Hey everyone,

It's that time of the year again with the holidays coming up! Enjoy this brand new Winter Event with a new themed boss named Snoggo!

• New Winter Event Badges and Goals!
• Pinata Pickaxe is now obtainable
• Two new Seasonal PPS Items
• Help Snoggo out! The Snow Doggo - New Themed Boss

• Harvest Dinner Pickaxe has been buffed

• Gear Store scrollbar will now scroll correctly
• Addressed a bug where the Hot Potato ability and other explosions wouldn't render that many blocks

Also, we have a Discord where bug reports are filed and features are suggested: https://discord.gg/pickcrafter

Is it a Gothic Remake? Not yet, but it can become one: THQ Nordic releases playable prototype on Steam, asks for the player's opinion

Barcelona, Spain / Vienna, Austria, December 13th, 2019: „Welcome to the colony!“ – how is it possible that 18 years have passed since we first heard that phrase at the beginning of Gothic, the game that set a milestone in the history of German fantasy RPGs, such as Risen and Elex? Since then, we all have grown older, acquired some wrinkles, and are laughing at how we look in pictures from the early 2000s – or how games looked back then.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/950670/Gothic_Playable_Teaser/

But, what if we could turn back time, take everything that was great almost 20 years ago, and put it in a beautiful modern look (let’s say powered by Unreal Engine 4) along with improving some things that were not that great, like the combat system, for example?

Here’s the Trailer for the Gothic Playable Teaser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuuUaHa3_sg
Check out the comparison video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Crc2iO_-LR8

To find out what the true Gothic fanbase thinks of a modern remake of the cult classic RPG, THQ Nordic and its new Spanish development team, THQ Nordic Barcelona, will start an experiment. Today, a free playable prototype (Gothic Playable Teaser) of what a new Gothic could look and feel like will appear in the Steam Library of everyone who owns a game from Piranha Bytes, be it Gothic 1-3, Risen 1-3, or ELEX. They can play the yet-untitled Gothic Remake project and roam around the Mining Colony of Khorinis. After that, THQ Nordic is eager to learn from the players through a survey following the completion of the prototype, whether and how it should proceed with the production of a full Gothic Remake, or leave the heritage and the great memories associated with it untouched.

You want to learn more about the Gothic Playable Teaser? Check the official website:

https://www.gothic-game.com/

Enjoy
Your THQ Nordic team

Is it a Gothic Remake? Not yet, but it can become one: THQ Nordic releases playable prototype on Steam, asks for the player's opinion

Barcelona, Spain / Vienna, Austria, December 13th, 2019: „Welcome to the colony!“ – how is it possible that 18 years have passed since we first heard that phrase at the beginning of Gothic, the game that set a milestone in the history of German fantasy RPGs, such as Risen and Elex? Since then, we all have grown older, acquired some wrinkles, and are laughing at how we look in pictures from the early 2000s – or how games looked back then.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/950670/Gothic_Playable_Teaser/

But, what if we could turn back time, take everything that was great almost 20 years ago, and put it in a beautiful modern look (let’s say powered by Unreal Engine 4) along with improving some things that were not that great, like the combat system, for example?

Here’s the Trailer for the Gothic Playable Teaser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuuUaHa3_sg
Check out the comparison video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Crc2iO_-LR8

To find out what the true Gothic fanbase thinks of a modern remake of the cult classic RPG, THQ Nordic and its new Spanish development team, THQ Nordic Barcelona, will start an experiment. Today, a free playable prototype (Gothic Playable Teaser) of what a new Gothic could look and feel like will appear in the Steam Library of everyone who owns a game from Piranha Bytes, be it Gothic 1-3, Risen 1-3, or ELEX. They can play the yet-untitled Gothic Remake project and roam around the Mining Colony of Khorinis. After that, THQ Nordic is eager to learn from the players through a survey following the completion of the prototype, whether and how it should proceed with the production of a full Gothic Remake, or leave the heritage and the great memories associated with it untouched.

You want to learn more about the Gothic Playable Teaser? Check the official website:

https://www.gothic-game.com/

Enjoy
Your THQ Nordic team

Good Day Mercians

We are now proud to announce our upcoming update which is officially named Update V0.39 - Rebellion. To be released January 2020! If you missed the previous information about this update you can find it HERE


First of all I would like to express our sincerest apologies to the community for having to wait so long for this announcement we understand this is the largest time between updates in our history but we couldn’t be more focused on getting the black death to the finishing line!

In other news, our contract with the publisher Green man gaming has ended, Green Man Gaming were crucial in a great marketing push pre-early access and of course during it, so we would like to thank them for getting our message out and aiding in the community. We wish Green Man Gaming the best and a great future.

Now let’s get behind the scenes on more content to look forward to in the next black death update….. Rebellion


Harvestable Trees.



Yes! That’s right, finally we will have every tree throughout Mercia harvestable, once cut down they also grow back overtime to give an immersive experience of medieval logging. This will come with some re-balancing to the value and weight of wood and the amount of wood required in recipes.

Character Level



In an attempt to address issues with skill point distribution, especially with mid-game progression, we have now built a robust leveling system that provides a set amount of skill points earned at each level, this is a system popular amongst most RPGs and fits well within the black death, currently there are no plans to have a level cap but who wouldn’t love bragging about being level 1000…..

Inventory UI Refurbishment



We’ve noticed a large amount of confusion when dealing with items especially when equipping them in our current system. In the next update we will have all items displayed in a tidy square format which is immensely intuitive to place those square items into square equipment slots. Another huge benefit is being able to display A LOT more items within your inventory!

Player Built Stables



One of the largest bits of feedback we’ve had in the expedition update was horses being too rare or simply impossible to find, in the next update we will be providing players the ability to build a stable which will spawn a single horse. This horse can be taken wherever your heart desires but will return to the stable after being idle for too long.

Plagued Zones



In addition to our current expanding plague area we have now built permanent plagued zones in the dangerous south of Mercia, this is to provide new experiences and environmental storytelling about the disease. New enemies, loot and structures will be found throughout, however tread lightly and bring a mask.

Rebels

As previously mentioned this update will contain a new siege/raid map which will offer players a chance to squash northern rebels encroaching in the north however new rebel groups will also be spotted throughout Mercia so take them on and earn some valuable loot in the process.

Post update information

We originally planned to come out of early access by the end of the year however we now would like to develop/experiment with a few more elements to the game before doing so. (but also fix all those pesky bugs!) These elements are incredibly early still but we would like to share our thoughts. These are the following:

• Mod SDK (Allow for user created content)
  
• Full Controller Support
  
• Achievements
  
• Expanded Character creator (More options)

When we do finally come out of early access we will be increasing the price with an additional 15% , we felt it was important to keep the game affordable to grow the player base but also reward players with something that increases in value if they purchased it within the early access time period. We hope you can understand this and we greatly appreciate everyone’s support.

That’s all folks, we look forward to delivering this beast of an update! But we will make sure to provide more details closer to the updates launch/completion.

See you in Mercia.

Updated: 13 December 2019

We will be updating the following list regularly to outline the status of certain issues that are currently pressing for our community. Please note that this list is not exhaustive, and should only be used as a reference to give a general idea of where our focus currently is.



Description: During Y4S2, we set out a large batch of fixes to make improvements on our sound propagation system. However, some issues remained due to discrepancies between sound travelling through obstacle (e.g. walls, barricades, windows, reinforcements) versus sound passing through next to these obstacles via another route.

Status: [Target:Y5S1] We are working on a “perfect-fit” solution to tackle the remaining propagation inconsistencies.

Description: Players who disconnect from Ranked games run into difficulties re-joining the match.

Status: [Target: During Y5S1] We have been seeing reports for this topic come in shortly after our DDoS reinforcements. We will be fine-tuning our systems to maintain security, while also remedying this.



Description: Debris sometimes remains stuck in the barricades on doors and windows, causing players to have different sight lines.

Objective: Provide consistency for all players for barricade destruction.

Status: [Target: Potentially Y5S1] We are currently in the production phase towards our chosen solution. We’re excited to share more info on this with you in the near future.

Description: Our current in-game benchmark test is outdated.

Status: We are working toward a new benchmark test that better conveys how Siege performs on different setups.

Description: There are inconsistencies in how gadgets interact/destroy props on maps.

Status: [Target: Y5S1] Similar to how we implemented consistency on how props break on projectile trajectory in Y4S4, we are working on a system for deployable gadgets’ interaction with these props.



Description: We have seen a high ban rate for Blitz, Echo, and Caveira in Ranked.

Status: We recently made some changes to Jackal—an Operator whose ban-rate was fairly high. We are still monitoring feedback around him from the community. For the other Operators who are most affected by Pick/Ban, we are discussing how we want to approach topic of balancing around them.

Hello Farmers of the World!

We have a couple of keys for Farmer’s Dynasty keys left here and there is no better way than to spread them in a raffle. By coincidence we planned some streams next week to celebrate holiday and Christmas time, so this is the perfect opportunity. The streams will start on December 19th, 2019. The schedule will be available next week on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Is it a Gothic Remake? Not yet, but it can become one: THQ Nordic releases playable prototype on Steam, asks for the player's opinion

Barcelona, Spain / Vienna, Austria, December 13th, 2019: „Welcome to the colony!“ – how is it possible that 18 years have passed since we first heard that phrase at the beginning of Gothic, the game that set a milestone in the history of German fantasy RPGs, such as Risen and Elex? Since then, we all have grown older, acquired some wrinkles, and are laughing at how we look in pictures from the early 2000s – or how games looked back then.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/950670/Gothic_Playable_Teaser/

But, what if we could turn back time, take everything that was great almost 20 years ago, and put it in a beautiful modern look (let’s say powered by Unreal Engine 4) along with improving some things that were not that great, like the combat system, for example?

Here’s the Trailer for the Gothic Playable Teaser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuuUaHa3_sg
Check out the comparison video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Crc2iO_-LR8

To find out what the true Gothic fanbase thinks of a modern remake of the cult classic RPG, THQ Nordic and its new Spanish development team, THQ Nordic Barcelona, will start an experiment. Today, a free playable prototype (Gothic Playable Teaser) of what a new Gothic could look and feel like will appear in the Steam Library of everyone who owns a game from Piranha Bytes, be it Gothic 1-3, Risen 1-3, or ELEX. They can play the yet-untitled Gothic Remake project and roam around the Mining Colony of Khorinis. After that, THQ Nordic is eager to learn from the players through a survey following the completion of the prototype, whether and how it should proceed with the production of a full Gothic Remake, or leave the heritage and the great memories associated with it untouched.

You want to learn more about the Gothic Playable Teaser? Check the official website:

https://www.gothic-game.com/

Enjoy
Your THQ Nordic team

Is it a Gothic Remake? Not yet, but it can become one: THQ Nordic releases playable prototype on Steam, asks for the player's opinion

Barcelona, Spain / Vienna, Austria, December 13th, 2019: „Welcome to the colony!“ – how is it possible that 18 years have passed since we first heard that phrase at the beginning of Gothic, the game that set a milestone in the history of German fantasy RPGs, such as Risen and Elex? Since then, we all have grown older, acquired some wrinkles, and are laughing at how we look in pictures from the early 2000s – or how games looked back then.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/950670/Gothic_Playable_Teaser/

But, what if we could turn back time, take everything that was great almost 20 years ago, and put it in a beautiful modern look (let’s say powered by Unreal Engine 4) along with improving some things that were not that great, like the combat system, for example?

Here’s the Trailer for the Gothic Playable Teaser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuuUaHa3_sg
Check out the comparison video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Crc2iO_-LR8

To find out what the true Gothic fanbase thinks of a modern remake of the cult classic RPG, THQ Nordic and its new Spanish development team, THQ Nordic Barcelona, will start an experiment. Today, a free playable prototype (Gothic Playable Teaser) of what a new Gothic could look and feel like will appear in the Steam Library of everyone who owns a game from Piranha Bytes, be it Gothic 1-3, Risen 1-3, or ELEX. They can play the yet-untitled Gothic Remake project and roam around the Mining Colony of Khorinis. After that, THQ Nordic is eager to learn from the players through a survey following the completion of the prototype, whether and how it should proceed with the production of a full Gothic Remake, or leave the heritage and the great memories associated with it untouched.

You want to learn more about the Gothic Playable Teaser? Check the official website:

https://www.gothic-game.com/

Enjoy
Your THQ Nordic team

Hello all,

Thanks for checking out our 1st Alpha Devblog! Some of you might be new here. Thanks much for the support! We've been quite busy over the last 6 weeks or so getting out our first alpha builds. We were patching quite frequently and we've not had a chance to share much more than patch notes since alpha launch. Our longer term supporters will tell you we're rather active when it comes to devblogs and we will do our best to get one out every week.

This devblog will focus on what we've been working since our 2nd alpha patch, 1.0.2. There has been a tremendous amount of bug reports submitted and suggestions made by all of you and we're very grateful. We had a small but dedicated team of 'testers' for the last two years in unlisted pre-alpha and with the player base expansion, issues are being found quicker. We're able to tell what really needs doing first just by how many duplicate reports and suggestions we get. We'll not delve too far into fixes here although we'll list them at the bottom. The blog today will focus on just some of the suggestions and improvements the community has made that we're now implementing.

Thank You
Firstly, the team would like to thank everyone for their continued support of our project. We've not had the greatest start for unlisted pre-alpha 2 years ago. This was largely due to our past lack of knowledge. It has taken some time for Survive the Nights to grow but it's finally doing so. Thank you if you've been here a while. As you know, STN is our first project and we've grown quite a lot over the last few years. Our development pace reflects that growth. The learn as you go method ,while tried and true, isn't the fastest and we wouldn't be here without our original backers helping to push fixes and features.

A major thank you to all the new supporters in alpha! The community and player base has grown quite a bit over the last 3 weeks and our bug reporter/suggestion tracker reflects that. We're here and paying attention to your issues and ideas, so please continue to share them they truly will help to shape the project and the game you want and are now playing.

Crafting Adjustments
One of our biggest requests in regards to the crafting system so far has been the ability to create the maximum amount of an items. James has spent some time this week working out [Create Max] mechanics for the crafting systems. You'll see these mechanics introduced in the next patch. Crafting will continue to be improved. If you have additional suggestions, please use that in game tab.


Create maximum at once

Weapon Unloading
One of the biggest weapon requests outside of additional weapons has been the ability to unload weapons. This week James has spent a bit of time working on weapon unload. You'll now be able to remove ammo and it should restack to an ammo box in your inventory. You'll see this live in the next patch :)


Weapon unloading

Zombies and Player Window Damage
Something we've noticed watching you all play and have wanted to sort for some time is window damage. Andre has spent a bit of time this week working on random window damage. You'll notice now that zombies and players do random damage to window fortifications. If you've not put it together, this means zombies will get out and into houses quicker now so keep that in mind ;)


Zombie causing random damage


Player causing random damage

Field Of View
Something requested often has been a FOV slider. Andre spent time this week getting that back into the project and you'll see it available to you in the coming patch.


FOV slider in action

Garage Doors
​In the coming updates you'll see all of our garage doors functioning. By watching videos and watching players live on servers, it's clear to us now that you need and enjoy vehicle storage. John spent some of his time this week working on animating all the in game garage doors. The smaller warehouses with 'coming soon' doors will function in the next patch. We'll also be adding more garages to structures that don't have them including small residential garages, along with adding and animating garage doors on houses with attached garages.


Small warehouse garage doors functioning

New Passive AI (Fox)
Towns are missing a decent hunting source. While most do have chickens you need to venture to the wilderness for a bit more meat in most cases. In the next patch we'll be introducing foxes, they'll be mostly based in towns. This should breath a bit more life into towns along with providing the player with a chance at an additional food source. Jos has spent a good deal of time beginning implantation and you should se fox in our next patch :)


Fox, hope you have a hunting permit!

Additional Changes and Fixes
Please check our changelog out for a full breakdown of what we're doing and what's up. Above is only a small section of suggestions and fixes that we are working on. The changelog for the most part updates with pull request approvals and merges. What you see there should be in our next build. Below is the changelog as of writing this devblog.

Features

• Single ammo can now be loaded or unloaded in to all guns via the inventory.

Changes

• Plastic bottles now burn when put over open fire.
  
• Adding and removing battery from headlamp now works correctly.
  
• Sorting inventory by weight now puts the heaviest items to the top.
  
• It is now possible to open doors while zombies are hitting the door.
  
• Continued fire damage duration reduced to 1 second. Previously 3.
  
• Players can now get closer to fires before receiving damage from them.
  
• Melee now does varied damage to window frames dependent on what weapon is being used.

Crafting

• Powdered milk now has a canteen recipe.
  
• Disabled the air horn tripwire craftable. Implementation isn't fully complete.
  
• Added firewood craftable out of the plank and the worn plank.

Models

• Reduced scale of fixed campfires at starter camps. This should make them easier to get close to and use for cooking.

AI

• Zombies now break through window frames faster.
  
• Zombies no longer start moving to a different entry point while a door is opening.

Environment

• Added garages to various houses around the world so that players can now store their vehicles.
  
• Raised the lights in the gas station so that RV's can fit.
  
• Gas station trash in second garage bay cleared so that both are usable.
  
• Gas station floor materials improved.
  
• Fixed floating road sign in union point.
  
• Removed rocks inside Addersfield house.
  
• Moved strip mall from subsector to largesector in Addersfield so that their loading range reflects other buildings.
  
• Removed the tree inside the cliff outside of Sage Creek.
  
• Fixed hole north of old town where players could get stuck.
  
• Removed floating rocks above black rock

Animation

• Improved the aiming position of the double barrel shotgun.
  
• Added new manual garage door animations.
  
• Fixed rare issue which would lead to a door snapping to the open position when trying to open it.

Future Content
Just wanted to share a few quick things we're working on for future updates. We'll have a proper roadmap up shortly. Clinton is working on design when he has the time. We've been working on quite a few new fortification mats and traps. Below are a couple examples of both.


Window fortifications (wire tripped flame thrower)


Plywood, reinforced planks and metal planking


Metal bars and metal sheeting

Thanks for playing, submitting bug reports, providing feedback & supporting the game in alpha. We'll do our best to get a devblog out weekly aside from patch weeks.

Please consider switching over to our experimental branch if you're interested in upcoming feature as they will be first released there. We're hoping to have the next patch out on experimental branch next week.

Below are some helpful links to anyone new and interested in the game. If you'd like to follow a bit closer, please consider joining our Discord we're here, we're listening!

Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights
Forum: https://community.survivethenights.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive
Website: https://www.survivethenights.net

Is it a Gothic Remake? Not yet, but it can become one: THQ Nordic releases playable prototype on Steam, asks for the player's opinion

Barcelona, Spain / Vienna, Austria, December 13th, 2019: „Welcome to the colony!“ – how is it possible that 18 years have passed since we first heard that phrase at the beginning of Gothic, the game that set a milestone in the history of German fantasy RPGs, such as Risen and Elex? Since then, we all have grown older, acquired some wrinkles, and are laughing at how we look in pictures from the early 2000s – or how games looked back then.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/950670/Gothic_Playable_Teaser/

But, what if we could turn back time, take everything that was great almost 20 years ago, and put it in a beautiful modern look (let’s say powered by Unreal Engine 4) along with improving some things that were not that great, like the combat system, for example?

Here’s the Trailer for the Gothic Playable Teaser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuuUaHa3_sg
Check out the comparison video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Crc2iO_-LR8

To find out what the true Gothic fanbase thinks of a modern remake of the cult classic RPG, THQ Nordic and its new Spanish development team, THQ Nordic Barcelona, will start an experiment. Today, a free playable prototype (Gothic Playable Teaser) of what a new Gothic could look and feel like will appear in the Steam Library of everyone who owns a game from Piranha Bytes, be it Gothic 1-3, Risen 1-3, or ELEX. They can play the yet-untitled Gothic Remake project and roam around the Mining Colony of Khorinis. After that, THQ Nordic is eager to learn from the players through a survey following the completion of the prototype, whether and how it should proceed with the production of a full Gothic Remake, or leave the heritage and the great memories associated with it untouched.

You want to learn more about the Gothic Playable Teaser? Check the official website:

https://www.gothic-game.com/

Enjoy
Your THQ Nordic team