Hey everyone! I'd like to let people know that the next update is still coming, and it should be a good one. I received a lot of feedback after launch that the game has a lot of potential, but is missing what we would consider midgame and endgame content. There are technologies to unlock, but nothing to actually use those technologies with.
The new update adds the foundations of longer-term goals and later-game goals. I'm excited to see how people respond to new pets and buildings.
Some of you may remember the timeline I posted shortly after launch, and are wondering where their new factory layouts and giant view distances are. If you can't guess, I've delayed/cancelled a few of those features. After sitting down and doing some more in-depth time estimations, I realized that those features are much more expensive to build than I thought, and don't make a huge difference to the end game. My time is better spent adding more pets and more areas, and filling out later game content.
It's easy as a developer to mix up "fun to play" and "fun to make". Those features on the timeline would be fun to make, but don't make the game much more enjoyable to play.
As always, follow the game on Steam to make sure you don't miss the update!
Sorting and Signs
Hey everyone, new update! With the new sorting boxes, mixed-item pipelines are now viable. Simply add a sorter box in the middle and tell it what you want to filter out through the top. Also added some signs to make marking up the factory easier.
Current plans
The next two big content updates were designed and planned this last week. The first one is going to be a longer-term non-research goal, using most of the same mechanics that already exist. People have been asking for overarching goals in the game, and I'm hoping this next update will be a good start.
The second update is going to be the next new biome. There are plans for new pets with new interactions and desires, and new mechanics for making them. The goal is to add more intuitive and interesting pet mechanics without complicating the game too much.
v0.1.10 Changelog
New
Sorting Boxes! Build these to sort a pipeline
Icon Signs
Changes
Change \"Water\" to \"Watered Plants\" for Gardener inspection
Nibblers used to be an early game pain point. They are relatively inexpensive to make and easy to automate, but end up eating a ton of food which can't be automated until much later in the game. This led to people having pens full of hungry nibblers and no easy way to deal with them.
These new berry bushes help with that early game pain. They are a reliable source of food without setting up a carrot farming chain. They don't give nearly as much as a proper farm, but keep things moving early on. Also, nibblers no longer need to be petted, they are happy as long as they eat something.
What's coming next?
This update was slow, but development is back on track again! I just moved this last week, but boxes are now unpacked and the development server is online. The big May update has some initial designs, and I'm excited to see how people react to it. I'll have another bugfix/quality of life update before then, though. There are still some VR/controller control issues that really need to be sorted.
v0.1.9 Changelog
New
Tetar berries
Some colossal stumps in the forest
Add vegetation density video option. Changing this should help people with GPU-limited machines. Doesn't affect gameplay, but increase/decreases density of grass, rocks, and little mushrooms
Add fast pipe texture
Balance
Nibblers no longer need to be petted
Fence contract no longer needs slimecuddlers
Double booster box connection maximum length
Launchers now constructed with gardeners again
Changes
Show all future contracts in contract menu
Show error when unable to connect to Steam
More consistent menu button coloration
Increase scroll sensitivity in menus
Reduce UI click volume
Add acceleration to controller menu movement
Slightly lower audio pitch of slime and goo cuddlers
Remove looping navigation in Library/Help windows
Fixes
Gatherbots can gather spores
Construction Cannon shows correct controls
Construction Cannon works correctly on slopes
Move Gardener and Goocuddler heart positions
GooCuddlers no longer give scarecrow research
Remove player inventory counts from factory recipe picker
Fix stuck audio loops when deconstructing
Add missing control mapping names
Fix some stray lines in the main menu
Fix fence placement with a controller
Fix building inspection with controller
Hide pet counters when contract complete
All cuddler faces use same shader
Space elevator launch now respects volume settings
Prevent objects from generating too close to elevator
Fix vegetation displacement
Pet Mind Reader Update
Mind Readers are here! Using these, it should be much easier to see what's going on. Simply point one at a pet and it will tell you what they need to be happy, and what they're missing.
In VR, it's already integrated into the inspection tool. On flatscreen, the interact button will now pull up the tool if you're not pointing it at anything.
This is the start of a new tool system, and an integration of the VR and non-VR. Moving forwards, I should only need to make one version of each tool, and it will work in both modes!
What's Next?
Today marks three weeks since the early access release! The current development pace is going well, with a week of bugfixing, a week of playing half life and doom, and a week working on the mind reading. The next update is going to add a separate tutorial area. Even if you already know how to play the game, it will have some dialog and worldbuilding to help you figure out why you're doing all this! Also some great music.
Patch Notes
v0.1.8
New
Pet Brain Scanner
Figure out what they want and what they need
Press 'F' when not looking at anything in 2D, part of the inspection tool in VR
New FPS destruction tool
Changes
Motion blur disabled, doesn't work with objects attached to the player
Gardeners now much easier to please
Redesigned hunger system
Better client prediction for destruction
More gardener sounds
New elevator launch sound
Petting pets now auto-locks to pet
A Sign of Things to Come
A few fixes/changes, and a new suggested feature that seemed fun. I'm hoping to have the capacity to do small features like this between larger updates as development moves along.
New
Bored pets will now follow arrow signs
Changes
Pets no longer need to see an elevator to run into it. This should make pet behavior near elevators much more consistent. Previously, if they weren't facing the elevator, they couldn't see it and wouldn't go in.
Fixes
Fix game not booting back to menu when server connection fails
Potential fix for saves dissappearing when over 1 MbB
Pets no longer stuck in place when they have nothing to do
Patch Release v0.1.6
v0.1.6 | 3/21/2020
This update changes some of the AI behavior backend. It may have some unintended consequences, so be sure to report odd behavior using the bug reporter or in the forums!
Changes
Pets following you will now get bored after some time
Hungry pets will stop following you to go eat
Change Construction Cannon recipe to use Sploofers instead of Gardeners
Text boxes now show correct glyphs when using a controller
Turning on VR turning will turn off VR strafing, and vice versa
Roadmap for the Future!
If you’re wondering what the current plans are for Industrial Petting, wonder no longer!
The first new piece of content will be a device players can use to better understand what pets are thinking. Along with some more tutorials and changes to AI behavior, it should make the game more playable and more understandable for more people!
After that, there are already designs for a new pet area with new resources, new pets, and some new behavior. Looking further out, the factory update should make the non-petting side of the game more interesting. The Factory Pocket Dimensions are currently planned to work similar to the factorrisimo mod for factorio. These are going to be little subfactories you can enter that have more space inside than they do outside. No pets allowed.
The exploration update is not going to have much in pets or factories, but it’s going to have much better reasons to make them. The goal is to add interesting objectives other than “make a bigger factory”, and have a world generation rewrite that allows for people to see much further than currently, and have more interesting large-scale geography. This may be split into two updates, but for right now we’ll pretend it will be one.
These dates are current estimates, they may get moved around depending on how development moves along. It’s been an exciting launch week here, and these next few months will see a lot added to Industrial Petting!
Patch Release v0.1.5
FIxes
VR Control window opens correctly
Patch Release v0.1.4
v0.1.4
Fixes: - Fix auto save wiping pipe contents. This should fix long pipelines losing items - Add placement hologram for Industrial Petter - Add UI hologram for Industrial Petter - Fix crash when Industrial Petter is destroyed
Patch Release v0.1.3
v0.1.3
Fixes: - Set VR snap turning as default - Fix backend culling bug - Fix broken UI for cannon - Fix being unable to place objects on flatscreen
