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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Additions
Changes
Fixes
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
UI Changes
More Changes
Fixes
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!
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.
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.
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.
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
Changes
Fixes
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.
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.
Remotely controlled vehicles allow for surface exploration, biome scanning and resource harvesting.
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.
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.
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.
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
Additions
Changes
Fixes
Alpha 0.14.5 is now available on the Test Build branch. This is a “small” update/patch while work continues on the planetary exploration update. The planetary exploration update is coming along very well, but more development time is still needed.
Some of the new changes in Alpha 0.14.5 include new mining/deconstruction selection graphics, updated map sizes, HUD inventory options, colonist priority improvements, updated UI elements and more. See the release notes below for the full list of changes and fixes.
For information about accessing the Test Build branch click the link below:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/704510/discussions/3/2381701715712468002/
Changes
Fixes
Alpha 0.14.3 is out of the test build branch and now live on Steam. This is a small update while I continue development of the next big content update.
The craft queue and robot assembler interfaces will now show available ingredients highlighted in green and unavailable ingredients highlighted in red.
As objects get constructed they will now dissolve in. This has the benefit of looking cool and illustrating the build progress.
Thank you all for the awesome feedback and support. Keep an eye out for future developer logs where I’ll cover progress on the new planetary exploration features in development.
Be sure to follow Mercury Fallen on Facebook / Twitter for the latest news and updates:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mercfall/
Twitter: @mercuryfall
As mentioned in the last dev log I’m focusing work on the planetary exploration/expansion system. In the mean time I’ll be pushing out some smaller updates/patches. These smaller updates will add, improve and fix various things while I continue work on the next major content update. Alpha 0.14.3 is now available on the Test Build branch and has some great updates/fixes.
For more information about the 0.14.3 test build, including release notes:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/704510/discussions/3/1693795812290118689/
What is the Test Build branch?
https://steamcommunity.com/app/704510/discussions/3/2381701715712468002/
Alpha 0.14.2 is out of testing and now available on Steam. This patch update addresses a couple of bugs, but also adds the ability to change the order of objects in the construction build queue.
The new Set High Priority button in an objects build info window will set the object to be first in the build queue. Other objects may still get built first if materials are not available for the object. Further improvements to managing the build queue are expected in future update.
Alpha 0.14.2 is another small patch update to fix a couple things, but also adds the ability to change the order of objects in the construction build queue. Alpha 0.14.2 Test Build is now available on Steam.
The new Set High Priority button in an objects build info window will set the object to be first in the build queue. Other objects may still get built first if materials are not available for the object. Further improvements to managing the build queue are expected in future update.
For more information about the 0.14.2 test build, including release notes:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/704510/discussions/3/1696046342851980237/
What is the Test Build branch?
https://steamcommunity.com/app/704510/discussions/3/2381701715712468002/
Alpha 0.14.1 is a small patch update to fix and tweak a few things and is now available now Steam. The most notable change in this update is that colonist death notifications now reference the cause of death. Additionally I made some tweaks to the tech tree and the food quality of sushi to better balance food production. The inability to complete the “Refine Structure Resin” tutorial task has been fixed.
Check the release notes below for all the changes/fixes.