COOKING

Developer Comment: We've made a number of significant changes to the recipe system with a couple of goals in mind. First, we wanted to make it more accessible earlier in the game. Second, we wanted to give players more control over how they engage with it based on their playstyle.

The kitchen furniture changes are meant to encourage players to build out real kitchens, rather than just tossing a stove in some arbitrary location in their ranch house. We're hoping these changes make cooking both deeper and more rewarding.

• Recipes are no longer discovered through vendors or loot. Instead, they're unlocked by placing objects on or near your stove. For example, setting a Cast Iron Skillet on the stove unlocks a new set of meals including Flapjacks and Scramble.

• Kitchen Craft is a new bonus stat found on a variety of kitchen items. The Kitchen Craft stat stacks as more items are placed on or near a stove, which in turn increases the Comfort and Intensity of all cooked meals.

• New and Updated Kitchen Items:

  • Cast Iron Skillet (Tier 2): +1 Kitchen Craft, recipe unlocks.

  • Dutch Oven (Tier 2): +1 Kitchen Craft, recipe unlocks.

  • Kitchen Mill (Tier 2): used for making flour from corn/wheat.

  • Molcajete (Tier 2): +1 Kitchen Craft, recipe unlocks.

  • Pastry Board (Tier 2): +1 Kitchen Craft, recipe unlocks.

  • Pantry (Tier 3): +1 Kitchen Craft, 12 additional storage.

  • Wash Basin (Tier 3): +1 Kitchen Craft.

  • Frontier Cookbook (Tier 4): +2 Kitchen Craft.

  • Icebox (Tier 4): +2 Kitchen Craft, 6 additional storage.

• Meal recipes have been reworked for consistency across tiers. Most require three core ingredients, with an optional fourth for an additional bonus.

• Scramble's meal bonus has been reworked from bonus health to increased hip-fire damage.

  • Developer Comment: We want to emphasize playstyle differences over raw health. Hip-fire damage is an interesting choice for shotgun loadouts and other short-range builds that favor running and gunning.

CRAFTING

• Crafting at a Workbench no longer requires standing at the bench until crafting is complete. Once a recipe is started, the menu can be closed and crafting will continue on its own.

• Bison pelts can now be used as an ingredient in crafting saddles. 

  • Bonus: Decreased damage to your mount from trampling.

• Ingredients required for kiln upgrades have been adjusted to make them more accessible in Tier 3.

DEATH

Developer Comment: Over the course of development the system we’ve iterated on the most is Death. This iteration of the death system is an attempt to simplify the possible outcomes from death and make death more predictable. We also wanted to reintroduce the bedroll to the tent and add interesting decision making for players regarding tent placement. The main intention of this version of the death system is to give some sting to dying but not overly punish the player. We also wanted to prevent allied players from chain reviving each other during combat situations.

• Downed players now receive a short-duration Injury debuff. 

• If a player’s health drops to 0 with the Injury debuff active, they are not downed but rather instantly killed. 

• Dying with the Injury debuff results in a farther respawn location.

• The Injury debuff no longer stacks.

• Sleeping in a bed, bedroll, or at an Outpost no longer cures the Injury debuff. 

• The Injury debuff can only be cleared by using Salve or by letting it expire.

• The respawn system will now prioritize a bed or bedroll in close proximity to the death location.

• Wellbeing is now reset upon death.

FISHING

Developer Comment: The goal with these fishing changes is to add more depth, difficulty, interactivity and room for progression within the system. We are still evolving fishing and are eager for player feedback. Please note that the User Interface is temporary until we feel like we’re moving in the right direction. This system is definitely a work-in-progress but something the whole team is excited about.

• Mechanics: 

  • Tension builds on the line as a fish is reeled in. Too much tension and the line breaks. Easing off reduces tension, but the fish will use the opportunity to swim further away. Larger fish tend to be slower but build tension more quickly.

  • Fish will sometimes fight back while being reeled in. Continuing to reel them in will reduce their movement, while releasing the reel will cause them to retreat quickly. Pulling against a fighting fish wears it out, but this needs to be balanced against the tension building on the line. Exhausting the fish lets them be reeled in more quickly. 

  • Pulling the rod to the side increases reeling speed but also raises tension more quickly. Pulling too far to the side or turning around with the rod will snap the line (animations for this are still in progress).

  • Fish will sometimes jump out of the water. While airborne, they can neither swim away nor be reeled in closer. Easing off the reel during a jump is a good opportunity to reduce tension.

  • Each fish species has its own characteristics around tension, reeling speed, retreat speed, and fight frequency. More common species tend to be easier to catch than rarer ones.

  • Fishing rod quality also plays a role. Better rods cast further, reel fish in  faster, and build tension more slowly, making it easier to land larger fish.

  • Casts under 10 meters will now fail.

  • A fish that’s allowed to drift too far from where it was hooked will escape.

• Bait: 

  • The tier of bait now determines which fish rarities can be caught. Basic Bait can land scarce fish, Improved Bait hooks fleeting fish (only catchable at night or during rain and snow), and Premium Bait (and above) can catch all rarities.

  • Tree Sap can now be used as an ingredient in higher tier bait. When used, it lowers a fish's starting stamina, making it easier to exhaust them during a fight.

  • Bait is lost any time the bobber is lost in the water (such as when the line snaps). 

  • Bait is no longer lost when something other than a fish is caught.

• Gear: 

  • The Angler's Hat has been added to the fishing vendor. When worn, it adds a fish size bonus.

  • Angler's Gloves now provide a slightly higher fish size bonus and allows you to bait your line more quickly.

• General:

  • Previously rare fish have had their catch rates significantly increased.

  • The chance of fishing spots appearing has been slightly increased.

  • Lucky gathering (from Wellbeing) now applies to fishing, occasionally yielding multiple fish or other items in a single catch.

  • Wellbeing no longer influences the size of the fish being caught.

  • Placing a skillet on or near a stove unlocks a new meal: Fish Fry, which increases reeling speed and lowers tension gain while fishing.

LUMBERJACKING

• Axe damage and the relative effort to chop trees of various sizes has been rebalanced

  • Developer Comment: We wanted to balance the reward-to-effort ratio across tree types. Short, wide trees previously required a lot of effort to chop but were capped at four logs per segment, meaning very little output for the work involved. This was particularly bad for oak trees.
    
    Tall, thin trees are largely unchanged. Short, wide trees take a bit more effort overall but produce significantly more output. Large, wide trees like redwoods are a much bigger undertaking than before, but the log yield reflects that. A full redwood is now a team effort. 

• Legendary trees are now known as Ancient trees.

• Ancient trees now always appear as larger versions of their tree type.

MINING

• Four new abandoned mines have been added. 

• Many mine shafts have been updated with new, more polished visuals.

• Gold is now more likely to appear in Ranch mines.

• Gold and silver are now more likely to appear in abandoned mines.

• Higher tier mines now have a greater chance of containing gold and silver.

• Coal mines now contain more coal.

• Gold and silver are now more common in Stronghold mines.

• Quartz is now more common in Strongholds mines found within Tier 4.

• Tier 1 Stronghold mines now contain more Iron and Sulfur, making the primitive mining camp more rewarding.

HUNTING

• Pelt drop rates have been increased.

• Pristine hides now drop from Tier 3 and Tier 4 animals. Any skinning knife tier can now be used to obtain them.

HUNGER & WELLBEING

Developer Comment: In an effort to simplify and clarify the Hunger and Wellbeing system, the UI and the effects have been streamlined. 

We've also made some additional changes that will give players more opportunities for positive wellbeing in Tier 1.

• Both Wellbeing and Comfort have had their progress bars greatly simplified.

• Hunger no longer impacts comfort. 

• Entering a hungry state now pauses health recovery, while starvation will slowly drain health over time. 

• Wellbeing no longer affects health decay or healing. 

• Wellbeing adjusts the players maximum health potential.

• Wellbeing no longer affects the size of fish caught while fishing.

• Wellbeing neutral range adjusted to 90 to 110 Wellbeing (changed from 80 to 100)

• Hunger buffs have been removed. Hunger tooltips now display the effects of each hunger state.

• The comfort bonus from being near a campfire has been increased.

• Campfires now offer a "Sit at Fire" interaction, which greatly increases the rate of wellbeing gain. 

• Non-meal foods (with the exception of charred meat) now provide a comfort buff and satisfy hunger for 45 minutes.

OUTPOST VENDORS

• Prospecting Vendor

  • The Blast Furnace recipe has been removed from the vendor and replaced with the Blast Furnace itself.

  • Dynamite and the Dynamite Recipe have been removed from the Gun Vendor and are now exclusively sold at the Mining Vendor.

  • The recipe for the ladder is now available.

• Woodworking Vendor

  • Storage chest recipes are now sold by Woodworking Vendors (previously they were sold by Prospecting Vendors).

  • Limited Time Only items from Tier 2, Tier 3, and Tier 4 now appear more consistently.

  • Wall Light recipe is now always available. 

  • Log Holder recipe is now a Limited Time Only item.

  • Placed Lantern recipe has been removed from the Woodworking vendor. It can still be found at the Prospecting vendor.

• Lower tier recipes now appear more frequently at higher tier vendors.

VENDORS

• Global vendor updates

  • Vendor order of groups is now fully controlled by the vendor list. Previously, it was a mix of auto-sorted and fixed sorted

  • Sorted vendors by Consumables / Recipes / Wares / Parts

• Prospecting vendor updates

  • Removed Blast Furnace recipe and replaced it with the actual Blast Furnace

  • Removed Dynamite/Dynamite Recipe from Gun Vendor, moved to only Mining Vendor

  • Hooked up Ladder

  • Outpost now sells mining recipes too on occasion

• Woodworking vendor updates

  • Moving chests from Mining Store to Wood Store

  • More consistent Limited Time Only items showing up from Tiers 2/3/4

  • Moving Wall Light from being limited time only, to always being available

  • Moving Log Holder from always being available, to limited time only

  • Removing Piano Recipe (more to come here...)

  • Removing Placed Lantern (this still is sold at the mining store)

  • Recipes from lower tiers will sometimes show up at higher tier stores more often

WEAPONS, TOOLS & EQUIPMENT

• Tools, Armor and Weapons are now more likely to drop from the Stronghold Chests.

• Tool durability has been significantly increased across all tiers, with repair costs adjusted slightly to match.

• Repairability has been increased across all items.

• The Iron Bison and Hartspear now have unique models and sound effects.

• Tree Sap is now a required ingredient for the Volatile Fire Bomb. Tree Sap drop rates have also been increased.

MISCELLANEOUS

• World events have been separated into categories such as PvP and non-combat. Each category independently controls its own event spawning and does not interfere with other categories. This means that world events will happen more frequently and with greater variety. 

• The map User Interface has been overhauled, including new visuals, an updated grid, a new legend, and dedicated keybindings to help players find what they're looking for more quickly.

• Legión Sangre (Tier 4) character models underwent a major graphical overhaul, including new visuals, clothing, and textures. 

• The Syndicate (Tier 3) character models have been updated with new colors and texture patterns.

• The game HUD can now be toggled on and off using Alt + Z.

• Updated storage capacity on Common and Rare Storage Chests from Tier 2 to Tier 4.

BUG FIXES

• Coal mines now correctly appear in Tier 4 again.

• Many objects are now easier to interact with, including objects that are stacked on top of one another.

• Tooltips no longer overlap items displayed near the bottom of the screen.

• The Tanning Rack's Direct Sunlight speed buff now works on exposed balconies and no longer under awnings.

• All mine elevator buttons are now properly restricted to the ranch owner and their party. Players outside the party can no longer interact with them.

• Fixed issues causing crashes on AMD and Intel GPUs. It’s highly recommended that players update to the most recent GPU drivers.