Important Update for TerraTech Worlds
Author: Grace,
published 7 months ago,
Hi everyone. First of all, thanks for sticking with us over the weekend - we were reading and listening to all of your feedback, and we really appreciate everyone who took the time to leave such detailed comments. It’s been very helpful, and as a studio that practises community led development, your input is incredibly important for us.
First of all, in case you missed it, we released a hotfix on Friday to fix the issue that caused the game to crash when players were taking a snapshot. If you were experiencing that, it should no longer be a problem.
But what about everything else?
[h2]HERE’S OUR PLAN.[/h2]
[b]Today (25th March) we have just released a critical fix update to address a number of crashes and freezes that players have been experiencing.[/b] This was a small but urgent update, and we wanted to make sure that we get this out as soon as possible. [url=https://steamcommunity.com/games/2313330/announcements/detail/4105666832538519231?snr=2___]You can view this here for all the details.[/url]
[h2]But then what?[/h2]
Following that, we’re going to release an update to address a number of balancing and gameplay issues that we’ve seen reported.
We’re aiming to get this out this week, but we will give you more firm timings when we’re confident on delivery.
There are a few key issues that we’re focusing on here. One is resource harvesting - we want to reduce the grind in the early game as we know this has been a big issue for a lot of you. We also want to allow you to create larger Tech builds, and finally fix the camera height (we’ve definitely heard you on that front)!
TerraTech Worlds places a greater focus on resource harvesting, handling and processing, but the previous balance was too slow overall and included some significant pain points like the small amounts of silicon in boulders. We’ve taken steps to take the sting out of it in lots of ways and we’ll continue to refine this balance as we get more feedback.
We have also planned several methods for players to be able to expand Tech build sizes throughout the game. Unfortunately, the first method, Aux Reactors, had to be removed following demo feedback (constant fuel consumption was problematic) and was not able to be reintroduced with a new cost before EA launch (it will occupy a restore instead), they will be back soon.
One of the other methods is the addition of different unlockable cabs with more reactor limit and efficiency points. To address this, and to allow larger tech builds, we’ve raised the individual and combined values for reactor limits and efficiency points. This should allow for greater scale and variety amongst starter techs. More methods will follow.
These aren’t the only updates we’re planning, so if your issue isn’t in here, that doesn’t mean we aren’t aware of it. We plan to continue improving the game with your feedback in mind, and to keep you aware of our plans in the coming weeks.
So what’s going to be in the next update?
[h3]Resource harvesting[/h3]
[*] Reduce health for trees, boulders, hematite, cuprite
[*] Remove silicon from boulders and add quartz to the starting area (this will also re-add all resource givers across the planet in ongoing saves, meaning previously harvested resources will be back again)
[*] Reduce the power consumed by resource lasers to allow players to use lasers for longer and reduce lasers causing overheating
[*] Speed up processing times for the fragmenter
[*] Increase the resource yield for the fragmenter
[*] Allow carbon to burn slower in carbon generators
[*] Decrease the ingredient costs of light, heavy and plasma ammo
[*] Reduce the crafting time for all ammo types
[*] Increase enemy ammo drops
[*] Decrease the recipe costs for the block fabricator
[*] Decrease the recipe cost for the Heavy Hauler cab (that required 40 x refined aluminium, when the stack size was 30 making it uncraftable)
[*] Increase the block drop rates from enemies (back to demo levels)
[*] Increase the default Tech Yard storage and make each expansion larger
[h3]Larger Tech builds[/h3]
This is also some feedback we’ve heard pretty unanimously! We want the game to be fun and we want to improve your experience, so here are our plans for this:
[*] Increase the combined limit of all cabs (early ones by a bit, late game ones by more)
[*] Increase variance for built-in cab cargo across the cab range
[h3]Features/Content[/h3]
[list][*] Camera height
[list][*] Lower the camera focus down by default
[*] Auto-reduce the height of the camera as it zooms in
[*] Allow players to change the camera focus with a slider[/list][*] Add the block crafter task to the certification (default) objective track (as a duplicate mission to avoid messing with old saves, will automatically complete if you have previously built one)
[*] Add an objective that asks players to claim a reward to ensure players know how to claim rewards and have claimed the block licence for the Small Cargo (again auto-complete if this has already been done)[/list]
To give some context on why the camera height issue was introduced, it’s because tree canopies and base roofs were blocking the camera in the demo. We fixed that by zooming the camera in when objects blocked your view - however, that affected the position of the aiming reticule which in turn affected combat. This meant we had to refocus the camera to have the reticule in the centre, allowing for the zooms without affecting aim. Unfortunately, this refocusing then caused the raised camera issue.
Finally, we just want to say thank you again for trying out TerraTech Worlds and sticking with us. Early Access is a journey that we’re on together and as mentioned above, your feedback and support is vital during this time. We’re doing everything we can to improve your experience, and please continue to leave your comments and feedback!