Alpha 0.02 is now available on Itch.IO and with it comes a lot of great new features and improvements. I got slowed down by a few critical things that were important to get in there such as the new game settings window. I’m trying to ensure future updates are a bit quicker. If you don’t yet have a copy of Mercury Fallen it’s currently on sale through the end of June!

Robots

The worker bot is a brand new type of colonist. The worker bot can only mine/build/haul, but it will do so with a focus that only comes with an electronic brain. Robot workers will always work at full speed and don’t get slowed down when hauling items. They are not currently craft-able, but additional robot workers are scattered around the map to find.

Job Roles

Professions have been removed and replaced with Job Roles. While the interface doesn’t look that much different, you can now select multiple jobs instead of a single profession. Job Roles still level up and function similar to professions.

A new job role was added called haul which controls whether a colonist will haul items to storage. Hint: Robots make great haulers.

Profession outfits had to be removed, but to  fix that I’ve added in the ability to assign custom outfit colors. Yes, you can recolor robots too.

Nuts & Bolts

Game settings have been added and can be accessed from the main menu and in game menu. The new settings allow for graphics changes, volume control, key bindings and more.

There have been various tweaks to the user interface including new sound effects, better management of how the escape key works, collapsible sections and more.

I’m very excited about the new update and am already working on new features and updates for the next version.

Release Notes

Colonists

• Colonist professions changed to Job Roles. Multiple job roles can be assigned and starting colonists have all job roles pre-assigned.
• Added new job role called haul. This job role controls colonists picking up items on the ground and hauling them to a storage container. This does not affect other job roles that may require items to be gathered for building/engineering for example.
• New robot workers added. They can only mine/build/haul
• Now start with a robot worker and 3 human colonists
• More robot workers can be found scattered across the map
• Robot workers do not currently require anything to operate (This will change in future)
• Colonists colors can now be changed in their selection window. Yes, this includes robots.
• Minor performance boost when having many colonists
• Colonists will move at run speed when holding inventory items if their muscles stat is 8 or above
• Colonist work cycle based on time instead of work amount. End result appears the same, but experience gain is more consistent at higher levels.

UI

• Added new settings window. Opened from main menu and in game menu.
• UI sections in settings/entity windows are now collapsible by clicking their header
• New bindable key options in settings window
• Escape key now closes most open windows correctly and in the order they were opened.
• Closing the in game menu will now resume game speed if escape is pressed
• Can now click item in build list to build object instead of clicking build button. Object info now shows when hovering over the item.
• Build menu auto closes when selecting an object in the world
• Added some UI sound effects
• Objects requiring water or power now show amount consumed and required.

Misc

• New post processing effects for color correction and saturation
• Improved anti-aliasing
• Decreased game load times
• Increased overall performance as only the part of the world that is visible/explored is now being rendered.
• Game audio may be much louder by default. Use new settings window to adjust.

Fixes

• Fixed issue with scientists using the same computer station
• Fixed issue with power still being consumed if object is disabled.
• Fixed load game window scroll speed