The server is back up after a week of downtime and has been updated to version 0.3.648. Your data is intact: characters, gear and progress are all in place.

 
Changes since the previous announcement:
 
– Radio: player-to-player comms at any distance and on the global map; channels work as frequencies; anyone standing next to you hears you speak into it; a radio left on the ground or in a container reads incoming messages out loud
– Seven new blueprints: armour plate, demolition charge, circuit tester, light turret kit, rapid-fire receiver, armour repair kit, recon drone kit; techno-traders now have a separate shelf for recipes
– Gear has weight: the inventory shows the weight of every item and your total load
– Weekly faction contracts and a bounty board in the PDA
– The bazooka moved to Heavy Weapons — the ability branch finally has a weapon to use it with
– The armour Component slot actually protects: it counts toward damage alongside the main piece and wears down with it
– Explosive weapons deal area damage again instead of hitting a single target
– A burst one shot long applies single-shot effects
– Switching weapons mid-attack no longer breaks the hit calculation
– Frostbite builds up on repeated exposure, and its degrees now rise on the correct scale
– The dead no longer slide along the ground: death stops movement and the body takes a short knockback in the direction of the blow
– Four placeholder locations replaced with real maps: Savoonga, Lendale, the Icebreaker, the TV Tower
– The entrances to the Mossy and Firefly caves moved to the mouth
– Foothill encounters have an exit again, and the Foothill Tunnel leads back out to the global map
– Two groups in two-level ice encounters no longer end up in the same dungeon
– The Vault ED-17 chain is unlocked: Terry hands out the damaged disc and starts “The Scout’s Restored Disc”
– “They Live by Night” no longer gets stuck on turn-in, and the evidence is not wasted
– “They Rode at Night” counts the rescue once the survivor is led off the map
– “Life Protection” is no longer offered before its target exists in the world
– “No Peace for the Wicked”: the raider branch stopped counting Battalion kills
– Shooting raiders no longer damages your standing with the Battalion
– Hunting contracts count any raider in the world, not only the ones spawned for the contract
– Quest fixes: “Clean Work”, “Side Effects”, “Cold Trail”, “The Lendale Butchers”, “Keep Your Enemy Closer”, “The Dishonest Trader”, “Field Raid”, “Crush the Vermin”, “Whispers and Gunfire”, “Channel Switch”
– Vault turrets shoot back when attacked
– Mobs stopped spawning behind walls
– NPCs walk back to their places when pushed off them
– The cause of client stutter was found and removed — it shows immediately in heavy fights
– Roofs hide correctly when you enter a building and are no longer offset
– Clipped rocks in generated encounters are gone, along with the horizontal bands on stones and trees
– Visual effects moved to the new particle system: stable rendering in the correct order
– Damage numbers and combat messages no longer pile up over the character or drift sideways
– Rippers are animated while moving again, and sprite rendering is faster
– The interface adapts to resolution and window size, and settings scroll properly
– The loot and barter windows were rebuilt: prices read correctly and the inventory updates the moment an item arrives
– Honest stat and skill descriptions: they no longer promise what the mechanics do not do
– Leaving the starting location with unspent points asks for confirmation
– Object markers stay hidden outside the character’s field of view
– Alt-code pseudographics no longer land in chat and input fields
– Mouse-wheel scrolling in windowed mode can be turned off, and the choice is remembered between sessions
– The character screen shows health and stamina regeneration
– Windows 7: the client starts again, and a separate build is made for older systems
– Ping spikes on crowded locations are gone
– Login and the character list survive damaged data: the account is repaired instead of refusing entry
– Fixed the client crash when entering Lendale
– The checkpoint preview window closes with its button, not only with Escape
– NPC lines sound the same for everyone who hears them
 
How to join: log in on the site and open the testing section — it has the server status and the downloads (installer or portable build). Guides for every system live in the knowledge base.

Found a bug or have feedback — post it in the testing section, the tracker is built in. Every report helps. See you on the Last Frontier!