Experimental Build 0.4.621
*Note - These changes are only on the Experimental Branch. To access the Experimental Branch, be sure to select it in your Steam Library. If this app does not appear, please check if this app is hidden in your Library. Experimental Branch changes upgrade to the primary branch monthly.
Since November we've been preparing a proper design and balance pass to the economy in the background. This included looking for holes in the progression, analyzing what needs to be expanded, and preparing all the necessary gameplay systems, items, and features to successfully release. This build now contains the many months of work to make this happen.
Some specific gameplay notes on this balancing pass:
Multi Tools
There are now new Multi-Tool variants to allow repairing and salvaging gameplay at earlier progression stages, they work just like the Multi-Tool/Repair Tool currently in the game, just varying degrees slower.
The new Multi-Tools in the game are:
Survival Tool
- Found in the UNE Emergency Kit on the Escape Pod (Spawns with your character on initial world creation), and can be found in loot crates
Crab Screwdriver
- Crafted from a shaped piece of Crab Antenna, good in case your Survival Tool is lost
Makeshift Screwdriver
- Crafted from a piece of Scrap Metal, a slight upgrade to the Survival Tool and Crab Screwdriver
Wrench
- An upgrade to the previous Multi-Tools as a stepping stone until the mechanized Multi-Tool that has been changed to be an end-game progression item
Furnace Changes
The Furnace now requires fuel, a Fuel Input can be seen near the base of the furnace as an interactable box, when various items can be added as fuel that will increase the amount of time the furnace can operate, many items are accepted as fuel, some to varying levels of efficiency, try different items to see what works best. A Fuel Cell Upgrade can be installed on the Furnace that will remove the need for fuel.
Scientific Extracting
Plants and Creatures now drop different items depending on what tool is used to harvest them. When you discover a new plant, try using different tools in your inventory to see if they drop any different items.
Introducing Alloys
Ingots have been removed from the game and replaced by Alloys, instead of collecting ores and combining two or more ores into an ingot used in recipes, now recipes can use a combination of raw metal ores and Alloys that all have varying types and amounts of inputs.
Mineral Hardness
Mineral Hardness is now enforced on tools, only tools of equal or greater hardness can harvest any given mineral. The Mineral's hardness is displayed underneath the mineral name when looking at a node in the world. An item's hardness is displayed as a single number 0~10 (based on the scientific Moh's hardness scale) in the item description panel when selected in your inventory.
Creatures Harvesting
Creatures are also now harvested by attacking various body segments after they have been killed, try different weapons on different segments to discover what they all drop!
Tips
Some tools drop shared resources among all plant types and creature segments, others may drop unique parts specific to the segment or creature harvested.
New Broken and Scrap items have been added to give better depth to the early game of salvaging and finding then repairing needed progression items.
Broken items can be found by salvaging wreckages or as loot in various crates around the world, they can be repaired at the workbench into their operational counterparts.
Player Improvements
In addition to the economic balancing, we've conducted some cleanup on the Player movement. This includes removing the "idle" state in the 3rd person animation system, which finally solves the weird stutter that occurred sometimes while holding a weapon. A nice side effect is the movement and animation seems to be more responsive and can instantly go into a crouching state from a run state, without having to go into an idle state.
We also fixed up many of the physics movements in the first person weapons or at least performed some much-needed improvements. There's more that needs to be done on the first person tools and weapons to get them to a finished state, something we're focusing on in the short term.
Dungeon Improvements
The new Dungeon system is coming along as well. We eliminated dungeon/mine loading in the last Experimental build, and are now getting this system improved more and more. The latest additions are adding more minerals in the dungeons, creature AI pathing improvements, and AI attack improvements specifically while in mines. Like the tools we created for the planet surfaces, we're creating a rich toolset for the dungeons, allowing us to create high-quality dungeons quickly, using a handcrafted approach.
Change List
Added - New Buildable Upgrade System, allowing upgrades/attachments for utilities and furniture
Added - Furnace Precipitation Collector Upgrade
Added - Furnace Water Distillery Upgrade
Added - Furnace Fuel Cell Upgrade
Added - Furnace Low Heat Upgrade
Added - Forge High-Precision Upgrade
Added - Printer Weapon Fabrication Upgrade
Added - WorkBench Repair Table Upgrade
Added - WorkBench Tool Station Upgrade
Added - WorkBench Suit Station Upgrade
Added - Fabricator High-Tech upgrade
Added - Fabricator Suit Augmentation Upgrade
Added - Kitchen Chef Upgrade
Added - Many new craftable alloy items
Added - 6al-4v
Added - Brass
Added - Bronze
Added - Cast Iron
Added - Duralumin
Added - Dymalloy
Added - Electrum
Added - Ferrochrome
Added - Gunmetal
Added - Magnalium
Added - Ni-Cr
Added - Talonite
Added - Zamak
Added - Zircaloy
Added - Plants and Creatures now drop different items depending on tool used for harvesting them
Added - Alien Blood
Added - Alien Fiber
Added - Alien Hide
Added - Alien Insect Parts
Added - Alien Organ
Added - Alien Tissue
Added - New Multi-Tool variants that help repairing/salvaging gameplay's earlier progression stages
Added - Survival Tool
Added - Crab Screwdriver
Added - Makeshift Screwdriver
Added - Wrench
Added - New Broken, Scrap, and Found items to give better depth to the early game of salvaging
Added - Broken Barrel
Added - Broken Circuit Board
Added - Broken Wire
Added - Broken Hose
Added - Broken Glass
Added - Broken Computer Screen
Added - Scrap Cloth
Added - Scrap Hinge
Added - Scrap Plastic
Added - Scrap Rubber
Added - Fuel Cell
Added - Propellant Tank
Added - New Makeshift tier of items, bettering the early game straight out of the crash site
Added - Survival Knife
Added - Crude Metal Blade
Added - Crude Metal Sword
Added - Crude Pipe
Added - Makeshift Cloth Bundle
Added - Shaped Crab Antenna
Added - Stone Shovel Head
Added - Many other new items to better round out progression
Added - Adhesive
Added - Berry Juice
Added - Blaster Cell
Added - Botany Kit
Added - Chromium
Added - Computer Screen
Added - Cooked Crab Egg
Added - Cooked Orcek Egg
Added - Crab Stew
Added - Explosive
Added - Hose
Added - Methane
Added - Molybdenum
Added - PowerCell
Added - Quartz
Added - Silver
Added - Sponge Tubes
Added - Steamed Carrot
Added - Sulfur
Added - Zinc
Added - Uranium
Added - Proteus Dungeons have been updated to be functional once again
Added - Proper height and normal atlas for dungeon material
Added - More room variety to mines
Added - Depth-based algorithm to dungeon system
Added - Weight, Hardness, and Damage icons to item description Hint
Added - New fuel system currently in use on the Furnace
Added - New loot table system
Added - Loot table for wreckage loot crates
Added - Loot crates are now scattered through ruined bases
Added - Gatherable Methane puddles around Proteus
Added - Puddles now change height
Changed - Plutonium is now an Alloy
Changed - Improved all pathfinding in the mines
Changed - Player no longer respawns with any default items
Changed - Player no longer spawns with a chisel or a multi-tool in the crash site
Changed - Player now spawns with a Survival Knife and Tool in the initial Crash Site
Changed - Repairing and Salvaging wrecked bases now provides engineering proficiency
Changed - Adjustments to Flying Skeliopod default wander radius
Changed - Meteor now properly drops Uranium instead of Plutonium
Changed - Optimized colliders on Berry and RedBerry so they don't fall through the ground as often
Changed - Ruined structures no longer appear on the map when off the edge of the minimap
Changed - Plants, Trees, and Creatures now show radial progress bar when harvesting
Changed - Updated many item descriptions to be more descriptive
Changed - Improved skinning of the player when crouching
Changed - Updated crouch animation
Changed - Updated foot IK to reduce strange foot rotations
Changed - Improved all weapon spring movement in first person
Changed - Updated occlusion culling for Proteus 2 B
Changed - Progression and Economy reworked, matching new economy and progression systems
Changed - All Utility recipes have been updated to fit the new economic system
Changed - Furnace now requires fuel
Fixed - Fixed player animation set, eliminating stuttering by holding weapons
Fixed - Proximity highlighter now work on all items
Fixed - Creatures can no longer walk through placed objects
Fixed - Heat areas no longer persist after they have been disabled
Fixed - Fixed a few more cloud save system stability issues
Fixed - Tin material is no longer missing
Fixed - Collision detection for aerial creature wandering task
Fixed - objects hidden underground in the sand dunes
Fixed - Dismantling a buildable now provides the upgraded component recipes
Fixed - Test mode now only provides the resources when actually building something
Fixed - Loot crates in wreckages are now properly salvageable when empty
Fixed - Water can no longer be seen from orbit
Fixed - Loot crates now properly spawn their contents
Fixed - Structure variants now have properly updated recipes to fit the new progression
Fixed - Lutari and Aziel terrain should now properly appear when reentering the atmosphere
Fixed - holes at end of dungeon rooms and hallways
Fixed - Added support for creatures to not kick up dust while in dungeons
Removed - Single mineral Ingots now replaced by alloys created by combining various minerals
Removed - Advanced Fabricator (now a Fabricator Upgrade)
Removed - Standalone Repair Table (now a WorkBench upgrade)
Removed - Furnace Water Collector (replaced by various upgrades)
Whew! That was a big one! I'd like to once again thank my amazing team for all their efforts to make this happen and for all their hard work and dedication. We're starting to catch a good grove now, and there's still plenty of work ahead of us. Until then, I leave you with this thoughtful quote:
Big things have small beginnings.
-Brian