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Week Seventy Three brings Seed Packets for our recently introduced fruit and vegetables to the Orbital Workshop.

It’s also been one of our biggest weeks of work on the upcoming Galileo patch, as we’ve made substantial progress on all three key features: Fishing, Achievements and the Bestiary.

While smaller in terms of content, this week we’re giving you a sneak peek into fishing as we move closer to the launch of this much-anticipated feature.

Jump in and have a read.



Seed Packets
We’ve added seed packets for our recent fruit and vegetable additions to the Orbital Workshop. These include Avocado, Kumara, Strawberry & Rhubarb, so players can now access these without having to complete SMPL3 quests in Open World mode.

When used on the planet these provide 5 seeds each, so multiple packets can be a good idea for l... Read more

Week Seventy Two is here and brings a revamp of our bullet recipes and the introduction of our first explosive bullets.

Craftable at level 30, explosive bullets add a new variation for your firearms, with the new ‘Volatile Material’ resource introduced to create the recipe, and usable across rifles, pistols and shotguns.

We’ve also added ‘Ammo Casings’ to the bullet recipe requirements, giving players 5x more bullets per ingot invested.

Finally, we’ve deployed even more elements to our Fishing and Bestiary features in the upcoming Galileo, as we draw ever closer to its release.

Jump in and have a read.



Bullet Recipe Revamp
We’ve revamped our bullet recipes in lieu of our introduction of Explosive Bullets, to provide a more granular and realistic resource investment that decreases the cost-per-bullet overall.

... Read more

Week Seventy One is here and we’re introducing our Fruit Care Package, following on from last week’s vegetable-themed one.

This introduces Avocados and Strawberries, with seven recipes between them to craft across a range of benches. These can be earned through SMPL3 quests and come with their own unique buffs.

We also have moved further into the testing phases of Galileo, hooking up the Accolades and Achievements to Steam's backend in our development environment.

Jump in and have a read!



Avocado and Strawberries
Following our Vegetable Care Package, we’re introducing our Fruit Care Package which includes two new resources for you to find as rewards for SMPL3 quests: Avocados and Strawberries.

These come with seven new recipes that can be crafted at the Drying Rack, Cooking Bench, Potbelly Stove, and Biofuel Stove,... Read more

Week Seventy brings two new vegetables to Icarus, the Kumara and Rhubarb. These aren’t found organically growing on the surface but can be collected when completing SMPL3 quests in Open World.

We also give an update on Galileo, which is moving into its latter phases as we complete the production work and shift towards testing and refinement.

Jump in and have a read.



Kumara & Rhubarb
We’ve added two new resources to Icarus that players can plant, grow and cook with.

These are Kumara and Rhubarb, two new vegetables with their own perks for players when consumed.

These vegetables are only available by completing SMPL3 quests in Open World, and not found growing naturally on the map like other vegetables are. This limitation makes them highly valuable, and they come with seven new recipes across the Drying Rack, Fir... Read more

Week Sixty-Nine’s update brings seven new Stone Statues and a couple of new small Wooden and Bronze Statues to the decorations crafting options, perfect for decorating and personalizing your Open World and Outpost bases.

We also give an update on Galileo, with progress made on the Bestiary and Achievements as we move into the latter phases of their development.

Jump in and have a read.



Stone Statues Set
We’ve added seven large Stone Statues to the crafting menu in-game, along with a couple of new smaller Wooden and Bronze Statues which can be crafted at the Rustic Bench.

These statues are a part of our larger decorations and furnishing work, as we look to add more character and personality options for your bases.

We’re always open to suggestions for different decorations or furnishings that players might like ... Read more

Week Sixty-Eight’s update is here, and with it comes a batch of performance improvements that have been championed by our dedicated performance team, and tested by our community.

Improvements to Memory, Stutters & Garbage Collection, and Engine Performance are the core focuses, and you can read more detail about what these changes mean for performance, and how we went about identifying and improving them, below.

Jump in and have a read.



Performance Improvements
As mentioned last week, our dedicated performance team has been busy looking for areas in Icarus where we can find optimizations. If you want to read in detail about the 6 areas of focus for our team, you can do so here in our Week 59 update. To summarise, these are Engine Performance, Game Systems, Memory, Stutters & Garbage Collection, and Connection.

This week's... Read more

Week Sixty Seven focuses on providing a range of Mount improvements, tweaks, and buffs. These include changes to saddles, behaviors, and baseline stats to overcome some of the core issues that players have encountered.

We also give an update on the progress of Galileo and an insight into the ‘Bestiary’ feature. Finally, we talk about next week's update and what to expect.

Jump in and have a read.



Mount Improvements
This week we’re bringing a bunch of Mount improvements, based on feedback from the community and monitoring overall performance and usage.

• Saddles now include 'G' slots so radars, extractors, and other heavier items can be carried. Basic saddles will have one slot, saddle bags will have two slots, and carts will have five
  
• Mounts no longer take damage from thirst or hunger, mean...

Read more

Week Sixty Six introduces a new mission to Icarus, Ironclad. Tasked with deploying protective plating to three different locations in preparation for a research station deployment, your task will be fraught with risk and challenges.

We also give an update on our ‘Galileo’ project, and our progress so far on the fishing and bestiary features.

Jump in and have a read.



Mission: Ironclad
This week brings a new mission to Icarus, Ironclad. Your task is to deploy large metal plates in three different locations on the map in preparation for a research station deployment. Your briefing is as follows:

//OPERATOR: Sinotai
// MAP: Styx
// BIOME: The Great River
// BACKGROUND: Schematics for plating construction in space or on the surface have been developed
// MI... Read more

This week we’re sharing some of our plans for the future of Icarus plus adding several Quality of Life features that you, our player community, have suggested.

By sharing our development Roadmap for Icarus, you can see what features and new systems to expect over the next year and more in addition to our regular weekly updates.

This week we’ve also added several helpful tools such as a Search Bar for the Tech Tree, Pinnable Compass Marks and a Add to Stacks button.



This Week’s QoL Improvements
In this week’s update we have added several popular Quality of Life suggestions that you have submitted via our Feature Upvote tool.

• ...

Read more

Week Sixty Four introduces our newest mineable mineral - Salt. Found around the map on the sides of cliffs and mountains, Salt can be used to preserve food items twice as long.

This comes with a new bench, the Salt Station, where you can place any food item along with salt to give it a ‘Preserved’ buff.

We’re also introducing a Tier 4 ‘Deep Freeze', which preserves food while it is powered, and have kept improving dropship landing zones and dynamic quest locations.




Salt & Food Preservation
There is a new mineral to discover and mine on Icarus - Salt. Salt can be found in the wilderness in similar areas to Sulfur, Oxite and Silica.

Salt can be used in preservation, doubling the time it takes food items to spoil. This can be done on the new Salt Station crafted in Tier 2, and providing alternat... Read more

Week Sixty Three brings improvements to last week's new deployable, the Thumper, and some small QoL fixes to crop plots, dropships and more.

A hotfix addressing a mission blocker caused by changes to our voxels was pushed Monday, and we’ve followed that up with changes to map icons, audio, exploits and more.

We’re also seeking more feedback and examples of dropship respawning occurring in voxels, trees and other locations that prevent you from being able to move.

Jump in and have a read.



Thumper Fixes and Tweaks
We’ve focused this week on making some tweaks and changes to the new ore-regenerating Thumper device.

The first of these fixes was included in the hotfix we pushed Monday, which addressed the mission ‘Deep Vein: Extraction’ being blocked. Because of the change to how we ‘dest... Read more

Week Sixty Two introduces our largest deployable yet, the ore-regenerating Thumper.

The Thumper allows you to regenerate harvestable Ore deposits in its vicinity. Standing at 16 feet tall, the Thumper is a large and powerful item, and provides a lucrative payoff for those seeking more Ore for their endeavours.

Jump in and have a read.



Thumper
The ‘Thumper’ is a new deployable device we’re introducing to tackle the problem of resource scarcity, especially in Open World mode. This is the first of two items we’re adding, with this one focusing on Ore resources (but not Stone or Deep Ore Veins). In future, ways to regenerate trees are planned.

This is one of the largest deployables in the game so far, standing at over 16 feet tall, so it’s a sight to behold and truly earns its name. You can craft the Th... Read more

Week Sixty One focuses on correcting issues that arose from our Week Sixty update, something our community was vocal about and helped us to act on quickly.

Weather events and the system that operates them have been scaled back and improved. We haven’t scrapped the changes altogether, allowing us to keep the positive elements and strip out the ugly parts.

The irony isn’t lost on us that only hours after releasing this update, our home city of Auckland was hit by the worst storm in its history and promptly flooded.

Thankfully our team is OK and this week's update also includes a large performance optimization focusing on ‘ticking’ (described below). We expect this improvement to be more noticeable on lower-end PCs and large Open World bases.

Have a read, and stay dry team!



Weather Fixes
... Read more

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... Read more

Week Fifty Nine is here, and we’ve focused this update on multiple dedicated server and core game bugs and improvements that have been reported and ticketed over the New Year period.

The Dedicated Server search functionality has received an overhaul, with new ways to tag and sort your favourite servers, and faster load times with more details to make scanning results simpler and more efficient.

A large number of core game bugs were reported to us by our player base, and we’ve addressed the majority of them this week. Check out the long list below, with more in the patch notes.

Finally, we’ve gone into depth about our strategy for dealing with ongoing performance issues and the five key areas that build our approach.



Dedicated Server Fixes
We’re improving the Dedicated Server search results funct... Read more

This week we’re introducing a new mission to Styx, similar to DEEP VEIN and PAYDAY which guides players to explore the many exotic deposits across the map. REMNANT will provide multiple outcomes in a dynamic environment, perfect for new players or exotic farmers.

We’re also making a change to exotic extraction, providing a more balanced extraction experience across our three biomes, as requested by our community in Feature Upvote.

Enjoy!



New Mission - REMNANT: Extraction
This week, we’re bringing you a new mission, REMNANT: Extraction. Similar to the introductory missions DEEP VEIN and PAYDAY, REMNANT guides players to place a number of radars in various locations to find, extract and launch exotics into orbit.

REMNANT takes place on Styx however, which has a much higher saturation of exotic deposi... Read more

Week Fifty Seven is here, and it brings our newest equipable item, shields. The first iteration released this week is the wooden shield, a Tier 2 item that blocks up to 75% of damage when used to defend against enemy attacks.

The shield can be equipped in your off-hand and used with a melee weapon or tool, but be aware it will suffer durability decline when used, at the benefit of your health bar.



Shields
Shields have been added as an equipable off-hand item.

The first version, the Wooden Shield, is crafted at the Crafting Bench and costs 14 wood, 12 fibre, 4 leather and 2 iron ingot. These can either be held on their own or with any one-handed melee weapon such as a hunting knife.

You can block up to a 90° angle in front of you, reducing damage by up to 75% using the right click on your mouse. The... Read more

Week Fifty Six is here, bringing with it our newest accessory - Carts. Attach them to your buffalo mounts and take advantage of the 1000kg, 60-slot capacity for those long-haul expeditions.

Crafted at the Carpentry Bench, you can take advantage of them from Tier 3 and avoid the dreaded slow slog back home when over-encumbered with ore.



Carts
Carts are here. For all our cross-country explorers and busy gatherers, miners and hunters, you can now attach a wooden cart to your Buffalo Mount.

Carts can be crafted at the Carpentry Bench for 80 wood, 15 iron nails, 20 rope, 10 epoxy and 50 refined wood. They go into the Mounts ‘saddle’ slot and when used, render that mount unable to be ridden and will reduce the buffalo's speed slightly.

The carry improvement is immense, however, with a massive 1000kg ... Read more

Happy Week Fifty Five! This week we’re adding highly-requested inventory sorting, just in time for Christmas. You’ll be able to sort your inventories four different ways, with preset categories and orders to make it as easy as one click and go.

Happy organization everyone!



Inventory Sorting
Inventory sorting has been a popular request from our community, and while we’ve had some for many months we are expanding it, adding to the functionality and packaging it up for Christmas. You’ll be able to sort your inventory in four ways to organize your gear however best suits you.

Weight, Stack Amount and Name (Alphabetical) are pretty self-explanatory, and the fourth option Type uses the following categories in this order:

• Non-Food Consumables
  
• Weapons
  
• Armor...

Read more

This week, we’re changing the limits on the number of players who can join and play a session as a follow on from our decentralization update, allowing you to share your Icarus journey with more friends.

We’re also introducing our newest Tier 4 and Workshop item, the Dropship Beacon Grenade, which allows you to call your Dropship to wherever you are on the map at any time.

Finally, we’re making a range of fixes that were required since our Decentralisation update and introducing our ‘preferred partners' for our Dedicated Servers.



Dynamic Dropship Landing Zones
Since the launch of Icarus, prospects have been limited to eight unique players who could join across the whole existence of the session. With decentralization, this limitation is gone and we are introducing some new changes that expand not only the n... Read more