Update 0.10.0 - Cadesia, Resource Nexus, Storage, More UI polish, QoL, balancing

Hello all you lovely AIs out there!

First of all, sorry for the wait, It took us much longer than expected to work on this update, but we hope it's worth the wait for you!

As you may know, we always try to maintain savegame compability. However some existing recipes have changed, while this shouldn't crash your savegame, you still may want to take a look at the Items section below, before you wonder why some of your production lines don't work anymore.

We also had to reset your Eco upgrades! Unfortunately we didn't implement a compensation like getting the items back and we are very sorry for that, but we hope that you'll find comfort in the fact that you still can keep the rest of your savegame.

Now let's finally jump into the good stuff of this update!
To make it more readable we've put it into section(s), so you can expand those, you are interested in:

Main Features

The biggest change is the new Resource Nexus and with it the new way of your main purpose: Sending Resources to Earth.

You are now able to craft resources into packages of different rarity: common, uncommon, rare and epic for which you can gain AI accelerators in return.

These accelerators are the "currency" to buy upgrades and unlock recipes in the new Resource Nexus.
For now there is a Factory, Interstellar and Combat tab. But more Tabs and Upgrades are planned, so don't worry if some places may yet look a bit empty (looking at you interstellar tab!).

Example of the Combat Skilltree:

Infinity Upgrades

With this update, we'll also introduce "Infinity Upgrades" to the Combat Tree. You'll find those at the end of the different damage nodes. Those give a flat damage bonus, but as the name already implies, they have no max. level, so you can increase them as long as you have enough accelerators!

UI Updates

We've gone over some UIs (no worries, we know there's still a lot more to do the next focus is probably the crafting/recipe screen as it's growing too big with all these recipes...).

Notably we've made the build UI a lot smaller to let you see more from the base when building.
We've also moved some of the "utility" buttons into the lower right corner where you can also access them when NOT inside the build mode.

Before:

After:

We've also overhauled the inventory screen and added some filters on top. We are waiting for your feedback on this and if you like it, we'll also want to add it to other "select item" screens, e.g. for Drone Pods.

Before:

After:

Other than that we've also did some minor polishing on the tower skilltrees and the unlock screens (which are also now faster).

We hope you like these changes, tell us, if we move in the right direction with these UI changes or if we did something horribly wrong!

Cadesia

With 0.10.0 comes also a new Level "Cadesia".

As you may see from this small teaser, Cadesia brings a lot more battle than the levels before, so make sure you are prepared for a massive assault and a new enemy!

Full feature list:

Features

• New Level Cadesia
• We've reworked the whole Resource Hub (Now called Resource Nexus) system and UI.
  You are now able to craft resource packages, that you send back to earth. When you do this, you'll get rewarded with AI Accelerators that you can spend on different Upgrades within the Resource Nexus.
• Added the new Combat Upgrades Skilltree to the Resource Nexus.
• Added/rebalanced ECO Upgrades (Can now be found under the "Factory" and "Interstellar" (when unlocked) Tabs within the Resource Nexus.)
• Overhauled the build mode UI. We wanted it to be a bit more tidy, so you can see more of your base, while in build mode.
• Overhauled the inventory screen and added some filter options.
• Returning from build mode now keeps your camera and grid settings. Also these options can now always be found on the lower right, while in base mode.
• Added a new Storage Building.

Item changes

Assembler

• No longer requires Titanium Ingots.

Merger/Splitter

• Reduced Iron Ingot cost from 3 to 2.

Grabber

• Increased Gear Wheel cost from 2 to 4.

Long Grabber

• Is now unlocked through the Resource Nexus instead of being a default recipe on game start.
• Now requires 1 Titanium Ingot instead of 1 Copper Ingot.

Grabber (Filter)

• Is now unlocked through the Resource Nexus instead of beating level Auridian.
• Now requires Cable (Silver) instead of Cable (Gold).
• Chips cost reduced from 2 to 1.

Long Grabber (Filter)

• Is now unlocked through the Resource Nexus instead of beating level Auridian.
• Now requires Cable (Silver) instead of Cable (Gold).
• Chips cost reduced from 2 to 1.

Drone

• Is now unlocked through the Resource Nexus instead of being unlocked by default.
• Reduced Aluminium Ingot cost from 8 to 5.

Chip

• Reduced Plastic cost from 4 to 2.

Chip (Silver)

• Now requires silicium instead of glass.
• Reduced Plastic cost from 5 to 4.

Chip (Gold)

• Now requires silicium instead of glass.
• Reduced Plastic cost from 5 to 4.

Other Item changes:

• Added "Cargo Crate" recipe.
• Added new recipes for resource packages. You may need to replay all levels from 2 on, to unlock them as they are rewarded when the related resource is unlocked.
• Added tower parts and modify options for the T1 Laser weapon. (You'll need to beat Level 3 (Cosuna) again to unlock these)
• Changed rarity of the Transport Drone from epic (purple) to uncommon (green).
• Changed rarity of the Filter Grabber from common (white) to uncommon (green).
• Changed rarity of the Long Filter Grabber from common (white) to uncommon (green).
• Changed rarity of the Ship (small) from rare (blue) to uncommon (green).

Combat Balancing

Towers

Laser Tower
To make Ammo and Reload Time Upgrades more interesting for Laser Towers, we've increased the base reload time of this Tower.

• Increased Base Reload Time from 6 to 8s for Tier 1
• Increased Base Reload Time from 5.5 to 7.5s for Tier 2
• Increased Base Reload Time from 5 to 7s for Tier 3

Misc/Bugfixes

• Beating Level 1 now grants 4 common resource packages the first time, to get new players started with the tutorial.
• Decreased the "claim" animation length for unlocks from 1 to 0.5 seconds.
• Moved the "Paused" text to the bottom and made the screen slightly brighter.
• New games now start with 5 Cargo Crates in inventory.
• New games now start with 2 instead of 1 Assembler and 4 instead of 3 Requester & Sender. Pods
• Disabled the exp notifier option by default, to have a "cleaner" UI for starters.
• Damage numbers are now a bit smaller and should be a bit better readable (still WIP we know it's a mess on many mobs :)).
• Added a small note to the Tower Skilltree screens, that you can shift + click to spent max. points.
• Smelter and Assembler buildings can now store up to 250 input items, to allow for more resource hungry recipes. The max amount of output items is still 25 though.
• Splitter and Mergers now work a lot faster. (And can be made even faster with some new Upgrades inside the Resource Nexus)
• Added new Icons for Ammo, RotationSpeed, Reload Speed, Rate of Fire and Crit Chance.
• Most large numbers in combat and and different screens are now formatted. For example: They now show "16k" instead of "16.000".
• Tower and Enemy Values are now shown with a precision of 2 digits instead of rounding up or down.
• The recipe modification screen now shows current/maximum quantity.
• Made the unlock screen a little bit prettier.
• Did a little polish/overhaul on tower skilltree colors and images.
• Removed/Added some fluff for the playerbase.
• Fixed spawners sometimes not taking into account the time between burst spawns.
• Fixed Skilltree not showing increase on next level for lightning jump improvements.
• Fixed some Spacings in the Quest Screen.
• Fixed default position of the Loot Window, when starting a new game.
• Fixed a filter bug, when grabbing items from Interstellar Stations.
• Fixed level up giving to many skillpoints.
• Fixed some font spacing of icons.
• Fixed tail color of sand and frost devourers.

Known Bugs & Quirks

• Purifier walking animation bugs sometimes around the feet.
• Level Rewards other than the skillpoints for Glaviros III and Cadesia are yet still missing. They'll come with one of the next minor content updates.
• Laser Ammo doesn't yet have a modification.

We hope you have fun with this update and as always, let us know what you think of this update in our Discord or the Steam discussions!

- Snob Entertainment -