I am very excited to announce that Mercury Fallen Alpha 0.14 is now available on Steam! Alpha 0.14 brings a of new build-able objects, recipes, research, UI improvements and more. A huge thanks to the testers that provided bug reports and feedback during the Test Build phase.

Preview Video

Bio-Lab

A Bio-Lab room has been added as well as an algae farm, aeroponics farm and aquarium for growing various new crops. The aeroponics farm allows for faster growth and greater output for new and existing plant crops. You can also grow and harvest fish in the aquarium for food and bio-waste. Green algae is used as a food ingredient as well as an ingredient in plant nutrients required by the aeroponics farm.

With the addition of more botany/biology related tasks, the bio-refiner is now used by the engineer and not the botanist to better balance job tasks.

Research Tech Tree

The research interface has been completely rebuilt as a visual tech tree. New research projects have also been added to unlock some of the new recipes/machines.

Cafeteria & Food Dispensers

9 new food/meal recipes have been added as well as the cafeteria room. The cafeteria is now the place to put eating tables as well as food dispensers for meal storage. The fridge is for raw food ingredients only.

Meals & Food Processing

The food processor is required to turn some raw food ingredients into usable items for cooking. Meals no longer completely deplete the hunger meter, as the hunger meter is now based on nutrition and satiation values. Satiation is the percentage the hunger meter will deplete when a meal is consumed. Nutrition is added as an attribute that reduced how quickly the colonist will get hungry again. Nutrition decays over a few in-game hours.

The early game is a bit more challenging given the new food values, as colonists will generally eat low quality foods more often. Lower quality foods such as cooked potatoes are not very filling compared to high quality meals such as a hearty fish sandwich. To assist with early game play, the starting supply chest now contains emergency rations, which are non-craftable, but make for a very filling starting food supply.

Colonist Rosters

Various production machines now have colonist rosters which allow players to manage which colonists can operate each machine. Colonists will only work at machines with an empty roster or a machine that has their name on the roster.

Colonist Portraits

Colonist Portraits are now visible in the colonist info window and colonist management interface. Portraits are dynamic and will update when you set colonist outfit colors.

Check the full release notes below for all the new content, change and fixes added in Alpha 0.14.

Release Notes

Changes

• Added: Aeroponics Farm for the advanced growing of crops. Aeroponics farm requires power, water and plant nutrient item to grow crops, but provides bonus to crop output and reduced grow time.
• Added: Algae Farm for growing and harvesting microalgae. Green algae is used in some food recipes and is a requirement for making plant nutrients.
  Added: Aquarium for growing and harvesting fish. Aquarium generates bio-waste which is collected when harvesting grown fish. Biowaste is an ingredient for plant nutrients.
• Added: Fish Tank decoration item.
• Added: Food Processor for processing some raw food ingredients for cooking.
• Added: Food Dispenser storage container for storing meals.
• Added: Bio-Lab floor/room
• Added: Cafeteria floor/room. The eating table and new food dispenser now require this room. Recreation room still exists, but serves little purpose for now until future updates.
• Added: Thorn Wheat Crop/Item
• Added: Tangle Fruit Crop/Item
• Added: Sponge Stalk Crop/Item
• Added: Arrow Head Fungus Crop/Item
• Added: Emergency Ration meal item. This item is not craftable. Only found in the starting supply chest and food chests.
• Added: 9 new meal/food recipes
• Added: Plant Nutrient which is made at the bio-refiner.
• Added: Food Item Satiation. This is how much of the hunger meter is filled when a food item is consumed.
• Added: Food Item Nutrition. This will decrease how quickly the hunger bar fills. Nutrition is added as an attribute effect to hunger from some food items. Nutrition bonus will decay naturally over time.
• Added: New research window with visual tech tree. New interface is now integrated into the facility management screen [tab]
• Added: New Colonist Roster to various production machines. This allows players to set which colonists can operate that machine/object. Colonists will work at machines that either have an empty roster or a machine/object with a roster that contains their name.
• Added: New research topics to unlock additional room, machines and recipes.
• Added: Object icon shows in object info window
• Added: Colonist portrait shows in colonist info window
• Added: Colonist portrait in colonist management interface.
• Added: Roster Management section in guide
• Added: Robots section in guide
• Added: Button on main HUD button bar to open discovery interface
• Added: Button on main HUD button bar to open game guide.
• Added: New starting tutorial to open starting supply chest by elevator.
• Changed: Fridge now only stores raw food items. Meals are stored in the new food dispenser.
• Changed: Fridge storage limit increased from 400 to 450
• Changed: Food Items no longer fully deplete a colonists hunger, but is now based on satiation and nutrition values. Additional information found in the guide under colonist needs.
• Changed: Food quality is determined by satiation + nutrition. Colonists will eat the best quality food first.
• Changed: Colonists will get hungry more often
• Changed: Colonists will receive the starving affect only after hunger has stayed at max for 3 in-game hours.
• Changed: Crop fields now show crop output amount
• Changed: Re-ordered various research topics
• Changed: Several research topics have been rebalanced to take more or less time to research
• Changed: Facility Management button on main HUD button bar changed to Colonists.
• Changed: Research button now opens new research tech tree.
• Changed: Cook Station now uses less water
• Changed: Clone Chamber uses slightly less water
• Changed: Medical Cabinet now restricted to medbay floor
• Changed: Updated existing crop/plant icons
• Changed: Reduced reflectivity of metal walls to reduce light hot spots
• Changed: Medical room wall light color now pink
• Changed: Game now runs in background
• Changed: Updated various tooltip text
• Changed: Updated various guide entries to include more details.
• Changed: Items in HUD inventory list now show a tooltip when hovering over the item.
• Changed: Camera movement is now limited to map area.
• Changed: Increase to camera zoom out distance.
• Changed: Minor increase to camera angle limits.
• Changed: Build menu now shows objects power/water output where applicable.
• Changed: Build materials in build menu now show red/green outlines to indicate if the items are available.
• Changed: Increased font size of starting tutorial description text.
• Changed: Manual now called Guide
• Changed: Organics chest now has a chance to contain plant nutrients
• Changed: Food chests now have a chance to contain emergency rations
• Changed: Bio-Refiner recipes now require the engineer job role instead of the botanist.
• Changed: Colonist death notification now references cause of death
• Changed: Starving effect renamed to Starvation

Fixes

• Fixed: Robot Assembler not animating correctly if loading a save game that had the robot assembler in mid construction.
• Fixed: Robot Assembler still constructing if lost power
• Fixed: Selected objects for deconstruction selecting non-destructive object if multiple objects occupy the same tile. This would lead to a stuck colonist attempting to deconstruct an object that can’t be deconstructed.
• Fixed: Facility management section button sound effects not being affected by the volume settings.
• Fixed: Game unpauses when closing game menu even if already paused
• Fixed: Low scroll sensitivity in some dropdown lists
• Fixed: Incorrect scrollbar graphic in some dropdown lists
• Fixed: Camera still edge scrolls with facility management interface open
• Fixed: Objects with positive decor still providing decor bonus if disabled or not connected to required resources.
• Fixed: Guide scroll bar not resetting to top when changing guide sections.
• Fixed: Loot Chests can be seen inside dirt/ore walls when in power/water display mode.
• Fixed: Colonist priority not being calculated correctly for final job cost. This caused colonists to not always do the highest priority task.
• Fixed: Colonist not eating lower quality food if best quality food exists and can’t be reached.
• Fixed: Research station progress text not updating as research is performed