Hope everyone is having a great time at or watching E3! Some great stuff is being announced. In Mercury Fallen news, I’ve been working hard on the implementation of planetary exploration and resource gathering.

Planetary Resources

In the previous developer log, I covered the procedural generation that creates the planet’s surface. The surface map also contains many resources, such as ores, flora and fauna, and there will be new resources found only in certain biomes on the map, in varying degrees of abundance.

The initial focus on the surface will, of course, be to explore your surroundings to find and analyze resource nodes. While icons will show the basic resource type, you’ll need to analyze resources to find out specifically what they are and how much is there.

Exploration

Exploration on the surface is done using vehicles. Vehicles will require colonists to operate, but are directly controlled by the player. New biomes, areas and resources will need to be uncovered before they can be used. Different types of vehicles will be required to navigate some areas such as oceans and mountains.

I’m developing the foundation of planetary exploration, which means that when planetary exploration is released it is only the start of even more content to come. There are various features I I have planned for surface and underground game play that are too big to pack into a single update, so I’m working to divide up the new content in manageable releases, as I’ve done with previous updates.

Vehicle Construction

Vehicle construction is performed in the assembly room with the new vehicle assembler, coupled with a surface-level vehicle bay used to assign colonists to vehicles and where vehicles must return to be upgraded.

You’ll be able to choose the vehicle type and the equipment that goes in it. Vehicle slots will allow you to customize cargo space, seats, engine, utilities and more. The vehicle type will determine the basic look and attributes, as well as what, and how many, slots it has.

Mercury Fallen Discord Server

For those that are interested, I’ve set up a Discord server where players can meet to chat about Mercury Fallen. There are some great people already there, and I’ll be there, when I’m not busy creating new content. 😉

https://discord.gg/WdndeXx

Alpha 0.14 was a big update with a lot of new content and now that it’s out the door I’m back to the grind stone working on the next major content update. Something that has been asked a lot, and that I’ve teased in the past, is how and when surface/planetary exploration will be added to the game. There is still not a concrete answer to that, but I’ve been putting a lot of work into getting the planetary content out of prototype and integrated into the core game. I wanted to cover the progress so far and go over various aspects of the how and what of planetary exploration.

Planetary Map Generation

Planetary surface exploration will be handled on a separate planetary map that will be accessible via the Facility Management interface. The goal of the planet map is to offer a good deal of variety as well as a somewhat accurate, and fun, representation of an alien world with a variety of biomes, details and events. Similar to the players primary facility the planet map is procedurally generated to offer a good amount of extended game play and replay value. The map itself is a large hexagon grid where each hexagon represents a location on the map.

I decided to base biome generation on the Holdridge Life Zones which uses temperature and moisture levels to define biome types. For any given cross section of temperature and moisture a biome can be determined, for example the hottest and wettest areas would be akin to a tropical rain forest and the the hottest driest areas are desert. The first step was creating temperature, moisture and elevation maps using procedural noise. The temperature map also considers elevation and latitude so that areas at higher elevations or further north/south are colder. The elevation data is also used to determine both mountains and sea level.

The final break down is a 5×5 grid to divide temperature and moisture values ranging from hottest to coldest and driest to wettest. Sampling the temperature/moisture values for each hexagon grid location into the biome chart gives a biome sector. Additional biome sectors are generated for oceans, fresh water and mountains for a total of 28 biome sectors.  The final biome for a tile is based on a biome definition that is mapped to a biome sector and has a predefined frequency of occurring. Using this method I can have some biomes that very commonly generate within a sector, but also include special rare biomes that have a lower chance of generating within the same sector.

The final biome definition also defines the color, texture and details that occur for that biome as seen in the image above. The above image only shows part of the 48,000 tiles on the complete map. Map size may vary depending on game starting options, but testing is being done on large scale maps.

Additional biome details are currently being added to provide more visual distinction between the various biomes.

Planetary Exploration

Upon first opening the planetary map screen the only visible area will be immediately surrounding the players primary facility. Building and sending out exploration drones will allow you to explore the map and uncover new resources, story content, points of interest and expansion opportunities.

I’m still working on designing the systems for exploration and expansion, but it’s coming along very well so far. Stay tuned for further developer logs where I’ll cover points of interest, outposts, expeditions and more.

Game Updates

The new planetary map game play will take a bit of time and releasing all of it’s content all at once is not the goal. The core of planetary exploration will get added first with further updates to add additional content. I have quite a lot of content planned for the planetary aspect of Mercury Fallen and it won’t come all at once.

I’ll also be focusing on releasing smaller game updates while work continues on integrating the planetary map features.

More developer logs will be coming to cover the planetary map as they get implemented so stay tuned. I’m really excited about the new planetary map content. What are your thoughts on planetary exploration/expansion?

The alpha 0.14 update is quite a big update and is taking a bit longer than initially planned. I’ve made a lot of great progress and wanted to share some of the things you can expect to find in the next update.

Colonist Portraits

The colonist info window shows a colonist portrait image at the top left. This portrait is generated dynamically and will change when changing outfit colors.

All selectable objects also show an icon at the top left of their info window as well.

Roster Management Window

The colonist selection window for roster management now uses the new colonist portraits for easier identification of the colonist you’re looking for. For more information on the roster management system check out the previous developer log.

New Research Interface

The research interface has been completely redesigned as a visual tech tree. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a longer time, but I wanted to ensure the tech tree was dynamically generated instead of manually positioned. Being dynamically generated means it’s easier to add to/modify and easier for modders once modding is supported. This interface also better visualizes the break down of research progression.

Fine Dining

The original purpose of the recreation room was for eating as well as entertainment, but I’ve decided to separate out the eating experience into the new cafeteria room. The cafeteria will be for eating tables and the new food dispenser. The food dispenser is a dedicated container for meals and the fridge is being changed to only store raw food ingredients. The existing recreation room will still be available, but will serve little purpose until future updates.

With the addition of new crops and meals I’ve changed how meals affect colonists. Edible items will now have satiation and nutrition attributes. Satiation is how much, in percent, of the hunger bar is decreased when eating that item. Nutrition affects the change rate of the hunger meter which means colonists will get hungry again slower with more nutritious foods. The nutrition affect will naturally decay over a few in-game hours after eating food. Higher quality foods will have better satiation/nutrition values.

There are a lot more additions/changes/fixes coming in the Alpha 0.14 update. As with all major updates, this update will be available on the Test Build beta branch first, for those that want to help work out any issues, before coming to the main branch. I hope to have this update out on the test build branch later this week or next week. Thank you all for your patience and I’m super excited about all the new content this update will bring.

Another update to cover some of the things currently being worked on for the alpha 0.14 update. There is a lot of new content in development and it’s coming along very well. I wanted to focus on some additional details and changes that have occurred since the previous developer log.

Aquarium

As mentioned in the previous developer log I’m adding in the ability to grow fish for food. After getting the visuals setup for the fish tank I realized the tank looked a bit too small to represent proper food production. I still love the smaller tank, but I decided to create a new fish tank, called the aquarium, and will keep the smaller fish tank as a decorative item that can be placed anywhere. This is similar to how there are production crop objects as well as a plant pot for decoration. The aquarium will grow edible fish as well as bio-waste for generating botanical nutrients.

Machine Rosters

As part of allowing for more control of colonists activity, I’m working on the new machine roster system, as mentioned in the recent developer log. This new system will allow the players to setup a list of colonists that are allowed to work a given machine. The above image is a work in progress, but shows the new Colonist Roster section and management list.

The current plan on how the roster system affects the colonists is based on the following rules:

1.  A colonist will work at a machine with either an empty roster or a machine that has their name on it’s roster list.
2.  A colonist will not work at a machine that has a roster list and their name isn’t on the list.

Regular job role assignments still apply to what machines a colonist will work at, but an additional roster check will follow the above rules. By default a machine has an empty roster list which means it continues to work as it does now until you setup the roster list for that machine.

This allows for more control over what machines/objects a colonist can work at, especially when dealing with multiple machines/objects of the same type. For example, you could have two botanists that will only work certain crop fields by assigning them to the rosters of the crop fields you want them to work at. There is currently no planned preference for working roster assignments first. This means that a colonist is just as likely to work at a machine with an empty roster as they are to work at a machine that has a roster with their name on it.

Aeroponics Farm

The aeroponics farm is a higher level crop growing system that will grow crops faster as well as have improved yield. I’m still working on the process, but these machines, in addition to power/water, will require botanical nutrients when planting the crop. Botanical nutrients is a new item that is generated from bio-waste that comes from the aquarium when harvested. Certain crops can only be grown using the aeroponics farm. 5 new alien crops have been added in so far and there are more planned for the update.

Much of the development time right now is being spent on getting the core systems in place for some of the new content as well as the artwork for new items, crops and machines. Several new cooking recipes are also being added so that colonists can start eating a more varied diet.

Be sure to let me know what you think of some of the new content coming the next update.

Howdy Folks. Since the last update I’ve been working on a bunch of new content for the next update. Things are coming along very well and I wanted to cover some of the new things coming in the next update.

More Food Options

The poor colonists are currently existing only on mashed potatoes, but more meal options are incoming. Several new alien crops are being introduced into the game. Some of these new crops will need to have it’s seed discovered and researched before it can be planted. How new seed discovery items are found is still being worked out, but some of them will be discover-able in item chests similar to some of the technology blueprints. These new crop types will open up a whole bunch of new food recipes at the cook station.

Bio-Lab Room

In addition to new crops, there is a new room and new machines being added. The new Bio-Lab room will be a required room for the new Algae Farm, Aeroponics Farm and Fish Tank.

Aeroponics is a new crop growing machine that will be required for some of the new plants that won’t be plantable in a normal crop field. The Aeroponics Farm will be able to grow all crops as well as a provide a bonus growth speed, and possible bonus yield, to crops that can be grown in the crop field. The trade off to the Aeroponics is that it will require power, water and botanical nutrients to operate. This does not replace the crop field as Aeroponics will only be available after certain discoveries and research.

The Algae Farm is used as an additional food source for new food recipes. There are some additional plans for Algae that will come in future updates as well.

Finally the colonists will have a source of protein from the Fish Tank. I’m still working on the over all production cycle of the fish tank, but the end result means some fish based meal options.

And More

While the core focus of the next update is the new food recipes, crops and room, there are some additional things that I’m working on that may make it’s way into the next update. One feature I’m working on is colonist machine rosters. This would work by selecting a production machine and choosing what colonists can operate that machine. When a colonist looks for a job they will only be able to work at a machine that does not have anyone on its roster or a machine that has a roster with their name on it. Each machine can have multiple colonists assigned to it and this new system should allow for better control over where a colonist is working as well as ensuring the various machines get properly utilized. This new system is very much still in the design phase so any and all feedback is welcome.

There is still a lot more work to be done for the next update, but it’s progress is coming along very well so far. Thanks to everyone who has provided some great feedback so far. Let me know what you think about these new features.

Mercury Fallen has come a long way, but it also has a lot further to go. The two main big focus points for the game are exploration and expansion. Expansion has had a lot of work in terms of new room types, object and materials. This will continue to be developed, but I want to give attention to exploration as well. When you dig out the map, there is little to discover aside from new colonists so far, but this is currently being expanded in a couple of ways.

Discovery System

While exploring the world, the player will discover various items such as new types of seeds, data logs, technologies and more. Discoveries can be found only once and are used in various ways. Unlike regular items, discoveries are not used directly by your colonists. They will appear in the new discovery interface once they have been found. Below are some of the planned types of discoveries.

Seeds

Currently, all plant types are available at the start of the game. As more crops/plants are added they will be connected to the discovery system. Some plant types will require the player to discover its seed before it can be used in a crop field or plant pot.

Data Logs

Data logs will tell more of the story of Mercury Fallen and its previous inhabitant. Each data log will contain a bit of the story, which can be viewed in the discovery interface.

Technology

Technology discovery items will be required for special research projects, meaning that some research can’t be completed until the missing technology part is discovered. This is intended for more advanced research projects.

Interface

Once they are found, discoveries will appear in the new discovery interface located under the facility management screen. This will show a complete list of discoveries you have made. Some items that have not been discovered yet will also show here, but there will be hidden discoveries as well, that will only appear once the discovery item is found.

Item Canisters

That all sounds fun, but how are discoveries made? In addition to finding colonists, the player will find item canisters littered around the map. Item canisters will come in different types and upon opening them, the player will get various materials and possibly a discovery. For example, an organics canister may contain an assortment of organic materials as well as a new seed discovery.

World Generation

Something I had planned for a while was to include more of the ruined remains of the Mercury Facility. I’m currently re-working the world generation system to include the crumbled remaining rooms of the old facility. These rooms will be good locations to find Item Canisters for additional materials/discoveries and can be deconstructed for materials or re-purposed.

Performance Improvements

In addition to the exploration enhancements I’ve worked to improve the AI logic to boost overall performance. The AI decision system now operates on a separate thread, which means facilities with a lot more colonists shouldn’t experience performance issues. The above image shows over 100 colonists running around the facility with a stable 60 fps.

Additional tweaks to speed up game loading and improve render performance are also being worked on.

Those are some of the things coming in the next update. There is no ETA yet for when the next update will drop, but stay tuned for more information. What do you think of the new additions?

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.

It has been an amazing year of progress for Mercury Fallen, and things are just getting started. I’m very excited about what the new year will bring.

At the beginning of 2017, my goal was to have Mercury Fallen on Steam by the end of summer, something I wasn’t sure I would be able to do. In April,  Mercury Fallen was released on Itch.IO, which was a great way to get early feedback about the game and resolve critical issues. After a few updates and patches, I started to migrate the game to Steam. Mercury Fallen is my first solo development project, and my first game ever on Steam. This process was rather intimidating, but Mercury Fallen was released on Steam on October 16. Since that release, I’ve been very busy working on new updates and building a community around the game.

I’m very excited and humbled by the positive response I’ve received about Mercury Fallen. It’s a really great feeling to have gamers playing, and enjoying, my creation. I have a lot of big plans for Mercury Fallen and your feedback and support has been very motivating. A huge thank you and a Happy Holidays to you all.

Here are some of the things I’ll be working on next.

Job Priority System

Priority control for colonist jobs has been a highly requested feature and is in development. The new system will allow you to set custom priorities for each job role per colonist, which range from 1 to 10. Jobs with a higher priority will be done before jobs with a lower priority, if that job can be done, of course. This allows you to have multiple jobs selected for a colonist, but still control which job will be done first.

Changes to the management screen and colonist info window have been made to allow for the new priority settings. Priority 1 is the highest priority and priority 10 is the lowest.

Planetary Expeditions

This is still deep in development and won’t appear in the next update, but I wanted to add some clarification to what planetary expeditions will entail. The goal is to allow expedition parties to be sent out on a planetary map. These expeditions are meant to explore, discover and expand the world of the game. The comm officer job role will play a part in discovering Points Of Interest (POI) on the planetary map, which can then be explored by  expedition parties. The planetary expeditions will serve as a large extension for acquiring new resources and making new discoveries.

The focus of development right now has been on setting up procedural generation for the planetary map, which will include various biomes, POIs and hazards. The biggest challenge right now is ensuring a good balance of focus between the primary facility and expansion/exploration on the surface.

Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday to you all. I look forward to what 2018 will bring. 🙂

I wanted to post a quick update regarding the progress so far on the next update. Alpha 0.11 is coming along very nicely, but is taking a bit longer than originally planned. Quite a bit of new content is being pushed in to this update including new items, recovery projects, object and even a new robot. Robot construction has taken more time as I had to figure out how much player customization goes in to building robots.

Robot Construction

The main focus of customization is the robot starting values for Smarts, Muscles and Athletics. I bounced around various ideas on how to implement and balance this and, in the end, decided to allow for direct distribution of points in to these attributes.

When using the new Robot Assembler players will have a certain amount of points that can be put in to the three core attributes. How many points you have available is determined by new data recovery projects. More points spent will also directly affect the final material requirements, which are different for each attribute. Robot construction will take a good deal of time and require an engineer to operate the Robot Assembler.

Deep Driller Bot

As mentioned in the previous developer log, a new robot is coming called the Deep Driller. The deep driller will only have one available job and that’s to mine the floor tiles that contain ore. This is a great way to get extra resources as well as convert that floor ore to dirt.

As with previous updates, Alpha 0.11 will be coming to the testing branch first. This should happen soon so, for those interested, keep an eye out for more information to follow. A big thanks to everyone who has provided feedback so far.

This week I’ve been working on various aspects of the game for the next content update and I wanted to report on the progress so far. Robots are currently free labor as they can’t die and don’t have any needs to fulfill. It has always been the plan to have more requirements for robots as well as the ability for robot construction.

Robot Recharging

Robots requiring power is currently being worked on for the 0.11 update. Robots will need to be recharged at charging pads, similar to how colonists need to sleep. If a robot get’s below 5% power it will get a speed reduction and no longer perform any job actions. Charge pads will be another branch of data recovery and the plan is to add one charge pad to the facility at world generation.

Robot Construction

The Robot Assembler is being added which will allow colonists to construct new robot workers. I’m still tinkering on the details on what control the player has over the quality of the robot output. This may be something that is added more simply at first and built on to over time. I am also working on a new type of robot which will allow players to mine floor tiles for additional resources.

Notice Icons

There is also more work going to into reporting information to the player and in that vein I’m adding in hovering notification/warning icons. These hover icons will show on top of objects to notify the player to issues such as an object having no power, no water, not enabled and more. This is a great way to see the status of objects at a glance.

The next update is shaping up very nicely and will have some great new content. What are your thoughts on some of the new features?