Dying Light Survival Overhaul makes many improvements and adjustments to a number of game mechanics to ensure a consistently challenging but rewarding survivor experience. It also expands upon nightmare difficulty further and normalises a number of problematic scaling issues with the vanilla game.
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Changelogs
Version 2.40
You can now craft plastic tubes and household supplies.
Improvements and adjustments to the crafting costs of numerous explosives and expendable items. This was a necessary fine tuning now that The Following's materials are fully integrated into the main campaign. In short, you now produce a larger quantity of expendable resources (special ranged ammo, explosives, fire crackers etc) at a cheaper cost.
Version 2.34
Improvements to razor blade recipe as they are now rarer. (Experimental) Improved the sight radius of biters significantly.
Version 2.33
Forgot to include in previous version: each combat hit gives twice the normal combat xp. This favours melee and makes it more rewarding for its risk. The crafting of basic weapon mods used far too few materials. This has now been adjusted. Weapon mod rarity is more consistent. Kings is now craftable. Clicker is now craftable. Elemental poison recipes adjusted to be similar to other elemental crafts. Previously they used too few materials. Fast Break now properly states it has a 7 seconds cooldown. Fast Break (quick reversal) stun duration now has its description updated (1 second) Improved main and side quests Xp reward. This is mostly to make replaying the campaign worthwhile for legend XP. Also it was weird that airdrops gave so much xp in comparison to story progression.
Version 2.32
Vault requires a bit more stamina to execute. Vault jump only stuns biters very briefly. Description updated. Takedown now consumes the same amount of stamina (full bar) as frontal execution of a stunned enemy. Legbreaker can only work if a slide is performed at full stamina. Doing so will drain all remaining stamina and exhaust Crane. Throwables category changed to Ranged Weapons. Relocated the bow, crossbow and their ammunition to this category. Buggy upgrades renamed to miscellaneous. Blades are rarer - they were too common from toolboxes. Toolboxes now only drops white crafting materials. Many improvements and sensible adjustments to loot tables. Uncommon items are more uncommon, and materials that are prized in many crafting recipes are appropriately rarer.
Version 2.31
All components from The Following are fully integrated at a balanced drop rate that does not interfere significantly with the base crafting materials. The blueprints for weapon mods can now be found in their own category. Added blueprints to craft the most basic weapon mods. Improved consistency (yet distinctive) in material requirements for arrows and bolts. Revereted the bonus to melee force.
Version 2.30
Synthetic, rubber & Lubricant are now integrated into the main campaign at lower drop rates than the expansion. Various adjustments to the loot table since new components have been introduced. Descriptions and flavor texts updated. You can now craft and combine weapon mods using synthetic, rubber, wire etc. This should allow weaker mods to see some competitive use and expands the utility of The Following's crafting materials to be be more desirable other than solely for the buggy. You can now craft synthetic, wires and rubber. You are now informed of the virus' evolution when you level up Clicker and kings remain uncraftable. That's on purpose. Increased visibility range (may not quite work or if it works may cause fps issues for slower computers) Increased Depth of field. (experimental) 2handed weapons use 3 metal parts instead of 4 to repair. Removed goodies given out by The Following's Quartermasters, removed exploits for sales promotion & reduced the quality and quantity of buggy parts sold. Main campaign quartermasters are stingier. Throwing knives, crossbows, bolts etc are all sold in the shops instead of being given to you from the start. Shops now only sell common craft parts (no batteries etc). They also sell components from The Following. Missed out buffing some 2handed legendary items / adjusting their repair parts. All fixed now. Much needed improvements to alcohol, gauze and medkit recipe.
Vault requires a bit more stamina to execute. Vault jump only stuns biters very briefly. Description updated. Takedown now consumes the same amount of stamina (full bar) as frontal execution of a stunned enemy. Legbreaker can only work if a slide is performed at full stamina. Doing so will drain all remaining stamina and exhaust Crane. Throwables category changed to Ranged Weapons. Relocated the bow, crossbow and their ammunition to this category. Buggy upgrades renamed to miscellaneous. (for future blueprints) Blades are rarer - they were too common from toolboxes. Toolboxes now only drops white crafting materials. Many improvements and sensible adjustments to loot tables. Uncommon items are more uncommon, and materials that are prized in many crafting recipes are appropriately rarer.
Version 2.20
Kurt's bomb is now much cheaper to craft. Some crafting components from the expansion (screws, wires and steel tubes) are now integrated into the main campaign. Recipes readjusted to take advantage of the new components. All infected now evolve faster, that is to say that stronger variants appear much earlier than usual. The night is considerably more dangerous - increased volatile and nightwalker presence You should see a significant increase in the infected's response time, their tendency to swarm as well as heightened aggression. Be careful! Virals are now much fewer (fixed in earlier patch) so they will instead scale better in the late game with more hp and slightly more damage. Further reduced the scaling of all human entities. The early vs late game scaling of all infected has been widened greatly. Instead of unlocking the crafting of electronics, you will instead learn to craft tin cans. Description updated. Flavor text when selecting Nightmare has been updated. Crossbow & Bow now deal less damage between survivor levels 9-17 and then scale up to deal bonus damage all the way to max survivor level. This makes them less overwhelmingly powerful while leveling and for them to still remain relevant end game without too much investment in legendary. All melee weapons have increased force and impact. Fast Escape and its level requirements are slightly easier to obtain. Normal & elemental shield crafting recipes have been replaced with alternative scrap metal, battery, razor blade & Electronics. Description updated.
Version 2.10
Many, many changes (under the hood) and improvements (to spawns and ferocity) for a more consistent & difficult experience.
Version 2.03
Windmill and ground pound both have a 60 seconds cooldown, bringing them in line with all other signature abilities. 2handed weapons are already sufficiently powerful against a single enemy and this change is to discourage spamming of windmill which is far too optimal in almost every situation.
Version 2.02
Now that various crafting materials can be cobbled together from other parts, thrown explosives seem like an extremely inefficient use of crafting materials.
It's somewhat cheaper to make them now, generally requiring one less of an uncommon material.
The recipe for gauze now makes more sense. It uses a more diverse pool of resources but will primarily depend on alcohol as a limiting reagent.
Alcohol now needs one aerosol but one less chemical. Should make Bleach less of a limiting factor.
The same treatment has been to the crafting of scrap metal so that razor blades are still a necessary component but not the only determining factor.
Version 2.01
As close as it gets to completing everything I set out to improve on =)
Scrap metal no longer drops anywhere and everywhere. They are now rarer.
2handed weapons now require 4 scrap metal to repair, double that of one handed. They are justifiably far more powerful but should also exact an appropriate cost for maintainence.
Reduced the hidden scaling buff of 2handers slightly.
Some side quests had their Xp rewards increased, but especially Tolga and Fatin giving more EXP for the chores they send you to do.
All infected now have more meaningful and greater damage variation, becoming truly frightening as their evolution and the campaign advances.
Elemental infusion's chance for proccing elemental effects increased from 2% to 4% per level, now making it on par with other straight up legend damage increases.
Version 2.00
A major update that adds/improves a few things I thought would make Dying Light much better:
In the day and to a lesser extent at night, Biters have increased priority on targets that are a distance away rather than just doing nothing. This change makes the day more dangerous and the night trickier.
The damage range of biters have greater variation, scaling up as the game progresses. Be careful! Virals also have damage variation (to a lesser extent) and will slowly become more dangerous. Spitters have improved damage scaling. They are now a decent threat and are more dangerous when you try to close the gap with them. Best killed with ranged weapons. Improved scaling of goons, demolishers & volatiles so that they become more powerful as the game progresses rather than just having new skins with more hp/damage.
Human melee, ranged and boss types all have reduced health. Previously they scaled as well if not better than the infected, which was incredibly lame given the biter's resilience can at least be explained by the virus' evolution.
Reduced the XP value of supply drops at max survivor level. They still remain useful as a means of getting legend points but with the doubled xp from combat kills and agility, this should prevent drops from being too lucrative and just encourage you to play the game without farming or exploiting. (experimental, might not be working yet, mostly in place)
[Legend] Elemental Infusion now shows the correct percentages per point investment
Boosters, now renamed to improvisation, is replaced with the ability to craft scrap metal, alcohol, gauze and electronics. This is an inefficient but useful conversion process.
Improved boosters, now renamed survivor sense, will instead give you a 10 points boost to max health.
Sturdiness reduced from + 20 to max health to +10. Crane's total max health remains unchanged. It's just more spread out in the skill tree(s).
The Bozak bow and upgraded crossbow now require significantly more materials. At the moment, their requirements are far fewer than rare weapon elemental upgrades.
Version 1.97
Biters now deal variable damage depending on their level and strength. Further extended their scaling such that more powerful biters feel a bit more distinct and much more dangerous.
Natural Medkit now renamed DIY Medkit and uses an appropriate range of crafting materials. Considered somewhat less efficient than the other medkits. Description updated.
Sophia's Medkit now properly uses chemicals as she hints about when you finish her quest. Crafting materials also revised.
All the above medkits present alternatives that no longer depend on herbs which are considerably rare (or do not exist) in the expansion campaign. It is up to the player to decide how he or she wishes to spend his resources, efficiently or otherwise.
All challenges no longer give cash. They now give a weapon mod as a commensurate reward. Side Quests that give cash will now give a crafting mod (variable) instead. The above changes are meant to improve the sandbox experience so that repeating the game still remains somewhat rewarding.
Version 1.95
A final set of changes for the Legend Tree. Hopefully no one really started messing with it yet. I've decided to make some skills more thematically similar rather than just a bonus thrown in for fun. It's likely there won't be anymore changes here.
The new skills all feel powerful in their own right and since most people will never get Legend 250, it means picking only certain core skills and giving up others. This revamped Legend skill tree should make the Dying Light sandbox experience more enjoyable but still pretty damn challenging.
Health renamed to Survivor Skills. In addition to max health, also increases health and stamina regen. Should be a more competitive and interesting choice.
Health Regeneration renamed to Elemental Infusion. Increases elemental chance, damage and duration. A much more viable choice for a range of builds now.
Healing Efficiency renamed to Blunt Specialisation. Increases blunt weapon damage (multiplier) and unarmed damage.
Further improvements and more consistent wording of descriptions and various explanations.
Dive attack cooldown was always 60 seconds but the description listed it as 30 seconds. That's fixed.
Version 1.90
Bleed effects now last twice as long. Bleed level 4 (nail bomb) has increased potency and duration. Removed Legend level restrictions / requirements. Specialise as you see fit from the get go.
Skill descriptions have been fully updated. Stomp & Camouflage now properly explain that their abilities are disabled and instead give a small bonus to stamina. Ultimate Runner now gives a small bonus to maximum fitness. Previously it did nothing. Oops! Dive attack's description now states that it has a 30 seconds cooldown. Ground pound's description now states that it has a 9 seconds cooldown. Nightmare difficulty now changed to Nightmare + when this mod is active. When selecting nightmare + difficulty, you are now told that certain abilities are disabled as well as some major changes made by this mod. The skills related to buying and selling have updated descriptions. Skills related to increasing maximum health or stamina now follow the changes outlined by this mod.
Legendary Skill Tree changes (Tooltips and descriptions updated accordingly)
Throwing Weapons now has a max of 25 points but each point increases damage by 20%. Also increases all slashing damage by 1% per point. Max health now also increases blunt weapon damage by 1% per point. Health Regen now also increases stamina regen. Healing Efficiency now also greatly increases unarmed damage. (it will not be fully viable in this mod but the increase is greater than the vanilla game) Max stamina also increases all charged attack damage by 5%. Firearms now has a 12.5% damage increase per point. Unarmed has been changed to weapon handling. Increases weapon attack speed and improves durability of melee weapons.
Even if you do acquire a high enough legendary level, the game should still remain very challenging as biters have scaling in this mod. The above legendary changes should make specialising more interesting
Version 1.83
Gauze was appearing in cabinets and certain loot containers. Now it's mostly limited to just medical containers.
Sledges, axes and pickaxes paled in comparison to any alternative. They simply didn't do enough to justify their very slow speed and huge stamina drain. I initially increased the damage of all 2 handers but it doesn't fix that these base weapons were too lackluster. Other 2handers like baseball bats or fantasy swords were in a good place though.
So, I've gone through all weapons of the above listed type and manually increased their damage by percentages relative to stamina use and ease of handling. The result should be that these weapons now feel far more powerful, crack bones in a more satisfying way and a fairer trade off of raw power vs defense/mobility.
Version 1.82
Conducting liquid and Flammable liquid now produced increased quantities but draw from a larger and more varied range of materials.
Rebalanced bomb material costs. Should feel more reasonable. Also, they don't draw virals from huge distances anymore.
Cupboards are no longer full of crafting materials.
Disabled Viral banging noise as they are now no longer accurate in relation to how they spawn (had to look at how Stinvec did it, much thanks to him/her)
Slightly decreased the volume of male and female biters when spotting or moving towards the player. You have to pay more attention to your surroundings.
Version 1.81
Legend Skill Tree defensive talents are now reduced to 25 max points but their bonuses have been doubled or increased. This is to make them more attractive and more valuable per point than weapon proficiencies, or if the player prefers, can completely ignore any defensive investment for maximum damage.
Hard mode now also has the same banned items as Nightmare difficulty.
Version 1.80
All weapon loot tables found in chests now offer a better chance at item rarities, not just specific hard locked chests.
Melee normalisation curve flattened a bit more. Melee should still feel powerful without the need to have a fully modded orange weapon and legend points. After the final changes to the mod are made, I will offer a harder version for those who prefer a much more challenging melee experience.
2 handed melee damage bonus reduced by 10% - should now be a fairer tradeoff with 1 handed playstyle. (after looking through the various weapons, affixes and rarities)
Legend Throwing increased from 5% to 10% per level. It lagged behind other proficiencies too much.
Medkit uses 1 less alcohol but needs a plastic tube. Think of it as making the syringe etc.
Version 1.76
Very slightly increased a biter's melee and grab range to line up better with their animations. Does make the game more dangerous though Survival penalty had no effect. Now you lose a small amount of survivor points for dying in the day and night. Legend Xp loss still functions as normal.
Version 1.75
Lucky repair is now 35% instead of 25%. Melee damage normalisation is more gentle and less punishing.
With the changes (fix) to virals, it's now possible to properly adjust biter aggression. Biters now react from further, respond more aggressively to events and shuffle to sources of disturbances. Being spotted by a single biter is more likely to trigger a mob reaction. A larger number of biters can now be hostile towards Crane at the same time. This change allows them to come around corners or move in groups and make it harder to isolate them.
In addition to explosions not transforming biters (in previous patch), they now instead force an investigation from nearby infected. Additionally, certain shots and silent killing of the infected will now force volatiles to investigate.
The proc chance for fire and bleed has been increased. They should feel sufficiently powerful and satisfying to use now. Throwing weapons now scale better. Human enemies now have reduced health. They simply no longer scale similarly to virals. They are weaker, as they ought to be. Slightly increased burn duration on the molotov and its super variant. Lockpicks can no longer be looted You can now hold 36 arrows intead of 24, allowing a player enough ammunition to use it as a mainstay weapon if specialised for. The bozak bow's arrows are less affected by gravity. Crossbow base damage improved by 10%. Now the Bozak acquirable in the main campaign and being the superior bow, the ranger bow blue print has been disabled just like all other questionable DLCs. All special ranged ammunition are now given as rewards in the slum's side quests. If you have already finished them, then you won't be able to receive them. For example, Dahlia's quest line now gives you all the special bolts and a freezing element blueprint instead of giving you a bunch of potion blueprints that are either not useable in nightmare or just becomes menu clutter because you will never craft them.
Version 1.70
Techland allowed virals to spawn under any condition and it often resulted in many of them appearing in the day, and even at night. I've found the controlling values and disabled them. Virals will still spawn but only occasionally. This also means the banging sounds by virals are much reduced and the day is more peaceful.
Such a change will allow me to adjust aggression better in the future and make a few other changes around this 'fix'.
Version 1.65
The Bozak Bow, Compound Bow & Super Molotov can now be received as you progress in the main campaign and unlock side quests. They should arrive at a point where the zombies are becoming more powerful and will be useful for Sector 0. This also no longer forces the player to play Bozak or do The Following.
Guide to Zombieland - Upgraded Bow Bandages and Meds - Upgraded Crossbow Midnight Bride - Super Molotov
Ranger Bow (DLC) now properly requires a normal bow to craft. It just looks nicer. Explosions do not transform zombies.
Version 1.64
Community dockets are now disabled while this mod is active.
Bozak Horde now only gives you a docket when you finish the entire trial. Previously it was ridiculously easy to get gold weapons as Bozak gives you a docket at many round intervals, making world exploration lame and unnecessary.
World loot rarity from chests has been greatly improved for Nightmare and hard mode. For example, the default chance to find a gold weapon was 0.15%. This has been increased to 0.65% and rarities above blue have all been much increased (reasonably) to encourage exploration.
Version 1.62
Now that I understand Techland's weird logic on what counts as a 2hand, or what skills are enabled or disabled when using it, I've removed the cooldown on Whirlwind. Now, it is also capable of dealing massive damage.
Version 1.61
Special Infected take slightly less damage on Nightmare. (does not affect Bozak) Biters scale better at all levels of the game while Quarantine Zone Biters have reduced hp scaling.
A number of systems reworked. XP penalty is now in place. You lose a very small amount of survivor points on death and only 2.5% of legend XP on death in nightmare. (much lower than vanilla) Legend Skill Tree now allows you to achieve a maximum of 75 points in each proficiency area and 50 for all other areas. Instead of requiring Legend 20 to go past the first 5 points, all requirements are now halved. This gives you the choice to play as offensively as possible, increasing your damage up to a max of 375% for weapons and 750% for unarmed
As it will not be possible to max all skills, the player has to pick between offense, defense, versatility or specialisation. These changes affect The Following. Without Legend skills, The Following will now be extremely difficult as the biters scale better and faster. The expansion campaign can now be considered the ultimate challenge.
Camouflage is disabled even if you have the skill. It was impossible to balance around and most difficulty mods impose so many restrictions the ability may as well be removed. Having it disabled also makes it clearer and easier to loot which should be more helpful.
Camouflage, its improvement and stomp now instead give a small bonus to maximum stamina. Ultimate Fighter now also gives a small bonus to maximum stamina.
Dive attack has a 30 second cooldown and no invulnerability frames. It made one-handed weapons (or 2 handed weapons pretending to be 1handed) too useful and an instant kill ability with a low cooldown was over the top.
In return, Power attack now deals far more damage while using more stamina. Whirlwind has a 9 second cooldown but the increased 2 hander weapon damage makes this ability a high risk high reward ability. Ground pound cooldown increased to 15 seconds but it deals increased damage.
Quick reversal has a shorter stun duration on Nightmare. Vaulting over biters stuns them for much shorter.
Throwing weapons now have increased scaling to remain useful even in the late game without legendary investment.
Bow and Crossbow now scale in power, starting with 5% more damage at survivor level 15 and 25% at level 24 (hidden). This fixes the scaling issue at high survivor levels and allows ranged weapons to remain useful outside of Legend.
Twohanded weapons now have a further increased damage ceiling. They are meant to be truly destructive but risky and require high skill and awareness.
Weapons have increased repair slots but slightly lowered durability. This puts a further drain on maintaining with scrap metal.
You now receive around 50% more agility XP. With this change, simply playing the game, is more attractive than repeating areas to farm legendary XP. Also opens up more abilities quicker which brings to the table more tools to use and master.
Recipes have been adjusted slightly to utilise more underused materials. Alcohol and plastic tube cannot be looted from dead biters. Dead biters rarely give a valuable pouch that can be sold for cash. Bombs use fewer household supplies and uncommon materials. Crackers use more plastic. Shurikens and special variants as well as knives now make 9 instead of 6.
Volatiles and alpha variants can detect you better, especially if you sprint or start killing biters from a distance.
Final aggression pass: biters see further at night while virals have had their sight range reduced. Virals deal slightly less damage as the way aggression works in this game may cause them to come in swarms at high survivor levels. Biters will follow you for longer to where they think you are even if LOS is broken. Also, Increased enemy search range and wander distance.
Night is shorter but still longer than the day. Slightly increased dodge speed. Reduced chance for Crane to be poisoned.
Crafted elemental effects for fire and bleed had their probability to trigger doubled. This should bring them in line with the usefulness of other elemental effects. Sales Promotions no longer give out Bolter livers and now follows that of The Following so things are a bit more convenient. Weapon mods are now properly expensive and can stack up to 99 Herbs etc no longer sell for outrageous prices Items sell for even lesser as you move into the end game
Version 1.51
Because only Quarantine Zone biters can be modified, I cannot narrow the tremendous hp gap between the original campaign and its expansion. Weapon values and normalisation changes were readjusted to compensate as necessary.
Jump attack (instant kill) no longer has any invulnerability or damage reduction duration. Blades are now properly uncommon. (my mistake) Higher damage ceiling for 2-hander weapons. New Game + values are adjusted for a bigger challenge (not fully tested) for those who want to replay the original campaign on a much higher difficulty.
Version 1.50
Infected & Special Infected Hp Normalisation: This addresses a very important issue in the base game. Some higher level biters have more than 20 times the hp scaling as compared to your normal biters you encounter in Harran / Following. This meant that combat was very uneven, if not jarring.
The current curve adjustment(s) should increase the hp of weaker biter to be closer to the average while extreme amounts were scaled greatly backwards. Now, the 'strongest' biter only has three times more hp than the average.
Version 1.40
Melee Damage Normalisation is now in effect. In the vanilla game, melee weapon damage scaled ridiculously with rarity and survivor level allowing Crane to deal thousands of damage with a swing.
Similar to the damage normalisation mod on the nexus, this change now curbs the exaggerated bloat of melee damage with a custom setting. You receive an increase in melee damage for the early levels to make up for the terrible early game melee weapon damage scaling while higher levels have a progressive reduction in damage.
Firearms have also been normalised but for a small increased damage as survivor level increases so that they remain effective as a desperate tool even without legendary skills (somewhat).
2-handers while also normalised, now have a much higher improved damage scaling which should now make them a viable weapon feels satisfying to use.
You can now jump attack again. However, both Jump attack and Whirlwind have a 6 seconds cooldown. Also, you are far more vulnerable using Jump attack than in the vanilla game.
Nighthorde changes: they wander further and have increased radius.
You now only regain 1/2 of your health on respawning after death. This should discourage reckless play near the safe zones. You can still recover hp fully on sleep.
Stamina regen and delay factors are now similar to vanilla.
Quick reversal now properly stuns biters.
Version 1.33
You can no longer do cheesy one hit kill dive attacks. One hit instant kill attacks against zombies are hard to balance for and made much worse in coop play.
Agility gains have been increased. This makes gaining legendary XP easier and more natural rather than having to feel that drops far outweigh any other way of playing the game.
Version 1.32
Minor Fixes and removed redundancies.
Version 1.31
Forgot to revert weapon bonus repair slots for testing purposes. Not really a bug in itself since it makes melee much more durable but the values are reverted to what they should be.
Med-kits that arrive from air drops and a few drop pools are now less likely. You will instead find gauze in place of a med-kit in such a scenario.
Night is very slightly shorter.
Electronics are now properly rare as they should be. They were way too abundant in common loot before.
Version 1.30
Further reduced Virals being able to chain together in the day. It is not entirely preventable as they will arrive based on aggression level, especially if there are any nearby biters that are injured or in combat with you.
Moving away from the area or clearing it entirely of the infected will stop virals from spawning. Alternatively, avoid direct combat in the day with medium to large groups of infected.
Minor cleanups on threat and aggression.
Version 1.28
Crane's maximum attainable hp after finishing all 3 core skill trees has been reduced from 200 to 150. This prevents a sudden jump in maximum hp and keeps progression smoother. With the right legendary skill maxed out, he can only obtain 200 hp instead of 275 in vanilla. This change is important as it keeps Crane vulnerable and allows the difficulty to remain somewhat consistent at all points of the game.
More biters can now engage you at the same time. Further increased their aggression and response in the day, but only slightly in the night. Minor tweaks to crafting recipe. Quick reversal now only stuns biters for half as long. Further reduced viral events in the day and removed incidents of virals spawning in the night. Removed unnecessary file(s)
Version 1.27
Minor adjustments and cleanup.
Version 1.26
Arrows fly faster and further, and should increase the range of the bow beyond its default weak distance.
Improved crossbow damage scaling.
Killing the infected now rewards double XP, scaling as it usually would in the night. This serves as a somewhat viable means of getting legendary points by playing the game normally. Maxing the combat tree will now be faster but should still be offset by the increased difficulty.
Version 1.25
Removed chain events that may trigger virals repeatedly in the day Zombie screams do not transform nearby zombies anymore Slight tweaks to aggression
Version 1.24
Fixed crossbows drawing virals and volatiles (apologies!)
Adjusted Survivor level 1 - 9 to require much lesser xp and moved the deficit to the later levels. You should still require the same amount of xp to hit max survivor rank, just that the first 9 levels are faster.
The initial levels are problematic as melee weapons remain very weak and only start to pick up and scale better past level 8. This should address the sponginess of zombies at the start (by letting the player progress away from that stagnation) as melee scaling only picks up in the mid game. Hitting level 9 quicker also opens up the bow and crossbow, a point where melee weapons are somewhat competitive.
Version 1.23
Forgot to put a cooldown on survivor sense. That's been fixed. Crane's survivor sense (for enemies) has been slightly lowered but increased for items to make it easier to find bolts etc. Firearms have better scaling so that they remain effective before Legendary skills. Getting the crossbow and bolt blueprint from reputation level 3 of the following will now give you an alternative recipe (requires different components) for normal bolts. Multi-throw now takes less time to acquire targets.
Version 1.22
The Crossbow and its normal bolts are now available for crafting from the start. However, to craft the Crossbow, you will need the normal bow which is available in any shop at survivor level 9. This means when you are able to use the bow, the crossbow is available as an alternative ranged silenced playstyle. You no longer need to venture into The Following which is much more difficult with this mod.
Be warned that neither the bow nor the crossbow are fully silenced unless you are able to kill them in 1-2 hits in the head quickly.
Made small adjustments to aggression level. Reverted weapon loot quality to vanilla levels to fix some empty chests. DLC overpowered recipes are now outright disabled from the start rather than costing more to craft. DLC survivor weapons have all been disabled except the Lacerator. Increased the damage of planks, pipes and wenches to make the start easier.
Version 1.21
Bow type weapons are now less affected by gravity and have increased projectile speed. DLC ranger bow and normal bow are now identical in stats. Slightly increased damage. Bozak bow is now the superior bow. Its damage is unchanged but its projectiles fly further and are even less affected by gravity, making it truly a much more mobile weapon that the cumbersome crossbow. Selling price declines gradually as a player moves in the late game to prevent high level weapons from giving almost limitless funds.
Version 1.20
You can now craft throwing knives. The blueprint is available from the start. They deal more damage than normal shurikens but less than special ones. They also come with elemental poison 2 and use somewhat different but common crafting materials from other throwing weapons. Normal Shurikens deal a little bit more damage and also inflict Poison lvl 1. Throwing weapons should be more accessible and a very useful tool that complements any fighting style (especially against virals) should you be willing to give up some materials. Throwing axes have been rescaled accordingly while freezing shurikens now have a higher base damage. Special bows and arrows are revised to be easier to craft as their ammo cannot be recovered. Normal bolt recipe uses scrap metal but fewer uncommon materials. Power cables and scrap metal are harder to find. Value of some crafting materials raised to match their utility. Xbow now deals scales slightly better than the bow on single target hits to the head. Still remains a poor choice against fast enemies.
Version 1.18
Normal Craftable Shurikens now deal damage on par with uncommon throwing knives. Weaker throwing weapons found in the wild have had their damage increased to match the upgraded shurikens. Reduced the damage gap between each rarity for throwing weapons.
The first few levels of Legend Skill XP are now back to vanilla values. Early Legend specialisation is important when attempting New Game +
Version 1.17
Minor fixes to a missing loot table.
Version 1.16
Lockpicking kept the same as vanilla. Increased chance of finding higher rarity items in hard chests. Properly fixed Quartermasters and shops in the Following. Previously they were selling too many scrap. Slightly reduced string quantity in some recipes. Slightly reduced volatile melee damage
Version 1.15
Super Molotovs now require a normal molotov in addition to other crafting materials Bow and Crossbow now deal increased headshot damage as they are now no longer fully silenced Cleaned up some files that were not being used. Fixed instances of empty chests. The Following shops no longer sell any bolts or their special variants regardless of your trust level.
Version 1.14
Properly removed XP penalties for dying on all difficulties. Normal shurikens now use mostly common materials that you are likely to have an excess of. Adjusted Medkits and Molotovs to have greater similarity in materials used. Quantity for throwing weapons that are looted or bought changed from 5 to 10 Volatiles spot you a little faster in normal mode and hard mode; nightmare unchanged. Experimental: New Game + now increases legendary points to x15 instead of nightmare's x10. However, enemies scale better and volatiles spot you even faster at night.
Version 1.13
Scrap metal now drops from a larger number of containers including dead biters. Spitters are faster and have a lower cooldown between their spits.
Version 1.12
Freeze and poison grenades were missed out in the last crafting adjustment. That's now been fixed. Removed death penalty if you killed yourself with a fall. Resistance boosters now only give 50% damage resistance. Toxic zombies have a much higher chance to poison. Breaking out a biter's grab (skill) has a slightly longer cooldown. Increased infected search range, reduced their stun duration a little more. All med-kits sold in shop should now be properly removed. Shops no longer sell electronics. Timescale adjusted to feel more natural. Day and night are now closer in length, but night is still longer. Experimental: Biters scale to a higher threshold, but I am not sure if it really does anything. Crafted shurikens of all variants are cheaper and in larger quantities. The crafted normal shurikens deal more now - from 100 -> 135.
Version 1.11
Some major changes here. Highly recommended update. All updates are safe to install at any time.
You will no longer encounter chests with a lockpick difficulty greater than medium Weapon durability for all rarities except gold weapons now scale better White and Green weapons deal almost the same damage. The damage gap between green and blues have been reduced somewhat. This is meant to ease the start of hard mode / nightmare when you are running around with whatever you can get your hands on. Besides, no one uses white, greens or blues eventually. Another crafting pass, should be the last. DLC recipe adjustments are such that those that 'cheat' by allowing you to instantly have access to weapon upgrades or special arrows remain expensive to make while those you find in the course of the game are more manageable. Adjusted prices of materials corresponding to rarity, and then frequency of usage in crafting. Also now properly adjusted for crafting materials in The Following. The money sink for this mod lies mostly in buying crafting materials, the occasional weapon/firearm, and refilling your ballistics ammunition. Special arrows (Bozak horde) or special bolts had their crafting materials reduced greatly. They also mostly use common materials so that you can feel good expending excess materials in return for situational power. For obvious reasons, only explosive arrow remains a bit more expensive. Reduced the damage variation dealt to biters and virals by a small margin so that damage is more consistent. This actually increases your damage so other smaller changes were made to offset this. Aggression has been tuned again: Sprinting generates more noise, being bitten (grabbed) increases the aggression and transformation of nearby zombies, some explosions were adjusted to be more realistic and had their radii reduced. The infected, both normal and special are now more perceptive. They will sense you even faster and react more aggressively from a longer distance. Volatiles have slightly increased spotting distance. This change makes it more believable why it's very hard to survive out in Harran And the last controversial change. I finally figured out how to allow arrows/bolts generate noise and attention. In the vanilla game, you could with a partner, just happily snipe away with a bow or xbow, and even biters that take multiple hits to the head won't squeak much, except for maybe getting the attention of 1-2 more nearby biters. Now, any arrow or bolt that does not outright kill a biter will generate some noise and attention over time. This means bows still remain a stealthy option as you can still one shot or two shot most regular biters before they start to moan but they are not so ridiculously overpowered at thinning out a crowd at night with impunity. Finally, even with the nerf to headshot multipliers, bow and xbows are still more than capable of taking down most biters in at least two head shots.
Version 1.07
FixedPistol reload animation being too fast. The Following crafting materials are now also rarer and will require more scavenging.
Version 1.06
Crafting table second pass. Fixed herbs appearing as loot. Rare materials are more restricted to chests and lockers while containers in the open or easily accessed are more likely to be empty or contain common/uncommon materials. Viral damage scaling improved slightly for end game.
Version 1.05
Missed out changes to DLC Ranger bow and its corresponding arrows. Fixed DLC melee weapons to also properly use 2 scrap metal for repair.
Version 1.04
Crossbows and bows are limited to a max of 24 normal ammunition and 6 of each special ammo. Additionally, special ammo can no longer be recovered. Crafting recipes have been adjusted accordingly. The Following crafting components are now properly adjusted to be more expensive.
Version 1.03
You can no longer stomp enemies. All other finishers still work as normal.Though nightmare imposed a stamina penalty for stomp, it was still too effective in too many situations, especially cooperative play. Because shops no long sell higher rarity items, you now have a better chance to find them from chests. Also doubled the base chance to find platinum weapons, which should scale with every 25 legend skill levels (see description). Adjusted the nightmare loot tables to favour common crafting items over rare ones. Finally, removed any opportunity for infinite fitness, stamina as well as any boosts to the recharge of grappling hook. (You can still grapple, but you cannot reduce its default cooldown)
Version 1.02
DLC Weapons now also require 2 scrap metal for repair. Marksman rifle's (if you have the DLC) headshot multiplier brought in line with other firearms (nerf) but still higher than your typical rifle. Its clip size has been reduced and takes longer to reload.
Version 1.01
Further adjustments to some crafting recipes (especially early game DLC weapons) to use a wider range and greater quantity of materials. Time scale adjusted so that day / night do not overstay their welcome. Removed survivor and legend XP loss on death to make deaths less frustrating. The survivor skill tree has now been reverted to its default value.
Playing with friends is highly recommended. This mod further improves multiplayer scaling difficulty.
Updated: 13th Nov 2020, now no longer requires playing in offline mode
Note: New Game (default campaign) on Nightmare+ is highly recommended!
Summary
This mod improves upon nightmare difficulty by making substantial adjustments to crafting, loot and enemy / player scaling: weapon mods can be crafted with basic materials; many exclusive items from The Following are now integrated into the original campaign; and numerous exploits have been removed. The undead now evolve quicker, react faster and scale more organically. You will start weak, get better, but unlike the default game, the biters will always have a good chance of bringing you down no matter which point of the game you are at. Overview: Opening up playstyles
While this mod makes the game harder in a number of ways, it also strives to make all weapon types and approaches viable. The crossbow is received at the same time as the bow, while the new poisoned throwing knife and faster auto targeting allows multi-throw to remain extremely useful against faster enemies like virals. It also slightly normalises melee weapon damage which in the vanilla game, quickly scaled to ridiculous values and outperformed other weapon loadouts.
Additionally, the Bozak Bow, upgraded crossbow and super molotov blueprints are now received through side quests that are unlocked in the main campaign, no longer forcing the player to run a gauntlet or rush through the expansion.
Guide to Zombieland - Bozak Bow Bandages and Meds - Upgraded Crossbow Midnight Bride - Super Molotov
Special ranged ammunition blueprints are now also distributed among various side quests.
Additionally, there is an increased damage boost to 2-handers to further compensate for their otherwise lower attack speed and heavier stamina use. They should feel weightier and pack a heavy punch. Certain grossly overpowered skills like Stomp have been disabled while Jump Attack and Whirlwind now have a cooldown and leave the user more vulnerable.
Leveling & Inventory
Survivor - The first 9 levels are much easier to achieve. The deficit is spread out across later levels. This change shortens the time during the early game when melee scaling is terrible. Reaching level 9 faster also gives access to the bow and crossbow (now craftable), letting the player have more combat tools at the ready.
Agility - Points are increased to allow for greater contribution towards legend.
Power - takes 50% longer to level (but kills award double XP so that combat remains a somewhat viable means of getting legendary XP)
You start off with more inventory slots
All Items sell for less as you move into the end game
You respawn with only 50% hp.
Lose 1.5% Legend Xp on death and lowered survivor penalty if you are still leveling
Normal & Legend Skill Tree
Every 25 Legendary ranks give you a boost to inventory space
You can no longer stomp enemies even if you have acquired the ability
Camouflage and its upgrade are disabled
In return, the above mentioned skills give a small bonus to maximum stamina
Infinite fitness & stamina regardless of any difficulty have all been removed
You cannot reduce the cooldown on grappling hook
Maximum hp and regeneration attainable have been reduced. (Vanilla allowed you to almost triple your starting HP)
Shield crafting skill(s) etc which saw almost no use will instead let you craft vital components used in crafting
Legend skill tree has been greatly revised to encourage build diversity and a range of playstyles
Where necessary, descriptions have been updated and clarified so that the player knows what has changed
Fitness, Movement & Stamina
Backpedal and strafing movement speed are reduced. You can no longer backpedal your way out of situations effortlessly
Stamina regeneration in general is slightly slower, but noticeably so if stamina is fully drained.
Overall movement speed is slightly reduced
Crane's fitness takes longer to recover, and he tires a bit easier
Breaking your fall now requires precision input
Zombies, Special Infected & Humans
All infected evolve much faster, make appearances much earlier and are noticeably far more dangerous and aggressive in the day
Biters hit harder, counterattack more often and their overall damage scaling is noticeably improved
Biters are less likely to fall down from weapon hits to the head and are stunned for a shorter duration
Increased distance following and trailing. Biters will move to where they think you were even if LOS is broken
All infected creatures are more perceptive, see further and react faster to Crane's presence
Virals are fewer in numbers and do not spawn continuously - they still do spawn often enough
Volatiles deal increased damage and scale better
Increased multiplayer damage scaling so that more players make the game considerably more dangerous
The night is far more alive and responsive to Crane's presence. It is much harder to survive in the night
Volatiles take considerably less time before they are alerted to your presence and react quicker to sprints and various sounds.
Quartermaster, Shops & Economy
This one is important. Quartermasters no longer give out rare crafting materials and have much fewer items. Shops are limited to only selling green, blues and very rarely, purples. If you want better weapons, you will need to look for them outside. Arrows and bolts are no longer sold, forcing you to craft them. Various exploits with items of the day, or free goodies given out nonchalantly by certain vendors and shops have all been addressed Many components, blueprints and parts are far more expensive Medkits are no longer sold or contained within airdrops / ambulances. They can still be found in the world, just not in containers
Combat & Weapon Changes
Melee weapons have increased repair slots across all rarities
Weapons can no longer be dismantled for parts or nails, so you can't (or are not incentivised) keep picking up planks and pipes. Also further limits the excess of basic crafting materials.
Guns don't provide as large an aggression spike as before but they will still draw attention
Repairing weapons require 2 / 3 repair parts respectively for 1-handed and 2-handed weapons
Camouflage & Stomp are disabled
Survival sense and the grappling hook have a reduced range but still remain extremely useful
Survival sense is no longer spammable nor usable while sprinting
Reduced maximum arrow and crossbow ammunition as well as their special equivalents
Many DLC items (those overpowered or redundant) are disabled by default.
Bows and crossbows are no longer fully silenced, and they are now more distinct from each other.
Throwing weapons are viable. They deal more damage and normal shurikens inflict low level poison.
Throwing knives / axes can now be crafted and are in between normal shurikens and special ones.
The Crossbow and normal bolts are available in the main campaign but will require the normal bow (not available till level 9) as a crafting part.
Dive attack, ground pound & windmill have a 60 seconds cooldown and leave you more vulnerable.
Power attack now deals more damage at the cost of more stamina.
2 handed weapons have a much higher damage scaling relative to how slow it is to swing them.
Quick break has a longer cooldown
Bleed & fire have received buffs to their chance to trigger or last longer.
Crafting & Banned item(s)
There are too many changes to be listed here. Almost all recipes use a larger number of components, and some now require additional items to craft.
Please note that overpowered DLC items have either been nerfed to be in line with other weapons or outright disabled from the start.
All crafting components from The Following are integrated into the main campaign. You can craft and upgrade weapon mods using synthetic, rubber & lubricants.
Boosters are disabled. In return, the skill lets the player learn blueprints for converting crafting materials.
Final Notes
Rais' arena, various parkor challenges and the Bozak Horde are still very doable even with the handicaps. If you couldn't get through Rais' arena in the default game, you won't make it through here either.
There are a lot of other balance adjustments or changes not mentioned here. For example, most weapons mods are directly available for crafting from the start and campaign difficulty scaling has been adjusted significantly etc.
Installation
Download the file and unzip it. It should be a Data3.pak & DataEn.pak file. Go to your Dying Light folder There is a folder called "DW". Open it. Paste my files and allow them to override. That's it!
Multiplayer
All players need to have the mod installed. The game is generally easier with a buddy or two. However, as the game has a modified multiplayer damage scaling, be sure not to underestimate the biters or virals. This mod has no reported issues in multiplayer.
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