Surviving Mars Adds Touching Stephen Hawking Tribute and ... Birth Control

04/06/2018 12:22 am EDT

Surviving Mars is a Space Simulator from Paradox Interactive and Haemimont Games that is now available for Xbox One, PS4, and PC players. The game promises a realistic experience on the Red Planet, while also allowing for unlimited growth while settling in. We previously reported that the detailed ESRB rating shows off that players can commit suicide, become alcoholics, and even go insane. You can read more about that here, but today the survivor title added a few new aspects to the science adventure.

In addition to a science institute being named after the recently deceased Stephen Hawking, the developers behind the Mars game have added an ... um, interesting birth control policy, as well as a neat new photo mode. A few mods have been added as well for PC players, which makes the gameplay experience even more customizable.

Check out what's new in the latest patch notes below:

Major Changes

• Science Institute renamed to Hawking Institute in tribute to Stephen Hawking
• Added Birth Control Policy in domes. You can now set births to allowed or forbidden (Ctrl + LMB sets birth control policy in all domes)
• Increased max zoom out distance
• Optimized the way colonists pick workplaces. Colonists should now pick the best workplace for their specialization correctly and much faster
• Added "Reassign All" button to drones which reassigns all drones from this commander or orphaned drones in the area
• Colonists will no longer try to walk kilometers on foot to resettle resulting in them dying from lack of oxygen
• Rover Command AI tech now removes the batteries of all rovers
• Added a keybinding (default: i) that hides/shows resource & anomaly icons on the map
• Rovers are more likely to effectively use tunnels
• Rovers pathfinding improved
• Added free camera option in Photo Mode
• Press Ctrl + F1 and you will open an in-game bug reporter

Mods

• Published most of the game code for reference purposes
• Added cheats menu to mod editor
• Mod editor now loads a map with a prebuilt colony
• Enabled a Lua console on the mod editing map
• Localization tables from mods can now localize the main menu
• Mod documentation fixes
• Allowed renaming of mods
• Added support for PNG files in mod cover images
• Easier way of adding technologies, research points and applicants from mission sponsor and commander profile mods
• UI modding: templates
• Infopanel modding: all templates in groups InfopanelHeader and InfopanelContent
• Added list of technologies to documentation
• Added autoattaches and night lighting objects to modding documentation

Gameplay

• Extended the range rovers need to be in to recharge from cables. The RC Transport looks for cables in the start and ending point of transport routes automatically
• Lowered the chance for idiot flaw to appear in the colony and applicant pool
• Space Rehabilitation tech removes flaws before newly arrived colonists decide in which dome to settle
• Fixed an issue where shuttles could fail to pick up a colonist for resettlement
• Fixed an issue where some buildings connected to a very large power network failed to get power
• Reserved residence slots are released if the colonist can't reach the dome during resettlement
• Salvaging a rocket without its cargo unloaded should no longer leads to stuck drones
• Colonists that fail to reach a dome won't constantly try to reach it again and again
• Dome Streamlining tech now affects the Geoscape Dome
• Construction Nanites no longer construct sites that are turned off
• Renegades and rogue drones no longer target construction sites
• Superconducting Computing now provides less research points
• General Training tech now has flavor text
• Fuel Refinery now has the Factory AI upgrade
• Colonists are now immune to Earthsick when playing with IMM sponsor
• Colonists no longer reserve residential slots in faraway domes if shuttle hubs are not operational (e.g. during a dust storm)
• Triboelectric Scrubber no longer scrubs buildings inside domes
• Colonists can now be manually assigned to training (School, University, Sanatorium)
• It is no longer possible to select the same trait multiple times in Schools
• Construction of building upgrades is now serviced by more drones
• Fixed a bug with calculations of modifiers and small amounts of research points
• Fixed an exploit that allowed the construction of buildings via keybindings without the necessary tech
• Fixes for the mystery log of the Spheres mystery
• Fixed an issue which caused colonists to eat less food. Boosted production of farms slightly to compensate for the increased consumption.

UI

• "Research complete" notification now shows the tech description in question on rollover
• Added option to rename buildings
• Shuttle Hub now shows information about shuttle load across the colony
• Botanists & Geologists have new icons
• Changed dome quarantine button to Immigration Policy control
• Merged the "Assign Workplace", "Assign Residence" buttons for colonists into a single button "Assign to Building"
• Added an indicator which traits are selected in schools and sanatoriums when selecting traits
• Keybindings for rover commands now work correctly
• Fungal Farm Automation upgrade now uses correct icon
• Allowed rebinding of camera zoom in/out and camera tilt keybindings
• Seniors are no longer considered "outside the workforce" after researching Forever Young
• Drone workload information added to RC Rover
• Fixed a bug where rocket fuel was not displayed in certain cases
• Rocket pins no longer blink ready during dust storms
• Selecting a building while the build menu is open no longer causes the building's AOE visuals to break
• Hints for game speed, camera controls and orbital probes now display bound keys correctly
• Added an error message when trying to overwrite a save during upload to cloud
• Added confirmation prompt when closing the Filter UI
• Exports notification now shows accumulated funding if multiple rockets arrive on Earth consecutively
• Added salvage button to the info panel of pipes, valves and switches
• Excess fuel caused by Advanced Martian Engines is now unloaded from rockets before take off
• "Daily Production" changed to "Production per Sol"; "hourly production" changed to "production"
• Renamed a control hint to "Queue on top" in the research UI
• Added new icons for Construct Drone and Dismantle Drone button
• Vacant residential slots text in domes no longer includes slots from nurseries
• Officers are no longer called "security" in filter UI
• Cargo rocket UI now shows the number of resources in the colony on rollover of a given resource
• Depots resource icon is no longer mirrored
• Colonists can no longer be manually assigned while they are in the process of resettling
• Autonomous Drone Hubs and Sensor Towers no longer display an empty power consumption section in their info panel
• Implemented tutorial hint for building upgrades
• Updated credits

Other

• Domes no longer get constantly dusted. Only domes that are turned off or not working are dusted.
• Children now play around in the school (visualization only)
• Fixed some issues in the trajectory of shuttles
• Glass decals are removed when the dome is destroyed
• Domes no longer leave grass behind when destroyed
• Recharge stations no longer turn their light off when a drone visits them
• More precise slider for time of day in Photo Mode
• All adult colonists now have the same walking speed
• Cargo shuttles return to the hub when it's being destroyed
• Increased number of lights at night
• Photo Mode night lights of building match in-game lights
• Photo Mode particle effects fixed
• Various performance optimizations
• Various stability improvements
• Various sound FX tweaks
• CO2 geysers only erupt sporadically, as intended

Surviving Mars is now available for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC players.

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