ColonyWorks

[0.3.3-beta] - 2026-09-07

This build rebuilds how every production hut runs its machines, so the colony you already have gets faster, steadier, and more honest about its problems.

Added

• Workers now report a machine batch in trouble: a rig that stopped mid-batch, a batch waiting on burner heat, and a courier who cannot reach a container each surface as a colonist interaction instead of silent idling.
• Production huts detect a dead rig in seconds instead of minutes; a stalled batch is cleared, returned to storage, and re-planned on its own.

Changed

• Machines are fed in full batches. A worker charges a complete batch to a rig and the hut collects the finished output in one trip, instead of shuttling items piece by piece; basin recipes stage their full ingredient set at once, so a craft can never start half-supplied.
• The Crafter Module fires each order whole; the Repackager splits it into per-craft packages in the bay. Mixing orders keep their per-basin batching.
• Compacting basins load whole batches through their funnels; the operator no longer rushes to collect every single item as it lands.
• Production planning counts goods being carried across the hut, so a hut never re-orders material that is already on its way to the shelf. Standing requests refill in a steady rhythm instead of bursts of duplicate orders.
• Machine timing follows each machine's real behavior: presses and crushing wheels get breathing room on large batches, and serial machines like the millstone are watched per item, not per stack.
• Research tree pacing: Precision Assembly at university 3, Sequenced Assembly and Bulk Fueling at 4. The university's top tier is reserved for monuments.
• The Stock Keeper ladder is now three levels: counter, back room, and trade house, with ordering unlocked at the top; the freight depot stands on its own without a worker.

Fixed

• Vault production cycles that could take eight to twenty-five minutes now complete in about three.
• Cancelling a standing request releases its machines and materials immediately; a restarted request no longer inherits phantom shortages or asks for ingredients it already has.
• A saw fed mixed cuts no longer jams its return lane.
• Stock-serve huts flag an unreachable rack instead of walking at it forever.
• Stokers no longer wedge on a building whose every slot is already full of coal.