We didn’t want to keep you waiting for a full patch, so we’re doing a small “content push” to introduce the Cobra Walker! One of the questions we got on our community question form was Do you plan on adding specialized walkers in the future?, and we think this push answers it. The Cobra Walker is not the only Walker with a specific purpose we plan on adding in the coming months!
Patch Notes
Added Cobra Walker - a giant walking defense tower.
Fixed Rupu Slings attacking friendly players when private.
Fixed grappling hook collision issues on walkers.
Updated engine to UE 4.25. Various tweaks and improvements like performance, visuals, etc. (the reason for large size).
Cobra Walker
[previewyoutube="sck9Nm9wzzw;full"]
Like a cobra poised to strike, this Walker is great for players that want a more defensive playstyle. Drive this Walker around to the perfect spot where you can hunker down to brace for combat.
During the concept phase, the Cobra had wings. When thinking about organizing its movement and positioning, we replaced the wings with torque.
Here are just a few from our last round of questions. PLEASE NOTE: a bigger Q&A will be included in the Community Devlog at the end of the month.
Q: Have you planned any wipe after a "massive" update soon ? A: Stay tuned for an upcoming Community Devlog to hear more about what we have planned for the future!
Q: When can we expect a new big update? A: We’re aiming for a large update in October!
Q: In the last round of Community Questions it kind of looked like the Giant Worm isn't going to show up until next year. Was that a typo? A: No, it wasn’t a typo. We want it to become a meaningful and exciting part of the game that's connected to the world and other features. While we've put a lot of effort into the worm itself by now, we're planning to release a bigger worm-themed update instead of just the creature on its own.
Q: What proof do you need in regard to cheating before you act upon the individuals or groups that are cheating? A: You need to submit video proof when you file a cheater report. You can do that here: http://feedback.lastoasis.gg/
Q: What are you doing to address the ESP issue?
Patch 1.3.30923
- Increased probability of getting modules from volcanic lootsites. - Increased firebolt health.
- Fixed various client crashes. - Fixed some cases of getting stuck in walkers. - Fixed protection bubble being too small in some cases.
Volcanic Update Part 2 (Patch 1.3.2) & Community Update
This community devlog is kicking off a new format we want to follow moving forward. We want you, our community, to be more aware of things going on at Donkey Crew and within the community itself! There will always be the same basic structure to these, but there might be certain topics that we rotate through, depending on what we have to share that month.
There’s a lot in this post: notes on development, patch notes, community highlights, and a Q&A are just a few things you can expect to read.
Let’s start things off with information about the second part of the Volcanic update!
[previewyoutube="9RKqyz0_Z1g;full"]
When we first started development on the Volcanic theme, we knew that we wouldn’t release everything at once. We were simply too busy with all of the fixes and smaller patches. Now that we’re ready and for this second part of the Volcanic update, we’ve added in a few more new features:
Hose Station —Wanted to use fuel in more creative ways! This ties in directly with: Lava Fuel —Using these together create fuel puddles that can be lit to deal fire damage New Walker Wings —Skirmish, Rugged, Raider and expanded use of Heavy Wings Walker Modules —Fireproof, Harpoon Protection and Pack Speed —Only available on Volcanic maps, expands on current module system Gas Mask —Keep reading to hear from Thomas about the art process for designing this! —Head slot accessory that lowers damage from gases Obsidian Machine with Lava Fuel recipe to be used in Hose Station
If you want to see the full changelog for this patch, head over to this post.
TEAM UPDATES
For this team update, Art Director Thomas Fossgard wanted to share some insight into the art department’s development of the Gas Mask. Here’s what he has to say:
“Since we are starting with devblogs, I thought it would be interesting to answer this question: How does an asset get made? The Gas Mask seemed like a great example to use to illustrate what our creative process is like, and why we choose to take this approach.
The idea for a gas mask first got pitched as something to include in the Volcanic Update, after having been thrown around in various discussions earlier. Thematically, it was a good fit, so we decided to go for it.
Now from the perspective of the art department, at this point, “gas mask” is just a word. Every member of the team probably had a different image in their mind. Our job is to find an expression of the asset that fits the game, gameplay and style, as well as a host of technical requirements.
In this case, we had a lot of freedom and weren’t bound excessively by gameplay constraints. We knew it was supposed to be rather crude and disposable. When that’s the case, a good starting point is to narrow down the range of possibilities and establish some basic dogmas.
Some of the closest threats stylistically for Last Oasis come from three well established genres that we want to avoid: Classic Post Apocalyptic, Steampunk, and “Standard Medieval”. It’s always important that we push for our own thing, or risk confusion with other games and projects.
With these constraints, I requested that our concept artist Waclaw Wysocki collect some references, and modify them for our game:
He was set free to search and push, without any serious expectations of quality during this first step. It’s important to let the imagination roam without shame!
After Waclaw finished, it was time for selection. Personally I strongly favored no.7 because of its shape and novelty, where most of the others have been seen in variations in other projects. However, it had one problem: a very weak silhouette. Silhouettes are important in conveying information to other players that someone is wearing a gas mask. No.6, a “Plague Mask” with history stemming from the Black Plague and WWI contributions, clearly had the strongest silhouette, as well as resonating with the current Pandemic. However, I didn’t like the strong connotations to history so blatantly expressed. We are thousands of years into a forgotten future here!
Thankfully, the initial process of going for a wide variety rewarded us. We figured if we took some ideas from no.7 and no.2, specifically the fabric “windows” and ornamental threads, we would be much closer to something that could exist in Last Oasis. I requested Waclaw to keep developing some concepts based on no.6:
Note the style here has changed because these images had to be modeled and hand painted, as no direct references exist.
Decisions, decisions. The most original and simple mask won out: the middle bottom. From the choices we had, we picked elements from other masks to enhance it. Waclaw was asked to go for final concept:
He added in one last idea, too! Cool, but we preferred the simpler one. (When in doubt, go for the simplest solution!)
A concept artists primary job is not just to create impressive images, but to also prepare an idea for production. This means that it should strongly and clearly communicate all information that a 3d artist needs, with material references, and otherwise unclear details visible:
Finally, the object is given to our 3D artist Mateusz Gruszka for final interpretation. His responsibility is not only to be faithful to the concept, but to make sure the concept intention actually translates well to in-game look and feel. A game engine might wreak havoc with a model once game lighting, LOD’s, Mipmaps and actual screen size and scale has taken its toll.
Additionally, he must decide how performant he should make the object. The scale ranges from extremely time consuming for him to relatively straightforward but with non-optimal performance. During all of this he must keep the expression and intent of the object alive.
Being a 3D Artist is much much more than being able to make awesome models! It requires visual understanding, deeper technical knowledge, being able to plan workload and estimate for yourself, and good communication skills. Here’s the end result:
All in all, the process of even a simple asset is a multi staged, multi layered approach. We first try to create a low bar with room for bad ideas with some basic constraints. It’s incredibly important to keep emotions like pride and ego out of the early process, because they serve as blockers and points of conflict that rarely bring anything useful.
When there is time for discussion (which will happen anyway) we all share an understanding on how and why we got to the point we are at. This harbors a stronger, more defined base to continue forward and make a decision on what will become the final product.
So that’s the little story of the Gas Mask. I hope you enjoyed this look behind the curtain, and appreciate every little asset we work hard to deliver!”
Check out the private artstations of the artists who worked on Gas Mask here and here.
ROADMAP
We’re very, VERY excited to finally present our roadmap. This isn’t a definitive list of what’s going to come: things will change and things will be added as development of each theme progresses.
Want to see an 800 seat arena that took Jennaside 2,400 tiles, 840 clay, 1556 medium wood, and two weeks to build?
The process started with a 24 x 24 foundation and four watchtowers and has turned into the Shadows Fall Arena, stocked with two armories with HQ Walkers as prizes for the victors:
COMMUNITY QUESTIONS
We’ve asked members of our Discord to submit questions they have for the team. If you’re interested in participating in this, join our server to see whenever a new form is posted! discord.gg/lastoasis
We got over 240 questions for this round! We picked some we felt were important to answer. If the question you asked hasn’t been addressed yet, feel free to ask it again when we open up the next round. We will be keeping track of topics that come up the most as things to touch on in the future.
Producer Lucas and Community Lead Gladiator answer some of your questions in the following video, with more questions answered in text below!
[previewyoutube="en3l7bdmMUA;full"]
Q: Are there more points of interest planned?
A: We definitely plan on adding more points of interest in the future! We have some exciting things in store that we’re looking forward to working on and putting into the game! There will be more information about new content (like points of interest and many other things!) closer to when that patch would be released.
Q: When will we see a proper clan permissions system implemented?
A: We’ll keep adding new options to clan permissions overtime to make clan management more handy. With this next update, we’re adding in Discord integration, we’ve also fixed the bug where Walkers restricted to leaders could still be embarked by anyone in the clan. In the future, we will look into expanding clan permissions even more, so it’s more customizable.
Q: When are you gonna implement worm and shaman content?
A: The Shaman video we posted as just a side project that our video producer, Jakub, enjoys doing. It was not a teaser for any in-game content, but we were inspired by the positive response and you might see some things from it in the game at some point. The Sandworm will come later on, probably some time next year.
Q: Do you see yourself working on this game a year from now and do you have the proper funding to do so?
A: Considering we still plan on being in Early Access for at least a year from now, so we’ll definitely still be working on the game! We don’t want to give any hints at when full release will happen, but we absolutely plan on seeing it through to that and beyond.
Q: How often do you think there will be new content released? And what’s your announcement schedule?
A: Both our announcement schedule and release schedule are pretty fluid. This means that content updates (what we’re calling “Themes”) and their accompanying patch notes and write-up post could be two months or more apart, depending on what’s going into them. We plan on breaking each update into two parts, like we did with the Volcanic update. “Announcements”, like Devlogs, Community Updates, and Q&As will each happen once a month. It’s important to keep in mind that if we don’t make a post at “the usual time”, it doesn’t mean we abandoned anything: we’re hard at work putting something together that took more time than the usual post.
Q: Will developers show off more new upcoming content (new walkers, objects, maps, npc...), even if it is not finished yet in a weekly or monthly devblog to show the community that progress is being made?
A: We’re interested in bringing you, the community, into the process a bit more so you can see what we’re doing and how we do it. Hopefully this devlog gives you a good idea of the direction we’re planning on going with these posts. We don’t want to give away too much, but showing some visual development art or snippets from testing are things you can expect to see in future devlogs.
Q: What kind of plans are there for PvE content? Things to to do to drive more organic play / PvP like Dungeons or better POIs.
A: Moving forward, we want to focus a lot of our efforts on delivering more PVE content. We’re crafting new experiences that will consist largely of PVE content, taking advantage of our event maps while also looking to add more valuable PVE content to the persistent maps. We’re also working on additional systems and mechanics that make other playstyles more fun and viable inside the game to find more balance between PVE and PVP.
Q: Do you have one team working on bugfixing and another on content? or does the whole team focus on one thing at a time?
A: There are multiple teams working on all types of things at the same time. If we only focused on one thing at a time, it would slow the development process. While people do wear many hats and might work within other teams on certain projects, we have people working on bug fixes and improvements to the current game and people working on upcoming content. An Artist will be focusing on art, and coders will be focusing on bugs. Community and Marketing will focus on community and marketing.
Q: Is there a limit to how much the world map will shrink? If the playerbase keeps dwindling, will we be reduced to a few tiles and a map so small that a few jumps get you across the entire world? // will we reduce map size to accommodate the smaller playerbase?
A: The world map is dynamic, and will scale to match the number of active players. Due to Oasis Decay, it can take some time to see those changes happen.
Q: Multi tile access on private servers?
A: Multi tile access is something we’re going to be adding in the future, but we don’t have an ETA right now.
Q: Can you give some insight on your balancing process and how you decide if equipment is too strong or too weak, resource cost is too high, etc?
A: Data is gathered through community feedback and discussed with QA. That data is compared to design and balance documents where we take a look at why and how a mechanic was meant to be played and perceived and how it may have deviated from our initial concept. After that, we have a decision to make: is the mechanic still making the game enjoyable, or is it hindering players from having a good time?
When it comes to balancing and designing features before they’re even in a build and ready for testing, it’s some good spreadsheet magic, in-engine tools, hunches, and luck.
Q: When can we delete/rename/edit characters?
A: We’re going to be adding in the ability to rename and edit your character in the Commerce update. Currently, we don’t have a timeframe for when the option to delete a character will come back.
Q: Do you need any community given direction on what should be developed next?
A: We do keep an eye on what the community is saying when it comes to what they’d like to see in the game. While we have a general idea of what we want to implement for the next few updates, we do take community sentiment into account when shaping those ideas. We will keep pushing for an improved process for collecting feedback.
Q: Does each region have a community manager? And if not, why not?
A: Currently, we have one community lead that’s based in the US and moving to Poland when she’s able. We’re working on expanding our community team, though! In the long run, we’d love to have CMs for each region.
Q: Will the decline in the playerbase affect the development much? // Are you worried about the fall of an online game? Will you develop the game if there are few players?
A: Being in Early Access gives us a bit more wiggle room. While we absolutely want to see an increase in numbers, we know and would like you to understand that the game you’re playing is still in progress. We don’t plan on stopping development any time soon since we have a ton of exciting ideas to explore, and will be working hard towards our full release far down the road. We want to use this time in Early Access to take community feedback into account for development while we keep working towards our full release.
Q: Have the oceans dried up? Have they frozen? Will we ever be able to travel frozen, sunless tiles in pitch darkness? Would warm clothing be necessary? Would the ice be slippery? Will there be water too deep to drive a small walker through (or any walker if deeper)? This would be a fantastic variation to an already amazing world.
A: We’ve been thinking about expanding the range of biomes we have! No exact timeframe for when they’ll be available, but if it’s added, ice will definitely be very slippery. Nomads are used to heat so they’d need a heavy jacket, maybe some gloves.
Q: What kind of plans are in motion to further incentivize the use of the in-game economic systems? At the moment, Flots seem to be used more as a progress block or an alternative vault of sorts, but there's not much of any reason for people to use a devoted trader playstyle as they'll simply become loot pinatas for more aggressive groups with no tangible payoff at the end of all this risk.
A: We definitely have a lot of plans that will be unveiled in our Commerce Theme updates, where we’re building systems and mechanics to support more trading and economy focused playstiles.
Q: Will be there a cosmetic shop for real money without putting the content behind a paywall?
A: We want to focus on solidifying the game experience for now, but will look into a cosmetic shop in the future.
Q: Would it be possible to have a new resource when a walker comes out as to prevent players from farming it prior to the walkers launch to force them to play the game and not just learn and then craft it in 5 mins?
A: We’re floating around some ideas on how to make it more challenging to unlock new Walkers or weapons.
Thanks for reading!
Changelog 1.3.2 - Volcanic Update Part 2
The Community Update will he posted in a few hours, but we wanted to share the patch notes now!
Mounted weapons and tools
Re-balanced Scattershot Gun mechanics, improved aiming lines and did a small balance pass on the ammo weight. With its newfound effectiveness, it was logical to slightly increase the ammo weight from 0.14 to 0.3 kgs.
Fixed bug which caused the scattershot pellets to destroy each other upon shooting with the Scattershot Gun.
Fire Bolts and Hellfire Bolts are now available to use with the Remote Ballista.
All new explosive ammo is available to use with Remote Ballista.
Fixed bug which made it so kills with the Remote Ballista would not credit the walker pilot and would not reward the killer with experience points.
Ballista weight changed from 1.72kgs to 50kgs, to make it more in line with other mounted weapons.
Crane health points raised from 450 to 9000 to better match it’s tier and required materials.
Lava fuel is now available to use with Hose Station. It allows players to create puddles of fuel, which can then be ignited with fire sources.
Mechanics
Containers with explosive materials inside them can now be detonated. Be it actual Container, Walker Storage or Ammo Rack among others.
Effigy in Rupu Camps now requires all camp guards to be killed before looting.
Walkers
Added new Walker Wings: Skirmish, Rugged and Raider Wings, available to most Walkers.
Expanded use of Heavy Wings to more Walkers other than Mollusk Walker.
Added New Walker modules: Fireproof, Harpoon Protection and Pack Speed.
Added Wing Power statistic visible to all wings, representing the acceleration gain in comparison to standard wings.
Fixed an issue where objects under Schmetterling Stairs could not be accessed. Blocked building under Schmetterling Stairs.
Fixed an issue with transferring Walkers to a clan related to the Favorite Walkers system. Now the player will be prompted with a confirmation warning that the Walker will be unmarked as personal preferred.
Removed Worm Scale requirement from Walker Legs, and iterated on recipes to utilize other resources instead. This means Heavy Legs should now be available to be built.
Walkers in Private Servers will no longer automatically log out.
Allowed placement of Walker Parts even when they collide with the ground. This should make it so players have an easier time rebuilding Walker Parts without having to move the Walker around too much.
Protection bubble logic has been reworked, both visual and mechanics wise. It should now scale with the size of Walker parts, and objects built onto the Walker. Improved spawn protection bubble logic so that it will no longer break on it’s own.
Fixed walkers physical destruction.
Updated walker construction sites collision preset. Walker under construction will block other walkers trying to collide with it.
Fixed improper Walker Upgrades crafting time.
Characters
Characters can now be set on fire.
When flying with a Wingsuit, players can no longer use their grappling hook. This is done to prevent several grappling hook exploits.
Fixed a bug which allowed players to use a bandage while reeling out using their grappling hook.
Fixes for crawling animation in KO state.
Equipment
Added Gas Mask, a head slot accessory that lowers damage from gases. When players are in a gas cloud, taking gas damage, the Gas Mask durability will go down.
Melee Weapons
Rebalanced Wyndan and Bouldercut(T5) weapons, in order to differentiate from Nibiran(T6). Resource requirements within tier have been kept consistent. This rebalance is done in order to uniformalize the difficulty for obtaining weapons within the same tiers, as different weapons from the same tier(with similar stats) had a big jump in the recipe for no reason.
Nibiran weapons now require Nibiran Ingots to craft.
Fixed inconsistencies in vitamin requirements for T5 and T6 weapon crafting.
Removed T4 resource requirement from both T5 and T6 weapons (namely, Ceramic Shards).
Removed Worm Scale resource from T6 Quarterstaves.
Crafting Stations
Added a new crafting station: Obsidian Machine. Allows players to craft Lava Fuel.
Crafting Recipes
Added a new recipe: Nibiran Ingots, crafted in Advanced Furnaces, requires Iron Ingots and Nibiran Mineral to craft.
Added a new recipe: Lava Fuel, crafted in Obsidian Machine. It can be used as fuel in Furnaces, or as ammo for Hose Station.
Removed Worm Scale resource from all recipes, as it is not yet available for players to acquire.
Clans and Permissions
Fixed a bug allowing Veteran and Officer clan rank to embark and travel with Walkers assigned to higher ranks.
Allowed Walker and structures permissions to be edited without needing to transfer the Walker/structure to the clan.
Implemented Discord Clan Integration System. Founders should have access to this feature. It will allow you to see clan logs in your Discord server.
UI
When in the off-map lobby, players will now see a hint on why they cannot embark Walkers(already embarked by another player, or clan rank is too low to embark).
Fixed respawn timers for Walkers not showing properly in the Respawn menu.
Added ability to select Input Device through the Settings menu. Located in Settings>Voice Chat.
Fixed scrolling in chat box.
Improved player nameplates readability.
Fixed icon of embarked walker in off-map lobby.
Fixed Toboggan Walker parts layout in Tech Tree UI.
Sounds
Added proper sounds for Firestone weapons.
Added sounds for burning lootsites, fire bolts and floating mines.
Multiple fixes and implementations for Volcanic biome related sounds.
Fixed playing sound of wings when they are retracted.
Visuals
Clouds visibility has been improved when driving large Walkers.
Added smoke particles for explosions for lava bombs and floating mines.
Fixed walker climbers not animating for observers.
Fixed multiple issues with lava placement and visibility on Volcanic maps.
Camera
Added setting for inheriting camera rotation from Walker. This setting can be found in Options>Game>”Camera follow walker rotation.” Enabling this will make the camera follow the Walker movement.
Set the legacy Walker camera as default.
Other fixes and improvements
Fixed combat exploit with fast release after feinting.
Adjusted lava lakes on Volcanic map.
Implemented Volcanic specific weathers.
Added rank restrictions of shared structures to the info display.
Moved VoiceChat Output slider to the VoiceChat settings from Audio Settings.
Optimizations in joining queue time.
Implemented ignitable components.
Disabled selecting interactables/interactions while climbing.
Disabled water background for deep lakes on SGB2 map.
Remove experimental behaviour causing the mob to attack the structure it got damaged by instead of the player that was manning it.
Sawblade player position adjusted.
Revert trade station quick sell "transaction" when disconnecting or dying.
Fixed Burning lootsite not despawning after all the loot has been taken.
Fixed furniture (chairs) clipping with larger walkers, causing them to flip.
Fixed wrong mesh on some crates on Cradle center.
Fixed players being able to stand on flying Killins, killin them.
When flying with a Wingsuit, players can no longer utilize bandages.
Multiple fixes for Walker travel.
Patch 1.3.30454
FIXES
- Fixed walker camera always rotating to default when manning. - Fixed broken remote ballista aiming. - Fixed remote ballista not shooting fire and hellfire bolts. - Fixed rupu slings not having 180s activation timer. - Fixed rupu slings having debug arrows. - Fixed Domus Walker having Reinforced armored legs. - Fixed missing textures on some objects.
Volcanic Content Update + Steam Summer Sale
We wanted to kick this post off by saying we’re excited to be part of the Steam Summer Sale! Starting now (June 25th) until July 9th, Last Oasis will be available for 20% off.
Now, to get into some details about the Volcanic update:
[previewyoutube="6Yp6kvi7tRA;full"]
We wanted to touch on some of the changes and additions we made, and give some insight into how things were designed and developed! Check out the full patch notes here.
Domus Walker
We plan on releasing more and more Walkers throughout future content patches. When we design new types of Walkers, we take a look at what areas of gameplay aren’t currently covered and see what you have been requesting. For Domus, we wanted to elaborate on the idea of protected Walkers that we started with Mollusk, but on a much larger scale. It may not be fast or very good at hauling cargo, but it does offer protection for the people and structures inside.
The name Domus, meaning “a house” in Latin, was suggested by Chralex, one of our backend programmers. Pretty fitting for all of the cozy rooms it has inside! Chralex initially wanted to name it “Geobukseon”, the Korean turtle ship from the early 15th century.
Killin
The work on Killin started a while ago with tons of designing and prototyping through a variety of ideas. We knew that we wanted to add a creature that would be categorically different from what’s currently in the game, and a flying type felt like a good approach. Killins may be very different from the other creatures, but they do share the same core purpose: being fully physically interactable with the world. This allows you to come up with your own tactics on how to fight and interact with these flying monsters. Need a few ideas? Try shooting them with a weapon, or tethering them with a ballista to keep them in place. Want to get a little more creative? Try using one as transport by grappling on, or have them pull (or fly, if you want a challenge!) your Walker through the oases with tethers.
Volcanic Biome
We’ve always planned to add in a hot and dangerous biome that was more than just the sands of the oases, where the environment poses the biggest threat to its inhabitants. Initially, we added small volcanic areas to hard maps, but knew that it wasn’t enough to create a true sense of danger. We hope to remedy that with the full volcanic map. It has vast green fields inspired by Icelandic plains and lowlands, and intricate mazes formed out of volcanic rocks and scorching hot lava lakes, swallowing anything and anyone who falls into them.
While we had small lava pools on hard maps already, which are now inactive with the introduction of these new maps, we wanted to expand their mechanics to a larger scale. The lava lakes burn all living things and Walker parts, so don’t fall in! Lava has become a resource for Nomads to use in various productions. We overhauled obsidian harvesting to make it a little more challenging by requiring significant amounts of water to cool the lava down. During testing, we’ve seen some interesting ways of using lava lakes to gain an advantage in battles or get away from pursuers.
Furniture Packs
We want the world of Last Oasis to be alive and built by players. This means that we won’t always focus on adding to or improving gameplay. We want to expand on the details of what already exists in the world: the feeling of the Walkers, bases, and more. Furniture allows you to make your Walker or base truly yours, furnished however you want. Yes, this is mostly cosmetic, but many furniture pieces have a useful side to them. A fire goblet or a lamp could light up the place, and sitting in a chair while riding a Walker makes it a much more relaxing experience than having to make sure you don’t fall down on the next hill. We plan on expanding this part of the game to allow everyone to express themselves however they like.
New Ammo and Combat Changes
This patch includes new ammo and melee weapons! These weapons are mainly to bridge a gap between tiers, but the new ammo can be used to change the way battles are fought. Explosive ammo is designed to push Nomads and creatures away when it explodes while not having very high damage. This will allow you to choose whether you want to shoot to kill or if you want to try to inhibit enemies by keeping them away from weapons or pushing them off Walkers. Lava bombs, on the other hand, create an area of fire when they explode, damaging everyone who steps into it. The main purpose of these bombs is not to attack enemies on foot, as their area is rather small, but to prevent them from using certain structures. If you shoot a repeater with a lava bomb, the repeater will catch fire. This forces the shooter to get away from the weapon until it stops burning or until someone puts out the fire with a water hose. The last new ammo type, floating mines, stay in the air after being shot and slowly descend before exploding on collision. They’re geared towards creating obstacles on the battlefield and forcing Walkers to change course to avoid them, or face the risk of being hit by a wall of explosives.
Reserved Server Slots for Proxy Owners
With the update, we’re also adding something many of you have been asking for for a long time: reserved server slots for proxy owners. This means the clan that has a proxy walker in an oasis will always have reserved slots to have their Nomads on that map. It will allow them to always have a fighting chance and prevent total server cap by their enemies. The number of reserved slots on any given oasis is either 20 or the number of server cap, whichever is lower. So an oasis with no clan cap or 50 cap would have 20 reserved slots, but a server with 5 cap would have 5. This may not solve the server cap issue, but we want to make things a bit more fair for defenders. This is the first of many changes towards removing server cap tactics completely.
We have more new content and changes coming up in the near future with part two of the volcanic update!
Changelog 1.3.1 - Volcanic Update
The new update is here!
We've decided to try a new format for the changelog, which should highlight the important changes and things you've specifically been asking for, instead of a huge list of every small thing we did. Let us know what you think!
We'll also be posting a big devlog tomorrow, providing more details on the bigger features, their purpose and balance decisions. Expect some hotfixes in the next few days and we're also working on a follow up patch for Volcanic with even more new features.
Maps
Added Volcanic Hard map along with new Creature and two new Resources
Harvestable Lava Lakes appear on Volcanic along with corresponding Resource and a Container
Lava now deals damage to players and walkers
4 new Volcanic Lootsites added (one with a chest to drag, one platformer with a chest on the top, one with a giant rock to mine and one burnable)
Lava Pools cooled down on Sleeping Giants, Lava resource is exclusive to Volcanic map now
Fixes and balance of resources on Crater map
Walkers
Added new Walker: Domus - Large walker with walls and doors
Fixed steering levers placement checks to forbid meshing
Fixed stacking bonuses for various modules and added detailed descriptions to modules with current bonus of selected stack visible
Rebalanced weight cap for walkers - Made them more in line with what each walker’s function is supposed to be and fixed obvious wrong values
Fixed collisions and spawn points on Mollusk Walker
Fixed getting stuck inside walkers during construction
Tool and gun pod cost balanced, fixed toolpod collision
Fixed quite a few objects colliding with camera
Fixed walker construction colliding with support beams and suspension
Added walker search bar to world map
Creatures
Killin - new flying monster added to Volcanic map, source of Feathers resource
Fixes in Nurr’s fight and return to spawn point
Weapons
Added full set of Firestone weapons, crafted with Lava resource
Added throwable and siege Lava Bombs
Added Floating Mine
Added Explosive projectiles for Repeater and Ballista
Players
Added reserved slots for clans who own a tile. Always active while proxy is there.
New balance of weight for equipment and placeables - Most were never properly set and were obviously wrong compared to each other
Tweaks in offset camera settings for player, implemented dynamic fov
Disabled sprinting while crouching bug
Fixes in animations, mostly for two-handed weapons
Few combat fixes, mostly regarding blocks
Other fixes and improvements
Optimized time in which player gets migrated from burnt tiles
Fixed exploits with cancelling enemy’s safelogout
Added Furniture set containing light sources, chairs and tables
Fixed UI’s time to respawn on walker with Bullrush Module stacked
Fixed issue with only one light source in area actually giving light
Disallow building on base that is being packed
Proxy activation timer visible on world map
Fixes in Ancient Fabricator regarding its functionality
Disabled invalid crosshair for throwables
Updated Walker Modules icons
Always spawn Ancient Crafting Station on private servers
Few optimizations in low/medium quality settings
Displaying a message in queue when the tile is currently offline
Minor fixes in tutorial
Other tweaks and fixes
Community Devlog
To start, we wanted to make it clear that communicating with our community is a top priority for us. We know that we haven’t been as vocal as we were at launch, and we apologize for that. The purpose of this devlog is to bring you more insight as to what has been happening behind the scenes at Donkey Crew since we released Last Oasis in Early Access.
Producer Lucas Stannis touches on some of the key points discussed in this post:
[previewyoutube="oKXro__c8Fg;full"]
First, a little explanation about the development process: the content that we’re releasing has been in production for a while. It may not be what you are all wishing for at this very moment, but this patch has been planned for some time. Moving forward, you will see more community input within the additions and changes we make to Last Oasis. The team doesn’t stop to focus on one specific component at a time, there are tons of tasks and projects being worked on simultaneously.
We know that some of the marketing posts have not sat well with you, and we want to make it clear that marketing beats and the development process are separate things that often work in tandem. Social media posts, devlogs, and participation in events are just as planned out in advance as development. So, don’t worry, development is still happening and will always be our focus, even if there’s an ongoing marketing beat.
Due to the situation we dealt with during the weeks surrounding the game’s launch, on top of the global pandemic and the team shifting to a remote work environment, there has been a lot of transitions and adaptations happening. Until recently, we were in what you could call “crisis management mode” to recover from technical issues, both visible and invisible to the players. We’ve been dealing with resolving internal communication problems, plus giving our team much deserved and needed breaks after working long hours for many weeks in a row after the launch. This has culminated in some unplanned silence from us to the community. We’ve been figuring out what we want to share, how we want to share it, when we want to share it, and those plans have continued to change while we’ve watched the reactions to the things we put out.
We want this devlog to mark the beginning of a new push for better and more consistent communication moving forward. Our current plan is to do one of these community devlogs at least once a month, and there will be more ways for you to participate that will be introduced over time.
Like we mentioned above, this patch has been in progress for some time. It will be released next week, and we will give a far more in-depth write up about the content and decisions made in the upcoming days. We will also provide in-depth patch notes, explaining the reasons behind some of the changes and providing details on the purpose of the balance tweaks.
There’s one thing we know you’ve all been asking for: a Roadmap. We’ve been working on making it available to you all, and promise that it’s almost ready to be revealed. The technical issues we needed to deal with made a lot of changes to plans we had, so revealing a roadmap and promising something concrete wasn’t exactly feasible, but we do have some exciting plans for what’s to come after this Volcanic update. For a bit of a teaser: upcoming content patches will be centered around specific themes. The next theme is Commerce! And we can’t wait to share more of what we have in store!
There’s the point to touch on: the future of the game. There are so many plans and discussions and ideas that we can’t wait to develop, so be assured that Last Oasis isn’t going anywhere, we’ll keep improving this game to make it the best it can be!
Additionally, we wanted to touch on some questions we see asked frequently. There are more flushed out answers that may have only been glossed over in the above post. We know these won’t answer every question you might have, but we hope that it will provide you all with more insight.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Q: Why did you stop communicating with the community like you were doing in the beginning?
A: We were overwhelmed with technical issues and the community response to the game (both good and bad). It was, and still is, a difficult time for us, but we think that we’ve reached a more manageable situation. In this next phase, we promise to be more vocal about the future steps and decisions we are making. We will also be more focused on the voice of you - our players. Moving forward, we will be doing two things (to start) to make sure you know we are listening: We will have an open Q&A available (soon) - where you will be able to ask questions and vote for the ones you want the developers to answer. All of these questions and responses will live in one place that everyone can reference. Our plan is to also include troubleshooting steps for some common support issues. Questions will be replied to weekly. On top of that, we will release a community devlog at least once a month - discussing things important to the game and to you.
Q: What’s the roadmap for the game?
A: We are almost ready to show you the roadmap for Last Oasis. It’s important to remember that any roadmap is dynamic — changes will have to be made and the ideas presented on it are not set in stone. It will give you a general look at where we’re planning to take the game and, of course, our players. We will prepare a separate post dedicated only to the roadmap in the coming weeks. What we can tease right now is that, beyond the Volcanic update (releasing next week!), we’re working on the Commerce update, which will greatly boost and expand the in-game economy and add loads of ways players will be able to interact with each other. The plan is to provide additional customization options, clan management features, and much more.
Q: What is your plan for the zerg problem/making the game more solo friendly?
A: While the thirst modifier had some effect on the way clans organize on certain tiles in the world, it clearly wasn’t enough to “fix” the issues regarding zerging and solo experience. These issues are currently our top gameplay priority, so we want to take our time and ensure we get it right, instead of going with the first ideas that pop into our heads. This will involve thinking through multiple angles and scenarios, discussing various ideas, and then mocking up a few of those for testing before implementing a good solution. We hear all the suggestions to add hard caps to servers, but with the information, feedback, and data we have, we strongly believe that one of the main causes of these issues is that there’s not enough variety in the gameplay experience within the game yet. Large clans enjoy fighting each other or hunting solos, while solos are bored and end up either joining those clans or getting hunted until they quit. What we think is lacking in this equation is diversity in other activities for all kinds of players and clans in the game, which would make the current (and only) type of gameplay one of many. We’re working on designing all kinds of new gameplay loops and entirely new experiences, like unique mechanics on event maps, arenas, exploration-based dungeons, and many more.
We are, of course, also working on more direct responses to the issue. With the Volcanic update, for example, defenders of their claim will always have slots reserved for their clan members, ensuring no server capping by attacking clans. We’re also considering mechanics like the use of Flots to reserve slots on specific tiles, harsher clan cap punishments, and more.
Q: When will you add in clan perms/logs/alliance systems/other QOL things that the community has been asking for?
A: We’re continuously working on improving various aspects of the game and introducing Quality of Life features. The difficulty with those types of improvements comes from having to iterate over time to make sure the changes actually make a difference and provide a benefit to all players equally. The next planned improvement regarding clans specifically, which will come with the second Volcanic update, some weeks from now, will be an introduction of detailed clan logs that can be directly integrated into a clan’s Discord server. This will allow clans and their leaders to monitor their clan’s activity even while not playing. We’re also working towards a more expansive permission system for clans, but that will come after the logging feature, as it requires much more planning and iteration.
Q: Future Walkers: Will they be geared towards solo/small groups or larger clans?
A: Our plan is to continue adding new types of Walkers throughout the entire development process that are geared towards a variety of playstyles. There will be Walkers better suited for solo players, Walkers that focus on attack or defense, specialized Walkers that excel at one thing over others, and many more. The latest addition to the fleet was a small Walker geared towards escaping combat with increased defenses. Next one, called Domus, will be larger and provide the best protection out of all the current Walkers. It has multiple levels behind locked doors and will be useful to clans that bet on defense over direct combat.
Q: Why aren’t you doing more about cheaters/reported players or clans?
A: We’re continuing to actively address cheating issues, both with the help of our anti-cheat protection and your reports. By the time we did the last announcement, we had many new and reliable systems to detect and automatically ban almost any cheater in the game. By now there are over 1000 active bans and while new cheats occasionally pop up, they rarely survive more than a day (the last one was 11 days ago, which got around a hundred cheaters banned). We also routinely go through all your reports and take actions daily.
Q: When can we expect updates for private servers?
A: The feature to delete tiles will be coming with the Volcanic update next week. We’ll be also continuing to work on improving the entire private server system over time, prioritizing your requests first. Going forward, we’ll be looking into providing an experience that’s as close to official servers as possible, but also adding features to customize your experience, potentially also expanding the ability to host your private servers with other providers and self-host too.
Q: Will you be taking community feedback into consideration more frequently moving forward?
A: We’re working on the best way to collect and analyze all the suggestions and feedback that you give us. The passion and enthusiasm we see from you is amazing, but can also be overwhelming. We want to make this right, with your help. Keep an eye out for ways to participate!
Q: Will you start doing live Q&As again?
A: Yes, we have plans to do both pre-selected and live Q&As in the near future, on top of having the “living” FAQ page that we mentioned in the first question.
Q: What work is being done to reduce server crashes?
A: There is no single cause for occasional server crashes, but we’re including fixes for them in almost every patch. With the new public test version in place, the number of crashes introduced by new features should drastically drop by the time a patch is live, so we’re hoping to eliminate the last frequent offenders at some point soon.
Q: Wipes?
A: While we’re not excluding the possibility of wipes in the future, we’ve designed the burning system to function as a soft-wipe mechanic, getting rid of old structures and preventing stale clan-owned lands. We’re planning to continuously improve and polish the features that fortify that design ideology. We’re listening to your suggestions and concerns to adjust it to the way you play. Potentially, there could be some additional soft-wipe mechanics in the future that clear the persistent world on a deeper level rather than just destroying old maps, but we’d like to investigate more globally how any of those changes would affect the global map.
Q: Are you working on resolving insiding issues?
A: Extensive clan logs and upcoming overhauls of the clan permission system will most likely make it much more difficult to do serious damage to clans through insiding. We’ll keep looking for more ways to prevent unfair gameplay caused by game mechanics and consider your feedback on those features.
A note: We will be opening our Player Test Realm tonight ahead of our patch releasing next week. We know this isn’t the patch that will fix everything, but we’re looking forward to it being a step in our continued effort in improving Last Oasis.
Walkers Devlog
We wanted to have a variety of Walkers available to players that all serve specific purposes. We also wanted to make sure that there were Walkers that fit many different play styles. [previewyoutube="6ieATJFGciM;full"]
Patch 1.2.30064
FIXES
- Fixed Ballista sometimes dealing damage multiple times. - Fixed issues with stacking effects of Craftsman Module reaching 100%.
