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.

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?

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?

Mercury Fallen is now available on Steam and the response has been awesome. A huge thank you to everyone who has played Mercury Fallen and for the great feedback. I am deeply humbled by the amount of positivity the Steam community has shown me. I am very happy to see gamers enjoying Mercury Fallen and there is a lot more to come. I have been actively working on the next update which will include fun new content as well as several fixes to bugs that have been reported.

Test Builds

One of the benefits of Steam is the Beta Opt-In support which allows developers to have separate optional testing/preview branches of the game. These optional game branches are a great way for the community to get involved with testing the latest and greatest content. It also serves to reduce the amount of potential bugs/issues in versions that go public to everyone.

Before major updates of the game come out they will first be available in the optional testing branch on Steam so that users have the opportunity to help test the latest content before it goes live to to the main branch. If you’re interested in testing out the latest content and want to help track down bugs click here for more information.

Alpha version 0.10 is now available in the optional test build branch. For more information on what is in the new version click here.

Thank you again to everyone who has helped support Mercury Fallen so far. This is only the start and I look forward to working together to make Mercury Fallen the best it can be.

Mercury Fallen was first released on Itch.IO on April 7, 2017 as a prototype demo. Shortly after that a full early access release hit Itch.IO and the response has been amazing. On October 16, 2017 Mercury Fallen will be available for purchase on Steam and I’m super excited to continue to develop the game and grow the community. The Steam release is only the beginning. There is a lot more to come for Mercury Fallen and I’m very grateful to those that have supported the project so far.

This week I’ve been fighting off a cold which has slowed progress on the next update, but I wanted to go over some of the things I’ve been working on.

Decor

The plan has always been for decorative objects have a larger impact on game play and with the new decor system that is finally starting to happen. Various structure objects in the game will provide positive or negative decor to the surrounding tiles. As colonists walk around the positive/negative decor value will have a direct effect on their stress level. The uglier the environment the more stress a colonist will receive. Positive decor items, such as decorations, will help to reduce stress.

The biggest challenge I found when trying to implement this system was how best to visualize the decor of the environment. The end result was to create a color overlay which shows positive decor areas in green and negative decor areas in red. Areas that are white have no impact. I’ve added some new buttons to the bottom button bar to toggle different display modes for power, water and decor views.

Colonists will stop working entirely if their stress level is completely maxed out, which means managing decor and stress becomes more critical. In addition to decor I plan to add additional interactive stress reducing objects.

New and better crops

In addition to the new decor system I’ve improved the look of hemp and have started work on additional crops. The new glow bulb crop is currently planned to be used as an ingredient for cloth as well as a new meal recipe.

Those are just some of the things being worked on for the next update. What are your thoughts on the new features?

It’s always been the plan to add additional depth to how power is generated and managed. In the upcoming version of the game the power system is receiving a complete overhaul as well as various other features.

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There are quite a lot of things I still have planned for Mercury Fallen. Some of these elements are being worked on a little at a time in the back ground while I continue to add other features and content to the game. One of these background projects is the expedition system.

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