[2021] Icarus Week Two Content Update

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

Welcome back, Prospectors!
It has been another massive week for our player community and the development team. For us there has been a little less chaos than launch week, allowing us to continue to add optimizations, make servers more stable as well as add three new mission and hardcore mission variants.

The support from you, the community, has been amazing and we have been able to use your feedback to fix important issues and better balance the game. We’ve also been blown away by the screenshots and streams of you surviving, thriving and dieing on Icarus. Seeing people play the game is what makes it all worthwhile for us.

Prospect Selection Screen Improvements


Many people have asked for more clarity about the varying difficulty of prospects - and since we’ve just added new hardcore versions we wanted to make sure people knew what they were getting into. It’s now easier to see the difficulty rating of every prospect and exactly what is harder. This also shows any additional bonuses and rewards you get for taking extra risks such as bonus XP.


Three New Missions Spirit Level: SURVEY

//OPERATOR: Sinotai // BIOME: Canyons // BACKGROUND: Operator is researching exotics formation and requires detailed geological survey data from the Canyons region. // MISSION: Establish geo-stations at three survey locations, and a central uplink unit to transmit the data to orbit. Construction to elevate survey stations to line-of-sight altitude may be required. // TERMS: Operator will provide survey equipment, but the Contractor is responsible for ensuring its safety.

Uplift: BIO RESEARCH


//OPERATOR: Sinotai // BIOME: Desert // BACKGROUND: The geology of Icarus appears to move more swiftly than Earth's. Operator requires samples of unusual geo-forms appearing in this region, following terraforming's failure. // MISSION: Locate and collect geological samples and return them to orbit safely. //TERMS: Flat fee. All safety and survival concerns are the responsibility of the Contractor.

Rampup: STOCKPILE


//OPERATOR: Sinotai //BIOME: Multiple //BACKGROUND: The Operator is extending an orbital station in preparation for new personnel. Requires raw materials urgently. //MISSION: Reach loading zones, establish processing systems, and supply pods with requested resources. //TERMS: Cargo pods will be dispatched to two locations.

Remove from Prospects Button Since release, we’ve had a temporary “debug” button available on the Character Select screen that allows you to quite ungracefully pull your character from a prospect and make them available to join a new one. At one point we disabled this function, due to abuse and some server instability issues it caused, but it is now back. It’s especially useful if your character gets stuck on a prospect. A huge thank you to the community members who have reported instances of this happening and provided details that help us investigate, as stopping these errors is a massive priority for us.

Graphics Settings We’ve continued to make graphics optimizations in general and have added two new Display Settings for you to adjust and experiment so you can customize Icarus to work best on your PC’s hardware.

The LOD Bias setting gives you more control over detail vs performance speed, with a lower value giving higher detail but lower performance.

The Shadow Filter Method can help if you see grainy shadows. The default PCSS mode should be used when DLSS or FSR is enabled. PCF mode may be useful if you wish to alleviate some grainy shadows.

Full Patch Notes As well as today’s content update and hotfix, we’ve included the notes for two hotfixes earlier in the week.

Hotfix Version: 1.1.1.89355

• Fixed issue where drop completion notification window could sometimes not be closed.
  
• Fixed "Naturally Preserved" talent not working as intended.
  
• Fixed the way spoil rates are calculated and displayed.
  
• Fixed Hardcore Forest Survey rewards being the same as the non-hardcore version.
  
• Fixed issue where storms could sometimes damage items inside your inventory.
  
• Fixed Existing hardcore Desert missions now have the same balance changes that the new hardcore missions have.
  
• Fixed Workshop Armor pieces are no longer destroyed when they reach zero durability. You still have to take them back to the station to repair, though.

Version: 1.1.1.89334

• Added 3 new missions, SPIRIT LEVEL: SURVEY, UPLIFT: BIO RESEARCH and RAMP-UP: STOCKPILE.
  
• Added hardcore variants of several missions, with extra stats for both rewards and difficulty.
  
• Added extra information to prospect detail display, including the modifiers applied to that specific prospect (extra XP, extra difficulty etc).
  
• Added LOD Bias setting to allow more control over model detail vs performance, a lower value means higher detail but lower performance.
  
• Added Shadow Filter setting to allow users better control over shadow visuals, the default PCSS value should be used when using DLSS/FSR, however, if you wish to alleviate some grainy visuals from shadows, PCF may be a good option
  
• Added new bait functionality to some extermination missions.
  
• Adding a short delay to the grace period resolution when a player exits their dropship state to make sure no falling damage is applied on the frame that it occurs
  
• Improved visuals of prospect select screen, added variation to highlight special (exotic) drops.
  
• Improved Mission Select UI to better reflect the new prospect difficulty changes
  
• Increased wolf spawns on harder difficulties on KILL LIST: Extermination Mission. Made the transmitter reset when destroyed on a hard survey mission.
  
• Rebalanced drop timers and difficulties for several prospects.
  
• Fixed several instances of bugs causing players to arrive injured or dead onto a prospect.
  
• Fixed issue with mission markers disappearing on the UPLIFT: Bio-Research Mission.
  
• Fixed issue with respawn drop pod not applying a safety grace period when activated.
  
• Fixed split mail notification layout issues. Right panel should collapse if there are no items or rewards.
  
• Fixed issue where extractor could block some of the camera view in first person.
  
• Fixed issue where respawn pods could be interacted with.

HOTFIX Version: 1.1.1.89202

• Fixed issue where some supporters pack owners, depending on when they purchased it, could not access the exclusive two additional outposts they should have access to.

HOTFIX Version: 1.1.1.89157

• Improved players will now more reliably be informed of mission completion upon returning to the Station.
  
• Added ability to change cosmetic character creation options whenever in the Station.
  
• Changed MXC Campfire to no longer be extinguished by rain.
  
• Applied further optimizations to the scene to improve performance.
  
• Improved performance of creature fur.
  
• Improved some dependencies between parts of the game to improve (reduce) memory usage.
  
• Removed some prototype feature work to improve (reduce) memory usage.
  
• Fixed issue with cave ore regions that meant gold balance changes from last update were not correctly applied.
  
• Fixed talents "Fresh is Best", "Silent Blade" and "Green Thumb" which were not working as intended.
  
• Fixed issue with "Like it With the Lights Off" and "Night Owl" talents where they were not working correctly based on time-of-day.
  
• Fixed issue where it could snow inside buildings, leading to snow buildup.
  
• Fixed issue where items could be duplicated in a multiplayer game.
  
• Fixed issue where some UI elements could remain visible, even after the items they were relating to were destroyed.
  
• Fixed some instances of issue causing players to arrive dead on the planet, or to have portions of their dropship missing.
  
• Fixed issue where supporters-edition locked outpost maps were available to everyone.
  
• Fixed issue where the additional arrows granted by "Twice The Fun" were possible to pick-up.
  
• Fixed issue where clients in a multiplayer game were sometimes left unable to harvest or otherwise interact with objects in the world.
  
• Fixed some issues with killcam not working as intended.
  
• Fixed issue where the Sprain modifier was causing errors and/or not working correctly.
  
• Fixed Suture Kit not having the correct icon.
  
• Fixed issue with Suture Kit not being displayed correctly in-world.
  
• Fixed issue with Deep Vein: Extraction where some players would not be able to complete the final step.
  
• Fixed building pieces improved by talents will now retain their improved status once reloaded, or once deconstructed.
  
• Fixed issue where shifting resources to your dropship using the ctrl + click shortcut would not complete the objective.
  
• Fixed issue after recent backend work where some characters lost their cosmetic customization options.
  
• Fixed issue with printed (MXC) arrows which would often prevent them from colliding with obstacles.
  
• Fixed issue preventing players from using Comet Coal once on the planet. Players can purchase the Comet Coal Set, which will need to be separated using the right-click menu before it can be used as a fuel source.
  
• Fixed issue where Flint Arrows were a valid ammo type for the Hunting Rifle.
  
• Fixed issue with the Radar display not properly displaying % completed when loading back into a mission in progress.