Hey everyone!
Our first Orebits update is here!
We've spent the first few days after launch going through your bug reports, reviews and feedback. This update fixes some of the most noticeable issues, adds a few quality of life improvements and we've polished some extra things along the way. Thank you all for your valuable feedback.
We've also heard you on long term progression. Some of you feel the game gets too grindy later on, without enough new things to unlock or change up the gameplay. We agree there's room to make that part of Orebits more rewarding, and we're already working on some pretty cool stuff. More on that below! First, the things we've changed in this update:
Quality of Life
Hold Space to mine: You can now hold Space to use the Clickaxe in Active Mode, just like holding the mouse button. This makes it easier and gives some relief from holding the mouse down constantly.
3 starting Rerolls: New games now start with 3 Rerolls. Returning to Earth gives you 3 new Rerolls, plus any extras unlocked through your Research.
Better Upgrade Rerolls: Using a Reroll now also rerolls the tier of the new Upgrades. The previous three Upgrades are still excluded, so you're guaranteed a fresh selection.
Window settings are remembered: Orebits now remembers whether you were playing in Windowed or Fullscreen mode.
Cleaner resource UI: We've improved the way Cargo, Gold, Research Points and Xeno Seeds are displayed (with enough space to make the numbers really high).
Better number formatting: Numbers now smoothly progress through K, M, B and T before switching to the late game A, B, C... AA, AB notation.
Progression & Balance
Starting Capital reworked: Starting Capital now gives you 1% of the total Gold mined since your previous visit to Earth per Research level. Spending Gold along the way no longer reduces this bonus.
Invested Interest fixed: This Hired Help now multiplies the Gold earned from your current asteroid up to the Target Depth, instead of multiplying your entire gold stash (which was a bit too insane).
Interstellar Gold progression: Gold value now continues scaling when travelling to a new solar system, instead of dropping back to early game values.
Permanent Mining Tool progress: Extraction Points towards unlocking the Hammer and Spade now carry over between visits to Earth.
Earth progression fixed: Extraction Points on regular asteroids become available again after returning to Earth, while completed end asteroids and unlocked sectors remain completed.
Collector Efficiency and Sharp Tools fixed: The promised bonus now correctly apply for these two upgrades. Everywhere, also in the end asteroid anomaly.
Bug Fixes
Fixed temporary Cargo Capacity bonuses sometimes sticking around after returning to Earth.
Fixed old exclamation indicators and Upgrade arrows remaining visible after returning to Earth when you didn't actually have enough resources to buy an Upgrade.
Fixed Backup Shield activating too early on cloned Mining Tools because of their lower starting Durability.
Fixed several edge cases involving destroyed rock, clones and support weapons.
Fixed progression issues when continuing into Interstellar Operations.
Fixed several milestone issues at high levels or when purchasing multiple levels at once.
Fixed automated Clickaxe effects not correctly waiting for Overheating to end.
Fixed timed Upgrade effects not always respecting pauses.
Fixed a few inconsistencies between Research previews and the actual rewards received when returning to Earth.
Visuals & Polish
Collector movement: The Collector now has more weight to its movement, with smoother acceleration, drifting and returning to position.
Collector sfx: Improved how the engine switches on and off to prevent rapid audio changes.
Armed Collector: Shot lines and impact effects now actually meet at the same point, including on end asteroids.
Depth Meter: Depth and Target Depth now use consistent rounding, with some small visual improvements to make the numbers easier to read.
Drill Pod: The Drill now accelerates more naturally after breaking through rock, falls smoothly through gaps and stops correctly when it hits rock.
Improved Gold and Xeno Seed presentation during the later stages of the game.
Various smaller UI, animation and text improvements.
So, what about long term progression?
This is one of the bigger things we're looking at right now.
We've seen the feedback that once you've been playing for a while, there aren't enough new things entering the mix and progression can start feeling grindy. We don't just want to make the numbers go faster. We'd rather give you more interesting things to unlock and experiment with as you get further into the game.
We're already building a bunch of new late game Upgrades and unlockables around Xeno technology. Some will expand the possibilities of the roguelite Upgrade Tree, while others will give you new things to work towards with your Mining Tools.
We don't want to spoil exactly what they do just yet, but the idea is to make progressing further into the asteroid belt feel more rewarding, with new toys and mechanics continuing to appear along the way.
There's more we want to improve beyond that, so please keep telling us what works, what doesn't, and where things start feeling too grindy. Your feedback is genuinely helping us figure out where to take Orebits next.
Thanks for playing and Happy mining!
Maarten & Bob
Upgraded Studio