It's that spoooooky time of year again, and someone has once again dressed up the Spacerig to get us all in a gruesome mood. This year we felt a bit demonic, and the free Halloween Headwear is of course styled to match: Allow us to introduce the Horned Horror!



As always, the seasonal event's cosmetic items are limited to be claimed while the event is live (it ends on the 4th of November), though Management does reserve the right to just give them out at later point.



Update 32 took a while longer to get out of the door than we initially expected, but work is now properly underway for Update 33. And with that, we need a proper roadmap update soon. We'll need a bit of time to get our plans in order, and then we'll do another of our regular Roadmap Update posts where we can a bit more into detail for you. We're expecting this to happen just after the end of Halloween, so sometime towards the end of next week.

Until then, Rock and Stone, Miners!

with love
- the Ghost Ship crew




HALLOWEEN EVENT ACTIVATED

• New headware available: Horned Horror
  
• Increased chance of encountering Haunted Cave Mutator
  
• The Spacerig dressed up for Halloween
  
• Planet Hoxxes got infected by Pumpkins

KNOWN ISSUES
- Pumpkins in the caves are too numerous. We aim to fix this in the next hot fix.

We hope you have had a great weekend! This hotfix includes several bug fixes, tweaks and miscellaneous improvements. For instance, weekly assignments can no longer contain duplicate mission types for greater variety, and we have tweaked the Expert Depositor Perk to now also work with the Escape Pod. Read below for all the details.

Cheers,
The Ghost Ship Crew

• Weekly assignments can no longer contain duplicate mission types
  
• Added missing text to the Roughneck armor descriptions
  
• Added a particle system to the Ommoran Flying Rocks as they are pulled from the surrounding terrain and made their movement a bit more responsive
  
• Doretta’s caterpillar tracks now turn around even if they are not hitting the ground
  
• Updated the description of Expert Depositor Perk to reflect it functioning next to all deposit points and not just the M.U.L.E
  
• Tweaked the Expert Depositor Perk to now also work with the Escape Pod
  
• Tweaked the spawning of Geyers on Fungus and air vents on Sandblasted to not spawn as close to mission items
  
• Tweaked the “Frozen” skin color
  
• Tweaked the visual number on pipeline starting points bigger
  
• Tweaked Doretta's health and its relationship to the Beamers and other attacks
  
• Lowered Doretta's health slightly
  
• Decreased Heartstone beamer damage
  
• Enabled the FoV slider to go slightly higher
  
• Ebonite Glyphids that spawn after the Machine Event has finished will now immediately burrow and disappear
  
• Added collision to Doretta’s caterpillar tracks to prevent Fuel Canisters and the Heartstone from clipping through
  
• Improved the pipeline connector animations
  
• Improved the movement of Doretta
  
• Replaced the green display of the tablet when ordering a Pumpjack with an icon and a progress bar
  
• Removed debug capsule on the lasers of the Tritilyte Deposit Machine Event
  
• Squashed a bug that enabled Kursite enemies to spawn near players that are not near the Machine Event
  
• Squashed a bug in the collision of some broken Heartstone mesh
  
• Squashed a bug that caused the effects of breaking the Heartstone to not always play for client
  
• Squashed a bug that caused Doretta to activate her thruster while standing still
  
• Squashed a bug that caused the Fuel Canister to vanish if the player carrying it disconnects
  
• Squashed a bug that caused internal damage multiplier to not be applied to armor break damage (Only relevant to M1000 Classic focus shots only doing base armor damage)
  
• Squashed a bug that prevented Mactera Spawns from shooting when they are in cramped spaces
  
• Squashed a bug that prevented Mactera Grabbers from screeching if their target was too close to their spawn point
  
• Squashed a bug that caused Escort Duty to always display one fuel canister on the Mission Terminal
  
• Squashed a bug that caused the death position to jitter

We have had to spend a lot of time, trying to get to the bottom of a crash and fixing invisible enemies and objects such as Aquarqs, fossils etc. And as such, this hotfix is fairly limited in changes, but should tackle some of the most important issues right now.

Cheers,
The Ghost Ship Crew

--- PATCH NOTES ---

• Fixed Roughneck paintjob, so Drillers now also have it (Only for players who bought the Roughnecks DLC)
  
• Fixed a crash that was happening frequently
  
• Attempt to Fix invisible Enemies and Objects
  
• Fixed Steam profanity filter, so it now works correctly.

If you want to disable or customize the profanity filter, you can do so in the Steam Settings:

We hope you are enjoying the new update! This hotfix includes several miscellaneous fixes, one of which resolves the issue that caused the Roughneck paint job to be missing. Read below for all the details.

Rock & Stone,
The Ghost Ship Crew

• Added missing Roughneck Paint Job for use on all armor for people who bought the Roughnecks Cosmetics DLC
  
• Reduced the amount of Critters on On-site Refining and Point Extraction
  
• Reduced the amount of enemies spawning during the broken pipe phase of the On-site Refining mission
  
• Reduced the amount of enemies spawning during the refining sequence of the On-Site Refining Mission
  
• Updated Salvage and Elimination mission objective icons on the Mission Terminal
  
• Adjusted the flame and light color of the gasbursts emerging from Morkite Wells in On-site Refining mission
  
• Adjusted the position of the dots underneath HUD options in the ESC menu
  
• Roughneck gunner beardless armor chin pad corrected
  
• Squashed a bug that caused some enemies to be invisible to the player
  
• Squashed a bug that caused the M.U.L.Es destination marker to not be visible when the HUD is turned off
  
• Squashed a bug that caused the objectives UI to be tinted incorrectly in On-site Refining Mission
  
• Squashed a bug that caused client to sometimes be unable to progress to second stage of a Deep Dive
  
• Fixed a crash that sometimes occurred during loading of the game

It’s finally time for our first major post-launch Update - completely free for all who owns the game! The main dish is two brand-new mission types: Escort Duty and On-site Refining. Both mission types focus on heavy duty mining equipment that needs tender loving care and protection from a team of hard working dwarves! The side dish includes a ton of new cosmetics, further weapon balancing, a much-needed overhaul of the Assignment Board, and many other things. Bon appetit!

It’s time to get greasy! There has never been a better time to be a combat miner working for DRG. See you in the mines!

With Love,
The Ghost Ship Crew

P.S. We know many of our fans on Xbox/Microsoft-Store are also reading these patch notes, so a quick note on the Update 32 version on those platforms: The current plan is to submit it to certification tomorrow (Friday), and then ask for a quick pass through. But this might get hindered if we find blockers before tomorrow or if we have major issues with the Steam build. Fingers crossed!









Management has a new thirst: Liquid Morkite. They are sending you in alongside an On-Site Refinery to fill. Locate the Liquid Morkite wells and hook them up to orbital-insertion industrial Pumpjacks, connect them to the Refinery by building huge, winding pipelines, and pump those deposits dry! Oh, and the good people down in RnD even felt generous enough to build in a handy way to use the pipelines for quick, easy, and SAFE* traversal.

*Check the clause 3.15 of your contract to read more about the company’s definition of “safe”.





In this heavily combat-focused mission you are sent in to obtain a mysterious Ommoran Heartstone! Only the specially built autonomous Drilldozer can make it through the outer shell of the Ommoran and reveal the prize inside: The priceless Ommoran Heartstone. The Drilldozer will land at a safe distance, and then automatically home in on the Ommoran. Your job is to keep the dang thing safe and fueled as it digs its way towards the objective. Guard it with your life, Miners!


This new Assignment serves as a crash course in how to safely complete the new missions and make it back alive - and will reward you with some fancy new headwear on completion. What’s not to love?


Attention, fashion freaks! The new fall collection has just dropped with a beautiful selection of new Beards, Headwear, and Hairdos! 27 new Cosmetics have been added to the Shop, 11 new Cosmetics can be forged with Matrix Cores, and 1 new Headwear will be rewarded by completing the new assignment.



If you really want to rough it up, the new Roughneck Pack has you covered. Spice up your looks with four new sets of unique armor (one per class), new helmets, and new Paintjobs. This pack is squarely aimed at those that can’t be bothered dressing up as a space marine, and just want to get stuck into the hard work at hand! Finally, show off those figurative guns - as well as that choice selection of tattoos you’ve kept under wraps for so long!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1430610/Deep_Rock_Galactic__Roughneck_Pack/

On top of the Armors, the pack comes with two unique helmets, as well as a new Paintjob for Bosco and your Pickaxe.


Talking about fashion...if you are one of those persons who can’t decide which helmet to wear or how to style your beard or maybe you are just too afraid to try something new and daring, well….we got great news for you: The Wardrobe has been equipped with new Randomize buttons - Full Outfit as well per Category. Trying out new and unexpected combos has never been easier!




Not all dwarves are into harsh languages, so we have enabled Steam's brand new profanity filter for both the in-game chat and the server list. This feature is using the settings from Steam, which for most means that it is turned on by default. If you can't get enough of that sweet profanity, you can turn it off or customize it to your own desire in the Settings menu in Steam.



DRG just invested in a better Assignment Board. Enjoy a fancy and more intuitive layout as you select your next assignment!




CONTROLS: When carrying gems and other heavy items you can now throw on both [LEFT AND RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON] on the mouse or [LEFT AND RIGHT TRIGGER] on controller. We made this change to accommodate the Fuel Canister (used in the Escort Duty mission) which is carried like a gem but also has functionality like a weapon or tool. In the future we could imagine having you find other tools and weapons that could be used in a similar way.

AUTO CANCEL THROW: If you do not release the throw button after reaching max throwing power the throw will auto-cancel after a short time.



DEEPCORE 40MM PGL

• Increased base armor breaking to 100%
  
• Incendiary Compound mod direct damage reduction now affects armor breaking as well
  
• Moved some of the area of effect bonus from the "Nails + Tape" mod to the base weapon
  
• Made the Max Ammo stat include the round in the launcher since there is no magazine size stat for this weapon

Hyper Propellant Overclock

• Increased the direct damage bonus significantly and it now gets modified when hitting enemy weak-points
  
• Added an ammo penalty
  
• Modified crosshair when OC is equipped
  
• Now has its own impact effects and trail

RJ250 Compound Overclock

• Made the knockback from the OC fall off more the further away you are from the explosion center
  
• Improved the control a player has over the angle at which they will be launched

BREACH CUTTER

• Decreased base magazine capacity
  
• Increased bonus of the T1 High Capacity Magazine mod
  
• Decreased bonus of the T2 Expanded Ammo Bags mod
  
• Decreased the hit box height of the Triple Split Line mod
  
• Moved some of the baseline width to the T2 Loosened Node Cohesion mod
  
• Increased base reload time
  
• Changed the T3 line width mod to a reload speed mod (anyone who purchased the old mod will be automatically refunded)
  
• Adjusted the Light-weight Cases, High Voltage Crossover, Spinning Death, Return to Sender, and Inferno overclocks based on the new magazine capacity.

Inferno Overclock

• Ignites targets quicker and keeps them burning for an extended period of time.

Spinning Death Overclock

• Added a line-width bonus

ZHUKOV NUK17

• Increased bonus of T1 Expanded Ammo Bags mod
  
• Moved some damage from the T3 Increased Caliber Rounds mod to the base weapon

Embedded Detonators Overclock

• Greatly increased the damage dealt when reloading
  
• Changed damage type from Kinetic to Internal Damage
  
• Increased direct damage penalty
  
• Added magazine capacity penalty
  
• Increased ammo penalty
  
• If an enemy you are shooting can be killed by reloading, an icon will temporarily appear next to its health bar

EXPERIMENTAL PLASMA CHARGER

• Reduced the charge speed penalty of the T5 Flying Nightmare mod

CRYO CANNON

• Increased max ammo on the base weapon
  
• Increased the bonus from the T1 Larger Pressure Chamber mod
  
• Increased the bonus from the T2 Larger Reserve Tank mod

“THUNDERHEAD” HEAVY AUTOCANNON
Combat Mobility Overclock

• Increased the movement speed bonus
  
• Added an accuracy bonus
  
• Replaced damage penalty with a reduced magazine capacity
  
• Added a reload speed bonus

M1000 CLASSIC

• Increased focus speed of base weapon and decreased the focus speed bonus of T2 Fast-charging Coils mod to compensate.
  
• Increased the ammo bonus of the T1 Expanded Ammo Bags mod

Active Stability Overclock

• Added a focus speed bonus
  
• Replaced the focus shot damage penalty with a reload speed penalty

LMG SENTRY GUN PLATFORM

• Base damage increased from 5 to 6
  
• Gemini system now comes with 90 extra ammo
  
• Defender system damage bonus changed from percentage to a flat +5

DEEPCORE GK2
AI Stability Overclock

• Now gives a large bonus to weak point hits
  
• Increased the base damage penalty

SUBATA 120
Explosive Reload Overclock

• Greatly increased the damage dealt when reloading
  
• Changed damage type from Explosive to Internal Damage
  
• Removed damage penalty
  
• Increased magazine capacity penalty
  
• Increased ammo penalty
  
• If an enemy you are shooting can be killed by reloading, an icon will temporarily appear next to its health bar

PHEROMONE CANISTER

• Pheromone-affected enemies are now 50% more attractive

L.U.R.E.

• Made it so the L.U.R.E. no longer takes damage from friendly fire

New dwarf-shouts have been added. Primarily focused on the new missions of course, but we’ve also been doing pickups for missing Laserpointer shouts, and added several new Rock and Stone shouts to the mix as well!


New Mission Types obviously means new Milestones, as well as two new achievements - one for each Mission Type.

• Gunk Seeds and Ebonuts used in some of the Secondary Objectives have gotten more lights added to them, making them easier to spot in the dark.
  
• Added more variety to cave generation across all mission types
  
• Added the ramp to the Drop Pod on the Terrain Scanner
  
• Squashed several clipping mesh issues in the Space Rig

• Added a new model for the mineral bucket
  
• Added two new achievements for the new mission types
  
• Added 27 new Cosmetics to The Shop
  
• Added 11 new Cosmetics that can be forged with Matrix Cores
  
• Added one new Headwear as a completion reward for a new Assignment
  
• Added icons to certain objects that were missing them on the Laserpointer display
  
• Added animation for Bosco when he drops something he is carrying
  
• Added Mini M.U.L.E. descriptions to the Laserpointer
  
• Added the ability to abort a throw by making the force reset if you hold down throw for a couple of seconds
  
• Added Duration stat to a number of grenades missing the stat
  
• Added Area stat to a couple of grenades missing it
  
• Bosco now resets to follow the player if they get grabbed or downed
  
• Bosco now throws objects he is carrying towards the player if he is close enough, rather than dropping them carelessly at his location
  
• Bosco’s head hologram now only disappears when he stops down the task he is commanded to do
  
• Bosco should now find minerals in a more consistent range around where you point
  
• Slightly increased the amount of Morkite spawned in Deep Dives with Collect Morkite as the secondary objective
  
• Selecting an overclock in the Equipment Terminal now close the overclock menu
  
• Frozen Glyphid Swarmers will now always die after a short delay
  
• Ebonuts now break in one hit after being collected rather than three
  
• Glyphid Exploders should now consistently be disarmed with a pickaxe hit to the head across all Hazard Levels
  
• Ping values shown to players are now calculated correctly
  
• Increased the warning sound of Low Oxygen a bit
  
• Oxygen hint now shows everytime you begin a mission with the Low Oxygen warning mutator
  
• Decreased the leg count spawned per Mini M.U.L.E. from 4 to 3
  
• Improved the manner we carve space for the Salvage Mission Escape Pod to be part of cave generation, making the placement of it look more natural
  
• Improved the spawning logic of Mini M.U.L.E. so they are only placed on rock
  
• Improved the spawning of Mini M.U.L.E. legs. For instance, they no longer spawn in black ice
  
• Improved several holograms in the game to now fade when the depicted object lands
  
• Improved sandstorms and earthquakes to now also affect the movement speed of enemies
  
• Improved the stagger animation to now be based on the stagger duration
  
• Improved the manner several objects are appearing on the Laserpointer display
  
• Improved the movement of the M.U.L.E.
  
• Improved the skin tone shader
  
• Improved Bosco’s ability to navigate to objects he is ordered to pick up
  
• Improved Bosco’s ability to navigate to and hit the Korlok Tyrant-Weed and its Healing Pods
  
• Improved the model of the "Bulldog" Heavy Revolver
  
• Improved the animation of the flexing Victory Pose
  
• Improved server list sorting on Steam
  
• Improved the LMG module of the OMEN Modular Exterminator Machine Event to now hit things close to it more reliably
  
• Improved many item collisions so that you can not throw flares through them anymore
  
• Improved Photosensitivity Mode to now also affect flashing lights at the Salvage Mission Escape Pod
  
• Improved Photosensitivity Mode to now also affect lights added in the new mission types
  
• Improved Photosensitivity mode to now also affect markers left by the M.U.L.E. when returning to the Escape Pod
  
• Machine Events no longer explode when near a Drop Pod as we have improved the spawning logic to prevent them from spawning in locations that block entry to the Drop Pod
  
• Squashed a bug that caused Kursite enemies to spawn at host’s location rather than the location of the Machine Event
  
• Squashed similar bugs in other Machine Events
  
• Tweaked the audio on the Tutorial loading screen
  
• Tweaked the screaming sound of the Glyphid Oppressor
  
• Tweaked the audio of the Korlok Tyrant Weed
  
• Tweaked Laserpointer sounds
  
• Tweaked the flare impact sound
  
• Tweaked the sound when unlocking a new biome
  
• Squashed a bug that prevented players from progressing past certain popups
  
• Squashed a bug that caused the Spread Per Shot statistic of the M1000 Classic to not show in the Equipment Terminal
  
• Squashed a bug that caused the stepping sounds of the M.U.L.E. to cut out
  
• Squashed a bug that prevented the confirmation popup from appearing when purchasing Weapon Modifications
  
• Squashed a bug that caused the Equipment Terminal stat display showing armor breaking when it's not modified
  
• Squashed a bug that prevented confirmation popups for acquiring grenades from closing
  
• Squashed a bug that enabled latejoining players to land on “important locations”, such as the Drop Pod, Machine Events, etc.
  
• Squashed a bug that sometimes caused beer mugs to be unable to be thrown
  
• Squashed a bug that could cause Bosco to be permanently unable to pick up objects
  
• Squashed a bug that enabled a weapon to show in the Wardrobe
  
• Squashed a bug that enabled the "Thunderhead" Heavy Autocannon Suppressive Fire modification to apply fear to Steeve
  
• Squashed a bug that caused Bosco to dig below Gunk Seeds that lie on the floor when commanding him to pick them up
  
• Squashed several audio-related bugs
  
• Squashed a bug that enabled the Mactera Grabber to grab a player after it has been frozen
  
• Squashed a bug that enabled Electric Crystals to deal damage to the player when you throw Impact Axes at them
  
• Squashed a bug that caused Gunk Seeds to become stuck for clients when hit by the Drop Pod
  
• Squashed a bug that caused the M.U.L.E. to get stuck until extraction if someone disconnects while depositing
  
• Squashed a bug that caused Cave Leeches to not display frozen state correctly
  
• Squashed a bug that prevented enemies that are instantly killed from being frozen to count towards your total kills
  
• Squashed a bug that caused a floating shadow of the pickaxe to show in first-person
  
• Squashed a bug with Discord presence in Discord voice channels
  
• Squashed a bug that caused certain sounds of the OMEN Modular Exterminator Machine Event to linger for clients
  
• Squashed a bug that caused the Stunner Overclock of the "Warthog" Auto 210 to display incorrectly
  
• Squashed a bug that sometimes prevented Bosco from properly digging out embedded gems
  
• Squashed a bug that enabled you to throw a grenade while being grabbed if you held the grenade button just before getting grabbed
  
• Squashed a bug that prevented the Mactera Grabber from screeching
  
• Squashed a bug that caused certain icons to not disappear properly when the HUD is hidden
  
• Squashed a bug that caused particles to not be correctly updated on the Lost Pack helmet for clients
  
• Squashed a bug that caused latejoining players to be able to collect loot from an already discovered Lost Pack
  
• Squashed a bug that caused wave music to play on the Mission Complete screen
  
• Squashed a bug that caused the fire particles of the Barrel Hoop game to not display correctly on AMD graphics cards
  
• Squashed a bug in Armor Breaking for enemies with larger armor. Now you will deal damage in the shot that breaks the armor here too.
  
• Squashed a bug in Armor Breaking causing it to not deal full damage when it breaks the armor but only on consecutive shots
  
• Squashed a bug that caused you to not replenish oxygen if the player is standing in an oxygen source and the M.U.L.E. walks past
  
• Squashed a bug that caused the Ice Spear and Snowball overclock for the Cryo Cannon to shoot slightly to the left of the crosshair
  
• Squashed a bug that caused the player to have their weapon out the first time you open the Wardrobe or the Shop
  
• Squashed a bug preventing the player from being able to use the Salvage Fuel Cells from the top
  
• Squashed a bug where Mactera Spawns would get stuck if they are close to the player but with no line of sight
  
• Squashed a bug that caused the game to crash while using the Hyper Propellant overclock

Since the beginning of October, Update 32 has been in the Experimental Branch. This a collection of all the changelog from the many updates to the Experimental build of Update 32. A huge thanks to all of you who helped out finding bugs and giving feedback.

• Experimental Build 44400
  
• Experimental Build 44464
  
• Experimental Build 44526
  
• Experimental Build 44597
  
• Experimental Build 44672
  
• Experimental Build 44741
  
• Experimental Build 44842
  
• Experimental Build 44911
  
• Experimental Build 44985
  
• Experimental Build 45056
  
• Experimental Build 45109
  
• Experimental Build 45229
  
• Experimental Build 45323

• INVISIBLE GLYPHIDS are sometimes an issue, though we did add a fix to release build that *might* fix it. We don't have a good way to reproduce this bug, making it very hard/impossible to confirm the effect of the fix without the help of the community. We'll keep looking for reports on this, and try different things until reports stops appearing.
  
• SPAWN WITHOUT ITEMS/WEAPONS is a very rare, but rather annoying bug. We have no reproduction case on this one yet.

We have two pieces of news for you today. First of all, the Store page for the new Roughneck DLC is now live. This new DLC is called Roughneck pack and is themed around a better-ventilated outfit and with a company-issued hardhat to make up for the lack of body armor and protect your noggin’.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1430610/Deep_Rock_Galactic__Roughneck_Pack/

Like the Dark Future and MegaCorp DLCs, the Roughneck Pack is purely cosmetic. Any gameplay altering changes will stay in the free updates we’re doing. And speaking of updates...

The second piece of news is about the release date. We’ve previously aimed for launching Update 32 on October 8, but after some closer scrutiny, we have realized that we have to push the update two weeks to October 22. The content and missions needs a bit more refinement and a safer escort to a release ready state.

But why two weeks? We’re just about to hit a public school holiday here in Denmark, which means that some of our key crew will be unavailable for a week, and launching a big update like this without them isn’t viable. This, together with increased COVID-19 precautions and our refusal to engage in crunch-time at Ghost Ship Games has led to us postponing the update two weeks. On a positive note, this will allow us to collect more feedback from the current version of Update 32 available on the Experimental branch on Steam.

Rock and Stone!
- the Ghost Ship crew

First things first: Update 32: Roughnecks At Work will release on Steam on October 8th.

Yes, that’s in Q4 and we promised Q3 in the roadmap, and for a while, we thought we could make it for the very end of September. But it’s still not finished, and we don’t want to rush things, so we decided to give it a week more in the cooker. We will, though, release Update 32 to the Experimental branch early next week. So, technically, you will get access to it in Q3 ;-)

So, what will be in Update 32? In our roadmap we promised you some new Mission Types, and we are certainly going to deliver on that one. The two new missions are called Escort Duty and On-Site Refining and the overall theme is about working with heavy machinery deep in the mines of Hoxxes. How the new missions will play out will be a secret for a little while longer. But we already released several teasers and will continue to release more in our Twitter, Facebook and Reddit channels - the Steam forum is sadly not well suited for this.















Apart from the two new missions, Update 32 will also deliver a bunch of new fancy cosmetics, an updated Assignment terminal screen, a couple of new achievements, weapon balancing, a new cosmetic DLC (called Roughneck Pack), and many other smaller things.

This Friday, September 25th, we will live stream a playthrough of the new mission called On-Site Refining. And we'll have some devs in the chat for answering questions. This happens at 1PM UTC+2 on our Twitch channel and it will be re-streamed to our Steam store page and Youtube channel as well. And on Tuesday, September 29th, we will live stream the other new mission, Escort Duty, on the same channels and at the same time (1 2 PM UTC+2).

Next week, on Tuesday, September 29th, Update 32 will go live on the Experimental Branch goes live. This will probably happen late in the afternoon our time (3 PM UTC+2). Read about how to join Experimental Branch and what it is here
UPDATE: The build is now live on the Experimental Branch! Go give it a spin and give us feedback!

Exactly two weeks from now, on Thursday October 8th, Update 32 goes live on Steam along with new cosmetic DLC.

That’s all for now - see in the caves of Hoxxes!


Rock and Stone!
the Ghost Ship Crew

Hi Everyone,

Mikkel Martin Pedersen here, back with another blog post! This time the topic is about what’s probably turned into one of the most iconic features of Deep Rock Galactic (DRG) - the ability to hit [V] and salute your fellow dwarves by raising your pickaxe in the air and shouting “ROCK AND STONE!”. The impact that little salute has had on the game, the community, and on us as developers is quite amazing. I’ll be bold and make the claim that “Rock and Stone” plays a big part in how we’ve succeeded in making a game that has generated one of the best, friendliest, and most non-toxic communities for any multiplayer game in our experience.

The idea for this Blog Post started forming right after our 1.0 launch of the game on May 13th 2020. During one of our Reddit AMA’s, a question cropped up several times: What was the story behind our now iconic “Rock and Stone”, and how did the idea form in the first place. After answering the question in the AMA, I started to think more about it and I realized how big a part of the experience of playing DRG the “Rock and Stone”-salute is and has become. So, I wanted to share my thoughts with you - This is the story of “Rock and Stone”.


Rock and Stone Fan Art by Karniz

Let’s start with a little anecdote. The very first time I experienced “Rock and Stone” being used outside the game was at Gamescom 2017 in Cologne. At this point in time, we were not even in Early Access yet, but we already had a growing community appearing just through our Close Alpha on Steam. At the conference was Søren Lundgaard (our CEO) and myself, slogging through a ton of meetings with different potential business partners, and we had a small booth in the business area just for that purpose.

As we’re having a break in between two meetings, a guy walks by our booth, notices the logo, raises his fist, and proudly exclaims “ROCK AND STONE” at us. Well, to be honest, he was a bit shy, so it was more like the whispering of a secret, and not really a war cry - but, we saluted him back, and were both left with goosebumps and big smiles on our faces. That was pure magic - we had created something that transcended the game and manifested in the real world. That’s when we started to realise just how powerful and important this salute could be for the game and for us.

But this was obviously not the actual origin of the “Rock and Stone”-salute - that was earlier.


“Rock and Stone” was implemented very early in the development of DRG. It began with me wanting to introduce voice acting into the game. Voice acting was an easy way for us to expand and establish the universe, develop the dwarves as characters, and also a super handy way to add audible reactions to ingame occurrences - as much to make the dwarves feel grounded in the game world, and also to alert you, the player, of ongoing events. Nothing new under the sun there - having them shout when they killed bugs, when they took damage, or when they were being targeted with friendly fire was a no brainer. But we also wanted to introduce a simple contextual communication system (this was way before we introduced the laser pointer).

The first method of in-game communication we added was tapping [X]. Doing so is a contextual call for attention from your fellow players. Depending on the situation the dwarf will say different things. For instance, if you are sprinting your dwarf will say “Follow me!” and if he is down he will cry for help and if he is standing still he will call out something like “Come here!”.

Tapping [X] worked out very well for us, but Issuing commands is a very one-sided way of communication and we quickly realised we needed some way of responding.

Furthermore, I felt it was important that these underpaid workers - risking their lives every day - had something that bound them together. Hence, we wanted to give them a salute. A way for the dwarves to ritualize their work in the mines and elevate the mining above just being plain hard labor.

Robert Friis (Art Director) and I did a lot of brainstorming on what their salute should be. In the end we settled on “Rock and Stone” - it was simple and modest, but still held so much tonal power that it was easily the winner. To be honest, I don’t remember any of the other suggestions we came up with because we nailed this rather quickly.

We also wanted to give the dwarves a handsign and raising your pickaxe up in the air just seemed natural. The pickaxe is your primary tool and an iconic symbol for mining. When you raise your pickaxe and shout, you show that you are a friend, a colleague, a team player and that you are ready to die for your fellow dwarves. With “Rock and Stone” you celebrate teamplay and the codex: Leave No Dwarf Behind.


For Rock and Stone!

The [V] key was just a natural key to use when you take all the standard first-person keys from the keyboard into consideration. And V as in Victory just felt right ːsteamhappyː

With [V] as the “Rock and Stone”-salute we had completed the first iteration of the communication system. Now you could give contextual commands on [X] and you could reply by saluting on [V].

Later, we saw the need for a bit more advanced way of communication and we invented the Laser Pointer, so you could point out and ping points-of-interest for teammates.

Depending on the situation, “Rock and Stone” can mean so many different things. It can be a greeting. It can mean “Affirmative”. It can mean “Job well done”. It can be a “Thank you” for rescuing me. It can mean “We are awesome”. It can mean “You are awesome”. And it can mean a gazillion other things depending on the context.

The “Rock and Stone”-Salute was introduced with Update 5 in February 2017.


Rock and Stone + Context = Let’s play! Fan art by reddit user Joe_Duncan.

Deep Rock Galactic is in many ways a standard FPS with a fairly standard control scheme and most people even a little familiar with playing first-person shooters can pick up the game and play it. The biggest departure is obviously how the game blends mining and shooting.

On the pc standard control layout, we have shooting on the [LEFT MOUSE BUTTON] and mining on [RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON] beautifully underlining the mix of shooter and miner. On the controller, it is split between the two shoulder triggers. The sacrifice is that we early on decided to not have an alternative fire or iron sight on [RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON]. By reserving a button just for mining, instead of, for instance, being able to toggle to the pickaxe, you can say that we elevate the importance of the action.

When it came to the Rock and Stone salute I also felt it was important to have a unique button for it - [V] - so you can easily and instantaneously activate it in the middle of any other action you are performing. And just like with the shooting and mining it emphasizes the importance of the action.

On forums I have seen many suggest that we should add gameplay mechanics to the Rock and Stone shout - say for instance a chance to buff your teammates. However, I really think it is important to keep the “Rock and Stone”-salute pure and not polluted by gameplay. If there is any gameplay gain connected to the action of saluting, it loses its value as a way of communication.

I believe that keeping the Rock and Stone salute pure has played a big part in elevating it to the phenomenon it is for the game and our community today.


And speaking of community – Just as the “Rock and Stone” shout works in binding the players together, the same thing is happening on social media in binding the community together. You guys are really not wasting any chance to use “Rock and Stone” whenever you can, and I love it. It makes me so happy that we have managed to establish our own lingo around the game, and Rock and Stone is the strongest and finest example of this.

Many of the memes that are created have Rock and Stone in them and if you are seeking proof on how important the Rock and Stone is in-game just look at the two memes below.


If a new player of the game don’t know about “Rock and Stone”, they quickly learn it from other players.
Left: Meme by reddit user Diribiri. Right: Meme by reddit user zombonita_beach (Original comic by Shen Comix)

When we began working on DRG our plan was to make a co-op game where teamwork and camaraderie really mattered and where you appreciated playing with other players – randoms or friends, experienced or inexperienced. The fact that we have succeeded making a game that fulfills this goal is in no small part due to many of the game design decisions we have taken (like how the 4 classes supplement each other), but it is also very integrated into the way you communicate in-game with “Rock and Stone” as a cornerstone.

I believe that the friendly atmosphere among players and the general co-op gameplay experience is something we see spill over into our community. And today I’m so proud that we not just managed to make a game that our players love, but also that we have created a community around the game that is extraordinarily friendly and nice. As a game developer, this is very motivating.

One of the best moments for me in the development of DRG was 15 minutes before we went 1.0 with the game. On YouTube, we were premiering the Launch Trailer and was running a countdown. The minutes just before the trailer premiered the chat channel was spammed with Rock and Stone and just “V”. Those minutes were magical and made all the hard work we had put into the game seem like nothing. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to everyone who showed us this honor.


If you have a favorite Rock and Stone moment, please share it in the comment section below.

The YouTube Launch Trailer premiere was the perfect culmination of the Early Access development phase of DRG and it marked an important milestone for us. And I say milestone because we are far from done expanding DRG - new missions are in the making as we speak – and we still got a gazillion features we want to add to the game.

With this blog post, I have tried to answer the question: What does “Rock and Stone” mean? And to sum it up:

Rock and Stone is a salute, it’s a way of saying Hi Mate! It’s a war cry, it’s a big THANK YOU for helping me, it’s a recognition of good teamwork and a celebration of a well-executed task. Rock and Stone is about showing that you enjoy the company and that you are having a good time with friends as well as with strangers. Rock and Stone is what binds us together as colleagues, players, fans, and dwarves. Rock and Stone is our not-so-secret password in our community. It’s our code of honor. Rock and Stone is Deep Rock Galactic and it’s Ghost Ship Games. Rock and Stone is what puts a big smile on our faces when we go to work. And it cheers us up on rainy days! Rock and Stone is a magical spell and a blessing.

…..And Rock and Stone is so much more than we ever anticipated.


ROCK AND STONE!

With Love,
Mikkel Martin Pedersen

We’re back from the summer holiday, which most of us spend within the Danish borders due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Denmark seems to have flattened the curve and is more or less back in business with a few modifications. Luckily, we have been able to adapt to a work-from-home model that’s been working, and we’ve adapted some of that into our normal work routines, ensuring that everyone will stay safe and healthy.

The work on Update 32 is progressing at a good pace, and while we’re not yet at a point where we can share details on the new missions, our prototypes are showing a lot of potential, and we’re confident that we’ll have some inside info for you within the reasonable future. Next to that we're also doing a lot of concepts for the new biomes in Update 33, some of which you can see below.



On a different note, the community submissions for our merchandise store at For Fans By Fans are finally live! Take a gander at some of the submissions below and scoot on over to the Deep Rock Galactic area to get your stubby little hands on your very own Digging Days/I Hate Magma Core merchandise!

Find all the new designs on the For Fans By Fans Deep Rock Galactic community. Use the code LOOTBUG to get a 20% discount off your orders.

This final (knock on wood) hotfix for Update 31 resolves an issue that enabled dead Mactera Grabbers to grab unsuspecting dwarves who disrespectfully step on their corpse. Additionally, Black Box objectives in Deep Dives should no longer be completed prematurely.

• Squashed a bug that caused Black Box objectives to be completed prematurely in Deep Dives
  
• Squashed a bug that enabled dead Mactera Grabbers to grab dwarves that walk on their corpse
  
• Squashed a bug that caused double text in a Mission Control speak in Deep Dives