Alrighty, all. This is our final dev update for 2023. We're signing off for the holiday season to take some much needed rest.

In the last twelve months, we announced our game and released our first playable demo.

It's been a big year.



But we've got a lot more planned for 2024. Reckon it'll be even bigger.

See you on the other side.

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Dragons!

Reach your highest potential by logging in for increased rates during our Golden Time Event! Starting at midnight, enjoy a 2x EXP, 2x Skill, and 2x Drop event!

Event Duration:
December 15, 2023 00:00 - December 17, 2023 23:59 Pacific

This increased rate event will only last until Sunday, December 17th, before midnight, so don't wait to take advantage of these increased gains!

Hi everyone - if you're wondering what today's tiny Trombone Champ update does:

• Most important: Fixes the new accessibility setting that enables / disables the "edge rainbow" that appears during Champ mode. This wasn't saving right in 1.18 and would always default to "on." It should work as designed now!
  
• Fixes a small issue where users can get 1 less card than they're supposed to when building multiple cards at once.
  
• Adds the weird comma in the confusing name "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen."

Please forgive us, and have a great holiday season!

-Holy Wow Studios

/ misc bug fixes
+ added Achievements
> Summit Slide
Finish a race on Summit Slide.
> Glowing Gateway
Finish a race on Glowing Gateway.
> Autumn Freefall
Finish a race on Autumn Freefall.
> Winner
Finish a race with at least two people as first place.
> Fisherman
Reel in your first fish.

• Reworked resources tooltips, now display available and required amounts.
  
• Add smoke to furnace.
  
• Add smoke to campfire.
  
• Increased berry juice stamina recovery.
  
• Increased grapes juice stamina recovery.

• Fixed bug when cant make potato seeds on seeds extractor.

Earlier this week we had some issues with the Christmas event, but it should now be live on all platforms! Candy Canes now drop from Chests, caves, and Monsters and they can be redeemed for chests in the event window. Basic chests also now spawn twice as fast during the event!

We hope you enjoy!

We also want to let you know that we're in the process of adding Steam trading cards, backgrounds, and emoticons which should be up sometime next week

Enjoy a free Ethereal Chest with this code: XBX9V5E4D071E

Redeem in-game by going to the garage, selecting “Use Tickets”, then “Redeem”.

The following changes have been made to the game:

• Birds will explode upon touching food. This has no effect on the gameplay.
  
• The images of the grey bird and the worm have been updated.
  
• A new level, "Allotment Assault", has been added. It features bees that will chase hungry bugs when food is on the screen and remove their hunger. Killing a bee will reduce your score.
  
• The name of level 10 has been corrected.
  
• The score requirements for each level have been lowered to make it easier to advance to the next one.
  
• The menu buttons will no longer shrink after returning to the menu on low-resolution screens.
  
• The food detection area has been decreased so that bugs have to get closer to food before they can eat it.
  
• The game will not crash anymore if there are no speakers or soundcard available.
  
• The flickering around bugs on low-resolution screens has been fixed.
  
• The bug collision behaviour has been improved to prevent bugs from getting stuck.

New five-faction server is now up!

The Genari Starkiller arrives in orbit around Earth, with the Sol Imperial defense platform nearby

A fierce battle between Sol Imperial Worlds and Genari United Empire ended with the Sol Homeworld of Earth being defeated led by RevenyasReven and his Starkiller flagship. The hive was defeated first, and Ma'Alaketh thereafter, with Sol being the last one standing against the Genari.
Also, congrats to Taco, Mentor, Amishjoe, BurgerBing, Doc Grumpets as the great defenders of Sol, eventually succumbing to Genari.

What class of ship will you achieve this server?




A Sol Mendi fires on a Genari Agile Flyer

Players will notice a new feature implemented in this server -- Attack AI. Not only will local stations send out defending ships when players attack borders, some stations now send out Class III and IV attackers to hit borders as well. Take advantage of this and join AI to coordinate attacks on sectors, or defend against them for extra experience and officer points.


Eventually you will be seeing 'Hero Attack AI' which will be leveled up AI destroyers and cruisers that work in groups to assault larger sectors, just like you do.

Take a moment and watch this week's community stream. We play a little more of STORY MODE, then unwrap some excellent HOLIDAYS-themed stages submitted by the community. Watch us struggle, or hop into USER STAGES and play these gems yourself! Watch the replay right now on YouTube.

We stream HUMANITY every Wednesday—check our social media or Steam News to find out when we're streaming that week. Follow us on Twitch and YouTube to get notifications when we go live. We usually play some STORY MODE, check out community-made stages, and we'll even dig into some STAGE CREATOR if the mood strikes.

Week 106 is here, and with it comes the Biomore Backpack, our second role-specific backpack, this one being for the medic.

This comes with a bunch of unique team-buff auras and other perks, making it perfect for the support role in your group.

We’ve also got an update on Bees for you to sink your teeth into.

Jump in and have a read.




This week, we’re adding a new backpack, for the medic of your crew.

The Biomore Backpack is purchasable in the workshop. It provides six inventory slots, along with 3 active auras where the prospector and nearby allies having increased physical resistance, quicker healing from bacterial, parasitic and poisons, and additional health regeneration. It also has some buffs for the wearer, reducing the stamina impact from using tools, and providing more health to downed prospectors when revived.

This is the second of our role-specific backpacks, and we’ll keep looking to add more items such as this with a more focused use case so you can personalize your playing experience even more.



It's been pointed out that the Biomore Backpack shipped in the game this week featured a Red Cross, which is actually a protected emblem under the Geneva Convention! We take this seriously. We've fixed this in our artwork here and we will update the backpack in our very next update.


As we’ve mentioned in previous weeks, a huge portion of our ongoing development focus has been on batteries and networks.

We’ve been doing a lot of internal testing, which has led us to find some flaws in the usability and one key system that we aren’t happy with. This means the system needs more work before we release it, which isn’t ideal but is important as the impact of this new system is substantial.

We are currently making changes to how this system presents itself to players, so it’s easier to diagnose faulty networking systems and remedy them, in a style and experience familiar to other Icarus systems.

This does unfortunately mean that the system will have to wait until the new year, as we can’t risk pushing this out, right when our team is going away on the holiday break for some well-deserved time off.

However, if you can’t wait to test it out, we will hopefully have a special experimental branch up on Steam if we deem it ready before Christmas, for you to experience and break in all its unstable glory.





Bees will be one of the next creatures added to Icarus, with Wild Bee Hives that spawn aggressive bees appearing around the map.

These bees are territorial, so they will only attack when you venture into their space. Destroyed hives can be looted for queen bees and honeycomb.

Domestic beehives will be crafted at Tier 2 and expanded upon up to Tier 4 with improvements adding layers of automation to the management process.

Honeycomb, as an ingredient, can be turned into honey or beeswax which can be used in various new recipes. Bees will be added in 2024, so keep your eye out in the new year for your new neighbors.




Next week's update will add two new animal rugs to expand the existing set. These will be Jaguar and Snow Leopard, so remember to gather vestiges, fur, leather and pelts in advance this week so you can craft them right away.

If you like what we’re doing with Icarus, and want to support our continued development, consider purchasing one of our DLCs for a few dollars, it would mean a lot to us.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/36462/Icarus_Architecture_Bundle/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/34141/Icarus_Outposts_Bundle/


New Content
[expand type=details]

• Unlocking Medic's Backpack in the workshop
  
• Fix for aura component manager that now takes into account auras 'effects self' flag
  
• Adjusting stats on the Biomore Backpack

[/expand]

Fixed
[expand type=details]

• Fixed a number of typos
  
• Fixed SMPL3 quests granting the old glassworking bench, instead of the updated model
  
• Updated textiles bench icon
  
• Ignore object collisions when spawning meteor deposits. Immediately end recording when cleaning up deposits
  
• Updated Landshark item rewards to grant some ore, in addition to poison sacks. Additionally no longer drops caveworm scales
  
• Fixed Landshark dropping caveworm vestige
  
• Removing back button in the field guide as it was accessing an unfinished field guide feature

[/expand]

Future Content
[expand type=details]

• Updated spawn groups for cave templates
  
• General Polish Pass & updated cave templates Ice Sheet Yellow Quad on Prometheus
  
• Cliff Polish Pass and Decal Pass, Ashlands, Prometheus
  
• Adding chicken idle audio, event and data table entry
  
• Added text for the water purifier items
  
• Added destructible and mesh to supporter flag and sign
  
• Resave stats DT
  
• Modified text for Ice building pieces
  
• Added text for biolab consumables
  
• Added text for biomass items
  
• Turret Prototype Expose Min/Max Pitch and Yaw as Stats
  
• Updated no foliage cave templates
  
• Fur Curtain Door implementation
  
• Cliff polish pass, Ashlands, Prometheus
  
• General Polish Pass & updated cave templates Ice Sheet Yellow Quad on Prometheus
  
• Added DEP_Battery_Small and DEP_Battery_Large
  
• More backend for fieldguide: Small refactor to the way some one off items are hidden
  
• Cliff Polish Pass and Landscape Sculpting Pass, Ashlands, Prometheus
  
• More backend for fieldguide: Knives corpse can be skinned with
  
• More backend for fieldguide: Corpse skinning knife rewards, corpse skinning bench rewards, corpse vestige
  
• More backend for fieldguide: Ammo for item, Workshop cost for item, Items requiring same talent
  
• Field Guide begin UI refactor. Componentize FieldGuide Itemable. Add Workshop Cost Widget
  
• Field Guide reparent pages to page class, items to item class
  
• Field Guide Ammo subpage
  
• Added DEP_Battery_Rack_Small and DEP_Battery_Rack_Large
  
• Field Guide Food/Trophies subpage
  
• Field Guide Ranged subpage
  
• General Polish Pass & updated cave templates Ice Sheet Yellow Quad on Prometheus
  
• Cliff Polish Pass and Landscape Sculpting Pass, Ashlands, Prometheus
  
• Field Guide fix typo in variable and layout names before it spreads to (vestage => vestige)
  
• Field Guide corpse sub page
  
• Field Guide begin UI refactor. Componentize FieldGuide Recipe or workshop cost. Componentize Uses. Add Resource Network widget
  
• Added first pass of mount talent trees
  
• Updated cave worm groups & spawns for NF templates, Ice Sheet in Yellow Quad on Prometheus
  
• Update costs on Larkwell Tachyon armor set
  
• Cliff Polish Pass and Landscape Sculpting Pass, Ashlands, Prometheus
  
• General Polish Pass & updated cave templates Ice Sheet Yellow Quad on Prometheus

[/expand]