Hey Drifters,

This update brings a ton of content! Each specialist now has their own quests. We've added several new specialists that introduce new features or unlock existing features: the Chemist, Birdkeeper, Aquaculturist and Electrician. We've also improved the upgrade system, where most buildings can be upgraded in different ways, like adding Gas Bags to reduce their weight.

You'll find eight new buildings, supporting new resource pipelines such as bio-energy, upgrade resources and organic resources. The world has expanded too, with a new polluted Industry Region. Here you'll find unique resources and fish amidst the polluted waters.

During experimental we'll be tweaking the narrative and squashing any bugs. We'll also be looking at potential new building upgrades that could further improve the game.

This patch will be on experimental until we've fixed any issues that pop-up with quests. We’ll be listening to feedback and making adjustments as we continue developing this update.

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This patch is still in development and can be tested on the experimental branch to give feedback.

This is how you can enable the experimental branch of Flotsam. This will only work when you're not in a game:
1. Open Steam Library
2. Right click Flotsam
3. Select Properties
4. Go to tab 'Betas' at the top.
5. Select 'Experimental' in the drop-down.

This update brings a wave of new content to both the narrative and resource management! We've added new specialists with their own quests, expanded pollution with a new Industry region, improved the upgrade system and introduced various new resource pipelines.

• New Specialists have been added:

• The Chemist: unlocks the Chemical Lab and the Oil Refinery.

• The Birdkeeper: unlocks the existing Birdhouse and access to Seagulls.

• The Aquaculturist: unlocks the existing Fish Farm.

• The Engineer has now been split into the Engineer and the Electrician. The Engineer's focus is on Town's Weight and unlocks the existing Town Tugger.

• The Electrician now unlocks the existing Eel-ectrical upgrades.

• All 10 specialists now each come with their own Quests.

• The Radio Station has been reworked. Radio signals now appear as options, pick one to begin a quest.

• Added a Quest Log to the Fullscreen Panel.

• Improved the upgrade system. Each building can now have various upgrades.

• New General Upgrades: Gas Bags and Plastech Floater. These reduce the building's weight.

• New Townheart Upgrade: Torque Thruster, which will increase the Town's movement speed.

• New Townheart Upgrade: Lubricant. Increases the energy efficiency when moving the town.

• New resource type: Upgrade.

• New Building: Fabricator. This building produces upgrade resources.

• New Upgrade resources: Gas Bags, Plastech Floater, Lubricant, Torque Thruster.

• New Region: Industry. This end-game region filled with plastic factories and pollution brings various new items.

• New resource: Polluted Goop. This strange goop floats in the industry region and will pollute drifters that salvage it.

• New Fish: Electric Eels.

• New resource: Aluminum Scrap and Aluminum Plating. Aluminum Scrap can be processed into Plating via the Scrapsmith.

• Some landmarks now emit pollution, nearby drifters will be affected.

• New resource: Biowaste.

• New building: Eel-Powered Generator. This generator is powered by Electric Eels, which need to be fed Eel Chow to produce energy.

• New resource: Eel Chow, this is produced with Bio-waste.

• New Building: Bio-Waster. This building will convert organic resources into bio-waste.

• New Building: Bio-Boiler. This building refines biological resources.

• New resources: Compost, Fish Oil, Bio-Gas, Glue and Carbon.

• New Building: Hydraulic Press. This building further refines resources.

• New resources: Pletal, Treated Planks.

• New Building: Chemical Lab. This building further refines biological resources.

• New resources: Bio-Acid, Foam, Coolant.

• New Building: Advanced Eel-ectro Crafter. This building further refines eel-ectrical resources.

• New resources: Advanced Eel-ectronics.

• New Building: Autoclave. This building creates high-tech refined resources.

• New resource: Plastech.

• Tool is now a resource type.

• New Tool resources: Containers, Protective Gloves. These are required to salvage liquid or polluted resources.

• Smogbreath, Spongehead and Musselmouths each require their own specialized Medicine.

• New resource: Moldy Paper. This resource is required to create the Spongehead Medicine.

• New resource: Medical Fluid. This resource is required to make Med Pods.

• Wood Junk is now chopped into Firewood in the Chopping Block rather than the Recycler.

• Fast and Very Fast game speeds now increase time more than before.

• Balancing pass over landmark resource yields, resource pipelines, food pipelines, energy, town movement and more.

• New resource: Grilled Gobbler. A recipe where you just grill a single Gobbler.

• Increased the speed by which drifters move in the town and on landmarks.

• Seagulls without a home now take longer to leave. Once given a home, they will also remain longer when not given food.

• Updated Tech Tree to reflect all changes.

The pathfinding and other improvements from version 0.9.0f7 have been carried over into this update. Thanks again to everyone who helped test these!

• Reworked pathfinding to be multi-threaded, this should reduce lag when pathing queries take a long time to complete.

• Drifters now follow their paths more smoothly.

• The noticeable lag when spawning the next world tile has been reduced.

• Fixed issue where the energy grid could be broken when loading a saved game.

• Fixed some issues related to deconstructing fields/parks that have walkways attached to them.

• Fixed issue where the game could crash when a drifter was scouted using the Radio.

• Fixed visual issue with drifter colors or clothing missing when loading a save.