Icarus Dev Tracker

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

Welcome to our 140th weekly update.

This week we are introducing a battery-powered ice box backpack, which offers a new way to keep your food from spoiling while on the go.

We also have a heap of updates including new workshop items, new battery-powered equipment, numerous small tweaks and fixes, and even a new main menu screen.

These are the result of a “project clinic” our team conducted while playing the upcoming free expansion to the Prometheus map. We do these deep dives every now and then, and you can ... Read more

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

Many of you will be familiar with Sol, one of the key characters in the ICARUS universe our players experience. When we made the "No Rescue" Trailer, the game was in constant flux and we could not put together a trailer with just game footage in the time we had to meet the PC Gamer show. I proposed we do a "talking heads" style trailer, using real world actors, inspired by a like of "Ken Burns" style documentaties and how well it worked in a fictional setting like Interstellar. One of the people on the first casting option sheets was Stig, who absolutely fitted what we wanted in the prospector. I actually got to meet Stig during the filming, and he was fantastic. He had come into the studio several times and worked with our audio team. He really "got" the project, and his enthusiasm and work really left a mark on the game as a whole.

You can read more about the amazing life of "Stig, The Piano Man" in the following article:
... Read more

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

Welcome to Week 139.

This week, we are introducing a new creature: the Dribbo. These hippo-esque creatures have a unique spawning mechanic not seen in Icarus thus far, that’ll lead to some unique encounters.

We also delve into a preview of a new planetary crafted backpack and a quality-of-life improvement for bosses that will become much more relevant with the release of the Dangerous Horizons expansion.

Concluding this week’s update is a breakdown of the ‘Null Sector’, the new region being added to the Prometheus map next week.

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Notable Improvements

• All Animal Feeds can now be stored in Iceboxes
  
• Terrain Anchor System Adjustments to fix rare issues to do with, buildings, objects and players from having a relevant terrain for support, movement and other various issues

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Thi... Read more

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

Welcome to Week 138.

This week continues the expansion of the Icarus weapon tree. To make pistols more useful, and avoid only adding onto the end of the tech tree, the current One Shot Pistol is moving to Tier 2, along with a new a cheaper ammo recipe. This makes space for the new Semi-Automatic Pistol on the Machining Bench at Tier 3.

The Free Prometheus Expansion is progressing well as we implement feedback from closed play testing. We explain more about how you'll use Beacons to explore the ‘Null Sector’ dark zone below.

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This Week: New Pistol & Rebalance We’re adding a new Semi-Automatic Pistol this week at Tier 3.

This comes with a rebalance and restructure of the pistol tiers to clearly differentiate the different weapons.

Here are the core details about the new pistol:

• Crafted in Tier...

Read more

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

Welcome to week 137.

We’re looking at farming again today, this time by adding the new ‘Farmers Satchel’ which is a tier 2 upgrade on the Seed Pouch.

This has all the benefits of the Seed Pouch, but with more slots and uses than just seeds that makes it more useful when working with a large amount of crops.

We’re also talking today about the upcoming Prometheus Map Expansion, with details about how the mini-map works in this new ‘Null Sector’.

Jump in and have a read.

Notable Improvements:

• Medicine crafted on the person will head straight into the Medicine Satchel
  
• Fixed spoil timer showing {0} instead of the correct time
  
• Reduced spacing in the objectives list to better-fit missions with many objectives

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This Week: Farmers Satchel
We’re adding a n... Read more

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

Welcome to week 136.

This week we’re implementing comprehensive changes to how seeds and crops interact with biomes and weather patterns.

One of Icarus' unique foundations is the immersive weather system, which requires genuine consideration in many decisions you make including building materials, biome selection and even structural design. Biomes add unique resource pools and availability, along with impacts to survivability and ailments.

One area of the game which has not been affected by these impacts, however, is farming. While rainfall amounts and glasshouse bonuses have a modest effect, it has largely ignored many of the other impacts that are prevalent on other game features.

We are expanding on that this week with biomes, extreme storms, freezing temperatures and exposure now playing a part in the crop growth simulation, making this feel more natural and connected to the rest of the game.

This includes new tiers of shovels and cro... Read more

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

Welcome to Week 135.

This week we’re introducing a new building tier, Stone Brick, which will be available in all maps and biomes.

We’ve also got an update on Prometheus Part II, upcoming building piece variations and next week's changes to crops and their interaction with biomes and weather patterns.

Jump in and have a read.

Notable Improvements:

• ABYSS Mission. Fixed a case where you could have no objectives because the mission waits for you to return to the island before the final objective triggers
  
• The context menu for items while not on planet only ever shows 'repair' and 'destroy' now

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This Week: Stone Brick Building Tier
We’ve added a new Stone Brick building set at Tier 3, giving you a new aesthetic to experiment
with on your base.

Stone Bricks are c... Read more

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

Nau mai ko wiki kotahi rau toru tekau mā whā - Welcome to week 134.

This week we’re celebrating Matariki, the Māori new year here in New Zealand, with a special free operation DLC for all Styx owners and the new Kiwi bird and Kiwifruit plant.

The new operation, REPOPULATION: Research tasks you with introducing a new species to Styx, the elusive Kiwi.

We’ve also got an update on our Prometheus Part II project.

Jump in and have a read.

Notable Improvements:

• Fixed a crash that occurred when opening the map
  
• Adding tooltips to exotic deposits (Trees & Veins)
  
• Fixed Bug where you could not craft items while mounted

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This Week: Matariki Operation
We’re celebrating Matariki this week by introducing a new mission.

REPOPULATION: Research will be gr... Read more

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

Week 133 features three new Styx Operations playable in Open World mode that have been converted over from Missions. This completes our Styx section of this work, and we’re now moving on to Olympus map which has several Missions suitable for conversion.

We’ve also got an update on the next map addition, Prometheus Part II. This will be a hardcore expansion of the map including new missions, quests and creatures.

Finally, we’ve got some news on next week's update, with a special New Zealand flair to it.

Jump in and have a read.

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This Week: New Styx Operations
This week we’re introducing three new Styx Operations that have been converted over from Missions.

These are RENDEZVOUS: Delivery, ABYSS: Research and REMNANT: Extraction.

This is part of an ongoing process to convert all applicable Missions over t... Read more

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

This week we’re introducing the second-place finisher of our Discord Poll from two weeks ago - the CHAC ‘Sentinel' Pistol.

This new 4-round magazine pistol is quick to both fire and reload, making it great for a tight situation where you need a get-out-of-jail-free card.

We’re also introducing a new ammo type - the Jacketed Pistol Ammo. This can be bought from the Orbital Workshop in boxes of 25.

Jump in and have a read.

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This Week: Workshop Pistol
This week brings the new Workshop Pistol - the loser of our Discord poll two weeks ago but still, an exciting new item for players to purchase and use in their missions.

The CHAC ‘Sentinel’ Pistol has a 4-shot magazine that reloads as a magazine (rather than per individual round) and uses standard pistol ammo.

Compared to the standard pistol, it has +25% d... Read more