Update 0.5.4 - Weapons, Enemy AI, World Improvements & Multiplayer Fixes

Hello, dear players!

Weapons and Combat

• Added and integrated the sawed-off shotgun and machete.

• Added shotgun ammunition, inventory entries, world pickups, icons, and loot distribution.

• Introduced a new melee combat system with randomized attack animations, stamina consumption, hit detection, impact sounds, effects, and camera shake.

• Made firearm hit detection server-authoritative for more reliable shooting in multiplayer.

• Added separate accuracy settings for hip fire and aiming down sights.

• Improved shotgun pellet distribution and damage calculation.

• Added surface-specific bullet impacts, including particles, sounds, and decals.

• Added muzzle flashes, tracers, shell ejection, and new weapon sound effects.

• Improved first-person weapon alignment while aiming down sights.

• Added empty and tactical reload variants.

• Fixed automatic reload behavior and several cases where firing or reloading could become temporarily blocked.

• Fixed remote weapon animations and prevented duplicate effects or animation events.

• Reduced friendly-fire damage between players.

• Improved weapon noise and damage reporting so enemies can react more consistently.

• Improved the flare gun, its animations, projectile behavior, effects, and multiplayer handling.

• Fixed world pickup sounds for other players in multiplayer.

Enemies

• Reworked and optimized behavior trees for all zombie variants and the Statue enemy.

• Improved enemy reactions to sight, sound, and damage.

• Reduced unnecessary per-frame AI processing.

• Fixed zombie collision and improved weapon hit detection against enemy bodies.

• Fixed a Statue enemy runtime error triggered by physical animation after mine explosions.

• Adjusted the Statue enemy's balance by reducing its sight and hearing ranges and lowering its chase speed.

• Added dedicated navigation blockers to keep Statue enemies inside their intended buildings.

• Increased the initial enemy budget for both daytime and nighttime encounters.

Radiation and Healing Rework

• Radiation is now significantly less punishing.

• Radiation no longer deals damage over time. Instead, accumulated radiation reduces the player's maximum health.

• The first 50 points of radiation are completely safe and have no negative effects.

• Updated the HUD to clearly show how much maximum health is blocked by radiation.

• Medkits no longer require players to hold the left mouse button. Their full healing effect is now applied instantly.

• Increased the effectiveness of large medkits and large anti-radiation kits.

• Fixed health and stamina bar updates.

• Fixed health visualization when maximum health is reduced by radiation.

• Added stamina costs for jumping and sprinting.

• Reduced stamina consumption while sprinting.

• Improved fatigue state handling while driving vehicles.

World and Exploration

• Improved geometry and collision throughout the Main Forest.

• Cleaned up and repositioned objects at several points of interest.

• Moved the evacuation radio to a dedicated location near the helipad.

• Replaced lanterns with light sticks in selected areas.

• Added extra loot crates around the world.

• Updated loot tables, containers, puzzles, evacuation content, electricity placement, and vehicle-related assets.

• Improved player spawning and teleportation by waiting for walkable terrain and collision to finish loading.

• Fixed visible landscape seams during nighttime.

• Rebuilt world optimization data and updated level streaming content.

• Added map markers for teleport anomalies.

• Improved flare projectile performance by reducing unnecessary lighting and shadow calculations.

Quests, Compass, and Interface

• Added compass markers for all currently available objectives, visible from up to 1,000 meters away.

• Added dedicated compass markers for the evacuation radio and the active helipad.

• Improved compass marker behavior for both hosts and clients.

• Quest markers now disappear reliably when an objective is completed, failed, or timed out.

• Fixed compass toggling.

• Fixed the controls menu so configured input bindings appear correctly.

• Added a quick-access information icon near the hotbar.

• Improved interaction prompts so they can update while the player continues looking at the same object.

Items and Equipment

• Reworked the held-item system for more reliable first-person and third-person presentation.

• Improved item attachment, visibility, shadows, animations, and multiplayer synchronization.

• Improved medkits, anti-radiation kits, throwable items, the flare gun, and other existing equipment.

• Improved refueling feedback with unique interaction prompts for generators and ATVs.

• Fuel cans can now be stacked in the inventory.

• Refueling consumes one complete fuel can. Partially filled fuel cans no longer exist.

• Shoulder lights now have unlimited charge and use occasional randomized flickering instead of battery depletion.

• Batteries were removed from loot tables.

• Walkie-talkies and megaphones no longer consume charge.

• Shoulder lights now switch off automatically when entering a vehicle.

Multiplayer, Loading, and Stability

• Added a new loading-screen system that remains visible throughout map travel and initial world streaming.

• Added six new loading-screen backgrounds.

• Improved loading behavior when joining Steam lobbies and during seamless or regular multiplayer travel.

• Improved player initialization after joining a match, including HUD, camera, abilities, radiation, and shoulder-light state.

• Fixed several timing issues caused by player data arriving late on clients.

• Improved network synchronization after spawning and teleporting.

• Removed outdated systems and unused legacy content.

• Completed extensive internal cleanup following the Unreal Engine 5.7 migration.

• Added numerous smaller fixes to materials, audio, animations, collision, level streaming, and gameplay assets.