Happy One Year Anniversary! Today marks a year since the launch of Icarus and the 52 updates we’ve made to the game every single week since. We’re excited to celebrate it by giving power back to the players with our player data decentralization patch.
This week, all data will be migrated to players' local computers, shifting away from a reliance on cloud providers, allowing some new features and ensuring the player community can own their game data permanently. This opens the door for many more features and changes, including characters now being able to be used across multiple sessions simultaneously, the new Orbital Exchange Interface for Exotic extraction, and our Dedicated Servers Beta.
This is a big update and will require a full data migration upon launch of the patch, so have a read through all the details below.
Once you’re briefed on the changes, we’ve included a reflection on 52 weekly updates to Icarus, including a word from our game runner, Rocket, on this incredible journey and what’s to come.
Data Decentralization & Migration
This week, we are releasing the highly anticipated data decentralization change.
This is a large update, requiring a migration process that will occur the first time you log in after the patch. However, for many players, it may not change how you play Icarus at all. None of your data, characters or gear will be lost - we’re moving where it is stored.
Going forward, all player data will be stored locally - on your PC. Previously, save files and player data were saved in the cloud, while everything else (including your Outposts and Open World games) was saved locally. Now, all data will be saved locally, shifting data ownership to the players, and moving away from the ‘game-as-a-service’ model which can leave us open to internet outages and can limit customization.
We see this move as putting the power back in the players' hands, giving them true ownership of the product. While this comes with some concessions, it’s a truer representation of the relationship we want to build between ourselves and the players, where you own what you buy without strings attached.
Migration will combine your offline and online characters and account data into a single entity. This includes loadouts, inventories, exotics, ren and skill refund tokens. It will also combine your mission progress and workshop talents, so players who have played both Offline and Online will see a much more saturated environment and may want to spend some time organizing their account.
All currently active Missions will be reset and not migrated over, and current progress on these missions will be lost. Characters and gear will not be lost. Characters and loadouts will be returned to your select screen, but you will have to restart any prospects you are currently in.
We have added a new branch on Steam called ‘Centralized’ which will hold the last 1.2.27 Update in case players want to bring their characters out of missions etc. This will not be present forever and will be removed in the following weeks.
This migration will also migrate over your Open World and Outpost sessions, but will reset and remove your characters from these missions in the process. You’ll find your characters and their loadouts in the character select screen, and can rejoin game via their dropship.
Steam Cloud has been enabled for Icarus, so if you have multiple computers on which you play Icarus, make sure you migrate on your preferred machine first (the one with the most up-to-date Outpost and/or Open World content). Steam should then sync it to your other machines.
We very much see this patch as providing players ownership over their own data and enabling everyone to play without having to have access to our servers. To enable this we had to make some concessions on various gameplay elements but it also allows us to explore new options and provide new levels of customization and persistence that have not been available before. It has been a massive effort from the team to pull this through and they have done a fantastic job. I want to thank everyone who has been with us over the last year providing feedback, enjoying the game and being patient throughout the issues we have had and hope you will join us for the next year as we continue to develop Icarus. - Jake Dodunski, Project Lead
A Multiplayer Hosting Change
Icarus will continue to have the peer-to-peer multiplayer it has always had, where one player acts as the host for their Steam friends - but with one change. That original host must always be online.
From now on the player who initially created the mission will be the only one able to resume it. Other players will not be able to carry on or launch a mission that another player has started, as this save data is now stored on the initial host’s hard drive rather than in the cloud. This is the same way that Outposts and Open World have functioned since their launch, so that experience won’t be entirely foreign to many of you.
It’s important to note that the host should always be the last person to leave a prospect. This way, players are guaranteed to be able to recover their gear and claim any rewards/exotics as they will be unable to launch the mission later (however, we now grant rewards immediately during missions to help).
If you want a way to play anytime regardless of where the original host is, then we’ve introduced Dedicated Servers to cater for you (see below).
Previously, Icarus had a very helpful feature that migrated the hosting between players when the original host left the game. While this feature won’t exist in the new data decentralized model, there is still a way to manually share saves with each other so you can continue someone else’s prospect while they aren’t online. You can find your saves in your file explorer at:C:\ > Users > (your profile) > AppData > Local > Icarus > Saved > PlayerData > (your Steam ID) > Prospects or %LocalAppData%/Icarus/Saved/PlayerData/[SteamId]/Prospect
Steam ID with your 17 digit number, read more from Valve about how to locate this
From here, you can share them with your friends, but be aware that once a file has been activated, you’ll need to have the most recent version shared back to you to be able to continue it where they left off.
Gameplay Changes
Alongside this change, there are a few new features that provide a more seamless experience and take advantage of the new localised data:
- The new Orbital Exchange Interface is a planetary-crafted deployable that when activated, allows you to call a drop ship down to extract your exotics up to the space station. This means you no longer can extract them in your dropship with you on completion of your prospect.
- Mission rewards are now granted immediately on completion of the mission, rather than sent to your inbox in orbit.
- Characters are no longer ‘locked’ to one Mission or session and can be used on multiple active sessions simultaneously. You can select any character from the character select screen for any session at any time.
- Insurance now only insures your items, as characters can’t be lost on prospects. If you do not bring your items up with you in a dropship, they stay on planet until returned. If you have insurance, you can reclaim your items after 5 real-time days from the menu.
- Workshop items are no longer ‘auto-repaired’ when you return them to space. You will now have the option to repair them for 10 ren in the inventory, or on the surface using the new Tier 3 repair bench.
Dedicated Servers Beta
Decentralization opens the door for Dedicated Servers, which we are launching in Beta today.
Dedicated Servers let you host your own Icarus server to play with friends. You can control access, timing, hardware and in future customize your settings.
It is a new way to play Icarus multiplayer, but is not compulsory. You can still continue to play Icarus multiplayer without a dedicated server as described above.
If you are interested in setting up and running your own (beta) Icarus dedicated server, you can access our setup guide on github here. We will be partnering with a range of dedicated server providers to offer rental servers, so stay posted for news and info on who these are.
This application is still in Beta, so we imagine we’ll have some teething issues as we work through scaling this up to full capacity. To support this, we have a special discord channel #dedicated-server-beta where you can engage directly with our team on any issues that arise. Click here to join.
52 Weeks of Updates
After releasing Icarus back in December 2021, we quickly shifted our attention to how we could keep innovating, improving and adding to the game. Weekly updates became our approach, focusing on consistently improving and optimizing the base game while expanding the playable content and adding new ways to play to provide an experience regardless of how you enjoyed Icarus.
During this time we’ve released some big updates, small ones and everything in between. Some of our more memorable updates included:
- Adding insurance to prospects in Week Six so players could test harder missions without fear of losing their characters
- Adding Deep Ore Deposits in Week Ten for late-game valuable resource sourcing
- Adding Talent Respec in Week Thirteen, allowing players to rebuild their characters as they unlock new skills
- Changing the real-life timer to an in-game timer in Week Seventeen
- Adding World Bosses in Week Twenty Three
- Adding the Styx Map and Missions Pack in Week Twenty Five
- Adding Horde Mode in Week Twenty Nine
- Adding the Moa and Buffalo Mounts in Week Forty Two
- Adding Open World in Week Forty Seven, a full persistent survival experience
- Changed to a bigger, bolder Icarus logo
Looking back, the work we’ve done has been quite the journey. The Icarus we launched was a different game than it is now. We’ve tripled the available missions, added an entire second map, new game modes, new dynamic features, new deployables, craftables and fixed thousands of bugs in this time. In this time, our players have invested over 34 million hours in-game, a number that still blows us away to this day.
One Year of Icarus
Releasing ICARUS has been the studio's coming of age. As I've mentioned before the Beta weekends last year, prior to our release, were a mixed blessing. On one hand, it demonstrated a significant ground of players eager for our content - but it also outlined problems with both the concept as well as the game itself. Most of all, the beta weekends crystalized what the game needed to be very effectively, helping end any uncertainty about what the game needed to be on the development front. You can think of the beta weekends as lighting a fuse on an explosive, it could only last a finite time before it needed to end. Our studio has a long and strong history of not crunching our project, but short iteration cycles during the beta week was exhausting for our team. Not to mention outages out of hours placed additional pressure. The launch proper was rocky as well because we had made so many changes in the final beta weekend that it had become impossible within that last week to properly test the breadth of the changes in the game in a 'real' environment with large players. That came with the launch. After such a rocky launch we focused on two things:It was really hard, but I'm really proud to say the team did both of those and done so with aplomb. The initial weeks were hard as the team scoped as much as possible into every update, but eventually we learned to keep the scope measured and portion out the work in smaller, more manageable, and consistent ways. We changed our build processes to bring the builds out earlier, and worked with our fantastic community members (particularly on discord), who would give excellent feedback. This feedback extended far beyond traditional testing - providing real "boots on the ground" information around balance. Each weekend we would be fortunate to see a number of content creators who stuck with the project from the start. Most of them I would say have at times (and continue to be) quite critical of the project. This has played a very important role in the game getting to where it is today. They've asked tough questions, and pointed out our mistakes or missteps. This has helped the team and studio to grow. This update brings us to the point we move away from that traditional "game as a service" or "live service" model. When we first announced this there was some pushback and concern, I hope we have done well at explaining why this is important for the longevity for the game. We do not want the game to be reliant on the studio. As a game creator I think the best outcome for me would be if people continue playing the games I make for long after I am not there to work on them. This is an important step on that path. The addition of dedicated servers, and the decentralization of the data, also also the community to do further work to pull the game a part and make mods and conversions for the game. They allow our team to make changes that were impossible before. They provide resilience - removing the requirement to support a complex (and expensive) back end. I know we haven't always done the right things, and we haven't always been as fast as you (or we!) would like at fixing these mistakes - but we thank you for being here with us nevertheless. We're excited for the future of ICARUS. I hope you are as proud of the team as I am. It's been a heck of a twelve months, and their work on the game is a testament to their resilience. We watch your videos. We read your reviews. We look at your posts. We talk with you on the discord. Together, I'm confident we've reached a point we can really build ICARUS into a game we all want. - Dean Hall, CEO
- A detailed after action (lessons learned) process to identify what to change in the studio across all aspects
- Committing to a set content cadence to build trust with the community, internally we agreed this would be an update each week, every week, with not a single week missed including holidays.
Changelog v1.2.28.105394
New Content
- New logo
- Added server settings for preventing non-admin players from either launching or deleting prospects
- Cleaned up matchmaking subsystem code, adding comments and extra steps to make sure session finding gets cleaned up correctly
- Moved test matchmaking server browser code into it's own file
- Removed duplicate spawn of quest manager
- Adding the ability to repair workshop items in space for 10 Ren
- Orbital Exchange Interface now has an associated Blueprint and Updated Recipe
- Fixing Return Via Dropship text so it makes sense in terms of the data decentralization
- Updating the Workshop Repair in Space to use better calls and logic
- Tidying up the Load Prospect Screen UI to show more feedback on remaning time, rewards and small layout fixes
- Adding Description text for Open World in D_ProspectList
- Tidying up Server Browser, fixing various overlap issues, Adding Open World text to Open World Sessions
- Change Insurance timeout from 14 days to 5 days
- Updating Descriptions where insurance is mention to explain how it works
- Updating Insurance Display Panel to show text if there are no items currently insured
- Updating Escape Menu database save text to reflect what it is now actually doing, saving the state of the prospect
- Updating Load Prospect UI to include Open World & Outpost names when selected
- Added Session type prefix before names in button selection in the Load Prospect UI
- Fixed talent syncing issues with unlocking new workshop items and unlocking new missions
- Updated Workshop Repair Kit and bundle description to refer the player to the repair bench instead of machining bench and fabricator.
- Added icon for Orbital Delivery Interface
- Modified Rocket saving to clean up rockets for players who are no longer part of the prospect
- Pre-migration character data on drops should now be correctly cleaned up. This should prevent flip-flopping between two different inventories/positions when reloading pre-migration saves repeatedly
- Locked STYX Open World and Mission buttons behind Styx_Map PackageFlag. Added optional MultiFlag requirement to all IcarusWidgets
- Fixed issue where Package Flags weren't being automatically unlocked in editor build target
- Added scroll bar to Load Game prospect list. Adjusted UI layout of Load Game window elements to be more in line with other Load/New/Join screens
- Tidying up Insurance Claim UI and Popup
- Players can now close the insurance claim UI with Escape
- Currently selected prospect in load screen is now highlighted. Adjusted style of resume prospect list to match others
- Adding new function to player data component to retrieve a characters loadout based on a passed in prospect
- Adding loadout information and various information messages about loadouts on the load screen
- Fixed bug where outposts tied to PackageFlags couldn't be selected when starting a new outpost
- Uninsured loadouts are no longer automatically deleted when returning from a prospect. This allows the option of returning to a prospect to collect the missing items. Loadouts can still be deleted from the popup menu if no longer wanted
- Added a scrollbox to the insurance popup and itemsondrop popup so that no items overflow if you bring over 10 items now
- Made layout and navigation of 'Load' screen similar to other prospect/outpost screens
- Fixed leaving a prospect that has multiple of your characters on it via dropship removing the wrong character from the prospect
- Fixed envirosuits still showing as checked out on a loadout when they were returned but another part of the loadout wasn't
- Fixed OldMap log spam on dedicated servers when loading an existing prospect
- Fixed burnt trees being incorrectly loaded after rejoining which caused clients to not them
- Can now only reclaim/destroy existing drop loadouts from the 'Loadout' screen after character select, could previously do this by clicking on any instance of the UMG_ItemsOnDrop widget
- Removed case where old prospect expiry time is set when it is no longer used
- Fixed blueprint compile error inside UMG_ItemsOnDropsList
- Fix a possible cause of multiple instances of the same prospect showing in Load screen, and sometimes missing associated characters data. Change the GetAllAssociatedProspects function to get all outposts and open worlds first before character associated prospects, and de-duplicate the merged results using prospect ID. To be manually merged up after review
- Included OW/Outpost names on buttons and loadouts for better clarity in menus
- Added temporary fix for incorrect lobby privacy when resuming prospects. Lobby privacy is now set to whatever privacy you initially hosted the prospect with
- Updates to 'Load' Screen UI. Players are now prompted to select Lobby Privacy when loading a prospect they have a character on
- Fixed issue that was preventing deletion of the last remaining character on your account
- Deleting a character now correctly removes additional character related files (associated prospects file)
- Fix sorting of GetAllAssociatedProspects results so that prospects which the selected character is actually associated with are at the top of the list
- Updating Text for Peer-to-Peer & Dedicated Servers so it is localised
- Resume button will now be disabled if the previous prospect played was with a server/friend
- Updated migrator version. This will trigger a fresh migration for all players
- Updated title screen to use new key art
- Reduced size of Icarus Logo Texture to improve aliasing issue on main menu. Added parallax effect to main menu key art
- Adding Logging to Update & Host Session Functions
- Forcing an update to trigger everytime the prospect data is set (The update allows a refresh and broadcast of the session for multiplayer)
- Fixed issue where key art character position would pop on first opening title screen
- Switched to clean version of new Icarus logo. Added panning smoke. Shifted character keyart in front of new logo
- Fixed smoke clipping on title screen.
- Fixed buttons not being interactable
- Fixed ordering of new title screen keyart to prevent it overlapping settings/credits menu
- Fixed tiling smoke texture on title screen not filling entire viewport for some aspect ratios
Fixed
- Fixed talent syncing issues with unlocking new workshop items and unlocking new missions
- Remove harvest particle and associated assets used on BerryBush actor, not using the existing effects flow. New unique DM for Berrybush pending
- Various texture settings fixes and optimizations
- Remove projectionlocation component from BP actors that shouldn't need it (copy pasta)er
- Improve location on Fir/Pine saplings
- Fixed persistent blocker actors initialising before recorder components had been reloaded; Fixes issue where existing open world saves would have their blockers active even if player had completed related mission to unblock them
- Fixup redirectors in ENV folder
- Fixed Floating Mineable Rock J13: [IC-21723] Fixed Floating Cliff I6 on Styx
- Remove duplicate unused BerryBush assets
- Reparented BerryBush BP to ResourceNodeBase instead of DressedNodeBase as that tech is no longer being used
- Clean up some master texture references
- Fix grass being disabled on some plants where it makes a tangible difference to visuals
- Fixed dependency issue with hab menus
- Exotic Delivery ships now can only carry exotics in their inventories
- Delete 6 copies of the same bark texture, genercise filenames and repath use cases
- Delete 3 duplicates of the same Leaf normal texture, repath use cases for variations
- Delete duplicate smoke texture, repath use case
- Fix Fir01 filenames so that the incoming 1300+ reference fixes point to a nice filename
- Fix Flare Arrow and Transport Pod flare setups to be Green/Yellow again via new assets (after BP configurable setup caused crashes and was removed)
- Delete old Flaticons textures only used as placeholder/overridden icons
- Fixing issue where players could not unlock workshop items, may block mission talent unlock in multiplayeron clients, another fix will come shortly
- The Drowned Drone in the Open World Dynamic mission will now reload as intended, it was not saving itself
- Hunt Missions are now once again Deterministic after creation, no more random flip flopping of targets on reload
- Dynamic Cache mission: Fixed quest tagging on rewards to never give the quest tag stat (was previously giving stat = 0). This will allow players to stack Cache rewards as expected
- Fixed description text format for AUGMENTATION, SPELUNKING and ABYSS steps to allow translation.
- Updated AUGMENTATION mission objectives to use a variable for the count, allowing easier updating of those values
- Fixed not being able to scroll in the server browser
- Enabled logging on shipping client builds
- Dynamic Cache mission: Fixed random seed of creature spawns guarding the cache so they will not reset on relaunch
- Remove Red light on Orbital Exchange interface. Moved audio locator for both OEI and Short Range Radio to be closer to devices for mesh
- Change hint text from 'Enter Outpost Name' to 'Enter Prospect Name' now that this UI is used for Outposts and OpenWorld
- Blacklist RDP adapter from graphics driver detection
- Fixed bug where you couldn't shoot through fortification gate.
- Fixed bug where creatures couldn't navigate properly through the semi-destroyed variant of fortification gate
- Fixed issue where Steam API call wasn't recognising unreleased DLC packages
Future Content
- Painted mangrove seedlings and polished foliage, decal in Swamp biome, Purple Quad, DLC
- Adding blueback attack slam audio and animation notifiers
- Ice Borer T3 - meshes, materials, textures, animation added
- Added logging when cave templates fail to generate to help track down the exact issue
- Fixed renamed foliage references in swamp cave templates
- LC Terraces - prototype mesh added
- Fix M_RockMaster missing function and new triplanar support
- Update Voxels in GL & LC Cave Templates for DLC Map
- Placement of Cliffs in the Phase 2 Area of Purple Quad, Prometheus
- Added destructible meshs for tundra bushes and tunrda saplings. Created harvest BPs and linked to node BPs
- Fixed CF_FirSap DM Materials that weren't assigned correctly
- Painted Pro Cave Voxels and stalactites in cave transition between Green and Purple Quad, DLC
- Added Destructible meshes for ToiToi and Aspen Saplings
- Updating p4ignore with backend removal changes
- GL Tussocks Harvest VFX Setup
- Various updates and fixes for breakable rocks:
- Fix issues with initialisation order which broke stuff when playing in a level
- Reserve FLOD instance when actor is first damaged
- Switch rep graph policy to Spatialise_Dormancy, which seems to be required to get replication working correctly with FLOD setup
- Set up a basic recorder component, needs testing on reload
- Resaved ErrorCodes DT to fix validation
- Placement of Cliffs in the Phase 2 Area of Purple Quad, Prometheus
- Update voxels in AC cave templates, made 2 new AC template cave & replace old cave templates with new ones on Blue Quad, DLC Map
- Updated swamp quadruped physics assets and added critial hit volumes to BP. Removed carry function for swamp quadruped corpse. Added base setup for SwampQuadruped Mount
- Paint Cave Pro voxels in manual cave tunnel between Swamp and Lava biome, polish dressing, Purple Quad, DLC
- Placement of Cliffs in the Phase 2 Area of Purple Quad, DLC
- Added derstuction for lava biome foliage
- Placement of Cliffs in the Phase 2 Area of Purple Quad and Added Red Grass Foliage In Volcanic Biome, Prometheus
- Added new cave templetes & replace old caves on Blue/Green Quad, DLC Map
- Resource_Scoria_Var1 mesh update
- Resource_Obsidian_Var1 mesh update
- Resource_Clay_Var1 mesh update
- SW_Tree_SML_Dead variations mesh, BP, material and textures
- SM_Node_SuperCooledIce mesh, material and textures
- Painted Cave Pro voxels in Mega tree cave , polished dressing, Purple Quad, DLC
- Fix initialisation issue with breakable rocks which prevented them from breaking properly when placed in editor. Add missing API macro to rock base recorder
- Delete duplicate Fir01 burnt bark texture from Fir02 folder and repathed 1400 materials to use the texture from the Fir01 folder with correct filename
- Added WL_Mangrove_Roots, 6 variations
- Adding blueback calls V1. May adjust once behavior is in game
- Update last remaining Brick buildable BPs and data to complete set. Add icons for all remaining meshes
- Fix wrong icon used on Iron Wall DBL window
- Adding swamp specific tree creaks to ambience layer
- SM_DEP_FurnaceElectric_IngotObsidian mesh and textures
- Delete unused duplicate ponga assets. Fix filenames and texture settings
- Placement of Cliffs in the Phase 2 Area of Purple Quad and Added Riverbanks Along Lava Rivers, Prometheus
- Added initial setup for Snow Striker mount
- Fix accidentally deleted Meshable row for Moa carcass
- Previous version of Account Flags are now Package Flags. Implemented new version of account flags, similar to characters flags but shared across all characters
- Temporarily removing Package Check for Styx, Reverting to deluxe edition package check for outposts