Today, we’ve updated the First Seven Days build for the last time. Before you panic (man, I hope you kept reading), what we mean is future updates will open up the build beyond the first week. Internally, we have been working on creating content, implementing progression, and refining or fixing systems. The system changes are reflected in the 7 Days build. Some of you have written to us (or shouted at us in all caps) about why we limited the build to 7 Days and the simple answer for why we didn’t open it up more is this: You would hate us. A lot.
What I mean is that a lot of testing and polish goes into “final” content before it’s ready to be released to the general gaming public. With a big game like Dead State, this is especially true. While there seems to be this prevailing idea that developers create games pretty quickly and then piece them out or sit on finished work until they see fit to distribute it, the truth is that much of this content is constantly in flux between the original idea to a basic first pass on the design to a kind of okay but buggy version and finally to a state where it feels like it belongs in a game you would actually want to play. Some of the content in the Early Access build is still unpolished, but many of the levels, encounters, and game events that you will eventually experience can be in an entirely too early state to release to the public. For example, a map without enemies… or loot… or exits. Encounters that may be too hard for the first week, might be way too easy 30 days in. NPCs will die… and then show up alive again in places they weren’t supposed to. It’s like watching a rough cut of a movie – the pacing isn’t quite right, you can still see the wires in stunt shots, and instead of CGI, there’s a guy holding up a mark to show the actors where the dinosaur will eventually be.
While there’s still a lot of work to do and some of the future content will still be rough around the edges when the time limit is lifted, rather than focus on two separate builds, we’re going to focus all our attention on our Beta progression build for the next update. This means a lot of pieces are being assembled as a whole for the first time and there are likely to be mechanical problems. But, we’re going to be taking a lot of time to get as much of it right for the next update as possible (design has mostly been focused on this for the last few weeks). It’s been something we’ve been planning to do, but we wanted to make sure that we took care of system priorities before we tackled the bulk of progression testing.
But more on progression next time. For now, please check out the new features in the current update – we’ve added tweaks to statuses and armor, AC/Resistance info on the equipment screen, a whole lot more thrown weapons, and many bug fixes. We would appreciate any feedback you have on the build. If you still want more info, you can keep up with the latest from design in our Monday Design update series on the forums. We are also able to answer your questions right on the Steam forum. As always, thanks for your continued patience and support.
(On a more personal note, development during Beta implementation can be highly stressful for the devs and many of us are working 10+ hours a day to get Dead State in the best shape we can. We would greatly appreciate if some of you don’t read this and post “where’s the Beta?!” every day until we release it. We tend to not give dates on the off chance that something goes horribly wrong on the day of an update and we’re forced to push it back, which tends to ruffle a large constituency of our forum-going public. So, please, bear with us while we assemble this big ball of scripting logic that is progression testing. Thanks!)
- Added a brand new status effect: poison! Scientists alter their weapons with harmful chemical agents. Every point of science skill increases your chance to cause the poison effect on human enemies.
- Added several thrown & placed weapons: firecracker, mine, noisemaker, grenade, incendiary grenade, tear gas, nerve gas, and bola. These weapons are still being balanced. They can be found in a few loot containers in different areas.
- Added a summary screen upon return to the shelter that recaps found items and shows auto-stocked items.
- Added facing bonuses.
- Fixed the weight restrictions on carrying capacity to work correctly(!).
- Fixed an issue with save/load not preserving health status.
- Fixed an issue where enemies occasionally spawned on top of occupied squares.
- Fixed blind status to remain active for 45 seconds after combat ends.
- Fixed an issue where bleeding effect still occurred even when armor absorbed all damage
- Fixed an issue where thrown weapons cost 0 AP. They now cost 4 AP to use.
- Fixed issues with loot on the Coyote’s supermarket level not being accessible.
- Fixed an issue where multiple custom character names were showing up in list on shelter inventory.
- Fixed an issue where fence goal was not counted as completed if fixed on Day 1.
- Fixed an issue where animation stopped being updated after knockdown with bleeding.
- Hid the job board on Day 1 for gameplay/story intro reasons.
- Fixed an issue where shelter loot was maximized.
- Fixed an issue where recurring goals reflected total end goal rather than milestone goals.
- Fixed a container that couldn’t be looted in Mason Supermarket.
- Fixed an issue where door frame sizes and doors were mismatched.
- Fixed a container that couldn’t be looted in Human Campsite.
- Fixed a container that couldn’t be looted in Llano Commercial.
- Fixed an issue where filter tabs on inventory became disabled after use.
- Added resisted damage to the information reported in the message box.
- Added missing reload sounds for several weapons.
- Fixed additional Daily Results Screen calculation issues.
- Fixed an issue where the crossbow disappeared after being fired.
- Fixed an issue where the same undead model was spawned by noise.
- Fixed a container that couldn’t be looted in Undead Attack random encounter.
- Fixed an issue where characters occasionally floated around on their backs and no longer showed animations.
- Fixed an issue where passing the mouse cursor over someone when attempting to heal would change the cursor to attack.
- Changed the blind status to now give -30% to hit chance and -30% to evade.
- Changed the arm sprain status to now give -10% to hit chance. It is still a long-term status.
- Changed the leg sprain status to now give -10% to evade chance. It is still a long-term status.
- Fixed bulky armor to now subtract an AP from the wearer as intended by design.
- Fixed special weapons such as stun gun and pepper spray so that their limited charges were working by design.
- Fixed a bug where characters would come back to life from bleeding status effect.
- Fixed a bug where allies spoke an incorrect bark upon death of ally.
- Fixed a bug where critical chance was not being figured into attacks appropriately.