For exactly four years have you survived the evil machines’ relentless onslaught. You’ve grown from a teenager coming back from vacation to a bonafide badass and machine scrapper. You’ve acquired a fine arsenal of weapons, built a base of operations, and helped the human resistance movement grow from a few people in a basement into a serious militia that is not to be underestimated. And most importantly: You’ve kept your spirit. For every machine that is sent after you, there’s another bullet in your magazine, another grenade in your pocket, another medkit in your hand. Your courage, power and resilience keep the hope of retaking Östertörn alive. Thank you for never giving up! We’ve prepared a special Dev Diary to commemorate your collective achievements, have a look!
As Developers, we’re incredibly proud of the game Generation Zero has become during the last four years. What started out as a passion project to kick off Avalanche Studios’ self-publishing division Systemic Reaction has over the years grown into the perfect showcase for the creativity, dedication and effort our Dev Team puts into the game on a daily basis. One of the ways this shows is in the many awesome additions we made, like new machines, new weapons, further story missions, crafting, bicycles and motorbikes, base assault and base defense. All of these features have made Generation Zero even more enjoyable and replayable, shaping it into a powerhouse of an open world game that we enjoy coming back to as much as you do.
Another way that we show our love for our game is by working with you, our community, as we continue to push through the tough times. Of course, no project is without its challenges - every team faces hurdles during a game's lifetime. At times, we had to delay features due to schedule shifts, and occasionally annoying bugs slipped through the cracks when we released a patch. The pandemic that’s been affecting everyone on the planet for the last 2 years also threw its fair share of wrenches in the works (If you know, you know). We know exactly how frustrating events like these are. What’s important, though, is that we keep our eyes on the horizon, take in community feedback, and work towards ironing out the kinks. Since Generation Zero's release we've dedicated ourselves to improving your experience and we intend to keep it that way. There’s no rest for the weary!
Since we’re committed to continuing to bring updates with meaningful content, both free and paid, to the game, we’re now working on creating a new public roadmap for the rest of 2023. The different building blocks are still in motion as of now, so we’re not ready to share it quite yet, but we will let you in on it as soon as we can.
Celebrating in style
As some of you may have already noticed, you are now able to get the "Resistance fighter" apparel set from rivals as well as Firework boxes from any suitable loot source in the game! Enjoy this day in a blaze of glory and look good doing it. You have all the time you need to collect these items as they will be available to snatch up until the 10th of April.
A heartfelt thank you
It’s impossible to celebrate four years of a game’s lifespan without dedicating a huge part of the celebration to the amazing community that kept it alive for all that time. Your continued interest and support is inspiring and means so much to us. It is thanks to you that we can keep telling this story of machines and men that we love so much. Nobody is better at turning machines into shooting practice than you! Let’s have a look at the strength in numbers you displayed over the years.
We couldn’t ask for a more dedicated, fun, interactive, and attentive community. In fact, let’s prove how attentive you are right now! This letter contains references to some of the many missions that show you the world of GZ. How many of them? Let us know in the thread below!
With much love, this is the Generation Zero Dev Team. Over and out.
Today, we’re bringing you an update focused on fixing some long-standing problems as well as introducing some new additions that we believe you will enjoy!
First off, let’s not make you wait for this one longer than we have to: The mission “A Wrench in the Works” has been fixed and can now be progressed normally. This one took us a while to fix because we wanted to make sure that no follow-up issues would be created while attempting to repair the mission flow. Thank you for your patience while we dealt with it!
Now, before we get into any more bug fixes, let’s talk about what’s new in the February update!
New Collectables - Safe house hints
In each safe house, you will now be able to find photographs containing hints about the location of the next safe house to travel to. These were added to help players unlock respawn points on the map and aid the natural progression through the world. Plus, they’re super pretty to look at! Gotta collect them all.
A new introduction to base building
In order to show off this awesome feature to new players and make sure they realize how viable and important it can be as an endgame activity, we’ve revamped the introduction mission for Base Building and Base Assault. The new mission is called “Building Blocks” and can be picked up from the Warboard in the Vesslan Bunker. It guides players through the process of completing a Base Assault and subsequently, building their own first base.
Players who already completed the old intro mission, “Good News”, will not be able to play this new mission on the same world and will have to start a new world in order to experience it.
More free Weapon Skins!
Weapon skins were a highly requested feature and adding them enabled us to really have fun designing fresh looks for our ever growing array of guns and melee weapons. At the same time, they allow players to express themselves through even more customization! The feature was well received, the criticism we kept seeing the most was “There are not enough of them yet, give us more!” and we happily comply! The February update brings you 6 new free weapon skins for the Möller PP, Klaucke 17, Kpist, HK5, and the Brännboll bat! They will automatically be added to the loot pool of your rivals, so get to clearing your map of them! Good luck on the hunt.
Here’s a look at the new skins:
Möller PP - Neon Grid Custom
Klaucke 17 - Copper Top Custom
M/46 “Kpist” SMG - Party Pop Dark
HP5 - Graffiti Resistance
Möller PP - Graffiti Resistance
Brännboll Bat - Graffiti Resistance
(That's right, melee weapon skins are a thing now!)
More swag for your buck!
Since we released the Camo Weapon Skins Pack DLC, we’ve received a lot of feedback regarding its cost-to-content ratio. Since many of you felt like the amount of skins included in the pack didn’t justify its price, we decided to add five more skins to it! Everyone who previously purchased the pack will see them added to their available weapon skins after downloading the update. Enjoy!
AG5 - Desert Camo
KVM59 - Flecktarn Urban
PVG90 - Naval Marine
AI-76 - Digital Forest
12G Pump-Action - Orange Venom Custom
Main Menu Carousel revamp
The news carousel in the Main Menu has seen a substantial change to make it more visually appealing and easier to navigate. This was done to make sure you’re always up to date on the latest news! You can open this more focused view by interacting with the existing news tab in the game’s main menu. This is still a work in progress, we will continue to take in feedback and improve the presentation in coming updates.
In-Game DLC Showcase
You can now see which DLC you own and which ones you’re yet to unlock directly from this new in-game screen! New DLC will get added to it automatically.
Return of the Semla event
Those of you who have been playing GZ for a while will remember the previous Semla collection events on the occasion of Fettisdagen, or “Fat Tuesday”! You might know this special day as “Mardi Gras”. Because Fettisdagen is celebrated by eating the national “Semla” pastry here in Sweden, we’re bringing this special little treat to the world of Generation Zero for everyone to enjoy!
From the 21st to the 28th of February 2023, you’ll be able to loot Semla pastries from some locations in the game (where are baked goods normally made in a household?). Eating it will restore some HP to your character as well as give them a nice full stomach! If you have your Avalanche Apex Connect account all set up, you’ll also find an extraordinary assignment with an extra special reward in your FMTel Reward Trunk during this time! It’s time to show everyone how much you like this creamy goodness. We hope you enjoy and share lots of screenshots of you having a fika (coffee and cake break) with your friends!
Bug fixes and improvements
General
Missing UI section for War figurines collectables in Collectables tab in Log
User is unable to synchronize saved data after logging on with the same account on the different device
[Community Reported] Distributed Emotes evenly between the Schweet Vanity Pack and the Blockbuster Vanity Pack
[Community Reported] Before, players could still spend Command Tokens after having reached the limit of claimed base areas. This has been addressed. No more lost Tokens! Thank you to gearhead455 for making us aware of this.
Assignments
“Perform a dance emote within a FNIX base during a Base Assault Mission.” Assignment did not complete correctly. This has been fixed! Feel free to cut loose, footloose once more.
Combat, Weapons & Equipment
The Experimental KVM89 has been adjusted as follows:
Increased the damage dealt at peak performance
Reduced the heat gain and bullet spread while at peak performance
Reduced damage falloff and recoil while aiming down sights
The Experimental Magnus now deals more damage than the 5 crown Magnus with its initial projectile
The Portable MG Turret has been buffed with increased lifetime and damage as well as reduced crafting cost and completely removed damage falloff!
Portable Cover now has significantly increased durability
Explosive Toy Lure has had its explosion damage slightly increased
[Community Reported] Fixed an issue where the m/49 grenade launcher couldn’t be loaded with experimental ammo. Benox’ thread on the forums greatly helped us to resolve this!
[Community Reported] The EXP .44 Magnus’ Laser sight is no longer offset when the player is irradiated. Thanks to MrVagabond for reporting this!
Firing while mounting a vehicle will no longer cause the weapon to continue firing indefinitely
Crafting
[Community Reported] Fixed a bug locking level 5 apparel crafting schematics. ICShadowcat made a collection thread on the forums for this issue, thanks!
The Simple First Aid Kit schematic was missing on older save files that had completed the "Sanctuary" mission. It has been re-added.
Fixed a bug where crafting materials would sometimes be shown as attached to another item.
Crashes & Performance
Fixed a crash issue while fighting the Firebird
Increased performance while riding motorcycles. This is an ongoing process, more improvements will be made in the future!
Missions
[Community Reported] A Wrench in the Works - Some players could not finish A Wrench in the Works after the patch 24 update. You can now progress normally, without getting a temporary hearing problem from the explosion sounds! Slybry70 was the first one to report this on the forums, but everyone else contributing to the discussion also deserves praise!
Multiplayer
Fixed an issue where machines would become unresponsive and invulnerable during coop sessions
[Community Reported] Fixed certain machines only dropping ammo for client players in multiplayer. This one was fixed thanks to Zesiir, our beloved Forum mod!
Fixed a bug where Firebird Tesla Spikes would only damage the player who initiated combat with the Firebird
Exhaust fumes of other players' motorbikes are no longer invisible in multiplayer
UI
[Community Reported] Fixed a bug where selecting any other filter than “ALL” on the World map screen will hide safehouse icons when trying to respawn. Thank you, ArcAzrael!
World
Removed a terrain obstruction inside Mården bunker. Sorry diehards, you’ll have to find other ways to glitch yourself outside of the map again!
[Community Reported] Re-added the missing Relay Beacon at Skrankebol. Thanks to draco255!
Fixed several Points of Interest not being completable because of misplaced items inside the area
Known Issues:
Lynx and Firebird sometimes get stuck in a shooting loop when getting stunned
Dismounted Moped can sink it into the ground
Infrequent crash on login screen
Clients are sometimes invisible on motorbikes in multiplayer sessions
Non-default text color settings sometimes don’t apply correctly
FNIX Base Walls with spotlights have no collision
Experimental Älgstudsare fires inaccurately when aiming down sights
The 4C AG4 has a very high drop chance under some circumstances
Vintovka drops less frequently than intended and not at all from Wolves
After we released the Dangerous Experiments Update, we started receiving increased amounts of crash reports from players on PC, a big percentage of which was playing on a CPU with fewer than 4 cores.
We found a fix for the issue and in order to make sure that it works for everyone, we decided to publish it to a testing branch on Steam, which we shared with our Forum and Discord users. They were very happy with the result, so we wasted no time bringing the fix to the rest of you as well!
Fixed a crash issue for PC, mainly those with low core count CPUs
Thank you for your help getting rid of this issue! As always, please let us know your thoughts via our Twitter page or our Discord Server!
We’re happy to bring you our latest update to Generation Zero, Dangerous Experiments! This update will do precisely what it says, to bring you new dangerous top-secret military plunders, as well as a whole lot more to make Östertörn even better.
Let’s start with what you’ve all been talking about; the new Experimental Weapons! The Resistance has been really nifty this year with both new weapons and tactical equipment, and to end the year on a high note, they’ve now managed to salvage three brand-new top secret experimental weapons for you to start using. These weapons will have a chance to drop as all other experimental ones by beating Rivals, Reapers, and completing Base Defense missions. But enough talk about the Resistance; let’s take a look at what they’ve put together!
The Experimental .44 Magnus - The Shrapnel Gun
Shred your enemies to pieces with the Experimental .44 Magnus! This canon will blast straight through your enemies and materials to create a shotgun-like blast behind your target, surprising any foe that might be behind with its deadly shrapnel blast. Great for crowd control!
The Experimental KVM 89 - Thermal Machine Gun
It’s getting hot in here; the KVM 89 just got an experimental alloy upgrade! At low temperatures, the alloy has terrible performance; it is inaccurate and inefficient. But when the heat is on, and the temperature rises, the barrel alloy performs exceptionally well, giving you extreme accuracy, efficiency, and damage. Be careful, though; you do not want to overheat it!
The Experimental Älgstudsare - The Artillery Rifle
As you fire the bullet from the Experimental Älgstudsare, it is covered by a slow-burning coating, slowing the bullet down a bit but completely changing its behavior. The longer the bullet stays in the air before it hits something, the higher the energy build-up of the coated shell. At short ranges, it does minor damage, but as the travel time of the bullet increases, so does the damage. A true Resistance fighter makes this weapon exceptionally lethal by hitting targets that are more than 100 meters away!
Tomas, one of our Game Designers, has this to say about the new experimental weapons: “We know that many of you appreciate realistic depictions of real-world firearms. We also acknowledge that there are many of you that enjoy a moderate dose of sci-fi. Thus, we decided to introduce more experimental weapons to the game. Top secret, military, prototype weapons that balance in-between realism and fiction.
Make the most out of these weapons by leaning into their experimental nature. Conduct your own experiments in the field to figure out how to use them efficiently. If unsure where to start, read the weapon description to get a general idea of its function.
Want to turn the experimental up to 11? Try combining these weapons with experimental ammo and see what happens.
These have been very interesting to develop, and we hope you have as much fun using them as we had making them!”
North Coast Collectibles
Time to go on a hunt again; a new collectible set has been added to Östertörn! Bringing you 9 new war figurines and a strategic map to go with them, these collectibles are spread all across the North Coast for you to find. If you know your way around Östertörn well enough and manage to find them all, you’ll be treated with a deeper understanding of what really happened as the Soviets came to Östertörn!
Amanda, our Mission designer, adds: “With these collectibles, we wanted to give some more information about why the Soviets came to Östertörn. What goals do they have in Östertörn, and what hardships they met as they arrived. The narrative is focused on the experiences of different individuals among the Soviet forces. Through these soldiers’ eyes, we were able to give a new perspective on what’s happening in Östertörn and how it is to live in this dystopian war between machines. We hope that you will enjoy the stories and the pretty figurines that come with them!”
New Schematic Tree
Crafting schematics will now be unlocked in an entirely new way! Previously, when you found them hidden throughout the world, you will now be able to unlock them through the Schematics tree. Five new paths, each allowing you to purchase Schematics with its own currency of points; each currency earned by crafting items or completing specific gameplay. Additionally, where the Schematics previously could be found in the world, there are now new pickups that will give you Schematic Points and XP to help you jumpstart your progression! And don’t worry, if you have already picked up a Schematic out in the world, it will be unlocked for you already.
“One of the pain points of crafting in the past has been unlocking the Schematics. Particularly for newer players, having only a small number of Schematics unlocks stops them from taking full advantage of the system, and there was no clear path to unlock more. Now with the Schematic Tree, unlocking schematics becomes much more straightforward and gives players more agency over which Schematics they unlock first. We hope this lets more players craft what they want and, in turn, can play how they want by crafting the ammo/consumables they most enjoy using.” our Senior Systems Designer, Matthew, comments.
Crafting Improvements
Along with the addition of the Schematics Tree, you can now craft 17 consumables that you couldn’t craft before! To make it more intuitive for the player where to find the materials to craft items, we’ve also made it so they can be found more predictably from logical sources. Wondering where these materials can be found? It's now explained in the description of the craftable item!
Talking about recycling, you can now see ahead of time what recycling an item would actually give you back.
And finally, you can now tag items used to craft to keep track of what you're looking for and see when you’ve found the right thing.
“These last several patches have all included improvements to crafting, and this is the next piece of the puzzle. Crafting is more useful than before, giving you access to more items and making it easier to seek out the resources you need. We hope you enjoy the crafting improvements and look forward to hearing what you think of it!” says Matthew.
Performance Updates
There are not only new things introduced to the game with this update, but we’ve also taken a look at how the game performs and how we can improve that for you players. Here’s a short rundown from our Gameplay Programmer, Giulio:
Memory optimization: “Now, the game should use less memory; this should help the players on earlier console versions to experience much fewer crashes while playing, especially in very big cities. This is a step in the right direction, and we’re constantly working to improve this to prevent crashes while roaming with vehicles.
FPS boost: “We worked on improving the CPU workload in FPS-heavy situations like chaotic fights and roaming in big cities. This should ensure the player a smoother experience, especially on Gen 8 consoles.”
Streaming time improvements: “The game should be able to stream certain big areas faster now, resulting in less loading time and fewer graphic artifacts when moving fast.”
“All of the above was done without reducing the graphic quality or touching the rendering pipeline of the game. This means that the graphic of the game isn't changed and still remains amazing, but also that players on PC that were GPU bound won't see any improvement unless they reduce the graphic settings.”
Farmland Improvements
The Farmlands has gotten a little retouch! With the New Dawn Update, we introduced 12 new Control Points to the Farmland. Now, we’ve taken a stab at three of them to offer a more varied experience and expand on the narrative a bit. Look out for these changes:
Floda Control Point - This one has turned into a Community grown garden with allotment garden plots used by the locals in the past. Post-cataclysm, this location has been used by the Resistance as a source of food production, and now players can set up their base in this garden to protect the potatoes.
Broängen Dirt Track Control Point - This one used to be a regular farm field. Now it has changed into a Dirt track for motorbike riders. Within the build area for the Control point, there are also opportunities for some stunt riding.
Överby Control Point - Located south of the Airfield where there used to be a farm field where Machines and the Swedish military had battled each other. This narrative has been expanded upon, and 2 lines of defensive trenches have been dug out around the Control Point. The first line has been overrun, and the second one is more fortified and acts as a second line of defense.
Have you been to the places with apples?
Beneath a growing tree
The apples are placed. But can you see their beauty? It is time to feel.
Bug Fixes
General
[Community Reported] Fixed an issue where the zoom-out would function after reassigning it to another button
World
[Community Reported] Fixed issues with houses not rendering in Fiskebäck
Fixed an issue where if you deleted your world and created a new game in the main menu, safehouses would still be on the map
Fixed an issue where deleted worlds would reappear after restarting the game
Missions
Fixed an issue where “The Farm” was stuck on the “Destroy the Machines” step and couldn’t be completed.
Fixed an issue where “Break of Dawn” got soft-locked after a multiplayer game
Fixed an issue in “Death From Above” where clients in a multiplayer session would still see the mission icons after the mission was completed
Known Issues
[Community Reported] Xbox - “The Home Team” mission soft-locks in single-player after completing it in multiplayer mode
[Community Reported] The Tuned Moped can sometimes sink into the ground when dismounted
PS4/5 - Some users can’t access their DLC content after purchase
Machines can sometimes become unresponsive and invulnerable during a multiplayer session
The Tesla Bombs from the Firebird only damage the host of a multiplayer session
Motorbikes might not be visible to other players during a multiplayer session
There's a missing UI section for the North Coast collectibles in the Collectables tab in the Log
Steam - Clients can sometimes crash in a multiplayer session when fighting the Firebird
Steam/PS4 - Machines might not spawn from Harvesters and Command Centers
The “Simple First Aid Kit” schematic is missing on older save files with the mission “Sanctuary” completed
Firing a weapon while mounting a bicycle will make the weapon continue firing indefinitely
Östertörn just got a touch of Eastern hospitality; If you want more than the new free Experimental Weapons brought with the Dangerous Experiments Update, these eastern treats might be for you!
With the Eastern European Weapons Pack DLC, we're bringing you four new classic weapons to help you up your resistance and go on the offensive against the machines. This new pack brings the following weapons to your arsenal:
Vintovka 1891: Commonly used as a sniper rifle by the Soviets during WWII. After the war, surplus Vintovka 1891 rifles were often favored as hunting rifles due to their power and accuracy.
PM-71 Machine Gun: The standard machine gun used by the Soviet Army during the '80s. Firing high-powered ammunition, this machine gun is especially effective at long range.
Volkov Pistol: Designed during the cold war, the Volkov pistol is the standard sidearm of the Soviet Army. It is reliable and easy to handle while still packing a punch.
Vosa vz.68: The Vosa is a Czechoslovakian handgun/SMG hybrid that fires .32 ACP rounds. It's small in size, light in weight, but high in fire rate.
With the Dark Skies, Update weapon skins were introduced for the very first time in Generation Zero. With these five new free skins, we opened up the world of Östertörn to an entirely new type of customization and lootable rewards that we’re keen to expand upon in the future.
The free set of skins is available to all players who dare to face the menacing Rival enemies and manage to kill them. If you’re lucky enough, you’ll find one of the skins of their dead bodies.
Rich, our Lead Artist, comments: “Dark Skies sees the introduction of being able to customize your weapons further by applying cosmetic skins to them. The first round has a mix of well recognised camouflage to the more reclusive ones as well as a couple of weapons receiving The Resistance treatment. Keep an eye out for them as you loot machines and which weapons they apply for. We intend to add more skins to your favorite weapons in the future as well as expanding on your collection.”
Starting out, we added these free skins to some of your favorite weapons, such as the Magnus, AG 4, and 5, which we think is a good start as these are very well used among you players. Have you had the chance to equip one of these yet? We’d love to know, so drop us a line on one of our Social channels so we can hear what you think about it!
As our first step to expand on the free skins that we brought into the game, we’ve just now introduced the paid Camo Weapon Skins Pack DLC for all of you who just couldn’t get enough! Included in this pack, you’ll find ten new camouflage skins to redress an even more significant part of your weapon arsenal. These camo skins are specially designed to fit on some of the hard hitters such as the PVG 90, the AI-76, and the Granatgevär m/49! If you got a need for that little extra, get the pack on your platform store today!
It's time to stand out from the crowd with these 10 new camoflague weapon skins!In addition to the free weapon skins released with the Dark Skies Update, we're bringing you the opportunity to upgrade the looks of your favorite weapons with these new skins. Ranging from the KVM 89 to the HP5 and the AI-76 these new styles are guaranteed to always stay in fashion,
This pack will include specially crafted camo skins designated for the following weapons:
With our latest patch to the game, The Dark Skies Update, we’ve released four new speedy ways to traverse through Östertörn and race against FNIX!
First out, is the Tuned Moped, a classic Swedish Moped with some extra juice to cruise through the streets of Östervik. This free addition to the game will help anyone who finds it to travel the distance through the Swedish archipelago faster than ever before. This bad boy can either be found hidden somewhere in Östertörn for anyone to find it or drop from some of the harder enemy classes in-game! So what are you waiting for? Get cruising today!
In addition to the free Tuned Moped that was added to the base game, we’re also introducing a paid DLC pack with three extra motorbikes. And when we say extra, we mean extra!
This pack is for the Resistance fighters who got a need for speed and ain’t afraid of going off-road. These three new motorbikes all come with their own characteristics to overcome the different challenges that the map provides and burn through even the toughest terrain. If you want more power, speed, and excitement, this is for you!
The Lodjur, Väktare, and Motstånd will all be available instantly when you purchase that pack and can be spawned together with the free Tuned Moped and the regular bicycles from the vehicle station in-game. Are you ready for the thrill? Pick it up at here at Steam today!
Travel through Östertörn as never before; The Motorbikes Pack DLC is here!
It's faster! It's louder! It's more exciting! With this new DLC pack you'll race against the machines in a completely new fashion, but remember, they need fuel to drive. And if the accidents here, you need a repair kit to get it running again. Make sure to check out abandoned cars and gas stations for the supplies you need!
This pack comes complete with three different models to ride, the Lodjur, Väktare, and Motstånd. All with their own characteristics to cruise the Östertörn landscape. Get them here on Steam today!