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We hosted a live AMA session on July 14, through the Unturned Official Discord server. We received a couple hundred questions, and Nelson Sexton—creator of Unturned and Unturned II—responded to a lot of them.
This blog post is a recap of that event. Specifically, it covers any questions about Unturned II and its ongoing development. There is a separate blog post dedicated to Unturned and miscellaneous questions.
Some questions and answers have been adjusted for general readability. In a few circumstances, our answers have been clarified upon slightly where necessary.
Community
Q: Which name is supreme: Unturned 4.0, or Unturned II?
Unturned's name in the project files is U3, and Unturned II's is U4, so that is what I go off of.
Q: Will there be a separate Discord server?
This depends on what the Discord members would prefer. Currently, the Unturned Official server accommodates U4 discussion during this private beta period.—Tyler "MoltonMontro"
Enemies and Hazards
Q: Are there plans for zombies to be able to travel the whole map, causing more and more to build up, allowing players to build up their own hordes?
Yes.
Q: Different levels of deadzones or hazardous environments? Such as some requiring just a face mask, and others requiring full-body protection.
This makes sense. Even if it's not in the base game, it should be moddable.
Q: How in-depth will the AI bandits be? Will they be aimlessly wandering and shoot anything that moves? Will they maybe be more intelligent and move in groups, use tactics, attack bases, etc.?
Ideally, reasonable intelligent. Something like distracting them with a noisy item is almost guaranteed, whereas a complex tactic like flashbanging a built door is less likely. Will be built up over time. The current "bandits" are idiots.
Progress Towards Release
Q: With nearly 3 years of development, how confident are you in the games current state in terms of playability? And although many support you—to take the time you need to make U4 as good as it can be—how long would you assume until the game is in a satisfiable playable state?
We are about 2.5 years from the start of prototyping, and whenever the vehicles were added was about when things became more serious. Considering so much time has been put into Unturned through that period I think we can make a lot of progress in the coming months because my focus will be more towards Unturned II.
Q: What is the next thing to come out for Unturned II?
My plan is to start work on a tool for auto-importing Unturned 3.x objects into Unreal. This way we can quickly prototype a larger map while working on the next few features and survival gameplay.
Q: Where do you see Unturned II being by the end of the year?
My goal is to have a stable survival server with core features.
Q: How many years away is Unturned II's official launch?
Hard to say. As mentioned, my goal is for core gameplay on a stable server with basic map by the end of the year. There will be milestones over the coming years like quests, friendly NPCs, bandit NPCs, etc. following that.
Support and Third-party Integrations
Q: Will Unturned II be available for macOS?
This'll depend on what the trend with Apple is closer to release. A lot of game developers are frustrated with Apple right now.
Q: Will Unturned II have direct support with the Steam API, and will Unturned II have BattlEye?
Steam will be fully integrated with, and maybe BattlEye.
Q: Considering that controller support being added natively, will Unturned II be releasing on consoles?
One of the reasons for native controller support is to be somewhat console-compatible if we go that route, but there are no plans for that yet.
Free-to-Play, DLC, and Benefits
Q: Will you make Unturned II free-to-play, or not? I think it's important to make game paid, because of hackers.
There could potentially be a premium pass to help with that, but the game itself will be free. Maybe Steam Trust will be available by then as another access requirement for servers.
Q: Are you planning on rewarding players that reach 2,400 hours (or another milestone) of playtime on Unturned II?
Definitely!
Q: What will users with the Permanent Gold Upgrade for Unturned get? Maybe flashy nicknames in the chat? Custom skins?
Depends whether the game has some sort of Steam Inventory Service integrated again. Either way, players with the Gold DLC in Unturned will have some thank-you benefit in Unturned II.
Q: If you add a premium upgrade like Unturned's Gold DLC into Unturned II, will people who own both DLCs get some kind of exclusive item for both? Would there be something similar for owners of other exclusive items like the Experienced Beret?
There'll definitely be a special item in Unturned for anyone who supports Unturned II. And anyone who has been playing the Unturned II Private Beta will get an exclusive item later in development.
Storyline and Lore
Q: Do you have something in mind for the lore/story of Unturned II?
Lots of ideas, but nothing finalized yet.
Q: Will Unturned II take place in the current year? Or will it be a different timeline.
Undecided yet. There are aspects of near future or near past that I like, but doing something retro like Stranger Things would also be awesome. Maybe multiple timelines on multiple maps.
Q: Will the story of Unturned be expanded, or changed, for Unturned II?
New, with some returning elements.
Q: Is the Pineridge lore for Unturned II scrapped?
There was not much Pineridge lore in the first place unless you count names and signs. Those can easily return.
Q: Will Scorpion-7 be in Unturned II?
Definitely!
Q: What will JSPR be up to in Unturned II?
Mysterious company that mostly seems cargo-related for now. 
Playable Maps
Q: Will we have the official maps we have now in Unturned 3.x when Unturned II gets realised, or will we get them later on, just not at all?
Eventually I want to put together a tool that auto-upgrades maps from Unturned to Unturned II to the best of its ability. Environment should be doable, but not items.
Q: With the use of Unreal 4, will Unturned II feature larger maps than U3's "Large" size? Would the game still follow the sizes of maps as in "Small", "Medium", and "Large"?
Larger sizes are definitely possible. Unlikely to be "named" sizes though.
Q: Will you continue to make maps based on real countries like with Unturned, or will you make up your own "Unturned universe" and just make them wherever?
Creating an Unturned universe would be fun. Perhaps both?
Q: Do you intend to add more map-based interactions, and more weather-related things?
Certainly, especially stuff linked with the seasons.
General Content
Q: I'm curious as to any plans you may have regarding several game mechanics, such as vehicle modification, skill systems, excursions, and potentially an item economy. I am aware they've been previously discussed, but I would like to hear if you have made any conceptual developments since then regarding those.
Aside from reading community suggestions I have not given much planning to them yet. Most of my planning has been going into whatever is actively in development.
Q: Will there be controllable projectiles? E.g., tow rockets or controllable surface-to-air missiles.
Controllable rockets sound fun.
Q: How will Unturned ll be handling bullet ballistics? Will wind affect bullet travel, and if so will you add a tool to help you measure it?
In my opinion, going overboard with coriolis effect and wind is non-fun, but there is bullet penetration, gravity and travel time currently implemented.
Q: Is there going to be a new main menu music, or are we going to stay with the original one?
In Unturned II it would be nice to have ambient music and better variety overall. The closest change for Unturned is probably the map creators requesting more customization of the menu.
Returning Content
Q: Are some features from Unturned 3.x going to be present in Unturned II?
U4 should eventually have all of the good features from U3, and more of course.
Q: Will there be a more advanced communications system than the current ones? I.e., having multiple radios/earpieces each with separate frequencies.
As in, separately tunable per-item? I like the frequency features in Unturned and want to bring them back per-item in Unturned II.
Q: Can we also expect any special weapons like the Shadowstalker, and are secret easter eggs coming back too?
The sci-fi aspect remains to be decided, but secrets yes.
Base Building
Q: It says that "destructible props are planned". Will buildings also be destructible, or is this undecided?
Some degree of building destruction for sure, but the granularity remains to be decided. This is why I am holding off on Chaos Destruction and importing the U3 buildings for now. My goal is for you to be able to completely destroy a city and build up a custom one in its place – i.e., no static map geo.
Q: Do you plan on adding more materials for buildings?
For Unturned II it should be more easily tunable to introduce new material variants. In Unturned it is a nightmare to add new materials. Animatic has made a new material for his upcoming map which is pretty crazy.
Q: Spray cans?
Hard to do without a performance hit. Paintable signs are more likely.
Q: Will placeable objects [...] obey physics, or will we still have floating objects?
No more skybases; gravity for sure.
Q: Could vehicles be something you could live in? For example, a cargo ship, or a cruise ship?
Since you can more reliably stand on moving vehicles it is plausible. Might be limited by the amount of playable water space.
Vehicles and Movement
Q: Are we expecting more restricted movement in the game? Not like the bunny hopping seen nowadays.
Hopefully no bunny hopping. In that regard there might be something like CS:GO's crouching cooldown.
Q: What kind of vehicle physics will we be getting, and how in-depth will vehicle controls get? will there be switches for the landing gear and flaps?
A switch for landing gear definitely, but flap anims would probably be driven by the steering. I am looking forward to working on that!
Q: Will there be a system that will allow a certain part of a car or plane, to take damage when hit in that certain area?
There will be per-area damage, yes.
Q: Will Unturned II have tank track mechanics? I.e., changing the direction your vehicle is facing by rotating in place?
Turning in place is probably safe to say yes, but proper tread physics may be challenging, so we will see.
Q: Will you add turret rotation speed for tanks and other vehicles ?
Definitely.
Q: In U3 you can only have one turret weapon per seat. Will you add different allowed ammo types [...] without swapping seats?
Multiple weapons per turret should be possible in U4.
Q: Will there be new ship sinking physics and water physics in Unturned II? The way boats are destroyed don't look realistic, and it would be cool to see ship sink.
Buoyancy and ship sinking yes, but fluid dynamics no.
Q: For aircraft physics, will there be the capability for a stall? Or maybe a spin?
This isn't something I have researched yet, but stalling when flying vertically or whatever would help vary the planes.
Q: Can we expect trains to be added in the future?
Definitely; I am really looking forward to working on them.
Servers
Q: Currently, most servers have 24 slots. For Unturned II how many players are you aiming for the average server/map to support while running smoothly?
Unreal has great multiplayer optimization out of the box, so I think somewhere between 50 and 100 is a safe estimate for the first stable survival servers.
Q: Will servers be able to lock certain game settings to make people not have an advantage on low settings over the medium/high settings?
Ideally, graphics settings would not offer any advantage. For example, the ghillie suit camouflages with or without instanced foliage.
Q: Will Unturned II have "server type" categories for better server searching?
Categories is vague, but there should be similar filtering features at least. Maybe filtering by tags as well.
Q: Will there be any restrictions as to what server owners can sell in terms of in-game items or perks? Sale of in-game items and perks are essential in making server hosting affordable, in my opinion.
I have mixed feelings because as you mention it supports the server hosting costs, but if done inappropriately makes an unfair experience. My approach to Unturned has been laissez-faire. Official servers will provide some competition to encourage fair servers.
Official Servers
Q: Can we expect any official servers with only first-person perspective?
In Unturned II, my plan is to host some of each, and balance the amount by population. Eventually I would like to do Unturned official servers, but there are a lot of other higher priority tasks.
Q: Who would moderate the official Unturned II servers?
Undecided. Maybe anarchy, or automated systems.
Modding
Q: Is Unturned II going to support custom mods similar to that of Unturned 3.x?
For sure, and much better than U3. Horde mode is entirely set up as a custom mod.
Q: Whats the status of the Unturned II modding API?
Theoretically, any aspect of the game can be modded. No easy way to do it yet until the modding tools are available though.
Q: Will .DAT files be a thing still in Unturned II? And will we still use them to configure servers?
Any custom assets will be done through visual editors in Unreal rather than .dat files. Some of the server setup uses .ini files right now and that will be expanded upon.
Q: Will Unturned II have an easier method for importing models into the game?
Importing models into Unreal is easy and streamlined.
Q: What plans are there for mod and map creation tools?
Mostly asset workflow improvements for Unturned, and need the green light before releasing any Unturned II tools.
Mapping
Q: Have you thought about having a multiplayer/co-op map editor in Unturned II? I.e., multiple players can fly around in map editor and edit the map at the same time together?
Within Unreal that is not something I would personally work on (maybe Epic). Allowing spectators to do basic map editing was actually on my mind for the next update funnily enough, but we will see if there is time for that.
Q: I measured the roads on Normal Sandbox to have 5 meter lanes and wanted to know if this would be used as the standard, or the only lane width, for later on. How close to real-life will the UII roads system be after the full release? Like would we be restricted to using what 3.x has or would we be easily capable of setting things up like dedicated turn lanes.
I don't remember off the top of my head but the lane width was documented somewhere. It should be easily possible to create custom roads, but standardizing makes it easier to build modular props. Turn lanes should be doable with decals.
Q: Will map making be just as easy in Unturned II?
Unreal may have a steeper learning curve than Unturned's in-game map editor, but is ultimately more user-friendly. Eventually, I would like to have some basic in-game multiplayer editing tools in Unturned II though they'd obviously only have a subset of the actual editor functionality.