This week brings improvements to hunting and animals and introduces a new group of consumables gathered from Caveworms, along with two new missions. These two missions, Unearthed: Research and Cryogenic: Research are available immediately, with Unearthed: Research unlocking the ability to harvest scales from Caveworms to turn into new bow, knife and spear Scale Weapons. There are also new consumables from existing animals, with ‘Giant Steaks’ and ‘Fatty T-Bones’ now dropping from hunted creatures.
Dive in, have a read, and then jump in game and get hunting.
Animal Harvesting
A range of new consumables from hunted prey add variety to the food pool, giving new buffs and balancing hunting with the improvements to farming from the past few updates. These meat groups are considered ‘rare’ and will have lower drop rates but a higher yield in return. From elephants and mammoths, you can now harvest ‘Giant Steaks.’ ‘Fatty T-Bones’ can drop from various bears and Game Meat drops from medium-sized prey such as deer and buffalo. There is also Soft Meat from baby deer and rabbits and Stringy Meat from predators such as wolves and jaguars. Also look out for new White Meat from boars, something we’ll be expanding to other species in the future. And don’t forget the Boar Bacon!
Alongside new animal drops, we’ve added systems for drying out meats to create consumables that give different buffs and benefits. Drying Racks will allow you to turn different cuts of meat into more options than what a campfire or furnace would provide. Check them all out when you hop in game.
Scale Weapons
An exciting new addition to the game are the harvestable scales from Caveworms, which introduce a whole new tier of weaponry. Scales will drop from slain Caveworms which can be used in crafting new weaponry, similar to how bone weaponry is created. However, to unlock these new weapons, players first have to complete the new Unearthed: Research mission which unlocks the ability to forge these weapons.
These weapons have the special benefit of causing the poison affliction on impact, helping you down tougher foes over long chases.
We decided to move away from generic prime meat and expand this into creature group specific meats, each with their own unique buff, to further expand the way players can prepare with their ideal foods before they set out exploring Icarus. - Jake, Vanguard Engineer
New Missions
This week brings two fresh missions to the game. One of these is the next step in an existing quest line, and the other introduces our newest tier of scale weaponry.
Unearthed: Research
In this mission the UDA is increasing their planetary research using brand new technology. You will be required to fill and activate a sample analyzer in order to research new recipes derived from native resources on Icarus. You will be rewarded a copy of these new recipes for your troubles.
Cryogenic: Research
In this mission Sinotai has launched a new investigation to gather information about potential exotic mutation in animals living on Icarus. You will be required to retrieve a sample from specific preserved creatures. Due to the nature of their preservation these specimens may prove difficult to access.
Detailed Change Log
- Added Drying Rack. This is a new processing structure that allows you to turn rare meats into its dried variant for preservation.
- Added new Meat Types to replace Prime Meat - Stringy Meat, White Meat, Fatty T-Bone, Giant Steak, Game Meat, Soft Meat. These have a chance of dropping from all animals.
- Added Bacon, a new meat type that always drops from Boars.
- Added new dried meats that offer brand new buffs, such as Dried White Meat which offers increased stamina, exposure resistance and reduced food consumption.
- Added 2 New Missions - Unearthed: Research & Cryogenic: Research (+ a Hardcore Variant).
- Added new Caveworm items (Knife, Arrow, Spear & Bow) that are unlocked by completing the Unearthed Mission.
- Added new Poison Sack, dropped by Caveworms and used in some of the above recipes.
- Added new AI Improvements, such as more dynamic target selection from aggressive AI, and neutral Buffalo now have a charge attack.
- Caveworms now drop a Caveworm Remains Mesh when killed.
- Fixed Rain Reservoir filling up while sheltered.
- [CRASH] Fixed a crash that could occur when the weather was updating.
- [CRASH] Fixed crash that could occur when the rain was filling up the Rain Reservoir.
- Improved Concrete Mix crafting times. Was 25s dry / 20s wet. Now 10s dry / 5s wet.
- Fixed some Concrete building pieces not giving refund on deconstruction.
- Fixed some Exotic deposits spawn locations in INFLUX: Construction, DRY RUN: Expedition, SPIRIT LEVEL: Survey, UPLIFT: Bio-Research, AGRICULTURE: Hydroponics, SOLIDMETAL: Stockpile, RAMPUP: Stockpile, BIGSHOT: Stockpile, ADVANCEDORDER: Stockpile, DUSTUP: Extermination.
- Removed incorrect slot information from Fridge description. Fixed weight being only 20g.
- Fixed Pistols not being repairable.
- Fixed issue where some foliage would be invisible after loading a new area.
- Fixed cave entrance blocker in F11 not being fully accessible.
- Removed in-world tooltip UI window effect which could appear distorted on some configurations.
- Fixed an exploit where in the loadout menu more than 15 item could be stacked in the dropship cargo inventory.
- Fixed multiple cases where subtitled dialog did not match the audio.
- Fixed some cases where overflow bags could spawn under terrain/in other objects.
- Fixed various map issues, such as some incorrect cave voxel placement and floating trees in desert.
- Added one more cave to the south-east corner of the map.
- Fixed number of survey locations from three to two in the descriptions for Spirit Level Standard and Hardcore missions.
- Fixed some cases where the Exotics that were placed in the Dropship did not appear in the station upon completion.
- Fixed an issue where the camera position when interacting with the Generator was incorrect.
- Fixed an issue where some rock and foliage collisions weren’t working correctly.
- Fixed an issue where windows and doors were using the incorrect sound for their position.
- Added limits to how many trees can be falling over during a storm at one time to address performance implications.
- Fixed an issue where some buildings were not reloading when built above caves.
- Fixed an issue where deployables would sometimes disappear until reload.
- Fixed an issue where swimming animations could be distorted based on what was equipped.
- Fixed an issue where the previous radar scan was not visible upon re-joining a prospect.
- Fixed an issue where valid fuel could be deleted from a devices inventory if an invalid fuel was present in the fuel slot such as Sulfur.
- Added unique audio for falling burnt trees.
- Fixed an issue where the level cap of 50 wasn’t being reflected in Steam Rich Presence.
- Fixed not being able to refund a talent point if you tried to refund one of multiple unlocked pre-requisites.
- Fixed Caveworm not taking Critical hit damage.
- Fixed Extractor drilling animation not looping correctly.
- Removed hidden mesh from Arctic Exotic Deposits causing bad collision.
- Made Water Pump automatically turn on when connected to active power network.
- Fixed the issue where players could not manually water crops.