Stranded Deep - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (John Walker)

What a difference a year and a half makes. And what little difference it makes too. That’s how long it’s been since I last wrote about Stranded Deep [official site] – a game I’ve returned to during its lengthy Early Access development despite its many problems. And now it’s two years old, it’s finally shaping up into something solid and compelling. And yet at the same time, while it’s fixed so many of its issues, still doesn’t feel like it knows where it wants to go.> … [visit site to read more]

Stranded Deep - spraycanmansam | Beam Team Games


Hi everyone,

A new stable build 0.24.00 has just been released!

This build features expanded Building mechanics and the new Storage system!

This build transitions our latest work on the experimental branch to the stable branch – the new Storage system. In case you missed our rundown of the new feature in the experimental patch notes, the mechanics are very simple and fast – if you’re looking at a container, press [Tab] to open it to display a similar radial style menu as the backpack inventory. The basic radial mechanics are the same as the inventory, except now you will see a small backpack at the bottom that you can click on to toggle between your backpack and the storage container and vice-versa. Clicking on items in either ‘container’ will transfer the item to the other container. Most containers will be able to be picked up, but containers cannot store other containers.

Every couple of months we pause to revaluate the project to make sure we’re on the right track, listen to feedback and address outstanding bugs. We’ve made some adjustments in this build based on player feedback. A few players have requested the option to choose between toggling the new radial menus open vs. the existing ‘rocker’ functionality so we’ve added an option for that in the input settings. We’ve improved the Charging mechanic for projectile-based weapons so you can now stop charging a weapon without needing to wait for the charging animation to complete. It seems like a small tweak but all helps to add polish. The new Crafting menu now also keeps a bit more of a memory. Individual crafting category tabs will keep a memory of their last subcategory and scroll position until you change category. This should help speed up things like building in particular where you might use the same tab and combination multiple times. One of the bigger changes is that we’ve removed the polarizing Discovery Fog feature which you can read more details on in the patch notes below. We’re also actively working on bringing back the old Infinite Procedural Generation. Please bear with us while we work on integrating this system with the Cartographer. The Cartographer will still remain, providing a small starting world or ‘archipelago’ to start in. From there you can venture further out from the starting world and it will be infinite in any direction. We’re also working on an end game scenario which will require you to find rare items and put down roots on an island to piece together your recue.

We’ve noticed a lot of support emails coming in regarding missing subcategories in the new Crafting menu. 9.9/10 this is fixed by verifying the game files in Steam. It appears to be a problem with Steam’s version control between the updates as the problem is solved by verifying the files.

Have fun!

Stay Alive!
:: Beam Team
--

CHANGES
- Added reminder to craft a Shelter to Save in pause menu.
- Added option for Radial Menus to choose between toggle and rocker behaviour.
- Added ability to interrupt charging sequence for projectile weapons.
- Added edit and delete buttons to custom maps in the Cartographer.
- Added tooltip to view details of maps placed in the world when hovered over.
- Added Building rotation with new key-bindings.
- Added Billboard Density quality setting.
- Changed Inventory to show slot quantity permanently.
- Changed Crafting menu to remember last subcategory and scroll position.
- Changed to not freeze movement when opening inventory.
- Increased Fibrous Leave’s inventory stack capacity.

BUG FIXES
- Fixed Dragging not using current clicked position making dragging more difficult than it should be.
- Fixed animal Ragdoll bones only saving position not physics related data, ie: stop Sharks flying when loaded. This fix is not retroactive but will take effect after your next save.
- Fixed projectiles interfering with Ragdoll physics when killed.
- Fixed floating Containers when loading a Custom Map.

NEW FEATURES

- New Storage Menu!

- New Building Mechanic!
Building has been expanded and broken down. Most building pieces now have 2 different stages of construction. Once the initial building piece has been placed you use your Hammer on the piece to finish off constructing it. This new mechanic will tie into player and weather effects in a future update. Incomplete walls and floors won’t protect you as well from the elements as completed pieces. Likewise, lower tiers will offer less protection from sun and rain than higher tiers. Weather effects will also deteriorate building pieces so you will have to repair your structures as they’re damaged. This provides a purpose and motivation to find better building materials that offer better protection and resistance to weather. The new system has been integrated with the Wood, Plank and Corrugated tiers. Driftwood and Steel are yet to be completed as we’re re-evaluating and finalizing the base and highest tiers. Existing building pieces also have additional LOD’s.

- New Loot Containers!
Added new Wood Crate, Small Locker, Large Locker and Console models. Added these new containers to Shipwreck and Sea Fort generation. Locker and Console containers are fixed and cannot be moved like Wood Crates. We will also be expanding these with craftable storage like woven baskets and a few more types of containers that you can find by exploring now that the new Storage system is completed.

- Removed Discovery Fog.
The Discovery Fog has been a polarizing feature. Some players liked it, others disliked it, others didn’t mind it and it just plain confused the rest. It did serve a technical purpose to hide un-generated islands and their billboards suddenly popping in. It also helped performance by having less billboards on-screen, however once you’ve discovered the islands in the area around you they all end up being drawn anyway. In any case, the feature has been removed. Now we generate the billboards as soon as a zone is visible and we’ve also added a Billboard Density setting to control the quality and amount of billboards generated for a zone for different systems. Further optimizations to this will be coming with our work on bringing back the infinite generation.
Stranded Deep - spraycanmansam | Beam Team Games


Hi everyone,

A new stable build 0.24.00 has just been released!

This build features expanded Building mechanics and the new Storage system!

This build transitions our latest work on the experimental branch to the stable branch – the new Storage system. In case you missed our rundown of the new feature in the experimental patch notes, the mechanics are very simple and fast – if you’re looking at a container, press [Tab] to open it to display a similar radial style menu as the backpack inventory. The basic radial mechanics are the same as the inventory, except now you will see a small backpack at the bottom that you can click on to toggle between your backpack and the storage container and vice-versa. Clicking on items in either ‘container’ will transfer the item to the other container. Most containers will be able to be picked up, but containers cannot store other containers.

Every couple of months we pause to revaluate the project to make sure we’re on the right track, listen to feedback and address outstanding bugs. We’ve made some adjustments in this build based on player feedback. A few players have requested the option to choose between toggling the new radial menus open vs. the existing ‘rocker’ functionality so we’ve added an option for that in the input settings. We’ve improved the Charging mechanic for projectile-based weapons so you can now stop charging a weapon without needing to wait for the charging animation to complete. It seems like a small tweak but all helps to add polish. The new Crafting menu now also keeps a bit more of a memory. Individual crafting category tabs will keep a memory of their last subcategory and scroll position until you change category. This should help speed up things like building in particular where you might use the same tab and combination multiple times. One of the bigger changes is that we’ve removed the polarizing Discovery Fog feature which you can read more details on in the patch notes below. We’re also actively working on bringing back the old Infinite Procedural Generation. Please bear with us while we work on integrating this system with the Cartographer. The Cartographer will still remain, providing a small starting world or ‘archipelago’ to start in. From there you can venture further out from the starting world and it will be infinite in any direction. We’re also working on an end game scenario which will require you to find rare items and put down roots on an island to piece together your recue.

We’ve noticed a lot of support emails coming in regarding missing subcategories in the new Crafting menu. 9.9/10 this is fixed by verifying the game files in Steam. It appears to be a problem with Steam’s version control between the updates as the problem is solved by verifying the files.

Have fun!

Stay Alive!
:: Beam Team
--

CHANGES
- Added reminder to craft a Shelter to Save in pause menu.
- Added option for Radial Menus to choose between toggle and rocker behaviour.
- Added ability to interrupt charging sequence for projectile weapons.
- Added edit and delete buttons to custom maps in the Cartographer.
- Added tooltip to view details of maps placed in the world when hovered over.
- Added Building rotation with new key-bindings.
- Added Billboard Density quality setting.
- Changed Inventory to show slot quantity permanently.
- Changed Crafting menu to remember last subcategory and scroll position.
- Changed to not freeze movement when opening inventory.
- Increased Fibrous Leave’s inventory stack capacity.

BUG FIXES
- Fixed Dragging not using current clicked position making dragging more difficult than it should be.
- Fixed animal Ragdoll bones only saving position not physics related data, ie: stop Sharks flying when loaded. This fix is not retroactive but will take effect after your next save.
- Fixed projectiles interfering with Ragdoll physics when killed.
- Fixed floating Containers when loading a Custom Map.

NEW FEATURES

- New Storage Menu!

- New Building Mechanic!
Building has been expanded and broken down. Most building pieces now have 2 different stages of construction. Once the initial building piece has been placed you use your Hammer on the piece to finish off constructing it. This new mechanic will tie into player and weather effects in a future update. Incomplete walls and floors won’t protect you as well from the elements as completed pieces. Likewise, lower tiers will offer less protection from sun and rain than higher tiers. Weather effects will also deteriorate building pieces so you will have to repair your structures as they’re damaged. This provides a purpose and motivation to find better building materials that offer better protection and resistance to weather. The new system has been integrated with the Wood, Plank and Corrugated tiers. Driftwood and Steel are yet to be completed as we’re re-evaluating and finalizing the base and highest tiers. Existing building pieces also have additional LOD’s.

- New Loot Containers!
Added new Wood Crate, Small Locker, Large Locker and Console models. Added these new containers to Shipwreck and Sea Fort generation. Locker and Console containers are fixed and cannot be moved like Wood Crates. We will also be expanding these with craftable storage like woven baskets and a few more types of containers that you can find by exploring now that the new Storage system is completed.

- Removed Discovery Fog.
The Discovery Fog has been a polarizing feature. Some players liked it, others disliked it, others didn’t mind it and it just plain confused the rest. It did serve a technical purpose to hide un-generated islands and their billboards suddenly popping in. It also helped performance by having less billboards on-screen, however once you’ve discovered the islands in the area around you they all end up being drawn anyway. In any case, the feature has been removed. Now we generate the billboards as soon as a zone is visible and we’ve also added a Billboard Density setting to control the quality and amount of billboards generated for a zone for different systems. Further optimizations to this will be coming with our work on bringing back the infinite generation.
Stranded Deep - spraycanmansam | Beam Team Games


Hi everyone,

A new experimental build 0.23.00 has just been released!

This build features an all new Storage system!

The mechanics are very simple and fast – if you’re looking at a container, press [Tab] to open it to display a similar radial style menu as the backpack inventory. The basic radial mechanics are the same as the inventory, except now you will see a small backpack at the bottom that you can click on to toggle between your backpack and the storage container and vice-versa. Clicking on items in either ‘container’ will transfer the item to the other container. Most containers will be able to be picked up, but containers cannot store other containers.

The new Wood Crate in this build replaces previous loot containers. We will be expanding on this with craftable storage like woven baskets and a few more types of containers that you can find by exploring.

Have fun!

Stay Alive!
:: Beam Team
--

CHANGES
- Changed to not freeze movement when opening inventory.

NEW FEATURES
- New Storage Menu!
- New Wood Crate storage container!
Stranded Deep - spraycanmansam | Beam Team Games


Hi everyone,

A new experimental build 0.23.00 has just been released!

This build features an all new Storage system!

The mechanics are very simple and fast – if you’re looking at a container, press [Tab] to open it to display a similar radial style menu as the backpack inventory. The basic radial mechanics are the same as the inventory, except now you will see a small backpack at the bottom that you can click on to toggle between your backpack and the storage container and vice-versa. Clicking on items in either ‘container’ will transfer the item to the other container. Most containers will be able to be picked up, but containers cannot store other containers.

The new Wood Crate in this build replaces previous loot containers. We will be expanding on this with craftable storage like woven baskets and a few more types of containers that you can find by exploring.

Have fun!

Stay Alive!
:: Beam Team
--

CHANGES
- Changed to not freeze movement when opening inventory.

NEW FEATURES
- New Storage Menu!
- New Wood Crate storage container!
Dec 23, 2016
Stranded Deep - spraycanmansam | Beam Team Games
Hi everyone,

A new hotfix for version 0.22 (0.22.01) is now live with some small fixes and tweaks.

Stay Alive!
:: Beam Team
--

CHANGES
- Added scrolling markers to Crafting menu subcategory group to hint that you can scroll through them.

BUG FIXES
- Fixed a possibility of Inventory locking up.
- Fixed Stranded Deep not quitting in Steam.
Dec 23, 2016
Stranded Deep - spraycanmansam | Beam Team Games
Hi everyone,

A new hotfix for version 0.22 (0.22.01) is now live with some small fixes and tweaks.

Stay Alive!
:: Beam Team
--

CHANGES
- Added scrolling markers to Crafting menu subcategory group to hint that you can scroll through them.

BUG FIXES
- Fixed a possibility of Inventory locking up.
- Fixed Stranded Deep not quitting in Steam.
Stranded Deep - spraycanmansam | Beam Team Games


Hi everyone,

A new stable build 0.22.00 has just been released!

This build transitions our latest work on the experimental branch to the stable branch.
There’s new Crafting and Inventory menus, new Tanning Rack and Loom stations, new Rawhide and Leather items and other stuff!

New Inventory Menu
New Crafting Menu, Tanning Rack, Loom, Rawhide and Leather

Have fun and happy holidays!

Stay Alive!
:: Beam Team
--

0.19.01-0.22.00 CHANGE LOG
BUG FIXES
- Fixed possibility of entered world seed not matching saved world seed due to value clamping incorrectly.
- Fixed fall damage occasionally calculating distances incorrectly. This should fix players dying from randomly flying in the air until we figure out what is causing the issue!
- Fixed allowing players to update a map you’re saved on via the update map dialogue which would clear the save data for that map.
- Fixed possibility of not being able to pick up an item in your free hand when inventory full and item didn’t match any types stored in the inventory.
- Fixed possibility of opening crafting menu, inventory or watch when operating Raft causing various incorrect behaviour with held item.
- Fixed being able to drop your hidden held item when operating the Raft.
- Fixed being able to drag Fruit and Coconuts when attached to trees.
- Fixed items attached to other structures (like Buckets) being used as crafting materials.
- Fixed Palm Top display name changing to ‘Log’ when separated.
- Fixed Sharks occasionally colliding with rafts unintentionally.
- Fixed Sharks spawning outside of a zone biome.
- Fixed Sharks roaming under islands.
- Fixed Sharks attempting to reach Players on land.
- Fixed Sharks taking double damage.
- Fixed Sharks exploring deeper than intended.

CHANGES
- Improved Players movement in water, more fluid.
- Added new mechanic to press [Space] to begin climbing a tree.
- Reduced size of Tarp item by 50%.
- Reduced Boat Motor Engine volume.
- Changed Crab to yield 1 small meat instead of 1 medium meat.
- Added experimental ability so Sharks will attack Rafts (A shark will dive down signalling an imminent attack).
- Added ability for Sharks to respawn over a period of set hours/days.
- Added new Shark follow and dynamic spawner for areas outside of zone bounds.
- Added new Shark patrolling system with adjustable territory.
- Added Shark patrolling spawners to map editor (adjustable territories will come in future).
- Added ability for Sharks to be aggressive on first Player encounter.
- Removed Shark health regeneration.
- Increased chance for Players to encounter sharks.

NEW FEATURES

- New Crafting Menu!
- New Inventory Menu!

- New Tanning Rack station!
You can now craft a Tanning Rack. The Tanning Rack is used to turn Rawhide into Leather. The Tanning Rack is a crafting material and will be included in your available crafting materials if the station is within your crafting radius. Rawhide can be obtained from skinning Boars, Tiger Sharks, and Great White Sharks which can then be crafted into Leather for crafting more advanced items. Refined tools now require leather.

- New Loom station!
You can now craft a Loom. A Loom is used to craft Cloth from Fibrous Leaves. Cloth will eventually replace Tarps for most crafting combinations.

- New Raw Hide item!
- New Leather item!
Stranded Deep - spraycanmansam | Beam Team Games


Hi everyone,

A new stable build 0.22.00 has just been released!

This build transitions our latest work on the experimental branch to the stable branch.
There’s new Crafting and Inventory menus, new Tanning Rack and Loom stations, new Rawhide and Leather items and other stuff!

New Inventory Menu
New Crafting Menu, Tanning Rack, Loom, Rawhide and Leather

Have fun and happy holidays!

Stay Alive!
:: Beam Team
--

0.19.01-0.22.00 CHANGE LOG
BUG FIXES
- Fixed possibility of entered world seed not matching saved world seed due to value clamping incorrectly.
- Fixed fall damage occasionally calculating distances incorrectly. This should fix players dying from randomly flying in the air until we figure out what is causing the issue!
- Fixed allowing players to update a map you’re saved on via the update map dialogue which would clear the save data for that map.
- Fixed possibility of not being able to pick up an item in your free hand when inventory full and item didn’t match any types stored in the inventory.
- Fixed possibility of opening crafting menu, inventory or watch when operating Raft causing various incorrect behaviour with held item.
- Fixed being able to drop your hidden held item when operating the Raft.
- Fixed being able to drag Fruit and Coconuts when attached to trees.
- Fixed items attached to other structures (like Buckets) being used as crafting materials.
- Fixed Palm Top display name changing to ‘Log’ when separated.
- Fixed Sharks occasionally colliding with rafts unintentionally.
- Fixed Sharks spawning outside of a zone biome.
- Fixed Sharks roaming under islands.
- Fixed Sharks attempting to reach Players on land.
- Fixed Sharks taking double damage.
- Fixed Sharks exploring deeper than intended.

CHANGES
- Improved Players movement in water, more fluid.
- Added new mechanic to press [Space] to begin climbing a tree.
- Reduced size of Tarp item by 50%.
- Reduced Boat Motor Engine volume.
- Changed Crab to yield 1 small meat instead of 1 medium meat.
- Added experimental ability so Sharks will attack Rafts (A shark will dive down signalling an imminent attack).
- Added ability for Sharks to respawn over a period of set hours/days.
- Added new Shark follow and dynamic spawner for areas outside of zone bounds.
- Added new Shark patrolling system with adjustable territory.
- Added Shark patrolling spawners to map editor (adjustable territories will come in future).
- Added ability for Sharks to be aggressive on first Player encounter.
- Removed Shark health regeneration.
- Increased chance for Players to encounter sharks.

NEW FEATURES

- New Crafting Menu!
- New Inventory Menu!

- New Tanning Rack station!
You can now craft a Tanning Rack. The Tanning Rack is used to turn Rawhide into Leather. The Tanning Rack is a crafting material and will be included in your available crafting materials if the station is within your crafting radius. Rawhide can be obtained from skinning Boars, Tiger Sharks, and Great White Sharks which can then be crafted into Leather for crafting more advanced items. Refined tools now require leather.

- New Loom station!
You can now craft a Loom. A Loom is used to craft Cloth from Fibrous Leaves. Cloth will eventually replace Tarps for most crafting combinations.

- New Raw Hide item!
- New Leather item!
Dec 21, 2016
Stranded Deep - spraycanmansam | Beam Team Games
Hi everyone,

Just a quick reminder to make sure you don't have more than 9 slots filled in your inventory before we transition the latest experimental features over to the stable branch later today.

--
Stay Alive!
:: Beam Team
...