Hey ArkCoNauts!

Hope everyone's holidays were wonderful, and that you're all as excited as we are about the new year! As you may or may not know, depending on whether you watch the countdown on the main menu screen, the next huge update is drawing near! We're very excited about this one, and so we wanted to fill you in on a few things we're working on. The headline is TIER 3!! The biomes in Edge of Space are massive, and the first two tiers of content are still being fleshed out as we go. Up till now, the gear in game has been just barely strong enough to glimpse the desert biome below, but not venture into it yet. We felt it was high time to finally unveil the mysterious 3rd biome, and let players advance that low for the first time in the game's history. It's a huge undertaking to be sure, and the first iteration will feel slimmer than the first two tiers in terms of content. That being said, once the foundations for it are there, it becomes easy to cram content in and bring the area to life. Along with the new biome, will come the new weapons and armor to accompany it, letting players stretch further along the progression chain. Here are a couple of screens of some of the new gear that awaits:

http://i.imgur.com/Q6VFdi2.png

http://i.imgur.com/vS5lief.png

http://i.imgur.com/JKKHqNG.png

Along with all this awesomeness, we have good news and bad news. The bad news, there will be a wipe needed, due to the extensive changes to the world in this patch. The good news? As of this writing, it appears only worlds will be zapped by it, your characters look like they will survive this one. This means if you get your inventory expanded, you can stuff your most prized possessions into your inventory, and bring them with you into your brand new worlds. Should this change before patch day, we will most definitely update the community, but here's hoping our little ArkCoNauts get to live on!

On the Community side, I wanted to take a moment to thank the 160 awesome people that turned out for our day-after-Christmas live giveaway on IRC! It was a record breaking event for us in terms of attendance, and because of the awesome success, I'm happy to announce we'll be doing it again! Our next ArkCoNaut Appreciation Day (a.k.a. live giveaway event) will take place Friday, January 30th, in anticipation of the big patch. You can find our IRC channel here:

http://webchat.indieirc.net/?channels=EdgeofSpace

or connect with us via client at: irc.indieirc.net (http://irc.indieirc.net/) #Edgeofspace any time! We're always there to hang out, answer questions, do some gaming, and have a good time, so you can show your support for EoS and future live events by getting involved in the community. We don't bite, I promise, and Core has had all her vaccines! Stay awesome everyone, and we'll see you guys next time for ArkCo News!

Hey ArkCoNauts!

Hope everyone's holidays were wonderful, and that you're all as excited as we are about the new year! As you may or may not know, depending on whether you watch the countdown on the main menu screen, the next huge update is drawing near! We're very excited about this one, and so we wanted to fill you in on a few things we're working on. The headline is TIER 3!! The biomes in Edge of Space are massive, and the first two tiers of content are still being fleshed out as we go. Up till now, the gear in game has been just barely strong enough to glimpse the desert biome below, but not venture into it yet. We felt it was high time to finally unveil the mysterious 3rd biome, and let players advance that low for the first time in the game's history. It's a huge undertaking to be sure, and the first iteration will feel slimmer than the first two tiers in terms of content. That being said, once the foundations for it are there, it becomes easy to cram content in and bring the area to life. Along with the new biome, will come the new weapons and armor to accompany it, letting players stretch further along the progression chain. Here are a couple of screens of some of the new gear that awaits:

http://i.imgur.com/Q6VFdi2.png

http://i.imgur.com/vS5lief.png

http://i.imgur.com/JKKHqNG.png

Along with all this awesomeness, we have good news and bad news. The bad news, there will be a wipe needed, due to the extensive changes to the world in this patch. The good news? As of this writing, it appears only worlds will be zapped by it, your characters look like they will survive this one. This means if you get your inventory expanded, you can stuff your most prized possessions into your inventory, and bring them with you into your brand new worlds. Should this change before patch day, we will most definitely update the community, but here's hoping our little ArkCoNauts get to live on!

On the Community side, I wanted to take a moment to thank the 160 awesome people that turned out for our day-after-Christmas live giveaway on IRC! It was a record breaking event for us in terms of attendance, and because of the awesome success, I'm happy to announce we'll be doing it again! Our next ArkCoNaut Appreciation Day (a.k.a. live giveaway event) will take place Friday, January 30th, in anticipation of the big patch. You can find our IRC channel here:

http://webchat.indieirc.net/?channels=EdgeofSpace

or connect with us via client at: irc.indieirc.net (http://irc.indieirc.net/) #Edgeofspace any time! We're always there to hang out, answer questions, do some gaming, and have a good time, so you can show your support for EoS and future live events by getting involved in the community. We don't bite, I promise, and Core has had all her vaccines! Stay awesome everyone, and we'll see you guys next time for ArkCo News!

Hey ArkCoNauts! Who’s ready for the New Year? We are! 2014 has been amazing for Team Handyman, and we can’t wait to crank things up in 2015. This is our final patch of 2014, and with it come some much needed optimizations, which should help some of the performance issues players might have noticed hanging around.


*Special Bonus*
Christmas Event will remain in for the duration of January! After that the event will remain however it will be far more rare and only attainable in the arctic biome.

Fixes

• Fixed the display of the arctic armor on avatar screen and on avatar (Thanks for my pants!)
  
• Fixed icons for chitin items so they are no longer the same (All shapes and sizes!)
  
• Fixed an issue with cloning pod in respect to crafting raptors (no more diminishing returns!)

Changes and Additions

• Massive optimization to the rendering loop (ENHANCE!)
  
• Reduced memory usage in respect to sky rendering (It’s not supposed to be that big?)
  
• Added controls for “V-sync” and “Tile Detail Level” in the options menu (One Size can fit all)
  
• Improved performance of darkness rendering (Darker than Black)
  
• Improved performance of placeables in respect to rendering (Place as many as you want, really!)
  
• Improved CPU cost (Make it cheaper!)
  
• ReTuned storage chest from 12-20-28 capacity to 15-25-35 capacity (small/medium/large) with a small increase in required metal resources (remember proto roots are abundant and can be used as a metal resource)[BIGGER is BETTER!]

Hey ArkCoNauts! Who’s ready for the New Year? We are! 2014 has been amazing for Team Handyman, and we can’t wait to crank things up in 2015. This is our final patch of 2014, and with it come some much needed optimizations, which should help some of the performance issues players might have noticed hanging around.


*Special Bonus*
Christmas Event will remain in for the duration of January! After that the event will remain however it will be far more rare and only attainable in the arctic biome.

Fixes

• Fixed the display of the arctic armor on avatar screen and on avatar (Thanks for my pants!)
  
• Fixed icons for chitin items so they are no longer the same (All shapes and sizes!)
  
• Fixed an issue with cloning pod in respect to crafting raptors (no more diminishing returns!)

Changes and Additions

• Massive optimization to the rendering loop (ENHANCE!)
  
• Reduced memory usage in respect to sky rendering (It’s not supposed to be that big?)
  
• Added controls for “V-sync” and “Tile Detail Level” in the options menu (One Size can fit all)
  
• Improved performance of darkness rendering (Darker than Black)
  
• Improved performance of placeables in respect to rendering (Place as many as you want, really!)
  
• Improved CPU cost (Make it cheaper!)
  
• ReTuned storage chest from 12-20-28 capacity to 15-25-35 capacity (small/medium/large) with a small increase in required metal resources (remember proto roots are abundant and can be used as a metal resource)[BIGGER is BETTER!]

Happy Holidays, ArkCoNauts!

We hope you’re all on the good list this year, because you’re in for a treat from Handyman. Our Holiday event is here! During the event, look out for Santa, who will be on the loose bringing his own mayhem to the game. After the event, the Christmas Dungeon will remain in the game in a more limited fashion, appearing in the comet biome on a more infrequent basis. That’s right! Even if you fall victim to future wipes, you’ll still have a chance to get back all that lovely holiday loot!


New Content

Christmas items are now available
Christmas Dungeon is now available
Christmas Dungeon TIPS: Chocolate Coins are given at start and dropped by creatures, these are for upgrading defense towers.
Christmas Dungeon TIPS: Dungeon Nav Data drops from Lower Proto-Biome and Comet Biome


Fixes

Fixed an issue where arklights could not be seen by other players in dungeons in multiplayer
Fixed an issue where chitins for Speedy Raptor were not dropping


Changes and Additions

Nav Data now stacks to 21 instead of 7
Penguin and DJ Dubstep Penguin dungeons are now accessible
Added dialogue to explain failure to connect to a server, should now give reason for failure

Happy Holidays, ArkCoNauts!

We hope you’re all on the good list this year, because you’re in for a treat from Handyman. Our Holiday event is here! During the event, look out for Santa, who will be on the loose bringing his own mayhem to the game. After the event, the Christmas Dungeon will remain in the game in a more limited fashion, appearing in the comet biome on a more infrequent basis. That’s right! Even if you fall victim to future wipes, you’ll still have a chance to get back all that lovely holiday loot!


New Content

Christmas items are now available
Christmas Dungeon is now available
Christmas Dungeon TIPS: Chocolate Coins are given at start and dropped by creatures, these are for upgrading defense towers.
Christmas Dungeon TIPS: Dungeon Nav Data drops from Lower Proto-Biome and Comet Biome


Fixes

Fixed an issue where arklights could not be seen by other players in dungeons in multiplayer
Fixed an issue where chitins for Speedy Raptor were not dropping


Changes and Additions

Nav Data now stacks to 21 instead of 7
Penguin and DJ Dubstep Penguin dungeons are now accessible
Added dialogue to explain failure to connect to a server, should now give reason for failure

Happy Holidays, ArkCoNauts!

Our festive bug smashing continues, with another round of fixes and changes. We will be taking some time off for Christmas next week to spend with family and friends, before coming back to dig in to another big content patch. We wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season, from our family to yours! <3


Fixes

• Physics calculations have been move to a separate thread. This fixes several issues with jumping, jetpacks, and collision that could occur at low framerates.
  
• Fixed several issues which caused frame rate drops on some systems.
  
• Creatures killed in a single shot no longer withhold Science XP in revenge.
  
• ArkCo employees have been reminded of the difference between left and right and should be less confused about which direction to face when aiming up or down.
  
• Fixed an issue where Nautilus and a couple other creatures were bypassing shields (They have our frequency!)
  
• Fixed an issue where the cybernetics station art was spazzing out (Short circuit?)
  
• Fixed an issue in multiplayer where some removed tiles would not update for all players (G-g-g-g ghost tiles? Zoinks!)
  
• Brown mundo crabs will once again inflict damage if you make them mad (Silent treatment)
  
• Fixed an issue that caused various sync issues between clients when loading chunks or worlds. (Communication breakdown)
  
• Optimized various packets to improve transmission of creature and world updates.
  
• Max Science XP is now updated correctly on the progress bar. (Blinded by science)
  
• Fixed an issue where cryorod count would not update properly (My pod gets 40 rods to the hogshead and that’s the way I like it!)
  
• Fixed an issue that caused some canceled quests to re-appear in multiplayer (I can’t quit you)
  
• Laser Picks are no longer blocked by various non-terrain objects
  
• Equipping a jetpack in the appearance slot will now change the jetpack effect
  
• Creatures now see deployable turrets as valid targets (The guns… they’ve stopped)
  
• The Skiff Pad now show the time remaining in multiplayer (Finally, a countdown)
  
• The Codex and Enhancements hotkeys now open the correct tab of the Character Window (In your face, interface)
  
• Fixed an issue where certain Anomalies could spawn creatures inside of terrain (hipster anomalies spawn everything underground)
  
• Fixed an issue when placing objects such as the Command Center sent a warning message or pop-up window to everyone nearby instead of just the placer
  
• Fixed an issue where some of Omegratron's attacks did not update player health bars (I’m not touching you!)
  
• Omegatron's Orbs can no longer enter the safe zones (NSFW)
  
• The resource and category select menus in the Crafting Window now close when the the Crafting Window is closed
  
• Fixed an issue where players could craft the wrong items in tutorial preventing them from progressing (That’s how we learn!)

Additions and Changes

• Players can now increase maximum science xp cap via upgrade platforms (The more I learn the more I CAN learn)
  
• The Anomaly Circle effect has returned from the hidden layer to which it was accidentally banished
  
• Added a healing effect when vehicles are being repaired
  
• Restored the player NamePlates on MP servers (Hello, my name is Operative)
  
• Extra Kit slots can now be unlocked via upgrade platforms
  
• The Crafting Window is refreshed after learning a schematic. New schematics remain marked as new when closing and re-opening the Crafting Window. Selecting a schematic marks it as no longer new.
  
• The quest to kill a random number of creatures now gives bonus time for each creature killed (Keep what you kill)
  
• When merging stacks of items, the target stack will always stack up to the maximum allowed and any remainder will stay in the source stack
  
• Creatures and other players no longer block the placement of background tiles
  
• Science XP is now shown near the character's head instead of text in the lower left of the screen
  
• Added Codex entries for the Penguin dungeon, DJ Penguin, and Tech Upgrades (Reading is FUNdamental)
  
• The Outfitting Station now opens the Character Window when activated
  
• Placeable items that can only work in a certain biome now show that on their tooltip
  
• Base Mode now shows an outline around all tiles. The powered tiles are white and the unpowered tiles are dark grey.
  

Happy Holidays, ArkCoNauts!

Our festive bug smashing continues, with another round of fixes and changes. We will be taking some time off for Christmas next week to spend with family and friends, before coming back to dig in to another big content patch. We wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season, from our family to yours! <3


Fixes

• Physics calculations have been move to a separate thread. This fixes several issues with jumping, jetpacks, and collision that could occur at low framerates.
  
• Fixed several issues which caused frame rate drops on some systems.
  
• Creatures killed in a single shot no longer withhold Science XP in revenge.
  
• ArkCo employees have been reminded of the difference between left and right and should be less confused about which direction to face when aiming up or down.
  
• Fixed an issue where Nautilus and a couple other creatures were bypassing shields (They have our frequency!)
  
• Fixed an issue where the cybernetics station art was spazzing out (Short circuit?)
  
• Fixed an issue in multiplayer where some removed tiles would not update for all players (G-g-g-g ghost tiles? Zoinks!)
  
• Brown mundo crabs will once again inflict damage if you make them mad (Silent treatment)
  
• Fixed an issue that caused various sync issues between clients when loading chunks or worlds. (Communication breakdown)
  
• Optimized various packets to improve transmission of creature and world updates.
  
• Max Science XP is now updated correctly on the progress bar. (Blinded by science)
  
• Fixed an issue where cryorod count would not update properly (My pod gets 40 rods to the hogshead and that’s the way I like it!)
  
• Fixed an issue that caused some canceled quests to re-appear in multiplayer (I can’t quit you)
  
• Laser Picks are no longer blocked by various non-terrain objects
  
• Equipping a jetpack in the appearance slot will now change the jetpack effect
  
• Creatures now see deployable turrets as valid targets (The guns… they’ve stopped)
  
• The Skiff Pad now show the time remaining in multiplayer (Finally, a countdown)
  
• The Codex and Enhancements hotkeys now open the correct tab of the Character Window (In your face, interface)
  
• Fixed an issue where certain Anomalies could spawn creatures inside of terrain (hipster anomalies spawn everything underground)
  
• Fixed an issue when placing objects such as the Command Center sent a warning message or pop-up window to everyone nearby instead of just the placer
  
• Fixed an issue where some of Omegratron's attacks did not update player health bars (I’m not touching you!)
  
• Omegatron's Orbs can no longer enter the safe zones (NSFW)
  
• The resource and category select menus in the Crafting Window now close when the the Crafting Window is closed
  
• Fixed an issue where players could craft the wrong items in tutorial preventing them from progressing (That’s how we learn!)

Additions and Changes

• Players can now increase maximum science xp cap via upgrade platforms (The more I learn the more I CAN learn)
  
• The Anomaly Circle effect has returned from the hidden layer to which it was accidentally banished
  
• Added a healing effect when vehicles are being repaired
  
• Restored the player NamePlates on MP servers (Hello, my name is Operative)
  
• Extra Kit slots can now be unlocked via upgrade platforms
  
• The Crafting Window is refreshed after learning a schematic. New schematics remain marked as new when closing and re-opening the Crafting Window. Selecting a schematic marks it as no longer new.
  
• The quest to kill a random number of creatures now gives bonus time for each creature killed (Keep what you kill)
  
• When merging stacks of items, the target stack will always stack up to the maximum allowed and any remainder will stay in the source stack
  
• Creatures and other players no longer block the placement of background tiles
  
• Science XP is now shown near the character's head instead of text in the lower left of the screen
  
• Added Codex entries for the Penguin dungeon, DJ Penguin, and Tech Upgrades (Reading is FUNdamental)
  
• The Outfitting Station now opens the Character Window when activated
  
• Placeable items that can only work in a certain biome now show that on their tooltip
  
• Base Mode now shows an outline around all tiles. The powered tiles are white and the unpowered tiles are dark grey.
  

We hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving, and safe travels over the holiday weekend! We're getting back into the swing of things here at Handyman, and digging back into our huge to-do lists. Since we hadn't had a newsletter in a month, I felt it was high time we catch up on all the goings-on. November was a very busy month for us, with one of our biggest content updates yet being let loose on all of you.

Overall, we were very happy with the stability of the patch, there were relatively few major bugs to deal with; the more systems and features you bring in at once, the more potential it has to break, so it was definitely a victory to have it all work well together. We still have a lot of debugging and smoothing to do from the content patch, and are continuing to work on the bugs everyone has hunted down from there.

Last Saturday marked the return of vehicles to the game (crowd cheers!) now that the refueling system works again, as well as multiple bug fixes and more smoothing and balancing. We got the HUD updated as well, which we know people had been asking for. No more guessing how many cryorods you have left! Santa also left another gift for our wonderful players: faster mining across the board. The speed was bumped up on all picks by 80%, which has definitely brought the holiday cheer to Edge of Space!

While all of this is going on, we're also looking ahead to our next mega-patch, coming in 4 to 6 weeks or so. We're at the point now where content is going to be much more frequent, and this next big content patch will definitely be a fun one. The team will be gone at times during the upcoming holidays, but in between we'll be working on things and preparing for an action-packed New Year’s for Handyman.

On the community side, we're looking forward to a very special Christmas event this year. We can't give too many spoilers, but let's just say this will be the first of its kind for the Edge of Space community. If all goes well there will be plenty more like it to come. We'll have our usual giveaways and forum shenanigans, but we'll leave the main event itself under wraps here in the lab for now. The event will go live Sunday, December 21st, and run through Sunday, December 28th. Watch the forums and social sites for the news as the event draws near!

http://i.imgur.com/6gXcgwW.png

As always, thanks for reading, and we’ll see you next time for ArkCo News!

We hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving, and safe travels over the holiday weekend! We're getting back into the swing of things here at Handyman, and digging back into our huge to-do lists. Since we hadn't had a newsletter in a month, I felt it was high time we catch up on all the goings-on. November was a very busy month for us, with one of our biggest content updates yet being let loose on all of you.

Overall, we were very happy with the stability of the patch, there were relatively few major bugs to deal with; the more systems and features you bring in at once, the more potential it has to break, so it was definitely a victory to have it all work well together. We still have a lot of debugging and smoothing to do from the content patch, and are continuing to work on the bugs everyone has hunted down from there.

Last Saturday marked the return of vehicles to the game (crowd cheers!) now that the refueling system works again, as well as multiple bug fixes and more smoothing and balancing. We got the HUD updated as well, which we know people had been asking for. No more guessing how many cryorods you have left! Santa also left another gift for our wonderful players: faster mining across the board. The speed was bumped up on all picks by 80%, which has definitely brought the holiday cheer to Edge of Space!

While all of this is going on, we're also looking ahead to our next mega-patch, coming in 4 to 6 weeks or so. We're at the point now where content is going to be much more frequent, and this next big content patch will definitely be a fun one. The team will be gone at times during the upcoming holidays, but in between we'll be working on things and preparing for an action-packed New Year’s for Handyman.

On the community side, we're looking forward to a very special Christmas event this year. We can't give too many spoilers, but let's just say this will be the first of its kind for the Edge of Space community. If all goes well there will be plenty more like it to come. We'll have our usual giveaways and forum shenanigans, but we'll leave the main event itself under wraps here in the lab for now. The event will go live Sunday, December 21st, and run through Sunday, December 28th. Watch the forums and social sites for the news as the event draws near!

http://i.imgur.com/6gXcgwW.png

As always, thanks for reading, and we’ll see you next time for ArkCo News!