Good news, scientists! The Viral Evolution Update (previously called the "October Update") will be live and available for all, next week, on Monday October 16th!
UPDATE FEATURES
New location - "Infected Garden Tower"
New viruses & boosters
New tech - Medbed
New hostile creatures
Your research continues
Balances and fixes we’ve made during the test_branch phase
and more!
We hope you like the new content when it lands next week! And please remember to leave a review for the game on Steam! It’s a huge help to us 🙂
Speak soon! Team Far From Home
Pre-October Update - Patch on Beta_Test Branch!
Greetings beta_test scientists!
Today we are releasing a patch for the October Viral Evolution Update currently available on our beta_flight branch! We have been closely listening to your feedback and the results are playable today:
Patch Notes
Here is the list of what has been added and changed: <*>Base Virus Contraction Rates were decreased slightly. Contraction rates with High Immunity were decreased significantly. <*>Fever base contraction rate was decreased by 25% <*>Brain Cleanser Medicine now uses Green Collander instead of Honey in recipe <*>Electrolyte Pill now uses fewer Sunmelons in the recipe (1 instead of 2) <*>Hemoglobin Purifier now uses fewer Oil plants in the recipe (1 instead of 3) <*>All Medicines have increased spoilage time to 36 in-game hours (1,5h of real-world time) <*>Freezer inventory has been increased by 30% (3x3 -> 3x4) <*>Dust should no longer disappear if you fly too far from the starting location <*>Medicine should now have the correct mesh set in the fabricator <*>Performance improvements to the Infected Garden location <*>We added localization for whole new content available in the October update <*>
Your Feedback
Once again we’re counting on your feedback - please let us know what you think about this update by filling in this 2-minute survey.
**It’s important to keep in mind that the content on the test branch is not final, it’s certain assets may be changed or removed.**
That's all for now, keep talking to us! Team Far From Home
Pre-October Update Now Live on Beta_Test Branch!
Greetings beta_test scientists!
Today we have something special for you - it is time to get your first taste of the new upcoming content for Forever Skies. We are planning to release the update in October but you can play the majority of its content today on our beta_flight branch!
Let us introduce you to the Pre-October Virus Update!
New Garden Variant - Infected Greenhouse Tower
It covers a lot of new stuff you asked for and more. Story and lore additions, new enemies, more viruses, new items, a new location and new mechanics.
Below you will find out what has been added and changed:
New Device:
Medical Station
New Booster:
Stomach Filler
Immunity Booster
New Enemies:
Crustpede
Thorn Bees
New Viruses:
Pyrexia
Gastroenteritis
Hemorrhage
Fungal Meningitis
Locations:
New Garden variant - Infected Greenhouse Tower
Visual update to Location - Small Town
New Items:
Capsaicin - cures Pyrexia
Electrolyte Pill - cures Gastroenteritis
Haemoglobin Purifier - cures Hemorrhage
Brain Cleanser - cures Fungal Meningitis
New Resources:
Medical Reagent
Thorn Bees Honey
Crustpede Meat
Preternatural Seeds
Changes to how the Immunity System works: The Immunity System has been reworked. Previously it was directly connected to the sum of your individual stats. Now your Immunity will slowly rise and fall, depending on how well you manage your basic needs. For example, if your character has full bars on Energy, Health and Nutrition, but very low Hydration, your Immunity will slowly drop. If all of your needs are unmet, your Immunity will drop quite quickly - but when you fulfil the needs, it will regenerate naturally. You can also find Immunity-regenerating items - be on the lookout for those! High Immunity will shield you from Virus contraction. As viruses are now much more prevalent, you should focus on keeping Immunity as high as possible.
New Device: Medical Station
More story to be discovered in-game: More quests, lore scenes and tablets to be discovered [Please note these are not finished yet. We will add more polish to it closer to the October release.]
Your research continues with the new update
Balance changes to existing mechanics:
Stamina balance has been changed to be more forgiving
Natural health regeneration is slightly lowered
Endurance Booster now will regenerate stamina quickly rather than stopping it from depleting
Localization: Please note this build is missing some translations for new content! It will be added before release on the main branch.
Open the Steam application on your PC and locate Forever Skies in your games library
Right click - PROPERTIES- BETAS
Put in the password: BlimpWorkshop
From the dropdown menu select the beta branch tilted: beta_flight
Press the blue “Opt into beta_flight…” button
In your Games Library click on Forever Skies [beta_flight]
Install the Test Branch
Your Feedback
We’re really counting on your feedback - please let us know what you think about this update by filling in this 2-minute survey.
**It’s important to keep in mind that the content on the test branch is not final, it’s possible certain assets will be changed or removed.**
We recommend starting a new save in order for you to get the most from this new content, but loading your previous save prior to the update is fine too.
That's all for now, keep talking to us! Team Far From Home
Hotfix EA.1.2.0 | Build #23542 Now Live!
Greetings scientists!
Today we launched a small hotfix for EA.1.2.0. Here is what was addressed:
Repair Thrower & Repair Foam are now a lot cheaper to craft
Repair Foam now requires Repair Patches in it's crafting recipe - increasing the efficiency of the tool
Study Recipes for Repair Thrower altered to reflect changes
Repair Thrower slightly nerfed
Repair Patches slightly nerfed
Contents of Damaged Boxes improved
Fixed an issue related to interactions with certain objects
Repair Patches now work on damaged boxes
Tool icon for damaged boxes altered to reflect above changes
**Note** - some players might need to travel and generate a new world tile to receive the latest patch and hotfix content.
Thank you for your quick feedback regarding the issues you had with yesterdays patch. Keep speaking to us so that we can make Forever Skies as awesome as possible.
Thats all for now, speak soon! - Team Far From Home
"The Thrower Is Mightier Than The Patch" Patch Is Out Now!
Greetings scientists!
The September patch - EA.1.2.0 (#23490) has finally arrived and includes some new items, fixes & QOL improvements!
NEW ITEM: The Repair Thrower
Finally, the upgrade for the humble Repair Patch has arrived in Forever Skies! Players can find the blueprint for the Repair Thrower in a new room in the Underdust biome, complete with its consumable “ammunition”, Repair Foam.
The Repair Thrower is a more advanced, methodical and satisfying method of fixing damage to your airship base, than the Repair Patch. This new tool even comes with a handy radar device at the back, that guides you to the damaged parts of your airship.
New room added to the Underdust where you will find the tools blueprint and other useful items.
NEW ITEM: Damaged Boxes
You will now find boxes scattered around the world both above and below the dust. These boxes contain useful items inside. However, the box itself is damaged, meaning the player is unable to access the contents. These boxes will require fixing with Repair Foam first in order to claim the items inside!
FIXED: Pet Now Obtainable If Missed
Tell me if this sounds familiar, you were exploring the tunnels in the Underdust until you were attacked by a Mantis. This caused a *mild* panic and you got out of dodge the first chance you got. Except wait, you later found out that the pet was not accessible to you because of your earlier *ahem* “tactical retreat”. Well fear no more, we have fixed this error. The pet can now be obtained if you missed it the first time! It can now be found waiting for you in the tunnel, just outside of where you first came across the Mantis’. So head on back to claim your new pet.
QOL IMPROVEMENTS UI & HUD:
Remove HUD option has now been added! Now you can take screenshots of the beautifully damaged world, or perhaps your behemoth Airship without the HUD getting in the way!
Other improvements have been made to our UI, including improved stack splitting! Stacks now split in half, not just by single items.
The Forever Skies sale officailly ends on September 6th at 7pm CET / 1pm EST / 10am PST
- Team Forever Skies
Your Questions Answered | Part Two
Greetings scientists!
I won't waste your time with preamble, lets get straight into Part Two with CEO & Gameplay Lead, Andrzej Blumenfeld and Creative Director, Tomek Wlazlo!
Lets begin!
Will we see new types of towers added?
From: Plum [Discord]
[TW] Yes! We will absolutely add additional location types, and not just variants of the current types. These will be story locations and we look forward to sharing more of these with you in the future.
Will we get ranged weapons other than the crossbow? and what will they be?
From: Plonk [Discord]
[AB] We're planning to expand the use and need of the crossbow more before adding new stuff. New types of bolts, possibly an upgraded version, etc. So for now, we don't have any plans for other ranged weapons but this doesn't mean we won't add it in the future. If the gameplay warrants more ranged weapons, then we'll add them.
I've seen hammocks left from previous inhabitants on locations. Can we get these on our airship as an alternative to the bed please?
From: Mobin [Discord]
[TW] We understand some of you really want to feel like sky pirates so ok, we'll consider it. :)
Are there any plans for weekly or biweekly game development updates? something with bit of news, maybe showing off a screenshot or two of new models, technical challenges overcome, that kind of thing
From: Dingo [Discord]
[AB] Im glad you asked! Not weekly, but Greg our Community Manager will start a monthly round-up YouTube video. We plan to start it with the first large update planned for October. In the video we will cover whats happening in the studio, the community, any events happening and hopefully more! We also plan to post in Steam and on socials when the latest video goes up.
What's the next priority based on the items on the flight map? Can you share an anticipated timeline with us?
From: Entirago [Discord]
[TW] Next priority for us is "threats". That includes viruses, methods of dealing with threats and some enemies that will come somewhere around October. You can see a sneak peek in our latest Steam post.
What are we most looking forward to in terms of unreleased content?
From: Ematai {Discord}
[AB] Without a doubt, co-op. It is a tough nut to crack development-wise, but the reward of getting to push each other off the airship is what keeps driving us.
When can we expect Accessibility options such as increased text and icon sizes?
From: Marcus Perry [Steam]
[AB] We know that text on some of our windows is on the smaller side and we do plan to deal with is in the future, however we don't have a date set for it yet. We already tried to address this once but found out the biggest hurdle here is languages that use other alphabets as they react a lot differently to the the Latin alphabet. So we need to find a moment in our development plans where we can assign someone to this with more time to problem solve and test.
Any chance of getting a ship-wide energy system like solar panels for example?
From: Illuminia [Steam]
[TW] It is an idea that has been floated around a few times but actually works counter to other ideas we had, so for now it's not something we are thinking of.
Will the difficulty settings of the game expanded beyond hunger and thirst meters depletion rate?
From: [UA]Ramiel [Steam]
[TW] They already kind of do. Currently, the difficulty settings also impact the penalty for your character dying with the amount of resources you lose, and the viral infection effects. But overall, yes we do plan to expand that list when it makes sense once we continue adding more features into the game that can impact difficulty.
Would you be willing to give the public access to a Trello board in a similar fashion to what Unknown Worlds did while subnautica was in development. This would give us insight into things that are currently being worked on as well as future plans.
From: Diavel [Steam]
[TW] This is something we actually talked about internally for a while now and we're currently looking at some tools that will allow us to both share the roadmap as well as gather feedback from community about planned features. Unfortunately we don't have a timeline for when it would go live just yet.
Can we please be able to move a storage crate around without emptying it?
From: KGI [Steam]
[AB] We've heard this quite a few times and it's a feature on our internal to-do list. There are a lot of underlying systems that need to be reworked to get this functioning properly without breaking the game or opening up the possibility for resource glitches. So rest assured, we're on it, just give us some time to figure this beast out. Eventually, the nightmare of moving objects from one box to another will hopefully just be a distant memory.
Will the world change when you progress in the story? Like dust disappearing ect.
From: Konna84 [Steam]
[AB] Yes, we have plans to create world progression. The world will change in terms of environment and locations as you achieve certain points of progression. One thing worth noting and this is something we have said from the start - our story is not going to be about you saving the world and undoing the ecological collapse of the world. The fate of the world was sealed by humanity’s actions and inactions. So this won’t be some Hollywood-style, hero-saves-the-world deal. Your goal is to try find a cure for the remaining human population who as a last-ditch effort, fled into orbit but did so not knowing they were infected with something that evolved due to the highly polluted environment.
Will there be QoL features? for example, instead of crafting 1 of each material, can we get a crafting queue for fabricators etc?
From: DankMeme_sys [Steam]
[TW] Yes of course. We will be introducing multiple QoL improvements throughout the EA period. The main thing is rememeber is to talk to us. The more we see a certain request the more we know this needs to be looked at.
Would putting in a 3rd person camera for building be an option?
From: Alpha_pyxis [Steam]
[AB] We've seen this request a few times but as of right now, we have no immidiate plans for this. This may seem like a simple change but there is so much that this impacts and until we a re closer to being feature complete, I don't think we will be dealing with this.
I'm an absolute sucker for some good lore and secrets, will there be any expanding upon the scribbles Noah left on the walls? Will this connect to something greater that we can look forward to uncovering, or was this just some visual spice?
From: Kampko [Steam]
[AB] 100% more story and lore will be added as we progress with the development. We ourselves our fans of survival games with story and lore so Forever Skies was always going to have an overall story to keep driving the player. Actually, the next update will have a bit more story revealed in it, but we will likely finish the story at the end of Early Access.
In the early game, dealing with food and water is excessively time consuming and altogether too frequent. Do you have plans to adjust this or put settings in the game to allow players to adjust it?
From: Hydroculator [Steam]
[TW] We'll be balancing difficulty levels more for sure, but also we will giving you more ways to get food and water intake - like more efficient cooking devices for example. So the hunger and thirst will eventually become a challnge you beat through gameplay.
Could we get a lightning rod attachment and then have a station inside our airships to recharge depleted batteries?
From: SteelThunder [Steam]
[AB] We prototyped a lightning rod early on in production, so yes theres a chance it might see the light of day in the future, for sure!
Would you consider adding some more verticality of movement when on foot? Such as a grappling hook to ge to harder to reach areas
From: VENGEANCE [Steam]
[AB] No plans just yet but never say never. It's definitely possible in the future.
How will the current gameplay loop be affected by multiple players?
From: MoriartyAvalon [Reddit]
[TW] It's a bit too early for us to reveal any significant information about co-op. But because the game was always going to have co-op, every design decision we make at some point goes through the “Ok, but how will this work in co-op” gauntlet of discussions. So things at this stage are still changing and adapting based on these conversations and checks.
Coffee update when?
From: K.C.Wiley [Twitter - you won't catch us calling it "X"]
[TW] Unfortunately, you can't make coffee out of the coffee nut. Spoiler alert, that's actually the big reveal at the end of our story. The world ended because coffee couldn’t grow anymore so everyone just gave up :P EDIT: I have been told by The Fun Policesome people in marketing I need to point out this is a joke.
Thank you again to our community for all of your questions. We will hold another AMA in the future!
Thats all for now, have a great weekend! - The Far From Home Team
Small Content Patch, Game Sale, and Future Update Sneak Peek
Hello Scientists
A quick round-up of some things we want to share.
We added a small content patch for you
The game is currently on sale for 20% off
First look at things we’re working on for our next big update
Small Content Update and Next Patch ETA.
For those with a keen eye, we did a very small patch to the game. This was originally meant to be a standard patch with a few quality-of-life updates, bug fixes, and some additional in-game posters added-in to wrap it all up.
However, our eagle-eyed QA team caught a few instances of something that might impact a few players with more advanced airship builds. So it was decided to run more tests before committing the fixes, but because we already had these posters ready, we thought we might as well put them into the game. It’s a quick and easy thing to add so no point waiting.
So there are now 10 additional posters that will randomly spawn into locations for you to find and spruce up your little home above the toxic dust. Here is a look at 3 so as not to spoil all the fun.
Each poster is an artifact from before the total environmental collapse of Earth but at different points in the timeline. Isn’t it reassuring to know that even as we raced towards environmental collapse, we as a species were still trying to sell each other printers? Bliss! The bug and quality of life fixes we had planned for this patch will likely come in the next few weeks, if not sooner so we’ll be sure to let you know when it’s on our test branch and when it will be added to the main game.
So the most up-to-date Steam build number now is EA1.1.0 (#22725)
Forever Skies Now 20% Off
As of today, the game is on sale for 20% off along with our additional discount for anyone who wants to or already owns Green Hell.
The sale runs until Wednesday, September 6th, 2023.
A Peek at What is Coming Up Next
On top of the next bug-fixing patch, our team is working hard on our next bigger update planned to be released sometime in October. The main theme around this update is “Threats and Viruses” where we’re aiming to introduce a few elements that make the world a little more dangerous and hostile.
From aggressive creatures to more viral infections along with effective countermeasures to deal with them. On top of this, there will be additional new locations and devices to add to your airship. In the meantime, here’s a look at some work-in-progress screens and concept art.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading and see you in the skies.
