[2021] SEASON 3

: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page [url=https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/903950/announcements/detail/3031459393705298345]here[/url].

We’re excited to be kicking off Season 3 and releasing on Xbox exactly one year since we launched into Early Access! What up xbobs we’re apologizing in advance for if the pc players treat you like sh*t

A ton has happened since March 2020, and we can’t wait for you to see all the changes we’ve made to the game. Season 3 is going to be introducing some new and long-awaited content to the game, like a new map, flying Walker, and, finally, the Sandworm 😍



ABOUT XBOX
When it comes to the Xbox release, we've been working tirelessly alongside a team from Abstraction[abstraction.games] to bring you the same Last Oasis experience as on PC. From competitive controls to the general gameplay, our primary goal was to provide as balanced and optimized of a game between the two platforms as possible. No matter whether you're using a keyboard and mouse or playing with a controller from your couch, you will have equal chances and possibilities. And for those who would still prefer to experience the game exclusively with other Xbox players, there are many Xbox-only realms available for you to choose from.

SMALL REALMS - a note from chadz
With a year of development in Early Access behind us, we've received a lot of feedback, both positive and negative, about all the changes we've made during that period. Some new features were welcomed with a cheer, while others were less popular, and some solutions to issues turned out to work perfectly, while others only created more problems. Taking all of this knowledge into account, your continuous feedback, and our own experience with testing different approaches, we've decided to try something for Season 3 that we've never done before.

We've always imagined the world of Last Oasis to be a big continuous planet inhabited by every player from every possible region. A world where you, building a Walker on a map in a European region, can decide to visit a friend far away in Asia to play and interact with other players from all around the world. This approach was very unique and provided a novel way of playing together in a survival game.

Unfortunately, with time, we started noticing more and more shortcomings of this design and had to take a step back to see the big picture. Small clans and solo players were overrun by much larger clans even with severe gameplay punishments for such behavior. While trying to push the game in one direction or another, it always turned to alienate one of the player groups, no matter how well-thought-out the solution was.

For Season 3, instead of once again trying to find the middle ground between those types of players, we've decided to shake things up and go for a completely new radical approach altogether. We want to make it clear that we're not afraid to try new things during Early Access if it means having a better game in the long run, and there isn't a better time to try it out than the launch of Season 3.

With the start of the season, instead of a single realm accommodating all players from every region, the world will be split into a multitude of realms, each with its own region, size, and a clan cap. Before, every player was forced to coexist with everyone else, experiencing both good and bad consequences of it. Now, everyone has a choice of how they want to play and, more importantly, with whom.

If you're a solo player or play with just a handful of friends, you can easily choose a smaller solo realm or one with a small clan cap to play alongside others who prefer such playstyle. Larger clans will likely choose big realms and clan caps to fight against groups of similar sizes. This way, whatever your preference is, you can find a realm that will suit you. In the end, if all else fails and you find yourself enjoying your realm less over time, you can easily start a character anywhere else with no restrictions. Furthermore, as each realm only lasts a limited time, you can make unique choices and experience the game in a different way during every one of your playthroughs.

In addition to allowing for a more customized playstyle with the addition of Small Realms, we will now be able to balance the game much more gradually by considering the even playing field. As an example, some of the gameplay decisions made in the past like the strength of the Stone Bases or the balance of the siege weapons had to be adjusted to accommodate both small groups, solos, and large zergs playing together and, potentially, fighting each other. Now that each of those groups can play among other players with similar power levels, we can start balancing the game in a much more natural way.

We've been considering this solution for quite a while now, carefully designing and testing the system behind it. We're hoping that with Season 3 it will prove itself to be a much more enjoyable and customizable way of playing Last Oasis. We'll continue to collect feedback and adjust the system, possibly adding more unique aspects to different realms to further expand the personal choice of playstyle for every player.

MAP ROLLOUT
Similar to how maps and tiers were unlocked over time as new seasons began, they will be rolling out slowly for each of those small realms. Starting with Nomad's Cradle and Canyons, the process will continue through higher tiers to ensure an even playing field when it comes to leveling and progression. The first to appear after the initial launch will be the Ancient City, full of treasures and dangerous enemies, followed by more difficult oases and all new content to be experienced for the first time by old and new players alike!

SELF HOSTING WHEN???
With the change to Small Realms system, the long-awaited private server hosting is more relevant than ever. We're actively working on it and are fully committed to deliver a proper self-hosting functionality later this year, together with expanded server admin controls, various server settings to customize your experience, and a full support for admin commands.

SOMETHING TO KEEP IN MIND
We did want to take a moment to be candid, though. Throughout the last year, we’ve been hard at work on improving Last Oasis across the board. One area that got a lot of attention was our backend, with the mindset of making sure that we wouldn’t have a repeat of our EA launch.

Despite all that work and the change to small realms, there’s still a possibility that something could go wrong. It could be the same situation as EA launch, or it could be something we weren’t able to predict.

Our hope is that all that work will have paid off, and that release is smooth and new and returning players can start their journey into the sands.



GAMEPLAY -With the new realms structure in place, this also brings changes to the clan caps, to better adjust them to every player’s preferences. While there will be realms where the clan cap is very high, there will also be realms with extremely low clan caps (some realms even being solo player only), and realms with no clan cap whatsoever.
-With every realm having its own clan cap, all tiles in realms will now be uncapped by default.
-Improved budgeting for character animations when those characters are very close to the player. Player animations should now be much more readable even during situations when there are many characters on screen.
-Exoskeletons should now be affected by throwing nets.

STRUCTURES & BASES -Fixed an issue which allowed projectiles such as catapult boulders to be shot from inside completely covered bases.
-Added Defensive Towers back into the game, with a newly balanced recipe and several bug fixes.
-Further improvements to performance impact of Gunpods.

WALKERS & TRAVEL -Raptor Sky Walker has been added to the game. This Walker is the first of its kind created by Nomads. -It allows to soar in the sky like a leaf on the wind, utilizing torque for the mechanism which controls its wings.
-All Walker wings collisions have been updated. Grappling to them should now feel much more natural, as they will all be following the same movement as the wings do.
-Further improved Toboggan and Falco Walker movement.
-Walker level upgrading with Flots is now one level at a time in order to prevent issues where a player would not be able to carry all the required materials for an upgrade.
-Walker renaming functionality has been moved to the Walker inventory.
-Fixed Hornet and Spider Walkers sharing the same level upgrades in the Walker Crafting menu.
-Fixed Walker upgrade crafting not persisting while travelling between oases.
-Fixed some render distance issues with Dinghy Walker.

OASES & POINTS OF INTEREST -Many adjustments and improvements to Nomad’s Cradle, the starting oasis.
-Giant Worm: The Old One has finally awoken! Look out for Worm Sightings appearing on the World Map and travel there to fight this giant beast for valuable resources. To fully defeat a worm, it’s likely you’ll need a group of brave Nomads, but there are other resources you can obtain without having to actively fight it, which can be gathered even solo.
-New Hard difficulty oasis has been added to the game: Kali spires is a Hard+ oasis that focuses on vertical gameplay, introduces new PvE content including ranged enemies against both walkers and nomads, expands on hand-designed environments started with Ancient City with much greater detail and democratizes access to iron beyond the Asteroid Crater Event oases.

MOBS -Rupu Drudge: These Rupus will defend their homes at the Kali Spires, armed with stone slings, and varied melee weapons.
-Rupu Firebrand: Similar to the Drudge, but more powerful, these Rupus are armed with throwable Fire Bombs.
-Kali Spires Rupu Turret - These defenses were constructed and manned by the Rupus of the Spires in order to fight back against Nomads raiding their home in the skies.
-Vastly improved navigation and behavior of Killins.

SOUNDS -Fixed several sound related issues for the Lumbermill and other structures.

INTERFACE, VOICE & TEXT -Building, Crafting, and Equipment UI has been revamped. Although there have been several functionality and accessibility changes, the new interface should for the most part have the same features as before, but with an all-new look and feel, as well as several fixes to old bugs.
-VIVOX has been fully implemented as our new in-game voice comms.
-Updated realm view with new Realm Interface, including new information about specific clan caps per realm, and more.
-Moved functionality of renaming Walkers to the Walker inventory screen.
-Added 3D preview for equipment screen.
-Fixed anonymous tile names not working well with scout quests.
-Credits screen added to the Main Menu of the game.

FIXES & IMPROVEMENTS -Lots of fixes for client crashes.
-Large optimization pass on art assets.
-Reduced character stuttering and animation issues in situations where many players are present.
-Fixed sometimes not being able to jump after using chat.
-Alt clicking items while in Trading Station UI should no longer make them disappear temporarily from player inventory.
-Kite is being removed due to technical (performance related) issues.



We're bringing back Community Questions, and want to do some video Q&As in the future! Have a question for the devs? Join our Discord[discord.gg] and check out #announcements for more. We also have a {LINK REMOVED}Living FAQ with everything we've answered in the past!

Q: Can you talk about your thoughts on the current meta? Are you happy with it?
A: There is a lot that can be said about the meta. Some things like ramming Falcos, for example, are obviously broken and we're actively looking for solutions to rework this mechanic, while others like Scattershot balance are much more fragile when it comes to changing it. In other words, we always have to assess every aspect of the meta from multiple angles, not just a simple "quick to kill = bad", so the most obvious solution you might expect is not always the best for the overarching gameplay.

Considering we're still very much in the middle of Early Access, the meta is something we want to polish over time instead of jumping back and forth between buffing one thing and nerfing another. In the end, we'll probably never be perfectly happy with it, but we'll continue to work on it based on both your feedback and our own data until it's as fun for everyone as it can be.

Q: CLAN CAPS???
A: With the addition of the Small Realms system, you're now free to choose whichever clan cap suits your playstyle. If you're playing solo or with a small group of friends, restrictive clan caps would be perfect to experience the game alongside players of similar strength, while unlimited clan caps work for large clans who are looking for big territory wars.

Q: Will private server admins ever be able to spawn items?
A: Spawning items is on our list of features for server owners to be added with the rest of the server-hosting functionalities later this year.

Q: Is INI ever coming back?
A: Editing of the file itself won't be coming back, as it turned out to be very abusable with some of the settings, but we're still open for suggestions which settings you'd like to see officially included.

Q: How are you going to tackle the ongoing toxicity large groups display towards smaller groups and solos?
A: The Small Realms system was designed to tackle this issue as one of the priorities. With large groups playing on realms with large clan caps, smaller groups and solos can choose those realms that suit their playstyle more. In this case, either those with small clan caps or even solo realms.

Q: Would you add something like sandstorms or other meteorological problems to navigate through?
A: While there are already some weather effects that increase the difficulty like the eclipse or mild sandstorms lowering visibility, we'll definitely be exploring more menacing phenomenons that might affect parts of the gameplay in one way or another. While not exactly a type of weather, coming with Season 3, in addition to the giant iron asteroid there will be smaller ones falling on regular oases as well. You'll definitely want to see what treasures you can find in them, but being in proximity when it hits the ground will be a very bad idea.

Q: When will you start adding in PvE content?
A: Now! We've been working on a lot of PvE content for this new season and we can't wait for you to try it! Starting with the oasis filled with ancient cities in the sky that are now overrun by Rupus, but still hold many treasures and even small amounts of iron ore on the sides of the Spires. Rupus that managed to climb all the way to the cities built their own fortifications there, defending their strongholds with the help of Drudge and Firebrand Rupu warriors that use rock slings and fire bombs, while shooting at the enemies coming from the sky with giant wooden turrets. It will take skill and resources to explore the ruins of the cities and get out alive with loot.

And, of course, the star of Season 3 - the Giant Worm. Killing it will take either a lot of manpower or an extremely experienced Nomad, but the death of The Old One means the most valuable resource - the worm scales, is lost, as they have to be carefully ripped from a live worm first not to lose their abilities. In addition to that, the deserts inhabited by worms are rich in a unique type of a red Worm Sand that holds strange and mysterious properties, valuable to Nomads.

Q: Will you expand on melee combat mechanics?
A: New types of weapons and moves like dual wielding or dodges is something we'd love to experiment with down the line. In general, melee combat is still our passion, but at the same time it's the most difficult part of the game to play with, as it's so easy to break with even the slightest balance tweak. We can assure you that we're constantly thinking and discussing potential changes to it and will be working on both additions and improvements to melee combat as a whole.

Q: Why was there no marketing/promotion for Xbox release?
A: First of all, we wanted to be completely sure of our release date before we started any kind of promotions. We had to delay the original launch before and it hasn't been fun for anyone, obviously. This time we wanted to take additional time for testing and polishing the game, and only reveal it once we were happy with the results and had a specific date set for when it can be played by all of you. The ID@Xbox event turned out to line up perfectly with our own plans there, so we decided to use this opportunity to tell everybody about our launch once it was ready.

Q: Are you going to be wiping consistently?
A: With the introduction of the Small Realms system, each realm will have a specified time until it fully burns, meaning that wipes are now a part of the game cycle. We'd love to hear your opinions on this change once you experience it on your own though, as we're completely open to large changes to the system and in no way saying this is final.