Phoning Home news & patch notes

This update includes a series of balancing changes for fall damage, fuel consumption and ANI's corrosion to make the experience more enjoyable. There are now more auto-save checkpoints to reduce the loss of progress when dying. But remember, you can also save the game whenever and wherever you want. Furthermore, some areas like under the mushroom tree in the forest area did not provide shelter for ANI, which is now fixed. We've also added a bugfix for the second Phoning Home sequence in the desert, which led to confusing situations without guidance if the sequence was initiated without ANI nearby. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/e60c8ad0616b6f5e394cdb4354e09de7ad040e2b.png We wish you all a great Halloween next week! If you liked the game, please leave us a review. It really helps. http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/13475ef02a838acdc00d1de0aa9675cf211b1e67.png

80% discount guys. :animad: Get it while it lasts and try to phone home! :ion: To celebrate the day we'll be broadcasting some of our favorite streams or let's plays on the store page. Watch it for a moment to see the beautiful world we have created. Enjoy! Let me know if you know of any other great community videos to feature on our store page!

I found some old footage from our voiceover recording sessions back in December 2016 and made this little video clip for you. Beware, there are some German parts in there, but two thirds are English. Hope you enjoy! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1416357437

Featured in this video:

Ian Dickinson (the voice of TR2) Laura Cameron (the voice of Sister) Till Hagen (the German voice on TR2) Charlotta Bjelfvenstam (the German voice of Sister) Neal Wach (the voice of the Aliens) Peter Weinsheimer (he did the recording) Juliana Hodkinson Eric Hansen (Juliana and Eric assisted during the recording and checked that everything sounded great to the native ear) Wolfgang Walk (story) Not in this video is Markus Hoffmann, the German voice of the Aliens. The only reason for this is that I forgot to film. I was filming, so you can only hear me at the end when I asked Wolfgang Walk what his favorite line was. ANI: "Life should be more self-explanatory." :animad:

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/f0542b210eca11fb1e301b1b685c46dd7f6d3c59.jpg With the help of our friends at Graj Po Polsku we are happy to present you a full Polish localization of Phoning Home. A lot of care went into this translation and we hope that our Polish followers will enjoy the game as much as we do. To activate the language please go to Language tab under the game's settings and select "Polski (Polish)". Furthermore this update includes a series of small tweaks to avoid confusion after rescuing ANI from the skyscraper. Celebrating this update and the upcoming summer, Phoning Home will be available for a great discount for a 3 days.

http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/7aeb2321e203aae0914d349a51acc4027e3ccfed.jpg

1 Year Anniversary

Time flies. Phoning Home turned 1 a couple days ago on February 7. Today we want to celebrate this with an amazing 75% discount for all those who kept the title on their wishlist for so long. Enjoy it while it lasts! ːionː ːanimadː ːionː ːanimadː

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/5cbd73e1ec07aac6b36aa6fd905ea560d66ca3d4.jpg Today we deliver a long anticipated language update for Phoning Home. The whole game is now playable in Simplified Chinese. We've spent a lot of time with this translation and did extensive testing. And we hope that our Chinese followers will like this update as much as we do.

谢谢！❤

Furthermore, thanks to lostprophet and Patyek we can present a Hungarian translation of the game as well. To use one of the new languages, open the game properties and select the Language tab. Celebrating this update, Phoning Home will be 60% off for a limited time.

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/5cbd73e1ec07aac6b36aa6fd905ea560d66ca3d4.jpg Today we deliver a long anticipated language update for Phoning Home. The whole game is now playable in Simplified Chinese. We've spent a lot of time with this translation and did extensive testing. And we hope that our Chinese followers will like this update as much as we do.

谢谢！❤

Furthermore, thanks to lostprophet and Patyek we can present a Hungarian translation of the game as well. To use one of the new languages, open the game properties and select the Language tab. Celebrating this update, Phoning Home will be 60% off for a limited time.

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/ec27b2fe0ba74fbc7a993a94eae31d584a1a2c3e.png ION is a young exploration unit on a mission to secure resources for his home planet when a strange gravitational anomaly forces his ship to make an emergency landing on an alien planet. The planet looks peaceful on the outside, but he is soon going to learn that in this place nothing is what it seems. Like these "moving" rocks... http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1182156128 We wish you all a great Halloween weekend! http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/13475ef02a838acdc00d1de0aa9675cf211b1e67.png

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/ec27b2fe0ba74fbc7a993a94eae31d584a1a2c3e.png ION is a young exploration unit on a mission to secure resources for his home planet when a strange gravitational anomaly forces his ship to make an emergency landing on an alien planet. The planet looks peaceful on the outside, but he is soon going to learn that in this place nothing is what it seems. Like these "moving" rocks... http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1182156128 We wish you all a great Halloween weekend! http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/13475ef02a838acdc00d1de0aa9675cf211b1e67.png

http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/483acc414bdd07f9b406d668151dbaed68a1006d.jpg Hello Explorers, In this update we bring a redesign of the desert environment as well as more changes implemented from player feedback. Thanks for all your friendly suggestions and your criticism. It is always appreciated. Phoning Home is a challenging experience, where the right path forward is not always obvious. The changes in this update mainly improve the flow of the game. You can find the full change list below. There is one thing we would like to ask you today. If you enjoyed Phoning Home, we'd love it if you let us and others know by writing a review. Because we implemented a lot of improvements since the release, we would also like to ask those who had issues with the game before to re-evaluate and update their review. That would really help us to better know your experiences and continue development. Thank you! ːionː http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/2e78076ee829a28a0119c826b42d481b0ad0b8ac.jpg There are still a few changes in the pipeline. To name one, we are working on adding new languages. In this forum thread you can let us know which ones you'd like to see supported. http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/5656327c2dd4c7be02883895037ee5201d8c2e67.jpg Full Change List:

• Improved the autosave functionality to avoid saving right after loading a game or multiple saves right after each other.
• Added terrain borders to avoid falling over the edge of the world.
• Added an automatic move feature. Hit 'R' on the keyboard or 'Left Shoulder' on the controller to toggle it. Auto-Move is also disabled when hitting the backward move button or loading a savegame.
• Increased the default inventory capacity from 7 to 10 per item and from 10 to 20 after building the memory upgrade.
• Added more autosave triggers in the desert.
• Edited the desert terrain providing clearer guidance how to reach the southern radio tower.
• Added more visual cues in the desert to indicate potential paths to follow. Plus, it looks a lot more exciting wandering around the mountains and sand dunes. There are also a couple more shortcuts via portals.
• Portals that can be found on the planet are now marked on your compass including the distance.
• Tweaked the positions of several task markers.
• Added further improvements to the way ANI's following speed is calculated depending on her distance. She will now be able to catch up more quickly when she has to take one of her little detours to reach ION.
• Added visual improvements to the lava borders on the forest areas to make them stand out and avoid getting lost unnecessarily.
• Since some players missed the pipe after ION's crash landing, that was made more visible. Also added an icon to the pickup UI.

http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/2101fd8022eac756f50ee1a8772054fc49368a75.jpg

http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/483acc414bdd07f9b406d668151dbaed68a1006d.jpg Hello Explorers, In this update we bring a redesign of the desert environment as well as more changes implemented from player feedback. Thanks for all your friendly suggestions and your criticism. It is always appreciated. Phoning Home is a challenging experience, where the right path forward is not always obvious. The changes in this update mainly improve the flow of the game. You can find the full change list below. There is one thing we would like to ask you today. If you enjoyed Phoning Home, we'd love it if you let us and others know by writing a review. Because we implemented a lot of improvements since the release, we would also like to ask those who had issues with the game before to re-evaluate and update their review. That would really help us to better know your experiences and continue development. Thank you! :ion: http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/2e78076ee829a28a0119c826b42d481b0ad0b8ac.jpg There are still a few changes in the pipeline. To name one, we are working on adding new languages. In this forum thread you can let us know which ones you'd like to see supported. http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/5656327c2dd4c7be02883895037ee5201d8c2e67.jpg Full Change List:

• Improved the autosave functionality to avoid saving right after loading a game or multiple saves right after each other.
• Added terrain borders to avoid falling over the edge of the world.
• Added an automatic move feature. Hit 'R' on the keyboard or 'Left Shoulder' on the controller to toggle it. Auto-Move is also disabled when hitting the backward move button or loading a savegame.
• Increased the default inventory capacity from 7 to 10 per item and from 10 to 20 after building the memory upgrade.
• Added more autosave triggers in the desert.
• Edited the desert terrain providing clearer guidance how to reach the southern radio tower.
• Added more visual cues in the desert to indicate potential paths to follow. Plus, it looks a lot more exciting wandering around the mountains and sand dunes. There are also a couple more shortcuts via portals.
• Portals that can be found on the planet are now marked on your compass including the distance.
• Tweaked the positions of several task markers.
• Added further improvements to the way ANI's following speed is calculated depending on her distance. She will now be able to catch up more quickly when she has to take one of her little detours to reach ION.
• Added visual improvements to the lava borders on the forest areas to make them stand out and avoid getting lost unnecessarily.
• Since some players missed the pipe after ION's crash landing, that was made more visible. Also added an icon to the pickup UI.

http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/2101fd8022eac756f50ee1a8772054fc49368a75.jpg

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/f911ad8c533f488180462221a730aef7b8b0bd25.jpg On August 23rd in the year 1899 the first ship-to-shore wireless message in U.S. history was sent by Lightship No. 70 to a coastal receiving station at the Cliff House in San Francisco. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1116995970 Celebrating this milestone in radio technology, Phoning Home will be 40% off for a limited time. Find out more about this historic event: https://www.wired.com/2011/08/0823first-us-ship-to-shore-radio-signal/ If you like Phoning Home, we'd love it you let others know by writing a review. It would really help us. Thank you!

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/f911ad8c533f488180462221a730aef7b8b0bd25.jpg On August 23rd in the year 1899 the first ship-to-shore wireless message in U.S. history was sent by Lightship No. 70 to a coastal receiving station at the Cliff House in San Francisco. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1116995970 Celebrating this milestone in radio technology, Phoning Home will be 40% off for a limited time. Find out more about this historic event: https://www.wired.com/2011/08/0823first-us-ship-to-shore-radio-signal/ If you like Phoning Home, we'd love it you let others know by writing a review. It would really help us. Thank you!

At first we would like to say hello to the many new explorers joining the Phoning Home community during Summer Sale. Welcome everyone! Today we've uploaded a new version containing a couple more bugfixes we implemented from player feedback. They are mostly fixes related to the storyline and compass markers. There was also a rare situation that players could end up with not enough Tetrerium at the end of the game, which is now fixed as well. Furthermore we want to try something new today and start recommending games from other fellow developers. Games that we find fascinating and worthy for recommendation. One such game is Aporia: Beyond The Valley developed by the talented people at Investigate North. http://store.steampowered.com/app/573130/Aporia_Beyond_The_Valley/ We particularly love the focus on environmental storytelling, which has been a strong design element in Phoning Home as well. In Aporia there is no dialog or text, everything is told via symbols and by exploring the beautiful environment itself. Aporia is coming out tomorrow and we suggest to give it a try!

At first we would like to say hello to the many new explorers joining the Phoning Home community during Summer Sale. Welcome everyone! Today we've uploaded a new version containing a couple more bugfixes we implemented from player feedback. They are mostly fixes related to the storyline and compass markers. There was also a rare situation that players could end up with not enough Tetrerium at the end of the game, which is now fixed as well. Furthermore we want to try something new today and start recommending games from other fellow developers. Games that we find fascinating and worthy for recommendation. One such game is Aporia: Beyond The Valley developed by the talented people at Investigate North. http://store.steampowered.com/app/573130/Aporia_Beyond_The_Valley/ We particularly love the focus on environmental storytelling, which has been a strong design element in Phoning Home as well. In Aporia there is no dialog or text, everything is told via symbols and by exploring the beautiful environment itself. Aporia is coming out tomorrow and we suggest to give it a try!

NVIDIA Ansel

Ansel is an awesome tool to create wonderful screenshots. It allows to take full 360° shots. The easiest way to share them is via Facebook or Google Photos. Check out this example. Click the image to view the full 360 on Google Photos. http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/d6b63d673ecbded9b7fafa9319c2ac8ed8569797.jpg But that's not all. You can also take ultra high-res or VR screenshots and position the camera wherever you want. Here's what you have to do:

• Make sure to install the latest GeForce driver and check here if your GPU is supported: http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/ansel/supported-gpus
• Play Phoning Home and press Alt+F2 (the default Ansel hotkey) during gameplay to open the Ansel interface. The game is now paused.
• Reposition the camera by using WASD and rotate with the mouse+LMB, change Ansel options as desired, apply any effects you want and click “Snap”.

To adjust Ansel's internal settings, open the following tool: C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\Ansel\Tools\NvCameraConfiguration.exe Show us your creative skills on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/phoninghomegame/

Story Hotfix

We have implemented a fix for a bug which broke the story script when returning to the forest from the desert too early. As always, thanks everyone for your support. Have fun!

NVIDIA Ansel

Ansel is an awesome tool to create wonderful screenshots. It allows to take full 360° shots. The easiest way to share them is via Facebook or Google Photos. Check out this example. Click the image to view the full 360 on Google Photos. http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/d6b63d673ecbded9b7fafa9319c2ac8ed8569797.jpg But that's not all. You can also take ultra high-res or VR screenshots and position the camera wherever you want. Here's what you have to do:

• Make sure to install the latest GeForce driver and check here if your GPU is supported: http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/ansel/supported-gpus
• Play Phoning Home and press Alt+F2 (the default Ansel hotkey) during gameplay to open the Ansel interface. The game is now paused.
• Reposition the camera by using WASD and rotate with the mouse+LMB, change Ansel options as desired, apply any effects you want and click “Snap”.

To adjust Ansel's internal settings, open the following tool: C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\Ansel\Tools\NvCameraConfiguration.exe Show us your creative skills on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/phoninghomegame/

Story Hotfix

We have implemented a fix for a bug which broke the story script when returning to the forest from the desert too early. As always, thanks everyone for your support. Have fun!

If you've been waiting patiently following development, or waiting to get Phoning Home at a discount, now is your chance! http://store.steampowered.com/app/431650/Phoning_Home/ Or get the Soundtrack Edition including the game's theme song "Find Our Way" performed by Caleb Blood and Taylor Olson. Listen to a sample track here: https://youtu.be/zna6ZEQkzoI Our recent updates added a lot of improvements to the game, making IONs and ANIs journey more fun than ever. We also completely revamped controller support and implemented many fixes. Welcome all the new players to this hub! Please share your experiences and feedback in the forum and among your friends. If you like Phoning Home and want to support our work, please let others know by writing a review. Thank you! Have fun!

If you've been waiting patiently following development, or waiting to get Phoning Home at a discount, now is your chance! http://store.steampowered.com/app/431650/Phoning_Home/ Or get the Soundtrack Edition including the game's theme song "Find Our Way" performed by Caleb Blood and Taylor Olson. Listen to a sample track here: https://youtu.be/zna6ZEQkzoI Our recent updates added a lot of improvements to the game, making IONs and ANIs journey more fun than ever. We also completely revamped controller support and implemented many fixes. Welcome all the new players to this hub! Please share your experiences and feedback in the forum and among your friends. If you like Phoning Home and want to support our work, please let others know by writing a review. Thank you! Have fun!

http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/b376eb1f9a25979ba39b931a74b0d580d312fb00.jpg http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/091e019b89941eff4a92464b4f97b113a3db9572.jpg

http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/b376eb1f9a25979ba39b931a74b0d580d312fb00.jpg http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/091e019b89941eff4a92464b4f97b113a3db9572.jpg

http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/cce0f943787337dad64e895c5cb8bea4c515b62d.jpg We're in the middle of spring, so it's time to clean your vehicle to take it for a ride through the beautiful scenery. Be like ION. Explore! There were some remaining bugs and annoyances that we wanted to take a bit longer to get right. ION's movement for example has always been a bit tricky, especially when moving and thrusting at the same time when facing obstacles. It has always been very physically correct, but it required a bit of discipline to stop hitting that forward move key when you try to thrust up a rock or some other obstacles. Well, the new movement mechanics do that for you now. We also had to find a solution to avoid running into rocks, which was kind of an engine problem. That should be fixed now. Some of our most loyal fans found two major issues in the story and dialog logic, for which we are happy to provide a fix today. Thanks again for your help in reporting these issues and your continued support. Further Changes:

• Disabled hiding ION if the camera gets too close. This was originally implemented to avoid seeing only part of ION, but many reported it rather adding to the confusion than reducing it.
• Fixed a few typos in tooltips and library texts.
• Increased initial push of thruster.
• Made a couple of environment changes in the forest and the desert.
• Reduced the time of night.
• Tweaked the lighting everywhere at night.
• Added an option to select which monitor the game should run on.

What would you like us to work on next? Your suggestions are welcome. Please let us know in the comments!

http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/cce0f943787337dad64e895c5cb8bea4c515b62d.jpg We're in the middle of spring, so it's time to clean your vehicle to take it for a ride through the beautiful scenery. Be like ION. Explore! There were some remaining bugs and annoyances that we wanted to take a bit longer to get right. ION's movement for example has always been a bit tricky, especially when moving and thrusting at the same time when facing obstacles. It has always been very physically correct, but it required a bit of discipline to stop hitting that forward move key when you try to thrust up a rock or some other obstacles. Well, the new movement mechanics do that for you now. We also had to find a solution to avoid running into rocks, which was kind of an engine problem. That should be fixed now. Some of our most loyal fans found two major issues in the story and dialog logic, for which we are happy to provide a fix today. Thanks again for your help in reporting these issues and your continued support. Further Changes:

• Disabled hiding ION if the camera gets too close. This was originally implemented to avoid seeing only part of ION, but many reported it rather adding to the confusion than reducing it.
• Fixed a few typos in tooltips and library texts.
• Increased initial push of thruster.
• Made a couple of environment changes in the forest and the desert.
• Reduced the time of night.
• Tweaked the lighting everywhere at night.
• Added an option to select which monitor the game should run on.

What would you like us to work on next? Your suggestions are welcome. Please let us know in the comments!

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/d2d021665ae9d96bad1f286005bafa5fe388ae95.jpg In this update we bring you a complete revision of heat damage. This has been a popular feedback topic from the very beginning and we believe to have found a good solution making heat damage both believable and avoidable. There is now a heat meter above your stats. Whenever you enter an area that would be harmful, the heat meter warns you audio-visually. Once the heat reaches the maximum, you will begin to take real damage. Before that you might take 1% or less damage. Usually there is an area at the core of heat sources which is very damaging and an area around the fire causing less damage. The same applies to lava streams. You will be able to avoid the dangerous areas better now. Furthermore, we added more resources (Ferron and Thuranon) to craft powerups in the starting area and fixed a rare bug that could cause you to fall through the ground upon loading a savegame. This could happen when you were near a lava stream before loading the savegame.

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/d2d021665ae9d96bad1f286005bafa5fe388ae95.jpg In this update we bring you a complete revision of heat damage. This has been a popular feedback topic from the very beginning and we believe to have found a good solution making heat damage both believable and avoidable. There is now a heat meter above your stats. Whenever you enter an area that would be harmful, the heat meter warns you audio-visually. Once the heat reaches the maximum, you will begin to take real damage. Before that you might take 1% or less damage. Usually there is an area at the core of heat sources which is very damaging and an area around the fire causing less damage. The same applies to lava streams. You will be able to avoid the dangerous areas better now. Furthermore, we added more resources (Ferron and Thuranon) to craft powerups in the starting area and fixed a rare bug that could cause you to fall through the ground upon loading a savegame. This could happen when you were near a lava stream before loading the savegame.

If you're using a controller or plan to do so, this update will make you happy. Please let us know in the comments if you are a controller user and what you think about the changes! Thank you. UI Revision We've redesigned the controls and user interface to make using controllers much more user friendly. The game now detects whether a controller button or stick was used and switches to the controller UI automatically. You can intuitively switch back between keyboard+mouse and controller by using the respective input device. The controller actions are now displayed on the UI. http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/4e19a70f3740bded492c8f6d08242e982e85da1e.png http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/2d1ce32eb6e461dca51ebdc0c429d207967839ef.png http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/dac94e60647eb936103ebfdf6418c669ddfe7cca.png When no window is open, you can use DPad up and down to quickly switch between the available tools (Teleporter, Photon Pulse, Attractor etc.). The inventory window has undergone a more elaborate revision. Tooltips are now removed, infos about selected items are now displayed on the left. Crafting items is now very easy with a controller use DPad Left/Right to cycle through the items available for crafting and hit X to craft. Furthermore, all items are selectable with the controller now to read about their details. http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/d658a37742a949ef703f9cd88efc73e115d3b4a5.jpg We made sure that selected items are properly visible, especially in the savegame window. http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/4602fd56108cfe56ed9051af37afd30410c93003.png Sprint Mode Sprint mode is now visualized by a small symbol above your stats. It also comes with a sound when you enable or disable it. Also, the sprint mode status is now stored in savegames. http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/04f07a9edd52344946ea77666fef6dd708e48892.png Character Dialogue Improvements Dialogue for ION's or ANI's death has been fixed and has no more delay caused by other dialogue chains getting finished before. Also, after death no other dialogue is played anymore. After all, we have no proof yet whether robots have an afterlife. Furthermore, the timing of dialogue is now better in some situations where it felt delayed. Very short lines sometimes caused a bug that made them barely readable. Other Changes and Fixes

• Fixed a couple of rare exceptions and errors that the crash reporter sent our way during the last 2 weeks.
• Reduced the forced delay from one scan to the next. This was not intended to block the player, just to prevent bugs from scanning resources too frantically.
• Fixed a bug that would prevent updating the thruster Steam achievements in certain conditions.
• Increased the speed at which the thruster is refilled with fuel.
• Added more resources in the starting forest area (Creonoble, Photonics and Thuranon).
• Fixed a bug that caused draining energy when sprint mode was active and standing still.
• Increased the size of the compass.

Happy controlling and exploring!

If you're using a controller or plan to do so, this update will make you happy. Please let us know in the comments if you are a controller user and what you think about the changes! Thank you. UI Revision We've redesigned the controls and user interface to make using controllers much more user friendly. The game now detects whether a controller button or stick was used and switches to the controller UI automatically. You can intuitively switch back between keyboard+mouse and controller by using the respective input device. The controller actions are now displayed on the UI. http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/4e19a70f3740bded492c8f6d08242e982e85da1e.png http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/2d1ce32eb6e461dca51ebdc0c429d207967839ef.png http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/dac94e60647eb936103ebfdf6418c669ddfe7cca.png When no window is open, you can use DPad up and down to quickly switch between the available tools (Teleporter, Photon Pulse, Attractor etc.). The inventory window has undergone a more elaborate revision. Tooltips are now removed, infos about selected items are now displayed on the left. Crafting items is now very easy with a controller use DPad Left/Right to cycle through the items available for crafting and hit X to craft. Furthermore, all items are selectable with the controller now to read about their details. http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/d658a37742a949ef703f9cd88efc73e115d3b4a5.jpg We made sure that selected items are properly visible, especially in the savegame window. http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/4602fd56108cfe56ed9051af37afd30410c93003.png Sprint Mode Sprint mode is now visualized by a small symbol above your stats. It also comes with a sound when you enable or disable it. Also, the sprint mode status is now stored in savegames. http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/04f07a9edd52344946ea77666fef6dd708e48892.png Character Dialogue Improvements Dialogue for ION's or ANI's death has been fixed and has no more delay caused by other dialogue chains getting finished before. Also, after death no other dialogue is played anymore. After all, we have no proof yet whether robots have an afterlife. Furthermore, the timing of dialogue is now better in some situations where it felt delayed. Very short lines sometimes caused a bug that made them barely readable. Other Changes and Fixes

• Fixed a couple of rare exceptions and errors that the crash reporter sent our way during the last 2 weeks.
• Reduced the forced delay from one scan to the next. This was not intended to block the player, just to prevent bugs from scanning resources too frantically.
• Fixed a bug that would prevent updating the thruster Steam achievements in certain conditions.
• Increased the speed at which the thruster is refilled with fuel.
• Added more resources in the starting forest area (Creonoble, Photonics and Thuranon).
• Fixed a bug that caused draining energy when sprint mode was active and standing still.
• Increased the size of the compass.

Happy controlling and exploring!

Hello Explorers, It's been nearly 3 months since the official release of Phoning Home here on Steam. The game has had a lot of changes since we put the first version live. Thanks to you and your feedback we were able to improve the game - a survival story of the two robotic protagonists ION and ANI and their ships TR2 and Sister. We want to celebrate the release of this Version 1.1 with a 33% DISCOUNT throughout the week. So get the game while it lasts!

Visual Improvements

If you own a powerful graphics card, the improved "Extreme" quality setting might be worth checking out. The range shadows are rendered has been increased a lot. Also, the range in which objects are rendered at their highest detail is much higher than in the default "Very High" quality setting. Landscapes look very impressive on "Extreme", as you can see on this screenshot: http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/856cf39892543f3ce16b9e11777b4d63c310ed01.jpg Additionally we added new environment effects to the ocean and crater areas. http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/e5d1a799efa454a5b75176f567bbd924d2236c92.jpg

Graphic Options

The options window has been overhauled completely with new settings both for rendering and audio. There are new options to toggle bloom, SSAO (screen space ambient occlusion) and motion blur to adjust the game to your taste. Upon request we also added a slider the change the field of view (FOV) to a value between 60 and 90 (default is 60). http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/43e1d531e853d30ca695519e52b3d0362c287d90.png

Physics

To reduce collision inaccuracies we've increased the frequency of physics updates in physical objects. According to our tests this shouldn't affect performance in any significant way, as there are not a whole lot of physical objects in the scenes.

Sound and Translation

We went over all of the voiceover sounds and tweaked the volume and improved the sound quality where applicable. Also, we had a few streamers and Youtubers express the wish to be able to separately adjust the volume of the voiceover. We added that and another setting for ANI's voice. Additionally we added missing translations, fixed typos and other language errors. If you spot any errors in your playthroughs, we would be happy if you reported them in the support forum.

Performance

To increase performance we have tweaked the LODs (levels of detail) for some of environment models and the texture sizes to reduce memory consumption on your graphics card. Phoning Home still is a very modern game in terms of visual quality and detail. However, on lower end systems you can now gain a few more fps with the new graphics options, like disabling some of the post processing effects like bloom and ssao (screen space ambient occlusion), even though we wouldn't recommend that because they look awesome. Another option to gain fps is reducing the ground detail slider, this has proven to be very effective. http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/ddd55074ceeffa9c7557694afcea8fc328ef9876.jpg

Other Changes

Besides a range of bug fixes this update includes a fix for a crash that would only happen when you quit the game right after you started it. We also increased the amount of visual effects in the desert, ocean and crater areas. Furthermore in all areas the navigation mesh was improved and extended, which is important for ANI to know where she can follow. However, if ANI does not follow, she just cannot reach the spot you currently are, mostly because the angle is too steep or there is no direct connection to your position. http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27418885/fc746dd80ccabe5fca98fa87a5141ba14c5d4ca9.jpg Happy exploration!