Playtest #2 Insights & v0.3.0 Patch Notes

PLAYTEST FINDINGS

Thanks again for all the feedback from the most recent playtest. While the game is feeling good overall for most, there were still a few very prominent pain points that patch 0.3.0 should address. Let me know your thoughts on the changes.

I'm still deciding if things are shaping up well enough for the demo release or if I'll do another round of testing. Be on the lookout here on Steam for news and updates.

WEIGHT MANAGEMENT

This was one of the largest areas of feedback: carry capacity is too restrictive! I think this was overtuned with the idea that for the full game, more carry weight upgrades would be unlocked and allow you to loot more and more. This update should hopefully fix the early game weight issue while still allowing for meaningful weight upgrades throughout the game. I will continue to monitor this closely.

ENERGY / HUNGER

I completely agree with a lot of the feedback I saw regarding energy and thirst levels. They simply drained way too quickly and caused frustration to a lot of players. Energy and Thirst reduction levels have been rebalanced and should feel much less punishing. You'll still need to be on the lookout for food and water items to stay topped off, but players should find it much more manageable. This in turn should also allow you to have more food available to use for scrapping to gain Food Scrap upgrades.

DIFFICULTY

While a majority of players found the difficulty balancing to be fair, there was also a lot of feedback on how this playtest seemed way more difficult than the last. Again, I think I had overtuned how I anticipated progression to feel for the full game and made the early game feel very punishing for certain players. A host of difficulty options has been expanded upon and added to help tailor the difficulty to get it where it feels good for each player. Overall stats for enemies have also been rebalanced to help things feel a little easier overall. If the new baseline is too easy for you or if you are looking for a more challenging experience, all the difficulty sliders can be increased to make things more difficult as well. Play your way.

PATCH NOTES - 0.3.0

GENERAL

• Reduced base Energy and Thirst reduction rates so food and water aren't so restrictive

• Added more purchasable food and water from Ron

• Adjusted item prices for guns, armor, attachments, and backpacks to be lower and more affordable

• Reduced stamina consumption rate by 10%, allowing you to run for a longer amount of time before running out of stamina

• Increased lootable object spawn chance from 20% to 30%, allowing you to find more objects to loot overall

• Increased maximum amount of items most lootable objects can hold by +1

• Changed Blueprint barter for Doc - Replaced Data Cards with Sample Scrap

• Fixed Issue where High Value Target radio could spawn under the hills in Ridge Town

• Added loading screen tips

• After player death, if Energy or Thirst is less than 40, only fill back up to 40. Reduces incentive to go into raid, intentionally die, and have your Energy and Thirst filled up for free. I'll look into other incentives to play raids normally instead of intentionally dying to "reset" your stats

• Replaced one row of basic items in the Vending Machine with a row of weapon attachments

• Scrapper Base Module is now unlocked by completing Ron's quest "Threats". It felt too easy to miss such an important component of the game if you didn't find the right items for the Scrapper module, so it's now unlocked early in Ron's questline instead of needing to craft it

DIFFICULTY ADJUSTMENTS

• Added separate difficulty customization options for zombies and survivors

• Added zombie and survivor vision distance settings

• Added Item Sell Price setting to tailor economy preferences

• Added difficulty preset buttons to give players a general starting point to difficulty customization

• Reduced base zombie HP

• Reduced base zombie damage

• Reduced base zombie movement speed slightly

• Reduced enemy HP and damage scaling per Danger Level

• Rebalanced Spitter HP to be lower due to it being a ranged threat

• Increased amount of time between Spitter's projectile attacks so they aren't as oppressive

• Reduced Survivor vision range from 75m to 60m

CARRY WEIGHT / WEIGHT MANAGEMENT

• Increased Carry Weight upgrade from the Gym from +1 to +1.5

• Increased all backpack carry weight capacity by +4

• Adjusted the following item weights to make things generally lighter:

From 3 -> 2:

Water Jug

Propane Tank

From 2 -> 1:

Brute Bone

Surgical Kit

Trauma Kit

Large Surgical Kit

From 1 -> 0.5:

Rope

Spray Paint

Gym Mat

Car First Aid Kit

First Aid Kit

Tactical First Aid Kit

Radio

Handheld Console

Router

Tablet

Beef Stew

Canned Fish

Canned Fruit

Canned Vegetables

Soup

Aerosol

Anti-Corrosion Solution

Cleaning Spray

Gunpowder

Lighter Fluid

Pesticides

Splint

Blood Bag

Saline

Fluids Bag

Shampoo

From 0.5 -> 0.25:

Bag of Bile

Screamer Heart

Spring

All Backpacks weigh 1lb lighter so they are easier to carry out of raid if you find any