Balance and QoL Update

Hello, community!

Over the past month, we've released a number of hotfixes, addressing plenty of current bugs. However, beyond the fixes, we've also introduced many useful new features that we believe you'll find interesting. With so many brief bullet points in the patch notes, it's easy to overlook something important, so in this article we'd like to go over everything in more detail. And at the end, we'll share specifics about the balance adjustments arriving in this update.

Base boosts in the Tech Center

The Tech Center has received its core functionality: the ability to purchase temporary boosts for your base. These affect all key aspects of the game - production, logistics, and personnel. For instance, you can buy a boost that increases power output, allowing you to set aside energy concerns for a while and focus on higher priorities. Just don't forget to scale up your power infrastructure eventually, as boosts do expire :)

Help with building the laser cannon

Many players have rightly pointed out that the space community seems in no hurry to help save Earth from the impending disaster, preferring to leave the task entirely to the player. We agree that the organizations are acting, to put it mildly, unreasonably, so we've added support in the form of useful material deliveries for the early stages of the laser cannon. At the game's full release, this mechanic will be expanded and refined to make the quest feel more dynamic and varied, and deliveries will depend on your reputation. More details on this later - no spoilers for now :)

Deep slag refining

We've long been asked to provide more ways to use slag. Thanks to new research into deep slag refining, secondary processing is now possible, allowing you to extract oxides and rare-earth minerals from slag.

Barter contracts

To add more variety to contract mechanics, we've introduced barter deals. These offers are accessed via a point of interest with different requests as you progress through the game.

AI trade analyst

A new research option that simplifies choosing contracts. The analyst automatically calculates a contract's potential profit against current market prices for resources and also ensures the maximum reward for its early completion.

33 new colonists

Hiring colonists allows you to house over 180 specialists at your base, but our most active players began to run out of available personnel. That's why we've added 33 new unique colonists. Unlike the others, these newcomers have a lower hiring cost and a smaller salary, letting you bring in affordable specialists and train them in whichever skills are most relevant to you.

Visual improvements

We've updated the appearance of bulk resources on conveyor belts and in storage so they read well under various lighting conditions and are more distinctly different from one another. We've also added color-coded indicators for connectors, following the same logic used for conveyor belts and distributors.

QoL improvements

When laying wires, players often misclicked and accidentally placed a power pole hologram instead of connecting a wire to an existing pole. This was, understandably, inconvenient, so we've added snapping for wires and pipes within a one-tile radius. And if you still end up placing an extra pole, the wire removal tool now lets you delete both the poles themselves and the connections between them.

Another improvement concerns how module inputs and outputs are displayed. Now you simply need to click on a module to see which resources are being supplied to production. To help you quickly spot jams, we've added an indicator for resources stuck on a conveyor belt.

The research menu now displays the current game speed. You can also pause the game directly in this window to calmly plan your next research steps, or speed it up and watch the progress of newly researched technologies. We've also refreshed the "buy science points" button.

We've also expanded the tooltip when hovering over science points. It now lists all available ways to earn them.

Logistics management has been adjusted as well. The rocket list now shows their upgrades, making it easier to choose the most suitable transport.

We've also improved the color coding for rockets that are ready to be loaded for a contract.

Have you ever accepted a contract and then forgotten to send the shipment, losing precious time? Such contracts will now be marked with a special icon reminding you that the goods need to be dispatched.

We've also improved sorting for personnel and transport. Free units not assigned to other modules or routes now appear at the top of their respective lists.

And a few more useful changes:

- Improved UX when using Esc. You can now press Esc to exit any menu or go back one step if multiple submenus are open.

- Added path highlighting for connected underground conveyor belts.

- Added a notification when a room cannot be built because it contains unexcavated regolith.

- Added a "Set route" button for trucks in the Mobile Drilling Rig interface.

Balance

In this update, we've adjusted several aspects of game balance based on accumulated data as well as community feedback and suggestions. We've achieved the following goals:

- Sped up production development in the early game, especially in the story campaign.

- Smoothed out sharp difficulty spikes in the mid-game.

- Sped up progression through the research tree.

- Improved game optimization by reducing the number of performance-heavy calculations per unit of time.

- Made the easy and normal difficulty modes more forgiving.

- Eliminated situations where you'd run out of power on the very first lunar night.

- Reduced micromanagement of the Mobile Drilling Rig by lessening the need to frequently relocate mining operations.

- More precisely balanced the value of produced resources of tiers 2, 3, and 4, as well as resources produced using gases.

- Increased the digging speed for walls near the elevator.

- Increased the useful (working) time of colonists per day.

Full patch notes:

Update 0.99.91

Added

• Added minor help from the organizations in the laser-cannon construction quest (spoiler: this isn't the final version of the quest's assistance).

• Added a research upgrade for the Press: production speed +25%.

• Added a rockets section to the transport menu.

• Added capsules with modules to support the start of production in the quest "In the Wake of the Disaster". The number of modules depends on the chosen difficulty.

• Added an icon for the fuel input on the Launch Station.

Fixed

• Fixed a bug where, in rare cases, market resource prices could freeze at a single price for 6 days.

• Fixed a bug where demolishing a hologram via the button in its interface left behind the visual of conveyor belt inputs/outputs.

• Fixed a bug where one new colonist had an incorrect hiring cost.

• Fixed the unloaded-contract indication when hovering over the timer.

• Fixed a bug where, in some cases, visual artifacts appeared next to modules at night.

• Fixed the interface display when building the Conveyor Elevator.

• Fixed a bug where, in rare cases, the super-priority icon would disappear.

• Fixed incorrect icon display in the description and interface of expeditions.

Changed

• Improved the color coding for rockets ready to be loaded for a contract.

• Improved the smoke effect on rocket launch.

Balance

• Reduced the cost of starting researches: Regolith Extractor, Regolith Refinery, Rolling Mill, Parts Factory, High-Voltage Transformer, Medium Solar Panel, Mk1 Conveyor Belt by 10-25%.

• Increased base wall-digging speed by 5%.

• Increased base colonist movement speed by 15% (250->300).

• Smelting Furnace: oxides in the recipes for steel, titanium, aluminum, and silicon reduced 3->2 oxides per resource unit. Production cycle time increased by 30%.

• Hi-Tech Constructor, Fabricator: oxides in the alternative recipes for duralumin plates, titanium plates, and modular frames reduced by 25-30%.

• Press: reduced the amount of regolith in the smart concrete recipe 5->4.

• Smart Concrete Factory: reduced the amount of slag in the recipe 5->4.

• Regolith Refinery: reduced the amount of slag in the secondary slag-refining recipes by 25-33%. Cycle time increased by 25%.

• Multi-Refinery: cycle time increased by 15%.

• Mining with the Mobile Drilling Rig on the orbital map: increased saturation of titanium, rare-earth minerals, aluminum, and water by 25-100%, and silicon by 10%.

• Mobile Drilling Rig: base digging radius increased 20->25, base distance penalty increased 0.4->0.5, base digging speed reduced 0.02->0.015, base cycle time increased 8->10.

• Changed the reward for the story mission on underground oxide mining: fundamental and engineering science points increased by 25%, social points removed.

• Increased the production-automation reward in fundamental, engineering, and social points by 20%.

• Base market price of steel and silicon reduced by $5.

• Base market price of titanium reduced by $10.

• Base market price of aluminum reduced by $15.

• Base market price of smart concrete increased by $10.

• Increased starting resources in story mode by 20 steel, 30 silicon, 5 parts, and 10 concrete.

• Reduced contract volume in the early game by 5%.

• Increased the growth of colonist hiring cost as base CPU rises by 5-15%.

• Reduced contract profit depending on base CPU growth by 5-10% in the 400-1000 CPU range.

• Changed recipes that use gases: neon and argon consumption reduced by 1-2 units in each recipe.

• Small water tank capacity reduced 25000->20000.

• Small oxygen tank capacity reduced 25000->20000.

• Small solar panels: generation increased 28->30.

• Medium solar panels: generation increased 70->75.

• Regolith Refinery: power consumption increased 6->8.

• Rebalanced market prices of parts and microprocessors.

• Rebalanced the basalt-drilling research.

• Reduced the cost of the Press upgrade.

• Research map changes: the Medical Center is now researched after the Pharmaceutical Factory.

• New barter contracts.

• Rebalanced barter contracts.

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