Hey everyone, major update #11 is now live. This update took a bit longer than usual, partly because of the holidays and some time off, and partly because some of the changes in this update were very wide (as in they affected a lot of systems) and time consuming. The focus of this update is "quality of life", features and content that make the game more enjoyable to play, while removing some frustrations. Several of the features were suggested by you, our players, and others that I felt necessary.
Read on below about some of the larger changes in this update. You can find the full list of changes on the patch notes page.
Improved tutorial
While not the most glamorous feature, it was one of the most time consuming. I think I spent over a month on this one alone. I saw that the previous tutorial was annoying for a lot of players, and the learning curve too steep. Many players abandoned the game before even finishing the tutorial, so I felt something needed to be done, even if the price was a bit steep.
The improved tutorials are no longer presented in pop-ups, instead they appear in the corner of the screen and you can read and follow them at your own pace. There's a short core tutorial explaining the basics of building, the economy, transportation, and exploration - and then additional explanations will appear whenever you unlock a new feature or encounter something that needs explaining.
I've also made improvements to the flow, highlighting buttons you need to use to achieve your current objective, showing objectives in the minimap when you need to find something, and in general made the tutorial more player firendly. I hope these changes will make the new player experience more enjoyable with a less steep learning curve.
Debris & rebuilding
A neat quality of life feature will now leave burning debris wherever the Dream Plagues destroy your buildings or fortifications. You will be able to see exactly which buildings were destroyed, and with a single click, you can rebuild them including all their upgrades, add-ons and any settings. Get your city back up and running in seconds - if you can afford it (you still have to pay full price, like building from scratch. It's still better to keep your buildings safe!)
Rifts (raid spawn points)
Rifts will now appear around the edges of the map, and these will serve as spawn points when the Dream Plagues raid your city. Enemies will no longer just pop on top of you or your buildings, and you will be able to plan your defenses in advance, once you explore the map some and find these rifts.
Every map will have 5-8 rifts in different edges of the map, so you'll still have to keep your city well defended from all directions. You won't be able to build near the rifts (except for harvesters and rails).
Resource Packer
This new building can be used to receive resources via rails and send them to faraway resource drop-offs using terrain transporter carts that don't need to connect via rails. It works the same way that harvesters send resources to drop-offs, except this building can send any resource and not just raw materials.
You can use these to build production outposts outside the city, or to send resources from one side of the city to the other. Like harvester carts, these can only travel outside the main city platform.
Improved resource distribution in map generation
After some tedious research and several attempts, I managed to find a way to better distribute the different resources around the map.
It will minimize the chances of finding all of your acid shards in one corner of the map, that also happens to be by murphy's law the last area of the map you explore. Whatever direction you decide to explore first, you are now more likely to quickly find whatever resource you are looking for.
Better loot in higher difficulty maps
Up until now the loot from ruins and ancient debris were the same no matter the map difficulty. Now, when you land in higher difficulty maps, you are more likely to find higher tier resources and larger quantities of lower tier resources.
Graphic settings
The settings window is now divided to tabs, and by popular demand, I've added several new graphic settings that you can use to adjust the visuals to your liking, as well as a few other new settings to customize your experience. You can also use these to improve performance by sacrificing some visuals, if needed.
Scrapping equipment
You can now scrap equipment that you don't need such as obsolete weapons and armor, in exchange for some resources.
Saves from previous builds
Saves from the previous version are supported, however, if you happen to be still playing the tutorial I strongly urge you to start anew. Some tutorials may appear again, or appear as soon as you load the game, but this is a one-time thing. Also, when you load a game from a previous build, new Rifts will immediately appear in your current map. These may be near your existing buildings if you have some near the map edges - something that shouldn't happen in subsequent maps because it's not allowed to build near rifts.
Future Plans
Here's our latest roadmap as work continues towards Dream Engines 1.0.
As always, I'm listening to all feedback channels, and your feedback is very much appreciated. A lot of the changes in this update originated from your suggestions. I invite you to hop onto our discord server and chat with us directly, leave your feedback in the Steam discussion forums, or in-game feedback form.
I hope you enjoy all these latest changes.
Tomer @ Suncrash