Nov 22, 2023

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

Hey, it’s Tymon here. Today, I come to you in a contemplative mood, as recently, I got a bit of time (yeah, I know, crazy right?) to sit down and take a look back at the year that has passed. Obviously, it’s not over yet, but I think it’s the right time to give a moment of attention to the huge amount of work we’ve done this year as a team to make Dying Light 2 Stay Human a better game for you. And we’re committed to at least 5 years of post-launch support, so there’s no slowing down!

We’ve just recently released Community Update #3 and judging by your comments, you seem to enjoy the content we put out there. Thank you for your feedback, by the way, it really helps a lot! Because of it, we have more clarity when it comes to adjusting the game. And, if you remember, 2023 started with a bang that was the Anniversary Update, when we introduced plenty of changes… let me grab a helpful image, because it sure was a lot:

We’ve also been busy with a new way to present our work to you: live streams. Each time was hugely stressful – I’m speaking for myself here, and also for my colleagues who performed live – but at the same time we were super happy to do something for you, especially as you react so favorably to us showing you what we do.

Since the anniversary, we haven’t stopped for a moment! Next came Gut Feeling Update, where we focused on increasing brutality and juiciness of our combat, but also added numerous other options, like Gear Transmog or Weapon Crafting. Below, you can see the before & after clip that takes “gut-wrenching” very literally:

Personally, I was the most excited about Good Night, Good Luck Update. On that occasion, we focused on increasing the physicality of our parkour – here a special thank you is in order to our Community Council as well as the content creators representation who tested this feature before the release in its beta stage and provided many valuable comments. Special shout out needs to go to Noviex, a long time player of Dying Light 2 Stay Human, influencer, and a true parkour expert, who always pushed us to achieve more in terms of traversal. Thank you!

But that wasn’t the end of it, as we went for a bold move and made the Dying Light 2 Stay Human nights even scarier, bringing back roaming volatiles and the dark and tense atmosphere that you loved in the first game. Obviously, the nights have become very scary now – I even heard some of you saying that they’re too scary – but isn’t that the whole deal with Dying Light? To feel the Volatiles’ breath on your neck?

The second half of the year was also interesting. After moving our bundles to the in-game store and the admittedly bumpy start of DL Points – still working on improving that, no worries – we focused on User Generated Content. For example, we further integrated mod.io, making the maps created by our modding community accessible from the main menu of the game. Right now, everybody can play those awesome (and sometimes unhinged) maps – not just on PC, but also on consoles and Steam Deck.

My personal favorite is the “Return to the Slums” (image below), a great, great take on the Slums map from the first Dying Light. My advice to you is to set the FOV to a narrow 53 (as was the default setting in the first game), put on your headphones, dim the lights… and soak in the superb atmosphere.

Just take a look here to see how it looks when our great Modding Community takes over our dev tools.

To make maps even cooler, we released various asset packs, for example from the first Dying Light or even from Dead Island – and we’re preparing more surprises in this vein!

Later, our Community Update #3 also caused quite a stir – read more about it here – but it’s definitely not the last thing we have coming this year!

Apart from the updates, events were also happening on the regular – I’ve counted around 25 in total this year. They are a neat way to welcome you back to the game and encourage you to check how Dying Light 2 Stay Human is changing for you. Some of those events were crossovers, with Dying Light coming together with world-renowned brands, such as The Walking Dead, PAYDAY 2, Vampire: The Masquerade, or the latest one, For Honor.

Wow. Looking back at all of this, I have to admit that even I didn’t fully realize how much content we added to the game this year. Time flies when you're having fun, huh? As I’ve mentioned, we’re not slowing down, but rather lining up some new surprises for you. The next point on the agenda is the upcoming update, which will be released sometime this winter. It’ll deliver the next portion of changes promised in the Sneak Peak.

I’d like to give thanks from the bottom of my heart to our developers for their work on evolving Dying Light 2 Stay Human into the game it is today. Your recognition is our best motivation, so if you’re enjoying the changes we've implemented, I’d like to use this opportunity and humbly ask you to support us in this year’s Steam Awards. We’re all very happy to be able to share our passion with you – it’s the reason we keep working on our game. And if you like what we’re doing with it, you might consider giving Dying Light 2 Stay Human a shout out in the Labor of Love category by nominating us or leaving a review. It’s reserved for games that receive long-time support from its developers, so I think it’s quite a good fit!

Thank you all for your attention and please remember that you can share your thoughts and feedback related to the Dev Blog on the reddit channel. Maybe you’d like us to address something specific using this format? Let us know!

Nov 16, 2023

Dev Blog #2

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

Hi, it’s Tymon, your friendly neighborhood Dying Light Franchise Director – again! Today, I’ve brought two of my friends with me, so we can talk a bit about the upcoming For Honor crossover, which is starting very soon - November 21st!

But before we begin, let me start by saying that we’re constantly learning and trying to make these events better for you, as we understand there’s always room for improvement. We hear you on that one – and that’s why getting to know your thoughts is so important for us. If you share your feedback and ideas, we’ll definitely take it into account when planning a new happening in the beautiful world of Dying Light 2 Stay Human.

And right now we’re pretty excited, because our next collaboration is not only coming out very soon but it’s also a very special one! This time, we will delve into the quasi-medieval world, where we’ll clash with the iconic warriors of For Honor.

Why did we choose to team up with For Honor? Well, when we’re looking for potential partners, we take into account titles that are either very close to us in terms of the gameplay feel (horror vibes, night as a gameplay mechanic, etc.) or the IPs that we’re especially passionate about as gamers. With Vampire: The Masquerade it was the best of both worlds: dark, tense atmosphere of that universe and the strongest representation of vampires in modern pop culture. In the case of For Honor, it’s a win-win situation once again. This time, we’re dealing with a melee combat game that has similar mechanics to ours and, on top of that, we’re huge fans of the medieval fantasy created by the team at Ubisoft.

So what can you expect? Without spoiling the whole event, let me say that one thing I can reveal is that you can look forward to some new, tough enemies! For Honor is built on the foundation of grueling duels between seemingly invincible medieval warriors from different factions and cultures. We couldn’t possibly think to rob you of that thrilling sensation of clashing blades and battle frenzy!
Ok.. I will spill more beans… For this collaboration we worked on 3 new enemies and 3 skin bundles! A little sneak peek below:

We first started talking with Ubisoft about the event about 6 months ago. As the initial brainstorm and exchange of ideas went really well, we quickly moved to defining the elements of the event – and especially the For Honor heroes that we’d like to feature in our world. Clearly, we had to make some adjustments when it came to introducing these enemies into our game, because recreating each and every behavior would be far, far out of the scope of an event. But we came up with a smart solution, where we decided to choose several key movements, taunts, and attacks from the For Honor warriors, and combined them with the ones already existing in our game.

Dominik Wasieńko, our Lead Character Artist, remembers the preparations:
“We had a couple of challenges when it came to adapting For Honor characters into the Dying Light world. These characters had to align with our C-Engine, as the originals were created a long time ago, on a different engine. We had to modify the models themselves, their proportions, details, what we see as a player from the first person perspective – with For Honor being a TPP game. In our case, because Dying Light is in FPP, we know that we needed a good focus on hands, so we had to add the appropriate finishing touches and details, so that it could look as realistic as possible.
“A lot of the pieces were recreated in order to get the highest quality. We’ve modified or sometimes even re-textured the characters to be compatible with our technology and visually fit the world of Dying Light. For example, we couldn’t choose characters with long, flowing robes, because they would interfere with the locomotion animations.

“It was an interesting experience, to be able to adjust the characters coming from a totally different universe to our post-apocalyptic world.”

Just look at one of the For Honor heroes with the beautiful city in the background:

It all clicked thanks to the wonderful work of our animators, designers, and AI programmers – among others. What’s more, we also got huge support from the Ubisoft team – they provided us with visual assets, textures, character models as well as sound effects and tracks, such as shouts, taunts, and yells of the enemies. Obviously, we couldn’t hope to bring For Honor warriors to life in our game in their heroic entirety, but I, for one, think that the final effect is pretty, pretty cool. I’d like to see the looks on your faces when you go mano a mano with the Warden for the first time!

Naturally, like it is the case with every event, you can expect new weapons – medieval style, as you can probably imagine. But we won’t spoil all of them now, because the event is going live very soon. Be ready!

Below you can see a new weapon in the game. But can you see the mix of Berserker’s outfit and Warden’s sword? How cool is that?

Our Game Designer, Daniil Shek, talks about the process:

“After our dev team agreed with Ubisoft which characters we were going to use, I started to play For Honor to come up with a list of moves and behaviors that are the most typical for them. I recorded some combos in the game – those references were later used for motion capture sessions. The actors did a really good job of capturing not just the moves themselves, but also the spirit of For Honor warriors!

“There were a bunch of things that we had to work out, like the fact that each warrior in For Honor has their own distinguishable fighting personality. We approached it by boiling them down to certain traits. For example, Warden is heavily armored, but slow, while Berserker is a furious warrior who attacks rapidly, using cheat tricks to break the flow of the fight – but it all comes at the cost of his survivability. Below, you can see a short clip showing Berserker in action!

“Even so, for me, the most challenging thing was balancing these enemies. Dying Light 2 Stay Human has a pretty diverse player base, with different skill levels, but I, personally, love to challenge players of all kinds. And the only way to cover as much player needs as possible is through playtests. This aspect of balancing involves reaching as many players as possible and collecting their feedback and data meticulously.

“One more thing for you to know: For Honor warriors are not always hostile to players. For example, if you help one of them in their duel, there's a chance that he won't attack you. These honorable moments can happen in the For Honor game as well, I love them! So, if a situation like that takes place, I’d say don't kill the non-hostile warrior – show them some mercy!

Once again, please let us know what you think of this event as soon as you have a chance to participate. To be completely honest, working with Ubisoft – similarly to our previous partners – has been a whole lot of fun, so we’re not-so-quietly counting on more! We already have some very exciting projects lined up for the next year, so keep your eyes and ears open.

Don’t forget to share with us your opinions on Dev Blog on our dedicated reddit channel.

Nov 2, 2023

Community Update #3 (1.13)

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/