Trust me, this hiatus is killing me as much as it's boring you. So, a quick status report is in order I think!
Unity 5 integration
This, overall, has gone swimmingly. Framerate has increase about 40% across the board, and there are preparations in place to move to Unity 5.4 and GPU Instanced rendering as fast as possible.
If you're interested in having a look, then please be aware of the high risk factor, back up your world, and opt into the BETA_TEST branch!
CRC and Disk Thread changes
This has been a scary, scary set of changes. The entire disk system has been overhauled and made consistent. This should mean no more lost inventories, no need for player backups, and whilst we can't do anything about corrupted worlds (to massively re-re-re-re-iterate, those are 100% down to Windows' horrific disk system screwing up big time on hard crashes), we CAN now detect them 100% of the time and roll back to backups.
Testing is still on-going on this.
DLL-based mod support
This is implemented in the latest version, but isn't ready yet. Hopefully next week or so. This is low risk to un-modded versions of the game, so I'll be happier about pushing bleeding edge builds out with them implemented.
Skins!
We've FINALLY gotten an AppID through from Valve, so I'll be able to upload and link against this, once the art has been finished. Totally planned on being available for Patch 5.
Dedicated server stand alone download
See above!
Frozen Factory Expansion Pack
Work's been progressing on this still. I'm gonna take a stab in the dark and say it's about 25% complete. Most of the major machines are in and working, about 10% of those have models, and 1% of them have final textures.
Patreon!
Is still going amazingly Go check it out!
Virtual Reality
Moving to Unity5 has allowed me to implement the 'generic' Virtual Reality support, meaning that all major headsets 'should just work'. It's a very long way from finished, but you can look around an existing base happily.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/254200/discussions/0/412446890546103596/
If you're interested in having a look, then please be aware of the high risk factor, back up your world, and opt into the VR_TEST branch!
Gameplay!
A brief rundown on what's changed:
- You can ctrl-click items into storage crates. This took like half a day.
- The OET can be used to call in Orbital Strikes on the surface wasp spawns, knocking them out permanently.
- Improvements to the fluid rendering and performance.
- Added a new type of tunnelling boss.
- Added a new, static, super-boss.
- Loads of new visual improvements; new grappling hook, moving gun, sunshafts, minecart pieces.