Aloft News

Ahoy, Sky Sailors!

We're happy to announce that Aloft has been reviewed for the Steam Deck and is now officially marked as "Playable" on Steam!



This means that Aloft is compatible with the Deck, but a few adjustments can be made to improve the overall experience. While we're not actively working on the Steam Deck experience, we hope to achieve "Verified" status in the future by:

• Adding graphical presets tailored for the Steam Deck for better performance
  
• Improving text legibility for small in-game text

These updates will ensure an even smoother and more enjoyable journey for our sailors on Deck. ⛵

Let us know if you’re playing on the Steam Deck, we’d love to hear your ⁠feedback below! 💙

[h2]WHAT REQUIRES A NEW WORLD[/h2]
[hr][/hr] The bug fixes listed below will only take effect in newly-created worlds. You can carry over your character/progress and import your Home Island when starting a new world, but your map progress will be reset. If you do not want to reset your map progress, you can continue playing on an older map but it will not contain the following changes:

• Added chests in the Emerald Isles Fresco Islands containing fungicides
  
• Added Mykter barriers on other islands
  
• Added more Burnt Stumps in the starting cluster
  
• Smaller tweaks on the fresco islands
  
• Added new Points of Interest
  
• Fixed an issue where caves wouldn’t have the proper SFX
  
• Unhealthy Ecosystem odds have been increased back to 25% on POI islands now that the animal bug has been fixed

[h2]DOES NOT REQUIRE A NEW WORLD[/h2]

[h3]ACCESSIBILITY[/h3] [hr][/hr]

• Increased the max Field Of View slider in the options (use higher values if you experience motion sickness)
  
• Added a Camera Distance slider in the options, used for third person POV (use higher values if you experience motion sickness)
  
• Added an automatic save restore if a character or a world is broken. This may not catch all scenarios where a save might be broken, but it should alleviate the most common issues.
  

[h3]BUG FIXES[/h3] [hr][/hr]

• Fixed an issue where the Knowledge Stone VFX wouldn’t go away
  
• Fixed an issue where the insects wouldn’t synchronize in multiplayer
  
• Fixed an issue where a terrain piece would use the wrong texture
  
• All crops now give proper wild seeds for their biomes. Carrot, melon, potato, pumpkin and peas were fixed
  
• The wool sail hint now links to the proper localisation entry
  
• 2 clay hanging pots' icons were swapped, this has been fixed
  
• Wisteria decorations now appear in the correct orientation
  
• Acacia trees now grant acacia seeds instead of chestnut seeds
  
• Sugarcane has been removed from the Fallen Heights random crop list

[h3]UI[/h3] [hr][/hr]

• Wooden Cog and Carved Woods have updated icons
  
• Mykter Grease has a temporary new icon
  
• Unknown fresco islands have a better icon on the Table-map
  
• Updated the localization

[h3]BALANCING[/h3] [hr][/hr]

Ahoy, Sky Sailors!

We’re pleased to announce that we’re joining the celebrations for the Chinese New Year Event here on Steam, which will continue until February 10!

Until January 31, you can watch as Chinese streamer 凡华大叔 embarks on their grand and windy adventure. Check it out right on our Steam store page.

In case you missed it, Aloft is on Bilibili, so for the latest Aloft news in Chinese, you can follow us there.

A few weeks into Early Access, we’re delighted to say Aloft currently has a "Very Positive” rating on Steam. We’re immensely grateful for all your reviews and support!

Our steadfast crew here at Astrolabe have been very busy addressing the most pressing bugs and feedback reported by all of you, with two patches released so far. Keep it up!

Smooth sailing, Sky Sailors!

Ahoy, Sky Sailors!

Now that Aloft has been soaring the skies for about a week, let’s spice things up with a friendly contest, shall we?

Introducing “My Home in Aloft™ Photo Mode Contest!”

We hope you’ve been enjoying your time in Aloft and that you already built a nice home for yourself. How about you show it to us using the in-game photo mode?



Aloft’s photo mode offers a wide range of editing tools; you can customize the depth of field, adjust the angle, change the time of day, and much more. Feel free to use those tools in order to capture the perfect moment. You can only submit ONE picture!

Owners of the best 5 pictures are going to win:

• 1 Steam Key for Aloft (that you can share with a friend)
  
• 1 Steam Key for the Aloft Supporter Pack
  
• 1 Steam Key for Conan Exiles, thanks to our friends from Hyboria.
  

All you must do is take a picture of your base and share it on either X, BlueSky, or Instagram using the hashtag #MyHomeInAloft. Just make sure that your profile is public, so we can take your entry into consideration.

If you are not using any of those social media channels, you can also come to our Discord server and use the #Contest-MyHomeInAloft channel to share it!



The contest begins as of now, and it will stay active until February 5th, 12 PM ET / 5 PM CET / 9 AM PT. The only condition is that you can’t use anything other than the in-game photo mode. Any external edits will result in the disqualification of your entry.

And that’s it. We can’t wait to see what you’ve built in Aloft so far. Thank you for making our skies more beautiful!

----------------------------------------------------------

Official Rules No purchase necessary . VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW

• No submissions will be returned. All submissions may be used by Sponsor for marketing purposes with no further compensation provided.
  
• Submitting an entry constitutes permission to use winners name (social media name) and winning entry for promotional purposes.
  
• Contest entry constitutes permission to use winning submissions for publicity without further compensation. Furthermore, entry constitutes permission to archive your winning entries indefinitely on any webpage on this website.
  
• Contestants agree that the sole and final judgment as to all matters concerning contests and interpretation of contest rules are at the sole discretion of Funcom Oslo AS , its owners, and its staff.

How to enter, where to enter, and deadline to enter.
All entries must be submitted via BlueSky, Instagram, Twitter or Discord with the hashtag “#MyHomeInAloft”.

Start and end dates/times, places

• The contest shall start on Thursday, January 23rd at 12 PM ET / 5 PM CET / 9 AM PT
  
• The contest will end on: Wednesday, 5 February 2025 at 12 PM ET / 5 PM CET / 9 AM PT
  

Eligibility requirements

• Players are limited to only 1 (one) contest entry submission per user.
• Funcom & Astrolabe employees and judges are ineligible to enter.
  
• Odds of winning: Odds of winning are based on number of entrants
  
  

Description and approximate retail value (ARV) of prizes:

• 1 Steam Key for Aloft (24,99€),
  
• 1 Aloft Supporter Pack (digital only)(6,99€),
  
• and 1 digital Steam Key for Conan Exiles (39,99€)

How the winner will be selected
Winners of the contest will be selected by Funcom and Astrolabe employees based on subjective quality and aesthetics of submissions.

Rules

• Contestants can only use in-game tools to create their submission. Usage of any external programs or software will result in disqualification.
  
• Contestants can’t submit their screenshots via private social media profiles.
  
• Submissions only sent from public profiles will be considered (unless participated via Discord).
  
• Contestants can only submit ONE picture. If more than one are submitted, only the first one will be taken into consideration.
  
• Winners list will be posted on Bluesky, Instagram, Twitter, and Discord on February 10th. At 10 AM ET / 5 PM CET / 8 AM PT. They will receive their rewards via a direct message on their platform of choice.

[h2]IMPORTANT NOTES[/h2]
[hr] [/hr] We tweaked many islands to fix a couple of issues. Foremost, the issue that prevented an island to be restored because it was asking for too much flora has been fixed. Any world with that issue should now be good to go.

We’ve also pushed a fix for the corrupted islands being present without any nodes, but this will require a new world for the fix to take effect. (Previous worlds will still be valid, but those islands will be condemned to stay corrupted forever).

Since we changed the category of multiple items, the game might be a bit confused if you already have them in your inventory. The game will automatically drop an item if it is not in the right category, you can pick it up right after and it’ll sort accordingly.

[h3]UI[/h3] [hr] [/hr]

• Replaced the message of when the game is saving with an icon in the top right corner
• Upgrade station add-ons appear individually in the build menu
  
• Un-sailable zones are pre-revealed on the table-map
  
• Fixed the localization when failing to send an animal home

[h3]MAJOR BUG FIXES[/h3] [hr] [/hr]

• Darkwood doesn't require bone tools
  
• Islands shouldn’t ask for more flora diversity than possible
  
• Multiplayer menu is supported in very wide aspect ratios
  
• We identified certain cases that could cause crashes. We’ve pushed a fix that should alleviate the issue. If you still encounter crashes often, try setting your VFX quality to low!

[h3]MINOR BUG FIXES[/h3] [hr] [/hr]

• Hide multiplayer characters during the Fresco Cinematics
  
• Using the hammer is a lot more precise while on moving islands
  
• Fixed the lag when unlocking the third knowledge stone (wooden walls)
  
• Added a warning when releasing a non-native insect
  
• Pausing while holding an animal no longer hides the UI
  
• Can gather worms using the dorkip on islands that already have worms in their ecosystem
  
• Can no longer gather honey on unhealthy islands
  
• Can no longer sit on chairs when there is something obscuring
  
• Can no longer grab other player’s animals in their home, unless trusted.
  
• Many island-related modifications and bug fixes
  
• Farming pea, coffee, and sugar beet no longer grow wheat
  
• Doors and windows should enter a frozen state a lot less often in multiplayer
  
• Small adjustments on the music transitions

[h3]BALANCING[/h3] [hr] [/hr]

• Shrieker drill damage reduced
  
• Coward throwables damage reduced
  
• Amount of unhealthy island reduced
  
• Cooking plate is now unlocked alongside the campfire to allow cooking earlier
  
• The Sharpening Station and Pigment Pool are now unlocked earlier
  
• Wool and linen threads are now dismantlable
  
• Hanging pot decorations now cost compost instead of soil
  
• Some items have been moved from MISC to RESOURCES to prevent full inventories in misc category: Coffee, Sharp stone, Sharp bone, Windstone Gem, Dirty Water
  
• Cooking recipe page has been moved from Consumables to Misc to keep the "Food" theme of Consumables
  
• Wheat has been moved from Misc to Consumables to be kept at the same place as other crops