APICO News

Hey Beekeepers!

This is a small update just to get you all up to speed with the fixes and changes that have been done for the Playtest/Beeta! Main things are fixing the light duplication/save lagging issue, adding an auto-save option that can be modified and turned off, and a few things to help clarify a few features that people seemed to be confused on.

[h2]Changes[/h2]

• Auto-save is now a setting, by default set to 10 minutes
  
• Auto-save only runs when the player isn't walking to reduce visible lagging for a splitsecond
  
• Tweaked the drowning respawn teleport to only happen when no books are open so its clear why you teleported back to spawn
  
• You can now view the contents of a backpack in the expanded tooltip like you can with crates
  
• Reduced a little bit of lag when saving by caching world tiles but ultimately you're trying to save 5mb of save data in an instant and GM doesn't have async threads for that tasty json stringify so ;'(
  
• Added tooltips to make it clear that pressing escape on a highlighted menu closes ONLY that menu - pressing escape when not highlighting a menu closes ALL open menus
  
• Updated inventory progress bar to only show the 10 demo bee icons
  
• Updated "Microscope It Out" quest to explain the recessive + buff symbols (≡, +, -)
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed the light source duplication on save, any saves with duplicated items will be deduped automatically when the game loads
  
• Fixed backpacks not working after moving through gates or teleporting back to spawn after being stuck in deep water
  
• Fixed a few typos in the quest + bee book
  
• Fixed seedlings made by flower spread not appearing until you move
  
• Fixed saplings that turn into trees not appearing until you move
  
• Fixed tapped trees not being visible until you move
  
• Fixed Centrifuge crashing when input item removed on a specific frame
  
• Fixed "Overview" chapters and the species title/latin being cut off on some screen sizes
  
• Fixed no shadows showing underneath lanterns and lamps
  
• Fixed Workbench not resetting the craft multiplyer when changing recipes
  
• Fixed leaving Royal Jelly in a hive preventing the queen from working
  
• Fixed Noticeboard UI not updating position properly after moving the noticeboard menu then opening a quest notice
  
• Fixed Noticeboard bee icon crashing when clicked twice
  
• Fixed being able to open menu objects through books
  
• Fixed cargo boat being drawn twice when moving left
  
• Fixed items held in the mouse not being saved
  
• Fixed + / - buff markers in traits being drawn in the wrong position for Productivity, Fertility, and Stability
  
• Fixed the missing help button on the inventory
  

Hey Beekeepers!

The playtest rages on, and we've had some great feedback and some super weird bugs - thanks so much to everyone who's been letting us know their thoughts and reporting bugs, we really appreciate it!

Special shout out to Quantum who made a bee-line for finishing the game because we said we didn't think anyone would do it in 2 weeks, and they proved us wrong!

We've added 500 new playtesters from the pool - if you get picked by mighty overlord Valve you'll get an email and be able to download the Playtest from Steam!

Be sure to check the original Playtest event for details on giving feedback / reporting bugs:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1390190/view/2988689784440106294

[h2]The Playtest will end on 12th September![/h2]

Hey Beekeepers!

Thanks so much to everyone who has been playing and letting us know all the fun bugs they've found! This patch is mostly bug fixes, including an important one around lighting objects getting duplicated every time the game saved, eventually slowing down the game to an unplayable FPS :')

It also adds an auto-save option in the setting, so you can turn it off if you wish (on your own head be it! :D)

For Demo players, rest assured the update with the light fix will be coming soon after we guinea pig it on the playtesters! For Mod Creators, this update is also live on the Beeta branch - I've added a few little extra modding methods in this update pls enjoy
[h2]Changes[/h2]

• Auto-save is now a setting, by default set to 10 minutes!
  
• Auto-save only runs when the player isn't walking to reduce visible lagging for a splitseconds
  
• Tweaked the drowning respawn teleport to only happen when no books are open so its clear why you teleported back to spawn
  
• You can now view the contents of a backpack in the expanded tooltip like you can with crates
  
• Reduced a little bit of lag when saving by caching world tiles but ultimately you're trying to save 5mb of save data in an instant and GM doesn't have async threads for that tasty json stringify so ;'(
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed the light source duplication on save, any saves with duplicated items will be deduped automatically when the game loads
  
• Fixed Hermit bee not being able to be formed as it counted itself as a hive (lol i am a professional)
  
• Fixed backpacks not working after moving through gates or teleporting back to spawn after being stuck in deep water
  
• Fixed a few typos in the quest + bee book
  
• Fixed seedlings made by flower spread not appearing until you move
  
• Fixed saplings that turn into trees not appearing until you move
  
• Fixed tapped trees not being visible until you move
  
• Fixed Centrifuge crashing when input item removed on a specific frame
  
• Fixed "Overview" chapters and the species title/latin being cut off on some screen sizes
  
• Fixed Honeycore amount not saving :(((
  
• Fixed no shadows showing underneath lanterns and lamps
  
• Fixed Workbench not resetting the craft multiplyer when changing recipes
  
• Fixed Smokers, Heaters, and Coolers burning down fuel on the main menu
  
• Fixed leaving Royal Jelly in a hive preventing the queen from working
  
• Fixed Noticeboard UI not updating position properly after moving the noticeboard menu then opening a quest notice
  
• Fixed Noticeboard bee icon crashing when clicked twice
  
• Fixed being able to open menu objects through books
  
• Fixed cargo boat being drawn twice when moving left
  
• Fixed gates glitching out when hammering other gates to move them
  
• Fixed Beebank crashing game if invalid bee is added
  
• Fixed bees put into beeboxes / beebanks losing their Beetrice inheritence flag
  
• Fixed items held in the mouse not being saved
  
• Fixed +/- markers in traits being drawn in the wrong position for Productivity, Fertility, and Stability
  
• Modding
  
• Added sc_slot_set_inactive() which makes a slot inactive (can't be highlighted or clicked on)
  
• Added sc_slot_set_modded() which makes a slot 'modded' - modded slots can be highlighted but have no click actions (so you can add your own action through the click hook)
  
• Added a new hook, pdraw(), which is like draw() in that it's a draw cycle, but it's drawn above the player at the correct depth of the player
  
• Added new parameters to api_define_bee() to allow you to define a magazine item and magazine text, check the docs for parameters + Sample Mod for example magazine item sprite
  
• Custom added stats to items + slots will now persist when saved - you can't use nested properties within the stats object though, needs to be flat
  

Hey Beekeepers!

So a big update for the demo this time to finally catch the demo up to all the other stuff thats happened from finishing the game and starting the playtest, quite a few lil changes and QoL stuff that should be good, and a bunch of bug fixes!

[h2]Bees[/h2]

• Now only Blessed Bees can be used in Altars
  
• Increased chance of Blessed Bees to 5% from 1%, let us know if it's still too low!
  
• You will now always get a Verdant bee from common-forest for your first mutation
  
• Drowsy Bee is no longer Common + Forest to avoid confusion. Check your bee book for details!
  
• Recessive traits for rain + snow now show in microscopes
  
• XP has been removed - "locked" shop items are now based on the amount of bees you've discovered instead
  
• The XP bar has been replaced with a bee discovery "counter" to be able to see all bee progress
  

[h2]Books[/h2]

• Updated book auto-scroll so it only happens when clicking book links, notifications, or using Up + Down
  
• Made the overview chapters "fixed" so you can get to them without scrolling back up each time
  
• Added a new quest to cover conservation / rehabilitators
  
• Added a lil compass to the map!
  
• Added the mutation "criteria" to the bee book for discovered species (hover over the anatomy section)
  
• Quest requirements should now take into account any menu objects you've placed nearby
  

[h2]Items[/h2]

• Bottles of mead, spiced mead, water, honey, and resin now stack!
  
• You now get your bottle back when drinking infused mead! Reduce, reuse, recycle babyyy
  
• You can craft a Bottle Rack to store and display various bottles
  
• Skipper now sells a Cargo Boat, a normal boat with built-in storage to transport your stuff overseas!
  
• Flowers
  
• Added water pots to use with aquatic plants - same as normal pots they'll prevent flower spread
  
• Added "pondshine in a bottle", which acts as a light source
  

[h2]Misc[/h2]

• Renamed "Treated" planks + sticks to be "Infused", to make the link clearer to how you get those items
  
• When playing on Steam, pressing F12 should now take a screenshot correctly! You can still use P to hide/show GUI
  
• Changed tooltips to explicitly say how much an item sells for rather than just showing the amount
  
• If you get stuck in deep water you'll now be automatically TP to your spawn point after 5s of being stuck
  
• You can now set your spawn point by sleeping in a bed - by default your spawn is the dock at Port APICO
  
• Added little cutscene black bars to the introduction
  
• Bottler now only requires 50bl to fill a bottle instead of 100bl
  
• Rebalanced a few sell prices around water/resin/honey/mead
  
• Added Magazine Rack that can store magazines, got from the "Reehabilitate" quest or can be crafted
  
• Added the Dresser that lets you change your appearance, spawns in Nans house
  
• Added special produce lore on bee items in the tooltips
  
• Increased the size of the bottom library book bar books
  
• Save + Quit now just restarts the game first instead of going back to the menu instantly to avoid so many issues I don't want to deal with
  
• Autosave is now every 5 mins, and we no longer save every single time you claim a quest to reduce lagging
  

[h2]Menus[/h2]

• Increased the grab area of mechanisms to make it a bit easier to grab
  
• Sorting your inventory now ignores your hotbar, keeping it in the order you had it (wow what a treat)
  
• Swapped workbench recipe amounts to be WHAT YOU HAVE / WHAT YOU NEED instead of the other way round to match the quest book
  
• Updated all manual mechanism menus to have a direction arrow within the UI
  
• Made all mechanism always show their tooltip that explains the arrow key alt. controls without needing to hold shift
  
• When highlighting a menu you can close it with Escape - Pressing Escape with no menu highlighted still closes all menus as it always has
  

[h2]Crafting[/h2]

• Added the Anvil, which lets you repair your tools with materials for cheaper than crafting new ones (spawns in the carpenters house!)
  
• You can now craft multiple items at a time, either by using the new 'amount' arrows or typing in the number you want to craft
  
• Make Sawbenches cost less to craft
  
• Made Workbenches cost less to craft (jesus christ why did no one tell me they need that much stuff???)
  

[h2]Settings[/h2]

• You can now access settings from the home screen (what a treat right?)
  
• Added a new accessbility menu in the settings menu
  
• Added an accessibility option to automatically expand all tooltips (as if you were holding down shift the whole time)
  
• Added an accessibility option to ignore tree collision, letting you walk through them
  
• Added an accessibility option to always get a mutation on hybrid offspring (so basically 50% chance from a hybrid queen as long as species + requirements are all correct still)
  
• Added an accessibility option for mechanisms to move automatically (only when menus are open)
  
• Added an accessibility option to turn on focus mode. In focus mode only one menu can be opened at a time (the same as gamepad/controller mode)
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed Wooden Pickaxes having 450 durability instead of 150
  
• Fixed menu errors that go onto two lines missing the bottom of the tooltip/having a gap
  
• Fixed altar progress bar glitching out when used
  
• Fixed altars not showing a mini version of the idol in the overworld
  
• Fixed offset of shadow underneath Lamps
  
• Fixed the black screen delay on initial load between starting the game and the TNgineers logo being shown
  
• Fixed Empty Tanks that can only ever have one type of liquid (like the tanks in the Fermenter) not saying the type of liquid in the tank tooltip
  
• Fixed the #SaveTheBees button being missing on the home page
  
• Fixed bee particles being invisible when placing down a hive and putting a queen in without moving the player
  
• Fixed Common-Uncommon not working as a recipe for Dream bees (Uncommon-Common was working, but this one should have too as it's the same diff)
  
• Fixed bees not doing the "return home" journey when conditions change to stuff they dont like (night, rain etc) and just disappearing
  
• Fixed placement error not showing (i.e. when trying to put a beehive on a wall or another object is in the way)
  
• Fixed infuser not working if there's an empty tank, then you add input items, then add a canister to fill
  
• Fixed not being able to close signs with ESC
  
• Fixed not being able to auto-shift to NPC shop menus
  
• Fixed NPC dialogue menus sometimes have clipped text
  
• Fixed undiscovered bees that are shiny not showing the black undiscovered sprite
  
• Fixed the issue where "smoker" slots were visible and clickable which crashed the game
  
• Fixed the issue where clicking flower slots crashed the game
  
• Fixed the conservation label on common/forest/verge having "_alt" at the end
  
• Fixed map height "limit" being too small in the demo
  

Hey Beekeepers!

The playtest has officially begun!

We've released a first batch of 100 people - Steam picks these at random, and if you are picked then you should get an email saying you've been added to the Playtest and will be able to go and download it from your Steam Library! (wahoo!!!) You can still sign up to the Playtest from the Steam page - we'll be adding more people as we go!

If you want to come chat with others as you play come join us over on Guilded!

Some things worth noting:

• In it's current state the game is content/feature complete - we won't be adding any new major features at this point
• Localisation is being worked on by translators as we speak but you can't pick other languages in this Beeta!
  
• You'll see a "Mods" section in the homepage, but mods are not available in this Beeta so it'll always be empty
  
• Achievements will be visible in Steam but they can't be unlocked in this Beeta
  
• Quite a few people don't realise this but you can use a gamepad! Head to Settings > Controls and turn on gamepad mode and the game will try and detect your controller. The game changes a little bit in gamepad mode as you can't do any multiple menu magic but it's still p. chill!
  

If you are a Streamer or Content Creator we ask that you flag this as Beta Content with potential spoilers. We also ask that you don't stream any of the "Dream" area (the 5th gate marker), or any of the ending so others can enjoy this themselves.

Outside of that, have fun and bee safe! We're not looking for you to play in a specific way, just enjoy the game!

As the game isn't released you can't share community content, but you can post in our "Show Off Your World" forum if you want!
[h2]Feedback[/h2]
While playing the game we'd love you to think about how things could be made clearer, easier, or more fun! There's a Feedback form you can access at any time from the top-right corner of the game, next to the save button.
[h3]Feedback Form[/h3]

This form has a bunch of questions to get you thinking about different parts of the game but a lot of them are optional if you just want to put your own thoughts in here! Any and all feedback is appreciated!!

[h2]Bug Reports[/h2]
If you come across any bugs (the bad kind) you can report them to us via the Bug Report form here:
[h3]Bug Report Form[/h3]

Alternatively if you're in our Guilded (which if not, why not!), you can use the Bug Reports forum channel.

You can view all reported bugs here.

On a similar note if your machine is constantly dropping below 60FPS then we'd love to know what you were doing / where you were / what sort of potato you are running!

Thanks to everyone who has signed up to the Playtest, we hope you enjoy!
Love Ell & Jamie