AutoForge news & patch notes

Yet another very small patch! These issues were brought to my attention yesterday and I wanted to get a patch out with it before moving back to the next major update for the time being.

Changes

• Resolved issue with some UI interactions not always working correctly on the client such as setting item filters

• Resolved issue with splitter output disabling/enabling not working fully on clients

Small patch to fix the regression in v0.7.40 that caused power networks to fail. They should be fixed now when you load up the game and not require any work on your end such as tearing down power relays. I apologize for this issue and thank you for your patience as I worked on getting it fixed.

We've been focused on the next major update for awhile now but I'm still trying to get some patches in since it will be awhile before the next major update is released. Speaking of which, details on this update will be coming out in just a few days so keep an eye out for it!

Changes

• Resolved crash on clients that could occur when attempting to sync an entity state

• Resolved crash that could occur when picking up a Recovery Cube on a client

• Adding some debug logging to try to pinpoint a crash when client is connecting to a server

• Resolved issue with power networks getting into a broken state

• Resolved some visual issues when at the bounds of the world

• Improved logic around acquiring ancient tech and void matter

• Inputs are now reset to not pressed when game losses focus

• Increased precision of deconstruct selection to not include entities on the edge of the selection boarder

• Removed incorrect second listing of "Verglas Pup" from farming Verglas with trowels

• Do not allow sturdy crate to be rotated after it has been placed

• QoL - Rotating while placing down transport tubes will now quickly rotate to the direction of the cursor

Smaller patch but with some tasty bug fixes in it. Thank you to everyone that helped get these issues fixed up. I am going to try to continue to do more patches over the next few weeks but at the same time we are also working on the next major update. We'll have some juicy news on that in a few weeks!

Changes

• Resolved an instance of an issue where the player could no longer interact with items

• Resolved a crash on client when connecting

• Resolved a seemingly random crash inside combat logic

• Resolved issue on clients where structures could incorrectly display as out of power

• Resolved issue with copying Forges with pipette leading to not being able to change the recipe

• Resolved issue with some upgrades not always working on the client such as Organize

• Fixed some minor graphical issues with Quartz and the background of the starting biome

• Improved visuals of some environmental hazards

This is a smaller patch with a few more fixes for both crashes and multiplayer. I will continue to work on fixes but also as things are slowing down I'll start looking at our next major update. More news on that in a few weeks!

Changes

• Resolved crash that could occur when interacting with the phase network

• Resolved crash due to client potentially being removed twice

• Resolved issue with client not being fully removed from the game session when disconnecting

• Resolved issue with client map not always being loaded properly

• Resolved issue with extra phase payloads being visible on clients

• Resolved issue with structures dispensing up to one tile away

Another day of of bug fixes is here! This one brings in some really needed fixes. Thank you everyone for your patience as we get these fixed - especially to those that have continued to report issues. I will be continuing to fix issues so please keep reporting them!

Changes

• Prevent the game from accidentally deleting the entire save directory

• Resolved issue with list of known items not showing correctly on clients when setting item filter in splitter

• Resolved issue with splitter not displaying filtered items correctly for clients

• Resolved issue with UI elements sometimes not trigger mouse entering correctly

• Resolved issue with splitters incorrectly outputting into a tube that is pointing into the splitter

• Resolved issue with being able to feed items into a splitter from an output direction

• Resolved issue with region on the other side of the world incorrectly becoming emittable

• Resolved crash that would rarely occur during world generation

• Resolved crash when attempting to remove a phase link that is on the edge of the world

• Potentially resolved crash that could occur while quitting back to the main menu

• Resolved crash that could occur in item transport logic

• Fixed translation issue for Korean with craft input hints

Another patch is here with several more bug fixes! As always, thank you everyone that has been helping by reporting bugs. If you are running into any issues then please share them along with logs (both host and client if it is multiplayer). Discord is the best place since then we can chat real time and more easily share files but Steam forums work as well.

I am going to be continuing to work on resolving issues throughout the week so keep the reports coming and I'll keep the patches coming!

Changes

• Resolved issue with some parts to the Main quest sometimes not completing

• Resolved issue with player being able to change Biomass Generator collection range

• Resolved issue with collectors not being placeable

• Resolved issue with player name not showing correctly when hosting and the player is not your Steam friend

• Resolved issue with bad text in Session settings

• Resolved issue with client technology queue getting out of sync with host

• Made it possible for Ancient Chest to collect items from tubes

• Resolved a few issues with drill and foldery progress display on clients

• Resolved issue with Foldery not always showing required essences properly on client

Hello! Here is a juicy patch that is now on the experimental branch for now. I have been working on fixing issues as they are reported. Thank you to everyone that has taking the time to report issues - it is very helpful! I am continuing to work on resolving issues but I wanted to get this out as it has some nice fixes.

NOTE: I have noticed several crashes reported that are caused by Steam failing to fully update the game due to fail corruption or something else. If you have ran into crashes regularly or any other odd behavior such as world generation not working then please try deleting the "data/" directory in the install folder and then verify the integrity of the files to force Steam to redownload everything properly. I am looking into a better fix for this but in the meantime this should resolve your issue.

Changes

• Resolved crash within monster behavior logic

• Resolved rare crash when an item collector is destroyed

• Resolved crash when sometimes attempting to damage something that does not have a Defense stat

• Resolved a crash that could occur due when the game would get into a bad state

• Resolved issue with fabricators not displaying progress for clients

• Resolved issue with Mohki not adding map markers for clients

• Resolved issue with clients not being able to replace tile (ie scaffolding replacing soil)

• Resolved issue with other player's map marker not showing up on the host

• Resolved issue with UI buttons not returning to normal state after pressing and mouse away

• Resolved issue with some game text not displaying map input glyph

• Prevent the player from collecting Recovery Cube before respawning

• Prevent the player from jumping to the left when holding both left and right

• Doors now start open rather than closed to better convey the space they occupy

• Require file name when creating a new save

Our first quick hot fix patch is here with a critical issue being fixed. Thank you to those that helped me figure this one out. If you have been having issues with connecting to a multiplayer game then please try again now with this patch.

If anyone runs into any issues then please report it and I will do my best to fix it promptly. I'm dedicating the next while to bug fixing so I am available and willing!

Changes

• Resolved issue with failing to fully connect to host

• Resolved issue with early researching stopping incorrectly

• Increased animation speed of HUD hearts

After NINE months of development, we are beyond happy to announce that our next major update, Shared Workload, is now fully released! With Shared Workload you will now be able to play Online Multiplayer with your friends (and even your enemies - I won't stop you).

That's not all though, we have a tremendous number of other impactful changes all coming with it. We have already covered these in previous announcements, but we will recap them here, so that everything is all together in one place.

You can find the patch notes over here!

Important: Please make sure you have disabled all mods before playing Shared Workload. This update makes a lot of changes on the back end that will very likely make existing mods incompatible.

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer has been a long time coming. In fact, some of the networking code dates back to early 2019 - yes, it is that old! We've done our best to make multiplayer work and play great; that means you can easily join friends with all of the Steam features as well as directly in game and enjoy everything that is available in singleplayer. Additionally, you can join a world with someone you're not Steam friends with by using their Server "Join Code" or directly via IP. Once in-game we've made everything a collaborative experience, so progression is shared as well as upgrade unlocks like Ancient Technology, Void Matter and the newly added Trinkets.

Character Customization

Like multiplayer, character cosmetics are something that have been tinkered with from the very beginning and with multiple Ottos running around it was necessary to fully realize this in Shared Workload. James has worked hard to come up with a full cast of Golem skins for players to pick from, with different palette swaps for each. With Shared Workload there are twelve different core cosmetics to choose from at the Mainframe, and we have many more planned for future updates! As a special treat for this update and to celebrate multiplayer, all Cosmetic options are available right away (in future these will be tied to in game unlocks and progression). We're stoked to finally be able to glam up our Golems finally and hope you are too!

Base Decorations

Yet another long-planned feature, base Decorations have been in the tubes for a long time. With Multiplayer we wanted to expand on ways to deck out your homebase outside of the factory functions by introducing bespoke furnishings. Crafting Decorations is fast and convenient as they only use basic Matter (biomass, fabric, mana, metal, and mineral), with the full array of options found under a new tab in the Crafting menu. We have several thematic sets available already (with more planned), and like Cosmetics, all decorations are available right away (these will be unlocked via progression in 1.0).

Exploration Improvements

Throughout the majority of development as we've been working through our meaty list of systems and features, Exploration has been unreasonably neglected. We wanted to make it much more exciting and ultimately landed on introducing what we called 'resistances' and 'incentives' during development. The goal of both is to both challenge and draw the player out into the world and to help give more depth and consequence to the game. Our improvements include a new energy system, reduced initial jumping capabilities, fall damage, environmental hazards, Trinkets (equip-able accessories) to discover, and much more. This is just part one of the exploration improvements as we also plan to introduce more world content like side quests and new points of interest to explore. We recognize that exploration is not the primary focus of the game, but it is still a fundamental aspect that we want to continue to expand on and make more enjoyable! We hope you enjoy this first round of changes!

For returning players: It can be a little uncomfortable adjusting to new pushbacks, but some of the new Trinkets can really help offset some of these challenges... Please spend some time to adjust to things and let us know what is hitting and what isn't for you.

Trinkets

The aforementioned Trinkets are unique, global (unlocked for everybody) items that can be found throughout the world; each providing a unique benefit or stat bonus. Equipped at the Mainframe, you can pick and choose up to several Trinkets at a time to power up your Golem, to whatever suits your playstyle. Trinket effects include things such as stat buffs, an additional jump, negation to fall damage, and even increasing harvesting area to allow for up to 4x4 digging! Each Trinket has a point cost associated, so choosing your Trinket loadout requires its own optimization!

Updated Tutorial

One of our goals with this update was to revamp the tutorial system and untangle the main story from it. Ultimately, we landed on introducing a full-fledged quest system with a dedicated Journal that will allow folks to have better control over managing these and future activities, as well as manage associated unlocks and rewards. Please note there is no new story content in this update - for the next major update we are planning to add many smaller quests that will make use of the new system, as well as expand upon the world. There may or may not be a Quest Board popping up at a certain tavern... More on that another time.

Guidebook

Along with our tutorial revamp we are introducing a proper Guidebook that fills in the blanks with complicated systems that either don't quite fit into the tutorial or might require extra guidance to interpret. The Guidebook covers most of the advanced topics in the game - from the Toolbar to Phase Stations, with new additions unlocking at the appropriate times as you progress. We didn't want to break up the gameplay or create UI noise, so we've kept it as a separate window you can open anytime. We look at the Guidebook as an optional supplement that assists with clarifying/refreshing any details as needed and based on player feedback will continue to expand upon it where necessary.

Outro

Shared Workload is a huge step forward for AutoForge and we hope you enjoy it - regardless of whether it is with friends or playing solo. We fully recognize that there will be issues that need to be fixed and we will be doing our best to address them as quickly as possible. If you do run into any issues, then please report them either on the Steam Forums or on our Discord.

A HUGE thank you for all the wonderful beta and experimental testers who have helped us with this update. All the bugs, crashes and errors you have waded through with us - we could not have solved these issues without your help. Thank you for helping us make this update as good as it can be. <3

This is obviously not the last stop for AutoForge. In fact, we've already begun work on our next major update which is planned to be the coveted 1.0 Update. We still have a few things to plan out and are eager to hear your feedback on Shared Workload, but so far, it's set to be jam packed full of new content: including the conclusion of the main quest and a whole new tier in the tech tree. Once the dust settles with Shared Workload we will announce some more details and show you what we've been working on, but for now...

Let's get Building Together!

Jasson and James

Here are all of the tasty changes for AutoForge's major update, Shared Workload. Read more about the update over at the main Shared Workload announcement. Enjoy!

Major Features

• Multiplayer - Play with your friends online!

• Cosmetics - Customize your character with 12 different skins (and additional palettes)

• Trinkets - New unique items that can be equipped for various bonuses

• Decorations - Decorate your base and factory to your hearts content

• Quest System - Track the progress of quests (right now there is only the Tutorial and Main quests)

• Guide System - Learn the finer details of how things work in AutoForge

• Energy System - Energy is now used when performing most actions

Content

• 60+ Decorations spread across 3 Themes, including new Wood and Brick Tile styles

• Three new Upgrades

  • Boost - Gain additional Trinket points.

  • Elevate - Gain an additional mid-air jump

  • Energize - Gain an increase to Energy reserves

• Behaviors for Foxolotl & Casclaw

• Echone - A new Plant found underground with unique properties...

• New environmental hazards & entities:

  • Toxic Gumvine - A toxic Plant hazard that emits spores

  • Bramble, Sharp Rocks & Ice Spikes - Environment garnish that can cause contact damage

  • Volatile Geode - A gem found in Terrain that explodes when disturbed

  • Lob Grommet - Anti-Gravity relics found in the sky that can be grappled from

  • Ice - New Terrain Block with reduced traction!

  • Frost - Terrain covering Foliage that makes Blocks tougher

Balance Changes

• Increased the player's starting health from 1 to 3 hearts

• Significantly reduced the cost to unlock regions

• Convert Ancient Tech and Void Matter to be global resources

• Reduce jump height from 7 to 5 blocks

• Moved double jump to be unlocked via Upgrade or Trinket (...or both!?)

• Introduced fall damage

• Removed ability to zoom in on anywhere in the map and be detached from your character

• Adjusted zoom levels for character and map views

• Removed several duplicate upgrades and improved the remaining ones

• Only allow Oil Slimes to appear on the starting region surface

Improvements

• Entities are now automatically targeted to be harvested when attempting to harvest a supporting tile (e.g. harvesting Soil that is supporting a Plant will clear the Plant first).

• Added connection visuals for Phase Stations and Porters to Tubes

• Added "Collect" to interact UI when the player can displace an item

• Prevent station from sending payloads when bundle quantity is set to zero

• Improved indicators when taking damage

• Improved spacing with input glyphs

• Added input glyphs for Mouse Button 4 and Mouse Button 5

• Improved starting area

• Improved several animations of Otto

• Improved HUD & layout

• Added Large Notifications to indicate major in-game events

• Unthreaded the Main Story and Tutorial into seperate Quests and made many minor improvements to the Tutorial.

• Warn the player with a prompt the first time they take damage from the Shroud

• Improving tooltip empty description handling

• Improved positioning of tooltips for centered UIs when using gamepad

• Add default inputs bindings for Toolbar cycling and exposed rebinding for them

• Structures can now collect items from Splitters

• Improved teleportation logic to place the player on the ground rather than above it

• Greatly reduced audio volume for Hover action

• Performance:

  • Greatly Optimized logic around monster pathing during invasions

  • Change tooltip handling so that once a tooltip is shown it won't continue checking other elements

  • Improved internal Tweening logic

Bug Fixes

• Resolved issue with structure dispensers not outputting aggressively enough resulting in them sometimes being continuously blocked from passing items

• Resolved issue with Item Transportation missing sometimes rounding off preciously milliseconds resulting in transport tubes not going at maximum speed

• Resolved issue with several Fauna Replication recipes missing

• Resolved issue with Mohki using invisible ink while marking the map

• Resolved issue with Research Queue not showing tooltip if it is over an element in the Research Tree

• Resolved issue with vines being destroyed during world generation (mostly)

• Resolved issue with playtime always updating on the current save file even without saving

• Resolved issue with playtime on a save not updating after saving to a different file

• Resolved issue with world playtime being displayed incorrectly (1/10th of actual playtime)

• Resolved issue with entity dispensers sometimes not dispensing properly

• Resolved issue with Mycosiph spores lingering on load

• Resolved issue with changing game resolution before using some UIs

• Resolved issue with large resource nodes not being discovered when the tile is further away from the resource indicator (sparkles)

• Resolved issue with Replicator having the wrong structure size (3x3 changed to 3x2)

• Resolved an issue with the fluid system

• Resolved a crash when trying to localize an empty string

• Resolved issue that could occur if invader is destroyed but not removed from a list

• Resolved crash when removing a power distributor

• Resolved issue with rotating phase stations that could lead to orphaned phase beams

• Resolved an issue with farming plants sometimes stop being harvested despite meeting all conditions

• Resolved crash caused by trying to kill an entity that has been destroyed already

• Resolved issue with some things such as Stalactites using the wrong visuals sometimes

• Improved dropped item physics so that they don't slide around as much

• Resolved issue with automatically displacing an item when placing it with the secondary input

• Resolved issue with audio being muted after loading another world

• Resolved issue with grabbed item being visible while on settings UI and when returning to main menu

• Resolved issue with Quaridin melee attacks not hitting players

• Resolved issue with Frost Crystace not becoming invincible while defending

• Resolved multiple issues preventing world generation seeds from working

Recent Experimental Bug Fixes

• Resolved issue with client input not working after host has loaded a second world

• Resolved issue with global world data such as void matter persisting not resetting with new saves after having a world loaded

• Resolved issue with duplicate maps being displayed for clients

• Resolved crash on client when host exits the game first

• Environmental hazards now only deal damage at most once every 500ms

• Resolved several issues with audio not playing correctly on clients

• Resolved issue with bottom of the world not being synced to clients properly

• Resolved issue with map markers disappearing on clients such as Mana Conduits

• Resolved issue with back button on credits not working

• Fix issue with client position getting out of sync after transporting (death/teleport)

Greetings fellow Golems!

James and I have been working hard to wrap up Shared Workload and are nearly there - so close in fact that we considered releasing it this week. We decided that a little more time in the oven would be best given how anticipated this multiplayer update is before we push it to the main branch. In the meantime, we wanted to go over the finer details about what's being added, what's changing and encourage everybody to try out the update in Experimental.

Multiplayer

After months upon months of development time, Multiplayer is finally in a good place. While it took a considerable effort to relocate most of the game's systems architecture, the real struggle was catching and fixing all the wonderful new bugs that appeared. Thanks to everybody's help testing, we are confident it is in a stable enough place to deliver to the main branch very soon.

For Multiplayer itself - it is simple and easy to host a world and join a friend's game. To get a game going you can browse friend's sessions via menu, use Steam Invites, use a special Join Code or even connect directly with an IP address.

Playing together is a fully cooperative experience, with progression being shared. Key Resources are also shared - Ancient Tech, Void Matter and even the new Trinkets (more on those below) - so no need to fight over upgrades!

We look forward to everybody being able to play with their friends and family to create some wonderful, collaborative, "technically functional" spaghetti factories!

The Cosmetics Aisle

With Multiplayer, we knew it would be confusing to have a bunch of identical looking players running around so this update also introduces our new Cosmetics system! Using the Mainframe, under one of two new tabs, players can freely customize their Golem. We have a handful of skins in, with different color palettes available and for the time being have made them all available by default.

In the future we will be locking most if not all skins behind various quests and achievements, but for now please enjoy the full selection of options available. Now that we have the system implemented, we will also be adding many more skins and palettes as time goes on - this has been a really exciting feature for us but required a lot of work to set up, so we're thrilled to now have this system finalized. What's your favorite skin and why is it the cat on Otto's head?

Decorations

With the Multiplayer update we also wanted to introduce more player expression and more variety in gameplay! Sometimes some of us just need a break from building sprawling factories and want to chill and decorate a little house or hovel! Decor items are here to the rescue and are very simple to craft - using only core Matter materials (Biomass, Mana, Metal, Mineral, and Fabric), you can indulge in over 50 different objects and structures to decorate the world. To begin we have several decoration themes, exploring the furnishing styles of the denizens of AutoForge - the regal Corvus and the down-to-earth Pookas each have their own sets, rounded out with a full range of Ancient Decor too. You might also find a few more ethereal pieces among these initial offerings....

As mentioned previously we also have some gorgeous new craftable tilesets to fully round out the new Decor sets that are incoming too. All of the above will be found in a new crafting category for Decor, and much like Cosmetics will all be fully unlocked for the time being. We can't wait for you to check these out and hear what you'd like to see in future! Let's spruce up the place!

Exploration Redesign

In our previous announcement we hinted at our exploration redesign and today we want to give you some of the juicy details. Our motivations for the changes are simple: make exploration exciting and rewarding. This has translated into what we think of as incentives and resistances.

Incentives are things that are supposed to draw you out of the factory noodling into the world. They include things such as obtaining rare items to use in your factory, finding resource nodes, unlocking cosmetics/trinkets/decor, and even just finding cool points of interest.

Resistances are how the world challenges you and gets you to make considerations and problem solve. They include things such as a brand-new Energy System, reduced initial jumping capabilities, fall damage and environmental hazards. These aren't as exciting on paper, but they give the world depth and make exploration and rewards more meaningful.

The Energy system is probably the biggest addition - making all of Otto's abilities consume a small amount of power that gets recharged whenever he is close to Apotheos, Conduits, Factory Power Relays or other discoverable world sources. When depleted, Otto will lose advanced movement abilities, and his mining/combat efficiency will be decreased, so it's a good idea to recharge when it starts to get low.

We do anticipate experienced AutoForgers to feel unnecessarily bound by the introduction of some of these resistances but ask that you humor and give them a little time to adjust to see how they make the game feel to you. We will also say that between additional new upgrades and the aforementioned Trinkets that there are new bonuses that can negate these pushbacks and even take some abilities beyond their previous bounds. So do check things out, and please do let us know how you get on with them!

Shiny Trinkets

Trinkets have already been teased a little, but what exactly are they... ? Trinkets are unique, global items that can be found throughout the world and equipped at the Mainframe. Equipping a Trinket provides unique bonuses that allow you to pick some extra upgrades to suit your playstyle, such as stat buffs, an additional jump, negation to fall damage, and even increasing harvesting area to allow for up to 4x4! Each Trinket has a point cost associated, so choosing your Trinket loadout requires its own optimization, but they are freely changed under the second new tab at the Mainframe at any time.

A little like cosmetics, Trinkets will have slightly different unlock requirements in the future, but for now all 19 of the current selection will be unlocked via special chests found throughout the world.

Quests, Tutorials & Journaling with Otto

One of our goals with this update was to revamp the tutorial system and untangle the main story from it. Ultimately, we landed on introducing a full-fledged quest system with a dedicated Journal that will allow folks to have better control over managing these and future activities, as well as manage associated unlocks and rewards. Please note there is no new story content in this update - for the next major update we are planning to add many smaller quests that will make use of the new system, as well as expand upon the world. There may or may not be a Quest Board popping up at a certain tavern... More on that another time.

Along with this new system and other changes to the HUD (if you're looking for your current quest progress it's on the other side of the screen now), we are also adding something we've called Large Notifications. These are brief pop ups, separate from the notification tray that will display major events like unlocks and story progression, we think they're helpful!

The Guidebook

Along with our tutorial revamp we are introducing a proper Guidebook that fills in the blanks with complicated systems that either don't quite fit into the tutorial or might require extra guidance to interpret. It covers most of the advanced topics in the game - from the Toolbar to Phase Stations, with new additions unlocking at the appropriate times as you progress. We didn't want to break up the gameplay or create UI noise, so we've kept it as a separate window and look at the Guidebook as an optional supplement that assists with clarifying/refreshing any details as needed.

Dive Into Shared Workload

While full release is very soon, we would like to invite everybody who is interested to give Shared Workload a go over on the Experimental Branch. So far in testing it has iterated its way through 20 patches with countless bug fixes and improvements, but we really need as many people as possible to help us break it before it hits the main branch.

If you're willing to participate as test subject, back up your saves and check it out now!

Obviously any and all testing of the update is fantastic, but multiplayer sessions are especially helpful. If you know another Golem or 3 who can test with you then even better- players have also been linking up over on our Discord too!

We're excited to share this finished update with you soon and thank you for your patience as we work on ironing out the final kinks! Jasson and James

The long wait is just about over - AutoForge’s next update, Shared Workload, is now live on the public experimental branch! This means it has already undergone testing with our beta players and is now open for everyone to try. Shared Workload brings the highly anticipated multiplayer support along with many new features, content and enhancements.

Feedback and Issues

During this experimental phase, we’re focused on resolving issues and getting feedback on any of the new changes. If you do have any feedback to give or issues to report then please do so either in the Steam Forums or better yet over on our Discord.

We truly want to make sure that multiplayer is very solid before fully releasing this update so if you encounter any issues then please share it with us. We are aware of several smaller issues that we are continuing to address.

Important Reminder

Shared Workload is backwards compatible with saves from 0.4+. If you are going to be playing on experimental then please backup your save files. You can find your save files in the folder: "Steamuserdata//1960480/remotesaves".

How to get started playing the update:

Go to AutoForge Properties > Betas and select the "experimental" branch from the dropdown menu. Steam should update AutoForge to the latest build. You can verify this by launching the game and checking the version in the bottom left corner - it should be "0.7".

Playing with Others

Hosting and joining a Multiplayer game are easy to do in AutoForge! For either one you first want to click on the "Multiplayer" button on the main menu.

From there you can host an existing save with "Host Load Game" or create a new world to host "Host New Game". The default "Steam Friends" hosting method will allow any friends to freely join or you can limit it to be "Steam Invite Only". Once hosting your friends will automatically see your server listed in their "Join Game" menu or you can send them an invite directly.

Additionally, if you are not friends with someone but want to allow them to join your game then you can use a "Join Code". Once in game go to your settings and in the "Session" category you will find the Join Code that you can share with anyone. With a join code in your possession go to "Join Game" and select the "Server Code" and enter in the code.

Major Changes

• Online Multiplayer

• Character Cosmetics

• Trinkets (accessories)

• Improved Exploration - Environmental Hazards, Energy system, and many other changes

• Base Decoration (coming in the next patch)

• Guide System explaining complex mechanics + adjusted Tutorial

• Full changelog will come with the full release of Shared Workload!

Thank you for taking the time to play the experimental version of Shared Workload!

Exciting Automation Collaboration

Continuing the good news, we had the pleasure of talking to the lead developer of Astronomics and have joined forces with them in an enticing bundle. Astronomics just hit their 1 year anniversary in Early Access and are quickly improving on the game with a major update released just last month. Don't miss this one!

Season's Greetings, Golems!

We hope you're all heading into a restful and cozy holiday season. We thought we'd drop off a few tidings along with some more info for 0.7 - Shared Workload, so bundle up next to a cozy Forge and grab a preferred beverage...

Multiplayer Progress

We've been hard at work on Multiplayer and are pleased to inform you we've entered the internal testing phase! After an arduous journey of moving over every system, subsystem and sub-subsystem, Multiplayer is now 'works' at a stable enough point that we can start poking at it! Rudely! That's right, Golems are hanging out with Golems, ready to do Golem Things... Or at least try to. Now it is time for us to break it on purpose, as much as we can, to get it ready for Testers to break it in even more exciting and confusing new ways! It's all part of the process, as they say...

"... SOON....."

Deck The Factories

We've also been cooking up a bunch of fancy new pixels to help expand our palette and give more personality to world. New additions will help add flavor to areas like Points of Interest and NPC locations, but for the more immediate future: give you more options for stylizing your factories and homebases. Systems-wise, the Decoration structures themselves are going to work as placeable objects that use (and break down into) refined materials like Metal or Biomass. We feel like this is the best way to handle things since inventory space is so important, while also allowing folks to try things out and shake things up without wasting any precious materials.

In addition to Decoration structures, a few tileset themes are getting their full makeovers implemented - you may have noticed the Pooka Brick graphics sneak in the previous update and now there's some gorgeous Corvus tilesets and also Pooka Wood to fill out the roster. These archetypes along with 'Ancient' will serve as our larger Decoration Themes to group and guide stylings (meaning both tilesets and Decoration structures can fall under a set theme). Of course, you'll still be able to put down whatever you like, where-ever you like; we'll leave the Factory Fen Shui to you.

(From left to right: Brick, Corvus Brick & Pooka Brick)

Winter Sale

AutoForge will enjoy a most festive 25% over the next two weeks for the Steam Winter Sale. A great stocking stuffer for that person in your life who feels strongly about factories and might enjoy going Golem-Mode this season.

Holiday Cheers

That's all for now! We hope everybody has a joyful and restful December. We'll be sneaking in as many mince pies as we can, as we continue tinkering away on Shared Workload, ready to deliver to you in the Early New Year.

As always, thank you for joining us on this journey and for all of your amazing support!

Jasson & James

Greetings Golems!

It's been a while since we last touched base! While we've had our heads down working on the next Major Update, we thought it was important to check in and let you all know how things are progressing.

That's right, 0.7 - Shared Workload is on the way! Somebody asked if it had fell out of the transport tube on its way to the server, but rest assured, through computational bugs and biological bugs (just a bit of sickness between the both of us), we are persevering, and the next update is taking shape! Let's dive in!

Multiplaying With Fire

There was a good reason Multiplayer had yet to be implemented - it is a tremendous amount of work; nearly every part of the code has required some change and lots of new code has been added to support it. Fortunately, we have the multiplayer experience and code from Crea, allowing us to speed up development and (hopefully) get it right the first time! For those interested in looking under the hood, we are using the Steam API netcode as well as the open-sourced library GameNetworkingSockets. It took some effort to get both of these to play nicely together in the game's codebase, but everything thus far running great. By using GameNetworkingSockets we are also making room to future proof the game for potential ports! Neat!

Familiar Faces

With Multiplayer, comes the very necessary deployment of character cosmetics. While the tech has been in place on the backend for a while (and some sneaky folks in our community were able to play as Chicken Otto), being able to tell each other apart is going to be important, so without delaying any further, we're rolling out the character cosmetics! Changeable at the Mainframe, you'll be able to select unlockable skins and colorways to best express your Golem-self and make sure you are not confused with any other little robots running around.

Onboarding

0.7 doesn't stop there; we're also working hard on completely overhauling the onboarding experience for new players! We know there's a lot of people who are waiting for Multiplayer, so it's important for us to make sure the game is as accommodating as possible for new players. This involves a revamped Tutorial that covers the missing pieces that have been neglected as new content has been added, as well as a cleaner progression that is better separated from the game's story beats - all of which will be tracked through a new quest system. Not only this, but we are also introducing The Guide - a reference tool that breaks down and explains of some of the games more complicated systems and offers little refreshers to areas that could use it. We think all of this is going to be a great step up in helping shepherd and inform new players while also offering those deeper details for anything that isn't clear off the bat. Right now, we are finalizing on what NOT to include with The Guide as we are running into the area of over-explaining things, but we'll keep an eye once it's out in the wild for any additions and alterations that need to be made. Player feedback will be very important in guiding this one!

Exploration

Early in AutoForge's development, the design of the game was to mix factory building with exploration; the decision to even have AutoForge be in a side-scrolling perspective was made to better facilitate this exploration. Over time, factory building has completely overtaken exploration, and it is now something many players simply tolerate as a means to further progression - that's no good! We want exploration to be something that is exciting to do, which is why we have decided to take a step back and re-evaluate how players interact with the world. While we have added new biomes, flora and fauna, we haven't engaged with what makes the world interesting, and have boiled it down to two main issues; resistances that push back on players and incentives that draw players in. We are not quite ready to share our plans for these yet as we're still in the prototyping stage, but we wanted to start communicating about this as early as possible (there may be some controversial adjustments...). What do you think would make the exploration of AutoForge more interesting?

Putting It In The Diary

We offer our apologies for the long wait between Dev Updates and if the lull in comms has been of concern! Developing Multiplayer has been an especially big challenge to overcome and up until recently there has not been a lot to share other than "this is hard!". Now that we are over the hump and have a better idea of how things are shaking out, we will continue to share the details on how things are coming together as well as keep you updated on testing and other fun surprises! With all of this in mind, to finish all the new additions for 0.7 we're planning, as well as thoroughly test to make sure that Multiplayer is as stable as we can make it before we release, we're going to aim to deliver Shared Workload between Jan-Feb in the New Year.

Updated Roadmap

Our Roadmap has needed updating for a while so here's also a quick visual refresh, following 0.6 and what is planned for 0.7!

Final Thoughts

That's all for now! There's going to be much more to share as we get closer to testing (and launching) the update, as well some other non-development news and housekeeping we would like to update everybody on! As always thank you for all your feedback, bug reports and kind words that keep fueling us on our path to 1.0! Let's go, Golems!

Jasson & James

Want some automation on the side of your automation? We've got you covered.

To celebrate the launch of Loonworks/Hypetrain Digital's new space romp Prospector, we have decided to bundle our titles for the coming two weeks. Get 15% off with this offer, and if you already own one of the games, get 15% off the other.

What is Prospector?

Land on a distant planet in this chill resource management game. Harvest alien resources, build and automate machinery, uncover secrets across the stars and strike shipping deals with distant colonies for exclusive rewards!

Changes

• Resolved crash when attempting to save with a name that has invalid file path characters such as '?'
• Resolved issue with some world data not being cleaned up between loading saves
• Resolved issue with Zabis illumation
• Resolved issue with Ice and Earth Wisp Ovoids icon not displaying
• Resolved issue with phase links placement alignment (hold input) being shorter than maximum distance
• Resolved issue with dispenser being drawn offscreen even when disabled
• Resolved several more issues with Phase Stations not copying correctly
• Resolved issue with placement alignment (hold input) not working in all directions
• Resolved issue with invasions occuring very infrequently
• Resolved issue where the active invasion countdown would not be displayed when loading
• Resolved issue with Mana Conduit not collecting items properly after recovering
• Resolved issue with Mana Conduit UI behaving incorrectly after priming but not infusing
• Resolved issue with Apotheos not being able to emit to the outmost regions
• Added missing locale key for Dream Telescope Activate button
• Doubled the connection range of Phase Links and Phase Stations
• Organize upgrade now increases stack size for trash, void matter and ancient tech
• Invasions will now occur at the furthest most regions if surface regions have been emitted to
• Made draw order consistent for bypasses

I've continued to work hard on resolving issues in 0.6 and have yet another patch. This one is a bit bigger and consequently I want to put it into experimental to be safe. Thank you to everyone that has reported issues!

Changes

• Resolved crash when using UI with a gamepad and doing specific actions

• Resolved crash when attempting to load data for really old/corrupted files

• Resolved issue with foliage graphics changing when a nearby tile changes

• Resolved issue with Planter Box showing recipe select every time you interact with it

• Resolved issue with Planter Box not correctly copying meta data when using pipette

• Resolved issue with Phase Stations not copying correctly when using pipette tool

• Resolved issue with being able to rotate Phase Stations into an invalid position

• Resolved issue with being able to rotate phase beams

• Resolved issue with Entangled Ancient Tech potentially getting into a state where it cannot be collected

• Resolved issue where fluids would not transport after loading one world and then a second one in the same game session

• Resolved incorrect text in control settings "Toolbar #" instead of "Toolbar Set #"

• Reduced max range for wellspring ambient sounds

Changes

• Resolved issue with naming save file with Steam's input interface resulting in a bad save file
• Resolved issue with Save name prompt not working nicely with gamepad
• Resolved issue with Steam Deck cursor aim drifting with minimal input
• Improved messaging when a seed requires a Plant Support

Changes

• Resolved issue with bypasses not working after creating a world
• Potentially resolved issue with text missing characters after a long play session
• Resolved issue with mouse wheel input glyphs not displaying correctly
• Resolved issue with gamepad not working nicely for Mana Conduit UI

Changes

• Resolved issue with closing UIs with gamepad
• BONUS! Improved Mainframe UI visuals

The Wilds are ready to be explored!

We're excited to announce that AutoForge's next Major Update, Forgotten Wilds, is now officially released! It has been a whirlwind of work to get this update out now in such a short amount of time - Special Delivery only came out 7 weeks ago! Despite this, we've managed to pack in a great deal of content into this update. Let's explore what you'll find in it!

Fresh Biomes

Not just one but two new biomes are introduced in Forgotten Wilds, which rounds out the rest of the overworld, making the far-most region tiles now being available for unlock. Like our other biomes, each environment introduces new plants to farm and monsters to raise!

• Frostshore: A vast water world that sits under sheer icy cliffs. This cold biome is home those tolerant to the inclement weather such as the Giant Lamaria seaweed and the pale Foxolotl... Any guesses from the name what this creature is like?

• Golden Grove: A warm expansive forest. There the fluffy Grand Plume grows and the fearsome Dragorex roams... and also grows, technically... Is it a monster, or a plant..? The answer is: Yes.

World Generation Improvements & Customization

As mentioned in our sneak peek, World Generation has received a major overhaul. You’ll now be able to customize your world during creation, tailoring it to your preferred playstyle. This includes passive mode and infinite resources! We’ve also significantly enhanced the cave generation and made many more improvements to make exploration more enjoyable. That being said, we're still not done with improving world generation and will be coming back to it in the future.

Mainframe Software Update

Each Update we've been making minor enhancements to the Mainframe but this time we're bringing some fantastic new additions. There are eight new upgrades being introduce and some of these are amazing: Tether, Pilot, Overclock, Compress, Pierce, Organize, Brighten, and Scan are now available. We highlighted Tether in the sneak peek which is easily my favorite addition, but there are some other bangers we'd like to sound off on. We hope you are as excited about these as we are

• Pilot upgrades Otto's hover upgrade further into a fully controllable flight mode.

• Scan makes it possible to see which regions a specified resource is in via the Map.

• Organize increases your inventory stack size by 50%.

Early Support Structures

A new technology, Biomass Engineering, has been introduced that unlocks two new structures: Planter Box and Biomass Generator. The Planter Box is a simpler Plant Support which automatically harvests, however only a small number of plants are compatible with it. Much like the Crank Drill, the Crank Generator was always supposed to be a short-term manual solution to starting your factory. We know it can overstay it's welcome, so we've introduced the Biomass Generator that can burn any type of biofuel to create power. It is very crude though, so don't expect too much from these clunky behemoths!

Save Management

We've heard player feedback and after much consideration we have completely reworked how save files are handled. Now instead of a single save file per world you can have as many saves as you want — easily override an existing one or create a brand new one if you want a backup. Speaking of backups, there are now 3 rolling Autosaves; no longer will you live in fear of losing much time when an unexpected invasion strikes or other chaos occurs.

0.5 Saves Are Safe

While on the topic of saves, there will again be no save wipe with 0.6! Just pick up where you left off! While you won't be able to enjoy the full host of improvements that the new world generation has to offer, we have made extra effort to add some of the new biomes to the outermost parts of the world so you can still get access to the content without restarting.

What's Next For AutoForge?

As with every major update, we will be focusing on resolving outstanding issues for a while before moving onto the next step. By next step I mean the Shared Workload major update... and by that I mean...

MULTIPLAYER!!

We know many of you are very excited for this feature and so are we. You have likely heard that multiplayer is a tremendous amount of work so it may be a while before it lands but we'll keep you updated along the way.

Patch Notes

Major Changes

• Introduced Frostshore, the icy biome

• Introduced Golden Grove, the summer taiga biome

• Implement new monsters: Ice Wisps, Earth Wisps, Frost Crystace, Casclaw, Foxolotl, and Dragorex

• Implement new plants: Cloudberry Plant, Giant Lamaria, Golden Larch, Grand Plume, Mandrex, Nook-Nook, Snap Coral, and Verglas

• Mainframe software updated with upgrades: Tether, Pilot, Overclock, Compress, Piece, Organize, Brighten, and Scan

• Implement Biomass Generator (Early game power generation)

• Implement Planter Box (Early game farming)

• World generation now has many options

• Save file management allowing for multiple saves and whatever else your heart desires

• Rolling autosaves to help prevent progress lost

Balance Changes

• Sky regions void matter cost increased and material cost reduced

• Biomes can now be in any order

• Greatly improved the effectiveness of Verify, Forage, and Scavenge

• Fire biome now has more appropriate foliage more of the time

• Increased Void Matter stack size from 100 to 500

• The outmost regions are now emittable

• Changed the Mainframe upgrade positions some

Bug Fixes

• Resolved seemingly random crash caused by running out of memory while trying to render

• Resolved crash and other unexpected behavior when loading, saving a world, exiting to menu, and then attempting to load that save

• Resolved a memory leak when loading files

• Resolved issue with maps data sometimes being overwritten

• Resolved issue with foliage sometimes displaying glitched across the screen

• Resolved issue with sky island plants and more were being placed down on the ground

• Resolved issue with container inventory not always updating with current list of items

• Resolved regression causing items to not be sorted by category anymore

• Resolved issue with Cermet not being craftable in Forges

• Fixed dream telescope localization

• Add official localization for a great deal of text

• In addition to these we made numerous patches during 0.5 to get players fixes as quickly as possible

Known Issues (Art)

• Biome background art is still placeholder

• Some of the new monsters are very passive while awaiting the rest of their animation

Quick patch for our experimental build since the current patch has a few issues that need immediate attention. Thank you to those reporting issues and providing feedback!

Patch Notes

• Fixing Steam Cloud autosaving for real

• Resolved new issue causing the starting mana deposit to be removed

• Resolved issue with not being able to progress through tutorial when "no monsters" is enabled

• Resolved issue with foliage sometimes displaying glitched across the screen

• Resolved issue with saving while using Pilot resulted in jump being dampened until using Pilot again

• Resolved seemingly random crash caused by running out of memory while trying to render (long standing issue)

Forgotten Wilds Experimental

AutoForge’s next update, Forgotten Wilds, is now live on the public experimental branch! This means it has already undergone testing with our beta players and is now open for everyone to try.

Feedback and Issues

During this experimental phase, we’re focused on resolving issues and getting feedback on any of the new changes. If you do have any feedback to give or issues to report then please do so either in the Steam Forums or better yet over on our Discord.

Important Reminder

Forgotten Wilds is backwards compatible with saves from 0.4+. If you are going to be playing on experimental then please backup your save files. You can find your save files in the folder: "Steamuserdata//1960480/remotesaves".

How to get started playing the update:

Go to AutoForge Properties > Betas and select the "experimental" branch from the dropdown menu. Steam should update AutoForge to the latest build. You can verify this by launching the game and checking the version in the bottom left corner - it should be "0.6".

Major Changes

• World generation options

• World generation changes

• Save file management

• Many new Mainframe upgrades

• Two new biomes including many new plants and monsters

• Lots of optimizations Full changelog will come with the full release of Forgotten Wilds!

Thank you for taking the time to play the experimental version of Forgotten Wilds!

Our next major update, Forgotten Wilds, is not too far off but I wanted to release one last patch for 0.5. I have fixed a few critical issues that have been plaguing players and I did not want them have to wait any longer than they have had to. I am putting this on experimental to give it a little time to cook and will release it fully within the next few days. Thank you to everyone that has reported issues and helped me figure these issues out!

Changes

• Resolved crash caused by power networks becoming misaligned

• Resolved occasional crash during world generation

• Resolved issue with bypasses getting into a bad state after using auto collect near them

• Resolved issue with Porters rarely getting into a broken state

• Resolved issue with biomass being dropped during world generation

• Resolved issue with wind bullet when defender dies while being pushed back

• Resolved issue with interacting with Matter Refiner possibly leading to being unable to interact with other things in that session

• Resolved issue with UI mouse click triggering on technologies when dragging Research tree around

• Resolved issue with clicking on research queue also activating items behind it

• Resolved issue with invasions markers not being cleaned up

Greetings, fellow Golems!

We’re thrilled to give you a sneak peek at our next major update: Forgotten Wilds. This update brings a huge amount of new content—two brand new biomes, revamped world generation, eight powerful new Mainframe upgrades and more (keep reading)!

The Forgotten Wilds

The world of AutoForge is about to get a whole lot wilder. We’re introducing two entirely new biomes, teeming with strange plants and dangerous creatures. This also means the full map can now finally be unlocked through Apotheos.

World Generation Upgraded

World generation has received a major overhaul. You’ll now be able to customize your world during creation, tailoring it to your preferred playstyle. We’ve also significantly improved cave generation — making exploration more enjoyable.

Mainframe Software Update

Each update we've been doing minor updates to the Mainframe but this time we're bringing a major update. There are eight new upgrades being introduce and some of these are amazing: Tether, Pilot, Overclock, Compress, Pierce, Organize, Brighten, and Scan. What do they do? We'll be keeping some secrets for now but here's a fun one — Tether is a brand new way to get around your factory in style using Power Relays.

Save File Management

We've heard player feedback and after much consideration we have completely reworked how save files are handled. Now instead of a single save file per world you can have as many saves as you want — easily override an existing one or create a new one if you want a backup. Speaking of backups, there are now 3 rolling Autosaves; no longer will you live in fear of losing much time when an unexpected invasion strikes or any other chaos occurs.

Coming Soon!

The new update is coming sooner than you think! We’ll be launching the closed beta in the coming days, and the experimental build should be live next week. We’ll have even more to share as we get closer to release.

Stay tuned — and we'll see you soon in the Forgotten Wilds.

Changes

• Resolved crash with UI when interacting with a container while using a gamepad
• Potentially resolved a crash deep in the engine
• Resolved issue with invasion marker moving Apotheos' marker
• Container Inventory interface is now initially focused when interacting with it instead of the player's inventory