Raft News

Hi everyone!

We know, we know. It has been quite a while since we have written a blog. But since such a big update is on the way, we wanted to show you what we have been up to and what we will be working on until the next update.




Since the last time we talked, the team has expanded. Now we are six people on production with Petter and Chi joining us! They are both artists and thanks to having a bigger team, we have been getting a lot more done! However, we are trying to keep things as a surprise for now and don’t spoil it too much before the next update’s release. Hope you guys are as excited as we are!





So, what's cooking at Redbeet HQ right now, you ask? Well, the next update will be quite a major one and we are working on it non-stop to bring it to you as soon as possible. As a part of this, we are finally implementing more lore to Raft! You will finally get a glimpse of why you ended up on that raft. While you are learning more about the world and what happened to it, the notebook will be your companion to keep track of your progress and to save some useful information along the way. Here is a little sneak peek:


"Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: fifteen rafts go out, searching for land, six days before the mother of all storms.

It took us three months to prepare. The storm blew us apart and away in four days.

Now, there’s just me and the Raft, the sound of the waves and the rumbling in my gut.

I’d brood, but I think I saw a shark.

I snatch a piece of floating litter before it escapes my reach. Holding it aloft, I discover it’s the photograph of my family in our Rafting village. I turn it, and on its back there is a note scribbled away in halfway faded permanent marker, written in the clumsy manner of a child:

𝐼’𝑙𝑙 𝑠𝑒𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑑𝑟𝑦.

A stylized arrow is painted over it, the sign of the forward scouts. "






We will be introducing new exciting destinations to Raft as a part of the story. New enemies, obstacles, puzzles and more will be waiting for you at these new locations. Moreover, each place will bring their own inhabitants with them. In the first location (which we will keep as a surprise for now), you will meet these cute little rats:



You might have also seen them before on our social media, as we have been asking for your help to name them. After going through all your suggestions, we have decided on *drumroll please* :

LURKERS!

While you are trying to make your way through this destination, Lurkers will do whatever they can to catch you off guard! So, be careful around them.



This week the destination that reside Lurkers will be polished and starting next week we will be working on the second location for the upcoming update. We will share more information regarding this when we have more content to show you. As well as adding new locations to Raft, we are also reworking some places to fit the Raft world better. For example, we have overhauled the radio tower. Compared to the other two destinations we are working on, this will be a smaller place. However, we are still happy about the changes and the place it will hold in the story. Here you can see the differences we have made to make it more visually pleasing and fitting to the Raft world:


OLD


NEW



With each destination, there will be some obstacles you will need to work through. With the help of these special quest items we are bringing to Raft, you will be able to overcome them and progress onto the next destinations.





We knew that we needed to find a way to make getting to the new destinations easier. So let us introduce you: The Receiver 2.0.



So how does it work? Well let us explain.
Each destination will have a unique frequency. You will find new frequencies by overcoming the challenges on the previous destination. Knowing the frequency, you will be able to follow the directions shown just like the old receiver. And thanks to this system, you will be able to come back to these destinations as many times as you want!



Yes, we are working hard on the new features. However, that is not the only thing we are doing. Beside adding all these new cool stuff to Raft, we are also fixing some bugs, optimizing and polishing the content we already have. Let’s have a look what you can expect from the next update beside the stuff mentioned above:

• Animal loot system is reworked. This is how it will look like after the next update:
  
  
  
  
  
• To prepare for the story destinations, the island spawn system has been redone.
  
  
• All the small islands have been remade using content from the big islands to make graphics more coherent.
  
  
• The common problem with sharks swimming through islands is no more! The shark has been remade to fix this issue and it will have much smoother movement.
  
  
• Cave graphics have been adjusted too. Inside the caves will get darker than the current version. However, do not worry! We are also adding a flashlight to help you out.
  
  
  
  
• The issue with the lanterns lighting up inconsistently is resolved.
  
  
• Players will no longer be able to pick up items through walls.
  
  
• Localization mistakes with the pick up items on islands will be corrected.
  
  

Just a quick reminder that these changes are not online yet and they will be available with the next update.

Hope you guys enjoyed this blog post and found it interesting to see what we are working on at the moment. Until next time, have a good one folks!

//Raft HQ

P.S. Don’t forget to follow us on our social media to follow the development and to get a heads up when we have a new blog post out!

Discord: https://discord.gg/raft
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RaftGame/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/raftsurvivagame
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/RaftTheGame/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/redbeetinteractive/

Hi everyone!

A new hotfix is out and it includes bug fixes for common issues like being stuck with a black screen trying to join friend/s and not being able to unlock "O Captain! My Captain!?" achievement.

You can see the full list of the fixes below.
✔ Bug where joining a friend with a big raft could cause the player to get stuck on a black screen
✔ Bug where sails could sometimes be wrongly rotated when joining a friends raft
✔ Bug where boar could sometimes not be picked up due to hitbox issues
✔ Particles no longer show up in wierd places after changing FOV
✔ Roofs can now be built on top of open doors
✔ Changed some localization
✔ Sprinkler particles was flying through walls and floors. The water particles now collide with blocks.
✔ Visiting the new boat landmark no longer gives the wrong achievement. Meaning that "O Captain! My Captain!?" achievement can now be achieved.
✔ "Aye Aye Captain!" achievement now properly works.

We hope you have all had a good time since we last talked and that your llamas and Cluckers have not been too evasive!

Here at the Raft HQ progress is being made each day. While it is not in an explosive manner, the team is in fact growing and we are of course putting all of this new production power into the development of Raft. We have now started focusing on adding more of a story and progress, which has been requested for a long time. We are as excited as you about adding more lore and adventure to Raft, and we will get back to this in a future dev blog.

For now, we have got an update that should hopefully make living the raft life a bit easier, both in terms of game play and optimization.



It is finally here! The latest in watering technology for rafting use. It features a water tank, a purifying thing that purifies salt water, a hose, and some more stuff! But you do not care about the technicalities, right? You want to know what it can do for you! And that is the best part. You no longer have to worry about running around with a cup to water your grass or crop plots. Just fill it up with some salty H2O and provide it with some electricity and it is up and running, letting you focus on more important tasks, like finding that last rare goat. So what are you waiting for? Get yours today!






We always try making the game run smoother to provide you all with the most pleasant adventure and building experience possible. Attached to the raft are a bunch of hitboxes that allows you to actually walk, hit and aim at stuff. While these have been necessary, we realized we could merge several of these into one to serve the same purpose, resulting in a whole lot fewer objects that need to be calculated each frame. This should result in some overall FPS gains.

Secondly, we reworked the system that handles how the raft collides with islands, and how the collision boundaries is expanded and destroyed along with you building your raft. Previously, some experienced quite some lag when placing foundations and floors on big rafts. This should now be greatly reduced.

Lastly, it should now be much smoother to destroy large buildings, as the stability system has been modified to run over several frames instead of trying to do everything in one.

We hope these changes make your Rafting life a bit easier!

Before we call it a day we wanted to mention there are two new items to find hidden somewhere in the world.



That is all from us today! Have a good weekend!



:Green_Plus: Added placeable item: Sprinkler
:Green_Plus: Added placeable item: Radio
:Green_Plus: Added wearable item: Captain’s Hat
:orwell_check: Reworked Radar system. Fixed bug where the dot would sometimes change position
:orwell_check: Removed a lot of colliders, which should result in an overall FPS increase
:orwell_check: Reworked stability system, which should remove nearly all lag spikes when destroying large parts of your raft
:orwell_check: Reworked collision system, which should remove nearly all lag spikes when building new foundations or floors on a large raft
:orwell_check: Reworked the weather profiles to look better and provide more diverse weather. There are now default, rainy, fog, calm and big waves
:orwell_check: Bug where hats were not displayed in no clip mode is now fixed
:orwell_check: Fixed bug where waking up in bed while nocliping caused the player character to walk when flying around in noclip
:orwell_check: Pickups like flowers/stone and such was not localized when being aimed at on islands. They should now display pickup name in the correct language
:orwell_check: Renamed bow crafting category so it no longer says “Basic bow” when a player has only researched a stone arrow
:orwell_check: Fixed bug where corner roofs could sometimes not be built
:orwell_check: Fixed bug where the player could get stuck after rotating a placeable which resulted in the player being able to walk but not aim
:orwell_check: Fixed exploit where you could loot floating items around islands by looting them, relogging and looting them again

After long discussions, we have decided to make a rather big adjustment to Raft. In order to better fit our creative vision, all water in the game has been replaced with sand. This will not affect the game play mechanics in any major way, however the look and feel of the game might be perceived differently.

We hope you understand our intentions and that you enjoy this potentially sudden, but important change!

Best
Raft HQ



:orwell_check:All water has been replaced by sand.

Hello Rafters!

Another hotfix is out and it should make it a bit easier to make sure your animals eat since they now actually look for grass, where before they had to stand on or randomly walk over grass. Apart from this, there are quite a few more bugs that have been taken care of!

We hope you enjoy!



:Green_Plus: Animals are now a tiny bit smarter, and will look for grass the best they can

:orwell_check: Bug where clients could not see animals on islands should now be fixed
:orwell_check: Screecher should now ignore players swimming under water
:orwell_check: Bug where some lanterns were unlit on placement should now be fixed
:orwell_check: Bug where hats are not visible in Noclip
:orwell_check: Bug where some items around large islands respawn when the world is reloaded should be fixed
:orwell_check: Wood crate now has pick-up-shimmer
:orwell_check: When carrying a player, the carried player clipped through the camera. This should now be fixed
:orwell_check: Bug where you could not change text line(shift+enter) on signs should now be fixed