Greetings, beloved Backers!



Well we hadn’t stated it explicitly, but the team has moved onto a major-update-a-month schedule. Which means that today we’ve put our August update, the first major update since the beta launched!

So so so much good stuff in here. Let’s go over the highlights!





Improved Crafting / Inventory Management UI

Maybe the biggest point of pain from the first version was the general clunkiness of the inventory and crafting UI. Some of this was due to bugs (some of which we dispatched with our hotfixes) but some of it just needed to be reworked.

Now, you will see the crafting UI is broken up into tabbed categories that make sense.

And then in the main inventory screen, you will see that your special-use tools, which before seemed to disappear into the ether (although you still had them under the hood) are now displayed prominently. What’s with the big water canteen? More on that below.







Improved Quick Equip UI

Many of you have not been using the Quick Equip menu, partially because the selection of items available in it seemed opaque. We’ve tried to address that problem, as well as further smooth the interface for the game’s most common actions (drinking water, eating food, deploying traps, etc.) by breaking the Quick Equip into three categories: first aid, consumables and tools.

If you’re using a controller, you can access these categories with the dpad. If you’re on mouse/keyboard, use the ‘1’, ‘2’ and ‘3’ keys.







Water System Revamp

Many of you very rightly pointed out the absurdity of dying of dehydration while traveling on a river. We agreed, so we rolled out a new water system that makes a lot more sense. Now, you have your own trusty canteen that you carry with you throughout the game. The canteen can be completely refilled at any water source (river, puddles, etc.). Of course, it’s dirty whenever you refill it, so you’ll still have to use a campfire to boil the water to purify it. Drinking unpurified water is even more likely to lead to a whole range of exotic illnesses – so, you know, enjoy that.

Drinking and refilling your canteen can be accessed from the “Consumables” Quick Equip (that’s hotkey ‘2’ on the keyboard and “down” on your dpad).





Player Sprinting

The player can now sprint – useful to sometimes get out of a sticky situation. But beware, this consumes your stamina, which is also what lets you fend off wolves, so don’t run unless you know you can get away!

Double-click to sprint, or hold RB on the controller.







And last but not least, by overwhelming popular demand …

YOU CAN SKIP THE OPENING CUTSCENE! YESSSS!!





The List

Those are the big highlights, but so much more has gone into this latest update. Here is the full(er) list:

SprintingWater system revamp

suspicious water now causes a variety of potential afflictions

Shallow water throughout the game

new spawning rules for in-water vs. on-land vegetation

New crafting UI

New quick equip: filtered by type

Magnetic camera for framing points of interest

New location models – no more grey boxes in Small Town biome.

New foliage pass on all islands



Inventory fixes

Raft inventory only available near the raft

Moving a stacked item now moves the whole stack

Recipes for tools now unlock earlier

Fire Ant hazard

Tuning Changes

Raft part components now more abundant

materials for stone tools more abundant

Intro can be skipped

Options screen now easier to mouse navigate

Options screen bugs fixed with resolution & fullscreen settings

Added ability to reset tutorials

Fixed movement breaking after discarding items

New tutorial screens for quick use & water

Lots of perf work, particularly river particles





As a reminder, you should automatically get the new update (v0.1.000) when you load up Steam. You may need to close Steam down and restart it to get it.

And once again, thanks a million to everybody who has played the game, and to everyone who has sent in data, crash files and feedback. We hope you can see from the list above how important your participation is in making this game the best it can be.

So as always, thank you … and keep the feedback comin’!

- TMF