Jaws Of Extinction update for September 11, 2019

### Alpha Version 0.2.14.7a - Now live
Patch 0.2.14.7 has landed. 14 patches since alpha is almost enough to knit a blanket with and we’re not slowing down! There’s some cracking improvements lined up with today’s update, including swifty new melee changes, a bag load of bags updates, sweet UI / HUD thingymebobs and more.

~P.S. from ‘Scrub’ - I wrote this weird intro yesterday and it was late, but I’m not apologising!

Game Play

Interactables & Placeables

• Sleeping bags no longer save the game. They only act as a respawn location when the player dies.
• Basic tent is now craftable at level 1 crafting,
  Basic tent can be used as a reusable spawn, storage container and will save the game.
• Bivy is now craftable at level 1 crafting.
  Used as a source of heat and a storage container. Provides protection from weather allowing you to light campfires and other flammables underneath.
• Firepits/Campfires will no longer light if in the open rain and require weather protection from a building or craftable Bivy.
• Large tier three storage now comes with two functional lanterns to light your home.
• Using a placeable item from the inventory will now close the inventory on use.
• Placeable items can now have different visual states. For example, a rolled up sleeping bag and a layed out sleeping bag.

Interactions & Questing

• Radio will now alert player of new incoming calls with authentic two way radio alert sound (instead of Sen's voice). Change radio channel or mute with [Y]. Press [T] to answer.
• Skill system has now been disabled until the new system in development is implemented.

Loot & Apparel

• Added new usable backpacks allowing player’s to increase their carry weight capacity.

  
  Added ‘Military Grade 3 Backpack’ with an inventory weight of 120kg. Tier rating is Legendary.  
  Added ‘Extreme Survival Backpack’ with an inventory weight of 250kg. Available in three different colours: Black, Green and Tan. Tier rating is Legendary.```  

• Added Military grade backpacks to military grade containers.
• Added ‘Extreme Survival Backpack’ spawns across Hanouten outskirts.
• Added Placeable Kerosene Lamp.

  
  Toggle the light on and off with [F].  
  Pick the lamp back up by holding [F].  
  Placeable Kerosene Lamp will auto turn on and off with time of day (7am / 7pm).```  

• Added new bow spawn in Hanouten area.
• Added Woodland Camo print skin for “Basic Cargo Pants”.
• Item tier ratings now display a colour depending on their rarity (‘Poor’, ‘Common’, ‘Uncommon’, ‘Rare’, ‘Epic’ and ‘Legendary’)
• Removed base weight capacity of 90KG.
• Updated equippable bag capacities.

  
  ‘Duffle Bag’ now has an inventory weight of 25kg. Tier rating is Common.  
  ‘Military Grade 2 Backpack’ now has an inventory weight of 70kg. Tier rating is Rare.  
  ‘Survival Backpack’ now has an inventory weight of 80kg. Available in four different colours: Black, Red, Yellow and Blue. Tier rating is Epic.```

Saving & Loading

• Loading from the in-game menu will no longer attempt to load any save-games from older playthroughs of the game. These saves can still be loaded from the main menu.
  Game now creates an initial autosave when starting a game so that the game can be reloaded from the very start if needed.

User Interface

Heads Up Display (HUD)

• New STRV display system. Vitals are now displayed on the character’s STRV watch.
  Camera will now zoom into the STRV watch to display vitals information.
• New player HUD designed to be cleaner and more understandable.
• Removed prompt to tap [F] to pick up items (now handled in KBAG prompts).

Key Bindings at a Glance (Player Instruction/Information)

• Improved KBAG (Key Bindings At a Glance) prompts to be modular. The system has been expanded and reworked to work in any situation.
• Added KBAG prompts to new situations:

  Added KBAG key bindings to radio (incoming calls)  
  Added KBAG key bindings to placeable items  
  Added KBAG key bindings to campfires  
  Added KBAG key bindings to tents  
  Added KBAG key bindings to bivys  
  Added KBAG key bindings to kerosene lamps  

Community Requested UI features

• Added frames per second cap options.

  
  Caution: these settings are currently not saved when the game is reloaded. They will be included in the save data once verified that settings are working properly.```  

• Added new autosave control options under 'Game Settings'.

  
  Autosaving can now be set to disabled.  
  Autosave settings are saved and restored the next time the game is loaded.```

Player Inventory

• Removed a slot from the available shortcuts to make space for upcoming HUD features.
  Inventory will be updated at a later date, including Journal tab and Skills tab.

World/Environment

Location Update: Survivor camp location

• New Survivor Camp location. Includes new buildings to explore, scavenge from and make camp.
• Added new (work-in-progess) cliff faces around Survivor Camp.

World Items

• Added climbable ladder in marshlands ruins. Allows access onto the structure's ledge for access to lootables and building space.
• Adjust AO on garbage trucks.
• Enabled distance fields on barrack tents at outpost "Charlie".

Landscape

• Updated forest floor and path with new texture.
• Added additional ground clutter on path floors and forest floors with fallen leaves and dead grass.
• Improved collisions on road splines allowing them to bend with the mesh more accurately.
• Completed road from marshlands to collapsed tunnel.
• Adjusted grass landscape texture to blend better with grass foliage.
• Moved foliage out of the road leading to outpost "Charlie".
• Increased draw distance on roads leading to outpost "Charlie".
• Adjusted dirt textures to blend better with the world.
• Increased draw distances on large bridge supports across burchett river.

Additional harvestable foliage

• Added Chamomile

  
  (Tea) ```  

• Added Common Chicory

  
  (Food)```  

• Added Saint John's Wort

  
  (Wellness)```  

• Added Cornflower

  
  (Cornflower is an herb. The dried flowers are used to make medicine. People take cornflower tea to treat fever, constipation, water retention, and chest congestion. They also take it as a tonic, bitter, and liver and gallbladder stimulant.)```  

• Added Goldenrod

  
  (Goldenrod is used to reduce pain and swelling (inflammation), as a diuretic to increase urine flow, and to stop muscle spasms. It is also used for gout, joint pain (rheumatism), arthritis, as well as eczema and other skin conditions.)```  

• Added Sunroot

  
  (Food)```  

• Added Maple bush
  [No game use yet]
• Added Blackberry bushes

  
  (Food & natural cover) ```  

• Added Knapweed plants around the world can be used in health elixirs

  
  (Knapweed was used for ruptures and wounds, bruises, sores, scabs and sore throat, etc.). ```

Player

Melee Combat

• Implemented new melee collision detection system.

  
  Increased melee attack speed  
  Baseball bats now have a slightly longer reach to impact their target  
  Collision detection of baseball bats is now handled from the base of the weapon, preventing the possibility of not hitting a target which is too close.```  

• Improvements for holstered melee weapons/tools.

  
  Improved animation for holstering and unholstering baseball bats.  
  Changed position of holstered baseball bats on character’s back to match holstering/unholstering animation.```

Focus Mode

• Player can now use focus mode in first person. Activate with [Alt] + [RMB].
• Various discrete functionality adjustments to make focus mode smoother.

Visual Improvements

Weather

• Rain can now only happen with with suitable cloud coverage.
• Improved rain and storm visuals.
• Fog system amended to work with day and night cycle better.

Textures & materials

• Water materials adjusted to have more of a green tint.

Bug Fixes

• Adjusted textures on rocks to use lower resolution to match the size of the rock to reduce memory consumption
• Replace high poly small rocks with low poly versions

Bug Fixes

• Fixed duplication bug where items could be placed and then the inventory opened to duplicate the item.
• Fixed duplication bug allowing unlimited sleeping bags to be picked up after placing one down.
• Fixed an issue where cargo pants would spawn without other items (i.e. boots, jacket and backpack)
• Fixed issue where Military Grade 2 Backpack would be destroyed if dropped.
• Fixed stretching issues on Military Grade 2 Backpack and Survival Backpack.
• Tentative fix for for saving graphics settings to file and then reloading these settings when the game is reloaded.
• Fixed collisions on bows making them difficult to pick up.
• Fixed collisions on baseball bats making it difficult to pick them up.
• Fixed shaders on ammunition boxes causing them to appear black and hard to distinguish from each other.
• Fixed various errors caused by missing object references regarding the object pool manager.
• Fixed junk loot containers not updating properly when emptied.
• Fixed fatal crash caused by killing a deer.
• Fixed issue when mounting a ladder from the top causing the character to float backwards away from the ladder.
• Fixed issue where interacting with doors could cause ADS (Aim Down Sight) to stop working.
• Fixed boxes appearing on building parts when using the building system.
• Fixed loot bags incorrectly showing their inventory in columns of four, instead of seven.
• Fixed player leaving aiming mode with shift held down but not breaking into a run.
• Fixed player releasing [Shift] key while aiming causing an increase in speed while aiming.
• Fixed situation allowing character to get stuck in sprint/jog which also aiming.
• Fixed player running acceleration getting stuck sometimes when tapping aim key.
• Fixed issue when loading a game after placing a military tent causing player to spawn on the beach with no items.
• Fixed containers appearing empty after loading a game with a placed military tent.
• Fixed issues with collisions on lighthouse pond.
• Fixed leaves and forest floor showing in basements of houses.
• Fixed broken water pipe roadworks collision where you could fall through the world.
• Fixed seam in road spline in Hanouten.
• Fixed floating foliage on cliffside behind survivor cliffside base.
• Fixed water shaders not rendering correctly. This has been replaced with a new setup for the shader.
• Fixed gaps between path mesh and landscape at fork under bridge at marshlands/road from docks.
• Fixed issue causing all game textures would appear blurry.
• Fixed issue causing Level Of Detail of landscape to be stuck at a low level. This meant the player would clip though the terrain.

Our pre-ordering service can give you alpha access here:
http://www.jawsofextinction.com/preorder

Or via the Steam page:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/617850/Jaws_Of_Extinction/

### THINGS TO REMEMBER BEFORE PURCHASING JOE
We are aware that the game is currently very demanding on performance and bugs can cause problems during gameplay. JoE is in constant development by two developers and a single 3D artists. We are keen to resolve issues as promptly as possible, although please understand that they are to be expected as the game continues into development.Please make sure to read the following statement from our Steam store page before considering your purchase, as always your support is appreciated.

BEFORE YOU PURCHASE: AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM THE DEV TEAM  
In the spirit of our ethos of transparency and integrity we want you to know that our game is at ALPHA stage in EARLY ACCESS and will therefore contain many bugs and have performance issues on low to mid-end machines. We’re really proud of how it plays so far (it’s a lot of fun!) but if your rig DOES NOT meet the RECOMMENDED spec then the game may not perform well and as much as we appreciate your support we would suggest that you wait until later in development before you invest your money. We don’t want you buying something that’s going to disappoint you.

Please also be aware that multiplayer is not yet implemented. This is under development and planned for Q4 2019.  

### COMMUNITY LINKS
Steam Community Forums
Official JoE Discord Server
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