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Update 4.0: "Eel-Ectricity" is OUT NOW!


Hullo everybody!

The Eel-ectricity Update is all charged up and ready to go!
This patch brings energy, weight and workshop electricity upgrades to your town as well as various other improvements.

Your town can now produce energy, which powers town movement, crafting and research buildings in a more centralized way.
Each item and building now has weight, which impacts the energy required to get to new destinations.
Generators ranging from manual to oil and to solar panels can be built to generate energy.
Workshops can be upgraded to connect to an energy grid, removing their normal fuel cost.

This patch comes with a complete update to the render pipeline, offering smoother performance and fancier graphics (shadows on the water!).
We've done some pacing rebalances and many other changes. You can check these out in the patch notes below!

Thanks again to everyone who tested it in experimental! Your reports and feedback are always a great help Enjoy everyone and sea you next patch!

[h2]Change Notes[/h2]
[h3]New Energy System[/h3]
  • Energy buildings can now be connected to energy grids.
    • Buildings that require energy will draw energy from their connected energy grid.
    • If an energy grid becomes overloaded, connected buildings will work at reduced efficiency.
  • Certain buildings now require energy, instead of fuel:
    • Town Engine
    • Research Station
    • Desalinator
    • Food Truck
    • Electro Crafter
    • Electrified Scrapsmith
    • Electried Fish Kabob
  • The townheart starts with a crank to produce energy which prevents players getting stuck when they didn't build an energy related building.
  • Added an energy overlay that shows the energy consumption, production or storage of energy related buildings.
  • Added an energy grid overview window which shows all your energy grids with their consumption, production and storage.
  • Removed old fuel import system and replaced it with the fuel being part of the production recipe.
  • Added a method to link energy grids together using click and drag energy wires.
  • Moving to a new biome now costs 10.000 Eels, instead of 75% of your town's fuel.
  • The athletics attribute now affects how much energy a drifter generates in a drifter powered generator.

[h3]Town Weight [/h3]
  • Your town now has a weight, which will affect the energy cost of town movement.
  • The town weight is calculated by the total accumulation of all resource weights in construction costs, inventory and in storage.
  • There are currently 6 different weight tiers:
    • Very Light: 0kg - 500kg
    • Light: 500g - 1000kg - Movement cost increased by 50%
    • Medium: 1000kg - 1500kg - Movement cost increased by 100%
    • Heavy - 1500kg - 2000kg Movement cost increased by 150%
    • Very Heavy: 2000kg - 2500kg - Movement cost increased by 200%

[h3]New Buildings[/h3]
  • Battery: Increases energy capacity.
  • Wood-Powered Generator: This building can burn wood to generate energy.
  • Oil-Powered Generator: This building can burn oil to generate energy.
  • Energy Pole: A building that is used to connect buildings to the energy grid.
  • Solar Panel: Generates energy from solar power.
  • Electro Crafter: Turns Electric Scrap into various electric items.
  • Electrified Scrapsmith: An upgrade for the Scrapsmith which uses energy instead of Firewood.
  • Electrified Fish Kabob: An upgrade for the Fish Kabob which uses energy instead of Firewood.

[h3]New Items[/h3]
  • Battery: Used for energy storage.
  • Generator: Used to build item based generators.
  • Solar Panel: Used to generate energy from solar power.
  • Electric Scrap: Can be made into energy related items.
  • Temporarily removed Books.

[h3]Landmarks[/h3]
  • Drifters can now be rescued from landmarks without a boat.
  • New Landmarks:
    • Polluted Woods
    • Car Battery Islands
    • Truck Generator Viaduct
    • Solar Panel Villages

[h3]Pacing Rebalance[/h3]
  • The research station comes into play much faster now, with many buildings being behind research.
  • The research station no longer requires books. Instead, it requires plastic buoyants and energy.
  • Dried wood can now be found more frequently on a new landmark: The Polluted Woods.
  • Wood drying has been slowed down.
  • Reduced Metal Scrap cost for Metal Plates.
  • Increased amount of landmarks containing Metal Scrap.
  • Overhauled each building's cost to take weight, time and energy in regard.
  • The desalinator upgrade now only replaces the Firewood cost with energy, instead of a flat time / resource upgrade.
  • Removed Cooked Fish from the Food Truck.

[h3]Render Pipeline Update[/h3]
  • Updated the render pipeline to the Unity Universal Render Pipeline.
  • Reworked all shaders to increase overall performance and visuals.
  • Reworked the ocean shader.
  • Shadows can now be cast on the water.
  • Reworked the underwater world, as you can now see it better.

[h3]Animations[/h3]
  • Added Manual-Powered Generator animation.
  • Added Ropecrafter animation.
  • Added Plastic Recycler animation.
  • Added Reroll animations for the crew selection screen.
  • Added Wood-Powered Generator building animation.
  • Added Oil-Powered Generator building animation.
  • Added Scrapsmith animation.

[h3]Misc[/h3]
  • Seagulls will now be scouted by drifters.
  • Added LODs for walkways.
  • Added LODs for flotsam.
  • Changed names and descriptions for various buildings.
  • The Captain's Log is now displayed above the notifications.
  • Reworked some pages in the survival guide to reflect the current state of the game.

[h3]Fixes[/h3]
  • Fixed an issue where the fog of war would not go away around the town when moving to the outer edges of the map.
  • Fixed an issue where loading a save would make the day / night visuals appear out of sync.
  • Fixed an issue where a drifter would get stuck on a mooring point after moving the town.
  • Fixed an issue where the boat panel would sometimes show the wrong captain on a boat.
  • Fixed an issue where a boat would get stuck at the wrong mooring point after moving the town.
  • Fixed an issue where a drifter would not eat or drink if the game was saved in the night.
  • Fixed a building being stuck upgrading when you upgraded without the proper items. This would happen when upgrading buildings that required the same items.
  • Fixed selection outline of watchtower.
  • Fixed issue where the salvaging attribute tooltip would display the construction tooltip instead in the drifter attribute window.
  • Fixed outline of the Fish Kabob not highlighting the whole building.
  • Fixed Desalinator biking animation being offset.
  • Fixed not being able to salvage Research Station if researched finished when a drifter was on their way to the station.

[h3]Behind The Scenes[/h3]
  • Added a landmark generator to improve our workflow for the landmarks.

[h3]Experimental Changes[/h3]
For those who played the experimental build, here are the changes from the latest experimental build that are not mentioned in the full patch notes:
  • Updated the Townheart visuals to reflect the 1 big battery it has.
  • Updated the Wood-Powered Generator to have an electricity connector.
  • Updated the Desalinator to have an electricity connector.
  • Added build states for the Oil-Powered Generator.
  • Added build states for the Solar Panel.
  • Reduced the size of the selection collider for the Energy Pole.
  • Removed decimal point for energy in the Captain's Log.
  • Updated energy icon in the Captain's Log.
  • Energy overlay now has paged per grid, instead of being a scrollable window.
  • Fixed the line visuals of the swimming radius on the map view.
  • Fixed Food Truck cable position.
  • Fixed not being able to start linking by clicking the electricity connector of the Food Truck.
  • Fixed not being able to start linking by clicking the electricity connector of the electrified Fish Kabob.
  • Fixed Electro Crafter animation being the crank animation.
  • Fixed buildings not always showing in the energy overlay.
  • Fixed item-powered electricity generators not showing when they were on when you opened the energy overlay.
  • Fixed an issue where you could not link to buildings when they finished building while you were linking.
  • Added missing localization.

Update 4.0: "Eel-ectricity" now ready for testing!

Hey drifters!

We have a major update ready to test for you all: Eel-ectricity!
This patch brings energy, weight and slottable items to your floating villages. Allowing you to connect buildings with energy grids and produce power to move your town.

Each item has it's weight, which will impact the energy required to get to destinations. Workshops can be slotted with Generators, replacing their need for a drifter to work there.

This patch comes with a complete update to the render pipeline, offering smoother performance and fancier graphics. (shadows on the water!) As well as a pacing rebalance and many other changes.

We wanted to get these changes out to you as soon as possible in order to gather feedback.
As such, the feature can be accompanied by bugs.

We invite you all to test this update and give us your feedback.

When bugs occur, provide as much information as possible to help us resolve these faster!
Read here how to submit and track the current bugs in the game.

This patch is still in development and can be tested on the experimental branch to give feedback.

This is how you can enable the experimental branch of Flotsam. This will only work when you're not in a game:
1. Open Steam Library
2. Right click Flotsam
3. Select Properties
4. Go to tab 'Betas' at the top.
5. Select 'Experimental' in the drop-down.

Enjoy the new update!

[h2]Change Notes[/h2]
New Energy System
  • Energy buildings can now be connected to energy grids.
  • Buildings that require energy will draw energy from their connected energy grid.
  • If an energy grid becomes overloaded, connected buildings will work at reduced efficiency.
  • Certain buildings now require energy, instead of fuel
  • Town Engine
  • Research Station
  • Desalinator
  • Food Truck
  • The townheart starts with a crank to produce energy which prevents players getting stuck when they didn't build an energy related building.
  • Added an energy overlay that shows the energy consumption, production or storage of energy related buildings.
  • Removed old fuel import system and replaced it with the fuel being part of the production recipe.
  • Added a method to link energy grids together using click and drag energy wires.


Town Weight
  • Your town now has a weight, which will affect the energy cost of town movement.
  • The town weight is calculated by the total accumulation of all resource weights in construction costs, inventory and in storage.
  • There are currently 6 different weight tiers:
  • Very Light: 0kg - 400kg
  • Light: 400kg - 800kg - Movement cost increased by 50%
  • Medium: 800kg - 1200kg - Movement cost increased by 120%
  • Heavy 1200kg - 1600kg - Movement cost increased by 230%
  • Very Heavy: 1600kg - 2000kg - Movement cost increased by 400%
  • Overloaded: 2000kg+ - Movement cost increased by 600%


Slottable Items
  • Certain buildings can now slot items in them as an upgrade.
  • A generator can be slotted in workshops to remove the need for a drifter. Workshops with a Generator will need to be connected to an energy grid.
  • Batteries can be slotted in the Battery Holder to increase their energy storage.


New Buildings
  • Battery Holder: A holder where adding batteries will increase energy storage.
  • Wood-Powered Generator: This building can burn wood to generate energy.
  • Oil-Powered Generator: This building can burn oil to generate energy.
  • Energy Pole: A building that is used to connect buildings to the energy grid.
  • Solar Panel: Generates energy from solar power.
  • Electro Crafter: Turns Electric Scrap into various electric items.


New Items
  • Battery: Used for energy storage. Can be slotted in a Battery Holder
  • Generator: Used to upgrade a workshop to no longer require a drifter. Can be slotted in any workshop.
  • Solar Panel: Used to generate energy from solar power.
  • Electric Scrap: Can be made into energy related items.
  • Temporarily removed Books.


New Landmarks
  • Polluted Woods
  • Car Battery Island


Pacing Rebalance
  • The research station comes into play much faster now, with many buildings being behind research.
  • The research station no longer requires books. Instead, it requires plastic buoyants and energy.
  • Dried wood can now be found more frequently on a new landmark: The Polluted Woods.
  • Wood drying has been slowed down.
  • Reduced Metal Scrap cost for Metal Plates.
  • Increased amount of landmarks containing Metal Scrap.
  • Overhauled each building's cost to take weight, time and energy in regard.


Render Pipeline Update
  • Updated the render pipeline to the Unity Universal Render Pipeline.
  • Reworked all shaders to increase overall performance and visuals.
  • Reworked the ocean shader.
  • Shadows can now be cast on the water.
  • Reworked the underwater world, as you can now see it better.


Animations
  • Added Manual-Powered Generator animation.
  • Added Ropecrafter animation.
  • Added Plastic Recycler animation.
  • Added Reroll animations for the crew selection screen.
  • Added Wood-Powered Generator building animation.
  • Added Oil-Powered Generator building animation.


Misc.
  • Seagulls will now be scouted by drifters.
  • Added LODs for walkways.
  • Added LODs for flotsam.
  • Changed names and descriptions for various buildings.


Fixes
  • Fixed an issue where the fog of war would not go away around the town when moving to the outer edges of the map.
  • Fixed an issue where loading a save would make the day / night visuals appear out of sync.
  • Fixed an issue where a drifter would get stuck on a mooring point after moving the town.
  • Fixed an issue where the boat panel would sometimes show the wrong captain on a boat.
  • Fixed an issue where a boat would get stuck at the wrong mooring point after moving the town.
  • Fixed an issue where a drifter would not eat or drink if the game was saved in the night.


Behind the Scenes
  • Added a landmark generator to improve our workflow for the landmarks.

Update 3.7: "Upgrade System" Now Released!

Hey all!

The Upgrade System is now live!
As part of working towards the next Major Update (0.4), we added the Upgrade System, where some buildings can be upgraded to better versions.

This update is accompanied by Audio and Performance improvements.

Enjoy!

[h2]Early Access 0.3.7: The Upgrade System[/h2]
General
  • First iteration of the upgrade system:
  • Plastic drying rack is now Drying Rack
  • Drying Rack upgrades into a large & huge drying rack.
  • Distiller is now Desalinator.
  • Desalinator upgrades to large Desalinator.
  • Bed now upgrades to House.
  • House now upgrades to Big House.
  • Drifters will now temporarly stop their production, research and energy projects when it's bedtime.


Visuals
  • Reworked the size of distiller.
  • Reworked the size of desalinator.
  • New visual for Large and Huge Drying Rack


Audio
  • Added FMOD to manage audio.
  • Various new sounds have been added.
  • Added effect for ambience when pausing the game speed.


Performance
  • Reduced overhead of drifters requesting projects, increasing overall performance.
  • Added LODs for all storage visuals, reducing rendering at further ranges.
  • Added LODs for all flotsam / fish in water, reducing rendering dramatically when looking at the horizon.


Balancing
  • Metal plates now require 1 fuel to make.


Fixes
  • Fixed getting stuck in map view when going to the map while building.
  • Fixed drifters getting stuck on the energy producer when disabling the building.
  • Fixed bug where drifter would get stuck on landmark.

Update 3.7: "Upgrade System" now ready for testing!

Hey drifters!

We have another update ready to test for you all: The Upgrade System.
As part of working towards the next Major Update (0.4), we added the Upgrade System, where some buildings can be upgraded to better versions.

We wanted to get these changes out to you as soon as possible in order to gather feedback.
As such, the feature can be accompanied by bugs.

We invite you all to test this update and give us your feedback.

When bugs occur, provide as much information as possible to help us resolve these faster!
Read here how to submit and track the current bugs in the game.

This patch is still in development and can be tested on the experimental branch to give feedback.

This is how you can enable the experimental branch of Flotsam. This will only work when you're not in a game:
1. Open Steam Library
2. Right click Flotsam
3. Select Properties
4. Go to tab 'Betas' at the top.
5. Select 'Experimental' in the drop-down.

Enjoy the new update!

[h2]Change Notes[/h2]
General
  • First iteration of the upgrade system:
  • Plastic drying rack is now Drying Rack
  • Drying Rack upgrades into a large & huge drying rack.
  • Distiller is now Desalinator.
  • Desalinator upgrades to large Desalinator.
  • Bed now upgrades to house.


Balancing
  • Metal plates now require 1 fuel to make.


Visuals
  • Reworked the size of distiller.
  • Reworked the size of desalinator.
  • New visual for Large and Huge Drying Rack


Audio
  • Added FMOD to manage audio.
  • Various new sounds have been added.


UI
  • Added upgrade UI.


Performance
  • Reduced overhead of drifters requesting projects, increasing overall performance.


Fixes
  • Fixed getting stuck in map view when going to the map while building.

Hotfix 0.3.6p1 Released

Merry Christmas everyone!

We've fixed an issue where boats would get stuck when continuing a previous save.

[h2]Patch notes[/h2]
Fixes
  • Fixed issue where boats would get stuck when continuing a save from 0.3.5p3 or below.