As ICARUS enters its third month of release, the updates continue to roll out. This latest one focuses on farming, and brings with it some changes and improvements to the prospect select map that should make it easier to pick the perfect prospect. As always, the patch also includes bug fixes and minor improvements alongside the bigger changes.
The changes introduced today make farming more complex, but also potentially more rewarding. The biggest difference is that 
Crop Plots will now check to see if they have access to the sky, and whether or not they are surrounded by glass (y’know, like a greenhouse). The patch notes aren’t 100% clear, but it seems like lack of sky and lack of a greenhouse both result in 25% growth speed penalty — so no more farming in caves. Having a greenhouse not only removes the debuff, but increases growth speed by 50%. Additionally, some crops are now quick-growing but low yield, while others are slow to mature but provide a lot more food when they’re finally ready to harvest; check the in-game tooltips for more info.
Looking beyond today’s update, the official announcement also touched on the future of farming in ICARUS, with the promise of more complex mechanics to come. Crop watering should show up at some point, as well as the need to grow certain plants in specific biomes, and fertilizers and hydroponics were also teased.
There are a few more improvements worth noting: the mission select screen got some love, and the map should now be easier to read overall. It’s been made more clear with drops have insurance, and formatting has been simplified as well. Other UI elements have also recieved bugfixes, improved, or just cleaned up a little bit. Check out the full notes below!
ICARUS Patch Notes – Version: 1.1.1.90886
- Added settings menu option to automatically skip intro video (a black screen will be displayed while the game loads).
- Added Building Upgrade Tool support for all pieces and materials.
- Added Farm plots now track if they can see the sky straight above them, and if they have any glass buildables around them. No sky, and no greenhouse will lead to a 50% speed reduction in growth. The presence of a greenhouse building will allow full growth speed regardless of seeing the sky directly, and will increase growth speed by 50%.
- Changed farming to be more dynamic, by decreasing growth time and increasing yield rates for many crop types.
- Added Mushrooms can now be grown in crop plots.
- Added more information to tooltips on farming plots and their crops.
- Optimized the logic around plant growth.
- Changed knife throw to require a higher minimum charge, to reduce instances of accidental throws. Decreased accuracy and range slightly.
- Fixed issue preventing fish from spawning on some outposts.
- Identified and optimized several of the most expensive building piece meshes.
- Updated existing and added several new loading screens.
- Improved prospect select screen by adding better visibility of the availability of insurance and updated prospect images. Also tidied up layout of available prospects.
- Fixed issue with recipe UI window scaling.
- Fixed some character names not being displayed correctly on the Mission Report lobby info panel.
- Fixed claimed prospect prompt text expanding outside of its window.
- Updated Infected Wound description to mention Antibiotics instead of Antiseptics.
- Fixed Wine giving the incorrect buff when consumed, and returning the wrong empty vessel for reuse.
- Fixed issue where Concrete Furnace visuals defaulted to show the furnace as ‘on’.
- Improved ability to place trophies on other deployables, such as fireplaces. Also improved Fireplace collision mesh.
- Fixed issues with existing prospects if changes are made to the map while they’re still in progress.
- Fixed missing ‘Consume Stack’ option for Carrots.
What’s your experience with farming in ICARUS been like? Are you looking forward to building a greenhouse this weekend? Let us know in the comments!
