Greetings Pilgrims;

I am pleased to announce that update 1.4 is now live, featuring some amazing automation and logistical additions that the game has needed to tie late-game base/colony management together. As well as some other significant changes and tweaks based on player feedback.

It will not make any older saves unplayable. However, depending on how progressed an older save is, some newer additions might not be available in your playthrough. Many changes and additions will benefit older saves, but some of the newer facilities, machines, and tools may not appear in your blueprints if you have progressed past certain stages.

With that disclaimer out of the way, let's get into the patch notes.

Changes And Tweaks

• Variety of fixes for the recycler for items that yielded the incorrect returns or weren't recycled.

• Reduced the "Mission Control" from the advanced base constructor to the basic base constructor, and made it cost simple iron ore. You can only place one mission control, which you start with. However, if you lose or misplace that mission control, you will be in big trouble progression-wise. This change makes that no longer an issue.

• I added an upgrade for the advanced refinery that adds an auto-refine option for the facility. It still requires a worker to function, but you can now open the auto-refine menu from the console added to the facility, select the type of bars you wish to be auto-refined, and then start the auto-refining process. The refinery will then use any materials in storage to fulfill requests.

• I have added all bar recipes to the advanced refinery. You can now remove basic refineries to upgrade to advanced refineries if you wish. This change also enables the auto-refining of both basic and advanced bars.

• I increased the advanced refinery storage to 20 slots to help make life easy.

• I increased the mess hall storage to 20 slots for the same reason, and the basic refinery received a boost to 16 available slots.

• I have added a button to the initial supply window that allows you to view and review the starting items every pilgrim has when they launch, helping newer players avoid wasting funding on items they don't need.

• I have replaced the HUB, located in one of the supply drops on the map, with a storage container. With the addition of the workshop, you no longer need a second HUB early game.

Additions

• I added two new foods, a tomato and melon pie, as well as a tomato pie. A player's six-year-old daughter requested this, and I couldn't say no to that.

• I added a Drone HUB display that shows drone stats and gives access to the drone control menu remotely from wherever you place this in your base.

• I added an Auto-Cooker that allows you to select recipes to auto-cook, and the machine will generate those recipes if the necessary materials are available in its inventory. You can also access the inventory directly or the settings menu, depending on where you click on the machine. The Auto-Cooker is found on the "Machine Constructor"

• I have added a new level of logistics to the game in the form of drones. They can be found and utilized from the new "Drone HUB", which is unlocked and crafted on the "Advanced Base Constructor" for a reasonable material cost, only requiring dolomite. Making it available shortly after terraforming begins.

  There are various upgrades available for the drone hub, which affect movement speed, carry capacity, and recharge time for drones found in the "Research and Development" center.

  From the Drone HUB, you can open the settings menu to review, assign, or clear any tasks for drones. You can have up to 10 drones at one time, and only one Drone HUB facility can be built. There are approximately 616 separate tasks that you can assign to drones based on your preference. You can move items from any machine, drill, facility, or storage location to any other facility, machine, or storage location.

  My task preference is raw foods from the advanced farm to the auto-cooker. The auto-cooker goes to the mess hall, the water refinery goes to the mess hall, and then the collection from drills is sent to the auto-refinery or storage. As for what tasks you want to automate, that is up to you. But I wanted to give a system that ensures player freedom.

  This new Drone HUB makes base and colony management significantly less annoying to deal with in the later game, allowing you to focus on manufacturing advanced items and structures to help push terraforming forward as quickly as possible.

What is Next

This update was substantial and took a lot of work, but should take the game to the next level in terms of automation, logistics, and the late game. After a short break, I will begin work on the next major update, which will center on player customization, expanded creative options, and player choices. This will include aspects such as coloring walls and floors, changing lights, customizing colonist uniforms, adding a base radio, and extra decorations to showcase your style, among other features.

It has been great working on the game so far, and the vast majority of feedback from players has been very positive. Thank you to everyone for their continued support, and I hope this new update hits hard. There is still a long way to go to make my final vision for Ceres a reality, but we will get there one patch at a time. You can view the roadmap post in the forums soon to see more of what is coming in the next update, as I will update that post as details get ironed out. Thank you, now get out there and terraform Ceres.