So the Winter Event is over. After two and a bit months of being able to collect presents, we finally return to a normal game void of present hunting and people asking "what do i do with presents" and "how do i open present".
So what happens now? Well, the Final Stand update replaces both the Winter Event and Valentine's update for content. (Although the Valentine's update items will still be for sale for a while).
Next update will be an Easter event (celebration for the first Easter event in Outbreak Survival!) where you will be able to collect Eggs in various maps and trade them in for items much like the current events.
This event won't last 2.5 months however, so Eggs will probably be slightly easier to obtain.
So this event is confirmed for 2.9. But what about 3.0 and beyond?
Last year (during April) the 2.1 update was released for the game. This update added a huge amount of changes, including the class unlock system, armour system, new inventory GUI, a large variety of maps, an actually working game, v5.0 weapons. But the vision for the game didn't stop there.
Like the 2.1 update, the 3.0 update will have a lot of new features drastically improving gameplay experience.
Here is a short list of core features that you can expect in the 3.0 update. However keep in-mind that this list may change, and some thing may be released earlier.
Improved Zombie selection screen:
Taking the best bits from the current menu and merging them together with the more robust Pet Selection Menu and Plants vs Zombies Battlegrounds 3.0 class GUI, this new interface will have all the important buttons and features present on one page. Which means it won't take ages to select items to buy and will make them more noticeable for players to select.
It will also better accommodate the ever growing list of Zombies, and will be able to automatically add new Zombies and put them in the right order whenever a new one is made. (You may have noticed how in the Unlocks tab, the various stages are all over the place).
New rewards system:
It's important for players to feel like they are getting rewarded enough for their actions. Currently the Points for kills system is flawed. This was somewhat fixed when assists came along, but a kill can easily be given for dealing the killing blow on an enemy. But even if you got the kill, someone else could have done 90% of the work in damaging that enemy but only got an assist or nothing at all.
This new system will replace Points for kills and assists and replace it with Points for Damage Done. What this means is, every bit of damage you deal to a Zombie will help grant you Points. This system does however come with it's own flaws. The amount people will earn will be higher since you can damage the same player multiple times, while they can go away and heal. Another problem could arise with farming, it's a lot easier to farm damage done than kills because players can run and heal, let you deal damage then run back again.
To combat this a few hidden requirements will be put in place, as well as making the Damage Done to Points only affect the amount you earn in a small way. The majority of Points earned will be through the new Chest system.
The new Chest system, will allow players to gain higher ranked chests based upon performance. If you lose you will still get a Bronze Chest, but you can increase the Rank of that chest if you did well during the round.
For example you might have been infected, but managed to pull off 3 survivor kills. That would get you a tier 2 chests granting more rewards than if you simply lost. [This is just an example and is not how it will be in the final version].
New 6.0 weapon system:
This will be tested in the new 3.0 update for Plants vs Zombies: Battlegrounds. So you might be able to try it out there before it comes to Outbreak Survival. This update adds a bunch of new statistics to weapons, allowing for greater customisation (by me) and improved performance along with many feature additions.
Such additions include the ability to have damage falloff and rampup, having an armour piercing property, allowing for tracer shots, easy addition of Q,E or any other keybinds and much more.
New Inventory:
Another Inventory revamp. The look and style will probably remain the same, but like the Zombie menu lots of new quality of life improvements will be added. Such features currently include better searching and sorting methods. Non-static inventory, where items you don't own will not be added to the GUI (so you don't end up with a whole wall of "LOCKED" items), ability to select skins for certain weapons and the ability to select a weapon by type. For example if there's an item called "Shotgun", you can select from a list to either equip the "Starter", or "Basic" variant.
Item statistics and price changes will also occur in this update. Most of the weapons will also become more powerful as a result. More on that later.
Better maps:
Some of the "Legacy" maps will remain in the rotation due to being classics (e.g Communal Town), whereas some are less favoured by players. The current maps that are scheduled for revamps or removal are: Bolt-On Town and Oil Works. Some of the map mechanics for these are actually quite interesting and could be used again, or just fleshed out more in their current state.
Oil Works is unique because it uses a lot of water and forces players to walk along specific paths. But because it's mostly community built, not all of the models were made to be 100% compatible. What I mean by this is, there aren't many thought out areas where survivors can go to defend against zombies. Or many alternate routes zombies can take to get to camping survivors.
Bolt-On Town has had many changes to make it better, and in some ways it is. The underwater flooded area is unique, and it's the only map where the survivors start underground and have to fight their way to the surface. But like Oil Works (and actually considerably worse), it has model issues where most of them don't exactly fit and allow for surviving. Most people walk around the middle on the road or head to the one building that's more newly built. (Carter's).
Oil Works might get revamped, but Bolt-On Town is definitely being retired. Expanded XL hasn't returned yet, since many players have problems with secrets and that map has a ton. The map is also way too large and open for the current game, and causes a problem where players have to play hide and seek before actually being able to battle humans or zombies. As a side note the map could work as a special 30-50 player version of the game.
The 3.0 update will be worked on after the Easter event, this might mean no major update for April, but it will be well worth the wait.
