Jaws Of Extinction update for 25 January 2020

Alpha Version 0.2.20.9a - Now live

Its patchy patchy day! The Jaws of Extinction 0.2.20.9 update is now out!

It has been a little longer than normal since our last patch so sorry to keep you waiting! The reason is that we’ve had some beefy content elements to implement since the start of the new year which is now ready. This patch includes a complete update of the infected NPCs, new throwable rocks that go bang (also known as grenades), various new UI and menu updates, map improvements and more.

Player

• Added ability to throw grenades, molotovs, smoke grenades and blood bombs.
• Added Animations and sound effects for using aid and consumables.
• Added tool tips to vicinity and container items.
• Using consumables such as bandages, drinks and food now all have a cooldown before the next one can be used. This prevents spamming consumable items.
• Jogging with zero Stamina will start to decay Energy at 24 times higher than normal. This will quickly degenerate Energy and maximum Stamina.

Items

• Removed starting flashlight. A flashlight is an item which will now purchased or found. Use batteries to keep it powered.

• Added Chem Lights (replacing starting flashlight). You will start with a Chem Light when starting a new game.

• Tap [L] for blue.

• Hold [L] for Red.

• All pick up items are now using the "Quest Actor Register System". This allows items to run functionality in response to quest updates.

• All doors are now using the "Quest Actor Register System". This allows doors to change their state depending on quest updates.

Harvesting/Crafting

• Bushes will now give 5-10 fiber stacks each time they are harvested.
• Harvestable foliage now has a maximum number of uses. Eventually, this system will also remove to foliage item once it has been completely harvested.

Clothing

• Clothing now affects temperatures differently depending on their Thermal Conservation and Heat Resistance. These will increase and decrease the player’s tolerance to heat and cold by adjusting the tolerable temperature range.
• Clothing will now effect Stamina drain. Mainly footwear will increase or decrease the amount of Stamina which will drain when jogging or walking. Heavy boots may increase the drain while running shoes/sneakers may decrease the drain.
• Not wearing shoes will now dramatically increase Stamina consumption.
• Added Tactical Utility Belt. Increases base carry weight to 10kg.
• Added HighViz Jacket.
• Added Work Jacket.
• Added Woodland Camo Jacket.
• Added Winter Jacket.
• Added Basic Jacket.
• Added Hoodie in 5 colour variations: Green, Navy, Pink, Blue & White and Red & White.
• Added Trainers/Running shoes/Sneakers in four colour variations: Digital, Black & Orange Stripes, Green and White.
• Added heavy leather Punk Boots.
• Added three variations of FlakVest used for protection against projectiles, explosions, blunt and unarmed damage.

NPCs

• Implementation of AIV3 system for Infected. The AIV3 system is a significantly more reliable system for implementing all the game’s NPCs which will be built upon henceforth.

• Infected are now able to climb over obstacles of various heights in order to chase their prey.

• Infected visual improvements:

• New improved meshes with a range of body sizes. Additional variations to be added in the near future.

• Infected can now spawn with a variety of heights.

• Infected audio improvements:

• Adjusted Infected audio overall to be less oppressive and more informative.

• Infected now make a sound to indicate that they are in the process of attacking.

• Improved NPC animations:

• Updated movement animations.

• Improved directional hit response animations.

• Improved knock-down animations.

• Wanderers now react when falling shot distances.

• Improved combat with Infected.

• Infected are less spontaneous when attacking. You can now predict their attacks both visually and audibly then move to avoid being hit.

• Attacks are now somewhat slower but deal more damage per hit.

• Infected will run up to you and try to stop before attacking (instead of always sticking to their targets like glue while also attacking).

• Infected can now be set on fire with use of a Molotov Cocktail.

• Infected can be damaged with grenades.

• Infected can alternate between exploring the area and scavenging from trash.

• Improved sneaking around NPCs

• Avoid NPCs hearing you by crouching to reduce the amount of noise your footsteps make.

• Running, shooting and landing are all loud activities which can cause a disturbance.

• Light, Medium and Heavy natural cover can be used to reduce your visibility to NPCs. The higher the density of the cover, the closer you can get to NPCs before they will see you.

• The density of the foliage you are hiding in will determine if you are in Light, Medium or Heavy natural cover. Try to keep close to thick clumps of plants such as reeds, bushes and wheat to remain hidden.

• While crouched, you can sneak up behind NPCs.

• Bumping into NPCs will alert them to your presence.

• Moving in to an NPCs field of view will let the NPC see you, unless you are hidden behind suitable solid or natural cover.

• Once alerted, NPCs will alert other NPCs to the disturbance.

• Use of AIV3 Spawners will remove/reduce cases where NPCs can spawn in inappropriate locations and get stuck.

• NPCs are now integrated into the quest system, allowing NPCs to do actions in response to changes to the active quest.

Environment

• Adjustments have been made to world objects that the player or NPCs may get stuck on. Collisions are improved to allow characters to cleanly walk over the top certain assets such as trash and debris. Additional asset improvements to be made in the near future.
• Added additional grass tufts to increase the variety of foliage in the grasslands area.
• Adjusted material setup for sidewalks, brightening and increasing AO.
• Placed additional lootable cash registers inside shops.
• Modified gravestones to use the correct material setup.
• When starting a new game the time of day is now 8.30am instead of 6.30am, so the game does not start in the shadow of the cliff.
• Marbough and Lockcrest Island are currently under heavy development. Please be cautious about navigating around these areas as you may get stuck or fall from areas with no collision.

UI & Display

• Redesigned the main menu landing widget:
• Added social media icons and click throughs.
• Simplified the menu.
• Modified the code which handles with cursor position for screen tooltips. Tool tip positions should now work on any resolution without issues.
• Added a "Characters" button to the savegame list display. Clicking this will cancel loading save game and return you to the Characters Select menu.
• Set up Post Processing to use the new UE4.23 Depth of Field algorithm.

Performance

• Replaced character mesh to use low poly version.
• Fixed character runtime errors causing error report spamming.
• Reduced grass density by 50% to reduce the overall polygon draw count.
• Consolidated duplicate foliage types.
• Optimised trash bags by replacing them with the new super low polygon updated assets.
• AIV3 spawners have a lower runtime cost compared with their AIV2 counterpart spawners.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed invalid index selection on radar objective component.
• Fixed currency (Bucks) spawning with an amount of zero. These now spawn with a random value between 10/100 bucks.
• Fixed Bucks icon displaying a very old version of the icon.
• Fixed quest items not appearing when enabled by quest objectives (Sen's basement key).
• Fixed quest doors not unlocking when enabled by quest objectives (Don's hardware store, Welcome to Eden-Nadir quest).
• Fixed inventory UI closing every time an item is dropped, this was a bug related to the inventory vicinity check system.
• Fixed not being able to open church doors.
• Fixed being able to climb through church windows.
• Players and NPCs should not get stuck on small pieces of foliage anymore.
• Fixed an underlying issue were stamina would drain at the same rate when running and jogging.

Game Engine

• Upgraded to Unreal Engine version 4.23.1.

### 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 has been pushed back until Q1 / Q2 2020.  

### COMMUNITY LINKS

Steam Community Forums
Official JoE Discord Server
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