Icarus News

Week Fifty Six is here, bringing with it our newest accessory - Carts. Attach them to your buffalo mounts and take advantage of the 1000kg, 60-slot capacity for those long-haul expeditions.

Crafted at the Carpentry Bench, you can take advantage of them from Tier 3 and avoid the dreaded slow slog back home when over-encumbered with ore.





Carts are here. For all our cross-country explorers and busy gatherers, miners and hunters, you can now attach a wooden cart to your Buffalo Mount.

Carts can be crafted at the Carpentry Bench for 80 wood, 15 iron nails, 20 rope, 10 epoxy and 50 refined wood. They go into the Mounts ‘saddle’ slot and when used, render that mount unable to be ridden and will reduce the buffalo's speed slightly.

The carry improvement is immense, however, with a massive 1000kg and 60 carry slot capacity bonus that will be incredibly valuable on long-haul expeditions for mining, moving bases or traversing biomes.





Thank you to all the players and partners who have helped us test Icarus dedicated servers over the last few weeks - they’re proving popular. Your feedback has already allowed us to move quickly to fix bugs and make several improvements necessary to get it up to speed.

Several online game server providers now offer Icarus servers to rent. In our server browser screen you’ll notice we have highlighted four verified server providers. These providers have helped us test and fine-tune the servers, but are independent of RocketWerkz.

If you are interested in setting up and running your own (beta) Icarus dedicated server, you can access our setup guide on github here. We have a special discord channel #dedicated-server-beta where you can ask questions and trouble shoot any issues that arise. Click here to join.

Happy Week Fifty Five! This week we’re adding highly-requested inventory sorting, just in time for Christmas. You’ll be able to sort your inventories four different ways, with preset categories and orders to make it as easy as one click and go.

Happy organization everyone!





Inventory sorting has been a popular request from our community, and while we’ve had some for many months we are expanding it, adding to the functionality and packaging it up for Christmas. You’ll be able to sort your inventory in four ways to organize your gear however best suits you.

Weight, Stack Amount and Name (Alphabetical) are pretty self-explanatory, and the fourth option Type uses the following categories in this order:

• Non-Food Consumables
  
• Weapons
  
• Armor
  
• Buildings
  
• Resources
  
• Exotics
  

We’ve added a range of important fixes this week, many of which were identified by our community in the last few weeks since the big player data decentralization update.

• Icarus now works fully in steam offline mode and without an internet connection
  
• Repairing at the station now correctly consumes 10 Ren for each repair and repairs the item
  
• Refunding Talents at the station now works correctly. It refunds the talent and consumes a refund token
  
• Dropships no longer destroy mission items and any deployables hit will be damaged and drop their items rather than just removed
  
• Updating Cave Lighting to provide better coverage across different areas of the cave
  
• We’ve added a new more distinguishable mesh to the Exotic Extraction Ship
  

If you’ve just bought Icarus in the Winter Sale, welcome! We wanted to give you a few handy links to check out to get amongst the community and enjoy the game as much as possible!

First, join our official Discord here. You can find our growing community of over 47,000 Discord members who will help you with quick tips, finding a team in LFG or sharing your highlights and lowlights. You can also chat with our devs, and get inside scoops on what we’re working on.

Feature Upvote is our player feedback system, where you can report bugs, ideas, concerns or areas for improvement. Our team goes through it daily and many of our changes and updates are a result of the tickets submitted.

If it’s your first time playing, and you want to check out some guides, our community have been making some fantastic ones! Check these out:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Finally, the best part about Icarus is in fact, learning by trial and error! Everyone in our community has a story of that embarrassing death they learnt a valuable lesson from. Take each mistake in stride and enjoy the ride!





This week's lead feature, Inventory Sorting, came from your Feature Upvote suggestions.

For new players, Feature Upvote is your direct line into the team working daily on Icarus, giving you the ability to be a part of our game's development without feeling like you’re talking to a brick wall through a website form or other outdated system.

On Feature Upvote you can upvote existing suggestions or add your own. These can be bugs you come across, features you’d like to see, changes to existing features or just feedback on the game's concept and your experience so far.

Our team combs the board daily, and many changes and improvements we’ve made have come as a direct result of suggestions made here. We love having this system in place to generate feedback in a fashion that allows us to act swiftly and effectively and gives our players the ability to actively contribute to the game they love.

If you’d like to jump in and see what’s trending or add your own, click here and share your thoughts.





Back in May we added the Styx Map and Mission Pack, an entire new map with 16 new missions and new creatures. We gave it away for free to all existing Icarus players, but at the time said we would eventually transition it to being a separate, paid DLC pack. This is a heads-up that we plan to do that sometime in the next few weeks. We need Steam to change some configurations for us, so don’t have a precise date but we want to give you lots of warning and ensure a smooth transition and not disadvantage anyone.

Originally posted by author

[h3]For existing players, this won’t affect you. You will still have Styx forever and won’t need to purchase it. It won’t be taken away.[/h3]

After the Styx pack becomes available to buy separately (date tbc), any new players will need to purchase the Styx pack on Steam to play that map and missions.

We also plan for multiplayer hosts to be able to share Styx with others who haven’t purchased it. Players who own Styx will be able to host Styx Missions and Open World sessions and invite Steam friends to join them, even if the other players don’t own Styx. Dedicated server hosts who own Styx will be able to host server games using the Styx map. Only the host will need to own the Styx pack.

We also have plans to keep expanding to both the Styx and Olympus maps with things such as new Missions.





New Content

• Add a backend inventory sorting method for alphanumeric localized name
  
• Add a backend inventory sorting method for stacksize
  
• Adding New Cheat Function to Add Random Items
  
• Adding new dort function UI to various inventories
  
• Add a backend inventory sorting method for sorting via tag queries
  
• Modify backend inventory sorting method for sorting via tag queries to bucket on first query matched, then alpha
  
• Updating Tag sort to be based on tag query row handles and not individual tag queries
  
• Cleanup up code
  
• Styx is now locked behind correct DLC package. Fixed Styx Map DLC package not being granted to some owners
  
• Added tag sorting list.
  
• Fixed tags for many items, and added new tags and tag queries for certain item types for better categorization and sorting
  
• Adding in base mesh, materials and animations for the exotic delivery pod
  

Fixed

• Changed default dev backend from sandbox since that service is offline now
  
• Increased minimum DLSS verbosity to stop log spam
  
• Added extra logging to try to track cause of dedicated server 028 issue
  
• Update Terrain017 to flag it for WorldGen to pick up and distribute cave light changes
  
• Update cave lights to bring spotlights closer to glow plane to avoid intersection with other world meshes outside of caves causing blockage
  
• Increased light brightness 2x after reviewing in full game scenario with cave PP darkening the scene heavily
  
• Change Cave Light type to be Stationary for performance purposes
  
• Update Terrain017 to flag it for WorldGen to pick up and distribute cave light changes
  
• Increase cave light draw distance from 50 to 75m to account for larger caves. Rexported CF_MED_002 to see if its enough
  
• Save all Cave templates with lights in them to inherit new default intensity and view distance values
  
• Add logic in WT_CaveTemplate construct to check X/Y actor axis rotation and print log to console so these instances can be found and fixed
  
• Added crit volumes for the crocodile and reduced projectile resistance
  
• Fixing Race Condition caused due to new dropship player initialisation which was causing players to die before landing on a prospect
  
• Rewording the Skip Migration Text
  
• Updating Error / Messages to remove wording which no longer makes sense
  
• Fix dropship audio bug where rocket sounds could be muffled due to inappropriate occlusion values. Add ignored actors to dropship occlusion traces so they don't accidentally hit stuff that they shouldn't, and move the occlusion trace point upwards to avoid false landscape hits on landing
  
• Fixing issue where 'PneumoniaResistance_%' would increase the chance of catching Pneumonia and not decrease it
  
• Fixed a few typos in item descriptions
  
• Added new error codes for different causes of 028 error
  
• Removed listen options from dedicated server travel as this is only used for P2P hosting
  
• Deleted old host migration system as it isn't used
  
• Updated wording on dynamic missions board interface to show Missions instead of Quests
  
• Fixed not being able to reach character select while in steam offline mode
  
• Fix TimeOfDay does not initialize in PIE (internal PIE only)
  
• Fixed a typo in the flavour text for the Sinotai Dropship Recall Beacon
  
• Fixed issue where dropship beacon grenade wouldn't recall dropship if the player reloaded a game while far away from their dropship
  
• Dropship can now complete initialisation within an unloaded tile if in the 'Landed' state
  
• Fix Cocoa Fruit texture settings, filenames, collision and LOD settings
  
• Fix Dropship beacon grenade filenames and LOD settings. Delete WIP V1 assets
  
• Fix Steel Bloom mesh filename
  
• Fixed clay brick using BLD shader instead of ITM shader. Fixed filenames. Removed LODs as LOD0 is 300 triangles
  
• Delete unused Lava textures, fixed 4k normal maps
  
• Fixed texture settings on IceWater assets
  
• Added a version 2 of the brick buildable kit art combining three materials down to 1. Updated both the static and skeletal mesh
  
• Fixed Cypress asset filenames and texture settings
  
• Fix bug where dialogue lines were replayed at the end of a prospect mission. Temporarily suppress dialogue triggers in the dialogue system while the iterative CleanupQuest process is running
  
• Remove a quest end dialogue event from a quest in the Ricochet: Expedition mission which was causing the Mission Completed dialogue to play twice
  
• Updating the Exotic Delivery Pod Mesh
  
• Server providers logo now randomized and updated the survival servers logo
  
• Fixing Play in Editor Issue where players would not remove the grace period buff, it now removes as intended
  
• Fixed join prospect screen still using the 8 associated players limit
  
• Improved messaging on why you cannot join a prospect (too many associated members or too many active players)
  
• Fixed dedicated server using associated member list stored inside blob instead of the actual header file
  
• Fixed case where rocket data wasn't being cleaned up if a player left the prospect
  
• Dropships now deal flat damage when landing instead of calling 'Destroy' on actors underneath them. Dropship beacon grenades can now be tested in editor without needing to go through correct titlescreen flow
  
• Fixed Repairing in space so it consumes 10 Ren per repair, added UI to show Meta curriences and added confirmation on repair
  
• Fixed a bug where when selecting a mission you could not select a difficulty or hardcore mode
  
• Fixed issue where server returning to lobby would be still running as the survival game mode (causes server to not update correctly)
  
• Fixing Talent Respect Not working as intended, it now refunds the talent and consumes a refund token
  
• Fixing issue where Talent refund tokens were unable to be purchased citing 'not enough Ren'. Talent Refund Tokens are purchasable again
  
• Password input box now hides entered text with optional button to show
  
• Password input box and character delete confirmation input boxes now are automatically focused for text input when appearing and use the enter key to commit
  
• In game chat box now stays focused for input after sending a message and will defocus when escape is pressed
  
• Fixed mouse cursor loss when chat box in server lobby loses focus
  

Future Content

• REMNANT mission initial setup
  
• Placement of Cliffs and cave templates and landscape scuplting in the Phase 2 Area of Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Adding shield impact audio and data table entry
  
• REMNANT mission: Additional quest steps and markers added
  
• Cliff Pass on New Large Ice Cave, AC_MED_010, Prometheus
  
• Added Mangrove Mega Tree separated parts to create more optimized assets, and added them to Tree Template Levels called SW_Mangrove_002_V2, SW_Mangrove_003_V2, and SW_Mangrove_004_V2
  
• Adding unique rock dog heavy stomp sound and event and to animation
  
• Placed Cliffs around lave lakes/river & Caves Templates in Phase 2 Area on Purple Quad, DLC Map
  
• Subtle adjustments and improvements to grasslands amb, reverb amount, tree creak amount, and subtleties to help improve realism
  
• Placed Cliffs around lave lakes/river & Caves Templates in Phase 2 Area on Purple Quad, DLC Map
  
• Fixed Brick Kit assets filenames, texture settings, and LODs
  
• Adding Ice Borer Node and Ice Borer Deployable setup item setup
  
• REMNANT mission: Added quest step for acquiring radar, finalized mission setup, added icons
  
• Shield audio tweaks
  
• Added exotic tree art assets as well as two harvest states. Also adding a speed tree asset for each state
  
• Roof Pass on New Large Ice Cave, AC_MED_010, Prometheus
  
• Centered pivots to base of main roots, as well as fixed missing material, and added more accurate collisions to all six Mangrove Root variants. Also renamed assets to more up to date naming convention
  
• Adding first pass of mount cart audio and event
  
• Audio implementation for mount cart saddle. Added audio options to saddle data, can play persistent sounds and update using mount velocity. Added socket to cart skeletal mesh
  
• Add audio socket to cart skeleton, missing from previous commit
  
• Added Ivy to Tree Template Levels SW_Mangrove_001_V2, SW_Mangrove_002_V2, SW_Mangrove_003_V2, and SW_Mangrove_004_V2
  
• Adding small water mangrove harvest audio and data table entry and blueprint entry also small adjustment to WL base level volume
  
• Placed Cliffs around lave lakes/river in Phase 2 Area on Purple Quad, DLC Map
  
• Patched hole in roof of CF_SML_002 cave
  
• Updating cart audio spacializing and fine tunes. Also deleting profiles
  
• Added Mangrove Tree Foilage to Tree Template Levels called, SW_Mangrove_003_V2
  
• Small updates and tweaks to multiple dlc creatures vocal levels and footstep spacializers. Also balanced swamp footstep water better for quad cre and bird
  
• Added art assets for Exotic_Red_Clean and Exotic_Red_Raw items. Adjusted emission colour on Exotix Tree materials to match
  
• Fix cart audio by preloading FMOD event in saddle datatable
  
• REMNANT: Added additional mission step
  
• Adding lava footstep jump and land events and blueprint / data table entries
  
• Submitting Mini Lava-Hunter (or Broodling)
  
• Remove a bunch of unused textures from ORB folder
  
• Finished Roof Pass on New Large Ice Cave, AC_MED_010, Prometheus
  
• Small tweak to lava jump sizzle volume
  
• Placed Cliffs around lave lakes/river & Caves Templates in Phase 2 Area on Purple Quad, DLC Map
  
• Placed Cliffs around lave lakes/river & Caves Templates in Phase 2 Area on Purple Quad, DLC Map
  
• Added control rig cart animation to control overall pivot and wheel turning
  
• Improved cart control rig. Should do a better job of matching changes in terrain elevation while staying attached to harness
  
• Added wooly zebra skeletal and fur skeletal mesh, skinned to the zebra skeleton. Added character and corpse blueprints. Turned off carcass setting on base and fur materials
  
• Fix swamp water textures being 4k
  
• Setting up Landmine Item and Spawner inclusing recipes and talent
  
• Adding in Cart processor recipe to the carpentry bench and unlock talent to Tier 2
  
• Set TextureGroups on Wood Cart textures (Albedo/Norm still 4k due to its size) and fixed filenames
  
• Add LODs to SK Cart Mesh
  
• Carts no longer decay when placed on the ground
  
• Adding prometheus source dialogue, removing old renders
  
• Placed Cliffs around lave lakes/river & Caves Templates in Phase 2 Area on Purple Quad, DLC Map
  
• Mount cargo + saddle is now dropped in a non-decayable overflow bag on death instead of being included in the carcass loot
  
• Feature locked Cart talent as this is for a future release
  
• Adding DLC Lock UI for Mission & Open World Terrain Selection
  

This week, we’re changing the limits on the number of players who can join and play a session as a follow on from our decentralization update, allowing you to share your Icarus journey with more friends.

We’re also introducing our newest Tier 4 and Workshop item, the Dropship Beacon Grenade, which allows you to call your Dropship to wherever you are on the map at any time.

Finally, we’re making a range of fixes that were required since our Decentralisation update and introducing our ‘preferred partners' for our Dedicated Servers.





Since the launch of Icarus, prospects have been limited to eight unique players who could join across the whole existence of the session. With decentralization, this limitation is gone and we are introducing some new changes that expand not only the number of players who can engage with a prospect but where they can land.

There are two different ‘limits’ that are necessary to understand. ‘Prospect Limit’ is the total number of players who have joined a prospect at any time in its existence. ‘Session Limit’ is the number of active people playing at any one time in a session.

The change to Prospect Limit is as follows:

We now generate a location around the ‘drop zone’ which means that landing Dropships is more dynamic, and removes the 8-person limit entirely, allowing you to have as many people ‘join’ a session over its lifespan.

The change to Session Limit is as follows:

‘P2P’ sessions will still have an 8-player session limit, so only eight players can be active at any one time. However, Dedicated Servers will be opened up to more than 8 players, but at the risk of server degradation as this session count fluctuates, similar to other games in the genre.





With the removed restrictions on prospect limits, it’s also opened up the door for our newest feature, the Dropship Beacon Grenade.

There is a Tier 4 and Workshop version, which when thrown, will land and fire a flare that calls the Dropship to that location. This can either be used for immediate extraction or left there for use later on.

You can use multiple Dropship Beacon Grenades per session, and it will move your Dropship to where you threw it. However, these are one-use items, so use them carefully.

Just like with Dropships in current gameplay, be careful of where you throw your grenade. Dropships don’t take kindly to bases or prospectors that might be in their landing zone.





We’re releasing our first wave of fixes for our Data Decentralisation patch, as we go through the process of tidying up any small errors that cropped up since its release

• Fixed an item duplication bug that was happening while in the station
  
• Fixed the Extraction mission which was broken
  
• Exotics were correctly no longer able to placed in your Dropship, however, the UI had not been updated to reflect this. This has now been corrected, stating the need for an orbital exchange interface.
  
• Workshop items will now specify their owner in their tooltip (Only for new loadouts brought down, old ones will not display anything)
  
• Weather Issues when rejoining open world sessions
  

Our Dedicated Servers beta has launched to an excited community of server creators and veterans, and the feedback has been immensely valuable. If you’d like to contribute, you can join our special Discord channel here.

We’re also partnering with some established and credible dedicated server providers as ‘verified partners’, which will be listed on the in-game menu, and working closely with us on providing the premium dedicated server experience we strive for. These are:

• Nitrado
• GPortal
• Survival Servers
• Streamline Servers

All four providers are already offering servers, and once internally approved, we'll move this offering out of Beta.





New Content

• Adding beeping sound for tech device thrown
  
• Adding dead player small beep sound for location awareness
  
• Dropship landing locations are now generated dynamically using EQS
  
• Added Dropship_Beacon_T4 item static mesh, materials, and textures to project
  
• Added skeletal mesh for the T4 dropship beacon device. Skinned to the frag grenade
  
• Workshop items now display who their owning character is on their tooltip. Names in red indicate that the character has left the drop
  
• Added SK + materials/textures for Meta dropship beacon device. Skinned to Frag Grenade skeleton
  
• Added a version 2 of the T4 Dropship Beacon asset. Textures have been improved and tri count greatly reduced
  
• Added four verified server providers to the dedicated servers screen. Clicking the server providers logo opens their website
  
• Setting up 2 new Throwable Grenades, recipes and workshop enteries which summon dropships
  
• Added functionality to dropship beacon grenades. Fixed potential crash in DamageFunctionLibrary::PrepareProjectileDamage
  
• Updated character list on 'Load' screen to support more than 8 players
  
• Adding correct tag to Workshop Dropship Grenade so it can be taken down in a loadout
  

Fixed

• Fix up filenames for DC Palm assets
  
• Removed duplicate textures and repathed. Fixed filenames
  
• Delete duplicate texture and repath
  
• Update Cave Lights to work properly with revised default settings
  
• Optimized some caves by removing lights where there was no hole in the roof for it
  
• Fixed stone master not having niagara support enabled after assets were added to scorpion effects
  
• Update many mission steps using a previous search area setup to use the same search area setup for consistency, including clearing search areas when objectives are complete in some missions. This will resolve visibility issues on some missions
  
• Fixup redirectors in main assets folder
  
• Additional update to some quest step search areas for additional visibility and cleanup handling
  
• Ensure that player stays DBNO if they return to character select when DNMO and rejoin
  
• Exotics can no longer be placed in the Dropship (Workshop items can still be)
  
• Updated the Dropship UI text to let people know extoic extraction now takes place via the Orbital Exchange Interface
  
• HEADSTONE: Fixed Survey Radars being able to block the final mission objective, these are now returned to your inventory if placed in the objective location
  
• Updated PAYDAY and DEEP VEIN missions to use Orbital Delivery Interface. - Added common use steps for exotics extraction
  
• Shovelling snow now grants a variable, increased, amount of ice
  
• Changed method on HEADSTONE item return to players
  
• Fix inappropriate player water movement sounds playing when wading in lava lakes. Now setting a surface FMOD parameter representing water type to differentiate these. Apply the condition to world movement event in FMOD
  
• Filter user reports with no description from sentry
  
• Ensure dedicated server prospects created on the command line save without requiring a player to join
  
• Ensure lobby privacy type is set to friends only for dedicated server prospects
  
• Fix an ensure that is firing on clients for new dediserver integer timer
  
• Fixed issue where player history entries weren't being reloaded correctly
  
• Meta resources and mission completion rewards that are paid when rejoining a prospect now show their notifications after the load screen has disappeared
  
• The total meta resources that are collected by players on a prospect is now correctly reloaded. This would cause absent players to not receive meta resources if prospect was closed and reloaded while they were gone
  

Future Content

• First pass on LC terraces - 4x meshes + material/textures
  
• Replaced old template caves in TU/AC Areas on Blue/Green/Yellow Quad, DLC Map
  
• Placement of Cliffs in the Phase 2 Area of Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Placement of Cliffs and cave templates in the Phase 2 Area of Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Adding first batch of dialogue for DLC
  
• Delete and repathed copies of Var2 textures in Var3 and Var4 Aspen folders
  
• Adjustments to Lava Gravel footstep layer and reduced verly long rock layer
  
• Delete duplicate AC Fir snow clumps textures and repathed
  
• Adding all current striker events and anim notifiers for footsteps, whoosh, vocals, slams etc
  
• Adding unique striker footstep event. Balance pass of new creatures audio volumes and added missing notifiers and other small adjustments to striker
  
• Various improvements and volume adjustments to striker footsteps lava footstep, vocal adjustments for volumes etc
  
• Updating tonality of R.Dog aggro breaths
  
• Created a New Small Tundra Template Cave, Updated AC_MED_005 To have less rocks blocking path and Have Begun Work on a Medium Tundra Template Cave, Prometheus
  
• Placed Cliffs & Caves Templates in Phase 2 Area on Purple Quad, DLC Map
  
• Optimized Geyser erruption niagara effect
  
• Placement of Cliffs and cave templates and landscape scuplting in the Phase 2 Area of Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Reimporting the needler roar to be a shorter version to move it away from the Croc
  
• Adding needler new roar vocals, adding new spot events for all new creatures and adding to data table AI setup
  
• Added datatable rows for story mission dialogue
  
• Lots of adjustments and fine tunes to DLC creatures, footsteps, vocals, spacializing, reverb level adjustment to lava biome and other small improvements
  
• Setup LC_Terraces BPs, VFX, Collision and Water System
  
• Move mega tree template levels out of Cave folder and into Trees folder
  
• Placed Cliffs & Caves Templates in Phase 2 Area on Purple Quad, DLC Map
  
• Added Mesh Normals/CAC fuctionality to MA_IceCool, Tweaked materials on SM_Node_SuperCool and Added DryIce VFX
  
• Prettied up Cave Template widget advanced mode layout. Added support for newly added Light Exponent Falloff variable in convert function
  
• Placement of Cliffs and cave templates and landscape scuplting in the Phase 2 Area of Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Adjustments to snow striker footstep levels, fixed spot sounds in wrong data table entry, adjusted grasslands tree creak and other small DLC audio improvements and updates
  
• Added destructible meshes for various Swamp folage assets
  
• Added New Large Template Cave For Tundra Biome And Added The New Cave Into Blue Quad, Prometheus
  
• Added LavaFalls mesh to replace waterfall mesh in lava rivers
  
• Adding all unique attack sounds for striker. Whoosh, slam, heavy slam, claws out etc
  
• added obsidian armor materials, textures and ml
  
• Adding Striker climb rock sounds and animation notifiers
  
• Fixed TestPlayerId not working with cooked builds
  
• Icon and display name updates for Brick buildables
  
• Placed Cliffs & Caves Templates in Phase 2 Area on Purple Quad, DLC Map
  
• Placement of Cliffs and cave templates and landscape scuplting in the Phase 2 Area of Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Adding foot layers to striker climb anims
  
• Small scatter adjustments to tundra biome to make wind play slightly more and other small details
  
• Fixed rocket spawn points not being released when their owning player leaves by dropship
  
• Players on dedicated servers who aren't logged in as admin are now limited to a whitelist of RCON commands
  
• Added localisation support for /help RCON command
  
• Local copies of player lists from previously joined prospects are now updated when the server browser gets its sessions
  
• Added Mangrove Mega Tree separated parts to create more optimized assets, and added them to Tree Template Level called SW_Mangrove_001_V2
  
• Biome general audio balancing and finessing
  
• Tidy up of Fishing BP logic. Tweaks to cable component to make it less bouncy
  
• Balance adjustments to striker attack and death and spot sounds
  
• Added New Large Template Cave For Tundra Biome And Added The New Cave Into Blue Quad, Prometheus
  
• Placement of Cliffs and cave templates and landscape scuplting in the Phase 2 Area of Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Submitting Wooly Zebra, carcass, respective textures and fur
  
• Add a new integer timer for tracking dedicated servers
  
• Dedi server time can be dilated (Slowmo)
  
• Dedi server time can be paused
  
• Wire Weather Event music to pausable dedi server timer
  
• Wire Weather Blueprint Components to pausable dedi server timer
  
• Replacing heavy slam sound on rockdog for something stronger feeling. Small other adjustments to lava biome and rockdog scream etc
  
• Added new player data helper functions for adding, removing, and updating items
  
• UI usage of currency now routes through player data instead of older backend path
  
• Adding character lava footstep event and sounds
  
• Added New Large Template Cave For Tundra Biome, AC_MED_008, Prometheus
  
• Placed Cliffs around lave lakes/river & Caves Templates in Phase 2 Area on Purple Quad, DLC Map
  
• Placed Cliffs around lave lakes/river & Caves Templates in Phase 2 Area on Purple Quad, DLC Map
  
• Add new Stalking AIAudioState and apply to Hunting GOAP action. Will enable different creature vocalisations for stalking vs. full aggro for BatDog and similar
  
• Updtaed BLD_DBL_Doorframe_Brick_Left
  
• Adding beeping and static comms for dead prospectors
  
• Adding in nested event with static end for dead prospector. Also added unique event for taking the tag. Added to blueprint
  
• Spacializer adjustments and fine tunes to dead prospector beeping event
  
• Delete Spider SMs with SK filenames and unused duplicate PhysicsAsset. Assign Fur material to Fur SK mesh. Add LODs to Spider SKs
  
• Setting cave ambiences to play for the new biomes
  
• Add LODs to SMs that don't have any
  
• Added New Large Template Cave For Tundra Biome, AC_MED_009, and Begun Work On New Medium Ice Cave, Prometheus
  
• Adding in 3rd Person shield block animation and relevant montage setups, added equip animation too as it was missing, added wooden shield icon
  
• Placed Cliffs around lave lakes/river & Caves Templates in Phase 2 Area on Purple Quad, DLC Map
  
• Adding in wood cart mesh and skeleton and base anim BP for full implementation
  
• Adding missing Socket on the skeletal mesh that was breaking validation
  
• Added initial data table configuration for new dropship throwable
  
• Stopped looping audio on Dead Prospector for the Dynamic Collect mission once the ID has been collected
  
• Swapping out shield skeletal mesh with static mesh to unbreak audio hookup
  
• Updates to the spacializer for the dead prospector beeping sound. Clearer and easier to find at close / medium distances (without increasing the max distance)
  

Happy One Year Anniversary! Today marks a year since the launch of Icarus and the 52 updates we’ve made to the game every single week since. We’re excited to celebrate it by giving power back to the players with our player data decentralization patch.

This week, all data will be migrated to players' local computers, shifting away from a reliance on cloud providers, allowing some new features and ensuring the player community can own their game data permanently. This opens the door for many more features and changes, including characters now being able to be used across multiple sessions simultaneously, the new Orbital Exchange Interface for Exotic extraction, and our Dedicated Servers Beta.

[h3]This is a big update and will require a full data migration upon launch of the patch, so have a read through all the details below.[/h3]

Once you’re briefed on the changes, we’ve included a reflection on 52 weekly updates to Icarus, including a word from our game runner, Rocket, on this incredible journey and what’s to come.




This week, we are releasing the highly anticipated data decentralization change.

This is a large update, requiring a migration process that will occur the first time you log in after the patch. However, for many players, it may not change how you play Icarus at all. None of your data, characters or gear will be lost - we’re moving where it is stored.

Going forward, all player data will be stored locally - on your PC. Previously, save files and player data were saved in the cloud, while everything else (including your Outposts and Open World games) was saved locally. Now, all data will be saved locally, shifting data ownership to the players, and moving away from the ‘game-as-a-service’ model which can leave us open to internet outages and can limit customization.

We see this move as putting the power back in the players' hands, giving them true ownership of the product. While this comes with some concessions, it’s a truer representation of the relationship we want to build between ourselves and the players, where you own what you buy without strings attached.

Migration will combine your offline and online characters and account data into a single entity. This includes loadouts, inventories, exotics, ren and skill refund tokens. It will also combine your mission progress and workshop talents, so players who have played both Offline and Online will see a much more saturated environment and may want to spend some time organizing their account.

All currently active Missions will be reset and not migrated over, and current progress on these missions will be lost. Characters and gear will not be lost. Characters and loadouts will be returned to your select screen, but you will have to restart any prospects you are currently in.

We have added a new branch on Steam called ‘Centralized’ which will hold the last 1.2.27 Update in case players want to bring their characters out of missions etc. This will not be present forever and will be removed in the following weeks.

This migration will also migrate over your Open World and Outpost sessions, but will reset and remove your characters from these missions in the process. You’ll find your characters and their loadouts in the character select screen, and can rejoin game via their dropship.

Steam Cloud has been enabled for Icarus, so if you have multiple computers on which you play Icarus, make sure you migrate on your preferred machine first (the one with the most up-to-date Outpost and/or Open World content). Steam should then sync it to your other machines.

We very much see this patch as providing players ownership over their own data and enabling everyone to play without having to have access to our servers. To enable this we had to make some concessions on various gameplay elements but it also allows us to explore new options and provide new levels of customization and persistence that have not been available before. It has been a massive effort from the team to pull this through and they have done a fantastic job. I want to thank everyone who has been with us over the last year providing feedback, enjoying the game and being patient throughout the issues we have had and hope you will join us for the next year as we continue to develop Icarus.
- Jake Dodunski, Project Lead

Icarus will continue to have the peer-to-peer multiplayer it has always had, where one player acts as the host for their Steam friends - but with one change. That original host must always be online.

From now on the player who initially created the mission will be the only one able to resume it. Other players will not be able to carry on or launch a mission that another player has started, as this save data is now stored on the initial host’s hard drive rather than in the cloud. This is the same way that Outposts and Open World have functioned since their launch, so that experience won’t be entirely foreign to many of you.

It’s important to note that the host should always be the last person to leave a prospect. This way, players are guaranteed to be able to recover their gear and claim any rewards/exotics as they will be unable to launch the mission later (however, we now grant rewards immediately during missions to help).

If you want a way to play anytime regardless of where the original host is, then we’ve introduced Dedicated Servers to cater for you (see below).

Previously, Icarus had a very helpful feature that migrated the hosting between players when the original host left the game. While this feature won’t exist in the new data decentralized model, there is still a way to manually share saves with each other so you can continue someone else’s prospect while they aren’t online. You can find your saves in your file explorer at:

C:\ > Users > (your profile) > AppData > Local > Icarus > Saved > PlayerData > (your Steam ID) > Prospects

or

%LocalAppData%/Icarus/Saved/PlayerData/[SteamId]/Prospect

Steam ID with your 17 digit number, read more from Valve about how to locate this

From here, you can share them with your friends, but be aware that once a file has been activated, you’ll need to have the most recent version shared back to you to be able to continue it where they left off.



Alongside this change, there are a few new features that provide a more seamless experience and take advantage of the new localised data:

• The new Orbital Exchange Interface is a planetary-crafted deployable that when activated, allows you to call a drop ship down to extract your exotics up to the space station. This means you no longer can extract them in your dropship with you on completion of your prospect.
  
• Mission rewards are now granted immediately on completion of the mission, rather than sent to your inbox in orbit.
  
• Characters are no longer ‘locked’ to one Mission or session and can be used on multiple active sessions simultaneously. You can select any character from the character select screen for any session at any time.
  
• Insurance now only insures your items, as characters can’t be lost on prospects. If you do not bring your items up with you in a dropship, they stay on planet until returned. If you have insurance, you can reclaim your items after 5 real-time days from the menu.
  
• Workshop items are no longer ‘auto-repaired’ when you return them to space. You will now have the option to repair them for 10 ren in the inventory, or on the surface using the new Tier 3 repair bench.
  

Decentralization opens the door for Dedicated Servers, which we are launching in Beta today.

Dedicated Servers let you host your own Icarus server to play with friends. You can control access, timing, hardware and in future customize your settings.

It is a new way to play Icarus multiplayer, but is not compulsory. You can still continue to play Icarus multiplayer without a dedicated server as described above.

If you are interested in setting up and running your own (beta) Icarus dedicated server, you can access our setup guide on github here. We will be partnering with a range of dedicated server providers to offer rental servers, so stay posted for news and info on who these are.

This application is still in Beta, so we imagine we’ll have some teething issues as we work through scaling this up to full capacity. To support this, we have a special discord channel #dedicated-server-beta where you can engage directly with our team on any issues that arise. Click here to join.


After releasing Icarus back in December 2021, we quickly shifted our attention to how we could keep innovating, improving and adding to the game. Weekly updates became our approach, focusing on consistently improving and optimizing the base game while expanding the playable content and adding new ways to play to provide an experience regardless of how you enjoyed Icarus.

During this time we’ve released some big updates, small ones and everything in between. Some of our more memorable updates included:

• Adding insurance to prospects in Week Six so players could test harder missions without fear of losing their characters
  
• Adding Deep Ore Deposits in Week Ten for late-game valuable resource sourcing
  
• Adding Talent Respec in Week Thirteen, allowing players to rebuild their characters as they unlock new skills
  
• Changing the real-life timer to an in-game timer in Week Seventeen
  
• Adding World Bosses in Week Twenty Three
  
• Adding the Styx Map and Missions Pack in Week Twenty Five
  
• Adding Horde Mode in Week Twenty Nine
  
• Adding the Moa and Buffalo Mounts in Week Forty Two
  
• Adding Open World in Week Forty Seven, a full persistent survival experience
  
• Changed to a bigger, bolder Icarus logo
  

Looking back, the work we’ve done has been quite the journey. The Icarus we launched was a different game than it is now. We’ve tripled the available missions, added an entire second map, new game modes, new dynamic features, new deployables, craftables and fixed thousands of bugs in this time. In this time, our players have invested over 34 million hours in-game, a number that still blows us away to this day.

Releasing ICARUS has been the studio's coming of age. As I've mentioned before the Beta weekends last year, prior to our release, were a mixed blessing. On one hand, it demonstrated a significant ground of players eager for our content - but it also outlined problems with both the concept as well as the game itself.

Most of all, the beta weekends crystalized what the game needed to be very effectively, helping end any uncertainty about what the game needed to be on the development front. You can think of the beta weekends as lighting a fuse on an explosive, it could only last a finite time before it needed to end. Our studio has a long and strong history of not crunching our project, but short iteration cycles during the beta week was exhausting for our team. Not to mention outages out of hours placed additional pressure.

The launch proper was rocky as well because we had made so many changes in the final beta weekend that it had become impossible within that last week to properly test the breadth of the changes in the game in a 'real' environment with large players. That came with the launch. After such a rocky launch we focused on two things:

• A detailed after action (lessons learned) process to identify what to change in the studio across all aspects
  
• Committing to a set content cadence to build trust with the community, internally we agreed this would be an update each week, every week, with not a single week missed including holidays.
  

It was really hard, but I'm really proud to say the team did both of those and done so with aplomb. The initial weeks were hard as the team scoped as much as possible into every update, but eventually we learned to keep the scope measured and portion out the work in smaller, more manageable, and consistent ways. We changed our build processes to bring the builds out earlier, and worked with our fantastic community members (particularly on discord), who would give excellent feedback. This feedback extended far beyond traditional testing - providing real "boots on the ground" information around balance.

Each weekend we would be fortunate to see a number of content creators who stuck with the project from the start. Most of them I would say have at times (and continue to be) quite critical of the project. This has played a very important role in the game getting to where it is today. They've asked tough questions, and pointed out our mistakes or missteps. This has helped the team and studio to grow.

This update brings us to the point we move away from that traditional "game as a service" or "live service" model. When we first announced this there was some pushback and concern, I hope we have done well at explaining why this is important for the longevity for the game. We do not want the game to be reliant on the studio. As a game creator I think the best outcome for me would be if people continue playing the games I make for long after I am not there to work on them. This is an important step on that path.

The addition of dedicated servers, and the decentralization of the data, also also the community to do further work to pull the game a part and make mods and conversions for the game. They allow our team to make changes that were impossible before. They provide resilience - removing the requirement to support a complex (and expensive) back end.

I know we haven't always done the right things, and we haven't always been as fast as you (or we!) would like at fixing these mistakes - but we thank you for being here with us nevertheless. We're excited for the future of ICARUS. I hope you are as proud of the team as I am. It's been a heck of a twelve months, and their work on the game is a testament to their resilience. We watch your videos. We read your reviews. We look at your posts. We talk with you on the discord. Together, I'm confident we've reached a point we can really build ICARUS into a game we all want.
- Dean Hall, CEO

New Content

• New logo
  
• Added server settings for preventing non-admin players from either launching or deleting prospects
  
• Cleaned up matchmaking subsystem code, adding comments and extra steps to make sure session finding gets cleaned up correctly
  
• Moved test matchmaking server browser code into it's own file
  
• Removed duplicate spawn of quest manager
  
• Adding the ability to repair workshop items in space for 10 Ren
  
• Orbital Exchange Interface now has an associated Blueprint and Updated Recipe
  
• Fixing Return Via Dropship text so it makes sense in terms of the data decentralization
  
• Updating the Workshop Repair in Space to use better calls and logic
  
• Tidying up the Load Prospect Screen UI to show more feedback on remaning time, rewards and small layout fixes
  
• Adding Description text for Open World in D_ProspectList
  
• Tidying up Server Browser, fixing various overlap issues, Adding Open World text to Open World Sessions
  
• Change Insurance timeout from 14 days to 5 days
  
• Updating Descriptions where insurance is mention to explain how it works
  
• Updating Insurance Display Panel to show text if there are no items currently insured
  
• Updating Escape Menu database save text to reflect what it is now actually doing, saving the state of the prospect
  
• Updating Load Prospect UI to include Open World & Outpost names when selected
  
• Added Session type prefix before names in button selection in the Load Prospect UI
  
• Fixed talent syncing issues with unlocking new workshop items and unlocking new missions
  
• Updated Workshop Repair Kit and bundle description to refer the player to the repair bench instead of machining bench and fabricator.
  
• Added icon for Orbital Delivery Interface
  
• Modified Rocket saving to clean up rockets for players who are no longer part of the prospect
  
• Pre-migration character data on drops should now be correctly cleaned up. This should prevent flip-flopping between two different inventories/positions when reloading pre-migration saves repeatedly
  
• Locked STYX Open World and Mission buttons behind Styx_Map PackageFlag. Added optional MultiFlag requirement to all IcarusWidgets
  
• Fixed issue where Package Flags weren't being automatically unlocked in editor build target
  
• Added scroll bar to Load Game prospect list. Adjusted UI layout of Load Game window elements to be more in line with other Load/New/Join screens
  
• Tidying up Insurance Claim UI and Popup
  
• Players can now close the insurance claim UI with Escape
  
• Currently selected prospect in load screen is now highlighted. Adjusted style of resume prospect list to match others
  
• Adding new function to player data component to retrieve a characters loadout based on a passed in prospect
  
• Adding loadout information and various information messages about loadouts on the load screen
  
• Fixed bug where outposts tied to PackageFlags couldn't be selected when starting a new outpost
  
• Uninsured loadouts are no longer automatically deleted when returning from a prospect. This allows the option of returning to a prospect to collect the missing items. Loadouts can still be deleted from the popup menu if no longer wanted
  
• Added a scrollbox to the insurance popup and itemsondrop popup so that no items overflow if you bring over 10 items now
  
• Made layout and navigation of 'Load' screen similar to other prospect/outpost screens
  
• Fixed leaving a prospect that has multiple of your characters on it via dropship removing the wrong character from the prospect
  
• Fixed envirosuits still showing as checked out on a loadout when they were returned but another part of the loadout wasn't
  
• Fixed OldMap log spam on dedicated servers when loading an existing prospect
  
• Fixed burnt trees being incorrectly loaded after rejoining which caused clients to not them
  
• Can now only reclaim/destroy existing drop loadouts from the 'Loadout' screen after character select, could previously do this by clicking on any instance of the UMG_ItemsOnDrop widget
  
• Removed case where old prospect expiry time is set when it is no longer used
  
• Fixed blueprint compile error inside UMG_ItemsOnDropsList
  
• Fix a possible cause of multiple instances of the same prospect showing in Load screen, and sometimes missing associated characters data. Change the GetAllAssociatedProspects function to get all outposts and open worlds first before character associated prospects, and de-duplicate the merged results using prospect ID. To be manually merged up after review
  
• Included OW/Outpost names on buttons and loadouts for better clarity in menus
  
• Added temporary fix for incorrect lobby privacy when resuming prospects. Lobby privacy is now set to whatever privacy you initially hosted the prospect with
  
• Updates to 'Load' Screen UI. Players are now prompted to select Lobby Privacy when loading a prospect they have a character on
  
• Fixed issue that was preventing deletion of the last remaining character on your account
  
• Deleting a character now correctly removes additional character related files (associated prospects file)
  
• Fix sorting of GetAllAssociatedProspects results so that prospects which the selected character is actually associated with are at the top of the list
  
• Updating Text for Peer-to-Peer & Dedicated Servers so it is localised
  
• Resume button will now be disabled if the previous prospect played was with a server/friend
  
• Updated migrator version. This will trigger a fresh migration for all players
  
• Updated title screen to use new key art
  
• Reduced size of Icarus Logo Texture to improve aliasing issue on main menu. Added parallax effect to main menu key art
  
• Adding Logging to Update & Host Session Functions
  
• Forcing an update to trigger everytime the prospect data is set (The update allows a refresh and broadcast of the session for multiplayer)
  
• Fixed issue where key art character position would pop on first opening title screen
  
• Switched to clean version of new Icarus logo. Added panning smoke. Shifted character keyart in front of new logo
  
• Fixed smoke clipping on title screen.
  
• Fixed buttons not being interactable
  
• Fixed ordering of new title screen keyart to prevent it overlapping settings/credits menu
  
• Fixed tiling smoke texture on title screen not filling entire viewport for some aspect ratios
  

Fixed

• Fixed talent syncing issues with unlocking new workshop items and unlocking new missions
  
• Remove harvest particle and associated assets used on BerryBush actor, not using the existing effects flow. New unique DM for Berrybush pending
  
• Various texture settings fixes and optimizations
  
• Remove projectionlocation component from BP actors that shouldn't need it (copy pasta)er
  
• Improve location on Fir/Pine saplings
  
• Fixed persistent blocker actors initialising before recorder components had been reloaded; Fixes issue where existing open world saves would have their blockers active even if player had completed related mission to unblock them
  
• Fixup redirectors in ENV folder
  
• Fixed Floating Mineable Rock J13: [IC-21723] Fixed Floating Cliff I6 on Styx
  
• Remove duplicate unused BerryBush assets
  
• Reparented BerryBush BP to ResourceNodeBase instead of DressedNodeBase as that tech is no longer being used
  
• Clean up some master texture references
  
• Fix grass being disabled on some plants where it makes a tangible difference to visuals
  
• Fixed dependency issue with hab menus
  
• Exotic Delivery ships now can only carry exotics in their inventories
  
• Delete 6 copies of the same bark texture, genercise filenames and repath use cases
  
• Delete 3 duplicates of the same Leaf normal texture, repath use cases for variations
  
• Delete duplicate smoke texture, repath use case
  
• Fix Fir01 filenames so that the incoming 1300+ reference fixes point to a nice filename
  
• Fix Flare Arrow and Transport Pod flare setups to be Green/Yellow again via new assets (after BP configurable setup caused crashes and was removed)
  
• Delete old Flaticons textures only used as placeholder/overridden icons
  
• Fixing issue where players could not unlock workshop items, may block mission talent unlock in multiplayeron clients, another fix will come shortly
  
• The Drowned Drone in the Open World Dynamic mission will now reload as intended, it was not saving itself
  
• Hunt Missions are now once again Deterministic after creation, no more random flip flopping of targets on reload
  
• Dynamic Cache mission: Fixed quest tagging on rewards to never give the quest tag stat (was previously giving stat = 0). This will allow players to stack Cache rewards as expected
  
• Fixed description text format for AUGMENTATION, SPELUNKING and ABYSS steps to allow translation.
  
• Updated AUGMENTATION mission objectives to use a variable for the count, allowing easier updating of those values
  
• Fixed not being able to scroll in the server browser
  
• Enabled logging on shipping client builds
  
• Dynamic Cache mission: Fixed random seed of creature spawns guarding the cache so they will not reset on relaunch
  
• Remove Red light on Orbital Exchange interface. Moved audio locator for both OEI and Short Range Radio to be closer to devices for mesh
  
• Change hint text from 'Enter Outpost Name' to 'Enter Prospect Name' now that this UI is used for Outposts and OpenWorld
  
• Blacklist RDP adapter from graphics driver detection
  
• Fixed bug where you couldn't shoot through fortification gate.
  
• Fixed bug where creatures couldn't navigate properly through the semi-destroyed variant of fortification gate
  
• Fixed issue where Steam API call wasn't recognising unreleased DLC packages
  

Future Content

• Painted mangrove seedlings and polished foliage, decal in Swamp biome, Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Adding blueback attack slam audio and animation notifiers
  
• Ice Borer T3 - meshes, materials, textures, animation added
  
• Added logging when cave templates fail to generate to help track down the exact issue
  
• Fixed renamed foliage references in swamp cave templates
  
• LC Terraces - prototype mesh added
  
• Fix M_RockMaster missing function and new triplanar support
  
• Update Voxels in GL & LC Cave Templates for DLC Map
  
• Placement of Cliffs in the Phase 2 Area of Purple Quad, Prometheus
  
• Added destructible meshs for tundra bushes and tunrda saplings. Created harvest BPs and linked to node BPs
  
• Fixed CF_FirSap DM Materials that weren't assigned correctly
  
• Painted Pro Cave Voxels and stalactites in cave transition between Green and Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Added Destructible meshes for ToiToi and Aspen Saplings
  
• Updating p4ignore with backend removal changes
  
• GL Tussocks Harvest VFX Setup
  
• Various updates and fixes for breakable rocks:
  
• Fix issues with initialisation order which broke stuff when playing in a level
  
• Reserve FLOD instance when actor is first damaged
  
• Switch rep graph policy to Spatialise_Dormancy, which seems to be required to get replication working correctly with FLOD setup
  
• Set up a basic recorder component, needs testing on reload
  
• Resaved ErrorCodes DT to fix validation
  
• Placement of Cliffs in the Phase 2 Area of Purple Quad, Prometheus
  
• Update voxels in AC cave templates, made 2 new AC template cave & replace old cave templates with new ones on Blue Quad, DLC Map
  
• Updated swamp quadruped physics assets and added critial hit volumes to BP. Removed carry function for swamp quadruped corpse. Added base setup for SwampQuadruped Mount
  
• Paint Cave Pro voxels in manual cave tunnel between Swamp and Lava biome, polish dressing, Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Placement of Cliffs in the Phase 2 Area of Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Added derstuction for lava biome foliage
  
• Placement of Cliffs in the Phase 2 Area of Purple Quad and Added Red Grass Foliage In Volcanic Biome, Prometheus
  
• Added new cave templetes & replace old caves on Blue/Green Quad, DLC Map
  
• Resource_Scoria_Var1 mesh update
  
• Resource_Obsidian_Var1 mesh update
  
• Resource_Clay_Var1 mesh update
  
• SW_Tree_SML_Dead variations mesh, BP, material and textures
  
• SM_Node_SuperCooledIce mesh, material and textures
  
• Painted Cave Pro voxels in Mega tree cave , polished dressing, Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Fix initialisation issue with breakable rocks which prevented them from breaking properly when placed in editor. Add missing API macro to rock base recorder
  
• Delete duplicate Fir01 burnt bark texture from Fir02 folder and repathed 1400 materials to use the texture from the Fir01 folder with correct filename
  
• Added WL_Mangrove_Roots, 6 variations
  
• Adding blueback calls V1. May adjust once behavior is in game
  
• Update last remaining Brick buildable BPs and data to complete set. Add icons for all remaining meshes
  
• Fix wrong icon used on Iron Wall DBL window
  
• Adding swamp specific tree creaks to ambience layer
  
• SM_DEP_FurnaceElectric_IngotObsidian mesh and textures
  
• Delete unused duplicate ponga assets. Fix filenames and texture settings
  
• Placement of Cliffs in the Phase 2 Area of Purple Quad and Added Riverbanks Along Lava Rivers, Prometheus
  
• Added initial setup for Snow Striker mount
  
• Fix accidentally deleted Meshable row for Moa carcass
  
• Previous version of Account Flags are now Package Flags. Implemented new version of account flags, similar to characters flags but shared across all characters
  
• Temporarily removing Package Check for Styx, Reverting to deluxe edition package check for outposts
  

This week we’re introducing two new Open World Mission types, new Fortifications to deploy and a new mission.

BUILD and DRONE Open World Mission types have been added, and a range of bugs have been fixed to improve the other available missions.

Wooden Fortifications now give you a true defence system to protect your base or assets in missions or Open World, removing the need for makeshift solutions that players have used before.

And finally, a mission to tasking you to perform research on enhancing tonics and their effectiveness has been added, with your briefing below.

[h3]Next week, we’ll be celebrating Icarus' one year anniversary and 52 straight weeks of updates. This is something we’re incredibly proud of and can’t wait to celebrate with you.[/h3]

Two new Open World Mission Types have been added, and we’ve made a few changes and fixes to the existing missions that we discovered thanks to feedback from our community.

BUILD: Players have to build a watchtower and place a provided beacon on it. When placed, players will receive a small buff in an area around the watchtower until the beacon is destroyed.

DRONE: Players have limited time to find and upload data from a crashed drone. When activated, the drone will likely attract nearby creatures, so be prepared to defend it.

• We’ve addressed a couple of bugs and improved our original Open World Missions:
  
• Open World quests now take into account the biomes they are in
  
• Improved the spawning locations of animals
  
• Increased the variety of animals in HUNT, CACHE and SCAN Missions
  
• Fixed rewards that were scaling on ‘prospect difficulty’ and not ‘mission difficulty’
  

We’ve added a new set of wooden fortifications to the planetary tech tree for players to craft and use to defend their base. For Missions that require you to defend an area, defeat a horde or even protect yourself in the early stages of your journey, these will be a welcome asset and necessary blueprint.

These new pieces include walls, an interactive gate, ramps and walkways, and spikes that can be attached to the wall and deliver damage on collision with whatever creatures charges at them.

Fortifications have substantially more HP points than walls or floors, roughly five times their wooden counterparts. On top of this, they’re entirely weather-resistant, so won’t require maintenance during storms.

Fortification pieces snap to one another, similar to building pieces. This makes it easy to shore up any potential gaps in your design that enemies could sneak through.

Players have been very creative in using the hedgehogs as a makeshift defence network, so fortifications open the door for us to provide more variety and customization to this system.





A new mission is available to be played this week, tasking you to perform research on enhancing tonics and their effectiveness. Tonics were introduced as a result of our paste revamp last week. Your briefing is as follows:

AUGMENTATION: Extermination

// OPERATOR: UDA
// BIOME: Enclosed Wood
// BACKGROUND: UDA has been performing research on enhancing tonics made out of Icarus resources
// MISSION: Craft pills and enhancement tonics, eliminate wildlife to meet testing requirements
// TERMS: Flat fee. All materials, safety and survival concerns are the responsibility of the Contractor

Originally posted by author

Shortly after we push this patch live, we will be pushing the ‘data decentralization patch’ onto the experimental branch in preparation for it to go live. Everyone is free to jump and give it a go with the freedom to revert back to the live build at any time. We hope to push data decentralization next week with our dedicated servers beta. Please jump into our Discord and post in #experimental-branch channel for any bugs or feedback.

- Jake, Project Lead

New Content

• Update Wood Fortifications (Wall, Spikes, Gate and Walkways)
  
• Add proper Meshable entries so icons can be taken
  
• Fixed wrong DM's being referenced in BPs and water network logic due to copy pasta
  
• Renamed cases of Fortification Stairs to Ramps to keep consistent and make way for potential future stair meshes
  
• Changed ordering of Walkway elements to start with the Walkway
  
• Cleaned out unnecessary DeployableSetup data (only need to specify names/icons if they're variants)
  
• Fixed Fortified Wood Gate from playing close animation on deployment due to play rate on 'closed' animation being -1 when we already have a dedicated set of open/close anims for those tasks
  
• Initial audio data setup for wooden fortifications, with new FMOD event for damage sound. Add audio location settings to deployable base to enable more accurate sound positioning as required for fortification deployables, and added some tidyups to basic deployable audio implementation
  
• Set up audio occlusion and shelter interfaces for fortification deployables
  
• Added Refined Wood as a fuel source, slightly less efficient than using raw wood so players do not feel the need to process wood before use for basic lighting.
  
• Reorganized fuel sources in basic generators to be in generation strength order (visual change)
  
• Added fortifications flavor text.
  
• Added fortifications recipes
  
• Added extra sockets to fortification walls and walkways to allow greater flexibility in walkway ramp placement
  
• Buffalo Mount: Movement speed 130 -> 140
  
• All Mounts: Added 30% physical damage resistance
  
• All Mounts: Reduced Food and Water consumption by 50%
  
• All Mounts: Increased stamina regeneration by ~15%
  
• Updated Cooked Bacon modifier icon to match new current Cooked Bacon icon
  
• Adding new dynamic mission - build- where players are required to build a watchtower, and place a beacon on top at the correct hight, if performed correctly players will be gain an buff for being around the watchtower
  
• Re-enabling AUGMENTATION mission
  
• Fixing Location Based Queries on Quests
  
• Add spike damage setup to wood fortification spikes, taking 1/4 durability damage and dealing 1/2 damage to players in comparison to the basic hedegehog trap
  
• Expanded support for Spike Trap Base, now supporting multiple overlap boxes, streamlined effects setup, optimized effects settings
  
• Adding in functionality for the fortifications to use Destruction states when below 50% health, added in first pass proof of concept for mesh swap to the base wood wall, anything that inherits from Fortification Base can use this system, a destructable mesh still has to be made for the final state to stop it from disappearing when completely destroyed
  
• Updated fortifications tagging.
  
• Ensured fortification ramps can overlap other actors, this ensures they can be placed on various angled terrain.
  
• Offset potbelly stove overalp to ensure placement is allowed inside buildings
  
• Adding Wood Fort Gate Open / Close sounds and notifiers
  
• Wood Fortifications are now unlocked and present on the T2 Blueprint tree
  
• Adding destruction audio for forts, event and data table entry
  
• Adjustments to fortifications impact sound. Added a cooldown to stop shotgun bullet impacts from making the sound play multiple times at once. Also swapped grasslands reverb to same as forest but lower in volume. Adjusted volume of blueback stomp
  
• Unlock Recipes for Fortifications, removing feature level flags from fortification items
  
• Fixed screen fade visual bug when transitioning to and from conifer-type biomes
  
• Adding new Drone Dynamic Quest
  
• Updating Quest Objective UI to correctly show failed missions
  
• Updating Animal Swarm Component to allow a selection of animals to spawn not just a set one
  
• Fort Wall - added DM and SM for 50% destruction state
  
• Adjustment to fort spike sound. Adding gore layer
  
• Adding very annoying drone alarm sound asset
  
• Dynamic Hunt mission: Added non-hostile hunt targets.
  
• Increased dynamic quest weighting on Hunt, Build and Downed Drone missions for experimental
  
• Allowed fortification walkways to be placed while colliding
  
• Increased ground clearance leeway when placing fortification walls
  
• Previous food buff issues on reload broke other modifers (went to experimental build)
  
• Remove inital buff lifetime from From FModifier so that it has no interaction with Blueprints or datatables
  
• Patch in initial buff lifetime during save/load so that active buffs stack correctly after save/load
  
• Added Downed drone icon and added to map icons data table
  
• Dynamic Build mission: Added indicator towards ground to show location better from ground level.
  
• Dynamic Build mission: Slightly increased minimum and maximum height requirement.
  
• Dynamic Drone mission: Fixed quest selection to allow mission to be selected.
  
• Dynamic Drone mission: Fixed timer step to show complete message rather than pausing the timer.
  
• Wood Gate Fortification: Increased leeway for placement
  
• Fixed fortification gate navigation not generating properly in it's mirrored state
  
• Partial implementation for drone alarm
  
• Added damage state functionality to the Fortification Gate and the Spike trap base class, added in the fortification window variant in the deployable setup
  
• Fortifications - added damaged state SMs for Wall, WallWindow, Gate, Spikes, plus DMs for all pieces - Assigned to Fort BPs
  
• Implementation for drone alarm
  
• Fortifications - fixed editor warnings on destructible meshes caused by bad material references
  
• Drone alarm audio routing fix, adding explosion event
  
• Updating Drone Map Icon
  
• Dynamic Drone Mission now explodes when mission complete or fails, and enemies will stop spawning when mission timer step of mission completes
  
• AUGMENTATION mission: Updated text and reduced required amount of ore to mine as it tracks hits of nodes, rather than amount mined
  
• Dynamic Hunt mission: Reduced time between creature spawns
  
• Dynamic Hunt mission: Scaled chance for non-hostile creature selection by difficulty
  
• Dynamic Build mission: Updated name of beacon on initial quest step
  
• Dynamic Build mission: Increased aura radius to cover a larger area around the watchtower
  
• Fixed dynamic mission reward scaling to scale by dynamic mission difficulty, rather than the selected open world difficulty
  
• When Drone Explodes, any creatures or pawns nearby will be damaged (Players will be fine)
  
• Updating Mission complete text on Drone Mission
  
• Adding in Drone Explosion Audio and Updating Explosion Triggers
  
• Fixing Drone Timer which was accidently set to 30 seconds making the quest impossible to complete
  
• Reduced Hunt, Build and Drone dynamic quest weighting ready for this patch release
  
• Fixing Rare Crash in Legacy Sessions when missions complete
  
• Fixing a mistake in the last commit about legacy sessions, an == was supposed to be an !=
  

Fixed

• Fixed texture settings on CF Aspen assets
  
• Fixed ALN Bushflower texture settings
  
• Fixed texture settings on all Bramble assets
  
• Fixed texture settings for BrambleG assets
  
• Fixed filenames for BrambleG textures
  
• Fix up some master materials referencing assets instead of default textures, fixed various material warnings, fix up redirector and deleted unused assets
  
• Optimize settings on Decal textures, several cases of 4k sets reduced to 2k
  
• Fix up texture settings on CocoPalm assets.
  
• Delete a ton of unused duplicate assets. Fix filenames
  
• Update concrete railings to use more appropriate deploy sounds
  
• Ensured every ItemsStatic has a Decayable row defined. Add DT validation to catch future cases which dont
  
• Simplified Decayable DT entries and updated references in ItemsStatic
  
• Add DT validation to check for duplicate data entries in Decayable
  
• Fix up redirectors in BLD folder
  
• Fix up redirectors in ITM folder
  
• Fix up redirectors in DEP folder
  
• Disable Decayable on Dropshippart ItemTraitMasks and also removed Decayable entries on Dropship rows in ItemsStatic just to be safe, to fix dropships deleting themselves on planet after Decayable pass
  
• Skip ItemsStatic rows with Rocketable defines when doing Decayable validation checks, as Rocketable (Dropship) items shouldn't have Decay
  
• Fixed compilation errors/warnings for voxel niagara effects
  
• Cleanup planet assets, moved into single folder, fixed names
  
• More planet asset cleanup
  
• Clean up unused Developer folder content
  
• Fix Graphics Settings DLSS drop down does not disable if GPU does not support DLSS
  
• Update Bone and Flint Arrow descriptions to reflect their in-game damage
  
• Fixed spelling of Sustenance Enhancement Tonics
  
• Fixed typo in pickaxe Platinumsmith alteration name
  
• Fixed LiveWire mission steps in pre-launch description window
  
• Fix waterfall mesh reference in Olympus to redirector which was cleaned up but didn't flag
  
• Fix issue with Station Diorama decals projecting on top of background meshes
  
• Fixed Scan missions cleanup logic to correctly clean up icons as they are completed, rather than the final scan's icon
  
• Add r.CVarTessellationAdaptivePixelsPerTriangle CVar to DefaultEngine INI to help alleviate landscape wobbling effect as the landscape mesh dynamically tessellates, the closer it gets to the camera. This cannot be added to scalabilitygroups due to the way the variable is implemented, so global project setting of 12 (4x reduction) for now. Pending performance results, could be decreased further in the future
  
• Fix food buff issues on reload
  
• Serailize stomach contents as well as modifiers
  
• Serialize both initial buff duration and current buff time left
  
• Use initial buff duration when refreshing buff type stack
  
• Fixed clover type grass not casting shadows and fixed texture resolution being over-optimized
  
• Changed Olympus water surface plants to not render as far
  
• Fix an issue where the AMD Pro (as opposed to AMD Adrenalin) drivers were not detected as up to date
  
• Bumped recommended version numbers to latest WHQL for both AMD and nVidia
  
• Factor 4K into auto suggest graphics setting when considering minimum spec GPU
  
• Resave data tables after code change
  
• Fixing Creature Spawning on Cache, Collect and Kill Dynamic Missions
  
• Adding a new EQS for animal spawning specifically for Dynamic Missions
  
• Fixed text alignment on UMG DeathScreen after default value for widget was changed and accidentally reflected here
  
• Remove fractions from respawn countdown timer and just display whole seconds
  
• Fixing Snow Wolves Not Having the Correct Name
  
• Increase creature variation on dynamic cache, hunt and scan missions
  
• Fixed screen fade visual bug when transitioning to and from conifer-type biomes
  
• Previous food buff issues on reload broke other modifers (went to experimental build)
  
• Remove inital buff lifetime from From FModifier so that it has no interaction with Blueprints or datatables
  
• Patch in initial buff lifetime during save/load so that active buffs stack correctly after save/load
  
• Fix AMD GPU driver version check (again) after changing recommended WHQL driver version
  
• Fixed physical material on the herbalism bench, allowing sound when repairing it with your hammer
  

New Content

• Placed Meta Exotic and Enzime Geysers in Grasslands and Tundra/Arctic, polished decals and cliffs, Green Quad, DLC Map
  
• Adding Clay Brick mesh to Clay brick item
  
• Adding Seldgehammer mesh to Sledgehammer Item
  
• Add two mini conifer biomes to Prometheus for audio purposes
  
• Ambient biome adjustments to scatter creatures to fit better. Also adjusted velocity curve for waterbombs
  
• Adding first layers of Blueback Audio. (Idle). Adding to data table. Also adding new biome for audio reverb changes
  
• Added 3 cypress seedling assets to the project. Created blueprint, Foliage type and added to data table
  
• Added 3 Mangrove seedling assets to the project. Created blueprint, Foliage type and added to data table
  
• Adjusted pathway to climb out of Mega Tree Cave, Set Dress Mega Tree cave tunnel & Started Blockout on P2 area on Purple Quad, DLC Map
  
• Updated Template Cave ACMED_005 and Added it into Blue Quad and General Cleanup, Blue Quad, Prometheus
  
• Set Dress Mega Tree cave tunnel and placed sulfur deposit meshes to geothermal pools, Purple Quad, DLC Map
  
• Add rotating fans to new V2 Electric Dehumidifier. Fix default materials
  
• Set Dress Mega Tree cave tunnel & placed sulfur deposit meshes to geothermal pools, Purple Quad, DLC Map
  
• Fix texture settings on mangrove trees
  
• Ash/Ember Storm Prototype VFX
  
• Geothermal/Sulfur Pools Steam, Bubbling and Geyser VFX
  
• Added New Cypress Seedlings to Swamp, Added New Placement Layer for the seedlings and Some General Cleanup, Blue Quad, Prometheus
  
• Added burnt versions of SW_Cypress, all 3 variants, as well as added extra details to main trunk pieces of chopped tree
  
• Add culldistance volume to Prometheus
  
• Blockout Lava Lakes & Lava River on P2 area on Purple Quad, DLC Map
  
• Adding Blueback Flinch audio and unique footstep event. Also adding correct fmod param to biome data table
  
• Set Dress Mega Tree cave tunnel & and polished cliffs and decalt, Purple Quad, DLC Map
  
• Adding blueback death audio and adjustments to spacializer settings
  
• Audio data setup for cypress and mangrove seedlings
  
• Added New Cypress and Mangrove Seedlings to Swamp and Some General Cleanup, Blue Quad, Prometheus
  
• Lava Lakes & Lava River blending with landscape on P2 area on Purple Quad, DLC Map
  
• Adding blueback aggro and attack events and sounds and data table entry
  
• Added SM_DEP_T4_Communication_Device
  
• Set Dress Mega Tree cave, tunnel & entrance. Polished cliffs and decalt, Purple Quad, DLC Map
  
• Fix swamp lakes using incorrect FMOD event
  
• Adjustments to blueback sounds. Also added correct biome to figid lowlands
  
• Added Exotic Cleaner asset to project
  
• Added Pistol and Rifle rounds icons and added to Itemable datatable
  
• Added clay brick icon into Itemable data table
  
• Finished Adding Mangrove Seedlings to Swamp and Some General Cleanup, Blue Quad, Prometheus
  
• Finished Lava Lakes & Lava River blending with landscape on P2 area & Painted Cypress Seedling in Purple SW on Purple Quad, DLC Map
  
• Added Additional Brick tier assets
  
• Added Cave Void and Cave volumes to Mega tree cave, polished landscape material and decals, Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Added Cave Voxels for DLC Map
  
• Setup prototype Harvest FX for new foliage actors GL,SW and LC
  
• Increased View Distance and Optimize Waterfall Base VFX
  
• Polish Big Ice Cave, Added voxel to SW/AC Transition Cave & Big Ice Cave on Blue Quad, DLC Map
  
• Inital Placement of Cliffs in the Phase 2 Area of Purple Quad and Removal of WT_CaveVolumes In Megatree Cave, Prometheus
  
• SK_ITM_Shield_Wooden gfur added
  
• Increased LOD Distances for RiverCliffs to fix material switch too close to camera
  
• Base setup implementation of the Striker, including corpse, base montages and initial behavior, phase 2 will include variants and extended bespoke behavior, as well as a few more idle states incoming
  
• Some fixes and further impementation for the spider, includes all base setup and first pass attacks for the main spider variant, needs projectile added to the web attack and corpse state, as well as nest spawning etc for in game implementation