Update 38: Legion Of Armaments And Intel

[p]I'm really excited about this build, although it's kind of a midsize one. This one has some killer quality of life items, which really make the game a lot more fun to play in the lategame. It also includes a huge amount of rebalance to weapon balance curves for the lategame.

This new version of the attack bar is my favorite quality of life improvement in this build:

There are two other builds also making their way through the localization pipeline at the moment. The contents from both of those can be previewed in this build in English versions of the game, but the writeups for them will happen when those pieces become available for everyone.

If you’ve spent time with Heart of the Machine and want to leave a review, that’d be appreciated. No need to say more than you mean, but if you’ve been meaning to write one, I’d be grateful. Steam reviews carry weight. For a project like this — developed by a single person over many years, every review makes a difference.[/p][p]Honest thoughts are what matter. Whatever your experience has been, sharing it helps. It’s a powerful way to have your voice heard and contributes to how future patches are prioritized and addressed.[/p][p]Thanks for reading and for playing.
[/p]
[expand]
[h2]Update 38 Changelog[/h2]
[h3]Attacks Incoming Bar (Seen Above)[/h3]

Split Into Five: Updated the "enemy attacks incoming" so that it is no longer one big bar, but instead 5 smaller sections within that one bar. Please note, this feature is only in English until an update about a week and a half from now.
Category By Type Of Target: It shows separate icons and numbers that light up or are dimmed out for "main units," bulk units, structures, workers, and then others (mostly animals or allies). The first three show up a lot more red as a background when there are any attacks in them, and the last two show up only half-red, as they're a lot less important typically.
Death Notes: Per category, you can also now see if there will be any deaths. If the icon is red, then there's at least one death. If it's white, then there won't be any deaths in the list.

[h3]Quality Of Life[/h3]

Hangar Ranges: Improved the experience when you are building any aerospace hangar so that you can see the range of ones under construction.
Stealth Hangar Ranges: Improved the experience of building stealth aerospace hangars and stealth android launchers so that they show the range of existing launchers without you having to hover over a valid building.
Upgrade Tab Clarity: When there are multiple upgrades affecting a single target (a structure or piece of equipment, etc), then when looking in the upgrades window it only shows you the portion of the increase that comes from that type of upgrade. When actually considering a new upgrade, it continues to show the full "change from current value to proposed new value," as that's not confusing in that context.
Inspiration Exhaustion: On the inspiration tab of the VR screen, it now shows how many times each upgrade can be unlocked, and how many you've done out of the total. That number was mistakenly 51 previously, but it's now 50 even.
VR Category Lights: The VR screen categories now show with one color if they have items in them that you can do right now, versus if they have items in them that you can't afford at the moment or otherwise can't do for whatever reason, versus if they have nothing at all in them or are locked at the moment. Previously the first two types of category were not visually distinct, which was annoying.
VR Screen Turn-End Bleed-Through: If you're hanging out in the VR screen and ending turns, it no longer has any bleed-through of explosions or other projectiles appearing where they should not. It also moves through turns a bit faster, since the projectiles are not simulated as directly, but you still will hear the sounds of shots hitting and things exploding.
Consumable Colors: All of the various consumables in the game now have specific colors, for the same reason that the resources do. It makes them much easier to see in lists and tell apart. This is getting increasingly important as the number of them has grown.
Faraday Cage Advice: There is now different text in place for the Infiltration In Progress in the task stack if you are able to use Mindrunners to SysOp for an infiltrator, or if a Mindrunner can't do that because of a Faraday Cage.

[h3]Balance - General[/h3]

Grace Period Salaries: The game no longer charges for salaries of scientists when the dooms have not yet started (aka during the grace period). They don't do any research during the grace period, so having them charge salaries is a bit unfair.
Late Mind Farm Patrons: If you somehow have a mind farm that has passed Company Plateau without having either a coupon program or nicotine additives, then you could be stuck with no people signing up for your mind farms at all. This has been resolved so that you now have income in this case, and it is staggered so that it accelerates the lower your gap is from the total seats available (more than 200k available seats is the most, then above 100k is still accelerated quite a bit, and above 50k is accelerated a little bit).
Much More Meat: Better Meats now improves Industrial Protein Vats.
Multiplicative Upgrade Overhaul: When there are multiplicative upgrades to the effectiveness of jobs or equipment or unit stats, these no longer multiplicatively stack with each other or with additive entries. Instead each multiplicative upgrade is based on the original value, and then is additively combined into the larger whole. In terms of existing content, the rebalance of equipment keeps this from being a nerf. In many cases it winds up being a buff.
More Spots For Mysterious Protein: Canned protein storage is now 500x larger than it was before. If you have a sudden surge of canned protein, this is pretty important. (Canned Protein is people. And pets.)
Upgrades For Converted Units: The game now supports upgrades that only apply to player units, meaning that they can be inclusive of enemy unit types that later come under your control. The upgrade to "Universal Mech Armor Piercing" is thus now able to apply to captured mechs, and not just those that are part of your consciousness, for example.
Buffed Squad Upgrades: For flat upgrades that apply directly to unit types, these now are more powerful for bulk and worker unit types, and a number of captured unit types. If a flat upgrade was +10 on a regular nickelbot, for example, then it will be +40 on bulk nickelbots since they are a squad of four. This already was the case for things like equipment, but now it applies to flat upgrades directly to the underlying type as well.
Internal Maximums: Pretty much all of the internal robotics have been adjusted so that they can be upgraded at least 40 times, if not 80 times, except for Avionics Core, Drone Core, Wind Engine, Archivist, Neuroweaver, Android Drop-Shuttle, Decoy Minder, and Mind Annex. A few like Cultivators and Stewards have been increased so that there are a total of 200 upgrades or more possible.
Queen Bee Preservation: If you explicitly scrap an Apiary, it now gives you back the Pollinator Bee Queen. Previously she was just lost. As an added bonus, buildings that contain certain precious metals as part of their construction now refund those when you scrap them, too. Specifically Liquid Gallium, Alumina, Bastnäsite, Neodymium, and Scandium. All other resources are lost on scrap, same as before.
Exploration Site Stability: Exploration Sites previously would all move every 5-8 turns, without any warning. However, sometimes they would move even sooner, and in general this was not showing you when they would move, while it actually was meant to. None of this was good. Exploration Sites now only move every 12-18 turns, and they don't all move at once. They lock into place and definitely don't move until the time is up, short of the building they were at being destroyed. They also show properly how long they will remain at their current location in their tooltip, so that you can plan an assault on their location around that.
Reinforcement Moratorium Visibility: There has always been a gap between when a military base gets reinforcements and when it is next allowed to get reinforcements. You can now see that number on the tooltip for the POI.
Blocking Reinforcements On Purpose: When the number of guards at a POI drops to zero, there is now a 7 turn gap enforced before reinforcements can be made at that location. This allows you to clear out a military base without having enemies put reinforcements back into it too quickly. This number can be seen in the same tooltip.

[h3]Balance - Equipment[/h3]

Disruption Grenades: Now have an attack power of 4 rather than 0, so that Disruption Velocity works better with them.
AMP: AMP-V Suppressor and AMP-II Metalmark base attack power increased from 0 to 3.
X77 Rotary Cannon: Base attack power increased from 5 to 7.
Autoguns: ZFM-58 Autogun and ZF-58 Autocarbine base attack power increased from 15 to 20.
Handgun Muzzle Velocity: These upgrades have been doubled, in terms of their incremental improvements and their maximum values. This makes them more comparable to what they were with the new equipment math, but in general also makes them more valuable in the early game (whereas in the past it was more in the late game only).
Dual BS5 Anti Pistols: Now properly have their Systems Disruption Power scale twice as much as other pistols, since there are two of them.
Dual BC8 Handguns: Now properly have their Fear Attack Power scale twice as much as other pistols, since there are two of them. This was already working for their attack power, but was not applied to fear attack power until now.
Dual Handgun Base Attack: The attack values of all the dual handguns have been increased by 1.5x to make sure that they are still competitive in the new scaling. This makes them a lot more powerful in the early game, incidentally.
Dual BS5 Anti Pistols: Now have a base attack power of 6, in addition to the systems damage that they do.
Osmium Musket: The initial attack power has been dropped from 90 to 66, and how intensely it scales upwards has also been dropped. This is because it benefits from both railgun and shotgun upgrades. It still is exceedingly useful, but it no longer outclasses the punt gun when upgraded to maximum.
Shotgun Projectile Density: Has been increased from 20 to 30 per upgrade, and the maximum number of upgrades is 8 now rather than 5 (so 240 max rather than 100).
Grenade Buffs: The base attack power of Area Grenades, Electro Grenades, and Disruption Grenades have been doubled. This makes them notably more competitive in general.
Grenade Explosive Density: A new upgrade in Small Arms Research, which gives 20% incremental upgrades to a 300% maximum. This is the only upgrade for area grenades and frag grenades in particular, but it makes all of the grenades a lot more competitive in the late game.
Rifle Muzzle Velocity: Increased from 25% to 40% boosts per upgrade, with a maximum of 660% rather than 350% (this is an increase in total upgrades from 10 to 14).
Rifle Projectile Density: Increased from 15 per upgrade to 18, with a maximum of 144 rather than 75 (this is an increase in total upgrades from 5 to 8).
Staff Of Precision: Base attack power from 10 to 30.
Melee Buffs: All of the claws and knuckles and swords have had their attack powers doubled.
Grapple Knuckles: Now have an attack power of 6 rather than 0.
Melee Skill: This equipment upgrade has been buffed so that it gives a 30% bonus per upgrade, and has a maximum bonus of 460%, rather than giving 20% bonuses and a maximum of 300%. This increases it from 10 upgrades to 12, too.
DG-5 Disruption Bomb: Now affected by Disruption Velocity upgrades.
BS-5 Anti Bomb: Now affected by Anti-Systems Effectiveness upgrades.
GG-3 Electro Bomb: Now affected by Electro Velocity Effectiveness upgrades.
SG-52 Electrorail: Its default attack power dropped from 130 to 90, but now is affected by Electro Velocity Effectiveness upgrades, making its maximum attack power now 450 instead of the older 390. This is compared to the 720 max on the SG-50 Magrail, which is the primary damage-dealing hardpoint railgun.
GM-1 Smart Mortar: Now has 100 attack power, rather than 0, so that it benefits properly from Artillery Explosive Density.
SY-5 Anti Pistol: Now has 5 attack power instead of 0, so that it benefits from the attack power portion of Anti-Systems Effectiveness and Handgun Muzzle Velocity.
Staff Of Precision: Attack power from 30 to 40.
Baton Of Judgment: Attack power from 10 to 20.
Staff Of Silence: Attack power from 0 to 8.
FF-5 Buckler: Attack power from 0 to 40.
BC-27 Strafe: Attack power from 10 to 25.
FS-31 Firefall: Attack power from 60 to 80.
Artillery Explosive Density: No longer boosts fear attack power, as nothing that it would boost actually has that.
Target Their Weapons: Now gets boosted by Disruption Velocity.

[h3]Balance - Higher Difficulties[/h3]

Hard Mode: Unit morale and systems integrity are now increased by 1.4x. Health for units in hard mode goes up by 1.5x to 1.8x on average already, so this is a more tame version of that which keeps morale from being too wimpy on that difficulty level.
Extreme Mode: Unit morale and systems integrity are now increased by 2.8x. Health for units in hard mode goes up by 3.1x to 3.6x on average already, so this is a more tame version of that which keeps morale from being too wimpy on that difficulty level.

[h3]Bugfixes[/h3]

Premature Emergency: Fixed an issue from the prior update where if you were in a stealth network, then the emergency network source would be unlocked prematurely.
Hidden Military Buildings: Improved most of the all of the midsize military bases so that there are no buildings completely hidden inside other buildings. There were only a few per base, but it could be an issue if you were really unlucky with your investigations. This won't help with existing cities, but will apply to new ones.
Exception Fix: Fixed a rare exception that could happen in RecalculateSubCells on game load.
XML Editor Retired: The "arcen xml editor" is no longer shipped with the game, as it is too incomplete to be useful. I use it for some purposes internally, but it's not useful to players.
Deal Tooltip Fixes: Fixed several issues with the Deal math being wrong. It made the values kind of nonsensical at times. It's overall trying to show you what the net for that resource will be per turn at the new level (NOT the "net change from current"), and so it has now been updated to also show you what the "net change for that resource" is on the regular deal tooltips as well, to make that consistent. Beyond that, it was just showing the number outright wrong, or inverted, in other predictions. That's all now fixed up, too.

[/expand][p]Full notes here.

[/p][h3]Connect with the Machine[/h3][hr][/hr][p]Want to stay in the loop or share your thoughts? Join the conversation across these platforms:

💬 Discord – Best place to share feedback, get direct responses, and to talk about Heart of the Machine.
📜 Reddit – Discuss strategies, share ideas, and exchange tips with the community.[/p]