PAT32 History Retold

I know I’m a little late with my blog post on this update - but only because I was busy finishing up my retrospective of year two since the game announcement. The update landed last Thursday, the 25th of June. Just one single week after the Into The Clouds update.

I believe this is a first - never before have we had a single-week update. Of course that also means this might be one of the smallest updates so far, and there really is not a ton in there to write about.

The Bugfixes

Main reason for this update to land so soon, are the current login and load issues with the game. Many people are reporting getting stuck on loading screens while trying to enter the game, or while going from one zone or planet to another. This patch does bring more fixes for that issue - as did the previous one - but still does not solve the problem. People are still having problems loading in.

It would appear though, that the server crashes and rollbacks are gone now - or at least I haven’t experienced any, nor seen anyone report on seeing those still happening.

The Intro Animatic

This is the headline feature of this update - when creating a new character you do now get a visual-novel style introduction to the lore of the game.

The basic underlying conceit is simple: formerly unbeknownst to us, we humans are just one of multiple different branches of humanity - and other species of humans did exist on other planets just like ours. All of us being the creation of “The Old Ones”. And just like us, all those other species did end up destroying their native homeworlds as well - one way or the other. That’s when the Servitors appeared and saved us all, but they only did so somewhat unwillingly. They said they had to, because of a “bargain” they once made.

But see for yourself:

Intro Animatic

Other Stuff

There have been a few other changes, but nothing big.

The trade window has had it’s elements moved around a little, to make it more intuitive and convenient to use.

The survey tool now comes with little text messages to convey what is happening and what it is doing - which make it more clear how to use it, and how to find the next survey point.

The character selection screen now shows where each character is currently located.

And a few other small things. Check out the official patch notes for all the details.

What Is Not In This Patch

Developers have been and are still working on the core gameplay loops. A while ago they have put all focus on getting those core loops complete - and they’ve said that some of those upcoming, bigger changes will need to go live all together in one big patch, which will also require a complete wipe. That means new characters, new planets, new everything.

The best place to see what the devs are working on and to follow the progress of development, is the roadmap. Since it is being kept up date, changes on there are happening regularly, allowing you to kinda watch live what’s going on.

As of right now, the following bigger features are “in internal testing”:

• full character customization
• Hansian, Hyugon, Fae and Stokadi playable species
• initial clothing system
• the Corruption (a.k.a. the Cornucopia)
• alien puzzles

That means chances are high, we’re gonna see those in one of the next updates - although that is never guaranteed. These items can move backwards on board, if unexpected issues appear, or the devs decide more work is needed. But for the most part, the “in internal testing” status is a good indicator of what might be in the next updates.

There’s also a number of items that are “currently being worked on”, like for example:

• better death tutorial
• basic mode for stats allocation (character creation)
• new hud design + new reticle
• new projectile vfx
• crafting window redesign
• combat playability pass
• redesigned have (using the new building system)
• better structure building system
• hard groupying (aka party system)
• guilds
• creature attack system upgrade
• core weapons table
• creature difficulty scale
• planning medial pharmacology recipes
• animate terrain flows
• more advanced planet generation
• client performance improvements
• planning technology recipes
• crafting station progression
• timed processing stations
• crafting carrying over effects
• climate exposure and protective gear

Some of these - especially the improved planet generation - might still make it into the big patch update as well. Or at least that’s what seems to be the plan.

If you have been following the roadmap in the past, you might notice that there used to be a “combat upgrade” item, that seemingly has gone missing. But what actually happened is, that it got split up into a number of smaller work packages, which you can clearly see in the lists up there. This type of board is called a Kanban board, and that’s how it’s supposed to be used. The items get increasingly more fleshed out and repeatedly split up, as they move closer to completion.

Conclusion

A fast and small patch, aimed at fixing the login issues - but not fully achieving that goal yet. The developers are still focussed on completing the core gameplay loops, and working on a big update that will require a wipe. We still don’t know when that big update will land - but given that some login issues still persist, we will probably see another small update to try and fix that.

The big update is supposedly going to include the improved planet generation, will still is “in work” and has not moved to “internal testing” yet. Once that happens, we will be a large step closer to the big update landing.