Greetings Pilgrims; First and foremost, this mid-game update is only available in the beta and is not reachable in the demo. The beta is done by invite only and is run exclusively through the game's discord. If you want to join the fun and help guide the game's future pop into the discord and ask for a beta key to gain access. You can join the discord by clicking this link https://discord.gg/WfbXE4cDVA [h2]Demo Update[/h2] The demo has had a few small updates and fixes. There were a few nodes that could not be harvested due to a build blocking volume overlap, as well as some description changes and other small improvements. Now if you attempt to build the "Advanced Base Constructor" in the demo you will be given a message that you have reached the end of the playable demo. You can continue to play in the demo as much as you like, but progress is locked at that critical stage to move towards mid-game. This demo update also keeps parody across the full and demo clients to allow saves to continue in the main game after playing in the beta. [h2]Mid-game Update[/h2] This is the first part of the two-part mid-game update for "Surviving Ceres". The mid-game is focused around the beginning of your colony on Ceres and the start of terraforming the planet to suit human life. [h3]How To Begin[/h3] The first thing you need to do as a beta tester is begin a new save file. There have been major updates to the save structures, and using an older save to move into the mid-game could cause issues that I can't fix in your experience. You are welcome to use an old save, but I would expect some bugs. I know starting from the beginning can seem like a big task. However, I have included my admin panel in the beta client for players to use. To access this admin panel press "P" when in the game. This menu will provide clickable options to add ore, bars, parts, funding, and everything you need to quickly make any sized base you desire. The full experience from the beginning to the end of the game needs testing as well, but for right now we are focused on the function of the new mid-game, and skipping the early game through admin cheats will make tester's lives easy. Once you have started a new game and cheated your way to preparation you can access the mid-game by creating the "Advanced Base Constructor", which is found on the "Basic Machine Constructor" and requires unlocking from the RND menu. To enable a passenger rocket to be called in from Earth you will need to build the "Mess Hall", "Barracks", and "Rec Room", and have 50 Ml of air being pumped into the base (2 tier 1 oxygen units = 50 Ml). You can track or check your progress towards colonist viability from the mission control menu. [h3]Incoming People[/h3] Once you have the prereqs out of the way you can use the rocket management menu to call in a passenger rocket found below supply rockets. At the start of the game we are generating 10 potential colonists, and each day at midnight two more potential colonists are added to this pool of people you can bring. Colonists have job levels that range from 1-3 on generation and affect the job they are working on, and doing those jobs increases those levels which allows them to do their job better or faster. Take logistics for example Level 2 logistics allows you to carry 10 ore per trip whereas Level 5 will allow you to carry 25 ore per trip, or with manufacturing levels reduce the time to craft items from those facilities as well as lower cooking times or crop growing times, etc. Colonists have comfort and happiness levels that begin at 50 and they also have a chance to roll perks or flaws. Note that perks and flaws are not yet fully implemented and do not affect anything currently. They are only being generated and assigned not used quite yet. This will change in part 2 of the mid-game update. When you are ready you can select up to 4 colonists to board a passenger rocket and like a supply rocket you must provide the landing platform for them to use. [h3]How They Work[/h3] The first thing you will notice is that the colonists are using the default male and female ue4 mannequins. I have not yet had time to create and implement real models or animations for colonists. That will come after part 2 of the mid-game update as we move into the visual side of the game. All the facilities are also quite empty just using blocks for functions and colonists will use a default animation when they reach their places of work etc. We are not working on the visuals yet which is why this is a beta. Please ignore the visuals and don't hold it against the poor colonists that they are robotic-looking. We are looking at the functionality of the jobs and systems currently. Colonists are using a task-based AI system that will have them act like they have lives and needs. When they first arrive they will be wearing a placeholder helmet and backpack. They will run from the rocket into the base and then attempt to find an empty bed. Provided you have an empty bed for them they will then walk to that bed and store their helm and packs into storage. Then after that long trip, they will want to head straight to the mess hall to eat. Colonists will consume food and water from the storage in the mess hall, and if there isn't any food or water they will not be pleased causing comfort and happiness loss. Currently, if you starve them they won't die but they will in a future update. Assuming you have food in the storage they will eat and then colonists without jobs will wander around and occasionally go to the rec room to relax. They will eat again sometime in the evening and go to bed at a normal time for a day walker. Having no job over multiple days will lower their happiness, but they will live out this loop of wandering around, relaxing in the rec room, eating, and sleeping forever. They will also give feedback for major negative or positive events. This feedback can be seen in the colonist management menu on the front page overview. There is currently one sentence of feedback for each type of issue, but we may add more and randomize them in the future to feel more unique. However, they will let you know where you have issues keeping them happy. [h3]Give Them Jobs[/h3] Now we get to the meat and potatoes of what colonists are here for, slave labor. I am kidding, but they are here to work. Work days are divided into two shifts. Day and Night shifts. Day shifts run from 7 am to 7 pm, and nights run from 7 pm to 7 am. By default when colonists arrive you will have two logistics shifts you can fill. To assign jobs you can use the colonists management menu found in the mission control or you can create a colonists display that can also access the colonists management menu and be placed anywhere same as the other display screens. As you add structures that have work slots shifts will become available to be assigned from the colonist menu. When you do give a new shift workers will begin that shift right away if the current time falls between working hours. [h3]Logistics[/h3] Logistics tasks are where automation comes into play. Provided you have a registered storage depot you can assign a logistics shift to collect from drills and place ore into the designated storage depot. There are also logistics jobs for taking raw foods from the advanced farm to the kitchen and taking cooked foods and water from the kitchen to the mess hall. You will of course need those facilities to be created before you can do so. We will also add future logistics tasks as new facilities come online. You can add additional logistics shifts to be filled by building a logistics center. This will add two-day and two-night shifts you can assign to colonists. There is no limit to how many logistics shifts you can have going, you just need to add more shifts with logistics centers and then assign those shifts in the Colonist menu. As previously stated in the update the logistics job level will affect the amount of items they can carry and this will automatically increase as their levels increase from doing their jobs successfully. If assigned to collect from a drill, they will put their helmet and backpack on when they head outside to gather. The first time they attempt to gather they may have some janky movements as they figure out the best path, but after they make it to the drill and back they should have a smoother time going back and forth. So, if they are doing some odd stuff at first, don't fear they are just learning. [h3]Farming[/h3] To automate farming you need to create an advanced farm and assign a worker to the day and night shifts for the farm. You can then put seeds in the farm storage and then use the farm settings to specify what types of plants to grow. We currently have 32 seed plots on the farm that you can assign to a plant type, and you are required to have the initial seeds to set up the farm. As each plant is grown and then harvested a new plant of the same type will automatically grow, and when canceled a seed is returned for each plant type. So, seeds will always replace themselves meaning you only need to have the initial 32 seeds and then the rest is automated for you. When you want to change what is growing you open the farm settings, cancel the current configuration, and then set up the new configuration. You can only select plants up to the seeds that exist in the farm storage. Once you have the farm setup it will continue to run automatically growing and collecting raw foods that are placed into the farm storage for you or for a logistics job to access. All plant types also create ice as a bi-product. How does that make sense? I don't know but to make automation smooth you need water for colonists made from ice and since you are already going from farm to kitchen I figured we would add some ice here to make life easy. I love realism, but not at the expense of gameplay. [h3]Cooking[/h3] Similar to farming the cooking is done by creating an advanced kitchen and assigning workers to the active day and night shifts. The kitchen has a storage for raw foods as well as a place for cooked foods to go, and a settings menu for you to determine what is to be cooked. You can open the settings menu in the kitchen and select which types of foods and drinks you want automatically created. Whatever is checked as on will attempt to be cooked automatically. Provided you have the raw goods in the kitchen storage the colonists on shift will use those raw goods to create cooked foods and place them in the kitchen storage for you or a logistics job to access. You can change the settings for the kitchen at any time from the settings menu and any food selected will attempt to be created provided the raw goods can be found in the storage. [h3]Power Needs[/h3] These new facilities will consume and use a lot of power, but with these new facilities also comes a new colonist-manned power generator. Build this facility and assign workers to the active shifts to generate 100 MW of power. This power will continue to produce provided a worker is there for the active shift. If you remove the worker eventually the power facility will come to a halt, but if a worker is assigned to the shift regardless if they are there or if they are eating food in the mess power will keep generating, but there is a check for no workers assigned that will stop power generation after some time. I don't want the power going on and off on players, but I don't want you to exploit the game either. So, this form of smoothly running the power but checking if workers are assigned should make it smooth. [h3]Manufacturing[/h3] There is a new advanced manufacturer that you can build. This functions similarly to other crafting facilities where you select the recipe you want to craft, place the materials on the machine, and hit craft. The only major difference is in order for the craft to progress a worker must be on site. Currently, this facility crafts nothing, I think it can make a tomato salad but that is just for testing purposes. It will be used in the next update as we add terraforming and new materials. It exists currently just to set up that form of crafting that requires a worker present to progress and you are welcome to test it out, but it has no value currently beyond function. In the next build, we will be making turrets, refining new ores, and using this machine to craft new exports and parts. [h3]Taking Breaks[/h3] Colonists will take a lunch break sometime in the middle of their shift. After work finishes they will head to eat and then relax in the Rec room provided they can find a slot to relax. They will then wander around or relax until bedtime. They will wake up before their next shift and wander around for a bit before heading to work. I was going to have them eat breakfast, but I thought each colonist eating three times a day could be a bit much on your food and water supply. However, with a well-set-up farm, you should be able to meet the needs of your colonists even at three meals a day and we may change that in the future, but for now, they eat twice a day. Once for lunch, and once after work. In part 2 of the mid-game update, I will be adding a "Call To Arms" function that will force all workers to sprint to their jobs and stay there. Regardless of what they are currently doing they will all run to and do their jobs. This could be helpful during enemy attacks. You don't want your turrets not firing because someone is sleeping or eating lunch. Using this feature will reduce comfort, but will be worth it to ensure aliens don't destroy your work. It is important to know that the AI will make any journey you set them on, but it is up to you to dictate the efficiency of their work trips. What I mean by that is the work shift has a finite amount of time and travel time will play a factor. The AI will use elevators to travel between floors and if you set up their bed 12 floors off the ground and put their workplace on floor one. Yes, they will make it, but they will arrive at work late. The same for logistics tasks, if they need to travel a huge distance and go up several floors back and forth across a huge base you can expect a lot less productivity out of delivery tasks. If you place a farm near your kitchen which is also near your mess hall then you can expect logistics workers to carry a ton of goods in a shift. So, you will want to consider where things are in relation to worker beds, mess halls, rec rooms, and for logistics how far everything is apart. Such as where is the storage box for a trip to a drill. The closer those are the more trips a worker can make in a day. [h3]What Should You Do[/h3] For this testing phase, I want you to set up the basics, and call in some colonists. Probably around 10-12 would be perfect. Set up a loop of automating their needs such as a farm, a kitchen to cook foods, and the logistic tasks needed to bring goods from the farm to the kitchen and then cooked goods to the mess from the kitchen. Set up some drills even though you don't need them with admin cheats, but set up logistics tasks for those as well, and perhaps set up an advanced power generator to make it all run smoothly. Try all the new menus for functionality such as the passenger rockets, colonist management, and settings for the farm and kitchen. Outside of that, just have fun and try to break the game. Just be sure however the play tests go report back to me the good, the bad, and the ugly so I can fix everything up as we prepare for part two of the mid-game update. I have aimed to make colonists very deep and complex but functionally not too overwhelming. There are systems and stats that aren't even being used yet that we may tap into for the future or prune down if players don't want them to be too complex. So, I need your feedback. [h2]What Is Next[/h2] Next is part two of the mid-game update. This will include the beginning of terraforming, some initial weaponry and defenses, new areas that open as ice melts which means new materials, new facilities to refine those materials as well as craft new items, and of course the first wave of alien attacks. This will be another major update and require a good chunk of time. This next major update will be the final point before we start working towards an initial EA release. To get there we will then need to flesh out some aspects such as more structure type options in terms of shapes as well as advanced versions that have windows. Machines to craft decorations and all the other extras to fill out the existing systems. This will also be the point we move towards modeling, VFX, SFX, animations, and everything to bring the visuals online. I would like to give a huge thank you to everyone who has had any interaction with the game so far. Your feedback and support means a lot to me and the game. We still have a long road ahead, but with your help, I know we will get there and the game will be all the better for it. Don't forget to pop into the discord and request a beta key if you want to help with this next phase of development. Thank you so much, and I can't wait to hear your feedback for the mid-game and for you to see my vision for the game come to life. https://discord.gg/WfbXE4cDVA