Abiotic Factor News

[h5][color]Greetings, esteemed colleagues![/color][/h5]
In this Status Report we will be sharing some important news on our update schedule along with a peek at a most-festive update. A peek at your presents, if you will.

[h3]A Message from the Director[/h3]
Kicking off this whole post, our Design Director Zag is here to share some words on the changes to our roadmap.

Greetings scientists!
The team has been heads-down on Dark Energy. It is massive. And it’s proving to be one of the largest updates Abiotic Factor has ever seen. With the introduction of a whole new faction, a whole new sector (made of multiple sub-sectors), and doing it all the right way, we’ve made some adjustments to our roadmap timeline. Not by much, but adjustments all the same, and as you know, we like to communicate. Anyone who has watched the vlogs knows we actually can’t shut up sometimes.

Ahem, anyway - we want to get you into the Reactors (and beyond?) as soon as it’s ready, but we also want to take the time to get it right. As you know from the gazillion hours you’ve put into ABF, we have a certain level of quality, a certain bar for new content, and a very specific amount of love that our updates require, and we are never going to compromise on that quality or balance sniper spawn rates.

(That last part was a joke - probably.)

As we’ve neared the end of 2024, we felt we were compromising on one-too-many things, just little things, but the things that make the game what it is. The change is this; we’re shifting the Christmas update in front of the major Dark Energy update. As for Dark Energy, you’ll see it just on the other side of the holidays - Q1 2025.

You’ve trusted us this far to deliver (and we love you all to the Flesh Dimension and back for that) so we ask that you carry on just a bit further. But don’t fret – we have a community-centric bundle of stuff dropping just in time for Christmas.

We also have another little present coming up pretty darn soon, but it’s still under wraps. Keep an eye out.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s the updated roadmap as it now sits, and then we’ll talk more in-depth about the Christmas update coming in December!

Oh, but first, the tiniest of peeks at Dark Energy… while you wait.

Neat.

[h2][color]The Updated Roadmap[/color][/h2]


[h2]A Peek at Your Presents[/h2]
For the Christmas update, we’re dropping all kinds of gifts. Let’s take a look under the wrapping.

[h3]Early Access Rewards[/h3]
For the many many scientists who have been helping us create great things during this Early Access period, we want to thank you! We’re not done yet, but we wanted to make sure everyone who plays before 1.0 receives a few in-game goodies.


[h3]Heard the Buzz?[/h3]
Is anything as sweet as science? According to the Brix viscosity scale, honey comes close, at 60 to 80 percent! Is it actually honey? Are these actually bees? We’ll leave that up to you and your tastebuds to decide.


[h3]The Purple Armor[/h3]
Some scientists may have already noticed the Crystalline armor floating around in a few of our screenshots and videos. We were going to blame Dr. Stern for their early reveal - after all, he prototyped the thing - but when we went to yell at him about it, we couldn’t find him and we’re not entirely sure where he’s gone.



[h3]Charging Up the Field[/h3]
As expeditions into the depths of the Facility (and worlds beyond) become longer and more fraught with danger, sometimes there simply isn’t time to search for a power outlet when you need to recharge your gear. And carrying around that charging station? That’s just bad form, really.


We’ll dive further into this little doohicky on release.

[h3]deepth feld plz fix throwing[/h3]
Don’t throw a fit, scientist… Throw knives instead!


Throwing knives are a new type of weapon, with multiple tiers, that you can soon craft. We’re also looking at making Throwing XP easier to gain, but also a bit more sensible, taking into account weight of the item, and so on and so forth.

[h3]Something about Soup[/h3]
As you know, we’ve added some handy quality-of-life to cooking, but we still feel soup just isn’t quite there yet. We’ve been working on improving some of the soup system, particularly around discovering recipes and finding new ingredients. We also feel that the current soup system is a bit too punishing on failure to make a good soup, so we’re doing a few things there as well. We’ll dive more into that bowl (of soup?) when we’re ready to share (our soup?) with you. Soup, soup, soup.

Soup.

[h3]Other Christmas Things (Not Soup)[/h3]
We have a few more things coming for Christmas, but some presents are best left un-peeked. Dr. Stern has been muttering something about a contamination involving IS-0083, but that’s an arcade machine and we weren’t really listening anyway because he keeps wearing his Santa Hat around the labs and like, it’s still November, man!

When we find that guy we’re gonna give him a piece of our mind.

Anyway, I’m sure all of these questions will be resolved soon.

[h3]The Holidays Cometh[/h3]

Thanks for joining us on all of our scientific ventures! If you find yourself unable to move due to excess holiday ingestions, take a relaxing break by submitting your most infuriating bugs through the in-game bug report form link!

Thank you for all your work in the GATE Cascade Research Facility!

Onward -- to science.

[h2]Join the Scientific Community![/h2]
We’re now also on 🦋Bluesky, by the way. You can find us here, but we’ll probably be changing the username to a cleaner URL shortly, so don’t use this link if you’re reading this at some point in the future. Or something like that. But you can use it right now! … If you’re reading this right now.

• Discord
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[h3]Join the Research Division Today![/h3]
https://store.steampowered.com/app/427410/Abiotic_Factor/

[color]Greetings to our fellow colleagues,[/color]

We're starting a brand new series called [color]Peer Review[/color], where we look at creations from the scientific community -- that's you!

To start us off, today we’re going to set some standards for Fan Art, fan fiction, and other fan creations. We’ve heard feedback that you’d like more detailed guidelines, as well as our not-so-vague approval of fan creations in general. Many people ask us if X, Y, or Z is okay to draw, write about or post.

Generally, the answer is absolutely yes! Let’s hop into specifics.

A small forward from Henry Feltham, Narrative Director at Deep Field Games:

We’ve witnessed incredible results from your endeavors over the last six months - groundbreaking research and professional creativity of the highest order!

After paying meticulous attention to the fruits of your creative endeavors, we offer the following guidance to assist your scientific efforts going forward.

There’s a lot of speculation around IS numbers and how they operate, so below are a few rules we use at GATE for classification, lore-keeping, and remaining consistent within our universe.

[h3]Writing Your Own Immurement Candidates[/h3]

• GATE assesses all potential subjects for official immurement. Until such time as an IS becomes official (let's call it “canon”) it is under a different designation: IC.
  
  
• This classification is: Immurement Candidate (IC) and is assigned a four-digit reference number, for example: IC-1234.
  
  
• If you’re writing about a hypothetical candidate, please use the IC numbering system, instead of the IS numbering system, to help differentiate “canon” entities from “community created” entities.
  
  
• Typically these numbers should avoid any already in use by an IS, and it is always possible that GATE will announce an IS designation in future using that number, at which point any IC that uses it will, presumably, have to change.
  
  
• A reference number is unique and can be used only once. Consult the (SPOILER WARNING) ABF Wiki Immurement Registry for a list of known entities that GATE has cataloged.
  
  
• IC’s are given provisional designations depending on their qualities and behavior, itemized on the Immurement Registry page.
  
  
• There are no current limits to what GATE may consider an IC: objects, artifacts, organisms, events, certain locations or anteverses – even ideas – may be considered an IC.
  
  
• However, if you are researching a location, independent from our own local universe, it will most likely be categorized as an Anteverse, rather than an IC.
  
  
• Your findings increase and expand our understanding of the universe and realms beyond. You can post your own findings in the community-led GATE Collective section of the Abiotic Factor Wiki. Please remember to respect the rules and regulations of the Wiki, both in the community-created content sections, and all official Wiki pages.

We maintain awareness of such esteemed scientific periodicals on Twitter, Discord, the Steam Community Hub and Reddit, and eagerly await your further data and findings. Along with written creations, we are also keeping an eye on artwork and other creations, which we post periodically on Twitter.

[h3]Some Exemplary Examples[/h3]

Happy Halloween from Tiberius the Inquisitor! by LostAlyx on Steam

Sister of the Unlost by tsenphil on Steam

Symphonist by Wormweed on Steam

Dr. Riggs by zura on Steam

Till Leyak Do Us Part by CHMcat on Steam

Little Squishy Pest by hm.nom. on Reddit

Just some memes by Kailunsite on Steam

A Birthday Feast! by zeldafreak96 on Reddit (made by their family)

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The Deceptively Simple Lore of Abiotic Factor's GATE Organization by Myriad on Youtube
[color](editor's note: spoiler warning, and exact accuracy is... well, speculative!)[/color]

[hr][/hr]
[h3]Thank you for your incredible work and creativity, and we look forward to sharing more of your creations with the scientific community in the future.[/h3]

Do you want to share your own creations but are unsure where to post them? Here are some places we recommend!


[color]Onward -- to science.[/color]

[h2]Join the Scientific Community![/h2]

• Discord
• Newsletter
• YouTube
• Twitter

[h3]Join the Research Division Today![/h3]
https://store.steampowered.com/app/427410/Abiotic_Factor/

Salutations, sweet scientists,

We’ve released a hotfix that should banish some ghastly issues!

Please update your game and servers when you get a moment away from scientific study. If you don't receive an update, verify your game files.



[h2]Customization Changes:[/h2]

• New Hair Color: Bronze
• New Hair Color: Black

[h2]Other Fixes:[/h2]

• The Splintered Crossbow can now be salvaged.
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause multi-ammo-type weapons to fire the wrong ammo type.
  
• Changed the text color on Small Signs to be slightly more white to improve legibility.
  
• Fixed a bug causing the Small Sign’s durability value to be overridden with an incorrect (and much smaller) number upon taking damage.
  
• Fixed a bug causing caught fish or other fished up items to spontaneously disappear if the player has no room in their inventory. Fish and fished up items now drop on the ground if the player’s inventory is full.
  
• Fixed a bug preventing turrets from reliably firing at enemies if placed at a sideways angle.
  
• Fixed a bug that made players fly when using a Cloth Rope and Plant Rope deployed close together.
  
• Fixed a bug preventing the radiation glyph from appearing on radioactive items and containers with radioactive items in them.
  
• Potential fix for Cauldron bubbles disappearing after rehosting a world.
  
• Reduced the size of grown pumpkins in Garden Plots so that the water level is visible again and scientists can properly interact with them.
  
• Fixed some subtitle timing and localization issues for Dr. Riggs.
• Fixed an issue with Niketas’ dialogue not being properly localized in French and Simplified Chinese.
  

We are still investigating other reports and issues so please keep the science coming. Thanks!

Onward to science!

❤ The Deep Field Team

Greetings my ghouls,

AHH! 👻 A hotfix. Truly the scariest time of year.



[h2]Canaan Changes: (SPOILERS!)[/h2]

• A new enemy can now appear in Canaan after it's been completed (on return trips), which will sometimes drop additional Lodestone fragments.
• Reports of floating rope bindings are to be ignored, we don’t know what you’re talking about, honestly. Maybe you’re eating too much of the bad corn?
• The men breathe a bit quieter now, when in combat.
• Potential fix for Crossbow wielders shooting themselves in the face.
• Several friendly (and less friendly) NPC lines that were not properly localized have been corrected.
• Various fixes for Canaanite’s inability to attack deployable objects placed by scientists, as well as attacking scientists on inclines.
• Torchbearer damage reduced a bit. His “Holy” fire still remains potent, and ignores armor.
• Fixed a journal typo.
• The Cauldron is no longer (accidentally) unlockable by item pickup as the recipe is intended to be found through other means.
• Hexed Trees drop slightly more Hexwood now.
• Improved certain trigger state issues around the swamp witch and her very real threats. She should no longer ever be heard after a certain point.
• Niketas will now never drop bio scrap, always drops the good stuff.
• Replaced the placeholder appearance of Niketas’ shield.
• The Canaanites have installed a new window in their barn.
• A particular wooden ramp near the swamp in Canaan is now easier to get up.

[h2]Item Changes:[/h2]

• Wessex (Sniper) Rifle damage increased to 105, from 90
  
• Romag (Military) Shotgun damage has been reduced to 18, from 20
  
• Increased max Battery on Tech Sceptre from 60 to 90
  
• Increased max Battery on Welding Spear from 100 to 150
  
• Increased max Battery on Lightning Spear from 50 to 150
  
• Warren thought your work on the Lodestone Crossbow could be improved and has made some fine-tuned modifications to your design. I guess he is useful for something after all. He also said you’re “playing with fire” but who knows what he meant by that.
  
• Increased damage to 40, from 26. This damage will apply to all types of bolts it fires, but not change their secondary effect damage.
  
• Increased fire rate to 0.9, from 1 second.
  
• Increased magazine size to 8, from 6.

[h2]Other Fixes:[/h2]

• Potential fix for an issue where clients might hear Platform Carts moving upon joining, when the carts are not moving.
  
• Increased the character count in the Direct Connect text input box, for those who have this option enabled. This feature remains experimental and can be enabled by running the game with -directconnect in the launch parameters.
  
• Fixed Defense Analyst selection showing unknown information on tooltip for Slow Learner.
  
• Fixed incorrect camera angle when emoting after being grabbed by certain enemies.
  
• Ground shake on footsteps of big bois now respects your camera shake settings.
  
• Certain items that SHOULD be salvaged for their resources will no longer ask for confirmation to do so.
  
• Possible fix for the area soundtrack not changing correctly when entering a new location under certain circumstances.
  
• Resolved an issue where Dr. Manse spoke the wrong IS number during his archival recordings. Manse hadn’t had his tea that day, but he is very aware the IS number is 0064, not 0046. Please do not correct him again.

Onward to science!

❤ The Deep Field Team

[h3]Ghoulish greetings, esteemed creatures![/h3]
It’s that time of year again – the one where absolutely nothing special or spooky occurs and we all go about our lives in the Facility like normal. Unless of course, you somehow found yourself teleported somewhere outside of the Facility? Somewhere even more cursed, if that is such a possibility?

[h3]Behold, the unassuming seaside hamlet of Canaan![/h3]
What mysteries lie in ye olden town, secreted away from time… and perhaps even space?

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

”Denial of the flesh, devils in every doorway, the world a giant demonic lie – hardly original, isn't it?” - Dr. Lenora Riggs

A new portal world has made its presence known somewhere in the Cascade Laboratories.

If you have not yet ventured through the entirety of Security Sector…

THIS IS YOUR SPOILER WARNING!

You will be able to discover this portal world through the normal course of events, but if you're beyond Security Sector, you may need a quick hint on where to backtrack to.

Here is that hint: Return to Security Sector and move along the roadway. You may find something new that leads you to this forgotten realm. You’ll still have to do the figuring out on your own. You are a scientist, after all.
Just make sure you prepare before you step on through any portal - especially this one.

Now, onto the (less spoilery) details of the update itself. What has changed, and what’s new this spooky season?

Is this temporary only during Halloween?
Not in the slightest! It’s important to note that this update is a permanent fixture of the world of Abiotic Factor, and links directly to the game’s story, which you’ll unravel as you explore. It just so happens that this new portal world and chunk of lore fits ever-so-nicely alongside our favorite autumnal season.

In other words, this is not really just a Halloween event - this is an expansion of the game’s story… And there might be a pumpkin or two as well. 🎃

Please tread lightly among the Canaanites. They are prone to superstition, to say the least, and if you’re lucky, you might even get to meet their leader.


[h3]Reeling in the Frights[/h3]
Fishing-inclined scientists may find they can (or already have) unlocked a new Fishing Trap, which can be placed in a body of water. Fishing traps are slower than regular fishing, require bait being placed in the bait slot, and will never catch anything too precious – but they will catch fish from time to time!



However, if you’re more of a fisherman and less of a farmer, you might be interested in the next generation of Fishing Rod, which has increased reel speed, and some other traits as well. What are those? Why do you need to upgrade it? You’ll learn all this eventually through the course of events.


If you get stuck on this one, just ask any friendly fisherman that you might happen to come across in your travels.

[h3]Fiendishly Festive Foods[/h3]
Time to stalk through the pumpkin patch and fish in those oily waters in search of new ingredients. What you find may shock you.


Though don’t go eating every new food you see, certain crops are not so palatable…

To assist in making the new (edible) recipes, there is now a Cooking Radial Wheel so that you can quick-select cooking utensils and foods from your inventory when looking at a stove. This is still a work in progress, so please report any issues or if you feel we can improve this in any way.



[h3]Devilish Deployables[/h3]
There are new ingredients, and new things to be made. We won’t enumerate them all here, but we’ll show a few in the images below and leave the rest up to you. We wanted to provide a few more fun items for your bases, and the Cauldron is no exception. Pour in some ink, slap it with paint, see what results you get!



For those who wish to live the spooky life year round, we understand.



With pumpkins comes pumpkin-carving! When you make a Jack O’ Lantern, it can be placed, carved with a swing of the knife, and painted to emit light in any color you’d like.

Also, does anyone else find wooden mannequins a bit eerie? Oh, and speaking of mannequins…

[h3]Armor Swapping[/h3]
Do you ever wish that your skeletal base buddies could spring to life and fight with you? Well they can’t do that but they can save you some time in a completely unrelated way.

Many of you already use armor stands to hold specific sets or combinations of armor, and now you can get the most out of that with the new Armor Swap option, which will change your current armor for what’s on the armor stand.



You can also toggle a new checkbox in the Armor Stand UI, which will allow the swapping of empty slots - otherwise empty armor stand slots are ignored. We’re sure our brave scientists will find some interesting ways to utilize this.

[h3]Get a Lode of This![/h3]
Would it really be a portal world without new overworld weapons to discover? There are a couple archaic weapons you can swing about, each with their own special trait, but there are also several new and stranger objects to find in Canaan, granting access to new recipes for even more powerful inventions.



We’ve also continued to add new ammo types that can be used on either the new Crossbow or the Makeshift Crossbow. This brings the total number of Crossbow Bolt variations to FOUR. We look forward to your research and development in this area, and no, we won’t give you any hints.

[h3]Hair-Raising Customization Updates[/h3]
We’ve added a few new hairstyles (less spooky) and fabrics (more spooky) just for the occasion. We’ve also updated the original ponytail (you might know it as “The Janet”) and the barbers at Cascade tried to stay true to the shape and form. What, you thought GATE wouldn’t have barbers in Residence Sector? Think again.


These hairstyles and fabrics are now immediately available to everyone, forever.

[h3]Leyak Containment[/h3]
If this update has added too many spooky things for you, how about we let you perform some de-spookification?

Spoilers within.

Dr. Thule’s various experimentation has borne fruit and IS-0091 has been proven to be contained (at least for a while) in a new quantum glass containment unit. Simply craft one - once you have the technological prowess - and deploy one where you wish. Lure IS-0091 nearby, give her the ol’ zap and she will become entrapped. Just make sure you keep the containment structure intact with a routine helping of biological reinforcement…



You’ll figure it out. You’re a scientist, after al- wait, didn’t we say this already?

[h3]Possessed by the Ghost of a Good Game Designer[/h3]
A small balancing note from Zag (or Spooky Zag, as we call him this time of year): We've rebalanced a few things as well, including armor values on the high end. We have more to do here, but we noticed a bit of a stagnation with armor, and less variety in choice as a result. If you know someone who was running one of the heaviest armors in the game, that is because it used to make them almost invincible. That has changed. Armor now gives diminishing returns once you get past 20 armor (on a piece-by-piece basis, not your armor total.) Keep in mind, however, armor only protects the limb(s) it covers, not your entire body.

[h3]More Tricks, More Treats[/h3]
There are about a dozen plus other things to find in this update, but we really don’t like spoiling all the treats (and tricks) we’ve sprinkled throughout Canaan. That’s part of the fun, after all. We are sure you will find many surprises, new characters, and… Well, we’ve said far too much already. The road is treacherous before you; go carefully.

See you by the seaside.

Pumpkin… patch … notes… alright, we’ve run out of energy for puns. Go ahead and click those highlighted words to be portaled off to the full list of changes, and try not to join a cult along the way.

Please keep submitting your bug reports and feedback through the in-game links! It’s tremendously helpful and it lets us know what our scientists want to see in the future.

Thank you for all your work in the GATE Cascade Research Facility!

Onward -- to science and scares!

[h2]Join the Scientific Community![/h2]

• Discord
• Newsletter
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• Twitter

[h3]Join the Research Division Today![/h3]
https://store.steampowered.com/app/427410/Abiotic_Factor/