BitCraft Online News

[p]We just released a small update which this should address the following things:[/p]

• [p]Fixed Enemies not attacking after getting KOed and getting back up and not moving,[/p]
• [p]Fixed an error with one of the packages packing into the wrong item,[/p]
• [p]We have also disabled the purchase of Pumpkin.[/p]

[p]
[/p][p]Araknir Dungeon,[/p][p]We've heard feedback from the veteran players in BitCraft that they've enjoyed the combat dungeons but so far they have all been too easy for their over-leveled characters. This week hopefully brings a real challenge for those of you who have higher levels and gear. [/p][p]The Araknir cave brings some formidable enemies and spawners which will continue to send out enemies until dealt with. For the boss fight we wanted to air on the side of too difficult to really give the community a challenge to overcome. It boasts some powerful weapons, cool cosmetics and a new pet as rewards so get out there and squash some bugs![/p][p]More Packages,[/p][p]We've added quite a few new package options. I wanted to apologize for this falling through the cracks after it was announced last month. I am looking to make sure stuff like this doesn't happen going forward and I appreciate the community pinging on this to bring it back on our radar.[/p][p]Under the hood changes,[/p][p]We have some larger changes under the hood included in this week's update which are laying the groundwork for some bigger updates in the coming weeks. This should have no noticeable impact, but it's possible it may introduce some issues we didn't catch in testing. Let us know if you find anything specifically around combat actions, interacting with items (eating food, equipping gear) or general interaction logic with things in the world.
[/p][p]Pumpkin heading out soon (for now),[/p][p]Pumpkin will be leaving the shop tomorrow for this year, but will make a reappearance sometime in the future.

Patch-Notes

Added,[/p]

• [p]A new tier 7 dungeon[/p]
  • [p]Includes new weapons, pet and cosmetic rewards,[/p]

• [p]Hunter's Goat, obtainable from Alessi, which allows you to hunt from mountback,[/p]
• [p]Cargo packaging recipes for:[/p]
  • [p]Parchment,[/p]
  • [p]Fish Oil,[/p]
  • [p]Tannin,[/p]
  • [p]Pelts,[/p]
  • [p]Raw Meat,[/p]
  • [p]Lake Fish Filets,[/p]
  • [p]Ocean Fish Filets,[/p]
  • [p]Flowers,[/p]
  • [p]Rope,[/p]
  • [p]Bark,[/p]
  • [p]Pigment,[/p]
  • [p]Ink,[/p]
  • [p]Glass Vials,[/p]
  • [p]Pitch,[/p]
  [p][/p]

[p]Changed,[/p]

• [p]Increased the stack size of raw food, pitch, and tannin,[/p]
• [p]Lowered the amount of actions required for packaging and unpackaging,
  [/p]

[p]Fixed,[/p]

• [p]Being unable to move after being tabbed out of the game for a while,[/p]
• [p]Being unable to move after interacting with a traveler,[/p]
• [p]Tier filtering not working in the marketplace,[/p]
• [p]Claim selection dropdown being invisible in light theme,[/p]
• [p]Dungeon trackers not showing the name and tier when far away,[/p]
• [p]Not being able to store a deployable in some rare case,
  [/p]

[p]Known Issues,[/p]

• [p]Camera collision inside the new dungeon still needs some tweaking[/p]
• [p]Pet movement for the new pet has some glitches[/p]
• [p]Camera Bug: Player character is unable to click in the Alesi cave, you will need to rotate your camera to move.[/p]
• [p]Unable to auto dismounting from a deployable when gathering.[/p]
• [p]Left click to interact control scheme is not working as intended. You have to use the Shift left click to move.
  [/p]

[p]We've also done some backend work in preparation of an upcoming feature that touched a lot of systems. Please let us know if you encounter any problems.[/p]

[h3][/h3][p]Hey guys![/p][p]A goal we've had for BitCraft for a long time is to properly incentivize players to create settlements and outposts across the world which can act as sanctuaries of civilization in distant or dangerous biomes, and functionally act as a place for anyone to come process raw gathered cargo before making the full trip home (benefitting the settlement owner in the process). At the same time we've been very cautious to avoid upsetting the current balance of both having larger towns which congregate dozens to hundreds of players and the overall rate of progression through the tiers. With this update we are making some changes, hopefully in a way that furthers our goal while minimizing the impact on the things we are happy with. [/p][p]This update introduces the concept of profession-specific research for claims, which can be done for a fraction of the cost of unlocking all professions (current tier unlock research will stay), allowing you to more easily create a higher tier outpost settlements or progress in a smaller group to high tiers while only focusing on a few professions. The way this fits into the existing research, is that in order to unlock the specific profession, you need an item only crafted in a settlement which has all professions unlocked. This preserves the cutting edge rate of progression while allowing new claims to progress through specific research much faster. Before you dive into the update, remember this is a first iteration on a new concept for our game and we will be gathering feedback on it to figure out what works and what doesn’t. In particular a game like BitCraft is a constant balancing act, so we will be reviewing carefully how players interact in the new system and if the specific research requirements require adjustments. [/p][p]This update was technically quite complex to implement and a few changes came down to wire, and some didn’t make it in. In particular we are going to have (but don’t have in this update yet) a clear indication on the map for which claims are “Towns” (meaning that they have all professions unlocked) and which are “Outposts” (specialized in only a subset of professions). In particular, beyond giving traveling players information on what claims offer what, the goal is to give towns more visibility and prestige as they require more effort and larger groups to progress.[/p][p][/p][h3]Added[/h3]

• [p]New claim research UI, allowing claims to specialize in specific professions[/p]
• [p]New Hexite Exchange UI, allowing players to purchase items and services for shards[/p]
• [p]New audio for the Giant Crab boss[/p]

[h3]Changed[/h3]

• [p]Buffed the output of Empty Buckets for tiers 5-10[/p]
• [p]All claim tech is now researched instantly[/p]
• [p]All buildings construction recipes of a tier are no longer gated solely behind the "Tier" upgrade and are now instead gated behind their respective profession claim tech[/p]
• [p]Tier upgrades unlock the ability to research the claim techs of that tier (eg, tier 3 unlocks the ability to research tier 3 township or tier 3 farming) as well as the ability to build storage, housing and walls of that tier[/p]
• [p]Township research is exactly as expensive as upgrading to a new tier is now and it automatically researches all profession tech of that tier (for example, tier 4 township would unlock tier 4 fishing, foraging). This means that if you plan to research everything, these changes shouldn't really impact your progression[/p]
• [p]Individual profession research is much cheaper and should allow players to specialize claims more easily. Upgrading a single profession is about 1/9th of the cost of upgrading to a township[/p]
• [p]To research individual professions, players will need to craft "Outpost Research" at a Township of the tier they're trying to progress their profession to. This means that someone in the world must research township of a given tier before anyone can progress their individual profession research to that tier[/p]
• [p]Additionally we've moved a few things from Rumbagh to the claim tech tree[/p]
  • [p]Market and Bank kits have been removed and instead settlements will have to research the ability to build these. Players can convert existing market and bank kits to hex coins by right clicking them[/p]
  • [p]Banks can be researched by a Tier 2 Settlement[/p]
  • [p]Marketplaces can be researched by a Tier 4 Township[/p]

[h3]Fixed[/h3]

• [p]Move on Map not working with the WASD control scheme[/p]
• [p]Charged Heart V having the same stats as Expanded Heart IV[/p]
• [p]Showing automoderated messages to other players[/p]
• [p]Naming error in hay bale items and buildings[/p]
• [p]Whispers being disabled by default in the General tab[/p]
• [p]Mounts that are following the player sometimes getting stuck on pavement[/p]
• [p]A rubber-banding issue when traversing cliffs[/p]

[h3]Known issues[/h3][p]There appears to be an issue when having a pet deployed already and deploying the new pumpkin qitt pet. You'll need to first store the other pet before deploying it for him to show up.[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p]Hello all!

As you all already know, we have always wanted BitCraft Online to be a free-to-play game in the final release, in order to make it as accessible to as many people as possible.

In order to be able to launch BitCraft Online out of Beta/Steam Early Access and into a full release we need to begin selling more cosmetics and skins to test our free-to-play monetization plans for the game. Selling skins and other cosmetics is critical to the game’s long-term viability and for its continuing development. Thus far those cosmetics have been restricted solely to the empire system via the Hexite Shards (more fun stuff to come here too, I know a lot of you have been asking for things like empire banners), but we’d like to start selling character scale cosmetics as well.[/p][p][/p][p]In accordance with our monetization philosophy, it will still be the case that clothing, skins, decorations, pets, and other cosmetics which are earnable only through playing the game, will not be purchasable directly from our store. For example, skill outfits in BitCraft. It would be pretty lame (and defeat the purpose) if you could just buy them from us. Of course, while not all cosmetics will be items/tradeable, if an item is tradeable that doesn’t prevent you from buying it from another player for in-game currency or items.[/p][p][/p][p]However, we also want to sell some fun cosmetics and decorations to players so they can make their characters and settlements fit their vision for what they want in the game, while also supporting the development of the game.

We’d like to try out selling our first cosmetic in-game this Halloween, and it’s a fun one! We will shortly be introducing a new cat pet for you all! Most of the cats will be acquireable in-game, but on October 31st we are going to be selling a single-run, Pumpkin cat skin, inspired by my own orange pet cat, Pumpkin!

We will be selling Pumpkin from October 31st, 2025 - November 6th, 2025, HOWEVER we have decided to bring him back at least another time after the full-release of the game to give players who have spent their in-game shards a chance to purchase Pumpkin without needing to purchase more shards now. If you are in that situation you can either buy more shards and buy him now, or wait for full release. This ensures that anyone who purchased the beta on Steam will be able to get Pumpkin without buying more shards.
[/p][p]Importantly, if you buy this cosmetic he will be added to your Hub account which will persist after the wipe! All Hub account items will be granted to your character after the full-release wipe, so if he’s in your Hub account, you will get him back after the wipe!

We decided that it would be too confusing and just generally not a great experience to purchase a cosmetic for just the Beta period. Likewise, we’ve decided to disable trading for Pumpkin for the duration of the Beta, although Pumpkin will be tradeable in the full release of the game. Players will not be limited in the number of Pumpkins they can purchase, as we do not want to encourage people to create multiple accounts to buy multiple Pumpkin skins.

We thought this would be a fun way to introduce the cat pets while giving those of you who are fans of my cat Pumpkin to buy something fun and very thematic for Halloween!

Pumpkin will be 7,500 Hexite shards and will be purchasable in game on October 31st, 2025. Be sure to log in if you want the chance to buy him![/p][p]
Hope you all have a spooky Halloween, and check out our Halloween event!

Sincerely,[/p][p]
3Blave (Tyler, Cofounder of Clockwork Labs)[/p]

[h2]More Seasonal Content,
[/h2][p]This week's update brings some more seasonal content, this time of the spooky variety. We've added some new uses for your pumpkins to make them a bit more festive as well as a new furniture set for your house.[/p][p]We also wanted to clarify that the fall seasonal resources (sunflowers and pumpkins) will be respawning from Oct 09 - Nov 20, after which they will slowly be let to go extinct as what's left is gathered.[/p][p]Beyond the resources themselves, no recipes will be removed so any items still in circulation can be used to craft even after the event has ended.

[/p][h2]Custom Chat Channels,
[/h2][p]This is something we've been working on for a while and it took some time to get it working properly. This is the first version of a system which allows players to create their own chat channels to make communicating with groups of friends possible, and allows for you to more easily form larger group chats, be it for a settlement, an empire or just some shared interests.[/p][p]Currently you are able to own/administrate only 1 chat channel, but can be a member of up to 5. We will likely expand this in the future, but this limit allowed us to keep the current UI relatively unchanged. [/p][p]Like whispers, these custom channels are not automoderated, however reports are still acted on and the community guidelines still apply. We hope that this gives players a space to take banter with their friends or townmates, without clogging up region chat, and without the risk of getting auto-muted.[/p][p]We'll be listening to your feedback to decide how to evolve this feature going forward. We have a lot of ideas of how to expand to make it better but wanted to get the first version in your hands to hear what you think and see how it ends up being used.
[/p][h2]More Quality of life,
[/h2][p]We also have a few more highly requested quality of life features, including the ability to change the bind for (or unbind) moving on the map. Another nice one is the ability to see the wind direction near your minimap.
[/p][h2]
Patch Notes


Added,[/h2]

• [p]Halloween decorations and collectibles,[/p]
• [p]Gothic furniture set,[/p]
• [p]A new type of pet,[/p]
• [p]Private chat channels,[/p]
• [p]Separate keybind for moving on the map,[/p]
• [p]More stats to deployable tooltips,[/p]
• [p]Wind indicator next to the minimap,
  [/p]

[h3]Changed,[/h3]

• [p]Dungeon icons on the map now show the dungeon's name and tier,[/p]
• [p]'Fill deployables first' inventory setting to 'Disable auto-pickup', [/p]
  • [p]Because of the confusion around the inventory setting changes we reverted the functionality to what it was on the server and we'll consider more what the best solution here is. [/p][p]The intent was to give the option to go hunting without a deployable and have loot drop on the ground so it wouldn't slow you down by going on your back. However we are listening to player feedback and this was clearly confusing and had side effects that we hadn't considered.[/p][p]The UI will still show the new text until a new client is available later today.[/p][p]With regards to the barter stall change we are investigating a bug where market mode orders aren't showing up anymore after the update (they should have been showing as 2 distinct orders) and will look into ways to preserve old functionality like having 0-cost orders. [/p]
• [p]When a siege on a watchtower starts, all marks for siege are now removed,[/p]
• [p]Market-mode on barter stalls has been discontinued in favor of the marketplace,[/p]
• [p]Pumpkin and sunflower hats are now tradeable,
  [/p]

[h3]Fixed,[/h3]

• [p]Not being able to interact with entities when the cursor is over a cliff,[/p]
• [p]Being able to phase through obstacles with deployables,[/p]
• [p]Position of the waystone not being updated on other regions after being moved inside the claim,[/p]
• [p]Deployable’s inventory window closing after picking up dropped items[/p]