Now for the mane event!

Update day is finally here and with it, a bunch of new horse gear, fresh base protection, plus a slew of improvements and balance. 

The update is expected to hit earlier than usual today, with the server patch at 1:50pm EST (17:50 GMT) and the client at 2:00pm EST (18:00 GMT). Given this, our update stream will go live at 1pm EST. Stay tuned to @Rustafied for news throughout the day.

Horse breeds and speeds

These steeds now have different speeds (depending on the breed). To find out the breed, simply walk up to a horse and examine it by pointing towards the head (you can also do this while mounted on the horse). A new UI screen will pop up that shows the horses breed and some critical stats (health, speed, and stamina). 

Each horse has the same starting stamina and health, however, different breeds have different max speeds. Max speed can very slightly within each breed; overall, the speeds range from 38.9km/h all the way up to 54km/h. Also note, as stamina goes up, the max speed increases slightly too. Here are the breeds (from fastest to slowest):

Horse equipment

With the addition of equipment slots and new gear, horses have received a significant update this month. Now each with 4 slots for various equipment, horses can sport a variety of different options depending on your needs.

Here’s the skinny:

• Armor protects both the horse and the rider, but makes the horse slower

• Horse shoes increase the speed while reducing stamina drain

• Saddle bags add 6 slots of inventory space, slow horse

Horse armor added

Two types of horse armor have been added: Wooden and Roadsign. Wooden is a default blueprint, cheaper to craft, provides less protection, has 6 storage built in, and slows the horse down less. Roadsign is not a default blueprint, costs more, reduces max speed more, has no storage built in, but provides a lot of protection.

As mentioned above, the protection provided is not only for the horse, but for the rider as well. Although this doesn’t make a ton of sense from a realism standpoint, the hope is that it works out on the gameplay front.

Wooden Horse Armor

Cost
2 rope
600 wood

Blueprint
Default

Workbench
Level 1 required

Protection
+25% horse
+20% rider

Speed
-10.8km/h max speed

Storage
6 storage slots

Roadsign Horse Armor

Cost
5 roadsigns
3 sewing kits

Blueprint
500 scrap

Workbench
Level 2 required

Protection
+50% horse
+40% rider

Speed
-21.6km/h max speed

Storage
None

Horse shoes

To counteract the slowdown caused by armor, two types of horse shoes have been added. Although you won’t make back all the lost speed, it will provide a bit of a boost so you’re not slugging around everywhere.

Horse shoes take up one equipment slot and only one type can be applied at once (dur). Not for nothing, a Thoroughbred with High Quality Shoes and max stamina can get up to 67.5km/h - which is fast as fuck!

Basic Horse Shoes

Cost
50 metal frags

Blueprint
Default

Workbench
Level 1 required

Speed
+5.4km/h max speed

Purchased at
Nowhere

High Quality Horse Shoes

Cost
15 HMQ

Blueprint
500 scrap to research

Workbench
Level 1 required

Speed
+9km/h max speed

Purchased at
Outpost for 25 scrap

Saddle Bags

Last but not least, Saddle Bags have been added to the mix. This default blueprint item is pretty straightforward; it provides additional storage slots (6 per bag) and slows down the horse a bit. Each horse can have up to 4 Saddle Bags, meaning you can now get up to 24 storage slots on a horse.

Each bag slows the horse down by -3.6km/h regardless of the contents of the bag. Watch out, if you remove a Saddle Bag with items in it, the items will spill on the ground around the horse. Also note, the bags do not actually show up on the horse at the moment (but the Wooden Horse Armor does have a visible bag).

Saddle Bag

Cost
20 leather

Blueprint
Default

Workbench
Level 1 required

Storage
6 slots each

Speed
-3.6km/h max speed per bag

Tesla Coil added

A shocking new form of base defense has arrived! The Tesla Coil is a small electronic device which can be placed most anywhere around a base.

When power is running through it (via the single power input), the Coil will slow down and shock anyone near it (about a 1.5 foundation radius). The amount of damage dealt has a 1 to 1 correlation with the amount of power running to it. 

Costing 10 High Quality Metal and 1 Tech Trash, this new device has decent durability (250hp) and stands to be a thorn in the side of all offline raiders. Current damage stats have it requiring a decent amount of firepower to destroy (i.e. 50 556, 25 explosive 556, or 5 F1 grenades). Also, it loses durability quickly while it is active (~2hp lost per second of run time).

Tesla Coil

Cost
10 high quality metal
1 tech trash

Crafting time
30 seconds

Workbench
Level 1 required

Research cost
20 scrap

Max damage
35hp per second

Electric wire directions

Electrical work has gotten a bit easier this month as there are now directional indicators. Appearing when you have the wire tool out (and building privilege) these white lines move in the direction which the power is flowing. This should make wiring complex circuits easier than before.

Map improvements

Several map improvements have made their way in this month. First, you can add a custom map marker by right clicking anywhere on the map while it’s open. This marker will show on your compass overlay, making it easier to move towards without constantly opening your map again. To remove the marker, simply right click on it again. 

Team leaders are able to put down a marker which then shows up on each team members map as well (although it doesn’t show up on the compass at this time).

Also, the location of your last death is now marked with a skull icon on the map. It’ll show the last place you died for as long as you're alive.

New death screen

Accompanying these map improvements is an overhaul to the death screen. Now much more functional, the death screen shows the map, including where you died and the locations of your sleeping bags. You can click on a sleeping bag icon to respawn at that location. Sleeping bags cluster together if they are very close, allowing players to show a context menu and select the exact bag they want from the list. Of course, there is still a list of sleeping bags on the bottom of the screen you can scroll through if you so please.

And to all you streamers, don’t worry, they thought of you too. In streamer mode, the map only shows if you press ‘G’, so all your current binds should work out of the box after this update.

Finally, a couple more statistics have been added to the top kill information including the distance from which your attacker killed you and the number of hits required.

Crafting improvements

A number of crafting improvements are also making their way in the month. Specifically, items can now be added to your list of favorites (which shows up as the top category on your crafting menu). To add an item to your favorites, simply click on the little star icon on the top right of the item’s icon. Click again to remove from your favorites.

You’ll also notice an electricity category was added so people can more easily locate all those electrical components. Finally, you can now right click an item in the crafting queue to move it to the top of the crafting list.

Oil Rig nerfs

Water based monuments have been taken down a notch this month as both Oil Rigs have been nerfed in two key ways. First, all military and elite crates are now behind puzzles. Also, the recyclers have been removed from both Rigs, so you’ll have to carry as much loot as you can back to shore instead of recycling it down on the Rig.

Double Door skins

At long last, it appears as though double door skins may be making their way in. With a ton of submissions already on the Steam market, we just might see the first ever double door skins make their way into the game this week.

Balance shifts

Helk has done a slew of small changes to tweak balance in the game. 

• Increased excavator output (750 sulfur, 5000 stone, 2000 metal frags)

• Spas 12 has slightly higher fire rate

• Shotgun slugs are more accurate and do slightly more damage, but with a 50% falloff at 40m

• M92 has slightly slower fire rate

• Simple sight is now a default blueprint

• M39 now available at bandit camp instead of L96 (cost of 400 scrap)

• Bradley top turret enabled and is more vulnerable to HV rockets

• Bradley loot crate rebalance, higher chance for L96

Improved screen settings page

The screen settings page added last month has received a couple improvements. You can now set your max FPS along with the windowed mode of your choice.

Player preview spin

The player preview display in the tab menu is now more dazzling as a spin feature has been added.

Other stuff

• Shift+center click now drags 1/3 of the stack

• Compound scientists now covers blackspot near recycler

• Fixed Bradley crates sometimes spawning under the world

• Harvesting heli gibs no longer marks players as hostile

• Fuel Generator and Flame Turret now uses fuelsmall panel

• Remove H and J as default binds for drop stack/single current item

• Added "headlerp" console command

• Fixed heli blades spawning with blur on

• Added grass.distance convar (range 100-200, default 100, only really useful for video making)

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