Hi, introducing firearms mechanic to the game! This is really a game changer as survivor becomes hunter instead of prey.

Included firearms are:
- Revolver
- Shotgun
Plus corresponding ammo a and ammo boxes.

More details:
- to shot from gun, hold gun in right hand, aim first with right click, then fire with left mouse click
- pressing left mouse without aiming will result to melee attack
- to reload hold gun in right hand and ammo in left hand and then press R



Also:
- Ammo is very rare
- it is not possible to shot/reload from rowboats or rafts yet
- repeater gun will be available on next map as it too much op for the first map
- holding shift when firing revolver will result to "cowboy style speedfire"
- you can not sprint while aiming, shooting or reloading (same goes for bow, spears or boomerang)
- crouch had to be switched off. Even the mechanic is working fine - the animation I have available for crouch shooting look strange and need to be replaced
- camera placement during shooting will be improved in separate camera update



Tents
A pack-able tent has been added. Tent can be packed and so easily transported within inventory and raised on desired place same way as shelter. Similar to it it provides environmental protection from cold and rain. Tent can be shoot thru with guns.



Important:
For those, who are using older version savegames - guns and tents will be not spawned, as they do not exist within them. There is one exception for revolver, that can randomly spawn within "washed on beach" boxes after completing main missions.

Please report all issues on our discord:
https://discord.io/areaz

I will be also pleased to answer any questions.

Thank you for your support

Juraj Bachar
Game Creator

************************************SPOILER**************************************

Hi, smaller but important update. This update is necessary to fully implement incoming Firearms in game:
- fixed some issues when bow pull animation played on other weapons
- fixed some issue when character could not move after firing a projectile
- adjusted bow aim yaw (left right). The pitch up down will be adjusted as well later.
- added proper collisions handling especially for rocks and cliff, that prevent player to place basebuilding structures nearby them.
- added dedicated collision channel for firearms shot, including the physics material detection (shot will play different effect when hitting sand, dirt, grass, water)

also:
- replaced crocodile sounds to deeper scary ones
- reduced volume of initial drum music in main menu



Work in progress (WIP) on Firearms (just dev version):
Firearm items:
- revolver, repeater, shotgun,
- revolver bullet, repeater bullet, shotgun bullet
- revolver ammobox, repeater ammobox, shotgun ammobox



Weapon mechanics:
- holding, aiming, shot (plus cowboy shot for revolver), reloading bullets (according to gun capacity)
- damage to animals
- visual effects on hit

Would be glad for your feedback. Please feel free to join our discord: https://discord.io/areaz

Thank you for your continuous support!

Be safe!

Juraj
Game Creator

HI,
been working hard on horses for the last month. And want to show you some preview.

Important: Horses will be available ingame on incoming map "Inlands" in late 2021. Therefore there was not an update lately. The currently available first map design is not suitable for horses usage, so players might get wrong impression or being even frustrated if I did so.

Horse mechanics are quite complex and must be incorporated to others game mechanics as well.
They act as animals and simultaneously as "vehicles". Also they allow full interaction, eating, drinking and crafting when mounted on horse. To it character can give orders to horse - to follow, stay or free roam.

Here is video preview, hope you like it.


Thank you for you support!

Juraj Bachar
Game Creator

Hi,
Just smaller update - highlighted item is now outlined by item quality:
green: 75% and higher
dark green: 50% and higher
yellow: 25% and higher
orange: 1% and higher
red: ruined

I am simultaneously working working on animal companion - horses, firearms and clothing system. Those should be available on spring 2021. As well as on UE5 transfer preparations.

Please join us on our new discord to get help, news or gave feedback and suggestions:

https://discord.io/areaz

Best regards and thank you for you support.

Juraj Bachar
Game Creator

Hi, reworked the crafting and mission look in inventory menu. I planned to do this later, but a lot players were complaining that it looks too complicated on first sight and not common to other games.

So I have used the free holidays time to make it look much more simpler.

The actual crafting mechanics is still the same - combination of item in left hand, item or tool in right hand, and item the character is standing nearby.

Now the crafting area in inventory menu is expanded. Crafting and Missions Tabs were added - to switch the view between them. Later a "Clothing" tab will be added - displaying the character and clothing slots.

The crafting shows available and all recipes, where:
1) Available show recipes that can be done (if having enough calories)
Underneath it shows similar recipes that can be done but some item is missing.
Similar recipes will not more include recipes showed above within available ones.
2) All shows all recipes. But now they can be selected by categories showing recipes only for eating, drinking, weapons, traps, basebuilding etc.

I will also try to sort them more logically, starting with most common ones.

I hope this will bring much better overview for the players.



Missions Tab:
The missions have been slightly changed as well. You can see Active and Completed missions.
There was some issue with leveling up too fast, this was changed.
Also you can complete the mission without it being assigned. (No need to craft something just for the mission, if you have already done it).

IMPORTANT:
Please keep in mind - this is still under development and I am testing mostly the layout and mechanics.
I plan to hire artist to make nice graphic prior the full game release.
The same goes for translations to other languages as a lot of texts were added.
Doing it now and after each change would be not efficient and highly costly.
Therefore i would like to ask you for your understanding and patience.



Next I would like to continue to work on main mechanics such as horses, firearms and clothing.

Also I plan to introduce game discord soon, so you can directly give feedback, get help or chat/voice with me if you have any issues or would like to propose an idea.

Thank you very much for your support and feedback.

And wishing you all a better 2021 year!

Juraj Bachar
Game Creator

Hi, Boats and Rafts coming into AreaZ to allow you to travel easily thru swamp and lake.

Even boats were not planned first when I started to created the game, I have decided to implement them in. Now the become a vital part of survival especially in swamp areaz.



Boat is spawned and can be found in swamp. To move the boat, player needs to have paddle in right hand, while having the left hand empty.
Paddle can be found nearby boat or crafted from wood with knife. It is not a primary recipe - so you need to do it thru inventory.



To enter boat just stand nearby when other loot is not highlighted. You can enter by pressing "F" by default. To disembark boat - press by default "X" key.
(Please note the disembark "X" key has replaced the sitting input. To sit or stand up in "Z" key now assigned)



On boat you can also perform other actions - pick up items from water, craft, eat, drink, drop items or even build. Just use the crafting menu, or hold "F" for primary crafting recipes.
There might be some minor issues. F.e. when lighting fire (torch, flare) it will not light up. Better said it will immediately extinguish as it touches the water line during animation.



The shooting does not yet work when sitting on boat - it is planned after firearms will be added.

You can also build raft within 2 steps.
1) take wooden pile to each hand and look on swamp or lake water (will not work with stream or ocean water). Press "F" to craft , if you have enough calories.
2) Then place the raft on water using "Num Ins" or "Num0". You can also rotate it with numerical controls.
3) Take liana in right hand, and another wooden pile to left hand, and while watching on raft press "F".
4) Place the final raft on water using "Num Ins" or "Num0". You can unlock it with " num/ " and rotate during this step as well.





Enjoy the trip!

Thank you for your support!

Juraj Bachar
Game Creator

Hi, pushed this small update to check changes due to newest Unreal Engine, gameplay difficulty and some fixes.
As some players do not comprehend, that a hardcore survival game requires to care for food and water resources and they just give bad reviews, I have made following changes.
Player Stat on Spawn per each difficulty:
1) Eden - Full Food, Full Hydration
2) Hard - Half Food, Half Hydration
3) Hell - No Food, 250 Hydration

Done some fixes to boomerang, now it should better detect collision, especially with terrain. Same goes for bird falling from sky to ground after being hit. Boomerang is currently intended to hunt birds and will be expanded to hit other animals later.

Also I have changed the game to newest stable version of Unreal Engine 4.25. This will help to switch to announced UE 5, which should be available next year.
I had to remove some underwater ambient life, as it does not work with new particle system,

Therefore I will not address following due to heavy changes between UE4 to UE5, until new engine is settled: particle systems, water environment, sky sphere, clouds.

New engine will help me to make new volumetric clouds, water system (ocean, pond, river) and sky. Also particle system will need to be redesigned.



Currently I am finalizing the boat and raft mechanics - which may be available even next weekend within a major update.
Next planned mechanics are: horses, firearms and clothing.

Thank you for your support!

Juraj Bachar
Game Creator

Hi - thanks to very successful months I got a lot of feedback from players.

So following is updated:
- Missions
- Basebulding Placement
- Fireplace
- Spawn Zone Small Stones
- Loading tips
- Survival Index
- Fixes

Missions:
Missions now will be completed regardless if they are active and assign or not.
No more need to redo same action if mission becomes active later.

Basebuilding Placement:
Fixed issue with placement tool was not active when placing basebuilding item.
Now you can freely place items like fireplace, shelters + upgrades, and traps, rotate and incline them within 20meters radius. Use numerical keyboard and Num Insert to place it. When upgrading shelter - use Num / to unlock its position. All keys keybindings can be customized and shown on Key Map displayed on right
Added new features for fireplace placing:
- fireplace can not collide with trees now
- fireplace will remove most of middle size plants as fern, some grasses and plants.
I will test this functionality and added it to rocks, small grass and plants later. Also other items might receive this functionality as well.





Fireplace:
Fireplace fuel socked where moved aside. So now highlighting fireplace should be easier.

Small Stones:
Small Stones spawn depends on player distance. This shoul prevent stones to be spawned just in distant area(z).

Loading Tips:
Loading tips where added to screen when loading game.

Survival Index:
Survival Index for each player is now saved to Global Leaderboards

Fixes:
Done a lot of small fixes. ADS during swimming is now ignored.

Thank you for your valuable feedback.

Juraj Bachar
Game Creator

Hi, AreaZ introduces points of rescue and make first map fully accessible on the first year of Early Access Anniversary this weekend. Game will be also featured within the upcoming Czech and Slovak week on Steam.

Map includes following so called Area(z): coast, beach, jungle, meadow, volcano, river stream, bamboo forest and a large swamp. Each mentioned biome provides different survival opportunities, resources as well as dangers. Ocean tide cycle, as unique game feature, greatly affects the coastal and beach area(z).

The gameplay is based on real survival – cast away situations, as character loses its energy reserve in order to survive, to crafts items and shelters or even during movement. In order to survive the energy must be replenished in form of calories from various food resources, that player can acquire by different strategies. Same as portrayed in books, movies and popular survival shows on documentary channels.

The game now tracks the character vital steps during survival. The death reason – low health, dehydration, being drown, or venom. How long did character survive, calories input and usage. Locations where player saves the game or builds a shelter.

Current record is to survive 6 days a 21 hours ingame time with 24,000 calories consumption. This represents about 3,500 calories a day, which is actually same to real life daily calories needed in extreme situation. Just to compare – 1,200 calories is minimum real life required daily calories income in long term situation.

Thanks to provided data I can now optimize the survival requirements, solve problematic parts and identify areas on map, which need to become more attractive. I will be adding new, so called Point of interest, which might be used in future story line.

About half of the dry land on the first map is covered by difficult to pass swamp area. It is designed as a maze including dynamic barriers. So the right path is changing on each gameplay and players cannot rely on youtube tutorials.

Swamp is the final frontier player has to conquer. To do so, character needs to create a sufficient energy reserve and avoid dangerous animals as crocodiles and venomous snakes. Illnesses such as malaria are planned as well.

Even the first map is fully accessible, the development will continue. Game should be transferred on upcoming Unreal Engine 5. Together with new graphic cards 30XX series it will allow us new possibilities in graphical design and overall development.

Currently developed features and game mechanics include firearms, drivable boats and horses. Those will be available on second map situated in Inlands area(z), featuring fields, forests, and villages. The third map will focus on snowy mountains area(z), with low temperatures, limited food resources and dangerous animals.

Juraj Bachar
Game Creator

Hi, this update includes new bamboo spikes and bamboo spikes barriers!
You can use them to prevent larger animals to lure into your camp. As they are attracted to smell of the meat, fish or eggs. Barriers will currently not harm animals.

To make bamboo barrier:
1) get bamboo and cut it into half by knife to small bamboo
2) get 1 small bamboo and sharp it with knife to bamboo spike
3) get 5 bamboo spikes, 1 liana, and combine with 1 long bamboo rod on ground to craft bamboo barrier
*please note you can sharp only 1 small bamboo into spike at once. This might be changed based on feedback.

Added new Survival tips - accessible from Menu. They will also appear during loading screen.



Following recipes have been changed - hope them to be more realistic:

1) Open crate - Crate in left hand and tool (stone, obsidian, knifes or axe) in right hand. Opened crate will be put on ground

2) Shelter step 1 - Long bamboo rod in left hand plus liana in right hand while standing next to another long bamboo rod on ground (highlighted)

3) Shelter step 2 - Long bamboo rod in left hand plus liana in right hand while standing next to Shelter Step1 (highlighted)

4) Shelter step 3 - Long bamboo rod in left hand plus another long bamboo rod in right hand while standing next to Shelter Step2 (highlighted)

5) Bow - first you have to craft bowstawe (bowbody) from long bamboo using knife. Then add liana as string to complete the full functional bow!



Added new Taro Root model with texture.

Fixed some bugs and issues.

On October 24-25 2020 we plan to celebrate first year early access anniversary with major update - that will completely open the first map including the rescue point!

Thank you for your support!

Juraj Bachar
Game Creator