Jan 17, 2023

Stranded: Alien Dawn - Tame and Train Update Coming 24 January 2023

Stranded: Alien Dawn - JensErik_Frontier

Hello Survivors, and happy new year!

We are incredibly excited to announce our second major Early Access update! The Tame and Train Update introduces a new animal taming mechanic, as well as ways to train and care for the animals you've tamed. We're also introducing a new animal, a new survivor, and various bug fixes and quality of life updates.

As development on the game continues, the Tame and Train Update brings exciting new features to the game. We are continuing to take on board your feedback and suggestions, and there are more updates to come in the future. We'd like to give a huge thank you to everyone who's provided us with feedback and suggestions on our forums, on social media, or on our Discord server! We couldn't do this without you. Please don't hesitate to share your thoughts with us as we continue through the Early Access period.

Let's break down what you will find in the new update:

Animal Taming
The new "Animal Taming" research option will unlock the ability to tame animals for your survivors. Taming an animal requires food and a certain level of Farming skill. The type of food and the skill level required depends on the animal, and you can learn what they are by Observing the animals you want to tame. Some animals can't be tamed by food alone and need to be pacified before they can be tamed, while others can't be tamed at all!

After a creature has been tamed, a number of different options open up. Tamed animals can be played with, which helps improve your survivors' happiness, while others are perfect for use as livestock by breeding, fattening them up, and slaughtering them to help fill your food stores. Creatures that have a Combat skill can be trained to become stronger, and will attack hostile creatures coming near them. Tamed creatures can be a fantastic asset when under attack - Junos can serve as a fast, tank-like defender, while Shriekers can add some much needed ranged support.

Any animal you tame has needs you'll have to meet to make them comfortable and happy. They need to be fed, and have a place to rest. An Animal Feeder will be unlocked as part of the Animal Taming research, and it's a good idea to have a couple of them where you keep your animals. You wouldn't want them to start going after your crops! Certain animals will provide you with resources like manure or feathers, which can then be crafted into useful items, while insectoid creatures can dig Stone out from the ground. Their happiness has an impact on how many by-products they generate, so it's a good idea to keep them well-fed and rested. We recommend taming a wide variety of creatures to see which resources they can produce. For that personal touch, you can also rename your newly tamed animals!

As your survivors spend more time with these creatures they'll eventually start to develop bonds with them. This will improve your survivors' happiness, but be careful: their happiness will take a hit if the animal passes away.

New Animals
As part of the Tame and Train Update we're adding a new animal to the game: dogs! Three breeds of dogs will be available for your survivors to tame, and their appearance are based on the Weimaraner, Boxer, and Great Dane. Dogs can be trained to fight alongside your survivors, or played with to help your survivors relax and improve their happiness. Dogs also have a much higher chance to bond with a survivor, which will further increase survivor happiness.

And yes, your survivors can pet the dogs!

Meet Hugo Delano
Hugo Delano is a brand new survivor coming to Stranded: Alien Dawn. This former zookeeper is a lover of all animals who became a resistance fighter when war broke out on his planet to protect the creatures living there. After becoming a renowned veteran he decided to travel the stars to learn what he could about all the species of the cosmos. This animal expert will never fail at taming a creature, and will even teach farming techniques with his fellow survivors!

Keep an eye out for the full patch notes coming out on 24 January. As always, we want to thank everyone in the Stranded: Alien Dawn community for all your support, feedback, suggestions, and bug reports.

There are more details to come from the Tame and Train Update, so don't forget to join the Stranded: Alien Dawn Discord and you'll never miss any news! You can also follow the game on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, or join the discussions on Steam and the Frontier Forums. On 18 January at 4:00pm GMT, the community team will be joined by developers from Haemimont Games for a run-through of the new taming mechanic, and the rest of the new update on Twitch and YouTube. We'll see you there!

Jan 17, 2023

War Effort - Operation Capital [1.12.8 - Checksum 9d51]

Hearts of Iron IV - PDX Chakerathe

Greetings Generals and Happy New Year!

To continue with the War Effort here are the latest patch notes for Operation Capital, including QoL updates, balance changes and bug fixes. As has been much requested, we've also made changes to the Stalin paranoia system - no need to look over your shoulder about it anymore!

Below you can find the patch notes (unchanged from the Open Beta version);

Patch 1.12.8 Operation Capital Checksum 9d51

Balance

- Equipment variants created through focuses etc. will be created first when the technology they are based on is researched, if it's missing.
- Tank Design: Radio modules curve slightly changed, overall efficacy of radios reduced slightly
- Tank Design: Close Support Gun now has 10 piercing, from 12.
- Tank Design: Heavy Machine Gun now has 8 soft attack from 5, and 6 piercing from 10
- Tank Design: Secondary Cannon and HMG now have fewer drawbacks but higher production cost. HMG soft attack now 4, from 3, but hard attack removed
- Tank Design: Additional Machine guns soft attack reduced to 1, from 2
- Tank Design: Easy Maintenance module now reduces total build cost by 5%, but requires 30 XP, from 10
- Tank Design: Expanded Fuel Tanks now cost 1 IC, from 2
- Tank Design: Sloped Armor now increases armor by 25%, from 20
- Tank Design: Medium One-Man Turret now has 8 breakthrough, from 10, and reduces soft and hard attack by 10%, from 25%
- Tank Design: Three-Man Turret now has 24 breakthrough, from 20
- Tank Design: Torsion Bar now grants 15% reliability, from 10%
- Tank Design: Interleaved Road Wheels no longer reduces reliability, but has doubled production cost
- Tank Design: Welded armor reduced to 30% armor, from 40%
- Plane Design: Torpedo Mountings now have 14 naval strike attack from 12, -12 agility from -15, and 6 targeting from 5
- Plane Design: Reduced the lower end of plane engine IC costs; earlier planes should be a little cheaper on the whole
- Dive brakes no longer valid for naval bombers, increased naval targeting from dive brakes from 4 to 6
- Dive brakes no longer valid with naval bomber weapons (torpedoes and guided missiles)
- Carrier Naval strike multiplier increased, reduced naval strike detection chance from 0.7 to 0.5, reduced carrier disruption factor from 0.8 to 0.6
- Basic Medium chassis now 1938 tech, amphibious tank now unlocked only by 1936 light, tank armour tech dates are now 36,38,41,44, amphibious tank no longer gets medium turrets

- New variants received from auto-upgrades, focuses, events etc. are now highlighted in the production tab like variants received from research.
- In research screen for modular equipment (tank, ship, plane), stop showing a diff in stats when there is no design company attached
- Improved Tank tech tree layout

- Soviet Union no longer desires to be best buddies with Romania despite being instructed to ignore them for a while
- AI weights on hiring advisors now makes more sense. You should see a better split between political advisors & research bureaus, and the AI no longer saves all PP for hiring chiefs at the exclusion of all else. [This has a pretty radical effect on early AI build-up, thus there may be some imbalance in the early game in this open beta - feedback especially welcome]
- AI have a higher weight on Captain of Industry advisors pre-1939
- AI military spirit selection is less deterministic

Modding

- Added property allow_without_tech to create_equipment_variant which will create the variant even if the technology it's based on is missing.
- Fix the way character variables in script are stored
- From now on, any trigger or effect, strictly requiring a country scope, but used in a character scope, will not work anymore
- From now on, any trigger or effect, strictly requiring a country scope, but used in all_character, any_character, random_character, every_character, party_leader, characters_list_tooltip, will not work anymore
- Correctly retrieve variables stored in character scope for text
- Fixed tooltip function of trigger can_be_country_leader when used in country scope or all_character/any_character
- Fix add_ideas and activate_advisor effects. When applied to a slot that is already filled, dismiss the currently appointed advisor before hiring the new one. Will fix crash when opening Officer corps after.
- In script, interpret correctly when a character token is used in input
- Make has_character and can_be_country_leader work with variables and keyword, and not just with a character token
- Make is_character work with variables and keyword, and not just with a character token
- Align can_be_country_leader on other character trigger and always return false if the character is retired
- Fix crash in remove_advisor_role if the character had no matching advisor role
- When using a character token as input for a scope, search for the closest encapsuling country scope in order to interpret it correctly
- Fix crash when using add_advisor_role on a character with already a role in the same slot. Add a log error if trying to put triggers and on_action in the advisor role in add_advisor_role, those can only work if in database.
- Make set_temp_variable accept character token as input
- Removed check on unit leader type for add_unit_leader_trait. This check is only relevant for random traits.
- Make sure that advisor roles in characters duplicated during civil war keep the same idea_token
- Remove check on scope for hidden_effect and effect_tooltip
- Added country dynamic variables : country_leader, theorist, army_chief, navy_chief, air_chief, political_advisor, high_command
- Make sure all political parties are cleaned up when a character with multiple country leader roles retires
- Fix the tooltip for triggers inside a character scope, now the name of the character will correctly prefix the trigger tooltip
- Add can_be_fired boolean flag in advisor role block in database. If at 'no', then the advisor can't be fired once hired. Warning modders : completely replaces removal_cost = -1 !
- Add trigger advisor_can_be_fired checking new flag can_be_fired in advisor role block
- Add effect set_can_be_fired_in_advisor_role, setting new flag can_be_fired in advisor role block
- Fix dynamic variables when using a unit leader scope
- Add trigger pc_is_state_claimed
- Renamed trigger pc_is_state_outside_influence_for to pc_is_state_outside_influence_for_winner
- AI now correctly evaluates the weight of the traits that an advisor has, as well as the advisor entry weights

Art

- Added portraits for political advisors in Spain and Portugal

Bugfix

- Fix all events related to Soviet Paranoia (value was always 0)
- Fixed issue where researching a new hull, chassis or airframe would not create the default variant if any variant of that type already existed.
- Fixed issue where variants created through focuses etc. would get unexpected modules and upgrades as a result of there being no default variant.
- Fixed typo in tooltip for Soviet Merge Plants focuses
- Fixed the manpower exploit by repeated splitting & merging of airwings.
- Italian Fiat 3000 and Fiat 3000B inter-war tanks will no longer be just hulls in the stockpile and will now show proper inter-war tank 2D icon.
- Italian AI should no longer release puppets in Balkans on historical via decisions.
- Decaying opinion modifers (for instance from improve relation diplomatic action) will not disappear after loading a save anymore
- Fixes to how AI selects target templates for upgrading
- Combat log tooltip now shows correct naming for losses breakdown
- Admirals can no longer erroneously gain the politically_connected general trait
- Fix bug with usage of pc_is_state_outside_influence_for trigger in ai desires
- Fixed issue where 'No Councilor' mission would complete right away.
- Fixed issue where Democratic Unrest National Spirit in Switzerland wouldn't be removed when declaring the Alpine Protectorate.
- AI no longer forgets top-most production line when reducing excessive factories
- Fixed Thrust/Weight issues in some plane designs after latest air rebalance
- Fixed not considering manpower casualties in the air combat.
- Unite Polynesia decision category now shows the appropriate decision category picture.
- Stalinist AI should now be more inclined to kill Trotsky.
- Cruiser Submarine icon will now be properly shown on the researched technology pop-up.
- Fixed Chinese general showing up with blank portrait when Nationalist China integrates Guanxi Clique army.

Jan 17, 2023

Update R70

Shatterline - BlownGasket_Frag_Lab

Hi there, Shatterliners!

The January update (Release 70) is here! Here is what it's brought.

R70 Release Notes

The holiday event is over, and so is the hunt for fireworks stashes.

Upscaling Tech

• AMD FidelityFX™ Super Resolution is available in the game options.

Movement

• We tweaked the slide a bit. You can now slide infinitely down a slope and take a crouching position after canceling the slide.

Expedition

• Now all weapons retain their attachments in Expedition. Before this change, only weapons equipped on the operative before launching the Expedition were present in an Expedition match.

Balance Changes

• Kite's remote mine improvements:
• • it now ignores enemy drones;
• • the mine's flare has become more pronounced;
• • it beeps in the spectator mode and during the best moment replay;
• • the mine's ability button on HUD now blinks with a blue tint when an enemy is in close proximity to it (in sync with the audio beep);

• • the ability button blinks in a more pronounced manner with a yellow tint when an enemy is within the range that guarantees a kill.

UI/HUD

• Fine-tuned design of the Operative's Equipment Screen.
• The Operatives Customization Screen was improved: now you can sweep through different operatives' Cosmetics, Equipment, and Progression without the need to leave the Customization Screen.
• Game tasks are now sorted in the following order: progressed, not progressed, and completed.
• The friends who are online are shown at the top of the friend list.
• For platform compatibility, long player names are truncated to 24 symbols.
• To avoid confusion, the "Customize" button in the Armory will be called "Preview" for weapons yet to be unlocked.
• Redesigned notification for encounter completion in Expedition.
• In the Coop and PvEvP (Invasion) modes, dead AI enemies no longer appear on the radar.
• To improve targeting, all weapon scopes reticle and RDS color was changed to green. Since enemy outlines are red and many AIs have red color on them, it was quite difficult to discern the red dot and reticles against red enemies.

Game Options

• The interface language can now be changed in the "Interface language" option under General Options.

Animation

• Improved third-person character animations in the idle pose, when aiming down sights, on-spot and in-sprint rotation, and transition from sprint and run to a stop.
• Improved Gardener AI animation.
• Weapon inspection animation for the R21 Brute shotgun, the TWD X-Treme sniper rifle and X-Treme Lone Wolf modification, the Dragonfly sniper rifle, the Λ-3 Pilum assault rifle and Pilum Ivory modification, the G7 Springer pistol. Updated animation of Λ-3 Pilum and Pilum Ivory.

Audio

• Improved ambient sounds and cutscene audio in the Border Control Coop mission.

KEY BUG FIXES

• Fixed issue in Invasion where Ram could one-shot kill the Stilt boss with his ultimate.
• Fixed issue in Invasion where Orbit could get on top of the first core gate using his leap ability.
• Fixed issue in Invasion where the Meteor Strike ability could be spammed infinitely if the Invader had been killed when activating the strategic ability.
• Fixed issue in Expedition where secondary encounter supply crates could fail to open sometimes.
• Fixed issue in Expedition where the boss fight wouldn't start if the players triggered a secondary encounter (but didn't complete it) before triggering the boss fight, returned and finalized the secondary encounter.
• Fixed issue in Expedition where a player could get stuck in crystalline near the bunker.
• Fixed issue where Orbit's leap speed was faster if performed diagonally in comparison with a forward leap.
• Fixed issue where Orbit could kill an enemy with a headshot when using his ultimate ability.
• Fixed issue where the sounds of Ram's ultimate and gravity strike disappeared if Ram wore any outfit.
• Fixed issue in Terminal and Nisida PvP maps where a player could get to non-playable areas by using the operative's abilities.
• Fixed issue where the death from kick didn't count as a kill for the kicker if the enemy was kicked outside of the map.
• Another fix for the issue where a cart could move on its own in the Escort mode.
• Multiple HUD and UI bug fixes.
• Fixed localization issues with mixed-up attachment descriptions for the G7 Springer pistol, incorrect buff duration description of the U22 Svarog's Sheriff Holsterattachment, incorrect localization of the Kite's remote mine detonator, and the Escort Mode Escape map name on the session loading screen.
• Weapon animation fixes for the Z-940 Drachen, Cinetech M5, Black Falcon, XM-27 Pacifier, and SAG-8 Reaper.
• Crash fixes.