Hey cowboys! It’s the end of February, so another monthly update is already here. What’s new, you ask? See for yourself.


GAMEPLAY

We are working hard to improve melee combat, and there is a new feature added for those who fancy knives. Now you can finish an enemy with a blade if his health is reduced to a certain amount.

We have also fixed knockouts, navigation errors for Outcasts and Scalphunters patrols and many other pesky bugs and issues.



QUESTS

Idol in Anomaly quest was significantly reworked. There are new ways to solve it and brand new cutscenes. On the top of that, now you can obtain beads whether you helped Scalphunters with the idol or didn’t.

There’s also a new quest connected to this one, it is called Making a Profit.

LEVEL DESIGN

Our level designers are very busy at the moment with an important task—they are doing their best to improve the abandoned ship, so there are no big changes on The Edge in this update but some furniture in the mining village.



SOUND

There are plenty of SFX changes, though.

First of all, we’ve reworked the attenuation of sounds in the game world to make it more plausible, decreased the initial volume of the game audio mix, improved the balance between all the in-game sounds and the positioning of sound effects close to the player’s character.



Second, we have also slightly improved the sounds of range weapons, reworked the sound of impact while shooting and fixed a bug where the sound of a hitting shot was not audible.

And, of course, we finally added sounds of a barge.



VISUALS

Another batch of apparel's was transferred to PBR.

NEW TEAM WEBSITE

Recently we launched the official Exoplanet website with a forum.



And today we also would like to bring to life our old hacked and broken team’s website, https://alersteam.com/. There’s a brand new and simple design, and we hope you will like it.

That’s all for now. Thanks for your support, we will be back in a month with another update.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/531660/Exoplanet_First_Contact/

The long holidays are over and we are eager to show you the results of our recent work. This update contains less new quests or gameplay features but lays solid foundation for further major improvements coming up this year.

We have added only one but pretty fun quest that gives you more insight into Scalphunter tribe lore.



In terms of visuals we focused our efforts on improving the rest of the clothing models for aborigines, so they will look more colorful and diverse than ever.




VISUAL IMPROVEMENTS:

• All models of the aboriginal clothing now use Physical Based Rendering (PBR) technology for their textures.
  
• Our custom shader is applied when possible so designers now are able to dye these clothes in a wide range of colors.
  
• A number of hats were adjusted to fit other races and now use PBR, so they can come in different color variations as well.
  
• Terrain textures for the desert biome were replaced by a better set.

COMBAT MECHANICS GOT MORE DEPTH:

• Blocking was added as an option for the player in combat. Hold Right Mouse Button to block.
  
• Heavy attacks are now activated by pressing Shift+Left Mouse Button combination.
  
• NPCs now can choose behavior patterns between attacking, holding the distance, strafing, side stepping and blocking.
  
• In melee fights characters now will use more appropriate animations for different attacks (still placeholders though).
  
• NPCs now will reload their weapons when shooting.

AI:

• Obstacle avoidance algorithm for NPCs was improved.

QUEST CONTENT:

• A new Quest was added to the Scalphunter camp. Talk to the character called Wall Eye near the big cage with beasts to start it.

Thanks for staying with us and providing your immensely valuable feedback!
Don't forget to join our Discord server for more news and discussions about Exoplanet.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/531660/Exoplanet_First_Contact/

Hey folks! It is almost Christmas, and there’s no better time to take a breath after this tough and exhausting year. We were working hard to release our biggest update ever, and we've put a great deal of effort into delivering as much content as possible to please everyone who fancies trying a space cowboy outfit on this holiday. So yeah, it is another regular monthly update.

Let’s see what’s in the box!




GAMEPLAY

We have released the very first iteration of stealth last month, and now it is time to improve it. We started with NPCs’ AI.



First of all, there was an issue when NPCs do not notice Jack when he is in stealth mode, even if he’s right in front of them. But not anymore!

Second, NPCs now have an indicator. If Jack lurks or sneaks somewhere nearby an NPC, the NPC gets suspicious. Thus, if the question mark above an NPC becomes red, it is time to fight or skedaddle.



We have another surprise for those who like to play as a thief. Pickpocketing. Master this craft to steal random loot from NPCs or to plant anything into their pockets. It is also the very first iteration and is not much useful in quests yet but we are definitely going to expand it by developing a crime system.

Of course, you need a teacher to learn something like this. Look for an abori in the Scalphunters camp named Short Fused. There’s a chance he will agree to teach ‘stupid huma’ his craft. Watch your pockets, though.



Another thing to mention is upcoming gameplay changes. We do understand that gameplay-wise Exoplanet could use an upgrade, and it is our top priority for the beginning of the next year. Particularly, melee combat and gunplay.

And the very first gameplay change is a small tweak for Jack. When the guy is out of stamina, he staggers and slows down in order to catch his breath. Not much for a Christmas gift but it is a harsh world after all. Deal with it, Jacky.



NPCs received a better present—speech bubbles to share their piece of mind. These bubbles are usually a reaction to events around them, to Jack himself and his success and failures.



LEVEL DESIGN

We have completely reworked the very beginning of the game. Jack still wakes up in the desert but the desert has changed. We have also improved the tutorial, so there are gameplay changes as well. The idea behind this change is to improve user experience, to give the player a direction and to show some basic mechanics.



This is work in progress, so we really need your feedback. Any comments are welcome.

QUESTS

There are two more quests for Jack. The very first one, Survival for Dummies, is connected with the new beginning. The next one, Dust Devils, can be found while exploring the world, so make sure you won’t miss it.



VISUALS AND SOUND

We’ve made a great deal of visual and sound improvements for this update. They are mostly cosmetic but it is still worth mentioning. We've also fixed some animations and assets, and replaced some old sounds with the new ones.



FUTURE UPDATES

While we are releasing updates for The Edge, there is another work in progress. We have been developing the new big location with the town for quite some time now. We will share more information about it later, so it is better to join our Discord if you want to see more sneak peeks in the new year.



NEW WEBSITE AND FORUM

Last but definitely not the least.

We just launched the official Exoplanet website with a forum. They are available at https://exoplanetgame.com/ and http://forum.exoplanetgame.com.



So far, our website is mostly a landing page with some interesting stuff and a news feed but we are going to expand it a bit later, once we have all the planned mechanics in-game. Subscribe to our mailing list to receive important updates about the game, and sign-up to our forum to ask us anything or to share your gaming experience. Keep in mind, there's a chance the mail will end up in spam folder, we are doing our best to fix it.

That’s all for now.



I believe we all deserve a break to spend some time with our folks. And we wish you the same thing. Enjoy your holidays, have a great time with your close ones and be happy.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Alersteam and personally from Jack Sharp.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/531660/Exoplanet_First_Contact/

Hey folks!

As you know, we have released a major update last month with a brand new version of the game. We are very grateful for your feedback and are very excited to continue our work. And here's another update. As it was promised we are going to make updates more regularly, probably monthly. Thus, we will do our best to make another update before the Christmas. Now, to the changelog.


GAMEPLAY

As you may know, we are fond of interesting quests and are willing to create a few different ways to solve them, using different playstyles. You can trick NPCs, pick locks, use environment to your advantage, be a smooth talker or complete tasks with a mere force. Today we are adding another valuable mechanic, and it is the very first iteration of STEALTH.



Now you can crouch ('C' button), sneak and finish your enemies ('R' button) without bringing a lot of attention. We are going to use this stealth option for the new quests and probably will update a few old ones. Of course, since it is the very first iterations, there will be issues. Please report everything, and we will improve the system.



QUESTS

There are two new quests in the game, Crucases' Fat and Erik Craven. The last one is a bounty hunt where you have to handle the whole gang. Perhaps, you can use stealth to eliminate some of the bandits to get an advantage.



From now on, dialogues have automatic camera. This is just a very first step to improve players' experience, and we will improve this feature over time.

We have also added a few cutscenes to the game. They are also not final but it is always important to take a look at these cutscenes in-game to make them better. And we will.

LEVEL DESIGN

We've updated the area with the camp where Erik and his gang are resting.

We have also updated a few other areas on The Edge like the Scalphunter's Camp, for example.



SOUND

There are a lot of SFX improvements: sounds for hitting and looting, dragging a body, shooting bottles etc. Also, the game plays different sounds of your steps if you are walking on different surfaces: sand, soil, rock, metal etc.



ASSETS

We have updated A.N.N.A.'s model. It is not yet ready, we are still experimenting with her look to find a perfect balance between a human and a fractured hologram.

Another large piece of work is migration characters' outfits to PBR, which was partially made in the last update. But it is time to review the work and to improve the result. It will help us to raise the quality of characters which will be even better visible in cutscenes with close shots.



OTHER

There was a great deal of bugs we fixed, of course. But please report if you face any issue. You can do that in our Discord channel. That's it for now, thanks for your support, follow the game to keep yourself updated.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/531660/Exoplanet_First_Contact/

Hey folks! There were no news from us for quite some time but we were testing the new version of Exoplanet, gathering feedback and updating the testing build. And today we would like to show you the result.



The new build replaced the old version, though it is still available in a different branch if you’d like to try it: right click on Exoplanet in your Library -> Properties -> Betas -> choose ‘legacy’ (no password required).



It is worth mentioning that some good ideas will be reworked for the new builds, so let us know if you have favorite quests, characters, areas or anything else—we’ll consider your feedback. As for the rest, press 'F' to pay respects.



From now on, we are going to make updates and news frequently. We changed our approach to the development and are keen to fix such a pesky issue as a lack of conversation with our community. I will tell you more about everything in the end of this post and will try to answer some questions you might have. But let us start with a changelog for the new update.



So, what can you find in the new version of the game?

There are a lot of changes, and it is much better to see them with your own eyes, especially if you tried the old version to see the difference. I’ll try to mention the most important things. Keep in mind, there are some placeholders and bugs, please report everything whether you have a blocker, low FPS or encountered a visual issue.

At the moment there’s a relatively small location with a complex multilayer design, mostly created with new assets. That’s the place where Jack's adventure begins, and here you can get an idea about the world of K’Tharsis and its harsh laws.




As you may know, our project is developing with our custom built engine called Sahara, and it was significantly improved. Now it supports a great deal of state-of-the-art techniques and effects like SSAO and HDR.



We also added such features as PBR and IBL. They allow us to achieve realistic picture, reflecting light from assets’ surface depending on its material. In order to do that, we had to rework all the existing assets. A huge amount of work which is almost finished with the help of freelancers.




We put a lot of time to create a brand new system for day-night cycle. Now our sky is a bunch of layers where every layer is responsible for certain things (positions of sun and moons, clouds, lighting etc) and takes into account each other’s effects and priorities. Also, we added volumetric fog, and we can change its altitude and density.



With this system we can easily create new weather effects (rain, sandstorm etc) or a certain atmosphere for certain areas.


There’s a basic role-playing system in the game now, and Jack can master lock picking, speechcraft and other valuable skills. Of course, he has to find a teacher and pay for that first. Nothing comes for free. All these skills will affect your quests’ walkthroughs.



Almost every quest in the game is new. We reworked our quest and dialogue systems to improve them. These technologies now support non-linearity and other complex but awesome mechanics we can add to quests.



Also, we created our own cutscene editor. We believe it will help us to improve game’s narrative and emphasize some details important for quests. You can already find the very first testing cutscenes in the build. They are drafts without a sound yet but we will improve it.



We made a brand new AI system and transferred every single NPC to it. This way we can create new behavior patterns now. Also, we improved NPCs’ navigation with navpoints. That’s the very first step to create a full-fledged schedule for NPCs.



Another important change is modular weapons. Every weapon used to be a whole asset, now it is a composite mechanism where every element has its own parameters. This way we can make a proper crafting and customization, giving each NPC a unique weapon which is more suitable to its status. Also, now weapons take into account owner skills when used.



Jack also mastered a few new tricks like climbing and carrying dead bodies or captured NPCs—a really useful thing if you need to hide a body or deliver a criminal alive.



He can also scan objects to learn the world around him, adding notes to his journal, or examine potential enemies. This function is not completed yet and will be significantly improved.




We reworked a great deal of old sounds, there are no stock ones now. Also, we've created brand new music tracks for The Edge and are working now on new pieces.

That’s just a small amount of changes from the new build, it is better to learn about the rest in the game. Do not forget to share your feedback with us. It is better to do that in our Discord channel. This will help us to make the game better.




As I promised, I’ll try to tell you about our new development principles and answer some important questions you might have.

Why abandon the old version?

Exoplanet development started as a hobby, we put our own money into the development, working on full-time jobs. There were no business plans, no deadlines or any budget, the development was chaotic. And the result of that was the old location with a lot of issues and mistakes (big empty areas, flawed assets, bad level design decisions). Now, with proper planning, we won’t let that happen once again.



What did you change in the development process?

Now we have stable project financing, it allowed us to start real commercial development about a year ago. And we are doing our best to increase our pace.

First of all, we've created a complete storyflow for the game. It was used to plan the amount of content, pipelines and deadlines. In order to match them we started to work full-time and significantly expanded our team, focusing on creating content while outsourcing other tasks.



With pipelines we managed to establish quests production. We are working on new quests and reworking the old ones with new mechanics, and some of them are almost ready. This will allow us to constantly add new content with every update.

Is it a completely new game now?

The principles and pillars are the same. That’s just a brand new location with significant progress compared to the old build.



How come you didn’t post any updates for a long time?

We were really focused on the game, trying to build a team, to plan everything, to establish business processes, there was no time and no spare hands to do that. We understand that this is not how it should be and we’ll do our best to hire someone who can keep you posted about the development. It is better to join our Discord, though. It was recently updated, and we are going to post unique content there, share regular news about the development, screenshots etc.



I hope this will help you to understand what’s going on with the project. Feel free to ask any questions, I’ll do my best to answer them.

Thank you very much for your patience, we really appreciate your support.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/531660/Exoplanet_First_Contact/

Hey, space cowboys! The private testing is finally finished and we want to share the brand new version of Exoplanet with all of you. We hope you will enjoy this Halloween weekend and will be pleased with the game and its progress. Have a nice time.

Since the beginning of the private testing we've managed to deliver four updates to improve the game, to add as much content as possible and to polish its rough edges. Thus, the new build should be stable yet pretty raw at some places but we believe it is quite ready to test it with a wider audience.

Our sincerest gratitude to those who participated in the testing, fighting bugs and providing feedback in order to make the game better and to deliver a more flawless experience for this open release. Thank you very much, folks, your help is priceless.



So, what to expect from the new location called The Edge?

It is worth mentioning that you can learn a great deal of information about the area, new features and assets as well as to find a lot of screenshots, artworks and GIFs in our previous announcement for the first private testing build (v0.45).

So, what we have achieved during the private testing?

The Edge can be completed. Of course, we are going to add even more content over time and to add more ways to solve some quests. Anyway, we've managed to add a bunch of new quests and to improve the ones available from the start of the testing.



We almost finished transferring our assets to PBR. Physically based rendering significantly improves the quality of graphics, and the game looks much better than ever.

Of course, we made a huge work to improve performance of the game. It needs some testing but Exoplanet should run pretty smooth with full 60 FPS on modern rigs. Your feedback on this will be very appreciated.

We've reworked dialogue's UI. That's the very first version and we are crave to learn your opinion about it. There are a whole lot of new assets. For example, we completely reworked the buildings around the mine with new modular assets. Also, we are working hard to improve the brand new day and night system: K’Tharsian sky is a work in progress at the moment and spoils the view due to the lack of clouds, but we are going to improve it with upcoming updates.



We are also working on a few different new locations at the moment. The most important one, of course, is Windscream Canyon, the area with the town. That is gonna be the biggest area in the game. Keep in mind, it will be a brand new Canyon, completely different from the one available in the old Steam build.

There are even more changes to mention but it is better to try it, so let's get to business. To get access to the new Exoplanet build, please, follow these steps:



- right click on Exoplanet: First Contact in you Steam library and select Properties
- click BETAS
- enter password dfsef23e65Kpo3 and click CHECK CODE
- select the testing build: test_build - for testing
- restart Steam to download the build if the download hasn't started
- join our Discord to share your thought about the game in #feedback channel

Thank you for your patience and support.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/531660/Exoplanet_First_Contact/

Hey folks! The new build with a brand new location called The Edge is here. It is uploaded to the beta branch on Steam and ready for the private testing we announced recently.

Thus, if you are keen to try the new version of Exoplanet, you still can join the testing if you meet the qualification. Learn more on the link below CHANGELOG. The ones who’ve already joined will get an email with details soon.



But if you don’t want to test the raw build and prefer a more flawless experience but are still interested in the changes, you can learn more about The Edge on the link below. There are a lot of new features, assets, GIFs and screenshots to see.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/531660/announcements/detail/2205020323682180592

If the current build is stable, we will consider opening it for everyone who owns Exoplanet. Otherwise we’ll take some time to analyze players’ feedback, to improve the build and to fix its flaws.

A heartfelt thanks for your patience and support.

Hey, folks. There have been no updates for a long time but it is time to break the silence and make an important announcement.

As you know we are working hard on the brand new starting location and testing a great deal of new features and other things at the moment. Many of them are already implemented and some are still work in progress to be added in a few months. This is a huge step forward but it definitely needs some testing before the release. Thus, we feel the necessity to share our progress with you and to show you what we’ve managed to achieve so far. It’s time to raise the curtain.



Here’s the deal: we are going to make a private testing for those who're keen to try the new version of Exoplanet. Once the testing is done, we will analyze players’ feedback and decide if we are ready to make it open for everyone or if it needs more work before that.



We cherish all the feedback from our community, so your opinion is very important and will help us to improve the game to create a more flawless experience for everyone. So if you want to join testing, there's a small instruction at the end of the article.

Meanwhile I am going to tell you more about the new location called The Edge. Please, keep in mind that all presented images and GIFs are work in progress: there are some placeholders and bugs, of course, and still a lot of testing going on.



Visual-wise, The Edge is mostly ready. There are a lot of visual upgrades, and we really crave to get your opinion about these changes.

One of the most important things was creating a brand new set of rocks for the game (60 pieces). They used to be brown like the old ones but we’ve decided to change their color to blue, and the whole world feels different now. We’ve also made a set of various big and small stones for middle and small scale.



The next big thing was adding HDR support to the Sahara engine. This way we can achieve a more contrast picture with realistic lighting and detalization.



Now caves, for example, are truly dark, though they appear in classic brown-ish colors if there is a source of light available.



Another change is a brand new day and night system. The old one was basic while the new one is very flexible and allows us to add new weather effects and effects for different times of day. Now we can easily change the sky’s color and brightness of the sun, add clouds, fog and much more. Thus, you can finally experience dusk and dawn in the game. They are a work in progress but I reckon we’ll finish them in time. Day and night were also upgraded.



We made huge progress with new grass but still experimenting with its colors, changing it from withered to lush green, and vice versa.



There are also some experiments going on with color correction. Not to mention a great amount of work on textures.



Level design in the new area was significantly improved, it is a true open world now. There are no more flaws like long open world-ish passages as it is in some places of the current Steam build. Thus, despite the fact that The Edge is pretty small compared to both Anomaly Lake and Windscream Canyon, its 0,25km² feels pretty big for a starting area where you can learn the basics of the game without us holding your hand, get acquainted with the world, its laws and lore.



There will be a bunch of quests on the release, all of them are new and much more to follow with the next updates. They can be a bit rough around the edges but we will polish them once we gather enough feedback from you.

The main story is ready, and we have started to implement it into the game. We are also working on an intro cinematic and a new intro cutscene.



Gameplay-wise, the game also gets new mechanics. The hero can jump to cliffs and pull himself up, so there are more options to explore the world.



There are some new interactive objects in the world like capstans and winches, and both the hero and NPCs can use them.



We are also ready to show you the very first iteration of modular weapons. It takes time to implement such a big feature in one take, so you can’t craft or disassemble them so far but it increases the diversity of arms on the whole.



A small but notable thing is a new crosshair for guns and we are going to add more of them for different weapons.



Another thing to mention is our work with cameras. We used a standard third person camera for everything, but now we are adding more options to improve cutscenes. So far it is pretty basic, just some in-game cameras shooting from different angles but we are working on camera movement options as well.

We finally replaced the old bugs with the new insects. As you may know, we were planning to make five different types of them. So far we’ve managed to add maggots and workers. All of them have brand new animations and behaviors created with our new AI system. Warriors are on the way but we probably won't manage to finish them in time because our animator is on sick leave due to COVID-19.



There are a lot of other assets added to the game like new human clothes, some animal skeletons, different types of lamps, a set of rails and a trolley in a mine and much more.

Of course, there are some updates in sound design. All humanoid NPCs, for example, now have various sounds to play when being hit. As for music, we are working on an adaptive soundtrack which changes in response to specific events or places in the game. The old tracks can’t be used anymore, so there’s a lot to do yet. Anyway, we’ve created a few new tunes for The Edge to experiment with them.

There are other changes, of course, and a lot to tell, as we are working hard to bring even more content for the release but it would be much better to see it for yourself. Thus, if you are looking for new experience in the world of Exoplanet and really want to make the game better, join our private testing.



Obviously, you have to own Exoplanet: First Contact in your library because we are going to add the new build to a separate beta branch on Steam. This way the old build will be available yet as the main build while you can get access to the new one with a few clicks.

Also, we are looking for those who have already played the game thoroughly, know about its strengths and weaknesses and can tell the difference between the old and new versions.



If you meet these requirements, next thing to do is to join our Discord and PM me or tag me there with @bijou. I will contact you to share more information about the testing.

What do we need? Any feedback you can provide about the new build. Probably, we are going to create a survey and place a link to it at the end of the build. Also, you will get access to a closed section in Discord to discuss changes, to ask questions, to share anything you want to, and, of course, to report any issues and rough edges.



We will begin the private testing as soon as we finish a few important things. If the build is stable, we will probably make an open testing later for everyone who owns Exoplanet.

In the end, I'd like to thank you for your patience and support. That's really important for us. Stay safe.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/531660/Exoplanet_First_Contact/

Hey folks! I know you’re waiting for a usual content update before holidays since there were no releases since September but here I am with another dev blog.

Don’t be sad, I’ll make it worth your while with important announcements and a few sneak peeks of a really big upcoming update.

World of Players is a bunch of fan sites and forums for popular role-playing games and series like Gothic, Neverwinter, The Witcher, Mass Effect and many others with the audience of old-school hardcore gamers. It’s pretty popular in Europe, especially in Germany. Simply put, it’s a perfect place to build up your own community with passionate players who fell in love with the game.



We are happy to announce that we just launched Exoplanet’s website and forums on World of Players:

We are also working on the official website but if you want to learn more about the game and what we are trying to create, World of Exoplanet can provide you with a great deal of information right away.



The website and its forums are available in English, German and Russian. So feel free to join and create discussions, to share your feedback with us and to ask questions—we will do our best to answer them.

Also, we will be raffling of a few Exoplanet's keys on Christmas day within World of Players forum.

As I have said many times before, we are not satisfied with the starting area and intend to create a new location with a brand new tutorial. And today I am going to show you some results because this dev blog is about our work in progress in this area.



I have already shown you this picture above. It’s a screenshot with overpaint: the shattered moon, plants and the distant rock are not real.

These were the very first steps towards creating a new area. We were going to create it in a simple way, based on existing assets with a tad of new ones. Well, everything is different now.



We've created a set of 60 pieces brand new rocks inspired by Shadow of the Colossus remake for PS4 with some help from the lead environment artist of this project (you can learn more about it in our previous dev blog), a lot of new grass, improved the engine with new tools and features and completely reworked the original idea of the location.



Please, keep in mind that all the images below are a work in progress. These screenshots were made in world editor without proper post effects, some assets and textures are not final (including rocks) and there are a bunch of placeholders.



The new location is 0.25km², it’s a godforsaken place confined between the desert and rocks with an old aboriginal cemetery and an abandoned mine.



Here you can meet abori people, small groups of Outcasts and Scalphunters fighting each other to control the area.



There’s something more in this upcoming update that meets the eye. And not just visually. The thing is, the already existing locations of Anomaly Lake and Windscream Canyon are made with old rocks assets, which means we should rework or abandon them. But don’t worry about it, I will explain everything and will tell about our plans with or after the release.



Well, that’s it for now. I hope you liked this preview, so please share you thoughts here in comments or within World of Exoplanet forums.

Exoplanet: First Contact is available on Steam Winter Sale with 10% off. Keep in mind, that this is probably the biggest discount the game will get until the full release, so if you want to try it, you might want to do that now to get bonuses from The Winter Sale like trading cards to create unique badges. Keep in mind, that the game is pretty rough around the edges in the beginning but it's going to change pretty soon.



There’s just one last thing I have to say. If you really enjoyed reading and these sneak peeks from the new location, don’t forget to click a ‘thumbs up’ button, it’s the best way to tell that you care. Thank you very much for all your patience and support, it means a great deal to us. And, like the song says, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.



Follow our latest updates on social networks:

• DISCORD
  
• FACEBOOK
  
• TWITTER
  
• VKONTAKTE

http://store.steampowered.com/app/531660/Exoplanet_First_Contact/

Hey, folks! Another update is released. There are improvements for the world design, new quests, a brand new mechanic and, of course, some bug fixes and optimizations.


Roadmap was updated.

I'd like to remind you that now you can vote for tasks you like. Voting system will help us to get your feedback about which features you’d like to see as soon as possible, so please, take some time to vote for tasks you’re fond of. You can do that by clicking cards and using ‘Vote’ button on the right. You can also ‘Watch’ any card to get updates on your mail.

If you never heard about our roadmap before, you can learn more here.




ːdwYellowStarː means community choice, alterations made with your feedback.

WORLD

• improved a cave occupied by scalphunters in Windscream Canyon ːdwYellowStarː
  
• gates with crushing device in Outcast Camp replaced with defensive barricade

• added Outcast Farmer's farm around E.D.E.N. generator
  
• improved roads near Outcast Camp ːdwYellowStarː
  
• added locked doors and chests with loot throughout the world

ENVIRONMENT

• added new appearance for Old Outcast, he's Herbalist now
  
• added violet material for E.D.E.N. Generator sphere
  
• old beds replaced with new ones with linens and sleeping bags

QUESTS

• added new quest Tools for Herbalist
  
• added new quest Ragpicker's Store Heist

MECHANICS

This update brings new mechanic to the game. Lockpicking. We were working on this feature for a long time, and now proud to share it with you. Keep in mind, though, that this is probably not the final iteration, so your feedback will be really important.



What do we have at the moment? There are two types of locks in the world of Exoplanet: mechanic and digital. You need a key to open a mechanic lock or a code to open a digital one. But since Jack is not very law-abiding guy, other methods also could come in handy, ain’t it? And all you have to do is to find the right type of lockpicks.

How does it work? Every lock has ‘health’ and every lockpick can damage it for certain amount. Lockpicks breaks during the process. When lock’s health disappears, it unlocks. Locks could be pretty simple but you can also find complex ones with more health, so it is wise to get as many lockpicks as you can find.



We also have some plans for padlocks. So far they are usually no more than a decorative element but we would like to add a possibility of breaking them with an accurate shot.

Anyway, let us know what you think and do not hesitate to share your thoughts with us.

ANIMATIONS

• added new walking and running animations for Jack (no weapons)

ENGINE

• fixed a bug with audio playback: random sounds no longer play instead of intended ones ːdwYellowStarː
  
• minor bug fixes and optimization

If you are experienced a crash or found a bug, let us know via special crash reporter tool. It shows up when the game crashes but you can also send a report in-game with F1 button.


Keep in mind, that crash reporter makes an in-game screenshot when you press F1 so you might want to be sure that the visual problem you’re referring to will be captured. Enter your email and a short description of a bug or describe last actions before the crash.

You can also let us know about your problem on technical support forum or via Discord channel.



If there's no sound after the game's loading, try to alt-tab to Windows and then go back to the game.

If you're stuck / hero doesn't move, F5 (quick save) and F9 (quick load) can help you in such matters.

If you have a weak PC or a laptop (especially the ones with Intel integrated graphics), we highly recommend to launch Exoplanet from its folder, not via Steam.

Keep in mind that integrated graphic cards are not supported despite the fact that we do our best to make it possible. At the moment, there's a chance you can run the game but your performance probably won't be good enough to enjoy Exoplanet.

If you have BitDefender antivirus and can't launch the game, please unblock Exoplanet's .exe.


Follow our latest updates on social networks:

• DISCORD
  
• FACEBOOK
  
• TWITTER
  
• VKONTAKTE

As usual, we recommend to start a new game.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/531660/Exoplanet_First_Contact/