Howdy Folks!

It’s that time again to see what’s being worked on. Update 29 was originally intended to focus on colonist training, but I got a bit side tracked with some other features and tweaks. Now that those features are out the door, I’ve continued work on colonist training and, of course, some new tweaks.

Colonist training will allow you to train attributes and job skills. This is especially useful for newly created clones that may not have the attributes or job skill you hoped for.

Attribute Training

Colonists will be able to increase their athletics and muscles by hitting the gym. Additional equipment is in development for training smarts as well.

The way it currently works is that colonists will spend time training if they don’t have any active jobs to do. While this is functional, I’m also looking into adding some more control over colonist priorities outside of work activities.

Job Training

The memory transfer station is in development to help train job skills. The memory transfer station will allow you to train a job skill from one colonist to another.

This means you can take a colonist who is already high level in a given job and transfer their skill to another colonist up to that level. The memory transfer will still take a bit of time, but far faster than the old fashion way.

Tech Tree

The technology tree is getting a visual upgrade. The updated tech tree shows much more information at a glance including unlock items, cost and if there are required discoveries.

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Keep an eye out for more information and certainly let me know what you think of what’s in development.

Howdy Folks!

I’m excited to announce the release of update 29 :: Copy & Paste. In this updated I’ve added the ability to copy & paste some object and colonist settings as well as tweaking various systems. A huge thank you for all of the feedback and bug reports during the experimental and test build phases.

Copy & Paste

The new copy and paste feature allows for quickly changing lights, storage containers, colonist colors, crops and more.

Colonist/Vehicle Selection

Colonists and vehicles have a new selection graphic. Their current path preview has also been visually updated.

Selection Visuals

Drag selection for mine, harvest and deconstruct has been updated to show a selection area. Mine, deconstruct and harvest visuals are now colored differently as well.

When placing or selecting objects the object footprint has been visually updated.

Plant Pots

Plant pots now use a selection grid instead of a drop down for choosing plants.

Xeno Mold

Xeno mold will no longer spread through walls and has a maximum spread count. Xeno mold can no longer completely spread over the entire map. To further assist in cleaning up xeno mold, the janitor job role experience gain has been increased.

Additional Changes and Fixes

Some items would disappear from containers if a colonist attempted to pick up items that would take them over their carry capacity. Thankfully I was able to replicate, with the help of a bug report, and fix this issue.

Panning the camera using the mouse while a colonist/vehicle was selected would snap the camera back to the selected colonist/vehicle or deselect when you stopped dragging. This behavior was different than how it worked when panning the camera via the keyboard. This has been adjusted so that the target will no longer be deselected and the camera won’t snap back to the selection. This should make selecting destinations for vehicles easier and more consistent.

There a bunch of additional tweaks, changes and fixes. Check out the release notes below and be sure to let me know what you think of the copy & paste update.

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Release Notes

Copy/Paste

• Added new copy settings feature which allows for copying settings and then applying them to valid targets.
• Added copy settings feature to lights
• Added copy settings feature to storage containers
• Added copy settings feature to plant pots
• Added copy settings feature to craft queue
• Added copy settings feature to crops. Will only copy the assigned crop to targets that don’t have a crop already assigned.
• Added copy settings feature to colonist roster
• Added copy colors button for colonist and object custom colors.

Visuals

• Added new visual for selected colonists and vehicles
• Updated selected object footprint visuals
• Updated drag selection cursor and visuals
• Updated selection visuals and color for mining, deep mining, deconstruction and harvest
• Hover icons should now be better positioned over objects
• Changed color and thickness of colonist path preview
• Fog of war lowered to better cover hidden tiles
• Change to the look of crystals in the crystal fields biome

Misc

• Replaced drop down selection on plant pots with toggle buttons
• Stasis capsules can no longer be selected for deconstruction if not opened.
• Selected objects no longer deselected when moving the camera using the mouse
• Improvements to mouse selection logic
• Minor performance improvement when many hover icons are on screen
• Water pumps should now receive higher priority when power is delivered on a power network
• Updated some object, item and research descriptions
• Crafting section header text on crafting stations changed to Craft Queue
• Added guide section button to craft queue
• Added guide section button to expedition list
• Added guide section button to vehicle list
• Increased experience gain for janitor job role
• Changed default keybind for center camera to the home key.
• Xeno mold can now only replicate to neighboring tiles and can no longer spawn through walls.
• Xeno mold will now only spread up to a fixed amount instead of possibly covering the entire map

Fixes

• Fixed: Crop info showing incorrect label text
• Fixed: Fertilizer Station missing description
• Fixed: Unable to assign colonists to Fertilizer Station roster
• Fixed: Missing text for glow bulb in plant pot
• Fixed: Memory issue caused by UI grid items not being removed properly
• Fixed: Memory issue caused by craft queue not clearing data properly when closed
• Fixed: Grammatical mistakes. I’m sure there is still more.
• Fixed: Thermal vents positioned at the edge of the map in some instances. This fix will only affect new games.
• Fixed: Missing minimap color for stone floor
• Fixed: Items disappearing if colonist attempts to pick up more than they can carry
• Fixed: Unable to select items on ground if covered in xeno mold/fluid spill
• Fixed: HUD inventory category buttons retaining focus after being clicked. Pressing space after clicking a category would still pause the game, but would also toggle the category opened/closed.