Hello! The March release including all of the latest updates is now available on the default Steam branch. Here's a listing of all changes since the February release. It's a big list!

New since the mid-cycle update:

• The sun now casts dynamic shadows. You can turn this off via the settings menu.
• The camera will no longer clip into blocks and buildings behind the player.
• Adjusted the color of unwalkable terrain.
• Adjusted lighting at dawn and dusk to be more gradual and not blow out.

From the mid-cycle update:

• The game is auto-saved more often to avoid loss of progress.
• When the player starts flying the model displays wings.
• Show the names of objects you're collecting.
• Players can no longer walk on steep surfaces. Steep terrain is marked brown.
• Fixed a bug where the player was not level or was facing an odd direction at the start of a new game.
• The player and codex will now always start on a level surface.
• Fixed a lot of irregular movement around blocks.
• Player can now remove blocks via the Construction tab in the inventory.
• Building an outpost if there are hex blocks obstructing is no longer allowed.
• Fixed incorrect vertical positioning of outposts placed on another outpost's grid.
• No longer allow placement of blocks diagonally up or down from an existing block.
• Fixed the game creating invisible blocks that can't be removed.
• Improve the visibility of the preview placement block at night.
• You can point at the ground directly underneath a block to place a block there, even if you're outside of an outpost's radius.
• Fix resources being clustered in some areas of the planet and spread out in others.
• Fix the codex being invisible sometimes on load.
• Players now start with an outpost and do not have to solve the codex to get it. This is a temporary measure until another system makes it in.
• The Outpost application now has an icon.
• Fixed some rare crashes.
• Fixed some crashes on Radeon graphics cards.
• Fixed occasional crashing after reloading saved data from games that previously crashed.
• Some performance improvements, for example reduced hitching because of loading and saving entities while walking around, and improved performance while walking near blocks.

I've also added a bunch of features especially for builders, including a ton of new block types and an editor that lets you save your work. Thanks to those who are building things!

As I mentioned before (here https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/1813730/announcements/detail/3620362751713321282 ) I've been focusing on the 'homebuilding' gameplay pillar and allowing the player to build and decorate areas that feel like a home. This update has focused on the experience of building hex blocks structures, specifically from the point of view of professional builders. As a result, the actual game design (things like UX, player progression, and other mechanics) have been moved to the back burner. For example, the new block types are currently only available to builders via cheats, and there's no way to obtain them in the normal game for now. But it's been very exciting to see what people have built! These creations will eventually be spawned in the actual game as the player explores the planet, for an incidental win on the 'exploration' gameplay pillar. In any case, the next few updates will continue to be focused on the homebuilding pillar, with the goal of fleshing out a full loop that players can enjoy at a basic level.

Thanks again for playing Outpost!