Send it to your friends and significant others! Let the fellows at school/work know, too!
Learning Factory's free demo has limited content, but its choke full of our significant chill vibe, a true zen factory building experience! And it has cats, too!
No reason to not download it. (Except for maybe if you own the game already - then you'd have to ask a friend to show it to you on their account)
----------------------
How to Get More Involved
Going to Early Access is but the first step to glory (and eternal cat happiness). Wanna be part of what happens next? Head to this blog post and learn how to help make the game even more awesome!
Share Your Gameplay and Become Part of KOTOVOD History
Learning Factory needs your help! Record a 10 or more minutes of you playing the game, share a video using any way you see fit, write your name into Learning Factory credits and get a promo cat! Make history here
Hotfix v0.26.170
Here's a handful of kilobytes that make Learning Factory better:
Bug fixes
Lunar New Year in-game event is now effective
Just a normal update - New Update, v0.26.169
Hey factory workers,
This update is pretty standard stuff: polishing the game, improving the visuals, adding some features requested by you, the players! Business as usual, for a change.
However, we might have a Learning Factory-related surprise for you later this week! Stay tuned, stay alerted! Until then...
v0.26.169 Released!
New upgrade: Priority Merger is an upgrade for the X-Switcher, and it only lets items from one of the two inputs to pass - unless it's empty, in which case items from another input are allowed (suggested by Lord Neodym)
Re-rendered Rope Maker
Re-rendered Dredge
Animated Furnace
Updated engine version (comes with slight performance improvement)
Added contextual error messages for promotional buildings
Added contextual error messages for Roadside Boutiques
Upgrade for more spacey Storages now provides even more space
Decreased Dormitory upgrade costs in the early stages of the game
Grandma cats now appear a bit later in the game
Hitting screenshot buttons no longer skips slides in the comics (suggested by S'Kleer)
New cats are now registered at the Factory as soon as they arrive, and not when they reach the Stores (suggested by S'Kleer)
Research projects slightly rebalanced
Trading deals slightly rebalanced
Added ChatGPT-made translation + community translation for the Estonian language
Updated fonts for the Arabic, Hebrew and Thai languages
Added alternate, ChatGPT-made translations for both Chinese languages
UI/UX fixes
Bug fixes (kudos to S'Kleer)
Re: Factory
In this section of patch notes, we answer the question from community that were submitted via the in-game feedback form and/or seemed especially interesting to us, You can always contact us directly in the comments or join our Discord server
Q: "Usage of Data Storage is inconsistent. At the help page for data storage it is written ""can be used for faster ML training"". I set up a data storage array and put dedicated data to it. Afterwards I built a shop and a linear ML. Then I connected some of the data storages to the shop/ML mode. I hoped the ML would now be trained by the stored data at the data storages as they may be used for faster training. But nothing happened" A: Data Storage helps for gathering initial data, required by a new model to start working.
Q: (Translated from Russian) "Hello! Potentially this is a known issue. In the statistics window where one can view the graph, every enabled position for tracking consumes about ~8 fps. Let's say, I turn on indicators for happy cats, unhappy cats, and how many friends the cats have invited. As a result, the fps drops all the way down to ~36." -(S'Kleer) A: Alas, this is a known optimization issue. We might rewrite part of the code for drawing graphs some day, but there're no immediate plans for that.
Q:: "The underground storage seems to store 5 less than the top side ones, I get 35 units per square for the top side and 30 for the underground" -(Zydox79) A: Storage upgrade only affects ground Stores, while the endless research project affects Storage units on both layers.
A friendly reminder: you can always chat with us directly on our Discord server. We're using Discord for work, so you'll find many of us there most of the time, don't be a stranger!
An even friendlier reminder: don't forget about our collection of items in Steam Points Shop! Sergei the artist makes wonderful factory art to be observed from above, but his works' magic really shows at close-up perspective:
Don't forget to follow Learning Factory on Steam to get the news about new updates as soon as they're out there
----------------------
How to Get More Involved
Going to Early Access is but the first step to glory (and eternal cat happiness). Wanna be part of what happens next? Head to this blog post and learn how to help make the game even more awesome!
Share Your Gameplay and Become Part of KOTOVOD History
Learning Factory needs your help! Record a 10 or more minutes of you playing the game, share a video using any way you see fit, write your name into Learning Factory credits and get a promo cat! Make history here
KOTOVOD Workshop is now open! - Major Update, v0.26.168
Hey factory builders!
Steam Workshop (Beta) Now Supported
Learning Factory is a game developed in close contact with the community, so support for mods was in our plans from the very beginning. An option to create a custom scenario and/or share a generated map with your fellow factory builder was in the game for some time now.
Today we're finally bringing all those features under one comfortable umbrella of Steam Workshop, so all the players could have access to them. But what's also cool is that you can share your work with just a couple of clicks!
At the moment, the following kinds of mods are available:
Sharing of Ruins: pre-made parts of map that might appear upon generation of a map can be shared from Map editor
Sharing your Factory is available at any time in the game, just press 'Esc' and find the respective button
Sharing a Blueprint: select a Blueprint in the Blueprint Library ('B' by default), click 'Details' and share your Blueprint to the Workshop from there
Sharing a map seed: available from map generating screen in the Freeplay mode
We have added a small selection of mods of our own (you can run around that goofy Factory that we use for making screenshots, among other things), and the rest is up to you!
This is, of course, not the Learning Factory's Workshop final form (hence the 'Beta' subheading). At this point, we've focused on adding stuff that can be easily crafted and uploaded from the game, but we've got more plans!
And if you're looking for some hardcore modding action, like changing game assets, adding/modifying item recipes and making new types of cats - come to our Discord, let's discuss it like serious people!
Note: Workshop is not supported for Mac users at this time, but you can download a mod and paste it to your Local mods folder (located in Learning Factory folder, by your saved game files).
v0.26.168 Released!
New upgrade for Storage units: underground Storage
Regular Storage redesigned as well, now with visible stacking points
Re-rendered Apple Collector
Re-rendered Box Office
Animated Dredge
Animated Pillow Maker
2 new articles in the Wiki, explaining the mechanics of terraforming and tending to Martian plants
Catopia Milestones bonuses re-balanced
Reaching Milestones related to Catopia Ark now also slightly improves Factory stats
If a Legendary cat has a 5+ Loyalty level, it will request High Quality (++) items (suggested by Zydox79)
Sorting by item categories is now available in the Backpack
Middle mouse button now serves as an alternative input for the 'Q' button (suggested by Brewski-Casegod)
Improved Map/Scenario editor
New interface for Docks menu, feedback form, Zeppelin menu, Territory purchase menu, the inventory, and the 'Esc' menu windows
The variety of sounds increased greatly
In Freeplay mode, you can now play Story content on a random map (and this is the default option now)
In this section of patch notes, we answer the question from community that were submitted via the in-game feedback form and/or seemed especially interesting to us, You can always contact us directly in the comments or join our Discord server
Q: "When clicking on a catopia shuttle part, it would be nice if the inventory opened instead of closed (the part where you have to drop off 100 vitamins and so on)" -Zydox79 A: The dedicated interface for providing items to the Ark modules is part of our plan already, it will make its' way to the game later on.
Q: "I wish I could use lava bridge for water as well. This would increase comfort while building underground as I can use the lava bridge for both obstacles. Maybe a renaming of ""bridge"" to ""wood bridge"" and ""lava bridge"" to ""stone bridge"" will keep the immersion. That a wooden bridge does not fit for crossing lava might be somthing which cats with their much better brain find obvious and could be used for some of the joys of the game :)" -Lord Neodym A: Terraforming could definitely used some improvements in the code, but that's not one of our immediate tasks for now... As for the naming, you have the point, but there's certain logics in the way those items are named as they are now. The name must explain the purpose of the item at the first time a player stumbles upon it, so adding another word to the name would make it harder to comprehend. Subsequently, the word 'Lava' in the name points where to place a bridge; before we had it there, many players would try placing them on the water instead. So, to state it again, your suggestion does make sense, but could ruin UX for some of the players.
Q: "It would be nice if ML training automatically stops when ""trained into stability"". I received a message ""ML model trained into stability"" and another, that it should be 20% more effective as the current one. But upon reaching the shop with the models, the new one (Linear Regression: 22) has a far worse error rate of 3.xx in compare to the previous used one of 1.18 (Linear Regression: 21)." -Lord Neodym A: If a model would automatically stop after trained into stability, it could lead to a situation when the data changes, and the model quality will start degrading over time, as it had stopped learning. You can put any model on hold manually though!
Q: "I wish building configuration would be copied into blueprints as well. If I copy a building via Q key and have at least one in my inventory, all settings get copied to ne new building. If I need to place a blueprint and craft it afterwards via quick build (J) the building configuration is at default. Now I need a second step to copy the configuration manually."-Lord Neodym A: We'll definitely add this one to the game, thanks!
Q: "For the ""Balanced Merger"" it is stated, that it will evenly merge two lines. This is only true as long as both lines are packed. As soon as at one of the lines items are missing, it will pull fully from the remaining line. This can be ssen at my Cat Foot production. As long as enough fish was available, everything went well. But as fish supply is too low, all factories are now backed with enough Catnip Algae. But fish will never get resupplied due to the inbalance happen before. It would be great if the Balanced Merger requires even inputs waiting if one line is empty. Thx4Reading and this awesome game :)" -Lord Neodym A: We might have to specify Merger's description, as it was intended for situations different from what you described. We'll think of introducing other kind(s) of Merger, but we do not have plans for introducing another building for a task as narrow as that, unfortunately.
A friendly reminder: you can always chat with us directly on our Discord server. We're using Discord for work, so you'll find many of us there most of the time, don't be a stranger!
An even friendlier reminder: don't forget about our collection of items in Steam Points Shop! Sergei the artist makes wonderful factory art to be observed from above, but his works' magic really shows at close-up perspective:
----------------------
How to Get More Involved
Going to Early Access is but the first step to glory (and eternal cat happiness). Wanna be part of what happens next? Head to this blog post and learn how to help make the game even more awesome!
Share Your Gameplay and Become Part of KOTOVOD History
Learning Factory needs your help! Record a 10 or more minutes of you playing the game, share a video using any way you see fit, write your name into Learning Factory credits and get a promo cat! Make history here
Next Stop: v1.0 - Learning Factory Dev Diaries, January 2024
We'd like to say we've been chilling and relaxing during the Holidays, and we were, really! But somehow, we have managed to add a whole new mode for Learning Factory in the meantime… Yeah, apparently that's how we roll. But first, let's take a moment and review the most important transformations the game was going through in that turbulent year of 2023…
Let's start with a quick recap from the past couple of years… It almost seems like we're playing a different game every year, huh?
Originally, our plans were to release Learning Factory into 1.0 version last year. Well, it turned out that the game grew way bigger than we were contemplating back in 2021… But we just couldn't leave our players hanging, especially those brave factory builders with 100+ hours of Learning Factory on their accounts.
That's why we made a huge leap in mid-December, releasing a major update adding the end game part to Learning Factory. That's right, the secret to Catopia is officially out there for you to research your way to. But that's not the end of the game: after you discover a secret of making all cats (and, subsequently, other living beings) in the Universe happy, you'll be honored with a quest to plan and launch an interstellar mission, spreading the catisfaction all over the outer space!
Naturally, you would need to equip your ‘meowthership’ (a.k.a. Catopia Ark) with the finest items from your Factory, because outer space cats deserve all the best! The end game mechanics are far from being final, we still have some ideas for that part, so stay tuned for more news!
We hope that from now on thigs you do on the Factory make sense, but do they though? Come to our Dicord server to let us know, it's important for us to make the Learning Factory experience wholesome for you!
The next hero of today's diary wears no cape. You may even not notice it for some time, until you find yourself in its modern and comforting embrace! We're talking about the game's interface, if course: it's going through a massive renovation right now, which is part of our epic pre-release quest of polishing the game:
More changes to this aspect of the game are happening at this very moment, and will be featured in the next updates! And any feedback from you is always welcome, too.
This last year was full of changes that do not sound very impressive in text, but do make a big difference, especially when they all come together! To save you some time, let's review the most prominent improvements around Learning Factory in 2023:
All items (included, but not limited to Quality and High Quality items) were re-rendered and now feature their own unique looks
Most buildings are/were going through the process of re-rendering, too, which implies higher quality animations, shadows for each and every building, and higher quality graphics in general
The Underground level of the game finally become a full-fledged part of your Factory, where mmysterious Neon Cotton and Underground Algae grow, metals are mined and smelted, and whatnot! Since you'll probably get to spend way more time over there, the Undergound graphics was re-done, too:
Blueprints are finally there, helping you plan your Factory campus in many exciting ways
20+ new buildings made its way into the game, including Chillout Space, Teleports and Schrodinger's Chamber for cloning cats
Cat Zeppelins: yet another revolution in Factory logistics - they tranfer cats, and also shaped like cats - as seen in ‘My Neigbor Totoro’, but maybe a bit less weird
Alternate campaign map, with more challenging watery landscape
The great crafting rebalancing occured: in short, it is stimulating you to produce higher quality items in the later parts of the game
Of course, there were more changes, big and small: you can read about them (along with other stories) in our blog.
What's Next?
If you're asking yourself “Are they done there, finally?”, - the answer is strictly negative: the next update will be out in a couple of days, and it's going to be yet another major update! With some new animations, undergound Storages, many QoL improvements, and something very special. A little teaser: it starts with an “S-”, and ends with “-team Workshop support”.
Seriously though, we're running out of points to check on Learning Factory roadmap, and that means a lot of boring, steady work, preparing the game to the long-awaited 1.0 release.
And of course, none of this would be possible without you, the players! Thank you dearly for being with us, sharing your insights, opinions and suggestions: we take our players’ advice seriously here at Luden.io, and many features in the game are suggested by our community!
Come join us: this year promises to be especially interesting for Learning Factory! See you in the next edition of these Diaries.
Learning Factory is 35% off, happy Steam Winter Sale!
There really isn't much to say... This year was epic for Learning Factory, but the next will be even better!
We'll talk about this later, but now it's time to celebrate:
Learning Factory is 35% off, and all DLCs are 13% off until January 04!
Get yourself a copy, buys some for your friends, and, by all means, have fun! Happy Holidays
Hotfix v0.25.167
Here's a handful of kilobytes that make Learning Factory better:
Bug fixes (kudos to Zydox79 and that fella who didn't left their name in the bug report form)
Minor balance fixes in certain recipes and Trade Port deals
Upgrading Spree - New Update, v0.25.166
Hey factory workers,
We honestly thought that the last update from a week ago would be the final one in 2023. But one thing sort of let to another, so... we released a hotfix and an update, and there's this update today, too!
It's gonna be the last one this year, honestly! (Or so we hope) Besides, it was worth the effort: this update brings some beatiful new animation and cheerful voice of Dr. Katz to the game*:
*this version is not final, and will be improved later on
v0.25.166 Released!
Chewing Gum Mixer animated
Voice cues for certain in-game events - in English with subtitles
Zeppelin menu shows estimated time on route (suggested by reogal)
Added search field in the Dormitory
Roadside Boutique sends data to connected ML Models even when it's in Sales mode (suggested by reogal)
Subtitles can be toggled on and off in the Settings
Bug fixes (kudos to Zydox, reogal)
Re: Factory
Q: "It's been a long time since I saw any wild growth in my world, trees or cotton spreading... is that intentional or is something broken? ()" -(Zydox79) A: New plants stop emerging after 50% of the map is occupied.
Q: "I don't get cats to enter Schrodinger's chamber, they just stand outside looking... I had the same issue before the patch as well... One cat went in and got cloned but after that no other cats wants to get cloned... I think you might need to work on education for the cats so that they aren't scared of quantum physics..." -(Zydox79) A: It seems that you just got lucky with that first cat: normally cats can't be dragged into a service/tasting building or a Boutique. Instead, there's a chance that they decide to stroll into one of those buildings by themselves.
Q: "肥料生产效率能高点吗，或者按照按照生效时间也可以呀，我现在使用大量的地块来生产苹果制作肥料，如果想要缩小地块，就只能使用肥料来加速苹果再生时间，但是就会导致我的肥料越来越少，无法使用在其他地方，玩到现在发现目前再生时间较长只有仙人掌，感觉其他的使用肥料来再生是非常吃亏的 Can the efficiency of fertilizer production be improved, or alternatively, can it be based on the effective time? Currently, I use a large number of plots to produce apples for making fertilizer. If I want to reduce the number of plots, I have to use fertilizer to speed up the regeneration time of apples. However, this leads to a shortage of fertilizer, making it unavailable for use elsewhere. As I progress in the game, I've noticed that the only plant with a longer regeneration time is the cactus. Using fertilizer for other plants seems to be a significant disadvantage." -(mezese) A: There're many ways to boost the overall efficiency of plants' growth and harvesting at the end of the Research Tree. If you want to save Apple Boxes, you can also use an alternate recipe to produce Fertilizer from Fish and Milk. Make sure the tiles for growing Apple Trees are of 100% efficiency, too. But we do not have plans to add modifiers for base Fertilizer efficiency: it's up to you to decide which plants to fertilize to maximize the efficiency of production, it's part of the gameplay. We'll think of how to make it more comprehensive in this case in future updates!
A friendly reminder: you can always chat with us directly on our Discord server. We're using Discord for work, so you'll find many of us there most of the time, don't be a stranger!
An even friendlier reminder: don't forget about our collection of items in Steam Points Shop! Sergei the artist makes wonderful factory art to be observed from above, but his works' magic really shows at close-up perspective:
Don't forget to follow Learning Factory on Steam to get the news about new updates as soon as they're out there
----------------------
How to Get More Involved
Going to Early Access is but the first step to glory (and eternal cat happiness). Wanna be part of what happens next? Head to this blog post and learn how to help make the game even more awesome!
Share Your Gameplay and Become Part of KOTOVOD History
Learning Factory needs your help! Record a 10 or more minutes of you playing the game, share a video using any way you see fit, write your name into Learning Factory credits and get a promo cat! Make history here
Holiday Preparations (Work Related) at KOTOVOD - New Update, v0.25.165
Hey factory workers,
The Holidays are upon us, which means more festive work for you, of course: there're lot of cat wishes to be fulfilled! This update will help you do so even more effectively - and in style, too!
v0.25.165 Released!
Chillout Space animated
Cable Crafter animated
Trade Ports are now surrounded by an area of shallow water tiles (available upon starting a new game) for placing Bridges
'Nanoproduction' infinite research project, increasing manual work speed, now works 5 times as slow for buildings, to prevent accidental removal (suggested by Zydox79)
Additional Inventory hotkey ('I' by default) doesn't open crafting window anymore
Middle mouse button now serves as an alternative button for Pipette tool (suggested by Brewski-Casegod)
UI/UX fixes
Bug fixes (kudos to Zydox79)
Re: Factory
Q: "Unable to rotate trade port to place it again" -(shinjikun34) A: Trade Ports cannot be rotated, alas, they're always facing backwards the edge of the map
Q: "It would be nice to add some simple filter checkboxes for the backpack, something like * Display the basic goods * Display the + goods * Display the ++ goods * Display the highest available version of each goods typeAnd then the user would be able to set the checkboxes to whatever is needed for the moment, should remember the setting for the next time the backpack is opened" -(Zydox79) A: Inventory filters are in development already, along with interface re-imagining. They're expected to emerge in the game in January (sorting items by quality included)
Q: "Could you make concrete pourable? So we can have a nice clean floor" -(manofthemonkey) A: Feel free to research and use Concrete Flooring, that can be found at the end of terraforming branch of the Research Tree
A friendly reminder: you can always chat with us directly on our Discord server. We're using Discord for work, so you'll find many of us there most of the time, don't be a stranger!
An even friendlier reminder: don't forget about our collection of items in Steam Points Shop! Sergei the artist makes wonderful factory art to be observed from above, but his works' magic really shows at close-up perspective:
Don't forget to follow Learning Factory on Steam to get the news about new updates as soon as they're out there
----------------------
How to Get More Involved
Going to Early Access is but the first step to glory (and eternal cat happiness). Wanna be part of what happens next? Head to this blog post and learn how to help make the game even more awesome!
Share Your Gameplay and Become Part of KOTOVOD History
Learning Factory needs your help! Record a 10 or more minutes of you playing the game, share a video using any way you see fit, write your name into Learning Factory credits and get a promo cat! Make history here
Perky Researchers - New Update, v0.25.164
Hey factory workers,
This update wasn't part of the initial plan, but it does make the game better, so here goes:
v0.25.164 Released!
Added a new perk: 'Illuminated' cat researchers have a chance of adding half of the value of a science article to a random research, upon finishing an article. Dr Katz has it by default
Certain existing perks re-balanced
By default, time in the game is now displayed in seconds. You can switch it back to be displayed in ticks in Gameplay Options
Interface fixes
UI/UX fixes
Bug fixes, especially Zeppelins-related bugs (kudos to Zydox79)
Re: Factory
Q: "Adding the storage piles "Storage" to the underground layer would be a nice addition instead of having to misuse the cargo platforms as underground storage, perhaps even having them as extended underground storage to allow for storing larger quantities underground" -(Zydox79) A: Underground Storage will be added to the game at some point, when we get to fixing certain aspects of the regular Storage
Q:: "For the achivement ""The technocrat"" (craft highest level of all items), it would be nice if it would be possible to see which ones you have/haven't completed... I've had stock of everything in gold quality but still not gotten the achivement." -(Zydox79) A: You can go to the Monument and switch to the Statistics tab to see what items are you producing - that'll help you figure out what's missing. Please keep in mind, that only producing items is counted towards this achievemnt (e.g. you can't trade or get an item as a reward to get this achievement). If everything seems to be fine with your production, there might be a bug there, please send us your saved game file.
A friendly reminder: you can always chat with us directly on our Discord server. We're using Discord for work, so you'll find many of us there most of the time, don't be a stranger!
An even friendlier reminder: don't forget about our collection of items in Steam Points Shop! Sergei the artist makes wonderful factory art to be observed from above, but his works' magic really shows at close-up perspective:
Don't forget to follow Learning Factory on Steam to get the news about new updates as soon as they're out there
----------------------
How to Get More Involved
Going to Early Access is but the first step to glory (and eternal cat happiness). Wanna be part of what happens next? Head to this blog post and learn how to help make the game even more awesome!
Share Your Gameplay and Become Part of KOTOVOD History
Learning Factory needs your help! Record a 10 or more minutes of you playing the game, share a video using any way you see fit, write your name into Learning Factory credits and get a promo cat! Make history here
