Experimental Branch Update! v0.3.0

Greetings Pioneers,

Today we are opening the experimental branch with the latest version of the game in all it’s incomplete and slightly broken glory.

Why are we doing this?

You have asked for a release, and although we know it is not ready yet, we have been changing so much, we need your help to thoroughly test the new elements and help us with feedback and balancing issues before we release the fully public version to the main branch.

PLEASE DO NOT SWITCH TO THE EXPERIMENTAL BRANCH IF YOU WANT TO PLAY A COMPLETE AND FULLY FUNCTIONING GAME!!!

Only continue to download if you want to help us test the incomplete current progress.

Right click on the game in Steam
Click properties
Go to the Betas Tab
Select Experimental Branch from the drop down list
There’s no password so hit the check code button
Restart Steam and wait for the game to update

So, with that disclaimer out of the way, and before you start to cry…

“WTF HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY GAME!!!???”

Please give us a chance to explain ourselves and the FULL vision of what we want from the core gameplay loop;

We have listened to your feedback and have been working on implementing more of the story, objectives and ‘end game’ goals that you have asked for.
Many of you asked for a reason to be playing once you have upgraded everything, as you were left with little to do. We have been working on core gameplay loops so that there will always be something to manage, maintain and work up to, but also reason to travel and explore by adding buildings in the environment with loot and story drive behind them.
You may find the new Eden Star to be vastly different from the game you have played before. You no longer start as a combat ready Pioneer, but instead you begin as an abandoned Crew member, equipped with a low-grade Tool that has been damaged (along with your drop ship) by an EMP. You must now learn to survive before you can dominate.

“WHY IS THE WORLD SO BARREN???!!!”

There is a good reason the world is a Mars-like landscape, and the simple answer is – it’s for a core goal that is not yet ready to share, but we owe you an explanation, and so please read on!

This is a massive shift that leads to the core game objective; to bring back life to a dying world.

The next major goal for the team is to fully implement the ability to terraform the landscape and claim it from the indigenous lifeforms, turning huge areas (Zones) of land from a dead planet into a lush landscape, capable of fully sustaining human life.

Currently you have access to a single Zone. In each zone is a huge underground facility that hides an experimental technology known as an Eden Terraforming Unit (ETU). This will probably sound familiar to those of you who have played the game to date. (Side note: We felt Terraforming and the Eden Kits were a cool feature, we just wanted to make it a FAR more significant “thing” you interacted with. You still have the ability to build Eden Kits, just now they’re called Temporary Atmospheric Generators (TAG Units), which fulfill the role of the original Eden Kit in building).

When you find and ignite an ETU it will trigger a huge hoard of enemies that will attempt to destroy the energy source, so prepare and build defences, as the ETU’s Teslinium Core takes time to fully activate. If you manage to successfully defend the ETU it will transform massive areas of the desert into a lush, material-rich landscape, full of new dangers…

PLEASE NOTE; as this feature is not ready, the first “Silo Station” is currently inaccessible, although you’ll be able to find it if you look hard enough…

There is no tutorial currently for what to do at the start of the game. There is nothing to talk you through your MATA – Tool Module being broken or how to repair it, nothing telling you what has happened to the rest of your team or what you might want to do next… There are a lot more story components to be implemented such as data logs to find that will give you further exploration objectives.

You will see broken vehicles in the world but you will not be able to drive or build any just yet…

Temporarily disabled for this release version – It is still a focus of the team to deliver a bigger and better multiplayer experience. Our goal to deliver this a long side single player will not change going forward.

“WHY HAS THIS TAKEN SO LONG???!!!”

Previous engine updates had broken features that we needed to fix in order to deliver a version of the game that is at least as good as the current version. There are still some features that are still broken, such as the flying AI and we simply haven’t had the time to fix them up. These will be fixed up in later releases, along with adding remaining missing features, listed below…
As stated previously the game has not been worked on full time by every member of the team, though there are a few members of staff working on it full time.
We have external client projects that support our development on Eden Star so that we can take our time to get things right without having to rely on game sales to fund development, unfortunately this means client projects take priority with the majority of the team working on AAA titles to be released in the near future…

“WHERE IS MY SCI-FI GLOVE GONE???!!!”

New starting state and player progression

Fists of glory

You no longer start with the fully functioning MATA – Tool as you did in previous builds
You will still be able to build and upgrade to all previous levels of awesomeness and beyond, there will just be more stages to this. At least now you can punch aliens in the face, you know you’ve always wanted to do this.. 😉

Makeshift crafting

The new on player crafting will allow you to create makeshift items on you before you have built any crafting utilities and structures.
Collect scrap metal and other materials around the world in order to craft makeshift weapons that will help you survive against the many hostiles that are out and about…

The focus at the start of the game is now upon survival and hand to hand melee combat – however you can still find weapons, ammo, and work yourself up to the higher level MATA – Tool modules and weapons we had in previous builds, it will just take more time…

Makeshift Weapons

Makeshift: Axe

This weapon allows you to swing at enemies with slightly more range and power than your bare fists. Use the left mouse button to swing the axe or hold it to charge up for a power swing.
You can also use it to block incoming attacks by pressing or holding the right mouse button.

The Axe can also be used for breaking down more durable metal and mineral nodes for more materials.

Makeshift: Flare

This is a temporary light source you can craft that lasts for a short time before burning out. Hold Left mouse button to light the flare and release to throw.

Makeshift: Shiv

A piece of scrap metal with a point at one end makes a temporary knife you can use to slash and stab with.

Makeshift: Spear

Combine scrap metal with a pole and you have yourself a longer weapon. Press left mouse button to quick stab, hold left mouse button to do a power/ lunge stab. Hold and release the right mouse button throw the spear.

There is also a more durable axe you can craft later in the game…

MATA – Tool, changes to modules and crafting stages

The Modules have now been split up into separate components that can be crafted in various stages of progression. There are no upgrades to these modules YET.

Emergency build module

Allows you to craft simple structures to assist in your survival and the first workbench crafting unit

Emergency Laser

Hold to fire a laser beam that can cut through wreckage, rock and organic matter (similar to the previous laser tool however this now replaces the previous right mouse button mining functionality)

Colony Build Module

Allows you to craft habitable structures and the TAG unit in order to set up a more permanent base…

Military Build Module

Allows you to craft higher tech weapon fabrication stations and Turrets.

Kinetic Manipulation Module

Allows you to use the laser and grab and smash enemies.

New Stats

You will now have to manage your oxygen when traversing external environments. This stat will replenish itself when in internal environments but can also be replenished by using O2 canisters you find when out in the world.
Fuel
You will now have to manage the fuel stat both internally on your person and inside utility buildings that require it…
Pioneer Fuel will deplete insite oxygen environments as your scrubbers work to extract and filter the oxygen. Higher level energy tech modules will also consume fuel…
Craft power cells and consume them to fuel the player or select the power cell inside your inventory when looking at a utility building in order to enable the option to ‘fuel’ it.

Updated Utilities

TAG unit (Temporary Atmospheric Generator) – This will produce a safety bubble of oxygen around its location and prevent building decay. Similar to the functionality of the previous ‘Eden Kit’

New World

We have replaced the map we had in the previous build for an entirely new one. In this map there has been greater emphasis on environmental storytelling.
The new map currently consists of 6km2 of playable space but this will be expanded in future releases…
There are areas of the map that we have blocked off to the player with radiation zones (you can enter but you will not last long)
New scattered debris and scrap metal to be found around the world. Explore, break down or build from abandoned found structures.
New internal areas and huge structures to explore, just watch out for the roaming mites that have taken over the space…

Updated Behaviours

Ground AI have had a lot of work to get them to behave a little better. They will no longer come at you relentlessly, chase you forever or repeatedly swing at you with the same humdrum attacks that felt similar across all the AI.
AI now back away if they feel threatened, have attacks that feel a lot more varied, and each AI has a specific feel about them that cause you to have to manage tactics of how you engage with them.
The AI are now a lot more reactive to attacks and can be staggered in different directions depending on the direction of the swing. All in all this helps expand the whole melee and combat experience to be more immersive, tactical and fun.

Known Issues

There are currently no night time raids! This is a bug and so we’ve currently taken them out of this build.
There’s a chance that not every enemy will spawn into the world;
Most enemies don’t re-spawn after being killed;
Some enemies might not attack you until you engage in a fight with them;
Huntermites won’t follow you through doorways;
Mites can sometimes get stuck when leaping over a body bag;
Mites can also get stuck when they leap at you and miss;
Enemies on the damaged bridge appear to float above the ground;
Huntermites will sometimes struggle getting to you inside the Dam;
There’s a small chance that Splintermites will fail to shoot out spikes after charging their attack;
Splintermites will sometimes follow you and not attack you;
Splintermites in the Dam can’t follow you over railings on the ground
There’s a chance that Stalkers won’t know what to do when you are on a ledge above them;
Flying AI is temporarily disabled

The Player

When the game is loaded you will start back at the Pod instead of where you saved the game;
Some terrain decals will show up on your armour when you are standing above them;
When you interact with a door you can walk through it before it fully opens;
If you have a chest armour piece equipped and you run with nothing else equipped the armour will stretch in front of your camera;
You can jolt up and down in midair by jumping and crouching at the same time;
You are able to punch while putting on your breather mask;

Building/Crafting

Every time you add fuel to a utility block the amount of fuel that goes in is doubled;
Buildable decorations don’t snap rotationally;
Fuel doesn’t deplete when you use a utility block;
You are extremely limited to what you can build on the tower;
Not all items are craftable due to resource nodes not being added yet;

Animation

There are no 3rd person animations for melee attacks with fists;
Releasing the crouch button snaps you back to standing;
Your hand disappears when you move with any build module equipped;
Sometimes in 1st person you can see through your arms when you are cutting through a tree;
Switching from a pistol to a build module while in 3rd person will distort your arms for a few seconds;
Equipping a gun and dropping it from your inventory menu will cause your hand to get temporarily stuck in the gun-holding animation;

Some enemies have their health bars appear in front of the them before they become active;
Sometimes the hologram of a picked up item can hover by your leg;
Item markers appear in the intro sequence;
Sometimes item markers will disappear when harvesting metal nodes;
In 3rd person, the gun reticle disappears when you aim down sights;

Weapons

Saving and loading the game resets your weapons’ durability;
Throwing a spear when next to a wall will cause the spear to collide with the wall rather that being thrown forwards;
You are able to shoot through doors;
Weapons don’t cast shadows when you are in first person;
You cannot reload guns while there’s a controller plugged in;
Spear clips through walls when you have it equipped and face a wall;
Clicking on a weapon in your inventory and clicking equip will move it to your hotbar but you won’t have it equipped;

Consumable/Items

Holding an active flare and mantling something will leave you with an infinite flare until you unequip it in your inventory;
Dropping an item and then saving and loading the game will get rid of the dropped item;
You can pick up items through glass;

The World

If you find a destructible crate on top of one another, destroying the bottom one will leave the top box floating;
Bullet decals are the same no matter what surface you shoot;
Pressing ‘M’ to show the map currently shows the old map of Pharus 7;
Textures on the side of the large Pipes on the side of the Dam are missing;
Upon saving and loading the game, some consumable items are replaced even if you had previously picked them up
Metal nodes sometimes take too many hits or don’t fracture when you hit them;

Temporarily disabled features: