FOUNDRY News

[p]Hello everyone!

Thank you very much for playing Update 2.1. We were very happy to see people coming back for the minor update in numbers that exceeded our expectations. Naturally we’ll continue to work to improve the game and therefore the big question is what we’ll be focusing on next.

[/p][h3]What’s next?[/h3][p]It’s pretty early and not all decisions have been made, but as of now it looks like we’re going to do another minor update focused on terraforming. It seems to be one of the biggest isolated parts of the game that could really need some polish and improvements.

I have previously talked about personal mining drones in a previous dev blog and the community left lots of feedback, which we evaluated and I’d like to share the results with you:

About 75% of feedback messages liked it.
About 21% of feedback messages had mixed opinions.
About 4% of feedback messages disliked it.[/p][p]
Overall that looks pretty good, but it does tell us that it needs more work. 75% is nice for the first iteration, but we have to aim a little higher. Let’s take a closer look at the most common requests, in order of how requested they were:

Drone Hub building that excavates those areas automatically
The most common request was to add a building which automatically excavates the area you mark for excavation. Even though the personal drones are much faster than everything we had before, they are still potentially slow to get rid of a mountain, especially when you need to stay in proximity and wait. To make that possible, we’ll have to cut some corners, similar to the personal drones, they won’t be able to properly pathfind around all obstacles and instead clip a bit (for performance reasons), but I think that should be fine with a building you place temporarily for excavation.

Tunnel boring machine
Something you can place, which then automatically digs in a direction of your choice for a pre-configured distance. While I think it would be really cool to use the upcoming trains for that, I’m afraid they’re too large and many of you would like the option to just dig a 2x2 tunnel or something like that. I think this machine needs to come in different sizes? I’ll be spending some time iterating on this.

Concerns about faster digging filling up the inventory
I have to admit that it caught me a bit off guard how many people raised concerns about the inventory filling up quickly. I don’t have an answer yet, but I’m thinking about it. Of course we could allow a setting/toggle that instantly destroys everything mined, but I wonder if we could actually make use of those blocks. I also believe we should increase the stack size.

Keep the drill/laser instead of replacing it
If we should keep the drill/laser or just go to the new system was one of the big questions, and while not a huge amount of people wanted to keep the drill/laser, it probably makes sense to bring the new system as an alternative. However I believe it should still be available very early or right away so that you can excavate floors for foundations early.

Using the those personal drones for construction/resupply
I’ve been thinking about that, but for now that’s out of scope.

[/p][h3]Conclusion[/h3][p]We’ll keep working on those things, we do even have a couple other ideas and we’ll keep you up to date how it goes! I know everyone would like to know how long it will take, but it’s too early to talk about that.

In parallel we’re still actively working on trains and the powerplants and we intend to share more information about those soon.

Meanwhile enjoy the game and see you next time,
-mrmcd



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[dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p]

[h3]Update 2.1 Hotfix #1 Patch Notes[/h3]

• [p]Fixed bug causing the sorting by ship status to not work properly on the space ship frame. [/p]
  
• [p]Fixed issue where certain hotkeys were invalidly displayed on certain non-US-keyboard layouts. [/p]
  
• [p]Fixed map icon outlines. [/p]
  

[p]Follow us on socials: Discord Twitter Reddit Facebook Paradox Forum [/p][p] Stay tuned for more news! [dynamiclink][/dynamiclink]
[/p]

[p]Hello everyone!

The latest Foundry update 2.1 is now live! As previously mentioned it focuses on a common quality of life improvement requests, and introduces a number of new features.

[/p][h3]Patchnotes:[/h3][p] [/p][p]Major Features:[/p]

• [p]New Science Pack 5 content[/p]
  • [p]4 Underwater Bots (new products to sell on the star map)[/p]
  • [p]Superalloys, Rubber, High-Tech Machinery Parts[/p]
• [p]Geothermal Power[/p]
  • [p]Find Geothermal Vents in lava caves and generate power efficiently (You’ll need to unlock the "Geothermal Power" research before you can find them in your existing saves)[/p]
• [p]Tier 2 Explosives[/p]
  • [p]Bigger blast radius[/p]
  • [p]Clear lava cave bedrock[/p]
• [p]Quality Of Life:[/p]
  • [p]Research Queue[/p]
  • [p]Station Upgrade Queue[/p]
  • [p]Added searchbars to many different frames including Inventory & Crafting Frame, Configure Machine Frame, Research Frame, Info Database Frame, Space Ship Management Frame, Item Filter Frame[/p]
  • [p]Improved Ship Management Frame: More filter and sorting options, added paging for high ship counts[/p]
  • [p]Increased map zoom range and improved map performance[/p]
  • [p]Autorun feature[/p][p] [/p]

[p]Minor Features:[/p]

• [p]Added infinite fuel depot station upgrade.[/p]
• [p]Added fuel depot frame warning if fuel consumption per ingame-hour is larger than the fuel depot capacity.[/p]
• [p]New art for the “Barrel Filler” machine.[/p]
• [p]Fixed mining drill speed research not working properly.[/p]
• [p]Shipping pads can now be copied with settings and it’s also possible to just copy and paste their configuration with the handheld tablet.[/p]
• [p]Fixed multiple water transparency issues related to freight elevators and smoke particles.[/p]
• [p]Fixed issue where game could get stuck in pause state if you hit escape while the game was creating a save file.[/p]
• [p]“Mining Force 2” research now requires “Mining Force 1” as dependency.[/p]
• [p]Fixed layouting issues on the power grid frame with very large numbers.[/p]
• [p]Improved performance related to shattered terrain after it being mined.[/p]
• [p]Fixed issue about floating error messages not animating properly when the game is paused.[/p]
• [p]Fixed outdated info database text related to construction industry and space station shipping.[/p]
• [p]Fixed layouting issues on the Company Info Frame & Sales Charts Tab on Finance Frame for certain rare resolutions.[/p]
• [p]Reduced the amount of steam generated by regular boilers, and the amount of steam consumed by turbines. This has no influence on balancing or existing setups, but it allows to feed more turbines with a single pipe before exceeding the throughput limits.[/p]
• [p]Fixed gas-containing pipes sometimes not rendering their content in the pipe window.[/p]

[p]
Launcher changes:[/p]

• [p]The game launcher is now optional[/p]
• [p]Added launch options on game startup which allow to start with the launcher or skip it[/p]
• [p]Steam restart might be required for the launcher update to be active [/p]

[p]We hope you'll enjoy the 2.1 update! As always your feedback is valued, so share your impressions![/p]

Hello everyone!

I’m happy to announce that Update 2.1 will release on the upcoming Monday, 14th of July at 2pm CEST as we participate in the Steam Automation Fest!

Main features:

• 4 new underwater bots to produce and sell
  
• 3 new science pack 5 components (rubber, superalloys & high-tech machinery parts)
  
• Geothermal Power System
  
• Explosives Tier 2, with a bigger blast radius and able to clear lava cave bedrock
  
• Quality of Life: Research/Station Upgrade Queue, UI Searchbars, Improved Ship Management Frame, Autorun, Improved Map
  

Update 2.1 also contains minor features and bugfixes, more detailed patch notes will be released on launch day.


[h3]Terraforming Feedback[/h3]
Two weeks ago in the previous dev blog we shared a prototype of personal terraforming mining drones and asked for your feedback. And we received a lot of feedback, in fact hundreds of messages. We've received and read through all of them and we’re very grateful for you taking the time and letting us know your thoughts.

The responses overall were very positive, but it was also made clear that the community desires additional ways of terraforming, especially in the form of machinery you can place down and then walk away.

We are now going back to the drawing board and will work on a “terraforming package” that includes multiple new features to address the existing terraforming concerns. This may take a bit, but as soon as we’ve got a plan we’ll provide it in one of the future FOUNDRY Fridays and get your feedback again.

Meanwhile I hope you’ll have fun with the upcoming update!
-mrmcd



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Hello everyone!

In this week's dev blog we will talk about terraforming and what is planned to improve it.

[h3]What is terraforming?[/h3]
Let’s start with an overview: The term “terraforming” is about two core features: removing existing terrain blocks (voxels) and placing new terrain blocks, which allows you to shape the world to your desire. Today I’m going to focus on removing (mining) blocks, as that is the part where we get most requests for improvements.


[h3]What’s wrong?[/h3]
I have identified the following core problems:

• It is slow: Mining blocks by hand (drill/laser) takes too long. There is research to improve the speed, and the laser is an overall speed increase over the drill, but ultimately it stays pretty slow. It is fine for a couple blocks, but for large scale excavations it gets tedious quickly. This is especially true if you want to excavate large pits for foundations, which in turn leads to players building floating platforms for convenience.
  
• It is cumbersome: The amount of reports about the drill range being too short and similar complaints isn’t particularly low and I get that. You’re in a cave and you want to drill out just two blocks above the character and you can’t reach the block without building yourself some support first. It gets better with the laser, but that one is unlocked only late in the game.
  
• It isn’t fun: In case the two issues above didn’t make you stop excavating at all, you’re left with a boring un-fun task. For many players it feels like the game tries to discourage you from doing large scale terrain modification.
  

Looking at the list I want to mention that when I designed those systems, it obviously wasn’t my intent to make you have a bad time with terraforming. I think I made a mistake in wanting to have a strong progression. I wanted it to be slower and more limited at first, so that it feels more rewarding when you unlock those researches that improve it. Ultimately I created a system that never really works well. While I still believe that unlocking improvements is an important part of the game, I have changed my perspective on the matter. In hindsight, I’ve misjudged the importance of terrain modification for regular factory building. While terraforming is central and important for mining, it isn’t for regular factory building and therefore people are not going to use it if it is not super accessible.

[h3]Solutions & Changes[/h3]
The new plan for terraforming is to make it as accessible as possible. I just don’t think there is any value in making it cumbersome at the start of the game. I’m looking for a change that makes cosmetic terraforming something that doesn’t bore you and makes you feel like it can be done relatively quickly. That being said, I still want unlockable improvements coming from the research tree. Over the past week I’ve prototyped a system that looks very promising, so let us proceed to the exciting part.

[h3]Character Mining Drones[/h3]
We already have a drone miner building with mining drones to mine ores, so why not give the player robot personal mining drones to do the job for him. In my prototype you can designate blocks (and whole areas) for excavation, and as long as you’re close enough to that area, your personal drones will excavate for you. Here’s a video:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Keep in mind that this is proof of concept and lacks polish in many ways.

As you can see there are multiple ways (single block, “floor”-shaped, 3d box) to mark blocks for excavation and then your drones just fly to the block, mine it for you, and bring you the resource. It is way faster than before, so it should make it more viable to modify terrain early in game. The system still provides plenty of room for research improvements: Drone Count, Drone Speed, maybe even carry capacity and other things.

Initial testing is positive and excavating feels good, therefore it is time to share this and see how the community reacts. As of now I think we would remove the drill, keep the laser as the default mining tool and integrate those new features into the laser. The new mining drones would be available from the start so that you can enjoy terraforming right away.

You might wonder if that makes explosives obsolete and I don’t think it will. If you want to get rid of terrain quickly, without needing precision, explosives will still be a bit faster.

It’s also worth noting that this might not be the only new terraforming mechanic, we might still look at stationary buildings which can excavate for you, but we haven’t decided that yet.

[h3]Feedback[/h3]
I feel like I’m saying this in every blog post, but please let me know what you think. Do those changes look good? Do you think my analysis about the problems is correct, did I miss anything? Do you have any other suggestions? Anything else? Let me know in the Steam comments below or on our Discord.

Thanks for reading,
-mrmcd



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https://store.steampowered.com/app/983870/FOUNDRY/