Hey folks, it has been awhile but we have a brand new content update hot off the presses. We had several goals with this update - We wanted to move the story forward a bit, add a new area to explore, and we wanted to add a repeatable combat encounter that would be both fun and practically useful.

You will need to generate a new character or a new world (through the Sandbox Menu) to access the new area.

New Content

• A new alien themed aread to explore
  
  
  
  • The area is entered via a portal that the Xenoid scouts open from their deployment pods that drop to the ground after you attempt to contact the Hephaestus with the satellite dish in the Pioneer Station.
    
  • 2 new intelligent alien creatures
    
    
    
    • A Xenoid Specialist that shoots fireballs
      
      
    • A tanky soldier Xenoid
      
      
    • All of the Xenoid aliens can now teleport to the player as long as there is an unobstructed path.
      
    
    
    
  • 3 new less intelligent alien creatures
    
    
    
    • A ProtoXenoid Crab
      
    • A ProtoXenoid Slug
      
    • A ProtoXenoid Hound
      
    
    
  • A new alien device that can be used to duplicate items.
    
    
    
    • The device has 4 crystals that must be stabilized with alien energy in order for the machine to function.
      
    • The crystals will spawn ProtoXenoids from special portals when the machine is on and the crystals are not stabilized.
      
    • Items placed on the device's tray will be pulled up into the machine when the lever on the device is set to the on position.
      
    • Once an item is pulled up into the machine, it will slowly be duplicated.
      
    
    
  • A Alien Turret that fires alien energy projectiles.
    
  • A Xenoid Reflector that can be used to redirect alien energy projectiles.
    
  • Devices that can temporarily or permanently provide power to connected alien devices after they are struck by an alien energy projectile.
    
  • A device that disables the power in the new area, which disables the duplication machine, prevents the aliens from respawning and prevents the alien pods from dropping to the surface of the planet.
    
  • Added alien wiring that connects the new alien devices to power sources.
    
  
  

Gameplay Changes

• You no longer need to manually scan the environment to fill your map. Your surroundings are now scanned automatically
  
• Added a Codex to track information that you have discovered about creatures, including a description and a list of drops
  
  
• The primary function of the wrist scanner gadget is now used to scan creatures and add their information to the codex
  
  
• Creatures should be more persistent. If you build a house and put a chicken in it, the chicken should never disappear unless you kill it. Our intention is to move in the direction of letting you "farm" creatures for resources, and this is a step towards that.
  
• Increased the range of the wrist light
  
• Improved functioning and reliability of the grapple laser. It still needs improvements to its functionality and graphics, but it should be better now.
  
• Herb Catalysts and Remedial Herbs now get automatically sorted into Forager pouches.
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed some issues that would cause weapons and gadgets to stop firing occasionally.
  
• Fixed an issue that would cause the inventory grid/gridless setting to not save
  
• Fixed a graphical issue that would cause asteroids to be visible for a few seconds after entering the game
  
• Fixed an issue that would cause the Backglider equipment to jiggle around when placed on a surface
  
• Fixed some issues related to dying while using the Grapple laser
  
• Fixed an issue that would cause the stone pressure plates to not function correctly sometimes
  

UI Changes

• Enabled VSync by default. Let us know if you notice any new lagginess or input delay.
  
• Added tooltips for items in the hotbar
  
• Added an "info" button to the hotbar slots that opens the selected item's details
  
• Changed the default font size from Small to Medium
  
• Improved the descriptions for some of the creatures. Our intention is to do a pass over all the item and creature descriptions soon since quite a few of them need to be improved.
  
• Now that the world is scanned automatically as you explore, the scan button on the HUD has been changed so that it now opens the minimap.
  
• The various refiners (campfire, brick oven, advanced smelter) now require you to insert a firestarter.
  
• Added tooltips and error messages for the refiners
  
• Recipes that require a "heat source" will now recognize nearby (active) refiners as heat sources.
  

Graphics Changes

• Improved and enlarged many item sprites.
  

Known Issues

• We're not done decorating the new area, and we need to add some more/better rewards to find
  
• There are likely still some multiplayer bugs, but I'll be squashing them as they come up.
  
• Some sound FX are still missing for the new creatures and some new structures, but they'll be coming over the next couple weeks.
  
• Currently, if you destroy all the alien drop pods (that drop to the surface of the planet and spawn the Xenoid Scouts) after disabling the power in the new area, then you will be unable to enter/exit the new area.
  

What is next?

• Our next goal is to flesh out this new area a bit. We're going to add a boss fight as well as some new weapons, armor and gadgets. Much of the planned work is already finished, so this should happen before the end of next month.
  
• Our next planned large content update is going to be the intro/tutorial. This is something that we've been putting off for awhile because we wanted to make sure we didn't miss tutorializing anything important, but I think at this point we have a pretty good idea about what things give players trouble early on. We're always interested in hearing what gives folks trouble when they're first learning the game though, so don't be shy! The more feedback we get about the early hours of playing the game, the better the tutorial will end up being.
  

As always, we want to hear your feedback either in the comments or on the forums. Let us know if you think the new area is too hard or too easy, and definitely let us know if you run into any bugs.