12/18/2021
NOTICE: Render performance (low FPS in some cases) is a known issue and it will be improved in the immediate future
Holiday Event:
- Snow has been added to the map
- Santa’s Workshop has appeared, and his crashed sleigh can be found in various locations across the map
- A Snow variant of the Ghillie Suit can be found in white gift boxes at sleigh crashes and at Santa’s Workshop
- Infected Elves (mini-bosses) and Infected Santa (boss) has been added to the workshop and sleigh crashes
- Santa and Elf outfits can be found at sleigh crashes and at Santa’s Workshop
- Mysterious snowmen have appeared in various locations across the map
- All 12 of the new holiday cosmetics may only be unlocked during the event
Holiday event lasts until January 10th, 2022!
Random Events:
- Added helicopter crash sites that will randomly appear at set locations in the game
- Crash sites are a very good source of special forces and military loot
- Crash sites may spawn boss/mini-boss infected with unique loot drops
- Random events will not respawn their loot or infected once looted/killed
- Random events will not spawn or despawn near players, they will only do so when out of sight
- Removed all static helicopter crash sites in favor of the new events
Game Menu:
- Implemented new inventory UI and layout for equipped items
- Added hover-text information for cosmetics in the character creator (this includes items that have not been unlocked)
- Added simple descriptions for most items in the game
- Added a utility container as an equip slot for certain utility items
- Added a visual representation of your character when in the inventory
- Improved a number of drag-and-drop behaviors
- Added dynamic pop-out windows for managing equipped item attachments
- Improved a number of latency-hiding systems in the inventory
- Adjusted the UI elements for skin previews
- Fixed inventories becoming “scrambled” when backpacks are swapped
Utilities:
- Re-categorized all flashlights to be utility items
- Added Binoculars and Military Rangefinder (binoculars can be used to identify player usernames and infected, the rangefinder measures distance in studs)
- Added four types of “deployable” light utility items (chemlights, road flare)
- Non-deployable utility items may be stored in the new utility container within the inventory (these utilities can be bound to the hotbar)
Character:
- You can now sprint while consuming or using items (this includes medical items)
- Increased the minimum fall distance required to cancel item usage
- Adjusted the turning speed of characters to be more snappy
- Refactored a majority of the character and item controller systems
- Fixed character arm animations and firearm animations being out of sync with the camera
Infected Overhaul:
- Major refactor to infected behavior system
- Added new sounds for all infected states and actions
- Infected now require a short time to “spot” players before attacking
- Attacking an idle infected with a melee weapon from behind will instantly kill it (this does not work on players)
- Changed infected stun animation to no longer reset if it is already stunned (time your attacks to keep the infected stunned)
- The infected are now attracted to noise and will attempt to search for its source (crouching is silent, but running, sprinting or using items may be heard at short distances)
- Infected will try to avoid obstacles or climb over them (windows, furniture, fences, vehicle wrecks, etc.)
- The infected now have a chance to “punch” open doors and break windows
- Infected can now be identified using binoculars
- Most infected animations have been updated to newer iterations
- Fixed and improved some cosmetics for infected
The newest iteration of the infected has made them a lot more dangerous, while also being a lot more readable. The movement state and actions of your character will create “noise” that may trigger nearby infected to investigate. Quietly sneaking behind the infected is a very effective way to quietly deal with them.
When the infected initially see a player within their sight range, they’ll begin to fill an “aggression meter”, presented as an exclamation point icon. Once this icon flashes, the infected will begin chasing and attacking the spotted player.
Along with these changes in behavior, infected now have the ability to vault over ledges, open doors, break windows, and move around (or climb over) most objects in their way.
Unique Infected:
- Added dozens of new infected all over the map, including common, unique, and boss/mini-boss infected
- Added dozens of new outfits, loot drops, and spawn locations for infected
- Added a variety of unique infected that may carry firearms and backpacks (if these items are visible on the infected, they will drop as loot)
- Increased spawn chance for most boss and mini-boss infected
- Boss infected now deal 25 damage per hit
- Mini-boss infected now deal 20 damage per hit, and may spawn alongside some bosses, in groups, or on their own
- Boss and mini-boss infected cannot be stunned
- Changed all boss and mini-boss infected to no longer stun players
Firearms and Ammo:
- Added Gunmetal and Vibrant firearm skin packs (flat color)
- Added AKM/AK-47 drum magazine as an uncommon loot drop from the Infected Spetsnaz (boss)
- Added extended M9 as an uncommon loot drop from the Infected Admiral (boss)
- Added a limited number of individual rare ammo spawns to existing rare firearm spawn locations
- Increased the range at which gunshots can be heard from
- Rebalanced the fades and effects for distant gunshot sounds
- Changed all firearm effective range stats and damage falloff distances
- Firearms now deal a set minimum amount of damage if the target is beyond the falloff distance (no more 0 damage hits)
- Windows now break and allow bullets to pass through them on the same shot
- Reworked how firearms shoot to be more time accurate
- Optimized tracers and bullet impacts to be more performant
- Reduced bullet drop for L96A1, PSG-1, and Mosin PU Sniper
- Increased spawn rates for most firearms, attachments, and individual ammo items
- Reduced the amount of ammo most firearms spawn with (to compensate for the increased spawn rate)
- Rebalanced the amount of ammo that boxes and magazines spawn with, depending on caliber/type
- Slightly increased recoil for M60 machine gun, and M14 Battle Rifle
- Slightly adjusted rate of fire for some firearms
Melee Weapons:
- Implemented new weapon swings sounds
- Added “Multi Hits” and “Stuns Infected” to stats
- Adjusted damage swing speed for all melee weapons
- Changed ability to stun infected, stun duration, and ability to hit multiple targets for some melee weapons
- Melee weapons can now damage vehicles (hull only, for now)
- Melee weapons will now cause players and infected to visually flinch when hit
Cosmetics and Clothing:
- Added business casual and business suit outfits with multiple color variants
- Added improved green/grassy variant of the Ghillie Suit that only spawns at helicopter crash sites
- Removed old Ghillie Suit as a possible loot drop, BUT any player who unlocked at least ONE of the outfit pieces will now have all three pieces unlocked (the old Ghillie Suit has effectively become an Alpha-tester-only outfit for those who found at least one piece)
- Fixed loot spawn for Red Hawaiian Shirt
- Fixed loot spawn for Sport Shades
Backpacks:
- Added small Drawstring Bag with color variants
- Added Heavy Rucksack with color variants
- Increased capacity for some large-capacity backpacks (new maximum is 56 instead of 48)
- Increased spawn rates for lower capacity backpacks
- Increased the scale of the Rucksack (to visually compensate for its increased capacity)
World and Loot:
- Added small patches of sand and rocks between Lulu Island and Halsey Island
- Added more readable names to a number of loot containers
- Improved detail model loading when chunking new parts of the map
- Optimized world chunking to be smoother when loading and unloading
- Optimized a number of memory-heavy structures and objects
- Optimized loot model memory usage and drawing speed
- Optimized the server’s loot cycling system to be quicker
- Optimized the client’s ability to view nearby loot
Vehicles:
- Readjusted how “loud” vehicles are to the infected
- Changed Tractor and ATV to be just as fast on the road as they are off-road
- Changed Tractor and ATV to spawn with less damaged wheels
- Slightly increased Tractor and ATV maximum speed
- Improved hitboxes for multiple vehicles, especially boats
Miscellaneous:
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Added a new sound mixing system to various parts of the game. This system allows us to make sure important sounds can be heard louder over less important sounds. E.g the infected “target spotted” sound being louder than their idle sounds.
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Refactored a majority of the animation systems to perform better and to be properly reusable. The character, inventory preview, and main menu now use this feature.
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Consumables and other “timed-use” items have had their back-end system refactored to be more secure and less prone to abuse.
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The client’s lighting system was overhauled to have better scene control and smoother interpolation when synced with the server’s clock.
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Fixed an issue where naturally spawned ammo items didn’t update their count when being used in any combining action. This should also improve the responsiveness of vehicle storage.
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Reworked the abort logic, and the uses for abort logic, for when the inventory can’t manage items in a way the client requested. Items should no longer destroy themselves in certain situations. They should be dropping on the ground instead.
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Walking over areas with lots of ground loot should be significantly faster and have less of an FPS hit when items are initialized on the client.
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The character position validator has been upgraded and should be performing better. There should be far less cases of invalid rubber-banding.
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The system that converts world positions to chunk names was optimized and should improve performance for a number of chunk-name related systems.
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A number of user interface classes have been refactored to perform better and make better use of the game’s framework.