Thanks for all the great feedback so far on the experimental branch. The stressed out update is coming along great and I’m super excited about the new content included. I wanted to go over some of the content currently available in the experimental branch and some of the additional things in development.
Quirks
As mentioned in the previous dev log, I’m re-working the quirk system to allow for far more variety. While all the existing quirks have been migrated to the new quirk system, there are several new quirks that can make colonists a bit more special.
Quirks are will now be visible in the colonist management screen for easier viewing as well.
Stress
Stress effects will no longer add a flat value to stress, but slowly increase stress over time. Keeping stress low is more important with the addition of high stress reactions
Stress Reactions
When stress reaches 100% a colonist will attempt to relieve that stress in various ways. Each colonist will now have one type of stress reaction quirk. Some are easier to deal with than others.
Janitor Job Role
The janitor job role has been added to help cleanup messes that can occur. Both human and work bot colonists are capable of this new job role.
While some colonist stress reactions can lead to spillage, spills can also occur from critically failing certain actions. Water spills will occur from critically failing at cooking, gathering from water traps, feeding the fish and more. Fuel spills will occur when a colonist critically fails at refueling the generator.
Stress Management
Some new stress management objects are in development to help your colonists relieve stress in a better way. More information coming soon.
I’m super excited about the new content in development and would love to hear your thoughts as well. Thanks for all the great feedback so far.
Hope everyone is doing well and staying safe out there. The Update 28 :: Stressed Out update changes how colonist quirks function and adds in some new ones. While it’s not 100% done, it is ready for some testing and feedback.
Update 28 :: Stressed Out is now available on the Experimental Branch. The experimental branch currently includes changes to quirks and some various fixes/tweaks. Colonist reactions to high/low stress is still in development and will be added to the experimental branch later.
The Spatial Awareness update added functional rooms and new stress affects. The, in development, Stressed Out update will continue to focus on colonists with a re-work of the quirks system as well as new reactions to high and low stress.
Quirks
The quirk system was originally designed as an extension to colonist attributes and attribute effects. Attribute effects are applied to attributes and modify the attribute values such as hunger rate, max health, max athletics etc..
Quirks were a special type of attribute effect. While this worked, it meant that quirks were limited to only having an affect on attributes and needs. I wanted the ability to have some more interesting and varied quirks, which meant a bit of a re-work to how quirks were defined.
The new quirk system will be a bit more robust and allow for a much wider array of quirk types. While the existing quirks will remain, new quirks are being added that will provide more individuality to colonists.
Examples of some of the possible new quirks:
Loved/Hated Food – Stress reduction/increase from eating specific food item
Loved/Hated Job – Stress reduction/increase from performing specific job
Charming – Chance to add stress reduction to nearby colonists
Annoying – Chance to add stress increase to nearby colonists
Light Sleeper – Stress increase from sleeping in a room with other colonists
Aquaphobia – Won’t cross water tiles
There are more planned quirks and be sure to let me know if you have some fun ideas for new quirks.
The colonist management screen is also getting an update to make quirks more visible.
Stress
While colonists have been able to gain and reduce stress for a while now, there hasn’t been much penalty or reward from it. I’m reviewing the stress system over all to better balance how stress is generated and add reactions to high and low stress.
This means colonists will have negative reactions to high stress as well as some benefits for keeping stress low.
Some new objects in development that will help colonists reduce stress.
While the primary focus is on quirks and stress, there are some various other tweaks, fixes and changes in development. One useful new feature is an eye dropper tool. Holding shift and clicking on placed/constructed objects will allow you to easily place down more of that object for construction.
I’m currently planning to release a testing version of the update to the Experimental Branch later this week. I look forward to your feedback on the new quirks and stress content.
Few days late, but happy new year! Thanks for all the great feedback and bug reports. To start off 2021 here is a small patch update to fix a couple of issues.
Fixed: Colonists become stuck if mining a tile that contains another object
Patch Update 27.1
Howdy Folks!
2021 is nearly here and I have one last update before the year comes to a close. This is a small patch update which includes some tweaks and fixes.
I think I’ve finally nailed down the issue with events only triggering after loading a saved game. You may get events triggering after loading your save file, but they should continue to occur naturally after that.
There has been a long time issue with miners not continuing to mine in a one wide straight line. This was due to them attempting to get another mining target before the path in front of them was flagged as walkable. I’ve added some new logic to help improve mining behavior.
There are a bunch of additional tweaks and fixes. Check the release notes below for the full list of changes. Thanks for all the support and reports.
Minor tweaks to some interfaces to make them more compact
Updated colonist mining action to better handle pathfinding graph updates. This reduces instances of miners wandering around aimlessly after mining a tile.
Increased maximum space allowed for a room to generate from 200 to 500.
Increased sizes that define small, medium, large and massive rooms.
Increased water flow speed. This is a temporary adjustment to reduce issues with machines not getting water fast enough after loading a saved game. Further changes to water management coming in a future update.
Vehicles will now spawn on an empty tile adjacent to the vehicle bay when embarking.
Decreased durability drained by researching at the research station. This should reduce how often the research station needs to be repaired.
Fixed: Relaxed attribute effect not applied after restful sit action in some instances
Fixed: Attribute effects from equipment items not being applied in some instances
Fixed: Mining action causing game freeze in some instances
Fixed: Some events not finishing properly causing other events to not trigger such as crop disease or cave ins.
Fixed: Various errors generated from mods after they are un-applied from a saved game
Happy Holidays!
Howdy Folks!
It’s been a long and challenging year and I hope that everyone has been able to find some joy this Holiday season. I am very thankful for all of the support you’ve given me this year. As the year nears its end, I want to delve a bit into the past, the present and the future of Mercury Fallen.
The Past
In early 2016 I started prototyping a game idea. The gameplay focused around a primary character awakening from cryo-sleep long past due in a ruined facility. The game was tentatively called Crypod and would have the player repairing the facility.
The prototype continued to evolve into a colony management game which became the foundation for Mercury Fallen. By early 2017, I had cobbled together something that was starting to feel like a playable game.
Mercury Fallen was released to Itch.IO for some initial feedback in spring of 2017 and released on Steam later that year in Early Access.
The Present
There have been a whole lot of improvements, changes and additions in 2020.
The New Beginnings update added new power management, starting conditions and completely re-worked the colonists with new models, animations and outfits.
The Farming & Harming update added new farming mechanics and events such as cave ins and crop disease.
The tech tree was completely overhauled in the New Horizons update. Changes to surface visuals, expeditions and a whole lot more was also added.
Surface content was further expanded with new mining nodes and expeditions in the Traveler Update. This update also included various changes to starting colonists and game progression over all.
Most recently, the Spatial Awareness update added functional rooms, room-based effects, new furniture and more.
It’s been a great year for Mercury Fallen and I’m excited to continue this journey with you all as we head into 2021.
The Future
The recent Spatial Awareness update added new ways for colonists to get stressed out, but stress still doesn’t result in much of a positive or negative outcome.
The Stressed Out update is now in development and will include a re-work to colonist quirks as well as new colonist reactions to high and low stress.
Quirks currently only affect attributes, but the new quirk system will allow for more unique quirks. Some of the possible new quirks include:
Charming – Can reduce stress of nearby colonists
Annoying – Can increase stress of nearby colonists
Light Sleeper – Negative stress from sleeping in a room with other colonists
Green Thumb – Increased farming work speed
Iron Stomach - Never gets a stomach ache
Additional quirks are being developed that will add more unique qualities to your colonists.
Some fun new ways of helping your colonists deal with stress are also in development.
There is still quite a bit of content planned after the Stressed Out update. Here are some of the things currently planned or in early development.
New Expeditions
Ability to train colonists to increase attributes and job skills
Additional control over starting conditions
A campaign story that will provide direction and more information about the planet and its inhabitants
Trading
More decoration objects
More technology to unlock
Additional mod support to include custom artwork and code
Achievements
Merch
Winter Sale
With the winter season upon us, at least in the northern hemisphere, and with it comes the Steam Winter Sale. Mercury Fallen is now 30% off. It’s a great time to grab a copy, or give the gift of colony management to a friend.
Thank You
A huge thank you to everyone who has played Mercury Fallen. Your feedback means a great deal to me. As a solo developer it’s great to hear that you’re enjoying the game. It’s also very helpful to know what you don’t like and what isn’t working. There is a lot in store for Mercury Fallen. Thank you!
I’m super excited to announce that Update 27 :: Spatial Awareness is now available! While the primary focus is the addition of functional rooms, there are a lot of other tweaks, fixes and changes.
Rooms
Room data is now automatically created when you construct an enclosed area with walls and a door. A new rooms overlay toggle will show valid room areas. A room type is defined by the majority of flooring within a room and some benefits are only applied to objects if they are in the correct room type. Rooms are automatically updated as flooring and walls change.
Clicking on a floor tile within a room shows the room information panel. Decor, lighting and efficiency attributes are applied to rooms, and they affect colonists and machinery in various ways.
The room decor score is based on the tiles within the room and can be improved by adding decorations. The lighting score can be improved by adding lights.
Efficiency is the average score of the decor and lighting attributes. Efficiency provides boosts to crafting station speed, sleep times and more.
Colonist Cap
The starting colonist cap has been reduced from 10 to 5 colonists. This means that O2 generators are a bit more important for expanding your colony. This change only affects new games.
Sleeping
Colonist sleep time has been adjusted to a more realistic amount of time. Sleeping on a bed now offers a time reduction over sleeping on a mat or the floor. Sleep time is further reduced by an efficient bedroom.
New Attribute Effects
Colonists now receive a stress effect based on the quality of the room they sleep or eat in. They will additionally receive stress effects if not sleeping or eating in a room.
Storage Containers
Newly constructed storage containers will now have all items disallowed. A hover icon and info warning will appear to show that the container hasn’t been configured.
Additional Tweaks & Changes
Objects now show a hover icon and info warning if they can’t be reached by a colonist for construction.
Cloned colonists are now generated in the same way colonists appear from a stasis capsule. Clones will have a primary job and applicable attributes. This behavior may change in future.
Check the release notes below for the full list of additions, changes and fixes. Thanks for all of the support and awesome feedback.
Let me know what you think of Cyberpunk 2077.. I mean Mercury Fallen.
Added functional rooms. Rooms are automatically created when creating an enclosed space with walls/doors. Selecting a floor inside a room will show information about the room. Rooms have several attributes that affect colonists and actions in various ways.
Added Overlay button to toggle room visibility
Added Keybind to toggle room visibility
Added Guide topic for rooms
Added stress effects for sleeping depending on room decor
Added stress effect for not sleeping in a room
Added stress effects for eating depending on room decor
Added stress effect for not eating in a room
Added stress effect for not eating at a table
Some job actions now gain a benefit from being performed in a room. Up to a 20% work success chance bonus based on room efficiency. Applicable jobs also receive -10% to work success chance if not done in a room. Jobs like mining that would generally not be performed in a room are unaffected.
Room wall material now changes based on adjacent room instead of adjacent floor
Sleeping time in a bed or mat decreases by up to 25% based on room efficiency
Colonist Cap
Reduced starting colonist cap from 10 to 5. Does not affect cap in existing save games.
Stasis capsules can’t be opened if at or over colonist capacity
Stasis capsule info now shows separate warnings if stasis capsule is blocked or facility is over capacity
Colonist capacity info now colored orange if at capacity
Colonist capacity info now shows warning icon next to number if at or above capacity
Added information about how to increase colonist cap in colonist count tooltip
Colonist Sleeping
Sleeping now takes a more realistic amount of time. ~8 hours on a sleeping mat, ~6 hours in a bed and ~10 hours sleeping on the ground.
Sleeping in a bed now uses energy refill rate instead of a predetermined amount of time.
Estimated sleep time now displayed in object build info menu
Storage Containers
Set Allowed items list for storage now highlights the line you are hovered over.
Newly constructed storage containers now start with no allowed items.
Storage containers now show hover icon warning if no items are set in allowed items
Changed storage icon
Updated ui text renderer in Set Allowed items list in storage.
Tweaks & Changes
Added locker furniture item
Items on the ground now generate negative decor
Shortcut keys for toggling overlay modes now properly toggles overlay when pressing the shortcut key a second time
Attribute effects under Colonist Stats now colored green or red to denote positive or negative benefit
Updated look of action success/fail icon that appears over colonists
Updated how attribute effects function to allow for attribute effects to be applied more than once.
Increased tech fragments rewarded from chests/expeditions. This is a temporary change until new mechanics are in place for acquiring tech fragments.
Placed objects that can’t be reached by a colonist for construction will now show a hover icon and warning info
Vehicle cargo expander equipment bonuses now stack if using more than one of the same equipment item type
Panning the camera using mouse button+drag no longer cancels construction mode. Construction mode is still canceled with a single right mouse button click.
Added a notice window that will return the player back to the main menu if loading a save game that has become corrupted.
Clone chamber now generates a randomized colonist in the same way as a stasis capsule. This behavior may change in future.
Fixes
Fixed: Incorrect selection collider for doors
Fixed: Some mis-spellings
Fixed: Missing language string for Battery Booster III equipment item
Fixed: Overlay toggle buttons not highlighting to show active overlay mode in some instances
Fixed: Available Research count in left button bar incorrect in some instances
Fixed: Multiple equipment item effect values not stacking
Fixed: Game Event trigger times not saving/loading correctly resulting in events being triggered after loading a save game.
Fixed: Missing language string for colonist relax action
Fixed: Game crash if loading a save game with modded equipment items, but the mod is no longer enabled
Spatial Awareness Update Now On Test Build Branch
Howdy Folks!
A huge thanks for all the feedback and bug reports on the experimental branch. I’m super excited to say that Update 27 :: Spatial Awareness is now available on the Test Build branch for a final round of tweaks and fixes.
https://youtu.be/J4eNBYteZug
Should you check out the Test Build branch, be sure to let me know what you think of the new content.
Update 27 :: Spatial Awareness Test Build Info https://steamcommunity.com/app/704510/discussions/3/2969524751697813664/
About Test Build Branch The optional Test Build branch is for testing the latest features before they go live to everyone. As it is a testing version there can be more bugs/issues than in the normal version. If using the Test Build branch, please report any issues you encounter or any feedback on new game play mechanics. Your feedback and/or reports will help to ensure the final version is the best it can be.
Hope everyone is doing well and staying safe out there. Update 27 :: Spatial Awareness brings some new meaning to room creation. While it’s not 100% done, it is ready for some testing and feedback.
Update 27 is now available on the Experimental Branch. More changes and additions are coming and the experimental branch will continue to get updated.
Hope everyone is doing well. I was off last week on a mini vacation. I’m back now and development continues. In the previous developer log I showed how room zones would work. I’ve made some changes to how rooms are generated that I wanted to cover.
Rooms
Previously I had mentioned that rooms would need to be defined using a new zone system. The zone system was originally designed for some other features I’m working on and it felt like a good fit for rooms as well. I was wrong.
After some internal testing it felt clumsy and redundant to have to define a room in addition to placing walls and doors.
Rooms will now be automatically created as you place walls/doors. A room won’t be considered “valid” if it doesn’t have flooring. The room type is determined by the larger quantity of flooring. Mostly bedroom floor? Then it’s a bedroom.
Selecting the flooring inside a room area will show the room information which includes over all decor level, light level and efficiency. These attributes will affect colonists behavior and production in various ways.
Room benefits are still being developed and tested internally, but I hope to have a version on the experimental branch later this week for initial testing and feedback.
Survey
Thanks for all the great feedback via the Update 26 Feedback Survey. If you have a couple of minutes and haven’t already taken the survey, then be sure to check it out.
