From Space

Improvements

• Updated our multiplayer code/infrastructure to improve network quality and stability
  Note: This also lays down the foundations for our future plans on multiplayer matchmaking and more.
  
• Added an accessibility option to increase the size of text
  
• Improved visibility on the indicator showing other player locations in the HUD
  
• Improved the Hopper alien animations

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where some controllers may not be detected when multiple USB devices were connected
  
• Fixed an issue where items unlocked by levelling up were inaccessible after changing Specialist
  
• Fixed an issue where ‘Assassination’ tasks were not displayed correctly on the map
  
• Fixed an issue where some loot boxes were clipping through the environment
  
• Fixed an issue where players could become stuck in the environment within the kitchen location of the Metro Station
  
• Fixed an issue where NPC characters could fall through a small section of the environment in the Research Lab
  
• Fixed an issue where players could climb on top of a loot box within the City Center location
  

• Luke (Community Manager):
  Hello Remco! Great to have you here. We’re back with another Community Update, I know the team is excited to get to talk to the community and provide some updates. So let’s dive right in shall we?
  
  Remco (CEO - Triangle Studios):
  
  
  
  
• Luke (Q):
  So one of the questions we see from the community regarding matchmaking is “Why wasn’t this in-game already?” Can you provide a little insight into the decision on this during development?
  
  Remco (A):
  When we set out to create From Space, we chose a scope that fitted well with the capabilities of our team. We always wanted it to be a multiplayer experience, but we knew it would be difficult to sustain an online audience as an indie-title. So we chose to focus around playing with friends online.
  
  With a strong focus on what you want to build, you also have to make sacrifices for things that would be nice to have, but are simply too big for your team, planning or scope. In our case, this meant that we were not able to offer features like lobbies or matchmaking at launch. Something that we have learned many players expect as a basic functionality.
  
  
  
• Luke (Q):
  With being a smaller development team, you mention that prioritizing during development is a must. What are some of the challenges of implementing a matchmaking function into From Space?
  
  Remco (A):
  In order to answer this, I need to explain that In From Space, players are connected directly to each other. This means that one of the players is the host (or server) and the players who join the session are connected to this host. This is good because you don’t require a central server to keep track of all of the active players around the world. It is both cost-effective, as well as future proof.
  
  Now that we are looking into matchmaking and lobbies, we will need a way for players to play together, other than the friend invites that we currently support. Finding the right solution among dozens of options takes time, and we want to be careful with the choice we make.
  
  We also need to think about how matchmaking changes the experience of the player. Is the campaign still fun if you play with a random person? Do we need more features to help improve that experience? These are all questions that need answering, in addition to the new technical challenge of building such a feature.
  
  
  
• Luke (Q):
  So now we have more of an understanding of the challenges involved in implementing matchmaking, can you share some details on what the team is currently doing, or what areas they are looking at to bring this function to From Space?
  
  Remco (A):
  Our first step is upgrading our networking architecture. The one we’re using was a good choice at the start of the project, but it limits us too much now that our ambitions are growing.
  
  Once that upgrade is complete, we’ll have to do a lot of testing, or “quality assurance” work to make sure the game still works exactly like we intended. Once that all is done, we can start designing and building new features. Our challenge will be in finding the sweet spot where random players can have the same great experience as friends when they play together.
  
  This may come across as vague, but as is often the case in gamedev, there are a lot of uncertainties, and we don’t want to make any promises we can’t keep.
  
  
  
• Luke (Q)
  That’s great to hear, and we’ll continue to share updates and our open communications with the community as we edge closer to getting this in-game.
  
  Now let’s talk about another function players have been asking for, and that’s being able to bring their Save Game from a co-op session with them in their solo experience.
  
  Remco (A):
  This is an interesting one. We were surprised by the large number of people asking for this feature. We assumed that players would either play the game alone (and thus have a local save) or play it with friends (and thus re-join their friend if they wanted to play the game over multiple sessions). It’s become clear to us that players want more flexibility.
  
  We’ve also seen messages from players who are frustrated with being forced to play as a low-level character while their friend might already be at a higher level. To help these players, we’ve built a Catch Up feature that accelerates the XP you gain while playing if you’re at a lower level compared to the host in a session. This will make the process of catching up more fun and more importantly, a lot faster.
  
  
  
• Luke (Q):
  So now that we’ve implemented a solution for balancing that experience for players joining a session, what are the next steps to allow players to bring their co-op Save Game to their Solo experience?
  
  Remco (A):
  So this is what we’re working on right now. Players will have the option to continue any session, even if it’s one where they joined a friend. And as with the multiplayer feature, changing the way the game saves progress is something that we need to be really careful with. I think a lot of players will be very happy with this feature, as it gives you all the flexibility you want whether that is to continue locally, or re-joining your friend at a later time.
  
  
  
• Luke (Q):
  Our From Space fans in China are an important part of our global community, we’ve received a lot of valuable feedback from them, we couldn’t be more grateful for their support! One of the key feedback points we’ve seen here is regarding connectivity performance.
  
  Can the team provide any information on what we’re doing in this area to improve connection performance for our Chinese community? 
  
  Remco (A):
  To be honest, when developing From Space, we weren’t aware that it would be difficult for our Chinese players to connect to each-other, it came as a total shock! We understand the player's frustration, as you expect a game to work, so we immediately started working on possible solutions.
  
  We’ve started asking for help and are getting support from our partners to try and resolve the issue. We have discovered that the problem is with the way Internet Service Providers (ISPs) don’t always allow for “peering” between two players, which is exactly what the network architecture in From Space requires to work properly. This is why some players experience these problems, while others are able to play just fine.
  
  We have several possible solutions that we’re looking into, but all of them require us to upgrade our network architecture. This is the equivalent of changing an engine in a vehicle when it’s already driving on the road, so I hope players will understand that we work quickly but diligently on resolving this problem.
  
  
  
• Luke (Q): Alright, thanks for taking the time to sit down and provide the community with an update today! I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t press you on one more question we see a lot in the community!
  
  We’ve mentioned we’ll be sharing a Roadmap in future to showcase what content players can expect. At the moment our primary focus is on addressing player feedback, but can you share or even provide a little tease on what players might expect?
  
  Remco (A):
  Ooh, yes! Well, let me say that we have a *lot* of new ideas for From Space, and we’re hearing calls from our players who are asking for more content, or for ways to continue playing after they’ve finished the campaign.
  
  I can’t reveal too much of what we’re working on right now, but maybe I can just tease that there is something *SPECIAL* coming up soon. Too vague? Maybe!
  

Improvements

• A “Catch Up” feature has been added allowing lower level players joining a higher level player session to level at an accelerated rate
  
• Polish localisation for Achievements have been added
  
• Drop Pod health has increased when the squad consists of 3 or 4 players
  
• Player character animations have been improved with more dynamic movements while navigating the environment
  
• Alien animations have been improved
  
• Replaced one of the bandage items for one of the Merchants in the Research Lab with Barbed Wire
  
• Price for Level 1 Perks have been increased slightly
  
• Increased the upgrade cost for Perfected Weapons
  
• Rebalanced audio levels
  

Fixes

• Weapons remain visible after upgrading them at the Workbench
  
• Alien introductory cutscene text is no longer cut off when viewed at lower resolutions or on Steam Deck
  Note: Although From Space is playable now on Steam Deck, we’re working with Valve to get that Verified Tick! Expect to see more on this soon.
  
• Placeholder text is no longer displayed for the Captain Andrews NPC when playing in Traditional Chinese
  
• The Skip Cutscene prompt no longer overlaps text in the Alien introduction videos
  
• Resolved a minor animation error in the Gooper’s introductory video
  
• Fixed an issue where multiple sound effects played simultaneously, and some SFX were skipped
  

Improvements

• Autosave – Progression now autosaves when you are no longer in combat. If KIA, the player will respawn at their last manually saved Safe Zone. Mission, Level and Item progression will be retained.
  Note: We have added a setting to toggle this off if you would like to play with the original save game design (manually saving at Safe Zones)
  
• The Stash – Stashes have been added throughout the world where players can store their weapons, items, and perks outside of their inventory
  
• Chat Wheel – A new Chat Wheel has been added so you can communicate with your squad in-game and give them a thumbs up! Press (Spacebar) to activate this
  
• The Map can now be accessed by pressing (M)
  
• When hovering over icons on the map, a description of that icon is displayed. Other player icons will show their name
  
• Icons have been added for the Merchants, Workbenches and Specialist Lockers for easier identification
  

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where crafted perks do not give the items at higher levels
  
• Waypoints of an active mission no longer disappear when an inactive main mission task updates
  
• Fixed an issue where reloading a level before using a Safe Zone one would reveal the entire map
  
• The tutorial prompt for “Assassinating Aliens to Lower Influence” is no longer displayed during combat
  
• Fixed an issue where an invisible wall blocked the player from navigating behind a building in the Suburbs near the entrance to the Metro Station
  
• The Medkit Crafter perk now shows the correct energy cost
  
• Fixed an issue where NPCs could get stuck on a certain ramp within the Metro Station
  
• Social community buttons following the credits can now be selected with a controller
  

• Fixed an issue where NPC buddies would be eliminated immediately after being incapacitated, instead of allowing the player to revive them.
  

Improvements

• Tutorial messages will now appear after combat when it is safe
  
• A waypoint marker is available to guide players to the “Inner Crater”
  
• Single-player sessions can be paused by opening the game menu
  
• The crosshair can be customised with additional shapes and colours
  (Note: The crosshair is tied to your operating systems cursor, this was a design decision to help reduce latency with the cursor movements in-game. If you alter your cursor size in Windows, your cursor in-game will also adjust to match it)
  
• Cutscenes are skippable
  
• Improvements to prevent players with restricted network conditions from being stuck on a loading screen while connecting to a session
  
• Additional SFX added to the Energy Harvesters within the City Center, Research Lab, and Metro Station
  
• Energy Harvester balancing adjustments (Ammo pickup cooldown reduced, ammo locations increased, Harvester healing cooldown increased)
  
• Added Chinese social media QR links to main menu when localised to Simplified Chinese
  
• The Film Grain effect level has been increased
  
• Launch sequence music has been decreased
  
• Invulnerability of revived players increased to 2.5 seconds
  
• Health warning indicator threshold raised
  
• Chromatic aberration value is no longer a fixed value, now adjusts to the post strength of the CA and post-processing resolution
  
• Steam SDK has been updated to allow the game to detect the Steam Deck separately from the PC
  

Fixes

• The game no longer crashes when changing display mode on a Steam Deck
  
• The “Fauna” achievement now unlocks as intended
  
• Fixed an issue where players could become stuck on the roof during a drop pod event in the City Center location
  
• The Electrician’s Specialist Weapon now damages the “Buffer” enemy
  
• Multiple Perks of the same type can no longer be equipped after upgrading at a workbench
  
• Mission waypoint indicators for missions in locations A remain visible after travelling to location B
  
• Fixed an issue where players could become stuck in the corner of a tent in one of the Suburbs Safe Zones
  
• Fixed a bug where loading save data after completing the game caused the player to be stuck in the end-game area
  
• The Electrician’s “Electric Wire” Perk Lvl 2 and 3 now display correctly
  
• Fixed an issue where players could become stuck on the boxes near the Commander Wilson NPC within the Research Lab
  
• “Threat Neutralised” and “Level Up” banners no longer overlap when the player meets both criteria at the same time
  
• Fixed an issue where players could become stuck on the roof near the Safe Zone generator within the Suburbs
  
• Fixed an issue where the Engineer Specialist receives too many shield bars in a level up
  
• The Skip Cutscenes voting prompt no longer remains on screen when joining a multiplayer session if you already had a cutscene playing in your own session
  

Community Note

Save Game

Cursor Visibility

Tutorial Message Pop-ups

Pausing

Skippable Cutscenes

Weapon Chest