Update v0.2.4966.22676

New beginnings: Gear improvments, Vulcan and Mimas Changes

v0.2.4966.22676
Type	Big Update
Release	27.05.2024 (Mon) 01:44 UTC
Hyperlink	SteamDB
Adjacent Updates
Subsequent	Hotfix (v0.2.4945.22690)
Previous	Printer Instructions: Sugar, Cocoa, and Cake (v0.2.4966.22543)
Back to overview of all updates

New crate equipment

The team has spent the last two weeks playing the first few hours of the game over and over. To new players who had their hands held in the tutorials, the reality of Stationeer's scope really sets in when you finally spawn alone on a world with no instructions, and a full lander waiting in front of you.

The crates serve as a means of encouraging the player to focus on one task. Throughout the years of development, as we added new content, or found an issue players needed more help on, we used up all the free slots in the crates, and sometimes put items in the 'wrong' crate just because it could fit.

We've made sure to split out the crates into more tidy packages to inspire you to use all of them to build different solutions to the problems in your base. To aid in still keeping the options and content straightforward, we've added some single use cardboard boxes which contain multiple items for a task. For example, the portable gas fueled generator is now in a box in the electrical crate, along with a small fuel canister, and a power connector.

We also want to note that there are lots of different types of people that play Stationeers, and lots of different ways to play it. We see starting gear as a separate choice from difficulty and we dont want to force everyone to have exactly the same experience. These starting changes are just the beginning of how we see the the system evolving, and we look forward to allowing players to soon choose between brutal bare bones starts, and comfy 10 player station building starts. And of course, this new system has been authored and exposed so modders, and players, can jump in and make the changes they want.

Vulcan and Mimas Changes

Vulcan is a fun world that offers unique problems, and presents equally unique solutions. However, we felt the first 30 minutes getting established were more daunting and stressful than just living on the planet. To encourage more people to try it, we've added some extra supplies that allow for basic problem solving without having to print as much in the first hour. The changes are especially noticeable in multiplayer, where players often had to wait around and not risk consuming resources for the first two days.

Additionally, to make longer term gameplay feel more unique on vulcan we've made coal much more rare and removed the starting solid fuel generator. Players will have to rely on the plentiful sunlight, or the atmosphere as a source of power.

Mimas, being a small moon of Saturn, ended up playing almost exactly like the moon, with the exception of reduced solar power, and an often comically low gravity. We have now removed water ice, and reduced the coal amount. This means a lot of the starting gameplay can revolve around players collecting volatiles, and oxygen to create, not just water, but also fuel mixes for gas generators, or sterling engines. Some other crate changes here also provide the players with unusual challenges, such as having to live off of dark craving mushrooms, or nitrogen absorbing soybeans.

Mining changes

Explosives have been in Stationeers for a long time, but never really fit well, with the exception of funny creative mode videos. We've made mining charges easier to use. They deploy and activate with a right click, just like using flares. The charge will throw and activate automatically, and the arming lever is only needed to be used if you want to deactivate the charge. They also now stack to 3, and the printing cost is cheaper, so its easier to throw a few in your pack when you go mining. Remote explosives have been renamed to demolition charges, and the remote detonator has also been brought up to a higher standard of polish.

Balance Pass on food

While playing the start of the game over and over, we noticed that some of the canned food was just too good compared to the work that went into them. We did a general pass on all the nutrition values of the game, and tried to make them all have values that reflect the nuances of the difficulty of growing all the plants in the game. We figured you would appreciate us trying to make food better balanced now, rather then waiting for a complete cooking overhaul. Comments, and opinions on these changes are very welcome in our discord, and on steam.

Changelog

• [Added] Insulated Canister Package asset for storage of gases at a stable temperature.
• [Added] First pass on new Vulcan start conditions including a second lander with purpose-built supply crates.
• [Added] Ability for explosives to have sympathetic detonations upon destruction.
• [Added] Cereal Bar Box with the same behaviour as the Cardboard Box.
• [Added] Lock interaction to Remote Detonator.
• [Added] Recipe for Demolition Charge and Mining Charge.
• [Added] Power Supplies Mimas crate.
• [Added] New packaging items: ResidentialSuppliesPackage, WaterBottlePackage, PortablesPackage, MiningSuppliesPackage.
• [Added] UI font files (art asset).
• [Added] UI icons for turbine jetpack (art asset).
• [Added] Volatiles filter and Pollutants filter to Misc Supplies Vulcan starting crate.
• [Added] Water Bottle Filler kit to Hydroponics Supplies Vulcan crate.
• [Added] Tracking Beacon to Survival Supplies Vulcan starting crate.
• [Added] Models/textures for cereal bar box, insulated canister package, emergency supplies box, residential supplies crate, Liquid Tank, and flags.
• [Added] Power generation info to Stirling Engine tooltip.
• [Added] Paintable stripes on insulated canister package (art asset).
• [Added] 'rmap' IC instruction.
• [Added] Glass cover to Remote Detonator (art asset).
• [Added] Item Emergency Supplies Box with the same functionality as the Cardboard Box.
• [Added] New CapsuleSmall Lander model with colliders.
• [Added] "Interaction" action for tradables and spawns.
• [Added] Dynamic device box, furniture box, mining box (art asset).
• [Added] Water bottle box (art asset).
• [Added] MovePlayer action for new start conditions.
• [Added] New lander capsule model and assets.

• [Changed] Temperature range of switchgrass to 0–60 °C.
• [Changed] Reduced coal spawn on Vulcan (similar to Nickel).
• [Changed] Food nutrition balance + yield changes for wheat and rice.
• [Changed] Recipes for CookedRice, CookedSoybean, Mushroom/Pumpkin/Tomato/Corn soups, cooked corn/pumpkin/mushroom, CerealBar.
• [Changed] Swapped tomato soup with cereal bar in uniform pocket.
• [Changed] Increased time for ActiveVents/APCs to be destroyed by fire.
• [Changed] Starting survival crate now uses the cereal bar box.
• [Changed] Demolition Charges stackable to 3× with new behaviour.
• [Changed] Reduced MiningCharge damage (player can survive 1 direct hit).
• [Changed] Increased print times, power usage, and material requirements for Remote Explosive/Mining Charge.
• [Changed] All starting canisters are now insulated.
• [Changed] CardboardBox is now renameable.
• [Changed] Number of upright wind turbines in Vulcan crate from 2 to 3.
• [Changed] Portable Generator output set to 900W (new units only).
• [Changed] Split starting crates across 2 landers + mining crate added.
• [Changed] Mining explosives drop smaller stacks and mine more per frame.
• [Changed] Slightly increased price of canned goods from food trader.
• [Changed] H2Combustor throughput to match Filtration Machine.
• [Changed] Mimas start balance (reduced frames/cables).
• [Changed] Some start conditions reverted to one lander.
• [Changed] Portable Generator output set to 600W.
• [Changed] Rocket UI auto-land/auto-shutoff buttons made more visually prominent.
• [Changed] Spawn action execute method now takes a player parameter.
• [Changed] Some food models updated to new FBX import without materials.

• [Fixed] Stationpedia search not working when game is paused.
• [Fixed] LOD terrain colour on Mars + crater clipping issues.
• [Fixed] Trader icons case-sensitive check.
• [Fixed] Cocoa powder blueprint incorrectly set.
• [Fixed] Laptop slot offset and hand position.
• [Fixed] Search task not cleaned up when clearing search field.
• [Fixed] Sensor chip orientation (art asset).
• [Fixed] Cocoa seed pack name.
• [Fixed] Null constructible in Kit WaterBottleFiller.
• [Fixed] Passive vent kit name in Stationpedia.
• [Fixed] Pipe damage by liquid tooltip text.
• [Fixed] Composite door blueprint mesh.
• [Fixed] NRE when spawn point structure destroyed.
• [Fixed] Crate mount arrows made bigger + removed empty thumbnails.
• [Fixed] Missing tooltip info for unfastening crates.
• [Fixed] NRE from AnimComponent when destroyed mid-animation.
• [Fixed] Ores not destroyed by mining charges during chain explosions.
• [Fixed] MiningCharges could not be disarmed.
• [Fixed] Tablet not working on ground/dock, atmos tablet always shows world atmos.
• [Fixed] Tooltip when eating through helmet.
• [Fixed] Network/plant analyser tablets showing incorrect info on ground.
• [Fixed] Invisible lever on Pipe bender.
• [Fixed] Stirling Engine OnOff button behaviour.
• [Fixed] Incomplete build state tooltip for rocket datalinks.
• [Fixed] Double tap F stops working in certain cases.
• [Fixed] Tooltips in manufacturing device search list.
• [Fixed] Tooltip panel flickering when changing size.
• [Fixed] Drinking Fountain tooltip.
• [Fixed] Capsule mesh overlap (art asset).
• [Fixed] Short shadow distance on portables.
• [Fixed] GasGenerator crash client to desktop in multiplayer.
• [Fixed] Portable atmos devices not releasing atmos when deconstructed.
• [Fixed] Loaded flare gun firing when picked up.
• [Fixed] FlareGun sounds/effects playing when picked up/inserted into slot.
• [Fixed] Interpolation reset when exiting IExitable.
• [Fixed] Robots respawn without battery.
• [Fixed] Ship repair package unsellable to trader.

• [Removed] Hardcoded LOD colour for Mars.
• [Removed] Duplicate plant analyser cartridge from survival crate.
• [Removed] Parent transform on laptop.
• [Removed] SetUpToolTipWithInfo method.
• [Removed] Seat from lander replaced with crate slot.
• [Removed] Deprecated data from startconditions.xml.

References

1. Update on SteamDB