This week, we’re making some significant changes and improvements to how you discover and extract exotics. Exotic deposit randomization is the most prominent of these, changing how deposits are spawned into the map and adding variety and challenge to your drops.
To complement this change we are improving our Scanning and Extraction systems with Tier 3 and Tier 4 Radars and Extractors, and new Workshop Radars and Extractors for the high-end prospector. This work helps lay further foundations for us to improve the late game experience and the entire exotics loop.
Improving the exotics loop and late game is something we need to approach with a delicate touch, efforts in this direction will be carefully rolled out in updates like this so we can test and adjust our changes as we go. We have many different activities going on, such as balancing work, new content, future DLC plans, optimizations, multiplayer improvements, etc... all at the same time but with different cadences. They don't always line up exactly with our update schedule, so some weeks may be more content focused, other weeks may be more foundational or feature focused. - Dean Hall, Gamerunner
Exotic Deposit Randomization
Previously, exotic matter spawn locations have been fixed and consistent, but this is changing. The location of exotic deposits is now randomized and you’ll have to scan to find them afresh each drop.
Each prospect will have a selection of potential exotic spawning points, but which ones are active will be randomized and different each time you drop on a new prospect. This makes exotics difficult to map and will encourage you to scout and discover, rather than memorizing locations.
We will monitor the impact of this change, as the increase in difficulty requires fine balancing, so keep providing your feedback and experiences to us on Feature Upvote.
With a static system, players could learn exactly where deposits are for each prospect and then circumvent a bunch of gameplay loops, bee-lining it straight to the deposits. As a result, we found many players weren't engaging with the radar scanning system to locate deposits, because they already knew where they were. Now, with Exotics spawning randomly at a number of potential locations, players will need to engage with radar mechanics in order to locate them, which has knock-on effects such as encouraging players to establish a base and get geared up first. As part of this change, we're also introducing Radars and Extractors to both Tier 3 and the Orbital Workshop. With players now able to bring down Extractors with them at the start of a drop, it was more important than ever that we implemented this feature. We understand that for the min/max'ers out there this makes obtaining Exotics more difficult, but they were never intended to be easy to get. Those looking to obtain Exotics as quickly as possible may want to invest in the Workshop items as they will let you hit the ground running the fastest but, be aware, with this advanced equipment also comes advanced hostility from the local wildlife. - Adam, Game Designer
T3 & T4 Radars and Extractors
We have added new Radars and Extractors at Tier 3 and Tier 4 to replace the existing ones and help you better find and mine those exotic deposits.
Tier 3 Radars + Extractor (Biofuel)
The Tier 3 Radar and Extractor are biofuel powered and provide low-cost, moderate-return systems, with a low chance to attract animal life. Both provide a strong early option for the less advanced prospector with moderate efficiency and accuracy, and a more easily accessible fuel to reduce the investment to deploy.
Tier 4 Radar + Extractor (Electric)
The Tier 4 Radar and Extractor provide a substantial improvement on the Tier 3 alternatives, but require a more advanced fueling system in electricity. In turn, they provide higher scanning speeds and higher precision, but their increased activity is more likely to attract local foes. So keep your wits about you.
Workshop Radar & Extractor & Biofuel
The most advanced of the Radar and Extractors added to the pool is the IC-001 Radar and IC-001 Extractor. These are purchasable through the Workshop and will require a new fuel source, IC-001 Prototype Power Source, which is also purchasable alongside them.
Workshop Radar, Extractors + Biofuel
The IC-001 Radar is the most advanced system we have released to date, requiring no energy source and providing the highest precision and speed out of all available options. In turn, it is also the most likely to attract animals, requiring you to be on guard at all times.
The IC-001 Extractor is the most powerful extractor we’ve introduced also, which provides a lot more durability and runs on a very special power source. Its high performance requires a previously unavailable source of energy, available in the Workshop as the ‘IC-001 Prototype Power Source’. This self-sustaining unit can extract up to 600 exotics per prospect but cannot be brought back to the station. Once it is empty, throw it away.
We have also added a ‘MXC Fuel Canister’ as a container which can carry biofuel. It comes prefilled and will refill every time the player returns to orbit if it is brought back.
Note: Existing Radars and Extractors players have on prospects will still work the way they used to, but upon leaving them behind on your prospect they will be gone forever, so enjoy them while they last.
Changes to how to bring Workshop items to the planet
Since you can now bring non-equipable items like Radars and Extractors with you from orbit, we have changed where you will find them when you arrive on planet. Player loadouts now come down in the your dropship inventory not your character's inventory. Don’t worry, you haven’t lost any workshop items, they are just in a different place.
Back-end Architecture Tooling & Support
As part of our long-term changes to the back-end architecture, which stores player progress, we have improved the tooling that allows us to support player activities. Specifically, this gives us much easier access to assess and right problems that have occurred due to bugs when playing in online mode. Please contact us if you have lost exotics and need assistance.
This is a very new package of work so we didn't have time for this week to provide a detailed explanation of what it is, and how it works. This will follow in next weeks update.
We will be extensively overhauling our back-end architecture over future updates as we look to improve the game and better support the needs of the community.
Detailed Changelog
- Added Exotics Deposit randomization system so deposits will now be random within a set of possible locations for a given prospect
- Added three new Radars and Extractors
- Added feature where Extractors & Radars can be damaged and destroyed
- Radars while active will now attract animals that will attack it while it is active
- Players old extractors will exist in their current state but are not longer craftable
Biofuel Radar and Extractor
- Powered by biofuel with the result being it is slower than other versions
- Added a new Interactable so players can interact with the biofuel radar in new ways, by directly accessing its inventory
Electric Radar and Extractor
- Powered using electricity resulting in them operating at the same speed as previous versions
Workshop Radar and Extractor
- The “IC-001 Radar” has an internal power source, and need not currently be powered
- The “IC-001 Extractor” requires the “IC-001 Power Source” workshop item to be powered.
- Faster than previous versions
- Workshop Purchasable MXC Biofuel Can. This item comes pre-filled with Biofuel and can be returned to the Station for free refilling.
- Workshop Purchasable IC-001 Power Source item which is used to power the IC-001 Extractor. This item is one-time use and cannot be returned to the Station. Multiple Power Source’s should be brought with you on drops where large amounts of Exotics are expected to be extracted.
- Player Loadouts now come down in the players drop ship and not on their person. This was to fix issues with certain items requiring more space than any player could have (multiple Utility slot items, for example)
- Added audio for all rustic items crafted on the new rustic decorations bench.
- Fixed issue where creature body landing sounds wouldn't play when using a shotgun, due to excess shotgun ammo projectiles interference.
- Improved footstep audio priority for creatures to be medium instead of low, giving them a higher chance of playing.
- Improved footstep audio events to only play as long as necessary for the sound.
- Improved damage audio cues to scale with the intensity of the damage amount.
- Improved river audio to address issues where other sounds could cut out when in an area with lots of rivers.
- Fixed stone stairs not having correctly named railing sockets, preventing rails from going on the right hand side.
- Fixed issue where game browser wouldn’t reflect mission difficulty settings (difficulty, insurance, respawn).