Greetings scientists!
As announced yesterday, our upcoming Airship Gardening update will be going live for all on
March 28th 2024
But there is more good news…it’s now live on our beta branch!
**Important: Keep in mind that the content on the test branch does not represent the final quality. You’re likely to encounter bugs, typo’s and placeholders**
This is by far the largest update we’ve released so far, the team have been working hard on this update since the launch of The Frozen Wishes Update back in December, and we hope you enjoy the new content.
We would highly recommend players start a brand new game to fully experience every new change and edition in the Airship Gardening update. Such as improved story, locations and world improvements. Your old saves will still work of course, just you will experience the flow of the new content a little differently.
Here is a breakdown of the main additions you can expect from this update and the full patch notes…
Airship Gardening Mechanics
Gardening will play an important role in the game loop, but also the story. If you wish to keep your gardening setup simple and just what is needed for the story, you can do that. But if you want to go all out with these mechanics, it’s safe to say you should be able to create some really impressive floating greenhouses!
You will be able to add water tanks, and distillers, use different fertilizers, different size pots, a network of pipes, sprinklers and more!
Different pieces of the new gardening tech can be found in several places across our procedurally generated world. Some of the more basic equipment like pots and water tanks are easier to find as they’re placed in more than one location. However, the more advanced technology like Distillers and Water Generators are a tad more rare. Be sure to check your Studies Menu!
In most cases, you will need to plant the seed from the item you want to grow! This process is relatively pain-free as all perishable items like food, medicine and plants now stack in your inventory.
You can increase the speed at which a plant grows by adding a special fertilizer in the Distiller. This fertilizer is made from Rotten Food (yes, it now has a purpose, yay!) Plants that only grow in the Underdust like Breathnuts and more can also be grown, providing you craft the Dust Fertilizer and add it to the garden pot.
Story Chapter 2 - Hunt For The Cure
CHAPTER 1 RECAP / SPOILERS AHEAD!
The first chapter of our story came to an end with the Viral Evolution update. We found Noah in the Underdust, then found his research in the Infected Gardens. With that research we were able to craft a hologram which provided the coordinates to the location of the cure that we have been looking for - as was Noah and the previous expedition.
As we mentioned before, gardening will play a role in the next section of the story, as you will soon find out. In addition, we will also be taking our next trip back down to the surface of the planet.
New Underdust Section - Suburbs
This update features a brand new Underdust map for players to explore, The Suburbs. Players will head here during this latest chapter in search of the elusive cure. This map is roughly 4-times larger than the first Underdust map in Chapter 1 and a lot more open. Thankfully, there are a few landmarks to help players get their bearings in this foggy biome AND a Large Oxygen Bottle to make exploration a lot easier.
We hope you have fun down there!
Down here you will find a lot of new useful items to collect and new blueprints to research and craft. Including new plants seeds, organic substances for special fertilizers and blueprints for Gardening technology and a new upgraded version of the knife, the Aircutter.
A side note on combat…
With a new exciting Underdust biome to explore, Im sure that many players were hoping to exchange blows with Mantis enemies and more with this update. However, we made the difficult decision to temporarily hold off on this feature, but only for now…
While we have got combat working in the development stages, we weren’t 100% happy with it and so have decided to spend more time on this feature so it can be better. We keep a watchful eye on other survival games and so we know how passionate survival game players are about this being done right, which is why this decision was made. In addition, we don’t want combat to be isolated in just this one location, we want it to be bigger and better, and so our team will be focusing on this after the launch of the Airship Gardening update.
Improved World & Story Progression
Not only have we added new story and content with this update, we have also gone back and made improvements to the world and story that already existed in Forever Skies. This was done to make gameplay more engaging and make the story easier to understand. The following was done thanks to your incredible feedback:
- Many mission objectives re-written to give players a better and more immersive experience
- Mission Reports - summarizing main quest milestones for the player upon returning to the airship from main quest locations
- More lore scenes added
- Story related AI voice lines added
- New cutscenes
- Design, art and gameplay improvements to existing locations like Radio Towers, Overgrown Radio Towers, Gardens & Descent Lifts.
- Several city ruins improved visually
Again, we highly recommend players start a fresh save to fully experience all of the above changes. However, if players wish to simply continue from the previous saves and continue the story from where it left off then this is also possible, you just might not experience all of the listed changes above.
New Airship Module Design - “Serenity Range”
Airship customization is important in Forever Skies. Because of this, we have added our first new Airship modules, the “Serenity Range”.
These modules can be found on our re-worked data card system - more details below in the full patch notes. We are only getting started with new modules. Coming soon we plan to add additional modules like new cockpits, balloons, exterior modules, stairs and more!
Introducing A New HUD/UI Design
Airship Gardening introduces a new cleaner HUD design to players. We decided to update our HUD for a few reasons:
- With the changes made to Immunity a few months ago thanks to player feedback, the Immunity Circle on the HUD became redundant as it was no longer a mechanic you would have to manage. Instead immunity is now tied to the story and will change as a scripted event. Your current immunity status can now be found on the Inventory screen.
- Cleaner and easier to understand. Certain icons were not explained well in the old design, such as using boosters or diseases. The new HUD displays this in a much clearer manner
- Player parameters with distinguished Stamina/Energy and Radiation Zone alerts.
Please let us know your thoughts on the HUD changes. Do you prefer them? Is it an improvement? We’re listening!
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The Full Changelog
There are more additions and changes we could go into more detail about, so instead, we have compiled them here in the full patch notes:
NEW CONTENT:
Devices:
- Small Garden Pot
- Small Water Tank
- Small Water Sprayer
- Large Garden Pot
- Large Water Tank
- Large Water Sprayer
- Water Pipes
- Distiller
- Pipe Water Generator
Tools:
- Aircutter
- Big Oxygen Tank
- Magnetic Lure - Catch other items in addition to food
Plants & seeds:
- Sleeping Lily plant
- Leafire plant
- North Stari plant
- Pig Smile plant
- Sleeping Lily seeds
- Leafire seeds
- North Stari seeds
- Pig Smile seeds
- Breathnut seeds
- Petit Bruiseflower seeds
- Bruiseflower seeds
- Petit Astre seeds
- Canola Multidoigt seeds
- Coffee Nut seeds
- Dust Daisy seeds
- Green Colander seeds
- Inkbulb seeds
- Lobster Pepper seeds
- Meteor Bean seeds
- Sunmelon seeds
Food:
- Boiled Leafire
- Boiled Pig Smile
Resources:
- Dust Fertilizer
- Sulfur Fertilizer
- Mantis Feces
- Chitin
Paints:
- “Bloom” theme
Decorations:
- Poster “Automatic Irrigation System”
- Poster “Sprinkler”
Airship Modules:
- Serenity Wall
- Serenity Window
- Serenity Floor / Ceiling
- Serenity Door
Player:
- Current immunity level can be seen in the Inventory / Backpack menu
- Chronic diseases - when your immunity is Low, diseases become more dangerous and need more specialized ways of treatment (waiting them out no longer works)
Narration:
- Chapter 2 of the story - in order to find a cure for a virus that slowly kills you, you have to travel to the depths of the Underdust to find a century long lost cure
- Mission Reports - summarizing main quest milestones for the player upon returning to the airship from main quest locations
- New lore scenes for second Lift and Underdust locations
- Gardening tutorials in data tablets
- Chronic Diseases tutorial
- New cutscenes added
World:
- Overgrown Lift - new lift to Underdust location added
- Suburbs - new Underdust second location added
Other:
- Magnetic Fishing Lure - allow catching things other than food
- Some Paint Cartridges can be crafted from plants grown aboard an airship only
- HUD improvements - player parameters with a clearly distinguished Stamina/Energy and radiation zones alerts; Flashlight power status added
- Perishable food, plants and medicine now stack in player's inventory
CHANGED:
Player:
- Immunity reworked - it changes with the story progress only; it affects the probability of infection after getting in touch with virus carriers; you cannot prevent those losses but you can find a ways to improve it temporarily
- All Viruses researches displayed in Studies menu after crafting Virus Sample Analyzer
- Fungal Meningitis name changed to Meningitis
- Medical Bed role in disease loop improved (e.g. gives a free Immunity booster)
- Flashlight can be found on a corpse on Radio Tower locations
Narration:
- The main quest path reworked - it should be more immersive and understandable
- Sagittarius expedition dead crew members locations slightly changed - to differentiate them from the remains of the last people living on the Earth centuries ago
World:
- Greenhouse Towers - additional gates in radiation sheds
- Overgrown Towers - refactored, paths are more visible, source of early gardening devices and consumables
- Radio Towers - design and art improvements
- Airship workstation moved to the 1st Underdust Lift location
- Wrecked Automatic Deck Extractor moved to a Greenhouse Tower
- Wrecked Filtering Deck Extractor moved to an Infected garden
- Wrecked Upgrade Station moved to first Underdust
- Slightly reduced amount of small locations to be found in the world
- Underdust Oxygen refillers are more visible
- Epoxy resource was moved to the Underdust; small amounts could be still found on a Greenhouse Tower locations but are now behind a progression gate
- Slightly reduced amount of plants in the world
- Descent to the Underdust - battery next to the computer was removed
Other:
- Data Cards distribution reworked - you won’t find new paint themes for example unless you’ve researched and crafted the Paint tool; Data Cards will spawns more frequently.
- Crossbow sound effects updated
- Medical Bed / Station animation tweaks
- Many performance tweaks
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How To Access the Test Branch
- Open the Steam application on your PC and locate Forever Skies in your games library
- Right click - PROPERTIES- BETAS
- Put in the password: BlimpWorkshop
- From the dropdown menu select the beta branch tilted: beta_flight
- Press the blue “Opt into beta_flight…” button
- In your Games Library click on Forever Skies [beta_flight]
- Install the Test Branch
How To Create and Load Existing Saves into the Test Branch
Your existing saves for the main game are stored in a different folder compared to your saves on the test branch. If you want to continue and test the game using your existing progress, you’ll need to do the following:
- Locate your save files on your PC. By default they should be stored in the following file path:
- C:\Users\
\AppData\Local\ProjectZeppelin\Saved\SaveGames\ - Select the save file that you want to test your progress on, right-click, copy.
- Located your Test Branch save file folder. By default they should be stored in the following file path:
- C:\Users\
\AppData\Local\ProjectZeppelin\Saved_BetaFlight\SaveGames\ - Paste your copied save file into this location
- As a precaution make a 2nd copy of your save file and paste it somewhere on your desktop or in a safe folder. This way you can ensure you have a clean, backup save just in case.
After you have done the above, you can start the Forever Skies Test Branch from Steam and your save will be present when you select “CONTINUE”
Existing Saves Won’t be Affected but use an Imported Save To Play the Test Branch
Your existing saves, progress, and any custom settings you’ve set in from the main game won’t be carried over to the Test Branch. Your pc will see this as if you are installing and playing the game for the first time ever. Likewise, by playing on the Test Branch, your main saves should not be affected at all.
This also means any progress on the test branch will not be carried over to the main game once the update is live. The test branch is designed to allow you to explore and test new features without impacting your current progress.
Players can opt to play the test branch starting a fresh save, however, if you want to test new content with your existing progress, airship, etc (and we suggest you do) you will need to make a copy of your main game save and import it into the test branch. Instructions on how to do it can be found below.
Where to Submit Bugs
All bugs or issues that you encounter while playing should be submitted via the FEEDBACK TOOL that you can find in-game when pausing the game. Subsequently, you can find the tool under this link too:
https://www.farfromhomegames.com/en/playtests
Thats all for now, speak soon!
