https://www.therepopulation.com/index.php/news/160-end-of-february-2014-update

February has gone into the books. It’s an exciting time for The Repopulation with Alpha 3 firing up in a few weeks, and most of the work done this month was in preparation for those new testers. Behind the scenes we have new hardware and features incoming, but front and center we’ve been working steadily to prepare the game’s content for the new testers. We also integrated a couple of features from our stretch goals.

The most significant gameplay related addition is Adversarial Camps, which were a stretch goal from our Kickstarter Campaign. These camps will sprout up throughout the world and have a wide variety of customization options so which allows us to generate much of the games content on the fly and help ensure that players do not have a static experience. They typically come with a spawning object which must be destroyed to stop them from spawning. The camps will grow in size and power over time, which makes them tougher to remove, but also creates new boss opportunities ranging up to raid content. These camps will make it easier for us to add new content quickly, and to improve content which already exists.

Following the Kickstarter Campaign we continued the stretch goals on our Early Adopter store, and shortly after we hit another stretch goal which will bring a customizable XML based interface into the game. We spent a significant amount of time this month on preparing the interface for the transition into user created addons by upgrading its general appearance. The new interface is more condensed and in general easier to use. There’s still a bit of work to be done, but as you’ll see from this month’s build notes a lot of work is being done in that regard.

The harvesting features of the games also received a significant content pass. Whack-a-node resources can now be extracted multiple times before they are consumed. There is also an optional auto-harvest option which will allow you to simply click the node once and automatically quick harvest rather than using the more advanced interface. Harvester resources have also been improved, however. There are new devices to harvest resources from plant and tree matter, and the world has been populated with those new types of resources, as well. The combination of these two additions means many new resources for crafters to compete over, and greater randomization of resource locations.

This month also introduced an extension to the Fitting system to allow modifications of robotic pets. The system works in a similar fashion allowing players to take a stock robotic pet and modify the attributes of the pet, add new abilities, and change certain behaviors. This will allow a variety of options on top of the different varieties of robotic pets available. This modification will also soon be extended to the Vehicle system and other areas to allow modifications in other areas with a shared UI and UX.

The largest changes this month come in the world though. We’ve been working hard to try to get as much of the world filled with content as possible for the start of alpha 3, and many areas which previously had limited or no content are now filled in. We’ve put a heavy focus on getting props into the empty buildings, and many of those props can be interacted with to try to steal, though we’d caution you against this as it will tarnish your reputation. There is an optional new Auto-loot option which will loot all the items on a corpse with a single click and simply display a banner indicating what they were.

We are looking forward to a busy March and an influx of new players…But for now, let’s take a look at February’s build notes!
Adversarial Camps

Introduced Adversarial Camps into the game. This new system was one of our Kickstarter stretch goals and is new type of spawn system that allows for a very randomized placement of mobs to spawn in the world. In general these mobs will be spawned via a cave or other spawning structure which must be taken out in order to stop their spawns. The longer it takes for players to destroy this structure, the more difficult the mobs will become, and their numbers will increase, as well. This works much differently from dens, which despawn when players are not in the area.
Adversarial Camps have been added to the bulk of the areas in Freedomtown, and part of Plymouth and contested territories. We expect to have them throughout the world for the start of Alpha 3.

Audio

Added five new music tracks from Clyde Shorey and Matthew Shine. This includes a new combat track, a danger track and three background tracks.

Combat

Reduced basic burning damage but increased the amount of damage it does when stacked significantly to compensate. This affects Aerosol users the most, and they have received a reasonable boost in combat.
Increased the range on some melee NPCs so they would not crowd right on top of you.

Engagements

Created a new engagement chain in Freedomtown: Incoming! This series of engagements involves OWON aircraft reaching Freedomtown and managing to drop several bombs and pods of robots onto the city before being shot down. This includes the bomber scene, followed by an engagement to put out fires and destroy the robots.
Added the capability for fires commonly used in engagements or other areas to deal damage to players or NPCs. Previously most were purely visual.

Graphics

Added several new pieces of civilian clothing including a tank top, sweater, jacket, khaki pants and boots.
Added 13 new facial hair variations.
Added 4 new armor sets.
Faugea have new and improved animations.
Improved rain effects.
Added 4 new trees.
Fixed black texture on a light model.
Improved explosion FX.
Added bucket, dumpster and new crate models.
Introduced stretcher models
A crane model has been added
Added 3 new chair models.
Added 3 camp like table models.
Added mattress and camp cot models
Created new signs for Koleyna.
Added 4 new book group props.

Items and Fittings

Fittings now support a restriction to socket the same kind of Fitting only once.
Added a new readable book: Motherless Manifesto. The transcription of a speech by intellectual or agitator Kumiko Loufaroo, right after the Massacre in Plymouth (Year 16). It grants a small but permanent boost to the Leadership skill of the first reader.
Added more types of loot to rare robots.
Fittings now have a new socket setup that allows named sockets to be added (so instead of the A-F system we have with weapons/armor the pets will have named sockets such as Exoskeleton). Each socket can also be limited in total numbers available. Moving forward we are removing the shape aspect as well and they will all be using the same shape (before each socket had its own shape applied to all the icons).
Made some adjustments to Fittings to make sure it wasn’t being removed after failing a check due to some misplaced inventory calls.

Missions

Introduced several new generated combat missions which can be completed throughout the world. These are targeted a full group and raid bosses and provide worthwhile rewards for your efforts. This will only become available to players who have earned a reputation through combat.
Response Options for missions can now use Knowledge as a pre-requisite. Meaning certain responses may now only become available if you have certain bits of knowledge. This was previously only available through the Inquiry system.
Inquiry launched missions can now optionally be repeatable.
NPCs who have a mission for you will no longer try to get your attention if you are already speaking with them.
In Freedomtown, Sgt. Blythe will share his Reaper of Sept Falls Tale if he is inquired about them.
Added garbage bags to be used in the Shady Dealings generated mission template to Freedomtown.
Medical missions can now reward single use learning and regen boosting items, as well as crafting training manuals.
Tech themed missions can now have their own loot tables which are made up of robotic supplies, tech training manuals, software and other parts.

NPCs

A new type of beast has begun to appear in the magma areas near Scorched Gorge.
Added numerous new mob variations to many species to be used in Adversarial camps.
Added new variations of NPC robot types that will be introduced to entry skill players. This includes new control oriented robotics which will direct the attacks of other robots.
The Numbskull gang is growing in members.
Added new Bouncers who will spawn if you get caught stealing or causing problems at the pubs.
Ivan Kurt can now be found looking for victims outside the pub in Freedomtown.
Added a new gang of Riffraff to the Freedomtown area.
The Setlang Alphas in the Northern Range now have a similar difficulty as in other parts of the world.
NPC Corpsman are now more vocal.
Soldiers will now drop more loot.
Increased Okolat attack range.
Added new baby Rhinoc, which can be tamed.

Pets

Robotic Pets now have a reuseable flag to make them function like tameable pets. If selected they will recharge once the pet is dead or you log.
Rhinoc can now be tamed and genetically engineered as pets.
Pet armor should now be visible.
Pets can now use energy.
Robotic Pets now regain health very slowly (1% on tick). There is a Fitting to increase it back closer to normal values.
Crawler Bot is now using the new Robotic Fitting/Socket system allowing the bot to be upgraded using Fittings. Currently there are 8 slots and 5 types of sockets (Battery Pack, Exoskeleton, Chassis, E-Suite, Behavior). The crawler pet was also fixed up to make it a bit stronger and the timers were fixed. More robotic pets will get a pass once more of the system is finished.
Crawler Bot now fires likes the NPC varities do and attacks at a range as well.
Added Fittings to modify energy values, health, stamina, regens, physical resistance and penetration, EM resistance, and distance. More will be added in March along with their recipes.
Robotic Pets when deployed will not allow you to modify the fittings that are socketed. If you wish to adjust them you will need to dismiss the pet.

Skills and Abilities

You can now steal from some book shelves in the game. The most common result is a readable book, but you may also rarely find training manuals or other items.
Added new types of objects which can be stolen themed towards medical, and tech goods.

Trade Skills

The harvester and survey systems now support Lumber and Plants, in addition to Ore and Minerals.
Whack-a-node harvestable resources can now have be used more than once if desired. This varies by the resource type. Mined resources for example can typically be harvested three times before disappearing.
There are now different types of harvesters for different resource types.
You can now purchase small harvesters from harvesting and specialty vendors.
Added the following harvestable resources to Scorched Gorge: Iron and Thorium. These are in addition to the generated resources in the area. This area is thin on both lumber and plant life but does have a good assortment of ore and minerals
Added the following harvestable resources to the Sapless Pass: Maeglium, Evaporite, Sangiccum and Hok Weed. These are in addition to generated resources.
The Lurker Bog now contains the following harvestable resources in addition to generated nodes: Abandoned Bundles, Lilac, Sarnium and Takayura Trees.
The Pipeworks now has the following harvestable resource clusters: Cobalt, Sarnium, Multi-hued Yano and Geel Flowers. These are in addition to the generated harvester resources, where it is high in ore and plant resources, but limited in lumber.
Added the following harvesting resources to Judair Gulch: Albus, Falasium, Lilac, Ngooberries, Rue Tree, and Maypuri Tree. This is in addition to the generated harvester requiring resources.
Added the following harvestable resource areas to Sapless Mesa: Abandoned Bundle, Calibrite, Cree'it Tree, Iron and Pratinus. These are in addition to the generated harvester requiring resources.
Added the following resources to The Sticks: Copper, Abandoned Bundles, Lesapen, and Saverous Trees. These are in addition to the normal harvester extracted generated materials.
Resources extracted via harvesting or corpse extraction will now display a graphical banner, as well as text in chat to indicate that you have obtained them.

User Interface

You can now enable Auto-looting through the Game Options window. When this option is enabled you will automatically loot all any time you click to loot a mob who has loot. This will not interfere with other players loot as loot is generated separately for each player.
You can now enable Auto-Harvesting through the Game Options window. When enabled it will bypass the harvesting window on each harvest, and instead automatically select the Quick option from the window.
The ability bar system has been reworked. They have a new appearance, and the default size takes up less screen space. There is now a semi-transparent background, which will scale as you scale the bar.
Revamped the Engagement and Mission helper windows. The expansion button was removed and you can simply click the title to expand or retract each mission or engagement. The checkbox has been updated to the new GUI design and the title is used a new font.
Reskinned the status bar for your player. It is more condensed than was previously the case, and has a brand new look.
Updated Audio UI with new sliders and all changes now update in real time when adjusting the sliders.
Hotbars now support 12 buttons instead of 10.
The minimap has received a slew of updates. It is now circular rather than square, and you can now optionally enable it to rotate based on the direction your player is facing. This is done using pop up menu that appears when you right click on the map. Mission or Tracking Arrows now display on the edges of the circle, and everything received a visual upgrade.
You can now remap key bindings for the first four action bars, which default to Shift, Ctrl and Alt presses.
The top menu pull out bar has been replaced by a transparent and condensed list of all menu icons on the bottom right corner of the screen. There are now buttons for Surveying and accessing Vehicles or Mounts from the menu system.
Up to ten fittings or sockets are now supported. If more than 5 are used the UI will add a 2nd row displaying 6-10. Weapons and Armor still use five fittings, but Robotics and other lines will use more.
The radio indicator you view when a radio transmission comes in has a new look.
Fitting now show their grade when socketed.
When moving fittings to the sockets if you don't have enough points available it will now disable them.
Added new icons for the Vehicle and Survey window buttons.
Fitting cards now display difficulty information.
Attempting to open the vehicle window when it is already open will now close the window, similar to other menu window.
Chat alpha faded state will now default to an alpha of 25% transparency. You can make this completely transparent, completely solid, or any level between from the chat settings window. Solid option was not available before and was requested as some people had issues reading it at times.
Closing the Chat Settings window will now save its settings. You no longer have to hit the Save button to do so.
You will now receive a text banner indicating any item looted. This is important for the new Auto-loot feature.
The backdrop of character portraits for humans and lesoo characters or NPCs should now match the backdrop for other species.
Darkened the text color of Mission Titles on the Mission Helper window. Without the background they were hard to read with the old coloring.
Adjusted the mail/compose window elements.
Adjusted the input box for the chat window.
Created a new UI layer and moved the quest tracker information to it so it stays behind windows.
Set a timer to change the opacity on the menu buttons so they aren't always lit up if you aren't hovering over them.
Darkened the inventory filters so they fit in better with the new default UI scheme.
Moved up the bottom right corner positioned tooltips so they will never overlay on top of the new menu icons.
Hovering over a menu icon will now shift it's UVs to give a minor visual indication.
Reduced the size of effect icons on the status tray to bring them in line with the new status bars.
Updated the target status panels to bring them in line with the player's and the new GUI.
Status bars now support up to 20 character names before cutting off the end.
Slider controls (horizontal ones) now can be moved using the mouse wheel.
Adjusted right hand corner tooltips (an optional setting) to be 50 pixels from the bottom of the screen, to allow room for users to fill the section beneath with action bars without interfering with the tooltip.
Out of range abilities will now grey out instead of redding out.
The button used to toggle between the chat window and minimized mode has a new graphic which can be color tinted.

Vehicles and Mounts

Rocharus Mounts can now backpedal.

World

Much of the world has already been adjusted to support the new generated harvester resources and adversarial camps.
The fishing village of Koleyna has been redone from the ground up. All of the models in the town (which were placeholders) have been replaced with a completely new look.
The Sapless Pass has been populated with mobs. It includes a mixture of den and adversarial camp spawned NPCs and the area gives a bonus to your skill gain rate since it is primarily targeted at a group of players.
The Sticks is now populated with mobs and resources. It has a high abundance of lumber, raid content, day and night specific content, and the largest number of adversarial camp spawners to date.
The Scorched Gorge has been populated with mobs, missions, and resources. In addition to generated elements there are multiple den spawners in the area. Content ranges from tier 1 content on the relatively safe pass through the canyon, to tier 5 raid content in the magma portion of the area.
Added a new supply center to Scorched Gorge. FPR characters can clone at this location. It includes a couple of NPCs and vendors, objects that can be stolen, a skill imprinting station, and also acts as a hub for missions in the area. This area provides some protection to FPR players in the area and is near the most dangerous portion of the gorge.
Judair Gulch has been populated with mobs, resources, and dens. This area is rich in plant-life.
Stitched some terrain seams and fixed some floating trees in the Sapless Mesa.
Populated the Sapless Mesa with content. In addition to the standard generated content, the Mesa is rich in fauna, contains dens, raid content, and camps, as well as a Jenkin's Ranch. It is known for it's seismic activity.
Loch Aza has seen a slew of visual improvements including the addition of new rocks, trees, and dynamic details, along with some terraforming.
Reduced the number of den spawns mobs in the Northern Range, and added a slew of adversarial camps to replace them. This has resulted in a greater variety of NPCs in the area and more randomized locations with less frequent NPCs near the roads.
Added a military base to Scar's Wall.
The entire Sapless Pass area is now considered a dangerous area and will give a +15% bonus to your skill gain rate when you are inside of it.
Added trees to a barren section of the Sapless Mesa.
Added many new stealable objects to Freedomtown.
Improved mob distribution and increased variety of mobs in the Boglands.
Added heat wave effects and ash particles to parts of the Sapless Mesa and Sapless Pass.
Marked a good portion of the Scorched Gorge as a dangerous area, and it will provide a skill gain bonus to those hunting in those areas due to the increased danger.
All Plymouth buildings have had props added or adjusted.
Mob distribution near the Shed has been improved.
Eroded some unusually jagged portions of terrain in the mountains in The Pipeworks.
Created a rock formation to block off a narrow pass in the mountains near the Pipeworks which was not meant to be accessible at this time.
Significantly improved mob distribution in the Pipeworks. This includes new dens, adversarial camps, and spawn locations, as well as new types of mobs.
Elkar have begun to prowl the Pipeworks at night time, making the area more dangerous during night hours.
The fire extinguishers in Freedomtown can now be interacted with when there is a fire.
Added trees to the northern ravine in the Sapless Pass.
Added trees to a bare patch in Judair Gulch.
Added Lesoo totems to warn players of when they are entering the Lesoo camp southeast of Freedomtown.
Smoothed out some abnormally jagged terrain bits in the Sticks.
Populated the world with many new plant, tree and mineral resources which can be extracted with harvesters.
Added props to Plymouth City.
Added props to Plymouth City Hall.
Made some adjustments to the Northern Ranges mob spawners so mobs would not spawn on steep inclines.
Added props to Koleyna.
Added props to Freedomtown.
Added many props to Freedomtown.
Filled in some empty space in Plymouth Pass.
Performed a beautification pass on the area surrounding the Aemar Hydro Plant.
Added book shelves which can be stolen from to numerous locations in the world.
Added various new types of food product objects which can be stolen and populated them throughout the world.
Added some books to shelves in Plymouth City.
Added "Izzy's Item Shop" to Wailing Chasm.
Added a props to Freedomtown.
Added anti-aircraft turrets to Freedomtown.
Added props to the Political Representatives building in Freedomtown.
Added banking, skill imprinting, and crafting stations to Freedomtown.

Miscellaneous

Added a new Cleanup Crew achievement which has a chance to be given to top performers after picking up the pieces following a bomb raid on Freedomtown. It includes a title.
Added a new achievement and accompanying title: Freedomtown's Shamed. This is given to players who do not assist when Freedomtown is in need and can be used as a filter for missions.
Added a new achievement and accompanying title: Community Watch. This is given to players who help clean up the streets in certain areas.
The first time you check out the Red Hot Supplies in Scorched Gorge you will receive a small but permanent boost to your Defensive Tactics skill.
The first time a player visits the Sapless Vista in Sapless Pass they will receive a small but permanent boost to their chemistry skill.
Marked some trees in Judair Gulch so they don't appear on the minmap as they covered the road.
Added footstep sounds to newer movement animations.
The cloning point in Bog's Edge is now further from mobs.
Added additional generic timers for use in client side scripts. This was previously supported server side but not on the client.
Loot messages are now localized.
Adjusted Level of Detail ranges on some trees to reduce the appearance of popping.

Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug on the armor/weapon energy on your status bar. It was displaying them in reverse order previously, and causing an issue with the breakpoint on the bar.
Corrected some range related issues on several types of lurker mobs.
Fixed an issue where status bar names could consist of two lines.
Corrected an issue with several exploration achievements where it was displaying both the achievement and the exploration banners when it should have only been displaying the exploration banner which already includes the discovery text.
Stitched up terrain seams on the border of Wailing Chasm and the Scorched Barrier.
The arrival point in Scorched Barrier is no longer underneath terrain.
Optimized Freedomtown lighting.
Removed an overhanging vine that was in the Lurker Bog but attached to the Boglands. This could cause issues if players managed to brush up against it.
Moved a tree set which had part of it overhanging the border from Plymouth Pond to the East Plymouth as this can cause physics issues.
Fixed some issues with ability bar scaling.
Stitched a section of terrain in the mountains of the Lurker Bog.
Fixed a font related issue that was affecting the alpha server only.
Repaired a large terrain seam in a back pass of Scorched Gorge.
Nudged a tree which was barely overhanging into the Scorched Gorge from the Boglands and causing seamless issues.
Rooted a couple of floating trees in the Sticks.
Patched up terrain seams in Claw Canyon.
Removed some misplaced trees in Judair Gulch and Sapless Mesa.
Terrain stitching in Judair Gulch.
Fixed some rooming issues in the Plymouth area.
Repaired an area where you could fall underneath the terrain on the border of Southeast of Freedomtown, near Mitchell's Farm.
Stitched some bad terrain Southeast of Freedomtown.
Corrected an issue which was causing Faugea to not play their attack animations.
Repaired some seams in the terrain in The Sticks.
Fixed the attack ranges on numerous Lesoo melee mobs where it was set too short. Also increased the range of some Lesoo ranged weapon users.
The disable combat filter option in Chat Settings is no longer misaligned.
Corrected an issue with a couple of Faugea mob types which couldn't be extracted due to missing their species identifier.
Corrected an issue with the damage on stackable DoT or damage effects.
The Bomb Squad title is now properly listed as a suffix title, rather than prefix.
Fixed an issue with the spawn location of the Arms Dealer in the Hole on the Hill.
Removed some foliage that was clipping into buildings in Freedomtown.