[2022] Icarus Week Forty Eight Update | New thrown spears and knives + 2 new crossbows

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

This week we’ve added throwing variants of the knife and spear into the weapon pool, providing a specialized option with stacking capabilities, while changing the standard versions to melee only. This will make it easier to use these weapons as projectile alternatives to other strategies, and stop you from accidentally misclicking and losing them in the wrong situation.

We’ve also added two new crossbows: Platinum at Tier 3 and Titanium at Tier 4 to provide alternatives to firearms at higher levels.

Finally, we talk about our decision to not provide workshop variants of the throwing knife and spear, and how this will change as we move towards decentralization in the near future.



Thrown Weapons Item Separation
We have separated knives and spears into their own variants. You will now be able to craft ‘thrown’ versions which can’t be used in melee situations or to skin carcasses but can be stacked in multiples of 50 for knives, and 20 for spears.

Thrown variants recipes are unlocked with the melee variant, so unlocking one node on the tech tree allows crafting two separate recipes. The recipes have unique icons and names so it’s easy to distinguish between them.

Melee versions are no longer able to be thrown, and won’t receive the ‘stack’ option that their thrown counterparts do. They will, however, still be able to skin creatures, so are still important to have on hunting expeditions.

There are multiple reasons we’ve made this change, with a key one being irritation caused by people accidentally throwing their weapons with a misclick or being unable to stack them and having to scroll through the hotbar in combat situations.

This also addresses a balance issue with knives using durability when skinning carcasses, particularly as we add a ‘stacking’ element which would amplify this issue and make managing your gear more complicated. It also adds a new dynamic to combat, allowing you to throw knives and spears with more ease, making it a viable mechanic.



Tier 3 & Tier 4 Crossbows
Two new crossbows have been added at Tier 3 and Tier 4, providing more alternatives to firearms at the higher tiers. Tier 3 is the Platinum Crossbow and Tier 4 the Titanium Crossbow. Both crossbows also share the valuable benefit of being repeating crossbows, able to fire up to 5 bolts in a single burst. In intense situations, this provides considerable damage for players with a steady hand and good hit-scanning technique. They also come with the intrinsic stats of the other crossbows, a chance to slow on hit, and extra damage when piercing the hardened spots on creatures.

These fill a gap we had in the game for higher-tier projectile weapons and will prove useful for some upcoming creatures we plan to bring into the game.

The Tier 3 Platinum Crossbow is crafted at the Machining Bench and will require Platinum alongside the standard Epoxy, Leather and Wood. The Tier 4 Titanium Crossbow is crafted at the Fabricator, and like the Platinum Crossbow, will require the standard resources but paired with Titanium.

The Platinum Crossbow does sit at the higher end of the Tier 3 items, and as a result, has a higher cost. The Titanium Crossbow will line up closely with the firearms of Tier 4 but cost half the Titanium Ingot investment, making it a viable alternative for the harder missions and combat scenarios.



Workshop Stacking Problem
The new stacking ability with the throwing versions of the knives and spears will not be applied to workshop versions, and we wanted to explain why.

In our current backend system, many dynamic traits are lost when bringing items back to the workshop. This was an early concession made to prevent the amount of space a workshop item uses in the backend. The most notable of these dynamic traits is stack count. Therefore we had to work around this by not allowing workshop items to stack, and came up with the solution of bundles which players could take down to the planet and bring back up if they want to. But once consumed on planet (Arrow Bundles) they are no longer able to be returned to space.

There are a few effects of this decision, including the inability to stack workshop items, and limitations on being able to track the durability of items that are taken back from the planet. It also means that many forms of item persistence were unable to be explored.

This is something that will change with Data Decentralization, as the removal of backend server opens up a wide variety of options to save other data and allow us to investigate more persistence between sessions.

This will be most noticeable in consumables and projectiles, but also across armor and weapons and mounts with the ability of tacking many dynamic properties across multiple drops.

We are very close to releasing a public branch of the Data Decentralization Icarus Client for community testing, so if you are interested, join the Discord[discord.gg] to be one of the first to jump in.



Changelog v1.2.23.103516
New Content

• Removed ability to throw basic knives and spears
  
• Allowed throwing knives and spears to stack
  
• Slightly increased bone and titanium throwing knife damage
  
• Unlocked Throwing Knives recipes for upcoming patch
  
• Unlocked recipes for thrown knives and spears
  
• Added break chance to thrown spears
  
• Reduced stamina cost on thrown knives and spears significantly.
  
• Allowed thrown knives to be thrown at lower charge, going less distance
  
• Implemented base Platinum and Titanium Crossbows
  
• Fixing issue where thrown knives and spears where recieving the durability and felling damage crafting Alterations when players had the appriopriate talents
  
• Adding new Tag 'Tool.Thrown' and new tag queries for thrown/melee spears, thrown/melee knives
  
• Fixing issue when throwing Knives & Spears that the item thrown would not be 1 but be the entire stack, example, throw one knife, the thrown knife has a stack count of 20
  
• Added textures and Mat for BOW_Crossbow_T3_Platinum
  
• Added textures and Mat for BOW_Crossbow_T4_Titanium
  
• Removed throwing knife bonuses on Shengong Daokou Knife and replaced with a wear rate reduction bonus
  
• Added icon representing thrown weapons
  
• Updated item text for T3 and T4 crossbows
  
• Added Throwing Weapons Item Icons and added into Itemable table. Updated throwing weapon icon
  
• Add LOD for T4 Crossbow. Fix materials pointing to wrong Physical Material
  
• Adding in base animation implementation for the new crossbows including character animations for the new type of reload, just missing the bolt part of the implementation where it shows in the players hand and on the crossbow
  
• Fixing D_Meshable buildvalidation fail by pointing the crossbow entry to the correct mesh
  
• Tweaking new crossbow reload animation montage to incluide a final bolt at the end section of the reload
  
• Unlocked crafting recipes for Throwing Knives and Spears.
  
• Increased throwing knife and spear stack size
  
• Adding TV crossbow fire audio
  
• Fixing throwing knives not appearing in your hand after throwing by adding in a notify to unhide the projectile after throwing
  
• Fixed a bug where you were able to use throwable objects while in a menu
  
• Adding in base implementation for the platinum crossbow, missing preview mesh of the bolt showing up buth all reload and fire assets hooked up and ready
  
• Adding Titanium crossbow mechanical sounds and events and notifiers
  
• Adding crossbow to data table
  
• Fixed spear not blending back to idle smoothly after releasing input key. Fixed throwing spear action deducting stamina cost before throw. Fixed throwing spear not un-hiding after throw montage completed
  
• Added support for chambered weapons to show a visible preview projectile mesh; AmmoController_SingleRoundReload now inherits from AmmoController_VisibleProjectile. Fixed Titanium Crossbow not showing preview projectile during reload animation
  
• Updating thrown weapon recipes to provide a stack of 10 on each craft
  
• Throwing knive actionable now only consumes primary input action
  
• Adding in Item Classification Icon for the thrown weapons
  
• Updating thrown weapon recipes to provide a stack of 5 on each craft
  
• Rebalanced thrown weapon recipes around 5x craft. - Slightly reduced Platinum Crossbow fire rate
  
• Tweaking the crossbows relead animation so that the bolt follows during the reload animation and adding in item icons for the new crossbows
  
• Fixed icons for Platinum and Titanium Crossbows
  
• Lots of additions and improvements to the crossbows. Separated each semgent out for speed variations and added new layers
  
• Adjusted high tier crossbow pull to have more slide to match length of stretch sound and other small adjustments to spacializers
  
• Updating the crossbow meshes to using the latest version, slightly cleaning up weighting and movemnts
  
• Updating physics assets and adding LOD to the Platinum Crossbow
  
• Slightly reduced delay between throwing a knife and starting your next throw, added the same delay to thrown spears (previously no delay)
  
• Update new Crossbow icons
  
• Allowed thrown spears to be charged for longer, providing slightly more power than before but lowering power at lower charges
  
• Adding the spear equip to the end of the throw montage to make the throwing equip feel smoother than the previous snap

Fixed

• Changing Resolution Scaling max value from 100 to 200 as a test to see if its supported
  
• Add custom view distance settings for various world objects: EnzymeGeyser, Meta Deposits, Ore Deposits, Dropships
  
• Added support for non-GOAP characters in GOAP debugger cheat
  
• Fixed level not retrieving from correct source
  
• Readding Translations lost in all languages in a commit last week where crowdin was trampled
  
• Adding new Crowdin Recipe which force pushes all translations to crowdin
  
• ABYSS: Fixed bug where biomes aren't tracked correctly for research station deployment quest step
  
• Add advanced mode to GetActorCount widget to pull any class type
  
• Fixed typo in Healing Boost Module description
  
• Resolved data table errors with the chamois variant
  
• Fixed typo in Neat and Tidy talent Fertilized Alteration
  
• Changing the min/max values of Resolution Scaling setting to match the min/max supported by the engine, which is 33 to 100 percent
  
• Optimized Loading screen images, changed format to pow2, removed unused DT

Future Content

• Undo single //Icarus_Stream/Trunk/Icarus/Content/ASS/VFX/WAT/SM_WaterfallBase.uasset revision 3 - still in use but ref didn't flag
  
• Fixing and hooking up T2 Communication Device so it can be deployed correctly using its own static mesh
  
• Adding Scoria, Potatoes, and Tomato Item Meshes to D_Meshable datatable
  
• Adding B.Dog aggro and idle breath audio
  
• replacing proxy meshes for alien bones
  
• Adding mangrove harvest audio, event and data table entry
  
• Updating Setup for Scoria / Obsidian / Clay Reward Nodes so they provide the correct resource
  
• Shifitng location of nodes so they are contained within their own folder
  
• LC Impassables - geometry fixes, added additional LOD level to improve houdini integration
  
• adjustments to mangrove harvest audio
  
• Added Mangrove in Levels & Added Foliage to Trees in Levels
  
• SM_Breakable_Obsidian Var 1 and 2 updated textures and collections
  
• Adding Lava sapling harvest sound and adjustments to mangrove harvest audio
  
• Set up the first of the swamp lake audio actors for testing
  
• Adding Prometheus Story Mission 5 Basic Flow
  
• Adding new prebuild outpost base
  
• Setting up new required quest blueprints and mission hazards
  
• B.Dog Data table setup
  
• AI Setup for audio for new creatures
  
• Polished foliage in TU and GL biome, deleted old Aspen trees and cleaned up resources in grasslands, Green Quad, DLC
  
• Manual Foliage Cleanup in the Swamp Biome and Cave Void Placement, Purple Quad, Prometheus
  
• Added Macros to Transition SW to GL , Added Trees to TU, Set dressed Transition Cave SW to TU & CleanUp on Blue Quad, DLC Map
  
• Added polished details to main trunk pieces for AC_Aspen_Var1, as well as added burnt version of the same tree
  
• Improvements and updates to mangrove harvest
  
• Moved Top Layer Macros to Persistent Level, Blue Quad, DLC Map
  
• Foliage tonal adjustments for consistency
  
• Update proto swamp lake audio due to lost data
  
• Adding bulbous harvest and adjustment to sapling harvest
  
• Update to lava sapling collision
  
• Polished foliage in TU and GL biome, deleted old Aspen trees and cleaned up resources in grasslands, Green Quad, DLC
  
• Manual Foliage Cleanup in the Swamp Biome and Cave Void/Volume Placement, Purple Quad, Prometheus
  
• Generate Edge Spline to TU Lakes, Generated Water Points, Set Dressed Transition Cave SW to TU & CleanUp on Blue Quad, DLC Map
  
• Added Aspen seedlings to the project. Added foliage types, blueprints and added them to the Flod data table
  
• Added Aspen saplings to the project. Added foliage types, blueprints and added them to the Flod data table
  
• Adding Aspen specific tree events and adjustments and a few additioanl layers to make them more unique
  
• Added version 2 of the tomato crops and items to the project with tomato fruit scaled up 100%. Uopdated foliage type, blueprint, and framing data table
  
• Adding swamp bush harvest audio, event and data table entry
  
• Add new Editor Utility Widget (EUW_GetActorCountInBiome) to look up actors and output their numbers on a per biome basis
  
• Adding param to reduce volume of footsteps in swamp water based on event trigger consistency. Added to data tables
  
• Added version 2 of the bean crops with z transform offset removed and growing frame mesh added
  
• Manual Foliage Cleanup in the Swamp Biome and Cave Void/Volume Placement, Purple and Green Quad, Prometheus
  
• Swap out all mangrove hollow trunk static mesh actors for BP versions in Blue and Purple quads. Mark meshes in hollow trunk BPs as static, and update fallen log master material to use correct physical material
  
• Adding S.Bird notifiers to animations and also setting up event for geo pool for sound design
  
• Fix Stalactites foliage setting to be able to paint on ceiling
  
• New Voxel Added for DLC Map & Named with Pro Prefix
  
• Fix Ponga Tree Z up foliage setting
  
• Foliage Setup for Aspen Sapling and Seedlings
  
• Changed Lava river mesh to be on 0 on WT and BP
  
• Generated River and Lakes splines in Grasslands and Tundra, Green Quad, DLC
  
• SM_Breakable_Clay Var 1 and 2 mesh, BP, textures and material
  
• Updated text for the Orbital Exchange Interface item
  
• Adding audio for geothermal lakes WIP. Also small adjustment to S.Bird notify timing and reverting water footstep to standard until DLC release
  
• Fixed spelling error in ST_UMG
  
• Added T2 Mission Communication Device Icon
  
• Adjustments to Geo Lake event and data table
  
• Updated item descriptions for new resources, crops, communicators, and devices
  
• Updated name for new exotic resource
  
• Updated new communicator names
  
• Added prototype merged impassable and macro meshes, purple quad
  
• Adding swamp lake audio and event and data table entry
  
• Orbital Lase Strike Prototype BP and VFX
  
• Added Ponga Tree to Mega Tree Var 1, Set Dressed SW to AC Cave, Added Mushrooms to BP_HollowTrunk & CleanUp on Blue Quad, DLC Map
  
• Manual Foliage Cleanup in the Swamp Biome and Resource Placement in Volcanic Biome, Purple Quad, Prometheus
  
• Created chamois variant base setup as a duplicate of the regular chamois
  
• Resolved data table errors with the chamois variant
  
• Added base setup for CRE_BlueBack and CRE_Mount_BlueBack. Needs to be updated with texture, fur, and IK control rig