Surviving the Aftermath is flink op de schop genomen

Hoewel Surviving the Aftermath zeker geen verschrikkelijke game is, heeft het een aantal dingen waar spelers tegenaan lopen. Gelukkig kunnen dergelijke punten worden aangepakt dankzij het wonder genaamd internet.

Je had het waarschijnlijk al begrepen, maar de nieuwe update voor Surviving the Aftermath focust zich op het verbeteren van bestaande functies in de game. Dit leidt tot een uitgebreide lading patch notes, die je onderaan dit bericht kunt vinden, maar voor zij die geen half uur de tijd hebben zijn hier de cliff notes:

Je kunt nu een Alarm uitzenden waardoor al je kolonisten dekking zoeken. Zo verlies je niet onnodig veel mankracht bij een ramp of raid. De enige uitzonderingen hierop zijn Medics, Guards en Specialists, die je nodig hebt bij een aanval. Het alarm is stressvol en het gebruik ervan moet daarom niet worden onderschat. Het geluk van je bevolking keldert en ze kunnen niet eten of verzorgd worden zo lang je ze in lockdown laat. Combat in zijn geheel is ook opnieuw gebalanceerd, zodat jij als speler een actievere rol erin speelt.

Over Specialists gesproken: er is een nieuwe functie om het vergaren ervan makkelijker te maken, al kost het wel zilver en heeft het een cooldown. Je kunt daarbij niet beslissen wat voor soort Specialist je krijgt.

Het Building Info Panel heeft een make-over gekregen zodat het accurater is en makkelijker om te gebruiken, en ook andere UI zijn toegevoegd, verwijderd of getweaked, zoals de balance of power indicator en de Battle UI. Dit blijft echter een work-in-progress. Hetzelfde geldt voor Outposts, die nu een Medical-variant krijgen, maar nog verder worden verbeterd.

De patch notes zijn als volgt:

General

A colony-wide alarm system has been implemented.

    This system will alert all your colonists and command them to take shelter inside their homes to avoid dangers. The colonists will remain home until the alarm state has been lifted.
    During the alarm state your Guards and Specialists will be on alert and react to hostiles more aggressively.
    – The colony alarm will cause a happiness penalty to all your colonists.
    – The alarm system can be triggered by selecting the new button in the bottom left corner, next to the time of day indicator.
    – With a controller this button can be found in the separate menu that is opened by pressing the down button.
    – It can be turned off by pressing the same button again.
    – Combat in the colony has also been slowed down a bit to ensure your colonists have time to take shelter.

World Map UI has been improved.

    A new command menu has been implemented in the World Map.
    – This command menu will now show you all the actions you have with any selected unit, be it a Specialist, an Outpost or something else.
    – Buttons such as Return to Colony, Take Survivors etc will all be shown in this menu.
    Improvements to the combat UI in the World Map have also been done.
    – A new look to the combat floater which shows the balance of power and the status of the combat has been implemented.
    – Some unnecessary floaters will be hidden during combat.
    – The combat panel shown when a Specialist is in combat with a bandit will now give you a clearer forecast in text form of the outcome of the combat.
    Specialist floaters will now be hidden if the Specialist is in combat or scavenging.

The building info panels have been revamped.

    The building info panels will now give you a better understanding of the building and how it works.
    On the top of the panel you will see the current production status of the building.
    – This section will also show you what resources the building needs and what it produces.
    – The panel also shows you the completion percentage where applicable.
    – Previously some buildings would also show this percentage but the numbers were inaccurate.
    The panel will also show you the status of the building itself and if there are any issues with it.
    – Hovering over the status of the building will show you all of the issues the building currently has.
    Hovering over the colonist workslots will now show a new tooltip with a lot more information about the colonist than before.
    – The tooltip should show where the colonist is at the moment, what items they have and if they have any conditions.
    – This should give you a better understanding of what could be causing delays in the production of resources from the selected building.
    The selection panel in different buildings has also been updated.
    – The details of for example different seeds are now shown in a clearer way.

You can now recruit new Specialists through the button in the Specialist Menu on the top of the screen.

    The button is visible in the first empty slot. If you have 10 Specialists already, you cannot invite more until you have made space for them.
    This button will invite a random Specialist to your colony which you can then hire if you can afford them.
    Inviting a Specialist through this button will cause a small cooldown time on the button until you are able to invite a new Specialist to your colony.
    Because of this new way of acquiring Specialists, the amount of Specialists chosen in the pregame selections has been decreased from the 3 to 2.

The long-awaited Healing Outpost has been added to the game.

    Built the same way as other outposts, this outpost will heal one of your Specialists at a time in the World Map.
    The Specialist needs to be placed on top of the Outpost and wait there until their APs are filled for them to be healed.
    Once the Specialist is at full health, you will receive a notification informing you of this.

The population softcap has been increased significantly.

    New survivor groups will stop arriving at around 350 colonists and new births will stop at around 400 colonists.

Changed the start of the game so that the Specialists will now appear with the colonists after the flare has been shot instead of immediately after the Campsite has been built.

    The time before the flare is shot automatically has been reduced due to this change.
    You are still able to use that time to place construction zones in your colony and plan how to build your colony.
    Because of this change, the Campsite cannot be demolished until you have invited the colonists to your colony.

Gameplay

    Events in the colony will now accept more types of resources.
    – This should allow you to give for example any type of food instead of having to give that exact type the event requires.
    – Some events might still require a specific type of food or resource by intention.
    – The change also affects different levels of Clothes, Tools and Weapons. This change should always choose to accept the lowest level that is available.
    Fixed an issue that caused the sector to remain red even after defeating the bandit in the World Map.
    Fixed the issue that caused bandits to become stuck at 0/100 health in the World Map.
    – If this issue occurred in your save, you will need to command a Specialist to attack the bandit to ensure it gets removed correctly.
    The Carrier Count option in the Campsite and its upgrades now has a tooltip.
    Ranged Rat Beetles have been added to the game.
    – These hostile animals can fire at your colonists and specialists, not requiring them to be close to do damage.
    Fixed a bug that would cause damage caused by bandits in combat in the World Map to not be spread evenly among the Specialists in the combat.
    Colonists should no longer commit suicide due to Despair while being treated in the medical buildings.
    Added the possibility to cycle through Specialists in the same combat on the World Map with the bumpers on the controller.
    The buttons in the bottom menu that can be accessed with a controller have been reordered both in the Colony and in the World Map.
    Fixed an issue that would cause two locations on the World Map to not be scavengable.
    A notification will now be shown in the Colony when a Specialist has died while scavenging in the World Map.
    Various issues that caused the Specialists to visually appear at the Colony gate even though they were in the World Map have been fixed.
    Fixed one cause to the issue that would cause the notification showing how many irradiated colonists you had in the colony to become a large negative number.
    – We are still investigating other causes, so this issue can still occur for you while playing.
    Fixed an issue that would cause hostile animals to act in erratic ways when trying to attack colonists.
    Fixed an issue that would allow colonists working in the Burial Pit and the Graveyard to be immune to conditions.
    – They will now gain conditions just like other colonists.

Graphics

    The Library building has been renewed.
    Specialist idle-walking animation in the colony has been adjusted.
    Several art polishes have been implemented on the World Map props, terrain textures, vehicles and terrain locations.
    Outpost icons have been updated.
    Campsite smoke effects have been tweaked.
    Post-processing effects for different catastrophes have been adjusted.

Balance Adjustments

    The amount of science produced by locations in the World Map has been increased.
    – These affect the Research Outposts located in the same sector.
    Tech Tree research durations have been reduced.
    Balance Adjustments to how often events and catastrophes are spawned to the game have been implemented.
    – The game can now spawn smaller disasters more frequently.
    Gate Combat now takes slightly less time.
    Butchering livestock will now produce a smaller amount of Prime Meat.
    The trade values of unprocessed meats and insects have been decreased.
    The scavenging rate of planks and concrete has been increased.
    The Guard Post and the Scout Tower now do less damage to hostiles.
    The amount of damage different guns do to hostiles in the colony has been adjusted.
    The Plastic Extractor now produces slightly more resources at a slightly slower rate so that it is now consistent with the other extractors.
    The amount of Planks in deposits around the colony has been decreased.
    The amount of meat in different animal carcasses has been decreased.
    The damage resistance for several buildings has been adjusted.
    The scouting areas of the Campsite and its first upgrade and the Scout Tower have been reduced but the scouting itself has been made more linear so that it does not slow down towards the end but instead is scouted at a constant speed to the end.
    The Guard Post now has its own scouting area that is larger than the Scout Tower’s.