The Wire & Decorations Update

Wires carry numbers

• A wire now carries a number from 0 to 255, not just on or off. Levers, buttons and everything that was on still put out 1, so every circuit you've already built works as before, and a lamp lights for any number
• Look at a wire to see the number on it (each lane of a conduit separately), and at a gate to see what it puts out
• AND passes the smallest of its inputs, OR the largest; delays, extenders and latches pass along the number they were given
• New gates for numbers: the Adder, the Subtractor, the Comparator (use it to switch between AT LEAST, EQUAL, GREATER and LESS) and the Memory Cell, which stores whatever number is behind it when a side switches on
• Gates that keep time and count: the Clock ticks every so often (set it, or let a number at its back decide how often), the Counter counts pulses up and down and wraps round at 255, and the Random gate draws a new number each time it's pulsed
• Numbers by hand: the Number Dial, the Keypad and the Switch Panel (eight switches, one per bit) each hold a number and put it on every wire touching them
• Sensors that read a number: the Player Detector counts players within eight blocks, the Item Counter counts what's in the chest or barrel it's against, the Fluid Gauge reads how full a water or lava cell is, the Speed Gauge reads a machine's rpm, and the Time Sensor reads the hour (or the minute)
• What memory cells, counters and latches are holding is now saved with the world
• The wiring runs twice as fast (sixteen times a second), works anywhere the world is loaded instead of only near you, and long chains of gates settle at once
• Tinker's Glass has fifteen new scenes for the wiring: numbers on wires, conduit lanes, every gate, the number inputs, the sensors and drawing on screens

Screens

• A screen is 16 by 16 pixels in 256 colours. Set screens side by side in a flat rectangle and they become one display, up to 16 blocks by 16 (256 pixels across)
• Draw on them with the four lanes of a conduit: red is X, green is Y, blue is the colour, and amber is what to do (pen down, clear, line, filled box, open box or move)
• Every separate run of conduit against a display is its own pen, so a whole picture can be drawn at once
• What's drawn is saved with the world and everyone in multiplayer sees it
• Look at a screen to see how big its display is and which pixel and colour is under your crosshair

Speakers

• A timber cabinet with a brass horn that plays the note the number on its wire says, each time it changes: 1 is the lowest C, and every twelve up is an octave
• Use it to switch between six instruments: lyre, chime, flute, horn, bass and drum
• A counter stepping through a tune plays the whole tune

Tinker: programs built as circuits

• Write a program in Tinker, a small language, and the game builds it in front of you as real gates, dials and wire, laid out tidily in rows and storeys, with a desk holding its controls
• Inputs: levers, buttons, pressure plates, dials, keypads, switch panels and time sensors. Outputs: lamps, speakers and drawing on screens
• It can add, subtract, multiply, divide and compare, keep numbers from tick to tick, and draw boxes and dots
• /tinker list, /tinker check NAME (tells you what's wrong and on which line) and /tinker build NAME, from the programs folder next to your worlds. TINKER.md in that folder explains the whole language
• Two programs come with it: blink, and a music box that plays Ode to Joy on three speakers
• We've built Pong, Flappy Bird and even DOOM in it

Paintings of your own

• Hang paintings side by side on a wall and they join into one canvas, up to 8 by 8 blocks, framed round the outside
• Right-click a painting to pick a picture from your paintings folder (PNG, JPEG, BMP, GIF or TGA). There's an OPEN FOLDER button, or just drag an image onto the game window
• Choose how pixelated it is: 4, 8, 16, 32 or 64 pixels per block, with a preview of exactly how it will look
• FILL crops the picture to the canvas, WHOLE fits all of it in
• Everyone in multiplayer sees it, and it's saved with the world
• Paintings are lit by the world around them, so they darken at night and glow by torchlight

Decorations

Over a hundred and thirty new pieces to furnish places with, some of them bigger than a block, and a lot of them do something.

• Tavern and kitchen: a keg with a brass tap, tankards, a pot rack, a bread oven, drying herbs, crockery, a bread basket, bottles, a round table, a card table with cards and dice, a plate of food, a stew pot over its fire, a hanging sign, a big rug, a coat rack, mounted antlers, a broom, a spilled mug, a broken stool, a fireplace three blocks wide and stacked barrels
• Counters that join like stairs: the bar turns its corners (inner and outer), the kitchen counter and sink join up with each other, and open ends get panelled shut
• Long tables join on every side into one top, benches join end to end, and wall shelves run along the wall
• Workshop and smithy: a tool rack, a workbench with a vice, a forge, a forge hood, a quench barrel, a sawhorse, lumber, a chain hook, a coal bin, a furnace two blocks high, a chimney that stacks into one flue, heavy shelves, a hammer rack, a stack of ingots, unfinished blades, a bucket, and piles of coal, ore and scrap, and firewood
• Weapon racks hold three tools or weapons, and armour stands wear a whole set of armour. Take things back off with an empty hand
• Garden: a planter, a trellis, a well three blocks across, a fountain, benches, a lamp post, a hedge (hedges side by side grow into one), a sundial, a wheelbarrow, flower beds that join into one bed, a birdbath, shrubs, a berry bush, rocks, stepping stones, a big archway, a garden tool rack, a scarecrow and cattails
• Harbour and dock: rope coils, nets, an anchor, a buoy, a ship's wheel, a barrel rack, a bollard, a crab pot, a lifebuoy, dock posts that stack down into the water, a rope post, a hanging net with floats, fish crates and baskets, oars, a beached rowboat, wreckage, a dock ladder you can climb, a fish-cleaning table, a water barrel, a big cargo crate, a dock crane and pallets
• Town hall: a podium, a map board and wall maps, document shelves, scrolls, a filing cabinet, banners, the town's crest, a grandfather clock, a carpet runner that joins into one carpet, waiting chairs, a reception desk, a ballot box, a writing desk, an inkwell and quill, a candelabra, a plaque, a bust and a statue three blocks high
• Home: a dresser, a nightstand, a sofa, an armchair, curtains, a wall cupboard, bowls, mugs, food jars, baskets, a laundry basket, a shoe rack, a mirror, a small chest, pillows, folded blankets, a table lamp and candles
• They do things: sit on chairs, stools, benches, sofas and armchairs. Store things in counters, wardrobes, dressers, cabinets, shelves, crates and chests. Cook in the stove, bread oven, forge, furnace, stew pot and fireplace. Fill buckets at the well, the sink and the water barrel. Write on notice boards, hanging signs, map boards, plaques and writing desks. Lamps, candles and lanterns give light
• A compost pile turns plant scraps and food into bone meal
• A beehive slowly fills with honeycomb, faster with flowers nearby
• A watering can, filled at water, a well or a sink, waters the soil and grows a crop or sapling by a stage

Building

• Proper roofs in six coverings (slate, red tile, thatch, wood shingle, copper and lead), each as a steep slope, a shallow slope and a ridge. They're modelled as real roofs, laid in overlapping courses, and turn their corners like stairs: hips and valleys
• Nine new stones: andesite, granite, limestone, tuff, slate, blackstone, basalt, red sandstone and travertine, each polished, as bricks, as tiles and chiselled, with slabs, stairs and walls
• Half-timbering: limewashed panels in oak or dark beams, framed, posted, braced either way or crossed. The beams line up across neighbouring blocks
• The chisel: use it on a block to cycle it to the next version (polished, bricks, tiles, chiselled, half-timbering patterns, plain boards and panelling). Sneak to go back a step
• Pine and dead logs make their own planks now, an axe strips the bark off a log, and seven woods make panelling
• Logs laid on their side look like it, with the grain running along them
• Twenty more materials come as slabs and stairs
• Six new dyes: yellow, pink, cyan, brown, grey and lime, so thirteen in all. Plaster, terracotta and painted boards come in every colour, and glass, panes, cloth and carpet in the new ones
• Stone tools can be made from any rough stone you dig (granite, slate, basalt, tuff and the rest), not just cobblestone, and wooden tools from any planks
• Torches on walls hang from the wall again, leaning out, instead of standing in the air

Accounts

• Emberfall now has accounts. Make one in the launcher with a name, your email and a password, confirm the email with the code you're sent, and you're signed in
• Your name is yours: nobody else can play under it, on any server
• Forgot your password? Ask for a code by email in the launcher and set a new one. Every other computer signed in to your account is signed out
• Your password never leaves your computer: the launcher turns it into a key there, and only that key's public half is ever sent
• The game plays as whoever the launcher signed in. Single player needs no account; playing with others, hosting included, does
• You stay signed in for a month at a time, and the launcher renews it for you while you play

Server list

• MULTIPLAYER now opens on a list of public servers, with how many are playing, how far away each is, its mode and difficulty, whether it has PVP or is invite-only, who runs it and what it says about itself. Click one twice, or pick it and press JOIN
• The launcher has the list too, in a SERVERS tab next to the news, and PLAY there takes you straight into that server
• BY ADDRESS takes you to the old page, to join by an address or a room code
• Running your own server? Start it with --public "Your server's name" (and --motd for its description) and it shows up in the list under your account. A server with no screen signs in with --sign-in YOURNAME

Servers keep your player

• On a server, what you carry and wear, where you are, your health, your bed and your way home through the gates are kept by the server, not your computer. The same you is waiting whichever computer you play on, and nobody can walk in with a bag they filled by editing a file
• A server moving over to this can let its players bring their progress with them (--accept-old-records)

Running a server

• /kick puts somebody out, /ban keeps them out (by their account, so a new name doesn't help), /unban lets them back, and /bans lists who's kept out. They work in any world, cheats or not
• Operators and bans are tied to accounts, so they follow the player and can't be taken by copying a name
• --whitelist takes a file of names, one per line, or a list
• A server no longer listens to anyone who hasn't signed in, and lets go of a connection that hasn't in twenty seconds

Settings and controls

• TOGGLE SPRINT: press sprint once and keep sprinting until you stop
• SCREEN SHAKE can be turned off
• Ctrl+V pastes into any text box, including the room code
• Dashing carries you into a run instead of stopping you dead
• AUTOSTEP can be turned off: then you jump up a full block instead of walking up it, though stairs and slabs still walk up as before

Multiplayer

• The host's chat messages now actually reach everyone, and the host shows up under their own name instead of "host"
• Sleeping works: lie down and you stay in bed for half a minute (or until you get up), and once more than half the players are in bed it's morning
• Mechanical pistons stop at the block in their way for everyone, instead of passing through it for other players

Performance

• An erupting volcano no longer drags the game down. Flowing lava used to keep rebuilding the chunks and the distant land around it, and the game got slower and slower the longer it ran. Now it stays smooth
• Water and lava flow anywhere the world is loaded, not just near you
• Distant land no longer flickers near flowing water or lava

Fixes

• Your old worlds load as before, with everything you built in them
• Players in the Emberfall no longer keep overworld chunks loaded for everyone else
• The mouse cursor is reset properly when going in and out of fullscreen
• Running lava no longer flickers
• Big wired builds no longer have parts of their wiring go dark and flicker
• The Steam Deck (and other machines with the graphics built into the processor) loads the world again instead of showing no land at all
• Axes can be crafted. None of them could be before
• Water that runs over flowers, crops and torches drops them as items instead of destroying them
• Sheep drop white cloth as well as their meat