Power Trip Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynUzYLpvmXs
Facepunch wrote:PLAYER-MAINTAINED MONUMENTS
This month we're releasing a set of features we call Player-Maintained Monuments—tying together our existing monuments in new and interesting ways while pushing players to interact with each other in the process.
The headline feature of this month's update was that the Power Plant can now be turned on, thereby powering up features in several other monuments. One of these is the freezer in the Supermarket, which I actually experienced a couple of times in the weekly wipe that I just completed. I visited the Supermarket 4-5 times, and the first 2-3 of these, the freezer was on, and I got a bunch of solid food items from it. Then later in the wipe the power went out for whatever reason, and the freezer no longer worked. It wasn't a huge change either way, but it was a welcome surprise while it lasted, especially useful before you get farming going.
So my take on this update, strategically, is as follows. Turning on the Power Plant and keeping it on isn't something that we can do, as a small clan, in the hyperpopular servers we're playing. This is a job for the big clans. However, it's a good idea to maintain awareness of whether power is on or off at any given time, so we can benefit from it. There's probably several ways to know what's going on, but I think the most accessible one is to pass near power lines, which are all over the place, and see if you hear the buzzing sound they make, which I think signifies that power is on. And if it's on, you look at the map to see which affected monument(s) are near you, and you act accordingly. As aforesaid I have experienced the Supermarket so far, and I look forward to familiarizing myself with all of them.
All that as regards the play experience. From a game criticism perspective let me just say that this update is nothing short of genius, and takes immersion in the game's world to another level. It ties together several of the monuments, it makes the island feel like a real functional (or used-to-be-functional) place, it gives large clans a new and very challenging goal to compete over (or cooperate on), with downstream ramifications all the way to solos who can benefit from it if they keep their eyes open and their plans flexible. Above all it reassures me that whoever's steering this boat has a deep sense for how realism and mechanics and aesthetics intersect and interact, and I look forward to more in this vein in the future.
Facepunch wrote:POWERING UP THE POWER PLANT
Using new Heavy Fuses, the power plant can be fired back up to unlock several new gameplay features for everyone around the island.
Heavy Fuses can be found as loot and must be inserted into the new special fuse boxes located at the power plant. Not everything will be unlocked all at once—some things connected to the power plant require more fuses than others to become functional.
Once the power plant has started providing power, the powerline poles with transformers (the white cylinder-looking things) which appear alongside roads can now provide power for electrical circuits. These powerlines can also now be climbed—no need for a ladder, just approach the powerline and jump.
Green recyclers (the ones outside of safe zones) have received a 10% nerf to their baseline efficiency of 50%, being restored to 60% with sufficient power from the Power Plant and additionally receiving a duration buff from 5s to 4.5s once the Power Plant is at maximum power. Yellow recyclers (inside safe zones) remain unchanged from their previous behaviour. We have also added a single special new red recycler with 75% efficiency to the power plant, only usable at maximum power.
