[2023] Icarus Week Sixty Update | 2 hours of Weather Forecasting for oncoming storms

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

This week we’re re-working our weather systems, adding a forecasting system that gives you up to two hours of insight into approaching weather patterns.

This also adds more storm sequencing, creating up to seven different levels of severity to face and making this severity consistent across the entire map.

This also gives us the ability to customize sequences for specific missions, making more unique challenges applicable to the task at hand.

Finally, we’ve improved our backup system to create a backup save file every 30 minutes and provide more safeguards against accidental data loss.



Weather Forecasting
Our weather systems are getting an overhaul.

Weather Forecasting changes players' relationships with storms. Previously, storms were randomized with the only unique element being the different variations exclusive to different biomes.

In the new system, Weather Forecasting will provide up to two hours of insight into the upcoming weather patterns. These Weather Patterns are applicable across the entire map, so outside of variations (eg, sandstorms in the desert, blizzards in the arctic), all other elements will be predictable and consistent regardless of your movements.

This new system also adds more variety to the severity of storms you will experience. Rather than providing either of two extremes, there are seven different levels ranging from a cosmetic impact to drastic damage.



The other added benefit for our development is it provides us with the ability to preset sequences and severities for specific missions. This new layer of detail will make each mission feel a little more unique and challenging in its own right. For example, the first few missions have lighter showers before introducing base-damaging maelstroms in later missions.

Changes for the player

The infographic shows that more severe storms are highly likely to damage up to Stone buildings.

In Easy difficulty storms won’t only be ‘cosmetic’ - you are more likely to see storms that do deliver some damage, even if at the lower end of the spectrum.

With effective forecasting, however, players can spend more time preparing rather than having a storm dropped on them unsuspectingly.



The UI in-game will appear in a bar, like above.

The icons and colours represent the severity of storms that could occur, and the lengths of the bar represent the duration of the forecast in which storms can occur and the severity that will be experienced at different stages.

It is important to note that weather events do not occur ‘continuously’ throughout these periods, rather the forecasting bar is showing the sections that predict how bad different periods may be. As with all weather predictions, expect some variation from what is shown.

We will be monitoring feedback for various missions and forecasts for adjustments if needed over the following weeks.



New Backup System
We’re improving our backup system this week, looking to provide more safeguards against accidental data loss caused by corruption, players' computers shutting down unexpectedly or good old human error.

Backups for Character data, Profile data and active Prospects are now created at 30-minute intervals and stored alongside the original file with a ‘.backup’ extension.

In the event of a save file corruption due to an unexpected system shutdown, the latest backup will be automatically restored, reducing the data loss to within a 30-minute interval for players.

Users can manually restore a backup by replacing the original file with the most recent backup and removing the ‘.backup’ file extension.

The save files will be kept for up to five hours of gameplay, allowing you to manually roll back in 30-minute increments within this time frame.



Changelog v1.2.35.106983
New Content

• Merge WeatherUpdate to Trunk
  
• Re-export datatables after merge
  
• Adding New Weather Patterns for all the Prospects
  
• Fix the parameter type in logs for Weather forecasting
  
• Added GGHost to the list of verified server providers
  
• Fixing Cheat to Trigger Quests
  
• Adding new Text to Objective List when Objectives are loading
  
• New Weather Icons, Adjusting Weather Block Tiers by Player Selected Difficulty and Adjusted UI to fit better in with the other HUD Elements
  
• Added remaining weather events to the All_Weather pool, added a All_Weather_MoreLight pool for use in early missions
  
• Lowered weather intensities maximum to facilitate better difficulty scaling
  
• Changed Open World weather pattern to MidPeak, reducing maximum intensity. (Hard difficulty will still get the maximum intensity weather rarely)
  
• Added a MostlyMild weather pattern, as a middle ground between later patterns and the interoductory pattern
  
• Moved some early missions and all Outposts to MostlyMild weather pattern
  
• Increased average storm severity on exploration missions
  
• Exposed client logging system to code and cleaned up multiple blueprints related to it
  
• Added client logging to connection errors
  
• Fixed some issues with the Error 65 auto-retry system
  
• Tierified storm damage events to ensure building damage is normalized throughout tiers
  
• Fixed invalid susbystem errors in UMG_ConnectingOverlay after renaming LogOverlaySubsystem
  
• Updated weather tier icons
  
• Resaved WeatherTierIcon datatable to update tier 0 storm icon
  
• Added an optional initial forecast to prospects (possible grace period to ease players in on new prospects)
  
• Fixed an order of operations issue that was causing forecast blocks to be skipped on save/load
  
• Fixed a bug where the client would only see the boss icon from 'Crazed Creature' dynamic mission when within a small area

Fixed

• Cleanup and improvement on Styx Landscape LODs. Textures were lowest mip due to memory constraints, now fixed for about 45% of the tiles, bug still exists making it difficult to generate correctly. Deleted LOD2 and LOD3 which aren't needed (triangle count is around 500) and caused additional unnecessary texture generation. Further improvements to remaining unfixed tiles to come
  
• Small adjustment to the lowest waterfall height volume / intensity to make sure very small waterfalls feel appropriate
  
• Fixed issue where double trunk trees weren't properly supported by TreeBase.cpp, and were causing crashes when chopped down
  
• Fix remaining Styx landscape LOD textures that failed to generate properly
  
• Fixed bug where SandWorm WorldBoss could sometimes teleport to the centre of the map.
  
• Fixed bug where dead SandWorm WorldBoss icons would re-appear when re-hosting a prospect.
  
• Reduced performance impact of SandWorm world bosses active in the world when players aren't nearby
  
• Improve Olympus distant landscape LODs (part 1), settings update, extracting assets individually and regenerating, deleting LOD2/LOD3
  
• Disabled skeleton ticking/refresh on SandWorms in the level that aren't currently relevant
  
• Fixed steam offline issues by forcing sessions to be configured for Lan
  
• Fixed a typo in a mission description
  
• Fixed a few typos in mission objectives
  
• Fixed a few typos
  
• Add some more logging around server suspend/resume
  
• Missions no longer start until a dropship has landed
  
• Fixing Dropship Dialogue so it players correctly before the quest dialogue
  
• Refactor and apply various optimisations to the multi point audio system to improve performance at scale. Should reduce the CPU cost of weather and fire audio systems, especially when applied to very large structures made of many grid bases, and refactor will make it easier to apply further optimisations
  
• Fix an issue where the UI does not refresh buffs when mounted
  
• Fix a merge bug in logging (internal only)
  
• Resubmitting file that didnt save properly
  
• Fixed crash caused by being able to click the cancel queued recipe item button in auto-crafting deployables (campfires/composters/etc)
  
• Added a FOV reset on destruction of firearm objects
  
• Fixes a bug where if you die while zoomed in with a rifle, you would stay zoomed in when you get revived
  
• Reworked how character/profile/prospect backups work; Backup files are now generated every 30 minutes of game time and up to 10 are stored at a time. Added functionality to attempt auto-repair of corrupt save files in the case of computer shutdown during save operation
  
• Changed order of ops for when grace period is applied due to UI refresh issue

New Content

• Cleaned up resources and painted LC foliage, in P2 Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Added art assets for ITM_Super_Cooled_Ice to project
  
• Added base rock asset for meta tree and updated meta tree blueprint with new assets
  
• Exotic Tree Device - added backpack mesh + material, edited textures
  
• Optimisation removing tick function from audio occlusion components
  
• Create an audio reflector interface to enable overriding of surface-based reflection values on specific actors. Apply to hollow trunk blueprints to enable appropriate audio delay effects when players are using them
  
• LC Terraces - added collision to terrace meshes
  
• Added ALN_Exotic_PlanA_Var1 wild version
  
• Adjustments to lava river. Adding flow parameter and adjustments to the sound and pitch of the speed
  
• Adding the predator bird attack vocal to the swoop animation. Not currently in use
  
• Added Mage Tree Roots & Genreal Clean Up on Blue Quad, DLC Map
  
• Added Geothermal Lakes and Foliage Pass of LC foliage, in P2 Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Clean up resources and painted LC foliage, in P2 Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Adjusted Frozen Rive Shader to use WP and replace default shader on SM
  
• Fixing 1.3.0. dialogue
  
• Adding in Dialogue for Promethus Main Mission Chain 1-5, Updating Quest Objectives and Item names to match dialogue
  
• Added Deep Ice Deposit Spawns to Artic on Green/Blue Quad, DLC Map
  
• Added growth stages for ALN_Exotic_PlantA
  
• Adding texture files that didn't get submitted properly for ALN_Exotic_PlantA
  
• Adjustments to swamp quad footsteps. Adding more mud layer and dirt grit
  
• Fixing Promethus Progression by granting account flags when players finish missions 1,2,3
  
• Fixing Deployable Varitation Spawning in Prebuilt structure code
  
• Updating Prometheus Story 2 so the prebuit structure spawns correctly and adding new structure json
  
• Removing Removed Flags from being references into the Talents Table
  
• Updating Prebuild Structure for the Treehouse as well as updating the base structure icons
  
• Updating Promethus Story 1 & 2 to use a better flow for prebuild structures
  
• First pass on lights support for lava rivers, disabled by default
  
• Clean up resources and painted LC foliage, in P2 Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Added cave with lava Cave_LC_SML_004
  
• Foliage Pass on LC biome, clean up decals and resources, P2 Purple Quad, DLC
  
• First pass on volcano mesh and textures
  
• Updating Prometheus Story 3 quest steps and adding quest markers into the prometheus terrain
  
• Updating Fish data to include 04, 05 and 06 variations. Suffixing BP with names and uniforming DT row names
  
• LC Stones - added mesh, textures, FTs, BPs and data table entries
  
• Volcanic Rocks - assigned correct PMs to materials
  
• Adding in 3rd person Sledge hit animation and custom focusable for the sledgehammer to give more control over attachement offset etc
  
• Implementation Of Volcano Mesh, Building Rest Of Volcano & Removed Old Impassable Meshes on Yellow/Red Quad, DLC Map
  
• Swamp Rocks - assigned correct PMs to materials
  
• Grasslands Rocks - assigned correct PMs to materials
  
• Adding Sols Arctic Hideout Base
  
• Updating Prometheus Mission 4, adding Sols Hideout, Swaping Boss Creature to be a Snow Stalker and Updating Questmarkers and locations for Quest
  
• Tundra Rocks - assigned correct PMs to materials
  
• Replaced Crevasse Static Meshes with BP Versions & Shorten Waterfalls that are too Long on Green/Blue Quad, DLC Map
  
• Landscape Pass On Lava Rivers In Phase 1 and 2 Areas and Foliage Pass on Lava biome, clean up decals and resources, P2 Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Regenerated Landscape LOD textures for Olympus to fix blurry low quality assets
  
• Added foliage in LC biome, cleaned up decals and resources, P2 Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Further small adjustment to small waterfalls volume curve (small vs big)
  
• Setting up Voxel Distributions for Prometheus
  
• LC Cliffs - added proper convex hull collision
  
• Adding footstep crack ice sweetener event and sounds. Not currently hooked up. To use footstep override
  
• Fix Striker GFur settings and add LODs
  
• Add or fix LOD settings on various assets
  
• Adding Correct Resource Collection to the various new plants added to prometheus
  
• LC LavaCold meshes - added convex hull collision
  
• Fix GeodeLamp asset settings, textures, LODs, etc
  
• Finish Volcano Blockout Red Quad, DLC Map
  
• Add Hyena, Cougar, Elephant, Jaguar, Piranha and SnowLeopard decoration statue data (not yet available to craft). Icons and recipes still need creating
  
• Adding System for spawning Exotic Plants
  
• Geothermal Pools - added convex hull collision to meshes LC_Geotherm_03-07, disabled RVT on their materials
  
• Added Cave with Lava Cave_LC_MED_005
  
• Landscape Pass On Lava Rivers In Phase 1 and 2 Areas and Foliage Pass on Lava biome, clean up decals and resources, P2 Purple Quad, DLC
  
• Seperating Out Fishing Bench and allowing 2 devices to be placed on one deploy
  
• Fishing bench can now craft rods and lures on one side and fillet fish on the other
  
• Changed popping log array from front and re-appending from the back to a circular buffer
  
• Removed ELogCategories enum and moved it to a data table
  
• Array doesn't change size after initialization anymore
  
• Removed unnecessary functions
  
• Changed BPs to use new DT enums/text
  
• Changes were suggested from an upsource review
  
• Reconciling offline work. fixing build validation
  
• Went through all relevant files and refreshed all nodes and force saved the DT
  
• Exotic Tinted Plants Resource Placement on Green/Blue Quad, DLC Map
  
• Volcanic Rocks - Convex hull collision on LRG and MED rocks
  
• Volcanic Rocks - Convex hull collision on MAC rocks
  
• Exotic Tinted Plants Resource Placement on Purple Quad and A Foliage Pass, Purple Quad, DLC Map
  
• Adding t3 and t4 communicator computer audio and events and BP addition
  
• Finished Cave with Lava Cave_LC_MED_005
  
• Volcanic Rocks - convex hull collision on cave entrance meshes
  
• General clean up of foliage, decals and riverbanks in Grasslands and Tundra, Green Quad, DLC
  
• Replicating the RunQuest Variable
  
• Fix missing uproperty specifiers in MultiPointAudioNodeArray members