Hey everyone!
You can now download Update 1.9.5 - Birds of Paradise! This a huge update we've been working on for a while and are very excited to finally have it out. Just as a reminder we are still working hard on multiplayer and will be updating you on that progress soon!
Here's a look at what you can expect in Update 1.9.5.
Birds
A major change in this update is the introduction of new wildlife. Now when you are exploring islands you will see various birds flying above the trees. Though it's quite a challenge, these birds can be shot down and you can use their feathers to make items and trade for good gear. Overall we feel birds add not only new content but a new sense of atmosphere to the game.
Sea Treasure
You've been asking for more ocean content for quite some time and we are finally happy to take a step in that direction! Now out in the ocean you can find little glowing rings that indicate sea treasure. Once you have a treasure grabber (you can get one from a new NPC) you'll be able to dig up sunken treasure! There's different tiers of treasure with increasingly rare loot as well.
Challenge Chests
Now on pirate and natural islands you will be able to find challenge chests! We are really excited about these chests as they give a repeatable challenge with nice loot. Basically the way these work is you have to kill either all the pirates or all the deer on an island for them to unlock. The pirate challenge chests also increase in rarity for higher tiered pirate islands and as such drop better loot.
Abandoned Campsites
As a new piece of island content we have added abandoned campsites. You can find various trade-able items, lore books, and even rum! Look for these camps on natural islands.
New NPCs
We've introduced multiple new NPCs in this update including the Sea Treasure Hunter and the Sea Collector. The Sea Treasure Hunter mainly goes along with treasure hunting and the Sea Collector acts as a trading NPC for various items you find in the world.
Combat Improvements
With this update we wanted to also take a step toward improving combat. To do this, we added a parry mechanic. Now if you time a block at just the right moment you can stun the opponent and get a guaranteed critical hit upon your next attack. Adding just this one new mechanic has really opened up combat as parrying also uses stamina. This means you'll have to decide between attacking, power attacking, blocking, parrying, and dodging for how you want to spend your stamina in battle.
New Death Screen and In-Game Options
In this update we also added a new death screen as well as in-game options. Now when you die you will be greeted with sad music and a new death screen. You can also now change audio, gameplay, and graphics settings live in the game.
New sounds
We've also added new music and sounds in this update. We've tried to improve the sound design and give a greater sense of immersion. Now there will be subtle sounds that play when the game transitions from to day to night and also when you discover content on islands.
Additional Changes
We've made a ton of additional changes including new lighting, new main menu background, tons of new items, new boats, new waves system, and a lot of bug fixes. You can read the full patch notes below.
As always we'd love to hear your feedback!
Patch Notes:
- Added birds.
- Added sea treasure
- Added new content to find on islands.
- Added new challenge chests that unlock when you defeat all of a certain type of enemy on an island.
- Added new NPCs, quests, and items.
- Added some new recipes.
- Added new music.
- Added new discovery sounds and day/night transition sounds.
- Added new boats
- Added a new parry mechanic. Blocking at the right time while fighting pirates will open them up for a powerful hit.
- Slightly changed the content on the starting island.
- Adjusted the stats on some items.
- Improved the death screen.
- Added in
- game options, which includes some new options such as motion blur and antialiasing.
- Updated background in the main menu.
- Some NPCs now spawn with nearby light sources, making them a little easier to spot.
- Some NPCs now have slightly happier expressions.
- Increased the amount of weight of all items by a factor of 10 and changed the functionality of weight to match the new bloated values. This means that an item that used to have a weight of 0.2 will now have a weight of 2.
- Re
- balanced lighting and visuals.
- Increased base stamina and stamina regeneration speed.
- Re
- textured various items to be more cohesive with the world's visuals.
- Implemented some new NPC greeting sounds.
- Changed the clothes of various NPCs to be more unique.
- Recipes that craft multiple of the same item (such as arrows) will now indicate so by a number in the bottom right of its icon in the crafting window.
- Reduced the amount of memory the game uses during play.
- Added boat sounds to the White Narwhal.
- Extended the sound of the Plunderer's Ring and increased its distance slightly.
- Trees are now less likely to spawn around the stone with the skull.
- Adjusted the contents of the starting island.
- The crafting window recipe scroll area now defaults to the top when the crafting window is opened.
- Increased sail speed bonus of the windy sail slightly when sailing in the direction of the wind.
- Upgraded Unity version.
- The UI for the player chest inventory now reflects the maximum number of items it can contain.
- Change the appearance of the cursor.
- Added sounds that mark the transition between day and night.
- Changed some of the default gamepad controls.
- Added DirectX11 support.
- Fixed an issue where the quest journal wasn't updating when you got the cleansed skull.
- Fixed an issue where you were unable to loot an immaculate deer hide from scent lured deer.
- Fixed some typos.
- Fixed an issue where night time ambience sounds were missing from some islands.
- Fixed a bug that caused islands to occasionally not fully spawn.
- Fixed a bug where an island would occasionally generate its contents in different places upon returning.
- Fixed NPC dialogue options to no longer clip through the bottom of their rectangles.
- Items that use the short sword model no longer cast a shadow.
- Fixed the reported food value in your character window not taking into account special foods.
- Fixed boats being stuck in the air after coming back from far away.
- Fixed bug with the white deer set bonus.
- Fixed loading screen appearing quickly without a center image when starting the game in an area with no islands.
- Slowed down the deer death animation.