Against the Storm Experimental Update (Rain Collectors, Pump Upgrades)

Published by 25 Jan, 2023 0 likes

Greetings, Viceroys! You can now try the upcoming changes of the Rainpunk Update (Part 2) on the Experimental Branch.

The Update comes with Geyser Pump Upgrades, revamped Rain Collector, and more. Please bear in mind that this is an early version of the upcoming Update.

The balance may feel off and you might experience technical issues. We will continue to iterate it but we also want to incorporate your feedback early.

What did we change? We revamped the Rain Collector which now produces three types of rainwater (different during each season): Drizzle Water, Clearance Water, and Storm Water.

We also added a new building blueprint: the Advanced Rain Harvester. Advanced Rain HarvesterWater Pumps are now upgradeable: Level 1 (Automaton) -

A rainpunk automaton will permanently occupy one workplace. It doesn't eat, and it doesn't need rest.

Its sole purpose is to work. Automatons have no chance of producing double yields.

Level 2 (Tank Capacity Increase) - Increases the global Rainwater tank capacity. Level 3 (2nd Automaton)Geyser Pump UpgradesWe made changes to Greenhouse and Clay Pit recipes.

The Greenhouse now uses Drizzle Water to produce Mushrooms and Herbs, while the Clay Pit needs Clearance Water to produce Clay and Reeds. We removed Rain Engines from both of these buildings.

The Blightrot generation system should now be easier to understand and control. We removed the Blightrot Footprint from Recipes.

Based on our observations, it was hardly ever taken into account when making decisions and therefore didn't fulfill its role.

Blightrot is now generated as a result of Water usage (and not goods production).

There is a single conversion factor to calculate how many Water units are turned into Cysts: the Blightrot Progress bar.

The Blightrot Progress bar in each building grows whenever a single unit of Water is used by their Rain Engine.

When the Blightrot Progress bar is fully filled, it will reset and spawn a Blightrot cyst. You can track the progress of each Cyst in every workshop.

We made general changes to the Pipes and Water balance. Sparkdew was completely removed from the game.

Recipes, Orders, Effects, and Events now use rainwater (or other resources) instead.

Lastly, we replaced the Prestige 2 Modifier with a new one: Blight Swarm - Large swarms of Blightrot Cysts migrate across the realm.

Every third Clearance, Blightrot Cysts will appear in the settlement. We will share a more specific changelog next week, with the Rainpunk Update (Part 2).

How to test it?

In order to test the new mechanic, you need to: Play on at least the Veteran difficulty level (or even better: on a higher one on which you're usually playing), Fully unlock meta (with meta.

addAll command), Play on the Experimental Branch (click here to learn how to switch to the Experimental Branch), Preferably in the English language, as it has updated texts. What are we interested in?

If you decide to play the Experimental Update, please share your thoughts with us!

Primarily, we are interested in answers to the following questions: How do the new Blightrot, Rainpunk, & Prestige changes affect your runs?

How do the changes to the Rain Collector affect your playstyle after a few runs?

Is there anything new that makes the mechanic feel worse (especially more repetitive) or better (especially more diverse)? Have you experienced any significant change in the difficulty?

We are grateful for all your invaluable help so far and can’t wait to hear what you think about the new changes! May the storm be gentle on you,