0.9.1.11720 Community Update 2

0.9.1.11720 Community Update 2 is an update released for Abiotic Factor on September 18, 2024.

Changelog

Difficulty Changes

• Difficulty is now selectable when starting a new world save. This will affect enemy spawn rates (higher difficulties will override dynamic difficulty by adding more enemies) and combat will be more difficult regardless of the number of targets an enemy is fighting. Higher difficulty will also increase how quickly enemies spot targets.
• For all other difficulty settings, including those around survival aspects, Sandbox Settings will continue to allow tuning of these values.
• Fixed Health regeneration not working when sleeping. This was a very unintended bug, and sleeping is intended to be one of the primary ways to heal quickly.
• Health Regeneration when sleeping is reduced on higher difficulties.
• New Feature: Check-In Terminals are new respawn points available near the start of most sectors (and at least one other location). These can be accessed to save a spawn point at that location. Only one Check-In Terminal can be active at a time for a given scientist.
• Along with the new difficulty levels, there are many changes to the balance of several extremely potent enemies.
• On Normal difficulty, Snipers will now fire at a slower rate and hit less often. On higher difficulties, they will be as challenging as they were, or even worse.
• Defense Bots have received numerous changes. On Normal difficulty, Defense Bots will fire slower and have lower backpack health. On higher difficulties, they will be as challenging, or even worse. We have also lowered how often they can break your legs on lower difficulties, or how intensely they can break a leg.
• Security Bots that can inflict leg injuries will no longer stack these injuries indefinitely. You can no longer break 4 legs, for a number of very scientific reasons.

Connection Error (FLEMING) Note

• Hosting and joining has switched from regular networking to use Steam Sockets, which is primarily done to fix the Fleming connection issue. If you were experiencing this issue, try connecting to your friends now!

Performance Note

• In an effort to increase performance, we have upgraded our networking model to run less frequently, on a push-model basis. This effectively means the server now spends less CPU time deciding what data needs to get sent to clients over the network, which was one of our major performance hits. This is an ongoing effort.

Facility Changes

• Updated the appearance of various flowing radioactive waste.
• Added 3 new collectible Figurines to find. (No hints!)
• Updated appearance of some blank monitors around the Facility.
• Reduced the brightness of the Surface Tunnel in the Mines.
• Added some glowy lights to the Reservoir Tower.
• A diving board has been added to the Office Sector Level 2 swimming pool.
• A flooded hallway in Office Sector Level 3 has suffered additional damage and has had some changes as a result.
• A GATE Charging Station on Office Sector Level 3 has shifted slightly, hopefully this does not destroy anyone's art gallery this time.
• Widened a vehicle ramp near the Manufacturing West entrance area.
• Updated the artwork for PC key and mouse binding images. This change will likely be a step 1 towards further changes in the future.
• Increased the texture quality on a common gas tank prop.
• Fixed some Z-fighting in Hydroplant.

General Gameplay Changes

• Default graphics settings and presets have changed. You may need to adjust your settings again after this update.
• Primary Fire should now properly accept the selected option on a radial wheel instead of canceling the radial wheel action (Alt Fire still cancels the wheel action as intended.)
• Various localization updates.
• Clients can now delete their character save on a server by going to the Escape Menu > Server Profile. This will place all their items in a bag by Officer Warren. This will cause the player to disconnect, but they can then rejoin and create a fresh new character.
• Scientists can now offer food, iodine tablets, and some liquid items (like a soup bowl) to one another by pressing Alt Fire when holding the item.
• Many items deemed important, hard-to-craft, or critical, will now ask for confirmation before allowing them to be scrapped when manually scrapping.
• A handful of Dr. R (Fem Scientist Voice) lines have been improved and audio quality cleaned up, and some efforts have been made to remove some ambiguity in several of her voice lines. We've also removed or replaced some lines to achieve better consistency. Her falling death sounds now have proper reverb as well.
• Buffs and debuffs on the left-hand side of the HUD now take up slightly less room.
• Updated the crosshair icon when looking at interesting interactables & interactable corpses.
• A text chat message now displays when joining/starting if your corpse bag has been relocated to Officer Warren’s kiosk.
• Tutorial panels and hints are now saved and will no longer show repeatedly if you have already seen them. However, tutorial pop ups will still show every time when playing the intro.
• These saved tutorials will now also be clearable by pressing Reset Tutorial Popups in the Gameplay Settings menu.
• Added a radial indicator to the HUD, above the health screen keybinding prompt and gesture keybinding prompt to help scientists understand they can be accessed by holding down the key.
• Added two new hint pop ups when bleeding, one for suggesting crafting a bandage if the player has no bandages, and one for using the medical quick-use wheel if a bandage is present.
• Rotation in the character window can now be stopped by unticking the rotation checkbox at the bottom of the Equipment Slot window. This will center the character towards the camera.
• Inventory Slots can now be favorited with right-click. This will cause any item inside the slot to not be taken when using a Distribution Pad or similar stacking action.
• Adjusted Trinket positions on all backpacks and the character’s waist when not wearing a backpack.
• Updated radiation symbols in the UI to better match other UI shades.
• Updated the UI for Respawn Options after death, for better clarity and to encourage players to make beds and use Check-In Terminals.
• Shifted HUD "You are dead" / bleedout instructions upwards slightly to accommodate the Respawn UI update.
• There is now a second Trinket slot available, allowing scientists to equip two Trinkets at once. Due to the anomalous properties of Trinkets in close proximity to one another, Trinkets of the same type will not stack, with one Trinket canceling out the effects of the other. This also applies to light emitting trinkets, where only one light will be available.
• An active ammo type icon is now shown in the corner of the HUD by the ammo counter.
• Character movement on moving objects (like trams and elevators) is now far more reliable and carries motion more appropriately.
• Linked conversational characters will now properly reset regardless of which character you interact with to perform the reset action. This will also fix certain situations where some scientists became softlocked and weren’t sure how to restart the conversation.

Fishing Changes

• There is now a Fish Database in the Compendium, accessed via the Journal. Catching fish will fill out this database.
• All Rare Fish now have unique appearances.
• Fishing XP multipliers are now functioning as intended. (e.g. Nori Snack buff)
• Increased chance of receiving Dimweed while fishing from the Reservoir.
• Increased the chance to receive the unique fish items when butchering a given fish. For example, the Antefish now has a higher chance to reward Antejuice Sac when butchered.
• Resorted the order in which fish potential butcher items appear in the UI to show the more unique items first.
• Item descriptions and text have been updated for all fish, including unique text for rare variants.
• Fishing Waders now grant the Muckraker buff, which guarantees junk when worn while fishing.

Food Balancing Changes

• 8 new soup recipes have been added to make more use of fish-based food items as well as a few others.
• Portal Fish Stew and Risotto #98 soup recipes have been changed slightly so scientists don’t have to sacrifice the butchered items when making them. Portal Fish Stew now requires a Raw Portal Fish Filet instead of a whole Portal Fish. Risotto #98 now requires Raw IS-0098 Tentacles instead of a whole IS-0098, and a Carbuncle Mushroom instead of a Mushroom Peccary Skull.
• Added the Souper Satisfied buff to a handful of existing soups that did not already have a buff.
• Adjusted hunger and thirst fill values on a few soups.

Deployable Changes

• Changed the save data Armor Stands use to store their current pose. This may affect the pose of current Armor Stands and they may have to be set again.
• Updated the phrasing of the warning message on cloth rope when attempting to climb it.
• Spontaneous Matter Synthesizer bench upgrade now triggers slightly more often.
• Portal Toilet should no longer be exploitable by using it when unpowered or by rapidly getting on and off of it. Should no longer drain continence after leaving the seat. (Shout out to the heroes of #portal-toilet-discussions)
• The Chef’s Counter now only shows food items when viewing its crafting menu.
• The Chef’s Counter now has a Bench Upgrades menu where an Item Transporter can be installed.
• Enemies should no longer try to attack Figurines, certain wall-mounts, and similar deployable objects.
• Mod Creator Note: We are no longer sending or storing scale on deployable objects, as this can cause numerous issues with furniture and deployable functionality. We apologize for any third-party mods that this may break.
• New Deployable: Freezer. A deployable fridge-like object that stores for indefinitely, stopping decay in its tracks! Requires power to function.
• New Deployable: Hazard Fridge. A deployable fridge upgrade that also blocks radiation emitted by its contents. Requires power to function as a fridge.
• New Deployable: Large Aquarium. A deployable aquarium that can store up to 6 fish and put them on vivid display! Requires power to keep the fish preserved.
• Armor Stands now show the correct appearance of an item variant, such as a different color of Peccary Helmet or different styles of gloves.
• Carbon Bridges are now paintable, which changes their light color.
• Carbon Crates are now paintable, which changes their light color.
• Fixed a bug causing TVs and some other small deployables to not be stackable on top of each other when deploying them.
• Changed the save data Armor Stands use to store their current pose. This may affect the pose of current Armor Stands and they may have to be set again.
• Fixed oddly scaled collision on Bagwall Block object.

Item Changes

• Office Crossbow now supports an additional ammo type; the craftable, caustic Acid Bolt.
• Impact Hammer now properly ragdolls its targets. Increased Heavy Weapon ragdoll velocity as well.
• New sound changes for the Quill Rifle.
• Optimized skeletal mesh of Patois Rifle.
• Updated the material type on several items used in the Research (Invention) Minigame.
• Updated several recipes that were lacking extra items when performing the Research Minigame.
• We’ve made a major update to how items drop from resource nodes (like a desktop monitor) as well as items that drop from enemies. Items should no longer go flying off nearly as often, and should usually stay in the place where you’d expect them to be.
• Adjusted all shield hold positions for better first-person visibility when not blocking, and a tighter first-person hold pose when blocking.
• Adjusted soil bag mesh sizes in most cases. (Shrunk it)
• The Mountaineer buff from the Mountaineer Set Bonus will now work with additional damage and knock-back types, such as the Lab Rat and more.
• Kylie Trinket now functions differently, giving greater XP but only for the lowest ranked skill the scientist has. This means equipping this trinket will help you catch up in a skill that is further behind.
• Fixed some physical materials on various common resource nodes (some reacted like metal when they should react like plastic, etc.)
• Batteries are now more powerful at higher tiers.
• Industrial Battery now charges at a rate of 2, instead of 1.
• Carbon Battery now charges at a rate of 6, instead of 1.
• Carbon Battery now has 350 max battery, up from 200.
• Improved placement logic for deployable food items (pots, pies, etc.) More freedom, less hassle.
• Bionic Legs are now considered weightless when equipped, no longer adding itself to your character’s total armor weight.
• Increased the movement buff from Bionic Legs to 20%, up from 10%.
• Threat/Motion Sensor Set Bonus (both tiers) no longer requires the helmet to be equipped to function.
• Slightly expanded visual range of Neutrino Emitter bubble to match the actual range.
• Probably fixed an issue where the Neutrino Emitter particle would cause large framerate issues over time.
• Grenade type items now state so in their item tooltip.
• Updated all related artwork for the Vibrant Exor Arm.
• Fixed Mountaineer Set Bonus not properly canceling when the gear was unequipped.
• Hydroplant Workers will now drop many colors of Hydroplant Helmet.
• All types of Repair Kit can now stack up to 3 times.
• Items that have not yet been discovered will appear as unknown when viewing their recipe, if the recipe was earned by a skill or other unlock method outside of the norm.
• The Brain Sync will no longer sync recipes earned through skills. Recipes synced through this manner will be removed from the knowledge of the scientist who received them if the appropriate skill requirement is not met.
• Black Paint recipe now allows Any Glue, instead of just Giga Glue.

Vehicle Changes

• New Cart Recipe: Platform Cart with Headlights
• New Cart Recipe: Aquarium Cart
• New Cart Recipe: Hazard Cart

Portal World Changes:

• SCOOP THE INK
• Optimized some rocks in the Alps.
• The Citizens of Anteverse 23 will now be found wearing hats a bit more often.
• Citizens of Anteverse 23 should now properly display the color of the hat they’re wearing.
• Fixed some instances where Citizens of Anteverse 23 could appear inside walls or furniture.
• Fixed a bug where hats and backpacks weren’t removed from corpses of the Citizens of Anteverse 23 when they dropped these items.

Skill Changes

• Heavy Weapons (Strength Level 8) perk now allows for destruction of Vending Machines, spilling their contents, but permanently damaging the machine.
• Many jobs now have additional XP gains.
• Epimedical Bionomicist now gains +50% First Aid XP.
• Trans-Kinematic Researcher now gains +75% Fortitude XP and +50% Strength XP.
• Archotechnic Consultant now gains +50% Construction XP.
• Phytogenetic Botanist now gains +50% Agriculture XP.
• Somatic Gastrologist now gains +50% Cooking XP.
• Paratheoretical Physicist now gains +50% Throwing XP and +50% Crafting XP.
• Lab Assistant now gains +50% Sneaking XP.
• Defense Analyst now gains +75% Accuracy and +75% Reloading XP. (The Slow Learner Trait is still in effect.)
• Summer Intern does not have any additional XP gains.

Customization Changes

• There are rumors a Defense Team member went missing in the Night Realm. If you find them, you might be able to recover their ID Card.

Journal and Compendium Changes

• Some Compendium sections will now require a certain kill count to be reached to unlock them, once the other compendium sections are unlocked for that entry. These long-term goals will also unlock a special recipe upon completion.
• New People Compendium Entry: The Blacksmith
• New People Compendium Entry: Marion

Sandbox Changes

• Sandbox Settings can now be modified on existing world saves by selecting “Modify Sandbox Settings” from the World Select menu.
• New Sandbox Setting: Host can Access Death Bags. This setting allows hosts and admins of a server to access the Death Bag of any dead scientist. This will allow server hosts (or admins) to clean up or otherwise take loot from these leftover bags.
• To accommodate the above system for the time being, hold-to-equip retrieval from Death Bags has been removed, but may return at a later date. For now, Death Bags will open like a normal inventory container.
• Changed the Death Penalty Sandbox Setting for losing equipped gear. This setting now also removes the backpack the scientist was wearing.
• Sandbox Durability settings are now properly respected when calculating the decrease in durability after throwing a weapon.

Entity Changes

• Enemy spawning has been overhauled and is now much more prompt and should be far more reliable, with less areas feeling vacant or as though they are missing enemies that were previously present.
• Groupe soldiers, given their padded, wintry gear, are now immune to cold and freezing effects.
• Enemies now check more robustly if the attacker is their current target before allowing an unaware backstab or critical hit. Many exploits here have been corrected.
• There has been a slight increase in reports of Alpha Peccary.
• Fixed naming issue of a particularly Ratty fellow.
• Soldier enemy types can no longer shoot when swimming or underwater.
• There have been reports of IS-0091 invading people's dreams. These reports are to be ignored. There is no concrete evidence of this phenomenon. We would also like to note that Dr. Thule is actively working on methods for re-containment of IS-0091, if for no other reason than to stop these ridiculous (and frankly, paranoid) rumors.
• Reduced maximum range on Snipers. It’s still very far, but it was… Really really far.

Accessibility Changes

• Changed name of 'Loud Ambient Sounds' to 'Random World Sounds', and moved this option to the Audio settings menu.
• Misophonia is no longer on the first-time settings menu, but the other sliders can be accessed on the audio settings menu after beginning the game.
• Removed Misophonia setting, replaced with new audio sliders for a variety of sounds; Eating/Drinking Sounds, Breathing Sounds, Humming Sounds, High-Pitched Sounds, and Repetitive Sounds
• Added Emetophobia Mode to the accessibility menu under the Other category, which disables all vomiting FX.
• Changed Arachnophobia toggle to state Arachnophobia Mode, and put it under Other category instead of Visuals.
• Slightly lowered the volume on some repairing and crafting sounds.

Various Bug Fixes

We'd like to remind everyone to use the in-game feedback forms. We have received over 10,000 player reports and to that we say, THANK YOU. Many of the bugs fixed in this update were submitted by scientists like you.

• Fixed an issue where various journal interactions will prevent hotkeys (e.g. Tab key) from working in the inventory.
• Various changes and tweaks to lighting and fog in some areas due to new graphical changes in the engine upgrade.
• Some particles have been tweaked due to engine upgrade and may appear slightly different than before.
• Fixed a bug where a faint yellow circle is visible in the journal even after reading all the entries.
• Fixed a bug where the scientist who deployed a laser emitter can take thorn damage when another scientist with Carapace Armor is hit by that laser.
• Fixed a bug where laser weapons can keep laser-powered objects powered longer than intended.
• Fixed various bugs where a radial menu could get stuck on screen under certain conditions.
• Fixed a crafting UI softlock if you click a category while crafting is in progress.
• Fixed a bug where pressing Tab to close inventory doesn't work after pressing the Sort button.
• Fixed a bug where pressing Tab to close the Health Panel doesn't work after clicking on health entries.
• Fixed a potential softlock early in the game. Loot bags will never go to Officer Warren’s kiosk if the cafeteria door has not yet been unlocked. Instead they will go to a closer location inside the Cafeteria.
• Fixed a long-standing double encumbrance bug, causing no stamina regeneration when encumbered, when it should be 50%.
• Fixed a memory leak involving Cable Reroutes.
• Fixed a bug where a red dot remained on the map after viewing the associated entry in the Journal.
• Fixed a handful of items, mostly throwables, giving the wrong XP type.
• Fixed a timing error with the Disc Launcher reload animation.
• Characters will no longer uncomfortably look at your third-person camera when you are emoting.
• Fixed a bug where clients will sometimes not properly see the cooked state of a food item, making it difficult to really chef it up.
• The popup message for Delete Facility Save no longer uses an incorrect text string for the Yes confirm button.
• Fixed various typos in character dialog subtitles.
• Fixed collisions on some beams in the Labs. (Editor’s Note: We actually don’t know what this means, but we trust our level designers!)
• Fixed a bug where first-person legs turn invisible while wearing certain pants affected by Transmog.
• Fixed a bug causing the Void Pack particle effect to appear in strange locations.
• Save backups are now only triggered if there was a previous autosave, to prevent backup spam on empty dedicated servers.
• Fixed a bug where using right-click to Consume food items would hide the item from a third-person perspective.
• Revert to Default buttons in Settings menus should no longer show if the value is the default value.

Related Links

• Official post in Steam Community