Hey miners, this update is all about stability and worker sanity. I tightened up worker assignment so presets stop pulling in locked roles, added stronger recovery so workers don’t get stuck doing the classic “stare at a wall forever” routine, and improved idle/wander behavior so they keep moving even when the mine runs dry. Late game balance also got a major tune up at level 17+: uranium drain spirals are now much harder to trigger thanks to reserve protection, passive uranium fallback, and a new reactor efficiency upgrade.
Balance (Level 17+ Endgame Stability)
Changed
Quantum Analyst uranium consumption reduced: 0.15 → 0.05 uranium/sec per worker (-66%)
Quantum Analyst Qbit generation increased: 0.02 → 0.025/sec
Engineer energy consumption hysteresis: requires a 20% energy buffer before consuming to reduce active/idle oscillation
Added
Uranium reserve protection for Quantum Analysts: maintains a 5.0 uranium minimum reserve and pauses before dropping below threshold
Passive uranium trickle (DarkMiners): 0.001 uranium/sec per worker after uranium prospecting is researched
New upgrade: Reactor Fuel Efficiency
Reduces reactor uranium consumption by 40%
Cost: 30,000 ore, 150 crystals, 50 uranium
Unlock: 1000m depth + Nuclear Power research
Worker Systems and Behavior
Fixed
Worker presets now validate unlock status before assigning worker types (skips locked types, notifies player, prevents early game energy drain)
Resting workers now always recover energy (8% per second) and exit Resting above 60% energy
Worker theft recovery: hire cost and mine field visuals now update to match remaining workforce (prevents ghost workers and inflated costs)
Added
Worker stuck detection and recovery (5 second movement tracking; escalation: reset state → nudge → teleport)
Block claim timeout: claims expire after 12 seconds to prevent deadlocks
Wander behavior: workers pick random exploration positions when no blocks exist
UI and Layout
Added
Worker preset lock status indicators:
Green: all workers available
Yellow with warning icon: some workers locked (will be skipped)
Dark gray with lock icon: all workers locked
Preset tooltips now show unlocked vs locked worker types, locked type count, and actual assignable workers
Language specific panel ratios:
Russian/Ukrainian: 58% world / 42% control
Arabic: 65% world / 35% control
Other languages: 67% world / 33% control
Changed
Quick Templates layout updated to a 2x3 grid (Early, Mid, Late/End, Research T1, Research T2)
Energy UI now shows effective regen (prestige scaled) with base reference and “At max” hint; concise resource row restored (debug overlay still includes net energy/drain/cap)
Graphics and Rendering
Added
OpenGL backend support as a tertiary fallback for legacy hardware, virtual machines, and remote desktop environments
Changed
Automatic backend fallback chain: Vulkan (primary) → DirectX 12 (fallback) → OpenGL (tertiary fallback)
Platform/Build
Changed
Windows release builds now hide the console window for a cleaner user experience