Early access is here!
This is a huge step for any developer, especially for myself! Thank you to all of you who choose to support this game and my ideas!



BUGS
And as always, with first launch -- bugs are to be found! If you find a bug let me know by joining my discord ( invite link: https://discord.gg/jUd7drYc ) and sending a message or email me at: phantomprogramming@tutanota.com.

I'll fix all the bugs I can ASAP! Please understand my internet conditions dont allow for quick uploads so while I may have fixed a bug, it could take 30min-2hr before you get an update about it. Thank you for your patience!

Enjoy my game!

The flying level (Hypothermia Waste) could trigger a bug for the people with very high framerates. Due to the distances in the map, the physics system could break down far away, and the player unable to move correctly. The level is now reorganized, with all walking areas within a +-250 000 units distance from world origin. If your savegame is in the level, there is a system that will automatically relocate you to the corresponding location in the new map.

In Trilobite cave it was possible (if you really tried) to pull the chain and immediately jump out, which would softlock you if 'successfull'. There is now an invisible blockvolume spawned around you, so it can not happen now.

Fixed an exploit in Sourwood where it was possible to jump over the hut with the statue.

Reduced the health of the mooses a bit. (Will only affect the levels not visited yet)

Fixed a bug where it was possible to save the game after the Fortress assault in Greenslit, before that quest had been registred as finished.

Corrected some grammar errors I was made aware of.

updated how blueprint data is overridden, fixed bug causing blueprint data to be set as a weapon data, added additional logs for investigation

fixed bug causing other users to not be able to purchase land powerup after it was purchased by other users / removed monster spawner logs

fixed shop button bug triggered on treasure site

fixed bug causing users to not be able to attack when spamming abilities

Fixed spawn manager storing loaded spawns by id only, instead of area and id [4069]

Fixed failure when converting server history event times to EST in some clients [4593]


- #4456 - Give small silver award when land enemies die (with visual effect) (4) (Added debugging logic)

setup map editor to have the option to allow seamonster spawning, toggled in map editor panel / added null handling for xml deserializer

setup pvp shop to have different collider when facing north or when facing south

updated loot drops of boss type battlers to spawn chest higher so corpse wont obstruct the bag

updated pvp shop icon display, updated repair icon and adjusted gui image to prevent pixelation

updated scaling of ability orb

#4598 - Treasure ZSnap is weird

#4598 - Treasure ZSnap is weird - fix #2

Added ability to invite more players to a voyage after having reached the treasure site [3790]

- #4456 - Give small silver award when land enemies die (with visual effect) (5) (Tweaked debugging logic)

- #4456 - Give small silver award when land enemies die (with visual effect) (6) (More Debugging)

Added notifications when the player gains farmer XP [4660]

setup map editor to support eraser tool scaling

removed unused variable

clicking on user name in global chat now allows visit panel to prompt if the user is a friend

- #3665?-?Users found it hard to distinguish their own ship when in a voyage group" (Implemented alpha tweaking logic of the Guild and Character portrait in the Ship Information)

- #4456 - Give small silver award when land enemies die (removed debugging line)

- #4573 - My character is naked in the panel

- #4597 - Add chat panel notifications for when friends go online or offline

- #4635?-?@ tag brings up huge list of empty suggestions

fixed issue in map translator wherein map is saved as a land map / updated the land tile selected for map generation into using the cliff that has the water animation at the bottom

map editor now has an additional palette brush size display based on the set value in the slider

restructured eraser tool, setup erased action to be undo able even if its looped based on scaling

minor code cleanup

- Improved the ship ripple graphics [4443]

- Slightly increased the scale of bot ship ripples to fit the new graphics.

#4581 - Show full size guild icon in Player Info panel



Adding source player info for username changes history

updated store filter of ships to display base ship names instead of subtype

integrated wishing well to map editor and in game prefabs / imported wishing well sprite sheet

setup interactions and restrictions for wishing well in treasure site maps

adjusted wishing well collision

setup player ship entity to disable pvp shop panel if the panel is active

updated visit panel to display warning if the user visiting has not yet selected their farm and house

added interaction and jump logs for review

- Penalties Queue Manager object is now Web Tools Actions Manager

- Name Changes Queue Manager, attached to Web Tools Actions Manager

Code cleanup for Penalties System

updated visit panel display warning, setup visit buttons of friends in the list to be disabled if the local player has not selected their own map layouts

setup popup notification panel if user attempts to visit someone but is has invalid conditions

- Fixed auction panel rows not detecting mouse click [4648]

- Increased the size of the auction row item icons [4648]

- Improved the auction row appearance (back to a single row per auction) [4639]

October 21, 2021 Change List

• Ghost hunting is live October 21 - 27
  
• Earn spooky gun skins & ghostly spray!
  
• More treats to come soon...

• Halloween update and event!
  
• New point of interest within Frontier: Ghost Cemetery
  
• Frontier updated to be a spooky ghost town, including fog, explosive pumpkins, spider webs, and shuttered windows
  
• Night version of the game map

• XP and Challenge progression can now be earned in Coop Bot Battle
  
• Fixed issue where players could shove themselves into the crimp of the fallen turbine
  
• Game booreau tech while downed

• For support visit http://support.bigboxvr.com to get access to self-help resources or file a ticket

• Steam VR users playing on an Oculus headset: When Purchasing Bureau Gold, you will need to take off your headset to approve the purchase
  
• If you see a notice that you need to "update to play" but don't see it in the store, uninstall and reinstall POP: ONE to force the upgrade to happen. You won't lose any progress or data

~ see you in game!

Hello! The patch took some time because, aside a lot of fixes and new little content like the armors leveling, it was necessary to add all the code necessary for the elaboration of the classes in general (the way skills are managed, displayed etc...) in short, the new classes will be much faster to create now!

Our first class! The Abyssal hunter! (4 unique skills!) it's a mid-end game armor you can have by killing a boss that former players already know (new bosses are planned ofc, a lot).




That's all for today, thank you for your support and do not hesitate to talk with us on our discord!
http://discord.gg/planetcentauri

We've received a lot of common questions from the community, which is why we've curated a special FAQ page on our website to address several of them!

While we're still very early in development at the time of writing this, we realize there are some questions worth answering and being transparent about. However, we can't reveal too much at this time, as things are constantly changing behind the scenes!

If your question isn't addressed on the FAQ page yet, please sit tight and we'll be sure to update you as development continues. :)

Read the Restitched FAQ (Frequently-Asked Questions)

• Level 14 falling blocks increased delay time before fall

• Level 10 Fixed Joystick Restart Button don´t working properly

• Added New Gliphys for Joystick call actions in Tutorial

Hello everyone!

October’s been a big month for Hinterland and The Long Dark. In case you missed it, we launched Episode Four: Fury, Then Silence. So far, the response has been overwhelmingly positive, and we’re grateful for that.



With Episode Four, like most of our big releases, we tend to find issues post-launch. I wanted to address a bit about how this can happen. Right now we are tracking 3-4 issues that are impacting a small number of players but in highly visible ways. They include:

• Windows 7; there is an issue with video compatibility on Windows 7 which prevents certain videos (like the opening credits) from playing correctly. We have provided a work-around here, but we understand that it’s not very satisfying. This issue disproportionately impacts players in parts of the world where Windows 7 is still commonly used.
  
• Mac rendering issue; some Mac users have encountered a rendering issue that can result in weird visual glitches, and a separate issue can result in missing geometry. We’ve suggested a workaround for the first issue.
  
• PlayStation Trophies; these were missing at launch but have since been added.
  
• In addition to these, there are other miscellaneous issues that we have been tracking and working on.

I know it seems tough to understand how a studio can release game content that has bugs in it. For some background, we have a full-time in-house Test team who regularly comb through the game and find bugs for the team to fix. We also have a Support team who receives all the bug reports you share at our Support Portal (thank you to everyone who takes the time to do this -- it is extremely helpful!), as well as a Community team who takes note of the issues you flag in the forums and on our social accounts.

All this information gets put into an internal database that we use to evaluate outstanding issues. We then review each issue and consider how often a bug seems to appear, how seriously the bug affects players, and then we assign bugs out based on priority. The first step to fixing a bug is being able to reproduce it reliably, and this is where getting info like log files, screenshots, and videos can be very helpful in pinpointing the issues. Things like crashes and progress blockers are always the top priority to fix. Minor things like floating items get prioritized last. These bugs get assigned out by the team leads. The development team works on fixing them, and we create an internal version of the game that has all these fixes in it. At some point in the process we have to lock the build so that the Test team can test it all again, because every time something new is added to the build it invalidates most of the testing that has been done.

For really big releases like our Episodes, we supplement our internal Test team with an external team of about 5-10 testers (depending on the release) who help us review the entire game. Remember, every time we release an Episode, a Survival Update, or a Hotfix, we have to pretty much test the ENTIRE game again, to make sure we haven’t introduced issues elsewhere (it’s common for bug fixes to cause or reveal other issues). This includes all the Survival Mode mechanics on all Experience Modes, all the Regions, all the Challenges, and every Episode of WINTERMUTE. It’s a huge game that requires a massive amount of testing.

This explanation isn’t meant to sound like I’m making excuses for why bugs end up being released -- as you know we work hard to release a “clean” build and we then work hard to stomp out any bugs that come to light after the fact. But it’s a really big game and every release reminds us that it’s getting harder and harder to ensure we find all the bugs before release. This is something we’re discussing internally to see how we can improve our approach and ensure a better quality product for you, because I don’t think the current testing cycle is sustainable, and it just slows things down too much.



The development team has a hotfix with our internal Test team now. This hotfix contains fixes for over 200 issues (many of them pre-date the Episode Four release and were held back until post-release). We don’t have an exact ETA for this, but we’re hopeful that we can get it out some time late next week (the week of October 25th). If it comes in too late we may have to push it to the following week because we don’t release hotfixes right before the weekend, since we can’t be around to monitor and help players if things go wrong.

We will be following our standard hotfixing protocol, which is to bring hotfixes to platforms as quickly as we can (rather than holding some to simultaneously ship on all platforms together), therefore the Hotfix will not arrive on every platform at the same time. The typical order is: Steam, Xbox + PlayStation, other digital stores (Humble, Nuuvem, etc.), WeGame in China, and Switch. This order is purely determined by how quickly and/or convenient the hotfixing process is. (For example, on Steam we can simply update the game immediately. On the other end of the spectrum, Nintendo usually takes 7-10 days to review every hotfix before it can be released). Unfortunately, these are not timings that we control, and we apologize if you happen to be impacted by any delays around deploying these fixes.

We’ll share more info on Hotfix progress on our Social accounts and in the Steam and Official forums, so please follow us on Twitter if you want to have up-to-date info.



As mentioned in the lead-up to Episode Four’s launch, the team is working on bringing Blackrock Region to Survival Mode for the end of this year. They are also incorporating the Noisemaker into Survival Mode, and we’re including one new gear item that was not in Episode Four. We’ll share more details about these things in the lead up to launching the update. We don’t have an ETA on the Survival Update apart from “before the end of the year”.

Between the Episode Four launch, the subsequent hotfixing work, and preparing the Survival Mode update for the end of the year, I unfortunately had to make a tough call to sacrifice the Halloween Event this year. I know many of you were looking forward to getting a refresh on Escape the Darkwalker, and we were excited to release a 2021 version, but the team just doesn’t have the bandwidth to produce the Hotfix, release an updated Darkwalker, and also produce a Survival Mode update for the end of the year. In terms of priority, it felt that the Survival Update was more important to you than the Darkwalker event, so we triaged out the event. Apologies to anyone that will be disappointed by this, but there’s only so much development bandwidth to go around and we need to make these calls at times. We’ll try to make it up to you next year.

* * *

I’ll share another dev diary closer to the end-of-year Survival update, and as mentioned we’ll keep you posted on Hotfix progress as it unfolds in the coming weeks.

Thanks for your patience and support of our efforts! We hope you’re enjoying Episode Four, and for those of you who are currently impacted by bugs, we hope to get you some fixes very soon.



- Raphael

• Updating savegame file format to avoid conflicts with Operational Systems updates (e.g. Windows 11)

Hey you awesome people out there!

We appreciate that you have time for us!
To celebrate this awesome event with you we have a little suprise!
Just fill out our survey and get a taste of Christmas!

Thank you for being part of our journey, development and Community!



Your team @rokaplay