The 0.15 update is finally here! We have a host of big changes to power, exploration, the tutorial, and performance. And perhaps most exciting of all, .15 marks the beginning of official mod support in Final Factory! Make sure to join the [url=https://discord.gg/finalfactory]Discord[/url] if you're interested in joining the early access playtest. [previewyoutube=8NGKI_v6hPY;full][/previewyoutube] [h3]Exploration Changes[/h3] [list] [*] Fog no longer stays explored, instead, the player’s path will stay explored for a period of time before slowly fading away [*] Exploration technology added to the game that unlocks Exploration Centers and Exploration Bots [*] Exploration Centers will reveal a large amount of fog when powered. They will also house and deploy exploration bots into space. [*] Exploration Bots deploy in a circle around their origin Exploration Center, and travel in a straight line until crashing into something (they do not reveal fog). The crash site will be marked on your map, giving you an idea of where points of interest are located. [*] Terrain items and ancient structures will reveal in the fog when you get close to them [*] Terrain items and ancient structures will remain revealed forever when you find them [*] Added Fleet Navigation Center to Ship Assembly tech, to let people build nodes that expand their logistics network without the use of a ship yard [*] Fixed issue where you could reach the edge of the fog plane before another regenerates [*] Fixed issue where additional fog planes would not load correctly when loading a saved game [/list] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//43547551/ffa1affe2b34f2da36847c9b69c2181c3012ec83.png[/img] Exploration was a bit of a tedious process in previous versions of the game. People would spend a lot of time performing lawn mower patterns or spiraling out to explore more and more fog. I had 2 design goals with these changes: 1. Add automation to exploration 2. Make exploration more goal-driven Exploration Bots solve both these problems. You can now let your Exploration Bots find terrain while you build your factory. You can then explore into the fog with a little more information, and have a clear goal about where you want to navigate too, instead of just venturing out and hoping to run into something. [h3]Power Changes[/h3] [list] [*] Nerfed Solar Panel power output from 8 to 5. [*] Added Antimatter technology [*] Added Antimatter Power Station, which generates a flat amount of power and heat based on power consumption of the station [*] Added Antimatter Power Collectors, which can be attached directly to Antimatter Power Stations to increase the power output [*] Singularity Stations now consume items at a rate corresponding to the power needs of the station [*] Increased the mass of Exotic Matter to 20,000kg [*] Increased the mass of Exotic Matter production by 100%. [*] Reduced power requirements of several early game items to account for solar panel nerf [/list] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//43547551/e010f486b01de9daf884fbd2cdf301f7ab1df273.png[/img] Solar Panels ended up being too strong and too simple in previous versions of the game. They produce no heat, and only take up a single slot on a station, which costs only 1 stability. I wanted a slightly more interesting core power item to use throughout the game. Antimatter Power produces heat corresponding to the power satisfaction of the ratio of the station. And the placement of the power collectors is a little more interesting spatially than solar panels. Additionally, the power stations require connections to 2 slots instead of 1. My hope is that it makes the power puzzle more engaging overall. I have buffed Singularity Stations to consume items at a rate corresponding to the power needs of the station, which should make them more attractive. Additionally, I have massively increased the mass of Exotic Matter, with the intention of allowing them to be used like power cells when used in Singularity Stations, further increasing the utility of Dyson Spheres. [h3]Other Changes[/h3] [list] [*] Struts now reduce stability cost up to a max of 5 [*] Hauler Stations can now be configured to have a max number of Hauler's in queue [*] Enemy attack logic has been overhauled, players should notice more attacks later in the game [*] Nerfed the mining rate of Miner Bots to 1ore/3seconds [*] Buffed the mining rate of Advanced Miner Bots to 1ore / 1second [*] Added Advanced Mining Station to the High Energy Mining technology, which houses T2 miner bots [*] Mining Stations will only accept the tier of miner bot they correspond to [*] Increased the small ship requirement on Knights to 10 [*] Increased the small ship requirement on Krillo to 20 [*] Increased the recipe requirements on Planetary and Stellar Research Bots [*] Increased the recipe requirements for a number of later game items [/list] [h3]Tutorial Overhaul[/h3] The tutorial has been overhauled for 0.15. We’ve gathered a ton of feedback from the first 2 waves to figure out what was working and what wasn’t. We’ve added a lot more incremental steps early in the tutorial to aid new players. If you’re playing in the early-access playtest in Wave 1 and 2, note that not all the tutorial changes will be in until Wave 3 begins. We plan on iterating and continuing to improve the tutorial through 0.15. [h3]Performance Improvements[/h3] [list] [*] Enemies that are in disabled chunks now get the component tag on them to exclude them from Unity systems [*] Disabled Enemies are no longer serialized with save files [*] Made a number of small changes to various systems to improve performance [/list] Performance continues to be at the top of my mind. We’ve greatly improved performance of large maps and large save files and have a number of additional targets for performance increases for .15. [h3]Modding Pipeline[/h3] With the release of .15 I have added official modding support for Final Factory. See the mod template below for more details and instructions on how to start modding. I plan on enhancing and supporting this pipeline throughout the lifetime of the game. Community feedback will be essential, I can’t wait to see what everyone builds! Use the new modding forums in the Discord to show off your mods. https://github.com/bryding/FinalFactoryModTemplate [h3]Playtest[/h3] The third wave of playtesting will begin Monday, March 20. Everyone is welcome to sign up at the [url=https://discord.gg/finalfactory]Discord[/url]. Playtesting has been absolutely critical in this process and we want to extend a warm and heartfelt thank you to all the play testers. Tons of your ideas have been implemented, and many of the bugs you have found have been fixed (with more to come!). I could not do this without you all! We look forward to continued feedback as we approach the early access launch!