Icarus News

Beta Weekend Two is continuing to prove popular! To keep the momentum of the Beta Weekend going strong we have a bunch more improvements we wanted to add so you can have the best experience possible this weekend.

It is also a good chance for us to show you, through our actions, that we want this project to be about quick and fast iteration. We aim to listen to the community and implement feedback and ideas that we feel fit with the game quickly where possible.

[h2]Bodies will now drop items in a bundle[/h2]
This allows you to recover your items when you die, if you reach the bundle before it despawns. This has been a very popular feature request. We were planning on adding it for Beta Weekend 3 (BW3), but we have decided to add it right now for this Beta Weekend. When you respawn, if you return to the place you died there will be a bundle you can pick up with your previous inventory.

[h2]Living in Caves[/h2]
We have added a Dehumidifier that clears the underground cave buff and runs on Charcoal. We have also added this ability to the Antiobiotics (which used to be called Antiseptics). This will help if you want to live underground.

[h2]Recovering Arrows/Spears/Blades[/h2]
This is another highly-requested feature. Now when you skin an animal, the attached arrows, knives, and spears will be added to the animal inventory. This means you can recover these from the body easily, and they don't fall through the world or get lost.

[h2]Detailed Changelog[/h2]

• The central server has been under heavy load. We have made a few tweaks to streamline the process and - in particular - give you more feedback when the game is doing something so that you know to wait.
  
• Added Aluminum Ingots to be made on the Concrete Furnace
  
• Increased the time needed to smelt Aluminum Ingots to be on par with Steel
  
• Added the Anti-Underground buff to Antibiotics
  
• Moved the Skinning Bench talent up in the talent tree and confirmed the unlock and craft flow
  
• Added Dehumidifier asset on Tier 3. It uses the same recipe as the Metal Oxite Dissolver currently
  
• Added an overflow container which is spawned at player location when a player choses to revive themselves (request)
  
• Fixed stealth damage indicator showing '0x damage' for clients
  
• Fixed Resolution Settings displaying incorrectly as default values after setting, confusing people to think it has not changed
  
• Added stealth attacks now only occur when crouched, added required stat by default and made the related talent 'Coming Soon'. Stealth attacks are no longer determined by ballistic actor, but on damage taken on the NPC. Aggressive motivation being triggered now guarantees no stealth, previously it would be partial stealth if the NPC didn't have a cautious motivation (such as the wolf)
  
• Adding a Dehumidifier that can be placed in caves to prevent the debuff. It provides an aura which provides players a buff which holds off the underground debuff, powered by charcoal
  
• Added Antiseptics are now called Antibiotics and last 10 minutes, they also clear the underground debuff
  
• Adding processor recipes for Dehumidifier and adding to talent tree
  
• Modifier Aluminum Ingot crafting time to be on par with Steel Ingots
  
• Added Aluminum to Concrete Furnace
  
• Added when players pick up an animal, any attached projectiles are put in the player's inventory
  
• Added when a player skins an animal, any attached projectiles are placed into the animal's inventory (request)
  
• Fixing binding for stealth UI that could never be initialized depending on if the player character was created when the UI beings initialization. This was the bug where you would show as not being stealth.
  

Thank you for your fantastic feedback on Beta Weekend Two so far! We've been watching your streams and reading your chats on Discord and social media with great interest, and the occasional laugh.

This hotfix has some changes that will greatly improve the gameplay balance. We felt these were safe to make, and also important enough for you to play so we can confirm our approach before we refine Beta Weekend 3 content.

Normally, we won't do hotfixes during the weekend to try and keep the experience stable. Additionally, we like to let the team have a well earned rest after a busy few weeks. However, we want to make a few balance changes so we can verify our broader approach to experience and animals - before we start opening up other areas.

[h2]Try out the Beta Weekend risk free right now![/h2]
Want to try these out? Pre-order Icarus to get access to the Beta Weekend right now. You can play the beta as long as you like and refund at any time before launch no matter how much you play.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1149460/ICARUS/

[h2]Experience from Crafting Increased Dramatically[/h2]
We made a lot of changes to the experience balance from Beta Weekend 1 already, but one area missing was the experience from crafting things. As an example, crafting a wall was only giving you experience of half that of recovering a bush. What the object is made of is a big determiner of how much experience you got - but we hadn't balanced it since our last big changes.

This will dramatically affect the pacing of the game. Previous to this update, crafting gave you effectively no experience. Now, crafting things will give you plenty of experience and will speed up your progress in the game.

[h2]Player Respawning[/h2]
In a future Beta Weekend we will be leaving your gear where you die for a period of time. This was considered too risky to include in a hotfix. We have also fixed an exploit where you had full survival stats when you respawn, this is no longer the case.

[h2]Weapon Damage Rebalance[/h2]
Significant changes have been made to weapon balance, specifically:

• Throwing spears will cause significantly more damage (x2 to x4 more, depending on spear type)
  
• Projectile damage for arrows increased
  
• Arrows now cause much more critical hit damage (10-25% depending on type)
  
• Rifle Round causes much more damage
  
• Rifle Round now causes dramatically more critical hit damage.
  

[h2]Predator Perception Nerfed[/h2]

• Wolf has perception reduced slightly, and its lost sight radius reduced.
  
• Bear has perception reduced slightly, lost sight radius reduced, and hearing reduced dramatically.
  

[h2]Miscellaneous Changes[/h2]

• There was a small section in the BW3 playing area, that was incorrectly set to the be the arctic biome - causing blizzards and storms that were killing people. This has been fixed.
  
• Reduce all Aluminum recipe costs by factor of five
  
• Increase Coal yield again, another 20%
  
• Reduced XP from Oxite and Sulphur
  
• Fixed Posion Arrow was not doing damage or slowdown over time
  

[h3]Beta Weekend 1 was a huge success![/h3]

Welcome back, Prospectors.

We topped Steam’s Global Top Sellers chart for our first Beta Weekend, which blew us away for a two-day Beta. Thank you to everyone who pre-ordered, joined us and gave feedback!

Originally posted by rocket2guns

For us Beta Weekend 1 (BW1) was primarily about testing the core of the game, both in a gameplay mechanics sense as well as architecturally. Our servers held up, and the game held up pretty well too. The base survival mechanics were generally solid, but it was clear we needed to develop more on the exploration and survival aspects of the game, even beyond our original schedule. So we did. One of the key lessons I have from past projects is the importance of being able to iterate very quickly. This allows us to adapt the game every Beta Weekend without taking on huge amounts of technical risk.

In Beta Weekend 2 you will see a huge focus on increasing exploration, testing the limits of pacing, as well as slowly opening up more content of the game for us to balance and develop further. We've also started to hints how we will approach the lore.

We'll be watching your videos, livestreams, and VODs and, as always, reading and replying to your posts on the forums and Discord.

Dean Hall
Gamerunner

The key addition this Beta Weekend is storms and extreme weather events. Expect severe winds, flash storms and thunderstorms that can damage your structures and lightning strikes that could even spark forest fires. Don't worry, you'll receive a warning as they approach to give you time to find or build shelter and to unlock your fire whacker, repair hammer or stronger building tiers.

Read our Weather System blog for more details on what to expect.

There's so much more than just storms. We've also added four times more playable area to explore, caves full of valuable metals, more building options, varied animal danger levels and more survival challenges like infections and fractures.

[h2]Surprise, we dropped 24 hours early![/h2]

We think there are so many new gameplay systems in this Beta Weekend that we’re giving you an extra 24 hours to play. We turned on the servers a whole day earlier at 5pm Thursday instead of 5pm Friday PDT.

That's right, Icarus is LIVE NOW.

There is no change to the end time. The Beta Weekend will continue until 10pm Sunday PDT. We can’t promise that we'll launch early for future Beta Weekends, though.

[h2]A Character Wipe[/h2]
Unfortunately your characters and prospects from Beta Weekend 1 have been wiped. While we prefer not to do this, we had to this time due to the extensive gameplay changes and some big backend improvements. You'll find the levelling up progression much different this time around.

[h2]A 4x larger map[/h2]

Beta Weekend 2 comes with a big increase to the playable area, as shown in orange in the map below. With 4x as much space to explore, expect to find more caves, lakes, waterfalls and cliffs as well as a sneak-peak into edges of the arctic and desert biomes.



Oh, but also, something has happened to your in-game map... It’s temporarily unavailable for this Beta Weekend. The above map is all the info you’ve got to go on - best of luck!

[h2]Caves and Mining[/h2]

Credit: ArmyVet

One of the larger balance changes affects metal ores and caves. While in the first Beta Weekend metal ores were abundant and easy to find, we’ve adjusted their availability in Beta Weekend 2. Almost all valuable metal ores, such as gold, copper, aluminum, are now found exclusively in caves, of which there are more than 30 scattered around this Weekend’s map. This means you'll need to explore deeper into the wilderness as you progress through the planetary tech tree.

[h2]More building options and tiers[/h2]



We were impressed with the amazing structures players posted on social media and Twitch last Weekend, and we’ve listened to your requests for even more building pieces.

Added to the mix are roof corner pieces, half walls, inverted corner pieces, double doors and the option to choose which side of the frame a door hinge will be on by moving your mouse to either side when placing. This Beta Weekend also unlocks two whole new building tiers, Aluminum and Concrete. We’re excited to see what you create with all the new options available to you.



[h2]More survival mechanics[/h2]

Beta Weekend 2 also scales up the survival challenges and solutions with new mechanics, modifiers and debuffs that require careful planning and quick responses. Look out for infected wounds, deep wounds, fractures from fall damage, food poisoning as well as new bandages and poultices to provide relief.

[h2]Scaling animal strength[/h2]

While there were many brilliant animal encounters in Beta Weekend 1, we’ve expanded their complexity and variety as we introduce animal scaling. As you explore further into the wilderness the more aggressive, dangerous, powerful and populated animals will become. Animals will also scale as you level, so be prepared to be challenged at all times.

[h2]Basic Firearms[/h2]

Your weapons are due for an upgrade. Beta Weekend 2 unlocks two highly-requested firearms, the Shotgun and the Hunting Rifle. We’re keen to hear your experiences with these items and look forward to all the amazing clips you’re going to capture.

Credit: StixxAus

[h2]Graphics compatibility[/h2]

While we’ve made many graphics optimizations for this weekend and there will be many more for our full launch, we also learned a lot about how Icarus runs on different people’s graphics cards. We’ve built Icarus to take advantage of many of the latest graphics rendering techniques - so updating your PC to the latest graphics drivers and using DirectX12 will improve performance for many users, including those with AMD cards.

[h2]Last chance to win![/h2]



Our gleam.io competition to win some sweet Logitech G peripherals and Steam Wallet funds closes at the end of this Beta Weekend. Enter here!

[h2]Give us your feedback. [/h2]

You can submit suggestions and bugs and upvote other people’s feedback using Feature Upvote.

If you want to read a more detailed breakdown of our patch notes, you can find these here in the Steam Forums.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1149460/ICARUS/

Skalgrim - Icarus Discord



Wow, what a fantastic first Beta Weekend!

Not only did you get to play Icarus for the very first time, you also gave us your important feedback so we can make the game better, thank you! We will provide updates on the state of Icarus and our plans for the next Beta Weekend in another post.

Many of you chose to stream and create content on Icarus for your online communities, and it was an absolute pleasure for us at RocketWerkz to watch! We saw you hunt, swim, mine, build homes, cook, make armour, and more. We also witnessed a large majority of you setting yourselves on fire and deciding to run into the forest, as well as your homes. No judgement from us, Prospectors! We have been there too (it was very entertaining).

Alongside the joyful laughs that were had, we saw YouTube videos from creators sharing their opinions on our beta and providing advice for first time players! Whatever content you create around Icarus, we appreciate the diversity among our community. Don't forget to tag us @survievicarus or use our hashtag #surviveicarus!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h2]Popular YouTube Vids[/h2] Nexxuz World PartiallyRoyal Seneral Gam Fooster Dr_Horse

[h2]Popular Twitch Clips[/h2] LIRIK Shroud GassyMexican Sacriel Sequisha

Content creators can apply for a Beta key via Rainmaker or Woovit!

[h2]Did you catch our Developer Livestream?[/h2]

Our developers streamed to Twitch and Youtube over the weekend, as well as right here on Steam! If you were watching us live on any of these platforms, thank you! The team had a great time playing and answering your questions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTUDCGB-WbY

[h2]Discord Community[/h2] 5,000 members joined our Discord server over the course of the weekend bringing our total to over 13,000! We prepared for this and set up specific Beta Weekend channels for you to chat in and use. One of these channels was for you to share your #screenshots! Here's a bunch of hand picked screenshots that we wanted to show off below, and credited because you deserve it!

Heffy

Deadly Warlord ThunderKitty

FinallyRage

Doug 'Kemble' Rock

Daedalus1134

Make sure to use the Beta Weekend #screenshots channel if you want the chance to be featured here! Thank you for sharing these pictures with us and the wider community.

[h2]Win BIG with Logitech G![/h2]
Our Gleam competition is still running from our first Beta Weekend! You could win some Logitech G peripherals and Steam Wallet funds! So what are you waiting for!? ENTER NOW! Competition ends on September 12th PDT.

[h3]Beta Weekend #2 is One Week Away![/h3] Our next Beta Weekend begins on Friday September 10th at 5pm PDT (Saturday September 11th at 12pm NZT / 12am UTC) where you will experience the wrath of Icarus's storms in the Forest Biome. We’re looking forward to seeing how you fare during these storms - your survival will depend on it!

Thanks to your feedback, we've been working on improving Icarus! Keep a look out for an upcoming post regarding bug fixes next week.

- Lorii

Helpful links
Reporting Bugs Discord Twitter

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1149460/ICARUS/

[h3]The first Beta Weekend has begun and will be live until August 29th @ 10pm PDT.

All pre-order buyers can begin playing NOW![/h3]
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1149460/ICARUS/
[h3]We're also celebrating by doing a giveaway thanks to our friends at Logitech[/h3] [h3]Enter to win NOW:[/h3]

[h3]Good luck on your first drop on Icarus, prospectors!

Want to talk to us? Join the Discord![/h3]