December Patch, New AI Quirks & First Impressions

[@duffs101]

Great video, I hope the devs give it a watch. I saw them pop into your live steam, and they seem genuinely committed to improving the game experience.

[@NonSequiturSnowman]

As someone barely maintaining 30 FPS on a a 2070 Super , there does feel to be some improvements this patch. Before, I really only was able to play comfortably play on Scorched Enclave, Scrapyard Nexus, Mech Trenches and Underground Cemetary. Now, I can actually run Ashen Mesa without dipping under 15 FPS sometimes. Elephant Mausoleum is still a bit of a tossup, yesterday I tried to fight the Red Baron for the first time and the instant I started shooting him with my shotgun my frames tanked and I died. Surprisingly, my one run of the Frozen Swamp ran pretty well when I was darting through on Scav Girl just to take a look. Had some hitches, but considering the scale of that map I was pretty impressed at how it ran comparatively. Hopefully whatever magic they used to make that run so well will be ported back to the older maps. Edit: Just kidding, getting up high into the injector on Frozen Swamp hits my FPS pretty hard. Still not as bad as Elephant sometimes though.

[@dawnofwar2560]

Gunhead should have self repair mechanic like running to safe place then self repair

[@killpo_1]

There are a ton of differnet approaches to Gunhead's healing problem for sure. I can imagine perhaps in the future with an armor mechanic him being able to replace "armor" / self repair but not repair actual damage to systems. Something that gives you essentially a buffer that you can heal but also the chance of permanent damage(for that raid) in serious engagements.

[@jaywerner8415]

OR, he just uses a different healing item. Like a Robot repair kit/patch kit.

[@alexmiller4881]

I think the problem is the medkits honestly.... healing should be difficult, injuries should be a posabilitiy for all characters. For example a meditation should require the user to stop moving and apply the kit, not just run and gun while spamming 4.

[@ARStudios2000]

I think a cooler idea would be that your other team mates can carry repair kits to heal you, thus encouraging the Gunhead as a team character

[@SolusArmatura]

I never had an issue with water death and how resources get used in real time. I knew what I was getting into when I bought the early access.

[@INSOMNIAREX]

People who complain about the water have never actually played, they're just parroting what they heard from other gamers who themselves have never touched this awesome EA game.

[@jaywerner8415]

While I haven't played yet myself, here's a thought: as I understand it Medkits work like quickslot items or morphine shots so to speak far as healing goes (with better ones giving your hp). While this would be a MASSIVE PAIN IN THE ASS, It would make sense that Better medkits kits take longer to "use". Like Basic medkits your basically just giving yourself a shot in arm, but better ones you sit their for a bit tending your wounds. By that same logic, Gunhead will probably use a different healing item from other Scavs (if he gets/has the ability to heal), he is a robot after all so maybe he would need a Repair kit? Same principle applies. Just a bit of food for thought. After all "we are not that guy", we are not supposed to be Rambo going BRRRRT (as awesome as that feeling is).

[@Kahlimer0]

A different shape of ai hearing/detection as you said would make more sense than this silly cylinder with no up or down limit indeed, not moving and still being detected even through wall feels quite bad.... even if i cope by telling me they use TAC cam too. Can't wait for some major "parkour" improvements, actually quite unnerved by being stopped by gravels while running or needing to jump to get over one step, without talking about the multiple climbing issues.

[@ThePutativeFrosty]

You're the go to forever winter youtuber. Always actually break things down properly and point out things others miss great job! Keep it up. My argument with the medkits is this what I posted in TFW discord about a month ago: "So suggestion as I feel the game is too easy in it's current state. A good change for this would be a change to medi packs/kits. In it's current state medikits allow you to face tank most damage so taking engagements almost always feels like net gain with little to no risk involved. My suggestion for change is instead of all being heal over time you utilize a difference in medikits show in the 3 examples below: 1. Small kits should be changed to heal over time injectors that you can use while firing or sprinting but only heal 20% - 25% of your health overtime 2. Medium kits should heal 40%-50% of your health but you need to use an animation over 2.5 - 3 seconds that you can not use weapons with but can walk while using. 3. Advanced kits should heal for 90% of health require a 4 - 4.5 second animation and give you a 5%-10% damage reduction for 30 - 60 seconds (makes you stationary when using) The reason why I feel animations are a necessity for the difficulty is it will force you to think about how you want to engage rather than saying screw it press 4 and face tank. This is coming from a solo player as I am currently not sure on what the difficulty is like for coop as I only played 2 games with a random. (Played a bunch now and it is harder because of how fast you get hunter killers on your ass but not that bad) Thoughts and discussion are appreciated"

[@AdolphusOfBlood]

I have noticed rig sound effects, they depend on the type of loot you've got and you rig. It's most noticable when you load up a gunrunner.

[@evangelist_scav]

nice vid dude! I've had a massive performance increase since the update. gained at least 30 avg FPS in all the maps!

[@BillNyeTheBountyGuy]

I hope they make the 'Mech Repair Kits' and 'Tools' able to slowly heal Gun Head.

[@Wildman70892]

this is what I was thinking before this patch, maybe implement this and add mech repair kits into the med vendor

[@zombie_ghandi215]

good briefing of the patch, that new system feels like it would be ok for gunhead (aggro) if he made some constant noise, which would make sense, but its weird that some char have it, for aggro queue idk where to stand, its good if your still in the area, but if you moved maybe they should investigate again if your hiding or totally move on if far enough.

[@elliottgaal9774]

I play with controller. Its ok and manageable, the only issue is I have to use keyboard to extract as I don't know the equivalent input on the controller. I think they'll need to implement either a priority queue so as to not chase you forever or have a set chase distance before you are no longer on their radars. The vertical cylinder is quite annoying. My major gripe is the cemetery is still very difficult to breach.

[@Wildman70892]

extract is X if you're using an Xbox controller

[@INSOMNIAREX]

I love your covering of this magnificent game. Please keep doing them as long as the game keeps improving and more people realise it's potential, which you are helping to get out there. Thanks m8. Edit: btw I love the new map, its depressingly haunting but really adds to the world building.

[@aegisslayer5808]

The max amount of credits you can store in the invasion proof safe is 10 million credits (source i maxed my innards and I grind a LOT lol) and 10 items, i'm keeping 1 of each of my rarer guns.

[@andrewbox2691]

Nice rundown. Yeah the agro and stealth stuff needs work if that’s how it’s currently working. That’s a bit crude and sneaking by somebody who is close on the other side of a wall should be possible, perhaps depending on how much noise you make or something. Hopefully they get there though. Good update regardless. Can’t complain about a whole new map.

[@Wildman70892]

As far as performance adjustment, I've noticed more stable framerate when I first load in to a new map, but I see a lot more details slowly popping in, such as wires and pipes in the innards.

[@mexicanprime106]

The control pad ui is really nice

[@killpo_1]

Good to hear!

[@fg786]

Haven't tried anything yet but Water Bots seem useless, because I'm swimming in water already. Past the early stages of the game you have your water tanks ugpraded and they are full and you have the gear to make quests that give you water without end and you have gear to get more than 1 water. (Go mech trenches with equipment runner and extract by running past everything while on the go picking up 3 water. That's 3 mins spent without any real danger.) Having water bots triggers the Water Thieve raids or is that a general concern now? They should expand using more of the other loot available. In addition to water you should have to bring food items too. Some will spoil and be thrown away after some time. Maybe do that with fresh fruits soldiers carry around, they can't be eating MREs all day! Maybe be able to have an area for growing foods at the innards and you have to get soil from the cyborgs, i.e. have a reason to engage them apart from just "shooting all the things". Same goes for loot from mechs or tanks from which you should build rig upgrades and having to repair your gear and not just be able to buy all the things. Use the different toolkits to get to those loots. I.e. without a toolkit you can't get any loot from a mech but having a standard kit will give you access to some parts, having an electronics kit, will give access to looting electronics which you need in your innards to do what ever, I don't know yet =) Have me loot for alcohol to keep up the moral in my innards and be able to run a generator to light and heat the innards. You can siphon off fuel from mechs too or batteries In short: Give me a valid reason to engage units to loot. I know it's meant to be a shooter after all but they painted it with such a thin veneer of dread that's coming off after having like 15 water stored up and all the vendors available. 1 raid is 1 day seems more reasonable or have water spoil over time. Having a huge tank of still water sitting there would make me not want to drink on day 3 honestly.

[@IAMY7-y7]

They need to prioritize the steath problem rn

[@xendakakorva3267]

I feel that stealth was just fine before gunhead got released but after that it seems they did away with the original stealth system leading to flat out being seen and targeted regardless of if you were a threat or not, as of right now they have practically made it seem like they are treating you as a priority 1 threat even though you never did anything and were just trying to get by without causing a ruckus.

[@IAMY7-y7]

While the previous iteration had some shortcomings, it was superior to the current version.

[@Robot_Joe]

they really need to add a healing animation that forces you to sit still for a moment or something.

[@tjaartbester]

I think the credit limit for secret storage is 10 mil (mine stop counting up and rounded at that).

[@davec2753]

OG Lordoss paying out top dollar for cigarettes, my man!

[@Wildman70892]

Not a fan of the new aggro system, I routinely, especially on elephant mausoleum, have things trying to attack me through walls and doors when I'm quietly walking crouched through corridors. feels like there's now no need for stealth. love the additional content though, hopefully they'll keep polishing and things will be even better next patch

[@elgringofeo9348]

Never fought the water thieves in the base, when do they pop up? Only when you run out of water? Also i think too water should be game timed, it would be cool if you had the option to go twice a day, day and night so you choose night shift if you like, but also water is would be a lot more difficult to manage, imagine every 2 matches (if you decide to always go night shift too) you lose 1 water so always grabing water is a must cuz it goes quick so the pressure is constant, ALSO YOU CAN PET THE DAM DOG AND THE ANIMATIONS LOOK AMAZING

[@mrCeal]

Gunhead's inability to heal is kinda funny because it's an inverse of how it would be in real life. A robot would easily be able to fix itself up with scrap found in the field while a fleshy scav would have to return to the innards to heal properly over time.

[@dragontear1638]

More so as, apparently, Gunhead is derived from Engineering robots. On the other hand, could hand-wave it as Gunhead simply lacking the capacity to self repair, or repairing a G-Head in the field without a human engineer, or another G-Head unit is difficult due to weight constraints, lack of sufficient power, etc.

[@DT_Liox]

only thing that really kills me in the game are the damn drones that agro from a mile away for no reason.

[@rocknrolla7288]

I have found some special boxes in enclave! I even took some screens. They appear randomly, look like the loot an exo drops on death and you cant pick them up. Just says this container is locked. So still bugged, but exists.

[@HASSMAILBOX]

Not a bug, tank loot containers now require a drill to open them

[@fg786]

Can they please enable hit detection through alpha channels of textures. If I aim down sights and can see my target I want to be able to hit it and not have my bullet bounce off of some handrail on some metal stairs or metal beams I can lok through but can at no point shoot through. Can't be that hard. GSC made it work in Stalker 2. It's not high tech either, stuff is standard for 30 years probably.

[@ateamandadream1126]

I had issues with the dog on Ashen Mesa and even Elephant Masoleum where it had grabbed me from what felt to be a ridiculous distance. Hopefully they will implement a fix on it.

[@dheemaas7]

Awesome video, thank you! Keep it up!! So there's still no way to complete the two-part quest of Nexus/Scorched ):

[@TheCometCE]

As far as performance goes, on my low end rig I experienced a MASSIVE performance increase with the update

[@vinberros]

Epic Video!

[@chris714n83yh1]

This game is really an artwork..

[@brandondoane332]

So stealth is dead? Wtf?

[@kaiserstorm886]

My game bugs out like crazy whenever I'm on frozen swamp, my screen like makes itself smaller or something and freaks out with an almost static effect I also can't interact with Lordoss in spite of getting the interact button pop up but that might be because I'm on controller, also the ui interaction with it is a lot better but even with that I can't interact with Lordoss

[@PaketikChifira]

If I understood correctly you need too disable dlss, this should help with screen bug

[@brandondoane332]

Honestly there's no need for the water bots. It's easy to max out water just by doing missions.

[@turdbergler657]

the blood bag mech quests are broken for me lol

[@4T3hM4kr0n]

The Euruskan drone AI on the map are too aggressive. The accuracy and damage are now so out of whack that i've been gunned down at least a dozen times (They can outdamage a Large medpack heal)

[@Dollsofgod]

Died twice to drones on the new patch being they aren't a joke anymore. Frozen Swamp has a lot of drones and they seem to come in pairs. As annoying as they are at least they have a place in the game now rather than just being ignorable. Do NOT like the new agro system as it breaks a lot of the stealth gameplay and just doesn't make sense being seen at the top or bottom of stairs instantly or through walls. I haven't played Gunhead past Scrapyard nexus farming to try and figure it out. AFAIK his head gun ammo can't be reloaded? Maybe finding other destroyed Gunheads in maps and switching out arms and legs to get health back or using any of the many tool kits (cybernetics, mech, basic) that are currently in game. Other characters can soft scale their health pools by bringing more med kits to larger or more difficult maps and Gunhead needs some way to do the same to feel competitive. I was surprised his health was 2250 starting out, would have guessed he would start with like 4,000.

[@TauMeleeSeeker]

What I dislike about this mechanic is that it fails to effectively balance the game and real life. While they are two separate entities that can complement each other based on concept and execution, this game's implementation is problematic. The main issue is the lack of long-term content to sustain a consistent player base. Even if such content existed, a time-based mechanic where all progress is lost once the timer expires can still contribute to FOMO. This creates urgency and anxiety over potential loss, detracting from the overall player experience.

[@fg786]

Does yt automatically delete a comment wwhen writing "fucking shit"?

[@stewie2967]

New update / new bugs 😢 Rigs every round damaged Game goes more stronger 😮 Hunters come faster / grabber to new weapon sounds sucks some keys change don’t work

[@sebastianoscapost9226]

Personally? Gunhead should not be able to self heal. Him being able to lay down **double** the firepower while simultaneously able to engage **two separate directions** with in game aim-bot while moving as well is *insane*. He needed that drawback to him, otherwise it’s just obscenely bad game design. If he even had a self repair ability, then every other scav pick would be irrelevant and never get touched ever again in this game’s future. You people want that feel good satisfaction without that pain of the fight and the struggle to overcome obstacles and the challenges that guard it. You want that Olympic gold medal without running the 100 meter dash against the competitors who struggled to hone their skills. You want to only walk up to the podium, shove aside all of the other athletes and snatch that gold metal from the hands of the assistant proclaiming that you are the greatest champion that ever stood on that podium. **The pure narcissistic gall of you people.** You want that **pure fuck’n Power**? That unadulterated **DPS** of a walking weapons platform? Well, that requires a sacrifice of a pound of your flesh. You need to alter your way of thinking, re-rout those neurons in your brain case. Because life never gives anyone anything without them sweating and bleeding for it.

[@ScarletStarManor]

But isn't his aim bot ass? you make it sound like it's really good, that shit sadly has less accuracy than I do, AND I'm stuck not being able to aim down sight too. Him not being able to heal is whatever to me, but I feel like you're overhyping him.

[@Nasko_Nikolov]

"*The pure narcissistic gall of you people.*" Sure, OK hardass.

[@iwantyou9944]

you cant aim in 3rd person

[@PixxxelWizard]

Adding VOIP complicated things around stealth and player sync kill executions that need to now get worked out, it seems. All for the better of the game but we gotta put up with EA scuff meantime. Fixing stealth may not come soon in the form of an easy hotfix as it's probably complicated. I'm not a fan of the character skills progression as it is. The ones to allow the use weapons and rigs do not make sense within the prestige system. The only other similar system I have experience with is Warframe's mastery level system. The biggest difference between the two games that Warframe makes you pass a mastery test to advance in mastery levels. New mastery levels in Warframe matter a great deal because it makes the player more powerful. As a side note: The things that change with new prestige levels do not even appear in the character UI, such as crouch/walk/sprint speeds or HP while you are in the Innards. You can't see a character's HP UNTIL YOU'RE IN A LIVE MISSION which is really not a good feel. Forever Winter does not tell you what percentage gains you will receive with new prestige levels. The weapon accuracy honestly doesn't even feel like it does anything noticeable. You know what WOULD feel noticeable? Faster looting speed. Faster reload speed. Becoming less detectable in stealth. Having hacking be easier by having fewer icons to match. Being able to force doors open or closed regardless if they're "broken." If healing animations ever get added (which I think they should) then speed up that as a perk. Basically, accuracy as a perk doesn't cut it. It's not noticeable enough to matter. The only way to make it noticeable is to have hewer prestige levels but with greater improvements each level. Honestly it kinda feels like the prestige system and the skill system they have are in conflict with each other and at least one of these systems needs to either be scrapped or overhauled. I do not mind the prestige system, but the skills in it need to be better IMO.

[@Visigoth_]

They tried to market themselves as "being gamers" and "they get it/ know," but then they make some weird/ bad game design choices... (even if they *aren't woke; they're still corporate workerbees/ games industry Developers. 😅).

[@HASSMAILBOX]

The irony of calling someone woke and then a corpo bee. Are you left or right lil buddy?

[@forwardtsender8573]

They're a bunch of concept artists first it seems like. The reassurances were to promise that they wouldn't screw over players. Mechanics being funky while they balance them against the setting/feel they are trying to achieve wouldn't be unexpected.

[@mosthole]

"that guy" mentioned 🙄 i swear to god all the nerds clinging to that one fucking line on the description of the store page is letting it warp the entire game, gonna lol my ass off if they end up killing this with all the complaints of being able to have fun