Nov 8, 2022

Timberborn - Miami_Mechanistry

Hello everyone!

The golems have just opened up the terraforming business, and yet here we are, talking Update 3. That’s because things will be different this time around. In Update 3, we plan to improve the core of the game across the board, based on the popular requests we see on Steam, Feature Upvote, Discord, and other channels. Read on and let us know what you think!

Recyclable buildings

Yes, with Update 3, the technology is here - you are able to recover some materials from the buildings you remove. With Timberborn’s focus on verticality and limited space, the player sometimes needs to remove a portion of their settlement to fix something, and losing all resources in the process feels bad. We're changing that now. As an added benefit, this also means you can treat your buildings as emergency sources of goods that are urgently needed elsewhere.

We didn’t want this feature to be as simple as “hit delete, Irrigation Tower disappears, resource numbers go up”. You do delete buildings instantly but the recovered materials first appear on the ground and need to be picked up by your dwellers. Beavers can pass through the rubble, and you can place paths underneath.

Also, you still can use the deletion tool to remove multiple buildings at once. In fact, it is oddly satisfying.

Storage wars

Maintaining the warehouses in their current state can be tedious, especially in larger colonies with tons of goods and multiple districts in operation. That’s why for Update 3, we are redesigning the entire system to make it easier to control what is stored where. Please note that this rework affects a key in-game system - treat what we describe below as a work in progress, as it may undergo significant changes before Update 3 even hits the Experimental branch.

First of all, we are getting rid of the messy warehouses that accept anything from potatoes to golem limbs. Each warehouse will now only store a single resource picked by the player. To implement that change and make manipulating the numbers easier, we are rebalancing the capacities and redesigning the warehouses. Folktails, of course, keep their unique Underground Warehouses.

Warehouses’ UI no longer includes the ‘Desired’ amount setting. We found it to be widely misunderstood and with the redesigned storage system, it would be even less useful. As a consequence, the ‘Distribute goods between warehouses when idle’ checkbox has also been removed. We are considering adding some form of warehouse priorities as a substitute for Desired amounts - let us know your thoughts!

At the same time, resource-specific piles and tanks (such as Log Piles or Catalyst Tanks) are going away, replaced with universal storage units that work similarly to the new warehouses. Dirt, Logs and Metal Scrap now use the Pile (or the stackable Industrial Pile if you’re Iron Teeth). To store fluids (Water, Biofuel, Maple Syrup and Pine Resin), your beavers will use three new universal tanks of different capacities.

The new system will introduce more visual variety to your colonies as a positive side effect. The stored good is always displayed on a model for each warehouse, pile and tank! And since crates containing goods are now color-coded, you can easily tell what that particular busy beaver is carrying without a single click.

Finally, if you want to quickly see where your goods are stored, we are also introducing a special UI overlay to Timberborn. At a hit of a button, all warehouses display what and how much they hold. This opens the door to adding further overlays - as long as having them makes sense.

Better migrations

As for moving your beavers and golems between districts, you generally liked what we had in the final iteration of Update 2 - but we knew there were still several areas we could improve.

In Update 3, the Settlement Panel’s UI receives several tweaks aimed at improving its clarity, further helped by the addition of Giant Blue Arrows in the game world. The arrows connect the centers of the two districts you’re moving units between. This makes navigating a colony easier and faster because guess what, the game no longer pauses when the Settlement Panel opens.

New golem (bot) models

We have heard the concern that golems, while functionally useful, are a bit too far on the sci-fi side of things and did not fit Timberborn’s aesthetics - so we’ve redesigned them! We’re happy to announce that they will now sport a new, more neutral and beaver-ish look.

By the way, we took this opportunity to rename them. Golems shall now be called “Bots”, with Barrelbots renamed to Timberbots, and Cogheads now known as Ironbots. This should better explain the unit’s role to the new players while also helping alleviate the “magical” vibe the term “golem” evokes.

Making factions more unique

With Update 3, we also begin our long-term work on making the beaver factions more unique. Folktails and Iron Teeth do have several key differences (vat-grown kits say hi!) but we’d like to crank that up. We want each faction to have a stronger identity, boast a unique look, and offer a vastly different gameplay experience. Some changes will be as simple as updating models of shared buildings. Here are some concepts for the new Iron Teeth Inventor’s Hut with the new bot portraits as a bonus.

And here's how it looks in-game:

The other changes will be much more drastic, such as an upcoming redesign of Iron Teeth’s food production. We'll be implementing unique buildings, crops and production chains - as you can imagine, changes like this make achieving our ultimate goal a huge undertaking. This means the IT food rework may or may not be part of Update 3, and we expect the work on the 'making factions more unique' project to continue even after U3 ships.

When does it ship?

The new stuff will drop onto the Experimental Branch in several rounds. Over time, we’ll continue to add more and iterate based on the players’ feedback. As is with us, no dates yet, but… Update 3, Part 1 is coming to the Experimental branch soon. Be on the lookout!

In the meantime, may we recommend... Going Medieval? Timberborn is now available bundled with the acclaimed base-building game by our friends Foxy Voxel - with a discount no less. So if you want to use your beaver architect skills to build a multi-storey medieval hooman castle, go for it now!

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/28776/Timberborn_Going_Medieval/
Until next time!
Team Timberborn

Sep 14, 2022

Timberborn Update 2 is here!

Timberborn - Miami_Mechanistry

Hello everyone!

Timberborn Early Access launched one year ago. Since September 15, 2021, over 750.000 players purchased Timberborn, and the reception has been nothing short of incredible. These twelve months allowed us to grow the studio - we’re a team of 11 right now, with more new faces coming! A larger studio means we can shape Timberborn into the dam great city builder we’ve always imagined, and today’s beefy content patch is a step (a jump? a leap?) towards that goal.

Below, you'll find the detailed patch notes covering today’s update. As for us, we’re going back to our work on the next one. No spoilers yet but… let’s just say we’re focusing on some of the most requested Timberborn features and redesigning some of the systems you did not like. So as always - keep the feedback coming!

Patch notes - Update 2

It’s fair to say that we wouldn’t make this update without you. Golems, negative effects, the reworked well-being system - all the new features evolved as Experimental Branch players reported what works and what doesn’t. Terraforming, batteries, and automated migrations are also here because you made it clear they were needed. Thank you for that!

NOTE: Update 1 saves should be compatible with Update 2 but as always when we implement such extensive changes, we strongly recommend starting a new game. Should you wish to continue playing on the Update 1 version, follow the instructions found here.

Golems

The main course today is golems. They are super-efficient mechanized beavers that perform most duties of their living masters (and some that a beaver wouldn’t touch). Their effectiveness comes at a price, though - you need to produce and power them up.

New dweller type: Golems. Golems work at all workplaces with an exception of Inventor, Observatory, and Power Wheel. They’re not affected by working hours and regular needs. Folktail golems are called Barrelbots, Iron Teeth golems are called Cogheads.
Only select workplaces are available to golems right from the start. The rest needs to be unlocked with Science Points.
Windows, lanterns, and entrances of buildings where golems are employed light up in light blue rather than normal yellow.
New building: Golem Parts Factory (500 SP; 50 Planks, 25 Gears, 15 Metal Blocks; 1 worker; powered).
New building: Golem Assembler (750 SP; 100 Planks, 50 Gears, 50 Metal Blocks; powered, 2 workers). Assembles a golem from 4 Limbs, 1 Chassis, and 1 Head.
New building: Refinery (400 SP; 30 Planks, 10 Gears, 10 Metal Blocks; 2 workers, Folktails-only). Creates Biofuel from Carrots, Potatoes, or Spadderdock seeds. Also creates Catalyst from Maple Syrup and Sunflower Seeds.
New building: Biofuel Tank (200 SP; 50 Planks, 25 Gears, 15 Metal Blocks; Folktails-only). Barrelbots stop here to refuel.
New building: Catalyst Tank (600 SP; 15 Gears, 20 Treated Planks, 15 Metal Blocks; Folktails-only). Use this to supercharge your Barrelbots with a secret plant compound!
New building: Control Tower (1000 SP; 20 Planks, 15 Gears, 20 Metal Blocks; uses SP to operate; Iron Teeth-only). Supercharges all Cogheads in its range.
New building: Charging Station (200 SP; 5 Planks, 15 Gears, 5 Metal Blocks; 1 slot, powered; Iron Teeth-only). Cogheads need to visit this building to be wound up.

Terraforming

Unlocking golems has an extra perk - you get workers capable of terraforming. Excavating dirt and putting up new land blocks allows you to reshape maps completely. This new feature pairs well with Timberborn’s water physics and vertical architecture.

New building: Dirt Excavator (2000 SP; 100 Treated Planks, 100 Gears, 50 Metal; 4 workers - Golems only; powered). This metal monstrosity excavates a new resource, Dirt, from below, drilling deeper and deeper. Once it reaches the map’s bottom it will continue mining without destroying terrain.
New building: Dirt Pile (500 SP; 100 Planks, 25 Metal Blocks). Guess what, this is where you keep all your precious Dirt.
New building: Terraforming Station (750 SP; 200 Treated Planks, 30 Metal Blocks; 4 workers - Golems only). Golems employed here take on the dangerous job of putting up new terrain blocks.
New “building”: Terrain Block (6 Dirt). With enough Dirt, you can start placing new ground blocks. They’re cubes but it is crucial to rotate them correctly - golems from the Terraforming Station build them in the order indicated by arrows. Use this to stop golems from blocking access to planned construction sites and to prevent cutting off the builders.

Well-being rework

The well-being system has received a significant update. All units’ stats and bonuses are now clearly presented and easier to grasp. You can no longer starve your beavers (or keep them thirsty and/or sleep-deprived) for extended periods without real consequences. Under the new system, you also have more freedom regardless of playstyle - every new food, attraction or decoration has a positive effect. This also helps us add new content and balance it properly.

Basic needs (Hunger, Thirst, Sleep, Shelter) can now reach negative values, making it more difficult to recover if a beaver is deprived of them for a long time.
Most needs and attractions no longer have individual effect combinations but provide different well-being values. These values are always visible, greyed out if not satisfied.
Well-being is now tiered. Higher tiers grant increased bonuses.
Bonuses affecting a unit are now directly displayed in the unit’s panel.
Bonuses for adult beavers are Work Speed, Movement Speed, Life Expectancy.
Bonuses for kits are Growth Speed, Movement Speed, Life Expectancy.
Bonuses for golems are Work Speed and Movement Speed. Golems’ well-being is called “condition”.
Unsatisfied Hunger now decreases work speed by 50%.
Unsatisfied Thirst now reduces movement speed by 25%.
Unsatisfied Sleep now reduces movement speed by 10%.
Folktails’ Fertility buffs and debuffs have been removed, but the base Fertility value has been increased.
Carrying capacity buffs and debuffs from needs have been removed, but the base beaver carrying capacity was increased to 14.
New need: Wet fur. Increases Well-being for some time after leaving the water.
New building: Shower (50 SP; 10 Logs, 1 Plank; 1 slot, Folktails-only). Thanks to its pipe submerged in water, this thing makes your beavers wet even if they’re well above the water's surface. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
New building: Double Shower (50 SP; 10 Logs, 1 Plank; 2 slots; Iron Teeth-only). Not only does this version fit two beavers at once but also its pipe is much longer!

Negative effects

The reworked well-being system also allowed us to add negative effects to the game. Beavers affected by them suffer from well-being penalties, so if you don’t want your colony to feel like they’ve been through hell and back, you’ll need to work towards sufficient countermeasures.

New status: Injury. Every few hours, all beavers working in factories have a chance of receiving a temporary Injury. Injuries cause the beaver to refuse to work until healed. The chance of receiving and the duration of an injury differ between workplaces.
New status: Broken teeth. Lumberjacks now occasionally break teeth, reducing their cutting chance by 75%. The more trees they cut, the more likely it is to happen.
New status: Bee sting. Bees from Beehives will now sometimes sting nearby beavers which results in the beaver feeling unhappy, thanks to its swollen face.
New building: Teeth Grindstone (5 Logs; 1 slot). Beavers visit this to sharpen their broken teeth while hoomans squirm at a thought of how this torture device works.
New building: Medical Bed (80 SP; 5 Logs, 1 Plank; 1 slot). Injured beavers go here to be healed. And if you have access to Medicine, it is super effective!
New building: Healer (300 SP; 20 Planks, 5 Gears, 5 Metal Blocks; 1 worker). A good doctor working here produces and distributes Medicine to beavers resting on Medical Beds.
New resource: Dandelion. Found in the wild, grown by Foresters, cut by Gatherers. Used as the primary Medicine ingredient.

Science Points

In addition to the new ways to put your Science Points to good use (in the form of new buildings and unlocking workplaces for golems), we’re adding new ways of generating SP.

New building: Numbercruncher (1500 SP; 30 Planks, 100 Gears, 25 Metal Blocks; powered; Iron Teeth-only). Running endless calculations to predict all 14,000,605 post-apocalyptic beaver futures, this automated structure generates SP for everyone to enjoy.
Observatory can no longer be built by Iron Teeth.
New recipe in the Mine (Folktails-only). Instead of digging up hooman junk, Folktails can search for underground traces of human civilization, learning a lot and earning SP.

Batteries

Wouldn’t it be cool to store the excess energy your settlement produces and then release it once the power consumption reaches its peak? Our beavers thought just that and after tinkering with the solutions for a moment, they came up with the idea of gravity batteries.

New building: Gravity Battery (400 SP; 40 Planks, 40 Gears, 10 Metal Blocks; capacity depends on how high it is above the ground). The battery’s load automatically lifts using energy surplus and then lowers to release its stored energy back to the network.

Migrations

We often heard that migrating beavers (and now also golems) between districts could be easier, maybe even… automatic. The new tab found in the Settlement Panel helps a lot in that area.

New tool: Migration Panel. This panel allows you to manipulate population numbers for adult beavers, kits, and golems in your districts. It has two sections.
The “Manual migration” section at the top allows you to pick two districts and directly migrate 1, 10 or all units from each category (Adults, Kits, and Golems) between them.
The “Automatic migration” section allows you to set the desired minimum for each unit category. The game will try to migrate units for you to satisfy these minimums.
Each district in the “Automatic migration” section has two buttons for each unit type (adults, kits, golems) that allow completely blocking their immigration and/or emigration.
District Center’s migration button now redirects to the new Migration Panel.

New player experience

We’ve made a few tweaks to make the beginnings a little easier when following the built-in tutorial.

Increased the number of carrots required in the “Plant some carrots” tutorial step from 70 to 100.
Updated several other tutorial tips.
Changed the default Farmhouse action from harvesting to planting.

Balance

Update 2 required many balance changes, including tweaks to the pre-Update 2 content.

To accommodate terraforming, the maximum in-game terrain height was increased to 22 tiles. The maximum terrain height in the map editor is still 16 tiles.
The maximum building height remains set to “10 tiles above the maximum terrain height” which effectively increased the maximum in-game building height to 32 tiles.
Gear Workshop: Gears now take 3 hours to make, instead of 6; storage space for Gears and Planks has been expanded from 8 to 10 to compensate for the larger output.
Large Metal Platform: now costs 1000 SP to unlock, up from 500 SP.
Workplaces now only consume energy while actually operating.
Engine no longer consumes logs while there’s a zero need for energy in the connected power grid.
Engine now uses 0.2 logs per hour, down from 1, and its internal storage has been lowered to 10 logs. (Translation: the full storage now sustains the engine for 2 days, up from 1).
Adjusted Inventor and Observatory output numbers slightly to get rid of decimals.
Increased the weight of Scrap Metal from 9 to 11.
The life expectancy mechanic has been rewritten from scratch and now affects beavers in a more predictable way.
Beavers (and now, also golems) are now always able to carry at least one good, even if it exceeds their maximum carrying capacity. If it does, they will move slower.
Mud Bath now requires Dirt to build rather than Gears.
Increased the well-being level required to unlock Iron Teeth to 15 to accommodate well-being values changes.

UI and QoL

Other than the new content such as golems and the migration panel, there’s been a batch of other changes aimed at making your experience better.

All workers and dwellers assigned to a building are now highlighted on the map after selecting it (and vice versa).
District range lines are now always displayed outwards from the District Center.
District Centers now display the range preview when placed as part of construction in progress.
Added “blocked entrance” warnings.
Made several visual changes across the Settlement Panel to make it prettier and easier to read.
Unavailable workplaces and dwellings are no longer counted in the free slot numbers.
It is no longer possible to build dynamite at the map’s lowest level. A beaver is not a mole, m'kay?
Population Well-being panel has been updated. It now displays the effect each need has on the population’s average well-being.
In the Settlement panel, the Power tab no longer displays the district dropdown menu. Elsewhere, these dropdowns will collapse after clicking anywhere outside.
Settlement Panel icons are now highlighted when under the cursor.
Cleaned up many tooltips, statuses, notifications, and descriptions.
Cleaned up the order of building costs and ingredients displayed in buildings.
Updated the presentation of resource consumption in buildings.
Need tooltips now update real-time.
Added missing click sounds.
Updated several status and building icons.
Made many other minor tweaks to the UI.

Performance

A frame here, a frame there, and we’re getting there!

Increased the game’s performance with tweaks to moisture, work assignment, beaver wandering, and resource calculations. In particular, settlements with a high number of bored beavers can run up to 25% faster, go figure.

Misc.

All included maps have been updated to feature wild dandelions.
Updated smaller buildings (Bench, Beaver Statues, Scarecrow, Bell, Water Dump) so that they can be built under platforms.
Power-generating buildings no longer animate based on the power grid’s efficiency (which was the most visually jarring in Power Wheels turning slooowly).
Left-handed mouses are now supported.
Added the "Delete map" button to the map browser.
When saving the game, you can now browse earlier saves, for example to overwrite them easily.
Under custom difficulty, it is now possible to manually adjust the chance for injuries.
Iron Teeth Haulers now also deliver nutrients to Breeding Pods as part of their already exhausting jobs.

Bug fixes

Engine no longer burns logs when paused.
Irrigation Tower no longer uses water when paused.
Fixed a bug that caused stairs to limit ranges.
Tribute to Ingenuity no longer works at full efficiency when not fully powered.
Construction sites can no longer reach over 100% progress. No, not even the Iron Teeth ones.
Fixed a visual bug in the Distribution Post’s model.
Fully grown trees and bushes no longer produce goods (such as Pine Resin) when flooded.
Fixed several minor visual bugs.
Floodgates can now be synchronized in the Construction site stage.
Fixed an incorrect warning on flooded Breeding Pods.
Mine’s door now displays a correct range indicator.
Fixed a bug with the Scarecrow providing the wrong bonus.
When trying to place an attraction in an unavailable area, AoE for all other attractions of that type is now still displayed.
Fixed bugs with shafts not rotating and the Power Shaft Intersection not rotating properly.
Fixed a bug with status icons always appearing in front of fire particle effects regardless of the actual distance from the camera.
Icons for buildings that are flooded and in need of water are now different.
Status icons no longer appear above beavers’ heads after clicking them while they’re inside buildings.
Fixed framerate drops caused by marking trees for cutting.
The productivity of paused buildings is now correctly calculated.
Fixed a bug with trees getting their preview and regular models blended together.
It is no longer possible to ascend to the state of over 100% Adulthood.
You can no longer catch your beavers in inappropriate positions after loading the game.
An animation of a beaver sleeping or resting is no longer PEGI-18 while the game is sped up.
The pop-up window used to rename a unit or a district now allows typing right away.
After starting a new game, you can now begin typing the new settlement’s name right away.
Switching a recipe in a building no longer causes its panels to temporarily break.
The “Population Well-being” panel now correctly scales down on larger-scale UIs.
Out of respect for the dead, beaver and golem bodies will now be transported to the closest available tile after you remove a platform they were on.
Fixed several possible crash causes.

Closing thoughts

We hope you’ll enjoy all the new stuff Update 2 has brought today! And even though this patch has spent quite some time in the oven, we’re always looking for more feedback. Your voice will be extra helpful because, as already mentioned, for the next major update we’re taking a long look at existing in-game features that could use extra love, based on what our players say.

So, whether you prefer to use Steam forums, post suggestions on Timberborn's Feature Upvote, or hang out on our Discord, be sure to let us know what you think!

And once again - thank you for the amazing first year of Timberborn Early Access!
-Mechanistry