Patches/February 2021 Update

Welcome to 2021 and our first update for the year! This update is mainly focused on introducing our new player account system - Avalanche Apex Connect - as well as some world revamp work and quality of life fixes after the December update. Check out the details below so you can learn more about what we’ve done!

As always, we look forward to your feedback so let us know once you jump in and give things a try!

## ADDITIONS & IMPROVEMENTS

### AVALANCHE APEX CONNECT

We have a player account system that we’re rolling out that is completely optional to your experience. Specifically, we have 3 different ways in which you can interact with this system:

**Opting Out** - Having an Avalanche Apex Connect account is not required to play Generation Zero, but you won’t be able to utilize Assignments

**Limited Account** - With a Limited Account, you’ll be able to access our new Assignments system and are not required to provide an email address. Engaging with the Assignments system requires you to be online.

**Full Account** - A Full Account grants you access to the Assignments system and gives you our new Cyberpunk outfit. You will need to be logged in / online to keep access to both of these. With this account we do ask for your email address, so we can verify you as a player and contact you later with game news and other potential benefits down the road.

### ASSIGNMENTS

Assignments are repeatable missions that refresh periodically so you can earn rewards - like ammo, crafting materials, etc. This is another way for you to get resources while you play! Again, this does require you to be online, however, as this system is driven by our backend services. To pick up your Assignments, find the nearest FMtel station and activate them there. Your active Assignments can then be tracked on the Assignments tab in the menu. The FMtel stations are scattered throughout the world but can often be found around safe houses.

Your feedback on what works well, what doesn’t, and what you’d like to see will directly impact where we take this in the future - so do let us know!

### SAVE GAME BACKUP IMPROVEMENTS

In an effort to improve how we handle game saves, particularly when things go bad and your save game gets corrupted, we have changed the flow of game saves.

Previously the game would save to the backup continuously while playing, e.g. when fast traveling or changing something in the inventory, etc. Of note, the game would save to the backup even if the main save data had become corrupted.

Now the game will only save to the backup on booting the game when the main save is successfully loaded. And as described above, if the main save can’t be loaded and has become corrupted, the backup save will be loaded instead.

We hope this change improves the likelihood that you’ll be able to recover from a bad save, even if it means you may lose a bit of playtime. Please let us know if you continue to encounter problems so that we can keep looking for ways to improve the system!

### FARMLANDS REGION UPDATE

Our continued efforts to revamp the game world have moved into the North Eastern part of the Farmlands region. Just like in the past, we’ve given the area a facelift and made it look more lived in to help provide that sense of a fuller, more robust world.

That said, just general updates don’t do it justice. There are some rather interesting things to take note of in this area. As we look towards what else may be happening in Östertörn, this region of the map holds some clues to provide more of that world context.

## BUG FIXES

**Animation, Art, & Audio**

* Fixed an issue where you could fire the N9 while it was spinning
* Fixed an issue where the lighting on the one crown variant of the N16 in the inventory was especially harsh
* Fixed an issue where sometimes water waves could be heard inside apartments that were not near water
* Fixed an issue where sometimes rain sounds could be heard inside the Överby Airbase
* Fixed several LOD and object flickering issues
**Crashes**
* Fixed an issue where the game host would sometimes crash after a friend joins them via the in-game friends list
* General improvements to stability
**Machines**
* [Community Report] Fixed an issue where defeated machines could sometimes “revive” with negative health after a player fast-traveled away, and back to, an area
* Fixed an issue where the Harvester drop pods were not showing when reinforcements were called in
* Fixed an issue where the Reaper could be stunned during its thermobaric attack
* Fixed an issue where the Reaper could sometimes perform 2 thermobaric attacks back-to-back
* Fixed an issue where some machines would not patrol like they were supposed to
**Missions**
* [Community Report] Fixed an issue where the truck in the main mission “Clearing the Path” could become invisible and non-interactable
* [Community Report] Fixed an issue where the ammo crates in the side mission “Fuel to the Fire” would not appear if a player died before looting them
* Fixed an issue where players have been unable to complete the FNIX Rising mission "Good Night" due to the Rival not dropping the vision module
**UI**
* [Community Report] Fixed an issue where map icons for previously discovered areas had disappeared
* [Community Report] Fixed an issue where after placing a weapon with attachments into your storage, when removing the item the attachments would appear to be attached but they were not
* Fixed an issue where the interaction prompt for the bicycle station near side mission “Face of Adversity” was offset
* Fixed an issue where the Hazard suit gas mask was not providing the gas mask UI overlay
**Weapons**
* [Community Report] Fixed an issue where the gun would become offset to the left when aiming down sights on the .44 Magnus Revolver
* [Community Report] Fixed an issue where the world became blurry when aiming down the sights of the Experimental PVG 90
* Fixed an issue where the N16 had overly strong recoil when using the 1-4x rifle scope
* Fixed an issue where part of the slide of the N9 did not slide backward
* Fixed an issue where the iron sights for the N16 were misplaced
* Fixed an issue where the muzzle flash from the N60 was too high with the silencer equipped
* Improved the N16 to sound a bit beefier
**World**
* Fixed an issue where placeholder medkits assets appeared in-game
* Fixed an issue where there was too much smoke in a house at the Guteby Farm
* Fixed an issue where two locations had the same name - now updated so that the Airport in the Forest Region remains “Anl 129 Viggohem” and the safe house in the Farmlands is now “Anl 144 Vidsele”
* Fixed a few instances of players getting stuck on objects
* Fixed several issues of terrain and objects clipping through other objects
* Fixed several issues of floating objects
* Fixed several visual holes in the world
* Fixed several instances of excess, or missing collision
**General**
* [Community Report] Fixed an issue where the Achievement / Trophy “Running Wild” wasn’t always correctly counting cars that a player destroyed

## KNOWN ISSUES

We’re highlighting a few issues below that we know are pain points so that you know we are investigating them. There are definitely more than are listed here that we’re looking into.

* While we fixed an issue for some machines not patrolling, this still happens for the Harvester
* If another player who does not own the U.S. Weapons Pack DLC picks up one of the weapons dropped by someone who owns the DLC, the weapon will disappear for both players
* The DLC icon for the U.S. Weapons Pack is not appearing on all quality levels of the weapons, only the initial items you receive
* The “Distance Traveled” statistic is not properly tracking distance traveled
* Players will get stuck in a room when fast traveling/spawning into the Påskallaholm Safehouse
* Rivals sometimes die / disappear without any player interaction
* The drop rate for US Weapons Pack weapons is lower than desired, being tweaked in the future