Icarus News

Welcome to week 112.

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

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

Originally posted by author

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bee Hives in Forests and Grasslands

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

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

Cave Bee Hives

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

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





Worker Bees

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

Queen Bees

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

Honeycomb

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





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

Beehive (T2): Honeycomb Generator

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

Small Beehive Expansion (T3): Storage & Efficiency Upgrade

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

Beehive Breeding Center (T3): Worker Bee Generation

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

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

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

Beehive Extractor (T4): Automatic Honey Production

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





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

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



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

Originally posted by author

Removal of Pre-Hypatia Branch

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

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





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

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

Originally posted by author

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

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

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



New Content
[expand]

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

[/expand]

Fixed
[expand]

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

[/expand]

Future Content
[expand]

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

[/expand]

Week 111 is here and we’ve added the Smoker along with nine new recipes for you to enjoy.

From Melon Smoked Giant Steak to Tea Smoked Freshwater Fillet, there’s a range of new tasty recipes to try out with unique buffs, perks and benefits.

We’ve also got an update for you on our ongoing work on the batteries and networks project, along with next week’s buzzy update.

Jump in and have a read.

• Backpacks are no longer automatically re-equipped whenever a piece of player equipment is added/removed/damaged - this fixes the bug where the medic backpack's modifiers would be re-applied every time the player took damage
  
• Fixed a bug where the crop growth rate was being added instead of multiplied, resulting in a growth rate of roughly double what was intended
  
• The mission communicator no longer plays noise when it reloads back in (no more weird bzzt noise when roaming around the map)
  
• Fixed a few locations within J6 of Olympus that had landscape seams between the landscape and riverbanks
  
• Added an indicator on the vapor condensor to show rounds on completed on the attached geyser
  

This week we’ve added a new Smoker which is craftable at Tier 3. This is powered by Charcoal and gives you another way to cook longer lasting food.

All current drying rack recipes will be available on the Smoker, along with some new exclusive recipes to check out.

The Smoker is built on the Machining Bench, and requires Iron Ingots, Copper Ingots, Steel Screws, Concrete Mix and Charcoal.





There are nine new recipes for the Smoker, along with it also being able to craft all existing drying rack recipes. These recipes include Melon Smoked Giant Steak, Coffee Smoked Fatty T-Bone, Gorse Smoked Gamey Meat, Tea Smoked Freshwater Fillet, White Jerky & Plain Jerky. Jump in game to see the entire list.

These provide a range of buffs, far superior to their dried counterparts. These include increased health regeneration, increased exposure resistance, increased max stamina, reduced oxygen consumption and increased melee damage, amongst others.



In addition we have added a new bonus recipe to the Drying Rack which can be used to dry out the basic meat which provides an alternative to cooking on the campfire.





Batteries and Networks are getting closer, and we’re looking to launch a new testing branch in the next week that will allow people to test this new system out in all it’s unbalanced glory.

Just to make sure that is clear for everyone, this will be an unbalanced test branch, so expect bugs, glitches and everything else as we iron these out. Your feedback on these, along with how the system is to use, will be incredibly helpful in its development.





Next week we’ll be adding our newest and happiest creature to Icarus yet - Bees!

Bees will spawn from nests present in caves and around the map in trees, avoiding or killing the bees and raiding their hive can give you the resources to craft your own Beehives, where you can extract Honeycomb, raise your own bees and craft a range of honey-based recipes.

Bees will fight to protect their nests, you might want to have some protection for this adventure.

Originally posted by author

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

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

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



New Content
[expand]

• Adding Item Icons for new Smoked Meats & their associated modifier states
  
• T3 Smoker is now powered solely off charcoal and is required to be outside to run and is not longer effected by weather
  
• Adding Smoked Bacon Item
  
• Added available exotics activations indicator to Vapor Condenser UI
  
• Added indicator on vapor condensor to show rounds on completed geyser
  

[/expand]

Fixed
[expand]

• Replaced Ice Mammoth map Icon
  
• Adding punch whoosh anim notifys so punches feel a bit mroe realistic
  
• Improvements to horse jump land audio timing. Corrected the anim notifys to better represent land audio and small adjustment to footstep event
  
• Fixed seam between landscape and riverbanks in J6, Green Quad on Styx
  
• Removed audio mute on communicator upgrade when recently loaded, as this is now handled by spatialization
  
• Fixing communicators having missing spacializer on individual channels that was preventing the communication sound from being spacialized
  
• Fixed exchange exotics button not working in the OEI when on prospect
  
• Fixed bug where crop growth rate was being added instead of multiplied, resulting in a growth rate of roughly double what it is supposed to be
  
• Fixed missing confirmation prompts on prospect caused by Exotic Exchange fix
  
• Updated flavour text to match mission description for MAGMATIC
  
• Show operation detail and play dialog when selecting an operation from the mission board
  
• Backpacks are no longer re-equipped any time a piece of player equipment is added/removed/damaged - fixes bug where medic backpack's modifiers would be re-applied every time the player took damage
  
• Fixed bug where multiple copies of the currency exchange window could be opened over the top of each other, resulting in copies that could not be closed
  

[/expand]

Future Content
[expand]

• Added workshop sickle item icons and added to itemable datatable
  
• Field Guide sort various results that are presented
  
• Added World Boss Item Attachment Icons and added to datatable
  
• Added Rug Item Icons
  
• Added Wolf talents first pass
  
• Field Guide Procurement for vestige (which corpse), craftable for benches (which recipes produced)
  
• Changed the physics asset to be the leather curtains physics asset and added an item icon
  
• Field Guide Make displayed stats aware of tool damage and attachment data
  
• Setting up Items for Batteries and Battery Shelves
  
• Field Guide Fix another issue displaying all possible available attachments for ranged weapons
  
• Field Guide Add concept of sets for displaying groups of items
  
• Updated Cave_AC_MED_012_NF, water depth
  
• Added overlap rules for curved building pieces
  
• Field Guide Add entires for ores and animal parts on fieldguide meta
  
• Cave Prefab Polish Pass and Landscape Sculpting Pass, Ashlands, Prometheus
  
• Added Static Meshes of Battery Racks with batteries included, as well as DMs for them
  
• Field Guide Fish subpage
  
• Added new 'bn_Prop_R_Aligned' socket attached to normal prop bone that adjusts for misalignment of 1st-person rifle anims. Scorpion Rifle now attaches to aligned prop socket, this fixes ADS alignment issue
  
• Fixed map selection on Ashlands mission so standalone mission works
  
• Adding chicken flee audio and event
  
• Added BLD_Floor_Curved_Stone including textures, materials and meshes
  
• Field Guide Medicine subpage. Make resource networks aware of transmutable resources
  
• Field Guide Assign a few more categories to subpages
  
• Field Guide Show N/A rather than hiding various components
  
• Cave Prefab Polish Pass and Landscape Sculpting Pass, Ashlands, Prometheus
  
• Adding chicken peck, shake and eat audio and events and notifies
  
• Fix Ashlands story creature spawns
  
• Commit prebuilt file for Ashlands story mission
  
• Update blueprints and buildable table for many diagonal and curved pieces
  
• Field Guide Animal Parts subpage. More blacklisting of hidden items
  
• Added more information when presubmit check fails due to unaccepted jira REST response
  
• Field Guide Blacklist a bunch of logical items where the display name is the same (eg. Corpse vs MountCorpse)
  
• Added another valid presubmit check prefix
  
• Fixed orientation of BLD_Roof_Diagonal_Stone and BLD_Roof_Diagonal_Stone_Inverted
  
• Disabling Field Guide as it was accidently enabled in my last commit
  
• Adding new Tags for the field guide, adjusting field guide categories and tagging some items into their new field guide categories
  
• Fixed orientation once again for BLD_RoofCorner_Curved_Stone
  
• Field Guide Fix attachment query is picking things it sometimes should not
  
• Field Guide Link vestige and fish page to bestiary/fishing record tabs
  
• Correcting chicken using wrong audio event
  
• Adding opening and closing sounds, event and anim notify to small animal trap
  
• General Polish Pass & updated cave templates Ice Sheet Yellow Quad on Prometheus
  
• Cliff Polish Pass and Landscape Sculpting Pass, Ashlands, Prometheus
  
• Adding large animal trap audio open and close, events and notifys
  
• Adding in wood trap open and close sounds and events and notifys
  
• Field Guide Tidy up fish page
  
• Added Black Wolf Armor Item Icons
  
• Fixed Holding position for the black wolf Pistol core SK piece by adding an offset socket, currently set to work best with Barrel C but we can adjust the position in the weapon BP to suit each barrel accordingly. Added ADSAlpha curve to the pistol aiming animations to work with the offset socket too
  
• Field Guide Plants subpage
  
• Adding small and medium wood trap audio and events
  
• Added destructable meshs for T3 and T4 beehive parts
  
• Added art assets for T3 and T4 beehive parts
  
• Black Wolf Armor Implementation
  
• Added 'Engine/Binaries/Win64/.sentry-native/**' to list of ignored files
  
• General Polish Pass & updated cave templates Ice Sheet Yellow Quad on Prometheus
  
• Cliff Polish Pass, Landscape Sculpting Pass and Fixed a Hole in Cave LC_MED_006, Ashlands, Prometheus
  
• Field Guide Display DLC icon on buildable DLC. Better present grids of fewer items
  
• Balance of layers of sandworm crossbow for better continuity between CBs
  
• Updated BLD_Roof_PyramidHip_Single_Brick_Right and Left
  
• Submitting Sheep and textures (wooly)
  
• Bats now correctly target players.
  
• Added control rig pitch and roll movement to bats during flight.
  
• Adjusted blending of bat attack montage, disabled LookAt via anim curve during animation.
  
• CacheActorTargetLocation BTTask can now adjust for target velocity if required
  
• Updated weapon pieces for Sandworm_Crossbow
  
• Added DEP_WaterPurifier_T4
  
• Field Guide Flush cache on meta and set DT changes. Add some more sets
  
• Field Guide buildings sub page, use custom sets rather than required talent
  
• Cliff Polish Pass and Landscape Sculpting Pass, Ashlands, Prometheus
  
• Balancing black wolf revolver against the scorpion rifle to better reflect guns intensity and size. Added more suitable fire audio for sandworm crossbow
  
• Fixed cave spawning in the terrain on Outpost, Cactus
  
• Adding Sugar Cane, Sugar Cubes, Sugar Cane Seeds, Sugar Cane Workshop Seed Pack Items and Setup
  
• Adding Sugar Cane growable resource and growth states
  
• Adding Recipes for Sugar
  
• Added Nav Blocker to help unstuck on Prometheus
  
• Added recipes for the T3 smoker, unlocked T3 smoker talent
  
• Increased health of BatNest actor
  
• Cave AI Spawners / Cave Templates now support additional types of Cave AI with separate min/max spawn counts
  
• Setting up Sandworm Crossbow Living Weapon
  
• Bats will now detatch from nest once is has been destroyed. Destroyed nests will no longer continue spawning bats. Made light on bats more performant and more subtle when flying close to geometry. Fixed bat nest mesh collision and rotation
  
• General Polish Pass & fixed frozen lakes in cave templates Ice Sheet Yellow Quad on Prometheus
  
• Adding Domestic Beehive Meshes and Icons
  
• Added art assets for honeycomb item
  
• Added BLD_Wall_Diagonal_Angle_Stone_L, BLD_Wall_Diagonal_Angle_Stone_R, BLD_Wall_Diagonal_Angle_Stone_L_Inverted and BLD_Wall_Diagonal_Angle_Stone_R_Inverted
  
• Added art assets for the cave variant of the wild beehives
  
• Added wild tree beehive art assets to the project
  
• Added BLD_Wall_Angle_Curved_Stone_L_Inverted and BLD_Wall_Angle_Curved_Stone_L_Inverted, as well as cleaned up file locations of the non-inverted pieces
  
• Adding unique sandworm crossbow fire audio event and data table entries
  
• Bat nests will no longer generate in non-development builds
  
• json_patcher now prints out invalid DT row/table names when should_keep_row function throws an exception
  
• Fixing incorrect feature levels on the turret items, they where set as 'none' which was preventing our pre-build step from completing
  
• Adding Pistol / Rifle / Shotgun Turret item setups
  
• added chicken materials and textures
  
• Submitting shorn sheep, carcass and textures
  
• Submitting unshorn sheep and textures
  
• Fieldguide - fix T1&T2 knife harvest query is backwards
  
• Added new bee character.
  
• Bee particle system now dynamically scales in intensity based on BP-driven 'aggression' parameter.
  
• BTTask_PlayMontage can now optionally be given an empty montage to complete logic immediately, useful for tasks like StrikeAttack where there isn't an animation
  
• Added destrucable mesh for picnic table asset
  
• Cleaned up a number of old code compilation warnings
  
• Added art assets for picnic table
  
• Limestone BLD concrete reskin - added textures and materials
  
• Added arctic bat bestiary image
  
• Added cave bat bestiary image
  
• Added Zebra map icon
  
• Additional categorization of items for Field Guide
  
• Adding Zebra Mount and Zebra Quest Mount
  
• Adding Progress in New Olympus Operation - RELOCATED: Recovery, where players have to track down missing zebras
  
• Adding first pass test audio and bee event. To be replaced and updated. Assigning to Bee data table setups
  
• Added art assets and blueprint for Arctic Bat Trophy
  
• Added art assets and blueprint for Bat Trophy
  
• Bees no longer attempt to ragdoll on death. Bees can no longer be damaged by projectiles
  
• Submitting Slug (reskin), carcass and textures
  
• Fixed beesphere material not being invisible.
  
• Improved targeting AI of Bees.
  
• Bees will now stop persuing target if they start swimming in water.
  
• Increased Bee's health and reduced severity of modifier applied when attacking.
  
• Added new Wild Beehive.
  
• Attacking a Wild Beehive will force all spawned, idle bees to attack instigator.
  
• BTTask_RandomFlight and BTTask_FindRandomFlightTarget will now treat water surface as ground for target height calculations.
  
• Wild Beehives can now be spawned using CT_CreatureSpawn assets. Enabled new Bee dispersal particle affect on death
  
• Adding appropriate AI setup Audio for Zebra Mount
  
• Further categorization of Field Guide items, improved readability on some Field Guide pages
  
• Fixed Cave_LC_MED_006 Stalagmite
  
• Added new lavafall mesh with flat top (SM_Lavafalls_02), added collision to SM_Lavafalls_01 and 02, SM_Waterfalls_01
  
• Adjusting reward for RELOCATED: Recovery and adding new prebuilt structure and quest markers in the world
  
• Hooking up new Zebra Map Icons for use in RELOCATED: Recovery
  
• RELOCATED: Recovery is now fully playable and is currently feature locked out on the public branch for internal testing
  
• Added bestiary text for Cave and Arctic Bats
  
• Added item text for batteries
  
• Adding new bee audio, standard event idle and bee aggro. Currently only Aggro plays due to bee states not being defined
  
• Remove Grass in Artic, Green Quad on Prometheus
  
• Adding effect for bee creature death
  
• Manual Cave Polish Pass and Cliff Pass, Red Quad, Ashlands, Prometheus
  
• Add cave bat nests and wild beehives to caves, Cave_AC_MED_002 & Cave_GL_MED_001
  
• Added additional sets for Field Guide
  
• Hid many more items that aren't required for public view in the Field Guide
  
• Wild Beehives will now spawn in the various forest biomes (Dev builds only for now).
  
• Arctic Bat Nests and Forest Beehives now have a minumum delay of 300s between individual autonomous spawns.
  
• Removed ensure in AIcarusPlayerController::PopUIInput
  
• Adding additional recorded footsteps on wood for potential future use to FMOD. Not assigned to any events
  
• Remove Grass in Artic, Green Quad on Prometheus
  
• Adding newly recorded gravel footsteps into FMOD. Not assigned to any event. For future use
  
• Fixed seam between landscape and riverbanks in J6, Green Quad on Styx
  
• Added BLD_Roof_Peak_Connector Stone
  
• Adding Limestone Building Pieces and Basic Item Setup, no recipes or way to obtain currently enabled
  
• Committing New Voxel Type and Virtual Status Update
  
• Resaving Voxel Data Table
  
• Manual Cave Polish Pass and Changing Cave variants to make it more even, Red Quad, Ashlands, Prometheus
  
• Add cave bat nests and wild beehives to caves, SW Caves, GL Caves & Cave_DC_MED_001, 002, Cave_DC_SML_003
  
• Adding Limestone, Crushed Limestone items
  
• Adding Limestone based fertiliser, glass, steel crafting and concrete alternate recipes & bluerprints where required
  
• Adding recipes for all Limestone building pieces
  
• Adding Voxel and Deep Ore Vien Setup for Limestone as well as experience events
  
• Adding additional recorded footsteps for potential future use. Grass walk, run, land
  
• Added more Field Guide tagging
  
• Updated feature levels on many currently unavailable items to hide them from Field Guide, including decorations, armor sets, workshop gear and backpacks
  

[/expand]

Week 110’s update adds our newest and most powerful shield, the Titanium Tower Shield.

With 140 degrees of area coverage and 85% damage resistance, this is one of our strongest defensive item to date but will require a high cost of resources to craft.

Jump in and have a read.





This week's update introduces our newest powerful shield, the Titanium Tower Shield.

This shield has a 140-degree block radius, with 85% damage blocking, making it a powerful asset.

This is craftable on the foundry and requires an extensive list of materials, including Titanium Plate, Epoxy, Cured Leather and Steel Screws.

When attached to your back, the shield provides a strong defense against damage from behind, giving it multi-purpose use, even when not equipped.





We are back in the office this week with most of the team returning from their holidays after a well deserved break. We are looking at all the bugs / comments / feedback from everyone. This patch is the last of our holiday patches so be ready for longer change logs again from next week. These holiday patches were isolated pieces of content that could be done safely without affecting the stability of our larger piece of ongoing work on power networks, further detailed below.



As mentioned in previous weeks we are nearing completing of the batteries and networks system. It all is functional and we are working on bug fixes we find during the testing process. We are also working on the QoL and will start a balance pass shortly.

We are wanting to get this into your hands as quick as possible but due to some issues with the build machines it was unfortunate that we weren't able to provide a build before the holiday period. We are working on these issues now while others are still cleaning up the new system.



A common request we see on every single update is for more work on optimization. Work in this area continues indefinitely, however due to the nature of the work release timeframes can be unpredictable. It relies heavily on analysis and testing and some optimizations simply don't achieve a good enough result to be worth mentioning, or don't improve performance at all and need to be revisited. Rest assured there are several aspects to this that are still works in progress, and when/if they yield good results we'll make sure you hear about them!

Another common question is regarding additional mission content. These are pieces of work that have longer lead-times as they involve coordinating recording time with voice actors which we usually do batches of at once rather than on a per-mission basis. These had been on hold so we could finish up the open world integration, but as that work has wrapped up for now we're well positioned to author entirely new mission content again. Expect to see more of these in future updates.



Next week we are adding a new charcoal powered smoker at T3 which will include all the drying rack recipes as well as 10 new recipes to go along with which provide different food buffs.



https://store.steampowered.com/app/544550/Stationeers/

Stationeers is another game from RocketWerkz that inspired a lot of the approaches to in-world interaction and other aspects of Icarus and they've just completed a large piece of work on a new Rocketry system. If complex atmospherics and logic systems sound like fun to you, definitely take a look at Stationeers and the update post below.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/544550/view/3897365840790049455

Stationeers is an early access game that we are very passionate about, but note that our current build does still contain some recent bugs. We have done two hotfixes now however there is still issues with our tutorials that we are working on over the weekend. If you feel like trying the game out instead of the tutorials, we recommend hitting up our kind community on discord until we get a tutorials hotfix out

[h3]While expansions are where we vastly extend gameplay, our Outposts and Content Packs were made to provide a way for those who enjoy the project to further support it, and in return receive some simple new content. This content is not essential for the game or to benefit from most of our weekly content updates. Consider purchasing the 'complete the set' pack if you continue to enjoy Icarus and want to further provide support to its ongoing development.[/h3]

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/35727/Icarus_Complete_the_Set/

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



- Enabling the Titanium Tower Shield Talent and Recipe so the Item can be crafted and used.

Week 109’s update introduces a newly discovered creature to the Volcanic Biome of Prometheus, the Ignari.

Closely related to the Viscid of the Swamp biome, the Ignari will be found among the flowing lava and rocky outcrops, so keep your eyes peeled.

As mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we've been doing a few content-only updates over the holiday period so everyone could have a bit of a break, but also so we could keep them separated from the technically complex work finalizing batteries and power networks. More info to come on those in the next few weeks.

Finally, we’ve got an update on the progress of the Prometheus Map Expansion for you, to start 2024.





The Ignari has been discovered in the Volcanic Regions of Prometheus.

Exclusive to this Biome, the Ignari is closely related to the Viscid, found in the neighboring swamp biomes. Their split evolutions mean the Ignari, while similar in appearance, has a different coloration and different resistances and weaknesses, more related to its harsher, hotter climate.

You’ll now come across these while adventuring through the Volcanic regions, so keep your eyes peeled as you adventure through the biome.





The Ignari is only found on the Prometheus map, which is available as part of our paid New Frontiers expansion. However, we have more additions to Prometheus to come.

New tunnels through the southern mountains have been uncovered which will lead to new unchartered and more deadly terrain. Our team are working on expanding the Prometheus map. This is still work-in-progress but will feature new hardcore zones with no map UI, dangerous missions across the new region, tougher elements, harsher conditions and possibly exotic-infused creatures to come in the future.





Next week we’ll be adding a new shield, this one a higher tier option, a Titanium Tower Shield.

This has a large area of coverage, preventing a ton of area damage, but requires a lot of resources to craft due to its extensive size.

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

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

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


- Unlocked Ignari

Week 108’s update is here, and we’ve added our first new Orbital Workshop armor in a while, the Tachyon Armor.

This is designed for the survivalist, with some unique buffs that you won’t find in any other sets.

We’ve also got an update on the progress of Turrets for you to catch up on.

Finally - Happy New Years from the team here at Rocketwerkz! We can’t wait to do 2024 with you.





We have added a new armor to the Orbital Workshop.

The Tachyon Armor is the first new armor we’ve added in a while, with perks and buffs designed for survival.

This included buffs to fall damage resistance and resistance to exposure, so your missteps off cliffs and poor timing out in the storms are less impactful.

These are some unique buffs we haven’t experimented with before, so should provide some noticeable difference from other armor sets that are valuable for some prospectors, but less noticeable for those who can multi-task more effectively.





As mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we are currently working on turrets which will act as autonomous defense systems for your bases.

These will be electronically powered and will require ammo which will have to be refilled on a semi-regular basis.

These will target nearby attacking creatures that stray too close, so the more dangerous region you are in, the more expensive these will be to manage, but also more valuable.





Next week’s update will be adding a new variation on an existing creature.

The Ignari is related to the Viscid but is found in the Volcanic Biomes, unlike its sibling which is found in the swamps.

This will have its own unique resistances and weaknesses, suited to its environment, so approach it with caution when you encounter it.

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

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

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


- Unlocked Tachyon Workshop Armor