1. Mercury Fallen
  2. News

Mercury Fallen News

Update 26.2

Howdy Folks!

Hope everyone is doing well and staying safe. Update 26.2 is a small update to address some reported issues.

Follow Mercury Fallen Development On Twitter | Facebook | Website | Discord | Roadmap

[h2]Release Notes[/h2]
  • Minor performance improvement related to how colonist portrait images are rendered
  • Change to how mouse clicks are registered. This fixes an issue with not being able to pan the camera with the mouse during expedition destination selection
  • Fixed: Resource Transport vehicle attempting to collect from mining platforms that aren’t finished being constructed
  • Fixed: Mining Platform showing wrong animation state when placed
  • Fixed: Russian font characters not showing correctly
  • Fixed: Mysterious floating colonist appearing at the edge of the facility area in some instances

Patch Update 26.1

Howdy Folks!

Hope everyone is staying safe out and in there. In the last developer log I went over the new zone/room system that is in development. After some initial feedback and reviewing of the new system I’ve determined that it needs a bit more time in the oven.

That means there won’t be an Experimental branch update available this week. There is, however, a patch update available right now for everyone!

[h2]Update 26.1[/h2]
Update 26.1 is a minor patch update to address some various bugs and add a few tweaks and changes. See the release notes below for all the changes and additions.

[h2]Feedback Survey[/h2]
It’s survey time again. If you have a couple of minutes, please let me know you thoughts about the game.

Update 26 Feedback Survey

Follow Mercury Fallen Development On Twitter | Facebook | Website | Discord | Roadmap

Release Notes


Changes & Additions
  • Can now hold right mouse button and drag to pan camera in facility view
  • Planet map now uses right mouse button instead of left mouse button for panning camera
  • Wasp discovery POI now restricted to the same continent as the facility (only affects new game)
  • Craft stations now show pop icon over machine to show what item was just crafted
  • Water traps now show pop icon when item is caught
  • Minor change to water trap graphic so that it’s positioned more clearly over water tiles
  • Updated a number of research and job role descriptions
  • Colonists should now prioritize aquarium actions over water traps
  • Selected expedition on the planet map now shows additional information on what the expedition is waiting for in order to be ready.
  • Can now cancel an expedition from its info panel if the expedition doesn’t have all items and passengers.
  • Added font support for Chinese characters
  • Added font support for Japanese characters


Fixes
  • Fixed: Equipment items not being removed correctly in some instances.
  • Fixed: Vehicle in vehicle list not showing as being docked after being docked
  • Fixed: Colonist take/repair damage visual effects showing in reverse
  • Fixed: Colonists not receiving damage in some instances
  • Fixed: Colonists not receiving negative effect from critically failing at research
  • Fixed: Colonists not receiving effects from consuming food in some instances.
  • Fixed: Robot Assembler not showing correct animation state (again… some more)
  • Fixed: Confirmation windows causing internal error in some instances
  • Fixed: Object info windows not closing when selected object is destroyed
  • Fixed: Planet resource deposit still showing hover icon after deposit is depleted

Developer Log #60

Howdy Folks!

Hope everyone is doing well and staying safe. It’s a crazy world out there so don’t forget to relax and just breathe.

There are some exciting new features that I’m working on that I wanted to talk about. The previous update focused heavily on changes to the planet surface. While more content/tweaks will be done on the surface, I wanted to return focus to the underground facility and the colonists.

[h3]Room Zones[/h3]
A purpose for rooms is a topic I’ve talked about before and has been on the to-do list for a while. After considering how to handle such a thing, I’ve decided to create a new zone system. A zone section will be added to the main button bar and will allow you to create room zones.


A room zone, once created, will need to be enclosed by walls and have at least one door to be considered valid. The type of room is determined by the dominant flooring. A room zone has mostly bedroom tiles? Then it’s a bedroom zone.


Room zones have four primary attributes: Size, Decor, Light Level and Efficiency. Size is determined by the total amount of tiles in the zone. Decor and Light Level are increased by placing decorations and lighting. Efficiency is the average of the decor and light level attributes.


Efficiency will affect machines/objects in a room zone. As an example, crafting stations now use efficiency to determine craft speed. A lower efficiency means it will take longer to craft items. Base crafting speeds have been adjusted to provide room benefits.

Some new colonist attribute effects are being developed as well which will be affected by rooms.

Additional zone types are in development, but more on that next time. I’m hoping to have an update to the Experimental branch next week so that you can try it out and let me know what you think.

What are your thoughts on the room zones?

Follow Mercury Fallen Development On Twitter | Facebook | Website | Discord | Roadmap

Update 26 :: Traveler Now Live!

Howdy Folks!

Update 26 :: Traveler is now live and includes an update to starting colonist stats, sleeping mats, new surface mining mechanics, new POI locations and a whole lot of tweaks, changes and fixes.

Starting Colonists

Colonists awoken from stasis now have a higher level primary job assigned. You can still change and assign jobs, but starting colonists should have at least one better job role.


Stasis capsules have more information, such as the colonists name and primary job role.

Sleeping Mat

A new option for handling colonist fatigue is sleeping mats. The sleeping mats only provide a small benefit over sleeping on the ground, but offer some control over where colonists will sleep. This should discourage colonists from falling asleep on the crops.

Surface Mining

Surface mining has been overhauled and now includes mining resource deposits instead of mining on any tile. These new mining resource deposits can have Surface, Subsurface and Deep resources, which affect the quantity of the resource as well as how it is mined.


Mining vehicles can mine down to Subsurface depths, but Deep resources will require the construction of a Mining Platform on the tile with the deposit.

The vehicle action for mining has been improved and is now more automated. After selecting the mine action, select a target resource deposit. Once a target is selected, the mining vehicle will automatically harvest and deliver resources until there are no more resources for it to mine. Resource deposits are no longer infinite, so vehicles will need to travel further out as resources are depleted.


A new Resource Depot building further aids exploration expansion. The Resource Depot is an extension of the Shipping/Receiving inventories. Mining and transport vehicles will deposit items to the closest resource depot or the main facility, depending on which is closer.


Resource deposits that have materials at surface depth will become visible as you explore the map. Deeper deposits will require the use of the new Resource Scanner. The new Surveyor job role is used to scan the surface for additional resource deposits.

Points Of Interest

POI generation on the surface map has been completely revamped. More than 25 new POI locations have been added. POI locations are more spread out and offer unique rewards and/or discoveries.

A huge thank you to those that checked out the experimental and test build versions.

Follow Mercury Fallen Development On Twitter | Facebook | Website | Discord | Roadmap

Release Notes


[h2]Surface Resource Harvesting[/h2]
  • Added surface resource deposits which replace mining on any tile.
  • Mineable surface resources can contain surface, sub-surface and deep deposits. Surface resources are discovered as the map is explored, but deeper deposits will require the use of the resource scanner.
  • Re-named Comm Station to Resource Scanner. A Surveyor (previously named comm officer) will use this to scan for sub-surface and deep deposits.
  • Added research project for Resource Scanning
  • Added constructable resource depots which act as an extension of the facilities shipping/receiving containers. Can be built on any land tile.
  • Beetle miner now unlocked with Vehicle Construction research
  • Mining vehicle action now requires a target resource be selected
  • Mining vehicle action will now automatically mine a resource and deposit resources back to the facility or resource depot. It will continue to do this until the resource is depleted or there are no longer resources it can reach.
  • Mining platform interface updated to reflect new mechanics
  • Mining platform now placed/constructed directly instead of using mining vehicle action
  • Resource transport assignment is now optional. Resource transports will prioritize buildings they are assigned to, but if there are none, they will collect from closest targets.



[h2]Points Of Interest[/h2]
  • Re-worked how points of interest are generated on the surface.
  • Added over 25 new poi locations
  • Added new poi locations to find discoveries for previously locked technology


[h2]Colonists[/h2]
  • Colonists spawned from stasis capsules now have a primary job assigned and attributes related to that job. The primary job will also be of a higher starting level. Colonists can still be assigned different or additional jobs.
  • Stasis capsule displays additional colonist info before opening
  • Comm Officer renamed to Surveyor


[h2]UI[/h2]
  • Surface structures and vehicles now have an icon when zoomed out on the planet map
  • Vehicle action info in vehicle list now more descriptive
  • Vehicles in vehicle list now sorted by type
  • Embarked vehicles that are Idle now have a red background color in the vehicle list
  • Vehicle button in vehicle list will now highlight when vehicle is selected
  • Can now pan the planet map camera by clicking and dragging
  • Object build menu now displays power consumption amount (where applicable) under resource consumption
  • Hud Inventory settings now saved and loaded
  • Control info for rotate/place/cancel now shown when placing objects
  • Updated the look of confirmation windows
  • In-game menu Save & Quit button changed to Quit To Menu. Confirmation will appear.
  • Added hover tooltip to underlined ailment in story results
  • Colonist ailment tooltips now show affected attribute name
  • Updated some guide topic icons
  • Updated look of text in Settings->Key Binds
  • Input key button text in Settings->Key Binds now shows short form of input key. Example: “1” Instead of “Alpha1”


[h2]Misc[/h2]
  • Added new guide topics
  • Updated some guide topics
  • Added Getting Started tutorial task “Assign Job Roles”
  • Added sleeping mat. Sleeping mats provide a sleeping spot, and are only slightly better than sleeping on the ground.
  • Doors can now be locked and unlocked via their info panel
  • Tech chests now have a chance of containing tech fragments
  • Changes to some item/object/vehicle descriptions
  • Improved spawn location of main facility on surface to avoid being spawned on a tiny island
  • Vehicle actions that interact with an adjacent target will now move to a point between tiles instead of sitting in the middle of the adjacent tile. Example: Transports collecting items will move to the edge of the target tile instead of the middle of the adjacent tile.


[h2]Fixes[/h2]
  • Fixed: Solid Fuel Generator consuming fuel when it doesn’t have water
  • Fixed: Construction Queue Up/Down buttons display wrong direction icon
  • Fixed: Construction Queue text not showing full name when not hovering over an item
  • Fixed: Continue button still available on main menu after deleting all save files in load game window
  • Fixed: Left, Middle or Right clicking the planet map causes the camera to go way off the map in some cases
  • Fixed: Facility no longer in the same place after loading a saving game in some instances
  • Fixed: Main facility and POI’s not always generated in the same location when starting a new game and using the same seed value
  • Fixed: Auto Explore vehicle action getting stuck in some instances
  • Fixed: Animation issue with robot assembler when starting to craft
  • Fixed: POI stories showing loot rewards before it should in some instances
  • Fixed: Pump Motor and Storage Expander machine equipment missing relevant research
  • Fixed: Mods that add custom names cause issues spawning colonists in some instances

Update 26 :: Traveler Now On Test Build Branch

Howdy Folks!

A huge thank you to everyone that checked out the Update 26 Experimental Branch and provided feedback, suggestions and bug reports. There is a lot packed into Update 26 :: Traveler and now it's on to the final round of testing and feedback on the Test Build branch. Be sure to check out the Test Build branch if you want to help test and provide feedback on new mechanics.

Update 26 Test Build Info
https://steamcommunity.com/app/704510/discussions/3/2949251578277051674/

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.