Heart of the Machine 1.0 Is Out Now!

Hey everyone! Chris here. Heart of the Machine has reached 1.0 NOW, and is now out of Early Access! This has been the undertaking of four years, including one year in Early Access, so I’m incredibly excited.

The Game Is Complete!

This is an RPG, so a number of folks had wanted to wait until it was fully done before diving in. I recently talked about (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2001070/view/742666698308452997?snr=1_5_9_). So if you missed that and are curious, please do check out that other post!

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What Changed Between 0.65 And 1.0?

The game launched into Early Access at version 0.65, and is now at version 1.0. This has been a whirlwind year, so there’s a lot of changes and additions. If you want to read the full release notes, (https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=HotM:Heart_Of_The_Machine#Release_History).

By The Numbers

• **166 **new achievements (total now 284)
• 84 new projects (total now 195)
• **83 **new contemplations (total now 153)
• 3 new tier one goals (total now 14)
• 7 new side goals (total now 9)
• 2 new tier two goals (total now 3)
• 2 new tier three goals (total now 2)
• 3 new city types (total now 4)
• 1 new set of dooms (total now 2)
• **11 **new minor events
• **14 **new “pressure point” events
• **86 **new pieces of equipment (total now 137)
• 4 new player units (total now 46)
• **47 **new upgrades (total now 132)
• **29 **new items (total now 49)
• **111 **new player buildings (total now 221)
• ~70 new NPC units (total now ~190)
• ~140 new NPC behaviors (total now ~280)
• ~40 new resources (total now 87)
• **29 **new strategic resources (total now 47)
• ~20 new lifeforms (total now 50)
• **60 **new perks/badges/feats/statuses (total now 124)
• **24 **new handbook entries (total now 111)
• **16 **new ways to prevent dooms (total now 21)
• **14 **new timeline crossovers (total now 34)
• **35 **new ways to spend the “Daring” meta resource
• **12 **new analysis lens views
• **14 **new options for managing the torment nexus
• **22 **new options for managing your virtual reality for humans
• Estimated 95 more hours minimum to 100% the game (total now 175 hours)

Large Pieces Of Content

• Misery Mode: An optional fourth difficulty level for expert players.
• Completely New Prologue: It’s better in general, and gives five starting paths: criminal conspirator, stealth, hostile manifesto, minor grey goo, and Vorsiber collaborator.
• No Landlord: Second full path through chapter one (also known as the “fire” path).
• International Scrutiny: This second set of 10 dooms is faster and more challenging.
• Wealthy City: New city style that has almost double the normal population. Very useful for machines that use human brains (intact or removed) as a commodity.
• Militarized Narrows: New city style that is incredibly long and thin, making travel difficult. Even worse, there are tons of enemy military bases around, endangering your vehicles. These hardships can be inverted into huge boosts against late-game content by enterprising players.
• Disparate Narrows: New city style that is long and thin, but less so. It has a lot more poverty, mixed with toys of the elite. Again can be very useful for certain kinds of end-game scenarios.
• Bionic Secret: T1 goal focused on brain implants.
• Advocate Encounter: T1 goal focused on interacting with the common people of the city, and the self-styled heroes who protect some of them.
• Lower Level Of Survival: T1 goal that provides a lonely post-apocalypse with surprising benefits.
• Collapse A Criminal Syndicate: Side goal where you frame some criminals.
• Collapse A Federated Corporation: Side goal, with two different corporations you can get Vorsiber to dissolve under very different circumstances.
• Cause A Civil War: Side goal that destroys the human economy.
• The Executive Tomb: Side goal with mild horror vibes.
• End A Civil War: Side goal with three distinctive routes to do it. One is not like the others.
• Pressuring The City: Side goal related to the new pressure points system in the game.
• Interstellar Incident: Side goal related to space supremacists.
• For The Sake Of Those Bound: Very challenging T2 goal relating to a mass prison break.
• Civil Spycraft: T2 goal relating to spies, puppet organizations, and a terrible secret.
• Peace After Brutality: Extremely challenging T3 goal that wins the game after committing ALL the war crimes.
• Cybercratic Ambitions: New today! Construction-focused T3 goal that wins the game, potentially with some moral cost.

Key Improvements

• Complexity Management: You can turn down a variety of pieces of complexity in order to make the game easier to learn, or to create a “story mode” sort of lower difficulty.
• UX Improvements: There are far too many to list, but things are more accessible, better organized, and more convenient all around.
• Performance Improvements: The game was already highly optimized at EA launch, but it now runs dramatically better on lower-end hardware.
• Visual Updates: Less-oppressive fog, longer draw distances, color adjustments to background buildings, revised models for many player buildings, and improvements to several key characters’ visuals.
• Sound Updates: Many various sound effect additions and updates, and additional music during “danger” scenarios in particular.
• SO MANY Convenience Functions: Delete mode, delete all buildings of type, filter buildings by production chain or shared internal robotics. Lots more searchable interfaces, and many more “click through for more details.” There’s a really huge number of these.
• Streamlining, Where Appropriate: The scavenging lens was removed and its functions folded into other lenses. Hiring and firing of scientists is now automatic. Various multi-step processes were condensed. “Setup phase” on new timelines drastically speeds up getting yourself established.
• Vehicle And Mech Movement: Overhauled these to be much easier to use, with fewer mis-clicks and also fewer clicks required.

Other New Features

• Scientific Research: Hired scientists generate a resource that you cash in for upgrades.
• Vehicle Usability: Added firing hatches and hot drop capabilities
• Analysis Lens: Allows you to look at various aspects of the map in a color-coded way. There are 12 sub-lenses for this.
• Hero Units: badges that make certain units unique
• Torpor: Put units on ice until much later, largely to preserve hero units that are not needed for a while.
• Equipment For Captured Units: Largely for the purposes of making them non-lethal if you wish.
• Auto-Explore: 10 ways to use the “Daring” meta resource, automatically complete certain explorations that you’ve previously done in prior timelines.
• Shortcuts: 16 ways to use “Daring” to automatically complete early questlines that you’ve previously done in prior timelines.
• Daring Shop: 9 ways to use “Daring” for upgrades and unlocks that you can’t get any other way.
• No-Kill Options: The game originally had some of these, and had ways to do no-murder runs, but it now has a lot of non-lethal options for all kinds of units.
• Aftermath Text: New text for every goal and every major goal path. Provides a denouement for each one.
• “Far Zoom” Mode: Allows you to zoom out very far in the streets view, and provides a hybrid streets/map functionality set that is very useful.
• Animal Rescue: Cats, dogs, raptors, parkour bears. Plus you can pet cats and dogs.
• Regional Map: Only used in the Peace After Brutality T3 goal, but it gives a good sense of where you are in Siberia based on an actual topographical map of the region with lots of sea rise due to all the wars and a comet strike.
• Chapter Five: The “postgame” chapter can now be reached after you complete any T3 goal.
• Ziggurats: You’re able to build on ziggurats and get special bonuses once you reach chapter five.
• Modding Framework: Many updates to this, and a few example mods are now in place. [/expand]

Thank You For Playing!

Whether you’re just now embarking into Heart of the Machine for the first time, or whether you’re returning or have been here the entire time, I’m super grateful! I hope you have a blast with it.

Thank you to everyone for all your support, and for helping to make the game what it is!

Connect with the Machine

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Want to stay in the loop or share your thoughts? Join the conversation across these platforms:

💬 Discord – Best place to share feedback, get direct responses, and to talk about Heart of the Machine. 📜 Reddit – Discuss strategies, share ideas, and exchange tips with the community.