SES Vlog 023 - Monster Rovers & Dedicated Server Details
This week's vlog covers Spencer's exploration around large rovers, and Carl talks about progress with dedicated servers!
As part of our push to make modular bases a part of the Astroneer core gameplay experience, Spencer worked on some visual mockups of what rovers that could potentially carry base components might look like! Watch for more details below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMbaXLwTIN0&t=336s
Carl also talks about how dedicated server work is going, and reveals that we have our first headless dedicated server running 24/7 in the SES studio! It still needs a decent amount of work, but this is another step in the process of getting servers rolled out for community use.
Astroneer's Pre-Alpha Early Access will be updated to version 0.4.10215.0 (The Excavation Update)
The "Excavation" Update includes new modules & items to craft, an entirely new core gameplay loop, and quality of life updates. It also includes some crucial fixes for vehicles and tweaks to research RNG ahead of Research 2.0 changes. We would like to sincerely thank Early Access players for their feedback in the Experimental 002 test, as that information helped us make changes that eventually made it into this update.
Disclaimer: Up until this point, we have worked hard to make sure older saves were compatible with the newest versions of Astroneer. While old saves will be "compatible" with our newest update, we highly recommend you start a fresh save. Use old saves at your own risk, and please keep bug reports limited to savegames that were started fresh during 215!
UPDATES
You can find these updates in 0.4.101215.0, the current build of the game.
Added the new "Reusable Canister" item
The Reusable Canister is an important part of the Excavation Update. You can now print these canisters from your backpack for one Resin. In 215, they serve as the primary way to store collected soil and refined hydrazine from the new Hydrazine Catalyzer. In the future, we would like these canisters to hold all of the liquid resources Astroneers might encounter or create.
[AS-1130] - Mineral Extractor Module now available to build
The Mineral Extractor is a completely new module used to extract resources from all of the terrain beneath your Astroneer's feet. It works by taking sediment gathered into Reusable Canisters and filtering it, resulting in the resource of your choice. To create resources, simply gather sediment into reusable canisters using your Terrain Tool. Then feed that gathered sediment into the module's reservoir, and place a sample in the center of the centrifuge. Upon activation, the Extractor will fill its canisters with sediment, and extract out the requested resource. Mineral extraction has entirely new ratios for output, and now includes additional resources not found in our experimental test. The output values and list of resources available will most likely change in the future.
[AS-1131] - Hydrazine Catalyzer Module now available to build
The Space Pizza Oven Hydrazine Catalyzer is now available. The conversion of Hydrazine from a crystalline deposit to fully refined resource in a container was never the intended final experience for gathering fuel. Now, when you would like to fuel a shuttle or thruster, use your terrain tool to gather ammonium crystals, and then catalyze them in this new module. Resuable Canisters are also required to store this newly created Hydrazine fuel. In the future, we hope to possibly use the catalyzer for the conversion of other minerals.
[AS-1566] - New Boost Mod Augment is now available.
The boost mod is a new tool used to gather soil augment allows for rapid deforming, at the cost of drawing power from your backpack battery.
Fuel Condenser changes
The fuel condenser now requires multiple charges to create a full canister of refined Hydrazine, and also reusable canisters to put that Hydrazine in. The good news is, this is now our first automated module in the game. Attach medium storage units to this and all of the new modules, and watch them pick and place items when necessary.
New Power Dynamic has now been implemented
There have been significant changes to the backpack power system to better suit our intended progression path. Changes listed below:
Deforming, flattening, or removing terrain no longer uses backpack battery power. Deform forever!
The backpack no longer "trickle charges". That means if you run out of power, you are out until you can generate or find more. Be careful!
Printing from the backpack printer now draws power
Augments also now draw power when activated on your terrain tool.
There is also a big change when it comes to portable power generation! The solar panel and small generator have swapped places. Now, the most accessible power in the early game is the non renewable organic based small generator. Printable for one compound, these generators run on foliage gathered from the world. (If you never noticed, grass and bushes with bright colors yield organic.) Although this might seem like a cumbersome change, the small generator allows you to create power both above and below ground at any time. Rather than wait at your base till the sun comes up, you can head underground knowing you will almost always be able to find organic. Removing the trickle charge, and making the small generator more prominent decreases the amount of time you are just waiting around for power to come back, and lets you make deliberate choices about what you want to do.
After playing for a bit and unlocking the smelter, you can then make the neccessary copper to unlock the power of the sun. We feel like solar energy in the early game made progression too easy, and didn't present any interesting choices related to power. Most people made small solar panels for their base and themselves within five minutes of every new game and never really had to think about power generation ever again.
Deforming with the drill head fills connected canisters
The drill has long been a great looking piece of machinery, with very little practical use. Now, whenever a drill is used on a vehicle, any connected reusable containers on any slot of the vehicle will fill with the deformed terrain. The above image has a rover train with 64 connected canisters, and the drill head can feed them all!
Other Excavation Update Changes
Adding terrain now requires stored terrain from reusable containers
Research has received a tuning pass to make it a bit less punishing, in anticipation of Research 2.0 changes.
Medium Solar is now unlocked for every new save
[AS-1575] - Added a new Soil Hose to the Deform Tool to show Soil usage between the Deform Tool and Canisters in the Backpack.
[AS-1576] - Added Soil gauge to the Terrain Brush
[AS-1579] - Updated Deform Tool to have a burn off valve to indicate lost terrain when Canisters are full
Revised Soil usage to have a 1:1 relationship with changes made to terrain. ‘Flatten’ mode now collects or consumes Soil contextually.
[AS-1572] - Opening Backpack while the Deform Tool is equipped will now pop out the Deform Tool automatically. Likewise, closing the Backpack with the Deform Tool popped out will automatically equip it.
Pressing the Deform Tool ‘equip’ button/key while the Backpack is open will toggle popping out the Deform Tool instead of closing the backpack and equipping it.
[AS-1573] - Indicator slots can now pull resources from Deform Tool in addition to the the Backpack.
Deform Tool slots are now available when quick-storing items to the Backpack.
When dying, any items attached to the Deform Tool or Backpack’s auxiliary slots are dropped with the Backpack itself instead respawning with the Player.
[AS-1583] - When respawning, the Astroneer will now descend from the Space Station in their Habitat.
Added new tutorial sequence to introduce Soil collection and changes to power usage. (Note that new saves will have to complete this tutorial before all starting recipes are made available)
All Augment recipes now (temporarily) unlocked until the new Research System is released. Have fun!
Audio Changes
[AS-1614] Mixed, Mastered, & Implemented new music assets
Our composer Rutger has submitted some new music for Astroneer. You should be hearing this new music in-game intermittently.
BUGFIXES
[AS-1450] - The Thruster now plays sounds when it activates and deactivates
[AS-1516] - Fixed an issue where audio occasionally did not play when removing terrain
[AS-1549] - Fixed an issue where Beacon icons would become inaccurate while viewing from orbit
[AS-1554] - Partially fixed an issue where dead Astroneer backpacks would use world lighting, making it difficult to see what it is on them in low light situations. Future updates will have a more complete fix.
[AS-1709] - Beacon collision model has been changed so it is no longer spherical. No more escaping Beacons!
[AS-1720] - Driving past conduits on Rovers no longer pops attached objects off the front and back connectors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111!1
[AS-1740] - Fixed an issue where Rovers would fly into space when loading a save from a rover seat
[AS-1742] - Fixed several issues with Rovers displaying inconsistent physics
[AS-1745] - Fixed an issue with Rovers not having the power to perform basic intended functionality
[AS-1758] - Sandstorm Attenuation should now be working properly
[AS-1763] - Fixed an issue where Rovers would load in incorrect positions when quitting to Main Menu then reloading the Saved Game.
The team heard your feedback about rovers and worked during our bugfix week to fix them up. As always though, we want to remind you that they are a work in progress! Thanks to the community for reporting, documenting and triage-ing bugs for us to smash!
PROTOTYPING ROADMAP HIGHLIGHT
The following major features are continuing during development, but are not included in this release. Since we are (mostly) out of the prototyping phase, we can start calling this section the roadmap highlight, where we talk about some of the major work being done behind the scenes.
Dedicated Servers
Dedicated servers are moving along nicely. Carl spoke to us on the vlog about what he was specifically working on at the time, including demoing 8 Astroneers on one dedicated server build here locally. The player number is still TBD, and to be fair none of those 8 users were moving or deforming or any of the other things users might do. We can say though that since then we have made great progress, including figuring out the plan for UI and the systems necessary to allow dedicated servers to work within Astroneer. Now we need to build them. Lots of work yet to be done, but some intrepid discord users noticed that SES has uploaded something into the tools section on steam. ;)
Terrain 2.0
T2.0 is now in engine and deformable. That means work has begun to figure out the new authoring tools, as well as optimizing it so we can start creating the interesting terrain that this new, much more efficient system will allow for.
Modularity
While the team was working on this newest update, We didn't want to completely drop any of the boulders we have been pushing towards. To save time and not take away too much from development, Samantha made a paper prototype to work out the modularity game loop. We will have more details about the results of that prototype soon!
Wow this was a SUPER long one. Go forth and live off the land now. Have fun and we can't wait to hear about what you think!
-jt
SES Weekly Comms: New Modules & Dedicated Server Progress
Hey All! This week at SES has us arting up new modules, making progress on dedicated servers, and recording brand new sounds.
If you didn't know, we have been posting on Youtube to keep you all informed on development happenings while we make our way closer and closer to Astroneer's Alpha! While I have you here, I want to remind you that we have lots of other places where we post about development, namely:
Now for the matter at hand. On this week's vlog, Spencer walks us through his creative process for making new modules, like the ones you see above. We also go into a little detail about the new canisters we are working on, and a tease about our modularity paper prototype that we will reveal more about next week. Watch it below:
https://youtu.be/dnjz-4t7Dy0
As for last week, Spencer showed off some new art as well, but the star of the show was our new engineer Carl, who was running 8 Astroneers on a local dedicated server. He breaks down what has to happen now to get it up and running for the public, so watch the video below for full details.
https://youtu.be/RrTGSSdjN7I
Also if you missed it, Riley and Myself streamed making sounds for the above new modules on Twitch. The replay is on youtube which you can watch here for all the #buttcam you can handle. ;)
https://youtu.be/xAaeTDxTxvY
Stay tuned for details about our next update, which will include new content for you all to sink your teeth into. Cheers!
-joe
PS: If you are a content creator on youtube/twitch/mixer etc..., that has or wants to make Astroneer content, hit me up on twitter. Some exciting things happening soon ;)
Update 201 is now live!
Astroneer's Pre-Alpha Early Access will be updated to version 0.3.10201.0 (Patch "201")
Update 201 includes some new controls, makes adjustments to tethers, and adds a new item! We as a team are moving out of the prototyping phase and into implementation of our major boulder sized tasks for feedback from the community. We will be [URL="https://trello.com/b/UoZgKrd3/astroneer-development-roadmap"]updating the roadmap[/URL] next week with LOTS of info as a result of these last few weeks but I will say this, the goal is to wrap these systems up and move on to Alpha ASAP. More info on that in the bottom prototyping section. Now for notes!
Updates
You can find these updates in 0.3.101201.0, the current build of the game.
Added the Alignment Augment This new augment creates a flat plane that is perpendicular to the curve of the planet, unlike the existing Flatten mode, which flattens based on a selected voxel and mimics that angle. The Alignment augment will make a flat surface based on the planet's center. When used vertically, it creates curved, column-like walls.
Changes to tether placement Pressing the “place tether” button will now place a Tether post at the Astroneer’s feet. The post can be moved around after that point. This change affects both Mouse and Controller players. For tethers, we feel these changes are going to have a great benefit to the overall experience. PROTIP: Now when running and placing tethers, drop them as soon as your oxygen line detaches. This will give you maximum length between tethers, while still allowing you to run in the direction you were going.
Gamepad Control Changes When using the terrain tool, the camera now defaults to a fixed over-the-shoulder view, and holding LT unlocks the cursor and puts you in the old default mode. Clicking RS alters camera zoom distance as before, except that the closest zoom in this mode is very nearly first-person. When you have your terrain tool out, use right stick to aim the terrain reticle, and left stick to move your Astroneer. Now the right stick is universally the way to look, and the left stick will always allow you to move your Astroneer, whether deforming or just running around.
Brendan gave us a walkthrough on this week's vlog, check it out here:
https://youtu.be/pWxE6lz7WKg
New sounds and updates to old sounds have been implemented [LIST]
<*>[AS-856] - Winch now has audio.
<*>[AS-857] - Connecting two conduits together now has audio.
<*>[AS-1275] - Worklight now has audio
<*>[AS-1309] - Vehicle enter and exit animations now have sound effects.
<*>[AS-1507] - Beacon audio has been updated
[/LIST]
Riley has been hard at work fixing some new bugs, and simultaneously using Wwise to add new content. Expect the soundscape of Astroneer to continually get updates.
Tether posts now physically simulate and fall to the ground when deforming terrain under them. No more floating tethers in the middle of the air, if you deform under them, tethers now respond to those changes and no longer act like possessed space ghosts.
Vehicle handling changes! Steering is now more wheel-controlled and the Rovers have been made more stable overall. Players should see less flipping and spiralling when taking Rovers off sweet jumps. Vehicle physics are still a work in progress, and vehicles might still be a bit wonky on planets with lower gravity. This will be addressed in a future update.
Bug Fixes
Crash Fixes: [LIST]
<*>[AS-1474] - Fixed a rare crash, that according to engineers was “super weird, and something that should never occur,” involving the game trying to access non-existent Rover wheels.
<*>[AS-1482] - Fixed a crash that occurred while trying to change resolution in cases where the settings .ini file had become corrupted.
<*>[AS-1517] - Fixed an edge case where the game would crash while unplugging the controller and holding any button.
<*>[AS-1552] - Fixed a Multiplayer crash that would occur if a Client player joined a game while the Host was not on Terran.
[/LIST]Thanks to last update, the crash list is fairly short and were mainly edge cases. Got a crash? Here’s how to send it over!
Options Menu: [LIST]
<*>[AS-760] - Two different actions can no longer be assigned to the same key / button.
<*>[AS-1427] - Fixed an issue where audio values reset to 0 after changing them during active gameplay, and then terminating the title.
<*>[AS-1444] - Fixed an issue on Xbox One where brightness setting temporarily persisted when backing out of the pause menu without selecting 'Apply and Resume.'
<*>[AS-1514] - Steam client Options menu text adjusts more elegantly to changing window sizes or resolutions (except for very small resolutions or unusual window shapes).
<*>Changes to Options menu now persist between sessions on Xbox One.
[/LIST]
The options menu is a work in progress, and a few bugs popped up since the last update. Another PROTIP: use the arrow keys to adjust values so you don’t have to click the mouse 1 million times. We will implement sliders down the line.
Audio fixes: [LIST]
<*>[AS-1475] - Fixed an issue in Multiplayer games, where Smelter audio loop continued playing for the Client player.
<*>[AS-1524] - Fixed an issue where the Heartbeat audio loop continuously played after returning to main menu.
[/LIST]
General Fixes: [LIST]
<*>[AS-1447] - Fixed an issue on Xbox One where players would respawn partially underground after dying by falling
<*>[AS-1527] - Reintroduced the plumbline to Beacons
<*>[AS-1528] - Fixed an issue where items would go on a beautiful journey into space if not collected from an dead Astroneer before a second death occurs.
<*>[AS-1533] - Fixed a major issue where saves were disappearing on Xbox/Win10
<*>Fixed a bug that was causing Rovers to fall through the world when loading into a saved game.
<*>Astroneers should no longer get stuck inside base modules as they are being built.
<*>Fixed a bug where Tethers were not auto-highlighting for selection when playing with a controller.
[/LIST]
PROTOTYPING
The following major feature prototypes are going on during development, but are not included in this release.
As mentioned above, our initial prototyping phase is starting to move into implementation. That means we will see faster and more concrete progress that players will be able to get their hands on in coming updates. Now that we have our full team firing on all cylinders, you can expect new things to play in experimental and/or the main versions of the game in almost every update going forward as we push toward our goal of being in Alpha! We are really excited to start getting feedback on the [URL="https://trello.com/b/UoZgKrd3/astroneer-development-roadmap"]roadmap “boulders”[/URL] we have been tackling.
Research 2.0 Last update we talked about how our Research 2.0 prototype had been tested internally, and after lots of internal feedback and discussions, implementation has begun. Lots of work to be done here, but we are working towards a completely new progression path that allows players of different playstyles to unlock the things they want to, rather than the current completely randomized system. [URL="https://youtu.be/q7DQdZ-Px6A"]Sam W. had lots to say about this in a vlog![/URL] The plan is to get this into a future experimental build for you all to give feedback on.
Terrain 2.0 While Zabir works hard on the tech, the art team and other engineers are plotting out the new ways we can author interesting and more varied terrain, while still keeping Astroneer’s signature look. To reiterate earlier posts, our new terrain system will allow for all of the above, while simultaneously letting us up the player count in multiplayer sessions.
Dedicated Servers In case you missed the announcement, we hired our last Engineer (for now ;]) Carl, who will be helping push forward all tech related to dedicated servers, online persistence, and more. We have also identified our partner for hosting, which we will announce at a later date!
Modularity Modularity has advanced very nicely. After the initial prototype was validated, Aaron has been working on the specifics of how the system will work with other in game loops. During that process, the need was brought up for another system to get an overhaul which leads to the next section.
Power Refactor I refuse to add another 2.0 so let’s go with refactor! A couple of weeks back, Elijah did a segment on the vlog where he talked about how we are redoing the power system. [URL="https://youtu.be/bgx-MNyJi4c"]Go watch that.[/URL] To sum it up: in order for bases to be modular, we need to allow players to deliberately control power flow and lines. While refactoring that though, we also are working on gameplay elements that allow players to make more interesting bases. Want to build an underground base but use solar power? Set up your solar farm on the surface, and pipe the power down deep underground. This is one example, but I hope it is enough for you to understand the interesting ways the power refactor can change the ways you play Astroneer.
Once again, this is a long one! Thanks for reading and please do not hesitate to reach out with feedback, suggestions, bugs, and encouragement for the team!
-joe
SES Vlog 014: Sam talks about improving research
Hey Astroneers! Out newest development vlog is now out!
This week's vlog is a spotlight on Research 2.0 thanks to our newest engineer, Sam. As a gameplay engineer, Sam works with the designers to stand up new systems, and his biggest task right now is the overhaul of research. This episode also has Andrew talking briefly about a new Augment he has been working on, and Aaron "breaking" his modularity prototype.
https://youtu.be/q7DQdZ-Px6A
Also, if you missed last week's episode, I talk to Riley about our new audio engine, and all the new sounds you can hear in-game.
Astroneer's Pre-Alpha Early Access has been updated to version 0.3.10199.0 (Patch "199")
Steam 'Early Access' users will receive this update Thursday August 17th.
UPDATE: 8/18
We are deploying a hotfix to Update 199. It includes three fixes:
1. Fixed audio settings to not always default to zero.
2. Fixed a multiplayer crash related to clients grabbing research chests and then crashing
3. Fixed an issue that would cause some savegames to cause the game to crash on load.
Update 199 is the first update with the full added force of our new but extremely well rounded Engineering team. While the designers were busy pushing out our first experimental tests for new content, as well as making HUGE leaps forward on Modularity, Research 2.0, & Terrain 2.0 (more on that later) the engineers worked to bring Astroneer to a MUCH more stable state.😂 These notes will contain a somewhat abbreviated list of these extensive fixes, but I want to take a second and sincerely thank everyone who took time to pack up crash reports and saves to send over to the team. They were a huge help and benefit the larger community in extremely meaningful ways. The team was able to close out dozens of bugs in the main branch of the game, as well as numerous ones discovered during our Experimental Tests. Every tweet, email, message, & post means a lot. Thank you.
Because of all this infrastructure/prototyping/stability work, we are still not delivering huge content drops. We know this might frustrate some, but if you want to read about all of the awesome stuff in the pipeline that is coming, jump down to the PROTOTYPING section of the notes. Astroneer is going to be bigger and better than we ever could have imagined, and we appreciate everyone's patience while we lay the foundation for all the content this game will be getting. We also have a test of new content over on our experimental branch of the game! Full details about how to participate here. Ok! Now for the notes:
UPDATES
You can find these updates in 0.3.10199.0, the current build of the game.
[AS-896] - The Options Menu has been completely overhauled.
The Options Menu has received the first pass of a complete visual and functional overhaul, resolving several bugs with the prior implementation. This update adds lots of options including some to help people with lower end hardware. You can now:
Adjust display options including VSYNC and keep those changes
Adjust graphics options to suit your hardware, including Shadow Quality, AA, PP and effects.
Audio options now actually work! Adjust them to your liking.
Keybindings on PC will now remain saved between sessions, with some added options like mouse sensitivity, toggling the hold to sprint, and others.
This menu will continue to be updated over the course of the next few releases.
[AS-994] - The Trade Module has received some bug fixes and interaction improvements, such as:
The maximum return value is always the number of slots on the trade platform rocket.
Now, once you reach the maximum return value, you will not be able to add more resources to any remaining open slots.
If you add an item that pushes the trade value above the maximum, or switch the return item to something with a more favorable exchange rate, the actual return will always be clamped to the maximum.
Resources that are on the trading platform already when the maximum return value is hit or exceeded can always be removed (but cannot be attached again unless removing them causes the return value to dip below the maximum).
[AS-1305] - Beacon colors can now be changed.
This longtime request has now been implemented. Beacons now serve as aids for finding a previous spot, as well as for navigation. Use the in-game UI to cycle through colors or choose the 'red strobe" option for emergencies.
[AS-1145] - Audio has been migrated to the Wwise Engine from Unreal 4 and remixed using the new technology.
Wwise audio engine integrated into Unreal 4. All audio in the game now plays through Wwise instead of UE4’s built in audio engine. The following changes and improvements have been made to the audio engine.
New cave exploration music tracks added.
Remixed / mastered existing music with additional instruments added.
Tracks broken down into separate layers to leverage Wwise game states.
Music becomes distorted when low on oxygen.
Music changes based on time of day.
Music now streams rather than load entirely on game start, reducing RAM impact
Sound is sent through a reverb when underground.
Footstep sfx are affected by the movement speed of the player.
Ambience loops no longer heard when at the main menu or orbiting a planet.
Both the medium and small generator’s audio slows down when their “fuel” is near empty.
When death occurs, sounds stop playing earlier.
Music does not abruptly start again when death occurs, it now fades back in over an extended period of time.
Wind turbine audio more appropriately matches their animation frequency.
Sandstorms now have improved distance attenuation and better stereo / surround panning.
Sandstorm rock impact added for when the player gets hit by a boulder.
Low oxygen breathing audio now triggered more abruptly rather than a gradual fade in.
Rover tire audio no longer plays when vehicle is in the air.
Rover engine audio no longer plays when rolling unpowered down an incline
Rover engine audio revs when vehicle is being powered and leaves the ground.
Rover shutdown sound added
Improvements to the active voice count in the game, allowing for slight performance gains.
[AS-1259] - Each suit now has a unique Death animation. As shown off in Vlog 11, some of Gene's new death animations are now in! 💀😢
FIXES
In addition to numerous under-the-hood fixes which will improve your play experience, the following live issues have been fixed. Thank you to everyone in the community who has reported and shared details with us on these issues.
Fixed several issues causing Multiplayer crashes which occurred when Client players returned to their base after venturing far away from it.
Fixed numerous Multiplayer crashes related to interacting with items in the world as a client
Fixed a Multiplayer issue that prevented Win 10 players from connecting to Xbox players
Fixed a number of performance degradation issues relating to base conduits.
Fixed several audio issues where sounds would persist even after the event has ended, including:
[AS-691] - Biome Ambience SFX will no longer play when the player is in space.
[AS-915] - In Multiplayer games, the sound effect of building loops no longer continues playing for the Client player.
[AS-1027] - Fixed issues with SFX being played from sources not close to player.
[AS-1345] - Fixed issue where Sandstorm audio would continue after the storm ended.
[AS-1445] - The sound of oxygen being replenished no longer persists when disconnecting from the oxygen tether before the tank has fully recharged.
[AS-1448] - Fixed issue where the ambient overworld wind sounds did not change when going deep underground.
Fixed several audio issues where sounds would not play at all, including:
[AS-1370] - Fixed intermittent issue where the Rover did not make any sound when driven.
[AS-1372] - Fixed missing audio upon Pajama Suit Astroneer death
[AS-1373] - Fixed missing audio upon Bubble Suit Astroneer death
[AS-599] - Fixed “double death” issue with Astroneer taking fall damage and dying again when respawning after falling from a high altitude.
[AS-873] - Collecting multiple resources with the Drill will no longer cause all the open slots to break.
[AS-1256] - Fixed issue where Resource items would float off after being blown away during a storm
[AS-1258] - Fixed issue where Save Slot 1 was sometimes overwritten when creating save data in Save Slot 2 and beyond.
[AS-1297] - Fixed minor but extremely annoying issue where newly built base conduits would not follow the hologram path.
[AS-1329] - Upon death, previous backpack inventory should no longer appear hovering next to the Habitat.
[AS-1335] - Fixed a major issue where performance would severely degrade when players opened the Options menu
[AS-1369] - Fixed issue where incomplete nuggets of Power were not consumed when placed on a slot.
[AS-1334] - Fixed issue where Terrain Tool Augments were not working correctly
Some of these are grouped up, but included multiple issues. The main branch of the game should be much more stable, although we are sure there are still some lingering issues out there. Multiplayer crashes should be much less frequent, and performance should have improved across the board.
NOTE: If you previously used INI tweaks to adjust Astroneer performance, we recommend you reinstall the game, or revert your config files. We upgraded Unreal, and old tweaks to the .ini file will most likely cause you to crash or encounter unintended behaviors. Many crash reports we receive are related to the adjustment of source files, and we cannot offer support for saves broken by these adjustments.
KNOWN ISSUES
Some “vocal” efforts play on the server when activated by the client.
PROTOTYPING
The following major feature prototypes are ongoing during development, but are not included in this release.
Modularity Prototype has been internally validated Modularity was another topic that got teased during vlog 012. This is the exact moment it flashes across the screen. Aaron showed the team a prototype that confirmed our feelings all along: building with modular pieces looks awesome. Now comes the hard part of making it fit in with the core gameplay loop, among many many other considerations. We will update with more details soon.
Research 2.0 "minimum viable" prototype was tested internally. I can't share lots of details about this right now, but Research 2.0 is going really well. If you missed it, some eagle eyed Astroneers spotted a moment from vlog 012 that shows off the current direction, WHICH IS VERY MUCH A WORK IN PROGRESS. This still has a long way to go, but a much more deliberate research system for progression feels really great and we cannot wait to get this into experimental for you all to try.
Dedicated servers are now working outside of the editor. Another milestone in the long push to get dedicated servers operational. Andrew has been working on getting these spun up for us to try internally. While we still need to optimize and work out a TON of infrastructure tasks related to the current game as well as future features like online persistence, we are nonetheless one step closer to rolling out dedicated server support.
Terrain 2.0 new spherical planet is in progress. Zabir is working on applying the Terrain 2.0 prototype to spherical planets. If you haven't heard, Terrain 2.0 will allow us to dramatically increase performance, which will allow the game to run better, but more importantly, lift the multiplayer player limit. We are still a way off from doing that, but it gives some context for the importance of Terrain 2.0.
Ok this has been a long one! Thanks for reading, and as always please don't be afraid to reach out with feedback, bugs, and suggestions! Btw: we are 100 subscribers away from 20k on Youtube! If you haven't already, go over and subscribe so you can get weekly updates on what we are working on as well as see Gene's collection of wigs.
-jt
Experimental Test 002: Terrain As A Resource
Hola Astroneers! Experimental Test 002 is now live! This experimental build focuses on an entirely new gameplay mechanic, Terrain as a Resource!
To activate the experimental branch, right click on Astroneer in your Steam game library. Then navigate to Properties > Betas and choose experimental - latest untested builds in the dropdown. If the update doesn't happen right away, restart Steam.
The goal here is two fold. We would love feedback on the concept, as well as any bugs related to this new gameplay mechanic. Here is a survey to file feedback as well as bugs with this new system. The dev build we are pushing out has some other bugs, including some that have been fixed in the main branch, so keep bug reporting to T.A.R only.
Gameplay Changes
As the title indicates, terrain is now considered a resource! That means a few significant changes to the core gameplay loop.
Adding or flattening terrain requires terrain “ammo” in containers. This will likely be a significant change for some people. You can no longer add terrain indefinitely, even when tethered to your base. Instead, you'll need a ready supply of collected sediment in order to add terrain to the environment. However, while flatten also requires a sediment supply during this test, we'll be updating it soon to both fill and deplete canisters depending on whether it is removing or adding terrain.
Deforming terrain no longer uses power We've removed the power draw from deforming terrain. This means that while adding or flattening terrain now requires a Sediment supply, removing terrain is completely unrestricted, even if you are disconnected from your tether line. You'll no longer find yourself staring at your backpack's battery meter, waiting for it to slowly charge in order to continue deforming.
This change allows for you to think more strategically about your backpack power usage. In exchange for removing the terrain tool's power draw, we're adding more uses for power in the form of items and abilities that you'll use intermittently. We've started by having Augments draw power, but we'll be introducing lots more uses going forward. And we've also removed the backpack's "trickle" charge, so you'll have to pay more attention to your power supply when it's in use.
Terrain and Hydrazine are now stored in reusable Canisters Every Astro will start with one reusable canister. Additional canisters can be printed from your backpack at the cost of 1 Resin. While deforming, terrain removed from the environment will fill up canisters attached to the backpack or terrain tool. If all canisters are full (or no canisters are attached), collected terrain is burned off and permanently destroyed.
New Items & Modules
Reusable Canister Can hold either Sediment (terrain) or Hydrazine (with other resources to come later). Printable from backpack for 1 Resin. Not to be confused with the oxygen canister, which still costs one titanium.
Ammonium The previous behavior of harvesting canisters full of Hydrazine directly from "fuel" crystals was not intended to be a long term solution. Mining these crystals in the wild will now provide Ammonium, an entirely new resource. Ammonium can be refined into Hydrazine at the new Refinery module. Left unrefined, Ammonium is stable and will not detonate when caught in an explosion.
Sediment Processor Module This new module allows you to filter out the trace resource deposits contained within collected sediment. The amount of resources produced depends on the rarity of the selected resource. For the purposes of this test, you'll be able to filter out Compound, Resin, Organic, Malachite, and Laterite.
To use the Sediment Processor Module, gather Sediment (Terrain) with your Terrain Tool into any available canister (empty, or partially filled with Sediment) attached to your Terrain Tool or Backpack. Then, transfer the collected Sediment by attaching canisters to the slot at the top of the Module's tank. Note that you can attach partially filled canisters, so long as they contain Sediment.
Once the Module's tank is completely filled, attach the desired resource to be filtered to the slot on the bottom-left. (If the resource can be filtered, an indicator hologram will appear on the Output slot on the bottom-right).
Hydrazine Refinery Module The Refinery Module is the only way to convert Ammonium into refined Hydrazine. You can also still produce Hydrazine using the Fuel Condenser (but with a few changes which are covered below).
To use it, gather Ammonium from purple crystals found in the wild. Then, place Ammonium on an open Input slot on the bottom of the Module, along with an empty canister on a slot along the top. You can refine up to four nuggets of Ammonium at a time (provided you have a canister for each). Press the button, and the refinery will convert Ammonium into refined Hydrazine.
Fuel Condenser We've made some adjustments to the Fuel Condenser to make compatible with the introduction of resuable canisters, and to better balance it alongside the new Refinery. The Condeser still produces Hydrazine from power alone, but you'll now need to provide a Canister for it be stored in. Additionally, filling an empty canister now requires multiple full charges.
To minimize tedium, we're adding a 'Set It and Forget It" mode. Once the activation button is pressed, the Condenser will automatically re-activate each time its battery is charged until the attached canister has completely filled.
Aside from being a balance update, we're also using this change to potentially pave the way for automation systems going forward.
Please be aware that this prototype and build are experimental, and unforseen bugs and behaviors will pop up. Also understand that saves in the experimental branch will most likely not carry over or be compatible with future experimental tests. Enjoy them at your own risk! If you want to see a live demo in action, you can check out this stream replay over on Youtube! Have fun and be sure to share your thoughts. We will have more details soon about our next experimental test, and some follow up questions sometime next week after everyone has gotten their hands dirty with this one.
-joe
SES Weekly Comms - 8/2/2017
Been a bit of a crazy week here! We pushed out hotfix 197, the experimental test is still running, and we have two awesome things to announce!
Terrain as a Resource
This week's vlog reveals a completely new gameplay mechanic, terrain as a resource! If you want a great walkthrough of exactly what that means, check out the video below. Also included is some news about changes to beacons and the drill.
https://youtu.be/5jq8lBC5hjc
We are still working out some kinks, but you can expect this to hit the experimental branch sometime soon.
Astroneer Merch
The wait is finally over! Astroneer finally has merchandise. We partnered with Fangamer who came up with some awesome designs for both women and men. Partnering with them allowed us to keep working on the game while they handled all the details!
You can get yours here: https://www.fangamer.com/collections/astroneer
That's all for this week, will be back next week with more concrete details about a terrain as a resource experimental test!
-joe
Hotfix 197 has been released!
Astroneer's Pre-Alpha Early Access version has just been updated to 0.3.10197.0 (Hotfix "197")
Steam 'Early Access' users will receive this update immediately.
This hotfix focuses on fixing some known issues that didn't make the '196' update.
As always, the team would like to thank everyone supporting Astroneer in early access, especially for sharing bugs, inspiration, stories, videos, and streams with us and the rest of our amazing community.
UPDATES
You can find these updates in 197, the current build of the game.
The effects of storms have now been scaled back down.
This was an unintentional side effect of the engine upgrade, but we liked it and wanted to see what people thought. Unfortunately this resulted in many lost rovers and items. The effect storms now have has still increased overall, but is much less than what it was in 196.
FIXES
The following bugs are now fixed. Thank you to everyone in the community who has reported and shared details with us on these issues.
Upon death, ghost Astroneer corpses appear at your base.
When basebuilding, conduits stray of of their intended path when resin is placed on them
In MP games, Host players will see worklights illuminated for themselves and Client players, but Client players will not see the light
Issue where the transform of an object moving into the backpack isn't set correctly, resulting in the item appearing inside the Astroneer
OTHER NEWS
As a reminder, we also have a test running on the experimental branch of Astroneer. You can read all of the details about that test here:
We also continued rolling out development vlogs! Be sure to subscribe, next weeks vlog will cover a completely new gameplay mechanic we are working on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvAJcZzIYJo
As always, thanks so much and have fun!
-joe
Experimental Test 001: Gamepad Controls
Following up on our update last friday, this week we are rolling out the first of many experiemental tests to further prove out some features we would like to add to Astroneer! These kinds of tests are another way we are bringing you all into the Early Access process.
This experimental release brings an entirely new gamepad scheme to the experimental branch of Astroneer. Mouse and keyboard will remain the same.
For the full details of all the changes, head over to the above post, complete with fancy .gifs and lots of words abbout the new actions, like active grabbing, deforming with your camera still active, and quick tether placement.
The goal is to gather feedback on this new prototype and see how it stacks up against the default gamepad controls. We would absolutely love your feedback on this experimental test, and the best and most effective way of giving that to us is through this survey:
Please be aware that this prototype and build are experimental, and unforseen bugs and behaviors will pop up. We are hoping to gather info specifically about the gamepad controls, and feedback about how the new controls feel. Also understand that saves in the experimental branch will most likely not carry over or be compatible with future experimental tests. Multiplayer on this build is unstable at best. Enjoy at your own risk! If you want to see a live demo in action, you can check out this stream replay over on Youtube, and keep the diagrams below handy! Have fun and be sure to share your thoughts. We will have more details soon about our next experimental test, (promise it will be for all PC players regardless of input device) and some follow up questions sometime next week after everyone has gotten their hands dirty with this one.
To activate the experimental branch, right click on Astroneer in your Steam game library. Then navigate to Properties > Betas and choose experimental - latest untested builds in the dropdown. If the update doesn't happen right away, restart Steam.
