Hey Survivors!
Hotfix 14a is here! Say hello to the brand new World Refresh and tons of quality-of-life fixes in this new patch for The Dead Linger! If your game does not update automatically, we recommend verifying your game cache or restarting your Steam client.
*NEW* Patch Notes for Hotfix 14c
We’ve pushed out a small Hotfix that fixes an issue with zombies disappearing.
- Fixed a bug where zombies and other NPCs would often vanish during a world refresh.
*NEW* Patch Notes for Hotfix 14b
We’ve pushed out a small Hotfix that fixes a few issues and improves your experience.
- Survivor spawning has changed. Survivors are now more inclined to spawn in towns, prisons, and farmland, instead of forests or fields.
- Fixed an issue where “Unknown” boxes were spawning in various wilderness locations.
- Potential fix for some instances where survivors would encounter low framerate with many players in a multiplayer game.
Patch Notes for Hotfix 14a – “New World Refresh”
World Refresh
The World Refresh has been completely changed in the following ways:
- The loading bar is gone. The game no longer pauses during world refresh.
- Fog rolls in during this change, and rolls out over about 15 to 30 seconds.
- The survivor can continue walking, fighting, and so on during the world refresh.
- A small spinner in the bottom right indicates the refresh is taking place.
- Some stuttering may occur during the change, but we will be improving the cleanliness of this over time.
- The look and feel of the new world refresh is not final, but we feel this is the correct direction.
- You can learn more about the World Refresh in our latest Design of the Dead video! [Click here to watch it!]
More Fixes
- In anticipation for the upcoming ‘main menu overhaul’ in Build 15, the loading screen has undergone a visual change for a cleaner, sleeker look.
- Lowered the default graphics settings so lower end machines are not struggling right away when starting the game. Users with higher end PCs may want to adjust their settings again after this patch.
- Added Antisotropic Filtering to the Graphics Options menu. On by default. This makes far surfaces much sharper and less blurry.
- Fixed an issue where lumber supplies were not properly spawning in backyards and at construction sites.
- Large tweaks to the way loot spawns in Cabins and Farmhouses. (Cabin loot in particular has been nerfed and re-organized.)
- Added more general furniture to Cabins and Farmhouses.
- Cabins now level a much smaller area around themselves when generated.
- Rockland and grassland are now more common than they were previously.
- Survivors can no longer fire a gun or aim down ironsights when climbing a ladder. (This functionality may return with 1-handed weapons in the future, but it was currently just a bug and not our planned implementation.)
- Lots of fixes to multiplayer character movement. Survivor’s should appear to move around much smoother to one another.
- Fixed an issue where clients in multiplayer games could not see trees or foliage.
- Fixed an issue where the backpack would stay open when disconnecting from a game.
- Fixed an issue where the weapon FOV was too high. Now default 60.
- Fixed an issue where the survivor’s FOV would change when equipping a weapon for the first time.
- Fixed an issue where weapon FOV would change when regular FOV was changed.
- Fixed a bug where a survivor’s gun would fire or they would swing their weapon after clicking back in to the window when ALT+Tabbing.
- Fixed a bug where buildings would sometimes disappear when reloading a world or returning to an area.
- Fixed a rare bug where survivors might get stuck in the “You Are Dead” white screen.
- Fixed a very large issue where suburban roads would sometimes spawn in sideways. Math typos are fun!
- Fixed two menu typos on the Delete World screen. Programmers can’t grammars.
- Fixed some positioning on the sign outside of the prison, so it is no longer sitting directly in front of the entrance.
- Fixed an issue where controls would be locked for a short time after respawning from death.
- Fixed a case where giant square holes would sometimes appear in terrain.
- Fixed an issue where grass would float in the air after starting a new world after leaving another.
- Fixed an issue where zombies were not spawning on anything but ‘clear grass,’ which was drastically reducing their population.
- Fixed an issue where zombies were getting ‘confused’ on targets in multiplayer and not pursuing a target.
- Fixed an issue where zombies were not animating while hitting a window or door.
- Fixed an issue where far terrain would float after rejoining a world or starting a new world.
- Fixed an issue where some animations were not showing in multiplayer.
- Fixed an issue where some sound were not properly connected to the SFX slider in the Audio Settings menu.
- Fixed an issue where certain [color] tags were not being ignored in names, specifically a user with [tags] joined a world.
- Fixed an issue where deer were experiencing some strange stuttering in multiplayer.
- Fixed an issue where survivor’s gear (in third person) would carry over from the previous world/inventory save.
- Fixed one instance where roads would go up very steep cliffs.
- Fixed an issue where some of the 2×4 objects would not properly ‘post’ into the ground with a sledgehammer.
- Fixed an issue where zombies would disappear while climbing over a wall or crawling through a window.
- Fixed an issue where the main menu music would continue to play in game after loading a second world save.
- Fixed an issue where trees would float during/after a world refresh.
- Fixed an issue in multiplayer where the host would be relocated a few hundred meters after a world refresh.
- Fixed an issue where barricades would move up from their original position when rejoining a world or after a world refresh. [Thanks Akiruu87!]
- Fixed an issue where fences in yards were sometimes oriented the wrong way, with the “back” beams on the fence facing outwards. Yards are now more secure from hooligans trying to climb your fences.
- Fixed a typo in the description of the black Mastodon Revolver.
- Fixed many cases where some road intersections would float or cross over themselves.
- Fixed an issue where zombies would sometimes take double damage in a multiplayer game.
- Fixed many cases where trees and bushes would appear in roads.
- Fixed an issue where the game could potentially lock up on disconnect.
- Fixed an issue where masks and face items from previous inventory would still obscure vision after joining a new world.
- Fixed an issue where tall pine forests did not have the proper ground textures.
Please be sure to report issues encountered to the Support & Bugs forum to help us improve the experience.
We are now officially beginning code work on new features, new enemies, new animals, and tons of new zone and building content coming in Build 15! We’ll be bringing you screenshots (and maybe some awesome videos) all throughout Build 15′s development! Stay tuned to our twitter for more on that!
Linger on, Survivors!
g post to announce some upcoming plans; an idea we've been knocking around for a few days.
But first, I'd like to make an apology to the survivors who are particularly bummed about the changes we're making. I am very sorry that we've had to remove such a large feature from the scope of the game. I will always be "That guy who removed procedural generation from The Dead Linger" and criticism of that move is expected and entirely deserved. I do not expect everyone to come around on it and see where we're going in the long-term, but I sincerely hope that you stick around to check out the changes we're making. Preserving the heart and soul of TDL is on the forefront of our minds. Thank you all for your patience as we make these necessary changes to The Dead Linger. We will release Build 16 when we feel it provides a better experience for everyone and reaches the quality we expect of ourselves.
For those who are interested in helping us test and polish the Build 16 experience prior to its full release, this next part is for you.
As Build 16 (Sirens of the City combined with the UE4 conversion) develops further along, we're going to be opening up an optional beta for those would like to opt-in to testing Build 16 on UE4 prior to its major and final release. This will be done through Steam, and we'll have more information on how to access it when it goes live. Currently we're still deploying a wide range of features across the environment (and working on the environment itself.) When we reach our internal "Beta" goals for this change, we'll be looking at release builds on a daily basis (give or take) for you to check out on Steam, if that's your cup of tea. Around that same time we'll probably open up our TDL-to-UE4 Conversion Trello board so you guys can actively track our progress on the engine change and see what's coming next on the Beta builds.
This will give survivors an opportunity to help us debug and test some major changes to the game, submit bugs and feedback for the changes, and allow survivors to play the (unpolished and unfinished) UE4 version of the game a bit earlier as we progress the UE4 build to Build 15's current state, and then on to Build 16 for its ultimate release.
And of course, this will be entirely optional for those who want to wait for the more polished build release.
We'll let you know when that's close. Thanks again for your patience and support as we undergo these big, big changes to improve the overall experience and quality of The Dead Linger.
Linger on, Survivors!
