Imagine Earth News

Greetings colony managers, welcome to our latest Imagine Earth update - it feels great to deliver once again! We have decided to bring you one of the new buildings and a new bonus mission to give you something while our main efforts still go into finalizing the Open Space DLC. Please have a look at the complete roadmap at the end of the post, everything we have already achieved since release and what we still want to create for version 2.0. As always we would appreciate your feedback and if you support the project with a review on Steam.

[h2]Xrathul Planet[/h2]



A new Planet has been discovered in the Udoxia Galaxy and a brand new mission awaits on Omicron Persei 9. To quote the briefing “Strange building complexes have been spotted here. Apparently they can release powerful forces. This could become even more dangerous for us if they fall into the wrong hands.

[h2]Xrathul Palace[/h2]



This palace was built to worship the Xrathul. The built-in technology can summon their giant locust spaceships and lure them to a specific destination reckless opponents for example. The following forces are available in this giant building.

Xrathul bait - This device spreads Xrathul pheromones and is therefore an irresistible target for Xrathul and lures all ships on the planet. It also doubles the probability of new Xrathul coming to the planet.

Meteor shower - The Illumati developed the technology to tear down some meteors from their orbit around the planet and let them rain down purposefully.

Indoctrination - Indoctrination of the guards in towers and buoys allows you to take control of the building and radius.

[h2]Two New Gaming Modes [/h2]



You can now choose between the following two game modes when starting endless and competition game rounds. This can be changed whenever you start a new game.

[h3]Sci-Fi Mode[/h3]

Experience all the adventures that a future colonization of space could hold in store for us and technology we can only dream of today. Use Gaian force fields or intergalactic space trade and get ready for space pirates and alien invasions.

[h3]Serious Mode[/h3]

Experience a more realistic gameplay that corresponds to the technological level of development on Earth in the 21st century. The focus is on solving the problems of economic growth and resource consumption and coping with the related environmental and climate impacts.


[h2]New Animal - Manta Ray[/h2]

Another fish species has been sighted. Now the manta ray enriches the biodiversity on our planet. Once we have cultivated even more animals on our planets we will make biodiversity an important thing in the environmental climate simulation of the game.

[h2]Improvements[/h2]

• The Xrathul Palace and the Great Pyramid are now destructible giant buildings
  
• Entering the bonus galaxy will now always provide two planets, to give you a choice
  
• Meteor shower and Xrathul bait have become more powerful
  
• City building is now cancel-able until the capsule lands
  
• Supply capsules now come more often and are shown in the bookmark panel
  
• Items are now cancel-able until the drone is on site and has activated them
  
• You can now get up to 50 new city permits through population growth
  

[h2]Interface Improvements[/h2]

• We gave the main character Alia an eye surgery because some people felt she gave them an uncomfortable look
  
• Only resource deposits of relevant size are now displayed
  
• Gaia constructs: Active conversion is also shown in the waiting bar
  
• New speech of Eko at the invitation to the world congress
  
• New cursor when closing the ring
  
• 8 great interface improvements that are way too hard to describe
  
• Country specific subtitles in the main menu
  
• Popup renamed: "Mission successful" instead of "Campaign successful"
  
• Added a notification for game beginners to try the tutorial first
  

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed buildings not showing up immediately when jumping between cities
  
• Fixed galaxy screen layout for 4:3 resolutions
  
• Fixed planet being briefly lit differently on exit
  
• Joma: Fixed completion logic of "use power" goal before
  
• No longer show Whales in navigation view
  
• Fixed sandbox planets not working
  
• Don't show trade options for natives that are not close to your territory
  
• Move tool-tips closer to ring
  
• Colony value chart limit for quality of life
  
• Spell-checking EN
  
• Decrease audio range of ocean animals
  
• Fixed bookmark buttons not correctly opening tool ring for units
  
• Fixed ruins collapsing every time a generated planet is restarted.
  
• Fixed navigation icons overlapping message panel
  

[h2]Update 1.9.1[/h2]

• Optional minimized mode for build panel on left side
  
• Added visual hint for new serious game mode
  
• Added missing translations
  
• Added option to disable automatic progression to next message
  
• Fixed manual bug reports no longer being reported
  
• Fixed on screen keyboard not opening the second time on steam big picture mode
  
• Fix: Changing difficulty when restarting mission from campaign screen does not work
  
• Fix: Pirate warning shown even when no pirate is available
  
• Fix: Pirates should still go on a rampage, even when a city is protected by a shield
  
• Fix: Gamepad control jumps over checkboxes in options
  
• Fix: Illuminati Temple Ruin caption too long for info panel
  
• Fix: Two reported crashes
  

[h2]Roadmap[/h2]

Hello dear ones, we wish you all a wonderful World Oceans Day! Together with WDC - the Whales and Dolphines Conservation Organisation we doing a charity event offering a weekend deal with 40% discount and 10% of the net income from Imagine Earth sales from June 8 - 13 will being donated to this organisation and their noble cause of saving sea life.

[h2]Whale Watching[/h2]

Originally on the occasion we brought some wildlife into Imagine Earth. Whales are the giants of the seas and from now on you will also find them on the worlds in Imagine Earth. This is in line with our desire to bring more life to the worlds of Imagine Earth. However, the population is decreasing due to water pollution, oil spills and fishing. Animals resp. biodiversity are of great importance to the biosphere. In the future this will also be the case in our environmental simulation and more species will follow to populate the seas and the sky.



[h2]Green Game Jam still on![/h2]

In parallel, the Green Game Jam 2022 is already running since June 3 - 17. Together with many game studios we try to do our bit to save the Worlds Forests. We made a new Steam achievement that plants real trees in-game and 10 trees planted for every copy sold in the Steam sale that just started. Please vote for our activation campaign, thanks for supporting us!

Click here to vote for Imagine Earth in the Player's Choice Award

[h2]Further Down the Road[/h2]

Also we're slowly closing in on the goals marked on the DLC Roadmap until Open Space Version 2.0



Thanks for your attention. Let us knows you ideas and thoughts on the progression. Martin and Jens

Green Game Jam 2022 just started.
Together with many games studios we try to do our bit to save the Worlds Forests.
We made a new Steam achievement that plants real trees in-game and 10 trees planted for every copy sold in the Steam sale that just started. Please vote for our activation campaign, thanks for supporting us!



We just did the same a month ago for the global Earth Day and were able to plant 11,000 trees with our partner Eden Reforestation Project. That makes a total of 45,520 trees planet by our initiative and of course your help! Thx a lot!

Welcome to update 1.8, we have pushed some necessary optimizations in between.



At the very bottom, at the end of this update we have again mapped the current position on the complete roadmap, which should still lead us to the big 2.0 Open Space DLC later this year.

[h2]Whale Watching[/h2]

Whales are the giants of the seas and from now on you will also find them on the worlds in Imagine Earth. This is in line with our desire to bring more life to the worlds of Imagine Earth. However, the population is decreasing due to water pollution, oil spills and fishing. Animals resp. biodiversity are of great importance to the biosphere. In the future this will also be the case in our environmental simulation and more species will follow to populate the seas.



[h2]Best Expert Game at the German Game Awards[/h2]
Geoff Keighley himself presented us with the German Computer Game Award.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

It was with great pleasure that we received the official award for "The Best Expert Game" of Germany 2022 a month ago. This award was presented by none other than Geoff Keighley, the internationally known host and producer "The Game Awards" And the "Opening Night Live" show of Gamescom.



[h2]New rule for space traders[/h2]

Space traders can now be turned off in competitive and endless games. This change is to allow games that have a more realistic scenario. Without Gaia forces and Space Invaders, we have a constellation that largely dispenses with science fiction elements and is technologically comparable to the post-industrial age on Earth. This makes the plot framework and the confrontation with climate change more plausible and authentic. At least as an option, we felt it was important to offer this gameplay experience to focus on Imagine Earth's core theme.

[h2]The Forester Achievement[/h2]

There is a new achievement in Imagine Earth on Steam that you unlock when you plant more than 20 forests on a planet. We track how many players earn this achievement and plant a tree for each one. This activation is part of an initiative called Green Game Jam, which seeks to have an impact on the world through actions in games.



[h2]The strategic view[/h2].

The victory points panel in competitive mode revealed a lot of interesting information about the status of the other corporations and especially about your own. This view is now available without victory points in endless play.



[h2]Bookmarks[/h2]

The display of which merchants just landed in which of your cities is back, some of you have sorely missed it. In addition to this the functionality to define your own bookmarks by keeping a number key pressed is back.



[h2]Improvements & fixes[/h2]

• The system voice now also warns you when there is a low supply of food, goods or energy.
  
• Intact asteroids are not automatically harvested.
  
• Cannons and shield upgrades are not available if you have disabled asteroids and comets
  
• Trade panel no longer closes accidentally
  
• Biome brush - You can also delete biomes when pressing Ctrl.
  
• We made the light around the cursor brighter so you can see more on the downside of the planet.
  
• In the tutorial, we are now making sure you don't miss control instructions
  
• Improved mouse control in the resource panel, you can no longer accidentally hover over the panel to click on the planet.
  

[h2]Update 1.8.1 - 2022/06/30[/h2]

• Fixed game and campaign intros not working
  
• Updated Czech localization
  
• Ruins of fossil/nuclear power plants should not upset volcanoes
  
• Frontier towers with shield should not protect mountains from bombs
  
• Seedbombs give wrong "can only use on unoccupied tiles" message when used at border fields
  
• Can't get last research of physics when traders turned off
  

[h2]Dear planet managers, [/h2]

we really struggled a bit to be able to offer you this hyper-speed optimization of the global management system! The interface is the most annoying part of the game production. Let's hope that the latest interface optimizations will leave nothing to be desired!

[h2]Control optimization[/h2]

Fast and universal switching between temples, workshops, cities, factions and merchants is finally possible and revolutionizes the navigation in our game.



You can now trade and do diplomacy with all sorts of partners through the interface without having to jump to you with the camera. This way, you are not always pulled out of the local action on the planet because of crafting or item acquisition, and you always keep track of what's going on.



[h2]Takeover through stock trading[/h2]

A separate stock panel right at the frasction panel, where you can see all the information about a company's cities and directly buy shares and take over cities. A big button that flashes visibly and visualizes the takeover process.



We built a large popup that solemnly announces that you have successfully taken over a city. And also indicates if you have captured equipment in the process, which means you have taken certain items from the enemy.



We also restructured the stock trading panel so that the player always automatically starts at himself and can more quickly throw some shares on the market to get new capital.

[h2]Setup optimizations[/h2]

The difficulty button has been redesigned to look the same in the setup for new rounds of competitive and endless play as the other options or tabs in the setup menu. The start button has been enlarged.

Also, you can now turn off Gaia Forces and Asteroids in the game for a more realistic gameplay experience that is mainly about global warming and environmental issues rather than futuristic sci-fi elements.

[h2]Fossil buildings[/h2]

Fossil power plants can now drill and exploit deposits in adjacent fields. This keeps them productive longer and means they need to be moved less often.

In exchange, fossil production buildings have again received a malus. It no longer looks in the game as if there would be no problem at all if a certain resource is not available.

This is especially important in the context of the core message of the game. Fossil buildings that just keep on working, that too is unrealistic.

[h2]The new taskbar[/h2]

The taskbar has been made narrower. Options like Research and Technology, which are already positioned in the top left of the interface, are no longer duplicated there.



[h2]Gamepad layout[/h2]

We didn't spare ourselves and once again tweaked the configuration of the controls. There is a new control pad ring menu with which you can control many things in the game even faster than with a mouse.



In all ring menus, the D-pad or directional pad can now be used to navigate particularly quickly and directly, select a build option or item.

Jumping to an event or an alarm. Has not worked for a while. Is now, however, on the left stick.

[h2]Supply capsules[/h2]

Had literally disappeared from the game. On medium setting, such a vehicle now lands again every 5-10 minutes.

[h2]Optimizations[/h2]

• In the field ring, the updates of houses, are now displayed on the right and thus it is no longer too long on the left, so that information sometimes hangs pointlessly out of the screen.
  
• The buttons for diplomacy no longer show all the time, all the details that play a role there. This makes the user interface much narrower.
  
• Auto-harvesting now also works for temple ruins from which artifacts are harvested.
  
• When a building ring has a panel open on the left, the building info is displayed on the right.
  
• In the colony rating screen you can now select the different factions.
  
• Citys Panel - Merchants, Workshops and Temples now only displayed at cities when hovering.
  

[h2]Navigation[/h2]

We cleaned up the navigation so that too many enemy cities are no longer displayed around the globe at once.

[h2]Miscellaneous bugs[/h2]

• Factions often built too many towers next to each other and also liked to place City Centers in clusters or in a pile.
  
• The controls in the build menu were a bit disjointed.
  
• The build menu can now stay open with the gamepad, so you can always see your list of strategic items.
  
• In the Weekly Challenge, the gamepad cursor disappeared until you pressed something.
  
• "Show Influences" in the Technology panel was not selectable with gamepad.
  
• Handled a few crashes reports that came in
  

[h2]Update 1.7.1 - 2022/04/26[/h2]

• Fixed crash when trying to open the research in the campaign galaxy
  
• Fixed crash when opening a supply capsule
  
• Fixed crash related to the new inter-building navigation in the UI
  

[h2]Update 1.7.4 - 2022/04/29[/h2]

• Show landing permission info only if you don't have one anymore
  
• Fixed inconsistent description of weekly challenge
  
• Allow planet rotation also in construction menu
  
• Inventory on the side menu does not directly select an item
  
• D-Pad often selects the wrong item when released
  
• For neutral faction, open sell panel instead of donate panel
  
• "Immediate tool" does not work with LB (gamepad)
  
• Terraforming: Coastal graphics are not updated
  
• Do not overwrite file until save is successful
  

[h2]Update 1.7.7 - 2022/05/01[/h2]

• Fixed settings no longer being saved
  
• Display merchant and other currently landed traders in the cities panel
  
• Fixed gamepad dpad controls sometimes not being responsive
  
• Improved gamepad navigation in build panel and tool ring