Hi everyone!
Today, we’re having a second look at how badwater and pollution spread across the map, and what the player can do about it. This update adds several new buildings and structures which should address the feedback we’ve been receiving since Update 5 first dropped and after our most recent patch. As a bonus, we’re removing a certain irritation-inducing tower.
Let us know what you think about today's changes - either below or on our Discord in the #experimental channel.
Badwater sources
Many of our players have been vocal about the ability to stop the contamination at its, ahem, source. With this update, we’re allowing you to do that, provided your beavers can access sufficient resources. On an even more important note, droughts now disable badwater sources.
- Badwater sources are now disabled during droughts, similar to regular water sources.
- Tweaked the RNG a bit so that the same season of pain (a drought or a badtide) doesn’t trigger too many times in a row.
- New building: Badwater Dome (2000 SP; 100 Planks, 200 Gears, 100 Metal Blocks; Folktails only; ground only). Built on top of a Badwater Source, this heavy-duty structure allows you to manually open and close the source.
- New building: Badwater Rig (4000 SP; 400 Gears, 200 Treated Planks, 150 Metal Blocks; Folktails only; ground only). This even more advanced building seals a badwater source for good but allows employed beavers to gather and store large amounts of badwater right there.
- New building: Badwater Discharge (4000 SP; 300 Gears, 200 Metal Blocks, 50 Explosives; Iron Teeth only; ground only). The Iron Teeth counterpart works similarly to Folktails’ Badwater Dome with one important difference: keep it open during a drought, and the badwater will continue to flow!
Contamination
We may have gone overboard with the recent change to levees, dams, and floodgates so we’re reverting their behavior to the previous state. However, we’re also adding new structures that should give you more control over pollution and badwater in general - so much so that we felt compelled to delete a certain building from the game. Oh, and there’s a cool new pump!
- Levees, dams, and floodgates no longer prevent irrigation and contamination spread.
- Water (and badwater) bodies with bottoms and sides entirely built with levees no longer irrigate (and contaminate) surrounding areas.
- Patch highlight: Removed Irrigation Tower from the game. We believe the current set of irrigation-related tools is enough for you to not miss the memiest of Timberborn buildings.
- New building: Contamination Barrier (400 SP; 5 Planks, 1 Metal Block; Folktails only; ground only). This structure doesn’t stop the water flow but stops pollution from passing through all the tiles below it. Simply wall off the areas you want safe. It’s super effective!
- New building: Irrigation Barrier (400 SP; 10 Logs, 5 Treated Planks; Iron Teeth only; ground only). This barrier blocks both contamination and irrigation. Sure, this may be a heavy-handed approach, but you can still use it to separate an area from a river that may get contaminated. You can then irrigate the terrain with water from sources officially approved by the Water Purity Committee.
- New building: Large Water Pump (400 SP; 20 Logs, 5 Gears, 10 Treated Planks, Folktails only). Effective farming relies on access to clean water - simply find it, and with this bad boy, you’ll get enough in no time.
- Renamed Barrier to Blockage. It just made sense to us to shuffle these names around.
- Contamination now spreads diagonally, similar to irrigation.
The Dandelion Returns
After a brief disappearance, everyone’s favorite - apparently - garden plant is back. And it’s stronger than ever.
- “New” building: Herbalist (300 SP; 20 Planks, 5 Gears, 5 Treated Planks; Folktails only). In a blatant asset flip, we’ve repurposed and renamed the previous Healer building to use dandelion. It now creates antidotes - a new good that’s stored in tanks. It heals contaminated beavers at a slow rate.
- Decontamination Pods are now Iron Teeth-exclusive.
Misc.
- Updated map thumbnails with new badwater visuals.
- Updated particles for Double and Triple Dynamite.
- Improved the visibility of Badwater Sources.
- In certain scenarios, beavers now get to work right after reaching their destination rather than idling.
- Large Science Points costs are now shortened (10,000 becomes 10k etc.)
- Updated descriptions for several buildings.
- After the game is over, it acknowledges that in a subtle way.
Bugfixes
- “Contaminated” status no longer disappears from the event log after the affected beaver gets tired and heads home.
- Fixed power connectors for Wind Tunnel and Bot Assembler.
- Fixed beavers delivering goods to Advanced Breeding Pods so eagerly they’d clip through.
- Fixed an issue with floodgates partially clipping through terrain.
- Fixed a crash caused by exiting Timberborn directly from the game.
- Fixed a crash caused by clicking Rubble.
- Homeless beavers will now sleep at a building’s doorstep if they can’t find better spots. :(