Ondrej and Lukas worked hard on optimizing the game after we got tons of reports of poor performance. The game should run much better now, as they profiled many aspects of the game and focused on things that seemed to cause the biggest hits on FPS. Hope this update will make your game run much smoother. Please report anything that looks strange, or does not work... you know the usual. Lastly, we would like to thank you so much for bearing with us and for all the reports you guys sent us, it helped us a ton!
Fixed physics performance peaks, caused by slight collision movement
GUI and HUD performance optimization
Wagon corridor optimization
Added lower-tier loot to higher Tier 2 and Tier 3 cog drillships
Increased time of cog respawn from 5s to 15s
Mine names on the map are correct now
Fixed an error where crystals in a mine-cart could not be mined
Fixed crash that occurred when user run out of GPU memory
The Very First Steam Build
If you'd like to see what the game looked like approximately year and a half ago, we uploaded the build on Steam. All you have to do to play it is to switch branches from Main to the Snapshot V1.07. In case you don't know how to switch branches, check out the tutorial below. Last thing I should mention is that if you encounter any bugs (which you likely will), please don't report them.
Hey everyone! It's our first birthday today and what better way to celebrate than with a new update! The Blast Shelter Update is now available and offers new locations, new ways to survive and a new tool filled with vital information. We also have many other things we want to talk about so please bare with us as this announcement is a little longer.
What's New
F1 Help Screen
This feature should greatly help with the learning curve of the game. To access the main wiki, press F1. This will take you to the main screen where you'll see a list of pages. As you progress through the game, you will be able to unlock more pages by picking up items, accepting quests or just looking at objects and pressing F1. This brings sort of an exploration feel to the game since you don't see everything right away. In the future, we plan to adjust quests as well so they support the story more. Every time there is a new page, you will get an on-screen notification and the new page will be marked in the archive. Give the archive a try and let us know what information is missing. Lastly, the archive is only in English right now but will get localized eventually.
Blast Shelters
To solve the "anti-exploration" issue with you having to run back to the ship each time eruption is about to happen, blast shelters were added to the game. When you're inside a shelter, the eruption won't kill you. This greatly affects the gameplay, as you no longer have to go back and forth to your drillship all the time. Instead, you can progress on the surface and call your drillship to a landing site (by holding "G") you discover on the go. To find a blast shelter, look inside villages. Every village has at least one blast shelter. The map now also includes mines, that next to protection from the eruption also hold a large number of ore deposits. There are three types of mines - coal, normal and rare. Each of the basement shelters also has at least one chest, that contains some items. The inventory is saved so you can also use it to store items in case you are about to attack a ship and don't have enough room, or plan to fall back from a fight.
COG Spawn Tube
From now on, COG units will spawn from spawning tubes and drillship will no longer bring new units to surface every single time you kill some. This greatly simplifies tons of stuff and also changes the way COG drillships are raided. No longer will drillship run away from you when you're about to enter. All you need to know is that now your main priority while raiding an enemy drillship should be searching for the tubes and destroying them before new units are spawned. Tubes with color mean a specific type of COG will spawn, while no color tube is a universal spawn point. So, for example, the black tube will spawn just and only military COG units.
Changes
Drillship Spawn System - Due to multiplayer implementation, we had to change the way COG drillships spawn. From now on, if you destroy a lava source it means COG activity for that area is over and no drillships will spawn. You have to travel to the next area in order to find new COG units. There is a plan to have so-called "Hunter Drillships" that will attack the player directly in areas with destroyed lava sources, but that's still in progress.
Long Loading Times - Ondrej did some crazy magic and finally solved the long loading times so the loading times should be much faster. If not please report it asap.
Changed Map Progress - From now on, you're not able to get to other areas unless lava source is destroyed. There is a hot lava stream that blocks the way and cools down only once lava source is destroyed. This means you can't really ignore the first lava source and go straight into area 2 anymore.
Save Compatibility - Since this update brings some major changes in map progression, we tried to cover possible issues with older saves. Few safety features have been added to solve potential problems. Such as if you destroyed a laser device too early, and your ship is stuck due to a low drill upgrade, a higher tier should install automatically. Or, if you happen to stand on a terrain that was changed, you will fall through the surface but eventually get teleported back to your drillship. In general, saves should work fine. If you still run into an issue please send me an email to tomas.rampas@volcanoids.com and I'll see what can be done to save your progress.
Difficulty and Balance - Based on feedback from testing, it seems some difficult scenarios and custom map settings can end up being extremely hard. We are aware of this and will focus on the problem during the rebalancing period.
The Team
First Birthday
The time flies by like crazy and all of a sudden it's one year since Volcanoids was officially released on Steam! First of all, we would like to say huge thanks to the community that supports the game and helps in every way possible. From feedback and suggestions that help to set priorities to testing and reporting issues found in the game. Without you, the game would not be where it is today. We would like to send out a batch of small 3D printed drillships as a token of gratitude for the support given by members of the community. Thank you so much!
If you own a 3D printer and want to print your own drillship here's the model download link.
New Team Member
We are also slowly growing as a team. Lukas has joined our ranks as a game designer and implementation specialist. This will greatly help with the development process and the amount of new content for each update. So stay tuned for more development updates!
The Community
Nolt for Community Suggestions
We recently discovered a new platform for community suggestions that makes everything so so much easier for everyone. You can easily post suggestions without being forced to sign up (not like it's hard, you just sign up with your email) and upvote/downvote/comment on other suggestions. Where Nolt really excels is its ability to filter, search and tag suggestions you guys make. This means we will be able to keep track of what features you guys really want much easier than ever before and set priorities according to it. So go make your first suggestion here: https://volcanoids.nolt.io/
What's Next
There are still so many things on the roadmap. So 2020 should be as eventful as the previous year. Starting with the multiplayer implementation that will now require our full attention. Ondrej has some of the technical core aspects done, and now it's time to start adjusting the game from a game design point of view. A few examples would be a complete rebalance of resources, recipes, and production systems. This is where all the feedback from the community comes very handy and we will do our best to address it. The overall idea is to develop an alpha version of a 4 player max. co-op multiplayer. Anyone will have chance to join the testing and try it out. Once enough feedback is gathered from the community, we will iterate and improve the game based on that.
Hey, everyone! While the major multiplayer update is still in development, we are working on smaller minor updates as well. The upcoming update in progress focuses on improving the learning curve and giving you important information as the world is explored. Next to that, we are also working on a concept and early version of an underground system that will greatly affect the gameplay and progression on the surface. Some adjustments to the existing system are done as well, to prepare it for multiplayer implementation. The biggest change is the respawning of COG units and ships, that will not require ships to go underground anymore in order to bring more units.
What's Coming
F1 Help Screen
The screen works as an in-game wiki that reveals pages as you progress through the game. We plan to improve it more based on your feedback so the first version that gets added won't be a finished deal. Right now we are focused mainly on the functionality and we added only the info that we feel is most crucial for your progress.
We're trying to make it as easy to use as possible. To find out more about an object you will simply have to look at it and press F1 - this will open a page with all the info about that object. Just like that, you can unlock new pages for the "Archive" throughout the gameplay. This should also help is with making quests more like real "quests" and not just a long tutorial, since we will be able to give you all the important info through this feature.
Blast Shelters
We noticed in your comments that since you are forced by the eruptions to always stay in close distance to your drillship you can never go exploring too much. To solve this, we added something we call "blast shelters". The premise is quite simple, these places such as basements or caves will give you the ability to survive eruptions even without your drillship.
"But what about my super awesome base?? I can't just leave it behind!" You're absolutely right - just send it underground remotely by holding G while you hide somewhere else.
This will let you go on longer adventures without the need to always rush back to the ship, just make sure you send the drillship underground as well. After the eruption is over you can call it to a landing site close to you by holding G again.
Shelters will be also very useful when multiplayer comes and one of your friends is late and you have to leave him behind. The first version of these blasts shelters will come in the form of mines and house basements.
Mines also hold ore deposits, so you can get some extra ore during your wait.
House basements are in every town, but always only one usually attached to the biggest building, they usually store some loot in chests
Underground Systems
The shelters sparked a lot of new ideas and we kept experimenting with how far we could take this. The main idea is to give you more places to explore while keeping the concept of the eruptions and destruction that follows when the wave hits the surface. This lead to the so-called "Iceberg" concept, that would be applied to all towns and larger COG structures.
If you look at the concepts, you can see buildings on the surface that are damaged and give you just some basic cover or place to look around. Yet beneath the ground, there can be a huge tunnel structure with rooms, loot and even hidden technology centers that would allow you to craft items.
There are tons of ideas now, and we need to do more testing of what all can be done but in general, this will allow you to explore even during the eruption times, as you will be able to move in the underground system and search for interesting items and technology.
The same concept can be used to large COG structures you find in lava sources, with this we can make some interesting underground bases that don't need to fold down every single time eruption is coming (like it currently happens in lava sources), the structures would still have foldable systems on the surface but the main "stuff" would be happening underground.
New COG Units Spawn
COG units will now spawn from COG spawn tubes, that are placed inside the drillship.
This will greatly impact how you attack the COG ships, since killing the crew and going inside to block the ship from moving won't stop new units from coming anymore. The new tactics will require quick action in locating the spawn tubes and taking them out quickly, otherwise, new units will be created and keep defending the ship.
These will solve the issue where enemy drillships had to go underground each time they needed reinforcements - this didn't leave you with much time to loot an unprotected drillship after you defeated the crew.
Other
There are many other important things that were worked on such as solving the long loading times by implementing several new systems, lots of bug fixes and some quality of life improvements. All that will be covered in the changelog when the update goes live.
This is all for the development update. We still need to do a bunch of art assets and polishing, but other than that it's mostly ready implementation wise. There still need to be several rounds of testing tho. The update should go live in January 2020.
The Team
Happy Holidays
Our team would like to THANK YOU for all the amazing support you showed us in 2019 - we're beyond grateful and very excited for next year. Happy holidays everyone!
PS: hope you like our office Christmas tree made from development boosters
Hey everyone, hope you're doing great! This update is focused on fixing most of the critical bugs that you guys reported (you're the best) and also on updating some of the current languages along with adding the highly requested Polish and Italian.
Changelog
New
Polish language added
Italian language added
Update Languages
Russian
French localization
Chinese
Portuguese (Brazil)
Spanish
Czech
Fixes
Player stuck first drillship
COGs inside rocks
Player stuck in terrain
Laser having no sound
Hubs inside walls on COG ships
Player can fix enemy modules
Missing recipe for scraping revolver ammo
Player being able to hack enemy modules with the wrench
Holes in geometry (landing sites)
Mounted panel placement issue
Player getting stuck in terrain
Lights not saving
Leaves in interior
Added bottom to the soil hills
Upgrades T4 movement not reflected in Q
Shutdown valve accessible on the back
Enemy custom controllers are usable
Broken extra protection achievement
Banners not having a logo
Core panel stats having bad number location
Sparks on the hacking tool having no alpha
Redone all texts on automation devices to respect the settings
We're joining the Steam Autumn Sale madness so you can get Volcanoids with 20% OFF for a limited time. If you want to see what will you buy into, check out our roadmap that contains most of the upcoming features such as co-op, pvp, customization and more.
If you're interested in how we handled development since the Early Access launch, here are some of our biggest updates so far.
Finally, if you got any questions, let us know in the comments and we will reply asap.
Since the Automation Update added plenty of new ways to arrange your drillship interior, we would love to see all the different layouts you guys came up with! So we got a contest for you:
Interior Design Contest
How to participate:
Assemble the coolest drillship interior you possibly can
Take up to five screenshots of the interior
Share them in our Steam Community Hub or on our Discord in the #contest-submissions channel
Winners announcement and rewards:
3 winners will be picked next Thursday, November 28th
1st place: $25 Steam gift card + Volcanoids Steam key
2nd place: $10 Steam gift card + Volcanoids Steam key
3rd place: $5 Steam gift card + Volcanoids Steam key
Some inspiration for you:
EDIT:
Winners Announcement
The contest has officially ended so here are the winners!
1st place goes to: TheFireDragon
2nd place takes: Xentor
The HUB Areal, (above the productioncontroll)
The Secondary bridge in the Tail of the ship, in Case the Frontbridge gets destroyed.
3rd place to: DF19
Congratulations to the winners, we will contact you shortly - also big thanks to anyone else that participated. More contests coming soon!
Volcanoids is currently 25% OFF for the next 2 days! This is our biggest sale to date so if you've been keeping Volcanoids on your wishlist waiting for a good opportunity, now is the time. In case you already have the game and enjoy it, it would mean the world if you recommended it to someone that you think would enjoy it as well. Keep in mind that we're already working on co-op so you should soon be able to raid and capture drillships together!
This sale is also happening shortly after we released a major update that added over 40 new machines and tools. Check out the trailer:
It's been almost a week since the Automation Update release and you guys managed to break the game already, way to go. Just kidding, thank you so much for reporting all insect that got into the game with the new update. Special thanks goes to our Discord and Steam testers that relentlessly keep on testing no matter how many new builds we throw at them.
As the title suggests with a bunch of fixes we also added 2 new features. You can see the first one in this video. Basically, you can call the drillship from anywhere to a landing site near you. Small disclaimer: if your drillship is heavily damaged you might want to reconsider this move since it could drive through lava as it's coming to you.
This drillship calling feature also changes the way you can move around the map. If you wanted to explore on foot before, you always had to return to your drillship. Now you can wander off and then just call the drillship to you.
The second feature is a Dead End notification for situations when you're better off loading your last save than continuing. Situations like being stuck inside a cave without a drillship - you're alive, but you can't get out of there so you're just waiting for the eruption to vaporize you.
Changelog
NEW
Player can call drillship to a free landing site near him
Dead End screen telling you when there's no way out (e.g. stuck in caves without drillship)
FIXES
Fixed long loading times
Fixed game not loading at all
Fixed drillship ownership after claiming more than one drillship
Fixed quest Hull T4 parts
Fixed quest Titanium Hull, which kept repeating
Fixed quest Damage Drillship T2 / T3 not finding drillship nearby
Fixed quest Essential devices, station is no longer required when there's Hub
Fixed no COG drillships spawning at Lava Source 3
Fixed bad light layer on devices
Fixed Hub stations flickering when using Proportional Threshold mode
Fixed online storage items flickering when there's Hub with Proportional Threshold mode
Fixed storage modules T2 and T3 button blocker
Fixed blocked mount point
Fixed door collider issue
Fixed empty COG drillship after loading game and going back to previously visited area
Fixed inventory lost when using Restack on loot inventory (cogs or destroyed modules)
Fixed outro playing after loading finished game
Fixed pilot seat being destroyed when drillship going under
Fixed exterior lights being destroyed when going under
Fixed icons disappearing on Hub station
Fixed Hub station sounds audible everywhere
Fixed missing roof module caused by invalid side module position
We're beyond excited that the Automation Update is finally out! Prepare for some serious remodeling as this update adds over 40 new machines and gadgets that give you even more control over your brassy mobile base.
We wanted to give you more options to utilize all the unused space we noticed in your screenshots and videos. No more empty rooms and no more empty segments. The brand new stations, panels, item displays, levers and valves, all designed to fit together like a puzzle, will turn any empty room into something straight out of a WW2 submarine (which is where we got most of our inspiration).
Take a look at these pages for a brief explanation of how each of these new devices works.
Now that the update is out and ready, we would like to talk more about what is planned next. The multiplayer development has begun a month ago and we would like to continue until it's ready for a major update. Check the pictures and videos, that show the current state. Meanwhile, we will do several smaller updates including features or improvements that don't require too much programming. We are talking about new device variants, level design improvements, better F1 help screen and other. We know the last update took forever to release and will do our best to deliver these minor updates much faster as they won't be so complex.
See highlights from the office and story specific content on Instagram
Special thanks goes to our Discord and Steam testers. To show our gratitude we added their names to the credits.
Thank you so much for your patience and hope you enjoy all the new additions to the game! Share your drillship designs and production line setups with us. We can't wait to see what you come up with!
It has been a long time since we last posted about the development. Actually, last time we posted the school year was about to end and now it's starting again. So to those that are going back to class we wish you the best of luck!
So far this update has been in development for way longer than the previous updates, and we are very sorry about that. Our goal is still to have an update every month/month and a half maximum. Current development got prolonged by several factors such as vacations and newborn family member that required lots of changes when it comes to time management. As things are finally settling down, the working schedule is getting back to normal. Now let's talk about the new stuff!
Automation and Module Control
This update is focused on Drillship automation systems allowing you to build assembly lines and improved control over all drillship systems. As you advance through the island depths, you get access to more advanced devices allowing higher control over ship production, module setups, and item flows. All the pictures you see, are still work-in-progress that are missing textures or something else.
New Interior Building Options
Since there is going to be a huge amount of devices, we had to come up with new ways players can build drillship interiors and combine objects together. This is how the mounted devices were born, allowing you to place objects into places that were not accessible before. Finally, all the unused space in corridors and on the walls will have some use.
Also, a mounted object does not block space on the ground, so you can combine it with another object. A good example is a combination of mounted chest and the newly improved worktable.
Some objects can even be mounted on the exterior of a drillship, such as lights, displays or panels. This helps with checking the amount of most vital items each time you walk through the door.
In general, new devices usually have three versions. Low stand, high stand, and mounted version. All these versions are in one item, so if you decide to switch things around, just deconstruct the device and place it someplace else (similar to how you can deconstruct a storage module on the wall and place it on the roof).
Device Types
Hub station will allow you to set six items that will be frequently produced to a set amount. An example would be, that you want 20 grenades to always be ready in storage. The hub station will check the storage boxes, and if the number is below 20, new grenades will be made. Each production type (production, refinery, research, scrap) has its own hub. This allows you to make a complete assembly line, where you only care about input and output.
Panels show important data about the usage of energy and core slots. They work as more detailed stats panel, with a new visual style. You can choose panel that shows overall info about consumption, or panel showing just info regarding consumption of refinery modules. Panels come in three sizes and are often combined with controllers.
Controllers are an advanced version of the State Selector. Each module category has a controller that sets a number of opened modules. Levers allow you to increase, decrease or close all open modules of a specific type. When combined with panels, you can tweak power and core slot consumption to get the most optimized module setup.
Displays show the amount of items in the storage. The tracked items and order is set by the player. This way, you can have a perfect overview of how the production line is working, and if all works as expected. A small icon will show if the item is assigned for production or not. Displays come in many different sizes so that you can place them anywhere needed. Including the exterior of the ship and corridors between ship segments.
Lights are now part of the interior too. There's no more preset light in the drillships you will have to set it up yourself by placing lights around. This applies even to the ship exterior, which may help with finding the door in dark caves, or give an extra atmospheric feel to your drillship when it lands on the surface during the post-eruption state.
Other Improvements
Apart from all the above, there are many more devices that can be mounted on the walls. Also, other parts of the game got improved as well but we will save the info for the final announcement once the update is done and ready to go.
Artwork Section
Amongst many other platforms, we also started posting development pictures in the Artwork section. Check it out once in a while if you'd like to see what is being worked on. It often has a short description to give you an idea of what to expect in the upcoming update.
Preview Branch
Please if you would like to get notified by a Steam message once a new preview branch for testing is ready, subscribe to this discussion.
If you don't know what the Preview Branch is, it contains early versions of the upcoming update with unfinished features and placeholders that we publicly share for players to test if they want to.