Surviving Ceres News

[p]Greetings Pilgrims;[/p][p][/p][p]This small patch addresses some issues reported with the latest 1.4 update, which I recently launched.[/p][p][/p]

• [p]The advanced farm inventory was increased to 20 to make logistics easier[/p]
• [p]Some typos were found and fixed in a variety of menus[/p]
• [p]Drones no longer take raw foods from the auto-cooker[/p]
• [p]Drones no longer take ores from the refiner, only bars[/p]
• [p]Fixed an incorrect title in the Research Menu[/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue with teleporting inside your base from the teleport facility that would cause your oxygen to drain[/p]

[p]There are still a few changes and improvements I want to make to the drone system, but they are larger in scope and will require more time. I intend to incorporate some of the larger changes into the next major update, scheduled for October.[/p][p][/p][p]Thank you for your continued support. Please reach out if you encounter any issues or have suggestions for improving our existing systems. I am always open to your feedback.[/p]

[p]Greetings Pilgrims;[/p][p]I am pleased to announce that update 1.4 is now live, featuring some amazing automation and logistical additions that the game has needed to tie late-game base/colony management together. As well as some other significant changes and tweaks based on player feedback.[/p][p]It will not make any older saves unplayable. However, depending on how progressed an older save is, some newer additions might not be available in your playthrough. Many changes and additions will benefit older saves, but some of the newer facilities, machines, and tools may not appear in your blueprints if you have progressed past certain stages.[/p][p]With that disclaimer out of the way, let's get into the patch notes.[/p][h3]
Changes And Tweaks[/h3]

• [p]Variety of fixes for the recycler for items that yielded the incorrect returns or weren't recycled. [/p]
• [p]Reduced the "Mission Control" from the advanced base constructor to the basic base constructor, and made it cost simple iron ore. You can only place one mission control, which you start with. However, if you lose or misplace that mission control, you will be in big trouble progression-wise. This change makes that no longer an issue.[/p]
• [p]I added an upgrade for the advanced refinery that adds an auto-refine option for the facility. It still requires a worker to function, but you can now open the auto-refine menu from the console added to the facility, select the type of bars you wish to be auto-refined, and then start the auto-refining process. The refinery will then use any materials in storage to fulfill requests.[/p]
• [p]I have added all bar recipes to the advanced refinery. You can now remove basic refineries to upgrade to advanced refineries if you wish. This change also enables the auto-refining of both basic and advanced bars.[/p]
• [p]I increased the advanced refinery storage to 20 slots to help make life easy.[/p]
• [p]I increased the mess hall storage to 20 slots for the same reason, and the basic refinery received a boost to 16 available slots.[/p]
• [p]I have added a button to the initial supply window that allows you to view and review the starting items every pilgrim has when they launch, helping newer players avoid wasting funding on items they don't need.[/p]
• [p]I have replaced the HUB, located in one of the supply drops on the map, with a storage container. With the addition of the workshop, you no longer need a second HUB early game. [/p]

[h3]
Additions[/h3]

• [p]I added two new foods, a tomato and melon pie, as well as a tomato pie. A player's six-year-old daughter requested this, and I couldn't say no to that.[/p]
• [p]I added a Drone HUB display that shows drone stats and gives access to the drone control menu remotely from wherever you place this in your base.[/p]
• [p]I added an Auto-Cooker that allows you to select recipes to auto-cook, and the machine will generate those recipes if the necessary materials are available in its inventory. You can also access the inventory directly or the settings menu, depending on where you click on the machine. The Auto-Cooker is found on the "Machine Constructor"[/p]
• [p]I have added a new level of logistics to the game in the form of drones. They can be found and utilized from the new "Drone HUB", which is unlocked and crafted on the "Advanced Base Constructor" for a reasonable material cost, only requiring dolomite. Making it available shortly after terraforming begins.[/p][p]There are various upgrades available for the drone hub, which affect movement speed, carry capacity, and recharge time for drones found in the "Research and Development" center.[/p][p]From the Drone HUB, you can open the settings menu to review, assign, or clear any tasks for drones. You can have up to 10 drones at one time, and only one Drone HUB facility can be built. There are approximately 616 separate tasks that you can assign to drones based on your preference. You can move items from any machine, drill, facility, or storage location to any other facility, machine, or storage location.[/p][p]My task preference is raw foods from the advanced farm to the auto-cooker. The auto-cooker goes to the mess hall, the water refinery goes to the mess hall, and then the collection from drills is sent to the auto-refinery or storage. As for what tasks you want to automate, that is up to you. But I wanted to give a system that ensures player freedom.[/p][p]This new Drone HUB makes base and colony management significantly less annoying to deal with in the later game, allowing you to focus on manufacturing advanced items and structures to help push terraforming forward as quickly as possible.[/p]

[h3]
What is Next[/h3][p]This update was substantial and took a lot of work, but should take the game to the next level in terms of automation, logistics, and the late game. After a short break, I will begin work on the next major update, which will center on player customization, expanded creative options, and player choices. This will include aspects such as coloring walls and floors, changing lights, customizing colonist uniforms, adding a base radio, and extra decorations to showcase your style, among other features.[/p][p]It has been great working on the game so far, and the vast majority of feedback from players has been very positive. Thank you to everyone for their continued support, and I hope this new update hits hard. There is still a long way to go to make my final vision for Ceres a reality, but we will get there one patch at a time. You can view the roadmap post in the forums soon to see more of what is coming in the next update, as I will update that post as details get ironed out. Thank you, now get out there and terraform Ceres.[/p]

I have just finished tackling a rather difficult technical issue that was affecting the game. I am not going to get into specifics, but if you want specifics, feel free to come to Discord for a more technical chat. I am happy to announce that I have figured it out, and it will make expanding the game possible.

In this small patch, I have added a few quick fixes for some issues.

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• I fixed an issue that prevented a supply crate from being looted in the 70% melting ice cave.
  
  
• I fixed an issue that prevented the 70% ice wall from displaying its melt values to players.
  
  
• I have added a small blocking volume to the mess hall above the supply container to prevent colonists from being bumped up on top of the box due to collision. This should no longer be possible.
  
  
• I have added a few dependencies that should elevate some issues for Win 11 users that could result in a crash. Unreal is a great engine, but it is not perfect. I aim for the game to run as best as possible with ideally no crashes, but sometimes, things can happen for Unreal and Windows run-time operations. I plan to elevate some of this with this patch, but I will continue to do my best to optimize and improve the game as we continue to develop and move the game forward.
  

That is it for this small hotfix. This patch should wrap up the 1.2 patch, and we can look to the 1.3 build. I am keeping new content separate for the time being from the main build in case any issues do arise that need a hotfix. Still, I am hopeful we can move forward fully with 1.3, which will center around logistics and automation. Thank you for your continued support, and if you want to get involved or stay up-to-date with the development, consider joining Discord. Take care out there, pilgrims.

Just a few quick hotfixes to a few minor issues found in patch 1.2

• I have fixed a new issue with the deconstruction tool becoming incorrectly active. This fix should prevent this from happening again.
  
  
• I have added some changes to AI colonist logic to increase performance, prevent a few loops they could get stuck in, and implement some preventative measures for colonists getting stuck on certain things mesh-wise.
  

This is it for now. So far, patch 1.2 is running well. I will be ready to hotfix anything that comes up, but ideally, I will be moving forward with 1.3, which will revolve around automation and logistics for the colony to better smooth out the late-game side. It will also include some other good changes and additions. There is no date for that patch yet, but feel free to join Discord to stay up-to-date as work continues. Have fun out there, pilgrims.

[p]Quick disclaimer: This update might have unexpected results in an ongoing playthrough. Some buildings that have changed could clip into each other. The new "One Floor Teleporter," if already placed, will be wonky when the new model replaces the old version in an existing game. Some new machines, such as the recycler, might not be found in your blueprints if certain saving conditions have also occurred in your ongoing save. If you wish to continue an ongoing playthrough and there are issues, please feel free to use Steam's ability to set the game back to any patch state. I will leave the previous patch available for anyone who wishes to finish a run before trying the new version.[/p][p]Let's get into the good stuff with that disclaimer out of the way. This patch is the first of many significant updates planned for the game to take it to the next level. This patch is focused on building and crafting aspects. You can expect some quick hotfixes if there are any issues with this patch. Once everything has settled down, I will begin work on the next major update, focusing on automation and logistics to tie the colony loop together in a big way.[/p][p][/p][h3]Changes[/h3][p][/p]

• [p]We have made several language fixes and changes to clarify certain aspects of the game to players or to correct some language mistakes.[/p]
• [p]We added a "Stat Point Available" message to the level-up message to ensure players know they have points to spend.[/p]
• [p]We fixed some issues related to colonists' AI breaking when getting to work.[/p]
• [p]We fixed some issues related to colonists getting jammed when too many attempted to use the teleporter from both directions, which could lock them up in a traffic jam.[/p]
• [p]When deconstructing the mission control, we added a confirmation message to ensure players understand how many functions will not work correctly until it is rebuilt.[/p]
• [p]We have added the ability to see crafting recipe costs for all blueprints in the tooltip. You can now see how much things cost while machines are crafting, helping players plan their next moves.[/p]
• [p]We have added the ability to pin recipes. You can pin up to 5 recipes to the side of your screen, and you can clear them by clicking the clear pin button under the notification from within the inventory or any machine inventory.[/p]
• [p]We added snap points to the "Basic Refinery," "Fuel Refinery," and "Basic Manufacturer." This should allow for more diversity in base buildings instead of one long path when these facilities had just one snap point. We will continue to iterate and add/change snap points for additional facilities as needed.[/p]
• [p]We added a new 4-way corridor, which was highly requested. Even though we had the HUB, which is a 4-way connector, players wanted a 4-way corridor. This should enable players to do more with their vision for their bases.[/p]
• [p]The "One Floor Teleporter" has been remade. It is now round and has four snap points on the second floor in every direction. This should really allow you to make bases in the shape and form of your choosing.[/p]
• [p]We added some lights to the advanced farm that help give the feel of growing crops.[/p]
• [p]We fixed an issue that allowed players to create holes in their base when deconstructing the original HUB. This is now impossible.[/p]
• [p]We added a "Recycler" to the game. This recycler can be used to break almost anything down into materials. It is found on the "Machine Constructor" and unlocked by default to be constructed. Once placed, you can insert any items, including data pads, and break them down into materials. You can also break bars back into base materials.[/p]
• [p]We added some new upgrades related to the rockets. You can now add two additional spaces to rocket inventories and reduce rocket travel time by 40%, bringing it down to three minutes to travel to Earth or Ceres.[/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue that could come up with identically named landing pads where two rockets could land on the same pad.[/p]
• [p]We added an emergency stop crafting button to every machine. This will allow you to halt any ongoing crafting. It currently does not return materials used, but I am considering adding this in the future.[/p]
• [p]We have unlocked Dolomite bars by default in the "Advanced Refinery."[/p]
• [p]We fixed an issue with using the character unstuck when on an expedition. If needed, this will now put you back at the starting pod for each expedition.[/p]
• [p]We have changed and added several upgrade texts to clarify certain upgrades.[/p]
• [p]We have increased the total amount of research to match the newly added upgrades.[/p]

[h3]What is next[/h3][p]As stated at the start of these notes, the next plan, aside from fixing any issues from this patch, is to work towards automation and logistics for the colony through drones. We had logistics previously with colonists, but this led to many stability and performance issues, and ultimately, we had to cut it from the game. But it will return in the next major update in the form of drones. You can stay up-to-date or give input to the development of the system as it is implemented by joining the game Discord.[/p][p]Thanks to everyone who has tried the game and chosen to support its future development with a purchase. The game feels like an Early Access title in some ways, but I decided to go with the full release since the 0-100% terraforming loop is in-game and complete. But I plan to do much work to improve and add to the game post-launch without changing the core loop of reaching 100% terraforming. Eventually, I would like to add additional planets as free DLC, but the idea of the 0-100% terraforming is considered the full loop, hence the full release. Please keep an eye on the game over the long term as we continue to work to improve and grow the game. Thank you for your understanding and support; it means a great deal to me.[/p]