Halloween is upon us and we have made a small update for you to get spooky! We don’t really consider this a true update since we are working on the next big update which will include new weapons and upgrade system and a total makeover of the prices for vanity and upgrades. Exciting times ahead!
--- PATCH NOTES ---
HALLOWEEN
Pumpkins added to the Space Rig for you to kick!
Trick-or-Treat Pumpkins in the caves. Try your luck smashing them!
Limited sale of Pumpkin Helmets! Boo muhahaha!!!!
Banner in Abyss Bar and moody lighting.
RETIREMENT AND XP FIXES
We have been really positively surprised to see how well the retirement system has been received. However, we never intended people to go through a full retirement cycle as fast as we can see some of you are doing right now (as low as 4 hours). Our intent is that leveling a character to retirement level should take much, much longer. We have right now made a bunch of fixes to the existing system, but with update 19 you should be expecting a much bigger change to the system of Retirement and XP's. Consider yourself warned :-)
Prevent Giving Retirement Rank if you have 0 XP
Prevent multiple clicks on retire character in the UI
Retirement assignments mission rewards removed
Triple XP is now Double XP
FIXES AND IMPROVEMENTS
Fixed issue with Discord Party id's and preventing invite button to work in some cases
Fixed crash when failing Salvage mission during fuel pod stage
Fix for damage indicator could get stuck on the screen
Fixed some minor issues in Magma Quake
Graphics Settings: Disabling fullscreen restore to prevent mouse issue and not being able to click continue into the game
Fix case of clients cant load on join
Fix scout IFG slowdown, was incorrectly set to only 30% slowdown, reset to 75%
Lootbug drop nerfed. Used to drop 15-25 value gold and Nitra - now drops 5-15.
Fixed Eliminations mission not always spawning enough cocoons. Dreadnought cocoon now carves a space for itself and has less strict spawn requirements
Fix for cursor disappearing on campaign reward window.
Deep Rock Galactic - Soren - Captain of Ghost Ship
Hey Miners
A small hotfix for Update 18 is ready.
Changelist
Gunner MK3 Heavy armor now cost 32000 credits and not 3200! Sometimes a 0 means a lot!
Fixed the characters t-posing in the various terminals on Low settings
Various crash fixes
Fixed an issue with the Assignment Complete screen, where you got 3D controls in a 2D menu. Note: the issue might still persist as we have not be able to reproduce this bug. Please report if you still experience this issue.
Time to put on your brand new armor sets, drink beers with buffs and take on new exciting assignments. Oktoberfest is over and we have been busy packing a big bag of cool features for you. Enjoy!
NEW ASSIGNMENT SYSTEM
Our goal with the assignment system is to create a smoother start for new players and at the same time create excitement for getting access to new content. Assignments in the future will be used to unlock new content like alternative weapons (planned for Update 19) and planet regions.
THE PROBATIONARY PERIOD When you start the game for the first time you now have to complete the Probationary Period in order to prove your worth as a miner. The Probationary Period is a 9-missions long assignment and will take you through the different regions of Hoxxes and challenge you with various missions to complete.
You can join any missions on the server list, regardless of completion of the Probationary Period. Completing missions that is part of an assignment grants you bonus rewards in the form of crafting materials and credits. After completing the Probationary Period you will have unlocked all regions and missions.
*** ATTENTION VETERAN MINERS! *** Players who have played the game before will get an option to skip the Probationary Period from The Assignment Board terminal.
RETIREMENT
RETIREMENT APPLICATION When you max out a character at level 20, you get the option to complete the Retirement Application Assignment for that character. Select it from the Assignment Board Terminal. When you have completed the assignment you get the option to retire that character from the Character Selection Terminal.
RETIRING A DWARF When you retire a character that character will reset to level 1 and you will lose all progress on weapons and upgrades for that character. You will, however, keep all progression on perks, credits, crafting materials, and vanity items. The first time you retire, you will also unlock an extra perk slot for that specific character. Retiring a character is the only way you can increase your player rank above 26, since you need to gain character levels in order to gain player ranks. We are also considering to introduce unlocks of vanity and other features for players above player rank 26.
MISSION UPDATES
In order to make a smooth Probationary Period assignment, and in general to improve the long-term mining experience, we have tweaked some of the missions and made both simpler and more complex versions of them.
EGG HUNT We have for a long time been wanting to improve the missions types Egg Hunt and Search & Extract. In the end, we decided to just merge them together. Here are the changes:
Egg hunt now takes place in a cave system, similar to what you used to encounter in Search & Extract.
Instead of having to run around and search for the eggs you can use the Terrain Scanner (hold down [M]) to spot their location.
You have to collect fewer eggs than previously.
Egg hunt now has multiple complexities and lengths.
Search & Extract have been removed for now.
We resisted the temptation of calling Egg Hunt for Search & Eggstract!
SALVAGE MISSION
The cave systems can now generate both medium and high complexity levels
Length short (Assemble 2 MINI MULES) and long (Assemble 3 MINI MULES)
POINT EXTRACTION
Added a Medium Length (Collect 7 Aquarq). This will also be part of the Probationary Period Assignment
ELIMINATION
The cave systems can now generate both medium and high complexity levels
Length short (Kill 2 Dreadnoughts) and long (Kill 3 Dreadnoughts)
BEER BUFFS
Buffs have been added to some of the beers and prices have been adjusted, so beers with buffs costs quite a bit more than those without buffs.
RED ROCK BLASTER: +30% to max health
SKULLCRUSHER ALE: +50% Pickaxe damage
DARK MORKITE: +20% Morkite mined
GLYPHID SLAMMER: A new none-buff beer, but it will still make you happy :-)
Beers with buffs have been given a lower potency effect, so you can drink one without getting drunk. This is done to prevent you from always having to drink the Leaf Lover’s Special if you don’t want to play with the drunk effect on.
Note that Buffs will remain after drinking Leaf Lover’s Special. And also note that Buffs won’t stack. Also-also note that beers have some randomness in how hard they affect you.
As always, we will monitor both in-game metrics and your reactions to further iterate on the effect of Beers.
NEW MODEL FOR ASSAULT RIFLE
Scouts assault rifle has gotten an overhaul of model, animations, and sound.
NEW ARMORS
8 new Armors (called MK3 Basic and Heavy) have been implemented, ready for you to buy and equip. They will be unlocked at player rank 10 and 12 respectively. if you are lower than player rank 8 you will only see the MK2 armor in the shop.
DIFFICULTY TWEAK
Hazard levels for 2-player games have been tweaked to make the jump from playing solo to two players less steep. Scaling factors of enemies for 2-player games have been adjusted like this: Low risk 0.4 to 0.3, Challenging 0.5 to 0.4, Dangerous 0.75 to 0.66, Extreme 1.0 to 0.9
The Mactera Plague warning has been tweaked down in difficulty. Some craziness is still ensured, but now it should be less punishing.
FIXES AND IMPROVEMENTS
New dance move when listening to the jukebox.
Zip-line fix. Now clients also get forward momentum when jumping off the zip-line.
Save files are not overwritten if there is no connection to steam
Third person flamethrower gunsling added
Fix recoil. It was added before the shot was fired, so you could never be fully accurate.
Fix a case where clients are unable to load the map. Resulting in stuck on loading screen.
Detect chunks and gems falling out of the world and beam them back
SpaceRig - No more blue light in drop pod when launching a mission
Oktoberfest banner changed
Savegame: Players can no longer gain extra XP above the cap
Added mission stats: Total beverages consumed & Total beverage round ordered
Fullscreen mode is now handled correctly and does not reset in between sessions.
Sun added behind Planet Hoxxes in Spacerig. Planet model slightly updated as well.
Clients can now open the mission map while in a hosted game
We have tried not to make too many announcements here on Steam, in order to make sure that you don't feel like we are spamming you. But we have heard that you really want to follow what we are doing! So we have made a subforum named News, Blog and Reveals, which you can subscribe to. In that subforum, we are posting news and smaller updates on the development, so if you subscribe you get notified :)
Deep Rock Galactic - Soren - Captain of Ghost Ship
Hi Miners!
Hope that you are all sober after the Oktoberfest update?
As you can see in the image above, we have adjusted the Roadmap to reflect our current plans. No significant changes, just moving a few features and adjusting dates to better align with reality. And remember that these are just the headlines. Each Update will include many other smaller things, and some of these often end up as quite essential additions.
We'll post some info on these bonus things for Update 18 when we are closer to a release date (expected to be two weeks from now).
Deep Rock Galactic - Soren - Captain of Ghost Ship
Hey Miners
A few bugs crept into the update, and they are now squished!
Intoxication
You can no longer pass-out while on a mission
Fixed a bug where the view in the character selector, vanity and upgrade terminals would still have drunk effects activated even when the player is not intoxicated
Ansel Photo Mode
Fixed problems with Ansel while transiting from space rig to mission and back
Fixed problems with Ansel when Jukebox music stops with Ansel still on
Fixed certain items like deposit bucket and scanner getting suck in player hand if they are on during Ansel session
Fixed Ansel camera breaking with Cave Leach
Fixed Ansel crash on Space Rig
Other fixes
Scout Shotgun reload time was accidentally nerfed - it's now back to normal
The vanity shop lists will now include the next available items
Deep Rock Galactic - Soren - Captain of Ghost Ship
Hello Miners!
It’s time to raise the “bar” again … welcome to Oktoberfest in space! Besides celebrating the opening of the Abyss Bar, we have a bunch of cool new features for you to explore and enjoy! Happy Mining everyone!
WELCOME TO OKTOBERFEST ----------------------------
ABYSS BAR Say hello to your drone bartender Lloyd, who will be serving cold refreshments for all of you hard workers! Be aware that the refreshments come in different potencies, so take it easy and drink responsibly - you are at work after all!
JUKEBOX The Jukebox has 13 new songs for you to enjoy, Dance Monkeys!!
HOOP THE BARREL - THE GAME Who is paying for the next round? Go kick some barrels through the incinerator hoop and see who wins!
LIMITED SEASONAL VANITY To really celebrate Oktoberfest, you can buy the OKTOBERFEST FEDORA for 1200 credits from the Vanity Shop. The Fedora is on sale for a limited time only, so get it quickly!
PERKS UPDATE ----------------------------
We have added a bunch of new perks:
HEIGHTENED SENSES: Get a warning when a Cave Leech is targeting you!
LOVEABLE: Take less damage from friendly fire!
IRON WILL: Stay functional for a short time after reaching 0HP!
VAMPIRE: Regain a little health when you kill medium and larger sized creatures with a melee attack!
STRONG ARM: Throw flares further
Tweak to VETERAN DEPOSITOR: At perk level 5, you receive a 30% damage reduction when you are close to the M.U.L.E.!
CARRY ITEMS ----------------------------
Now you can drop, throw and catch gems or other carryable items! Press [E]/ (X) to pick up. Press [E]/ (X) to drop. Press [LEFT MOUSE BUTTON]/ (RIGHT TRIGGER) to throw.
BIOME UPDATES: MAGMA CORE ----------------------------
Small lava geysers in groups added
Earthquakes now might cause the ground to crack open
NEW FIRE SYSTEM ----------------------------
Burn enemies for a while to set them on fire. Fire can propagate to nearby enemies. Same goes for Dwarves, so watch it!
WEAPONS ----------------------------
Brand new and improved flamethrower model
Updated weapon icons
Improved first person particles plus new and revamped particles for most weapons
NVIDIA ANSEL SUPPORT ----------------------------
Make cool screenshots with NVidia Ansel. ALT + F2 will bring up the Ansel menu. (This feature only works for Steam users with NVidia cards.)
NEW PRIVACY OPTIONS ----------------------------
Privacy tab added to Options to give players better control over their data. Everything is anonymous, but you can still opt out if you want to.
ENEMIES ----------------------------
Damage of Praetorian acid spray reduced by approximately 50%
Deep Rock Galactic - Soren - Captain of Ghost Ship
Update, Hotfix 4
Our fix for displaying game time didnt work, it does now!
...
Hi Miners!
During the last 1-2 weeks, the Server List has been very unreliable, causing the list to only display 2-3 open games, despite many more being open. We are currently working with outside partners to fix the issue as soon as possible.
You are still able to Invite through Steam & Discord, and the Server List does still function at times, but it is very unreliable. We are doing everything we can to fix the issue as soon as possible.
Changelist for Hotfix 1
Added a PSA screen on the server list.
Changelist for Hotfix 2
Changed server list backend call.
Changelist Hotfix 3
Fixed that Time on the server list does not update
Fixed that closed games still look open on the server list
Changelist Hotfix 4
Fixed that Time on the server list does not update
Changelist Hotfix 5 We believe we have fixed the server list issues, so we are removing the PSA message
Removed server list PSA message
Changelist Hotfix 6
Removed a PSA screen, we forgot in the Quick Join menu
Hello miners! We’re back in the saddle after some lovely summer vacation and have cranked out a new patch for you. In response to all the hot weather we’ve been having, we figured the obvious thing to do was add an ice biome. Right?
--- PATCH NOTES ---
GLACIAL STRATA - a brave all-new icy hellscape biome, complete with unstable and deadly ice spikes in the ceiling, terrifying crevices opening up under your feet, exclusive enemy types, and the first iteration of our all-new Temperature system! Play it cool - just be careful you don’t end up as a meat popsicle...
Ice! The main material of the Glacial Strata planetary region is ice instead of rock, so fire melts it! Use this information wisely.
Deep snow! Look out for piles of it. It won’t harm you, but it’ll slow you down and is impossible to sprint through.
Frozen lakes! Watch your step - they’re quite slippery.
Hot Springs! The only relief from the biting cold, if you disregard the “tools” you carry with you.
Explosive Ice Plants! Use them to freeze aliens in their tracks, but watch yourself...they’re just as likely to hit you as the enemy.
Platform Plants! Shoot them to release the liquid inside - it will freeze instantly and form useful (but brittle) platforms for you to use.
It comes in two versions. Ice Bomber for the new biome. Goo Bomber for the other biomes.
The Ice Bomber, releases sickening streams of freezing substance as it flies past you.
The Goo Bomber, releases sticky streams of goo substance as it flies past you.
Frost Glyphids! Several species of Glyphid have adapted to the cold and will continue to hunt you for your lovely warm flesh even here. And watch out for the Frost Praetorian - it’s a stone cold killer. On the upside, they all seem quite susceptible to heat of any kind…
Cold Vents! Watch out for cracks in the walls and telltale horizontal streams of air - occasionally, they’ll let out blasts of bone-chilling wind.
Thin Ice! Walk carefully and keep your ears peeled. Deep chasms might just open up beneath you at a moment’s notice.
Unstable Icicles! Keep an eye out for algae-filled icicles in the ceiling. The slightest disturbance tends to make them fall thunderously to the floor and shatter. Woe be to any that stand underneath them at that point.
While body odor remains low on the list of dwarven priorities, keeping an eye on your body temperature is now more important than ever. Get too low and you’ll get frozen in place. Get too high and you’ll burst into flame. Keeping towards the center of the scale is safest.
Certain actions or items will reduce or increase your temperature. Some, such as the flamethrower, are pretty self-explanatory.
Enemies follow the same rules. They can be both frozen and set on fire, though they’ll have unique resistances or weaknesses depending on their species. FYI: Frozen enemies can be shattered if enough damage is applied to them...
See what your friends are playing and join their game directly from Discord.
New HUD icon so you always know what Bosco is up to.
Bosco no longer mines dirt that is closer to the Player than the wall instructed to mine at.
Bosco now always goes for the Grabber / Cave leech that grabbed the Player.
Bosco will not revive the Player without being near him/her after getting killed by a Cave leech or Grabber.
Tweaked Bosco’s priorities - he’ll now focus on the enemies instead of mining when instructed to.
Optimization while pointing at enemies.
Tons of new voice lines added.
STEAM
Improved the way savegames are handled - your savegames are now named after your SteamID to prevent problems when sharing a single machine.
Backups are now written to separate files each session to prevent save game corruption from accidentally trashing the backups.
MOLLY
Fixed Molly choosing to walk away while someone is depositing. Manners, Molly!
WEAPONS
Fixed Scout IFG Grenade not applying the proper damage resistance penalty.
Fixed an issue with Ziplines where clients could move slightly and increase speed while on the zip line.
ENEMIES
The Spitball Infector now starts dormant and only wakes up if you get too close or it is injured in any way.
Mactera Spawns have become much weaker to melee attacks.
Mactera Grabber should no longer scream unless it’s actively chasing you.
Enemies should no longer continue making sounds after they’re dead. Stands to reason, really…
Mactera Spawn should no longer get stuck outside the Navmesh after dashing.
OTHER
Fixed framerate drop when pointing the laser pointer at Glyphid tunnels and embedded minerals.
Rejoice, miners! We hereby present the Roadmap, outlining our plans for what the next handful of Updates will focus on over the next half year or so. It's the furthest we have ever looked into the future - as we start getting closer to an actual release, we feel it's about time that we start planning further ahead than the usual 4-5 weeks we've been doing so far. You, we, and the game, deserve better than that.
However, it should be mentioned at this point (in very large neon letters), that what we outline here is not a promise of exactly what will end up in the game. This is the current PLAN, yes - but plans can and will change. Luckily, usually for the better. For instance, Update 16 was originally slated for August, but we moved it to September so we could put some serious effort into squashing this particularly obnoxious bug!
So, what's in the roadmap? What's the goal here?
Our primary goal is to bring the game into a release ready state. We are not stating when it will hit full release (it might still be a year from now), but completing this roadmap will bring us that much closer to pushing the big green release button. That said, we are really enjoying the journey in Early Access, and the continued success allows us to decide on when to do full release at a later point.
Let's have a look at the planned updates one at a time.
We originally released the game with 7 biomes in it. They were visually distinct, but we never managed to get as diverse gameplay in there as we initially aimed for. With the introduction of our new biome, Glacial Strata, we are taking a big step towards achieving that. The goal is to bring every biome in the game at least up to the same baseline as Glacial Strata, and will continue to work on these in parallel with the updates.
The Abyss Bar has been part of our plan from Day One, and was originally planned for the Early Access release. Now we finally got a chance to get it done, and just in time for Oktoberfest! It will be a bit barebones for now as we continue to develop the systems, but expect the bar and what you can do in there to expand over time.
The new armor sets have been teased on Twitter and are just the start of more vanity items to come. As with other things, this is something we'll produce in parallel with the more prominent update features.
When we introduced Perks, we did so knowing this was just the first iteration and that they would need plenty of tweaking and expanding to reach their full potential. But that's the way we work - we bang out a functional prototype and get it into the game. We prefer it in the hands of you guys, to use and discuss and give feedback on rather than work on stuff in secret for months. For this update, they'll get another trip through the wringer without compromising game balance too much. We hope to implement a lot of community suggested Perks, and already have a massive list of things we want to do ourselves.
This update is very system-heavy and will introduce several new long-term mechanics to keep you invested in the game. Or at least, that's our intention!
Daily Adventures will be short series of high-yield missions to played consecutively for special rewards, and are aimed at our more dedicated players. They will be seeded, so all players will be able to play the exact same mission and compare results - but for that day only.
Campaigns are also strings of missions, but they are more ambitious. We have bigger plans for Campaigns down the line, but we will initially implement one to focus on the New Player Experience in an effort to introduce a more intuitive and narrative way of unlocking content.
Character Retirement is a way to keep investing into the game after maxing out a particular Class. Basically, you retire the character and start it over, and cash in some as-yet undetermined prize for doing so - likely a way to increase Player Rank further, but probably other things too.
The Big One - our surveys show that this is the most requested addition to the game (for most of the team too, to be fair). This makes it both a fascinating and terrifying thing to design and release. It WILL change the game, but we're confident it will do so in a positive and exciting way. In any case, we'll be listening intently to your feedback and will keep iterating to get this aspect right.
Yes, the game is co-op first, but Solo Mode is still an important (and critical) gateway into the game. Therefore we want to add a bit of spice to the solo experience. The Campaign system from Update 18 will take care of most of this, but we also want to add a full upgrade path to our trusty companion robot Bosco.
In this update, we will also introduce more Difficulty Levels to bring both easier and much harder challenges to the game. We'll also expand on our internal tools and systems, so difficulty adjustments can be made using more parameters than now - currently Difficulty is mostly governed by tweaking just Damage and Health, and we want to expand on that.
Initially, we had a Tourist mode in the game. It was an attempt to cater to players that simply wanted to explore the caves and have some light fun, but several things about it felt off - for instance, you could still die, and the mode awarded no XP. We opted to remove it back then, but we intend to provide a much more fleshed-out full Exploration Mode. The design for this is still quite nebulous, but the goal is to cater to players that seek a less stressful experience with more focus on traversal, navigation, and discovery, with less emphasis on combat.
The Lore Terminal will introduce a very conveninent way for us to expand the lore of the game without getting all up in your face about it. Through playing, you'll unlock new entries, and slowly build up a lexicon of information on all the enemies, history, places, people, minerals, and so forth in the world of DRG. The plan is to utilize the scanner tool for much of this and build actual gameplay and potential rewards into it. We have tons of ideas for this, but the design is still very much in its' infant stages.
The Space Rig remains one of the most unpolished parts of the game, and it shows - plenty of you have pointed this out, and trust us, we know. We've deliberately kept it very basic to more easily accomodate new additions to it, but now's the time to start bringing it up to proper production quality. This update will not only include a serious facelift to the visuals, but also add more things to do while you are goofing around in-between missions.
This is a massive list of other things planned for 2019. We will likely not be able to implement all of these, but we certainly hope to. While some of these are also highly requested (like female dwarf models, we hear you), they also represent substantial production efforts that we would like to push a bit into the future.
The New Character Class also needs an extra remark. It has been on our drawing board for a long time, but we decided to postpone until we have seen the impact of Update 19. Otherwise, we might end up with a lot of extra work in re-doing this new Class.
Again, to reiterate, this plan is likely to change as we progress. We would be quite surprised if we end up doing things exactly as stated here - time might slip as well. But we hope this roadmap has at least given you a good idea of our intentions and of what to expect. And keep your suggestions, ideas, criticisms, and general feedback coming - it really does make a difference, even if we may not personally answer every question.