Mercury Fallen News

Howdy Folks!


It’s been a long and challenging year and I hope that everyone has been able to find some joy this Holiday season. I am very thankful for all of the support you’ve given me this year. As the year nears its end, I want to delve a bit into the past, the present and the future of Mercury Fallen.


In early 2016 I started prototyping a game idea. The gameplay focused around a primary character awakening from cryo-sleep long past due in a ruined facility. The game was tentatively called Crypod and would have the player repairing the facility.


The prototype continued to evolve into a colony management game which became the foundation for Mercury Fallen. By early 2017, I had cobbled together something that was starting to feel like a playable game.

Mercury Fallen was released to Itch.IO for some initial feedback in spring of 2017 and released on Steam later that year in Early Access.

[h2]The Present[/h2]
There have been a whole lot of improvements, changes and additions in 2020.


The New Beginnings update added new power management, starting conditions and completely re-worked the colonists with new models, animations and outfits.


The Farming & Harming update added new farming mechanics and events such as cave ins and crop disease.


The tech tree was completely overhauled in the New Horizons update. Changes to surface visuals, expeditions and a whole lot more was also added.


Surface content was further expanded with new mining nodes and expeditions in the Traveler Update. This update also included various changes to starting colonists and game progression over all.


Most recently, the Spatial Awareness update added functional rooms, room-based effects, new furniture and more.

It’s been a great year for Mercury Fallen and I’m excited to continue this journey with you all as we head into 2021.


The recent Spatial Awareness update added new ways for colonists to get stressed out, but stress still doesn’t result in much of a positive or negative outcome.

The Stressed Out update is now in development and will include a re-work to colonist quirks as well as new colonist reactions to high and low stress.

Quirks currently only affect attributes, but the new quirk system will allow for more unique quirks. Some of the possible new quirks include:

• Charming – Can reduce stress of nearby colonists
  
• Annoying – Can increase stress of nearby colonists
  
• Light Sleeper – Negative stress from sleeping in a room with other colonists
  
• Green Thumb – Increased farming work speed
  
• Iron Stomach - Never gets a stomach ache
  

Additional quirks are being developed that will add more unique qualities to your colonists.

Some fun new ways of helping your colonists deal with stress are also in development.

There is still quite a bit of content planned after the Stressed Out update. Here are some of the things currently planned or in early development.

• New Expeditions
  
• Ability to train colonists to increase attributes and job skills
  
• Additional control over starting conditions
  
• A campaign story that will provide direction and more information about the planet and its inhabitants
  
• Trading
  
• More decoration objects
  
• More technology to unlock
  
• Additional mod support to include custom artwork and code
  
• Achievements
  
• Merch
  

With the winter season upon us, at least in the northern hemisphere, and with it comes the Steam Winter Sale. Mercury Fallen is now 30% off. It’s a great time to grab a copy, or give the gift of colony management to a friend.


A huge thank you to everyone who has played Mercury Fallen. Your feedback means a great deal to me. As a solo developer it’s great to hear that you’re enjoying the game. It’s also very helpful to know what you don’t like and what isn’t working. There is a lot in store for Mercury Fallen. Thank you!

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Howdy Folks!

I’m super excited to announce that Update 27 :: Spatial Awareness is now available! While the primary focus is the addition of functional rooms, there are a lot of other tweaks, fixes and changes.


Room data is now automatically created when you construct an enclosed area with walls and a door. A new rooms overlay toggle will show valid room areas. A room type is defined by the majority of flooring within a room and some benefits are only applied to objects if they are in the correct room type. Rooms are automatically updated as flooring and walls change.


Clicking on a floor tile within a room shows the room information panel. Decor, lighting and efficiency attributes are applied to rooms, and they affect colonists and machinery in various ways.

The room decor score is based on the tiles within the room and can be improved by adding decorations. The lighting score can be improved by adding lights.


Efficiency is the average score of the decor and lighting attributes. Efficiency provides boosts to crafting station speed, sleep times and more.


The starting colonist cap has been reduced from 10 to 5 colonists. This means that O2 generators are a bit more important for expanding your colony. This change only affects new games.


Colonist sleep time has been adjusted to a more realistic amount of time. Sleeping on a bed now offers a time reduction over sleeping on a mat or the floor. Sleep time is further reduced by an efficient bedroom.


Colonists now receive a stress effect based on the quality of the room they sleep or eat in. They will additionally receive stress effects if not sleeping or eating in a room.


Newly constructed storage containers will now have all items disallowed. A hover icon and info warning will appear to show that the container hasn’t been configured.


Objects now show a hover icon and info warning if they can’t be reached by a colonist for construction.

Cloned colonists are now generated in the same way colonists appear from a stasis capsule. Clones will have a primary job and applicable attributes. This behavior may change in future.

Check the release notes below for the full list of additions, changes and fixes. Thanks for all of the support and awesome feedback.

Let me know what you think of Cyberpunk 2077.. I mean Mercury Fallen.

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Rooms

• Added functional rooms. Rooms are automatically created when creating an enclosed space with walls/doors. Selecting a floor inside a room will show information about the room. Rooms have several attributes that affect colonists and actions in various ways.
  
• Added Overlay button to toggle room visibility
  
• Added Keybind to toggle room visibility
  
• Added Guide topic for rooms
  
• Added stress effects for sleeping depending on room decor
  
• Added stress effect for not sleeping in a room
  
• Added stress effects for eating depending on room decor
  
• Added stress effect for not eating in a room
  
• Added stress effect for not eating at a table
  
• Some job actions now gain a benefit from being performed in a room. Up to a 20% work success chance bonus based on room efficiency. Applicable jobs also receive -10% to work success chance if not done in a room. Jobs like mining that would generally not be performed in a room are unaffected.
  
• Room wall material now changes based on adjacent room instead of adjacent floor
  
• Sleeping time in a bed or mat decreases by up to 25% based on room efficiency
  

Colonist Cap

• Reduced starting colonist cap from 10 to 5. Does not affect cap in existing save games.
  
• Stasis capsules can’t be opened if at or over colonist capacity
  
• Stasis capsule info now shows separate warnings if stasis capsule is blocked or facility is over capacity
  
• Colonist capacity info now colored orange if at capacity
  
• Colonist capacity info now shows warning icon next to number if at or above capacity
  
• Added information about how to increase colonist cap in colonist count tooltip
  

Colonist Sleeping

• Sleeping now takes a more realistic amount of time. ~8 hours on a sleeping mat, ~6 hours in a bed and ~10 hours sleeping on the ground.
  
• Sleeping in a bed now uses energy refill rate instead of a predetermined amount of time.
  
• Estimated sleep time now displayed in object build info menu
  

Storage Containers

• Set Allowed items list for storage now highlights the line you are hovered over.
  
• Newly constructed storage containers now start with no allowed items.
  
• Storage containers now show hover icon warning if no items are set in allowed items
  
• Changed storage icon
  
• Updated ui text renderer in Set Allowed items list in storage.
  

Tweaks & Changes

• Added locker furniture item
  
• Items on the ground now generate negative decor
  
• Shortcut keys for toggling overlay modes now properly toggles overlay when pressing the shortcut key a second time
  
• Attribute effects under Colonist Stats now colored green or red to denote positive or negative benefit
  
• Updated look of action success/fail icon that appears over colonists
  
• Updated how attribute effects function to allow for attribute effects to be applied more than once.
  
• Increased tech fragments rewarded from chests/expeditions. This is a temporary change until new mechanics are in place for acquiring tech fragments.
  
• Placed objects that can’t be reached by a colonist for construction will now show a hover icon and warning info
  
• Vehicle cargo expander equipment bonuses now stack if using more than one of the same equipment item type
  
• Panning the camera using mouse button+drag no longer cancels construction mode. Construction mode is still canceled with a single right mouse button click.
  
• Added a notice window that will return the player back to the main menu if loading a save game that has become corrupted.
  
• Clone chamber now generates a randomized colonist in the same way as a stasis capsule. This behavior may change in future.
  

Fixes

• Fixed: Incorrect selection collider for doors
  
• Fixed: Some mis-spellings
  
• Fixed: Missing language string for Battery Booster III equipment item
  
• Fixed: Overlay toggle buttons not highlighting to show active overlay mode in some instances
  
• Fixed: Available Research count in left button bar incorrect in some instances
  
• Fixed: Multiple equipment item effect values not stacking
  
• Fixed: Game Event trigger times not saving/loading correctly resulting in events being triggered after loading a save game.
  
• Fixed: Missing language string for colonist relax action
  
• Fixed: Game crash if loading a save game with modded equipment items, but the mod is no longer enabled
  

Howdy Folks!

A huge thanks for all the feedback and bug reports on the experimental branch. I’m super excited to say that Update 27 :: Spatial Awareness is now available on the Test Build branch for a final round of tweaks and fixes.

https://youtu.be/J4eNBYteZug

Should you check out the Test Build branch, be sure to let me know what you think of the new content.

Update 27 :: Spatial Awareness Test Build Info
https://steamcommunity.com/app/704510/discussions/3/2969524751697813664/

About Test Build Branch
The optional Test Build branch is for testing the latest features before they go live to everyone. As it is a testing version there can be more bugs/issues than in the normal version. If using the Test Build branch, please report any issues you encounter or any feedback on new game play mechanics. Your feedback and/or reports will help to ensure the final version is the best it can be.


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Howdy Folks!

Hope everyone is doing well and staying safe out there. Update 27 :: Spatial Awareness brings some new meaning to room creation. While it’s not 100% done, it is ready for some testing and feedback.

Update 27 is now available on the Experimental Branch. More changes and additions are coming and the experimental branch will continue to get updated.

Update 27 Experimental Info | What is the Experimental Branch and how do I access it?

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Howdy Folks!

Hope everyone is doing well. I was off last week on a mini vacation. I’m back now and development continues. In the previous developer log I showed how room zones would work. I’ve made some changes to how rooms are generated that I wanted to cover.

[h2]Rooms[/h2]
Previously I had mentioned that rooms would need to be defined using a new zone system. The zone system was originally designed for some other features I’m working on and it felt like a good fit for rooms as well. I was wrong.

After some internal testing it felt clumsy and redundant to have to define a room in addition to placing walls and doors.


Rooms will now be automatically created as you place walls/doors. A room won’t be considered “valid” if it doesn’t have flooring. The room type is determined by the larger quantity of flooring. Mostly bedroom floor? Then it’s a bedroom.

Selecting the flooring inside a room area will show the room information which includes over all decor level, light level and efficiency. These attributes will affect colonists behavior and production in various ways.

Room benefits are still being developed and tested internally, but I hope to have a version on the experimental branch later this week for initial testing and feedback.

[h2]Survey[/h2]
Thanks for all the great feedback via the Update 26 Feedback Survey. If you have a couple of minutes and haven’t already taken the survey, then be sure to check it out.

Update 26 Feedback Survey

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