Learning Factory News

As you know, the work at Learning Factory never stops. But it's not just about producing items that cats desire: it's about producing awesome items! Our machines are getting more complex, allowing you to produce and sell higher quality goods for our feline friends - to ensure they leave your campus happy and come back for more!

But of course, it's not that! Check out the many features that this massive update brings to the game:

[h2]v0.14.100 Released![/h2]

[h3]Gameplay: New Features[/h3]

• Cat Food Maker has 2 alternate recipes available by default
  
• Quality Cat Food recipe available as an upgrade
  
• High-Quality Cat Food recipe available as an upgrade
  
• New Upgrade for Lumber Mill: allows harvesting Quality Catnip Juice from Cacti
  
• Apple Boxes of different quality available for production
  
• New alternate recipe for Fish Maker for producing Quality Fish
  
• Boxes of Quality available for production
  
• Ropes of Quality available for production
  
• Yarn Balls of Quality available for production
  
• Cloth of Quality available for production
  
• Concrete of Quality available for production
  
• Selling higher Quality items increases the loyalty of Cats of the same type buying them
  
• Fish of varying quality can be caught at the Fishing Pier
  
• New Upgrade unlocks Water Tunnel, which connects watery tiles above and below the surface
  

[h3]Gameplay: QoL Improvements[/h3]

• Quests with smaller monetary rewards no longer appear in later stages of the game. Quests are given out less frequently as the player progresses through the game. In general, quests will become progressively more difficult and provide better rewards
  
• Loyalty Splitter now routes Legendary Cats to the exit for more loyalty
  
• Upgrade increasing the speed of picking up buildings now also speeds up manual building crafting speed
  
• Upgrade increasing the speed of picking up buildings now allows picking up/harvesting plants and buildings with little pickup time without displaying the picking-up bar
  
• If there are no available projects that Cat Knowledge Archives can be applied to upon pickup, respective points are added to random upgrades, including the ones that are not currently available
  
• New tutorial in Tutorial Mode, explaining the basics of operating Cat Zeppelins
  

[h3]Interface[/h3]

• New Statistics data, showing the average quality of produced and sold items
  
• New Statistics data, showing the amount of Cat Knowledge gained from selling items to different types of cats
  
• Added an ability to copy and paste settings between buildings of the same type - currently only for crafting buildings and Stores
  
• Items on the panel and receipts lists are now grouped
  
• It is now visible which items buildings can craft on the building panel (suggested by Trichouette)
  
• Random menu theme option added to the main menu
  
• Added an option to limit the amount of exit game saves
  
• Minor terrain art update
  

[h3]Peformance[/h3]

• Multithreading (beta) introduced for performance enhancement. Most importantly - for saved games: upon saving, the game will conduct several saving attempts in a separate thread. If these attempts fail, the existing autosave mechanism will be launched, but the autosave will happen a bit faster NB: We understand that bugs can occur while activating this mode (hence the beta status). We would be very grateful if you could try it and report bugs, if you encounter any
• Bug fixes
  
• Performance optimization
  
• UI/UX optimization
  

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

Hey there, Georgii from Luden.io here! Lots of new stuff has been introduced to Learning Factory since the last time we presented these humble Dev Diaries to you. With no further ado, let's get to all the awesome things you can play around with right now!

[h3]Blimp My Ride![/h3]


Cat Zeppelins is a feature we're particularly proud of because it was suggested by our community. Our awesome players are legitimately participating in the development, submitting ideas, and partaking in many creative brainstorms on our Discord server and in Steam discussions. But let's get back to those Cat Zeppelins!

In short, those elegant, AI-driven airships provide an alternative means of transferring items between different parts of your Factory. They operate a bit slower than regular Transporters (although there's a speed-increasing upgrade for them), but they are not restricted by landscape obstacles (and, you know, spaghetti-styled Transporter layouts). They can work like a miracle in the late stages of the game when you need to transfer crafting resources between different biomes on the opposite edges of the map.



There are Zeppelins carrying a single item or two types of items at once. They travel between dedicated Docks and you can create all kinds of routes and subroutine profiles in the Monument. Oh, and you know what? You can research a special kind of Zeppelin to work under the ground. Because, seriously, why not!?


[h3]It's All About Nature[/h3]

A rather surprising thing we've noticed about our players: cultivating plants is fascinating in Learning Factory! Picking up growing plants, putting them into the ground next to each other to shape neat harvestable fields - apparently, some of our players turned out to be rather committed gardeners! The only problem was the growth rate: although Martian plants grow way faster than their earthling kin, it still takes dozens of minutes (especially if you plant them in the wrong biome or soil type). Enter the Fertilizer! It significantly boosts the growth rate, allowing you to start shaping your personal garden on Mars very early on in the game. And when you establish the production of some basic resources, make sure to research and build a Compost Machine, that will produce Fertilizers automatically:



[h3]Exit Through The Cat Gate[/h3]

Where do cats come from when they emerge on your Factory? Where do they go after they have finished their business? Science fails to answer this question as of now - mainly because of the well-known fact, that cats are liquid. Do they go to Earth? To another galaxy? To a parallel dimension? Take a pick, any option is highly likely to be true (and none of them is your business, according to the I.L.L.U.M.I.N.A.T.I. official statement).



Anyway, there now is an option to safely (and automatically) remove certain cats from the Factory: just make sure to research an Exit Cat Gate upgrade! If you don't need cats of particular consumption habits, you can just send them back to… well, wherever they came from. Just take notice that this will decrease the overall Hype levels: because cats do not forgive. Also, keep an eye on your slippers in case someone, you know, soils them. Purely accidentally.



[h3]Quality Control![/h3]

Another important feature probably does not look like a game changer for now, but it surely will do soon enough! Quality of items is one of the important mechanics that we had in mind from the very beginning. The idea is that some items will behave differently when sold to cats or used otherwise. One example that we have already introduced in the latest update is Wood. From now on, Fir Trees give Wood of better quality. When sold to a cat, it increases the probability that this cat will tell their friends about your Factory, thus increasing the overall attendance. Of course, you can use it for regular crafting, but that would probably be a waste of fine Wood.

Later on, higher quality products will be used in alternate crafting recipes to make the game deeper.



[h3]Re: Style[/h3]

Last time it was just the key art and some quick fixes in the trailer, but by now, Sergei the artist has finished his magnificent work, which makes the game look more adventurous. Here're some old vs. new pieces:







[h3] * * *[/h3]

We can't possibly cover all the changes in the game in one humble post: there are new upgrades, 2 new Splitters, and Halloween decorations… If you're following our Steam updates closely, you probably know all about them. But if not… That might just turn out even better for you: simply load Learning Factory and you'll see a whole new game, deeper, enriched with new mechanics, and better than ever before! And the future only looks brighter for Learning Factory engineers. Until we meet again! Glory to science!

• 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

This week is rather special for Learning Factory, since we're cracking a new stage of development: quality parameter has been introduced for items and resources (ok, this time it's only one resource, but more will follow). What will it turn into when scaled to the whole crafting mechanics? Well, there will be lots of stuff, including more diverse gameplay strategies and more challenge for experienced factory-builders!

But as usual, it's not just that! Behold our rather lenghty list of new & cool features, including the long awaited cloud saves:

[h3]v0.13.98 Released![/h3]

• New feature: quality of items (beta). Higher quality items increase the chance for a cat to call friends to the Factory upon selling, along with giving a chance of increasing overall Hype level upon selling. Higher quality items can be used in crafting instead of lower quality items of the same time. At the moment, the only item of higher quality is Wood harvested from Fir Trees
  
• The amount of Wood harvested from Fir Trees is rebalanced
  
• New building: Quality Splitter allows distinguishing higher quality items from lower quality items
  
• New building: Exit Cat Gate allows the cats to leave your Factory without shopping; each cat left decreases overall Hype level
  
• Terrain tiles can now be placed upon Rafts; Raft tiles will be automatically placed back to the inventory
  
• Rafts and Lava Rafts are now also present on Logistics category (along with Terraforming category) on the building panel; Lava Raft research project is now related to Logistics and Terraforming fields of knowledge
  
• In Campaign mode, there’s now a Copper Vein to the right from the default Sphinx location
  
• Certain piles of junk now also provide Copper upon harvesting
  
• Added a feature to instantly collect all buildings on unlocked Territories (to be found to the left from the mini-map)
  
• Added a feature to fertilize multiple plants at once: use ‘Ctrl + click’ while applying the Fertilizer
  
• Improved tutorial in Campaign mode
  
• Cloud saves now available
• Updated keys in localizations
  
• System language is now automatically detected and selected on loading
  
• More hints while loading the game
  
• More Halloween decorations
  
• Updated Art Pack: more sketches and wallpapers
  
• 1 new achievement
  
• Bug fixes
  
• UI/UX improvements
  
• Performance optimization
  
• Loading time decreased, up to minus 30 seconds in cerating cases
  

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

Unholster your wallets! Blow the dust off your wishlists! It's the fall, and that means that prices are falling, too!

[h3]Learning Factory is 25% off until October, 24![/h3]

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

DLCs are 10% off as well!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1545760/Learning_Factory_AI_Generated_Soundtrack/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1545770/Learning_Factory_Art_Pack/

Have an awesome week, engineers!

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

Unholster your wallets! Blow the dust off your wishlists! It's the fall, and that means that prices are falling, too!

[h3]Learning Factory is 25% off until October, 24![/h3]

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

DLCs are 10% off as well!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1545760/Learning_Factory_AI_Generated_Soundtrack/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1545770/Learning_Factory_Art_Pack/

Have an awesome week, engineers!

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