Alpha 15 Official Release Notes!
Navezgane world updates
- New Distant Terrain feature renders terrain over 1 kilometer away.
- Almost 2 square kilometers of new explorable space has been unlocked
- New highly embellished height map with huge mountains in every biome
- New giant desert canyon
- Over 23 new locations have been added to Game most in both Navezgane and Random Gen
- 5 new unique Trader Settlements
- Grand Ostrich Hotel
- 2 new roadside hotels
- Football stadium (Navezgane Only)
- Auto Parts Store
- New hidden bomb shelter
- Oil refinery
- Funeral Home
- Prison
- Red Mesa Government Installation
- Indian Cliff Dwellings (Navezgane Only)
- Canyon gift shop and scenic overlook (Navezgane Only)
- Buzz’s Bar
- Strip CLub
- Rock and Roll Club
- Skate Park
- Canyon Gold Mine (Navezgane Only)
- New Trailer Park
Random Gen Worlds 3.0
We’ve greatly improved random gen with many improvements and additions including:
- New RG Distant Terrain
- New road system that uses pathfinding for smoother transitions in height in all areas besides the hub entries.
- Terrain generation is now in rwgmixer.xml: This allows for modification of the terrain
- Biome generation is now also in rwgmixer.xml : This allows for modification of biomes
- Hubcell data is generated and saved in the game’s save dir: This allows backward compatibility and prevents RWG from regenerating the hub each time it’s called when not cached.
- Rwgmixer is saved to the game’s save dir: This ensures the same terrain generation and biome generation and prefab regardless of edits to the main file.
- All new locations spawn except for the football stadium, canyon gift shop and canyon cliff dwellings.
- We added a Random Gen Wolrd Previewer tool see the modding section below for more details.
Journal Tip System
A new journal tip system has been added to the main in game menu signified by a pen icon. The system writes all old tips and has over 20 new conditionally based in-game tips that pop out with a right screen notification. Players can at their leisure read these tips on advanced gameplay system teaching players everything from gun assembly when finding their first gun to harvesting with the best tool after killing their first animal.
Trader and Economy System
We have added NPC traders to the game at 5 unique White River settlements signified by a White River Flag and a Traitor Joel’s sign. These Settlements and NPCs appear in both Navezgane and Random Gen Worlds. NPCs include Trader Joel, Trader Rekt, Trader Bob, Trader Hugh and Trader Jimmy. The settlements are 100% land protected, players cannot build near them and players will be teleported out when the traders are closed so they cannot be exploited as a night time safe haven. Traders announce over loudspeakers when they are open, closed and about to close. When they close they lock their gate and turn off their open sign. When they open they unlock their gate and turn on their open sign. It is wise to close the gate behind you so you don’t let the zombies follow you into a settlement.
The in-game economy uses Duke coins and players can see how many they have in the upper right corner of their backpack. Traders will restock items periodically so check back often. They also have a secret stash category signified by a safe icon which offers special items based on your level and perks. Some items can only be bought or sold in bundles. Traders are open for business between dawn and dusk. Invest in the Barter skill and Secret the Stash perk to get better deals and see better items with traders.
We also added a new ‘White River Citizen’ quest to find Trader Outposts. The Quest is received when completing the ‘Basics of Survival’ quest chain.
Vending Machines
There are three types of vending machines: beverage vending machines found at stores, rentable trader protected vending machines found at Trader Settlements, and player owned vending machines which can only be acquired through a Trader’s Secret Stash. All vending Machines use Duke Coins which can be found in the world or acquired through selling items to Traders. You can see how much money you have in the upper right of your inventory.
NPCs can purchase from your rented vending machine so it’s wise to keep it well stocked and not mark up the items too high. If you buy your own vending machine it’s wise to put it in your land claim area as other players with effort can destroy them and steal your goods. Use these at your own risk as vending machine raiding ‘griefing’ will be possible. Note rented or player owned vending machines can be password shared if you want to let a friend use all of your vending machines functions.
Blood Moon Horde Party System
We have added a partying system that groups players together into parties of one or more players within a minimum distance. These parties will now each get their own blood moon horde.
Blood Moon Dynamic Difficulty
We have also added a Blood moon horde dynamic difficulty system. At runtime the game calculates the spawn game stage difficulty group for each party based on the criteria of number of players in the party, each player’s level in the party, each player’s current days survived ratio in the party and the hosts global difficulty setting. These things work together to output a game stage number or dynamic difficulty number for each party.
Higher game stage numbers have harder enemies F.E. Game stage 10 might only have base female and crawler zombies while game stage 20 might spawn those plus Dogs and Feral Zombies. Higher game stages will also have higher spawn limits meaning more total spawned not more alive at once to keep the games framerate consistent. New players can join the game just before the first Blood moon and only get a game stage 1 horde if they’re the only party member. The plan is to use the dynamic difficulty system for static spawned and screamer hordes in A16.
Improved Farming
We’ve improved the farming adding fertilizer and 5 new growable crops: Yucca, Mushrooms, Red Flowers, Aloe and Hops to make Beer. The soil can be improved and depending on it’s quality, grown crops will yield a greater harvest. Trees require regular dirt to grow to full size. Growing them in a desert or snow biome is less efficient.
Chemistry Station
We’ve added a new craftable Chemistry Station where both old and new advanced chemical and compound recipes can now be crafted. While some critical recipes can still be crafted with a beaker on a campfire, crafting them in a chemistry station is faster and requires fewer resources. Advanced recipes are limited to the chemistry station.
Station Searching
Recipe searches now show recipes that can only be made at any station signified by a special icon on the right of the recipe bar. This allows players to find and learn about recipes they cannot make at their current station or backpack.
New UMA Zombies
We’ve expanded on our general UMA system to use it to make custom zombies with unique loot, health and some with unique behaviors or abilities into the general spawning, special locations and blood moon spawning. The system is used for our NPCs like Traders too and will be used for Bandits in upcoming updates.
- Fallen Soldier Zombie (Found at Army and Government Installations. Notable loot includes firearms and military gear)
- Hazmat Male and Female Zombies (Found at Army and Government Installations. Notable loot includes hazmat gear and technical supplies)
- Zombie Biker (Found at bars. Notable loot includes biker clothing, melee weapons and minibike parts)
- Zombie Stripper (Found at bars. Notable loot includes cash and drugs)
- Utility Worker Zombie (Found at Utility and Factory locations. Notable loot includes mining helmets, metal resources, calipers and more)
- Team Z Player Football Zombie (Found at Football Stadiums. Notable loot includes football helmets, Mega Crush energy drink, drugs, treasure maps and challenge quests)
- Motivated Cheerleader Zombie (Found at Football Stadiums. Notable loot includes treasure maps and challenge quests)
- Miner Zombie (Found at Utility and Factory locations. Notable loot includes mining equipment and dynamite)
- Zombie Cowboy (Found at Old West ghost town locations. Notable loot includes cowboy gear, gun parts and complete weapons)
- Zombie Farmer (Found near Barns and crops. Notable loot includes tools crops and seeds)
- Skater Punk Zombie (Found in general spawns. Notable loot includes hoody, mechanical parts and quest notes.)
- Hungry Female Zombie (Found in general spawns. General zombie loot.)
- Walker Male Zombie (Found in general spawns. General zombie loot.)
- Risen Woman Zombie (Found in general spawns. General zombie loot.)
Experience, Progression and Skill Changes
- The most notable difference is that you now gain level XP when killing zombies and animals. It will always be possible to reach level 200.
- Weapon and armor skills will now increase faster.
- Experience from action skills like mining is no longer capped when the skill reaches 100. It may not be much but you will always gain some XP while harvesting resources.
- With a crafting skill of 100 you can craft Quality Level 500 items.
- To get higher quality items you can use the combine feature of the workbench or go out and find better items in loot or on traders.
- Before buying perks you can see which stats are going to be affected and what your base value for that stat currently is.
- Concrete mix is now only crafted in a cement mixer. You may find cement mixers in the world now.
- The Steel Smithing perk now has multiple (but pricey) levels where you can acquire recipes for items that are usually only found and harvested.
Sign Creation System
Players can craft, place and add custom text on small medium and large signs made of wood. Sizes are 1×1, 1×3 and 2×5
Localization
We now support 4 languages English, Spanish, French and German which can be set through your steam language selection Tab. In Steam Right click on 7 Days/properties/language select your language. Note: Some new or rectly changed text will only appear in English which will be updated in future releases.
Steam Achievements
We have added a ton of Steam achievements some of which are secret.
Improved Ore Veins and Mining
We have random underground mineral veins where you can find all the old ores plus new rare mineral deposits which can yield Diamonds, Gold, and Silver. These minerals can be sold at the Trader Stations.
Workbench Improvements
We added a new combine items feature to the workbench where players can combine 2 similar items to produce one of better quality. We have also moved some advanced recipes exclusively to the workbench. Workbenches have been added to some locations like trader settlements and other areas. Workbenches can also be disassembled with a wrench.
Backpack and Container Sorting
We added a new backpack and loot container sorting system. Just click on the icon of your backpack and container and items will stack and sort properly.