Hello,

two months have past since the last update and we fixed a ton of bugs, added some new content and improved the game overall. In fact we made so much progress that i can‘t possibly address it all here so i will just go over the most important changes.

Mining:

Our miningtools were really unbalanced so i set out to introduce a linear progression to the mining process. First i replaced the Scout Mech Mininglaser with three variants: T1, T2 & T3 each one has similar miningrate to the player miningtools but the T1 can mine only T1 ores while the T3 can mine T1-,T2- & T3-ores. I also replaced the T2 Mech Mininglaser with two variants: T2 & T3. Then i fixed the overall miningrates of each tool. Previously it was really frustrating when you upgraded your pickaxe with a T1 miningtool and found that it did not mine as many ores as the pickaxe. Now every new tool is producing more ores than the previous one.
We wanted to make the whole process of mining more satisfying since this is where the player spents a lot of time. We added new sounds and new breaking particles to all ores which make it much more appealing to mine ores.
Furthermore, we also added some rare mineals to the ores which have a 1% chance of dropping and can be researched in the Research Station to gain Research Credits.

Player Bases & Structures:

I made the entire base building system a lot more stable.
We had some major issues with our base systems where parts of the base would be invisible, have the wrong 3d model or not show up at all. It took me a lot of debugging but i found all issues and fixed them. Now you can be sure that when you remove a part that it actually gets removed or that the new part you placed is showing up.
I also made the walls rotateable which results in many new ways to build a base.
Additionally we added a base-marker that marks the location of your base on the map; you can enable/disable it under the „MY BASES“ tab.
We also simplified the process of refining ingots in the refinery by removing the ADDITIVE mode.
The refinery now produces one new ingot by combinbing the values of two ingots from the input.
All player turrets are now fully funtional again and are quite deadly. They use up the ammo and are no longer constantly shooting at a dead target.
The movement speed of doors was dependent on the framerate of the server which resulted in slow or fast moving doors. I fixed this issue and doors are now opening and closing at a constant speed.
Furthermore we removed all window panes from every window frame. These window frames can now be closed by putting a window pane into or by adding a shutter to the frame. The shutter can be opened and closed to make it possible for players to shoot at whatever is lurking outside.

Creatures:

For the longest time we had an issue where the drop of a creature would have the wrong 3d model. For example after killing a pig it would turn into a dead walker or forest warden. I was finally able to fix that issue once and for all. Sometimes the dead creatures would not even show up but i fixed that issue as well.
Then we introduced two new mobs to the game: the large desert worm and a nest guardian.
The worm lives in the desert and only comes up when a player is nearby. The worm has 450 health and can only move underground. It‘s limited meelee attack range make it voulnerable to ranged weapons. The worm drops T2 ores and research data.
The nest guardian is a grown up verison of the hatchling and guards the creature nests. It has a meelee and range attack. It is no easy feat to kill him since he has 200 health and can predict your movement to thrown acid at the perfect time at you. This makes the process of destroying creature nests much more challenging. I also fixed the issue where creature eggs would not get destroyed when shooting at them.

Weapons and gunplay:

We refined the gunplay a lot by adding feedback sounds and hit markers when hitting players, mechs or mobs. I also introduced a new bullet spray system that is predicabtle and can be counteracted by moving the mouse. The previous system just gave the bullet a random rotation when it left the barrel but now the whole camera moves slightly when shooting. The damage of a bullet is now no longer relative to the value of the weapon but the value of the weapon still has an effect on the bullet spray.

Mechs:

Fixing the issue where the camera points into a different direction when switching between first person and third person was something that i wanted to do for a long time and now i finally had the time to do it. I also fixed an issue where the game would break when the player got into the mech while holding the shotgun. We reduced the damage of the Scout Mech LMG from 12 dmg to 7 dmg to match the damage of the AR of the player because the LMG always felt a bit over powered.

Whats next?

We started a staging branch testing server that you can join to try this new version of pantropy before it goes live on the public branch.
Check out our #Information channel on our discord for more informationon how to join the staging branch: https://discord.gg/JjwxT9tE
We will keep a close eye on our discord server and note every bug report that comes our way and fix the most important bugs first. In the meantime we will finish the development of the android system, add a new system for collectables and add random events to the game like creature attacks or android raids.

I hope you had a pleasent christmas,
Julian