Howdy Pioneers!

Alpha 0.16 is now live, 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
Steam Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/704510/Mercury_Fallen/

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.