Patch Closed Alpha 3

This version was released on January 31, 2019. The original post came from the closed alpha discord.

Intro
'''Patch Notes: Closed Alpha 3, Multiplayer. CL 92144'''

Happy new year, FICSIT Pioneers! (Is it too late for that?)

First update of this year is going to be a major one. You'll be able to unlock Tier 5 Milestones and you can now play the game in multiplayer! Bare in mind that we are very much still working on it and you might experience connection issues, crashes and other bugs. Make sure to give us information on any such issues via the usual channels, it'll help us stabilise the game a lot.

In addition to the new stuff we have also done a whole bunch of smaller and bigger changes/fixes to the rest of the game. You can find all of those in the patch notes below. :D

Hope you enjoy the update!

Progression

 * Made Tier 5 milestones unlockable

Balancing

 * Made the Vehicle Craft Bench crafting times coherent with the Craft Bench
 * Moved Space Elevator and Biomass Burner from Tier 1-1 to Hub Upgrade 5
 * Reduced cost of Tier 1-1 slightly and renamed it to Utility
 * Reimplemented hold to craft functionality and increased effectiveness by 60%
 * Added Portable Miner as building requirement for Miner Mk.2
 * Reduced biofuel energy by around a third of the last patches increase
 * Reduced mycelia yield of some mushrooms
 * Flying Crab Hatchers now spawn Alien Armor Plates
 * Moved buildable Craft Bench into first Hub upgrade
 * Move extra inventory slot from Hub upgrade 1 to Hub upgrade 2
 * Adjusted power consumption of Assembler Mk.1, Foundry Mk.1 and Miner Mk.2

Multiplayer

 * Set current play session to Private or Friends Only both ingame and when starting a new session
 * Ability to join play sessions of your Epic friends after they have exited the Drop Pod
 * Added session information when joining a friends game
 * The host can kick players from their play session
 * Implemented in-game chat

Buildings

 * New model and animations for the Coal Generator
 * Tweaked Merger and Splitter LODs to be less aggressive
 * Added a half-height Foundation and Ramp
 * Added Walls with Conveyor Belt connections
 * Added Walls with doors
 * Mesh overhaul for the Space Elevator
 * Updated Miner Mk.2 mesh
 * Added sound for the M.A.M
 * Added collision box in the trading post for the FISCIT Space Ship (this does not affect the actual Space Ships collision)
 * New model and animations for Assembler Mk.1
 * Added LODs for the Stackable Conveyor Pole
 * Updated LODs for Miner Mk.2
 * Minor mesh tweaks on Conveyor Splitter & Merger

Ui

 * Implemented the dark UI style
 * Implemented new Main Menu style
 * Changed the Overclocking knob to a slider
 * Added the ability to directly input Overclocking Percentage via the keyboard
 * Added equipment information on HUD
 * Added background boxes for HUD elements
 * Improved close button and pressing escape to close menu consistency
 * Updated the vehicle HUD
 * Updated the HUD visor shader
 * Made all inventory slots smaller
 * The M.A.M. now automatically selects the item on the top of the list, if nothing else is selected
 * Added more feedback for being in dismantle mode
 * Added an animation on the Compass when a resource is discovered via the Resource Scanner
 * Removed unnecessary icons from Portable Miner menu
 * M.A.M Menu is now titled Molecular Analysis Machine
 * Implemented sort functionality for the player inventory and storages
 * Save game input has a suggested save file name now
 * Space Elevator menu overhaul
 * Display for equipment information on the HUD
 * Implemented a curved effect for the HUD
 * Added ‘No Connection’ warning to generators

Creatures

 * Visual tweaks and VFX/animations for the Flying Crab Hatcher
 * Visual tweaks for the Flying Crab Enemy
 * Flying Crab Hatchers now drop Alien Armor Plates
 * Fire Spitters now have a melee attack behaviour
 * Implemented sounds for the Flying Manta
 * Lizard Doggo texture tweaks
 * Hog combat behaviour improvements

World

 * Water material improvements and level fixes
 * New cliff materials
 * Added oil islands by the beach on the west end of the map
 * Playability pass over all resource nodes
 * Tweaked the night-sun glow
 * Tweaked Grassfields ambient sounds
 * Removed/replaced outdated foliage and rocks within Grassfields
 * Improved the vista mountains surrounding the map
 * Implemented the exploration reward pass for Easter Dune Forest (north-east of Grassfields)
 * Cleaned up fog volumes in and around Grassfields
 * Tweaks for a variety of environment assets
 * Lowered fog density
 * Rocky Desert assets and level design polish
 * New red bush and dry bush for Rocky Desert
 * Blue palm tree leaves tweaks
 * Optimisation for the following areas
 * Northern Forest
 * Maze Canyons
 * Lake Forest
 * Exploration rewards and enemy placements for the following areas
 * Northern Forest
 * Maze Canyons
 * Lake Forest
 * New mesh for Sulfur resource nodes & deposits

Exploration

 * Made Slug VFX more visible
 * Made Gas VFX more readable

Equipment

 * Removed idle electricity sparks on Shock Baton
 * New in-world mesh for Beacon

Items and parts

 * Updated Biomass description to show that it is more energy efficient than unprocessed resources
 * Updated Steel Part meshes
 * Update Hard Drive description to specify it has no effect, yet.

Sound

 * Tweaks to the sound of jumping into / getting out of water
 * Implemented sounds for the Shock Baton
 * Added inventory interaction sounds
 * Sound engine optimisations

Quality of life

 * Audio sliders now apply their value as they are used
 * Players can Ctrl+drag items between inventory to move all items of that type

Game intro

 * Lowered the screen in the Drop Pod

Optimisations

 * Implemented the Significance Manager and added support for several elements of the game
 * Resource nodes
 * Crash sites and debris
 * Conveyor Belts
 * Smelters and Constructors
 * Coal Generator and Biomass Burner
 * Foundry
 * Implemented the Network Replication Manager
 * Optimised the most impactful animation blueprints
 * Reworked cliff HLODs
 * Removed shadows on low settings
 * Implemented spline instancing for conveyor belts
 * Sand layer glitter optimisation
 * A lot of material optimisations

Bug fixes

 * Fire Spitter projectiles now hit the player again
 * Fixed Craft Bench related audio bugs by adding a playback limit to the looping sound
 * Fixed that the Portable Miner disappeared when picking it up from a resource node with a full inventory
 * Fixed incorrect Crosshair states when dismantling and building
 * A bunch of fixes for level bugs reported by the community
 * Joel: Finally solved the popping bass loop track, hope everyone is as exited as i am!
 * Temporarily disabled the Colour Gun and Beacon colour picking until the game freeze bugs are fixed
 * Fixed fade and tiling problem with water materials
 * Chainsaw: Fixed playback issues that occured when lowering master or SFX volume
 * Ragdolls do not freeze anymore (hog still gets stuck)
 * Fixed several “random” crashes
 * Fixed crash bug when hitting an enemy with the Shock Baton after dying
 * Fixed a typo for the Jello Landing Pad
 * Fixed walls being incorrectly placed/rotated when building on foundations
 * Fixed sea rock materials
 * Fixed a bug regarding creature spawners, that practically disabled spawners further out in the world.