The new Range Combat & Stink Worms update, complete with new tech and feature updates, is now on the public test branch for you to try right now. It will spend a short time there so we can gather your feedback and watch out for any significant bugs to squash.
How play this update on the public test branch right now:
There's a bunch of fun things in this update, let's dive right in!
The big ticket item is a combat overhaul, now supporting ranged and unarmed combat... we've also implemented combat automation settings, so you have a lot of control over what your colonists do when you aren't manually controlling them.
Unfortunately, Marcus was exploring a bunker and inadvertently released some Stink Worms into the wild! Jokes aside, we're really excited to bring these new creatures into the game as they are the first part of our new behavior system. They don't just randomly spawn, they have a preferred habitat, so based on the conditions of your islands they may decide to move in and cause an infestation, and you may find infested islands at expeditions.
Long term we plan on improving the behavior of other wildlife with similar systems, so that there is an emergent ecosystem going on while you play that can lead to interesting things happening. You could even use these behaviors to your advantage... maybe you want a stink worm island to farm?
Another big aspect of this update was reducing grind in some areas. We’ve been trying to identify areas that feel too grindy or tedious, this patch addresses a few issues but we would really love to get more feedback on this – if you have any thoughts or any areas that feel to grindy please let us know!
Overall we want to you to get to expeditions earlier, explore bunkers earlier and find interesting things. You'll find some new floating wrecks of part of this, and we've added some new UNIQUE items to find. Bunkers and exploring are constantly becoming more rewarding, and we have more planned.
Please continue to send us your feedback, there will no doubt be more balancing required with the new combat system, and feedback in these areas helps immensely.
We will post the full patch notes and details when this is pushed to the live release.
Here's a summary:
Ranged Combat: New ranged weapon slot and ranged bows to craft.
Unarmed Combat: New combat without weapons, including bonuses from traits like tree-puncher.
New Wildlife: The new Stink Worm (Juvenile, Adult & Burrow), and a new breed of shark.
New Occupation: The new "Hired Fist" occupation is now here!
New Combat Automation: You can now setup combat automation, colony-wide and per colonist.
Overhauled Automation: Automation settings have moved to a unified window to manage automation settings of all colonists at once.
Island Hauling Improved: Hauling has been renamed to "Towing" and new tiers of tech have been implemented and QoL improvements.
Dual Harvesting: Harvest rocks and ore with two colonists (like trees).
Loot System: New unique loot items to be found with special stats, and floating wrecks.
New Tech: 3 new tech buildings are now available. The late-game Raft Steam Engine, an early game Primitive Paddle Wheel, and a Fish Press (now used for fish oil instead of the pulping station).
New Resources: Worm Scale, Light Ammo.
Pacing Improvements: More resources, faster pacing, balance improvements and increase work rate bonus from skill levels.
Plus a range of Automation Improvements, QoL and bug fixes.
The progression guide has been restructured, this shouldn’t cause any issues but you may not be shown some steps depending on how much you previously progressed. If you run into any issues with story objectives please let us know.
Colonist Automation settings have been moved to a new dialog that shows all colonists at once.
With the introduction of ranged combat and new ranged enemies, we expect more future balancing will be required. Your feedback in this area would be a great help.
Looking forward to your feedback :)
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A huge thanks to all of the players helping each other out on the forums and in discord. It's really cool seeing tips being shared.
Keep your feedback coming as well, we read it all!
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Join our discord to discuss the game and share your ideas!
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