Aground Zero News

I wanted to add some last minute polish and improvements before the Early Access launch on Thursday. None of the updates here are major, but many of them are quite nice!

Changelog:

• Added Seaweed - you can find it underwater in new saves and collect/place it, but it's purely decorative.
  
• Added ore detector (you can craft it in the lab) - lets you find nearby ores that you have unlocked in the mining rig.
  
• Replaced placeholder icons
  
• Added allow request from storehouse option to crafting structures.
  
• Added ability to set priority for different items in a storehouse.
  
• Belts entering teleportals will now go through the teleportal (if it is active) - it will always send items to the same location (see the output arrow when building/dismantling them). However, structures will not request items through teleportals, nor will splitters automatically use teleportals.
  
• Splitters will now prioritize sending food to bunkers with less food (not closest).
  
• Adjusted recipes, some items now need cables instead of wires to produce.
  

Additionally, you might have noticed a small update 0.2.1 that I didn't post a changelog for. For those curious, here were the changes in 0.2.1:

• Added subway music
  
• Added meteors to surface
  
• Added way to change what kind of ramp to place
  
• Added language option (only english for now)
  

I hope you enjoy, and are excited for the upcoming launch!

Mark your calendars, Aground Zero is launching into Early Access January 18th, 2024! We also made a new launch trailer:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

I hope you’re as excited as I am - the Early Access launch will bring you from being stranded underground, to building an underground base, ascending to the surface and building vehicles. We have lots more planned for Early Access updates too - like the first spaceship, new areas, and a moon base!

We’re also going to do a launch stream where we will talk about the game and hit the big release button together: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1795570/view/3896241210503044028

Wishlist the game if you haven’t already, and definitely let us know if you have any suggestions or feedback!

Aground Zero launches in Early Access January 18th at 2PM EST! Join us in stream for chatting about game and hitting the big green launch button!

I hope everyone is having a great final week of 2023! There's a lot of news about Aground Zero, so lets get to it!


First, we decided to do an Early Access launch for Aground Zero. We've been considering this for a while, and given how well Early Access went for the original Aground, we decided to do it again! The Early Access launch will start with all the questlines up to the Surface, including most of the planned content on the Surface! However, there will still be more to come, including an ending, Spaceships (yes, we're adding those), and potentially other features based on player feedback - like a magic path.

Our Early Access launch will be in January 2024 (we'll be announcing the exact date soon, along with a new trailer), and you can check out the Early Access section of our storepage for more details about our plans for Early Access.




While a lot of our work has been on the Subways, Surface, and post-demo content, we've also been making a lot of improvements that affect the demo, so I decided to update it! Consider this a holiday present from me!

Changelog

• Performance optimizations
  
• Edited character textures
  
• Improved NPC pathfinding - they can now use teleportals (but will not change the destination of them).
  
• NPCs will now fire laser guns if they have them in their inventory to shoot enemies
  
• Bunkers will now request food from storehouses
  
• PAI can perform an emergency teleport to the starting location if you get stuck
  
• Updated logo
  
• Repaired cryopods now let you advance time when sealed inside.
  
• Bugfixes/minor improvements.
  

Perhaps the biggest change is the performance optimizations, which will keep the game from grinding to a halt on the biggest bases.


I've been posting a new progress video for Aground Zero every Tuesday, and will continue to do that between now and our Early Access launch (and possibly throughout Early Access). While I have been adding them to the videos section of our community hub on Steam, it's quite possible you missed them, so here they are:

[previewyoutube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8bDROOh8Bw[/previewyoutube]
[previewyoutube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h-1GRlYNQA[/previewyoutube]
[previewyoutube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjG407Dhloo[/previewyoutube]
[previewyoutube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBtNfYz3JZM[/previewyoutube]
[previewyoutube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l6FPqpYeCw[/previewyoutube]

I hope you're looking forward to more updates, and if you want to be notified when a new video is added, you can subscribe to us on Youtube, or grab the AgroundUpdates role on our Discord server!

I hope you're all excited - 2024 is going to be a very Aground Zero filled year!