Abiotic Factor News

Abiotic Factor's first major update adds alien cheese and corpse bags, as the Half-Life inspired survival sim sells 250,000 copies

Do you ever think about how a game smells? I'm not talking about, say, the smell of the manual (back in the days when games had manuals). I mean what the game world might smell like if you could inhale its atmosphere. A few of the more putrid areas of FromSoft games, like Dark Souls' Blighttown, have got me wondering about how badly it might whiff. But it isn't something I consider especially often...
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You can pet the headcrabs in Abiotic Factor, and now they'll follow you around

Cheese and loyal pets (two important items on Maslow's hierarchy of needs) have been added to the co-op survival crafting game Abiotic Factor. The dairy product manifests as various suspiciously coloured cheese wheels which you can cook and eat, while loyalty comes in the form of freakish pets that can now follow your every move. The pets themselves are technically not new to Abiotic Factor, but their player-tracking behaviour is. "There is, as far as we know, no limit to how many pets can follow you at once," say the devs. Hmmm. I wonder if any scientifically minded folks will test such a hypothesis.

250,000 Scientists and Counting!

Today we would like to announce that Abiotic Factor has sold over 250,000 copies since it began its journey on May 2nd, 2024 -- eleven days ago! Thank you to the more than 250,000 scientists who have stepped foot in the GATE Cascade Research Facility, and many worlds beyond. We are so excited to continue this journey with you, and we can't wait to show you what we have in store this year alone.

In the words of Dr. Manse, our ambitions have extended far beyond their origins. Far beyond.

Thank you for being part of this bold new adventure.

- The Deep Field & Playstack teams

Hotfix 0.8.0.9915

Salutations, colleagues!

We have deployed a small hotfix to address some issues that have been reported. Big thank you to everyone submitting feedback and bug reports!

Please be sure to update your game and dedicated servers.

The version at the bottom of your screen in-game should read “0.8.0.9915”.

[h3]Repairing Items[/h3]

Fixed a major issue with Sandbox Item Durability Multiplier which was mishandling some values and not being properly accounted for in all transactions, such as crafting and salvaging. All durability has been switched to use a new, less volatile system, which will allow servers to change this setting in the future without their items having greatly inflated numbers and without being created in a broken or damaged state.
NOTE: Saves currently using high durability multiplier values may find their items are now exceptionally high values. The easiest way to solve this is to either destroy/salvage that item or simply enjoy the new inflated value. All further crafted and salvaged items should have the correct values, however.
Hammers now repair a percentage of the furniture’s total health, rather than hit points. This means that repairs now take a more consistent amount of time across various objects, and are consistent regardless of Durability Multiplier Sandbox settings.

[h3]Server Browser Changes[/h3]

The Server Browser now shows up to 10,000 servers instead of 1,000. Thank you to every scientist who made this a problem we needed to solve!
Entering a server password will now properly censor the password as it is being typed to help protect our scientists from prying eyes. There is a button to show the password, but be sure to not press this while streaming!
We’ve updated the Steam Server Version, meaning that servers from previous updates will no longer show in the Server Browser. Please update your Dedicated Servers if you want them to show in the Server Browser!

[h3]General Patches[/h3]

Time no longer passes while in the Introduction, meaning that new scientists will no longer be seemingly trapped on the elevator for hours on end.
Our stealthiest scientists are no longer able to stealth-roll in their sleep. You’re good but you’re not that good!
Cement Bag Walls are no longer anomalously reproducing and now return the same amount of cement required to craft them.
Scientists can no longer find themselves getting stuck in that one spot under the stairs in Silo 3. Thanks for the reports!
Scientists will no longer be trapped by opening a shutter below a vent path in the Manufacturing West Garage.
IS-0178 variants have begun appearing more frequently in the Mycofields.
Item Stands are now categorized as Furniture! Surprise surprise.
Fire Suits have had a correction to their shiny material.
IS-0139 no longer glows white, instead of its normal color.
Fixed a visual issue with the shiny bits on The Order.
Removed collision from Healing Briefcases which could cause scientists to get stuck or dropped through elevator floors.
When scrapping a weapon with ammo inside it, the ammo will now attempt to go into your scientist’s inventory rather than quietly fall onto the floor and getting lost.
Vacuums no longer cause recoil when firing. Don’t worry, the suck is still just as powerful.
Wristwatches got a bit of a visual upgrade.
Deployed Antelight Plants will no longer block movement.
SMGs now have sound effects when being reloaded.
The Mega Couch now has its own fancy icon in your inventory.

That’s all for this hotfix. Now…

Onward to science!

The amazing new Half-Life inspired survival game just got even better

More than 25 years since the release of Half-Life, and I feel like I know the Black Mesa lab better than my own hometown. The anomalous materials sector, the blast pit, that horrendous underground railway - between Gordon Freeman, G-Man, and myself we could comfortably sit down and hand draw the entire facility. It begs a question: during the resonance cascade, where would be the best place to hide out and try to survive? A huge hit on Steam, one new survival game lets you test your subsistence skills in a parody of gaming's most famous scientific facility, and it's just gotten even better thanks to a vital new update.

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