"You emerge from the shelter into the dim light of an overcast day, and look around for the first time since the disaster.The world as you knew it is gone. A ruined world stands in its place, full of nightmares come to life. Nothing can ever go back to the way it was, before the Cataclysm, but you have to be strong. You have to survive. You have to persevere. If you don't, death will be one of the better outcomes.Above your head, storm clouds gather, and the rain stings and hisses against your skin. You shoulder your backpack, and start walking. The world has gone to hell, but you get the sinking feeling that there are darker days ahead."The original Cataclysm was a great game, but it's developer, Whales, has moved on to new pastures. That leaves us to carry to the torch. Building on the original Cataclysm code base, we hope that DDA becomes the new standard moving forward, and helps push the game out to a wider audience.I'm not one of the more important people here - I'm just the guy who set up the website and forums. The real masters behind this version are the many people who've contributed to the code base to bring it to the state it is today. Whales, obviously, but also the people who continue development despite the lack of any official capacity.First, The Darkling Wolf - Without DW, this project wouldn't exist. The Darkling Wolf Mod managed to enhance the core Cataclysm game and pull together other amazing improvements from a wide variety of developers, leading to the original version of Dark Days Ahead. Fellow Administrator of the forums, and the offical "face" of the new project, DW is the person you should complain to if anything goes wrong, and the person you should laud (along with the other active devs) for the things you love. The Darkling Wolf will also be making the determination of what features end up included in the "official" and current version of Dark Days Ahead.We also couldn't have pulled this together without a lot of hard work by Creidieki, Uzername, Kevingranade, HerbertJones, Gim, Shades and Origamiwolf. Hopefully, they'll all stop by sooner or later and introduce themselves, and continue making Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead even better.And thanks to everyone reading this, because YOU are the people we're doing this for!Note:If you're interested in contributing, put your ideas into practice and post in the modding forum! We look forward to seeing what you can do.
-Wooden Spears can be used to roast meat and veggy chunks.-Fence posts, can be placed from the construction menu and (e)xamined to make an assortment of fences.-Evac Shelters have a bit more life to them.-Windows in houses have curtains which can be opened and closed, and may themselves be opened and closed.-Garages which contain assorted mechanical tools and have a small chance of containing an intact vehicle.-Planks may be placed over pits and spiked pits in order to make them safe to cross.-Rubble, Wreckage and ash may be cleared up with a shovel.-Metal bars (such as those found in police stations) can be cut away by (a)ctivating a hacksaw.-Cots and Rollmats, which may be placed by (a)ctivating them, and make it easier to sleep on a tile.-Some furniture may be shoved around on floors.-Select Fire mode, weapon mods and guns can be loaded at the same time, meaning you can have a grenade in your M203 without needing to empty your magazine first. (To access this feature, press the ? key, press 2, scroll down the list and assign a letter to select fire)-Small quantities of nails drop when furniture is smashed up.-Ammunition may be deconstructed and crafted, via finding a kinetic bullet puller and die set in gun stores.-Containers can hold multiple charges of liquid, such as jerrycans which hold 40 charges of water.-Jackhammers can be used to drill up roads and floors.-Walls and floors, when destroyed, have a chance of destroying any adjacent wall and floor tiles.-Fitted versions of clothing, which have lower encumbrance than regular clothes.
Item Disassembly - Press the ( key and select any item from your inventory to disassemble it. In most cases, this will require the same tools required to craft the item, and the game will tell you which tools you need. (Note, the game will only tell you the first tool on the list, but any will work. For example, an item which required either a Steak Knife or Combat Knife as a tool, the game will only tell you you need a Steak Knife, but will accept a Combat Knife) - Thanks to DinoCat for this entire featureChain Link Fences - These currently only spawn around basketball courts, and can be climbed over by (e)xamining them. There's a chance to fall down and lose 2 turns if you fail, but zombies can only bash through them and not climb them.BugfixesInnumerable small bugfixes, most notably water now has the correct charges when spawned in bottles.Larger fix, shell casings now stack appropriately again, thanks to Kevingranade for the bugfix.(Kevin Granade) - Added some cocktails and mixed drinks. Lots of various tent related fixes and improvements.(Zack Hovatter) Added option for new world, some fixes for compiling on macs and code to make NPCs to move out of the way(Williham Totland) Added a ton of various changes.(Origamiwolf) - Ability to reload gasoline tools using (r) command,Vegetarian changed to meat allergy to better synch up with ingame effects.Chain Link Fences.Gates for those fences.Bolt cutters, used to open locked gates and cut wire from fences.Military Outposts now have concrete walls, and the external fence is chain link with gates.A bunch of other various fixes and minor tweaks.Construction menu is even more broken.This release is mostly bugfixes and behind the scenes changes, so there's no real changelog to post.
-A ton of bugfixes, by our many talented people (not me) -Also added picklocks, which are now used for silent entry, crowbars make some noise now. Picklocks can be used to open alarmed doors and chainlink gates too.-RESIZABLE VIEWPORT-Item Listing - You can now assign a key to list all visible items, pressing it brings up a list of items, with a cursor showing where each is if you tab over it. (OzoneH3)-Item Comparing - You can now compare the stats of any two items, on the ground or in your inventory. (OzoneH3)-Beginnings of item variation, some items will have moderately variable stats. Such as damage and to-hit. Currently exists on vehicle parts. (Zpmorgan)-Container type items, such as fridges, don't show you their contents unless you (e)xamine them. (Kevingranade)-Removing window panes is now handled via the 'Deconstruct Terrain' selection in the menu.-Vehicle spawns are more common, but 50% of vehicles spawned are uncompleted chassis. (Spawn stuff by Zpmorgan, Chassis by me)-Added ability to craft using water from the map. (Voker57)-Temperature effects on player, including frostbite, inability to sleep, heastroke, tons of stuff. Also undergarments, such as socks and woolend underwear, doesn't count towards encumbrance, but provides warmth. (Shoes, some cleanup by Kevingranade)-Bleeding damage from some mobs, will be fleshed out to be per-limb. Bandages and Rags can stop bleeding. Bloody rags can be cleaned with boiling water. (Written by Oddzball, merged by Kevingranade)-View shifting commands, you can now shift your view in any direction and have it remain there, allowing you to focus on an area say, 10 tiles in front of the player, rather than the default 360 view. (Kevingranade)-Skilling up via reading now gives a message popup. (Zack Hovatter)-Graffiti can now be sprayed on the ground, spraypaint cans are found in hardware stores and some houses (Voker57)-Human flesh is now recieved from butchering humans. Carries a very large morale penalty for consumption. (Kevingranade)-Scent no longer travels perfectly through closed doors and windows. (Kevingranade)-The view area can now be resized to as large as the player wants it (BurnZeZ)-Dragged furniture now carries the items with it (OzoneH3)-Bunch of new items added to houses. (Uzername)-Save deleting fixed and improvde (Kevingranade, Oddzball)-Much better vehicle collision physics. (Zpmorgan)-Car seats function as containers (Kevingranade)-Occasional weapon misfires (Oddzball)-The usual imperial ton of bugfixes.Probably a bunch of stuff I'm forgetting, it's a big release folks. Behind the scenes anyway.
We've started using a proper versioning system, for convenience.ChangesNot a massive amount in this release, mostly bugfixes, but we've tossed a couple new things in.-Palisade Walls and Gates - Pretty tough to bash down, and can be fired throguh-Log Walls - Basically the same as wood walls, different construction methods.-The ability to disassemble tshirts and tank tops by hand. - Handy for bleeding.-Revolver Shotgun - Not much to say on this.-A whole ton of misc fixes, to all kinds of stuff.A bunch of new bugs for you to discover and yell at us about.
Mostly behind the scenes changes and fixes this release.The biggest new thing is the reworked spawning option, you can now choose to use a static spawn system, wherein the game spawns all of the zombies as soon as the game starts, this means you can clear out a section of town and it will stay more or less cleared.We also have a new inventory menu that allows you to do such things as unload items from your inventory, no more need to manually wield those hundred flashlights.Also the beginning of a rework of input code, this has had the undesired side effect of breaking the use of the escape key to exit menus, you'll need to use space bar.Finally, a new machine has been added to hospitals as a nice, if rather grisly, solution to losing limbs.
ChangesThere's a changelog now. Which has the bulk of the changes in it.Summary:Tons of bugfixes, going down stairs, walking around, breathing, should hopefully no longer cause crashes.A bunch of survivalcrafts, you can be more or less self sufficient in the wilderness now (The system is still somewhat WIP, and will be balanced in future.A few new monsters to discover and get killed by.Note:Don't use character templates from older versions of the game. They break things.
