Hi all,
After a few bugfix-patches during the launch window it's time for a bit more of a substantial update! Of course, there's also a few more bugfixes and balance changes here, but also the first new content after launch: Three new frames have been added! While all three are optional and not required to actually finish the game, they will hopefully provide some variety and alleviate annoying bottlenecks in the midgame.
The first addition is the Recycler frame. It is unlocked in Tier 5, and must be placed on a City or Ruin.
While active, the Recycler slowly sifts through the city's waste materials and converts them into raw materials: Iron Ingots, Batteries and Circuit Boards.
Later in Tier 8 you unlock the City Builder. This is the first "real" way to terraform your world, as the City Builder will slowly convert nearby tiles into Cities. And best of all - each City tile constructed will provide your with a permanent Productivity bonus for all of your other frames! However, the cost of adding tiles does increase as you build more of them.
The final stage of a City's life cycle comes at Tier 10: The Leveler. This new frame aggressively grinds through nearby City tiles - either created by the City Builder or already present on the map - and slowly converts them into Ruin tiles. During this process the Leveler extracts random items from the city, giving another small boost in production for some of the items that you may be lacking.
Other changes
Aside from the three new frames, there are also some other noteworthy changes to discuss:
A common bottleneck is the production of Power - even more so now that there are three new frames that each require power in some form or another. Therefore, I decided to increase the potency of all Power Productivity upgrades. This should help Oil Power Plants stay more relevant into the midgame, and reduces the bottleneck experienced when you first start production of Cloud Widgets.
While it's not quite the "stats screen" I had in mind, I did add this often requested feature in the meantime. You can now easily see what your current production capacity is for any item in your inventory, providing all needs are met.
A common complaint is that Prestige feels kind of useless, since most costs also increase when you do. While that's not entirely true (costs do increase, but at a slower rate than production increases), I do understand the frustration. Therefore, the first four levels of Prestige no longer have a cost increase associated, and cost increases for all further Prestige levels have been reduced.
And some general bugfixes: