Learning Factory News

Another major update in just a couple of months? Yes, that is correct! And it brings you new buildings, more underground gameplay, epic optimization round and so much more:

[h3]v0.16.105 Released[/h3]

• New Building: a Fishing Spot is a smaller version of Fishing Pier, working on shallow water and perfect for placing in the narrow watery spaces, such as rivers
  
• New Building: Hammock Testing Booth works the same way as Scratch-Testing Booth, allowing to try Hammocks before buying
  
• New Building: Napping Booth, same mechanics, but with Pillows. Awesome sauce!
  
• We've switched to a new version of the engine, much optimization happened to celebrate the occasion
  
• Additional art for regular Icebergs
  
• Terrain visuals slightly improved
  
• Underground Gold Veins with quality Gold
  
• Undergroung Gem Deposits with quality Gems, too!
  
• Dynamite can be placed under the ground. To blow up stuff. Finally
  
• Hillraiser Dynamite can destroy the lower level ground itself, creating more lava. You like lava, don't you?
  
• Quality Hammocks
  
• Mass picking upgrade for Multitool: allows mass placement of terraforming tiles and Rafts, also allows mass picking of Rafts (suggested by aCDRph3rr3t_Is_RunningAmok)
  
• If a high loyalty cat appears from a Cat Gate, they might request more items at a Store
  
• Machine Learning models will no longer try to predict optimal prices while gathering initial data
  
• More phrases for legendary cats
  
• Better view of legendary cats in the Wiki
  
• Multithreading is no longer in beta
  
• Optimization while moving to not yet loaded zones, especially if they contain big Storages
  
• Storages optimization
  
• Game loading time reduced
  
• Game saving time reduced
  
• The game no longer creates an exit save if a player saved the game manually before exiting
  
• Right 'Shift', 'Ctrl' and 'Alt' buttons now work the same way as the left ones do
  
• UI/UX improvements
  
• A new bunch of Cat Knowledge Archives will be generated (for future purposes) and everyone gets free science points for this inconvenience
  

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1150090/Learning_Factory

And don't forget to follow Learning Factory on Steam to get the news about new updates as soon as they're out there



[h2]How to Get More Involved[/h2]

Going to Early Access is but the first step to glory (and eternal cat happiness). Wanna be part of what happens next? Head to this blog post and learn how to help make the game even more awesome!

[h2]Share Your Gameplay and Become Part of KOTOVOD History[/h2]
Learning Factory needs your help! Record a 10 or more minutes of you playing the game, share a video using any way you see fit, write your name into Learning Factory credits and get a promo cat! Make history here

Hey there, Georgii from Luden.io here! Another month, another developer diary! And boy, was that month rich with new features, fruitful discussions, and exciting plans! Here's the juiciest stuff:

[h2]Chill Milk[/h2]

Yeah, Milky Way is cool but have you ever tried Milky Glaciers? Frozen plant-based sources of milk were recently discovered on Mars. Don't even ask us, how we came up with this idea… Because we'll tell you anyway! According to truly accurate scientific facts, milk was secretly being delivered to Mars by the I.L.L.U.M.I.N.A.T.I. throughout the XX and the early XXI century, disguising these operations as ‘scientific expeditions’ (ever heard of ‘unsuccessful Martian missions’? Well, they were not, it was all about delivering milk). It is to be clarified, how this milk turned into icebergs and glaciers (you're welcome to share your thoughts in the comments!).

On a more serious side of things, we had two reasons in mind for adding milk to the game. One, we decided we need more resources to play around with in the northern biome. And two: it seemed weird that we haven't added milk before! Cats love milk and it was only too natural to have it on Learning Factory, which was made for the sole reason to provide catisfaction.

[h2]Operation Teleportation[/h2]

Another couple of new buildings are using the magic of teleportation to make players’ lives easier. Normally, teleportation is a tool only available to cats (who are well-known to be able to disappear and emerge in random places), but the I.L.L.U.M.I.N.A.T.I. were generous enough to share some of their wisdom with their human pet servants. Enter the Cable Crafter and the Inventory Teleport! The former automatically produces and delivers Optic Cable to a player's backpack, while the latter simply transfers any kind of items to the inventory. It is possible thanks to swarms of invisible nanobots, that disassemble items into molecules and then build them back right into your pockets. Creepily effective.

[h2]The Taste of Scratching[/h2]

This building was born in a discussion when we were remembering the good old prototyping days for Learning Factory. Back then, the game looked less like a factory-building sim and more like a cat-entertaining tycoon. This concept was later omitted, but we didn't entirely part with the idea of cat entertainment (catertainment?). Hence the concept of Cat-Scratching Booth! It allows your catstomers to test-drive one of your items (Claw Sharpener, in this case), so they could add it to their wishlist and offer a higher price for it in a Store.

More buildings of this kind might appear in the game later - if you, the players, find them fun to play around with them, that is! Kindly let us know how you like them - on our Discord server, maybe?

[h2]Approaching Catopia, One Cat at a Time[/h2]

There were other changes that might seem not as grand, but they're still pieces of the puzzle that, brought together, will make Learning Factory an awesome base-building game one day. We've added more quality items, which increase the loyalty of your catstomers. We've added new upgrades. More trading options for Trade Guilds. Mass pickup of items. We've added optional multithreading (currently in beta) for even greater performance. We've also added an ability to mine metals on the underground level (previously only logistics items could have been placed there)!


We will continue polishing quality items mechanics in an upcoming couple of weeks. At the same time, we'll be making the underground level even more interesting to spend time on. But most importantly: we've had a very fruitful discussion regarding the process of polishing - which means, we have officially started pre-preparations for the full release! The date will be announced as soon as we're sure about that - we will make sure you don't miss it.

Until then - come chat with us on Discord, leave a comment, wishlist it, send us a postcard, send us a raven, in any case - don't be a stranger! See you in the next edition of Learning Factory developer diaries!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1150090/Learning_Factory

• Twitter
• Discord

P.S. If you want to keep an eye our progress closer, don't forget to follow Learning Factory on our Steam page and never miss an update again!




[h2]How to Get More Involved[/h2]

Going to Early Access is but the first step to glory (and eternal cat happiness). Wanna be part of what happens next? Head to this blog post and learn how to help make the game even more awesome!

[h2]Share Your Gameplay and Become Part of KOTOVOD History[/h2]
Learning Factory needs your help! Record a 10 or more minutes of you playing the game, share a video using any way you see fit, write your name into Learning Factory credits and get a promo cat! Make history here

When it's cold and rainy outside, there's one thing that guarantees to make you feel warm and cozy: video games!

And Steam Autumn Sale is exactly about that: providing an awesome opportunity to grab as many amazing games as is reasonably possible! We're just here to remind you to not forget a copy of Learning Factory along the way:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1150090/Learning_Factory/

And the DLCs are 12% off as well!

The terraforming of Mars was contemplated decades ago by the I.L.L.U.M.I.N.A.T.I. (the Interstellar Lazy-Laborer Union for Mars Integration and Never-ending Aspiration of Technological Innovation) to become the ultimate place for cat well-being.

It was not only about making it habitable, but also about providing any kinds of things that cat would enjoy (including some humans for cats to entertain cats and craft goods for cat entertainment). Naturally, this package includes milk, that our feline overlords enjoy so much.

Needless to say, milk on Mars is purely artificial (no animals were harmed!). The question is: how did it get there in the first place? The I.L.L.U.M.I.N.A.T.I. have been delivering huge amounts of powder plant-based artificial milk to Mars, by making their pet humans think that they're actually sending 'scientific missions' there. Silly, silly humans. Mars was studied through and through centuries ago! Ever heard of 'unsuccessful' Mars missions? None of them were unsuccessful! Those huge rockets were sent out for milk delivery, to ensure the well-being and comfort of future cats. Glory to science!

[h2]v0.15.103 Released![/h2]

• New resource: Milk! Found in Milky Glaciers in the northern biome
  
• Regular Iceberg artwork updated
  
• New building: Milk Drill, for crushing Milky Icebergs and Glaciers into delicious Milk
  
• New building: Inventory Teleporter, brings incoming items right to you inventory from whereever it's placed
  
• New building: Scratch-Testing Booth, allows cats to play around with Claw Sharpeners while they're at the Factory. If they belong to a type of cats interested in Claw Sharpeners, they might add it to their shopping list and purchase it in a Store for a higher price
  
• Rich Iron Veins and Rich Copper Veins now appear on the underground level, allowing to mine quality metals from them
  
• Quality Catnip Juice now available for crafting, along with upgrades
  
• Quality Catnip Juice can also be harvested from Cacti
  
• Quality Mice Cold Smoothie now available for crafting
  
• Default terrain tiles can be replaced with those crafted by player if default tiles are not of maximum productivity (crafted tiles are of maximum quality by default)
  
• Improved Scenario editor: added the ability to place quality items, along with other minor improvements
  
• Late game Dr. Katz requests now provide quality items as rewards; might also provide high quality items as rewards, if Hype level is high enough
  
• Some research projects on the Research Tree were moved
  
• Decreased saving/loading time, decreased size of save game files
  
• The UFC Trade Guild now offers Zeppelins for importing at Tier 5
  
• Buildings that produce items that vary in quality depending on biome quality, now display the percentage of production quality
  
• Added an ability for mass pickup of items for upgraded Muiltitool (area grid view must be turned on for this feature to become available)
  
• Cat upsale purchases sometimes become disclosed when cats emerge from Cat Gates, the probability of disclosure depends on the Hype level
  
• Holiday outfits for cats
  
• Bug fixes
  

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1150090/Learning_Factory

Update, enjoy and don't forget to share your impressions with us on Discord or Twitter!

And don't forget to follow Learning Factory on Steam to get the news about new updates as soon as they're out there



[h2]How to Get More Involved[/h2]

Going to Early Access is but the first step to glory (and eternal cat happiness). Wanna be part of what happens next? Head to this blog post and learn how to help make the game even more awesome!

[h2]Share Your Gameplay and Become Part of KOTOVOD History[/h2]
Learning Factory needs your help! Record a 10 or more minutes of you playing the game, share a video using any way you see fit, write your name into Learning Factory credits and get a promo cat! Make history here

[h2]v0.15.101 Released![/h2]

• Trade Ports now provide Quality (sometimes High Quality) items in exchange for your goods
  
• New trading options in various Tiers of Trade Ports
  
• Quality Cat Vitamins and Bling now available
  
• Minimap texture quality improved, especially in the Guides
  
• Bug fixes! We're terribly sorry that the game wasn't launching for some users a couple of days back, everything should be working fine by now. For your inconvenience, here's a bunch of promo codes for rare cat maskot skins*: BIRD, GENIUS, GHOST, NOSFERATU, HUNTER, JOKER. Also, here's a couple of menu theme codes**: PROGRAMMING, KOTOVOD, SUMMER

*Go to the main menu, select 'Community', enter the code and press the green button to the right. Cat mascot will also be visible upon hitting 'Esc', while in-game

**Go to the main menu, select 'Community', enter the code and press the green button to the right. Themes can be switched in 'Settings' section of the menu

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1150090/Learning_Factory



Update, enjoy and don't forget to share your impressions with us on Discord or Twitter!

And don't forget to follow Learning Factory on Steam to get the news about new updates as soon as they're out there



[h2]How to Get More Involved[/h2]

Going to Early Access is but the first step to glory (and eternal cat happiness). Wanna be part of what happens next? Head to this blog post and learn how to help make the game even more awesome!

[h2]Share Your Gameplay and Become Part of KOTOVOD History[/h2]
Learning Factory needs your help! Record a 10 or more minutes of you playing the game, share a video using any way you see fit, write your name into Learning Factory credits and get a promo cat! Make history here