Another minor patch is now available on Steam to fix up a few additional issues. With these resolved I will now resume focus on the next major content release.

Also, Mercury Fallen is now available for purchase in all currencies that Steam supports.

As always a big thank you to those that have helped test this latest update.

Release Notes

• Fixed: Colonist stuck / possible game crash if colonist is unable to find a location to clear items from construction site
• Fixed: Attribute affects connected to work speed working in reverse. Work speed affects should now properly positively or negatively affect work speed.
• Fixed: Clear from construction action not giving job experience
• Fixed: Colonist not stopping or looking at fridge when getting food item to eat

Alpha 0.12a is now available to address some of the more critical issues found in the 0.12 update.

About Decor

There was an issue with the decor system that caused decor values to not be calculated correctly. This has been resolved, but means that colonists will now generate more stress on average. To balance this out colonists will no longer stop working at max stress. Colonists, instead, will now receive a reduction to work speed at higher stress levels.

There are still some lingering issues that are being resolved, but I wanted to push an update to get some of these core issues fixed up. Thanks to everyone who has provided feedback and helped to make Mercury Fallen even better. 🙂

Updates

• Changed: Colonists no longer stop working at max stress
• Changed: Colonists now receive work speed reduction at higher stress levels
• Fixed: Colonist stopping when passing a door even if they aren’t walking through it
• Fixed: Unable to place some types of floor in green tiles of an object  
• Fixed: Objects with avoid tiles can be placed on top of each other
• Fixed: Decor not properly updating. This also meant colonists were not properly affected by decor. Higher stress average is expected
• Fixed: Colonists unable to find a path to a chair/bench, to relax, which would cause them to stand in place

I’m super duper excited to announce that Alpha 0.12 is now available on Steam! This update is packed with new content, updates and lots of fixes. While the priority system was certainly a focus for this update there is a lot of additional content that has gone in to this update.

Important Note

Existing save games from 0.11 will not load properly in 0.12. Please start a new game in 0.12.

Priority System

The new job priority system allows you to set the priority order of job roles per colonist. This is visible in both the colonist info window and colonist management screen. Higher priority jobs will be performed before lower priority jobs.
This is just the start. Additional priority options will be coming in future updates

Object Placement

Object placement has been overhauled and a new visible footprint is shown when placing down objects. This new system helps to enforce proper walk areas for colonists as well as stopping colonists from walking through objects. More information about building objects can now be found in the in-game manual.

Manual

A new in-game manual has been added that can be access by opening the facility management screen and selecting manual from the top button bar. The manual is not content complete, but is a great starting point for new and existing players.

New Objects

The Tech Printer machine has been added which is used, by the engineer, to create tech items such as electronics and mechanical parts. The smelter has been re-designed and a new storage container option makes it’s way in to the game.

More Audio Effects

I’ve added many sound effects for various actions/machines to help liven the game up a bit. There is still more to add, but this is a good first step towards a more audible environment.

Alpha 0.12 has a lot of great new additions, changes and bug fixes. Let me know what you think.

Release Notes

Features

• Job Role Priority system that allows priority control per job role. Jobs at a higher priority will be done before jobs with a lower priority. 1 = High Priority, 10 = Low Priority.
  Job Role priority controls in Management screen and colonist info window
• Game manual now available as a section under the Facility Management interface. Press [Tab] to open and select manual at top. Manual is not complete and will be expanded with future updates.
• New object placement system. Visual footprint now shows when building objects. Objects enforce a walkable area colored in green. Non-walkable areas are colored in red. The object footprint overlay shows during placement as well as when an object is selected.

Updates

• Added: Colonists will now move item containers from a construction area before building objects.
• Added: Tech Printer machine which is used to create technology components.
• Added: Electronics recipe
• Added: Mechanical Parts item and recipe
• Added: New research to unlock the Tech Printer
• Added: Audio/Visual effects to power generator
• Added: Audio/Visual effects to computer station
• Added: Robot Assembler audio
• Added: Door Open/Close audio
• Added: Deconstruction audio
• Added: Vertical storage container
• Added: Mining filter button row above mining button to toggle multi-select for normal and deep mining
• Changed: Deconstruction filter window now shows as button group above deconstruct button
• Changed: Stasis Capsules and inactive robots are now embedded in dirt tiles instead of replacing them. They must be mined out before use.
• Changed: Objects now have forced non-walkable tiles which should resolve colonists walking through objects.
• Changed: Updated objects to use the new footprint system which results in objects placed in existing saved games no longer loading properly.
• Changed: Improved colonist detection for closest interaction tile from current position. Colonists will prefer to use the closest green walkable tile for an object or closest bordering tile when applicable.
• Changed: Colonists can no longer walk through objects that are not finished being built
• Changed: New smelter model
• Changed: Elevator no longer shows inventory quantity. Elevator is only for starter items and not used for general storage.
• Changed: Fridge now requires power. Colonists will not store food items in unpowered fridges.
• Changed: Cloning Chamber now requires electronics as a build material
• Changed: Points spent in Smarts via the Robot Assembler now uses electronics at higher levels.
• Changed: Points spent in Athletics via the Robot Assembler now uses mechanical parts at higher levels.
• Changed: Starting missing colonists and inventory now exposed to XML files
• Changed: Removed doppler effect from audio sources to fix audio distortion when rotating/moving the camera.
• Changed: Robot Assembler window now shows the materials it is waiting for before construction can begin

Fixes

• Fixed: Botanist job role not spelled correctly
• Fixed: Hover icons showing over main HUD UI
• Fixed: Skip button not appearing during opening story text when starting a second game from the main menu
• Fixed: Colonists building while standing in another object to be built which results in colonists getting stuck in other objects.
• Fixed: Some audio sources still being heard further away than they should have been.
• Fixed: HUD UI becomes unresponsive if closing the crop field window while the crop type drop down is open
• Fixed: Crop field drop down callback not being cleared when window is closed leading to memory build up and possible game crash.
• Fixed: Power Generator still providing power when it runs out of fuel
• Fixed: Engineer not dropping off all required materials to robot assembler
• Fixed: Clone Chamber still functioning if power/water is not available. Clone progress now paused until power/water is restored.
• Fixed: Robot Assembler still continues construction if it has no power or is disabled. Construction is paused until power is restored.
• Fixed: Engineer not working at Tech Printer
• Fixed: Ailments/Quirks related to move speed not working or being loaded
• Fixed: Random Game crash when colonist is being treated at medi-bed
• Fixed: Object placement not canceled when clicking Mine or Deconstruct buttons
• Fixed: Possible game crash when colonists generate a path to construct an object
• Fixed: Power still magically generated for machines after generator is removed
• Fixed: Robot Assembler not saving construction state correctly leading to save game crash upon load
• Fixed: Various code optimizations/modifications to improve game performance and stability

The test build for 0.12 has already had a couple of updates and the feedback has been great so far. The time between test build and full update release is usually pretty quick, but it’s going to take a little longer this time around. Various critical changes are being worked on and added to the 0.12 update.

Priority System

The focus of the 0.12 update is the new job priority system. This system still needs a bit more attention and testing, but is shaping up quite nicely. This system will allow for priority control over the various jobs that can be assigned to a colonist. This is intended as the first update towards more control over what your colonists do and when.

Problems With Object Placement

Changes to object placement was not initially planned for the 0.12 update, but it’s something that has needed an update for a while. An update to object placement is something I also realized needed to happen sooner rather than later.

In the current version objects have a fixed size and all tiles that they occupy are either walk-able or flagged with a walk penalty. Colonists will avoid penalty tiles unless there is no other path they can take. In many instances this lead to colonists walking through objects. The other down side is that I couldn’t effectively ensure proper walk-able area for where a colonist needed to interact with that object.   What is needed is a system that allows for more control over the tiles that an object occupies.

Object Placement Update

The new system I’m working on does just that. The object size is still fixed, but a type can now be defined for each tile they occupy. This means that I can set some tiles to be walk-able and others not walk-able. The benefit of this new system is better per tile validation for object placement. Areas that are walk-able can overlap as shown in the above picture. Also shown in the above image is the new object placement visual which will show the area the object occupies including clearance for walk space.

Now that I have a bit more control over this I can reconfigure the objects to have a better size footprint and provide more clear placement information to the player. With determined walk space for interactive objects I can set the non walk-able areas to completely disallow colonists; this will remove instances of colonists walking through objects. I’ll have to go through and update most of the place-able objects in the game to properly set them up for the new system. In some rare cases I may even change the model entirely to fit the existing footprint, such as the new Smelter model in the below image.

So that’s the good news. That bad news is that existing save games will not be compatible in the 0.12 update. Many of the objects will have their footprint size changed or, in some cases, the model updated which will lead to objects not loading or misaligned in saves from previous versions. I generally do my best to avoid breaking save games from previous versions, but in some cases it is unavoidable.

The 0.12 update will take a little longer than initially planned, but the new changes are hopefully worth the wait. Thank you to those that have tried out the 0.12 Test Build and provided feedback.

Happy New Year everyone! I took a bit of a break over the holidays, but was still working on various updates, fixes and content. Once again I’ll need your help tracking down the bugs in the latest Test Build Branch.

If you’re interested in helping test latest test build please read the following:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/704510/discussions/3/2381701715712468002/

New Features

Job Priority
The new job priority system allows you to set the priority order of job roles per colonist. This is visible in both the colonist info window and colonist management screen. Higher priority jobs will be performed before lower priority jobs.
This is just the start. Additional priority options will be coming in future updates

Manual
A new in-game manual has been added that can be access by opening the facility management screen and selecting manual from the top button bar. The manual will continue to be added on to, but I wanted to cover some of the core elements of the game.

Tech Printer
New technology items can now be crafted at the Tech Printer. A new data recovery project has been added to unlock this new machine.

New Sound Effects
I’ve added many sound effects for various actions/machines to help liven the game up a bit. There is still more to add, but this is a good first step towards a more audible environment.

For more information, including the full release notes, check out the Alpha 0.12 Test Build discussion:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/704510/discussions/3/1621726179570127119/