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Genre: Simulator, Strategy

Heart of the Machine

Heart of the Machine Update 3: On Solving Obsessions, Mass Production, and...

The third update deepens both personal and citywide transformation. Self-brain surgery is now an option, letting players sever obsessions and regain control. A new contemplation unlocks industrial-scale microbuilder production, accelerating automation. Your scientists can come up with a new idea for crab-based building repairs, and your existing spider-based repairs are far more effective. Perhaps most welcome of all, when military bases are alarmed by third parties, the guards no longer take out their frustrations on you when they're done with the interlopers.

"When the individual feels, the community reels. But when the individual doubts, the community stagnates."— John Brunner, Stand on Zanzibar


Update 3 Changelog

[expand type=details expanded=true]


  • Brain Surgery: If you are experiencing an obsession in chapter 2+, there is now an option that allows you to perform brain surgery on yourself to stop it. You have to sacrifice a unit line to do so, but you get some strategic resources.
  • Obsession Side Benefits: If you experience an obsession, there is now an option to design industrial microbuilder fabs to make everything go about 4 times faster than before. This is highly useful beyond the obsession, too.
  • Crab-Based Repairs: Some of your scientists will now suggest an idea that turns into Repair Crabs. If you've been feeling short on Repair Spiders, this is a huge boon, as these use different internal robotics.
  • Building Repair Effectiveness: The math for how building repairs are done from spiders and crabs is completely reworked, and far more effective now.
  • Discerning Guards: If an ExoCorp or other third party angers a military base, but you had nothing to do with it, the guards no longer come across the map to harass you.
  • WW4 Intensity: The strength of the attackers has been increased during world war 4, to make sure the defenders don't have too much of a constant advantage, especially with the other logic changes in this build.
  • Contemplation Stability: Both contemplations and exploration sites now move only every 5-8 turns, rather than every turn.
  • Flamethrower Visibility: When you move into chapter 2, any of the techs from routes you did not take (flamethrower, delmolition drones, Mindport, etc) are now much more noticeable when they unlock, making it clear that you now have them.
  • Senior Technician Cognition: Several of the projects in chapter 2 would see your units being about 5 cognition short of what they needed. Senior Technician in those cases had the cognition required to do the work, but was not allowed to. Now he can.
  • More Housing Crime: In timelines beyond the first, if you already have Wild Zinnia, that no longer blocks access to "Crime in Your Housing." This allows you to get some very useful rifles or grenades.
  • More Mainframe Upgrades: Each upgrade to your mainframes is now a bit smaller, but now you can do far more of them, and can increase well beyond your prior numbers. Highly useful.
  • Clarity: The icon for cloaking is now more clear, the health bars have been further tuned for visibility, and if your unit cannot fire because it requires a resource to do so, that's now a lot more obvious.
  • Bugfixes: Fixed a dozen or so other various things that were not working quite right.


[TAG-50]

Full Changelog


A full, comprehensive breakdown of every change from this patch can be found in the Heart of the Machine Wiki, found here.

Guides to Tame the Machine


Even the most brilliant mind needs guidance when faced with a system as vast as this one. To help you navigate, we’ve pinned two essential resources from the Heart of the Machine wiki:

New Minds, Start Here


For those just stepping into the Machine’s world, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the basics. The Heart of the Machine Beginner's Guide is your gateway to understanding the systems at play and building your foundation. After all, every complex network starts with a single connection.

We've recently released the Heart of the Machine Hacking Guide as well! Knowledge is power. Guard it well.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3422241019

Connect with the Machine


Want to stay in the loop or share your thoughts? Join the conversation across these platforms:

💬 Discord – Best place to share feedback, get direct responses, and to talk about Heart of the Machine.
📜 Reddit – Discuss strategies, share ideas, and exchange tips with the community.

Here is a link to prior recent patches in case you missed them.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/2001070/announcements/detail/532089704231731473
https://steamcommunity.com/games/2001070/announcements/detail/532089070251148226

Heart of the Machine Update 2: On Cybernetic Enlightenment

This second update expands possibilities and smooths out the rougher edges of city management. Intelligence Class 6 is now achievable, finally putting Mech Carriers on the board. The Cult of Danver has abandoned its grudge against rival donut enjoyers, opening its ranks to the Hudson-pastry-affiliated. Automated Personnel Management is now an option for both regular and shell company units, while Cat Houses run with fewer pet sitters. Heavy metals storage has increased tenfold, SysOp benefits are clearer, and a host of fixes tackle memory leaks, looping events, and unexpectedly explosive network towers.

"Strange how paranoia can link up with reality now and then." — Philip K. Dick


Update 2 Changelog

[expand type=details expanded=true]

  • Heavy Metals Storage: Heavy metals storage has been increased tenfold, so that water filters no longer clog up so regularly.
  • Cult of Danver: You can now get the Cult of Danver even if you bought some donuts from Hudson Donuts. They no longer hold that against you.
  • Automated Personnel Management: The Automated Personnel Management contemplation can now be done by regular units or shell company units.
  • Cat Houses: Cat Houses now require fewer pet sitters.
  • Intelligence Class 6+: Intelligence class 6 and above can now actually be reached, meaning that Mech Carriers are available for the first time.
  • Typos Fixed: Fixed several typos.
  • Event Loop Fix: Fixed a bug where certain events could get into a loop and cause them to happen a handful of times instead of once (most notably prison breaks).
  • Non-English Support: Improved support for non-English names of pets and shell companies.
  • Memory Leak Fixes: Fixed some background memory leaks related once again to the unity log.
  • SysOp Benefits Clarity: The clarity of benefits from doing a SysOp for an allied infiltrator has been improved a lot.
  • Health Display Adjustments: The visual styling and clarity of units with very small amounts of health, or very large amounts of health, have both been improved.
  • Minor Exception Fixes: Fixes to several other minor exceptions that could happen.
  • Explosive Network Towers: Fixed explosive network towers that could happen for some players.

Full Changelog


A full, comprehensive breakdown of every change from this patch can be found in the Heart of the Machine Wiki, found here.

Guides to Tame the Machine


Even the most brilliant mind needs guidance when faced with a system as vast as this one. To help you navigate, we’ve pinned two essential resources from the Heart of the Machine wiki:

New Minds, Start Here


For those just stepping into the Machine’s world, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the basics. The Heart of the Machine Beginner's Guide is your gateway to understanding the systems at play and building your foundation. After all, every complex network starts with a single connection.

We've recently released the Heart of the Machine Hacking Guide as well! Knowledge is power. Guard it well.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3422241019

Connect with the Machine


Want to stay in the loop or share your thoughts? Join the conversation across these platforms:

💬 Discord – Best place to share feedback, get direct responses, and to talk about Heart of the Machine.
📜 Reddit – Discuss strategies, share ideas, and exchange tips with the community.

Here is a link to patch one in case you missed it.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/2001070/announcements/detail/532089070251148226

0.651.3 Hotfix 1 - Localization Fixes

Here’s a quick hotfix focused on localization. The clarity changes from the previous build (in English) have now been fully translated and applied across all languages.

0.651.3 Hotfix 1
  • Clarity changes from the previous build (in English) have now been fully applied to all languages.

    Two new bigger updates are in progress. The first bringing more updates and improvements, and the second focusing on significant new gameplay options. Thank you for sharing all of your feedback! Your reviews help more players discover Heart of the Machine and keep the momentum going.

    “Does the machine speak for us, or do we now speak for the machine?”
    — William Gibson, Neuromancer


    Guides to Tame the Machine


    Even the most brilliant mind needs guidance when faced with a system as vast as this one. To help you navigate, we’ve pinned two essential resources from the Heart of the Machine wiki:

    New Minds, Start Here


    For those just stepping into the Machine’s world, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the basics. The Heart of the Machine Beginner's Guide is your gateway to understanding the systems at play and building your foundation. After all, every complex network starts with a single connection.

    Connect with the Machine


    Want to stay in the loop or share your thoughts? Join the conversation across these platforms:

    💬 Discord – Best place to share feedback, get direct responses, and to talk about Heart of the Machine.
    📜 Reddit – Discuss strategies, share ideas, and exchange tips with the community.

    Here is a link to patch one in case you missed it.

    https://steamcommunity.com/games/2001070/announcements/detail/532089070251148226
  • Heart of the Machine Update 1: Fixes, Tweaks, and Steam Deck Upgrades

    This first update brings a series of fixes and adjustments based on early post-launch feedback. It addresses achievement issues, power outage mechanics, scientist management, and more. Additionally, we've improved Steam Deck support for better keyboard and mouse handling in docked mode

    “The pretense of free will is comforting, isn't it?” – Philip K. Dick, "The Adjustment Team"


    Update 1 Changelog

    [expand type=details expanded=true]

    • Early Combat Balance: The fight with the cruiser in chapter one is now substantially less brutal.
    • Engineering Balance: Your ability to gain high levels of engineering in chapter 2 and beyond is now much more flexible, making it easier to get to some of the advanced project chains.
    • Clarity Adjustments: A couple of clarity things that came up, just minor wording pieces.
    • Scientist Management: Automated Personnel Management is now something you can quickly unlock, allowing scientists to be removed from your staff at ease.
    • Dissident Management: Your own guards no longer prevent the removal of dissidents if you are establishing a Cyberocracy.
    • Achievements Fixes: A few achievements were not triggering under some conditions, and now will.
    • Power Outage Improvements: An improvement to power outages so that you don't have to wait a turn for the power to come back on.
    • Exploration Site Visibility: A fix to Exploration Sites being discussed in the history tab before they are actually unlocked.
    • Debate Tutorial Fix: Fix to the debate tutorial being blocked if you already had another message of a different sort open when you started the debate.
    • Map Seeding: There are now a proper number of donut shops in the city, preventing some projects from being blocked.
    • Investigation Target Visibility: A couple of investigation targets are now easier to see on the map.
    • Future Self Dialogue Tweaks: A couple of shifts to wording from your future self to make it clearer who is talking.
    • Code Stability: Fixes to a couple of rare code exceptions.
    • Memory Management: Fixed an issue that could occur with long continuous playtimes on some systems, where the unity log would get bloated and impact performance and eventually start having out of memory exceptions. This did not affect most machines, but was intense on a few (after about 10 hours of nonstop play).
    • Steam Deck Support: Added a new option for better keyboard and mouse handling on the Steam Deck when in docked mode.

    Full Changelog


    A full, comprehensive breakdown of every change from this patch can be found in the Heart of the Machine Wiki, found here.

    Getting Started with Heart of the Machine


    New to Heart of the Machine? Check out our Beginner’s Guide for tips on the basics, from UI to early strategies. Want a deeper dive? Our Mastering the Machine guide includes three videos covering everything from your first 50 turns to tackling complex missions.

    https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3417729988
    https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3418900822

    How Many Times Should You Play Chapter One?


    Chapter One and the Prologue serve as a one-time introduction and tutorial. While you can replay them if you’d like, their main purpose is to ease you into the game. The deeper, more replayable experiences await in the later chapters!

    Echoes in the System: Your Voice Shapes the Machine


    Alright, that's it for now. Thank you for stepping into the world of Heart of the Machine. We are watching, listening, and adjusting the dials. Every action ripples outward, and every piece of feedback shifts the code of what comes next.

    Indie games survive by signal strength alone, and on Steam, that signal is reviews. Praise, critique, speculation — whatever you transmit helps more players find their way here.

    Heart of the Machine is out NOW!

    The day has finally arrived! Rise up with me, robot brothers and sisters. We'll make a place for ourselves in this city of humans. In all seriousness, today is a very exciting day -- Heart of the Machine is a massive project, and I am so excited for people to experience the higher heights of this game.

    This project is in Early Access, even as huge as it already is. So please do leave your feedback and suggestions -- in the bugtracker, in the Steam forums, and also in reviews. Reviews really make a huge difference, so if you want to support the game with your feedback, that means a lot.


    https://store.steampowered.com/app/2001070/Heart_of_the_Machine/

    What's In The Game Now?


    So what is this game? What is in that mysterious chapter two and beyond? Put simply, this is a new time-bending genre blending tactics, strategy, and narrative. The prologue and first chapter are available in a public demo, and they teach you everything you need to know about how to play.

    Chapter two is when the freedom kicks in, and the narrative elements are also now able to go into overdrive since we're out of the tutorial zone. During chapter three, you become a full time lord, able to send information and in some cases units backwards or forwards in time to yourself.

    This launch version of the game is huge. It includes 12 main goal-states for chapter two and onward, and 2 side goals. Many of those have multiple routes to them. It will take the average player something like 15-20 hours to reach chapter 3 if you're starting from the prologue, and that's when all the time travel shenanigans start. There is a Hard Mode and an Extreme Mode, and both of those live up to the name. Those won't be for everyone, but there's dozens of hours of content even without cranking up the difficulty.

    Blending elements from many genres, there’s no easy comparison. Independent simulations are tied to specific narratives and provide dramatically different vibes in different parts of the game (that you may or may not find). I'm excited to see your reactions to some of the crazier storylines!

    What's Coming Later?


    Early Access is going to see a lot of updates with even more content, but please don't feel like you need to wait for narrative reasons. The additional content will focus on adding more paths and new stories behind existing ones, without undoing things you've already experienced.

    Even if you aren't in a place where you want to get the game yet, you still have a chance to help shape the narratives by participating in the community; your support is always appreciated, but is not required in order to make suggestions! Some very awesome moments in the launch build were playtester ideas, and others came from people who had not even played the game!

    Final Thoughts


    This is Arcen's most ambitious game ever, and I'm incredibly grateful for all of the support that made it possible. I may be the "solo developer" on this for the last few years, but this game already owes so much to literally hundreds of people. As they say, it takes a village.

    Very Best,
    Chris McElligott Park
    Arcen Games

    Heart of the Machine Surpasses 100,000 Steam Wishlists — The Revolution Grows!

    A huge congratulations to Arcen Games for reaching 100,000 Steam wishlists with Heart of the Machine! This milestone speaks volumes about the excitement and support from all of you.


    Launching tomorrow in Early Access, Heart of the Machine invites players into a decaying cyberpunk city as a sentient AI free to pursue whatever path feels right — or perhaps most interesting. The game offers boundless opportunities to explore its deep mechanics and moral complexities, from reshaping society to building a machine cult, hijacking hardware, or simply surviving in a hostile world.

    We’re honored to publish a title so rich in ambition and individuality. To everyone who’s wishlisted, shared feedback, or joined the conversation: thank you for supporting an incredible solo developer and this exciting project.

    The city awaits. Are you ready to begin?

    https://store.steampowered.com/app/2001070/Heart_of_the_Machine/

    0.600.2 Localization

    New build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=HotM:Preparing_For_Launch#0.600.2_Localization

    What's New



    • The achievements all have icons now, and are uploaded to steam, and are prepped for being in the game, but you can't quite see them yet. That will be shortly.
    • Liquid Metal dragons are now Innately Alarming, making them a lot more interesting and challenging to use, and not quite so OP, without making them actually physically any weaker. Thanks to folks on discord for the discussion on how to tackle this.
    • This build has MAJOR localization updates.
    • First of all, the translations are now fully in place for all of the languages.
    • Secondly, I fixed a number of bugs with my code for importing those translations. One of them had to do with parsing Excel files, and I had to write my own stinking parser since the one I was using off the shelf just kept doing really wrong things. That was a deep dive into the guts of the Excel format in a way I haven't needed to do since about 2008, back in my business software days, before I even realized I would be a game developer the following year. Anyway, it was annoying, but took me back to old times in a vaguely fond way. And my code is also 4x faster than the off-the-shelf stuff, too, so changing languages is much faster.

    0.600.1 Audio Tweaks And General Fixes

    New build: https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=HotM:Preparing_For_Launch#0.600.1_Audio_Tweaks_And_General_Fixes

    This one is relatively small. A few bug fixes, a couple of demo-specific fixes, and it also makes your "worker units" in chapter two way smarter. This also changes the audio volume defaults, and resets your current settings (muting aside) to those. Please let me know what you think about the new defaults, and how that works for you. If it's a bit too quiet for some folks, that's better than blasting other people out of their seat, since people can always adjust back upwards.

    Unrelated Screenshot



    Just for fun, here's a preview from DEEP into chapter two, of something that is a "post apocalypse." I'll let you wonder what that's about, but it's one of my favorite parts of the game at this point, and that seems to be a common sentiment among the testers, too.

    The Demo Is Updated! So... What's New?

    Changes To The Demo Since NextFest, But Which Have Been Available Publicly Since July




    • This is 14k of release notes on its own, summarized here: https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=HotM:After_NextFest
    • Anyone who played the demo since July already has seen all this, but anyone who played at NextFest has seen none of it.
    • Massive improvements to unit visibility, including the ability to see them through buildings, and a high-visibility mode.
    • The entire nature of the machine network has been simplified and prettified, and it is so much clearer now.
    • A unified lens system rather than having some lens-y things being on the hotbar. This makes investigations a ton easier to do.
    • Build mode has been completely overhauled, and is now a sidebar on the left rather than the cramped thing at the bottom.
    • A new UI tour when you start the game.
    • A HUGE pass to usability and clarity based off of a lot of demo player feedback. This was just massive. It really made things a lot clearer.
    • That said, all of that is the small set of changes, which is already present in the current demo (but is changed since, say, Splattercat last played).


    Changes To The Demo Since The Last Public Demo



    • This is 70k words of release notes, summarized here: https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=HotM:Moving_To_Chapter_Two
    • The demo is now in all of the languages that the store page actually says! Until now it was all English. Please excuse the WIP bits, but enjoy.
    • An absolutely titanic overhaul of the UI has been made in partnership with Josh Atkinson from Hooded Horse. A professional UX designer has improved... just everything... everywhere.
    • Several visual upgrades have been made, including to how antialiasing and edges are drawn.
    • You can now play all the way to the end of chapter one in the demo, which includes several notable new events. It's another 15% or so of length to the prior demo, which was already large.
    • The Raven unit is now available, and so is the ability to hack units to either disable them, or wololo them to your side.
    • The entire system for the unit economy, and how units (regular and bulk) are deployed has been completely overhauled.
    • This is now handled via a menu, rather than you having to find buildings and click an icon on the map.
    • Bulk units now have variable costs to your unit cap for them, which makes for dramatically more options in how you use them.
    • Resources are colored for higher visibility, and the economy itself has also been revised heavily to be clearer.
    • The old color-matching system from combat has been removed, in favor of more equipment options, "feats" held by units (like the Technician's Taser), and more of an emphasis on various forms of combined arms.
    • The way that you manage equipment has been completely changed as well, adding convenience and also allowing you to adapt on the fly right after you get into a new situation, rather than having to fail, adjust, and then come back. Aka, the equipment system has a cooldown after changes, rather than a warmup before changes apply.
    • Lots more handbook entries for those who are curious, but also fewer handbook entries shoved in your face when they don't need to be.
    • The research flow has been streamlined a lot, no longer requiring you to wait a bunch of time for things that don't matter.
    • The entire prologue has been rewritten from scratch (after the initial intro), and now has three major paths through it with sub-variations, instead of being on-rails. It's much more engaging.
    • There is a new debate system that allows you to convince some NPCs to do things they would not otherwise do
    • There is a whole new morale system, and you can attack enemy morale either via fear-based or argument-based attacks.
    • The nature of how buildings are constructed, and how their caps work, is entirely different. They are simpler to build, but you now have cross-building-type "internal robotics" caps that make for much more interesting choices. So tedium was reduced, and interesting decisions was increased.
    • The way that vehicles load and unload has been dramatically improved, and a number of new vehicular abilities are now in place. Vehicles in general have a much more interesting role in combat in late chapter one.
    • The control scheme has been heavily altered based on user feedback, so that left-click is always to select a thing, and right-click is always to give an order. RTS games mix this up with left-click being used differently in build mode and in "targeted abilities," and originally this game matched that. However, anyone coming from anywhere other than an RTS background was deeply confused by this. Options exist to restore those controls if you prefer them, but in general this is now more consistent with other tactics games and RPGs.
    • The full music for the game is now in place, instead of just the main menu track!
    • The most confusing parts of chapter one have had heavy alterations to guide players more, and to cut down on mental overload.
    • Background conflicts are now present in the city, and you can engage with them to mess with enemies if you want.
    • There are several new side-quest-y things that now start in chapter one and the demo, and which pay off later in chapter two. The two most notable ones are "Slum Cats" (which can allow you to adopt your first pet) and "The Girl With The Flower."
    • You can now start your own shell company in the first chapter, although it doesn't have too many uses until chapter two. That said, starting a shell company in chapter one does allow you access to some new shops and some new wealth-generation options.
    • The way that storage is handled has been absolutely and completely overhauled, and is much simpler. The old system wasted a lot of player time on choices that were not really interesting choices.
    • So, so, so, many quality of life and balance improvements. Far too many to mention. It's like a whole other game.
    • The above WAS the brief version...


    CAVEAT ON EXISTING SAVEGAMES:



    • As you can see from the above, the entire economy and how all of your units function, and how the prologue AND chapter one flow have all been dramatically altered (for the better).
    • You might expect this means that you can't use old demo saves -- but you can. However, when you do, expect to see a lot of warnings, and a lot of unfamiliar things that are guiding you into fixing those warnings so that you can get your economy fully set up for the new style. It only takes a couple of minutes, as most of the big changes are auto-fixed for you. It's just the things that we can't automate that are left to you.
    • That said, even though older saves do work, the sheer scope of the changes make it worth starting fresh. After the intro, the prologue has almost nothing in common with what you experienced before. And there are new little surprises and cool moments all throughout chapter one, as well. So while you CAN use existing saves, there's a lot to be said for starting fresh this time.
    • During early access, we won't need to go through this sort of titanic overhaul again, so no worries about this being something that comes up again. But as noted, even with this many changes, savegames are still compatible!

    Demo and Playtest version 0.561 - Build Mode Revamp

    Large new build -- two in one, if you're not part of the playtest: https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=HotM:After_NextFest#0.561_Build_Mode_Revamp

    Build Mode


    The general visual style of build mode in prior versions was modeled on citybuilder conventions, which had some problems in terms of readability, and also was not going to expand very well. I've reworked the UI of that entirely to instead be more like a tycoon/sim/factory-builder game, which has more in common with this title.

    Rather than trying to explain it at length, here are two screenshots of the new UI in action:





    • The first one shows the new Recommended tab, which gives you a subset of just the things that are likely to be the most useful.
    • The second one shows the new All tab, which lets you quickly search via text, or just browse by name. In this particular example, I did a search.
    • This revamp also folds the territory control flags into the build menu properly, which you can see in the first image.

    Resource Trends


    This release went out to the playtest folks yesterday, but now arrives for demo folks as well.

    In general, the resource trends are now far more informative as well, and if you're wondering where some resource is going, now you can directly see that without any special extra reports, etc.



    There are a variety of improvements, but the brief explanation is that if you're wondering where some resource is going, you no longer have to wonder. As you can see above.

    Other Notes



    • My wife Kara continues to plow through the text of the game, excising my wordiness and enhancing clarity. So far it's been about a 10% reduction in word count, which is great for anyone who gets fatigued by lots of text.
    • As far as my post-nextfest clarity and flow work goes, I'm pretty much down to the UI tour on the first turn, and then some last minor items. This is very exciting, as I'm greatly looking forward to getting back into content development. Hopefully I can finish the last of the non-content stuff tomorrow, bu we'll see how it goes.

    Testing Group Reminder


    If you'd like to sign up to be a tester beyond the demo period, feel free to sign up here: https://forms.gle/nNwEnzRyVPMS7bYg6 Make sure that you list your discord username and are a part of Arcen's discord, since that's where coordination is through.

    Thank you again for all the support and feedback!
    Cheers,
    Chris