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Genre: Simulator, Adventure

Icarus

Icarus Week Seventy Update | Vegetable Care Package

Week Seventy brings two new vegetables to Icarus, the Kumara and Rhubarb. These aren’t found organically growing on the surface but can be collected when completing SMPL3 quests in Open World.

We also give an update on Galileo, which is moving into its latter phases as we complete the production work and shift towards testing and refinement.

Jump in and have a read.



Kumara & Rhubarb



We’ve added two new resources to Icarus that players can plant, grow and cook with.

These are Kumara and Rhubarb, two new vegetables with their own perks for players when consumed.

These vegetables are only available by completing SMPL3 quests in Open World, and not found growing naturally on the map like other vegetables are. This limitation makes them highly valuable, and they come with seven new recipes across the Drying Rack, Fireplace, Cooking Bench, Potbelly Stove and Biofuel Stove.

For those unfamiliar with Kumara, it is a variant of the Sweet Potato that came to New Zealand with the Maori settlers. It has a distinct sweet taste and its flavour is sometimes associated with a blend between the standard sweet potato and American yams.



Galileo Update



Galileo continues to make steady progress, and we’re now moving towards testing our Fishing mechanics, localizing our Achievements and finalizing details.

We have now added the final fish meshes and finished the casting and reeling animations, completing this part of the project and moving it into the testing phase as we refine our UI and look for any bugs that might be present in the new system.

We have also updated the bestiary to include more information and possible unlocks, as well as the ability to trigger the respective animal sounds.



Changelog v1.2.44.109451



New Content

  • Added HRB_Kumara with Stage 1 to Stage 5 variants, as well as dead variant
  • Added ITM_Kumara with data table entries, as well as added the growth stages to the data table
  • Adding Kumara Icon
  • Adding correct sounds for Kumara and Rhubarb
  • Removing Feature level flag from Kumara & Rubarb Dynamic Quest Rewards and Recipes
  • Adding Rhubarb Icon
  • New vegetables dynamic missions reward increased in likelyhood 3x and rewards 2-3x more vegetables
  • Updated recipes that are not purely fruit and vegetable to not scale off of the Vegetarian talent

Fixed

  • Modify MinScreenSize engine setting for Foliage to be smaller, allowing more control over culling distance of foliage assets
  • Initial pass on culling distances for numerous foliage assets for optimization
  • Add PerInstanceFade node to IceRockSmall master to help blend culling
  • Added FoliagePicker Utility to show and select what foliage is being looked at because UE4 foliage tooling is incredibly terrible. NB: only supported by Foliage which has collision (so no FoliageOverlap assets)
  • Fixed some typos found by our translation community
  • Fixed typo in description for wooden buffalo cart
  • Created reloading montage for the hunting rifle, set correct start, loop, end behavior and added to firearm table. Hunting Rifle now has visible bullets when reloading
  • Adding correct audio data table entry to stone statues
  • Fix an exploit where save/load with an active food buff and long lasting food talent stat would increase the duration of the food buff
  • Fixed bug where juveniles weren't being initialised correctly, leading to baby deer not being cleaned up when parent despawned
  • Increased max trace distance of underground checks for a few more EQS
  • Increased max distance of trace that checks potential spawn points aren't underground, should fix a few cases where creatures/quest actors are spawning inside cliff faces

Future Content

  • Added cliffs on macros base in Swamp, Grasslands and Vulcanic biome, Green & Purple Quad, DLC
  • Added meshes, materials, textures for T2 Fish wall displays (SM_DEP_Fish_WallDisplay_T2_01-03)
  • Make lava rivers and lakes non-drinkable. Added IsDrinkable bool to water setup data, and updated interactable river and lake BP construction scripts to only add WaterSource rowhandle to their Interactable component if IsDrinkable, otherwise none
  • Fix build - add missing include on ifdefed code (internal only)
  • added fish13 textures, materials and static meshes with LODs and correct texture groups. Also added iridesence for fishes 11,12,13 for rarity
  • Small balance tweaks to lava river flow audio event and lava waterfall bottom event
  • Decrease size, slight increase on density and tweaks on material for buttercups grass type to make them look less harvestable
  • Adding generic SMPL3 dialogue assets
  • Saving Trailer Seuqecers and Levels
  • Updated names of various new creatures
  • Initial setup for SMPL3 in dialogue table
  • Delay switching to Billboards for TU Grass
  • Adding rough fish imagesand tidying up some bad logic in the fish and fish entry widgets
  • Added dialogue text for SMPL3
  • Added option to turn off foliage flatten position offset (turned off on Reeds) and changed PerInstanceFade to OpacityMask Dithered to improve distance blending
  • Tweak Glass settings for DeskLamp and fix filename
  • Add On material variation and remove emissive from base material
  • Tweak LOD settings to not switch so early
  • Decrease emissive texture size
  • Fix material reference on SittingBench DM
  • Fixing the Fish Images
  • Adjustments to ambience based on mega tree climb up height
  • Expand support/functionality of Inspection Tool
  • Disable Print Screen writing Mode info to Log
  • Adding dev folder shortcut to Shortcuts utility, tweaking size
  • Fixed a bug where if you changed lures it would consume your first 'cast' input on the fishing rod and added ranged data to the fishing rod
  • Added missing item images for rods for the radial menu, Fixed the base fishing rod not saving the lure because of a missing inventory component
  • Adding Icons and Deployable Setup for Carved Wood Decorations
  • Adding lavafall top event and sounds. Adding to BP
  • Adding Icons for the Shaped Obsidian, Super Cooled Ice and Exotic Seed
  • Added cliffs on macros base in P2 Volcanic, Purple Quad, DLC
  • Added cliffs on macro base in Swamp Biome, Blue Quad, DLC
  • Improved predator bird dive animations. Predator bird now climbs at an increased rate, and both predator bird and kea now orient their torso rotation to better match their current velocity direction
  • Fixed an error where when no fish is on the line and the player picks up their lure, the game would try to add a null 'fish' to the players inventory. Also removed unused orphaned nodes/functions
  • Fixed predator bird carcass ragdoll not using copy pose AnimBP
  • Add bestiary progress tracking with weighted scores for skinning bench and trophy bench (feature locked to Galileo outside dev builds)
  • Changed borders in fish page and fish stat widget
  • Edited all underwater rocks material and LOD in desert biome with updated texture, Red and Yellow Quad, Styx
  • Edited all underwater rocks material and LOD in desert biome with updated texture, Red and Yellow Quad, Styx
  • Adding unique mega tree leaf and creak audio and adjustments to event
  • Set up BP AC Cave Entrances, Replace SM AC Cave Entrances with BP AC Cave Entrances version in all Pro Cave Prefabs
  • PRO_Story_5: Update creature AI
  • Updated fish stat visual and changed texts on them via ST_UMG
  • Adding geothermal terrace event. Not imp yet in map
  • Add bestiary progress tracking with weighted scores for skinning bench (again - missed a file when committing)
  • Added text for new fruit and veges and their recipes
  • Added text for Carved Wood collection
  • Adding in 1ST person Fishing anims for implementation, will tweak and add 3rd when we've signed off, suite should be all to action current fishing plan including Cast, Reeling, Strike and landing the fish
  • Added art assets for Fish10 with 4 colour variants to project. Added Fish10 skeleton, animBP, and control rig to project
  • Added skeleton, anim BP, and crontrol rig for fish13 to project. Updated static mesh to match skeletal mesh position
  • Added cliffs on macros base in Swamp Biome, Blue Quad, DLC
  • Adding geothermal terraces audio component to the audio quad
  • General Landscape Polish & Clean Up Purple/Green Quad, DLC Map
  • Adding Lava hunter mini buzzy fly explode audio
  • Added predator bird target circling functionality. Added extra food-related combat behaviour to predator birds
  • Tweak tooling for pre-generation setup
  • Regenerate some Prometheus Generated tiles due to substantial environment changes
  • General clean up, polished around megatree manual cave, foliage, resources and decals, Purple Quad, DLC
  • small adjustments to mega tree audio and adding unique light wind howl. Also very small adjustment to creature idle spawn rate / chance so they don't play too often
  • Adding in Fish Meshes and Icons for 10 & 13
  • Fixed LOD Material Override Issue & Fixing Leaning Foilage on Red/Green Quad, DLC Map
  • Adding Fish Lore for the Bestiary and renaming the Barracuda
  • Fixing collider issues with PRO_Story_2 which was blocking the visbility channel and preventing building, projectiles and animal spawns
  • Add support to FloatingFoliageChecker for detecting foliage which is angled too far from 0 (X/Y)
  • Add Align Max Angle settings to FTs for newer assets which didn't have it setup to prevent big angles in future placement
  • Adding new Icons for New Fruit & Veges
  • Fixing Promethus Mission 3 mission item respawn
  • Added WIP deployable to block AI spawning in an area
  • Adjustments to the mega tree event and placement of audio zone. Adding wind gusts and reverb to creaks
  • Added Cliffs on Macro Base in Swamp Biome, Added back Removed Voxels and Foliage, Blue Quad, DLC
  • Adding Item Icons for New Horizons Food
  • Checked BP Cave Entrances Pro Cave Prefabs & Clean Up Leaning Foilage on Green Quad, DLC Map
  • Adding Rustic Wall Shelf Item, Icon, Lore and Recipe
  • Adding Clay Vases A->I, Items, Recipes, Meshes and icons
  • Adding Geode Lamps, their Variations and recipes
  • General clean up of foliage, decals and riverbanks in Grasslands and Tundra, Green Quad, DLC
  • Added missing source files associated with new spawn blocker behaviour
  • Added Obsidian Sickle and all Obsidian projectiles
  • Added PIC_Obsidian
  • Added text for new lamps
  • Added text to clay vase items
  • Fixed typos in carved items
  • PRO_Story_5: Lowered obstacles by 33%, lowered creature speed, added rewards
  • Added Cliffs to base of Last Macro in Swamp & Removed/Added Voxel Back, Blue Quad, DLC Map
  • More updates and improvements to mega tree audio adjustments based on new placements
  • Adding new Models for the Fish Wall mounts and Setting up Blueprints & variations for the additional signs
  • Lowering WL bed amb when up in mega tree some more based on updated curve / placement settings
  • T2 Fish displays - scaled up meshes 150%, reworked #01 to have metal plaque instead of hanging wood sign
  • Minor updates to SwampBird locomotion blending and AnimBP
  • Adjustments to predator bird spawn rate and volume and spacial override for attack flap
  • Fixed General Issues in template caves on Purple Quad, Prometheus
  • Remove old angled sapling trees in GL area & repainted sapling in GL area on Green Quad, DLC Map
  • Added and replaced some icons and borders on bestiary. Updated fish page look a little
  • New GL atmosphere, new curves, added weatherman support, adjustment to player effects (embers, ashes, enable SW/GL Debris), added weather culling to VFX materials
  • Remove old angled sapling trees in GL area & repainted sapling in GL area on Purple and Green Quad, DLC Map
  • Add popup for bestiary unlock events (Galileo feature locked)
  • Adding predator bird swoop loop audio and anim notif
  • Added new icons, borders for bestiary creature page. Changed text sizes and colour. Added lore and rewards page under a widget switcher in creature page
  • Fix some epic creatures causing EpicBoss version of combat music to play when the player is fighting any creature. In cases of epic creatures using non-boss AI setup, music condition override settings aren't configured, and the music override was being applied regardless of the threat level the boss creature was presenting to the player. Updated the creature threat audio system to apply a minimum music override threat threshold to epic creatures using AI audio data setups with no music override configured
  • PRO_Story_1 and 2: Setup dialogue colliders, need to be resized to fit landscape
  • Add a 'must be placed outside' flag to D_Deployable
  • Added first-pass dioramas and EProspectLocation entries for new biomes
  • Change the percentages for bestiary unlocks and mechanism to derive percents (Galileo feature locked)
  • Added Fish 14 art assets to project. Added animBP, CtrlRig
  • Removed unused material from all fish 10 static meshs
  • Added Fish 07 art assets to project. Added animBP, CtrlRig
  • Added animBP for fish 14. Added updated texture collection
  • Retiming dropship sonic boom effect to match timeline, adding layer for effect visability
  • Adding predator bird spot audio, data table entry and fix to PB holding dive anim instead of seamless looping
  • Fixed a few replication bugs to do with the fish not being removed from the end of the fishing rod and extended the time it takes to fish based on stats of the fishing rod properly
  • Fix players sometimes being blocked by invisible volumes in caves.
  • Removed collision from the static mesh components instantiated at runtime by BP_CaveInstance for the purpose of culling weather effects - typically these would be inside the cave roof and not matter, but in some cases collision could be possible
  • Fixed Issues in two template caves where players could get stuck in a pit in a cave, Prometheus
  • Hanging Foilage in swamp on Purple Quad, DLC Map
  • Remove old angled sapling trees in GL area & repainted sapling in GL area on Green Quad, DLC Map
  • Transport pod effect fixes, adding reentry FX
  • Adding Fish 7 and 14 images and meshes
  • Fixing bestiary creature page and modifying title bar back to what it was
  • PRO: Update wetlands atmosphere to be more green
  • Adding predator bird distant spot audio, and updating standard spot audio with more layers. Adjustments to distancing and volumes
  • Review and adjustment pass on foliage assets project wide to prevent bad placement and tweaked for improved visuals with subtle offsets
  • Make lava rivers and lakes ignite characters instead of wetting them on overlap:
  • Refactored 'wet' behaviour in swimming component to choose modifiers from overlapped water bodies' data
  • Set up new lava modifier which applies a debuff stat causing fire to be persistent, then ignites character
  • Updated flammable actor component to check the stat and treat as a persistent fire if required, meaning its lifetime will be refreshed while the stat is active
  • Changed wet modifier component to apply Wet_Expired when modifier is removed, rather than applying this in the swimming component
  • Added lava gameplay tag to prevent some other modifiers from being applied while in lava. Needs further work
  • Applied appropriate modifier settings to water body data
  • Setting up all varations of the fish displays and adding a new widget to show the stats
  • Improved convex hull collision for AC_RCK_CaveIcePillar_Var1-6
  • Remove old angled seedling trees in GL area & repainted seedling in GL area on Purple Quad, DLC Map
  • Added a third state to the projection widget that shows when the fish is on the line
  • Adding needler in and out of mud / ground audio and events
  • Add first pass for Fishing maps
  • Divide Fishing areas into cardinal directions for simplicity
  • Add DT validation for new Fish DTs
  • Fix description for Fishing cheat
  • Add Source images for Prospect Select images

Icarus Week Sixty Nine Update | 7 new Stone Statues to build

Week Sixty-Nine’s update brings seven new Stone Statues and a couple of new small Wooden and Bronze Statues to the decorations crafting options, perfect for decorating and personalizing your Open World and Outpost bases.

We also give an update on Galileo, with progress made on the Bestiary and Achievements as we move into the latter phases of their development.

Jump in and have a read.



Stone Statues Set



We’ve added seven large Stone Statues to the crafting menu in-game, along with a couple of new smaller Wooden and Bronze Statues which can be crafted at the Rustic Bench.

These statues are a part of our larger decorations and furnishing work, as we look to add more character and personality options for your bases.

We’re always open to suggestions for different decorations or furnishings that players might like to see in-game to decorate their abodes. Leave us a feature upvote ticket with what you would like to see added.



Galileo Update



Bestiary and Achievements have made massive strides this week in our upcoming ‘Galileo’ update.

The Achievement List has been finalized, and we’ve now started on the hooks and events that are required in-game to trigger these achievements to be granted in Steam. Following this, we’ll look to test these achievements out and make any adjustments or tweaks needed for balancing or accuracy.

Bestiary Rewards have also been finalized for each creature, and we’re now adding the final Bestiary concept into the game and hooking it up to the data tables to accurately record your kills and rewards. This will also now move into the testing and balancing phase.



Changelog v1.2.45.109278



New Content

  • Adding Stone and Wood Statues for Various Creatures
  • Adding a new Talent for the stone statues
  • Adding Stone and Wood Recipes for the new Creature Statues
  • Fix new Statue recipes pointing to wrong outputs
  • Removed 'Decoration' from naming scheme for Statues as its unnecessary and has already caused duplicates
  • Add icons for Statues
  • Standardized naming scheme for Alpha Sandworm Statue
  • Fixed SnowLeopard Statue BP pointing to wrong mesh
  • Adding Descriptions and Lore for Stone Statues
  • Added destructible mesh assets to stone statues

Fixed

  • Fix an issue where the cosmetic visiual 'frost effect' would stay on screen if the modifier expires when the player is seated or dead
  • Prevent the cold/heat modifiers from being recreated/reapplied everytime the temperature changes
  • Prevent the cold/heat modifiers from being recreated/reapplied everytime the temperature change
  • Create drop bag for cart items when full cart is unequipped from mount
  • Fixed rain and snow coming through building pieces when highlighting with repair hammer
  • IRONCLAD: Fixed snap points not being set up correctly after spawning
  • Fixed bug where mounts weren't correctly using the desired movement/behaviour after player dismounted, should no longer need to un-toggle and re-toggle to re-apply desired behaviours. Significantly improved jelly legs issue that could occur if the game hitched while riding a mount

Future Content

  • Added SM's for all fishing lures
  • Polish in swap biome, around megatree manual cave, foliage, resources and decals, Purple Quad, DLC
  • Adding correct PM to succulent trees and double checking harvest sound is correct
  • Rendered Out New 2D Map For Prometheus, DLC
  • Adjustments to transport pod levels and spacializing
  • Adding Fishing Lure Meshes & Recipes
  • PRO Missions: Various dialogue fixes, specifically additional audio lines played in 3-6 when selecting or landing on a mission
  • added fish11 static meshes
  • LC_MAC_02A - added static mesh with convex hull collision
  • Added Static Meshs, materials, and textures for Fish09 with 4 texture variants
  • Adding Fish Names to Fishing Stats
  • Copied Fish01 into a new folder called Fish00 as a backup
  • Adding Kumera, Rhubarb, Avocado & Strawberries to dynamic mission rewards, dev locked out for now
  • Added BPs and voxel caches for LC,GL,SW,TU cave blockers (BP_VR_CaveWall_xx_01)
  • Added Skeletal mesh, anim BP, control rig, and BP for Fish09
  • Updated Skeletal mesh of Fish08 with root and origin at centre of fish
  • Updates and improvements to transprort pod. Changed reward transport pod to play the correct flare sound and added cave EQ to events
  • Rough Bestiary UI Update
  • Adding metalic whistle to transport pod
  • Added Skeletal Mesh, BP, AnimBP, and CtrlRig for Fish11 to the project
  • PRO_Story_5: Update creature stats and AI. Add activation failsafes
  • PRO_Story_2: Added dialogue delay
  • Fixed Floating Impassable over the top of template cave and Moved some cliffs poking through caves on Blue and Green Quad, Prometheus
  • Blended brakable resources with terrain in lava biome, polished around megatree manual cave, foliage, resources and decals, Purple Quad, DLC
  • Making transport pod whistle down effect more seamless with the metal groan for better realism
  • Adding in Bestiary UI shell and resizing widgets to fit
  • Visual changes to bestiary fish page
  • Added voxel blockers to BPs for LC,GL,SW,TU cave entrances (BP_CaveEntrance_xx_SML_0x)
  • Adding in Bestiary UI shell and resizing widgets to fit
  • Added Iridecent MF to MA_Cha
  • added fish12 textures, materials and static meshes
  • Updating Fish and Beast Page Sizes to Fit in the new bestiary size
  • PRO_Story_5: Updating Mo Data Device
  • LC Rocks - new textures and material tweaks for dolerite MF, adjusted texture scale for macros and cliffs
  • Added Fishing lure icons into D_itemable
  • Remove individual audio emitters from geothermal terrace actors. Ambient audio emitters will be added to represent groups of terraces
  • Add bestiary tracking (feature locked to Galileo outside dev builds)
  • Fix lava river RVT issues by reinitializing dynamic material instance in lava flow point actors at runtime
  • PRO_Story_5: Configure final step area and detection method. Reduce power requirements
  • Updated all existing fish to the same rig setup and updated anim BPs, control rigs and blueprints
  • Adding unique transport pod ascend audio and distancing
  • Adding Alterations and Stats to fishing Lures
  • Adjusting speed in which the transport pods ascend so the audio doesn't sound as frantic - and so it also looks smoother. Renaming incorrect labelling of Blueprint
  • Adding the Item Setup for Fish09
  • Adding the Lure Icons to the Lure pack talents
  • Adding a minimum scale value for fish
  • PRO_Story_5: Removed extra collider, added health cap and quest step tracking
  • Added text for fishing lures
  • replaced a Macro mesh with variant (for better collision), added extra flow points to some lava rivers for more variation(WiP) - Purple Quad, Prometheus
  • Added art assets for Fish16 and created animBP and ControlRig
  • Fixed General Issues in template caves on Blue and Green Quad, Prometheus
  • Adding unique transport pod land audio
  • Replace SM Cave Entrances with BP Cave Entrances version in all Pro Cave Prefabs
  • More visual changes to bestiary and fish page
  • Edited all underwater rocks material and LOD in desert biome with updated texture, Green and Blue Quad, Oly
  • Adding small adjustment to transport pod sonic boom
  • Changed Bestiary button hover visuals on side bar
  • Added skeletal mesh, anim BP, and control rig for Fish12
  • Replaced main grass type in GL biome in order to disable terrain blending
  • Adding damage and impulse to BP_Transport_Pod_Base.uasset on take off event
  • Adding crafted sound to exotic cleaning device data table
  • Adding Prometheus Mission 0
  • Fixing Prometheus Mission 3 Recipe Collect Step
  • Adjusting Prometheus Mission Talent Layout
  • Dropship no longer gives Prometheus mission 1, now the t2 communicator does
  • Added ITM_Rhubarb, including an in-hand version, as well as added alll HRB_Rhubarb textures to their proper texture LOD groups
  • Adding the anchorerd behaviour to the bat dog
  • Fixing up Dialogue Ordering in Prometheus Mission 1
  • Added mesh, textures, materials and Voxel BP for Ice cave blocker
  • Setup Medium Tree rewards for a number of mid sized tree resource nodes
  • Adding unique crafted sound for the exotic processor
  • Adding Fish 11 & 16 Meshes
  • Added new button material for bestiary.
  • Changed thickness of button border animation and added animated pattern background to bestiary
  • Updated rock dog vomit audio with better tonal characteristics for in game
  • PRO_Story_5: Fix quest step and dialogue, add speed to animal. - Allowed configuration on animal swarm focus
  • Quick pass of bestiary tags
  • Quick setup of remanining bestiary creatures
  • Lots of in actual map / mission transport pod spacializer adjustments and eq fine tuning
  • Added SM_Wall_Win_DBL_Wood_R, Added T_Wall_Win_DBL_Wood_R_AO, Added M_Wall_Win_DBL_Wood_R_Kit_A & M_Wall_Win_DBL_Wood_R_Kit_B
  • Fixed General Issues in template caves on Blue and Green Quad, Prometheus
  • Added Needler spike item and ranged attack.
  • Added first pass Needler behaviour set
  • Add some cheat functions to bestiary tracking (internal only)
  • Add bestiary fishing tracking (feature locked to Galileo outside dev builds)
  • Added cliffs on all macros' base in Grasslands and Tundra, Green Quad, DLC
  • tweaks to material for GL_AspenLeaves decal
  • More micro adjustments to eq balance and distancing of transport pods. Sitting about right now. May separate hydraulic layer to only be audible close up
  • Adding spolights to BP_Transport_Pod_Base.uasset, adding material for faux lightsource
  • Fixing light position on Pod_Base Child actor BP_Exotic_Transport_Pod.uasset
  • More fine tuning to transport pod. Better distance eqing for the start up ascend etc. Also adjusted start position of audio on flares
  • Adding unique transport pod alarm audio event and BP implementation
  • Collision and LOD pass for all existing fish assets. Updated texture groups on all fish textures. Updated the name of the static mesh for fish 4,5, and 6 from SK to SM
  • Adding camera shake to BP_Transport_Pod_Base.uasset ascend event
  • PRO_Story_2 and 3: Fixed starting dialogue.
  • PRO_Story_5: Optimized end step, fixed creature detection
  • Fixing timeline on BP_Transport_Pod_Base.uasset
  • PRO_Story_5: Minor tweaks, audio dialogue priority fixes
  • Updated importance of creature death audio
  • Added fallen leaves decal under aspen trees (WIP) - Green Quad, Prometheus
  • Adding unique transport pod alarm start and simulating speaker for long alarm
  • Added cliffs Around Inner Macro Cliffs in the Blue Quad, Prometheus
  • Added Hammer_Obsidian, Axe_Obsidian and Knife_Obsidian
  • Added cliffs on all macros' base in Grasslands and Tundra, Green and Yellow Quad, DLC
  • Added Kumara, Avocado, Rhubarb and Strawberry recipes for future patches
  • Adding needler shoot spike audio, spike fly event and spike impact event
  • Added fallen leaves decal under aspen trees - Green Quad, Prometheus
  • Adding trail effect to BP_Transport_Pod_Base.uasset on descend
  • Adjustments to transprort pod distancing and TP alarm distancing
  • Added title, changed button borders in Bestiary
  • Adjustments and addition to the lava river audio based on visual updates
  • Added cliffs on macros base in Swamp & Volcanic, Green & Purple Quad, DLC
  • Added cliffs Around Inner Macro Cliffs and Voxels in the Blue Quad, Prometheus
  • Potentially fixed issue with prebuilt structures not loading correctly in non-editor play sessions
  • Adding Carved Wood Decoration Set of Items, setup of Items, Meshes, Recipes and feature locked out
  • Add a very basic popup for bestiary tracking in XP bar- Killed Group N of M (Galileo feature locked)
  • Delay Lichen billboard switch
  • Increase FlattenFadeInstance so billboard transition is less abrupt
  • Edited all underwater rocks material and LOD in desert biome with updated texture, Red and Yellow Quad, Styx
  • Added most of the creature images to bestiary data table
  • Adding dialogue to transport pod ascend
  • Adjusting and adding to lava river, and also adjusted rockdog vomit audio volume and spacial
  • Updated the naming of the Fish05 and Fish06 control rigs to have the correct fish number
  • Update weight and stacks for new recipes.
  • Update Salt meshable to use salt mesh rather than wood mesh
  • Update waterfall generation to allow for lava waterfalls, and slight refactor of waterfall BPs for sanity
  • Lava waterfall audio implementation - SFX still to come
  • Small reduction in volume to transport pod descend based on proximity
  • Improving dialogue on transport pod ascend
  • Tweaked Needler retreat behaviours.
  • Needler now aborts persuit if enough damage is taken.
  • Added LookAt Control Rig for Needler/Croc.
  • Added support for blending out creature LookAt alpha using anim curves.
  • Reduced Needler turn speed during combat
  • Added aditional fishing mechanics, UI has been replaced by a projection widget, added ability to switch between lures that effect the stats of your fish, removed the ability to instantly reel in the fish to catch it (now resets the game and destroys the fish)
  • Updating to new Creature Bestiary Page Layout
  • Updating Bestiary UI and Modifying Data Structure, splitting widgets out into seperate ones to reduce complexity
  • Needlers now take into account target velocity and distance when firing their projectiles
  • Added cliffs on macros base in Swamp & Volcanic, Purple Quad, DLC
  • Adding Lava waterfall bottom / splash audio event and BP imp
  • Added cliffs on macros base in Swamp Biome, Blue Quad, DLC
  • Made Needler projectile spread more horizontal and less vertical, increased projectile count per ranged attack, increased projectile inaccuracy
  • Add bestiary progress tracking with weighted scores for kill, kill boss, killed by, skin, skin with trophy knife (feature locked to Galileo outside dev builds)
  • Improved Needler physics asset

Icarus Week Sixty Eight Update | Performance Improvements across the board

Week Sixty-Eight’s update is here, and with it comes a batch of performance improvements that have been championed by our dedicated performance team, and tested by our community.

Improvements to Memory, Stutters & Garbage Collection, and Engine Performance are the core focuses, and you can read more detail about what these changes mean for performance, and how we went about identifying and improving them, below.

Jump in and have a read.



Performance Improvements



As mentioned last week, our dedicated performance team has been busy looking for areas in Icarus where we can find optimizations. If you want to read in detail about the 6 areas of focus for our team, you can do so here in our Week 59 update. To summarise, these are Engine Performance, Game Systems, Memory, Stutters & Garbage Collection, and Connection.

This week's fixes fall under Memory, Stutters & Garbage Collection, and Engine Performance.

  • Removed overlap events from various collision objects on animals and changed some components to be ‘non-physical’. This should improve performance with animals moving around, as it limits how many events can happen when an animal moves around an area of the map
  • Fixed duplicate spawn of aim assist component on animals
  • Fixed aim assist component triggering multiple overlap updates during spawn. This was a small bug which duplicated the process and caused a small hitch when animals spawned
  • Removed root motion from idle animations for Buffalo
  • Made talent trees share a pool of popups rather than each having its own. This has a significant impact on load times when changing maps (on average about 5 seconds faster). This had an effect when moving from the character select > HAB > Prospect
  • Fixed a use case where UI popups were waiting for a valid UI on dedicated servers. (Dedicated servers never have a UI)
  • Improved performance of ‘talent requirement checks’ by avoiding data lookups where possible
  • Fixed settings from auto-saving during initial load and then recursively rebuilding their widgets
  • Fixed the settings screen from being constructed multiple times when the UI first gets built
  • Fixed deep vein ore deposits setting their material twice on the servers during startup
  • Cached a lookup of the replication state of stats to allow for faster replication updates when stats change. This speeds up the host working out which stats need to be sent to clients when stats change
  • Fixed stat container updates triggering multiple events per rebuild
  • Removed all critical hit logic from the stats system. Critical hit afflictions are now handled by a new column in the StatAfflictions table. The only stat that was still using this was the chance to immobilize on throwing knife crit
  • Fixed issue where hits against inanimate objects were being considered as crits
  • Envirosuit slots no longer get rebuilt every time the players' stat container updates
  • Removed expensive gathering function from the atmosphere controller. Replaced calls to directly grab the variables that are being used instead
  • Changed dropship parts to no longer tick and no longer animate while not rendered
  • Disabled collision with the dropship door (while landed)
  • Objects that can be sat on no longer tick when they aren't in use
  • Moved some audio systems tick to during physics as they do not contribute to actor positions. Audio systems being moved to the physics tick is due to them being a good candidate as they don’t influence object positions and therefore can be done separately
  • Disabled overlaps on the root mesh of equipped items
  • Disabled overlaps on tree proxies
  • Optimized some calls to the firearm controller in the players animation bp
  • Prevented armour meshes from being created on dedicated servers. This was an obsolete update cost that impacted performance due to servers not rendering cosmetic meshes
  • Improved item trait retrieval speeds of several traits by improving the time required to access categories in the data tables.



Part of this week's optimization patch has been focused on reducing the performance costs of animals in the world. The cost on the CPU of animals can be broken down into three categories: processing their AI, moving them/updating their collisions, and updating their animations. In particular, we’ve focused on improving the performance related to animal movement.

When an animal moves, it continues along a path that the AI has already picked out and updates its collision along the way, which requires it to update its physics and this causes further physics checks to be performed. Animals not only have a skeleton and a collision that is updated but also some additional colliders which are used for overlap checks in various different cases during gameplay.

In assessing the additional colliders it was determined that many of the events they where setup to trigger overlap events which where being handled elsewhere or had been removed. Due to this we were able to disable many of the channels that these colliders where responding to and in some cases removing them all togethers, drastically reducing the number of update triggers.

A single overlap has limited impact on the CPU, but this would trigger a ripple of other physics updates such as animal animation, sending the position of the animal to the server and then relaying this information to the local PC, and this could happen for every animal active at that time. When you consider ten animals, each with colliders triggering overlap events, updating three times per frame, you can see how this cost would become noticeable to performance. Though these events are generally quick to handle, any reduction in the amount of calls reduces the load on your computer.

Our change ‘Removed overlap events from various collision objects on animals and changed some components to be ‘non-physical’ directly addresses this issue, removing obsolete overlap events and limiting the number of events occurring simultaneously.

We hope this explanation gives you some insight into the details of our ongoing performance optimization!



Galileo Progress



This weeks progress on Galileo has been focused on our bestiary rewards, connecting progress to the rewards so they are correctly granted to players.

We also spent time working on the various UI elements related with these milestones, and the system is making steady progress towards a viable test product.

We have also added 5 other different ways to gather information about creatures, so there is variation in the available milestones rather than just pure ‘hunting’ totals.



Changelog v1.2.43.108956



Optimisation

  • Reworked creature spawning to be spread over multiple frames. This should reduce hitches when new animals spawn in
  • Removed overlap events from various collision objects on animals and changed some components to be non-physical. This should improve performance with animals moving around
  • Fixed duplicate spawn of aim assist component on animals
  • Fixed aim assist component triggering multiple overlap updates during spawn
  • Removed root motion from idle animations for Buffalo
  • Made talent trees share a pool of popups rather than each having their own. This has a significant impact on load times when changing maps (about 5 seconds faster)
  • Fixed case where UI popups were waiting for a valid UI on dedicated servers. (Dedicated servers never have a UI)
  • Improved performance of talent requirement check by avoiding data lookups where possible
  • Fixed settings from auto saving during initial load and then recursively rebuilding their widgets
  • Fixed settings screen from being constructed multiple times when the UI first gets built
  • Prevented multiple refreshes from happening in one frame in the cheat overlay
  • Fixed deep vein ore deposits setting their material twice on the servers during startup
  • Moved map manager saving of map state to code. Merged map manager save data gathering functions to prevent additional iterations of the map tiles
  • Cached a lookup of the replication state of stats to allow for faster replication updates when stats change
  • Fixed stat container updates triggering multiple events per rebuild
  • Removed all critical hit logic from stats system. Critical hit afflictions are now handled by a new column in the StatAfflictions table. The only stat that was still using this was the chance to immobilise on throwing knife crit
  • Fixed issue where hits against inanimate objects were being considered as crits
  • Envirosuit slots no longer get rebuilt every time the players stat container updates
  • Removed expensive gathering function from atmosphere controller. Replaced calls to directly grab the variables that are being used instead
  • Changed dropship parts to no longer tick, and they no longer animate while not rendered as it was still happening in the background
  • Disabled collision with the dropship door (while landed)
  • Objects that can be sit on no longer tick when they aren't in use
  • Moved some audio systems tick to during physics as they do not contribute to actor positions
  • Disabled overlaps on the root mesh of equipped items
  • Disabled overlaps on tree proxies
  • Optimised some calls to the firearm controller in the players anim bp
  • Prevented armour meshes from being created on dedicated servers
  • Improved item trait retrieval speeds of several traits
  • Added missing D_StatAfflictions from previous commit
  • Fixed issues with blueprint tooltips not showing alteration packs correctly
  • Fixed issues with blueprint tooltips adding a copy of the set bonuses text each time the tooltip is hovered

Fixed

  • Updates and improvements to distancing for the transport pod. Removing old profilers
  • Update Maximum Loops to prevent PIE crash in new missions.
  • REMNANT: Added failsafe tracking of radar scan locations (will now additionally be marked as complete if there is a scan in the area at any time, note this may not fix missions in-progress)
  • Fix enzyme geyser audio, which was broken due to a change to OverlapAudioComponent which resulted in non-unique component names in subcomponents. Fixed by changing subcomponent ownership from the owning actor to the overlap component itself
  • Remove execution pins from a new storm particle system that was added for DLC and is making it look like existing weather is severe (internal only)
  • FIRE WALK: Re-apply cannot decay modifier on crate after reload to prevent cases where the modifier fails to load
  • Fixing up Item Static which had some things marked incorrectly as DEV
  • Fixing up Item Static which had some things marked incorrectly as DEV again
  • IRONCLAD: Added failsafe for loss of snap points
  • Fixed bug where animation played when receiving a new modifier sometimes obstructed crosshair

Future Content

  • Fixing Caves On Green Quad and Updated Arctic Cave, Prometheus
  • More visual updates on Prospector field guide UI
  • Setting up Heatmaps for Olympus and Styx for the different fish spawn locations and creating spawn zones based on each heatmap
  • Hooking up New Olympus & Styx Fish Spawning Heatmaps to their respective terrains
  • Adding rockdog vomit audio, event and notify
  • General clean up and polishing in Blue swamp, deep swamp underwater dressing in Green/Blue, DLC
  • Aquariums now swap to use their dirty mesh when they are not connected to active power / water connections
  • PRO_Story_5: Added audio-visual feedback quest step
  • Adjustments to drop pod transport sonic boom audio and fixed rockdog NPC not having correct parent behavior for footsteps for new FS notify
  • Fixing Caves On Green Quad, Prometheus
  • Setting up Rhubarb, Kumara, Avocado & Strawberry datatables for items, growth states, rewards, so they can now be grown when aquired
  • Adding rock dog vomit as a vocalisation event so its not interrupted by flinch sounds. Also lowering idle state vocals spawn rates
  • Balance and spacializer updates to transport pods
  • Enabled unlock all prospects cheat for PRO
  • PRO_Story_5: Tweaked spawn locations, added obstacles
  • General Landscape Polish & Clean Up, Fixed Caves in Swamp, Tundra, Arctic & Updated Cave Template on Blue/Green Quad, DLC Map

Icarus Week Sixty Seven Update | Mount Improvements and Buffs

Week Sixty Seven focuses on providing a range of Mount improvements, tweaks, and buffs. These include changes to saddles, behaviors, and baseline stats to overcome some of the core issues that players have encountered.

We also give an update on the progress of Galileo and an insight into the ‘Bestiary’ feature. Finally, we talk about next week's update and what to expect.

Jump in and have a read.



Mount Improvements



This week we’re bringing a bunch of Mount improvements, based on feedback from the community and monitoring overall performance and usage.

  • Saddles now include 'G' slots so radars, extractors, and other heavier items can be carried. Basic saddles will have one slot, saddle bags will have two slots, and carts will have five
  • Mounts no longer take damage from thirst or hunger, meaning they will not perish if left unsupervised
  • Increased all mounts' damage resistance by 10% to improve their survivability
  • Increased the damage resistance provided by the saddles when equipped to mounts by 10% (was 0%)
  • Added an Aura to the Animal Bed which provides creatures with a ‘Well Rested’ buff, similar to players
  • Lowered the base time it takes to tame creatures from 1200 seconds to 900 seconds

A lot of the feedback we have received around Mounts has been about the difficulties of effectively utilizing them when playing solo. A lot of our improvements have focused on this area of gameplay, removing elements such as damage from hunger/thirst and improving their overall damage resistance. Also adding slots for extractors and radars makes them viable as stand-in teammates for solo adventures, and reducing taming durations helps speed up the experience, which is understandably more drawn out in solo mode.



Galileo Progress



This week's focus on our upcoming Galileo patch has been the bestiary rewards, UI setup as well as an iteration on the fishing mechanic, following on from our progress last week.

For those still in the dark, Bestiary is the achievement system that will give you statistics on your hunting and animal exploits. This will be tied into a milestoned rewards system, with lofty targets reaping strong rewards.

The work going into this is split across lots of backend work, but also developing a good UI and rewards system that provides players with the incentive to aim for these milestones.



Next Week's Update



For next week, we have packaged a performance update that we will put in the experimental branch on Steam later this weekend. We will be looking for feedback this week on the changes, and if the feedback is positive we will push this, but if not we will take a different approach.

For those unfamiliar with our strategy, we’re focusing on five key areas: Engine Performance, Game Systems, Memory, Stutters & Garbage Collection, and Connection. You can read more detail about our strategy in our Week 59 update here.

Optimization is an ‘always on’ part of our development and has its own dedicated team separate from the teams working on game design, concept art, and the many other roles and departments in the business. Sometimes, people can assume that due to us pushing out other updates with new content, we’re not focusing our time or attention on performance, but this couldn’t be further from the case. The skillset needed is very specific, and we, therefore, have dedicated specialists working on it exclusively, while the rest of the team keeps moving forward with our other plans.



Changelog v1.2.42.108807



New Content

  • Adding 'Heavy Cargo' Inventory to Mounts and Mount Inventory UI
  • Adding Heavy Cargo slots to some of the Mount Saddles so mounts can carry 'G'-Slot items
  • Mounts no Longer Take Damage From being at Level 3 Thirst, or Level 3 Hunger, meaning they will not die if left alone
  • Increased All Mounts Damage Resistance to give them greater surviveability +10%
  • Increased the Damage resistance provided by the Saddles that can be equipped to the mounts (+10%, 15%)
  • Added an Aura to the Animal Bed which provides creatures with a 'Well Rested' Buff
  • Lowered Base time to Tame Creatures 1200 -> 900
  • Mounts no longer wander around in their 'Stay' behaviour state, and will return to the location where they were last told to stay after eating/drinking
  • Adding Heavy Cargo stats to Saddles

Fixed

  • Fixed a few typos picked up by translators
  • Fixing communicator T2 having incorrect crafted sound (used masonry when it should use crafting bench)
  • ALCAZAR, HIGHRISE: Changed Biofuel Stove quest step to mention Kitchen Stove
  • ALCAZAR, HIGHRISE, LIFE LINE: Changed Kitchen Stove quest step to correctly mention Biofuel Stove
  • IRONCLAD: Updated name of Metal Plating to Layered Plating to match quest description

Future Content

  • Added BLD_Wall_Sngle_Wood for Buildable Rework Investigation
  • General clean up of foliage, decals and blended terrain with GL cliffs in Grasslands, Green Quad, DLC
  • Updated audio for lava tree sapling and applied sound to joshua trees BP. Better tonal balance and sizing
  • Adding Promethus Open World Drop Zone, so open world can be played
  • Adding Galileo Feature Level
  • Small tonal balance to exotic tinted plant harvest audio
  • Fixed Batdog physics asset
  • Fixed bug where batdog wouldn't exit out of it's stalking behaviour when damaged
  • Added hitreact to Batdog while sitting
  • Added New Storm VFX NS, PP and BP
  • Setup new Weather VFX on Weatherman Editor Tool
  • Adjustments to DLC Trailer Volcanic Shot
  • Small adjustment to aspen tree falling audio to make it more appropriate to match the visuals
  • Committing Rudimentry Bestiary UI and Data Structures for Iteration
  • Added materials and textures for all 4 variants of Fish08, models will follow soon. Upated character/creature shader to allow for subsurface masking and dithering options
  • Sulfur Decal - changed alpha, added color variations (mats and FTs)|
  • New landscape textures for Grasslands
  • Added hemorrhage to Batdog heavy attack
  • Added sand layer to grasslands cliff and canyonwall materials for better terrain blending
  • Added copy of creature/charater shader with irideacence functionality to Pedro's developer folder to clean up/optimise
  • Added Basic Fish Enteries to Bestiary and removed open button from menu, Pressing 'J' will open bestiary for now
  • Adding Striker climb out animation with Root Motion for spawning behavior
  • Added Aquarium and Advanced Aquarium Icons into datatable
  • Added fishing bench, fishing trap and advanced fishing trap icons into datatable
  • Fixed Hole In Ice Cave, Added Voxels Swamp Transition Cave & Tundra Transition Cave Blue/Yellow Quad, DLC Map
  • WIP Commit of GL_AspenLeaves decal (textures, material, FT)
  • PRO_Story_5: Completed location placements, updated objective mesh as placeholder
  • Adding Fish Names to Items
  • Bestiary UI Update, Data is now pulled from one source
  • Polished snow decals in tundra area and blended terrain with tundra cliffs, Blue Quad, DLC
  • Added text for various fishing-related items and wire
  • Added text descriptions for new fish
  • Removed Swamp Cave Blocker and Set Dressed The Transition Cave Between Purple and Red Quad, Prometheus
  • Added DM for Scorpion_Hedgehog_Trap_03
  • Added DM for DEP_Hedgehog_MED_03
  • Flushed Grass on Green Quad, DLC Map
  • Added Static Meshes and SKeletal mesh for Fish 08. Added BP for Fish 08
  • Starting Promethus mission can now be triggered by interacting with the dropship on an open world
  • Updating Dropship and Mission Communicator widgets so they correctly select the Mission Talent tree associated with the terrain
  • Fixed Landscape Gap & Fixed Cave Surface showing on Red/Green/Blue Qaud, OLY
  • Updating Dropship and Mission Communicator so the second and subsuqent promethus missions can be trigger from open world
  • added fish11 textures and materials
  • PRO_Story_5: Tweak areas, dialogue pacing, power requirements
  • adjusted saturation for fish11
  • Additional Setup of the bestiary, adding additional information to the fist data table for classification and setup the data to be displayed in the Fish Page and Entry
  • Add a distance to player hook for designers when using animal swarms in quests
  • First pass of GL_AspenLeaves decal
  • Fixing Issue with Promethus Missions where the Droppods where not dropping at the correct locations which was preventing various quests steps from being complete
  • Cleaned Up Bad & Leaning Foilage on Green Quad, DLC Map
  • Pass on RockDog combat behaviours
  • Added special fire effects while enraged
  • Added ability for NPC footstep notifies to specify left or right
  • General clean up in swap biome, added more megatree roots and polished blending of cliffs, Purple Quad, DLC
  • Updating mask texture for M_BLD_Wall_Angle_Wood, as well as renaming several textures
  • Adding in an animation to use as the spit attack for the Rock Dog to pull it away from the Roar
  • Visual changes made to Prospector FieldGuide. (Bestiary Category, creature button, creature entry, bestiary creatures, fish button, fish entry, fish page, bestiary.)
  • Removed Character Flag requirement from T3 Communication device as it is now a mission device
  • Fixing Promethus Missions 2/3 as the load order of the prebuilt structures has changes and prevented finding of the containers to fill for the quests
  • Updating Aquariums for the new Fish Models
  • Added support for accolades to trigger steam achievements (disabled until achievements have been setup)
  • Fish now scale based on their length stat when placed in aquariums
  • Improve animal swarm spawner customization, allowing updating the spawn target on the fly
  • Increasing volume of grasslands ambience base layer within Pro Tools so no less increase needs to be done in FMOD
  • Decal painting and general polish of Purple quad, prometheus
  • D_LC_ErosionRockBlend - adjusted saturation to better match LC rocks
  • Added ITM Lures, Basic Iron Lure, Prospector tag lure, Rubbery, Higher Tier Wood, Basic Wooden, Bone, Iron, Blue Reed, Yeast, Rotten Meat and Poison Sack
  • Polish in swap biome, added more megatree roots and polished tunnels in Megatree manual cave, Purple Quad, DLC
  • Removing Quest Step from Promethus story 2 as it doesnt make sense
  • Added ITM_Lures, Scorpion Tail, White Jelly, Painted Feather, Fiber, Bark Bug
  • Centered pivot on Fish08 static meshes
  • Adjusting fish positions in the aquariums to account for the new pivoit point
  • Setting up base logic for the fish wall mounts, including widgets displaying stats and the mesh
  • Further improved customization on swarm creature spawning
  • Decal painting and general polish of Purple quad, prometheus
  • Fixed MapCreatorUtility not applying MaterialOverride to Lakes or Rivers correctly
  • Added new minimap-friendly lava material
  • Lava-type WaterSetups now use lava material override when using MapCreatorUtility's 'Apply Override Materials' button
  • First layers of unique transport pod audio
  • Visual Updates on Bestiary UI
  • Fixed Up Cave_GL_MED_001 & CAVE_GL_MED_002 , DLC Map
  • Added SM_Wall_Win_DBL_Wood_L, Added T_Wall_Win_DBL_Wood_L_AO, Added M_Wall_Win_DBL_Wood_L_Kit_A & M_Wall_Win_DBL_Wood_L_Kit_B
  • Added art assets for a Dirty variant the T3 and T4 aquariums
  • Added HRB_Rhubarb with all growth stages
  • Fixed RockDog spit not working
  • Fixed RockDog enrage effects beginning too early sometimes
  • PRO_Story_5: Fix marked areas, update timer

Icarus Week Sixty Six Update | Mission ‘Ironclad’ and updates on Galileo

Week Sixty Six introduces a new mission to Icarus, Ironclad. Tasked with deploying protective plating to three different locations in preparation for a research station deployment, your task will be fraught with risk and challenges.

We also give an update on our ‘Galileo’ project, and our progress so far on the fishing and bestiary features.

Jump in and have a read.



Mission: Ironclad



This week brings a new mission to Icarus, Ironclad. Your task is to deploy large metal plates in three different locations on the map in preparation for a research station deployment. Your briefing is as follows:

//OPERATOR: Sinotai
// MAP: Styx
// BIOME: The Great River
// BACKGROUND: Schematics for plating construction in space or on the surface have been developed
// MISSION: Deploy protective plating in prepration for research station deployment
// TERMS: Schematics and deployment locations provided, additional plating will be provided as suitable launch windows arise



Orbital Exchange Interface Improvements



We’ve been gathering feedback on our improvements to dropship and mission reward pod landing spots and are adding one more safeguard this week, this time for Orbital Exchange Pods.

Orbital Exchange Pods can now be recalled from the Orbital Exchange Interface in case they end up in a bad position, allowing you to move past any location issues that may happen by random and prevent you from gathering resources.



Progress on Galileo



The first features you’ll see from our Roadmap are the Fishing system, a Bestiary and Achievements. We plan to combine these into one large patch, which we’ve codenamed Galileo, which we expect to share in 2-3 months.

More than just a Fishing Rod, our Fishing system will let you use rods, lures and traps to capture a variety of fish which can be used in new cooking recipes, decorations and collections. It includes a new UI for the anglers which records the number caught, the highest quality as well as longest and heaviest. You will have to traverse the map and fish in different environments to catch them all.

This week, we have been spending most of our time iterating on the catching mechanic for fishing and making adjustments to its performance and feel based on internal feedback. We have also managed to get the basic implementation of the bestiary and fishing UI in to our dev environment, as well as having a lot of the fish being modelled, skinned and rigged. These are the early foundations of both features, and we’re making great progress early on in this process.



Changelog v1.2.41.108522



New Content

  • IRONCLAD: Initial mission setup
  • IRONCLAD: Update mission steps, recipe requirements and objective locations. - Added old quest markers to vision folder
  • IRONCLAD: Added dialogue events and increased rewards
  • IRONCLAD: Added quest text when a new pod drop zone has been marked on the map
  • IRONCLAD: Fixed spawn locations selection
  • IRONCLAD: Fixed save progress
  • IRONCLAD: Fixed pod spawn locations.
  • IRONCLAD: Fixed snap point visuals on reload
  • IRONCLAD: Fixed mission completion dropping placed plating and not removing map icon.
  • IRONCLAD: Fixed pod deployment for clients
  • IRONCLAD: Added and updated mission art
  • IRONCLAD: Fixed spawn timings
  • IRONCLAD: Rewrote spawning logic.
  • IRONCLAD: Updated layered plating drop mesh
  • IRONCLAD: Improved visual feedback when completing a location
  • IRONCLAD: Fixed search area not being cleaned up resulting in pod spawning repeatedly
  • IRONCLAD: Add additional objective complete feedback to sides bravo and charlie

Fixed

  • DEP_Hedgehog - added 3x damage state meshes (SM_DEP_Hedgehog_MED_01-03)
  • Scorpion Hedgehog Trap - added 3x damage state meshes (SM_ITM_Scorpion_Hedgehog_Trap_01-03)
  • Fixed a number of typos
  • Fixed a bug preventing dynamic mission rewards that don't scale to only ever give 1 of the item. - Tweaked some dynamic mission rewards with fixed scaling in mind
  • Fixing geyser reverb being too loud when inside a cave with a geyser near by
  • Fixed grenade effect not cleaning up properly after detonation
  • Added ability for collection steps to complete on partial collection, setup AGRICULTURE: Hydroponics to complete collect step on partial collection
  • DYN: Cache, fixed a bug allowing abandoning the mission to grant XP
  • Permit Use Of Unstuck Button When Mounted
  • Added ability to rerequest exotic transport pods
  • Fixing up Plating placement in the quest step and reimporting deployable to have the correct facing to match and correct import scale
  • Fixed collection logic to work again with individual collection.
  • Added SPELUNKING to list of prospects that allow partial collection to complete their quest step
  • Reduced cooldown between exotic transport pod redelivery to 30s from 300s, added slight delay before new pod comes down after sending off current one

Future Content

  • Fixed an issue with the UI where the caption 'LMB to catch fish' would appear on both clients and servers
  • Fixed a bug where if a player switched item right as a lure caught a fish, the UI element 'click to catch fish' would linger on the owner
  • Updated Mo's Cave Prefab, River Spline Pass and Transition Cave Between Purple and Red Quad, Prometheus
  • Polish Green Tundra, Landscape Painting & Worked on Tundra Transition Cave, Green/Yellow Quad, DLC Map
  • Updated Striker animations, added LookAt Control Rig
  • Expanded Striker Melee Behaviour Tree to call each attack specifically, instead of relying on random GOAP montage selection
  • Polished around resources and spline points in Green Quad, and placed navmesh volumes around the swap cliffs in Purple Quad ,DLC
  • Add audio volumes which set audio behaviour related to MegaTrees:
  • MegaTreeAudioVolume actor, a trigger box which calculates and sets dedicated FMOD parameters for mega trees
  • Set up related global FMOD params
  • Set up all required prefab functions to get working with world generation
  • Added audio volume instances to existing mega tree maps and updated the prefab assets, extents may require tweaking
  • Added some missing forward declarations from prefab code
  • Striker now turns to face target after performing combat dodges. Lowered striker max attack radius and gave some specific attacks damage source location overrides
  • Adding Stats for Catching Different types, quailty and rarity of Fish
  • Adding Stats for Fish Descriptors and assigning to fish upon capture, adding fish descriptors to FishData table
  • Adjustments to how the exotic cleaning device fmod event plays back to stop weirdness with stop starting
  • Update SetAudioComponentPlayState function to automatically release the audio component event instance on stop, preventing a subsequent play call from abruptly restarting the existing event instance. Partly fixes a bug where processor audio sometimes cuts out when the processor stops, instead of fading nicely
  • Adding lava broodling attack vocal and all footstep notifiers and attack notifiers
  • Added mesh, textures, materials for Gold and Copper Wire (ITM_Wire_Gold/Copper)
  • Added meshes (SM+DM), material, AO map for Carved Wood Sitting Bench (DCO_SittingBench_Wood_Carved)
  • Adding Lava broodling death vocalisations and event and data table entry
  • Removed Bad Actors in Mo's Cave and Added Nav Mesh Blockers to Cliffs in Blue Quad, Prometheus
  • Added Nav Mesh Bocker, Landscape Painting & Worked on Tundra Transition Cave, Green/Yellow Quad, DLC Map
  • Added several more assets for Buildable Rework Investigation
  • Added ability for Striker to dodge incoming projectiles. Increased Striker damage/health.
  • Added new BallisticSubsystem that can be used to retrieve a player's most recently fired projectile data
  • Make save/load aware of dynamic forecast changes (for upcoming dynamic mission hooks)
  • When capturing fish, ChanceToCatch stats are now taken into account
  • Adding in Fishing Bench Mesh and hooking up to Item
  • Adding Fishing Lure Items, Adding Fishing Lure Recipes
  • Renamed conflicting NavModifierVolume actors
  • Polished around resources, placed navmesh volumes around the swap cliffs in Purple Quad ,DLC
  • Adjustments to snow striker animation notifier timings
  • Added text for fishing bench
  • Setting up meshes and BP's for fishing higher tier fishing rods, assigning basic stats and recipes
  • Resaving Datatable
  • Landscape Painting & Worked on Tundra Transition Cave, Green/Yellow Quad, DLC Map
  • Added RVT switch to LC Terraces and Geothermal
  • DLC Trailer Levels and Sequencers
  • Adding lava broodling general move event, sounds and all notifiers. More movement events to follow
  • Adding Images to the FishData datatable
  • Adding Basic Bestiary Datatable Setup, and associating creatures to the Bestiary Categories
  • Adding in striker head dodges, blendspace and block animations
  • Fixed a source of Failed to parse FGameplayTagQuery log spam
  • Adding broodling attack whoosh event, sounds and notifiers
  • LC Terraces - disabled RVT in blueprint
  • Added Nav Mesh Blockers to Cliffs in Blue Quad, Prometheus
  • Polish Swamp Transition Cave & Tundra Transition Cave, Yellow Quad, DLC Map
  • Adding broodling light slam and heavy slam sounds events and anim notifys
  • Added DEP_Fishing_Trap_T2
  • Added DEP_Fishing_Trap_T3
  • General clean up of rivers and polished splines, riverbanks, decals and underwater terrain in Green Quad, DLC
  • Adding lava hunter and lava broodling swoosh audio and event and notifiers
  • Fix transform math error in mega tree audio volume prefab deserialization
  • Fixed accidental log spam, log now only shows whether the function 'showing static widget' returns true or not
  • Implementing Both Fishing Traps, incoperating Lure slots, custom UI and individual stats for both the basic and advanced
  • Updating Fishing Trap Talents and Adding an Advanced Lure Pack
  • Basic Setup for T3 / T4 Aquariums, Recipes, Talents, Item and Models
  • More additions to broodling animation notifers
  • cliff adjustment and decal placement polish pass - grasslands, Green Quad
  • Flushed grass, Green quad
  • Polish Swamp Transition Cave & Tundra Transition Cave, Flushing Grass on Green/Blue/Yellow Quad, DLC Map
  • Transition Cave Between Purple and Red Quad, Prometheus
  • Fish Placed into Aquariums are now shown and bob up and down
  • Added power and water requirements to Aquariums, When Aquariums are powered the fish placed in side will not expire
  • General clean up around lava biome, on cliffs, resources and geothermal pools, Purple Quad, DLC
  • Adjusted and reimported DEP_Bench_Seat_Wood, DEP_Bench_Seat_Wood_INT to match DCO bench heights (for sitting anim)
  • Adding Gold and Copper Wire Items / Recipes / Talents
  • Fixed Super Cool Ice Deposit using incorrect deep ore material and displaying wrong name on tooltip.
  • Fixed Ice Borer attaching to deep ore deposits instead of super cooled ice. Added collision to super cooled ice deposit mesh
  • Adjustments to the play / stop behavior of the ice borer to stop the end sound playing when the borer is deployed. other deployables could benefit from this change too
  • Adding Striker Dodge vocalisation, data table entry and animation notifiers
  • Small adjustment to lower footstep land sizzle and small adjustments to lava river flow min vs max speeds for a better balance
  • Fixed Floating Deep Ore in GL Cave & Polish Swamp Transition Cave /Yellow Quad, DLC Map
  • Transition Cave Between Purple and Red Quad, Prometheus
  • Adding in layered plating mesh and material pass, icon to follow
  • Adding in layered plating Icon and hooking up to D_Itemable

Icarus Week Sixty Five Update | See our Roadmap for future Icarus features

This week we’re sharing some of our plans for the future of Icarus plus adding several Quality of Life features that you, our player community, have suggested.

By sharing our development Roadmap for Icarus, you can see what features and new systems to expect over the next year and more in addition to our regular weekly updates.

This week we’ve also added several helpful tools such as a Search Bar for the Tech Tree, Pinnable Compass Marks and a Add to Stacks button.



This Week’s QoL Improvements



In this week’s update we have added several popular Quality of Life suggestions that you have submitted via our Feature Upvote tool.



Roadmap



Icarus has become well-known for producing weekly updates, which we’ve done every week for over a year. While this has helped to improve the game consistently, add new game modes and add fresh content, it has lead to many players asking for more visibility about what to expect in future.

Here is our Development Roadmap highlighting the key features and new systems we plan to add to Icarus over the next one to two years.



We have ambitious plans for these new features and plan to invest more time into them than a typical weekly update. We expect to release these as bigger patches containing several new features every 2-3 months.

Naturally, we expect you’re hungry for details and we’ll share more in weekly posts and on Discord closer to release. The first three features (which we’ve already begun work on) are a Fishing system, a Bestiary system and Achievements.

These larger feature updates will contain new content, large re-balances and substantial improvements that we’ll be able to spend more time refining, finalizing and polishing internally before release. This will let us deliver complete features in their best form rather that splitting them up over several weeks, a win for the players and our team.

Generally, these updates will take between 2-3 months with flexibility if needed. The Roadmap itself might change based on feedback, too.

What About Weekly Updates?

In addition to the large milestone updates detailed above, we will continue to publish Weekly Updates. Each week we will continue to add things such as new items, optimizations, Dedicated Server improvements, missions, bug fixes and translations. These will not contain the larger pieces of content being retained until the milestone updates, but we want to get things like bug fixes and optimizations out to players at a much higher frequency we’re known for and this gives us a mechanism to continue to do so.





'Galileo'



The first of these larger patches we have codenamed 'Galileo', we expect it to be ready in 2-3 months. We plan on having a section with information about the work on this patch during in each of these weekly updates. So make sure to check the patch notes weekly as we talk about the next upcoming features from the roadmap (and some that aren't) that will be included in Galileo.



New Frontiers DLC - Under Development



Those of you who read the Future Content section of our weekly Changelog have seen that we’ve also been working away on the next chapter of Icarus. This is completely separate and in addition to the Roadmap published above.

Icarus: New Frontiers will feature a new map, new biomes, new creatures and missions that continue the story of what happened on Icarus. It will be paid DLC and we’ll announce more details soon.

We’re really excited how the features unveiled on the Roadmap will deepen and expand Icarus. We believe the adjustment in the cadence to have larger patches as well as weekly updates is the right move for Icarus and for the community.

We truly value your support and feedback, so keep sharing your thoughts with us on Discord and Feature Upvote.

Thank you for playing Icarus.

Best regards,

The Icarus Team



Changelog v1.2.40.108280



New Content

  • Added ability to search for icons when customising wooden signs
  • Map Icons are now displayed on compass by default.
  • Compass icons will share the same icon as the map-space counterpart but this can be overridden in D_MapIcons.
  • Can set MaxCompassDisplayDistance (D_MapIcons) to have compass icons fade out after a certain distance
  • Made compass function that checks for map icon updates more performant.
  • Added Tusk to Crushed Bone recipe to Material Processor
  • Add the ability to search and highlight talents in blueprints, player, prospects and outposts
  • Add the ability to search and highlight talents in the workshop
  • Fix for fix for crash after running out of reconnection retries
  • Map exploration fog is now used with open world prospects
  • Added more logging to track the cause of bad voxel states on dedicated servers
  • Minor visual tweaks to search bar
  • Add button to containers (UMG_Chest) that transfers all items in players inventory of the same type of items already in the destination inventory
  • When items are transfered to a destination inventory with 'transfer like' button, sort the destination inventory by tag
  • Change the label on 'Transfer Like' button to 'Add To Stacks'
  • Hide the search filter from UMG_Sort. Users assume it is related to new talent searching and will search the inventory
  • Added compass icons for other players
  • Adjusting Search Bar locations and widget visuals so its clearer
  • Permit 'Add To Stacks' button on processors

Fixed

  • Renaming 'Metal Miner' -> 'Iron Miner' to better reflect its effect
  • Fixed bug where compass icons wouldn't show up if they were using the default colour
  • Fixed issue where compass icon visibility wasn't updated to the correct state if the linked map icon hadn't been rendered yet.
  • Dropship map icon now waits for valid ownership before initialising, and is only initialised on the local owner
  • Fixed Dynamic Collect mission not stopping audio for clients when the ID tag is collected
  • Explored map fog is now correctly loaded on clients. This data is now moved into the appropriate PlayerData folder on load and should then be backed up by cloud saves
  • Fixed rare crash caused by invalid building pieces on dedicated servers
  • Fixed issue that would cause log spam during tutorial mission on dedicated servers
  • DYNAMIC missions: Slightly reduced maximum range of all missions, further reduced this range on harder difficulties.
  • DYNAMIC Grow, Mine and Tools missions: Greatly reduced spawn range of mission collection pods
  • Updated Dynamic Collect mission method for stopping audio
  • Fixed bug where fully destroyed items weren't being repaired by repair bench
  • Added new SpawnCaveVariant check box to BP_DeepOreDepositSpawn to allow manually switching to cave-type ore deposit
  • Removed the option to salt spoiled food items at the salting bench.
  • Updated Salting Station UI text for Food Already Salted to say Food Salted and show as a warning instead of an error
  • Moved Flatbread Dough T4 placement to Marble Kitchen Bench instead of Chemistry bench as it is a food item
  • Update experience event text for skinning a Jaguar to correctly say Jaguar instead of Cougar
  • DYNAMIC Collect: Fixed Dead Prospector in-world tooltip not appearing until after the tags are collected
  • Thumper event duration now updates dynamically during fight, meaning voxels mined while event is underway (or paused) contribute to overall event duration
  • LandShark now has a maximum distance it can travel when deciding on a new combat target, should prevent cases where players are killed by LandShark and it teleports to the player's bed when they respawn (provided player's bed isn't within maximum target distance).
  • Fixed LandShark not being able to find valid emerge locations within some larger caves
  • Fixed bug where IsOpenWorld bool on IcarusGameStateSurvival wasn't being set correctly
  • Added additional logging to voxels to identify issues
  • Player dropship spawn points now prefer flatter areas
  • Fixed bug where new missions wouldn't automatically have a difficulty selected on the UI. Open World / Outposts now use 'Medium' as their default selected difficulty
  • Fix an issue with salted food spoil duration reverting to non spoiled duration when a stacked salted food item is consumed from the hotbar
  • Fix an issue with search talents highlight where an exact match did not highlight (search is fuzzy)
  • Fix Take All button is no longer visible on corpses etc (broken only in experimental)
  • Removed stats on Polar Bear cubs that were incorrectly copied over from standard Bears; Polar Bear Cubs can no longer mine voxels or cause deep wounds
  • Remove the 'Fuzzy Search' when highlighting, instead use an exact match (longer search strings mean more false positive)
  • When searching player talents and blueprint talents are searched for highlighting, include the tooltip description in the search.
  • Fixed Visibility on the Prospect Widgets so that players can select them when searching
  • Tweaked visual of Player/Blueprint talent highlight
  • Fix an issue where outposts were not selectable when highlighted by search (experimental branch only)
  • Tweaked visual of remaining talent search highlights
  • Made wooden sign icon search less fuzzy, slightly increased visibility of player talent widget search highlight

Future Content

  • Quick cleanup pass on folder structure for Olympus. Moving 2000 assets out of the root folder and into organized subfolders
  • Adjustments to new biomes cave entrances volumes and new biome caves ambiences
  • Added music track state change trigger component which can be added to world or quest objects to trigger track state parameters on music tracks in their group
  • Set Up More Shots For Trailer DLC
  • Added Updated Volcanic Level for Cinematic Shots, DLC Trailer
  • Adding exotic tree device start audio and event and notify
  • Removed various empty references from the tundra sapling and bush destructible meshs
  • Generated and cleaned up splines for lava lakes/rivers in P2 LC Area on Purple,DLC
  • Set music quest conditions to only replicate to owner
  • Test event for new music
  • Build fix for previous commit
  • Renaming fmod parameter to fix previous commit
  • Fixed Burnt Dead Prospector blueprint having errornous cube mesh added
  • Added ITM_SW_Mushroom_Shelf_A
  • Geothermal banks - material edits, fixed incorrect texture saturation, adjusted sulfur texture to reduce tiling
  • LC Terraces - material adjustments, added terrace rocks 03-07 for bottom of pool
  • Consistency pass on Cave mesh shadow settings. Ensured roof/wall meshes and large meshes cast Far Shadows and that all cast Contact Shadows
  • Modify CavePrefab logic to take Shadow settings from source mesh and apply them to processed Cave mesh to ensure not every cave mesh has blanket applied shadow settings which are costly and may not provide best visual outcomes
  • fixed incorrect navmesh settings on LC Cliffs 12-16, Lrg_08, RiverCliffs
  • fixed incorrect navmesh settings on Cliff_04, Cliff_11 (GL, SW, TU variants)
  • Adding exotic tree device gripper events, arm events and rotating events and all anim notifiers. Yet to be tested in game
  • Added Spines to the Lava Rivers in purple quad, Prometheus
  • Added LODs to Volcano mesh
  • Added LODs to glacier mesh
  • Set Up Lava Hunter Shot For Trailer & Added Rocks to Deep Water Swamp on Green/Blue/Yellow Quad, DLC Map
  • Updated shadow geometry for Prometheus
  • Added several assets for Wood Buildable Rework Investigation
  • Force save on Terrain016 to trigger build of level assets to test cave changes (CL 107887)
  • Added spline points and terrace rocks in geothermal pools, cleaned up lava river splines in pt2, Purple, DLC
  • Added ITM_Salt
  • Fixed LOD materials on MACTOP_05 (SW, GL, TU variants)
  • Adjusted color of MI_Water_SulfurPool_02
  • Adding in exotic plant harvest sounds and event and blueprint info
  • Adding ice borer events, ice crack audio and adding to the blueprint
  • Removed Large Water Flow Points and Fixed Edge Splines On Lava Rivers, Purple Quad, Prometheus
  • Added Cave to Grassland & Polish on Green, DLC Map
  • Added art asset for T4 aquarium foliage to the project
  • Adding obsidian tool pickaxe impact audio event and sounds
  • Trailer Sets and Sequencers
  • Added ability to trigger dynamic faction missions through T3 communicator device
  • Lava Hunter Trailer Shot, Lava Lakes & River Replaced
  • Lava River Replaced on Cinematic Level and Edited River Splines on Purple Quad, Prometheus
  • Adding obsidian pickaxe data table entry
  • Finished up the last of the Lava River Splines on Purple Quad and Cliff pass in the swamp, Prometheus
  • Removing extractor sounds from blueprint of exotic tree harvester. Sounds will play off animations when hooked up - not automatically off BP
  • Polish Grassland Cave, Add Ferns/Mushroom to Mega Tree Roots/Hollow Trunk & Polish Rock in Deep water Swamp on Green/Blue/Yellow Quad, DLC Map
  • Adding obsidion axe audio, events and data table entries
  • Adding 16 New Fish items, fish setups and fish spawn zones and adjusted fishing bench recipes
  • Added dynamic faction mission UI to T4 communicator device. IcarusGameStateSurvival now has a replicated bool signifying whether or not we're currently playing an Open World prospect
  • Adjustments to obsidian axe to balance between other axes
  • Adding additional layers to harvest exotic plant to give it slightly more of a point of difference to standard harvestable plants. May adjust after testing in game
  • Add actor BP for lavafall base VFX
  • Fix physical material setting on sulfur pool material instances so that complex collision queries will correctly see them as water. Fixes incorrect footstep audio on geothermal terraces
  • Added art asstes for T4 Aquarium, T3 Aquarium, and T3 Aquarium foliage
  • Polish Grassland Cliffs, Fix Deep Ore RVT in Hand Made Caves & Landscape Painting on Green Quad, DLC Map
  • Replaced Template Cave, Added Waterfall VFX and General Polish on Purple Quad, Prometheus
  • Update to exotic processor loop audio sound
  • Adding Base Logic for the Fishing Traps and completing Item Setups
  • Adding exotic processor start loop and end audio and events and blueprint implimentation. BP still needs more fine tuning for best playback
  • Added destruction assets for T4 and T3 aquariums
  • Added ability for EnvQueryTest_BoundsMask to specify a test radius, meaning items can choose to only succeed if the surrounding area is also valid
  • Adjustments to exotic processor BP logic and also update to the sound loop
  • PRO_Story_5 additional setup
  • Implemented basic fishing functionality and fixed bug within the 'catch fish' function where it always returned false
  • General clean up around lava biome, added more stalagmites around geothermal pools, Purple Quad, DLC
  • Adding Lava Broodling SK mesh and base anim set for implementation

Icarus Week Sixty Four Update | New Salt and Deep Freeze for preserving food

Week Sixty Four introduces our newest mineable mineral - Salt. Found around the map on the sides of cliffs and mountains, Salt can be used to preserve food items twice as long.

This comes with a new bench, the Salt Station, where you can place any food item along with salt to give it a ‘Preserved’ buff.

We’re also introducing a Tier 4 ‘Deep Freeze', which preserves food while it is powered, and have kept improving dropship landing zones and dynamic quest locations.




Salt & Food Preservation



There is a new mineral to discover and mine on Icarus - Salt. Salt can be found in the wilderness in similar areas to Sulfur, Oxite and Silica.

Salt can be used in preservation, doubling the time it takes food items to spoil. This can be done on the new Salt Station crafted in Tier 2, and providing alternatives to using ice boxes and fridges.

The Salt Station works by putting any food item on the bench with Salt in the other slot. This will produce the salted version of this item for you instantly.



Deep Freeze



To provide even more preservation options, we’re adding a new ‘Deep Freeze’ recipe and item in Tier 4 on the Fabricator.

This is a high-tier item and provides unlimited preservation of items inside. It requires a lot of power to keep temperatures below freezing, so a strong power source and consistent stream of electricity is critical.

Due to the incredibly low temperatures, the Deep Freeze will also slowly accumulate Ice, providing another source of Water on the go or to fill Ice Boxes taken on adventures.



Dropship Landing & Dynamic Quest Fixes



Last week we spoke about our ongoing work on dropship landing locations,dynamic quest spawning and drop pod locations, and we wanted to give an update on our work here.

The feedback received on our changes was constructive and showed signs of improvement on the previous iteration. We’re continuing to build on this work this week with more tweaks and improvements, aiming to provide dropship landings unobstructed by the environment and closer, easier-to-access mission-reward drop pod locations.

Keep providing feedback on these improvements, and specific details if you do run into any blockers such as dropships landing in trees so we can address these quickly for you.



Changelog v1.2.40.107951



New Content

  • Adding Salt item and setup
  • Adding Salting Station setup, Talent, Recipe and Functionality
  • Adding 'Salted' Alteration which increases spoil time by 200% (subject to change)
  • Adding Salting Station UI and setting up Functionailty to Salt Items, including various errors
  • Adding salting meat crafted audio and event and data table entry
  • Added DEP_Bench_Kitchen_Salting
  • Small increase in volume to salt bench craft audio
  • Removed animation in Salting Station UI which referenced object that doens't exist and clean up BP logic. Removed second Close button that did nothing
  • Fixed Salting Bench DM not referencing materials correctly
  • Add Salting Station icon
  • Remove Salt from Salting Bench recipe
  • Fixed Salting Bench meshable entry not referencing Deployable context
  • Fixed weight on Salting Bench itemable
  • Adding Salt to Voxel Distribution, hooking up textutes, materials etc
  • Fixed conifer outside salt spawn weight
  • Test Salt Commit
  • Reduced amount of food preserved per piece of salt to 1 per from 5 per.
  • Lowered spoil time reduction on preserved items to 2x from 3x.
  • Halved the frequency of salt in the world
  • Set Salt Station to Core
  • Added salt icon to itemable datatable
  • Preserved Food Spoil Item Visualisation now incorperates stats into visualisation
  • Updating Inventory Item Widget to fix spoilage time
  • The 'Salted' Alteration is now Called 'Preserved'
  • Adding Deep Freeze
  • Added Deep Freeze icon to Itemable table
  • Added text for Deep Freeze item
  • Fixing Deep Freeze Talent

Fixed

  • Fix several dropship spawners being located too close to trees on Olympus and Styx
  • Added tool to detect and select dropships with trees too close
  • Added more logging to identify which UMG the game thinks is open when it isnt, thus stopping mouse input on death. Also refreshes when you open a new menu
  • Improved the fireplace chimney smoke effect, increasing the thickness and height of the plume and distance it can be seen from
  • Increased stack size of pickled carrots to match other items stored in glass jars
  • Fixed bug where ores regenerated using thumper weren't requiring the correct tier of pickaxe to be mined
  • Fixed hang when incorrect password is entered when joining a server
  • When player dropship topples trees, make the spread of toppled trees more radial
  • Fixed a few small typos in item names and descriptions
  • Fixed a typo in cooking bench description
  • Fixed offset of Concrete Frame destructible mesh, so it does not move position when swapping to the destructible mesh
  • small update to dropship textures
  • Fixed bug where LandShark world position wasn't updating for clients when it went undergound and resurfaced somewhere else. Fixed bug where LandShark spit/melee attacks were being dealt to clients who weren't able to see the worm
  • Fixed cause of some error 65's. This was being caused by a malformed packet being received by the net connection during level transitions on dedicated servers
  • Change the EQS query for collection, retrieva and delivery pods to bias closer to the querier (quest, deployable etc.) but to still factor player distance
  • Change the EQS query for reward pods to select between player distance and querier distance
  • Tweak the min/max distances for EQS queries on some quests so that pods spawn closer
  • Fix an issue with sentry report submission
  • Increased many dynamic quest location minimum distance as they are now correctly biased towards the active objective
  • Rotate the shape used by drop ship spawn probes by 45 degrees to allow more room for players to get out
  • Slightly extend the radius from drop ship for trees that will be blown over by drop ships
  • Extend drop ship spawn query rather than using point traces
  • Added search area for Dynamic Hunt mission, kills outside this area still count toward the objective but this gives players an area to search for additional spawns
  • Added new dedicated server commands for debugging voxels (/DumpVoxelStates and /DumpVoxelTarget)
  • Changed replicated voxel data to be grouped together. This should prevent desync if data is received out of order due to packet loss
  • Further increase the EQS query geometery radius when spawning player drop ships to allow more room for player to get out, perform more sparse probes over a greater area

Future Content

  • Added Volcano Landscape Mesh on Red Quad, DLC Map
  • LC Red grass - enabled terrain blending in materials
  • Added textures, material, foliage type for LC_PlantDebris_02
  • Tundra Rocks - material parent changes on cliff mats
  • Increase in initial footstep sizzle in lava to add a more dangerous feeling to the audio
  • added bone armor materials,ml, textures and mesh pack
  • FT_D_LC_Plant_Debris_02- edits to textures
  • Started painting new LC red grass decal down in P2 Area on Purple Quad, DLC
  • Polish Pass on the rivers in Green Quad, Prometheus
  • Started painting Dragon trees around sulfur pools, Succulant trees around red grass areas and Joshua trees around saplings, P2 Area on Purple Quad, DLC
  • Commiting Blue Quad, DLC Map
  • Volcano - added emissive details to albedo map for better distant LOD generation
  • Adding bone armor audio loop and fmod param entry
  • Added final assets for Prometheus Generated levels first pass. Minor tweaks to tooling
  • LC Rocks - improved LODs for cliffs, improved collision for Cliffs 12-18+ mac 03A, material edits and parent changes for cliff and macro mats
  • LC Rocks - texture missed in last commit
  • LC Rocks - parent change and edits to cave entrance materials
  • Painted New LC Red Grass & Painted Plant Debris 02 decal down in P2 Area on Purple Quad, DLC
  • Added rock formations ontop of cliffs and Landscape painting on rivers, Green Quad, Prometheus
  • Painted Joshua Trees, New LC Red Grass & Painted Plant Debris 02 decal down in P1 Area on Purple Quad, DLC
  • Changed title card description for Prometheus on String Table
  • Adding in extra lava hunter anims
  • LC Rocks - LOD optimization and normal map rebaking for cave entrance meshes
  • Adding lava hunter super heavy attack movement event and notify
  • LC Rocks - parent changes for LRG, MED, SML rock mats, overall color and saturation tweaks to master LC mat
  • Painted New LC Red Grass & Painted Plant Debris 02 decal down in P2 Area on Purple Quad, DLC
  • Added rock formations ontop of cliffs and Landscape painting on rivers, Green Quad, Prometheus
  • Painted New LC Red Grass & Painted Plant Debris 02 decal down in P1 Area on Purple Quad, DLC
  • Added Brick overlay icon
  • Adding lava hunter quick egg lay deposit sound, event and notify. Also adding vocal to swipe attack
  • More lava hunter movement sounds and additions to most animations
  • Added DefaultPhysicsVolume to WorldManager ignored classes list
  • Moved Macro Cliffs from Persistant Level to Developer Levels, Green and Blue Quad, Prometheus
  • Volcanic Rocks - added Macro 01A
  • Updates and additions to the lava hunter animations using movement audio events
  • Added rock formations ontop of cliffs and Landscape painting on rivers, Green Quad, Prometheus
  • Painted New LC Red Grass & Painted Plant Debris 02 decal down in P2 Area & Cleaned World Outliner on Purple Quad, DLC
  • Splitting some 1.3.0 dialogue into more appropriate chunks
  • Fixing audio routing for new dialogue clips
  • Second pass on Prometheus Generated assets, cleaning up artifacts. Tweaks to tooling
  • General cean up around swamp biome of cliffs, foliage, resources in Purple Quad, DLC
  • Adjustment to lava hunter notify timing and adding shake splatter sound for lava h out
  • Adding Variables to the weather and atmposphere controller for Ash, Hail, Embers, Acid Rain and Smoke, so they can be included in new weather events
  • Fix biome and storm music not playing correctly. Needed to fix broken BP node exec connections caused by a WeatherController function being made const and defaulting to BlueprintPure
  • Adding cave entrance for the volcanic biome
  • Adding the rest of the cave entrance events for new biomes
  • Added New Level for Cinematic Shots and Added Water Points and Edge Splines For Lava Lakes, Purple Quad, Prometheus
  • Updated Enzyme Cannon textures and skeletal meshs to version 2. Added open and close animations for the Enzyme Cannon Arm
  • Lights are now added along river splines based on distance rather than spline points for more consistent lighting/performance
  • Add LavaLight preview support to WT_RiverSpline tooling
  • Set Up Shots For Trailer & Added Sea Grass to Deep Water Swamp on Green/Blue/Yellow Quad, DLC Map
  • Generated and cleaned up splines for lava lakes/rivers in P2 LC Area on Purple,DLC
  • First pass to prepare music system for dynamic music features:
  • Refactor location music conditions to be data-driven, and add quest music conditions
  • Refactor quest-related notifications from PlayerFeedback subsystem to new QuestNotification subsystem, and add QuestStarted notify
  • Add concept of MusicTrackStateGroups which can be assigned to music tracks and used to set a state parameter on the FMOD music event
  • Split Promfractureevent17 voice lines into three events for better delivery
  • Very small micro adjustments to overall mix. Music up a tiny bit, slightly more compression / limiting / biome ambience level balance for more consistency
  • Fixed a typo in desert anomaly mission
  • Navmesh generation removal from IMPs and MACs in Prometheus (set as dynamic obstacle, NavArea_Null)
  • Navmesh generation removal from distant volcanic and glacier landscape meshes
  • Adding test commit to force teamcity update

Icarus Week Sixty Three Update | Thumper fixes and changes to address exploits

Week Sixty Three brings improvements to last week's new deployable, the Thumper, and some small QoL fixes to crop plots, dropships and more.

A hotfix addressing a mission blocker caused by changes to our voxels was pushed Monday, and we’ve followed that up with changes to map icons, audio, exploits and more.

We’re also seeking more feedback and examples of dropship respawning occurring in voxels, trees and other locations that prevent you from being able to move.

Jump in and have a read.



Thumper Fixes and Tweaks



We’ve focused this week on making some tweaks and changes to the new ore-regenerating Thumper device.

The first of these fixes was included in the hotfix we pushed Monday, which addressed the mission ‘Deep Vein: Extraction’ being blocked. Because of the change to how we ‘destroy’ voxels, the mission was interpreting this data incorrectly, leading to a mission step being assumed ‘incomplete' and preventing players from completing the mission. This has now been remedied and the mission will progress as intended.

Other fixes include a tweak to the map icon to make it more readable and a cleanup when logging in again.

Thumpers deployed in caves will now also trigger worms correctly, and more audio has been added. We’ve also added an option in the menu to disable screen shake, as some players found the effects too disruptive.

In order to correct a small exploit some players discovered, we’ve now prevented the Thumper from being able to be turned on while in water. While very clever, this removed any risk associated with using it. Additionally, the weight will also mean it is too heavy to be placed on top of any building pieces and will destroy them when placed there.



QoL improvements



We’ve also added some other small Quality of Life improvements, with more work to do on some others.

Crop Plots previously were not detecting outdoors/greenhouses correctly and therefore provided incorrect buff/stat values. This has now been fixed, and Crop Plots should act as intended when provided with the right environments.

Mission Reward Dropships will now attempt to spawn closer to players also, as the current spread was outside our intended range. There are a bunch more fixes you can also find in the detailed change log below.

One of these improvements is to Dropship Spawner positioning, where we’ve had multiple reports of players landing in trees, voxels or on cliff edges. This prevents them from being able to leave the dropship and blocks their progress. We’re expecting this week’s changes will have alleviated those issues, but we’re still wanting feedback and examples/screenshots of where this has failed, so we can address them and implement more robust fixes that eradicate the cause.



Changelog 1.2.38.107702



Fixed

  • Updated in-world tooltips to show the fillable resource color (eg blue for water, green for fuel, white for oxygen)
  • Explicitly clear the frost affect when Cold and FrostBite modifiers are removed rather than running the blend weights again
  • Force two decimal places on UI temperature display
  • CARAPACE: Added unlock flag to mission (in addition to currently being granted during mission steps), so it will show the indicator on prospect selection screen
  • Fixed a typo in mission dialogue
  • Fixed a typo in mission dialogue
  • Re-setting the local selected character before attempting to retry joining session. This should fix the issue with auto-retries failing
  • Added logging within the User Interface to see whether or not menus are recorded as being shown when they're not visible, thus disabling the mouse input on death screen
  • Fixed the logging so it doesn't spam every frame
  • Fixed error caused by player leaving during an AI spawn check
  • Fixed combo widget crash when the selected value doesn't exist
  • Actors outside the world bounds during generation will now be assigned the closest generated level as their owner
  • Black Wolf Knife is now correctly repaired by Black Wolf Teeth
  • Add ProjectionLocation component to Caveworm loot drop sack to fix the widget being offset due to initial spawn offset
  • ICESTORM: Fixed visual bug that would reset the mission progress of the device activation step
  • Improved drop ship spawn point selection (tied to large AI navmesh, custom EQS with 5 point trace)
  • Fixed Roasted Vegetables modifier using ProjectileDamage instead of BaseProjectileDamage
  • Add DT Validation to modifier states to catch non-Base stat usage
  • Fixed logging always showing as white colour instead of colours based on error codes
  • Remove Durable trait from Shengong Canteen to match other water vessels
  • Fix Shengong Canteen weighing 100g when it should be 1000g
  • Fixing missing Fillable Type data from Larkwell Canteen
  • Adding initial color selection functionality to Portable Beacon. Disabled while UX is being worked out
  • Spawn mission reward ships closer to players
  • Zero post process blend weights for cold/heat to when dead
  • REMNANT: Fixed case where scans could be marked as incomplete after a relog
  • Fixed issue where unmined voxels that had been regenerated weren't updating for clients until mined/damaged
  • Added new gamplay setting to disable camera shake
  • Decrease opacity of Thumpers search area map icon
  • Fixed Thumper SearchArea map element not being cleaned up correctly after a prospect reload.
  • Tweaked colour of Thumper Map Icon.
  • Thumper now uses correct map icon row
  • Added VFX and placeholder audio to Thumper damage deactivation event
  • Reversing sizemograph animation so it spins the correct way
  • Added UnsupportedDeployable weight option, which ensures the deployable is not supported by any building pieces by setting a very very high weight. - Changed Thumper deployable weight to UnsupportedDeployable
  • Prefer dropship spawn point closest to the drop ship beacon when calling dropship via beacon
  • Fix an issue with cursor focus in the Report An Issue popup (irony) when retroactively editing
  • Prevented Hedgehog defense structures from having their mesh set to their destructible mesh if it wasn't configured, this prevents them turning invisible below half health
  • Updated OLY level blueprint to remove references to old persistent level data in WorldData struct
  • Fix an issue where crop plots placed on a floor did not register as outdoors
  • Ensure orbital transport pod spawn position is correctly replicated to clients
  • Fixed error message popup on title screen not appearing
  • Added loading screen to show when attempting to auto-rejoin a server after losing connection via error 65
  • Fixed error message popup on title screen not appearing
  • The thumper now doesnt allow activation when within a cave or water
  • Adding thumper electric shutdown audio, warning alarm and sonar pulse and blueprint info
  • Re-enabled Thumper activation in caves. Thumper should now correctly spawn cave worms and land sharks within caves.
  • Added cheat to mine all voxels in a radius around player
  • Added Thumper map icon to datatable
  • Adjustment to thumper warning and placement. Re adding sounds to BP
  • Set durability on Orbital Exchange Interface (now correctly takes damage and can be repaired)
  • Removed incorrect FactionMission.Blocker gameplay tag from communications boards
  • Fixed scan mission radars acting like normal radars.
  • Fixed an issue with water pump components not activating correctly sometimes
  • Clamp greenhouse benefits for crops to +50%
  • Changed the way greenhouse buffs and indoor debuffs are applied to crops
  • Fixed short range radio tooltip not appearing when highlighted, also fixed tooltips for other future communication deployables
  • Dynamic quest "Crazed Creature" now teathers to its spawn point so it doesnt stray far from its icon.
  • Fixed auto-retry join server load overlay not appearing
  • Fixed auto-retry join server crash
  • Fix some wall torches do not show as sheltered when inside
  • Player dropships now topple any large trees in the way when landing
  • Added settings option to change display gamma / brightness
  • Reduced radius in which dropship topples trees in landing zone 500->275

Future Content

  • ADDING lava hunter flinch vocals, event and data table entries
  • Added missing DMs for SW_Blackberry_Bush variants
  • Polish pass on GL macros, cliff and rock materials
  • Adding lava hunter death audio event and data table entries
  • Set WT_RiverSpline to generate frozen rivers, added PM to Frozen Materials
  • Added new material for base of scoria and obsidian nodes to blend better with LC biom
  • Transition Cave P1-P2 Set Dressing & Placement of Voxel Transition Cave in on Purple Quad, DLC Map
  • Foliage pass on Blue and Green Quads and Added Rocks on Cliff Edges, Prometheus
  • Added art assets and animations for DEP_Enzyme Cannon to the projec
  • Generate LODs for several Prometheus Generated sublevels
  • Add utility widget for deleting certain actors from generated heightmaps for LOD generation process
  • Painted FT_Aloe_Vera in Swamp biome and replaced breakable Scoria and Obsedian in vulcanic biome pt.2, Purple Quad, DLC
  • Adjusted tesselation on landscape material and LC landscape decals
  • polish pass on SW, TU, GL CanyonWall materials and textures
  • Expose Lava Lights bool on WT_RiverSpline for WBs to use to enable lava lights on specific rivers
  • Setup FT_LC_Stones, Added Deep Ore And Cave Clean Up in P2 on Purple Quad, DLC
  • Cleand up and re-painted breakeable Obsedian closer to lava and Scoria more in-land around p2, Purple Quad, DLC
  • Added DEP_Bench_Fishing_T2 with selectable meshes
  • Adding Lava Hunter aggro state vocalisations and event and Data Table Entries
  • polish pass on swamp rock materials, added new texture for moss breakup
  • Added Exotics, Turned on Lava Lights on the Lava Rivers & Spawned LC stone FT in Lava Area on Purple Quad, DLC 1
  • Placed respawn ships and did some general clean up of resources, decals and cliffs, p2 Purple Quad, DLC
  • Lowering spawn rate for all swamp creature idle sounds to accomodate for large amounts of creatures spawning
  • Tundra Rocks - polish pass on TU macro materials
  • GL Rocks - material parent fixes to GL stalagmites
  • Swamp Rocks - material polish, plus parent fixes for cave floor mats
  • Generate some more LODs for Prometheus generated sublevels and tweaks to tooling
  • removed and replaced CF meshes in tundra biome, blue quad
  • Updates to the lava Hunter anims
  • River Cleanup and Polish on Green Quad, Fixed Ponga Trees on Megatree Prefabs and Flushed Grass on Yellow, Blue and Green Quads, Prometheus
  • Add Lava Flow Points to P2 LC Area & Flushed Grass on Purple/Red, DLC
  • added volcano landscape mesh, material, textures
  • Adding lava hunter vomit loop start and end splat to trigger when event starts and ends

Icarus Week Sixty Two Update | Regenerate ore with the new Thumper

Week Sixty Two introduces our largest deployable yet, the ore-regenerating Thumper.

The Thumper allows you to regenerate harvestable Ore deposits in its vicinity. Standing at 16 feet tall, the Thumper is a large and powerful item, and provides a lucrative payoff for those seeking more Ore for their endeavours.

Jump in and have a read.



Thumper



The ‘Thumper’ is a new deployable device we’re introducing to tackle the problem of resource scarcity, especially in Open World mode. This is the first of two items we’re adding, with this one focusing on Ore resources (but not Stone or Deep Ore Veins). In future, ways to regenerate trees are planned.

This is one of the largest deployables in the game so far, standing at over 16 feet tall, so it’s a sight to behold and truly earns its name. You can craft the Thumper in Tier 4 at the Fabricator, with a high production cost but potentially endless rewards.

The Thumper requires an electrical connection to activate, currently 1500W. It’s best deployed in an area where you have previously mined all the available ore, and can be activated and paused at your leisure with no cooldown on it being used multiple times.

On the interface, you can see the expected regeneration output from the Thumper's deployment and what kind of threats you might expect to face by using it. Did we say threats? Well understandably, a 1980 pound device slamming an extremely heavy weight into the ground and disturbing the surrounding environment will draw unwanted attention and the immense noise and vibrations will spur retaliation - so be on your guard.

The more Ore available, the bigger the impact on the surrounding environment, so expect more opposition when taking on lucrative deposits in densely populated areas.

The machine itself won’t damage players, but will disrupt the environment with dust clouds and more that could impair your vision and hearing.

The Thumper will regenerate nearby Ore nodes, but won’t regenerate Stone deposits or Deep Ore Veins. The reason for this is that we implement Stone voxels and deep ore veins differently than Ore voxels, which you can see in the different visual design of them. This meant that technically this system wouldn’t work on them as well as ore voxels, but also wasn’t required, as the sheer volume of available Rock deposits dwarfs that of Ore deposits, and deep ore provided a consistent stream of resource.



The design intent behind the Thumper



Ore Regeneration has been highly requested by the playerbase for a while, especially from those who have large bases in Open World mode or are investing in Tier 4 technology. We asked for patience as we didn’t want to include it as a ‘standard feature’ or automatic process in the game, but rather add it as a well designed new feature and a new planetary technology.

Environmental terraforming is a key part of Icarus' lore, and having resources refresh quietly in the background didn’t sit right with us when you consider the large scale impact it can have. Besides, UDA scientists would never miss an opportunity to mess with the planet some more if they could.

Associating respawning with a machine that you craft and deploy is important for the player experience too. We felt this provides a sense of control and some tactical choices to where and when you respawn resources, rather than it being automated or something you didn’t actively notice happening.

Like so many decisions in Icarus, adding a 'risk/reward' factor to using the Thumper involves a strategic tradeoff. Is the risk of disrupting the environment worth the effort and are you prepared for it?

As mentioned above, we’re also working on ways for plantlife to respawn in a future update.



Help translate Icarus into your language



We are seeking motivated and passionate individuals to join our volunteer localization team to help bring Icarus to more countries.

Right now we are only seeking volunteers for German and Russian, but other languages may be considered in future. By volunteering you will be helping us to make our game accessible to a wider audience, and contribute to the growth and success of Icarus community as a whole.

Furthermore, you will have the chance to connect with like-minded individuals and form new relationships in a supportive and collaborative environment. You can translate as little or as much as you want, whenever you can.

So, if you are fluent in English and German or Russian and have a passion for language and gaming, we encourage you to apply today and become a part of our localization team! You can find the link here: Icarus Translation Team Application Form

Please ensure that you have joined the Survive Icarus Official Discord when applying.

Only successful applicants will be contacted.



Changelog v1.2.37.107436



New Content

  • Adding in pass on landshark tweaks and swapping out thumper mesh for proper version, adding in entries for unique projectile for landshark with modifiers to be hooked up
  • Added power connection requirement to thumper. Set up animations and placeholder VFX/Screen Shake on thumper
  • Adding audio to the thumper
  • Updating Thumper Name and Description
  • Adding Talent for Thumper and Unlocking Recipe
  • Adjusting Thumper Minimum Time and adding ability for players to Pause the Thumper
  • Added Thumper icon to D_Itemable
  • Adding back context for Thumper device and hooking up to D_Meshables
  • Adjustments to Thumper VFX, add working and final thump NS
  • Adding in unique modifier for the landshark spit poison and adding in telegraphing for the dive attacks
  • Added new in-world tooltip for Thumper
  • Added ability to override default tooltip widget class
  • Increased recipe cost of Thumper device
  • Increase carry weight of the Thumper Device to do its size justice
  • Added retreat death animation to LandShark. Added 'risk level' info to Thumper tooltip that gives an indication of how difficult the process will be. Added Thumper-related UMG text to ST_UMG. Doubled health of LandShark. Thumper now cleans up dead worms
  • Thumper device no longer affected by weather
  • Fixed bug where regenerated voxels would need to be manually updated by mining them to force their mesh to update to the 'reset' visual state
  • Increased initial connection timeouts for all net drivers to 3 minutes to reduce potential connection issues with joining dedicated servers
  • Increased initial connection time out to 3 minutes. This should reduce cases of error 61's when trying to join a server
  • Fixed bug where a prospector dying in one prospect then beginning a new prospect would cause the prospector to drop in an already dead state
  • Updating landshark dive attack audio to be more appropriate for an attack
  • Fixing normal issue due to Unreal Computing normals instead of manually importing then with the Skeletal Mesh
  • Added a reset to the DBNO logging on death
  • Making unique asset for the Landshark death to use correct audio, upped the damage of its projectiles slightly and added in stamina action cost to the poison modifier
  • Increase radius on Thumper screenshake effect from 10m to 15m
  • Changing the Landshark ranged modifier to be cured with antibbiotics and added a modifier to the dive attack
  • Adding unique landshark death movement event to sync up with new death animation. Adding notifier
  • Optimize Thumper GroundImpact effect
  • Adding heavy metal deploy sound to Thumper
  • Added more logging and fixed another case where auto-retry joining was failing during an error 65
  • Increased thumper effect radius.
  • Added map icon and radius to indicate thumper location & effect radius.
  • Thumper tooltip now displays voxel count instead of raw resource count.
  • Increased maximum thumper event duration.
  • Increased maximum LandShark spawn count per event.
  • Fixed bug where LandShark dive attack could a target twice.
  • Thumper is now deactivated when it takes 20% total health damage (since last activation)
  • Fixed extraction mission progression blocker UI presentation and detection steps.
  • Fixed hidden sort UI to not hide title of container.
  • LandShark dive now has a chance to apply a new modifier debuff.
  • Increased resource count to reach maximum thumper difficulty again, increased maximum number of land sharks at highest difficulty.
  • Added new pulse material effect when first placing thumper down
  • Added a more suitable specific soundset and event for the landshark dive.
  • Adjusted timing of notifiers
  • Added a more suitable specific soundset and event for the landshark dive. Adjusted timing of notifiers
  • Fixed issue where AI running on behaviour trees (LandShark, ScorpionBoss, SandWorm) weren't correctly removing their attack stats after attack animation finishes
  • Land Shark boss melee attack: Fixed blood thinning paste not applying to the debuff duration
  • Land Shark boss spit attack: Lowered the movement speed and physical resistance penalties, increased the stamina action cost penalty
  • Thumper: Removed glass from recipe cost
  • Fixed a typo in the Thumper description

Fixed

  • Fixed issue where deployables in pre-built structures wouldn't load in correctly
  • Fixing all affliction trigger percent chance stats and affliction triggers so that resistance reduces the chance of getting an affliction instead of increasing it (Cave Dwweller Alteration is now Fixed)
  • Adding Cheat for Triggering Afflictions
  • Fixes for client-side replication of regenerated voxel rocks. Voxels that have been regenerated into a new resource type now have their new type replicated to clients correctly. Re-enabled support for reinitialisation on mineral voxels
  • Fixed bug where venomous fish would continue to be able to attack the player after they had left the water
  • Added temporary logging for testing if camera movement is being allowed on death
  • Fix an issue where the weather forecast would reset the pattern index if saved, then loaded, then saved, then loaded after the initial forecast, past the first block and save/load/save/load during the same block

Future Content

  • Painted Yeast Plant and Reed Flowers in Swamp biome, pt2 Purple Quad, DLC
  • Adding Ponga Audio, event and data table entry
  • Fixed GeothermalSplines 2nd layer being generated multiple times
  • Finished Leveling Out Landscape Under Lava Rivers/Lake on P2 Area Purple Quad, DLC Map
  • Small adjustments to lava hunter notify timings
  • Tonal adjustments to a few of the lava hunter layers
  • Update Prometheus map image textures to reflect world changes and fix missing lava rivers. Texture settings fudged to alleviate dark image output prior to final art pass
  • Update Prometheus heightmap image textures to reflect changes to world layout. Ensured settings match Oly/Styx
  • Collision, LODs, optimization of SW, TU, GL Cliff meshes and materials
  • UnPainted Yeast Plant and Reed Flowers, Added Mushroom on Hollow Trunks Purple Quad, DLC
  • Foliage pass on Blue and Green Quads and Added Multiple New PFS Prometheus
  • Painted Green Tea in Swamp biome, Wild Tea and Cocoa in Lava biome, pt2 Purple Quad, DLC
  • Adding Lava Hunter vomit start sounds, event and notify
  • Update GOAPDebugger to output Relationship data
  • BatDogs are no longer hostile towards other AI types
  • Adding lava hunter vomit loop, event and anim loop notify
  • Transition Cave P1-P2 Set Dressing & fixing bugs on purple on Purple Quad, DLC Map
  • Foliage pass on Blue and Green Quads, Prometheus
  • Remove ProjectionLocation component from Flax BPs
  • Correct LOD settings on numerous Prometheus foliage assets to fix meshes from billboarding way too soon
  • Adding additional vomit throat gargle layer for lava hunter
  • convex hull collision for SW, GL, TU Macro Top meshes
  • Painted Beans and Cocoa in Lava biome, pt2 Purple Quad, DLC
  • Cleand up and re-painted breakeable Obsedian closer to lava and Scoria more in-land around p2, Purple Quad, DLC
  • SW Cliffs - re-imported Cliff_03 (SW, GL, TU) to fix positioning in map
  • Initial partial pass for Generated LODs for Prometheus. Still very much WIP
  • Fixed fishing trap using an invalid inventory id (none)
  • Polish pass on thumper audio
  • Added ability to collapse the log window with the Escape key and added Logging to the server lobby window
  • convex hull collision for SW, TU, GL macro meshes
  • Weather Device VFX Prototype
  • Adding Lavahunter Roar sounds, event and data table entry
  • Transition Cave P1-P2 Set Dressing & Decal Pass in P1 Area on Purple Quad, DLC Map
  • Adding Lava Hunter Attack sounds and data table and anim notifys
  • Reduced The Amount of Aloe Vera On the map and Continued With Foliage Pass, Blue and Green Quad, Prometheus

Icarus Week Sixty One Update | Fixes for Week 60’s Weather Systems

Week Sixty One focuses on correcting issues that arose from our Week Sixty update, something our community was vocal about and helped us to act on quickly.

Weather events and the system that operates them have been scaled back and improved. We haven’t scrapped the changes altogether, allowing us to keep the positive elements and strip out the ugly parts.

The irony isn’t lost on us that only hours after releasing this update, our home city of Auckland was hit by the worst storm in its history and promptly flooded.

Thankfully our team is OK and this week's update also includes a large performance optimization focusing on ‘ticking’ (described below). We expect this improvement to be more noticeable on lower-end PCs and large Open World bases.

Have a read, and stay dry team!



Weather Fixes



We’ve spent a week adjusting our new weather systems with all the feedback you have given us. This has been incredibly valuable, and we’re grateful for your constructive suggestions and candor.

  • Weather now generates one event per weather block
  • Weather ‘Blocks’ are now longer (often twice as long or more)
  • Reduced frequency of weather events to a more reasonable and manageable amount
  • Weather events are now picked again via the ‘weighted list’ system, rather than a rolling queue
  • The Weather Forecast has been extended to three days
  • Reduced and rebalanced the severity of weather in various prospects



These changes aim to provide a balance between reverting overwhelming elements of the new system, while still improving the new system with feedback so features such as the Weather Forecast and storm severity are kept.



Optimizations



We’re introducing some new performance optimizations that our team has been hard at work, looking at some of the areas we discussed in Week 59.

One word you’ll see a lot through these optimizations is ‘tick’ or ‘ticking’.

Ticks are an action that game objects perform, typically multiple times per second. Reducing the number of things done by each object every tick, reduces the strain on the CPU and therefore improves performance. Likewise, reducing the number of objects that tick also means better performance.

  • Fixed the loading of certain assets during gameplay that could cause hitches. These were being loaded, used, and then released for garbage collection every few seconds
  • Optimized the 'atmosphere controller' to rely more on cached data
  • Optimized building pieces to cache several ‘commonly-accessed’ data table values
  • Weather events now use cached building data, reducing hitches when the system is calculating which building pieces to damage in storms
  • Building pieces no longer ‘tick'. Any ticking logic that they previously had (such as updating stability), is now controlled by their 'owning grid’ and has their calculations spread across multiple frames. When loading prospects with large amounts of building pieces these operations would previously sync up and cause noticeable hitches multiple times per second
  • Nativized (converting Unreal Engine Blueprint code into C++ to improve efficiency) several building grid background tasks, which are now managed by an ‘owning system’ that evenly spreads these tasks between all building grids. This evens out performance with large numbers of different building grids present in the world
  • Optimized the spline system used by electrical/water pipe systems
  • Optimized deployable objects and benches. Deployables now have a custom ticking system that groups all of the deployables together to reduce CPU overhead
  • Removed the tick process from almost all 'trait components' that were present on items in the game




Under Development: Resource Respawning



An upcoming feature that some of you have seen in the detailed changelog is our resource respawning options. While this is not releasing this week, we are working on the behind-the-scenes technology for deployable items that will respawn various resources.

Firstly, we have upgraded and optimized the way we create and render caves. We are also re-running our entire world generation, which will ultimately add regeneration capabilities to voxels, trees and plants.

In the coming weeks, two new items are to be introduced that will allow players to respawn voxels and flora.

This has been a highly requested feature ever since the release of our Open World game mode. We’ve put a lot of thought into introducing this feature in a way that adds to the experience without detracting from performance. We can’t wait to share it soon.



Changelog v1.2.36.1071213



Fixed

  • MAELSTROM: Added respawning to explosive loot container
  • Improve shadow settings validation for FLOD. Fix FT/BP assets to make sure their shadow settings match (disable shadows in AC assets as it is too harsh). Unified settings on lots of FTs back to default
  • AVALANCHE: Increased size of travel location for preceeding through pass step. Updated highlight text for placement location of laser
  • FORSAKEN: Fixed Damaged Gyroscope tagging to ensure this goes into the ship's gyroscope slot. Removed additional inventory slots, preventing items from being placed in inaccessible slots
  • First pass at optimising weather audio system. Create a weather audio subsystem to manage weather controller events centrally and distribute updates to weather audio components much more efficiently
  • Fix Flashlight and Biofuel Lamp being extinguished when the player is submerged
  • RESURGENCE: Updated last quest step to require returning to the dropship, rather than the original ship location. Updated other quests steps capitilization
  • Fix several issues which were causing tree fall sounds to behave incorrectly for clients on dedicated servers, and fix cypress tree landing sounds sometimes not playing the correct surface for clients
  • Update voxel final hit audio behaviour to work with voxel re-initialisation changes
  • Added a few more cases for the shield to delete itself on the off chance that the shield is not being deleted
  • Tweaked storm prediciton timings to reduce frequency of back to back storms.
  • Added additional initial storm steps and applied to specific missions
  • Doubled the likelyhood of cosmetic storms appearing. This is mainly for Tier 0 / easy difficulties to have a significantly increased likelihood of cosmetic storms
  • Fixed multiple async load warnings
  • Fixed loading of certain assets during gameplay that could cause hitches
  • Optimised deployable objects/benches. Deployables now have a custom ticking system that groups all of the deployables execution together to reduce CPU overhead
  • Optimised atmosphere controller to rely more on cached data
  • Optimised building pieces to cache several commonly accessed data table values
  • Building pieces no longer tick. Any ticking logic that they previously had, such as updating stability, are now controlled by their owning grid and are processed across multiple frames. When loading prospects with large amounts of building pieces these operations would previously sync up and cause noticeable hitches multiple times per second
  • Nativised several building grid background tasks which are now managed by an owning system that evenly spreads these tasks between all building grids. This evens out performance with large numbers of different building grids present in the world
  • Removed tick from almost all trait components that were present on almost every item in the game
  • Optimised spline system used by electrical/water pipe systems
  • Weather events now use cached building data, reducing hitches when calculating which building pieces to damage in storms
  • Multiple other small optimisations
  • Swapped Flash Storm and Storm weather event tiers.
  • Reduced Tier4 storm building damage during chaos events (still damages the same types of buildings, but for less damage)
  • Range check and curve check when using SetTimeScale cheat (internal dev only/editor only)
  • Updated Weather Generation based on adjusted design and feedback, reduced frequency of weather events back to a more reasonable amount
  • Weather is now picked again via a weighted list
  • Weather now generates one event per weather block
  • Weather Forecast has been extended to 3 days
  • Weather Blocks are now doubled in length
  • Removed unused functions and variables after WeatherForecasting refactor and added more logging
  • Fixed new modifiers moving across the screen, blocking reticule at 6 modifiers
  • Fixed crash caused by components being removed from Deployables before they have unregistered with the deployable manager
  • Tweaked storm frequency, adding in longer periods of quiet and more varied durations on weather forecasts
  • Fixed potential issue with Error 65 reconnection and added additional logging around fail states
  • Reduced default logging level of LogModifierState to reduce spam
  • Reduced the severity of many early game missions in Olympus and increased some midgame missions that were using the easiest forecast.
  • Tweaked ABYSS storm timings to help provide windows of opportunity
  • ModifierStateContainers within MountInterface and Player Inventory now have a subtle pulsing animation when modifiers are added, instead of playing the normal animated transition
  • Move to system that loads/saves all weather events at the forecast block level
  • Weather forecast will reset for existing saves
  • Fixed bug where mission-specific out-of-bounds mask would override map-based out-of-bounds mask; This would cause issues where player dropships could land out of playable areas on certain Olympus missions
  • Fixed several crash bugs caused by optimisations to buildings and deployables
  • Added an extra null check when displaying debug data about loading a bad data table row as this could cause a crash if it was in a really bad state
  • Final tidy up for Weatherforecasting
  • Fixing Extractors and Drills not ticking and extracting resources
  • Fix an issue where the weather forecast would reset the pattern index if the game was saved+loaded at the exact start time of a weather block
  • Fixing Crop Plot Glasshouse buffs being multiplied everytime they are checked
  • Fixing Crop plot glasshouse percentage increase not being presented on clients correctly
  • Reduced tier of the initial rough landing forecast.
  • Reduced duration of the initial middle ground and mini-ramp forecasts, this will result in slightly quicker storms for those prospects
  • Temporarily removed building stability queue optimisation as it causes stability to behave erratically

Future Content

  • Setup 3 new caves for Inital Testing, Purple Quad, Prometheus
  • Adjustments to spacizliser settings of T3 / T4 communicator
  • Volcanic Rocks - disabled complex collision on LC_Cavefloor 01-03
  • Adding T2 Communicator audio and adjusting BP implimentation for all communicators audio
  • Small communicator audio tweaks
  • Adding new Notifier to Deployable Base / Deployable Subsystem
  • Adjusting Promethus Story Mission 1 to work with Audio and Quest Steps
  • Adding an LC_GrassB set of Red Grass assets that are more sparse than the GrassA variants, for better blending of grassy areas
  • Adding more bones to data table for some creatures death fall and small adjustment to better reflect various creatures death fall size
  • Added skeletal mesh for the exotic tree device as well as a starting animation and a looped harvesting animation
  • Swamp Rocks - LOD materials, convex hull collision on SW, GL, TU CanyonWall meshes
  • Building Transition Cave from P1 to P2 Area on Purple Quad, DLC Map
  • Started New Small Lava cave and Did a Foliage Pass On Green Quad, Prometheus
  • First pass generation of Prometheus Landscape LODs
  • Voxel placement pass, added and edited cliffs, p2 Purple Quad, DLC
  • Adding correct creature in AI table for the swamp quad mount and zebra mount. Adjustments to the footstep layers
  • Further fine tune and adjustments to quad footstep layers. Balanced mud vs dirt etc
  • Added placeholder thumper item. Previously mined Voxels now support reinitialisation to original, unmined state
  • Adding correct harvest sound to green tea leaf bush
  • Added water immersion parameter to creature audio world movement sound, to help with soundset of low creatures moving through shallow water
  • Adding needler water immersion movement sounds
  • Transition Cave volumes added, added cliffs around macros & added voxels to P2 on Purple Quad, DLC Map
  • Added New Small Lava Cave and Did A Foliage Pass On Both Blue and Green Quad, Prometheus
  • Swamp Rocks - LOD materials, convex hull collision on SW, GL, TU Cliffs 10-12
  • Added first pass thumper mechanics to deployable BP
  • Added first pass of LC_DragonTree_Var1, including FTs and BPs, as well as Chopped and Burnt versions
  • Added DEP_Thumper with animation
  • Voxel placement pass, added and edited foliage, p2 Purple Quad, DLC
  • Added split log meshes for LC_DragonTree
  • Added Tomato plant highlight text
  • Added ActorPrefab and ActorPrefabAsset classes to set up the new prefab system for replacing cave templates
  • Added BP_ActorPrefabFunctionLibrary which will handle all coversions from prefab data to world actors
  • Added CavePrefab to replace the current CaveTemplate implementation
  • Converted all cave templates assets to prefabs
  • Replaced cave templates on every outpost and Olympus/Styx levels
  • Added support for prefab generation during the world generation process
  • Leveling Out Landscape Under Lava Rivers/Lake on P2 Area & Cave Template Fixes Purple Quad, DLC Map
  • Foliage Pass For Swamp and Grasslands and Fixed Some Broken Deep ore Deposits, Blue and Green Quad, Prometheus
  • Replaced cave templates with prefabs on Terrain 019 Red/Yellow quads
  • Added Mega Tree Prefabs to be used in Terrain 019
  • Converted all tree levels to Mega Tree Prefabs
  • Cave template utility now supports creating tree prefabs
  • Flushed grass on Outpost 008
  • Placed breakeable Obsedian and Scoria around p2, Purple Quad, DLC
  • Replaced cave templates with prefabs on the rest of Terrain 019
  • Added missing cave prefab for Terrain 019
  • Added LC_SucculentTree with 3 variants, including FTs, BPs and Data Table entries
  • Promethus Mission 2 Cave worms now do not continue to spawn and adding a quest step to clear them out
  • Promethus Mission 2 Fixing Dialogue Ordering on Quests, and Adding Interaction Quest Step
  • Fixing Initial Quests not always calling QuestStarted as they should be doing
  • Adding in inital Lava Hunter assets, anims and rig
  • Initial pass for tooling to find floating world objects
  • Added new LandShark creature with first pass of behaviour set
  • Leveling Out Landscape Under Lava Rivers/Lake on P2 Area & Swapped Out Tree Template Purple Quad, DLC Map
  • Foliage Pass On Green Quad and Swapped BP Mangrove Trees for Prefab Trees , Green Quad, Prometheus
  • Added BP_MegaTreePrefab to the list of approved actors
  • Placed breakeable Obsedian and Scoria around p2, Purple Quad, DLC
  • Cleand up breakeable Obsedian and Scoria, foliage and cliffs around p2, Purple Quad, DLC
  • Increase Thumper Albedo textures to 4k as device is huge and needs the increased texel density. Add 'On' material variation and removed emissive setup from base material
  • Fixed generation issues on 2nd layerof Geothermal Splines
  • Resaved datatable to resolve build validation
  • Adding Lava Hunter bite attack movement audio and event and anim notify
  • Deleting old cave template assets
  • Removed IsEditorOnly from ActorPrefabFunctionLibrary since it had strange warnings during cook
  • Adding Lava Hunter out of lava movement audio and event and anim notify
  • Resaved datatable to resolve build validation.. again
  • Adding lava hunter death anim notify and lay egg audio and notify
  • Added LC_JoshuaTree with 3 variants, including FTs and BPs and Data Table entries
  • Adding Lava Hunter general move sounds and event and heavy slam event
  • Leveling Out Landscape Under Lava Rivers/Lake on P2 Area Purple Quad, DLC Map
  • Moved Super Kooled ice from all non iced surfaces and Foliage Pass on Blue and Green Quads, Prometheus
  • Added various scaling mechanics to Thumper spawn events. Thumper spawning is now scaled by the amount of resources that will be regenerated. LandSharks will now spawn at high Thumper event difficulties. Fixed Unity build issue with WorldStatsSubsystem.h missing include. Added extra validation check inside ProspectSubsystem.h to prevent crash when accessing during game init
  • Painted Reed Flowers and Yeast Plant in Swamp biome, pt2 Purple Quad, DLC
  • Fixed mega trees generating at 0,0,0
  • Move BP_MegaTreePrefab from approved class to ignored class so spawned trees in the world aren't doubled
  • LC Terraces - adjusted material to better blend with surrounding rocks - WIP
  • Adding lava hunter unique whoosh and unique stabber attack events and sounds and anim notifys
  • More lava hunter attack sounds and footstep notifiers
  • Thumper event can now change the resource type of regenerated voxels, but only to resource types that were already supported at that location
  • Adding Lava Hunter unique lava footstep audio and event
  • Leveling Out Landscape Under Lava Rivers/Lake on P2 Area Purple Quad, DLC Map
  • Swaped The Final Megatrees into the Prefabs and Did a Foliage pass on Blue and Green Quads, Prometheus
  • Geothermal banks - added material and duplicated spline meshes for use at the bottom of the terrace pools
  • Fixed voxel-related crash when trying to reload old prospects
  • Made Thumper recipe Dev-only