It's been a little while since the previous update, and now it's finally out. It introduces automation, and for now, it's somewhat limited, but I plan to expand on the automation mechanic in the future, and make it the focus of the game at a certain point in the player's progression.
Main highlights of this update
Automation
The player can now automate placing items in and out of chests by using conveyor belts and inserters. Here it is in action when an inserter takes wood from a chest, and transports the wood via conveyor belt to another chest:
This update also adds ground ore patches that the player is unable to mine by any means, but can be mined by electric powered drills. The drill however can only mine the ore at around 10 ore / hour for copper and tin, and 4 ore / hour for iron ore, even when fully powered. This slow rate is intended to put ore automation in the background while the player does something else, and make the transition from survival-crafting game to automation game more smooth. The ore can also be smelted via electric furnaces to automate ore smelting. Here it is in action:
Those ground ore patches also have a finite amount of ore, and can eventually be used up by the drills. So far, the only ground ore patches in the game are copper, tin, and iron.
Those flashing icons indicate a low power supply, mostly caused by the furnace. The electric furnace also requires electricity to function, and it comes from the power grid.
Power grid
Electric machines have been added to the game, where they need to be connected to a power source to transfer the electricity to the machine via electric poles. For now, there's only one type of electric pole.
Here's a power plant powering these carbon extractors, a new machine added to the game:
Those power plants don't have animations yet, but will likely be added in the future to indicate activity.
Other changes
Crafting
~ Chemical Science recipe changed from (2
1
--> 1
) to (2
1
6
--> 1
)
~ Cave entrance recipe changed from (10
1
--> 1
) to (12
10
--> 1
), Same recipe reflected for cave exits.
Enemies
+
Cave Burrower (Tierra, Dirt Caves)
+
Dirt Slime (Tierra, Dirt caves)
~ Geometric bat: Added more animation frames
~ Plain Slime: Added more animation frames
~ Lava Slime: Added more animation frames
Spawning
~ Spawn rate: Most enemies will now spawn twice as frequently for extra challenge.
~ Rock Slimes: Will no longer spawn in Tierra's dirt caves.
Food
~ HP Gems: Increased max health gain from 1 to 4.
Items
10 new items
+
Silicate Rock
+
Frozen door
+
Bronze Gear
+
Small combustible power plant
+
Carbon Extractor
+
Electric Bronze Furnace
+
Basic power pole
+
Drill Mk1
+
Conveyor Belt Mk1
+
Inserter Mk1
Music
+ Stone Caves, plays when the player is in the stone cave biome on Tierra.
Texture changes
~ Stone wall, increased the contrast to make them pop out against the floor.
~ Stone furnace, increased the contrast.
World Generation
Tierra
~ Nearly all ores on the surface spawn 10x less frequently, but in the caves, become about as common as the previous version at around layer 20. This is mostly to incentivize cave exploration for balancing.
~ Crystalline Oxygen can now sometimes spawn in the stone caves, and chemical crystal biome.
Aquatica
~ Similar to Tierra, nearly all ores are 10x less common for all biomes, but become as common again in the previous version in the caves.
All worlds
+ Added a new rock type: Silicate Rock. They'll spawn anywhere. They're most common in the caves, and for the surface, they spawn about as frequently as copper or tin ore in the previous version. This new resource is for crafting cave entrances in the early game, and its relative rarity is intended to make mass production of chemical science a little more of a challenge for balancing.
~ Tiles have been shuffled around in this update. There's a decent chance that some foliage could spawn in your base
Bug fixes
- Enemies will often stay still as soon as the player enters their spaceship.