Hello Nomads,

We've just released the 1.0.6.3 update to the public branch. There's a fix for lags when big container structures are opened and some winch tweaks.

Here is the full list of changes:

From 1.0.6.2:

• optimization of container (inventory) view - asynchronous loading of pre-collapsed containers, faster items rendering, added "take it all" button for all connected containers
  
• added motor locking and keybinding to Winch
  
• rearranged death screen, added "load game" button

From 1.0.6.3:

• fixed deleting of Winch/Shackle in Creative mode
  
• modified physics of connection ("rope")
  
• do not break connection caused by same grid as corresponding Winch or Shackle is on
  
• fix bug that occurred when splitting grid containing winch or shackle
  
• allow connecting winch & shackle on the same grid
  
  
• added debug commands for achievements
  
• fixed achievements that requied block cutting
  
  
• fix not rendered character head inside
  
• fix lens flare effect rendered inside Stasis Chamber

Hello Nomads,

We've just released a new update of the game. We continue to improve the Winch experience, fixed some achievement issues and added a debug tool for them.


Speaking about Winch, upon fixing minor bugs we've looked at often mentioned issue with ripping of the rope. You might not know that internally, the "rope" is a solid joint, and it cannot bend in reaction to external contacts. Breaking rope on contact helps to hide its unrealistic nature. But your feedback made us uncertain if the breaking is a nice, challenging feature or just an annoying bug and you would rather prefer having sci-fi matter permeating rope working at any condition.

As a compromise, we've modified the rope to not rip on contact with the grid on which the appropriate winch or shackle is on. This should fix most problems, like breaking the rope by oscillating weight itself, while keeping some challenge like cutting the rope by incautious movement in terrain or collisions with other creations. Let us know in comments how do you like it now.


We have also multiple reports of players not gaining some achievements. We've found that achievements requiring cutting blocks did not work. It's probably a consequence of some code changes introduced with some ancient update. We've fixed this. Also some of you might have achievements that were acquired while being offline and now is missing in the data on Steam servers.

To address this kind of issues we've added a simple tool for debugging achievements. In game, you can type command "achievements" in console (that will show you after pressing Shift+F1). It will show you which achievements you've already acquired. It will also try to re-send it to Steam API and check the state of the Achievement on the server. For other achievements you can see current raw values to watch how it progresses.


Here is the full list of changes:

• Winch bugfixing
  - fixed deleting of Winch/Shackle in Creative mode - modified physics of connection ("rope") - do not break connection caused by same grid as corresponding Winch or Shackle is on - fix bug that occurred when splitting grid containing winch or shackle - allow connecting winch & shackle on the same grid
• Achievements bugfixing
  - added debug commands for achievements - fixed achievements that requied block cutting
• fix not rendered character head inside
  
• fix lens flare effect rendered inside Stasis Chamber

Hello Nomads,

Welcome in the 2020. We've just released an Experimental update bringing some optimizations and tweaks inspired by your feedback.

It is possible to finish the game without the need of complex container structures but we know that it's one thing that you really enjoy. Slow UI response in this situation was real pain and we've found a solution to this. Only the main container (the one you point at when opening the Inventory dialog) will be visible at first, others will load later asynchronously after displaying the window and its contents will be rendered only if you click on "+" button. This together with some other rendering optimizations made the window pop up nearly instant. We hope you'll love it.

Second feature was also long required. It's a modification of Winch that allow you to lock it in place and also manipulate the load height manually by assigning it a key in terminal. Keybinding is similar as with Hinge and Rotor.

Last tiny improvement is the Load button in death screen. We know that some of you prefer loading the game instead of respawn, so you can load your game directly after dying instead of going through the main menu.

Here is the list of changes to sum it up:

• optimization of container (inventory) view - asynchronous loading of pre-collapsed containers, faster items rendering, added "take it all" button for all connected containers
  
• added motor locking and keybinding to Winch
  
• rearranged death screen, added "load game" button

Hello Nomads,

We've just released the 1.0.6.1 version to the public branch, so everyone can now use our new Tech Tree and improved Creative mode.

Here is recap of all changes:

1.0.6.0:

• New features - Blocks
  
  • added new blocks - armor and glass pieces
    
  • rearranged all blocks into more cateogories, according to their intended usage (bases, vehicles, cargo,...)
    
  • added a Tech Tree view (switch button in top right corner in the Block Catalog) - displays all in-game blocks, even locked ones with the lock reason (ie. by quest etc.)
  
  
• New features - Creative
  
  • added welding & cutting of blocks into the Creative Mode - with Multitool you can create "unfinished" states of blocks, with a block equipped, you delete blocks by one click (as you are used to)
    
  • possible to use other tools - Block Mover, Weapon, Scanner - you need to set them to some key in keybinding in options, as there are no inventory in Creative
  
  
• New features - Building
  
  • added keyboard modifier for building "in the air" - it's now possible to build ungrounded blocks
    
  • faster block coloring (mainly in Creative)
  
  
• Bugfixes
  
  • temporary switch from 1st person to 3rd person close-up if camera is behind the wall - to prevent looking "through the wall"
    
  • fixed colliders on Hinge joints - reduced unnecessary vibrations in extreme positions
    
  • fixed graphical glitch with weather - roofing does not influence fog appearance anymore
    
  • fixed some overflows in HDR post-processing - hopefully eliminated the "black ink smearing" bug
    
  • fixed blocked Quests functionality (in case player exited the Drop Pod too early)
    
  • tutorial: removed direct block equip of a block without using Hotbar (a little advanced feature for newcomers, could lead to deadlock in tutorial)
    
  • tutorial: removed altimeter from cockpit UI

1.0.6.1

• added colorization masks to small glass blocks and top parts of cockpits
  
• fixed saving of block weld state in creative
  
• Tutorial: lowered distance limit for dynamic light shadows (performance fix)
  
• Tutorial: fixed bug with crouch (tutorial was impossible to finish sometimes)
  
• Block Catalog: changed default filter to "ALL" and added scrolling up on open
  
• Tools/Weapon: fixed switching to wrong tool by mapped keys
  
• Block Mover: fixed graphic glitch (mainly after starting/loading the game)
  
• Thermoregulator: fixed non-working state if loaded game in cockpit
  
• Bug Reporter: fixed not sending logfiles (changed paths for new Unity log file locations), also added sending of previous log file
  
• Options: added setting to disable the "teporary 3rd person"

Hello Nomads,

We've just released a bugfix update 1.0.6.1 into the Experimental branch.

List of changes and bugfixes:

• added colorization masks to small glass blocks and top parts of cockpits
  
• fixed saving of block weld state in creative
  
• Tutorial: lowered distance limit for dynamic light shadows (performance fix)
  
• Tutorial: fixed bug with crouch (tutorial was impossible to finish sometimes)
  
• Block Catalog: changed default filter to "ALL" and added scrolling up on open
  
• Tools/Weapon: fixed switching to wrong tool by mapped keys
  
• Block Mover: fixed graphic glitch (mainly after starting/loading the game)
  
• Thermoregulator: fixed non-working state if loaded game in cockpit
  
• Bug Reporter: fixed not sending logfiles (changed paths for new Unity log file locations), also added sending of previous log file
  
• Options: added setting to disable the "teporary 3rd person"

Hello Nomads,

You can now check-out the newly prepared features in the Experimental branch.

We've rearranged blocks into new categories, added some new blocks and a new view for the Tech Tree. There are also some changes in Creative Mode to allow building "unfinished" blocks and use other tools.

Here is the full list of changes in 1.0.6.0:

• New features - Blocks
  
  • added new blocks - armor and glass pieces
    
  • rearranged all blocks into more cateogories, according to their intended usage (bases, vehicles, cargo,...)
    
  • added a Tech Tree view (switch button in top right corner in the Block Catalog) - displays all in-game blocks, even locked ones with the lock reason (ie. by quest etc.)
  
  
• New features - Creative
  
  • added welding & cutting of blocks into the Creative Mode - with Multitool you can create "unfinished" states of blocks, with a block equipped, you delete blocks by one click (as you are used to)
    
  • possible to use other tools - Block Mover, Weapon, Scanner - you need to set them to some key in keybinding in options, as there are no inventory in Creative
  
  
• New features - Building
  
  • added keyboard modifier for building "in the air" - it's now possible to build ungrounded blocks
    
  • faster block coloring (mainly in Creative)
  
  
• Bugfixes
  
  • temporary switch from 1st person to 3rd person close-up if camera is behind the wall - to prevent looking "through the wall"
    
  • fixed colliders on Hinge joints - reduced unnecessary vibrations in extreme positions
    
  • fixed graphical glitch with weather - roofing does not influence fog appearance anymore
    
  • fixed some overflows in HDR post-processing - hopefully eliminated the "black ink smearing" bug
    
  • fixed blocked Quests functionality (in case player exited the Drop Pod too early)
    
  • tutorial: removed direct block equip of a block without using Hotbar (a little advanced feature for newcomers, could lead to deadlock in tutorial)
    
  • tutorial: removed altimeter from cockpit UI

Hello Nomads,

The Steam Autumn Sale is here and besides saving some money on purchases you have a golden opportunity to nominate your favorite games for the Steam Awards.

We would really appreciate if you give Planet Nomads your vote for nomination in any category. However, there is a really big competition in each, and we know that the change to be one of the nominees is very low, so we don't want to talk you into anything. We would probably never know how many votes you gave us.

Anyway, if you happen to nominate Planet Nomads in any category, please make sure you also review or update your review of the game after nominating. A single review could warm our hearts more than a single vote for nomination. And what more, you can get a badge and XP's to your account for reviewing a game you've voted for. Of course, you can write a review even without voting for nomination ;).

Hello Nomads,

We've just released the 1.0.5.6 version from the Experimental branch to public.

Here is the full list of changes:

• realtime lights - disabling changed to gradual dimming with distance, the actual light distance same as shadow distance settings
  
• improved switching between 2D/3D trees
  
• fixed flashing of 2D trees on chunk load
  
• fixed appearance of some 2D trees (wrong texture - color)
  
• soft circular blend of 3D grass
  
• removed Map rotation to first POI on initialization (map open or filter change)
  
• fixed "escape vehicle where entered" functionality

Hello Nomads,

A new update is out, bringing some more or less cosmetic changes.

It's hard to see some bugs that are long time in game. We are looking on it 8 hours a day and cannot see it. Thanks to a discussion with ymrich, we've worked a little bit on 2D/3D trees switching and also dynamic lights flashing according to distance or grass tufts dis/appearing less visibly.

Here is the full list of changes:

• realtime lights - disabling changed to gradual dimming with distance, the actual light distance same as shadow distance settings
  
• improved switching between 2D/3D trees
  
• fixed flashing of 2D trees on chunk load
  
• fixed appearance of some 2D trees (wrong texture - color)
  
• soft circular blend of 3D grass
  
• removed Map rotation to first POI on initialization (map open or filter change)
  
• fixed "escape vehicle where entered" functionality

Hello Nomads,

We've just released the 1.0.5.5 from the Experimental into the main game branch.

Here is the list of changes since last stable release:

1.0.5.5

• added secondary SandyEngine binary build for Linux (newer one for better performance, older one for compatibility)

1.0.5.4

• removed no-longer-working 3rd party UI library (fixed blueprint creation window freeze)
  
• fixed error from zip library
  
• removed shadows dithering (dot patterns in shadows caused by transparent windows)
  
• bigger sun lightmap texture on ultra settings (better shadow resolution)

1.0.5.3

• updated engine to Unity 2019.2.3f1
  
• fixed map freeze on wrong POIs