Dear Pioneers,
The entire team is incredibly proud of the work done on "Decisions," the 3rd major update for TPSD. You can check out all the update notes here, and please see the end of the post for a more personal and heartfelt message.
GAMEPLAY
This 3rd major update brings tons of new gameplay features. As outlined in the roadmap, it focuses on decision-making: choose one type of victory over another, establish the strategy of the day and forego certain bonuses, make the best choice when an event occurs... Whether strategic or tactical, we hope all these decisions will make your games more intense and more unique.
Main additions:
- Introduced a new character, Dinesh Khan, the Life Support Engineer.
- Added a new skill, "Telecommunication," strongly tied to machine use in the command center. This skill reflects your pioneers' proficiency with remote communication tools.
- Added a new station module: the Command Center. Use it to contact Earth for assistance, plan your EVA (Extravehicular Activity) excursions, support your team remotely, and foresee threats with the weather station.
- New victory condition: Rescue. OCTAL has you covered, dispatching a rescue shuttle after approximately 30 days. The question is, can you hold out until then?
- New feature: Pioneers' Field of View. Terrain features become visible within a short range around your characters during EVA excursions.
- New feature: Antennas. Most machines in the command center link to an antenna on the roof, which may fail during storms. This failure renders the connected machine inoperative, necessitating repairs.
- New feature: Start Randomization. The initial pioneer can now emerge from any capsule, with the other two survivors placed randomly in other capsules. Initial loot is always positioned in front of the station to diversify the game's beginning.
Events system:
- Daily meetings: At each day's start, crew members gather to propose strategies. You must select one, usually resulting in a buff for some or all crew members. Each pioneer can make unique suggestions.
- Hazard events: Singular events such as spoiled rations or crew disputes can now occur.
- Point of interest events: Linked to terrain features (e.g., caves, satellites) or randomly revealed by pioneers' field of view.
- Contacting OCTAL or loved ones is also enhanced by the new event system.
Other additions/changes:
- Redesigned beacons with a triangulation system to uncover outdoor points of interest.
- Visual and gameplay improvements for volcanic bombs, now exploding on impact and potentially breaching station walls. This change aims to heighten their threat level in the mid to late game.
- Developed proprietary tools for creating events and buffs, introducing over 50 new buffs and an equal number of events (more to come).
- Introduced a new personal item related to Dinesh.
LEVEL DESIGN
We've worked hard to incorporate your feedback on the level design, refining our workflow for enhanced precision and polish. We're also trying to give more identity to the different areas of the current map. Your ongoing feedback is invaluable as we continue refining the level design.
Two new areas introduced:
- A zone of rocky plateaus, rich in rare earths, replaces the former sulfur zone. This area poses unique challenges, including permanent fog and a vertical layout with deep chasms.
- The sulfur marshes, situated further than the old sulfur zone, present a significant mid-game challenge. The visuals have been upgraded, incorporating the new unity water shader.
UI & ERGONOMICS
In this update, we've undertaken a major overhaul of the upper area of the HUD. Nevertheless, there's still much to be done to improve the game's clarity and accessibility. This significant task will be addressed in an interim patch before the release of the fourth major update.
- Global HUD rework to lighten the information at the start of the game and incorporate new elements to be unlocked during play.
- New victory protocol added to the dedicated panel.
GRAPHICS
- Optimized the day/night cycle for improved clarity.
- Improved the terrain shader to better highlight areas traversable by pioneers.
- Enhanced the visibility of icons in the 3D world.
- Added a lava river.
- Introduced physical meteorites.
- Added a distress smoke VFX to capsules at the start of the game.
- Implemented multiple VFX related to volcanic eruptions.
- Updated the VFX for acid geysers, lightning, and electric particles.
- Refreshed the VFX for vents, clouds, and fog.
- Visually enhanced the heat system.
- Improved the rendering of certain textures.
- Animated the evaporation of lakes.
- Enhanced graphic transitions between map zones.
- Animated parts of the HUD.
- Adjusted terrain decals and blends.
- Added and updated event-related illustrations.
- Updated the size of climbing indicators.
- Reintegrated character transparency when obscured by an object.
MUSIC & SOUND
- Added new music theme dedicated to the second victory condition.
- Added new music theme dedicated to rover exploration
BALANCING
- To address the diminished challenge of maintaining mental health, we've introduced new loss triggers (e.g., pioneer injuries, illnesses, volcanic bomb impacts).
- Increased the proportion and frequency of consumable loot, including oxygen tanks.
- Optimized survival capsule placements and removed overly challenging positions.
- Ryan reclaims his original role as capcom with the introduction of the new Telecoms skill, transferring his Computer specialty to the new character, Dinesh, who now oversees the station's systems.
MINOR CHANGES
- Removed the telecom booth in crew quarters. The Earth communication terminal is now designated for contacting loved ones.
- Magnetic rocks now lose their charge over time.
- The generator may shut down during electromagnetic storms, impacting all station systems. This change aims to diversify station damage and reduce redundancy.
OPTIMIZATION
- Optimized terrain (removed holes and underground meshes).
- Added new LODs for some heavy 3D meshes for smoother rendering.
- Adjusted the map edges.
- Tuned the rendering distances for various visual effects.
- Improved the game loading system to prevent freezing at startup.
- Enhanced the pause functionality to save on performance.
- Reduced the number of shader variants.
- Removed unnecessary graphic settings from the scene.
- Eliminated unnecessary graphic parameters from character models.
BUG FIXES
- Improved elevator mechanics to prevent blockages.
- Enhanced the climbing system for greater robustness.
- Fixed several bugs related to the medical block.
- Fixed a display bug on various textures.
- Fixed a bug causing unexpected pauses.
- Corrected the display of primary resources.
- Restored the progress bar indicating camera signal loss.
- Fixed a bug allowing all upgrades from a recycled machine to be retrieved.
- Fixed a rare bug that made the workshop module unusable.
- Addressed a bug related to inventory management.
- Corrected the exploration rover's pathfinding.
- Fixed pathfinding in lava craters.
- Added skill indicators to actions where they were missing.
- Corrected the skill application calculations of pioneers on their actions.
- Fixed a bug that could cause capsules to enter the terrain.
- Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented certain sound alerts from playing.
- Fixed a bug that could crash Maggie, the station's printer robot.
- Fixed a display bug on certain terrain elements that could float above the ground.
- Fixed a rare bug that could lock the camera.
- Addressed a bug related to icons remaining on screen.
- Fixed a rare bug preventing certain order sequences from executing.
- Corrected a UI display error during the O2 reloading action.
- Fixed the position of the elevator menu.
- Corrected the temperature management system that allowed characters to overheat on a cold sulfur lake.
- Fixed certain notifications not always displaying.
- Corrected an anomaly that allowed camera scramble to be removed by moving in the scene with a beacon.
- Fixed a bug allowing infinite looting of oxygen from a capsule.
- Addressed multiple missing translation errors.
- Fixed various bugs related to languages.
- Corrected a series of save system bugs.
- Fixed various sound effects.
- Addressed different issues encountered in Twitch mode.
A Final Word Before You Dive Into the Game
Some of you have recently shared your eagerness, and even your concerns, about the future of TPSD, noticing the absence of major updates on the horizon. We take this as encouragement! After all, facing pressure from our players is generally more welcome than their indifference. ;)
Your questions deserve an answer, and we're seizing this moment to share more about us and our situation.
The Pioneers is an extremely ambitious game that could easily engage a hundred people over several years and consume millions (or even tens of millions) of dollars in production costs. When we pitched the project to publishers capable of supporting such a budget, we were consistently reminded that this was our studio's first major game and the financial risk was too high. No one took the leap with us. So, we chose a different path to try and realize our dream nonetheless.
Our entire team (10 people) agreed to share part of the risk by becoming co-authors of the project, thus earning only from sales (if the game sells well, we can pay ourselves; if not, we keep hoping while eating pasta). To date, The Pioneers has sold around 15,000 units. That's great, placing the game in the top 10% of best-selling products on Steam. But as you might guess with a simple calculation, it's clearly not enough to ensure our stability, expand the team, and plan future projects.
We chose this path knowingly and have no regrets. However, it means that sometimes some of us need to take on additional work to make ends meet, or that we can't afford to hire QA or translation studios.
Making a living from video games is far from easy today. A tiny portion of the industry captures players' attention and spending, one that can invest millions in marketing campaigns, engage in sometimes questionable business practices, and prioritize profitability over quality. We are not one of those studios and never will be. With our modest means, energy, and passion, we simply strive to bring to life the game of our hearts, which embodies everything we love about our hobby, without treating players like fools.
Yes, what we do is imperfect and sometimes delayed. But know that we're doing our best and that, after all these years of hard work, we're already proud of the game we've produced. It's not going to stop anytime soon, and we're convinced it will find a deserving spot in your Steam libraries, whether before or after the end of its early access.
Regardless, even when times are tough, we're very happy and motivated. We hope you'll enjoy this update. We eagerly await your feedback. Have fun.
The Supercube Team
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1734390/The_Pioneers_Surviving_Desolation/