We just released v.0.1.3 which includes a rework of the tech-system. We’ve changed the way of acquiring new parts (technologies) so that you will not only need “experience points”, but also specific resources to research and unlock new parts. This enables a more diverse gameplay as you’ll need to explore, kill, gather and construct to be able to reach more advanced technologies. Currently this change is only implemented in the new Survival Mode, but we plan on adding it to Story Mode at a later point as well.
The new tech-system is centered around the new Research Facility which is now essential for acquiring technologies. At the start of a new game, you will only be able to construct from a small assortment of basic parts and must gather the necessary resources to build the Research Facility which will allow you to unlock and add even more parts to your assortment. Once you have the Research Facility you can use it to research different resources to unlock machine-parts that requires that or those specific resources. Let me give you an example:
You have built your Research Facility and have gathered some wood. You put the wood in the Research Facility and the facility turns on, indicating it’s researching the properties of the wood while consuming the wood in the progress. When it’s done you’ll notice that all parts that solely requires wood to be build is now visible in the crafting menu.
If you want to unlock parts that require two or more different resources, you’ll need to research all the resources needed for that specific parts. So, in this example if I wanted to build a Storage box, I would need to research copper as well since the Storage box requires both wood and copper to be build.
So that’s it? I just throw all the different resources in the Research Facility and then I’ll be able to construct any part in the game? Nope that’s too easy, there’s more:
Once you have researched a part and it’s made visible in the crafting menu you’ll have to spend your “experience points” to fully unlock that specific part. Doing so will allow you to permanently craft that part - provided that you have the requisite resources to do so every time.
The more valuable the part, the more it will cost to unlock - e.g. unlocking the Ladder costs 1 level while the Sawblade requires 6 levels to unlock. So, don’t go spending all your levels at once, choose carefully what you want. Of course, you can always go into a blood frenzy, killing enough enemies to gather experience for the 160 levels which is currently needed if you want to unlock every single part in the game.
Let us know what you think about the new tech-system in the comment section below!
Greetings
Needo and the rest of Team Mechanic Miner.