Surviving Ceres News

Greetings Pilgrims;

First, I have ended the beta ahead of this build. The beta players have been amazing, but I want to keep them out of this last build so they have some surprises for the launch. A huge thank you to everyone for their help with the game; it would not be nearly as bug-free and smooth without your feedback.

On a sadder note, I have decided to pull the translations. I am OK with having machine translations for the beta and the demo. But I am not OK with launching the game with terrible machine translations. I had hoped to get community help to polish translations, but it didn't happen. For that reason, I am temporarily pulling all non-English versions. My previous Steam title, "Game Dev Masters," had machine translations, and around 90% of the total negative reviews were basically "Translations are bad." I want to avoid any negative reviews for Ceres related to poor translations. I am very sorry to any non-English players who had planned to play the game. I can't move forward with bad translations. If the game succeeds, I will re-invest that revenue into getting professional translations, but there are no guarantees of success.

Let's get into the patch notes.

• Added a new sorting option for your inventory to sort items by name.
  
  
• Changed all machines from having a recessed name to an extruded name that is more visible from angles.
  
  
• We have added sounds to the alien lifeforms. They will now make noise when they play animations above the flat plateau. To ensure it isn't annoying to players in their bases, they can only be heard when somewhat close to them.
  
  
• We have added a new sky camera view you can swap to while placing structures. This allows players to get a view from above to ensure the placement of base modules aligns with their plans.
  
  
• We have separated crafting material requirement texts into multiple text lines, allowing recipes to show which materials you have and which are missing. We use green and red texts instead of just making the text red if you have one of the materials but not the others.
  
  
• We added a delay to the sound played when damage is taken. This will prevent the groaning when taking damage rapidly from being too annoying. It will now only play once every 10-15 seconds.
  
  
• We added coffee as a drinkable liquid to the game. This new drink increases colonists' happiness and comfort and gives the player five extra max stamina every time they drink it.
  
  
• I fixed a variety of issues that could occur when deconstructing certain base modules that interact with colonists. These should be mostly fixed, but I will continue to debug this issue to ensure it is fully handled.
  
  
• Based on feedback, we changed the save and exit button locations in the options menu. We had an exit game without saving at the bottom, and a few players were hitting that by accident. So, we have shifted some button locations to alleviate this issue.
  
  
• Fixed some issues related to colonist's jobs and how they were displayed.
  
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause colonists who walked from the inside of the base to the outside to trigger your pilgrim to start losing air as if you went outside.
  
  
• Some upgrades in the research HUD are now hidden by default if they were gated by other unlocks. Some players were unlocking recipes for the Advanced Base Constructor before unlocking the Advanced Base Constructor itself. This leads to players having no funding left when they realize their mistake. To avoid this issue, recipes are hidden until you unlock other things. You can also show all gated recipes to see the complete list.
  
  
• We have added a new text message to the research HUD and the research display that tells you the most recent thing you unlocked or upgraded. This should help any players who unlock something and then forget what they just unlocked.
  
  
• Fixed an issue with deconstructing the wireless power room that would prevent it from getting the correct power production/usage numbers when reconstructed.
  
  
• Changed register storage to name storage as it was confusing.
  
  
• We have changed the size of the decorations, such as plants. They were too small, but now they feel appropriate.
  
  
• We fixed an issue where you could place buildings above the mission control room as the dish spins, allowing players to clip the satellite dish into structures.
  
  
• I have added a new precision rotation key (Default CTRL). Many players wanted machines to snap, but the free-form building system I implemented didn't really allow for that. To fix this issue, I have added the ability to get precise and rotate by flat single degrees. This will enable players to line up machines to their base perfectly.
  
  
• We have made a big proofing pass and improved all the texts in the help menu and item descriptions. We recently redid the data pads and mission tips, but now we have done the rest of the texts and improved them significantly. They are now much more straightforward and concise.
  

There have also been some significant tweaks and changes to the mid-game and late-game, but since players have yet to experience these aspects, I won't bother to list all of these changes.

This patch marks the finalized content for release. The following month focuses on aggressively testing for issues, optimization, and polishing. I still have a list of features and additions that I want to bring to the game, but these will be post-release updates. The amount of success the game finds will affect how much post-launch work we will do with the game, but even if it falls flat, I have at least 6 months to a year's worth of updates planned. Hopefully, it will find an audience, and I will continue to work on the game for many years, but there are no guarantees in game development. Thank you so much for all of your support and help with the game development over the last few years, and I am very excited to get the complete game experience into the hands of players.

Greetings Pilgrims;

So, the next fest is over, and we got some fantastic feedback. I have been compiling a list of players' requests, and this update brings the more minor but impactful changes into the game. Some of the larger ideas will be worked on this month, with the hope of dropping them in April. A huge shout out to everyone who tried the demo, and especially to those who took the time to give amazing constructive feedback on Steam and Discord.

Here is a list of changes found in this patch;

• We have added an option to allow players to invert mouse Y (up and down) and mouse X (left and right).
  
• We have added an option to use low-flashing VFX. Some players found harvesting at night a bit bright, so this option adds a variant to those VFX that reduces any bright flashes. I also reduced a couple of facility VFX with this option. If any player encounters a VFX they find too bright, let me know, and I will include it in this system of alternate VFX.
  
• We completely reworked mission objective/tip texts and data pad texts, adding critical information and giving all of these texts a serious polish pass for grammar and clarity. We still need to do this for the help texts found in the help wiki, but these critical mission texts have been seriously improved.
  
• We added some names to the colonist name generation pool that players requested in the discord SC_Project channel.
  
• We added a couple of new posters for content creators who have been showing the game some love: DarkSky and Drayus. I am not in a position to offer sponsored videos, but I am happy to reward creators who promote the game through in-game posters.
  
• We have reworked skylighting, light shafts, and lens flares. Overall, the aim was to increase visibility at night in the early game, which we have achieved. This is a tricky aspect that we will continue to examine as we develop, but I am happy with the current lighting and hope that players who found it a bit dark on Ceres feel better about the nighttime visuals.
  
• We added an iron and ice deposit to the starting rocket area. This was a suggestion to help players learn about deposits and push them not to build beside the rocket but to locate the large flat area for the base building. I am not 100% sure how I feel about these nodes being there. I might switch them to rocks or something else that denies placing a HUB beside the rocket, but for now, there are nodes. After players see the new landing spot, I would love to hear feedback on this issue.
  
• We changed Register Storage to Name Storage. It was register due to colonist logisitics, but some of that was pulled back as it added complexity that didn't benefit the game. This new name the storage fits the use better.
  
• Changed the overweight penalty to limit speed in a flat linear way instead of a percentage-based penalty. If you had good moving speed, this penalty was too low; now, it will always slow you down enough for you to care about weight management.
  
• We added an auto-turnoff feature for basic farm irrigation systems. When the water runs, if it senses no active plants growing, it will automatically turn off, saving you ice.
  
• We did a bit of recoloring to the main inventory/player stats HUD. I made the scroll bar black to make it pop out, and I recolored all the stats to match their colors displayed on the primary HUD bottom left panel. I stick to a small color palette of only a few colors I know work together, as my color theory is not expert-level. However, it was suggested that I color the stats, and after doing so, it looks good. Let me know what you think.
  
• There were also a couple of fixes for the beta client that I won't bother to list as this was mainly focused on next fest feedback, but everything that has been reported as an issue in the beta has been sorted out as well.
  

That is it for this patch. Some of the more enormous suggested ideas will be worked on this month, as well as some optimization and anything that arises from Beta feedback. Thank you so much to everyone for their interest and support in the game. The feedback has been very positive, which is the only thing that matters to me. We may never find that many players, but if the players who play the game have fun, I can live happily with that. Stay tuned for more updates as we head towards the 1.0 launch.

Greetings Pilgrims;

This update brings a few small changes and additions to the DEMO build but primarily focuses on the late-game aspects only available in the BETA build.

A new key action was added to remove the player's main HUD. This is by default on the "P" key but has been added to the key-binds section of the options menu for rebinding.

We have added new visuals, animations, VFX, and SFX to all the late-game facilities.

Facilities with colonist workers have had a worker terminal added to them where colonists will sit and work on the machines of that facility.

On top of the facility face lifts many other aspects have been added or reworked. These include such things as;

-Ice walls no longer just disappear when you cross terraforming thresholds. They have multiple states and visuals for multiple phases of melting, eventually ending in just being removed completely. But, this makes it more realistic for the melting process.

-More trees, bushes, and bugs have been added to the later terraforming stages. After doing some experimenting I was able to increase the visual fidelity of the world post terraforming.

-Both expeditions two and three have had finalized levels created for them.

In addition to these major aspects, there have been many smaller additions, tweaks, and changes made mostly aimed at streamlining the end-game and improving the overall game experience.

The DEMO is feeling great, and we are pushing toward "Next Fest". The May 2nd release date is well on track, and I will continue to work and use all your feedback from the demo and beta builds. If you would like to be a part of the game beta please join the games discord and request a key. Thank you so much for all of your support.

Greetings Pilgrims;

This update is yet another round of visual improvements for Ceres.

There are a few small fixes and one major fix. In the last update, a change made to the mess hall broke its collision, making it impossible to be placed, which locked progression, as the mess hall is one of the requirements to bring in colonists.

This has been fixed as well as a handful of smaller issues that were brought to my attention by testers.

On the visual side, there are quite a few small details and some larger changes that will be quite obvious to returning players.

For example, the rocket has been overhauled in both exterior and interior. On the interior side, I have added some venting and smoke particles that indicate oxygen is flowing. Some players were unsure how to get their oxygen back in the early game and this change should help make it more obvious that you can replenish oxygen in the early game by using the rocket.

There are still some aspects in the works, but the demo is feeling and looking great. I am planning to finalize the demo very soon and include it in the upcoming Next Fest. After we reach that point we will switch focus to overhauling the late-game visuals and animations.

If you would like to help improve the full game please consider joining the discord and requesting a beta key. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I am very excited for the future of Ceres.

Greetings Pilgrims;

This is the third part of improving the game's visuals and overall presentation with various models, VFX, SFX, and tweaks.

There are quite a few visual and sound changes in this update, and I am not going to list them all. If you have played previously, you will see what is new. If you haven't played before, then the game will just be that much better when you do decide to try it out.

My current aim is to finalize everything related to the early game that is included in the demo as I am planning to join the upcoming "Steam Next Fest" with the demo build. However, some late-game aspects have already had changes as well. Some of these were done for the new trailer on the store page, and some were done just because it made logical sense to do so at the time. Ideally, when the demo is complete we will move on to finalizing the late-game visuals. Most of the late-game facilities are still just using placeholder visuals, but we will get there. I am targeting May 2, 2025, for release, and I believe we can hit that mark largely due to an amazing group of beta players helping out.

There are a few fixes and tweaks in this patch based on small issues found by beta players, a huge shout-out to all of you for your amazing work. The game's quality would be far worse without your ongoing help. There were no major issues found, but there were many small issues such as the wrong pre-placed visuals, incorrect tooltips, and some incorrect indexing of items. These have all been fixed.

On top of the fixes and changes, we have added some new content and items as well.

There were 16 new decorations added to the decoration constructor. These include a variety of wall posters, signage, and some plants that you can place around your base (they do not produce oxygen).

I considered some other types of decorations such as rugs and chairs, but it felt clunky and I pulled them out. If anyone has feedback on what other sort of decorations would suit the game, please let me know I am very much open to any ideas.

Another small but awesome change was the completion of the dynamic main menu. This is something the majority of players will never even notice, but I think it is super cool. In essence, as you terraform Ceres in your save the main menu also reflects these changes with nine different visual stages based on your progression. I put together a short YouTube video showcasing these stages if you are interested you can check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiA2atCR91A

It is a small detail that many will never see, but I love small details that add up to an amazing game in general. So, we did it.

I expect to drop one or two more updates to the demo before the next fest begins. There are still some elements that need to be reworked and improved. If you would like to join the beta and help guide the future of the game, join the discord and request a key.

Thank you for your ongoing support, and I can not wait for players to experience the finished version of the game later this year.