Terraformental : v0.5.1 – Balance Update

v0.5.1 – Balance Update

Summary

This update includes several significant balance changes and a lot of small content changes. So let’s go over the larger balance highlights first.

Food Synthesisers

The food synths have always bugged me. Sure, you’d get better at pressing the buttons by doing it lots, but how/why would you pressing the buttons better make them use less power to create the same amount of food? So they’ve been given the same treatment as a tram – there’s a short action to start it going, then the majority of the time is covered by an event. The event has a fixed time, so it uses a fixed amount of power.

This has a few side effects. For starters, you can queue up several (up to 5) portions of food to be synthed, then leave and do other things while it actually gets made. When you come back, all the items are sat there waiting for you to quickly pick them up. It also preserves the balance better, and leaves much more room for future content to do more interesting things with them.

Journey to Strabo

This journey caused a lot of frustration for people, especially on the first attempt, mostly due to a lack of information. So the changes here are mostly just giving more/better information rather than actual balance changes. Before even starting the journey, you’ll learn from Laurion that a supply cache was left along the route by the evacuation, and once you’ve reached the cache the first time the journey action will be split in 2 so you know when exactly you’ll reach it in future.

Strabo Power

Strabo’s original power system was very heavily skewed in favour of people who already knew all the content. Arriving very early gave you a huge advantage. But if you knew exactly what you were doing, even if you arrived very late you could still complete the entire facility relatively easily thanks to the backup generator and amount of fuel you were given.

Now, arriving later has far less impact on how much power is available. Once you arrive power will run out a lot faster (unless you micromanage it very well), and you’ll be forced to spend more power to complete most of your goals.

What’s Next

Now that this update is ( finally ) out, I’ll be giving it a few days before I update the free version, then taking a short break. Probably shorter than I normally would, because this minor update has taken so much longer than I wanted.

After that though, I’ll be starting work on the Pneuma update, with the aim of releasing it in May.

Full Changelog

Features

• New Autosaves:Action Completed cycles through 3 slotsStart of loop
• Stat: % of Combined Actions found

Content

• Actions:Install Standard/Enhanced Motors after removing motors at AstrapeInstall Mid Range Transceiver in Rover (allows remote-activation of some actions and speeds up some others)Carry Propeller (parts) Through Portal
• Combined Actions:Load & Install Water RecyclerUnblock, Boost & Call TramDepart for Talos from Strabo Outpost (unlocks with Depart for Strabo, should reduce confusion)Enter each Strabo building from Rover when parked outsideShutdown Other BuildingsUpgrade Rover Motors in HangarReturn to Rover from each Strabo buildingLoot Astrape CratesLocate HangarFind Crashed AircraftUninstall & Unload RecyclerBoost & Call Tram from central and plateauTake & Synth Basic Food/Rations
• Alt Name: Bypass Rover before reaching Laurion
• Alt Desc:Drive to Comm after turning it off (already found this loop)Inspect Vehicle Airlock at Astrape before trying Open Vehicle BaySearch for Astrape in Laurion after reaching Astrape
• Alt Logs:Dig 1st/2nd layer of obelisk without inspecting computerEnter Strabo for 1st time this loop and comment on current power generationInstall 1st/2nd solar panels before connecting the mountApproach Astrape without inspecting Talos’ drillsWater bottle segment when you know how to unblock the tram but haven’t completed the rest of SantoInspect Tram Controls after finding tram power and after boosting itRepair Main Generator in 2nd/3rd+ loop after removing the food couplerDrive to Search Area for 2nd time having made no progress 1st timeInspect Pascal’s PDA and Computer without having recovered the outpost messageExplore Control Room in weather station with no powerSee a storm approaching which you knew was coming and you’re already shelteredMining machine finishes recall when you’re not at the quarryRover finishes charging in Strabo Tower/HangarWalk into admin office door trying to get couplers (after nearly walking into GFD)Drill 5th Layer after touching Astrape or Strabo artifactInspect Crops Greenhouse after getting survey results; during a harvest; after a harvestObserve Near Quarry/Astrape after 20% (but before completing) Observe HighlandsFind Faster Highlands Route 1 and 2 (from rover)
• Reworded:Inspect Drones log when you’ve inspected the transceivers but don’t have oneAstrape’s Inspect Admin log to make sense when there’s no powerFirst generator overheat log to mention « maybe you should bring equipment which benefits from the sun instead »Search Strabo logs and Drive to Search description to mention a cache of suppliesLog for Install Mining Motors to mention bringing old motorsInspect Long Range Transceiver to account for unblocking the tram from any compoundApproaching Strabo’s outpost to account for knowing about the supply cacheSearch Other Buildings after Check Power System Locate Weather Station first time logLoop 1 travel log to clarify the purpose of the heatersLoop 1 Inspect Food Synth log to mention you can queue up food then go do other tasksSecond log for Search Strabo in Laurion to say Strabo stopped sending updates a while agoHarvest finishes before you’ve found the warehouseConnect Other Buildings explains the different power requirementsFinding no protein bars in StraboSearch Lost Rover clarifies the beacon having its own power sourceInspect Containment Chamber log to explain the frame is twisted and the door couldn’t be opened even if you dug it out
• Alt Notes: Regarding the PDA being affected by the time artifact if you haven’t woken up with the PDA yet
• Death Messages:Low priority message after stepping through a portal (and not travelling anywhere in the rover)Dig final layer of obelisk but don’t touch the artifactFind Talos-Dam routeGet Laurion’s artifact, return to empty pit in future loop and run out of power while inside
• Renamed Derelict Rover to Timeworn Rover
• Renamed Power Bank to Power Pack (and removed reference to it being useful in the rover)

Balance

• Reworked journey to StraboFirst time is still 1 big scary actionOnce you reach the outpost, it’s permenantly split into 2 actions (Drive to Outpost and Drive to Strabo)The 1st action gets no familiarity from its own completions, both get familiarity from the 2nd action’s completionsReverse journey has the same split, and share familiarity from its 2nd action with all 3 other actions
• Reworked Strabo’s PowerThe panels now start in hibernation mode (retracted)You can do a short action followed by a 30s event to extend/retract the panelsPanels take damage/s during storms instead of a fixed amount at the end of a stormWhile retracted, panels only take ~15% damage from storms but generate no powerMoved Fuel Canister from the Tower to the crashed VTOLReduced Strabo backup generator fuel capacity 360 -> 250You can only toggle power on the central tower or all other buildings (not individually)Reduced Comm/Weather station drains 15/s -> 10/s
• Food synth rebalanceSynth action starts a timed event which drains power/s for a fixed durationUp to 5 charges of the event can be queued upWhen the event completes, 1 charge is added to a Take action (max of 5)
• Added Equatorial Sun eventStarts when you reach the search/central areaBlocked by being in shelter or inside a buildingDrains 0.05 water/s (extra 50% of base)Reduced to 0.01/s with environmental suit
• Reworked Check Weather from Rover into Setup Weather Display (reveals all future storms)
• Installing mining motors returns 4 medium or enhanced motors (depending whether you’d upgraded or not)
• Can’t Dig Out Rover while a sandstorm is going
• Astrape’s Open Vehicle Bay action is faster and makes more sense after removing the artifact
• Reduced base time of Dig Out Rover (needs to be completed multiple times to fully dig out, but can get familiarity)
• Added power cost to Lift Lockdown (explains why you need more power to do it)
• Upgrade Rover Motors requires all 4 motors before starting
• Unified time of Take Glacier Water and Powah Bars in Astrabe Admin (2s > 1s)
• Undirected Astrape surges now deal 2.5% damage to all 4 systems instead of 10% to a random one
• Added 10% time dilation to all combined actions
• Talos’ Gather Supplies:Reduced to 5 of eachOnly unlocks the loop after you Get UpIncludes Protein Bars
• Tram:Can’t be remotely unblocked until you get to the plateau and get codesCan be unblocked/boosted from plateau and central
• Finding the lost rover is boosted by the transceiver
• Once you dig the final layer of the obelisk, all other actions are hidden until you touch the artifact
• Leave in Rover from Astrape moves the rover outside instead of leaving it in the airlock
• Grouped Unload Water Recycler while rover is locked with the unlocked variants

UI

• Timed events show a speed multiplier (when not x1)
• Resource timers don’t display when empty and no generation
• Added sub-areas to Strabo Tower to better group actions by Area
• Added ‘IsIgnoredForActionGroups’ to Areas (currently recycs, gen, motors and prop)
• Added a Delete button to save/load menus
• Reduced width of PDA Notes scrollbar
• Moved Dam-Astrape route on the map to clarify it’s on the west bank
• Unlock Workstation hides once you have motor info
• Open Security Door in Astrape hides if already unblocked and boosted tram
• Area resources show as in danger if your personal resources are too low

Bugfixes

• Action button highlights work correctly when leaving combined actions
• Corrected conditions on alt descriptions for Force Admin Door in Laurion and Strabo
• PDA Note Entries/Categories not hiding on load
• Action Groups and Combined Action panels update their size more reliably
• Resources action group always sorts to the top on Resoures & Areas sorting
• Pause on Resource Danger ignored for first 30s each loop
• Fixed crash loading legacy saves in certain states
• Can move mining motors to VTOL after uninstalling from rover
• Can’t extract water from a powerless Astrape before inpsecting the recycler
• Agriculture events pause if power runs out
• PDA Note regarding sandstorms in Facilities > Strabo doesn’t mention solar panels if you never installed them
• Timed events resume if/when their speed multiplier increases from 0 (agri events when you reinstall the transceiver)
• Timed events don’t disappear if you save/load while they’re running
• Action With Charges cooldowns update when entering a new area
• PDA Note regarding the radius of explosion in Artifacts > Santo doesn’t specify where you died
• Default Astrape death message is used if you arrive via tram
• Hidden lab uses Strabo music
• Logs show for 2nd half of portal artifact finishing charging
• Rover out of power variant for having solar panels isn’t shown if you haven’t connected the panels yet
• Actions in multiple combined actions don’t re-appear until all the combined actions are gone
• Call Tram to Quarry claims it’s stuck when it’s not
• Map updates correctly on game load
• Corrected conditions on Remove Full Power Cell actions (fixes negative power and infinite cells)
• Can’t Drive to Search Area/Towards Strabo while sheltered
• Empty action groups don’t get stuck
• Rover has to be in the hangar to install/swap solar panels
• Check Other Cryopods and Inspect Life Support become known persistent after loop 1
• Fixed memory leak on save/load dialogue
• Game no longer autosaves when dead
• Corrected conditions on logs for portal artifact finishing/cancelling/failing charging
• Pre-quit saves aren’t made if you’re dead
• Build Solar Panel combined action not available if you installed the Strabo panels
• Load Motors on Rover moves the player into the rover
• Can’t build pressure regulator if the rover isn’t there
• Solar panel boost logs on the way to Strabo don’t show if you haven’t connected them
• Middle click settings apply to resource priorities
• Corrected condition on log for approaching timeworn rover from Laurion if you never revisited it
• Pin Tower Resources only works while the comm station has power
• Fixed conditions on the disabling of Strabo power drain for air recyclers
• Changing items to/from DoNotUse updates resource bar colours
• Open Vehicle Bay at Strabo hidden when you’re sheltered
• Death message for confirming Strabo outpost moves won’t show on a later loop if you « miss » it when you first see it
• Events with long names (e.g. tram to plateau) wrap on the tooltip instead of overflowing the box
• Move Generator into Laurion isn’t in the rover when Laurion is powered
• Typos