Greetings Pioneers!

Apologies for the delay in the next release and also for the lack of a full update this week from the team. We were originally looking to push out a release this evening, but alas… we were foiled at the last hurdle by what would have been a miracle fix for an issue that Lee and Marcin have been working on for the past few weeks to do with Juggernaut spawning and navigation.

In a nutshell; we have fixed the current AI spawning issues – the spawning was a separate bug – but this new fix will allow us to spawn Jugs so that they are able to attack bases (specifically foundations) correctly whilst avoiding low ceilings. Sounds strange? Well, welcome to the world of games development!

This fix means that we can start to balance the juggernaut fights properly and focus on refining the combat gameplay. The fix works in single player right now but causes a crash in multiplayer unfortunately that we will fix this week coming and then release.

New map, IK’s and PvE Servers

So… beyond this, we have some heavy optimisations in preparation for the new map that we want to launch soon. We are also working on the survival mechanics, progression and more, including foot placement (IK’s for those in the know…) so that the feet of larger creatures are placed correctly when stepping up and down surfaces – weirdly, very important for refining combat.

In addition to the above we also have the new PvE server configurations so that you can have different PvE experiences dependent on how you want to configure your server.

PvE servers can be setup as follows;

Reduced/No damage to your Structures under your ETU (Eden Kit) Shield from other Players (0%-100% Reduction in damage)

Reduced/No damage to you whilst under your ETU (Eden Kit) Shield from other Players (0%-100% Reduction in damage)

When you are within your Eden Kit Shield AND offline, you cannot be killed/take damage (On or Off)

We are looking to set up some of our official servers to be PvE as soon as possible, however this may be after we release the new map, which will give you a lot more space to establish far larger bases.

Current Feature Development

There is a huge amount of work Matt has been currently putting into the modular weapon systems to make sure that each of the initial 30+ combinations all look amazing and animate correctly in both 1st and 3rd person.

Thank you to all of you who have messaged us and shown your support for the work going into developing the new map. Work is progressing very well and Tristan has been profiling it this week whilst also optimising what we can with the help of our good friends at Epic.

Whilst work has progressed on development of the new world, Simone, Gav, Tom, Joe and Lauren have been working on designing and developing the creatures for the varied biomes. The work culminated at the end of this sprint with proxy meshes for the creatures being placed within the map to help gauge scale and gain a idea of how each area will look and feel.

Beyond this, Matt has also been working with Yves on the system for huge lost colony bases that will litter the new map. These structures are where loot will spawn and are where we eventually aim to host key objectives for Pioneers who want to engage with the lore.

The scale of the Colony compounds allow for whole interior raids to be played out and there are some very interesting twists to how we want the properties of these buildings to challenge the player with new gameplay mechanics.

Anyway, that’s all for now folks!

We’ll leave you with 2 more of our finished biome concepts produced by the lovely Simone.

Grasslands

Water

Keep in touch with your feedback and we can confirm that another patch will be released next week with a whole load of fixes in and some nice new features.

Thanks again for your support and see you in the fray!

– Team Flix