[2021] Prepare for Beta Weekend Six

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

Hey Prospectors!
Beginning Friday 5th November 5pm PDT and ending Sunday 7th November 10pm PST, you will have the standard two days to complete an array of unique missions this Beta Weekend.



6 Missions, 53 hours, starting from 0
Beta Weekend Six brings our biggest test yet, the faction missions system. While only providing a taster of the range of missions in the game, you’ll complete six missions with brand new characters, as we have wiped your characters from Beta Weekend Five so we can see how you progress. Using an experienced levelled-up character would not going to give us accurate data or insights into how players progress through the missions.

These missions are assigned to you by various factions - organizations vying for control and riches around Icarus. See below to learn more about them.

The six missions are:

• BEACHHEAD
  
• LIVEWIRE
  
• DARK HARVEST
  
• FIELD TEST
  
• KILL LIST
  
• HEADSTONE

Here is the briefing for the first Mission: BEACHHEAD, the rest will follow as you progress:

Mission: BEACHHEAD
UDA Mandated first drop for new prospectors.

BACKGROUND: New arrivals to Icarus must demonstrate basic survival skills in this well-explored, temperate region if they wish to retain their prospecting license.

MISSION: Prospectors are not expected to fulfil any specific objectives, beyond staying alive for an acceptable length of time. No further tasking will occur until basic competency is attained. Failures will not be recovered.

TERMS: New arrivals will be provided with a functioning envirosuit, and basic crafting information. They will be otherwise unassisted.



This will be the first beta weekend where we really start to show what session-based survival feels like to play. While your first mission will let you get your bearings, we'll want to ensure you're a bit more comfortable with life on Icarus before ramping up the challenge. This could be in the form of missions with tougher objectives, a harsher environment to survive in or a very short drop-window in which to complete them.



Weekend Six Q&A
We realise you'll have a few questions this weekend with the character wipe, multiple missions and more.

What will be the level cap for the weekend?

While you might be starting new characters, the level cap will once again be 30, with Tier 4 still locked on the planetary tech tree.

Any changes to the number of Blueprint and Talent Points?

The blueprint and talent point allocation per level will be the same as before, no change has been made here. You’ll have a brand new chance to build your characters how you wish, with a lot more familiarity and experience.

What about the playing area for the weekend?

With multiple missions and prospects, comes multiple variations on the map. This means, we’ve made some small tweaks to how you can interact with the in-game map. There is now a basic system in place for tracing discovered areas and identifying out-of-bounds areas (specific to the Beta Weekends).

How do the missions work when it comes to playing with friends?

The mission system is designed to be followed in order. However, we understand there are situations where you don’t want to wait for a friend to catch up, so we’ve made some allowances for this. The gating you’ll encounter is only applicable when starting a prospect, meaning you only need one member of your crew to have the necessary qualifications to begin. From there, anyone can join that prospect regardless of their status, and will be credited with the completion when the mission is finished.

Will there be another extra day?

This time, no. While we have the last two Beta Weekends for different reasons, this weekend will be the standard 53 hour window. Enjoy it while it lasts!

What about new wildlife or biomes?

Giving this away wouldn’t be fun, would it?


The Factions


UDA – United Development Agency
A puppet with power.

Formed in the aftermath of Earth’s Climate Emergency, the United Development Agency brought humanity together in pursuit of a single, extraordinary goal – terraforming a planet beyond our Solar System. Then the dream collapsed, and disharmony and factionalism began to tear at the fabric of the organisation. Now it governs Icarus from afar via the Lagos Group.

In reality, the UDA is a vehicle of the New Powers – a way to maintain each faction’s post-crisis ascendancy while pursuing their individual agendas on Icarus. If there is truth to its appearance of power, it lies in the UDA providing a shield of legitimacy for faction activities, and enabling them to exclude other aspiring power players.

Sinotai – China Space Agency
Someone has to run space.

Sinotai is China's national space agency, ranking second only to the UDA as an off-world political force. Driven by the desire for power, prestige and innovation to ever deepen and extend its reach, Sinotai is one of the extraordinary success stories of the 22nd century.

Attacking ambitious off-world goals from 'an effective zero point', the agency proved its mettle in the mid-21st Century by putting the first humans on Mars, establishing Mars' first gigawatt power system, the first off-world fuel refinery, and many other ‘first leaps’.

Sinotai was a key player in the attempt to terraform Icarus, and few are the space-going organisations that do not rely on its power and capabilities to some extent. A common joke has it that it's impossible to do anything in space without them. A common complaint suggests this is exactly their strategy.

ACS – American Coastal States
Paranoia lingers at the borders.

After the slow-burning, mid-21st Century collapse of the United States into separate federations, the American Coastal States – or ‘The Coasts’ – abandoned most of the country’s central states to form “a new, true, blue Union”.

Half a century later, the ACS regards itself as a beacon of freedom and liberal values, while spending more on surveillance and military R&D than the other New Powers combined. Propelled by a curious combination of enlightenment, censorship and fear, the ACS have approached Icarus in the same conflicted spirit – intrepid yet mistrustful.

The ACS remains a contradiction, described by the Arkansas Defence League as ‘a noose around the heartland’, while others see it as a ‘bastion of determined sanity against medieval ambitions’.

By far the wealthiest of the ex-US federations, with deep connections to Larkwell Martinez, the ACS is the only North American presence on the planet.

União – South American Union
Win at all costs.

Established in the late-21st century, the South American Union (commonly known as União or ‘The Unity’) gained immense off-world power from being the site of Earth’s first space elevator. This influence accrued most clearly in Brazil, which was not slow to exploit it, gatekeeping access to the Solar System – and now the Galaxy.

As a result, Unaio have grown extremely rapidly, gaining an overdeveloped sense of their own abilities and importance. Beneath their confidence, however, they are desperate to maintain their advantage, and see Icarus as a critical beachhead for their federation’s goals.

Allied with off-world mining groups like Inaris, it is clear that União has high ambitions for Icarus, and the exotics beneath its surface.

The Assembly – The African Assembly
Keep out of our way.

The African Assembly is a swiftly rising force in Earth politics, encompassing a majority of states in sub-Saharan Africa – a product of war and desperation rising from the ashes of continental strife.

The Assembly’s climb to power has been astonishingly swift, harnessing its huge potential to transform a continent in just a few decades. Its advancement on Icarus, in the aftermath of terraforming’s collapse, has been equally rapid, but it has been slow to shake old attitudes. After centuries of exploitation, its leadership still harbors hostility towards any outside influence, viewing groups like Sinotai with great suspicion.

The Assembly’s seat at the table is new, their confidence fragile. They wish to maintain their growth and will ensure it by whatever means they deem necessary.

The Lagos Unit (UDA)
It’s our planet, you’re just visiting.

A sub-branch of the UDA tasked with overseeing Icarus, the Lagos Unit was formed during an emergency summit in Nigeria’s capital. Based in orbit around Icarus itself, far from the eyes of Earth’s media, it has only one goal: control of the planet – and the flow of exotics.

Due to its distance from Earth and conflicts between the New Powers – who, theoretically, direct the Lagos Unit through the UDA – it can be difficult at times to know exactly whose interests the Lagos Unit is serving.

It has several sub-branches, including Group 15.

Group 15 (UDA)
The future will thank us.

Group 15’s exact role and remit remain stubbornly ill-defined.

A sub-branch of the Lagos Unit known for mercenary behaviour, dirty tricks and questionable tactics during covert operations, it has also been responsible for conducting some of the most advanced research and study into Icarus itself.

The Group is exceedingly pragmatic, often contracting prospectors to perform its most dangerous tasks, as well as importing skills from Earth as needed. As an organization, they embody a single idea: the ends justify the means when humanity’s future is at stake.

Mars Administration Authority – ‘The Administration’
It’s our time.

The Mars Administration Authority, often referred to simply as ‘The Administration’, remains a minor player in the Icarus political landscape. But the promise of exotics, and the extraordinary opportunities for development they seem to offer, has not escaped the attention of this fledgling colony.

Eager to grow and restless under UDA rule, the Administration is beginning to explore its options on Icarus.



Patch Notes
Note: A lot of bug fixes and changes this week were on the backend to enable the mission functionality, hence fewer visible changes for players in these patch notes.

Bug fixes and QOL improvements:

• Placed snow-covered trees in transition areas between forest and arctic biomes
  
• Fixed a bug where chopped wood was falling through the ground due to the raycast incorrectly not using the trunk to place subdivided pieces
  
• Fixed a bug where where aiming from a harvestable item would display the ‘gather’ hand symbol instead of the crosshairs by putting in an override for the 2 mechanics that now prioritizes the crosshair
  
• Fixed a bug where the cloth armour would form a ‘spike’ on the headpiece when the player was running or crouching in third person
  
• Fixed a bug where the placement helpers for certain buildables (i.e wood roof) were often misaligned or offset due to some being set to half pitch angles
  
• Fixed a bug where the crafting counter wouldn’t go back to 0 when changing from one recipe to the next
  
• Fixed a bug where all benches would disappear after a game crash
  
• Fixed a bug where some clients were unable to access tech or talent trees
  
• Fixed a bug where the Steel Axe was invisible to some players
  
• Fixed a bug where the Steel spear had the same description as the Iron spear
  
• Fixed a bug where Wood windows wouldn’t close properly
  
• Fixed a bug where Glass windows had no sound effects when destroyed
  
• Fixed a bug where cooked meat would disappear from the hotbar
  
• Fixed a bug where the respawn dropship’s animation would play on a loop
  
• Fixed a bug where some seams were visible on the ground to host players
  
• Fixed a bug where some caves in the arctic would not provide shelter from storms
  
• Fixed a bug where crafting benches were using more resources than needed for the selected recipe
  
• Fixed a bug where the lantern’s light was displaced from the mesh
  
• Fixed a bug where quickly switching between players while spectating could freeze the game
  
• Fixed a bug where rejoining a prospect by dropship could make the dropship land in a unplayable area
  
• Fixed a bug where the 'Some for Me' talent would not regenerate health after reviving a player

- Shammgod