Jun 17, 2022

Icarus Week Twenty-Eight Update | Outposts #1

ICARUS - Lil Shammgod

This week we start our process of refreshing Outposts, starting with adding new functionality and personalization along with the entire Olympus map now being playable as a huge 64sqkm Outpost.

Configurability in Outposts includes adjusting the difficulty, allowing you to customize your experience to suit your playstyle. With Olympus available as a full persistent map, you’ll have an abundance of resources at your disposal also. We’re excited to see how you take this new opportunity and create magic with it.

Outposts were not something we originally thought of providing, but early on based on community feedback during the beta, great ideas developed and we wanted to pursue them. However, it has been hard to find the time for that as there were foundational issues with the game that we wanted to change first. It is exciting for us to take our first look at what we can do with this area of the game, and are even more excited by what we can build on later.

Like with our performance and optimization patch a few weeks back, this is not the last for Outpost ideas. While outposts are the this update's focus, you will note in the changelog that our usual fixes and optimizations are flowing in each week as well.

Olympus Outpost

You can now explore Olympus without any restrictions, and return at your leisure to create your own hub on the surface of Icarus. The entire 64sqkm Olympus map will be a persistent, playable Outpost available to all players with this update.

Previously, this wasn’t possible due to the amount of data being saved and how this impacted performance. Recent updates and improvements to replication and performance have now allowed us to execute this confidently, but it’s worth noting that performance will still be impacted at the extremes of data generated. In simple terms, building thousands of buildings or extensions to your base will eventually degrade performance, but we’re confident that in the current state of the game this extremity is much more realistic and players will be able to create and build to their hearts' content.

If you wish to wipe the slate clean and start again, Olympus Outposts can be deleted the same way the smaller versions are, as these are saved to your PC rather than to the cloud.

Why is the full map outpost not only for those with the Supporters Edition?

We have wanted to provide more value for those who purchase the supporters edition for some time, however, we cannot do this at the expense of the larger community. We understand that is frustrating, but every development moment we have continues to be prioritized towards changes that benefit everyone. We do have some exciting ideas to help reward those supporting us with the supporters edition, but locking this kind of content behind that is not the way.

It is vital that we nurture the community as a whole well before we risk dividing it with content

So, we will over time look at ways to increase the value of the supporters edition. In the meantime, we do hope those who have it understand that we must prioritize content for everyone first, even if it hurts us in revenue.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1648531/Icarus_Supporters_Edition/

Configurable Outposts

Outposts will now also have the option to be customized to suit player's personal preferences. These ‘difficulties’ are similar to those on prospect missions and will allow you to customize the weather severity and aggressive wildlife spawns. Harder difficulty settings will provide more volatile weather conditions and more numerous, powerful foe to contend with. There is still a safer, easier option for players who prefer to focus on other systems without contending with other challenges.

The ‘Extreme’ option will also disable visual maps and locators, similar to how it behaves in prospects.

While exotics won’t be mineable in Outposts, all other voxels and interactive features will be. You can explore to your heart's content, craft all deployables and structures and venture into all biomes on Olympus to seek ingredients for whatever you need. While missions will not be available, you can still complete these on standard prospects to earn the valuable currency you’re after. We’re excited to see how you personalize your Outposts, and what these new possibilities will spark in your creativity.

Note: All Outposts show the same options, regardless of the biome specifics. For example the Arctic Biome will show an increase in Lion Spawn Percentage at higher difficulties, but this will not be applied due to the biome’s characteristics. There aren't any Lions in the Arctic.

Olympus Outpost Mission

We have unlocked the Olympus Outpost for all players in the Outposts screen.

There is an optional mission to complete too. The UDA has a final set of research for prospectors to complete before deeming Olympus suitable for permanent inhabitance. Your briefing is as follows:

NIGHTFALL: Survey

// OPERATOR: UDA
// BIOME: All
// BACKGROUND: Operator is expanding their research operations to encompass a greater area for development.
// MISSION: Complete a survey of the area and gather data on remaining apex predators to determine the viability of permanent bases in this region.
// TERMS: Flat fee. All resources and construction materials are the responsibility of the Contractor.

Other Improvements

We’ve made some major improvements this week which will have a large influence on the in-game experience which we wanted to note.
We’ve completed a major texture optimization pass. This should result in improved performance (especially if GPU was previously memory limited) and smaller game package size. There will be more to come in our next update.
The Thrown Spears/Knives Highlighting talent was previously breaking if looking at the object and then looking away. It now remains highlighted in that case, correctly.
Several missions were doing an invalid check of prospect difficulty, so design intent wasn’t being fully realized. These missions should now scale, as designed, with difficulty.
We’ve made some changes to the system which deals with 'player teleporting' if falling through the ground which should hopefully result in a better experience.

Next Week Preview

Next week we will be removing the “Return From Prospects” Button as it was only ever supposed to be a Beta feature and has prevented us from really leaning into the character attachments and loss we originally envisioned for Icarus.

Important things to know:

The ‘Return From Prospect Button’ will be removed
Another Button “Abandon Prospect” will be added
When this new button is clicked, if the prospect has insurance, the character will be safely returned to the station with the loadout they took with them gone. If the prospect does not have insurance the character will be abandoned along with all their gear. You will now longer be able to use this character and will have to delete them to remove them from your roster.

Alex Gomersall, In Memoriam

You will notice in the credits, an addition in memoriam of a colleague. A talented member of our team, Alex Gomersall, passed away a couple of weeks ago. Alex was a brilliant talent and even better friend, and his influence on Icarus and our team can not be understated. We hope you will get to enjoy his amazing work in-game for many years to come, in his memory.

Alex contributed a great deal to how incredible the game looks, his passionate eye for bringing the best in our materials and shaders really helped shape our terrains. Working with Alex on the Arctic snow was a real highlight, as he was as passionate as I was about really giving our arctic biomes the feeling of majesty that a cold biome brings. Having worked with Alex, we understand what a loss he is for us all and our thoughts are with the family and friends he leaves behind.

Changelog v1.2.3.97663

Adding new Difficulty Settings to Outposts so players can choose settings for weather and animal spawns
Adding Olympus-wide Outpost to the Outpost Screen
Can now modify key bindings from the title screen
Thrown spears/knives/etc are highlighted in world talents now correctly prevent the highlight being cleared when looking at the item and then looking away
Fixed various texture settings for consistency and compatibility with tooling
Optimized or deleted unused expensive (4k) texture assets.
Fix Stone Arrow having ‘None’ defined for Additional Stats which caused Komodo Bite modifier to appear erroneously in item tooltip. Add DT Validation to pick up on this in future
Fixed some blueprints using the wrong GetDifficulty method which was preventing correct difficulty scaling
Added a fix in to teleport players that fall through the map back to their last grounded location. Improved teleport fall-back case to pick nearest dropship/respawn pod spawn location instead of the assigned player dropship
Adding final sound for the egg nests. Adding removal of items from egg nest ‘gooey slosh sound’
Adding in the sound of ‘removing mission item from downed supply crate’ for delivery mission Styx
Implemented new icon for the Trained Hunter talent.
Added Wooden piranha statue to the project.
Added stone piranha statue to the project.
Added DCO_Candle_Holders_Wood_Carved
Added AMM_Pistol
Fixed Icebox inventory tag to allow all food, rather than only spoiled food.
Added difficulty setups for Outposts
Fix spelling of Scorpion in Stats description
Assigned SpawnRate types for Crocodile, Komodo
Separate ‘Hard Creature Stats’ from ‘Hard Creature Spawn Rates’ for better control
Added bounds mask in Generic folder
Small adjustment to gloopy egg sound based on mission play. Also adjusted positive affirmation delays for the mission
Small adjustment to the remove the flesh tear sound from egg sack removal
Improve AssetInfo texture checking methods.
Fix filenames on Pine02 burnt textures
Fix filenames on various textures
Making carry radar sound more subtle. Slightly less body to the sound and less invasive when running with a radar for a long distance
Updated the LOD Groups and LODs on certain Static Meshes
Updated physical material for the stone elephant statue.
Updated wooden deer statue textures.
Updated physical material on stone deer statue.
DCO_StatueBuffalo_Wood mesh, material and textures
Updated the DM_WallShelf_Wood assets as the texture update was look for an auto generated texture in Engine
Updating DMs an Mats for DCO_Carved wood Bookshelf and Desk Lamp
LOD adjustments for Desk Lamp and Bookshelf
Scorpion Boss tweaks to VFX biome switch, added extra biome scripts for Niagara systems
Fixed issue with repair hammer not playing hit sound on the Wood Hedgehog, due to missing physical material
Added new copies of existing Prospect Image textures to new folder with themed naming schemes for grouping
Added new Prospect Images textures
Changes to bespoke cave entrances in Blue and Green quad Styx.
Updated mission step in Husk: Extermination mission to say Textiles Bench instead of Armor Bench
Removed ore overlap in large G3 cave Blended cliff with landscape in D5 on Red Quad, Styx
Added Chamois transition, carcass, fur and textures
Added descriptions to the workshop vaccine modifiers.
Initial work overhauling audio quad delay system (WIP)
Moves quad delay to a dedicated PlayerReflectionAudioComponent
Can be turned on for dev testing by ticking a box in BP_PlayerEnvironmentalAudioComponent which will instantiate the new component and bypass the old system
Existing outposts now show the right difficulty level - or show Easy if they were made before outpost difficulty was added
Added Reward Display under Talent_Prospect.
Point Prospects to new images and minor DT fixes
Ordered FactionMissions DT to match ProspectList DT for easier maintenance/comparisons
Deleted Hard/Hardcore prospects no longer used since Difficulty refactor
Changed system to not validate image resolution if no image is specified
The Olympus wide outpost now points to the correct terrain and players can now launch the outpost successfully
Adjusted Reward Display color and size
Updated the LOD groups and LODs on certain Static Meshes
Fixed Compile error on UMG_ProspectRewardDisplay
Updated UMG_CreditsPage
Fixed WorldStatsSubsystem trying to add to the virtual Buffalo and Boar spawn rate stats instead of base stats. This fixes issue where BoarSpawnRate and BuffaloSpawnRate stats weren't being applied correctly
Added stats to control spawn rates of crocodiles, komodos, and zebra
Fixed sorting of ProspectList and FactionMissions DTs
Fixed missing meta data info in missions
Removed hard references to images in UMGs
Pointed FactionMissions to new image files
Deleted old image files
Fixed issue where the UI and Selected Outpost Difficulty could be out of sync and be displaying the incorrect difficulty and stats
Checked that teleports players who fall out of the map now only considers players falling if their Z velocity is negative, instead of solely relying on a Falling MovementMode
Fixed a few incorrect subtitles and typos on various mission voiceovers
Adding base mission flow for Olympus Outpost unlock mission and relevant quest markers in D_QuestQueries data table, added in mission item BPs and Central Scanner Device BP which at the moment is a reskinned crash ship to retain base logic
Added Quest items, Crystal and Battery Items static, meshable and itemable setups for use in Olympus Outpost unlock mission
Added Talent for new Mission, Adding Character Flags for new Mission to unlock the Olympus wide outpost, Adding New UI to Outpost Selection, to show locked status
Added some collision volumes beneath ground in underwater caves to ensure the new out-of-bounds teleporting works as expected in those areas of the map
Added New UI of New Omni_Olympus Mission
Added Inventory tag queries and slot setup
Riverbanks/Cliff Underwater Assets Pass on Outpost 006, Forest Outpost 3
Landscape painting Decal placement on Outpost 006, Forest Outpost 3
Landscape Sculpting, Cliff Placement And Custom Cave Work, Outpost 008
Added Scorpion pack static mesh
Decal pass, foliage painting and lake/river edge spline points polish, Desert Outpost 007
Added foliage, PFS_Resources and hand painted resources, polished decals and cliff blending, in Desert Outpost, 007
Removed SM_ROCK_DC_LRG_10 from Outpost 007
Foliage and resources pass, Nav Modifier Volumes placed in the persistent level and polished decals around cliffs, Desert Outpost 007
Added Dropship spawning points, Ore deposits, polished landscape blending with cliffs and decals, painted voxels and added details to foliage, Desert Outpost 007
Checked all impassable collisions and fixed landscape blending with canyons, decal polish pass, and built underground cave, Desert Outpost 007
Delete unused Faction Expedition Blocker mesh
Fix dresser DM material warning