Hello explorers! This experimental build includes the new Physically Based Creature AI, along with important gameplay balancing tweaks to shape the overall experience of the game.
Physically Based Creatures
*Note - Larvae is the first creature to get this treatment.
Months in the making, I am proud to introduce our first creature to receive the new AI treatment. What does "Physically Based AI" entail? It means that the creature is treated and processed as a physics object, with all the forces and collisions in the world correctly acting correctly upon it.
What does Physically Based Creatures get us? Creatures will now properly respect defensive walls, structures, utilities and anything that has collision. Creatures can now even be run over by vehicles! Also, no longer restricted to the Pathfinding Navmesh, creatures can now traverse anywhere in the world. It also means we can eventually remove the nav meshes - a huge optimization and will lead to us being able to continue with ground deformation when building large structures.
In addition to driving these creatures by physics, the actual behaviors have also been updated. Larvae will sprint at you when coming in for an attack, circle your base, and back away quickly. They've become feisty little buggers, and this AI system is far more easily expanded and less error prone than solutions we've used in the past.
Creatures are also spawned more at night, creating a "explore by day, defend by night" feeling.
Oxygen Matters Now, A Lot
Automatic replenishing of Oxygen has been moved to a Suit Attachment. This adds value to the attachment while doing something critical to gameplay - you will now be very "tethered" to your base. You will need to really plan your expeditions, going further and further with each stage of your journey. This also adds lots of value to vehicles.
Pod Crash and Furnace Now Give Oxygen
To balance the Oxygen usage, the crashed Pod contains two tanks on board that can be forever used to refill some oxygen. Once you build a Furnace, it refills your oxygen even more. Of course, once you have a HAB or enclosed vehicles like the Rover oxygen will be fully replenished.
Overall, we find this gives much more of a feeling of being in space, on another planet, and adds lots of interesting strategy.
Mission Refinements
The opening missions have been tweaked to reflect the various changes and tweaks to the balancing. More tweaking will continue as we go, eventually going into the later "levels" of the game.
Durability is Much More of A Thing
Durability balancing, screen indications, and Repair Tables have all been adjusted to create a feeling of being mindful of your gear and the Maintenace of it. This also reinforces the feeling of safety when back at the base, providing a chance to refill oxygen, fix up your gear, and reinforce your base from attacks.
Workbench Can Now Repair By Default
To balance the updated durability system, repairing has been added to the Workbench inherently. The Repair Table is still an upgrade, and now does even more repairing per repair usage, adding a time saving value to the upgrade.
Discovery Harvesting Yields Are Now Unlocked
Keeping the act of Discovering by interacting for the first time, we went ahead and removed the locks per weapon type to allow for strategy when approaching a plant or creature. Using various weapons and tools will yield different resources, and it makes sense that as a scientific explorer this information would be included in the discovery.
Dust Storms Now Damage Structures
Furthering the feeling of maintenance and the shelter of your base, along with pushing the vulnerability and dangers of survival on a distant planet, damage by weather pattern has been added. The dust storms on Proteus 2 now can damage your base objects, and Maintenace of these objects will be vital to your survival.
This also sets up possibilities for more skills and tool advantages, like being able to repair past 100% or being able to build objects that are impervious to storms.
Clearer Interactions
Just some nice quality of life displays to illustrate how much time until an action can occur, or how many objects left in a tree.
Updated Main Menu
Lots of polish on the Character Select Screens across all the modes, along with clean up of the Options area.
Updated Language Localization
Working with our community, the language files have been updated. As development occurs, new words need to be added to localization, so you still might see some words that remain in English. However, these will all be addressed by the time we leave Early Access.
Minor Balancing Throughout
Many minor balancing tweaks, for example Small Radar Dish range has been slightly expanded.
Lots of Fixes
Stars now display properly in space. Ownership blocking in multiplayer is fixed. Salvaging bugs in multiplayer are fixed. Here's the full list:
Change List
Added build small satellite dish mission
Added Oxygen replenishing feature to Workbench
Added color coding to replenish triggers
Added display to show how much time is remaining on cooldowns
Added color coded info to harvesting amounts of plants and trees
Added support for harvestable segments to be skinned
Added support for crafting tables to have the option of repairing functionality
Added support to get upgrade from buildable objects in code
Added support for durability hit flash on item icons
Added support to display quick slots when receiving a durability penalty
Added Repair tables now display the amount of repair and modifier
Added more intelligent creature spawning to allow balance frequency of encounters and difficulty
Added support to spawn any creature from under the ground
Added legacy AStar support to new AI behaviors
Added proper hit stunning of creatures
Added prop blood spawning when hitting creatures
Added skinning support to consumable items
Added skinning action to player control system
Added further support for skinning creatures across weapon system
Added debug support to display interface object
Added player sounds for getting hurt in various ways
Added grunt sound when taking damage from fall
Added button down holding interface for crafting actions
Added support to play skinning animations on creatures when harvesting
Added support to flash durability penalty
Added and polished fading in and out throughout Main Menu
Added gas to geysers for testing/developing modes
Added support to properly record all structures in save game display
Added support to properly record all utilities in save game display
Added support to damage structures during weather patterns
Added support to change brightness of stars based on location and time
Added creature skinning animation in 3rd person
Added structures and utilities icons to properly display in Avatar Selection screen
Added Larvae animations
Added upgraded blood FX to creature hits
Changed Updated localization files
Changed Updated Main Menu
Changed Updated Character Select screen in Main Menu
Changed Updated language interface in Options
Changed Updated Options interface
Changed Updated Key Binding interface
Changed Updated Server Buttons in Main Menu
Changed Updated Character Buttons in Main Menu
Changed oxygen no longer replenished automatically
Changed Improvements to Mission Interface
Changed Improvements to inventory object icons
Changed Updated terrain files
Changed Rebalancing of crash site pod objects
Changed Minor adjustments and fixes to some structures and vehicles
Changed Small Satellite Dish now has a larger detection radius
Changed Reordered intro missions slightly
Changed Minor changes to recipes in Workbench
Changed Forge required much less to build
Changed Ghost and Sentry have been upgraded to retro fit the new AI system
Changed Charred Alen Bits now give more nutrition
Changed Oxygenator now can refill oxygen completely
Changed Updated Larvae to new physically based AI
Changed Updated Player to include all new systems
Changed Updated repair table function to work with all systems
Changed utility upgrades to build automatically and not need the blueprint interface
Changed creature indicators to only display health when hit
Changed Improved knockback on creatures
Changed Improved death ragdoll on creatures
Changed Increased durability usage when firing guns
Changed Increased durability usage when repairing and salvaging
Changed Balancing of player sound
Changed Less player breathing in idle and low impact states
Changed More player breathing sound when hurt or in danger
Changed Increased heart sound during stamina penalty
Changed Increased footstep sounds
Changed Lessened amount of hunger and oxygen used when using melee weapons and chisels
Changed balancing of durability rules
Changed Set Player Leveling to have a more steep XP curve
Changed mouse cursor to no longer turn off in map mode or in character rotation
Cleaned up game hints in load screens
Changed Hut and Bed saving text to "Save Successful" instead of "Location Saved"
Changed Improved 3rd person character animations
Changed Improved starting and stopping in 3rd person
Changed Audiomixer settings for player sounds
Changed Updated soundtracks for all levels
Changed Updated particle shaders
Changed Updated blood shaders
Changed Updated all Geyser Particle Systems
Changed Updated grass shaders
Fixed data saving on Crash Site
Fixed Zinc mineral LODs no long pop
Fixed Furnace now has proper icons for all upgrades
Fixed Workbench upgrade icons
Fixed to Crash Site object save game data
Fixed durability usage on equipped items
Fixed Clean up of one shot audio functions
Fixed null instances on PF particle systems
Fixed creatures spazing out in ragdoll form
Fixed Clean up of new AI system debug target indicators
Fixed Cleaned up durability system on inventory objects
Fixed left hand in IK system when holding rifles
Fixed to Timed Destroy function
Fixed Cleaned up creature damage system to show particles
Fixed Cleaned up planet names displayed from save games
Fixed Minor material fixes
Removed Royalty Free Music
Removed Collect hide mission
Removed the building of kits for various objects
Removed ownership on repairable objects for now
Removed storage ownership for now
Removed notice that oxygen is replenishing
Removed unneeded debug log
Removed harvesting locks after discovering new plant or creature
Removed ownership on fuel systems
Removed ownership when salvaging
Removed unneeded collision detection from interface system
Removed vehicle ownership for now
Removed ownership on elevators for now
Removed ownership from repairing structures
Overall, this update marks a very important move in the design of the game by clarifying the gameplay and emphasizing the survival aspect. The goal here is to not make it "harder", but to add strategy, goals, and a feeling of advancement through the experience.
We will be continuing down this path by furthering the missions, upgrading more of the creatures, balancing the economy, and folding in the story as development continues. All in all, I've personally never been more excited about the potential of the final experience for the game as I am now, and I've been working on this project for over 10 years!
As always, feel free to chat on our Official Discord Server .
-Brian
Always remember, your focus determines your reality.
- Gearge Lucas
