Icarus News

Continuing our pattern of regular content updates, our two new prospects encourage you to leave the safety of your base and traverse Icarus’ wilderness. One is accessible earlier in the game while the other suits more experienced characters equipped to weather the worst storms.

Earlier this week we restored over 60'000 characters that were left behind on prospects after time ran out. This could be due to players not realizing that Icarus’ mission timer counts down in real time or cases where bugs and server issues preventing them from leaving in time. This restoration was our way of apologizing and making things right with players who lost their characters unfairly. Read more about that here.

[h2]Two New Missions[/h2]
[h3]AGRICULTURE: Supply Stockpile[/h3]
RESUPPLY WITH VARIOUS FARMING AND HUNTING PRODUCTS



//OPERATOR: Sinotai //BIOME: Forest //BACKGROUND: The Operator is extending an orbital station in preparation for new personnel. Requires raw materials urgently. //MISSION: Reach loading zones, establish processing systems, and supply pods with requested resources. //TERMS: Cargo pods will be dispatched to two locations.

[h3]CLUSTERED:Extended Survey[/h3]
CONDUCT MULTI-POINT STUDY



//OPERATOR: ACS // BIOME: Riverlands // BACKGROUND: The Operator requires a long term survey be conducted at an area of interest. This mission will provide critical data about the long term weather patterns in this area. // MISSION: Locate, deploy and shelter multiple scanning devices around the area to collect data. The more devices you are able to keep active, the quicker you'll complete the mission. //TERMS: Contractors will be provided with scanning equipment. All other risk and resourcing is the responsibility of the contractor. Expect elevated weather threats.



[h2]Patch Notes[/h2]
Here are the details of the other bug fixes and updates in today’s patch:

Version: 1.1.1.89586

• Fixed issue with Extractor only mining a single ore on reload.
  
• Fixed Electric Furnace attempting to turn itself back on when reconnected to a power network.
  
• Fixed some instances of issue with Exotics deposits not spawning on all prospects.
  
• Fixed issue where players could get stuck with the overburdened modifier when leaving the game and reloading.
  
• Fixed issue with Electric Composter not turning itself back on when it receives power.
  
• Added localization support for prospect names.
  
• Fixed issue with several quest descriptions and objective text.
  
• Fixed "Fireproof Sealant" talent, was actually making things more flammable.
  
• Fixed issue with cargo ships sometimes being invisible on resuming stockpile missions.
  
• Fixed issue where Vegetable Pies were not spoiling correctly.
  
• Fixed issue where Pickled Carrots were not returning a jar when consumed.
  

When you die in survival game Icarus, it's not the end. You can respawn and collect your dropped gear or a teammate can revive you. But there is permadeath in Icarus, too. If your mission timer runs out and you don't make it back to your drop pod in time, your character is lost forever, along with all their learned skills and progress. You definitely do not want to miss your rocket ride into space...
Read more.

Hey Prospectors,

We have a Christmas miracle for you today, something we’ve been quietly working on for the past few weeks in response to one of our most sought-after player requests.

You may be surprised to see any characters that were abandoned on a drop have reappeared in your Character Select screen!



We have revived 22,000 characters and 42,000 dead characters that were left behind on prospects after time ran out. Icarus may be unforgiving, but we are not.

There are a number of ways you could have lost your character and your hard-earned XP, talents and blueprints, such as bugs that trap characters (hopefully since resolved in our hotfixes and updates) or server downtime. We may not have been clear enough to new players learning the game that unless you return to your dropship before the timer expires, then you lose your character permanently - abandoned on the planet surface. While these issues don’t affect all players, when you lose a character unfairly it hurts.

So, this week we worked on a tool to restore everyone’s characters that had been left behind on a drop.
As of last night's hotfix, the Character Select screen can show more than three character slots. Your restored characters may take you over this limit, but you cannot create any new characters until you delete some old ones.

If you have any questions about this process, or about character loss in general, please feel free to come chat to us in our Discord. We have a helpful community along with a team of passionate developers who would love to help.

If you deleted your character normally, those won’t be restored.

This restoration is a one-off event to acknowledge the inconvenience for anyone who lost a character.
Thank you everyone for your support and constructive feedback since Icarus’ launch. It means the world to us that we have a community so passionate about the game and what we do.

Merry Christmas Prospectors, stay safe out there.

- Shammgod

The last week of the year has already included a bunch of important mission fixes from our content update from the weekend, and even some back-end changes earlier today to accommodate some added functionality we're looking to bring in the near future.



Version: 1.1.1.89421

• Fixed several issues with enemy spawns on some missions after resuming a saved prospect.
  
• Fixed issue where Cargo Ships on Stockpile mission would sometimes not render correctly.
  
• Fixed visual issue with Buffalo swim animation.
  
• Fixed issue with incorrect briefing images on prospect selection screen.
  
• Added Exotics deposits to a couple of missions that were missing them.
  
• Added some additional Prompts to the Spirit Level: Survey Missions to help with Beacon placement
  
• Fixed out-of-bounds start locations on some missions.
  
• Fixed even more instances of spoil rates not being calculated correctly, or the UI not correctly displaying spoil time.
  
• Fixed issue allowing people to duplicate crops from crop plots.
  
• Fixed issue where growth speed modifiers were not correctly applied to crop plots.
  
• Added support for displaying more than three characters on character select (although the 3 character slot-limit remains).
  

[h2]Welcome back, Prospectors![/h2]

It has been another massive week for our player community and the development team. For us there has been a little less chaos than launch week, allowing us to continue to add optimizations, make servers more stable as well as add three new mission and hardcore mission variants.

The support from you, the community, has been amazing and we have been able to use your feedback to fix important issues and better balance the game. We’ve also been blown away by the screenshots and streams of you surviving, thriving and dieing on Icarus. Seeing people play the game is what makes it all worthwhile for us.

[h2]Prospect Selection Screen Improvements[/h2]



Many people have asked for more clarity about the varying difficulty of prospects - and since we’ve just added new hardcore versions we wanted to make sure people knew what they were getting into. It’s now easier to see the difficulty rating of every prospect and exactly what is harder. This also shows any additional bonuses and rewards you get for taking extra risks such as bonus XP.


[h2]Three New Missions[/h2]
[h3]Spirit Level: SURVEY[/h3]


//OPERATOR: Sinotai // BIOME: Canyons // BACKGROUND: Operator is researching exotics formation and requires detailed geological survey data from the Canyons region. // MISSION: Establish geo-stations at three survey locations, and a central uplink unit to transmit the data to orbit. Construction to elevate survey stations to line-of-sight altitude may be required. // TERMS: Operator will provide survey equipment, but the Contractor is responsible for ensuring its safety.

[h3]Uplift: BIO RESEARCH[/h3]



//OPERATOR: Sinotai // BIOME: Desert // BACKGROUND: The geology of Icarus appears to move more swiftly than Earth's. Operator requires samples of unusual geo-forms appearing in this region, following terraforming's failure. // MISSION: Locate and collect geological samples and return them to orbit safely. //TERMS: Flat fee. All safety and survival concerns are the responsibility of the Contractor.

[h3]Rampup: STOCKPILE
[/h3]



//OPERATOR: Sinotai //BIOME: Multiple //BACKGROUND: The Operator is extending an orbital station in preparation for new personnel. Requires raw materials urgently. //MISSION: Reach loading zones, establish processing systems, and supply pods with requested resources. //TERMS: Cargo pods will be dispatched to two locations.

[h2]Remove from Prospects Button[/h2]
Since release, we’ve had a temporary “debug” button available on the Character Select screen that allows you to quite ungracefully pull your character from a prospect and make them available to join a new one. At one point we disabled this function, due to abuse and some server instability issues it caused, but it is now back. It’s especially useful if your character gets stuck on a prospect. A huge thank you to the community members who have reported instances of this happening and provided details that help us investigate, as stopping these errors is a massive priority for us.

[h2]Graphics Settings
[/h2]We’ve continued to make graphics optimizations in general and have added two new Display Settings for you to adjust and experiment so you can customize Icarus to work best on your PC’s hardware.

The LOD Bias setting gives you more control over detail vs performance speed, with a lower value giving higher detail but lower performance.

The Shadow Filter Method can help if you see grainy shadows. The default PCSS mode should be used when DLSS or FSR is enabled. PCF mode may be useful if you wish to alleviate some grainy shadows.

[h2]Full Patch Notes[/h2]
As well as today’s content update and hotfix, we’ve included the notes for two hotfixes earlier in the week.

[h3]Hotfix Version: 1.1.1.89355[/h3]

• Fixed issue where drop completion notification window could sometimes not be closed.
  
• Fixed "Naturally Preserved" talent not working as intended.
  
• Fixed the way spoil rates are calculated and displayed.
  
• Fixed Hardcore Forest Survey rewards being the same as the non-hardcore version.
  
• Fixed issue where storms could sometimes damage items inside your inventory.
  
• Fixed Existing hardcore Desert missions now have the same balance changes that the new hardcore missions have.
  
• Fixed Workshop Armor pieces are no longer destroyed when they reach zero durability. You still have to take them back to the station to repair, though.
  

[h3]Version: 1.1.1.89334[/h3]

• Added 3 new missions, SPIRIT LEVEL: SURVEY, UPLIFT: BIO RESEARCH and RAMP-UP: STOCKPILE.
  
• Added hardcore variants of several missions, with extra stats for both rewards and difficulty.
  
• Added extra information to prospect detail display, including the modifiers applied to that specific prospect (extra XP, extra difficulty etc).
  
• Added LOD Bias setting to allow more control over model detail vs performance, a lower value means higher detail but lower performance.
  
• Added Shadow Filter setting to allow users better control over shadow visuals, the default PCSS value should be used when using DLSS/FSR, however, if you wish to alleviate some grainy visuals from shadows, PCF may be a good option
  
• Added new bait functionality to some extermination missions.
  
• Adding a short delay to the grace period resolution when a player exits their dropship state to make sure no falling damage is applied on the frame that it occurs
  
• Improved visuals of prospect select screen, added variation to highlight special (exotic) drops.
  
• Improved Mission Select UI to better reflect the new prospect difficulty changes
  
• Increased wolf spawns on harder difficulties on KILL LIST: Extermination Mission. Made the transmitter reset when destroyed on a hard survey mission.
  
• Rebalanced drop timers and difficulties for several prospects.
  
• Fixed several instances of bugs causing players to arrive injured or dead onto a prospect.
  
• Fixed issue with mission markers disappearing on the UPLIFT: Bio-Research Mission.
  
• Fixed issue with respawn drop pod not applying a safety grace period when activated.
  
• Fixed split mail notification layout issues. Right panel should collapse if there are no items or rewards.
  
• Fixed issue where extractor could block some of the camera view in first person.
  
• Fixed issue where respawn pods could be interacted with.
  

[h3]HOTFIX Version: 1.1.1.89202[/h3]

• Fixed issue where some supporters pack owners, depending on when they purchased it, could not access the exclusive two additional outposts they should have access to.
  

[h3]HOTFIX Version: 1.1.1.89157[/h3]

• Improved players will now more reliably be informed of mission completion upon returning to the Station.
  
• Added ability to change cosmetic character creation options whenever in the Station.
  
• Changed MXC Campfire to no longer be extinguished by rain.
  
• Applied further optimizations to the scene to improve performance.
  
• Improved performance of creature fur.
  
• Improved some dependencies between parts of the game to improve (reduce) memory usage.
  
• Removed some prototype feature work to improve (reduce) memory usage.
  
• Fixed issue with cave ore regions that meant gold balance changes from last update were not correctly applied.
  
• Fixed talents "Fresh is Best", "Silent Blade" and "Green Thumb" which were not working as intended.
  
• Fixed issue with "Like it With the Lights Off" and "Night Owl" talents where they were not working correctly based on time-of-day.
  
• Fixed issue where it could snow inside buildings, leading to snow buildup.
  
• Fixed issue where items could be duplicated in a multiplayer game.
  
• Fixed issue where some UI elements could remain visible, even after the items they were relating to were destroyed.
  
• Fixed some instances of issue causing players to arrive dead on the planet, or to have portions of their dropship missing.
  
• Fixed issue where supporters-edition locked outpost maps were available to everyone.
  
• Fixed issue where the additional arrows granted by "Twice The Fun" were possible to pick-up.
  
• Fixed issue where clients in a multiplayer game were sometimes left unable to harvest or otherwise interact with objects in the world.
  
• Fixed some issues with killcam not working as intended.
  
• Fixed issue where the Sprain modifier was causing errors and/or not working correctly.
  
• Fixed Suture Kit not having the correct icon.
  
• Fixed issue with Suture Kit not being displayed correctly in-world.
  
• Fixed issue with Deep Vein: Extraction where some players would not be able to complete the final step.
  
• Fixed building pieces improved by talents will now retain their improved status once reloaded, or once deconstructed.
  
• Fixed issue where shifting resources to your dropship using the ctrl + click shortcut would not complete the objective.
  
• Fixed issue after recent backend work where some characters lost their cosmetic customization options.
  
• Fixed issue with printed (MXC) arrows which would often prevent them from colliding with obstacles.
  
• Fixed issue preventing players from using Comet Coal once on the planet. Players can purchase the Comet Coal Set, which will need to be separated using the right-click menu before it can be used as a fuel source.
  
• Fixed issue where Flint Arrows were a valid ammo type for the Hunting Rifle.
  
• Fixed issue with the Radar display not properly displaying % completed when loading back into a mission in progress.