update · September 20, 2024
Good Heavens! v0.3.22 Update Overhauls Visuals and Rewrites Pathfinding
The latest demo update for Good Heavens! brings a comprehensive visual overhaul, changing player and animal appearances alongside new dungeon layouts and troll camp variations. It also swaps out pathfinding systems for a major performance boost, though old save files are incompatible.
Good Heavens! has received its v0.3.22 update following a showing at Gaming Istanbul that pushed the game past 12,000 wishlists. This patch introduces a complete visual overhaul for world assets and characters, adjusts dungeon and lighting designs, and replaces the underlying pathfinding architecture.
Visuals and Player Appearance
Almost every asset in the game has received a visual update. Players now start the game wearing pajamas to match the intro animation, and animal appearances on Evergreen have been revised alongside new tree materials.
Dungeons and Lighting
A new dungeon layout with a simplified surface entrance has been added, accompanied by new troll camp variations that spawn randomly across worlds. Lighting calculations, intensity, and radius have been improved, and new interactable wall torches require players to carry and use light sources for exploration. Light bug fixes were also applied to the Ant Queen Lair.
Pathfinding and Performance
The A* Pathfinding Project has been removed and replaced with an optimized custom algorithm utilizing the same basic logic. This change yields a significant performance boost for the open-world procedural engine, though it required rewriting creature behaviors and may introduce some temporary pathfinding quirks.
Gameplay and Bug Fixes
Uncollected items now disappear after two minutes. Teleportation out of dungeons has been disabled to fix associated bugs, and protection step NPCs now spawn correctly. Additional fixes resolve tech unlocks failing on load, chest breaking on final slot insertion, and vendor transactions breaking quickslot containers.
Why this patch matters
Version 0.3.22 lays foundational technical groundwork for upcoming multiplayer features while refreshing the visual presentation, though returning players must start fresh.