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April Development Update and New Content

Aloha Thrivers! Spring is in the air and we’re hard at work helping the flowers and mutants bloom across the island. We’ve spent a lot of hours on playtests and tweaking gameplay based on your feedback last month, but we’ve still had time to include a bunch of new content for you! 

Your feedback is very important to us so keep it coming!  If you’re interested in helping out head over to our discord let us know! We love hearing your ideas and talking about what’s coming up next. 

Here’s a look at some of the biggest improvements and news about the latest features you’ll find in the game.

Thorcon Improvements

Many of you told us how hard it was to get started in the game’s starting area.

Finding your way out of the Thorcon Power Plant and into the world was a headache.

We added arrows, decals, and lighting to help you find your way out.

Normally we wouldn’t suggest following a shark but in this case the graffiti points the way to freedom.

Massive Foliage Update

Back in 2017 this was the original concept for the jungle of our dreams.

This is what the wild’s looked like a few weeks ago.

And this is what the jungle looks like now.

As you can see it’s a huge improvement.

The difference around the starting area is night and day.

The plants are not only bigger and more vibrant

But they now sway in the wind when a storm is about the roll through.

New Harvesting and Crafting Content: Coconuts and Canteens

Players have a chance to find coconuts when they harvest trees now.

This offers a healthier meal option than decades old canned food or cannibalism. 

You can also craft them into a handy all natural canteen perfect for a late night cocktail.

New Starting Area Content: Power Lines and Substation

The Thorcon Power Plant got wired up this month to help tell the story of how this iconic building used to power the island before the Fracture wiped out civilization.

We added walls to help secure the substation and keep the mutants from getting stuck on a transformer.

You can find the Veilstation on the other side of the map if you follow the powerlines.

Even though it’s huge, Veilcorp’s main facility is much harder to find through the new lush foliage.

New Construction Features: Tiered Totems and Shields

Currently, totems help players claim a plot of land to build on and can prevent your base from decaying if you keep them filled with resources.

We added tiered totems and totem shields this month to make them more useful if you’re willing to spend the resources.

There are now 6 different tiers of totems that players can build inside their bases.

Totem shields create an invisible force that attackers have to wear down before they can access or damage your totem.

Totems get tougher as you upgrade and they provide buffs to construction pieces attached to the foundation in a radius surrounding them.

New Content: Thorcon Dungeon

Last summer we added a dungeon area inside the Thorcon.

It remained empty with some placeholders for a while why we worked on more important things like making the game run at a playable frame rate without crashing.

Now that we’ve achieved that goal we went back to work on the Thorcon dungeon.

Things are looking a little different inside now.

There’s still work to be done but it’s a fun place to run around with a group as we work on upgrades and other hidden places for players to explore.

New Feature: Character Customizer

For a really long time, your character was just another face in the crowd with no customization options other than taking off a piece of clothing.

Your character may be a clone in the game, but you don’t have to look like one anymore.

There are a few clothing choices currently available from our vendors and we plan to unveil more “Apocalypse Casual” options soon.

Miscellaneous Updates

 Combat Updates

  • Adjusted sprint stamina usage and increased recovery while standing, crouching, or going prone
  • Increased damage output of shotgun
  • Added movement speed modifier to all weapons
  • Updated melee distances
  • Updated melee weapon damages

Construction Updates

  • Changed Thatch doors to use wood resistance values
  • Doors are now part of the totem damage mitigation
  • Lowered the structural damage pans do

Loot Updates

  • Added SSHAM cans to loot tables across the map
  • Made some trash smeltable

Harvesting Updates

  • Pickaxe can now be used to harvest meat from bodies
  • Increased harvest rate of axes
  • Added tree classes and tool requirements to harvest large and huge trees
  • Doubled wood dropped by a tree and stone from rocks
  • Increased sulfur, iron, and twine drop rate

You can learn more about the game and get all the latest updates by going to our Discord server or checking out our Steam page.