It begins on Friday 8th October at 5pm PDT and lasts an extra day until Monday 11th 10pm PDT.
As we posted yesterday, we’re adding an extra Beta Weekend. This means the Desert biome will be unlocked in two weeks’ time, and the other Beta Weekends are all pushed back two weeks too.
MISSION BRIEFING: BROKEN ARROW
RECOVER ENZYME WARHEADS FROM THREE DOWNED TERRAFORMING SATELLITES.
BACKGROUND:
When terraforming failed, the UDA tried to put the political and environmental catastrophe behind them. Mothballing the Inaris-designed atmospheric processing satellites, Icarus was supposed to be forgotten. A decade on, these orbital bio-factories are de-orbiting. The UDA wants no more scandals.
MISSION:
Recover the enzyme 'warheads' from three crashed Inaris satellites, before anyone else.
TERMS:
Geo-data in this region is unavailable, so your team will be inserted at a known drop point. At least two of the satellites impacted in the arctic. Expect a demanding journey, heavy weather, sub-zero temperatures, and fierce wildlife.
For more background on Icarus’ terraforming and the UDA check out the History of Icarus on our website. This will be expanded as more of Icarus’ lore is unveiled over time.
An extra day on Monday
Since this three-part Mission spans the Forest biome, the northern Arctic biome as well as the newly-unlocked southern Arctic region, we’re going to give you an extra 24 hours to complete the Mission. That’s right, this Beta Weekend will continue until Monday evening (PDT).
New wildlife detected
The satellites’ crash sites have drawn the attention of some of Icarus' most fearsome wildlife. The cause of their heightened interest and aggression remains unclear, but research suggests a potential connection to the terraforming technology. Group 15 has refused to release any further information at this stage.
The Arctic poses familiar threats, with reports of another Mammoth and the largest Polar Bear yet seen roaming the ice, but a new predator has been reported deep in the forest. Without further data available, we can only suggest you tread with caution and keep your eyes focused on the undergrowth.
An Expanded Playable Area
This Beta Weekend another Arctic zone has opened up - in the South-East of the map. You may have come across the entrance to it when exploring previously (and got a warning if you ventured in).
While the in-game map still lacks terrain data, the locations of the three satellites have been marked. One is in the Central Arctic, one in the Forest valleys and one in the new Southern Arctic region.
Here’s the area you can explore this weekend:
Tech Tree and Talents Reset
Your characters have all been returned to the Orbital Station ready for a new Prospect.
We’ve rebalanced and made several changes to the Talent Tree and the Planetary Tech Tree - so have reset all your points for you to spend again.
Overall we have reduced the number of Blueprints awarded with each level. We know many of you have strong opinions about whether there are too many or too few unlocks at each level, so we’ll be paying close attention to how you progress this weekend. Solo players are encouraged to check out the Solo Talent Tree, and give us feedback on FeatureUpvote.
More Languages
Icarus will be available at launch in English, German, French, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Latin American Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Mandarin, Japanese and Korean!
Beta Weekend 4 will include the first versions of our translations for some of these languages. These are all very much in development and will include a lot of missing text, typos and gaps, but it gives us a chance to see how they work when deployed to you, the players. We know there will be gaps, and are not looking for feedback on translation errors on FeatureUpvote just yet.
You change languages in the Settings menu.
We know people would like even more languages and after our launch we may introduce tools for the community to contribute their own translations.
Reporting Bugs and Suggestions
Please continue to report bugs, issues or suggestions during the Beta Weekend here.
Please check to see if your suggestion has already been posted before you submit it, and upvote it if you find it!
We love it when you share your screenshots and clips with us. Be sure to tag us @surviveicarus on all socials, and join our Discord server to hang out with us and our community this Beta Weekend!
Patch Notes
Check our Steam Forums for detailed Patch Notes and any Known Issues when the weekend begins.
Notable Quality of Life changes:
- Added a requirement for prospectors to be near a source of warmth to be able to sleep
- The Rain Reservoir now has slots for ice and containers
- Rebalanced recipes for benches, concrete buildables, weapons/tools and cabinets to now require iron nails and steel screws, and adjusted the ingot requirements accordingly
- Added a blueprint to the armor bench allowing you to turn leather into rope
- Now only the players dropship will show on the minimap, rather than all prospectors’
Some of the key fixes and improvements this weekend are:
- Rebalanced animal respawning
- Fixed a bug where other languages would not load when the player switched to them in the settings
- Fixed a bug where any stack that was 50%+ of the crafting requirements for a recipe was consumed and considered enough to execute the craft
- Fixed a bug where some players couldn’t see a deployed fireplace
- Fixed a bug where concrete buildables had a distorted visual appearance due to corrupted LODs
- Fixed a bug where ctrl+clicking an item could lead to it being ‘lost’ rather than shifting inventories
- Fixed a bug where the shovel wasn’t reducing in durability as it was used to collect ice
- Fixed an issue with the polar bear and mammoth movement where they were interacting with the ground incorrectly
- Fixed a visual issue where the snow on a roof didn’t have the effects of snow in the terrain
- Fixed a visual issue where the fireplace didn’t have flame particles
- Fixed a bug where the dehumidifier could only be deployed through the hotbar and not the inventory
- Fixed a bug where there was no stamina penalty for using a axe, knife or pickaxe as a client on someone else's prospect
- Fixed a visual error where some trapdoors and windows weren’t ‘flush’ with their wall/floor piece
- Fixed an issue where certain benches weren’t breaking into the correct materials when impacted by elemental damage
- Fixed a visual glitch where a player who respawned would be in the swimming animation in first person
- Fixed a bug where loading in consumable wood logs caused players to be unable to load in to an existing prospect
- Fixed a visual glitch where a players dropship would remain highlighted from a large distance
- Fixed the visual bug when carrying a chamois carcass
- Fixed a bug where the steel knife would do a spooky hover when dropped by the player (Happy Halloween!)
Helpful links:
Reporting Bugs
Discord
Twitter
Happy gaming, Prospector!
- Liam