Welcome to Week 146.

We’ve converted another 15 Missions over to Operations on Olympus, giving you a ton more content to experience in your permanent prospects.

We’ve also addressed some bugs that cropped up last week, including Desert Saddles on Moa and Cart Attachment repairs.

Next week’s update is a big one, so have a look at the bottom at what to expect and how it’ll help you navigate the thousands of in-game craftable items.

Jump in and have a read.

Notable Improvements

• Fixes for workshop items that were unable to be reloaded
• Fixing the Desert Saddle so it works with the Moa
• Fixing cart attachments as they were unrepairable
• Various Shadow related fixes and tweaks
• Updated some old search area's to properly highlight the compass when inside the search area.

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This Week: New Olympus Operations

The next set of Olympus Missions have been converted into Open World Operations - bringing the total to 37.

These include:

• SPELUNKING: Assisted Stockpile
• HEADSTONE: Geo-Survey
• DEEP VEIN: Extraction
• PYRAMID: Construction
• DEATH RAY: Scan
• SOLID METAL: Hard Stockpile
• SEARCHLIGHT: Scan
• CLUSTERED: Extended Survey
• BIG SHOT: Stockpile
• UPLIFT: Bio-Research
• SNOWCRASH: Recovery
• SNOWBLIND: Scan
• NIGHTWATCH: Geo-Research
• LOOSE ENDS: Extermination
• VOYAGER: Recovery

All these missions (and more) can now be launched from your Open Worlds on Olympus and played through in the same session.

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Coming Soon: NullSector

As mentioned in previous weeks, the NullSector (our Free Prometheus Expansion) will include new Operations, a new exploration mechanic, new mutated creatures, and one new giant creature.

We are still actively working on the NullSector, with some big mission revamps in the works, more narrative, more dialogue, and more missions to provide the experience it deserves.

This region is not for the faint of heart. All the adjustments and differences are geared towards this being a hardcore survival challenge, so make sure you enter it prepared.

If you are interested in reading about what we plan to do with missions in the future, click here.
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Next Week: Prospector Field Guide Update

Next week we will be adding a brand new section to the Prospector Field Guide for all craftable items in-game. These entries will include where they’re crafted, what recipes they’re used in, what their base stats are, and more.

This is a massive Quality of Life improvement and should make looking up items (and their subsequent uses) far easier and streamline many processes for players.

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Your support makes these updates possible.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/40692/Icarus_Pets_Bundle/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/35727/Icarus_Complete_the_Set/

Changelog v2.2.21.127494

New Content

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• Enabled 15 Olympus missions as Operations

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Fixed

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• Tweak alignment/positioning of Workshop items to be more uniform with each category
• Removed Prometheus from Kiwi bestiary entry
• Allow scrolling on bestiary entries with more than 6 loot options
• Fixed cat from not attaching to hip properly by adding 'back' context for meshable entry
• Add DT validation to pickup on entries with Hip focusable without Meshable setup correctly
• Updated the Iron buildable skeletal meshs with positive/negative bounds set and reimported iron gate with softened normals
• Reducing sky light's contact shadow length from 0.2 -> 0.04, should result in less 'fuzzy' shadows, especially noticable on shadows cast by deployables on building pieces
• W_ProjectionInterface::UpdateNearbyProjectionActors now compares existing widgets using their desired soft widget class (instead of using whatever class they happened to have equipped at the time) - this will hopefully fix issues where crop plot information is shown while highlighting thigs that aren't crop plots
• Updated the iron buildable stairs to have the correct material assigned on the destructible mesh
• Update Shadow settings on Atmosphere Controller:
• 4x CSM distance, increased FarShadow cascade count from 1 to 2 and 2x FarShadow distance. Halved Moon light CSM distance to match Sun distance
• Removed CSM value being updated on tick (now on Ultra-Slow Tick), set the value based off the Settings value, not off a curve
• These changes should largely alleviate long-standing shadow artifacts (at a negligable performance cost), with some additional world changes coming to further improve.
• Players can now utilize the Max Shadow Cascades setting to have better control over shadow performance vs visuals
• Replaced old iron buildable icons to new ones
• Update cart attachments talent icon
• Fix Icebox, Refrigerator and Deep Freeze modifier names and descriptions being empty
• Fix farming cart attachment talent unlock order
• Fix glass double door left/right upgrade lookup
• Fixing Entry in D_Saddles that was preventing the Desert Saddle from being put on the Moa
• Fixed bug in mission LUPINE: Extermination where beacon wouldn't grant the correct stat and would soft-lock the mission until player found another way to show world bosses on map
• Fixed issue where guns with magazines couldn't be reloaded if they were brought down by a client using the Orbital Exchange Interface
• Fixed plow attachments breaking at 0 durability, allowed them to be repaired with right click (requires ranching station)

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Future Content

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• Adding Stasis bags audio to items static data table
• Fixing Metal Grating Description Text
• Adding Recipes for use in future (Machining Bench)
• Added SML/MED animal crate static meshes, materials, textures
• Final checks and small tweaks to dropship external down based on multiplayer session. Also adjusted some overly long events that were taking up channels unnecessarily
• Added custom LODs for Teddy Bear
• Adding audio for lore notes. Pick up, open and close and item audio data row
• WIP commit of skeletal mesh for LRG animal crate
• Fixed a number of typos in the nullsector items
• Swapped Ashlands Bunker to use new Bunker Save
• Spawning new notes in ashlands bunker, setting up new questmarkers / queries
• Small Info and text adjustments to PRO_D_Resupply & PRO_D_Recovery
• Adjusting Ashlands Story Mission so that rock dogs spawn before you get to the bunker
• Adding new Dialogue Trigger World Objects that can be used to trigger dialogue once only
• Setting up dialogue triggers for SMPL3's warning when moving into the ashlands
• Cliff Placement & Landscape Paining pass progress on Outpost 9, on Red Quad
• Adding Biome modifier for the Ice Sheets in the nullsector
• Enabling Ashlands Ending Audio after the Audio Log has Played
• Enabling Ashlands Ending Audio after the Audio Log has Played
• Adding new Interactable Notes and UI so players can interact with these objects in world and be able to read the text
• Cliff Placement Pass and Macro Cliff Pass, Outpost 11
• Adjusted the mirrored glass material so that the interior of the NPCs helmets should no longer be visible
• Added teddy bear with corrected orientation, tweaked textures and gfur
• Fixed punctuation in ashlands notes
• Added SKs, physicsAssets, animation for LRG and MED cryo animal crates
• Lowered trail beacon compass show radius
• Fixing issue here ashlands bunker was not recieving the quest item as intended
• Adjustments to Icesheet Story Mission to include blocker and modify quest steps
• Added functionaily to remove duplicate blockers if they occur
• Adding Icesheet Blockers
• Setting up Icesheet Notes
• Fixing interactable note class name so its interactable and not interable
• Corrected orientation of Dirty Toilet
• Door BP's PlacementBlockerBox is no longer considered a valid surface when determining current ground surface type - should fix issue where you sometimes heard dirt footsteps when walking over top of trap doors
• Fixed a typo in the stone cairn text
• Add datatable validation for deployables with variants, that don't have icons
• Adding flag rustle 1 shots and volume adjustments. Better variation and more believable sound
• Update deployable validation to a warn instead of error to unblock build
• Adding church bark lines to dialogue table
• Fix datatable validation (whitespace)
• Added several curved and angled building pieces for the Concrete building tier. Apex DMs still need to be made for them
• Committed some NPC animations for use with new UE4 standard rig
• Move the teleport system from component based to actor based
• Reimported resource icons for consistency pass
• Finish blocking out Volcano Cave & Cliff Placement on Outpost 9, on Red Quad
• Added DEP_Logbook and DEP_Notebook SMs, textures and materials for the Ashlands mission base
• Adding audio to lore notes UMG. Removing spacializers from events that didnt need it
• Adding additional Church Bark lines 3d in. Audio and events
• Swapped impassable materials and Cliff Pass, Outpost 011
• Blocking out Volcano Cave & Cliff Placement finished on Outpost 9, on Red Quad
• Temporarily fixed a few of the NPC material load warnings
• Outpost_012 - landscape tweaks, cliff placement, waterbodies and riverbanks
• Slight adjustment to the medical dropship LODs
• Added medical dropship art assets to the project
• Mission NPCs now inherit from IcarusCharacter (instead of IcarusActor). Added support for relevant persistent characters in quests. Moved stat container construction from various child classes of IcarusCharacter to the base class. Removed ensure on UProspectSubsystem::SetCustomProspectSettings
• Fixing Icebreaker footsteps popping out by adding decal fade in anim BP function, added decal fade opacity multiplier to master material
• Update Olympus with new world Shadow settings from World Tools
• Moved static mesh actors out of Persistent level and into their appropriate developer Quad
• Update Styx with new world Shadow settings from World Tools. Generated levels will be processed separately by Build Machines as per normal
• Updated World tooling to NOT disable Contact Shadows on all meshes. Updated Cave meshes to NOT disable Contact Shadows and NOT enable Far Shadows
• This should result in more consistent shadowing from world assets (cliffs, impassables, etc) and same or slightly improved performance
• Fixed a number of Icesheet typos, and a bat nest error
• Updated EOI spacing for better fitting longer/localized text
• Tweaked LookAt strength for NPC2, added ability for each NPC to adjust LookAt strength independently
• Switched NPCs over to using new skeletal mesh
• Adding in new prospector NPC mesh and SK asset to the UE4 skeleton to use anim sets, minor cleanup required, also submitting back meshes for the water barrel and fuel barrel
• Added harvest effects to the aspen seedling blueprints
• Add Shadow Cascade debug visualizer PP material
• Adding new stasis carry audio, pickup and drop audio and events. Changing stasis bag PM from MEtal to Carpet
• Added Metal Grating icons
• Disabled generic tooltip on mount characters that was enabled after change to support actors (instead of IcarusActors)
• Adding stasis bag put in dropship audio. Not currently hooked up. Also adjusting a church line that had lip smacks in it and a rushed pacing leaving it feeling a bit awkward
• Audio tweaks and additions to mission cave event
• Added BLD_Stairs_Corner_Concrete Left and Right variants, Apex DM's still need to be made
• Fix the build
• Reposition actors in instanced levels when the saved slot differs from the loaded too slot
• Outpost_012 - decal and foliage placement, experiments with underwater foliage, riverbanks and terrain sculpting around beach
• Added APEX meshes for Aluminium corner stairs (left and right)
• Cliff Placement Pass and Macro Cliff Pass, Outpost 11
• Added iron/aluminium buildable corner stairs art assets
• Added hammerhead spit, trail, explosion, spit hit, gas attack FXs, Replace references on Hammerhead S/M/L and created new ballistic for hammerhead spit
• Added Tress to tundra areas & addded cold lava meshes to volcano on Outpost 9, on Red Quad
• Added oxite and stone deep ore vein pictures to field guide
• Added reinforced frame icon
• Add reinforced wood pillar to beam buildables
• Remove instanced level test from open world selection (should not have been committed)
[*] Subcontainer inventory initialisation logic no longer runs in hab

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Source: https://steamstore-a.akamaihd.net/news/externalpost/steam_community_announcements/6341720536504973281