Apocalypse Rising 2 Alpha Changelog 04/02/2021

Bulletin Board
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#1

Notice: Inventory data (player loot) was wiped for this update!

Power and Lights:

  • added indoor and outdoor dynamic lighting
  • added indoor light switches
  • added 4 handheld light tools (flashlights and a lantern)
  • added night time brightening effect when hand held lights are in use
  • added 6 power regions and power substations
  • added power routing and power controllers to substations
  • added power routing controls to the power station
  • added power and routing state displays to substations and power plant
  • rewrote time of day syncing for server and client
  • rewrote day/night cycle to be smoother
  • rewrote the lighting system to support future changes

This initial implementation of the power system is not going to resemble the final product. Currently substations can self manage their own power but in the future a stronger emphasis will be put towards the power plant for “directing” where power can go on the map. For now, there is enough power for every region, but this may not be the case long-term. There is also a lack of purpose for power beyond the lighting, but this will be expanded on in the future.

Vehicles:

  • rewrote the back end for vehicles
  • fixed various memory leaks associated with vehicles
  • fixed “double entry” bug when entering vehicles
  • changed entering vehicles to be seat specific instead of driver first
  • rewrote vehicle spawning behavior to be more efficient
  • fixed various bullet collision issues with vehicles and seated characters
  • fixed various small bugs with all vehicles

In the future we want to add changing seats without exiting the vehicle. The removal of the ‘driver first’ system is in preparation for that.

Firearms:

  • re-balanced all firearm effective ranges
  • re-balanced all firearm damage values
  • re-balanced most firearm aimed and hipfire accuracy values
  • re-balanced some firearm firerate values
  • added aim time to all firearms (firearms no longer instantly enter the aim state)
  • adjusted general handling speeds of all firearms
  • added 4 under barrel attachments (three grips, one laser)
  • added aim time, recoil, aim sway, and hipfire accuracy stat modifiers to relevant attachments
  • added aim time, handling, and sway stats to firearm hover text
  • changed how the on-screen crosshair sizes itself based on the equipped firearm’s hipfire accuracy stat
  • when grabbing ammo or firearms with matching caliber ammo, the items are briefly highlighted in your inventory
  • fixed various ammo transfer bugs that create negative ammo containers
  • fixed various state bugs with firearms

Although firearms seemed to be in a decent spot, were backed into a bit of a progression corner. We didn’t like that effective range wasn’t more prominent in fights, and we felt like the lack of variety in handling/aiming speeds created a muddy sandbox of firearms that didn’t allow each ‘class’ of firearm to shine. The changes made to firearms were done in attempt to better expand on the classes of firearms and the ranges they should be at peak performance. With the addition of underbarrel attachments and the inclusion of stat modifiers based on your attachments firearms are now in a position where they feel more specialized for certain jobs while still being buildable to perform well in other areas. The intent is to create a more purposeful approach to picking firearms to match your playstyle while not totally alienating your favorite guns from being usable in ways that aren’t the indented use cases.

This is an ongoing balancing process and we will made adjustments as we start to see feedback coming in. We ask that feedback is given in the context of the new sandbox and not as a complaint about how it changed from what it was/should be. We’d like to know your experiences with the new firearms, not your opinions from just staring at the numbers.

Character:

  • adding warnings for when your character is critically hungry and thirsty
  • added red flashing to the hunger and thirst meters when they are critically low
  • added blue energy drink and can of beans to your fresh spawn inventory (beans will no longer be generated as regular loot)
  • added new jumping and falling animations
  • made jumping and vaulting animation replication more consistent
  • adjusted the “can only run forwards” rule to properly ignore certain equipped items
  • adjusted the smoothing speeds for various animation transitions

Your can of beans is branded with your name. Treasure it, or eat it. It’s up to you.

Loot:

  • rewrote the loot spawning system to be more consistent and controllable
  • re-balanced all game loot to work better with the new “loot group” system

Loot will have ongoing balance chances as we dial in rarity. Spawn rates may not be perfect on release, so we’re especially looking for feedback on what is too hard to too easy to find.

Misc:

  • added AK-74/74U 45-round magazine
  • added two new parachute backpacks with color variants (just for capacity, not functional)
  • added new high-waist jeans with color variants
  • added some new infected outfits
  • added new interaction sounds for various new intractable objects
  • increased Baton damage from 30 to 35, and slightly increased attack time
  • increased Shiv damage from 30 to 35, and slightly decreased attack time
  • rewrote all raycasting systems to be more performant
  • rewrote infected ago and spawning to be more performant
  • made network and physics optimizations to the infected
  • rewrote interaction system to handle more granular interactions
  • rewrote the interaction system to be more performant
  • fixed a number of raycasting collision issues with certain items
  • fixed an issue where fresh players could spawn at rejoin spawn locations
  • fixed a number of rough UX issues when transferring ammo/items between containers
  • fixed some high-waist pants displaying incorrectly
35 Likes
#2

04/09/21

  • updated map image to display regional power states
  • added more cover to Salem bridge and the Ashland school
  • shifted position of some trees and rocks across the map
  • added a sandbar near Ashland
  • added a unique sound effect for when bullets hit body limbs
  • added health booster amount to group member UI
  • added stat change number indicator UI for the health, hunger, and thirst bars
  • added a setting to toggle the number changes on the hotbar stats
  • added new engine sound effects for the ATV and Tractor
  • players now take a maximum of 25 damage when exiting a vehicle moving over 20mph
  • players now play a stun animation when exiting a vehicle moving over 20 mph
  • vehicle engines now take damage when flipped or over water when the vehicle is off
  • added optic attachment point for the Python revolver
  • tweaked aim sway, aim time, effective range, and damage for some sniper rifles
  • tweaked spawn rates for most items, including firearms, backpacks, ammo, and consumables
  • reduced the amount of ammo that spawns with most firearms
  • fixed the laser dot appearing in the character creator
  • fixed a case where guns could be equipped when driving
  • fixed some vehicle entering and exiting issues
  • fixed some cases where vehicle seats could become perma-blocked
  • players can no longer equip items when stunned animations are playing
  • implemented a potential fix for flinging when climbing
  • fixed rare cases of roblox services erroring and breaking server loading
  • fixed zombies not properly aborting attack animations when staggered
  • fixed zombies despawning mid chase once you ran out of range from their initial spawn point
  • fixed a bug that let you slot the same item multiple times on the hotbar
  • removing items from the hotbar will now unequip the corresponding item if it is equipped
  • removed the blank label on the “Pockets” container in your held inventory
11 Likes
#3

4/21/21

Character:

  • added new footstep sound effects for all materials
  • added an input reset state when getting on a ladder (helpful when climbing down a ladder)
  • made getting on the tops of ladders more consistent
  • character limbs now react to bullet impacts (does not affect accuracy or the camera)
  • reloading and consuming food/water no longer cancels the action when falling small distances
  • players now slip down slopes steeper than 70 degrees
  • players can no longer be put into combat through walls**
  • fixed footstep sound effects failing to play beyond 100 studs
  • fixed an issue where corpses did not contain all of their loot

** Tracers can still put players in combat. The case has been changed from “passing near” to “visibly passing by” a player. In other words, you can’t shoot the side of a house and find out if somebody is inside it anymore.

Vehicles:

  • drivers can no longer use items when seated (passengers can still use items)
  • most 4-seat vehicles now seat 5 people
  • players now trip when standing on moving vehicles
  • vehicle camera position and zooming redone
  • fixed an issue where vehicle lights would flicker depending on where the player’s camera was pointing

Miscellaneous:

  • added a camera field of view slider setting
  • moderately increased civilian backpack spawn rates
  • slightly increased civilian firearm spawn rates
  • slightly increased base damage and headshot damage for some snipers, slight tweaks aim sway
  • the server will now warn players when it becomes unstable (the server may be more likely to crash when this message appears)
  • searching empty containers now greys out the interact UI
  • “open (empty)” has been renamed to just “empty” with gray text
  • infected no longer chase in direct lines, they now swerve off course a bit
  • infected now need to turn to face their target before they start chasing
  • fixed infected holding aggro after a player dies
10 Likes
#4

05/05/21

Character:

  • Renamed “Hunger” and “Thirst” to “Energy” and “Hydration” respectively for better clarity
  • Health loss rate from emptied energy and hydration stats is no longer influenced by movement state (jumping should not affect your health as much if you are starving)
  • Health loss no longer “double stacks” when both energy and hydration are drained
  • Energy now drains from full to empty in 18 minutes instead of 20
  • Health now drains from full to empty in 4 minutes instead of 3.3 minutes (when dying of hunger/thirst)
  • Sprinting state cost multiplier has been lowered from 2.5 to 2.25
  • Shortened the fall impact animation by 30%
  • Fixed falling and jumping having higher than intended state cost

Stat decay should be slower with the exception of Energy, which stays the same unless you’re walking. With the smaller sprinting state cost modifier, hydration should last longer, and with the removal of the state modifier influence on health loss you won’t die quicker because you were sprinting. Our goal with these changes is to make sprinting across long distances less punishing without diminishing the importance of consumables.

The Infected:

  • Infected no longer turn to face you when they attack or when they’re staggered
  • Infected should now properly make noises when off screen
  • Spawn rate decreased from 95% to 70% for most civilian infected locations
  • Fixed some zombies having double the intended field of view

Note: You may occasionally see infected without clothing due to a recent Roblox issue with SurfaceAppearance.

Miscellaneous:

  • Added safeguards to prevent arm animation bugs
  • Added additional ammo spawners to all black special forces firearm crates
  • Increased food spawn rates in most commercial kitchens and restaurants, also added some new spawn locations
  • Reduced aim time for all LMGs, rifles, and sniper rifles to be quicker, while still preserving weight (most handguns and SMGs were not changed)
  • Removed aim sway from all firearms and their stat pages
  • Changed relevant grips to affect hip fire accuracy instead of aim sway

Aim sway was a fun experiment and including it on all firearms became more of an annoyance than something you had to master. Rather than complicating the feature further to create an artificial skill ceiling we’ve decided to remove it entirely. Snipers were the primary target for aim sway, and since they’ve become 3-shot firearms we feel that removing sway makes them more accessible and practical without altering their balancing philosophy.

13 Likes
#5

11/12/21

We thought the big utility/inventory/infected update would be available by now! To hold players over in the meantime, we pushed this small patch.

  • Improved player spawn parameters so that players have a higher chance at spawning all around the map instead of the same location

  • Dramatically improved the spawn chance for firearms, attachments, and ammo

6 Likes