Icarus News

Many of you will be familiar with Sol, one of the key characters in the ICARUS universe our players experience. When we made the "No Rescue" Trailer, the game was in constant flux and we could not put together a trailer with just game footage in the time we had to meet the PC Gamer show. I proposed we do a "talking heads" style trailer, using real world actors, inspired by a like of "Ken Burns" style documentaties and how well it worked in a fictional setting like Interstellar. One of the people on the first casting option sheets was Stig, who absolutely fitted what we wanted in the prospector. I actually got to meet Stig during the filming, and he was fantastic. He had come into the studio several times and worked with our audio team. He really "got" the project, and his enthusiasm and work really left a mark on the game as a whole.

You can read more about the amazing life of "Stig, The Piano Man" in the following article:
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/queenstown/queenstowners-mourn-‘stig-piano-man’


[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Welcome to Week 139.

This week, we are introducing a new creature: the Dribbo. These hippo-esque creatures have a unique spawning mechanic not seen in Icarus thus far, that’ll lead to some unique encounters.

We also delve into a preview of a new planetary crafted backpack and a quality-of-life improvement for bosses that will become much more relevant with the release of the Dangerous Horizons expansion.

Concluding this week’s update is a breakdown of the ‘Null Sector’, the new region being added to the Prometheus map next week.

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• All Animal Feeds can now be stored in Iceboxes
  
• Terrain Anchor System Adjustments to fix rare issues to do with, buildings, objects and players from having a relevant terrain for support, movement and other various issues
  

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In the Week 124 Update, the Dribbo was introduced during the GENESIS: Recovery operation, during which players were required to hatch and escort it to safety. Now, the Dribbo naturally inhabits the desert regions on Styx and Olympus for you to encounter in Open World sessions.

The Dribbo spawns in groups of three, unlike other solitary creatures on Icarus. Each pack member will need to be treated differently, as each has its own unique stats, appearance, strengths, and weaknesses.

The Dribbo Trophy will require you to harvest vestiges with your taxidermy knife, incorporating all three unique vestiges and all three variants of the Dribbo in its design.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1149460/view/4204748561331551519


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We will be introducing a new planet crafted Ice Box Backpack in the future. This backpack will reduce the spoil time of all items, but it will need to be recharged, similar to the torch on the charging station.


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We are planning on adding static boss health bars that will appear at the top of the screen when you are within a certain range of a boss. This would eliminate the need to take a talent or get close to the boss in order to see their health.

This will be more significant in our upcoming paid DLC expansion, Dangerous Horizons, which has a strong emphasis on boss fights and late game.


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Next week players will be able to venture forth into a new uncharted region of the Prometheus map, which is available in the New Frontiers DLC.

This major addition includes five new Operations, a new exploration mechanic, new mutated creatures, and one new giant creature.

This region is not for the faint of heart. All the adjustments and differences are geared towards this being a hardcore survival challenge, so make sure you enter it prepared.

[hr][/hr][h2]Your support makes these updates possible.[/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/40692/Icarus_Pets_Bundle/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/35727/Icarus_Complete_the_Set/
[hr][/hr]

New Content
[expand]

• Adjusting group spawn logic so you can specify which animals to spawn in the group in AI setup
  
• Adding the Dribbo Trophy & Vestiage items, Recipes, Icons Etc
  
• Adding Dribbo to spawn groups on Styx and Oly
  
• Adjusting Dribbo Loot so it drops vestiges and no longer drops fur
  
• Fixing Dribbo Bestiary Entry so it is enabled
  
• Added text for various trophies
  
• Removed potential for group spawning dribbos to flush async loading (BP_AISpawner)
  
• Fix Dribbo head crit area
  
• Fixed physics assets for mini hippo
  
• Fixed mini hippo corpse dissapearing after death and removed unusued variables
  

[/expand]

Fixed
[expand]

• Fixed Contains Items tooltip area appearing on workshop ranged weapons with ammo (this is only intended for tacklebox and bags)
  
• Fixed Scorpion Fishing Rod recipe
  
• Fix a typo 'Dig Dirt Mount' -> 'Dig Dirt Mound'
  
• Add datatable validation to prevent invalid entries for bestiary progressive stats
  

[/expand]

Future Content
[expand]

• Added snow variant material to icebreaker bones, fixed level BP
  
• IceBreaker skeleton - Added snow functionality to MA_ITM, first pass on texture revision
  
• Added mutliple materials and textures for a first pass on the Wood Sandworm Building Tier
  
• Adding in extra Rock Golem anims for the fight including the hit react to destructible barriers and heavy attack broken up into phases, might need some root motion tweaks but should be all we need for the fight flow now
  
• Added GRE_Hammerhead_Slug_Grenade
  
• Mac & IMP Placement, on Red Quad
  
• Landscape Sculpting Pass and Landscape Painting Pass, Outpost_011
  
• IceMammoth arena - set dressing, sml+med rocks, decal pass, waterfall tweaks
  
• recommit of Arena_IceMammoth work. How about now, Teamcity?
  
• Outpost 011 imported from WC and inital setup completed
  
• Fixed bug where RockGolem was starting with 0 armour
  
• Fixed bug where the slugs would slide if they tried to move and then died (on client)
  
• IceMammoth Arena - set dressing and detailing
  
• Reduced Trail Beacon steel cost
  
• Added additional Cave setup for Prometheus Part 2, to prevent No Biome areas
  
• Added new, replicated TrailBeaconMaxPlacementDistance stat to fix clients not being able to place beacons
  
• Genericised RockGolem's armour mechanic - is now part of ActorState and can be added to any actor with one. Set up the various separated RockGolem armour meshes, they now pop off when armour is damaged to a certain level
  
• Fixed Cave Bat and Arctic Bat pointing to wrong experience row
  
• ASHLANDS: Update outpost clear objective to better show creature required and update objective on complete
  
• ICE SHEET: Update signal strength to better match area size. Fix final cave quest
  
• Fixed clear area objectives no ticking off objectives when complete
  
• Size updated for ITM_Black_Wolf_Tooth
  
• Added multiple textures and materials for initial pass on Wood Sandworm building Tier
  
• Added art assets for the lava hunter sickle to the project
  
• DROVER: Fix clients not having objective items disappear, and other items in the station disappearing
  
• Added Waterlogged Spine item art assets
  
• Setting up Hardened Magma Mesh & Icon
  
• Setting up new Black wolf tooth Mesh
  
• Setting up new Slug Sticky Grenade
  
• Setting up Slug Habitat, Coil and Vial Meshes and Icons
  
• Added Boney Appendage item art assets
  
• Fix an editor only issue with terrain anchors (when stop button is mashed in PIE)
  
• '- COMPOSITION: Update liquid deployment rules to allow client placement
  
• Fixed Sledgehammers not having an icon for attachments that can be attached to them
  
• Added all Biomass items
  
• COMPOSITION: Update quest text to indicate that player can leave the quest area while waiting
  
• Adding new Great Hunts Datatable for an extra layer of information to deal with XOR mission branching
  
• Setting up the Rock Golem Great Hunt Missions
  
• Adjustments to World Talent Manager so World Talents can be retrieved when required
  
• Locked all Great Hunts under the Dangerous Horizons feature level
  
• ASHLANDS: Grant players additional trail beacons as part of prespawned base
  
• Swamp Ape Arena - Blockout
  
• Landscape Sculpting Pass, Landscape Painting Pass and Cliff Pass, Rock Golem Arena
  
• Cliff Placement in Outpost 9, on Red Quad
  
• Fixed bug where trail beacon lines were being drawn outside of the map window geometry
  
• IceMammoth Arena - refining frozen falls
  
• Made virtual TrailBeaconMaxPlacementDistance_+ stat replicated
  
• Fixing trail beacon being audible from long distance when sheltered
  
• revised textures for IceBreaker skeleton
  
• Landscape Sculpting Pass and Landscape Painting Pass, Outpost_011
  
• Fix an async race condition updating terrain anchors as tiles stream in/out
  
• Arena_Hornets - initial map setup
  
• Arena_GiantCat - initial map setup
  
• Arena_PlantBoss - level BP setup
  
• Arena_PlantBoss - initial map setup
  
• Arena_WaterScyther - initial map setup
  
• Arena_SwampApe - initial map setup
  
• Added harden magma art assets to the project
  
• Removed Duplicate voxels in Null Sector area Prom Part 2, on Yellow/Red Quad
  
• Arena_RockGolem - initial map setup
  
• Added remaining materials and textures for the Wood Sandworm building tier
  
• IceBreaker will now spawn at a greater distance from players. Improvements to spline-based BT movement including ability to seamlessly rejoin and move backwards along spline
  
• Adding all rock golem tongue attack and tongue idle audio, events and notifiers
  
• Added another module for future release
  
• Added Fish_Scyther_Tadpole to the project with control rig and animBP
  
• Added additional modules for future release
  
• Adding Lava Hunter Sickle Mesh & Icon
  
• Setting up All Biomass Meshes (Except Lava Hunter)
  
• Lots more additions and updates to rock Golem movement sounds and footsteps
  
• Swamp Ape Arena - Added SW_Flax to cliff edge
  
• Adding Meshes and Icons for Scyther Appendage and Spine
  
• Swamp Ape Arena - Landscape Sculpting & Foliage Pass
  
• Adding rock golem movement audio and events. Slow, fast and medium and all animation notifys
  
• Cliff Pass, Rock Golem Arena
  
• Ice Mammoth Arena - added new meshes/textures for frozen waterfalls, bat nest cluster
  
• Adding rock golem attack movements etc
  
• Adding rock golem footstep audio, event and all notifiers
  
• Cliff Pass, Rock Golem Arena
  
• Adding hammerhead slug trophy deploy audio
  
• Updated ITM_Biomass_Slug and Golum
  
• Added ability for IceBreaker to switch to different spline paths while moving. Tweaked IceBreaker IK to make it less snappy. Fixed bug where manualAISpawn point was freezing movement of IceBreaker when you moved too far away
  
• Cliff Pass, Rock Golem Arena
  
• Swamp Ape Arena - Landscape Sculpting & Foliage Pass
  
• Fix an editor only issue with terrain anchors (when stop button is mashed in PIE) - again in a different way
  
• Adding hardened magma pickup audio
  
• Ice Mammoth Arena - Added new particle systems for frozen waterfalls, added material override function to WT_Waterfal, new water material variant
  
• Adding missing .h file which broke compilation
  
• Increase craft count and stack size of Trail Beacons 5x
  
• Increase Trail Beacon max placement range by 50% (total 150m) and show on Trail Beacon Tool stats
  
• Increase Trail Beacon map icon range
  
• Un-feature lock new creature type
  
• Cliff Pass, Rock Golem Arena
  
• Cliff Placement in Outpost 9, on Red Quad
  
• Updating goelm tongue audio and adding more variations
  
• Fixed trail beacon dashed line not rendering correctly when zoomed out on map
  

[/expand]

Welcome to Week 138.

This week continues the expansion of the Icarus weapon tree. To make pistols more useful, and avoid only adding onto the end of the tech tree, the current One Shot Pistol is moving to Tier 2, along with a new a cheaper ammo recipe. This makes space for the new Semi-Automatic Pistol on the Machining Bench at Tier 3.

The Free Prometheus Expansion is progressing well as we implement feedback from closed play testing. We explain more about how you'll use Beacons to explore the ‘Null Sector’ dark zone below.


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We’re adding a new Semi-Automatic Pistol this week at Tier 3.

This comes with a rebalance and restructure of the pistol tiers to clearly differentiate the different weapons.

Here are the core details about the new pistol:

• Crafted in Tier 3 at the Machining Bench
  
• Fires six rounds before reloading
  
• Takes any pistol ammo
  

The existing pistol, now named One Shot Pistol, never held its own against the other weapons craftable in Tier 3. As such, it now is accessible at Tier 2 via the Crafting Bench, and is accompanied by a new simpler ammo type, Crude Pistol Ammo.

This new ammo is cheaper but deals less damage, being crafted only from Iron Ingots and shaped as a small iron ball, similar to what you would see in flintlock pistols. This ammo can be used in any ranged weapons. It acts as a universal cheap ammo, but without the stopping power of the higher tier specialized ones.

The Orbital Workshop CHAC Pistol's ammo capacity has also been increased to take the Semi-Automatic Pistol into account.


[hr][/hr]
The Prometheus update will introduce the ‘Null Sector’ - an area to the south of the map that not shown on our satellite imagery and is blank on the map.

Instead you’ll have to map the sector yourself using two new items. With the Trail Beacon Tool (craftable at the Machining Bench) you can place Trail Beacons and link them to other Trail Beacons nearby. These act as ‘breadcrumbs’ for you to create a pathway across the map or to mark key features to return to later.


[hr][/hr]
We planned on bringing out the free Prometheus Expansion next week, but we’re holding onto it for a bit longer as we found a few bugs and received good feedback from both internal and external sources for us to address.

Our focus is that this is a good and challenging experience, and a lot of our work is in finding this balance and making sure it is enjoyable for those who want to push themselves to their survival limits.

We are playtesting this internally at the moment and are doing some closed external testing in our Discord community.


[hr][/hr]
Next week, we’ll be introducing a new creature to Open World that was recently first discovered in a quest on Styx.

The Dribbo can be found around water in desert locations and spawn in groups. There are three variations to this creature each with its own quirks, which you can find out about next week.


[hr][/hr][h2]Your support makes these updates possible.[/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/40692/Icarus_Pets_Bundle/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/35727/Icarus_Complete_the_Set/

[hr][/hr] New Content
[expand]

• Fixed pistol to have the player use the clip reload animation in the ranged weapon data
  
• Adding New T3 Pistol Item Setup, Blueprint, Recipe
  
• Adding T3 pistol fire audio, mech and empty audio and event - data table setup
  
• Adding in grip socket for left hand to attach to while sprinting, adding in separate clip mesh
  
• Adding Crude Ammo for T2 Pistol
  
• Adding Crude Pistol Ammo Item, Recipes and BP at T2
  
• Shifting T3 Pistol to T2 and adding a new T3 Pistol with a clip
  
• Adjusted Crafting costs of T2/3/4 Pistol and Crude Ammo
  
• Added text for crude ammo
  
• Added text for pistol changes
  
• Pistol balance revamp (factoring that current pistol is moved to T2) with the T3 and future T4 pistol having higher rounds and slower reload speed, increased CHAC pistol rounds to 6, lowered pistol Handcannon attachment damage increase
  
• Pistol durability rebalance, reduced T2 pistol durability slightly, increased T3 pistol durability significantly.
  
• Update Crude Ammo description to better clarify it can be used in any of the firearms
  
• Adding muzzle flash socket to fix firing effects
  
• Fixed Crude Ammo break stat spawning non-interactable ammo boxes
  
• Changing name of Pistol -> Semi-Automatic Pistol
  

[/expand]

Fixed
[expand]

• BP Cleanup of Decorations Folder
  
• Fixed T2 Seed Pouch not accepting fertilizer
  
• Fixing issue with talent mananger that was never setting the initial specified zoom
  
• Fixed Excavator (workshop shovel) being unable to be repaired from the Repair Bench.
  
• Updated Farmer's Satchel description to mention what is stored.
  

[/expand]

Future Content
[expand]

• Setting up Ape Boss Blueprints
  
• Setting up Ape Boss Items, adding Ape Boss vestiage
  
• Adding mission boss biomass items (Golem, Ape, Hornet, Plant, Scyther, Cat, Lava Hunter)
  
• Setting up Rock Golem Blueprints
  
• Setting up Rock Golem Boss Items, adding Rock Golem vestiage
  
• Split up RockGolem behaviour into various sub-trees. Added new RockGolem burrow/earthquake behaviour
  
• Setting up Ice Mammoth Boss Blueprints
  
• Setting up Ice Mammoth Boss Items, adding Ice Mammoth Boss vestiage
  
• Added slug boss trophy destructible meshs
  
• Switched hammerhead to behaviour trees instead of goap. Added the respawn mechanic on death
  
• Fixed Ashlands and Icesheet story mission progress unlock
  
• Removed final step from Ashlands story mission, fixed timings
  
• Setting up Hornet Boss Blueprints
  
• Setting up Hornet Items, adding Hornet vestiage
  
• Fixed Ashlands story mission progress percentage not being updated after initial quest start
  
• Setting up Scyther Boss Blueprints
  
• Setting up Scyther Items, adding Scyther vestiage
  
• Added 4 slug boss trophy art assets and created blueprints
  
• Re-Feature Locked Biolab button
  
• Add additional drop option for Prometheus part 2 missions, updated some of the new missions to this drop location
  
• Added GUN_Pistol_T4
  
• Setting up Plant & Cat Boss Blueprints
  
• Setting up Plant & Cat Boss Items, adding Plant & Cat vestiages
  
• Added new RockGolem behaviour that has them move to nearest cluster of relevant minerals and eat to regain armour.
  
• Fleshed out later RockGolem combat phases with simple combat loop.
  
• Added MoveToVectorAdvanced BT to allow custom acceptance radius when moving towards vector targets.
  
• Added collision to temporary RockGolem wall blocker mesh
  
• Basic blockout of mammoth arena showing scale and rough layout of waterfall spawn points and bird nest locations
  
• Adjustments to deploy audio for scorpion boss trophy
  
• CARAVAN: Fixed a quest step to only trigger once player enters Ashlands, and each trigger extends the timer before next trigger
  
• Adding correct audio for black wolf shield. Also adding shield block audio to animation
  
• Changed hammerhead slugs splitting to be server only
  
• Update Ashlands and Ice Sheet story missions to only spawn structures on first play
  
• Adding hammerhead slug explode audio
  
• Adding correct hammerhead slug attack montage into behavior BP. needs additional work to swap behaviors per sized variation
  
• Added Hammerhead Slug Axe art assets to the project
  
• Added_ITM_Black_Wolf_Tooth
  
• Stripping out all the body armor from the base rock golem body and bringing them all in individually
  
• Added simple concept of armour health for RockGolem.
  
• Added new Boss health bar that stays at fixed position on screen.
  
• Added function AIcarusNPCCharacter::NPCResistDamage to allow NPC BPs to control how much damage is resisted
  
• Added Ice Breaker Bones Meshes & Materials to the project
  
• Reduced the speed of all hammerhead slugs
  
• Added text for Null Sector Audiologs
  
• Adding slug axe whoosh, impact flesh and equip audio, data table setups. Also added spider ballistic setup to data table
  
• Hammerhead slugs no longer get slowed by other slug trails
  
• Adding Slug Axe & Slug Skin Meshes and Icons
  
• Setting up Slug Slime, Lava Hunter Horn & Golem Core Meshes and Icons
  
• Fixing Black Wolf Wall trophy from being incorrectly setup as the sandworm head trophy
  
• Adding spider ballistic travel and iompact audio. Currently they only seem to fire at you at very close range though
  
• Hammer Slug now checks if current target is dead and if so then tries to switch target and if not then goes back to being passive
  
• Adding pickup slime and pickup horn audio and data table entry
  
• ICESHEET Story: Fixed beacon placement step not updating
  
• ICESHEET Story: Tweaked timing and completion requirements for final quest step
  
• Adding pickup sound for slug skin and for rock golem core
  map setup and first pass on IceMammoth arena
  
• DROVER: Guide player where to craft the Monitoring Pylon
  
• Setting up Ape Boss Grenade, Rock Boss Sledgehammer, Scyther Boss Pickaxe & Cat Boss Tonic
  
• IceMammoth Arena - Refined layout of cliffs/macros, landscape sculpting, building out frozen waterfall
  
• Fixed terrain seams, Outpost 009
  
• Added New Outpost Map (009) and completed inital map setup
  
• Added destructible mesh for the Lava Hunter Mine
  
• Added Lava Hunter Mine art assets to the project
  
• Resaved datatable to fix build issue
  
• Removed description off of Trail Beacon blueprint unlock (as these aren't shown)
  
• Setup Trail Beacon recipes and blueprint
  
• Adjusted Bone Placement & Updated Collision on Ice Breaker Bones in Ice Sheets, on Yellow Quad
  
• Adding T4 Pistol shot body and tail layers, event and data table entries
  
• Cleaned up how the slugs weren't being affected by the slime. Added tags on all variants of the hammerhead slug so they don't get affected
  
• Placed Ice Breaker Bone in Ice Sheets, on Yellow Quad
  
• Adding Great Hunt Talent / Controller / View / Model Setup
  
• Adding a world talent manager and world talent storage option for the cases where talents that related to the world can be access / stored / modified
  
• Adding Great Hunt Interface Device
  
• Adding 2 example great hunts
  
• Adding T4 Pistol Item, Blueprint and Setup
  

[/expand]

Welcome to week 137.

We’re looking at farming again today, this time by adding the new ‘Farmers Satchel’ which is a tier 2 upgrade on the Seed Pouch.

This has all the benefits of the Seed Pouch, but with more slots and uses than just seeds that makes it more useful when working with a large amount of crops.

We’re also talking today about the upcoming Prometheus Map Expansion, with details about how the mini-map works in this new ‘Null Sector’.

Jump in and have a read.

• Medicine crafted on the person will head straight into the Medicine Satchel
  
• Fixed spoil timer showing {0} instead of the correct time
  
• Reduced spacing in the objectives list to better-fit missions with many objectives
  

[hr][/hr]

We’re adding a new ‘Farmers Satchel’ as a new item you can place in your inventory and use for extra seed storage.

The Farmers Satchel has 16 slots, considerably more than the Tier 1 Seed Pouch. This is crafted at Tier 2, and can be viewed as a direct upgrade. It can also hold fertilizer, making it substantially more useful for farming compared to the seed pouch which is useful mainly for foraging alone.


[hr][/hr]

We’ve entered the closed testing phase of our Prometheus Map expansion while we iron out some bugs that have cropped up. This is likely to take a few weeks and depending on the results, we may enter a stage of wider testing amongst the community.

This map expansion comes with five new missions that have you venture across the wasteland. The entire area is known as the ‘Null Sector’ and is a complete dark zone that requires a new item to map out. This won’t naturally become visible on your mini-map as other explored areas of the map would. Find out more about this next week.


[hr][/hr]

We’re also working on a new World Boss in Prometheus which will be found in the swamp biome.

While we’re not releasing too many details yet, we thought we’d share a picture of one of its smaller forms to give you a few nightmares in the meantime.


[hr][/hr]

Next week we’ll be adding more firepower to Icarus with a new Tier 3 pistol which can load 6 bullets at a time. The CHAC pistol will also be adjusted to take into account the new Pistol's ammo capacity.

The old one shot pistol is being moved to Tier 2 along with the addition of some new crude ammo crafted at the same tier.


[hr][/hr][h2]Your support makes these updates possible.[/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/40692/Icarus_Pets_Bundle/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/35727/Icarus_Complete_the_Set/
[hr][/hr]

New Content
[expand]

• Unlocking Farmers Satchel
  
• Fixed T2 Seed Bag and Medicine Bag not auto gathering applicable seeds when gathered or medicines crafted on player
  

[/expand]

Fixed
[expand]

• Fixed Confirm button on Operation Selection dialogue being untranslated
  
• Fixed a few typos in modifier states
  
• Fixed spoil timer showing {0} instead of correct time
  
• Fixed Industrial Dresser not benefting from extra storage talent
  
• Slightly reduced spacing between quest objectives for larger missions. Increased width of quest box slightly to fit more text also
  
• Fixing Build Error with Talents
  

[/expand]

Future Content
[expand]

• Tweaks to RockGolem BT. Fixed RockGolem crazy big attack radius. Fixed RockGolem slowing down before hitting walls
  
• Additions to RockGolem BT. Added WIP RockGolem barrier wall BP
  
• Setting up Slug Boss Blueprints
  
• Setting up Slug Boss Items, adding slug vestiage
  
• Adding Lava hunter boss drop items
  
• Fixing Lava hunter new items to use the correct item inputs
  
• Added art assets for the golem core item
  
• Updating ice breaker scratch sound to match slowed down animation montage. Now is on a seamless loop with continuous sound playback enabled to randomize the exact timing of the scratches
  
• Added GUN_Pistol_T3
  
• Added test map for RockGolem. Added BB-based move acceptance radius to MoveToTargetActorAdvanced BTTask. Tweaks to RockGolem BT
  
• Setting up Scorpion Boss Blueprints
  
• Setting up Lava Hunter Boss Blueprints
  
• Setting up Scorpion Throne/Hanging/Tail Item Setup
  
• General Setup of Items for Scorpion & Lava Hunter ready for meshes and stat pass
  
• Adding final layer to current ice breaker setup. Darker movement audio. Fixed a few movement sockets not being correct, distancing adjustments and a few other improvements
  
• Added spider nests and added it to olympus spawn zone (dev locked). Fixed spider ranged attack spawning at
  
• Added art assets for the lava hunter horn
  
• Changing Hubble Feature Level to Dangerous Horizons
  
• Fixing Sandworm Trophy Recipes and doing a quick pass on all new sandworm recipes & items
  
• Setting up Planetary Items for Sandworm and Black Wolf, adding item setup, icons, bp's etc
  
• Setting up prototype boss blueprint tree
  
• Adding ice breaker roar event and notifys. Other small adjustments and tweaks to ice breaker
  
• Added slug slime art assets to the project
  
• Added more montages for RockGolem. Added more simple behaviours to RockGolem BT. RockGolem tongue no longer has collision
  
• Adjustments to some ice breaker idle audio to remove artifacts of pitching. also adjustments to movement sounds rolloff distances etc
  
• Added Slug Rubber skin art assets
  
• Adjustments to ice breaker. adding move, move med and move fast audio and events and anim notifys
  
• Additions to the ice breaker. Adding idle scratch audio and notify. Further movement sounds to come
  
• Added art assets for three scorpion boss trophies to the project
  
• First pass of explosion sequence for when the boss splits, still needs timing tweaks and fx added
  
• Tweaks to RockGolem roll. Re-named BP_IceBreaker_Path to BP_Boss_Spline_Path
  
• Adding first pass ice breaker vocalisations idle states and adjustments to footsteps etc
  
• Added AnimBP for RockGolem. Added Locomotions BSs, Montages, Data setup, character for RockGolem. Added simple BT to test out RockGolem's spline-based roll movement
  
• First Pass trace asset commit for rock golem rig, textures and animations, additional armor textures to follow
  
• Correcting wrong foot for RF stomp audio
  
• Updates and improvements to ice breaker footsteps volumes and distances and eq curves
  
• Changed colour of Arctic Bat's point light and reduced intensity. Bats will now react and attack target that damages their nest
  
• Fixed a bug where the mammoth corpse would show the incorrect mesh as its corpse
  
• Fixed a bug where the mammoth corpse would show the incorrect mesh as its corpse
  
• Fixing Build Error with Talents
  
• Removed unused override location for spit attack
  

[/expand]

Welcome to week 136.

This week we’re implementing comprehensive changes to how seeds and crops interact with biomes and weather patterns.

One of Icarus' unique foundations is the immersive weather system, which requires genuine consideration in many decisions you make including building materials, biome selection and even structural design. Biomes add unique resource pools and availability, along with impacts to survivability and ailments.

One area of the game which has not been affected by these impacts, however, is farming. While rainfall amounts and glasshouse bonuses have a modest effect, it has largely ignored many of the other impacts that are prevalent on other game features.

We are expanding on that this week with biomes, extreme storms, freezing temperatures and exposure now playing a part in the crop growth simulation, making this feel more natural and connected to the rest of the game.

This includes new tiers of shovels and crop plots hat provide different tiers of storm resistance to mitigate the impact of storms, and the effect that more inhospitable biomes have on their success rate.

We’ve also got updates on some upcoming World Bosses on Prometheus, and next week's Farmers Satchel.

Jump in and have a read.

• Crops planted with a shovel no longer incur a negative modifier added to crop growth
  
• Sunlight now increases growth speed by 20%, with no sunlight reducing speed by 20% instead of 50% (this will be replaced by the Greenhouse bonus when there are glass building pieces nearby)
  
• The Kiwi trophy can now be placed on the ground as intended
  

[hr][/hr]

Seeds will now have preferred biomes. Crops will have more success growing in environments with favorable conditions, and certain crops will incur large debuffs if they’re not appropriate. For example, nothing will be able to grow outdoors in the Arctic.

However, unsuitable conditions can be negated by building greenhouses using the Glass building piece.

The impact on openly planted seeds in each biome is as follows:


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Alongside the impact of biomes on crops, the quality of crops will now play a role in farming.

Crops now have a quality which will be slowly reduced during storms. Once a crop's quality reaches 0 it will become withered and unable to bear any fruit. This is a slow process and it will take multiple storms to fully reduce a crop's quality to zero. Outside of storms the quality of a crop will recovery slowly if the crop is watered. When harvesting crops, yield will be scaled based on the crop quality after any talents and stat bonuses have been applied.

Crop plots and mounds have a new property which lets you know what tier of storms will not effect the quality of the crop, as shown in the table below. If the tier of a crop plot / dirt mound is higher or equal to the tier of storm, no crop quality will be reduced. In addition to the crop plots having high resistance as you move up the tech tree, we’ve also introduced new shovels that allow for the creation of better dirt mounds so that their crops can survive higher-tier storms.

We have also added two new fertilizers craftable on the herbalism bench at T2. One focused on crop resistance, which will reduce the quality loss of crops in storms, and another focused on recovery which will drastically increase the recovery rate of crops.

Originally posted by author

If your game is set to easy (either Mission or Open World), these new changes will not impact you, and no quality loss to your crops will occur.

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As mentioned, crop plots, dirt mounds and shovels have now been ‘tierified’.

One important change is that from this week, dirt mounds no longer incur the -50% growth speed debuff. This has been completely removed.



The weather forecast will now show what tier of storms can happen during certain periods, and different environments will also show what tier of storms you can expect. There is a small chance that tiers either one above or below can spawn during that forecast also.

While dirt mounds have more bonuses than crop plots making them suitable for mass farming, crop plots are focused on automation rather than individual boosts, while mounds are focused on buffs and mass farming.

Mounds that are created with the animal plow are equivalent to the iron shovel dirt mound.


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We’re currently working on enabling a final World Boss to spawn on the Prometheus map after completing the last story mission. This will spawn in the Volcanic Biome. We’re also working on adding another new world boss that will spawn in the swamp areas of Prometheus.


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Next week we’ll be adding a new Tier 3 Farmers Satchel, along with any necessary fixes or changes from this week's comprehensive list of adjustments. Remember to keep giving us your feedback via Feature Upvote (linked on the title screen).


[hr][/hr][h2]Your support makes these updates possible.[/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/40692/Icarus_Pets_Bundle/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/35727/Icarus_Complete_the_Set/
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New Content
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• Adding in Crop / Biome / Weather Interactions
  
• Seeds / Crops now have optimal growth biomes, when they are not planted in the correct biome they will suffer a biome specific penalty, for example nothing with grow unshelted in the arctic
  
• Seed / Crop un-obtimal biome debuffs can be countered by growing crops inside a greenhouse
  
• Crop plots / Mounds now have a tier associated with them (shown as a stat) and their crops will take damage if they are out in the open and a storm of higher than their specified tier occurs
  
• Adding Upgrade Code for Existing Dirty Mounds so they are assigned the correct tier
  
• Adding new logic when placing dirt mounds or ploughing them with an animal cart so they have the correct stats and modifiers applied
  
• Adding UI on Seeds so they display their optimal biome
  
• Adding UI to crop plots to display their tier and storm resist
  
• Adjusting stat descriptions for crop plot / mound tiers
  
• Reassigning stats of shovels & crop plots so they match their associated storm tiers
  
• Unlocking all shovels at t3/4 and workshop
  
• Fixing shovel dig as it was assigning the wrong dirt mound modifiers
  
• Crop Plots / Mounds can now be inspected without seeds
  
• Adding new modifier on crop plots / mounds if deployed in the arctic and not in a greenhouse so players know crops will die
  
• Fixed ability to spawned ploughed dirt mounds and added new modifier to reflect
  
• Adjusting Item Popup so the optimal seed biomes are not shown for every item
  
• Updating Item Rewards for digging
  
• Swapped Damage Effect for Ground Dust
  
• Adding ability for seeds to have multiple optimal biomes
  
• Adjusting crop plot tool tip location so its easier to read
  
• Adding tier information to crop plot tooltip
  
• Missed files from last commit
  
• Fixing issue where yields of 0 can be possible when the yield modifier of crops was less than 1.0
  
• Crops will take damage in storms slowly if they are not the correct tier for the storm rather than instant death, this will regen slowly when not in a storm, this is seperate from the crop plots health
  
• Added small effect for when crops take damage
  
• Fixing Dead State Collisions for the Squash, Yeast, Carrot, Kumara
  
• Adding in world tooltip for crop plots to show storm damage and growth status
  
• Update dug hole modifiers for better desciption
  
• Update Shovel to Iron Shovel
  
• Update hand made hole to only reduce crop growth by 25%
  
• Fixed build errors - AIGrowth stat enum name changed/Itemstatic missclick
  
• Adding audio for crop plants taking damage and being destroyed. BP imp
  
• Fixed a typo in the dirt mound modifier
  
• Lots of improvements and additioanl layers and tweaks to the ice breakers footsteps. Multiple events. No longer linked to footstep event for better control
  
• Update tier display on building pieces
  
• Update stat wording for crop plot tiers
  
• Adding Storm Resistance to Crop Plot Inspection UI
  
• Update crop preferred biomes
  
• Increased The Excavator workshop shovel price and storm tier
  
• Update UI text for storm resistances and tiers, and related modifiers
  
• Crop plots crops will take 2 damage every 10 seconds if their storm survival tier is lower than the crop plot or mound tier
  
• Crop plot crops will regain 1 health every 10 seconds while not in a storm and they are watered
  
• While on an Easy difficulty crop plots will not take damage in storms
  
• Removed destructible mesh from the crop plot damage so only a particle effect plays now when storm damage occurs
  
• Removed negative modifiers from using dirt mounts & adjusted tierified dirt mound stats
  
• Fixing issue where you could not dig up dirt / sand / ice with a shovel
  
• Adding Modifier Sections to Blueprint and Workshop Tooltips
  
• Modifying wording on crop plot tool tips
  
• Added new UMG that collects all building pieces/deployables/active mounts and displays them next to how many we recommend before performance is expected to slow down
  
• Adding storm tier images to crop plot tool tips
  

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Fixed
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• Updated credits section
  
• Kiwifruit recipes now use Mature Coconuts instead of Ripe Coconuts, giving players a bit more time on their decay to use them
  
• Fixed Kiwi trophy being unable to be placed on the ground (and able to be placed on a wall)
  
• CONCEALMENT: Fixed collection objectives being set to 0 requirements when not on normal difficulty
  

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Future Content
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• Added mission text for ASHLANDS and ICESHEET missions
  
• Setup PRO_D_Research mission steps
  
• First pass of IceBreaker implementation
  
• Added projectile attack to the spider
  
• Changed texture group for IceBreaker textures, allowing them to be 4K. Added additional IceBreaker idle/attack animations to engine
  
• DROVER: Moved quest locations, fixed completion state
  
• CARAVAN, DROVER: Add locations and update quest steps to use base classes. Fix some collision for quest actors
  
• IceBreaker can now properly navigate on unloaded world tiles.
  
• Fixed issue with BTS_SweepBoneDamage that was causing actors to be damaged more than once during the cooldown period
  
• |Move Aerosol Emitter active state to single bool, for audio and particle sync
  
• COMPOSITION: Moved crafting unlock/lock to their particular objectives
  
• COMPOSITION: Added dialogue triggers
  
• CARAVAN: Setup dialogue and fixed some setups
  
• CARAVAN and COMPOSITION: Setup briefing objectives
  
• Added IK CtrlRig for IceBreaker (used up to LOD 1)
  
• IceBreaker now uses it's new idle animations. Increased blend time between various IceBreaker loco anims
  
• CARAVAN: Update quest steps / logic and locations
  
• Added new icons for character creation redesign screen
  
• Added further functioanality to the mammoth. Mammoth now doesnt automatically agro to the player but waits to percieve first.
  
• Arctic bats adjusted to spawn more the less ice armor chunks
  
• DROVER: Implement initial quest setup and logic / requirements
  
• First lot of WIP assets for the ice breaker footsteps. Nowhere near finished atm
  
• Adding aerosol emitter audio event and BP imp
  
• DROVER: Add dialogue and fixes for mission steps
  
• Update collision on snap actors to match if mesh is hidden
  
• Update Ice Sheet spawn map
  
• Adjustments to ice breaker audio footstep notifys. And adding shake notify to the slams
  
• Adding new Wiget for displaying tier on crop plots
  
• Added montages and notify setups for most Ape attacks / behaviours
  
• Add Prometheus part 2 mission recipes
  
• ABYSS: Clear mission debuffs and recipes on completion
  
• Setup Aerosol Emitter to be set active when first placed for visual and audio effects
  

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