over 2 years ago - Regalis - Direct link

Hello everyone!

Following the big content updates of this year, we set aside some time to work on fixes, balancing and quality of life improvements before we close the book on 2021. Those changes have now just been released, along with a touch of new content. Here are the highlights, and the full changelog can be found on Steam as always.

  • Bot improvements: several new bot orders, ability to access a bot’s inventory, and changes to the medic bot’s behavior.
  • Server improvements: improved campaign submarine selection and sub visibility in the lobby, and other small server adjustments.
  • Multiplayer stability improvements and several fixes.
  • Talent fixes and improvements: too many to list here. Thank you for all your feedback on the talent system!
  • Other gameplay improvements: Gardening and monster spawns are being adjusted to make one require less constant care and the other more reliably exciting. Can you guess which is which?
  • Orca 2, a new sub.

New issue of “The Europan”

To wrap up the year, we’re releasing a third issue of The Europan, the fictional newspaper that you can find in the Barotrauma Supporter Pack. What’s Aunt Doris cooking this time, and what happened to the reporter who set out on an expedition to the surface? Issue 66 of The Europan is fresh from the press, along with new wallpapers and music tracks.

Barotrauma supporter pack The Europan issue #66

What’s next?

We’re going to close the office doors for Christmas on the 17th and maintain radio silence until January to spend some time with family and food. It’s been a long and action-packed year for us: from the Cave Update in January to Embrace the Abyss, Thunder Under the Ice and Among the Ancients released every few months since, Barotrauma has seen a rapid evolution during this past year. We are so much happier with the game now than we were before, and we hope more than anything that you share that sentiment. As always, there would be no Barotrauma without you!

Once we return to work after our holiday break, we’ll turn our eye towards some new monsters and submarines for the first release of next year. Other development plans for the early part of next year include outpost medical services, i.e. being able to pay an NPC to heal your crew, as well as the “part 2” of the character overhaul that we did with Among the Ancients (we’ll be adding some more hair styles and polishing the new faces, for example).

New Barotrauma submarine, The Winterhalter, coming next year.
The deep diver “Winterhalter” (WIP) is one of the new subs coming next year.

Our to-do list for pre-1.0 update content is still pretty long, but we are actually beginning to see the end – and another thing which we’ve recently started working on is building a proper endgame for Barotrauma. We may be a little more tight-lipped than usual about that, because we expect to be working on the “final level” (for lack of a better expression for now) for several months and don’t want to spoil it too soon. And without going into too much detail about the schedule, let’s say that this time next year, we plan on not being in Early Access anymore.

With that, we wish you all relaxing holidays. Don’t forget to check out the update, now on Steam, and see you next year!

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