Weekly Playtest 1

Greetings Prospectors,

As you may have heard yesterday, we would like to take our open development efforts to the next level and do weekly playtests with you, starting tomorrow Friday, April 12 at 5 PM CEST.

So, for those of you who want to play our development build with us, we thought we’d give you an overview of what we’ve changed since the Technical Alpha and the things currently in development that you’ll see in the game. Keep in mind that these are all work in progress – some are pretty much there, some have just been started. It’s worth mentioning again – the build we’ll be playing is pretty much our latest build, and sometimes you’ll see some strange stuff.

CHANGES TO PROSPECT STATION (BETWEEN MATCHES)
The new crafting tab showing available blueprints and new combat stats visualization.

When you start the game, you’ll see that we’ve created a tab for Crafting, and it should now be easier to find and navigate the different parts of Gear Sets and crafting, which you’ll need, because from now on you need to earn your gear.

The version of progression that we have in now is very WIP, but again, so are a lot of the things you’ll see in this build.

In short – earn crafting materials while playing. Crafting costs will go down for the gear from the Faction you choose to play for. If you want to craft the KOR-47, working for Korolev will make it easier to get it.

KNOWN ISSUE: Due to a bug, currently the progress towards the next faction level is not visible. However, you’ll still level-up, when you accrue enough contract points for a specific faction.

To make it easier to decide which weapons or abilities to craft and bring with you to the planet, we’ve added Combat Information to all items – click the item to see even more detailed numbers.

Finally, we also added an Emote selection (and some emotes) to the character customization. It might be a bit buggy right now, but it should work, kinda.

CHANGES ON FORTUNA III (DURING MATCH)
Starting a match you’ll see the new Drop Pod sequence, which we hope provides a nicer introduction to the planet. If you’re lucky, you might land right next to the shiny new, and improved Science Campus on the east side of the map (or the work in progress Water Facility to the south).

After that, you’ll notice that we’re currently working on player movement. Sprinting should feel better and a bit faster, and the different Kits have had some of their movement abilities adjusted. When shooting and killing stuff, you’ll find that we’ve continued working on weapon balancing – both for PVE and PVP. You’ll also notice that we’ve rearranged the HUD – this is step 1 in our plans of reworking the HUD, and you’ll see more changes coming soon.

We’ve implemented quite a few visual and audio improvements. For example a lot of weapons received a visual update, so keep an eye out for those, and we’ve further improved the look and feel of the storm. It’s such a major ‘character’ in each match, we thought it need some more attention. We’re still not finished yet, but we’d like to hear what you think about the current state.

As you go about your match, you’ll see that some of the Contracts have been adjusted.

Letium deposits will now be found in clusters, rather than sprinkled all over the place – we hope that this makes sticking around in one area and defending them more viable and fun.

The Hunt Contract now works a bit differently, rather than getting just 1 or 2 items, Hunt Monsters now drop 1 item, but it can add more or less to your Hunt Contract.

New Contract – Laser Drill (WIP)

You might also run into our newest Contract – the Laser Drill. Give it a go, and let us know what you think.

When you’ve finished a Contract, you’ll notice the adjusted scoring system. Now, instead of getting one point per completed Contract, the number of points will go up as you finish more of the same Contract. For example, for the first Mineral Contract you complete you get one victory point, for the second you get two, and for the third, you get three victory points. We really like this change internally, and can’t wait to hear what you guys think!

New contract scoring displayed on the left. The star number indicates the victory points you gain with the next completed contract.

So, you’ve been running, jumping, shooting and completing Contracts – now it’s time to get off this rock! That’s when you find that we’re also changing the Escape. Now, instead of having to be Authorized, the lucky Prospectors who are still alive have to make sure to clear the platform for the ship to be able to land.

Earn points for clearing the landing pad, but, as always, watch out for other players. If the ship can’t land, you can’t get off the planet!

Safe and sound, you’ve escaped (we hope!) and you’ll find the new, WIP, end-of-match screen. You can see your character and a breakdown of what Contracts you completed to earn your points. Clicking on a player’s name will also show you their character and their breakdown.