Patch Notes for Version 1.0.5.0 (695678) a.k.a. Patch 5

• Added an end screen after completing the story featuring instructions on what to do next (complete challenges, unlock awards and new costumes, etc.)
• Added an "auto-continue" option for dialogues to the settings
• Additional fixes and improvements for voice overs during cutscenes
• Improved several travel point positions
• Speed runners: The playtime now continues during cut scenes and in the pause menu
• Speed runners: Fixed a bug with the playtime getting frozen when SpongeBob dies during dialogues
• Speed runners: Added a configurable cumulative loading penalty to the options that gives the player a playtime penalty when loading a save game
• General bug fixes
• Improved support for the Steam Deck

New Features and Content
New Survival Mode Biome: Crystal Caverns
a new survival mode map taking place in an entirely new underground biome. It introduces a completely new rock excavation mechanic - you will have to make room for your base and you will be able to shape the terrain to your advantage. Resources are plentiful, but traditional ways of generating electricity work only to a limited degree. You will have to develop an entirely new set of skills to survive in the cavern system beneath the surface of Galatea 37. The new biome comes with a complete set of new species of flora, fauna, as well as new technologies - all described below

New Creature: Crawlog.
A fast, relentless melee attacker that may rise up from the dead if you leave its body intact.

New Creature: Gulgor.
A slower, more bulky creature that prefers to attack from a safe distance. Shoots volleys of cryo-damage projectiles.

New Creature: Necrodon.
A mysterious, menacing support creature that lurks the caves of Galatea 37, summoning crystallized versions of Galatean creatures, as well as resurrecting fallen ones. You might have seen it in some places around Galatea 37 before - it has received a total rework.

New Creature: Drillgor.
It's a very large creature that rushes for the player's headquarters at the beginning of each attack wave, drilling a tunnel for the other creatures to follow. It will generally ignore the player and tries to dig in a straight line.

New Creature Variant: Cave Gnerot.
It's a Gnerot strain that adapted to living in the new biome and taken on a new form of camouflage.

New Creature Variant: Crystaros.
It's a species that is quite similar to Stregaros but dropped its chitinous carapace in favor of utilizing crystalline growth as its armor.

New Creature Variant: Canomortus.
Its origins are unknown, but the creature resembles a reanimated corpse of a canoptrix and shares most of its behavior and properties.

New Creature Variant: Arachnomortus.
Similarly to Canomortus, this creature seems to be a reanimated husk of a regular Arachnoid. However, instead of secreting acid from its tail gland, the creature can form crystal shards to shoot at enemies instead.

New ambient creatures of the Crystal Caverns biome
Crysders and Crystugs - have been added to the Crystal Caverns biome. Crystugs are distant relatives of the Moltug species. They carry beautiful, crystalline 'shells' on their backs.

Added a new type of resource deposit - Wind Tunnel.
It's a spot of increased wind speed that allows the player to take advantage of wind power in the Crystal Caverns biome.

The ruins system is now complete and enabled by default.
Destroyed buildings will leave ruins behind that can be reconstructed into the original building for their full resource cost and build time using the repair tool. Ruins stay behind indefinitely, so you don't have to worry about them disappearing on you. Ruins can be removed using the deconstruction tool.
Expanded research tree with 75 new research items.

Added a new building category - Traps.
Traps are completely flat structures that trigger when an enemy steps on them. Traps have a variety of different effects that will help you defend your structures from incoming attacks. They do not require ammunition or energy to operate. There are six distinct trap types available, some of them can be researched, while some are available as bioanomaly reward unlocks.

Added a new tower - Loot Collector Drone Tower
that spawns drones that collect loot for the player within the operating radius of the tower.

Added a new tower - Acid Spewer Tower.
This liquid-based tower shoots acid projectiles that do not deal any direct damage. Instead, they leave trails of acid on the ground that deal acid damage to enemies walking through them.

Added a new building - Automated Resource Excavator
that spawns drones that collect resources of all types within the building's area of operation. This is a universal resource collector-building that can operate on multiple resource deposits but with lower efficiency than specialized buildings.

Added a new building - Energy Pylon.
This building is used to connect separated energy grids to the main energy grid in a given location. It has a long construction time and is relatively expensive, but it enables easy maintenance of remote bases without the need to create very long power lines.

Added a new building: Crystal Walls.
Taking your suggestions from the beta testing period into account, Crystal Walls automatically rebuild themselves after being destroyed. If a piece of Crystal Wall is brought to ruin, it will regrow back to its former self after 60 seconds. The wall won't be at full HP. However, it will regenerate over time as long as it doesn't take damage. Thanks to our community member, Piisfun, who suggested this feature!

Added a new projectile weapon: Bouncing Blades
The weapon shoots a spinning blade disc that pierces through enemies and bounces after colliding with walls.

Added a new projectile weapon: Shard Gun.
This weapon shoots crystal projectiles that deal physical damage and shatter into another projectile upon hitting the target. The 'splinter' projectiles deal 100% of the damage of the original.

Added a new projectile weapon: Immolator.
Shoots a fireball that explodes on impact, dealing area damage, as well as setting enemies on fire.

Added a new weapon: Fire Spewer.
This weapon shoots projectiles that deal no impact damage but set the impact area on fire. That location burns for a while, dealing fire damage to enemies and setting them on fire as well.

Added a new weapon: Acid Spewer.
This weapon works very similarly to the Fire Spitter, but deals acid damage instead.

Added a new weapon: Cryo Spewer.
Same case as the two weapons above, but with cryo damage and a slow-down effect this time.

Added a new melee weapon: Sonic Fist.
They are slower compared to regular power fists and deal physical damage instead of energy damage. However, they have a longer effective range, as each hit propels a small shockwave in the direction of the attack, dealing damage to enemies further back from Mr. Riggs.

Added a new melee weapon: Seismic Pickaxe.
It's a weapon that is similar to the Hammer but deals area damage in a different manner. Instead of dealing damage in a large radius, the impact force is focused forward, creating a narrow but long shockwave.

Added a new Mech Upgrade: Gathering Tools
Installing this upgrade module gives Mr. Riggs a loot-collecting drone, increases the mech radar range, and movement speed. Higher-quality modules also upgrade other, randomized stats.

Added a new Mech Upgrade: Discovery Tools
Installing this upgrade module gives Mr. Riggs a loot-collecting drone, increases the resource drop rate and mod drop rate. Higher-quality modules also upgrade other, randomized stats.

Added a new consumable - Sonic Grenades.
They are much weaker than regular, explosive grenades but have a higher area of effect.

Added a new consumable: Holo Decoy.
Once set, enemies will target the decoy instead of Mr. Riggs. The decoy has a large amount of HP, giving you a chance to escape from a tough fight or to target a specific enemy.

Added a new consumable: Cryo Sentry.
It's a cryo-damage counterpart of the regular sentry tower consumable.

Added a new consumable: Flare.
It's a throwable item that shines a bright light on the surrounding objects. It can be useful during the exploration of dark places where you can't set up permanent lighting.

Added a new consumable - Acid Cluster Grenade.
This type of grenade explodes into multiple, smaller grenades and it allows you to deal acid damage to enemies in a large area.

New Skill: Flame Wave.
It will send a traveling wall of flames in the direction that Mr. Riggs is facing, dealing massive fire damage to enemies.

New Skill: Antimatter Ball.
It sends a ball of antimatter (duh) that explodes on contact with an obstacle and deals energy damage to all enemies in its vicinity as it is traveling through the air.

New Skill: Generator Overcharge.
It sends an energy shockwave to stun and damage enemies and boosts the Force Shield recharge speed.

Completing Campaign Outposts for the Volcanic Area, Radioactive Desert, and Acidic Plains will grant the player a reward in the form of unlocking a unique blueprint.
The unlock will persist across game saves.

Added three new skins for Mr. Riggs
as rewards for completing the Into the Dark Story Campaign, completing Survival Mode in the Crystal Caverns biome, as well as one that is unlockable via bioanomaly drop.

Added a new bioanomaly variant
for the Crystal Caverns biome.

Added multiple new map tiles for the Jungle, Acid, Magma, and Desert biomes to improve map variety. This will make your Survival runs and new Story Campaigns playthroughs a lot more varied. Please not that your old saves won't be affected - only newly generated maps will make use of these new tiles.

Changes
- Resources, bioanomalies, and other points of interest that are detected using radar will show up as 'unknown' on the minimap. They will change to their regular minimap icons once they are observed directly. This change affects all biomes, so we would love to hear your feedback on this.
- Introduced higher difficulty attack waves for Hard and Brutal difficulties for the Acidic Plains, Radioactive Desert, and Volcanic Area biomes in campaign mode. The campaign mode should provide a better challenge now.
- Added Metallic Valley biome attack waves to the HQ attack pool after completing the Metal Terror Campaign.
- Added difficulty level scaling for the Shegret attack event. It happens more often in the Crystal Caverns biome and is more significant than it used to be.
- Flammable objects will now catch fire from incidental sources such as burning debris spawned from explosions. Even more wildfires!
- Stone and Metal-based lifeforms are no longer flammable.
- Changed the Carbonium Power Plant energy output from 50/100/150 to 60/120/180.
- Increased the Arachnoid Sentinel 'aggressive' state trigger distance to match other species.
- Introduced a large number of improvements and fixes to our GUI. With these changes, implementing navigation and interaction functionalities should be a lot easier for us and less buggy.
- Volcanic Rock Rain in Magma Survival has been shortened (30-90 seconds changed to 30-60).
- Large Cryoplant collisions are now slightly smaller, making it easier to navigate the biome.
- Wild Phirians will no longer attack other units on the map.
- Added a cheat command: cheat_buildings_ignore_limits. It will allow you to build any number of cap-limited buildings, such as traps, armories or communication hubs.
- Added a cheat command: cheat_unlimited_activations. It will allow traps to stay functional indefinitely, with no activation limit.
- Added support for destructible rock patterns and light mask materials spanning over multiple tiles. You can now create custom masks that are larger than one tile when creating modded maps in the Crystal Caverns biome.
- The game will now display a warning icon on saves that were created with mods if any of those mods are missing.

Graphics
- Added volumetric lighting. This rendering technique adds advanced lighting effects to the scene to better simulate fog, air density, and other aerosols. It allows the viewer to see beams of light shining across the environment. All biomes in the game have been updated with the new lighting and fog settings. This option is enabled by default for all users, as it is compatible with both DX11 and DX12 systems.
- Added a per-object, camera-based object culling system that allows the player to see through tall objects. Rocks will no longer obstruct your view when passing underneath rock arches. All game tiles have been adapted to take advantage of this technique.
- Rendering upgrade: Tiled Deferred Shading. This rendering technique handles scenes with large numbers of dynamic lights more efficiently. It provides a 10-15% GPU performance boost on average.
- Improved non-raytraced soft shadows. The shadows now look much more natural and feature a variable penumbra. In human terms - shadows will be sharper and more defined at noon and more subtle in the morning when the sun is softer.
- Added two new loading screen artworks for the Crystal Caverns biome.
- Added a custom Rift Station icon for the minimap to make locating it easier, especially in large bases.
- Added an 'unknown' marker icon for the minimap. This icon appears when the player has discovered something important with their radar but has not yet revealed what it is from within the fog of war.
- Added a custom minimap icon for bioanomalies.
- Changed the icon of railgun towers in the Alien Research tab of the Research screen.

Sound
- Added a new music playlist - anticipation. A new set of "anticipation" music is played in a loop to prepare the player for an incoming significant attack wave. At present, it triggers when you upgrade the Headquarters, before each significant attack in the Story Campaign, and during the final sequence of the Survival Run.

Fixes
- Introduced a huge number of fixes and optimizations to nearly all game systems. Most of the changes we made have been aimed at the multiplayer portion of the game, but they should still positively affect the game's stability and performance.
- Made changes to the random volume selection algorithm to prevent objectives from spawning in one area all the time.
- Fixed numerous crashes and errors - way too many to list.

- Fixed a crash in wave_ground.lua script.
- Fixed a crash when TurretDesc is missing.
- Fixed a crash in BuildingDb.
- Fixed a crash in ResourceLocalGraph is the resource is null.
- Fixed a crash in TerrainGridPatch system.
- Fixed a crash after pressing the 'Stop Research' button.
- Fixed a crash in the InventorySystem.
- Fixed an issue that caused some buildings to stop repairing at 99.9%.
- Fixed multiple problems connected with loading saves created with mods.
- Fixed a problem that caused some consumables not to replenish.
- Fixed a problem that caused the Game Configuration Tool not to store settings properly.
- Added new and previously missing localization strings for popups and settings.
- Fixed an error that caused a wrong video file to be played sometimes.
- Fixed a problem that caused some text in game to display as @@@@@ instead of regular characters.
- Few minor fixes in German localization plus added some previously unlocalized German strings.
- Fixed missing objective translation in the final Caverns story mission.
- Added advanced and rare resource costs to the new expansion equipment - more advanced blueprints were missing additional costs.
- Treasure Hunter` achievement will now only trigger on maps that have underground treasures present.
- Achievements: limit `Forbidden Knowledge` to Campaign and Survival Mode to prevent players from getting this achievement in Prologue.
- Rocks in Crystal Caversn biome have been rebaked and optimized, reducing their polygon numbers.
- Fixed an issue with Mr. Riggs' flashlight and time of day desynchronization.

Main Branch: 1.0.67279 Release 05/31/2023

Headline Changes
Alliance Victory is now possible in single player
Minor cities are now easier to create
The turn summary popup has been improved

Design
Alliance Victory is now possible in single player (this was previously MP only)
Impassable tiles no longer need to be owned for Minor Cities
Found Religion project cost reduced from 80 to 60 civics
Land tribe units no longer pillage water tiles
Distant raids can now now occur for coastal cities and contain ships of the same type the city is able to build
Added a 10-turn memory for tribal invasions. Truce offers via the Matchmaker event will no longer happen with a recently invaded tribe.
Tribal units are 25% more expensive to hire if the tribe is currently invading you
Tribal leaders are now eligible marriage candidates
Control 3 specialists ambition changed to 5 specialists
Favored laws rebalanced
Chaste trait is no longer a strength
Free ship tech cards will no longer appear until the player owns a coast tile.
Free ships will appear in the player's borders if possible.
Exploring trait now gives +20XP per turn


Programming
AI tile improvement selection improvements
Improved accuracy of AI specialist evaluation
Improved AI water control - now uses ships when a land path is blocked by truced nations
Unity service authentication limited to 5 retries, unless the authentication expired in the middle of a network game. This prevents repeating errors when playing offline.
Converting a server game to cloud now unloads the server

UI
Steam Deck controller improvements
Improved turn summary display and added OK button
Reordered turn summary categories, injuries are now shown above deaths in the turn summary
Added player option to omit replay data from saved games. This will substantially reduce save game file size. Undo and replay data will be held in memory and available during a game session.
Luxury panel now shows happiness/discontent rate for cities, luxury name changed to icon (to prevent overlap issues)
Added tech prereq to 'free tech' encyclopedia entries
Damage preview now shows reduction in fortify meter
Carthage scenario 3 now uses a generic progress meter for showing Naval Dominance
Added support for navigating file browser entries with up/down arrow keys
Negative yields no longer shown on tile labels in city screen
Ill, Wounded and Incubated traits now remain after death (to give more clues as to how a character died
Mission target shown on mission buttons when applicable
Missions added via DLC now indicate this in the mission help
Added tooltip for historical info button
All links that open a web browser now display the URL in their tooltip
Confirmation popup on exiting game will no longer appear when the game has just been saved or when a client in a network game
Team games no longer show 'Waiting for...' message for players that have been eliminated
Added yield effect of laws to tooltip help text
Improved city help text

Bugs Fixed
Fixed progress tooltip for religious ambitions if the ambition has not yet been started
Fixed empty tile tooltips appearing on boundary tiles
Fixed bug with unavailable trait and Semesters turnscale
Fixed helptext for strength breakdown and Tough promotion
Fixed inaccurate governor preview
Fixed specialist and governor yield help text
Fixed some animation/sound/tile text/camera bugs during AI turn
Fixed issue where camera would sometimes pan to a location without showing the unit action
Fixed some minor issues in Carthage scenario 3
Fixed HUD scaling slider value range
Fix for swapping units mid-move-animation leading to incorrect placement of unit icons
Fixed server host not automatically rejoining game after server has been recreated
Fixed some AI thread safety issues
Fixed highlighting behavior on orders widget in no characters mode
Fixed bug with Council yield breakdown
Fixed unit cost increase help
Fixed random and competitive preset options
Fixed Convert to State Religion leader mission
Eliminated tribes no longer generate new leaders
Fix for being offered a foreign leader as a suitor
Fixed searchable dropdown text editing issue in event browser
Draggable click fix
Fixed unit display issues when using GPU animations
Fixed display issues for horses and harbors
Fixed inconsistent play/pause button graphic, turn processing text overlap
Fixed rename city button not working from selected city screen
Fixed resolution getting re-applied on exiting options menu when no options were changed
Fixed hotseat hang when skipping animations
Fixed embedded link helptext issue with goals/ambitions
Fixed tribe alliance icon color
Fixed city production category toggles
Fixed missing icon for ping reminders in turn summary
Fixed city tooltip not populating when accessed via locked tile tooltip
Fixed issue with conditional text not displaying correctly in events
Text and event fixes

Patch 1.9.4.7 Is Now Available!

Hello everyone!

Patch 1.9.4.7 has been applied to the game.

Here are the details:

Fixes

• Crash after switching from the Refectory to a Dorm (Monastery) and adding a new part
• Crash on load under specific conditions

Thanks and have fun!

1.0.5 - Kraken Released

A preface from the developer
This is a very special update, so this time, I felt it’s a good idea to start with a short foreword from the developer. I started making this game back in 2018, and after five years of development, it is finally ready for a full 1.0 release.

We have planned our official 1.0 release for 2023/07/21.

However, the 1.0 build we will be shipping is ready now. Much work still needs to be done outside the development itself - we have agreements to sign, press releases to write, parties to schedule and marketing decisions to make, and much more.

I am releasing this version to you early as a thank you to all of you. You have been with me for the whole development journey, through times good and bad, through despair and laughter. Without all of you, ΔV would not become financially self-sustaining and would most likely not arrive in its current state.

Thank you, and enjoy your special peek into 1.0!

What comes next?
The game will stay this way for a few weeks, during which we’ll prepare everything required for a launch. You might see bugfixes published, should any bugs be discovered, but no new features come in until the big party and official release.

After the release, I’ll resume the normal development process, with new features and fixes coming up at the rate you were accustomed to. While 1.0 marks the point where I felt the game is complete, I still have ideas for new stories to tell, upgrades to make, and ships to pilot. ΔV was designed to be extendable, and as new content releases, it will integrate seamlessly into your existing game.

Maintenance Logs
- Departing from one moonlet to another through astrogation could cause twin moonlets to appear at your destinations.
- Added new encounters and dialogues as a consequence of destroying some ships and stations. This includes dialogues for the relevant crew.
- Some enemies will now want to take revenge upon you instead of extorting money from you. Encounters with opponents that want you dead and try to use everything at their disposal to do so are more challenging.
- Services provided by factions that you destroy or severely damage by your actions will no longer be available.
- Fixed the "Inside Job" achievement, which was not awarded. It will be awarded retroactively when you load an eligible save.
- Fixed lighting on the Enceladus Dive Summary screen, which could have some of the ore unshaded if you brought back a large output.
- Updated translations.

Patch notes v3.1.8.32751:

- Fixed an issue in Cross of Vidar Mission 9 related to Signy
- Fixed the start of Rig's Saga mission 5, where buildings were not properly set on fire
- Fixed an issue where the visibility of the other player's bar on the victory screen was incorrect, even without having met them
- Fixed an issue with the WC speed attack in conjunction with leadership and axe forge
- Fixed a problem where lobbies could be created with offensive names, ensuring a more positive and respectful environment
- Fixed a bug where the military meal did not function properly for allies
- Fixed the UI values for meals provided to allies
- Mercenaries and Spectral warriors will be affected by the bloodbath ability
- Fixed an issue with the "+2 Happiness" bonus in Conquest mode not functioning as intended
- Fixed an issue during the conquest mission "How to Train your Wyvern" where the egg failed to hatch
- Fixed an autosave issue in Conquest mode where the system incorrectly believed a finished battle was still in progress
- Fixed an issue in the Conquest mission "No Gods Or Masters" where AI opponents were able to pick blessings
- Fixed a calculation error in the last conquest bonus for the Raven, where mercenaries were incorrectly counted for the timer and cost
- Fixed an issue in the conquest mission "Bifrost" for the Clan of the Lion
- Added a new visual indicator for lobbies that have already started, indicating the availability of a spectator slot
- Fixed various localization and text issues for improved clarity and accuracy

Known issue

- Glitch on Squirrel meal UI if an ally is selected