Hello all,

Thanks for checking out our 21st devblog! Progress is moving along nicely on 0.11.xx. We hope to have experimental builds out by the end of next week. If you're testing 0.10.24, please share any issues you find on our tracker or come share on our Discord. Below we'll discuss a few upcoming features and exactly what the team has been working on.

Weapon attachments are only one part of planned weapon improvements. We've spent some time this week working on shell ejection sounds effects and visual effects on current weapons. You can see some shell ejections and sound effects in the video below. You'll see many of these improvements moving forward, including some in 0.11. Checking out the changelog for all current changes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xns7HL63egE

Some of you may remember the 4x4 from our concept videos. Rik has been hard at work this week reworking models and textures. The 4x4 will be introduced early on in vehicle development. Eventually it will feature the fixed storage and tool holsters seen in the original concepts. Mobile loot and mobile bases are still a number one priority after the basic introduction to the mechanics.


Old 4x4


Improved 4x4

Passive AI will soon be introduced. The start of the process will include the stag and chicken. Both animals will be harvestable and both will provide meat. Work continues on passive AI this week. Among other things, Jos has been working on AI ragdolls. Below you can see both the chicken and stag ragdoll. You can expect to see the basic introduction in 0.11 and we plan to greatly expand on both animals and mechanics during the alpha stage.


Stag ragdoll


Chicken ragdoll...poor thing


Ragdoll in action

Some of you have reported new day notification issues. These have been fixed for 0.11 and are now a bit more informative. The player is made aware of his current status at the day's start. Just after this new day splash screen, the player is greeted with the new notification. This notification will inform the player on how they can improve their situation or what benefits they're currently receiving.


Notifications

James has among other things worked out flashlight attachments this week. Flashlights will attach to most long guns and make night time survival a bit more bearable! Below is a gif of the attachment (in this case a large flashlight) receiving additional battery power. You'll not need to remove the lights to do this.


Powering an attached flashlight

These are only a handful of what has been worked on this week. Check out our changelog for a full list of what the team has been up to. Thanks much for checking out the devblog. We hope to have .11 in an experimental stage shortly. As always, thank you for the continued support. The project has come a long way and we're excited for the coming months leading up to our public alpha release and beyond!

Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights
Forum: https://community.survivethenights.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive
Website: https://www.survivethenights.net

Hello all,

Thanks for checking out our 20th devblog! Progress is moving along nicely on 0.11.xx. We hope to have experimental builds out by the end of the month. If you're testing 0.10.24, please share any issues you find on our tracker or come share on our Discord. Below we'll discuss a few upcoming features and exactly what the team has been working on.

James has been cracking along on a few features this week, one of the biggies is player loot. As mentioned in last week's devblog, zombies will be harvestable on death now. They will provide low-level loot. The 0.11 update will also include player dropped loot, something that has been missing since our stress tests. Some of you may remember when we first started testing network backend players would literally explode on death. All of their contents would just fly out of the model. It was rather entertaining.

Our new system is a bit more refined. As you can see in the short video below, players now drop their weapons and backpacks on death. Player loot and weapons will also of course spawn on a zombie related death. It's now possible to track down all your hard earned loot!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tQKz0_6VRw


Radios haven't functioned for quite a few updates now. They'll be making a return in 0.11. Players can find radios in the world and tune to 3 different channels as of now and communicate globally. In previous builds, radio chatter could be heard by all players even if they didn't have handheld radios. This issue is now fixed. Radios will require a good deal of testing.



We'll be introducing additional weapons in coming builds and have quite a few planned for alpha builds. We'll also be introducing a pump action shotgun shortly. John has been working on quite a few animation improvements, new zombie attack animations and new player animations along with our passive AI. Below is a preview of his pump action shotgun jam.


Pump action jam animation

With each update in the foreseeable future we'll be including world design. Jos has been hard at work filling up the world gaps. In the screenshot below you can see his design map. The southern part of the map is filling in very nicely now and there's still a ton of design to be done and work will continue. We'll do our best to fill up the wilderness and we'll soon be introducing additional bunkers, container forts and roadside points of interest.


Additional design and campsite map

The RV is a massive feature that we're very excited to be working on. Rik has spent the week reworking our concept RV which is nearly 4 years old now. A lot of our concept designs need love and a lot of them are getting it. The RV has had a total rework and will be introduced shortly after the introduction of vehicles. We hope to have all of the functionality working right out of the box.


Our old/concept RV interior


Rik's reworked RV Interior as of today


Our old/concept RV dash


Rik's reworked RV Interior as of today

These are only a handful of what has been worked on this week. Check out our changelog for a full list of what the team has been up to. Thanks much for checking out the devblog. We hope to have .11 in an experimental stage shortly. As always, thank you for the continued support. The project has come a long way and we're excited for the coming months leading up to our public alpha release and beyond!

Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights
Forum: https://community.survivethenights.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive
Website: https://www.survivethenights.net

Hello all,

Thanks for checking out our 19th devblog! Progress is moving along nicely on 0.11.xx. We hope to have experimental builds out by the end of the month. If you're testing 0.10.24, please share any issues you find on our tracker or come share on our Discord. Below we'll discuss a few upcoming features and exactly what the team has been working on.

Vehicles and vehicle physics are progressing nicely. The team is working on animating vehicles along with rebuilding the RV. We'll talk more about the RV in an upcoming devblog. Below you'll see the plan still remains the same. All of the vehicles doors and hatches should function. Eventually storage and a part system will relay on some of these animations.


Vehicle Animations - More to Come!​

Something that has been needed and requested for some time is zombie loot. 0.11 will introduce this mechanic along with the base mechanic for player loot and player created storage! Below you can see a dropped backpack's contents being moved. The addition of zombie loot really provides a loop for killing zombies and adds to the entire experience. Zombies currently drop basic items, nails, a few bullets and simple drops. We opted for a 'harvest' method on zombies simply because it's faster and seemed to make more sense. This can be expanded on as we develop and add in game items through alpha.



Portable storage and player dropped loot



Looting zombies for basic items



Weapon attachment progress continues. The system is now in place at its core. Players will be able attach and detach numerous scopes, flashlights and suppressors (including oil filters). Weapons and weapon attachments will expand as we move through alpha. Below you'll see the ARG15 making a return in coming builds along with a few of it's possible attachments.



ARG15 and some attachments



As many of you have requested the wilderness, or 'in-betweens' as we call them, are being filled in as design will continue through pre-alpha and well into alpha. Jos has been busy at work creating roadside and forested points of interest. You will likely see world design in nearly every update moving forward. You can see all of the current 0.11 design changes on our changelog.



Structures on the outskirts of towns and roads



New container 'forts' - these 40 foot long box containers can be powered and locked



Powered container interior



Everything a survivor could ever need



Bomb shelter style bunkers (these things will be very secure)



Bunker interior workbench and storage


Thanks much for checking out the devblog. We hope to have .11 in an experimental stage in the coming weeks. As always, thank you for the continued support. The project has come a long way and we're excited for the coming months leading up to our public alpha release and beyond!

Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights
Forum: https://community.survivethenights.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive
Website: https://www.survivethenights.net

Hello all,

We’re moving our experimental branch to default today. 0.9.24 will become 0.10.24. The update below will go over what we’ve been up to along with what has changed in 0.10. Our next devblog will focus on what to expect in 0.11.x.

The 0.10 update focuses on many game improvements and quality of life improvements. We’ve put together a 0.10 showcase video and Jay will take you through the majority of our changes, have a look!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E97ChkkExkE

• Wiki links now point to item name instead of typeName
  
• Resolved issue with bridge near old town which prevented players standing up from crouched while stood on it.
  
• Default fortifications sounds are now affected by the audio sliders.
  
• Felled trees should no longer disapear after cutting the first piece off.
  
• Overall improvements to the consistency of the felled trees to prevent instances where their position did not align on the server.
  
• Fixed issue with crafting where it would only take 1 of the required consumed objects.
  
• Fixed issue which would prevent the world initialising for some players on first join.

• Item pickup time reduced to make it feel more fluid.
  
• All crafting recipes times reduced proportionality.

• Removed lag being caused by incorrect physics on the server relating to zombies.
  
• Fixed issue with item relevance which would throw null refs on the server.
  
• Fixed issue which would stop guns being able to be reloaded.
  
• It's now possible to smash off locks that aren't locked.
  
• Attacks can now be performed with melee weapons with left click even when they don't have an alternative attack. It triggers the normal left click attack.
  
• Improved melee hitting accuracy on fortification objects.
  
• Overall loot percentage and spread balance. This is our first attempt at balancing the loot percentages.
  
• Sealed food cans can now be cooked to get them open.
  
• Melee weapons now break through use.
  
• Fixed scenario where sounds would incorrectly start playing even when sliders were turned down. This happened when returning to the menu.
  
• Now possible to harvest water directly into new camping canteen.
  
• Blood splatter now works again when shooring through zombies!
  
• Added scrap metal points to metal junk piles, scrap truck and motorbike.
  
• Melee weapons now take damage and destroy when using them against zombies.
  
• Created new camping canteen pickup and relevant consumables (Works like water bottle).
  
• It is now possible for items to burnt away on a cooking surface.
  
• Picking up item tweaks to make sure the grab animation always plays.
  
• Tents now function as item harvest points.
  
• Junkpile_Large_Outside_variant_1 clipping issues fixed.

• Window frames now include frame interior and 4 individually breakable glass pieces.
  
• Frame interiors respawn on server restart to prevent stagnation.
  
• Tutorial/Guide
  
• Added working Guide page to the inventory which helps new players learn the basics of survival.
  
• Added initial concept campsite.
  
• Added base set of achievements for tutorial.

• Clean rag recipe now returns clean rags instead of dirty.
  
• Tinder from cloth/rags.
  
• Axe head from scrap metal.
  
• Hatchet head from scrap metal.
  
• Hammer head from scrap metal.
  
• Canteen from scrap metal.
  
• Clean pot from scrap metal.
  
• Machete from scrap metal.
  
• Bear trap from scrap metal.
  
• Sleeping bag from clothes/rags.

• Added new player vitals UI that displays appropriate player information when needed. Can also be called up all at once using the inspect functionality.
  
• Ammo now displayed in new UI.
  
• Removed some notifications that are now handled by new UI.
  
• Achievements
  
• Introduced base steam stats and achievements system.

• Zombie resistance fixed. They can no longer be walked throu
  
• Fix for scenario where zombies could be spawned floating in the air.
  
• Potential fix for scenario where zombies could float away as though they have zero gravity.
  
• Zombies now climb through windows faster.
  
• Zombies no longer exit out of windows unless they can directly see the player during the day.
  
• Zombies should no longer run to the floor above when they cannot reach the player.
  
• Zombies should no longer run outside of a building when they cannot reach the player.
  
• Zombies now have improved path finding and should be able to reach the player easier.
  
• Zombies during the day are now spread more accurately between buildings allowing for greater amounts.
  
• Zombies now sync their movement quicker with less interpolation when they're closer to the player. This causes them to be position more accurately.
  
• Zombies now react more agressively to noise.
  
• Fixed several scenarios where zombies would behave strangely with doors.
  
• Zombies should no longer get stuck inside of doors frames.

• Tools added to hotkeys.
  
• Current day now displays on the screen while in the inventory.
  
• Hotkeys in the inv now show the correct hotkey index in the inventory.
  
• Individual hotkeys now scroll through types. Currently 1 melee, 2 handguns, 3 rifles, 4 shotguns and 5 flashlights. (Consumables/medicines will be added later.)
  
• Individual hotkey position has memory so that the player can select their favourite weapon of each type and quickly select between them.
  
• Scrolling with the mouse scrolls through and entire weapon group and moves to the next.
  
• Reduced the switching time slightly.

• Locks now display condition in their hover UI.
  
• Sleeping bag [Use] button in the inventory now says [Sleep].
  
• Added new UI to main menu which shows players own total stats and personal bests.
  
• Tab list ping now shows correctly.
  
• Tab list now displays each players nights survived.
  
• Ammo hints now downgraded to small notification in top left.
  
• Small notifications no longer stack together.
  
• Hints now play ping sound again when you get the same hint and also play a small animation.
  
• Improved grammar and capitalisation on various hints.
  
• Some hints have been made unlimited.
  
• Some hints have been changed to a limited amount of plays.

• Added door opening and slamming camera animations.
  
• Axe - Improved melee animation.
  
• Base Ball Bat - Improved melee animation.
  
• Hammer - Improved melee animation.
  
• Hatchet - Improved melee animation.
  
• WoodenClub - Improved melee animation.
  
• Combat Knife - Improved melee animation.
  
• Wind up Flashlight - Improved melee animation.
  
• Flashlights - Improved melee animation.
  
• Machete - Improved melee animation.
  
• Opening/closing doors now player a character animation.
  
• Added fps interact slam open animation for the player.
  
• Slamming open/closed now plays character animation.
  
• Fixed Lola and Garry handgun animations that clipped the camera.

• Jerry can now has base weight.
  
• Fixed cleaning kit drop. No longer looks like firewood.
  
• Added scrap metal drops
  
• Removed tent as a drop. It's now a design prop.
  
• packed test drop disabled.

• Added all bullet impact particles and decals to the preload scene.
  
• Item relevance optimisations.
  
• Item spawning and checking optimisations.
  
• Removed exit particle on the blood impact particle.
  
• Added the dynamic blood decals to the preload scene.

• Ai no longer walks through glass store counter.
  
• Redesigned police and fire stations.
  
• Redesigned projects building.
  
• Redesigned grocery store 3.
  
• Redesigned grocery store 2.
  
• Redesigned grocery store 1.
  
• Redesigned stripmalls 3, 4 and 5.
  
• Redesigned stripmalls 1 and 2.
  
• Redesigned Gas stations 5 and 6.
  
• Removed concrete barrier to allow zombie navigation in adders field school
  
• Redesigned Gas stations 3 and 4.
  
• Redesigned house 11 interiors.
  
• Fixed odd tiling on interior gas station wall.
  
• Redesigned cabin variants 1 and 2 interiors.
  
• Redesigned Old house 1.
  
• Redesigned Old house 2.
  
• Redesigned Old house 3.
  
• Redesigned Old house 4.
  
• Redesigned Cabins 3 and 4 interiors.
  
• Redesigned Cabins 5 and 6 interiors.
  
• Redesigned Cabins 7.

• Added base set of attachments for ARG15.
  
• Added new ARG15 model.
  
• Stripmall buildings now have security glass windows.
  
• Updated camping grill tripod so that the cooking surface is larger.
  
• Added a2z Cricket concept/testing car.
  
• Added drinking camping canteen.
  
• Added Scrap metal pickup prop.

• Items can now be given by shift clicking their names in the inventory, machines and containers. (Give perm is required)
  
• Items can now be given by clicking grey [Add] buttons in machines. (Give perm is required)

Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights
Forum: https://community.survivethenights.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive
Website: https://www.survivethenights.net

Hello all,

Thanks for checking out our 18th devblog! We’ve released the initial 0.9.23 build to our experimental branch on Steam. Feel free to check that out, we need some feedback. There’s a lot of testing and breaking to do so go at it! Below you can find our patch notes.

We’ll be updating to default once experimental is tested and stable along with a devlog update video showcasing all the 0.10.2x feature improvements and additions. Please do your best to check against the list of changes below and report bugs to our tracker.

• Item pickup time reduced to make it feel more fluid.
  
• All crafting recipes times reduced proportionality.

• Removed lag being caused by incorrect physics on the server relating to zombies.
  
• Fixed issue with item relevance which would throw null refs on the server.
  
• Fixed issue which would stop guns being able to be reloaded.
  
• It's now possible to smash off locks that aren't locked.
  
• Attacks can now be performed with melee weapons with left click even when they don't have an alternative attack. It triggers the normal left click attack.
  
• Improved melee hitting accuracy on fortification objects.
  
• Overall loot percentage and spread balance. This is our first attempt at balancing the loot percentages.
  
• Sealed food cans can now be cooked to get them open.
  
• Melee weapons now break through use.
  
• Fixed scenario where sounds would incorrectly start playing even when sliders were turned down. This happened when returning to the menu.
  
• Now possible to harvest water directly into new camping canteen.
  
• Blood splatter now works again when shooting through zombies!
  
• Added scrap metal points to metal junk piles, scrap truck and motorbike.
  
• Melee weapons now take damage and destroy when using them against zombies.
  
• Created new camping canteen pickup and relevant consumables (Works like water bottle).
  
• It is now possible for items to burnt away on a cooking surface.
  
• Picking up item tweaks to make sure the grab animation always plays.
  
• Tents now function as item harvest points.
  
• Junkpile_Large_Outside_variant_1 clipping issues fixed.

• Window frames now include frame interior and 4 individually breakable glass pieces.
  
• Frame interiors respawn on server restart to prevent stagnation.

• Added working Guide page to the inventory which helps new players learn the basics of survival.
  
• Added initial concept campsite.
  
• Added base set of achievements for tutorial.

• Clean rag recipe now returns clean rags instead of dirty.
  
• Tinder from cloth/rags.
  
• Axe head from scrap metal.
  
• Hatchet head from scrap metal.
  
• Hammer head from scrap metal.
  
• Canteen from scrap metal.
  
• Clean pot from scrap metal.
  
• Machete from crap metal.
  
• Bear trap from scrap metal.
  
• Sleeping bag from clothes/rags.

• Added new player vitals UI that displays appropriate player information when needed. Can also be called up all at once using the inspect functionality.
  
• Ammo now displayed in new UI.
  
• Removed some notifications that are now handled by new UI.

• Introduced base steam stats and achievements system.

• Zombie resistance fixed. They can no longer be walked through.
  
• Fix for scenario where zombies could be spawned floating in the air.
  
• Potential fix for scenario where zombies could float away as though they have zero gravity.
  
• Zombies now climb through windows faster.
  
• Zombies no longer exit out of windows unless they can directly see the player during the day.
  
• Zombies should no longer run to the floor above when they cannot reach the player.
  
• Zombies should no longer run outside of a building when they cannot reach the player.
  
• Zombies now have improved path finding and should be able to reach the player easier.
  
• Zombies during the day are now spread more accurately between buildings allowing for greater amounts.
  
• Zombies now sync their movement quicker with less interpolation when they're closer to the player. This causes them to be position more accurately.
  
• Zombies now react more aggressively to noise.
  
• Fixed several scenarios where zombies would behave strangely with doors.
  
• Zombies should no longer get stuck inside of doors frames.

• Tools added to hotkeys.
  
• Current day now displays on the screen while in the inventory.
  
• Hotkeys in the inv now show the correct hotkey index in the inventory.
  
• Individual hotkeys now scroll through types. Currently 1 melee, 2 handguns, 3 rifles, 4 shotguns and 5 flashlights. (Consumables/medicines will be added later.)
  
• Individual hotkey position has memory so that the player can select their favorite weapon of each type and quickly select between them.
  
• Scrolling with the mouse scrolls through and entire weapon group and moves to the next.
  
• Reduced the switching time slightly.

• Locks now display condition in their hover UI.
  
• Sleeping bag [Use] button in the inventory now says [Sleep].
  
• Added new UI to main menu which shows players own total stats and personal bests.
  
• Tab list ping now shows correctly.
  
• Tab list now displays each players nights survived.
  
• Ammo hints now downgraded to small notification in top left.
  
• Small notifications no longer stack together.
  
• Hints now play ping sound again when you get the same hint and also play a small animation.
  
• Improved grammar and capitalisation on various hints.
  
• Some hints have been made unlimited.
  
• Some hints have been changed to a limited amount of plays.

• Added door opening and slamming camera animations.
  
• Axe - Improved melee animation.
  
• Base Ball Bat - Improved melee animation.
  
• Hammer - Improved melee animation.
  
• Hatchet - Improved melee animation.
  
• WoodenClub - Improved melee animation.
  
• Combat Knife - Improved melee animation.
  
• Wind up Flashlight - Improved melee animation.
  
• Flashlights - Improved melee animation.
  
• Machete - Improved melee animation.
  
• Opening/closing doors now player a character animation.
  
• Added fps interact slam open animation for the player.
  
• Slamming open/closed now plays character animation.
  
• Fixed Lola and Garry handgun animations that clipped the camera.

• Jerry can now has base weight.
  
• Fixed cleaning kit drop. No longer looks like firewood.
  
• Added scrap metal drops
  
• Removed tent as a drop. It's now a design prop.
  
• packed test drop disabled.

• Added all bullet impact particles and decals to the preload scene.
  
• Item relevance optimisations.
  
• Item spawning and checking optimisations.
  
• Removed exit particle on the blood impact particle.
  
• Added the dynamic blood decals to the preload scene.

• Ai no longer walks through glass store counter.
  
• Redesigned police and fire stations.
  
• Redesigned projects building.
  
• Redesigned grocery store 3.
  
• Redesigned grocery store 2.
  
• Redesigned grocery store 1.
  
• Redesigned strip malls 3, 4 and 5.
  
• Redesigned strip malls 1 and 2.
  
• Redesigned Gas stations 5 and 6.
  
• Removed concrete barrier to allow zombie navigation in adders field school
  
• Redesigned Gas stations 3 and 4.
  
• Redesigned house 11 interiors.
  
• Fixed odd tiling on interior gas station wall.
  
• Redesigned cabin variants 1 and 2 interiors.
  
• Redesigned Old house 1.
  
• Redesigned Old house 2.
  
• Redesigned Old house 3.
  
• Redesigned Old house 4.
  
• Redesigned Cabins 3 and 4 interiors.
  
• Redesigned Cabins 5 and 6 interiors.
  
• Redesigned Cabins 7.

• Strip mall buildings now have security glass windows.
  
• Updated camping grill tripod so that the cooking surface is larger.
  
• Added a2z Cricket concept/testing car.
  
• Added drinking camping canteen.
  
• Added Scrap metal pickup prop.

• Items can now be given by shift clicking their names in the inventory, machines and containers. (Give perm is required)
  
• Items can now be given by clicking grey [Add] buttons in machines. (Give perm is required)

Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights
Forum: https://community.survivethenights.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive
Website: https://www.survivethenights.net

Hello all,

Thanks for checking out our 17th devblog! Progress is moving along nicely on 0.10.xx. We hope to have experimental builds out in the next week or two. We've had some feedback and the issues found are being worked on. If you're testing 0.9.22, please share any issues you find on our tracker or come share on our Discord. Below we'll discuss a few upcoming features and exactly what the team has been working on.

We'll be keeping this devblog on the short side this week. Everyone is hard at working wrapping up the last sprint for 0.10.xx. We have some updates to showcase and talk a bit about.

Hotkeys have been in for some time but not had much attention dedicated to them. We've improved the system now as you can see in the video below. The keys are now item class specific. Each key represents a category, handguns, rifles, shotguns etc. Pressing the key multiple times cycles the category.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gor8DotHjhU

Although vehicles will not be a feature in 0.10 their backbone has been in the works for some time and we'll slowly be introducing the mechanics in the coming updates. James has spent the week working on a number of things, vehicle wise it has been follow through physics. You can see in the .gif below as the player leaves the vehicle, it continues on its path although it's slightly exaggerated for testing purposes ;)



You'll see the initial batch of achievements come in the next couple of updates. They'll tie in to our planned 'tutorial' which involves new players and starting camps. We've been creating a bunch and you've already seen some. Here's test integration getting them working on backend. The ones below are only concept and will likely be changed.



As some of you have noted, loot balance isn't fantastic at the moment. Physical loot is spawn and spawning well, just not in a balanced manner. It's also not area specific which is something we've wanted to do from the start. James has been working on loot spread and you can see some of that work here in action. This among many things will allow us to track and tweak loot around the world. We'll be introducing more loot specific structures/areas and tweaking loot balance as we move through alpha builds.



We've also been tweaking craftables and begun to balance the initial introduction to them. This will be a long road. There are a lot of craftables in the works and even more planned. We'll need to work off some type of base stat. Jos put together a quick system that allows us to track a craftable's difficulty. We'll introduce future craftables and machines based on this or a slightly tweaked system.



You'll see quite a few cooking improvements in the coming builds. Below you can see two of them, the new camping grill and can mechanics. The grill is much easier to craft, place and cook on. The larger surface allows you to cook more and easily place and remove food. The cans no longer require a can opener. You can also place them over a fire and cook them open with a satisfying animation as seen below :)


Can popping fun!

Thanks much for checking out the devblog. We hope to have .10 in an experimental stage in the coming weeks. Always, thank you for the continued support. The project has come a long way and we're excited for the coming months leading up to our public alpha release!

Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights
Forum: https://community.survivethenights.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive
Website: https://www.survivethenights.net

Hello all,

Thanks for checking out our 16th devblog! Progress is moving along nicely on 0.10.xx. We've had some feedback and the issues found are being worked on. If you're testing 0.9.22, please share any issues you find on our tracker or come share on our Discord. Below we'll discuss a few upcoming features and exactly what the team has been working on.

The team has been busy working on a number of big features but one that we're most excited about is vehicles. Survive the Nights was almost entirely created around the want for vehicle storage. We wanted a survival game where a vehicle was more than just a quick way across the map. Our long term goals for vehicles are big one's, full mobile survival, fortifiable vehicles, an extensive part system etc. All of these will rely on a massive amount of incredibly important mechanics.

We're re-working the entire vehicle system from the ground up in layers so you'll likely be testing the very base of vehicle mechanics shortly. We weren't happy with our initial introduction for the alpha branches (you may have seen this in our trailer). The system is now being built back up with more attention to long term goals. One of the most important mechanics we're working on is vehicle network synchronization. Network sync is noticeably off in the trailer and created a real in game issue. As you can see in the clip below, @Jayty has smoothed the sync out quite nicely. Vehicle physics are a nice treat for the team to work on and something everyone on the team shares is an interest in cars and car games. There's a lot of work to do with vehicles like many of our features but we hope to have you guys breaking the initial introduction in hilarious ways in the next couple of updates.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s0-Zi-qxJs


There are probably going to be a few bugs to work out :p

A few devblogs back we talked about the introduction of starting camps. We plan to guide new players towards 'safer' areas. These starting areas will contain the basic bare bone essentials to get a new player going in the right direction. Below are a few shots of how some of those starting camps are being designed. We're filling out the wilderness. These camps will be a small part of the design goal.


Players only need to follow these markers to find campsites.













Aside from following markers set just off the road, the player will also be able to see the smoke from the camps static fire from a distance on the map. This should make finding your way to starting camps pretty easy and the smoke looks great on the horizon.


Starting camp smoke seen from a distance

Dork has been working on a few things over the last week one of them being some more artwork for our reworked achievements. We've also added our player stats to the main menu which you'll soon see on the website as well!


Some of the new updated achievement art


In game player and global stats are coming to the website soon!

We talked a bit in a blog not that long ago about the new UI system you'll be seeing in 0.10.2X. Below you can see the player taking damage and the damage UI reacting to that. You'll also notice the ammo UI pop up to let you know how many rounds you have in the weapon and in the backpack. The weapon color reflects condition.


UI being displayed for ammo being fired along with damage being received fades quickly

Thanks much for checking on our development of Survive the Nights and, as always, thank you for the continued support. The project has come a long way and we're excited for the coming months leading up to our public alpha release!

Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights
Forum: https://community.survivethenights.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive
Website: https://www.survivethenights.net

Hello all,


Thanks for checking out our 15th devblog! Progress is moving along nicely on 0.10.xx.  We've had some feedback and the issues found are being worked on. If you're testing 0.9.22, please share any issues you find on our tracker or come share on our Discord.  Below we'll discuss a few upcoming features and exactly what the team has been working on.



As we discussed a bit last week, we're having a revamp on all the current structure windows. The system in place is universal which allows us to create a prefab that we can constantly update and all in game structures are affected. Our windows have always lacked any depth beyond being able to fortify them. As with most of our features, they've been in place as a base for some time but are now getting some attention and improvements. 


Previously, windows had no glass, no inner structure and were just an open framed hole in the wall. We've added glass and wood cross panels.This adds a great deal of depth to a structure. It also creates an additional barrier and block for the player. Players could previously make a quick escape by jumping through an open window. Now players and zombies alike will need to deal with the glass and framework.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDE64DpHVmo



Our current kitchens are a bit static and they're also rather massive in scale. They're original models from a way's back. The team and community felt the need for an upgrade. @Rik Konings has been hard at work re-working all of our kitchen models. We'll be introducing these in coming updates with continued design work. These kitchen cabinets and appliances/fixtures will be animated. The player will see doors open or animate slightly to add a bit of life to the world.



A bit more modern and with more room for physical loot on shelving



Darker and older



New and soon to be functioning electric stoves



We'll soon be introducing scrap metal piles, a plan we've had from the concept. You'll see them all around the world but mostly at starting camps (also being introduced shortly). These piles will allow the player to scavenge them for chance to pick up some scrap metal. These metal scraps will be used to create a wide variety of starting items in game including axe heads, hammer heads, machetes and the newly introduced canteen. 



Scrap piles to harvest scrap metal from. Rusted out vehicles will also function as scrap metal harvest points.



Crafted metal canteen - this will allow even starting players to easily purify water over a fire



We're reworking and properly introducing our achievement system. There's a core system in place now but it needed to be shored up and Jayty has that sorted now. You'll be seeing working achievements in upcoming builds. Our new media/design intern Ids has also begun reworking our actual achievement artwork below you can see some of his concepts and our current direction with them. 



Bronze Silver and Gold achievement style - easy to understand and well known



Jiras workflow allows us to break what needs to be done up into bit sized pieces. Large tasks are called epics and the team will set out a large set of these to work off. Each epic may have numerous issues within. Cooking Improvements, for example, would be an epic, inside of which could be numerous ‘issues’ - Import New Cooking Grill, Create Tinder from Cloth Recipe and so on. These issues are grouped together and placed into what Jira calls a sprint. The team creates these sprints based on how many points (these points basically set a difficulty level) they feel each task or issue within will take them to resolve or develop. We typically create two week long sprints. Two of them per update with a week or two to allow for revisement.


Yesterday the team finished up the 'Final Fantasy' sprint and begun work on the 'Goldeneye' sprint. Below you can see exactly what went into the coming update's first sprint, Final Fantasy









Here you can see the end and start of the first and second sprints with the expected version completion being mid March (a six week process).



We'll go over how the current sprint is going, talk a little about starting camps and discuss vehicles! Believe it or not the core of the reworked backbone for vehicles will be going in very soon (some already have). The team is reworking all things vehicles and we're very excited to get the ball rolling. Here's what we're currently poking around in, for testing purposes of course! ;) 
 



Thanks much for checking on our development of Survive the Nights and, as always, thank you for the continued support. The project has come a long way and we're excited for the coming months leading up to our public alpha release!

Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights
Forum: https://community.survivethenights.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive
Website: https://www.survivethenights.net

Hello all,


Thanks for checking out our 14th devblog! We’ve released the initial 0.9 build to our default branch on Steam. We've had some feedback, issues found are being worked on. If you're testing 0.9 please share any issues you find on our tracker or come share on our Discord.


We're working on a load of great features, fixes and additions for .10+ feel free to check out our changelog. You'll be able to keep track of development and see all the features in the works for the next build. Below we'll go over a couple of features that are currently being worked on.



For some time now players have asked and the team has wanted a clean way to provide the player with general stat information. In 0.9 we introduced some UI changes in the way of a new notification and hint system, if you missed it there's more info on hints/notifications here. The notification and hint system is far more dynamic than our previous system. We'll also be introducing new player stat notifications and tabs. Currently the player has to open their inventory to get a clue as to how they're doing. Calories, overall health, ammo all of our stats have no on screen UI. We like it this way, we do however realize it's not at all ideal. We're now introducing a visual system however it will only be on screen when called by the player on a button press or when a stat is affected either positively or negatively. If the player takes damage  the health notification will display, if they're hungry the consuming icon etc. Overall we feel they don't take away from the clutter free GUI and at the same time provide the info that's needed. Let us know what you think. If the community sees it fit after testing our next builds perhaps we will make the UI and new hotkeys a toggleable option.



Player stats displayed on button press. If wanted we could make this toggleable in the future



New UI damage tab displayed as the player takes damage



Mental health stat icons being developed



The tab menu has had a revamp. It's cleaner and easier to read now, we've also introduced player gameplay statistics. In future updates we plan on adding both player and global gameplay stats to the games main menu.



New tab (player) menu now with player gameplay statistics




We're making some big improvements to window frames along with improvements to door fortifications. Next week we'll speak in depth about these new features. Thanks much for check in on our development of Survive the Nights and as always thank you for the continued support. The project has come a long way and we're excited for the coming months leading up to our public alpha release!

Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights
Forum: https://community.survivethenights.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive
Website: https://www.survivethenights.net

Hello all,

We’re moving our experimental branch to default today. 0.8.21 will become 0.9.22 The update below will go over what we’ve been up to along with what has changed in 0.9. Our next devblog will focus on what to expect in 0.10.x.

This update focuses on many game improvements and quality of life improvements. We’ve put together a 0.9 showcase video and Jay will take you through the majority of our changes for this update.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_TQrFzbR4k

• Disabled Container spawned loot in favor of all physical loot.
  
• Fixed issue where other players would snap to different rotations when they were idling.
  
• Fixed scenario where the player could get stuck in 'Loading' state when connecting to another server while already in one.
  
• First join UI no longer plays while still loading into game.
  
• Melee headshot damage multiplier reduced.
  
• Added new bat melee weapon which can be crafting from wood.
  
• 'V' now works for activating flashlights. Also works with new headlamp.
  
• Lock highlights now move correctly with the doors when open.
  
• Max inventory weight is no longer reset after rejoining a server.
  
• Particles are now pre-loaded during initial game load to help performance.
  
• Flashlights now play put away animations. 
  
• Item dropping and picking up server side performance improvements.
  
• Items dropped from the inventory are now placed where the player is looking rather than a fixed drop point. This functions as a quick way of placing items and stops players dropping objects through walls.
  
• Improved proxy aim accuracy.
  
• Can no longer open the inventory while in placement mode.
  
• Altered physical loot system to allow more control of spawned items.
  
• Changed all battery variants to stackable.
  
• Updated descriptions for AA and D batteries to show their usage more clearly.
  
• 9V and C batteries disabled. Only D and AA batteries will be used for now.
  
• STN logo removed from game screen.
  
• Weapon avoidance is disabled while playing the grab affect.
  
• Added ability to slam doors open/closed by pressing Interact key on the door panel. (Handles still function as a way to open doors normally)
  
• Door handle interaction time is now quicker.
  
• Door handle colliders are now bigger to make interaction easier.
  
• Headlamps and low level battery powered items now use AA batteries.
  
• AA batteries are now harvestable from new battery stand.
  
• New AA battery stand can be searched for batteries.
  
• Sound sliders in menu now fully work!!! (sorry this took so long)
  
• Hatchet now break correctly when reaching 0% condition.
  
• Reaching and grab animation now plays when trying to harvest items.
  
• Weapons no longer always spawn with 0 condition.
  
• Flickering reflections on weapons reduced.
  
• Resolution drop downs now fixed so that players can always select an appropriate resolution.
  
• New headlamp drop added to the game.
  
• Zombies no longer climb out of windows during the day without reason.
  
• Second log of oak tree no longer breaks.
  
• Picking up an item now cancels the animation for consuming.
  
• Fixed issue where the player would fall through the ground when joining the server.
  
• Radiator fan box no longer appears really close to the player.

• New headlamp added as a starting item which which is designed to make night gameplay easier.

• Cooked pots and meat variants now have clearer textures to indicate when cooked.
  
• Cooking objects now transition to cooked state in the same position rather than just above.
  
• Placing objects on the cooking surface now start cooking quicker.
  
• Items can now be picked up from cooking surfaces.
  
• Added notifications to cooking which aid the player as they learn the system.
  
• Clearer cooking pot variants to indicate when a pot contains uncooked, cooked or burnt items.
  
• Cooking burnt meat no longer spams errors to the log.
  
• Grill now snaps into position over the fire when in placement mode so that it's easier to get it in position.

• Old notification system removed as it could become cluttered and confusing.
  
• New unimportant notification systems added which is located in the top left of the screen. This handles repetative information that isn't always needed by the player.
  
• New Hint system added which handles important information the player needs. Located in the lower right corner of the screen.
  
• Added system which limits the amount of times any single hint can play.
  
• Removed old item hover info which we felt was too big and confusing.
  
• Added new hover system which includes icons that animate to show further information when looking directly at them.
  
• Improved notifications for missing parts when trying to place locks.
  
• Player now gets a hint showing the tool they are missing when trying to search for items.
  
• Added new frying sound.
  
• Updated cooking particles to make it more clear what cooking stage an item is in.
  
• Added new boiling sounds for items in pots.

• Added info string in the bottom of the inventory that displays the current inventory weight. Field dynamically adjusts to show button for placing when you hovering over the [drop] item button
  
• Removed the [Add] [Minus] buttons next to the item name in the crafting window.
  
• Added [Search] and [Recipe] buttons next to the item name in the crafting window.
  
• [Search] allows the player to 'search' for any recipes that include that item.
  
• [Recipe] show the recipe for that item.
  
• Updated the 'How to craft' section of the crafting page to make it easier to understand.
  
• Craftables that can't currently be crafted now show in the craftables list as grey.
  
• Craftables in the craftables list now hover red to show that they can be clicked on. Grey recipes also hover ready and can still be clicked on to show the player why they cannot craft the item at this time.
  
• Added a string in the crafting list view that explains what the search results reflect.
  
• Added label to craft-able screen that says 'Items produced' so that it's clear you're about to craft.
  
• Changed the functionality of the [clear] button in the crafting page to mean 'clear search' since recipes in the old way are no longer used.

• [Take] buttons now go grey when you can't take from the container.
  
• Top title on the items page now says the category name instead of just "Backpack" on all tabs.
  
• Added read out when hovering over consume buttons that display how consuming that item will affect your players stats.
  
• Inventory items now sort automatically on pickup rather than getting added to the bottom of the list of items.
  
• Stats button in the inventory now points to the correct page.
  
• Added support for placement mode right from the inventory. Activated by holding shift while in the inventory and pressing the [place] button.
  
• Added highlights to top category tabs in the inventory that indicate when you have new items per category.

• Zombie path finding iterations tweaked. AI should now be faster at calculating closest point to player when they are unreachable.
  
• Zombies can now get on sofas so that players cannot stand on them to get out of reach.
  
• Zombies can now get on dining tables so that players cannot stand on them to get out of reach.

• All house interiors redesigned to improve aesthetics and player/ai navigation.
  
• Redesigned Gas station interiors.
  
• Tweaked Gas station models to improve looks.
  
• Added AA battery harvest points in Gas Stations.

• Consumables that don't have animations now give the player a notification so that it's not as confusing.
  
• Weight change now displays in the inventory when taking items from containers.
  
• Players now receive a hint when logging off which explains the safe log off mechanic.
  
• Starting calories is no longer 0 and is 2000 so that the player doesn't start hungry.
  
• Removed collision with some small trash piles so that the player doesn't bump into them as they walk around the world.
  
• Overall health, Sickness and Mental health value now has an identifying word next to it so that it's easier to understand. Example, Sickness: -1 (Feeling unwell)
  
• Containers now have a 'Take all' button.
  
• Hand and flashlight base damaged increased.
  
• New headlamp feature added. Can be used in conjunction with weapons and is currently setup to be a starting item (replaces the wind up)
  
• Shortened nights create a better game loop balance.
  
• Pain killers have been changed to Antibiotics and now have a 100% chance of improving sickness.
  
• Light switches now have a colored label to show if they are on/off.

• Headlamp added.
  
• New AA battery stand added.
  
• Sleeping mat added.
  
• Melee pad added.
  
• Various hard case suitcases added.
  
• Campsite lean to added.
  
• Log benches added.
  
• Broken down cabins added.
  
• Camping chairs added.
  
• New large fixed campfire type added.
  
• Campsite trail signs added.
  
• Soft travel bags added.
  
• Airport trolley added.

• Teleport map now closes when the main menu closes so that it cannot overlap on opening other UI.
  
• Server config description for loot value updated.
  
• ./CleanUp command now works correctly again.

Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights
Forum: https://community.survivethenights.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive
Website: https://www.survivethenights.net