New patch in publicbeta (v267)

I'm not sure if it will actually make a difference to the user experience but Valve have built something called the Steam Datagram Relay which I'm theorizing that the new system might make better use of. Or maybe they both use it in the same way. The documentation doesn't seem entirely clear on that point so I'm not sure.

But if you're having problems connecting to someone, or a lot of lag, it might be worth switching this to "Newer System" to see if it makes a difference. Let me know if it does, or doesn't! Thanks! (Note - in order to join a network game, all players must have this set to the same setting - you won't be able to join them otherwise).

Here is the rest of the change list for this patch:

• Experimental option to change network protocol in Online Co-op Settings menu

• Fix for Community screen closing after you set the limit on an item type

• Fix for a few props and bits of land in Story Mode being owned by the wrong community

• Stop compassionate members of neutral communities from rescuing people while the player is fighting, as they can get in the way

• A few small speech and text fixes

• Fix for crash when clicking Repair Armor on a workbench in Command Mode when you have a follower

• Fix for car sounds not being affected by gameplay volume slider

• Fix for crash when you hit the road with companions that was introduced in v266

• Updated Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Japanese, Latin American Spanish, Lithuanian, Spanish and Traditional Chinese translations

Because of the above-mentioned crash when you hit the road with companions being introduced in v266, I won't move v266 to the main branch or XBox. So this is just a publicbeta update today.

EDIT - I released another small update (v268) because I realized the game wasn't providing suitable error messages when you try to join someone with different settings from you, via a Steam invite. Here's that change list:

• Error message if you try to join someone via Steam invite, who is using a different Network Protocol from you

• Fix for no error message showing if you join someone with mismatched story hashes via Invite

• Updated Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Latin American Spanish and Spanish translations

What's this publicbeta thing?

v268 will be in the "publicbeta" branch on Steam for a while, before pushing it to the main game and to XBox. If you want to try the latest features as they come out (and help test them!) it's a good idea to start using this branch. But keep in mind:

• Because it's the bleeding edge it could be less stable

• If you want to be able to play online co-op with someone you'll need to be on the same version as them

• If you go back from the "publicbeta" branch to the main branch you may not be able to load savegames created on "publicbeta".

To use publicbeta, just right-click on Survivalist: Invisible Strain in your Steam library and go to Properties, then Betas and in the drop-down select "publicbeta".