xREL.v3

Update v1.2.8.0:
Salutations, Brave Astroneers! Prepare yourselves accordingly for the latest transmission of changes, fixes, and upgrades from headquarters…

Readings from the Northern Hemisphere of EXO Dynamics HQ indicate that we are entering into what could be called the "Summer." Although it may be an entirely different set of seasons that you encounter on each of the worlds you visit, we have nonetheless decided to celebrate this change of (our) seasons with an influx of new schematics for our hardworking Astroneers, in both practical and recreational capacities. Please feel free to purchase and enjoy them in a proper and responsible manner! We are also pleased to release to you a pair of chromatic combinations in both helmet and visor varieties with matching palettes. We hope that you find them pleasing to the eye, and that the resultant satisfaction is an enhancement to your exploration and engineering goals.

UPDATES

The EXO Recreational Sphere and Recreational Canopy have been added to the game! There are also reports of special edition versions of these spheres scattered throughout Arid type planets! EXO Dynamics is not responsible for harm caused by hazards encountered while searching for this item.

Recreational Sphere

Printed from: Medium Printer
Resource Cost: 1 Aluminum Alloy, 1 Rubber
Byte Cost: 4,500
There are also reports of special edition versions of these spheres scattered throughout Arid type planets! EXO Dynamics is not responsible for harm caused by hazards encountered while searching for this item.

Recreational Canopy

Printed from: Large Printer
Resource Cost: 2 Aluminum, 1 Steel, 1 Explosive Powder
Byte Cost: 4,000

There have also been a number of items to help Astroneers with storage, and building bases!

Medium Platform C

Printed from: Small Printer
Resource Cost: 1 Resin
Byte Cost: 400

Tall Platform

Printed from: Small Printer
Resource Cost: 1 Copper
Byte Cost: 1,000

Tall Storage

Printed from: Small Printer
Resource Cost: 1 Ceramic
Byte Cost: 400

Medium Storage Silo

Printed from: Small Printer
Resource Cost: 2 Titanium
Byte Cost: 3,000

A new lighting item, the Floodlight, has been added to the game to help Astroneers in dark environments!

Floodlight

Printed from: Backpack
Resource Cost: 1 Tungsten Carbide
Byte Cost: 2,000

Summer themed Palettes and Visors have been added to the game! Log in before August 31st to acquire them!

These Summer "Sunset" and "Sunrise" themed Palettes and Visor sets are only available for a limited time. In order to unlock them for your account, make sure you log in on your platform(s) of choice before the end of the Summer, (August 31st, 2019) because after that point they will become unavailable to unlock.

New Harmless Hazard seeds will sometimes spawn when hazards get destroyed!

An unexplained phenomenon is causing previously seedless "hazards" to very rarely drop what we at EXO Dynamics are calling "Mutant" seeds. While these seeds are too anomalous to be properly scanned as research, we have found that the resulting plant that spawns from them carries none of the dangerous traits of its parent, and is instead docile and - well - harmless, and multiple Astroneers have been recorded utilizing them for decorative purposes. Look for these fascinating new finds as potential drops from:

Boomalloon
Common / Vicious / Deadly Hissbines
Noxious Spewflower
Elegant Spewflower
Spiny Attactus
Volatile Attactus
Noxious Cataplant
Volatile Cataplant

QUALITY OF LIFE

The Terrain Tool reticle decal has been updated to better aid deformation.
This new Terrain Tool decal has gotten a visual overhaul, allowing one to better respond to the relative angle of your environment! The functionality of the terrain tool remains unchanged, but this new visual should help when trying to manipulate terrain.

A slew of vehicle QOL adjustments have been implemented. EXO firmware updates to the locomotion systems in each of your vehicles has given them improvements to handling and a vastly increased ability to execute maneuvers. Executing "donuts," and "sick tricks" should now be much easier.

Twist Tolerance and vehicle cables:

In addition to vertical and lateral bending (pitch and yaw), cables can now twist (roll). This tolerance is limited to 15 degrees.

Braking Assist:
Added braking force boost to vehicles so that they slow down faster than they speed up.
Applied braking friction to wheels on the entire caravan so that rover wheels are less slippery when braking.

Automatic Parking Brake:

Releasing the throttle below a certain speed will automatically engage the parking brake. If the throttle is released above that speed, the vehicle will coast as normal. The goal of this change is to address recurring feedback from players that the parking brake only engaged when fully exiting the vehicle.
With the above change, exiting the vehicle will engage the parking brake, regardless of how fast the vehicle was going.

Tow Boost improvements:

Tow boost applied to wheel forces, instead of being applied as a separate force to the back of the vehicle. This makes for more stable towing, especially when the lead vehicle doesn't have traction on all of its wheels.
Tow boost takes into account the difference in weight between itself and its trailers. This addresses the Tractor having the least amount of torque when it had no connected trailers.
Adjusted tow boost forces on all vehicles to be more effective in longer caravans.

Drill Control Improvements:

Front-mounted drills now respond to left or right steering, and will shift the deformation sideways appropriately.
While steering left or right, the angle of the drilled surface will bank left appropriately.
When steering straight ahead, the drilled surface will align with gravity. This keeps surfaces level.
Vehicles have a wider turn radius while drilling to prevent creating overly-tight tunnels.
While drilling up-hill, vehicles have boosted acceleration proportional to the grade of the slope.

Drill Resistance:

While drilling, vehicles have a reduced maximum speed. The reduction is greater if the drill is removing harder terrain than it's level (Drill 1 removing Level 2 terrain, Drill 2 removing Level 3 terrain, etc).
While drilling, wheel friction is increased on the entire caravan. The friction is greater if the drill is removing harder terrain than it's level (Drill 1 removing Level 2 terrain, Drill 2 removing Level 3 terrain, etc).
The goal of these changes is to not only make the drills feel more realistic but also to provide more tactile feedback to players while they drill tunnels.

Tuning:

Adjusted acceleration, max speed, steering speeds, and wheel traction on all vehicles.
Tuned suspension forces, neutral suspension height, and vehicle weight on all vehicles.
Increased the strength of the parking brake.
BUGFIXES

The following bugs have been fixed as of version 1.2.0.0

General

Fixed a bug where the fabric of the spacetime continuum would break, causing the solar system to stop moving.
[AS-5943] - Ammonium and Quartz nuggets should no longer appear disconnected from Terrain Tool slot when being harvested
[AS-5491] - Adjusted the value of the Extra Large Storage to better match its cost
[AS-6752] - EXO research aid lids are no longer mislabeled as detritus when packaged
[AS-6879] - Players can now exit the dropship when they press "Use" before prompted to do so in the Tutorial
[AS-6937] - Cursor selection should no longer break in the Rename Save Game submenu after renaming a saved game
[AS-7006] - Medium printer's print animation is now properly synced with the completion of the Research Chamber
[AS-7069] - Small gravel like nuggets are no longer left behind when a player explodes resources with Dynamite.
[AS-5120] - Planted seeds should no longer float if the terrain is dug out from underneath them
[AS-7084] - Drops from hazards should no longer be ejected at high velocity
[AS-7159] - Restored the Popper death animation to its appropriate size.
[AS-7196] - Fixed a bug where projectiles shot from the Shooters did not have SFX upon impact.
[AS-7314] - Proximity Poppers should no longer play their explosion VFX when they spawn.
Fix vehicles failing to brake when sliding faster than their max speed, causing runaway rovers.
[AS-6926] - Fixed a bug where wheel constraints would occasionally break when wheels get stuck in the ground, requiring a save-reload to recover.
[AS-6927] - Vehicle-flip operation should now work consistently on every planet.
[AS-6958] - Deforming terrain with a Tier 2 vehicle drill should no longer cause nearby decorators to fall through terrain.

Multiplayer

[AS-6911] - Saving and exiting a Multiplayer game while a Client player is still in the dropship will no longer leave behind a dropship on the landing pad.
[AS-7081] - In Multiplayer games, seeds should no longer disappear immediately from Client player’s perspective when planted.

Customization
[AS-6612] - Fixed the Recruit palette properly apply to the Retro, Flight, and Terran suits
[AS-7007] - Fixed a bug which allowed Players to remain in unearned suits and color palettes after cycling through menu tabs while in preview mode.
[AS-7018] - Fixed a bug were Multiple emotes were missing SFX when paired with certain suits.

PERFORMANCE
Significantly optimized system for flecks that fly from harvested resource deposits into the player’s terrain tool. This should eliminate spikes in frame time when harvesting resources.
Various optimizations to actor spawning to reduce the impact of spawning things on frame rate.
Various optimizations to transform updating and object overlap detection.