Howdy Folks,
While recent updates have focused on bug fixes and smaller tweaks, I wanted to talk a bit about what is in development moving forward.
I’ve divided up planned content into smaller separate updates. The game balance update is what is currently being worked on, but the rest of the content listed below is in no particular order.
Some of this content may get merged together or split into separate updates depending on what happens as it gets developed. Many of these updates are subject to change during development.
I would like to hear your thoughts regarding what is in development and what you are most excited about.
The game is currently filled with an over abundance of raw resources. This leads to little reason for surface side material gathering other than materials that are only available surface side. The material amounts currently available were setup long before surface or deep mining was available in the game and was never properly reviewed and updated.
The balance update will focus on tweaking existing data, updating world generation and adding some new mechanics in an effort to improve balance as well as game progression.
The farming update is an extension to game balance changes. These changes may be included in the balance update or separated into their own update.
A further extension to game balance is adjusting surface side resource gathering and building construction. This is still very much in the design phase, but the goal is to change how buildings are constructed and resources are generated to provide better progression.
The only construct-able building at the moment is the vehicle bay. Additional structures, like the mining platform, are limited to converting vehicles into structures. I’m working to re-design these mechanics to support more options for surface side buildings. This is an important change to support other planned content.
Resources on the surface are currently infinite. This was always a somewhat temporary solution until more mechanics were in place. This update will allow the comm station to scan for resource deposits in addition to existing POI locations. These found deposits could then be harvested by a miner vehicle. Similar to underground mining there would be a surface deposit that, when depleted, would reveal a deeper vein of resources. The deeper vein would require the placement of a building in order to be harvested.
There is currently no functional benefit to room creation. This has been on my improvement list for some time. This update will focus on making rooms a functional element of the game.
Improvements to power and water systems are in development that will offer some new mechanics and objects.
The objectives system will replace and expand upon the current Getting Started tutorial. Objectives will offer player direction in the form of smaller optional objectives as well as longer term campaign objectives.
Here is a list of some of the other content that hasn’t been grouped into an update. This includes smaller content that will be sprinkled into other updates and content that is still in the planning phase.
Support & Follow Mercury Fallen On
Steam | Twitter | Facebook | Discord | Merch | Patreon
I have not been great at keeping the road map updated on Trello. The above content is being migrated on to Trello and I will improve upon updating the road map as content develop.
Road map On Trello:
https://trello.com/b/KllYs2UR/mercury-fallen-roadmap
I’m super excited about the new things in development and would love to hear your thoughts.
Howdy Folks,
Update 22 is here and brings a whole bunch of new user interface changes, bug fixes and a few other tweaks.
I’ve updated the look of many windows in the game, including the object/colonist info window. The object/colonist window now share a uniform tabbed design that allows for better organization of content. Additional changes to where information is located in these tabs will likely happen in future updates.
A construction queue window has been added that lists objects currently under construction. You can drag and drop items to re-order the list as well as quickly move them to the top/bottom. The list can be filtered by structure category to assist in finding the object your looking for.
The mini-map can now be zoomed using the scroll wheel. Click and drag to pan the field of view. Colonist dots now have a hover tool-tip.
The planet surface map has had several changes made to its interface. The left side info panel is now divided into tabbed sections and a new section has been added which lists constructed buildings.
A mini-map has been added to the planet surface.
I had hoped to integrate game balance changes in this update, but the UI changes took longer than expected. The next update will focus on some large scale changes to game balance. Stay tuned for more information regarding these changes.
Check out the release notes below for all of the changes and fixes in Update 22.
Support & Follow Mercury Fallen On
Steam | Twitter | Facebook | Discord | Merch | Patreon