Update 71: Memories Of Others
[p]This build includes a number of requests from players, as well as some general minor performance passes and code-review work that I decided to undertake. The game is very stable, but there were some rare issues that kept popping up in one specific section of the code, and so I did a full pass of that and got all that sorted out.
I've been really blown away by the response to the launch, and also by the flood of reviews and comments on the forums and discord. Thank you to everyone -- I'm so honored that it's resonating so strongly with so many people.
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 71 Changelog[/h2]
[h3]Quality Of Life[/h3]
[/p][h3]What's New In 1.0[/h3][hr][/hr][p]
If you missed the retrospective of what changed from the start of Early Access to the 1.0 release, you can read that here:[/p] https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/2001070/announcements/detail/538879349212841215
[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]
I've been really blown away by the response to the launch, and also by the flood of reviews and comments on the forums and discord. Thank you to everyone -- I'm so honored that it's resonating so strongly with so many people.
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 71 Changelog[/h2]
[h3]Quality Of Life[/h3]
- Jumping To Favorite Units: A new set of "remember units" hotkeys has been added. This uses the numbers 1-6, using alt+number to remember a unit, and then shift+number to jump back to it and select it. Or ctrl+number to select it without jumping the camera view back to it.
- Saving And Returning To Camera Positions: A new set of "remember camera positions" hotkeys has been added. This uses the numbers 7-9, using alt+number to remember exactly where your camera was, and then shift+number to jump back to that specific camera position. There are another three slots available for this that do not have default bindings, if you need more.
- Render Pipeline Optimization: Added a handful of micro-optimization to the render pipeline, which will help out with people who are viewing a lot of buildings at once on an older cpu.
- Save Speed Optimization: Added some performance improvements to the custom serializer that is used for saving the game. It was already fast, but now it's even faster, especially on older cpus.
- Load Speed Optimization: Added a variety of micro-improvements to the savegame-deserialization code, which yields roughly a 33% improvement in read speed on even very fast cpus. For older cpus, the benefits are likely even higher.
- Too Elite To Bribe: Updated the text on alarmed POI guards so that it now explicitly mentions that at the spaceport and nuclear silos (and other high-security areas of that sort), the guards cannot be bribed.
- Predators Finally Willing To Say "They'll Live": Adjusted Worker Predators so that they are now able to be equipped with the Oath Of Pacifism. If you're pursuing the amusing "won't kill, but torment everyone" type of city, then this is important.
- Excess Captured Raptors Are Now Euthanized: In Cybercratic Ambitions, if you're trying to clear up lurking war raptors, previously it would just silently do nothing if you didn't have pens to keep the raptors in. This was super confusing. Your raptor-catchers now automatically euthanize and raptors that they don't have room to store.
- Not Quite As Hellraising As Desired: Fixed an issue where the Hellraiser achievement was able to be completed after the first doom is already complete. It looks like I never really set up this achievement right, to my surprise.
- Rendering Code Review And Hardening: Fixed 8 different potential nullref exceptions that were in the rendering code. They were only hit under extraordinarily rare circumstances, and I fixed one like this in the past, but now all of the possible issues of this sort are fixed up.
- It's Totally Okay To Kill Androids: Android kills are now tracked as "Androids Destroyed By You In Combat" with the added note: These androids are not people and do not count as combat kills. Oath Of Pacifism switches to morale damage, but not systems-damage-based damage, so this was a problem spot, it turned out.
- Worker Androids No Longer Ambiguous About Their Kills: Worker androids were previously racking up "soldiers killed by you," but not actually registering those kills as combat kills. They now register combat kills if they make them, especially now that you can make (most but not all of them) non-lethal if you wish to.
- New Build Sidebar Category: Added a new category onto the build sidebar above the "all" category called "most." This is the same as the "all" category, but it excludes anything that doesn't have enough internal robotics for you to build another one of it.
- Equipment For Worker Androids: Equipment can now be set for worker androids. However, only additional cpus (which don't do much), or the oath of pacifism (which makes them a no-kill style).
- Worker Android Visibility In The Hardware Screens: Your worker units are now shown in a new category in the hardware windows, so that you can see how many you have and adjust their equipment like any other kind of unit.
[/p][h3]What's New In 1.0[/h3][hr][/hr][p]
If you missed the retrospective of what changed from the start of Early Access to the 1.0 release, you can read that here:[/p] https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/2001070/announcements/detail/538879349212841215
[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]