*Note - These changes are only on the Experimental Branch. To access the Experimental Branch, be sure to select it in your Steam Library. If this app does not appear, please check if this app is hidden in your Library. Experimental Branch changes upgrade to the primary branch monthly.



Hello explorers! Working from the great response and feedback from our last Experimental Branch, we performed a number of requested features and additions.

An opacity setting is now available in the Setting Menu to allow any percentage of HUD opacity. Like it minimal? Set it to zero. Like to see all your vitals but muted? We like 20%. Want it all the way full? Set to 100%.



OK, so this was easy and only took a couple of minutes, but it was requested by some players and I thought it deserved a call out. We also re enabled the clock in the HUD.





More accurate Temperature Readings too



Lots of fixes and polish this week. Here's our full list:

Added - Slider for controlling HUD opacity fade
Added - outlines and drop shadows for vital warning
Added - outlines and drop shadows to Mission header
Added - sound to Level Up
Added - sound to Stat increase buttons

Changed - Mission title text color changed to a more readable color
Changed - Removed wording in tutorial referencing "skittering noise"
Changed - New characters now start with 3 stat points by default
Changed - Health stat points now offer 2 hit points per level
Changed - Stamina stat points now offer 2% increase from base per level
Changed - Speed stat points now offer 2% increase from base per level
Changed - Strength stat points now offer 10% increase in carry capacity from base per level
Changed - Increasing health stat points now heals the amount of hit points aquired
Changed - Temperature warning messages now display more accurate information
Changed - Set sound on Level Up to play when text is also shown
Changed - Set Level Meter to orange
Changed - Temperature Vital to color code the outside and suit temperature

Changed - Reenabled clock in HUD
NOTE: Total day cycle time varies per planet, total hours in a day can be viewed in the Radial Menu (Tab) by default

Fixed - Laboratory interact once again works as intended
Fixed - Player is no longer considered outside when walking between connected pressurized structures
Fixed - Buildables with upgrades dismantled after building them in the same session now properly refund all spent materials
Fixed - Large Radar Installation can now be properly interacted with
Fixed - Large Radar Installation now has 1500 hit points
Fixed - Funnel Leaf Tree can now be harvested with Sharp and Shearing tools
Fixed - Vital tooltips will no longer stick to the mouse after closing the menu
Fixed - Launch!!! button in character creation will now no longer sometimes read Update
Fixed - Update button in difficulty change menu will no longer sometimes read Launch!!!
Fixed - Removed proximity build requirements from buildable icons
Fixed - Locked buildables are no longer buildable when still locked
Fixed - Baked potato, Potato, Packaged Food, and Sand should no longer fall through the floor, and should be interactable
Fixed - Main menu and in-game settings panels are now at parity with one another
Fixed - All buildables can once again be dismantled
Fixed - Build goal can now display more types of recipes
Fixed - Build goal will no longer display outdated build information
Fixed - Changing HUD Opacity within the in-game settings will now properly apply without restarting
Fixed - Set suit temperature reading dial to accurately display
Fixed - Vital tool tip to turn off properly when leaving a menu
Fixed - Blur background in Mission Menu entries


We'll likely update the Main Branch in a few days once this build settles in a bit.

-Brian

"Because this baby’s pre-Empire she’s off the grid! ...Razer Quest."

*Note - These changes are only on the Experimental Branch. To access the Experimental Branch, be sure to select it in your Steam Library. If this app does not appear, please check if this app is hidden in your Library. Experimental Branch changes upgrade to the primary branch monthly.



Hello explorers! Coming back from the holidays gave us fresh eyes on the UI and we put substantial focus into improving the UI and HUD across the game for this update.

The most noticeable difference? Everything is now CENTERED as opposed to being on the right side of the screen, and Menus are now full screen.



We also attacked the Interact HUD. Inactive options are now faded out. Interaction title and info are now centered.



You can now Open and Use objects while holding any kind of repair tool.



HUD Map now displays your settings from the Map Menu, so anything from minerals to base objects can be viewed while exploring.



Vehicles now display the HUD Map too.



Physical Stats and Leveling Up have been added back with an improved interface. You can now increase your abilities as you progress in level.



Your Vitals can now be inspected with a tool tip to display detailed information of your health, nutrition, hunger, and more.



The Lower HUD is now 3D. We also mute nominal Vitals from the HUD.



We added a "Fill" option to easily transfer your inventory. There is also a "Fill Like" that intelligently fills like-typed items for easy item management.



Build options now show the required structure to unlock and for builds requiring proximity to specific Utilities.



We added small but helpful touches such as the Battery Icon now pulses when using your Flashlight and Inventory weight displayed with a meter. Planet day cycle and location are also shown.



You can also now teleport your drones to your position.



Your feedback helped us identify some subtle issues we may have missed, such as walking diagonally taking stamina. We also cleaned up some old bugs like unfinished Habitats with walls that appear on reload. Both fixed, along with many more. Here's our full list:

Added - 3D HUD
Added - Animate the HUD based on input
Added - New Deposit All and Deposit Like buttons to inventory UI
Added - Fade out nominal vitals
Added - Fade out Equip Slots, fade in when used for a time
Added - Harvest interact is based on what you're holding
Added - Level Up physical stats with improved interface
Added - Cleaned up Item descriptions panel
Added - Player Model back into Inventory Screen
Added - Weight Meter in Inventory Screen
Added - Faded out inactive Interacts
Added - Better interact instructions for Geysers
Added - mouse overs to Vitals in Menu Screens
Added - Battery icon pulse when flashlight is on
Added - Tab Circle when pressing Tab in a menu
Added - Inspection Descriptions now turn off when going to a menu and resume when leaving menu
Added - Voice Log system added as a pickup and raid item
Added - Voice Log Listening interface
Added - support to bring in debug missions for testing
Added - more detail to auto typing text
Added - Fuel Cell upgrade to Forge
Added - Full screen layout for all menu modes
Added - Turn off Stat Elements when in Map and Skills Screen
Added - Planet day cycle data Show Planet Rotation Speed in Hours on Clock
Added - location coords to Menu
Added - Planet Name and site to Menus
Added - Fail safe to teleport droid to base
Added - location type to Menus
Added - locked build objects to menus
Added - Unlock requirements to locked build objects
Added - Level Up Alert
Added - Show Structures in Map Screen

Changed - Text and layout pass on all UI menus
Changed - Smoothed out rock textures when viewed from a distance
Changed - Set raid object to always give listed objects for missions
Changed - Repositioned Battery Icon
Changed - Cleaned up Center Queue alerts
Changed - Improved Centered Interact Text
Changed - Forge no longer requires Fuel Cell to build
Changed - Forge by default requires fuel
Changed - Forges built before this update will gain the Fuel Cell Upgrade by default
Changed - player slightly moved to center in 3rd person
Changed - Minerals now properly render on the minimap
Changed - Utilities/Inventories can now be accessed and operated while holding a Tinkering tool
Changed - improved and clarified UI in Crash Pod tutorial sequence.
Changed - Improve HUD meters on all objects
Changed - Compass text size
Changed - Clean up various Inventory screens
Changed - Tweaked build object colors for various states
Changed - Improved description in unstuck Buttons
Changed - Rework Map controls in Map Panel
Changed - Discovery now shows Minerals first
Changed - Improved Depository material
Changed - Improved Printer Collision
Changed - Improved Printer active lights
Changed - Spacecraft and Space Appliances are now all unlocked with the building of a Laboratory

Fixed - Map now is displayed in all vehicle types
Fixed - New Mission gets turned off after viewing missions
Fixed - Duplication bug when quick stacking items into multiple stacks
Fixed - Optimized runtime impact of the Minimap and GPS screens
Fixed - Numerous issues with items not properly rendering on the minimap or GPS map
Fixed - Graphics settings will no longer reset to defaults after planet travel
Fixed - Walking diagonally reduces stamina
Fixed - Redicle re activates when going in and out of menus
Fixed - some objects not pickable in 3rd Person
Fixed - Disappearing Space debris on Proteus 2
Fixed - Habitats with walls missing will no longer render ghost walls after leaving and returning
Fixed - Weather is now properly persistent in save games
Fixed - Issues causing Weather to not sync to other players properly in multiplayer


We'll send these additions to the Main Branch once everything looks good. For now we have plenty more to do, so we'll get right back to it!

-Brian

This exchanged cracked me up recently:

"Did you catch any of that?" – Boba Fett
"Something about friendship?" -Fennec
"We really need a protocol droid." – Boba Fett

While 2021 was a fantastic year for OND, we’re even more excited about 2022! To start things off we are focusing effort in these areas:

The next round of iteration on the AI itself is underway - the brains of the creatures and how they think and operate based on a number of data points in the world. We are also moving the creatures over to a physics-based system, which will eliminate creatures falling through the ground or through player characters. Having physically based creatures might also have various side benefits, such as running over creatures with your Buggie.

Overall, our goal is to make the battle against hostile alien creatures a key gameplay element of the overall experience. Combat encounters should be something that requires a balance of skill, strategy, and preparation.


*Impaling creatures with special moves is just one of the strategic actions in this next iteration of the combat system.

Voice recording, mission logs, and location based set pieces are being added. Our aim is to expand the lore of the game to include the Osiris Missions, UNE Mission Control on Luna (our moon), and the missing crew that mysteriously vanished prior to your arrival.


*3D HUD elements can have secondary motion based on input as an option.

The UI continues to get iteration due to changing gameplay systems and what becomes primary and secondary information. The HUD also feels a bit cluttered right now, so we’re addressing that. Quality of life polish such as fading, animating, and transitioning the UI can be added to feel more immersive. Some players have also asked for the 3D UI from earlier versions, so we’re making that an option.

Performing weekly updates last year had numerous benefits such as stabilizing a healthy code base and streamlining the commit process, but we also found that this frequency started to impair forward progress. For the next few rounds we will try a bi-monthly schedule for larger releases, with small patches and Experimental Builds dropped as needed. After a few releases we'll likely gauge how this has been working and make adjustments accordingly.

In the near term we expect to have a release on Experimental Branch in the next week or two, with a main branch landing soon after.

Once this batch of material is complete we’ll work from the Roadmap, prioritizing the highest voted items first. If you haven’t already, be sure to vote on our Official Trello Board Roadmap.



Something we like to do over the holidays is give the OND website a nice new coat of paint. Here’s some stuff we did to spruce things up and serve you better:

• Overall style cleanup throughout the site for easier reading on all devices
  
• New Support page with Knowledge Base and Ticketing Channel (so far this has proven to be way better than juggling emails)

We’re excited to see where these new efforts take the game and can’t wait to see where this next chapter takes us. From all of us on the OND team, thanks for playing and we hope you all have a fantastic 2022!

Happy Holidays Explorers! We're proud to graduate the latest Experimental Branch changes along with some additional minor polish in, what will likely be, our final update of the year.

And what a year it's been! Since we bought back our publishing rights just over a year ago, Fenix Fire has performed 62 updates, 10 of which were large feature and content expansions to the game. Not only did we further expand the game, but also put a considerable focus on code clean up, game engine updates, optimizations, save game stability, and multiplayer stability. At this point the code base has largely been rewritten, we're in a healthy version of Unity, and the project is in a very workable and solid state to develop from.

And we're not done yet! There is still more that we want to do. Yes, we're still in Early Access, but this process is not a race for us, it's about quality and striving towards giving you the best version of this experience we possibly can.

To celebrate our most productive year we've ever had, here's a brief rundown of some of the more significant updates released:


More detailed creature AI and intelligent spawning systems.


Greatly expanded the underground areas of the game across all planets.


Option to choose to sleep through the night at your base.


Large expansion of map and GPS features along with satellite systems to view and find resources.


Remastered Zer, the planet closest to the star. Also added the Deep Terrain Drill.


Our largest update of the year. Biomes, Space Station, and Species Discovery added.


Planet Lutari added, Aziel Remastered, and new robots added.


Salvageable Base Ruins and Remastered Mech.


Project overhaul that refocused on Survival as the core gameplay pillar.

Added - VFX and SFX for upgrade completion to match that of construction completion
Added - Updated Radar Scanner handheld screen graphic to better represent current use

Changed - Tweaked Spaceship landing to be more lenient for various landing surfaces, allowing it to touch down sooner
Changed - Upon touching down, the Spaceship's landing gear will now gently lower the ship closer to the surface
Changed - Right click while wielding the Radar Scanner will now open the GPS screen
Changed - Gave planet's informational cards realistic temperature values when highlighting them in low orbit
Changed - Public servers now have a 30 day wipe cycle instead of 14 days (will update on next cycle for active servers)
Changed - Disabled missions in Creative Mode
Changed - Swapped out Zer Creature shaders with optimized variant

Fixed - Improved inventory persistence stability (In Previous Main Hotfix v0.5.227)
Fixed - GPS filter selection is no longer reset when entering the GPS Map, it is once again properly saved
Fixed - Removed moons Proteus 2, Lutari, and Aziel from low orbit of Zer as they were unintended to be there.
Fixed - Polished a few instances of mesh edges visible on Zer
Fixed - Reset VSync to saved value during intro cinematic to reduce screen tearing
Fixed - Cut off text in difficulty buttons in main menu
Fixed - Removed explosion sounds from intro cinematic
Fixed - Instances where Spaceship landing gear would fly in from offscreen after takeoff
Fixed - 0 TOD cycle rate no longer affects Main menu and Intro Cinematic


Unless anything pops up that requires a patch, I've instructed the team to take the rest of the year off and enjoy their holiday break. We look forward to returning in January invigorated and ready to tackle the next chapter of Osiris: New Dawn!

From all of us on the OND team, please enjoy this latest update and have a wonderful, and safe, holiday!

Brian



And now a quote from my favorite Christmas movie:
"Got invited to the Christmas party by mistake. Who knew?"

*Note - These changes are only on the Experimental Branch. To access the Experimental Branch, be sure to select it in your Steam Library. If this app does not appear, please check if this app is hidden in your Library. Experimental Branch changes upgrade to the primary branch monthly.



Hey explorers! We've been putting a good deal of focus on stabilization and performance in multiplayer these past weeks, and now we'd like to celebrate these core code improvements with longer server cycles in Public Universes from 14 days to 30 days.

We've also looked at a few other items brought to us through the community, and knocked those out too. Here's the notes this week:

Added - Updated Radar Scanner handheld screen graphic to better represent current use

Changed - Tweaked Spaceship landing to be more lenient for various landing surfaces, allowing it to touch down sooner
Changed - Upon touching down, the Spaceship's landing gear will now gently lower the ship closer to the surface
Changed - Right click while wielding the Radar Scanner will now open the GPS screen
Changed - Gave planet's informational cards realistic temperature values when highlighting them in low orbit
Changed - Public servers now have a 30 day wipe cycle instead of 14 days (will update on next cycle for active servers)

Fixed - Improved inventory persistence stability (In Previous Main Hotfix v0.5.227)
Fixed - GPS filter selection is no longer reset when entering the GPS Map, it is once again properly saved
Fixed - Removed moons Proteus 2, Lutari, and Aziel from low orbit of Zer as they were unintended to be there.

With many of the edge case, minor fixes, and adjustments out of the way we may give ourselves a bit more time between patches to allow for development focus on some larger systems, such as the story implementation (which kind of needs to be dropped all in one go) and combat improvements (which encapsulates many analogous systems).

Anyway, we hope you enjoy this latest patch and we'll be out there across our channels to get your feedback. As always, once this Experimental Branch settles we'll graduate to the Main branch.

-Brian

Rogue One, my third favorite Star Wars film, has this great line from the hilarious K-2SO:

"Congratulations. You Are Being Rescued."

Hey Explorers!

The testing and reports from the past two Experimental builds have performed well, so we're graduating the branch this week. In case you missed it, here's the notes for the past two weeks:

Added - Custom markers now appear on compass
Added - New meteor type to Proteus 2
Added - Multiplayer data safeguards to better persist through crashes of either host or clients
Added - Additional loading screen messaging for remote clients joining a host
Added - More robust system for syncing save data among all clients

Changed - Upped 3 active creature ragdoll limit to 10, will evaluate more solutions soon
Changed - Tweaked current mission set to lead the player through the tech tree
Changed - Very old legacy worlds will no longer be migrated to the new data system to better maintain stability of current saves

Fixed - Objects can once again be built on Custom Piece structures
Fixed - Removed nonfunctional customize screen on various objects
Fixed - Zer planet is no longer blindingly bright in low orbit
Fixed - Default language now properly is applied based on system languageFixed - Leaving an item inside the fuel window on objects such as the furnace will no longer prevent the fuel window from being accessible afterwards

Fixed - Sorting containers with multiple items in non-full stacks will no longer cause items to go missing or to be duplicated
Fixed - Crashes occurring during client joining or leaving should no longer cause data losses or duplication
Fixed - Logging out on other planets should no longer cause the player to spawn back in with their ship in orbit
Fixed - Spaceship crash handling has been further improved to reduce the instances a player will spawn back in without/far away from their ship

Please reach out to us regarding language localization to verify it's working for you.

Osiris: New Dawn - Official Discord Server

If you experience any problems loading please reach out to us here. The last thing we want is for you to have any trouble playing and experiencing the game.

Sincerely,
-Brian

*Note - These changes are only on the Experimental Branch. To access the Experimental Branch, be sure to select it in your Steam Library. If this app does not appear, please check if this app is hidden in your Library. Experimental Branch changes upgrade to the primary branch monthly.



Hey explorers! Experimental Branch is getting a fresh batch of stability fixes, along with some more missions to aid in learning the game's tech tree for new players. We've also been expanding the multiplayer persistency, such as a system that allows any client to continue saving it there is an unexpected drop.

Added - Multiplayer data safeguards to better persist through crashes of either host or clients
Added - Additional loading screen messaging for remote clients joining a host
Added - More robust system for syncing save data among all clients

Changed - Tweaked current mission set to lead the player through the tech tree
Changed - Very old legacy worlds will no longer be migrated to the new data system to better maintain stability of current saves

Fixed - Leaving an item inside the fuel window on objects such as the furnace will no longer prevent the fuel window from being accessible afterwards

Fixed - Sorting containers with multiple items in non-full stacks will no longer cause items to go missing or to be duplicated

Fixed - Crashes occurring during client joining or leaving should no longer cause data losses or duplication

Fixed - Logging out on other planets should no longer cause the player to spawn back in with their ship in orbit

Fixed - Spaceship crash handling has been further improved to reduce the instances a player will spawn back in without/far away from their ship


Well, that's it for this week. In the meantime, we 're moving full steam ahead on our next larger update. Enjoy!

-Brian

I've always loved this exchange:

Cooper: Dr. Mann there's a 50/50 chance your gonna kill yourself.
Dr. Mann: Those are the best odds I've had in years.

*Note - These changes are only on the Experimental Branch. To access the Experimental Branch, be sure to select it in your Steam Library. If this app does not appear, please check if this app is hidden in your Library. Experimental Branch changes upgrade to the primary branch monthly.



Hey explorers! Just dropping a short but impactful patch this week on the Experimental Branch.

Added - Custom markers now appear on compass
Added - New meteor type to Proteus 2

Changed - Upped 3 active creature ragdoll limit to 10, will evaluate more solutions soon

Fixed - Objects can once again be built on Custom Piece structures
Fixed - Removed nonfunctional customize screen on various objects
Fixed - Zer planet is no longer blindingly bright in low orbit
Fixed - Default language now properly is applied based on system language

We'll graduate these changes to the Main Branch after they've digested a bit. Please reach out to us regarding language localization to verify it's working for you.

Osiris: New Dawn - Official Discord Server

In the meantime, we have plenty of work ahead of us and will get back to it!

-Brian

Can anyone place this movie quote?
"Just point it at Earth and fly forward; it's not rocket science!"

Happy Halloween! We're celebrating by releasing loads of optimizations and multiplayer stabilizations, along with a few dark secrets.

Be careful what you find creeping in the darkness. It might be a lost crew member's residual energy, or it might be something far worse. Also, Arachnoid and Gnat are back in action.

We've been exploring how we can make room for more creatures, vehicles, and base items in the world and have created a powerful and robust level of detail system. Completely custom coded, lightweight and powerful, this system intelligently handles processing of all objects in any given scenario to ensure proper persistence, functionality, and item data sync. We have been testing this in the Experimental Branch and have graduated it here to Main.

Chasing down desyncing in multiplayer has been a huge focus all month, and after a couple of rounds of identifying edge cases we've applied more fixes and graduated these updates to the main branch.

Added - Lurking in the Shadows Event Additions
Added - Makeshift Marker to utilities and dungeon early game crafting options
Added - New experimental chunked LOD system, currently implemented on only a few objects, but eventually should assist with performance on larger or more populated maps if testing continues well

Changed - Localization will now automatically default to your local system's default language
NOTE: Saved localization language setting has been reset to local system's default language with this update
Changed - Partially reworked multiplayer Savegame handling to increase reliability during network/performance instabilities, more changes coming to further increase stability and reliability
Changed - Reworked multiplayer persistent object spawning to increase reliability
Changed - Space Station travel route calculation is now much faster (Reworked and greatly optimized connected structure collector code)
Changed - Reworked Spaceship Crash handler

Fixed - Rocks and plants should no longer be invisible after a trip into the mines
Fixed - Reduced severity of common framerate hitches when navigating around a large space station
Fixed - Azalea bush should remain visually harvested at a distance
Fixed - Persistent objects that were previously dismantled should no longer reappear after reloading
Fixed - More instances where spaceships were getting duplicated after travel between planets
Fixed - Conduit Bender now properly works in third person
Fixed - Multiplayer disconnects should be much less frequent
Fixed - Performance impact of droids and creatures should be greatly reduced
Fixed - Various instances of Spaceships getting lost after the game is force closed
Fixed - Spaceships that are respawned after a crash or force close should now properly spawn with the player inside and be fully visible
Fixed - Persistent buildables duplication should be much less prevalent in multiplayer due to reworked multiplayer saving, even during network/performance instability
Fixed - Droids that are lost under the world will be teleported back to the surface after a short time
Fixed - Vehicles that are lost under the world will be teleported back to the surface after a short time
Fixed - Various issues with connected structure collection code that caused the route calculation on the Space Station to take far too long

NOTE: Work In Progress (WIP) - Not yet visible systems, still requires setup on all moons and planets for these changes to be visible in gameplay.

Current creature spawn system is operational and unchanged, will be disabled once new system is operational.

(WIP) Added - New approach to handling creature spawns to avoid distracting creature pop-in, leveraging new LOD system to maintain performance at scale
(WIP) Added - New Creature Conductor that manages creatures daily schedules, efficiently updating them when they are distant from the player
(WIP) Added - Persistent creature system, creatures will only visually despawn when out of range, and will be saved and loaded with the world, and will be respawned over time
(WIP) Added - Support for dynamic creature patrol routes
(WIP) Added - Support for different AI States in creature AI logic to differentiate behaviours among various species

Be sure to have yourself and fun and spooky Halloween!
-Brian and the Osiris: New Dawn team

*Note - These changes are only on the Experimental Branch. To access the Experimental Branch, be sure to select it in your Steam Library. If this app does not appear, please check if this app is hidden in your Library. Experimental Branch changes upgrade to the primary branch monthly.



Hey explorers! We've been listening to you, recording any errors reported, and have a healthy set of fixes/improvements for you this week on the Experimental Branch. Let's get right to the change list...

Added - New Optimized system for detecting when an object is under the world, increasing performance in overpopulated worlds and better handling objects that have fallen through the world

Changed - Partially reworked multiplayer Savegame handling to increase reliability during network/performance instabilities, more changes coming to further increase stability and reliability
Changed - Reworked multiplayer persistent object spawning to increase reliability
Changed - Spacestation travel route calculation is now much faster (Reworked and greatly optimized connected structure collector code)
Changed - Reworked Spaceship Crash handler

Fixed - Various instances of Spaceships getting lost after the game is force closed
Fixed - Spaceships that are respawned after a crash or force close should now properly spawn with the player inside and be fully visible
Fixed - Persistent buildables duplication should be much less prevalent in multiplayer due to reworked multiplayer saving, even during network/performance instability
Fixed - Droids that are lost under the world will be teleported back to the surface after a short time
Fixed - Vehicles that are lost under the world will be teleported back to the surface after a short time
Fixed - Various issues with connected structure collection code that caused the route calculation on the Space Station to take far too long

Hopefully these additions and fixes solve the issues some of you have found. Once we've confirmed stability we'll graduate all these changes to the Main Branch. In the meantime, we'll be testing these changes further and moving ahead on our next round of material.

-Brian

And now for a truly classic piece of movie dialogue:

Leia: "I love you."
Solo: "I know."