SCUM - Development update #104

Salutations, SCUM community! Hope everyone is easing into the week nicely! Here's this week's dev update for your reading pleasure!

We understand that the past few weeks have been a bit dry in this section, as the team has been mostly focused on bug fixing. However, this week we have a lot more to share, and we can go into greater detail about what our programmers are doing. First off, work has continued on the much-anticipated quest system and the content related to it, as well as on the armed enemy NPCs that will make your survival on the prison island even more challenging!

Next, the team has (re)started work on the armband, as well as the turret you'll be able to place on your base! Remember that dead speedometer needle on the ATV? That's being taken care of too. The way small vegetation reacts to the wind is also being greatly improved, making the map feel even more realistic. And last, but certainly not least, the team has started to make improvements to the horde and encounter system!



Our level designers are still hard at work reworking and improving some of the POIs, such as the castle ruins, airport hangar, military hangar, and the prison. They’re also reworking the terrain for the B0 sector. Optimizations are being made to the weapons factory POI and the town of Samobor, along with updates to the environment and level design for the airport.



The hard surface team is also working on the aforementioned turret and speedometer for the ATV, as well as improving the skeletal mesh of the dropship. Rework has continued on the M1 Garand, along with something the community has been asking for and patiently waiting for... Behold, the all-mighty Cruiser!








The soft surface team has been busy reworking several items and conducting overall optimizations. Meanwhile, the animation wizards have been working on a multitude of improvements, such as better animations for the SCAR-L weapon and weapon malfunctions. Work has also continued on improved foliage animations, a new trailer for the game, and overall bug fixing.



The sound team has been busy with recording sessions. We’ve heard sounds of the guitar and the forest during both daytime and nighttime.



As we’ve said, it’s business as usual with these guys, though they might be testing something specific this week…



Our designers have been hammering away on the quest system. It’s their sole focus right now, and we can’t wait to share more on that topic soon!


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To wrap things up, we’ll answer some of the questions that were posted in the comment section of the previous post:

• Good eye on that one! Game development is like a box of chocolates—you never know what you're gonna get! Botched movie quote aside, other things that required the immediate attention of our programmers working on this system took priority, but we’ll get back on track with this rework as soon as possible.

• We wanted to create a different type of enemy that the player simply cannot defeat, making these abandoned bunkers especially challenging. I mean, how do you kill something that literally has phoenix tears coursing through its veins?! All in all, there are no plans to make him killable, but who knows what the future holds...

• We’re aware of the issue and will have it fixed sooner rather than later. The same goes for the water wells some of you have mentioned. We kindly ask for just a bit more of your patience.

• We do indeed want players to have greater freedom in using prefabs as bases. We just need a bit more time to get that up and running. In short—we want to make this happen, and we’ll get there! As for the second question, we understand the frustration that comes with these wipes. After 1.0, we’ll see if we can reduce them to at least a manageable minimum. We can’t say for sure that we’ll be done with them entirely, but we’ll do what we can.

• We don’t have any plans for additional language support at the moment, but we’ll see what can be done after 1.0.

See you next week!

Fratman