QANGA Update - Patch Notes v0.0.25

Greetings, Cyborgs.

This update brings the full version of procedural contracts, which replaces the experimental version that arrived with v0.0.20a. It also brings police that adapt to how you travel, much livelier air combat, mining that fractures the rock and a sky that follows the real sun and Moon.

You will also find many improvements for AI and multiplayer, along with a long list of fixes.

What's New

Procedural contracts, the full version

With v0.0.20a, we launched a first experimental version of procedural quests to test the idea with you. It is now replaced by the real contract system, completely rebuilt.

Contract machines are located in post offices. Each one offers you three contracts suited to your level, and every offer you accept is immediately replaced by a new one. You can run up to three contracts at once, and each one takes you to its own site: camps, towns, farms, bunkers or relays.

Ten contract types, all multi-stage and all ending in combat or defense:

• Bounty: take down the camp sentries, fight off the crew that comes back for you, then search the stash.
• Courier Run: pick up a package and deliver it to a second site farther away, with possible interceptions on the way and rivals waiting at the drop-off.
• Data Heist: clear the patrol, plant the data taps, defend the site against waves during the download, then get out.
• Extermination: kill the nest guardians, plant incendiaries on the mounds and hold off brood waves while it burns.
• Holdout: light the distress relay, hold off the waves it draws in, then recover its core.
• Sabotage: clear the patrol, plant charges on the machines, get clear before the blast, then escape the team sent after you.
• Salvage Run: recover the supply crates, carry them to the extraction point and hold it against an ambush.
• Crash Site Recovery: extract the flight recorder from a crashed drone, collect the scattered data cores once its beacon lights up, fight off the raiders, then transmit the data.
• Mining Claim: extract ore from a seam, fight off the thieves drawn by the drilling, then file your claim at its beacon.
• Dead Relay: clear the raiders, run the power cables to the mast, start the reboot, hold out while it runs, then confirm the uplink.

Rewards in credits, experience and items depend on difficulty, distance and the enemies you face. The pirates from the old missions make way for the Voss, and contract enemies are marked: you can see right away who to take down. Every stage is announced on screen: new objective, objective complete, hostiles incoming.

Contracts are no longer limited to Djibouti: 117 other relays get a contract machine, along with four intranet terminals, and contracts can now send you up to 20 km from the machine, instead of 4 km. All contract texts are translated into the game's 11 languages.

Making this system robust already took a lot of time, and contracts will keep improving in upcoming updates.

Police that adapt to you

The police response now depends on how you travel. On foot, you get ground units. Behind the wheel, police hovercrafts driven by cyborgs chase you, more of them as your wanted level rises: when you stop, their crew dismounts, then climbs back in when you drive off. In a ship or in space, police ships take over. If you switch vehicles mid-chase, the units that can no longer follow you give up.

The police can also send a dropship: a Lavrik moves in above you, the ramp opens and troopers jump out, brake with their jetpacks just before the ground and drop right on you. The dropship doesn't shoot: it leaves once the drop is done.

Livelier air combat

Police pilots now fly like real pilots: they bank into their turns and come about in tight U-turns. Gunships watch over you from above while interceptors dive at you in strafing runs.

In a dogfight, a ship that feels you on its tail breaks hard toward you, then resumes its attack. It leads its aim to anticipate your moves, sometimes exits its passes in a dive, and drops flares against your missiles. The higher your wanted level, the tougher police ships get.

Space comes alive

AI ships now fly in space. Voss raids sometimes come after you, and police patrols pass by in the distance before leaving: space stays calm, but it's no longer empty.

Rock that fractures

Ore no longer shrinks when you mine it: the rock fractures into chunks that break off as you go, starting where your multi-tool hits. Each chunk bursts into fragments that fall, roll across the terrain and then vanish in a cloud of dust. The next chunks to go crack right before they give way, and cut faces take on the ore's tint. Stone, iron, copper, lithium, steel, oil, silicon and obsidian are all covered.

A sky true to life

The sun now follows its real path across the sky based on the real date: it rises and sets at the times of the season, and shadows have softer, more realistic edges.

At night, the Moon lights the landscape based on its height in the sky: under a high Moon you can see without it looking like daytime, and without a Moon the night stays dark. At certain times of the year, you can even watch real lunar eclipses late at night, with their red tint.

Improvements

AI behind the wheel: AI can drive a hovercraft, follow a route and get in or out of any seat.

Fire discipline: in a group, only one cyborg at a time truly aims at you while the others lay down suppressive fire: facing several cyborgs alone is no longer an instant execution.

Headshots: an AI headshot deals damage based on its weapon, instead of a fixed value.

Creatures: a creature that can't reach you flees, and chases you if you're on a reachable ledge.

Enemies visible from farther away: in multiplayer, enemies stay visible from much farther away: no more enemies popping in at short range right before your eyes.

Indoor gunfire: shots heard through walls are muffled and much quieter.

Discreet police: police ships arrive and leave out of your sight. When a chase ends, ground units move away before disappearing instead of freezing in place.

Safe areas: police don't intervene while you're in a safe area, and AI ships don't fly in them.

Air traffic: traffic ships spawn outside your field of view instead of popping in on screen.

Shared chests: in multiplayer, local chests, regular and large, are shared by every player, and their contents are visible to everyone.

Modules in multiplayer: modules dropped by enemies, police and supply crates are visible to and can be picked up by every player, and expire if nobody picks them up.

Cables: you carry the cable in hand, the rope follows the planet's gravity, your weapon is holstered while carrying and the plug rests on the ground.

My Death: the location of your last death is saved on the star map, including when you die at the controls of a ship, and it's kept when you relaunch the game.

Earth and Moon: their sizes match the real scale.

Performance

Idle ships: an unpiloted ship at rest goes to sleep and no longer weighs on performance. The slightest contact wakes it up.

AI navigation: AI movement on planets is much lighter on performance.

Bug Fixes

Stuck AI: AI no longer get stuck on or inside rocks, against steps and curbs, or frozen in the middle of open ground. They walk around tall vegetation, no longer scrape along obstacles like a parked hovercraft, and closed doors open for them. When the full path is impossible, they go as far as they can instead of standing still.

AI under the ground: no more invisible AI stuck under building floors.

AI in vehicles: AI sit on their seat instead of sinking into it.

Respawns: relay tower NPCs no longer respawn a few seconds after dying while you stay nearby.

Infected: they no longer grow larger than their normal size.

Shooting on dedicated servers: your shots now leave from your weapon's muzzle and hit AI.

Turrets: they no longer hit you through scenery. In solo, the refinery turrets no longer turn hostile because of their own rockets.

Explosions: missile explosions no longer hit targets behind cover.

AI ships: their weapons finally damage vehicles, and their machine-gun sound is heard again by every player in multiplayer.

Police chases: your wanted level no longer drops mid-chase, and ground units that lose sight of you come back toward you as long as another police unit can see you.

Arrests: captain drones no longer lose sight of you by skimming the ground, the payment zone opens, and the arrest properly clears your wanted level.

Prison: you now land in your cell, no longer next to it above a drop.

Police ships: they no longer count as Infected.

Wanted gauge: it stays visible while you drive.

Chests: deposits in local chests work again, in solo and multiplayer, and chests no longer float when you place them.

Build mode: the T and X keys no longer open the gadget wheel, and the builder help shows the right key to switch between grid and free placement (J).

Builder quest: if you already own a Builder, the deploy step is validated.

Modules: dropped modules now give the module that was rolled, instead of a default one, often Bounty Hunter.

Item piles: every item in a pile can be picked up, including those already in your saves.

Sales: sales are no longer refused because of damaged data in old saves.

Warp transporter: you no longer walk through the walls of the central room or fall through the floor near the stairs.

Trains: moving around inside a train is as reliable as inside a ship.

Death marker: it appears again when you die seated in a vehicle, and points to the right spot even when you open the map from a ship.

HUD: the HUD and interaction prompts no longer disappear after several visits to the contract machine.

Objectives: kill objectives count your progress (1/4, 2/4...) instead of staying at zero until the end, and hold objectives stay on screen until the interaction is done.

Day/night cycle: it no longer slows down when your frame rate drops.

Dedicated servers: quest items and AI no longer stay stuck inside vegetation.

Shader preparation: the counter no longer overflows its frame.

Crash: fixed a possible crash when a world shuts down.

The first launch may take a little longer while shaders are prepared.

Thanks to everyone who plays, tests and sends us feedback. Spotted a bug? Drop it in our Discord, it shapes what we work on next and helps us greatly going forward!