We've really appreciated all the kind words about our recent Landfall Update, and we’re happy to see everyone was just as excited to battle new machines as we were. There were a couple of things that we saw which ended up going live when we might not have intended it or, just didn't shape up to our expectations. We are always reading as much feedback as we can get our hands on for every release and will continue to do so, but in the meantime, there were a few points we thought needed addressing now:
Weapon Wheel fix - you can now move around while using this feature.
Base Defense - we fixed an issue that would cause shell casings ejecting from players guns to destroy your buildings.
Daily Assignments should now be live again.
Weekly Assignments - These are now live for all to enjoy! Go check your FMTEL stations.
The Weapon Wheel had mixed feedback as we’ve seen, and for good reason. For console players, it resulted in a sub-par experience for those trying to utilize the new feature in combat, as you had to stand in place when switching to another slot. We’ve switched the input to the right stick (on controllers) for wheel selection, freeing up traversal at the same time.
Base Defense had some quirks that were originally perplexing to discover. Players were reporting quick destruction of their newly built walls, which was never intended. We quickly identified the issue to be a physics related one. Whenever a shell casing would land on a built structure, it was somehow tagged to cause damage on impact. This should no longer occur.
Daily assignments will now be available again. These were temporarily offline due to incorrect content keys going out with the Landfall update, which caused issues communicating with Apex Connect servers. For players, this would have resulted in various issues: not receiving loot for assignments, assignments not counting correctly, etc. These should not occur anymore, and since there are many categories of assignments, we’ll be keeping a close eye if there are any further issues being reported.
Weekly Assignments - somewhat related to the daily assignments, this new category will have longer term goals for you and your fellow resistance fighters. For those of you that love to chase longer term goals, you can find them in the same place you do with your other assignments!
We will continue to monitor the release after this hotfix, and keep an eye on how well these solutions are working. In the meantime, we’re also moving forward through the roadmap on some fresh features for you all!
The Landfall Update has finally arrived! The first update in some time, and there’s quite a lot that went into this one too. Not only have we added plenty for everyone to enjoy for free, we also squashed quite a few bugs (both new and old) to get this update to you all.
This is the first time since its release that Generation Zero has new enemies arriving to the skirmishes in Östertörn. The Soviet faction has become much more tangible this month as they bring two new machines into the fray. How did they arrive exactly? Why did they cross the waters to Sweden? They don’t seem to be focused only on you and your allies, why is that? You will have to go into enemy territory to find out…
In the meantime, we can have a look into what's arriving in Östertörn for the Landfall Update:
For those of you starting up new characters or just landing in the world of Generation Zero for the first time, you’ll notice there is a new intro movie that takes over the rolling text at the start of the game. For the veterans of Östertörn who dare venture into more dangerous regions, new machines are here to freshen up your fights!
New Soviet Faction Enemies:
The Wolf
The Wolf is somewhat of a hybrid machine. It transports smaller units to deploy on the battlefield but also packs its own punch depending on which model you come across in the field. There are three different classes to fight and plenty of new weak points to find. The Lynx
The Lynx might be small, but it’s still quite formidable. Its agile design allows for it to be effective in nearly every terrain it comes across, and its speed can catch up with you quickly. So be careful when on the retreat with this one as they have quite the bite if they get close.
World Improvements
We continue our efforts with location revamps to spice up the base game for everyone to enjoy. This time around we had two targets: Southern Forest Region & Marshlands (Partial).
Here is a sneak peek at some of the work done in those areas:
With these revamps also come new Collectibles in the southern part of the Forest Region. The backstories attached expand on Resistance activities in the region and some of the mysteries found within the world as a whole. There are also new collectibles in the Marshlands Region, which could shed some light on the Soviet arrival…
Quality of Life Improvements
The Weapon Wheel has finally arrived with the Landfall Update as well!
We heard a lot of the feedback out there, and found this to be the best solution to address as many of the players' needs as we could reach. With this new way to navigate loadouts you're no longer restricted to 3 weapons at a time! You can mix and match as you see fit, bringing new strategies to any skirmish out there.
We’ve made quite a few additions to the overall arsenal this past year, with more to come in 2022. So, we found it best to finally address the capacity of your Plundra storage, as well as the Recycling Bench. With the debut of the Landfall Update, you will be able to expand your storage to your growing needs with up to 5 additional levels for each container!
There are some additional improvements to help newer players navigate game systems early on:
Materials you find now have descriptions to them showing where to typically find them in the world.
Potential schematics can now be seen in location summaries as well.
Ammo types and weapon matches now have better descriptors in the inventory. Giving you a better understanding of what ammo belongs where, at a glance.
New proportional aim system that automatically scales with the zoom level. Can be switched with the old system in the game settings.
In multiplayer settings it is now possible to define whenever other players can build and destroy buildings in your base.
For the explorers out there, you’ll also notice some improvements in the world to help in the Resistance efforts. Wood is now harvestable in places you would expect to find it. For example, you’ll find this sapling when running through forested areas.
This is the first step we’re taking to iterate on materials you find in the world. There will be more to come!
For those of you using your situational awareness to help turn the tides of battle, you’ll find there are more aptly tagged objects in the world. EMPs and Explosives can be triggered with these world items. While these are not exactly new, they are aimed at helping new players understand how to use the environment to their advantage more directly:
Electrical Unit
Fixed Fuel Cells
Free Building Pack
With a new iteration of the Base Defense missions, we also have some new, free buildings to go with it (Some of you might recognize these from past Dev Letters)! These should give everyone a more versatile approach to their Resistance defenses.
Reinforced Pylon
Scaffolding Platform
Scaffolding Ramp
Decorative Hedge
Tall Spotlight
New buildings aren't the only thing that is coming to the Base Defense experience, Base Defense missions have new iterations as well! The waves of machines that attack now have much more variability. You're also able to skip over preparation timers if you're ready at a moment's notice! We’ve also been observing various points of feedback about Base Defense, and have made the latter difficulties more challenging.
Not only has there been quite a few additions to the base game of Generation Zero with the Landfall Update. This is also the debut of a larger DLC we’ve had planned for a while now, one that will help you fend off Machine attacks against everything you’ve built in defense of Östertörn.
New Paid DLC: The Base Defense Pack - $3.99
With the Landfall update, we also released the Base Defense Pack, which contains a bunch of new ways to defend your bases. This includes: Missile turrets, spiked walls, spiked floors, explosive barrels, human decoys, and sandbag shooting positions.
Resistance Grenade Launcher Pillbox
Resistance Sandbag Shooting Position
Resistance Explosive Barrel
Resistance Spiked Traps (Wall and Ground) & Resistance Human Decoy
You can find out more details about these new additions to your Resistance Defenses on the store page itself.
BUG FIXES
Animation, Art, & Audio
Fixed an issue where footstep SFX stopped playing for clients during multiplayer
Fixed an issue with SMOD where no reload or footstep sounds were heard in first person
Crashes
[Community Reported] Fixed a frequent crash in a certain area of Himfjäll
Fixed a crash when dismantling structures with Base Building
Fixed a crash on dismantling structures during Base Building
Fixed a continuous crash at the same spot at Skrankebol
Fixed a crash in multiplayer for the client when starting horde mission on hard difficulty
Fixed a crash where the host was crashing when far away from client playing through the “Good News” mission
Fixed a crash when the host and clients would crash after client teleported during horde mode
Fixed a crash during multiplayer where the host was crashing after Alt-tabbing
Fixed a crash when players would crash when pressing N to swap ammo
Fixed a crash where the game might crash in Farmlands region during combat
Fixed various crashes during combat at multiple locations
Machines
Fixed an issue Tanks had with their missile battery only firing 2 rockets instead of full barrage
Fixed an issue where a Reaper rival was incorrectly shown as interactable when it has no loot
Fixed an issue that would cause Rivals to spawn before the terrain, which caused them to die before you are able to reach them
UI
[Community Reported] Fixed an issue where weapons disappeared into loot containers. Players should no longer be able to put items back into loot containers, corpses, etc.
Fixed an issue with an abnormal inventory behavior when starting a new game, which would cause weight to be displayed incorrectly
Fixed an issue where scrolling in the Plundra, switching item categories may cause the Plundra interface to behave abnormally
Weapons
[Community Reported] Fixed an issue that allowed infinite ammo while using Burst Fire Mode with specific weapons
Fix an issue where the US Weapons DLC icon only showed on the 3* weapons and attachments that come with the DLC, they should now show on all
Fixed an issue where shock wires from Experimental Ammo damaged and downed other players
Fixed an issue where Shock Ammo wires were appearing although no one had fired any shock bullets
Fixed an issue where Shock ammo would still deal damage after having faded out
Fixed an issue with Heat Ammo would show electrical effects on glass windows
Base Defense
Fixed an issue with Base Defense that caused mission fails if one party member fast travels away
Fixed an issue when some machines act passively in multiplayer during Base Defense
Fixed an issue with the Horde Mission where the mission gets stuck on hard difficulty
Fixed an issue where the Horde Mission would have some machines get stuck outside of mission area, risking the mission failing while trying to kill them
Fixed an issue where during Horde Mode turret base defenses could completely lock down Tank and Hunter enemies, resulting in them not attacking due to stagger
Fixed an issue with Base Building during multiplayer where the client was unable to repair damaged turret
Fixed an issue where one could never spawn at the Home Base after continuing the game
Fixed an issue when machines spawned before the preparation timer is up during Hard Mode
Fixed an exploit where materials around the Home Base would respawn every time you restart the session
Fixed an issue where buildings could change rotation when they are dismantled
World
[Community Reported] Fixed a floating weapon crate in barn at Stora Dyrbo safehouse
[Community Reported] Fixed an issue with a floating house in Östervik
[Community Reported] Fixed an issue where the edge of Boo Bridge lacks collision
[Community Reported] Part of the bridge near Sundgård Farm lacked collision
Fixed various locations on the map where players could get stuck on objects clustered together
Fixed the Uttern bunker where gas damage was damaging the player in parts of the bunker where it shouldn't
Fixed a fence near Garphammar which was missing an end pole
Fixed a suitcase at Iron Church which had the wrong model and was unlootable
Fixed an issue in with some containers at Nyhamnen where one can get stuck in if going inside
Fixed an issue where one can get stuck in fallen debris at the ruined house in Överbyslätten in Farmlands region
Fixed an issue with a floating road in Östervik
Fixed an issue with a floating lamp near floating house in Östervik
Fixed an issue with an invisible gate at Måsskär Resistance Camp, where it was interactable but not visible
Fixed an issue with stretched terrain and seam holes at Skåleberget in the Forest region
Fixed floating rocks at Lindens Skepssättning near Dyrboslätten
Fixed stones clipping through floor in building in south coast region
Fixed rocks blocking stairs to safehouse at IGA facility
Fixed a floating mailbox and road texture south-east of home base
Fixed a stranded boat with floating animation in Marshlands region
Fixed a floating loot containers inside barn near Dyrboslätten
Fixed a floating props on side of IGA facility safehouse
Fixed a stone that was clipping inside tunnel leading to Torsberga fort
Fixed flickering paintings in underground facility
Fixed several big seam holes in terrain in Forest region
Fixed a big rock inside hedge at revamped church in Östervik
Assignments
Fixed an issue where the Assignments FMTel Reward Trunk can not be interacted with
Fixed an issue where the “Destroy 5 ticks with handgun” assignment could not be completed
General
[Community reported] Fixed an issue that caused some players to get stuck progress with the mission “Spiking the Guns”
[Community reported] Fixed an issue where bullets would often remain floating after shooting
Fixed an issue with the Anniversary Event related to loot not dropping according to loot table design
Fixed an issue with Experimental Consumable Crafting where the screen flashes red when being healed by healing ammo, it should not do this now
Fixed an issue where selected Active Specializations would not save, and would default to last acquired specialization
Fixed an issue with where one was unable to pick up letter to get side mission in Ibholmen Church
Fixed an exploit with Ammo Packs and Paramedic Response Packs became infinitely usable by fast traveling back and forth via field radio
Fixed an issue where the Experimental KVM59 was not dropped by Reaper
KNOWN ISSUES
The Wolf can sometimes get stuck on terrain objects<br>
Some FMTEL Assignments are not working as intended. We are already working on a hotfix to address this
STOCKHOLM — Feb. 8, 2022 — Systemic Reaction has released the free “Landfall” update for the open-world co-op action game Generation Zero on Steam, Xbox One and PlayStation®4. “Landfall” introduces the Soviets, a third faction hostile to both the Resistance (players) and the FNIX machines, opening the battlefield to new strategic possibilities as players can pit two enemy groups against one another.
“Landfall” Features:
New Soviet War Machines: A third faction arrives with two new machine types: the Soviet Lynx and Wolf, each designed with unique ways to challenge players and dominate the battlefield.
Base Building Rewards: All players get a free pack containing a range of base-building items.
New UI Improvements: Players will discover more storage and resource capacity, as well as a new weapon wheel to quickly swap between gear, increasing the number of equipment slots.
New Map Revamps: The South Forest region has been redesigned with a ton of changes to enhance environmental storytelling.
Today’s update also brings new premium DLC. The “Base Defense Pack”, available on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation®4 for $3.99, includes bonus Resistance items such as a grenade launcher pillbox, spiked wall and floor traps, explosive barrel, human decoy, and sandbag shooting position.
Generation Zero puts players on the front line of the battle against the machines in an alternate history Sweden. More than one million players have experienced the game since launch, with numerous updates and two story-driven expansions (“Alpine Unrest” and “FNIX Rising”) continuing to drive the adventure, including a host of additional content planned for 2022.
Hello Everyone, and happy (belated) New Year! We hope you all had ample time to rest, relax, and reset over the holidays. To kick off the first letter of the new year, we wanted to look back a bit on our engagement with all of you. Let’s get right into it...
As we mentioned in past dev letters, the team has been hard at work developing further updates for the game. We’ve also mentioned that we wanted to become a bit more transparent with what we’re up to with our roadmap. While this isn't the exact letter we can share that in, we can tell you that it is going to be coming soon and will also be accompanied by a big update on all platforms. So, keep an eye out for teasers to come on our channels.
We’ve been communicating some of what we’ve been up to during the delays last year, but we did want to take a moment to recap, as we’ve noticed follow-on discussions to the dev letters have sometimes lost sight of those or could have been misconstrued depending on how it was read. What we’ve shared in the second half of 2021:
COM-10
Molotov Cocktail (Not in the Landfall Update, but can arrive in time for summer)
Plundra expansion
Weapon wheel
Free base defense items
While we have shown these, they do not constitute the only things we have been working on besides getting into Game Pass. We have some big additions to the game in the first half of the year that we can’t wait to start talking about!
In addition to the above, we do recognize that Xbox has not always been applicable to everyone reading these as it's not always the platform it's being read from. We thought it best to be transparent across our entire community with what is going on, in a unified way. This might feel like filler for some if they are PC only, but we want everyone to understand why there might be delays, the troubles causing them, and how we’re trying to mitigate those issues.
Old bugs and optimizations - This has been something on our radar for some time. We’ve also been keeping an eye on conversations after the publishing of our Letters from the Team. We hear you. We are working on improving the quality of our releases with an incoming Landfall Update that will address many of the known issues, but not all. We are aiming to work incrementally on improvements with each release post-February. This will heavily depend on the depth of individual issues. Not to say we wish to sweep any under the rug, but some can take more time to resolve while we continue work on forward content and features for Generation Zero with our small development team.
We are constantly improving our production cycles, as well as expanding our battery of testing with further QA assistance, internally and externally, to more readily find these types of bugs before they might sneak into a release. This also helps us dig into long lasting bugs that are difficult to find the root cause of.
There will be more insights to share in the near future as we find causes and solutions to these issues. In the meantime, we only ask that you keep sharing with us! Our community reported bugs in forums, reviews, and social media posts have always helped. For that, we thank you!
It’s been quite a journey the past half year (and then some) for the Gen Z team. We’ve been through some ups and downs; and you, our lovely community, have been there with us, ever patient. As always, we cannot be more grateful for the dedicated followers that have found a home in Östertorn.
(For those of you who would prefer not to hear anything more about the Xbox update and content parity, or Game Pass, skip ahead to the next section with the bits that are applicable to the community as a whole)
We’re finally back to content parity on all platforms! So, what has happened these past 7 months?
In March and April, we realized that a growing number of issues we had fixed in the past kept coming back as we iterated on the game. The more we researched and reflected on this, the more we realized it was less about the content and features we were developing, and more about long-hidden compatibility and/or platform-specific issues.
Some of you might remember that we discussed platform and matchmaking bugs in previous letters we’ve published. In the end, they were still the biggest hurdles to get the Xbox update out the door for content parity, which is something we aimed to maintain at the start of 2021. Unfortunately, due to production and release constraints, we had to split-ship May’s update to ensure something reached the community, even if it was only a part of it.
We maintain the ambition to ship our updates for Generation Zero simultaneously across all our platforms moving forward. This was part of the decision to continue as we did these past months, to get back to what we (tried to) promise. Split-shipping was a misstep on our part, and even if we made the decision based on what we felt was best for the team and the game at the time, we have walked away from this experience with a lot of learnings and areas we will try to avoid in the future.
What Happened - In More Detail
As many of you might have noticed, since the Xbox update has gone live Nov. 30th, there was an additional reason that we were delayed as much as we were, and that was in preparation for our inclusion of Game Pass. Normally, this would have continued in parallel with other developments and updates, but due to our agreed-upon deadlines, coupled with the split shipped tech debt we incurred just months before, it created a perfect storm of conflicting priorities. We had to make a conscious choice of how to continue for the sake of continued development (i.e. updates to the game) with the resources that Generation Zero currently has, and is able to sustain in a healthy manner in the long term. We do have a smaller team and put focus on everyone’s health. This sometimes causes lost time for our planned roadmap, or missteps in development, for the right reasons we believe.
So, what was the main issue in more detail? Generation Zero was branched off the Apex Engine over 4 years ago. This has been the version the game has run on since that happened, with some strategic improvements and feature implementations that came from our backend and engine teams, but otherwise has been on its own path with the project team. That being said, we all know that tech never stops moving forward.
When it came time to prep the game for Game Passes inclusion, after all that was mentioned above, we eventually realized what the issue was. For us to function on Windows 10, and implement cross-play / matchmaking properly, our engine needed to add GDK (a toolkit for our developers to plug into Microsoft / Xbox’s services). Previously our branch of the engine had only used XDK (before the latest generation of consoles were released). From all the ways we tried to approach this, and all the consultations we had internally and externally (even with our partners), we eventually uncovered that our branch of the Apex Engine would not be compatible. That meant we had to work from the ground up to figure out how to integrate these missing components to the engine to make it run properly with the necessary requirements (basically simulating what the API for Xbox’s GDK does, from scratch). While it was somewhat straightforward, the time it took to execute was not insignificant. Once this wrapped up, we did get through certification with some minor warnings, but those were quickly addressed and we resubmitted.
What the horizon looks like moving forward into 2022
Now that our delays are out of the way, and we’re on our way back to smoother developments, we can get into the juicier bits. During the course of the delay, much of the team who couldn’t directly help out on resolving the ongoing issue with Xbox were hard at work looking forward, which means we’ve banked quite a bit of work to kick-off 2022.
We’ve got quite a bit in store for you all, but we can’t quite get into the bigger parts of that just yet. But let's just say that 2022 will hold a lot of fun new content that we are certain you will enjoy, and we can’t wait to share more in the coming weeks.
What we can show you for now is a bit of the extras we had planned for base building. Not only are we making some tweaks and improvements to the experience, but we’re also bringing in some additional (and free) buildings into the mix!
Resistance High Reinforced Pylon Tall reinforced pylon, great for adding corners and end posts to high walls.
Resistance Scaffolding Platform Scaffolding platform that provides a flexible elevated shooting position. Great when combined with high walls.
Resistance Scaffolding Ramp Scaffolding ramp that can be used to provide access to scaffolding platforms.
Resistance Decorative Hedge Decorative hedge that is sometimes used by the Resistance to camouflage important positions.
Resistance Tall Spotlight Tall decorative lamp post with multiple spotlights.
That is all from us for this time, but with the update and Game Pass behind us, we can finally start talking more about what the future will hold, both short and long term. Until then, have fun building your bases and fighting for Östertorn!
Our Halloween Event is now live and will be running between October 25th - November 8th.
So what exactly is going on in Generation Zero during the Halloween Event? For each machine you take down, there will be a chance for apparel items to drop. There are four sets of items to complete, with variants for each slot on your character. You will have to be on the lookout for Runners, Hunters, Harvesters, and Tanks to snag these costumes in time. A reminder for those that choose to play Gen Z offline: this event does require you to be online for our servers to activate the event in-game.
Hello everyone! This week we have a short but spooky update for you while we continue to crush those evil bugs and build brand new content for the future.
Many of you might have already guessed what we were planning, as it is that time of year after all, where pumpkins become more prominent, and those autumn colors come in full bloom. That’s right; we’re gearing up for another Halloween Event in the world of Östertörn!
There are also many new faces lately, so we’re giving everyone a bit more time for this time-limited event this year. The Halloween Event will be running between October 25th - November 8th. That way, everyone has time to progress a bit into the main game if they are new and get to the content by the event’s end. For all you veterans, that means there’s more time to collect every variant!
So what exactly is going on in Generation Zero during the Halloween Event? For each machine you take down, there will be a chance for apparel items to drop. There are four sets of items to complete, with variants for each slot on your character. You will have to be on the lookout for Runners, Hunters, Harvesters, and Tanks to snag these costumes in time. A reminder for those that choose to play Gen Z offline: this event does require you to be online for our servers to activate the event in-game.
Hello again everyone! It’s been a couple of weeks since we last posted a Letter from the Team, so there’s a fair amount of fun stuff to cover this week!
It’s been a while since we’ve had a letter for you, and that is something we are focusing more effort into changing moving forward. We really enjoy sharing our works with you, and the dedication of the community, kindness, and understanding you’ve all shown deserves as much!
Getting back to the overarching issue that has caused delays these past few months, and that is getting the Resistance Update out on Xbox so that we can continue with our promise of content parity moving forward with all of our updates. In short, we’re still working on it and still maintaining the previously mentioned release window of November.
In favor of the transparency we plan to sustain, we would like to mention that we can only talk a limited amount about the current issues we’re working with due to contractual reasons and respect of our working relationship(s) with the platform holders we work with. Conflicting, indeed, although it is sometimes the way we have to work to make sure we can collaborate as smoothly and closely as possible with our partners to get you all the much-awaited content that we’ve built and are still building!
Last we discussed the topic of the certification issues, we had a backlog of items we were chipping away at and were making good progress at the time. As the most recent round of certification we attempted failed, we had a slew of other issues that were still not caught and had some hard to reproduce steps to zero in on the underlying issues (and solutions). These were around friend invites and various bugs that crashed the game in different scenarios during “suspend and resume.” The former ended up being a deeper issue, one which required a deeper investigation and longer chats about the potential solutions. We’ve since found a proper one and have even consulted with our partners at Xbox that it will indeed help solve the issues. This required us to rebuild some of the frameworks on which friend invites function and is a requirement for us to pass CERT.
We’re going through a battery of tests this week and next to help shake out any remaining issues with the changes we had to make. We also reserved some time to make sure any of those bugs are resolved in time for the next scheduled time for certification.
That gets us up to speed with catching all the platforms up to each other, so what else are we doing in the meantime (for those that are not helping with fixing Xbox issues), and when will we see more content in the game? These are all great questions we’ve seen popping up since July!
For those that are not working on certification issues, they are looking ahead to the roadmap we had planned for 2021, and even beyond considering the delays we had this year. There are only so many people that can work on a group of issues to help with the current delay, so we’ve made sure that we got ahead of the curve where we could as well!
This means that the content update we’ve planned is quite close to finishing and is getting ready for its own testing gauntlet. Currently, it’s intended to release as closely as we possibly can after we get the Xbox update out the door, and we, unfortunately, cannot put them both through the CERT process at the same time. We’ve definitely kept our community Beta testers busy, helping us work out the kinks with all this new stuff. They seem to like what they’ve seen, though, and they all deserve a big thanks for all the hard work they've put into getting our next big update polished and ready for everyone!
So what is up for next year? A lot! We have plenty of plans to keep Östertörn alive and evolving as we roll into 2022. Some of these plans you've already seen, and others we've kept a bit closer to ourselves, but one thing is for sure, it's going to be something for everyone in there! We’ll be able to share more of that as we close in on Xbox getting up to parity, and we also have some spooky announcements for October. Stay tuned in the coming weeks to find out more!