Icarus News

Week Seventy One is here and we’re introducing our Fruit Care Package, following on from last week’s vegetable-themed one.

This introduces Avocados and Strawberries, with seven recipes between them to craft across a range of benches. These can be earned through SMPL3 quests and come with their own unique buffs.

We also have moved further into the testing phases of Galileo, hooking up the Accolades and Achievements to Steam's backend in our development environment.

Jump in and have a read!





Following our Vegetable Care Package, we’re introducing our Fruit Care Package which includes two new resources for you to find as rewards for SMPL3 quests: Avocados and Strawberries.

These come with seven new recipes that can be crafted at the Drying Rack, Cooking Bench, Potbelly Stove, and Biofuel Stove, each with its own buffs and perks. These are:

• Fruit Muffin
  
• Savory Roll
  
• Strawberry Jam
  
• Pickled Avocado
  
• Mixed Berries
  
• Stuffed Avocado
  
• Dried Avocado
  

While not able to be found growing in the wild, Avocados and Strawberries can be earned through SMPL3 missions in Open World, so get to ticking off those tasks.





Galileo is quickly approaching, and this week saw us connect our Accolade and Achievements features to the Steam backend in our development application.

We also found an issue with the Bestiary in multiplayer, so are working on correcting this so players are granted rewards correctly, and have been testing our fishing mechanics, iterating on the feature and ironing out any bugs that we discover.

For those who might not know what Galileo is, check out our Week Sixty Five blog. We’ve shifted to a new approach that combines regular, smaller weekly updates with larger patches that focus on more detailed features, the first of which is Galileo.





New Content

• Added HRB_Strawberry with 5 growth stages and dead stage, as well as ITM_Strawberry, and added all assets to the appropriate data tables
  
• Adding Strawberry item icon
  
• Added HRB_Avocado with 5 growth stages and dead stage, as well as ITM_Avocado, including all data table entries
  
• Unlocking Avocado & Strawberry Dynamic Quest Rewards and Recipes
  
• Adding Avocado Icon
  

Fixed

• Fix workshop layout tree for micromeal is visually wrong
  
• BROKEN ARROW: Update dialogue timing
  
• Fixed an edge case of the shield still being attached to the player after it's destroyed
  
• Fixed a typo in Wooden Buffalo Statue description
  
• Added text for fish trophy mount
  
• Fixing Inaris Envirosuit pointing to the incorrect helmet
  
• Fixed incorrect 'effectiveness multiplier' value for Crit_StrongPoint and Crit_ExtraStrongPoint rows, shouldn't have any gameplay effects but they should be named correctly now
  

Future Content

• Add option to configure alternate dialogue in data depending on whether prospect is mission or open world. Dialogue rows can now automatically redirect to another row if a redirect condition is met
  
• Adjustments to needler, predator bird and slight incrase in reverb for wetlands overall
  
• Moved logging to a new function to test if it's working as intended
  
• Adding Landmine Icon and texture swaps based on armed state
  
• Putting the needler montages in the correct folder
  
• Fixed Seams in Arctic and Tundra Cave Prefabs and Setup Meta Node Handles For Cave Prefabs in Arctic, Tundra, Conifer and Volcanic, Prometheus
  
• Meta Spawner - Row Setup Green Quad
  
• Remove old angled seedling trees in GL area & repainted seedling in GL area on Green Quad, DLC Map
  
• Repainted seedlings in GL area, polished and added assets/foliage to underground cave, Green Quad, DLC Map
  
• Added art assets for Fish07 Colour variants to project
  
• Export PNGs of terrain maps for levels
  
• Meta Spawner Setup Meta Node Handles on Green/Purple Quad
  
• Adjusting Prometheus AI spawn config to include the new creatures and added zones for specific creature spawns
  
• PRO: Updated foliage names and rewards to match type of plant, update brambles to require sickles to be cleared
  
• Fixed a replication bug with the clientside projection widget
  
• Removed unnecessary replication on a few variables
  
• Added tooltips to most of the variables for readability
  
• Shifted functions so the actionable only talks to the rod and the rod to the lure
  
• Fix naming scheme on new Prospect images
  
• Partial Setup of tameable Bear cub and AI setups for prometheus
  
• Add Large and Small Painting Frame deployables
  
• Add 44 new canvas materials for painting frames (to be hooked up)
  
• Clean up Frame assets
  
• Added possible fix for foliages instances being invisible in editor when placed on top of other meshes (cliffs, tree roots etc)
  
• Adding possible open bestiary UI sound. Not yet implemented
  
• Added 2 DCO Tapestry assets to test
  
• Meta Spawner Setup Meta Node Handles on Blue Quad and Some Prefab Cave Fixes
  
• Updating Bestiary Open sound and adding into BP
  
• Painted seedling in GL area on Green Quad, DLC Map
  
• Adding ITM_Shield_Kite_Platinum for testing
  
• Added SPR_Obsidian
  
• Repainted seedlings in GL area and general clean up of underground cave, Green Quad, DLC Map
  
• Apply any bestiary stats when unlocked (Galileo feature locked)
  
• Disable Trailer setup for VFXTest Level
  
• Shortening the open bestiary sound by about 35% to make it snappier and so the visuals can match without too much of a delay
  
• Added support for receiving rewards for offline mission completion in prospects with multiple missions
  
• Added new error codes for situations where a drop ship position fails to generate when joining a prospect
  
• Added SK mesh, textures, material for Titanium Tower Shield (SK_ITM_Shield_Titanium)
  
• Adding Bestiary Unlock Stats and setting up stats in the bestiary data
  
• Fix an issue with the 3D to 2D mapping on the range target debug tool (internal developer only)
  
• Fixing Renamed Stats Causing Build Break
  
• Fixed Issues in prefab caves where players could get stuck and get blocked by cliff meshes, Prometheus
  
• Added more info to dev inspection tool. Added cheat to teleport to specific X,Y,Z coordinates
  
• Added LookAt Control rig for Swamp Quadruped.
  
• Update RigUnit_Accumulate nodes to latest git source version.
  
• Added ability for some NPCs to Look at nearby perceived targets, currently only enabled for Swamp Quadruped, regardless of AI relationship.
  
• quick pass on dropship sonic boom effects
  
• Adding bestiary hover audion and events for hover creatures left and hover main creatures middle. Adding to UMG's
  
• Fixed LC cave blocker MeshCache not being in depot, should fix issue with weird normals when hit in built game
  
• Painted seedling in GL area on Green Quad, DLC Map
  
• Updating Bestiary Widgets to work like concept
  
• Generated .ivc and .imc files from new voxel meshes are now automatically added to source control
  
• Add Lights to Prometheus Lava Lakes. Add base class to ensure consistency between light settings and easy optimization
  
• Adding bestiary ui click, hover adjustments and UMG input
  
• Fix an issue applying multiple bestiary stats to same source (Galileo feature locked)
  
• General clean up, polished around manual cave, foliage and added cliff formations, Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Implemented fish cooking recipes
  
• Adding VFX, Lighting and material emissive control to aquarium t3 and 4. Added logic to only have these active when supplied with power and water
  
• Added missing virtual stats
  
• Wire wolf percention bestiary stat (Galileo feature locked)
  
• Predator birds no longer target corpses that are sheltered
  
• Adding Audio Row to bestiary enteries so an animal sound can be played
  
• Fixes for BP logic on BP_Aquarium
  
• Reworked transition between GL & TU to feel more natural on Blue/Green Quad, DLC Map
  
• Adding missing material for new sonic boom VFX
  
• Fishing Trap no longer will spoil food
  
• Players can not longer place items in the fishing trap
  
• Fishing trap will display a fish when a fish is caught
  
• Adding first batch of bestiary creatures through device audio events and data table entry
  
• Updated names for confirmed DLC creatures
  
• Change bestiary percents, make popups aware of new bestiary unlock types, only display a single (the best) unlock popup when processing unlocks (Galileo feature locked)
  
• Updating volumes and panning of bestiaryu creatures, adding in UMG BP logic to play sounds based on creature selected
  
• Updating Bestiary UI
  
• Update all Geode Lamps to be actual lights with emissive texture swaps
  
• Remove Flammable from Geode Lamps and change to Light Deployable weight setup
  
• Fix Geode Lamps ItemTemplate pointers
  
• Remove rotation step from non-facing Geode Lamps
  
• Fix random icon assignment to Geode Lamp deployable setups
  
• Adding more creatures in for bestiary audio and data table
  
• Updates to bestiary mixing. Ducking added and slight reverb to put the device in world more
  
• Working on adding POI's & cliffs/rock formation in the swamp on Purple/Green Quad, DLC Map
  
• Updated grasslands and wetlands atmosphere color effects
  
• General clean up, polished around manual cave and added cliff landmarks, Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Adjusted settings on shadow geo meshes in Prometheus (disabled all shadow casting except far shadows)
  
• Deleting DM for DCO_DeskLamp_Carved so that a proper working version can be created, as well as fixing the lampshade material
  
• Added proper DM for DCO_Desk_Lamp_Wood_Carved
  
• Swamp Quadruped is no longer scared of player until attacked
  
• Added Art asstes for ITM_FishChunks, ITM_FishFillet_Saltwater, and ITM_FishFillet_Freshwater
  
• Adding in next batch of creatures sounds for bestiary
  
• Adding Fish Recipe Icons
  
• Adding Fish Chunks, Saltwater & Freshwater Fillet Icons and Meshes
  
• Reworked transition between GL & TU to feel more natural on Blue/Green Quad, DLC Map
  
• Added PM_Tree to all materials for Mega Trees
  
• Fixing Geode Lamp Icons
  
• Adding Geode Lamp Icons
  
• Added flavour text for new lamps
  
• Added text for fish recipes
  
• Added text for fish ingredients
  
• Fixed lava river blending in P2, working on adding POI's & cliffs/rock formation in the swamp on Purple/Green Quad, DLC Map
  
• Adding most of the rest of the bestiary creatures vocals. Only a couple more to go
  
• Change Editor-side functionality for EnzymeGeyser, Dropship and Respawnship and Meta Deposit actors to add locator beacon meshes as a dynamic component. This fixes the Editor poorly syncing the camera when focusing the actor due to the beacons size when attached as a permanent component. Separate Show/Hide into their own functions so multi-selected actors can sync up
  
• Second Pass 1st fishing anims using proper base, adding SK_FishingRod_T2 rig
  
• Update EditorUtilityQuickSelect to function with new Locator Mesh setups for world actors per CL 109517
  
• General clean up, polished around manual cave and added cliff landmarks, Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Updates to volume, max instances and verb amount for all bestiary creatures
  
• Added Obsidian Armor Version 2 materials and textures
  
• Add button to grab current level in WorldManager tool
  
• Folder cleanup on Prometheus world actors
  
• Add datatable validation for 'must be outside' (future content)
  
• More wiring for Bestiary UI (Galileo feature locked)
  
• Fixing issue with Dynamic Drop Pod Fallback cases which would cause issues in quest steps as the variable for location was not being cached correctly
  
• Added Art assets for Fish15 including skeletal mesh, animBP, and ctrlRig
  
• moved obsidian armor v2 materials to correct folder
  
• Added new lava deployable placement type, can no longer place water-based deployables in lava
  
• Add a basic animation hover to bestiary weaknesses, stats1, loot and stats2 (Galileo feature locked)
  
• Adding Geode and Painting Set Talents and Setup for recipes
  
• Update Motes FX to be half spawn rate and changed to GPU particle for performance gains
  
• Decreased radius slightly and increased opacity slightly to counter reduced visuals from count reduction
  
• Add motes effects variation for Grasslands biome and update logic to support in PlayerEffectsComponent
  
• adding caught fish sound to the fishing traps. Implimentation of the traps may still need further tweaks
  
• Paintings can now be interacted with and you select a painting from a new DT
  
• New data table d_paintings with a reference to a large and small image for paintings along with a name for search purposes
  
• Updated the Swamp, Lava, and Grasslands character select dioramas to better match the current biomes
  
• Undo range //Icarus_Stream/Trunk/Icarus/Content/Maps/Caves/CAVE_SW_SML_004.umap from revision 3 to revision #head
  
• Fixing Prometheus mission 4 prebuilt structure and quest location
  
• Added missing files from last commit
  
• Sort bestiary creatures by name alphanumerically, then group by unlocked or locked (Galileo feature locked)
  
• Fixing Prometheus Mission 4 Dialogue Delays to fix mission pacing
  
• Removed the search bar from the UMG and removed orphaned code for clarity
  
• Delete all instances (200+) of WT_ParticleEmitter from Olympus and Styx
  
• Logic has been unhooked for a long time and the actor now does nothing
  
• added obsidian armor mesh pack
  
• Adding fishing bench craft audio, audio data table entry and applied to all crafting bench recipes that make sense for the bench
  
• Added hollow tree trunks, working on adding POI's & cliffs/rock formation in the swamp on Purple/Green Quad, DLC Map
  
• Fixing quest marker locations so the bodies are within the search areas for PRO mission 4, also fixing bodies angles
  
• Modified Creature name from PRO mission 4
  
• Fixed Dead prospector body highlighting
  
• Adjustments to fishing bench and rebuilt banks to fix bench not working
  
• Polished and added roots and vines to tunnel of Swamp transition cave, Blue Quad, DLC
  
• Added ITM_Shield_Composite
  
• Fix dropship relocation using grenade sometimes applying bad audio states to clients due to a non-replicated variable meaning the audio could behave as if the player was IN the dropship. Put a length limit on dropship door open/close FMOD events so they automatically stop if their state change logic fails instead of looping infinitely
  
• Updates to quest step locations for dynamic drop pods
  
• Adding fishing trap loop audio event and BP imp
  
• `Fixing PRO Mission 4 Intro Dialogue Ordering and Priority
  
• Adding aquarium buble audio event and blueprint imp to play when bubbles are activated
  
• Decrease color saturation and revert ToneCurve back to 1.0 to fix color crushing from GL postprocess changes
  
• Setup PP Volumes for Underwater Swamp and Lava, added Lava Under Plane Material
  

Week Seventy brings two new vegetables to Icarus, the Kumara and Rhubarb. These aren’t found organically growing on the surface but can be collected when completing SMPL3 quests in Open World.

We also give an update on Galileo, which is moving into its latter phases as we complete the production work and shift towards testing and refinement.

Jump in and have a read.





We’ve added two new resources to Icarus that players can plant, grow and cook with.

These are Kumara and Rhubarb, two new vegetables with their own perks for players when consumed.

These vegetables are only available by completing SMPL3 quests in Open World, and not found growing naturally on the map like other vegetables are. This limitation makes them highly valuable, and they come with seven new recipes across the Drying Rack, Fireplace, Cooking Bench, Potbelly Stove and Biofuel Stove.

For those unfamiliar with Kumara, it is a variant of the Sweet Potato that came to New Zealand with the Maori settlers. It has a distinct sweet taste and its flavour is sometimes associated with a blend between the standard sweet potato and American yams.





Galileo continues to make steady progress, and we’re now moving towards testing our Fishing mechanics, localizing our Achievements and finalizing details.

We have now added the final fish meshes and finished the casting and reeling animations, completing this part of the project and moving it into the testing phase as we refine our UI and look for any bugs that might be present in the new system.

We have also updated the bestiary to include more information and possible unlocks, as well as the ability to trigger the respective animal sounds.





New Content

• Added HRB_Kumara with Stage 1 to Stage 5 variants, as well as dead variant
  
• Added ITM_Kumara with data table entries, as well as added the growth stages to the data table
  
• Adding Kumara Icon
  
• Adding correct sounds for Kumara and Rhubarb
  
• Removing Feature level flag from Kumara & Rubarb Dynamic Quest Rewards and Recipes
  
• Adding Rhubarb Icon
  
• New vegetables dynamic missions reward increased in likelyhood 3x and rewards 2-3x more vegetables
  
• Updated recipes that are not purely fruit and vegetable to not scale off of the Vegetarian talent
  

Fixed

• Modify MinScreenSize engine setting for Foliage to be smaller, allowing more control over culling distance of foliage assets
  
• Initial pass on culling distances for numerous foliage assets for optimization
  
• Add PerInstanceFade node to IceRockSmall master to help blend culling
  
• Added FoliagePicker Utility to show and select what foliage is being looked at because UE4 foliage tooling is incredibly terrible. NB: only supported by Foliage which has collision (so no FoliageOverlap assets)
  
• Fixed some typos found by our translation community
  
• Fixed typo in description for wooden buffalo cart
  
• Created reloading montage for the hunting rifle, set correct start, loop, end behavior and added to firearm table. Hunting Rifle now has visible bullets when reloading
  
• Adding correct audio data table entry to stone statues
  
• Fix an exploit where save/load with an active food buff and long lasting food talent stat would increase the duration of the food buff
  
• Fixed bug where juveniles weren't being initialised correctly, leading to baby deer not being cleaned up when parent despawned
  
• Increased max trace distance of underground checks for a few more EQS
  
• Increased max distance of trace that checks potential spawn points aren't underground, should fix a few cases where creatures/quest actors are spawning inside cliff faces
  

Future Content

• Added cliffs on macros base in Swamp, Grasslands and Vulcanic biome, Green & Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Added meshes, materials, textures for T2 Fish wall displays (SM_DEP_Fish_WallDisplay_T2_01-03)
  
• Make lava rivers and lakes non-drinkable. Added IsDrinkable bool to water setup data, and updated interactable river and lake BP construction scripts to only add WaterSource rowhandle to their Interactable component if IsDrinkable, otherwise none
  
• Fix build - add missing include on ifdefed code (internal only)
  
• added fish13 textures, materials and static meshes with LODs and correct texture groups. Also added iridesence for fishes 11,12,13 for rarity
  
• Small balance tweaks to lava river flow audio event and lava waterfall bottom event
  
• Decrease size, slight increase on density and tweaks on material for buttercups grass type to make them look less harvestable
  
• Adding generic SMPL3 dialogue assets
  
• Saving Trailer Seuqecers and Levels
  
• Updated names of various new creatures
  
• Initial setup for SMPL3 in dialogue table
  
• Delay switching to Billboards for TU Grass
  
• Adding rough fish imagesand tidying up some bad logic in the fish and fish entry widgets
  
• Added dialogue text for SMPL3
  
• Added option to turn off foliage flatten position offset (turned off on Reeds) and changed PerInstanceFade to OpacityMask Dithered to improve distance blending
  
• Tweak Glass settings for DeskLamp and fix filename
  
• Add On material variation and remove emissive from base material
  
• Tweak LOD settings to not switch so early
  
• Decrease emissive texture size
  
• Fix material reference on SittingBench DM
  
• Fixing the Fish Images
  
• Adjustments to ambience based on mega tree climb up height
  
• Expand support/functionality of Inspection Tool
  
• Disable Print Screen writing Mode info to Log
  
• Adding dev folder shortcut to Shortcuts utility, tweaking size
  
• Fixed a bug where if you changed lures it would consume your first 'cast' input on the fishing rod and added ranged data to the fishing rod
  
• Added missing item images for rods for the radial menu, Fixed the base fishing rod not saving the lure because of a missing inventory component
  
• Adding Icons and Deployable Setup for Carved Wood Decorations
  
• Adding lavafall top event and sounds. Adding to BP
  
• Adding Icons for the Shaped Obsidian, Super Cooled Ice and Exotic Seed
  
• Added cliffs on macros base in P2 Volcanic, Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Added cliffs on macro base in Swamp Biome, Blue Quad, DLC
  
• Improved predator bird dive animations. Predator bird now climbs at an increased rate, and both predator bird and kea now orient their torso rotation to better match their current velocity direction
  
• Fixed an error where when no fish is on the line and the player picks up their lure, the game would try to add a null 'fish' to the players inventory. Also removed unused orphaned nodes/functions
  
• Fixed predator bird carcass ragdoll not using copy pose AnimBP
  
• Add bestiary progress tracking with weighted scores for skinning bench and trophy bench (feature locked to Galileo outside dev builds)
  
• Changed borders in fish page and fish stat widget
  
• Edited all underwater rocks material and LOD in desert biome with updated texture, Red and Yellow Quad, Styx
  
• Edited all underwater rocks material and LOD in desert biome with updated texture, Red and Yellow Quad, Styx
  
• Adding unique mega tree leaf and creak audio and adjustments to event
  
• Set up BP AC Cave Entrances, Replace SM AC Cave Entrances with BP AC Cave Entrances version in all Pro Cave Prefabs
  
• PRO_Story_5: Update creature AI
  
• Updated fish stat visual and changed texts on them via ST_UMG
  
• Adding geothermal terrace event. Not imp yet in map
  
• Add bestiary progress tracking with weighted scores for skinning bench (again - missed a file when committing)
  
• Added text for new fruit and veges and their recipes
  
• Added text for Carved Wood collection
  
• Adding in 1ST person Fishing anims for implementation, will tweak and add 3rd when we've signed off, suite should be all to action current fishing plan including Cast, Reeling, Strike and landing the fish
  
• Added art assets for Fish10 with 4 colour variants to project. Added Fish10 skeleton, animBP, and control rig to project
  
• Added skeleton, anim BP, and crontrol rig for fish13 to project. Updated static mesh to match skeletal mesh position
  
• Added cliffs on macros base in Swamp Biome, Blue Quad, DLC
  
• Adding geothermal terraces audio component to the audio quad
  
• General Landscape Polish & Clean Up Purple/Green Quad, DLC Map
  
• Adding Lava hunter mini buzzy fly explode audio
  
• Added predator bird target circling functionality. Added extra food-related combat behaviour to predator birds
  
• Tweak tooling for pre-generation setup
  
• Regenerate some Prometheus Generated tiles due to substantial environment changes
  
• General clean up, polished around megatree manual cave, foliage, resources and decals, Purple Quad, DLC
  
• small adjustments to mega tree audio and adding unique light wind howl. Also very small adjustment to creature idle spawn rate / chance so they don't play too often
  
• Adding in Fish Meshes and Icons for 10 & 13
  
• Fixed LOD Material Override Issue & Fixing Leaning Foilage on Red/Green Quad, DLC Map
  
• Adding Fish Lore for the Bestiary and renaming the Barracuda
  
• Fixing collider issues with PRO_Story_2 which was blocking the visbility channel and preventing building, projectiles and animal spawns
  
• Add support to FloatingFoliageChecker for detecting foliage which is angled too far from 0 (X/Y)
  
• Add Align Max Angle settings to FTs for newer assets which didn't have it setup to prevent big angles in future placement
  
• Adding new Icons for New Fruit & Veges
  
• Fixing Promethus Mission 3 mission item respawn
  
• Added WIP deployable to block AI spawning in an area
  
• Adjustments to the mega tree event and placement of audio zone. Adding wind gusts and reverb to creaks
  
• Added Cliffs on Macro Base in Swamp Biome, Added back Removed Voxels and Foliage, Blue Quad, DLC
  
• Adding Item Icons for New Horizons Food
  
• Checked BP Cave Entrances Pro Cave Prefabs & Clean Up Leaning Foilage on Green Quad, DLC Map
  
• Adding Rustic Wall Shelf Item, Icon, Lore and Recipe
  
• Adding Clay Vases A->I, Items, Recipes, Meshes and icons
  
• Adding Geode Lamps, their Variations and recipes
  
• General clean up of foliage, decals and riverbanks in Grasslands and Tundra, Green Quad, DLC
  
• Added missing source files associated with new spawn blocker behaviour
  
• Added Obsidian Sickle and all Obsidian projectiles
  
• Added PIC_Obsidian
  
• Added text for new lamps
  
• Added text to clay vase items
  
• Fixed typos in carved items
  
• PRO_Story_5: Lowered obstacles by 33%, lowered creature speed, added rewards
  
• Added Cliffs to base of Last Macro in Swamp & Removed/Added Voxel Back, Blue Quad, DLC Map
  
• More updates and improvements to mega tree audio adjustments based on new placements
  
• Adding new Models for the Fish Wall mounts and Setting up Blueprints & variations for the additional signs
  
• Lowering WL bed amb when up in mega tree some more based on updated curve / placement settings
  
• T2 Fish displays - scaled up meshes 150%, reworked #01 to have metal plaque instead of hanging wood sign
  
• Minor updates to SwampBird locomotion blending and AnimBP
  
• Adjustments to predator bird spawn rate and volume and spacial override for attack flap
  
• Fixed General Issues in template caves on Purple Quad, Prometheus
  
• Remove old angled sapling trees in GL area & repainted sapling in GL area on Green Quad, DLC Map
  
• Added and replaced some icons and borders on bestiary. Updated fish page look a little
  
• New GL atmosphere, new curves, added weatherman support, adjustment to player effects (embers, ashes, enable SW/GL Debris), added weather culling to VFX materials
  
• Remove old angled sapling trees in GL area & repainted sapling in GL area on Purple and Green Quad, DLC Map
  
• Add popup for bestiary unlock events (Galileo feature locked)
  
• Adding predator bird swoop loop audio and anim notif
  
• Added new icons, borders for bestiary creature page. Changed text sizes and colour. Added lore and rewards page under a widget switcher in creature page
  
• Fix some epic creatures causing EpicBoss version of combat music to play when the player is fighting any creature. In cases of epic creatures using non-boss AI setup, music condition override settings aren't configured, and the music override was being applied regardless of the threat level the boss creature was presenting to the player. Updated the creature threat audio system to apply a minimum music override threat threshold to epic creatures using AI audio data setups with no music override configured
  
• PRO_Story_1 and 2: Setup dialogue colliders, need to be resized to fit landscape
  
• Add a 'must be placed outside' flag to D_Deployable
  
• Added first-pass dioramas and EProspectLocation entries for new biomes
  
• Change the percentages for bestiary unlocks and mechanism to derive percents (Galileo feature locked)
  
• Added Fish 14 art assets to project. Added animBP, CtrlRig
  
• Removed unused material from all fish 10 static meshs
  
• Added Fish 07 art assets to project. Added animBP, CtrlRig
  
• Added animBP for fish 14. Added updated texture collection
  
• Retiming dropship sonic boom effect to match timeline, adding layer for effect visability
  
• Adding predator bird spot audio, data table entry and fix to PB holding dive anim instead of seamless looping
  
• Fixed a few replication bugs to do with the fish not being removed from the end of the fishing rod and extended the time it takes to fish based on stats of the fishing rod properly
  
• Fix players sometimes being blocked by invisible volumes in caves.
  
• Removed collision from the static mesh components instantiated at runtime by BP_CaveInstance for the purpose of culling weather effects - typically these would be inside the cave roof and not matter, but in some cases collision could be possible
  
• Fixed Issues in two template caves where players could get stuck in a pit in a cave, Prometheus
  
• Hanging Foilage in swamp on Purple Quad, DLC Map
  
• Remove old angled sapling trees in GL area & repainted sapling in GL area on Green Quad, DLC Map
  
• Transport pod effect fixes, adding reentry FX
  
• Adding Fish 7 and 14 images and meshes
  
• Fixing bestiary creature page and modifying title bar back to what it was
  
• PRO: Update wetlands atmosphere to be more green
  
• Adding predator bird distant spot audio, and updating standard spot audio with more layers. Adjustments to distancing and volumes
  
• Review and adjustment pass on foliage assets project wide to prevent bad placement and tweaked for improved visuals with subtle offsets
  
• Make lava rivers and lakes ignite characters instead of wetting them on overlap:
  
• Refactored 'wet' behaviour in swimming component to choose modifiers from overlapped water bodies' data
  
• Set up new lava modifier which applies a debuff stat causing fire to be persistent, then ignites character
  
• Updated flammable actor component to check the stat and treat as a persistent fire if required, meaning its lifetime will be refreshed while the stat is active
  
• Changed wet modifier component to apply Wet_Expired when modifier is removed, rather than applying this in the swimming component
  
• Added lava gameplay tag to prevent some other modifiers from being applied while in lava. Needs further work
  
• Applied appropriate modifier settings to water body data
  
• Setting up all varations of the fish displays and adding a new widget to show the stats
  
• Improved convex hull collision for AC_RCK_CaveIcePillar_Var1-6
  
• Remove old angled seedling trees in GL area & repainted seedling in GL area on Purple Quad, DLC Map
  
• Added a third state to the projection widget that shows when the fish is on the line
  
• Adding needler in and out of mud / ground audio and events
  
• Add first pass for Fishing maps
  
• Divide Fishing areas into cardinal directions for simplicity
  
• Add DT validation for new Fish DTs
  
• Fix description for Fishing cheat
  
• Add Source images for Prospect Select images
  

Week Sixty-Nine’s update brings seven new Stone Statues and a couple of new small Wooden and Bronze Statues to the decorations crafting options, perfect for decorating and personalizing your Open World and Outpost bases.

We also give an update on Galileo, with progress made on the Bestiary and Achievements as we move into the latter phases of their development.

Jump in and have a read.





We’ve added seven large Stone Statues to the crafting menu in-game, along with a couple of new smaller Wooden and Bronze Statues which can be crafted at the Rustic Bench.

These statues are a part of our larger decorations and furnishing work, as we look to add more character and personality options for your bases.

We’re always open to suggestions for different decorations or furnishings that players might like to see in-game to decorate their abodes. Leave us a feature upvote ticket with what you would like to see added.





Bestiary and Achievements have made massive strides this week in our upcoming ‘Galileo’ update.

The Achievement List has been finalized, and we’ve now started on the hooks and events that are required in-game to trigger these achievements to be granted in Steam. Following this, we’ll look to test these achievements out and make any adjustments or tweaks needed for balancing or accuracy.

Bestiary Rewards have also been finalized for each creature, and we’re now adding the final Bestiary concept into the game and hooking it up to the data tables to accurately record your kills and rewards. This will also now move into the testing and balancing phase.





New Content

• Adding Stone and Wood Statues for Various Creatures
  
• Adding a new Talent for the stone statues
  
• Adding Stone and Wood Recipes for the new Creature Statues
  
• Fix new Statue recipes pointing to wrong outputs
  
• Removed 'Decoration' from naming scheme for Statues as its unnecessary and has already caused duplicates
  
• Add icons for Statues
  
• Standardized naming scheme for Alpha Sandworm Statue
  
• Fixed SnowLeopard Statue BP pointing to wrong mesh
  
• Adding Descriptions and Lore for Stone Statues
  
• Added destructible mesh assets to stone statues
  

Fixed

• Fix an issue where the cosmetic visiual 'frost effect' would stay on screen if the modifier expires when the player is seated or dead
  
• Prevent the cold/heat modifiers from being recreated/reapplied everytime the temperature changes
  
• Prevent the cold/heat modifiers from being recreated/reapplied everytime the temperature change
  
• Create drop bag for cart items when full cart is unequipped from mount
  
• Fixed rain and snow coming through building pieces when highlighting with repair hammer
  
• IRONCLAD: Fixed snap points not being set up correctly after spawning
  
• Fixed bug where mounts weren't correctly using the desired movement/behaviour after player dismounted, should no longer need to un-toggle and re-toggle to re-apply desired behaviours. Significantly improved jelly legs issue that could occur if the game hitched while riding a mount
  

Future Content

• Added SM's for all fishing lures
  
• Polish in swap biome, around megatree manual cave, foliage, resources and decals, Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Adding correct PM to succulent trees and double checking harvest sound is correct
  
• Rendered Out New 2D Map For Prometheus, DLC
  
• Adjustments to transport pod levels and spacializing
  
• Adding Fishing Lure Meshes & Recipes
  
• PRO Missions: Various dialogue fixes, specifically additional audio lines played in 3-6 when selecting or landing on a mission
  
• added fish11 static meshes
  
• LC_MAC_02A - added static mesh with convex hull collision
  
• Added Static Meshs, materials, and textures for Fish09 with 4 texture variants
  
• Adding Fish Names to Fishing Stats
  
• Copied Fish01 into a new folder called Fish00 as a backup
  
• Adding Kumera, Rhubarb, Avocado & Strawberries to dynamic mission rewards, dev locked out for now
  
• Added BPs and voxel caches for LC,GL,SW,TU cave blockers (BP_VR_CaveWall_xx_01)
  
• Added Skeletal mesh, anim BP, control rig, and BP for Fish09
  
• Updated Skeletal mesh of Fish08 with root and origin at centre of fish
  
• Updates and improvements to transprort pod. Changed reward transport pod to play the correct flare sound and added cave EQ to events
  
• Rough Bestiary UI Update
  
• Adding metalic whistle to transport pod
  
• Added Skeletal Mesh, BP, AnimBP, and CtrlRig for Fish11 to the project
  
• PRO_Story_5: Update creature stats and AI. Add activation failsafes
  
• PRO_Story_2: Added dialogue delay
  
• Fixed Floating Impassable over the top of template cave and Moved some cliffs poking through caves on Blue and Green Quad, Prometheus
  
• Blended brakable resources with terrain in lava biome, polished around megatree manual cave, foliage, resources and decals, Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Making transport pod whistle down effect more seamless with the metal groan for better realism
  
• Adding in Bestiary UI shell and resizing widgets to fit
  
• Visual changes to bestiary fish page
  
• Added voxel blockers to BPs for LC,GL,SW,TU cave entrances (BP_CaveEntrance_xx_SML_0x)
  
• Adding in Bestiary UI shell and resizing widgets to fit
  
• Added Iridecent MF to MA_Cha
  
• added fish12 textures, materials and static meshes
  
• Updating Fish and Beast Page Sizes to Fit in the new bestiary size
  
• PRO_Story_5: Updating Mo Data Device
  
• LC Rocks - new textures and material tweaks for dolerite MF, adjusted texture scale for macros and cliffs
  
• Added Fishing lure icons into D_itemable
  
• Remove individual audio emitters from geothermal terrace actors. Ambient audio emitters will be added to represent groups of terraces
  
• Add bestiary tracking (feature locked to Galileo outside dev builds)
  
• Fix lava river RVT issues by reinitializing dynamic material instance in lava flow point actors at runtime
  
• PRO_Story_5: Configure final step area and detection method. Reduce power requirements
  
• Updated all existing fish to the same rig setup and updated anim BPs, control rigs and blueprints
  
• Adding unique transport pod ascend audio and distancing
  
• Adding Alterations and Stats to fishing Lures
  
• Adjusting speed in which the transport pods ascend so the audio doesn't sound as frantic - and so it also looks smoother. Renaming incorrect labelling of Blueprint
  
• Adding the Item Setup for Fish09
  
• Adding the Lure Icons to the Lure pack talents
  
• Adding a minimum scale value for fish
  
• PRO_Story_5: Removed extra collider, added health cap and quest step tracking
  
• Added text for fishing lures
  
• replaced a Macro mesh with variant (for better collision), added extra flow points to some lava rivers for more variation(WiP) - Purple Quad, Prometheus
  
• Added art assets for Fish16 and created animBP and ControlRig
  
• Fixed General Issues in template caves on Blue and Green Quad, Prometheus
  
• Adding unique transport pod land audio
  
• Replace SM Cave Entrances with BP Cave Entrances version in all Pro Cave Prefabs
  
• More visual changes to bestiary and fish page
  
• Edited all underwater rocks material and LOD in desert biome with updated texture, Green and Blue Quad, Oly
  
• Adding small adjustment to transport pod sonic boom
  
• Changed Bestiary button hover visuals on side bar
  
• Added skeletal mesh, anim BP, and control rig for Fish12
  
• Replaced main grass type in GL biome in order to disable terrain blending
  
• Adding damage and impulse to BP_Transport_Pod_Base.uasset on take off event
  
• Adding crafted sound to exotic cleaning device data table
  
• Adding Prometheus Mission 0
  
• Fixing Prometheus Mission 3 Recipe Collect Step
  
• Adjusting Prometheus Mission Talent Layout
  
• Dropship no longer gives Prometheus mission 1, now the t2 communicator does
  
• Added ITM_Rhubarb, including an in-hand version, as well as added alll HRB_Rhubarb textures to their proper texture LOD groups
  
• Adding the anchorerd behaviour to the bat dog
  
• Fixing up Dialogue Ordering in Prometheus Mission 1
  
• Added mesh, textures, materials and Voxel BP for Ice cave blocker
  
• Setup Medium Tree rewards for a number of mid sized tree resource nodes
  
• Adding unique crafted sound for the exotic processor
  
• Adding Fish 11 & 16 Meshes
  
• Added new button material for bestiary.
  
• Changed thickness of button border animation and added animated pattern background to bestiary
  
• Updated rock dog vomit audio with better tonal characteristics for in game
  
• PRO_Story_5: Fix quest step and dialogue, add speed to animal. - Allowed configuration on animal swarm focus
  
• Quick pass of bestiary tags
  
• Quick setup of remanining bestiary creatures
  
• Lots of in actual map / mission transport pod spacializer adjustments and eq fine tuning
  
• Added SM_Wall_Win_DBL_Wood_R, Added T_Wall_Win_DBL_Wood_R_AO, Added M_Wall_Win_DBL_Wood_R_Kit_A & M_Wall_Win_DBL_Wood_R_Kit_B
  
• Fixed General Issues in template caves on Blue and Green Quad, Prometheus
  
• Added Needler spike item and ranged attack.
  
• Added first pass Needler behaviour set
  
• Add some cheat functions to bestiary tracking (internal only)
  
• Add bestiary fishing tracking (feature locked to Galileo outside dev builds)
  
• Added cliffs on all macros' base in Grasslands and Tundra, Green Quad, DLC
  
• tweaks to material for GL_AspenLeaves decal
  
• More micro adjustments to eq balance and distancing of transport pods. Sitting about right now. May separate hydraulic layer to only be audible close up
  
• Adding spolights to BP_Transport_Pod_Base.uasset, adding material for faux lightsource
  
• Fixing light position on Pod_Base Child actor BP_Exotic_Transport_Pod.uasset
  
• More fine tuning to transport pod. Better distance eqing for the start up ascend etc. Also adjusted start position of audio on flares
  
• Adding unique transport pod alarm audio event and BP implementation
  
• Collision and LOD pass for all existing fish assets. Updated texture groups on all fish textures. Updated the name of the static mesh for fish 4,5, and 6 from SK to SM
  
• Adding camera shake to BP_Transport_Pod_Base.uasset ascend event
  
• PRO_Story_2 and 3: Fixed starting dialogue.
  
• PRO_Story_5: Optimized end step, fixed creature detection
  
• Fixing timeline on BP_Transport_Pod_Base.uasset
  
• PRO_Story_5: Minor tweaks, audio dialogue priority fixes
  
• Updated importance of creature death audio
  
• Added fallen leaves decal under aspen trees (WIP) - Green Quad, Prometheus
  
• Adding unique transport pod alarm start and simulating speaker for long alarm
  
• Added cliffs Around Inner Macro Cliffs in the Blue Quad, Prometheus
  
• Added Hammer_Obsidian, Axe_Obsidian and Knife_Obsidian
  
• Added cliffs on all macros' base in Grasslands and Tundra, Green and Yellow Quad, DLC
  
• Added Kumara, Avocado, Rhubarb and Strawberry recipes for future patches
  
• Adding needler shoot spike audio, spike fly event and spike impact event
  
• Added fallen leaves decal under aspen trees - Green Quad, Prometheus
  
• Adding trail effect to BP_Transport_Pod_Base.uasset on descend
  
• Adjustments to transprort pod distancing and TP alarm distancing
  
• Added title, changed button borders in Bestiary
  
• Adjustments and addition to the lava river audio based on visual updates
  
• Added cliffs on macros base in Swamp & Volcanic, Green & Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Added cliffs Around Inner Macro Cliffs and Voxels in the Blue Quad, Prometheus
  
• Potentially fixed issue with prebuilt structures not loading correctly in non-editor play sessions
  
• Adding Carved Wood Decoration Set of Items, setup of Items, Meshes, Recipes and feature locked out
  
• Add a very basic popup for bestiary tracking in XP bar- Killed Group N of M (Galileo feature locked)
  
• Delay Lichen billboard switch
  
• Increase FlattenFadeInstance so billboard transition is less abrupt
  
• Edited all underwater rocks material and LOD in desert biome with updated texture, Red and Yellow Quad, Styx
  
• Added most of the creature images to bestiary data table
  
• Adding dialogue to transport pod ascend
  
• Adjusting and adding to lava river, and also adjusted rockdog vomit audio volume and spacial
  
• Updated the naming of the Fish05 and Fish06 control rigs to have the correct fish number
  
• Update weight and stacks for new recipes.
  
• Update Salt meshable to use salt mesh rather than wood mesh
  
• Update waterfall generation to allow for lava waterfalls, and slight refactor of waterfall BPs for sanity
  
• Lava waterfall audio implementation - SFX still to come
  
• Small reduction in volume to transport pod descend based on proximity
  
• Improving dialogue on transport pod ascend
  
• Tweaked Needler retreat behaviours.
  
• Needler now aborts persuit if enough damage is taken.
  
• Added LookAt Control Rig for Needler/Croc.
  
• Added support for blending out creature LookAt alpha using anim curves.
  
• Reduced Needler turn speed during combat
  
• Added aditional fishing mechanics, UI has been replaced by a projection widget, added ability to switch between lures that effect the stats of your fish, removed the ability to instantly reel in the fish to catch it (now resets the game and destroys the fish)
  
• Updating to new Creature Bestiary Page Layout
  
• Updating Bestiary UI and Modifying Data Structure, splitting widgets out into seperate ones to reduce complexity
  
• Needlers now take into account target velocity and distance when firing their projectiles
  
• Added cliffs on macros base in Swamp & Volcanic, Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Adding Lava waterfall bottom / splash audio event and BP imp
  
• Added cliffs on macros base in Swamp Biome, Blue Quad, DLC
  
• Made Needler projectile spread more horizontal and less vertical, increased projectile count per ranged attack, increased projectile inaccuracy
  
• Add bestiary progress tracking with weighted scores for kill, kill boss, killed by, skin, skin with trophy knife (feature locked to Galileo outside dev builds)
  
• Improved Needler physics asset
  
• 
  

Week Sixty-Eight’s update is here, and with it comes a batch of performance improvements that have been championed by our dedicated performance team, and tested by our community.

Improvements to Memory, Stutters & Garbage Collection, and Engine Performance are the core focuses, and you can read more detail about what these changes mean for performance, and how we went about identifying and improving them, below.

Jump in and have a read.





As mentioned last week, our dedicated performance team has been busy looking for areas in Icarus where we can find optimizations. If you want to read in detail about the 6 areas of focus for our team, you can do so here in our Week 59 update. To summarise, these are Engine Performance, Game Systems, Memory, Stutters & Garbage Collection, and Connection.

This week's fixes fall under Memory, Stutters & Garbage Collection, and Engine Performance.

• Removed overlap events from various collision objects on animals and changed some components to be ‘non-physical’. This should improve performance with animals moving around, as it limits how many events can happen when an animal moves around an area of the map
  
• Fixed duplicate spawn of aim assist component on animals
  
• Fixed aim assist component triggering multiple overlap updates during spawn. This was a small bug which duplicated the process and caused a small hitch when animals spawned
  
• Removed root motion from idle animations for Buffalo
  
• Made talent trees share a pool of popups rather than each having its own. This has a significant impact on load times when changing maps (on average about 5 seconds faster). This had an effect when moving from the character select > HAB > Prospect
  
• Fixed a use case where UI popups were waiting for a valid UI on dedicated servers. (Dedicated servers never have a UI)
  
• Improved performance of ‘talent requirement checks’ by avoiding data lookups where possible
  
• Fixed settings from auto-saving during initial load and then recursively rebuilding their widgets
  
• Fixed the settings screen from being constructed multiple times when the UI first gets built
  
• Fixed deep vein ore deposits setting their material twice on the servers during startup
  
• Cached a lookup of the replication state of stats to allow for faster replication updates when stats change. This speeds up the host working out which stats need to be sent to clients when stats change
  
• Fixed stat container updates triggering multiple events per rebuild
  
• Removed all critical hit logic from the stats system. Critical hit afflictions are now handled by a new column in the StatAfflictions table. The only stat that was still using this was the chance to immobilize on throwing knife crit
  
• Fixed issue where hits against inanimate objects were being considered as crits
  
• Envirosuit slots no longer get rebuilt every time the players' stat container updates
  
• Removed expensive gathering function from the atmosphere controller. Replaced calls to directly grab the variables that are being used instead
  
• Changed dropship parts to no longer tick and no longer animate while not rendered
  
• Disabled collision with the dropship door (while landed)
  
• Objects that can be sat on no longer tick when they aren't in use
  
• Moved some audio systems tick to during physics as they do not contribute to actor positions. Audio systems being moved to the physics tick is due to them being a good candidate as they don’t influence object positions and therefore can be done separately
  
• Disabled overlaps on the root mesh of equipped items
  
• Disabled overlaps on tree proxies
  
• Optimized some calls to the firearm controller in the players animation bp
  
• Prevented armour meshes from being created on dedicated servers. This was an obsolete update cost that impacted performance due to servers not rendering cosmetic meshes
  
• Improved item trait retrieval speeds of several traits by improving the time required to access categories in the data tables.
  

Part of this week's optimization patch has been focused on reducing the performance costs of animals in the world. The cost on the CPU of animals can be broken down into three categories: processing their AI, moving them/updating their collisions, and updating their animations. In particular, we’ve focused on improving the performance related to animal movement.

When an animal moves, it continues along a path that the AI has already picked out and updates its collision along the way, which requires it to update its physics and this causes further physics checks to be performed. Animals not only have a skeleton and a collision that is updated but also some additional colliders which are used for overlap checks in various different cases during gameplay.

In assessing the additional colliders it was determined that many of the events they where setup to trigger overlap events which where being handled elsewhere or had been removed. Due to this we were able to disable many of the channels that these colliders where responding to and in some cases removing them all togethers, drastically reducing the number of update triggers.

A single overlap has limited impact on the CPU, but this would trigger a ripple of other physics updates such as animal animation, sending the position of the animal to the server and then relaying this information to the local PC, and this could happen for every animal active at that time. When you consider ten animals, each with colliders triggering overlap events, updating three times per frame, you can see how this cost would become noticeable to performance. Though these events are generally quick to handle, any reduction in the amount of calls reduces the load on your computer.

Our change ‘Removed overlap events from various collision objects on animals and changed some components to be ‘non-physical’ directly addresses this issue, removing obsolete overlap events and limiting the number of events occurring simultaneously.

We hope this explanation gives you some insight into the details of our ongoing performance optimization!





This weeks progress on Galileo has been focused on our bestiary rewards, connecting progress to the rewards so they are correctly granted to players.

We also spent time working on the various UI elements related with these milestones, and the system is making steady progress towards a viable test product.

We have also added 5 other different ways to gather information about creatures, so there is variation in the available milestones rather than just pure ‘hunting’ totals.





Optimisation

• Reworked creature spawning to be spread over multiple frames. This should reduce hitches when new animals spawn in
  
• Removed overlap events from various collision objects on animals and changed some components to be non-physical. This should improve performance with animals moving around
  
• Fixed duplicate spawn of aim assist component on animals
  
• Fixed aim assist component triggering multiple overlap updates during spawn
  
• Removed root motion from idle animations for Buffalo
  
• Made talent trees share a pool of popups rather than each having their own. This has a significant impact on load times when changing maps (about 5 seconds faster)
  
• Fixed case where UI popups were waiting for a valid UI on dedicated servers. (Dedicated servers never have a UI)
  
• Improved performance of talent requirement check by avoiding data lookups where possible
  
• Fixed settings from auto saving during initial load and then recursively rebuilding their widgets
  
• Fixed settings screen from being constructed multiple times when the UI first gets built
  
• Prevented multiple refreshes from happening in one frame in the cheat overlay
  
• Fixed deep vein ore deposits setting their material twice on the servers during startup
  
• Moved map manager saving of map state to code. Merged map manager save data gathering functions to prevent additional iterations of the map tiles
  
• Cached a lookup of the replication state of stats to allow for faster replication updates when stats change
  
• Fixed stat container updates triggering multiple events per rebuild
  
• Removed all critical hit logic from stats system. Critical hit afflictions are now handled by a new column in the StatAfflictions table. The only stat that was still using this was the chance to immobilise on throwing knife crit
  
• Fixed issue where hits against inanimate objects were being considered as crits
  
• Envirosuit slots no longer get rebuilt every time the players stat container updates
  
• Removed expensive gathering function from atmosphere controller. Replaced calls to directly grab the variables that are being used instead
  
• Changed dropship parts to no longer tick, and they no longer animate while not rendered as it was still happening in the background
  
• Disabled collision with the dropship door (while landed)
  
• Objects that can be sit on no longer tick when they aren't in use
  
• Moved some audio systems tick to during physics as they do not contribute to actor positions
  
• Disabled overlaps on the root mesh of equipped items
  
• Disabled overlaps on tree proxies
  
• Optimised some calls to the firearm controller in the players anim bp
  
• Prevented armour meshes from being created on dedicated servers
  
• Improved item trait retrieval speeds of several traits
  
• Added missing D_StatAfflictions from previous commit
  
• Fixed issues with blueprint tooltips not showing alteration packs correctly
  
• Fixed issues with blueprint tooltips adding a copy of the set bonuses text each time the tooltip is hovered
  

Fixed

• Updates and improvements to distancing for the transport pod. Removing old profilers
  
• Update Maximum Loops to prevent PIE crash in new missions.
  
• REMNANT: Added failsafe tracking of radar scan locations (will now additionally be marked as complete if there is a scan in the area at any time, note this may not fix missions in-progress)
  
• Fix enzyme geyser audio, which was broken due to a change to OverlapAudioComponent which resulted in non-unique component names in subcomponents. Fixed by changing subcomponent ownership from the owning actor to the overlap component itself
  
• Remove execution pins from a new storm particle system that was added for DLC and is making it look like existing weather is severe (internal only)
  
• FIRE WALK: Re-apply cannot decay modifier on crate after reload to prevent cases where the modifier fails to load
  
• Fixing up Item Static which had some things marked incorrectly as DEV
  
• Fixing up Item Static which had some things marked incorrectly as DEV again
  
• IRONCLAD: Added failsafe for loss of snap points
  
• Fixed bug where animation played when receiving a new modifier sometimes obstructed crosshair
  

Future Content

• Fixing Caves On Green Quad and Updated Arctic Cave, Prometheus
  
• More visual updates on Prospector field guide UI
  
• Setting up Heatmaps for Olympus and Styx for the different fish spawn locations and creating spawn zones based on each heatmap
  
• Hooking up New Olympus & Styx Fish Spawning Heatmaps to their respective terrains
  
• Adding rockdog vomit audio, event and notify
  
• General clean up and polishing in Blue swamp, deep swamp underwater dressing in Green/Blue, DLC
  
• Aquariums now swap to use their dirty mesh when they are not connected to active power / water connections
  
• PRO_Story_5: Added audio-visual feedback quest step
  
• Adjustments to drop pod transport sonic boom audio and fixed rockdog NPC not having correct parent behavior for footsteps for new FS notify
  
• Fixing Caves On Green Quad, Prometheus
  
• Setting up Rhubarb, Kumara, Avocado & Strawberry datatables for items, growth states, rewards, so they can now be grown when aquired
  
• Adding rock dog vomit as a vocalisation event so its not interrupted by flinch sounds. Also lowering idle state vocals spawn rates
  
• Balance and spacializer updates to transport pods
  
• Enabled unlock all prospects cheat for PRO
  
• PRO_Story_5: Tweaked spawn locations, added obstacles
  
• General Landscape Polish & Clean Up, Fixed Caves in Swamp, Tundra, Arctic & Updated Cave Template on Blue/Green Quad, DLC Map
  

Week Sixty Seven focuses on providing a range of Mount improvements, tweaks, and buffs. These include changes to saddles, behaviors, and baseline stats to overcome some of the core issues that players have encountered.

We also give an update on the progress of Galileo and an insight into the ‘Bestiary’ feature. Finally, we talk about next week's update and what to expect.

Jump in and have a read.





This week we’re bringing a bunch of Mount improvements, based on feedback from the community and monitoring overall performance and usage.

• Saddles now include 'G' slots so radars, extractors, and other heavier items can be carried. Basic saddles will have one slot, saddle bags will have two slots, and carts will have five
  
• Mounts no longer take damage from thirst or hunger, meaning they will not perish if left unsupervised
  
• Increased all mounts' damage resistance by 10% to improve their survivability
  
• Increased the damage resistance provided by the saddles when equipped to mounts by 10% (was 0%)
  
• Added an Aura to the Animal Bed which provides creatures with a ‘Well Rested’ buff, similar to players
  
• Lowered the base time it takes to tame creatures from 1200 seconds to 900 seconds
  

A lot of the feedback we have received around Mounts has been about the difficulties of effectively utilizing them when playing solo. A lot of our improvements have focused on this area of gameplay, removing elements such as damage from hunger/thirst and improving their overall damage resistance. Also adding slots for extractors and radars makes them viable as stand-in teammates for solo adventures, and reducing taming durations helps speed up the experience, which is understandably more drawn out in solo mode.





This week's focus on our upcoming Galileo patch has been the bestiary rewards, UI setup as well as an iteration on the fishing mechanic, following on from our progress last week.

For those still in the dark, Bestiary is the achievement system that will give you statistics on your hunting and animal exploits. This will be tied into a milestoned rewards system, with lofty targets reaping strong rewards.

The work going into this is split across lots of backend work, but also developing a good UI and rewards system that provides players with the incentive to aim for these milestones.





For next week, we have packaged a performance update that we will put in the experimental branch on Steam later this weekend. We will be looking for feedback this week on the changes, and if the feedback is positive we will push this, but if not we will take a different approach.

For those unfamiliar with our strategy, we’re focusing on five key areas: Engine Performance, Game Systems, Memory, Stutters & Garbage Collection, and Connection. You can read more detail about our strategy in our Week 59 update here.

Optimization is an ‘always on’ part of our development and has its own dedicated team separate from the teams working on game design, concept art, and the many other roles and departments in the business. Sometimes, people can assume that due to us pushing out other updates with new content, we’re not focusing our time or attention on performance, but this couldn’t be further from the case. The skillset needed is very specific, and we, therefore, have dedicated specialists working on it exclusively, while the rest of the team keeps moving forward with our other plans.





New Content

• Adding 'Heavy Cargo' Inventory to Mounts and Mount Inventory UI
  
• Adding Heavy Cargo slots to some of the Mount Saddles so mounts can carry 'G'-Slot items
  
• Mounts no Longer Take Damage From being at Level 3 Thirst, or Level 3 Hunger, meaning they will not die if left alone
  
• Increased All Mounts Damage Resistance to give them greater surviveability +10%
  
• Increased the Damage resistance provided by the Saddles that can be equipped to the mounts (+10%, 15%)
  
• Added an Aura to the Animal Bed which provides creatures with a 'Well Rested' Buff
  
• Lowered Base time to Tame Creatures 1200 -> 900
  
• Mounts no longer wander around in their 'Stay' behaviour state, and will return to the location where they were last told to stay after eating/drinking
  
• Adding Heavy Cargo stats to Saddles
  

Fixed

• Fixed a few typos picked up by translators
  
• Fixing communicator T2 having incorrect crafted sound (used masonry when it should use crafting bench)
  
• ALCAZAR, HIGHRISE: Changed Biofuel Stove quest step to mention Kitchen Stove
  
• ALCAZAR, HIGHRISE, LIFE LINE: Changed Kitchen Stove quest step to correctly mention Biofuel Stove
  
• IRONCLAD: Updated name of Metal Plating to Layered Plating to match quest description
  

Future Content

• Added BLD_Wall_Sngle_Wood for Buildable Rework Investigation
  
• General clean up of foliage, decals and blended terrain with GL cliffs in Grasslands, Green Quad, DLC
  
• Updated audio for lava tree sapling and applied sound to joshua trees BP. Better tonal balance and sizing
  
• Adding Promethus Open World Drop Zone, so open world can be played
  
• Adding Galileo Feature Level
  
• Small tonal balance to exotic tinted plant harvest audio
  
• Fixed Batdog physics asset
  
• Fixed bug where batdog wouldn't exit out of it's stalking behaviour when damaged
  
• Added hitreact to Batdog while sitting
  
• Added New Storm VFX NS, PP and BP
  
• Setup new Weather VFX on Weatherman Editor Tool
  
• Adjustments to DLC Trailer Volcanic Shot
  
• Small adjustment to aspen tree falling audio to make it more appropriate to match the visuals
  
• Committing Rudimentry Bestiary UI and Data Structures for Iteration
  
• Added materials and textures for all 4 variants of Fish08, models will follow soon. Upated character/creature shader to allow for subsurface masking and dithering options
  
• Sulfur Decal - changed alpha, added color variations (mats and FTs)|
  
• New landscape textures for Grasslands
  
• Added hemorrhage to Batdog heavy attack
  
• Added sand layer to grasslands cliff and canyonwall materials for better terrain blending
  
• Added copy of creature/charater shader with irideacence functionality to Pedro's developer folder to clean up/optimise
  
• Added Basic Fish Enteries to Bestiary and removed open button from menu, Pressing 'J' will open bestiary for now
  
• Adding Striker climb out animation with Root Motion for spawning behavior
  
• Added Aquarium and Advanced Aquarium Icons into datatable
  
• Added fishing bench, fishing trap and advanced fishing trap icons into datatable
  
• Fixed Hole In Ice Cave, Added Voxels Swamp Transition Cave & Tundra Transition Cave Blue/Yellow Quad, DLC Map
  
• WIP Commit of GL_AspenLeaves decal (textures, material, FT)
  
• PRO_Story_5: Completed location placements, updated objective mesh as placeholder
  
• Adding Fish Names to Items
  
• Bestiary UI Update, Data is now pulled from one source
  
• Polished snow decals in tundra area and blended terrain with tundra cliffs, Blue Quad, DLC
  
• Added text for various fishing-related items and wire
  
• Added text descriptions for new fish
  
• Removed Swamp Cave Blocker and Set Dressed The Transition Cave Between Purple and Red Quad, Prometheus
  
• Added DM for Scorpion_Hedgehog_Trap_03
  
• Added DM for DEP_Hedgehog_MED_03
  
• Flushed Grass on Green Quad, DLC Map
  
• Added Static Meshes and SKeletal mesh for Fish 08. Added BP for Fish 08
  
• Starting Promethus mission can now be triggered by interacting with the dropship on an open world
  
• Updating Dropship and Mission Communicator widgets so they correctly select the Mission Talent tree associated with the terrain
  
• Fixed Landscape Gap & Fixed Cave Surface showing on Red/Green/Blue Qaud, OLY
  
• Updating Dropship and Mission Communicator so the second and subsuqent promethus missions can be trigger from open world
  
• added fish11 textures and materials
  
• PRO_Story_5: Tweak areas, dialogue pacing, power requirements
  
• adjusted saturation for fish11
  
• Additional Setup of the bestiary, adding additional information to the fist data table for classification and setup the data to be displayed in the Fish Page and Entry
  
• Add a distance to player hook for designers when using animal swarms in quests
  
• First pass of GL_AspenLeaves decal
  
• Fixing Issue with Promethus Missions where the Droppods where not dropping at the correct locations which was preventing various quests steps from being complete
  
• Cleaned Up Bad & Leaning Foilage on Green Quad, DLC Map
  
• Pass on RockDog combat behaviours
  
• Added special fire effects while enraged
  
• Added ability for NPC footstep notifies to specify left or right
  
• General clean up in swap biome, added more megatree roots and polished blending of cliffs, Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Updating mask texture for M_BLD_Wall_Angle_Wood, as well as renaming several textures
  
• Adding in an animation to use as the spit attack for the Rock Dog to pull it away from the Roar
  
• Visual changes made to Prospector FieldGuide. (Bestiary Category, creature button, creature entry, bestiary creatures, fish button, fish entry, fish page, bestiary.)
  
• Removed Character Flag requirement from T3 Communication device as it is now a mission device
  
• Fixing Promethus Missions 2/3 as the load order of the prebuilt structures has changes and prevented finding of the containers to fill for the quests
  
• Updating Aquariums for the new Fish Models
  
• Added support for accolades to trigger steam achievements (disabled until achievements have been setup)
  
• Fish now scale based on their length stat when placed in aquariums
  
• Improve animal swarm spawner customization, allowing updating the spawn target on the fly
  
• Increasing volume of grasslands ambience base layer within Pro Tools so no less increase needs to be done in FMOD
  
• Decal painting and general polish of Purple quad, prometheus
  
• D_LC_ErosionRockBlend - adjusted saturation to better match LC rocks
  
• Added ITM Lures, Basic Iron Lure, Prospector tag lure, Rubbery, Higher Tier Wood, Basic Wooden, Bone, Iron, Blue Reed, Yeast, Rotten Meat and Poison Sack
  
• Polish in swap biome, added more megatree roots and polished tunnels in Megatree manual cave, Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Removing Quest Step from Promethus story 2 as it doesnt make sense
  
• Added ITM_Lures, Scorpion Tail, White Jelly, Painted Feather, Fiber, Bark Bug
  
• Centered pivot on Fish08 static meshes
  
• Adjusting fish positions in the aquariums to account for the new pivoit point
  
• Setting up base logic for the fish wall mounts, including widgets displaying stats and the mesh
  
• Further improved customization on swarm creature spawning
  
• Decal painting and general polish of Purple quad, prometheus
  
• Fixed MapCreatorUtility not applying MaterialOverride to Lakes or Rivers correctly
  
• Added new minimap-friendly lava material
  
• Lava-type WaterSetups now use lava material override when using MapCreatorUtility's 'Apply Override Materials' button
  
• First layers of unique transport pod audio
  
• Visual Updates on Bestiary UI
  
• Fixed Up Cave_GL_MED_001 & CAVE_GL_MED_002 , DLC Map
  
• Added SM_Wall_Win_DBL_Wood_L, Added T_Wall_Win_DBL_Wood_L_AO, Added M_Wall_Win_DBL_Wood_L_Kit_A & M_Wall_Win_DBL_Wood_L_Kit_B
  
• Added art assets for a Dirty variant the T3 and T4 aquariums
  
• Added HRB_Rhubarb with all growth stages
  
• Fixed RockDog spit not working
  
• Fixed RockDog enrage effects beginning too early sometimes
  
• PRO_Story_5: Fix marked areas, update timer