PTS Datamining – Starfall Prophecy part 7 (4.0 spoilers)

Busy life, busy weekends, and just diving into beta itself to see what made the cutting room floor.  Turns out, a lot actually.  Though there are definitely a few odds and ends and curiosities to behold within the PTS patch files.

Our datamining scripts have also been updated to allow us to give names to the various 3D game models that are extracted during the datamining process.  This has given a lot of insight into the various models in the game, and will prove very useful in the future for capturing new things!

Did you know that the PTS has received at least 1 patch a day since October 16th?  Trion is rapidly churning out 4.0 patches in preparation for the November 16th launch.

But enough about them, you’re here for datamining.
Summary

  • Planar Fragment Icons!
  • New icons for potential companions?
  • New loading screens!
  • Tartaric Depths!
  • Rask is most likely a companion!
  • Trion can count to 3! (ok, nothing in this section… but seriously Valve, when can we get Half-Life 3?)

Planar Fragment Icons
There has been a lot of controversy over everyone’s favorite D12s recently, but that doesn’t mean we can’t admire the artwork of the icons for these.  Interesting to note that there are 9 different colors of fragments, and 2 icons per color.  I’m curious if this correlates to anything about the items in-game.

New icons for potential companions
The October 25th PTS patch brought with it a slew of new icons, many of which are definitely critters introduced in Starfall Prophecy, but others… not so much.  Still, these icons were added today.  Always interesting to look over.  These include a hedgehog, blue and yellow geckos, white and brown weasels, a crane, a goat, and another freakin’ Corgi. (we don’t hate Corgis here at the Ghar Station… really!)

New loading screens
Thanks once again to Trauumhaft for finding not only a few loading screens we missed earlier, BUT loading screens for Simon’s Playground, the new puzzle dungeon.  Take a look!

Separating out the Simon’s Playground loading screens.  Can you spot the differences?  It is currently thought that there are at least 4 puzzles, but there might be as many as 5 at launch with a 6th for the Tenebrean Schism zone once it releases.

Tartaric Depths
Ok, so, Tartaric Depths.  All I have to go on with this one is the header of a file in “map_ep3_core_0” data pak.  It’s a small file, but this type of dat file contains some definition information for each zone in the game.
tartaric_depths
Now, there IS a “Tartaric Fissure” in Ashenfell.  It has been hinted that the first raid zone will be fire themed, so Tartaric Depths does make sense as a potential new raid zone. You can see the concept art for a fire-themed raid boss here.  Take note of the image name.

Given all of this, I speculate that the first Starfall Prophecy Tier 1 Raid zone will be Tartaric Depths!

Rask is most likely a companion
Remember this guy, who was datamined in our first post?  In recent patches he has received an animation definition file.  He is also labeled as a critter in the game data.  Could it be that Rask is going to be an Atlas Reactor crossover companion? This seems very likely.  Now I’m curious if he is what is within the Tenebrean Mystery Box.
rask

That’s all for today.  Please join us in Ghar Station discord channel – https://discord.gg/aGjbdgN – and follow us on Twitter – @TheGharStation – for the latest in datamining!

Ghar Station, signing off!