v0.3.0 - The Big One

Larger update with lots of goodies in it!

Biggest mechanic change is that heat simulation was completely overhauled so it is now properly energy conserving and based on actual energy values coming from building waste heat. Also different solid materials have different heat conductivity values so you can use insulating materials to trap heat and direct it via copper blocks for examle to recoupe the heat by heat sinks and re-using for steam power.

Old saves from 0.2.X work but due to big balance changes old builds might need re-adjusting. One critical change is that old computers must be demolished and re-built to get the building ports under them for the water input/output.

FluxWerks v0.3.0 - 01-07-2026

New Features

• Music - The game now has music tracks by JustWall, with an in-game music player to control playback. Hear more of his work at https://justwallmusic.bandcamp.com/

• Computer Cooling - Computers now have internal cooler which requires a water coolant loop piped through them. Computers in old saves must be demolished and rebuilt to get the pump access as their height is raised by one for the port.

• Material Heat Conductivity - Different blocks now carry heat at different rates. Gold and copper are the best heat conductors while wood, glass, snow and ice insulate.

• Lava Cools To Obsidian - Stationary lava now cools and hardens into obsidian below 300°C, and turns back into lava when reheated above 800°C.

• Steam Is Hot Water - Any source that heats water past boiling (a boiler, lava or machine coolant) can now drive a steam turbine with no boiler needed, and hot water flows safely through pipes, flashing to steam (destroyed) only when released into the open.

• Heat Sink Heats or Cools - The heat sink now equalizes its surroundings with the water you run through it. Cold water cools the area, hot water warms it like a radiator and the energy difference is stored into the output water.

• Wind Turbine Clearance - Wind turbines now need open surroundings. Turbine boxed in by terrain or packed too close to other turbines catches less wind and produces proportionally less power.

• Building Exposure - Computers now run less efficiently the more they sit out in the open, so they work best walled in and roofed over. A little exposure is tolerated before the penalty starts.

• In-World Ore Scanner - With the scanner active for an ore type, nearby deposits now glow through the terrain in their ore colour, each marked with a floating count of its total ore.

Improvements

• UI Polish - Many areas of the interface were refined to take up less space and read more clearly, grouping related elements into tidy boxed sections.

• Terrain Details Quality - Surface grass and pebbles now have Off / Low / Medium / High levels instead of a single on/off toggle, letting you thin out nearby detail to ease GPU load while keeping the same view distance.

• Distant Building Detail - Buildings now switch to simpler models at a distance, easing GPU load with little visible difference at that range.

• More Realistic Heat - Machine waste heat is now derived from the actual power each machine uses, so nothing emits more heat than the energy it consumes, and heat rises, spreads through nearby materials, and escapes into the open sky instead of vanishing on the spot.

• Build Menu Stats - Building cards now group their stats into clear labeled sections (Power, Steam Power, Speed, Storage, Emissions and more) and show clearer, more complete numbers. The in-game wiki uses the same information.

• Inserter Rotation - Rotating an inserter now also flips its transfer direction after a full turn, so you can reach every orientation and flow direction by rotating alone without requiring the Flip key.

• Scanner Panel - Removed the old scanner minimap. Pressing Scanner now shows the ore filters directly and enables the in-world ore scanner.

• Inventory & Storage Layout - The player inventory, crafting menu, and building storage panels now list items as compact rows (icon, name, amount) instead of large square slots, so long item names stay readable and the panels take less space.

• Crafting In Inventory - The separate crafting panel is gone. Crafting now lives on the left side of the inventory panel and can be toggled off if wanted.

• Overflow Storage - Overflowed items now appear automatically at the top of the inventory instead of behind a separate button.

• Nanobot Trail - Your nanobots now stream out behind you as a trail while you move, instead of always circling around you in a cloud.

• Performance - Multiple optimizations across different systems to reduce CPU load.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed extractors (mining drill, excavator, fluid extractor) showing as "Depleted" and sending a false depletion alert when placed over several resources without a type selected yet.

• Fixed mining drills and excavators sometimes going permanently depleted after you moved far away from them, even with resources left in their area. Affected saves recover automatically on load.

• Fixed smoke and laser particles continuing to render for machines that are past the view distance.

• Fixed buildings and objects around large bases continuing to render past the view distance instead of being hidden.

• Fixed coolers and heat sinks being slowed by the surrounding heat or cold.

• Fixed heat sinks in cold areas chilling their output water below freezing. Coolant now stops at 0°C and only carries the matching amount of heat into the surroundings.

• Fixed buildings that use computing (assemblers, crushers, excavators, research terminals, fabricators and electric foundries) giving off roughly double the heat they should.

• Fixed paused computers still drawing power and generating heat instead of going fully idle.

• Fixed ambient sounds like wind being controlled by the music volume instead of the ambience volume.

• Fixed an inserter placed between two planned (not yet built) buildings not shortening to a direct building-to-building inserter, leaving its roof overlapping the plan once built.

• Fixed being able to place buildings on top of an inserter's extension.

• Fixed the UI scale slider rescaling the whole interface while you were still dragging it.

• Fixed area tools (mine, fill, demolish, replace) stopping at the water surface, so you can now mark the terrain underneath an ocean or lake. The drain tool still targets the fluid itself.

• Fixed volcanoes building up duplicate lava sources over time in long-played saves, which made them generate ever more lava and thicker smoke and gradually slowed the game down. Affected saves are repaired automatically on load.

• Fixed the player bot appearing to stutter and jump relative to the camera when the frame rate fluctuated.

Balance Changes

• Fuel Energy - Coal and other fuels now hold 3x more energy (Coal 2500 -> 7500 kJ), so generators and furnaces burn through fuel far slower and need far fewer mining drills to supply.

• Building Power Costs - Rebalanced production power draw - Assembler 150 -> 300, Crusher 300 -> 600, Research Terminal 300 -> 600, electric Foundry MK3 200 -> 400, Fabricator 500 -> 1000. Computers are now a major power load and heat source at 2500.

• Steam Power - Boilers run hotter (steam 150 -> 200°C) and a boiler and turbine now push three times the steam, so a single pair produces about 1500 kW (up from around 300), needing far fewer buildings for the same power. Boilers are no longer perfectly efficient. MK1 boiler turns 75% of its fuel into steam and vents the rest as waste heat.

• Combustion Generator - Power output raised from 250 to 400 kW.

• Inventory Stack Size - Inventory stacks now start at 1000 items (up from 100), and the Stack Size research adds 1000 per level (up from 100), reaching 10,000 per stack when fully upgraded.

• Battery Efficiency - Batteries now lose part of the charging energy as waste heat.

• Battery Charge Rate - Batteries now charge at a capped rate (MK1 400/s, MK2 1000/s).

• Scan Range Research Removed - The scanner's range is now chosen directly in the scanner panel (64 or 128 blocks) instead of being unlocked through research.

• Compacted Desert Sand - Sand in deserts is now compacted, each block holding 10 units instead of 1, so excavators pull far more sand from a desert before it runs out.

• Excavator Computing - Removed computing cost from Excavator MK1 and also the benefit it gained for overclocking.