Update 5 - Badwater is now live!

Hi, everyone!

Update 5 - Badwater has finally arrived. The list of today’s changes is massive so before we drop them on you, we suggest you watch the hot new feature trailer for a quick TL;DR.

Easily the most important content patch since Timberborn’s launch, Update 5 - Badwater deepens the gameplay, makes it less predictable, and addresses tons of player requests. The titular new danger threatens beavers and plant life alike, and the new in-game season - the badtide - is ready to put your colonists’ ingenuity to the ultimate test. But fret not, equipped with the new badwater engineering tools, your beavers may not only survive the waves of hooman toxic waste, but also profit off badwater with extract and new production chains.

Lots of new attractions and decorations are also here. Have you ever dreamt of seeing your Folktails dancing or sending the Iron Teeth flying? Well, now it is the time! And if you’d rather stick to the industrial side of the business, that’s also okay - use the new buildings, play with the reworked irrigation system, and enjoy the more accessible terraforming. Pair that with a complete rework of all twelve included maps, and we’ll keep you busy for a while.

To ensure that time will be well spent, we’ve got several big gains on the quality-of-life front. You can now flip buildings and customize keybindings. Savegame and map previews are in, and if you’re a map maker, you’re bound to enjoy the expanded map editor. The full list of Update 5 changes is looong, so grab a coffee (or a cattail cracker) and see what else we’ve prepared.

Just remember: when the badtide comes… don’t drink the red water.

Mechanistry, a.k.a. Team Timberborn

PS We thank all our players who joined us on the experimental branch and have been sending their invaluable feedback over the past four months. We salute you!

Patch notes 2024-01-18: Update 5

Please note: Update 5 should be compatible with Update 4 saves and maps. However, the existing maps were not created with badwater in mind. There are no Badwater Sources there, obviously, and even though badtides do come, their effects can be unpredictable on an unmodified map. Please start the new game on one of the fancily reworked built-in maps.

Badwater and badtides

Toxic waste of hooman origin now flows across the maps. It taints water, contaminates beavers, disables irrigation, and kills plant life. Its addition is easily the biggest change to the game since launch. To better understand why we’ve added badwater, check out the original announcement here.

• New feature: badwater. This noxious liquid spills using the in-game water physics, and mixes with regular water. Like its not-deadly counterpart, badwater powers up water wheels, disables buildings with flooded entrances etc.
• New object: Badwater Source - these new 3x3 structures added to all built-in maps and available in the map editor spill out badwater during wet seasons and badtides.
• New season: badtides - on top of droughts and temperate seasons, you may now encounter badtides. During these seasons, badwater flows from water sources. Badtides will randomly replace droughts after a minimum number of cycles: seven (on easy difficulty), five (normal), or three (hard). On custom difficulty, you can adjust that number, as well as the badtides’ duration and probability of occurrence.

• The irrigation range of contaminated water bodies gradually decreases as the badwater concentration rises. At 50% badwater concentration, the water body no longer irrigates the surrounding areas but it doesn’t contaminate them either.
• With badwater concentration above 50%, the water body starts contaminating the ground and actively killing plant life. The contamination’s range depends on the badwater’s concentration.
• Beavers walking or swimming in badwater may become contaminated. After a few days, the contaminated beaver will receive a severe Well-being penalty and refuse to work while continuing to eat, drink, and occupy a household. If it’s a Folktail, it will not reproduce, and if it’s Iron Teeth, it will not tend to the colony’s breeding pods. The higher the concentration of badwater, the higher the risk of contamination on contact.
• Beavers can be cured using faction-specific methods described below.
• Bots are unaffected by exposure to badwater. Go, bots!

Badwater engineering

To counter badwater’s harmful effects you may use the ol’ reliable hydroengineering tools. However, sometimes even the most clever use of dams, floodgates, pumps, and terraforming may not be enough. That’s why we added a selection of special new buildings. And since we now have two free-flowing liquids on the maps, we also tweaked the existing infrastructure.

• New building: Contamination Barrier (400 SP; 5 Planks, 1 Metal Block; Folktails only; ground only). This structure doesn’t block irrigation 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. You can use it to separate an area from a river that may get contaminated, and then irrigate the terrain with water from sources officially approved by the Water Purity Committee.
• New building: Badwater Dome (2000 SP; 100 Planks, 200 Gears, 100 Metal Blocks; Folktails 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; built on top of a Badwater Source). 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; built on top of a Badwater Source). 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!
• New building: Badwater Pump (250 SP; 20 logs, 10 gears, 5 metal blocks; 1 worker; Folktails-only) - this building only pumps badwater. At lower badwater concentrations, it works less efficiently.
• New building: Deep Badwater Pump (250 SP; 20 logs, 10 gears, 5 metal blocks; 1 worker; Iron Teeth-only). You know the drill - this one reaches up to six tiles deep.
• Updated buildings: Water Pump and Deep Water Pump. Their effectiveness now drops as the badwater concentration increases.
• Updated building: Water Dump. This building was renamed to Fluid Dump and can now, uh, dump both water and badwater. Use the new toggle to pick what you want dumped.
• Renamed (Deep) Mechanical Water Pumps to (Deep) Mechanical Fluid Pumps as they now transfer both water and badwater. Use the toggle to choose what should be pumped.
• Updated building: Stream Gauge. It now also displays the pollution level.

Extract and new production chains

Badwater may be a deadly threat but the lumberpunk beavers are too resourceful not to benefit from it, mostly through a new good known as extract. (Mass-produced adult Iron Teeth beavers are a net positive, right?)

• New building: Centrifuge (600 SP; 60 Planks, 40 Gears, 30 Metal Blocks; 2 workers; 200 HP to operate). This mechanized building turns badwater into a new good - extract.
• New good: Extract. This beautifully green liquid is stored in tanks. It has several uses such as the new pods described below.
• New building: Advanced Breeding Pod (1000 SP; 5 Treated planks, 2 Metal Blocks; Iron Teeth only). That’s right - if you invest a bit more in your breeding efforts, you can use the extract to produce new beavers that are “born” adults. Slightly sad, very efficient!

• New building: Decontamination Pod (400 SP; 20 Planks, 5 Gears, 5 Metal Blocks; requires 100 HP and a steady supply of extract to operate). Badwater contamination is far too severe to be treated in a regular bed - you need this special, powered-up, variant to ensure your beavers survive.
• New building: Herbalist (300 SP; 20 Planks, 5 Gears, 5 Treated Planks; Folktails only). This building creates herbal antidotes using Dandelion. Antidotes are stored in tanks and heal contaminated beavers at a slow rate.
• New building: Grease Factory (2000 SP; Gear x30, Treated Plank x20, Metal Block x10; 2 workers; Iron Teeth-only). Boasting Danny Zuko’s seal of approval, this building turns extract into a new, oily resource.
• New good: Grease (Extract x1, Canola Oil x1 gives Grease x2). Stored in tanks and consumed by Iron Teeth bots, grease increases their condition by 1.
• New good: Punch Cards (Paper x2, Plank x1 gives Punch Card x2; Folktails-only). Containing more precise instructions, punch cards are an extra paper sink and a new, earlier boost to Folktails’ bots. Produced at Printing Press and stored in warehouses, cards are consumed by Folktails’ bots to increase their condition by 1.
• Updated recipe: Catalyst (Maple Syrup x1, Extract x1 gives Catalyst x3; Folktails-only). With extract added to its recipe, we’re making catalyst the second, more advanced boost available to Folktails’ bots.
• The maximum condition achievable by bots is now 2. A bot with access to both faction-specific boosts enjoys +80% movement speed and +120% working speed.

Attractions and decorations

Our efforts towards making factions more unique continue! After the all-new monuments in Update 4, today’s update brings significantly more variety to the attractions and decorations.

• New building: Lantern (100 SP; 2 logs, 4 planks). Beavers might be nocturnal but having these will help in the middle of the night. Each faction’s model is slightly different.
• New building: Hammock (120 SP; 2 logs, 2 planks; Folktails-only). Now, that’s how you rest.
• New building: Bulletin Pole (600 SP; 20 planks, 2 metal blocks; Folktails-only). Here’s where Folktails post their nekker bounties friendly messages and announcements.
• New building: Beaver Bust (200 SP; 3 metal blocks; Iron Teeth-only). Ol’ Kazko has finally gained some solid recognition.
• New building: Clock (600 SP; 10 planks, 8 gears, 2 metal blocks; Iron Teeth-only). Time is money, friend. Yeah, okay, this is a money-free world but you get the idea.
• New building: Brazier (150 SP; 12 planks, 2 metal blocks; Iron Teeth-only). Because nights can be cold out there in the desert.
• New building: Scratcher (5 logs, 5 planks; Iron Teeth-only). This one truly scratches that itch.
• New building: Swimming Pool (250 SP; 40 logs, 30 planks; Iron Teeth-only). Replacing Lido for the Iron Teeth, this is a more competitive variant of the submerged attraction.
• New building: Exercise Plaza (400 SP; 150 logs, 60 planks; Iron Teeth only). Continuing the fitness theme, your Iron Teeth workers will now work out after work. We highly recommend joining them during extended Timberborn sessions.

• New building: Wind Tunnel (700 SP; 50 planks, 50 gears, 40 metal blocks; requires 400 HP to operate; Iron Teeth-only). You wanted to be able to send your beavers flying, so we’ve listened… kind of.
• New building: Dance Hall (1200 SP; 100 logs, 50 treated planks; 20 metal blocks; Folktails-only). All Folktails, old and young alike, are famous for their sick moves. Now, they can finally hit the dance floor!
• New building: Motivatorium (1200 SP; 75 logs, 100 gears, 20 treated planks; requires 200 HP to operate; Iron Teeth-only). Here, the Iron Teeth proletarians unite to collectively remember what their society is about.
• Updated building: Carousel. It received a new, more compact model and is now exclusive to Folktails.
• Updated building: Temple. Renamed it to Agora, and updated its flavor text. The building now needs a steady supply of extract, which is being burnt inside to assist in, um, reaching a higher state of contemplation. The flames were updated to reflect that.
• Updated building: Shrine. Renamed it to Contemplation Spot and lowered its building cost to 10 logs.
• Updated building: Mud Bath. The new cost is 40 logs, 20 gears and 50 treated planks. This building now needs a steady supply of dirt.
• Updated building: Beaver Statue (Iron Teeth). It now stands out more after adding the new Beaver Bust.
• Lido, Contemplation Spot, and Agora are now exclusive to Folktails.
• Updated the model for the Iron Teeth version of Rooftop Terrace.

Terraforming

With bots granted a new trait in the form of badwater immunity, we can finally allow beavers to shine in the terraforming business. Speaking of which, cool beavers don’t look at explosions but with the new, badwater-powered dynamite in place, they may reconsider.

• New “building”: Double Dynamite (1x explosive, 1x extract). This 1x1 dynamite blows two tiles deep rather than just one.
• New “building”: Triple Dynamite (1x explosive, 2x extract). You guessed it - this one removes three tiles.
• Updated the model of Dynamite.
• Dirt Excavator is no longer bot-exclusive.
• Removed Terraforming Station from the game. It had its purpose when terraforming was exclusive to bots, but in Update 5, this duty is also handled by the regular beavers.
• Terraforming is now performed by builders.
• Updated building: Dirt Excavators now consume extract.
• Updated recipe: Explosive is now made out of 5x badwater.

Other changes to buildings

Here are the many other additions and changes to the roster of in-game buildings, mostly rounding up our “make the factions more unique” initiative.

• New building: Large Water Pump (400 SP; 20 Logs, 5 Gears, 10 Treated Planks, Folktails only). Effective farming relies on access to clean water - with this bad boy, you’ll get enough in no time.
• New building: Large Power Wheel (Logs x100; 4 workers; Iron Teeth only). There is no shame in such labor - this beast has a 300 HP power output.
• Power Wheel is now Folktails-exclusive.
• Updated building: Engine. It no longer has workers. The engine will keep working as long as haulers continue delivering logs. Also, it now has power shaft connectors on three sides rather than just in the back.
• Pipes in buildings such as the Water Pump now dynamically adjust their length. Among other things, it’s now possible to place dynamite or a levee under an existing pump. Faction-specific maximums still apply.
• Removed Healer and Medicine from the game. The Medical Beds remain in the game to treat beavers suffering from work injuries, but nobody really liked the extra steps.
• In light of the change above, Dandelion is now exclusive to Folktails (as it is still used by the Herbalist). It can no longer be found growing naturally on maps.
• Paper Mill and Printing Press (and by consequence paper and books) are now exclusive to Folktails.
• Several buildings relying on access to pure water (Lido, Showers, Fountain) are disabled as soon as the Beaver Environmental Agency detects any signs of pollution.
• Updated the models and lights in the Numbercruncher, Underground Pile, and Engine. Door and window lighting is now exclusively used to indicate the type of a building’s workers.
• Updated models for all bridges to make them stand out more with crowded colonies in the background.
• Reduced Bot Assembler’s height to one tile.
• Added a new checkbox to the Forester: Replant dead trees not marked for cutting.
• Removed Unique to this faction notes from buildings. At this point, more buildings should have it than not.
• It’s now possible to preview a building before unlocking it. To unlock the building, either try placing it down in the preview mode, click the dedicated button, or hit Enter with the building selected.
• Buildings that make a terrain cutout (such as Underground Pile) now include the terrain cutout in the construction stage. The ground is now hidden when previewing such buildings.
• Builders will no longer abandon a construction site in the middle of their task, as long as they have materials to build.

Irrigation rework

Adding badwater and the contamination shenanigans in Update 5 prompted us to look further at the irrigation system. The resulting rework finally eliminated the two long-standing issues with this core feature of Timbernborn.

• The irrigation algorithm now takes into account the area of water bodies. Smaller water bodies irrigate smaller areas.
• Smaller water bodies will now disappear faster.
• The memories will live on but the two changes above finally kill the infamous Water Dump trick.
• 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, so its time also has come to an end.
• Water (or badwater) bodies with bottoms and sides entirely built with levees no longer irrigate (or contaminate) surrounding areas.

Reworked maps

We have updated all built-in maps to accommodate the presence of badwater and badtides, as well as the irrigation tweaks. Changes range from slight to dramatic - Thousand Islands, Mountain Range, and Helix Mountain, for example, have been completely rebuilt.

• Reworked all twelve built-in maps.
• Plains, Canyon, and Waterfalls are now marked as beginner-friendly maps.

Balance

In light of Update 5 changes, we’re tweaking the game’s balance across the board. Here is what we changed on top of the tweaks mentioned elsewhere in the patch notes.

• Increased effectiveness of all water wheels by 50%.
• Small Windmill: maximum power output is now 150, down from 200.
• Large Windmill: maximum power output is now 300, down from 400.
• Wheat flour recipe: now takes 0.5h to complete, down from 0.78h.
• Cattail flour recipe: now takes 0.25h to complete, down from 0.66h.
• Bread recipe: now takes 1h to complete, up from 0.42h.
• Maple pastry recipe: now takes 1.5h to complete, up from 0.55h.
• Rebalanced the natural healing time and the injury chances to account for the removal of Healer and medicine.
• Needs will now deplete at a slower rate on Easy difficulty.
• Folktails now need at least two adult beavers with no critical needs (such as Thirst) in a single dwelling to reproduce.
• Books and coffee are now consumed before the beavers enjoy their time in attractions such as carousels. This should make it easier to hit higher well-being levels.

Flipping

This is the end of an era! Starting today, buildings no longer have entrances available only on one side - you can flip them. We’ve added this feature to all buildings with asymmetrical door placement, plus some others where it made sense (such as most monuments).

• Added the ability to flip most buildings before placing them (default hotkey: F).
• Removed Mirrored Lodge and its memorable flavor text from the game because it’s now simply possible to flip the regular version.

Key bindings

YES, it only took us two years since launch to add customizable key bindings to the game.

• Replaced the old key bindings list with a customizable key bindings window, accessed through the game menu, map editor menu, and settings.
• Added primary and secondary key bindings. It is possible to use key combinations such as Ctrl+Shift+K.
• Added multiple new bindings for settlement panel sections, priorities, and even dynamite detonation. We’ve got quite a few of those.
• Added extra info to buttons that work differently when clicked with a pressed key (the “Eye” tracking button in the building/unit panel and +/- buttons in the migration tab).
• It is now possible to use Ctrl + mouse wheel to go through the main categories on the toolbar. Shift + mouse wheel goes through the buildings within the selected category. This saves you about 1 kcal per two-hour game session.

Seasons

With the game now switching between three vastly different seasons, we wanted to make it easier to notice when they change and to what. We’ve added fancy new splash screens and sounds that should be really difficult to miss.

• Added a splash screen at the start of each season.
• Added extra audio cues to transitions between seasons.

Savegame preview

Gone are the days of guessing what that particular “asdasdad” save contains. Now, whenever you save the game, a screenshot is taken to be displayed on the load game screen. The load game screen has also been overhauled to improve its usability.

• Added screenshots to save files. This change is not retroactive - only saves made after this change will contain screenshots. Older settlement files will show a beautiful placeholder image until you save the game on the new update.
• Updated the load game screen to display screenshots, saves’ timestamps and the cycle-day data.
• The default save names are now more hooman-friendly.

Map previews

Whenever you start a new game and pick the map, you will see a thumbnail and the map description set up by the map’s creator within the map editor.

• Updated the map selection screen for the New game / Edit map to include map thumbnails and descriptions.
• Maps’ names and descriptions are now localized.
• Added icons for beginner-friendly and custom maps to the map selection screen.

Animations

The first recorded request for proper tree-cutting animations in Timberborn is from 1784. Update 5 adds many custom animations, so we didn’t want to miss out on updating something this crucial.

• Added tree-cutting animations for beavers and bots.
• Trees now sway while being cut.
• Smoke and other similar particles now react to the wind.
• Sitting and standing animations for beavers and bots are now consistent.

Map editor

With all the additions of Update 5, the editor also needed some love.

• Added Map thumbnail button to the Map editor’s toolbar. It allows you to set a camera position - whenever you save the map, the screenshot will be taken to act as its thumbnail. You can also add images via a file browser. This feature supports transparent PNGs so you can add a layer of extra elements - such as your logo - on top of a thumbnail.
• Added Map description button to the Map editor’s toolbar. It opens a simple box where you can enter a map description.
• Added Badwater Sources to the toolbar.
• Added new water (and badwater) simulation speeds.
• Added new buttons that allow you to simulate droughts and badtides within the editor.
• Added a warning to inform you that the map you loaded is incompatible with the current game version.
• Added the Settings Panel, similar to the one available in the regular game mode.
• The direction of the terrain brush can now be changed with dedicated buttons rather than just hotkeys.

Other UI and QoL changes

As if the cool new stuff such as flippable buildings or customizable key bindings were not enough…

• Added Rubble Removal Tool 5000™ to the toolbar. Cleaning the leftovers has never been easier!
• When using the priority tool on stacked buildings, the priorities are now assigned from top to bottom, not otherwise.
• The post-crash screen now includes a text box. You can use it to explain what happened before the game exploded. This comment will be included in the crash report. The post-crash screen now includes extra information if your game is modded. Please remember that disabling all mods is often the best way to fix crashes, especially after updating the game.
• Withering plants now have a slightly depressing progress bar. There’s also a status that displays the withering’s cause so that you act fast and save the innocent flora’s life.
• Added the missing Water Source and Barrier flavor texts.
• Added new categories for contaminated adult beavers and kits to the Settlement Panel.
• Updated icons for Water Sources, several water- related buildings, as well as the icon for the injured beavers.
• Updated the welcome screen so that it no longer refers to the ancient alpha, beta, and demo times.
• When selecting a good in a storage building’s panel or via the storage overlay, its extended tooltip - the same as the one used in the top bar - is now used.
• Reordered well-being buildings and needs to match their increasing science points costs and well-being gains.
• Lodges, Barracks, and Rowhouses now display the number of occupied and available slots.
• Dandelions are now categorized as ingredients, similar to coffee beans.
• Large Science Points costs are now shortened (10,000 becomes 10k etc.)
• With the UI hidden (Ctrl+H, remember?), pop-up windows such as the deletion confirmation box now cause the UI to be unhidden rather than blocking the game. The UI will also reveal itself to comfort you after you hit Esc in a panic.
• The standard buttons and headers used in the main menu etc. are now scalable.
• Updated the text in removal tools’ tooltips to be consistent across the category.
• Updated the look of the Unlock this building button.
• Removed the extra arrows from the map selection list.
• Updated the in-game credits to include the new Eager Beavers, Masterful Architects, trailer creators, the artist behind the new key art, the localization team, and studio members.

Misc.

• To teach kits how aging works, becoming a responsible adult no longer erases the kit’s consequences of reckless behaviour status effects.
• Removed the default 0,0 saved camera position as that usually caused you to gaze into the void.
• In certain scenarios, beavers now get to work right after reaching their destination rather than idling.
• After the game is over, it acknowledges that in a subtle way.
• Decreased the range in which beavers idle and - if homeless - go to sleep within a tile.

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug with workers not heading to their idling spots after finishing work.
• Fixed the erratic behavior of the lights in Agora, Contemplation Spot, and Rooftop Terrace.
• Fixed bugged water wheels’ animations.
• Fixed 1x1 Roofs and Power Wheels that could clip with other objects.
• It is again possible to select Gravity Batteries by clicking their weight.
• Fixed a bug with the path preview being drawn incorrectly while rotating stairs in the construction preview.
• Fixed some clipping in the Grindstone.
• Fixed the clipping paws of sleeping haulers.
• Fixed beavers that would fly between bridges. They now have a Wind Tunnel for that.
• Units no longer perform kickflips when stepping onto stairs after leaving a building.
• Fixed Floodgates clipping partially through terrain and sticking out when placed on the edge of the map’s lowest level.
• Fixed a bug with long, weird names such as Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar clipping with the avatar.
• Fixed a bug with negative well-being values displayed on green.
• Units are no longer stuck sitting in attractions when stranded. No more free rides.
• Fixed skips in builders' animation.
• Injured beavers will go eat or drink before their need is in a critical state.
• Fixed the map editor’s Hide resources icon behaving incorrectly.
• Fixed the Empty storage status icon being displayed under range lines.
• The units’ movement speed bonus is now correctly displayed.
• Fixed a bug with goods’ icons on barrels sometimes having the wrong color.
• Fixed a bug with water pumps partially disappearing while in preview mode.
• Fixed numerical input fields crashing the game when trying to use certain character combos.
• Fixed a minor highlighting bug caused by moving between categories on the toolbar.
• Stranded bots that run out of fuel now correctly use the stranded animation.
• Fixed wrongly calculated hauling priorities. This means fewer beavers hauling just one object around.
• Fixed haulers’ backpacks clipping through several attractions and decorations.
• Fixed maple syrup barrels clipping through the terrain.
• Fixed a bug with saves not updating correctly after the system clock switches from daylight saving time. If you’re playing Timberborn at 2 AM, we admire your dedication.
• Ruins can no longer be clicked outside of their model.
• Homeless beavers will now sleep at a building’s doorstep if they can’t find better spots. :(

And in extra news:

Dwarves and beavers

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/37746/Dwarves_and_Beavers/
To celebrate the long-awaited release of the new update, we've partnered up with one of our greatest inspirations: Dwarf Fortress! You can now get the two games for an extra discount thanks to the new bundle that is a natural fit - beavers are the dwarves of the animal kingdom, as they told us.

Merch store

The official Timberborn merch store is now available! For a selection of high-quality and eco-friendly T-shirts, hoodies, and more, go to: https://merch.mechanistry.com/. (You can also switch to the US version of the store).