Well here we are gang! About a month later from when we first let you loose with the new Alpha, we're here with the first of 3 major content updates - the Frosty Update.
This has quite a lot of new bits and bobs, the main focus being around the new "polar" climate and climate control. There's also the beginnings of the character customisation system so you can finally play as yourself instead of me! (if you have any requests for hairstyles let us know :D)
This update also introduces fermentation, which lets you take water + honey to make mead, which can be further infused with spices to give it special properties, like making you able to run faster or see better at night!
There's also some more bees (of course) - in this update we introduce some special species you only find in certain places rather than through cross-breeding. This will lead to a few different things in future, like species NPCs give you, special quest reward bees, seasonal bees etc. We've also tried rebalancing the items you can sell to give more focus to bee produce + honey/mead.
Not much has changed with the NPCs as the next major content update is focused around NPCs and questing, but we have updated the shops!
As always, let us know any Bugs you find in our Bug Reports forum (over on Guilded), but otherwise we hope you enjoy! I'd recommend a new world if you can part ways with your old one, as a lot of content needs a fresh world!
New Stuff
- Added character customisation! You can now change your look and hair style and overall colours and all that good stuff when starting a new game (hell yeah!!!)
- Added the polar regions! This harsh frozen landscape is home to some very hardy bees..
- Added "snowing" weather in the polar regions, leaving a layer of snow you can gather with a spade
- Added 6 new bees! Some of these are "one-off" species not found by cross-breeding but by exploring (requires a new world)
- Added a "New Discovery" animation sequence when you find/breed a new species (who's that... bee!!!)
- Added 2 new flowers for the polar regions (no new flower mutations this update!)
- Added the Heater, an object that warms up the surrounding area to make it feel like a warmer climate - bought from Beenjamin
- Added the Cooler, an object that cools down the surrounding area to make it feel like a colder climate - bought from Beenjamin
- Added Rain Tanks, these store rainwater when it's raining, which you'll need to make mead!
- Added the Fermenter, which let's you combine all that golden honey you've been hoarding with water to make mead!
- Added the Bottler which let's you bottle mead, optionally infusing the mead with spices! Spiced mead has special effcts when drunk, different spices do different things! - bought from Skipper
- Added 3 different spices, each can be produce by a specific bee species, or bought from Skipper's specials item!
- Added 5 new quests to cover new mechanics - rain tanks, fermentation+bottling, heaters, coolers, and polar islands
- Added an introduction chapter to the flower book that explains cross pollination in more detail
- Added another type of light source, the Lamp, which can now be crafted
Changes
- Beetrix now sells sawdust and sawdust bricks
- Updated snowing icon, "polar" icon, and matching icons in the microscope
- Added an AoE circle to smokers so you can see what hives will be affected by it
- Hives now hide the second bee input slot when a queen is in the first bee input slot to try and aid in confusion of what is needed in a hive
- Added a tooltip on empty crate 'eye' slots to explain what they do
- Added boats to the map so you can see where ya left em!
- You can now hold and drag the mouse while holding shift to move items between menus (rather than having to click each time)
- Added a small 'E' icon next to the inventory to show you can toggle it
- Added slot numbers to the highlighted hotbar slot
- You can now hammer the Sir Sengir statue and move it where you want! (Will leave a glitched invisible solid block on old worlds but still works)
Bug Fixes
- Fixed flower buffs not applying correctly
- Fixed flower buffs not displaying on active queen trait cards
- Updated tooltip delay so the tooltip doesn't flicker when moving the mouse over the same thing
- Added missing flower 'placeholder' icon to the smoker flower input slot
- Fixed the "Hold 'Control' To Snap To Grid" tooltip being replaced with floor/carpet tooltips when placing on those things
- Fixed the smoker not automatically refuelling itself when the game is loaded
- Fixed smokers not actually having an area of effect and smoking every hive in the world
- Fixed input/output slots not having awhite "input/output" title in the tooltip
- Fixed NPCs not appearing on the map when the game loads if they're too far away
- Fixed issue with walls not showing the correct variant in some layouts
- Fixed canisters sometimes not resetting to "empty" when filling certain tanks
- Fixed there being no beehive at Beenjamins place
- Fixed not seeing an "out of reach" error on far away walls + tiles
- Fixed Nana not sitting on a bench and instead rising above the ground (ASCEND)
- Fixed missing @ symbol in "Picture Perfect" quest dialogue
- Fixed rain carrying over to a new world if it was raining in the last game you played
- Fixed tree taps having the wrong sprite in the swamps
- Fixed deep tiles not showing the correct tile sometimes
- Fixed the smoker quest missing a GIF