[2023] Icarus Week Sixty Three Update | Thumper fixes and changes to address exploits

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

Week Sixty Three brings improvements to last week's new deployable, the Thumper, and some small QoL fixes to crop plots, dropships and more.

A hotfix addressing a mission blocker caused by changes to our voxels was pushed Monday, and we’ve followed that up with changes to map icons, audio, exploits and more.

We’re also seeking more feedback and examples of dropship respawning occurring in voxels, trees and other locations that prevent you from being able to move.

Jump in and have a read.



Thumper Fixes and Tweaks
We’ve focused this week on making some tweaks and changes to the new ore-regenerating Thumper device.

The first of these fixes was included in the hotfix we pushed Monday, which addressed the mission ‘Deep Vein: Extraction’ being blocked. Because of the change to how we ‘destroy’ voxels, the mission was interpreting this data incorrectly, leading to a mission step being assumed ‘incomplete' and preventing players from completing the mission. This has now been remedied and the mission will progress as intended.

Other fixes include a tweak to the map icon to make it more readable and a cleanup when logging in again.

Thumpers deployed in caves will now also trigger worms correctly, and more audio has been added. We’ve also added an option in the menu to disable screen shake, as some players found the effects too disruptive.

In order to correct a small exploit some players discovered, we’ve now prevented the Thumper from being able to be turned on while in water. While very clever, this removed any risk associated with using it. Additionally, the weight will also mean it is too heavy to be placed on top of any building pieces and will destroy them when placed there.



QoL improvements
We’ve also added some other small Quality of Life improvements, with more work to do on some others.

Crop Plots previously were not detecting outdoors/greenhouses correctly and therefore provided incorrect buff/stat values. This has now been fixed, and Crop Plots should act as intended when provided with the right environments.

Mission Reward Dropships will now attempt to spawn closer to players also, as the current spread was outside our intended range. There are a bunch more fixes you can also find in the detailed change log below.

One of these improvements is to Dropship Spawner positioning, where we’ve had multiple reports of players landing in trees, voxels or on cliff edges. This prevents them from being able to leave the dropship and blocks their progress. We’re expecting this week’s changes will have alleviated those issues, but we’re still wanting feedback and examples/screenshots of where this has failed, so we can address them and implement more robust fixes that eradicate the cause.



Changelog 1.2.38.107702
Fixed

• Updated in-world tooltips to show the fillable resource color (eg blue for water, green for fuel, white for oxygen)
  
• Explicitly clear the frost affect when Cold and FrostBite modifiers are removed rather than running the blend weights again
  
• Force two decimal places on UI temperature display
  
• CARAPACE: Added unlock flag to mission (in addition to currently being granted during mission steps), so it will show the indicator on prospect selection screen
  
• Fixed a typo in mission dialogue
  
• Fixed a typo in mission dialogue
  
• Re-setting the local selected character before attempting to retry joining session. This should fix the issue with auto-retries failing
  
• Added logging within the User Interface to see whether or not menus are recorded as being shown when they're not visible, thus disabling the mouse input on death screen
  
• Fixed the logging so it doesn't spam every frame
  
• Fixed error caused by player leaving during an AI spawn check
  
• Fixed combo widget crash when the selected value doesn't exist
  
• Actors outside the world bounds during generation will now be assigned the closest generated level as their owner
  
• Black Wolf Knife is now correctly repaired by Black Wolf Teeth
  
• Add ProjectionLocation component to Caveworm loot drop sack to fix the widget being offset due to initial spawn offset
  
• ICESTORM: Fixed visual bug that would reset the mission progress of the device activation step
  
• Improved drop ship spawn point selection (tied to large AI navmesh, custom EQS with 5 point trace)
  
• Fixed Roasted Vegetables modifier using ProjectileDamage instead of BaseProjectileDamage
  
• Add DT Validation to modifier states to catch non-Base stat usage
  
• Fixed logging always showing as white colour instead of colours based on error codes
  
• Remove Durable trait from Shengong Canteen to match other water vessels
  
• Fix Shengong Canteen weighing 100g when it should be 1000g
  
• Fixing missing Fillable Type data from Larkwell Canteen
  
• Adding initial color selection functionality to Portable Beacon. Disabled while UX is being worked out
  
• Spawn mission reward ships closer to players
  
• Zero post process blend weights for cold/heat to when dead
  
• REMNANT: Fixed case where scans could be marked as incomplete after a relog
  
• Fixed issue where unmined voxels that had been regenerated weren't updating for clients until mined/damaged
  
• Added new gamplay setting to disable camera shake
  
• Decrease opacity of Thumpers search area map icon
  
• Fixed Thumper SearchArea map element not being cleaned up correctly after a prospect reload.
  
• Tweaked colour of Thumper Map Icon.
  
• Thumper now uses correct map icon row
  
• Added VFX and placeholder audio to Thumper damage deactivation event
  
• Reversing sizemograph animation so it spins the correct way
  
• Added UnsupportedDeployable weight option, which ensures the deployable is not supported by any building pieces by setting a very very high weight. - Changed Thumper deployable weight to UnsupportedDeployable
  
• Prefer dropship spawn point closest to the drop ship beacon when calling dropship via beacon
  
• Fix an issue with cursor focus in the Report An Issue popup (irony) when retroactively editing
  
• Prevented Hedgehog defense structures from having their mesh set to their destructible mesh if it wasn't configured, this prevents them turning invisible below half health
  
• Updated OLY level blueprint to remove references to old persistent level data in WorldData struct
  
• Fix an issue where crop plots placed on a floor did not register as outdoors
  
• Ensure orbital transport pod spawn position is correctly replicated to clients
  
• Fixed error message popup on title screen not appearing
  
• Added loading screen to show when attempting to auto-rejoin a server after losing connection via error 65
  
• Fixed error message popup on title screen not appearing
  
• The thumper now doesnt allow activation when within a cave or water
  
• Adding thumper electric shutdown audio, warning alarm and sonar pulse and blueprint info
  
• Re-enabled Thumper activation in caves. Thumper should now correctly spawn cave worms and land sharks within caves.
  
• Added cheat to mine all voxels in a radius around player
  
• Added Thumper map icon to datatable
  
• Adjustment to thumper warning and placement. Re adding sounds to BP
  
• Set durability on Orbital Exchange Interface (now correctly takes damage and can be repaired)
  
• Removed incorrect FactionMission.Blocker gameplay tag from communications boards
  
• Fixed scan mission radars acting like normal radars.
  
• Fixed an issue with water pump components not activating correctly sometimes
  
• Clamp greenhouse benefits for crops to +50%
  
• Changed the way greenhouse buffs and indoor debuffs are applied to crops
  
• Fixed short range radio tooltip not appearing when highlighted, also fixed tooltips for other future communication deployables
  
• Dynamic quest "Crazed Creature" now teathers to its spawn point so it doesnt stray far from its icon.
  
• Fixed auto-retry join server load overlay not appearing
  
• Fixed auto-retry join server crash
  
• Fix some wall torches do not show as sheltered when inside
  
• Player dropships now topple any large trees in the way when landing
  
• Added settings option to change display gamma / brightness
  
• Reduced radius in which dropship topples trees in landing zone 500->275

Future Content

• ADDING lava hunter flinch vocals, event and data table entries
  
• Added missing DMs for SW_Blackberry_Bush variants
  
• Polish pass on GL macros, cliff and rock materials
  
• Adding lava hunter death audio event and data table entries
  
• Set WT_RiverSpline to generate frozen rivers, added PM to Frozen Materials
  
• Added new material for base of scoria and obsidian nodes to blend better with LC biom
  
• Transition Cave P1-P2 Set Dressing & Placement of Voxel Transition Cave in on Purple Quad, DLC Map
  
• Foliage pass on Blue and Green Quads and Added Rocks on Cliff Edges, Prometheus
  
• Added art assets and animations for DEP_Enzyme Cannon to the projec
  
• Generate LODs for several Prometheus Generated sublevels
  
• Add utility widget for deleting certain actors from generated heightmaps for LOD generation process
  
• Painted FT_Aloe_Vera in Swamp biome and replaced breakable Scoria and Obsedian in vulcanic biome pt.2, Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Adjusted tesselation on landscape material and LC landscape decals
  
• polish pass on SW, TU, GL CanyonWall materials and textures
  
• Expose Lava Lights bool on WT_RiverSpline for WBs to use to enable lava lights on specific rivers
  
• Setup FT_LC_Stones, Added Deep Ore And Cave Clean Up in P2 on Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Cleand up and re-painted breakeable Obsedian closer to lava and Scoria more in-land around p2, Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Added DEP_Bench_Fishing_T2 with selectable meshes
  
• Adding Lava Hunter aggro state vocalisations and event and Data Table Entries
  
• polish pass on swamp rock materials, added new texture for moss breakup
  
• Added Exotics, Turned on Lava Lights on the Lava Rivers & Spawned LC stone FT in Lava Area on Purple Quad, DLC 1
  
• Placed respawn ships and did some general clean up of resources, decals and cliffs, p2 Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Lowering spawn rate for all swamp creature idle sounds to accomodate for large amounts of creatures spawning
  
• Tundra Rocks - polish pass on TU macro materials
  
• GL Rocks - material parent fixes to GL stalagmites
  
• Swamp Rocks - material polish, plus parent fixes for cave floor mats
  
• Generate some more LODs for Prometheus generated sublevels and tweaks to tooling
  
• removed and replaced CF meshes in tundra biome, blue quad
  
• Updates to the lava Hunter anims
  
• River Cleanup and Polish on Green Quad, Fixed Ponga Trees on Megatree Prefabs and Flushed Grass on Yellow, Blue and Green Quads, Prometheus
  
• Add Lava Flow Points to P2 LC Area & Flushed Grass on Purple/Red, DLC
  
• added volcano landscape mesh, material, textures
  
• Adding lava hunter vomit loop start and end splat to trigger when event starts and ends