Update 21 :: Expeditions

I’m very pleased to announce that Update 21 is now available! This is one of the largest releases to date.

A huge thank you to everyone that helped test this update on the Test Build branch. Your feedback and bug reports helped immensely. An additional huge thank you to everyone for your support and patience.

Surface Expeditions

Scan the surface for points of interest using the comms station, and extend the available scan area by converting survey vehicles into radar towers.

You will now be able to set out on expeditions on foot as well as in a vehicle. Expeditions to points of interest on the map yield new rewards — or grave danger, depending on your colonists’ skill and your decisions.

Surface Construction

The Vehicle Assembly Station replaces the Vehicle Bay, which will require construction on the surface.

Mining vehicles can be converted into mining platforms, which allow resource filtering and automated resource acquisition using assigned transport vehicles.

Research

Unlock research projects by spending research points, tech fragments and/or bio samples. The computer station will generate research points instead of researching specific projects. Research point storage is limited and can be increased by constructing Data Servers.

The research window now has additional sections for recipe and crop research, and new discoveries that are required for several research projects.

Game Scenario

When you start a new game, you can now set a game scenario that affects starting colonist count, limited job roles and more. Additional gameplay options will be tied in with this mechanic in future updates.

World Generation

Mine sand underground to allow for earlier access to glass and silicon carbide.

Population Limit

There is now a population cap for human colonists. Build O2 generators to sustain a larger population.

Improved Crafting

Colonists will now gather materials to craft multiple instances of an item depending on their job level.

Craft queue items now have a “Deliver To Storage” option. When not active, a colonist will drop the crafted items on the ground instead of delivering them to storage.

Storage containers now have a priority setting. Items are delivered to the highest priority valid container.

Update 21 brings quite a few changes, improvements and fixes. Check out the release notes below for a full list of all the changes in Update 21 :: Expeditions.

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Release Notes

New :: Surface Construction

• Added construction category buttons to bottom of plant map interface
• Added Vehicle Bay building which can be placed on surface tiles adjacent to the facility. This new building is where vehicles are constructed. Vehicle Assembly Station removed.
• Added new Shipping Container object. A shipping container is required for colonists to deliver Items for surface construction/delivery.
• Added new Receiving Container object. Items delivered from the surface are placed here. Items from surface no longer appear next to the elevator and are only accessible from the receiving container. Items will still be delivered, but are only accessible at the receiving container. 

New :: Expeditions

• Added Comm Station. Comm Station used to scan for points of interest on planet surface.
• Added Comm Officer job role.
• Added Expeditions section to planet map interface
• Added scan coverage planet map display mode

New :: Population Cap

• Added human colonist population cap. 
• Added O2 Generator which can increase colonist cap
• If colonist population is over capacity then some colonists will suffer from oxygen deprivation and perish
• Added Life Support research to unlock O2 Generators

Changes :: Graphics

• Added real time shadows on high quality setting
• Night time now darker on planet map
• Minor change to post processing effects to reduce bloom and re-work color correction
• Updated look of all ingot icons
• Map table texture detail increased

Changes :: UI

• Colonist cards now show current colonist action
• Infinity Corp. logo now looks more sinister
• Job role selection window no longer shows attribute requirements if playing on default/easy difficulty
• Game HUD now shows human and robot population counts separately
• Changed utility build category icon
• Added a drop shadow to hud button icons to make them pop a bit more
• Added a drop shadow and hover animation to object build menu buttons
• Notification tabs no longer overlap facility management close button
• Notification tabs no longer overlap color picker

Changes :: Vehicles

• Removed vehicle cap
• Minor change to vehicle info on the planet map interface vehicle list
• Added an auto explore action to D.O.G.E. and Wasp vehicles
• D.O.G.E. and Wasp now have an action to convert them into a remote radar station. This increases the scannable area where points of interest can be found.
• Beetle Miner and Whale Miner now have an action to convert them into a remote mining facility. Remote mining facility mines from a range of adjacent tiles and includes new mining options.
• Added new resource transport vehicles. These can be assigned to mining stations to automatically collect and deliver resources to the primary facility.
• Added new rover vehicles for expeditions. 
• Vehicles are now set as camera focus when embarking
• Vehicle and building models are now smaller.

Changes :: Discoveries

• Discoveries button shows the number of new discoveries
• Added section for resources/flora and fauna
• Added sections for tier 2 equipment blueprints
• Added section for vehicle blueprints
• Added section for additional data logs
• Updated the discoveries that are found in various biomes

Changes :: Research

• Active research no longer applicable and removed from game hud
• Added research projects button to game hud button bar
• Research Projects button shows the number of available research projects
• Computer Station now generates research points instead of researching towards a specific research project
• Research projects now unlocked by spending research points, tech fragments and/or bio samples
• Accrued research points have a starting cap
• Items unlocked in research description now have better tooltips
• Research projects now have tooltips
• Updated look of research project info section
• Data Servers can now be constructed to increase research point cap
• Added new recipes section to research screen to unlock recipes
• Added new crops section to research screen to unlock discovered crops
• Equipment items moved to recipes section
• Tier 2 equipment item research now requires their own blueprint discoveries
• Added several new research projects
• Utilities research renamed to Plumbing
• Robot Recycler now unlocked under separate research project
• Research tree structure and costs has been revised

Changes :: Misc

• Allowed Items interface for storage containers now has select all and select none buttons
• Craft queue items now have a “Deliver To Storage” toggle option. When checked colonists will deliver the produced item to storage, otherwise they will drop the item on the floor.
• New game interface now has a scenario drop down which includes easy, default and challenge options.
• Default game scenario no longer limits colonist job roles based on attributes. This is now only in the challenge scenario.
• Fertilizer now optional when setting crop type in both crop field and aeroponics farm. 
• Colonists will now strictly adhere to the construction queue order. If the object in the first position of the construction queue can’t be constructed colonists will not skip it to build other objects.
• First construction object in build queue now highlighted green
• Build info now has a Low Priority button to set object to the last place in the build queue
• Mineable sand added to facility world generation
• Glass recipe uses 5 sand instead of 3
• Silicon Carbide now uses 4 sand and anthracite instead of 2
• Updated existing guide topics to reflect changes
• Added Points Of Interest guide topic
• Added Expeditions guide topic
• Mineral chests now have a much higher chance of having ingots instead of raw ores
• Updated notification system to allow for unique and repeatable notifications. Existing notifications migrated to new system.
• Added notification if low on food
• Unpausing the game will now resume at the previously set game speed
• Colonists will now craft multiples of an item based on their job role level. Example: A level 1 engineer will gather materials for and craft 1 item at time from a craft queue. A level 5 engineer will gather materials for and craft 5 items at a time from a craft queue.
• Decreased durability of mineable resources

Fixes

• Fixed: Craft queue add item menu freeze when changing type in some instances
• Fixed: Colonists not affected by light sources from placed objects
• Fixed: Colonist attempting to drop off items on a floor tile that they can’t get to
• Fixed: Particle effect missing when opening stasis capsule.
• Fixed: Deconstruction selection highlight on floors/conduits rendered on top of other objects
• Fixed: Vehicle Move To action not cancelled when deselecting vehicle with right click
• Fixed: Crop Fields can be placed on floor tiles
• Fixed: Robot running in place when crafting at tech printer
• Fixed: Colonist not repairing machines if repair kit exists but they can’t get to it
• Fixed: Colonist rosters reset after loading saved game
• Fixed: Some data generating invalid id values which causes issue when loading saved games in some instances
• Fixed: Some object component data not cleared when reloading save game.
• Fixed: Colonist stuck in a loop trying to pick up items off the floor in some instances
• Fixed: Pressing space to unpause not working after clicking speed buttons
• Fixed: Colonist death from doctor states death as unknown causes
• Fixed: Vehicle not saving/loading its active action
• Fixed: Wall Debris missing mining effects
• Fixed: Wall Debris shows enable/disable button