SEASONS:
Alpha 50 finally brings seasons to the game. The world will now dynamically transition through all 4 seasons, affecting both the visual aesthetic and many gameplay mechanics.
Seasonal Visual Transitions:
Almost every type of foliage and tree has been hooked-up to a new system to handle smooth visual transitions through the various seasons.
Spring:
In early spring, grass will start to grow and sprout an assortment of flowers across the various meadows, woodland and mountain slopes. Trees that have shed their leaves will regrow their canopies. Rivers and lakes will thaw as the daily temperatures rise.
Summer:
During the summer months, as temperatures rise, the spring foliage recedes and much of the grass will go to seed.
Fall:
As fall settles in and the heat subsides, the trees and foliage will transition to autumnal shades of reds, oranges and browns. Dead leaves will blow in the wind as the moose enter their rutting season.
Winter:
Winter brings harsh cold temperatures, snow and blizzards. The rivers and lakes will freeze and many species of trees will become bare of leaves. Much of the grass will die or be buried by snow. The severity of the cold temperatures (and heat during summer) are adjusted for easy/normal/hardcore modes. This short video shows an example of a winter blizzard:
Watch on YouTube
Snowfall:
Ground snow accumulation is based on snowfall, meaning as winter rolls in, it is the weather that will dictate the buildup of snow on the ground and rock formations.
Seasonal Trees:
Many of the tree canopies will change throughout the seasons. Below shows an image of the same forest scene across summer/autumn/winter.
Heat Hydration and Cold Protein Depletion:
Getting too cold will now slowly deplete protein levels, and while too hot will deplete hydration levels faster then usual.
A new “heat-tolerance” meter now shows in the player’s clothing profile. Different clothing items will affect this level. If the temperature rises above this level, the player will start losing hydration at a faster rate (and this will be indicated by a “HOT” status icon).
So carry extra fluids on hot summer days, or take a swim to cool-off.
Radiators:
Players can now craft radiators from the BCU craft menu.
Radiators kick-out more heat than campfires/woodburners (allowing for higher altitude base-building). They also have a much greater range, so can get better coverage through the base. Being within range of Radiator heat, gives a slight increase to health regeneration speed.
Radiators draw power from the base when active. While active, the heat elements will light up and emanate heat waves. Heat generated by radiators is affected by interior insulation properties (see below).
Air Conditioners:
During the heat of the summer, bases can get very hot indoors. Air Conditioners (found in the BCU craft menu) can drop internal base temperatures by as much as -20°.
The fan blades animate and the cooling element will light up while the AC is running.
New Temperature and Base Insulation Mechanics:
Up until now, heat from a fire was either on or off, regardless of proximity to the source. Now the influence of fires (also radiators and AC units) falls-off as players move further away. It’s percentage of influence is now displayed over the status icon.
In addition to this, both the radiator and AC unit are influenced by insulation in the base. If you have an open-air base, heat from the radiator will be diminished greatly over distance. However an enclosed base will make much better use of radiator heat and AC cooling. I’m not using true volumetrics for this calculation, so leaving a door open won’t deplete the base of heat, however standing by an open doorway will be cooler.
Melting Snow:
During the winter months, while the rivers and lakes are frozen, players will need to melt snow in their canteens to acquire water.
Simply stand on snow and the “fill with snow” action will show under the right-click menu. You can also use shift-click.
Moose Rutting Season:
During mid-September through mid-October, moose will enter their rutting season. During this period they will become highly aggressive and instead of fleeing from players, will stand their ground and attack/chase.
When entering this period, all players will be notified. Also an additional icon will show next to the month reading in the top left for the duration. Players should be cautious of moose encounters during this time.
Frozen Rivers and Lakes:
Through the depth of the winter, the rivers and lakes will freeze over. This means certain resources such as kelp, clams, sandstone, fish will be unavailable. Also crystal, as cave access will be restricted. However traversal across lakes will be easier, as you can simply run across the ice.
I’ve seen many players comment on ice-fishing, so this is something I’m considering adding.
White Wolves (and Bear Hibernation):
During the winter months bears will go into hibernation and white wolves will emerge onto the landscape.
White wolves are more camouflaged to their environment, have higher hitpoints and yield more loot than standard wolves.
Pickable Cotton:
During fall months, cotton can be found and picked around the world. These plants will either give you one piece of cotton or a seed.
Water Temperatures:
Previously water temperatures were the same as world temperatures (apart from the -4°C wetness penalty). Water temperature is now treated separately.
Winter Jacket:
The winter jacket offers decent warmth during cold months. However, it offers little protection from physical damage. It also uses the chest armor clothing slot, so cannot be worn with combat vest or diving gear.
Sweater:
Sweaters provide better warmth than any of the existing shirts or hunter jacket, but offer less hit damage protection.
Weapon Usage Damage and Maintenance:
Firearms and bows now take usage damage. Once depleted of health, they will become unusable and require maintenance.
Broken weapons will show a red X over the item. Right-clicking will show a repair button, which shows the repair recipe as you hover over it. The recipe changes based on how damaged the weapon is.
Upgraded Weapons Repair:
Weapons with upgrades are more expensive to maintain. This increased cost is only applied for “increased damage” upgrades.
Clothing Damage and Repairs:
Clothing now also take damage and will need to be repaired.
Damage is caused to items depending on where the damage was inflicted. Once worn clothing is reduced to zero health, it will be moved into the main inventory. So if your inventory is full, be aware the clothing item will be dropped. There will be an audible “ripping” sound when a clothing item’s health reaches zero.
Clothing Stats:
The individual stats (damage and warmth) for clothing items can now be viewed in the craft menu, and in the hover-tip for the item.
Hunter Seasonal Clothing:
Hunters (including rogues) will now dress accordingly for the time of year.
During the winter months they will wear camoed variants of the winter jacket. This will substitute any combat armor, so generally they will be less protected from gunfire.
During fall and spring you will see them wearing sweaters and t-shirts.
Status Icons Update:
I’ve updated the status icons to also now display text. Also have a back shadow, so easier to see over the background.
Heat Packs:
Heat packs provide a short period of warmth (regardless of world temperature). Currently set for 2 minutes. While active a heat icon will show.
In normal and hardcore modes, players spawned in the wilderness during winter will be issued a free heat pack as part of their starting loadout (to help with their journey back to base).
Wolf and Bear Fur Update:
Difficult to display in the image below, but bears and wolves now have much denser hairs on their bodies.
New Fishing Line Simulation:
I’ve finally added a simulation for the fishing line, connecting the rod to the float.
This feature actually rolled out (unmentioned) with the previous performance hotfix, but it deserves a mention as I feel it makes fishing way more immersive, seeing the line tighten and jerk around as fish fight as you reel them in (also was a lot of work :) ).
Item Dropdown Menus Alignment Fix:
I’ve fixed the annoying alignment issue on item dropdown menus. Often then would render offscreen, requiring players to move the item to select actions (especially for toolbelt and clothing items).
Reduced Loot During Winter:
Crates and dropped hunter kits have slightly less loot during the winter months.
Dropped Kits Now Save:
Previously if a player exited the game while their dropped kit was yet to be collected, it would not save and be lost. This is now corrected and will still be there after reloading the profile.
Extra Server Details and Seasonal Warnings When Joining:
Selecting a public server in the server browser will now display the current time of year that server is in, and also the current version of the game.
When attempting to join a server that is currently in winter, the player will be prompted by a warning advising so.
Seasons Duration:
Currently each season lasts 6 in-game days, so around 14 hours of gameplayer per year. In the future I plan to allow players to configure this themselves.
Editing The Current Month:
It is possible to override the current month when launching a profile. Simply click the ‘Edit month’ next to the current month on the profile.
This should give players some freedom to exit from winter, or play any season of their choice without disrupting their progress.
Lightning Can Now Be Disabled:
Several players reported discomfort with the bright lightning flashes during storms, so I’ve added a toggle for these flashes in the in-game settings.
River Water Transitions:
Previously there was a jarring visual cutoff where river water would transition into lakes. I’ve now fixed this so the transition is blended smoothly.
New Language - Estonian:
Huge thanks to Streamerize for localizing this version!
Other Notable Changes:
- Prevented infection from animal attacks during the first day on easy and normal modes (full day for easy and 0.6 of a day for normal).
- Increased speed at which fish are reeled in when fishing.
- Increased distance at which loot will not despawn near players.
- Added subtle metallic reflections to base armor-plating.
- Updated almost all foliage (grass, flowers, bushes) such that wind will only affect the upper part of the plants. Previously roots of grass would move in unison with the upper part.
- The menu map will now display in the same season as the most recently saved SP profile save.
- Fixed rare bug where wind turbines would not turn and generate power.
- New sound for picking up plants.
- Added one second delay preventing players from drinking from a canteen after filling with dirty water (to prevent accidental infection).
- Reduced volume of the double barrel shotgun fire sound.
- Slightly reduced the number of ore nodes in the world (and decreased their size).
- Prevented edge-case where fishing tackle would fall through the ground if cast on to the ground or river.
- Higher tier shirts and pants now require the lower tier as part of their crafting recipe.
- A random clothing item is no longer deleted on death (in normal mode).
- Starting M9 and low tier pants now start on low health.
- Added lower poly LOD’s for all clothing and human meshes.
- Fixed sudden lighting changes while transitioning into evening/morning during cloudy/rainy days.
- Fixed bug where the light from a fire wouldn’t move for clients of co-op games if the fire was moved.
- Alpha version number now displays at the top right of the hud.
- Prevented edge-case in hardcore mode where premium weapons parts could be excluded from hunter base destruction crates.
Summary:
Please note that this is the first step in truly bringing seasons to life in the game, and lays a foundation for seasonal specific elements for future and existing features.
This one has been tricky to balance. In particular the temperatures, being influenced by time-of-day, time-of-year, weather, wetness, altitude, clothing, sheltered-amount, artificial heating/cooling. I imagine I will follow this release with some balancing hotfixes once players have given me feedback.
Thanks for everyone’s patience while I worked on this one. Please share your thoughts on the new changes and what you’d like to see in the game moving forward.
Cheers,
ColdGames
Discord invite: https://discord.gg/zyy4jQs
Twitter: @playSubsistence
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playsubsistence/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkQZ7vkTiqetTC0_8umY2Pg
Continued Translation Support Credits (in no particular order): Thank you so much for the support.
Spanish (David Lascasas)
Hungarian (Erb Ármin)
Portuguese BR (Thiago Schumacke)
German (LPCaiser)
Italian (Marcello Brancaccio, Federico D. Ravagli)
French (Anthony Charrault)
Czech (Dílna U mnicha)
Dutch (Damster_NL)
Russian (FRAME)
Turkish (Çagla Gurbet)
Swedish (Mattias Gustavsson)
Norwegian (Christer Djuvik, Svein Tore Stegemoen)
Romanian (VaeVictis)
Estonian (Streamerize)