Greetings Pioneers

The Juggernaut has arrived!

This Friday 13th be prepared to have your big base wrecked by this mega beast. This is the first of our large, multi-stage encounter enemies that will need more than just your turrets to take it down. 

PLEASE NOTE – THIS IS NOT THE FINAL VERSION OF THE JUGGERNAUT, IT MAY BE BUGGY BUT WILL BE REFINED GREATLY OVER THE COMING WEEKS! 

When you find an issue, please let us know in the forums… 

Break its armour to expose its weak spots and be able to grab and smash its legs. Down two or more legs in sequence to drop him to the floor then jump on it’s back take it out with firepower. Work with friends or tackle them alone, just don’t leave them to their own devices or you may not have a base to return to…

Draw this big beast by building up your base to a critical size and waiting until nightfall. They are an excellent source of Teslinium if you can take them down.

Another game-changing addition in this update is Sleeping Pioneers. Now when you log off, your body remains in the world with your inventory and is open to attack and looting, so be sure to log off in a safe place!

See the full list of changes below:

• Added a new enemy – The Juggernaut. This is the first enemy using our experimental multi-stage encounter system. You will need to break its armour before you can take it down!
• New Utility Block – The Replication Unit. Each Replication Unit works as a respawn point for you and your Colony when powered. You can build multiple of them, but each use incurs a short cool down period before it can be used again.
• Sleeping Pioneers – Players bodies will now remain in the world after they logout. Those can be killed and looted. No more quick logouts to save your minerals after a failed raid. When you log back in if your body is still there you will spawn back at your body instead.
• Added the ability to drag foundations up out of the ground or push them down into the ground when placing by holding the build button and moving your aim up/down.

• Eden Kits replaced by Replication Units on the Deployment screen.
  • You will no longer be able to respawn at your Eden Kits, so make sure those Replication Units are ready if you plan on getting eaten by the Juggernaut!
• Wave system improvements – implemented a system which postpones the appearance of stronger enemy types until your base is a certain size. You should no longer be seeing Ikas and Vipers when your base is not ready for them (such as the first night).
• Players who have a tendency to throw themselves into the abyss (possibly from a wall run but we’re not pointing fingers here) will now have their drop bags spawned at a recent location on land.
• Drop bags won’t roll around so much any more so are less likely to roll off a cliff.
• Wall run (vertical and horizontal) will now only occur if you were sprinting before hitting the wall and you are holding the sprint key.
• Structures will now degrade quicker at the weakest parts.
• You can now mine enemy structures in order to gain minerals from them. The amount gained still needs tweaking.
• You can now only get minerals spawned from an object if you deal mining damage to it. No more minerals from smashing enemies into rocks.
• Reduced the range of the Sniper Rifle and Assault Rifle.
• Made current text chat visible globally rather than just within a proximity to the player.

• Fixed very rare issue where when you left a server and rejoined, you could spawn with no items and no Tool weapon. The fix might mean you lose progress since the last save.
• Fixed a server crash when an item is transferred from a dropbag which is about to be destroyed
• Fix for a crash when placing holograms, it could happen when ctrl snapping and aiming at the sky or aiming at the limit of a structure.
• Fixed a navigation issue that prevented Splintermites and Stalkers from going up the stairs.
• Fixed an issue that caused fliers to continue moving after death.
• Fix for an issue where you would transfer an item to the drop bag column in the UI Menu, and then transferring them back using the transfer button could cause the item to vanish.

• Fixed an issue where AI were being spawned from a Hive and then getting destroyed straight away.
• Fixed a navigation issue with the AI where they would seem to get stuck in one place looping their animations.
• Fixed a very rare crash with our perception system.
• Fixes for incorrect HUD alerts displaying at times when building.
• Fixed issue with Field of View changes happening very slowly when aiming down sights in single player when starting a new game.
• Fixed issue where turrets can see and fire through foundations
• Fixed issue where turrets can see and shoot through walls
• Fixed issue where typing I or P in text chat opened the menus
• Fixed issue where you were able to try and unequip the default baton module which would cause a player to get kicked in a multiplayer game. This is no longer unequipable.
• Fixed issue where Sniper Rifle sights would be unusable on lower graphical quality settings.

The known issues list has been updated to this release. As always please share your feedback on the balancing, any encounters with bugs or issues and we will get right on to fixing for you.

In other news we thought we would bring to your attention a more accurate representation of the change in scale when we deliver the new world to your Screens.

We’ve taken images from two cameras, both facing each other showing where the other camera is located approximately with a marker. We’ve also lined out the size of the current map compared to the new monstrosity so you can get a better feel for what is in store.

Everyone has been working hard as usual! Here’s what we’ve been up to:

John – Lead Designer

This week has been dedicated to the Juggernaut testing and fixes! I have also been working on Weapon Overheat designs as we may want to implement overheating to Turrets when fighting against Bullet Sponge type enemies. I have also been reviewing the Survival gameplay mechanics and have currently prototyped the following components with Yves;

• Health (HP)
• Oxygen
• Stamina
• Immunity
• Sustenance
• Thirst
• Temperature
• Corruption

Included in this are the consumable components such as food-stuffs, treatments and stim-packs. We’re also starting to debug the larger world map in Multiplayer which currently requires further testing in order to support a greater number of players per server.

Matt – Art Director

I’ve been creating new assets for our building armour system, our current set in game is quite a way up the ladder in terms of progression. The other two sets we’ll be introducing are more primitive and cheaper to build, providing you with additional protection until you manage to progress to the more advanced levels of building.

To keep our current visual theme cohesive and different from set to set we’ve taken reference from Mars bases, all the way through to Warhammer 40k for the bulkier more industrial looking components. 

Lee – Technical Director

More of the same this week folks. Tracking down critical A.I. issues to allow fun to happen. *Bug fixing intensifies*

Tristan – Senior Developer

I’m away from the office this week. Je suis allé en France pour déguster le meilleur cuisine. Bien que les gens ici parlent un dialecte étrange. Une que je suis en train de devenir familier avec, anglais semble être radotage pour moi maintenant … Hm Je me demande ce qui est pour le dîner ..

Marcin – Designer

Two steps forwards, one step back, is what this week felt like all the way though with the Juggernaut. When I fixed the Ram attack causing it to enter supersonic speeds in multiplayer, it started freezing in place instead. When I fixed that, it started leaving it’s armour behind while running, etc. Slowly, but surely however, we are sorting it out.

Right now I am working on making the creatures stick to the surface of the ground while animating, instead of floating, which is providing its own challenges and most likely, sadly, will not be ready for the first release of the Juggernaut.

Joe – Environment Artist

Tall shelves of Onyx surround the valley floor, casting shadows across most of the landscape during the day. Desolate, and difficult to traverse these marshlands are prime hunting grounds for hostile life looking to prey on lost or stranded creatures. The sparse, twisted foliage that does manage to grow here is discoloured by the acidic pools that form. Parasitic spores permeate the atmosphere, making it impossible to see any way out…

…suddenly, from the distance you hear a mighty roar:

“WHAT ARE YE DOIN’ IN MY SWAMP?!?”

Lauren – Animator

This week I have been tidying up some of the 3rd person aiming animations and skin weighting to reduce the occurrences of strangely distorting armour (that you may or may not have noticed) when looking at your friend aiming in different directions.

I have also been continuing work on the modular armour system, playing around with Apex cloth to simulate natural cloth movement in some of the longer, more flexible items. Currently I am back onto the modular weapon system prototype, adding the 3rd person replication logic so you can see it in multiplayer.

Yves – Senior Developer

I’ve been prototyping the survival mechanic this week, had to gut part of the loot spawner as it was heavily tied in with minerals and we want other types of loot to come out of flora and fauna.

Ricky – Developer

I’m been progressing on the progression system this week, gaining experience, Schematics and the all sought after LevelUp! Mechanics. I was going to become level 100000000 but Marcin spoiled the party by having a no level cap system put in place.

I’ve also done a bit of backend work so balancing may be that little bit easier for us in future if all goes well and I don’t end up hitting a wall and having to remove it again.

Simone – Concept Artist

This week I have been moving back and forth over different concepts but I have mainly been working on the concept for the Marshland environment, working up the colours and layout of the area.

Once we had chosen a layout more details were worked into the concept including a new tree type (still working on the deigns for the trees). I am back on the other environment concepts to colour them and make them more of a whole piece, and also continuing work on designs for the deer.   

Andy – Lead QA

This week I have been working on testing the new enemy type along with testing all the AI due to issues with pathing.

See you in the fray!

-Team Flix