Greetings, Survivors!

I am so happy to say this: The 60FPS patch on PS5 is FINALLY out. I’ve talked before about how difficult it is to optimize any game for any console, and that is amplified by trying to make it run at a specific frame rate consistently. Feedback to the update has been super positive, which is so good to hear! We are glad to finally put this behind us and move on to our other plans for the year. So what happens now?


The internal roadmap for 2024 is still under construction. This is mainly because we have a lot of things that we want to do and not enough time to do it all in this year, so we’re prioritizing and setting goals. Right now, our focus is on bringing you things that you (the players) have been asking for and that we haven’t been able to implement so far.

We’re already making great progress with the next update. It’ll be aptly titled “Community Requests Update” and we’re using it to introduce some much requested features and Quality of Life improvements. It’ll also come with another slew of crash fixes, stability improvements, and a fix for the new “clicking sounds” audio issue.

You may wonder “But Carni, what are those much requested features and improvements?” and for that, I got out my old poem writing skills (anyone remember the 3rd and 4th GZ anniversary on Discord?) to give you a hint towards one of the changes:

In every safehouse I can be found
In the corner, on the floor, or right there on the ground.
My goal is to help you and lighten your load,
In the past, though, often I just overflowed.
Now this update will have a good change inbound,
So you may run freer and longer around.

You may discuss the meaning of this with the class after the session.
We’ll talk more about what’s in the Community Requests Update all across social media soon, so be sure to follow them for some hints! I’ll be sure to make them extra cryptic.


In case you haven’t seen, the Lunar New Year event is still in full swing in Generation Zero!
You can get this amazing jacket (that’s not marketing speech, I just genuinely love the design) and a beautiful companion skin from Tanks, Harvesters, Firebirds, and Wolves. Also, you can get a new type of fireworks from containers like backpacks and suitcases.


On top of that, our annual Semla event is also currently active. You can loot the tasty treat in kitchens all over Östertörn and if you find 4 of them, you get a special hat.

Both of these events end on February 24th, so until then: Happy looting!

Thank you for reading this Resistance Report and I’ll talk to you again soon. In the meantime, please join the Discord server! It’s a cool place.
The Swiss German word of the day is “äuä” [ah-waah].
It’s mainly used in the canton of Bern, where our capital is, and is a way to express emotions like disbelief, discontent, surprise, or disappointment. The meaning depends on the intonation. Much like “huh”!

Toodeloo!
-Carni, Community Manager

Greetings, Survivors!
The Lunar New Year is upon us. The rabbit gives way to the dragon and to us, that's cause to celebrate.
If you play between now and February 24th, machines you kill will offer you special loot.


This red and gold jacket drops from Tanks, Harvesters, Wolves, and Firebirds. Gather your allies, increase your threat level and defeat this mighty foe for some new apparel!


Inspired by the Lion Dance, the Resistance decided to give your metal friend a makeover. They now look 100% more festive!


You can find these new fireworks in all suitable loot containers. They explode in beautiful red, green, and gold bursts and provide some much-needed distraction in precarious situations.

Now, go forth and loot in the name of Lunar New Year!
We wish you happiness and prosperity.

The Generation Zero Dev Team

Greetings, Survivors!

We've just released the third Hotfix for the Three-Wheeled Update on Steam.
PlayStation and Microsoft will receive this version of the game along with the 60FPS patch very soon, we're just verifying it with the respective platforms.

* Fixed a crash that was accidentally introduced in the last Hotfix
* Fixed a crash that occurred when fast travelling to a field radio<br>
Please let us know about any remaining (or new) stability and crash issues.
If you'd like to read more on how we're handling these fixes internally, please read this Resistance Report from last Friday.

With gratitude,
The Generation Zero Dev Team

Good day, Survivors!
Welcome back to the Resistance Report! I’m so glad to be back writing these in 2024.
Let’s get into the latest and (not so) greatest of what’s happening.

Many of you know that Generation Zero has always had difficulties with stability and performance. When you make an open world game with tons of machines roaming around, loot containers maintaining their contents, and explosions happening fairly often, it’s hard to make sure that game always runs smoothly. We missed that mark when Generation Zero was released back in 2019 and have been wrestling with the consequences of that ever since.

However, we are determined to get our game up to speed and we’ve been implementing tons of performance improvements as I’m sure you’ve noticed, especially on old gen consoles.
Crashes have also been reduced significantly (by about half) in the last couple of patches and there is less lag during combat and traversal.

This is where it gets tricky, though: Because we’ve been going deep into the code base and changing code that was written 6 years ago, other underlying issues are coming to the surface that have been “dormant” for most of that time.
That’s why after we released the initial hotfix, a specific subset of our Steam community playing on older CPUs started crashing before they even got into the game. We took that feedback and released another hotfix on January 23rd, but now many people on Steam are crashing randomly during gameplay whereas they never had any issues before.

Now, I know this is super frustrating to you. Even if you’re not directly affected by the crashes, reading about a new issue appearing so many times in such a short time span leaves a bad taste in the mouth of anyone who likes to enjoy their games in peace. I am asking you, though, to see this for what it is: a symptom of the fact that we are no longer putting band aids on our issues, but going deep and fixing them so they don’t break again in the future. In the long run, this will do wonders for the way the game plays as well as how easy it’ll be for us to identify any future problems. In the meantime, we will do everything we can to fix any new problems as fast as possible while also working on the 60FPS on PS5 patch.

I am super looking forward to getting our beloved game in a stable state so we can focus on working on new things for you to play. Follow the dev letters we release during the upcoming months as they will talk about some of what we’re working on!

The Swiss German word of the day is “cheib” (ch as in [x], or the noise your cat makes when coughing up a fur ball, and eib like the “ibe” in “tribe”). It’s a slang term for “guy” that does not exist in standard German!

Until next time, I’ve been
Carni, Community Manager

Greetings, Survivors!

After we released the Hotfix aimed at fixing crash issues, it came to our attention that we had inadvertently created a new one for a specific subset of Steam players.
The crash would occur either as soon as the player pressed "Continue" or shortly after loading into the world.

Today, we're releasing another Hotfix that relieves the affected players from that bug. Thank you for your patience while we worked on this!

• Fixed a crash that happened for some when trying to enter the game on Steam

Enjoy!
The Generation Zero Dev Team

Greetings, Survivors!
Today, we have an exciting Hotfix for you. We’ve seen an influx of reports of “random crashes” during gameplay. Well, we’ve dedicated one of our amazing programmers, Georgios, to look at the most prevalent ones. This patch is a culmination of his efforts to improve game stability and performance.

This Hotfix contains crash fixes related to:

• Shock ammo used in multiplayer
  
• HEAT ammo used in multiplayer
  
• Explosions
  
• Firebird balloons
  
• Machine pathfinding
  
• Vehicles despawning
  
• Vehicle driving
  
• Interacting with the inventory very fast
  
• Too many sounds happening at the same time
  
• Base assault completions
  
• Mission completions
  
• Multiplayer disconnects
  
• Closing the game

Furthermore, we fixed consistently appearing crashes during normal gameplay on Xbox and PS4.

As a cherry on top of the mound of squashed bugs, we removed a bug where players couldn’t interact with the respawn map if they died while their pause menu was open.

If you were experiencing frequent and “random” crashes in GZ during the last couple of updates, we highly encourage you to check back in now!
Please let us know about any persisting crash issues and if possible, include reproduction steps and / or videos and screenshots if you can. It will help us weed out more crashes in the future.
We are dedicated to making Generation Zero a smooth experience for everyone, no matter what platform you’re playing on.

The next step in this plan will be the 60FPS patch for PS5, which is in the pipeline and we’ll have more information about what happens afterwards very soon. Stay tuned on our social media channels and our Discord server!

Until then,
The Generation Zero Dev Team

Greetings, Survivors!
With the new year just around the corner, we decided to revamp our Steam store experience.
GZ and its DLC can now be bought either separately or as one of four Bundles: Essential DLC, Silver, Gold, and Ultimate!

As we are preparing an update with tons of stability and performance improvements, we thought now would be the perfect time to help you get (back) into the game at significantly reduced prices. This way, when you start playing, you'll have the smoothest experience possible, both in combat and in game stability!

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/37116/Generation_Zero__Essential_DLC_Bundle/

A small selection of our most popular DLCs! The Essential DLC Bundle has the first story DLC, Alpine Unrest, as well as the Motorbikes Pack and Companion Accessories.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/37117/Generation_Zero__Silver_Bundle/

All the basics a newcomer needs. Contains the Base Game and both Story DLCs for the full narrative experience, the Eastern European Weapons Pack for that extra bang, and the Motorbikes Pack for speedy exploration. On top of that, we've added the Companion Accessories Pack so your metallic friend can optimally support you while you discover the world of Östertörn.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/37119/Generation_Zero__Gold_Bundle/
This bundle is for those who are already familiar with guerrilla warfare. On top of everything included in the Silver Bundle, the Gold Bundle has both Tactical Equipment Packs as well as the Resistance Weapons.
These improvised weapons are designed by the inventors of the Resistance to be cost efficient, effective, and most important of all: fun!

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/37120/Generation_Zero__Ultimate_Bundle/
The Ultimate way for you to start (or continue) your journey with the entire arsenal at your disposal. This bundle contains all DLCs released in the first 4 years of GZ, equipping you with the full tools the Resistance has come up with in the fight against the Machines.
On top of the previously mentioned content, the Ultimate Pack features all existing Weapon Packs and both Base Building DLCs to help you both in offense and defense.

To complement the creation of these new Bundles, we're also entering the Steam Winter Sale!
With the base game's price reduced by 80% and the DLCs at up to 65% off, it's the perfect time to take advantage of the bundle prices and get right into the action.

Check out the Steam Winter Sale here!

Thank you for joining us as we round out the year with one more smaller release before we ramp up our efforts for what’s in store in 2024. Today, the Three-Wheeled Update arrives on all platforms. It brings a new vehicle, new customization and randomization options, and bug fixes.


This traditional Swedish moped has been modified to feature a frontal flatbed supported by two smaller wheels. This allows for easy transportation of goods (or friends).
Topping out at 50km/h, the Flakmoped has quite some energy hiding in those tiny wheels! While one person is driving, another (or multiple) can get onto the flatbed and act as their protection detail.
Currently, equipment cannot be placed directly on the flatbed, that’s a functionality we want to add in a future update. However, there are ways around that limitation that lead to some hilarious behaviors and outcomes. We can’t wait until you find them all and post about them on social media! Don’t forget to tag us when you do.


This DLC brings additional functionality to the Flakmoped in the shape of three variants that are each specialized for a specific purpose.

The Utility Flakmoped has a full workbench installed on its flatbed, giving you access to your storage box, a recycling station, and a crafting station, all while on the move.
The Ramming Flakmoped features a reinforced frontal wall that functions as protection for your passengers and doubles as a battering ram to inflict maximum damage by running over machines.
The Off-Road Flakmoped has been augmented with an improved suspension system and better tires so you can ride at full speed - even in the thicket.

This DLC is available alongside the Three-Wheeled Update on the 12th of December at a price point of $6.99 or a regional equivalent. We can’t wait to see what crazy shenanigans you’ll get up to once you get your hands on these!

We are listening to all the feedback around Procedural Missions and how we can make them even more interesting, engaging, and rewarding. New location options have been added for the Resistance Dead Drop, Resistance Radio Maintenance, and High Value Target procedural missions. This means that there will be more variation in the way these missions play out when they are available. Please let us know how they play out for you and report any bugs you encounter on our forums.

New Companion Name Parts
We’ve heard lots of positive comments about the naming options for Companions, but we also know that there are a lot more names that you’d like us to add! In this iteration, we’ve added 23 new name parts:

Titles: Sister, Brother, Comrade, Reverend
Prefixes: Mad, Steel, Bullet, Scrap, Laser, Cuddle, Fuzz, Mecha, Robo
Suffixes: K47UR, 54MUR, K1M1, 54M50N, Guard, Pal, Bob, Killer, Sprocket, Bandit

Some of these were suggested by the community, some are Dev dogs’ names, and some are just cool in general. We hope you enjoy the new combinations!

Greetings, Survivors!
Snow and frost have taken over Östertörn and it’s time to stick it to your friends - literally.
From the 16th until the 31st of December, you will find mounds of snow all over the map. You can use these to grab yourself some snowballs, which you can throw at your friends! Landing a hit will topple the other person over until they get back up. After getting up from a hit, you’ll be temporarily unaffected by snowballs and get a chance to return the favor.
You can also throw snowballs at machines if you want, but it won't do anything and you'll probably regret it. But the option is there.
If you don’t want to get blindsided by your co-op partner while you’re fighting machines, don’t worry: You can turn on permanent snowball immunity in the game options.
Now go out and make sure to bring a change of clothes so you don’t catch a cold!

- The Generation Zero Dev Team

• Hid the model of the selected weapon in the background of the Augmentation process to declutter the screen
  
• Made it easier to loot Runners, Seekers, Hunters, Lynxes and Firebirds
  
• Improved Companion Voice Box icons
  
• Hid the chat when the player is in a menu to prevent visual overlap
  
• Adjusted the size of the companion collision to better represent its actual size. It can now walk through Bunker doors, so no more leaving your buddy out in the rain!
  
• Updated the Game Credits

UI

• Previously looted items no longer get displayed on top of loot and inventory windows
  
• Fixed a bug where the player had to press the fuel refill button repeatedly instead of holding
  
• Fixed a gap in the list of Companion armor. No more phantom apparel for your trusty friend!
  
• Removed some specific Augmentation Designs from the Equipment crafting tab and moved them back to the Augmentation tab, where they belong
  
• [Community Reported] Fixed an issue where placeholder text would appear during the Augmentation process
  
• [Community Reported] Fixed a bug where a Rival’s profile couldn’t be accessed

Loot

• The blue bicycle doesn’t drop as loot from Procedural Missions anymore

Equipment

• Found and removed an instance where the Sensory Jammer couldn’t be activated

Audio

• Fixed a bug where Companion Voice Box previews wouldn’t play correctly

Missions

• Fixed several issues related to the placement of items during the new Procedural Missions
  
• [Community Reported] Fixed a bug where the mission “Ghosts of the Past” was stuck at 9/10 placed barricades.

World

• Fixed several misaligned props and world items
  
• Fixed multiple rendering issues in and around Vesslan bunker
  
• [Community Reported] Revolvers and Meusser Hunting Rifles picked up from the ground now appear in the player’s inventory 100% of the time, which is several % more than before
  
• [Community Reported] Made the Lilla Hammarnäs safe house easier to unlock upon arriving. We had too many complaints from players twisting their ankles trying to climb up onto the Plundra.

Performance

• Made several performance improvements
  
• Fixed a crash that occurred when looking at an electric arc created by shock ammo
  
• Fixed a crash when disrupting the ritual in the “An Invitation” mission in multiplayer
  
• Fixed several other crash issues

Missions

• [Community Reported] Building blocks mission might get broken

Companion

• Fire deals more damage to Companion armor than intended. This is fixed in the next update

AI

• Companions can damage other Companions. This is fixed in the next update.
  
• NPCs can sometimes be invisible. A restart usually brings them back

UI

• [Community Reported] Safehouses might get lost when logging in. This is most commonly encountered on PlayStation.
  
• [Community Reported] When placing a weapon in the Companion’s inventory, its Augmentation Designs will show up and can be removed separately. Do not do this as it will be irrefutably lost! This bug will be fixed in the next update.

Performance

• Clients can crash when riding a motorbike in a densely populated area

Happy Friday, Survivors!

The cat is finally out of the bag: We’re collaborating with Makeship to release a Generation Zero themed plushie for a limited time. I’ve seen this requested many times over the years and before I worked at Avalanche, I myself might have snuck in some requests for a little Machine friend to have at home.
After months of careful planning and multiple design iterations, here’s what the Tick Plushie will look like:



Isn’t it absolutely adorable? Here’s how this campaign is going to work:
Between December 1st and 24th, 2023, you’ll be able to order your very own plush from the Makeship website. They cost $29,99 each. If more than 200 are ordered during that period, they will be produced and shipped early next year. This means that Makeship will produce as many as you order, meaning there are no stock limits!
Seeing the initial response after we announced the plushie on social media and discord, I am confident that we’ll be able to reach the goal and get these little fellas shipped out to you all (and me, of course).
I’d like to note at this point that this is purely a marketing campaign, meaning no development time that would have otherwise gone towards bug fixes has been spent on it. The only one that has gotten distracted by obsessing over a piece of felt the size of an american football is your Community Manager, and you don’t want me doing any coding on the game anyway.




I want to talk about the skill revamp, which we added to the 2023 Roadmap. Unfortunately, there have been some more adjustments and this feature has been suspended for the time being. The reason for this is that we noticed that there are other systems we have to work on or get a grasp of before we can get started on reworking skills. We currently don’t have a timeline for when the feature will be released, but know that we’re still planning on doing it. The way skills work hasn’t kept up very well with the updates we’ve put out thus far and we’re aware of that. We appreciate your continuous feedback around the things we can improve!

Let’s quickly go over some reminders of announcements you might have missed (No biggie, our Discord Server is always there to help out with missing information).
First off, the next update is underway and we’ll start teasing what’s in it very soon. Notable bug fixes include the inventory “last item” bug and the “tap to refuel” bug. We’ve also addressed a number of crash issues, especially related to vehicles, with more fixes to come in future updates!

The GZ DareDrop campaign is still active for content creators to do fun challenges and earn rewards. Sign up and get your loot now!

Lastly, the Steam Autumn Sale is still underway. You have until November 28th to secure some of the best deals on the GZ base game and its DLCs to date:

• Both story DLCs as well as US and Soviet Weapons are 65% off.
  
• Motorbikes are 37% off
  
• Even Companion Accessories are reduced by 20%
  
• At 80% off, now’s the perfect time to get your friends into the game at the price of, like, a bagel. One of those fancy ones with more toppings than you can fit in your mouth at the same time.

Good times! Here's a link for you to click on if you wanna check it out right away: Away we go!

As always, thanks for reading this edition of the Resistance Report and I’ll talk to you in two weeks. Today’s Swiss German word is “Chuchichästli”, or kitchen cupboard. The Germans never tire of asking us to say this and they find it hilarious.

Bye for now,
Carni
Community Manager

Happy Friday, Survivors!

I’m sorry for missing the last Resistance Report, things were getting hectic preparing for the Guerrilla Research Update (and some other things you’ll find out about soon, wink) and I didn’t end up having time to write it. But fret not, the planned biweekly cadence for these letters remains unchanged!

First off, let’s have a look back at the update. It introduced Weapon Augmenting, which is one of the best features added to GZ since release, in my humble opinion. For those of you who are out of the loop: Weapon Augmenting has you complete gameplay challenges in order to unlock Augmentation Designs which you can apply to your 2-5C weapons to make them stronger and more fun to play with. My personal favorite is Trick Shot Master, which has you taking out Machines while in the air (AKA either jumping or falling off somewhere). It can then be applied to a shotgun or melee weapon and increases both damage and accuracy significantly - but only while you’re in mid air. This design has me bunnyhopping around the battlefield like a madman and probably adds some extra mental confusion to my attacks. No notes.

From what we’ve seen across our social media channels, you seem to love augmenting your weapons as much as I do and I’m so happy about that. There seems to be some confusion about them, though, so let me shed some light: the weapon parts you need for augmentation can be gained by recycling weapons at the recycling station. The higher the quality of your weapon, the more weapon parts you receive. I’d also like to reiterate that experimental weapons can not be augmented. We decided this because we don’t know the effect that combining two augmentation powers with the existing perks of an experimental might have. If the current iteration of this feature behaves as expected, we might consider extending the functionality to 6C weapons, but currently it’s not on our roadmap.

The update also added three new Procedural Missions, the first of which is already active now. It’s called “Resistance Radio Maintenance” and has you keeping up important Resistance infrastructure. If you haven’t played it yet, fire up your game and give it a go!
We made these new Procedural Missions with two goals in mind: to make them longer and more rewarding. They should take you 10-15 minutes to complete and award you with more goodies at the end. Please let us know if the rewards feel adequate to you and if there’s anything we can improve about these missions!

Of course, when you release a lot of new content for a piece of software that has existed for 5 years, there is always a chance of something breaking in the process. In this case, we’ve heard lots of reports of the inventory not working properly. Between elements that stick to your cursor and previously looted items displaying over others, it has been a bit of a headache to you. We hear this and a fix is already underway. Unfortunately, a hotfix is not feasible because we have a major update in the works that will be released soon and shifting those timelines would do more damage in the long run. That being said, the fix will be in this next update, so you won’t have to wait too long!

Speaking of bug fixes: while we improved tabbed out performance on PC, we’re quite aware that there are still performance and crash related issues around. The next few releases will have a lot of focus on making the game run smoother and with increased stability. It’s not only important to us that we release quality, enjoyable new features, but also that you get to play and enjoy them in the way we intended. We wish we could just fix “the crash issue”, but the reality is that there are a thousand different reasons for a game to forcibly close and we’re doing our best to keep them at a minimum, but some bigger issues still slip through the net sometimes. We hope that these upcoming updates will improve your ability to play for as long as you want, alone or with friends. We love seeing you enjoy Generation Zero and sharing your love for the game!

For the content creators among you, we have something special lined up. DareDrop is a platform where developers can post gameplay challenges in their game and creators can complete those challenges and earn some sweet rewards for them and their communities in the process. We think this is an amazing opportunity for us to show off what a great and nuanced experience GZ can be. Of course it’s also the perfect time for you to record or stream a game you love and earn some cool stuff! Dares include easter egg hunts, speedruns , and complex kill conditions, so there’s something for everyone.
The campaign starts in four days, on the 14th of November, and lasts until December 12th.
You can check out the campaign and get started here:
https://daredrop.com/e/generation-zero

Thank you for reading this Resistance Report and I hope you’ll return for the next one!
In the meantime, please join our Discord Server for the best direct communication with me and some of the other Devs and let us know what you think about the Guerrilla Research Update (Please don’t ping us, though, we get startled easily).

Uf wiederluege,
Carni
Community Manager
(PS; That was Swiss German for “See you”, and yes, that’s a staple for these letters now)