[2022] Icarus Week Thirty-Three Update | Time Pressure #2

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

Week Thirty-Three brings another Time-limited mission to Icarus, building off the positive response we got to last weeks two installments. ‘Flatline: Research’ will have you scrambling to repair a Biological Containment Pod under a ticking clock, so prepare yourself accordingly. We have also made an adjustment to how certain stat-based talents interact with their applicable deployables, and made a range of community-driven patches and fixes, thanks to your input on Feature Upvote.

You’ll also find an update on our Dedicated Servers project below, and a taste of what’s on the horizon in the near future.



New Mission - FLATLINE: RESEARCH
// OPERATOR: Group 15
// BIOME: Dry Ridge
// BACKGROUND: The Operator intends to rapidly expand exotics operations, and has put out an urgent tender for survey data, specifically around new drop sites. This exploration and mapping mission is critical to the development of this region.
// MISSION: Operator is tasked to find damaged biological containment units, further information provided on planet.
// TERMS: Contractors will be provided with radar equipment. All other risk and resourcing is the responsibility of the Contractor. Expect elevated wildlife threats.
// TIME LIMIT: 5 hours

This weeks mission involves keeping a failing Biological Containment Pod alive which collecting parts to repair and stabilize.

While you've got slightly more time than on Abyss: Research, you'll have more to contest with as a the containment pod itself must be not only kept stable, but also fed a constant supply of enzymes found on the local wildlife. Larger and more dangerous creatures are, unfortunately, the best source of these.




Item Alteration System
This update includes a lot of system preparation for work that is to be released in coming weeks. Most notably that of the Alteration System. We have been working behind the scenes to allow players to craft item attachments for various items and alter them to provide extra stats and effects. Some very basic examples are modifying a pickaxe to increase the amount of gold obtained when mining or adding a Bleed effect to Axe damage. We are using this system to create a range of item attachment prototypes at the moment, specifically for melee weapons, and have some very exciting things coming in the next few weeks.



Data Decentralization Update
Some of you may have noticed that we have added another branch on Steam - this is not publicly accessible but can be seen on sites like SteamDB[steamdb.info]. This is because we are currently testing both our dedicated servers and the process of migrating players data local files for use by the client. We are currently well ahead of schedule - mainly due to the massive effort from the team - and are preparing to provide access to various dedicated server host providers so we can get as much feedback as possible. We hope to both bring Icarus' Dedicated Server up to the industry standard and add any features that will make it as easy as possible for both server providers and players to use. We will continue to provide updates as more progress is made, but hope to get the changes into your hands as soon as possible.



Feature Upvote
We don't have the resources to see every single community post on every platform across Steam, Discord, Reddit and more so Feature Upvote[icarus.featureupvote.com] is a tool to empower you, the players, to collectively highlight anything from bugs, to feature requests or balance changes and ensure that the Dev Team has visibility of it.

Since the beta weekends, this has helped us to collate community feedback more efficiently. We've been doing some work internally to improve the usefulness of this tool, as it has some trouble distinguishing old items from new, more relevant ones. We'll be trying to include links in here to Feature Upvote pages that have been addressed in this update to highlight that your feedback is useful and important. Due to limitations inside Feature Upvote, the only field available to us to remove entries from the list is marking them as 'Done'. In some cases, this won't necessarily mean it has been implemented as requested- but we'll be using it to denote that an issue has been 'addressed'. Sometimes this is to say getting additional feedback on this topic is no longer useful to us and we don't want it to impact visibility of new items rising up through the list.

As with everything we do, this is always up for change and we welcome your feedback on how this process works.



Changelog v1.2.8.98950
Additions, Fixes & Changes

• Adding Prospect Images for FLATLINE: Research, Setting corrected Locked State on the Talent Tree, Updating Mission Rewards to bring them more in line with the effort required for the mission
  
• Updating Various Talents so they work with the new alterations system, Spear Maximum Health Alterations Now Stack, Pickaxes now have increased durability on talent upgrades, and fixed knife felling damage awarding a virtual stat and not a base stat
  
• The number of Digested Enzymes that Drop when an Animal is skinned is Scaled by the number of Players Connected. A Maximum amount of time that can be added until the biological containment fails, this is based on selected difficulty. The amount of time provided by the Digested Enzymes is now displayed on the UI and a Maximum Limit is also displayed in the UI.
  
• Increasing Catalytic Gas Size, Increasing Time gained from Digested Enzymes in all difficulties
  
• Modified when the Catalytic Gas appears and added the Poison Modifier if players enter the gas during the FLATLINE mission
  
• Reducing the number of Digested Enzymes that are gained from skinning
  
• Adjusted the Catalytic Gas particle emitter so its clearer to the player that there is something dangerous
  
• Made Small adjustments to FLATLINE mission objective text to reflect changes
  
• Custom items no longer display a 'Star' but instead have a nice golden glow behind the item
  
• Updating Bloodclaws Spawn Location During FLATLINE: Research so the creature spawns on the Navmesh without issues
  
• Updating Quest Steps and reshuffled for FLATLINE: Research so the objectives are clearer
  
• Adding Custom UI for the Biological Containment World Interactable
  
• Buffing Bloodclaw the Unique Scorpion so it has far greater projectile resistance, melee will be the way to take him down
  
• Adding Various Tags for The FLATLINE mission items and creating new inventory setups for the Biological Contaiment Interactables
  
• Adding ability one a Biological Containment World Interactable to release Enzyme Gas which will casue poision damage to players within the vicinity
  
• Updating Stabilisation step of FLATLINE mission so the time gained, changes based on player selected difficulty
  
• Adding Item Attachments System Prototype. Adding a two new Benches Alteration Bench and Attachments Bench. The Attachments Bench can be used to craft attachements for items, the Alteration Bench can be used to place Attachements onto items. Adding protoype item attachment 'Sharp Blade' and a new Alteration 'Melee_Damage_1'. Adding new gameplay tags for Item Attachments. Updating Various Stat Retrival functions to allow accessing the item container system and therefore item attachements so they can be displayed on the UI and added to the items stat container for stat calulation during gameplay.
  
• Adding Dropship Spawns & Quest markers to FLATLINE: Research so the mission can be played on STYX
  
• Updating FLATLINE: Research so the Timelimit & Time Gained from Quest Objectives to be based on player selected difficulty
  
• Creature Bosses in FLATLINE: Research scale based on selected difficulty
  
• Adding new Unique Creature Boss for FLATLINE: Research
  
• Fixes for FLATLINE: Research, Removed Slow stat from smaller Armored Scorpions, Increased Timers by 5 minutes to all difficulty levels, Digested Catalysts now provide the correct time increases, projectile resistance has been reduced slightly on all amored scorpions, the number of smaller armoured scorpions now properly scales per players base of 3, for each player add 2 to a hard limit of 10
  
• Increasing the Armored Scorpions Projectile Resistance Dramatically
  
• Added Smaller Armored Scorpions which appear alongside Bloodclaw, adding new enteries into the AI setups for the armored scorpions
  
• Enabled the in-game tooltip for Enzyme Geysers.
  
• Added recipes to the Cooking Station to allow butchering of higher quality meats, allowing conversion of other meats into raw meat.
  
• Rebalanced Biofuel Composter recipes for cooked and raw meats. [Feature Upvote][icarus.featureupvote.com]
  
• Deep Ore Veins now spawn on Outposts in the same way they do on Prospects [Feature Upvote][icarus.featureupvote.com]
  
• Added a popup notification to the Titlescreen if the player's GPU is using a driver version earlier than our recommended driver version
  
• Driver out of date notification now only shows for NVIDIA and AMD cards which are at or above our minimum requirements
  
• Changed area marker for Abyssal Oxite Deep Vein to a single icon on ABYSS: Research. Updated descriptions to better guide the player of the mission requirements.
  
• Fixed an issue causing the Olympus E6 meta deposit from spawning.
  
• Changed Berry Jam and Glass Jars (filled with water) to allow them to be consumed from the hotbar. [Feature Upvote][icarus.featureupvote.com]
  
• Removing the Item Name Prefix for Alterations as it does not work with the current system, Renaming Display Prefix to Display Name, Removing ability to build item names via Alterations
  
• Update to tree cover audio - handle scenario where a tree has been partially felled, which was incorrectly applying tree cover parameters even if it was just a small trunk remaining.
  
• Fixed issue where the Electric Furnace wouldn’t connect to the power network [Feature Upvote][icarus.featureupvote.com]
  
• Fixed crash in editor where GFur was trying to access a pointer that hadn't been initialised yet
  
• Fixed Ramp Up Stockpile question description to Concrete Mix, instead of Cement Mix
  
• Scorpion Pincer Trap immobilize period now scales with Creature level. Lowest level creatures will stun up to 5 seconds, while highest level creatures will stun up to 2 seconds. Previously it was 3 seconds across the board
  
• Committing Missing Json file for the Attachments Prototype
  
• Fixing the Includes for the ItemData for the Attachments Prototype as it was breaking the build
  
• Fixed issue where hotbar didn’t stop scrolling when scrolling through crafting inventory [Feature Upvote][icarus.featureupvote.com]
  
• Keybinds are no longer reset to default when swapping from a branch with a new keybind to one without it
  
• Submitting auto-generated banks and uassets For chazz's change: Adding a small amount of quad delay to the character vocal bus
  
• Adding a small amount of quad delay to the character vocal bus
  
• Fixed issue where unique item components were not being added when upgrading (e.g. reinforced glass) [Feature Upvote][icarus.featureupvote.com]
  
• Fixing follower wolf spawn Transform Location pointing to Scale resulting in no followers spawning in the Alpha Wolf encounter In the BP_Boss_Den
  
• Fixed an issue causing beams to be placed in midair on certain building types.
  
• Ensure all Statue meshes use 26DOP collision rather than boxes or complex
  
• Fix folder setup for Statues (don't need individual folders for different material types)
  
• Removing the top Seperator for Alteration Descriptions, if they are first in the list to help clean up the UI
  
• Made the separator for Alteration Descriptions thinner.
  
• Fixed the modifiers for Vegetable Pie and Frostbite to give the correct modified stat (and relevant buff/debuff text).
  
• Greatly improved beam placement options when placed on ramps.
  
• Updating Cooking Station icon
  
• MERGE: Adding Icons for the Alteration System allowing players to see icons associated with each alteration in various situations, Also adding a popup to the alteration image which displays a descripton and the stats active due to the alteration. Basically players can now see what alterations are doing on crafted devices.
  
• Add Decoration Statues for Scorpion, Bear and PolarBear to Rustic Decorations Bench
  
• MERGE: Quick pass on some of the names in the D_Alteration table to try and better represent what the alteration is doing, for example using Expanded instead of Extended for extra inventory slots.
  
• Swapping out icons for the alteration system to ones that have a solid background to make the level of alteration more readable.

Future Content & Art

• Made new LC Cave MED_001
  
• Impassable Blockout, Red Quad, Prometheus
  
• First impassible block out on Blue and Green Quads
  
• Updated Arrowhead Plant's base texture groups
  
• Updated TallWeeds Bush texture groups
  
• Updated Ponga Tree texture groups
  
• Updated Mangrove Sapling texture groups
  
• Updated Flax Plant texture groups
  
• Updated Cypress Sapling texture groups
  
• Updated Bog Flower texture groups
  
• Updated Blackberry Bush texture groups
  
• Updated Arrowhead Plant texture groups
  
• Changes Landscape Test Level
  
• Added tundra landscape textures
  
• SM_SW_TallWeeds_Bush mesh, textures and material
  
• Submitting Armadillodoge and textures
  
• Imported Terrain 019 DLC map, including developer level setup and initial ingame map render
  
• New LC Cave Template SML_001 Added, LC voxel added & Cave Stamps Added
  
• Created Swamp template SML_002, SML_003 and edited previous swamp templates with new materials
  
• LC Macro 03 - first pass
  
• ROCK LC Lrg 06 - disabled RVT on material
  
• Submitted asset SM_StatueCougar_Bronze into the project, created material and added textures
  
• Add/improve various LODs
  
• Various texture optimizations
  
• DCO_StatuePolarBear_Bronze adjusted colour to match other bronze statues
  
• Updated the texture group of the icarus decorative statue and added it to the prop small texture collection
  
• Added decorative statues to texture collections and changed texture groups to small
  
• Fixed filenames on Caveworm Statue textures. Fixed texture settings
  
• Updated collisions and reduced max texture size to 1024 on decorative statue assets
  
• Exposed to MPC extra options for Erosion on Impassables
  
• Updated T4 Generator textures