything that you could find on our recently published Sneak Peek.

And getting back to your ideas showing up in the game – we’ll talk about that some more in the next post. With the second round of Community Ideas about to start, I definitely want to tell you how it works on the dev side and explain how we pick the ideas, what we can and can’t do from the technical point of view, why some of them take longer to implement, all that “dev stuff”.

At the end of the post let me just say that it’s really cool to be able to talk to you and get my thoughts together in this format – but let me know what you think!

Sep 7, 2023

Summertime Update (1.12)

Dying Light 2 Stay Human: Reloaded Edition - jakub.kurowski

Payday 2 Crossover Event
It's time for the ultimate heist! Payday breaks into The City! Beware, as the streets and Dark Hollows are infested with Infected Robbers aiming to snatch your life away. If you manage to take them down, you can loot special Red Diamonds that allow you to complete event goals! The event will start 4PM CEST today and will be live until September 21st!

Mod.io In-Game Console Integration
The long-awaited feature, developed in collaboration with mod.io, has finally arrived! With the Summertime Update, you can now play the Community Maps on consoles and Steam Deck! Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam Deck fans can delve into the creative imaginations of our community members and explore the worlds they've crafted in Dying Light 2. Just like with the PC integration, accessing Community Maps is straightforward from the in-game menu.
Please note that not every Community Map will be fully compatible with the console experience at launch, but don't worry – we will do our best to optimize the system and provide you with more maps to play with in the future!

New Knife Animations
In the Summertime Update, we are introducing a new animations for knives! We have plans to incorporate more weapons of this type into the game in one of our upcoming updates, so keep an eye out!

Introduction of Dying Light Points
This update also introduces DL Points! Acquiring skin bundles is now faster and more convenient. You can grab your favorite skins on the go without leaving the game! Experience it firsthand – everyone will receive 500 DL Points upon launch! To obtain them, visit the in-game store and explore the offerings. Perhaps you'll find something that suits your taste! Remember, the free 500 DL Points need to be redeemed by October 7th!
For more information about DL Points, refer to this FAQ: https://pilgrimoutpost.techlandgg.com/news/dl-points

Highlights
In addition to the aforementioned changes, we are thrilled to introduce several significant features:

Brutality Level – We understand that with the Gut Feeling update, we've increased the level of gore, which could impact the streaming experience. Now, you have the option to select between Full, Limited, and Minimum brutality settings in the Preferences. It's important to be aware that the Brutality Switch is not accessible in Germany and Japan due to restrictions on gore.
Prologue Changes – Great news for players who are eager to dive right into the action! This update brings the option to skip the Prologue and start the game directly with the "Getting Stronger" quest. This also allows access to the co-op mode faster! Don't worry: if you skip the Prologue, you'll still receive tutorial pop-ups, just in case you want to refresh your survival skills.
Alterations – We're also introducing a new type of occasional game modifier called Alterations. Our aim is to reintroduce short-time activities for players to infuse the world of Dying Light with vibrancy and fun. Of course, if they don't suit your preferences, you can deactivate Alterations in the Settings, by switching Off the Community event participation.

Game Update
Apart from all the big news from the Summertime Update above, we've also introduced the following fixes and improvements to the game:

Co-op

Fixed an issue where a player connected to your game was displayed multiple times during the Dynamic Challenge score while the challenge was still active.
Using consumable items no longer interferes with reviving other players in co-op.
Fixed an issue where a co-op partner would face a long blackscreen after fast traveling if the host started a cutscene.
Dynamic Challenges no longer block revival of other players.
Fixed player animation stuttering while using a lift.

Gameplay

Fixed Vibrations on the Dual Sense controller while playing on PC.
Fixed a bug where objects in the world were colliding with the environment.
Some of the enemies were stuck in place – we've just made them move now.
Volatiles jump-scared some players by spawning right in front of them. Now, enemies will spawn out of players' sight.
Fixed the speed and animation of the player crawling through vents or crawlspaces after using Afterboost.
Weapon animations after using Afterboost were fixed to look more natural.
Fixed an issue where the Physical Parkour option was stopping the player from climbing ladders.
Reduced the tankiness of Volatiles. Fights with them are still challenging but more accessible.
Improved environment accessibility with Assisted and Physical Parkour.
Several accessories will no longer be affected by glass-like VFX while in hand.
Biters bounce off correctly after being thrown into a wall.
Fixed multiple instances where the screen was too dark to see what was in front of the player.
While crafting items with a full inventory on PS5, items will be transferred to the Stash.
Fixed missing textures in some places of the world.

Technical

Fixed the Nutcracker appearance while crafting the weapon.
Fixed some crashes that occurred in the game.
Fixed a situation where Aiden's breath was irregular after the chase sequence, in the UV light, without enemies around.
Toned down the sounds made by grabbing the metal rooftops as they were too loud.
Fixed swimming sound effects.
Fixed an issue where Bloody Ties was not accessible after changing the console language.
Fixed an issue where fire caused a framerate drop on Resolution presets for XSX and PS5.
Fixed camera placing with various parkour movements.
The Physical Parkour option in the settings now correctly blocks custom parkour options.
Fixed an animation where the camera could clip into Aiden after dropkicking.
Community Maps will no longer be listed as installed after deleting their local files.
Fixed Aiden's hand animation while dodging with a spear equipped.
Weapons will no longer disappear while using boomsticks.

Key Bindings now correctly explain how to Sprint manually.
Fixed weapon tooltips, including information about various effects.
Fixed multiple localization translations in the game.
Fixed the Dynamic Challenges' UI stuttering.
Fixed a bug where the player couldn't change a Color Grading.
Fixed an issue where the custom HUD might be empty.
Challenges are correctly marked on the 3D Map now.

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https://store.steampowered.com/app/534380/Dying_Light_2_Stay_Human/