UVULA Update Testbranch #1 (Windows)

New update coming! This has already been in testing for awhile, and is very far along. I'm just now posting all the patch notes to Steam, so we can open up wider testing

There are also a couple of experimental features that may or may not get removed, depending on feedback. One is that high attitude characters are now harder for zombies to detect, and low attitude characters are easy for zombies to detect. The other is Workbench crafting. Read below for more details

Let me know how things go!

TO ACCESS THE TESTING BRANCH:

1. Right Click "Death Road to Canada" in your Steam Library
2. Go to Properties
3. Click on the Betas tab on the left of the Properties window
4. Click on the dropdown in the top right, and change the Beta Participation branch from "None" to "beta - TESTBRANCH"

Full List of Changes for UVULA Update

Rare characters

• Mr Winston - a normal lumberjack man with nothing to hide. Absolutely NOTHING to see here...
• Fireman - SPRAY EM ALL DOWN with a powerful water hose and asbestos
• Dark Vapours - found in the new "Film Set", telekinetic evil nerd in a pressurised suit, hates sand
• Shogun - cursed to speak in rhyme, can blitz attack from time to time
• Major General - a support character with a penchant for buffs and musical numbers
• Demolitionist - naval mines + mortar + quadbarrel = boom
• Plus one additional secret character

New Personality Type and Personality Interactions

• NURTURING: AKA Empath
• Unlocked with high medical and high loyalty
• Has bonus effects for some events - representative of somebody who knows how to apply authenticity and gentleness in the apocalypse

New interactions were added for TINKER and AGILE as well, some of which are in the new events

New Locations

• SMALLTOWN STADIUM - home to fireworks, footballs, and copious amounts of various sporting weaponry. A great place to find new weapons as well as throwables
• FILM SET - A mysterious space ship filled with blasters, loot, and cameras

Weapon Workbenches

Big experimental feature. If this works out, then we are finally a survivalcrafting game

• Melee, medical, ranged workbenches. Melee weapons can get morphed into new weapons, ranged weapons get upgrades, medical items can be refilled. Requires good stats
• Requires food for resting & one use per table
• Ranged weapons get special abilities at the third level of upgrade

New Weapons and Weapon Classes

Scattered around the game world. You can also read more about them in the Library

• REACH WEAPONS
• Ladders, Lances, Naginatas
• These weapons are clunky, but have OK stats and can crit. Great for Fierce Hitters!

GREATCLUBS

• Mic Stands, Folded Chairs, Macuahuitl, Wooden Club
• These weapons tend to have quite poor stats, but continue to deal damage even as your stamina dwindles. They also force knockdown on hit targets, so they're great for athletically challenged characters

MECH WEAPONS

• Tennis Ball Launcher, Scrap Launcher, Musket
• These weapons are great for when 4 ruffians break into your home. They deal AoE damage on impact, which gets better with your shooting stat
• Every point of mechanical reduces their cooldown too. Most are use non-recharge ammo

THROWABLES

• Formerly a joke class due to the boot, now actually useful
• New examples include the Football, Throwing Knives, Chakrams and Javelins. Each is unique.

New Vehicles and Vehicle Reworks

Mostly obtainable through the parking lot and the harbor

• FIRE TRUCK - provides fire immunity in missions
• OIL TRUCK - detours become trivially cheap
• TRADER TRUCK - now substantially boosts looting radius, less MPG cost
• SNOWPLOW - now has 5 armour by default; MPG unchanged

Reworks and Major Adjustments

• Grappler now has +1 STR; trying this as experiment
• EXPERIMENTAL: Attitude now affects zombie detection radius
• Low attitude characters draw aggro easier than high attitude characters
• Detection radius is based on zombie aggression and attitude, and has a minimum range of 4 tiles
• Play around with this and let me know what you think, because I may or may not keep the feature, or tinker with the numbers

Text Events

4 new total events. 2 normal, 2 bandit:

• FOREST POND
• RUNAWAY TRAIN
• MOUNTAINSIDE BANDITS
• THE HOUNDMASTER BANDIT

Gameplay Mode Changes

• New weather types for Weather Mode...
• HEATWAVE - imposes minimum stamina level, random nearby objects or zombies may spontaneously ignite. Tread carefully!
• ZOMBIE RAIN - Zombies fall from the sky. Have fun!

Other New Content

• New Accessibility Options
• Turn storms on/off
• Turn storm lighting on/off
• Turn flashy text on/off
• Extra zomb HP
• Extra difficulty scaling
• Carcounter on/off
• Carcounter counts familiars on/off

Pets can now pull from a second list of names which are more "cutsey" and petname-like

New siege density and zombie density descriptors

Tweaks and Bugfixes

• Parking Lot changes
• Shortened parking lot, some rooms are shorter, lots of sidelots removed
• Condensed parking lot loot
• Refined parking lot car list
• Parking lot cars are now 25% more durable and engine-er then usual

Significantly nerfed loot from Gated Village

Garage event rework to make it a bit less punishing

Train location was slowed down to improve performance and motion sickness

Alvis now has his starting stats in OPP mode

Ember now gets souped up if drinking gas at night in that one event

Bison event now fairer for BERSERKs

Weather Mode weather now disabled at border area

Fire axe was nerfed, 10 food cost, slight cooldown nerf

Electric Guitar now costs 6 food

Fixed Smith recruitment issue

Fixed first mate siege being infinite

Fixed extremely odd Ember interaction with train

Fixed phoenix not reviving with fierce hitter

Fixed some more generation issues

Fixed bug where fire was pickupable

Fixed niche car stat bug from agile interaction with tree event

Fixed trunk swap bug with craftsman

Minor citadel bugfix

Fairy queen now has fairy bat in opp mode

Added special logic for the screenshake special character in case of screen shake being disabled

Magnets now operate at 0.5x effectiveness when held but not equipped

Fixed pokemon in OPP lobby causing incorrect car counter value if familiars were considered