Greetings, esteemed colleagues!
It’s been some time since our last Q&A vlog so Design Director Zag and Community Manager Criss put together this video to remedy that!
Some Q’s and Abbreviated A’s
For those who are sick of hearing Criss and Zag’s voices, here’s an abbreviated version of the Q&A’s from the vlog!
Q: Will you be releasing on consoles?
A: Yes! In case you missed the announcement, we are releasing on PS5 and Xbox series S and X. We'll have crossplay so you'll be able to play with Scientists across all platforms if you'd like or you can opt out if that's not your thing.
If you're worried about any networking issues or other problems with this change, don't worry, that's already in the game! So if your stuff's still working, you've passed through the veil of unsure-ity.
Q: Will the price of Abiotic Factor be going up?
A: Yes, this is very important! The price will be going up sometime in the near future. We've expanded the game a lot during Early Access and we think the price should reflect that. We will be having a lot of sales and other opportunities to get it cheaper until then, so make sure you check those out and scoop it up.
And, as is our way of doing things, we'll let you all know well before that price increase takes effect.
If you happen to be reading this between March 13th-20th, we’re on sale for 20% off RIGHT NOW as part of the Playstack Steam Spring Sale! 🌸
From here on out this Q&A will contain SPOILERS about current late-game content, so if you haven't finished the Dark Energy content yet, we'd recommend caution!
Q: Will you guys fix that weird issue in Security Sector where the hint for the next objective is hidden by the door you can't get through until you complete that objective?
A: Fine! Yes, we messed up a little bit with our level design. Yes, we'll fix it. Gosh! Fine! Moving on moving on!
Q: Will there be new enemies in Cold Fusion?
A: Oh yeah, there’s going to be a heap of new enemies! Well… there’s going to be a few new enemies. At least a handful of new enemies. Yes, there will be new enemies! You're going to see maybe some new troop types from the Order. You might even see some old… remixes, let's say. And maybe even some entities.
Q: Are we going to get some Gatekeeper weapons or Tier 3 Armwraps?
A:I'll do you one better. We're going to actually ditch the idea of Tier 3 Armwraps. We'll keep Tier 1 and Tier 2 but we have a whole bunch of plans involving weapon upgrades and allowing you to unlock the biometric locks on those weapons when you upgrade them. We've even got some armor planned that may have integrated Armwraps… So that is actually a big reveal. I'm just going to leave it right there for now, let you think about that a bit. Let you chew on it.
Q:Is there going to be another Leyak?
A: You worry too much.
Q: Jetpack or Jump Pack?
A: You know I actually like the Jump Pack better. You can really negate fall damage quite well with it. But hey, listen. We may rebalance some stuff. We may shuffle some items around. You're going to definitely see, at 1.0, a few items will end up earlier in the game and some might end up later in the game. Will the Jetpack end up later? Probably! Will the Jump Pack end up earlier? Probably! As far as which one's really better I think that's up to you guys!
Q: Will you keep working on Abiotic Factor after 1.0?
A: We do have content planned after 1.0. We're just not done yet, we've got the main story we want to finish up but there's a lot of other stories we want to tell and a lot of other places we want to go and our characters need to go places and you need to go places. And you know we’ve got to add more items and fun things to do. To say we have big plans would be underselling the big plans that we have! Science never ends! I mean, it might one day but not for a long time.
Q: Anything new to tell us about perks in 1.0?
A: Along with adding a new maximum skill level of 20, we are adding a lot more perks. We also found some gaps we want to fill with perks. We feel some of the perks kind of aren't the best so we're going to be looking at some of those. We do have a lot of perk thoughts percolating, if you will.
Some say that IS-0017 may get some use. WHAT does that have to do with perks? Well, that's for me to know. That’s it, that's the end. Next!
Q: What are Home Worlds?
A: Ahh Home Worlds… That big old mystery on the road map. Many theories abound! Home Worlds are optional, smallscale portal worlds primarily used for base building or just a nice place to call home away from the hustle and bustle of the Facility and other hostile antiverses.
The first Home World we'll be delivering will be featured as a portion of the Supporters Edition, that so many scientists have requested for 1.0. So stay tuned for more information about the Supporter’s Edition, Home Worlds and quite a lot more later this year.
Q: In Cold Fusion, are we going to another Facility?
A: In a manner of speaking, yes. Much like Dark Energy, we went to another Facility. But let's just say that the GATE Cascade Research Facility is not done with you yet.
Q: What is Residence Sector?
A: Residence Sector, you say! The GATE Cascade Residential Sector, it's uh… it's where the scientists sleep. And maybe watch movies. And nothing bad has happened there! Up to and including frosty interdimensional nonsense and space time upside-downery.
You won't need a flamethrower!
Q: Are we going to be able to toggle our Transmog?
A: Oh yeah, you can toggle your transmog in the next update. There'll be a little button next to your equipment slot that'll let you turn it off and see the equipment you're actually wearing without having to go back to the Transmog Station.
You also will have a button to toggle off your headlamps and NVGs ‘cuz I know a lot of helmets don't really work with them. We can't just set all those up by hand so we're just going to give you a button to decide if you think your scientist looks cool or not. Is that all right? Is that cool? Okay, cool, great. Bye. No wait, we're not done yet, sorry.
Q: Are old areas going to be updated at 1.0?
A: There's a few places in the Dark Energy content we felt didn't quite get enough beauty so we're doing some beautification passes.
There may also be some other pathway changes and some other minor things but overall we're pretty happy with the GATE Cascade Research Facility, we just want to keep making it a little prettier, a little more fun and a little bit more faciliter.
Q: When can I milk the Tarasque?
A: “Stop it. Stop it. Stop. I'm walking away. I'm done. I'm done!” - Zag
Thank you to every scientist of enjoying Abiotic Factor. If you have any more questions feel free to drop them here or ask us on Discord! And if you’d like to leave a positive review, we promise not to feed it to the Coworker. We don’t promise he won’t eat them of his own accord though.
Onward -- to science.
Join the Scientific Community!
You can also join the Research Division today on Steam!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/427410/Abiotic_Factor/