Endzone - A World Apart News

• Buildings: Fixed production buildings not moving resources to depositories even though those have enough space left.
  
• Buildings: Fixed a bug where some ground cells are highlighted as blocking even though they aren’t while trying to place new buildings in areas where buildings have been dismantled. This fix only works for newly placed buildings after this Hotfix.
  
• Buildings: Fixed Expedition Rations being radiated when radiated water is used.
  
• Settlers: Fixed cases where the spawn of ‘resource piles' lead to block the settlers from getting new tasks.
  
• Settlers: Fixed a bug that could break the work assignments for settlers.
  
• Settlers: Fixed settlers being stuck in a job switching loop.
  
• Raiders: Fixed Raiders sometimes no longer triggering after a certain season is reached.
  
• Town Center: The fully upgraded Town Center no longer has false information about electricity effects.
  
• UI: Decrees should now always be correctly greyed out when they are not usable.
  
• UI: Endscreen of Scenarios now show the correct message when it’s Game Over.
  
• UI: Fixed cursor flickering issue that could also lead to a drop in FPS.
  
• UI: Fixed a bug where the UI stopped working correctly when trying to remove streets.
  
• Savegames: Fixed two potential causes for corrupted savegames.
  

• Raiders: Raider now appear in lower frequency.
  
• Raiders: Tribute now scales less fast when paying them several times.
  
• Raiders: Raiders first appearance is now slightly later in the game.
  
• Raiders: Watchtower can now be occupied with up to 10 Militias.
  
• Side Missions: “Heroes feast” now asks for Food instead of a hearty meal.
  
• Side Missions: “This Illness Is Nothing to Sneeze At” now triggers at a higher number of sick settlers and asks for less medicine to be produced.
  
• UI: The FPS Limit is now greyed out when Vsync is enabled as it doesn’t work in this combination.
  
• Game Modes: Easy mode is now the default mode for a new session as it’s the game mode that is also used in the tutorial.
  
• Repair: Buildings set to ‘build next’ are now getting repaired partially if not all resources are available.
  

We've noted before how a lot of city-building games don't meaningfully deal with the issue of climate change or humans' long-term impacts on the environment. Endzone - A World Apart, which has just left Early Access on Steam, is one that definitely does: it's about rebuilding civilisation following a global nuclear apocalypse.

In Endzone, you begin as a small group of some of the first survivors to venture back to the Earth's surface after more than 100 years of living underground. A global nuclear disaster has devastated the planet, and even now, generations later, poison and radiation are constant threats as humanity tries to reestablish itself above ground.

Endzone's launch update is a big one: now, in addition to dealing with realistically modeled radioactive zones and acid rain, you'll also have to contend with raiders who are eager to steal or destroy the settlement you're leading. New buildings like the watchtower, siren, and ammo factory will help keep you prepared for their incursions, but you'll also be able to pay tribute to raider groups, but their demands will only increase with each payment.

Read the rest of the story...

• Raiders: Added raiders to the game. They consist of 5 different tribes, and start spawning in the mid game, around season 30. Every raider tribe has its own leader and motivation. You can fight off raider encounters by building defensive countermeasures. Alternatively, you can also pay tribute, which will increase every time. If you choose to fight, a raging mob spawns on the map, demolishing buildings and stealing resources from your settlement. Every mob has its health and morale. Reducing health can be achieved by firing with lethal ammunition. Less health means that the raider mob has less power. Lowering morale can be achieved by firing rubber bullets or using Siren Towers. This doesn’t weaken the effectiveness of the mob until it has lost its morale, at which point raiders will start to flee.
  
• Buildings: Added the Watchtower as a defensive measure against raiders. Assign Militia to the tower to stock it up with ammunition and to fight back in case of a raider attack.
  
• Buildings: Added the Siren Tower as a defensive measure against raiders. Provide the siren tower with electricity to fight back autonomously against raiders.
  
• Buildings: Added Barricades with 5 different variations as a defensive measure against raiders. Barricades slow down raider movement.
  
• Buildings: Added the Ammunition Factory as part of the defensive measures against raiders. It can produce two different types of ammunition. Rubber bullets and lethal ammunition. Rubber bullets reduce raiders’ morale. Lethal ammunition reduces their health.
  
• Buildings: Added ability to build diagonal roads using a shortcut.
  
• Buildings: Added a smoke effect for damaged buildings.
  
• Research: Added 3 new technologies to the tech tree: Defensive measures, the Siren Tower and barricades.
  
• Resources: Added Sulfur as a new resource that can be produced in the mine. Sulfur is used for creating bullets.
  
• Options: Added FPS limiter as a graphic option. If you are experiencing heat issues you might want to enable vsync or set a FPS limitation to 30, 48 or 60 fps. Default is 60.
  
• Options: Added ability to completely activate/deactivate the radiation effect.
  
• Statistics: Added a game progress screen where you can track and see several key achievements of your ongoing session.
  
• UI: Added a building condition analytic view to see the state of all the buildings in your settlement.
  
• UI: Added planning mode. This mode allows you to place buildings as paused construction sites, to plan ahead with no resources being allocated. The mode can be activated via shortcut or by clicking on the planning mode icon when placing a building.
  
• Settlers: Added the possibility for diseases to break out, when many dead bodies are lying around; also added a new "plague" notification.
  
• Sound: added voice overs in English and German for all scenarios, traders, raider encounters, tutorials and expedition introductions.
  
• Sound: Added 2 new soundtrack files for raider encounters and one new gameplay track.
  
• Scenarios: Added a new Scenario: Hunters and the Hunted.
  
• Achievements: Added 25 new achievements to the game.
  
• Main Menu: Added a map preview for the survival game mode.
  
• Map Generation: Added over 585 new map variations for the starting area, to make each map more unique.
  
• Decrees: Added a new Outlander decree, and reorganized outlander missions.
  
• Side Missions: Added 2 new outlander side missions and 3 new research missions.
  
• World Task: Added a task to upgrade all streets in a selected area.
  

• Tutorial: Fixed bug that prevented the completion of the Trade Tutorial
  
• Tutorial: In the expedition tutorial, when sending the expedition to the gas station, Arthur now talks to the player, as the text suggests.
  
• Localization: Fixed a lot of voice over to text mismatches.
  
• Map Generation: Fixed error when generating small maps.
  
• Map Generation: Distance to water is now always correctly calculated.
  
• Buildings: Fixed an error when destroying the medical center.
  
• Buildings: Fixed hunter shooting animals outside of it’s area of influence.
  
• Buildings: Fixed Research Station not being able to handle food correctly.
  
• Buildings: Fixed animals that were moving while they should be killed/caught.
  
• Buildings: Fixed bug where the hunting lodge complained about missing animals, while animals were in the area of influence.
  
• Buildings: Fixed effect stuttering of damaged buildings.
  
• Buildings: Fixing a bug where the list of animals on the map would not be cleared when starting a new game.
  
• Buildings: Settlers will now visit the pavilion and memorial.
  
• Buildings: Fixed plantations and fields not removing crops correctly after a savegame upgrade.
  
• Buildings: Fixed odd plantation placement and moved plantation trees to new positions in older saved games.
  
• Buildings: Fixed missing icon highlights for certain world tasks.
  
• Buildings: Buildings now get repaired to be functional again if not all resources for an upgrade are available at the moment.
  
• Expeditions: Fixed expedition taking the wrong items when going to a resource ruin.
  
• Expeditions: Fixed several placeholder errors in expeditions.
  
• Expeditions: Fixed missing localization in diner story.
  
• Expeditions: Fixed error when loading a savegame when the expedition was on its way back from an infinite resource ruin.
  
• Expeditions: Undiscovered ruins from older savegames are no longer discovered when loading the save game.
  
• Expeditions: Fixed bad line breaking in expedition window.
  
• Expeditions: Ruins are now always markable for dismantling from inside the expedition window.
  
• Expeditions: Fixed error when expedition post inventory does not have enough space for all looted resources.
  
• Expeditions: Fixed error when starting an expedition when expedition post inventory is full.
  
• UI: Fixed view issue when scrolling to bottom of expedition configuration's settler list.
  
• UI: Fixed highlighting of settlement inventory items during looting of expeditions.
  
• UI: Attractiveness analytic view now always shows the correct values.
  
• UI: Notification of damaged buildings is now correctly hidden when there are no damaged buildings anymore.
  
• UI: The placeholder text in search fields is now localized.
  
• UI: New settlers notification now spawns in all relevant cases.
  
• Scenarios: Fixed an error when trying to restart a saved scenario.
  
• Wildlife: Fixed several errors that could result in animals walking over lakes and other path inconsistencies.
  
• Wildlife: Fixed possibility of only one herd type being on a map.
  
• Savegames: Fixed an error that could happen right after trying to load a savegame.
  
• System: Fixed global progress being corrupted, and added reconstruction systems where possible.
  
• System: Fixed rare issue where the system tries to process autosave-games that are just deleted but still cached by the operating-system
  
• System: Fixed wrong scenario being initialized when using restart-button on a scenario-savegame
  
• Camera: Fixed camera animation not playing at the beginning of a scenario/tutorial based on a save game.
  
• Input: Cancel shortcut (ESC) does nothing when an in game prompt is open.
  
• Side Missions: Fixed broken Tailor malfunction mission.
  
• Side Missions: Cooldowns for side missions are now actually saved in a savegame.
  
• Side Missions: Fixed wrong behavior when counting and solving certain mission goals.
  
• Main Menu: Fixed error when going back to the tutorial screen after finishing a tutorial.
  
• Settlers: Fixed builders not repairing upgraded buildings, even if all requirements and resources were met.
  
• Settlers: Fixed too many settlers being able to live in a house.
  
• Settlers: Improved algorithm to find the best suited builder for the next task.
  
• Research: Fixed Pipe System technology not working on electric wells.
  

• Tutorial: The expedition tutorial now gives all kinds of tools and clothing, so the player has more options to customize the expedition.
  
• Side Missions: Changed several trigger conditions and rewards for balancing reasons.
  
• Side Missions: Outlander side missions have now been reorganized and don’t require a town center level 3 upgrade anymore. Instead, they can be triggered in the forum and by activating a special decree.
  
• Side Missions: Tweaked several side missions to use a trading window, where you can decide what resources you want to “give away”.
  
• Side Missions: Too many dead people side mission now requires at least one working graveyard.
  
• Side Missions: Several missions now hide their goals, when no goals should be displayed.
  
• Side Missions: Knowledge is Power mission no longer spawns when players have more than 9 tech points.
  
• Side Missions: Improved localization and UI feedback for side missions with optional solve counts.
  
• Main Menu: Overhauled the session creation UI for survival mode.
  
• Main Menu: Minor main menu visual and sound tweaks and polishing.
  
• Main Menu: Removed or rearranged road map, disclaimer texts and social interaction buttons.
  
• Main Menu: Disabled side missions in the builder mode preset.
  
• Buildings: Tweaked Memorial textures.
  
• Buildings: Tweaked visuals of lupin and tomatoes when growing on a field.
  
• Buildings: Animals that have been captured now remember their gender when being brought to a hunting lodge or pasture.
  
• Buildings: Tweaked footprint of the school building.
  
• Buildings: It’s now possible to build power poles on streets that are not yet built.
  
• Buildings: Changed & optimized the visuals of several buildings.
  
• Buildings: Solar collectors now reflects light during the day.
  
• UI: Several tweaks to building inspectors and buttons.
  
• UI: Improved game log and made sure that text is always displayed correctly.
  
• UI: Increased font size of all tooltips as they should always be comfortable/easy to read
  
• UI: Removed bug button to post feedback (You can still post feedback using ‘F1’)
  
• UI: Tweaked radiation screen effect visuals.
  
• UI: Changed order of tutorials.
  
• UI: Lower hud was reorganized, especially timeline view and analytic buttons, to work better in all aspect ratios and ui scales.
  
• UI: Roadmap doesn’t pop up when starting the game anymore.
  
• UI: Building Mode overlay is now disabled when the building is currently dismantled.
  
• UI: The progress for a story ruin is now shown in the expedition window.
  
• UI: Improved visuals of camera position buttons on minimap.
  
• UI: Changed sorting of logistics build menu.
  
• UI: Street, field, and plantation cursor is now highlighted in subtle red, if not placeable.
  
• Scenario: Endscreen now has different buttons and button actions when the scenario failed (restart & main menu vs. continue & main menu).
  
• Settlers: Tweaked settler decision making a little to make more sense.
  
• Settlers: Tweaked priority for upgrading buildings to be higher.
  
• Settlers: Settlers try to stick more to roads if available.
  
• Settlers: Adding wandering behavior to idling settlers (they now move around in the near vicinity).
  
• Performance: Further performance improvements.
  
• Expeditions: Ruins can no longer be dismantled when chosen to be scouted.
  
• Expedition: Expedition rations warning no longer triggers when sending an expedition to resource POIs.
  
• Achievements: Changed the way achievements are unlocked. Session based achievements can now only be unlocked in a survival game, to avoid getting achievements by simply starting specific scenarios and tutorials.
  
• Achievements: Added info text for all game modes to communicate where achievements can be unlocked.
  
• Animation: Added scared animation to settlers that are close to an ongoing raider encounter.
  
• Animation: Added new animations for kids inside the school.
  
• Options: Sensitivity settings are now reset when reset-all-button is pressed in controls options.
  
• Options: Removed obsolete resolution warning.
  
• Environment: Particles now adapt to game speed.
  
• Trading: Animals offered by traders are now weighted based on the amount of animals present in the settlement.
  
• Trading: Traders now react after issuing a trading offer, so their reaction in conjunction with the voice overs offers a good experience and feedback.
  
• Sound: Reduced the sound for flag decorations.
  
• Sound: Changed prioritization of ambient audio sources to make more sense.
  

• Map generation: All share codes have become invalid due to the new map variations. New share codes work as expected.
  
• Buildings: The Market sometimes collects types of food that are prohibited to be collected. Also the Market sometimes gives wrong feedback about Resources that can’t be collected in the near vicinity.
  
• Buildings: The highest upgrade of the bus can still be connected to a power grid, even though the building no longer benefits from electricity. Additionally, the building tooltip for upgrading the mounted bus to the town center falsely contains fragments of its prior function when supplied with electricity.
  

• Metal bullet: 1 coal, 1 sulfur, 1 metal = 5 units
  
• Rubber bullet: 1 coal, 1 sulfur, 1 plastic = 5 units