Hey folks, we've got a new update ready. This update does double duty as both a tutorial and a significant chunk of story content at the beginning of the game. We've known for awhile that we needed a proper tutorial, but we waited until now because we wanted to make sure that we had a good idea of the stumbling blocks that new players have when starting the game fresh. Hopefully what we put together will make it easier for new players, while not being too overbearing or annoying for existing players. From a story standpoint, we've always known that we wanted to start the game like this, but because it was tangled up with the tutorial we had to hold off until we could do both at the same time. Between the tutorial and the story elements, we're hoping the new player experience should be a lot less awkward. You can skip the intro/tutorial content when creating a new character.

The game now starts with you waking up in your bed aboard a colony ship called the Hephaestus. You're part of a decades-long mission to travel through space to a habitable earth-like planet called Osiris. You're woken up by the ship's on-board AI system, who tells you that you're needed for a mission to scout a nearby asteroid that has produced some anomalous readings.


You'll get your handy MEG wrist laser tool installed.


You'll perform some diagnostics


Visit an asteroid


And witness the end of the human race.

New Content

• Added story introduction and tutorial
  
  
  
  • New starting map
    
    
    
    • Hephaestus colony ship
      
      
      
      • Contains several sections, including the Bridge, Hydroponics, a Medical Bay, a Dormitory, Outfitting, the Hangar and Cryogenics.
        
      • Added generic NPCs as well as 2 named NPCs
        
        
        
        • Dr. Stein - The head scientist and captain of the Hephaestus. His office in the bridge, and he can help you with information about your mission to the asteroid.
          
        • Larry - The head engineer of the Hephaestus. His office is above the hangar pod bays, and he can help you diagnose and launch a landing pod to the asteroid.
          
        
        
      • Added decorations and furniture for the various sections of the Hephaestus.
        
      • Added a MEG wrist tool install station and diagnostics station in the Outfitting section of the Hephaestus.
        
      • Added a new weapon/tool called the Thermothrower, which can shoot streams of ice and fire. It can be found in the Hangar storage area and it can be refilled using a charging station in the same storage room.
        
      • Added Hephaestus Pick, obtained along with a suit of armor in the Outfitting section of the Hephaestus.
        
      • Added a rivet gun. It fires rivets and can be found in the hangar.
        
      
      
    • Asteroid
      
      
      
      • Added an asteroid mite creature, and an asteroid mite hat made from its skin and entrails.
        
      
      
    • Underground alien structure
      
      
      
      • Added an alien altar that is missing a crystal and has a slot for the "Strange Device".
        
      • Added an alien boss
        
      
      
    • Added a short story related cutscene that plays at the end of the new content.
      
    
    
  
  
• Added a Help menu with entries about various topics.
  
• Added a Seismic Imager structure that can be used to scan the area and add the data to your minimap.
  

Gameplay Changes

• Added AGIS Investigate bind (I by default) that allows you to ask agis about something in the world without first opening his dialog.
  
• Removed most left click interactions in the world, and replaced then with right clicks. Let us know if you notice spots where we still have you left click to interact with a device or thing in the world.
  
• Prevented weapons from using their alternate fire when right clicking to interact with something in the world. This fix must be applied to things individually and I'm sure we missed some, so let us know if/when you notice this issue in the future.
  
• The Multipass is now obtained in your starting room after you've gotten dressed and eaten some food.
  
• Moved the "Strange Device" to the end of this area. Previously it was located on Osiris in the mining base.
  

Misc Changes

• Added a unique respawn effect when you are respawned by the alien Xenolith.
  
• Added an idle animation that plays when you are using your inventory.
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that was causing the game to crash on launch on 32 bit systems
  
• Fixed display issues with various items in the grid inventory.
  
• Fixed some foods not stacking correctly.
  
• Fixed an issue with placeable items such as torches when using the grid inventory option.
  
• Fixed a bunch of graphical and gameplay issues with the alien ship you reach by portal.
  
• Fixed an issue that may have been causing food to not get eaten despite showing the animation. Let us know if this problem shows up again.
  
• A whole bunch of tiny things that I can't remember.
  

What is up next

We have two large goals left before we would be ready to take Signs of Life out of Early Access. One is to finish the story content, and the second is to expand on the existing content by re-working some existing areas, adding bosses and cleaning up issues with the progression through the game. This includes things like finishing up the earlier work we showed with the Spitters, as well as a possible rematch with a certain fowl creature...

This update took ages in large part because we couldn't really split it up into smaller pieces, but the things we're going to be working on next are smaller individual chunks so we should be able to get updates out quicker going forward.

We feel pretty happy with this intro/tutorial content, but it is still a work in progress. Let us know in the comments, on the Steam forums and in our Discord channel if you have any suggestions, complaints or just want to say hello!