Hi everyone,
the wait is over! We finally managed to re-enable the Open World functionality and added the Build Module degrade/repair mechanic as well. The Seagull Flocks are helping with navigation between Island Clusters on the Global Map. The Bed and Dryer can be attached to Raft modules and there are also new Stick, Branch and Palm Frond Packs, Reworked spoil system, Multi-equip system, separated config data and more.
The Open World is finally here. The game offers around 6000 x 6000 km area with about ~12000 Island Clusters which takes place in the area between latitudes 30N - 30S and 130E - 170W longitudes. The weather (rainy days, temperature, wind average direction and speed) was modeled based on real Pacific data from that area too. This system offers many unique mechanics and gameplay elements which will be implemented continually.
The travel time between Island Clusters can last a couple of days so it is advised to pile up a good amount of food and water beforehand. Another good idea is to lower the sails/slower the raft when strong winds blow. Before trying to find the first cluster the player should search for a clue about its location on one of the starting cluster's islands (the one where the Captains ship is sunken).
To make the search for island clusters more realistic watching for Seagulls can be useful - during mornings they leave the nearest island cluster to catch fish and in the evenings they are flying back towards the nearest island cluster to sleep.
Beds and the Meal Dryer are now able to be Attach to Raft modules to make traveling and living on the Open Ocean more comfortable. Traveling time can be shortened a lot by using the Beds and sleep as much as it is possible - of course besides Sitting on the Raft base and Waiting which also speeds-up the time.
The build module Degrade mechanic moves gameplay to a more realistic level. The system calculates the Wind direction, wind speed and wether the build module is hit by direct wind or is shielded by some other module with Storm property to degrade module quality accordingly. The Degrade system actually does simple one point simulations and takes into consideration only the Wind, but in future updates the mechanic will use more precise simulations and will calculate also the Rain and Sun impact.
The damaged modules can now be repaired with a Hammer. Doing so the player can ensure getting the protection a module is offering based on its Wind/Rain/Sun properties. The better a hammer is built and of higher quality, the faster the repair process will be. The process of repairing increases the players Repair skill which is affecting the repairing process itself. There is a new Repair achievement too.
The newly introduced Storm property indicates the Build modules capability to withstand environmental effects. The higher the Storm property is, the more time it takes to completely degrade the Build module.
Another new feature is the universal Stick/Branch Pack. It is a big help to transport Sticks/Branches that do not fit into the Backpack. They are universal, because after crafting them from a fixed amount of sticks it is possible to expand them to an extent by adding additional sticks or get sticks from them until the pack is gone.
Coconut Fronds and the Banana Palm Leafs have gotten their respective Packs too in their Small and Big form.
In case it is not possible to craft any Stick Pack you can now take multiple Sticks or Branches into the hands of the player character and make transportation easier.
Besides the Small Sticks it is now possible to also multi-equip Fire Sticks, Long Sticks, Thick Branches and the Coconut Fronds and Banana Palm Leafs.
The Spoil system was reworked and is different from the behaviour we used to see in earlier versions. The more spoiled the consumed liquid or meal is, the more damage it does to the players health. Spoiled liquids or meals won't lose their thirst or hunger values completely so it is not needed to drink 30 liters of half spoiled water to satisfy thirst values.
The ability to Open/Close door/window when Equipped makes the gameplay more comfortable and the additional saved data in case of attaching an object to a raft ensures more stable attaching after loading a save state.
The collectible Old Iron Axe, Old Wood Hammer and Old Knife have got correct/much bigger damage and duration values. Forest trees were fixed regarding their shading mechanics so now they can provide the much needed chilling shade in hot days. The Canoes/Rafts left on remote islands shore aren't missing and relocated once revisiting them.
There are a couple of other internal engine changes that are laying a good base for future mechanics and features, for example the aging information for all objects and custom hand animations for equip/drop ... etc.
Changelog: (* needs new game)
New features:
01. Added: Open World*
02. Added: Multi Cluster system*
03. Added: Skeleton with Small chest with Info about nearest Island Cluster*
04. Added: Seagull Flocks above ocean*
05. Added: Attaching Beds to Raft modules
06. Added: Attaching Meal Dryer to Raft modules
07. Added: Coconut Frond and Banana Leaves Packs
08. Added: Multi-equip of Fire Sticks, Long Sticks, Thick Branches
09. Added: Multi-equip of Coconut Fronds and Banana leafs
10. Added: Storm property for Build modules
11. Added: Build module quality affecting Rain/Sun/Wind properties of Buildings
12. Added: Repair damaged building modules
13. Added: Usage of Repair Skill
14. Added: Repair Achievements
15. Added: Stick/Branch pack
16. Added: Multiple Equip functionality
17. Added: Support for Custom Hit and Hold Animations
General:
01. Changed: Save System divided into Game and Config
02. Added: Save system divided into Experimental and Standard data
03. Added: Possibility to Open/Close the Doors/Windows when something is equipped
04. Added: Saving more attach data when attaching objects to Raft
05. Added: Spoiled liquid/meal causes Health damage
06. Changed: Spoiled liquid/meal still have some amount of thirst/hunger values
07. Added: Support for Material Aging mechanic
08. Added: Hit Damage based on tool Quality
09. Added: Save game Backward compatibility checks improved
10. Changed: Old Iron Axe damage and HP set to bigger values
11. Changed: Old Wood Hammer damage and HP set to bigger values
12. Changed: Old Knife damage and HP set to bigger values
13. Changed: Primitive Hammer damage set to bigger value
14. Changed: Tweaked Sail force to speed up the Rafts of any size (mainly the bigger ones)
15. Added: More 3d-ish Coconut Palm Frond model
16. Added: More 3d-ish Banana leaf model
17. Changed: "Customize" button in New Game screen renamed to "Next"
18. Added: Custom hold animation for all tankards
19. Added: Custom hold animation for all goblets
20. Added: Custom hold animation for all bottles
Fixes:
01. Fixed: Alpha Screen text always in English
02. Fixed: Not displaying Detach hotkey in ActionBar when Aiming Door/Window with Hammer in hand
03. Fixed: Doors/Windows to be equipped to hands (not intended)
04. Fixed: Rainwater in WaterHolders without thirst effect after they had oil in them or other liquid before water
05. Fixed: Not lowering thirst when drinking rainwater
06. Fixed: Incorrect Spoiled Energy values for all Liquids
07. Fixed: Sometimes incorrect spoil- and dry-up-times for all WaterHolder objects
08. Fixed: Incorrect HitPoint data loaded for sailing objects (rudder, sail, mast, ...)
09. Fixed: Incorrect HitPoint data loaded for for floatable objects (canoe, raft , ...)
10. Fixed: Navtools3_Text (Watch & Sextant Quest) made no sense (english only)
11. Fixed: Sometimes disappearing items transported and dropped on remote islands
12. Fixed: Invalid Raft weight - solves impossible/very slow Sailing after save/load
13. Fixed: Invalid Drag Force values - solves impossible/very slow Sailing after save/load
14. Fixed: Not functioning Sails and Rudders after save/load after something was detached from the Raft
15. Fixed: Incorrect saving of starting values for Latitude and Longitude
16. Fixed: Disappeared/Relocated Canoes left on remote islands
17. Fixed: Disappeared/Relocated Rafts left on remote islands
18. Fixed: Sometimes failed Canoe creation after save/load
19. Fixed: Some Forest Trees not protecting from the Sun
20. Fixed: Some Forest Trees not protecting from Rain
21. Fixed: Not completed Drop animation/messed up object in hand when dropping object from hand when the nearest island is not visible/far away
22. Fixed: Not able to "Look" in detail to Pocket Watch when holding it
23. Fixed: Not able to "Look" in detail to Paper pieces when holding them
24. Fixed: Sometimes internal error and halting the game at re-initialization (after clicking "Regenerate" or loading a game)
25. Fixed: Equipped/Look animation for old Pocket Watch is broken
26. Fixed: Sticks and Branches have frozen position after save/load
27. Fixed: Not turned off Air/Health bars after Sit on Canoe ("Use") when swimming
28. Fixed: Broken Main Menu loading when Survivor Died sitting on Raft/Ground
29. Fixed: Broken Main Menu loading when Survivor Died during paddling
30. Fixed: Unable to add material aiming to the sides of the blueprint during crafting a Floor Campfire
For the next update we plan to work on some new features of the Open Ocean and Multi Cluster system. The additional plans include also the Old Telescope, Fog Catcher, Plank Build modules, Spear, Smoker, Dolphins, Simple Quests, Building modules aging ... We will work also on solving the new issues and we will recheck some older issues too. Other new features will be added as implementing the planned features and fixing issues will allow us to.
Thank you for your patience and for your constructive feedbacks helping us to get rid of the issues as fast as is possible.
Do you like our game and want to help even more during development? We look forward to every positive review posted on our Steam page and thank everyone who decides to support us along the way!
Please be aware that during early access phase game code could change as much as affecting gameplay when loading/saving savegames from earlier versions. To always be on the safe side make sure to start a new game with each update. Thank you!
G4GTeam.
If you have any further questions do not hesitate to ask us. We will try to answer your questions in detail.