Check the download page and report the bugs.
ALPHA 8 CHANGE
--------------
Traps and Z-Skills.
Self-defence. A bit more useful followers.
Gangs that act as looters and CHAR Guards that act as guards, rather than them being just another enemy to kill.
Armors helps or hinder escaping Gangs and Police attention.
New shop.
FIXED BUGS
1 (Crash) Destroying a dragged corpse and then moving.
2 (AI) Trying to get an item in a large fortification.
3 (Glitch) Flaslights out of batteries still functioning.
4 (AI) Won't equip a ranged weapon out of ammos even if has ammo in inventory (noticable when you change AI fire directives).
5 (Typos) Various.
6 (Gfx) GDI+ doesn't display some 32 bits PNG properly (fucked up some mods like Deon Apocalypse).
7 (Lack of Nazis) Every decent game should have Nazis.
8 (Glitch) Invading Zombiefieds incorrectly have spawn time 0.
9 (Glitch) Overlays were sometimes not displayed (damage icons, blue popups..)
10 (Trolling) The readme is outdated and mentions a "RS Install.exe". Idiot.
11 (Glitch) PostMortem: difficulty inflation.
12 (Glitch) PostMortem: follower skill upgrade logged as yours.
13 (UI) Sometimes misses a combination of keys (Shift/Ctrl/Alt + key).
GAMEPLAY
- Personal enemies: Self-Defence and Indirect Enemies.
- Makes the distinction between being the Aggressor or acting in Self-Defence.
- If X attacks or declares Y as a personal enemy, X is the aggressor and Y is acting in Self-Defence (duh).
- Killing in Self-Defence is not a murder.
- Indirect enemies: X is not an aggressor or being aggressed by Y, but they are enemies through their relations (leader or followers are enemies).
- Indirect enemies are enemies as long as the cause is there (eg: respective leaders or mates are enemies). Once it is gone they are no more enemies.
- Undead: separate set of upgrade skills for undeads. See skills below.
When a living is zombified, some of its skills are zombified too.
- Corpses: rising zombies have starting HP proportional to the corpse state.
- Gangs:
- Start neutral with civilians, but still enemies to Police and Army.
- Attack people who have items they want.
- Wearing some armors modify the chances to move unnoticed by Police and Gangs.
- The effect cumulates with the Unsuspicious skill.
- Hostile outfits = +50% chances; Friendly outfits = -50% chances.
- Police: Hostile = all bikers armors; Friendly = all police armors.
- Bikers: Hostile = all police armors and rival gang armor; Friendly = same gang armors.
- Gangstas: Hostile = all police and bikers armors; Friendly = none.
- CHAR Guards: they now act more like guards.
- Start neutral to Civilians, Police and Army.
- But attack anyone who trespass CHAR offices or the CUF.
- Refugees:
- Some of them arrive in the subway and the sewers too.
- They get one skill per day - after all, they are supposed to have survived up to this day just like you.
- More varied items - everything you can find in shops and houses.
- After Day 7 they might bring more rare items like grenades, army ammo...
- Survivors: the van guys get more skills.
- New Shop: Hunting Shop.
- Standing/climbing on top of cars/fences increase view range.
- VTG: since VTG has no evolution by definition the option is turned off to compute the difficulty properly; to get 100% again setting ZUp Days to 1 is fair.
- Bikers, Gangstas and Soldiers get additional skills depending on the day they arrive.
- Living player starts game with Food and Sleep not maximized, just like NPCs.
NEW GAMEPLAY : Z-SKILLS
- Undead set of skills
Z-Agile, Z-Strong, Z-Tough: like their living counterpart but lower values.
Z-Eater: regen more HP from bites/eating corpses.
Z-Grab: % of chance to prevent any adjacent enemy from moving (passive skill)
Z-Infector: more infection damage from bites.
Z-Tracker: improve smell - do not confuse with the item.
- Zombification of skills is straightforward:
Agile/Strong/Though -> Z-Agile/Z-Strong/Z-Tough
Light Eater -> Z-Eater
Light Feet -> Z-LightFeet
- Z-Grab, Z-Infector and Z-Tracker must be learned as zombie.
NEW GAMEPLAY : TRAPS
- Traps are items.
- Activate a trap, drop it on the floor and anyone/anything who/which enters the tile might trigger the trap (even yourself).
- Stacks: activating/dropping only activates/drop one trap of the stack.
- A triggered trap can deal damage and/or make loud noises and/or trap the victim in the tile.
- Some traps need to be manually activated (use), other traps activates automatically when dropped on the ground.
- Some traps desactivate when triggered, they have to be re-activated.
- Some traps can be stacked together.
- Since traps are just items, you can put many of them in the same tile.
- To escape a trap, just try to move.
- Armors do not protect from traps!
- Some map objects allows you to safely move over traps.
- Pushing some map objects on traps triggers them.
- 4 Traps available : Empty Cans, Spikes, Barbed Wire and Bear Trap.
SKILLS
- new Light Feet/Z-Light Feet: improve chances to avoid/escape a trap.
- Unsuspicious : helps evade gangs attention too (in addition to help avoiding the police)
- Z-Agile: undeads can jump (Agile too).
- Z-Strong: undeads can push (Strong too).
FOLLOWERS
- New Order: Sleep Now - they will sleep right where they are until fully rested.
- New Order: Start/Stop following.
- New Order: Where are you?
- Pushing help: followers will automatically help pushing objects.
- They must be idle or following you, awake and adjacent to the pushed object.
- Each helping follower takes a share of the stamina cost and spend normal action points.
- Eg: pushing a 100 weight object with the help of one follower = 50 sta cost you and him.
OPTIONS
- new options to control undead skill upgrades
- "Undead Upgrade Days" which days the zombifieds get a new skill, or disable it entirely.
- "Rats Skill Upgrade" whether rats do get skills upgrade or not...
- "Skeleton Skill Upgrade" ...skeletons...
- "Shamblers Skill Upgrade" ...and shamblers.
- Difficulty: population density is a much more important factor as larger maps are easier.
UI
- Armor description: say to which faction/gangs the armor looks hostile/friendly.
- Options screen: renamed and reorganized stuff.
- Infection not displayed for undeads.
ITEMS
- Grenade stacking limit upped to 6.
- New Armor: Hunter Vest. Pretty crappy but neutral.
AI
- Undeads: Pursuing undeads will try to move around a local obstacle.
- Civilians: Setup traps in spots they think are interesting and emote why they chose this spot.
- Livings: Sometimes try to avoid stepping on damaging activated traps. Sometimes not.
- Livings: Improved ranged weapon selection logic.
- Livings: Improved melee weapon selection logic.
- Livings: Tweaked large fortification spot selection logic.
- Exploration: slight bias to prefer exploring outside during the day, and inside during the night.
- Improved Fight or Flee logic.
GFX
- Redraw melee/ranged hit icons and draw damage value in the center of the tile.
- Blood splatters are cleaned up after some time.
- Blood on corpses.
OPTIMIZATION
- Data size.
MODDING
- Skills.csv: the new skills.
- Traps.csv: have fun; careful not to create inescapable traps...
- Note: The 3 new skins gfx are not used yet...
Have fun!
And remember, die with a smile!
The weekend is saved!
ReplyDeleteFirst impression on VTG: everyone just gets mauled and killed instantly. what?
Ahhh oh damn you actually put in the option for zombie upgrade days that someone posted in a previous post comment ahhh oh man what.
ReplyDeleteoh fuck!!! you did it!!
ReplyDeleteim so happy that play this game on sunday!!
thanks!!! :)
Awesome update!
ReplyDeleteThanks from Italy!
ReplyDeleteGoing to play this tomorrow. Great job man!
ReplyDeleteMany thanks from mars
ReplyDeletethat's one long list of great additions and changes. Thanks for the hard work. I can't wait to play :D
ReplyDeleteStacks: activating/dropping only activates/drop one trap of the stack.
ReplyDeleteWhat is this means?
did you said that stacked traps can activated together like the one trap?
Cool!!)) thx a lot!)game rulzz!
ReplyDeleteBest zombie game I ever played!
ReplyDeleteU did a great work , Komrade!
Keep it going.
Greetings from Russia!
PS: Sorry for my bad english. Long time no practice.
I'm completely blown away from your awesome update schedule.
ReplyDeleteGood job man!
Wow, just... Wow. What a beautiful changelog, RoguedJack. I especially like the new followers orders. I love when you improve their AI, as I enjoy having companions around my character at all times. Can't wait for the Spectator Mode, the AI is getting more and more interesting and it deserves to be watched, don't you agree? ;)
ReplyDeleteStacks: activating/dropping only activates/drop one trap of the stack.
ReplyDeletewhat is this means???
Did You said that stacked traps act like one trap when activated?
Nazis and Sleep Now Order - hell of an update!
ReplyDelete@anon confused by traps - just experiment with the traps in game you'll understand.
ReplyDeleteThanks from Russia!
ReplyDeletethanks for the new update
ReplyDeleteDAMN, the CUF has some ...evolved, interesting features with VTG mode. Damn difficult now! Good!
ReplyDeleteI still haven't mastered this trap thing yet but it looks interesting...
Traps will be more fun and useful when there will be mines/IEDs and chained triggers, you will be able to make real kill zones :)
ReplyDeleteOversight: (bug too maybe?) The two traps Spikes and Cans seem to always be active when they are placed onto a tile. There is no way that i can see of placing the object in an unarmed state like there is for barbed wire and beartraps. It would be nice if they could be dropped without being armed (especially for empty cans, which have a high chance of being destroyed when activated)
ReplyDeleteBUG: Armed+inactive traps only go inactive again when something moves off of them. If something dies by a trap, that trap will remain armed+active until something steps onto it and moves off, making the trap inactive again. This creates the situation where you've activated a trap for its effect, wait 1 turn, but can't seem to "deactivate" the trap to pick it up. Please make traps deactivate (but not disarm) based on the % block chance they have (representing the struggle to free yourself) or after 1 turn so they can be picked up. And of course, deactivate on creature death.
Suggestion: Finally, it might be good to create alternate trigger percentages for creatures like rats. I don't think spikes are small enough for rats to step on, or bear traps sensitive enough for creatures of that size. Incidentally, please put in rat traps right away! Heheh.
great game !! lovely update.
ReplyDeletegreetings from norway.
@anon 3:25PM
ReplyDeletekeep in mind activated is not triggered.
activated = armed/ready.
Oversight: not a bug its a feature :) these traps auto-activate when dropped. being activated is not being triggered. I guess i should rename "activated" to "armed" or "ready".
BUG: i'll check that.
Suggestion: one the of things i didn't do to make the saturday deadline ^^ rats have the small attribute and can already move through some objects so that make sense.
Where are Refugees?
ReplyDeleteI can't see Refugees in subway station, sewer....
Look again. I can guarantee you there are. Not many, but they do get there.
ReplyDeleteThe new corpses-infection thing adds a totally new strategic cut to the game! You can't anymore count on holing up in a corner, hiding for a week, if your infection is 75% and you are vomiting blood avery hour...also, antivirals are very rare, therefore hand-to-hand combat is a lot more dangerous now, and has to be planned carefully.
ReplyDeleteIt is also very advisable to destroy infected corpses, now that they rise with half of the skills of the human actor they rise from...or a few hours later, you'll find yourself with some extra-experienced zombies wandering around!
I am loving this VTG, hardcore mode!!
Hi Jack! After a few runs i'd say the game is getting better and better! Gangs are easier to handle, gameplay is more interesting (even if I'm still struggling with traps).. you are doing a great job man. Have you planned on adding some more plot? Maybe the army is going to nuke (saving the world the hollywood way :-P) the damn infected town!?
ReplyDeleteCheers!
Ah the plot. Stuff is supposed to happen that is not done yet. Fun stuff. I'll flesh out the plot once all the major gameplay mechanism are there. I'm adding one of those major things in 9.0 ;)
ReplyDeleteCan't wait!
ReplyDeleteHey, been following for a while and I'm really glad to see more updates. VTG is very fun! I know you have a grand plan for the STD version, but I think VTG is worth working more on.
ReplyDeleteVTG is really tough, as others have said. I always find myself at a point about 10 days in where the numbers of zeds is overwhelming. If I try to go into a store with only 1 entrance, I'm toast. I don't think that's a horrible thing, though. I think you should consider making the VTG zombies more fragile, and less likely to land a hit (the ATK value, right?). That way 1 zombie couldn't be too much threat to a non-complete weakling with a baseball bat. However, constantly dodging several zombies at a time would be a problem for anyone. A real zombie story makes them strong in numbers, if not much else.
I also think you should put windows on the second floors of buildings, that way you could jump out of them when cornered, at the risk of hurting yourself (maybe make a virtual bear trap that you can stuck in if you fail to dodge it).
Honestly, more than a set plot, I love the idea of making your own plot. This is all much easier said than done, but adding more to the already impressive AI is a direction I would go in. Being able to order your followers in more ways (barricade this building, go search for X), but having those orders cost trust, which you can only gain by helping them survive. Having other civilians gang together more often could lead to rival gangs and rival safehouses. Or, if you piss off a follower he can split and take friends with him, essentially having rivalry drama. I also haven't used followers too much, but they should be able to bark complaints or requests if they can't already.
One last suggestion: Use blocks instead of tiles when you're describing distance. I'm not at my playing computer right now, so I'm not sure what a block would be, but it would be much easier to keep track of than something like "36 tiles". You could even use half blocks (i.e. You hear a scream of terror a half block to the East. The supplies seem to be dropped 2 and a half blocks to the North West.)
Hope I can post all this. Again, love the game and I can't wait to play the next releases!
Hah, so I got to play with it a little more and it turns out that the NPC AI is already pretty well rounded out in terms of followers. I'll keep my retract some of the above and keep my mouth shut on the subject until I know what I'm talking about.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there is one more thing that I wanted to mentioned that I forgot to before: Give us the option to do without the mouse. The 1 through 0 keys should be used to pick up whatever is on the ground and then shift/ctrl/space/alt + the number keys should let you do the various actions, like left or right clicking on the item in your inventory. A look command like most roguelikes have would be cool too.
No problem, followers AI is one of the thing I want to improve and keep delaying ^^
ReplyDeleteItem keyboard shortcuts are already there I probably forgot to mention them in the outdated manual:
Ctrl+[1-0] = Use
Shift+[1-0] = Take
Alt+[1-0] = Drop
VTG is the thing for me (and others as it seems from the pool).
ReplyDeleteI´d wish for:
_more alternatives into and outo a building with different requirements to pass through them.
_more building abilities.
_some followers won´t take things they need when given couse their inventory is full, not natural.
_sometimes followers will trade food for food?
_ability to choose how much of an stacked item to choose.
and many more I won´t get into, but just should let you know, this game is the best zombie apocalypse thing EVER! got a bunch of frineds infected by it too. congratulation on an outstanding work!
just a couple of things:
ReplyDelete- implement multiple floored buildings...right now we only have ground floor and basements.
- more visual variety to buildings would be nice.
I have just a few more thoughts on VTG for this release.
ReplyDeleteI've been toying around with modding some values. Cutting in half the HP that zombies get in VTG makes for a much more enjoyable game. I'm still doomed in the end by massive numbers, but at least I can last more than 10 days. I think being able to headshot a zed if you're good enough with either guns or bows makes a lot of sense too. I've also played around with the initial number of zombies and the max survivors, as this produces some interesting results.
I also upped the infection healing on medkits to 10. I know that doesn't make as much sense, but they're rare enough now that one melee fight with a single zombie can ruin your game. I've never even seen anti-viral pills.
I agree with the above 2 comment on some points. Alternative ways in and out of a building is a good idea (that's what I was thinking above about being able to jump out of windows). The usual way I die is being trapped in a store and than 30 zombies roll up. It's kind of funny when it's a gun store, since I have all of the ammo I need, just not the space I need. I think it's OK to have zombies come in through windows, but it seems like it would be better to have them take longer to do it. I know the game probably isn't set up well to do multi-level interaction, but if you could at least get up on the roof of a building and search around for a safer place to jump down, being overrun with zeds wouldn't be an automatic show stopper.
I also wonder if there would be a way for players and NPC humans to claim areas. The human AI does a good job of barricading buildings, but it doesn't seem to horde items like survivors should do. With that, they should get angry if intruders come in, and player 'claimed' areas could be respected by NPCs (unless, of course, they don't care). You could also then ask your followers to act like CHAR guards in your safe house, or you could guard the place while they go on a mission for supplies. You could also have them know that they can automatically store things they don't need right at that moment. I can't imagine how difficult this might be to code, but I think it's worth a thought.
One other thing about zombie AI...should you really have them completely bash every item they see? I would think you'd make them want to get into a location and then start bashing at things when they realize they can't get there.
Sorry for the trop de mots, but I'm really enjoying this game a lot now. Even with the new version of Dwarf Fortress out, I've been playing RS more than that, if you can believe it.
I would love too the game going into this direction than only a solitary survivor doomed to die. It would be interesting to have some more interactions with other humans and other way to survive to make the experience a little longer: to maybe be able to fight the zombies hordes and find a cure to save the city, something like that.
DeleteAbsolutely loving this. Only real problem is there's not enough room on the screen to show all your follower's stats, items and status.
ReplyDeleteAWESOME!
ReplyDeleteReally great to see an update! :D
i started playing this a few days ago. its a fun game.
ReplyDeleteWhat i like most about a post-apocalyptic/Zombie setting i how the society crumbles, how people start to change, inside fights (that make it easier for zombies to kill them)
do you have plans for making the Survivor interactions a little more complex? i liked the Aggro-over-food thing. i just got killed by a nurse.
why i always die the same way ;_;
ReplyDeleteI check outside, there is nothing, i go downstairs and a huge swarm of zombies come corner me out of nowhere
I set the lowest possible zombie spawn and the highest population and chance to turn into zombie on death along with people die of starvation and killing each other due to starvation. It seems that the entire population becomes self-destructive as people kill each other for a can of food and the victim turns into a zombie and kills his/her killer making a new zombie starting a vicious cycle. I was wondering if there was any way for the military to not just shoot zombies but call all civilians towards them using events and keep them fed with supplies until they are overrun with zombies. Also maybe have a few civilians turn INTO zombies inside the blockade every once in a while, maybe give the military a bigger sense of helpfulness. Anyone else think that would be interesting?
ReplyDelete^Yeah, I would rather have a system of leadership that doesn't mean you pack together really tightly, but rather set up zones of control and on-the-fly factions. That's kind of what I was thinking above, but, like I said, I can't imagine the kind of coding it would take for that.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I think I found something that might be considered a bug. I can't be sure, but I think I got pegged for murder after some dumbass walked onto my bear trap. I never feel the need to attack humans, but, for the first time ever, I got called out by a cop for murder.
Yeah! Please keep up the good work! This game is already very nice and interesting, but can become really a little jewel! Tahnks for your efforts!
ReplyDeleteWe are waiting for the juicy-yummy new traps and mines you hinted about, oh lord of our shambling nights :)
ReplyDeletegive us more brains! :p
ReplyDeleteKen I feel your pain. Civilians can be so stupid sometimes. I once got killed because a month earlier so guy walking to close to a grenade I threw at a prince.
ReplyDeleteTo be completely honest, the biggest problem I want fixed in the next update, is the ability to attack something above you, the reason for this is simple... At least 4 of my characters have died after shoving a large pile of trash onto the stairs so they can sleep in peace, then when they wake up they move the pile of trash to the side, then try to climb up the stairs but NPC's are either standing on top of the stairs upstairs, or have moved something onto the stairs.
ReplyDeleteYou can melee attack through stairs/ladders :
ReplyDeleteK (break) then 5 (neutral/wait) for direction to attack up/down.
I really want more of the main story. I really enjoyed running from place to place killing zombies/surviving.
ReplyDeleteOh and more special buildings (and subways!)+more floors to buildings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survival_Crisis_Z
ReplyDeleteI would love the game adding some of those features, like human factions. To me zombies should be the background, the interesting things is the interaction between humans in a situation of great stress and danger. That would be fun! Like The Walking Dead ;)
ok, that was long ago. So how long shall we wait for the new version?
ReplyDeleteYeah, can't wait to see what this new version has planned as new features ^^ !
ReplyDeleteA week or so hopefully. Depends on RL. And by RL I don't mean Rogue-Like but Real Life ^^
ReplyDeleteAnd is it gonna be a big release? ^^ - It's nice that you read stuff we write!
ReplyDeleteHi Jack! hype's growing for the new release! Have a nice day!
ReplyDeleteCome on, roguedjack, make a "New Version" preview! :)
ReplyDeletetake a peek at the screenshot page ;)
ReplyDeleteWaiting for the next release. Keep it up bro
ReplyDeleteWell, finally I don't have to wait for minecraft, Project Zomboid or Fort Zombie to become "the" sandbox game about the zombiecalypse anymore. Love it.
ReplyDeleteWow, cool!!!
ReplyDeleteCome on give us the release! ;)
Give the zombies braaainz!
The new picture got me excited! Sanity, what looks like some sort of book, and pre-apocalypse jobs? I cant wait!
ReplyDeleteMan o man, really boiling, when is it gonna be out, huh huh?
ReplyDeleteYep, more than one people waiting here :)
ReplyDeleteAwww, weekend is coming and it's not ready yet. At least if we had an upcoming feature list, that would be cool, it's like i would play it already!
ReplyDeleteSo, I guess RL got Roguedjack?
ReplyDeleteYup, sorry about that.
ReplyDeleteWhat's RL? oh... just realized, real life.
ReplyDeleteIs it going to be long till the next release? so i would stop checking like it's gonna be any day now ^^
Keep on keeping on Jack.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, are warehouses still in the game? I haven't came across one in a while, and wonder if this was just odd luck on my part.
when is the new version coming out? i can't wait :D
ReplyDeleteAw come on Jack, at least tell us your progress so far...!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great game and all, but it looks like it's gonna die due to the creator's lack of free time. If he would release the source code, someone we could depend on would update it constantly, every week. But he's gonna just quit logging on, and not release the source code, and that's how games die.
ReplyDeleteThat's a tad too pessimistic, remember how we thought that the game would die an alpha 6.0 , and it went on to 8, now close to 9, right? RIGHT?!
ReplyDeleteRight! 9.0 is done, just need to test a bit more.
ReplyDeletePlease release it now man!
ReplyDeleteFor our sake man ! let us to the dirty bug testing, it's a pleasure for us!
ReplyDelete9? where when how? pleeease!
ReplyDelete>2011
ReplyDelete>not releasing the update
i seirously hope you guys dont do this
Have you seen the movie Babble?
ReplyDeleteWhat you said didn't make much sense.
I can't wait to see the 9th version. Thank you, Roguedjack!
ReplyDeleteDeon, you rule ! I played at first RS with the default tile sets, but now i like your tilesets supreme! I could say i can't enjoy RS without them. Cheers !
ReplyDeleteHi 'jack.. can't wait for the new release as I'm expecting lots of fun and more strategy.. and some plot! Have a nice day and thanks for your work.
ReplyDeleteP.s.: thanks to deon too, the game really improves with his gfx
I don't expect anything more than a small update, but even that would be enough! It's always nice to see small things being changed, just to see the game is progressing nicely.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what to expect, still those bug fixes are more than welcome making it playable versus those untargetable bastards...
ReplyDeleteOh and yeah, when's it coming out ?
I think roguejack is the mind of Two games..... This and grand......ecc ecc
ReplyDeleteGrand Rogue Auto is his friend's game, not his.
ReplyDeleteRj, tell us something :).
Probably still testing. Bugs to iron out, spelling errors to correct, misplaced semi-colons and fancy brackets out of place, etc. Lengthy process I would bet.
ReplyDeletemah..the time of release of the two game is the same....
ReplyDeleteRelease I'll try
ReplyDeleteClouds in sky
Saturday or Sunday
I'll find a way
Not GRA dev is I
Why would I
Another name
For a game?
So it's out saturday or sunday? well, saturday is today... :D would be a nice gift for me to spend saturday night at home running from zombies...
DeleteDid he mean that he is working on another game?
ReplyDeleteNo.
ReplyDelete