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Icarus News

Hotfix Version: 2.2.15.125724-rel-Laika

[h3]Contains the following Fixes[/h3]
  • Fixed bug causing operations to break if you click to start them before the audio narration has finished playing. If you have a stuck mission that is affected, you may need to cancel it and can start it again after a short cooldown.
  • Fixed bug preventing players from starting a new SIMPL3 mission at the terminal.
  • Adding missing saucepan proxy mesh for cooking devices

Icarus Week 140 Update | Project Clinic #2

Welcome to our 140th weekly update.

This week we are introducing a battery-powered ice box backpack, which offers a new way to keep your food from spoiling while on the go.

We also have a heap of updates including new workshop items, new battery-powered equipment, numerous small tweaks and fixes, and even a new main menu screen.

These are the result of a “project clinic” our team conducted while playing the upcoming free expansion to the Prometheus map. We do these deep dives every now and then, and you can read what a project clinic involves in this post from earlier this year.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1149460/view/4201372129447834069
Originally posted by author
[h2]CEO's Forward[/h2]

We left some of the Prometheus map empty so we could develop it further, which we were planning to release as a free expansion for that map this week. However, as we played through it we ended up doing an intensive "Project Clinic" and are taking an extra week to add even more content - both to the base game and this map.

A key aspect of our studio development is for our senior leadership to do full playthrough runs with no cheats, experiencing our games just as our customers do. This is incredibly time intensive, but is extremely important for our aim of making better games, and it has been instrumental in driving ICARUS forward.

We've talked in the past about doing “Project Clinics”, where we use these intensive playthroughs to highlight issues, missing content, or Quality of Life changes. We then rapidly iterate to solve as many as we can. So we used our Prometheus playthrough week for this purpose and want to get these additions out before we release our expansion to Prometheus.

Once these two updates are out, our focus will move onto the next installments in ICARUS as well as our next free major updates. If you have enjoyed what we do, please consider leaving a review and picking up some of our DLC. Our studio spends all the money we make on developing the game and does no dividends, so all our income goes into making our games.

Dean “Rocket” Hall, CEO



[hr][/hr]
This Week: Ice Box Backpack


This week’s featured new item is the Ice Box backpack, crafted at the Fabricator. This backpack adds six new inventory slots - like most backpacks - but it also chills everything carried in your inventory, drastically extending their spoil time. Our design intent with this backpack is to provide a specialized solution for long expeditions across the map when adequate freezer storage isn’t available.

This backpack does require stored electricity to operate, meaning you must charge it between uses. This can be done at the Charging Station introduced in week 127.


[hr][/hr]
This Week: Project Clinic Highlights


Our Project Clinic has resulted in a massive array of adjustments, enhancements, additions, and refinements - all designed towards the kind of gameplay that we want to emphasize more. This includes survival and general infrastructure setup for more longer-term missions, that are part of the expansion to the Prometheus area.



[h3]New Main Menu Flow[/h3]

When opening Icarus this week you will no longer see your character on the main screen. Instead, you will see our redesigned main menu. We felt the old design did not clearly convey the different game modes available to you and added an unnecessary extra step in the process to getting into a session. This new update aims to simplify this process and get you into game faster.



[h3]Hydrazine - A New Workshop-Only Resource[/h3]

Hydrazine is a new gaseous resource collected from space and compressed into canisters for you to purchase from the orbital workshop. These are a one-time use item that cannot be refilled.

Two new items have been added to the workshop that are powered by Hydrazine:
  • The MXC Cooker - provides all the same recipes as a pot belly stove but does not require shelter
  • The MXC Heater - provides substantial heat for a small device, making it perfect for night or arctic crossings

Expect more items to be added in the future that use this new fuel.



[h3]Portable Biofuel Generators[/h3]

To help with power needs on the go, we have added portable biofuel generators. These provide 2000W of power and are very light to carry. They are also considerably cheaper than the other larger biofuel generators and are ideal for powering electric deep mining drills.



[h3]Battery Powered Equipment[/h3]

This week, we've introduced some new equipment that can be charged at the charging station, enriching the tech tree and offering alternatives powered by batteries instead of biofuel or electricity. All of these items are craftable on the fabricator at T4 and sit next to the Charging Station on the Tech Tree.
  • Battery Powered Lantern that provides an alternative to the flashlight with a different illumination
  • Battery Powered Spot Lights that can light up large areas
  • Battery Powered Cave Lights that are ideal for what their name suggests




[h3]Item Mesh Updates[/h3]
  • Some of our meshes for existing items were substandard and in need of a refresh:
  • The Ghillie Suit has had a complete overall with a new up-to-date look
  • The Hunter Armor helmet has been refreshed
  • The Biofuel Generator has received a new mesh that better fits its size
  • The Charging Station has been updated to reflect the new equipment that can be charged




[h3]Workshop Balance / Price Adjustments[/h3]
  • Some minor price adjustments were made to ensure consistency among items of similar quality. Additionally, we’ve introduced minor balance adjustments to more accurately reflect the current status of items in the game and, in certain instances, their readability.
  • Reduced the Workshop Repair Kit price to be the same price as repairing in orbit
  • Adjusted the Larkwell Bolt Price and reduced replication cost from 50 -> 10, bringing it in line with workshop arrows of the same tier
  • Adjusted the Larkwell Sickle Price as it was far costlier than the actual value to a player
  • Reduced the Workshop Biofuel Canister replication cost as it no longer felt appropriate with the introduction of Hydrazine
  • Updated the Workshop pickaxes so they have only a single stat for mining yield, which helps avoid confusion when comparing them
  • Made slight tweaks to Workshop Hammers stats
  • Reorganized the workshop bow tab to have a clear progression of arrow types, and reduced the Inaris arrow unlock cost
  • Buffed the Larkwell Knife attack speed to make its high cost appropriate for the benefit it provides




[h3]New Stove Proxy Meshes[/h3]

The Potbelly Stove, Biofuel Stove, and Electric Stove, along with the new MXC Cooker, have been updated with proxy meshes and effects. This means that when you are cooking something, pots and pans with ingredients will appear based on what is currently being crafted. This was done to better reflect what is going on with the devices in the game world. We want to do more of this in the future.



[h3]Lighting Updates[/h3]

We have spent time adjusting the lighting on many of our light sources. Deployables with a flame, such as the standing torch, candles, and campfire, have been adjusted so they feel more atmospheric when playing. Due to some of the changes made, these items are also a little more performant.


[hr][/hr]
Next Week: New Area and Missions for New Frontiers Expansion


[h3]Sale on New Frontiers now, for a limited time[/h3]
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1648532/Icarus_New_Frontiers_Expansion/

As we wrap up our internal play sessions of Null Sector, we can now begin finalizing the free update.

This expansion to the Prometheus map - available with the New Frontiers DLC - 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]Revenue and our DLC Strategy[/h2]

We have tried to setup our DLC in the most permissive way possible. We give away all the key features for free, rather than bundling them in the DLC. We also made it so only the host needs the expansions, and removed DRM so that it is easy to bypass the DLC restrictions when hosting local servers.

We generally take home about 50% of the retail price, after deductions for Steam, cost-of-sale, and Epic. After these, our typical outpost DLC has around USD 50k net revenue, on a budget of roughly 5-10k per outpost. Making them is very profitable, which surprised us a lot. However from what we can tell, most people buying outposts are doing so via the complete the set - mostly as a way to help us fund future development (thank you!). As these do well, we are looking at doing more of these in the future.

Our major expansion (New Frontiers) was a big portion of income, gaining about USD 1.5M net the above deductions. It probably cost us roughly USD 1M to make, although it is complex to budget for as we pulled out many of the things we planned to include to give away with the free update that went with it. Overall, New Frontiers seems to be a major factor in driving general sales of the game and other content and has been pretty much essential to the survival of the game and maybe even the studio in the current market.

The content packs give us about USD 75k - 100k after deductions, on a budget of roughly that. So they tend to break even, but seem to have quite a long tail. In the long run they add just a little bit on top which we can use to continue with further development.

For the game itself, the last year has seen strong sales - much stronger than the preceding year but below the original launch. This is quite unusual for a video game, when you generally have the vast majority of your revenue at launch and then maybe a small amount continuing on. This is probably due to several factors, the most notable being us improving the game. The community feedback iteration has been essential in us bringing the game back from its mixed launch. People often say “why don’t studios do a No Man’s Sky and improve their game?”, but the reality is this is very expensive and many studios that wish so, simply can’t afford to try. And even where they do, they don’t have the exposure for anyone to notice. We have been incredibly fortunate to be able to continue to develop the game, but it is expensive. We have only been able to do such regular updates through very hard work, heavy community engagement, and a top-level commitment for a better game rather than a profitable one.

This information is provided because game studios tend to be very opaque when it comes to financials, and many gamers end up thinking that DLCs end up being “cash grabs”, when in fact most DLCs don’t tend to make a lot of money as attachment rates are quite low. Our target, and we suspect most studios are the same, is that a DLC will break even over the course of a year.


[hr][/hr][h2]Please consider leaving a review[/h2]

We have worked hard to bring our product forward, focusing on changing core aspects of the game based on your feedback, new content, and performance improvements. This has been done every single week since the game launched, with not a single week missed even through natural disasters and holidays. While the game isn’t perfect, we have have worked hard with the community to try and make the game better every week.

Early on we also rolled back the online backend, ensuring the game would have a future even if our studio went under. This was an unpopular decision at the time, but one we knew was necessary to secure the games future. We think that with recent sentiment against Games-as-a-service, we feel vindicated that it was the right call.

Given this, please do consider leaving a review for our products. And if you want to support the studio, please do consider buying the DLC. All the money we make is spent on making our games, we don’t provide any dividends and put all the money back into our staff and development.
[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]
Changelog v2.2.15.125691


[h3]New Content[/h3]
[expand]
  • Icebox Backpack is now crafted on planet on the fabricator, it now has a charge and needs to be charged to be active, when active will lower the external temp of the player by 5 Celcius and slow food spoilage drastically, added item recipe and blueprint for the icebox backpack as well as new modifier and icon, feature locked out for now
  • Added DEP_Powered_Charger_v2
  • Updated Marked Target modifier to be unable to be triggered by creatures/players that can mark targets. Notably this means the base Dribbo and tamed pets with the relevant talent do not deal extra damage without other targets attacking
  • The Icebox backpack can now be charged on the charging station
  • Adding Portable Biofuel Generator and Replacing Mesh of Biofuel Generator
  • Adding Battery Powered Latern
  • Swapping Ghillie Suite to use new Meshes
  • Adding new portable generator audio and BP. Updates to Ghillie armor to suit the new mesh - more foliage vibe, adding battery lantern on / off switch audio
  • Fixing Portable Generator Scale
  • Setting up Ice box backpack, talent / recipes
  • Adding ability for small batteries to be recharged at the charging device
  • Adding proxy meshes to rechargin station for icebox backpack, flashlight, battery lantern, lava hunter backpack and small battery
  • Adding fallbacks for cleaning Open World Mission history
  • Adding Additional Safety checks when triggering missions so old / failed / abandoned missions are cleaned up
  • Adding Iron Bucket
  • Fixing Ghillie Arms in First Person to use New Mesh
  • Adding Hydrazine as a new resource type
  • Adding new Hydrazine workshop canister
  • Adding new workshop cooker & heater that run off Hydrazine
  • Added iron bucket art assets to the project
  • Added text for new MXC items
  • Adding audio for workshop cooker and heater. To be tested once power behavior is working
  • Fixing Battery Lantern not consuming power
  • Updating Battery Lantern ON / OFF State so that the bulb lights up when ON, Setting default mesh material to OFF
  • Adding bucket fill audio. Not currently hooked up
  • Updating Battery Lantern to new Mesh
  • Adding New Battery Lantern & Cave Light Meshes to Charging Device as Proxy Meshes
  • Added Off material state for ITM_Battery_Lantern
  • Added ITM_Battery_Lantern
  • Updating Hunter Head Icon
  • Adding Battery Cavelight Item / Blueprint
  • Adding Iron Bucket Mesh Hookup & Icon
  • Adding in second version of cavelights on a stick, wall and floor version, fixed up material on first cavelight version, added campcooker proxy mesh
  • Added Battery Light Deployable base
  • Battery CaveLights Wall & Floor are now one item with variations
  • Battery Spotlights are now one item with Variations
  • Hooking up new Battery Cavelight lights & Meshes
  • Added Proxies for Workshop Cooker & Heater
  • Lighting Updates on CaveLight & CaveSpotLight
  • Adding small vial trophy deploy audio. Small eq adjustments to events. Data table deploy audio setups for all bigger trophys
  • Adding in campcooker proxy and combined meshes for placement hologram for the cooker and heater
  • Adding new component for recipe proxies when items are crafting
  • Adding new recipe proxy for the workshop cooker
  • Cave Flashlight and Spotlight can now be charged at the charging station
  • Adding Descriptions for New Cave Light and Spot Light
  • Fabricator now accepts a water connection for recipes
  • Hydrazine cooker now uses a green flame effect
  • Tagging all cooked items with Fruit / Vege / Egg / Gain / Meat / Fish / Chicken etc
  • Added version 2 of the t3 kitchen bench without the pots and pans
  • Adjusting cave spot lights, and cave omni lights
  • Adding new component for recipe proxies when items are crafting
  • Adding Proxies to Kitchen, Potbelly and Electric Stoves
  • First iteration of new space menu screen
  • Swapped the icons for customize button and character create button to make more sense
  • Changed sizes and font sizes for main menu and open world
  • Fixed main menu buttons disappearing on startup
  • Fixed 'close' and 'back' button appearing on DS when selecting mission. Fixed first playthrough popup temporarily making the 'new game' menu dissapear
  • Changed the menu button layout to match each other
  • Changed the backgrounds of each map on the open world and missions main menu.
  • Changed the corners of the buttons to be thicker and animated them a little faster
  • Reduced Portable Biofuel Generator power efficiency.
  • Lowered cost of Stone Brick building pieces by ~25%
  • Changed velocity and eventually disabled particles from NS_Hydrazine_FX

[/expand]

[h3]Fixed[/h3]
[expand]
  • Fixed weight on many half pieces (were 100, now tiered appropriately)
  • Removed proposed boss 'heath bars' after backlash about feeding animals candy
  • Fixed if you attacked boars from a distance then walked away they would just walk to your previous location because they couldnt see you same as the hippo. Readded stat to hippo that was removed for testing
  • Attacking a dribbo now angers its family and sets its current aggression to max
  • Fixed any epic wolf counting toward wolf boss kill accolade
  • Fixed Portable Generator itemable setup, tweaked crafting time of both generators
  • Update Wheat to Biofuel recipe requirement
  • Fixed an issue with the sizing of the Portable Generator
  • Changed the Mesh and Icon for the Charging Device so it can fit larger items
  • Hitching ropes now stack. Removing one animal from a hitching post no longer removes all animals on that post. Removing multiple animals from a hitching post now grants the correct number of hitching ropes. Fixed bug where only one animal was left attached to a hitching post when game was reloaded
  • Tweak light of advanced versions of light slot items to have slightly increased brightness
  • Drastically Increased weight on biofuel generator (2kg -> 40kg)
  • Slight Adjustment on workshop Deployable costs
  • Adjusting Larkwell Bolt Price, reduced replication cost from 50 -> 10
  • Adjusting Larkwell Sickle Price, reduced replication & Unlock cost dramatically
  • Reduced Workshop Biofuel Canister replication cost
  • Increased bee aura radius by 50%. Bee aura now affects dirt mounds.
  • Dirt mound now stacks to 10, increased weight to 250g
  • Reduced size of dirt mount deployable collision, should make them easier to place next to one another (similar to direct placement with shovel).
  • You can no longer deploy a dirt mound directly on top of another dirt mound (intersecting edges is still okay).
  • Fixed CalculateDamageTaken() crash when damage causer was null
  • Fixed null controler crash on PIE exit
  • Replaced old Ghillie armor set item icons to new ones
  • Fixing Workshop heater referencing an old resource that was removed
  • Fixed bug where food trough / water trough allowlist behaviour wasn't working correctly if set up by a client
  • Fixing Workshop heater & cooker from not running off hydrazine correctly
  • Swapping hunter helmet to use the new mesh
  • Fixed resume button animation
  • Added bucket asset to meshable data table
  • Setting up new cave spot lights
  • Adjustments to lantern audio
  • Fixing Hunter Helmet unintentionally hiding the undersuits helmet when equipped
  • Update Workshop pickaxes so they only have a single stat for mining yield
  • Rescale Workshop hammers, Tatsuo now grants movement speed but lower tier hammers repair slower overall
  • Reduced Workshop repair kit price to be the same price as repairing in orbit
  • Reorganized Workshop bow tab to have a clear progression of arrow types, reduced Inaris arrow unlock cost
  • Buffed Larkwell Knife attack speed
  • Mounts/Tames will now immediately stop current animation or movement when hitched.
  • Fixed bug where Mounts/Tames wouldn't return to their previous movement state upon being released from a handheld hitching rope.
  • Players can no longer release mounts hitched to a post while leading another mount with a hitching rope
  • Fixing charging Devices CaveLight & CaveSpotLight PRoxy Meshes
  • Fixed aspect ratio scaling issue on new buttons. Added subtle zoom-in/out effect to new button images.
  • Sped up OpenWorld/TerrainSelection background image fade in/out, added background blur
  • Flashlight can be held in your hand again
  • Fixed cave spotlight wall variant deploying a cave light
  • Fixed cave spotlight wall variant material assignments
  • Fixed character buttons being overlapped on main menu
  • Fixed equipped item shadow not being attached to hands while in first-person perspective
  • Fixed bug where changing from 1st -> 3rd -> 1st person perspective could cause the light in player's light slot to be positioned incorrectly, causing shadow artifacts.
  • Added physics to new battery lantern. Increased temperature of battery lantern's lights. Slightly adjusted position of lantern lights in light slot.
  • 3rd person body no longer applies spline pitch rotation when looking up and down in first person.
  • Increased battery capacity of flashlight and battery lantern by 30%
  • Increased battery light maximum placement angles
  • Reduced stack size to 1 for battery lights
  • Fixing initial battery charge status of lantern and flashlight
  • Reduced Portable Biofuel Generator power efficiency
  • Further adjustments to lighting, namely fire based sources
  • Further adjustments to lighting, namely fire based sources
  • Swapping Exotic Voxel Material over to a new one
  • Fixing Tag Queries causing issues with the build
  • Fixed Hydrazine returning to orbit, this is one time use item
  • Fixed Hydrazine not appearing in dropship/OEI
  • Fixing Tag Queries causing issues with the build
  • Swapping out bucket focusable to use a modified version of the lantern one, added in tweaked 3rd person Idle

[/expand]

[h3]Future Content[/h3]
[expand]
  • Adding appropriate audio for waterlogged spine item
  • Adding ice armor fragment pickup audio added to data table item audio and items static
  • Added animation, changed some font and sizing colour to Main Menu Screen
  • Lots of adjustments and improvements to Rock Golem audio. Removed aggro state and made it an aggro 1 shot that plays on various animations to avoid state complications with burrowing etc. updated all aggro state audio layers and death layer etc
  • Added destructible meshs for the lava hunter trophies
  • Update Prometheus bounds map visibility for full map view
  • Added lava hunter trophies to the project
  • Removing Spawning of World Talent Manager for GH, until I have time to fix
  • Reimported and regenerated Prom fishing map texture and temperature map texture for corresponding setup for the expansion
  • Fixing muzzle flash on T4 Pistol by adding corresponding socket to skeleton
  • Updated texture group for RockGolem and Ape textures so they show in 4k
  • Cliff Placement in Outpost 9, on Red Quad
  • Landscape Sculpting Pass and Landscape Painting Pass, Outpost_011
  • Ice Mammoth Arena - Added ice chunk meshes + textures, set dressing
  • Adding more rock golem layers. Flinch and death audio etc
  • Painted new fishing zones and temp map for Prom expansion
  • Cliff Pass and added stalagmites, Rock Golem Arena
  • Added Ape_Boss_Sack to the project
  • Added ape boss hide asset to the project
  • First pass rock golem vocalisation audio for attack and aggro state
  • Ice Breaker is now always relevant for clients, should fix issues where Ice Breaker was popping in and out
  • Added initial item setup of Sandworm building tier
  • Ice Mammoth Arena - set dressing and polish
  • Added ITM_Backpack_LavaHunter
  • Added ITM_Biomass_LavaHunter
  • Ice Mammoth arena - added BatNest meshes 02-04, set dressing
  • Added ITM_Sledgehammer_Rock_Golem
  • Adding mission source files
  • Cliff Placement in Outpost 9, on Red Quad
  • Landscape Sculpting Pass and Landscape Painting Pass, Outpost_011
  • Balances and updates to the rock golem. Added more aggressive angry vocalisations to burrow in and out and other tweaks
  • Resaving datatable
  • Ice Mammoth Arena - material work on ice, set dressing with ice chunks, cracks, landscape filler meshes (snow on lake)
  • Cliff Placement in Outpost 9, on Red Quad
  • Added rock golem fight specific actors into new arena map. Arena_RockGolem now uses one-file-per-actor saving
  • Added the first two Boss_Ape trophies to the project with blueprints
  • Setting up Skeleton for Tier 5 Technology Tech Tree and Items with Oil Extraction, Refining and Production creation through a Polymerizer
  • Fixed flying cheat not working on clients
  • Adjusted description of flying cheat
  • Added 'Toggle Flight (Fly)' cheat to enter flying movement. Use mouse scroll adjust speed
  • Added a tag to all biomass and added a 'hide biomass' option to currency widget. Added back button to open world and mission selector. Made the size of mission and open world buttons uniform with the other buttons
  • Update Null Sector prospect weather forecast to be harder patterns
  • Added static to Null Sector area of Prometheus map
  • Increased maximum spawn distance on Ice Breaker's manual spawn point
  • Removed RockGolem row from D_WorldData
  • Disabled world composition for Arena_RockGolem, migrated all actors to Persistent Level
  • Datatable fix
  • Updated the pants in the swamp ape display case trophy to not be effected by wind
  • Added collision for ape boss rug and made slight adjustments to the gfur splines
  • Added in Basalt Columns and Geothermal lakes, Rock Golem Arena
  • Cliff Placement in Outpost 9, on Red Quad
  • Consolidated SwampApe arena map
  • Adding earthquake audio and event. Not currently hooked up to BP
  • Remove the generated levels from the test base instanced map as build server regex having issues (this is just an example level anyway)
  • revised meshes/textures for basalt columns, added cluster mesh (WIP)
  • Iteration on the Terrain and Mission Select Screens
  • Lots of updates and additions to the rock golem audio. More notifys, events and adjustments to spacial and reverbs etc
  • Prevent overflowbags from spawning when an instanced level deployable is cleaned up
  • Swamp Ape Arena - Added & Setup New Tree Var5, Mesh, Material & Level TREE_SW_Mangrove_005
  • Cliff Placement & Added Snow Material for Cliffs in Outpost 9, on Red Quad
  • More instanced maps WIP
  • Basalt columns - WIP meshes/textures
  • Changed visuals for boss healthbar and armor
  • Added Ice mammoth armor sk meshes, textures and materials, plastic and ice material functions
  • Added more columns and moved some floor pieces around based on feedback, Rock Golem Arena
  • Basalt columns - material adjustments, cluster meshes w custom collision added
  • Added fuel properties to hardened magma (upcoming item)
  • Updates to rock golem earthquake and other events. added reverb to footsteps so it can feel echoed at a far distance
  • Added Water Scyther Spear, Arrow, Bolt and Pic
  • Adding in remeshed highpoly base model for plantboss for review
  • Adding in Scyther base mesh and first set of animations, textures to follow
  • Adding in base mesh for Camping cooker and camping heater as well as texture tweaks to suit, proxy meshes for cooker to follow implementation
  • Adding in Rock Golem earthquake event to burrown cycle. Adding new rock fall travel audio, rock fall impact audio, new earthquake snapshot override and implimentation. Adjustments to rock gol reverbs and volumes etc
  • Various instanced level bring up fixes
  • Swamp Ape Arena - Added & setup New Tree Var6, Mesh, Material & Level TREE_SW_Mangrove_006
  • Rock Golem Arena Polish Pass and Lake Spline Setup
  • Added DEP_Trap_Scyther to the project with skeleton and start, loop, and stop animations
  • Removed remaining arenas from D_WorldData
  • Setting up Mesh and Icon for Ape Sack
  • Setting up Mesh and Icon for Lava hunter Throne & Feature
  • Setting up Mesh and Icon for Rock Golem Sledge
  • Setting up Mesh and Icon for Lava hunter backpack, adding new aura and related stats
  • Setting up Mesh and Icon for Lava hunter mine
  • Added Transparent Basalt Columns to Arena
  • adding in smaller version of the scyther to use as an enemy fish, custom material and diffuse tweak and material import for the scyther, need to make an alpha mask input for base creature shader too
  • Adjustments to earthquake. More distortion to make it feel more intense. Adjustment to falling rock ballistic travel spacial to make it feel less whooshy around the player
  • Added GRE_Swamp_Ape_Grenade
  • Adding Cheats for Clearing Open World Mission History
  • Cliff Pass, Outpost 11
  • Cliff Placement in Outpost 9, on Red Quad
  • Adding more sickle layers to be used for lava hunter sickle
  • adjustments to crystal material, new meshes and maps for crystal columns
  • Additions and updates to the golem. Adding eating audio and destroying crystals. General balances, adding notifys to all eating cycles etc
  • Cliff Pass, Outpost 11
  • Added support for future shovel and shield attachments
  • Added new material for crystal columns in Rock Golem Arena
  • Adding rock golem sledge hammer impact flesh and rock audio and events - data table setups
  • Added Outpost_012 with temp terrain
  • Swamp Ape Arena - Added & Setup New COL Mesh for TREE_SW_Mangrove_005 and TREE_SW_Mangrove_006
  • Cliff Placement in Outpost 9, on Red Quad
  • Cliff Pass, Outpost 11
  • Removed hardened magma from fuel sources for now
  • ASHLANDS and ICE SHEET: Increase trail beacon craft requirements
  • Outpost_012 - landscape iteration
  • Added updated textures for the Sandworm Wood Building tier, including fixing mismatched meshes and materials in the data table ofr the Sandworm Wood tier, plus assigned the correct kit versions of the meshes to BP_Building_Wall_HalfPitch_Lower_Right_Wood
  • Added lava hunter warming icon and aura icon

[/expand]

The Actor who played "Sol" has passed away


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’

A huge thank you to Stig, whos work on our first cinematic trailer and in the game has been instrumental

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Icarus Week 139 Update | Encounter the new ‘Dribbo’ on Icarus

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.

[hr][/hr]
Notable Improvements
  • 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

[hr][/hr]
This Week: The Dribbo


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


[hr][/hr]
Coming Soon: Ice Box Backpack


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.


[hr][/hr]
Coming Soon: Boss Heath Bars


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.


[hr][/hr]
Next Week: Prometheus Free Expansion


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]
Changelog v2.2.14.125372


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]

Icarus Week 138 Update | New Semi-Automatic Pistol and Crude Ammo in Tier 2

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.


[hr][/hr]
This Week: New Pistol & Rebalance

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]
Coming Soon: Free Prometheus Expansion

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]
Coming Soon: Prometheus Expansion Testing

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: The Dribbo

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]
Changelog v2.2.13.125172-rel-Laika
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]