Hello subROVers! We've updated the game to v0.7.31. Along with the planned improvements, this update fixes an important bug we discovered just a few days ago -we'll discuss it first and then we'll go over the update itself.
The Bug
The bug we fixed was making all moving seafloor creatures show up in wrong places. In practice, it was as if the game had no bottom dwellers at all: no sea cucumbers, chimaeras, grenadiers, etc.
A Grenadier, one of the "missing" creatures
There are several reasons why we didn't spot this earlier, mainly that the issue only happened in a game build, and when we tested builds, we were not specifically searching for these creatures. Since they are scarce, their absence didn't raise any suspicions; it was only after we made a change to make them easier to spot and track that we realized they were not showing up at all.
This is not to say nobody noticed: We were reading the comments in reviews that the seafloor was barren figuratively, as "there's the odd creature, but not enough", when they were literal reports. In hindsight, this also explains why there are no players' screenshots or feedback on these creatures to date.
Now that the bug is fixed, you should start coming across these creatures from time to time. They are still scarce, but scarce as intended, and we are already working to increase their number, density, and variety.
We feel very sorry for not spotting this issue earlier, and are heartbroken that the game has been missing these important creatures for so long. We are also immensely grateful for the positive reviews in spite of it -this makes us hopeful for the future of the game 😀
Certification 03
If you follow the certification dives, 03 is when you first reach the seafloor. This should be a special moment that fills you with excitement, but we had made the certification dives barren to remove distractions during the tutorials, resulting in you arriving to an almost empty, featureless world.
In the spirit of giving you a warm welcome to the seafloor, we've reworked certification 03, which is now at the forefront of all dives in several aspects:
- The terrain is completely new and anything but flat.
- We've applied new techniques to bring more variety and detail to the terrains, both geometry and texture-wise. In particular, we've improved the transitions between sand and rock (the little patches of sand on top of rocks specifically), and have better control on the textures' distribution.
- We've also improved the distribution of objects over the terrain (e.g. not placing them on the outer rim of the map).
- We've increased the amount of already existing objects overall, and added many new ones in the form of small stones and particularly trash (cans, masks, etc). This is not something we've been necessarily happy to do, but we'd like to present the seafloor as it is, not as we'd like it to be.
- Sea cucumbers are now placed independently from the general pool of bottom dwellers. Because of the aforementioned bug you won't notice this as a change, but it increases both the number of cukes and other dwellers.
Most of these changes currently apply only to certification 03; the other dives are pending a revision to bring them in line with 03 (see below).
We hope that new players will get a better first impression of the game after these changes -if you've already completed the dive, you can revisit it from the Dive Log in your Profile (you really should!)
Bottom - Dweller Tracking in the map
We've made a couple changes to make roaming seafloor creatures easier to spot and track:
- When the sonar highlights one of these creatures, the "biology" icon stays active for 30 s instead of the usual 10. You will see all icons disappearing except for one that moves -that's the creature.
- When the sonar highlights one of these creatures, an icon will appear on the map, same as with the water column creatures, and will stay for as long as they are reasonably near (about 50 m). That way, if you lose sight of a creature, you can zoom in on the map and track its location there.
Moving Forward
- We'll most likely use cert03's location for all the other certification dives.
- We'll revise all the dives to incorporate the improvements made to 03, particularly in what refers to objects and creatures' distribution (more of them, better distributed).
- We've noticed that some dives (cert03, Tokelau) are taking a toll on the frame rate when you're exploring the seafloor, and we'll take a look at it.
- We'd like to add several new creatures to the water column and the seafloor.
- We'll keep working on the Hoel wreck, which most likely will be the next new dive.
The plan is to release several betas and an official update when all the items above, except the Hoel, are completed, to then move full-time on to the Hoel itself.
in-engine WIP
Full Log
New Features/Improvements:
- Dives: Reworked Certification 03 - terrain, object distribution, object density.
- Dives: Partial revision of every dive's terrain (tessellation, smoothing, global texture).
- Dives: Added small stones and over 50 types of trash items (in cert 03 only at the moment).
- Dives: Increased seafloor creatures' icon time and added map icon.
- Dives: ROV close light made white and brighter.
- Other/Internal: Refactored sound config (simplified audio state management and external/ROV camera positioning).
Bug Fixes:
- Dives: seafloor creatures are not spawning in the intended locations (only in builds). This affects the following creatures, which in practice are new to players: sea cucumber, filetail catshark, blobfish, chimaera, angler fish, abyssal grenadier, and faceless cusk eel.
Get In Touch
Updates will slow down a bit this week for obvious reasons, but we'll be active if you need any help. Here's a list of the many ways in which you can reach us:
Here are the many ways in which you can reach us:
- From the game -press F8
- Through the forum on Steam
- Discord: subROV Server
- Through Twitter
- Through Mastodon
- By email (info 'at' sqr3lab.com)
Acknowledgments
We've like to say, once more, thank you to TheNorseman, who tested the betas, and to everyone who's sent us feedback.
PS
Again, sorry about the bug! If you now find one of the sea floor creatures, please post a screenshot!
Happy subROVing! ⚓ 😁
