Announced back in 2015, it took us two years to get some solid hands-on time with Planet Nomads. There's no shortage of space-based exploration sims on the market right now, but they're all still very much fighting for that top spot.
Care To Read Up On Michael's Experiences As An Alpha Nomad? Head This Way, Intrepid Traveller
Scheduled to exit closed beta on April 18 and moving swiftly into Early Access for however long the developers deem necessary, Planet Nomads is likely to receive its fair share of updates for a long while. Because of that - and the nature of how these games fight for your time - we'll be keeping a patch note catalog regularly updated. Both in and out of Beta, Early Access and launch.
Planet Nomads - Patch 0.7.3
There isn't much to see in this minor update, but it's a stepping stone to more of the features mentioned in the updated roadmap due to end at/around November. New wheels, a cockpit and 'improve tree sounds' are what you're getting today.
Changelog:
- New Alternative Wheel Model
- New Alternative Small Cockpit
- Improved Tree Sounds
- balanced volumes of the big ones falling and more sounds when you destroy them.
Planet Nomads - Patch 0.7.2
For you OCD people out there, your cockpit is now symmetrical! It's now apparently far easier to kill animals (and trees) with impact damage(?) and they shouldn't be moving your vehicles around like might ox so much.
- Symmetrical cockpit has arrived (3 blocks wide)
- Added torque transmission to wheels - pick between speed or power to move in difficult terrain
- Remember last item equipped when hitting LMB (it can be either the gun or the tool)
- Fixed bug where it was possible for player to drown outside of water
- Added components to some wreck blocks - you can acquire them by deconstructing them
- Fixed/added a few localization strings missing
- Italian language is now officially supported, all thanks to Armignacco László from the community
- Animals no longer move vehicles that much
- Animals take more damage upon impact
- Added outline around GUI for better readability
- Decreased price for rover wheel and battery rack
- Vehicles now pack more punch when hitting a tree
Planet Nomads - Patch 0.7.1
Said to be nearly completed in the last update, Dutch wins the race to become the first officially supported foreign language for Planet Nomads. Other languages are on the way, but there's a bunch of tweaks and fixes this week already.
Changelog:
- New updated texture for Armor blocks
- Increased amount of meat in animal loot
- Increased required amount of Items to craft Super Food
- Globally decreased mass of all blocks. Improving vehicle behavior
- Added missing SFX to buttons in workbenches
- Added visual effect when a new wreck appears on your compass
- Added notification pop up when you discover a new crash site
- Increased difficulty in Lava, Desert and Arctic biomes
- Significantly increased damage output to trees from Multitool
- Significantly increased loot of Biomass Container from trees
- Fixed Tropical biome bug where it wouldn't regenerate suit energy and other attributes
- Immunity and Temperature shield now regenerates much faster in all biomes
- Rain and Heavy rain now affects Immunity and Temperature Shield much more than before
- Poisonous plants are now more dangerous if you get hit by their effects or projectiles
- Fixed some trees that suddenly changed textures when cut down
- Fixed dynamic obstacle calculation for animals resulting in better pathfinding around player-made objects
- Increased max stack on Items from 70 to 90
- Fixed various crashes introduced in 0.7
- Fixed various crashes introduced in 0.7
- Fixed Radial Menu not working in some instances
- Added hints for the Datapad/Encyclopedia - Press J to bring it up.
- Crash-sites will now spawn in worlds from continued/converted saves (sorry for overlooking this!)
Planet Nomads - Patch 0.7
Said to be the biggest Planet Nomads update since the additional of Survival, patch 0.7 has a surprisingly concise list of changes.
Changelog:
- Significantly increased speed of terrain generation - it shouldn't be possible to move faster than the terrain generates
- Removed holes from the terrain for better driving
- Caves removed from terrain generation to speed the generation up
- Added brand new biome, Temperate Plains
- Animal AI reworked so animals behave more naturally now
- Added various specimen of each species (alpha male, female, younglings)
- Added climate-based animal textures
- Animals bleed and show wounds when attacked
- Animals often live in packs, each one taking a different role (hunter, guardian, etc.)
- Wrecks, old bases and other man-made structures are scattered across the planet
- Added Datapad with information on Blocks, Items and Animals
- Added two story lines from astronauts previously present on the very same planet you are on
- Added intro when starting a new game, right before the crash landing
- Added new music track
- Added experimental localizations (German and Dutch) Dutch is nearly finished, big thanks to Ben and Coen!
- Added Hazard plants - they are able to attack and harm you if you don't pay attention
- Fixed assault rifle tutorial that could sometimes stay hanging
- Added old saved games conversions into new ones. This was neccessary with the planet generation change, this way at least materials from old saves is preserved for you
- Added wreck beacons that show on the compass when you are near wrecks
- Fixed a lighting bug where water behaved incorrectly when lit by flashlight and lights
- Stasis Chamber now regenerates more food and water
- Increased damage of the rifle
- Decreased size of the planet to make biome changes more dynamic
- Purified water now requires carbon instead of herb
Planet Nomads - Patch 0.6.13
The road to patch 0.7 continues , but there isn't much in this one to validate that. Slight FPS improvements might be seen by the animal path-checking tweaks, and the 3D printer won't click with each craft. That's about it, really.
- Improving readability of Extended BuildVision by adding transparency to Icons by distance
- Radial Menu is now always displayed on top of other GUI elements
- Removed the clicking sound when 3D Printer crafts an Item
- Fixed the bug in Key Bindings where the key was changed without user confirmation
- Optimized animal path-checking for dynamic obstacles (potential FPS improvements)
Planet Nomads - Patch 0.6.12
Shapes! They're the big thing about this particular patch. If you've been playing Planet Nomads and think it just needed a bit more geometry, now you have it. 3 new round-shaped blocks have been added alongside an increase in Winch Rope length. Goodie!
- Added three new round-shaped blocks
- Rebalanced costs of basic blocks
- Optimized saving time of additional block types. If you still experience long saving times, please send your saves for analysis
- Fixed generators remaining energy not displaying correctly over 24 hours
- Rocks with metallic veins now have small crystals on them to stand out from non-metallic rocks
- Winch rope length increased from 20 to 40 meters
- Winch now comes sooner in Tech Tree
- Turned off autosaving on Sleeping Bag
- Improved exiting from the like of Stasis Chambers and Cockpits - should be way less deadly now, let us know
Planet Nomads - Patch 0.6.11
One of the more obscure tweaks to come from this update is how music is now split into biome difficulty levels. Rather than having one specific track for each biome, things should now be a little more varied.
- Added Winch and Shackle blocks to pull vehicles out of holes using rope. Attachable to any blocks. Use with care. (Rope graphics WIP)
- Significantly decreased night length - night is now almost four times faster than before while the day speed stays the same
- Decreased length of sleep from twelve to eight hours to correspond with the change above
- Rain and Heavy rain particles are denser than ever before
- Extended tutorial with tips about equipping weapons (It´s the Q button.)
- Equip weapon is now custom-key bindable in Options
- Slightly decreased rate of Attributes degeneration
- Increased multitool power - it now drills rocks, cuts trees and welds blocks faster, resulting in less grindy crafting and building
- Soundtrack update - no longer one track for each biome. Instead music tracks have been divided into tiers corresponding with biome difficulty levels. In other words - a richer music experience
Planet Nomads - Patch 0.6.10
The big appeal of this patch? The ability to craft a rifle! Why? Because you're being hunted.
- Added personal defense rifle - can be crafted in Medium Armory
- Added autosaving frequency setting in options
- Pressing >> in workbenches/production blocks while holding Shift adds 100x items to the craft queue; holding Ctrl adds 10x items
- Holding Ctrl while moving an item stack will only take 10 items from the stack
- Added Medium Medbay - big brother of its smaller predeccessor, with two conveyor slots
- Added sounds for connecting and disconnecting electricity
- Adjusted volume for GUI sounds
- Adjusted volume for Namiku and Nossal (animals)
- Decreased Multitool's damage output to animals (you have a rifle now)
- Hotbars can now be custom assigned in Key Bindings (looking at you azerty users)
- Slightly tuned camera effects
Planet Nomads - Patch 0.6.9
Certainly not the biggest update to hit the game, this ne brings an oxygen tank for underwater breathing and the 'medium armory'.
- Added Medium Armory - bigger, more effective than Compact Armory equipped with two Conveyor slots
- Added Oxygen Tank for underwater breathing - can be created in Armories
- Fixed a problem which could sometimes place a wrong texture on Medium FAD Machine
- Leveled out sound volumes on some blocks
Planet Nomads - Patch 0.6.8
Previously, forcing the game to launch in English of all things would run the risk of a number of issues cropping up; like pods buried deep in the ground, dense fog or even spawning in the middle of space. The reason? The different between a comma and a dot. Honestly.
- Fixed spawning in space, dense fog, instant attributes drops, unable to mine with multitool and escape pod buried in ground by forcing the game to start in English localization.
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Planet Nomads - Patch 0.6.7
Another 3D printer issue has been fixed with this patch. Previously, filled printers wouldn't resume work even after being emptied. Now they will. Also, they shouldn't duplicate items anymore. You win some, you lose some.
- Refinery block has been added to tech tree
- Significantly increased lifetime of all fuels
- ALM is now available in 3D Printer for crafting
- When 3D Printers and other workbenches fill their inventory space to the maximum they stop working and remain that way even after space is made. This no longer happens
- Wheels now require less energy to run
- Increased inventory space of Printers
- Large Green House now require less energy to run
- Emergency 3D Printer now has Extended Build Vision
- Now it's not possible to put into generators items other than Fuel
- Putting items into Mining Machine is not possible now
- Renamed Battery block to Battery Rack and it's description to better communicate it's purpose
- Resolved problem where Printers can duplicate items on rare occasions
- Extended Build Vision graphics has been slightly decreased in size
- Sleeping bag has been added to Medium 3D Printer
- Fixed a possible cause for inverted fog and depleting attribute values (if this problem persists, please let us know)
Planet Nomads - Patch 0.6.6
If any Planet Nomads player knows anything about the updates to this game, it's that the printer is always the main centre point. For those who still can't grasp how it works, there's a new tutorial for you.- Added Large Greenhouse - more effective than its smaller version and coming with conveyor ports
- Introducing extended BuildVision - you can now see the progress of printers, container space, energy distribution and much more just by looking at those blocks
- Automated Crafting - crafting now doesn't require resources upfront. This allows you to create queues of items you want to print and supply resources gradually as you get them
- Number of production queue stacks increased from 70 to 999
- For players with old saves - if you have any Items in queue in Printers they will cancel and leave resources in inventory/back up box on ground (necessary to change how Printers work)
- Updated tutorial to teach how new Printers work
- Generators now require fuel to run and supply energy
(may need further balancing, let us know how you feel about current consumption rates)
- Uranium Generator now requires Enriched Uranium to run properly. Enriched Uranium can be refined from Uranium resource in Refinery block.
- Optimized container GUI performance that could freeze the game if multiple containers were stacked together
- Suit Battery has been changed to Battery Cell and is now used to fuel the Battery block. It can also be found in 3D Printer now
- Refinery can now be connected via Conveyors
- Changed a generation noise for ground veins spawning - this should allow you to find previously un-mineable resources (like Titanium)
- Crouch has been set to left control (previously was on both control keys which caused issue for some players)
- Mining machine weight(lessness) fixed
Planet Nomads - Patch 0.6.5
Did your dispenser work at 400 meters? It wasn't supposed to. That's gone.
- Automatic mining machine - a late-game block that does the mining for you
- Double clicking on an item in 3D printer now adds one item to the queue
- Fixed dispenser mystically working at 400 meters
- It rains a lot less on the planets
- It doesn't get that dark during rains
- Negative conditions have lesser effect on health, making survival more balanced
Planet Nomads - Patch 0.6.4
The Planet Nomads team know exactly how to grab a reader's attention; by revealing the return of a feature right at the top of a patch note page. FOV is back for both first and third-person modes with the rest of update being more of the same.
- FOV Slider is in! Change FOV separately for the 1st and 3rd person
- Key Bindings available - Customize your controls as you see fit
- Basic controller support added (doesn't work in menus and inventories)
- Item Dispenser added - automatically distributes items from containers and 3D Printers for seamless building
- Manual Save/Load in Survival - to allow another way to recover vehicles until we fix the underlying issues
- Multitool Battery can now be crafted in Medium 3D Printer
- BuildVision On/Off effect temporarily changed to increase performance (improved version coming back soon)
- Icons of Flashlight and BuildVision updated
- Sleeping Bag improved - while not at the level of Stasis Chamber it finally provides solid protection against weather and environmental hazards
- Saving the game is now less performance demanding (will be further improved in the next update)
- Medium FAD Machine bright material fixed
- Slightly decreased degeneration of player attributes in starting biomes
- Fixed tutorial getting stuck on the Basic Frame crafting step
- Fixed Solar Beacon not working after clicking on Disconnect Electricity (which was removed entirely, because solar power)
- Fixed emissive lights on blocks not turning off after being disconnected
- Generator sound volume lowered
- Stasis Chamber now plays a sound upon entering/exiting
- Multitool sound under water tweaked
Planet Nomads - Patch 0.6.1
Finally releasing onto Early Access today means Planet Nomads is getting its first Early Access update. Being in a playable Alpha state all this time means a lot of eager players weren't able to get their hands on this one despite prior patch notes suggesting they could. Only initial backers had access, and they suggested hold of until May. Let's see if that extra time was put to good use.
Changelog:
- Rebalanced survival to be more forgiving in the beginning
- Increased amount of starting food and drinks
- Character's movement is less Stamina demanding
- Multitool Batteries now cheaper to make
- Added a feature that wakes up the character if any attribute falls below 30 (also prevents sleeping if any attribute is below 30)
- Added more interesting loot to animal nests
- Fixed the bug where unfinished block could potentially ruin saved games
- Added more sound effects to blocks and environment in general
- Camera shake has been turned off until it becomes a selection in options in one of the upcoming updates
- Updated ore icons to be more recognizable
- Added FOV change for vehicles when speeding
- Fixed lens flare popping through blocks
- Tutorial can now be turned on and off in options
- Fixed a bug causing sleeping bag to constantly increase character's stamina
- Rename function should now function properly
- Fixed the block shader where it was possible to look through water bodies
- Tutorial hints proofread and corrected
Planet Nomads - Patch 0.5.6
May 17 brought a new minor patch to Planet Nomads bringing a rebalanced survival mode, increased inventory and more fixes to the infamous 3D printer feature. Oh! And you can destroy trees with cars now.
- Added a hint system with tutorial for new players
- New sounds of blocks
- Added underwater sound effects
- Silver stacks increased from 50 to 70
- Fixed unchecked multiplying of animals
- Fixed too quickly decaying attributes while sleeping
- Fixed Emergency 3D Printer weight - it no longer propels vehicles into space
- Fixed generators not working after leaving the base
- Hotbar no longer disappears in Escape Pod
- Changed order of blocks in the Tech Tree (Compact Container now comes much sooner)
- Inventory increased to 14 slots
- Game no longer stutters while sleeping
- Rebalanced survival
- Added item: Sleeping Bag - you can now sleep anywhere
- The game displays remaining sleep time
- New Emergency 3D Printer model and textures
- Vehicle transmission fixed and now allows hill climbing
- Added particles while destroying trees, rocks and nests
- Added camera shake while destroying trees, rocks and nests
- Rebalanced hitpoints of trees, rocks and bushes hitpoints
- Trees can be now destroyed by vehicles
- Battery charges in multi-tool now persist after loading the game
- Multiple minor bugs fixed
Planet Nomads - Patch 0.5.4
While we're still technically in Alpha here, the latest Planet Nomads update brings a rather large list of changes involving new blocks, optimizations and plenty of bug fixes. There's even a video outlining the Survival Mode changes!
Changelog:
- New block added - Emergency 3D Printer
- New block added - Medium Greenhouse
- New item added - Seeds. To be used in the Greenhouse
- Bushes with Fruitage has been split into Fruitage Bushes and Herb Bushes, giving different items
- Underground Metallic Veins have been split into more groups, giving different resources
- Improved Underground Metallic Veins texture
- Added new lootable rocks
- Loot yield from rocks, veins and crystals has been rebalanced
- Improved multitool particle effect
- Rebalanced survival to provide bigger challenge
- Stamina, Nutrition and Hydratation decrease at faster rates
- Temperature Shield and Immunity is now more affected by weather
- Decreased spawn rate of fruitage bushes
- The crash-landing impact injures the player - temporarily decreased Health, Stamina, Hydration and Nutrition
- Added new starting items - Multitool Battery, Nutrition Capsules, Purified Water and Bandages
- Blocks and Bases now provide cover from weather effects
- Animal path-finding optimized
- Sandy terrain generation optimized
- Terrain and water colliders generation optimized
- Overall scripts optimization
- Added new sounds for buildings
- Added new sounds and particles for tree chopping
- Ghost block now has a new shader
- Bug fix with multiple World Object generation resulting in performance drops
- Bug fix with spawning at a wrong place on the planet after loading
- Improved tutorial screens
- Suspensions now save pressure strength correctly
- Added disclaimers about the current state of Planet Nomads
- Fixed instances where the terrain wouldn't load correctly
- Other minor and major bug fixes
Planet Nomads - Patch 0.5.1
Another miniscule update leading up to the full release, this one makes doors behave correctly and adds a little extra visual representation for incoming damage amongst other things;
Changelog:
- Able to place blocks closer to the player making building more user-friendly
- Multitool now has a secondary, energy-free, digging mode for quick terrain shaping. Warning: Destroys all resources
- Added camera shake upon incoming damage
- Added blood screen effect upon incoming damage
- Suspensions now behave more smoothly, increasing the stability of vehicles
- TechTree now opens new blocks in larger groups
- More texts within the game has been proofread
- Jetpack Mk2 now bug-free and craftable
- Fixed the Grid-Split bug on vehicles which could result in corrupt save file
- Further survival and crafting rebalancing
- Trees and bushes now have correct weight (timbeeeeer!)
- Biomass Container drop rates rebalanced across trees and bushes
- Doors now behave correctly after placement
Planet Nomads - Patch 0.5.0
Can we even technically call this a patch? Sure, it's got the length, but it's not even a 1.0 release - meaning it barely exists!
With less than a week to go until Early Access, Planet Nomads has recieved the update that should carry it bravely into the world of Steam's eager playerbase. It'll need to make a good first impression - and this is the patch that'll pave the way for its future.
Changelog:
- We have optimized the performance and added more graphic options for you to tinker with.
- Vehicles are back!
- Navigation system online
- The alpha planet now full of caves and cave-like formations
- Decreased planet diameter from 64 to 32 kms to speed up the discovery of all biomes (subject to testing and changes)
- Added more immersive start of the survival game
- Escape Pod now your new starting point of the game
- Decreased reflection on blocks
- Tutorial for vehicles reintroduced
- More things to tinker in options to fine-tune game's performance for your PC
- Optimized water and terrain chunks
- Optimized the way world objects spawn in the game
- Added 3 new consumables (Dried Meat, Dried Fruitage, Biopaste). Available in FAD Machine
- Survival rebalancing
- Crafting rebalancing
- Fixed Components disappearing while placing blocks at obstructed places
- Updated Tech Tree
- Double Clicking implemented in inventories
- You can use the same button to open/close menus (inventory, containers, workbenches, etc.)
- Magnetic Jack has particles now
- Added 4 new Conditions - Hungry, Dry, Tired, Low Oxygen
- Decreased the number of colliders on some world objects
- Fixed ugly shadows coming through the glass
- Animals now defend their nest as soon as you attack it
