Hey engineers! The grand game polishing has officially begun, but that doesn't mean we won't be adding new awesome content (quite the contrary, actually!). But first, we'd like to talk to you about an experiment we made...

Experimental Terraforming Re-Balance

As you might now, default tiles of the game have random efficiency distribution. It can affect growth of plants and the efficiency of some buildings. Previously, the best way to maximize a tile's potential was to replace it with a manually crafted tile. This update brings an option to do it with a special kind of Fertilizer (see below). It becomes available early in the game, but to compensate it, we have increased the cost of research for terraforming tiles (the production costs of tiles, once researched, remains the same) Our idea is to motivate players to interact with two default maps' landscapes, making use of the land they get on the default map and finding creative solutions for numerous watery obstacles on the alternate map. This idea makes sense to us, but you'll be the ones playing it, so we encourage you to check this part of the game out and let us know: Is it a 'yay' or 'nay' for you? Share your thoughts in the comments below, or drop us a line on Discord, or use the built-in feedback form in the game

v0.24.155 Released!

New Buildings && Content

• New building: Raft Crafter automatically makes Rafts for you (suggested by Trichouette) +an upgrade for making Lava Rafts
• New item: Surface Fertilizer is a consumable that maximizes the efficiency of any tile without changing its' type (suggested by Trichouette)
• Added an option to select origin of cats coming through regular Cat Gates - the higher the Hype, the more the chance to attract a cat from selected origin instead of regular passerby cat; if this happens, the cat arrived will have +1 Loyalty level
• The final Catopia milestone can now be unlocked on the progress bar of the Research Tree: it increses the Hype but does not unlock endgame gameplay yet
• The Second Prototype milestone now unlocks (spontaneous) 'Cats' Ascension', which provides a chance for cats to arrive at the Factory with increased Loyalty, depending on Hype level

Visuals

• Re-rendered Apple Trees
• Re-rendered Metal Drill
• Re-rendered Lumber Mill
• Re-rendered Box Maker
• Re-rendered Concrete flooring
• Re-rendered Apple Boxes
• Re-rendered Rafts

Gameplay

• The progress in achieving the next milestone is now visible on the Monument
• Upgrade allowing to harvest Juicy Cacti with Lumber Mills now adds another recipe with increased efficiency
• New upgrade for Compost Machine, allowing it to craft Surface Fertilizers
• Upgrade unlock requirement to advertise items to cats can now be fulfilled via Advertising Cat Gates, too (previously it was only possible in service/tasting buildings)
• Nanoproduction infinite research project now increases manual work speed too
• Selected infinite researches slightly buffed
• Crafting a Growing Deep Algae now requires less resources in general, but requires Quality (+) Catnip Algae
• Research cost of all tiles for terraforming was increased to balance the new tile-improving mechanics
• Increased amount of terraforming tiles given as reward for fulfilling Dr. Katz's requests; the frequency of such awards was increased as well
• Dormitory expansion costs slightly decreased
• Cats with upsale requests and mass purchasing cats now appear even further on in the game
• Eco Dynamite removed from the game (temporarily)
• Changed progress bar on the Research Tree, some milestones moved
• Added a new quest after Tutorial, that prompts further research and brings monetary reward
• Added new achievement: conduct 100 researches
• Added another secret achievement

QoL && Interface

• Added an option to customize the looks of cat researchers in Labs (suggested by Cat (the Black))
• Tooltip for Dynaminte now shows countdown before explosion
• 'Collect All' feature works faster
• Improved tutorial
• Hotkeys on numeric keyboard keys now summon a Blueprint of a building, if it is not crafted
• Wiki articles now clearly display the category of items (suggested by ChromatiChicken)
• Added an event when an empty hotkey is activated, along with a hint on assigning it
• Added statistics: cat knowledge from satisfied cats
• The panel on top of the screen now displays the recent amount of cat knowledge points gained from satisfied cats
• Improved tooptips
• Added an option to search for research categories on the Research Tree, clicking on a category icon highlights relevant research projects
• More convenient sorting in Statistics tab
• Added a search field to Zeppelin Routes tab
• Story comic strips can now be leafed through
• Added chatGPT translation for the French language
• Lots of copywriting improvements

Techie Stuff

• Updated engine version
• Performance optimization
• Bug fixes (kudos to squibbons, HelDoRe, squibs, bloom16night)
• Copying and pasting configs now with improved visual effect
• UI/UX improvements

Re: Factory

In this section, we're reacting to your bug reports and feedback sent through the in-game report form: Re: Wayne We're investigating the rendering problem on Mac Pro M2 / Mac OS X 14.0.0 - the architecture of the processor is very new and the new OS version emerged emerged a couple of days back. With that said, we don't even have the machine to test the game with yet, but we're working on this Re: squibbons We have partially fixed bugs with incorrect scaling of tooltip windows and scrollboxes in the windowed mode on lower screen resolutions, but the issue might persist here and there, we're looking into it A friendly reminder: you can always chat with us directly on our Discord server. We're using Discord for work, so you'll find many of us there most of the time, don't be a stranger! An even friendlier reminder: don't forget about our collection of items in Steam Points Shop! Sergei the artist makes wonderful factory art to be observed from above, but his works' magic really shows at close-up perspective:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1150090/Learning_Factory Don't forget to follow Learning Factory on Steam to get the news about new updates as soon as they're out there

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How to Get More Involved

Going to Early Access is but the first step to glory (and eternal cat happiness). Wanna be part of what happens next? Head to this blog post and learn how to help make the game even more awesome!

Share Your Gameplay and Become Part of KOTOVOD History

Learning Factory needs your help! Record a 10 or more minutes of you playing the game, share a video using any way you see fit, write your name into Learning Factory credits and get a promo cat! Make history here