We hope we've not caught you monkeying around, we have another patch for the Experimental branch and the patch for live with these quality of life changes is very close!
Here's all of todays changes based on all of your amazing feedback!
Experimental Branch - Patch Notes 22/10/2020
Changes
Key binding update – exposed more unique options for “Interact” so these can be bound to different keys.
Rebalanced building recipe costs
Monkey commands can now be given whilst the player is carrying a chest or chair Monkey combat quest and glossary text updated to reflect monkey combat changes
Fixes
Fix for Star/Favouriting monkeys not correctly updating favourite monkey status
Monkeys can now correctly repair spike traps
Fix to stop players exiting teleporters onto unsafe tiles
Both meat kebab recipes now produce the same item
Fix for players facing incorrect direction when firing bows
Fix for blueprints not being able to be built on rare occasions
Note on keybinding and a workaround for potential issues There may be some issues with keybinding not working correctly if they were edited before this build has gone live. This will be fixed but to fix this yourself on experimental, first reset your keybindings to default and that should let you then bind your keys correctly.
We hope you like these changes and look forward to hearing what you think about them!
If you don't have access to the Experimental Branch yet for The Survivalists and would like to try upcoming changes to the game you can do some by following the information below...
Installing the Experimental Branch
Warning on save data
If you access the Experimental Branch you risk your save data. We highly recommend backing up your save data before accessing it. Your save data default should be here:
You can just copy this to another folder for safe keeping.
Your current save will be compatible with the new Experimental Branch but likely you will not be able to go back to default with that save. The Experimental Branch will be kept up to date, so you could in theory just play the new branch going forwards. Also you will only be able to play online with other experimental branch players as the default will be incompatible.
Steps to enable Experimental Branch
First right click the game in your Steam Library and select Properties.
Then select the ‘Betas’ tab.
From here select Experimental from the dropdown list.
Once you next try to open The Survivalists on Steam you should automatically download the experimental branch!
Experimental Branch Feedback
Let us know all your thoughts and feedback in the ‘Experimental Branch Feedback’ section on the Steam forums and feel free to report any issues in the ‘Report Experimental Branch Problems’ area.
Thanks again for all your support and feedback so far, we can’t wait for everyone to try out all of the tweaks and new changes!
We'll keep everyone up to date here on Steam when all of the new changes roll onto the new branch and live.
We hope island life is treating you kindly and your monkey friends are well fed on banana goodness!
Today we're dropping a new update for our Experimental Branch that focuses on quality of life improvements, including monkeys, projectiles, stamina and more.
These changes are directly driven from your feedback, so we'd like to say a big thank you to everyone taking the time to let us know what they like about The Survivalists, as well as what they'd like to see changed or built upon.
Below you can find the changes in all their glory!
Experimental Branch - Patch Notes 20/10/2020
Changes
Monkeys will continue working and will no longer automatically be summoned when entering monkey management mode.
Working monkeys can be summoned by pressing ‘E’ whilst in Monkey management mode.
Single monkey can now be more easily selected when using a controller
Player’s max stamina slightly increased
Projectiles no longer auto target non-hostile things in the world (except for cogs)
Loot pools for structures updated to reflect recipe changes
Fixes
Fix for monkeys not filling their inventory to max capacity
Fix for gears and torches sometimes being invisible in labyrinths and vaults
Fix for Wooden Slats and Wooden clubs not being craftable
Fix for not being able to complete some in-progress recipes when upgrading from an earlier build
Monkey work icons no longer overlap monkey names
We hope you like these changes and look forward to hearing what you think about them!
If you don't have access to the Experimental Branch yet for The Survivalists and would like to try upcoming changes to the game you can do some by following the information below...
Installing the Experimental Branch
Warning on save data
If you access the Experimental Branch you risk your save data. We highly recommend backing up your save data before accessing it. Your save data default should be here:
You can just copy this to another folder for safe keeping.
Your current save will be compatible with the new Experimental Branch but likely you will not be able to go back to default with that save. The Experimental Branch will be kept up to date, so you could in theory just play the new branch going forwards. Also you will only be able to play online with other experimental branch players as the default will be incompatible.
Steps to enable Experimental Branch
First right click the game in your Steam Library and select Properties.
Then select the ‘Betas’ tab.
From here select Experimental from the dropdown list.
Once you next try to open The Survivalists on Steam you should automatically download the experimental branch!
Experimental Branch Feedback
Let us know all your thoughts and feedback in the ‘Experimental Branch Feedback’ section on the Steam forums and feel free to report any issues in the ‘Report Experimental Branch Problems’ area.
Thanks again for all your support and feedback so far, we can’t wait for everyone to try out all of the tweaks and new changes!
We'll keep everyone up to date here on Steam when all of the new changes roll onto the new branch and live.
We invite you to join us in a trip to the future of The Survivalists.
Post Launch Update Roadmap
Feast your eyes on our upcoming content roadmap!
Whilst nothing on this roadmap is set in stone, these are the broad changes and additions we're looking to add in future free content updates. Things may slightly change and these will come at different times but we are genuinely excited for the future of the game!
Some of the things on this roadmap have been worked on and planned by us but also we've taken on board some of the most requested features from you the community. Thanks for all of your amazing feedback so far!
Experimental Branch Patch 1.03
We've also just dropped a patch to the Experimental Branch where we've made public some of the changes and fixes we're currently testing.
Most craftables and structures have had increase of +1 for main ingredient needed.
Some recipes now require additional ingredients
Bug Fixes
Fix for teleporters not being interactable when upgrading from a previous build
Fixed an issue where teleporters would stop working if a mouse button was pressed during the teleport animation
That's it for this news post, again a hotfix is coming to live very soon, but we're listening to your feedback on what is good/bad so please leave comments below this news post with your suggestions! :)
We want to thank you again for all of your amazing support! We can't believe the game has already been out for a whole week in the wild! We're also thrilled by the response to the experimental branch which has just received another update including some accessibility changes, full patch notes follow below.
A new roadmap is coming next week to show you where this ship is sailing! Plus, we have a teaser for you ahead of the next content update.
Dust off your feathers with a new island creature?
A closer look:
Experimental branch patch 1.02
Changes
Added accessibility option to disable dynamic camera zoom. If disabled, camera will stay at max zoomed out level
Balancing tweaks to make combat more challenging
Orcling flee range reduced by 20%
Health increased for Orclings and Spectres
Increased number of animals that spawn from warrens
Increased number of Orclings that spawn at camps
Health increased for large nocturnal animals (panthers and devil boar)
Monkeys no longer do knockback
Rebalancing for the cost of items from the Mysterious Strangers shop.
Tweaks made to food recipes
Bug Fixes
Fixed not being able to use a teleporter whilst holding a chest
Fix for monkeys no longer following the player after being knocked out
Fix for vault icons no longer appearing on the map after loading a save
Fix for Journal not opening if mini-map icon is clicked with the mouse
Fix for monkeys running really far away after being dismissed
That's it for this patch, again a hotfix is coming to live very soon, but we're listening to your feedback on what is good/bad so please leave comments below this news post with your suggestions! :)
Launch has been incredible and it has been a pleasure to see everyone wash ashore the sandy beaches of The Survivalists 1.0. We want to thank everyone that has given us incredibly useful feedback on social media, Discord and in the Steam forums. You all really haven't monkeyed around!
We want to reassure all of you island dwellers that we're not only listening and taking in your feedback but are working as fast as we can to implement it!
Try out new changes early with the Experimental Branch
An optional build of the game with some of the changes and fixes we've put together based on all of your feedback is now live! This branch will be updated with new content and fixes leading up to the full patches and content updates.
Note: This branch has not been fully tested and may contain unforseen bugs and issues.
Here's all of the changes coming to the experimental islands in this build:
Changes
Monkeys default to being in combat mode if not assigned to another task
Combat quests have been added
Lore quests appear more often in the mysterious stranger’s shop
Change to make it easier to select a single monkey with the mouse when in monkey management mode
Treasure chests no longer respawn after the blood moon
Icon for item held by monkeys is now displayed constantly and does not fade
Monkeys in new saves can only be rescued from vaults, they can no longer be found in the wild on the starter island apart from first monkey. Though they will be roaming later game islands.
Monkeys in existing saves now require higher tier items for them to be tamed
WIP changes for monkey balancing to make them less overpowered in combat
Changed giving items to monkeys to be a hold rather than a press to stop accidental item switching when you want to pick something up
Bug Fixes
Mysterious chest should no longer disappear
Fix for an error that was triggering if 100 quest bottles were collected
Fix for softlock when trying to load a save caused by bugged mysterious chest
Fix for corrupted saves caused by bugged mysterious chest
Fix for an error that would sometimes trigger when buying a quest from the mysterious stranger
Fix for monkeys not learning to put items if chest is the item is dragged and dropped into the chest with the mouse
Fix for infinite loading screen when joining an online game with a monkey carrying the mysterious chest
WIP fix for Monkeys set to follow and combat modes retain these modes after loading a save
Please note that not all of these changes or future experimental branch changes will make it to the live build. We'll be listening closely to your feedback on what works and what doesn't to make sure we make the game the best it can be!
Installing the Experimental Branch
Warning on save data
If you access the Experimental Branch you risk your save data. We highly recommend backing up your save data before accessing it. Your save data default should be here:
You can just copy this to another folder for safe keeping.
Your current save will be compatible with the new Experimental Branch but likely you will not be able to go back to default with that save. The Experimental Branch will be kept up to date, so you could in theory just play the new branch going forwards. Also you will only be able to play online with other experimental branch players as the default will be incompatible.
Steps to enable Experimental Branch
First right click the game in your Steam Library and select Properties.
Then select the ‘Betas’ tab.
From here select Experimental from the dropdown list.
Once you next try to open The Survivalists on Steam you should automatically download the experimental branch!
Experimental Branch Feedback
Let us know all your thoughts and feedback in the ‘Experimental Branch Feedback’ section on the Steam forums and feel free to report any issues in the ‘Report Experimental Branch Problems’ area.
We'll also be working hard to get this first set of changes out to the live version for all players to get their paws on!
Thanks again for all your support and feedback so far, we can’t wait for everyone to try out all of the tweaks and new changes!
We'll keep everyone up to date here on Steam when all of the new changes roll onto the new branch and live.
Thanks for all of your kind words so far, we're so happy that the game is out in the wild and everyone can enjoy desert island life.
We are however, listening closely to all of your feedback and working as fast as we can to get many of the most reported issues fixed here on Steam. We're also taking on board all of your suggestions and will be using them to shape the future updates for The Survivalists.
Quality Of Life Fix
We want to address a few of the most common issues and biggest criticisms that have been expressed so far. This QOL or quality of life fix will be coming as soon as we can possibly get it out! We want to show you that we are committed to making sure the game is the best it can be and this is the first step.
Future Content
The Survivalists is a living and breathing game. We'll be continuing to support it into the future and more content is coming! We'll share more on what that will be very soon. Plus, we're looking to share a development roadmap to get a better idea of where this game is sailing!
Leaving Feedback
If you have any other suggestions, things you would like tweaked or even to be implemented in the future, please let us know in the comments section below!
If you come across any issues you can go directly to our support team here: https://www.team17.com/support/ or use the 'Report a Problem' section on Steam and our help team will assist you.
For all the latest on The Survivalists check out these links:
We're absolutely losing our bananas that The Survivalists is now fully launched on Steam! Thank you to everyone for your support so far and we hope you have an absolute blast in the game!
If you haven't heard of The Survivalists before it's a procedurally generated and adventure-filled survival sandbox set in The Escapists universe. Explore, build, craft and even train monkeys with up to three friends in a desperate bid to survive. Have you got what it takes to be a Survivalist?
Explore
Explore a procedurally generated world of islands, full of exciting biomes, quests and more to discover! Each new character made generates a entirely new world, plus join online games to enter a friends set of unique islands!
Build
Don't just survive... thrive! Build a new home or epic base for you and friends! Bolster you defenses against a whole host of hostiles that could raid your camp and take your supplies!
Make Monkey Friends
Shipwrecked life in The Survivalists is helped through its unique Monkey Mimic system, where players train up to 20 local primates to do a raft of tasks and help automate systems, from cooking and crafting, to collecting resources. Tasks can be chained together like a production line, so monkeys help make island life run a little smoother.
Craft
Get crafty and become a master tinkerer in island contraptions. Make tools, furniture, weapons and more that will help you survive on the islands.
Survive
Danger stalks the islands with bands of orcs that patrol the shores. Many more hostile creatures will happily make a meal out of you. Arm yourself and your monkey friends to defend your new home and stay safe on your adventures. Also keep a tab of your hunger as you need to stay in good health for island life!
Escape?
Wait, what is that?
Have Fun!
We sincerely hope you have an amazing island adventure! There will be more content on the horizon in future patches but we'll share more on that a little while after launch celebrations!
Deluxe Edition owners will now be able to download the Final Beta which is early access to the game minus some tweaks and fixes that will come in a day 1 patch on launch day. Save data will carry across from this Final Beta to the full version of the game!
This is the fourth island orientation and we're going in a slightly different direction today... and no it's not just because the wind is carrying our raft that way!
1 Week To Official Launch!
Today we want to thank everyone for the amazing support you have all given us so far and to say we are overjoyed by the positivity we've gotten so far with the game. We can't wait for you all to play!
We'd also like to say thanks for all of the feedback on the demos and reports people have made which have really helped!
Early Access to the Final Beta and Launch Times
Early access to the final beta for those that have purchased the Deluxe Edition will also start on the 6th of October here on Steam. So we don't want to spoil too much before people jump into the game!
We'll have more exact launch times for the 9th and also that Early Access to the Final Beta at the start of next week if you keep an eye on our socials!
What we also have today is lots of monkeys!
Developer Q&A Stream
We will be streaming on Monday October 5th on the Team17 twitch with several of the developers attending to answer your questions. It is currently set for 2PM BST but could be slightly later depending on everyone's schedules so be sure to follow: https://www.twitch.tv/team17ltd
Then you can be notified as we go live!
Monkey Naming Competition
We're also running a design competition to get your monkey name into the game, all you need to do is respond to one of these threads on Twitter or Facebook with a monkey you designed that you'd like to befriend in game! Winners will have the name they give put into The Survivalists as a name that will appear when people find monkeys. This closes Monday!
Full T&Cs and details, plus a bunch of images to use as templates are here
And yes... we've already had Monkey McBananaFace already!
Thanks for reading everyone, we have some more exciting news on the run-up to launch so keep your eyes peeled on our announcements!
Plus to celebrate reaching 1000 Discord members (now at 1500!) we're giving away a released Team17 game to 20 lucky winners, all you have to do to enter is join the Discord and be a member when it is drawn on the 24th of September - full T&Cs here - https://www.team17.com/1k-discord-members-survivalists/
This week we look at some of the environmental dangers and biomes you will need to traverse with more care! Or at least, to take a minute and appreciate the wonder.
Ouch - that hurts!
Some of the island's biomes will be extremely inhospitable to budding Surivivalists.
The swamps for example are patrolled by trillions of flying nuisances that will try to drain any unprepared 'suckers' dry of their life blood.
If you wander too far into a swamp and perish, getting your items back could prove extremely difficult. However, these lands have rare resources and items to find so the risk is definitely worth it!
The elixir... of life?
To survive the harshness of the swamp, you require an elixir. To craft one you'll need to build a cauldron, to craft a glass bottle to hold the magical medicine and then the elixir itself from various things you can scavenge from the islands!
To take it, you just need to glug down the liquid and the buff will appear over your health where it will start the timer for its continued effects. Once that timer runs out, you'll once again be vulnerable to the elements. So be sure to keep an eye on that bar!
Ooo toasty!
We can't wait for you to head out into the world of The Survivalists and experience all of it's wonders and marvels... even if some of them are extremely deadly.
Thanks for reading everyone, we have some more exciting news on the run-up to launch so keep your eyes peeled on our announcements!