Hey, hey everyone, happy Monday! Ready for another Dev update? Well, it is sort of not here, but some other announcement, check it out!
Today, we are going a bit differently, a bit wild, so to speak. The regular list of who did what will not appear, but we are, however, giving you a tease on something we have been working on and what you can expect in the near future.
And that is:
PTE
For those who do not know this term, it stands for Player Test Environment. So, what, how, and why?
PTE will be a whole new branch of SCUM provided by us to ALL players who have a copy of SCUM. We are having some huge changes planned in both the near and far future, but also plans that can change the game in a major way.
Such changes can obviously impact the game a lot, so instead of pushing them live, we will be using the PTE to give you the preview and give you a bigger voice in future development. How and where will be explained when the first one launches. The first PTE is almost ready, as we have a few more details to go through before we are ready to release.
So what can you expect in the first PTE?
Loot, traders and the road between them
The first round goes for the biggest impacts on the gameplay loop today. Loot, traders, and vehicles. Starting with loot.
Our loot table, through the years of adding so much, has become cluttered and too dependent on RNG, resulting in often disappointing outcomes. This was shown not only through all of your feedback, but also the data we see where you guys loot and how you approach it, and our own playtests. So what are the changes?
Loot has been divided and distributed through all sections on the map, so looting becomes a driven mechanic rather than just traveling and scavenging. For example, you are looking for an M16 mag or weapons that belong in the Western Hemisphere family. Military POIs have been divided, so you will know exactly which ones you will have to visit to find them. TEC01 installations have their own tables according to lore of the game and some gameplay balance. Rarity has also been adjusted, so those items that were always intended to be rare will be harder to find (ex., strong explosives), but you will know where to look.
Some POIs have been repurposed/ their intended use brought back up again. You can read this as Make hunting cabins great again. And much more...
Here is a little snippet with no explanation.
Another example are the vehicle parts, you will know what kind of POI you will need to get to, to have the best chance of finding that vehicle part you are looking for.
All the details will be revealed on the PTE launch.
Traders, here we go, a huge change. Looking at your feedback and how they are impacting the game, we are implementing a huge change to traders. Traders in PTE will have a change where their inventory will not be an endless arsenal, but in order to fill their stock, players will need to sell those items first. For example, you go to the Armory trader and want to buy an AK. If no one sold that trader the AK, you will have to go find it yourself. If it is going to be every single trader and every single item, it is something we are still tuning.
And last for this PTE, the vehicles. Part of it we touched upon already with the vehicle parts; here comes the rest. We are also setting up so that specific vehicles spawn in specific locations as well. Giving it much more sense and having them be more of a goal to obtain rather than a random chance. Also, increasing the number of immediately drivable vics is something we are looking into.
And that is it for now. Reminder: this will not be forced on any existing build, server, or save. Rather, it will be its own thing, that you, the community, can give your opinion on and help us guide it to where it needs to be.
Oh and last note, to avoid confusion, this is not all we have ready for you and you can look forward to more in the December update.
Until next time:
-Beda
