Hi All
I’m really happy to set the Automation and Rig Piloting update live today.
We’ve had 50 odd updates since launch (including the experimental branch), some very big, some smaller. This is one of the bigger, if not the biggest, so I’ve tagged it a major update.
I’ve been taking all your feedback from in game (via pressing F1) and have been updating these aspects of the game to make it a more versatile factory game and to improve the rig piloting experience.
Overall, you now have more flying and refuelling options, more automation options and the ability to automate the output of your factories by selling from your rig using the AutoSeller.
These updates have been tested over on the experimental branch for some time, and I really want to thank everyone who has been helping with that process! I couldn’t be improving or fixing the game without your dedication and assistance testing, especially with these very complex factory systems operating over 3D spaces.
There’s too much to summarise in text, so I’ve listed the primary changes since 0.387 below (minus some of the many interim details along the way).
During Early Access, my plan has always been to build from the “ground up”, so much of the time I’ve been fixing any remaining issues and problems with the existing games since launch, and in this case, helping the features reach their potential.
The coming updates are going to build and extend on some other aspects of the game, and pretty I’m excited to move on that, so I hope you stick around to see what’s next!
Finally, big thanks to those of you who chose to leave the game positive reviews on Steam. It really helps small indie devs like us (there are 2 of us making this). Overall it’s going to help us continue to improve this game and maybe keep making games in the future too.
Al.
Automation
-Added a functional Order Number slider to machines. Eg. set Biotanks etc to make X number of algae, and no more, via a slider. Or leave at max for endless production (which was formerly how they always worked). Note, if you set an order number for a machine, it will only take the cubits is needs for the order when sent to it. Anything excess will overflow. This gives more leeway and control for automation.
-Added machine overflow. If a machine receives an item or cubit it doesn't need for the current craft target, it overflows it out the front. This means you can chain together factory things more easily.
-Numerous improvements to conveyor behaviours across 3D layouts.
-Show "stop after" slider on factory machines. This is a new slider visible when you open a machine. It allows you set a target amount of items to craft for any factory style machine. If you do this and it has completed it's target, any input it receives will be fed forward as throughput, and spat out as an overflow. In this way you may be able to set up more complex chains of machines and set targets ad hoc, especially if you use conveyors to loop back ingredients onto machine(s). If you leave this slider untouched the machines behave as normal.
-Machines now output any items or ingredients that are input into them, that they do not currently need for the recipe you have them set to, if you have set or they have carried out a target/"stop after" order. In this way it opens up way more possibilities for chaining together machines with disparate recipes or that require something from another machine. You might find conveyor pads are not needed as much in production.
-Conveyors act on items should you wish to automate storing output from fabricator
-Factory uses 120 u/s power (not 80 u/s).
-Assembler does not make sensor 2 (this was a mistake, only factories do now)
-Autofiller and drone pad does not pick up or move active drones, only act on inactive (dropped) drones.
-Shrink trash more to prevent erroneous pick up from adjacent conveyor pads for large items
-Autostorage will not pick up own item.
-Autostorage won't pick up items being Trash-tored.
-Trashitor wont pick up items being conveyed during a (typically) vertical exterior corner transition (or for 1 second after dropped by conveyor).
-Incubators do not fill all slots with one item, they will stop taking more when they reach any max stack and overflow it instead. This means they will leave space for the second ingredient if it comes.
-Trash-tor beams now also act as conveyors so you can string them together as per popular demand.
-Trash-tor beam will not immediately operate on output items from incubator or atomiser or fabricator, allowing time to be conveyed or stored.
New tech
-Added new AutoSeller machines box. This is like an AutoStorage, but insta-sells any stock item it receives on input (or if you put items in manual and press Process button). Note it can only receive sellable stock items.
-Added Even Splitter conveyor type - takes one item and sends it left, takes the next one and sends it right, repeats.
-Added corner splitters. Popular request, send items around corners on one cell.
-Added Fuel Silo. You can now fuel thrusters from a fuel silo at one point. Fuel is shared across thrusters. As a point of note, fuel is also automatically shared between all thrusters by default. But the fuel silo allows you to place it anywhere and refuel from that location easily too, for example next to your rig control unit or storage areas, rather than climbing out back to the thrusters.
-Added New Thrusters 1, 2 and 3 with increasing force, fuel will go to most powerful first
-Added New AutoStorage 1, 2 and 3 with increasing size
Rig Piloting
-Added mass to floor and machines. This mass is shown in the object structure tool tip. Cubes are 1 tn, floor is 0.2 tn, machines are 0.5 tn. Existing Rigs may now need more powerful thrusters as a result to move! It just made sense for everything to have a mass.
New graphics and load options
-new options in Options > Graphics
-FPS limiter in graphics options. If you toggle of v-sync, you can set many manual fps you wish up to 300 fps. This is for those who disable v-sync but find their cards running the game a 300 fps or more, causing the fans to kick in when not needed. Now you have full control over your fps.
-Enabled windowed mode toggle. You could always toggle from window to full screen by pressing alt-enter. Now you can do it in the graphics options using this check box.
-Improved load game drop down folder expansion design. All save are now in their own "folder" in game. The top most item is just the world name, when you expand it, it then lists the possible saves, including a clear label for the latest, then autosaves and back ups below. This should fix those rare cases where users misunderstood the save system or failed to grok the autosave and manual save backup history.
Gui
-Hotbar indicator outline so visible when looking at sun
-Number of items picked up are correctly denoted in HUD when picking up a stack
-Added new rig pilot crosshair HUD to show rig mass, number thrusters active and thruster fuel
Misc
-Updated mining drill collider, so do not get stuck on invisible collider on some mining drills
-Updated conveyor T splitter textures to more clearly show they only split off left or right and have no left right throughput.
-When standing on the seam between floors, gravity behaves as expected
-Only show jump warnings on first map. This was really just causing player to remain on one sector too long. TFor the best experience you need to keep moving forward to experience more of the possibility space in the proc gen environments, and to avoid running out resources and starving.
-Fix hatch trash saving. If you pop a hatch and save/load, this will be preserved (exact positions on mining asteroid exteriors may alter but numbers will be conserved). Exact positions will be preserved inside ships.
-improved level of detail pop-in for mining trash
-Farming not agriculture in labelling quadrant
-Do not show crop water bar on load if fully grown
-Update assembler description to remove sensor 2.
-Standardise output rotation of items to prevent occasional clipping for larger items
-Do not spawn ship interiors on ship LPM boundaries by applying small sphere check at spawn point, preventing occasional invisible walls in ship interiors
-Drone masts can only be placed on asteroids (use drone pads on your rig), now have warning on placement
-Increased turret range
-When dropping items via dragging item off the inventory to the side of the screen, you can now split and drop, take account of whether splitting or halving stacks in amount dropped
-Using Drop button in inventory rather than dragging an item to drop it resets the source inventory cell, removing element labels correctly
-Reduced price drops on item sale
-Many other minor bug fixes along the way
