Satisfactory update 4 is out, adds hoverpacks and particle accelerators
It's now left the beta branch
One of my favourite memories from the past 15 years of doing this daft job was at EVE Online's fan fest. A developer on stage in a packed auditorium announced a more efficient way to move items between cargo holds, and the crowd around me erupted with "We just won the World Cup"-level cheering.
This is what Satisfactory's update 4 trailer reminds me of. Today's update adds hoverpacks, drones and particle accelerators to the factory building game, but it feels like it's a set of street lights turning on at the end that would get the biggest cheer.
Update 4 brings many major changes and additions. For one, it revamps how Satisfactory's nuclear power works, allowing you to produce Plutonium Fuel Rods and a new set of buildings that use nuclear power. Among those is the particle accelerator, which apparently lets you produce the strongest material in the universe.
Many of the other additions focus on different kinds of mobility. Drones are automated vehicles which ship materials between ports, and are easier to build than trains, belts or trucks, as they don't need to be manually placed around terrain. Ziplines and hoverpacks meanwhile make it easier for players to swoop around their base and to build from above.
But lastly, there's those lights. There are three kinds - ceiling, flood light towers, and wall-mounted flood lights - and, well, they're lights. They make it easier to see your base at night. Plus, you can tweak their colour, in case you want to set them all purple and pretend you're playing Quake 2. It's exactly the kind of addition which can seem small, but which is life changing to those who have spent a hundred hours stumbling around in the dark.
You can read about all of Update 4's changes in a Steam news post, and the update should download automatically on Steam and Epic now that it's left the beta branch.