Satisfactory Update 8 is out of experimental mode and the sparks are a flyin' – literally! The new update introduces a palette of graphics upgrades, quality-of-life changes, additional gameplay modes, and new power-based buildings. This post will cover Update 8's most exciting features and give pioneers the know-how to make the most of what this update has to offer.
The game's core mechanics may remain unchanged, but never fear, pioneer! Update 8 makes Satisfactory feel like a renewed adventure. Its features are designed to upgrade your factory-building experience – to aid you in your quest to transform Massage-2(A-B)b's rich biosphere into a bastion of automated industry!
"Unreal" Immersion
Never before has Satisfactory been so visually stunning. Its transition to Unreal Engine 5 has made the world truly come alive. Lumen's new lighting effects have transformed the way you brighten up your factory. Your corridors and factory floors now require dedicated lighting to be navigable, adding an extra layer of aesthetic complexity to your builds.
And it's not just your factories that reap the benefits of Unreal Engine 5. To accompany its stunning new visuals, several biomes have received a facelift, including the Grass Fields, Rocky Desert, Northern Forest, Dune Desert, Titan Forest, Red Jungle, and Spire Coast. Update 8 has further brought the alien world to life by adding two Hog variants: the Cliff Hog and the Nuclear Hog.
Indeed, tearing this strange new planet limb from limb to build a megafactory worthy of your employers is as beautiful – and dangerous – as it has ever been!
Quality-of-life Upgrades
What good is a gorgeous factory-scape if you don't have the tools to enjoy it? Perhaps Update 8's greatest achievement is how easy Satisfactory's gameplay has become.
Improvements to the game's accessibility are among the most welcome changes. Contextual key bindings let you adapt your control settings across different contexts, giving you far greater control over how you play the game. New anti-aliasing techniques also mean that pioneers with lower-end hardware can construct the industrial megaliths of their dreams.
Nudging. Is. A. Game. Changer. Every pioneer knows the pain of trying desperately to plant the right objects in the right place – a seemingly endless dance of trying different perspectives, angles, and positions to place your building exactly where it needs to go. Update 8's new nudging features let you hold a building or object in place and use the arrow keys to move it one space at a time.
These changes do not stop at individual buildings, dear pioneer! Wrangling blueprints is not longer the herculean task it used to be. Where once you would delete blueprints one object at a time, Update 8 lets you delete entire blueprints after being placed. They also now contain directional indicators, letting you see which directions they are facing before placing them. And you can now quickly toggle between different blueprint types. This is all, of course, complete with blueprint nudging.
Revamped building mechanics accompany a slew of in-game tweaks and minor changes. Gas pillars can now be destroyed with Noeblisks, jetpacks can draw from a wider range of fuels, and parachutes are no longer single-use items!
New Ways to Play
Not all pioneers have the time to progress slowly through the tech system, unlock new recipes, and fight their hostile world's dangerous beasties. For many, Satisfactory is about creating the most efficient, staggering, and outrageous factories possible! Update 8's new game modes let the dreamers among us build to their heart's content without being bogged down by Satisfactory's survival mechanics.
With Update 8, players can now toggle:
- Flight mode: Soar through the skies from day one! No longer do you have to wait to unlock jetpacks to see the world from above;
- God mode: Are you scared of heights or the trepidation of battle with alien beasts? God mode lets you traverse the hostile world without fear of taking damage;
- No build cost: Construct your factories free from material cost;
- Unlock all tiers: Tech tree? What tech tree? Enable this option to advance immediately through the game and build advanced factories from the get-go;
- Unlock alternate recipes: Scavenging the world for hard drives can be a lengthy process. Enabling this mode gives you powerful recipes without the pesky exploration!
Powerful New Infrastructure
Any seasoned pioneer has spent hours planning, building, troubleshooting, and beautifying the perfect factory – only to flip the switch and how their power grid go dark! The new Priority Power Switch lets you prioritise certain sections of your grid. If one section is overloaded, your available power will automatically be diverted to your highest-priority network.
Perhaps on a grander scale are the Power Towers. You can now stretch your power network across massive distances with ease. And they don't just carry power! Ziplining is seamless between the power towers. Traversing the treetops at breakneck speeds need not bee a perilous pursuit, making ziplines a refreshingly realistic option for journeying between your mega factories.
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