Signs of Life Update 26

Hey folks, got a new update for you on our path to a 1.0 release. Expect an official announcement sometime soon with the release date and a new trailer :)

This update is mostly about stability and fixing the rough edges you reported since the last update, making co-op less cursed, and improving performance and loading/generation speeds. Plus a few new toys we couldn't resist.

Highlights

• The Hephaestus intro now gives you a flyover of the colony ship before AGIS greets you, still a bit WIP

• Write and save your own notes on physical datapads. Player-authored notes persist and sync in multiplayer.

• Place Comm Beacons with a custom label and color. Beacon details persist and are shared with co-op players.

• New characters can pick Small / Medium / Large world size.

• Craft Cybernetic Eyes (Laser) and a Cybernetic Stomach (Regurgitator) hold the Z / X overlay to fire without swapping off your hotbar weapon.

• Steel turrets aim in a full circle and only engage hostiles (and whatever you are already attacking).

Content Changes

• The Prototype Mining Suit pieces are no longer sitting in obvious early hub drops. On new worlds they're stashed behind furniture around the map, and there is a datapad with directions in Dr. Hahn's lab in the Pioneer Station .

• New Earth generation favors longer, more traversable tunnels, and cleans up terrain around buried prefabs.

• Ooky mud caves spawn larval pupas and eggs again on new worlds.

• Dying during the opening asteroid sequence no longer leaves the route locked rather than forcing you to progress off the asteroid. Your gear remains where you died, and the game explains what happened when you respawn.

• Xenoid creatures (and Ruins Hounds) now drop Xenohide and bone.

• Loading screens now show a creature codex preview and additional gameplay tips.

• The settings menu is reorganized into categories, with new music, sound-effects, and dialogue volume sliders plus more reliable display scaling and mode changes.

Multiplayer

• Lots of work on co-op items disappearing, duplicating, or disagreeing between players. Dropped loot, chests, and pickups should stay in sync a lot more reliably.

• Dropped items should show up right away for the person who dropped them.

• Armor and implants should stay visible on other players more consistently

• Joining a game shouldn't blank someone's hands anymore.

• An unknown or mismatched item can no longer scramble everything after it in a co-op packet.

• Creatures now spawn around every player, not just the host (exploring on your own should feel less empty).

• Host Prevent Friendly Fire actually applies to guns and melee now (and syncs to clients). (May still be some pvp related bugs with specific weapon or damage types)

• Fixed a crash when joining near Buff Mechington Mk2.

• Fixed Material Grinder / alien refinery weirdness that could dupe or eat materials for clients.

• Induction refiners / grinders should stay coherent for clients. Fuel, cook progress, and battery drain sync from the host instead of each client simulating its own timer.

• Cut tree stumps should no longer replay their fall animation / sound every second when someone joins.

Mods

Mods have been overhauled pretty significantly, and any mod that used Lua will probably need to be updated to work. Documentation is still a work in progress, but I'm working on a generated wiki from the game's data files which should make it easier to reference what you can do with modding (https://www.playsignsoflife.com/wiki/)

A new example mod has been uploaded to the Workshop as well

• New Workshop subscriptions load automatically in single-player once Steam finishes downloading them. Unsubscribing removes the pack from the Mods menu.

• Saves keep inert placeholders if a mod's items or world content go missing, instead of failing to load.

• The install now ships ExampleMod plus Mod Prep, the Content Database editor, and a Terrain Tool under Tools.

• Mod packs can replace HUD, dialogue, item names, and datapads

• Mods browser: enable/disable packs without unsubscribing, see Workshop titles and Pending vs Loaded, and Load Now pending packs mid-session (single-player).

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a soft-lock that could brick the Xenostone Colossus fight.

• Fixed some alien mnemonic / language crashes in multiplayer.

• Explosives chain-detonate properly again.

• Elevators no longer eat your bullets (or park grenades in weird places).

• Fixed energy dispensers / wall kits that looked empty or wiped their charge.

• Fixed placement ghosts drifting when zoomed in/out (including torches, wall mounts, and tree taps).

• Fixed some Duglette, Flyer, and Sulfur Polyp crashes / AI weirdness.

• Fixed some creatures pathfinding into dumb places (including asteroid mites getting stuck turning around on cliffs).

• Fixed a handful of progression / journal bugs that could leave things stuck forever.

• Fixed inventory drag/drop cases that could make an item vanish into the void.

• Mature trees no longer shrink into nothing when you dig the dirt under the stump.

• Floating cosmetic grass / flora should clear when you dig the tiles under it.

• The "EAT IT!" flare is a cosmetic pop again (it shouldn't shatter glass).

• Grab tool prefers the thing under your cursor again.

• Hotbar / ammo radials should fight each other less. Canceling ammo select no longer pulses a reload, and holding one slot key shouldn't trip another radial.

• Fixed a crash when opening item details on some consumables.

• Picking up a filled container should unlock recipes for items nested inside it (same as if you'd picked those items up one by one).

• Creating a New Earth world should no longer hang forever on placement loops (and a couple of related create crashes got patched).

• Crash reports should launch more reliably before shutdown, with better diagnostics.

• Linux / Steam Deck should get past the old missing-libgdiplus crash during content load (launch the native SignsOfLife.sh path).

• Steel spiders track and shoot within range without drawing upside-down.

• Hanging pindlebags wait until they can actually drop onto a visible target.

• Hogs face the correct direction while chasing.

• A tap on the laser pistols or Tesla Gun no longer sticks the firing pose.

• Ordinary dialogs no longer show a leftover blank button from error-report prompts.

• Flyers are less likely to freeze against terrain ledges.

• Homeward now sends you to the nearest powered xenolith, not an inactive shrine.

• Some MEG assist choices no longer crash the game.

Quality of Life

• Z / X quick slots got a cleanup. Most throwables and gadgets can go there now. Drag them onto the HUD slots and use without permanently swapping off your hotbar weapon.

• Edge Peek (look toward the screen edge) is smoother, with less wild vertical jump and better balance across aspect ratios.

• Right-click while charging the railgun lets you look farther for long-range aim.

• Hunger / fullness meter is quieter day-to-day. It still shows when menus are open or you're holding food, and it pops briefly when you tip into "getting hungry" or starving.

• Seismic cave / alien wreckage beacons show on the minimap after you scan them.

• Equipment details now spell out mechanical bonuses more clearly.

• Updated Stein and Larry dialogue portraits and intro presentation.

• Improved item-detail action handling and layout across different UI font sizes.

• Official player reference wiki is up at playsignsoflife.com/wiki items, creatures, recipes, structures, plants, tile prefabs, and a couple of early guides (generated from game data, so it should stay closer than the old community wiki).

• Wasp 57 ammo is just called Wasp now (it was never 5.7).

• AGIS is better at answering "What should I be doing?" after the beats that used to leave people stranded (post-comms alien alert, xenoid crystal / meteor / portal path, after cutting alien ship power).

Recipes

• Cybernetic Legs (Jet) now craft with a Power Core instead of a Jumpjet Core.

• Organic Black Powder now needs 4 Bust Nuts (was 2).

• Comm Beacon has a simpler player-visible recipe (scan to unlock).

• New: Cybernetic Eyes (Laser) and Cybernetic Stomach (Regurgitator).

Visuals & Performance

• Improved lighting a bit, should look cleaner overall. Tell us if anything looks wrong.

• Faster game startup.

• Faster world generation.

• Faster save loading.

• Some extra in-game draw / collision cleanup that should help frame times a little.

How You Can Help!

Still locking in toward 1.0. Most useful stuff right now:

• Report crashes, soft-locks, and especially multiplayer item / armor / chest weirdness.

• Tell us if specific creatures feel better, worse, or newly broken.

• Tell us how co-op spawn density feels.

• Tell us if the wiki is missing something useful, or if an item / recipe page looks wrong vs the game.

• Anything else you can think of!

As always, we would love to hear from you, so feel free to comment on this post, get in touch through the Steam Forums, join the Official Discord Server, or email us at playsignsoflife@gmail.com.