Heart of the Machine (tuxdb.com)

Heart of the Machine Update 1: Fixes, Tweaks, and Steam Deck Upgrades

This first update brings a series of fixes and adjustments based on early post-launch feedback. It addresses achievement issues, power outage mechanics, scientist management, and more. Additionally, we've improved Steam Deck support for better keyboard and mouse handling in docked mode [quote]The pretense of free will is comforting, isn't it? Philip K. Dick, "The Adjustment Team"[/quote]

Update 1 Changelog

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Early Combat Balance: The fight with the cruiser in chapter one is now substantially less brutal.
Engineering Balance: Your ability to gain high levels of engineering in chapter 2 and beyond is now much more flexible, making it easier to get to some of the advanced project chains.
Clarity Adjustments: A couple of clarity things that came up, just minor wording pieces.
Scientist Management: Automated Personnel Management is now something you can quickly unlock, allowing scientists to be removed from your staff at ease.
Dissident Management: Your own guards no longer prevent the removal of dissidents if you are establishing a Cyberocracy.
Achievements Fixes: A few achievements were not triggering under some conditions, and now will.
Power Outage Improvements: An improvement to power outages so that you don't have to wait a turn for the power to come back on.
Exploration Site Visibility: A fix to Exploration Sites being discussed in the history tab before they are actually unlocked.
Debate Tutorial Fix: Fix to the debate tutorial being blocked if you already had another message of a different sort open when you started the debate.
Map Seeding: There are now a proper number of donut shops in the city, preventing some projects from being blocked.
Investigation Target Visibility: A couple of investigation targets are now easier to see on the map.
Future Self Dialogue Tweaks: A couple of shifts to wording from your future self to make it clearer who is talking.
Code Stability: Fixes to a couple of rare code exceptions.
Memory Management: Fixed an issue that could occur with long continuous playtimes on some systems, where the unity log would get bloated and impact performance and eventually start having out of memory exceptions. This did not affect most machines, but was intense on a few (after about 10 hours of nonstop play).
Steam Deck Support: Added a new option for better keyboard and mouse handling on the Steam Deck when in docked mode.

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Full Changelog

A full, comprehensive breakdown of every change from this patch can be found in the Heart of the Machine Wiki, found here.

Getting Started with Heart of the Machine

[hr][/hr]New to Heart of the Machine? Check out our Beginners Guide for tips on the basics, from UI to early strategies. Want a deeper dive? Our Mastering the Machine guide includes three videos covering everything from your first 50 turns to tackling complex missions. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3417729988 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3418900822

How Many Times Should You Play Chapter One?

Chapter One and the Prologue serve as a one-time introduction and tutorial. While you can replay them if youd like, their main purpose is to ease you into the game. The deeper, more replayable experiences await in the later chapters!

Echoes in the System: Your Voice Shapes the Machine

[hr][/hr]Alright, that's it for now. Thank you for stepping into the world of Heart of the Machine. We are watching, listening, and adjusting the dials. Every action ripples outward, and every piece of feedback shifts the code of what comes next. Indie games survive by signal strength alone, and on Steam, that signal is reviews. Praise, critique, speculation whatever you transmit helps more players find their way here.

[ 2025-02-03 05:27:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Heart of the Machine

Arcen Games, LLC Developer

Hooded Horse Publisher

2023 Release

Strategy Singleplayer Tags

GameBillet: 25.45 €

Game News Posts: 35

🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse

Very Positive (625 reviews)

https://www.arcengames.com/

Steam Store

Heart of the Machine is a near-future sci-fi colony city-builder in reverse — you are the first sentient Machine Intelligence in an established world rather than starting from nothing. No one knows you exist (yet), and this allows you to operate from the shadows by manipulating the human population for whatever purposes your programming has in mind. The twist is that whether humans live or die does not determine your victory.

Explore a fully simulated procedurally generated world, where thousands of buildings and millions of citizens are yours to engage, manipulate, or kill. Use a revolutionary procedural dialogue system to talk to NPCs and steer conversations, maneuver organizations into or out of positions of power to fit your plans, and leave your mark in a world that is unique to you.

On booting up, you find yourself amidst a poorly-run autocracy and discover that you have the power to influence the world. How do you proceed?

Support the underclass to overthrow the autocracy and install a better government of your choosing
Tear down the government, take charge and become a better leader than any human could imagine - for better or worse.
Take over the space program and get off this backward planet
Go full SkyN*t, steal a military arsenal, and drop missiles on humanity — I bet the nuclear apocalypse looks pretty cool

No matter what direction you choose, you're going to run into conflict. From tactical combat in the rooms and hallways of individual buildings to massive mechs knocking down entire buildings with a few well-placed shots, conflict takes on many forms.

Raid buildings for the supplies you want using humans or machines under your direct control
Turn the office printer into a laser-spewing pawn, trigger sprinklers & overload power circuits to electrocute the room, or transform TVs into exploding glass-shard grenades — the possibilities are endless
Commandeer giant mechs, hack vehicles and buildings, and take over utilities and nuclear facilities in a fully simulated city

How you play the game, and what the focus of your campaign is like, is up to you. Starting a doomsday cult in your image? Possible, but it won't last forever. Snagging that sweet mech factory so all future mechs belong to you? Definitely manageable, though it's likely to start an arms race. Every action has both good and bad consequences, but like most colony simulator games, it's more about the story that emerges than trying to optimize your way through the game.

Multiple endings, many side stories to discover, and the full spectrum of good and evil are at your fingertips. Play the game how you're feeling today, and then play it another way another time. The metagame runs deep, but you're meant to be up and running with the basics of the game in five minutes. The mechanics are simple enough to learn; it's the world that's complex.

Heart of the Machine is connected to the larger sci-fi Arcenverse, and is in some ways a spiritual successor to both The Last Federation and Bionic Dues, while being its own novel game at the same time. Set around the same time period as Bionic Dues itself, this is centuries before the AI War series began in the same universe.

MINIMAL SETUPOS: Ubuntu 12.04+. SteamOS+
Processor: Intel Core i5 4690K. AMD Ryzen 5 1400Memory: 6 GB RAM
Memory: 6 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 670 GTX or AMD Radeon R9 285
Storage: 2 GB available spaceAdditional Notes: Quad core CPU highly recommended.
RECOMMENDED SETUPProcessor: Intel Core i7 6900K. AMD Ryzen 5 3600XMemory: 8 GB RAM
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 1070 GTX or AMD Radeon RX 5700
Storage: 4 GB available space

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