Hey there Keepers, the new Branching Out update is finally LIVE!
Thanks so much for your patience, this patch contains major fixes, quality of life improvements and new mechanics and buildings for you to try out!
New Mechanics
Platforms
With their own unique buildings, the Platform special project allows you to finally connect to those distant tiles! Give them a try, and let me know what you think, and also what kind of buildings I should add to them in future updates.
Resource Networks
But what's the use of those far-flung tiles if you can't use their resources? New buildings such as Storehouses, Tram Stations and Markets will share resources between them, letting you break the rules and move resources across any distance!
Quality of Life Changes & Fixes
Saving & Loading
Should work now. Thanks for your patience while I dug through this one, and please let me know if any issues crop up!
Atmosphere Progress UI & Mechanics Change
The island's atmosphere now increases or decreases faster or slower based on your surplus/deficit of O2, and now adds or removes an entire ring at a time instead of going tile-by-tile. Additionally the UI element now shows a progress bar to let you know how close you are to an increase or a decrease!
Restart Island Button
By far the most requested community feature, now you can restart your current island without affecting your overall progress!
New Dev Diary
Check out me talking about some of the design considerations that went into this update, and the key issues with Firekeep that I'm hoping to solve:
Additional Patchnotes
- Overhauled building effects that require resource inputs, will now only lock the inputs once the effect has "used" them. (e.g. Gardens will be able to refund Compost inputs until the extra Food production is actually sent to a different building, and will be able to refund again if that extra Food production is itself refunded).
- Overhauled the building UI panel to differentiate between resources locked from upgrading the building and resources locked by building effects. Created new icons to correspond to different effects.
- Building UI Panel - moved building atmosphere effects beside the building title, hopefully make the building description icons less crowded.
- Villager chain no longer produces Disease, changed to Sewage.
- Rebalanced "Meeting Place" building, no longer provides Amenities but upgrade chain is more useful, including:
- Latrines and a "Sanitation" track that removes Pollution.
- Inns, which can spread Firelight to neighbouring without relying on the central tile (but don't contribute towards completing the current island)
- Shrines- upgrades to powerful community-centered buildings like Chapel and School, plus Parks, which give Amenities and access to the "Saplings" special project.
- Markets, which transport Food between them across any distance.
If you've made it this far, hope you enjoy the new patch, and feel free to get involved in development by joining the Discord!