Thanks to Palworld for fixing bugs after its success, Pocketpair now has the difficult job of meeting the sudden, unexpected expectations that come with an indie breakout success with more support. The team is carrying out its stated mission goal on its roadmap, which mainly involves fixing bugs that make the game unplayable.
Major issues are addressed by patch v.0.1.4.0. My friends can’t steal my pals if they have less than 30% health left on a pal sphere, which is a relief because those spheres’ targeting is a little off, which makes it easy to accidentally nap your pals (or, in my case, anger a big mammoth that kills you).
There have been numerous attempts to reduce game crashes, including one bug that would erase saves when “the total number of captured objects exceeds 7000.” Although this won’t fix saves that have already been damaged, Pocketpair is “continuing to work on fixing this issue permanently.”
The game’s respec system, which was implemented through “memory reset drugs,” which would erase your character’s hard-earned Pal capture bonuses from Lifmunk Effigies, has also been fixed. This was a major problem.
For better quality of life, you can now “move at extremely low speed even when you have exceeded the weight limit.” In the past, players would have to use a glitch to work around you being stuck in one place. Our own Dave Jones tells me that glitch is still worth using—it works at the time of writing, and it’s a lot faster than the intended method.
The changes to the AI of the pals themselves, rather than the fixes themselves—though they are welcome—are what I find most interesting here. But the whole thing sounds like one of those Sims updates that needs to stress that your Sims shouldn’t want to “Become enemy with child” on their own.
Pals won’t have executive dysfunction issues and “drop their items on the spot” while being transported, cut down phantom ghost trees, almost die from “unexplained falling damage,” float into the air like they’re being summoned for the Rapture, or starve themselves to death on first-floor farms like the Sims I accidentally killed as a kid because I didn’t put an exit ladder as well as an entry ladder in a swimming pool. Sincerely, years later, I’m not still set on that.
Playing whack-a-mole with the game’s bugs is still Pocketpair’s job: “We will continue development, putting major problems and issues first.” Whatever you think about the game, it’s great to see it getting support—and 2 million players at the same time is a pretty good motivator for any studio. There is a full list of the patch notes below.
Major fixes
- Fixed an issue where the game would crash under certain conditions
- Fixed an issue where if another player’s pal/base pal had HP 30% or less, it could be captured by using a sphere.
- Fixed an issue where enemy pals would get stuck in walls due to charge attacks.
- Implemented the first fix for an issue where the game would always crash and save data would be corrupted when the guild’s total number of pals captured reached around 7000.
*The game no longer crashes even if the total number of captured objects exceeds 7000. However, save data that has already been in this state (in the case of a server, the server’s world data) prior to this update will still be unable to load. We are continuing to work on fixing this issue permanently.
Key Configuration
- Added support for mouse side keys and numeric keypad in keyboard key configuration.
*Further improvements are currently planned, such as support for interact key configuration.
Player Issues
- Fixed an issue where players on dedicated servers and co-op (online) were receiving damage twice.
- Specifications have been changed so that you can move at extremely low speed even when you have exceeded the weight limit.
- Players will no longer pass through walls when dismounting.
- Fixed an issue where capture power strengthened by Lifmunk Effigies was reset when using memory reset drugs.
- Fixed an issue where armor could be equipped in the wrong slot.
- Adjusted camera positions of several Pals to make it easier to see when mounted.
Base Issues
- Specifications have been changed so that Pals who are manually assigned to a breeding farm will not become hungry and their manual assignments will not be removed.
- The key to lift Pals has been changed from F → V (Pad: X → Y) in order to prevent accidents.
- Reduced the speed and range of fire spreading on wooden buildings.
- Fixed an issue where manual work assignments could not be set at all under certain circumstances.
- Fixed an issue where extremely high-level Relaxaurus would attack the base during raids.
- Added several measures to prevent base Pals from getting stuck.
- Fixed an issue where Pals would get stuck while transporting items and would drop them on the spot.
- Fixed an issue where Pals at the base would continue to cut down trees that were already cut.
- Fixed an issue where Pals at the base were on the verge of death due to unexplained falling damage.
- Fixed an issue where Pals at the base would float under some conditions.
- Fixed an issue where if a farm was built on the second floor or above, work pals would be unable to move on the floors below.
Other
- Corrected incorrect text
- Measures have been added to prevent cheating and stealing other players’ Pals.
- Many other minor fixes such as the addition of a UI key guide.
