Icarus News

Week 116 is here, and it packs a punch, with the new Trench Shotgun added to the game.

A Tier 4 variant, the Trench Shotgun is our most powerful close-range damage dealer to date.

We’ve also got a rebalance and improvement on the Shotgun damage/ammo system, and some long-awaited news on Batteries and Networks.

Jump in and have a read.

• Added a setting to disable camera movement & rotation when interacting with deployables
  
• Fixed Honey Smoked Bacon not benefiting from Carnivore talent
  
• Mission OASIS: Fixed collection step requiring collection of a lure that is now developer locked, preventing mission progress. Replaced with Gold Ore Lure
  
• Fixed 'complete the tutorial' achievement from occurring as soon as a player's first character is created. This was caused by the tutorial mission having been changed to optional, effectively marking it as complete automatically, which then triggers the achievement for it being completed
  

This week introduces the new Shotgun we mentioned last week - the Trench Shotgun.

Named based off a community suggestion from last week's post, this is a Tier 4 version of the Shotgun that is crafted on the Fabricator.

This thing packs a wallop and is our highest damage per square inch of any item in close-range combat.

We’d like to thank everyone for the name suggestions. Many were very creative and have been backlogged for meta items where more personalized names are more appropriate (think ‘Bonecrusher’ or ‘extra pulpy bear juicer’).





Last week we addressed shotgun balance by reducing ammo cost and including the 3 new variants.

This week we’re continuing that rebalance to include our new Trench Shotgun - focusing on damage scaling based on the gun the ammo is shot with. This is using the same system we calculate bow and crossbow damage.

The Tier 3 Shotgun - now the number #2 in the hierarchy - has been reduced to hold 6 bullets, but with a 15% projectile damage increase per shot.

The new Tier 4 Trench Shotgun holds 8 bullets, and its projectile damage is increased by 30% over base output (so 15% higher than the Tier 3 variant).





Next week we’re releasing the long-awaited, hotly anticipated Batteries & Networks update. Lots and lots of testing has led us to a point where we feel comfortable with the polish and state of the system - and barring any setbacks in the next 6 days - we’ll be looking to make this next week's update.

Again, a big thank you to our dedicated testing team who have been giving us amazing feedback the last few weeks, and everyone else for being patient with us as we give this feature the proper focus it deserves.

Originally posted by author

[h3]If you like what we’re doing with Icarus, and want to support our continued development, consider purchasing one of our DLCs for a few dollars, it would mean a lot to us.[/h3]

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/36462/Icarus_Architecture_Bundle/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/34141/Icarus_Outposts_Bundle/



New Content
[expand]

• Added text for T4 shotgun
  
• Adding Item Setup for T4 Shotgun
  
• Adding T4 shotgun audio and data table etnries
  
• Lots of updates and fine tunes and adjustments to the T4 shotgun. Overall polish pass
  
• Reduce Cured Leather requirement on T4 Shotgun
  
• Updating new T4 Shotgun Name
  
• Fixing FMOD not linking files correctly for the new shotgun. Fine tune to some of the audio layers
  

[/expand]

Fixed
[expand]

• Added a setting to disable camera rotation when interacting with deployables
  
• Fixed Honey Smoked Bacon not benefiting from Carnivore talent
  
• OASIS: Fixed collection step requiring collection of a lure that is now developer locked, preventing misssion progress. Replaced with Gold Ore Lure
  
• Fixed 'complete the tutorial' achievement from occuring as soon as a player's first character is created. This was caused by the tutorial mission having been changed to optional, effectively marking it as complete automatically, which then triggers the achievement for it being completed
  
• Adding more layers for the T4 shotgun. Pump in and out and last pump etc
  

[/expand]

Future Content
[expand]

• Adding basic setup for flamethrower
  
• Adding ghost croc attack and pre attack audio and event into
  
• Mini hippo mesh randomly selects 1 of the 3 types of hippo mesh. Also switched SM variation names to match the correct variation
  
• Added Inaris Sickle stats
  
• Added Apex mesh for BLD_Floor_Diagonal_Stone
  
• Added Apex mesh for BLD_Floor_Curved_Stone
  
• Ghost croc data table setup and entries
  
• Fixed Curved Building Set destruction effects
  
• Adding ghost croc idle, flinch, death vocalisations and events
  
• Changed carcasses feature level to development - fix build error
  
• Blueback/Redback juvenile setup
  
• Fixed mission objectives list for Ashlands story mission
  
• Ashlands 1 mission: Update mission to use new Trail Beacons
  
• Added Apex DM meshes to new Stone Curved and Diagonal Building pieces, except for the new floor pieces
  
• You can now unlink current beacon by interacting with it or holding 'R'
  
• Added HRB_Bramble_Thorns with all growth stages
  
• Added DEP_Trough_Wood_Large, Trough_Concrete, Trough_WaterPump, Trough_Raincatcher and Trough_Luxury
  
• Added functionality to spawn groups of units at a single time and mini hippos now spawns in groups of 3-5
  
• Adding Icons / Blueprints / Recipes for Enzyme Cannon Hub & Arm
  
• Added HRB_CocoPalm with all growth stages
  
• Adding basic Setup for Enzyme Cannon Hub and Enzyme Cannon Arm
  
• Small adjustment to hammerslug anim notif timing
  
• Sorting assets for hammer slug various sizes for audio use. Small adjustments to timing
  
• Added text for workshop sickles
  
• Small adjustments to timing and selection of audio used for hammerhead slugs of various sizes
  
• Hook up new building guides to building assets
  
• Adding 5 food & water troughs meshes, items, recipes, icons and blueprints (if required)
  
• Adding Wool and Egg items
  
• Updated SM_XPlane with heavily optimized mesh plane, and added SM_Xplane_Curved for the building placement helpers
  
• Increased blend value to help reduce gitter after attack animation on hippo/boar
  
• Fixed accidental asset override
  
• Setup additional build guide materials
  
• Added additional building guide textures
  
• Mini-hippos now have group behaviours where they tend to stick with the group they're spawned with
  
• Added XPlane_Curved_Inverted as a building piece placement helper
  
• Positioned placement helpers on curved wall and ramp pieces
  
• Adding Growable Coconut Palms and Brambles, including seeds, seed packs, workshop items and growth setup
  
• Adding Bramble Deployable Item Produced from gorwing Bramble Seeds, this acts like the brambles placed in world and will damage and apply a modifier to players / creatures that come in contact
  
• Submitting Ghost Crocodile, carcass, bones and textures
  
• Add placement helpers to curved beams, ramps and walls
  
• Added shadows to beacon map elements in order to increase visibility on white backgrounds
  
• Added saddle_Armored for the moa, horse, and buffalo
  

[/expand]

Week 115 brings three new types of Shotgun Shell to Icarus - Cold Steel, Miasma and Obsidian.

Exclusive to Prometheus, these pack a punch with their own Freeze, Poison and Burn modifiers along with some hefty damage and rare materials to craft.

Batteries and Networks continues it’s thorough testing with our community, and you can get an update on where we are up to inside.

Hop in and have a read.

• Updated chairs to prefer placing characters in front when getting up. Will place to the right or left if there is not enough room in front of the chair, instead of only trying to place right
  
• Fixed collision on nearly every beam to prevent collision outside the visible mesh
  
• Fixed mission NOMAD: Greatly reduced the wait time if the side objective is complete before the next primary objective is granted
  
• Fixed an issue with the lantern not being able to be prepared when equipped in the light slot
  
• Fix EQS query when landing via drop ship on an outpost
  
• Added all missing mission sketches (8 total) as available Paintings with the Interior Decorations DLC
  
• Fixed many caves not having overridden spawn rules for bees, causing some issues when bees and caveworms would both spawn when only one should have

Three new types of Shotgun Ammo have been added to Icarus.

These are Cold Steel, Miasmic and Obsidian variations, and all are exclusive to New Frontiers, as their required materials are only found on Prometheus.

Cold Steel Shotgun Shells have a 20-25 Projectile Damage with a 25 Frost Damage addition, along with a 15% chance to inflict the ‘Freeze’ modifier that reduces movement speed and melee damage.

Miasmic Shotgun Shells have a 20 Projectile Damage with a 25 Poison Damage addition, along with a 15% chance to inflict the ‘Miasma’ modifier that lowers physical resistance by 25% for all afflicted.

Finally, the Obsidian Shotgun Shell has a 20 Projectile Damage with a 25 Fire Damage addition, along with a 15% chance to inflict the ‘Burn’ modifier that causes -50% health regeneration and -25% maximum health while active.

All three of these ammo types can be crafted on the Machining Bench at Tier 3, and require their namesake material which can only be found in Prometheus.





Along with adding our three new Shotgun Ammo variations, we’re also making some adjustments in the shotgun shell costs to make them more accessible.

OLD:
1 Ammo Casing, 5 Copper Nails, 6 Gunpowder and 1 Epoxy.

NEW:
1 Ammo Casing, 2 Copper Nails, 1 Gunpowder and 1 Epoxy.





Batteries and Networks is edging closer to release, and we have noted your frustrations at how long this has been in the oven, but our patience is so it is worth your while.

We are frequently updating the testing branch with changes, tweaks, fixes and balances as reported by our community, so if you want to contribute to this, come join us using the password 'IAcceptThereWillBeBugs’.

This branch will be buggy until it is polished and released. This approach to testing and refining however is much more effective in releasing a quality product than one that disrupts the entire game for everyone else because it didn’t get the proper quality control it deserves.

We are close to release now with the crashes and optimizations coming to a close. We will be focusing on balance and QoL over the next week so feel free to jump in.

We thank you for your patience, and just ask you keep it up a little longer.





Our Shotgun theme will carry on one more week, as next week we release a new Tier 4 Shotgun, which is yet to be named.

Got a suggestion for what we should call it? Put it in the comments. No promises your name will be selected, but the door is open for something better than we can come up with. And yes, blasty-mc-blastface has already been suggested.

We’ll also be doing a slight Shotgun damage balance to account for this new big brother, so look out for that too.

Originally posted by author

[h3]If you like what we’re doing with Icarus, and want to support our continued development, consider purchasing one of our DLCs for a few dollars, it would mean a lot to us.[/h3]

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/36462/Icarus_Architecture_Bundle/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/34141/Icarus_Outposts_Bundle/



New Content
[expand]

• Unlocked Miasmic, Cold Steel and Obsidian Shotgun Ammo
  
• Reduced the price of Buckshot significantly
  

[/expand]

Fixed
[expand]

• SHADOWED: Updated crop plots to spawn new version, rather than old version and being immediately replaced by new version. Added plants to spawned crop plots
  
• Updated chairs to prefer placing characters in front when getting up. Will place to the right or left if there is not enough room in front of the chair, instead of only trying to place right
  
• Fixed collision on nearly every beam to prevent collision outside the visible mesh
  
• NOMAD: Greatly reduced the wait time if the side objective is complete before the next primary objective is granted
  
• Fix lantern cannot be repaired when in light slot
  
• Fix EQS query when landing via drop ship on an outpost
  
• Added all missing mission sketches (8 total) as available Paintings with the Interior Decorations DLC
  
• Fixed many caves not having overridden spawn rules for bees, causing them to spawn the same number of bees as caveworms (this means many caves will now have waaay less bees)
  

[/expand]

Future Content
[expand]

• Small adjustments to hammerhead slug small
  
• Adding in hammerslug small idle and aggro audio
  
• Adding unique gas sound for hammehead slug. Duplicating and adjusting anims for gas clouds for different sizes. Adjsutments to sounds to match
  
• Adding more appropriate sounding idle neigh jump land stomp to wooly zebra idles
  
• More fine tunes and balances to the mount wooly zebra. Adjusting footsteps and idle anim notifiers to be more appropriate
  
• Added text for first batch of CC saddles
  
• Fix Field Guide Workshop Packs page provided item padding
  
• Adding wooly zebra attack audio, event and data table setup. Duplicating attack anims for own unique montages and adding to mounts table etc
  
• Update Field Guide How to Obtain text for the quest vegetables to just mention Quests, as every plant is able to be ordered from the workshop
  
• FieldGuide - fix margins on workshop pack widget
  
• Added Carcass and setup dead items for the mini hippo, duped anims for audio setup, montage hooking incoming
  
• FieldGuide - add workshop packs to plants page
  
• Added full base implementation for the Mini Hippo including creature BP, mesh and bones, skeleton cleanup and tweaks to follow
  
• Adjustments and fine tunes to wooly zebra mount
  
• Added missing resource images to Field Guide data table
  
• FieldGuide - add workshop packs to arrows and ore pages
  
• Adding wooly zebra juvi events and data table entries
  
• FieldGuide - add feature level to itemable widget
  
• FieldGuide - fix the consume tag on the last few various seed packs
  
• Adding in basic setup for Juvenile Wooly Zebra
  
• Adding Bearhide Saddle Icon
  
• Tagged Workshop Shovel as Item.Meta to allow it to be requested from orbit
  
• Adding Icons for Croc / Deluxe / Sandworm Saddles
  
• Added setup for Blueback/Redback mounts
  
• FieldGuide - change the consume tag on various seed packs so not marked as food
  
• Correcting a few missed slug previews and audio notifiers
  
• Added text for shovel tiers
  
• FieldGuide - change the consume tag on various arrow packs so not marked as food
  
• Adding the final amount of the hammer slug preview meshes so differentiate between the slug and hammerslug at a glance
  
• More audio updates to hammerslugs and applying preview meshes for better visibility in editor
  
• Lots of updates and additions to the hammerslug of all sizes
  
• Added ITM_Saddle_Sandworm with Buffalo, Moa and Horse skeleton variations
  
• Added ITM_Saddle_Croc_Skin for Buffalo, Moa, Horse skeleton variations
  
• Fixed a grammatical issue in some item names for clarity
  
• Additional fine tunes and improvements to the wooly zebra audio
  
• Adding Water Borer, T3 Rain Reserviour, Water Barrel and biofuel water pump
  
• Checking in extra Variant SK meshes to use at a later date, full setup of the base mini hippo done with the boar numbers in place but all individual entries to use for design tweaking stats wise etc when needed
  
• FieldGuide - rework sidebar
  
• "FieldGuide - make itemable how to obtain vertical
  
• Added Item Category Icons
  
• Re-Tagged Workshop Shovel as Item.Meta to allow it to be requested from orbit, was incorrectly removed with merge
  
• Added default maximum placement distance of 100m between beacons
  
• Wooly zebra juvenile setup/proper corpse meshes
  
• Added new Beacon Tool / Field Beacon items for use in PROM expansion mission
  
• FieldGuide - restore ability to go back after sidebar refactor
  
• Fixing Build by removing bad assets
  
• Update Trail Beacon map size and compass distance
  
• Added stats for Larkwell and Black Wolf armor sets, pending recipe and costs
  

[/expand]

Week 114 is here, with a new shocking backpack to buy.

The Ion Backpack gives improved yields for key metals needed in electronics production and also has the unique electroshock modifier for combat, otherwise only found in select ammo and tools.

We’ve also completed week one of our Batteries & Networks testing, and have an update on the progress.

Jump in and have a read.

• Fixed BIG SHOT: Stockpile on Hard difficulty not having room to fit all required trophies.
  
• Fixed Electric Deep Ore Drills not showing the correct mining time.
  
• Update carcass inventory UI to show modifiers, allowing players to read the modifier explaining that creatures are attracted to the carcass.
  
• Fixed a bug where windows couldn't be placed on the dual window slots (2 building pieces to make 1 window frame)
  

This week we’ve added the Ion Backpack, a new purchasable item in the Orbital Workshop.

This will cost 250 ren/500 exotics to unlock, then 100 ren/250 exotics to purchase each time you wish to add it to your inventory.

The Ion Backpack comes with six extra inventory slots and a range of buffs to your character. These include:

• -10% in item wear for items used by the player
  
• +30% Copper Yield
  
• +30% Gold Yield
  
• +30% Platinum Yield
  
• A 15% chance of causing Electroshock on Hit when in combat
  

This backpack is specifically designed to benefit players moving into Electronics in Tier 3 and 4, with increases to the yields of the metals most needed to craft the required materials.

The Electroshock element complements this also and is a powerful modifier. This provides a significant damage increase and is especially valuable for ranged weapons, where the only other place you’d be able to get the modifier is on expensive special workshop ammunition as well as some workshop tools.





This week is another short week for us here in New Zealand, as on Tuesday we celebrated Waitangi Day, a significant moment in New Zealand history that signifies the signing of the treaty between the Māori and British Settlers.

Māori themes can be found throughout Icarus, most noticeably in the Kea and Moa, two native birds to NZ with traditional Māori names (even if the Moa is extinct). We do have another feathered friend from New Zealand joining the game soon, and this one even gives us our nickname…





Last week, we released the Beta testing branch for our upcoming Batteries & Networks update. The feedback has been substantial, and incredibly helpful. Already we’ve got a long list of changes, improvements and bug fixes we are working through, so we’re extending the testing out for another week to keep refining the product before it is released.

If you want to jump in and help us out, you can join the new branch on Steam that can be accessed with the password ‘IAcceptThereWillBeBugs’. (Excluding apostrophes).

We highly suggest you back up your data if you wish to play in this branch, as prospect saves between streams may not always be compatible as we make regular changes.

There will be bugs and crashes as this is an unstable branch, we are still working through the bugs as well as a QoL and Balance pass which your feedback will help with, but you are free to jump in and play with the system in its current state. This branch may be updated frequently so also be prepared to patch when it does.

For any feedback please use the #experimental-branch on our discord.

Thankyou again to everyone who has contributed and given feedback so far.





Next week, we’ll be introducing two new types of Shotgun Ammo which can be crafted from raw minerals, exclusive to Prometheus.

These are Cold Steel, Miasmic & Obsidian variants, with unique stats, perks and buffs.

We’ve taken on board your feedback about the type of content in these weekly updates, and while we can’t always deliver exactly what is requested, we try to adjust and include your thoughts and ideas, which is why next week's update is more gameplay-focused.

Originally posted by author

[h3]If you like what we’re doing with Icarus, and want to support our continued development, consider purchasing one of our DLCs for a few dollars, it would mean a lot to us.[/h3]

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/36462/Icarus_Architecture_Bundle/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/34141/Icarus_Outposts_Bundle/



New Content
[expand]

• Unlocked Ion Backpack
  
• Balance pass on Ion Backpack, added Chance to Electroshock and Reduced Item Wear, removed Crafting Speed as it only benefit the player, and reduced backpack slots to 6 from 12
  

[/expand]

Fixed
[expand]

• Adding consume honey and other missing consumable audio sounds
  
• Buffed Larkwell Martinez Tactical Backpack, adding +15% Weight Capacity to better solidify this as the all purpose carry-all backpack
  
• Fixed a typo in the description of the coffee smoked fatty t-bone item
  
• Fixing bad code commit, extra characters on a line which was causing compilation issues
  
• Fixed a bug where windows couldn't be placed on the dual window slots (2 building pieces to make 1 window frame)
  
• Update carcass inventory UI to show modifiers, allowing players to read the modifier explaining that creatures are attracted to the carcass
  
• Fixed Electric Deep Ore Drills not showing the correct mining time
  
• BIG SHOT: Slightly reduced required trophies on hard so they'll fit inside the dropship
  
• 
  

[/expand]

Future Content
[expand]

• Added skeletal meshs for the moa, horse, and buffalo bearhide saddles
  
• Adding Mange wolf aggro states audio and data table entry
  
• Added Desert Wolf Rug Icon
  
• Added blueprints and recipes for stone, scoria and ice diagonal and curved pieces
  
• Added procurement images for Field Guide
  
• Adding hammerhead slug spot - roar audio to animations
  
• Added Static mesh art assets for the bear hide Saddle
  
• Resave datatables
  
• Prototype craftable cargo landing pads
  
• Lots of updates and additions to the hammerhead slug. Attack, flinch audio and events and data table entries
  
• FieldGuide - add a FieldGuide.WorkshopOnly tag for how to obtain, tag avo, kumara, strawberry, rhubarb
  
• FieldGuide - how to obtain, fix dupe tool tips
  
• fixed skiining issues for chicken mesh, carcass and bones. Also added SK meshes for variation black and white
  
• FieldGuide - make workshop costs widgets larger
  
• FieldGuide - add fishing to how to obtain, tooltip icons
  
• Added new sets of montages for the slugs and hooked up for Audio pass
  
• Full base pass of slug reskin implementation including mesh weighting, carcass setup etc of the smallest size, setup for the medium and large size including growth curves, needs split behaviour on death and relavent player facing text entriels
  
• Fieldguide - wire procurement images for plants
  
• '- Update Field Guide how to obtain text to instead use icons
  
• Updating all mange wolf attack sounds to add more unique characteristics
  
• Fieldguide - wire procurement images for deposits and deep veins
  
• Added platinum deepvein procurement image
  
• Wooly Zebra mount setup/fixes to regular wooly zebra
  
• Adding deploy sound for battery racks
  
• Prototype craftable player landing pads
  
• Lots of updates to hammerhead slugs. Adding medium and small vocals and data table entries and duplicating anims and montages
  
• Adding Water Purifier Icons T2/4 and adding missing raw 2D art assets for various icons
  
• Adding New Shovels to the game in preperation for the new shovel logic, added recipes, blueprints, icons and workshop associated items
  
• Duplicating slug montages for Medium size versions so smaller sounding audio can be added to them
  
• Prototype craftable player landing pads - if drop ship grenade is thrown nearby landing pad, then use pad
  
• Adding hammerhead small movement events and duplicating animations to separate out audio
  
• Submitting Kiwi, carcass, fur and its textures
  
• Prototype craftable landing pads - switch to complex collisions due to placeholder assets
  
• Adding in Icebreaker assets for hookup
  
• Added art and rig assets for delux leather saddle for the moa, buffalo, and horse
  
• FieldGuide - list what a given workshop pack provides on the workshop pack page
  
• Adding all hammerhead slug small animation notifyers, audio, attacks and whooshes etc
  
• Duplicating all animations for slug for small versions. Swapping out all movement sounds for small versions
  
• cleaning up old Ice breaker assets to make room for new implementation
  
• 
  

[/expand]

Welcome to Week 113.

After the bee-pocalypse of last week, we imagine some of you will be happy to hear that this week brings some adjustments and balances to our fuzzy new friends.

We’ve also got two new rugs for you, in Buffalo and Woven variants, and some QoL improvements, including the ability to now share couches with your pals.

Jump in, have a read, and then enjoy some slightly less terrifying cave adventures.

• Fixed several bugs with the Stockpile mission type where missions would get stuck or auto complete when not intended
  
• Added the ability for Prospectors to sit with their friends on the same seat / couch
  
• Added the Suit Slot UI to most inventories and processors so players can access anything slotted in the food / water / oxygen slots when interacting with devices
  
• Curtains and windows can now both be placed on window frames and can no longer infinitely stack
  
• Fixed a bug where the hiding of backpacks/shields would stop working on occasion, no more shields appearing on your back and in your hand
  
• The reinforced wood tier, has been reduced down to T2 and is now craftable on the carpentry bench
  

Last week's update introduced wild beehives, domestic beehives, and their fuzzy inhabitants, bees.

We hear you love all the extra recipes you can make with bee products, but In response to some feedback provided and further discussions with the community, we’ve decided to make some adjustments to fighting swarms.

Bees no longer have ‘knockback’ on their attacks and will always disperse after one swipe, making them easier to navigate past. On top of this, we’ve also given them a far larger collider so they’re easier to hit.

We have also adjusted the frequency that bees will spawn in caves, as many players were reporting an encounter almost every time they entered one.





This week we’ve added two new rugs to Icarus, the Buffalo Rug and the Thin Woven Rug.

The Buffalo Rug is craftable at the advanced or electric textiles bench. This requires a buffalo vestige, 30x fur, 10x cured leather, and 5x platinum weave.

The Thin Woven Rug is also craftable at the advanced or electric textiles bench and requires 10x cured leather, 10x platinum weave and 60x fiber.





It’s time to get cozy.

Couches, sofas and seats can now support multiple people sitting down simultaneously (if they have room), so you’ll no longer have to awkwardly stare at your friends across the room while hogging all the sitting room.





We’ve reached the point of the Batteries and Networks project where we’re seeking feedback from our players, so we can iron out any remaining bugs, flaws, inconsistencies and balance issues.

This will be available as a new branch on Steam that can be accessed with the password ‘IAcceptThereWillBeBugs’. (Excluding apostrophes).

We suggest backing up your data if you wish to play in this stream as prospect saves between the two different streams may not always be compatible. Alternatively, you can also start a new prospect so as to not cause issues with your existing ones.

There will be bugs and crashes as this is an unstable branch, we are still working through the bugs as well as a QoL and Balance pass which your feedback will help with, but you are free to jump in and play with the system in its current state. This branch may be updated frequently so also be prepared to patch when it does.

For any feedback please use the #experimental-branch on our discord.

A big thank you to all the veteran prospectors who have helped in the early testing phase.





Next week we’ll be adding a new tech-focused backpack - the Ion Backpack. This will have buffs and benefits for ore mining yield and adding a 15% electroshock chance to enemies you melee in combat.

Originally posted by author

[h2]If you like what we’re doing with Icarus, and want to support our continued development, consider purchasing one of our DLCs for a few dollars, it would mean a lot to us.[/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/36462/Icarus_Architecture_Bundle/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/34141/Icarus_Outposts_Bundle/



New Content
[expand]

• Unlocking Buffalo & Thin Weave Rugs
  

[/expand]

QoL or Fixed
[expand]

• Allow multiple players to sit on 2 or 3 seater couches at the same time
  
• Fixed a bug where the hiding of backpacks/shields on back would stop working when you used an empty quickbar slot
  
• Fixed a bug causing many stockpile missions on easy or hard to instantly complete
  
• Added difficulty scaling to each stockpile mission, requiring less resources on easy and more on hard
  
• Curtains and windows can now be placed on window frames and can no longer infinitely stack
  
• Adding Suit Slot Inventory UI to player inventory and processors so it can be seen when interacting with devices
  
• Added 'Carrying miasmic item' to the raw iron wood item (crystalized miasma) so it damages the player over time
  
• Fixed Door socket placement on concrete doorway, replace your doors to fix the small gap
  
• Fixed a bug with the shield where if you equip the shield in the secondary slot and then drag it off it can double up the shield on your back and your arm
  
• Fixed Barbeque Carrot granting +50% food modifier duration
  
• Fixed Honey craft on Mortar and Pestle and Material Processor granting both honey AND beeswax
  
• Fixed Bee granting Predator Bird XP
  
• Added Projectile Immunity strength to Bee Bestiary
  
• Shifitng Reinforced Wood from T4 -> T2 and level locking at 20, making it essentially T3
  
• Increased Bee's collider making them easier to hit with melee attacks
  
• Lowered Bee Health so it only requires 1 melee swing to dissapate swarm
  
• Removed Bee Knockback on attacks
  
• Slightly reduced bee attack damage
  
• Adjusting and balancing number of Beehive Spawns in caves
  

[/expand]

Future Content
[expand]

• Adding better deploy audio for sandworm trophy and adjustments to audio location
  
• Update diagonal half angle pieces and beams to allow placement within the same tile
  
• Fixed Angled Walls and Beams being unable to be placed in the same location
  
• Fixed Horizontal Cross-Beam rotation mesh rotation within Blueprint
  
• Updated Roof Peak Connector blueprints to allow placement of roof pieces in same location when already placed
  
• Simplified turret BP setup for Audio
  
• Update Stone Pillar asset to use new KIT building assets
  
• Log version when running dedi server
  
• Log version when running dedi server
  
• Fixed Gorse crops collision overlapping other objects
  
• Adding turret powered audio, power off audio, aim audio, and BP imp to play sounds
  
• Added art assets for farmhouse stove asset
  
• Fixed typo in Field Guide category
  
• Knobble stuck movement sentry logging for now
  
• Adding Stationeers bobble heads and materials plus some assembled blueprits
  
• Rotated BLD_Beam_Curved_Down_Diagonal_Stone_R and BLD_Beam_Curved_Up_Diagonal_Stone_R 180 degrees
  
• Added curved walls and setup rules for curved walls and beams placement in the same tile
  
• Added diagonal curved cross beams to gameplay blueprints for testing
  
• Setting up Stationeers Trophy Items, recipes and feature flags
  
• Setting Up Icarus Logo, recipes and feature flags and adding to unreleased DLC
  
• Setting up package flags for upcoming DLC's (Creature Comforts & Homestead)
  
• Adding new Icons for Stationeers Trophies, Icarus Logo and 5 Sandworm Trophies / Braziers
  
• Fixed placement rules on curved building walls
  
• Updated name of curved walls piece
  
• Added string table entries for all resources and added them to the recipetooltip for localization
  
• Updating Sugar Recipe, Sugar Cane Framing Reward Row and the Sugar Cane Seed Placement Mesh
  
• Knobble connection timeouts sentry logging for now
  
• Removed dev logging used for debugging backpack visibility
  
• Adding water purifier T2 audio, and replacing SM with correct mesh for water purifier. removing unnecessary Audio BP behavior
  
• Generated mesh LODs for half of yellow quad, Prometheus
  
• Reorganize Field Guide categories
  
• Added text for stationeers and winged trophies
  
• Generated mesh LODs for X7_Y7, X7_Y6, Prometheus
  
• Added text for Sugar Cane items
  
• Added DEP_Silo
  
• Added in base setup for the Slug reskin, in engine as Hammerhead slug until we have an ingame name for it, currently using same slug goap setup until we implement boss behavior and boss entries
  
• Adding hammerhead slug aggro, idle, death audio and events and data table entry
  
• Generated mesh LODs for X4_Y3, Prometheus
  
• Generated mesh LODs for remainder of yellow quad, Prometheus
  
• Generated heightmap LODs for red and yellow quads and fixed a bunch of others that had garbage meshes/textures, Prometheus
  
• Adding hammerhead spot / warcry vocalisation audio and event
  
• Generated mesh LODs for remainder of red quad, Prometheus
  
• Generated mesh LODs for half of red quad, Prometheus
  
• Adding Item Setup for Bear Hide, Deluxe Leather, Croc, Sandworm, Desert, Armored, Explorer and Racing Saddles. Also setup for Seed / Water / Harvesting Carts
  
• Adding Mange wolf attack audio, event and data table setup
  
• Setup placement rules for curved roof
  
• Adding mange wolf flinch audio and wolf howl event. Fixing animation being in wrong folder
  
• Initial addition of Roof CurvedAngle pieces
  
• Added ITM_Shovel_Tactical
  
• Adding sugar cane audio harvest and plant sounds. Also duplicating slug animations to be used for hammer slug montages for unique sounds
  
• Updated shadow geo for Prometheus
  
• Added BLD_Roof_CurvedAngle_Up_Stone and BLD_Roof_CurvedAngle_Up_Stone, with Inverted and L and R versions
  
• Submitting Mange Wolf Alpha, Base, carcasses and textures
  

[/expand]

Welcome to week 112.

This week is a larger update, as we bring you the brand new Apicultural system where you can become a beekeeper in Icarus.

Fit with Wild Bees, Beehives, a bespoke beekeeping system and even Bee breeding, you can start producing honey, beeswax and multiple new recipes, right away.

Originally posted by author

We are committed to weekly updates in Icarus and to always be providing new content / fixes / optimizations from week to week. These updates can vary in size, as things like team availability and task size can range from ones that take half a day, to several weeks or even months. One thing we will try to do is be conscious of this and after a period such as the New Year Holiday where we kept things light and safe we’ll give you something we’ve been working on for a while.

Rocketwerkz isn’t as big as some other studios but are proud of our commitment to our games and want continue to make updates and provide something that players as well as ourselves want to play.

Something special did happen over the break for us. Despite a rocky launch two years ago we have managed through continual updates and improvements to reach an all-time Steam review score of Mostly Positive (over 70%). This is amazing and means a lot to us all here as this needle gets very hard to move over time, so thank you everyone who have been playing the game, providing feedback and leaving reviews.

A lot of effort from the entire team goes into making these patches, whether it be making designing a system, making the assets, implementing functionality, finding and fixing bugs, optimizing, balancing the features, testing the game, preparing the blogs and organizing the patches so they are ready ahead of time so we don’t scramble from week to week.

This isn’t the only big update we’ve got planned, as in upcoming weeks we will focus on optimization and the Batteries and Resource network update which we want to get into your hands as soon as possible.

• Reduced the cost of glass building pieces, most pieces now use 2 Iron Ingots instead of 6, and 6 Epoxy instead of 12. This allows easier access to glass
  
• Ice Ore Deposits no longer spawn in each time when loading a prospect creating duplicates and causing unintended performance issues. This was caused by the multiple instances of each prospect being loaded and therefore, save files being larger than they needed to be
  
• Operations accessible through the CON4CT Device now show their operation information, play the briefing dialogue, and have a confirmation, so you can see the information on the operation before launching. (This slipped in last week)
  
• 'Wine Bottles' & 'Beer Bottles' have been combined into one item 'Glass Bottles' which is used for beer wine and mead
  
• Shifted Snow Stalker & Arid Striker critical hit location has been firmly attached to the head as it was incorrectly shifting without warning, making the creatures very hard to score critical hits on.
  
• Waterfalls and Lavafalls now have collision and correctly add wet modifier / set players on fire respectively. Due to this, you can now swim up waterfalls
  
• Added the missing recipe for the Brutalist Bed for the Industrial DLC - it is now craftable as intended
  
• Dehumidifier buffs now correctly affect objects, and can now block the ‘Ash Clogged’ debuff caused by weather events in the volcanic biome
  

Prospectors, gear up for a buzzing addition to the ever-evolving world of Icarus. Introducing the latest inhabitants of the wilderness – Bees! These winged wonders bring both challenge and reward to your exploration, making encounters with nature a bit more interesting.

Bee Hives in Forests and Grasslands

Keep a sharp eye out for what appears to be a broken tree – a disguise for the Wild Bees Nests. These nests are uncommon but can prove to be formidable foes if left unchecked. Once disturbed, these aggressive bees will swarm, delivering a painful sting that not only deals damage but also inflicts a parasitic debuff known as "Bee Swarm." This debuff slows down your movement and melee attacks, and beware, as it can stack up to 5 times.

Immune to projectiles, the only way to fend off the buzzing onslaught is to swat it away with melee weapons. Destroy the Wild Bees Nest, and you'll be rewarded with loot including precious items such as honeycombs, worker bees, and queen bees.

Cave Bee Hives

Venture deeper into Icarus’s various caves, where a new challenge awaits. Some are now infested with Cave Bee Nests, resembling more traditional wild bee hives. These subterranean sanctuaries house bees that are just as fierce as their above-ground counterparts. The diverse environments, ranging from Forest and Desert to Swamp, Lava, and Grasslands Caves, ensure that any part of the map could house these new nests.

Prospectors may find themselves encountering not only bee-filled caves but also other subterranean threats like cave worms. Brace yourselves for dynamic cave exploration, where each dark corner may hold a different surprise.





Worker Bees

Encountering Worker Bees is a common occurrence when raiding wild hives, constituting a guaranteed drop of 100%. These hardworking insects play a pivotal role in your beekeeping endeavors. Once acquired, you can strategically place them within your beehives to generate honeycomb, a highly valuable resource for your survival and progression in Icarus.

Queen Bees

The elusive Queen Bees add a royal touch to your loot, occasionally discovered in wild hives with a 33% chance. These majestic beings not only contribute to honeycomb generation within beehives but also hold a special place in Beehive Breeding Centers. Placing Queen Bees in these centers unlocks the ability to produce additional Worker Bees, fostering the growth of your buzzing population.

Honeycomb

The coveted Honeycomb is the golden prize found within beehives, serving as the cornerstone of your apicultural pursuits. Harvested from beehives, this sweet treasure not only fuels the creation of your own beehives but also acts as a primary ingredient in various upgrades and crafting recipes. Harness the power of honeycomb to expand your base and thrive amidst the challenges of Icarus.





Prepare to enhance your base-building prowess with the introduction of the Beehive, a deployable structure boasting not just one, but four upgrades. From honey production to resource management, these upgrades will allow you to improve and expand your new beekeeping hobby.

Beehive (T2): Honeycomb Generator

Embark on your apicultural journey with the Beehive. This deployable allows you to use worker bees or queens as fuel to generate precious honeycomb. Construct it using a combination of 10 honeycombs, 30 refined wood, and 25 copper nails. While producing honeycomb the beehive will also provide a buff to nearby crop plots increasing their yield.

Small Beehive Expansion (T3): Storage & Efficiency Upgrade

Feeling the need for more storage space in your Beehive? Upgrade to the Small Beehive Expansion and unlock six additional inventory slots. This upgrade also makes worker bees more efficient increasing the time they can be active as a fuel source. The expansion requires 15 honeycombs, 20 refined wood, 25 aluminum, and 10 steel screws. With increased storage capacity, you can efficiently manage your resources and bee-related items while navigating the challenges of Icarus.

Beehive Breeding Center (T3): Worker Bee Generation

Take your beekeeping skills to the next level with the Beehive Breeding Center. This upgrade allows Queen Bees to produce Worker Bees, expanding your bee population. Invest in this advanced feature by spending 16 platinum sheaths, 20 beeswax, and 10 steel screws.

Large Beehive Expansion (T4): Further Storage & Efficiency Enhancement

Feeling the buzz for even more storage? Upgrade once again with the Large Beehive Expansion, unlocking an additional six inventory slots. As with the small expansion this further increases the bees efficiency. This storage expansion requires 20 honeycombs, 2 titanium plates, and 20 steel screws.

Beehive Extractor (T4): Automatic Honey Production

Transform honeycomb into valuable honey and beeswax with the Beehive Extractor. This advanced upgrade requires an active power connection within the beehive. Invest 30 copper wires, 2 titanium plates, 15 glass, and 8 electronics and you’ll have an automated factory line working around the clock.





Honeycomb can be used at a Mortar & Pestle to create Honey or Beeswax at a ratio of 2:1. It can also be processed into Honey and Beeswax in the beehive extractor upgrade at a ratio of 1:1. Making the T4 Beehive extractor far more efficient.

All of the new resources can be use in some new and existing recipes including medicine, cured leather, food and candles. A quick breakdown is shown below.



One of the more notable of these is the inclusion of the Reinforced wood building pieces- craftable on the Electronic Carpentry Bench - these can withstand higher tiers of storms - making them the equivalent of stone building pieces.

Originally posted by author

Removal of Pre-Hypatia Branch

In the early stages of launching Hypatia 4 months ago we added this branch so people could finish their missions before they updated as some of the missions had changed and been converted into operations. We will be disabling this branch next week 2nd of February it is no longer required.

We are still hard at work on the batteries & networks, we are performing a closed experimental test with a few members of the community and are looking to open this up for public testing very soon. There are still a few crashes and optimizations we want to get cleaned up before opening it up to everyone.





Next week, we’ll be adding two new rugs to Icarus, the Buffalo and Thin Weave variations.

These will be added as craftable items to the Textiles Bench, and will require the individual animals pelts to craft.

Originally posted by author

If you like what we’re doing with Icarus, and want to support our continued development, consider purchasing one of our DLCs for a few dollars, it would mean a lot to us.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/36462/Icarus_Architecture_Bundle/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/34141/Icarus_Outposts_Bundle/



New Content
[expand]

• Adjustments to bee audio. Adding volume increase based on very close proximity to add intensity and danger to the feel of the bees
  
• Audio tweaks and updates to bee BP behavior to play Idle and Aggro states
  
• Add cave bat nests and wild beehives to caves, DC Caves, LC Caves
  
• Added 4 new honey consumables, including recipe, modifier and item
  
• Moved Smoked Bacon icon to consumables folder (source file)
  
• Adding new stats and modifier for attacks causing a bee swarm, adding stats to bee creature and removing poison damage
  
• Adding Talents, Recipes and Items related to Beehives, Honeycomb and Honey
  
• Adding wild bee hive nest audio. Loop and destroy and BP logic to play and stop
  
• Adding bee hive loop, adjusting PM of bee hive and adding appropriate deploy audiuo to all bee related items
  
• Added bestiary entry for Bees
  
• Added text for bee related items
  
• Setting Bee's to Core and Setting up bestiary and stats for Bees
  
• Beehive upgrades inventory only accepts specific items based on their slot. If you add an item to the beehive through deployable it auto adds it to inventory. Cant add t4 expansion without t3. Removing t3 while t4 is up will remove t4 too
  
• Moved logic for adding deployed expansions into the beehive upgrade inventory from the Beehive UMG to the BP itself
  
• Bees now produce honeycomb into the beehive
  
• First pass generic turret fire audio. Also adjusting placement of bee hive audio on trees
  
• Enabled beehive generator and bees can now be used as a fuel
  
• Add cave bat nests and wild beehives to caves, AC Caves
  
• Updating Beehive Actionable Behaviour to use real items
  
• Updating Beehive Honeycomb generation to match the same way the extractor works
  
• Updating Beehive Inventory Expansions to expand and lock the inventory when the upgrades are added / removed
  
• Small bee hive loop adjustment
  
• Added bee bestiary image
  
• Adding bee make honeycomb audio and event
  
• Setting up Beehive Upgrade Lock UI and Fixing stat source issue when adding / removing upgrades
  
• Beehives can now produce honeycomb, the extractor upgrade can split honeycomb into honey & beeswax, the breeding upgrade can produce more bees, adde and adjusted the new UI so its all functional
  
• Adding make honeycomb audio to bee hive BP
  
• Adding Worker Bee item and balancing beehive extraction/processing/breeding times, Queens now produce worker bees in the breeding center, and workers or queens can be used to generate honeycomb, queens being far more efficient
  
• Added additional collider to bee creature to make it easier to hit.
  
• Cave Bee Hives now last 5 minutes after being destroyed (instead of 5 seconds).
  
• Wild Tree Beehives now despawn after 5 minutes once the player has moved at least 15m away (previously would immediately despawn at 150m)
  
• Fixed Beehive crafting sounds
  
• Adding Missing Code for the new Aura Code
  
• Fixing issue with Aura's where they could not effects objects as in some cases they where supposed to (this should fix the issue with crafting machines being effected by the lava biome ash debuff when in range of a dehumidifier)
  
• Adding beehive modifier so crops around the beehive will have increased yield when the beehive is producing honeycomb
  
• Fixing an issue where the T4 Expansion for the beehive was placeable without the T3
  
• Fixing issue where the breeding device was unable to be placed without the T3 Expansion upgrade
  
• Added the ability to feed tamed creatures honey and honeycomb
  
• Updated Wild Behive description
  
• Updated Honeycomb description to mention Mortar and Pestle and Beehive Extractor as the method for acquiring Honey and Beeswax
  
• Fixed recipe for Beehive Extractor
  
• Unlocking Bestiary Data for Bee and fixing the Honey Mead so it gives a glass bottle and not another bottle of honey mead when consumed
  
• Adding Bee Nest Spawns to Forest, Desert, Swamp, Lava and Grasslands biomes
  
• Removing death sound from bee BP and audio adjustments for smoother balance between idle and aggro
  
• Adding final bee hive audio. Breeding bee
  
• Added the ability to fuel candles with beeswax
  
• Adding Multi for bee honeycomb and honey audio playback. Queen bee loop to be reworked in BP tomorrow
  
• Added text for honey food items
  
• Committing missing honeycomb bar icon
  
• Adding Icons for Honey Recipes & setting up some of these new honey based items
  
• Beer & Wine Glass Bottles are now a single glass bottle
  
• Adding Reinforced Wood Building Tier - a tier which includes beeswax and craftable from the carpentry bench
  
• Modifying the way building reinforcement work so its a common stat rather than a specific one, so it can be applied to all building pieces if required without rework
  
• Adding Alternate Reciepes for candles to use beeswax instead of animal fat
  
• Beehive Honeycomb splitting now requires an active power connection for the T4 Extraction Upgrade
  
• Adding audio location for honey conversion, bee extract sound, honey make sound and queen bee attached loop and BP behavior for all
  

[/expand]

Fixed
[expand]

• Fixed Rain Reservoir missing fillable UI and hid modifier UI
  
• Waterfalls and Lavafalls now have collision and correctly add wet modifier / set players on fire respectively
  
• Change the level so Ice Ore Deposits use the spawner system
  
• Rain reservoir inventory fillable display now updates on a timer, also fixed issue with spacing in title bar area.
  
• Removed unnecessary divider on NPC carcass's tooltip modifier list
  
• Removed debug collider on Desert Striker
  
• Shifted Striker critical hit location to be attached to head. Improved Striker physics asset - is less noodle-like now
  
• Blended cave with the terrain on Outpost, Cactus
  
• Reduced the cost of glass building pieces, most peices now use 2 Iron Ingots instead of 6, and 6 Epoxy instead of 12. This is to allow easier access to glass, while reinforced/hardened glass still requires a water connection (so has a higher starting cost)
  
• Fixed Plain Jerky modifier description
  

[/expand]

Future Content
[expand]

• Added DEP_Turret_T4_Pistol, Rifle, Shotgun
  
• Added ITM_Hay_Bale
  
• Added Chicken color variations, bones and carcass materials, textures, and static meshes
  
• Manual Cave Polish Pass, Ashlands, Prometheus
  
• Added text for Limestone and building pieces
  
• Further tagging on Field Guide items to ensure dev only items aren't shown
  
• Updated tags on Clay, Obsidian and Scoria to now be Item.Ore (belefitting from Ore weight reduction)
  
• Added BLD_Beam_Curved_Horizontal_Diagonal
  
• Added BLD_Beam_Curved_Diagonal_Stone, with all variants
  
• Added BLD_Beam_Angle_Stone, with all variants
  
• Added BLD_Beam_Horizontal_Diagonal_Stone
  
• Added BLD_Beam_Diagonal_Angle_Stone
  
• Added BLD_Roof_Peak_Pyramid_Stone
  
• Added Voxels to Northen Part of Green Quad and Some Landscape Painting, Styx
  
• Added extra validation to AIcarusNPCCharacter::GetSightPerceptionOrigin
  
• Slightly reduced forward movement speed when mounted and turning sharply.
  
• Improved Zebra's locomotion blendspace.
  
• Added new function GetRotationInput to fetch current frame's pending rotation input (IcarusPlayerController)
  
• FieldGuide - fix DT inventory attachments for bows
  
• New Lavafall_02 mesh is now correctly set up inside WT_Waterfall / BP_WaterfallFunctionLibrary using mesh type index 01
  
• Added art assets for the exotic item
  
• Added materials and textures for exotic voxels 1-5
  
• Improvements to NPCCreator wizard. Added new DT entries for Sheep
  
• Small balance tweak to sandworm crossbow and added cave context to missing ambience creatures with reverb
  
• Updates to the sandworm crossbow audio. Improved fire audio
  
• Manual Cave Polish Pass and Swapped Lavafall Meshes, Red Quad, Ashlands, Prometheus
  
• Updating Purple Exotic Mesh and Item Icon
  
• Added updated BLD_Frame_Pillar_Stone
  
• Adding Turret Meshes for each Turret, adding blueprints, recipes, and item setup
  
• Added DEP_Trophy_Sandworm_Brazier, Hanging and Big Brazier
  
• Reduced the cost of the Reinforced Glass Window and Glass Door, this allows easier access to more cosmetic options
  
• Adding shotgun and rifle turret audio and events and data table
  
• FieldGuide - fix attachment query for workshop ranged weapons
  
• Adding add ammo out of ammo audio for turrets. BP behavior to play different sounds based on having ammo vs removing running out. Creating bullet impact events for turrets, not currently used
  
• Make slomo cheats work on dediserver (internal dev)
  
• Setting up cross diagonal beam blueprints
  
• General Polish Pass on bat nests and wild beehives on Template Caves
  
• Added two items with two variants. Sandworm trophy braziers and sandworm trophies
  
• Lots of updates and improvements to the turrets audio
  
• Turret Prototype fire multiple projectiles depending on ammo type (eg. shotgun shell)
  
• Added Roof Peak Pyramid and Roof Peak Connector to their blueprints
  
• Fixed cave void not covering cave
  
• Turret prototype - require power to operate
  
• Added curved diagonal beams
  
• Fixed redirectors in building folders
  
• Added icons for item procurement in the Field Guide
  
• Added text for sandworm trophy
  
• Added text for turret items
  
• Added HRB_Sugar_Cane with 5 growth stages and dead stade, as well as added them to the Data Table
  
• First pass weighting of chicken and subsequent meshes, tidy up of wings and legs to come
  
• Polished Lavafall blend with lakes and manual cave polish pass, Ashlands, Prometheus
  
• Added text for sandworm brazier
  
• Fixed cave void not covering cave
  
• Fixed rotation for BLD_Roof_Peak_Connector_Stone
  
• Fixed rotation of BLD_Beam_Horizontal_Diagonal_Stone
  
• ADJUSTING sound associated with the sandworm trophy brazier to be more appropriate. Adjusting ignite location
  
• Removed duplicate curved angle beams
  
• Turret Prototype - show yaw that turrent can turn to during highlight
  
• Adding sandworm trophy deploy audio and location
  
• Fixed curved beam orientation
  
• Updates to turret audio. Deploy turret tweaks, adding audio data to data table and small chicken volume adjustments
  
• Moved Reinforced Wood Basic and Advanced talents from Tier 2 to Tier 4, recipes are now crafted only at Electric Carpentry Bench
  

[/expand]