Update 56: Late-Game Difficulty
[p]There are a number of improvements to difficulty that are based on player feedback for some late-game scenarios. Peace After Brutality on the beta branch was particularly over-tuned before, so I'm glad to have the feedback from folks on that score.
This build also makes it substantially easier for people to find the Budding Cyberocracy on their first timeline, removing a false-choice between that and and the smaller of the two prison routes. That clears up an area that has been a bit confusing since late 2024, and makes it so that people who are trying to be nice at all can't get themselves gated out of the Cybercratic Ambitions upcoming Tier 3 goal by just playing normally.
Work is going well on the next Tier 3 goal, which got renamed from Cybercratic City-State to Cybercratic Ambitions. A big thanks to the writing group in general, but Ken Schulte and Joe Liu in particular for hugely steering me in the proper direction with this. A version of this should be available on the beta branch in the next week or so.
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 56 Changelog[/h2]
[h3]Clarity[/h3]
[/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]
This build also makes it substantially easier for people to find the Budding Cyberocracy on their first timeline, removing a false-choice between that and and the smaller of the two prison routes. That clears up an area that has been a bit confusing since late 2024, and makes it so that people who are trying to be nice at all can't get themselves gated out of the Cybercratic Ambitions upcoming Tier 3 goal by just playing normally.
Work is going well on the next Tier 3 goal, which got renamed from Cybercratic City-State to Cybercratic Ambitions. A big thanks to the writing group in general, but Ken Schulte and Joe Liu in particular for hugely steering me in the proper direction with this. A version of this should be available on the beta branch in the next week or so.
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 56 Changelog[/h2]
[h3]Clarity[/h3]
- Main Path Clarity On The Victory Screen: In the spots where it lists how many paths you have done out of how many paths are available, it now shows the main paths, and then a secondary section for optional extras like No Murders, No Kills, or higher difficulties. For those just wanting to stick to normal difficulty, this makes it easier to see where there's things you've not done at all yet.
- Don't Be Afraid Of Timelines!: When you are absolutely at the end of anything you can do in your current timeline other than The Revelation or any Tier 3 goals, then a new "Consider Starting A New Timeline" item appears in the task stack. This gives some advice for new players, and if you hover it, then the handbook entry "Timelines Beyond The First" appears. These are only available in English at the moment.
- My Tiny Murderers Were Blending In Too Much: Homunuculi in destruction mode now use a different color icon to make them easier to tell apart from the incoming mechs.
- Stop Distracting Me With Prisons: Please Be Our Cyberocracy now only has one option, rather than being a fork. If they ask you to be their cyberocracy, you can either do it or not do it, versus saying "okay but let's be sneaky" and then getting railroaded into the prison route that has nothing to do with the cyberocracy.
- Removed A Confusing And Vague Project: The "Meaningful Social Change" project has been removed, as that was just about one of the two routes to the prison breaks, and was confusing and strange and always has been. It had 80 wisdom that it would grant, but beyond that it didn't actually do anything.
- Don't Worry, Kids Still Get Trapped In Your Basement: The "Trapped Child" previously only happened during the "Meaningful Social Change" project (okay so that was the one thing it did), but now that happens if you say yes to the cyberocracy and have not already met the kids. That allows you to get into the prison route the same as "okay, but only if we are quiet about it" used to, but without being a forced-fork.
- "For The Sake Of Those Bound" Is No Longer Such A Difficulty Spike: For The Sake Of Those Bound now spawns only about 30% as many enemies on normal difficulty. On hard mode, it spawns the same numbers as before. On extreme mode, it now spawns about 10% more than before.
- Peace After Brutality Is Notably Less Brutal: Peace After Brutality now spawns substantially fewer enemies on all difficulty levels, but the various difficulty levels still spawn different amounts. Basically I was testing things out on normal difficulty as if it was extreme, which is... too hard!
- Unable To SysOp Warehouses: Fixed an issue where the warehouse infiltration sysops in Peace After Brutality would fail with an error.
- Traitors Have Been Re-Educated: Fixed a general issue where allied NPC units did not recognize your bulks and captured units as being allied in all cases, and would fire on them in a traitorous way. They will still attack your units in these cases if that unit has aggro with their cohort, but otherwise will leave them alone.
- Exploration Sites Move If Burned-Down: Fixed an issue where exploration sites could remain locked to destroyed buildings. They now move when the building is destroyed.
[/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]