Since Europa was added we were already thinking our next planet would have to be a 'hot' one. As with a lot of our content in the game, adding Vulcan resulted in building a lot of reusable systems we can apply elsewhere. The end result may have been a new planet, but making gameplay survivable on this fractured planet forced us to expand on several things already in the game:

• Planet-Specific Ore Spawn Rates. Previously these were moddable, but not on a per-planet basis. It didn't make sense for a planet as hot as Vulcan to have any ices spawning on it, so now they don't.
• Gas Traders. If you can't get gases from ices, where do you get them from? Since we had recently added the trader to the game, it made sense to have traders who sell it.
• Trader Profiles. In its first implementation, traders arrival and inventory was completely random. As it was a core part of survival on Vulcan, we needed a bit more control. Through the use of trader profiles we can dictate spawn chances and inventory types, as well as multipliers on buying and selling prices on a per-trader basis.
• Landing Craft. With the large crevasses that appear on Vulcan, we had a common issue during playtesting where one or more of your starting crates/canisters could fall through into the abyss never to be seen again. The lander serves as a way to keep all that starting equipment together. Crates and canisters can be removed using the wrench, but cannot be re-attached so be sure the area is clear before you attempt to remove anything. The entire lander can be disassembled using your angle grinder.
• Updated Visuals On the art side, we also had to improve some old shader code to support the new ground and lava textures on Vulcan, and took the opportunity to refresh the old terrain on the Moon and Mars.

Scenario Authoring Improvements & 'Incidents'

Besides the aforementioned changes to ore spawn rates and tradeable modding, we also added the ability to spawn Incidents to the game. Currently experimental, Incidents are small script-driven events that can be initiated to provide a little extra flavor (or perhaps challenge) to your Stationeers experience. The event pool is still a bit small and untested for us to be throwing them at you at random as part of the base game, but the dozen-or-so in game now serve as an example to modders what sort of thing is possible for those who want to try their hand at authoring their own. They can be accessed via the in-game pause menu by clicking 'Incidents'.

Viewing/Restoring Save Backups

Despite being in early-access, we've tried to not be one of those games who force you to restart your saved world every time we bring out a significant update. Since it was available for purchase on Steam, there's only been 2 occasions where we've players have been forced to start new worlds - one unfortunately was the stable build prior to this one. While we can't guarantee these won't happen in the future, we have added an in-game menu to view the backed-up versions of your world and allow you to easily load one of them. Lets hope it is never neccessary!

Multiplayer Stability

A lot of work has been done in the past month on optimizing the multiplayer experience. The process of joining servers, especially those featuring large worlds (15'000 objects+) should now be a lot smoother and several items that were not previously synchronized between server and client are now doing so.

Update on Stuttering Issue

As mentioned in last weeks preview post, we're seeing encouraging results from people testing out the latest version of the engine on the experimental branch. Unfortunately, as with any significant engine version change there's a few issues we've got to sort first. We didn't want to delay the whole update any longer, so have decided to get this update out then look at upgrading the beta branch early next week. The engine feature we're enabling to resolve stuttering (incremental garbage collection) is also experimental, so we'll want to ensure it's adequately tested before updating accross the board.

Finally, Thanks.

As always a big thanks to everyone playing the game and providing your input through the Steam Community boards and Stationeers Discord. The Localization team are doing a great job at translating the names of the new things we're putting in the game and your bug reports are immensely helpful for a small team like ours. We know we can't please everyone or implement every crazy idea, but being able to interact with people who are as passionate about the game as we are really makes the whole process smoother and more rewarding. Go forth and try out Vulcan, and we hope your base fares better than Araon's testing one.

Hotfix Version 0.2.2131.9730

• Fixed missing network sync on aspects of things that are dependent on atmosphere changes such as engine and furnace burn colour and furnace result tooltip.
• Fixed trading lock issue when loading world. Saved and loaded station contact properly
• Fixed missing powered display animation for ItemRemoteDetonator.
• Fixed Lava sound glitching & reduced range of sound.
• Fixed spatialization settings on Sounds for Hard Suit/helmet
• Updated the health of the StructureFrame allowing it to withstand more damage.
• Updated the point at which the StructurePassiveVent will take damage from Temperature.
• Updated the StuctureShuttleLandingPad lighting animations.
• Fixed the Rover power button not having a switch animation and missing the light on the button itself when powered.
• Fixed broken trader inventory when more than one vending machine connected to network.
• Fixed null reference to CableFuse when breaking.
• Added TimeOfDay setting to the WorldSettings, allowing worlds to start at different times of the day.
• Changed Vulcan's start time to midnight instead of morning.
• Fixed Lander tipping over when on a slight angle.
• Fixed ItemSprayCanOrange item itself being the incorrect color.

Hotfix Version 0.2.2127.9703

• Fixed Lander loading in Vulkan. Spawning Lander 1 meter higher position with upright rotation.
• Raised the lava level on the Vulcan planet.
• Fixed error related to the in-game name of the ItemRemoteDetonator and ItemExplosive.
• Fixed null error which would occur when detonating multiple ItemExplosive's near each other.
• Fixed broken ArcFurnace when it's saved while active state
• Fixed broken atmosphere

Hotfix Version 0.2.2125.9694

• Fixed electric tool issue on client
• Fixed null reference in leak visualizer on suit

Version 0.2.2123.9690

• Added Lander to the starting conditions for Vulcan to alleviate problem with some starting supplies falling through the cracks in the ground. Crates and tanks can be removed using the wrench but cannot be reattached. The entire lander can be deconstructed with your angle grinder.
• Added values for various gas types including 1st pass support on Gas Canisters in Trading (No more NaN's).
• Added ability to add/edit custom trader profiles through mods (example found in Data\CustomTraders.xml).
• Added Gas Canister recipe list for use in populating trader inventories. Is not used for any crafting machine.
• Added first pass of 'Compositions' allowing mod authors to save-out and load-in/spawn saved groups of items, structures and circuits through events.
• Added a couple of missing pre-filled spawnable Dynamic Gas Canister prefabs in creative (Pollutants and Nitrous Oxide).
• Added ability to set mineable overrides in world settings. Previously the game used one set of ore types and probabilities for all worlds. If a world setting does not contain any override, those original default values will still be used. Mod behaviour for mineables should remain unaffected.
• Added first pass of player-invoked incidents to the game. The list of incidents available can be accessed via the pause menu, with individual incidents being invoked by clicking on them.
• Added a reference ID to tooltips while wielding the Authoring Tool to help with the authoring of scenarios.
• Added TickSpeed to Settings > Advanced > Experiments. It's sleeping time between thread tick and effects on CPU usage.
• Added wreckage which spawns when certain structures are damaged/destroyed.
• Added new interface within the load world screen to allow loading instead from a backup of the selected world.
• Added new terrain textures and materials for Mars and the Moon.
• Added new fire particles.
• Changed Explosion damage be more forgiving to the terrain.
• Improved multiplayer stability by syncing far more information between server and client on load, such as world settings.
• Improved multiplayer stability issues stemming from large worlds by streamlining the load process so the client wouldn't attempt to load in too much, too fast.
• Improved multiplayer stability by syncing several logic objects that weren't being synced between client/server previously.
• Removed several uneccessary network messages being sent to all clients on load.
• Fixed issue where battery status would cease to update while in a Battery Charger.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the landing pad to be locked on the server but unlocked on clients.
• Fixed traders trading type is now serialized allowing for more traders than just the Random one.
• Fixed default Gas Canister value & trade values for Gas Canisters. [Thanks Neouni]
• Fixed incorrect material applied to Credit Card.
• Fixed long-standing bug causing air conditioners to use twice as much power as intended. [Thanks Risu]
• Fixed devices occasionally being locked after load due to animations being stuck in a looping state.
• Fixed Gas Canisters can now be renamed using your Labeller. [Thanks Risu]
• Fixed players becoming stuck on the loading screen if they lose connection while loading.
• Fixed bug where ability to mine could be broken if you died while mining. Players can no longer die to get out of mining duties in multiplayer.
• Fixed World backups now included the world_meta.xml file.
• Fixed addition of hidden characters occurring when using the 'Copy' button inside the IC editor. [thanks Risu]
• Fixed tank/crate connection range was too far on the rover, reduced from 100 to 30.
• Fixed issue where loading a save with a broken worldsettings.xml file would error and stop loading. Will now show an alert with the location of your broken save. [Thanks Kamuchi]
• Fixed ConsoleDebug occasionally causing errors on start [Thanks Duke]
• Fixed Incorrect loading text being displayed when joining a server.
• Fixed occasional atmosphere replication issue in multiplayer causing Index out of Range errors on clients.
• Fixed players are now forced to be the Human species in the tutorial.