Hello Survivors!
V2.5 Experimental is now available on Steam.
Although the build is compatible with 2.X save games we highly recommend starting a new game for the best experience. If you continue an old save game we recommend turning on storms as they are much improved.
We did have issues where some people experienced cleansed crafting queues in workstations, so we do heavily encourage players to clear their crafting queues before updating.
Here is how you participate:
Right click on the game in steam
Click on properties
Click the “betas” tab
The drop down menu will have latest_experimental available p>
Select that and wait for the game to download
New entries to the serverconfig.xml that should be added:
This feature-rich update focuses on community feedback and the return of some long awaited features. The Stable update for all platforms will be out before the holidays. The update includes:
Improved Water Survival with Empty Jars
Vehicle storage improvements and mods
The new Lore Friendly Rancher Zombie (Replaces the Plague Spitter)
The new Lore Friendly Chuck Zombie (Replaces the Frost Claw)
A brand a new Smell System with some great surprises
Distant storm rendering
Updated Biome Hazards, Storms, Temperature & Protective Clothing
A new Apiary Station to produce Honey
New Honey inspired recipes
Third Person Camera support (Toggleable In-Game)
Turret Ammo Improvements
Quest Improvements
A new character window rendering
New Free Cosmetic Skins
New Trader Jen Model
New Food and Water Bars with Stats
Warning to players before upgrading to V2.5
With changes made to the workstation progression, if a player is in the middle of crafting a workbench, the update may remove that recipe unlock and clear the crafting queue. This will NOT refund the crafting ingredients back to the player. Be sure to clear all crafting queues before updating to V2.5.
Please note that we have adjusted the default controller layout to accommodate some new and reworked controller inputs. The first time starting the game after updating all input bindings will be reset to their new defaults.
2.5 Survival Revival Release Notes
Improved Water Survival (Empty Jars)
We know this is a topic of great interest to the community, and we have taken extra care to listen and read hundreds of posts and polls. What stood out the most is that people liked the old empty jar system for the immersive feeling of rummaging through loot to find an empty jar, locating a water source, filling the jar, and boiling it to drink it safely.
With that in mind, we combined the best of the old and new systems and made it balanced. Here’s how it works:
In the early game, you scavenge for jars and fill them with murky water from natural lakes, rivers and ditches, or from other man-made bodies of water. Murky water is boiled for use as normal. Toilets, sinks, and other water fixtures are all dried up.
Early to mid-game, you can choose to craft dew collectors or continue only to use the jars that you find.
To balance gameplay, jars are one-time use, not refunded by default (See Jar Refund Options Below). The dew collector unlocks at Workstation Crafting level 16, is now crafted on the workbench, and additional resources are required for crafting. Murky water and other drinks still have a chance to be found in loot.
Jars can be crafted once you have a forge and a crucible.
With no perks, the recipe will be 31 sand and 6 clay
With Advanced Engineering 5/5, the recipe gets reduced to 25 sand and 5 clay
A Jar Refund menu option has been added which can change the chance to get a Jar Refunded after use. The available settings are: 0% Default, 5%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, 100%
Vehicle Storage Improvements & Mods
Each vehicle by default will now support one additional storage column for more storage slots:
Bicycle: 1 extra storage slot
Minibike: 3 extra storage slots
Motorcycle: 4 extra storage slots
Gyrocopter: 5 extra storage slots
4X4 Truck : 9 extra storage slots
We are adding vehicle storage mods that will increase any vehicle’s storage capacity by 1 row which will increase a vehicle’s storage capacity by 10 slots. Each vehicle can hold up to two vehicle storage mods for a total increased storage capacity of 20 storage slots. When you install a vehicle storage mod you will see your vehicle visibly change. For example: you would see new saddlebags on a bicycle when a vehicle storage mod is installed.
The New Rancher Zombie
The 2.0 Plague Spitter model has been replaced with ‘The Rancher’ who looks more grounded to the Navezgane Arizona desert game lore. The Rancher still has the swarm spitting attack.
The New Chuck Zombie
The 2.0 Frost Claw model has been replaced with the new ‘Chuck’ zombie which looks more grounded to the Navezgane Arizona snowy mountains game lore. Chuck still has the boulder throwing attack.
Smell System
We have added a new smell system to the game with some great improvements from the classic smell system.
Having 5 or more Raw Meat in your inventory will create a smell.
There is a 10 second grace period before the smell begins to smell, giving the player an opportunity to store or package the raw meat.
Raw Meat smells have a distance in meters they travel which will be displayed on a left HUD buff popout with a Nose Icon on it. The distance number on the buff HUD will grow over time until it reaches a maximum distance. The more Raw Meat you’re carrying the longer the smell distance.
Once a smell has reached its maximum distance it will linger in the air for a short time period represented by a slowly decreasing HUD number until the smell dissipates and the number decreases at a faster rate.
There are several ways you can prevent Raw Meat from smelling including:
Packaging the Raw Meat in bundles of 5 using paper and plant fibers.
Storing the Raw Meat in a vehicle or storage container
Consuming food now causes smell so you need to be careful when and what you eat. Many consumables now have a Smell Distance stat.
Consuming multiple items in a row will cause a combined smell distance.
The flatulence the player makes from Dysentery will cause a smell.
Smells combined have a maximum cumulative distance of 100 meters.
Smells do not travel as far when indoors or sheltered and are reduced to 20% of their full distance and will dynamically shrink or grow when you go inside or outside.
Your current smell can be cleared by submerging yourself in water.
When smells reach zombies they will randomly detect the smell, move in that direction and at the desired smell run speed setting in the game options under smell mode which defaults to run.
Smells will also add to the Stealth Meter value.
Animal carcasses can now be smelled from farther away so you may have to defend the carcass from more zombies.
There is a new game option AI Smell Mode which can be set to Off, Walk, Jog, Run, Sprint and Nightmare, but defaults to Run. You can disable player smells by setting it to Off.
Distant Storm Rendering
A new system has been added that will render storm clouds in neighboring biomes. This early warning indicator will help players prepare before they enter the area. Each biome has its own unique VFX particle system.
Biome Hazards, Storms, Temperature & Protective Clothing
The Biome Hazards, Storms, Temperature and Protective Clothing now all act independently, creating a more dynamic and unpredictable struggle against the elements. Here are the changes and additions:
The Biome Hazards
The biome hazards and progression have been reworked with new belt messages, icons and item descriptions to reflect the more immersive face covering gear and the protection provide against airborne hazards including:
Burnt Biome – Smoke and Ash
Desert Biome – Sand and Dust
Snow Biome – Brutal cold air
Wasteland Biome – Toxic Fallout
Storms
Storms have been reworked to allow a longer grace period based on clothing worn
Without clothing, the player gets 30 seconds to leave the biome or take shelter
Gathering and wearing the protective clothing described below increases the players time to leave the biome or find shelter
Taking shelter starts a recovery timer that ramps up at 3x the rate of the grace timer
Reworked the storm buff icons to clearly show a difference between biome themes
Zombies become aggressive and will be more active during storms
Zombies have a higher chance of dropping loot during storms
Temperature
Added back a more intuitive implementation of the older temperature system
Time of day, shelter, shade, weather conditions, wetness, and other factors play a role in the player’s core temperature
Holding a torch, standing by a campfire, or consuming items will boost a player’s cold resistance
Gathering and wearing the protective clothing (described below) increases the player’s hot and cold resistance which absorbs the various conditions to offset the player’s core temperature
Hot debuffs have 2 levels of severity:
Hot
Increased water consumption to recover stamina by 300%
All movement types reduced by 10%
Sweltering
Increased water consumption to recover stamina by 600%
All movement types reduced by 20%
Cold debuffs have 2 levels of severity:
Cold
Increased food consumption over time by 100%
Increased food consumption to recover stamina by 30%
All movement types reduced by 10%
Freezing
Increased food consumption over time by 200%
Increased food consumption to recover stamina by 60%
All movement types reduced by 20%
Protective Clothing
There are four clothing insulation item groups that can be found and worn to increase the player’s hot and cold resistance and protection time against storms including: Socks, Cap liners, Long Underwear and Glove Liners
The clothing insulation items come in three tiers: Tattered (Tier 1), Patchwork (Tier 2) and ThermalCore (Tier 3).
Wearing all four of the highest tier insulated clothing items provides the longest protection time against storms and best hot and cold resistance against extreme temperatures
Clothing has quality, but no degradation so you can keep looting to get better gear.
We’ve added three levels of progressive armor insulation mods as well to augment your hot and cold resistance even further
New Apiary Workstation
We have added a new Apiary workstation to the game that will allow the player to produce honey and here’s how it works.
Apiary Workstation crafting is unlocked at Tier 3 workstations crafting level 30
Once unlocked, the player can craft the Apiary Workstation recipe by gathering the following ingredients
5 Beeswax (Harvested in tree stumps or found in loot drops from the new ‘Rancher Zombie’ formally the Plague Spitter.
100 Wood
50 nails
10 Forged Iron
8 Duct Tape
Once the player crafts the Apiary Workstation it needs to be fueled by 10 Chrysanthemum, 10 Goldenrod, or 10 Cotton.
The Apiary Workstation will output one honey every 2 game days
Opening the Apiary has a small chance of spawning an angry bee swarm.
The Apiary Workstation can be upgraded with three tool slot mod upgrades including:
Apiary Smoker: Removes the chance to spawn an angry bee swarm.
Apiary Brood Box: Doubles how much honey can be stored.
Apiary Extractor: Doubles how fast honey is produced.
New Recipes
Along with the Apiary Workstation that produces honey we have have added some new honey-centric recipes to the game that offer some honey healing benefits including:
Honey Tea. Not only does it hydrate, it cures infection!
Honey Glazed Sham. Your new favorite meat substitute just got better!
Honey Brisket. The ultimate survivor food offers a whopping 150 food points and heals your infections!
3rd Person Camera
Full third-person camera support has been added to the game! You can now seamlessly toggle between first-person and third-person views during gameplay using a quick-toggle keybind. This highly requested feature provides a new perspective on your character and surroundings, especially useful for appreciating your gear customization, navigating complex terrain, and experiencing combat from a different viewpoint.
A number of settings have been added to customize the 3rd person camera. These can be found in the Video > Display settings menu:
Default Camera Mode: Choose if you prefer to start games in 1st or 3rd person. You can also toggle this in game at any time, unless the server you’re playing is restricted to a specific camera mode.
3rd Person Field of View: Separated from the 1st person FOV slider.
3rd Person Camera Distance: Can be adjusted here or can be adjusted in game by holding the camera change or quick action menu buttons and using the mouse wheel or controller triggers.
3rd Person Camera Mode: Choose whether you want a freely orbiting camera or one that’s locked behind the character. A third option will only lock the camera when holding a ranged weapon.
A game setting and server config has been added allowing hosts to restrict the camera mode for all players in the game. This can be found in the Advanced tab of the game setting. By default all players are allowed to change their camera mode freely but this setting can be used to force all players to use either 1st or 3rd person camera modes.
Key Binding Changes & Improvements
Quick Actions Menu: Hold this button to bring up a radial menu of various actions, including changing the camera perspective, dropping your weapon, as well as a place to access all of your toggleable items and equipment attachments. You can also choose the default behaviour of tapping this button; changing camera mode or toggling your first attachment. Additionally, holding this button allows you to adjust the 3rd person camera distance, or zoom it right in to switch back to 1st person.
Swap Camera Side / Scope Zoom Level: Use this button in third person to swap which side of your character the camera is positioned over. Handy when peeking out of cover or over the side of a building. This button also provides an alternative method of adjusting a scope’s zoom level by cycling through the scope levels in steps.
Gamepad & Console Changes & Improvements
Additional bindings for individual toolbelt slots and menu shortcuts have been added. These are left unbound by default but are there should you want to use them in your custom controller layouts.You can find them in the “Toolbelt” and “Menus” tabs of the Controller Settings window.
The scope zoom in/ zoom out bindings have been removed in favor of the Swap Camera Side / Scope Zoom Level action. This cuts down on the number of inputs scope zooming takes up on a controller.
Please note that we have adjusted the default controller layout to accommodate these new and reworked inputs. The first time starting the game after updating all input bindings will be reset to their new defaults.
Turret Ammo Improvements
Turret systems have been significantly enhanced for more flexible base defense:
Universal Ammo Compatibility: Turrets now accept all ammunition tiers, giving you more flexibility in managing your defensive resources. Use standard ammo for regular threats and save premium ammunition for horde nights.
Entity Piercing: Advanced entity piercing mechanics for high-tier ammunition are currently work-in-progress and will be refined in upcoming updates.
Ammo Type Benefits: Different ammunition types now provide distinct advantages, armor-piercing rounds for tough enemies, hollow points for standard zombies, and more.
Quest Improvements
We have updated the quest system, improving which traders are selected in the world and the criteria for how their quest lists are selected.
The starter quest and the opening trader routes quests will only direct players to traders that have the highest number of nearby quest locations by them or near cites.
The traders will now show up to 7 Quests in each Tiers list and will offer them in a new algorithm that picks 3 near distance, 3 medium distance and 1 far distance giving more variety to the quest offerings and improving the odds for higher tier quest offerings.
New Character Window Rendering
We have added a new rendering system to the in-game character windows. The characters are now rendered in a perspective camera view with 4 point lighting and a rotatable character
New Free Cosmetic Skins
Free Original Survivors Pack: A free cosmetic content pack featuring the original male and female 7 Days Survivors. Note: You will be able to browse the in-game DLC menu to redeem it once 2.5 is stable
Free Holiday Santa Hat: A free cosmetic Santa hat you can find in loot during the holidays
New Trader Jen Model
We added a brand new Trader Jen model coming to your Apocalypse. Note: This may come in a bug fix patch after 2.5 stable.
New Food and Water Bars with Stats
We added new food and water bars under the health and stamina that display stat numbers so they are easier to gauge how much food or water you need.
V2.5 b18 Changelog
Added
XUi combobox: New binding "show_buttons" to hide back/forward buttons, Enum variant allows specifying listed enum values explicitly with the "values" attribute, List variant allows directly listing elements of arbitrary type as long as that type has a constructor that only takes a single string that can parse the listed values
XUi: Provide parent view outer size to controls
XUi textfield support for select_on_tab attribute
Create New Prefab window
XUi load time variables parentinnerwidth, parentinnerheight, parentouterwidth, parentouterheight
Distant storm clouds shown in nearby biomes with an active storm. Storm cloud materials fade by design
Third Person FOV slider and Third Person Camera Mode combo box in video settings
New crosshair state (Orange "X") when in third person and weapon line of sight is obstructed
New bindable controller actions for quick action menu, swap third person shoulder side, individual toolbelt slots, and in-game menu shortcuts
New muzzle flashes / Materials, Textures, and prefabs for unique muzzle flash per weapon
ActivationTime for CustomCommands for Blocks / Entities.
BlockTriggerMines gameevent action.
PhaseOnDenied for game event sequences.
BlockPickup Gameevent action.
Add GunJammed passive effect
RWG highways keep a bit of space between them
Allow all ammo variations in gun turrets
Updated art for the empty jar icon
Zombies or animals can smell raw meat carried by players
Xml, icon, and localization for Raw Meat Bundle
BuffSmellGrace to give the player a 20 second grace period before raw meat begins to smell
BuffSmell that shows the smell distance that will attract zombies and hostile animals
Stairs Railing Split Incline Left and Right added to the shape menu
Player smell is greatly reduced when sheltered
Player smell is removed when underwater
Some food emits smell when consumed
Entity LootDropEntityClass can have "name, chance" pairs to randomly pick one based on the normalized chance
F3 Debug window can now copy the shape name (highlighted in green) or the prefab name (highlighted in blue) to the clipboard by holding the SHIFT key to focus on the shape/prop and then pressing RIGHT CTRL key
Player stamina regen from being thirsty will not go below 2 per second
Zombies move faster when affected by smell
Temperature is reduced by wind and shelter blocks wind
Honey Glazed Sham item, recipe, and progression
Cough effects for desert and wasteland
Honey Tea which cures infection, and Honey Brisket provides a satisfying meal and also cures infection.
Storms dim sunlight
Distant storms dim sunlight and add a little fog as you near their biome
Third Person animations for placing/repairing/upgrading blocks
Temperature decreases at higher altitudes
AI destroy area will often reuse positions from self or nearby AIs
AI destroy area search prefers taller columns and looks farther for best match
Destroy area does an initial short scan at the target's position
Player bleeding causes smell
Radiated barrels emit radiation
Add "hide" option to all cosmetic slots.
Dysentery flatulence causes a smell
XUi sprite attribute "keeporiginalspriteaspectratio" to always keep the displayed sprite's aspect ratio
"givequest tieradd" console command and added help for quest testing
Serverconfig.xml change to include JarRefund options
Use_jar_refund property to all items that refund an empty jar
Loading screen tool tips for weather survival, seeds, dew collector, apiary, and additional info about collectors
Changed
Load mod DLLs on Windows dedicated servers without locking the files
Extended NetPackage identifiers to allow for more custom package types
XUi controller SimpleButton can be used more freely on views
Character screen tab layout for new clothing and gears tabs
Food and Water statcurrentwithmax use current and max values instead of percentage
Food and Water HUD bars relocated to left side of the screen with icons and text values
Lowered position of the tool belt and toolbelt messages
Lowered position of the XP bar and slightly increased the size
Improved RWG district tile count accuracy from spawn weights and improved weights
Improved RWG downtown district checking of rural neighbors
Improved RWG town and city rural variety
RWG gateway preview to purple
Apply Platform-Specific Filtering depending on User (Don't censor friends in XBL).
Change all XML systems that use requirements, to also use RequirementGroup.
Localization of Scope Lens to Lens for use in various recipes
Removed crosshair from Lens icon
Increased zombie loot drop rate when the player has any negative biome storm buff active (~1 bag for every 3-5 zombies killed. Risk it for the biscuit!
Optimized RWG FindDetailedPath functions
Decreased PC, Mac and Linux world load times from resource cleanup
Improved RWG world border size and variations
Wearing Armor/Clothes sound effects
Recovery time for storms is now 3 times faster
Improved RWG wilderness path accuracy connecting to highways
Improved RWG highway path costs for slopes and near start or end
Improved RWG rounding of path corners with none near highway start or end
Increased RWG wilderness tile path costs around edge
Replaced all murky water found in loot with empty jars
Toilets are all dried up and no longer have murky water or empty jars
Adjusted groupFoodTrashCommon, groupFoodTrashUncommon, and the groupCupboard loot lists
Empty Jars and Murky Water stack size is now 10
Lowered the lead cost of ammoJunkTurretRegular from 3 to 2 and adjusted the bundle from 2400 to 1600
Lowered the lead and iron cost of ammoJunkTurretAP from 3 to 2 and adjusted the bundle from 2400 to 1600
Removed the workbench requirement for ammoJunkTurretShell and ammoJunkTurretAP
Tree Stump game event now has a chance to give the player a Queen Bee IF bees spawn with the honey
Dew Collector recipe now has increased crafting requirements
Moved Cement Mixer to workstation crafting level 35
Work Bench moved to unlock at 9 Forge Ahead magazines
Lock Picks moved to unlock at 10 Forge Ahead magazines
Dew Collector moved to unlock at 15 Forge Ahead magazines
Updated localization to reflect changes to workstation progression
Increased starving and dehydration damage, reducing time to death to ~14:30 at 100HP
Tooltips for starving and dehydration are pinned to the tool belt while the buffs are active
New Rancher zombies has a chance to drop a special bag containing the beeswax crafting item
Updated colliders and xml settings on round and square clothing racks to make them easier to loot while allowing projectiles to pass through them
Adjusted StaminaMaxBlockage thirst and hunger buffs to reflect changes that will now allow stamina to regen without food and water. This addresses the issue of not being able to use any melee to harvest crops or open food crates. Max Stamina is clamped to 25% if the total of StaminaMaxBlockage is >75%.
Updated storm buff icons to use biome thematic icons such as burning tree, sun, snowflake, and radiation
Restored Wetness, Hot, and Cold buffs and adjusted logic
Hot and Cold buffs show the temperature in the buff pop out
Hot and Cold buffs slow movement and reload speeds
Adjusted temperatures for storms in all biomes
Campfires, Forges, and Chem Stations now warm the player when cold
Torches, Candles, Flaming projectiles, Molotov Cocktails, and the Burning Shaft Mod now warm the player when cold
Clothing now provides heat and cold resistance
Yucca Juice Smoothies provide heat resistance
Coffee and Black Strap Coffee provides cold resistance
Admin Tough Guy Shirt and mod provides 100% heat and cold resistance
Restored heat and cold resist stats on character stats screen
Restored heat and cold resist values for various burning buffs
Biome Hazards no longer show vignette screen effects
Adjusted rate at which temperature changes the core temp
Improved temperature adjustments from precipitation, day/night, shade and indoors
Ambient Lighting shaders
Most recipes use grilled meat instead of raw meat.
Increased AI corpse target distance
DepthBlend values to have the particles show up more near ground
UI temperature formats to one decimal place for Celsius and they show F or C
Increased prop ground align delay to catch possible delays in chunk generation
Single Books and Book Piles are now set to destroy when empty
Biome hazard and storm timers reset on player death to help prevent taking damage right away on respawn
Vehicle inventory square size reduced to accomodate vehicle mod
Optimized AI destroy area block scanning. AI destroy area has a shorter start delay and now checks 4 quadrants
Improved AI destroy area handling of end of path, what it targets and how it attacks
Increased Q6 Primitive armor to 2 mod slots
Non-Primitive armors now have 2,2,3,3,4,5 mod slots for Q1,Q2,Q3,Q4,Q5,Q6
Storm frequency default is set to 100%
Optimized player block radius effects ticking
All ammo types will now explode all metal barrels, gas pumps, and propane tanks in one shot
Reintroduced the Empty Water Jar recipe to the forge which requires a crucible to craft
Uncommented Create_item property for all items that refund an empty jar
Slightly increased the opacity on HUD stat bars
Added shift+click items into workstations to be consistent across workstations and collectors.
Fixed
Block health not shown for child blocks of non-staged multi blocks
Icons on the toolbelt not growing on hover
Allow larger mod localizations to be transferred to clients
XUi: Properly handle style values in template defaults
Discord errors when trying to set biome icon for modded biome
Removed log output of EOS TickTracker delays
Allow selecting offline mode when EOS login fails due to service outage with invalid response
Hopefully stops breaking save games on equipment
Drone can't heal player while on vehicle
Controller - prevent right stick input from paging the waypoint list and scrolling the map at the same time. The virtual cursor is now required to be hovering over the map to scroll.
Quest sharing sometimes fail when players log in at the same time
POI's close to the edge of the map border on Navezgane are not being given as quests by Traders
RWG street tiles could disconnect from too many neighbors
RWG roadways often being deleted and leaving dead end town exits due to highway connections being too restrictive
Bow crosshair does not refocus when underwater
Switch cannot or doesn't need to be activated by other switch/switches.
Player containers or doors below ground level are still visually present when resetting POI
RWG town tiles could be near the world edge blocking roads from fitting around the town
RWG paths would occasionally fail to find a destination
RWG path travelled cost was wrong and rebalanced the height and distance costs
RWG very short paths would fail
Wearing Armor/Clothes SFX
Updated face assignment on plate_destroyed to prevent invisible faces
Missing model offset for player version of the short file cabinets
Updated Pack Mule buff logic to prevent perk sound on death screen
Consumables have a timing issue between animation and use sound
Updated all AP ammo with missing level 5 Penetrator perk logic
Zombie storm speed was not used if alerted which is slower
Player held torch light could become brighter and/or cast odd player shadows
Timid animals don't run away when injured
Clicking buttons on the spawn window cycles loading screen tips
Block_tree_stump_bees game event does not work properly as client
Player food stat server sync was sending the health value instead
AI destroy area could fail to find a position if player is too high
AI not reliably jumping onto blocks with open centers when following a path over them
Cosmetics has a selectable empty slot that resets head regardless of tab selection
Lights were not fading in and out smoothly
Nerd Outfit skill point chance was being applied while held on the toolbelt
Navezgane valid teleport area was too small for the map size
Steam friend invites can only be accepted once per game instance
The TP to POI menu does not allow you to teleport the same location twice in a row
Brief red X icons when modifying an item
Next trader quest can still send you to a wilderness trader.
Send player to nearest CITY trader
Trader quests not picking POIs near Navezgane world border
Player shelter upward checks from side checks could go through walls
Broken morph on Athletic hat
Trader Names on Pregen go through text filter
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