Included below we have an update on our two biggest upcoming features, Dedicated Servers and Mounts. We talk about our design intent behind Mounts and how they will address movement, game speed and more.
Basic Ranged Attachments
Ten Basic Attachments have been added to the Tier 3 Alterations Bench, in the same way as our Tool/Weapon and Armor Attachments. These attachments provide basic improvements across Bows, Crossbows and all firearms.
You can only add attachments to new weapons that you have made since this week's update. Attachments affect stats only but cosmetic elements are planned in future.
- Basic Scope (All ranged weapons)
- Trajectory Module (Bows and Crossbows)
- Economic Attachment (Bows and Crossbows)
- Silencer (All Guns)
- Flexible Frame (All Guns)
- Strengthened Strings (Bows only)
- Lightweight Frame (Crossbows only)
- Handcannon (Pistol only)
- Sniper Scope (Rifles only)
- Spread Reduction Module (Shotgun only)
Advanced Ranged Attachments
Ranged Weapons will have fifteen attachment options on the Tier 4 Alteration bench, ranging from universal buffs through to specialized features that allow you to personalize your loadout. Ranged Weapons provided us with room for a lot more creative expression than other attachment systems. For example, Extended Chamber increases your Pistol clip to 3 bullets and Prototype Notch gives you a chance to fire an additional projectile with each Crossbow bolt.
- Advanced Scope (All ranged weapons)
- Advanced Trajectory Module (Bows and Crossbows)
- Advanced Economic Attachment (Bows and Crossbows)
- Advanced Silencer (All Guns)
- Advanced Flexible Frame (All Guns)
- Advanced Strengthened Strings (Bows only)
- Advanced Lightweight Frame (Crossbows only)
- Advanced Handcannon (Pistol only)
- Advanced Sniper Scope (Rifles only)
- Advanced Spread Reduction Module (Shotgun only)
- Rapid Fire (Bows only)
- Prototype Notch (Crossbows only)
- Extended Chamber (Pistol only)
- Hunting Scope (Rifles only)
- Spread Increased Module (Shotgun only)
Update on Dedicated Servers
The Future Content section of our weekly Changelog provides a sneak peak into the ongoing development of features that we have not yet released but are actively working. We know many of you have been keeping a close eye on our progress and so we wanted to give you an update on the status of two key features.
Progress on Dedicated Servers is moving steadily, with many of our team working fulltime on its development. We have completed work on the connection state, server settings and setup/customization options. The next phase is internal gameplay testing and refinement. This involves a lot of balancing and mechanic improvement, including Remote Resource Extraction and Loadout Persistence which has been a focus for the team this week.
We are planning on rolling out Dedicated Servers on a separate Steam branch for players to help test in the coming weeks. Testers will be able to provide us direct feedback on performance, experience and gameplay, so keep your eyes out for more details.
As many of you know, Icarus experienced an outage earlier this week for several hours, which was due to a Microsoft Azure outage that affected many games and websites worldwide. This is a good example of the benefits of dedicated servers and our move to a decentralized data model. Shifting reliance away from third-party providers will reduce potential causes of server disruptions and keep Icarus online for players far more consistently.
Update on Taming & Mounts
Mounts are very close to being released, as many of you have guessed by reading our Changelog Future Content notes over the last few weeks. To get you prepared, we’ve decided to give you some insight into the design process we’ve undertaken for this system, and how it addresses some of the concerns you’ve raised in the past.
Players have been petitioning for vehicles or some form of faster transport in our forums, Discord and Feature Upvote for a while.
The main feedback has been about the sheer distance between quest points and movement speed and its impact on game speed and player experience. The accusation of being a walking simulator has not been lost on us, and early missions on Olympus often had long travel distances although this was something we addressed when designing Styx. Often missions' return to your dropship, a key part of the gameloop, was a trek rather than an exciting climax.
With all this considered, the team has designed the upcoming Taming and Mounts system to provide a way to travel long distances faster. We’ll have more details about how taming will work, and which kind of creatures mounts will be, in a future week’s update.
Anytime we add a new system to the game, we want it to tie in cleanly to our current systems, feel natural and be ‘built-in’ to the Icarus experience rather than ‘tacked-on’. We’ve designed the mounts system to work well with our upcoming Dedicated Servers, current maps, the current game loop, existing animal behavior and future DLC chapters.
Changelog v1.2.14.100738
New Content
- Adding Attachment slots onto Planetary Bows, Crossbows, Pistols, Rifles and Shotguns
- Added weapon type icons to D_AttachmentIcons
- Adding Various Ranged Weapon Attachments, their Alterations, Meshes, Tags, Talents and Recipes
- Updating shotgun Spread Stats on the Attachment so it does more base damage
- Fixing Ranged_Weapon_Attachment_Lightweight_2 so it works on pistols and not bows
- Implemented recipes for ranged weapon attachments
- Added lights to caveworm spit projectiles to enhance visuals during combat in dark caves
- Added Ranged Weapon Attachment icons
- Hooking up Icons for Ranged Weapon Alterations and Attachments
- Rebalanced ranged attachment alterations to help encourage usage of different attachments.
- Swapped Strengthened Strings to bows and Economic Attachment to bows and crossbows
- Added descriptions for new ranged attachments
- Hooking up Icons for Ranged Weapon Alterations and Attachments
- Fix error message and missing editor validation functionality caused by a bad UPROPERTY meta specifier in dialogue data
- Swapping out in engine combined static mesh of the Sandworm Clue 3, for and imported version to fix build / compile error due to not having access to import settings
- Fixing Issue where Handcannon Attachment was providing the wrong alteration (Melee Damage as Opposed to Ranged Damage)
- Fixed an issue causing ABYSS: Research progress to only count stations in the forest. Stations now also show that they need redeploying if picked up before the objective is complete
- Fixing issue where the Animal Highlighting Scope Attachment Recipe was crafting the Workshop wuit Module
- Fixing issue where Sniper Scope was Applying Aim Down Sights Speed and Not Zoom
- Fixing issue where Shotgun Attachments were using the wrong stats for spread
- Fixing issues were deployables would automatically activate their energy/water/fuel component based on the wrong variable, causing drills & extractors to run without requiring power
- Fixing issue where the Attachment Slot (which is uninteractable) would glow when atlering a ranged weapon
- Fixed a bug when a client would initially pull out a building piece, the hologram would not appear until they swap to another item and back again
- Fixed FactionMissions and Quests DT metadata containing incorrect mission titles
- Corrected spelling of Attachment for blueprint tree unlocks
- Corrected error in credits where studio names were swapped
- Remove Raccoon icon and update dev bug tool to not reference it
- Reduced close/far tilling for base tundra landscape layer
- Added Cave Ice Pillars var1 to 6
- Fixing issue with clean recipe
- Set player movement audio component to track whether a player is mounted, which will enable us to update movement audio parameters due to perspective shifts etc. (though not yet implemented in FMOD). Involved creating an interface to check categories of seat type for audio purposes, so also updated bed-related audio implementation to also use the new interface
- Adding M creature move rustle sound while running and sprinting
- Added roots, puddle, mud and leaves landscape decals for swamp biome
- Added geothermals spline tool to help build larger geothermals
- Tundra Cliff Pass and Created New Riversplines, Blue Quad, Prometheus
- Added Riverbank, Cliff Meshes and Sculpted Landscape on Green Quad, DLC Map
- Cliff pass in vulcanic biome, blocked out underground cave in the swamp, landscape sculpting, Purple Quad, DLC
- GFur now works on Mac
- Added 24 variations of tundra sapling to the project
- Adding new Ranged Weapon Alterations
- Tundra Cliff Pass and River Pass, Blue Quad, Prometheus
- Added Cliff Meshes, Added Cliff Meshes Around Base of Macro & Sculpted Landscape on Green Quad, DLC Map
- Cliff placement in swamp biome, blocked out underground cave tunnel in the swamp, landscape sculpting and painting, Purple Quad, DLC
- Added entries and subtitles for new generic dialogue lines
- Added TU_GrassA with 3 variants
- Adjusting the volume and spacializers of the wall lights and separating it from the omni lights
- Add audio developer level to DLC map to allow us to add audio-only actors to the world independently of world building quads where required
- Adjusting volume of dialogue to be slightly lower and making the ducking a little more subtle. Also adjusting the quad delay to duck with dialogue as well
- Added missing changes to GL_ToiToi
- Added Riverbank, Cliff Meshes and Sculpted Landscape on Green Quad, DLC Map
- Tundra Cliff Pass and River Pass, Blue Quad, Prometheus
- Cliff placement, blocked out underground cave tunnel in the swamp, landscape sculpting, Purple Quad, DLC Adding Mount M creature specific idle event and data table entries Fixed player animations when riding mounts glitching out at low FPS; Verlet animation nodes on player mounted Control Rig are now blended out at low FPS values. Updated RigUnit_Verlet class to latest state on UE5 github, added option to clamp magnitude of internal acceleration
- Volume and tone balance for M creature footsteps
- Added dithering to flower alpha on GL_ToiToi variants, as well as cleaned up some incorrectly named files
- Add more basic audio functionality to mount creatures:
- Define basic audio states for mounts, and apply in mount character logic
- Set up mount creature vocalisations to play in different states and gameplay events
- Creature audio component now tracks its parent creature's mount state, meaning we can e.g. modulate footstep audio when the locally controlled player is in 'mounted mode'
- Refactored creature audio component BP for sanity, and tidied up some dubious code in AI vocalisation component
- Added some basic vocalisation states and events to mount creature data for testing
- Added Ice Cool Pack from UE Marketplace
- Add dither to master foliage shader to improve semi-tranperency/softness
- Adding M creature attack vocalisations event and data table entry. No animations currently assigned
- Geothermals Spline tweak for second layer and initial settings
- Added GL_ToiToi with 5 variations
- Tundra Cliff Pass and Flushed Grass On Red Quad, Blue Quad, Prometheus
- Cliff Pass in Grasslands/Tundra, Bulit Ice Cave, Sculpted Landscape & Flushed on Yellow/Green Quad, DLC Map
- Cliff pass in Swamp biome, Geothermal pool in vulcanic biome, cave placement and landscape sculpting, Purple Quad, DLC
- Adding in all processed dialogue events
- Added 12 variations of tundra bush asset to the project
- Added LC_GrassA with 4 variants
- Added new SeededRoll to IcarusChanceLibrary, same as Roll but takes in a FRandomStream
- First implementation of temporary, projectile-based taming mechanics. Added new 'Conciousness' GOAP motivation, goal, action. Added tranquilizer bolt item. Improved Moa physics asset. The SpawnNewAI function can now be supplied an Instigator and an Owner. IcarusNPCCharacter's ActorState is now created OnConstruction, and can have it's class overridden on child classes
- Adding Advanced Leather & Platinum Weave Items, Marking Recipes as Development, Marking Advanced/Electric Armor Benches as Development
- Adding in base Rock Dog assets, first pass of skeletal mesh and weighting and all base anim assets ready for hookup
- Adding Advanced Armor Bench & Electric Armor Bench Setup, Recipes, Talents, Requirements
- Adding in base Predator Bird skeletal mesh, first pass weights, and base anim set ready for hookup
- Adding the base Swamp Quadruped skeletal mesh, first pass of weights, full anim set imported ready for hookup
- Added FMod events for new generic dialogue
- Added juvenile buffalo. Taming Sickness modifier is now added correctly when previous Tamed modifier expires. Fixed bug where domesticated tames would spawn in invisible
- Adding base Swamp Bird Skeletal Mesh, first pass weights, and all the current anims for the base implementation, awaiting second set of animations
- Manual removal of erroneous D_Actionable defines in ItemsStatic DT
- Adding Advanced Cloth Armor to Datatbales and Setup of Meshs / Basic Stats / Recipes and other related Traits
- Tundra Cliff Pass and Arctic Lake Pass, Blue Quad, Prometheus
- Cliff pass in Swamp biome, Geothermal pools in vulcanic biome, cave placement and landscape sculpting, Purple Quad, DLC
- Cliff Pass in Grasslands/Tundra, Sculpted Landscape on Yellow/Green Quad, DLC Map
- Add icons for new Hard Leather Armor pieces
