We are happy to announce the new patch is now live. We upgrade Unreal Engine to a newer version so it added quite a bit of extra time to the release of this patch as we ran into numerous issues that needed to be fixed as a result. We also started on implementation of playing the game with a gamepad and the support is now improved, but still not finished (it should be over the next few patches). Beyond the engine update we added a variety of smaller changes and a handful of bug fixes to this build. There is now a foliage density slider in the video options so you can decease it to get extra FPS. More work went into the foliage removal system and it is working much better than before so hopefully you will not see foliage that is present on the client, but not on the server or other issues. We also are now keeping track of how many "hits" a resource has left so it is less under RNG chance now so you should get a more even "random" number of hits now. Some NPC changes including fixing the vulture movement animation and the new "artifacts" that are rare drops. To make it easier to run away there is now a new sprint toggle command to toggle on/off sprinting instead of holding it down to sprint. Batching received a few minor changes, most noticeable is adjustments in speed for smaller batches to remove the "penalty" for batching. The interface for refreshing recipes in both systems also received an update to make it load in a way that it won't lock up for a short period of time and a new grouping collapsible menu was added for recipes to make it easier to navigate through once you have a lot of recipes. On top of that some other interface changes were put in to improve character creation, melee weapons now show their condition in the ammo slot when equipped, updated the inventory graphic slot icons, put in condition % on the icons for armor and weapons, and as mentioned added some initial improved gamepad support including when first starting the game (main menu and server selection) as well as some initial support to the equipment window, crafting, and crafting station window. We should be back to releasing patching at a more regular interval after this one, but wanted to make sure most of the issues we discovered with the engine upgrade were fixed before we released it. (Thanks to OVMISE for posting the picture) Animations

• Improved vulture movement animation blending.

• Vulture Legs have a new icon.
• Eye shaders have been improved.
• There is now a Foliage Density slider in the Video Options. You can use this slider to reduce the density of grass which is drawn. This does not affect harvestable resources, only grass and foliage.
• Added a new outliner for highlighted objects. It should look a bit better for most things as it only should outline when visible. It also glows a bit as well.
• Player skin shaders now support improved subsurface scattering and lighting effects.
• Improved the texture resolution on the large trees.
• Impact effects on Robots should now have the appearance of striking metal.

• Torches will now extinguish themselves if you try to swim with them equipped. This will destroy the torch.
• You can now only store 1 torch per slot, bringing them in line with other tools.
• Introduced a couple of new artifact items as mob drops. These items have special uses but are very rare. One of these for example is a new type of artifact that can be traded to other players and which grants an instant experience boost when studied.

• You now have 30 seconds to select a respawn point after death before it auto-selects a spawn point for you. This is an increase from what was previously 15 seconds.
• We've upgraded to Unreal Engine 4.12.5.

• All NPCs now support positional damage. Meaning head and limb shots are now accounted for on all species. It should be noted that since Robots do not house their brains inside of their head that head shots do no additional damage to robots.

• Increased pet regeneration rates.
• Decreased the size and melee radius of Rhinoc pets.
• Introduced a new hybrid pet species which is currently the top pets in the game. Ferocious Rhinoc Hybrid pets are difficult to create, requiring a Drosera Petal.

• Increased the damage done to structures from siege weapons. This affects vehicle weapons, rockets, grenades, and mini-explosives.

• Modified the underlying structure for harvestable resources, making it possible to retain a counter of hits left for each resource that has had at least one harvest action applied to it. The number of hits available for each resource is partially random, but not to the same extent as before. The size of the resource will also influence the total hits available, so that giant trees will take longer to deplete than small rocks.

• You can now create Ferocious Rhinoc Hybrid pets with a Subsistence skill of 10. They require Genetic Engineering stations.

• Batches of 5 or less now have no speed penalty compared to doing it by hand. Batches of more than 5 suffer a penalty still, but it was greatly cut down from the previous penalty.
• Reduced the ingredient requirements of siege ammunition. This means it should now be cheaper to produce Rockets, Grenades, and Mini-Explosives.
• Experience is now granted when using batched crafting.

• The gamepad Start button will now substitute as the Escape key, allowing you to open up the in-game menu by default, or to perform other cancelling actions.
• Previously used servers should now pop up immediately once the server list is pulled down instead of popping in once the ping is returned.
• Updated the look of the inventory slots and made a minor adjustment to the equipment slots.
• You can now use a gamepad to control the in-game/system menu. This is rebindable.
• Double clicking/interacting with a bag will now toggle the window open/closed. Before it would just open it.
• Punching a resource you cannot harvest will now inform you to use the appropriate tool.
• Crafting Stations and the basic Crafting window now update their recipes in a way that it won't freeze up if there are a lot of recipes.
• Added controller support to respawn map. Can use triggers to zoom in/out and move around the map to select a spot to respawn using d-pad or the left analog stick.
• Added gamepad support to the recipe window and mapped opening it to the left shoulder button.
• Character Creation UI now supports gamepads (pending text input).
• Pressing the "B" button on the gamepad when the UI is up will close active windows.
• Added gamepad help for the crafting window if using a gamepad. It will appear at the bottom of the window. If you are not using a gamepad you shouldn't see it.
• Equipment Window now has a tip section for gamepad usage. Also added the ability to drop an item. The 1st inv slot will now be active when opening the inventory via the gamepad.
• Cleaned up the equipment window some removing extra space in the window and adjusted the graphics so they were not stretched.
• Improved camera movement in character creation so it was much more smoother across the board.
• Weapons and armor will now display a condition % in the bottom right hand corner of their icon.
• Added a sprint toggle. It is currently mapped to the on the numpad and pushing down on the left analog stick on the gamepad. This will continue to sprint until you run out of stamina or you push the button again to disable sprint.
• Improved and fixed a few ID issues with the hotbar so it will better pick the item you dragged to it originally in case you have multiple items of the same type (mostly for weapons).
• There is now a 30 second delay between your last gamepad input use and the timer which resets the help system to display gamepad input keys in windows. This makes it easier to use keyboard shortcuts while playing with a gamepad.
• You can now use the gamepad on confirmation dialogs. The bottom button will accept and the right button will decline.
• Tools and Melee Weapons will now show their condition in the ammo section when equipped so you can easily tell how much durability it has left.
• Adjusted the pickaxe graphics so they wouldn't be as distorted looking.
• Confirmation and Input dialogs now supports displaying gamepad help information which will only display if you are using a gamepad.
• Added gamepad support to the map marker input manager.
• Added support for a gamepad at the main menu of the game.
• Pressing the bottom button on gamepads can now be used to close a tip and select to not display it again. You can use the right button to close but display it again.
• Server list menu now works with a gamepad. Filters can be toggled with the bumper and trigger buttons. Refresh and back are also supported as well as toggling the official/player server drop down.
• Crafting Stations (Batching) and the basic Crafting windows now group recipes into skill menus that can be collapsed and expanded making for easier usage.
• The gamepad Select button will now open the Options Window. This is rebindable.
• All the asian servers are now filtered in/out on the Asia checkbox in the server list.

• Made adjustments to Armored Vehicle traction.

• Fixed a variety of Navmesh related issues in the desert region.
• Resolved an issue which was preventing impact effects from being displayed when punching NPCs with your bare hands.
• Fixed the crafting window's filter not being reset when the window is reloaded (if you had it set to Melee and reloaded the window it will still be showing melee).
• Fixed a bug where harvesting in online mode resulted in 2 harvests per strike, instead of 1 per.
• Removed the extra space in the use a tool message.
• Improved synchronization of harvestable resources between the server and clients, so that depleted resources are properly hidden when first joining a server, and resources blocked by housing structures continue to be blocked and hidden.
• Corrected an issue with bleeding effects online.
• Corrected snap locations for steel walls so they will stil snap together correctly when one panel is reversed 180 degrees from another.
• Fixed a bug which could cause Rhinoc pets to flip oddly after being killed.
• Fixed the stretching issue on the female Firestrand Boots.
• If you are no longer hungry or thirsty after consuming a food or drink item it will notify you of that fact. This feature was added in a previous patch but a bug was preventing it from displaying properly.
• Fixed a missing entry in the NPC datatables which was causing a server side error and incorrect stats on a type of Rhinoc.
• Fixed an issue with the outline on mostly tree models that would cause the outline model to disappear.
• Adjusted the method used when respawning at a bed, to hopefully prevent the issue where players needed to jump after teleporting. This did not affect all players, and will require testing as we weren't able to duplicate it. So this is a potential fix, please let us know if it helped if you were being affected by this previously.
• Fixed issue where the purple fern outline would grow and shrink.
• Fixed a typo in the Advanced Mortar and Pestle description.
• Fixed a bug which was causing it to spark when punching some objects unarmed.
• Fixed a typo in the Batch Critical Success message.
• Altered the Basic Crafting Station description to make things less confusing.
• Corrected some audio ducking issues with environment sounds.
• Fixed a bug where sometimes you could not move a structure being placed, when the snap option was active.
• Some variations of Vulture and Setlang were not showing blood splatters when damaged, this has been fixed.