Ok, we now have an official launch date for the PC version. This has been a long journey but we're finally there! You probably guessed after the last update that we'd be leaving early access soon since there's now an ending and all.
So, the date is: Nov 16th 2021. The exact time depends on your timezone but here in Finland we'll be pushing the release button so that the game would be available 14:00 EET. This means we'll push the button around 13:50 to account for any delays. This event your're reading is set to trigger 14:00 EET Nov 16th 2021.
We'll also host some launch festivities like a developer launch stream. We'll post a streaming event with exact details on that later.
Update #17: The End is Nigh ✌️
We're getting closer to the 1.0 release and leaving Early Access. The game finally has an ending, so you should now be able to finish the story and 100% of other goals you can find in the Collection. We're almost ready to launch!
Note that this doesn't mean we'll stop developing the game at the 1.0 version! We've still got plenty of things we want to add to the game after the launch. But more about that later!
Update Highlights
The Ending
You'll be able to complete the game and see the end credits scrolling. After that, for convenience, you can get back to the game and continue completing your side quests, points of interest, etc. So keep calm and march forward to the end!
The final story titbits are also revealed, but I'm guessing some of you have already pieced most of the clues together. Some of the things are still left unknown, but we're hoping to add some more details about the events and things like The Ivory Man in the upcoming updates.
Steam Trading Cards and Badges
All that stuff is now available! If you've already played the game for several hours, you should get a few cards instantly after this update. Good luck badging!
Localizations
This new update adds in German and Turkish, but, again, the full list of upcoming localizations is as follows:
English
Simplified Chinese
Russian
German
French
Spanish (Spain)
Japanese
Korean
Turkish
Portuguese (Brazil)
There are still some string shown in English, but the next update after this one should include all the remaining localizations for all languages. We'll probably keep tuning the localizations after the 1.0 release too, as going through everything takes time and we're not likely to catch all the problems right away. (We also haven't forgotten about the possibility of opening Steam Workshop for localizations.)
Leaper
There's a new monster type in town! It'll jump at you! This should provide a bit more variation to the combat. We'll be making some more balancing and AI tweaking changes in the next patch as well.
Voiceovers
The voiceovers (by real human actors) are now in. Note that the voice on the radio is supposed to be synthetic.
Obelisks
Those mystical obelisks are now accessible and completable as Points of Interest. There's also a new quest related to them. It should start automatically when you go near one of the Obelisks.
CHANGE LOG
There are lots of smaller changes this time. Many limitations such as the XP Level Cap have been removed. We've also temporarily hidden some of the locked stuff (like those buildable ??? categories) that isn't yet ready for release. Most of that stuff will be added back in later when we've got time to properly polish them.
For full list of things see below.
ADDED
- Access to the Ending at Crown Station. - Access to the Obelisks. - New enemy type Leaper. - Level Cap is now practically removed (set at 300). Note that Skills will run out at some point (total 72 Skills in this version). - Added one more Link Tower Ascension Level. - Ark Level 2 accessible. - Map shows POI levels (for example Link Tower ascension level). - More sfx for certain interactions. - New power attack gfx and sfx. - New katana animation and sfx. - New fish type - Zany Zander. Tied to fishing spot change below. - New craftables (Sickle, Power Fist, Khopesh, Soldier Helmet, Soldier Uniform). - Shadow detail levels. - Turrets you've built are now shown on map. - Obelisks, Tombs, Shelter, and Entryways show more info when clicked on the map. - Myth Tablet voiceovers. - Added Intro, Outro voiceovers. - Added Crown Station audio log voiceovers. - Saving user selected language setting. - New quests to introduce the obelisks and the mana rifts. - Loading save properly when clicking Play in MainMenu. - Showing mini map arrow towards last player death position. - Added German and Turkish localizations (work in progress like the others). - Drawbridges are now Points of Interests too. - Gamepad vibration support.
CHANGED
- Updated Chinese and Russian localizations. - Ex humans are able to spot the player through windows now. - Rebalanced all fishing spots, including "normal" water. Gist of it is that player is able to get all fish types from normal water with very low percentages, while fishing spots themselves are more specialised and more rewarding. - Weapon attack animation speeds and ranges changed. - Weapon damage ranges and modifier types have been changed across the board. - Weapon and secondary weapon modifiers will now be unlocked and enhanced via upgrades. This is in addition to damage. - Raised proximity mine damage (48 -> 96 ) and halved the triggering time once enemy is within radius. - Raised throwing knife and triple throwing knife base damage (20->33) and reworked modifiers. Should scale better. - Some tombs were remade while others have been rebalanced. - Optimized lighting shaders. - Reworked invention tree flow and at which levels things unlock. - Lowered initial backstab crit multiplier (2.0 -> 1.5) with the idea that it grows better over time instead of being too good right away. - Lowered MG turret cost and buffed rocket turret turn speed, range and projectile splash. - Progress percentages don't round to 100% unless you've got everything completed. - Hid the missing buildable categories for now (will be added back later). - Mana rifts now show up as "?" before completing associated quest. - Material refining amounts and times changed and smelter & sawmill build costs reduced. This should encourage the player to build them wide to raise production. - Farming yields , crop growth times and amounts of material needed to plant nerfed. Farming was still too good, where the player would gain absolutely huge amounts of food materials within few hours in the game. - Last trinket and secondary slots are now able to be opened.
FIXED
- Wishing Wells requests now limited by your max carry capacity. (Only for new requests.) - Performance improvements. - Some medals were uncompletable, while others were off by certain amount. - Horde enemies do not twitch anymore while moving. - Scroll speed with gamepad in maps is now consistent and does not depend on the map size. - It is now easier to throw consecutive grenades especially when time has been slowed down. - Fixes to actor 3D meshes and certain colliders. - Tomb Guard damage was bugged and too high. - Player can't dig through walls anymore. - Fixed pyramid myth voiceovers. - UI tweaks.
Up Next
We're almost ready to announce our Launch Date! The next update (#18) will be mostly about fixing and tweaking stuff. And trying not to break anything.
Even though the End is Nigh, there will be life after the end. We've got plans for both FREE update content and even some DLCs. There are features we still feel we need to expand a bit. We'll get to the specifics later, but for one the building aspect of the game definitely needs more stuff. We've also got (secret) plans for expanding the Undercrown. Aaand we want to deepen the game story, and ....
So I guess DYSMANTLE development isn't over any time soon :D
✌️
Update #16: Crown Station 👑
Well this one took a bit longer than we expected. I guess we were a bit optimistic about the amount of content planned for this update. But we're finally here! We did decide to leave a couple of things for the next update, so contrary to our original plan, this one doesn't contain all the planned content yet.
Without spoiling too much, this update includes three major areas (Crown Station, Vulcan Island, and the Pyramid Tomb), EIGHT shelters (each an unique underground level), building turrets and defenses for tower-defense-like mini game (enables entering those shelters), and lots of other tweaks and additions.
About Localizations (Part Two)
We're moving forward with the localizations. Almost all reference strings are in place, and we're getting ready to order localizations for selected languages. The current game build contains work-in-progress localizations for Simplified Chinese and Russian.
The full set of Official localizations available at release include: English, Simplified Chinese, Russian, German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and Turkish. The voiceovers will be in English only.
The bigger news is that we will also be opening up the Steam Workshop for localizations! We know we are not able to "officially" translate the game to all the languages you are requesting, but we can enable the community modding tools to add any language imaginable. This will happen some time before the release (hopefully). Looking forward to playing the game in Klingon and not understanding a word!
Update Highlights
Crown Station
You can now enter the Crown Station area via the elevator in Undercrown. You'll be finding out about the K23 radio station, listening to audio logs, and... progressing your Main Quest. (The ending is not included in this build yet, so you'll just encounter those familiar blue barriers at some point.)
Vulcan Island
The mysterious sea area beyond the west coast is now also accessible. Spoiler on how to gain access to it: Read all the Myth Tablets on the island and you'll see a short cutscene for a clue where to go next...
Pyramid Tomb
You can now enter the Pyramid Tomb after you've completed all the Tombs on the island. You'll find tons of useful, a new weapon recipe, and the sarcophagus of the king.
All photography inside the Pyramid Tomb is strictly forbidden, so no screenshot for this, sorry.
Shelter Defense
You may have wondered what's inside those shelters on the island. You'll be able to open those hatches in this update. Unfortunately you won't be making new human survivor friends.
Build defenses to stop the horde of monsters, and the shelter is ready for entering. You may be surprised what you find there occasionally.
New Skills
A couple of new Skills added this time.
There's a new Turret Specialist Skill related to turret handling. Note that you'll also be able to make new inventions that will unlock other turret type and increase the ammo capacity.
The Animal Friend now has a third skill level. It makes the animals you've tamed fight by your side in combat. Unleash the Combat Bambi! We'll have to see how much tuning this feature still needs though.
CHANGE LOG
ADDED
- Access to 'Crown Station'. (THE ENDING NOT INCLUDED YET) - Access to 'Vulcan Island'. - Access to 'The Pyramid Tomb'. Requires completing all the tombs. NOTE: Revisit them if the stones don't lit up properly. - Shelters defence now accessible! - Shelters accessible after fighting the horde. - New enemy type (dweller/horde). - Added buildable Turrets. - New material: Central Processing Unit (only findable for now) - Level Cap is now 50. Up by EIGHT levels! - Ark Level 1 fully accessible. (Level 2 coming later.) - New craftables (Hard Hat, Material Transporter, turret related inventions) - Added Turret Specialist Skill. - Added Animal Friend skill level III (animals fight by your side). - Added Russian localization for testing. - Added more sound effects for different situation and actions. - Loud weapons (eg. grenades, rifle), now produce a sound which attracts enemies. - Main menu bg animations. - Showing new invention notifications when leveling up. - Home shelter Point of Interest set completed when going near it. (You may or may nor be able to enter it later, but not for now.) - Voiceovers for the archaeologist Abby.
CHANGED
- Updated Chinese localization. - Rebalanced Ark XP rewards. - Tomb sarcophagi remain open after looted. - Changed sfx falloff for certain sounds. - Tweaks to complex collider generation. - Performance improvements. - "It" spins indefinitely now. - Reworked some quests so it is more clear for the player "what to do" and "where to do it". - All deer kills accumulate into one card now instead of one per type: male, female etc.
FIXED
- Buildables are properly persistent in Undercrown. - Wolf and deer move animation fixes. - Usual open world visual glitch & terrain fixes. - CTD fix. - Fixed some faulty soundscapes where wrong ambience was playing. - Audio level adjustments. - Player making a dodge roll after a power attack in some instances. - Fixed undiggable spots in Undercrown. - Fixes to some achievements not triggering. - Fixed some collision issues with cylindrical objects. - Fixed Open the Floodgates intro where people were getting stuck. - Fixed crosshair misalignment when using hoe. - Receiving temperature based damage while fishing does not cause animation oddities any more. - Monster lure doesn't break from fall damage. - Performance improvements. - Fixed monsters trying to walk through obstacles while wandering. - Sound (XAudio2) related crash fix. - Fixed a Coop issue where it was possible to install more fuel cells than players had. - Dead actors now fall under the water. - Added some missing animations to few existing actors. - Fixed some cases where waterfalls and other particle effects would not render correctly.
Up Next
This update contains almost all the level content we're planning on including for the Launch Version. The Ark Level 2 and some small parts of Crown Station are coming in the next Update #17, which will hopefully not take as long as this one did. In addition to that we'll be also activating those Obelisks, adding one or two new monster types, and any missing or forgotten feature we've got time for. And of course balancing, polishing, fixing bugs, and optimizing.
The one after the next one (Update #18) will contain all the localizations and voiceovers (English only), but very little new stuff as we're trying to keep the build as stable as possible for the big launch. We'll also have our hands full with other launch related tasks.
But what happens after the launch?
The game is doing pretty well at the moment, and people are liking it, so if the launch goes well, we'll also be doing Post-Launch content updates for this game. I'm not 100% promising anything as it does depend on how well the game performs, but if all goes well, that's something you can expect.
And finally, I can't say this enough: thank you for all the bug reports, nice reviews, encouraging words, and everything! It's been a long ride (especially in the midst of COVID), so all positive feedback from you guys has definitely helped to get through this! We're finally seeing the light at the end of this tunnel!
After a long(ish) and refreshing summer vacation, we're back with another major update! This one unlocks two new areas in the game: Frost Horn and Undercrown. There's also a new Animal Friend Skill, and lots of smaller fixes and tweaks.
About Localizations
Before we get to the update highlights, a few words about localizations. Full localizations will be coming before the full launch, which will take place later this year. (The estimated launch time frame is late October / November at this point, but we'll know better after the next update).
The current game version has Simplified Chinese localizations, which we're using to test that things work properly. However, you may see some English in the Chinese version after this patch as we're still waiting to get new strings translated. To speed up the launch of this update, we decided to launch this update as is. If you want to play the more complete translation, wait another week or switch back to the 'previous_default' branch. I know this is not optimal, but I think it's the best compromise we can make at this point.
Update Highlights
Frost Horn
Frost Horn is now accessible. Trying to keep this more spoiler free this time.
You'll be visiting a dam and wondering what's at the bottom of that artificial lake. Maybe there's a way to get to the bottom of it?
Undercrown
After progressing enough in your Main Quest, you'll be granted the access to the Undercrown - the last fortress and shelter of the good people of the island.
Note: the underground map is HUGE, but you won't be exploring all of it. We may expand it later, but currently we're mostly only focusing on the parts that lead you to the Crown Station.
Achievements!
We've finally added Steam Achievements! Each of those should be hopefully attainable with your current save states. Some of them, like the Gatekeeper, which is unlocked when you beat the first miniboss, can be unlocked by just walking near the position where you originally killed the monsters. Same for the bigger bosses. Anything that requires doing thing X certain number of times should unlock after you do it one more time, even if you already have the required amount for that. I hope that made sense. You will probably also notice bunch of them unlocking automatically when start the game after the update.
Obviously some of the achievements such as the one above are not yet attainable for you guys. There are still a few more campfires and link towers you can't reach with the latest version.
Animal Friend
You can now befriend the animals running around in the wilderness with the new skill Animal Friend. Each skill level makes the animals less and less afraid of you, and also unlocks some new interaction features.
Skill level I allows you to craft Animal Treats item and feed the animals. Once fed, they'll start following you like bunch of creeps. Expand your selection of Animal Treats, and you'll be able to lead a whole flock of animals where ever you fancy. (Although, alas, the animals (not affected by Mana) are still being respawned when you rest at the campfire or die. There may be a solution coming for this later.)
So you remember that baby deer? With Animal Friend skill level II you can also pet it like a boss, and go awww all day long. There's even a heart symbol shown. If the animal is injured, petting also heals it.
But don't worry. You can also continue murdering the animals senselessly and feast on their flesh. Your call.
While we're planning on keeping this feature pretty simple, we're likely to expand this in the upcoming patches. So do let us know your thoughts on this!
Local Shared Screen Co-op Tweaks
To be honest, we expected all sorts of problems with the co-op as the whole feature was added in a bit of a hurry, but there were surprisingly few issues with it. We've fixed most of the issues people have reported (thanks!), and we're almost ready to take off that additional Beta text from the feature. Almost.
So everything should a bit more fluent and foolproof now. For example, both players can now use mouse+wasd controls as long as the other player is using gamepad.
Linux Support Through Proton
The game is not officially available on Linux, but we've heard it works pretty well using Proton. Or it did before the last patch broke it, but it should be fixed now. Can't make any guarantees about the performance, but let us know if there are any crashes and we'll hopefully check it out. We're also planning on doing a native Linux version at some point.
CHANGE LOG
ADDED
- Access to 'Frost Horn'. - Access to 'Undercrown'. - Level Cap is now 42. Up by FOUR levels! - You can now install the fourth fuel cell to the Escape Pod. - Added Achievements. - Added Animal Friend skill levels I (feeding) and II (petting). - Added Animal Treats item for taming animals. (Placeholder art) - Added Sleeping Bag upgrade levels for sleeping longer and better. - Added medals for farming, building, and animals tamed. - Added water sound effects for rivers, waterfalls and coasts. - Second co-op player can now join using keyboard+mouse. (The first player uses a gamepad in this case.) - Bug reporter text editor word wrap. - All map filters can be toggled by pressing space or gamepad Y. - New 2D art for all fish types.
CHANGED
- Sleeping rested bonus effects depend on sleeping bag upgrade level and hours slept. - You can level up with experience you get by storing materials - Readable objects are now indestructible until after you have read them, so you don't miss anything by wildly swinging around. - Memory usage optimizations.
FIXED
- Chromatic aberration effect doesn't stay on when you die during it. - CTD fixes. - Memory Leak Fixes - Usual open world visual glitch & terrain fixes. - Tomb Guard positions are properly reset in Solaris Tomb. - All stage ground is generated before showing the first frame. - Grammar fixes. - Fixes to numerous sound effects. - Fixed Ark doors being shut if left the Ark or game before they got opened. - Fixed D3D11 renderer Linux proton support. - Some quest objectives are now more implicit and clear. - Fixed losing inventory (including Fuel Cells) in co-op. If you got stuck because of this, just finish all the bosses and go to the Escape Pod and the main quest will continue. - Cold and heat buildups now work correctly with coop.
Up Next
This is both scary and exciting, but we're actually seeing the end of the road here -- for version 1.0.0 that is. There's probably only one more huge content update, which will add the remaining areas (including the Crown Station, shelters, etc) and features (like building turrets). After that, a couple of smaller updates with balancing, minor content, proper voice overs, and the localizations. We're not yet sure what will happen post-launch, but in any case, we'll be doing some updates after the 1.0.0.
Against our hopes, we're still working semi-remotely as COVID-19 took a slightly bad turn here in Finland. But well over half of us have already gotten two shots, and the situation is getting better, so we're hoping to fully return to the office in September. This is the last stretch in any case, but then again the game is almost finished as well, so maybe this won't have that big a positive effect on the schedule at this point.
Anyway, exciting times ahead! The next update will be massive as it should contain all the content we're still missing from the game. You can expect it to be available in some time September.
🥶⬇️
Update #14 - The Ark and Solaris ☀️
Another big update has arrived at last! You may also notice that it's simply referred as Update #14 instead of the game build version number 0.7.2.27. Those version numbers probably won't mean very much, so I guess the simpler number makes more sense.
This update brings you four bigger things, and gets you one step closer to escaping the island. You know what I'm talking about, right?
Update Highlights
Solaris
The Solaris desert is now accessible. The locomotive at the Sunburn Desert train station (Q17) has been tweaked, so you can progress further there. You will need to complete the related quest goal first though. I won't spoil much, but remember to visit the gift shop diner at O14. Don't forget your sunscreen!
The Ark
The fenced off area in Frore is now open. There's a terminal which will open the gate to the inner area. Note that the Ark is optional content and is not required for completing the main quest. The Ark Quest is colossal as you will learn!
The Ark is an underground complex. Most of the first level is available at this point, but level 2 is not yet accessible. You'll find those familiar blue dev-work-in-progress barriers there. We'll keep opening the facility towards the full launch.
Local Shared Screen Co-op (BETA)
The feature we teased the last time is indeed co-op as some of you guessed. We had sort of prepared for adding this (development-wise), so we decided to try if everything worked as expected... and surprisingly it did. I'm sure there are still small issues, so we're putting heavy emphasis on BETA. You can play online with your friends (or enemies, just remember to enable friendly fire) using Steam Remote Play or a third party alternative such as Parsec.
The second player can join the team any time. Just click Co-op in the pause menu System tab. Everything should be completable in co-op already, but some tombs may be either a bit easier or way more difficult with two players. Please report any problems you may find and we'll fix things!
Mana Rifts
You may notice some strange time bending phenomena on the island. Don't worry about it, just continue progressing the main quest and it will all make sense (hopefully).
Simplified Chinese Test Localizations
We're moving forward with our localization development efforts, and testing the system with probably the hardest language we could think of. Most of the game strings you can find in game are now localized to Simplified Chinese thanks to our Chinese friends at Across Media. Note that these are still test localizations and there will be errors of all sorts.
Full text localization support for other languages will be added when the game is otherwise complete. There will be standard EFIGS and Russian and Turkish localizations at full launch too as promised.
Baby Deer!
Over the early access period, we've received one particular feedback over and over again: the deer are too hard to hunt in early game. We're listening. We hear you. We've now added another deer variant that is slower and weaker, so you can catch it more easily. This should help you gather those precious materials you need. You monsters.
CHANGE LOG
ADDED
- Access to 'Solaris'. - Access to the Ark (first part). Accessible in Frore. - Added Local Co-op (BETA). Accessible in the Menu 'System' tab. - Level Cap is now 38. Up by TWO levels! - Added possibility to bind keys to rotate camera left and right. - A new deer variant. - New material: Mana Chunk which can be refined from Mana Beads using Smelter. - Added Simplified Chinese localizations for testing. - Sound effects here and there. - Mana Rifts. - Added new fishing spots to numerous spots around the world as some areas were lacking in fish feet.
CHANGED
- Smelter is now a heat source when activated. - Idle animation tweaks. - Clarification interaction for the Central train if the player does not possess the TPU. - Made some steps in "A Way Forward" quest more implicit. - Minor text and grammar fixes. - Nerfed farmable plant growth time and the random range that governs the amount produced by a single harvest. Most of the plants have lower initial seed costs, though. This is to encourage tilling more farm plots. - Boosted select trinket effects to make them more viable. - Made the number of uses for knives, shiv trio, grenade and lure smaller. - Raised proximity mine damage. - Gave Shiv trio a slightly weaker version of the same damage modifier that throwing knives has. - Tweaked reward probabilities for most of the fishing spots. - World map renderer optimizations and new visuals.
FIXED
- Projectile damage (throwing knives, monster slimes, etc caused excessive damage). - CTD fixes. - Usual open world visual glitch & terrain fixes. - Fixed Co-op crashes when fast travelling, entering tombs, and reloading save in certain conditions. - Main quest getting stuck at the evac site if you were too fast.
Up Next
One rather immediate next step for the dev team will be the traditional Finnish Summer Vacation, which will pretty much last for the whole July. We'll try and recharge for the last push towards the full launch later this year. Note that we will not likely be answering your questions on Discord during this vacation. We'll head back to the office in early August. (Also literally hoping to return to the office physically, as COVID-19 situation is getting pretty good here in Finland. But we'll evaluate this again in August.)
I also have to mention something. Thank you for all the kind encouraging words and the positive Steam reviews you've sent our way. Game dev (like many other jobs) can be tough, especially during this COVID thing, so getting positive feedback really means a lot.
Overall, the game dev is still progressing nicely. We've got the next (a bit colder) part of the map about 80% complete already, so it should be out maybe in halfway August or so. All in all, we're still behind the schedule, but we're still hoping to wrap up the main island area in September, which could put the full launch mark around October or so. And we know: that's almost 12 months in early access. Our initial estimate was 6 months max. But the bright side is that the game is definitely bigger and better than some of our early roadmaps predicted.
Have a great summer everyone!
☀️
Update 0.7.1 - Westport Polaris Express 🥶⚓
The massive 0.7.1 update is finally here! This one opens up TWO AND ⅓ new areas on the island. You'll be freezing your furry hat off in 🥶Polaris, checking the seaworthiness of some boats in ⚓Westport, and visiting jails in Central West.
This by far is the single biggest update we've done in terms of area size content.
Update Highlights
There's A LOT of new things inside this latest update, but I'm only going to mention a couple of them. Full change list below. (BTW. if you think we shouldn't be posting so many screenshots of the new content here, please let us know below. We don't want to spoil too much, but it's hard to describe the content without light spoilers.)
Westport Harbor
The west coast harbor is a must-see place to visit. Just don't expect to find any seaworthy boats at this point in time.
Mana Crater
Hopefully this isn't spoiling anything you haven't already guessed, but you should definitely visit the crater and the surrounding installation in Polaris.
Classified photo:
New Audio System
New XAudio2 based sound implementation is now in place. As mentioned before, the old DirectSound based stuff is still there as fallback in case you're running some older Windows version. Please send in bug reports of any issues you may have!
New Winter Box Art
It took a while, but the last hand painted loading screen art is finally in place.
CHANGE LOG
ADDED
- Access to 'Polaris' and western part of 'Central', and 'Westport'. - Level Cap is now 36. Up by TWO levels! - New Craftable: Motorcycle Helmet, lvl 32. - Rice can be found in the western part of the island. - New XAudio2 based Sound Implementation. Falling back to DirectSound implementation on older systems. - New Skill: Scavenger. - New winter loading background image. - Lighting a campfire autosaves the game if you're not in danger. - More protagonist reactions. - Showing Change Log when x.y.z version changes if you have opened the Change Log before. - Stack trace is logged when the game crashes (contains only the code path, no player information). - Intro cutscene is now skippable.
CHANGED
- Destroying buildings you've built puts the materials directly back to your storage box (avoids grinding XP this way). - Eased up the notorious 'puzzle' in Serpent's Crossing. - Partially rebalanced some wearable stats. - Slightly increased sledgehammer speed. - Raised large rock DMG threshold, so they can't be broken with the tools available now. (Sorry!) - Knockback effect improved.
FIXED
- Tomb Mana Orb is no longer lost if you Restart Tomb without picking it up after completing the tomb. - Quest markers no longer shown for quests you've picked up. - Quest tracking box panel has correct height for multiline goals. - Fixed sound volumes for some collisions. - Few clarifications and additional checks to quests "Dirty Money" and "The Last Stand". - Health bars are not drawn too high anymore. - Few specific cases of player getting stuck in the game world. - Usual round of fixes regarding floating objects, terrain glitches, etc. - Minimap points of interest now colored properly. - Performance optimizations in areas where there are lots of searchables (like the city). - Link towers with changed internal PUIDs now show activated in old saves. - Fleeing animals do not run into the water anymore so easily. - Player's melee attack now prioritizes turrets over other obstacles. - Grammar and typos.
Up Next
The area we will be heading next is the southern desert Solaris. Spoiler: it will be hot! You will also be able to finally reach that third fuel cell required for your Escape Pod.
There's also a new bigger feature coming. Many of you have been requesting this. What is it? I'll just leave this one image here and hope you'll crack the puzzle:
But don't get too excited! It may not be what you think!
🥶⚓
Update 0.7.0 - Urban Decay 🔚
The Central City is now open for business! You will be dodging turrets, picniccing at Pioneer's Park, visiting the Town Hall, and figuring out how to power up a train. And ultimately acquiring a Sledgehammer. Goodbye walls!
The city is located to the west of Crown Station, and there are three ways of entry to the new area: two from the north, and one from the south. If one of them proves more difficult than the rest, try another way in!
Update Highlights
New Early Access Roadmap
We've revised our Early Access Roadmap to reflect the updates we've done so far, and the updates that are planned before the full launch. Minor changes may happen, but that's the big picture. You'll find a nicer scrollable version of the chart inside the game in the Change Log screen. You may also notice that the Summer 2021 full launch has turned into ominous 2021/H2, but we're still hoping to launch closer to July than to December. We've also got some Post-Launch stuff planned, but waay too early to talk about that yet.
Welcome to the Mighty Mall!
I'm not sure if it's mandatory to have a mall in a post-apocalyptic ex-human piece of fiction, but we didn't want to take any chances and get the z-police after us. So here you go.
It's not the biggest of the malls, but the customers love it.
Deeper in the city there's also a pub where you can spend some quality time with the fellow patrons. (This is a mockup screenshot though. You are not allowed to stand on tables like that. They'd throw you out if you did.)
XP Level Cap Hike
You can now level up to level 34. That's three levels more than in the previous build. We realised we need to be a bit less prudent with the levels in order to reach the level cap targets we've got planned for the launch version. Instead of our previous plans, we'll probably make it so that you can eventually get all the skills in the skill pool if you level up enough.
So the final cap will be the total amount of skills we'll have. If you want to start a new game and try pick things in a different order, that's fine, but you can also play a looong game where you try and get all the skills at once. This will mean that those XP bonus skills are now worth picking as they don't end up taking one of the finite skill slots.
New Icon
There's a new icon to replace that old red crowbar on a white background which was always meant to be merely a placeholder. You'll be seeing the larger version of that whole box shot in the next update perhaps!
Total Progress
The Collection Total Progress tab now shows your progress towards full completion of the game. Note that the numbers only reflect the current build, so the percentages may change as we add new content. But you can get a feel how much of the Early Access content you've completed at the moment. You can't 100% everything yet.
New Audio System
As those of you playing the beta versions have noticed, we're working on new audio system to replace the old DirectSound based implementation. We're using our XAudio2 sound system that we developed for Xbox One as a base, and adding some new features. We were meaning to include it in this patch, but we not able to fix all the glitches we encountered yet, so we reverted back to the old sound system for now. Hopefully you'll meet the new system in the next update!
CHANGE LOG
ADDED
- Access to 'Central'. - Level Cap is now 34. Up by THREE levels! - Sledgehammer! (Unlockable through area progression.) - Fancier Early Access Roadmap. - Showing menu text when you can't save game. - Some Quests have More Info button in Quest menu. - Autosaving game when storing materials, accessing Myth Tablets, wells, etc if no enemies are near. - Collection total progress bars. - New Builder's Kit Quest for the sawmill (located near the original Sawmill).
CHANGED
- You can't save when notifications that would result in save state changes are showing. - Lighting performance optimizations. - Rebalanced all wall tile HP and DMG thresholds. - Changes to multiple other HP and DMG thresholds of objects. - Chaser spotting animation is now roughly 20% faster. - Optimized more compact stage format saves almost 0.5GB of space! - Performance optimizations. - Vultures drop eggs if somehow killed. - Raised Proximity Mine Damage by roughly 20%. - New UI interaction sounds. - Increased the amount of material actor stacks that can reside in 10 meter radius from 30 to 150.
FIXED
- Fixed world map point of interest clicking outside map borders. - Fixed world map are information not showing before going to Collection screen. - Showing Quest reward recipes properly. - Serpent's Crossing doesn't show 1 extra monster in link tower radar. - Added additional checks to older quests requiring opening of certain doors for the possibility of the doorway being destroyed. - Object shadow fixes. - Island map rendering fixes (showing decals). - Not stealing mouse cursor multitasking out of the game window with camera rotate button held down. - Sound panning for sounds playing behind the camera. - Usual open world fixes regarding floating objects, weird decals, etc.
Up Next
If everything goes according to the master plan, the Polaris Express will leave from Platform B in three weeks. You know I'm talking about the next update, right?
The level design is progressing nicely, and as you can see in the Roadmap (above), we're planning on launching TWO new areas in the next update. So it will be a big one. Full steam ahead! Choo choo!
🔚
Skeletal Avenger Is Now Available on Steam Early Access
Continue your expedition deeper into the heart of the jungle. Uncover some of the island's ancient past. Acquire the Hunting Rifle. Chase the Gas Masks. Welcome to Serpent's Crossing! 🐍
So you'll be retracing the steps of Judith Abigail Susan James as she travelled through the jungle decades ago. Maybe you'll find out what happened to her? Did she ever find those eluding Gas Masks? You need to be careful though: the jungle can be a merciless place.
Your journey starts where the previous update ended, near that ring of stone tablets.
Update Highlights
Hunting Rifle
You may remember this weapon from the trailer. Yup, the Hunting Rifle is finally here. (Sorry deer, we postponed it as long as we could.)
We've been going back and forth with the control scheme for firearms like this. This isn't a twin-stick shooter like some of our previous games, so we can't use the same kind of systems. Most of the action is melee-based. We tried a few options, but in the end it didn't seem to make sense to have a completely different control scheme for the rifle, so we decided to use the same controls you're (probably) already familiar after using any of the throwing weapons. Quick press just picks up the gun and fires at the locked target, and long press starts free/manual aiming. Releasing the long press fires the rifle, and moving or dodging will cancel the shot.
We've also got a few other firearms like this planned, but more on those later.
Gas Masks and Toxic Gasses
You may also notice there are more toxic gasses blocking your way elsewhere on the island. And some more may be coming in the later updates to areas you may have already explored. So better gear up! They say masks are important, you know.
Optimizations and Visual Glitch Fixes
This new update should fix those half-baked decals you may have been seeing. You should also not see half-loaded map chunks when you rest at the campfire. You may still see occasional misplaced objects and decals on the island though. You can report those in the newly added Visual Glitch category and we'll fix them for the new versions.
The game should also run smoother with less lagging while streaming the open world content -- especially when you've already destroyed a lot of the environment. We'll continue making these optimizations towards the release.
Change Log
ADDED
- Access to 'Serpent's Crossing'. - Level Cap is now 31. - New craftable: Hunting Rifle (level 31). - New monster type. - Audio logs can be relistened in Collection. - New Skill: Doctor (placeholder skill icon).
CHANGED
- Structures you've built yourself reward less XP when destroyed. - Killed monsters reward more experience. - Rebalanced monster loot to be more rewarding. - Object loot balancing with the aim of reducing some bottlenecks regarding rare materials. - Slowed down mutated hurler attack by 25%. - Acid pools have higher damage now making standing in them a bad option. - Tutorial tweaks. - Unified loading screen background art character to look more like the in-game model. - Collection UI tweaks. - Extensive changes to object damage masks to incorporate the rifle. - Upgrade Gear screen shows the stats at the maximum upgrade level.
FIXED
- Smoother font outlines. - Cold/hot resistance gear quests don't keep triggering protagonist remarks if quests are completed. - Pause menu memory usage optimizations. - Allowing installing other Link Tower transmitters even when max ascension level is reached. - Performance optimizations. - Upgrade gear screen material flow animation.
Up Next
We're working hard on the next area, which will be the central "city" location. Still not 100% sure if it'll be the very next update or the one after that, but you can expect a new update in 2-3 weeks as usual. You'll be likely unlocking the recipe for the Sledgehammer in that update.
I'd say the island is about 62% complete now. This new area and the next one are a bit more complex, and have taken a bit longer to finish than expected, but luckily a few of the remaining areas contain a bit more more wilderness / desert, so they should be slightly faster to develop.
All-in-all we're a bit behind on the schedule, but really have no other option than to just keep pushing through as fast as we reasonably can. Still working remotely, which is definitely taking its toll, but fortunately we're seeing the light at the end of this COVID-19 tunnel as more and more ppl are getting vaccinated here in Finland. None of us yet though. Hoping to return to the office maybe within four months.
