Most notible bugs and things I think are needed to really make the game look and feel amazing!

[Dersh]

TL:DR My list of the most annoying bugs, what Id like to see changed/added. Also lets hear what you'd love to see or the most annoying bugs you have encountered.

I know the beginnings of the story has been introduced and the rest of it will likely come before 1.0. But here are some bugs and suggestions to help ensure the game is really amazing on release.

For me the main stuff is:

1. Stuttering to like 5-10 fps often when driving vehicles (you should have already fixed this issue in the almost year the game has been out, it should be a top priority because its stuff like this that kills positive reviews and sales)
   I should note when talking about performance issues that I have an I9 12900ks 16 core cpu, MSI RTX 4090, 64gb DDR5 6000mhz ram, Game is on 5500 MB/s Read/Write NVMe, Save game location also on NVMe so I am not really sure issue can be fixed with more brute force computing lol.
   
2. Game often doesn't recognise difference in temperature when going outside to inside heated oxygenated building
   
3. Animations are really janky, tires often stop spinning while driving, grinder blade stops spinning but sparks still fly while using it, when opening door levers hand is often not even on the lever.
   
4. Physics is pretty awful, definitely not a complex simulation with how heavy vehicles can bounce around like they are weightless on the moon, nothing feels like it has any mass when big vehicles bounce around. So either some settings need to be tweaked in the physics system the game uses or you need to invest in another physics system for the game.
   
5. What is the point of having windows in structures if its just going to be a FAKE SKYBOX, especially the greenhouses and domes, its just half-assed and lazy!!!
   
6. The textures are pretty much placeholder in my mind because they are TERRIBLE, Ive seen better textures in games from pre 2012 era.
   
7. Sleep deprivation after being awake 12 hours is not anywhere near realistic, 24-36hrs yes but 12 hrs, no.

Some of these things will take a lot of work to fix, like the textures, physics being terrible, and probably the stuttering because that one alone might take totally rewriting some underlying code in the game. I think the game has come a long way so far with the content updates its had considering it's not yet been out a year. But I really hope the Devs do not honestly think their textures are up to par because that alone makes the game seem really low budget, low quality.

So my hopes for the game are for 1.0

1. A great engaging story besides just surviving, who knows, maybe involving alien ruins or technology
   
2. Better textures, higher quality models
   
3. Love the research system but it vastly needs to be expanded, maybe even developing technology and structures take ALOT of resources but are bigger and look more permanent than looking like inflatable buildings.
   
4. Terrain based maybe on the mars data NASA has collected, some of the areas just look like you plopped down random hills. Driving anywhere in this game sucks thanks to how much random uneven terrain hills thrown everywhere. Who knows maybe eventually ill be able to build roads, bridges...
   
5. Id love to see some kind of terraforming mechanic, maybe minimum of the terrain like being able to level an area, or even **cough cough** like Total Recall scale ;D Then
   
6. Customisation characters, NPCs that look less like walking mannequins.
   
7. Good voice acted lines, if that's beyond the budget of this indie game, then take out the current voice acting and just let me read text, because its currently bad. If you are going to have lots of spoken lines, voice the entire text. Some games will voice like the first sentence of a paragraph but not the other 2/3 of it, dont do that like Warhammer 40k Chaosgate Daemon Hunters.
   
8. WORKSHOP/MOD SUPPORT: this one is super important because modders could then Skyrim the jank out of this game, like textures and models, or things too costly to do in the scope of this game.

Anyway, lets your about the bugs youve encountered and features you'd like to see.

[Pyramid Games]

Hi Dersh, thank you for the great summary! We are taking notes and most of those points are already on our TODO list. I'll try to answer to every point below:

• @1. Yes, the stuttering while driving is one of the main pain points for us as well. We want to finally get rid of this in the next Major Update which should be ready around May. It should be possible thanks to big rework of coordinate system on the map and the save system.
  
• @2. The inside / outside oxygen bug was found and fixed in the recent patch to nuclear update (v0.154.4) so hopefully it's gone for good :) As for the temperature - it always grows gradually, not instantly, as the sensor is on the spacesuit, so it will raise slowly after entering the building and fall down slowly when going outside.
  
• @3. Fixing "yanky" animations is our main goal and focus for the next (May) Major Update. This is the first and most important thing we want to do, but it's hard to define the issue and steps required to solve it as it's mostly a question of subjective game perception by the player, but we'll do our best to improve it. There's also important balance between for example - keeping player's hand exactly on the door lever while not blocking his movement and allowing free head rotation. It's a hard problem but (fingers crossed) we will solve it!
  
• @4. Mars has less than 38% of Earth's gravity so in reality the vehicles, rocks and other objects' behaviour will be closer to that which we know from the Moon then what we know from Earth. It's unfortunate as more players are used to "Earthly" behaviour of physics in games as 99% of them use 1G gravity. Occupy Mars has this setting set to 0.371 m/s^2 - just like it is on Mars. Changing gravity to a higher value will kill realism, but if you have any more suggestions what we could improve (for example twaking the mass or center of gravity of some objects) then please let us know.
  
• @5. You are probably playing on the low or medium graphics settings, or you have "always render environment" checkbox disabled in the game's graphics settings. This is an optimization feature which prevents from rendering environment outside when you are inside the building while playing on a slower PC. If your PC is high-end than feel free to bump the graphics settings and you will see everything outside without the "fake skybox" :)
  
• @6. As for the textures it seems the issue you mention has the same roots as in point 5 - perhaps the textures in your graphics settings are set to half-res or less. If you play on fantastic setting most textures in the game will be around 4k or 2k resolution - very detailed. If you look at the screenshots on Steam and at the game on your pc - if there's a difference it's probably due to graphics settings which you can change. If you have any specific texture in mind which looks lower quality than others then please let us know which one and we'll fix it.
  
• @7. Sleep deprivation - you may be right, we will adjust the balance of sleep in the next updates, as we need to modify it anyway while preparing the Online Co-Op mode of the game.

And now answering your hopes for the 1.0:

• @H1. Yes, the story is planned, but co-op will come first, so hard to estimate exactly when.
  
• @H2. I answered the textures part in point @6 above.
  
• @H3. We're still adding more technologies, there's also another Tech Tree (Chemistry) planned together with crafting. We will also add grid building system which will allow to build custom contructions.
  
• @H4. The terrain *is currently* based on the NASA Heightmaps collected by the HiRISE instrument onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The only difference is the scale - we had to scale down the terrain a big, otherwise you would have to press W for weeks to get to Olympus Mons for example. In our game the terrain is procedurally generated and unlimited, but the known locations such us Craters, Canyons, Mountains which have names in the game are based on NASA images and only between them the terrain is generated randomly to fill the gaps. You can also use different seed number when starting the game in sandbox mode and it will generate an entirely different terrain (only the default one uses NASA images).
  
• @H5. We'd love to see terraforming too but the scope of this will probably ourgrow our possibilities. Perhaps it will be possible in OM2 in the future.
  
• @H6. and H7. More differences between NPCs are planned, probably together with the Colonist Update, some time in the future. We also plan to change the Voice Acting so I agree with you completely here :)
  
• @H8. We agree, adding Workshop / Mod Support is very important. For now we are not sure how long it will take as fixing the points like Animations, Stuttering and adding Co-Op mode has higher priority.

I hope I answered some of your questions and thanks again for the detailed feedback and suggestions :)

[Sinius]

My solution to the gravity/physics/driving issue for me was "Drive it like you own it" not "Drive it like you stole it" In other words slow down a bit.

[IronEagleWingsTTV]

@dersh Stuttering to like 5-10 fps often when driving vehicles (you should have already fixed this issue in the almost year the game has been out, it should be a top priority because its stuff like this that kills positive reviews and sales)
I should note when talking about performance issues that I have an I9 12900ks 16 core cpu, MSI RTX 4090, 64gb DDR5 6000mhz ram, Game is on 5500 MB/s Read/Write NVMe, Save game location also on NVMe so I am not really sure issue can be fixed with more brute force computing lol.

I have a I9-14900k RTX3080TI 32gbDDR5 6200MHZ i have over 80 FPS no Problem. You are probably a dreamer and would like to have a PC like this. Please show photos of your system before you write LIES here

[Dersh]

Originally posted by TheSilencer_TTV:

I have a I9-14900k RTX3080TI 32gbDDR5 6200MHZ i have over 80 FPS no Problem. You are probably a dreamer and would like to have a PC like this. Please show photos of your system before you write LIES here

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3161776701

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3161777488

Alright first of all to TheSilencer_TTV who still to this day doesnt know how to properly quote someones comment, that made me laugh pretty hard so thanks for that btw I even gave you an jester award for it.

As you can see here I am clearly running the game with a 4090:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3161800228

Good for you, you get 80fps, guess what I get 120+ normally with no upscaling, maxed settings, resolution at 4k. That isnt the issue, its one the Devs have already acknowledged where when I am driving and whatever i happening in the background, loading an area whatever, the game for anywhere from 3-5 seconds goes down to like 10fps or less, making the vehicles uncontrollable at that time. It happens enough while driving to be extremely annoying.

To the Devs, going to retouch a few main points you answered:

Originally posted by Pyramid Games:

@2. The inside / outside oxygen bug was found and fixed in the recent patch to nuclear update (v0.154.4) so hopefully it's gone for good :) As for the temperature - it always grows gradually, not instantly, as the sensor is on the spacesuit, so it will raise slowly after entering the building and fall down slowly when going outside.

The Temperature is mostly what I was talking about, it does not slowly raise and it most has happens when I move through the airlocks as fast as I can from outside. Ill give you an example, its -65 outside, I sprint to the door, go through as fast as they open but for whatever reason im inside and it still says its -65. I stand there for 10 real life minutes, still says its -65. If I brieftly go outside, wait oh 5 seconds, and walk inside through the airlocks, the correct temperature registers. If I go thoughout my base, it will keep saying -65 until I pass through another airlock.

Originally posted by Pyramid Games:

@4. Mars has less than 38% of Earth's gravity so in reality the vehicles, rocks and other objects' behaviour will be closer to that which we know from the Moon then what we know from Earth. It's unfortunate as more players are used to "Earthly" behaviour of physics in games as 99% of them use 1G gravity. Occupy Mars has this setting set to 0.371 m/s^2 - just like it is on Mars. Changing gravity to a higher value will kill realism, but if you have any more suggestions what we could improve (for example twaking the mass or center of gravity of some objects) then please let us know.

Thats fine, I am well aware Mars has 38% gravity of earth but it still doesnt look like a realistic representation of 38% gravity, maybe that has to do with how the game treats things with mass. And I dont really know how it can be tweaked to make it better but objects just dont feel like they have mass, like driving the mars truck or rover. I can understand the Motorcross or ATV feeling light. Probably the thing I find the most annoying about the physics is when using the ATV or Motorcross bike its takes almost no throttle for either vehicle to pitch backwards to the point where my character falls off from either pitching backward and I end up with a broken helmet having fallen off. I cant even remember how many times id reload the game because of that.

Originally posted by Pyramid Games:

@5. You are probably playing on the low or medium graphics settings, or you have "always render environment" checkbox disabled in the game's graphics settings. This is an optimization feature which prevents from rendering environment outside when you are inside the building while playing on a slower PC. If your PC is high-end than feel free to bump the graphics settings and you will see everything outside without the "fake skybox" :)

As for the Skybox thing you were right, thanks for pointing that out as I was finding the fake skybox super annoying. But in terms of graphics settings I just assumed "always render Environment" was something that referred to Occlusion culling where geometry and objects are culled when not on screen weren't rendered not "Uses real outside skybox for domes and windows"

Originally posted by Pyramid Games:

@6. As for the textures it seems the issue you mention has the same roots as in point 5 - perhaps the textures in your graphics settings are set to half-res or less. If you play on fantastic setting most textures in the game will be around 4k or 2k resolution - very detailed. If you look at the screenshots on Steam and at the game on your pc - if there's a difference it's probably due to graphics settings which you can change. If you have any specific texture in mind which looks lower quality than others then please let us know which one and we'll fix it.

Nope aside from not having "Always render Environment" I have all the settings as high as they go with no upscaling like FSR..
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3161803614
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3161803691
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3161803806

Now as for the textures being high quality, yes certain ones are, like the vehicles look pretty detailed but other things like ground textures, some of the textures on buildings look extremely low resolution. Here are some examples of really blurry looking textures, correct me if its caused by a graphics setting I need to change (my main monitor is a 58 inch 4k tv so its very noticable vs people playing on a 21 or 24 inch 4k monitor)...
Concrete on Greenhouse:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3161803428
Ground Texture 1:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3161803066
Ground Texture 2:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3161803238

Now allthough these next ones are from modded 4k textures for skyrim (Bethesda isnt capable of making textures like this if their lives depended on it), this is the kind of clarity id expect atleast in terms of pixel density at 4k..

Wood
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3161804037

Ground
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3161804182

Door
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3161804315

My best suggestions for textures atleast for terrain is just see if Nasa will give you permission to use some of their pictures as a basis for ground & rock textures considering the game feels like it pays pretty good homage to their work on mars with rovers.
Can find high resolution pictures of mars here: https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/

As for the rest of your comment, its good to hear. I need to get around to writing a positive review for the game as I have been playing a lot of it lately. My main hopes are not having FPS bottom out while driving, Textures on somethings looking very blurry, definitely hope good modding support comes before 1.0 because any shortfalls can be modded out.

[Dersh]

Guess there is a limit of how many pictures in a post steam will create previews for..