Expansion Core
Expansion Core Demo Out Now! (Beta 0.18 Patch Notes)
New Features:
- Temporary Demo Win State: Added a win screen for when you complete all 9 of the events. I'm not going to be lame and lock the game after that, but for the most part, that's the "end" of most of the content in the Demo.
- Wrist UI Update: Added follower count, beacon count, and updated the time stat on the right click wrist menu.
- Replaced the stars with a much more interesting galaxy.
- Rebalanced many of the ally chassis recipes so that they should be more interesting and difficult to create.
- Added more details to the spawn text to be a bit more tied into the world.
Expansion Core Demo! (Beta 0.17 Patch Notes)
New Features:
- Updated the Enemy AI to attempt to strafe left, right or back in between attacks for a bit more dynamic combat. Nothing groundbreaking, but at least it looks a little less static overall.
- Both Mother Beetle's and the Evolved Mother Beetle's spawns now spawn with half health. This will make the Mother's still as dangerous, but their spawns less of a slog to beat. To make the Evolved Mother more powerful to make up for this, they now also have the AOE shock ability, as well as spawn Evolved Beetles instead of regular Beetles.
- Added a whooshy sound effect for checking the local mutation when holding right mouse button.
- Made logs and branches for trees match their parent tree's bark and wood colors.
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed an issue where the Mobile Base's healing aura could revive dead allies.
- Health should now be properly rounded for the player and mobile base's health bars.
- Fixed an issue where melee enemies would ram their faces into short allies and bounce off of them (for the most part).
- Moved some of the Main Menu UI around.
Expansion Core Demo! (Beta 0.16 Patch Notes)
Major Features:
- LORE! I've worked on adding some interactable data pads around the map. In total there are 15 different data logs. Some of them are really hard to find, so please don't go crazy trying to find all 15. If you do find all of them, I'll be really impressed.
- More arm animations! I had some fun and started adding a bunch of new arm animations to make the moment to moment gameplay a bit more fun to look at. I'm planning on adding more animations for various actions in the future too.
New Features:
- Updated the visuals of the opening tutorial room! I think it looks nice, but there's still plenty of work to do.
- Added unique icons for Cores as well as Blueprints on the compass so that it's easier to keep track of things.
- Added links to Discord and Twitter on the main menu for new players.
- Revived allies now automatically follow the player.
- Trade pods should now save and load their inventories.
- Added an arrow that points at the module slot that you're building when adding modules to the Mobile Base.
- Added a tooltip for the Mobile Base Upgrade.
- Modified the text of Trade Pods to be more clear as to what's the storage and what's the launch interface.
Demo Locks:
Sadly, some features are still half-baked and won't make it into the Demo. That just means there's more to look forward in the Beta release!
- Transfer Bots: They technically work, but all of the UI is confusing, their actual usefulness is limited due to their bad AI and in general they're just not ready at all. I'll be reworking the logic behind them in the coming months and hopefully they'll be more of a fun feature than a broken mess.
- Mobile Base Tier Two: I've locked off Tier Two because it's kind of a spoiler for the main game and I don't want to give everything away in a Demo. It's also likely going to get a rework along with the other Mobile Base variants in the coming months. If not, I'll just add a Tier Three Mobile Base or something.
Bug Fixes:
- Enemies' dropped items should now hopefully no longer fall through the ground.
- Fixed a bug that was causing all allies to fully reset their HP when loading saves and repairing with energy fragments.
- Finally made it so that if you skip steps in the tutorial quest line, it no longer breaks (hopefully).
- Charge beetles now charge for the correct distance. Also they shouldn't charge after death now.
- Nudging allies by attacking them should now move them to a better location to get out of your way.
- Stockpiles now rotate to the ground instead of clipping through.
Pre-Launch Beta Candidate 0.15 Patch Notes
New Features:
- When starting a new save, the Storms no longer immediately come to destroy the player, they now patiently wait until the first HUB is called down.
- Updated the group system so that if you're on a group that has no allies in it currently, it instead commands all allies. This will make it so that if a group is accidentally selected, there will be no issue with commands for the most part.
- Added some new visuals to the tutorial room as well as a small animation on first spawn. Also added some animations for the double doors leading out into the world.
- Updated ally nudging so that, when nudged, the ally now sets their new home to be the nudged location. This will hopefully prevent some of the jittering that was occurring for some players.
- Finally added sounds to the Storms to make them a little more chaotic and recognizable.
- Storms got a visual make-over, so they are now color coded depending on which of the three Storms they are.
- Split the Follow and Hold position buttons into All Follow/Single Follow and All Hold/Single Hold. This should greatly improve how grabbing individual allies works in game.
Bug Fixes:
- Implemented a possible fix for the tutorial Mobile Base getting stuck on rare occasions
- Scaled up Copper Armor because it was tiny
- Implemented some possible fixes to some enemies blinking out of existence
- Fixed a bunch of collision issues with allies and enemies so that attack and commands should work better
- Fixed a small issue that made Storm rocks impact sounds too loud over long distances
Pre-Launch Beta Candidate 0.14 Patch Notes
Major Features:
- Trade Pod Difficulty Scaling: I've updated the trade pods to dynamically increase their difficulty based on the total value of the items within the pod. This may be tweaked in the future, but it basically makes the game harder as you start getting more valuable items to sell.
- Mobile Base Healing Buff: The Mobile Base will now heal all nearby allies, as well as the player, when set up. The healing scales based on the Mobile Base's health regen stat. This will, hopefully, help with the energy shortage issue.
- Ally Movement Update: Allies should now try to route around each other more effectively. If they get stuck in a group, they'll try to nudge their surrounding allies. If the player attacks an ally, that ally will attempt to nudge itself out of the way as well.
- New Module, Small Turret: Added a new module for the Mobile Base that can attack at range. It requires no resources to operate, but does less damage overall compared to a standalone Turret bot. That being said, this is now my favorite module by far.
New Features:
- Storms now throw rocks 10x as much as before, but only occasionally snipe the player. This just adds a new level of chaos to the Storms.
- The Defend Location has been updated to work much better. Allies now try to form a ring around the target point and allies that need to set up (Healer, Tether and Turret) will now automatically set up once they reach their destination.
- Ally icons while in the map drone are now much smaller.
- Lowered the HUB protection range to encourage more exploration with the Mobile Base.
- Added the option to keep your inventory on death in the settings menu.
- Copy-pasting your save file should now work between machines! There was just a small issue with scanning the save folder that has been resolved.
- You can now no longer create a new world with an existing save name. Before, it just ended up loading the given save's name which broke some stuff behind the scenes.
- Updated trade pods text to show either "Access Trade Pod Controls" or "Open Trade Pod Storage" contextually to help with some confusion.
- You can now double click to craft, build, or place blueprints.
- Cut tree logs now properly scale!
Bug Fixes:
- Ally groups and defend locations should now properly save and load
- Changed mine text from "Requires Miner" to "Requires Drill Bot" for clarity
- Healers should now heal the player when in the map mode
- Fixed an issue where the Mobile Base couldn't get hit while set up
- Decreased the size of the Axe Bot
- Fixed parking for the new Axe Bot
- Made enemies try to move directly towards targets that are seen as unreachable instead of just standing there
- Added collisions to the Storm Cores
Pre-Launch Beta Candidate 0.13 Patch Notes
Major Features:
- Ally Groups: You can now assign allies a group by holding Ctrl and pressing 1-9 while looking at them. When an ally is in a group, you can select only them by pressing 1-9 to command only the allies in that group. You can deselect a group by pressing the same number key again.
- Storm Changes: The Storm got a major visual rework, as well as the three Storms now have updated bounds. Each Storm also has their own speed and aggression timers, so they should act differently depending on what area the player is exploring. There are more changes planned, but this is a good first step.
New Features:
- Revamped the Upgrade randomization. Tiers of upgrades should now be more consistently better the higher the tier. No more garbage Legendries and amazing Commons
- Drill bots now drill faster when their damage is upgraded
- When an ally has a Core equipped, when you look at them, they will have a Core icon next to their stats
- Updated trade pods to only reduce the value of sold goods to 50% instead of 20% when almost destroyed
- Updated the enemy spawn generator settings to make the starting area less corrupted
- Lowered the amount of special encounters, but buffed them greatly and increased upgrade drop rates for mini-bosses
- Added the ability to give healer bots refined and crystal energy to charge their healing buffer
- Changed copper rock requirements to not allow stone axes
- Added some tools to get cool moving shots with the camera mode using the num pad
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed an issue that was allowing enemies to spawn directly behind players
- Fixed an issue that broke passive enemy fleeing AI
- Made it so that the equipment detail panel updates whenever you equip new items
- Fixed Storm aggro because they had decided to never move towards the player
- Fixed an issue causing Axe bots to not be able to harvest when on passive
- Fixed a bug that forced Axe bots to return home immediately after cutting every tree
- Further increased the AI cap to 150 to avoid AI randomly breaking
- Fixed an issue with Steel tools having an insane drop rate
Pre-Launch Beta Candidate 0.12 Patch Notes
Major Features:
- Defend Location Rework: Now, when you use the Defend Location command, allies will actually defend that location! They will have a "Home" they will return to, so no more running off and getting lost!
- Middle Mouse Button to sort! This is one of my favorite features of modded Minecraft, so I had to add it to my game.
New Features:
- The Turret Bot has been buffed, now having a higher base capacity and it now takes less rocks to fill up (25 per rock -> 50 per rock)
- Solar panels have been buffed to be ~2x more effective
- Buffed Mobile Bases' base energy generation
- Buffed Super-evolved creatures to have a higher flat health increase to buff lower tiers of enemies to be more of a threat
- Updated Hardshell spawns during mining operations. They should now spawn closer and have less of a chance to get stuck
- You can now show/hide the quest box with 'L'
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed an issue causing beacons to display the wrong difficulty
- Fixed an issue causing the module menu to break when using Esc to close it
- Made sure to hide the Transfer bot menu when in the module menu
- Fixed a major bug causing enemies to just completely stop moving. It's not 100% fool-proof, but there should be no major issues
- Further fixes for Core duplication issues. I think it should be pretty solid at this point, but I've been wrong before
- Fixed some bad collision that made some rocks hard to pick up near the center of a broken rock
- Fixed an issue causing loot containers to be respawned randomly
- Removed a part of the tutorial quest that would cause it to break if done out of order. I'll update the whole quest line eventually, probably, maybe, for sure
Pre-Launch Beta Candidate 0.10 Patch Notes
Major Features:
- You can now toggle all of the HUD with the F5 key! This is perfect for screenshots. I like it.
- Cores that are dropped on the ground now save and load!
- Allies with Follower upgrades now contribute to the total pool! This means waaaay more allies can be built.
- Added a quick heal button (the G key... might change that later) that uses the most appropriate health kit to heal the player
New Features:
- Increased the default draw distance
- Mines (copper, iron and coal) now have much more harvest health
- While in the map mode, you can select bots that are set up and tell them to move. They will now pack up and move to the location instead of being uncontrollable while set up.
Bug Fixes:
- Transfer bots should now try to path around allies instead of just ramming into them forever
- Fixed a major bug that was allowing the Transfer bots to see loot crates
- Fixed an issue causing the Scorched Mother to not properly rotate to the landscape
- Finally fixed several cases that allowed enemies to move and rotate after death
- Upgrade tooltips should now properly show the rarity of the Upgrade
- Fixed an issue where if the player did too much damage when harvesting rocks, they dropped less items
- Made it so that enemies can't stand on top of allies (caused too much chaos and honestly wasn't fun)
- Enemies should now move to the trade pod consistently
- Allies should no longer try to fight everything while the player is running from combat
- The player will now no longer rotate when standing on top of an ally
- Fixed a major issue where you could pick up multiple Cores at a time
- Secondary interaction text now will show even when looking at an allies' storage
- Fixed an exploit where you could trick a Scorched Mother into spawning infinite spawns
- Fixed an issue that made the player repeat the attack animation during the death animation
- All Mobile Bases should now properly spawn their modules at the right time, instead of floating above their platforms
- Repair bots that are set up should now properly load in a set up state
Pre-Launch Beta Candidate 0.9 Patch Notes
Major Features:
- Added Minibosses in certain situations: Now the final wave for any event as well as pack leaders will spawn as mini-bosses. These creatures are (for now) just heavily evolved versions of regular enemies. They are larger, have more health and damage, and are denoted by their bright teal glows. These enemies drop items and upgrades at a highly increased rate, making them a good target if you're up for the challenge.
- Map Updates: There have been two major areas that have been updated. The Abandoned Shipyard and The Factory are now enterable and look nice. There's still more I want to do with the locations, but they're much closer to the final vision.
- Loot Crates: There's now loot crates throughout the landscape! They can only be obtained once and are scattered near major structures. There will obviously be more of them in the future, but for now, you can find the majority of them at the new Shipyard and Factory.
- Spicy Chicken Nuggets: That is all.
New Features:
- Made enemies dropped items fly out of their body so that it's easier to notice when items are dropped
- Made nearby resources save and load properly (no more gathering a bunch of ores, then save scumming!)
- Bumped up the saturation of the game to make it look nice. I might either turn it up more or tone it down depending on feedback
- Went through each of the Beacons and made the enemy spawners much closer to the event area. This should help with the long wait between waves a bunch.
Bug Fixes:
- Extended the navigation generation further around the player to help fix some issues with move to commands not working at certain distances
- Fixed an issue causing Transfer bots to not be placed when at the max bot limit
- Fixed an issue that was causing copper and iron tools to drop way more resources than intended
- Fixed a bug that made drill bots that were repaired to visually look like they're drilling, but not actually be getting resources
Pre-Launch Beta Candidate 0.8 Patch Notes
NEW BUILD! Beta Candidate 0.8 Patch Notes:
This build focuses mainly on updating the Enemy AI to be a bit more aggressive, while also providing some fun challenges to the player. I'd like to also thank my friends and family for helping me playtest the last build. A lot of these bugs and suggestions were made by them and I appreciate that they took the time to help out!
Major Features:
- Event Update: This one's a big one! I made all events wave-based instead of time based, so much less waiting around. I also balanced a lot of the wave limits and difficulties, so events may be much deadlier than before. Waves also get harder the further you get. No mini-bosses yet, though those are planned! Finally, you can no longer cheese events by running away and waiting out the timer. You actually gotta kill all the mobs!
- Enemy Spawn Overhaul: This one's also pretty massive, but much more in the background. Enemy spawns have been tweaked to be less random and more logical. Now, enemies are more difficult and abundant near bundles of resources. Enemies spawned at night are now more dangerous. Finally, there is a new "Encounter" system. Basically, packs of enemies will now spawn and be in more difficult to deal with combinations (IE a group with three chargers and one agile ranged enemy). These encounters will also have one enemy that has a much higher chance of dropping an Upgrade. I plan to do more with this system in the future, but it just opens the door for me to curate more interesting content!
New Features:
- Shock beetles' AOE attack is now much more visible and hits at the correct time
- Enemies now properly aggro and try to move towards the player's last known location when attacked in groups
- Storms now have a new "Flee" state, so they should be less aggressive. Storms now also only track the player during the day.
- For clarity, the research window now says "Costs ___ Creds" instead of just "___ Creds"
- Made the Map drone spawn above and behind the player for ease of use instead of having to fly up and back every time you opened it. I also made it so that you can close it using the Escape key.
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed an issue causing allies to ignore move commands when in the middle of an attack animation
- Fixed a major issue causing allies to look janky when rotating. They should now rotate smoothly and face the correct direction
- Pick up text should nolongerlooklikethis
- Fixed an issue that allowed dead enemies to still rotate and move oddly
- Fixed a UI issue that cause the map drone to retain the HUD from the FPS mode
- When a trade pod is spawned, the beacon now says "Trade Pod Active" instead of "Spawning"
- Overcharged Mother Beetles now have to correct purple glow
- Tree leaves no longer freak out when the tree is falling
- Enemies no longer aggro each other on accident (This will be re-added in once I have the "teams" update out)