Update Details (18th May 2018) Big Map Expansion! Configurable hunter attacks, difficulty tweaks and more!

Hi guys! Today’s update brings a vast expansion to the west side of the map. A new forest type hugs the mountain slopes and stretches out around the large central lake. Waterfalls, streams, lagoons and cliffs offer new points of navigation and locations for interesting base designs.

I’ve implemented new tree and foliage types to give the new areas a distinct aesthetic from the previous regions of the world. The increased foliage density may affect the difficulty in finding resources. Let me know what you think once you’ve tried it out.

The large central lake is now fully accessible from all sides. It always bothered me to have to fence off the central section of the lake, so I’m pleased to have this opened up.

The expanded lake area also means there are much greater areas of deep water. These depths aren’t currently accessible due to oxygen capacity. I definitely want to explore some ideas so that there are reasons and means for players to explore these depths in a future update.

Configurable hunter attack settings:

Players can now choose the hunter attack setting that best suits their taste. There are 3 settings:

1. Normal attack patterns:

   Hunters will launch periodic attacks on player bases and revenge attacks.

2. Only revenge attacks:

   Hunters will only attack player bases if they are avenging a player attack against them.

3. Never attack:

   Hunters will still guard their territory, but will not launch attacks on player bases.

These new settings should give players better freedom to customize their own games. This setting can be changed whenever when launching a profile.

Reduced predator count in easy mode:

Many players have mentioned that the predators are too overbearing (no pun intended) in easy mode, and I have to agree. It’s not very welcoming to new players looking to get a feel for the mechanics to be bombarded by attacks. The reduction is close to 20%, so not a total nerf, but should make a positive impact for players of this mode. Note: This does not affect cougar spawns.

Compass:

Given the much larger space for players to explore, I’ve implemented a basic compass as an additional tool of navigation. This has been notably requested by co-op players, new to the game, to help locate one another.

This isn’t currently a craftable item, and simply displays as default in top-left of the hud. It didn’t seem worth making it craftable until there is a map implemented.

Base lights optimization:

Up until now interior base lights have been quite expensive on fps. This is due to their expensive dynamic shadow casting. It looks really cool, but could get needlessly taxing on system resources when there are many lights on at the time. I’ve implemented a system to dynamically toggle their individual shadow casting based on the current fps, so it should scale appropriately while maintaining a stable fps.

Increased Rogue Squads:

Due to the expanded map size, there are now slightly more rogue squads on the map at any given time. I’ll be keeping a close eye on how this balances out. I appreciate any feedback on this in the forums or discord.

Other notable changes:

• Fixed bug that caused predator to group-up at one particular spot on the map (details for those interested: https://steamcommunity.com/app/418030/discussions/0/2561864094348880301/).
• Fixed bug/exploit where clients of co-op games could build overly close to hunter bases (thanks GameEdged, Ohno, Emma, Selebear, Dread for finding this one ;) ).
• Added splashing particle effect for players running through water.
• Sinew removed from grenade recipe.
• Updated sound for upgrading structures to armor-plated.
• Glass roofs now require glass to repair (was previously wood).
• 9mm ammo now stacks to 50 and 7.62 stacks to 25 (included in prior hotfix).
• Added system to ensure more even spread of deer in the world.
• More pronounced hairs on wolves and bears.

Some players may feel that focus should have been on balance and expanding on gameplay mechanics. It’s important the map continues to grow incrementally to accommodate for future mechanics (there will certainly be more expansions in the future). I want travel and exploration to start to play a greater role as the game continues to grow. This month I had family visiting, so it made sense for me to take the opportunity and commit to a large map expansion for this particular sprint.

After such an art-heavy sprint, I’m really looking forward to moving onto many other pressing tasks. All with a much larger world to work within.

Thanks for everyone’s patience on this one. It means a lot to see support from players on the forums and discord. Please come and join the discord if you haven’t already (link below).

Hope you have a great weekend.
CG

Discord invite: https://discord.gg/zyy4jQs