v alpha 0.24

Main highlights of this update

Underground belts

Conveyor belts now have an underground variant, allowing for them to cross without mixing up items. At this point, there's still no conveyor belt that can transfer between cave layers yet. Here's a demonstration on how they work:

Inserter changes

Inserters will now have to be placed in a gap between two entities containing items. Old saves that contain factories with inserters will likely have to be rebuilt with this new inserter behavior. Here's a before and after example of how they are placed: Placement of inserters before (How they are placed before this update): Placement of inserters after (How they are placed in this update):

Research Queue

Continuing with the automation theme, researching an item is now done through a research queue. Instead of clicking on a technology in the tech tree, and getting it researched instantly, it's now done by using up the corresponding science in the player's inventory. Once the technology is fully researched, a sound effect plays, and unlocks the technology. If there's another technology from behind in the queue, that technology is gradually researched. Here's a demonstration of how the research queue works:

Other changes

Enemies

• Sand Scorpion spawn rate is now 2x less frequent.
• Sea Crab spawn rate is now 2x less frequent.

Ground Ore veins

• + Aluminum
• + Lunar Regolith

Items

Base Building
• + Cavewood Door
• + Cavewood Floor
• + Cavewood Wall
• + Sandstone Door
• + Sandstone Wall Crafting
• + Iron-Steel Anvil Food
• + Carrot
• + Wheat Flour Bread Machines & Automation
• + Large Stone Furnace
• + Large Bronze Furnace
• + Iron-Steel Furnace
• + Large Iron-Steel Furnace
• + Iron Drill
• + Electric Research Station
• + Stone Cooking Stove
• + Stone Grinder
• + Underground Belt Mk1 Saplings
• + Cave Lithophyte Shoot (2 hour growing period) Tools & Weapons
• + Iron-Steel Sword
• + Iron-Steel Pickaxe
• + Iron-Steel Axe
• + Iron-Steel Bow Resources
• + Cavewood (2 fuel)
• + Wheat Flour Removed items
• - Gold Furnace (Replaced with Iron-Steel furnace)
• - Gold Anvil (Replaced with Iron-Steel anvil)
• - Gold Sword (Replaced with Iron-Steel Sword)
• - Gold Pickaxe (Replaced with Iron-Steel Pickaxe)
• - Gold Bow (Replaced with Iron-Steel Bow)
• - Gold Axe (Replaced with Iron-Steel Axe)
• For these removed gold items, all of these gold-based items have been removed, and have been replaced with Iron-Steel tools for backwards compatibility, even if in that save, Iron-Steel isn't researched yet. The new Iron-Steel tools have the same stats as the now removed gold ones. Changes
• ~ Iron-Steel Arrow damage increased from 20 to 28.
• ~ Iron-Steel Bar mass increased from 18 kg to 25 kg

Music

• + Industrialization (Plays when a certain amount of active machines, drills, conveyor belts, and inserters are close to the player).

Player

• The game will no longer pause if the inventory is open, and will only do so when in the quit game UI.

Quality of Life

• Food and placeable items will now appear on the hotbar if there's space available.

Spaceships

• Orbital spaceships can no longer go to another world, and can only orbit after being repaired. The upgraded version (Spaceship I) can still visit other worlds.
• Decreased orbital spaceship load from 20,000 N to 15,000 N

Tech Tree

• + Iron Drills
• + Iron-Steel Metallurgy
• + Large Furnaces
• + Logistics I
• + Science Automation

Tiles

• Certain machines tiles are now animated when active.

UI

• Changed the spaceship UI to allow for going to space by clicking on one of the buttons above, as well as being able to upgrade the spaceship without needing to go into the inventory to upgrade. It also emphasizes the amount of fuel available, and the weight in Newtons above
• The game icon for the quit game UI is now used for the button to Resume instead of an exit one, and the one for going to the main menu uses the exit icon.
• Added a loading screen when loading saves so it doesn't briefly freeze the game before it's loaded.
• The percentage researched of a technology will now display on the top-right of the screen if in the front of the newly added research queue.
• Inserters now have indicators displaying which tile it's transporting from, and an arrow for which one it's transporting to.

World Generation

Tierra

• Cave berry biomes now have a new tree type: Cave Lithophytes. These drop cavewood when chopped down, and a low count of saplings.
• Bamboo is now more common in Jungle biomes.
• Wheat plants can now generate in the Plains biome.
• Added carrots for the Temperate Forest biome.
• Added white flowers for the Temperate Forest biome.
• Gold is now around 12x more common in the Desert biome.
• Iron is now around 10x more common in the Glaciers biome.

Luna

• Aluminum ore, and its ground ore variant will now spawn here, and is even more common in deeper cave layers.

Miscellaneous

• Marginally optimized the tile renderer (Still runs slowly if zoomed far out).
• Slightly changed the color palette of Aluminum to distinguish it more from Iron-Steel.
• Kelp from Kelp forests can now be planted to grow more Kelp.
• Halved the amount of Magma Wood that magma trees drop.
• Increased magma tree sapling growth period from 2 hours to 4 hours.

Bug fixes

• Electricity powered machinery receiving electricity doesn't work when loading an existing save until the player hovers over them.
• Inserters can't be mined after being placed down.
• The camera is slightly off-center from the player.
• Machines larger than a 1x1 would show their icon, such as no recipe, no power, to the top-left side instead of the center.
• Active machines won't animate until the player has moved.