Glub-glub-glub, colleagues!

Please surface from the depths for a moment to scoop up this hotfix which will resolve some issues and add a couple more quality-of-life features. If you aren't encountering these issues, awesome, keep assuming the game is bug-free and perfect, and be sure to leave a positive review stating as such.

Please update your game and servers when you get a moment away from scientific study. If you don't receive an update, verify game files.

• Added some failsafes to fix progression issues in Security Sector. Reloading the server (or entirely leaving the sector and coming back) should resolve this issue and open the way forward.
  
• Fixed some progression skips in Security Sector, where keypads could be interacted with when they should not have been.
  
• A large fix has been put in place to try and correct missing triggers if a conversation is interrupted by exiting the area. This should prevent certain progression issues around conversations and buttons that are meant to be interactable. If you experienced a problem that sounds like this, try again now.

• Added support for sub-objectives. There are now two major objectives in the game that will show sub-objectives underneath them when viewed on the HUD. These will be obvious to anyone who is familiar with these objectives, but more importantly, new scientists should find it much easier to figure out where to go and what to do once these objectives are reached.
  
• There is now a new Gadget Bar on the HUD, which features things like Radiation from a Geiger Counter, Oxygen remaining when swimming underwater, and Jetpack battery and cooldown.

• A sleepless realm has... shifted slightly. Along with slightly more sensible navigation, GATE portable power stations (or possibly multiple copies of the same one?) have been reported. There are also reports of IS-1057, but we believe these to be fictional manifestations and not proper occurrences... We think.
  
• There are other oddities abound in this realm, but nothing to concern yourselves over.
  
• Added a skillful “Good” Reload animation to the Wessex Rifle, if your Reloading skill is high enough.
  
• Added unskillful “Bad” Reload animation to the Patois Rifle, if your Reloading skill is low.
  
• Corrected an issue where the Security Pistol’s “Good” reload was not properly following the normal rules for Good Reload Durations.
  
• The Deatomizer has received a sound upgrade.
  
• The Energy Pistol has received a sound upgrade.
  
• The Magbow has received a sound upgrade.
  
• The Portal Toilet now rapidly uh, removes unwanted material, making it much quicker to use than a normal toilet. Hopefully this will entice scientists to sit upon it more frequently, or even urgently.
  
• Our top scientists have corrected an unintended blood ritual involving the Portal Toilet. Thank you for your investigations into this matter.
  
• Dr. Thule took a look at your so-called Laser Katanas and has optimized the Laser consumption, as well as stabilized the beam. It should perform much better and longer than it could previously.
  
• The mushroom pads in the Mycofields seem to have adapted with some kind of bioluminescent material, making them much easier to spot in dark areas.
  
• The minimum size the aiming laser dot can be has been increased, disallowing micro-dots, even when Accuracy skill is very high.
  
• The Healing Briefcase is now considered a Medical item and can be used from the Medical radial wheel (hold X by default.) It also will not be sorted out by the Distribution Pad.
  
• The Tacklebox no longer requires a screwdriver to package or construct.
  
• There are rumors that the close-quarters combatants found in the Alps will now sometimes drop their helmets.
  
• Defense Bots now have slightly longer respawn times.
  
• Moved the red pain flash (when taking damage) to the HUD so that it appears in all conditions, including when special effects are active, such as NVGs or underwater. F10 will now also hide this effect, as it hides all HUD elements.
  
• Updated Keypad Hacker icons

• The Flashlight/Lantern flicker effect has been reduced some.
  
• Added an Accessibility option for disable Flashlight Flicker, which will entirely stop this effect. (Note: If you toggle this on during the effect, this will still require the effect ending before it takes effect.)

• Added no-build zone where Anteverse 23 is entered so that the destination cannot be accidentally blocked.
  
• A snowy portal destination now allows respawning at the entrance if you die while within it.
  
• Your hard-earned Hydroplant ID Card should no longer should appear blurry in some situations.
  
• The Facility trams are now color-coded and have other details to help scientists identify where they lead
• at a glance.
  
• Fixed a hole in the Facility near a radioactive pool along a tram route.
  
• Impact Hammer no longer has the Consume option on its context menu. Please do not ingest hammers.
  
• Fixed an issue where the laser dot would not show up properly on some enemy combatants.
  
• Fixed Night Vision Goggles causing a very bright and never-ending light to appear after teleporting. Magnificent.
  
• Added a HUD controls prompt to show Steady Aim (Hold Breath) when zooming in with a scoped weapon. This will steady the swaying motion more, depending on your Accuracy skill.
  
• Charging Stations have a new completion beep and it now beeps once every 20 seconds, instead of rapidly. Removing the item will end the beeping.
  
• Set up or updated the potential salvage items for the following items: Karate Helmet, crafted Storage Crates (all), Makeshift Spear, Makeshift Screwdriver, Hazard Crates, Small Ramp, Ramp, all Battery types, and the Magazine Stand.
  
• Improved reliability of an emergency broadcast playing its sound properly when first entering Anteverse 23.
  
• The Quill Rifle now requires a Vibrant Exor Arm to repair, instead of a regular one.
  
• Fixed the bug where threat sensor outline still visible after taking off Cascade Armors.
  
• The Crowbar 2.0 can no longer violently interrupt the sleep of a fellow scientist, hurtling them off into the great beyond.
  
• Improved plant ropes and their ability to pull scientists out of water when they are deployed over water.
  
• Snipers no longer keep their laser toggled on when giving scientists a good (well-deserved) kick.
  
• Modified sniper fire distant audio for better readability.
  
• Enemies can now more reliably perform their intended idle actions, resulting in more door banging, for starters.
  
• Fixed an anomalous visual issue causing the Wessex Rifle magazine to clip through the weapon.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Chef’s Counter would not be deployable via the right-click context menu.
  
• Added missing icons for at least one item -- no spoilers!
  
• Fixed a pop in a Quill Rifle reload animation.
  
• Fixed the hold poses for Exor Quills.
  
• Fixed several issues/exploits where certain items would award the wrong type of melee XP, or award infinite melee XP when used on certain objects.
  
• Fixed a typo in the Fog Lantern buff description.
  
• Fixed an anomalous GATE Security Crate in the Security Sector. This crate has had its identity sorted out and should be unlockable now -- with the right key.
  
• Note: If you spot any bright pink non-openable crates, please report them, as they will be exhibiting this same issue.
  
• The Talagi Magnum has been scaled up in third person, slightly.
  
• Fixed an anomalous visual issue with the Snow Gloves.
  
• Fixed an anomalous visual issue with grass appearing too dark in some situations.
  
• Added missing Crouch Fire animation to the Energy Pistol.
  
• Air Compressors no longer have durability.
  
• Fixed an anomalous issue where Hydroplant workers were, in fact, being caught dead in Engineering attire. Ridiculous!
  
• Fixed a spot in a corner of a Laser Lab where the level would unload.

We're aware there is an issue where some scientists are having trouble joining servers and receiving a kick message on join. We believe this is caused by a large influx of network traffic when joining and we're investigating a fix for this issue.

In the meantime, to work around this, we recommend trying the following:

• Have the host leave the current area or area where the joining player is spawning in (travel to a different sector or less "busy" area)
  
• Have someone else host the world save
  
• Have the host start a new world save, join that, and then exit and start your previous save and try joining then
  
• Reset VOIP in the Escape Menu when possible / make sure players are not using VOIP as someone joins
  
• There are potentially several other workarounds but these have worked for some people. Thanks for your patience while we investigate this issue.

Onward to science!

And do remember to come up for air - at least every once in awhile.

❤ The Deep Field Team

Strap on your flippers, Crush Depth is now LIVE!

Crush Depth is our first major roadmap milestone since releasing into Early Access back in May and it is jam packed with new content for your scientific brains to explore! As such, we’ll try to keep this short and relatively spoiler-free so you can get out there with untainted minds.

And if you’re not in the reading mood (worn out from getting all those PhDs no doubt) Community Manager Criss has new informative vlog ready for your viewing eyeballs:


The story continues in the GATE Cascade Research Facility - first with a bold journey into the dark gauntlet of Security Sector and then a big splash in the watery Hydroplant! Each locale - and other worlds beyond - contain new resources, enemies, and [REDACTED]!

For obvious reasons, that is pretty much ALL we will say about the new locations. We want you to experience and explore at your own pace and without any preconceived notions about what to do, where to go, or how to conduct your scientific progress. And yes, you can continue your existing saves if you want - though you might find a few changes throughout the early game too, especially with the new boon of Fishing and whatnot.

We hope you enjoy exploring these new Sectors and portal worlds as much as we enjoyed building them. And don’t forget to bring a flashlight.

Need a break from the day-to-day mad science? Tired of the same old Pest-burger? Grab some office supplies, cobble together a Makeshift Fishing Rod and cast your line! The new Fishing skill can be leveled to unlock fishing-related recipes and increase your general skill in acquiring those feisty fish.

With fishing also comes a whole new bait system (simply hold your Reload key to add bait to a rod) and many new ways to get certain resources - and a few new things you may not expect. And you better believe that Reload feature is a sign of things to come.

One thing you can expect is fish. You will get fish when fishing. Usually. Different fish can be caught in different types of water, and there’s even a few sneaky variants that may lurk below. As with most things in the GATE Cascade Research Facility, we’ll leave the thinking up to you.

Well, not everywhere, but a lot of it, to be sure! We’ve even added a couple new spots to swim and fish about! The swimming system has been updated a bit for better navigation, and some new items lay in store to help you where you might need it. We won’t say more on this topic, because we feel we’ve said just the right amount.

Food is now exclusively crafted at a new early-stage bench, and the right-hand side specifically enables the butchering of fish. To procure the meat and other resources from fish, you’ll need a powered-up Chef’s Counter in whatever hovel you’ve decided to call home.

The Temperature System has been completely reworked from the ground up to require a little planning, but much better feedback and easy solutions, if you know where to look. As you increase cold and heat resistance, your temperature gauge will change to reflect your tolerances, and you’ll now have much better on-screen feedback when it comes to the ambient weather.

Equipment will indicate if it’s going to give you a nice bonus one way or the other. There’s a lot more nuance here, and once again - use that big brain to solve those big problems.

There’s a bunch of new scientific deployables for you to invent which should fill out the missing spots in your base.

• Auto-Salvager
  
• Moisture Teleporter
  
• Carbon Bridges
  
• Carbon Barricade
  
• Carbon Storage Crates
  
• The radiation-neutralizing Neutrino Emitter?!
  
• THE PORTAL TOILET?
  
• This is nonsense, absolute nonsense. And this isn’t even a full list!

The Laser System has been expanded and there are now several new laser-based and laser-powered deployables. And some weapons, or so we’ve heard.

We could not begin to enumerate the threats and theories you’ll uncover (nor do we want to spoil your adventure), but we can give you a handy breakdown of a few new technologies we feel you’ll be clamoring for in no time.

• At least one new armor set, but probably more like three
  
• New goggles, of both the swimming and night vision variety
  
• The scoped Magbow
  
• Several new craftable Heavy Weapons, and major buffs to Heavy Weapons in general
  
• A couple new military-grade weapons, and Biomimic Armwraps
  
• A jetpack?
  
• That thing on the Exor’s arm??
  
• You can drive the SUV now!?
  
• The rest of this list is far too long, my fingers hurt!

We feel these weapons and armor will help you against the threats that lay ahead. But that’s just a feeling.

You can now level your skills all the way to Rank 15. That’s a high number (but not the highest we have planned.) Maybe there’s a few new perks along the way! (There are. There are a few new perks along the way.)

Two new bench upgrades have found their way into the Crafting Bench; the Metabolic Field and the Spontaneous Matter Synthesizer. We feel the names speak for themselves.

Warren has followed through on his threats and finally opened a small trading post. You can give Warren (or rather, his trading terminal) a bunch of different items, and more will unlock as you progress! He might have a few handy things for sale, including staplers. He also said something about strange dreams with orange skies, and reckoned he’d trade us a GATE Security Crate key if we could help him sleep a bit better. Weird. Maybe you can sort that out for him.

Dr. Thule tells us he’s spoken with several scientist passer-bys that claim the foggy Facility weather is too dang foggy. We got him a few cups of coffee and he spent a bit of time tinkering around and upgrading the Facility ventilation systems. We’re happy to report that it worked.

The Facility now has two sensible locations for venting weather, both Fog and Radiation Leaks. Along with that change, the fog itself seems to have been reduced in intensity, just a bit.

As we parted ways with Thule, he gave us a small bite of something he said he “fished up.” He called it Fogiri, and when we ate it, we could swear the Fog came swirling in just the next day! Maybe it was just a coincidence. Maybe.

Now now, don’t get too excited. We can’t promise we fixed all of the optimization issues some scientists have experienced, but we can guarantee one thing: we gave it a pretty good shot! We tore apart some of the Sectors and put them back together in a way that allows smaller chunks of the areas to load. The most affected sectors are the Laboratory areas - you know the one - and the new Sectors also benefit greatly from this. We’d like to do this with more sectors over time, but it does take time and a lot of care. We hope you enjoy these changes and we can say personally - we felt the difference.

Various micro (and some macro) improvements have been made all throughout the Facility. Let’s just run down another (incomplete) list, shall we?

• Holding interact on Charging Stations will now bring up a radial wheel allowing you to place any low-battery items.
  
• Holding the Flashlight toggle button will now bring up a radial wheel featuring all your available flashlight, weapon, or headlamp illumination options.
  
• Ovens do a ringy dingy now.
  
• There are a handful of new plants, and we’ve even added some new ways to get things that were previously one-offs. Keep an eye out for things that grow. A lot of food recipes are hiding just behind a suspicious leaf, if you get our meaning.
  
• A lot of food-related items have been rebalanced. See the full patch notes (linked below) for a more detailed breakdown.
  
• Widened some roadways (or hallways) in a few key spots for better vehicular travel, something we’ll keep an eye on.
  
• We’ve made improvements to the recipe substitute system, allowing more varieties of resources to be used in certain recipes. We’ve also looked at resources that were difficult to get and improved the rate you might encounter them.
  
• Certain cabinets have had their space expanded (such as Med Kits) but now only allow a specific item type. This can be disabled in Sandbox Settings, but we feel this balances out some of the overuse of high-capacity refrigerators for things that aren’t strictly food.
  
• The Compendium now shows when something new is unlocked, and what that something is. Look for an orange dot!
  
• We heard The Order has given Ornate Keycards to more of their troops. The reasoning for this is unknown, but it can only help us science folk.
  
• There has been an increase in sightings of IS-0407 in Flathill.
  
• There’s so much more we could list, but we simply can’t cover it all here. See patch notes (linked below) for a more detailed look at the changes.

Keep in mind the patch notes will NOT include new content, for the most part, as we feel discovery is a major part of the experience. Thank you for your understanding.

A good handful of achievements have been added - many will be obtained by visiting (for the first time or by returning) to your favorite portal worlds, as well as a couple new sneaky ones. Speaking of sneaky ones - let us know when you find the Hydroplant uniform.

We’ve also made some changes to the in-game bug report form[form.jotform.com] to make it easier for you to submit your bugs. It now has bug type categories to choose from, cutting down on the amount of information we’re asking you to type in. Quick and easy! That’s how all great science gets done. With your help, we will continue making Abiotic Factor the best it can be.

Be safe out there, scientists.


Be sure to update your dedicated servers and as always, please keep submitting your bugs through the in-game links so we can keep working on improvements.

While Dark Energy is indeed our next major, major update, we have a couple more things in store between then and now. A September Community Update? Maybe! A Halloween Special? Who knows! The potential is unlimited, but we are human, so we’ll have to narrow it down. We’ll let you know when we’re ready to spill the beans. And yes, we’re also looking into more robust Difficulty settings, because we know some of you just can’t get enough pain.

Alright, that’s enough reading outta you lot, let’s get in there and explore!

Thank you for all your work in the GATE Cascade Research Facility!

Onward -- to science.

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