ICARUS Week 248: Scoria Deep Ore Veins & Ghost Fire Fix

The primary addition in this patch is the expansion of Scoria Deep Ore Veins across the entire game. Previously exclusive to the Prometheus map, these resource nodes are now available on all prospects and outposts. In newly created worlds, the veins will spawn naturally across the map. For existing prospects, players must use the Deep Cycler, introduced in Week 325, to generate these nodes. This change provides a more accessible route to the technologies associated with Scoria for players who have not yet explored the Prometheus region.

The development team also addressed a persistent issue known internally as "Ghost Fires." This bug occurred when the fire system desynchronized between the server and the client. In such cases, a fire could be successfully extinguished on the server, but the visual effects would remain active on the player's screen, making it appear as though objects were still burning. The team explained that the fire system in ICARUS is one of the oldest and most complex in the game, simulating heat transfer and thermodynamics rather than functioning as a simple visual effect. To manage network overhead, the simulation runs independently on both the server and client, with the server sending state updates to keep them in sync. However, this approach occasionally allowed the replication system to skip intermediate object state changes, leaving visual fire effects active even after the fire was extinguished on the server.

For this update, the team implemented a cosmetic-only fix that cleans up lingering fire particles on clients when the fire has already been extinguished on the server. While this does not address the underlying cause of the desynchronization, it prevents the most visible symptoms of Ghost Fires. The developers stated that they are planning to implement a full fix for the underlying desynchronization issue in the coming weeks.

Other notable improvements in the Week 248 update include:

• Fixed an issue where the Forest Wolf did not correctly display its textures and fur when skinned.
• Reverted the Gold and Sulfur icons to their original designs, as they were easier to distinguish.
• Increased Sun and Moon position updates from 200ms to 50ms to improve smooth shadow movement at sunrise and sunset.
• Fixed a bug where using a taxidermy knife on a Piglet rewarded a Piglet Trophy instead of a Piglet Head.

Looking ahead, the team announced that next week's update will introduce Workshop Power Banks. This addition will expand the orbital workshop by adding a purchasable power bank that allows players to recharge their tools on the go. Similar to the hydrazine and oil canisters available in the workshop, the power bank will come pre-charged.

The update also includes a variety of technical fixes and content adjustments, such as correcting typos in quest and stats text, unblacklisting ResearchEquipment as a crafting unlock from the Ape campaign, and fixing issues with item tagging for Bunker props and quest items. Additionally, the team resolved a fire particle effect cleanup issue, added cliff rocks in the Desert area of Elysium to prevent light leaks, and made adjustments to the fertility serum audio and seed extractor distancing. The patch also includes fixes for Tier 5 text on mission cards, improvements to the Quarrite Great Hunt mission, and corrections to the Conifer and Forest Wolf fur display after being skinned.

Further technical improvements include fixing a division by zero error when a character is at max level, preventing the Spawnblocker from spawning at NPC healing locations on hard mode in Livewire, and ensuring scalpels appear correctly in surgical equipment for the Compliance GH_APE_C mission. The update also addresses a cosmetic issue where the radiation bar could get stuck on a small sliver of radiation, fixes a mismatch between dialogue audio and subtitles, and reverts the Gold and Sulfur icons to their original designs. The team also increased Sun and Moon position updates to 50ms to improve shadow movement and fixed a bug with the transition from Moon to Sun incorrectly setting the Sun as the Atmosphere light at night.

Additional fixes include adding data table validation to item rewards to ensure heads are rewarded correctly, fixing a mismatch in Ghost Croc loot values, and correcting the Piglet loot to match the Pig with a lower value and a 10% chance to drop bacon. The update also fixes the taxidermy knife issue with Piglets, resolves minor text issues, and adds full descriptions for Great Hunt missions and operator information in flavor text.

Looking to future content, the update includes the addition of a Tier 4 Seed Extractor item icon, camera adjustments for better viewing, and direction equation tweaks to help balance it in the world. The team also added audio, events, and blueprint setup for the Seed Extractor, with the Electric Seed Extractor now matching its processing state, featuring a new inventory size and crafting speed. The crafting speed has been increased from -50% to +50%, reducing seed creation time from 20 seconds to 7 seconds, and the inventory size has been increased. The Electric Seed Extractor has also been hooked up to a new destructible mesh, and visibility of the 'low seed' proxy mesh has been fixed.

Further future content includes the addition of a destructible mesh for the Tier 4 Seed Extractor, fixes to grass used in mission set dressing in RAD_C, and adjustments to the Quarrite Great Hunt mission. The team also fixed highlights on the Mission Speeder with a passenger, added hint text for stabilizing Rian via the HEAL device, and clarified the reactive properties for experiments. The update includes fixes for Dead Colonist blueprints, tweaks to dead bull component transforms in RAD_A, and fixes to the Dead Slinker blueprint in RAD_O2. The team also fixed dialog issues in RAD_B, updated the Malformation Fishing Rod recipe to include steel screws and inert uranium, and added a new shoot animation and montage for the legendary launcher.

Additional future content includes updates to the radiation weather storm data table and Niagara, removal of RB audio from the Centipede ready for an audio pass, and the addition of new animations and curves for the Crawler. The team also fixed the color and movement speed of the Centipede, adjusted its size, and added new temporary behaviors. The update includes the addition of new animations for the Beaver, fixes to the hitable setup for the tamed Kiwi, and updates to the Elegant Horse skeletal mesh with improved skinning and fixed textures around the hooves. The team also added a mount blueprint and initial development locked setup for the mount in the AI setup and mounts data tables.

Further future content includes the initial implementation of the Axolotl as a Komodo, updates to the Elegant Horse art assets and blueprint with the correct scale and a groom, and the addition of a new behavior tree for the Plant Boss Elite. The team also fixed the jumping landing location and arc for the Coastal Crab, updated the Elegant Horse textures and material, and added a first pass skeletal mesh. The update includes fixes to the audio and collision for the Plant Minion Elite, and the addition of new animation blueprints and animations. The team also added a skeletal mesh for the Ground Dragon creature, initial material setup for the Ground Dragon, and new Beaver animations with updates to existing ones. The update includes the initial setup for the Plant Minion Elite, the addition of an initial row setup for the Plant Minion Tentacle as a Caveworm, and the addition of new biome bonus stats to the Plant Boss Module. The team also added an initial row setup for the Plant Minion Spore as a Caveworm, an initial row setup for the Plant Minion Needles as a Caveworm clone, and the addition of an Axolotl carcass skeletal mesh. The update includes the addition of bones and carcass assets for the Crawler and updates to the skinning on the Crawler skeletal mesh, the initial setup of data table entries and blueprints for the Giant Beetle, and the addition of a looping footstep event for Crabs to better replicate fast-moving legs and give more presence to footsteps with various speeds. The team also removed attack audio from the jump, increased the intensity of Crab whoosh attacks, and updated all audio files. The update includes the saving of the Crab attack animation montage, the addition of a Crab whoosh attack with a duplicate of the animation to add unique audio, and further optimizations and tweaks to Crab footstep audio. The team also made adjustments to Crab and Scorpion footstep notifies to not take up too many channels unnecessarily, reducing them to the most important footsteps, and added a first pass Beaver idle vocals audio, event, and setup. The update includes adjustments to the Beaver flinch and death audio, the addition of an updated Crab animation montage to the Crab parent, and music balance adjustments for the coastal biome. The team also added Beaver chew audio notifies, duplicates of the idle animations used from Scorpions for Crabs so unique audio can be added to better match the creature, and adjustments to audio speed to match the animation. The update includes Beaver attack flinch and death audio, footstep notifies, and ground pound, as well as the replacement and update of all Crab attack voices with the v2 version. The team also added Crab aggro events, duplicated the war cry animation and montage to split from the existing creature, and added new vocalizations data table entries. The update includes footstep adjustments, the addition of Crab idle audio, events, and setup, and the addition of shell pickup resource node audio and blueprint entry. The team also added harvest coconut audio to the project, Crab death small and standard audio, events, and setup, and adjustments to coastal distant waves to be on a slow LFO to adjust volume for a more dynamic feel and ambience. The update includes adjustments to shell harvest audio, the addition of a new music track and data table setup, and the addition of trees, cliffs, lakes, and landscape sculpting in the Jungle, Green Quad. The team also added trees, cliffs, lakes, and landscape sculpting in the Jungle, Red/Green Quad, and made mesh placement, foliage placement, and landscape sculpting in the geothermal, purple quad. The update includes further cliff corrections, missed cliffs in the last commit for the blue quad, and the addition of impassable, macro, and cliff placements, as well as decal and landscape painting. The team also made adjustments and fine-tunes to jungle ambience, a rework of the jungle biome ambience and ambient creatures, and the separation of distinct bird calls from within amb to be isolated scatter birds and creatures for better realism. The update includes various adjustments to jungle ambience audio, the addition of newer combat music to the jungle and coastal biomes, and an increase in fog density at midday for Jungle Light. The team also made adjustments to Crab pitching parent vs small, adjustments to the coast biome, and the addition of a new loop, beach music, and jungle music. The update includes the addition of subtle ducking to ambience based on music playing and volume to keep the mix from becoming too loud, the addition of atmosphere stats for the coastal biome, and the addition of atmosphere stats for the jungle biome.