This Friday, ORMOD: Directive enters a new era with Playtest #5, bringing the largest update to the game so far.

Following Gamescom last month, where more than 10,000 people visited the ORMOD booth, we’ve been hard at work rebuilding and expanding major parts of the game from the ground up.

For Playtest #5, we’re inviting a total of 250,000+ players to jump in and experience the new ORMOD.

One of the biggest changes you’ll notice immediately is the world itself.

We’ve completely overhauled world generation, with towns, villages, roads, railways, power lines, and wilderness areas now generating with more deliberate layouts. Settlements and travel routes should feel more natural, while different parts of the world feel more distinct as you explore.

We’re also pushing towards 300+ players per server, giving you a much larger world to explore, survive in, and fight over.

We’re giving players significantly more freedom over where and how they build.

More existing locations can now be claimed and fortified, including warehouses, sheds, churches, construction sites, and garages, with 5 levels of fortification available alongside support for doors and garage doors.

Building close to POIs is now possible too, opening up far more options for where you choose to establish yourself.

Found the perfect little shed in the middle of nowhere? It might just become your new home.

Vehicles are becoming a much bigger part of ORMOD.

Players can now scavenge the materials needed to build their own ATV, with multiple variants available. You’ll need Amber Fuel Cells to keep them running as you venture further across the expanded world.

You can also construct a Vehicle Workshop as part of your base to support the new vehicle gameplay loop.

Of course, getting your hands on those Fuel Cells isn’t necessarily going to be easy.

New Mechanoid threats have been added to the world, including enemies capable of dropping Amber Fuel Cells when destroyed.

We’ve also adjusted where different Mechanoids can appear, including a new disarmed Skuttler variant in lower-tier areas to make the early-game experience a little bit friendlier for new players.

Fuel cans, Fuel Cells, and explosives can now chain together, opening up plenty of new opportunities for things to go horribly wrong.

They can be triggered with melee attacks, and explosives are now capable of destroying locked doors.

We’ve also added punching, blindness effects, and 12ga rubber rounds, giving you even more options when a fight doesn’t go according to plan.

Traders now offer dynamic daily tasks that refresh each day, giving you new objectives to take on whenever you jump into a server.

We’ve also introduced longer weekly tasks with a 5x reward modifier for players looking for something more substantial to work towards.

Playtest #5 introduces a completely new tutorial alongside a range of onboarding improvements designed to make ORMOD’s systems easier to understand.

Interactable objects can now be highlighted from a distance, gathering rounds provide clearer directions, quest completion is easier to identify, and we’ve improved how tasks and tutorial interactions are presented.

We’ve also removed the “Navigation I” requirement from the map and given it a new paper-map visual design.

Playtest #5 includes a huge number of additions, improvements, and fixes across the game, including:

• New craftable Hatchet

• Expanded crafting, healing, & survival systems

• More crafting & automation content

• Major inventory & attachment improvements

• Improved melee & harvesting animations

• New building & Weapon Workbench sounds

• World & visual improvements

• Improved building placement & build menu performance

• Server difficulty displayed in the server browser

• New lore

• Performance improvements & technical fixes

• No more ladder surfing

• Rugs should no longer be capable of killing you

And plenty more!

October 2nd at 4:00pm UTC - Our Amber Supporters[www.patreon.com] will be getting in early tonight!

Whether you’ve joined us for every ORMOD playtest so far or you’ve been waiting for the right time to jump in, we’d love to hear what you think of the new world and systems.

Your feedback throughout these playtests continues to play an important role in how ORMOD evolves, and Playtest #5 gives you more to dig into than ever before.

Grab your friends, find somewhere to call home, and get ready.

If you haven't already, make sure to hop into our Discord for live events & updates over the playtest

https://discord.gg/ormoddirective

We’ll see you Friday!

Heya Everyone!

ORMOD: Directive Playtest 5 will feature some of the BIGGEST updates & shifts to the way you play the game yet

With all of this coming together, we need one extra week of development time before Playtest 5 begins. There’s a LOT packed into this update, and we want that extra time to get everything ready & polished before we put it in your hands. 

And when I say a lot, I mean it.

Build ALMOST ANYWHERE. One of the most highly requested features! Construct barricades, fortify doors & garages, and honestly, why stop there? Build an entire town with your friends if you want. ORMOD is meant to be a true sandbox after all!

A COMPLETE early game overhaul. A massive upgrade to the density of buildings & size of towns, the loot found within them, and unique advantages to many POIs, such as planter beds or megaphones

Dozens of new items & features. The craftable hatchet, chain explosive fuel cells, 12ga rubber rounds, tomatoes, PUNCHING, blindness effects, a buildable ATV, Vehicle Workshop, cutting up bodies (no… that doesn't mean cannibalism… yet), new rags, more T2 items to unlock, new enemies, an overhauled inventory & a lot more.

• Amber Backers: 30th September, 4pm UTC

• Creators & Steel Backers: 1st October, 4pm UTC

• Discord & Steam Invites: 2nd October, 4pm UTC

As an added bonus to thank you all for your patience, we will be extending the playtest by an extra 24 hours to the 5th of October!

Transparency has been an extremely important pillar of the ORMOD community from day 1 and we’d rather be honest about needing more time to polish everything than rush it out before it’s ready.

We're not going quiet for the extra week. Consider this the start of the countdown!

Tune in next weekend for the release of Playtest 5 Teaser Trailer 3!

For our Backers[www.patreon.com], we'll also be doing a vote tomorrow on which POI will be fortifiable next!

See you all in-game very soon! I've already got my base location saved.