A lot of changes have occurred under the hood to prepare us for going forward with procedural worlds.
This update focused on getting our creatures system completely overhauled so that we could rapidly manipulate the data in preparation for turning it all over to the procgen systems.
Does that mean you won’t notice any differences in the game? Nope. It doesn’t mean that at all.
We used to have fewer than 20 creature types in the game. Now we have over 120 creatures and creature variations.
You used to be able to solo just about everything. Now there is a wide degree of difficulties out there. Some of them are definitely NOT soloable. You have been warned!
Creatures used very similar attacks previously. Now they have a wide variety of them.
THE RETURN OF MAKERS!
Makers are back in the game. We still have a bunch of varied designs to be added, so right now there are only two kinds: Small and Medium. (Later, there will be many more.)
What is a Maker? A Maker is a Servitor construct that has been placed onto the planet in order to stimulate life to grow in different ways. The Maker not only tweaks those lifeforms according to parameters only known to them, but it also tends to protect those lifeforms once they become strong enough to be worthy of their time.
Makers are invisible. Yup. Super hard to find. So how do you find them?
USE THE TRAILBLAZER
First, you need Ranger XP, and you’ll need to unlock the “Maker Scanning” skill node. (Get Ranger XP by finding survey nodes or participating in public events). Once you have that, the Trailblazer has a new mode now, which is also “Maker Scanning”. Enable that mode by hitting TAB to change to it, and then use the left-mouse button to activate it. You’ll see a pulse go out around you.
If no Makers are in the area, the pulse will be all blue. No Makers are in the area.
But if there’s one in your detection area, you’ll see a strong orange directional that shows you the direction toward that hidden Maker. Keep moving toward it. When you get close enough, your pulse will drop the Maker’s cloaking shield and reveal it to everyone in the area.
But the Maker’s cloaking field WILL regenerate and when it does, it will put its cloak back up again. You’ll need to trigger another pulse to drop it again and let your friends see it.
The Makers have been improved somewhat (much less buggy than last time around) but will still be getting a lot of love in the future. (More variants, including not having huge hulking Makers that loom over little kittens and bunnies, wider variety of defenses, more attacks, etc.)
But why do you care about Makers? Because if you destroy the Maker, then you also destroy the source of the creatures it makes. No more Maker, no more bunnies.
But if you don’t kill them all, then…well…Makers can also make Makers. They’ll start out making non-dangerous creatures, but given time, every Maker continues to mature, and the creatures it makes will get tougher and tougher as well.
So if you don’t deal with the Makers, they’ll get tougher. And they’ll spread. And those Makers will get tougher. And they’ll spread. So y’know…tend your garden, humans.
A quick note to the peaceful player: You are not forgotten! You can currently crouch-walk past a lot of creatures, but other methods of concealment and stealth will be available in the future. You don’t have to fight your way through the wilderness all the time.
However, keep in mind that players that do like combat will also certainly be hiring out their skills to help pacify a new area for you, or to return resources that you need from dangerous areas. As much as you love to build, craft or farm, those other players will love to be a hero and help tame a world for you to use. Both of you can benefit from the passions of the other.
YOUR GUIDE TO COMBAT
COLOR-CODED NAMEPLATES
First of all, watch the nameplate colors over the heads of creatures.
White: Reasonably safe. Easily solo-able by anyone even with basic weapons and no XP.
Yellow: A bit trickier. You might want to dodge or use a shield. But you’ve got this.
Orange: Appreciably tougher. Some of you will need to bring a friend.You’ll definitely want your specials at this point.
Red: You want friends. And consumables. And shields. And specials. No, really.
Purple: Bring a group.
Bosses: Bring a BIG group.
You’ll also notice that there’s a really big variety of creatures. And some of them flock together, which can make attacking those groups really, really tricky. You can “Leroy Jenkins” into every fray if you want to (because y’know…that can be crazy fun), but stopping to look at an encounter before you jump in can also be pretty clever, right?
You may even want to *gasp* pull some creatures individually so you can take the group apart a bit at a time.
CONSUMABLES
You know those things that you haven’t been using? Well…they’re useful now. Why?
Because there are some tough fights out there and you need all the help you can get. Use your Foods before the fight to maximize your stats, and bring stacks of Medicines along to restore your health, stamina and focus as you use them.
Because there are a LOT of status effects out there now. Whether you catch on fire, get frozen, electrified, stunned or poisoned, you’re going to be taking damage from those effects. Use consumables to get rid of them.
Remember that you can select a stack of your favorite consumable ahead of time and then just hit “F” to use it. You don’t have to open the consumables wheel unless you need to pick a different one!
THE HEALIX
Do you have a friend with a steady aim that has opened up the specials on the Healix? Well, that person is a very good friend to have now.
Between doing mass heals and the all-important mass removal of status effects, the Healix is quite useful now.
(Yes, we plan on vastly improving the basic healing function on that tool, but we just haven’t had time to do it yet. Soon.)
SHIELDS
Ye olde Fortress Shield is extremely handy to keep you alive during combat, but take note of the fact that it doesn’t stop all damage, so you’ll still be getting hit with status effects even while it protects you.
If you want to stop Status effects, be sure to craft and use a Reflection Shield. But keep in mind that the Reflection Shield won’t take as many hits before it needs to recharge.
Ah, tradeoffs!
NOT ALL WEAPONS ARE THE SAME!
Creatures that have orbital projectiles will be able to deflect Omniblaster shots away. Some creatures are immune to certain kinds of damage, so the ones that resist Heat will be immune to your Drones weapon. And the Gravity Gun doesn’t do a huge amount of damage, but when something is trying to get up close and personal to you, it will keep them at bay. Don’t forget it!
USE YOUR MOVEMENT!
Learn to dodge! Get this into your muscle memory early and use it often. This is one of the BEST ways to avoid those huge projectile arcs that some creatures use. It can even get you away from homing projectiles if your timing is right.
Use your grapple and grav mesh. Flying up and away will get you out of trouble…sometimes. (Some creatures can cope with your movement pretty well, so beware.)
WHY FIGHT?
Right now, for the XP. Also, successfully killing a boss will earn you a Title you can wear proudly. Also, the tougher the creature, the more loot it resources and goodies it will drop.
And if you like to build, then keeping your area clear of Makers will let you live peacefully. Makers only spawn near another Maker, so the further you clear them back, the longer you can live at peace.
WHAT OTHER CHANGES ARE THERE?
The creature combat and Maker spreading was a huge focus for us this time around, but there were some other improvements you might appreciate:
TERRAFORMING – MAJOR CHANGE!!! READ ME (REALLY!)
Remember when we told you that mining was going to get tougher eventually? Well, that’s now.
Every resource in the game has a hardness value on it now (based on the real-life Mohs scale, if that interests you), and many resources are now a lot slower to mine through.
You can still mine through dirt and weak stuff (like pumice) with relative ease, but some of the harder gemstones (like Diamond) will require some real effort to get through, with most metals and stones being between those two extremes.
In the near-future, you’ll be able to craft more features on the Terraformer and customize it to dig faster, either generally or on specific resources (like gemstones). But in this release, we got the relative hardnesses installed so we can build on it going forward.
WINTER FREEZES WATER
When winter rolls around, you’ll find that lakes and rivers now freeze in the cold.
The season lengths have been restored to normality (well, normality for testing purposes) with each season of the year lasting three game days. (This will be changed again, probably many times, in the future.)
WHAT CAN I CRAFT?
When you open a crafting terminal (any) there is a little button you can click, under the search field, that says “Can Craft”. If you click it, only recipes that you currently have the resources to build will show up. This is super handy if you’re wondering “what can I build now”?
BATTERY CHANGES
A number of tools were basically ignoring their batteries previously. Those have been brought into line now.
The Grapple is good for around six uses before it needs to recharge.
Your shield consumes its ENTIRE battery to activate, but recharges over about 10 seconds.
NEW FLORA
Some new alien plants have been added. The Verdark Cone, Hexavine Spires, Luminweave Tendril, Emberbloom Torch, and the beautiful Pangloria Bloom tree are on various worlds now.
NEW TITLE
By tester suggestion, the “Crash Test Dummy” title has been added to the game and is available to all players. 🙂