Our Atmosphere System, responsibly for lighting, shadows and reflection accuracy, has been updated with multiple cubemaps for each Biome in Icarus. You should see much better colour, detail and lighting in-game with this improvement.
We’ve also buffed the Firewhacker, making many improvements increasing its usefulness, which had reduced over the years as denser fuel sources crept their way into the game.
Finally, we’ve got massive news about next week’s update, which will the biggest since New Frontiers, and is aptly named, Copernicus.
Notable Improvements:
- Fixed a Long Standing AI issue where creatures would stand still when recieving damage when hit from far away instead of reacting accordingly
- Brand New Backgrounds for the Blueprint Tech Tree
- New In-world effects for the BEAST Scanner
- Fix intermittent boss health bar visibility for some bosses for people playing on Dedicated Servers
This Week: Atmosphere Improvements
This week, we’ve added graphical improvements to lighting, shadows, and reflection accuracy.
Specifically, we’ve updated our atmosphere system with bespoke cubemaps for each different biome in Icarus.
This means that the ambient lighting used to brighten up the game world should be more accurate
to the area around it. Rocks, buildings, landscapes, and other objects will all take on more of the nearby environment colour, meaning fewer dark black shadows, and more accurate lighting on all objects.
The end result is similar to NVIDIA’s global illumination (GI) solutions, with none of the associated costs. And what’s more, the updated cube maps will have zero performance impact.
This required a rewrite of how cubemaps were utilised within the Atmosphere Controller. Previously, all ambient lighting and skylight reflections in Icarus were calculated using a single 360 degree cubemap scene capture.
This meant that we needed to have our cubemap approximate lighting for all biomes at the same time, resulting in a flat and overly dark end result. The way it did this was for each point in the world, a sample was taken from the reference image (cubemap) and multiplied together with the desired intensity of ambient lighting. This affected both the colour, and the brightness of the lighting applied.
Because we only had one cubemap to sample from, it wasn't applying the green hues you'd expect from the Swamp or the yellows of the Desert. Metallic surfaces were also given grey reflections. In general, all ambient lighting was more muted we'd want and we sought to improve this.
We've upgraded Icarus' atmosphere system to blend between multiple cube maps as required. This means we can create bespoke ambient lighting and reflections for each of Icarus' vastly different regions as we see fit.
Check out a few before-and-after shots to showcase this patch's improvements:
-<This Week: Firewhacker Buffs
Fire in Icarus is a fairly unique experience in the world of survival games. It exists to connect early-game dangers and provide an extra way to differentiate storms from one another via lightning. It's a great example of how a small system added to a game can make a world feel deeper and less static.
‘Realism’ is a good word to describe what features players might intuitively expect in a game, but it's often a bad goal for balance. In real fires, we see an exponential growth as fires spread in all directions and gain access to more and more fuel. In-game, we know buildings are placed on a 3x3m grid, with a fixed number of possible neighbours. Our deployables are consistently sized, so a base can't be too densely packed with burnable fuel. With the fire location fairly well scoped, we were able to make some programming choices so that the fire could spread at a more linear rate, so that it wouldn't get out of control too quickly.
Rocketwerkz has another game called Stationeers, which also features a fire system. Often, fires start when you have hydrogen and oxygen in a mix, and you accidentally spark them. A mix like that used to combust extremely quickly, just like here on Earth. Players often wouldn't even get to see or experience this happening, and they would return to rooms full of very hot carbon dioxide and pollutants, where they would be very confused as to what happened. Our solution to that was to do literally the opposite of what happens in the real world, and we made hotter fires burn less and less, so that ‘maxed’ out fires would continue to burn for a while, instead of instantly using all their remaining fuel.
Coming back from that aside, we wanted to make sure fighting a fire in Icarus wasn't too frustrating. The firewhacker is a delicate balance of stamina, attack speed, stamina drain and extinguish rate. Too much in one direction, and fires went out too quickly; too much in the other direction, and every base would burn down.
We ensured firewhackers were a simple recipe you could make early in the game, right from your character. We added forced periods of cool down before things could reignite, so you could be guaranteed to be able to save parts of your base from fire. We also switched the firewhacking swing from a slow 3-second overhead hit ( much more like the repair hammer) to the much quicker frantic whacking. Finally, the most significant early game fire change wasn't about the firewhacker but instead the firepit, which allowed players to solve many of their fire problems themselves, once they experienced an accidental fire or two from the cheaper campfire.
Eventually, we felt that the fire needed to spread to nearby foliage. This wasn’t driven by many gameplay desires or pacing metrics, other than it felt odd and wrong when fire couldn’t spread to nearby trees and bushes. Over the years, with new maps, biomes, and areas, some regions became much more dense with bushes and trees than the original Olympus map. These new fuel-rich environments unbalance the firewhacker, and many regions became forest fire risks.
So, after perhaps the longest setup for some simple tweaks, here are the changes we’ve made that hopefully will make fire fighting more fun, and less frustratingly futile:
- Changed firewhacker extinguish logic to allow multiple non-building pieces to be extinguished from a single successful extinguish roll, to have a better feeling ‘firefighting experience’ where fire density isn't fixed
- Changed Foliage extinguish cases so that the fire heat is entirely removed, which will stop foliage from automatically reigniting after the forced extinguish time elapses
- Doubled the time foliage is forced extinguished from 7 seconds to 14 seconds
- Increased base chance increase on failed extinguishes from .05 to .15
- Increased base extinguish radius from 80 to 120
- Increased base forced extinguish time from 5 to 7
- Changed extinguish count logic to ensure effects still play when extinguishing foliage
- Due to increased firewhacked extinguish chances, we decreased durability loss on successful extinguish from 500 to 200
- Improved the fire whacker audio behavior so that the generic impact plays from within the whoosh to ensure the player isn't misinformed about what's happening
- Balanced the firewhacker audio for better recognition of impact vs extinguishing vs whooshing
If you have feedback or experiences about fire or our approach to it, feel free to add a comment below, or drop us a ticket in Feature Upvote.
Next Week: Copernicus (featuring Great Hunts)
Next week, we’re dropping our biggest update since New Frontiers.
Aptly named Copernicus, this massive free update aims to enhance a lot of existing content with the addition ~50 new items added as new rewards to existing missions across Olympus, Styx and Prometheus, five Legendary weapons that can be upgraded by killing world bosses and a 70+ brand new achievements to unlock.
Alongside the update, we’re releasing the Great Hunts DLC, adding three new branching Campaigns exclusive to Open Worlds, totalling 34 new missions which can change the world you are playing on. With these campaigns come three new world bosses, new creatures, three exclusive legendary weapons, six earnable character talent points and ~60 new items which you unlock exclusively through playing the campaigns.
You can check out more details on Great Hunts and Wishlist below before the release next week.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3315290/Icarus_Great_Hunts_Campaigns/
Your support makes these updates possible.
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/40692/Icarus_Pets_Bundle/
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/35727/Icarus_Complete_the_Set/
Changelog v2.2.63.139765
New Content
[expand type=details expanded=false]
- Adding generic firewhacker impact event to play when something is hit. Increased volume of douse audio for better feedback
- Adding firewhacker unique whoosh flap audio to play in first and third person. Adjustment to impact volume and balance
- Updating firewhacker audio behavior for the generic impact to play from within the whoosh to ensure the player isnt misinformed about whats happening
[/expand]
Fixed
[expand type=details expanded=false]
- Fix small beehive is not listed in FieldGuide
- Fixed skinning issue for Wayfarer Armor
- Fixed 1ST person arm skinning issue for wayfarer armor
[/expand]
Future Content
[expand type=details expanded=false]
- Updated SK meshes for caveworm armor variant and D_Armour
- Fix new accolades that were missing implementation rows
- Submitting auto-generated sublevels and navigation
- Updated legendary revolver cylinder anims to be slower after firing
- Remove Deubug Draw from BEAST Scanner
- Submitting auto-generated banks and uassets For chazz.hill-hayr's change: Adding generic firewhacker impact event to play when something is hit. Increased volume of douse audio for better feedback
- OBLITERATION, Ape campaign: Increase explosive deployment range, add screenshake and add hint where the explosives can be crafted.
- Submitting auto-generated banks and uassets For chazz.hill-hayr's change: [IC-28203] Further balance of the firewhacker audio for better recognition of dousing and impact over whooshing - swinging
- Further balance of the firewhacker audio for better recognition of dousing and impact over whooshing - swinging
- Flamethrower Burst improve flame visibility and scalability pass
- Setup 8 additional scope overlay data. Add Scope2B variation with thinner lines/dot. Set Scope alterations to use unique overlays each. Hide ScopeType Enum from UI.
- Fix new 100Packs accolade tracks in space, but not via orbital exchange
- Put some more bullet proofing around Ape death animations for 004 and 005
- Fixed a dialogue typo
- Adding new dialogue lines in for the new quest steps for RG C2 mission. Also adding in distant rumble event tied into the dialogue event
- Fixing Issue where missions completed in the open world where not showing their completed status properly
- RG_C2 - Converting Vestiges into armor fragments which can be cleaned and converted into raw ore
- RG_C2 - Removing Exotic Infused Golems and Replacing with Iron Infused
- RG_C2 - Adjusting base location to be closer to lake and on a ledge and Quarrite Den Locations so they are in different grid square, updated quest text to reflect"
- RG_C - Quarrites can now respawn after 4 minutes if you kill the Quarrite but leave the burrow active (Maximum of 3 spawns per burrow total)
- Submitting Generated Localization Content
- Added updated cubemap for arctic biome that is less blown out
- Update Pro_Abyss_Cave Biome data to be Arctic Cave with settings that match the Upper Ice Sheet biome so that this biome can be used for achievement triggering while providing the same existing experience
- Fixed a long standing AI issue where far away aggressive NPCs stood still after each instance of player damage instead of persuing target immediately
- Adjusted ape/IM health scaling taking into account 50% reduced health on easy and 30% extra on hard
- Submitting auto-generated sublevels and navigation
- Outpost012 - cliff placement, decal and foliage painting
- Outpost012 - rock material adjustments, new LC Cliff decal variants
- Added screen shake to Ape_C2's slam attack
- Garganutan Juvenile boss spawned in Ape_C2 is much better at destroying building pieces and deployables now
- Redistribued the UVs on the Sniper rifle core piece to give the pieces closer to the camera more resolution. Fixed small baking error on Scope A
- Fix BEAST scanner effect not playing on client.
- Fixed a typo in some quest text
- Further increased Ape_C2's damage bonus to buildings and deployables
- reverting latest change to BP_CaveEntrance_DC_SML_03
- Adjustments to the cleaning device to better represent how it looks and feels in game. Slightly more engine audio for it
- Updated Scope2 and 3 overlay texture as B variants. Decrease damage buff on ScopeA from 25% to 15% and increase crit damage on ScopeB from 50% to 100% otherwise ScopeA was clear winner in both cases due to damage multiplication. Swap meshes on scope A and B as they're better suited.
- Decrease zoom level on ScopeA. Increase base ProjectileAccuracy on Sniper rounds from 0.2 to 0.05
- LavaHunter Flamethrower: Update FlameBurst VFX to have 'low' and 'high' quality light setups with high spawning several lights that move with the flames to enhance the effect. Add server-only function for spawning new Scorch decal on ground for FlameBurst. Remove 'GetPlayerCharacter' logic and base off SKItem owner instead as this resulted in the server (Player0) also always getting the effect at their feet. Remove FlameBurst NS component that isn't used
- Biolab UI polish: Fix hover not coloring button angle, fix button tooltip appearing when hovering nearby and fix buttons appearing prior to animation playing
- Updating Trunk version to new version
- Updating Branchmap.json with new release stream info
- Resaving Account Flags Table
- Setting up the Remainder of the Caveworm Armor and Setting up as a reward for a quarrite mission
- Setup Sandworm & Black Wolf Rewards on Olympus
- Setup Scorpion & Blackwolf Rewards for Missions on Prometheus
- Setup Hammerhead Slug an Lava Hunter Rewards for Missions on Prometheus
- RG_D - There is now sealed cave which the boss busts open when you have closed the Dens, shifting the boss fight out of the cave and into the open, preventing movement issues
- RG_D - Swapping Rock Golems to be the Arctic Versions and increasing the time to spawn from the burrows as it was far too quick
- RG_B - Increasing Caveworm Spawn Distance during the mission
- RG_C - Removing Visible Debug Sphere from Mission
- Slight Adjustments to Biolab Customization pin locations
- Assigning material to the golem gauntlet to what looks like to be the correct material - it was currently unassigned
- Fixing Virtual Stats so Lure Item Wear Rate does not inherit wear rate stats from knives, bows etc, swapping out Bow Upgrade to use the bow item wear stat instead of the generic
- Adding Blueprint Backgrounds
- Swapping Over Achievements to use new Icons
- Submitting Generated Localization Content
- Adding new Biolab Background
- Updating Trunk version to new version
- Updating Branchmap.json with new release stream info
- Fix missing text on Shield stats showing up in the Biolab stats UI
- Fix grammar on Biolab title text
- Adjusted positioning of elements in Biolab to minimize elements overlapping either other UI elements or the associated weapon upgrade mesh
- Slightly increased RG health on easy mode
- Subtle adjustment to metal ring on impact of voxel to balance with other pickaxe
- Fixes and adjustments to dialogue timings
- Submitting auto-generated sublevels and navigation
- Removing triple up of same dialogue line playing in 3 steps of a quest one after the other unnecessarily. RG B_1
- Ape Boss - Removed deep wounds curve and added it to scaling stats in BP. Lowered deep wounds chance by half in solo play
- Slight adjustment to the mission RG rumble to cut through the mix more
- Outpost012 - cliff placement, decal and foliage painting
- Updated all arctic golem albedo textures to the desaturated version.
- Fixing RG C outpost mission blocker after killing caveworms and dens by checking the correct killed worms bool
- Added stats to Caveworm armor set.
- Submitting auto-generated sublevels and navigation
- Outpost012 - cliff placement, decal and foliage painting
- Added small amounts of Biomass and Exotics rewards for some GHs missions
- Submitting auto-generated sublevels and navigation
- Fix intermittent boss health bar visibility for some bosses on dedi clients.
- GH Bosses - Changed health values to closer resemble the old health values
- Drone: Reduce Inaccuracy from 4 degrees to 1 degree to get their hit consistency rate higher. Decrease ProjectileDamage stat to -50% to balance out their increased accuracy. Added 100% Poison, Bleed and Wound resistance due to its mechanical nature
- Updates to subtitle override to match text in long dialogue event
- Fixed removal of blocker at cave in OLY:L2
- Fixed PP effects not working when ADS using Legendary Sniper
- Fix DF shadow cleanup logic not running on clients on Drone Spawner destruction
- Combining two dialogue events to account for events being triggered at step end and next step start to avoid overlapping
[/expand]
