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Learning Factory News

Community highlights: Localize this!



Hey factory builders!

So, this week's Leearning Factory update got postponed for a week, due to seasoned epidemiologic situation (some of us got sick with the flu, but we're all betteer now!)

Which might be good, because at least one, maybe even a couple, new juicy buildings now have beter chances to appear in the game! Check out this WIP lava-pumping machine:



What do you think it does? Let us know in the comments or come to our Discord server!

Speaking of which: we have changed the procedure of working with community localizations. Instead of using external services, we now rely on good old-fashined Google Spreadsheets.

If you want to help us translate the game into your native language, please go to our Discord server, we will provide you with the link and appropriate editing rights.

Just a reminder: if you aren't happy with community translations, you can always try ChatGPT translation as an alternative.

In other news: though Steam Deck is not yet officially supported by Learning Factory, it can be launched still, and we improved the controls for better access to in-game hotkeys. Let us know if it helps, portable geeks!

Another friendly reminder: don't forget about our collection of items in Steam Points Shop! Sergei the artist makes wonderful factory art to be observed from above, but his works' magic really shows at close-up perspective:



Last but not least: please don't forget that we have a new game going to Early Access in less than a week! Add Craftomation 101 to your wishlist, to make sure you don't miss the release discount!


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

At Luden.io, we develop games while constantly listening to the feedback from our awesome players. If you feel proactive, you're very welcome to do one or more of the following:
  • Subscribe to our newsletter, to get the latest info about the game's development, and a sneak peak of the upcoming features and events
  • Record 10 minutes of you playing Learning Factory, and share it with us via this form. Your feedback is so helpful, that we'll include you into the game's credits for doing this
  • Come say hi to our Discord server, or Twitter
  • Check out some other games by us!

Learning Factory: Now with demo!



Hey factory builders!

It's been almost 3 years in Early Access, and we seem to have completed the list of things to have on Steam!

Let's see:

  • Mod support and Steam workshop: check!
  • An array of beautiful items in Steam points shop: check!
  • And now, a demo: check, and check!


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

Send it to your friends and significant others! Let the fellows at school/work know, too!

Learning Factory's free demo has limited content, but its choke full of our significant chill vibe, a true zen factory building experience! And it has cats, too!

No reason to not download it. (Except for maybe if you own the game already - then you'd have to ask a friend to show it to you on their account)

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[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

Hotfix v0.26.170



Here's a handful of kilobytes that make Learning Factory better:

  • Bug fixes
  • Lunar New Year in-game event is now effective

Just a normal update - New Update, v0.26.169



Hey factory workers,

This update is pretty standard stuff: polishing the game, improving the visuals, adding some features requested by you, the players! Business as usual, for a change.

However, we might have a Learning Factory-related surprise for you later this week! Stay tuned, stay alerted! Until then...

[h3]v0.26.169 Released![/h3]
  • New upgrade: Priority Merger is an upgrade for the X-Switcher, and it only lets items from one of the two inputs to pass - unless it's empty, in which case items from another input are allowed (suggested by Lord Neodym)
  • Re-rendered Rope Maker
  • Re-rendered Dredge
  • Animated Furnace



  • Updated engine version (comes with slight performance improvement)
  • Added contextual error messages for promotional buildings
  • Added contextual error messages for Roadside Boutiques
  • Upgrade for more spacey Storages now provides even more space
  • Decreased Dormitory upgrade costs in the early stages of the game
  • Grandma cats now appear a bit later in the game
  • Hitting screenshot buttons no longer skips slides in the comics (suggested by S'Kleer)
  • New cats are now registered at the Factory as soon as they arrive, and not when they reach the Stores (suggested by S'Kleer)
  • Research projects slightly rebalanced
  • Trading deals slightly rebalanced
  • Added ChatGPT-made translation + community translation for the Estonian language
  • Updated fonts for the Arabic, Hebrew and Thai languages
  • Added alternate, ChatGPT-made translations for both Chinese languages
  • UI/UX fixes
  • Bug fixes (kudos to S'Kleer)


A friendly reminder: you can always chat with us directly on our Discord server. We're using Discord for work, so you'll find many of us there most of the time, don't be a stranger!

An even friendlier reminder: don't forget about our collection of items in Steam Points Shop! Sergei the artist makes wonderful factory art to be observed from above, but his works' magic really shows at close-up perspective:



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

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

KOTOVOD Workshop is now open! - Major Update, v0.26.168



Hey factory builders!

[h2]Steam Workshop (Beta) Now Supported[/h2]
Learning Factory is a game developed in close contact with the community, so support for mods was in our plans from the very beginning. An option to create a custom scenario and/or share a generated map with your fellow factory builder was in the game for some time now.



Today we're finally bringing all those features under one comfortable umbrella of Steam Workshop, so all the players could have access to them. But what's also cool is that you can share your work with just a couple of clicks!

At the moment, the following kinds of mods are available:
  • Sharing of Ruins: pre-made parts of map that might appear upon generation of a map can be shared from Map editor
  • Sharing your Factory is available at any time in the game, just press 'Esc' and find the respective button
  • Sharing a Blueprint: select a Blueprint in the Blueprint Library ('B' by default), click 'Details' and share your Blueprint to the Workshop from there
  • Sharing a map seed: available from map generating screen in the Freeplay mode

You can read the detailed instructions in our official guide

We have added a small selection of mods of our own (you can run around that goofy Factory that we use for making screenshots, among other things), and the rest is up to you!

This is, of course, not the Learning Factory's Workshop final form (hence the 'Beta' subheading). At this point, we've focused on adding stuff that can be easily crafted and uploaded from the game, but we've got more plans!

And if you're looking for some hardcore modding action, like changing game assets, adding/modifying item recipes and making new types of cats - come to our Discord, let's discuss it like serious people!

Note: Workshop is not supported for Mac users at this time, but you can download a mod and paste it to your Local mods folder (located in Learning Factory folder, by your saved game files).



[h2]v0.26.168 Released![/h2]
  • New upgrade for Storage units: underground Storage
  • Regular Storage redesigned as well, now with visible stacking points
  • Re-rendered Apple Collector
  • Re-rendered Box Office
  • Animated Dredge
  • Animated Pillow Maker
  • 2 new articles in the Wiki, explaining the mechanics of terraforming and tending to Martian plants
  • Catopia Milestones bonuses re-balanced
  • Reaching Milestones related to Catopia Ark now also slightly improves Factory stats
  • If a Legendary cat has a 5+ Loyalty level, it will request High Quality (++) items (suggested by Zydox79)
  • Sorting by item categories is now available in the Backpack
  • Middle mouse button now serves as an alternative input for the 'Q' button (suggested by Brewski-Casegod)
  • Improved Map/Scenario editor
  • New interface for Docks menu, feedback form, Zeppelin menu, Territory purchase menu, the inventory, and the 'Esc' menu windows
  • The variety of sounds increased greatly
  • In Freeplay mode, you can now play Story content on a random map (and this is the default option now)
  • Translations updated: German, Spanish, French, Japanese, Italian, Spanish (LatAm), Polish, Portuguese (Brazil)
  • Added ChatGPT-made translations for all Steam languages, community localizations are still available
  • Bug fixes (kudos to bloom16night, Lord Neodym)




Please don't forget to add Learning Factory to your wishlist, it's very important for us, and brings the 1.0 release closer:

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



[h2]Re: Factory[/h2]

In this section of patch notes, we answer the question from community that were submitted via the in-game feedback form and/or seemed especially interesting to us, You can always contact us directly in the comments or join our Discord server

Q: "When clicking on a catopia shuttle part, it would be nice if the inventory opened instead of closed (the part where you have to drop off 100 vitamins and so on)" -Zydox79 A: The dedicated interface for providing items to the Ark modules is part of our plan already, it will make its' way to the game later on.

Q: "I wish I could use lava bridge for water as well. This would increase comfort while building underground as I can use the lava bridge for both obstacles.
Maybe a renaming of ""bridge"" to ""wood bridge"" and ""lava bridge"" to ""stone bridge"" will keep the immersion.
That a wooden bridge does not fit for crossing lava might be somthing which cats with their much better brain find obvious and could be used for some of the joys of the game :)" -Lord Neodym A: Terraforming could definitely used some improvements in the code, but that's not one of our immediate tasks for now... As for the naming, you have the point, but there's certain logics in the way those items are named as they are now. The name must explain the purpose of the item at the first time a player stumbles upon it, so adding another word to the name would make it harder to comprehend.
Subsequently, the word 'Lava' in the name points where to place a bridge; before we had it there, many players would try placing them on the water instead. So, to state it again, your suggestion does make sense, but could ruin UX for some of the players.

Q: "It would be nice if ML training automatically stops when ""trained into stability"". I received a message ""ML model trained into stability"" and another, that it should be 20% more effective as the current one. But upon reaching the shop with the models, the new one (Linear Regression: 22) has a far worse error rate of 3.xx in compare to the previous used one of 1.18 (Linear Regression: 21)." -Lord Neodym A: If a model would automatically stop after trained into stability, it could lead to a situation when the data changes, and the model quality will start degrading over time, as it had stopped learning. You can put any model on hold manually though!

Q: "I wish building configuration would be copied into blueprints as well. If I copy a building via Q key and have at least one in my inventory, all settings get copied to ne new building. If I need to place a blueprint and craft it afterwards via quick build (J) the building configuration is at default. Now I need a second step to copy the configuration manually."-Lord Neodym A: We'll definitely add this one to the game, thanks!

Q: "For the ""Balanced Merger"" it is stated, that it will evenly merge two lines. This is only true as long as both lines are packed. As soon as at one of the lines items are missing, it will pull fully from the remaining line. This can be ssen at my Cat Foot production. As long as enough fish was available, everything went well. But as fish supply is too low, all factories are now backed with enough Catnip Algae. But fish will never get resupplied due to the inbalance happen before. It would be great if the Balanced Merger requires even inputs waiting if one line is empty. Thx4Reading and this awesome game :)" -Lord Neodym A: We might have to specify Merger's description, as it was intended for situations different from what you described. We'll think of introducing other kind(s) of Merger, but we do not have plans for introducing another building for a task as narrow as that, unfortunately.


A friendly reminder: you can always chat with us directly on our Discord server. We're using Discord for work, so you'll find many of us there most of the time, don't be a stranger!

An even friendlier reminder: don't forget about our collection of items in Steam Points Shop! Sergei the artist makes wonderful factory art to be observed from above, but his works' magic really shows at close-up perspective:



----------------------

[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