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The Fun Pimps are extremely excited to share the official Storm’s Brewing V2.0 release notes. As always this build is jam packed with new content, improvements, quality of life features, game options for custom play styles and incredible amount of new mid to late game content. We thank you for your patience while we do the finishing touches on this Mega-Build. We look forward to your feedback. Navezgane awaits!

V2.0 Storm’s Brewing Release Notes

Release Schedule

• Streamer Weekend – Friday June 13th – Sunday June 15th
• Steam Experimental – Monday June 16th
• Steam & Console Stable Release – Monday June 30th (Barring Show stopping Bugs or Cert Issues)

Biome Progression

With the new Biome Progression option enabled, all biomes except the Pine Forest will have a unique environmental hazard to overcome. Like a Boy Scout earning a merit badge, complete challenges to learn about each biome’s inhabitants and resources. When a biome’s challenges are completed, a Biome Badge can be collected at any nearby Trader.

Here are the biomes listed in their order of severity:

• The Pine Forest – Starting biome with no hazards
• The Burnt Forest – Combat the hot embers & thick black smoke
• The Desert – Overcome the extreme heat
• The Snow – Survive the freezing temperatures and windchill
• The Wasteland – Conquer the high radiation fallout

There are seven challenges for each hazardous biome:

• Wearing specific armor or obtaining the previous biome’s badge
• Harvesting biome specific resources
• Crafting remedies to increase your hazard resistance
• Mining biome specific resources
• Killing biome specific enemies
• Looting in the biome
• Spending a specific amount of time in each biome

The Biome Progression system is on by default but can be disabled in the game and server options which will turn off the biome hazards and requirements for Biome Badges.

Biome Progression Loot Stage Cap

In addition to the biome hazards, each biome will have a progressive loot stage cap. This will help to encourage players to explore each biome and seek out higher tiered loot. Loot caps are increased by progressing forward through each biome’s challenges. 

• Caps are automatically increased when entering into a harder biome
• To raise the cap in the current biome, complete the next higher biome’s challenges
• Continuing to progress and complete more biome challenges will keep raising the cap in the previous biomes
• The loot cap is off if the Biome Progression option is disabled

Biome Resources

To encourage biome exploration, dominant ore types have been redistributed across the world. Each biome now favors a specific ore: Iron in the Pine Forest, Potassium Nitrate in the Burnt Forest, Oil Shale in the Desert, Coal in the Snow biome, and Lead in the Wasteland. While all ores can still be found in low volumes elsewhere, venturing into the right biome will greatly improve your yields.

Dynamic Storm System

Can you weather the storm? We have overhauled the legacy weather system and added a new Dynamic Storm System to the game. These storms have an increased severity per biome with random frequency and duration. Biome Badges will not protect against these storms. There are five types of storms listed below in their order of severity:

• Thunderstorms – All Biomes (No damage to the players)
• Ember Storm – Burnt Forest Biome Only (Damages players)
• Sand Storm – Desert Biome Only (Damages players)
• Snow Storm – Snow Biome Only (Damages players)
• Radiation Storm – Wasteland Biome Only (Damages players)

A Storm is Brewing:

• Storms will occur occasionally with some random variation in time and can last for several minutes.
• The Storm Frequency option adjusts how often storms occur, ranging from 0% (storms disabled) to 500% (five times more frequent storms).
• When a severe storm begins, the following will happen:
  • The player will hear a warning siren accompanied by a HUD message on the top of the screen ‘Storm Warning! Seek Shelter!’ or ‘Storm Warning! Leave Biome!’ depending on if a player has earned their Biome Badge.
  • The HUD message is accompanied by a 60 second timer. After the timer expires, the HUD message changes to ‘Seek Shelter Now!’ or ‘Leave Biome Now!’ depending on if a player has earned their Biome Badge. 
  • A storm Buff timer will then display on the left side of the screen showing how much time a player has before they will take damage.
  • If the player is not sheltered, they will take damage. If they have found a sufficient shelter, the HUD text will change to ‘You are safe from the storm’. Players can also build a quick shelter or use first aid kits to prolong their life in the storm.
  • Note: If you have not gained your Biome Badge, seeking shelter will only protect you from the storm. The biome hazards will still be active and will require hazard reducers while sheltered.

Navezgane Update

• Navezgane has gotten a makeover to work seamlessly with the new biome progression system. Biome boundaries and trader POI positions were updated to improve travel times between large POI townships.
  • Added new 2.0 POIs and others that were not previously on the map (e.g. roadside checkpoints)
  • Updated new player spawn points to be closer to trader (e.g. ~700 meters)
  • Increased density of wilderness POIs with connected pathways.  This improves exploration as there are more POI choices visible in the distance to investigate.
  • Updated downtown city in the wasteland biome. (teleport to trader joel then follow roads SW)
  • Rebalanced POI tiers across every biome (e.g. more T5 in the wasteland, etc.)

New Zombies & Higher Gamestaged Zombie Classes

We have added two new special infected zombies and two new higher colored game staged spawn classes to 2.0. The new enemies & classes include:

• Plague Spitter – A new special infected desert zombie that can vomit a swarm of insects which attacks the player. Melee weapons are more effective against the swarm. The Hornets are back, only a little smaller!
• Frost Claw – A new special infected snow zombie that has a long ranged boulder throw attack that does radius splash damage. Watch out for falling rocks!
• Charged Blue Zombies – A new higher game staged radiated blue class of zombies that turn, attack and run faster than the radiated green zombies, but they do more entity damage.
• Infernal Orange Zombies – A new higher game staged radiated orange class of zombies that are slower & tankier than the radiated green zombies, but they do more block damage.

Zombie Spawn Improvements

• We have added functionality to allow zombies to spawn and crawl out of smaller spaces or tighter areas. Many POIs have been adapted to use these crawl outs, so stay alert survivors.
• We have improved spawning and respawning of enemies by making increased use of our scripted spawning system which enhances many of the larger POIs. This improves the performance of the POIs and their pacing.
• You will notice an increased use of roaming enemies in larger POIs which provides a more varied experience. Roam where you want to zombies!

Perk Updates & Rebalance

We’ve added a brand-new General Perks tab and moved some perks that don’t need to be governed by any particular attribute. This allows players to gain certain skills without spending perk points on an attribute their character hasn’t specialized in.

• Light, Medium, and Heavy Armor
• Master Chef
• Living off the Land
• Lock Picking
• Lucky Looter

With those perks moved, we’ve filled in those empty slots with many exciting new perks!

• All Attributes have 10 perks
• Each perk has 5 levels
• Each Attribute has a new Mastery Perk set that starts at attribute level 6
  • We’ll let you discover these details on your own
• Some Attributes have new or updated perks
  • Perception
    • The Infiltrator – Added ability to pick up various land minds per level
    • Animal Tracker – Adjusted animals tracked per level and added zombie variants
    • Treasure Hunter – Added increased dirt damage, reduced damage when near treasure, and more items found in chests
  • Strength
    • Grand Slam – Grants the ability to ragdoll enemies with clubs, bats, or sledgehammers while sprinting
    • Pack Mule – Increases the crafting speed of items in your inventory and adds a chance to ignore physical damage when hit
    • Junk Miner – Mining tools can harvest more junk resources like cloth, scrap polymers, scrap iron, and more
  • Fortitude
    • Siphoning Strikes – Melee kills grant +2 HP per level
    • Rule 1: Cardio – Levels 4 and 5 grant +25 max stamina each
  • Agility
    • Hard Target – Take less damage while moving
    • Parkour – Added ability to reduce injuries or damage per level
  • Intellect
    • The Daring Adventurer – Moved pick two quest rewards to level 5

Sledgehammer Saga

I wanna be… Your Sledgehammer! We’ve added a new book series for the sledgehammer weapon class including:

• Sledge Saga Vol 1: Adds 10% knockdown chance.

• Sledge Saga Vol 2: Sledgehammers degrade 20% slower.
• Sledge Saga Vol 3: Power attack kills weaken and slow nearby enemies for 10 seconds.
• Sledge Saga Vol 4: Adds 25% more damage to enemies below 30% health.
• Sledge Saga Vol 5: Gain double XP from sledgehammer headshot kills.
• Sledge Saga Vol 6: Adds a 10% chance to knock enemies unconscious.
• Sledge Saga Vol 7: Sledgehammer Power attacks bypass 50% of armor.
• Completionist Bonus: Refill your stamina with each power attack kill.

Clothing Cosmetic Options, Twitch Drops & DLC

• Wear what you want for protection but look how you want cosmetically with new outfits.
• We will be adding some new cosmetic DLCs options and Twitch Drops to 2.0! Get ready to unlock awesome new content and show off your unique style. Are you too sexy for your shirt?

Trees and Foliage Update

• All of the trees have been optimized to run on the same speed tree shader and with reduced draw calls for a performance boost.
• The burnt forest, wasteland and some of the other trees have been redone stylistically for a new look.
• All of the trees have newly adjusted wind settings for consistency with the new dynamic storm system.
• We have improved sub-biome foliage to create clearings and thicker foliage areas with lower growing plants on their perimeter for a much more believable look without sacrificing performance.

POIs: The World is Expanding!

Nearly 140 POIs are coming to V2.0, many have been created to bolster the wilderness POI counts. These include:

• 125 Explorable Tier 0 Remnant POIs
• 13 Questable Tier 1 POIs
• 6 Questable Tier 2 POIs
• 3 Questable Tier 3 POIs
• Two new town/city tiles
• 3 new Questable Tier 5 wilderness POIs
  • bunker_00 (Area 7)
  • mine_01 (Hybrid Mining)
  • quarry_02 (Correa Rockworx)

• The larger Tier 4 and Tier 5 POIs combat will feel like a new experience because of scripting, crawl out, and wandering sleeper improvements!

Random Gen Improvements

• Town tiles and wilderness POIs use separate terrain smoothing distances and are shorter to keep more height variations in the world.
• Wilderness POI spawning has been improved allowing a lot more wilderness POIs to spawn and their spawn locations have better random positioning.
• Wilderness road generation uses improved pathing and can now connect along the length of other wilderness roads.
• Towns now have independent elevations and wilderness POI elevations use a better calculation.
• Fixed terrain height accuracy which sometimes caused seams in the world.

New Hand Use Items

We’ve added many new usable hand items with custom animations to improve the games overall immersion including:

• New special can with custom label for every canned food item
• New tintable liquid jars for every drinkable item
• New special stew food handheld item
• New special plate food handheld item
• New generic wrapped parcel for the rest
• New steroids handheld item 
• New pill bottle handheld item

New Quest Rally Marker

• We’ve added a new quest rally maker that displays a custom flag per quest type.
• If a party has more than one shared quest at the same POI, each unique flag will be shown
  • Player 1 has a clear quest
  • Player 2 has a fetch quest
  • Both players will see both flags
  • Each player will see a green light next to their quest flag

Spawn Near Friend

• Starting a new save? Choose a friend to spawn near for ultimate teamwork!
• We’ve added a handy button to go back to the main menu before joining a game – no more getting stuck!
• Works for crossplay if you are friends on Discord
• Note: You cannot spawn near a friend on a server that has biome progression enabled if the inviting player is in a hazardous biome

Discord Implementation

• We’ve worked with Discord to make their voice chat the default in 7 Days to Die
• Players are able to link their main Discord account and see their friend list in game or use an anonymous account, if they don’t want to or don’t have one
• This includes:
  • The ability to switch between global server and party chat
  • Messaging in and out of Discord (can be hidden)
  • Inviting your friends through Discord
  • Adding Discord Game friends
  • Utilizing your Discord friend list to spawn near friends on a different platform
• We’ve also included Discord’s Rich Presence giving you a good idea of what your friend is currently doing in-game

Crossplay on Dedicated Server

• 2.0 Comes with crossplay on dedicated servers
• Enjoy a game on a server with max 8 players with all friends of different platforms (Note: This depends on the client)
• For Console Players servers with compatible console game settings in your region will appear in the server browser. If the server uses settings that are not compatible with your console it will not appear in the server browser. 
• You can always play on your multiplayer game with console without a host having to be around
• PS5 and Xbox Series clients cannot join dedicated servers with mods.
• You can rent servers here:
  • PingPerfect

Serverconfig.xml

• For dedicated servers to host players on Xbox Series and PS5 consoles, the following settings in serverconfig.xml should be configured:
  • ServerMaxPlayerCount set to maximum of 8
  • ServerAllowCrossplay set to True
  • EACEnabled set to True
  • IgnoreEOSSanctions set to False
• Other new options:
  • BiomeProgression
  • StormFreq
  • AllowSpawnNearFriend

Audio

• We’ve added more footstep variety, making the world feel more alive and immersive than ever!
• Player footstep sounds now support 3rd person.
• Sound support for the new biome hazard and biome storm systems.
• The Frostclaw and the Plague Spitter zombies have their own custom sounds!
• We have added an increased variety of inventory item sounds.
• New perk sounds.
• Discord integration sounds!
• Sleeper spawning from material SFX (vents, wood, etc.)
• Zombie dogs have collar chain rattles to better alert players to their presence.
• Vehicles have greater pitch variation and improved turbo sounds.
• Improved volume and mix for various zombie voices.
• Adjusted Minibike sounds for better acceleration and deceleration handling.
• Fixed enemy alert sounds now playing upon wake and immediate line of sight to player.

DLSS Upscaling

• We have added Nvidia’s DLSS upscaling to our graphics rendering system. It is an option under Video/Display/Upscaler Mode.
• DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) is an AI-powered upscaling technology that boosts performance in games by rendering them at a lower resolution and then using AI to reconstruct a higher resolution image.
• This allows for higher frame rates and/or higher graphics settings at a given output resolution. DLSS uses AI models, motion vectors, and prior frames to enhance image quality and stability.

Performance

A lot of things have been done to improve performance in V2.0 including:

• Added Nvidia’s DLSS upscaling option allowing higher frame rates and/or higher graphics settings at a given output resolution.
• Unified all trees to be on the same speed tree graphics shader and reduced draw calls on trees for better performance
• Many of the larger POIS have been updated to utilize the new/spawn and respawning code which improves performance
• More City remnants POIs have been added to improve framerates in the denser areas of cities

Added, Changed, Fixed Notes Coming Soon