Ice Fishing:
It is now possible to break through the surface ice on the frozen lakes (using an axe), allowing players to fish during the winter months.
With the axe equipped, look at the ice until a progress wheel displays, then begin chopping to create the hole. This can take a toll on the axe's condition, so keep an eye on its health bar.
Fishing in the ice hole does not require casting with the rod. Simply approach the hole with an equipped rod (and tackle) and an action prompt will display to start fishing.
Ice Holes and Winter Cave/Water Access:
Players can descend through ice holes, giving new access to water and cave locations throughout the winter. I've added a vault mechanic for pulling yourself out from an ice hole while underwater.
Ice holes will eventually refreeze over. I have code in place to reduce the rate of refreezing if a hole is being actively used, but it will eventually refreeze regardless.
*Be careful to carry an axe while exploring caves during winter, as you may need to break through the ice to exit the frozen lake on your return.
Beehives and Honey:
During the summer months, bees will now build hives that can be harvested for honey.
The hives are fairly rare and can be found attached to tree trunks. An axe or pickaxe can be used to harvest the hive to yield the honey.
Honey can be eaten raw and used in cooking recipes. Honey is currently the only food item providing a max-health/stamina boost in its raw form.
Bee Swarms:
Beehives are not dangerous unless a player attempts to harvest the honey.
Attacking a hive will unleash a deadly swarm of bees, so take stock of your current condition (and equipment) before attempting to harvest a hive.
*Many players have suggested a beekeeping mechanic being added. This is certainly something I'm considering for the future.
Catfish:
Catfish can now be caught in the various ponds around the world (they do not reside in the larger lakes). They are less active during the colder months.
They cannot be caught using fish traps, and require rod-fishing.
Pike:
Pike can be found in all the lakes/ponds in the world. They remain highly active during the winter months, due to being predatory fish.
They also cannot be caught using fish traps, and require rod-fishing.
Perch:
Perch can be found in all ponds/lakes, however are more common in ponds. They provide slightly more protein than the existing "small fish".
Perch can be caught in fish traps. The can be cooked whole, or harvested for fish oil.
Small animals now destroyed by live ammunition:
Small animals (rabbits and chickens) can now be killed by a single shot of any live ammunition. However doing so will destroy the potential resource gains and leave you with a mangled corpse (and a satisfying "splat" effect).
The only (current) use for mangled corpses is to allow it to decay into "rotten meat".
I feel this change is a more intuitive means of maintaining gameplay balance (rather than how it was previously).
*Bow-hunting and trapping will preserve the animal's resources for harvesting.
Curved, slanted glass walls:
This new glass building piece provides a slanted wall option for the curved variant.
It will attach to any curved foundation, ceiling and wall, and should offer new possibilities for some creative base designs.
New Animal AI Pathing Update:
I've finally addressed the exploit of guiding predators into trees to attack them with an axe.
I've added new pathing logic to allow them to negotiate trees while chasing prey. There is still a lot of future work I have planned for animal AI, but this should be a big improvement compared to how it was previously.
Rosehip Berries:
I've made more seasonal changes to the wild edibles in the world. During the colder months, blueberries will no longer be available, however rosehip berries will persist through the cold.
These tart berries come with a small hydration penalty (effectively making winter a little more of a struggle), so make sure to melt plenty of snow and keep a couple of canteens on you.
Wild Mushrooms:
The cave systems now have a wild edible. Edible mushrooms can be found/picked, growing on cave rocks while exploring.
They can safely be eaten raw. There currently aren't dedicated cooking recipes for mushrooms, but that will come in the future.
Honey-glazed Pork and Sauteed Vegetables:
Pork chops now have a dedicated cooking recipe, coupled with honey and grown vegetables.
This dish is the highest tier meal that can be cooked using the frying-pan (typically the baking pan is required for such stats-boosting recipes).
Fish Steaks:
I've added a new white fish item. This meat is now yielded from Bass, Pike and Catfish.
It can safely be eaten raw, but much better cooked. It has slightly lower stats than salmon fillets.
Customizable Glow Sticks Colors:
Players can now customize their glow sticks by choosing from a selection of colors.
Simply click on your glow stick to display it's contextual item display (at the top of the hud). Then select from the color-picker to apply your color of choice.
This should help teammates signal-to or identify one another, as well as offering additional visual customization.
Crayfish:
Crayfish can now be found in the various lakes and ponds, by catching them in fish traps.
They must be cooked on a fire before eating, or can cause infection.
Crayfish are only small but are a good survival dietary supplement. They offer slightly more protein than small fish or perch (however do not yield fish oil).
Free Camera Mode:
This is a cool new feature for admins of dedicated servers. Since Alpha 54, I have heard from many admins that they would like better control to monitor their server and have better access to the world (to perform cleanup etc).
When logged in as an admin, type "freecam" in the console to enter free-cam mode.
This will put you in a detached state, allowing you to fly around the map (even underwater and through cave systems). The speed of camera can be controlled by using the mouse wheel. The camera does react to collision, so you can't just clip through geometry.
While in this state, it is not possible to interact with items, however it is possible to use the "delete buildable" admin command. This allows admins to remove buildables by looking at them and using the "delete buildable" key, which is bindable in the in-game controls.
Teleport to Player:
In addition to free-cam mode. Server admins can now teleport directly to a specific player (they will be switched to free-cam mode to teleport).
To use this feature you must be logged in as an admin on a dedicated server. Open the in-game server stats menu and select the player you wish to teleport to. This will present a button to trigger the teleport with the other admin buttons on the right side.
*The viewed player will be unaware of the camera.
Sitting on the Ground:
Players can now choose to "take a load off" and sit down (without a chair).
I think this adds some cool immersion while resting by a campfire. This action can be set/rebound in the in-game controls (the default key is "/").
Seasonal Water Temperatures:
I've made some fairly large changes to water temperatures in the colder months. The water will now get much colder than previously. The temperatures are colder across easy/normal/hardcore.
Insect Repellant:
Found in the default medical crafting menu. This (fairly cheap) item provides temporary protection from insect bites/stings (useful for harvesting honey). While active, a status icon will show on the right side of the hud.
Currently the only insect threat are bee stings, however I have plans for mosquitos on the roadmap (still not totally confirmed yet however).
Save/Load-Game Improvements:
Since the launch of dedicated servers, extreme pressure was put on the previous save/load system. With many 10s of thousands of buildables populating the map on certain servers, it was leading to some saves being unable to load (caused by multiple 'false' infinite loop detections, etc).
I now have a more robust (async) job-handling system for the game to easily manage these large tasks. This issue became a bit of a "time-bomb" for popular servers, and I had to hurriedly hotfix this in for servers in the weeks after Alpha 54, but it's now polished and is implemented into the singleplayer mode. So if you had a HUGE profile that stopped being able to load, this should fix it. This should also alleviate the "frame-hitch" that can sometimes occur when the game saves during gameplay.
Harvesting Hitbox Updates:
Previously it was common to hit a tree or resource node, see a hit effect/sound, but no progress would be attributed to the harvesting process, feeling very glitchy and frustrating.
I've now addressed this, so what you see/hear should align correctly with what is being harvested.
No-Build Zones:
Many servers were having issues with players/teams building structures over cave entrances, preventing others on the server from accessing them. I've now added no-build zones to these areas, which should solve this problem for server admins..
Note: These no-build zones are not active in single player or player-hosted co-op games.
New Sounds for Opening Medical Crates:
Medical and ammo crates now have their own unique (and more appropriate) sound when opening.
Seasonal Fish-type Diversity:
Previously there was no change in the chances of catching a particular fish type across the months/seasons.
Now, not only do different lake types yield different fish types, but the months/seasons dictate the population/chance of certain fish types (example: it is now rare to catch a salmon during the winter).
Fixed Server List Crash:
Many (myself included) reported that the server list could sometimes crash the game while populating the list.
This was a massive pain to debug, however I believe I now have it fixed. The issue was caused by my aggressive handling of sorting algorithms as server results come in. I will keep an eye on this to verify the issue is closed.
Fixed Temperature Reading Errors In Hud:
Many players reported inconsistencies with the temperature displayed top-left, their clothing stats and the time at which they may start taking damage from exposure. This should now be fixed (caused by rounding of floating point values in the hud).
Lakes Now Freeze Regardless of Players In Caves or Diving:
Previously I added a placeholder fix, so that lakes would delay freezing if a player was diving or exploring the caves.
Now, since players have a means of escaping the ice, I have removed/altered this. It will still attempt to avoid freezing players/hunters in the surface ice however.
New Profile Stats Added:
All of the new fish are now tracked in the player stats.
Also rosehip and mushroom picking stats have been added.
Increased Temperature Penalty For Being Wet (Hardcore):
In hardcore the temperature penalty is now -5.5°C (was previously -4°C). Easy and normal are unchanged at -2/-4°C respectively.
Fishing Rod Improved Controls:
Previously, after striking and hooking a fish, if you pressed the reel-in key while the strike animation was still in motion, it would ignore the held-down keypress. This felt unpleasant.
Now you can hold the reel-in key during the strike animation, and it will begin reeling once complete.
Fixed Incorrect Animal State Showing In Animal Traps:
Animals would sometimes show as alive when looking at them in a trap, but then were actually dead when accessing the trap. This is now fixed.
Updated Menu Map:
The menu map has been updated with greater detail/density of foliage and trees.
Fixed Exploit Accessing Base Items Through Walls:
There was an exploit whereby when first joining a populated server, it would take some time to stream all the buildables in, and it was possible to access base items through a wall. I've now added additional server-side checks to ensure bases are protected from this theft.
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
New Languages Supported:
I have added new support for the following 3 languages (bringing total languages supported up to 23):
Arabic(currently working on addressing some rendering issues for Arabic)- Vietnamese
- Thai
Other Notable Changes:
- Prevented audio, glitching in/out while the game world is in the process of loading in. Now audio will smoothly transition in when your boots hit the ground.
- Console now shows welcome message, displaying the "help" command to list available commands.
- Fixed bug where mounted weapon could become misaligned when moving the workbench.
- Fixed bug/exploit where base items could be moved out of a base into another, without transferring it's connection from the original base.
- Added subtle dark gradient behind bottom-left hud messages (for better contrast/visibility).
- Prevented tossed items from sticking to base walls like velcro (they should now drop to the floor as expected).
- Fixed "winter-warning" not showing when joining a server in winter.
- Added error message when attempting to join a server running a different alpha version.
- You can now press escape to exit out of confirm popups.
- Fixed bug where a confirm popup would get stuck on the screen, requiring a game restart.
- Fixed bug where clients of network games wouldn't recognize a clip-size upgrade on a weapon, resulting in them not being able to reload the weapon if it's clip was above the default clip-size count.
- Fixed rare bug where clams and sandstone nodes would disappear when swimming close to them.
- Fixed bat hanging animation not playing for clients of network games.
- Added brief fade from black when entering a profile or respawning after death.
- Fixed bug with food perish times, where a complete stack could disappear after just one of it's stack perishes.
- Added admin console command to disable all base lights on a server. This is a bit of band aid due to base lights having a performance cost if used excessively on servers with many structures, and players leaving all their base lights on when logging off. A true performance fix will come for this in the future.
- Strawberries and rosehips can now be used to bait small animal traps.
- Fixed bug where it was still possible to access enemy woodburners, even when the server was set to disallow access of other players base items.
- Fixed underwater gap in the fenceline in the large eastern lake.
Summary:
I hope everyone's having a great holiday period (after a pretty tough 2020). I'm excited for 2021 and to continue working on the game and moving it forward. Thanks to everyone that's been supporting the game during its development. I still have a lot planned for its future! Happy New Year!
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/
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)