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The New Content Update Lands On Kepler Today! [Updated]

Population Zero · Community Announcements · July 16, 2020

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Greetings, colonists!

Today, after 08:00 am EST/ 12:00 am GMT we are launching a big content update that will ring the changes in gameplay as well as in the visuals. We have also improved technical performance on mid-range PCs and as always fixed a number of annoying bugs.

Perk system has undergone a significant overhaul. We have rebalanced the existing pool of perks. Some old perks have given way to new ones. We are excited to bring new unique perks that will seriously improve your chances of survival.

Aggressive NPCs are back! They are now called Outcasts. They dwell in various parts of the global map in camps. Each camp has a secret stash with valuable contents. Crush exiles to get their resources and gear!

The global map has received several visual upgrades. We have added lots of new assets, for instance, it will be much easier to get around Hub and find necessary workstations.

And this is just a glimpse of today’s update. You can see the whole list of changes below.
Please, keep in mind that the update only affects newly created game sessions. It is done to avoid any “unwanted situations” and keep your current session balance.

Gameplay



  1. Temperature and thirst protection system has been reworked:

    • Heat and cold damage has been changed from 5 points per second to 20 points per 4 seconds
    • In order to craft Thermal Suit the player has to use Concentrated Blue Essence instead of Thick Swamp Mixture
    • Thermal Suit adds -75 degrees to the initial minimum comfort temperature
    • Warming Meat Stew adds - 50 degrees to the initial minimum comfort temperature
    • Desert Suit adds +30 degrees to the initial maximum comfort temperature
    • Adhesion Heat-resistant Suit adds +70 degrees to the initial maximum comfort temperature

  2. In Outcasts’ camp, players can now find secret stashes with loot that depends on the difficulty of a given camp. Players can get various resources, consumables, and pieces of unique gear: suits and armor
  3. Alpha Kvar, Sahrim and Snow Sahrim now drop unique resources required to craft new weapon types: Deadly Glaive, Beast Hunter Glaive
  4. Mobs that inhabit Red Moss and the Hub area will sometimes drop a new weapon - Silicon Axe
  5. In order to upgrade the Hub storage and acquire the maximum number of item slots at the Banker’s players have to complete several new quests. The quests become available upon interaction with the Banker
  6. When mining resources with an incorrect tool, players now get a pop-up notification
  7. Now, when players voluntarily finish a session and return to that server (for instance, by accepting a friend’s invite), the game checks if the player had items from one the founder packs upon exiting the session. Supposedly, this measure will solve the abuse of the founder packs (item duplication)
  8. When not in battle, the character is in the permanent auto-run mode

Perks



  1. The old perks have been rebalanced, some of the perks have been deleted
  2. New perks have been added
  3. New unique perks have been added that can be acquired for:

    • performing game activities (resource gathering, crafting, fighting mobs) in Desert, Swamp, and Anomalous Region
    • achieving victory in battles against mini-bosses: Alpha Kvar, Sahrim, Snow Sahrim
    • killing Voids (NPCs)


The Game World



  1. The global map has received new terrain
  2. New assets have been added: vines, polyps, and icicles
  3. Geysers in the Anomalous region have been updated with new assets
  4. Hub workstations are now marked with signs

  5. The path in the Drop Zone has become more obvious due to some lighting tweaks
  6. Outcasts’ (aka Aggressive NPCs) camps have been added


Technologies



  1. Water Flask recipe is now located in the Food tab in the inventory screen

Performance



  1. Latest performance update has increased the average frame rate by 5FPS on mid-range PCs
  2. The models of mobs have been optimized

UI



  1. The Teleport screen has been redesigned

  2. Public cocoon markers have been redesigned
  3. The waterfalls and river rapids have received new visual effects
  4. The “Quit game” button has been reworked (it was brighter than other buttons)
  5. The quests in the Quest log are now displayed in the following order:

    • Main quests in progress
    • Completed main quests
    • Side quests in progress
    • Completed side quests


  6. The text color in recipe description has been changed
  7. Until the player presses the Shift key, the game screen shows a notification stating that auto-run is disabled in the battle mode

  8. Item images in the inventory screen no longer come out of the icon borders
  9. The Lobby background image has been changed

Visuals



  1. The exhaustion effect (when the stamina bar is fully depleted) has been changed;
  2. The female character model has been redesigned
  3. Mobs and plants’ texture emission maps have been tweaked (visible at night)



Various fixes



  1. Fixed an issue:

    • that led to gaps and tears between the female character’s limbs and body
    • that upon respawning in the Main Hub kept the Sprained Ankle injury after death in the Drop Zone
    • that allowed voids to follow an aerial attack with another hit
    • when void’s strong attack did not deplete the stamina bar
    • when mobs sometimes slid when switching between targets
    • when the player could not see the “Help” button over the knocked down colonist
    • that prevented to destroy one of the leaves of Tier 3 gates
    • that prevented the player from filling the big flask to the full (50 swallows)
    • that prevented the player from taking the last swallow from the flask
    • that prevented the player from building a campfire/container/cocoon after a failed attempt

  2. Stash Container destructibility has been improved
  3. Lime and coal hitboxes have been improved

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