Last Oasis News

CHANGELOG

EXOSKELETON

- Added Exoskeleton.

VISUALS

- Improved various effects during eclipse.

FIXES

- Fixed Gun Pod collisions for players.
- Fixed visual issues with retracting wings.
- Fixed inconsistent interaction for retracting wings.
- Fixed collision issues with catapult rocks.
- Fixed grappling hook controls breaking by landing with menus opened.
- Fixed camera issues when close to water.
- Removed ability to open menus when manning a Tool/Weapon.
- Removed ability to use bandages when manning a Weapon/Tool.

EXOSUIT



The Exosuit (aka Exoskeleton) is this week’s content push, and we wanted to tell you all a bit more about what the suit can do, and what we have planned for it in the future. We’re releasing this with a very big note: the suit is still a prototype. Any and all feedback on the suit is important, since it is still in development.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The Exoskeleton uses a complex system of pulleys and gears to maintain its integrity while moving and allows the nomad operating it to carry larger weights. Similar mechanisms are used in many other nomadic structures and tools. Even though the Exosuit's armor absorbs most of the damage dealt to the wearer, it won't be able to protect against environmental damage like fire or gases, while also suffering from poor explosion resistance. At the time of its invention on the Flotilla, the carrying mechanisms of the Exoskeleton are only suited for specially designed bolt-shooting weapons, but more tools and weapons are being tested by the Nomadic engineers.

In general, without any upgrades or modules that may come in the future, the Exoskeleton is a slow-moving machine capable of withstanding significant damage and designed specifically for combat, as it doesn't allow performing most actions due to its bulky structure. It can also be packed into Walker Packing Compartments to be transported between oases.



COMMUNITY FEATURE

-Can we talk about how amazing this handaxe that u/AdamJerel made is? Because holy shit.

COMMUNITY QUESTIONS

A huge thank you to everyone who participated in our AMA on Friday! We’ve updated our Living FAQ with what was asked and answered. This week, we’ll be answering a couple more questions from Reddit.

First up is the most upvoted comment. We wanted to take a little more time to answer instead of trying to get one out there during the AMA:

Q: Your game launched with roughly 30k players and now has a peak of 1k players on a good day in just 6 months.
In your honest opinion, what are your opinions on this and why do you think nearly 97% of your player base abandoned this EA title? In addition, how are you going to convince the people who left the game that they should come back and try the game again? A: We launched the game with unique fresh setting, having great atmosphere and in a pretty polished state, especially in the early game. However we had (and still have) lack of content, number of serious gameplay issues (in particular affecting late game) and lack of customization options.
Considering all of that, it is absolutely expected for people to give it a try, play for some time and then leave, while checking on the game's state from time to time. Not saying we didn't make mistakes after release, but mistakes are also something to be expected and a part of EA title development.
The only thing we can really do about this is continue development, fixing the issues, adding more content and ways to play. It is understandable that for many people the current numbers seems worrying, but the more important part is for the game to keep improving and be fun to play. When we fix all the major issues - getting the numbers back won't be difficult.

Q: Can you comment or give a hint regarding other small walkers that are in the pipeline? A: As you've noticed with the Cobra Walker, we're currently focusing on expanding the walker fleet with machines that have unique and special uses as opposed to general walkers, just with different decks. We do have some cool ideas for those as well though like an Interceptor Walker, so make sure to check the posts for any sneak peeks!

Q: Are there any plans to make knowledge unlocks or tablets also random loot drops? A: It's possible we'll add tablet drops in some special places like big PvE boss encounters or event map exploration in the future, but it's unlikely you'll find them in regular loot drops from rupu camps or normal loot sites.

Q: With the commerce update coming up soon, is there any plan to make walkers sellable/transferable to individuals? A: We've been considering a feature that would allow selling walkers at Trading Stations and will be looking into adding it some time after the Commerce Update.

More questions from the community will be answered next week!

Here's a teaser for what's coming next:



What do you think about the Exoskeleton?

Our goal with these Community Updates is to post them every month. If there's anything you want us to cover in particular, let us know!

To kick off gamescom, Last Oasis will be on sale for 34% off from now until August 31st, 10 PM PDT.

Development Updates

We’ve been keeping an eye on how the last two content pushes have been received, and wanted to let you know that we’re going to continue with these weekly releases! These won’t take away from all the work being done on the Commerce Patch, and we still plan on releasing that update sometime in October.

“How are you going to address the zerg issue / make it easier for solo players / etc” is a question we’ve gotten a ton recently. Giving a straightforward answer is tough, since our approach is going to be a bit more indirect for right now. We want to add content that can be used that will benefit players that aren’t in larger clans, and make the game easier for them in the long-run.

But what about wipes??

We are planning on introducing full wipes periodically. The first one will happen with the Commerce patch in October. We know this is a point of contention, and we are working on making it more straightforward for returning players.

We've been considering different ways of organizing this wipe while reading your discussions and decided to make it a full wipe with additions and improvements to the core mechanics. Since the focus of the update is commerce and trading, we're revamping the way Flots are acquired by introducing unique but limited Flotilla orders for each Trading Station, traveling salesmen with stalls you can find by exploring the world , and many other new trading mechanics.

When it comes to unlocking new tech, we wanted to add a very different process of getting Tablets, while sticking with the commerce theme. Once the patch is out, you'll be able to buy Tablets for Flots. While it might sound too easy compared to the current grind, keep in mind that Flotilla never officially sells Tablets containing ancient knowledge. If you want to buy them and other players are not selling, you'll have to travel and find black markets to trade with shady nomads for hard coins. Between acquiring Flots, finding black markets and bringing them physical coins, the new process will be comparable in difficulty to crafting the Tablets, but very different in gameplay and feel.

In general, wipes have a lot of pros and cons. We won't list all of them here, as you most certainly know them from different discussions we've all seen on forums and discord. There is one, though, that makes this decision much simpler for us - in a game like ours, it is close to impossible to introduce big changes without doing a wipe. Both for technical and gameplay reasons. Bringing changes that we're preparing in the Commerce Update without a wipe, for example, would not work well at all because of the already existing economical situation.

In addition to that, with the upcoming update we are doing significant changes to database structure to prevent the majority of server crashes and in general improve stability under heavy load. Trying to migrate the old data to the new structure would require a lot of time and come with significant risks.

We'll keep sharing more details about the update and specific features in our weekly posts, so make sure to check them out and send questions for the Q&A!

Community Features

-@pixelcave has been creating great videos, like this guide to the Cobra Walker:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

-MatureMindedGamers made a beginners guide back during launch:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

-This post on r/LastOasis gave us a good laugh!

Community Questions

A new Google Form for Community Questions will be posted to Discord on Monday!

Q: Do you have any plans to do something about combat timers? A: We know they can cause some frustration with accidental hits, so we’ll be looking into expanding the system to make the timer triggers a little “smarter”. The system is quite complex and breaking it would cause a lot of gameplay issues, so we won’t be rushing with quick fixes for it and designing it properly instead.

Q: There's a lot of noise from a vocal minority around safezones, PVE tiles, PVE protection timers/hours - do these suggestions for a mechanic that turns PVP off fit your vision for the game at all? A: As we’ve mentioned above, introducing wipes will allow us to do larger core changes to the game, so experimenting with solutions for PvP/PvE split will become much easier. That said, we’re not currently considering features that would completely disable PvP on official servers. Since Last Oasis has always been envisioned as a PvP sandbox survival with PvE elements, and not the other way around, we’re more inclined to look for solutions to merge the two ideas instead of replacing them.

Q: What is a feature the team is looking forward to most in the Commerce update? A: There isn’t really just one feature that everyone is excited for the most, but many are itching for the big changes to Flots and the new map. While not the biggest thing coming out with the update, black markets is the one I’m personally looking forward to the most. More specifically the idea and systems behind it, as it opens up a lot of new possibilities and ways of integrating new features in. - pogo

Q: Will the trade station be expanded to buy and sell craftable items, quality items and/or gear? A: It’s possible we’ll add Flotilla orders for crafted items in addition to raw materials, but it’s more likely you’ll find those kinds of orders elsewhere. We’ll be adding systems that allow them with the Commerce Update, but we’re still considering if and how to introduce them properly, so they might come a bit later.

Q: Are you discouraged at all about the negativity of some people in the community about the game? A: We've done our own fair share of shitposting, so can't really say it affects us negatively. If anything, it's just more feedback. We still get much more use from your discussions of the game itself, but if it's not your cup of tea in its current state, we hope you check it out again after a few updates. That's the whole reason we went with Early Access after all.

Q: Why is it so long now between patches or any activity from developers? A: As we mentioned in the first Q&A, there was going to be some stretches of time between larger patches. And, like we’ve mentioned now, there will be smaller weekly pushes on top of those large updates. We’ve been busy strategizing and planning what we wanted to kick off this new approach with.

Q: When will you add more armor? A: Definitely check out our AMA tomorrow, there might be something teased you’re going to like!

Q: Do the developers play the game themselves to ensure they keep up to date with current metas and release relevant changes that players would want? A: Not as much as we'd like to, but all the devs responsible for gameplay spend quite a lot of time playing the game. The main difficulty for us in that regard is all the issues it would cause if we officially participated in clan affairs, so we're relying heavily on your feedback when it comes to high-level gameplay like that.

Q: Is there a specific team focused on the development of private servers? It feels like if worked right, it may be the most entertaining and best player driving experience out of survival games. A: Our backend engineering team is working on everything related to private servers. While it’s not their only focus, supporting and improving the systems for it is an important part of their work. We’re planning to expand the possibilities of hosting private servers drastically over time. More control over how and what spawns in your realms, ability to host servers on your own dedicated machines and more.

Q: Multi-tile access for private servers????? A: We’re aiming to have this available with the Commerce update!

Q: Are we supposed to be the flotilla or will we meet the actual flotilla that gets mentioned in the tutorial? Will we get more characters like the tutorial voice guy? A: The Flotilla is a giant walking city with streets, houses, and everything else you’d expect in a town (except you probably wouldn’t expect legs). It’s built on detachable platforms, so it can split up into parts for various reasons like crossing tough terrain, but is still, essentially, the capital of mankind.

We’re planning to add the Flotilla to the game in the future and add more content to it over time. Narrative-driven features like the tutorial are also on the table, but we don’t have any specific plans for them yet.

Q: Is Donkey Crew already working on another game? A: No. We’re all fully committed to Last Oasis for any foreseeable future.

And now, for some teasers for a few things coming up...





What do you think they could be?

Thanks for reading!

Come join us for an AMA!
We'll be updating this post with a link to the AMA thread once it's live, and crossposting the thread to r/LastOasis!
It should open up an hour or two ahead of when we start answering questions.

Fixes

• Fixed VOIP issues.
  
• Fixed Weightless Modules not applying to walker packing.
  
• Fixed walker packing not stopping when either walker starts safe logging out.
  
• Fixed incorrect calculation of walker weight for packing.
  

Gamescom is happening this week! We’ll be hosting an AMA on r/games on Friday, August 28th at 6 PM CEST / 9 AM PDT. This Reddit post will be updated with more info, along with a cross-posted link to the Last Oasis sub. We’ll also share links to the AMA on our social media.

We will also be shifting away from our official forums and towards Reddit for now. The official forums will be closed and archived soon so we can continue to look over all the feedback and suggestions, but they could make a comeback in the future!

We are going to tell you all about our plans moving forward in the Community Devlog that we’re posting at the end of this week.

Now, for this week's content push, we’re introducing the...

Walker Packing Attachment!

We understand the need to be able to pack up some smaller Walkers and have them easy to access. With the Walker Packing Attachment, larger Walkers like Falco, Buffalo or Stiletto will be able to store the following packed smaller Walkers: Spiders, Fireflies and Dinghies!

[previewyoutube]https://youtu.be/2sNzare1rQs[/previewyoutube]

CHANGELOG

- Added Walker Packing Compartment.
- Fixed walker icons on world map.
- Fixed visual issues with some foliage and grass.

COMMUNITY FEATURE

-RadioX has been making some fun thematic stuff:

[previewyoutube]https://youtu.be/w2HMShrp6a0[/previewyoutube]

COMMUNITY QUESTIONS

PLEASE NOTE: we aren’t including too many questions in this post since a Community Devlog is getting posted on Thursday. There will be a bigger Q&A there, plus the AMA on Friday.

Q: What are you going to do to increase a number of new players in the game? A: More will be explained later in the week when we release a Community Devlog that’ll go a bit more in-depth.

Q: Are there plans to add safe tiles where PvP is disabled? A: We’re still considering solutions for players with different PvP preferences, but we’re not currently planning to add regular tiles with PvP completely turned off. We do have some ideas for peaceful tiles later on, but they would most likely be designed as a unique oasis type (Flotilla being one example).

Q: When releasing patch notes in the future do you plan on making them more in depth as to allow players to see how everything works that has recently been added to the game in more detail?
A: We are trying to work on expanding how detailed our patch notes are. We might initially focus on the bigger components that get added and how they were designed to work within the game. These descriptions may not be included in the patch notes themselves, but would be part of a blog post or devlog.

Q: How’s the Commerce update coming along? A: The majority of the planned features are getting finished and tested by now. We’re focusing on tweaks and adjustments, polishing new models, and figuring out things related to wipes. Read the details in the upcoming devlog!

Q: Would you hold a contest where the community could design a Walker? A: That’s something we can try to organize, if enough people would be interested in it!

Q: When will you stabilise fps?
A: Since there isn’t “one big FPS issue” and performance depends on many small things, the improvements there are incremental. We’re optimizing a ton of smaller issues over time, so you’ll be seeing them with almost all bigger patches, engine updates, and so on.

Q: Are you considering changing burn time? A: Once we figure out the details on wipes, we’ll be able to experiment with core mechanics like this much more freely, so it’s definitely a possibility.

What other kinds of attachments or upgrades would you want Walkers to have?