Week 4: Hard at work to correct the servers problems & other priorities!
Hello Colonists,
We hope you liked the additions provided in last week patch, especially the in-game chat and the salvage system.
Community creations
On our various channels, we were really happy to see some crazy bases!
First of all, let's introduce our favorite bases of the week (with a preference for Axahopet's base, you may understand why ːsteamhappyː!)
Axahopet's base
Really nice shapes for Rabbit411's bases!
Exsilium made a solid setup right there:
SpaceZebra took great advantage of the verticality of Mars:
These are all great bases, each with there particularities, we loved to see them! Keep sharing your creations guys!
Apart from bases, Exsilium started to use the heavy-machinery here ;) (screenshot by M1ster_Mischief)
And Toops shared this beautiful vista from a Martian mountain when the sun was rising, nice atmosphere!
Overview of the current issues
We thought the fixes we have integrated in the patch would have corrected some server issues. Unfortunately, the patch does not seem have corrected some bugged pressure systems as we expected, many official servers still being down, in a restart loop or not starting up properly. We are also sorry to see that many players are encountering connectivity issues.
Those servers and connectivity issues are our #1 priority, and our programmers are working hard to provide a hotfix really soon.
We have been carefully monitoring the steam forums and the discord to also identify the main issues since the patch release.
From what we summarize, the current most urgent known issues are the following:
Wrench Crashes issue (see the current known workaround in the steam forums)
Salvage & Pick-up bugs
Gas & Pressure system related problems
Enclosed spaces: putting the last tile crashes the server (habitat with multiple rooms and/or additional layers of tiles)
Duplication problems with inventory/storage
Content Roadmap
We are finalizing our content roadmap for the upcoming months, and as soon as we have a solid plan, we will share it with you guys!
A bit of patience, but expect some good stuff :)
Thanks again for your reports on the steam forums, for sending your logs to our email hello@rokhthegame.com, or simply sharing your ideas and suggestions about the game.
See you on Mars,
ROKH Dev Team
Update in 30 minutes: Build 810, in-game chat, salvage system added & many fixes
Greetings Martians,
We’re pleased to announce that we’ll be pushing a big new patch to Live today that should fix several major issues as well as introduce some cool new features to help you survive on Mars!
With the new chat feature you’ll be able to communicate with other colonists on your server, and the new extended use of the crowbar will allow you to Salvage crafted objects back into their base materials.
If you have a server you regularly play on we recommend favoriting it via the Steam Server menu. You can now connect directly to your chosen server through steam to get into the game and start playing!
In addition to these new features we have also addressed major bugs that have been reported by the community. These include some server crashes, and an issue with persistence for locked doors.
Thank you to everyone for your patience and assistance as we worked on the patch!
Patch Notes for upcoming update (2 PM EST) (Build 810)
Features and Improvements
Added a new Chat Feature
- Shows on the lower left of the HUD.
- Currently allows players to send Global and Private messages to others on the server.
- Accessed by default with TAB key and can be remapped if desired.
Implemented the Salvage feature
- Crafted objects and tools can now be broken back down to recover their base materials to reuse them for other crafting goals
- Craft in place workbenches can be deconstructed using Salvage, allowing frames to be picked up.
- This feature is accessed via the Crowbar tool.
Can now connect to a server via the Steam server list in addition to the in-game Server Browse menu.
- You can favorite your chosen server in the steam menu so you can easily join the game.
- Connecting to a server via the Steam server list will automatically launch the game and connect you straight to your chosen server.
Added a starting Hammer tool for all new colonists and on respawn.
Did some rebalancing to the items found in caches and chests.
Fixes to improve stability
Fixed a Server crash relating to disconnecting items from a power grid.
Fixed a Server crash relating to a specific power circuit setup
Fixed a server crash relating to connecting pipes and storage tanks in a certain array.
Fixed 2 additional crashes that were affecting server stability
Fixed a crash when splitting stacks from one input slot to another
Fixed a crash when attempting a second interaction on an item before finishing the first
Fixes to improve gameplay
The Magnetron is now able to be crafted.
Switches now work correctly
Doors will now remain locked after a server is restarted.
The Tile Mould can now be picked up.
Fixed a number of floating or misplaced art assets.
Fixed some backstory items that were non-interactable.
The TAB key can now be rebound. ALT and CTRL can also now be used as combo inputs.
Audio settings are reverted when cancelling the options menu if they were not applied.
Improved the overall visual look of the pickaxe and assembly tool.
Tools will now reflect visually the material they are crafted from. So when you make a pickaxe from gold, it should now visually appear gold!
Week 3: Slight delay on the next patch, salvage system and other info
Hello Colonists,
Busy days for us currently as we are working hard on the next patch.
We wanted to thank you again for your patience waiting for it.
As said before this patch is the biggest one since the release, and we really want it to be stable. We thought we could be able to release it last Monday, but additional days of QA have highlighted various issues.
Slight delay on the patch release
Apart from some stability bugs that have appeared, one of the main thing that prevents us from releasing the patch is the in-game chat system. We encountered some design and integration issues. We decided to rework it and that's why we are late on the targeted date.
At first it was supposed to look like this:
But we thought it was not obvious enough that players could scroll the past discussions. The solution was to add a scroll bar: Right now our last issue is that longer messages get cutoff in the window. So we are really close from solving this and you should expect the patch ASAP.
Salvage system will be back with this patch
This patch will also re-integrate the salvage system into the game (as well as resolving a lot of bug and crashes related to the crowbar).
The salvage system is truly a game changer feature and it will change the way your are crafting and building things in ROKH.
In ROKH, all items are composed of components and parts. Salvage allows you to decompose an item back into the ingredients that were used to create it. This is true even if you did not craft the item in the first place. So, for example, if you find a battery on a corpse, but you don’t need another spare battery, you can salvage the battery to obtain the medium box, coil, and medium rod that were used to create it. Afterthat, you can recycle the components to get raw resources. Salvage function becomes an alternate way of getting resources (instead of mining).
Salvage also allows you to update your socketed workbenches by replacing parts and components by better ones, made from better resources.
The UI of the salvage system (for items you have in your inventory) is the same as the repair system: you drag the item in the UI and select the parts you want to salvage/replace.
Additional info
Also, we want to repeat here that we are totally aware of the connectivity issues some of you are encountering with the servers (coming back to the menu after the map selection screen or "Kicked back to the lobby" message).
We have someone working on this issue actively and we are confident it will be resolved really soon.
With the next patch, players will be able to access to server through the Steam Servers menu. That way, they will be able to set favorite servers and connect from there to the game. It will greatly reduce the long loading time you are experiencing right now.
Again thanks a lot for your patience and we hope you will understand why we took the time here to work on a great and stable patch.
Take care,
ROKH Dev Team
Two weeks after launch: Overview and Next steps!
Hi Colonists!
We hope you are succeeding on the mission to colonize Mars. The team is thrilled to see so many advanced bases in the Steam Screenshots section, and on our Discord channel. The community has shown seriously impressive work.
Here are the selected screenshots of the week made by the community:
The frame to build the deep space transmitter is kind of huge!
A base made of doors with a really cool pressure system setup!
Love the space optimization on this one:
A lot of machines here, it is going to require a lot of solar plates!
We saw some "scientific experiments" were made too ^^:
We also wanted to highlight a special contribution from the community: Here, resources and their stats are being compiled in a convenient spreadsheet. Check it out, and help Sarcoth who impressed us kicking this off:
ROKH Resources Spreadsheet
Patch Highlights:
Last week was very exciting as we had the opportunity to solve a critical issue regarding the server connection: loading was stuck at 90% for many players. With the help of the community here on Steam and via Discord we have successfully fixed this issue.
One patch was released last week as the team continues to concurrently add new features to the game as well as deploying fixes on known issues.
Our next patch will be the biggest since launch. It will include fixes for some problematic and downright annoying issues we’ve seen (servers stability) and also some exciting new additions (salvage system is back in the game!). We want to be confident in its stability, so please bear with us as we take a few additional days to do QA.
Here are the main changes you can expect from it:
Chat (global and PMs)
Door locking fix
Server crashes (relating to the pipe and pressure system, and one relating to removing elements from a power grid - should allow servers in a restart loop to stop doing so)
Salvage system (allows player to deconstruct the parts and components of a socketed machine)
Updates on some recipes inconsistencies
Some other changes to be confirmed later this week
<*> Some tweaks to the balance of chests and caches
<*> Players will now start the game with a basic hammer tool
Get your first sneak peek of the chat!
Known issues:
New issues identified this week:
Switches and Regulator can be quite buggy
Fully enclose a base with several rooms/levels can crash the server (identified first with additional layers of tiles)
Issues that have been fixed since last week
Functional Key binding (some minor problems still to be corrected)
Placed tiles and stored items no longer take durability damage over time.
Added ‘Retrieve All’ buttons for inputs and outputs for workbenches.
Added missing recipe that blocked crafting of the Arc Welder
Fixed a bug that was causing loading to become stuck at 90%
Again we wanted to thank you all for your continued patience. Your feedback has been immensely helpful for us to stabilize the game and as we set the groundwork for content updates to come.
Stay tuned into our community hub here on Steam or on our official social media channels,
See you on Mars!
ROKH Dev Team
Custom Keybinds Incoming! Build 773, Client and Official server update 5.30 EST
Greetings Martians!
It’s been a busy week here on Mars and we have a new build with some important fixes and improvements ready to go live tonight! We know that custom key-binding was a very important feature to the community, in this new build you will now be able to do so via the Options Menu.
With the help of the community here on Steam and via Discord we have fixed the issue causing the 90% loading bug and characters affected should now be able to log in once they are updated to the new build. Special thanks to everyone that reported the issue and helped us narrow it down.
Patch Notes for upcoming patch 5.30 EST (Build 773)
- Keybinds can now be re-mapped via the Options Menu.
- Fixed a bug that was causing loading to become stuck at 90%
- Placed tiles and stored items should no longer take durability damage over time.
- Added ‘Retrieve All’ buttons for inputs and outputs for workbenches.
- Added missing recipe that blocked crafting of the Arc Welder
One week after launch: overview and next steps!
Hi Colonists!
What a week! We have been monitoring the steam forums and the Discord since the launch. Several big issues were happening especially about the servers not displaying in the server browser. This was a critical issue that we have corrected Thursday night with our second patch.
Also we wanted to apologize for the server not restarting automatically yesterday night. We checked with GPortal and their deamon had an issue, which impacted the automatic restart function. This is now corrected.
Thank you all for the info coming on the forums and on the Discord channel. A special thanks to all the advanced players starting to get really far into the crafting tree, and giving us great feedback to balance the game in a better way, not mentioning the problems they can encounter and report with advanced building.
Some cool bases screenshots that have been published so far:
A golden base (looks like the indoors of a James Bond villain's base)
A funny visual bug (that we will correct obviously):
Difficult moment here:
And finally a beautiful view of the Red Planet
Patch Highlights:
3 Patches were done during this first week, with urgent fixes (this server browser problem was quite annoying indeed!) and some bugs crashing the servers (putting wires, some crowbar related issues) and additions to the game (e.g. option menu available with Esc).
Right now main priorities on bugs and balancing are:
90% stuck at loading screen or kicked back to the lobby to correct
Doors no longer locked after crash
Picking up wires and add an additional enclosed layer crashing the server
Crowbar related problems (picking up craft-in place workbenches)
Decay of tiles and stored items.
New features to be added:
In-game chat: working on it right now, needs some QA, and should be included in a patch really soon
Functional key binding: almost done
Of course we are also working on the bugs which are not on the top priorities list above. We continue to keep an eye on the forums and update the list of known bugs on a daily basis.
New since launch:
- You can now hold left click on a resource node while holding a pickaxe to mine continuously.
- Options menu can now be accessed from the in game menu.
- You can now see the name of your server by opening the In-game menu.
- Improved the Browse Server list to show all available servers
- Smelter no longer resets crafting after being minimized and re-opened.
- Tools now remember the last selected recipe when swapping between tools or minimizing and reopening.
- Tile crafting speed has been increased across all tools and workbenches.
- Servers that are in the process of coming up will now show as greyed out in the Server Browser, once they are ready a refresh will update them to be playable.
Fixes:
Server Issues - Fixed a server crash relating to placing wires or pipes.
- Fixed a server crash related to using the Wrench and Repair.
- Fixed a server crash relating to picking up some items with the crowbar. (crowbar still seems to produce lot of crashes when picking up wires and some socketed objects)
Gameplay Issues - Fixed a bug where V-Sync options were inverted.
- When partially repairing items the UI will now properly update.
- Fixed a bug where Craft in Place frames could be picked up, causing them to be non-functional when placed back down.
- Fixed a bug where some socket objects were unable to be picked up again after placing them (works mostly for simple objects, not craft-in-place workbenches)
Changes/Updates: - Input slots in workbenches will no longer show a substance stack present after crafting completion, if the stack is reduced to 0.
- Auto refresh in the Server Browser is now off by default.
- ‘Have Character’ marker is now disabled as part of the server browser fix.
Thanks a lot Colonists,
Stay tuned on our community hub here on Steam or on social medias,
See you on Mars!
ROKH Dev Team
Crash Fix Incoming! Build 756, Client and Official servers updated at 7.30PM EST
Hi everyone,
Yesterday we were able to confirm that our fix for the Server Browse issue worked! It is now much better and the full list of available servers should now appear after a refresh. You can now also preview upcoming servers in the list, they will show as greyed out until they are ready to join!
We’re still working hard and reading all your feedback on the forums and the official Discord. We are currently working to push a build to Live that contains some critical fixes for the weekend.
Patch Notes for upcoming patch 7.30PM EST (Build 756)
- Fixed a bug where Craft in Place frames could be picked up, causing them to be non-functional when placed back down.
- Fixed a server crash relating to picking up some items with the crowbar.
Server Browser Issue Resolved! Build 751, Client & Official servers updated at 5 PM EST
Greetings Martians!
We are preparing to push a new build to live for Rokh. We understand that the issues with servers not appearing in the Server Browser has been an ongoing frustration that we hope will be addressed by this patch.
IMPORTANT NOTE : As a consequence of this change, the marker denoting whether or not you have a character on a server will no longer appear. Your character is still on the server but for the meantime we are forced to disable it from appearing. You will be able to join the server and continue play as normal. Be sure to remember the name of the server you were on.
This is only part of a full solution, and we will be continuing to improve server visibility and connectivity to help everyone get to Mars, in upcoming patches.
We greatly appreciate your patience while we fix the issue.
Patch Notes (Build 751)
- Fixed a server crash related to using the Wrench and Repair.
- Improved the Browse Server list to show all available servers (‘Have Character’ marker is now disabled as part of this change).
- Fixed a bug where V-Sync options were inverted.
- You can now see the name of your server by opening the In-game menu.
- Servers that are in the process of coming up will now show as greyed out in the Server Browser, once they are ready a refresh will update them to be playable.
- When partially repairing items the UI will now properly update.
Known issues we are working on & new patch (build 743) to be pushed (8PM EST)!
Dear Colonists,
We’ve been keeping a close eye on the Steam Forums and our official Discord channel and have been gathering your feedback. It’s important to us that we keep you updated on the list of known issues we are currently working on and that should be addressed ASAP in upcoming fixes:
Server Access:
- Servers are up but not displayed in the in-game server browser
Right now this is our highest priority issue and we are pouring all our efforts into finding an effective workaround. The issue stems from an issue with the Steam API causing a timeout which prevents us from getting all the info in the browser. This is the reason why sometimes you are not finding your server listed in the Server Browser even after refreshing.
- While creating a linux remote server (after entering the create_server.sh command), the server is still waiting for database.
We are currently investigating this problem, and if you have the output file related to the issue in ////LinuxServer/Database/mariadb-10.1.11-linux-x86_64/data/14200/*somename*.err
please send it to hello@rokhthegame.com
- Creating a Windows remote server using the .bat files in the game folders is not working
Right now, you can only create a local server on Windows config. The .bat files are not yet compatible to create a remote server based on Windows. You may make it work, but this will more than likely result in poor performances as soon as the you have several players on it. We are currently only Linux compatible right now. You can set up your server using the method described in our guide: How to setup a linux server
- Players using Windows Insider build cannot launch the game
We have prepared a test machine and are trying to resolve the compatibility issues ASAP. We have a potential workaround for now.
- Local server creation
Yesterday we patched a fix that should have corrected most of the issues with local server creation. A server can take several minutes to be displayed in the server browser after launching, depending on your hardware. In case of problems check our workarounds: Workarounds
Gameplay:
- Socketing wires and pipes can crash the server
Currently being debugged, this is our top priority issue in the gameplay right now, and will be corrected in a patch pushed tonight.
- Access options from the pause menu
We will be pushing a patch that will allow access to the option menu from the in-game menu tonight.
- Key binding not working
- In-game chat
- V-Sync toggle on/off is inverted
We are working on both these features for an upcoming patch.
Full patch notes for the upcoming patch (8 PM EST) , servers will be down for one hour maximum:
- Fixed a server crash relating to placing wires or pipes.
- Fixed a bug where some socket objects were unable to be picked up again after placing them.
- Smelter no longer resets crafting after being minimized and re-opened.
- Tools now remember the last selected recipe when swapping between tools or minimizing and reopening.
- Input slots in workbenches will no longer show a substance stack present after crafting completion, if the stack is reduced to 0.
- You can now hold left click on a resource node while holding a pickaxe to mine continuously.
- Options menu can now be accessed from the in game menu.
- Tile crafting speed has been increased across all tools and workbenches.
- Auto refresh in the Server Browser is now off by default.
In-game chat coming soon - to meet with other players, join our Discord Channel!
Hey Colonists,
First of all thanks for all your feedback, comments and suggestions during these past hours.
One request we have particularly noted is the in-game chat. Rest assured, it's on the way! Sorry about that.
In case you missed in our guide (here Guides ), in the meantime, you can join your fellow colonists on ROKH official Discord Channel.
It even comes with local rooms for each servers and you might meet some of our dev team!
See you there: https://discord.gg/FpdTvGn
