(Not so) Minor Update - Balance, Saving Issues, New audio and many fixes

Hi Survivors!

We have good and bad news. Let's start from the good ones!

Good News

We listened and answered to all your feedback during the last week, including positive and negative reviews. That has been invaluable and I want to thank everyone for being so participative!
I'm happy to announce that we solved most of the issues that have been reported, including the vanishing items, duplicated assets, sandstorm damage and dozens of smaller ones. We have also adjusted the crash site area to be sure that energy consumption is less severe, and we rebalanced how Energy/Nourishment/Thirst interact with each other. Hopefully these changes will give you more time to chill in the refuge or explore without feeling punished. We also added more sounds, QoL changes and a new system for the encumbered mechanics!

I want also to thank the user VadimCool for proposing a fast solution to the autosave lag spikes, props to you!

Bad News: Make New Save Files

The bad news is that the vanishing items bugs was part of the saving system, which meant all the previous save files created before version 3.426 are now invalidated and cannot be accessed. As it is an early access, we cannot always guarantee the save files will stay compatible, but we are committed to make sure that this is the only and last time we require you, the players, from creating new saves.

What's next?
- More balancing! We will keep looking closely how these changes will affect your experience and in the meantime move on the balance of tools.
- More bugfixing! Keep them coming!
- A new map to double the size of the game!
- Metalforging: When makeshift tools are not enough!
- Sleeping mechanic rework! To smooth your day/night experience!

Patch Notes

Gameplay

CHANGES

Saving

• Auto-saves – Auto-saving locations will now have a cooldown of 3 minutes. (Note: Saves from a previous version have been invalidated. We fixed issues with certain objects not properly saving/loading and we can’t fix the old save files to work in this new patch. We recommend starting over or using save that starts after the tutorial. A legacy branch will be created, for who wants to use their old saves).

Inventory

• Ability to “spill” your canteen, allowing you to remove all charges from your canteen.
• After receiving the encumbered status effect (having over 30kg in your inventory), your character will now progressively slow down each time you increase your weight until a maximum of 60kg has been reached.
• - 30-40kg: decreases player movement speed by 30%
• - 40-50kg: decreases player movement speed by 50%
• - 50-60kg and up: decreases player movement speed by 80%

Day/Night cycle

• Length of day extended from 20 to 26 minutes.
• Length of night extended from 4 to 6 minutes.
• When sleeping whilst cooking, the fuel consumption and cooking time of the selected item will now update accordingly to time slept.
• Sleeping costs is reduced and spread trough 9 hours.
• You can only sleep a maximum of 9 hours.

Attributes Balance

• Energy will no longer drain in the tutorial area.
• Reduced hydration consumption rate from 1.4 to 0.8 per second. (It will take 20 minutes for hydration to go from fully filled to empty).
• Reduced nourishment consumption rate from 1.1 to 0.50 per second. (It will take 33 minutes for nourishment to go from fully filled to empty).
• Increased energy consumption rate from 0.3 to 0.55 per second. (It will take 30 minutes for energy to go from fully filled to empty. Be aware that sprinting will increase the consumption rate).

Crafting

• Tools of higher quality will produce more items when used in recipes.
• Added recipe for crafting sticks from planks.
• Can now double click to craft item.
• Increased cost of cloth.

General

• The time traps take to catch a critter extended from 30 seconds to a minimum of 3 minutes (with increasing chances every additional second).
• Increased the durability of certain tools.
• Climbing system animation and movement rework.
• Increased requirements for repairing bridge and mining entrance.

FIXES

• FIXED – Containers in first base would not get saved/loaded properly, causing them to get stashed with new items, overriding their stored items.
• FIXED – Repairable objects not properly saved/loaded.
• FIXED – Bridge near first base not being saved/loaded.
• FIXED – Animation and status effect of sandstorm occasionally not being removed after leaving the sandstorm.
• FIXED – Sandstorm slow down effect not being applied after a save and load.
• FIXED – Encumbered slow down effect not being applied after a save and load.
• FIXED – Double rope at first base.
• FIXED – Player hands sometimes disappearing when climbing.
• FIXED – Player hands, flask and torch fully lit in dark caves when there was no light.
• FIXED – Incorrect icons showing for certain recipes.
• FIXED – Shadows flickering occasionally exiting out of a cave and saving and loading.
• FIXED – Invisible enemy not hearing the player when moving while crouching or walking sideways.
• FIXED – Crafting a tool would not always giving a tool with full durability.
• FIXED – Fireplace not giving full stacks of cooked ingredients.
• FIXED – Tool durability not correctly shown in fireplace UI.
• FIXED – When creating tools of the same type, they would stack inside the inventory.
• FIXED – Sandstorms occasionally appearing inside caves.
• FIXED – Sunburn damage not being applied after using “Aloe Cream”.
  
• FIXED – Black screen sometimes not going away after game loaded. It will now force disappear after 5 seconds. Apparently not fixed. Press ESC if it occurs.
• FIXED – Going to sleep while holding torch would lock the animation system, preventing you from performing certain actions. (e.g. drinking, holding torch)
• FIXED – Able to be starving and hungry at the same time.
• FIXED – Able to be parched and dehydrated at the same time.

AUDIO

CHANGES

• Added sound for crouching.
• Added sound for trap when catching a Viscacha.
• Added sound for repairing the rope.
• Added sound for repairing the trap.
• Added sound for waterfall.
• Added sound for pots.
• Added sound for interacting with books and notes.
• Added sound for tools made from iron.
• Added sound for opening and closing drawers.
• Added sound for disassembling items made of metal.
• Added sound for when you are exhausted.
• Added step sound for walking on metal sheets.
• Fatigued, hungry and parched voice lines now have a 20% chance of triggering instead of triggering every time the player becomes fatigued, hungry or parched.

FIXES

• FIXED – Trap audio triggering after sleeping.
• FIXED – Heartbeat sound playing while in menu.

USER EXPERIENCE

CHANGES

• Fireplace now supports double click to add fuel or ingredients.
• Changing key bindings in the options menu will now showcase the rebound key inside UI.
• Added additional key bindings.
• “HOME” key will now hide HUD (can be rebound).
• Resized fonts of the crafting table to be larger and more consistent.
• Added Icons to the tutorial popup for more clarity.
• Added additional clarity for fireplace prompts.
• End credits now fade out and returns player to the main menu.

FIXES

• FIXED – Not able to reset key bindings to default.
• FIXED – Not able to reselect the default key binding after changing it.
• FIXED – Mouse sensitivity not changing in settings while holding increase or decrease button down.
• FIXED – When setting borderless mode, it would not rescale the game to your monitors resolution.
• FIXED – Using F11 would not update the selected window mode in the options menu.
• FIXED – Disabling blur in options would not remove already active blur effects.
• FIXED – Water filter prompt not updating while looking at filter.
• FIXED – Interaction prompt sometimes not hiding after repairing objects.
• FIXED – Formatted and improved readability of environment narrative pickups (books, notes).