Welcome to the first news post since 0.024 dropped. So far the reception's been pretty good despite the bugs, which we're actively working on for the first hotfix.
Hotfix 1
For the last couple weeks on the programming side, we've been doing more or less just bug-fixing in preparation for this release, and we're continuing to do so for the upcoming Hotfix 1.
We fixed a bunch of issues with stuff detaching from vehicles in multiplayer.
We also fixed a bug on legacy saves where spawning a new vehicle would remove it when you leave and come back, including default vehicles in the new region.
Some medical menu issues have been fixes (like not being able to take anti-depressants or charcoal tabs through the UI), and issues with forges transferring more than what's required for some specific recipes. The admin menu UI received a couple fixes for filtering menus.
We restored the keybinds menu for Steam Deck players.
There were a few minor visual and gameplay issues we've fixed, like rain on some interior windows and moved containers becoming locked after being moved.
We also fixed plants dying incredibly fast; we switched a bunch of stuff over from using real-life time to using in-game time, so advancing time by e.g. sleeping would cause plants to grow, but didn't properly rebalance damage times for them.
Extension ports should now decay without a Utility Cabinet present.
Large makeshift batteries should now charge properly when daisy-chained towards a generator. The "Disconnect All" button should now properly work in multiplayer.
We've fixed all the vehicle sounds being incredibly loud and discordant.
We fixed singleplayer players being able to see all players on their map (they are technically an admin in singleplayer).
We fixed time advancing for all players on listen (locally hosted) servers when someone sleeps, if the 'advance time when sleeping' setting is on.
We fixed antidepressants doing nothing.
The A-frame door glass should now be properly coverable with newspaper and cardboard.
These will arrive in Hotfix 1 coming soon.
Overall the bugs in this update (save for multiplayer ones) are pretty benign so we're probably going to be working on 0.025's new content/features/upgrades/optimizations/bugfixes pretty soon while still balancing the development of 0.024 hotfix/performance-fixing patches.
There is noticeable desync in multiplayer with 0.024 compared to 0.023 that we're going to be looking into as well, but it'll be over the next couple hotfixes as it's a more complex issue.
Works-In-Progress
In terms of world work, Franklin County's been released in 0.024. We will be patching any map-related bugs with hotfixes.
The actual scope of the county is the entire western side of the map. The next map update will be expanding north of the existing Franklin County area. It may or may not be in 0.025 depending on how fast we can get our planned features for 0.025 in. It'll be smaller in size than the 0.024 update, as we want to better organize updates and get future updates out a bit faster.
On the art side, Skyler's been working on head presets and setting up basic clothing, and is moving onto creating some new hair.
Astro has started on the rigging process for the new character, which is the first step of getting them in-game by adding functionality to the character to be animated.
It's probably going to be at least months before we get new characters in-game. This isn't because the actual art is going to take a long time, but because moving from one "character type" to another isn't a simple process, especially when we've worked on character art-related stuff in the game for a long time. Simple things like where a weapon attaches in a character's hand, or wearing a hat, or how players and zombies run and walk, etc. all need to be redone.
We also have considerations to make for future character uses, like emotions being displayed on faces and lip syncing for when NPC characters start being developed.
It doesn't need to be done overnight though. There's going to be a period of time where creating clothes that fit the new character, creating a set of new zombies from these characters, etc. is in an intermediate phase.
We'll let you all know the details when we're closer to that point.
For weapon animations, Ani has finished a set of pump shotgun animations to replace our current very broken ones. They're moving on to a set of bow and arrow animations.
We'd also like to welcome Boon to the team, who's also helping out on weapon animations. Boon's currently working on a set of Mosin Nagant animations, so we can finally have a functional bolt on the rifle.
We're going to be integrating these animations and possibly more into the experimental branch and subsequently 0.025 over the next few weeks.
On the audio side, Remancer continues to finish up some new music for the in-game radios.
On the art side, we're almost finished receiving a new church set so we can break up the exact same church being used over and over again in every town.
0.025 Plans
With 0.024 out the door, I think it might be a good idea to post a bit about what we're hoping to get in for 0.025. This isn't an exhaustive list, but just some things we're thinking about fixing up and adding. This also isn't a set of promises; occasionally tasks get moved back due to higher priority or time constraints coming up, so I want to make clear that none of these are finalized nor will definitely be in 0.025. These are just things we've been discussing behind the scenes.
We're planning on adding a system to build standalone houses/shacks. We were initially against this, but we've decided to try it out. We're hoping to avoid Rust-style castles built for no reason, but there's been a lot of requests for this. We've started preliminary work on an set of walls/floors/ceilings/ladders/stairs/etc. for it. It'll use the same tiers as our fortification system, but you'll be able to customize it a bit by adding flooring and wall materials, adding wallpaper, etc. In multiplayer, admins will have a lot of control over this by e.g. setting maximum build heights or turning it off altogether.
We're hoping to get in a system for building/house maintenance as well. Buildings will degrade gameplay-wise over time, causing things like brownouts/power outages/starting fires/affecting water quality/mold growth. Currently they visually decay, but we'd like more of a gameplay effect to it as well.
We're thinking about redoing how Utility Cabinets cover ground. Currently they cover a circle, or a radius around the building they're in, but we were thinking about having some sort of pylon or flag system where you specifically draw out how large you'd like of an area to cover, with a larger area costing more upkeep. We'd also do a small change where things on vehicles aren't covered by any Utility Cabinets not also on the vehicle (to allow for mobile bases).
I want to take a look and see if I can fix VOIP. It's never really worked super well, had lots of clicks and dropped voice, etc. so it would be nice to have it working seeing as we have a fully spatialized VOIP system in-game right now. Did you know hand radios/walkie talkies actually work? We'd like ham radios to work as well, and have some sort of intercom/speaker system you can build in your base.
We'll be continuing towards full controller support. We've finished most of the controller support outside of UI in prior updates, but we'd like to focus a bit more on it with 0.025.
We'll also be continuing with the conditions/medical and zombie difficulty rebalancing. It's a tenuous line to walk because we don't want to make the game too hard if you don't want it to be, so we try to avoid drastic changes and test these especially frequently.
Yan is continuing work on new vehicle networking and will be moving on to new inventory networking. These two components take up 90%+ of bandwidth in multiplayer and are two of the primary causes of server lag/desync, not to mention bugs with vehicles where collisions can be fatal. There should be at least some improvement in 0.025.
So that's about it for this news post! Hopefully everyone's enjoying 0.024 so far. Thanks for reading, and see you next time!