Thank you all for the amazing support. I mentioned in my previous developer log that my father was in the hospital after having a heart attack. He is now post heart surgery and recovery is going well.

This has understandably slowed down development a bit, but I’m still working on some new features as well.

Job Role Success Chance

I’m currently adding an action success chance to job roles. This will add more challenge and variety as each job role, and it’s relevant actions, will have a chance to succeed or fail. Success chance is based on the jobs level as well as colonist attributes. A colonist with a low success chance for a job will be slower at that job as they will fail more. Each time a colonist fails there is also a small chance for them to critically fail.

Critical failure will result in various bad things happening depending on the action. For example, if a colonist critically fails at construction then the object being constructed is destroyed, losing the materials put into it in the process.

New positive and negative icons will appear above the colonist as they perform actions. This helps to show their work speed as well as how often they succeed or fail.

Colonist success chance will also be affected by stress. Higher stress will decrease their over all success chance.

Support & Follow Mercury Fallen On
Steam | Twitter | Facebook | Discord | Merch | Patreon

Howdy Pioneers!

Update 18 is now available, with many additions, changes, fixes and performance tweaks. A big thank you to to everyone who provided feedback on the test build.

Facility Minimap

View your entire facility with the new facility minimap. The minimap shows your facility, camera view area and colonists. You can now quickly navigate to different areas by clicking on the minimap. Speed and overlay controls have been updated and shifted to new positions on the screen to accommodate the new minimap interface.

Robot Recycler

The robot recycler finally lets you scrap robots you no longer need and get some resources back. The robot info panel now has a recycle button which will instruct the robot to be recycled. The robot will seek out the first available robot recycler and be recycled.

Save Game Interface

A new save game interface has been added that allows you to create a new save game, overwrite an existing game and name your saved games. An auto save feature has also been added. By default, the game will auto save every 10 minutes, but this can be adjusted or turned off in settings. The Quit To Main Menu save confirmation has been removed, as the game will now generate an auto save when returning to the main menu.

UI Tweaks

I’ve made minor tweaks to various UI elements, but the most notable are the changes to the color picker and main menu interface. The color picker has a new look and many more color choices. The main menu has been updated and has a Continue button, which will load the latest saved game.

Fixes & Performance Tweaks

Thanks to your support I’ve been able to hunt down and fix various bugs that affect colonist behavior and more. Several tweaks have been added to improve performance during the later part of the game. Keep those bug reports coming! 🙂

Follow Mercury Fallen development on:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mercuryfall
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mercfall/
Website: http://www.mercuryfallen.com
Discord: https://discord.gg/WdndeXx

Release Notes

Additions

• Added: Facility Minimap
• Added: Robot Recycler. Will receive 50% of of robot materials when robot is recycled.
• Added. Recycle button added to robot info panel. The robot will automatically seek out an available robot recycler when marked for recycling. They will continue doing other jobs if one is not readily available.
• Added new Save Game interface that allows for custom file names and overwriting existing saves
• Game will now auto save at regular intervals.
• Added game setting for adjusting or disabling auto save time interval. Defaults to every 10 minutes.

Changes

• Removed quit to menu save confirmation screen. Game will now generate an auto save upon quit.
• Updated look of load game interface
• Updated color picker interface
• Increased amount of colors in color picker
• Color picker colors now defined in xml files
• Day and time info now shown next to minimap
• Game speed buttons moved to top of minimap
• Overlay buttons moved to side of minimap
• Craft queue add/edit item window now shows item type drop down, where applicable.
• When hungry and going to a container with food, a colonist will attempt to get enough food to deplete their hunger.
• Reduced time it take to eat a single item of food. Colonists will take longer to eat when eating multiple low satiation foods. More satiating foods will decrease the time it takes to eat as the colonist will eat less in one sitting.
• Minor decrease to default hunger rate
• Raw Potato satiation increased to 18%

Fixes

• Fixed: Colonist becoming stuck if object is deconstructed while colonists is en-route to drop of materials.
• Fixed: Colonists not receiving hauler experience for dropping off materials to construction site.
• Fixed: Unable to remove equipment items in some instances
• Fixed: Performance issue related to power/water resource distribution over conduits
• Fixed: Performance issue with various colonist actions related to finding valid job targets
• Fixed: Performance issue when calculating attributes for colonists/objects
• Fixed: Additional minor performance improvements and lowered memory consumption
• Fixed: Colonists not choosing highest quality food in a container item when going to eat.
• Fixed: Multiple colonists attempting to install equipment on the same object
• Fixed: Craft item action not showing item name in action description
• Fixed: Wasp showing incorrect icon/name/description in info window
• Fixed: Colonist need values (Hunger/Fatigue/Stress) going above maximum value in some instances
• Fixed: Colonists stuck if stress is at max, but there is no way to relieve stress.
• Fixed: Allowed items for containers not saving
• Fixed: Equipment items not showing in allowed items interface

I’ve been listening to your feedback and working on a smaller update to add and improve various things. Thanks for the great feedback and bug reports. Be sure to check out the Update 17 survey if you haven’t already.

Facility Minimap

A highly requested feature has been the addition of a minimap. A new minimap will be added to the lower right side of the screen. Speed and overlay controls have been updated and shifted to accommodate the new minimap interface. The minimap shows your facility, camera view area, colonists and you can click it to quickly move the camera to a location on the map.

Robot Recycler

The robot recycler will finally let you scrap robots you no longer need when you want to get some resources back. The robot info panel will now have a recycle button which will instruct the robot to be recycled. The robot will seek out the first available robot recycler and be recycled.

Saved Games

A new save game interface has been added that allows you to create a new save game, overwrite an existing game and name your saved games. A new auto save feature is being added. By default it will auto save every 10 minutes, but this can be adjusted or turned off in settings.

UI Tweaks

I’ve made minor tweaks to various UI elements, but the most notable are the changes to the color picker and main menu interface. The color picker has a new look and many more colors. The main menu has been updated and now has a Continue button which will load the latest saved game.

Fixes

Thanks to your support I’ve been able to hunt down and fix various bugs that affect colonist behavior and more. Keep those bug reports coming! 🙂

In Development

I’m developing more surface content, but it won’t be ready by Update 18. Some of my future plans include vehicle automation, surface expeditions for colonists, surface construction and more.

Update 18 is well underway and should be available in the Test Build branch on Steam soon. Thank you all for the great support!

Follow Mercury Fallen development on:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mercuryfall
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mercfall/
Website: http://www.mercuryfallen.com
Discord: https://discord.gg/WdndeXx

Howdy Pioneers,

Update 17 is now available and there are many additions, changes and fixes. A huge thanks for the great feedback from all of you who checked out the Test Build!

So much has changed that it was time for a new Mercury Fallen trailer.

Updated Graphics

Walls, doors and dirt have been updated to add more detail and better match the rest of the game. There have been additional tweaks to color balance and a reduction in the screen bloom effect.

Craft Queue System

The craft queue system has been overhauled and there is a new option to “Craft If below X amount” when adding items to the craft queue. This will ensure colonists are only crafting new materials if below the specified amount.

Equipment

Colonists, machines and vehicles can now have equipment items installed/equipped to improve them in various ways. The new equipment items can be crafted, but some advanced equipment items can only be found in item chests. New research projects have been added to unlock equipment items that can be crafted at the tech printer. A new guide topic for equipment has been added under the basics section.

New Vehicles

Two new vehicles have been added that allow for travel over water. The Whale Miner and Wasp are improved versions of the D.O.G.E and Beetle Miner with increased base stats.

Discoveries Interface

The discovery interface has been updated and now shows discovery items as a list. Discoveries will no longer show until they are found and new discoveries will be highlighted until clicked. The discovery group headers show the percentage of items found so that you know if you’ve completed a group.

Wall Objects

A new system for place-able wall objects is being introduced. The first new item is the wall light with more to follow in later updates.

Resource Balancing

There are various changes to resource gathering and usage. Item chests have increased resource loot. Mineral chests have a chance to include Rutile and Unrefined Gold. Surface biome ore generation has been tweaked to increase Rutile chance. Less Green Algae is needed in recipes that require it.

Let me know what you think of the new content in the General Discussion Forum.

Found a bug or reporting an issue? Please post in the Bug Reports Forum.

Follow Mercury Fallen development on:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mercuryfall
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mercfall/
Website: http://www.mercuryfallen.com
Discord: https://discord.gg/WdndeXx

Check out the all the additions, changes and fixes in the release notes below.

Additions

• New placeable wall lights
• New Utility Equipment research project
• New Vehicle Equipment research project
• New Colonist Gear research project
• New Hover Tech research project
• New UI sound effects
• Added: Equipment slots to objects, colonists and vehicles
• Added: Craftable equipment that can be installed/equipped to improve objects, vehicles and colonists.
• Added: 30+ equipment item recipes
• Added: Equipment guide topic
• Added: Day and time now displayed at top left of planet map
• Added: New input keys for select next colonist and select previous colonist. Defaulted to left and right bracket keys.
• Added: Camera Move Speed setting to adjust camera pan and edge scroll speed.
• Added rubber item and recipe. Rubber is made using lumen bulbus.
• Added Wasp vehicle
• Added Whale Miner vehicle

UI Changes

• Colonist Info section renamed to Details
• Colonist attribute meters now have more detailed tool-tip
• Crafting notifications will now show the item that has been completed.
• Removed separate section for colonist outfit colors and added color buttons to details section.
• Craft queues have been completely overhauled to allow more control and visual feedback.
• Changed: When loading a save game from before alpha 0.17 any craft queue items set to craft infinite have been set to craft if below 10. This can be changed by clicking the icon for an item in the craft queue.
• Discovery groups and items now shown as a list on the left side of the Discovery interface.
• Discoveries will not appear in the list until they’ve been discovered.
• Discovery group headers show percentage complete for that group.
• New discoveries highlighted in yellow until clicked in discovery list.
• Updated look of guide topic buttons
• Vehicle speed now shows in mph or kph if unit type set to metric in settings
• Changed: Vehicle drop down in vehicle assembly station now shows vehicle icons
• Increased font size of HUD inventory list items and headers

More Changes

• Wall model
• Mouse collision detection on walls to accommodate placeable wall objects
• Updated look of room walls and doors
• Updated look of floor dirt and wall textures
• Reduced screen bloom effect
• Minor change to tone mapping to adjust brightness/contrast
• Changed how attributes work for colonists to allow a more generic attribute system that works for all objects. This was done to support installed equipment on objects and vehicles.
• Starting supply chest now contains a random selection of equipment items
• Increased inventory capacity of beetle miner
• Decreased size of beetle miner graphic
• Updated look of Beetle Miner mining effect
• Vehicle mining/scanning actions now consume power
• Vehicle actions will consume power at a steady rate even while charging.
• Vehicle action power consumption has been decreased to compensate for new recharging mechanics. This ensures power recharge rate is above action consumption rate during the day.
• Colonists will now pick up and eat multiple food items in order to reduce hunger below the action threshold. This removes instances of colonists getting stuck in an infinite loop of eating raw potatoes.
• Increased loot quantities from item chests.
• Titanium ore now has a chance to spawn in mineral chests.
• Unrefined gold now has a chance to spawn in mineral chests.
• Sand now has a chance to spawn in organics chests.
• Increased chance of rutile in Scorched biome
• Increased chance of rutile in Tendril Forest biome
• Rutile now available in Desert Scrubland biome
• Random equipment items can now be found in tech chests. This is the only way to get some rare equipment items.
• Colonists now properly reserve target items when picking them up. This resolves issues with colonists attempting to pick up the same items from the same inventory and there isn’t enough for both colonists.

Fixes

• Fixed: Deep Driller bot can level past 10
• Fixed: Incorrect description text for Crimson Bloom discovery
• Fixed: Crimson Bloom research missing Xenobotany as a requirement
• Fixed: Incorrect description text for construct vehicle action
• Fixed: Crop fields allocating additional memory every time it calculates it’s output items
• Fixed: Incorrect selection hit box for Vehicle Assembly Station
• Fixed: Incorrect selection hit box for Robot Assembler
• Fixed: Colonist going to crafting station without enough ingredients to craft item in some instances
• Fixed: Colonist inventory capacity not correctly calculated based on attributes in some instances.
• Fixed: Vehicle action button not enabled after clicking to stop active action.
• Fixed: Vehicle action bar not showing if loading a save game more than once after opening the game.
• Fixed: UI tooltips still showing after related UI element has been destroyed
• Fixed: Colonist miner not always mining the next closest tile in line.
• Fixed: Selecting multiple objects for deconstruction not selecting/removing objects in some instances.
• Fixed: Items the colonist is carrying not being saved/loaded
• Fixed: Vehicle move action not working if player stopped action while movement action was waiting for power recharge.
• Fixed: Vehicle name doesn’t update in vehicle list after changing vehicle name.
• Fixed: Aquarium lights are on before aquarium is built
• Fixed: Game not returning to correct game speed when closing in game menu.
• Fixed: Wasteland surface biome shows copper ingot instead of copper ore as a mineable material.
• Fixed: Gold ore not mineable in polar wasteland biome
• Fixed: Various performance improvements

The next update is progressing very well and I wanted to cover some additional details of what to expect in Alpha 0.17.

Updated Attribute System

As mentioned in a previous developer log, I’ve been working on adding equipment that can be installed/equipped to affect colonists, machines and vehicles. This has taken a bit longer then expected, but the end result will offer a wide range of upgrade possibilities. Originally, equipment was planned for vehicles, but with improvements to some core systems, I’m able to add equipment items that can also affect vehicles, colonists and objects.

Some time ago, I created an attribute system for colonists. Attributes function as a container for a data value and effects. An effect object modifies the attribute data value, such as quirks, ailments and general positive/negative effects. Attributes were later tacked on to vehicles in a less than ideal way. Objects/machinery didn’t use attributes at all.

I have now revamped this system to allow colonists, vehicles and objects to use attributes in a more consistent manner. This means that equipment can target these attributes to allow for boosts to everything, instead of just vehicles.

Equipment Items

Many types of equipment will be made available in Alpha 0.17, with more planned for future updates. Objects, vehicles and colonists will now have equipment slots. Equipment items must be found, or crafted, and then installed. In the case of objects/machines, the equipment will be picked up and installed by a builder after it’s been assigned. Vehicle equipment will require that the vehicle is docked and, once assigned, will be installed by an engineer at the vehicle assembly station.

Equipment selection will only show available equipment for the selected target. For example, a Power Efficiency item can’t be equipped by a human colonist.

New Vehicles

Hover vehicles are being added which allow for traversal over water. These new vehicles will need some additional research and surface materials.

Alpha 0.17 is coming along very well and I hope to release it into the Test Build branch soon. A huge thanks for all the support and feedback!

Follow Mercury Fallen development on:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mercuryfall
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mercfall/
Website: http://www.mercuryfallen.com
Discord: https://discord.gg/WdndeXx

Howdy Pioneers!

This week, I started working on something slightly unexpected. While it is on the to-do list, it wasn’t originally planned for the next content update. But it rose up quickly on the priority list, as it was required in order to do some of the other planned features.

Updated Wall Graphics

When I started developing Mercury Fallen, the art style was a bit more simple. As I’ve added new objects, however, that art style has become more detailed. This has left some of the early art in the game looking out of place. Updating the walls required updating the base model, remapping all the pieces and creating completely new art for each room wall type. This took a few days to do, but I’m very happy with the result.

Wall Objects

The other reason for updating the walls is to allow for objects that can be placed on a wall. The previous wall models used a collision box that encapsulated the entire wall tile. This meant that anything attached to the wall couldn’t be selected, as it was inside the collision boundaries of the wall itself. All the wall models have been updated with a custom collider, so that objects placed on a wall can be easily selected.

An additional challenge was coming up with an intuitive placement system for wall objects. The final result is an object snapping system that allows you to hover the wall object over a wall side, and the object automatically rotates itself to the proper side.

The first new wall object is the wall light. These are a great way to add light without taking up floor space. Additional wall objects are also in development.

Colonist Hunger

In addition to the graphics and decoration updates, I’m also working on various fixes. One big issue is that colonists can get into an endless loop of eating raw potatoes in some instances. To combat this, and generally improve on how colonists eat, colonists will now grab and eat multiple food items at a time to reduce their hunger below the threshold of being hungry enough to eat. This should improve colonists’ overall efficiency, and ensure they aren’t constantly eating.

Thanks for all the great feedback and support!

Follow Mercury Fallen development on:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mercuryfall
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mercfall/
Website: http://www.mercuryfallen.com
Discord: https://discord.gg/WdndeXx

Howdy Pioneers!

Alpha 0.16 is now live on Steam, bringing new content, changes and fixes. A huge thanks for the great feedback from all of you who checked out the Test Build!

Main Features

• New Geothermal generator
• New Thermal vents
• New research progress meter in lower HUD interface
• New ‘drop off items’ vehicle action
• Update various tool-tips to provide more information and clarity.
• Colonists more efficiently haul items to multiple construction sites and to storage
• Reduced resource requirements for several crafting recipes

Updated Power Generation

The new Geothermal generator can be placed atop thermal vents and provides 2,000W of power. Thermal vents can be found while digging out the underground facility. While thermal vents are part of world generation, they will also appear in existing saved games.

The coal generator will no longer consume fuel if there are no machines drawing power from it.

UI Improvements

I’ve made various improvements to tool-tip information, including a research progress meter to the lower game HUD. This new research meter also functions as a button for quick access to the tech tree.

Colonist job roles now show the work speed bonus in its tool-tip. The work speed for a colonist action is based on its associated job level and that colonists base work speed.

Haulers & Builders

Builders now bring build materials to multiple objects, if resources are available, before starting construction. This greatly improves construction efficiency and decreases the number of times a colonist runs back and forth for materials.

Haulers better determine what to pickup and haul to storage and will no longer carry more than their carry capacity.

Updated Craft Recipes

In Alpha 0.15, I increased the resource requirements for many recipes across the board. This change made sense for recipes that process raw materials into refined materials, but not for recipes that use the refined materials. After reviewing recipe requirements, I’ve reduced the resource requirements for various recipes that use refined material to improve content progression and enjoyment.

Let me know what you think of the new content in the General Discussion Forum.

Found a bug or reporting an issue? Please post in the Bug Reports Forum.

Be sure to follow Mercury Fallen development on:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mercuryfall
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mercfall/
Website: http://www.mercuryfallen.com
Discord: https://discord.gg/WdndeXx

Check out the all the changes/fixes in the release notes below.

Features

• Added: Geothermal Generator. Must be placed over thermal vents.
• Added: Geothermal Power research project
• Added: Naturally occurring thermal vents which can be harnessed for power. Existing save games will also generate thermal vents on tiles with a dirt floor or dirt wall.
• Added: Drop Off vehicle action to beetle miner. This allows items to be deposited at the adjacent facility without having to dock the vehicle.
• Added: Research progress meter to lower game bar

Changes

• Changed: Builders will now collect and deliver build materials to multiple objects, within proximity to each other, before construction. This improves construction efficiency so that builders are not running back and forth for each object to be constructed.
• Changed: Colonists now pre-calculate items to bring to storage. This ensures multiple colonists aren’t trying to collect the same items.
• Changed: Colonists better determine what items to collect and bring to storage.
• Changed: Colonists will no longer pick up more than their carry capacity when hauling to storage.
• Changed: Research window now opened by clicking research progress display on lower game bar.
• Changed: Deep mine selection button tool-tip now states a deep driller bot is required for deep mining.
• Changed: Vehicles, when out of power, will now pause for power recharge and continue their active action once power is refilled.
• Changed: Icon of ‘move to’ vehicle action
• Changed: Reduced material requirements for various recipes
• Changed: Power generator no longer consumes fuel if not connected to or delivering power to any machines
• Changed: Job role work speed bonus per level tweaked to be more noticeable.
• Changed: Job work speed bonus now shown in job tool-tip
• Changed: Minor increase to colonists base run speed.
• Changed: Updated various tool-tips to show more information or provide more clarity.

Fixes

• Fixed: Camera doesn’t track vehicle when clicking vehicle icon if vehicle is already selected.
• Fixed: Vehicle continues to move even when out of power
• Fixed: Vehicle action bar doesn’t disappear when docking vehicle.
• Fixed: Vehicle consuming power after clicking move to action, but before destination is clicked.
• Fixed: Power generator contributing to total power output even if not outputting power
• Fixed: Multiple vehicle actions can be performed at once in some instances
• Fixed: Crimson Bloom able to be used in plant pot before research for it is completed
• Fixed: Wheat Thorn discovery can’t be found. Related biome will need to be re-scanned to make discovery if previously scanned.
• Fixed: Robot charge station visually shows as constructed when first placed.
• Fixed: All colonists have the same carry capacity. This is now correctly based on muscles attribute.
• Fixed: Various improvements to colonist AI logic to increase performance
• Fixed: Objects marked for deconstruction don’t save/load.
• Fixed: Object build queue order not saved/loaded.
• Fixed: Builder pauses movement when in object placement mode.
• Fixed: Able to build Beetle Miner at vehicle assembly station before researching it.
• Fixed: Default job priorities, when jobs have the same priority, not being prioritized in the correct order.
• Fixed: Job action priorities not calculated correctly in some cases.

Alpha 0.16 is now available on the Test Build branch on Steam. There are a bunch of great new additions, changes and fixes. Notable changes include new geothermal power generation, improved construction and hauling behavior, UI improvements and more. If you’re interested in helping test this new version, check out the link below.

For more information about the 0.16 Test Build, including release notes:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/704510/discussions/3/1732089092447281294/

Alpha 0.15 is now available on Steam! This update took longer than previous updates, and longer than I would have preferred, but there are a lot of great new features, updates and fixes. I’m especially excited about the planet exploration content.

Planetary Exploration

Operations Center

Colonists can now research and build an operations center and map table which allows for remote viewing of the planet surface. There are many new discoveries and resources to be found and exploited.

Vehicles

Remotely controlled vehicles allow for surface exploration, biome scanning and resource harvesting.

Surface Exploration & Mining

The Distance Operated Geo Explorer, or D.O.G.E, will allow colonists to scan biomes for new discoveries and resource information, while the Beetle Miner will allow for resource extraction and hauling.

Biologist Job Role

The Comm Officer has been fired and the new Biologist job position has been added. The Biologist will be responsible for tackling fish-related tasks.

New Discoveries & Research

Many new discoveries and research projects have been added for unlocking new, and some existing, content. Alien Flora/Fauna will now need to be discovered by scanning surface biomes before they can be researched and grown.

Notable Changes

There have been many tweaks and changes to existing craft recipes and construction material requirements. Construction and mining times have been reduced. Colonists will no longer die quite as quickly from starvation. There have been some minor graphics changes, and the camera zoom distance has been increased. These are just some of the changes.
For the full list of additions, changes and fixes, see the release notes below.

For the latest updates and information, be sure to follow Mercury Fallen in the following ways:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mercuryfall
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mercfall/
Website: http://www.mercuryfallen.com/
Discord: https://discord.gg/WdndeXx

Release Notes

Additions

• Added: Planet Map section in facility management interface
• Added: Planet Map button to bottom button bar.
• Added: Planet Surface Map which is explorable using vehicles. Surface allows for additional discoveries and resource harvesting.
• Added: New Operations Center room floor
• Added: Map table for operations room. Map table displays surface map and will update in real time as surface is explored. Planet Map interface only available when map table is constructed and has power.
• Added: Vehicle Assembler for creating vehicles for use on the planet surface.
• Added: D.O.G.E vehicle for surface biome scanning.
• Added: Beetle Miner vehicle for surface mining.
• Added: Background ambient music
• Added: Several new raw and refined materials for crafting.
• Added: Surface Analysis research project
• Added: Surface Mining research project
• Added: Silica Processing research project
• Added: Several new research projects related to xenobotany
• Added: Temperature Unit Setting (Fahrenheit, Celsius or Kelvin)
• Added: Measuring Unit Setting (Imperial or Metric)
• Added: Guide topics for surface exploration
• Added: Biologist Job Role. Biologist job role responsible for handling Aquarium tasks.
• Added confirmation window/save reminder when quitting to main menu

Changes

• Changed: Alien flora/fauna must now be discovered/researched on the planet surface before it can be grown in crop field/aeroponics farm
• Changed: Hemp/Potato output increased
• Removed: Comm Officer Job Role
• Changed: Increased storage capacity on all containers.
• Changed: Renamed some research projects for better clarification
• Changed: Selected research project information updated in research interface.
• Changed: Notification tabs are now visible when facility management interface is open
• Changed: Research complete notification now opens research interface when clicked
• Changed: Research project info now shows more requirement information.
• Changed: Decreased some research times.
• Changed: Minor update to the look of crop fields
• Changed: Colonists will randomly choose an applicable craft station to use. This helps to ensure colonists don’t ignore craft stations that are available.
• Changed: Cloth now uses hemp.
• Changed: Steel now uses iron ingots instead of iron ore
• Changed: Material requirements for various objects/recipes
• Changed: Materials used for high level stats for robot construction
• Changed: Medical Bed moved from furniture to utilities section of build interface.
• Changed: Colonists can now go 1.5 days before they begin to starve from not eating.
• Changed: Reduced default level of construction sound effect
• Changed: Decreased navigation grid updates to improve overall performance.
• Changed: Increased max camera zoom distance
• Changed: Object construction info will now show warning notice if construction area isn’t clear or floor under object isn’t finished construction

Fixes

• Fixed: Notification icons stuck in the middle of the screen after opening an item chest or pressing escape to close side info panel.
• Fixed: Colonist becoming stuck after deconstructing starting generator
• Fixed: Colonists able to walk on floor tiles over water even though they aren’t built yet.
• Fixed: Research project background color shows as being able to be researched when requirements aren’t met in some cases.
• Fixed: Audio level on colonist window tabs not affected by UI audio setting.
• Fixed: Construction visual progress effect not updating if object is selected
• Fixed: Colonist continues researching if research station they are sitting at is deconstructed
• Fixed: Audio effects getting louder/softer when multiple audio effects are playing
• Fixed: Storage containers not dropping their contents on the floor when deconstructed
• Fixed: Colonist stuck in loop trying plant at aeroponics farm if only 1 plant nutrient is available in storage.
• Fix: Item chests spawning on top of each other in ruined rooms.
• Fixed: Low/high quality graphics settings were reversed. This meant that setting the graphics settings to high you were actually seeing low quality visual settings.
• Fixed: Edge scrolling not working if cursor is over object build menu or getting started window.
• Fixed: Colonist receiving additional quirks when loading a save game.
• Fixed: Object in mid construction missing build materials when loading save game
• Fixed: Active research project not set after loading save game.
• Fixed: Object still constructed if floor isn’t finished construction
• Fixed: Camera does not switch off power/water overlay if closing deconstruct filters

Alpha 0.15 is now available on the Test Build branch!

While the main feature of Alpha 0.15 is the new planetary exploration/mining, there are a lot of other additions and changes.

Some of the new changes in Alpha 0.15 include new surface exploration/mining, new research and discoveries, additional raw resources, new recipes, new objects, various fixes and performance improvements. If you’re interested in helping test Alpha 0.15 please click the link below for additional details.

For more information about the 0.15 Test Build, including release notes:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/704510/discussions/3/1743346190274134560/