Industrial Petting News

Hey everyone! I'd like to let people know that the next update is still coming, and it should be a good one. I received a lot of feedback after launch that the game has a lot of potential, but is missing what we would consider midgame and endgame content. There are technologies to unlock, but nothing to actually use those technologies with.

The new update adds the foundations of longer-term goals and later-game goals. I'm excited to see how people respond to new pets and buildings.

Some of you may remember the timeline I posted shortly after launch, and are wondering where their new factory layouts and giant view distances are. If you can't guess, I've delayed/cancelled a few of those features. After sitting down and doing some more in-depth time estimations, I realized that those features are much more expensive to build than I thought, and don't make a huge difference to the end game. My time is better spent adding more pets and more areas, and filling out later game content.

It's easy as a developer to mix up "fun to play" and "fun to make". Those features on the timeline would be fun to make, but don't make the game much more enjoyable to play.

As always, follow the game on Steam to make sure you don't miss the update!

Hey everyone, new update! With the new sorting boxes, mixed-item pipelines are now viable. Simply add a sorter box in the middle and tell it what you want to filter out through the top. Also added some signs to make marking up the factory easier.


[h2]Current plans[/h2] The next two big content updates were designed and planned this last week. The first one is going to be a longer-term non-research goal, using most of the same mechanics that already exist. People have been asking for overarching goals in the game, and I'm hoping this next update will be a good start.

The second update is going to be the next new biome. There are plans for new pets with new interactions and desires, and new mechanics for making them. The goal is to add more intuitive and interesting pet mechanics without complicating the game too much.

[h2]v0.1.10 Changelog[/h2][h3]New[/h3]

• Sorting Boxes! Build these to sort a pipeline
  
• Icon Signs
  

[h3]Changes[/h3]

• Change \"Water\" to \"Watered Plants\" for Gardener inspection
  

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Fed pets will no longer eat
  
• Potential fix for fence placement in VR
  

As always, join the discord!

[h2]Smoothing out the difficulty[/h2]Nibblers used to be an early game pain point. They are relatively inexpensive to make and easy to automate, but end up eating a ton of food which can't be automated until much later in the game. This led to people having pens full of hungry nibblers and no easy way to deal with them.

These new berry bushes help with that early game pain. They are a reliable source of food without setting up a carrot farming chain. They don't give nearly as much as a proper farm, but keep things moving early on. Also, nibblers no longer need to be petted, they are happy as long as they eat something.

[h3]What's coming next?[/h3]This update was slow, but development is back on track again! I just moved this last week, but boxes are now unpacked and the development server is online. The big May update has some initial designs, and I'm excited to see how people react to it. I'll have another bugfix/quality of life update before then, though. There are still some VR/controller control issues that really need to be sorted.

[h2]v0.1.9 Changelog[/h2][h3]New[/h3]

• Tetar berries
  
• Some colossal stumps in the forest
  
• Add vegetation density video option. Changing this should help people with
  GPU-limited machines. Doesn't affect gameplay, but increase/decreases density
  of grass, rocks, and little mushrooms
  
• Add fast pipe texture
  

[h3]Balance[/h3]

• Nibblers no longer need to be petted
  
• Fence contract no longer needs slimecuddlers
  
• Double booster box connection maximum length
  
• Launchers now constructed with gardeners again
  

[h3]Changes[/h3]

• Show all future contracts in contract menu
  
• Show error when unable to connect to Steam
  
• More consistent menu button coloration
  
• Increase scroll sensitivity in menus
  
• Reduce UI click volume
  
• Add acceleration to controller menu movement
  
• Slightly lower audio pitch of slime and goo cuddlers
  
• Remove looping navigation in Library/Help windows
  

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Gatherbots can gather spores
  
• Construction Cannon shows correct controls
  
• Construction Cannon works correctly on slopes
  
• Move Gardener and Goocuddler heart positions
  
• GooCuddlers no longer give scarecrow research
  
• Remove player inventory counts from factory recipe picker
  
• Fix stuck audio loops when deconstructing
  
• Add missing control mapping names
  
• Fix some stray lines in the main menu
  
• Fix fence placement with a controller
  
• Fix building inspection with controller
  
• Hide pet counters when contract complete
  
• All cuddler faces use same shader
  
• Space elevator launch now respects volume settings
  
• Prevent objects from generating too close to elevator
  
• Fix vegetation displacement
  

[h2]Notice[/h2]
Game has been rolled back to the previous version until a memory allocation loop gets fixed. Hold on a moment!

Mind Readers are here! Using these, it should be much easier to see what's going on. Simply point one at a pet and it will tell you what they need to be happy, and what they're missing.

In VR, it's already integrated into the inspection tool. On flatscreen, the interact button will now pull up the tool if you're not pointing it at anything.

This is the start of a new tool system, and an integration of the VR and non-VR. Moving forwards, I should only need to make one version of each tool, and it will work in both modes!

[h2]What's Next?[/h2]
Today marks three weeks since the early access release! The current development pace is going well, with a week of bugfixing, a week of playing half life and doom, and a week working on the mind reading. The next update is going to add a separate tutorial area. Even if you already know how to play the game, it will have some dialog and worldbuilding to help you figure out why you're doing all this! Also some great music.

[h2]Patch Notes[/h2]v0.1.8
[h3]New[/h3]

• Pet Brain Scanner
  
• Figure out what they want and what they need
  
• Press 'F' when not looking at anything in 2D, part of the inspection tool in VR
  
• New FPS destruction tool
  

[h3]Changes[/h3]

• Motion blur disabled, doesn't work with objects attached to the player
  
• Gardeners now much easier to please
  
• Redesigned hunger system
  
• Better client prediction for destruction
  
• More gardener sounds
  
• New elevator launch sound
  
• Petting pets now auto-locks to pet
  

A few fixes/changes, and a new suggested feature that seemed fun. I'm hoping to have the capacity to do small features like this between larger updates as development moves along.



[h3]New[/h3]

• Bored pets will now follow arrow signs
  

[h3]Changes[/h3]

• Pets no longer need to see an elevator to run into it. This should make pet behavior near elevators much more consistent. Previously, if they weren't facing the elevator, they couldn't see it and wouldn't go in.
  

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Fix game not booting back to menu when server connection fails
  
• Potential fix for saves dissappearing when over 1 MbB
  
• Pets no longer stuck in place when they have nothing to do