Weekly update #16

by Bod9001 Weekly Update Hey crew, welcome aboard for the 16th edition of our weekly blog post! How are you finding the new cyborgs? We'll be refining that feature over time, but this week we've shifted gears back to working on other exciting features and essential fixes. As always, we're only highlighting a handful of the changes here; you can dive into the full list of updates on our Changelog Page. Let's see what's new in this week's haul!

Gibtonite!

Heads up, miners! It seems some mischievous entity has been hiding explosives in our rocks, introducing a new thrill (and challenge) to your mining expeditions. Meet Gibtonite, a volatile new material that adds an explosive twist to your mining adventures. Mining rocks concealing Gibtonite will trigger its fused state. But don't panic! You can defuse it using a mining scanner. Once defused, you can ensure further safety by using a pickaxe or drill to completely disable the Gibtonite. Gibtonite has three states: [olist]

Inactive: It's harmless unless exposed to heat or energy damage, which returns it to an active state.

Active: In this state, any damage to the ore switches it to its fused state.

Fused: In its most dangerous state, Gibtonite will explode in 2.75 seconds unless disabled.

[/olist] Mining just got a whole lot more interesting. Remember, you can detect Gibtonite with a mining scanner or, if all else fails, running away is also a valid strategy! Props to MaxIsJoe for this explosive addition to our game. Happy (and safe) mining!

Advanced Proto-kinetic accelerator

Janitors recently got a shiny new toy in the form of the "Advanced Light Replacer", a revolutionary item that makes the jaintor's job a little bit easier when replacing light-bulbs and also introducing a new feature to let them customize the station to their liking. But why should our floor scrubbing intern have all the fun? Miners get an upgrade for one of their under-used tools in their arsenal, the PKA. The new advanced variant is a lot meaner, powerful and useful. The APKA -as I'll call it from now on- is a fully lethal utility that is designed to let miners face the dangers of lavaland head-on while rivaling the Plasma Cutter's usefulness. The APKA can mine several tiles ahead from where it has impacted, allowing you to quickly dig tunnels. It also utilizes the Gibtonite's explosive capabilities to become a very effective self-defense/xeno hunting weapon. However, this upgrade does have its own downsides. For starters, it has a full 8-second cooldown between each charge to use. It has a wide AOE damage that can damage both ores and even the person wielding it if they're not careful with their positioning. It is not easily accessible and requires you to spend resources and time to obtain it. The APKA is not a replacement for the Advanced Plasma Cutter, as it is still much slower and less efficient. But it is a viable alternative for when cargo refuses to spend their credits on supplying their miners with better equipment, or when you need the extra stopping power to go against a nest of xenos.. or if you want a way to troll your fellow shaft miners during your shift over at lavaland. Big shoutout to MaxIsJoe for this exciting addition to the game. Happy mining, and remember to use your APKA responsibly!

Balancing

We have fine-tuned some gameplay elements to enhance your experience. First up, dead bodies will no longer generate toxins. We found scenarios where you'd take an organ or body part from a corpse in the morgue and then suddenly die due to the accrued damage/toxins weren't exactly fun. So, from now on, when a player is dead, their body won't produce any toxins, making organ or body part replacement a less hazardous affair. We've also adjusted the threshold for triggering random events. Previously, at least five players needed to be online for a random event to occur. We've reduced this requirement to just two players. This change should make the game more lively and interesting during times of low population.

The Most Crucial Fix Yet

Brace yourselves for this monumental update - our microwaves are no longer invisible! That's right, no more blindly fumbling around in your kitchen. Your culinary adventures just got a whole lot easier (and visible)! : P Enjoy your visibly heated treats! That's all for this week's blog post, folks! As always, we're celebrating a play test session in tandem with the release of this post, so why not jump in and join the fun? If you've got feedback to share, or if you just want to connect with our awesome community, hop into our Discord server. We've got a welcoming bunch of folks who are always ready to lend a hand to newcomers. Before signing off, we want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who's involved in this project. Whether you're a patron, a player, a contributor, a wiki editor, or any other member of our community, you're the reason we can do what we do. So, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for making all of this possible. See you next week!