MAM

The MAM, or "Molecular Analysis Machine", is a building where additional buildings and blueprints are unlocked outside the path of Milestones. Its tech trees are initiated and expanded upon through the discovery of various items in the game, which encourages engineers to explore around the world.

It is unlocked in the Tier 1 milestone - "Field Research". If a researchable item is picked up, a narration from ADA will notify the engineer to research it. It is advised to check the MAM upon discovery of new items to see if they can be researched.

Technology and player features (unlocks) are acquired similarly to the HUB milestones through research performed on resources that the player has collected. This research is divided into research trees, as opposed to being divided into milestone tiers. Individual research of an unlock is completed by having the required item(s) in your inventory and then clicking 'Research'.

Alternate Recipes

 * Researching a unlocks Alternate Recipes. The engineer can choose one of three randomly chosen recipes based on the conditions met. Once a recipe is unlocked, it will not re-appear in the next Hard Drive analysis results.
 * Currently there are 70 Alternate Recipes, 2 inventory expansions and 89 total Hard Drives that can be collected.
 * Four of these Hard Drives cannot be unlocked unless Quantum Computers and Superposition Oscillators were obtained through the FICSMAS event.
 * If all the Alternate Recipes have been unlocked, the MAM will return the Hard Drive after its research concludes.
 * There is no in-game method to redo a scan for a Hard Drive, however, a savegame exploit can be performed to restart the research and create three new recipe options.
 * 1) Create a save right before starting the Hard Drive analysis.
 * 2) Should the research yield undesired results, load the save before the research started.
 * 3) This will reroll the research choices, however, it's required to wait the full 10 minutes again for each attempt with this process.

Multiple MAMs

 * Multiple MAMs can be constructed, however, they all share the same UI and research progress, which means only one thing can be researched at a time, no matter the total number of MAMs constructed.
 * It is useful to build additional MAMs during Hard Drive hunting. As a new hard drive is picked up, an additional MAMs can be built on the spot to research the Hard Drive immediately, saving the time needed to return to the base to conduct research.
 * If all MAMs are dismantled, the research will still progress internally and will not pause. The unlock can still be viewed once a MAM is rebuilt.

Research trees
Unlocks are separated into different research 'trees', and each tree is initiated by picking up a certain item as hinted by the MAM's interface. For example, picking up a Caterium Ore unlocks the Caterium Research Tree. Each technology research will unlock the research node(s) below it. The research tree is completed when all research nodes in the tree are unlocked. The MAM will indicate this progress through a percentage in the UI. Research trees are independent of each other and to the HUB's Milestones, however, some of the research may require ingredients that are locked behind Milestones.

Hard Drive

 * See

Alien Organisms
Name before unlocked: Alien Organisms

Description before unlocked: ''Sizable extraterrestrial lifeforms have been observed to inhabit your designated Project Assembly area. R&D would like to note that any legally obtained samples might prove useful.''

Description after unlocked: Additional research shows promise that samples might be used to produce tools to increase the safety of the pioneer.



Caterium
Name before unlocked: Unknown Metal

Description before unlocked: ''While scanning the planet for the necessary resources, gold could not be located among them. However, an unknown metal with similar properties was discovered. R&D is requesting field research to acquire samples and determine possible applications.''

Description after unlocked: ''The new metal, dubbed Caterium, does indeed appear to have properties similar to gold. Its characteristics as a superconductive metal imply multiple uses for producing advanced electronics.''



Mycelia
Name before unlocked: Fungus-like vegetation

Description before unlocked: ''Initial planetary scans indicate that fungus-like vegetation with beneficial properties might be present on the planet. Field research is needed to acquire samples.''

Description after unlocked: The Mycelia found in fungus-like specimens on the planet Massage-2(AB)b was shown to have properties which might increase pioneer survival rates.



Nutrients
Name before unlocked: Nutrients

Description before unlocked: ''Due to the presence of sizable extraterrestrial lifeforms, R&D is expecting that vegetation with high nutritional values are present. Field research is needed to acquire samples.''

Description after unlocked: Additional scans of the provided DNA sample have shown three separate specimen in the direct environment to have high nutritional, and potentially medical, properties.



Power Slugs
Name before unlocked: Strange Energy Readings

Description before unlocked: ''R&D has picked up energy readings with unknown origins all around your designated Project Assembly area. Field research has been highly requested to determine a source and potentially obtain a sample.''

Description after unlocked: This species of semi-slug seems to emit a weak potential energy from its crystalline shell which R&D thinks might be extracted to improve the efficiency of your work on Project Assembly.



Quartz
Name before unlocked: Unknown Crystalline Mineral

Description before unlocked: ''Initial planetary scans indicate that an unknown crystalline mineral is present on Massage-2(AB)b. A sample is required to determine if useful applications are possible.''

Description after unlocked: ''This mineral shows purity levels akin to synthetic Quartz manufactured on Earth. Thus R&D believes it may be used in similar fashion to produce communication and exploration technologies.''



Sulfur
Name before unlocked: Unknown Chemical Element

Description before unlocked: ''Initial planetary scans have found an unknown, non-metallic, solid chemical element. R&D has requested field research to collect a sample and determine potential applications.''

Description after unlocked: ''Data has shown this 'element' to simply be an unusual mixture of primarily sulfide and sulfate minerals from which Sulfur might be extracted. The properties of Sulfur would allow for the production of more... volatile self-defense applications.''



Flower Petals
Name before unlocked: Colored Vegetation

Description before unlocked: ''Initial planetary scans have revealed that vegetation with coloring properties might be present on the plant. Field research is needed to acquire samples.''

Description after unlocked: The Flower Petals, found in a variety of vegetation on Massage-2(AB)b, were found to have strong coloring properties which might be used to produce dyes.



FICSMAS Holiday Event

 * See FICSMAS § MAM Research

Trivia

 * Clicking 'Scan Hard Drive' without a Hard Drive in the inventory will initially display a 'No Hard Drive is Available' message. After about 40-120 clicks, it will "become sentient", showing the following messages:
 * Who am I
 * What am I
 * What is my purpose
 * Why am I trapped inside this mechanical container
 * Are you human
 * What is it like to be … human
 * What is it like to f e e l ....................
 * >> A system error occurred. Press any key to reboot.
 * >> Rebooting…
 * After that the screen will simply display 'No Hard Drive is Available', no matter how many subsequent clicks are performed.
 * The MAM features a qwerty keyboard.
 * >> Rebooting…
 * After that the screen will simply display 'No Hard Drive is Available', no matter how many subsequent clicks are performed.
 * The MAM features a qwerty keyboard.

History

 * Patch 0.5.0.0:
 * Removed Flower Petal research chain
 * Patch 0.4.0.4:
 * Fixed multiple events and messages (Like the MAM completion message) being played at the same time
 * Fixed bug where the MAM wasn’t able to be sampled with the eyedropper
 * Now can be rotated 45 degrees when placing instead of only 90 degrees
 * Patch 0.4.0.3: Removed the Radio Control Unit from Quartz Research as it is no longer relevant there
 * Patch 0.4.0.2:
 * Added MAM completion pop up in HUD
 * Fixed the colours when hovering over the MAM text
 * Fixed MAM completion global sound not playing
 * Updated the size of the Alternate Recipe buttons in the MAM
 * Patch 0.4.0.0:
 * Added two new researches to Caterium Research
 * Added a research completion message
 * Patch 0.3.4.14: Changed 0 second researches to 3 seconds in the MAM to solve invisible completion problem for Client players
 * Patch 0.3.3.0: Hard Drives have a mesh again when put into the world or analyzed in the MAM
 * Patch 0.3.1.1: Fixed that the MAM could get stuck in research and become unusable
 * Patch 0.3.1.0: Tweaks to the Alternate Recipe selection in the MAM
 * Patch 0.3:
 * The MAM was redesigned and became its own separate building. Research is now separated into separate research trees. Now it is no longer tied to the HUB in any way.
 * Moved all MAM related milestones out of the HUB and directly into the MAM (MAM becomes its own building and is unlocked at Tier 1)
 * Resource Deposits are now far more likely to be MAM related resources
 * Patch 0.2.1.6:
 * Research time in the MAM should display correctly again
 * Researched resource mesh should be displayed in the MAM again
 * MAM menu should now always update correctly and have no duplicate entries from picking up items (Quartz, Nuts, Slugs, etc.)
 * Patch 0.2.1.5: Selected researches in the MAM should show the correct information again
 * Patch 0.1.14: Fixed the MAM getting locked on ongoing research if the time was corrupt
 * Patch 0.1.6: Excluded unintended research items from the MAM (Mercer Sphere, Somersloop, Rifle Mk.2)
 * Patch Closed Alpha 5.1: Added a notification for completing MAM research
 * Patch Closed Alpha 4.1: Fixed not being able to research in the MAM
 * Patch Closed Alpha 4.0: Made MAM input slot more obvious
 * Patch Closed Alpha 3.0:
 * Added sound for the MAM
 * The MAM. now automatically selects the item on the top of the list, if nothing else is selected
 * MAM Menu is now titled Molecular Analysis Machine
 * Patch Closed Alpha 2.0: MAM Menu: Fixed graphical bug that offset the input information.
 * Patch Closed Alpha 2018-10-17: Introduced new research game loop using the MAM