World of the Living Dead

2000AD readers react a little differently from the rest of the world when they see the words “Judge Dredd” in any title. Ol’ Stony Face could always be relied upon to bring the law to the living and the dead alike, and zombies are definitely within his jurisdiction, but I doubt he’d approve of modern time wasters. Check out the review over at El Reg to make up your own mind (just don’t let Psi Division catch you disagreeing with Dredd…)

Hunger and thirst deaths are back, but the two of us have done extensive testing to make sure there won’t be a repeat of the widespread carnage that resulted last time. We’ve also made some other small tweaks and changes to other areas based on our tests - including missions, the tutorial and visibility - and tried to deal with the main bugs that have been interfering with play.

To cushion the hardship of survivors again facing death from starvation and dehydration, we’re resetting all health (injury points) to max and also resetting Hunger and Thirst levels to zero. This gives everyone a chance to find supplies and assess the situation.

• Survivors will suffer an injury point loss after 24 hours at max Thirst, or 96 hours at max Hunger.
• Hunger and Thirst will no longer penalize injury recovery rate, but being at max Hunger or max Thirst will completely prevent injury recovery. The error which was making Fatigue and Fear not recover due to max Hunger or Thirst has already been removed.
• Only a single notification will display when one or more of your characters is at max Hunger and/or Thirst and you click to check recovery status.
• Test subject delivery missions are now only specific as to the Blood Type required by NECRA researchers.
• Scavenge location visibility has been increased to 750 meters for all users.
• Only one scavenge location - the Red Cross Tent - is created for the tutorial. This now has its own map marker and the yellow exclamation marks are no longer used.
• A bug which was generating NECRA missions at excessive distances has been fixed - however, some missions are still being generated with errors and we’ll try to deal with these soon.
• New player squad icons are hidden from the map until they are level 5 (at which time they can be attacked). Lower level players can see squads belonging to players over level 5.
• An existing route on map load was showing incorrect end marker - a standard Google maps marker. This should be fixed.
• Armor filter should now work on the manage inventory pages.
• PvP attacks should now generate a notification as well as incrementing the attacks count and adding the yellow border if no existing attacks.
• All membership options removed and replaced with “SCUGS Upgrade”.

After listening to your feedback, we took the decision to remove the three membership options. We agreed that the SP boost and other features of the membership packages were too powerful so have replaced them with a single SCUGS Upgrade option which lasts 30 days. 

The SCUGS Upgrade can be bought with NC. This makes it possible for players who complete offers to get the most important aspects of the interface upgrades. Thanks to everyone who supports development of WotLD by buying NECRA Credits - we really couldn’t have made it this far without you!

You can comment on the changes over at 

This release is primarily aimed at improving the tutorial, to help new players get into the game.

• Removed step zero (welcome to WotLD) of the tutoral
• Fixed problem with skull toggling getting stuck
• “Next” button pulsates when step is completed and tutorial pane reappears
• “GO” pulsates when first route is planned
• “Plan route to here” pulsates and is highlighted by an arrow when first step is completed (to indicate the first emergency cache)
• “Manage inventory” pulsates and is highlighted when squad reaches emergency cache
• Video added to explain drag and drop inventory management - shows until first inventory mission is completed
• “Manage team” pulsates and is highlighted when squad reaches first survivor mission
• Video added to explain drag and drop survivor management - shows until first inventory mission is completed
• Tutorial pops up after each step is completed, along with completion text

Features

• Safehouse integrity chart now shown on Command page
• Moved operative status update box to Command page
• Premium membership button on top menu drops down to show current membership and days remaining, along with list of pending NECRA deliveries
• NECRA Credits balance button on top menu drops down to show quick links to NC pages
• Zeds killed counter now shown under current SP in top menu
• New players can now register using Facebook, Google, Yahoo or OpenID
• URL change in free NC tweet
• Google +1 button added
• Multiple changes to how the tutorial works. Completing a step should now update the tutorial box without a page refresh and a notification will tell you when you have completed a step.
• Map filter drop down added to replace the previous click to filter. This allows us to more easily add to the filters and should make them more useful and obvious.
• Marker mode activation link moved to bottom of map PDA
• Faction rankings now computed by combining the ranks of the members, rather than simply the number of players in a faction. The faction rank shows a breakdown of these numbers in a tooltip next to the name.
• Faction chat added to game. Players can now chat privately with members of their own facton. Global or faction chat can be toggled by clicking on the tabs above chat. The red radio will also toggle between chats, or reopen them both if they were closed.

Bugfixes

• Changed the unassigned infocard box so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the screen for some users. This may mean you have to collapse some survivors in large squads to assign cards.
• Fixes for Firefox 5 login problems
• Multiple fixes for IE9
• Some players were getting minors on registration. This is now fixed so that only adults are in starting squads.
• Reworded premium membership to better explain that there’s a bonus to the number of NC given, rather than a discount on price.
• Fix for apparent icon visibility when a squad hides. This caused some of you to assume it was only related to the large premium squad icons, but was actually caused by the squad icon only being removed when movement occurred. This has been fixed, so you don’t need to be afraid of making use of the larger icons.
• Raiding a destroyed safehouse no longer allows SP farming from killing of zeds. Shows a message “Safehouse is destroyed” and no further SP is given.
• Fixed a problem where Super rewards was not showing the full range of offers, so there should be more ways to earn NC now.
• Deleting a squad should no longer cause the squad box to disappear from the Command page.
• Clicking the tutorial skull should now always work
• Successfully raiding a safehouse should now always allow raiders to enter the safehouse - the previous capacity is ignored
• Multiple left menu layout fixes to prevent elements from flowing into each other
• Fix for NECRA Delivery page errors for Task Force members
• Fix for not clearing map z-density overlay, which was caused by code to keep showing bookmarked locations. Z-density colors won’t make the map hard to read now.
• Fix for problems with the display of PvP attacks by auto-archiving reports older than 5 days

This update took a while to get out as it includes a big new feature which we wanted to get right. Armor!

Armor

Armor provides protection from bites, general injuries and also against PvP combat. Survivors can now be protected in four areas: head, torso, legs and arms. 

Each type of armor has different strengths against different types of attack. A football helmet might be great at stopping a zed from biting off your face, but won’t do much to stop a round to the back of the head. A kevlar combat helmet will do the opposite, exposing the face but giving better protection in combat versus armed survivors.

You can scavenge armor at various locations around the city. To incorporate the new items, we’ve also changed the balance of the existing items, so you may see some changes in what you find.

Armor takes damage as your characters move through z-density, and also if your survivor is injured from PvZ or PvP, as this reflects the fact that the damage was absorbed by the armor but failed to protect the character. The protection offered decreases as it becomes damaged. We will be adding a skill soon to prevent damage to armor.

You can equip armor from the inventory management page, where you can drag and drop specific types of armor to slots for each character. A helmet can only be placed in “Head Armor”, a vest in “Torso Armor”, while the arms and legs also have their own slots. Armor items show up as dark blue. 

Good luck with the new armor and we look forward to hearing your stories from the field!

Item damage

Damage to items has been significantly changed so as to take into account z-density. Your items should now last much longer if you only expose them to lower z-d areas. 

Easter Egg Prizes

We delayed the egg rewards partly because we wanted to give out armor as prizes, so Easter Egg rewards are finally being delivered around Los Angeles County. 

Each type of egg will create a named cache (e.g. Blood Egg Cache) which will contain the items awarded for the threshold of eggs you collected. The thresholds are 1, 10, 20, 50, 100, 150, and so on. If you have eggs over a threshold, you will receive the items from the that and all previous thresholds, so some people will be collecting a lot of items! Eggs will disappear from the game.

Premium membership

Based on some extensive and appreciated feedback from players, we have made some changes to the way the 30 day premium membership works. 

Premium membership has been divided into three levels: NECRA Task Force, SCUGS Elite, and SCUGS Lite.

Everyone currently with active SCUGS Elite membership will receive all the great new benefits of SCUGS Elite, including free NC, a discount on buying NC, boost to earning SP and even a special bug-out bag, character mission and free meds!

Each level is discounted to half price for closed beta and we will continue to add features to all three levels as we develop the game.

NC item catalog

Firearms, melee weapons, armor and ammo can now be bought for NC. Items will use the new NECRA delivery system. Bug-out bags and items can be delivered directly to a selected character. The new range of bug-out bags are filled with items at a massive discount and aimed at rapidly getting a survivor equipped for the zombocalypse.

Bugfixes

• The message flashes when your survivors are too fatigued to scavenge.
• Grave Digger changed from 50 items looted to 50 bodies looted.
• Bookmarked locations do not disappear on moving squads.
• Cancel button on create marker infowindow works now.
• Survivor info in safehouses fixed.
• Changes to achievement categories
• Fix for errors with Halligan Bars

We’ve been working on missions for some time, but we’re putting out some changes today which are designed as an intermediate phase between the current system and the one we’re heading towards, as we want to try to address some of the loose ends and flaws in the initial implementation of more complex SCUGS missions. SCUGS will now be sending out missions with more sensitivity to the circumstances of your squads. You should see more missions, and the distances should be more manageable. With more collection missions, the fewer delivery missions should be more easily completed, although you may have to complete several collection missions before you find a required item. The in-game message for missions has also been removed, so you should check the missions count at the top of the page and also your missions page to see if there are any new objectives. There are also some changes to the rate at which SCUGS will determine whether any family members are within range, so you may find that you are more easily able to reunite your survivors with their loved ones, gaining the fear and fatigue boost to family members.  

A major change to the way firearms and weapons work in the game today. In the real-world, items deteriorate over time and with use. This would be especially true in the zombocalypse, where skulls are being cracked and firearms can burn through some serious ammo keeping the horde at bay. Firearms and melee weapons will now have a small chance of degrading in quality when used in combat. There are four states:

• Excellent: Factory-fresh and in perfect condition.
• Good: The item is in normal working order. It will probably last, if maintained and treated well.
• Fair: The item has seen better days but is still in reasonable working condition.
• Poor: The item has been used too much without proper care being taken. It could literally fall apart at any moment.

• Bile Egg image should now be loading.
• Negative encumbrance error is fixed
• Lost Property markers should now be appearing if characters had items on them when killed - remember that there is a small chance that some items will be lost on death
• Fix for scavenging - some locations were bugged
• Safehouse ‘enable access for faction’ link available independent of whether the player has the required level to ‘upgrade’ a safehouse
• Info now shows for the Easter Eggs in all cases

To celebrate the approach of Easter, we’ve released some disgusting and disturbing Easter Eggs into the zombie-filled streets of Los Angeles!

Collect as many as you can by scavenging at various locations around the city.

At the end of the hunt, you can exchange eggs for a range of prizes, including some very special new items…

There are seven types of eggs to collect and the hunt will end on May 5! Get ‘em while you can!

Bugfixes and improvements going out today:

• The large infocard images should now be correctly hidden on the infocard and reports
• PvP attack link should be working again - we’d welcome tests of this if anyone feels like some skirmishing
• Visible squad marker positions should now be updated correctly on the map and notebook when moving
• Squad status links should be updated under the map when a route is finished
• The map now centers on the active squad during a route
• There should now be survival reports when a character progresses to infected state, or joins the ranks of the living dead
• SP should now be refunded when a character succumbs to infection and dies
• Current reports are back on the map during a route
• Unread messages have a red background (this was reversed by mistake)
• Recover button changed to read “Click to check character recovery status” and centered
• Help icons added to more elements (z-density card, recover button)

A lot of changes have filtered in over the last couple of weeks along with fixes, so I’ll address the meatier parts of the update, which took longer than we expected, due to real-life infection in your devs.

Speaking of infection, your survivors can now be bitten by zeds…

Infection

The circumstances leading to a bite during PvZ combat are complicated, but z-density certainly plays a role. Future items, infocards and skills will help to improve bite resistance, but for now your characters have to rely on their general fitness and skill.

Being bitten does not always immediately lead to infection, although some characters may have lower natural infection resistance than others. Again, this will be something that can be improved over time, and some items may even allow you to stave off infection for a long period. For now, your characters will become infected within a matter of hours or days, depending on their natural resistance.

Note that NECRA regulations prohibit the use of bitten or infected characters in defensive positions.

Bitten characters will display a gray square next to their normal health indicators. A report will be shown in gray when a character is bitten.

An infected character can continue as normal for a varying amount of time, depending on their virus resistance. Again, this attribute will be something that can be improved using items, infocards or skills in future, but it’s just their natural resilience that you can depend on for now.

Infected characters display a sickly greenish-yellow square next to their normal health indicators. A report will be shown in the same colour when a character becomes infected.

When a character becomes infected, there is a risk involved in keeping them active and around other characters. They may be able to keep moving, but they can turn in hours or days. Although you may notice patterns over time, the unpredictability of this can be dangerous. A character who turns while in the midst (in a squad or a safehouse) of other survivors - even survivors under the control of another NECRA operative - may be able to get in a few bites before they are subdued. Characters left alone when about to turn will tend to wander off, delirious and in search of company, before they fully join the ranks of the living dead, so you won’t find compromised safehouses. This also means that safehouses cannot be intentionally rendered unusable by leaving an infected character there.

A NECRA operative can choose to terminate the survivor status of any character who has been bitten or infected. This effectively means that their fellow survivors will be told to “remove” the survivor by whatever means they deem necessary, or, if the survivor is alone, communications will be terminated and they will no longer be tracked by SCUGS. This action can only be taken from the NECRA ID page of the affected survivor.

Your tools to fight infection will grow over time, so do not be unduly disturbed by feelings of powerlessness when a survivor is bitten. This reaction is normal but your operative training should allow you to make tough decisions when they are required, and evaluate the risk of keeping a bitten or infected survivor in the field.

SCUGS streamlined

The second major change today is that the the map page no longer causes a page refresh when moving your squads. This was a massive overhaul which has meant several other changes in the way that the map works.

Loading the map page no longer results in a scan for z-density and locations for every active squad. This alone should really speed up load times for players with multiple squads. Instead, when you select a squad, SCUGS will scan the vicinity around the squad. This is only done once for each squad, after a page reload, so it shouldn’t be too intrusive. Doing it this way means that the map page should be a lot snappier to load, letting you get straight into planning a route for your chosen squad and not being held back while resting squads take a leisurely look around.

For normal movement, your squads will progress after a slight delay as SCUGS tracks their new position, but the page itself no longer needs to be reloaded.

As part of this change, we have removed the broadcast counter at the top of the page. This has been the cause of a lot of delays in page loading times, and we haven’t found it to be exceptionally useful in our own testing. Instead, this has now been replaced with a private mission counter. The “Battles” counter has been renamed to “Attacked!”, a minor change to highlight the danger when a report comes in. The PvP system will be streamlined over time. We’re well aware of the problems with the way it currently works.

Part of the update which may be unwelcome for those of you on smaller screens is that the current reports have now been merged with the survival reports under the map. This is a temporary solution so we hope you can work around it.

We hope that you will enjoy these improvements to the SCUGS interface. Thanks to Jungly for putting in some crazy hours to get them working so well!

Missions interface

Missions have been slowly increasing in complexity as we piece together the engine we’re working towards. The “deliver” missions which were introduced a little abruptly recently have been difficult for most of you to attempt, and in some cases have been confused with “collection” missions. Bear in mind that missions are being tested and so we know that the current approach is not ideal, but we’d like to see how innovative solutions to completing the delivery missions can get. You can use trade or combat to obtain special items, so remember that, even when you don’t have a particular strain or vaccine, someone else might.

In order to make the mission types clearer, we’ve added coloured flags on the missions page, showing the following types: collect, deliver, survivor, cache, family. We hope these will assist you in deciding which missions to attempt, and we’ll be getting back to improving missions very soon.

Thanks for your patience over the last two weeks. We really hope the update today makes playing WotLD more fun and we’re looking forward to your feedback and bug reports as you really get your teeth into the new features!