Hope everyone is having a great new year so far. I have some big plans for 2019. First up is an update that focuses on bringing initial mod support to Mercury Fallen.

Mods

The next update will add in official support for XML mods that can tweak existing content or add new content such as additional languages. Mods that add new artwork and Steam Workshop support are currently being investigated, but may not make it into this update. This is only the beginning, and further support will be added in future updates.

A Test Build will be available next week for those who want to test mod support. Your feedback will be very helpful in identifying what the community wants and needs. Additional information and guides will be made available for those interested in creating or using mods.

Display Modes

While mod support is the major focus of Update 19, I’ve also added new display modes for the surface map. The Discovered Biomes display mode shows discovered biomes in green and undiscovered biomes in red. This will help explorers track down missing biomes.

Additionally there are display modes for temperature, moisture and elevation. While these tile attributes are not critical at the moment, they will play a part in some of the planned content in development.

What type of mods do you want to see? If you’re interested in creating mods for Mercury Fallen, please reach out and let me know the types of mods you want to create. Thank you all for a great 2018 and I look forward to creating some exciting new content in 2019!

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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

Howdy Pioneers!

Alpha 0.17 development is in the internal testing stage, before it heads over to the Test Build branch. Aside from all the other new content discussed in the previous developer logs, I wanted to show the new vehicles that are coming as well.

New Vehicles

Two new vehicles are being added that can travel over water. The Wasp and Whale Miner are improved versions of the D.O.G.E and Beetle Miner. Their base stats have been boosted, and with the coming equipment system, can be further increased to speed up mining, scanning, movement speed and more.

Alpha 0.17 is scheduled to come to the Test Build branch next week for those interested in helping test the latest version.

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

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!

A huge thanks for all the support and feedback. There are a lot of things on my to-do list, but I wanted to go over some of the targeted content for the next update and beyond.

Discovery Interface

The discoveries interface is undergoing a bit of a face lift. I added quite a few new discovery items in Alpha 0.15, and I plan to add quite a few more. I’m updating the interface to be a bit cleaner and more functional.

Discovery items will be listed on the left, grouped by category. Categories can be opened and closed to more easily find discovery items you’re looking for. New discoveries will be highlighted in yellow so they are also easier to find. Category headers will show the category’s completion percentage, as discovery items will no longer show until they’ve been found. The category percentage will indicate whether more discoveries are available, or if the category is completed.

Improved Craft Queue

Something that has been on my to-do list for a while is improving the craft queue system. The current system doesn’t offer much control, and its operation is confusing to some new users. The updated craft queue system will allow you to manage item orders.

Item orders can be setup to craft a certain number of items, or only to craft the item if there are fewer than a certain number of the item available. Instead of setting an item to infinite quantity, as in the previous system, you can set how many you want to keep in stock. If there are more items than the desired number you’ve set, the colonists won’t craft the item again until the inventory drops below the set number. Item orders can also be paused and resumed at any time.

The sequence that items are crafted in still uses the round-robin method. Colonists will craft one of the first item, then one of the second item, and so on, until all item orders are complete.

Equipment Items

While working on the vehicle system for planetary exploration, I had planned to add vehicle upgrades. While that plan has not changed, the scope of it has increased to allow for a wider range of upgrade items. This new system will allow the creation and discovery of equipment items that can be installed into vehicles, colonists and machines to affect them in various ways. Machine equipment, for example, can’t be equipped by a colonist.

Vehicle equipment will offer improvements such as faster movement speed, faster mining, the ability to cross water/mountains and more. Equipment for objects will affect power consumption, decor rating, double output for craft stations and more. Colonist equipment will improve various attributes.

I’m still hammering out the details of how this system will integrate into the game. I’ve made some good progress and this will add many more items to craft and find.

Surface Map Points Of Interest

A big item on the to-do list is to add more exploration opportunities to the surface map. Points of interest, or POIs, will be locations on the map that can be further investigated. POIs will need to be scanned by a DOGE and, in various cases, will need to be further investigated by an expedition party of colonists. POI investigations will function as mini stories/events that will offer the player a choice about how to handle them. The results will be positive or negative, depending on the player’s expedition party and choices.

This is a system I’m very excited about, as it will add more story content, as well as more ways to get rare loot and discoveries.

Game Events

Game events will add more flavor with positive and negative colonist and world events that are randomly triggered. This is something I’ve been wanting to add to the game for a long time, but I wanted to avoid completely random events that they player may find frustrating. Events can affect the world, such as crop disease, or affect a specific colonist, such as a stress reduction for a given time.

I’m very excited about the new content in development. Some of the features mentioned above won’t make it into Alpha 0.17, but there is some great content coming. Be sure to let me know what you think of the new content in development.

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 0.15 was a big update and, now that I’ve fixed its critical issues, I’ve hit the ground running on more content. Various additions, changes and improvements are on the way. Let’s take a look.

Geothermal Generator

Thermal vents have been added to the underground map and can be tapped for power. The new Geothermal Generator can be placed on top of a thermal vent and will generate 2,000W of power without requiring fuel. There are a limited amount of thermal vents, depending on map size.

Thermal vents will be spawned in existing saved games as well.

UI Changes

A new research progress meter has been added to the HUD next to the power/water meters. Now you’ll see at a glance what is being researched and its progress. This new meter is also a button to open the research tree.

Various tool-tips have been updated to provide more information and clarity. The job tool-tip, for example, will show the work speed bonus provided to each job based on the job level.

Vehicle Drop Off Items Action

The beetle miner will get a new drop off items action. This allows you to drop off materials, to the adjacent facility, from the miner’s inventory without having to dock the vehicle.

AI Improvements

I’ve taken a deep dive into the AI code to improve various behaviors and optimize how colonists determine actions. Builders will now collect and deliver items to multiple objects before performing construction. This greatly improves construction efficiency as it reduces colonists going back and forth collecting construction materials for each object.

Fixes

In addition to adding new content, I’m always working to resolve existing issues. Many fixes are already in place for the next update, such as the missing wheat thorn discovery, vehicles still moving despite being out of power, vehicle camera tracking and more.

Thank you all for the awesome feedback and support!

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

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