Lever-Action Rifle:
A new high-tier rifle can now be crafted at the workbench.
The LA Rifle uses the same 7.62mm cartridges as the existing rifle, but deals slightly more damage. However, this is at the penalty of a slower fire-rate due to the lever action between each shot. So it is a more powerful and cost-effective weapon, so long as the shots are accurate.
I've added stats for the LA in the player stats view:
The LA Rifle can also load a new ammo type (which the basic Rifle cannot), please see later in the patch notes for details.
You can checkout a short video of the LA Rifle here: https://youtu.be/5xmkOMUkf0s
Moonlit Nights and Moon Cycles:
I've finally taken some time to work on the night-time visuals and added a dynamic moon cycle.
This isn't a total nerf to the darkness of nights. The moon moves through its own cycles (currently set to 8 days), and the light emitted is dictated by its fullness. So there will still be many near pitch black nights.
It is also tied in with the weather system, such that if the skies are overcast, this will deprive players of brighter lit moony nights. I considered tying it in with months/seasons also, but given the adjustable nature of the seasons, I thought best to leave it as a separate system.
Physics Based Base Destruction:
Previously when base items were destroyed, they would simply disappear with a destruction sound. I've now added individual destructible meshes for almost all pieces.
Now during attacks/raids, building pieces will explode/collapse and glass will shatter into physics-based pieces. I think this greatly helps immersion during gameplay.
You can checkout a short video of the new destruction in action here (where I detonate a BCU on my own base): https://youtu.be/kCxeLkBHMxc
Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights):
Sometimes during clear nights, the northern lights will be visible and light-up the sky. This is not something that will happen every night and the intensity will vary across nights when they are visible.
As with the moonlight, storm fronts will obscure their visibility and their intensity will be muted by overcast skies. I think this adds some cool diversity to the world over the passing of time.
Big Performance Overall:
I have made some substantial performance improvements (for worlds that are highly populated with buildings and many light sources). The screenshots below shows a benchmark of these changes, comparing rendering a scene in Alpha 55 to Alpha 56 (using the world data from Europe#2). I will explain the technical changes below (for those interested):
Distant lights optimization: (dev details)
One of the most expensive performance costs are individual light sources. In densely populated profiles there may be hundreds of individual light sources dotted around the map, all casting rays and dynamic shadow cascades. Many having overlapping cascades (which can be extremely expensive).
- Many of these lights may be extremely far from the player to be barely visible, yet still use their same quota of GPU performance.
- There may be many lights in close proximity to one another, yet be so far from the player view they only occupy a tiny fraction of screen space (such as a base with 20 lights in the far distance).
- Lights would still render, even if they are muted-out by much brighter lights (such as midday sunlight).
I've added an LOD system to drastically reduce the number of light sources required to render the same scene.
- Far distant lights (in close proximity to one another) will now cluster into a single source (reducing the expense of ray casting and overlapping cascades).
- Lights that are overpowered by another light (meaning they would not be visible anyway) are now disabled.
- Lights that are entirely outside of the current view are disabled completely.
There may be some quirks with this new system, and I will continue to make tweaks moving forward. However the performance increase is huge and should benefit many players.
Putting buildables to "sleep": (dev details)
Another big performance improvement: Previously all buildables would "Tick" with the game engine, meaning each frame they run some logic to check if they needed to do something. When there are many 10's of thousands of buildables placed in the world, this can add a lot of performance cost.
In Alpha 56, buildables are now put to "sleep" when no events are occuring for them, and wake up only when needed. This takes a lot of pressure off the CPU and will allow further scaling of the game.
Plaid Shirt:
A new clothing item can now be crafted from the default player crafting menu. The shirt is an alternative to the existing high-tier t-shirt.
However it's properties are slightly different, whereby it offers slightly more warmth at the penalty of slightly less damage protection. So it is a good option for early spring and late fall.
First Person Clothing Modeling:
I've always found it very jarring to see bare arms in the first person view when my character is wearing long sleeved clothing. This was especially awkward to see during winter and blizzards.
I've now modeled first person versions of all of the long sleeved clothing items, which I feel helps a lot feeling continuity with your character.
Multiplayer Exploit Fixes:
Cracking Bases:
I have now prevented BCU Crackers and Breaching Charges being placed on player BCUs (when the server has PvP base damage disabled).
In addition to this, you can no longer extend the placement range of either item, avoiding the exploit of players placing BCU Crackers by extending their reach through windows etc.
Speedhack prevention:
I've added logic to detect players using speedhacks on dedicated servers (and kick them).
Fly-hack exploit patched:
Some players reported a physics exploit, allowing players on servers to defy gravity. This should now be patched.
Hackers are an unfortunate reality, but something I'm alway looking to patch/prevent as I continue development, so I appreciate the reports.
Ban players by Steam ids:
Previously server admins could only ban players if they were logged onto the server. You can now use the console to ban players using their Steam id (which is the numeric value in the url of their Steam profile). Type "help" in the console to view the available admin commands.
Once banned, you should see them listed under the Banned list in the server info UI (where you can choose to unban them).
Phosphate Ore and Phosphorus:
There is now a new ore type that can found while exploring the cave systems.
Phosphate ore is somewhat rare, and can be processed into Phosphorus in the refinery. Each piece of Phosphate Ore yields 3 Phosphorus once processed.
Incendiary Rifle Rounds
Phosphorus can be used to craft incendiary rifle rounds. These can only be used with the new LA Rifle (press Left-Alt to switch between ammo types).
Incendiary rounds deal the same initial damage as their standard counterparts, however will catch the target on fire for around 10 seconds, dealing continuous damage over that time.
Jumping into water will extinguish the fire.
Shift-RightClick To Split Item Stacks:
When splitting stacks, rather than having to right click on the item, you can now simply hold the shift key (or whatever you have bound to your sprint) and right click to split singles into another stack.
Fixed Incorrect Warmth %:
Clients of network games were displaying an incorrect warmth reading when near heating sources.
It was either showing 100% or nothing. It was also leading to an incorrect reading on the current world temperature (which displays at top left). This is now fixed.
Strength Boost:
Strength Boosts can be found under the default medicinal craft menu. These items will increase the player's physical strength by 1.5x for 3 minutes. This increases the speed of harvesting resources (chopping tree, ores, etc), melee damage caused to base items (breaking down doors, etc) and damage to humans and animals.
This can be useful for a burst of wood harvesting, or breaking into bases. A status icon will display on the right side of the hud indicating when the boost is active. The damage incurred to the tool will also increase to match the increased damage dealt.
Adrenaline Boost:
Previously the Adrenaline boost would simply replenish your stamina, but then (depending on your health stats) would immediately start dropping again.
Now the Adrenaline Boost will provide unlimited stamina for 3 minutes, regardless of your character's physical condition. A status icon will show on the right while it is active.
Added Additional In-Game Tips:
It's never been very clear that players can level-up their max health and stamina overtime by eating better quality foods. I've added an in-game tip to highlight this mechanic for new players.
It's also not obvious that players protein levels drop faster if the player is cold. So I've also added a contextual tip to explain this.
Players are issued a free heat pack when respawned during winter time. However this is not obvious and often leads to a death loop trying to get back to safety. I've added a one-time prompt to highlight this mechanic.
Filling Canteens and Washing Hands From Ice Holes:
You no longer need to jump into frigid water to collect water or wash your hands from iceholes. Simply stand next to the ice hole and right click on your canteen to fill with water. Or click use to wash your hands.
Structural Integrity (work-in-progress, not enabled in update):
I actually spent a full month this update working on a Structural Integrity system for base building. This restricts floating bases and ensures bases are structurally sound (or will otherwise collapse). The system is working well for the most part, however there are many loose ends that need tying up, and I didn't want to dedicate any further time to this one feature.
You can checkout this short video showing the feature in action (running on my dev build):
https://youtu.be/JTZEHli18lI
The blue flashing highlights you see in the video are just for my dev environment, to visualize the SI calculations rippling throughout the structure. I plan to revisit and complete this feature in the future, but right now it's on hold. I welcome feedback from players on the eventual introduction of this feature.
Fixed Elevator Bug:
Fixed a bug where the elevator could run off the tracks (and often being lost).
Delay Entering World Until Fully Streamed/Initialized:
Previously players would be dropped into the world before it had finished initializing (sp) or being fully streamed in from the server (mp). This would lead the player to glitch about on geometry that hadn't fully loaded. Players will now get a waiting screen until the world is ready.
Flashlight Battery Duration Extended:
A full battery charge on Flashlight Attachments now lasts 16 minutes (real world time). Was previously 12 minutes.
Other Notable Changes:
- Switched to new metallic materials for Double Barrel Shotgun Rifle.
- Added weapon handling sounds when raising/lowering weapons to aim down sights.
- Fixed ice hole clipping bug, that could result in falling under the world.
- Fixed bug where players couldn't cancel and exit out of chat while sitting on ground or in a chair.
- Fixed fishing line showing at weird angle if starting to fish while in 3rd person view.
- Fixed character standing at weird angle if switching view while exiting an ice hole (thanks Freaky P ;))
- Windows will now be destroyed if their wall frames are destroyed.
- Fixed various buildable's pitch and roll not replicating to clients of net games.
- Fixed bug where two weapons would show mounted in the work bench (one below the bench) for clients of net games.
- Fixed animation glitch where players could sit while in a falling state.
- Fixed clipping bug where players could glitch through geometry while sitting on sofas (sometimes leading to falling to their death).
- Inventory item blue highlight flash will now interrupt a previous flash, so feels much more responsive when splitting/transfering items in quick succession.
- Log files now capture when admins ban players.
- Fixed bug where dedicated servers could get into a restart loop, and machine needing resetting to fix the issue. This was caused by the server attempting to compile shaders (which it never needs anyway).
- For humans and animals on fire, the fire particle will now remain attached during ragdolling (previously would float at the death location).
Cheers,
CG
Discord invite: https://discord.gg/zyy4jQs
Twitter: @playSubsistence
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playsubsistence/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkQZ7vkTiqetTC0_8umY2Pg
Steam Forums: https://steamcommunity.com/app/418030/discussions/
Hosting Your Own Server:
If you would like to host your own dedicated server, I would recommend Nitrado (as I work closely with their team to support the game). You are also free to host on your own hardware, and the server files are freely available on SteamCMD.
You can view a detailed guide to hosting here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2201638184
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 (Philipp J. Rackl (LPCaiser))
Italian (Marcello Brancaccio, Federico D. Ravagli)
French (Anthony Charrault)
Czech (Dílna U mnicha)
Dutch (Damster_NL)
Danish (Jesper Vestergaard Bæk)
Russian (FRAME)
Turkish (Soulkast, Çagla Gurbet)
Swedish (Mattias Gustavsson)
Norwegian (Christer Djuvik, Svein Tore Stegemoen)
Romanian (VaeVictis)
Estonian (Streamerize)
Polish (Robertus Lubin)