Alpha 62 Update - 20th December 2023

[h2]Random Plane Events:[/h2]
Players will now experience random plane flybys during gameplay. On occasion these flights will crash-down somewhere in the world, providing players with incentive to venture out to discover the wreck and loot its cargo.

The intention with these events is to incentivize players to travel/explore further from their bases, and add more unpredictability to the moment-to-moment gameplay. This also adds more value and utility to vehicles.

The pilots will dynamically toggle the plane lights during day/night transitions, and the drone of the engines will alert players to incoming aircraft.

Starting a new game will now begin with a drop-off plane leaving the player location (hoping to give a sense of isolation and the situation at hand).

[h2]Flight Paths:[/h2]
Flight paths are procedurally handled and unique for every flight. Planes will enter the play space and attempt extensive flybys of the playable area before exiting and flying out into the wilderness.

During their flights they are coded to dynamically traverse the landscape geometry, so will fly over mountains, down into valleys, avoid peaks, etc.


[h2]Crash Sites:[/h2]
On occasion flights will go down and crash, creating a huge fiery explosion and sending vibrations and echoes of the impact across the map.

Players will be able to observe crash sites by their burning debris fields and a column of smoke from the burning fuel. If enough shroud on the map has been uncovered, the flames from the crash will be visible from the map view.

[h2]Pilots:[/h2]
Crash sites (and its cargo) will be defended by it's pilots. These guys are packing lever-action rifles and .44 revolvers, so they can deal a lot of damage and will not be friendly to players trying to scavenge their wreck site.

They are armored and can be identified by their white pilot helmets. It is possible for players to find a pilot helmet, however it is extremely rare (similar to the deep-cave miner gas masks).


[h2]Crash Site Looting:[/h2]
During crashes, aircraft cargo crates will spill out among the wreck. These cargo crates are sealed with metal straps, so will need to be broken open to access their loot.

The debris from the wreck is also of value to players. Almost all parts of the wreck can be broken down to yield scrap metal. This will cause usage damage to your tools over time.


[h2]Regions:[/h2]
This is a fairly large change, and is another move to encourage travel and exploration during gameplay. The world is now broken down into separate regions, which can be viewed from the map view.

Each region has a different weighting for the ores/minerals that are available within them. Some regions may have an abundance of one type of ore, yet little to none of another.

Vehicles now become more valuable, as a means of travel to regions with a required resource within daylight hours. Or more careful planning of routes while on-foot is required to secure needed resources.

While in the map view, scrolling over a region will show the weights of the resources available within it.
Regions Toggle: If the region boundary lines are distracting, they can be toggled on/off using the checkbox on the right-side of the map view.

Currently regions only control distribution of ore/minerals, although I see potential to expand this in the future to wildlife and vegetation. It's a tricky balance, so I appreciate feedback on the current balance and suggestions for the future.

[h2]Huge Increase To Fiber/Medicinal Foliage:[/h2]
The old individual fiber and medicinal plants have been completely replaced by large modular bushes. They are now way more abundant and easier to spot.

The purpose of this is to make the natural environment more dense with interactable foliage (rather than just static bushes).

Fiber: Increase of around 700%.
Medicinal: Increase of around 400%.

Due to the large increase, recipes that use these materials have been increased for balance, but overall players should have a more abundant supply.

[h2]Foliage Harvesting Physics:[/h2]
The new bushes all use destruction physics, so players can see bushes snap and break down as they harvest. I'm hoping this will make for a more satisfying experience while gathering.


[h2]Electrical Bench:[/h2]
Found in the BCU crafting menu, the electrical bench can now be crafted.

This bench now handles the various crafting options for electrical items.

Some of the existing electrical items have been moved from the workbench crafting menu, as well as new added items that can now be crafted.


[h2]Capacitors:[/h2]
Crafted at the electrical bench using refined lithium and pearls, capacitors are used to craft circuit boards (and will likely be used for more in the future).


[h2]Semiconductors:[/h2]
Also crafted at the electrical bench using refined silicon and obsidian, semiconductors are required to craft circuit boards (with more uses likely coming in the future).


[h2]New Ore/Mineral Types:[/h2]
3 new ore/mineral types have been introduced. These resources use the new regions system for their location in the world and typically will not be found together or adjacent to one another.
[h3]Lithium:[/h3]

[h3]Silicon:[/h3]

[h3]Obsidian:[/h3]

The distribution and balance for the new resource types may need some tweaking, so I welcome feedback regarding this.

[h2]Color Grading Overhaul (Graphics Update):[/h2]
I've made a significant change to the graphics color grading of the game. Color saturation and contrast depth have all been boosted. The result is a much more colorful presentation, with sharper outlines and deeper blacks.


[h2]First Person Arm Grabbing:[/h2]
Picking up all items now plays a first person hand-grabbing animation. This is to increase immersion while playing.

The animations have been blended in for all weapons and tools, so you do not need to unequip your weapon.

[h2]Hunter AI Updates:[/h2]
I noticed that hunters were often crowding a single piece of cover, leading to some predictable patterns during combat. They are now aware of the positions of their squad-mates and will seek independent cover.

This means they are better able to flank a player's position and create more dynamic encounters.

Also fixed the bug where hunters would get stuck on buildables while swimming and not move or react to the player.

Also fixed hunters not responding to their squad-mate being killed by a single headshot.

[h2]Tightened Spread on Pump Action and Double Barrel Shotguns:[/h2]
Both the pump action and double barrel have had their spread tightened. This makes them more powerful at midrange. It's now not as necessary to wait for enemies to get to point blank range to deal max damage.

This does mean that the hunters also benefit from this change, so be careful when you hear that pump or double barrel cocking while in combat.

Note: The double barrel still has a slightly tighter spread than the pump action (making it more effective at mid range to the pump action).

[h2]Harvested Foliage and Scrap Regrowth/Respawn Rate:[/h2]
Previously the game did not remember harvested plants/scrap between saves. So reloading a save would result in 100% respawn of foliage and scrap. Now the game remembers.

In addition to this, the regrowth/respawn rate has been slowed (and can take around 3 in-game days to replenish an area of resources). This means players will be rewarded with denser resources if they travel further afield. Staying in one location all the time will mean fewer/slower resources. This is another move to encourage and reward travel and exploration.

[h2]Garage Door Fob Fix:[/h2]
Fixed the garage fob (vehicle upgrade) so that it will now open/close the closest garage door to the vehicle when the button is pressed. Previously it would engage a random door within a radius of the vehicle.


[h2]Boost Packs Duration Increase:[/h2]
Almost all boost packs have had a significant increase to their effect duration, making them a lot more useful.

• Strength Boost (Increases physical strength for a period of time. Allows resources to be harvested at a faster rate and increases damage dealt by melee weapons). Increased from 3 mins to 6 mins.
  
• Adrenaline Boost (provides unlimited stamina for a period of time). Increased from 3 mins to 6 mins.
  
• Heat Pack (Provides a short period of warmth). Increased from 2 mins to 3 mins.
  

[h2]New Skins:[/h2]
New skins are available on the Subsistence Steam Item Store. Thank you for further supporting the continued development. 🙏

Pump Action Shotgun Predator Skin: Item Store Page Rifle Predator Skin: Item Store Page Pistol Predator Skin: Item Store Page Combat Helmet Snow Camo Skin: Item Store Page
Skins on the Steam Store can also be accessed from within the game by clicking on the weapon in your inventory.

[h2]Other Notable Changes:[/h2]

• Optimized save game logic. Save files now are faster and use around half the file size.
  
• Fiber stack count increased to 1000.
  
• Medicinal stack count increased to 500.
  
• Added shadow casting for destroyed buildable fracture pieces and destroyed ore nodes.
  
• Prevented bushes and foliage from blocking AI navigation calculations and pathing.
  
• Fixed rare bug where players would get stuck on "Initializing World..." screen when loading a profile.
  
• Added better handling to ensure loot, hunters and hunter bases can not spawn outside of the fence-line.
  
• Fix bug where the player camera would still move while in the menu if entering the menu while transitioning out of the map view.
  
• Reduced the requirement count for circuit board for several craft and upgrade recipes.
  

Hope everyone has a great Christmas and New Year holiday! 🙏
CG

Discord invite: https://discord.gg/zyy4jQs
Twitter: @playSubsistence
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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkQZ7vkTiqetTC0_8umY2Pg
Steam Forums: https://steamcommunity.com/app/418030/discussions/

[h3]Hosting Your Own Server:[/h3]
If you would like to host your own dedicated server, I would recommend Nitrado (as I work closely with their team to support the game). You are also free to host on your own hardware, and the server files are freely available on SteamCMD.

You can view a detailed guide to hosting here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2201638184

Continued Translation Support Credits (in no particular order): Thank you so much for the support.
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