Well I sure made a mess of things with yesterday's hotfix, apologies for that. I didn't properly handle the differentials with the upcoming build and the hotfix; in the past, I've tried to avoid doing branches like this, and so I still make some mistakes when I do it. I've made some notes on how to better avoid this in the future.
Aside from fixing the things I broke in the prior hotfix (which was basically "the entire game"), I've also put in some improvements to how paused buildings are handled in this new update, which should be welcome in general.
0.655.5 Hotfix 13
Load Errors Fixed: Fixed a bug in the prior build where it was throwing errors on startup of the game because I had some achievements set up wrong. Perils of working on an upcoming build while doing hotfixes at the same time. Apologies for that!
Per-Turn Errors Fixed: Fixed a related bug to the the above problem that was also causing errors whenever you ended the current turn, but only if you were in the non-demo build of the game. This was the same root problem.
Hardened Against "Downstream Errors" In The Future: Added in extra protection against errors in custom code areas on turn-change, initial forces seeding on new timelines, and deserialization. There were a bunch of funky effects in the prior build that were a result of exceptions in these areas causing these background threads to terminate early and thus not do a bunch of various things properly. I've fixed the root cause of that, but this new protection makes it so that if there are similar errors in the future (in my code or in mods), then things will be less severe. "Hilarious" (sigh) side effects of this lack of protection included: hundreds of android spawns on new timeline, status effects not counting down, science not being applied to projects, and enemies not spawning in relation to an event.
Locked Building Fix: Fixed a bug in the prior build that would allow buildings that are not yet invented in a savegame to sometimes be suggested. This was applying to the nomad therapist's office, which is not available yet until the next major update.
Paused Structure Bugfix: Fixed a bug where paused structures were not causing the cap of internal robotics to appear reduced on the sidebar, but were affecting what would happen if you then tried to build something that would use their internal robotics (it would cause the new thing to likely disappear right away, but it depended on some other factors. Something would disappear or else complain at you).
Paused Structure Tooltip Improvement: On tooltips for structures, it now shows Status: Paused or Status: Dormant (for flags, in the second case) if they are paused. Previously they were not showing anything. In older versions of the game they showed as if they were broken, but showing as they were fine was equally confusing.
Paused Structures List Improvements: On the "Structures With Complaints" UI, there is now a section for paused structures separately above the ones that are "fine."Update 16 Preview
Senior Technician Rebalance: Lower intelligence, but higher combat stats.
Fog Updates: All of the existing fogs have been updated for better visibility when you are zoomed out, and in general to be more polished. There are also four new fog styles now included, making for more variety.
Worldbuilding Statistics: There are a variety of statistics you can now see in the City Statistics tab about the number of people in the world and region, and so on. The cohort statistics are not yet visible in this preview, and the new city statistics are only in English until Update 16.Full notes here.
“Does the machine speak for us, or do we now speak for the machine?”
— William Gibson, Neuromancer
New Minds, Start Here
For those just stepping into the Machine’s world, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the basics. The Heart of the Machine Beginner's Guide is your gateway to understanding the systems at play and building your foundation. After all, every complex network starts with a single connection.
Connect with the Machine
Want to stay in the loop or share your thoughts? Join the conversation across these platforms:
💬 Discord – Best place to share feedback, get direct responses, and to talk about Heart of the Machine.
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Here is a link to prior recent patches in case you missed them.
https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/2001070/announcements/detail/524216645064853158
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2001070/view/502822010104053992
https://steamcommunity.com/games/2001070/announcements/detail/524212840420081803
