Hi everyone,

A hotfix for version 0.14 (0.14.H1) is now live with a fix for random freezes/player getting stuck/raft moving without player during certain zone changes. They're all related to the one problem which slipped through and we didn't pick this one up in development or external testing. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Stay Alive!
:: Beam Team
--

- Fixed causes of various bugs caused due to a particular scenario when loading zones.

Hi everyone,

A hotfix for version 0.14 (0.14.H1) is now live with a fix for random freezes/player getting stuck/raft moving without player during certain zone changes. They're all related to the one problem which slipped through and we didn't pick this one up in development or external testing. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Stay Alive!
:: Beam Team
--

- Fixed causes of various bugs caused due to a particular scenario when loading zones.

Hey everyone,



This update introduces the new Fire Lighting and Skinning systems! The processes of lighting fires and obtaining edible meat from animals has been broken down into two new mechanics. To start a fire, you now need to gather wood to craft Kindling. When you have Kindling equipped, you can use it on a fire to begin using a basic wooden hand drill to light your tinder. After a number of continuous and successful attempts you will have lit your fire.

To obtain edible meat all animals now need to be skinned. Individual animals can no longer be cooked or smoked without skinning them for meat first. To skin an animal you will need to craft a Knife. When you have your Knife equipped, you can use it to interact with a dead animal to ‘skin’ them, gathering meat. Different animals have different sizes and amounts of meats you can gather from them. All animals are now tied into this new system: fish, crabs, birds, boar, snakes, etc. These new systems will be tied into your skills in the future things to affect things like success rates and availability.

The paddling animation is also back in this update. As we’ve mentioned before, the paddle is no longer a unique item that you carry around, but is part of operating the Life Raft vehicle. The paddle will equip when you operate your Life Raft.

Weather has also been restored. There’s no new work on the weather as yet, but it is back and functioning which should help with your water situation!

There's been some smaller changes behind the scenes in an effort to track down/alleviate some users problems with picking up interactable items like buckets. Please let us know if you're still experiencing problems.

It’s worth mentioning that this update is a little smaller this week as we took a week off for personal time to refresh and regroup. We’re also working on a new roadmap so we’ll keep you posted!

Have fun! :)

Stay Alive!
Beam Team
--

- Fixed bright white screen flash at certain camera angles.
- Fixed items not un-highlighting under some scenarios.
- Fixed single coconut remaining when chopping down palms.
- Fixed being able to stab multiple animals onto spear.

- Added support for item specific interactions, knife skinning, fire lighting materials, etc.
- Restored Paddle animations.
- Restored Weather.
- Reduced Grass popping.
- Reverted Torch back to an item that needs to be equipped.
- Renamed Water Collector and Water Still to Water Distiller and Solar Still.

- Added new Skinning system!
To skin an animal you must have a knife equipped. You can then use the Knife on a dead animal to skin it. In the future, skinning will be tied into your skills. If you have the required skinning skills, you will succeed and be rewarded with meat and other items. If you don’t have the skills required, you will fail. Repeatedly attempting and failing to skin an animal will result in you destroying the animal, leaving you with useless scraps. You will unlock the ability to skin larger animals as your skinning skills increase.

- Added new Fire Lighting system!
Camp fires now take a bit of effort to light. You will need to craft the new Kindling item. When you have Kindling equipped, you can use it on a Camp Fire to attempt to start a fire. Starting a fire takes a number of attempts and has a failure rate which will later be tied into your fire lighting skills. To successfully light a fire you must repeatedly use the hand drill without any failures. Camp Fires can be extinguished by interacting with them with no items in your hand.

- Added new Meat item!
- Added new Kindling crafting item!
- Added new Snake ragdoll!

- Changed Game Launcher executable’s .NET framework to 2.0 for better compatibility.

Hey everyone,



This update introduces the new Fire Lighting and Skinning systems! The processes of lighting fires and obtaining edible meat from animals has been broken down into two new mechanics. To start a fire, you now need to gather wood to craft Kindling. When you have Kindling equipped, you can use it on a fire to begin using a basic wooden hand drill to light your tinder. After a number of continuous and successful attempts you will have lit your fire.

To obtain edible meat all animals now need to be skinned. Individual animals can no longer be cooked or smoked without skinning them for meat first. To skin an animal you will need to craft a Knife. When you have your Knife equipped, you can use it to interact with a dead animal to ‘skin’ them, gathering meat. Different animals have different sizes and amounts of meats you can gather from them. All animals are now tied into this new system: fish, crabs, birds, boar, snakes, etc. These new systems will be tied into your skills in the future things to affect things like success rates and availability.

The paddling animation is also back in this update. As we’ve mentioned before, the paddle is no longer a unique item that you carry around, but is part of operating the Life Raft vehicle. The paddle will equip when you operate your Life Raft.

Weather has also been restored. There’s no new work on the weather as yet, but it is back and functioning which should help with your water situation!

There's been some smaller changes behind the scenes in an effort to track down/alleviate some users problems with picking up interactable items like buckets. Please let us know if you're still experiencing problems.

It’s worth mentioning that this update is a little smaller this week as we took a week off for personal time to refresh and regroup. We’re also working on a new roadmap so we’ll keep you posted!

Have fun! :)

Stay Alive!
Beam Team
--

- Fixed bright white screen flash at certain camera angles.
- Fixed items not un-highlighting under some scenarios.
- Fixed single coconut remaining when chopping down palms.
- Fixed being able to stab multiple animals onto spear.

- Added support for item specific interactions, knife skinning, fire lighting materials, etc.
- Restored Paddle animations.
- Restored Weather.
- Reduced Grass popping.
- Reverted Torch back to an item that needs to be equipped.
- Renamed Water Collector and Water Still to Water Distiller and Solar Still.

- Added new Skinning system!
To skin an animal you must have a knife equipped. You can then use the Knife on a dead animal to skin it. In the future, skinning will be tied into your skills. If you have the required skinning skills, you will succeed and be rewarded with meat and other items. If you don’t have the skills required, you will fail. Repeatedly attempting and failing to skin an animal will result in you destroying the animal, leaving you with useless scraps. You will unlock the ability to skin larger animals as your skinning skills increase.

- Added new Fire Lighting system!
Camp fires now take a bit of effort to light. You will need to craft the new Kindling item. When you have Kindling equipped, you can use it on a Camp Fire to attempt to start a fire. Starting a fire takes a number of attempts and has a failure rate which will later be tied into your fire lighting skills. To successfully light a fire you must repeatedly use the hand drill without any failures. Camp Fires can be extinguished by interacting with them with no items in your hand.

- Added new Meat item!
- Added new Kindling crafting item!
- Added new Snake ragdoll!

- Changed Game Launcher executable’s .NET framework to 2.0 for better compatibility.

Hi everyone,

A hotfix for version 0.13 (0.13.H1) is now live with a few fixes.

Stay Alive!
:: Beam Team
--

- Added key binding for “Free Hands” in input options.
- Added checks to disable reflection probes under Laptop and Low quality settings.

- Fixed footsteps sounds.
- Fixed dragging objects not unlocking menu after dragged.
- Fixed being able to pick up multiple connected palm logs.
- Fixed being able to pick up boars and snakes.
- Fixed missing bucket animation.
- Fixed missing container loot item.
- Fixed palm tree chopping locking up interacting and menus.
- Fixed not being able to escape from map editor menus after applying options.

Hi everyone,

A hotfix for version 0.13 (0.13.H1) is now live with a few fixes.

Stay Alive!
:: Beam Team
--

- Added key binding for “Free Hands” in input options.
- Added checks to disable reflection probes under Laptop and Low quality settings.

- Fixed footsteps sounds.
- Fixed dragging objects not unlocking menu after dragged.
- Fixed being able to pick up multiple connected palm logs.
- Fixed being able to pick up boars and snakes.
- Fixed missing bucket animation.
- Fixed missing container loot item.
- Fixed palm tree chopping locking up interacting and menus.
- Fixed not being able to escape from map editor menus after applying options.

Hey everyone,


You can find Stranded Deep's local files by dong the following:

1. Right click on Stranded Deep in your Steam library and select "Properties" from the drop down menu.
   
2. Navigate to the "Local Files" tab and select "Browse Local Files"
   
3. You will see two folders, "Stranded_Deep_Data" and "Stranded_Deep_x64/86_Data". Stranded_Deep_Data is the new folder.
   
4. Inside those folders will be a "Data" folder. This folder needs to be copied from the old "Stranded_Deep_x64/86_Data" folder into to the new "Stranded_Deep_Data" folder.

That should get you up and running again. We try to make sure that these types of necessary changes that require you to get your hands dirty rarely happen, so we apologise for the inconvenience!

--
Stay Alive!
Beam Team

Hey everyone,


You can find Stranded Deep's local files by dong the following:

1. Right click on Stranded Deep in your Steam library and select "Properties" from the drop down menu.
   
2. Navigate to the "Local Files" tab and select "Browse Local Files"
   
3. You will see two folders, "Stranded_Deep_Data" and "Stranded_Deep_x64/86_Data". Stranded_Deep_Data is the new folder.
   
4. Inside those folders will be a "Data" folder. This folder needs to be copied from the old "Stranded_Deep_x64/86_Data" folder into to the new "Stranded_Deep_Data" folder.

That should get you up and running again. We try to make sure that these types of necessary changes that require you to get your hands dirty rarely happen, so we apologise for the inconvenience!

--
Stay Alive!
Beam Team

Hey everyone,


This update introduces new Bows and Arrows, Throwable Spears, Boars, Snakes and more! There’s a new game launcher, custom deferred translucency, new grass models, new terrain textures and new foliage items.

Animals can now be hunted with the new Bow and Arrows and Throwable Spears! You can hunt the existing and new animals on your island by charging and firing the new bow and spear. Larger animals will take multiple hits from projectiles to take down, whereas smaller animals can be picked off with less. Be careful as throwing or firing the new projectiles at solid materials like steel or rock will break the projectile! Killed animals won’t do anything for now, but hold onto them as a new skinning mechanic is coming very soon. All of the new item’s animations are also placeholders for now.

With the new bows and spears in this update it became apparent we needed a ‘charging’ mechanic. With the need for a few tweaks to the interacting system, we took the opportunity to incorporate a lot of changes that we’ve had the skeleton of for a while and have been waiting to implement and incorporate with the recent player animations. The entire interacting system has been improved. Interacting has been remapped to the same key as the [Pickup] key by default. This is to avoid confusion and prevent users from doing things like accidentally eating uncooked or poisonous food when trying to interact with objects. With the new changes if you accidentally pick an item up there’s no harm done. So now if an item is interactable you can press the [Pickup] like normal to pick it up or hold down the [Pickup] key to interact with it. A notorious bug has also been fixed that’s been around since the game was first released where you could continue to use an item on another even if you weren’t looking at it.

There’s been some work on the inventory in preparation for a new system. We’ve added individual inventory stack sizes for different types of items. So far only the arrows make use of this feature, allowing you to carry 24 arrows per slot at the moment. We added the ability to select free hands. This is a feature that was requested a while ago and is useful if you have a full inventory and don’t want to be running around with something in your hands. Your hands also act as an inventory slot now, able to hold 1 item. This means you can have a full inventory and 1 item in your hand. The inventory hotkeys can be a bit confusing at the moment with how items sort themselves in the inventory, but hotkey mechanics will soon be changing entirely.

The lighter has been removed as it ended up being an incompatible thorn with the new changes and there’s a new dedicated fire lighting system coming in the next update. Enjoy the easy fire starting for this update. It’s essentially the same as it was before, without a magical infinite lighter in your hand.

This update also addresses two concerns from community feedback - #1 Not being able to launch the game in DirectX 11.0 mode from the desktop and #2 Dropped items being thrown forward. The necessity for a new launcher was realised after it was brought to our attention that Steam would not show you the dialog prompting you to pick which graphics API you wanted if you were launching the game from the desktop or a separate shortcut outside of Steam. The issue has now been addressed with a custom game launcher. This launcher is separate to the Unity engine as the engine doesn’t support changing graphics API’s once launched. You can pick your graphics API and fullscreen mode in the launcher. More details are in the patch notes below.

There’s also overall performance improvements from our new deferred translucency implementation and a 20-30% reduction in draw calls which should help to balance out the need for more accurate physics calculations for the new projectiles.

That’s it for this update, have fun!

--
Stay Alive!
Beam Team


- Added new holding animation for larger objects.
- Added new grass quality setting toggle.
- Added polarising filter for more vibrant daytime sky.
- Added individual inventory stack sizes for different item types.
- Added additional notification if trying to place a construction with environmental obstructions.
- Added ability to navigate through items in an inventory slot.
- Added ability to select free hands by selecting empty inventory slot.
- Added ability to select free hands with the Tilde [~] key.
- Added ability to close crafting menu again with [C] key.
- Added ability to carry large objects like logs.
- Added missing colliders to prop trees and plants.
- Changed interacting to use the [Pickup] key.
- Changed crafting menu to stay on the crafting page you left.
- Improved dropping items from inventory and reduced throwing effect.
- Improved Watch animations - smoother with better viewing positions.
- Improved Ragdoll animals saving. Ragdolls now save bone positions to reduce flipping out on load.
- Restored unique colours for different crafting modes.
- Removed unnecessary structure proximity check for smaller constructions.
- Reduced ocean shore fade for more dynamic waves close to shore.
- Reduced GPU loads on main menu screen by locking to 30FPS.
- Removed Sharks regaining health.

- Fixed Alt+Tab destroying a depth texture and breaking fog and underwater effects.
- Fixed camera jitter after loading a game.
- Fixed artefacts from camp fire particles.
- Fixed artefact with fog clipping through ocean waves when floating.
- Fixed unnecessary Hobo Stove proximity checks.
- Fixed being able to use items on objects far away, chopping trees, etc.
- Fixed bug where interacting would think you were still looking at a container.
- Fixed a small possibility of not being able to craft when a shark was nearby.
- Fixed Sharks dissapearing from leaving a biome and not be saved correctly.
- Fixed Items being out of view while crouched.
- Fixed holding Items not following the camera when looking up or down.

- Added new Bow and Arrow items!
The simple bow is intended for mid-range damage. It’s sighted with the cursor and bow sight for approximately 15 meters. Arrows will break if shot into hard surfaces like rock or steel.

- Added new Throwable Spear item!
The spear is intended for close to short range damage. Spears will break if shot into hard surfaces like rock or steel.

- Added new Snake animal!
The new snake will attack and inflict damage if you get too close. Watch where you step, avoid the long grass and listen out for any aggressive snake sounds when scavenging your island! The snake can’t be killed at the moment.

- Added better Crab intelligence!
Crab AI has been improved and they no longer have a "nest". Crabs can be found individually on shorelines and will behave much more naturally, exploring the island, avoiding the player …and whatever else crabs do. Crabs do not currently respawn so ration them carefully.

- Added new Boar animal!
Tiny wild boar can be found on larger islands. They are very shy and very quick!

- Added new Aiming mechanic!
When a fireable object like the new Bow or Spear are equipped, you can hold the secondary action button (right mouse click by default) to enter aiming mode. You then fire the item as normal with the left mouse button.

- Added new Pickup animation!
A small addition but helps with feedback so items aren’t just disappearing into the inventory.

- Added Deferred Translucency!
Previously we were rendering translucent objects in forward rendering. There was a significant overhead as translucent objects needed to be rendered separately for proper translucent lighting (as it is not supported natively by Unity) and then blended with the deferred objects. Now all translucency is rendered in deferred. All users get translucency now, so win-win. The translucency option has been removed as the performance impact is negligible.

- Added dedicated Game Launcher!
Due to player feedback about not being able to select DirectX versions when launching the game from desktop shortcuts, a custom game launcher has been added. The new launcher allows you pick the DirectX version for all scenarios, not only when launching from the Steam library. You can also pick the fullscreen mode you prefer. Exclusive mode is better for performance and users running SLI setups, however Alt+Tabbing is not supported under DirectX 11.0 with exclusive mode. The Borderless Window option is available for players who want to use DirectX 11.0 and need to stream or access background tasks with Alt+Tab. The old Steam launch options have been removed.

- New Grass models!
- New Ground Cover models!
- New Sand terrain texture!
- New Sand and Pebbles terrain texture!
- New Young Palm Tree plant model!
- New Potato Plant plant model!

- Reduced draw calls significantly, improving overall performance.
- Restored resolution and vsync options in game.
- Refactored and improved interacting backend.
- Character Spine IK is now more responsive.
- New hitbox system for animals.
- Improved Shark trigger detection.

Hey everyone,


This update introduces new Bows and Arrows, Throwable Spears, Boars, Snakes and more! There’s a new game launcher, custom deferred translucency, new grass models, new terrain textures and new foliage items.

Animals can now be hunted with the new Bow and Arrows and Throwable Spears! You can hunt the existing and new animals on your island by charging and firing the new bow and spear. Larger animals will take multiple hits from projectiles to take down, whereas smaller animals can be picked off with less. Be careful as throwing or firing the new projectiles at solid materials like steel or rock will break the projectile! Killed animals won’t do anything for now, but hold onto them as a new skinning mechanic is coming very soon. All of the new item’s animations are also placeholders for now.

With the new bows and spears in this update it became apparent we needed a ‘charging’ mechanic. With the need for a few tweaks to the interacting system, we took the opportunity to incorporate a lot of changes that we’ve had the skeleton of for a while and have been waiting to implement and incorporate with the recent player animations. The entire interacting system has been improved. Interacting has been remapped to the same key as the [Pickup] key by default. This is to avoid confusion and prevent users from doing things like accidentally eating uncooked or poisonous food when trying to interact with objects. With the new changes if you accidentally pick an item up there’s no harm done. So now if an item is interactable you can press the [Pickup] like normal to pick it up or hold down the [Pickup] key to interact with it. A notorious bug has also been fixed that’s been around since the game was first released where you could continue to use an item on another even if you weren’t looking at it.

There’s been some work on the inventory in preparation for a new system. We’ve added individual inventory stack sizes for different types of items. So far only the arrows make use of this feature, allowing you to carry 24 arrows per slot at the moment. We added the ability to select free hands. This is a feature that was requested a while ago and is useful if you have a full inventory and don’t want to be running around with something in your hands. Your hands also act as an inventory slot now, able to hold 1 item. This means you can have a full inventory and 1 item in your hand. The inventory hotkeys can be a bit confusing at the moment with how items sort themselves in the inventory, but hotkey mechanics will soon be changing entirely.

The lighter has been removed as it ended up being an incompatible thorn with the new changes and there’s a new dedicated fire lighting system coming in the next update. Enjoy the easy fire starting for this update. It’s essentially the same as it was before, without a magical infinite lighter in your hand.

This update also addresses two concerns from community feedback - #1 Not being able to launch the game in DirectX 11.0 mode from the desktop and #2 Dropped items being thrown forward. The necessity for a new launcher was realised after it was brought to our attention that Steam would not show you the dialog prompting you to pick which graphics API you wanted if you were launching the game from the desktop or a separate shortcut outside of Steam. The issue has now been addressed with a custom game launcher. This launcher is separate to the Unity engine as the engine doesn’t support changing graphics API’s once launched. You can pick your graphics API and fullscreen mode in the launcher. More details are in the patch notes below.

There’s also overall performance improvements from our new deferred translucency implementation and a 20-30% reduction in draw calls which should help to balance out the need for more accurate physics calculations for the new projectiles.

That’s it for this update, have fun!

--
Stay Alive!
Beam Team


- Added new holding animation for larger objects.
- Added new grass quality setting toggle.
- Added polarising filter for more vibrant daytime sky.
- Added individual inventory stack sizes for different item types.
- Added additional notification if trying to place a construction with environmental obstructions.
- Added ability to navigate through items in an inventory slot.
- Added ability to select free hands by selecting empty inventory slot.
- Added ability to select free hands with the Tilde [~] key.
- Added ability to close crafting menu again with [C] key.
- Added ability to carry large objects like logs.
- Added missing colliders to prop trees and plants.
- Changed interacting to use the [Pickup] key.
- Changed crafting menu to stay on the crafting page you left.
- Improved dropping items from inventory and reduced throwing effect.
- Improved Watch animations - smoother with better viewing positions.
- Improved Ragdoll animals saving. Ragdolls now save bone positions to reduce flipping out on load.
- Restored unique colours for different crafting modes.
- Removed unnecessary structure proximity check for smaller constructions.
- Reduced ocean shore fade for more dynamic waves close to shore.
- Reduced GPU loads on main menu screen by locking to 30FPS.
- Removed Sharks regaining health.

- Fixed Alt+Tab destroying a depth texture and breaking fog and underwater effects.
- Fixed camera jitter after loading a game.
- Fixed artefacts from camp fire particles.
- Fixed artefact with fog clipping through ocean waves when floating.
- Fixed unnecessary Hobo Stove proximity checks.
- Fixed being able to use items on objects far away, chopping trees, etc.
- Fixed bug where interacting would think you were still looking at a container.
- Fixed a small possibility of not being able to craft when a shark was nearby.
- Fixed Sharks dissapearing from leaving a biome and not be saved correctly.
- Fixed Items being out of view while crouched.
- Fixed holding Items not following the camera when looking up or down.

- Added new Bow and Arrow items!
The simple bow is intended for mid-range damage. It’s sighted with the cursor and bow sight for approximately 15 meters. Arrows will break if shot into hard surfaces like rock or steel.

- Added new Throwable Spear item!
The spear is intended for close to short range damage. Spears will break if shot into hard surfaces like rock or steel.

- Added new Snake animal!
The new snake will attack and inflict damage if you get too close. Watch where you step, avoid the long grass and listen out for any aggressive snake sounds when scavenging your island! The snake can’t be killed at the moment.

- Added better Crab intelligence!
Crab AI has been improved and they no longer have a "nest". Crabs can be found individually on shorelines and will behave much more naturally, exploring the island, avoiding the player …and whatever else crabs do. Crabs do not currently respawn so ration them carefully.

- Added new Boar animal!
Tiny wild boar can be found on larger islands. They are very shy and very quick!

- Added new Aiming mechanic!
When a fireable object like the new Bow or Spear are equipped, you can hold the secondary action button (right mouse click by default) to enter aiming mode. You then fire the item as normal with the left mouse button.

- Added new Pickup animation!
A small addition but helps with feedback so items aren’t just disappearing into the inventory.

- Added Deferred Translucency!
Previously we were rendering translucent objects in forward rendering. There was a significant overhead as translucent objects needed to be rendered separately for proper translucent lighting (as it is not supported natively by Unity) and then blended with the deferred objects. Now all translucency is rendered in deferred. All users get translucency now, so win-win. The translucency option has been removed as the performance impact is negligible.

- Added dedicated Game Launcher!
Due to player feedback about not being able to select DirectX versions when launching the game from desktop shortcuts, a custom game launcher has been added. The new launcher allows you pick the DirectX version for all scenarios, not only when launching from the Steam library. You can also pick the fullscreen mode you prefer. Exclusive mode is better for performance and users running SLI setups, however Alt+Tabbing is not supported under DirectX 11.0 with exclusive mode. The Borderless Window option is available for players who want to use DirectX 11.0 and need to stream or access background tasks with Alt+Tab. The old Steam launch options have been removed.

- New Grass models!
- New Ground Cover models!
- New Sand terrain texture!
- New Sand and Pebbles terrain texture!
- New Young Palm Tree plant model!
- New Potato Plant plant model!

- Reduced draw calls significantly, improving overall performance.
- Restored resolution and vsync options in game.
- Refactored and improved interacting backend.
- Character Spine IK is now more responsive.
- New hitbox system for animals.
- Improved Shark trigger detection.