Update V15.4: Mr Balance
V15.4 Mr Balance is out for everyone!To everyone who tried the demo and got stuck or frustrated: you were right. The old tutorial did not explain enough, it was easy to run out of power, and the Depot was confusing. That is on us. We read every review and every comment.So we redesigned the tutorial. It now teaches power first, so you don't run out, and it shows you step by step how the Depot works. Once the Depot clicks, the rest of the game is pretty straightforward. If you bounced off the demo, please give the new tutorial a try.We also adjusted the prices, made progression faster and more pleasant, and fixed a lot of annoying bugs, like items jumping off belts and graphical glitches.We are a small team and we will keep fixing things. If something still feels bad, tell us on Discord or in the Steam discussions. We really are listening.Here is what V15.4 changes from V14.1.The order book has 16 orders instead of 20. Wrapped Bales, Reinforced Panels, Pet Hay Boxes and Bioplastic ORDERS (not items) are gone. Stage 1 orders ask for less, and the rest are about the same size as before.No order asks for something together with what is made from it, so you never have to tear up a working line for an order. The Dairy now wants wrapped bales and straw panels.ːsteamthisː We know that many people got frustrated because they need to divide between selling in hay stand and delivering orders so we introduced:Orders pay as you load the truck, and the 25% bonus is paid on every load as it goes on, not as one lump when you sign. A finished order pays the same as before, just sooner.Your save stays where it is. An order you had already gone past counts as done.Upgrade levels no longer wait for orders. Once you own a card, you can buy any of its levels with money.Because nothing is locked, the high levels cost more. For example Faster Belt Motor levels 6 to 8 cost $13,000, $19,000 and $28,000, and the Skyline Crane's claw and winch levels cost $13,000 to $38,000.Scan Batch Size and Scan Cycle Speed levels 4 and 5 cost $2,000 and $5,500. Hay Pulper and Paper Mill speed levels 1 and 2 cost $2,000 and $3,250.Tech card levels cost only money. Only Extend the Shed and the Skyline Crane's claw and winch still take parts. A crane section takes 1 hay rod, not 2.The Hay Lift, Hay Stairs, Wrapper, lamps and Needle Socket cost only money, all game.Machine parts bills from The Garden Centre on are cut in half.Big orders no longer wait for needles on Small and Standard either. No pile has a needle lock now.On Small, stage 1 orders are the same as Standard's, and the rest are 60% of Standard's.Some machines open with a different order: the Depot Drone with First Bales; the Fabricator and Yard Fan with Straw Panels; the Borehole Pump, water pipes, Biogas Digester and Move the Selling Stand with The Dairy; the Tube Launcher, Jump Pad and underground pieces with Eco Bricks; the Blueprint Designer with Rods and Gears; the Compact Splitter and Compact Joiner with Wire and Cores; the Drone Mk II with The Garden Centre; the Hay Excavator with Pulp; the Gas Plant, Fuel Disc Press and Drone Mk III with The Paper Merchant; the Skyline Crane with Sugar; the Scanner Mk III with Motors.Buyers take three times as much of every product at full price, and the Selling Stand never pays less than 70% of full price.Eco Bricks, pulp, sugar sacks and Fuel Discs sell for more.An ingot sells for $30, not $3, and takes 2 iron or 2 copper, not 5. So wire spools and motor cores are worth about ten times more.Metal has buyers like everything else: ingots, wire spools and motor cores sell at full price up to a set amount a minute, then the price drops.The Smelter costs $200, and each extra one costs 15% more.Power is much cheaper at the start. Electricity costs $30, not $90. The first Hay Generator costs $60 and the second $80; from the third on they cost what they did before.Machines use less power: the Panel Press 1 kW (was 5), the Smelter 4 kW (was 8) and the Depot Drone Mk I 0.5 kW (was 2.5). Stronger Generator levels give 10 to 15 kW, and level 1 costs $15.Belts cost $5 a metre, not $8.Extend the Shed is cheaper: level 1 is $200 and one straw panel, not $1,000 and 20. Level 2 is $1,500 and 15 straw panels, and level 3 is $4,500 and 30. There are two new levels, and the shed now grows to 100 m.The Depot Drone costs $600 and four straw panels, no wire or cores. Your first one is free: the tutorial gives it to you at the Straw Panels order.Depot Drones carry 3, 6 and 12 loads (Mk I, II and III), so even a Mk I is worth using.The T Junction is now the first splitter card ($60), with the Y and U Splitters after it. Old saves with splitters get the T Junction free.Raise Eco Brick Quality opens with the Hay Bricketizer.A wrapped bale sent for an order pays a wrapped bale's price, not a plain bale's.The tutorial is shorter and teaches power first: the faster belts card is gone, a More power card and a second generator come before the Smelter, there is a card for your f
V15.4 Mr Balance is out for everyone!
To everyone who tried the demo and got stuck or frustrated: you were right. The old tutorial did not explain enough, it was easy to run out of power, and the Depot was confusing. That is on us. We read every review and every comment.
So we redesigned the tutorial. It now teaches power first, so you don't run out, and it shows you step by step how the Depot works. Once the Depot clicks, the rest of the game is pretty straightforward. If you bounced off the demo, please give the new tutorial a try.
We also adjusted the prices, made progression faster and more pleasant, and fixed a lot of annoying bugs, like items jumping off belts and graphical glitches.
We are a small team and we will keep fixing things. If something still feels bad, tell us on Discord or in the Steam discussions. We really are listening.
Here is what V15.4 changes from V14.1.
Thank you so much for all your reports, thank you for helping us shape the game, we absolutely love Find The Needle community. We're reaching 15.000 discord members, and We are extremely grateful to have each one of you!
Join Discord Here:
https://discord.gg/MqcvCz8eyG
More soon!
To everyone who tried the demo and got stuck or frustrated: you were right. The old tutorial did not explain enough, it was easy to run out of power, and the Depot was confusing. That is on us. We read every review and every comment.
So we redesigned the tutorial. It now teaches power first, so you don't run out, and it shows you step by step how the Depot works. Once the Depot clicks, the rest of the game is pretty straightforward. If you bounced off the demo, please give the new tutorial a try.
We also adjusted the prices, made progression faster and more pleasant, and fixed a lot of annoying bugs, like items jumping off belts and graphical glitches.
We are a small team and we will keep fixing things. If something still feels bad, tell us on Discord or in the Steam discussions. We really are listening.
Here is what V15.4 changes from V14.1.
- The order book has 16 orders instead of 20. Wrapped Bales, Reinforced Panels, Pet Hay Boxes and Bioplastic ORDERS (not items) are gone. Stage 1 orders ask for less, and the rest are about the same size as before.
- No order asks for something together with what is made from it, so you never have to tear up a working line for an order. The Dairy now wants wrapped bales and straw panels.
ːsteamthisː We know that many people got frustrated because they need to divide between selling in hay stand and delivering orders so we introduced: - Orders pay as you load the truck, and the 25% bonus is paid on every load as it goes on, not as one lump when you sign. A finished order pays the same as before, just sooner.
- Your save stays where it is. An order you had already gone past counts as done.
- Upgrade levels no longer wait for orders. Once you own a card, you can buy any of its levels with money.
- Because nothing is locked, the high levels cost more. For example Faster Belt Motor levels 6 to 8 cost $13,000, $19,000 and $28,000, and the Skyline Crane's claw and winch levels cost $13,000 to $38,000.
- Scan Batch Size and Scan Cycle Speed levels 4 and 5 cost $2,000 and $5,500. Hay Pulper and Paper Mill speed levels 1 and 2 cost $2,000 and $3,250.
- Tech card levels cost only money. Only Extend the Shed and the Skyline Crane's claw and winch still take parts. A crane section takes 1 hay rod, not 2.
- The Hay Lift, Hay Stairs, Wrapper, lamps and Needle Socket cost only money, all game.
- Machine parts bills from The Garden Centre on are cut in half.
- Big orders no longer wait for needles on Small and Standard either. No pile has a needle lock now.
- On Small, stage 1 orders are the same as Standard's, and the rest are 60% of Standard's.
- Some machines open with a different order: the Depot Drone with First Bales; the Fabricator and Yard Fan with Straw Panels; the Borehole Pump, water pipes, Biogas Digester and Move the Selling Stand with The Dairy; the Tube Launcher, Jump Pad and underground pieces with Eco Bricks; the Blueprint Designer with Rods and Gears; the Compact Splitter and Compact Joiner with Wire and Cores; the Drone Mk II with The Garden Centre; the Hay Excavator with Pulp; the Gas Plant, Fuel Disc Press and Drone Mk III with The Paper Merchant; the Skyline Crane with Sugar; the Scanner Mk III with Motors.
- Buyers take three times as much of every product at full price, and the Selling Stand never pays less than 70% of full price.
- Eco Bricks, pulp, sugar sacks and Fuel Discs sell for more.
- An ingot sells for $30, not $3, and takes 2 iron or 2 copper, not 5. So wire spools and motor cores are worth about ten times more.
- Metal has buyers like everything else: ingots, wire spools and motor cores sell at full price up to a set amount a minute, then the price drops.
- The Smelter costs $200, and each extra one costs 15% more.
- Power is much cheaper at the start. Electricity costs $30, not $90. The first Hay Generator costs $60 and the second $80; from the third on they cost what they did before.
- Machines use less power: the Panel Press 1 kW (was 5), the Smelter 4 kW (was 8) and the Depot Drone Mk I 0.5 kW (was 2.5). Stronger Generator levels give 10 to 15 kW, and level 1 costs $15.
- Belts cost $5 a metre, not $8.
- Extend the Shed is cheaper: level 1 is $200 and one straw panel, not $1,000 and 20. Level 2 is $1,500 and 15 straw panels, and level 3 is $4,500 and 30. There are two new levels, and the shed now grows to 100 m.
- The Depot Drone costs $600 and four straw panels, no wire or cores. Your first one is free: the tutorial gives it to you at the Straw Panels order.
- Depot Drones carry 3, 6 and 12 loads (Mk I, II and III), so even a Mk I is worth using.
- The T Junction is now the first splitter card ($60), with the Y and U Splitters after it. Old saves with splitters get the T Junction free.
- Raise Eco Brick Quality opens with the Hay Bricketizer.
- A wrapped bale sent for an order pays a wrapped bale's price, not a plain bale's.
- The tutorial is shorter and teaches power first: the faster belts card is gone, a More power card and a second generator come before the Smelter, there is a card for your first shed level, and the metal detector cards come just before your first needle.
- On big yards, after an hour or two, machines could turn black and text boxes break until you restarted. We found a leak in the belts behind it and fixed it. On DirectX 12 we fixed the last of it and raised the limit behind it too.
- Fixed a few slow leaks that made the frame rate drop the longer you played.
- Finishing the game many times no longer makes machines, arms and drones so fast that the yard falls apart. The needle bonus stops growing after the second ending.
- The Fabricator no longer drops bricks under itself on fast belts, so no more bricks on the floor or mixed in with the rods and gear sets.
- Hay Lifts no longer throw loads off at top belt speeds, and Hay Pulpers no longer spill wads on the floor. The Panel Press and Fabricator no longer throw loads off fast belts either.
- The Panel Press no longer lets bales slide sideways through its stack.
- Bales out of a Depot burn again without you touching them first, even after a Hay Silo.
- Rods, gear sets and sugar sacks out of a Depot no longer sell for $0.
- Fuel Discs out of a Depot keep their Brick Quality.
- A Hay Silo no longer loses a needle when it trims a load.
- The Depot's KEEP UP TO slider no longer resets when you move the mouse over the grid.
- The tutorial no longer lets the Depot keep the panels the truck needs. The X card comes straight after Fill the Depot.
- A Depot Drone no longer stops three short when loose bales lie by the truck.
- A Depot Drone can be placed with belts running under its rotors.
- You can lay a water pipe along a Biogas Digester from its flange, also with a second digester right beside it.
- The Double Wall Outlet can be built from the top of a slab too.
- On MOUNT HAYVEREST with a big shed, grass no longer comes up through the warehouse floor.
- The hatch no longer stays open over the ending if you fall in while it opens.
- A Blueprint Designer pad can no longer be placed over floor paint, which it used to hide.
- Your leaderboard run is no longer lost when an update is sent again. Runs that were lost come back once you play this version.
- Every aim and throw slider has its little drawing again, and the Yard Fan no longer shows two icons.
- A blueprint with a Hay Bricketizer no longer charges the wrong price.
- T Junctions in a blueprint can stand side by side, just like ones you place by hand.
- Arms in a blueprint follow the same placing rules as an arm you place by hand.
- A Depot laid from an old blueprint starts with an empty list.
- Some old saves skipped a few tutorial cards and never got the free Depot Drone. They get them now.
- An old save on the Bioplastic order no longer skips Motors.
- A big yard no longer stutters when a Depot Drone fills its pod.
- The upgrade card's "the Depot is short" count updates straight away.
- A smart splitter sends a scrap heap out of its Scrap door, instead of stopping the line.
- The HAY 1, BUBBA 0 score keeps counting after you restart the game.
- If Windows Smart App Control blocks the game, the message now says so and tells you how to fix it.
- New Night brightness slider in Options, next to Always day. 50% is the normal night.
- New Scrap jams option. Turn it off and hay machines never jam on scrap (the scrap they eat is lost).
- Blueprint pads can take power from the yard, across the edge of the pad.
- Blueprints can hold the Borehole Pump, Cable Box, Underground Belt, Underground Pipe and floor markings. A blueprint with any of the first four can only be laid on the ground.
- Dismantle Mode starts on the whole blueprint: aim at any piece of it and hold to take it all down. Press R to take down one piece or one kind instead.
- Achievements have a HOW TO GET IT button that explains the tricky ones.
- The new game page shows NORMAL and SANDBOX as picture cards, each with a list of how it plays.
- All six pile sizes show at once, as cards with a photo, the play time, the order size and how often you find a needle. A big pile still warns you before you start it.
- The card for a new pile has four steps now, with digging out the stack as its own step, and it tells you your needles come back once the key turns.
- The order card says PAYS AS YOU LOAD. When you sign, coins fly from the card into your money.
- The delivery truck shows coins and +$ when it pays.
- Each tech card's page lists every level with what it does and what it costs.
- The UPGRADE tab shows each card's levels as dots.
- Small signs mark where the next shed wall will go, so you know where not to build.
- Each Depot has its own list and its own KEEP UP TO, so one by the stand can keep ten while another keeps more.
- A Smart Splitter shows its door numbers while you look at it.
- The Biogas Digester and Gas Plant count down when no water comes in, and warn you on their status line.
- The Hay Generator's panel tells you how much power your machines need.
- The Depot Drone's card lists Faster Rotors, which speeds it up too.
- The Selling Stand's card says how to move it, and moving it no longer needs Extend the Shed first.
- The Hay Bricketizer panel is tidier: the throw controls sit beside a bigger picture, no scrollbar, and the Swivel Head note has a Show in Tech Tree button.
- The price board explains more clearly how buyers pay.
- First Bales has a tip: split your bales with a T Junction so some go to the truck.
- The tutorial marker sits on the generator's hopper, where the hay goes in.
- The metal tip shows the first time you pick up scrap.
- The power tip goes away once you open PRIORITY, the Depot Drone tip waits until a Depot holds something, and tips next to a machine's controls go away after a while.
- On a big shed, the ending no longer makes you watch the whole long walk.
- Watch out for the delivery truck when it drives away. It will run you over!
Thank you so much for all your reports, thank you for helping us shape the game, we absolutely love Find The Needle community. We're reaching 15.000 discord members, and We are extremely grateful to have each one of you!
Join Discord Here:
https://discord.gg/MqcvCz8eyG
More soon!
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