[2022] Icarus Update Week 14 | Waterworks

A lil somethin somethin: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page here.

This week's update adds an array of new technology and improvements to one of our core features, farming. The core principle of farming has been to provide a steady, self-sustaining food source for the harsher climates and to alleviate the time often invested into hunting. As we’ve fleshed this out, we’ve grown the scope for what it can become and this week we’re adding new technology such as water piping, which will allow for more automated solutions for watering crops along with other applications like sprinkler systems to protect your structures from fire. You’ll also see the addition of fertilizer and changes to the decaying mechanic for crops. To wrap up these changes for you, there is a new farming mission which incorporates all of these new features in its objectives.



Water Piping Improvements
Water Piping takes farming from a strictly manual process to one with automation capabilities. With this come three tiers of crop plots: the standard wood, iron and hydroponic. Iron and Hydroponic plots add the option of water connections, providing improved growth rates for better efficiency in the late-game and on more daring missions. In addition to water inputs, the Hydroponics plot also takes power inputs to emulate the greenhouse buff, making it a powerful all-in-one unit. We’ve expanded the crop plot UI for this update so check it out for information on the plot’s connection status and modifier states to ensure the plot is setup to reap the full benefits.

Water Piping also offers other applications, one of the most helpful being to install sprinkler systems inside buildings for surprise fires caused by lightning or a careless prospector. We’re looking to add more applications for them in the future too, but this will give you a taste of how we plan to incorporate more automated, industrial features into Icarus' gameplay.

Originally posted by author: Farming is a great way for Prospectors to ensure long-term survivability and accessibility to resources which may otherwise be out of reach on any given mission. There is a fairly steep investment in order to maximize a farm's output, as it can involve things like water and power networks, green house buildings, fertilizer production and more, but there are also entry-level farming setups for the budding (pun intended) farmer. - Adam, Lead Game Designer

Farming Talent Improvements
Alongside our new deployables and tiered crop plot system, we’ve added a range of new farming talents that incorporate these new systems - ideal for players who want to specialize in being the provider for their team. You can see the full list of new and updated talents in the detailed changelog below.




Farming Mission: Agriculture: Hydroponics
This week's update comes with a new mission that introduces all these new features. Mission ‘Agriculture: Hydroponics’ requires you to set up an agricultural hub on the surface and grow a range of crops to be taken back up to the scientists onboard the HUB to test for any chemical differences to earth-grown variants. This will require a structured greenhouse setup with a proper water network, power supply and fertilizer.

Detailed Change Log:
Version: 1.1.5.92602

• Added several new talents and changed an existing one based around farming:
  
  • All-Nighter - Crafted crops in crop plots grow faster at night
    
  • Neat and Tidy - Crafted Crop Plots use less fertilizer
    
  • Shoot the Breeze - Grants the recipe to make gunpowder from the fertilizer on the Mortar and Pestle
    
  • Get off my Lawn- Grants the recipe to make the Rusty Shotgun on the Machining Bench
    
  • Speed-Gro - Crafted Crop Plots grow crops faster
    
  • Bumper Crop - Crafted Crop Plots yield more crops
    
  • Sturdy Stalks - Crafted Crops Plots crops spoil slower when harvested
    
  • Gathering Guru - Increased yield from harvesting by hand
    
  • Get Up and Go - Increase to base stamina
    
  • The Old One-Two - Increased melee damage
• Fixed issue causing data corruption that could result in unexpected loss of items, talents or prospect data in offline mode.
  
• Updated 'Fresh is Best' Talent - Grown Crops in Crafted Crop Plots do not Wither away after they have finished growing
  
• Adding crafting speed modifiers to cement mixer, composters and kitchen bench when connected to water network.
  
• Added sprinkler to the game, which provides passive fire protection when connected to a water source.
  
• Added new UI for water connections & crop plots.
  
• Added new hydroponic crop plot which uses water connections to increase growth speed.
  
• Added new metal crop plot which has a higher durability than the standard plot and can be connected to water.
  
• Added new wood composter which creates fertilizer from spoiled plants, and speeds up the spoiling of organic items placed in it.
  
• Added new fertilizer assets and mechanic. Fertilizers can be crafted in the composter or chemistry bench and applied to crop plots to increase yield and growth speed.
  
• Added new watered crop modifier.
  
• Added new crop yield stat which increases the quantity of crops from farming.
  
• Added spoiled item variants for all fruit and vegetable types.
  
• Expanded greenhouse detection to require multiple glass building pieces to be in range.
  
• Added growth stages and dead stage for Lily crops.
  
• Increased by 100% the amount of time it takes before crops spoil and can no longer be harvested.
  
• Updated the crop visuals for Corn, Lily, Berry Bush, Squash, Watermelon, Pumpkin, Cocoa, Coffee, Green Tea and Wild Tea.
  
• Increased waterskin consumption from 15 units to 500 units when watering crops.
  
• Adding new Stat for grown crops which differentiate them from harvested crops.
  
• Added new farming crop plot UI to display modifiers and connection states on deployables including in-world tooltips.
  
• Added new Farming: Stockpile Mission.
  
• Added the ability to be able to connect a water connection to Cement Mixer, Kitchen Bench, Biofuel Composter & Electric Composter (not the Wooden Composter)
  
• Added a new 'Wither' Stage to crops, where they are available for players to access, but if the players leave the crop in the planter, after a period of time they will wither and die, and turn into spoiled plants.
  
• Added Ranks to talents in the Cooking/Farming & Firearms Tree.
  
• Changed Empty Plot key to be hold X instead of hold F (volatile action)
  
• Added consumable setup and tags for Beans so that they can be put in the Icebox and consumed like other vegetables.
  
• Fixed crash that could occur when completing quest objectives.
  
• Fixed crash that could occur when a player joined the game.
  
• Fixed crash that could occur when travelling around the map and loading in new areas with a large quantity of mineable rocks/minerals.
  
• Fixed crash that could occur when unloading areas/objects as players travel around the map.
  
• Fixed crash that could occur when loading a game with a large amount of cable/pipe networks.
  
• Fixed crash when attempting to apply ‘aura' buffs to objects around the player.
  
• Fixed crash with operations locating items for quest and crafting.
  
• Improved client side spline placement (for cables and pipes).
  
• Fixed mission objective text not wrapping on Mission Briefing causing the window to stretch.
  
• Fixed incorrectly calculated time it takes to craft Concrete.
  
• Fixed case where incorrect stack sizes were being shown in the player’s inventory.
  
• Fixed issue where the player could not sell exotics for currency in offline mode.
  
• Fixed dropship inventory on planet still being 5 slots, now correctly 15 slots to match the Station.
  
• Fixed instances of deployable UI not updating when looking between multiple UI’s fast.
  
• Updated description and flavor text for Composter, Water Pump, Crop Plots, Spline Tools, Solar Panel and Deep Drills.
  
• Increased Platinum and Titanium spear thrown projectile damage.
  
• Disabled chance to mine voxel instantly on cave entrances (Lucky Strike talent).
  
• Added ability to manually water crops with all containers that hold water by right-clicking the crop with a container in-hand.
  
• Fixed issue where Shotgun sights were not correctly aligned.
  
• Added more caves to the lower right arctic area of Olympus.
  
• Fixed several instances where voxels were spawning above the ground.
  
• Fixed issue where workshop items could fail to craft but still cost resources.
  
• Added Fahrenheit option to temperature display.
  
• Improved tree felling sounds of burnt trees.
  
• Fixed issue where the sort inventory button was not always working correctly.
  
• Fixed issue where multiplayer clients were not being able to climb ladders reliably.
  
• Fixed several issues with the map, eg: holes in terrain, incorrectly placed objects & mountain collision.
  
• Improved system that handles fire audio effects.
  
• Fixed issue where the Elephant Boss in ‘Seven Pillars: Scan' mission was not always aggressive after the player goes out of range.
  
• Updated the audio for the wood rag torch when placed in the light slot.
  
• Fixed crosshair of the bow not using the crosshair visible setting.
  
• Fixed a bug where swapping from the bow while playing the reload animation caused the arrow to disappear.
  
• Fixed a bug where player swim stroke sounds were sometimes not playing correctly.
  
• Fixed a bug where happy music would still be playing when your building is on fire.
  
• Fixed a bug where the middle of a dropship could disappear when viewed from a certain angle.
  
• Improved the sound when the player levels up.
  
• Improved the layout of the solo talent tree.
  
• Fixed an issue with the dropship appearance in the ‘Voyager’ mission.
  
• Improved the audio of the metal pickaxe.
  
• Fixed an issue where resolution changes in windowed mode would not revert after denying them in the confirmation window.
  
• Fixed issue where prospect mission art would not match the mission correctly.
  
• Improved visibility of map icons on the ‘Ice Storm: Expedition’ mission due to icons having similar colors to the map background.
  
• Fixed an issue where wolves made no sound while swimming.
  
• Fixed an issue where player marker colors were not displayed correctly for hosts.
  
• Fixed issue where several items had the incorrect weight.
  
• Fixed issue where clients changing ammo types would transfer the unloaded ammo to the hosts inventory.
  
• Fixed issue that would cause crafted Knives, Axes, Spears to disappear when crafting due to unintended interaction with the Crafty Fletcher talent.
  
• Fixed refined wood half pitch recipe incorrectly only creating refined walls.
  
• Fixed a typo in a talent respec prompt.