Today we would like to talk a bit more about Base Progression, as it's a major part of our next update, and we have seen some new people in our community who are unaware that this feature will be coming in our next update. Plus, we can talk in a bit more detail about Base Progression now that there has been more development time spent. Nearly everything about base building has been improved or re-worked, so we have lots to talk about!
Starting at the absolute beginning, you will need a knife, and a hammer. Hammers can be crafted simply, with only a few branches. The knife will be needed to gather these branches, simply swing at a bush to collect them. Once the hammer has been crafted, you can place it on your hotbar to open the new base building menu. With this UI you can place most base structures, disassemble them, or upgrade them.
Base structures can be made out of three materials, or three “tiers.” You will start with stick tier, made out of just branches collected with a knife. This tier is extremely weak, anyone with a handful of ammo can quickly blast through your front door or wall at this level. In order to make a more defensible base, you will need to upgrade to plank tier.
This is where we need our first machine, the generator! Crafted with ten spare parts and scrap, this little generator consumes fuel in order to generate electricity for your base. Electricity will be needed to power your other machines, and some comfort items like base lights. This will make fuel cans a more sought after item, while also setting the framework for more electrically powered base features in the future. Fuel consumption is slow, however the generator doesn’t have much fuel storage, giving you only 30 minutes of electricity
To continue working towards plank structures, next we need a wooden planer. This machine is made with 10 scrap metal, wood logs, and spare parts. You will also want to gather some Axes to collect logs with, so that you can feed them into the wood planer. Axes will now have durability, requiring players to collect a handful of them, or to craft Improvised Axes from scrap and branches. Along with axes, don’t forget your nails! These can be gathered in the world, or purchased directly from the traders.
Once you have enough logs, you can place them inside of the wood planer, which will be slowly converted into planks. Wood planers can also be found in some POIs, making it easier to create planks if you are unable to make a generator first.
At the plank tier, your base structures now have three times more health points, making them much more defendable. Wooden doors have enough health at this level to resist a single explosion from dynamite, a new raiding item, but will be destroyed with a single explosive charge. So while your base is much safer, it still leaves something to be desired. This is where we can begin upgrading to metal tier.
Upgrading to metal tier is very similar to upgrading to wood tier, you will need to make a metal planer out of ten spare parts, logs, and scrap metal, or you can find a metal planer in some POIs. You can place scrap metal inside of the metal planer, in order to convert it into sheet metal. In addition to sheet metal, you will also need rebar, a rare material that is typically found in scrap piles. Upgrading to metal tier will triple the health points of your base structures once again, giving them the best level of protection possible. Metal doors can stop an explosive charge, with the walls and foundations able to soak up much more damage than that.
The metal planer isn’t just used to create sheet metal though, it can also be used to convert items directly into scrap metal. This can be done by placing weapons and armor inside of the metal planer, where those items will be destroyed and converted into scrap. So if you just completed a mission and your backpack is full of weapons, you can now convert them all into scrap or sheet metal for your base.
Along with improvement to our base structures, we have removed a lot of the existing base building limits. For example, you are now able to place a lot more storage crates, build much taller bases, own multiple bases, and store vehicles in your base long term. In addition to that, you will have access to a handful of new base building objects, which you may have already seen posted to our socials. These items include barbed wire, window shutters, and window bars.
Our next major update is absolutely huge, if you want more details on it, we recommend our other recent steam posts. There are so many details that we didn’t cover here, like upgradeable storage, base decorations, and our new raiding systems.
Thanks for reading, be sure to follow our socials so that you don’t miss any teasers!
Today we have a few new and exciting features that we would like to talk about with you today, as work continues on our next major update. Though before we begin, we want to thank you for all the feedback you have been sending on each WIP post. Your feedback and input is very valuable during this development process, as it helps us make the best possible game for our community. So, let’s jump into the new content!
You may have seen a teaser clip earlier this week on Wednesday, showing off Foraging! Now you will be able to find and gather your own food out in the forests of Deadside. You can find mushrooms growing around the bases of trees, bushes with nice berries, apples dropped from apple trees, and even leaves that you can craft into special tinctures!
The foraging system also comes with a new base item; the Drying Rack!
In this drying rack, you can dry out leaves, and berries. With these dried items, you can combine ten of them with a couple medicaments, and some vodka, to create special tinctures that will provide special buffs to your character. With mushrooms, you can roast them in a campfire for a tasty snack. In fact, many foods in our next update will each provide different buffs, and varying amounts of nutrition and hydration, adding even more variety to our selection of consumables.
This new foraging system also allows us to reduce the amount of roe deer that spawn in the forests, making their meat more valuable, and uncommon. We have also heard your feedback when it comes to wolf spawns as well. They will be more rare in general, most often found in groups lingering around abandoned campsites.
Next up, let’s talk about Bleeding! Unlike other games in the open world survival genre, our bleeding system will be relatively forgiving. The goal of bleeds is to add a bit more depth onto the existing combat gameplay, and healing system, without radically changing the Deadside gameplay that you all know and love. For example, the standard Bandit/Cannibal AI that you will find patrolling towns, will not cause your character to bleed when shot. Low tier weapons will not cause you to bleed either, like the IZH-70 pistol for example.
What this new bleed system will do, is slightly slow down the healing process, and encourage you to deal with critical wounds sooner. Bleeds take away a percentage of your current health per second, with each level of bleed causing more health to be lost each second. This means you will take the most bleed damage at maximum health, but not much damage if your health is already critically low.
Both normal and sterilized rags can be used to heal one level of bleeding, while bandages can quickly heal two at once. There are three levels of bleeding total, with each level multiplying the amount of health lost per second. All rags and bandages will be applied much faster in this version, to help quickly deal with bleeds. Additionally, it makes the new craftable barbed wire more consequential, as it will always cause your character to bleed on contact.
For those who really want all of the details on this system, here is a list of damage sources that have a percent chance to cause a bleed. Please keep in mind that this is a WIP chart, anything listed here is completely subject to change in the future. So let us know what you think!
Damage Source - % Chance to cause a bleed when damage is received
Before we jump into today's work in progress feature, we know that many of you are very eager to get your hands on our next update. We see the many comments asking for us to just release it now, or to start a public test, but the version simply isn’t ready yet. During our last closed test, we identified a handful of gameplay issues that needed to be addressed before releasing the update.
For example, all players will now be respawning in the “newbie zone” in our next update. It’s very possible that all vehicles around this area could be taken, driven to new locations, and stored. If you don’t have any sleeping bags prepared in advance, this could make escaping the spawn area feel slow and repetitive after a while, especially in the late game.
Our solution is an expansion to our already existing fast travel system!
This new system would use our now virtually stored money, to quickly travel across the map using an underground mining network. Each fast travel point is a small mini safezone, so that players aren’t killed while loading into the new area. You can think of these almost as an extraction zone, where you can pay money to quickly travel to the safezone traders. Here you can see a work in progress screenshot of the new map with this system, each fast travel point has been highlighted to make them easier to see:
As you may have read in our last post, money in Deadside will now be stored virtually on the server, meaning that you don’t have to carry money on you in order to utilize these travel points. The fee for each fast travel point will vary, although we haven’t come to a final decision on exactly how pricing will function just yet, so let us know what you think!
We know that adding more features into this update is going to require a bit more development time, which isn’t an exciting thing to hear. But we know this update is extremely important to Deadside’s future, as it's going to radically change and improve the overall gameplay experience. So, we need to make sure that this update is as good as it reasonably can be, even if that means waiting just a bit more. In the meantime, we will keep you updated and involved in the development process as much as we can
Thanks for reading, let us know what you think about this expanded feature!
We recently completed the first private testing stage of our next major update, with lots of valuable feedback to show for it. We really appreciate our testers for volunteering their valuable time, as well as the entire community for observing the test content, and submitting their feedback. All of you help make the game better.
As a result of this test, we have identified some areas of gameplay that need improvement, requiring a few new features to be developed. In this WIP post, we will be covering what we have completed so far, with more to come soon after.
One of the areas we identified as needing improvement was our method of storing money. Up until this point, money in Deadside has been a physical object, which can be looted and stored. This implementation was mostly effective, but it had some limitations. For example, players almost never risk bringing money outside of the safezone, making roaming traders largely superfluous. Additionally, transferring money between players is a quite manual process, requiring players to split and organize large stacks of cash, to then toss it all on the ground.
So in our next major update, money in Deadside will become virtual, no longer stored as a physical item in a slot. Your money will be stored instead on the game server, with your total displayed on the top right of your inventory. This means you can now buy items at a Roaming Trader without bringing the money physically with you first. It also removes the limit on money stacks, making storage much simpler overall.
In order to transfer money between players, we have added an ATM into each safezone! With this ATM, you can easily transfer money to any nearby players using its UI.
We hope that these changes and additions improve the quality of life for our players, making it much easier to manage your cash overall. This change lays the groundwork for another upcoming feature as well, that we will talk more about once it's ready to be shown.
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!
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.
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!
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!
Alex from tinyBuild here. Thanks for voicing your concerns regarding the upcoming updates. Heard loud and clear. Offline raiding isn't something you're interested in, and I can totally see why. I am also very happy about the feedback we're getting regarding other in-dev features.
TLDR We need to find a way to allow players to secure their bases when logging off -- while controlling the amount of player created structures on each server.
Will be prototyping a few ideas on this, and want to hear what ideas come from the community.
The challenge is 3 factor:
How to protect your base when offline
How to make online raiding clear, intuitive, risky, and rewarding
All while keeping the server lag free
Feel free to chime in your own ideas in the comments, we'll be reading