Minor performance improvement related to how colonist portrait images are rendered
Change to how mouse clicks are registered. This fixes an issue with not being able to pan the camera with the mouse during expedition destination selection
Fixed: Resource Transport vehicle attempting to collect from mining platforms that aren’t finished being constructed
Fixed: Mining Platform showing wrong animation state when placed
Fixed: Russian font characters not showing correctly
Fixed: Mysterious floating colonist appearing at the edge of the facility area in some instances
Patch Update 26.1
Howdy Folks!
Hope everyone is staying safe out and in there. In the last developer log I went over the new zone/room system that is in development. After some initial feedback and reviewing of the new system I’ve determined that it needs a bit more time in the oven.
That means there won’t be an Experimental branch update available this week. There is, however, a patch update available right now for everyone!
Update 26.1
Update 26.1 is a minor patch update to address some various bugs and add a few tweaks and changes. See the release notes below for all the changes and additions.
Feedback Survey
It’s survey time again. If you have a couple of minutes, please let me know you thoughts about the game.
Can now hold right mouse button and drag to pan camera in facility view
Planet map now uses right mouse button instead of left mouse button for panning camera
Wasp discovery POI now restricted to the same continent as the facility (only affects new game)
Craft stations now show pop icon over machine to show what item was just crafted
Water traps now show pop icon when item is caught
Minor change to water trap graphic so that it’s positioned more clearly over water tiles
Updated a number of research and job role descriptions
Colonists should now prioritize aquarium actions over water traps
Selected expedition on the planet map now shows additional information on what the expedition is waiting for in order to be ready.
Can now cancel an expedition from its info panel if the expedition doesn’t have all items and passengers.
Added font support for Chinese characters
Added font support for Japanese characters
Fixes
Fixed: Equipment items not being removed correctly in some instances.
Fixed: Vehicle in vehicle list not showing as being docked after being docked
Fixed: Colonist take/repair damage visual effects showing in reverse
Fixed: Colonists not receiving damage in some instances
Fixed: Colonists not receiving negative effect from critically failing at research
Fixed: Colonists not receiving effects from consuming food in some instances.
Fixed: Robot Assembler not showing correct animation state (again… some more)
Fixed: Confirmation windows causing internal error in some instances
Fixed: Object info windows not closing when selected object is destroyed
Fixed: Planet resource deposit still showing hover icon after deposit is depleted
Developer Log #60
Howdy Folks!
Hope everyone is doing well and staying safe. It’s a crazy world out there so don’t forget to relax and just breathe.
There are some exciting new features that I’m working on that I wanted to talk about. The previous update focused heavily on changes to the planet surface. While more content/tweaks will be done on the surface, I wanted to return focus to the underground facility and the colonists.
Room Zones
A purpose for rooms is a topic I’ve talked about before and has been on the to-do list for a while. After considering how to handle such a thing, I’ve decided to create a new zone system. A zone section will be added to the main button bar and will allow you to create room zones.
A room zone, once created, will need to be enclosed by walls and have at least one door to be considered valid. The type of room is determined by the dominant flooring. A room zone has mostly bedroom tiles? Then it’s a bedroom zone.
Room zones have four primary attributes: Size, Decor, Light Level and Efficiency. Size is determined by the total amount of tiles in the zone. Decor and Light Level are increased by placing decorations and lighting. Efficiency is the average of the decor and light level attributes.
Efficiency will affect machines/objects in a room zone. As an example, crafting stations now use efficiency to determine craft speed. A lower efficiency means it will take longer to craft items. Base crafting speeds have been adjusted to provide room benefits.
Some new colonist attribute effects are being developed as well which will be affected by rooms.
Additional zone types are in development, but more on that next time. I’m hoping to have an update to the Experimental branch next week so that you can try it out and let me know what you think.
Update 26 :: Traveler is now live and includes an update to starting colonist stats, sleeping mats, new surface mining mechanics, new POI locations and a whole lot of tweaks, changes and fixes.
Starting Colonists
Colonists awoken from stasis now have a higher level primary job assigned. You can still change and assign jobs, but starting colonists should have at least one better job role.
Stasis capsules have more information, such as the colonists name and primary job role.
Sleeping Mat
A new option for handling colonist fatigue is sleeping mats. The sleeping mats only provide a small benefit over sleeping on the ground, but offer some control over where colonists will sleep. This should discourage colonists from falling asleep on the crops.
Surface Mining
Surface mining has been overhauled and now includes mining resource deposits instead of mining on any tile. These new mining resource deposits can have Surface, Subsurface and Deep resources, which affect the quantity of the resource as well as how it is mined.
Mining vehicles can mine down to Subsurface depths, but Deep resources will require the construction of a Mining Platform on the tile with the deposit.
The vehicle action for mining has been improved and is now more automated. After selecting the mine action, select a target resource deposit. Once a target is selected, the mining vehicle will automatically harvest and deliver resources until there are no more resources for it to mine. Resource deposits are no longer infinite, so vehicles will need to travel further out as resources are depleted.
A new Resource Depot building further aids exploration expansion. The Resource Depot is an extension of the Shipping/Receiving inventories. Mining and transport vehicles will deposit items to the closest resource depot or the main facility, depending on which is closer.
Resource deposits that have materials at surface depth will become visible as you explore the map. Deeper deposits will require the use of the new Resource Scanner. The new Surveyor job role is used to scan the surface for additional resource deposits.
Points Of Interest POI generation on the surface map has been completely revamped. More than 25 new POI locations have been added. POI locations are more spread out and offer unique rewards and/or discoveries.
A huge thank you to those that checked out the experimental and test build versions.
Added surface resource deposits which replace mining on any tile.
Mineable surface resources can contain surface, sub-surface and deep deposits. Surface resources are discovered as the map is explored, but deeper deposits will require the use of the resource scanner.
Re-named Comm Station to Resource Scanner. A Surveyor (previously named comm officer) will use this to scan for sub-surface and deep deposits.
Added research project for Resource Scanning
Added constructable resource depots which act as an extension of the facilities shipping/receiving containers. Can be built on any land tile.
Beetle miner now unlocked with Vehicle Construction research
Mining vehicle action now requires a target resource be selected
Mining vehicle action will now automatically mine a resource and deposit resources back to the facility or resource depot. It will continue to do this until the resource is depleted or there are no longer resources it can reach.
Mining platform interface updated to reflect new mechanics
Mining platform now placed/constructed directly instead of using mining vehicle action
Resource transport assignment is now optional. Resource transports will prioritize buildings they are assigned to, but if there are none, they will collect from closest targets.
Points Of Interest
Re-worked how points of interest are generated on the surface.
Added over 25 new poi locations
Added new poi locations to find discoveries for previously locked technology
Colonists
Colonists spawned from stasis capsules now have a primary job assigned and attributes related to that job. The primary job will also be of a higher starting level. Colonists can still be assigned different or additional jobs.
Stasis capsule displays additional colonist info before opening
Comm Officer renamed to Surveyor
UI
Surface structures and vehicles now have an icon when zoomed out on the planet map
Vehicle action info in vehicle list now more descriptive
Vehicles in vehicle list now sorted by type
Embarked vehicles that are Idle now have a red background color in the vehicle list
Vehicle button in vehicle list will now highlight when vehicle is selected
Can now pan the planet map camera by clicking and dragging
Object build menu now displays power consumption amount (where applicable) under resource consumption
Hud Inventory settings now saved and loaded
Control info for rotate/place/cancel now shown when placing objects
Updated the look of confirmation windows
In-game menu Save & Quit button changed to Quit To Menu. Confirmation will appear.
Added hover tooltip to underlined ailment in story results
Colonist ailment tooltips now show affected attribute name
Updated some guide topic icons
Updated look of text in Settings->Key Binds
Input key button text in Settings->Key Binds now shows short form of input key. Example: “1” Instead of “Alpha1”
Misc
Added new guide topics
Updated some guide topics
Added Getting Started tutorial task “Assign Job Roles”
Added sleeping mat. Sleeping mats provide a sleeping spot, and are only slightly better than sleeping on the ground.
Doors can now be locked and unlocked via their info panel
Tech chests now have a chance of containing tech fragments
Changes to some item/object/vehicle descriptions
Improved spawn location of main facility on surface to avoid being spawned on a tiny island
Vehicle actions that interact with an adjacent target will now move to a point between tiles instead of sitting in the middle of the adjacent tile. Example: Transports collecting items will move to the edge of the target tile instead of the middle of the adjacent tile.
Fixes
Fixed: Solid Fuel Generator consuming fuel when it doesn’t have water
Fixed: Construction Queue Up/Down buttons display wrong direction icon
Fixed: Construction Queue text not showing full name when not hovering over an item
Fixed: Continue button still available on main menu after deleting all save files in load game window
Fixed: Left, Middle or Right clicking the planet map causes the camera to go way off the map in some cases
Fixed: Facility no longer in the same place after loading a saving game in some instances
Fixed: Main facility and POI’s not always generated in the same location when starting a new game and using the same seed value
Fixed: Auto Explore vehicle action getting stuck in some instances
Fixed: Animation issue with robot assembler when starting to craft
Fixed: POI stories showing loot rewards before it should in some instances
Fixed: Pump Motor and Storage Expander machine equipment missing relevant research
Fixed: Mods that add custom names cause issues spawning colonists in some instances
Update 26 :: Traveler Now On Test Build Branch
Howdy Folks!
A huge thank you to everyone that checked out the Update 26 Experimental Branch and provided feedback, suggestions and bug reports. There is a lot packed into Update 26 :: Traveler and now it's on to the final round of testing and feedback on the Test Build branch. Be sure to check out the Test Build branch if you want to help test and provide feedback on new mechanics.
Update 26 Test Build Info https://steamcommunity.com/app/704510/discussions/3/2949251578277051674/
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.
Update 26 Now On Experimental Branch
Howdy Folks!
There are a lot of changes and additions coming in Update 26 and some of these changes are ready for feedback/testing on the Experimental Branch on Steam!
The Experimental Branch includes some of the changes and additions in development for Update 26. The Experimental Branch will continue to be updated with content and changes based on feedback.
Update 26 Experimental Info https://steamcommunity.com/app/704510/discussions/4/2919976282217631462/
What is the Experimental Branch and how do I access it? https://steamcommunity.com/app/704510/discussions/4/1869497660774052612/
Hope you all are staying safe out there. I’m hunkered down inside working on update 26. I had hoped to shift it over to the experimental branch by now, but there is a bit to do yet. Here are some of the things being worked on.
Doors
A minor change to doors will allow them to be locked and unlocked. This will allow you to keep colonists from exploring or lock them in a room to see what happens.
Sleeping Mats
Sleeping bags or a sleep spots have been highly requested and I couldn’t agree more. Sleeping mats don’t require any research and allow your colonists to sleep on something slightly better than dirt before you’re able to construct bedrooms.
Points Of Interest
As mentioned in the previous developer log, POI locations on the surface map are getting a big overhaul. A lot more POI types are being added to help provide more variety as well as more specific rewards.
Instead of the dense population of repeatable POI locations, there will be less over all POI locations, but with far more unique locations to visit.
Additional POI location icons are being added as well. The above image shows some of the new icons in progress, but does not accurately depict POI density as not all of the new POIs have been added yet.
Surface Mining
New surface mining mechanics are still under development and coming along nicely. The new system, as covered in the previous developer log, will generate mining locations on the map. This means no more infinite mining on any tile. The new mining sites will be finite deposits that have different depths: Surface, Sub-Surface and Deep.
Expedition parties will now have the ability mine, but can only mine resources at surface depth.
Mining vehicles will be able to mine up to sub-surface depth and in order to mine deep deposits a mining platform will have to be constructed.
Surface mining will also see some automation mechanics added. The mine action now requires that a target mining site be selected. After selection a mining vehicle or expedition party will mine the resource and take resources back to the closest resource depot. They will continue to do this until they’ve gathered all the resources they can.
The resource depot shown above (artwork not final) is a new surface construction that miners or resource transports can use to drop off and pickup materials. The resource depot acts as an extension to the shipping/receiving inventories available in the facility.
There are still a lot of loose ends I need to tie up before I can push Update 26 to the experimental branch for feedback. I’ll have more information as development progresses.
Thanks for all of the great feedback on the game. Certainly stop by the Mercury Fallen Discord and leave some feedback/suggestions.
Thanks for the great feedback on Update 25 :: New Horizons. Now that the more critical issues have been patched up, I’ve started work on Update 26. Update 26 will continue to expand and improve upon surface side content.
Surface Resources
Resources are getting an overhaul and you’ll no longer be able to mine anywhere or infinitely. This will make expansion and resource acquisition on the surface more varied and engaging.
Each surface side resource deposit will come in varying depths. This determines the quantity of a resource and what is required to mine all of it. A resource can be mined by either an expedition team, mining vehicle or mining platform, with each being able to mine deeper.
Deep resources could still be mined by an expedition team, but the expedition team will only be able to acquire resources closer to the surface. A resource deposit could then be mined further by a mining vehicle or mining platform.
How these resources appear on the map and additional scanning mechanics are in development.
Surface Construction
I can’t say too much about it at this stage, but surface construction is in development. This will include new surface side structures and construction mechanics.
Points Of Interest
There are currently far too many POI locations and far too little variety. I had originally planned to just add more POI location types to increase variety.
While this is still something that will happen I’m also re-working how POI locations are generated on the map. POI locations will have a limit to how many times they can appear on the map. This means some repetition will occur, but far less so.
There are a few repeatable POI locations that have a random chance of several different types of rewards. I’m working to create new POI locations that are targeted towards specific rewards. This will help to decrease the need for repeatable POI locations as well as offer more overall variety.
The end result will be less POI locations, but more unique POI stories and rewards.
Colonists
The colonist, understandably, was something that was coded very early on in development. It’s seen a lot of additions to it, but I finally got around to breaking it down and re-working colonist data. The rework focused on splitting the visual elements of a colonist from the underlying data that represents a colonist.
What this means is the ability to better handle colonist data without having them visible in the facility. Starting colonists can now have their data generated before leaving a stasis capsule.
Starting colonists will now have a predefined job role with proper attributes. While these colonists can still be assigned other job roles they will at least start out being good at something.
In a future update this will allow me to provide control over starting colonists in the new game interface.
There are a lot of things being worked on for Update 26 and I’m really excited about all the changes and additions. I’m actively working to get Update 26 ready for the experimental branch and hope to have something ready next week.
Thanks again for all the great feedback and if you haven’t had a chance to check out the Feedback Survey, now is a great time.
Thanks for all the great feedback and reports. Patch Update 25.4 is a small, but important, update to address some critical issues that have been reported.
Construction Queue
While this update focuses primarily on bug fixes, I did sneak in a minor addition to the Construction Queue. Line items now only show management buttons for the item the mouse is hovered over. There is also a new cancel construction button that allows you to quickly remove items from the construction queue.
Feedback Survey
If you haven't already checked it out and have a few minutes to spare, be sure to take the Update 25 Feedback Survey. Let me know what you like and what you don't.
Added Cancel Construction button to objects Construction Queue window
Construction Queue now only shows interaction buttons for the item the mouse is over
Fixed: Wild plants selected for harvest are no longer selected after loading a saved game
Fixed: Storage container capacity meter doesn’t change after installing a storage expander upgrade
Fixed: Issue with selection collider on Hexagon BookCase
Fixed: Deconstructed objects dropping double resources in some instances
Fixed: Game crashes to desktop when loading save game that has many poi locations on the map
Fixed: Colonists not hauling to storage if the item quantity of the items on the ground is greater than the available/remaining storage amount
Fixed: Some game data not properly destroyed when quitting to menu or loading save. This causes newly loaded games to load incorrectly.
Fixed: Incorrect object placement when dragging mouse while placing objects in some instances.
Patch Update 25.3
Howdy Folks!
There has been a whole lot of new Mercury Fallen players and a lot of great feedback. Thank you to everyone, as always, for the amazing feedback on the game. Knowing what you like, what you don’t and where you get stuck helps to improve the game in various ways.
Patch Update 25.3 provides improvements to the UI, various tweaks and some bug fixes. See the release notes below for the full list of changes.
Added pop-up tip that shows when first opening the colonist management screen. This will show the first time a save game is loaded as well, but only the first time.
Added brightness game setting
Improved visibility of help button on info panel sections
Craft queue items now show total amount of output item stored/available under output button
Aquarium now shows hover warning icon if out of fish food
Updated Points Of Interest guide topic as information was no longer correct as of Update 25
Updated Builder job role description
Updated various tooltips to provide additional information.
Fixes
Fixed: Game becomes unresponsive if blood fish die from starvation in aquarium
Fixed: Fish food still being consumed even after fish are harvested
Fixed: Fish food amount in aquarium not saving/loading
Fixed: Tool-tips cut off at edge of screen in some instances
Fixed: Tool-tips not appearing on tab section buttons
Fixed: POI story window cut off on some ultra wide resolutions
Fixed: Construction button bar overlaps vehicle action buttons on ultra wide resolutions
Fixed: Colonists planting crops in a diseased crop field
Fixed: Colonist becomes idle and stops performing any tasks if unable to find a path to recharge an EMG
Fixed: Aquarium generating internal error if loaded from save game before construction has been completed
