12:42pm EST - Yesterday, an update launched featuring some key changes to gameplay. Overall, the launch went pretty smooth, no game breaking bugs introduced and servers are performing well. With the addition of climates and cold along with the nerfing of health benefits for food, the PvE aspect of the game has gotten notably more challenging (and visually affronting). Before we get into that, some people are having issues maintaining connections to servers...

Connection issues

As Garry explained on the devblog, to help against the missing walls issue, he’s added a hash to entities and forced a disconnect when there is a hash mismatch. This has a number of people (around 1 in every 100) sporadically getting kicked. Reports indicate this gets worse by rad towns (although that could just be because more people build near rad towns).

Friday is for fixing, and that’s what Garry is focused on. We’ve seen several commits for network diagnostics, network tweaks and client performance fixes. Ideally we’ll see a hotfix in the next several hours, in the mean time, this is not a 1% you want to be part of.

Improved loot drops

As people started hitting barrels yesterday after the update, it has become abundantly clear the loot drops have changed. The biggest confirmed change is the removal of default blueprints (the things you can craft from the start). In addition, crates and barrels appear to be dropping more generous loot (plus more blueprints) and we've seen increased reports of explosive charge blueprints being found. As always, balance is still needed, but I’m not sure anyone is going to argue with changes like this.

Key lock changes

There were several last minute changes yesterday to key locks. Here’s the rundown:

Key locks now only cost 100 wood (no more metal frags required)
If you already have a key, you can craft another even when the door locked
Keys are crafted instantly

This eliminates the most common issue of, “Oh fuck, I lost my key.” Additionally, you actually no longer need to carry around a key, just burn it when you leave then craft one when you get back. That way, no one can kill you and steal your key. Although code lock is definitely still more convenient, this makes the key lock a much more viable option.

Correction: I screwed the pooch on this one by misinterpreting one of the commits. You need a key to be able to make another key for the door when it is locked. My bad, disregard the above paragraph.

Screen overlays

Along with the changes to metabolism and climate, yesterday's update introduced some new screen overlays. Although it is important to know when nature is fucking you or that someone is stabbing you in the heart, the general consensus is this implementation sucks. I think people raise some valid complaints, firstly, it breaks immersion because the only way you would see effects like that in real life would be if someone held a big piece of glass in front of you. Second, it’s distracting and annoying.

I’m not sure the solution here. Should they just be toned down (maybe 50% or more)? Should they be removed altogether and we’ll just rely on the icons on the bottom right? Are there other games which do the overlay much better? We’ll see what the devs choose to do, either way, given the outcry from the community, my guess is we’ll see some changes to the overlay system soon.

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