Signs of Life News

Hey folks, we've got a new update for ya. Over the last several months, we've been working with two main goals: Improving the basic user experience and moving the story content forward. This update contains all the user experience changes we've been working on (including a much-requested grid-based inventory option), and a portion of the story content that we've been working on. We've got a much larger story content update in the works, but we figured it has already been too long since the last update so we'd go ahead and put out some of what we have finished so far.

To see the new story content, you'll need to use the satellite uplink function on the Pioneer Communications Junction (the device in the top floor of the Pioneer Station) and then explore the surface of the planet a bit.

You will not need to start a new world to see the new story content in this update.

FYI: We will be participating in the Steam Winter Sale, so if you don't own the game right now, you might want to wait until then if you want to save a few bucks.

• Added an Alien pod that occasionally drops down on the surface of the planet after you've attempted to use the Pioneer Comm panel with the satellite repaired. Another will spawn every 20-30 minutes as long as the player is on the surface of the planet near a flat spot of land.
  
• Added Alien enemy that spawns from the alien pods. Another spawns every 60 seconds or so
  
• Added damaged alien alloy and damaged alien dynamo drops when you kill the aliens
  
• The alien refinery (the alien device with the 3 circles that can process the strange purple ore) can now be used to process damaged alien alloy and damaged alien dynamos
  
• Added Hybrid Lobber explosive energy weapon
  
• Added Double-jump backpack and Momentum Preserver backpack.
  
• Added Hybrid armor set

• Re-worked the new character intro sequence, it is now much more succinct ;)
  
  
• Expanded the functionality of the Material Grinder
  
  
  
  
  • Grinder can now grind up any craftable item and returns some of the items used to craft it.
    
  • Grinder can now be opened, and the grinder can be fitted with a stone, iron or steel grinding blade. Better blades give you a better material yield when disassembling items.
    
  • Grinder now requires a battery to function, and better batteries make it run faster.
    
  
  
• Removed salvage kit recipes, as their functionality has now been replaced by the Material Grinder.
  
• The AGIS call button on the HUD now lets you ask AGIS for advice about what you should be doing. We want this to be an unintrusive way for players to get some direction about what they can be doing to move the story forward.
  
  
• The AGIS call button on the HUD now also lets you ask AGIS about structures in the world.
  
• Prevented some creatures from spawning near the escape pod to make things a bit easier for new players.
  
• Tweaked material and ore generation. Let us know if you have trouble finding anything in particular, this may still need some tweaking.
  

• Added a grid based inventory option. You can either set this per container by clicking the grid button on containers or you can set the default you'd like to use from the settings menu.
  
  
• Made the various menus more visually consistent and fixed various display issues.
  
• You can now close the inventory without closing other containers or menus.
  
• Tab now opens and closes just the inventory, as well as any open containers that are in your inventory.
  
• Escape now closes the most recently used menu or container, and will open the main menu if you press escape with no menus or containers open.
  
• A bunch of small changes related to font sizes, but there is still some work to be done here to make sure the game always respects your font size option in every menu.
  

• Stone Grinder Blade - 12x Basalt Blocks, 4x Grey Rock, Requires Hammer
  
• Iron Grinder Blade - 12x Iron Ingots, Requires Iron Anvil
  
• Steel Grinder Blade - 12x Steel Ingots, Requires Material Printer
  
• Hybrid Lobber - 1x Strange Dynamo, 2x Strange Alloy, 1x Steel Gun Parts, 4x Plastic
  
• Double Jump Backpack - 1x Strange Dynamo, 2x Strange Alloy, 2x Steel Ingots
  
• Momentum Preserver - 1x Strange Dynamo, 2x Strange Alloy, 2x Steel Ingots
  
• Hybrid Helmet - 2x Strange Alloy, 2x Steel Ingots
  
• Hybrid Torso - 4x Strange Alloy, 4x Steel Ingots
  
• Hybrid Arms - 2x Strange Alloy, 2x Steel Ingots
  
• Hybrid Gloves - 2x Strange Alloy, 2x Steel Ingots
  
• Hybrid Leggings - 4x Strange Alloy, 4x Steel Ingots
  
• Hybrid Boots - 2x Strange Alloy, 2x Steel Ingots
  
• Hybrid Reactor Pack - 1x Strange Dynamo, 2x Strange Alloy, 2x Steel Ingots

• Fixed an issue that could result in instant death if you were wearing something with damage reflect and got damaged by caltrops
  
• The game should launch faster in Steam now.
  
• Fixed some world generation bugs that would cause the generation to get stuck. Not 100% sure we've fixed all of these, so let us know if your world generator ever gets stuck.
  
• Fixed an issue that would cause you to take damage when eating certain mushrooms
  
• Fixed an issue that would cause the player to get stuck for a few seconds after using the respawners
  
• Fixed a crash related to having an extremely large number of characters in the character select menu
  
• Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause the game to display in the wrong place when using the borderless window display mode
  
• A bunch of small issues
  

We hope you like the changes, but either way we'd love to hear from you so make sure to let us know what you think in the comments or on the forum.

Hey folks, we've got a new update for ya. Over the last several months, we've been working with two main goals: Improving the basic user experience and moving the story content forward. This update contains all the user experience changes we've been working on (including a much-requested grid-based inventory option), and a portion of the story content that we've been working on. We've got a much larger story content update in the works, but we figured it has already been too long since the last update so we'd go ahead and put out some of what we have finished so far.

To see the new story content, you'll need to use the satellite uplink function on the Pioneer Communications Junction (the device in the top floor of the Pioneer Station) and then explore the surface of the planet a bit.

You will not need to start a new world to see the new story content in this update.

FYI: We will be participating in the Steam Winter Sale, so if you don't own the game right now, you might want to wait until then if you want to save a few bucks.

• Added an Alien pod that occasionally drops down on the surface of the planet after you've attempted to use the Pioneer Comm panel with the satellite repaired. Another will spawn every 20-30 minutes as long as the player is on the surface of the planet near a flat spot of land.
  
• Added Alien enemy that spawns from the alien pods. Another spawns every 60 seconds or so
  
• Added damaged alien alloy and damaged alien dynamo drops when you kill the aliens
  
• The alien refinery (the alien device with the 3 circles that can process the strange purple ore) can now be used to process damaged alien alloy and damaged alien dynamos
  
• Added Hybrid Lobber explosive energy weapon
  
• Added Double-jump backpack and Momentum Preserver backpack.
  
• Added Hybrid armor set

• Re-worked the new character intro sequence, it is now much more succinct ;)
  
  
• Expanded the functionality of the Material Grinder
  
  
  
  
  • Grinder can now grind up any craftable item and returns some of the items used to craft it.
    
  • Grinder can now be opened, and the grinder can be fitted with a stone, iron or steel grinding blade. Better blades give you a better material yield when disassembling items.
    
  • Grinder now requires a battery to function, and better batteries make it run faster.
    
  
  
• Removed salvage kit recipes, as their functionality has now been replaced by the Material Grinder.
  
• The AGIS call button on the HUD now lets you ask AGIS for advice about what you should be doing. We want this to be an unintrusive way for players to get some direction about what they can be doing to move the story forward.
  
  
• The AGIS call button on the HUD now also lets you ask AGIS about structures in the world.
  
• Prevented some creatures from spawning near the escape pod to make things a bit easier for new players.
  
• Tweaked material and ore generation. Let us know if you have trouble finding anything in particular, this may still need some tweaking.
  

• Added a grid based inventory option. You can either set this per container by clicking the grid button on containers or you can set the default you'd like to use from the settings menu.
  
  
• Made the various menus more visually consistent and fixed various display issues.
  
• You can now close the inventory without closing other containers or menus.
  
• Tab now opens and closes just the inventory, as well as any open containers that are in your inventory.
  
• Escape now closes the most recently used menu or container, and will open the main menu if you press escape with no menus or containers open.
  
• A bunch of small changes related to font sizes, but there is still some work to be done here to make sure the game always respects your font size option in every menu.
  

• Stone Grinder Blade - 12x Basalt Blocks, 4x Grey Rock, Requires Hammer
  
• Iron Grinder Blade - 12x Iron Ingots, Requires Iron Anvil
  
• Steel Grinder Blade - 12x Steel Ingots, Requires Material Printer
  
• Hybrid Lobber - 1x Strange Dynamo, 2x Strange Alloy, 1x Steel Gun Parts, 4x Plastic
  
• Double Jump Backpack - 1x Strange Dynamo, 2x Strange Alloy, 2x Steel Ingots
  
• Momentum Preserver - 1x Strange Dynamo, 2x Strange Alloy, 2x Steel Ingots
  
• Hybrid Helmet - 2x Strange Alloy, 2x Steel Ingots
  
• Hybrid Torso - 4x Strange Alloy, 4x Steel Ingots
  
• Hybrid Arms - 2x Strange Alloy, 2x Steel Ingots
  
• Hybrid Gloves - 2x Strange Alloy, 2x Steel Ingots
  
• Hybrid Leggings - 4x Strange Alloy, 4x Steel Ingots
  
• Hybrid Boots - 2x Strange Alloy, 2x Steel Ingots
  
• Hybrid Reactor Pack - 1x Strange Dynamo, 2x Strange Alloy, 2x Steel Ingots

• Fixed an issue that could result in instant death if you were wearing something with damage reflect and got damaged by caltrops
  
• The game should launch faster in Steam now.
  
• Fixed some world generation bugs that would cause the generation to get stuck. Not 100% sure we've fixed all of these, so let us know if your world generator ever gets stuck.
  
• Fixed an issue that would cause you to take damage when eating certain mushrooms
  
• Fixed an issue that would cause the player to get stuck for a few seconds after using the respawners
  
• Fixed a crash related to having an extremely large number of characters in the character select menu
  
• Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause the game to display in the wrong place when using the borderless window display mode
  
• A bunch of small issues
  

We hope you like the changes, but either way we'd love to hear from you so make sure to let us know what you think in the comments or on the forum.

This update is intended to add some flavor to the world and make it feel a bit more lively. We’ve added several new creatures to the upper parts of the world, particularly on the surface of the far side of the planet as well as relatively shallow underground. We’ve also added some new areas to explore (and a new boss) that are related to the new creatures. You will need to generate a new world from the sandbox menu or create a new character to see much of the new content.

Here are a couple of the new creatures:



In addition to the new creatures and related content, we added a bit of story content and changed some of the existing progression a bit. We added a new button on the Pioneer Station comm device (the device that requires the battery on the top floor) and there is a new satellite dish on top of the Pioneer station, but it seems to be missing a component…

We also changed the method of obtaining the Level 2 keycard upgrade - The upgrade device is now found in the captain’s room in the Pioneer Station barracks. This update is fairly light on the direct story content, but the next update should expand on the story and the mysteries of the planet quite a bit.


We re-worked the cooking/food system quite a bit. Prior to this update only a handful of food items had buffs associated with them, but in this update we’ve added buff effects to most of the foods. All fruits, mushrooms and meats now have buffs that you can get by eating them. In previous versions, you’ve been able to cook food by using the crafting menu, but now cooking is done similar to how ore is processed. We’ve added pop-up menu when you right click the campfire, and you can both cook food and process ores in the same devices.

The campfire has just one slot for ingredients, but the brick oven and advanced smelter both have 2 slots, which allows you to combine some food items to create new recipes. For example, a Juicy Fruit will give you a heal over time and a sporepod mushroom will temporarily increase your max health. Both items will fill 1/4th of your stomach, but if you cook them together you can make a food item that will give you both buffs and still just fill 1/4th of your stomach. You can also cook a fruit with a plant fiber to make Fruit Chews, which give you longer lasting buffs that fill less of your stomach.


Some of the new creatures can inflict a bleed status effect on you, so we added Primitive Bandages (can be made with plant fiber) and Cloth Bandages that can stop the bleeding status. In addition, you can add some medicinal herbs to the cloth bandage in order to make a Poultice Bandage that heals you.

• Glazed Mushrooms - Any mushroom + any fruit
  
• Glazed Meat - Any Meat + any fruit
  
• Meat with Mushrooms - Any Meat + any mushroom
  
• Fruit Chews - Cook any fruit + plant fiber
  
• Gleaming Syrup - Ant Bulb/Ant Ichor/Ant Chitin + Sap
  
• Bitter Jelly - Jiggly Fruit + Lovely Herb
  
• Strange Compote - Strange Egg + Blue Fruit
  
• Pulsing Paste - Strange Egg + Jiggly Fruit
  
• Cooked Steal - Raw Choice Meat
  
• Zesty Mash - Bana Fruit + Grey Mushroom
  

• Primitive Bandage - 4x Plant Fibers
  
• Cloth Bandage - 1x Cotton Bolt/Wool Bolt/Linen Bolt/Scrap of Cloth (requires scissors)
  
• Poultice Bandage - 1x Cloth Bandage + 1x Lovely Herb
  
• Makeshift Shiv - 1x Makeshift Scrap + 1x Stick + 1x Plant Fiber
  
• Makeshift Spear - 1x Makeshift Shiv + 1x Makeshift Scrap + 3x Stick + 1x Plant Fiber
  
• Makeshift Blow Pipe - 3x Makeshift Scrap + 1x Wood Dowel + 2x Plant Fiber
  
• Blow Dart (x6) - 1x Makeshift Scrap + 2x Bone
  
• Tortoise Shell Brace - 6x Carapace + 1x Iron Ingot + 4x Wool Padding/Cotton Padding
  
• Tortoise Hammer - 1x Mature Tortoise Gland + 4x Carapace + 2x Iron Ingots + 2x Logs
  
• Makeshift Tribal Shield - 4x Makeshift Scrap + 3x Wool Padding/Cotton Padding + 2x
• Leather Strap/Plated Hide Strap/Xenohide Strap
  
• Iron Caltrops (x3) - 1x Iron Ingot
  
• Fruit Seeds (x2) - 1x Any Fruit
  
• Pumpkin Seeds (x2-x8) - 1x Pumpkin
  
• Snare - 4x Makeshift Scrap
  
• Sticks (x3) - 1x Log (requires saw)
  
• Pumpkin Rind (x2-x6) - 1x Pumpkin
  

All of these recipes are obtained by destroying matching projects that are in the world with your wrist laser.

• Spike Trap - 6x Makeshift Scrap, 3x Logs, 3x Bones
  
• Poison Trap - 6x Makeshift Scrap, 3x Logs, 8x Bones
  
• Snare Trap - 6x Makeshift Scrap, 3x Logs, 3x Bones
  

• All gem upgrade recipes require 2 instead of 3 gems. We will probably eventually change this back once we have more sources for gems in the world.
  

Most of these new status effects are currently attached to various food items.

• Increased Jump Height
  
• Light Aura - Generates light around the player
  
• Increased Max Energy
  
• Increased Max Health
  
• Increased Melee Damage
  
• Protection - Reduces damage from all sources
  
• Resist bleed - reduces duration and severity of bleeding
  
• Increased Strange Tablet Damage - Increases the damage of all abilities used through the Strange Tablet device
  
• Reduced Strange Energy Requirement - Reduces required strange energy for Strange Tablet abilities
  
• Improved Dodge - Dodge roll or backjump further than normal
  
• Bleeding - Slow damage over time, which can be cured by using a bandage. Inflicted by blow darts.
  
• Spore Poison & Vulnerability - Increases damage from all sources
  

• Fixed some issues where certain sounds would play at full volume regardless of distance. Let us know if you notice any other sound fx that seem too loud.
  
• Changed the projectile attack of the golems. Instead of throwing rocks, they now use some kind of sufficiently advanced technology to levitate materials out of the ground and fling them at players
  
• Fixed some issues that would cause certain tooltips to not appear when they should.
  

• The world generator may get stuck while generating worlds. We think we've fixed all the cases where this can happen, but we can't be completely sure that there are no more lingering issues. If you run into this issue, definitely let us know.
  

This update adds quite a bit of new bits of content and changes, so let us know if you run into any issues and we'll fix them ASAP. As always, we encourage any feedback you folks have about the new content (or any old content). We love hearing from you, so don't be shy =)

This update is intended to add some flavor to the world and make it feel a bit more lively. We’ve added several new creatures to the upper parts of the world, particularly on the surface of the far side of the planet as well as relatively shallow underground. We’ve also added some new areas to explore (and a new boss) that are related to the new creatures. You will need to generate a new world from the sandbox menu or create a new character to see much of the new content.

Here are a couple of the new creatures:



In addition to the new creatures and related content, we added a bit of story content and changed some of the existing progression a bit. We added a new button on the Pioneer Station comm device (the device that requires the battery on the top floor) and there is a new satellite dish on top of the Pioneer station, but it seems to be missing a component…

We also changed the method of obtaining the Level 2 keycard upgrade - The upgrade device is now found in the captain’s room in the Pioneer Station barracks. This update is fairly light on the direct story content, but the next update should expand on the story and the mysteries of the planet quite a bit.


We re-worked the cooking/food system quite a bit. Prior to this update only a handful of food items had buffs associated with them, but in this update we’ve added buff effects to most of the foods. All fruits, mushrooms and meats now have buffs that you can get by eating them. In previous versions, you’ve been able to cook food by using the crafting menu, but now cooking is done similar to how ore is processed. We’ve added pop-up menu when you right click the campfire, and you can both cook food and process ores in the same devices.

The campfire has just one slot for ingredients, but the brick oven and advanced smelter both have 2 slots, which allows you to combine some food items to create new recipes. For example, a Juicy Fruit will give you a heal over time and a sporepod mushroom will temporarily increase your max health. Both items will fill 1/4th of your stomach, but if you cook them together you can make a food item that will give you both buffs and still just fill 1/4th of your stomach. You can also cook a fruit with a plant fiber to make Fruit Chews, which give you longer lasting buffs that fill less of your stomach.


Some of the new creatures can inflict a bleed status effect on you, so we added Primitive Bandages (can be made with plant fiber) and Cloth Bandages that can stop the bleeding status. In addition, you can add some medicinal herbs to the cloth bandage in order to make a Poultice Bandage that heals you.

• Glazed Mushrooms - Any mushroom + any fruit
  
• Glazed Meat - Any Meat + any fruit
  
• Meat with Mushrooms - Any Meat + any mushroom
  
• Fruit Chews - Cook any fruit + plant fiber
  
• Gleaming Syrup - Ant Bulb/Ant Ichor/Ant Chitin + Sap
  
• Bitter Jelly - Jiggly Fruit + Lovely Herb
  
• Strange Compote - Strange Egg + Blue Fruit
  
• Pulsing Paste - Strange Egg + Jiggly Fruit
  
• Cooked Steal - Raw Choice Meat
  
• Zesty Mash - Bana Fruit + Grey Mushroom
  

• Primitive Bandage - 4x Plant Fibers
  
• Cloth Bandage - 1x Cotton Bolt/Wool Bolt/Linen Bolt/Scrap of Cloth (requires scissors)
  
• Poultice Bandage - 1x Cloth Bandage + 1x Lovely Herb
  
• Makeshift Shiv - 1x Makeshift Scrap + 1x Stick + 1x Plant Fiber
  
• Makeshift Spear - 1x Makeshift Shiv + 1x Makeshift Scrap + 3x Stick + 1x Plant Fiber
  
• Makeshift Blow Pipe - 3x Makeshift Scrap + 1x Wood Dowel + 2x Plant Fiber
  
• Blow Dart (x6) - 1x Makeshift Scrap + 2x Bone
  
• Tortoise Shell Brace - 6x Carapace + 1x Iron Ingot + 4x Wool Padding/Cotton Padding
  
• Tortoise Hammer - 1x Mature Tortoise Gland + 4x Carapace + 2x Iron Ingots + 2x Logs
  
• Makeshift Tribal Shield - 4x Makeshift Scrap + 3x Wool Padding/Cotton Padding + 2x
• Leather Strap/Plated Hide Strap/Xenohide Strap
  
• Iron Caltrops (x3) - 1x Iron Ingot
  
• Fruit Seeds (x2) - 1x Any Fruit
  
• Pumpkin Seeds (x2-x8) - 1x Pumpkin
  
• Snare - 4x Makeshift Scrap
  
• Sticks (x3) - 1x Log (requires saw)
  
• Pumpkin Rind (x2-x6) - 1x Pumpkin
  

All of these recipes are obtained by destroying matching projects that are in the world with your wrist laser.

• Spike Trap - 6x Makeshift Scrap, 3x Logs, 3x Bones
  
• Poison Trap - 6x Makeshift Scrap, 3x Logs, 8x Bones
  
• Snare Trap - 6x Makeshift Scrap, 3x Logs, 3x Bones
  

• All gem upgrade recipes require 2 instead of 3 gems. We will probably eventually change this back once we have more sources for gems in the world.
  

Most of these new status effects are currently attached to various food items.

• Increased Jump Height
  
• Light Aura - Generates light around the player
  
• Increased Max Energy
  
• Increased Max Health
  
• Increased Melee Damage
  
• Protection - Reduces damage from all sources
  
• Resist bleed - reduces duration and severity of bleeding
  
• Increased Strange Tablet Damage - Increases the damage of all abilities used through the Strange Tablet device
  
• Reduced Strange Energy Requirement - Reduces required strange energy for Strange Tablet abilities
  
• Improved Dodge - Dodge roll or backjump further than normal
  
• Bleeding - Slow damage over time, which can be cured by using a bandage. Inflicted by blow darts.
  
• Spore Poison & Vulnerability - Increases damage from all sources
  

• Fixed some issues where certain sounds would play at full volume regardless of distance. Let us know if you notice any other sound fx that seem too loud.
  
• Changed the projectile attack of the golems. Instead of throwing rocks, they now use some kind of sufficiently advanced technology to levitate materials out of the ground and fling them at players
  
• Fixed some issues that would cause certain tooltips to not appear when they should.
  

• The world generator may get stuck while generating worlds. We think we've fixed all the cases where this can happen, but we can't be completely sure that there are no more lingering issues. If you run into this issue, definitely let us know.
  

This update adds quite a bit of new bits of content and changes, so let us know if you run into any issues and we'll fix them ASAP. As always, we encourage any feedback you folks have about the new content (or any old content). We love hearing from you, so don't be shy =)

Hey folks, we put out a new update today (version 0.8) that changes the engine that Signs of Life runs on and adds a few quality of life improvements as well as a sweet new grappling laser function for your wrist device. We changed the engine that the game runs on from XNA to MonoGame because XNA has been abandoned by Microsoft for awhile now, and MonoGame fixes a lot of issues that we had with XNA as well as lets us support platforms other than Windows. That said, If we did our jobs right you probably won't notice much of a change right now. The performance seems a bit better for us on our machines and it fixes some crash bugs that we were unable to fix with XNA, but really this update is about opening the door for more stuff down the line and making sure the game is as future-proof as possible. While the new version fixes some things, I'm sure there will be some new problems as well, so let us know what issues you run into.

• Added Linux OS support
  
• Added support for resolutions higher than 2048x2048 (tested up to 4k)
  
• Added Grapple Laser function to the MEG tool. Activated by holding and releasing C by default and uses energy to stick you to walls and ceilings. You can press S by default to release the grapple. The grapple laser is still a bit of a work in progress, but we figured it was too useful to hold back until we get it just right. Expect some changes to this over time.
  
  
• Emeralds - Can be inserted into the MEG tool in order to increase the efficiency of the grapple laser
  
• Added an option for the minimap that lets you use a UI popup instead of the projected minimap. The option is in the settings menu, and the popup is opened with the minimap key and can then be docked wherever you'd like on your screen.
  
  
• Reworked start screen menus to be easier to use and work better on all resolutions
  

• The new version of the game requires at least Windows 7 and an OpenGL 3.0 compatible graphics device. We believe that the vast majority of players should still be able to play, but there will be some players who will be unable to play the new version even if they were able to play old versions. We're still investigating what we can do to lower the requirements further, so if you are unable to play the game after this update please email your system information (OS version and graphics device) to [email protected]. We've put up the previous version as a beta option (xna_version_0.7.6.6) which you should still be able to play, but that version will not get future fixes or new content.
  
• Occasionally, certain sounds will play louder than they should. We fixed most of the instances of this, but let us know if/when you notice it.
  

• Increased the width of all map sizes by about 50%, we'll increase it even further after we spend some time optimizing the world generation speed.
  
• Tweaked some parts of the bases on the world to make them a bit more interesting
  
• Increased the player's base jump height slightly
  
• Reduced the damage of the infected sheep from 25 per hit to 10
  
• Made cooked food give you more fullness
  

This update doesn't add a lot of new content, but that is somewhat intentional. We've actually been working on two updates at the same time, and we wanted to get this version of the game out to players as soon as possible so we can get to fixing the issues that crop up with the engine change first. The next update should be ready in a few weeks, and will add several new creatures, a new boss, and a bunch of other fun stuff. Here is a teaser: