DYSMANTLE News

Another big update has arrived at last! You may also notice that it's simply referred as Update #14 instead of the game build version number 0.7.2.27. Those version numbers probably won't mean very much, so I guess the simpler number makes more sense.

This update brings you four bigger things, and gets you one step closer to escaping the island. You know what I'm talking about, right?



[h2]Solaris[/h2]

The Solaris desert is now accessible. The locomotive at the Sunburn Desert train station (Q17) has been tweaked, so you can progress further there. You will need to complete the related quest goal first though. I won't spoil much, but remember to visit the gift shop diner at O14. Don't forget your sunscreen!





[h2]The Ark[/h2]

The fenced off area in Frore is now open. There's a terminal which will open the gate to the inner area. Note that the Ark is optional content and is not required for completing the main quest. The Ark Quest is colossal as you will learn!



The Ark is an underground complex. Most of the first level is available at this point, but level 2 is not yet accessible. You'll find those familiar blue dev-work-in-progress barriers there. We'll keep opening the facility towards the full launch.

[h2]Local Shared Screen Co-op (BETA)[/h2]

The feature we teased the last time is indeed co-op as some of you guessed. We had sort of prepared for adding this (development-wise), so we decided to try if everything worked as expected... and surprisingly it did. I'm sure there are still small issues, so we're putting heavy emphasis on BETA. You can play online with your friends (or enemies, just remember to enable friendly fire) using Steam Remote Play or a third party alternative such as Parsec.

The second player can join the team any time. Just click Co-op in the pause menu System tab. Everything should be completable in co-op already, but some tombs may be either a bit easier or way more difficult with two players. Please report any problems you may find and we'll fix things!




[h2]Mana Rifts[/h2]

You may notice some strange time bending phenomena on the island. Don't worry about it, just continue progressing the main quest and it will all make sense (hopefully).

[h2]Simplified Chinese Test Localizations[/h2]

We're moving forward with our localization development efforts, and testing the system with probably the hardest language we could think of. Most of the game strings you can find in game are now localized to Simplified Chinese thanks to our Chinese friends at Across Media. Note that these are still test localizations and there will be errors of all sorts.

Full text localization support for other languages will be added when the game is otherwise complete. There will be standard EFIGS and Russian and Turkish localizations at full launch too as promised.



[h2]Baby Deer![/h2]

Over the early access period, we've received one particular feedback over and over again: the deer are too hard to hunt in early game. We're listening. We hear you. We've now added another deer variant that is slower and weaker, so you can catch it more easily. This should help you gather those precious materials you need. You monsters.





[h3]ADDED[/h3]
- Access to 'Solaris'.
- Access to the Ark (first part). Accessible in Frore.
- Added Local Co-op (BETA). Accessible in the Menu 'System' tab.
- Level Cap is now 38. Up by TWO levels!
- Added possibility to bind keys to rotate camera left and right.
- A new deer variant.
- New material: Mana Chunk which can be refined from Mana Beads using Smelter.
- Added Simplified Chinese localizations for testing.
- Sound effects here and there.
- Mana Rifts.
- Added new fishing spots to numerous spots around the world as some areas were lacking in fish feet.

[h3]CHANGED[/h3]
- Smelter is now a heat source when activated.
- Idle animation tweaks.
- Clarification interaction for the Central train if the player does not possess the TPU.
- Made some steps in "A Way Forward" quest more implicit.
- Minor text and grammar fixes.
- Nerfed farmable plant growth time and the random range that governs the amount produced by a single harvest. Most of the plants have lower initial seed costs, though. This is to encourage tilling more farm plots.
- Boosted select trinket effects to make them more viable.
- Made the number of uses for knives, shiv trio, grenade and lure smaller.
- Raised proximity mine damage.
- Gave Shiv trio a slightly weaker version of the same damage modifier that throwing knives has.
- Tweaked reward probabilities for most of the fishing spots.
- World map renderer optimizations and new visuals.

[h3]FIXED[/h3]
- Projectile damage (throwing knives, monster slimes, etc caused excessive damage).
- CTD fixes.
- Usual open world visual glitch & terrain fixes.
- Fixed Co-op crashes when fast travelling, entering tombs, and reloading save in certain conditions.
- Main quest getting stuck at the evac site if you were too fast.




One rather immediate next step for the dev team will be the traditional Finnish Summer Vacation, which will pretty much last for the whole July. We'll try and recharge for the last push towards the full launch later this year. Note that we will not likely be answering your questions on Discord during this vacation. We'll head back to the office in early August. (Also literally hoping to return to the office physically, as COVID-19 situation is getting pretty good here in Finland. But we'll evaluate this again in August.)

I also have to mention something. Thank you for all the kind encouraging words and the positive Steam reviews you've sent our way. Game dev (like many other jobs) can be tough, especially during this COVID thing, so getting positive feedback really means a lot.



Overall, the game dev is still progressing nicely. We've got the next (a bit colder) part of the map about 80% complete already, so it should be out maybe in halfway August or so. All in all, we're still behind the schedule, but we're still hoping to wrap up the main island area in September, which could put the full launch mark around October or so. And we know: that's almost 12 months in early access. Our initial estimate was 6 months max. But the bright side is that the game is definitely bigger and better than some of our early roadmaps predicted.

Have a great summer everyone!

☀️

The massive 0.7.1 update is finally here! This one opens up TWO AND ⅓ new areas on the island. You'll be freezing your furry hat off in 🥶Polaris, checking the seaworthiness of some boats in ⚓Westport, and visiting jails in Central West.

This by far is the single biggest update we've done in terms of area size content.





There's A LOT of new things inside this latest update, but I'm only going to mention a couple of them. Full change list below. (BTW. if you think we shouldn't be posting so many screenshots of the new content here, please let us know below. We don't want to spoil too much, but it's hard to describe the content without light spoilers.)

[h2]Westport Harbor[/h2]

The west coast harbor is a must-see place to visit. Just don't expect to find any seaworthy boats at this point in time.



[h2]Mana Crater[/h2]

Hopefully this isn't spoiling anything you haven't already guessed, but you should definitely visit the crater and the surrounding installation in Polaris.

Classified photo:


[h2]New Audio System[/h2]

New XAudio2 based sound implementation is now in place. As mentioned before, the old DirectSound based stuff is still there as fallback in case you're running some older Windows version. Please send in bug reports of any issues you may have!

[h2]New Winter Box Art[/h2]

It took a while, but the last hand painted loading screen art is finally in place.





[h3]ADDED[/h3]
- Access to 'Polaris' and western part of 'Central', and 'Westport'.
- Level Cap is now 36. Up by TWO levels!
- New Craftable: Motorcycle Helmet, lvl 32.
- Rice can be found in the western part of the island.
- New XAudio2 based Sound Implementation. Falling back to DirectSound implementation on older systems.
- New Skill: Scavenger.
- New winter loading background image.
- Lighting a campfire autosaves the game if you're not in danger.
- More protagonist reactions.
- Showing Change Log when x.y.z version changes if you have opened the Change Log before.
- Stack trace is logged when the game crashes (contains only the code path, no player information).
- Intro cutscene is now skippable.

[h3]CHANGED[/h3]
- Destroying buildings you've built puts the materials directly back to your storage box (avoids grinding XP this way).
- Eased up the notorious 'puzzle' in Serpent's Crossing.
- Partially rebalanced some wearable stats.
- Slightly increased sledgehammer speed.
- Raised large rock DMG threshold, so they can't be broken with the tools available now. (Sorry!)
- Knockback effect improved.

[h3]FIXED[/h3]
- Tomb Mana Orb is no longer lost if you Restart Tomb without picking it up after completing the tomb.
- Quest markers no longer shown for quests you've picked up.
- Quest tracking box panel has correct height for multiline goals.
- Fixed sound volumes for some collisions.
- Few clarifications and additional checks to quests "Dirty Money" and "The Last Stand".
- Health bars are not drawn too high anymore.
- Few specific cases of player getting stuck in the game world.
- Usual round of fixes regarding floating objects, terrain glitches, etc.
- Minimap points of interest now colored properly.
- Performance optimizations in areas where there are lots of searchables (like the city).
- Link towers with changed internal PUIDs now show activated in old saves.
- Fleeing animals do not run into the water anymore so easily.
- Player's melee attack now prioritizes turrets over other obstacles.
- Grammar and typos.




The area we will be heading next is the southern desert Solaris. Spoiler: it will be hot! You will also be able to finally reach that third fuel cell required for your Escape Pod.

There's also a new bigger feature coming. Many of you have been requesting this. What is it? I'll just leave this one image here and hope you'll crack the puzzle:



But don't get too excited! It may not be what you think!

🥶⚓

The Central City is now open for business! You will be dodging turrets, picniccing at Pioneer's Park, visiting the Town Hall, and figuring out how to power up a train. And ultimately acquiring a Sledgehammer. Goodbye walls!

The city is located to the west of Crown Station, and there are three ways of entry to the new area: two from the north, and one from the south. If one of them proves more difficult than the rest, try another way in!





[h2]New Early Access Roadmap[/h2]

We've revised our Early Access Roadmap to reflect the updates we've done so far, and the updates that are planned before the full launch. Minor changes may happen, but that's the big picture. You'll find a nicer scrollable version of the chart inside the game in the Change Log screen. You may also notice that the Summer 2021 full launch has turned into ominous 2021/H2, but we're still hoping to launch closer to July than to December. We've also got some Post-Launch stuff planned, but waay too early to talk about that yet.



[h2]Welcome to the Mighty Mall![/h2]

I'm not sure if it's mandatory to have a mall in a post-apocalyptic ex-human piece of fiction, but we didn't want to take any chances and get the z-police after us. So here you go.



It's not the biggest of the malls, but the customers love it.



Deeper in the city there's also a pub where you can spend some quality time with the fellow patrons. (This is a mockup screenshot though. You are not allowed to stand on tables like that. They'd throw you out if you did.)



[h2]XP Level Cap Hike[/h2]

You can now level up to level 34. That's three levels more than in the previous build. We realised we need to be a bit less prudent with the levels in order to reach the level cap targets we've got planned for the launch version. Instead of our previous plans, we'll probably make it so that you can eventually get all the skills in the skill pool if you level up enough.

So the final cap will be the total amount of skills we'll have. If you want to start a new game and try pick things in a different order, that's fine, but you can also play a looong game where you try and get all the skills at once. This will mean that those XP bonus skills are now worth picking as they don't end up taking one of the finite skill slots.

[h2]New Icon[/h2]

There's a new icon to replace that old red crowbar on a white background which was always meant to be merely a placeholder. You'll be seeing the larger version of that whole box shot in the next update perhaps!



[h2]Total Progress[/h2]

The Collection Total Progress tab now shows your progress towards full completion of the game. Note that the numbers only reflect the current build, so the percentages may change as we add new content. But you can get a feel how much of the Early Access content you've completed at the moment. You can't 100% everything yet.

[h2]New Audio System[/h2]

As those of you playing the beta versions have noticed, we're working on new audio system to replace the old DirectSound based implementation. We're using our XAudio2 sound system that we developed for Xbox One as a base, and adding some new features. We were meaning to include it in this patch, but we not able to fix all the glitches we encountered yet, so we reverted back to the old sound system for now. Hopefully you'll meet the new system in the next update!



[h3]ADDED[/h3]
- Access to 'Central'.
- Level Cap is now 34. Up by THREE levels!
- Sledgehammer! (Unlockable through area progression.)
- Fancier Early Access Roadmap.
- Showing menu text when you can't save game.
- Some Quests have More Info button in Quest menu.
- Autosaving game when storing materials, accessing Myth Tablets, wells, etc if no enemies are near.
- Collection total progress bars.
- New Builder's Kit Quest for the sawmill (located near the original Sawmill).

[h3]CHANGED[/h3]
- You can't save when notifications that would result in save state changes are showing.
- Lighting performance optimizations.
- Rebalanced all wall tile HP and DMG thresholds.
- Changes to multiple other HP and DMG thresholds of objects.
- Chaser spotting animation is now roughly 20% faster.
- Optimized more compact stage format saves almost 0.5GB of space!
- Performance optimizations.
- Vultures drop eggs if somehow killed.
- Raised Proximity Mine Damage by roughly 20%.
- New UI interaction sounds.
- Increased the amount of material actor stacks that can reside in 10 meter radius from 30 to 150.

[h3]FIXED[/h3]
- Fixed world map point of interest clicking outside map borders.
- Fixed world map are information not showing before going to Collection screen.
- Showing Quest reward recipes properly.
- Serpent's Crossing doesn't show 1 extra monster in link tower radar.
- Added additional checks to older quests requiring opening of certain doors for the possibility of the doorway being destroyed.
- Object shadow fixes.
- Island map rendering fixes (showing decals).
- Not stealing mouse cursor multitasking out of the game window with camera rotate button held down.
- Sound panning for sounds playing behind the camera.
- Usual open world fixes regarding floating objects, weird decals, etc.



If everything goes according to the master plan, the Polaris Express will leave from Platform B in three weeks. You know I'm talking about the next update, right?

The level design is progressing nicely, and as you can see in the Roadmap (above), we're planning on launching TWO new areas in the next update. So it will be a big one. Full steam ahead! Choo choo!



🔚

Go see it here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1277500/Skeletal_Avenger/

Continue your expedition deeper into the heart of the jungle. Uncover some of the island's ancient past. Acquire the Hunting Rifle. Chase the Gas Masks. Welcome to Serpent's Crossing! 🐍

So you'll be retracing the steps of Judith Abigail Susan James as she travelled through the jungle decades ago. Maybe you'll find out what happened to her? Did she ever find those eluding Gas Masks? You need to be careful though: the jungle can be a merciless place.

Your journey starts where the previous update ended, near that ring of stone tablets.





[h2]Hunting Rifle[/h2]

You may remember this weapon from the trailer. Yup, the Hunting Rifle is finally here. (Sorry deer, we postponed it as long as we could.)

We've been going back and forth with the control scheme for firearms like this. This isn't a twin-stick shooter like some of our previous games, so we can't use the same kind of systems. Most of the action is melee-based. We tried a few options, but in the end it didn't seem to make sense to have a completely different control scheme for the rifle, so we decided to use the same controls you're (probably) already familiar after using any of the throwing weapons. Quick press just picks up the gun and fires at the locked target, and long press starts free/manual aiming. Releasing the long press fires the rifle, and moving or dodging will cancel the shot.



We've also got a few other firearms like this planned, but more on those later.

[h2]Gas Masks and Toxic Gasses[/h2]

You may also notice there are more toxic gasses blocking your way elsewhere on the island. And some more may be coming in the later updates to areas you may have already explored. So better gear up! They say masks are important, you know.

[h2]Optimizations and Visual Glitch Fixes[/h2]

This new update should fix those half-baked decals you may have been seeing. You should also not see half-loaded map chunks when you rest at the campfire. You may still see occasional misplaced objects and decals on the island though. You can report those in the newly added Visual Glitch category and we'll fix them for the new versions.

The game should also run smoother with less lagging while streaming the open world content -- especially when you've already destroyed a lot of the environment. We'll continue making these optimizations towards the release.





[h3]ADDED[/h3]
- Access to 'Serpent's Crossing'.
- Level Cap is now 31.
- New craftable: Hunting Rifle (level 31).
- New monster type.
- Audio logs can be relistened in Collection.
- New Skill: Doctor (placeholder skill icon).

[h3]CHANGED[/h3]
- Structures you've built yourself reward less XP when destroyed.
- Killed monsters reward more experience.
- Rebalanced monster loot to be more rewarding.
- Object loot balancing with the aim of reducing some bottlenecks regarding rare materials.
- Slowed down mutated hurler attack by 25%.
- Acid pools have higher damage now making standing in them a bad option.
- Tutorial tweaks.
- Unified loading screen background art character to look more like the in-game model.
- Collection UI tweaks.
- Extensive changes to object damage masks to incorporate the rifle.
- Upgrade Gear screen shows the stats at the maximum upgrade level.

[h3]FIXED[/h3]
- Smoother font outlines.
- Cold/hot resistance gear quests don't keep triggering protagonist remarks if quests are completed.
- Pause menu memory usage optimizations.
- Allowing installing other Link Tower transmitters even when max ascension level is reached.
- Performance optimizations.
- Upgrade gear screen material flow animation.



We're working hard on the next area, which will be the central "city" location. Still not 100% sure if it'll be the very next update or the one after that, but you can expect a new update in 2-3 weeks as usual. You'll be likely unlocking the recipe for the Sledgehammer in that update.

I'd say the island is about 62% complete now. This new area and the next one are a bit more complex, and have taken a bit longer to finish than expected, but luckily a few of the remaining areas contain a bit more more wilderness / desert, so they should be slightly faster to develop.

All-in-all we're a bit behind on the schedule, but really have no other option than to just keep pushing through as fast as we reasonably can. Still working remotely, which is definitely taking its toll, but fortunately we're seeing the light at the end of this COVID-19 tunnel as more and more ppl are getting vaccinated here in Finland. None of us yet though. Hoping to return to the office maybe within four months.

Anyway, I hope you like the update!

🐍