The game's first major content update launches today. While the bulk of the work was dealing with tech debt and refactoring systems in need of cleanup, there are several major new features that take advantage of the improved engine infrastructure to do things that would've been impossible on the old base.
New AI Framework
The AI has been reworked and streamlined, making it less prone to bugs and allowing for more complex behavior to be built on top of it. Survivors can now fire on the move and use the new Overwatch mechanic to control their facing in combat. Group behaviors have been slightly reworked in preparation for more extensive additions in the future.
Animation Overhaul
The animation system has also received a major tuneup. The new system is much more robust, provides deeper control over individual animations, makes better use of blending to cut down on overall asset requirements and is much more modder-friendly. There are several new animation effects, a new prone stance for improved accuracy and cover and existing animations were cleaned up for more readability.
Custom Starts, UI Improvements
A new set of starting menus allows players to customize their starting survivors and items in detail. Several existing UI elements received tuneups and a new tooltip system was implemented for more overall clarity. A new storage UI provides an overview of total resources available without having to hunt through individual containers and can track individual resources on the main UI.
Character Improvements
Survivors received a pretty major redesign. Attributes are gone and have been replaced with an extensive trait system featuring 30 brand-new character traits. Several new skills and needs were added and apparel rendering was improved to fix numerous clipping problems and allow for better looking clothing.
Mod Support
The game now features an integrated mod manager and framework for custom mods to be loaded on startup. It currently supports loading custom assemblies, parcels and changes to the game data, with custom asset loading coming soon.
Changelog
Additions
- Survivors now have a task queue. Holding shift while giving an order via the context menu will queue the order, rather than execute it immediately.
- Survivors can now enter prone stance in addition to crouch and standing.
- Added weapon draw and holster animations to survivors in combat.
- Added new animation set for polearms.
- Implemented inverse kinematics on weapon aim. Weapons now display visible gun wobble.
- Survivors can now be given an overwatch command, causing them to watch a specific direction with their weapon drawn and ready.
- Survivors can now fire guns while moving.
- Removed character attributes and rolled their functionality into new traits/skills.
- Implemented 30 new character traits. Removed previous placeholders.
- Added new skills: Fieldcraft, Cooking, Tailoring
- Crafting recipes now use different skills and work types depending on the type of recipe.
- Added crafting recipes for apparel that were missing it.
- Implemented various new mood effects for survivors.
- Having especially high or low mood affects survivors' movement and work speed.
- Survivors have new Purpose need that is filled by doing liked work types and depleted by doing disliked work or being idle.
- Reworked character rendering system for more efficient rendering and better clipping-avoidance.
- Apparel can now define an armor-specific variant mesh that is used when equipped alongside armor.
- New Ponytail High hairstyle.
- New Mascot Outfit apparel.
- New Mountaineer apparel variant.
- New Traditional apparel variant.
- Added mod manager window to main menu. The manager can be used to enable/disable mods and adjust load order.
- User-made mods can be installed by adding them to the "Mods" directory inside the game folder. Mods currently support custom DLL loading, XML patches and parcels.
- New startup customization menus allow customizing starting survivors and items when launching a new game.
- New storage summary UI provides overview of all items in storage or carried in inventory.
- Specific item types can be pinned via the storage summary. Pinned items have their current amount displayed on the main UI.
- New storage zone can be used to store things outside of containers.
- Implemented new UI tooltip system. Added tooltips throughout various UI menus.
- Furniture now defines a Comfort stat that affects how fast Comfort need is gained or lost when using it.
- Build sites can now be manually prioritized via the context menu.
- Build sites now display the resources stored/needed and work left to do on their selection info.
- Added new alert to notify players of missing research project.
Changes
- Upgraded engine to Godot 4.5.1.
- Overhauled internal control flow of AI agents. Agents now use a unified structure to control behavior, instead of various external systems fighting each other to control what the agent is doing.
- Fleeing agents now list the thing they're fleeing from in the info readout.
- Completely overhauled animation system. Unified animation control flow, AI behaviors no longer rely on animation callbacks, animations treat real game state as authoritative and adjust themselves accordingly.
- Cleaned up and simplified Dec structure related to animations and animation trees.
- Revised human animation tree for more clarity, better use of blending.
- Reworked human animations for better animation blending and improved readability.
- Removed several hundred no longer needed animation files and assets.
- Simplified rendering of equipped weapons to reduce asset requirements and streamline animation creation process.
- Reworked weapon recoil formula, spread pattern and animation.
- Refactored weapon-related Decs.
- Refactored various AI-related systems for more robust behavior around special cases like an item entering someone's inventory.
- Human unarmed attacks now use left/right punch instead of jab/punch.
- Changed how designating targets for ranged attacks works.
- Renamed longsword to claymore.
- Reduced weapon model size by 20%.
- Realigned weapon holster positions for better visibility and reduced clipping.
- Items on the ground are now rotated to face the default camera angle instead of away from it.
- Updated cloak models to be less oversized and align with character models better.
- Updated backpack models to reduce clipping issues.
- Updated armor models to be leaner and less oversized.
- Reworked how storage containers handle stored items for more reliable code.
- Renamed several survivor skills.
- Medicine work category is now named Doctor for better clarity.
- Hotdog hat variant is now colorable.
- Parcels are now loaded on startup accounting for mod overrides, instead of on-demand.
- Updated Dec library to 0.11.0.
- Improved color sorting in customization menu.
- Reworked appearance customization menu. Moved rename functionality to its own window.
- Overhauled various minor UI elements to improve looks, formatting and code reusability.
- Reworked info dialog: entries are now separated into categories, formatting was improved and previously missing data is now displayed.
- Improved handling of XML errors. When errors are found, they will be properly logged to console instead of throwing up a blank screen.
- Crate type containers now have reduced storage capacity over specialized types of storage to balance their universal nature.
- Toned down daytime lighting to be less glaring.
- Default wall cutaway state is now partial.
- Hunting now requires a ranged weapon to be equipped in the primary slot. Alerts will notify the player if a hunter is missing a weapon or ammo.
- Expanded apparel color selection and reworked random generation of color combinations for more visual variety.
- Formal attire now provides a boost to visitor interactions.
- Survivors now prioritize higher quality sources of food when looking for things to eat.
- Survivors prioritize higher quality beds when sleeping.
- Reworked loadout UI to be more consistent with other menus.
- Eating a meal is now slightly faster.
- Updated several hair colors to look more natural, removed redundant or unnatural colors.
- Visiting NPCs can now roam freely around the player base instead of being confined around their group leader.
- Improved general error handling across multiple systems.
- Refactored crafting system to better handle various edge cases.
- Save game menu now provides proper feedback when trying to save with an existing/invalid name.
Fixes
- Fixed patients awaiting treatment not saving their status correctly.
- Fixed a one-frame hitch between agents finishing a task and starting a new one.
- Fruit-bearing plants now properly save their current growth state.
- Despawned agents on expedition are no longer considered dead by default.
- Items inside someone's inventory now properly update every frame.
- Fixed a pathfinding-related error when an agent died mid-task.
- Fixed several issues related to corpse rendering.
- Fixed a Godot warning on startup regarding an outdated shader function.
- Weapons and apparel now properly clear their tile registration when equipped, preventing the context menu from picking up on ghost equipment at their previous location.
- Various internal code cleanups.
- Removed duplicate "vest and shirt" variant from regular clothing.
- Adjusted overly dark base texture on bandana hat variant.
- Selection info now correctly updates when the selected entity's name changes.
- Mining order no longer makes incorrect reference to cliffs being minable.
- Fixed various typos, formatting and capitalization errors across the UI.
- When right-clicking a container, the context menu will correctly account for all stored items, regardless of where the container was clicked.
- Ordering a survivor to eat something will no longer cause errors when hunger need is full.
- Fixed skill levels being raised without reaching the proper XP threshold.
- Fixed an issue when copying loadouts, causing the copy to reference the original's equipped weapon entries.
- Ongoing crafting/hunting tasks are now properly cancelled when the relevant bill is suspended by the player.
- Context menu no longer displays option to tend wounds on non-player agents.
- Appearance customization correctly resets open color picker menu when selecting a new survivor.
- Fixed several clipping issues with long hairstyles and helmets.
- Building walls next to impassable furniture no longer renders parts of the map unpathable.
- Storage containers no longer merge unstackable items such as weapons and apparel.
- Active tasks are correctly preserved across saves.
- Fixed capsule colliders calculating their volume incorrectly.
- Items with a stack count exceeding their normal limit correctly spill into nearby tiles instead of vanishing.
- Entities without collision can now be correctly selected in tiles overlapping zones.
- Walls, wall attachments and their build sites can now be correctly selected.
- Expedition map generation no longer incorrectly applies rotation to parcel records in global database.
- Context menu no longer leaves the screen when clicking objects near the bottom/right border.
