<Please note! This update will cause existing world save files to be deleted!>

Happy Thursday, Sleepers. Sit down, get comfortable, and grab a snack because this is going to be a long read!

Picture in your mind a snowball, rolling down a snowy slope. It starts out small, but before you know it you’ve got a ton of frozen destruction barreling down towards you.

That’s pretty much what happened with this update; with each passing day we squeezed in more new features, optimizations, and fixes, and this ended up postponing the update up until today. This is now *by a huge margin* our largest update since launch. Thank you for your patience during this period between updates; let’s dive into it!

—-Engineering and Harvesting—-



Using your IVG, you’re now able to harvest elements from various items throughout Eden. Object like stretchers, crates, and just about everything can be harvested and generate Carbon, Iron, Silica, etc. elements that can be refined into components such as Plastics and Metal. You can also Salvage items from within the Inventory, which will break the object down to its elemental components. Rare items can provide a large amount of materials, so sometimes salvaging a valuable item can actually be a valid choice.



These components can then be used to construct base building items, as well as enhance and repair various items. To unlock advanced schematics like Turrets and Hydroponics, you’ll need to construct F.A.B. and L.A.B. stations.



Currently only building items are craftable, but we’ve got plans to extend this feature further in the future now that the foundation has been created.



Another major feature of this system is the ability to Enhance certain items, and repair damaged items with crafted Solder and Repair kits (armor/weapons are now be damaged when the player is hurt). Almost all building items, as well as armor, shields, and Glyphs can be upgraded to + and ++ levels through this menu using crafted components. You no longer have to rely on luck along to get that Tricarbyne ++ set you've been dreaming of!

This is a massive new system which we think you’ll have a ton of fun with; as always, please give us your feedback to help refine it even further.

—-Tutorial 2.0—-

PAMELA includes a ton of systems. We’ve experimented with a few different tutorial schemes in the past, and our Tutorial 2.0 system is an evolution of those previous designs. We’ve created video content for each and every important control, system, and concept in the game which show how things work in great detail.



Those of you who’ve been playing for months already probably don’t need to see all of these (aside from the crafting section!), in which case you can disable tutorial popups completely from the Options menu.

Lastly, these videos can all be viewed at any time within the Tutorial tab of the AARM datapad (Press Tab, then scroll down to Datapad and left click).

We hope these new videos prove helpful to new players; please let us know your thoughts!

—-PAMELA Intro—-

Since release we’ve been focused primarily on bugs and stability, which has delayed our narrative plans a bit. With this update, we’ve integrated a new intro sequence after the Cryo Spawn cutscene in which PAMELA (briefly!) introduces herself.

We’ll be continuing this narrative thread in the future, so stay tuned for more updates in this direction.

—-IVG and Looting Streamlining—-

We’ve tweaked how the IVG and containers work, with the goal of smoothing out the minute to minute gameplay experience. When you hold R to scan now, you will emit an omni directional search pulse, rather than the smaller cone scan. The reasoning behind this change is that previously, you could initiate a scan and then spin around quickly to scan with the greatest efficiency; it didn’t feel great to do that, even though it was technically the most efficient way to scan. This new method gets out of your way, and lets you focus more on the environment as you explore.

In a similar vein, you are now able to open containers without scanning them by holding E on them for a second. If you have scanned the container, you can simply press E (the way it previously worked), but you no longer have to scan every container if you wish.

—-Re-Added Dyes—-

After some issues in the past, we’ve re-added Dyes into the world! You can find Dye Bottles throughout Eden, and when used, they will unlock to be used in all future playthroughs. You can assign them to your weapons, armor, or both in the Equipment menu once unlocked.

They’re to dye for!



………

I’m sorry.

—-New NPC – SEC-RTs—-

We’ve added a new non-hostile NPC to Eden: the SEC-RT custodian bots. They’re peaceful towards the player and other NPCs, simply welcoming you as you walk by. We think they add a great touch of flavor and life to Eden.



They can be killed and looted, you monster.

—-New Armor – Nanoflex—-

There’s a new suit of armor to find and wear! The Nanoflex armor is lighter than the other armor types, and improves your stealth abilities; you’ll make less noise, and will be harder to see with it equipped.

—-Loading Improvements—-

Previously, at the end of the loading bar, the game would hang for some time and appear frozen; this is because all of the lighting and mesh data was being loading in one burst. This unfortunately made it seem like the game had crashed on certain machines, even though it was actually working in the background.

We split up this data into smaller chunks, which will now result in smoothing out the overall loading bar. This will reduce the false appearance of the game having crashed, and also provide a much more accurate progress bar.

—-Unity Engine 5.6 Upgrade and Vulkan (experimental) —-

We’ve upgraded to a newer version of the Unity Engine. You may see some performance improvements, and the video playback should be quite smooth compared to how it would have been in 5.5. It also makes our lives a bit better, behind the scenes!

One interesting new feature of 5.6 is Vulkan Rendering support, which in theory should provide a nice performance boost. Unity themselves have marked Vulkan as “experimental”, and our experience with it has been a bit flaky so far. But, if you’re feeling adventurous, you can run PAMELA in Vulkan mode by adding “ -force-vulkan” in the Set Launch Options setting accessed by right clicking PAMELA in Steam, and then clicking properties. We don’t recommend testing this unless you don’t mind potential stuttering/crashing, but if you do feel adventurous, we’d love to hear your experience with it.

—-And much, much more—-

As always, find the full list below. There’s a ton in there in addition to what you’ve already read above.

Thank you again for your patience, and for reading this massive post! We’re so excited to finally get this huge update out into the wild; let us know your thoughts on all of the new features and changes in the discussions.

Changelog

Feature

• New ability, crafting: able to create buildables through collected elements from the world or by drops
• New IVG ability, Harvest: Most scenery objects in the world can be dissassembled into crafting elements by using energy
• Added an NPC Resolve system, when you hit an NPC their toughness will temporarily increase, making them much harder to stagger
• New Item: Bandages, stops the player from bleeding
• New Pamela intro with dialogue
• Added new tutorial system, utilizing videos to better explain complex concepts
• Re-Added Dyes into the world
• Pressing any key during into will bring up prompt to press space to skip
• New NPC, Sec-RT, to add flavor and life to Eden
• Newly Modeled entrance to the soon upcoming district, make sure to find it!
• Can now use elements and components to enhance items to + and ++
• New menu, Engineering, accessed through inventory menu
• Weapons and equipment now degrade from damage done to the player, can be repaired in the Engineering menu
• Two new buildables that, when placed, give the ability to craft more complex items
• Many new items that can be found in the world to facilitate the crafting system
• New option in the right click action menu in the inventory, Scrap. Can dissassemble any object into its base elements
• New item, Nanoflex Armor

Balance

• The way the IVG works has now been streamlined, there are now only two modes, Materializer and Build. The blue Materializer mode allows you to repair buildables, and deconstruct world objects into their elements, both use energy to function. Build mode functions as normal, but is now colored green. Scanning mode has been eliminated, but at all times the player is able to press and hold 'R' by default to pulse a 360 scanning wave that does the same function as a normal scan.
• If a player has not scanned an object, by holding the interact button they can open a container regardless.

Fix

• Loading improvements: loading progress bar is much more accurate, and should be smoother than it previously was with less long hangs during the process
• Applied a proper custom graphic to the Holowall Buildable, which should now look many times better
• Updated our pathfinding middleware, which now also includes simple local avoidance
• Enemies should no longer be able to spawn inside player bases
• Large Canteen now has its own unique model and Icon
• Refactored the background code for the inventory/loot/container menus that will allow it to be expanded upon more easily in the future and makes it more stable as a whole
• Made a few objects that were hidden but not turned off completely disable, saving a slight amount of performance
• Fixed a staircase clipping through the ceiling in the Promenade
• Fixed a wall clipping through the entrance in Garrison
• Sounds between inventory/loot/container menus are now more consistent
• Fixed some really ugly UV errors near the entrance to Garrison
• Fixed a gap in the walls in Garrison Level 3
• Fixed a keypad that was embedded in a wall in the Promenade Garrison Outpost
• Fixed geometry that was clipping through the back of some stores in the Promenade
• Fixed some Z fighting on a wall in FUD in Origin Station
• Fixed some Z fighting on a floor in the Promenade near Genesis
• Fixed some messy geometry in the back of the front desk of ARK Medical Cryo Clinic
• Fixed some clipping geometry on the roof of the ARK Medical Cryo bathroom
• Fixed some geometry that was poking out of the bathrooms in Arcadia Lvl 3
• Fixed some geometry that was partially cutting off a hallway in the Arcadia maintenance stairway
• Fixed a crack in the geometry in the back of the Promenade
• Fixed a window on the side of the Arcadia building that had no UV mapping
• Fixed a piece of clipping geometry that was in the back of Fraiche