We’re opening up the floodgates, v0.4 PTC is live!

Things to know about the PTC
Want to chat about the Public Test Cave? We’ve created a new section on Discord just for you! 

Do not talk about features, narrative, and anything else you see in the Public Test Cave outside of the PTC channels. There is also a subforum on Steam to discuss PTC content. No one likes spoilers!

Your save files from the Public Test Cave will not work once you switch back to the main branch of Techtonica. Make sure you have backed up your main game before switching! You can access it by switching branches on Steam. Right-click Techtonica in your library, then select the “Properties” tab which will bring up a new window. Next, click “Betas”, and under Beta Participation, select the Public Test Cave.

As a reminder, the Public Test Cave is a work-in-progress build. Please be aware that PTC game content may not be complete, will contain bugs, and is subject to change.

The features in our updates are accessible in all supported languages; however, due to these features not being finalized, they may not include translations of related in-game text. A ‘TEMP’ prefix or ‘???’ indicates localized text that isn’t yet fully available.

With the how out of the way, let’s get to the what – a brief overview of what you can find on the Super Sandbox update, now available on the PTC.

Custom Games
Custom Games Settings, Presets, and Maps are available from the New Game Menu. We’ve added 80+ settings that players can experiment with, along with two new maps and 6 new game modes.

New maps
We are so excited to give players new maps for the first time! We would love to add more maps in the future so let us know how you like them!

Mountain King Underhall Map – A dwarven-inspired paradise of material opportunity. Carve your way through deep rock to uncover a mythological amount of fantastical wealth. Incredible amounts of open space to build to your heart’s content.

Faithless Void Map – A sector of great riches for the ambitious Groundbreaker is hidden within what first appears to be a bleak, barren, and timeless landscape. Experience a reimagination of the standard Techtonica map in the dark with some new secrets and challenges.

Game Modes
The real meat of this update is the nearly 100 custom game settings we have added to make your play customizable in just the way you like. These settings will allow you to change balance, game rules, maps, and more to create your ideal challenge or perfect sandbox.

For those of us who are easily panicked by choice, we have set up six preset modes:

• Easy – Reduced costs and rapid progression for casual players. Easier access to narrative events, advanced machines, and upgraded technologies. Achievements are fully available in this Game Mode.
• Sandbox – Do whatever you want! The world is yours! No crafting requirements and minimal power consumption make this the perfect mode for getting creative.
• Hardcore – A challenge for dedicated and experienced players. Harsh resource rules and merciless limitations will push your factory automation skills to the max. I like to call it the Dark Souls of factory games, except you won’t die 1 million times.
• Quantity – A preset inclined towards making larger factories with high quantities of lower-quality machines. Go big or go home!
• Quality – A preset inclined towards making smaller factories with lower quantities of higher-quality machines. Finesse is mandatory!
• Hyper – Appropriate for Groundbreakers who gotta go fast. Increased speeds for nearly everything will empower you to sharply scale and progress your factory – if you can keep up with it!

Incinerator
We have introduced an incinerator function that allows you to destroy with maximum prejudice any machines, tools, or base building pieces you may have created using your already-existing smelters and blast smelters into carbon powder. You can also incinerate some basic resources like quicklime and limestone, as well as incinerate carbon powder into less carbon powder. The exceptions to this are cores and components – you’re gonna need those!

Recipe Changes and Tutorialization Updates
As always, the team continues to iterate and update our existing recipes and new player experience, and that continues in .4. Some of the changes include:

• New Alt Recipes
• Revisions to early game tutorialization to improve onboarding for new players.
• Gathering Kindlevine and Shiverthorn plants now gives raw plants instead of seeds.
• New condensed biobricks and biobrick diesel fuel.
• We now show ore vein health on veins that have been hit (Please note: mining drills dig from the bottom corner voxels up, not from the center).
• Added Vertical Belt Upgrades to the Tech Tree.

Known Issues:
Like we said above, there will be bugs! These are some that we currently know about in v0.4 of PTC.

• While playing in multiplayer, it is possible while MOLEing very fast that a player will no longer see the results of their or other players’ digging reflected in their game. This may cause you to drop out of the world map. If you are the host save and reload to fix, if you are a client, leave and rejoin.
• Dialog triggers may fire at the wrong time, but should not impact player progress.
• Planter timing if you adjust them doesn’t reflect a difference in the inspector UI.

Techtonica now includes more custom game combinations than there are particles in the universe (it’s true, we did the math), so it’s a mortal certainty that some of those combinations of custom settings will work better than others.

Want to chat about PTC? Head to the Public Test Cave channels in our Discord or check out the Steam Sub-forum for PTC!

Let’s get to work!