Spotlight: The Legion Arrives (Act III, Part 1)

The Architects were right to be afraid. Their wards are gone, and the Legion has found the Sundered Reach. v0.12.0 opens Act III with the first of the Legion's three generals. Once you win the Architect War, the invasion begins, and that of course includes existing saves that already finished Act II.

Gazeshade, First General

A Legion Mega-Fortress has landed, and Gazeshade the Sphinx rules it. You bring it down strike by strike with Void Splitters, from the Banners all the way to the Command Tower. The very first blow already pays out something special...

The Price of Breathing

Gazeshade demands tribute at an altar beside the fortress. Deliver on time and your factory runs faster, with faster Mana regeneration, for six minutes. Miss the deadline and everything slows by 10%, stacking, until you pay your way back out. Meanwhile the fortress raises Legion Pylons that slow everything around them and make your next strike on the fortress more expensive. Clear the field first, then strike.

Under the Sphinx's Gaze

While Gazeshade watches, the world changes. The sun drops low and golden, shadows stretch across your factory, and the trees dry out. Bleached drifts spread from the fortress and from every pylon still standing. Let a deadline run out and the light burns red. Fell a pylon and its ground recovers.

When the fortress falls, you decide Gazeshade's fate: purge it for good, or bind it and keep its demands running in exchange for a lasting reward...

New in Act III

- New ores: the odd rocks out in your lakes reveal themselves as Crystal, Adamantine, and Voidstone ores, and the new Mountaineer spell raises the lakebed so you can mine them

- New production chains all the way to the Void Splitter

- Oilworks: a new production building that crafts the most sophisticated items while fed with Oil

- Solar Garden: grow your own special vegetation

- Crystal Chests, opened with Crystal Keys

- Relics: rare artifacts from chests, merchants, the skill tree, and the Legion itself, each acting as a global modifier for your factory, so that you can personalize your playstyle

- Activated Ancient Obelisks can now be launched with Act III materials, turning their local aura into a permanent global bonus

- A wave of new building modules (Overclock, Flow Meter, Tithe, Mana Lens, and more), plus extra module slots

- New buildings (next to Oilworks+Solar Garden): Trans-Depot (pull resources from any Warehouse), Essence Furnace (burn Pure Essence for Mana), Mana Lanterns

- New spells, to move your buildings, enhance your production buildings, and more!

- New research to give your old buildings new capabilities, reforge your metals, and discover many new alternate recipes

Patch notes for v0.12.0

New Content

- Act III, Part 1: the Legion invasion and General Gazeshade (see spotlight above)

- The Mossback Colossus: a very rare world event. An ancient colossus may wander along the edges of your map, shedding crates of valuable goods that crumble to dust if left too long. Bring enough siege items and you can fell it for a big haul...

- Added 1 decoration building, 1 cosmetic spell, and 1 new pet/caravan form, all obtainable only from the Colossus

- Hiding the UI (default: J) is now a full-fledged photo mode! (allowing you to zoom in & out farther + tilt the camera more strongly + stop time)

- Blueprints can now be shared via the Steam Workshop (right-click any of your blueprints to select "Publish to Workshop"; get any blueprint via the new "Workshop" button in the Build Menu)

Feedback & Polish

- Buttons now respond to hover and clicks, and menus pop open instead of blinking in

- Rows of buildings, blueprint stamps, and undo/redo restores now ripple into place one after another

- Saved blueprint selections now lift off the factory instead of vanishing

- Completed main objectives now show a check mark before the next objective appears

- The power bar flashes green when your grid recovers from an overload

- The Mana bar flashes red and shakes when a spell is refused for lack of Mana, and refusal reasons pop under the spell marker

- Hotkey slots glow when a building or spell is assigned to them

- Research trackers flash when their goal is met and fade out on completion

- Treasure chests now rattle before opening, and recipes, spells, skill points, relics, and legendaries found inside are shown above the chest

- Merchant request icons pulse once your Warehouses can cover the request, and completed trades show the Trader Token and Credits above the merchant

- Fully gathered resource crates now fly into the Warehouse that received the goods

- Caught critters show their reward where they were caught

- Fishing: the float leaps out with a catch and is dragged under when the fish gets away, first-time catches are marked "New Catch!", and catch notifications show the item's icon

- New Flow Counters now show that they are measuring until their first reading arrives

UI & Quality of Life

- Research tree: better node spacing in large trees, and the view can no longer scroll off into empty canvas

- Researching a new recipe now offers a "Show Production Chain" button in its notification

- Brewing notifications now show the potion's icon and the batch count

- Harvest notifications for special vegetation now show the plant's icon

- Clicking an active build button or the Delete button a second time now cancels that mode

- NEW badges on unlocked buildings now stay until you hover over or select the building, and the Build Menu button shows one if something unlocks while the menu is closed

- Drag placement can now in-place replace a whole stretch of belt->express belt or Power Generator->Power Generator mk2

- Placing a copy of a production building now shows its recipe next to the placement preview

- Undo/Redo notifications now state what has been undone/redone

- Settings mass paste brush now also has Ctrl-correction and a count label

- Added more info (stalling, blocked, etc) to building UI efficiency label tooltip

- XP bar tooltip in building UI now states number of cycles/estimated time until level-up

- Pressing Enter in Ctrl+F search now creates a guiding arrow to guide player to nearest hit that is not already on screen

- More notifications carry the "Guide me there" button now

- Power bar tooltip now states how many Power Generators are fuel-starved

- Power Generator tooltip now includes information how long current fuel will last

- Eligible Caravan Stations for connections are now top-sorted in the connection menu

Fixes

- Area-of-effect buildings and Ancient Obelisks now affect every building inside their displayed area, including the corners, and all area grids now show exactly the square they affect

- Fixed larger buildings sometimes not connecting to a belt beneath a Flow Counter or Elevator Bridge, depending on rotation

- Fixed NEW badges blocking clicks on the corner of build menu buttons

- Fixed right-click rotate no longer working while world map is open

- Fixed undo of production building delete not restoring talents