Wow. All I can say is wow.
----- Original Message -----
From: Jeremy Kaldobsky <jer...@kaldobsky.com
To: audyssey <gamers@audyssey.org
Date sent: Sun, 20 Nov 2011 22:30:44 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [Audyssey] Swamp version 1.2b
After giving it quite a bit of thought, and debating it with Kai,
and flipping a coin, I've decided to post what I do have done so
that people can begin testing out the new content while I work on
the rest. The coin was just for fun afterward, but it actually
agreed with the decision which was pretty cool.
Version 1.2b has been posted and you will notice many many
changes in this change log. Please know that your old characters
have been ground up and fed to the new Zombies, so you must start
over with a fresh start. Not everyone will be happy about that,
and indeed some people were kicking and screaming as we ground
them into zombi-chow, but that's life. Or death. Whichever.
Grenades and Mission quests are not in this update! They are
rather big additions that I was saving for last, and I will
continue to work on them as people enjoy all this new fun stuff.
Kai has done an excellent job on sounds, so we're both hoping
everyone will enjoy this.
Changes from version 1.1b to 1.2b
---------------------------------
- Dogs movement speed has been increased a little.
- Zombies should no longer be able to get into the safe zone.
- Zombies have some updated sounds.
- Pressing Shift + ? will announce who else is on the server.
- 3 new voices have been added.
- Cycling through screen reader options now uses sound files
instead of synth speech.
- The server used to contain 50 zombies at all times, it now
holds 150, with the foundation for me to add more if needed.
- Sounds heard through walls have been adjusted to reflect the
thickness of the wall.
- Zombie AI is improved to help them find you in complex
environments. They are less likely to get stuck and stand around
waiting for you to come back within slashing distance.
- Zombie AI is more likely to give up persuing a target in order
to chase down someone else. In the past a zombie chasing you
would almost never stop to chase another person even if that
person was making more noise and was closer.
- The multiplayer map has had some changes. The entire eastern
border has been expanded to reveal a lot of new land!
- Sounds for the radar modes and beacons have been changed.
- Window eyes should be fixed finally.
- Guards don't yell out phrases as often because it sometimes
became irritating.
- Guards have their own separate phrases so they aren't as easily
confused for other players.
- Med kits have been replaced by the Field kit. The Field kit is
used more like the weapons, and has an area of effect to heal
nearby friends as well.
- Field kits heal for 20 health on each use.
- Kai has adjusted many of the weapon, zombie, and radar sounds.
- Fixed a few bugs that were causing random game crashing.
- Voices can now be heard by zombies.
- Most of the weapons now have an alternative mode that is
accessed by pressing T.
- The axe can be set to defensive mode, which deals less damage
but has a 20% chance to block a zombie attack.
- T toggles the silencer for your pistol, assuming you've found a
silencer already.
- The Shotgun and Benelli can both be switched to scatter mode.
In scatter mode you do less damage but the spread is more likely
to hit zombies.
- T toggles the scope on the hunting rifle, assuming you've found
a scope already.
- The MP5 and Assault rifle can be switched in to burst mode.
Ammo is used up 3 times faster, and they make significantly more
noise.
- The Chainsaw has been added. It uses fuel as ammo, has range a
little longer than the axe, and deals significantly more damage
than most guns.
- The Sniper rifle has been added. It uses 7.62mm ammo and deals
more damage than any other gun. You must use T to crouch into
the Sniper's position before you are able to fire.
- The M60 machine gun has been added. It holds 100 rounds and
uses T to brace the weapon against yourself. When braced, your
movement speed is greatly reduced, but when not braced the gun is
less accurate.
- The Vulcan minigun has been added. It holds 1000 rounds of
7.62mm ammo and uses T to brace the weapon against yourself.
Your speed is drastically slowed while holding the weapon, but
you must brace to fire which will not let you move at all.
- Players sending text messages will have a radio chirp mark
their location around you.
- You can no longer switch weapons while your current weapon is
still in recoil or being reloaded.
- A few sounds have been added to the menu.
- There is a stereo sound test on the main menu. This tests to
see if you have your headphones in the correct ears.
- Tyrant zombies have 33% more health than before.
- Matriarch zombies have more health now. They have as much as
Tyrants used to have.
- The Lamprey zombie type has been added.
- The amount of loot to find on the server has been reduced by
20%.
- There is no only 1 guard out in front of the Safe Zone, but he
is better armed to deal with any zombies who try to get in.
- Footsteps used to mute on one side if you were walking along a
wall, this has been fixed.
- Ambient sounds have been added around the map, to help add
atmosphere but also to help navigate within buildings.
- Abandoned cars have been added to the map in several places.
No, these are not drivable. I could hear the question forming in
your brain!
- The high contrast graphics are a little less stressful on the
processor now. I will be improving this more later.
- Zombies can cross the river but players can't.
- Guns stored in the safe zone should no longer lose the ammo
that was loaded in them before logging out.
- While not really developed into anything yet, there is a
leveling system now.
- Reputation is the currency used in the game. At this point in
the zombie outbreak, people are more concerned with survival than
money. Even though there is no actual money, your group of
survivors is not going to hand over a valuable Assault Rifle to
some new guy who just arrived. By contributing and helping out,
you will earn the respect of your fellow survivors and that is
spent like money on equipment.
- Killing zombies earns both experience points and a little bit
of reputation.
- Weapon ranges have been set. Here is each weapon along with
its maximum range.
+ Axe, 2
+ Chainsaw, 3
+ Field kit, 8 area of effect
+ Shotgun, 35
+ Pistol, 45
+ Benelli, 45
+ Hunting Rifle, 60 (or 90 with scope)
+ MP5, 60
+ Assault Rifle, 60
+ Vulcan Minigun, 60
+ M60, 70
+ Sniper Rifle, 120
- Positional sound has been put back in. In the very first
version, the sound of zombie hits and deaths was positioned
around you in 2D space. For a while that was removed to solve a
buffer issue, but now it is back.
- Zombies no longer get stuck south of the Safe zone.
- The lining up of zombies among different clients has been
greatly improved. What will this mean to most people? Nothing.
:)
- The bug has been fixed that could allow the guards to be
killed.
- I believe the bug is fixed that respawned zombies in exactly
the same spot, allowing people to rack up many kills easily.
- The server is now set to monitor several new things to catch
cheaters. Up until now I have no reason to believe anyone has
been cheating, but if I find that someone is they will be
permanently banned from my server, which is used for Castaways,
Swamp, and future games planned. I think the permanent ban is
something everyone will want to avoid. Also if you think
changing IPs will get around my bans, I wouldn't bet on that. :)
- Pressing C still tells you your health, and now Shift + C tells
you about reputation, experience, and level.
- A few changes to how some of the stat keys display their
messages.
- Being killed will cause you to lose any equipment you were
carrying around with you. This makes things more frightening,
and also encourages you to donate items to the Safe Zone.
Reputation, kills, accuracy, and experience are not lost when you
die.
- If you are attacked, there is a chance that the zombies will
yank the weapon from your hands or break it. If this happens the
weapon is lost and you will need to find another one. The only
weapon that can not be lost is the trusty axe.
- Armor had been added. There are a few different grades of
armor for each category. Armor helps protect you from damage
when zombies attack you, but it is also possible for armor to be
broken in the process. The protection of armor in different
categories will combine, but if you own a few pieces in the same
category only the best item will count. For example, if you own
a Military helmet and a Football helmet, the Military helmet is
the only one that is protecting you.
- When you want to play multiplayer, you will be asked to type in
a password as well as a name. If the name hasn't been used yet,
it will create the character and assign it the password you used.
This will prevent others from controlling your character if they
happen to try using the exact same character name. Don't lose
your passwords though, since I don't have any way to send them to
you if you forget them!
- If you are killed and restart with only an axe, you will start
out already inside of the Safe Zone. This gives you a chance to
get a new gun before venturing out in to the town.
- Fixed the bug that allowed people to shoot or axe each other.
- Main menu has been rearranged a bit.
For this update I highly suggest that you simply delete your old
Swamp game folder to start fresh. Doing so is not necessary of
course, but if you just unzip this new update into your existing
folder, you will wind up with a ton of unused sound files that
are just wasting space on your computer.
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