Update 0.4.5: Player Messages + Quality of Life
Into the Planet's Flesh · published · build 25048145
Leave messages for other players, share useful hints, and earn Larvae when someone finds your message helpful. This update also adds environment previews, clearer research descriptions, new accessibility settings, and improvements to menus and progression.
New: Player Messages
Each completed tumor growth gives you 1 Bone Pen.
Spend a Bone Pen to leave a message through Player hints, available exclusively in the Tumorous Growth panel.
Combine phrases using an expanded shared word pool, with optional categories to help you find words.
Preview your mark before placing it using mouse or controller controls.
Place messages in open areas without overlapping buildings, interactable areas, or other messages.
Upvote a helpful message to give its author 1 Larva. Each player can reward a message once.
Rewards can take a few minutes to arrive.
Choose how many world messages appear, hide individual messages, or turn online messages off.
Online messages default to on for players without an existing preference. Existing opt-outs are preserved.
Added one-time guidance for earning Bone Pens, leaving messages, and receiving rewards. Dismissed tips stay dismissed across reloads and Prestige.
Added hover feedback, interaction sounds, clearer visibility controls, and more compact action tooltips.
Environment Previews
Hover over an environment icon to preview its effect.
Turn previews on or off beside the preview or in Settings.
Environment flavor text is now blue, separate from gameplay details.
Research
Research descriptions now explain what you unlock before you spend work on them.
Added resource and worker icons to descriptions.
Removed Creature Research as a separate step.
Merged Watchdog Adaptation into Pupa Web.
Removed Synaptic Overflow. Work spent on it goes toward your next assigned research.
Existing saves keep unlocked units, buildings, and partial research progress.
Fixed Pupa Web unlocking unrelated Blood units.
Clarified that Blood Burrowers release Blood Fragments and boost Chitin production.
Fragment-producing projectiles are now consistently called Hard Blood Globs.
Made Spore Archive and Storm Conduction descriptions easier to read.
Balance Changes
Added Chitin-coated Ganglia: spend Chitin to improve Memory production.
Added Blood Etherization: spend Blood to improve Ether rewards.
Later Memory and Ether cycles need less work.
Later Larva purchases cost less.
Added more space between recruiting Pages, recruiting Knights, and your first expedition.
Help and Menus
Added tips for new workers, Memory, Ether, Totems, expeditions, and resource routing.
Added help for planting, watering, harvesting, and permanent harvest bonuses.
Watchdog hints now match your available research and combat options.
New onboarding notifications use [Tip] in their headers.
Settings now scrolls when the panel is too tall for your window.
Save import and export tips now explain when you need them: moving between builds or making extra backups. Normal Steam play uses Steam Cloud when enabled.
Improved inscription radio-button alignment and tooltip sizing across supported languages and UI scales.
Flash Settings
Reduced Flashing now dims flashes more and reduces bright particles.
Added Disable Flashes to turn flash effects off without stopping gameplay events.
Flash settings are remembered across saves.
Fixes and Performance
Fixed reward checks causing a six-second delay for other online message actions.
Reduced repeated progression work when receiving multiple inscription rewards.
Message visibility, online preferences, and hidden-message resets no longer trigger an immediate full-save operation on every click.
Reduced memory use when drawing the game and measuring text.
Improved how flying Chitin pieces are drawn, without removing particles or changing their movement.
You can now Prestige again after earning all available Prestige points and choose a different Memory. Your points and purchased upgrades are kept.
Fixed Patient Colony losing track of purchased Bloodsuckers when you refunded them.