Patch 1.0.13.0 Release Notes

The primary focus on this patch was to continue addressing the most pressing performance concerns! When comparing with exisiting saves, we saw significant framerate improvements. Some more big performance changes are being tested and worked on right now, which should further help with performance, especially in multiplayer sessions. We are definitely not done optimizing, but this was a much needed big first step.


This patch includes a rework of the algorithm that drives the placement of new tethers in a network. The new algorithm should greatly reduce the hitches players see when placing tethers in a big network across all platforms, leading to improved performance in single player and multiplayer games. This is the first part of a two-step fix to this system, the next portion coming in a future patch.

The rework of the algorithm has somewhat changed the connection behavior of tethers. The impact of this change is not only on performance, but also in far more predictability and control over what will happen when you drop or pick up a tether.

Here is a summary of what’s changed and what remains:

• Vehicles, base platforms and characters should behave the same as before. You should not see any difference in how they make tether connections.
  
• Connections between tether posts that have changed. When placing a new tether post, it will now connect to the closest tether post of each distinct tether network in range. A tether network in this case being a set of connected tether posts.
  
• Tether networks are no longer self-healing! When you pick up a tether post it will trigger a network split of all the other tethers it was attached to. A tether post being disconnected will not cause any other tether post connections to change.

A number of overall performance improvements are included in this patch.

• Make debris objects despawn when they leave relevance
  
• Generally reduce object count by cleaning up stateless objects that are far away from players.
  
• Sped up transform updates for all objects.
  
• Updated timeslicing settings for expensive objects that did not previously take advantage of timeslicing.
  
• Optimized terrain geometry generation throughput.
  
• Do not update animations that are out of the player's view and not in their immediate vicinity to save time.
  
• Cached audio parameter values to avoid time spent updating them when they haven't changed.

Fixed several of our commonly reported crashes increasing overall stability.

• [AS-6342] - Fixed a bug introduced in the last update, where digging up Hazards with research samples attached cause the research to pop into the air and become stuck.
  
• [[AS-6351] - The achievement “Journey to the Center of the Thing” now unlocks when its requirements are met.
  
• [AS-6353] - Fixed a bug which caused objects to become unusable for client players when unpacked or repackaged while outside the host's field of view in Multiplayer games.
  
• [AS-6390] - Fixed a bug Moving wrecked rover seat means Player is unable to interact with debris POI after save.
  

Sorry that this one took a little longer than expected, there are some big changes to some core systems here and we needed more time to test! We are going to be at SXSW, GDC, and PAX East this month so if you are going, come say hi to us!

Also, ICYMI, the wonderful people at Noclip came to the studio to talk about Astroneer's history, you can watch the full documentary here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfUjl4owxTQ
Cheers!

-jt

Patch 1.0.9.0 Release Notes
The primary focus of this release was to address more of the key gameplay issues and stability issues that we’ve been encountering in live.

- Fixed even more of our most commonly reported crashes increasing overall stability.

- Deployed fixes for a number of our most commonly reported gameplay bugs:

• [AS-6208] - Made the first fix to the issue which is causing players to be randomly launched into the air while walking around, especially on planets other than Sylva. Now if this error occurs, the player will be only slightly bumped and should no longer take lethal damage. We are investigating a deeper fix to Terrain 2.0 that would fully address this issue, as well as some others, but will require more implementation and testing.
  
• [AS-6162] - Made several fixes to Terrain 2.0 which would cause Client players to see seams where Host players have deformed terrain around resource deposits.
  
• [AS-6196] - The Achievement "Delve Greedily and Deep" will now be appropriately unlocked when reaching the mantle of any planet. Unfortunately, this is not a self-healing fix, meaning that you will have to go back to the mantle of a planet to earn this.
  
• [AS-6212] - The exploit that allowed players to generate infinite Scrap by removing Small Batteries placed on the Shredder and replacing them has been fixed. You will now have to go back to collecting Scrap the good ‘ol fashion way.
  
• Made changes to how our backend service checks for Achievement progress in order to address the issue of players no longer seeing customization items they unlocked by completing achievements. If you are still experiencing missing items in your inventory, please keep reporting it to us.

-Cranes and Drills have received several fixes and adjustments:

• [AS-6234] - Fixed the bug causing the Crane and Drills mounted on vehicles to not collect soil into canisters attached to them.
  
• [AS-6270] - Fixed a bug which caused Crane-mounted Drills to stop digging a short ways past the surface.
  
• [AS-6271] - Fixed a bug which caused a lower strength Drill to fail to activate if a higher strength Drill is detached from its slot.
  
• The deformation rate has been made uniform across all Drill hardness tiers when drilling soft terrain.
  
• Additional power will now be drawn when multiple Drills are attached to one vehicle.
  
• Buffed the deformation size for Crane-mounted Drills.

-A number of most commonly occurring Tutorial issues have been addressed in order to smooth the experience for first time players:

• [AS-6101] - Fixed a bug where the UI prompt for the tutorial dropship does not appear again after a player dies.
  
• [AS-6111] - Fixed a usability issue which occurred if a player stowed a research sample in their backpack, there would be no prompt open the backpack.
  
• [AS-6112] - Fixed an annoying issue with the small printer where it would lose the Use key and could not be used to print a thruster and progress the objective.
  
• [AS-6113] - Fixed an issue where slotting the solid-state thruster to the oxygenator slot on the shuttle mistakenly advanced the objective.

-A number of issues have been fixed regarding quick stow and tier two object carrying.

• [AS-6160] - Fixed a bug that would cause carried objects to clip through terrain and become lost when a player enters a slide or deploys terrain tool.
  
• [AS-1070] - As part of the above fix with carrying objects, addressed an old bug where resources would sometimes fall through the terrain when their model was below the surface at the time they were ejected from the back of the Terrain Tool.
  
• [AS-5038] - And while we’re there, fixed a visual issue where attempting to quick stow a large item while holding it would trigger the “Backpack Full” UI warning

- [AS-6206] - The RTG can now be shredded in the Shredder.

• Client desync and performance drops on all platforms. (Update: Further profiling has helped us identify the biggest offenders for performance, and some fixes are being tested currently for deployment in our next patch)
  
• Some modified terrain nodes will sometimes lose collision, causing players to quicksand into them. (Still debugging this issue. Seems like deformation is causing terrain node math to get into a weird state on lower end hardware. Working on a fix)
  
• If you crash while in a shuttle in orbit, the shuttle will remain in orbit and your starting point might get broken. We have a solid repro of this and are tracking a fix.
  
• Rovers with front mounted drills will sometimes cause the rover to lose control when operating the drill for extended periods.
  
• Exiting Tractors will sometimes cause clients to catapult into space and subsequently suffocate. (Update: Verified that is happens when pressing "enter" twice before entering. Should be fixed in next week's update)
  
• Vehicles will sometimes not respond to input, causing repeated enters and exits before resuming normal operation (Update: turns out this might happen when other inputs are held while entering. Should be fixed in next week's patch)
  
• Crashing on loading before the start menu (This should have been addressed in this update, please keep us updated if you continue running into this issue.)

Lots of the most egregious bugs are cleaned up in this patch! Next weeks patch will begin the most meaningful performance upgrades to date for all platforms and hardware. Thanks for hanging in there while we work through alleviating the performance problems in single and multiplayer sessions!

See you next week!

-jt

The primary focus of this release was to address as many major gameplay issues as possible that have been reported over the last couple of weeks, as well as a fix for Xbox / Windows 10 players who could no longer access cosmetic items they have unlocked through progression.

BUGFIXES

• Fixed more of our most commonly reported crashes increasing overall stability.
  
• [AS-6164] - Fixed a major issue where vehicles would decide to take an unwelcome nap, and would remain stationary despite being powered.
  
• [AS-5572] - Fixed a major issue in Multiplayer that would cause Client Player’s camera to be launched into space if the "Enter" command was pressed multiple times when entering a seat.
  
• [AS-6127] - Added some guards and performance improvements to address the issue which occurred most often on lower end machines causing picked up and dropped items to fall through the terrain. There may still be some visible stuttering on lower end specs, but items should no longer be irretrievably lost.
  
• [AS-6103] - "Up By the Roots" achievement should now become unlocked by unearthing Popcoral
  
• [AS-6243] - Fixed a major issue where Players on Xbox / Win 10 would no longer see their unlocked cosmetic options as of version 1.0.6.0. The underlying issue had to do with the platform not properly communicating with our backend service and therefore not being able to pull down a player’s inventory. Actual player inventory was not affected and all items should be rightfully restored in the UI view as of version 1.0.7.0.
  
• [AS-6070] - Fixed a major issue in Multiplayer that occurred when a Client Player disconnected a rover train the Host was driving, the towed vehicle could no longer be driven by any players.
  
• [AS-6218] - Remove the use key quick stow capability (Edit: Clarification = We removed the 'hover over something + press F to Quickstow because it was causing some usability issues... namely for gamepad users who had something accidentally proximity selected that would wind up stowed.)
  
• [AS-5857] - Fixed an issue in Multiplayer games where Terrain would be briefly invisible for Client Players when joining a Multiplayer game. Included in this fix are other improvements to the load / join experience which should result in a more consistent experience throughout the game.
  
• [AS-6180] - Fixed a rare Multiplayer issue that would cause a rover train to become disconnected when Client Player drove the train.
  
• [AS-6233] - Fixed an issue which would cause clouds to z-fight to death when viewed from distance and turn into a flickery soup.
  
• [AS-6190] - The required resource icon at the subterranean Engine on Glacio has been changed to match the resource’s tool tip.
  
• [AS-6114] - Removed the erroneous mention of Oxygen on the gas resources tab of the Astropedia
  
• [AS-5902] - Removed erroneous smoke effects on the Shuttle Wreckage Thrusters.

KNOWN ISSUES

• Client desync and performance drops on all platforms. (Update: We are working furiously to ease the pressure on the host machine in order to fix this. Turns out MANY non relevant items were being rendered (items below ground in caves for example) so we are working on implementing an unreal engine feature that will help this issue tremendously)
  
• Exiting Tractors will sometimes cause clients to catapult into space and subsequently suffocate. (Update: Verified that is happens when pressing "enter" twice before entering. Should be fixed in next week's update)
  
• Vehicles will sometimes not respond to input, causing repeated enters and exits before resuming normal operation (Update: turns out this might happen when other inputs are held while entering. Should be fixed in next week's patch)
  
• Some modified terrain nodes will sometimes lose collision, causing players to quicksand into them. (Still debugging this issue. Seems like deformation is causing terrain node math to get into a weird state. Hoping to have this fixed next week)
  
• Crashing on loading before the start menu (This seems to impact players on windows 7. If you are having this problem there is a workaround you can use while we work on the fix.
  
• If you crash while in a shuttle in orbit, the shuttle will remain in orbit and your starting point might get broken. We have a solid repro of this and are tracking a fix.

Glad we got some of the gameplay bugs that impact the most players! Looking forward to continuing to squash gameplay bugs and get performance in line with what what we expect on all platforms!

-jt

The primary focus of this release is addressing the top crashes we are seeing out in the wild. This patch also contains some performance improvements and other bug fixes. 

Also, in case you missed it, we updated our roadmap today to reveal what the first three post 1.0 updates will be! You can read all about them here: ASTRONEER ROADMAP

• Fixed several of our most commonly reported crashes increasing overall stability. Most notably, we have fixed crash which would occur when saving a game, causing that save game to be corrupted. Saved games affected by this issue should once again become playable after installing this update. 
  
• Made additional performance improvements to the Terrain system, specifically when deforming a lot of terrain. 
  
• [AS-5878] - Fixed a bug where Research Samples attached to the bottom of Hazards would fall through terrain when the Hazard was dug up. 
  
• [AS-5925] - Fixed an issue where Clients would not see the appropriate Oxygenator state in Multiplayer games. 
  
• [AS-5931] - Fixed a bug where undermining large EXO wrecks would cause them to jitter around wildly while they look for a stable resting spot.
  
• [AS-6062] - Fixed a collision issue on some of the larger rocks and formations found on Vesania. 
  
• [AS-6088] - Fixed a bug where Hazards would be destroyed too quickly when dug up. The fix changes unburying behavior across the entire game to be more consistent for all objects. 
  
• [AS-6124] - Fixed a bug that caused foliage to shrink in place when harvesting with the Terrain Tool at maximum range
  
• Made a few more small changes to how often we report back Achievement progress to our back end service. This should have no outward impact on the game, but will stabilize the connection to the service.

KNOWN ISSUES

• Client desync and performance drops on all platforms. (Update: We are working furiously to ease the pressure on the host machine in order to fix this. Turns out MANY non relevant items were being rendered (items below ground in caves for example) so we are working on implementing an unreal engine feature that will help this issue tremendously)
  
• Exiting Tractors will sometimes cause clients to catapult into space and subsequently suffocate. (Update: Verified that is happens when pressing "enter" twice before entering. Should be fixed in next week's update)
  
• Vehicles will sometimes not respond to input, causing repeated enters and exits before resuming normal operation (Update: turns out this might happen when other inputs are held while entering. Should be fixed in next week's patch)
  
• Some modified terrain nodes will sometimes lose collision, causing players to quicksand into them. (Still debugging this issue. Seems like deformation is causing terrain node math to get into a weird state. Hoping to have this fixed next week)
  
• Crashing on loading before the start menu (This seems to impact players on windows 7. If you are having this problem there is a workaround you can use while we work on the fix.
  
• If you crash while in a shuttle in orbit, the shuttle will remain in orbit and your starting point might get broken. 

Looking forward to crushing all of these gameplay bugs and continuing to improve performance next week!

-jt

On February 6, we launched the 1.0 version of Astroneer, and no longer being an Early Access title, this necessarily included a comprehensive End User License Agreement (EULA). This was the very first EULA System Era had ever created, and at the time of its writing we thought it would be a good idea to create a single generic EULA to cover all possible System Era titles. As a result, the EULA included passages that covered policies on advertising and on more potentially invasive information gathering than anything actually present in Astroneer.

After receiving a lot of honest and helpful feedback about the EULA, we realized that it was unnecessarily broad and caused a lot of anxiety for privacy conscious players that we absolutely did not intend, and for which we apologize. In addition, certain language on User Created Content caused some confusion with regards to our policy and intention towards video content creators.

With regards to information and privacy: Astroneer does not and will not contain any advertising. Nor does Astroneer collect any information about players outside of what happens in the game. It has no ability to report on any personal details about you or your device.

Astroneer collects gameplay and crash telemetry. That means that we have a service that tracks your progress through the game so that we can unlock achievements and grant rewards, and you won’t lose your progress even if you start playing on another machine using the same Steam account, or if you uninstall and reinstall the game later. If the game crashes, Astroneer will record a small snapshot of some of the game state at the moment the crash happened and upload a report to us. Crash reports are entirely anonymous. Beyond these two things, we collect no data whatsoever.

In the section on User Created Content, the term “gameplay videos” was never intended to refer to the type of content created by our friends on YouTube, Twitch, Mixer, or any other video sharing platform. Partnering with content creators is in our DNA, and our official policy on video monetization can be found here.

As a result of people’s legitimate concerns, we worked quickly to revise and clarify our EULA, and the new version is now published live. The entire section on advertising has been scrubbed, and the sections on information gathering and user content have been updated to more narrowly and accurately reflect both the reality of what Astroneer can do in terms of information gathering, and our intentions for user created content.

I’d encourage everyone concerned to read the revised EULA, as well as our broader Privacy Policy. I want to emphasize that the privacy policy is a broad company-wide guideline, and therefore can encompass things that don’t apply to Astroneer.

System Era has no desire to ever create anything that remotely resembles spyware, and we care deeply about responsible stewardship of people’s online experiences. We humbly regret any consternation caused by the initial overly-broad EULA. This is a lesson we take to heart and will apply to all future titles we make.

Please feel free to send any questions about information and privacy directly to privacy@systemera.net, and any other concerns to support@systemera.net.

Brendan
@brendansystem

This is a patch that includes a handful of fixes to improve overall stability before the weekend.

• [AS-6140] - Fixed an issue that would cause game audio to play through Oculus Tray Tool if it was running rather than speakers or headphones.
  
• [AS-6138] - Reduced the number of times the game pings our backend service with Achievement progress. This is a speculative fix to the ongoing issue of Retro Suits not appearing for some Early Access / Game Preview players, which is caused by a failure of the service to properly retrieve your account inventory.
  
• Made some targeted performance optimizations in the Terrain and Multiplayer systems.
  
• [AS-6131] - Put guards around the most commonly occuring low-level crash, improving overall stability of the game.
  
• Fixed a crash that would happen if speedy players attempted to open the catalog before their Astroneer had fully spawned in the world.
  
• Fixed a rare, but annoying crash that would occur if a player deformed terrain then quickly exited the game, preventing the game from saving their terrain changes properly.

KNOWN ISSUES

• Client desync and performance drops on all platforms. We are working hard to address this issue, it is at the top of our list with all of the other optimization we are currently doing.
  
• Exiting Tractors will sometimes cause clients to catapult into space and subsequently suffocate.
  
• Vehicles will sometimes not respond to input, causing repeated enters and exits before resuming normal operation
  
• Some modified terrain nodes will sometimes lose collision, causing players to quicksand into them.
  
• Retro suit will sometimes be unselectable for some players.
  
• Crashing on loading before the start menu
  
• No QOL for accessibility. We are working through a potential timeline to add QOL features for accessibility like colorblindness, mouse acceleration, and rebinding of all keys. We will release that timeline as soon as we are complete!

We are working furiously to get through these and many more issues! Please keep the bug reports coming in so we can continue to prioritize. Thanks!

After two years, nearly 40 Early Access updates, and countless amounts of feedback from our community, Astroneer 1.0 has now been released! Watch the trailer!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KXQZG7riEs
Thank you so much to everyone for all your support, you should be proud of Astroneer 1.0 too, because you made it with us!