Welcome to week 183.

This week, we’re doing a large pass on all three maps, cleaning up over 2 million instances of inaccessible and buried foliage and voxels, and as a result, making small performance improvements.

We’ve also got an update on the progress of the Great Hunts expansion and what we’re currently working on internally to get it ready for release.

Finally, we’ve got some information on next week's update and what you can expect.

Notable Improvements:

• Improved creature hitbox accuracy
  
• Fixing issue where on reloading some quest objectives where not collapsing like they should
  
• Fixed Hammerhead Slug duplicating itself at 0hp and cause repeated VFX

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This Week: Map Updates

Over the last few weeks, some of our team has been undertaking a massive map clean-up, addressing a whole stack of issues reported by the community covering things like gaps between rocks/cliffs, floating objects, clipping, cave issues and more, across all three maps.

More than simply a quality pass, the tools used to cover the map with as much visual detail as we see in Icarus can often paint with quite a broad brush, meaning it can wind up placing things like foliage under the ground or in areas where they cannot be accessed or even seen. Unfortunately these still have a performance cost, so cleaning these up can be a nice win in the ongoing battle against performance bottlenecks which we try to put work into with every update.

We’ve also cleaned-up thousands of mineral voxels across all three maps that were also buried or inaccessible. Again, these should help with performance, with little to no impact on players due to them being inaccessible in the first place.

Since last week's announcement of these fixes, we’ve received and actioned more reports. We prefer to do these in bulk, as it minimizes the impact on players' existing prospects, so all of these are being collected and collated for a future date.

Please keep these reports coming - with the size of our maps, many hands make light work, and your reporting helps us cover more ground, more efficiently.

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Coming Soon: Great Hunts Release

We planned to release the DLC this week in tandem with the PC Gaming Show at Summer Games Fest. However, we’ve decided to delay this release as after lots of playing, we still weren’t entirely satisfied with the legendary weapons and rewards available.

While the missions, bosses and encounters feel fresh and interesting, the rewards you would receive didn’t meet this same level. While we hadn't announced a release date yet, we know many people are wondering how development is going and transparency is something we firmly believe in. As gamers ourselves, we know how frustrating it is when you get mixed messages from the developers of the games you love.

We don’t have a release date for Great Hunts, as we will work on the legendary weapons and rewards until they are at a level we're happy with.

We appreciate your patience and hope you understand why these tough decisions must be made.

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Next Week: Mission Reward restructure

Next week, we’re doing a pass on mission rewards, particularly how these are divided amongst prospectors, and making them account-based rather than character-based for a more seamless experience.

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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/

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Changelog v2.2.58.138313

Fixed

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• Fixed various reported world issues with Styx. General optimization and cleanup pass on foliage. Reduced total foliage instance count from 4.86 million to 4.32 million and deleted over 400 buried voxels
  
• Fixed various reported world issues with Olympus. General optimization and cleanup pass on foliage. Reduced total foliage instance count from 5.61 million to 4.22 million and deleted over 2200 buried voxels
  
• Fixed various reported world issues with Prometheus. General optimization and cleanup pass on foliage. Reduced total foliage instance count from 3.17 million to 2.96 million and deleted over 300 buried voxels
  
• Adjust Olympus navmodifier volumes to better cover out of bounds areas that were generating navmesh
  
• Fixing issue where on reloading some quest objectives where not collapsing like they should
  
• General FLOD Map Cleanup on Prom Map
  
• General FLOD Map Cleanup on, Red/Green Quad, Styx
  
• General FLOD Map Cleanup on Oly
  
• Fixed floating ores located in C9 on, Blue Quad, Styx
  
• Undo generated LOD update on Chicken Coops that was supposed to be custom LODs
  
• Painted landscape out on Yellow Quad, Oly
  
• Exposed rock seen from crevasse fixed on Blue Quad, Prom
  
• Added cave volume to C3 cave on Red Quad, Oly
  
• Swapped Master Material for MI_Kit_Thatch_Foliage to correct panini issues on the Thatch building kit mesh while being held in first person
  
• Replaced proper Carcass mask for the Juvinile Tusker material
  
• Misc Prometheus fixes
  
• Misc Styx fixes
  
• Misc Olympus fixes
  
• Hole in backface wall of cave in G9 on Green Quad, Prom

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Future Content

[expand type=details expanded=false]

• Ape_C_Lab - removed excess lab props from tables, disconnected wind turbines, drained battery
  
• Adding Rule for Capping the Populations of Rimetusks in an area at any one time, so you do get swamped by pairs
  
• GH_IM - Adjusting Rimetusks AIRelationship so they are an enemy to players only
  
• IM_D - Adding Extra Step to disable turrets and drone defences when entering the base
  
• Adding Basic Drone Spawner Setup
  
• IM_D Reducing Power Requirements / generation and power storage of the base
  
• IM_C2 - Removed requirement for modified EDS ammo, quest now just requires basic EDS ammo
  
• APE_C - Swapping over to use new prebuilt
  
• Ape E2 - Added support tag to rocks/ape habitat to help players building their way up to the next step of the mission
  
• APE_B - Fixing issue where upon reloading you could not shackle or kills would not count
  
• APE_A - Shifting Collectable Note Required for Quest into a new location so it doesn't rely on the terrain to see
  
• APE_A - Removing Visible Debug Red Sphere on Hyena's
  
• Tweak Ape_F trigger distances and hook up dialogue
  
• Add IM_D explode audio
  
• Add Ape_F and Ape_C mission categorizations
  
• Ape C Lab - fixed typos and tweaked wording of various signs
  
• Ape A Base - moved AC units into enclosure to fix sheltered status
  
• Ape_C: Fix lab poster text
  
• Adjustments to dialogue lines. reduction to footstep scans for apes to reduce unnecessary footstep checks. Removing profilings
  
• Added Landmine_Enemy that auto sets itself to the final state (1 sec explode)
  
• Small spacializer setting updates to the ape mission explosive. Delaying dialouge by 1 more second to allow for explosion tail to play
  
• GH_Ape_E2 - added juvie ape corpses, bones, blood decals
  
• Adjustments to occlusion settings and various mix tweaks for caged ape etc
  
• Dialogue delay adjustments to better fit within mission ape C
  
• Drone pass, adjustments and fine tunes
  
• Dialogue volume pass. Reduced volume of new dialogue lines that were louder than previous ones
  
• Adjusted collision on the large lab poster to fit the new larger size
  
• Extended backing board asset for the APE_C mission to accommodate the larger widget size
  
• Removing unused dialogue function from BPQ that possibly caused double up of dialogue line to play
  
• IM_D2 - Turning off AI target on world spawners and hub so creatures don't kill them accidently completing the mission
  
• IM_A2 - Cleaning up Enzyme Dispersal Devices as this can cause issues in future quests
  
• IM_B - Fixing Prebuilt Structure File Name
  
• GH_APE - Adjusting GH Mission Names
  
• APE_G - Increased base level of boss, gave it extra health and physical resistance
  
• APE_E2 - Adding Extra Spawner and forcing spawn when player enters travel area
  
• APE_E2 - Hunt count will not count apes until you have reached the enclave
  
• APE_B - The enclave trave quest step now only triggers when in the enclave
  
• APE_F - Lower Required Grenade Kill Count
  
• APE_F - Only 1 Poison Sample Will Appear Per Lair now as opposed to 2
  
• APE_F - Removed Max Spawn (not concurrent spawn) to Poison Ape Lairs
  
• APE_E2 - Upped number of Creatures and added additional stats to Epic Creatures
  
• APE_E2 - Upped the Level of the Cougar and Scorpions
  
• APE_E2 - Adjusted the map markers for the spawners
  
• APE_E2 - Fixing Progression blocking step n campaign
  
• RG_B - Added 2 more objectives with subobjectives that make you search other mining caves in the area
  
• RG_B - Tidy of Quest Markers in the world so they can easily be found an accessed
  
• RG_B - Cave1 now requires a caveworm fight
  
• RG_B - Cave2 now requires Quarrite fight and Salvaging Gear
  
• RG_B - Cave3 now requires a caveworm fight & Landshark Fight
  
• RG_B - Eliminate Objectives have been compressed into one objective (Caveworms+1, Adolencent Caveworms +3)
  
• Quest Info now uses a rick text box and can colour text if required
  
• Increased Durability for Mining Prop Assets
  
• APE_C - Small Adjustment so new 'find' step is done prior to the setup equipment step
  
• APE_C Fixing issue where the surgical sets would spawn scalpels in the inventory at incorrect times (not during the mission)
  
• APE_C - Adjusting prebuilt to shift lab poster, remove scalpels, and slight adjustments to dressing
  
• Adjusting Lab Poster as it was missing a procedure step
  
• Swapping Over Prebuilt
  
• RG_D2 - Swapping over prebuilt structure
  
• RG_C - Swapping Over Prebuilt
  
• RG_A - Swapping over prebuilt structure
  
• Adding Propaganda signs / defaced
  
• APE_O1 - Removing Frostbite from NPC as it is not required
  
• Added Ramp_Diagonal_Glass and Ramp_Diagonal_Glass, with all SMs, DMs, materials and textures
  
• Glass shader update for jam jar, beer bottle and centrifuge
  
• Adjusted spawn for the Slug Launcher FX
  
• Slightly dropped the health and max drones for GH_IM_D after another play through
  
• Added destructible meshes for IM_Cage glass and base meshes
  
• Tweaks for the drones spawned in GH_IM_D mission
  
• Volume tweak and rock fall addition to mission explosion. Big volume pass over all apes to make them more subtle in world and slightly less intense. Spacializer distance adjustments for more subtlety. Removing over here from prospector for now
  
• Fixed a few typos across GH text
  
• Adding unique explosion for ape O1 mission to sound more intense
  
• Hookup Ape_C dialogue triggers, split out blue text into new quest step to find storage room
  
• GH Device - In world screens now correctly show which bosses are up
  
• First pass polish on GH_Ape_E2 (BP_Mission_Ape_Desert)
  
• Added the lab instruction poster backing boards to their BPs
  
• Optimized shrund collision
  
• Adding burner specific mission audio
  
• Added backing board art asset for the instruction boards in APE_C mission. Updated the BPs with the new assets
  
• Updating ape B mission dialogue opening line. Adjusted the juvi ape health scaling as per request
  
• Various tweaks for mission ECHO scanner
  
• Removing healed audio for zoo researcher 2 so important mission dialogue plays and the dialogue always makes sense. Fixing ape body added to mission bench
  
• Removing logic in Ape slot bench that was causing the audio to play but the proxy ape to not show
  
• A few volume adjustments for NPC lines
  
• Added a defaced veriant of the propoganda signs' material to the project
  
• Adding audio for when ape is put on examination table
  
• Removing bat sounds from infant ape. Adjustments to juvi ape death audio
  
• Fixed issue in APE_D2 Ethics, where swarms were too fast pasced for a player carrying a bag. Increased timer from 30 to 120, and forced a first spawn
  
• fixed missing paragraph in GH dialogue
  
• Fixed issue where blackmarket quest optional hunt subobjective could keep sending apes forever
  
• Fix particle system isn't replicating on clients for drill arrows
  
• Fiexed a few typos in the ape campaign
  
• Added additional GH lines for context
  
• Balance tweaks for GH_IM_Ape_E mission
  
• Adding unique animation for the vesper in teh cage so I can have specific audio on it that doesnt just sound like looping wings
  
• Commit missing ice mammoth spawn change
  
• Fix Snow Viscid dens not spawning when the player has the appropriate world stat (was spawning just a single viscid instead)
  
• Diabled Ice Mammoth den spawning, as it is not setup to spawn as a den and normal spawns now spawn as world spawns
  
• Fix consistency in stat names 'critical damage' vs 'weak point'
  
• Setup Ape_C2 dialogue and mission types
  
• fixed projectile FX for legendary lava hunter and slug launcher
  
• Ape_E: Ensure both Swarm components are using best 25% setting, not just the '_Local' one
  
• Balance pass of various in game item reverb sends to stop overly aggressive reverb tails
  
• Fixed issue in APE_C2 where Prime might not properly leave at 75% health, because sonic beacon was deactivated
  
• in APE_C2 made all parts of bosses and prime sections not dependant on state of the sonic device
  
• in APE_C2 decreased Prime wait timer from 180 seconds to 60
  
• in APE_C2 lorified Elite and Prime Text
  
• in APE_C2 Slightly changed Primes combat text to imply you wont fully have to kill him, and changed health requirement from 50% to 66%
  
• Reduce levels of 'Extra' Ape spawns on Ape_B mission from 50-100 to 10-40 to match the Den spawns for the Easy area
  
• Added dirt backfaces to T3 crop plot for when you can see the underside through glass floors (SM_DEP_CropPlot_T3_SML)
  
• Setup Ape_E2 dialogue and categorizations
  
• Add critical hit areas to little Apes
  
• Ape_D2 setup dialogue and mission types
  
• IM_D3 change luriform hint text to cull quest step
  
• GH UI - Fixed incorrect row on hammerhead slug to show slug launcher when clicked
  
• Added SM_MTK_Drone_Spawner
  
• Adding audio for the vesper cage mission. Adjusted dialogue delay so it doesnt interrupt mission. Adding add virus and opening cage animation correctly and adding release vesper audio cue
  
• Removed GFur from Juvie Ape + Corpse for perf/crash reasons
  
• Setup Ape_D audio and mission types, setup remaining boss mission types on final missions
  
• Updating dialogue lines and splitting some lines as per requests. Adding generic mission complete event
  
• Fix drill arrow audio position (again, for real)
  
• Tweaked glass shader and fixed material swap setup on metal lamp asset. Tweaked Lighting slightly. Added NormalTilingMulti functionality to Glass shader
  
• Purchasing a legendary weapon now correctly opens that weapon customization in the UI
  
• Fix drill arrow audio position (again)
  
• Hookup Ape_O1 dialogue and mission types
  
• Removed invalid internal note from ape head loot
  
• Adding more drill arrow sounds. Drilling fly sound and idle sound
  
• Added meshes from GH_APE_E2_Camp to STYX, painted grass and foliage (yellow quad)
  
• Change Mega Tree Versions on Styx
  
• Update IM great hunt prospect select images
  
• GH Ape_B - Fixed killing the boss not completing quest step
  
• Added NoFoliage variant prefab of Megatree_001_V2
  
• Added QM_GH_Ape_D2 as meshes to Styx
  
• Removed GFur from additional Ape corpse BPs. Fixed blood decal on 03
  
• Pedantically straighen up some BP lines
  
• Fixing eds canister auto activating FX and also not being able to be deployed due to placement adjustment
  
• Wire destructable meshes for glass globe in GH_IM_D mission
  
• GH HEAL Device - Implemented Vesper Paperdoll
  
• Adding all GH dialogue redos, audio and event additions
  
• Detail pass and custom LODs for SM_MTK_Drone_Spawner
  
• Update Drill Arrow to use new mesh. Add SKItem BP with animation hooked up. Add BallisticPA. Optimized textures
  
• Added QM_GH_Ape_B_Refugey as meshes to Styx
  
• Added Wall_Diagonal_Solid_Glass, including all SMs, DMs, materials and textures
  
• Polish pass on the mining set dressing assets
  
• GH IM_C2 - Changed text to show 'fully' powered as the issue was power not being 100% and unclear wording
  
• Added Vesper Paperdoll
  
• Fix an issue with the chance to immobilise stat was being counted twice in some cases
  
• Adjusting cannister to not deploy half in the ground for better visibility within the mission
  
• Changed Posters for APE_C Compliance Mission to use a standard widget material insteal of a non lit one
  
• Changed a string in quest table that still implied you needed to fully kill prime in APE_C2
  
• Updated four set dressing corkboards with edited images from Concept
  
• Adding cave bat caged processed audio to sell the moment. Caged wings and caved vocals
  
• Added Wall_Angle_Curved_Glass, with Left, Right, and Inverted variants, including all SMs, DMs, materials and textures
  
• RG_B - Adjustments to timing and location of Caveworm & Shark Spawning
  
• RG_B - Fixed Caveworms spawning on top of each other
  
• RG_B - Fixing timing issue and landshark placement issue
  
• Adding Drone Spawner Mesh to BP
  
• Added ITM_Giant_Cat_Stealth_Tonic
  
• Adjusting Wolf World Boss Location so its not on ring lake anymore
  
• Adding Explicit Steps for the player so they have to prepare a spline tool and power generation before heading out to power the sonic device
  
• IM_A2 - Adding Platforms for both Enzyme Propagation Units
  
• APE_A - 004 now swaps to a world object, plays an animation and then is lootable for the biochip and sonic device
  
• Cleaned up Epic Creature, AI Setup and Juvenile Character BP's for Apes
  
• IM_C - Fixing Blocker in quest which was not counting up kills correctly
  
• Growth Enzyme now also highlights creatures
  
• Added ITM_Giant_Cat_Tail_Chunk
  
• APE_B - Boss now takes no damage
  
• IM_O1 / APE_D2 - Full stasis bags no longer decay and will show a map icon when dropped
  
• Added ITM_Giant_Cat_Whiskers
  
• Added ARR_Drill_Heavy with animations
  
• IM_D - Enemy Landmines are now present
  
• IM_A - Enemy Landmines are now present
  
• Stasis Bags and digested enzymes now have a much bigger decay timer 30mins
  
• IM_B - The enzymes now drop throughout the entire quest not just on the hunt step
  
• Added mesh masks and detail normals to the mining props to make them look better. I will work on them a bit more tomorrow
  
• Adding unique deploy audio for spikes so they dont occlude themselves leaving the sound feeling weird. Putting a cooldown on creature damage from spikes so its a bit more sane and less distracting
  
• Updates to the medical cabinet using unique audio events, updates to drill arrow loop to go over whole animation and spacializer adjustments
  
• Hole in backface wall of cave in G9 on Green Quad, Prom
  
• IM_D_base - removed hatch and ladder that were underneath drone spawner
  
• Fixed mega tree material in BP_Ape_Cage
  
• Added SM_IM_D_Rubble_01-06
  
• Adding alternate icemam opt2 4 dialogue line. Adding gauntlet shield deploy and loop event. Adding aerosol disperser world explosion electric spark to better match the visuals and help indicate the player where to go
  
• Adding wall mounted hitching post variation
  
• Adding Small Pouches with 6 inventory slots that can be cafted on the armor bench - T2
  
• APE_E2 - Removing Meshes from Spawned in BP as its not longer required as the changes have been made to the map
  
• APE_D2 - Removing Spawning of Ape Camp as its no longer requred as the changes have been made on the map
  
• APE_B - Removing Spawning of Ape Refuge as its no longer requred as the changes have been made on the map
  
• Fixing issue with Firing the events for scanning creatures so they can be listened to by quests
  
• The Drone now can display its name correctly
  
• Updating BEAST Device so it works on clients - small feedback tweaks to UI
  
• Reverting my change to utf-BOM as all other game.po files. Unsure how to fix the utf+w reporting in Perforce
  
• Fixing BOM to text
  
• Replacing the corrupted files for es-419 and fr-FR
  
• Updated Idle animation for ARR_Drill_Heavy
  
• Updated material asignment for SK_BOW_Crossbow_Sandworm_ARM_Std
  
• Slug launcher muzzle flash vfx
  
• Adjust Ape_A dialogue trigger for AGENT's barbaric remark
  
• Adjustments to Ape_O1 dialogue
  
• Decrease Bat damage from 50-150 to 35-70
  
• Vesper cage now only plays vesper audio when there is a vesper inside
  
• Resave Ape_E dialogue trigger
  
• Added some extra AGENT lines for use in APE chain
  
• Whitelist battered centrifuge, flasks and microscope in FieldGuide as players have the option to craft these items in some GH quests
  
• Added new Handler lines to GH IM and Ape chains for context
  
• Fix some Ape dialogue setups to prevent dialogue clipping
  
• Dialogue timing fine tune
  
• Adding a few more small dialogue delays and increasing distance of spark explosion to help with mission locating smoke machines
  
• Drill Arrow - Fixed bug where if you charged then swapped weapon it wouldnt do its fast spin until you fired one arrow
  
• Fixed trigger for Ape_A dialogue
  
• Fixed categorizations and tech requirements on IM great hunt tree
  
• Enabled ledge meshes in BP_IceSlug_Spawner with new 'SnowIce' variant material
  
• Adding a few dialogue delays to help with mission timing. Also replacing one line that felt like the delivery was too harsh before
  
• OLY: Remove collisionless rock and some other buried foliage from Developer Blue level
  
• Styx, yellow quad - minor foliage and decal pass around Ape_E2 areas
  
• Reduced height of enzyme disperser hub tooltip
  
• Reduced Luriform Serum timer to 10m from 20m, allowed removal by click and slightly reduced cost (2 synthetic enzyme instead of 3)
  
• Adding fast spinning drill audio for when its aimed
  
• Various tooling updates
  
• Modified LandingPad Decals B textures, added decal details to Drone spawner
  
• Drill arrow now switches between idle and fire animations based on bow being charged
  
• Hide reload for legendary Rock Golem Gauntlets
  
• Fix no settle explosion on clients for GH mission drones
  
• Removing unused spawner loop audio component from drone spawner
  
• Adding drone spawn audio. Replicating to clients
  
• Add more rubble for GH_IM_D mission post explosion
  
• Add additional Worldspace emitter for NS_SmokeDrop so that character movement is represented on the attached effect
  
• Cleaned up Dropships, pods, deep ore and added BP_Mission_Ape_B_Base as meshes on Green Quad, Styx
  
• Update tech level recommendations to ape missions

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