Hi all,
Time for a new update! Over the past few months I've been hard at work addressing some of the common criticisms of the game, and moving towards a more satisfying end game / prestige system. While we're not quite there yet (no significant prestige changes in this update), this update adds some often-requested features, quality-of-life changes, and balance changes that should improve the overall play experience. Let's check it out!
The mysterious Glitched Frame makes a return, this time unlocking a new gameplay feature! Once you've found the Glitched Frame in the overworld it'll add a new set of upgrades in your Tech Tree which will unlock activated abilities for you to use during active gameplay.
Haven't found the Glitched Frame yet? No worries, it's been made a bit easier to locate. Keep an eye on the overworld map for a hint as to where it's hiding.
The Logistics Hub is a new addition that will boost the crafting speed (and later, productivity) of all surrounding frames. Very useful for speeding up high-demand parts of your factory, without having to build more frames and suffer the associated exponential cost increases. However, keep in mind that the Logistics Hub can draw quite a lot of power, so make sure you've got plenty of power production before making the switch!
With this update the Widget overlords have finally realized that the humans that inhabit our world can be put to good use. After researching Indentured Servitude any frames built on cities (and later on, frames built on ruins as well) will gain additional speed and productivity bonuses. However, the backbreaking manual labor will inevitably cut short the lives of some of the humans under your rule, so you will need to take care of their remains before they start clogging up your warehouses.
Of course, some might say that exploiting humans for free labor is unethical - maybe there is also a reward available for those who choose to avoid this strategy?
Other changes
In addition to these major additions there are also some minor bug fixes, additions, and balance changes:
- Increased inventory storage space for most items in high Prestige levels.
- Fixed number overflow errors encountered in high levels of Prestige.
- Added 11 new Achievements, mostly dealing with the new major additions.
- Halved the productivity bonus provided by City Builders - too powerful, especially in the late game, and doubly so when combined with the new Indentured Servitude and Logistics Hub bonuses.
- Added an additional info display to tooltips, in order to easily view an individual frame's total crafting speed and productivity modifiers.
- Rebalanced some upgrades, power usage, and speed/productivity modifiers to provide a better gameplay experience.