Core Keeper News

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed issue where some automation configurations cause a crash on host.
  

[h2]BUG FIXES[/h2]

• Lit Floor tiles no longer block other emissive light sources like Glow Tulips.
  
• Light colors are now correctly converted to linear space when gathering light data.
  
• Increased connection timeout to avoid treating long frame times as a timeout for the host.
  
• Removed the limit on the number of objects spawned per frame.
  

[h2]Bug Fixes:[/h2]

• Fixed getting random loot in boss chests due to uninitialized memory.
  
• Fixed achievements not unlocking.
  

It's time to jump right into another exciting update, Explorers! Our Quality of Love update is now live.

Part seasonal event, part content update, you'll be uncovering magical new Valentine's features as well as a whole host of additions that will remain in-game after the event has ended. Speaking of our Valentine's seasonal event, this will run from today until February 28th, but don't worry! From this update onwards, all of our seasonal events can be accessed at any time through the game's Gameplay Settings menu. Please note that the addition of the season’s option in the game’s Gameplay Settings menu will replace the previous mechanic of having to set the season under the game’s “Launch Options” in Steam.

[h2]Major Visual Improvements to Core Keeper[/h2]

The Quality of Love update marks the single most significant number of changes we have ever made to the way lighting and rendering works in Core Keeper, and this means the potential for serious visual improvements.

We completely rewrote our graphics pipeline to give us full control over how everything is rendered in the game, resulting in reduced demand on your device’s GPU and significant improvements to lighting and shadows. We also spent a lot of time working on the game’s indirect (bounce) lighting and implemented a new system for simulating sprite object shadows to give the game world a more three-dimensional look.

We could talk about this major visual overhaul for Core Keeper all day (and we might do just that in an upcoming Steam post!), but we think the best way to experience these things is firsthand, which is why we encourage our players to jump into the game and see for themselves. For a more direct comparison of the visual improvements to Core Keeper, check out this high vs low settings trailer here:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Indie Musical Magic[/h2]

Players can now express themselves through the magic of music with the addition of playable instruments such as the Ocarina, Harp, Cello, and Flute. Using the instruments on their own opens a special interface that will allow you the input of individual notes, but using the instruments with sheet music plugged into a music stand will enable users to autoplay looping melodies from indie titles such as Owlboy and Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?!, as well as other fun tracks. Play alone, or get together with some friends to form the world’s most underground orchestra.

From books to movies and even anime, you'll see lots of little references to some of the media we love all throughout Core Keeper, and the addition of sheet music seemed like the perfect way to celebrate some of our favourite indie developers. We'd love to know what your favourite indie game tracks are too, so let us know here in the comments!

[h2]Valentine's Content and Cosmetic Upgrades[/h2]

We've added even more options to the character-creation menu such as new hairstyles and new colour options across hair, eyes, and clothing, but that's not all. We didn't want our veteran players to have to create brand-new characters to experience these exciting additions, which is why we added the Magic Mirror — a craftable item that allows players to edit the appearance and name of their characters at any point (#NewYearNewYou).

We're also beyond excited to see how you get creative with all of our new seasonal content. From boxes of chocolates, candles, and bouquets of flowers all the way to plush toys, rugs, and new outfits and accessories. You can find a full list of content, features, mechanics, and fixes that have come with this update in the patch notes, here.



We're so happy to be bringing you lots of variety with this update, as we wanted it to be an expression of our love for both the community and the industry. We'd love to hear your thoughts, see your screenshots, and talk lore with you over in the Steam Discussions, on Twitter, or on our official Discord server.

[h2]Main Features:[/h2]

Valentine Specific:

• Valentine Letters can be found dropped on the ground throughout the world. Pick them up and check out what the Seasonal Merchant has to offer for them! Any letters left on the ground after the season ends will disappear and any picked-up letters will be kept. The letters will continuously appear randomly in the world throughout the season.
  
• The Seasonal Merchant now has a new skin and new items to sell for the new season. The skin will change back after the season ends but the items can still be bought.
  
• Valentine Crafting Table. Acquired from the Seasonal Merchant.
  
• Valentine’s Chest. Acquired from the Seasonal Merchant.
  
• Valentine’s Gift. Acquired from the Seasonal Merchant.
  
• 9 new decorations and furniture.
  
• 3 new valuables.
  
• New consumables:
  - Distilled Love.
  - Box of Chocolates.
  
• New equipment and weapons:
  - Cupid Bow.
  - Cupid Tunic.
  - Valentine Necklace.
  - Valentine Ring.
  
• The iris of the Core has a heart shape during the Valentine’s seasonal event.
  

[h2]New Items:[/h2]

• Magic Mirror. Can be crafted at the Carpenter’s Table and allows the player to change the appearance and the name of their character.
  
• Mannequin. Can be crafted at the Carpenter’s Table and allows the player to showcase equipment.
  
• Equipment presets. Three tabs have been added to the character window allowing players to quickly swap between different equipment setups.
  
• Music Workbench. Can be crafted at the Tin Workbench and allows the player to craft the following:
  
• Harp, Flute, and Cello instruments. These can be used to play notes manually. Predefined songs can also be auto-played by standing nearby a Music Sheet Stand that contains a Music Sheet.
  
• Music Sheet Stand.
  
• Several Music Sheets.
  
• Loom. Can be crafted at the Carpenter’s Table and allows the player to craft different sets of clothes. These are intended to allow more customisation using the vanity slots in the Dresser but can be equipped directly as well:
  - Wedding dress.
  - Suit.
  - Archeology clothes.
  - Cooking clothes.
  

[h2]New Mechanics:[/h2]

• The Ocarina has been changed into an instrument instead of a valuable and it can now also be commonly found in digging spots found in the Azeos' Wilderness Biome. The drop chance of the Dry Butterfly from digging spots has been reduced to compensate for this.
  
• Workbenches now have the option to select earlier tier Workbenches in their UI to allow crafting items from those Workbenches.
  
• Objects can now be rotated before placing them down instead of doing it through interaction after they have been placed down. The long-term plan is to support rotation of more objects in the game and this change is a first step towards that. The current objects that are affected by this change are: Drill, Robot Arm, Conveyor Belt, Galaxite Turret, Stone Turret, Delay Circuit, and Logic Circuit.
  
• Quick trash. Added a key binding that allows players to quickly move items to the trash can. Any item already in the trash can will be destroyed. The default key binding on the keyboard is the Delete key but this can be changed in the controls menu under the “Trash selected item” binding.
  
• Toggle UI keybinding. Added a keybinding (Ctrl+U) that allows players to toggle the in-game UI on or off. This is the same as changing the “Show in-game UI” setting found under the UI Settings.
  
• Added an option under Gameplay Settings to activate specific seasons or turn them off completely. This can only be changed while in the title menu and not while playing in a world. To avoid confusion, it is no longer possible to set a season through the launch options in Steam. Changing the date on the computer still works to activate specific seasons but it’s recommended to use this new option.
  
• Caveling Miners will sometimes lie down and sleep. They also have some new emotes they do while idling and while in combat.
  
• Caveling Hunters now need to reload their gun before shooting, giving players more time to avoid their shots.
  

[h2]Balancing:[/h2]

• Adjusted overall enemy damage so that enemies, especially in the beginning of the game, deal a bit less damage.
  
• Slightly reduced health and damage dealt by Infected Cavelings.
  
• Reduced damage dealt by Mold Tentacles.
  
• Reduced damage dealt by Bubble Crabs.
  
• The condition which gives a chance to catch higher rarity fish now uses the correct chance for each fish. Previously, the chance was equal for all fish when this condition triggered, including for the Starlight Nautilus. Increased the chance of catching Starlight Nautilus to compensate for this change.
  
• Reduced cost of Keys crafted at the Key Casting Table. Keys now also have a small chance to drop from all types of Slime enemies, the Miner Cavelings, and from fishing.
  
• Locked Chests have a small chance to be caught when fishing.
  
• Reduced the health of Omoroth and the tentacles that spawn during the boss fight.
  
• Changed so the small racing track scenery only appears once in the world.
  
• Turrets now put enemies into combat. This makes them more useful for mob farms and also more consistent with how Spike Traps work.
  

[h2]Quality of Life:[/h2]

• Circuits can now be placed under other blocking objects and walls can be built on top of Circuits.
  
• Gokarts can now be moved by Conveyor Belts and they can also be placed on top of Conveyor Belts.
  
• Hitting objects now takes the mouse position / right joystick direction more into account to give more precise control when defining which object to hit around the player.
  
• Fences adapt towards adjacent walls now. This means there are no longer small gaps between fences and walls.
  
• Ores from boulders now spawn in a random position inside the boulder, so having multiple drills on the same boulder will not always yield ore from the same drill.
  
• Clicking the recipes in autocrafting objects such as the Furnace and Table Saw will automatically move the required materials to the input slots from the player inventory or any adjacent chest.
  
• Holding down the modifier key to pick up 10 of a stack (Ctrl) can now also be done when crafting to craft 10 times the amount of the item at once. This only works for stackable items. Clicking recipes in autocrafting objects such as the Cooking Pot and the Furnace can also be done to move 10 of the required materials to the input slots.
  
• Rails can now be built on top of Conveyor Belts. Note that Conveyor Belts do not affect Minecarts on Rails but this feature is intended to allow moving items through Rails.
  
• Any electronic object can now be built on top of Wires. Note that, in most cases, this will override the behavior of the Wire, such as when placing a Logic Circuit on top of a Wire.
  
• Added in-game UI navigation keybindings. This will mainly be useful for players using controllers to change the D-pad buttons to do something else than navigating in the UI, as the joystick can already be used for that.
  
• GoKarts and Boats can now be rotated before being placed down.
  
• The Robot Arm can now place objects into the Fishing Net Rack, Decorative Pot, and Planter Box.
  
• Golden Glow Tulips now emit gold light instead of blue.
  
• Gravestones take 3 hits to destroy to avoid destroying other players' gravestones as easily. The player's own gravestone is still destroyed in one hit like before.
  
• The Furnace, Smelter Kiln, Fury Forge, and Table Saw now only accept the resources they can process in their input slots.
  
• Creatures no longer try to damage objects that they can’t break in a few hits.
  
• Hoes that cover multiple tiles will now prioritize hoeing other tiles such as Moss or Slime before hoeing any ground tiles.
  
• Enemies no longer block players from mining walls while holding a mining pick.
  
• Add a cap to how many Jelly Fishes can spawn in an area.
  
• Add a cap to how many Tentacles can spawn in an area.
  
• Add a cap to how many Fish Shoals can spawn in an area with sea water.
  
• Add a cap to how many Water Lilies spawn in an area.
  
• Add a cap to how many Water Kelps spawn in an area.
  

[h2] Art and Animation:[/h2]

• Implemented a brand-new rendering pipeline. This should result in an upgrade in terms of lighting and GPU performance.
  
• Completely reworked indirect (bounce) lighting. Light now spreads further and takes surface color into account, resulting in softer, more saturated dynamic lighting.
  
• Added a new system for calculating advanced object shadows. This causes most objects and enemies to cast per-light shadows.
  
• Emissive surfaces can now generate light.
  
• Improved resolution upscaling, making the game appear sharper on window resolutions higher than 1920x1080.
  
• Split the graphics settings menu into two: Display and Graphics.
  
• Added a screen-space ambient occlusion effect and a Graphics setting for it (Low / Medium / High).
  
• Added an Object Shadows Graphics setting (Off / Simple / Advanced). Simple makes the shadows behave like they did before this update and Advanced uses the new system.
  
• Improved bloom and added a Display setting for it (Normal / Reduced / Off).
  
• Reworked the “16-bit color” option: It is now called “Color Output” and allows you to change from the full 24-bit output to a limited 15-bit color palette. An additional option allows you to add dithering to this effect, which breaks up the color bands that appear. The 15-bit setting is intended to give the game a “retro” look and has no bearing on performance.
  
• Improved the shine effect on ore in walls.
  
• Improved graphics for the snare effects for Snare Plants.
  
• Improved animations for the Caveling Miners.
  
• Improved lighting from emissive plants such as Glow Tulips.
  
• Improved lighting from emissive objects such as Furnaces and Smelter Kilns.
  
• Added shadows for Fences and Roots.
  

[h2]Audio:[/h2]

• Adjustment to Larva's hurt & death sound effects.
  
• Swords now have a unique swing & impact sound effects.
  
• Adjustment to Rune Song sound effects.
  
• Adjustment to Slime Sword sound effects.
  
• Adjustment to Throwing Daggers sound effects.
  

[h2]Other:[/h2]

• Updated Unity to version 2021.3.14f1.
  
• Added moddable configuration files for loot tables.
  
• Added moddable configuration files for fishing loot and struggle behaviour.
  
• Added moddable configuration files for environment and mob spawns.
  
• Added moddable configuration files for changing friend or foe for factions.
  
• Added moddable texture for changing color grading.
  
• Improve initial loading time when joining a game.
  
• Equipment and consumables like the Glow Tulip that emit a blue glow now states “blue glow” in its stats instead of just “glow”.
  
• The Painter’s Table has been moved to the Carpenter’s Table.
  
• Credits auto scrolling can be paused by holding down the interact button.
  
• Crystal Lamp has a working collider now.
  
• Fixed so offhands can still be used while hovering any UI element with the mouse.
  
• Added Blue Glass Kalimba valuable that drops from Large Destructibles in the Ancient City Ruins in the Sunken Sea. This item was added as the reward for winning the "Creepy Caves" competition by our community member Woopsiee.
  
• Azeos now screeches when flying over the player as a shadow.
  
• Changed Larvaskin Rugs and Temple Decor Rugs to appear above Rug tiles.
  
• Delay time before fade in on world load to avoid having objects pop in.
  
• The souls tab is now unlocked when a player is nearby a Soul Orb without the need to talk to the Core first.
  

• Fixed a bug where keyboard navigation in menus would be overridden by mouse selection when not moving or using the mouse.
  
• Fixed a bug where Shroomans would collide with seeds when charging.
  
• Fixed a bug where objects that have a random visual appearance based on their world position would not be so random but instead follow a pattern in some cases.
  
• Fixed a bug where no Slime bosses could be summoned if King Slime was already summoned anywhere in the world.
  
• Fixed an issue with the Kelp Tree showing duplicate sprites.
  
• Critters will no longer spawn inside The Core or the Boss Statues.
  
• Grass and Bushes no longer drop seeds sometimes.
  
• Roots of different types no longer grow into each other.
  
• Fixed a bug where the walls around the Hive Mother could be dug up using a Hoe in specific cases.
  
• Fixed an issue where Ra-Akar the Sand Titan would spawn even if the Thumper was removed.
  
• Fixed an issue where some merchants would always restock their items when restarting the game if some statues had been activated.
  
• Adjusted small icons for Glowing Tulip and Puffungi to be centered.
  
• Fixed a bug where projectiles would visually look like they were affected by ground effects such as mold or slime.
  
• Fixed a bug where roots could start to spread before the Root Plant was fully grown.
  
• Fixed a bug where Ghost Scholars were not immune to debuffs such as burning.
  
• Fixed a bug where Poison Traps would take damage and be destroyed from players having thorns damage.
  
• Fixed a bug where the set bonus from the Ivy equipment would give crit chance from any debuff applied and not just poison.
  
• Fixed a bug where Doors could not be placed adjacent to walls that contained any ore.
  
• Fixed an issue where light sources would stop following their object when fading out.