Once Human has attracted a lot of attention, given the immersive world, the satisfying grind, and the fact that we won’t lose everything at season reset. It’s a fantastic game as is, but there’s only so much to keep players occupied.
And so, Starry Studios has completed work on a huge patch that hits the game soon as it enters V1.1. But what do we get? Here’s a breakdown of the major features inbound.
Animal ranching comes to Once Human
Ever wished you could capture and ride an armored bear into battle in Once Human? Well, you still can’t do that, but you will be able to keep bears as pets, essentially. The developers have added a feature that allows you to capture and farm with various animals from the game world.
You’ll need special enclosure and there’s some kind of relationship system at play here, but once your farm is up and running, your animals will drop meat and skins for you. One more way to make passive gathering more feasible in-game.
Your more aggressive farm animals can even help you defend the base against threats, which sounds very interesting. Hope they don’t take damage and die during those weekly purifications!
The fishing mechanics get some love
Oh, thank goodness. I really dislike fishing in this game. It just feels so random. Look away from the fish and reel in, right? It’s so strange. Well, Starry have heard us, and have given this system some attention.
In V1.1, there are more fish to catch (I think I’ve only caught about 7 types anyway!), and the mechanics have been simplified, by the sounds of things. What this actually looks like is unclear for now, but know that it should be a bit easier to fish.
They’ve also reduced the wait times, so that’s fun.
New game modes (very interesting!)
Firstly, PVP gets a new game mode called Sproutlet Conquest. It’s essentially a free-roam PVP zone in which you get split into teams and mine Sproutlets, while keeping the enemy teams at bay. I won’t get to see this one, since I play PVE.
But we also get a new game mode (both PVP and PVE). It’s called the Ancient One’s Trial, and it sounds… “fun.”
This game mode entails climbing the highest mountain in Chalk Peak, and then boarding The Ancient One. Here, you and your team will be subjected to trials that test your determination and courage. Sounds kind of like attempting LEA Labs solo, right?
It’s sure to be a fun time, and I personally can’t wait to give it a go.
Update: I gave it a go. The Ancient One’s Trials are a total let-down. It’s just a balloon-shooting event from the top of a moving plane. The rewards include Stardust Source, Portable Mixed Fuel, Barreled Premium Fuel, and Stellar Planula. So they are decent rewards, but there’s no sense of danger or difficulty in the event.
It seems as though you’ll need at least 5,000 points to claim all three reward crates.
Mod Conversion?
When I first heard about the ability to reroll mods, I was very excited. Finally, I could get the right sub stats on that Fast Gunner build to really make it pop. Sadly, it’s still largely up to RNG (random number generation), by the sounds of things.
How it works is you can select six un-enhanced Legendary mods to convert into one mod of your choice. So you could take those useless Elemental mods and turn them into your favorite Shrapnel mod. However, the sub-stats or attributes are still random.
The only way to guarantee the main substat (that give the mod it’s suffix — eg. “Violent”) is to ensure that four of the six mods you choose are of that same suffix. So if you have four violent elemental mods you can turn them into a violent mod of your choice.
As for the attribute levels (their rarity, essentially), this depends on the mods you’ve used to convert. So, the better mods you use in your conversion, the better chance you’ll get purples and golds in the attributes.
I don’t know how I feel about this, but it would make the grind slightly less pointless when you’re just not getting the mod you want. At the very least, you’ll have another chance to get it.
New Scenarios when?
We’re getting two brand-new scenarios. PVP gets a new Scenario in September, and PVE gets a new Scenario in October. Yes, that means us PVE players will have to wait until October to continue playing. However, we could drop into the PVP scenario and take a look around — however, what is unclear at this point is whether we’ll be able to leave that scenario and join PVE again when it launches.
Personally, I have faith that Starry Studios will make this possible, but until we’ve received official word, I’d rather not risk it and just play something else for a little while.
The new PVE scenario is set to introduce some new mechanics as well, with a brand new map and temperature-based survival elements. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it?
More bits and pieces
Starry has also added controller support in the latest patch, as well as new shop items. The cross-character sharing for paid content has finally been enabled, which is great news for those who have spent actual money on the game.
We’ll no longer lose those cosmetics when we transition to a new world.
You can also now invite your friends to join full servers via a special invitation code. This is fantastic news, as we’ll actually be able to play with friends. However, there is a limit, of course. So when you join a new server, be sure to get your friends those invitation codes as quickly as possible.
There are also some event updates, but that’s the majority of the patch and everything I think we should be most excited about.
It’s promising to see Starry Studios continue to work on their game and improve things for us. It’s a little sad that we’ll only see the new PVE scenario launch in October, but that could be an attempt to get all the servers aligned.
For example, our server enters phase six in just two days, whereas other servers are still in phase three or four. So if this is Starry’s attempt to align all the server timelines, I’m okay with that. It’s a great idea, and it means that spoilers around the internet will be far less.
If you’re entering the final phases of your server, or want to take a stronger build into the new season, I have some ideas for you. There’s a boss-melting LMG Fast Gunner build that I am currently playing and enjoying and gets close to 100k dps while not even being finished yet.
There’s also a Shrapnel build that I’ve now abandoned, but it can easily get 65k dps and it’s a lot easier to use than the Fast Gunner build. So check those out, and I’ll see you in the new season!
Published: Aug 15, 2024 03:24 am