Lacuna Passage News

Radiation storms are a new environmental hazard for Lacuna Passage. They will not occur if you pick the "No Storms" scenario, but otherwise they are randomized low levels of radiation exposure that you can only escape by taking shelter in a habitat.

This update is a bit lighter on additional features than I was hoping for, but I just wanted to get something out for this month. Because of the rush to publish, there are also some balance issues that may need to be addressed in the near future since I didn't have time to properly test everything.

The main change that may cause balance issues is the lengthening of the day-night cycle. Players have requested for quite some time now that the days should be extended a bit to feel more realistic. Previously, 30 minutes real-time equated to a full in-game day. Now this has been doubled to 1 hour real-time. Almost every variable in the game will be affected by this change, and so the ramifications aren't fully known yet. Please report any major issues via the feedback forum.

There are several other changes in this update as well. Here are all the major additions that you can expect to find:

• Randomized radiation storms have been added.
  
• New datapad documents have been added to help explain dust storms, radiation storms, and radiation zones (map boundaries).
  
• A failed or turned off heater will now eventually cause water tanks to freeze. Once the internal habitat temperature reaches below 0 Celsius water will be slowly lost to freezing.
  
• Fixed a visual bug with the PRT maintenance screen.
  
• Components installed in exterior modules will degrade slower if they are not essential for module operation. For example, if you have 5 fuses installed, 2 of them will degrade slower than the first 3 because only 3 are required for operation.
  
• Navigation systems are now based on proximity to WayStats during a dust storm. The more intense the storm, the closer you will need to be to an operational WayStat in order to maintain your navigation systems.
  
• The movement speed penalty during a dust storm has been drastically reduced, but now your exhaustion, calorie and water consumption are increased during a dust storm.
  
• The degradation rates of exterior module components are now increased for habitats that are in the area of a passing dust storm.
  
• The charge rate of an equipped portable solar panel while on EVA is now identical to the charge rate with it equipped in a panel slot of an exterior module. This has reduced the EVA charge rate enough that it can no longer surpass the battery drain of your suit, but it does drastically reduce the speed that your suit battery will drain. This is to prevent the exploit where you could charge your suit battery quickly with an equipped portable solar panel and then dump the charge back into your habitat battery.
  
• The scanner overlay has been fixed for ultrawide monitors.
  
• One real-time hour now equals 1 in-game day/sol.
  
• Death from EVA suit battery being depleted (death from heat loss) now takes much longer to bring it in line with other systems and be more realistic.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused exiting a pop tent to result in falling through the map.
  

• Increased the supplemental recharge rate of equipped portable solar panel while on EVA. Still won't overcome the normal drain of your battery, but it reduces the rate of discharge quite drastically.
  
• Fixed a major bug causing an incorrect passing of time when sleeping, crafting, salvaging, or repairing.
  

• Fixed a bug causing game freezes to occur while repairing components.
  
• Fixed a bug affecting water production after frozen storage tanks are reheated.
  
• Fixed a bug causing removed components to sometimes still appear visible in exterior module slots.
  

• Added a simple loading screen animation with randomized gameplay tips.
  
• Fixed a bug where double-tapping a datapad hotkey caused unintended conflicts.
  
• Added a notification that crafting and salvaging are not accessible when there is no power.
  
• Fixed a display issue on the habitat status screen where it was showing full water tanks with no water available.
  
• Fixed a bug where pressing the inventory hotkey while viewing the habitat storage caused the datapad to close instead of accessing your inventory.
  

Driveable rovers are finally here!

There will be at least one rover guaranteed to spawn in every playthrough. There are two possible areas towards the center of the map where they may spawn randomly, but if you can't find any there you can be sure to find one parked at the third habitat. If you haven't played much before, the third habitat is also randomized, so happy hunting!

If you choose to continue a saved game keep in mind that you may run into errors, but if you have already discovered a rover previously, then you should be able to return to it and it will now be operable. I would still recommend starting a fresh save however.

Here are all the major additions that have made it into this update:

• PRTs found in the environment are now driveable.
  
• Added Charged Backup Battery items that can be used to recharge your suit while out on an EVA, which after using will change to either a Discharged Backup Battery or an Expired Backup Battery in your inventory. A Discharged Backup Battery can be recharged at a crafting bench as long as there is enough reserve battery charge in the habitat, and an Expired Backup Battery will no longer hold a charge and is only useful for salvaging other materials from it. The chance to become an Expired Backup Battery is 1 in 20.
  
• Oxygen Filled Canisters now have a chance to become Broken Canisters after using them to refill your oxygen while on an EVA. The chance to become a Broken Canister is 1 in 20.
  
• New games will now start with one Oxygen Filled Canister and one Charged Backup Battery already in your player inventory.
  
• Refined and lowered the degradation rate of slots with no installed components.
  
• Added a “Withdraw All Items” option when exploring the contents of item containers.
  
• Added a “Move All” option when selecting a single stack of items to transfer between containers.
  
• The datapad will now slightly lower itself while walking so that you can more clearly see where you are going.
  
• You can now enable and disable the scanner while viewing the datapad.
  

• Fixed bug causing PRTs to float off the ground and become inaccessible.
  
• Possible fix for issue with drifting colliders on parked PRTs.
  
• New model for the hand holding the datapad.
  
• Fixed camera jitter when transitioning between states like equipping the datapad or running/walking.
  
• Fixed issue where the datapad was not changing to the lowered position if equipped while walking.
  

• Broken components can now be removed from exterior habitat modules and used to salvage for parts.
  
• Fixed bug causing radiation to not be applied while driving the PRT.
  
• Fixed bug causing a black screen while exiting the habitat.
  
• Fixed the navigation zoom level being reset when changing datapad screens.
  
• Fixed bug causing PRT batteries to charge above 100% with an RTG installed.
  

Driveable rovers are finally here!

There will be at least one rover guaranteed to spawn in every playthrough. There are two possible areas towards the center of the map where they may spawn randomly, but if you can't find any there you can be sure to find one parked at the third habitat. If you haven't played much before, the third habitat is also randomized, so happy hunting!

If you choose to continue a saved game keep in mind that you may run into errors, but if you have already discovered a rover previously, then you should be able to return to it and it will now be operable. I would still recommend starting a fresh save however.

Here are all the major additions that have made it into this update:

• PRTs found in the environment are now driveable.
  
• Added Charged Backup Battery items that can be used to recharge your suit while out on an EVA, which after using will change to either a Discharged Backup Battery or an Expired Backup Battery in your inventory. A Discharged Backup Battery can be recharged at a crafting bench as long as there is enough reserve battery charge in the habitat, and an Expired Backup Battery will no longer hold a charge and is only useful for salvaging other materials from it. The chance to become an Expired Backup Battery is 1 in 20.
  
• Oxygen Filled Canisters now have a chance to become Broken Canisters after using them to refill your oxygen while on an EVA. The chance to become a Broken Canister is 1 in 20.
  
• New games will now start with one Oxygen Filled Canister and one Charged Backup Battery already in your player inventory.
  
• Refined and lowered the degradation rate of slots with no installed components.
  
• Added a “Withdraw All Items” option when exploring the contents of item containers.
  
• Added a “Move All” option when selecting a single stack of items to transfer between containers.
  
• The datapad will now slightly lower itself while walking so that you can more clearly see where you are going.
  
• You can now enable and disable the scanner while viewing the datapad.
  

• Fixed bug causing PRTs to float off the ground and become inaccessible.
  
• Possible fix for issue with drifting colliders on parked PRTs.
  
• New model for the hand holding the datapad.
  
• Fixed camera jitter when transitioning between states like equipping the datapad or running/walking.
  
• Fixed issue where the datapad was not changing to the lowered position if equipped while walking.
  

• Broken components can now be removed from exterior habitat modules and used to salvage for parts.
  
• Fixed bug causing radiation to not be applied while driving the PRT.
  
• Fixed bug causing a black screen while exiting the habitat.
  
• Fixed the navigation zoom level being reset when changing datapad screens.
  
• Fixed bug causing PRT batteries to charge above 100% with an RTG installed.
  

v0.61 focuses on a complete update of the power management system for exterior habitat modules, but a bunch of bug fixes are included as well. Check the change log below.

• Fixed incorrect east hab map marker location.
  
• Fixed datapad UI navigation issue that would discard inputs that were entered too quickly.
  
• Fixed bug that prevented you from strafing while auto-walking.
  
• Fixed bug that caused dust storm effects to be visible and charging with portable solar panel to be possible while inside east hab airlock.
  
• Made change to WayStat discovery view colliders so that they hopefully trigger more reliably.
  
• Made change to mouse sensitivity range (this may require you to adjust your sensitivity in the control options menu).
  
• Fixed bug causing the minimum solar charge during a dust storm to go lower than intended.
  
• Game performance should be slightly improved after doing a recent optimization pass of several game systems.
  
• Reworked the entire power supply system for the habitat exterior modules. Read below for details.
  

• Added a delay before UI inputs are repeated when holding down an input button or key.
  
• Made changes to Datapad interactions to reduce instances of controls becoming disabled.
  
• Added back Remote Outpost scanner markers that had been accidentally deleted in a previous update.
  
• Fixed issue causing Datapad to be positioned incorrectly in some cases after loading a save game.
  
• Fixed issue causing breathing and life support EVA suit sound effects to not play correctly in some cases after loading a save.
  
• Fixed issue causing walk speed to be incorrect in some cases​ after transitioning between habitat interior and exterior.
  
• Photos taken before quitting or dying without saving will no longer be viewable via the Datapad when loading a previous save. They will still be available in the photo save folder on your machine with the location data removed.
  

• Fixed an issue with landing pods only being discoverable from certain viewing angles.
  
• Fixed an issue that was allowing player movement when it should be locked after interacting with certain components or consoles.
  
• Fixed an issue with the button selection highlight disappearing from the datapad UI when submitting the selection via the left mouse button.
  
• The electrical module no longer requires a reserve battery charge in order to charge the reserve battery via the connected solar panels.
  
• Fixed interaction issues caused by double clicking the mouse button quickly with certain triggers.
  
• Disabled the ability to click with the left mouse button during repair transitions to prevent control lockouts.
  
• Added a slight bounce to the helmet visual HUD.
  

• Adjusted dust devil spawn conditions.
  
• Adjusted the limits and smoothing of the new helmet HUD bounce and sway.
  
• Fixed helmet HUD rendering for 21:9 ultrawide resolutions.
  
• Fixed issue where the “Switch to Deposit/Withdraw” button was not appearing when exploring contents of a container.
  
• Fixed issue with randomized dust storms not spawning as frequently as intended between saving and loading.
  

If you want a TL;DR of the new power system: We have moved from power percentages to power units. As long as you maintain 100 power units worth of solar panels/RTGs connected to each exterior module you should see very little difference to how the system worked previously. If you want a more in-depth rundown of the new system then keep reading.

Here’s how the new power units are generated with RTGs and solar panels:

RTGs generate 50 units, day and night (used to be 100% power).
Large Solar Panels generate 50 units during the day (used to be 50% power).
Small Solar Panels generate 30 units during the day.
Portable Solar Panels generate 20 units during the day.

There are still only the 5 solar panel slots and one RTG slot for each module, but now they all contribute directly to the reserve battery so long as the electrical module is operational. However, now there is a maximum of 100 charge units from any set of module slots. That means the most you can generate during the day would be 400 units from all four modules.

Then, all the modules also incur a general cost that pulls from the reserve battery in order to operate.

Water Reclaimer

• 50 unit cost to produce water.
  
• 40 unit cost to keep water running if tanks are full.
  
• If at least 50 units are being supplied by solar panels/RTG directly connected to this module then water production is more efficient.
  

Reoxygenator

• 50 unit cost to produce oxygen.
  
• 40 unit cost to keep running if tanks are full.
  
• If at least 50 units are being supplied by solar panels/RTG directly connected to this module then oxygen production is more efficient.
  

Heater

• 50 unit cost to heat up interior to normal temp.
  
• 40 unit cost to keep running if at stable temp.
  
• If at least 50 units are being supplied by solar panels/RTG directly connected to this module then temp will increase faster if below normal temp.
  

Electrical

25 unit cost to keep all electrical systems running (lights, crafting, etc).

From the above requirements, the highest possible unit cost to keep all systems running would be 175 units, but if all oxygen and water tanks are full and the interior temp is stable then the cost would only be 145 units. This means that you should be banking between 225 and 255 units if you have the full 400 units of solar panels connected to your modules during the day. That banked amount should then be more than enough to cover the cost of all modules over the night and leave you with extra to transfer to your EVA suit when you go out to explore.

Because of this new system, all modules now produce at the same rate during the night as they do during the day. This is a change from before when the Reoxygenator and Water Reclaimer would produce at a drastically reduced rate at night. To balance for the increased amount being produced around the clock, both of these modules now produce at about 60% of their previous maximum production rate.

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. A special thanks to Mr. Fusion on the feedback forum for all his help and suggestions related to the power system rework.

v0.61 focuses on a complete update of the power management system for exterior habitat modules, but a bunch of bug fixes are included as well. Check the change log below.

• Fixed incorrect east hab map marker location.
  
• Fixed datapad UI navigation issue that would discard inputs that were entered too quickly.
  
• Fixed bug that prevented you from strafing while auto-walking.
  
• Fixed bug that caused dust storm effects to be visible and charging with portable solar panel to be possible while inside east hab airlock.
  
• Made change to WayStat discovery view colliders so that they hopefully trigger more reliably.
  
• Made change to mouse sensitivity range (this may require you to adjust your sensitivity in the control options menu).
  
• Fixed bug causing the minimum solar charge during a dust storm to go lower than intended.
  
• Game performance should be slightly improved after doing a recent optimization pass of several game systems.
  
• Reworked the entire power supply system for the habitat exterior modules. Read below for details.
  

• Added a delay before UI inputs are repeated when holding down an input button or key.
  
• Made changes to Datapad interactions to reduce instances of controls becoming disabled.
  
• Added back Remote Outpost scanner markers that had been accidentally deleted in a previous update.
  
• Fixed issue causing Datapad to be positioned incorrectly in some cases after loading a save game.
  
• Fixed issue causing breathing and life support EVA suit sound effects to not play correctly in some cases after loading a save.
  
• Fixed issue causing walk speed to be incorrect in some cases​ after transitioning between habitat interior and exterior.
  
• Photos taken before quitting or dying without saving will no longer be viewable via the Datapad when loading a previous save. They will still be available in the photo save folder on your machine with the location data removed.
  

• Fixed an issue with landing pods only being discoverable from certain viewing angles.
  
• Fixed an issue that was allowing player movement when it should be locked after interacting with certain components or consoles.
  
• Fixed an issue with the button selection highlight disappearing from the datapad UI when submitting the selection via the left mouse button.
  
• The electrical module no longer requires a reserve battery charge in order to charge the reserve battery via the connected solar panels.
  
• Fixed interaction issues caused by double clicking the mouse button quickly with certain triggers.
  
• Disabled the ability to click with the left mouse button during repair transitions to prevent control lockouts.
  
• Added a slight bounce to the helmet visual HUD.
  

• Adjusted dust devil spawn conditions.
  
• Adjusted the limits and smoothing of the new helmet HUD bounce and sway.
  
• Fixed helmet HUD rendering for 21:9 ultrawide resolutions.
  
• Fixed issue where the “Switch to Deposit/Withdraw” button was not appearing when exploring contents of a container.
  
• Fixed issue with randomized dust storms not spawning as frequently as intended between saving and loading.
  

If you want a TL;DR of the new power system: We have moved from power percentages to power units. As long as you maintain 100 power units worth of solar panels/RTGs connected to each exterior module you should see very little difference to how the system worked previously. If you want a more in-depth rundown of the new system then keep reading.

Here’s how the new power units are generated with RTGs and solar panels:

RTGs generate 50 units, day and night (used to be 100% power).
Large Solar Panels generate 50 units during the day (used to be 50% power).
Small Solar Panels generate 30 units during the day.
Portable Solar Panels generate 20 units during the day.

There are still only the 5 solar panel slots and one RTG slot for each module, but now they all contribute directly to the reserve battery so long as the electrical module is operational. However, now there is a maximum of 100 charge units from any set of module slots. That means the most you can generate during the day would be 400 units from all four modules.

Then, all the modules also incur a general cost that pulls from the reserve battery in order to operate.

Water Reclaimer

• 50 unit cost to produce water.
  
• 40 unit cost to keep water running if tanks are full.
  
• If at least 50 units are being supplied by solar panels/RTG directly connected to this module then water production is more efficient.
  

Reoxygenator

• 50 unit cost to produce oxygen.
  
• 40 unit cost to keep running if tanks are full.
  
• If at least 50 units are being supplied by solar panels/RTG directly connected to this module then oxygen production is more efficient.
  

Heater

• 50 unit cost to heat up interior to normal temp.
  
• 40 unit cost to keep running if at stable temp.
  
• If at least 50 units are being supplied by solar panels/RTG directly connected to this module then temp will increase faster if below normal temp.
  

Electrical

25 unit cost to keep all electrical systems running (lights, crafting, etc).

From the above requirements, the highest possible unit cost to keep all systems running would be 175 units, but if all oxygen and water tanks are full and the interior temp is stable then the cost would only be 145 units. This means that you should be banking between 225 and 255 units if you have the full 400 units of solar panels connected to your modules during the day. That banked amount should then be more than enough to cover the cost of all modules over the night and leave you with extra to transfer to your EVA suit when you go out to explore.

Because of this new system, all modules now produce at the same rate during the night as they do during the day. This is a change from before when the Reoxygenator and Water Reclaimer would produce at a drastically reduced rate at night. To balance for the increased amount being produced around the clock, both of these modules now produce at about 60% of their previous maximum production rate.

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. A special thanks to Mr. Fusion on the feedback forum for all his help and suggestions related to the power system rework.