Outward - New Content Patch Available

A Twitter announcement from Nine Dots Studio informs us that their survival-focused action-RPG Outward has managed to sell over 400,000 copies since its release back in March. And in order to celebrate the game's commercial success, the developers bring us a free content update that adds a number of challenging end-game encounters, improves some of the game's features, adds a so-called Hardcore mode and more. Here's a quick video overview of the new stuff:

And the actual patch notes:

Hello everyone!

As some of you know, there has been a huge patch that has been in the work and been in testing on the Experimental Branch for a couple months. A big thank you to everyone who played it while it was in testing, reported bugs and gave us feedback.

For those of you that don't know what that patch is about, well, here is a summary:
  • New End game bosses (those are accessible after you completed one of the Faction story).
  • Improvement of the Legacy Chest
  • Hardcore mode
  • 7 new languages (text only)
  • A bunch of fixes and balance changes
  • Poutine (full changelist at the end of this annoucement)
Please note that the console version of this patch isn't quite ready yet but should follow soon.

We are also currently working on another patch in which we update the game's engine (update from Unity 5.6 to Unity 2018) which should increase general performance, stuttering and fix a bunch of crash issues people were experiencing, especially in Enmerkar and Abrassar. This will eventually be available in the Experimental branch of Steam like the patch we release today was.

There are more in the work too, but we can't quite talk about that yet.

Cheers!

Here is the full changelist:

New
  • Panel to assign controllers to players.
  • Equipment can now be repaired at any blacksmith.
  • Unarmed attack.
  • Hidden endgame boss fights.
  • End game items.
  • Poutine.
  • Hardcore mode.*
  • There is an additional season in Enmerkar Forest where it is foggy and colder (not as cold as Winter in the Chersonese).
  • In order to reduce confusion, made the consequences of failing Vendavel quest clearer by changing the affected area.
  • Added the following languages (text only): Polish, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Simplified), Portugese (Brazil), Turkish.
Changes
  • To open chests, you now need to hold the 'interact' button.
  • Improved Legacy Chests.
  • New body and skin materials for characters.
  • Some face models have been changed.
  • Several high level monsters now have low HP regen.
  • Tweaked Gold Lich AI.
  • Leap Attack can now be followed up by a normal or special attack.
  • Shields now have an impact and damage stats.
  • Shield related skills now take into consideration the new impact and damage stats of the equipped shield for their effects.
  • Shield charge do not apply Confusion status anymore.
  • Reduced chances of getting Vendavel defeat scenario in a row (Does not apply if was captured by talking to Croc).
  • Oliele's sword cannot be acquired from the Smuggler shop in Levant anymore.
  • Reduced drop rate of traps in supply caches.
  • Master Trader armors are not sold by Caravan Traders in Town and Cities anymore (Only by Cavaravan Traders in open areas).
  • Changed how "Code Sonic" works. It can now be enabled without cheat panel (Also, works on console).****
  • Lantern and torches are turned off when entering a bed/tent.
  • Broken gathering tools can't be used anymore for gathering.
  • Increase Chakram Pierce to x1 Weapon damage multiplicator
  • Various UI improvements.
  • Various balance changes.
  • Various minor changes.
Fixes
  • Crystal Powder won't show up as Plate Trap compatible component since no recipe requires it. (This will fix the crash on consoles)
  • Impact stat isn't affected by durability and display now reflects that behaviour correctly.
  • Lexicon stats are now displayed in the item detail panel.
  • Added a timeout on opening/joining room to hide the connection screen.
  • Added a failsafe so dropped items don't pass through the floor.
  • Normal/Extreme bleeding damage has been fixed on enemies***
  • Female Visual assigned and corrected for Shock Armor.
  • Sometimes the achievement 'They will tell stories about this' was not unlocked properly. It was due to completing a quest line that was previously completed by another character. ***
  • Skills requiring special conditions (such as boon) will now be grayed out in the quickslots if not all conditions to use them are met.
  • Fixed the Mouth to Feed progression break.
  • Moving silver around in inventory should refresh pouch weight and overweight status correct.
  • Client remove durability of equipment as expected when using skills that uses durability.
  • Status effects should not damage equipment anymore.
  • Status effects should now be applied at the correct rate by weapons skills (Were twice as fast).
  • Shield absorb skill should now counter reliably.
  • Shield absorb skill should not absorb poison or other damage from status effects.
  • Skill cooldown should now behave normally (no more stuck/not resuming).
  • Online coop: Should now see partners with full health if they have a passive increasing their max health (instead of damaged).
  • Online coop: Gear should be confiscated correctly by Croc in Vendavel.
  • Online Coop: Gates are now correctly synchronised.
  • Online Coop: Fixed other synchronization issues for clients when joining another player. (For instance: Poisoned water in the Dark Ziggurat Passage even if host cleaned it)
  • Various minor fixes.
*Hardcore mode: When defeated, there is a chance you get a defeat scenario, but there is also a chance you actually get killed. Additionally, characters in hardcore mode can't play with characters that are not, and vice versa.

**Bleeding now does 35% of max health in 2 mins and Extreme 50% of max health in 2 mins. (For some reasons it was 4 times that amount before)

*** Note that the achievement can be unlocked if you load a character that has completed a quest line and is still undefeated. Unfortunately, it won't be the case if a you load a character that hasbeen defeated even if it is after the quest line completion.

****Super Speed: You character must be named 'Code Sonic'. This will display an hidden option in the settings menu that you can toggle to go to really fast.