Hello everyone, update 10 is released and it adds a bunch of new content to the game. Update 9, which was released a couple of months ago, had a lot of backend and QOL improvements. The patch notes from both updates are included in this post.
Electronics tier
The electronics tier is now implemented in update 10. It adds higher tier buildings, resources and items like electronic components, batteries, solar buildings, etc. It also introduces new types of buildings, a new armor set and weapons. Each tier, now has a decorative building which is used only as a decoration and doesn't do anything else. There is a new biome and a set of new resources. One of those new resources are Glowflies, which are required for crafting lights in the metal tier. There is also a new boss in the new biome.
Map icons
In the previous updates, finding the boss spawn points was unintuitive and relatively complicated. In update 9, the boss spawn points have icons on the map. So now it's pretty straight forward to find them. And the building icons are now simpler and fit better with the overall look of the map UI.
Controls
Starting with update 9, you no longer need to hold the button to pickup items or collect resources. Just press and release. Attacking however, still requires holding the button (this might change in the next update). The baseline player movement speed is increased. And the animations for picking up items and collecting resources are faster.
I watched Rye Games play Unknown Planet on YouTube and at one point in the video, he was trying to pickup an item behind a palm tree and thought he couldn’t pick it up, even though he could. So, if you are a new player and you read this: you don’t need to point the mouse to an item, to pick it up. You just need to be near it.
Timestamped at 12:37
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NidvHTFVst0&t=757
Inventory slot
The controls for interacting with an inventory slot are now rebindable in the settings. And there are a couple of new QOL controls. Middle Click grabs a half stack. Right Click equips and de-equips weapons, tools and armor equipment. Left Shift + Left Click quickly transfers an item between the player’s inventory and an opened building (storage chests, crafters, etc.)
Graphics
The graphics for some of the existing biomes have been updated and have higher resolution textures. The game now uses a different renderer and tonemapper and it looks brighter. The UI was revamped and has new icons, colors, buttons, rounded corners, etc.
Plants
The plants don’t have a generic 3D model anymore. They each have their own miniature version of the 3D model which grows over time. That way, they are distinguishable right away at a glance. The plant collision was reworked as well, so now you can plant them in a grid even if they overlap with each other. You can hold Left Ctrl while planting them to snap them to a grid.
Enemies
Enemies that spawn periodically to attack the player, now spawn pretty close to the player and have a spawn animation, rather than just appearing out of nowhere. They also attack buildings if they get near one.
Food and water
Update 9 introduced 3 new types of items for cooking: vegetable, food and water. The cooking mechanic has been revamped and cooking is done by combining types of items, rather than specific items. So, you can combine food + water or vegetable + vegetable, etc. There is a new building in the electronics tier, where you can cook meals. Some of the campfire recipes are different, and you can also cook the vegetables in the campfire.
Update 9 also introduced a new vegetable garden in the metal tier, where you can grow vegetables. It’s a nice way of streamlining the food and water mechanics of the game, so after a while, you don’t have to spend time running around picking up fruits, mushrooms, meat, etc. The vegetable garden, combined with the new cooking mechanic, makes the survival aspect of the game easier, once you unlock the metal tier.
World generator
Sometimes, the world generator would generate a biome that doesn’t have enough space for all the resources that go into it. And the game would log an error in the console saying there is not enough space for all those resources. In update 10, the world generator now automatically adjusts the number of resources based on the size of the biome, so this error should not appear anymore in the console.
Conclusion
The next update will add some of the end game content and revamped NPCs and combat mechanics. As always, if you encounter any bugs or have some feedback, let me know in the discussions forum and have fun playing the new updates.