Timberborn

Platform(s): PC
Genre: Simulation
Developer: Mechanistry
Release Date: 2022

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'Timberborn' Early Access Update Adds New Storage System, Buildings, Redesigned Beaver Bots And More - Trailer

by Rainier on Dec. 16, 2022 @ 10:13 a.m. PST

Timberborn is a beaver city-building game featuring ingenious animals, vertical architecture, and river control (with dams and dynamite!).

Humans are gone. Will your society of lumberpunk beavers do better?

Mankind turned Earth into a wasteland and perished, but some species survived and evolved. Choose one of the unique beaver families and see how long your colony can last!

Endure catastrophic droughts thanks to millennia of experience in water engineering. Beavers of the future redirect rivers, put up dams and dig canals with explosives. But be careful, uncontrolled flooding is as deadly as a dynamite blast!

Turn timber into sophisticated machinery, buildings, and monuments. Wood is the core resource in Timberborn, but the most advanced structures require metal. To find it, send your scavengers to the ruins of the old world.

Create a thriving beaver settlement using a modular, vertical architecture system. Here, space isn't infinite, so stack lodges and workshops on top of each other, cover hills with fields, and set up a power grid for your growing population.

Your favorite lumberpunk city-builder is now available through Early Access on Steam, GOG and Epic Games Store for $24.99.

Just in time for the holidays, the next major Timberborn update is ready to play for everyone. The highlight of this patch is the brand-new storage system but we have also redesigned golems bots, improved migrations, added the ability to recover resources from deleted buildings, and more. With all the changes across the board, there’s never been a better time to pick up the game - or to start another round of frantic beaver colony building!

Patch notes 2022-12-15 - Update 3

Important note: saves created on Update 2 and before are incompatible with the new version of the game. This sucks, yes, and we try to limit losing save compatibility to the minimum - but it’s not always possible. With the reworked storage system added in Update 3, it had to be done.

However, we have added a separate branch for Update 2. This way, you're able to continue your U2 playthrough as long as you're fine with not having access to the U3 features. Please check this thread if you want to play on the Update 2 branch.

New storage system

We have redesigned the warehouses to work similarly to how many players already used them in the late game - but better! The new system helps you avoid a situation where they get clogged up by an overproduced good and can’t take another (for example, with bot heads taking up the room you need for food). It makes it easier to manage resources across the colony, see what is stored where, and how much room is left for each good.

While reworking the storage system, we updated all related buildings functionally and visually, and added a few additional ones. We also completely changed how the goods are presented within the UI and in the game world! All boxed goods have received unique crates, and the resources stored in piles and tanks are now easily recognizable when stored or transported.

  • Warehouses no longer accept all goods at the same time. The player picks a single good that will be stored in a particular warehouse. You can change your selection at any time but before beavers start bringing the new resource, they will remove the old one.
  • The new system also applies to all piles and tanks. These buildings are now universal, allowing you to choose what should be stored inside (including many goods that used to be stored in warehouses).
  • Warehouses are now wall-less, exposing the stored goods as stacks of crates. The number of crates indicates the warehouse’s occupancy.
  • Crates and barrels carried by beavers or stored in warehouses are now painted with a different color and an icon depending on the resource.
  • Warehouse, pile and tank entrances are now decorated with banners representing the goods stored inside.
  • Piles are no longer good-specific, as you can pick what’s stored inside. Goods stored in Piles are: Logs, Dirt, Planks, Treated Planks, Scrap Metal, Metal Blocks.
  • Tanks are no longer good-specific, as you can pick what’s stored inside. Goods stored in Tanks are: Water, Biofuel, Catalyst, Maple Syrup, Medicine.
  • New building: Small Warehouse (3 logs; capacity: 30; Solid) - a cute 1x1 cube to fill all these random empty tiles!
  • Updated building: Medium Warehouse (15 logs; capacity: 200; Solid).
  • Updated building: Large Warehouse (250 SP to unlock; 60 logs, 80 planks; capacity: 1200; Solid) - also now has a new, cuboid shape.
  • New building: Small Pile (Folktails-only; 3 logs; capacity: 20).
  • New building: Small Industrial Pile (Iron Teeth-only; 4 logs; capacity: 20; Solid).
  • Updated building: Large Pile (Folktails-only; 6 logs; Solid; capacity: 180). Yes, it can now be placed on top of platforms and other buildings.
  • Updated building: Large Industrial Pile (Iron Teeth-only; 12 logs; capacity: 180; Solid).
  • Replaced Underground Warehouse with Underground Pile (1800 capacity, 20 Logs, 80 Planks, 40 Gears; ground-only). The new building is also Folktails-exclusive but it is used to store large amounts of Pile-specific materials such as logs.
  • Updated building: Small Tank (15 logs; capacity: 30); it is now also a 1x1 building.
  • Updated building: Medium Tank (120 SP to unlock; 30 planks, 20 gears; capacity: 300); it is now a 2x2 building without that weird L-shaped entrance.
  • Updated building: Large Tank (600 SP to unlock; 80 planks, 60 gears, 30 metal blocks; capacity: 1200).
  • All warehouses, tanks, and piles now feature an Accept/Obtain/Empty toggle.
  • If set to “Accept”, the storage simply accepts the selected good. This is the default setting.
  • If set to “Obtain”, the colony’s haulers will do their best to actively fill the storage by picking up the selected good from other warehouses and transferring it here. This happens on top of the normal "Accept" behavior. This button is hidden if there are no Hauling Posts in a district.
  • If set to “Empty”, the storage no longer accepts goods. Its inventory will be cleared up and moved elsewhere.
  • Removed the often-misunderstood “Desired” setting and the “Distribute goods between warehouses when idle” checkbox - under the new system, they became obsolete.
  • Removed the “Storage is full” status. It is no longer possible for one resource to clog up a warehouse meant for multiple goods, and so full storage is no longer a critical problem requiring the player’s attention.
  • Each good’s tooltip in the top bar now contains information on that good's exact numbers and where it can be stored.
  • Added an occupancy indicator next to each good listed in the top left of the screen. One of the benefits of the new storage system is that it is now possible to calculate a reliable occupancy rate.
  • Added a storage overlay to the game. Hold Tab or toggle it using a button under the season forecast to instantly see all your warehouses, piles, and tanks, what goods are inside, and how filled each storage is.

Recyclable buildings

Yes, you are finally able to recover materials from the buildings you remove! With Timberborn’s focus on verticality and limited space, the player sometimes needs to delete a portion of their settlement to fix something, and losing all resources in the process feels bad. We've changed that. As an added benefit, this also means you can treat your buildings as emergency sources of goods that are urgently needed elsewhere.

  • Added the ability to recover materials from deleted buildings. After deleting a building, rubble piles spawn in its place (or on adjacent tiles if there’s no room available). Your builders will need to bring the recovered materials (Rubble) to storage before using them.
  • If you delete an unfinished building, all materials are recovered. If you delete a finished building, you get a portion of the building costs back and all of the inventory contents.
  • Units can pass through the rubble and you can build on it - but if it’s anything other than a path, the rubble will move to the next free tile.
  • When you hit DEL, a confirmation prompt appears with a breakdown of materials to be recovered. You can bypass that with Shift+DEL.
  • Default difficulty presets have different resource recovery percentages. On Easy, you get 90% resources back. On Medium and Hard, 75% will be recovered.
  • While setting up the custom difficulty for a new game, it is possible to adjust the percentage of resources recovered from deleted buildings.

Beaver bots

The golems are dead. Long live the bots!

  • Renamed golems to bots as that seems more appropriate in the world of beaver engineers.
  • Redesigned the models and animations for all bots.
  • Renamed Cogheads to Ironbots.
  • Renamed Barrelbots to Timberbots.

Migrations and Settlement Panel

After Update 2, the Settlement Panel, especially the Migrations tab, still needed a few tweaks.

  • The game no longer pauses after opening the Settlement Panel.
  • District Centers picked for migration are now connected to each other with Big Blue Arrows visible in the in-game world.
  • After reopening the Settlement Panel, the recently opened tab is restored.
  • Made several tweaks to the migration UI, including a fancy district highlight that should help you organize the migrations more smoothly.

Unique factions

We’ve got the first of many changes aimed at making the in-game factions more unique.

  • Updated the Inventor’s Hut model for Iron Teeth.
  • Updated the texture of Iron Teeth dirt paths.

Built-in screenshot tool

We’re doing our part in the eternal war against screenshots taken with a phone.

  • Added the Screenshot tool. F10 saves a screenshot in the current resolution, Ctrl+F10 saves an upscaled screenshot (for example in 4K instead of Full HD).
  • Screenshots are stored in the Screenshots folder (by default: C:\Users\[user]\Documents\Timberborn\Screenshots). Please note that because of their size, screenshots are not synchronized with the cloud.

UI

  • Large Science Points and resource numbers (1000+) displayed in the top bar are now shortened (69420 becomes 69.4k, for example). The numbers are rounded down to minimize confusion, and you can hover over them to see the exact numbers.
  • Recipes, prioritized resources etc. are now picked using dropdown lists.
  • In Settings, you can now lock the in-game cursor to a single monitor.
  • Updated the Wellbeing/Settlement Panel button.
  • The SP unlock cost is now green if you have sufficient SP numbers.
  • Updated the Priority panel for demolishing to be consistent with the construction and workplace priorities.
  • Buildings in the Settlement Panel are now sorted alphabetically based on the translated names - except for warehouses, which are sorted by type and capacity.
  • Made several other tweaks to the UI.

Audio

  • Updated selection sounds for the following buildings: Aquatic Farmhouse, Breeding Pod, District Center, Engine, Farmhouse, Floodgate, Gatherer Flag, Large Windmill, Lido, Lumberjack Flag, Observatory, Scavenger Flag, Shrine, Small Windmill, Smelter, Stream Gauge, Water Dump.

Misc.

  • Hidden some beaver secrets in the game. Who will find them first?
  • Slightly improved game loading times.
  • Made some minor GPU-related optimizations.
  • When attempting to load an incompatible savefile, you will no longer be able to load it anyway.
  • When attempting to load a broken savefile, the game will crash much sooner (and not after a minute or so of anxious waiting).
  • Fixed resources in Iron Teeth’s Industrial Piles poking through the floors.
  • Updated the default worker number for Builders’ Hut to 4/4, up from 2/4, to match the building’s late-game use.
  • The game no longer supports raw .json files. We moved to the .timber format a good while ago but if you used some very old maps that were never updated, they will be affected.
  • Idle workers of all professions will help empty warehouses and drop-off points.
  • It is now possible to adjust the maximum worker number in paused buildings.
  • With old external Mechanistry forums about to close, we’ve updated the “Go to feedback site” button to redirect to our Feature Upvote site instead.

Bug fixes

  • Fixed a bug with bots assigning themselves to Dirt Excavators and quitting right after discovering how dangerous that job is.
  • Fixed the collider for Power Wheel.
  • Restored the misplaced “Prioritize by haulers” button on Breeding Pods.
  • Fixed the range preview not showing up when placing a new District Center.
  • Fixed several small translation errors, including the Japanese text that was displayed vertically.
  • Fixed the incorrect recipe diagram in the Engine’s panel.
  • It is no longer possible to enter spaces and other invalid symbols in the “Minimum” field in the Migration panel.
  • Fixed the incorrect “Entrance Blocked” warning.
  • Fixed the incorrect warning for Barriers set to be demolished.
  • Alerts in the bottom left corner will now correctly update when the game is paused.
  • Windows key is no longer read as Ctrl on Windows.
  • Fixed a bug with buildings not behaving correctly after deleting their parent District Center.
  • Fixed a rare crash caused by beavers dying while the selected building's settings were being modified.
  • Increased the Minimum relative terrain height for the brushes in the map editor from 0 to 1. Yay, now they always do something!

Build a prosperous city with efficient production chains and beaverish nighttime activities. Follow the lives of individually simulated inhabitants throughout their day and celebrate when the next generation is born!

Satisfy the needs of your colonists to extend their lifespan and make them happier. An evolved beaver's lifestyle is not just "work, sleep and chomp on wood". Balanced diet, decorations, temples, even carousels – you take care of it all.

Unlock additional beaver families, each with unique style and traits. While one species might be okay working long shifts, another would rather focus on increasing the population – so choose what fits your playstyle.

Play on one of the included maps or create your own and share it with the community! With green hills of different height, ruins scattered in the desert, and twisting rivers you will build dams on, each map poses a different challenge.

Timberborn is coming to PC (Steam/GOG/Epic Games Store) in 2023.


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