So it’s been a long year with not so many changes. For that I apologize. There was almost a point where I was about to abandon this project, but then I read the positive comments and the encouragement from those who believe and I realize that I just couldn’t let you guys down.
So after the November update, I got to thinking… Are these tiny small updates really doing anything for the game? I mean there’s a bug fix there and a ease of life function here, but was it really bringing the game that much closer to completion? People like the concept of the game, but not really how it was implemented.
So an idea starting to spawn in the back in my head. What if… What if instead of releasing another meaningless patch in December I actually work on something more meaningful for the game, something that could change its entire direction. Something that would actually resemble the vision I had originally laid out.
Then the work began… I assembled a new team and began working on the new version of Landless throughout this month. Instead of working on another worthless patch, I’ve decided to take 10 steps back, in order to move 11 steps forward (That’s exactly how the saying goes…) I already have the content for the game, but what’s really in high deficiency is the coding aspect and the game design.
So I’m proud to let you know that I have not forsaken Landless and in fact will continue working on Landless to not become another cash grab indie developer who abandons their game at the first sign of trouble but instead a developer who understands the community and will do what it takes to finish the project no matter the obstacles.
This month we have been busy rebuilding Landless. A Landless you can play with your friends and random internet people. That’s right, the new version will have Multiplayer with a lot of fun PvE elements where surviving in a world without land will have more meaning and purpose. The singleplayer can be just as fun as multiplayer hence why we will be having a lot of PvE options. Now I know that I cancelled multiplayer, but I lied… So sorry about, it won’t happen again.
Now how will it work? Sometime in early 2019 we will be releasing a very barebone version of Landless with multiplayer in the experimental branch for those who wish to test the early stages of the new big update. Keep in mind rebuilding Landless and with multiplayer will be a long journey and require a lot of incremental updates to get to the level of content that the current Landless has. So I hope everyone will be patient with these big changes coming.
What does this mean for the current Landless version? It means we will not be adding anymore updates to the public version anymore, because all of our attention will be on the reconstruction project. It’s not a big deal because for the last year the patches were very negligible in improving the game anyways, so most people won’t even feel the absence of updates for the singleplayer version currently out.
What does this mean for old and new customers? New buyers of game can still play the original version and see the type of content we have the in game already and can get an idea of the concepts that will be in the new version. Old customers will still have access to the new version after it overtakes the old version as we are not trying to sell another game but redoing the same old one.
Definite changes in the new version coming:
Map will no longer be infinite but a set area. This will allow us to make a more detailed underwater world and make it easier to find other people in the game.
Players will no longer start on the iconic S.S. Landless boat that is featured as the game logo (Although it will be placed elsewhere), but instead set adrift on a small wooden raft desperately looking to survive.
Players will have a level and skill system.
Base defense and destruction will be greatly improved.
Why am I doing this? Someone once told me if you only do it for the money, your never going to complete something you love. So doing all this, is no longer for the money, but more of a self-determination to finish the game to my vision to its final entirety. Some people may say I’m an idiot for doing this, or that I should kill myself for making bad decisions. But none of that matters now, what matters is completing the Landless project the way it was meant to be.
Expect to hear from me sometime in January about the progress. And with that I bid you adieu for the holidays and the new years. Thank you to all those who have supported Landless, your faith in me means a lot and I will deliver on your hopes for this game.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year everyone!!!
-codeBullet
P.S. - Game will be going on sale for tis year's winter sale, Also if anybody needs to get a hold of me you can visit our discord.
Alpha 2.17 Update "Auto-Save" Black Friday Sale
Hey guys been awhile since last update. Wanted to let everyone know I'm still alive and still pushing updates. For questions about Landless' future you can view the "Game Is Not Dead" post in the discussions. Although the project has slowed down, I will keep pushing updates.
Alright so with new update we got a new auto save feature out so players won't be forced to go to the bed or the boat to save. Auto-Save is by default on. You can change the settings in the ESC options. You will see a tab called Auto-Save. From there you can adjust the intervals for auto-save or simply turn off. This save will overwrite your current save.
Patch Notes:
-Tooltip added for Map Icons on the large map, for players who had trouble understanding what the map icons meant, by hovering your mouse over them it will explain what they are such as "Waster Camp".
-When placing a home antenna on a pontoon, the map marker will now follow it on the minimap.
-When players hook an escort trading barge, it will remind players to bring back to towns to collect the reward.
-Updated game build to current unity build, this should also help increase performance.
Black Friday Sale will be starting today, wait for the steam event to start today if you wish to by Landless at a discount.
Dev Notes:
I will have some free time in December and I plan on having another update then as well. Also added Alpha 2.16 to legacy8 in the Beta Branch for anyone who experience problems in the new update they can revert their game version back to 2.16 using legacy8.
Thanks,
codeBullet
Alpha 2.16 Update "Enemy Escorts"
New enemy waster escorts added. Wasters will now sometimes escort supply barges from point to point. You can defeat the wasters and tow the supply barge back to either Leavenworth or Logansport. To the cranes where you would start trade missions.
Patch Notes:
-Salvage animations now playing correctly when removing buoys and trophies.
-Fixed ladders on the trade barges so they can be used from either sides.
-Scaled down enemy damage, this is so players can approach enemy camps and container ships easier.
-Fixed some minor graphical errors.
-Fixed store colliders in Logansport.
-Fixed mini leviathan's AI to be more smooth and responsive as well as some color corrections.
Dev Notes: I am now going to focus more now on polishing, bug fixing, and finishing the storyline. Updates are still coming so please be patient.
Alpha 2.15 Update “Fast Travel and Capturing Enemy Camps”
New Features:
Fast Travel - Player can now right click on the icons in the world map. By doing so a dialogue will appear telling you how much fuel will be consumed for that trip. If you have enough fuel you will be brought to the spot you picked. If you don’t you will be notified that you do not have enough fuel.
Notes: Keep in mind fast travel only uses the main boat, so the player will need to link everything together via the crane, if you wish to take your pontoon or base along for the fast travel.
Capturing Enemy Camps - When players kill all enemies in an enemy camp, that enemy camp will be added to the tributary homes list and when the player relogs, a merchant npc will be there instead of enemies.
Notes: This will allow players to clear areas of enemy spawns making more safe areas.
Patch Notes:
-Seaweed and junkpiles have been added to the underwater caves
-Boat buoyancy adjusted so less water will clip with the model when at 100% buoyancy
-Fixed map icons, they should no longer be stacking and also show the correct positioning. Correct positioning will only be fixed in new games, since old saves are using an old texture set.
-Color corrections
-Adjusted super white reflections to be less reflective
-Fixed abyssal worms to be damaged by the fusion cutter
-Fixed sitting in chairs etc
-Fixed 3rd person hotkey function, “z” should be working again if you are driving the boat from the front.
-Fixed abyssal worms health UI to update when damaged
CodeBullet
Alpha 2.12 Patch
Alpha 2.12 Patch
Patch Notes:
-Fixed player getting stuck into the boat’s floor while exiting
-Added icon to town trader
-Fixed NPC patrols in Leavenworth, patrol speed increased slightly.
-Diningware textures readjusted
-Leavenworth’s wood foundations texture has been corrected
-Fixed an error that was causing mild bugs like no death animations, or certain mechanics not working. The old fix was to save then reload to get rid of the error.
-Sealife speed and and swim height adjusted to allow players easier access
-Loot from the fallen drone from activating the jammer buoy is now working correctly
-Fixed Sonar Buoy, both buoys can now be activated by pressing F instead of hitting it the construction tool.
-Fixed underwater suit diving where sometimes players would collide with a building
-Player can no longer salvage enemy rafts until both enemies on it are killed
-Moved island rocks to another spot to give better passageway through the island
We’ve got more fixes on the way, please report them for faster fixes. We may not reply but we are checking every report.
Alpha 2.11 Patch
Patch Notes:
-Fixed capsizing of floating homes
-Fixed movement of enemy rafts and merchant rafts
-Fixed Ammunition Prices
-Added jump rocks near center of island to help players get on
We’ve got a big update today with a ton of fixes so get ready for these notes:
New Content:
New underwater caves have been added. They appear randomly throughout the world like encountering a Leviathan. However there has been a new quest chain added to go to pre designated one to continue the main storyline. The caves are still a work in progress, but players will be able to face some dangers in them.
New questline added. Players will now find a old man standing in the middle of Leavenworth by the name of Wet Willy. He will give a quick tutorial quest where you will talk to nearby NPC’s. For veteran players these will be help information you already know. When that is complete he will then task you with using the base defense satellite to locate the cave. From there he will tell you the location of the underwater cave (The non-random appearing one in the world)
Notes:
-Fixed freezing and crashing problems with the game, we’ve also better optimized the water physics in the game so it barely uses performance, before it was maxing out performance constantly.
-Players will now have to pay to dive at the towns, apparently the townsfolk were tired of you constantly damaging their diving suit without any compensation.
-3rd person view available for players when driving the main boat. This can be accessed by pressing “Z”. This is still in test version.
-More above head icons added to vendors to help players identify them quickly.
-Minimap icons added to the turtles
-Fixed a problem where players could not disembark from the boat after embarking from a longer distance.
-Players can now press “F5” to quick save. This save will count as saving from the main boat cabin.
-Missing Textures of the building parts have been reapplied
-Crafting with a liquid that needs a plastic bottle will now return a empty plastic bottle, unless of course you craft another type of liquid in that case you are using the same plastic bottle.
-A 2 second cooldown has now been added to eating, drinking, and healing. This will allow the animation to play and finish before using it again.
-Lighting changed on the A.D.S. to better show the interior and the exterior arms
-Hull epoxy has been added to the enemy raft loot tables when salvaging
-Boneyards added to the Leviathan underwater levels
-Cheat mode no permanently disables achievements in the save file you’re in, this can not be brought back even if you turn off cheat mode.
-Fixed diving at Logansport, game will no longer crash when doing so
-Angular fish patrols have been fixed and should now be properly working the underwater buildings and shipwrecks. As well as the players being able to kill them before they strike you.
-Tall rocks added to the underwater spawn table
-Light reflections added to the guns, ADS, and boat. This should make it easier to see the textures.
As always we will continue to keep updating Landless. Thank you for everyone's patience on fixing the game performance. We’re pretty confident about the optimizations now and hope you can now enjoy the game as intended.
Thank you,
CodeBullet
Experimental 2.02e1 Game Freeze Fixes
We've been getting your reports about the big freezes every 2 seconds and it seems it was caused by our new optimization to help greatly improve the performance of the game. Fortunately we've found the problem and have made a fix to it while still keeping the new optimization changes we did in the last patch.
However, we are not making this a hotfix but an experimental, because there are still a few more tests we want to run on it to make it perfect for the 2.10 update which I've posted here:
Also we have some other features we are testing for the update that is also in the experimental. In order to run the experimental branch, you can follow this video tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu_ZBRBLDMU
Be sure you select "open_experimental" when viewing all the choices. We will be releasing the new 2.10 update later this month and hope you'll enjoy :)
-CodeBullet
Alpha 2.02 Patch
Alpha 2.02 Patch
New patch out to fix some of the bugs from last release as well as some lingering ones.
Patch Notes:
-Building on islands fixed, will no longer place platforms below the surface
-Enemy AI’s fixed on the container ships, patrols and stationary enemies should be working correctly now
-Fixed angular fish spawns, players will now notice much more of them while exploring underwater ruins
-Shark spawn limits set for sharks attracted to hanging creatures
-Black box minimap icon fixed
-Abyssal worm particle colors changed to deep blue
-Putting ADS suit back on the crane should no longer freeze animations
-When player turns in “Baby took my shark” contract, player will automatically see dialog box explaining contracts
-Radio error message will now read “Must Finish Baby Took My Shark Contract First To Use” instead of saying to finish the tutorial
-Sound FX added for when you salvage a enemy raft
-Sound FX added for when you finish torching a car wreck
-Sound FX added for when you use the water jets in suit
-Sprint Fixed
-Seaweed model changed to a 3D model
-Eating and Drinking animations now properly play when you use these item while holding a weapon
-Fixed enemies and merchant ships from flying
-Tutorial research beacon should no longer be spawning once player has completed the tutorial
Note: If you have any game problems, please email codebullet@protonmail.com for faster service. We can also help return missing buildings (i.e. your base disappears, etc) if you send us your save.
Thank you,
CodeBullet
Alpha 2.01 Update
Alpha 2.01 Update is Here!
As promised and right on time, here is our update. If you’ve watched our progress report on the 16th, then you’ll know what to expect. If not check it out to see, so you’ll know what to expect.
Steam Workshop is now functioning. Simply click on the Steam Workshop icon on the main menu. Click on the Show Creation UI, Select a folder you would like to store all your all workshop files. From there you will be given options to edit a variety of things for the game.
Cheat Mode: Press escape once in game and check the cheat mode box. After Which, use ctrl+f1 to bring up the menu. Press Alt to display/hide the cursor
Patch Notes:
-Message log displays notifying player to complete the tutorial before they can use the radio
-Message log displays notifying player to use destruction tool to dismantle enemy rafts
-Music added to starting scene
-Enemy raft AI will no longer avoid dead bodies
-Music has been removed from killing a shark
-Hanging creatures on the back of your boat now attracts aggressive sharks
-Fixed saving creatures hanging on back of boat
-Aiming and Zoom removed from the multi-tools
-Extended multi-tool range to prevent player having to crouch to hit object under them
-The eat and drink animations should now finish playing
-Fixed fire effect alignment for destroyed enemy turrets
-Sleep until the morning now restores health
-Fixed arrows, where prolonged play would make them not visible any longer, they should now always be visible, however will despawn over time if not picked up
-Tracker added to the World Map to display how many tributary homes you have and when you can collect tribute
-Fixed minimap icons for small floating cases
-Fixed enemy AI to look for players chest and not legs
-Boat health now displays temporarily everytime you repair the boat
-Loading screen loading dots have been brought back
-Optimized FPS for base defense around the island. Players will notice much better performance, However details have been reduced and the colliders are more blocky. We will slim it down overtime, but want to make sure everyone can enjoy gameplay around the islands.
