v1.8 Experimental I

I've now managed to get to Omicron with a warp SV, after having teleported there. Like the fact you are given both options in the asteroid field! The planet looks amazing, really well done.

Overall, I liked the new start and how it is set up, with one caveat: Akua is at the moment o easy, but that seems to be at least in part due to the strange non-aggression behaviour of the AI on that world that I found, and a lot of people seem to be reporting. Hopefully when that gets fixed, it will still be a gentle tutorial world, but with at least some danger. Like the progenitor stuff coming in, good fun! Looking forward to seeing where all that goes!

 

I actually experienced the old issue for the first time in v1.8 last night. As mentioned, the two issues are distinctly different. The "Old" issue is a clear, visual missing chunk of terrain and looking into it you can see the base rock layer far below. Using a drill near such a tear in the landscape will "heal" it, I used the Laser Drills fine mode near the tear and it healed right away. This issue has been around for a very long time now.

I also had an occurrence of the new to v1.8 issue where I just fell through visually intact terrain only to be quickly teleported back to above the surface...only to fall again until I utilised the jet pack and horizontal movement to escape the loop. Zero visual indication of the hole, even when I knew exactly where to look. I didn't think to snag a save, as I'd already uploaded one clearly demonstrating a persistent (after reloading) invisible hole. I likely should have checked if drilling healed the invisible hole, but I didn't think to at the time, it being quite late.

 

Aside from the few crashes, bugs and weird blueprint ID conflicts, I'm really loving the graphics performance. It's a much smoother experience here since the new assets introduction with that testing planet. I was worried that the game was stuttering back then, but now it seems even smoother game for me than before the additions.

And some of the QoL changes are much welcome, like deleting the "show on HUD" marker once an object is destroyed or harvested. There are still some issues with some enemies not detecting the player, but when they do, oh boy, I was surrounded by a group of different alien creatures at an open field. It was tough and rewarding so the game seems to be more balanced in terms of enemy difficulty.