Satisfactory players waited a year for Update 4, a major addition to the Early Access building game that included programmable drones, ziplines, and a giant freaking particle accelerator. When Update 4 was released to Satisfactory's experimental branch back on March 16 I went on a big tour of the new features with game director Mark Hofma. Anyone could opt-in to play the buggier experimental version of the game, but now you don't have to do that to get a piece of Update 4—it's live on the main Early Access build as of today.
Coffee Stain already talked through all of Update 4's big new additions last month, but the new video above is still a joy for the Satisfactory-obsessed. It shows off the new features along with delightful close-up shots of constructors constructing and conveyor belts conveying and all the other cool things factories do. I could really watch the animation in this game all day.
I've actually been doing a lot of that for the past month on the experimental branch, but I've had to deal with a fair number of crashes and funky issues that are hopefully gone in the new Early Access build. Here's a condensed round-up of some significant fixes Coffee Stain has made since the March 16 release, pulled from various patch notes:
- 144 FPS lock option
- Fixed some Resource Wells not allowing Extractors/Pressurisers to be placed
- Fixed some options being missing from the options menu
- Fixed a crash when opening the Map
- Changed the number of decimals in overclocking from 1 to 4
- Fixed crash when tabbing out during loading while on Fullscreen
- Fixed Miners not showing production rate for Clients
- Increased Zipline speed and decreased speed reduction when zipping upwards
- Fixed clients not being able to see Crash Site rewards
- Fixed Lights consuming power when they were off
- Fixed a crash related to the conveyor renderer
- Reworked correction velocity for the Zipline which should fix players getting launched in the air when using it
- Copy paste now autofills Power Shard slots if available
- Zipline now conserves velocity when you start ziplining
- Disabled clearance check on fences, now players can build Street Lights and Power Poles in between them
- Certain buildings can now be rotated 45 degrees when placing instead of only 90 degrees: Jump Pad, U-Jelly Landing Pad, Street Light, Personal Storage Container, Light Control Panel, Power Switch, M.A.M., AWESOME Shop, Craft Bench, Equipment Workshop
- Removed an ensure that caused many crashes when loading a big save
- Enabled PushModel Replication. This should significantly improve CPU performance for hosts/single player for large saves
- Fixed Sort button not working in Vehicle Storages
- Fixed Clients not being able to see Information in Drone Ports
- Fixed issues with items not rendering properly in conveyor belts #PraiseBen
- Rebalanced Plutonium Fuel Rod standard recipe, increased power yield, and reduced Plutonium Waste production.
- Increased the Bauxite usage on most alternative recipes using Bauxite or Aluminum parts.
- Increased Aluminum usage of Radio Control Units and Heat Sinks (Standard recipes).
- Rebalanced all Alternative Plutonium Recipes.
- Fixed and rebalanced Infused Uranium Cell recipe.
- Hopefully fixed Giant items being left behind in the world when unequipping stuff.
- Fixed a bug that prevented Miners from being upgraded/downgraded.
- Moved Hover Pack to early Tier 7 and replaced Cooling System and Radio Control Unit by Heavy Modular Frame and Computer in its recipe.
- Jetpack no longer requires Computers for its unlock, making it a bit easier to unlock in early Tier 6.
- Rebalanced Plutonium production: Generally reduced Nitrogen usage and reduced Bauxite and Sulfur usage on some alts. Updated radiation levels to fit new item production rates.
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Wes Fenlon
Senior Editor
Wes has been covering games and hardware for more than 10 years, first at tech sites like The Wirecutter and Tested before joining the PC Gamer team in 2014. Wes plays a little bit of everything, but he'll always jump at the chance to cover emulation and Japanese games.
When he's not obsessively optimizing and re-optimizing a tangle of conveyor belts in Satisfactory (it's really becoming a problem), he's probably playing a 20-year-old Final Fantasy or some opaque ASCII roguelike. With a focus on writing and editing features, he seeks out personal stories and in-depth histories from the corners of PC gaming and its niche communities. 50% pizza by volume (deep dish, to be specific).
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