Minor patch - v1.096
Minor update to correct a possible issue with symbology in Medbay cabinets.
Minor update to correct a possible issue with symbology in Medbay cabinets.

Deric Ruhl · HoroArch
Minor update to correct a possible issue with symbology in Medbay cabinets.
Minor update to correct a possible issue with symbology in Medbay cabinets.

I'd like to thank everyone who has played or followed the game so far. It's been a great year, and I've really enjoyed reading all the reviews, looking at the screenshots, watching the videos that people have made - and getting to talk with many of you in the discussion forums. T
I'd like to thank everyone who has played or followed the game so far.
It's been a great year, and I've really enjoyed reading all the reviews, looking at the screenshots, watching the videos that people have made - and getting to talk with many of you in the discussion forums.

Thanks for a great first year. Good luck out there!
At this point in time the UPX compressed version of the executable shows a false positive in fewer AV programs than the uncompressed versions I sent out in the v1.09 patch, so I've re-enabled compression in a v1.095 patch. This (as of now, at least) should stop the built in windo
At this point in time the UPX compressed version of the executable shows a false positive in fewer AV programs than the uncompressed versions I sent out in the v1.09 patch, so I've re-enabled compression in a v1.095 patch.
This (as of now, at least) should stop the built in windows 10 bitdefender AV from triggering - though there are false positives at this time from several other popular products.
My next steps will be submitting reports to all the AV software providers, since changing the game to match the moving target they seem to require appears not to work well.
An increasing number of users have been getting false positives on this game from their antivirus software. To reduce this problem, I've just pushed a patch that strips UPX compression from the executables. This should make no difference at all to gameplay, but should cause fewer
An increasing number of users have been getting false positives on this game from their antivirus software.
To reduce this problem, I've just pushed a patch that strips UPX compression from the executables. This should make no difference at all to gameplay, but should cause fewer false positives and quarantines, which tend to appear as the game not installing, not starting, or crashing while trying to build gameworlds.
I apologize for the inconvenience.
Pre-patch BuildID: 2805653
Post-patch BuildID: 2913540
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into orbit... Patch notes: New Feature: Story expansion. Additional expository artifacts. You may find more clues and stories on the planet about what happened. Improvement: The radiation clock does not actually start ticking until you
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into orbit...
If after patching, the game fails to create worlds, or the config tool stops working, or you can't launch the game at all - it is probably a false positive from your antivirus. I've done all that I can to reduce this, but Cylance in particular still triggers a false positive.
Pre-patch BuildID: 2735853
Post-patch BuildID: 2805653
In space, no one can hear you receiving the v1.07 patch... Patch notes: Update: The configtool has been slightly rearranged to make more usable space for options, because... Quality of Life: Two new bindable controls have been added: Rover - Pick Up, and Rover - Recall. You can b
In space, no one can hear you receiving the v1.07 patch...
Patch notes:
If after patching the game fails to create worlds, or the config tool stops working, or you can't launch the game at all, it is probably a false positive from your antivirus. I've done all that I can to reduce this, but Cylance in particular still triggers a false positive.
Pre-patch BuildID: 2690100
Post-patch BuildID: 2731400
Addendum:
The bug fix on the mouse cursor interacted poorly with the atmospherics terminal overlay, so I've uploaded a hotfix for that as well.
Pre-patch BuildID: 2731400
Post-patch BuildID: 2735853
Welcome to version 1.06! Patch notes: New option by popular request: Gameplay option for Easy Mode in the config tool. 50% as much radiation, 33% as many points. Improvement: IFF displays now show more comms traffic with sentries. Thanks, Steelpoint. Improvement: Sorting objects
Welcome to version 1.06!
Patch notes:
Pre-patch BuildID: 2651673
Post-patch BuildID: 2690100
Hi, everyone. I've just deployed the v1.05 update to you all. Patch notes: New feature: Active Research. Research runs on the selected slot with +20% bonus speed, if you are actively using the science terminal. Thanks, charlesdegregorio. Gameplay adjustment: Radar ranges adjusted
Hi, everyone. I've just deployed the v1.05 update to you all.
Patch notes:
Still working on: Why blue smoke can show up in your cockpit.
(I'd swear it can't, except that I have screenshots proving the contrary...)
Pre-patch BuildID: 2612918
Post-patch BuildID: 2651673
Hi, everyone. I've just deployed the v1.05 update to you all. Patch notes: New feature: Active Research. Research runs on the selected slot with +20% bonus speed, if you are actively using the science terminal. Thanks, charlesdegregorio. Gameplay adjustment: Radar ranges adjusted
Hi, everyone. I've just deployed the v1.05 update to you all.
Patch notes:
Still working on: Why blue smoke can show up in your cockpit.
(I'd swear it can't, except that I have screenshots proving the contrary...)
Pre-patch BuildID: 2612918
Post-patch BuildID: 2651673
The mission was a disaster. I'd accidentally killed everyone on the space station and bludgeoned my own head in. But, you know, I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself. I'd explored a great deal of the planet, brought back some sweet alien booty, and hadn't died of radiation sickn
The mission was a disaster. I'd accidentally killed everyone on the space station and bludgeoned my own head in. But, you know, I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself. I'd explored a great deal of the planet, brought back some sweet alien booty, and hadn't died of radiation sickness. If it weren't for the fact I killed everyone, my score for the mission would've been in the hundreds of thousands!
I feel that's something to be proud of.
Scavenger SV-4 is a kind of first-person roguelike (roguelike-like?) about exploring an alien planet, and it's unlike any game I've played before. Every run begins with me alone in a small research ship in orbit above a new planet, facing the terminal screen above my bunk. One of its many cool features is that, like Doom 3, you directly interact with screens. The view smoothly zooms in so I can press the button that shows my log and read about how I came here. The story's always different, but in this one an old friend got in touch from out of the blue with coordinates for a distant planet. Go there, the friend told me, there's riches beyond my dreams. Evidently, I did.
The ship's bridge is next to the bunk. Since the ship is in zero-G, I move by flying, clicking on a panel to open the doors, and drift over to the bridge's single seat, which sits before a terminal that controls my probe. The actual probe is in a room behind me, and I can send it down to the surface to map it and find alien artifacts to bring back and research. When I hit the 'Launch' button, its grainy video feed shows the interior of my ship as the probe rotates to align with the airlock and thrusts out.
I watch my ship recede as the probe automatically navigates into planetfall. Getting up to look out of the window, I see it as a speck in the distance.
The video feed snows up, the probe's mics picking up the roar of entry, and then the noise fades. The view shows the probe is descending over a landscape of mountains. If I click the 'Turret' button I can look around. The planet's natural interference has caused the feed to go monochrome and it's much grainier than when the probe was on the ship, but I can make out weird structures in the distance. And, with a thunk, it hits the ground.
...barely able to make out distant shapes and knowing that if my probe falls into a ravine it'll be destroyed, I'm feeling tense.
The probe has a number of components which I can assign to the terminal's six screens. I have the video feed on the main one, while the power controller shows that the weak generator is providing just enough energy to have my map, compass, microphone and video running while also slowly charging its battery when it's stationary. But as soon as I start trundling around with WASD, the battery starts to drain. That's OK, I have an auxiliary generator.
I drive the probe towards one of the odd structures. Without all the interference the planet would probably look laughably crude, but, barely able to make out distant shapes and knowing that if my probe falls into a ravine it'll be destroyed, I'm feeling tense. Sometimes the structures are alive and my probe has no weapon. But this one, a bizarre crooked thing that towers over my probe, seems inert, and as the probe nears it the screen indicates there's an object. Maneuvering closer, a 'Pick up' button appears and manipulator arms deploy to stow an alien artifact in one of the probe's three free slots.
Steering carefully around the structure, I head to the next, and then another, hearing only the buzz of my manipulator arms, the hum of motors, and static. With all slots full, it's time to recall the probe, and it immediately launches into the air, heading automatically up to the ship. As it rises, I spy a massive structure in the distance. I'll go there next.
I watch my ship appear on the probe's video feed, and then watch it out the window. It's a relief to have it back. The probe bay doors open and I head to its terminal to unload the artifacts, sending them to the research station. At the research terminal I start the computer analyzing them. One is 'encased remains', the computer theorizing they're ceremonial. I can install the others in my probe to give it new capabilities. One is an arc projector weapon which uses loads of energy, but I fit it anyway. Now I have only two slots to stow artifacts, so I uninstall the compass and microphone to make more space.
The second drop takes the probe back to where we left off. I switch the arc projector on, but the video feed keeps blacking out because my probe isn't generating enough energy. Uh oh. I switch the arc projector off and head to the massive structure, seeing a collection of what look like trees to one side. Trees! But as I draw closer, black lightning—silent because I've removed the microphone—starts hitting the ground around the probe. Reverse! Several components are damaged and the map display starts breaking up with static.
By now I'm pretty irradiated.
I head the other way to find less dangerous places to grab artifacts and jet the probe back to the ship, and while it's en route I remember about the whole radiation thing. The ship is unshielded and I'll die, tumor-riddled, if it gets too high, so I go to the medical station to heal up a portion of it. You can't stop the irradiation, but you can slow it.
I start to establish a rhythm of work. While the probe is traveling between planet and ship I visit medical and manage the ship's storage. I research artifacts and read logs. I find a more efficient gun and a better battery. I explore the planet widely, encounter aliens and defeat them. I'm always careful. Ship systems crash, I reboot them. I anxiously monitor the life support system. And before long I realize that my storage is full. It's time to go home, once the computer completes my final piece of research.
Then I see it. The engineering bay is full of floating chains. With hooks on the end. Lots of them. I back out, seal the doors. What the...? By now I'm pretty irradiated. I check the research. I want to go. I gingerly return to engineering and the chains are gone. I go back to medical to heal. And as I float through the storage room, I see bloodstains leading out to the main airlock. Oh, man.
I seal the doors. Back to research. Nearly done. I walk into the bridge and there's a laugh. I spin around. I know I'm alone. Forget the research. I go to the bridge terminal, disconnect from the probe and hit the button that sends me home.
BRACE FOR THRUST, the readout says, and then I see a figure in my EVA suit outside the ship. It's banging on the windows and it headbutts the glass and both the window and the EVA helmet's visor cracks and the figure drifts motionlessly backwards as the nose of my ship rises and we accelerate away.
Heading home was my last action. The epilogue text tells me that my ship was found drifting with me dead inside it. It's a shame that one of the artifacts I found then caused all the inhabitants of the space station to kill themselves. But it wasn't my fault. We do what we must because we can. There's no sense crying over every mistake, am I right? And this was just one scenario that can play out in Scavenger SV-4. I can always start another run.
Scavenger SV-4 is available now on Steam.
I've just sent the v1.04 update out. Patch notes: New content: Added four new ruins for you to discover on the surface. Game balance adjustment: Player arc weapons are now all significantly more accurate (Thanks, Misery) Game balance adjustment: All unguided rockets are now somew
I've just sent the v1.04 update out.
Patch notes:
Pre-patch BuildID: 2559292
Post-patch BuildID: 2612918
I've just sent the v1.04 update out. Patch notes: New content: Added four new ruins for you to discover on the surface. Game balance adjustment: Player arc weapons are now all significantly more accurate (Thanks, Misery) Game balance adjustment: All unguided rockets are now somew
I've just sent the v1.04 update out.
Patch notes:
Pre-patch BuildID: 2559292
Post-patch BuildID: 2612918
I've pushed v1.03 out to you all. Patch notes: New button in Storage: "Sort by Value" - This will sort everything in the storage bay by value ascending, with empty spaces and unidentified items at the top. This makes the room more useful, and makes it a lot easier to decide what
I've pushed v1.03 out to you all.
Patch notes:
Pre-patch BuildID: 2515674
Post-patch BuildID: 2555741
I've pushed v1.03 out to you all. Patch notes: New button in Storage: "Sort by Value" - This will sort everything in the storage bay by value ascending, with empty spaces and unidentified items at the top. This makes the room more useful, and makes it a lot easier to decide what
I've pushed v1.03 out to you all.
Patch notes:
Pre-patch BuildID: 2515674
Post-patch BuildID: 2555741
It has been a trying week, pleasure seekers ( Okay, we’re not using that one again – Ed ). A lovely weekend in Wales did not prepare me for a week of kafkaesque negotiating with my PC and router and whatever transdimensional demons were squatting in between them. And of course, t
It has been a trying week, pleasure seekers (Okay, we’re not using that one again – Ed). A lovely weekend in Wales did not prepare me for a week of kafkaesque negotiating with my PC and router and whatever transdimensional demons were squatting in between them. And of course, this week everyone agreed to stop releasing tiny platformers made in Paint in favour of 5Gb monstrosities. Confound those indie rascals.
Fortunately, they also released a fine crop of clever and intuitive games, easily grasped but with that tantalising complexity that makes Unknown Pleasures such a joy.
Restoring my patience this week: roaming dwarves, irradiated artifact hunters, and extremely aggressive feng shui. (more…)
I've pushed another patch live. Patch notes: New button in Helm: "Reset landing zone" - use this while the rover is on board the ship to revert your next landing to be back where you started the game, rather than your last recall site. This can be helpful to avoid hostile sentrie
I've pushed another patch live.
Patch notes:
Pre-patch BuildID: 2496681
Post-patch BuildID: 2515674
I've pushed another patch live. Patch notes: New button in Helm: "Reset landing zone" - use this while the rover is on board the ship to revert your next landing to be back where you started the game, rather than your last recall site. This can be helpful to avoid hostile sentrie
I've pushed another patch live.
Patch notes:
Pre-patch BuildID: 2496681
Post-patch BuildID: 2515674
I've pushed the v1.01 patch live. Patch notes: Mouse Invert is now supported - you can turn it on in the config tool A crash bug during rover reentry reported by Jawnycat and Kepz is fixed. AF type modules now properly impact Type 2 sentries If you can't move the rover around you
I've pushed the v1.01 patch live.
Patch notes:
Pre-patch BuildID: 2411101
Post-patch BuildID: 2496681
I've pushed the v1.01 patch live. Patch notes: Mouse Invert is now supported - you can turn it on in the config tool A crash bug during rover reentry reported by Jawnycat and Kepz is fixed. AF type modules now properly impact Type 2 sentries If you can't move the rover around you
I've pushed the v1.01 patch live.
Patch notes:
Pre-patch BuildID: 2411101
Post-patch BuildID: 2496681