Hey everyone, it's that time again, Fargone is receiving its latest major update today which is jam packed with new features, including the highly requested drivable vehicles! This update also includes language localisation support for 8 new languages, another feature that I know many have been asking for. There are LOTS more big things coming with this update so let's jump in and break them all down!
Drive and maintain your own quad bike
When you first load in to the Rustbound update, the map will be pre populated with several random spawns of quad bikes. These quad bikes spawn with a range of random conditions (most are worse for wear!) so unless you get very lucky you will likely need to scavenge for parts to get one up and running.
Quad bikes require an engine, spark plugs, wheels and fuel to get going. You can find a range of different parts ranging from slow but fuel efficient engines all the way up to rare race engines. Spark plugs also come in different types and govern wear rate of your engine each start-up (more on this below). You can also speak to the mechanic at The Days End Bar to purchase parts for a price!
The world of the Barrens has not been kind to most vehicles and as such most parts are in poor condition, you will need to maintain your quad bike to keep it running in good condition! Fitting poor quality spark plugs will lead to increased stress on the engine that will likely damage it in the long run. Jerry cans are also required to top up as well, wheels can become damaged and will require tools to swap them out and more.
As well as this you can customise your quad bike with different armour levels and attachable storage allowing you to haul your goods over long distances with ease!
World Events
Fargone now features a range of world events that can crop up at any time, these world events come in a variety of forms such as faction battles, helicopter supply drop off, zombie hordes and more. Depending on the type of event you can often either participate to gain faction rep depending on the outcome of the event or take an opportunistic moment to steal some supplies (more on the new theft system below).
Theft System
In a world where supplies are scarce and factions are battling it out, it only makes sense that some might not want you picking through their goods! A new theft mechanic has been introduced that allows you to steal supplies quietly if no one is looking or alert the whole base if caught!
Some of these supplies if important will be marked as theft even if you are part of that faction, you have to earn the right to take supplies freely.
Anomalies
With the Rustbound update, the first Anomaly has been added to the game, serving as a testbed for future ideas built around the Anomaly system. Found within the Hazard Zone, the mysterious growths that feature heavily throughout the lore of the Unknown Origins storyline have finally made their true in game appearance.
These dangerous, almost living vines reach out with long, stalk like tentacles, attempting to strangle anyone who ventures too close. Interestingly, the Scientists stationed within the Hazard Zone have reported that these newly dubbed "Grabber Plants" appear to be interested only in the living...
Hazard Zone Rework
Continuing the work started with the Busy Work patches, the Barrens continues to receive improvements and overhauls. The next area to receive this is the Hazard Zone which now features many more interesting locations, more loot and encounters.
As well as this the town of Hopes Village has received a substantial rework in preparation for the main quest line taking players down to ground zero at Hopes Plant....
Melee System Rework
Melee in Fargone has received a much needed rework. The entire backend logic behind how melee combat works has been re written from scratch making combat feel more predictable and fun. New features have been introduced such as the ability to block attacks, new stats have been added to each weapon to determine how effective they are in a range of new ways, stamina is now impacted by melee making combat more thought provoking and more.
To support the new system, all the melee weapons in game have been re animated and received new audio as well.
Several new melee weapons have also been introduced with Rustbound including 2 new iconic variants.
Weapon Audio Rework
Thanks to some amazing work by Seth Reed (CHEEKIBREEKI on Discord) many of the weapons in Fargone have received overhauled audio from inspect sounds, to reload sounds bringing much more depth and life to the general weapon handling.
Seth will be continuing to work on the rest of the guns and will be moving on to item use sounds, UI sounds and more so expect to see continued improvements to the soundscape in Fargone.
Localisation
Fargone now supports full localisation from text dialogue to UI elements in 8 new languages. These languages are
French
Italian
German
Spanish
Ukrainian
Portuguese (Brazil)
Chinese (Simplified)
Russian
Photo Mode
With the Rustbound update a brand new photo mode has been introduced allowing you to finally capture your best moments in the apocalypse! The Photo mode comes with a range of sliders allowing you to fine tune your capture.
Photo mode also is integrated with the Steam API meaning your screenshots will go straight to your Fargone library in Steam.
Human AI Combat Improvements
While human AI is still not quite on the full AI3 upgrade, one major feature that I have backported due to the impact it has on the game is the new 'dynamic accuracy' system. Human AI will now have their accuracy affected by a range of things such as the weather, time of day and how much their target is visible.
With this update tactical play is much better rewarded, moving from cover to cover or picking your moments to engage will properly reward you with higher odds of surviving a firefight.
UI Improvements
The UI has received a host of improvements to make information much clearer and looting more fun. The entire background stats system for items has been reworked to allow for displaying clear values alongside the stats bars to give clear indications of an item's stats, mods and current condition impact.
A new popup transfer window is also now present allowing you to transfer, drop or split stacks by custom amounts easily including the ability to split by stacked item conditions.
Along with this some major performance improvements to UI rendering also are included with this update.
And More!
Full patch notes can be found below but to quickly summarise a few points, this update also includes more graphical options, improved performance, Steam Deck auto graphics setup support (won't apply if you have already played the game on a Steam Deck and have custom settings already saved), visible backpacks on the player, new footstep audio system and more.
As always a huge thank you to everyone who has played and supported Fargone, I hope you enjoy all the new content that the Rustbound update introduces!
-Jordan
Full Patch Notes
Added
Added world events
Added drivable quad bikes
Added language selection support
Added some new randomised AI spawners along main Pointview entrance road
Added some button prompt helpers to looting
Added vehicle maintenance systems
Added dynamic procedural textures for grime and wear & tear for quad bikes
Added photo mode
Added proper texture footstep detection to allow a broader range of footstep types to play based on below ground texture
Added new footstep sounds for puddles
Added new stealing mechanic (loot containers can now be owned by factions and will turn hostile if they catch you looting them)
Added brand new melee combat system
Added ability to block with melee weapons
Added range of new weapon stats for melee weapons
Added new animations for several consumables
Added new UI sounds for several items
Added ability to change the fog quality settings
Added auto graphical settings setup for Steam Deck first load
New flesh bullet hole impact effects
Added ability to split stacks by condition amounts
Weapons
Added The Huntsman’s Heir iconic bolt action rifle
Added combat knife
Added lug nut wrench
Added new kitchen knife (replaces old)
Added new pipe wrench (replaces old)
Added hatchet axe
Added iconic weapon Old Captains Slasher
Added iconic weapon Guarded Chopper (Re built and re introduced)
Audio
New sound effects for opening and closing certain containers
New reload sounds for PM-5
New reload sounds for Tactical M4
New reload sounds for Kritch 42
New reload sounds for PM-1
New double barrel reload sounds
New Qbec reload sounds
New Ret 51 reload sounds
New Nova reload sounds
New G36C reload sounds
New Glock reload sounds
New M22 reload sounds
New Hunting Rifle reload sounds
New P90 reload sounds
New Draugenov reload sounds
New reload sounds for Catcher-42
New reload sounds for Anaconda revolver
New inspect sounds for several weapons
Range of new weapon movement and handling sounds
New unjam sound across all weapons
New sound for drinking water
Items
250cc engine block
500cc engine block
Black Racing engine block
Red Racing engine block
Copper spark plugs
Platinum spark plugs
Quad wheel
Quad storage box
Quad light armour
Quad medium armour
Quad heavy armour
World Events
Added faction battles spread out across the Barrens
Added military resupply events
Locations
New minor POI near Runners Village
New minor POI near Grasslands military factory
Added some new environmental props and details throughout the Grasslands and Mountains
Added new details and props to the main Pointview entrance road
Reworked Science HQ in Hazard zone
Added new details and props scattered across Hazard zone
Reworked factory in Hazard zone
Reworked sunken warehouse in Hazard zone
Reworked bandit camp in Hazard zone
Reworked Hopes Village
Graphics
Improved depth of field effect
Added new underwater post processing effects
Improved rain splash effects
Languages
Added French localisation
Added Italian localisation
Added German localisation
Added Spanish localisation
Added Ukrainian localisation
Added Portuguese (Brazil) localisation
Added Chinese (Simplified) localisation
Added Russian localisation
Performance
Optimised overall fog performance
Optimised shadow cascades
AI
AI aiming accuracy is now affected by multiple factors, amount of the target that is visible, weather conditions and time of day
AI now sport a new accuracy settle competence value meaning that AI now have a varied amount of time it takes to acquire a solid aim on their target, rookies will struggle to steady their aim far more than an experienced military member
Improvements
Improved clearance detection when vaulting to prevent getting stuck inside objects
Improvements to audio mixing
Improved AI cover maps around Pointview
Transferring a single item from a stack will now always transfer the first item (the item shown in the tooltip)
Cleaned up several UI elements to better support a range of different text languages
Improved physics interactions across multiple objects
Equipped backpack is now visible on the player model
New bandage model
New wooden barrel model
Tooltip now shows raw stat values as well as the bars
Reworked several UI stat categories to display as % for easier understanding and comparing
Improved performance of UI rendering overall
Improved performance of AI logic around notifying nearby allies of alerts
Improved performance of some general weapon firing logic
Balancing
Reduced clean diet perk max health regen cap slightly
Rebalanced logic behind loot table chances to be more consistent
Fixes
Fixed several LOD bugs around Pointview
Fixed some visual issues with locked doors at Pointview police station
Fixed visual water issues in UG labs
Fixed Clean Diet perk not working correctly
Fixed visual bug with Liberty Expedition backpack
Fixed depth of field issues when changing view distance
Fixed another cause of players sometimes loading in under the map in the ocean
Fixed a rare issue that could cause total base loss on save/load
Fixed dead AI getting stuck standing and animated on occasion
Fixed an issue with documents in Of Great Importance not being in the correct location
Fixed loose loot spawning underneath items on occasion
Fixed a bug where AI would not spawn near players when creating a new character and spawning at initial spawn point
Fixed some arm clipping issues on Qbec rifle
Fixed AI looking jittery when zooming in on them with a scope