AutoForge News

[h2]Prepare yourself for Strange Encounters![/h2]
Our first major update, Strange Encounters, is piecing together nicely and is coming up on the horizon! Launching into Early Access, Monster Invasions were extremely barebones and based on your feedback we knew they needed a lot of work. While there is a lot of upcoming content that we're itching to get to we thought it was important to put in the work upfront to not only make sure that this aspect of the game is fun, but that it rounds out the core gameplay loop for AutoForge. Factory Building 101- you gotta have solid foundations.




[h3]Monster Invasions[/h3]
Improving Monster Invasions was a broad task, that has had ended up having a lot of implications. It meant more types of monsters, more base defenses, better mechanics, better monster AI and in order flow properly - better mobility for the player (more on this below). There will be over a dozen new technologies to research, new kinds of defenses including (but not limited to) new types of turrets, elemental ammunition AND new kinds of invaders - each with different behaviors to strategize for. Does that sound like a lot? Here's a gif of us trying to navigate all of this - just kidding, here's some debug footage of the new 'intelligent' Monster Pathing (sorry if you really liked tunneling invaders turning the world into swiss cheese).




[h3]Fast Travel[/h3]
Sometimes your factory is under attack and you're halfway across the map. With fleshing out Invasions it was immediately apparent we had to push up another much-requested feature: Fast Travel. Now you can get around in no time by teleporting between Mana Conduits and even Apotheos! Between this and another upcoming movement skill we think this is really going help the flow of the game even outside of Invasions.




[h3]Interface Improvements[/h3]
All of this is great and all, but we heard you at the back asking about Other Stuff? Well, we're thrilled to say there are also a bunch of minor UI and interaction updates and fixes coming too. There's reworked toolbar interactions, so now clicking on a slot will always select that item - even if you have another item in hand. The inventory itself has received some additional attention, with QoL features like toggleable auto-sorting and functions to quick stack/deposit as well as trash items. Can you spot the other big change?




[h3]Release Date?[/h3]
We're not quite ready to announce a release date for Strange Encounters but we hope that this sneak peak has whet your appetite for what we have in store. For those who simply cannot wait for the update's full release we'll be doing a public experimental beta branch in the future and even some closed beta testing. We will post on Steam once the experimental branch is live but if you want to learn more about the closed beta testing then head on over to the AutoForge Discord server and keep an eye out for announcements there!

[h3]Steam Summer Sale[/h3]
AutoForge will be part of the Steam Summer Sale and have a lovely 15% discount.



Stay tuned for more news and, as always, thank you for your wonderful support!

[h3]The first major update, Strange Encounters, is well underway![/h3]
Here's a bit of insight into what we've been working on and what to expect for our next update!

[h3]Base Defense[/h3]
When we started this update we knew we wanted to focus on fleshing out the base defense aspects. As we began work on this we quickly realized there was more to be done than what we originally envisioned. The tech tree is receiving a major extension to accommodate a full array of new technologies and production materials for base defense. We're saving a closer look for our upcoming 0.3 preview but here's a quick sneak peak at the Manufacturer; a brand new fabricator focused on creating various ammunitions...



[h3]Feature Pivot[/h3]
Originally, we were planning to introduce Character Cosmetics with 3.0. After laying out a lot of the groundwork for them it became clear over time that other changes would be much more relevant and impactful to the focal mechanics that this update is built around. So, for Strange Encounters we have pivoted to improving many other aspects of the current game rather than introducing yet another unfinished system (this will give us the space to give the cosmetics system a more polished and robust implementation too). Changes that we are bringing instead include some much needed improvements to the map and other systems that we honestly don't think this update could have done without. We will shed some more light on some of this with our update preview in just a few weeks!

[h3]Expanding the Team[/h3]
If we've seemed a little extra busy lately it is because we have also been busy improving our Team! Game development requires many things outside of work on the actual game... such as hiring people to help! We have spent some time going through over 120 candidates for a Social Media Manager / Community Manager role and have found somebody who we think is going to really help us with AutoForge's development and the community. This is HUGE for us as it will free both of us up from a lot of things we have been juggling, so we can instead continue to focus on the things we do best, like the art and code! This doesn't mean we'll be going anywhere though, rather we're bringing somebody with much needed experience and time to assist in the areas we are lacking.

Thanks for keeping up with us and your continued support! For now, it's back to the Forge!

[h3]Stay tuned for the Strange Encounters Update Preview in just a few short weeks![/h3]

[h2]Introduction[/h2]
After over a dozen hours, I'm happy to say that I have read through every single feedback and suggestion post. First of all, I want to say thank you to every single person who took the time to make a post and contribute to those discussions. Instead of replying to each post individually I decided to write up this synopsis to give everyone an understanding of the general feedback and what we got planned.

[h2]Overview[/h2]
Feedback overall is quite positive but there is lots of room for improvement! My feedback document has over 150 points through it covering just about every aspect of the game; however, some points were brought up much more often than others. I will be focusing on these but know that I have taken in every point of feedback made thus far.

[h2]Planned Changes[/h2]
[h3]User Interface (UI)[/h3]
Factory automation games are always heavy on the UI and getting any UI just right is a huge challenge. This will undoubtedly be an ongoing task as we work through Early Access. Here are some more impactful changes we're looking at making:

• Left mouse button on a toolbar slot with an item in it will change your grabbed item to that toolbar item
  
• Numbers! Input and output numbers will be added everywhere such as input item rate for assemblers, forge fuel burn rate, and so on.
  
• Tooltips for all the things - we know some things are not obvious at a glance such as "Collection Range" and tooltips will be added for them
  
• The research tech tree will be receiving major changes in the future
  

[h3]Inventory[/h3]
Inventory and item storage in general have some significant changes coming in the next few major patches.

• Larger default inventory size
  
• A few very important items will be treated more as a currency
  
• The ability to turn off auto-stacking
  
• New Mainframe upgrades that will grant an inventory trash and the ability to stack to/collect from nearby chests
  
• Item stack sizes rebalanced - some will increase and others will decrease
  
• More item container options
  

[h3]Interactions[/h3]
There are countless quality of life changes to make to improve moment to moment interactions. Here are some examples:

• Foliage will automatically be destroyed when placing another block or transport tube/pipe on it
  
• Targeted structures will flash white to help show what and when you target something
  
• Dropped items (not by the player) will be picked up a little faster
  

[h3]Map and Zooming[/h3]
Huge changes are coming to how the map and zooming works. Here is a list of some of the changes we'll be making:

• There will be more levels of zooming including something between the two most zoomed levels
  
• Zooming out will no longer switch to map mode
  
• Max zoom level will be reduced slightly
  
• Map markers are being added for the player, resource deposits, and many other things
  

[h3]Inputs[/h3]
As with everything else, here are a few noteworthy changes we're planning to make to the controls.

• All existing inputs will be made bindable
  
• Escape while in map mode will exit map mode
  
• Secondary input options
  
• Jump time will be increased slightly to allow jumping up onto 8 blocks
  

[h2]Closing Thoughts[/h2]
This is not an exhaustive list as these are just some of the changes we have planned. Keep in mind that we're in Early Access and are a very small team so it may take some time to make some of these changes - but they are coming! We are excited to make these changes and to keep improving AutoForge with the community. Thank you again everyone for all of the feedback and suggestions!

Small patch to fix a critical issue!

[h2]Changes[/h2]

• Resolved crash when the UI element showing a tooltip is hidden while the tooltip is visible such as watching the progress of a Technology complete
  

Here's a small patch to help resolve some more critical issues. I snuck in a few smaller less risky changes in as well. Thanks all for your patience and sorry for these UI crashes - they've been much worse than I realized!

[h2]Changes[/h2]

• Resolved multiple crashes caused by the UI trying to do naughty things
  
• Resolved a crash related to monster AI
  
• Resolved issue with blocks sometimes being invisible
  
• Resolved issue with automatic harvest method triggering when tool slot is empty
  
• Resolved issue with block quantity not being displayed in interaction text
  
• Add new setting to toggle if UI is automatically positioned or not
  
• While firing the blaster it counts as "attacking" which means you cant do other actions at the same time
  
• Reduced Mana II fuel amount to be better balanced with the newer Mana II recipe costs