Surviving Ceres News

Greetings Pilgrims;

This update should work with older patches, but if you have an older game that is still in its infancy with your starting rocket in the original spot you might be in trouble. To ensure your game works well a new save is recommended, but provided you have moved onto the flat plateua your save should be fine.

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

There have been a lot of helpful players, but I would like to shout out CitizenX3639. His great feedback and suggestions have made a great impact on this latest patch, and I very much appreciate the effort put into his thread.

[h3]Deposits Can Be Blocked[/h3]

It was possible to place a structure over-top of a deep ore deposit if it was cracked open and ready for drilling. This has been changed to prevent any player from accidentally blocking a deposit.

[h3]Quick slotting equipment[/h3]

It was possible to quick slot an equipable item. This was never intended al although I considered allowing you to quick slot items to equip them I don't think it made much sense with how equipment works. This has been changed currently to not allow equipable items to be quick slotted. We may change this in the future if we have many equipable items that would make sense a player might need to swap them around.

[h3]Rocket Fuel Clarity[/h3]

Some players found it confusing that rocket fuel had to be put in the cargo of a rocket to launch the ship. I plan to add a specific slot just for fuel in the future, but for now, I have reworked the tooltip of the rocket to indicate that fuel must be placed in the cargo to clear up confusion. I do think a specific slot just for fuel will work well, but that is a larger change for a later time. This change at least brings clarity to rockets and rocket fuel.

[h3]Funding Updates[/h3]

The research and development display in the research station was not updating funding accurately after completing milestones and exports. This has been changed to always update accurately now.

[h2]Changes[/h2]

There have been a few small changes to improve the game.

[h3]Twice The Irrigation[/h3]

The farm irrigation post that was in the center of the room has been duplicated and placed in front of both seed beds. This now clears up the walking path for players and you can use either irrigation that makes sense for where you planted.

[h3]Supply Menu Clarity[/h3]

Some of the titles in the supply HUD were similar to the buttons with their background colors. Some players thought they were buttons and not titles. These have been changed and recolored to better stand out as titles for clarity.

[h3]Multi Building[/h3]

Now when you build, if you have a stack of the same item that you are placing it will automatically continue to place additional items. You previously had to left-click again to begin placing and this didn't feel right. Now if you have a stack it will automatically continue to allow placing, and this can be canceled by right-clicking or pressing any quick slot key.

[h3]Grinder Changes[/h3]

The grinder can no longer be used to grind foods into seeds. This will help free up grinders to keep producing coal for rocket fuel or other various dusts for crafting.

[h2]Additions[/h2]

We have had some great additions to the game. Most of these are aimed at bringing life and atmosphere to the early game, while also providing a precursor to the eventual attacks that will come when you begin to Terraform Ceres.

[h3]Cave Diving[/h3]

I have added two brand-new caves to the game. These can be found connected to the flat plateau edges. I made these caves go quite deep to ensure you can't easily reach the bottom until you have the equipment, oxygen points, or at least crafted several oxygen bottles. They start as normal caves with a basic cave aesthetic, but as you get deep they become very alien and gooey. Each cave has some high-quality loot and high-value export items you can collect. If you dive into both caves and collect all the loot you will also have the required items to build the "Advanced Base Constructor" which will be the linchpin in moving to mid-game. I have also included a data pad in each cave that provides more insight and precursor to what is to come once you begin to Terraform, and these are set up to be final logs from previous failed missions on Ceres.

[h3]Supply Box[/h3]

I added a supply box similar to supply pods. These can be found inside each of the new caves and they are packed with goodies to help move you to the mid-game.

[h3]Farming Machine[/h3]

I have added a new machine called the "Seed Extractor". This does the same thing the grinder used to do with raw foods grinding them into seeds you can plant. It was suggested to separate seeds from the grinder as the grinder is a key part of making rocket fuel, and I agreed with this suggestion.

[h3]Build Blockers[/h3]

I have added huge invisible build-blocking volumes around the map in every direction. With the addition of patrolling aliens and as we move into mid-game I needed to ensure you can not get outside of the navigatable areas for AI. There is now a height limit you can go with your base. However, this is sixteen rooms high and should not come up for most players. There is also a small area along the edge of the flat plateau that will deny any building. This is to ensure you can not block enemies from jumping down to attack your base when that time comes. This also denies the ability to build horizontally forever until you get outside of the playable area of the map. You could still potentially get your character outside if you tried hard enough, but not buildings. For the most part, this shouldn't ever be felt by players who are playing predictably, but it will block wild card players from getting too crazy. If for example an amazing creator such as "Let's Game It Out" attempted to build crazy they would encounter these blockers.

[h3]Walking Mobs[/h3]

I have added three types of land mobs each with 4-5 skin variations. These mobs spawn from 1 of 3 spawn locations above the flat plateau and walk a patrol around that upper area. There are 9 points they can reach and play animations before they return to patroling or head back to the spawn area to despawn for a new alien to come out. These 9 points also act as the attack points for waves to jump down and attack your base from. I want to ensure you can not just turret up a spawn point and be good, so I have encircled the building area with attack points. For now, they will of course not attack you until you start to terraform, but they do add a nice bit of life and atmosphere to the world.

[h3]Flying Mobs[/h3]

I have added one flying mob with several skin variations. Like the walking mobs these will never attack before you begin to terraform, but they are present to help add life to the game. I have created 7 roosts for these mobs to spawn and fly to and from. For now, these aliens will spawn from one roost and fly overhead to another roost. When we reach terraforming these 7 roosts will also be the 7 directions airwaves will attack your base from. These completely incircle the map and are pilar-like structures with rocky nests on top.

[h2]What's Next[/h2]

I am very happy to say that next is the start of the mid-game. Outside of some visuals, sounds, and effects needed to finalize the early game, I believe mechanically we are good to move forward. This is very exciting for me as I have been anxiously looking forward to working on the colony side of the game. It will be a time-consuming process, but very fun thing to work on. I would like to give a huge thank you to all the amazing players who have been giving me great feedback, suggestions, and ideas. Even the players who have just tried the demo and said they see potential all help to inspire me to work hard. Knowing you guys are excited excites me and helps push my work forward. I can't wait to show you guys what I have planned for the colony side, and then turret defense side in the future. If you want to stay up-to-date with development please consider joining the discord for maximum engagement as well as seeing pics and whatnot as I work, or even influencing that work with your live feedback and suggestions. That is of course optional and you can expect to see continued updates on Steam as they become ready. Thank you to everyone playing and enjoying the demo, I can't wait to show you what I have planned.

Greetings Pilgrims;

I know it has not been long since the previous update, but since the demo is live and public. I don't want to build towards large updates, I would rather bring any necessary fixes, changes, and additions as they are completed.

[h2]Fixes[/h2]
-Several minor typos have been fixed and the wording of some aspects was made better.
-A few supply items had incorrect icons making things confusing.
-Some areas of the map have been smoothed out to prevent pilgrims from getting stuck.


[h2]Changes[/h2]
-The flashlight hotkey was moved to "F" by default.
-The starting area has been redone and raised to see the flat plateau.
-Supply drop pods have had their loot buffed.
-Some areas of the map have been redone to be better and smoother.


[h2]Additions[/h2]
-New data pads have been added to supply drops for more tutorial-type instruction for players.
-Added the ability to save and exit in the options menu.

There are several early game aspects currently being developed for the demo/game, but I wanted to put some of the larger aspects on hold and get this update out ASAP. This update has a couple of small fixes, tweaks, and the major addition of the deconstruction tool to the game.

[h2]Added An Oxygen Recipe[/h2]
I added a craftable oxygen bottle to the "Basic Liquid Processor". I didn't want to make this a valid option for keeping up your oxygen in the early game. I want you to work towards oxygen for your base and ideally, your colony in the mid-game. However, I have a few explorable caves coming soon and these will be meant for the early game while oxygen is still a factor, and crafting oxygen bottles will assist with that exploration. I made them require an iron frame and ice. The iron frame ensures you are fairly established in your crafting.


[h2]VR Headset Firing Up[/h2]
I have removed an existing but not used input that had VR controls. This was causing players' VR headsets to fire up when the game had no VR involved. I don't have a headset and had not noticed this, but thankfully some of our players have reported this issue to be fixed. It now has been.


[h2]Screens Not Just For Looking At[/h2]
All the craftable screens display information regarding many aspects of the game. These are now not just for looking at as they will give you access to their specific menus. Ie. the rocket screen displaying rocket locations and travel times can now be used to open the rocket management menu. The mission control display can now be used to open the mission control menu etc..


[h2]Early Coal[/h2]
I have unlocked coal by default. I want to ensure that you can reach exporting even if you were to blow all your funding on overpriced M.R.Es. To that effect I have unlocked coal, it is now available as soon as you make a "Basic Grinder".


[h2]Deconstruction[/h2]
I have completed and added the deconstruction tool. Which was by no means an easy feat due to the complexity involved in snapping buildings, checks for inside and outside for oxygen, as well as countless other aspects that could break the game if done wrong.

That being said, I believe the tool is working very well and ideally no major issues exist.

You can now remove any free-standing machines, power generators, ramps, drills, and anything placed independently. You can also remove all structures provided you are working from an end snapping point backward towards a HUB. The HUB is always the first thing you can build, and it is the last thing you can pick up if you are going for a full relocation of your base. You can remove any endpoint structure, and continue to work backward from there. Additional HUBs can be removed while snapped to something as well if more than 1 HUB exists and is the endpoint for a direction.

I added this tool to the "Basic Tool And Power Constructor" for only 50 Iron Ore. This ensures you can reach it very early, even before your base has power. This way players should not brick a save by having no snap points left, building in a bad spot that has no room, or potentially putting a solar panel in the way of the next structure (Looking at you Digi).


[h2]What's Next[/h2]
In the next big patch, I will be redesigning the starting area using a few great suggestions from the community on how to better drive the player towards the correct flat plateau area. This will include raising the starting rocket, so the flat area will be visible from the starting point.

I also have a few caves planned to add to the exploration side as well as provide some story arc information and precursor events.

I am also working on adding some non-violent aliens to bring the area to life. The turret defense side will begin in the late game after terraforming has begun, but I want to bring some life to the world which will further increase the value of exploration and atmosphere of the game.

Thank you to everyone who has been playing the early demo, and giving me amazing feedback and ideas. I might be a solo developer, but getting the game into players' hands early and having an amazing community means I am never truly alone. I hope you continue to support this game's development with your time and effort. I have so many things planned, and I will not let you down nor take that support for granted. Thank you.

Hey there everyone;

The demo has been out now for a few weeks and so far the response has been fantastic. A lot of players have checked out the game and the feedback, suggestions, and bug fixes have been rolling in. This patch addresses many issues as well as adds some quality-of-life changes, tweaks, and additional guidance for new players.




There has been a variety of fixes made to the game. A huge shoutout to TrabTrab on Steam for their amazing bug-finding reports. This individual has played very hard and come back with some great findings to improve the game.

[h3]Rocket Issues[/h3]
There were some issues with rockets, particularly related to multiple rockets using the same landing pad. This has been tracked down and fixed as well as other improvements were made to this rather complex system. It is working much better now, but I will continue to test this aspect as it working correctly is very critical.

[h3]Stat Reset Didn't Work[/h3]
The stat reset in the pilgrim quarters was not bringing up the correct HUD, this has been fixed and it now works great.

[h3]I Can See Your Feet[/h3]
There was an issue when leaving the stasis pod that would show the hidden mannequin used as the player's body. This rather jarring effect won't occur anymore.

[h3]Tier 2 Exports Under Valued[/h3]
Tier 2 exports were set at $5m per export same as the Tier 1 export. This has been raised to $20m to ensure making this complexity leap will be worth your effort as we move to the mid-game and increase research costs.

[h3]Over Valued Drill[/h3]
The copper drill was exporting at $5m this was not intended it has been set down to $1m as intended. I want the focus to stay on manufactured exports in the later game, but I do want some goods to have value. We will continue to monitor and change any values that make sense as we continue to develop.

[h3]I Can't Eat That[/h3]
Some high-end foods were set as drinks by mistake. And trying to drink food didn't work out too well causing them to be useless. This has been fixed. Higher-end food will play a more vital role later in the game with colonists' mood, but right now most people just eat potatoes.

[h3]Exploit Detected[/h3]
There was an exploit that could trigger using manually entered amounts for crafting. This has been removed.

[h3]That Ain't Air Tight[/h3]
There was an issue that if you moved in and out from the door quickly you could trigger the door to not fully close and stay cracked open. I have added a final check on this where if something is off it will auto-fix itself. There should be no way to leave a door open moving forward.

[h3]Mission Objective Bug[/h3]
There was an issue with the mission objective to send an export back to Earth. It was only looking at rocket 2, not rocket 1, it now correctly looks at both rockets and will fire correctly.




There have been a variety of tweaks and changes based on player feedback as well as my experimentation. The shout-out list would be pretty large for this category, but I will highlight Garret one of my discord moderators for their excellent feedback in this category.

[h3]You Want How Much[/h3]
The foods you can purchase for supplies were far too overpriced. $8m for an M.R.E.? All of the foods have been reduced to be more worthwhile as early supplies if you wish. I was worried about how much you can get with the starting $30m that I overvalued some items that won't hurt your progress.

[h3]Tighter Drills[/h3]
I have tightened the copper, ice, and iron deposit grouping to be closer together so it is less of a walk for the player. This might be too good, but I am open to feedback.

[h3]Large Plants[/h3]
I have added the ability to look at and collect larger plants such as corn and tomatoes. I was using the base of the plant to collect, but now the entire plant can be used.

[h3]Equip And Use Buttons[/h3]
I have removed these buttons from the HUD as I like the idea of drag and drop and using items from the quick bar. Those buttons were more so for console players in the future, but we are so far from that possibility that I would rather just focus on Steam players for now

[h3]What Did I Research[/h3]
I have changed the messaging on the research HUD to show the category of research you just unlocked while it is cooling down. I might change this to be the specific unlock but that is quite complex due to the structuring of blueprints. For now, I have implemented showing the category and hope that helps you remember.

[h3]Possible Failure[/h3]
I want to make sure the core of what you need is reachable even if you make some mistakes. To this effect, I have made landing pads start unlocked. The keys to survival are food, air, and water. But the key to progress is exporting, manufacturing, and rocket fuel production. Hopefully, this helps stop players from burning up all their funding without having the ability to export.

[h3]Drilling Reduction[/h3]
The drills were adding resources very quickly at 1 ore per second. I have changed this to 1 ore per 1.5 seconds. I tried 2 seconds but felt it was too slow. Hopefully, 1.5 is the sweet spot, let me know your thoughts.




There have been some great additions to the game to make it flow with players even better than it already has been. Shout out to DigitalFrost for some great ideas in this category as well as other contributors.

[h3]Give Me A Tip[/h3]
I have added tooltips to each player's stat to give a breakdown of each stats use. I also changed FORTITUDE to RESISTANCE and it will now be used to reduce damage taken.

[h3]Message System[/h3]
I have created a new message system that shows up in the bottom right of your screen and stays persistent until you are out of the danger zones. These are for low air, low water, low food, and overweight. I have removed them using the large full-screen warning. I felt it was a bit much with full-screen messages, but we will still use those for some critical messages such as your base going offline or a large attack incoming.

[h3]Data Pads[/h3]
I have added a system for datapads to the game. Currently, you start with one datapad titled mission objective. This is a multi-page document about your mission and covers a variety of basics for the player. It is an opt-in readable tutorial in many ways. This system will also be used for future datapads we can place in the world to reveal events from previous missions on Ceres or other story-building points.

[h3]Non Stop Crafting[/h3]
You can now continue to use a machine while it is crafting. This was a big change to get in the game, but it honestly feels great. Now you can take part orders off a machine as they are crafting and we display a nice timer inside the HUD for progress. Now if you queue up 25 bars and then realize you need 5, you can just go grab them. Over all this feature feels great.

[h3]Straight To The Slot[/h3]
It is now possible to quick slot items from machines right into the player's quick slots. If you drag and drop a quick slotable item it will now auto transfer to the player and quick slot itself where you placed it. Many players tried to do this and then manually moved it to their inventory to quick slot. It seemed like a great idea to help the crafting flow better with players.

[h3]More Ice[/h3]
Even though I want players to get to the drilling and hit deposits manually for infinite resources but no exp. Players keep trying to manually farm. So, I added a few more ice resource nodes down below for players spending more time in that area than I meant for them to. I can't control players, but I will do my best to cater to whatever style I see players leaning into, and adding a few more nodes will help with that style of early gameplay.




Now that the core early-game loop is functioning well the next focus will be on refining and expanding on that loop before we move on to the mid-game. There are many ideas on the table but you can expect to see some additional open caves to add more value to exploration as well as precursor elements to the narrative of the mission, and some additional life forms to the planet to add some life to the game as well as atmosphere.

There is still a very long way to go before we reach early access, but I am so thankful to have you along for the journey. I can't wait to show you what I have in store for the game.

It has only been a few days since we launched the demo, but already we have had a bunch of great feedback that has come in from multiple platforms and sources. I truly appreciate your feedback, and this patch brings a lot of those great ideas and changes to the game.



There were a handful of minor tweaks to several areas. These are very minor and include such things as modifying descriptions, RND HUD now auto-scrolling to the top on changing categories, and a variety of minor tweaks to resources and recipes. This should help smooth out progression.

[h3]Landscape Changes[/h3]
A few changes were made to the landscape to further try and dissuade players from building in the rocky starting area. We have also smoothed out a few areas that the player could get stuck on.

[h3]Mission Objective System[/h3]
My vision for mission objectives was to be fully simulation style. As in not using the player HUD at all, but instead displaying and accessing mission menus from the mission control. We still have this, but to better help new players get started in the game I have brought the mission system to the player HUD as well. These mission objectives give an idea of what the next step you should take is, as well as tips for how to achieve that step. There are now 8 mission objectives in the early game that should help guide players toward understanding the mechanics of the game. Don't forget this mission objective as well as meter labels and numbers can be toggled off using the hide / show details key (default = v).

[h3]Arrows Indicating The Front[/h3]
As you may be aware machines that can be rotated have arrows that indicate the front of the machine to help players place machines correctly. These arrows would change between green and red depending on whether you could place the machine in that location, and it was quite hard to see the green arrow when the machine itself was green for placeable. We now instead have a solid red color on the arrows to show the front of machines, and this never changes color making it much easier to see.

[h3]Tomato Bug[/h3]
Shout out to Pezzi on Steam for finding this issue. There was a typo in the tomato structure that caused tomatoes to not work in any recipe that called for tomatoes. This has been fixed. Thank you Pezzi for going deep enough to reach tomatoes while the rest of the world just eats potatoes.

[h3]Difficulty Settings[/h3]
I have added the first 3 difficulty settings and tied them into the milestone scoring system. These include air drain rate, food drain rate, and water drain rates. I feel comfortable with the normal level after a few tweaks based on feedback and I want to allow players to make it easier or harder based on their preference while tying that back into the milestone scoring systems. You can now go from NONE which is no draining of meters up to INSANE which is nail-bitingly fast draining. You will have to work hard and fast to reach sustained food before you run out of M.R.E's on insane. As we continue to develop and find a normal balance for other aspects we will add more difficulty settings to the menu.

[h3]More Iron[/h3]
It is not my intention for players to manually grind iron for very long. I intend for you to gather some iron, but then set up drills to automate that collection. However, many players who don't know the game yet were spending a lot of time hand farming and finding it difficult to find more iron in the starting valley. So, I went ahead and added several more iron nodes to that area.

[h3]Interact Range[/h3]
I made a small increase in the interact range so you can access machines and buildings from further away.

[h3]Sprint Drains And Recovery[/h3]Some feedback came in that the sprint drained a bit too fast, and took too long to come back. After doing some testing I agree. The stamina burn rate has been decreased by 50%, the cool down to regain stamina has been reduced by 1 second, and the speed stamina recovers has been doubled. This should allow players to run a lot further in the early game even before putting points into stamina on level up. This also allows you to recover quickly for more running around. Overall it feels better to sprint more.

That about does it for this short patch. I would just like to take a moment to thank all of you amazing players for taking the time to try "Surviving Ceres" and then taking the time to tell me about your experience. So far, the feedback has all been very positive and it helps me stay focused on my work knowing that players are finding the game fun. We still have a very long road ahead, but I will continue to listen and grow the project with your feedback, while also working on the additional content for the game. The next thing I plan to work on is the initial translation setup. That way we can get rolling on translating the game for other players patiently waiting to give the demo a try. Thank you so much, and I hope you stick around for the journey.