Things are starting to pick up again here in the office, and we’re revving up to release our first major update. We’re planning to release it the first week of February (fingers crossed). There will be a lot to unpack, but I’d rather wait until we’ve ironed everything out before telling you all about what’s inside the update. What I can tell you right now is that we have two underground areas for you to explore. One is an underground training base used by the Hyenas, which will include all-new soldier NPCs. The other will be a mysterious underground area with multiple layers. Here’s an image of the latter to pique your curiosity. I’ll fill you in more next week!
Last week, I started sharing the backstory of the world of Dysterra.
We covered some basics about the world, but this week I’d like to dig deeper into the history of Ararat Island, and why the facilities are built there.
After hundreds of years in outer space, Orbis started running out of terrasite, its primary energy source. While increasing solar capacity would delay the need for more terrasite, the fastest solution to the problem was to mine terrasite down on the surface where conditions have mostly improved to make it livable between occasional volcanic eruptions.
The Orbis government placed five drills on the island to extract terrasite quickly and efficiently. Orbis also constructed research facilities on top of four drills to use the mined terrasite to study ways to effectively use it to counter the effects of terrafire on the local and global climate.
The Geolab research facility was built to find ways to stabilize the ground for construction building stability, while also finding out how to create artificial earthquakes in order to bring terrasite and other minerals to the surface.
The Meteocenter facility was built to investigate ways of controlling the weather to assist with farming and the recolonization of new areas. It currently only affects air temperature but it could one day also control precipitation. Since beans are mostly temperature dependant, they’re the only crop to have been successfully grown on Earth following the Great Terrafire. That’s why there are so many cans of baked beans lying around the island.
The Satellite Station was built to facilitate effective communication between the Orbis government and what was happening down on the surface. The EMP towers were built to allow communication with the space station during occasional electric storms in the ionosphere.
The Chemochamber was an experimental facility used to find ways to enhance physical ability using gamma rays emitted from activated terrasite. Testing started on local bear and elk, and moved on to DNA testing producing chimeras and other creatures you’ll find in Dysterra. At the center of the facility is an electric pylon that was once used to pacify the “creations” of the facility, but it seems that a few creatures have learned to absorb the electricity emitted from the pylons.
As for the Delta Plant and the large “crystal” above it, the delta plant was made to focus on deep drilling in order to extract as much terrasite as possible. The large “crystal” floating above it is an apparatus that uses terrasite to beam gamma rays (which are invisible to the naked eye) to Orbis in order to power the station. Something to note: the small terrasite transmitters located in Hyena bases and crafted at workbenches work by transmitting their terrasite to the Delta Plant’s Orbital Gamma Ray Emitter(O.G.R.E.). Any energy received by the OGRE is then sent directly to Orbis when its orbit passes above the facility.
Lastly, the Wall! One of our survivors asked me on Discord about the giant wall spanning the island. It was originally constructed to keep the Satellite Station secure by separating it from the rest of the island. Due to the importance of the Delta Plant to the future of Orbis, an additional boundary was also built to seclude the Delta Plant.
I hope this week’s dev note quenched your curiosity about the facilities. We’re excited about the February update, and we’re working hard to make sure you all will like it. My dev note next week will be the story of the events leading to the fall of Orbis control on the island, and the rise of the Hyena forces’ power.
Have a good one!
- Director K
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