May 25

Section 13 - ODS GeeK

Patch Schedule

PT: 10:00 AM, May 26
ET: 1:00 PM, May 26
CEST: 7:00 PM, May 26
ICT: 12:00 AM, May 27
KST: 2:00 AM, May 27

Agents,

We’re almost there–Section 13 will go into official release very soon! This journey would not have been possible without the support and the feedback from all our Agents. We would like to express our deepest gratitude to all of you!

Here we are with Ver. 1.0.0 patch notes to share what’s new and what’s changing. Please continue to share your thoughts via Steam discussion boards or our Discord server so that we can continue creating the best Section 13 experience possible!

For the list of changes in this patch, please see below.

New Content/Features

Added the full narrative content to single-player mode

The tutorial now includes an intro sequence that touches upon how the agents have been scattered inside Section 13 base
Added Agent Casefiles entries for each character

For more details, check out our dev log on the topic

Beating the final boss presents an ending dialogue scene
Beating the final boss after unlocking all characters and all Agent Casefiles entries presents a special ending experience
USB sticks drop in both single-player and multiplayer modes, but narrative content can only be unlocked in single-player mode

Added The Core level

This is where the final boss fight takes place
The Cell Sample item now drops after beating the final boss (instead of when you reach the final level)

Added a boss fight in the Location Unknown level
Added 2 new tactical gear

BlastWing Prototype: An autonomous combat drone
Tactical Shield: A deployable barrier

Changes/Improvements

Increased the amount of healing from medkits
Increased the chance for medkit crates to spawn

Supermax Lab and Isolation Chamber levels will have at least 1 guaranteed medkit crate, with chances for up to 2 additional medkit crates to spawn
Parking Lot level now has a fair chance to spawn a medkit crate

Slightly decreased Photon Cannon’s base damage
Adjusted conditions for procedurally generated bonus levels to appear

Sanitation Tunnels level now appears regardless of the difficulty, as long as you picked up the DNS Bypass item
Location Unknown level now requires the Classified DNS Error Report item to appear

Location Unknown level has a chance to appear on either the Office level or the Supermax Lab level. It will appear in one or the other, not both
Classified DNS Error Report item has a high chance of dropping from the Exosuit field boss on the Isolation Chamber level

Adjusted the drop rate of access code items

Cargo Elevator Code

Cargo Elevator Code can be found by investigating map objects on the Office level
The code is permanent; once you obtain it, you can check the code in your Character Info menu (default hotkey: I)
Increased the drop rate of the code

Security Room Code

Security Room Code can now be found by investigating map objects in the Deep Storage area, instead of being found in the Safe Area
The code is permanent; once you obtain it, you can check the code in your Character Info menu (default hotkey: I)
Increased the drop rate of the code

Adjusted the Hardbody permanent upgrade

Increased the max HP boost values
Slightly increased the Data Nugs cost

Adjusted Synaptic Enhancements

Fright Response I & II: Increased the damage boost values
Self Starter: Added back to the game
Marked Recovery: Now drops in both single-player and multiplayer modes
Physical Therapy: Now drops in both single-player and multiplayer modes
Optimist: Changed the effects

Previously, Optimist provided a passive damage reduction to allies within a certain radius of Beaker
Now, it reduces Beaker’s active skill cooldown, as well as provides a temporary damage reduction to allies within a certain radius (triggered when Beaker uses her active skill)

Reduced the STAR Pin cost of unlocking higher tier Synaptic Enhancements and agent upgrade from the DNS Defragmenter
Adjusted the unlock order of weapon perks, by switching some perks between the first two tiers of weapon attachments.

For example, the Assault Rifle will see the following changes:

+25% Critical Damage: Tier 1 → Tier 2
+10% Clip Size: Tier 1 → Tier 2
Tracking Bullets: Tier 2 → Tier 1
25% Chance to Pierce: Tier 2 → Tier 1

Added and polished various sound effects throughout the game
Optimized various aspects of the game for improved performance

Bug Fixes

Fixed the issue that could cause the game to crash at the end of the Isolation Chamber level
Fixed the issue where the game could crash in the Simulation Area and could prevent launching the game afterwards until you reinstalled the game
Fixed the issue where you could fall indefinitely in one of the Restricted Area layouts
Fixed the issue where the Pump-Action Shotgun’s reload weapon perk would reload the other firearm as well
Fixed the issue where Restricted Areas would become unavailable if you were stunned while rerolling rooms
Fixed the issue where you could get stuck between desks on the Office level
Fixed the issue where you could get stuck in certain areas on the Isolation Chamber level
Fixed the issue where an invisible wall blocked bullets on the Isolation Chamber level

Additional Note

We decided to keep the Plasmoid Launcher out from the game for the time being. We may revisit a full overhaul in the future

Please note that if you are playing at this time, your game will not be interrupted. You will be prompted to download the patch the next time you open Section 13. It is possible for teammates to play with mismatched game versions, which could potentially impact gameplay. So please install the update as soon as possible for the best experience.

- ODS Team

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https://store.steampowered.com/app/2111870/

May 25

X Marks The Spot!

Forgotten Seas - Pangea Game Studios

ːsteamthisːCheck out the video above for a sneak peek of the update ːsteamthisː

X Marks The Spot!

[h4]Be a Treasure Hunter and collect Timeless Relics![/h4]

New Repeatable Treasure Hunting objectives that pay Gold and Stamps.
Discover New Relics and complete your collection.
Combine new Treasure Clues to craft Treasure Maps.

Collect Treasure Clues hidden across the Bermuda Triangle to put together Treasure maps.
Check your crafting recipes in Player Crafting and Workbenches to combine treasure clues.

Click and Use the Treasure Map to place an 'X' on the map in a random location. Press [M] to see the location on the map.

[h4]Mysterious Relics[/h4]

Mysterious Relics maybe found when digging up the Treasure in the X Marks the Spot objective.
Sail to the marked location with a shovel and dig up the treasure to find Mysterious Relics or more treasure clues! Click and Use the Mysterious Relic to reveal a Random Rare Collectible Relic.

Treasure Clues drop from Common and Rare Treasure Caches, Trade Blockade Ships, Flotsams, Enemy Ports, Coffer drops from the sky, Smugglers, and Scavengers etc. Lost Chest on starter island gives a guaranteed Treasure Clue and a Shovel to get you started!

New Treasure Display Shelf

Craft a New Treasure Display Shelf to display all your collected Relics and trigger achievements. Exchange any surplus Relics for gold at a Trader. Collect a set of several Relics hidden across the map and place them inside the Treasure Display Shelf.

The Relics that are displayed in the Treasure Display Shelf do have a main story quest significance that is yet to be revealed. You may want to discover and hold on to at least 1 set of Relics and sell or exchange the surplus Relics at a Trader or give to a friend.

New Salvager Ship (The Sloop)

A new ship in a bottle to behold! The Salvager, a sloop class ship designed to fit perfectly with your treasure hunting desires. Increased loot pickup range, agility, cargo and speed. While not a ship fitted for heavy combat, it can hold its own in small skirmishes. Fast and agile enough to catch up with Smugglers, and takes significantly reduced damage when on the run! Its purpose is to treasure hunt, and run away before too many enemies overwhelm you.

This ship can be obtained in Sir Jim’s shop for stamps.
It can also obtained by finishing a new Quest: Sir Jim’s Ship In A Bottle.
This ship has bonus to Fire Damage and has Bonus Resistance to Physical Damage

Inertia is now enabled on Boats

We know that boats don’t start and stop on a whim. We had this disabled in our early development phase to keep things simple for performance and networking reasons. Our goal is to keep boat navigation and controls overall simple and intuitive, but a little immersion is also good for gameplay. We have enabled a small amount of non-intrusive inertia on all boats. Boat movement control will overall feel a bit more natural and smoother, but not cumbersome. Be advised, this feature is enabled on Single Player mode only.

Improved Handing, Storage and Pickup Range on All Ships

Better Pickup Range on all boats, and Better Handling and Turning
You can Pick up nearby items in the ocean from an increased ranged by pressing the F key while mounted.
More Storage slots in Ships, Players and Chests

Shrink the Ship Back Into The Bottle!

Apollo (The Shady Trader) now sells an item, the “Ship Shrinker”. You can now shrink your ship back in the bottle should you desire. To shrink your ship, simply put the item in the ship’s cargo hold (aka inventory).

Ship Shrinker will only work if your ship has no missing health. As in you may not be able to shrink it in combat or when taking damage in battle. However, if you can run away from enemies and heal your ship to full. You can shrink it back. Any cargo in the hold will be sent to your vault at Fort Pangea. To access your vault, visit Sir Jim at Fort Pangea.

New Steam Achievements

New Steam Achievements have been added to go along with your Treasure Hunting!
A New Steam Achievement is added to throw a ship in a bottle in the ocean. This can be completed by throwing any ship in the bottle in the ocean. To make it easier, you can obtain a free Salvager Sloop by finishing the new quest Sir Jim’s Sloop which will be given to all players who have finished a certain set of quests.

New Falling Coffer Caches

New Item “Coffers” can be collected in the ocean in remote areas of the ocean. Coffers are dropped in the ocean from the Pangea Air ship in the sky (story). While you may not always see the Air Ship since it hovers high above the clouds, you may see coffers fall from the sky. Coffers may contain treasure clues and some common resources for players.

Keep an eye out for falling caches from the sky! These caches do disappear, so if you see one fall, go to it. Remember, they are only dropped in the outskirt sections of the map around the smaller islands and far edges of the map. You will only see them as long as your ship isn't idle in the ocean and is moving.

New First Person Camera Option

Toggle between First and Third Person camera mode to make your gameplay more interesting and immersive! Press the F7 key when in game to switch views.

Currently this feature is experimental, and your camera setting will not be saved in preferences. While we intend for both settings to co-exist for all players, let us know which mode you prefer playing in!

New Framerate Limit Setting

To follow up with our last update, we have added an FPS limit setting to the game’s Home Screen. This can be chosen before getting into the game. While we will do everything possible to make sure the game runs at optimum levels, it is a good idea to regularly take care of your PC components. Dust and clean your components regularly to avoid overheating issues. If needed, choose proper settings in your NVIDIA or AMD control panels or similar. You can set FPS limits and fine tune other graphic settings via your GPU specific control panels.

Other Changes

All Storage Chests, Player, and Boats now have their slots slightly increased.
Campfires and Iron Stove will now start cooking a recipe if it's already burning fuel
Quests can now be tracked and untracked from the Objectives menu [O] or similar
Hostile Environment message now shows the consumable to counter the hostile effect
Added new Enemy Ports to shoot in the ocean. A small Pirate Town on a rock!
Destroying Enemy Ports may offer resources and a chance to find Treasure Clues
Added new Stranded Crew in the ocean near smaller islands
Stranded crew give crew agreements and crew supplies
You can free Stranded Crew with any skeleton key
New usable items such as Bag o' Gold and Mysterious Relic
These items can be used from player inventory by clicking the item and clicking "Use"
New Seed bags can be purchased from Tropical & Forest Traders and Shady Merchant
Seed bags can be opened to reveal random seeds from the particular Biome
Added tutorial quests for [C] crafting a campfire and eating energy food
Added visual markers to some starter objectives.
Renamed some quest titles for more clarity
First quest "Message in a Bottle" now gives a Treasure Map
Lost Chest on starter island now gives a Treasure Clue and Shovel
Pressing M for Map now shows Available Quest icons on the map at major hubs
Stone and Copper Key durability has been increased to open more chests
Fixed an issue that was causing Forest Teleport option to show before the Forest objectives were complete. This was causing some lower-level players to get stranded.
Fixed an issue that was causing bamboo walls to not give additional options menu

A Note from your Devs
👧 We are a small, family-run, Indie Dev Team of 2 🧑
We do not have the resources of larger teams and larger game studios. We are developing a game with a big scope and larger than life expectations. It is going to take time and your support. Forgotten Seas is in Early Access, and still under development. We have big plans! In time we will make this game all it can be!

🙏 Reviews are the bread and butter of us small Indies! Please leave us your honest reviews 🙏
🤟 A special thanks to all our players, backers and supporters - you all ROCK 🤟

We have a friendly and helpful community. Hop on board this incredible journey!

Please join our Discord👈

May 25

Hotfix 0.5.6 + Release Plans

Following Seas - Whipstaff Games

Hotfix 0.5.6

Fixes:
Missing UI prompts on ropes
Numerous terrain holes
Premature trigger instantiation due to invalid proximity checks

Changes:
Significant overhaul of character controller. Still in testing, but should feel more grounded and less bouncy. Speed has been decreased somewhat. Jumping should feel more reliable, and handling of small elevation changes should be more reliable.

Known Issues - Player can stick to walls if colliding while jumping in some cases.

Implemented world curvature for distant objects.

Overhauled world and object streaming to reduce draw calls and improve performance in most cases.

First off, one of the most consistent points of feedback I get is how the player controller is not so good. I'll admit I struggle a bit with this, probably just due to a kind of tunnel vision since I'm constantly jumping in to test different stuff I don't really register any issues.

In short, the updated version implements considerably more drag, reduces speed, and is much less slippery, so you won't be Tony Hawking off every little bump in the terrain. Jumping should be more consistent as well, allowing more function disembarks. There are a couple known issues I'm still working on -- the character is more likely to get stuck on abrupt elevation changes, and can kind of stick to walls a bit in some cases -- but before I dump another week into fine tuning, I want to see if players like the way it's going.

This update will also introduce a number of changes to scripts, assets, and world asset management, that should reduce draw calls significantly in most cases, as well as reduce unnecessary script operations that should save a few ms here and there.

I have also implemented world curvature. This is somewhat exaggerated, as with the relatively low distances between islands, a realistic figure wasn't really noticeable. For context, the spawn point is only about 3.5K from the 300m tall watcher. So at eye level I napkin mathed that to be around .8 m of drop, which isn't really visible. I've increased this by 5x -- so it's at least noticeable, especially on more distant islands like Bathis, which drops around 50m from the spawn point.

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Next up, new ship time. Filling the role of Caelean 'starter' ship, is the Padewakang. This is a simple, dependable vessel, the design differs from other Calean ships, as (in the game world) these are the signature ships of a Caelean Vassal state, that operated on huge inland lakes. The design survived due to being simpler to build and maintain than the more ornate junk style hulls.

This will have twin boomed rectangular sails, that function almost as a cross between lateen and battened sails. It will also be steered via twin steering oars rather than a conventional rudder. It will be larger than the Caravel, but less capable in weather, and quite slow.

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lastly, a little about my plans for release. With so many variables in play, I feel it might lessen the bugfix and tuning race some with simply fewer things to test. That said, I do worry about leaving a sour taste with a buggy experience that doesn't have a lot of content.

My aim right now is to release later this year, with the following:

6 playable ships, with three from each of the major in game cultures and their vassals. At least three more are planned for both existing cultures and others not currently represented.

Apart from ships, there are currently 7 islands planned to be present at launch -- with quite a few more expected later on. This number does not include a handful of 'special' locations.

In terms of features that are planned, but will probably not be present, or very incomplete, at the time of launch -- the main gameplay elements are:

1. Fast travel (This will function sort of similarly to overworld map gameplay such as those seen in games like Owlcat's pathfinder series, and many older rpgs.) That is you are not picking a destination and teleporting there, rather going a distance will cost time and provisions, especially on larger ships.

2. Encounters. Accompanying the above, these will be semi-random events that can interrupt fast travel. These could be other ships, special weather events, or any kind of more tailored experience that isn't practical for general open world appearance.

3. Combat. A degree of this is planned, but there are many decisions to make before I talk about it too much.

4. Ship modification. This will be a somewhat limited affair -- but I do plan for the shipyard to offer hull and rigging changes for some ships. This won't be as flexible or complex as the kind of modifications possible in games like Sailwind. Rather I plan on allowing things like specific rig conversions, so a Caravel with a square mainsail + headsail, that sort of thing. More like flipping between ship variants than having full customization control.

5. Story progression. Will get more into this another time.