1:40pm EST - We are at the halfway point in the week and the team is cranking out new stuff! The update yesterday morning went overall very smooth. Although there are still some issues, gameplay and performance are more solid than ever. Some exciting things have been added today and we’ll be seeing them in main sooner than you think...

New release schedule

Garry is shifting the release schedule for updates again. The last two weeks we’ve been on a Monday release schedule. Although it makes more sense from a coding standpoint, many people were frustrated not to have new content for the weekend. Starting this week, the team is switching to a Thursday devblog and update release schedule. This means most of the things below will be going live on main at some point tomorrow. Also, Garry told me the map saves should still be compatible so no map or BP wipes will be forced.

Metal tier is in

The first metal tier is officially in! Houses now have an extra level of protection past stone. With several thousand more health points, the metal tier is now the best deterrent from raiders. They cost between 150 to 200 metal frags per block and, interestingly enough, you can upgrade twig straight to metal at the moment. Here are some pictures:

Higher block protections

Many people have been complaining about how easy it is for people to break down walls with tools. They’ll be happy to know Garry has beefed up the protection building blocks have versus melee damage. This means, although it won’t be impossible to get through walls without C4, it’ll take a lot of tools to do so.

Stats table

Along with these changes to block protection, Garry has added a stats table which shows how much time, how many hits and tools it takes to get through different building blocks. I’m hoping we can get access to this information soon!

Procedural map changes

Andre is doing another round of modifications to the procedural map generation (on the procgen6 branch). He’s changed some spawn points, allowing people to spawn north or south of the temperate biome and ensuring they don’t spawn right on a cliff. He’s also made more lakes and increased the amount of land on the map. Additionally, he’s tweaking some stuff with the roads system and getting bridges in place. Don’t expect to see any of this tomorrow because it would force a map wipe.

Dropped error

Server owners have probably noticed their consoles getting spammed with dropped through errors. Thankfully, Garry has fixed this issue so console spam should clear up after tomorrow’s update.

Bullet ricochet

Maurino has added in bullet ricocheting. That means bullets now bounce off objects (and lose some velocity). The bullet dynamics are already awesome (seeing them come back down if you shoot straight up), I love seeing more improvements like this.

Ridable horses soon

Minh posted some new horse animations last night. Even more exciting, he told me that he’s starting on the animations for when the player is riding the horse! I can’t fucking wait to ride a horse!

Repair bench

Maurino has done some more work on the repair bench. He told me the functionality is working, however, the UI still needs some work. It’s currently a 50/50 as to whether it’ll be in the update tomorrow.

Footstep sounds

Alex has done a pass on footstep sounds and they sound noticeably… squishier (on the sand at least). Actually, as you walk around you’ll notice much more variation in the sounds as you step on different surfaces. Overall, I think everything is sounding much better.

Sleeping bag damage

Many people are noticing sleeping bags are seemingly indestructible after yesterday's update. They are in fact not invincible, however, they do take a ton of hits to destroy. Initial tests show it takes 95 hits and nearly 2 hatchets to get through. Alternatively, 100 rounds from the AK did the trick too.

Higher metal tier

It looks like an even higher metal tier is in the works. Vincent posted this picture to the building skin top tier trello card. That looks badass!

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