Lacuna Passage News

v0.6 focuses on making the control options much more flexible. This required a complete rework of the input system in the game to support most PC-compatible controllers and full key remapping options. This continues my current pattern of alternating major updates between gameplay system additions (like the previous pop tent and dust storm updates) and quality-of-life additions (like this one). Check out the full change log below.

• Controller support has been added for most dual joystick controller types.
  
• Keyboard and controller button remapping is now available via the Controls option menu.
  
• Increased frequency of dust devils.
  
• Fixed bug that caused hab status panel to display information from a different hab.
  
• Fixed production levels of oxygen and water modules relative to the impact that broken components should have.
  
• Changed locomotion settings for moving up and down slopes and while jumping.
  
• Fixed issue where reserve battery could be charged slightly over 100%.
  

Many of these changes were prioritized based on feedback provided by players on our Feedback Forum. Help me determine future development priorities by posting your ideas, suggestions, and bug reports there.

v0.59 now provides a new way for you to escape the elements of Mars. Emergency Pop Tents are now deployable items that you can enter to protect yourself for dust storms, eat while on EVA, and save your progress by sleeping.

The rest of this update is a little lighter on content than usual because I have had to spend a lot of time updating the game code to be compatible with the latest version of Unity. Unity required a security update and I figured it would be a good time to also just update everything to the latest version. I've gone from Unity 5.3.8 to Unity 2017.1. This required a ton of little fixes to ensure everything will work as it did before, and I'm still not entirely sure that everything will be functional. If you find something that seems out of place or inconsistent with how you remember the game working before, please let me know via the official bug reporting and feedback forum.

• Updated engine to most recent version of Unity for performance and compatibility improvements.
  
• Numerous bug fixes for issues related to Unity version update.
  
• Loading of interior and exterior scenes should be faster.
  
• Habitat interior lightmapping has been improved.
  
• Terrain dynamic shadows have been improved.
  
• Fog distance and blending with horizon have been improved.
  
• Added deployable Emergency Pop Tents that allow you to take shelter from dust storms, eat consumables, and save your game while on an EVA.
  
• Remote outposts with permanent pop tents are also useable now and they produce their own ambient oxygen so your suit reserves will not deplete while inside.
  
• Added quick reference panels by interior airlock doors to see the status of your exterior life support modules at a glance while inside a habitat.
  
• Equipped portable solar panels will no longer charge your suit battery while inside an airlock.
  
• Dust storms now properly impact exterior module power production based on proximity to the storm’s epicenter.
  
• Dust storm particle effect visibility due to proximity to storm epicenter has been adjusted.
  

Many of these changes were prioritized based on feedback provided by players on our Feedback Forum. Help me determine future development priorities by posting your ideas, suggestions, and bug reports there.

• Fixed an exploit that let you craft oxygen filled canisters even when there was not enough oxygen in the reserve tanks.
  
• Supported refresh rates are now listed in the resolution settings (in the previous update they appeared as repeated entries of the same resolution in the list).
  
• A water reclaimer unit at the northern habitat location has been moved slightly to prevent the water tanks from being hidden under the terrain.
  
• The minimum solar power during a full dust storm is now back to 15%.
  
• Fixed a bug that was drawing too much power while sleeping causing negative reserve power values.
  
• The inner habitat door can no longer be selected through the wall.
  

v0.58 marks the major feature addition of randomized dust storms to Lacuna Passage. The best way to quickly experience the new dust storms is to start a new game with the Big Storm scenario detailed below. If you want a quick timelapse of what dust storms look like you can check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQcqiPImao4

• Added randomized dust storms that can slowly move across the map and impact your visibility, mobility, and navigation functions.
  
• Added a survival sandbox scenario select screen with three currently available options: No Dust Storms Mode, Standard Mode with occasionally spawning dust storms, and Big Storm Mode which will start with a large dust storm hitting Habitat Alpha within the first 3-7 Sols.
  
• Added small blowing dust clouds over the entire map.
  
• Added randomly spawning dust devils.
  
• All habitat interiors now have an airlock exit sign to differentiate the two doors.
  
• The screen no longer fades completely to black during exterior module repairs. You can now see time pass in your HUD and the cost to your oxygen and battery in accelerated time during the repair.
  
• Fixed issue with exterior module resource generation when sleeping for long periods.
  
• Fixed issue with RTGs not generating exterior module resources properly at night.
  
• Fixed incorrect description of Multitool. Multitools now explicitly mention that they can be used as a Cutting Tool, Building Tool, and Engineering Tool.
  
• The objective LAT and LONG is now updated while placing a custom objective in the Navigation app.
  
• Fixed issue with some Drill Rover locations not being added to navigation.
  
• Fixed incorrect randomization of exterior module component integrity values for the southeastern-most habitat location.
  
• Scanner is now automatically disabled when entering a habitat to prevent unintended scanner highlights while indoors.
  
• Fixed issue with incorrect habitat resource values being displayed when accessing the EVA suit management screen between two different habitats.
  
• Fixed incorrect texture on water reclaimers.
  
• Fixed incorrect exhaustion recovery value when consuming water.
  
• Sleeping for 0 hours is now allowed as a way to save without sleeping. Was previously only accessible by cycling the time value in one direction.
  
• Fixed issue with the starting landing pod changing positions after loading a saved game.
  
• Fixed a floating rock at a solar panel discovery location.
  
• Fixed issue where some exterior module components were unable to be removed.
  

Keep in mind that this now makes the weather monitoring functions of the Waypoint Stations worth maintaining since they can warn you of an incoming dust storm and you can track the visibility at each WayStat location with the function enabled via installed fuses.

Many of these changes were prioritized based on feedback provided by players on our Feedback Forum. Help me determine future development priorities by posting your ideas, suggestions, and bug reports there.

• Fixed bug that caused Electrical exterior modules to operate as "On" even when the power switch is turned off.
  
• Fixed minor UI spelling mistakes.
  
• Fixed bug that occasionally displayed incorrect hab reserve supply values in the suit management screen.
  
• All habitats now start with their interior temperature roughly equivalent to the exterior temperature since their heaters have been offline for an undetermined amount of time.
  
• Fixed bug that prevented breathing audio from playing before entering the first habitat.
  
• Fixed bug that prevented the proper placement of custom objectives in the navigation app.
  

Today's update is an attempt to add some new player progression goals to the survival sandbox including achievements and leaderboards. Check the full change log below.

• Achievements have been added for a range of survival goals.
  
• Leaderboards have been added for survival time and distance traveled in a single playthrough.
  
• A stats screen will now be displayed upon dying which will tell you exactly what you died from along with comparisons to your previous best run.
  
• Increased scanner detection range for standard containers (blue squares) to 300 meters (this distance is not increased by activating WayStats).
  
• Crafting an oxygen filled canister now requires 50L of oxygen from your hab reoxygenator tanks.
  
• Your EVA suit can now be equipped or removed while inside a hab via the EVA preparation screen (accessible from the habitat status consoles).
  
• Your EVA suit will now only be removed automatically upon entering a hab if the reoxygenator has oxygen in the tanks.
  
• If the hab reoxygenator is not producing oxygen then you will now more accurately consume oxygen from the reserve tanks while not wearing your EVA suit.
  
• The accumulated radiation exposure will now be saved properly.
  
• The photo app should function more reliably when deleting photos.
  
• The heart rate (stamina indicator) will no longer disappear while jumping.
  
• Non-electrical components will no longer throw sparks when being replaced in exterior modules.
  

Many of these changes were prioritized based on feedback provided by players on our Feedback Forum. Help me determine future development priorities by posting your ideas, suggestions, and bug reports there. See if you can keep your spot on the new leaderboards and collect all the achievements!

EDIT: A hotfix has been applied that has fixed additional issues with oxygen and suit interactions inside of habitats.

Today's update provides a number of user requested changes. The first of many such updates to come.

• There will now always be a Multitool found in Hab Beta.
  
• There will now always be a Haz-Mat Kit found in Hab Gamma.
  
• There will now always be a Printer Key found in Hab Gamma.
  
• Survival stats like Oxygen, Battery, Calories, etc will now be depleted 20-30% slower, allowing for longer periods of exploration.
  
• Habitat storage space has been expanded from a max of 60kg to 80kg.
  
• Added menu option for Mouse Sensitivity.
  
• Added menu options to disable Camera Bob and Sway.
  
• Added menu options to control SFX and Music audio volumes.
  
• Added keyboard shortcut to toggle auto-walking (~ key).
  

Many of these changes were prioritized based on feedback provided by players on our Feedback Forum. Help me determine future development priorities by posting your ideas, suggestions, and bug reports there. Try out these new balance and comfort updates and let me know what you think! Have fun exploring!

• Added a significant amount of contextual information to the Habitat Status Screen including more descriptions of exterior module status with color coding.
  
• Fixed a bug causing the Reoxygenator to use too much water to produce oxygen when the Water Reclaimer was offline.
  
• Some users may not be hearing music due to a sound driver issue. Starting a new game might have caused you to get stuck in the landing pod because the music would not trigger. You should now be able to continue out of the pod even if the music does not play.
  
• Datapad document lists should now scroll properly.
  
• Certain controllers and flight sticks should no longer conflict with datapad keyboard commands if plugged in while playing.
  
• Fixed a bug causing the game resolution to change when navigating menus.
  
• Fixed a bug causing the player to fall below the terrain when exiting a habitat.
  
• Distances to objectives from inside a habitat should now be properly reflected.
  

• Fixed bug that caused discovered map location markers to appear in the wrong locations after loading a save (requires you to start a new game to fix).
  
• Fixed bug that prevented you from picking up single items like found solar panels even though you had enough space in your inventory.
  
• Fixed bug that allowed you to remove components from exterior modules without worrying about inventory weight.
  
• You can now access the oxygen and battery transfer screen via the habitat status consoles in the airlock without exiting for an EVA.
  
• Fixed a trigger that sometimes caused solar panels to come up as RTGs when clicking on them.
  
• Stamina is now representing by a heart rate monitor in your HUD.
  
• Fixed bug causing the photo edit menu to be hidden behind the photo view plane.
  
• Added sparks to indicate when an electrical component has failed due to being installed with the module power still turned on.
  
• More changes to survival balance: It now takes about 1-2 days to die from lack of both food and water (depending on activity). It now takes 2-4 days to die from lack of water alone (depending on activity). It now takes 7-9 days to die from lack of food alone (depending on activity).
  
• Added text that describes the time spent while repairing module components.
  
• Can no longer run with a portable solar panel equipped.
  
• Carrying more than 50kg now makes you "encumbered" which prevents you from running and reduces your walking speed. You can carry up to a max of 75kg.
  
• Adjusted the solar panel charging rates and adjusted the reserve power depletion rates for unpowered modules to prevent an exploit.
  
• The Reoxygenator and Water Reclaimer modules now run at 10% production speed during the night to reduce the depletion rate of the reserve battery.
  
• A full EVA suit battery is now equal to 1/4th of a full hab reserve battery (previously 1/2).