Signs of Life Update 23

Hey folks, we have a new update ready to go. The main goal with this update was to add a new area to explore, and to do a better job of introducing some of the mechanics related to the intelligent aliens .

I've added spoiler tags to some of these update notes because the intention is for folks to discover these things for themselves, but you do you.

You will need to generate a new world to see most of the new content, which is primarily located in the area underneath the Mining Base.

New Content

Reworked Mining Base - Expanded the area beneath the mining base in order to expand on the mechanics and lore of the intelligent aliens

New Boss - Xenostone Colossus, found in the area underneath the mining base.

New enemies:

Xenostone Artillery - Throws explosive rocks at players

Xenite Crawler - Crawler that seems to be infused with xenite crystals

Xenoid Hound - Quadruped creature that will try to run down the player and gore them with his tusks

Energy Plate Armor Set - A set of armor based on a new material introduced in this update called Energite. This armor has a set bonus that gives you a recharging energy shield that can block physical damage.

Titanium Armor Set - A set of high-tier armor made from the strong and light metal Titanium.

Mining Light Helmet - A helmet you can wear that projects a light in the direction that you're looking.

Titanium Weapons

Titanium Sword

Titanium Pick

Titanium Spear

Titanium Club

Titanium Bow

Titanium Crossbow

Titanium Shield

Xenoid Repulsor - This structure is able to pull asteroids out of space and cause them to crash into the planet. The meteors can be cracked open to find mineral deposits. Right now, the meteors can contain Platinum, a new mineral called Energite, and [redacted]. We plan to expand on this system in the future. It can be found along the bottom of the planet.

Industrial Mining Laser - A large, hand-held mining laser that can rapidly dig through tiles.

Strange Energy Leecher - A device that can leech alien energy out of the strange stalks with the glowing tips.

Craftable Thatch Tile Set

Energite Capacitor - Increases maximum Capacitor Charge by 250

New Recipes

Titanium Armor Set

Titanium Helmet - 3x Titanium Ingot, 2 Straps, 1 Buckle (Requires Material Printer)

Titanium Torso - 5x Titanium Ingot, 2 Straps, 1 Buckle (Requires Material Printer)

Titanium Arms - 4x Titanium Ingot, 2 Straps, 1 Buckle (Requires Material Printer)

Titanium Leggings - 4x Titanium Ingot, 2 Straps, 1 Buckle (Requires Material Printer)

Titanium Gloves - 2x Titanium Ingot, 2 Straps, 1 Buckle (Requires Material Printer)

Titanium Boots - 2x Titanium Ingot, 2 Straps, 1 Buckle (Requires Material Printer)

Titanium Shield - 6x Titanium Ingot, 1 Strap (Requires Material Printer)

Energy Plate Armor Set

Energy Plate Helmet - 2x Energite Rod, 2x Titanium Ingot, 2 Straps, 1 Buckle (Requires Material Printer)

Energy Plate Torso - 5x Energite Rod, 5x Titanium Ingot, 2 Straps, 1 Buckle (Requires Material Printer)

Energy Plate Arms - 3x Energite Rod, 3x Titanium Ingot, 2 Straps, 1 Buckle (Requires Material Printer)

Energy Plate Leggings - 4x Energite Rod, 4x Titanium Ingot, 2 Straps, 1 Buckle (Requires Material Printer)

Energy Plate Gloves - 2x Energite Rod, 2x Titanium Ingot, 2 Straps, 1 Buckle (Requires Material Printer)

Energy Plate Boots - 2x Energite Rod, 2x Titanium Ingot, 2 Straps, 1 Buckle (Requires Material Printer)

Steel Combat Armor

Steel Combat Helmet - 2x Steel Ingot, 2x Plastic, 1x Buckle

Steel Plate Carrier - 5x Steel Ingot, 5x Plastic, 2x Buckles

Steel Combat Boots - 2x Steel Ingot, 2x Plastic, 1x Buckle

Riot Shield - 2x Steel Ingot, 6x Plastic, 1x Buckle

Carbon Fiber Spindle (x3) - 1x Plastic, 1x Sulfur (Requires Smelting Furnace)

Titanium Bow - 4x Titanium Ingot, 1x Carbon Nanotube (Requires Material Printer)

Titanium Crossbow - 4x Titanium Ingot, 1x Carbon Nanotube (Requires Material Printer)

Titanium Arrows (x5) - 2x Titanium Ingot, 1x Carbon Fiber Spindle, 2x Plastic

Titanium Bolts (x5) - 1x Titanium Ingot, 1x Carbon Fiber Spindle, 1x Plastic

Titanium Sword - 4x Titanium Ingots, 1x Carbon Nanotube (Requires Material Printer)

Titanium Pick - 4x Titanium Ingots, 1x Carbon Nanotube (Requires Material Printer)

Titanium Spear - 4x Titanium Ingots, 1x Carbon Nanotube (Requires Material Printer)

Titanium Club - 4x Titanium Ingots, 1x Carbon Nanotube (Requires Material Printer)

Energite Capacitor - 1x Energite Rod, 1x Platinum Ingot, 1x Carbon Fiber Spindle, 1x Advanced Launcher Parts

Industrial Mining Laser - 1x Advanced Rifle Part, 1x Standard Lens, 1x Rough Ruby, 1x Microchip (Requires Material Printer) (Must be found in-world before you will get the recipe. It is located in a cave left of the lowest part of the Mining Base. It is accessible after getting some items within the new expanded area under the Mining Base.

New Strange Alien Spells

In this update we added a new set of alien spells based around the idea of being able to summon a helpful totem. You can acquire the first totem spell at the end of the new area.

White Totem: Once deployed, you can use the homeward spell on creatures in order to teleport them to the totem.

Red Totem - Heals in an area around the totem

Black Totem - Repeatedly fires a chaotic, powerful projectile

Orange Totem - Emits a moving flame wall that can set creatures on fire that are caught in items

Blue Totem - Emits a freezing beam that will slow the movement of hostile creatures

Purple Totem - Emits a damaging beam of energy that harms any hostile creatures

Green Totem - Fires bolts that calm hostile creatures for a few seconds

Yellow Totem - Increases the growth rate of nearby plants

UI Changes

Added a search button to containers, which will let you search through them for any items that match a search term.

Fixed some issues related to the item details on quick slots, including issues with changing ammo types.

Balance Changes

Arrows and bolts now do more damage the faster they are moving when they strike the target. This also involved a bit of a rebalance of arrows. Arrows should do more damage overall now.

We've removed the crossbow alternate fire with the fan of bolts, and have instead made the crossbow fire more like a semi-automatic gun once it is loaded with bolts.

We've renamed the Steel Armor Set to the Carbon Steel Armor Set, and added a carbon nanotube to the recipe for the components. Originally steel was one of the highest tier materials, but over time we've made steel ingots easier to craft, so we feel like this puts steel in a better place in terms of the overall gear progression.

Increased the amount of sulfur deposits and added sulfur to the drop table for ants. The goal here is to make it less annoying to get the raw materials for gunpowder.

Other Misc Changes

We recently changed the way picks work in order to make them more generally useful. In the past, picks would either break or damage one block at a time, no matter how strong the pick was. Now, picks can slice through multiple blocks per swing depending on how strong the pick is and how weak the material you're digging through is.

Fixed some slope tile collision issues. You shouldn't hit your head on overhead slopes anymore

Fixed some issues with ladders.

Improved damage calculations for explosions to be more consistent

Material grinder will grind more natural tile types, including dirt, mud, and tiles associated with ants and crawlers. Let us know if you notice any other tiles that aren't grindable and should be.

Added a map ping for the GPS device that tracks the Hypercapacitor

Added female graphic option for the background of the Equip window and the Cybernetics window

Updated container graphics for the side-pouches of the inventory

Fixed some graphical inconsistency with the various gems

Added new SFX to Material Golems and Xenite Remnants

Made most of the structures in the Pioneer Station and the Mining Base breakable if you have the highest tier lens installed in your MEG tool.

Fixed a bunch of miscellaneous bugs not worth mentioning specifically.

What's Next?

With this update, we're pretty happy with the amount of content on the surface and near-surface of the planet, so we're going to go deeper. Our next goal is to make the bottom of the planet more interesting as well as start to tie up the story content progression. We're just a couple content updates away from finishing the base story content now, and once that is done we'll be pretty close to ready to leave Early Access.

As always, we very much want to hear what you folks think of our new update. Let us know if you see balance problems, bugs, or if you just have suggestions for cool stuff to add by responding on this event, on the Steam Discussion forums, the official Discord server , or you can email us directly at playsignsoflife@gmail.com .