Greetings Pilgrims; This is not the complete third part of the mid-game update, but it does allow terraforming to progress until 40% completion. Every 5% a new world event is triggered giving access to new areas, affecting weather, and bringing the first rounds of enemy attacks. [h2]Enemies[/h2] First I would like to discuss how enemies have been implemented and their intention. I want enemies to mix up the game loop adding some variety and a bit of danger, but I don't want enemies to come and destroy players' games if they aren't ready. To this effect, I have created enemies that lean into terraforming Ceres as quickly as possible to score high on the leaderboards. Their main focus is not to destroy a player's game, but to instead focus on delaying their progress with targeted attacks per enemy type. I will cover each type as we go over the events that occur as you terraform below, but in general, enemies are meant to slow you down and can easily be thwarted if you have prepared defenses. [h2]Terraforming Events[/h2] Several events trigger every 5% completion. The terraforming facilities' main console HUD provides detailed information regarding these events and enemy attacks. [h3]5% Events[/h3] At 5% two things happen. First, there are no more extreme blizzards. You will still face snow and light snow weather types, but the extreme blizzards will no longer occur. Secondly, you will face the first wave of ground attacks at severity 1. This consists of 3 spider flies. This mob has one focus and that is to destroy your drills. They will appear, move to a random ledge, jump down, and then seek out any placed drills. If you have no drills or once your drills are destroyed or you kill these bugs the attack will end. Provided you have an enemy scanner built you can choose to be notified of an attack 30/45/60 seconds early pending scanner upgrade level. You can also choose to have the scanner automatically call and end a "Red Alert" for your colonists. If you haven't defended your drills then you can expect to lose them to this attack. Once destroyed a box with any ore that was on the machine will be dropped down for you to collect. You can then use that ore to remake any lost drills to resume ore acquisition. [h3]10% Event[/h3] This first ice wall will melt granting access to a cave where you will find Dolomite ore and deposits. Once you process this new ore into bars you can then craft a tier 2 terraforming upgrade module allowing terraforming to continue towards 25%. [h3]15% Events[/h3] At 15% it is now possible to have days where it doesn't snow allowing the terrain to change and snow to melt. You can still have snowy days, but they are not the only option anymore. This is also when the first aerial attack wave severity 1 can begin. This enemy wave consists of 5 green bombers. Their sole purpose is to fly over your terraforming facility and drop goo bombs onto the facility clogging up the machinery stalling terraforming progress. Currently, each bomb will delay you by 30 seconds. So with no defense, the 5 bombers can stall your terraforming by 2.5 mins. If you have an aerial defense turret built you can manually shoot these down or have the process automated as long as there is an active worker on site. This is where a red alert can come in quite handy as you don't want to lose time terraforming because your worker was out to lunch. [h3]20% Event[/h3] Another ice wall melts granting access to an additional cave where Obsidian can be found. [h3]25% Event[/h3] At 25% completion, it is now possible to have rain begin to fall, and there is also no snow moving forward. [h3]30% Event[/h3] At 30% the second ground wave severity 2 will begin to come. This wave contains 1 mantis and 3 spider flies. The mantis aims to depower your base by destroying any outdoor power generators such as solar panels and wind turbines. Much like the spider fly it will seek out these specific structures and then leave if not killed. Having your base lose power is a big setback, but something you can recover from. Even better it can be defended against by using well-placed .50 Riffle Turrets. [h3]35% Event[/h3] At 35% large bodies of water can begin to form. In essence, the starting rocket area will become a lake, but this will happen slowly as rain falls and the water rises. Currently, the water is not yet complete as I need to setup post-processing effects and swimming mechanics, but the event to raise the water is in place. [h3]40% Event[/h3] At 40% ice melts and a new cave opens that will contain platinum. I have not yet included this resource as I am not ready for you to push terraforming from 40% to 60%, but this will come soon in the next update. Along with this new cave, other ice melts that connects all 3 underground caves with resources you can exploit together. This should help facilitate ore collection for you or your workers by adding a shortcut. Placeable teleport pads will be available crafted from platinum soon as well which should really take the strain out of going to collect ore from drills. [h2]What is Next[/h2] Next up we continue the terraforming process from 40-60% with some major events planned during that period. This is as far as we plan to go before early access, and the final 40% will be tied to the end-game expedition loop planned to be created during early access. Once we reach that 60% point we will look to flesh out existing systems and begin the visuals side of the game while we test and tweak the overall experience to ensure nothing is too tedious or too boring. Thank you for your continued support. If you wish to take part in the beta come on into the discord and request access. Thank you.