Hi, everyone! ːsteamhappyː As promised in the ancient times of 2 months ago by a different guy, I’m bringing you the anticipated news from our studio. Peter, our previous community manager, has been assigned to our new project and decided to focus more on design and project management. That’s where I come in. So, let me introduce myself. I’m David, or Ireas as my friends and co-players knows me. I am the new community manager at Perun Creative. If I should mention a few things that describe me I’d say hectoliters of black coffee, an obsession with renaissance Venetian schiavona swords and an unhealthy relationship with the Warhammer 40k lore. You can reach me every day on Hobo: Tough Life discord server and I will be responding to you in our other communication channels as well. But enough about me and let’s see what our dev team has prepared for you. Before I start, please accept our apology for not reaching out to you sooner. Our making of the console ports in-house, while also learning on the job, makes it difficult to set specific time frames, as some possibly unforeseen problems can easily lead into delays. Anyways, good news is that the console ports are basically done by now and we are dealing mainly with stability checks and improvements for the Steam version of the game. [h2]Experimental Beta[/h2] The experimental beta should be ready in the second half of March, likely closer to the end of the month. The best case scenario for the public update release is the end of April, but that’s only if absolutely everything goes according to plan. A release in the first half of May is more likely. That said, we all know how plans go, so take these dates as my personal qualified guess based on my knowledge of the internal procedures. The final date of the release depends on testing results and validation from platform holders (Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo). The release can be postponed by a week or two if the dev team finds any major issues during testing. We would like to deliver the best possible version of the game we can. Thank you for your understanding and patience in this. It won’t be much longer. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/29994717/256860f274b12e4f5ebf36355ee428b23d3a9cb7.jpg[/img] [h2]Localization[/h2] You can expect updates for Chinese, German, Russian and Polish translations. We would also like to announce that we will add Japanese, Spanish and French languages into the game. We’d be very thankful if native speakers of any of the newly added languages decided to check out the game and let us know about any issues they find! The new translations probably won’t be complete in the experimental build, as their deadline is at the end of March, but we’ll make sure to update them during the beta test. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/29994717/f6a21fcf8539f3cdd2182aacafc80646e4fa2322.png[/img] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/29994717/4691fd18c496f56f667588aca449074e6ac516e1.jpg[/img] [h2]Networking[/h2] To ensure cross-platform support as well as availability on other gaming platforms we had to move from Steam backend to Epic Online Services. Through this technology we can deliver to you the possibility to play on all major consoles (Xbox One, Xbox Series, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch) as well as on the PC together. If you’d rather stick to your own platform, there will be a cross-platform filtering function, which will allow you to block any of these platforms in your matchmaking. Another big improvement we are going to add to the game is a ban/kick/mute system for the multiplayer. Thanks to this tool the host will have more control over their game. We’ve also been hard at work fixing loads of synchronization issues and problems reported post-launch. Clients should no longer see their fires burning out in seconds, and items should no longer disappear into the void during trades, among other things. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/29994717/8776a76ce1663c0ca84281c675608fbbd0b5f235.jpg[/img] [h2]Steam Deck Support[/h2] If you are one of the happy owners of the new Steam Deck, we have some great news for you! The experimental update will include Steam Deck support, so make sure to check it out and let us know how it is. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/29994717/e5b87596fbde199f18cf9f9f29f4e83b2533eeec.jpg[/img] [h2]Other Improvements and Better Optimization[/h2] As usual for almost any update in any game ever we will bring you more performance improvements, bug fixes, and optimizations, including faster load times, better memory management, more frames-per-second, and fixes to various graphics issues. To top all of that off we’ve also added some quality-of-life improvements and some new features to the game. [previewyoutube=nAy14PNoPbA;full][/previewyoutube] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/29994717/e25ec8b2ec4043ba54248d6640fcabf1a95b76eb.png[/img] And that’s all for this update. We are looking forward to your feedback if you decide to test the upcoming experimental build. Stay safe and healthy in these trying times. You will hear more from us soon! David Ireas Kubíček