"The First Week" Update
[h3]A message from Design Director Zag and Narrative Director Henry:[/h3]
[h3]Launch Week Gift[/h3]
To thank everyone for the wonderful launch week, we've added a new Fabric to the customization menu for all scientists. This fabric is a sleek black with gold speckles that shimmer in the light, sure to make any pocket-square or tie stand out just enough to let everyone know that you've got class, as well as brains.
But that's not all, let's dive into features, which are mix of what-we've-got-planned and community suggestions and requests.
[h3]Walkin' and Talkin'[/h3]
As you know, we have a very cool proximity voice chat system, but we don't have any way to talk globally. Well, better update those knowledge-banks, egghead, because that changes TODAY.
Walkie-Talkies have been added to the recipe list. We kept the recipe pretty light so you can communicate early and often. Using a Walkie-Talkie is rather simple; place the Walkie-Talkie in your hotbar and select it in order for your VOIP to be transmitted to other players who have a Walkie-Talkie anywhere in their inventory.
For now, Walkie-Talkies will allow players to hear you all over the Facility -- and even beyond. The trade-off is of course, you have to be holding your Walkie to respond to others. Later on we have some more plans with these cool little communicators, and we may impose a few more sensible restrictions, but for now, enjoy the freedom provided by the Walkie-Talkie.
[h3]Friends That Hop Together[/h3]
You asked. We answered and definitely didn't have this planned before you even asked. As far as you know. Tamed pets can now follow you!
Hold E (by default) to get them to scurry their fluffy(?) little spike butts over your way. There is, as far as we know, no limit to how many pets can follow you at once. We are already regretting telling you this. Enjoy, and give Mr. Fluffle Blugglekins a snuggle-wuggle for us.
Oh, and please remember to take care of your pets out there, the world is dangerous, and they have very small, adventurous brains.
[h3]Cheesed to Meet You[/h3]
Prepare yourself, for the Anteverse sows a curd meaner than any bleu on this side of the universe. And now you can try your hand at making it too! And it's also more of a "peurple" if we're being quite honest.
Surely to no surprise to our scientific cheese-smiths out there, cheese is made initially as a soup - we'll let you figure out the recipe - and then pulled from the pot as a big ol' Cheese Wheel. Be sure to let your cheese wheel ripen in a stable temperature environment, and before you know it - you got some cheese! Please enjoy the various and cozy new recipes that can be made with cheese. Some require baking, some crafting, and some a mix of both!
That's all for cheese this update - which is actually a lot if you think about it. Who knows what we have in store next? Pest Pops? Some kind of alien fish? A Carbuncle Pizza? Time will tell.
[h3]We Don't Know Where To Starch With This One[/h3]
Sorry about the puns, it is indeed the lowest form of hanging fruit. Unlike a potato, which is actually a vegetable IN THE GROUND. If you want to get scientific, which we do, because, look around egghead, they're technically called tubers. That's weird, huh? Anyway, you can plant those starchy son-of-a-guns right in your farmy soil plots. I don't know why we can't just speak normally right now, but it's probably all of the potatoes we've eaten in the last 48 hours, or our brains are mashed potatoes from the lack of sleep. (We will try and rest after this update goes out, I promise.)
Along with being able to plant your spuddy friends, a bunch of recipes are now easier to obtain, and there's even a couple new ones.
Just remember, you need Level 3 Cooking to make soup, and you need to reach Level 10 to get that precious baking oven. Because that's how it works in real life and we pride ourselves on having immaculate realism.
[h3]Security Shutters[/h3]
Officer Warren has heard your feedback and installed a mechanism to disable the auto-timer for the Security Shutters on Level 2. Unfortunately, Warren is an incompetent fool and it appears to be broken. Perhaps you can fix it, instead.
[h3]Display Your Items[/h3]
Item Stands can now be crafted and will display items. Deployables will display inside their deployable item box, so you'll still want to deploy your fun collectibles on their own, typically.
And be careful! The Crafting Bench Item Teleporter upgrade may suck up your items placed in Item Stands. We didn't teach it to do that, but we're quite not ready to confront the implications of a sentient Crafting Bench. If you want to display a stapler, keep it far away from the Bench. And IS-0223, for that matter.
[h3]Suiting Up[/h3]
Scientists wearing suits will now feel a bit more like they are indeed in a stuffy suit, with a hazmat frame showing around their view and some breathing audio to boot. This breathing is disabled if the Misophonia option is ticked.
[h3]Player Corpse Bags[/h3]
Player corpses have been replaced by a sort of loot-spill bag that works the same way as the Player Corpse did. We made this change in preparation for player ragdolls, which are not fully complete and will arrive in a later update. For now, upon dying, an orange bag will appear with all of your loot in it.
It's also noteworthy that Warren will now collect any lost loot bags and place them in front of his security kiosk. If you can't find your corpse bag with all of your stuff in it, it's probably sitting in the middle of the Office Plaza. Warren says "You're welcome."
[h3]Containment ID Card[/h3]
Dr. Janek went down into the Anning Containment Block and hasn't been seen since. If you manage to find him worse for wear, please recover his Containment-level ID Card.
[h3]IS-0091 Update[/h3]
We got in touch with Dr. Stern over the walkie-talkie and he stammered out a few key points to us regarding IS-0091. This was shortly followed by screaming (presumably Stern) and Dr. Ross came on the line to tell us he's probably fine and overreacting. Anyway, here's what we gathered from the exchange:
[h3] The Portal Problem[/h3]
In the last hotfix some kind of growthy growth grew over a previously accessible door in the labby labs. We're talking like this so we don't spoil anything for the you-know-whos.
Okay, are they gone? Good. Let's slap a spoiler tag on this next bit just for good measure.
The growth on the Laser Lab caused a little confusion between people who had been there previously and people arriving fresh, many of whom were receiving bad directions from players who had previously been there. It created a sort of "nobody is quite sure what's intended" storm, which we believe is now corrected by several changes. Because the unintended "Rise" route spread through the scientific community like wildfire, it created a lot of stress for players who felt this route, which was unnecessarily complex, to be poor design (instead of just being a secret portal world that accidentally dumped you out in a lucrative spot) and that the actual intended route was either not obvious or completely opaque.
There was in fact some poor design, primarily around signaling how you get to Helmholtz from a certain way, coupled with some journal entries that offered not only conflicting info, but poorly-timed info. When scientists are looking for A, but they receive a journal indicating B is the most important thing in their lives, they tend to get a bit distracted.
We also didn't anticipate bridges would stop so many people in their tracks. Give them a try. They're brilliant, and so are you.
To whit, we've identified a bunch of key points where scientists were getting stuck in the story and we believe it's greatly improved now. We fixed up some shape language to the general area, tidied up some simple mistakes, cleaned up a couple Journal entries and changed up a helpful whiteboard. Please remember as well, at least 30% of the dev team are mostly human and can make mistakes, as well as the fact that the area encountered is deep into the game. When over 10,000 scientists hit any given spot in the Facility, it dwarfs any testing we could feasibly conduct, and we get a huge variety of responses too.
Anyway, if you're still stuck in the Labs, please ask the fellas in Helmholtz -- they're a talkative bunch and we believe they have your answers. And don't forget to pack a lunch.
[h3]If you're looking for the FULL PATCH NOTES, click the highlighted words to the left, because that's how this new-fangled internet stuff works.[/h3]
And as always, please keep submitting your bugs through the in-game link so we can work on squashing them like the Pests they are. Just kidding, Pests, you’re like family to us. We would never squash you.
By the way, you have all collectively exterminated over 10 million Pests in the GATE Cascade Research Facility. We hope you were able to extract valuable specimen data from each and every one of them.
Thank you all once again for enjoying your time in the GATE Cascade Research Facility!
Onward -- to science.
[h2]Get Involved![/h2]
[h3]Join the Research Division Today![/h3]
https://store.steampowered.com/app/427410/Abiotic_Factor/
Before we dive into this juicy update, we want to take a moment to give a heartfelt thanks to every scientist who has set foot in the GATE Cascade Research Facility thus far - THANK YOU!
The game exploded to life when you arrived. You’ve discovered new ways of playing, and already created some of the most memorable and hilarious moments anyone could have imagined. Hurling yourself through portals, hunting pests, smashing the place up, building bases and exploring the labrynthian sectors of Cascade... It has been extraordinary.
We’re blown away. We didn’t see this coming. We thought ABF was fun and a bit different, but you've all made it SO much more than that. Again, a huge THANK YOU for such a wild, wonderful opening week. The team is energized and looking forward to much to unlocking much more of the facility and its secrets with you over the next few months. We can hardly wait.
Onward to science!
- Zag, Henry, and the entire Deep Field team
[h3]Launch Week Gift[/h3]
To thank everyone for the wonderful launch week, we've added a new Fabric to the customization menu for all scientists. This fabric is a sleek black with gold speckles that shimmer in the light, sure to make any pocket-square or tie stand out just enough to let everyone know that you've got class, as well as brains.
But that's not all, let's dive into features, which are mix of what-we've-got-planned and community suggestions and requests.
[h3]Walkin' and Talkin'[/h3]
As you know, we have a very cool proximity voice chat system, but we don't have any way to talk globally. Well, better update those knowledge-banks, egghead, because that changes TODAY.
Walkie-Talkies have been added to the recipe list. We kept the recipe pretty light so you can communicate early and often. Using a Walkie-Talkie is rather simple; place the Walkie-Talkie in your hotbar and select it in order for your VOIP to be transmitted to other players who have a Walkie-Talkie anywhere in their inventory.For now, Walkie-Talkies will allow players to hear you all over the Facility -- and even beyond. The trade-off is of course, you have to be holding your Walkie to respond to others. Later on we have some more plans with these cool little communicators, and we may impose a few more sensible restrictions, but for now, enjoy the freedom provided by the Walkie-Talkie.
[h3]Friends That Hop Together[/h3]
You asked. We answered and definitely didn't have this planned before you even asked. As far as you know. Tamed pets can now follow you!
Hold E (by default) to get them to scurry their fluffy(?) little spike butts over your way. There is, as far as we know, no limit to how many pets can follow you at once. We are already regretting telling you this. Enjoy, and give Mr. Fluffle Blugglekins a snuggle-wuggle for us.
Oh, and please remember to take care of your pets out there, the world is dangerous, and they have very small, adventurous brains.
[h3]Cheesed to Meet You[/h3]
Prepare yourself, for the Anteverse sows a curd meaner than any bleu on this side of the universe. And now you can try your hand at making it too! And it's also more of a "peurple" if we're being quite honest.
Surely to no surprise to our scientific cheese-smiths out there, cheese is made initially as a soup - we'll let you figure out the recipe - and then pulled from the pot as a big ol' Cheese Wheel. Be sure to let your cheese wheel ripen in a stable temperature environment, and before you know it - you got some cheese! Please enjoy the various and cozy new recipes that can be made with cheese. Some require baking, some crafting, and some a mix of both!
- Pekkie Brekkie Hash
- Carbuncle Casserole
- Antecheese Sandwich
- Antecheese Toastie
That's all for cheese this update - which is actually a lot if you think about it. Who knows what we have in store next? Pest Pops? Some kind of alien fish? A Carbuncle Pizza? Time will tell.
[h3]We Don't Know Where To Starch With This One[/h3]
Sorry about the puns, it is indeed the lowest form of hanging fruit. Unlike a potato, which is actually a vegetable IN THE GROUND. If you want to get scientific, which we do, because, look around egghead, they're technically called tubers. That's weird, huh? Anyway, you can plant those starchy son-of-a-guns right in your farmy soil plots. I don't know why we can't just speak normally right now, but it's probably all of the potatoes we've eaten in the last 48 hours, or our brains are mashed potatoes from the lack of sleep. (We will try and rest after this update goes out, I promise.)
Along with being able to plant your spuddy friends, a bunch of recipes are now easier to obtain, and there's even a couple new ones.
- Pekkie Brekkie Hash
- Carbuncle Casserole
- Pestato
- Baked Potato
- Fries
- Pest Pot Pie
- Veggie Stew
- Greyeb Chowder
- Potato & Sausage Stew
- Mashed Potatoes
Just remember, you need Level 3 Cooking to make soup, and you need to reach Level 10 to get that precious baking oven. Because that's how it works in real life and we pride ourselves on having immaculate realism.
[h3]Security Shutters[/h3]
Officer Warren has heard your feedback and installed a mechanism to disable the auto-timer for the Security Shutters on Level 2. Unfortunately, Warren is an incompetent fool and it appears to be broken. Perhaps you can fix it, instead.
[h3]Display Your Items[/h3]
Item Stands can now be crafted and will display items. Deployables will display inside their deployable item box, so you'll still want to deploy your fun collectibles on their own, typically.
And be careful! The Crafting Bench Item Teleporter upgrade may suck up your items placed in Item Stands. We didn't teach it to do that, but we're quite not ready to confront the implications of a sentient Crafting Bench. If you want to display a stapler, keep it far away from the Bench. And IS-0223, for that matter.
[h3]Suiting Up[/h3]
Scientists wearing suits will now feel a bit more like they are indeed in a stuffy suit, with a hazmat frame showing around their view and some breathing audio to boot. This breathing is disabled if the Misophonia option is ticked.
[h3]Player Corpse Bags[/h3]
Player corpses have been replaced by a sort of loot-spill bag that works the same way as the Player Corpse did. We made this change in preparation for player ragdolls, which are not fully complete and will arrive in a later update. For now, upon dying, an orange bag will appear with all of your loot in it.
It's also noteworthy that Warren will now collect any lost loot bags and place them in front of his security kiosk. If you can't find your corpse bag with all of your stuff in it, it's probably sitting in the middle of the Office Plaza. Warren says "You're welcome."
[h3]Containment ID Card[/h3]
Dr. Janek went down into the Anning Containment Block and hasn't been seen since. If you manage to find him worse for wear, please recover his Containment-level ID Card.
[h3]IS-0091 Update[/h3]
We got in touch with Dr. Stern over the walkie-talkie and he stammered out a few key points to us regarding IS-0091. This was shortly followed by screaming (presumably Stern) and Dr. Ross came on the line to tell us he's probably fine and overreacting. Anyway, here's what we gathered from the exchange:
- IS-0091 appears to no longer appear quite as often under normal conditions, which should be a great relief to those who felt a bit too harassed.
- IS-0091 will now be much more attracted to scientists who may have eaten Greyeb Fruits recently, and by that, we mean please understand what you're doing before consuming such things.
- IS-0091 should no longer disappear for long periods of time and will instead adapt better to situations where it might get stuck or otherwise lost.
[h3] The Portal Problem[/h3]
In the last hotfix some kind of growthy growth grew over a previously accessible door in the labby labs. We're talking like this so we don't spoil anything for the you-know-whos.
Okay, are they gone? Good. Let's slap a spoiler tag on this next bit just for good measure.
The growth on the Laser Lab caused a little confusion between people who had been there previously and people arriving fresh, many of whom were receiving bad directions from players who had previously been there. It created a sort of "nobody is quite sure what's intended" storm, which we believe is now corrected by several changes. Because the unintended "Rise" route spread through the scientific community like wildfire, it created a lot of stress for players who felt this route, which was unnecessarily complex, to be poor design (instead of just being a secret portal world that accidentally dumped you out in a lucrative spot) and that the actual intended route was either not obvious or completely opaque.
There was in fact some poor design, primarily around signaling how you get to Helmholtz from a certain way, coupled with some journal entries that offered not only conflicting info, but poorly-timed info. When scientists are looking for A, but they receive a journal indicating B is the most important thing in their lives, they tend to get a bit distracted.
We also didn't anticipate bridges would stop so many people in their tracks. Give them a try. They're brilliant, and so are you.
To whit, we've identified a bunch of key points where scientists were getting stuck in the story and we believe it's greatly improved now. We fixed up some shape language to the general area, tidied up some simple mistakes, cleaned up a couple Journal entries and changed up a helpful whiteboard. Please remember as well, at least 30% of the dev team are mostly human and can make mistakes, as well as the fact that the area encountered is deep into the game. When over 10,000 scientists hit any given spot in the Facility, it dwarfs any testing we could feasibly conduct, and we get a huge variety of responses too.
Anyway, if you're still stuck in the Labs, please ask the fellas in Helmholtz -- they're a talkative bunch and we believe they have your answers. And don't forget to pack a lunch.
[h3]If you're looking for the FULL PATCH NOTES, click the highlighted words to the left, because that's how this new-fangled internet stuff works.[/h3]
And as always, please keep submitting your bugs through the in-game link so we can work on squashing them like the Pests they are. Just kidding, Pests, you’re like family to us. We would never squash you.
By the way, you have all collectively exterminated over 10 million Pests in the GATE Cascade Research Facility. We hope you were able to extract valuable specimen data from each and every one of them.
Thank you all once again for enjoying your time in the GATE Cascade Research Facility!
Onward -- to science.
[h2]Get Involved![/h2]
[h3]Join the Research Division Today![/h3]
https://store.steampowered.com/app/427410/Abiotic_Factor/
