Lethal Company’s first major update, version 50, is playable in beta form and players are discovering how much worse space treasure hunting could be with deadly new monsters and a major nerf to a popular movement mechanic.
Solo developer Zeekerss hasn’t released official patch notes, but said the update isn’t fully finished. They even admitted that the redesigned movement speed up and down slopes—a change that is driving some players mad—will be less severe in the next iteration. The evil butler and missile-launching mechs, however, seem to be working mostly as intended.
Version 50 brings three new moons: Adamance, Artifice, and Embrion. Adamance’s mountainous landscape and brutal monsters don’t mix well with the greatly reduced running speed up slopes, according to several players. “The description says that it hosts medium-sized omnivores, and I don’t think the forest giants are exactly medium sized,” Decent-Start-1536 said. “Plus it can be very hard to run from them due to the map’s size.”
Many people aren’t a fan of the new butler enemy either. He singles out lone players who break off from their group, and he’ll act just as ruthless if you play alone. Some players see it, and a few other tweaks to equally nasty enemies like jesters, as Zeekerss neglecting solo players altogether. Given that it’s still in beta though, I think it’s too early to assume that.
The number one complaint seems to be the way moving up slopes now feels like wading through mud. It’s an indirect buff to every horrible thing that can chase you back to your ship and players are not happy about it, especially those who relied on sliding down slopes for shortcuts. Some players also suspect there’s something wrong or intentionally mean about the way boulders seem to spawn on maps to block your way, making traversal the hardest it’s ever been.
At the very least, Zeekerss is aware of the slope problem: “I’m going to have to make moving up slopes less slow, while still allowing you to get the same speed boost from running downhill; psychologically, you notice when something is convenient a whole lot less than when it’s inconvenient, so this movement change feels really bad overall.”
There’s no word on when the rest of version 50 is coming or whether or not there will be a minor update in between now and then. Zeekerss said in February that they’d like to release more substantial updates that surprise players. “I really want content updates to Lethal Company to feel like I broke into an alien zoo and released all the animals,” they said.
www.pcgamer.com
