Hello everyone!
Today I have exciting news for you as I'll be sharing the content and release timeline of Update 3 “Xeno Tech” with you. I’ll start with a short TLDR section, before going into detail below.
TLDR
- Update 3 is expected to release within the 2nd half of January.
- Update 3 will go live on an experimental branch on December 15th to collect feedback.
- Update 3 is themed around Xeno (Alien) Technology and adds Robot Workstations (put your robots to work), Light Exploration Content, Character Logistics (auto-refill your inventory), Steam Achievements, Improved Controller Support and two new robots to sell.
- We are still planning on doing a separate experimental branch with trains soon, but there is no date yet.
In case you are curious about what to expect from Update 3 in terms of size, I would say it’s quite a bit bigger than Update 1, but it’s not as big as Update 2 (which was actually two big updates combined).
Robot Workstations
A factory making robots, and yet there are no robots working in the factory? That surely doesn’t feel right. Robot Workstations are our first attempt at bringing more (robotic) life to the factory. Workstations are computer terminals where either one, two or three of any of your factory-made robots will be able to work at and project various benefits onto machines in close proximity.
Each robot has a different effect and different building types it affects. So unless you start making every robot, you won’t have access to every improvement. The robots either improve machine speed or production efficiency (producing more output items from less input items) while increasing the power draw of your machines. Each machine can only be affected by one Workstation at a time.
(Light) Exploration Content
The update is going to add underground caves and new objects to collect and discover within those caves, but also on the surface and in the existing lava caves. Gathering those various items will unlock character upgrades, as well as things that are useful in your factory. All the collectibles are tied around an ancient alien race, and there are some flavor texts providing context, but you shouldn’t expect to discover a full story or background lore. While it starts out as manual collection work, it ultimately leads into gameplay you can automate. But I don’t want to go into detail too much because I don't want to spoil everything in advance.
However I do want to talk a bit about what to expect and how we approached this. We’re calling this light exploration because ultimately you’re not expected to spend massive amounts of time gathering those objects. For years FOUNDRY has been a game where everything was focused around the core of factory building and it is going to stay that way. You will have the venture in lava caves and dig into some caves to get the upgrades you need, but once you reach the midgame you’ll be able to automate it. At this point it will actually connect very well to the established factory gameplay loop (for example there are some alternative recipes unlocked with the new resources).
Our goal was to make the world feel less empty, and provide a bit of alternative gameplay, without it being annoying for anyone who wants to fully focus on the factory stuff only. We’re looking forward to your thoughts around the balancing, and I’m sure it’ll change a bit based on your feedback during the experimental branch.
Character Logistics
This feature allows you to automatically restock your inventory from remote storages. The discovered Xeno-Technology allows you to build Xeno-Logistics Storage Containers, from which you can automatically draw items into your inventory, should you be in range of Xeno-Logistics-Tower.
On your character (inventory) frame - which has been fully overhauled - there will be “resupply slots” which allow you to configure item types and a target amount up to which they will get resupplied. You’ll start out with a limited amount and through the exploration system you’ll be able to unlock more slots.
Let’s be honest about this one, it’s all about player convenience. Building large factories can take time and going back to restock your items in between isn’t part of the fun. We still wanted to game-ify this feature by requiring you to build Logistics Towers and to progress to unlock more resupply slots and I think it worked out very well.
Steam Achievements
We have added over 80 Steam achievements for you to pursue and unlock. They provide an initial set of baseline achievements that fit the game, and as time passes we expect more achievements to be added.
This batch of achievements covers the simpler achievement types (amount of robots sold, researches completed, station upgrades, lifetime earnings, …) and more complex conditions might follow once the game is a bit closer to its final 1.0 version.
As for difficulty we went for balancing values that seem (mostly) achievable for the average player instead of creating dozens of hardcore achievements which are close to impossible to reach. I know this is very subjective and everyone enjoys different types of achievements but personally I always liked games where the achievements can be completed by the average player in reasonable time. But worry not, there is a mega-endgame-achievement for getting market dominance on 100 planets.
Improved Controller Support
After receiving some feedback about less-than-optimal controller support we have decided to give this some love and improved controller support. Playing FOUNDRY with a controller should now feel a lot better. Specifically we added UI support for the controller (no more relying on the virtual cursor), glyph support to show bindings, and added a command wheel that lets you access some less commonly used buttons. That being said, there is still more work to be done and it is not yet perfect. We’re looking forward to your feedback on this topic and you can expect it to improve with every future update.
Why this and what about trains?
In a previous blog we have mentioned four big topics we want to look at next: Trains, Nuclear (aka Modular Power Plants), Content Expansion & Exploration. As we were working on all of those in parallel we realized that it might take a bit to get all of them into a polished and ship-able state. Therefore we decided to split them, which helps us with providing regular updates instead of going dark (not again!) for too long and also makes it easier to improve the quality of all of those features.
After doing the Terraforming Update we wanted to add some light exploration content underground and focused on that first. As this shaped up nicely we figured that it would make - together with some of the Content Expansion Features like the Robot Workstations - a pretty solid update on its own. And most importantly, those parts wouldn’t benefit from being held back until Trains and Nuclear would be ready. Which led to the obvious conclusion of putting it out as soon as it’s done.
The plan for Update 4 hasn’t changed much, it’ll still be Trains, Modular Power Plants, and even more Content Expansion (most likely the full science pack 5 content). And while I don’t want to spoil too much, I think the Xeno-Tech content will lead very well into the Modular Power Plants. Regarding a timeline I can reveal that Update 4 is expected to launch in the first half of 2026, but this isn’t yet a promise.
What to expect from the experimental branch?
The experimental branch is something we have been using in the past when we were still on itch.io instead of Steam. It has been very beneficial because it allows us to push a preview version of the upcoming features to our players so that we can get feedback and testing from people who enjoy taking a closer look early.
Experimental means it isn’t meant for you to treat it as the real update, instead you should see it as a preview. There could be bugs, there is no guarantee of saves not breaking (never override your existing saves when playing experimental!), and there will be missing polish. However it does not mean that you should expect lots of issues, we’re well aware that your time is valuable and we’re trying to deliver the best possible early version. I think the balancing might be the part that will be the most “work-in-progress”.
Therefore in case you’re looking for the best possible FOUNDRY experience, you should wait for the full release in January. And should you instead be eager to jump into the preview version, more information about how to use the experimental branch and how to provide feedback will be released on Monday.
Thank you for reading and see you in-game!
-mrmcd
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https://store.steampowered.com/app/983870/FOUNDRY/