Surviving Ceres News

Greetings Pilgrims;

This is the next update in a series of updates related to visuals, VFX, SFX, and general polish.

The following aspects have been overhauled;

- New colonist models. We now have cool little stylized colonists with models for both males and females with multiple variations of heads, facial hair (for men), and hairstyles. As each colonist is generated a head, face, and hair options are selected and a profile picture representing that colonist can be found in the colony management HUD. Each colonist arrives in a space suit with a helmet and backpack. When they find a bed they will place their helmets and backpacks into storage and reveal their actual faces. I have also added the ability to customize the uniform for your colonists from the colony management HUD with your chosen colors.

- Expedition One has had its map overhauled and designed into a better space to battle alien bugs. The bosses now also explode through a wall and bust into the map when spawned. Expeditions two and three will be overhauled in the next update.

- Added bushes and grass clumps that begin to spawn after passing 75% terraforming progress.

- Added Butterfly and fireflies to the map that begin to spawn after passing 80% terraforming progress.

- Added a variety of tree models around the map that start to spawn and grow into full trees after passing 85% terraforming progress.

- Added fish to the lake that forms. These begin to appear after passing the 95% terraforming mark. I will also be adding flocks of birds to this terraforming event in the future.

All the terraforming event visuals that begin to appear are set up to not spawn if the player has built any structures in their vicinity. I can't know where players will make their base, or how large a base players will create. So, I have covered the map with trees, bushes, and bugs. If any building is in range they simply won't spawn there.

These items such as trees and grass also do not block future buildings you may place. If you spawn a building that intersects with any map visuals they will be removed on construction.

I have put a fair amount of vegetation and bugs around the map, but there is room to increase their density. I don't want to run into performance issues, but when we get to the stage where performance is being overhauled and monitored, if there are no issues I will increase the density of trees, bushes, and bug spawns.

Greetings Pilgrims;

I am pleased to announce that the first round of visual updates are now live in the demo and beta version of the game.

All 10 place-able machines have had unique visuals, effects, and sfc created and applied.

They are not insane high detailed AAA quality models, but I am not a AAA developer. They are however each unique with interesting animations and stylized visuals.

On top of the machines the early game facilities such as the refinery, basic manufacturer, and fuel refinery have had a visual overhaul.

There is still a lot of work left to be done in terms of set dressing, ambience, and advanced facilities. However, this is a great first step.

I will continue to work and bring the game to life with a unique visual style over the next few months at minimum. If you would like to help shape the games future consider joining the beta. You can do so by popping into the discord and requesting a key. Thank you for your continued support, and I hope you enjoy what has already been done with much more to come.

Greetings Pilgrims;

I have been bust working on new visuals, but many others have been playing the beta and providing feedback. A big thank you to everyone for the feedback as it has raised some great ideas and changes that are now implemented.

Change List;

- Fixed the rec-room pre-placed visual to match the final building
- Fixed an issue that could prevent ice from melting at the correct percents
- Fixed an issue that caused the mounted rail-gun when used manually that caused shots to go through aliens not triggering a kill and the attached achievement from doing do
- Added some extra slots to the liquid processor
- Added a new facility that auto generates filtered water. This facility only functions after 25% terraforming (when rain starts)
- Added the workshop which is a large 2 tiered empty space that is perfect for organizing machines and or storage boxes
- Fixed an issue that prevented the colonist achievements to not correctly fire when adding 8 and 12 colonists
- Reduced the normal level difficulty for drains related to air, food, and water. Some players found it a bit strict so it has been reduced. However, the highest levels of difficulty are still the same, only the lower difficulty settings where changed
- Added a toxic effect to the alien caves you can explore to acquire high end loot. There was not many ways to lose hit points so this change will enforce creating health potions. It is not to drastic of a damage over time, but it will make players move a little faster when inside the caves
- Added a warp type intro to starting a new game that makes the initial launch feel more spacey.
- Added and changed a few icons for certain items and materials
- Reworked the "Basic Base Constructor" visual. It is now better looking and smaller
- Added the workshop to the players starter inventory and reduced how many HUB's you start with to one

This is it for this small patch. I will continue to work on visuals, polish, vfx, sfx, and other aspects to bring the experience to life. Please continue to enjoy the beta and or demo while providing critical feedback that will be used to improve the game. Thank you for your time and support.

Greetings Pilgrims;

For a while, I and other beta testers have been aggressively playing the game and generating feedback around the overall game loop and feel. Using that feedback, we have refined, changed, and improved many aspects of the game. The beta client now offers a smooth and relatively bug-free run from start to 100% terraforming, with all critical systems functioning well and the game loop itself feeling smooth and fun.

We will continue to refine recipes and other balance issues based on feedback, but I am very happy with the current state of the game. Here is a list of the affected aspects without going into too much detail.

- Modified the speed of the advanced farms growth of raw foods
- Many buildings, parts, and goods were unlocked at the start of the game to make transitioning to mid-game smoother
- Many recipes were reworked to be simpler and faster for players
- Changed from night and day shifts to one 16-hour shift for colonists to reduce complexity
- Made planting of foods continuous
- Fixed an issue that caused some buildings to incorrectly trigger mission objective completion
- Changed many item stack sizes and weight values
- Changed some supply drop contents to be better or worse in different cases
- Cleaned up some machine HUD displays to better give clarity to relevant information
- Changed, added, and moved many lights to better light facilities
- Greatly reduced crafting times for machines/facilities that require a lot of crafting such as the parts machine and refineries
- Fixed a ton of small bugs as well as major game-breaking bugs (too many to list)
- Changed several help entries to be more relevant
- Updated the cheat menu with more parts, ores, bars, and goods
- Increased storage capacity of many machines and facilities based on importance
- Reworked some milestones and fixed issues with milestones not firing correctly. All milestones can now be completed
- Fixed issues with certain aspects not returning items on deconstruction
- Added pop-up messages for when drills are destroyed by aliens
- Many changes to turrets, alien hit points, drill hit points, and everything related to attacks to make them feel fun but never oppressive on the player
- Reworked milestone funding rewards to be valid but to ensure exporting is a critical aspect of the game
- Significant changes to colonist AI, stats, perks, flaws, task systems, and more. They are still far from perfect, but functioning quite well
- Fixed some achievements that didn't fire correctly. All achievements can now be earned
- Changes to facility timers such as terraforming speed, missile cooldowns, and manufacturing times
- Fixed an issue that caused the barracks to have the advanced farm pre-placed visual
- Fixed issues with the mounted rail gun that prevented it from hitting targets when placed to farm away from your terraforming facility
- Reworked delay times for terraforming when failing to stop bombers
- Fixed many issues related to expeditions. To many to list, but they are now functioning perfectly minus the visual level design


With these changes, as well as the several smaller patches over the last few weeks the beta is in a really good place. There is still much refining to be done in terms of balance and we will continue to do so as we get feedback. However, the game is running great, can be completed, and never feels to boring in terms of grinding materials and items. While never feeling too easy to where you aren't forced to make decisions and earn your progression. This is a very difficult thing to get perfect, but your feedback has already given the game a huge step forward in that direction.

I am now confident enough in the game loop to move on to the modeling/visual side of the game. Over the next several months you can expect to see updates with new machines, props, set dressing, VFX, SFX, and overall polish brought to the game.

We still have a long road ahead, but I am very happy with the current state of the beta. If you would like to take part in the beta please join my discord and request a key. Thank you so much for your support, and have fun out there.

Greetings Pilgrims;

This is another small patch aimed at improving and smoothing out the game play experience. Here is a list of changes made.

- Unlocked Copper Dust in the grinder
- Unlocked Iron Dust in the grinder
- Increased the parts constructor inventory capacity
- increased the grinder inventory capacity
- Reworked copper frames to be easier to craft
- Removed Research cool down times
- Reduced refinery time for all bars
- Reworked a few mid-game structure costs
- Added Blocks Of Ice to the supply pod with refined materials
- Added a Refinery to the supply pod that contains base modules.

These changes are more to come are aimed at making all aspects of the game transition and run smoothly for players. Currently early-game feels pretty smooth,and the beginning of mid-game does as well. However, the transition from colonists arriving to tending to there needs and starting terraforming felt sluggish. These changes are aimed at smoothing out that transition.

We will continue to test and refine the experience over the next while, you can expect more small patches soon.