The main focus this week is adding new mining mechanics which allows you to automate parts of late game mining. Along with the new miner we've reworked the centrifuge mechanic and added chute devices to give player chute networks far more utility.

This is the biggest update we've done in a while both in terms of new content as well as bug fixes and we're excited to be back in a place where we are able to push out updates like these!

Deep Miner

The Deep Miner is a device that you construct on the terrain surface and will drill to bedrock and start producing Dirty Ore. The Deep Miner will take some time to reach bedrock, depending on how deep it is, and will then produce approximately a stack of 10 Dirty Ore every 90 seconds.

Dirty Ore

Dirty Ores simply represent unprocessed pieces of unsorted ore. During processing it will be transformed into a normal ore, using the same distribution of ores form your world(not including ices). Attempting to smelt a Dirty Ore before processing it will result in it being destroyed without producing anything, you must first use a centrifuge to extract the pure ore from it.

Centrifuges

Existing Centrifuge

The Centrifuge now processes one item off a stack at a time. It stores the processed ores inside itself until the export lever is pulled. Centrifuge processing speed is based on RPM, it takes 100 seconds for the centrifuge to spin up to its maximum speed of 100RPM.

Combustion Centrifuge

This new centrifuge is powered by a small internal combustion engine fed by a fuel mix to the input pipe. It is capable of much higher RPMs than the Electric centrifuge, but sudden changes in Rpm or exporting while running will add stress to the machine. If max stress is reached it will grind to a halt and processing will stop. The amount of fuel used each tick can be controlled with the throttle lever. The Combustion Limiter lever will increase the amount of fuel that can burn each tick to supercharge the speed of the engine.

Chutes

We've added a range of new chutes that provide vital missing functionality. We've implemented both basic and digital versions that can be controlled via logic.

Flip Flop

This new chute has one input and two outputs that it switches between every time an item passes through. There is an indicator on the side to inform you where the next item will go.

Digital Flip Flop

The digital version is similar except you can control the ratio of items for each output via logic. There's also a manual knob to set the ratio.

Valve

The valve is a simple directional chute that acts as a gate. When set to open items will flow through and when it is closed they will stop.

Digital Valve

The digital valve is similar except it will automatically close after a specified number of items have passed through. This threshold can be set using the dial. It can also be manually opened and closed using the button on the device

Overflow

The overflow chute has a single input and two outputs and will behave as a normal chute until it can no longer output straight at which point it will overflow incoming items to the other output.

Reversed Variants Coming Soon: we had to make last minute changes to the reversed variants of the digital chute devices and will be included in the next patch.

Save and Character Day Tracker

Displayed by your character's face cam is now a day count for how old the current save is. When a new day starts you’ll see a message with this information as well as the number of days you’ve gone without respawning. This character age is also visible on the player list screen(tab).

Thank you to Jixxed for creating the original mod that prompted us to add this to the base game. Right now we've not added time as we'd want to rework some of the UI to achieve this which was a bit out of scope.

Connectivity

The work that we did at the beginning of the year to decouple Stationeers from Unity’s High Level Multiplayer API was a mammoth task. While the benefits of replacing it with our own bespoke system improved multiplayer stability and reduced desync, we’re still partly relying on Unity’s deprecated Low Level API. The result of this is that many people have trouble connecting and playing with their friends. Art of the Rail is currently testing a new solution for this that will mean we no longer rely on any of Unity’s deprecated APIs. Once this has been proven to work and implemented we will also re-enable Steam’s P2P networking.

Your support makes this possible

The major refactor has been a huge milestone for us and we think you can see the tremendous impact that it has had. Your support through bug reporting, suggestions, and direct involvement with our team on discord make a big difference.

If you like the progress we have made, please consider taking a moment to leave a positive review. This makes a great deal of difference to the project. We have worked hard on this project now for five years, and we feel confident the game has substantially improved from when we started. Many projects steer clear of the hard tasks, and we are proud to have taken them on.

Additionally, you can support us by purchasing the DLC we made to allow those who like the game to support us, and in return get something a little fun to continue to use in the game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2089290/Stationeers_Human_Cosmetics_Pack/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1038400/Stationeers_Zrilian_Species_Pack/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1038500/Stationeers_HEM_Droid_Species_Pack/

Change Log v0.2.3619.17630

• Updated digital chute flip flop manual toggle collider position.
• Tweaked digital chute valve. You can now set the 'Quantity' with logic. (This is the number of items that have passed through already). Also made the minimum setting 0 instead of 1. If set to 0 the valve will never auto close.
• Added another setting to the digital chute flip flop. Will appear in logic as 'SettingOutput'. This will set the number of items send to the upwards output before flipping. Using this, you can make more useful ratios (Setting:SettingOutput). Also made the minimum setting 0 which, if used, will cause the device to not flip/flop automatically.
• Fixed Station contacts were in the wrong part of the Loading sequence, this would cause loading them to throw "Couldn't register x with id" errors.
• Fixed BareBones Start condition throws error and returns to main menu when playing as robot or Zrillian.
• Added cancellation token and thread abort when editor application is quitting. A possible fix to auto save issue in editor
• Fixed NRE syncing Client.DaysLived causing dedicated server to become unresponsive
• Fixed DeepMiner not syncing minded terrain on dedicated server
• Added Deep Miner crafting recipe to use steel and invar on the MKII autolathe.
• Modified Deep Miner and Combustion Centrifuge recipes to also use constantan, take longer, have increased printing times, and have stack sizes of 1.
• Fixed Centrifuge animations and sounds to reflect new RPM behaviour.
• Added "atmos count" command. returns number of atmosphere cells and number of rooms.
• Changed DeepMiner drill bedrock position.
• Fixed Digital Chute Devices returning incorrect kit when deconstructed.
• Fixed "floating invisible colliders". When mining out an entire chunk the last calculated collider would remain when the chunk had 0 vertices. Now the collider is correctly disabled when the chunk has 0 vertices remaining
• Removed unused Logic vars from CombustionCentrifuge: Mode, Setting, Ratio, Maximum.
• Changed increased the stress added to CombustionCentrifuge when exporting ores while running at high Rpms.
• Updated Stationpedia entries for both centrifuges, dirty ore, and deep miner.
• Increased centrifuge and deep miner power requirements. Decreased Combustion centrifuge power requirements.
• Fixed Typo in DaysPassedPlayerMessage.
• Changed DeepMining ore generation weight table to take into account World-settings for ore vein size, drop amount and and ore vein attempts.
• Fixed storms passing through face structures (e.g. windows and walls) at certain orientations when cladding is placed on them
• Fixed Cogs and Drill Head offset incorrectly when building a new Deep miner.
• Added Sounds to Deep miner.
• Fixed Powered and operating sounds not playing on some devices when loading a game (the sounds would come back when the devices power was cycled)
• Added total days passed for save to hud
• Added days lived to score board for each players current character(existing characters will start at day 0)
• Added a "day passed" message
• Fixed Colliders for IC slot and screws on CombustionCentrifuge were not being enabled when opening slider.
• Fixed CombustionCentrifuge not exhausting its internal atmosphere when turned off.
• Reduced base rattling sound of combustion Centrifuge when machine is not stressed.
• Fixed digital flip flop and digital value chutes. Can now set the setting knob value with logic
• Tweaked digital valve shutter position as it was not on the correct side for left variant
• Fixed missing material on basic chute kit
• Tweaked collider size on standard chute kit
• Fixed Build error.
• Fixed motor revving sound when turning on centrifuge.
• Improved motor stress audio behaviour.
• Fixed DeepMiner shaft offset issues. Created a more reliable way of scaling shaft as it drills down
• Fixed BioMass was having its smelting gases incorrectly removed when created in a centrifuge. biomass centrifuge behaviour restored to previous state.
• Added Sounds to CombustionCentrifuge.
• Added new kit for powered chutes and chute devices. Moved chute bin into this kit.
• Completed initial balance pass of deep miner and Centrifuge rates.
• Added spin to the DeepMiner shaft animation
• Fixed combustion centrifuge import and export ports facing the wrong direction
• Added updated DeepMiner model
• Added wobble animation to DeepMiner shaft.
• Fixed NRE when player dies from explosion.
• Localization pass on cryo tubes and new chute devices
• Added digital flip flop chute. Will flip after a specified number of items have passed through.
• Fixed centrifuge lever/onoff switch selection bounding box sizes
• Fixed DeepMiner exporting when chute is full
• Fixed DeepMiner drill and gears spinning when on but not powered
• Added new Centrifuge model mesh
• Added new lever interactable for Centrifuge
• Added custom animation files for Centrifuge due to hierarchy change
• Added left variant of chute digital valve
• Updated thumbnail image for right variant of the chute digital valve
• Added IChute interface to make dealing with chute devices easier
• Added the digital chute valve. This will automatically close after a specified number of items have passed through. This threshold can be set using the dial. Can also be manually opened and closed using the button on the device
• Added ChuteDevice class which can be used to create more complex powered chutes
• rewrote gas generators thermodynamic scaling, to better scale with the amount of combustion which has occurred.
• Generally decreased gas generator convection by 3x, and undid the recent 25% power increase to become an overall 15% decrease.
• Fixed error on Combustion Centrifuge when output pipe removed.
• Fixed issue with gas fuel generator throwing errors when not connected to pipes
• Fixed issue where combustion energy from the previous tick was subtracted after thermodynamic convection occurred, resulting in low exhaust temperatures.
• Added ability to the gas fuel generator to scale its convection based on how much fuel its processing.
• Decreased Gas Fuel Generator combustion chamber volume, lowering its overall throughput, and max output power. Efficiency should be the same, and multiple gas fuel generators should be used instead of just one. Existing generators should be fully deconstructed and rebuilt to enter a good state.
• Increased Gas Fuel Generator heat to power conversion by 25%.
• Fixed Setting Throttle/Combustion on CombustionCentrifuge via logic throws error.
• Fixed exception on deep miner if it is running when it is destroyed
• Added Kit (CombustionCentrifuge) to Tier2 Autolathe recipes.
• Changed Centrifuge can now export when turned off.
• Changed Stress Behaviour on Combustion Centrifuge. Exporting at High Rpms adds stress. When max stress is reached machine rapidly spins down. When Stress is high drum will wobble.
• Fixed Localization error with Throttle and Combustion Levers on CombustionCentrifuge.
• Adjusted deep miner drill speed to be much longer. On mars you will have to wait close to 5 minutes for the drill to reach bedrock and start production
• Added drill head animation for deep miner
• Added Entry/ExitTime to ChuteFlipSlopSplitter build states
• Fixed NREs spamming when first creating a new Structure in editor.
• Added overflow chute which will direct materials to an overflow output when the default output chute is full
• Animation fixes for CombustionCentrifuge
• Added WIP CombustionCentrifuge device to DebugKit.
• Fixed combustion very small amounts of high energy gas could cause atmospherics thread exceptions.
• Changed centrifuge placeholder speeds to significantly slower speeds
• Changed ServerTick/ClientTick to UniTask
• Fixed bug where thing could input through a ChuteFlipFlopSplitter and ChuteJunction output. Reject items moving through non-input connections.
• Fixed NRE in DeepMiner due to class type change for DirtyOre
• Changed SurfaceAreaScale clamp to allow scales smaller than 1.
• Moved switching chute outputs to OnServerTick()
• Cleaned up gravity handling when entering/exiting ladders
• Added processing time to ICentrifugable.
• Fixed error spam when closing Discord while game is running
• Updated Centrifuge processing behaviour. The Centrifuge will now slowly increase its rpm when turned on. It will process one item off the stack in its import slot (similar to the arc furnace) processing time is based on the rpm of the machine. The processed materials will be stored in the machine until the open variable is set to true. When the machine is opened it will export its stored materials. Open lever will be added to the model soon (in the mean-time beta-branch players will need to use logic).
• Fixed Centrifuge will now de-gas any ores it processes.
• Fixed DirtyOre not spawn-able.
• Added Centrifuge will now process DirtyOre. DirtyOre will be converted into one random ore in a 1:1 ratio. the ore-type produced is randomised based on the planets ore weighting settings.
• Added CombustionCentrifuge script and WIP prefab.
• Fixed a number of tooltip generations creating new strings unnecessarily.
• Added Dial script.
• Changed default behaviour of newly added assets to not burn.
• Actually Fixed missing reagent mix blueprint
• Fixed missing reagent mix blueprint
• Added chute valve. Will stop the flow of materials in chutes when closed and act like a straight chute when open.
• Lowered the thermodynamic scale for cryo tubes. Will now convect 10x slower which should make it easier to keep cool in a pressurised room
• Removed old ChuteSplitter Thumbnails
• Removed Collider from Mode interactable ChuteFlipFlipSplitter.
• Changed ChuteFlipFlipSplitter thumbnail name to be consistent
• Updated mesh, materials, thumbnail, and blueprint for reagent mix
• Updated charcoal blueprint
• Updated charcoal thumbnails
• Fixed incorrect textures on new charcoal model
• Change the texture size for reagent mix from 2k to 512.
• Create a new reagent mix model and textures.
• Changed name ChuteSplitter to ChuteFlipFlopSplitter
• Removed custom output index in favour of Mode property for better network sync
• Removed Animator on ChuteSplitter
• Added DoTween animation for ChuteSplitter needle
• Removed unused material (DirtyRock)
• Fixed wrong material on DirtyOre
• Change the dirty rock material name
• Added ChuteSplitter to project. A chute that toggles between two outputs
• Fixed cryo tube default light strip texture
• Made light strips on cryo tubes off when the tube is unpowered
• Tweaked the size of colliders on cryo tubes
• Added new Chute FBXs
• Improved DeepMiner voxel drilling area
• Added a range randomisation for spawn ore on DeepMiner
• Slowed drilling speed animation down by half
• Tweaked cryo and sleepers - robot batteries will now no longer drain when the robot is inside a powered sleeper or cryo tube
• Fixed vertical cryo tube prefab accidentally removed from prefab registry
• Updated ItemCharcoal prefab with new mesh, material, textures
• Fixed ladder end hurting player(in some situations)
• Fixed ragdoll issue when human dies in a slot
• Updated charcoal with new model and textures.
• Increased DirtyOre freq from DeepMiner to 90s
• Added descriptions for StructureDeepMiner, ItemKitDeepMiner, ItemDirtyOre in Stationpedia
• Fixed issue with players being draggable after exiting slot
• Fixed missing ItemDirtyOre blue print
• Adding Combustion Centrifuge placeholder code
• Changed name DirtyRock to DirtyOre
• Removed unnecessary network message for auto miner
• Added auto miner drill bit position data to byte array
• Added DeepMiner which will infinitely mine DirtyRock at 60s interval.
• Fixed AutoMiner not syncing across network.
• Added NRE checks for Export/Import classes so that a single one could be used.
• Fixed CryotubeVertical used drill instead of screwdriver to deconstruct final build-state.
• Fixed Old cryotube does not return kit.
• Added ItemDirtyRock to project