[Preview] 3.24.7.100 Changelog

Preview branch version 3.24.7.100 is now available. This information may change between now and the update’s official release.


Warning

Please note: New versions on the preview branch are designed to load older saves (backwards compatibility). However, the public branch typically cannot load saves made with newer versions (forwards compatibility). Therefore, if you plan to switch back to the public branch before the update is officially released, we recommend that you avoid loading important saves on the preview branch. Additionally, make sure to back up any maps before saving them in the level editor.

Work in Progress

This version on the preview branch is mostly ready to go feature-wise, but is still lacking some new content and content changes. Notably, the new tree models (fingers crossed), updating the Tank, and likely the combo crate items.

EDIT: Updated tree models, and the updated Tank, are on the preview branch. :slight_smile:

Estimated Release

We’re aiming for early the week of the 16th, perhaps Monday (the 16th) that week.

Server Browser Curation

I’ll tidy this up a bit and expand for a “behind-the-scenes” blog post.

A few years ago, moderating the Internet server list was a high-priority community concern, so I gradually duct-taped moderation features on top of the Steam server list. Unfortunately, it’s fairly straightforward to bypass when anyone can create unlimited Steam accounts and unlimited servers. Notes on this:

  • With a centralized moderation list (i.e., SDG moderation list) server hosts quickly notice when they’ve been flagged. Regardless of what we filter on (e.g., Steam ID, IP address, name, description, thumbnail, etc) these are all easy to quickly change.
  • Last year, there was a particularly horribly long game of whack-a-mole with a copyright-infringing server host. Every day (sometimes multiple times per day) the copyright owner was DMCA-striking the files on the workshop, and I was updating the filters to whatever they’d changed the server to. The copyright owner was eventually in direct contact with Steam’s DMCA team, and we were applying 1-year Unturned community hub bans to the uploaders, but they had a seemingly infinite supply of accounts. This was draining, and I’ve got to imagine it was worse for the copyright owner - I think all the server hosts out there dealing with griefers evading bans know this well.
  • Particularly determined server hosts we blocked developed tools to circumvent our filters. They’d instruct players on their servers to install a program that blocks traffic to our backend. It seems dangerous to me that players would be installing random executables like this, it caused a variety of other issues, and we had to rotate out domain names to remain unblocked.
  • Relatively recently there’ve been problems with some server hosts in Russia spoofing the details of other Russian servers to steal their players. Again a daily issue, and in this case I haven’t even been able to access the fake servers myself - I believe they’re blocking known VPN providers and cloud hosting IPs.
  • It’s highly controversial which filters and moderation rules we should be applying. For example, there was a lot of backlash about rules related to in-game monetization, or whether to allow roleplay of real-world tragedies. (Removing RP servers of e.g. the Russia-Ukraine war and the Israel-Palestine war is something I’ve stuck to.)

My hope is that de-centralizing the ability to curate the server list will help with these issues. Some of the use cases I have in mind:

  • Server networks can create a “verification” curator for their servers, applying a label indicating it’s really their server, and blocking fake servers with the same name. This should be very easy to do and shouldn’t require ongoing maintenance unless your GSLTs change.
  • Players interested in curating the server list can create their own list shared through the Steam workshop or a file hosted on the web. For example, to label servers they recommend, or hide servers they recommend against (e.g., pay-to-win, abusive admins).
  • Mod authors can create a list to hide servers that’re violating their copyright. Perhaps groups of like-minded modders can collaborate on these lists to help protect one another?
  • Similarly, perhaps groups of server hosts can collaborate on lists to verify large numbers of servers at once, and to hide problematic servers that’re harassing them?
  • If groups like described above do come to exist, SDG could potentially include them in defaults or recommend them somehow. For example, including “Russia Hosting Coalition”, “NA-EU Hosting Coalition”, and “China Hosting Coalition” lists to prevent spoofing by default.
  • Unsure whether this is good or bad, but it should be possible to use Geo-IP datasets to create regional server lists. Typically this should already be handled by the default sort considering ping and the max ping filter, but, for example, if you know you only have a good connection to Australian servers you could use a Geo-IP list that only shows Australian servers.

Anyway, here’s the documentation for the feature: Server Browser Curation Docs

Changelog

Added

  • Crawler Track physics for Explorer. (*Will do tank before update releases.)
  • Internet server list curation feature.
  • Left-clicking while zoomed with binoculars sets your waypoint to the focused point.
  • Min_Natural_Vehicles config option.
  • Zombies Can_Target_Objects config option and object option to prevent zombie damage.
  • Object asset property to override animation component path.
  • Object Load_Nav_On_Server and Load_Nav_In_Editor [bool] options.
  • Barricade and structure Can_Zombies_Target [bool] option.
  • Vehicle option to scale steering leaning force with speed.
  • Gun DriverTurretViewmodelMode option to control how first-person arms are moved for turrets in the driver’s seat.
  • Command-line “-UnredactedLogs” flag to turn off IP redaction.
  • Component to spawn explosions with all parameters available. (Replacing unintended Grenade/Rocket script usage.)

Changed

  • Reworked how explosion hits are found and sorted.
  • Skycranes cannot hook vehicles with barricades on them anymore.
  • Redact IPs in BattlEye debug logging by default.
  • Mostly finished deprecating older vehicle replication system.
  • Caliber_# attachment hook and bullet gravity multiplier supported for all attachment types.
  • Interactable objects can toggle Nav object active.
  • Updated Json.NET to 13.0.3.

Fixed

  • Don’t show item sale in news feed with IMGUI mode enabled. [Thanks RBMKBlaze!]
  • Log asset paths which exceed 260 characters (Windows MAX_PATH). [Thanks asineth0!]
  • Useable full type name wasn’t supported. [Thanks iBowie and DerpyHoowes!]
  • Foliage baking exception if surface collider was destroyed. [Thanks asineth0!]
  • No icon for stockpile button. [Thanks LocoCZ!]
  • “/copycameratransform” when looking up. [Thanks Toothy!]
  • Sandbox folder name instead of path in origin name. [Thanks Molt!]
  • Not playing ignition sound when switching from passenger to driver seat. [Thanks Tiway!]
  • Color tags in exported vendor asset file names. [Thanks Molt!]
  • Trailing space on a few item names. [Thanks Molt!]
  • Exploit using an old GUI component to subscribe to other workshop files. [Thanks Jdance!]
  • Keep third-person bullet casings visible in first-person for turrets. [Thanks Renaxon!]
  • Don’t use client Fake IP in ReadyToConnect per-address rate limiting.

Originally posted on SDG Support: https://support.smartlydressedgames.com/hc/en-us/articles/12462494977172 .

Bug reports are often tracked on our GitHub repository: Issues · SmartlyDressedGames/Unturned-3.x-Community · GitHub .

What exactly does this mean?

Similar to previous preview branch releases, new features (such as Interactability_Nav and Rubble_Nav_Mode) have been documented on our official documentation site. :slight_smile:

If you’re not familiar with creating custom objects – some objects (usually, Large-type objects) have a “Nav” GameObject. This provides navigation data when baking navigation meshes in the level editor. We’ve added properties that allow for activating/deactivating this GameObject.

Good to see that the game is developing :slight_smile:

1 Like

I love the new Server Curation feature. However, I have a few ideas to make it a bit better

1) Filter
Essentially, add some way to filter servers based on the labels in the curations you have. This would allow for players to search for specific types of servers using the server curation. It’d be cool if this filtered all servers that can have the filter instead of servers that actively have the filter too
2) Colored Server Names
Right now, I can barely tell a difference in the server browser. This is because you have to hover over the server to see the Label. I think it’d be better to change the server’s name color to the highest priority label’s color so people can see that there’s a label on it at a glance
3) Filter Columns
Alongside the Colored Server Names, it’d be cool to have a new column that shows the highest priority Label of the server. Same reasoning as the Colored Server Names. Just to prevent having to hover over every single server to see what each is labeled as

What was changed, like what’s the difference between new explosions and old explosions

For further context: It’s primarily to follow up on my comment on this Reddit thread: Zombies walk through doors
(The navmesh isn’t re-baked, unfortunately, it’s intended to interact with zombies the same way barricades and structures do of being attacked when the zombie is stuck.)

Thanks for the feedback CPL, happy to hear you’re optimistic for this feature! I agree 1 would be great, particularly as we hopefully see some labeling curation lists started! 2 and 3 should be a bit better in the latest preview version as DiFFoZ caught I missed assigning the labels to be displayed when I was rewriting some code.

Previously, explosion overlaps didn’t use the physics system. Instead, they tested the distance between the explosion center and the pivot points of nearby objects to determine which are within the blast radius. They then use the nearest point on the overlapping object’s colliders for damage falloff. This was problematic when the blast radius overlapped the colliders without reaching the pivot point. (Primarily small explosions like the Breaching Charge.)

Now, explosions should be much more consistent. For example, an explosion far down the base of a foundation works properly. Hits are also sorted from nearest to furthest so that if the explosion destroys a barricade or structure it won’t block damage to items behind it. Previously, this sorting took place within each category of entity rather than all overlapped entities because they didn’t have anything in common. (Now IExplosionDamageable interface.)

1 Like

I want to give one more suggestion for explosion change, can we get some kind of option in .dat file for objects to make explosions pass through that object? Player can fully counter an explosion just by standing behind a small object (link to my old post with a video of that issue). For example, we could have “Explosion_Penetrates” in the object .dat file. We already have “Penetrate Buildables” option for new Explosion Spawner script in unity, so I think it shouldn’t be a huge issue to add it.

Also, my other question what do damage types do from the new Explosion Spawner? I know that ZOMBIE_FIRE can make burning zombies and if the player has a firefighter suit, he doesn’t get damaged (I believe?). But what about ZOMBIE_ACID and ZOMBIE_ELECTRIC, do they have any specific use?

Unfortunately, we don’t have a good way to do this at the moment for the same reason as e.g. the third-person camera blocked by certain objects. We’d need to hit the object, check the asset, then do another raycast (not ideal). My hope is that Unity will get an option similar to Godot and Unreal where an object can opt in and out of individual physics layers. (e.g., opt-out from explosion blocking)

At the moment the difference is that zombie-related explosions can damage players when PvP is turned off. I wanted to provide all of the various explosion options in the component, but in the future this should probably be moved into its own separate option.

1 Like

The pending tree models are now on the preview branch! If you get the chance to check them out, please let us know what you think! We’re open to making revisions before the update. :slight_smile:

I saw that the trunk rings are a little bit blurry, and just to make myself sure I checked what the texture looks like and it has an unnecessarily huge resolution (128x32). You could achieve the same results with 2x8 or 2x16 (if you need more tree rings) with no filter mode.

For example, there is my tree model and its texture (16x8) it’s this big because I added slight texture to the bark but if I had a solid color, I would fit it in 8x2

Also, dead trees feel a little too spiky, maybe add some planes with textures of branches without leaves like old trees used to have

4 Likes

really love new trees and tank, but tank could be cooler if there was delay in turret movement like in some videvojames that have tanks, it could give it more weight and more feeling of a scary machine that destroy wooden 1x1 boxes

7 Likes

ngl dead and burned trees looks booring, it would be nice if in addition there was little branches sticking from em, like plane with texture idk

6 Likes


could you please rework the model and track chassis wheels they look kinda off (as you can see not every wheel is pinion-shaped). You can also add more wheels and also make so tank’s siloette is less tall, i.e. lower the body to the ground a little

This vehicle just can’t look like this imo :expressionless: feels like a wrong solution to me, current Tank oddly looks better than what we got on preview branch

5 Likes

Thanks guys for the feedback!

Regarding the tank wheels: Personally, I’m really happy with the model as a balance for the vanilla style, but we’re already seeing some really impressive custom tank models in line with your proposal. Admittedly this video is from a bug report (now fixed), but I think you’ll like it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5aU4RdM6p4

2 Likes

Support you, Nielsen. Unt should have his own style, which looks very coordinated

1 Like

When will the ComboCrate24 be available?

Taken from support site:

  • Reduced Sharpshooter skill benefits from +50% to +40% at max level.

This is an odd change, it feels like adjustment to vanilla balance but it affects everything outside of it aswell. Many maps are balanced around this skill maxed out to it’s current value, some of the curated maps have the skill maxed out and were balanced specifically around what it offered, I do realise that 10% is not a great difference but it’s still weird to see, especially as sort of last minute addition to the update?

If it’s the vanilla balance this is about, perhaps limiting the max level of Sharpshooter to level V or VI on vanilla maps might be more suitable, as it would achieve a very similar result.


4 Likes

To be fairly candid – we originally wanted to do this for the 3.24.6.0 Update, but weren’t able to do so at the time. Now that these balance changes are ready, they’ve been added to this update’s PTB.

Unturned’s over a decade old now. It’s a big reason why we’ve been hesitant to rebalance content in the past. But we’ve consistently seen a lot of support for more balance changes towards vanilla content. (Alongside other vanilla-related requests.)

When players have discussed PvP, the biggest pain points are often: 1) the Maplestrike’s performance, and 2) Sharpshooter benefits. Changes to skill loss have made it easier to retain skill levels, but doesn’t fix the gap between unranked and max skills. Specifically, this one skill’s large impact on a weapon’s possible performance.

Many custom maps and plugin-using servers already have to work around this skill. Some outright disabling the ability to level it. I think that’s a good sign of it being too impactful. For those who’ve disabled skill leveling (and just force a specific skill level anyway), this should fortunately be an easy adjustment!

Many submissions from the ComboCrate event will be available when the update fully releases.