This update introduces drivable motorboats, each featuring full customization and support for passengers. These boats work with the dynamic ocean mechanics, meaning you can experience varying wave heights at different locations and jump boats over waves. Also included in this update are three new areas and dozens of area improvements, a few of these are shown off below.
An additional significant improvement is a revised loading system, which in tests has shown initial game loading time reduced by 4.5x on average across various machines. It should be noted the first loading after a larger update will always be a bit slower (although still faster than before), but once shaders are compiled and everything is cached, secondary loadings (even after restarting the game) will be much quicker.
New Marina area at Mataara
Barracuda parked at New Dock area at Tori
Barrelback near dock for new work-in-progress airport, south east of Metarahi
New island south of Naupata
Patch Notes:
Environment
- Added new island between naupata and kiokio.
- Added new island south of matiki, on Naupata.
- Added marina to Mataara.
- Added secondary dock south of Mataara (no boat spawn, for loitering)
- Added small dock near the lighthouse at Whakura.
- Added small dock with boat spawn at Paka.
- Added small dock at Puna Manawa.
- Added small dock near Matapari.
- Added improvements to the dock at Tonga Hawi.
- Added small dock at Arohata.
- Added small dock and additional improvements at Pekanga.
- Added small dock and additional pathway at Hianga.
- Added work in progress airfield to one of the south east islands.
- Added culling adjustments to telescope array and observatory.
- Added culling adjustments to creepy cat house.
- Added culling and lod adjustments to various rocks.
- Added culling adjustments to windfarm.
- Added culling adjustments to bamboo huts and various bamboo platforms.
- Added culling adjustments to stone dock foundations.
- Added culling adjustments to school building, notably roof.
- Added culling adjustments to various light clutter, including barrels and crates.
- Added improved lods for landscape to combat floating objects.
- Added more diverse marine life, including electric catfishes, mahi-mahi, barracudas, cuttlefishes, octopuses, rays, and various large coral reef fishes.
- Added additional coral reefs, kelp forests and underwater wrecks.
- Added full-size galleon ship-wreck to explore in the bay near mataara.
- Fixed an issue where a eastern map tile was invisible at a distance.
- Fixed collision on Barrel Tub.
General
- Added drivable Zodiac boat, the Barracuda. Boat features full customization, and seats 4 people.
- Added drivable Barrelback boat. Features full customization and seats 3 people.
- Added a few more variations of teal to the color palette.
- Added performance optimization for low, so that fishes and birds don’t spawn.
- Added performance optimization to various environment particles, reducing the number of actors.
- Added performance optimizations to fishes (non-particle) so animation data and update rate is better reduced based on distance. This should also remove jerky movement seen in some instances with some species.
- Added new spawn menu images for various outdated/coastal locations.
- Added additional hidden items to discover.
- Added achievements for new areas, hidden items and for boats.
- Added filter option to disable some horn sounds from game that may otherwise be annoying to some users. You'll hear the default horn instead, this section will be expanded overtime.
Item Store
- Added Barracuda boat kits 1 and 2. One is a racing orientated kit with spoiler and twin motors, the other kit features a bimini (canvas), and custom roll-bar with lifebuoy mount.
- Added Bugle horn pack which is compatible (as are all) with both boats and buggies.
- Added Animal horn pack.