Wednesday, March 19, 2014

March 19, 2014

BUILD 13 RELEASED! RELEASE THE DOVES! I have been playing a tad bit of it and bikes improve the game play tremendously. Below is the patch note list. Enjoy! All of this can be found at this website!

“Quality of Life"

Notes:
- As with most updates, you will need to create a fresh, new world when you play this update to ensure you receive all the new world changes.
- Thanks to the many reports we’ve had, we were able to fix up quite a few crash, world corruption, and framerate issues for this build. Read on!
Dedicated Servers:
- Dedicated Servers are here! If you aren’t interested in running a dedicated server, then you can probably skip this section of the patch notes and go check out all the new stuff! We’re going to be talking about some "boring technical stuff" in this section.
- The first version of dedicated servers is a bit primitive, but it’s enough to allow users to run a Windows-based TDL game server. Here are some quick steps on running a server:
1) Before you run your server, you’ll want to customize it. Navigate to your TDL game folder (example: C:/Program Files(x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/The Dead Linger/)
2) Open up “server.cfg” and fill out the information. We’ll add a lot more to this later. “scenarioName” is the name of the server and world. “seed” (optional) is the seed you want to use to generate the world. “password” (optional) is the password you want on the server. Once you’re happy with your server configuration, save server.cfg and close it.
3) Now to run your server, simply run “TDL-LaunchDedicatedServer.bat” and away you go!
- You can switch the window between full-screen and windowed mode by pressing ALT+ENTER (for the time being.)
- You do NOT require Steam to be running in order to run this server.
- Though not fully tested, due to the way Unity works, you are likely unable to run TDL while running a dedicated server from the same PC. You will need a second Windows PC to join your server as a survivor. (If anyone finds a temporary workaround for this, we’d be happy to hear about it, though we wouldn’t recommend running a server and a client on the same PC as the game is very CPU-intensive at this stage.)
- Have no fear! We have a TON of plans and improvements coming for dedicated servers, from easier customization, cleaner layout, multi-platform support, and headless versions that can run on a virtual private server.
- If you have ANY requests, suggestions, tips, or require assistance on running a server, please don’t hesitate to post in our Servers & Administration forum.
The Bigfoot:
- The first of many vehicles has been added to The Dead Linger! There is now a ride-able mountain bike called “The Bigfoot.”
- Bikes can be ridden by interacting with them while they are on the ground.
- This bicycle seats 1 person.
- W is forward, S is braking/slow and reverse. A and D turn Left and Right, respectively.
- Shift will cause the bicycle to “sprint” and it does use stamina.
- Certain bicycles go faster or slower on terrain vs. road/solid surfaces. The Bigfoot is slightly faster on roads.
- Fall damage is greatly reduced when on a bicycle.
- You can still be killed while on the bicycle, so don’t assume you’re safe at any given time.
- You can lock your speed on a vehicle by using “auto-run” (Numlock key)
- We have more plans for bicycles in the future, specifically related to jumping and aerial trickery.
- Bikes can be most commonly found in garages.
NPC Changes:
- Bucks have a lower tendency to float in the air when they spawn.
Zombie Changes:
- Large zombie hordes now roam the world.
- Zombies have a new and much more satisfying knockback animation, depending on which side you hit them from.
- Zombies can now be knocked back even if they are already being knocked back.
- Zombies are now slightly less omnipotent and won’t always be alerted to the survivor with their back turned. The survivor can now sneak around zombies better while crouched, as well as sneak up right behind them.
- Zombies now have a small chance to drop random loot when killed.
- Zombies now climb over low fences much more reliably, and will generally no longer get stuck on them.
- Santa Zombie “Nick” has been removed.
- Fat Zombie “Bob” has been added. This rotund zombie variant is particularly damaging to doors and barricades.
- Zombies now have a “corpse eating” animation.
- Zombies have reduced hearing and sight while eating.
- Zombies now have a few more animation variants for walking and standing around.
- Zombies are better at hitting doors.
- Zombies now always face the door when hitting it.
- Zombies tend to no longer intersect doors while hitting it.
- The sound when hitting a door is now synced better with the zombies’ animations.
- Zombie population has been lowered in non-populated areas, such as forests, grassland, and rockland.
- Zombie wandering no longer allows them to turn in the opposite direction, so zombies will tend to wander the direction they’re already facing.
- Put in some potential fixes for an issue where zombies would sometimes try to vault or climb over the tops of doorways.
- Strays have a slightly higher tendency to wander about now.
- Strays can now be knocked back and interrupted by melee attacks.
- Fixed a bug where Strays would sometimes pop into the air or float.
- Small decrease to Stray run speed.
- Lowered walk/wander speed on the Stray.
- Zombies can no longer emit noise after they’ve been killed, and if they are moaning as they are killed, the moaning will immediately cease.
- Removed a very rare circumstance where a “Fast” zombie could be encountered.
- Improved a few circumstances where zombies might phase through walls or otherwise ignore collision.
- Fixed a bug where zombies might vanish after a World Refresh.
- Fixed a bug where zombies would sometimes turn around when a survivor ran towards them due to a movement-prediction bug.
- Fixed a bug where zombies would frequently ‘float’ inside houses and on top of certain surfaces.
- Fixed a bug where zombies would animate their death twice in a row.
Difficulty/Death Penalty Changes:
- HUGE: The difficulty has been increased. Items no longer respawn with survivors.
- Survivors must retrieve their items from their corpse after death.
- Corpse location is marked by a skull waypoint (for the time being.)
- We have more difficulty levels planned in the future, and the ability to allow survivors pick their desired difficulty, but for now, this is the default intended difficulty.
Survivor Gameplay Changes:
- Survivors can no longer move when kicking.
- Kicks are now quicker than they were before. (Press F to kick!)
- Kicks are now slightly further range than an unarmed punch.
- Assassination: If a survivor melee attacks an unaware zombie from behind, it will deal twice as much damage.
- Slightly lowered the height of survivor when crouching so they can fit better under certain objects and hide more easily. (90cm tall when crouching, down from 100cm)
- Crouch-rolling out a fall is now slightly easier.
- Fixed a bug where melee was sometimes dealing additional damage per hit.
- The top right compass now has properly centered text lines for a cleaner look.
- New art style for hand icons to indicate interacting with objects.
- New art style of posture icon in the bottom left to indicate standing and crouching.
- More fixes to the way items are retrieved from corpses.
- Footsteps now change based on certain materials.
- The “You are about to die of starvation.” text is now red.
Gun Changes:
- New Gun: Autumn Rifle. A scoped, single-shot bolt-action hunting rifle that fires .30-06 rounds.
- New Ammunition Type: .30-06 (white container)
- HUGE: While this change affects all mouse-look, it affects aiming guns the most. Aiming is now substantially smoother and non-linear, allowing you to line up shots on distance targets to pixel-perfect accuracy.
- HUGE: Recoil has been re-worked.
- Guns no longer auto-reset to the original position after recoil and must be manually re-adjusted after firing a shot.
- Recoil has been toned down to more realistic amounts.
- Bullets can now penetrate multiple targets depending on the caliber, allowing survivors to kill multiple zombies with a single shot.
- The words “handgun,” “rifle,” and “shotgun” have been removed from many of the firearm weapon names to avoid redundancy and make more room on tooltips. (Example: “Uinta Rifle” is now just called “Uinta”)
- Rifle scopes now appear in front of face/helmet overlays, instead of cancelling them out.
- Reloading is now properly interrupted if the survivor zooms in or aims down sights.
- Small improvements to animation when coming out of a scope.
- Bolt-action rifles can no longer be fired during the bolt-action… uh, action.
- The “Out of Ammo” message when attempting to reload without the proper ammunition can no longer show up more than once every 3 seconds.
- Sound effect ‘clicks’ on magazine refills now properly match when a round is loaded.
General Item Changes:
- New Clothing: (Riot Set) Riot Helmet, Riot Vest, Riot Shirt, Riot Pants, Riot Boots
- New Weapons: A Riot Shield and Ballistic Shield have been added and can be found in the world. They are two-handed weapons and generally intended for defensive use, though you can still bash targets with them for a small amount of damage and a high amount of knockback. The Riot Shield blocks melee attacks and reduces projectile damage, whereas the Ballistic Shield will entirely block all forms of damage but is much heavier.
- A message now displays in the chat area when you pick up an item.
- Item quality has been added to loot. Most loot will come in various tiers of quality and higher quality will increase the base stats of the item. There are currently 7 tiers, but we’ll leave it up to you to discover them.
- Lots of attributes now work properly on equipped items, including (but not limited to) Defense, Movement Speed, Infection Risk Reduction, Attack Speed, Reload Speed, and so on.
- Durability has been added to items. Items will now display a “Condition” and through use, they will slowly deteriorate. Once an item reaches 0 durability, it will be destroyed. We have a repair system coming up in a future build.
- Item quality affects how much maximum durability an item has. Lower quality items will have less maximum durability, whereas higher quality items will have higher maximum durability.
- As a weapon reaches lower durability states, a message will appear in the chat box.
- Many of the helmet and face overlays now have more transparency and glass is generally not as intense over the screen.
- The “Classic Welding Mask” has been renamed to “Professional Welding Mask.”
- Various items now have slower attack speed, such as the Sledgehammer, Fireaxe, and Pickaxe.
- The Spade shovel now has slightly increased range.
- The Spade shovel is now permanently a “Fine” quality item.
- The Pet Rock is now permanently a “Rare” quality item.
- The Freeman is now permanently a “Rare” quality item.
- A few food items are now permanently “Rare” quality items.
- Fixed a few helmet and face item positions that were sitting strangely on the survivor’s head.
- Fixed an error with the firefighter hat showing up in first person when it shouldn’t.
- Fixed an error in item quotes where symbols such as “@N” might show up in place of punctuation.
- Contaminated items now gradually increase a survivor’s infection risk when equipped.
Dragging has returned!:
- Survivors can now drag large objects by interacting with them.
- Dragging has been re-worked since it’s original implementation in Build 009.
- The survivor can not move very fast when dragging.
- While dragging, the survivor’s hands are occupied and they can not do anything else except look around.
World Changes/Additions:
- Zones now have randomly generated names based on the type of zone. This name displays on the top right compass. (Keep in mind that the information on the compass is temporary and will be replaced by actual compass items and maps in the future.)
- Rocklands now have varying sizes of boulders and rocks, and much larger rocks than they had previously.
- Forests now have more rocks in them as well.
- Large additions to ambient sounds in various zones.
- Large additions to music. More music tracks play in game, and zone-specific music will occasionally play.
Third Person Mode:
- Camera bob has been removed while in third person mode.
- Some crouching animations have been added to third person/multiplayer.
- Some upper body third person/multiplayer animations have been added, such as swinging melee weapons.
Backpack Changes/Fixes:
- The inventory has a brand new, darker color scheme and generally cleaner look.
- Items now have a background in the inventory, to show how much grid space they take up.
- The Defense and Speed status bars now properly reflect how much defense and speed the survivor has based on equipped items.
- A message now displays in the chat box when you try to pick up an item but have a full inventory.
- Items now highlight when you mouse over them in the inventory.
- The inventory auto-sort button now has text on it to indicate what it is.
- Text on the weapon set button has been changed to make a little more sense.
- There is now a helpful text string on all tooltips to indicate right-clicking will open the radial menu.
- Backpack tooltip properly shows up when hovering over an equipped backpack.
- Radial menu “Equip” option will now always equip items to the correct equipment slot.
- Fixed a bug where you could overlap items.
- Fixed a bunch of cases where inventory items might ‘squish’ or otherwise lose their correct grid-shape when picked up.
- Fixed a bug where the radial menu wouldn’t go away after pressing “Drop.”
Barricading Changes:
- Small fix to barricaded objects to ensure they stay in place when you leave and return to an area.
- Small fix to barricading to ensure you can properly nail objects to posts embedded in the ground.
General Changes/Fixes:
- There is now a setting for Fullscreen and Windowed mode in the in-game Graphics Settings menu, so you can now change this setting on the fly during gameplay.
- There is now a setting for screen resolution in the in-game Graphics Settings menu, so you can now change this setting on the fly during gameplay.
- There is now a setting for Field of View (FOV) in the in-game Graphics Settings menu, so you can now change this setting without needing to use a console command. This setting allows between 50 and 120 FOV.
- Fix for the “Pure Virtual Function Call” crash.
- Fixed an issue where worlds would become corrupted during world-save and would not load. (Should no longer get stuck on the loading screen. Be sure to create a fresh new world for Build 13!)
- Fixed a large framerate issue that occurred after a World Refresh.
- Fixed a bug where the survivor would sometimes teleport around after a World Refresh.
- Removed various errors that were cluttering up the console window.
- There is now an indicator if you are losing connection to a server.
- There is now a password input box when using Direct Connect to join a server.
- Fixed a bug where survivors would sometimes get stuck in a white screen when joining a server.
- Fixed a few instances where duplicate objects would spawn, such as doors, buildings, and loot.
- Fixed a bug where SFX wouldn’t always play when they should. We’re not quite done fixing this, but sounds should be more reliable in general.
- Fixed a bug where the mouse cursor would flicker on and off during gameplay while in windowed mode.
- Fixed a case where survivors might show up in duplicate on a server if they were disconnected or kicked.
- Removed a bunch of “Unity sample assets” from the project files.
KNOWN ISSUES:
[These are not necessarily issues we plan to fix next, but they are issues that we don't need reported in duplicate, so if you encounter something on this list, just know that we know about it!]
- Corpse waypoint doesn’t always disappear when you retrieve your items after death.
- Arrows can not be retrieved yet, and will not stick into targets — yet.
- Sometimes the World Refresh screen is upside down. ohgodwhatshappening
- Many animations are currently missing from third person view.
- The third person camera currently does not collide with walls.
- Some items will look a bit strange indoors as we phase in our new lighting system. These issues should be fixed over time.
- Ammo in boxes and guns do not keep correct ammo count when trading between survivors in multiplayer.
- Animations will sometimes loop or get ‘stuck’ from time to time.
- Some survivors experience black screen with hands and nothing else. We have added a fix for this, but if you still experience this issue, run in Fullscreen instead of Windowed Mode. You can also try moving the window frame, which may correct the issue as well. We will be looking at a more permanent fix for this issue.
- Sometimes the Settings menus get overlapped or otherwise crazy. Just press the ESC key or “Done” button to get the screen back to normal.
- There is a bug where you will sometimes plummet to the ground very quickly when dropping from a ledge. Holding Left CTRL right before impact will mitigate some fall damage. Watch your step!
- The game and framerate will sometimes stutter for a short duration, especially when coming up on a town or new area. Your PC is most likely fine. It’s not you, it’s us.
- Sometimes buildings will forget to spawn. Sometimes loot inside buildings will forget to spawn. The buildings want you to know they’re sorry. If you experience this issue, curse loudly at the aformentioned buildings and continue on to a new area where buildings do what they’re told.
- Lots of other very obvious issues that we’re going to be working on. (Welcome to Alpha!)

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