Pre-Alpha Devblog #16 (Vehicle Sync | Starting Camps +)

Hello all,

Thanks for checking out our 16th devblog! Progress is moving along nicely on 0.10.xx. We've had some feedback and the issues found are being worked on. If you're testing 0.9.22, please share any issues you find on our tracker or come share on our Discord. Below we'll discuss a few upcoming features and exactly what the team has been working on.

Vehicle Base Re-Work and Improvements (Vehicle Base Introduction Coming Soon!) The team has been busy working on a number of big features but one that we're most excited about is vehicles. Survive the Nights was almost entirely created around the want for vehicle storage. We wanted a survival game where a vehicle was more than just a quick way across the map. Our long term goals for vehicles are big one's, full mobile survival, fortifiable vehicles, an extensive part system etc. All of these will rely on a massive amount of incredibly important mechanics.

We're re-working the entire vehicle system from the ground up in layers so you'll likely be testing the very base of vehicle mechanics shortly. We weren't happy with our initial introduction for the alpha branches (you may have seen this in our trailer). The system is now being built back up with more attention to long term goals. One of the most important mechanics we're working on is vehicle network synchronization. Network sync is noticeably off in the trailer and created a real in game issue. As you can see in the clip below, @Jayty has smoothed the sync out quite nicely. Vehicle physics are a nice treat for the team to work on and something everyone on the team shares is an interest in cars and car games. There's a lot of work to do with vehicles like many of our features but we hope to have you guys breaking the initial introduction in hilarious ways in the next couple of updates.

There are probably going to be a few bugs to work out :P

Starting Camp Visual Development A few devblogs back we talked about the introduction of starting camps. We plan to guide new players towards 'safer' areas. These starting areas will contain the basic bare bone essentials to get a new player going in the right direction. Below are a few shots of how some of those starting camps are being designed. We're filling out the wilderness. These camps will be a small part of the design goal.

Players only need to follow these markers to find campsites.

Starting Camp Smoke Visuals Aside from following markers set just off the road, the player will also be able to see the smoke from the camps static fire from a distance on the map. This should make finding your way to starting camps pretty easy and the smoke looks great on the horizon.

Starting camp smoke seen from a distance

Update on Achievement Artwork @Dork has been working on a few things over the last week one of them being some more artwork for our reworked achievements. We've also added our player stats to the main menu which you'll soon see on the website as well!

Some of the new updated achievement art

In game player and global stats are coming to the website soon!

In Game UI Progress We talked a bit in a blog not that long ago about the new UI system you'll be seeing in 0.10.2X. Below you can see the player taking damage and the damage UI reacting to that. You'll also notice the ammo UI pop up to let you know how many rounds you have in the weapon and in the backpack. The weapon color reflects condition.

UI being displayed for ammo being fired along with damage being received fades quickly​

Thanks much for checking on our development of Survive the Nights and, as always, thank you for the continued support. The project has come a long way and we're excited for the coming months leading up to our public alpha release!