Hello Commander,

This update is packed with fixes and quality-of-life improvements. We’ve tackled the most common crash, overhauled Asteroid Lander controls, added new political laws to shape your colony, and smoothed out dozens of issues across colonists, trains, underground systems, and more!

• Crash: Fixed crash related to switching maps (This is the most common crash experienced by the players.) 

• Steam and Epic only: Achievements can now be unlocked in playthroughs with active mods.

• Asteroids: 

  • Implemented Manual Mode and Automated Mode for Asteroid Lander control:

    • For each Asteroid Lander the player can choose manual or automated mode via a button in the Lander infopanel. The default setting is manual mode. 

    • Manual Mode operates similarly to the Resupply UI - the player can select Colonists, resources, and prefabs to/from an Asteroid to Mars. Players must initiate the landing manually.

    • In Automated Mode the player can set threshold values per Lander for selected resources. The Lander will export or import them automatically. The Asteroid Lander will reserve a landing spot both on Mars and the Asteroid. The Asteroid Lander will take off and land automatically. 

    • Evacuation: A popup window now informs the player when an Asteroid is several hours from leaving. This popup window has a button to take the player to the Asteroid so they can load their landers and evacuate. Landers orbiting the Asteroid will automatically return to Mars.

    • Please be aware that Landers in existing savegames may not behave properly in some cases. Try requesting the payload again.

  • Fix for issue causing drones to continuously move resources between two Landers on the same Asteroid

  • Balance changes to water production and usage on asteroids 

  • Tweaks to Asteroid maps generation to produce less clutter and provide more landing spots in some cases.

  • Implemented the Flatten tool on Asteroids to allow players to make the most of the limited space on asteroids.

  • Marsquakes no longer happen on Asteroids. Savegame fixup removes Marsquake rocks from Asteroids. 

  • Fix for issue where the "Asteroid Arrived" notification would only appear if the asteroid was captured.

  • Pins with Landers that are ready to launch will now blink (similar to rockets).

• Politics 

  • Added 7 new laws that provide additional options to customize your colony:

    • “Energy focus” - a multi-choice law that will give a select type of power producers extra oomph but will reduce the performance of some of the other power producers.

    • “Terraforming focus” - a multi-choice law that will double the building bonuses for one terraforming parameter.

    • “Economic Interventions” - a law that will boost the production of the resource you have the least of, but has a high upkeep.

    • “Administration” - a multi-choice law that will allow you to reduce the upkeep of laws in funding or RP. 

    • “Founder Privilege” - a law that gives extra Comfort to Founders when servicing their needs.

    • “Underground Amenities” - a law that gives underground Domes extra comfort

    • “Tourist Campaign” - a one-time law that adds a number of Tourist applicants when enacted.

  • Added new faction tasks and opportunities.

  • Added new Game Rule: “Political Freedom” - all laws are unlocked and players can directly Prepare and Vote on them.

  • Balance changes:

    • Ministries are now single-shift buildings.

    • Rebalanced Ministries to give fixed bonuses to Laws. This alleviates some issues with fluctuating housing and workslots, as well as some imbalances in production.

    • "Drone Hub Efficiency" law now has an upkeep cost.

    • Faction Opportunities will not be generated if they have already timed out twice.

    • Changes and fixes to some faction likes and tasks. 

    • Laws changes that will apply to existing savegames: 

      • “Crowded Living” bonus is decreased and is now a fixed amount (3) instead of a percentage. 

      • “Applicant Campaign” will provide a one-time applicant boost. 

      • “Worker Shift Optimization” will have effect only if there is at least 1 worker in the shift.

    • Laws changes that won't apply to existing savegames but will be present in new games: 

      • “Worker Shift Optimization” will use bonus values based on the number of shifts. 

      • “Safety Standards Deregulation” will double the required maintenance resources for research buildings.  

      • The “Productivity” option in the “Comfort” law will have a decreased bonus for worker performance. 

      • “Resource Subsidies” will greatly increase rocket travel time. 

    • Some law choices are now locked behind requirements. Affected laws are “Apportionment of Seats”, “Sensor Tower Usage”, and “Renegades”.

    • Diplomacy laws now require Earth Embassy. 

    • Multiple choice laws are now repealable/revokeable.

    • Rebalanced "Independence" goal #2 to require enacting 30 laws (was 15). 

    • Rebalanced "Independence" goal #4 to require 100 colonists with a comfort level of 70 (was 150).

    • Reordered independence techs and increased their required RP. 

  • Added “Law upkeep” row to the Research UI.

  • Clarified descriptions of the Media Center and the Detainment Center that their effects apply only to the dome they are built in.

• Underground

  • In new games the Underground entrances will appear in locations where they can be accessed from all directions. This will not affect existing savegames.

  • Marsquakes now correctly occur only in the Underground.

  • Removed Drones and Rovers from the Elevator UI.

  • Fixed an issue where the Bottomless Pit Lab could be rotated and freely placed in orientations that should not have been possible. Existing constructions and completed Labs will have to be cancelled or destroyed and placed anew. Stuck drones will not be affected by this fix.  

• Trains 

  • Fixed an issue where stations connected via train tunnels would not transfer power. 

  • Fixed tunnel power grids splitting incorrectly when deleting cables.

  • Increased the train station areas to service more workplaces/domes/habitats.

  • Trains will no longer attempt to traverse salvaged tunnels.

  • Trains can now be assigned to tracks by clicking on an object connected to the station (such as a tunnel).

  • Fixed an issue where track elements would remain on the map after the track they belonged to has been deleted.

  • Fixed multiple issues causing stations to not connect to tracks.

  • Fix for passenger trains not leaving stations. 

• Colonists 

  • Fixes for cases of homeless/unemployed colonists, by updating how colonists evaluate domes for emigration, taking into account dome air/water/electricity supply, free residences, and vacant workplaces, preferring ones with matching specialization. 

  • Fixed some cases of colonists walking back home and dying, instead of using trains.

  • Fixed an issue where colonists would overpopulate Habitats and die outside. 

  • Fixed an issue where Tourists assigned to Naturalist and Micro-G Habitats would not live in them, exit and suffocate outside.

• Rockets 

  • Fixed an issue where Rockets would disappear when travelling to Earth.

  • Fixed an issue with missing Tourist overview in the Rocket infopanel and Notification.

• Balance 

  • Boosted yield of seed crops. 

  • Fix for RC Dozer to load only Waste Rock. 

  • Tweaks to building placement under pipes and tracks. Life support objects and objects serviced by shuttles can’t be placed under pipes because that leads to clipping and other problems. Players can’t construct tracks over existing buildings. 

• UI 

  • Added option to disable edge scrolling. 

  • Pre-game choices (such as Mission Sponsor, Commander Profile, selected Mystery, etc.) will be remembered between games.

  • Decreased the "Heavy Drone workload" notifications spam.

  • Fixed “Deposit running low” notification to appear only once per deposit.

  • Fixed “Hints Enabled” setting to properly set ‘on’/’off’/’once’ setting. This is now propagated to the Game Options menu as well. 

  • Fixed contradicting Cold Wave countdown timers. 

  • Controller: Selecting a pin with a gamepad won't move the camera to the pinned object.

• General fixes 

  • Fixed a bug where stockpiles were blocking tunnel construction.

  • Fixed the issue with Disasters (not starting/not ending/spamming notifications)

  • Fixed a case in which a Terraforming building may not update its working status.

  • Fix for issue where open air buildings like Ranches would reach 99% construction progress and not finish.