Exoplanet: First Contact News

• Fixed a particularly nasty bug that was causing most of the crashes
  
• Fixed some cases where expected errors were not caught and resulted in a crash
  
• Unassigned buttons should no longer appear as two single quotes '' in hints
  
• Enabled the broken scanner quest which can be now also fixed in the anomaly zone
  
• Mason now has his own appearance and not that of Master Phil's
  
• Dialog hint now reads "RMB to continue"
  
• Fixed not being able to finish the "Somebody stole my clothes" quest in some cases
  
• "Open Sesame" quest now properly handles the situation when player manages to get in the storage beforehand
  
• Fixed not being able to talk with Old Outcast if you go to Ragpicker first and then kill and loot the bandits
  
• "Small prey—big gain!" quest should no longer break if saved during a certain moment
  
• Fixed Jack's head tracking during bitebug remote control
  
• Added bitebug remote control animation

• Fixed crashing some time after climbing ladders while holding a weapon and trying to equip it later
  
• Fixed Small Prey—Big Gain quest wrong journal entry at the start of the quest
  
• Made reloading much more robust
  
• Fixed label appearing while holding a bitebug taken from an inventory
  
• Fixed sky color not being set properly upon loading
  
• Fixed missing item pickup notifications
  
• Fixed item info border colors on hovering non-weapon type items
  
• Fixed turrets placed by players missing the tripod
  
• Fixed Kenneth's dialog lines cutting off in the dialog window

Dear space cowboys, we’re here to bring you the latest update! So much work went to this update (and so much more work is left to be done!), like the crash reporter that should help squash those nasty crashes, and brand new hand-painted terrains, new camera, new quest, varied talking animations, and further decrease in loading times and performance boost.

We’re hoping that you’re gonna enjoy this update, and when you do, maybe even leave us a Steam review with your feedback, telling us what you liked, and what you would like to see improved in the future updates. Please, don't forget to tick 'Allow Comments' box to let us answer your feedback. Thank you.





We also updated OUR ROADMAP, and you can find something new there (you can easily track changes with Menu button on the right) as well as take a sneak peek to some screenshots from our draft storyboard for Exoplanet intro cinematic.

You can learn more about our roadmap HERE.



Since some people still can experience random crashes, we decided to add a crash reporter which can help us to track and solve your problems even faster. It allows you to send us the report with the information that will help us analyze and fix the crash.



It shows up when the game has crashed. And it is up to you to choose whether you wish to send the report. It is also allow you to preview exactly what files go into the report—you can easily delete the ones you don't want to send.

It allows you to enter your email and/or a short description of your last actions before the crash. Entirely optional but recommended. We might contact you to tell you that the crash is fixed or if we might need some additional info.





WORLD

• All terrain was repainted from scratch using multiple textures
  
• Improved design of Outcast Camp, added many new buildings, new Big Hat cave in a high mountain

CAMERA

• Revamped the camera so it should no longer feel wonky and should feel super smooth
  
• Added a slight camera shake effect when firing weapons (togglable in game options)
  
• Fixed camera getting inside character models in some cases
  
• Fixed camera micro stuttering

VISUALS

• Added hit effects for some mobs that didn’t have them
  
• Turned off Jack’s head tracking in some corner cases that resulted in weird neck angles (shooting, aiming, hitting, using items, sleeping, resting)
  
• Prevented most cases of dialog participants playing identical talking animations one right after the other
  
• Added new outfits for abori Scalphunters

GAMEPLAY

• Jack can now fall from ladders when he is heavily damaged (more than 10% of his health in one shot) or if he is weak due to being low on health (has less than 20% health)
  
• Jack should no longer fall from ladders without reason
  
• Adjusted ladder starting and finishing positions to be more precise
  
• Poisonous alien cactus bat now must be crafted from a cactus head and a stick (or firewood)
  
• Added a tutorial hint for crafting the alien cactus bat
  
• Automatic reload (togglable in game options) now triggers on firing last ammo cartridge and on equipping a weapon with an empty magazine
  
• Automatic reload sequence can be interrupted
  
• Fixed not being able to shoot immediately after automatic reload ended
  
• Rewrote the resting and waiting time skipping system
  
• All guns automatically unload ammo from their magazines on pick up
  
• Only equipped guns visible on Jack’s model are allowed to keep ammo in the magazines
  
• Removing guns from visual slots on Jack’s model unloads ammo from the magazine into inventory
  
• Holstering weapons equipped from the inventory or the hotbar assigns them to the corresponding visual slots (and keeps ammo in the magazines)

QUESTS

• Added a new NPC Carry The Stone with a brand new quest “Scan It”
  
• You can now also talk with Carry The Stone about “K’Tharsis is a harsh mistress” quest
  
• The “Family relic” quest has a suitable ending now
  
• Zak’s whistle should no longer just disappear from Jack’s inventory on quest finish
  
• Fixed arphant Molly’s focusing issue and tweaked her dialog to reflect Jack’s knowledge about her

ANIMATIONS

• Animations during dialog with NPCs are no longer chosen at random—all dialogs were treated with custom gestures animations that reflect what is being said
  
• Ported all missing talking animations from humans to aborigines

AUDIO

• Added footsteps for many NPCs
  
• Added injector use sound effect
  
• Notifications no longer play all associated audio clips at the same time
  
• Added some new sounds to the soundscape of jungle on the far side of Windscream Canyon
  
• Fixed an issue causing sounds of swimming to disappear

UI

• Added a type-out effect for dialog texts, with speed configurable in game options
  
• Dialog auto advance is now also a game option which is off by default
  
• Dialog layout was tweaked with neater aligning
  
• Dialog text window width depends on display aspect ratio to make reading more comfortable
  
• Fixed moving on-screen labels lagging slightly behind their objects\characters
  
• Ambient subtitles shift position during dialog sequence to avoid drawing one over the other
  
• Fixed some cases of read dialog branches not being highlighted as such.
  
• Fixed overlapping notifications
  
• Tweaked notifications margins
  
• Added a new ammo icon for energy-based weapons
  
• Various fixes for the immersive UI system
  
• Fixed keys stuck on multiple actions when trying to remap a key
  
• All non-wearable items should now stack in the inventory
  
• Smoother UI widgets fading and transitions

FIXES

• Fixed a crash that sometimes happened when loading a saved game from main menu
  
• Fixed some cases where the game could freeze without crashing
  
• Fixed crashing on hovering status effects with mouse cursor
  
• Fixed some cases of disappearing status effects
  
• Fixed stuck sounds and sounds that were playing outside of their maximum range

If there's no sound after game's loading, try to alt-tab to Windows and then go back to the game.

If you're stuck / hero doesn't move, F5 (quick save) and F9 (quick load) can help you in such matters.

If you have a weak PC or a laptop (especially the ones with Intel integrated graphics), we highly recommend to launch Exoplanet from its folder, not via Steam.

Keep in mind that integrated graphic cards are not supported despite the fact we do our best to make it possible. At the moment, there's a chance you can run the game but your performance probably won't be good enough to enjoy Exoplanet.

If you have BitDefender antivirus and can't launch the game, please, unblock Exoplanet's .exe.



If you have any other problem, please let us know via our Discord channel. You can also report about bugs on technical support forum or send us your log to [email protected] with description of the problem and your PC specs.

You can find your .log file here: Documents\Alersteam\Exoplanet First Contact\system.log

As usual, we recommend to start a new game.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/531660/Exoplanet_First_Contact/

Hey, guys!

Some of you asked us to create Exoplanet’s roadmap, because this way you can see where the game is going, track our plans and progress, leave your feedback and ideas about future changes. We particularly would like to thank Grifman who was the very first who suggested that.

We liked the idea, because we always carefully read everything that community says and thoroughly discuss all the feedback and suggested ideas. We believe that’s a very healthy relationship and very grateful to everyone who support us. And today we finally want to share our roadmap with you.



We’ve checked your suggestions about the way our roadmap should be done, took a look at the way other developers did it and ended up with Trello. We believe it’s very simple, intuitive and comfortable (that’s why we actually use it ourselves among the team).

The next step was to decide what’s going to roadmap. Of course, we can’t place everything. Also, some features could be changed or even removed due to a number of reasons (lack of budget, for example).



Thus, we decided to place only the most important tasks, for example, the starting area improvements and camera overhaul. But that doesn’t mean that we do not work on something else like new assets, mechanics, concept art and so on. It just seems weird to place everything on the roadmap, whether it’s something big:



...something smaller, like torture devices or different gibbets, dead bodies or decaying remains:



...or some tiny strange arphant figures made by aborigines skilled in arts:



Anyway, we decided to split the roadmap into several columns:

SHORT / MID / LONG TERMS—approximate time of delivering features. Click on a card to learn more about a feature and to see its progress. Some cards contains old examples or WIPs, videos, screenshots and some updates in the comment section.

BACKLOG AND REQUESTS—postponed features as well as some interesting ideas which should be discussed and could be implemented later.

KNOWN ISSUES—every known problem goes there, from random crashes and low optimization to nasty bugs you can currently face in-game.



All cards are labeled. Every label has its definite meaning (except the red and the orange ones which was used to attract attention to a task in KNOWN ISSUES section).

GREEN LABEL—in development at the moment

YELLOW LABEL—will be definitely added to the game later

VIOLET LABEL—undefined, should be discussed

BLUE LABEL—completed and most likely will be added to the game in the next update

Some cards has several labels. Sometimes they are opposite to each other (for example, LOCALIZATION card): there are yellow (confirmed) and violet (undefined) labels. The thing is, some languages (English, Russian and German) will be definitely added but we can't be sure about the rest, it depends on success of the game and community support. Of course, we would like to translate Exoplanet to as many languages as possible but don't want to make empty promises. If you can help us with translation to your native language, please, create a topic on forum or contact us any other way.





Before you are going to click the link and browse our plans:

we created a special topic, where you can share your ideas or ask questions about the roadmap.

EXOPLANET'S ROADMAP



http://store.steampowered.com/app/531660/Exoplanet_First_Contact/

Hey, guys!

Some of you asked us to create Exoplanet’s roadmap, because this way you can see where the game is going, track our plans and progress, leave your feedback and ideas about future changes.

We liked the idea, because we always carefully read everything that community says and thoroughly discuss all the feedback and suggested ideas. We believe that’s a very healthy relationship and very grateful to everyone who support us. And today we finally want to share our roadmap with you.



We’ve checked your suggestions about the way our roadmap should be done, took a look at the way other developers did it and ended up with Trello. We believe it’s very simple, intuitive and comfortable (that’s why we actually use it ourselves among the team).

The next step was to decide what’s going to roadmap. Of course, we can’t place everything. Also, some features could be changed or even removed due to a number of reasons (lack of budget, for example).



Thus, we decided to place only the most important tasks, for example, the starting area improvements and camera overhaul. But that doesn’t mean that we do not work on something else like new assets, mechanics, concept art and so on. It just seems weird to place everything on the roadmap, whether it’s something big:



...something smaller, like torture devices or different gibbets, dead bodies or decaying remains:



...or some tiny strange arphant figures made by aborigines skilled in arts:



Anyway, we decided to split the roadmap into several columns:

SHORT / MID / LONG TERMS—approximate time of delivering features. Click on a card to learn more about a feature and to see its progress. Some cards contains old examples or WIPs, videos, screenshots and some updates in the comment section.

BACKLOG AND REQUESTS—postponed features as well as some interesting ideas which should be discussed and could be implemented later.

KNOWN ISSUES—every known problem goes there, from random crashes and low optimization to nasty bugs you can currently face in-game.



All cards are labeled. Every label has its definite meaning (except the red and the orange ones which was used to attract attention to a task in KNOWN ISSUES section).

GREEN LABEL—in development at the moment

YELLOW LABEL—will be definitely added to the game later

ORANGE LABEL—postponed due to change of priorities

VIOLET LABEL—undefined, should be discussed

BLUE LABEL—completed and most likely will be added to the game in the next update

Some cards has several labels. Sometimes they are opposite to each other (for example, LOCALIZATION card): there are yellow (confirmed) and violet (undefined) labels. The thing is, some languages (English, Russian and German) will be definitely added but we can't be sure about the rest, it depends on success of the game and community support. Of course, we would like to translate Exoplanet to as many languages as possible but don't want to make empty promises. If you can help us with translation to your native language, please, create a topic on forum or contact us any other way.





Before you are going to click the link and browse our plans:

we created a special topic, where you can share your ideas or ask questions about the roadmap.

EXOPLANET'S ROADMAP



http://store.steampowered.com/app/531660/Exoplanet_First_Contact/

Hi gang, we’re here to bring you another update!

We’ve had some technical difficulties, but managed to solve them all. Major progress has been made in this update towards modular upgradeable weapons, and the first part of that is already here. I’m talking, of course, about weapon quality. No longer are all weapons created equal—the better the quality, the higher the value, the better it works all around. So get to exploring and find the best of them!





WORLD

• Added more details to currently unreachable parts of Windscream Canyon in preparation for future updates
  
• Many minor fixes and improvements

VISUALS

• Remote-controlled bitebugs now have actual neurochip visuals

GAMEPLAY

• Weapons have varying quality that affects their stats and value
  
• Added custom animated Jack’s stash container
  
• Reload the weapon upon magazine depletion automatically
  
• You can now cancel reloading and switch to another weapon

https://youtu.be/qvNV01VRuXA

QUESTS

• Added first quest markers to a few selected quests
  
• Vasily fixes the shotgun to a good quality now

NPCs

• Added lots of new talking animations for aboris
  
• Dead monsters don’t play death animation after loading a saved game anymore
  
• Certain characters should no longer be loaded with incorrect orientation

AI

• The hornhog’s AI was remade from the ground up on the new ai system
  
• Arphant Molly’s AI was tweaked as well
  
• Bandits' behavior was ported to the new AI system

AUDIO

• Brand new sound effects for crucas
  
• Added unique sound effects for Combat Tazer
  
• Remastered fire sound effects for M37 pump-action shotgun, Equalizer and SCAMP

UI

• Revamped item info tooltips
  
• Added Alersteam (that’s us!) and our publisher’s, “Grab The Games” logos on game start
  
• Sort weapons according to quality
  
• Items can now be assigned to hotbar by hovering over them with a mouse cursor in the inventory and pressing 1-0 key

FIXES

• Fixed a crash that would sometimes happen when trying to load a saved game from main menu
  
• Fixed crash on intense mouse clicking while game loads
  
• A couple of instances of incorrect character label positions were fixed
  
• Dead characters without loots should no longer receive focus
  
• Alt-tabbing on death should no longer disable mouse cursor
  
• Fast travel menu shouldn’t show it’s own travel point name as destination
  
• Saving a game during NPC’s turning towards or away from player should no longer modify NPC’s default orientation

If you have a weak PC or a laptop (especially the ones with Intel integrated graphics), we highly recommend to launch Exoplanet from its folder, not via Steam.

If you have BitDefender antivirus and can't launch the game, please, unblock Exoplanet's .exe.

If you have any other problem, please let us know via our Discord channel. You can also report about bugs on technical support forum or send us your log to [email protected] with description of the problem and your PC specs.

You can find your .log file here: Documents\Alersteam\Exoplanet First Contact\system.log

As usual, we recommend to start a new game.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/531660/Exoplanet_First_Contact/

Hi gang, we’re here to bring you another update!

We’ve had some technical difficulties, but managed to solve them all. Major progress has been made in this update towards modular upgradeable weapons, and the first part of that is already here. I’m talking, of course, about weapon quality. No longer are all weapons created equal—the better the quality, the higher the value, the better it works all around. So get to exploring and find the best of them!





WORLD

• Added more details to currently unreachable parts of Windscream Canyon in preparation for future updates
  
• Many minor fixes and improvements

VISUALS

• Remote-controlled bitebugs now have actual neurochip visuals

GAMEPLAY

• Weapons have varying quality that affects their stats and value
  
• Added custom animated Jack’s stash container
  
• Reload the weapon upon magazine depletion automatically
  
• You can now cancel reloading and switch to another weapon

https://youtu.be/qvNV01VRuXA

QUESTS

• Added first quest markers to a few selected quests
  
• Vasily fixes the shotgun to a good quality now

NPCs

• Added lots of new talking animations for aboris
  
• Dead monsters don’t play death animation after loading a saved game anymore
  
• Certain characters should no longer be loaded with incorrect orientation

AI

• The hornhog’s AI was remade from the ground up on the new ai system
  
• Arphant Molly’s AI was tweaked as well
  
• Bandits' behavior was ported to the new AI system

AUDIO

• Brand new sound effects for crucas
  
• Added unique sound effects for Combat Tazer
  
• Remastered fire sound effects for M37 pump-action shotgun, Equalizer and SCAMP

UI

• Revamped item info tooltips
  
• Added Alersteam (that’s us!) and our publisher’s, “Grab The Games” logos on game start
  
• Sort weapons according to quality
  
• Items can now be assigned to hotbar by hovering over them with a mouse cursor in the inventory and pressing 1-0 key

FIXES

• Fixed a crash that would sometimes happen when trying to load a saved game from main menu
  
• Fixed crash on intense mouse clicking while game loads
  
• A couple of instances of incorrect character label positions were fixed
  
• Dead characters without loots should no longer receive focus
  
• Alt-tabbing on death should no longer disable mouse cursor
  
• Fast travel menu shouldn’t show it’s own travel point name as destination
  
• Saving a game during NPC’s turning towards or away from player should no longer modify NPC’s default orientation

If you have a weak PC or a laptop (especially the ones with Intel integrated graphics), we highly recommend to launch Exoplanet from its folder, not via Steam.

If you have BitDefender antivirus and can't launch the game, please, unblock Exoplanet's .exe.

If you have any other problem, please let us know via our Discord channel. You can also report about bugs on technical support forum or send us your log to [email protected] with description of the problem and your PC specs.

You can find your .log file here: Documents\Alersteam\Exoplanet First Contact\system.log

As usual, we recommend to start a new game.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/531660/Exoplanet_First_Contact/