[2022] Sleeping Giants Iteration (and news)

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

We're continuing to iterate on the new Sleeping Giants map with your help. Please keep sending your feedback and bug reports, they're really helping us get the new content to the best shape possible. In addition to that, we're testing ourselves, focusing on specific features to get the feeling for what needs to be done to improve the new map and all the content that comes with it, as well as actively using statistics and looking at how you play the game in real time, as we noticed long ago that often real experience is different from the written feedback after the fact.


Coming Soon™
Our plan right now is to continue improving the content that we released, while working on the new PvP Update that's aimed at players who prefer hardcore battles against other Nomads out there. The main idea is to make permanent PvP tiles an actualy important part of gameplay and the in-game World as a whole. Meaning that PvP tiles will be much more desirable for settling on them to gain special something that will be worth the risk of encountering other (often hostile) players. Our goal with this update is to finally make PvP and, especially, permanent PvP tiles a part of the main gameplay loop, which will significantly incentivize staying on them and actively engaging in PvP, while maintaining the ability to play as a PvE-only player through the use of economy and Trade Stations in particular (which we're looking into improving and revitalizing as a part of this update and Season 5 as a whole).

In other important news, the next map is on its way as planned. It will be developed at the same time as the PvP Update, since the majority of work on the map will require Game Design, while the PvP Update will be heavily dependent on new features and mechanics that require code once they're designed. Same as the previous map releases, the next map will be completely different in its purpose and gameplay than in the previous seasons, so expect big twists and entirely new experiences when it finally comes out!


PvE Tiles Conundrum
Another small topic that was a point of discussion before Sleeping Giants released was if it should have PvE tiles at all. As we discussed already on Discord (btw, join it if you haven't, we often discuss the game and specific features there, and drop exclusive news and sneak peeks), we want to first see how the new map performs with both PvP and PvE and will make a decision whether to keep PvE tiles once Base and Walker Packing is out to allow anyone who settled on tiles that might be burnt to easily move their belongings to another tile. That doesn't mean that we made a decision yet, though. The process of observing the gameplay on both types of the tiles is still ongoing and we'll announce the final decision only after the Packing feature is out.

Update: Since there was a wave of confusion about removal of PvE tiles, I'll just say that it was a big discussion on Discord about not spawning PvE Sleeping Giants maps, so we had to address it and discuss internally. We still released those tiles to have a proper test and see the results first. So far, we don't see any reasons to remove PvE tiles, as they're populated and we see players on them enjoying themselves every day (including myself). We'll announce the final decision after a bit more observation, but as I said, we don't see any reason for removing any PvE tiles from the game, so it's extremely unlikely that we'll go that route, especially with a heavy focus on PvE this season.


Now, finally, to the changelog:

• Fixed Hoist not allowing liquid items to repair new Walkers.
  
• Fixed most cases of Falco Walker shaking and glitching.
  
• Added proper loot for Okkam. Had way too low rewards for such a beast.
  
• Fixed Ceramic Darts not being allowed in Ammo Box.
  
• Significantly lowered Lobber damage vs Hard armor.
  
• Slightly lowered Lobber damage vs Reinforced armor.
  
• Slightly increased War Okkam health.
  
• Increased Okkam collision damage vs Walkers.
  
• Improved War Okkam Rupu Platform (Howdah) visuals and gameplay.
  
• Slightly decreased War Okkam attack damage vs Walkers.
  
• Added new tier of Rupu Rok ammo with high damage. Don't get hit!
  
• Made Fortified Rupu Rokkers use new tier of Rupu Rok ammo.
  
• Fixed Rupu sometimes getting stuck inside meshes in camps.
  
• Reduced random deviation for Flint Orb ammo when shooting.
  
• Made fire range of Rupu Lobber the same as the camp aggro range.
  
• Fixed a bunch of outdated icons for new structures and items.
  
• Possibly fixed Ceramic Nails crafting (please test, as they do work for some, so we're at a loss wtf is happening).

A thing to try if Ceramic Nails still don't work for you is to try building a Lathe yourself, not use one built by someone else. Please let us know if that makes them work for you if the fix itself failed.

That's it for today! We'll continue iterating on the new content and keep an eye out for any changes needed for the old one. Your feedback and bug reports speed up this process by a lot, even if you just discuss them on Discord or Steam forums. We're always listening (that sounded creepy, but you get the point).