We want to thank all of our community testers that were testing over 12 patches in the last 15 days to find bugs in the current version of the game, and most of all helping me find problems with the autosave system. Once again thank you.
Now let's move on to patch notes.
Beside a massive amount of bug fixes, we are happy to showcase a lot of features added to the game, which some of them will drastically make Penkura development easier.
The first new feature we want to present is Bot Attachment system. This system allows the player to attach new/improved components to the bot itself.
Changing bot statistics, and visual appearance. This is an important new feature, as it's only one step away from allowing players to build bots from scratch using dozens of components found in the game world by the player in their "Foundry".
This system will allow the player in the future to perfectly adjust the bot to specific assignments, such as: transportation, base protection, base maintenance, bot maintenance, full combat and more.
With this, we are also adding improvements to the overall Bot Statistical view. The player will now have access to information on what systems are currently installed in the bot software, what is his base home, and more.
The second new feature is a physics based object throw system, with this system we are adding flares to the game, with the entire logic of activating them, storing, object change when used, and dozens of other standard features that are well-known in other games. But in this case, we are proud to showcase that we have achieved a full object transition from the player skeletal animation into the game object spawning, creating a perfect blend from an item that is being shown in the player hand, to an object that interacts with the game world.
This feature is only one step away from introducing explosives in the game, or throwing weapons.
A third new feature is something requested by players, a personal fully savable journal. With unlimited amount of entries (well depending on the player disk space of course).
And again, as we like to create features that can be used later on in other system, this feature is only one step away from an "Event Log" something we will be working on in the upcoming patch, that will record/store all the messages player receive outside of dialogs, all tutorials, messages from in-game characters and so on.
Before we go to the main game development improvement, and something that opens gates to much more exciting content, we want to showcase two additional images. One of which is the requested improvement to our Console Command System. We're adding a "help" command that will show all available commands, the console will also print a feedback message if the command was properly used.
Second image is a small showcase of the improved Metos Royal Guard a massive Metos that hunts the forests of Karenos, rather than using an older version of metos that was scaled up, Royal Guard will now have its dedicated 3d mesh.
Now to the main change. For the last nearly 9 months, we were dedicating some of the time to drastically improve the optimization of characters in the game. We notice that when player enters the Ancient Ruins, and gets himself surrounded by over 30 metoses, the game frame rate drops drastically. That is of course a normal thing, that happens in many games, we did our best to improve the mesh rendering, texture rendering and even change the enemy behavior just to save some milliseconds. We did improve performance drastically, but it was still not enough if we want to fill the world with NPCs that roam the world, have their own schedules, interactions, basically their own "life".
Our worst case scenario that we created on our test level was 300 metoses, all fully animated, with movement commands and active AI. In the previous version of the game that scenario ended with only on average 12 FPS on our test machine.
Even though 300 fully animated AI characters near the player proximity is extremely exaggerated, nevertheless we didn't want to accept such performance. Especially when we want Penkura to run on older machines.
Basic Specifications of the test machines: GTX 1080 G1 Gaming 8GB GDDR5X 16 GB of Ram 2400 MHz CL15 Intel i7-6700K 4.00 Ghz 8MB
Last two months we used the opportunity to finally be able to normally work on the project, and we did our best to improve all the system we could think off, from distance AI logic scaling, through distance scaling AI navmesh precision, to even how collision interacts with overlap events outside of the player view. It took a massive amount of work, but we are happy to finally showcase the result.
We jumped from an average 12 FPS to an Average of 50 FPS. This is a great achievement as it will allow us to finally work on NPCs, player base invasion and more. This is months of planing and work that is finally finished and added to the game this patch! Players when near a large amount of enemy characters should see a drastic improvement in frame rate, especially on weaker machines.
We will observe the feedback reports and of course bug reports after this patch, to make sure everything works as it should. After which we will release the new level with even more content.
Once again thank you to all the community testers, and every player that send us the bug report, feedback report, or even came to our steam forum/discord to chat!
Work is not done, more is coming!
As always, for more information regarding the latest technical support, patches, and updates, please join our Discord Community.
◈ Autosave fix (needs last batch of testing just in-case).
◈ Blufloir seedling, and maturing, couldn't be picked up from Growbed.
◈ Subincar seedling, and maturing, couldn't be picked up from Growbed.
◈ Enhanced Growbed could stop effecting the growth of last row of plants.
◈ Oculus bot was unable to be unstuck using the unstuck command.
◈ Player was able to rise his bio-ring while in Main Menu.
◈ Possible fix to MMC not setting the camera position correctly if player never change any graphical settings.
◈ Player was accidentally punching the bot whenever going back in command lines.
◈ Player was able to pick up items while in the Main Menu.
◈ If the bot was set to pick up all items in the area, and player took one of the items while the bot tried to take it, the bot was unable to reset to the next item on the list.
◈ On the Bot Command User Interface, the object list didn't properly scroll.
◈ Oculus bot model, printed "no functional hands" while sprinting.
◈ Oculus hologram was not visible in the CCC.
◈ Player was able to duplicate items when using "split" function and "transfer all" at the same time.
◈ Player was able to receive messages from Sara, while already talking with Sara (message duplication).
◈ Metoses sound effect reactivates after death if the player returns to the body after triggering the visibility change.
◈ If player closed Command Console in other way than using the same input, it would prevent him from using the "use" button unless clicking ESC.
◈ Bots list in the CCC didn't properly update the Power status.
◈ Improved entire code related to overburden calculation, storage content calculation, movement limitation calculation. (minor performance boost).
◈ Improved rendering of bot representation on CCC screen (major performance boost when near CCC with active bot representation).
◈ When using any command in the Console Command window, it will now provide a feedback if the command was activated or not.
◈ Improved character view 3d hologram rendering. (minor performance boost when Character Window is open).
◈ Added ability to the bot brain, to auto adjust the list of items to interact if the list changed while completing the order.
◈ Improved Visual Effect of Bot Command User Interface.
◈ When creating a new save, it will automatically lock the keyboard on naming space.
◈ Bot Command User Interface will now scale with player field of view.
◈ When creating the new save slot, the game will now autofocus player keyboard on the save slot name.
◈ From now on Eating Corporate Meal, will spawn an empty dish to the player inventory.
◈ Change the name of Key Input from "Move Item" to "Grab Item" to make it more clear.
◈ Change the name of Key Inputs (Effect X, Y, Z, and Distance) to use the word Change from Effect, and Grabbed from Moved.
Patch Merging Part 6.62
Dev-Com
Welcome, members of the Accord!
My apology for the spam of small patches, but fixing autosave crashes is top priority before we can release the new level, as it may corrupt save files.
Thank you for the report, Kamyk646!
Once again, in case of any crash, please report it if possible using the in-game report system or join our Discord so the dev and testers may ask more questions.
As always, for more information regarding the latest technical support, patches, and updates, please join our Discord Community.
◈ Another fix for autosave system (still needs more testing)
◈ If player didn't had Lazarus Point set, it could spawn him in the wrong location.
Patch Merging Part 6.61
Dev-Com
Welcome, members of the Accord!
Thank you for detailed reports made by our community using the in-game bug report system, it helps a lot with finding all the problems.
Once again, in case of any crash, please report it if possible using the in-game report system or join our Discord so the dev and testers may ask more questions.
As always, for more information regarding the latest technical support, patches, and updates, please join our Discord Community.
◈ Another fix for autosave system (still needs more testing)
◈ Removed testing cube.
Patch Merging Part 6.6
Dev-Com
Welcome, members of the Accord!
In this patch we are once again adding few things, but most of all we are implementing fixes for Autosave, some players reported crashes caused by the autosave system. Our testers are working hard to find every possible cause, at the moment we are releasing 14 different fixes for the autosave, hopefully this will fix the issue and we didn't miss anything.
If anyone experiences a crash, please if possible report it as soon as possible. Preferably using our in-game bug report system. Or join our Discord channel so that Testers and me may ask some questions that could speed up the repair.
As always, for more information regarding the latest technical support, patches, and updates, please join our Discord Community.
◈ Possible fix for Autosave crash, more testing is required.
◈ In some part of the map, grass was flickering.
◈ When changing the bot base, the select screen didn't properly set the name of the base, if it was custom-made by the player.
◈ Ore Extractors extensive extraction was always on the screen after turning on (visual error).
◈ Fatigue was shown in Bots Stats Window.
◈ When controlling bot, mouse wheel would print "Not equipped with functional hands".
◈ Metos Spawners didn't take into account the amount of Metoses already spawned in the world, after thunderstorm, which triggers their roam outside the spawner area of effect.
◈ Minor highlight error in players manual > Bot Command System.
◈ Bots can once again open the doors.
◈ If player had DNA check activated in Character View, and then switch to bot control, bot seen the DNA background animation.
◈ Blueprint Repository didn't properly clear it items after installation, leading to duplicating items after loading previously saved data core.
◈ In the underground facility after the first Earthquake, the save system didn't properly change its accessibility after the event.
◈ Fix for Landscape Level of Detail, switching to lower version with a lot of minor visual errors.
◈ Added unstuck beacon to the second base in Karenos Sector-4 Forest.
◈ Drop Item was spawning the item a bit too far from the player, that could let to items being stuck in other objects (for example MMC).
◈ Added Systems Button to the Character view when in Bot Control
◈ Bot system Character View UI is now able to print data on: - Does Bot contains "Functional Hands" - Does Bot have Engine Boost installed. - Does Bot have Night vision installed. - Does Bot have Lock Overwrite Installed. - Does Bot have Bot/Structure Recharge Installed. - Does Bot have Bot/Structure Repair Installed. - Does Bot have Signal Scanner Installed. - Does Bot have Multi-Layer Scanner Installed. - Does Bot have Geological Scanner Installed. - What current Base bot is assignment too.
◈ Improved light shading on Command Center window (removed black spots).
◈ Improvement to bots and Metos navigation system.
◈ Improved Report / Feedback window font visibility.
◈ Improved long range navigation system.
◈ Ore Extractor will now show OFFLINE mode if power flow is deactivated.
◈ Ore Extractors extensive extraction will now be shown as green text rather than red.
◈ From now on, autosave, quick save and slot save will not snap the player to default rotation, if the save was made from the player character (not bot or RTS mod).
◈ Hydration and Nutrient will now be in the same visual order on Bio-Ring as in Character View.
◈ In character view screen "DNA PROFILE" changed to "BIO PROFILE"
◈ Added Neurocore Restore Point information in the Bio Profile Character Window.
◈ If the player does not have a spawn point, a proper warning will be displayed in the Bio Profile Character Window.
◈ When the player sets a Lazarus Chamber spawn point, a proper notification will be now displayed on the Lazarus Interface, and the player Neurocore Restore Point will be updated.
◈ Improved wording in mission "IN TO THE VOID" description.
◈ Improved wording in mission "DO BOTS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP" description.
◈ Flora spawners will from now on take into account how much of the plant they already spawn, to prevent overflow of the game world with wild foliage.
◈ Changed Armor to Mods in the Character View.
◈ From now on, Bio-Profile and Implants won't be accessible when in Bot Control Mode.
Development Update! We are back!
Development Update
Greetings, members of the Accord.
We are finally back! As of today, LionsArt is finally able to work full-time on Penkura. We are gathering all the emails, bug reports, feedback, feature requests, and reading up on all the messages left to us at our official Discord channel, and we are working on a patch with fixes that will be released Tuesday. We are also activating our Community Testers group, that will experiment with some changes that hopefully will drastically improve the game.
After the Tuesday patch, we will make sure that all systems are up and running, and if no additional tweaks will be needed, we will be releasing the new level.
A big thank you to all the players who send us very valuable reports about even the smallest errors/problems, using our in-game bug report system, it archived all the reports into a single place making sure its always visible and easily accessible from within the game engine, making our work that much easier.
With that in mind we are also closing the Midway Branch, not only as it was over a year behind the main branch, but we also decided to not lock the players between the patches, and just release fixes, content, features, everything as soon as possible.
Thank you all for your time and support.
Till the next Dev-Com over and out.
Development Update!
Development Update
Greetings, members of the Accord.
Thanks to you and bug-report system, we were able to release 9 patches in the spawn of 3 weeks. It was a massive amount of work, but with the great help from the bug hunters we manage to fix a lot of issues and thanks to your feedback, add a lot of small and big improvements to the overall game.
As some of you may know we were supposed to release another level this week, but unfortunately this won't be possible, we did our best to speed up the work as much as possible to release it before Monday, but thanks to the bug-hunters we notice that to many minor issues were hidden behind our back that needs to be fixed. We don't want to release such a big patch knowing that it may provide problems with the player's experience or even save files.
We need to slow down a bit and fix the reported issues before the release, we also have responsibilities from our previous cooperation that need to be address starting from Monday. This part should not take more than three up to four days. After which, both me and Mirvena will be once again able to fully use our time on Penkura only, and not worry about other projects from different teams.
Once again, we want to apologize for the delay, but we don't want to force anyone to start the game over, just to save a few days of work.
Thank you all for your time and support.
Till the next Dev-Com over and out.
Patch Merging Part 6.51
Dev-Com
Welcome, members of the Accord!
A small patch, fixing issues found by the players in the merging 6.5 patch.
If the person who sends his Journal using the Feedback system reads this patch. I don't mind 2 A4 pages a day of your adventures, you can continue no problem, I don't ban. ːsteamthumbsupː
As always, for more information regarding the latest technical support, patches, and updates, please join our Discord Community.
◈ Fix for game crashing if Autosave system triggers when player is sleeping.
◈ Minor spelling error.
◈ Player was able to activate main menu while leaving the interactive screen focus, leading to unfreezing the character with main menu up.
◈ Fixes to old terrain collision.
◈ Spamming quick use buttons could despawn an item from the inventory.
Patch Merging Part 6.5
Dev-Com
Welcome, members of the Accord!
In this patch, we fixed a lot of issues reported from our player based using the in-game Bug Report system. From small grammatical errors, to serious problems with save system and bot control.
We are also adding the Autosave system to the game, per player request and promised Legacy Save Icon, as some of the more nostalgic and longer members of the Accord miss our first save icon.
We are experimenting with new and improved version of Field of View scaling, because most of the UI in the game is part of the world, it cannot be scaled down or up depending on FOV as the typical 2D UI.
Because of that, we are using our own system that will adjust players "eyes" position depending on the FOV. This system is still a work in progress and some problems may appear, please use the in-game bug report system to report any problems.
Weapons and tools are the only part of the game that is not yet adjusted by this system, it will be in the upcoming patch.
As always, for more information regarding the latest technical support, patches, and updates, please join our Discord Community.
◈ Harvesting Seed using the "set amount" created a new stack each time.
◈ One of the items didn't properly save its "picked up" state.
◈ Bot Current State: defaulted to Idle, rather than Activated when on.
◈ Fixed small inconsistency in the dialog with Sara.
◈ Some of the flowers/mushrooms, spawned a little bit hovering above the ground, all new spawn plants should spawn in the correct location.
◈ Quick Save and Normal Save, while being in the Bot or RTS Mode, didn't properly reset last known character to possess, leading to ending in RTS Mode or Bot when saving again.
◈ Bot was able to use Lazarus Chamber.
◈ Object Disassembly Unit, didn't understand that some components should be divided by the creation amount, leading to every bullet be worth as much as creation amount set (25).
◈ When in main menu, opening a bug-report window while another window is open, will invert the button to that window.
◈ Last update until 0.2.0 patch, for light, color and ambient occlusion.
◈ Added 4 new soundtracks to the game. - 3 to day time in the forest. - 1 to night time in the forest.
◈ Increase the FOV of view by 40%.
◈ Some interactable objects will now adjust its focus camera position by calculating player Field of View: - Map - PDA - Computers - MMC - CCC - Industrial MMC - Growbed (both version) - Ore Refinery - Keypads (all type) - Bio-ring
◈ Drastic improvement to Bot long range navigation system. (still needs additional work).
◈ Added option to bring back the Legacy Save icon, in Options > Game & UI.
◈ We added Autosave option (activated by default), in Options > Game & UI.
◈ We added an option to change how frequent Autosave is activated in Options > Game & UI.
◈ Added error message when trying to use CCC or Lazarus Chamber as a bot.
◈ From now on all Metoses, after killing the player won't try to "eat" the corpse, but will slowly lose their rage and after certain time, start to idle and roam the level.
◈ We changed how brightness setting works in Penkura. From now on, we are increasing brightness of the game with color gain multiplication, which will increase the range of brightness by 50% while also lowering the whitewashing of the colors by 70%.
◈ PGE, will now properly print a warning when anything extremely dense is between its extraction beam and ore/crystal cluster.
◈ Player is now able to destroy the plant in the growbed using the growbed user interface screen.
◈ Added Destroy button to the Growbed user interface, after selecting the occupied growbed slot.
◈ Drastic changes to how light scattering is calculated based on fog density, cloud coverage, time of the day, area of play, biome, and upcoming weather changes. Which should significantly improve ambience light, making it much brighter at day, while still keeping it dark at night.
◈ The Entire color scheme, coming from sun, gas giant, fog, and cloud, changes based on the weather, and time of the day.
◈ Added (Matured) to Arachnorex Name.
◈ Changed the name of Robotic Task System to Base Construction System.
◈ MMC user interface will now display resources number under resources' requirement to green if player has the necessary amount.
◈ MMC user interface, resources requirement will now split the number in two lines rather than one, if player has more than 1000 units of a resource, to make it more visible.
◈ Bots will now be a little bit less friendly, and won't try to hug the player each time he orders them to follow them.
◈ Improved light intensity at Manufacturing Platform.
◈ M.R.T Fuel Rods Dissol requirement lowered from 50 to 40 /// Battery ST-1 from 1 to 0 /// Bilitor from 120 to 100 /// Crystallized Construction Component from 1 to 2.
Patch Merging Part 6.4
Dev-Com
Welcome, members of the Accord!
Minor improvement based on player feedback, bug fixes, and balance changes.
As always, for more information regarding the latest technical support, patches, and updates, please join our Discord Community.
◈ Bio-Ring was visible when using Growbed, Enhance Growbed, or any camera that suppose to make the character hidden from view.
◈ Feedback and bug report system didn't properly reset the camera settings, and was unable to make another screenshot for the game after using it once per loading.
◈ "In Search of Answers" Mission, part 5, didn't properly save at the Med-bay allowing the player to update the mission each time he uses the Lazarus Chamber.
◈ If the player looked too high up, markers on the compass turn invalid.
◈ Added tutorial on player's Bio-Ring to Command Center PDS.
◈ Improved enemy AI, from now on it won't try to so close to the player position, leaving some room for player weapon.
◈ From now on all attacks made by Metos (Drone) and Metos (Warrior) are per hit location trigger, this means that skilled player is able to dodge the attack of the enemy.
◈ Added sound effect when player correctly attaches building in RTS Mode.
◈ Drastically improve the jump "feel", smoothing up jump speed deceleration, Air Control, Jump Initial Velocity.
◈ Changed description of: - Tirix Power Plant - Hydrogel Purificator - Atmospheric Vaporator - Hydrogel Tank (Small) - Hydrogel Tank (Medium) - Solar Panels - Magnetic Wind Turbine To provide information on how much energy, hydrogel the structure produces.
◈ Improved the sound and visibility of Journal update.
◈ Update some of the game sound effect to make them softer.
