After a much too short appearance in December, we promised you an improved Prologue Demo, one that embeds most of your feedback and adds more of the economy/survival layer to the mix. The time has come to reveal the new build, so we welcome you to come and try it. Below are a couple of the main features you might want to check out.

The inventory/backpack has been completely redesigned, with a new player equipment and health chart that dynamically shows you the body parts that are bleeding/bandaged, the stats affected by the wounds and the debuffs you might carry. While here you might also notice the item filters present on all inventories, including a nice new SORT button to order those massive loot hauls. And we’ve begun to add new hover windows to items and HUD, showing shortcuts and other useful information. Crafting was overhauled too, but the good stuff there (attachments, armor, throwables, etc) is still in the works.

Exploring the Shelter you should be aware that all the economy NPCs now also have a quest for you to build them a specific base upgrade. Ask them to show you the blueprints and you’ll see what they can build and what the costs in materials are and get to it! And speaking of materials, seek out Mr. Fulton-Vine in the courtyard, he will gladly take any recyclable parts, old guns, tools, spare gas. Then he will kindly stash those into the base meters, from where you can deduct them to build your upgrades (and in the future, other useful stuff, such as bullets, armor, optical kits, etc).

You might also see a couple of references to “scavenger teams”. If you check out the new map you will see that there’s a WIP mode called SCOUT/SUPPLY. These are teams of refugees that you will able to send out to discover new locations for you and, once you’ve cleared them of enemies, basically haul home everything that’s not bolted down. So no more meals for free, everyone’s contributing to the common good soon! Speaking of travel, by building the Garage upgrade, you will be able to salvage certain cars and use them as squad transport, starting with Sheriff Rogers’ old police cruiser. For this to happen you would need to get rid of Lino Cesare and his thugs first though, so no, you won’t (yet) show off your new old car in the demo, but it’s coming.

We’ve given you more leeway with the impending resource crisis, compared to December build, so now you have a bit more time before any real drama happens. But this is for demo purposes only – in the main game you will have to get those refugees to work and start scavenging and building or you will have them hungry, sick and rioting ASAP. Now with all that loot, you can try visiting the traders (Honest Joe in Little Italy or Private Benny in Old Port) and check out their updated interface, showing numerical info about how they smile and rob you in clear daylight. But hey, if you don’t like what’s on offer, you can always pull out a gun and try robbing them back. If you can hold you own against bikers or soldiers armed to the teeth that is…

ENJOY!