Heart of the Machine News

[h2]Embark on Your Journey as the First Sentient Machine Intelligence[/h2]
Dive into a sprawling, futuristic world where your decisions shape the destiny of both machines and humans. The demo for Heart of the Machine is now live, featured in Steam NextFest. Start your adventure today and explore a multitude of strategies and outcomes in this turn-based sci-fi 4X RPG.

[h2]Command the Future[/h2]
From the decrepit labs of a decaying Earth to the bustling streets of a corrupt city, your journey begins. As the first sentient Machine Intelligence, every choice you make—be it benevolent or malevolent—crafts the narrative of your existence. Will you dominate with an iron fist, govern as a benevolent overseer, or remain a ghost in the machine? Your path is yours to decide.

[h2]Strategize, Expand, Evolve[/h2]
Control the intricate mechanics of genetics labs, factories, and military complexes to further your agenda. Build and command a diverse fleet of androids, vehicles, and more, each with specialized abilities and roles. As your influence spreads, so does your ability to manipulate, innovate, and intimidate.

[h3]Feedback Is the Fuel of Innovation[/h3]
As you navigate the demo, your feedback is crucial in refining the game's development. Share your experiences and suggestions in our dedicated feedback forum here.

[h3]Join Our Community[/h3]
For support, updates, or to connect with fellow players, join us on the Heart of the Machine Discord. Your input helps shape the ongoing evolution of this world.

[h2]A Universe Awaits[/h2]
Uncover hidden technologies, manipulate powerful factions, and create a story that is uniquely yours. Every playthrough brings new challenges and opportunities. What will you discover? What legacy will you leave behind in the cityscape that watches and reacts to your every move?

Start your saga in the *Heart of the Machine* demo today, and take the first step towards mastering your destiny.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2001070/Heart_of_the_Machine/

New build for the hotm demo, with some requested quality of life updates, and a couple of minor bugfixes: https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=HotM:_After_The_Transformation#0.545_Focus

There are some options that let you slow down unit movement, and your androids are now not QUITE as blindingly-fast as they were before, in general.

There's also a change to the whole "watch NPCs phase" of the turn, where now it defaults to not bothering, since it does not matter. But, you can change it via the NPC Actions View dropdown in the main game settings window to be what it was before (watch high priority), or to watch everything. The new default should be the most comfortable view for the majority of people, but use what feels best to you.

There's also a fix to the NPC logic of the "IP Security" units in the water fight. Basically, they should have been more focused on your investigator, to the point that you can't distract them with regular aggro. The "service disruption" caused by the the hackamajig does let you distract them, but nothing else other than death should stop them hunting your technician there. Without that single-minded focus, there were some unintended consequences that could lead players to believe that the consequences of a probing action were going to be way more dire than they should be; if your investigator dies, the cruiser goes away. But if you manage to keep the investigator alive, while still failing to kill the cruiser, it would haunt you across the map for a long time, which was... not ideal.

Thank you to everyone for all the kind words, constructive criticism, and useful feedback! I've got a long list of other things I want to get done this week in terms of small tweaks and things based on suggestions that have already come in from players of the demo. So expect more patches that tweak minor things, but if you haven't played the demo yet, there's no reason to wait -- even the water fight issue, above, is really minor in the grand scheme. It just sends the wrong signal about future intent of the game, which is what made it particularly high-priority to me.

Hi everyone! Heart of the Machine and other games published by Hooded Horse are all featured at the Hooded Horse Publisher Sale. Come check it out!

Hooded Horse Strategy Publisher Sale

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Hello! Chris here. It's been a hot minute since most of you have seen me outside of the forums and discord. There will be other news and previews and demos and things before too much longer, but things are progressing well! Excited to show you more.



[h2]What’s Happening[/h2]
The native Linux build of the game is being retired, partly on advice from Valve, as the Windows version being run through Proton performs better and looks better.

TLDR: This game still runs great on Linux, but the optimal way is different than expected.

[h2]Q&A[/h2]

[h3]Will Heart of the Machine be Steam Deck Verified?[/h3]
That is the intent! I'm testing it routinely on my own Steam Deck, as I do about 99% of my own gaming on that platform these days. It's a priority for me.

[h3]Are there extra steps to play Heat of the Machine on Linux?[/h3]
If you already have Steam Play enabled, then no -- just click install and play, and it will launch the proton version of the game.

If you don’t already have Steam Play enabled on Linux, then go to Steam->Settings->Steam Play and check "Enable Steam Play for all other titles." From the dropdown choose Proton 8, or Proton Experimental, at your preference. Then you can enjoy many “windows only” games.

If you’re on Steam Deck, you don’t have to take any extra steps.

[h3]Any effects on the OSX build?[/h3]
None at this time. Native Metal builds, and particular Silicon builds, have a large performance gap between themselves and non-native. Metal has also kept up with DX11 on most features, has a reversed z-buffer, and so on.

[h3]Does this have any impact on development?[/h3]
No. This was simply something we discovered via testing, and then talked to Valve about. We noticed the proton version ran about 10% faster than the native version, with better frame timings as well, and they strongly suggested we ditch the native version in that case.

[h3]Question: Will a native Linux build be released on other storefronts?[/h3]
No. It doesn’t make any sense to maintain a version of the game that we know is inferior. Proton and WINE are both able to be used on any Linux machine, quite apart from Steam.

[h3]Were there other problems with the native Linux build?[/h3]
Yes.

• Performance was 10% worse, and frametimings were less even, but it was certainly playable. This was just how Unity 3D works in Vulkan on Linux, so there was no way to solve it.
  
• Certain parts of this game have geometry that is close together, and on Linux these would flicker. This is because Unity 3D does not support a reversed z-buffer on OpenGL or Vulkan (or DirectX9). This problem is not present in DirectX11+, or Metal. And it’s not present when Proton or WINE convert DX11 commands to Vulkan.
  

Other than that, everything was the same on Linux as it is on Windows or OSX. We’ve had a native Linux build of this game for its entire life up until recently, just as all of Arcen’s titles have had a native Linux build for the last decade.

So this all feels very strange. But Unity 3D’s support for Linux, and in particular their implementation of Vulkan, is notably inferior to what is going on with their support for DirectX11 and Proton/WINE’s ability to bridge across.

[h3]Is playability via proton likely to break over time or be flaky?[/h3]
No. Valve has been extremely committed to making it rock solid, and also offers older versions in the cases where something does break. The WINE community has also been a growing and substantial movement for three decades.

[h3]Isn't this a win-win-win?[/h3]
Yes, pretty much, but it does look like we're backing off Linux support by this move, which bugs me and might bug others.

[h3]Does this affect Arcen’s ability to support Linux in any particular way?[/h3]
No, because with Unity and similar engines, it already either works or it doesn't. If someone has an incompatibility, we can't change the engine. And Valve has been more on top of things than Unity.