After the Collapse News

Here's the second hot-patch for 0.7.3.

This small patch make settlers with a low work ethic stat. a bit more willing to work while fixing a bunch of smaller issues. Notably, giving the order to equip weapons/armors/etc. should always work now, unless the settler gets attacked.

Additionally, we added a QuickSave shortcut (F8 by default, can be changed in settings). And for those of you who're using mods like More Beds will be happy to know that we added a menu to select which skin you prefer so you don't have to click "next skin" a million times. As the screenshot below shows:



To make the menu appear, just click on the item between the two green arrows.

As usual with hot-patches, it's compatible with previous 0.7.x save-games.

Cheers!

[h2]Changelog[/h2]

• AI: Made settlers more likely to drop excess inventory items
  
• Balance: Settlers with a very low "work ethics" stats are a bit more likely to go to work
  
• UI: When building furniture, clicking on the item itself (between arrows) will open a sub menu to directly select the skin
  
• UI: Added Quicksave shortcut (F8 by default, can be changed in settings), 2 slot system, like autosaves
  
• Fixed: Death sounds being played when loading a savegame (which has dead people)
  
• Fixed: Store Inventory button (in settler inventory screen) was not always reliable
  
• Fixed: The various buttons to equip weapon/armor were not always reliable
  
• Fixed: Clicking Contact Faction without choosing faction caused a crash in the new Faction menu (oops)
  
• Fixed: In combat mode, right clicking an hostile faction raider could occasionally not issue an attack order
  
• Fixed: Loading a savegame from a game that was in combat mode would force the player to reset the UI (game will always load in standard mode from now on)
  
• Fixed: Autosaves couldn't be deleted from the menu

Here's the first small hot-patch for 0.7.3. Nothing major outside of a crash which was reported Sunday (tied to rain and roofs) and a few faulty achievements. A few changes requested by modders. And fences no longer count as valid walls to design rooms.

As usual with hot-patches, it's compatible with previous 0.7.x save-games.

Happy Steam Summer Sale everyone!

[h2]Changelog[/h2]

• Balance: Fences (metal & wood) can no longer be used as walls for a room
  
• Engine: Old savegames are now able to recognize factions added in later patches (it probably fixed a bunch of small issues/missing events in the process)
  
• Engine: Added "neutral fauna" faction (currently unused, but mods can make use of it)
  
• Modding: Spawners can force the spawned agents to be of a particular faction (using the new ForceFaction parameter)
  
• Modding: Fixed potential crash if the flora created during mapgen has spawners
  
• UI: Added help popup for the first time Animal Care is discovered
  
• Fixed: Crash if the screen is entirely covered with roofs and it's raining
  
• Fixed: In combat mode, the circle under enemies could be gray instead of red (happens with faction raiders generally)
  
• Fixed: Missing "Baby Steps", "20 people" and "40 people" achievements
  
• Fixed: Steam richpresence and some of the leaderboard wasn't working
  
• Fixed: Windows wouldn't count toward evaluating if a room is properly walled
  
• Fixed: Farm related crash when built next to a "decayed/debris" lamp
  

Here is a new massive content update for our 0.7 branch! It's introducing the ability to tame many of the wild creatures you can encounter in-game. It's also adding many new ones ranging from chickens to giant scorpions while allowing to exploit your cattle for other things than food production (like shearing for wool, collecting eggs, and so on).

As usual, I'm only going over the major new features and changes. There are plenty more modding, UI and balance improvements you can find in the full change-log at the bottom of this very article.

[h2]Interactions with cattle[/h2]

Until now, the only thing you could do with your cattle was to butcher it for food and collect a few additional resources on top depending on the species. Not anymore! Most animals are now small factories on legs. Chicken will drop eggs, your sheep can be sheared for wool, cows will give milk on a regular basis.



The system might look a bit cumbersome with a large animal population, but don't worry we added a few menus to handle cattle and settlers. We'll get to those further down.

[h2]Grow and tame wild animals[/h2]

I added a new technology to research: "Animal Care" (located after Medicine). Once completed, most wild creatures will get a chance to drop eggs when defeated. Additionally, you'll be able to construct two new buildings.



The first building is a simple container for those live eggs. The second building is an Animal Nursery. This is where you can grow those eggs into tamed versions of the defeated foes. Depending on the species, the fully grown creature can be used as cattle or as a pet (or both).

[h2]Scorpions, Nests, Events[/h2]

On top of the new peaceful animals, hostiles scorpions of various sizes and types have been added to the game. You'll find the smaller and fairly harmless ones in infested houses, caverns and sewers. Much larger and poisonous ones will appear during raid/migration events. Yes, poisonous! This is a new temporary health damaging effect, for which a cure can be researched at a medical station with the remains of a scorpion.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Then, we have the Queen Scorpion, a rare, late game, event which we won't illustrate in this article. She is our first boss-type enemy. She is extremely deadly and has more that one trick up her sleeve. Granted you have the proper tech and you manage to kill her, you'll receive an egg to make a copy of herself.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Additionally, we're introducing the concept of nests. Simply put, those will spawn (within limits) creatures while will patrol the location around it. For now, nests can appear in two ways: in a new low probability building, or when removing a very large boulder (5% chance). Nests can be removed by shooting at them or razing them. You can also potentially use them as a fairly manageable hunting ground.

[h2]Colony Manager[/h2]

I'm also introducing the new Colony Manager in this update. It's a menu replacing the old "faction/communication" menu and which is containing a few handy new features.



You are, of course, still able to discuss with other factions from this menu. But, on top of that, you can now select which jobs settlers can and cannot do based on their skill and the amount of people you want available. You can also use those settings as presets for new arrivals, so you don't have to review them individually if you don't want to.



In the same spirit and with the ability to use many tamed animal species as "factories", the colony manager also allows you to setup what you want to produce for each category in bulk. Making the whole process much easier to manage.

This is only the beginning regarding the Colony Manager, the menus will get standardized, and I will add new features in future updates.

[h2]Save Compatibility[/h2]

This is technically compatible with 0.7.2 save-games. However, some of the main features won't be active until you start a new game:

• Existing giant animals won't spawn eggs no matter if you have the "animal care" tech or not
  
• None of the new events will occur (scorpions, queen scorpion, good/bad news)
  
• Critter nests won't spawn

[h2]General Notes[/h2]

This is a very. large. update. Hopefully, it's as bug free as possible (at least on the "critical" bug level). I've tested the version as much as possible, but we're way past the point where it was still possible to fully play-test all the features and all their combinations. No worries, we'll tackle any new issue in a timely manner through hot-patches, as usual :)

[h2]Full Changelog[/h2]

• AI: Fauna idles more often, giving a more natural movement pattern
  
• AI: Red spiders can attack with both melee and ranged (instead of just ranged)
  
• AI: Brawls between survivors are more likely to occur when their mood is low
  
• Balance: Moods increase/decrease very slightly faster
  
• Balance: Reduced health of wooden fence (250->150, as it was way too sturdy)
  
• Balance: Toned down unhappiness for pet and friend's death a bit
  
• Balance: Some low risk raids no longer trigger on very large bases (to avoid cases where 3 tribals would attack a 20 ppl strong base)
  
• Balance: Reduced the occurrence of medical traits (one eyed/handed and so on) on settler spawn
  
• Balance: Slightly increased bullet speed of most ranged weapons
  
• Content: Added Animal Care to tech tree (after medical), unlocks the ability for hostile mobs to drop eggs, the ability to store and grow said eggs as exotic pets
  
• Content: New Animal Nursery building (unlocked by animal care) to grow eggs into tamed animals
  
• Content: New Egg container building (unlocked by animal care) to store eggs waiting to be grown.
  
• Content: Giant scorpions, spiders and crabs can be "adopted" this way, some work as cattle, others as pets
  
• Content: Sheep can be sheared to retrieve wool without the need to kill them
  
• Content: Added cows who can be milked to make cheese or butchered for food
  
• Content: Added chickens who can produce eggs to make omelettes
  
• Content: Added new recipes to basic and electric kitchens
  
• Content: Cheese gives a temporary "bad breath" trait (lower social)
  
• Content: Omelettes and Cooked meals give a temporary "Well fed" trait (small stats boost)
  
• Content: New "Golden Scorpion" small and giant mobs (melee, poison damage)
  
• Content: New "Black Scorpion" small and giant mobs (melee/ranged poison damage)
  
• Content: New "Scorpion Queen" mob, spawn smaller scorpions around her
  
• Content: More critter variety in infested buildings
  
• Content: Various poison effects (gradually increases sickness and/or decrease health)
  
• Content: Scorpions drop poison that can be sold or made into a cure at the medical station
  
• Content: New creature nest object can spawn during map generation or during an event. It will generate animals guarding it.
  
• Content: Boulders (2x2 rocks) have a 5% chance to uncover a scorpion or spider nest when removed
  
• Content: Added a few "mood modifier" events
  
• Content: Several new "invasion" events with the new mobs (early, mid, late-game events)
  
• Engine: Animals having specific names for males are females (bull/cow) can be named accordingly now
  
• Engine: Tamed animals/cattle can be interacted with to produce resources
  
• Graphics: Replaced the various "pipe weapon" sprites (and their associated techs) by much better looking ones
  
• Modding: Doctors will consider medical traits (missing eye/hand and so on) as things to fix, technically making artificial limbs a possibly moddable feature
  
• Modding: Added "FactoryMale" and "FactoryFemale" info to RaceData files (works the same as with clutter, allows settlers to produce stuff from animals)
  
• Modding: Added "CoolDownDuration" field to "Factory" info. Used to force the factory to "pause" for this amount of time in between completed recipes
  
• Modding: Added the ability to use frame animations for npc (like we have for clutter)
  
• Modding: Added ability for clutter to spawn another one on removal (look at data/clutter/pcg_rocklarge)
  
• Modding: Added ability for clutter and npc to spawn more npc (look at data/clutter/nest_* files)
  
• Modding: Added the ability for specific building to spawn specific npc/mobs instead of the generic ones
  
• Modding: Turrets (invisible for now) can be put on NPC (look at npc/mother_scorpion file)
  
• Modding: Turrets can specify their own load-out without the need to rely on the equiplist (look at npc/mother_scorpion file)
  
• Modding: Added "DropOnDeathChance" and "DropOnDeathTech" to traits (to give a probability and tech requirement for DropOnDeath to occur)
  
• Modding: The game will now accept mods with PNG files without the need to convert them to XNB. The option is still given to further optimize the mod (By Alex)
  
• ProcGen: Added rare "infested house" building, spawn with spider nests
  
• UI: The game log will properly display the cause of death when someone is killed by a health damaging trait (blood loss and so on)
  
• UI: Increased game log "memory" from 100 to 200 items
  
• UI: New "Colony Management" menu, replacing the "Faction" menu
  
• UI: Colony Manager: Job overview / ability to apply job templates to settlers and new arrivals
  
• UI: Colony Manager: Radio communication with other factions done from this menu
  
• UI: Colony Manager: Ability to set default jobs for your cattle
  
• UI: Added a "Stats" menu to the pause screen, showing all steam achievements status (Steam only) (By Alex)
  
• Fixed: Some cases where the settler using a factory wouldn't automatically pickup the output
  
• Fixed: Attack job was forcing the agent to turn toward target, even when moving, resulting in jittery animations
  
• Fixed: Giant spiders were missing proper animations for melee and ranged combat (we're about to replace them with something professionally made anyway)
  
• Fixed: Right clicking on the artifact slot would open the headgear item info panel instead
  
• Fixed: Pressing the previous button when selecting a skin for a furniture wasn't working as expected
  
• Fixed: Robots would count toward the amount of beds required
  
• Fixed: Turrets with explosive weapons wouldn't take weapons "Min Range" into account, and would occasionally blow themselves up
  
• Fixed: On slower machines, if you rush toward loading a game, before the initial background game loading is finished, the game might crash
  
• Fixed: Settlers would occasionally pick a door as a valid location to work or use some furniture, causing their position to reset every few seconds
  
• Fixed: Some cases where clicking a close button would open the menu for whichever item was under the button
  
• Fixed: Fissures and cracks on the ground weren't tagged as "removable"
  

This is kind of an emergency patch. Apparently, 0.7.1 broke the tutorial at some point, and I really can't leave the game without a tutorial so here's the fix. Our apologies for the issue.

Normally this patch should have been much larger (and should have been released later as well), but here we are. Expect a follow up patch before the end of the week. As usual refer to the change-log for the full overview.

As usual with hot-patches, save-games from 0.7.0 and 0.7.1 are compatible with this patch.

[h2]Changelog[/h2]

• AI: When told to equip a new weapon, settlers will immediately try to grab ammo as well
  
• Balance: In the start menu, increased equipment points from 2000 to 2500 to take some price changes into account
  
• UI: Added confirmation menu when recalling settlers from expeditions or abandonning a production center
  
• UI: Added proper right-click info panel for artifacts
  
• Fixed: 0.7.1 broke the tutorial by accident, it's now fixed
  
• Fixed: In the settler info panel, under some condition, the weapon slot couldn't be clicked
  
• Fixed: The price of fabric would clash with the price of its component (cotton). Increased first, decreased second.
  
• Fixed: Loot button (on player owned production centers) was clickable when an expedition was already running
  
• Fixed: Settlers would unequip artifacts when loading a savegame
  
• Fixed: (modding) new NPC wouldn't equip artifacts
  
• Fixed: Missing achievements
  
• Fixed: MP5 and assault rifle in the starting equipement menu were the "innate" versions (which don't use ammo and can't be unequipped)
  
• Fixed: MultiSelection menu (in combat mode) wouldn't update itself when a settler is shift+clicked to be added/removed
  
• Fixed: MultiSelection menu wouldn't update the health information of settlers in real time
  
• Fixed: MultiSelection menu wouldn't appear or close itself properly when clicking specific buttons or (de)selecting people in combat mode
  
• Fixed: Pressing the "select all military units" button/shortcut wouldn't open the MultiSelection menu.
  
• Fixed: Robots and vehicles could still get the hot, sick, infected, blood loss, lacerations (and so on) effects. No more robots in your med bay.
  
• Fixed: Crazed robots would ignore shamblers, tribals and other fauna (they now have their own faction, new game only)
  
• Fixed: Keyboard shortcut to increase game speed was capped at 2.5 instead of 3
  
• Fixed: Weapon/Armor duplication glitch when ordering multiple people to equip something simultaneously
  
• Fixed: Weapons' "Rate of Fire" wouldn't take game speed into account
  
• Fixed: Some help tooltips would keep appearing no matter if you click "never show again" or not
  
• Fixed: Some issues when changing weapons/armors from the settler info panel
  
• Fixed: When controlling multiple production centers of the same type, assuming the game isn't restarted between supply drops, the player would receive exponentially more resources
  
• Fixed: Problem when designing robots, costing exponentially more resource. (same root cause as above)
  
• Fixed: Some characters in the french version were causing issues in the menus
  

Hi there!

As promised, and by popular demand, here is the absolutely fascinating ROOF UPDATE, which I will now proceed to explain in great details. There's also a few new features like proper tombs for your settlers. As usual you can find the full change-log at the end of this very article.

[h2]Roofs[/h2]
So, we've added roofs. They can be built anywhere on the surface (1 wood per tile) to protect your settlers from the weather. You can of course also remove the roofs, but the wood is lost. You'll find both options in the zone/room menu. The underground, by definition doesn't need roofs. Because, you know, it's underground.



In practice, what does it change?

Well, things like solar panels and water collectors won't work under a roof. Farms can, but most plants will require a grow lamp nearby. Things and settlers under a roof are not affected by weather effect. For instance, the dreaded acid rain will not kill your crops and make your settlers sick while they are under a roof. Additionally, most rooms (barracks, dining rooms, bedrooms, break room, hospitals) need to be under a roof for them to function properly.

If you start a new game with 0.7.2, buildings on the map come with a roof. If you're continuing a game from 0.7.1, you'll have to build your own, and rather quickly because all your rooms are likely to be missing a roof. Sorry about that.

[h2]Weather[/h2]
I wouldn't normally go over what is mostly a graphical feature, but given how better it looks now, I couldn't resist.

The main issue when adding roofs was for the rain not to appear in roofed areas. As you might remember, our "rain effect" was an extremely crude animated texture put over the screen. It was ugly and make it not show over specific parts of the screen pretty much impossible.



So, I rewrote the system entirely. Rain is now dynamic, with water droplets falling on the ground (in the open only). Note that the screenshots do not do it justice, it looks much better when in game. Interestingly, now there's a visible difference between a light rain and a heavy storm.

[h2]Graves and Mourning[/h2]
You can now build proper graves for your settlers (and enemies if you wish). It gives the ability for your (still breathing) settlers to occasionally visit the tombs of their dead friends for a temporary morale boost.



Settlers will only visit the tomb of someone they had a strong opinion about (be it a friend or a foe). It's not cutting down on their productivity as they'll only visit a tomb when they'd normally take a break.

As with pretty much any other in-game feature, tombs are fully moddable, and while the game currently offers just one individual tomb giving a mild happiness boost, it's perfectly possible to add "better" tombs giving better boosts or mass graves having an opposite effect.

[h2]Modding[/h2]

Speaking of modding, Alex has been hard at work adding an in-game mod editor. Currently, it cannot edit every single file type yet, but it will be gradually improved upon in the coming months. It also allows you to test your changes in a live game without having to restart the game each time you edit something.

I've also added several new features. Notably, traits can give constant damage or healing now (well by constant I mean every 5 seconds). Animals kids can have a different size than their parents, and weather effects can be tagged as "dangerous" to tell the engine that the settlers should favor pathing through roofed areas whenever possible.

[h2]Misc Improvements[/h2]
I've also included a bunch of requested features, like keyboard shortcuts to center on the selected item, and to center on the last event in the log. More importantly, and note that this is still a tad experimental, most menus (factories, doors, research and so on...) can now be opened even when you're in combat mode. You no longer have to switch in and out just to lock your gate.

Alex has also been adding a bunch of new Steam Achievements. More will come gradually.

And of course there are a bunch of smaller improvements, UI/balance tweaks and fixes based on your feedback. Refer to the change-log for a complete list.

[h2]Save-game Compatibility[/h2]
This version should be fully compatible with 0.7 and 0.7.1 save-games. The only issue is that if you continue from a previous save-game, you will have to build a lot of roofs before your settlers start complaining.

[h2]What's Next?[/h2]
With the roofs finally out of the way, we'll be resuming our schedule. Next on the menu will be wild animal taming and the ability to interact with your cattle in "non lethal" ways, like milking cow, shearing the wool from a sheep, and so on.

We'll also start implementing a new "Colony" menu where you'll be able to set general rules and laws for your settlement. This is also likely where I will be adding a few useful features like the ability to automatically set jobs/skills based on your parameters in the future.

Then, in a few updates, we'll be adding non lethal combat and the ability to take prisoners.

[h2]Full Change-log[/h2]

• AI: Settlers will try to avoid tiles without a roof during acid rains
  
• AI: Settlers whose friend(s) are dead and buried in a proper tomb will occasionally visit the tomb and receive some happiness from it
  
• Balance: Some traits like laceration, blood loss and infection cause regular health damage until they go away (or get fixed)
  
• Balance: Added conditions to the unique/rare "ken" raid to prevent it from wiping out new settlements
  
• Content: Added individual tombs for your settlers (in build/utility)
  
• Content: Added Roofs (can be built and removed through the zone/room menu, build cost = 1 wood. no refund.)
  
• Content: Solar panels and water collectors won't work under roofs
  
• Content: Farms under a roof will function the same way as if they were underground and require a grow lamp
  
• Content: Weather effects (cold, hot, acid rain) only apply to people who aren't under a roof
  
• Content: Many rooms require to have a roof (bedrooms, dining room, hospitals, break room) to function properly
  
• Content: Added rare and deadlier version of the Acid Rain (mid/late game, causes direct health damage and heavier sickness)
  
• Content: People you've exiled from the settlement might occasionally come back with a vengeance
  
• Content: A bunch of new Steam achievements (by Alex)
  
• Graphics: Rain will not show over roofed areas
  
• Graphics: Non adult animals are smaller now
  
• Graphics: Mutants (the green guys) are a tad larger
  
• Graphics: Much better looking rain effect
  
• Graphics: Intensity of rain varies depending on the weather
  
• Graphics: Better looking wooden fence
  
• Graphics: Replaced sprites for batteries (small and large)
  
• Modding: Added Mod Editor (in mod manager), it's not yet covering all the features, but it'll be improved upon (by Alex)
  
• Modding: You can "inject" mod editor code directly into a live game for testing purpose (by Alex)
  
• Modding: Added "DangerOutside" (true/false) to weather data telling if settlers should avoid going outside
  
• Modding: Added "ScaleBirth" (0.7 default) and "ScaleAdult" (1.0 default) to RaceData files, to set size depending on age
  
• Modding: Added "GfxScale" to npc files to change the default scale of living beings
  
• Modding: Added "RequireRoof" to room data files (default = false)
  
• Modding: Traits can provide constant heal/damage by using "NeedMods" -> "Heal" (positive value = heal, negative = damage), every 5 seconds.
  
• Modding: Tombs can be modded to give specific amount of morale boost (or decrease) via "MoodModifier" and give a trait to whoever is visiting it via "GiveTrait"
  
• UI: Farm plots lacking proper lighting have an warning icon
  
• UI: Added "Center camera on last event" and "Center camera on selected item" hotkeys to game settings
  
• UI: In combat mode, Shift clicking a settler which is already in the selection will be removed from selection (like in most RTS)
  
• UI: Most menus (factories, depots, doors...) can now be properly interacted with while in combat mode
  
• UI: Made the "building in progress" menu nicer to look at
  
• UI: Added ability to add/remove roof overlay from view in the filters
  
• Fixed: I might have forgotten to tell the farms that they need "grow lamps" instead of "any light source" (my bad)
  
• Fixed: First time the game is launched, if the desktop resolution is over 1920x1080 the user interface's scale might be wrong
  
• Fixed: When renaming a settler/depot you could still call a game shortcut by mistake
  
• Fixed: Weird sentence in the log "settler is sick: dead" replaced by "settler is dead (sickness)"
  
• Fixed: Entering a limited combat mode (with only one or a few settlers) would incorrectly tell other settlers to go to the shelter
  
• Fixed: There was a mob overpopulation problem in the underground when a small cavern is generated