Icarus Week Ninety Four Update | C0NT4CT device and improvements to patching

Week Ninety Four brings the new C0NT4CT device to Icarus, merging the Short Range Radio, Infrasonic Relay Device and Encrypted Satellite into a single device.

This is a big step towards our Hypatia update, where we’ll be adding Operations (missions you can complete from your Open World session) to both the Styx and Olympus maps so they can be activated from your Open World sessions, just like in our New Frontiers expansion.

We’ve also added a new pop up which will allow you to check your file state after each patch, which aims to reduce bugs or crashes caused by outdated and leftover files from Steam’s patching process.

Jump in and have a read.

Notable Improvements

• A checksum file check has been added which shows a message on the title screen if you have mods installed or your pak files from the patch are in a bad state. This will be helpful in figuring out if Steam’s patching process has accidentally corrupted the project.
• Fixed an issue where fully mined voxels would sometimes not respawn after being thumped with the Thumper
• Fixed an issue where fully mined voxels would reappear and disappear when hit once, not providing resources
• Fixed an issue where mission rewards weren't being given to players who hadn't completed the pre-requisite missions
• Fixed missing Ren reward for the "Hidden Cache" SMPL3 mission types

This Week: C0NT4CT Device

With the new approach to Operations and Missions in the New Frontiers expansion, and upcoming changes to missions on Styx and Olympus, we’ve added a new mission device which replaces the trio of the Short Range Radio, Infrasonic Relay Device and Encrypted Satellite.

This device is called the ‘C0NT4CT Device’ and acts as a base item with upgrade slots for two parts to replace the Infrasonic Relay Device and Encrypted Satellite that unlocked encoded and encrypted Operations.

The C0NT4CT Device is craftable at Tier 2 on the crafting bench, and will be the primary source for SMPL3 Quests and Operations while you are on the surface in Open World games and Outposts.

This comes with changes to the UI, such as when you are looking at the mission screen for a prospect, Operations are now shown with an Operation UI element and separated into colors for normal, encoded or encrypted Operations.

Any existing mission devices you may have on an active Open World game or Outpost will be converted into a C0NT4CT device with this update, and for either the Infrasonic Relay or Encrypted Satellite, they’ll come with their respective upgrade pre-installed.

The New Frontiers Operations have been updated also, to reduce some of the grind that was caused by the multiple device requirements. Instead, these will provide the upgrade parts for the C0N4CT device as part of your objectives.

The C0NT4CT device not only streamlines objective selection while on planet, it also provides a transition to the new system coming with Hypatia, which should be simpler for people to understand and use.

This week: Patching checksum

Sometimes our frequent weekly updates cause issues for how Steam updates games, so we’ve added a tool to help you check for any issues.

Some players have figured out (thanks our Discord community) that after some updates, Steam doesn’t always delete files that are no longer needed. For example, this can lead to out-of-date .pak files containing game data that conflicts with the latest version of the game. This can often explain weird behaviour and crashes.

So, we have added a message on the title screen to tell you if you have mods installed or your .pak files from the patch are in a bad state. This will be helpful when troubleshooting crashes or to see if Steam’s patching process has caused conflicts.

If you want to switch this message off, we have added two command line arguments

-NoCheckSumPopup

Suppresses the popup notification of the checksum but still shows the status on the title screen. This will also detect any mods.

-NoCheckSum

Suppresses both the popup and title screen message

Coming Soon: Hypatia

Hypatia is making leaps and bounds, and we know you’re keen for more Operations (missions you can complete from Open World mode). So we’ve made the decision to split it into two parts and bring the upgraded Operations mission systems to Styx first, and then Olympus a little later.

There is no ETA on when these will both be ready, but by splitting this into two, you can expect we will have Hypatia Part 1: Styx Operations out sooner than originally planned.

For those of you who are new and haven’t yet purchased Styx, you can jump in and play 27 missions now, along with the 64sqkm map and several unique animals. Many of these Missions will be adapted to become Operations, playable in Styx Open World world, when the Hypatia update drops.

Next Week: Carved Wood Decorations

Next week's work is split into two parts internally, with the core of the game design team working on the Hypatia Operations changes, while the art team are bringing the remainder of the carved wood decorations set that they have been working on. This will complete the entire set, with 20 items in total across all 3 bundles, not including their variations.

Support our Project

If you like what we’re doing with Icarus, and want to support our continued development, consider purchasing one of our DLCs for a few dollars, it would mean a lot to us.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1648532/Icarus_New_Frontiers/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/33813/Icarus_Complete_the_Set/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/34141/Icarus_Outposts_Bundle/

Changelog v2.0.4.116269

New Content

Fixed

Future Content