Hello, Martians!
Welcome to our 50th Monthly Devlog! We have just released the long-awaited Beta Update v0.99.2 which includes big changes such as:
New Interaction System
An important rework of the interaction system has been completed and playtesters can now check it out. It was a very important milestone on our roadmap to Early Access, which should address one of the most frequently reported issues - to make the controls more responsive and more user friendly.
The most important thing you should know about the New Interaction System is that now:
* pressing 1x LMB = picks up an item to your hand, and then:
--- the second time you press LMB = it will collect the item from your hand into your inventory
--- if you are holding any tool then of course the LMB will intuitively use that tool
--- press 2x LMB quickly (or hold CTRL+LMB) to take the item from the ground directly to your inventory (no more hold and wait!)
* pressing 1x RMB = stop using tool or drop other item from your hand on the ground
--- you also need to press RMB to cancel any action such as sitting in the Vehicle or Workbench
--- keep in mind that the ESC button will no longer work to cancel actions because we've introduced...
New Pause Menu
After carefully analyzing your requests and after many discussions we decided to add the new ESC Menu.
- All the game settings, saves and control settings were moved from the Tablet to the new Pause Menu
- You can now press ESC at any time during the gameplay (except a few places) to open the Pause Menu which is separate from the Tablet functionality.
New Main Menu Experience
Today we also have something special for you: the new main menu you know from our last weekly streams has been merged with the Beta branch so now you can admire it in its full glory. We've also uploaded a music video from it - a 4K artistic experience - you can watch it now on our YouTube channel:
If you love it like we do, you can listen it on repeat here ➡️ https://pls.watch/#v=uOsiigPeF1I 😉
Beta Update Changelog
v0.93.3 -> v0.99.2
New features:
- New Interaction System
- New Pause Menu
- New Main Menu Experience
- Added small 3D Printer in Landing Capsule
- Added small CO2 Scrubber in Landing Capsule
- Added text captions to voice notification system
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed Pump UI values going out of frame
- Fixed infinite lightning storm sometimes happening
- Fixed starting capsule light, power and oxygen
- Fixed battery building collider limitations
- Fixed the wind power of dust devils
- Fixed water tank changing color after detonation
- Fixed resetting vehicles in hangar
- Fixed hand-holding position of multiple objects
- Fixed 3D printing UI and dropdowns
- Fixed vehicles getting explosion damage
- Fixed Rover driving slower when full
- Fixed overwriting autosave/quicksave
- Fixed ores spawning in caves of Olympus Mons
- Fixed sleeping in landing capsule chairs
- Fixed meteor shower giving mechanics experience
- Fixed Air compressor Tool
- Fixed radiation Geiger sounds
- Fixed rocks loading on trailer during world shifting
- Fixed some player animations (jumping, crouching, interactions)
- Fixed postprocessing on screenshots of saved games
- Fixed saving loot items from destroyed bases
- Fixed saving player inside caves
- Fixed holding more than one item in hand
- Fixed dirt on Rover after sandstorm
- Fixed Rover trailer self detach
- Fixed damaging crusher after parking Rover on it
- Fixed Rover welder with/without container
- Fixed mouse acceleration setting save
- Fixed lightsource in HQ and other buildings
- Fixed saving game during repairing pcb board
- Fixed Well UI screen interaction
- Fixed battery capacity calculation after destroying battery upgrades
- Improved Heavy Rover wheels
- Improved DragBuilder interactions
- Improved interior lights in buildings
- Improved buildings Lobby, Cantina and others
- Improved graphics option (added TerrainPixelError)
- Improved player hands animations
- Improved text massage panel on the right
- Improved quality on lower graphics settings
- Improved small pickable rocks, more pickup types
- Optimization of GPU materials instancing on dynamic objects
- Balance Fix - Dust on solar panels disappeared too quickly
- Multiple translations improvements
- ...and more
Known Issues in this version:
- Composter is not working in this build.
- Once you dump rocks from the trailer into the crusher you need to save & load, otherwise you won't be able to load the trailer with rocks again.
- The New Interaction System should also work with gamepad controllers however we didn't have time to properly test it yet, let us know if there are any problems.
-
Warning! Do not play with headphones as there are a few sounds which are too loud playing during the loading of the game as well as during the game when new terrain chunks with abandoned bases are generated.
-
Warning! Before playing please reset your controls settings to default in main menu after updating to this version, otherwise new interactions may cause strange issues.
The above mentioned known issues will hopefully be fixed in the next 0.99.x build. Please let us know if you find any more issues.
100th Development Sprint!
Our plan currently is that builds up to version v0.99.x will be the last builds for the beta, and builds v0.100+ will go only to the main game Early Access branch so that we can focus on the main game release and make sure everything is polished there.
Build v0.100 is a great milestone - it means that we have completed over 100 2-week sprints while working on the game since the beginning. Looking back at those 5 years, it’s hard to imagine the amount of work we’ve put into it, we hope you will enjoy it. For the next build, we'll be focusing on the most important Tech Tree and Balance changes necessary before Early Access Release.
Kickstarter Status
As we promised in our Previous Update, we’d like to let you know about the status of the upcoming Kickstarter campaign as soon as anything clarifies.
Just before Christmas we've learned that another Kickstarter campaign for a different game was started on the same partner account so we need to wait until it ends. We were surprised by this but, after talking to advisors experienced with Kickstarters they said it's a good thing because campaigns during Winter Holidays historically aren't as successful and that January is better time. So after talking it over, we’ve accepted this fact since this is better for the game as well.
So we can finally confirm that our Kickstarter campaign will launch on January 17th. That also means that Early Access release will come later than January 2023 (after the Kickstarter finishes). As for our talks with potential international publishers (mentioned in the last devlog) they are still ongoing so we'll keep you posted once we have some more information about it.
We’ve also made a small update to the game’s official page - added a countdown for Kickstarter Launch:
More beta invites
Each new Beta build comes with new Beta invitations, so we're giving access to the Beta to more players. As we feel this update is particularly important, we’re now granting access to the Beta to additional 7 000 randomly chosen players from those registered in the Steam Playtest system. With this, 10 000 players should now have access to the Beta version! That's a lot!
To all of you who find Occupy Mars: The Game Playtest version in their Steam library – we hope you'll enjoy the game and please remember to give us your feedback!
Sharing your feedback
A separate Sub-Forum on Steam called Beta Discussions was created for those who have access: LINK
After playing please also remember to fill our Beta Survey: LINK
We also have dedicated channel on our Discord server!
Sorry we were unable to post this before Christmas but all this clarified on the last moment and also some of us got sick (Flu Season), but now we are back at work with full speed! :)
Best Regards,
Occupy Mars Team