Welcome to another major update of Fech The Ferret! 4 months after last update, we've primarily worked around the end of the current build: a park is now located after the river zone and the brand new city Marmocle is now accessible, which will eventually serve as the main hub for the game. During this time we've also laid the groundwork for a quest system and notifications on the UI to warn the player about any change of state, like saving and having picked up objects. Lastly we've continued with improving existing systems under the hood as we try to streamline the development workflows, leading to reduced likelihood of mistakes on our side and making it easier to add new content: an example of that would be the improved water behaviour throughout the game.
As it is with each major update in this Early Access, resetting the save file is not required, but it may be convenient.
HIGHLIGHTS:
2023-02-02 New swimming behaviour 2023-04-09 Implemented new quest system 2023-04-20 Brand new look for the park 2023-04-30 Marmocle's main centre is accessible! (but with no activities) 2023-05-01 Added notification system for quests and saves 2023-05-02 Major UX improvements to the power plant 2023-05-21 New songs added for Marmocle and the Sewers/Park
CHANGES:
-Water is now made of box triggers instead of planar ones, making the game more flexible -Further collectibles optimizations: they make use of spawners now. Small performance improvements expected on low spec hardware -Technical improvements to the occlusion system. Small performance improvements expected -Removed an arrow in excess from rhythm aras that looked off -Small improvements to ara maps -Ara obstacles appear a little later to better sync up with music -Improvements to the elevator battery quest -Snappier animation transitions -Rolling in air no longer consumes stamina -Improvements to the feel of the flower spring -Increased thread priority during loading screens -Added grass to a few empty spots of the game -Improved Timer UI -New character species added to Marmocle -Adjusted out of bound trees in the quarry -Slightly reduced river push force, added support multiple forces at once -First zone card after opening the game stalls a little longer -Diving works underwater too, rolling is easier -Rolling underwater doesn't deplete the stamina anymore -Tiny improvements to simple poles -Removed potential unsupported resolutions in excess, added a failsafe
FIXES:
-Fixed all water detection bugs. The game now supports having dry spaces below a body of water -Fixed a infinite water jump bug -Fixed inventory loading bug (cone hat would disappear) -Fixed excessive shininess in the river zone -Calling the quarry elevator multiple times no longer resets its speed -Fixed inconsistent behaviour on whether a player could roll or not on a rhythm ara treadmill -Removed an old invisible wall in the ferrest -Small fixes to how Fech's animations are triggered -Fixed fall animation being triggered instead the jump one when jumping (most evident in rhythm aras and on springs) -Reset button completely deletes the save file now -Improved stability of the water push system -Small fixes to the power plant -Fixed a few holes in the quarry -Fixes to how simple poles behave -Rain is now correctly confined to the river zone only -Fixed a water bug in the sewers -Fixed oversight with triggering music change at the end of the river zone -Fixed a death plane in the river zone -Fixed weird bug where the mouse cursor would mysteriously appear every time a new scene got loaded -Fixed bugs related to fech being wet in the wrong zones -More fixes to the custom occlusion system
KNOWN ISSUES:
-Marmocle is incomplete -Some longtime issues related to slopes -Infrequent camera collision issues -Make sure to manually save in the river zone. The river itself is a valid save point -New challenges are missing of their own dedicated music and sfx -Fech's notes aren't navigable with a controller -There's unfinished "business mode" code in the build -Post processing seems to get turned off when dealing with some online interactions -Cloud saves don't work on Linux yet -Fech himself oddly doesn't support shadow cascades. Set shadows settings to low -Given the lack of activities, debug characters have been left in Marmocle
With our spring drops, you all made clear your fondness for new items with custom animations and effects attached to them. With that in mind, the team has brought back the Spring Drink Party & Springtime Fantasyland Bundles to give those who missed them a chance at items like the Clover Shuriken and Pot-O-Gold!
The Pipeworks team has taken notice of the community's curiosity recently — we recognize you all want to know what's next for Prominence Poker. Stay tuned to our socials (Twitter, Facebook & Discord) and community forums tomorrow as we reveal our roadmap for the rest of 2023!
Dev Upgrade is a full upgrade of the game. There will be new Maps, other Maps will be completely rebuilt for better details and a better gaming experience. There will also be a focus on redesigning Widgets, new functions and old functions will be redesigned so that they work in new ways. We have plans to do more Matches, this will be announced at that time. Command function will be completed in Dev Upgrade. This Dev Upgrade will come in several steps that will be released at different times, so expect periods without major updates to the game. There will still be regular updates with fixes and changes along the way.
What’s new in Dev Upgrade #2?
Several different Widgets in the game have been changed, which helps to prepare for another version of the game. Intel XeSS and AMD FidelityFX™ Super Resolution have been added to the game, giving the game new possibilities for best quality on more graphics cards than just Nvidia. The game can be played at high resolution and new graphics options that can be customized to anyone. It is possible to change the Anti-aliasing Mode in the game settings (FXAA, TAA, MSAA). TSR is automatically connected by Nvidia DLSS. It is also possible to play in 8K resolution if your hardware and monitor support this. It is now possible to HDR Nits in the settings. You can choose up to 5000 Nits, but it requires your Monitor to support it. If your Monitor supports but doesn't know Nits, you can select Auto and the game will play from your Monitor. Entering the weapon market issue has been fixed and is now works perfect when you enter the weapon market. You can now Press [E] to enter when you find them around the Maps.
in the main menu you will henceforth be greeted by a Scene Rendering that runs in the background and shows different maps in the game. This Scene Rendering runs via your computer's performance. Depending on your hardware, Scene Rendering will run smoothly. Smaller hardware will also experience fine Scene Rendering, and have a good experience.
XeSS is an in-game upscaling technology created by Intel, similar to DLSS and FSR. It takes a lower-resolution image of a game and runs it through an AI-accelerated upscaling algorithm to output the image at a higher resolution.
The reduced image resolution also reduces the demand on the GPU (and other hardware), which effectively increases FPS. At the same time, visual quality does not decrease; in some cases, XeSS may improve visual quality. How much the image will be upscaled depends on which quality mode is picked in the game’s settings. Users can choose from the following quality modes:
Ultra Quality Quality Balanced Performance
Performance mode offers the worst visual quality but the most significant increase in FPS; Ultra Quality provides the exact opposite, with Quality offering slightly more FPS (at the cost of image fidelity). And, naturally, Balanced mode provides a middle ground for FPS and image quality.
FSR 2.2 is the latest update to AMD’s FSR technology, which was first launched in June 2021 with FSR 1.03. FSR is a type of rendering technique that looks to boost framerates in games and enable quality high-resolution gaming by rendering at a lower resolution and then using a spatial upscaling filter to reconstruct a higher-resolution image4. It’s also a rival to Nvidia’s DLSS, though the two differ quite a bit in how they function.
FSR 2.2 is designed to deliver incredible image quality and help boost framerates in supported games by intelligently upscaling lower-resolution images to higher resolutions without sacrificing detail or clarity.
Along with that, it is compatible with a wide range of graphics cards, including AMD Radeon RX 6000 series GPUs with AMD Smart Access Memory technology enabled for even better performance, and it also works with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 10 series GPUs and above, so you can enjoy this technology regardless of your GPU brand.
How many Dev Upgrades?
It is not planned how many will come. It is to be expected that there will be more of these in the future, which will change the game in one way or another. At every Dev Upgrade, it will be announced what is new and what is important to the game. The meaning of this Dev Upgrade is that the game must have a brand-new fresh start, both with new Maps, new appearance and game modes. If you like the game, we in the team will be happy for a review of the game. So, others can see what you think about the game and what you think about it. Remember, if you have suggestions, we would love to hear from you, and will take them up for decision.
Give it up for one and only - Queen! Slash to the beats of one of the most iconic rock bands in music history and experience Queen's legendary music like never before. The Queen Music Pack is packed with all the great hits. Enjoy the pumping anthems you know by heart in a brand new custom environment, featuring silhouettes of each band member.
Track List: - Another One Bites the Dust - Bohemian Rhapsody - Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Don’t Stop Me Now - I Want It All - Killer Queen - One Vision - Somebody to Love - Stone Cold Crazy - We Are The Champions - We Will Rock You
Release Notes:
Game: - Added: 11 new tracks from Queen, including new environment with neon-glow silhouettes of legendary Freddie Mercury, John Deacon, Brian May and Roger Taylor - Tweaked: Arc Options - hiding Arcs will disable haptics - Tweaked: Back columns in environments - Fixed: Several Arc and Chain interactions - Fixed: Arcs are not connected to Chains tail
Editor: - Added: New Audio spectrogram - Added: Click to select for box groups and event boxes - Added: Ctrl + Space and long space to return to start beat on pause - Added: Show each Chain Link passing beat line separately - Added: Rectangle selection to event box groups - Added: Return on Pause - Added: Update of chain links display - properly dimming links behind beat line - Fixed: Contrast of button states - Fixed: Note feedback in Zen mode - Fixed: Scrolling precision calculation - Fixed: v1/v2 laser rotation preview - Fixed: Endless loading issue while creating new beatmap - Fixed: Events not cleared on repeating open - Fixed: Laser rotation in v1 going crazy - Fixed: Contrast for pressed / selected and disabled state - Fixed: Note feedback audible in Zen mode - Fixed: Precision slider calculation - Fixed: Paging for v2 events
Gonna try live streaming playing a Multiplayer Race Mode game. Right now my minigolf game supports 4 players at the same time so there will be room for one other person besides my two kids. So if anyone wants to jump in and play with us, feel free.
I live up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California (Shaver Lake) and my internet upload speed isn't the best so we'll see how it goes. I recently got Starlink which has a much faster upload speed, but the pine trees here cause it to lose signal every so often. Not sure which is better to try, my ISP's slower DSL or Starlink's much much faster one that could disconnect at times.
This will be an experiment. Should be interesting. I'm planning on doing some live streams during the next Next Fest so figure it'd be a good idea to go through the process ahead of time and do all my screw-ups now instead of then.
In today's news post, we sat down with long-time community member Waggle! Competing as a finalist in ExileCon 2019, Waggle is a multi-talented player that dabbles in both competitive and community events! Check out the interview below!
Hi Waggle, thank you for taking part in the interview! Please introduce yourself:
Hey, thanks for having me. I'm Waggle, a mostly HC trade enjoyer, but I've dabbled in just about every game/league mode Path of Exile has had to offer because I really like trying different things (except ruthless, sorry Chris, it's too RUTHLESS)
When did you first get into Path of Exile?
I heard about Path of Exile very shortly before the open beta at the start of 2013. A buddy I had played Everquest with told me about it, and I decided to give it a shot with basically no info on the game other than that it was an ARPG.
What one thing caught your attention in the beginning and what one thing kept you coming back?
Definitely the character customization, the passive tree in particular, was a huge pull for me when I first started playing. Final Fantasy 10 was one of my favorite games growing up and having the same reaction a lot of players did of "hey this is kinda like a newer, cooler sphere grid". Planning out new characters & builds is also the second biggest thing that keeps me coming back, with the main reason being the constant content updates themselves.
Are there any highlights from your time playing Path of Exile that stand out in your memory?
If I had to pick one, I think I would have to go all the way back to beating Uber Atziri for the first time in Ambush League (I was but a simple SC gamer at the time), that was the point where Path of Exile went from being "a" game that I played, to being THE game that I played.
Do you have a favourite build?
This is a question I get asked on stream from time to time, and it's always a hard one to answer because I really enjoy the process of making builds, and it's a very similar experience even if the builds themselves are extremely different. If I had to pick 1 build I think it would probably be Essence Drain CI Trickster, back when Trickster had Ghost Shrouds on the Ascendancy... and they were really OP :)
Which expansion has been your favourite so far?
EASILY Sentinel League, even ignoring how it was super OP for exp grinding, loot drops, AND crafting. The way it took a lot of items/mods that hadn't really been relevant, and gave you huge incentive to go farm them, was a really cool feeling. Plus the overall state of the endgame was (and still is) in a really good spot with that league YES EVEN ARCHNEMESIS GOING CORE IT WAS ACTUALLY PRETTY GOOD AFTER THE FIRST LIKE TWO WEEKS!
What's one thing every Path of Exile player should hear?
Tink
When did you first start streaming? How did you get into it?
I started streaming sometime in early-mid 2016, initially just to stream races during the old race seasons. Was watching my friends streaming their races and thought "hey I could do this too"
What can people expect from your stream and schedule?
When I'm playing Path of Exile, it's a lot of build planning/theorycrafting, farming new league stuff, and crafting gear. Occasionally mix in a league start race, or maybe some race commentary if there's an event going on. My usual schedule is somewhere in the neighborhood of 4pm-midnight EST, most days of the week.
What were you doing before you started streaming?
Before I started streaming I had recently graduated college with a degree in computer science. While in school I also worked part time at a preschool as an after school daycare teacher, the best training for dealing with twitch chat.
What hobbies or interests do you have outside of streaming?
Whether I'm streaming or not, I'd say the majority of my free time is either spent gaming or on twitch, or both. I really enjoy watching esports in particular, mainly CSGO.
How has your life changed from before you were streaming until now? What role has streaming played in that transition?
Lifestyle wise I wouldn't say much has changed. But streaming has introduced me to a ton of people I probably otherwise wouldn't have met, which is really cool.
Is there anything you'd like to see more of in the streaming community?
I would personally love to see more 1-2 day long community races/competitive events, but I think it can be a really hard thing to do well & find timing inbetween all the other community/official events.
Do you have any advice for people who are looking to make their own career out of streaming?
Probably a generic answer, but definitely don't start streaming with the intention of making it into a career. Start because you think you might enjoy it, and if you do, then maybe try and find one specific aspect of whatever you are streaming (for example, playing Righteous Fire builds in Path of Exile), and become THE Righteous Fire person. You probably all know who that is already which shows how well it can be done :)
Are there any up and coming streamers that you'd like to shine a spotlight on?
I'm generally not up to date with newer streamers, but with the recent ExileCon qualifier races I can shout out some very solid racers that may or may not stream other stuff as well. keld0rn, stone_cold_poe, phazeplays, sargetwo, allexpleblord, & gaijinlag (and probably more tbh, there's a lot of very solid racers now it's hard to keep track of them all)
Do you have any projects on the horizon you'd like to talk about?
I pretty much plan things day by day so I generally don't have any big projects in the works, the closest thing would be I set a goal for myself that I want to get a mirror to drop in Path of Exile before Path of Exile2 launches. Probably gonna have to roll SC trade and spam feared invitations and pray pretty soon to make that come true...
You competed as a finalist in the ExileCon 2019 race. Do you have any memorable moments from that race or the event in particular?
Nah, no memorable moments, especially not any within the very first minute of the race. I randomly ended up in the same PC cafe as Havoc the day of the race, both of us completely focused practicing while probably nobody else there even knew what we were playing.
Do you plan to come to New Zealand for ExileCon 2023? If so, is there anything outside of ExileCon that you're keen on checking out?
Sitting out ExileCon this year, I'll be at home restreaming the event and doing insanely top tier REACTION content, heckin love reacting!!!
Thank you so much for participating in the interview! If you'd like to follow Waggle, you can do so on YouTube, and Twitch.
