Surviving the Aftermath News

Game version
PC: 1.12.5.8236

General

Fixed an issue with the quests that caused save files to appear broken after loading.

• When a save with this issue was loaded, several symptoms could be seen, for example, the pop up notifying you of access to the World Map was shown again, the fog of War had returned, all Specialists had been returned back to the colony from the World Map.
  
• This fix should allow you to now continue with that save - an ongoing quest will have been removed but the save itself should work.
  

Fixed an issue that caused the survivor groups to sometimes cause an exception in the background.

• This exception should not have caused any visible gameplay issues, but it should also no longer occur either.
  

Balance adjustments

Adjustments to Tools and Clothes.

• Increased the durability of both Tools and Clothes on all levels.
  
• Decreased the production time for the Tailor and the Toolshop, allowing for faster production of the items.
  
• Decreased the amount of Fiber it takes to produce Sturdy and Superior Clothes.
  

Adjustments to food production amounts of food and food values around the game.

• Increased the amount of berries in the Berry deposits around the colony to allow for more sources of food.
  
• Increased the amount of Fish the Fishing Pier and the Fishing Hut produce per cycle.
  
• Fish, Venison, and Berries give a slightly smaller amount of pollution to colonists when they are eaten.
  
• Prime Meat now has a better nutritional value and a smaller amount of pollution it gives to colonists when eaten.
  
• The Aqua Farm now produces more Fish per cycle.
  
• Decreased the nutritional value of Eggs and Milk and made them less filling to colonists to try and ensure the colonists will not eat them up before you are able to use them in the Bakeries.
  
• Increased the amount of food found in locations on the World Map.
  

Adjustments to basic resource amounts.

• Increased the amount of basic resources found in locations on the World Map.
  
• Increased the amount of Concrete in the Concrete deposits around the colony.
  
• Increased the amount of Planks both the Lumber Yard and the Sawmill produce per cycle and decreased the production time of the Lumber yard slightly.
  

Hello Survivors!

Below you will find detailed patch notes of Enhancement Patch #3. If you're interested in more insight behind those changes, check out our dev diary.

Build version
1.12.4.8223


Second batch of building upgrades have been added to the game.

• The following buildings can now be upgraded: Trapper, Gunsmith, Tailor, Toolshop.
  
• Some of these upgrades will have a downgraded version available from the start of the game and the upgraded version will look like the version you have previously seen in the game.
  
• These upgrades can be unlocked from the Tech Tree.
  
• The low end versions of the Gunsmith, Tailor and Toolshop can only produce the tier 1 versions of their items. Their upgraded version can produce tier 2 and 3 versions but not the tier 1 versions.
  

Combat on the World Map has been redone and will now work similar to the Scavenging action.

• The combat is now based on time instead of Action Points.
  
• Specialists still need to be commanded to attack the bandit as before.
  
• Unlike the scavenging action, you can have multiple Specialists in combat with one bandit.
  
• You can also command your Specialists to leave the combat before the bandit has been defeated, but this will result in your Specialist taking some damage if they have been in combat for at least one turn. They should never die from this damage.
  
• If a Specialist is running low on health during combat, you will receive a notification warning you of this while in the colony view.
  
• While in combat, the bandits will not heal themselves. If you leave combat before defeating them, they will again start healing until in combat again.
  

Added two new buildings to the game.

• The Graveyard which works the same way as the Burial Pit but is much larger and does not create pollution.
  
• The Medical Lab - can be used to create medicine in the colony.
  
• This also introduced two new resources to the game: Medicinal Herb which can be grown in the Greenhouse, and Herbal Medicine which is produced in the Medical Lab and then used to create the medicines used by the colonists.
  

• Fixed the issue that caused resources in your storages to be counted wrong that resulted in negative amounts in resources when the game was loaded.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused the game to become unresponsive when a Guard from the Guard Post had died and been buried.
  
• The Water Tower building is now in its own tech and you will need to research the tech to be able to build it. If you have some built already in a previous save, they should remain but you will not be able to build new ones until the tech has been researched.
  
• Changed the way the notification “Specialist ready for action” behaves. This notification should now only appear if you have Specialists in the World Map idling. If they have a task to perform (queued movement, scavenging a location or combatting a bandit) you will not get the notification until at least one Specialist is idling again.
  
• Divided seeds that can be planted in the open fields and in the Greenhouses. Greenhouses can still be used to farm any sort of seeds. Open fields can no longer be used to farm Flax, Peanuts or Medicinal Herb (new seed added in this patch).
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the entire game to crash when attempting to scout a specific sector.
  
• Improved the autosave feature. It should now save in more appropriate situations in the colony.The system should no longer overwrite other autosave files with the same name as easily. The file name should have a number if the game detects an earlier autosave from another colony that had the same name. It will still overwrite the previous autosave file if it was made from the same colony.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused 13 different events to never appear in the game.
  
• Colonists should no longer walk on water after constructing a building onto water (such as the Fishing Hut).
  
• The Water Collector will now work during Heat Waves.
  
• The Gate Storage has now been removed and should no longer be visible in the Gate info panel.
  
• Changed the resources some of the wild animals give after they have been harvested to be more appropriate based on the animal.
  
• Slightly increased the maximum distance of the camera in the colony.
  
• The resources allowed to the Campsite and its upgrades can now be changed the same way as you can change them in the Stockpiles.
  
• The Radar should no longer show workslots in the Statistics.
  
• Added sorting in the Statistics tabs for Colonists, Resources and Buildings. This should help when looking through larger colonies.
  
• Underground deposits that have an extractor on top of them should no longer show floaters when placing another extractor of the same type.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the game to place quest locations inside mountains. The game should now do a check on the adjacent hexes to ensure this does not happen again.
  
• The Environmental Station, the Maintenance Depot and the School have been moved to other categories.
  
• Fixed an issue that prevented selecting Specialists with the box selection in the colony. This was caused by the Specialist using queued movement to return to the colony from the World Map.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the second part of the event Traditions of Love to appear before the first part.
  

• Fixed issues with the animation of colonists picking up and dropping down resource boxes.
  
• Colonists that finished building a construction zone should no longer run over blocked areas.
  
• Added a bar to the loading screen.
  
• New temperature and malnutrition icons have been added to the colonist info panel.
  
• Some event images have been changed to be more appropriate.
  
• The trade menu should no longer show Xbox prompts in the last confirm pop up unless actually playing on the controller.
  

Changed how much time the colonists spend on different tasks.

• Colonists should now take less time to sleep, wash up, warm up during the winter and also spend less time in the Happiness buildings.
  
• Colonists will now harvest deposits around the colony slightly faster.
  

Adjusted the eating rates of different foods.

• Colonists will need to eat more raw foods (such as Corn or Venison) than before.
  
• Eating preserved old world food (such as Jerky) will fill them up roughly the same amount as before.
  
• Meals will fill colonists up better than before.
  
• Food production in different buildings has been balanced to help deal with the increased consumption.
  
• Malnutrition rates have also been balanced to ensure they do not happen too easily with the increased consumption of raw foods.
  

Buildings now take more resources to be built and slightly more time as well to adjust to the colonists working more.

• Requirements to build almost all buildings have been changed.
  
• Adjusted the starting resources on all difficulties to fit to the changes.
  

Resources found on the World Map have been balanced.

• There should now be less of the basic resources available for scavenging in the World Map.
  

Increased the amount of societies on the World Map.

• While the World Map is still randomly generated, you should now get more societies in your World Map when creating a new game.
  
• 
  

Item durabilities have been lowered.

• Previously items such as the Tools could last for an extremely long time.
  
• Now they have been adjusted to break more accordingly to their level.
  
• Exception to this is the durability of the Weapons that has been increased on all tiers.
  

Meteor Storms should now do slightly less damage around the area of impact.

The Specialist Jin has been balanced so that she is on the same level as the rest of the starting specialists.

Colonist flee time has also been reduced so that they would seek out medical help when necessary faster.

Reduced the possibility of hostiles and increased the possibility of adults in the Survivor Groups.

Added more large plank deposits around the colony.

Increased the amount of resources in the concrete and plank deposits around the colony.

Various adjustments to production speeds in several different buildings.

[h2]Greetings Survivors,[/h2]

Our Enhancement Patch #2 is available now! It includes a variety of bug fixes and 5 brand new quests.

Stay safe and play games. See you in the Aftermath!

Game versions: PC: 1.12.3.8070
Xbox: 1.12.3.129

[h2]General[/h2]

• 5 new quests have been added to the game.
  

[h2]Gameplay[/h2]

• Fixed an issue with the upgraded Ranch building that caused saves to be broken when loaded. The following could be observed when the problem occurred: pop up alerting you that the Gate had been built would reappear, vehicles in your Garage would go missing, Fog of War would reappear all around your colony.
  
• Changed the Gate and the Campsite upgrading to happen at the push of a button like other building upgrades instead of being instant, so they are not easily missed anymore.
  
• Updated the button that can be used to view the colonists working at buildings. Before this button was a small “i” button in the top left corner of the colonist portrait. It now has a new icon that is much larger and easier to click on and it is positioned on the bottom of the portrait.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused weapons the colonists were holding to disappear after saving and loading the game.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the colonists to not gather meat from animal carcasses.
  
• Fixed an issue that prevented colonists from repairing some buildings such as the tent in certain situations.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the entire colony to become stuck if a resource was at the edge of the colony map.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused some of the Founder’s edition content to not be visible to the players, who purchased it.
  
• Made a minor adjustment to the visual growth of trees to help the game performance.
  
• Made a back-end adjustment to the way the game handles the wild animals in your colony to improve the game performance.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused a small UI issue when the info panels were moved in the colony view.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the Societies button in the colony view to only work when pressed with the cursor on the left side of the button.
  
• Fixed issues with the new Tech Tree, which allowed you to start researching some techs without having to first research the tech in front of it.
  
• Balanced the amount of ideology-restricted techs to ensure they are all more equal to each other.
  
• Adjusted the panel that shows what items to select for a building (such as the Seed selection on fields or the Animal Selection for the Ranch) so that the icons are now more centered.
  

Greetings, Survivors!

As mentioned earlier this month, we’re going to start implementing our additional Enhancement Patches. Those updates won’t bring big new content drops as our usual monthly releases so far, but they’re still going to improve or expand many features.

The good news is… the first Enhancement Patch is right behind the corner! It introduces building upgrades as a way to boost or specialize your colony buildings to your linking. We’ve also reworked the Tech Tree, differentiating various crops and insects better and more.

Be advised that due to changes to the core mechanics of the game, any save files created with an older version of the game will not work after this update. You should see a warning pop up when you try and load an older save.

[h3]Game version[/h3]
PC: 1.12.2.8042

[h2]General[/h2]
Added the first batch of building upgrades, unlockable from the Tech Tree.

Unlocking the tech will add a button to the specific building that says “Upgrade”.

• Selecting this will then place a construction zone of the new upgraded version of the building to the place where the original building was.
  
• Please note that you will not be able to build the upgraded version of a building directly, instead you will have to build the original version first and then select the upgrade option.
  

New building upgrades include but are not limited to the following:

• Increased amount of shelter space in tents and emergency shelters.
  
• Open fields have a new version called Irrigated fields, which have a higher yield.
  
• Automated versions of the extractors.
  
• Upgraded version of the Campsite (visual upgrade only).
  

Tech Tree has been redone with a completely new category and new techs added.

• Some techs have also been moved around to other categories or even to completely new techs.
  
• When you have a tech being researched, the category button should show an icon indicating the tech is from that category.
  

[h2]Gameplay[/h2]

• The feedback icon in the top right corner has been changed back to the Ladybug.
  
• Added the resource Electronics to the game. This resource can be gained by producing it in the Electronics Factory, scavenging it from locations on the World Map and by trading with other societies. The Electronics resource can be found in the Other category in the top bar. The resource is used for some of the new building upgrades.
  
• The ability to set a Production limit has been added to several new buildings. This will allow you to ensure your colonists are not wasting their time by acquiring too many resources of one type when they could work as carriers instead.
  
• Storage buildings are no longer filled based on the weight of the resources inside them. They now get filled based on the amount of resources instead. We have also balanced the storage spaces of all storage buildings based on this change and how much larger they get with the techs that increase their size.
  
• The Bakery building now has two new recipes to select from.
  
• The resources required to make Bread have been changed.
  
• Fixed the rewards for the Quest “Nuclear Beast” to prevent it from giving three times the same reward.
  
• The Living Beings overlay now shows different floaters for Workers, Carriers, Guards and Children.
  
• Fixed an issue where the health of the Specialists would not be updated correctly in the Specialist panel on the top of the screen. This should now always be updated correctly whenever their health drops or whenever they are healed.
  
• Construction zones for buildings that are vital to surviving catastrophes will have an increased priority during catastrophes.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the efficiency percentage to not work correctly for buildings like the Trapper. The buildings should also show an indicator and a status text to indicate too low efficiency for the building to work.
  
• The efficiency percentage should now be updated as the trees grow or as they are cut down. Previously the percentage was updated only if the work area was moved.
  
• Fixed an issue with the notification that alerts you that a Specialist has low health while scavenging. This should now only appear if the location has hazards and the Specialist is in real danger of dying.
  
• Fixed an issue with the system that defines which catastrophes you will experience next. Winter should now occur more frequently.
  
• The Forester building should now plant trees that are more appropriate for the soil.
  
• You should now be able to select colonists from the Occupants list from buildings.
  
• The Forester building should now show the correct text during Winter. The building is not intended to be functional during this season as the ground is frozen. Previously the building would show a text that indicated it could work if heated. This text should now tell you that it is disabled by the catastrophe.
  
• Added a “Restore Defaults” button to all tabs in the Settings.
  
• Wheat should no longer be eaten by colonists or used to make meals in the Cookhouse or the Mess Hall. It should only be used to make Flour in the Mill.
  
• Modified the amount of trees that are generated in different soils. This should cause for example dry soil to have much less trees than fertile soil.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the fog that covers the World Map to be entirely removed when a sector was scouted.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the energy consumers to turn on and off when the energy balance is negative. This issue caused the floaters to appear and disappear and for the animations of the buildings to start, stop and then start again.
  

[h2]Graphics[/h2]

• Storage buildings now show more rows of resources in them.
  
• The colonists working as guards should now show a crossbow icon as their Weapon if no better weapons are available for them to use.
  
• Person icons have been updated around the game.
  
• Tweaked the existing models for several buildings and added new models for the upgraded version of the buildings.
  

[h2]Balance adjustments[/h2]

• The capacity of the Burial Pit has been reduced.
  
• The storage size of the Sauna has been reduced.
  
• All crops have been rebalanced based on their properties.
  
• The pollution value of foods has been balanced a bit more.
  
• Adjusted the rate that affects how quickly colonists warm up in their shelters.
  
• Made the Insect farm work faster to be a more consistent source of food and rebalanced the properties of the insects that can be farmed there.
  
• Decreased the production times of the Fishing Hut and the Aqua Farm.
  
• Reduced the size of the World Map slightly.
  
• Changed the resources the Campsite can hold by removing a few of them. The removed resources were mainly endgame resources that are not available at the start of a new game.
  
• Slightly increased the amount of Science Points found on the World Map to help with the new Tech Tree.
  

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Greetings, survivors!

The end of the year 2020 is looming and we’re going seasonal! The Big Thing this update is the coming of Winter in its stormy and unrelenting form, challenging the colony to survive through its long duration. Build firewood or energy-consuming Heaters to keep your Shelters warm and stock up Food and resources to maintain the colony for its entire duration. We’re also expanding the Quests with new combat options, adding very effective Superior-quality items for your colonists, and improving a ton of other things from the World Map UI to Statistics, new overlays, and balance changes.



Seasonal Winter Storms are heading your way with freezing winds and snow descending on the colony. It starts with a mellow autumnal phase, that withers the crops and warns of the incoming cold. Stock up on Firewood and build heaters around your Shelters to keep them warm and prevent colonists from going into dangerous hypothermia. This catastrophe will last for several days and will affect everything in the colony, so be prepared. Once you get your tech level up, invest in an advanced form of the heater with a larger effective radius and Energy as its fuel source.



We’re expanding the Quest system from the initial version with combat in addition to a set of completely new adventures to embark on. Combat quests introduce bandits you must take out in order to proceed and range from simple to very challenging ones. As before we’re interested in your feedback on this and will develop the entire Quest system further in future updates.



A new tier of colonist items has been added into trade, World Map, and craftable recipes. Superior Tools last a long, long time but are costly to manufacture. Protective Clothing helps colonists deal with the elements like dropping temperatures or incoming radiation, reducing their effect considerably. Automatic Rifles are the pinnacle of colony protection and up the effectiveness of your Guards a large margin. All three items are both valuable and harder to make but should be well worth the investment.

For this Dev Diary update we interviewed Jarmo, our senior game artist and the one in many ways responsible for the visual style of our Winter Storm catastrophe:

My main duties at Iceflake include looking after our 3D art team, especially helping with the more technical aspects like using Adobe's Substance texturing tools and Blender. Our Art Director has the final say on the visual side of things but I give such feedback as well. The more independent tasks range from 3D modeling and texturing to character rigging. A big part of my job is adding and setting up new models into Unity and tweaking lighting and post-processing there. Sometimes I also assist our UI team by rendering various images like building thumbnails. In part, I also oversee the 3D outsourcing process. You get to wear many hats in a small to the medium-sized studio. Medium-to-large ones often rely at least partially on outsourcing and the largest ones can afford to have people specialize in some specific area of art creation. That of course depends on the individual studios.

I was inspired by the work of other visual artists and wanted to create something similar myself, so I self-taught myself the basics of 3D modeling and eventually ended up at Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences in 3D animation and visualization. The studies enhanced my own learnings and a fellow student directed me to Blender software. From there I got into a Finnish mobile games company where I spent the next 5 years before coming to Iceflake Studios in Tampere as a senior game artist.



While definitely not necessary, visualization and artistic studies can really help in working with 3D. Formal education is similarly useful (especially for learning teamwork and formalized processes), but in my case not strictly necessary. The main benefit for me was getting contacts which led me to find my first job in the games business. Nowadays some great 3D modeling software suites like Blender are free, so there’s really no excuse not to give it a shot if you’re interested in the field. You can then advance from hobby projects to more serious work either at a games studio or as a freelancer if you prefer more independent work and can keep up with tight deadlines while maintaining quality. If your passion is creating art, it might be worth considering a job from an outsourcing studio, as you get to make more art and worry less about the technical implementation. That doesn't, however, mean you don't get to make art in game studios.

For an update like this, we first create a visual target and try to get as close to it as possible within our schedule and resource constraints. Finding the right visuals for a post-apocalyptic world is an interesting challenge since while we haven’t seen it ourselves, they still have to look grounded and believable. The scenes should be clear and enticing without becoming magical in nature. Houses and their materials take their inspiration from real-world ones, so while it’s easy to find references and ready-made textures and materials for those, everyone also knows what metal or wood should look like. So if something is a bit off it is easier to notice. With a more fantastical theme, it’s easier to get away with just doing what you feel is best yourself. PBR (Physically Based Rendering) is a great method for this as it adheres to laws of physics in reflections and so on.



There’s also a ton of other, considerable improvements. Two new overlay modes include Soil Fertility (community request) for Fields, Wells, etc., helping identify good locations for farming and other soil-dependent buildings. Temperature overlay assists in tracking how your colony is doing in the Winter Storm and if you’ve forgotten to cover some of the Shelter within the heater’s radius. World Map UI has been updated to be more informative, Quest locations are more visible and catastrophes are in full display over your colony as seen below!



Notable balance changes include faster resource extractor speeds (community request), more durable vehicles which also start fully repaired the first time you find them, less polluting Outhouses and Saunas, a slightly diminished chance for new Specialists to arrive and a larger Transformer range to help set Energy grid better.

And that’s it! Check the more detailed and in-depth patch notes for all the changes, play games, and keep safe for the upcoming winter season!