Sep 13, 2024

Deadside - Loaf

Hello Deadsiders!

Over the past few weeks, we have been covering various major features with standalone posts. Now it’s the time to take a look at the bigger picture!

Today marks the beginning of closed testing, which is being done by our private test group. While we aren’t ready for a large public test, your input is still very valuable during this period. So we have decided to allow our private test group to share as much information with the community as they like. They can even live stream their testing! Be sure to check out our community discord, where testers will be sharing detailed information for everyone to discuss, and give feedback on.

This test is absolutely packed with new content, it's by far our largest to date! So, let’s take a quick look at what will be included, to get everyone up to speed:

Cars - Found primarily in Kamensk, the North Island Military Base, and the new Airfield
Motorcycles - Found all over the map, typically in garages, or on the side of the road
Map Expansion - Opens a large area in the south east, adds the Airfield, new towns, and more events in the southern areas of the map
Added many new points of interest throughout the map - ruins, villages, caves, abandoned cars on roads, and more campsites
Scrap Metal - an incredibly important resource at all levels of progression, required to level up traders, and to upgrade your base to the highest metal tier. Spawns in most areas across the map, and will undoubtedly be fought over
Trader Reputation Levels - Requires the player to collect and deliver scrap to the trader, in order to raise your reputation level, and unlock better gear for purchase. Has 4 levels total.
Changed the distribution of loot across the map - now starter loot is placed primarily in the center of the map, with the best loot located on the outskirts
Removed the weapon storage limit in backpacks, allowing you to carry as many weapons as you like. Does not apply to the M99, or craftable backpack
Respawn System Rebalance - Removed town spawn points, raised the sleeping bag limit to 15, prevented sleeping bags from being placed inside of POIs, and removed the respawn beacon
Base Building 2.0 - Remodeled structures that can be upgraded to stronger materials
Improved Storage - Upgradable storage crates that can be upgraded to stronger materials, added a new craftable safe, vehicles can now be stored at bases
Raiding 2.0 - Will feature 3 server raiding game modes: raiding enabled, raiding disabled, and raiding enabled on decay. Closed testing is currently being done on the first option, raiding enabled
Base Decorations - Provides a comfort level that gives your player a buff, higher levels have better benefits. Buff can be retained after leaving your base for a short time
Small Chests can now be locked and upgraded, but can be disassembled if they are placed inside of your base claim area
Rebalanced the stack size of some items
Increased the consumption speed of food and water
Wells no longer dry up, and will always be active
Added music during gameplay
Made the MG36 less effective
Added Formalin to campsites and buried caches, is required to craft some comfort items
Added a wolf and deer heads, required to craft decorative stuffed trophy heads
Many various bug fixes and QoL improvements

Please keep in mind that these are only the features that were included in the current closed test. This is an intermediate test, the full version will be even more feature rich!

Thanks for reading, stay tuned for more updates!

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Sep 6, 2024

WIP: Airfield Map Expansion

Deadside - Loaf

Hello Deadsiders!

Today we would like to show you the largest point of interest in Deadside so far; the Airfield! This huge location will be included in the next update, as part of a map expansion in the south east. So, let's take a quick tour of the area!

Starting in the outskirts, we can see that the airfield is surrounded by steep hills, and dense forest roads. Sniper towers are very common, and can be seen dotted around the perimeter of the base. Moving in closer to the airfield, we can see that this location is so large, that it extends way past our render distance!

The airbase is filled to the brim with military hardware and infrastructure, with separate installations dotted around the base that each serve a different purpose. Many of these installations will feature new custom made structures, like these underground hangars for example. Each area has been made with PvP in mind, with the goal of turning the airfield into a dangerous, but very fun high risk location.

The airfield will offer a variety of loot, anything from weapons, materials, equipment and more. You can even find large dumps of scrap metal in a few locations! Additionally, the airfield will be one of only a few locations to spawn new cars, making it potentially one of the most rewarding areas on the map.

That’s everything we have to show for today! We will begin testing with our private test group as soon as we are able. But unlike most private tests, we have allowed our testers to share much more information with the community. So you may see some gameplay streamed live directly from the test servers! Just remember that you may see some unpolished content still present, as we are testing slightly earlier than normal, with more tests planned to follow in the future.

Thanks for reading, stay tuned for more news!

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Aug 30, 2024

WIP: New Storage Crates & Decorative Flags

Deadside - Loaf

Hello Deadsiders!

The team at Bad Pixel has been working hard on our next major update, so we have some cool new work-in-progress features to talk about today! But before we begin, we know that a lot of you are probably hoping for a release date, so let's touch on that first.

This update will include some huge features that continue to be complex to develop, for example; our netcode architecture for vehicles is completely original, created in house. This requires research, experimentation, and lots and lots of testing to be done in order to create a viable system. It’s entirely possible at this stage in development for time consuming problems to pop up during testing, so it wouldn’t make sense for us to confidently give out a release timeframe just yet. But in the meantime, we will keep making posts like these, your feedback is very helpful! So, let's dig into the new stuff!

As you may know from our previous posts, we are currently in the process of reworking base building and raiding from the ground up. One aspect of this rework that we haven’t touched on yet though, are storage crates!

Just like our other new base objects, all storage crates can now be upgraded to different tiers of material. You start by building out of weak sticks, then you can upgrade to wood, and finally metal tier. Each material upgrade will make your crates tougher, and more resistant to explosives.

Additionally, storage crates can now be locked! This means raiders will now need to break into each storage box, giving your items another layer of protection. You could also use locks on small crates that you have hidden in the open world, creating a locked cache for later. Storage crates are unlocked using a custom code that you set, just like the front door of your base. But what would happen if a locked storage crate of yours unexpectedly explodes? Well no need to worry, storage crates with items inside will drop everything on the ground when destroyed.

Next up, let's talk about flags! We have created a handful of different flag designs that can be put on a flagpole, or placed on a wall. These flags have lots of potential, they could be used as a symbol for an in-game faction, or as a warning for passing players. Combined with the other decorative base items that we have shown in the past, you will have lots of ways to personalize your base.

But maybe you are the type of player who would prefer a sneaky low profile base instead. Well, we have created exactly what you need, camo netting! These camo nets can be used to help your base blend into the foliage of the world, keeping it hidden from potential raiders. It also makes you much less visible through windows at longer distances, making your windows safer overall. You will be able to craft a camo net by using items found in the open world

So those are all of the new features for today, but if you aren’t following our socials, you may have missed these motorcycle teasers that we posted a couple days ago. While we can’t post the video clip here, you can see that we have added a sidecar for an additional passenger, as well as 6 different color variations. This means you will have 12 possible motorcycle configurations to find in the open world!

Thanks for reading, stay tuned for our next post about the airfield!

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Aug 23, 2024

Raiding: New Server Options

Deadside - Loaf

Hello Deadsiders!

Over the past couple weeks, we have been experimenting with ways to improve our new raiding system based on recent feedback. We want to thank you again for your detailed ideas and suggestions, they’re valuable input when working through these types of development challenges.

The team has been working hard to create a system that provides offline raid protection, while keeping gameplay fair and lag-free. So today we have three new server options for raiding that we would like to test out, and discuss!

Please keep in mind that these server options are not final, and are still actively being tested and iterated upon. It's important to us that the community is involved in this process, so be sure to send us your thoughts! Here are the three server raiding options that we are currently working with:

Raiding enabled at all times
Raiding disabled
Raiding enabled on decaying bases

We believe that these three options provide the most balanced and exploit free gameplay, while giving our community more ways to customize their experience.

The third option is the most complex, allowing our players to get raid protection by maintaining their base. For those who are unaware of our new WIP building system, materials will need to be placed in a central resource vault to keep the base from slowly decaying away. This will be very important to test with the community so that we can correctly balance base upkeep, and the gamemode itself.

Settling on these three options hasn’t been easy, especially considering the many good ideas that we have gotten directly from the community. Exploits though, specifically alt accounts, typically challenge our favorite raiding ideas. Server resource management is also an important factor to consider, as any system too complex could cause performance issues.

So, let us know what you think! We will begin testing these options with our private test group soon, with possibly a public test to follow in the future depending on how fast we are able to make progress.

Thanks for reading; keep an eye out for teasers dropping soon!

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Jul 26, 2024

WIP: Base Progression, Raiding, & Trader Leveling Details

Deadside - Loaf

Hello Deadsiders!

Today we are able to give you all the juicy details on some major upcoming features, some of which you may have seen in our last post. Many old systems like Building and Raiding have been completely overhauled, with a focus on more player progression, and freedom during gameplay. We also have cars, trader leveling, decorations, and a whole lot more to talk about as well! The team has been working hard to make these ideas a reality, and we are very excited to be able to present our progress to you today. So, lets not delay anymore and get right into these new features;

Progression 2.0

One of the most exciting aspects of this update is Progression 2.0, a complete overhaul to gameplay progression within Deadside. We want to provide clear long term objectives that our players will want to work towards, while still giving them the freedom to play however they like. All of the features we are going to talk about today were designed with this goal in mind, but please remember that everything is still subject to change.

Scrap Metal

When it comes to progression, the most valuable resource will be the new Scrap Metal item. It can either be used to level the safe zone traders, or used to upgrade base structures to metal tier. Meaning that even in the late endgame of Deadside, Scrap will always be a valuable resource.

Collecting Scrap Metal is simple, it can be found nearly anywhere around the map, sometimes even in large heaps laying on the ground. This means that roaming around the map and looting like normal now directly contributes towards your overall progression. Plus, the safezone trader doesn’t care where the scrap comes from, giving our players the freedom to play however they like in order to progress.

As players start to fill up their free safezone storage, eventually they will want to construct a base to store additional items. Bringing us to one of our largest features in development; Base Building 2.0!

Base Building 2.0

The first thing you may notice with this new building system, is that the structure support logic is completely different. Foundations are no longer huge wooden cubes, now they are a square block that acts as the bottom floor for your base. The new foundation will provide the support needed to build, but if that foundation is destroyed, any base objects left without support will come crumbling down with it!

Designed to work well with our new model of progression, base building will follow a three tier system, starting with stick structures, then planks, and finally metal. To start building, all you will need is a knife to collect sticks, and a hammer to access the build menu. Stick structures are very simple and easy to create, but don’t provide very good protection . Axes and firearms will break through them reliably, leaving you pretty vulnerable to raids at this early tier.

Another interesting aspect of this new base building system, is that base structures placed on their own will now start to automatically decay. In order to prevent this, players will need to construct the new Resource Vault object. Players will need to place the required items inside of this new vault to prevent their base from slowly decaying over time. The amount of required items depends on the size and tier of your base, with larger upgraded bases requiring more expensive upkeep. The vault essentially replaces the old base claim object, but with a few pretty cool differences that allows for much more player freedom.

For example, unlike the old base claims, players can place as many Vaults as they like. The limiting factor now is upkeep, meaning that players will be able to have multiple bases! Most importantly though, Resource Vaults can be destroyed and replaced by raiders, meaning it will now be possible to completely take over someone else’s base! This opens up a totally new dimension of base raiding, with players possibly fighting over high tier base locations, or hunting down decaying bases for a quick snowball.

Base Upgrades

In order to progress to the next tier, we have taken the opportunity to implement a highly requested and anticipated feature, electricity! Players will now be able to construct and place a base generator that can be fueled using fuel cans. Electricity is spread throughout the base automatically, and requires no manual wiring to function. Once the player has access to electricity, they can use it to power a woodworking machine, which consumes logs in order to progress into the plank tier. An important detail here is that Axes now have durability, so trees will no longer essentially provide infinite logs.

Electricity can also be used to power base lighting, which you will need at night in order to see all of the fancy new base decoration items included in this update! Players will be able to customize their home with these items, making each base look more visually distinct and personalized. This is our first iteration of these decorative items, with future iterations providing passive buffs for nearby players.

Along with multiple tiers of structures, we have also added a new explosive, Dynamite! This new item will be more common than your standard plastic explosive, at the drawback of dealing less damage. Additionally, the fuze on Dynamite can be unreliable, potentially not even detonating at all. Dynamite is better suited for early to mid tier raiding, with Explosive Charges becoming the rarer high tier raiding tool.

The last tier of base structure is sheet metal, which has the highest stats, and price tag. You will need to feed the already valuable Scrap Metal into a Metalworking Machine, in order to create Sheet Metal. Sheet Metal is needed for the initial upgrade of structures, and for future upkeep. Being the max level upgrade, metal structures provide the best protection from raiders, requiring multiple explosive charges to take down a single wall in its current state.

While building with metal is expensive, it will be worth it to protect your base and all of the utility that it will provide. Especially considering that resource vaults will now prevent vehicles from despawning! You will be able to store and protect your own personal vehicles for use later, which we are really excited about. The added utility provides a really useful endgame objective to work towards, while making raids potentially much more exciting and profitable. That brings us to another major change with this update, Raiding 2.0!

Raiding 2.0

In this new system, players will be able to raid any base at any time, provided that they have farmed up enough explosives. While we liked our previous raiding system, a raid would only start depending on your PvP activity, and random chance. This enables players to construct huge bases, without much fear of their base being fully looted, or even seriously damaged due to its sheer size. The result heavily impacts server performance over time, caused by the abundance of base objects, and items stored within them.

With Raiding 2.0, we are able to give our players a lot more freedom with their own gameplay, while they naturally self regulate the buildup of items and structures across the map. Plus, allowing players to raid much more frequently will make the endgame of Deadside more exciting and engaging overall.

Respawns

Keeping with the theme of better balance and progression, this update also sees some major changes to our respawn system. We will be removing the ability for players to select towns on the map to respawn at, as it causes various balance issues, and makes stream sniping way too easy. So, unless you prepared a sleeping bag, your only option will be to randomly spawn on a beach,

Beach respawns are very important for the balance of early game progression, where players will be constantly fighting over Scrap Metal. If we allowed players to still respawn at towns, the early game could be dominated unfairly by squads, using their town respawns to farm scrap from new solo players. Plus, this respawn system will help evenly spread players across the map, leading to more unique player interactions across many different locations.

If you would like even more details on what you can expect from these features, we have created a video for you demonstrating them in action!

Thanks for reading, stay tuned for more info!

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Jun 28, 2024

WIP: Base Building, Trader Levels, and Ground Vehicles

Deadside - Loaf

Hello Deadsiders!

Now that update 0.12.2 has been out for a while, we believe it is time to share with you what we have been working on in the background. Some of the features we are going to talk about today are still early on in development, so we ask for your patience, and of course, your feedback!

To begin, let's start with some of the base building features that we have been working on. We plan to simplify the base building process overall, meaning that our old placeholder system is going to be replaced by something more elegant, and more efficient. Additionally, this new system will allow us to implement more base features, for example, upgradeable walls! Using scrap metal found across the map, you can upgrade and further fortify your base to keep it more secure from any potential raiders.

And finally, to keep the game more balanced, we have decided to add base maintenance. This will require the player to collect resources in order to prevent their base from decaying. We understand that this isn’t exactly the most exciting feature, but we believe it's important to give players more control over their own base decay.

The last base feature we would like to talk about today is raiding. For a while now, Deadside has used an online only raiding system, unfortunately though, this system has presented some difficult design challenges that we have been unable to solve. Like the use of alt-accounts to make unraidable bases for example. So, we will be moving to a more typical raiding system, where your base is always vulnerable. We understand that many of you may have liked the old raid token system, but we believe that this will keep gameplay more fresh and exciting in the long run.

Next up, in order to expand and improve player progression, we have begun working on Trader Leveling! This means the items available at the trader will now depend on your reputation level with them. To increase your reputation level, just bring scrap metal to the trader, the same metal you need to upgrade your base. This will increase your reputation, and eventually unlock new sets of items each time you increase your reputation level. The highest trader rep levels offer the best gear, but require the most time investment.

We believe that this trader level system will do a lot to help expand gameplay progression in Deadside, as players will no longer be able to immediately purchase some of the best gear in the game anymore. Plus, it will give our players a completely new and challenging objective to work towards and complete, which we believe will help make Deadside a more rewarding, and replayable game overall.

With the implementation of sleeping bags and respawn beacons, players have a lot more control over where they respawn on the map, to the point where it's typical for most players to run back into a fight over and over again. While we do like the faster paced gameplay, we believe that respawning has become too easy and forgiving. So we have decided to remove the ability for players to respawn at towns, meaning that unless you have a sleeping bag or respawn beacon setup, you will randomly respawn somewhere on the beach. This will make the player more responsible for their own respawns, and help PvP feel more controlled and fair.

Of course, we have saved the best for last, Vehicles! Ground vehicles are currently the most important feature we have in development right now, and where a lot of our energy is being spent. This is a huge feature, in both technical complexity and gameplay impact. For those who haven’t seen our last WIP post, we have been working on developing a small motorbike, and a larger car for transport around the map.

We understand that ground vehicles are a very important, and very anticipated feature, so we are taking this time to make sure that ground vehicles are functional and balanced. This means more internal playtests and development time, so we are going to have to ask you all to be patient for just a bit longer.

But, we aren’t going to leave you completely empty handed, check out this vehicle demonstration so that you can see our progress for yourself!

Thank you for reading!

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