Imagine Earth News

So, just as you're used to from seven years of Early Access, we continue to make Imagine Earth better and add new features. You can be curious about what is still to come and please do not stop to contribute your feedback, ideas and wishes to the development.

[h3]Auto-Mining Function[/h3]

We want to move further in the direction of making automation work better. An important step in this direction is the auto-mining function for warehouses named in the title.
When you activate it, your harvester drone automatically flies off and harvests valuable resources. The system even makes sure that different resource loads are collected evenly and prioritizes those that you have reserved for storage. The previous mining tool then also serves as a way to manually prioritize a resource for mining.



[h3]Overlay for Resources[/h3]

It is now possible to activate overlays for rare resources, fossil resource deposits, fertility, temperature and building types via the building menu on the left side of the screen. Some will recognize these from an earlier version. Back then they were immature, but we have revised and brought them back.



[h3]Optimized Gamepad Controls[/h3]

We've optimized the gamepad controls and now you can use the directional pad to jump directly to your spaceports to trade, jump to workshops to craft, or jump to the cities or gaia constructs in your area of influence.



[h3]World Editor: Control other Factions[/h3]

When you build a new world in the world editor, you can now click on the factions at the bottom right to switch to them and build buildings for them. Another step in the direction that you can soon script entire missions with story.

[h3]Mixed Feelings[/h3]

Personally, after the particularly brilliant start of the final version of Imagine Earth, we currently have mixed feelings about the feedback we get. Regarding the reviews, it just feels like the game is being torn between two fronts. Some complain about too many dialogs and constant explanations, while the other front is unhappy about too little tutorial and too weak, incomprehensible instructions. Looks like this is really a tricky topic and we have to admit that the idea of making it a challenge to explore and understand the game itself doesn't have the necessary appeal for everyone.

Anyways, we would really love to have a broader picture, so if you have played Imagine Earth already and normally don't feel like writing reviews for games, we warmly invite you to take a few minutes and give Imagine Earth a review.

[h3]New Features[/h3]

Added: Uncover rare resources with scan even when paused
Added: Highlight new Goals with animation
Added: Bonus missions: End Competition after completion. Other competitors will leave the planet to you
Added: Interactive context infos for gamepad controls
Added: Gaia forces to the ring whenever there’s place
Improved: Make shallow ocean look better
Improved: Difficulty "Hard" - Reduce Colony Payout (AIs go bankrupt)

[h3]New Fixes[/h3]

Fixed: On Bora you could pre-activate the great pyramid
Fixed: Terraform item sometimes did not work
Fixed: Harvesting of rare resources is cancelled when loading a savegame
Fixed: Magni unable to complete as can't decontaminate
Fixed: Undiscovered rocks show their resource type in the description
Fixed: Colony rating layout
Fixed: Wrong gamepad description dialogs taken out to reduce messages
Fixed: Gamepad controls: If renaming cities the game menu was opened
Fixed: Bora: Mission script error if player takes over other city ruins

Okay, three weeks have passed since the release and Imagine Earth is being played and reviewed by many. We are very happy about the sales figures, because they show us that Imagine Earth appeals to you and that we have created something great in the seven years of Early Access. We thank you for your massive, constructive feedback in the reviews and especially in the forum and on Discord, as it allows us to make Imagine Earth bug-free and improve it further.

[h3]Complexity reduction[/h3]

Herewith we officially distribute the second hotfix for the release update, in which we continued to take care of the worst problem, that people get annoyed because the control over camera and actions in the game is taken away from them, because cutscenes start or the attention should be directed to a certain place or event. Many of these dialogs are now wrapped up in quests that the player can click on independently, making it less likely that events will interrupt their actions in the game.

[h3]Notification feature[/h3]

There is also a brand new central notification function in the message panel. This shows when there is a quest somewhere on the planet. By clicking on this icon, you can jump to current messages and quests from virtually anywhere in the world and resolve them in a targeted manner.

[h3]Rounos, Magni and Bora missions[/h3]

We found some very game flow disturbing dependency and structure problems in the scripts of these missions and really wondered. Guys, why don't you say something, it really can't have been meant that way at one point or another ;) Fortunately this update provides a remedy. Please post your thoughts, ideas and constructive criticism on our Discord server or in the official forum.

[h3]Highscore Reset[/h3]

We also had to reset the highscore another time, because a player's liquid funds were counted into the colony rating. So it was easy to let time pass when the balance was positive and drive the highscore to meaningless heights. This has now come to an end, but anyone who goes back into the game and checks their score will get it updated.

[h3] More fixes & improvements[/h3]

• Fixed buildings & ruins sometimes not being listed in buildings list
  
• Moved active quest notifications into icon panel at bottom center of screen
  
• Alt+tabbing out of the game no longer sends phantom "alt" signals
  
• Ctrl+S is no longer also trigger S (rotation & selection)
  
• Changed threading logic to address not reproducible crashes
  
• Removed old tech license animation
  
• Introduced proper button for licensing buildings
  
• Fixed description for plundering temple ruins
  
• Removed money & resources from highscore colony rating
  
• Display difficulty influence on colony rating
  
• Improved share market descriptions
  
• Changed share or colony package form 5% to 4%
  
• Limited value decrease for polluted fields to the value of the field
  
• Fixed clickable area of no longer active goals
  
• Re-enable autosave when mission is played again and finished
  
• Fixed victory point messages being displayed in free play mode
  
• When player surrenders, all his shares from other colonies must be surrendered
  
• Introduced info icon for rocket at space port
  
• Fixed pseudo-randomization which made asteroids target the same field again
  
• Show victory points of profile
  
• Fixed volcanoes not damaging a targeted field - especially for Assimilators
  
• Allow selling offensive weapons to other factions without need for alliance
  
• Fixed assimilator drone health not being correctly display
  
• Magni: Introduced a few dropped quest icons instead of directly jumping to events
  
• Magni: Improved ordering and dependencies for missions elements
  
• Bora: Introduced a few dropped quest icons instead of directly jumping to events
  
• Bora: Improved ordering and dependencies for missions elements
  
• Fixed bookmarks panel counting native camps multiple times
  
• Fixed wrong icons being randomly shown for resources and buildings
  
• Fixed a few more technical errors
  

Wow, what a week! The release was a very special moment for us and thanks to the great interest we can call it a full success and are very happy. Of course, such a release comes with an enormous amount of requests from all sides. Press, interviews, streamers but most of all we got so much helpful feedback from old and new friends of Imagine Earth and tried to bring the suggestions into the game as soon as possible.

[h3]Reworked the Tuto mission to get rid of constant interruptions[/h3]

Many players found it a thorn in the side how often the characters in the story interrupted the flow of the game with their info. We have tried to pack all notifications into clickable messages and also made sure that the messages do not always take you out of the game flow with camera movements or interrupt running build options. Please let us know if this has improved. We are also happy to receive any relevant information if any mission problems occur or they get too difficult.

[h3]Fixed severe crash related to input system[/h3]

A bug in the input system lead to a complete crash of the game (not error message or anything) that was happening for quite a lot of people. It took us a while to identify this, but now it's fixed.

[h3]Added support for PS5 controllers[/h3]

Having a PS5 controller connected to the system lead to the game not being playable, because it gave random inputs. This is fixed now and the PS5 controller can be used without problems.



[h2]Improvements[/h2]

• Reduced building speed of AI on Rounos a bit
  
• Dropped free frontier tower hack on Rounos
  
• Updated Russian translation for Tuto
  
• Added ruins to status list in buildings list
  
• Changed quicksave/-load shortcuts to Ctrl+S / Ctrl+L
  
• Hovering a message dialog no longer cancels the placement of a new building
  
• Ruins of native camps can now be destructed
  

[h2]Additional fixes[/h2]

• Relocating wind turbines with offshort-upgrade is working now
  
• Videos should also work on Windows N systems now
  
• Fixed wrong pollution icon being used in building and upgrade descriptions
  
• Fixed warning messages being mixed up in translation to simplified Chinese
  
• Fixed multiple errors reported by users
  
• Fixed "player" faction appearing on Bekano workshop planet
  

The Original IE Soundtrack is now available. All income from sales is donated to plant trees.


Join us on Discord for feedback, discussions and feature requests...

This Bundle contains the Game + Soundtrack. The Soundtrack Sales go to Eden Reforestation Project.
Until February 2022 we where able to plant 34.520 Trees with your help!



With a little delay to the main title, we released the Green Planet Bundle which includes our planet colonization game Imagine Earth and the official soundtrack. With the income from the soundtrack sales, you help us do something real to save the forests. We will donate the additional profit from these sales to support the Eden Reforestation Project.



[h3]Why are we doing this?[/h3]

From the beginning, this project was inspired by our conviction that playing Imagine Earth would be an exciting and motivating way to experience the most urgent and unavoidable challenge of mankind - climate change. The game crystalizes a planetary ecosystem and economy into mechanics that allow you to make your own decisions on how to solve the upcoming challenges. With this in mind we were able to survive seven years of Early Access, always knowing that we were working on something that would unfortunately only increase in relevance and urgency over time.

Now with the game being ready we want to add something more tangible on top, by supporting global reforestation and forest protection with the soundtrack profits of this bundle. If you want, you can take this oppurtunity to get the game and the soundtrack and to support the planting of new forests at the same time.

To kick off this campaign, we have already donated a symbolic cent to the organization for each of our 43,400 Early Access supporters. Thanks for supporting us!

Seven years have passed since our real-time global civilization simulation Imagine Earth first embarked on its epic journey through Early Access. Today, the full version of the game finally launches here on Steam - with a big launch update to boot!

[h3]Thanks to the 43,000 Supporters - You made this happen[/h3]

First of all, a big thank you to all EA supporters, for your interest and support over all these years! You have made the continuous and independent development of this unusual game possible - global building sim, which can become a real survival thriller in the conflict between growth and sustainability.

[h2]Official Launch Trailer [/h2]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Please stay tuned, we are tinkering with a complete Early Access history recap[/h3]

Imagine Earth entered Early Access in May 2014, and has been growing ever since, with updates coming approximately once a month. Today’s update is our biggest yet. We’ve rewritten the rules for competition and freeplay mode by introducing the ‘Word Congress’ - a democratic allegiance containing every faction on the planet, brought together by the threat of a climate crisis and environmental collapse.

[h3]Final Release Feature[/h3]
[h2]The World Congress[/h2]

This is where the battle between sustainable and exploitative corporations takes place. The World Congress is a democratic body with wide-ranging powers, to which each faction on the planet sends a representative. The factions have voting rights in the congress that correspond to their share in the galactic population. In the voting process, they decide on taxes and subsidies, funds for projects, penalties for rule breakers, and emergency aid. In addition, a representative of the United Space Nations USN is always present.

[h3]Proposal round[/h3]



At the beginning of a session of the congress, each delegation can propose new resolutions, which are then voted on. When resolutions are passed they apply to all factions.

You can see who benefits from your resolutions, as well as who stands to lose out. This data will help you make calculated political decisions.

[h3]Voting round[/h3]



Once the proposals submitted by the delegations are ready for voting, each faction pursues its own interests. The symbols on the representatives indicate whether they are more likely to vote in favor of or against a bill. Voting behavior is also influenced by a faction's agenda, strategic advantages and by loyalty in alliances. However, nothing is certain until the final vote is counted. Diplomatic tensions abound!

[h3]World status[/h3]



This screen is always accessible and provides an overview of the state of the planet. Here you can see how different global trends develop in relation to each other.

[h3]Leaderboards[/h3]
As you may have noticed, all leaderboards of the early access version have been reset for the Imagine Earth 1.0.

[h3]What does the future hold?[/h3]

Of course, this isn’t the end of the road for Imagine Earth. We’re planning to compile a list with all the unfinished ideas we've collected in the backlog to ask you what you think the game really needs. We are already working on an addon where you will be able to colonize procedural galaxies.

[h3]Hotfix 1.0.7[/h3]

• Joma: Fixed Birons not willing to by your medicine (really stupid...)
  
• Reduced default world congress intervall for campaign and freeplay mode to 30:00
  
• Updated Russian translations for UI elements
  
• Fixed a few bugs that lead to exceptions or crashes