Hi everyone,

the new major update (v 0.2.015) is finally released and it contains the new prisoners system, the first parts of the faction system and much more.

Steam Summer Sale
First, I want to announce that AColony will be in the Steam Summer Sale on June 29th 2023 with a -30% discount! :)

Prisoners System

With the new update it's now finally possible to lock neutral and hostile colonists in a prison cell and thus make them your prisoners. To perform this action, you must first immobilize a colonist. Once this is done you have a new command option to imprison the respective colonist.

Note:
For this command you need a closed room in which you have placed a bed, which is defined as a prison bed.



While you can define a normal room as a prison room, there is now also a new technology that allows you to build various new prison components to create a real looking prison cell.

In addition, the components which get unlocked with this new technology introduce a new room value - the demoralization factor, which can faster lower the morale of your prisoners.

Prison Planning Board

The prison planning board is similar to the medical planning board and shows you an overview of your prisoners and allows you do select prison guards to perform certain actions / interactions with them.
These actions are:

• Execute
  
• Break will
  
• Persuade to join your colony
  
• Set free
  

Your prisoners are affected by 2 functionalities playing together:

• Morale
  The morale of your prisoner determines, how high the chances are of persuading him to join your colony or breaking his will, but also the chance of an escape attempt. Morale can be affected by various factors, such as the beauty of the room, the size of the room, the entertainment value of the room, the demoralization factor of a room, as well as hunger and nutrition.
  
• Decision Influences
  The decision influences determine how high the chance is that you can persuade a colonist to join your colony or to break their will. The main influence here is morale, which tends towards the will-breaking option at low values, and that the prisoner can join your colony at high values.
  

The menu also contains all the options to select the detailed nutrition and medical care of your prisoner.

Note:
This menu can also be opened from a bed marked as a prison bed to get the options before researching the prison technology.

Prisoners (Behaviour)

Normally, your prisoners do nothing but walk or lie around in their jail cell (if you put entertainment components in the cell, they use it, of course). However, it can also happen from time to time that there is an escape attempt, this can come by itself, from a weapon lying around in the cell or from a free path to the map border.

You can also lock several prisoners in the same cell. This affects their decisions but can also lead to fights between inmates if they don't get along. (e.g. if you put 2 prisoners from opposing factions in the same cell)

New Job Section (Prison Guard)

There is also a new job section in colonist overview menu now, which allows you to prioritize your colonists as prison guards. This job section is connected with the charisma skill and in addition, I have added a new trait (prison experience) which impacts the behaviour of your prison guards and prisoners if they have it.

Colonist Traders

Of course, colonist traders... While colonist traders already existed in the game to give you an additional option to get new colonists, you now also have the option to sell your prisoners.



To sell a prisoner, you must first break their will. If the will is broken, this effect lasts for 30 days and you can no longer persuade them to join your colony.

Note:
Selling a prisoner to colonist traders will have a negative influence on several factions.

Faction System (Lite)

In connection with the prisoner system, I have also implemented the first functions and menus of the faction system. This system is only the "Lite" version as it only includes the new but general factions.

For this system I dissolved the previous one (this only had a slightly implemented neutral and hostile AI player as the owner of the colonists) and created a new and restructured system, which now contains 4 new and independent (but general) factions:

• Wanderers
  The wanderer faction includes all small communities, groups, and individuals that roam the areas of this world. This faction is generally neutral, but can take revenge for crimes committed.
  
• General Traders
  The general trader faction is a coalition of different traders who send caravans to the most remote areas of the world. They offer the buying and selling of materials, weapons, food supplies and special objects. This faction is generally neutral, but can take revenge for crimes committed.
  
• Colonist Traders
  The colonist trader faction is a coalition of shady traders, which is unpopular and frowned upon by many other factions. They mainly deal with buying and selling captive colonists, but also offer other services and special objects. This faction is generally neutral, but can take revenge for crimes committed.
  
• Raiders
  The raider faction consists of all bandits, raiders, outlaws, bounty hunters and similar figures that roam the areas of this world. This faction is generally hostile to every other faction.
  

Influences & Consequences

Certain actions affect these factions and determine their diplomacy value towards you. Depending on how this value is, this has consequences for their behavior.

Some influences are for example:

• Recently traded
  
• Recently bartered
  
• Completed a quest
  
• Attacking the group
  
• Imprison a member of a group
  
• One group member starved to death in your world
  
• etc
  

Some consequences are for example:

• Impacting the time when new colonists visit your colony
  
• Impacting trading and barter prices
  
• Impacting amount of currency which traders have with them
  
• Impacting radio call prices
  
• etc
  

Updated Menus

Many menus have been updated and now have a direct link to the faction system. This includes all colonist, construction (like radio station) and event menus.

Updated Radiostation

With the work on the faction system, I have also updated the functionality of the radio station. While in the past it was only possible to choose between 5 different traders, now the player has the option to choose between 2 factions, each with their own different traders. (except for weapons and special traders, which are offered by both factions)

Additional Updates

Prison Brothers (Event)

This update contains a new event which is divided into 2 sub events and offers a new quest to the player.

• Prison Brothers
  A group of escaped prisoners enters your world and offers you a quest to help and protect them. There is also a new functionality, which allows you to mark weapons as quest items so that the prisoners can equip them.
  
• Bounty Hunters
  After a few days have passed, some bounty hunters are entering the world and trying to kill the escaped prisoners. If you defeat them, you get currency as reward, but also the head of the group will join your colony (this colonists has usually very good skills)
  

Note:
This event appears in the higher tech ages and can replace from time to time the default 'colonist request' event.

Storage Zone Update

The storage zone menu got also some new functionalities which should make the handling a bit easier. On the left side of the menu, it offers the following options now:

• Set all section enabled or disabled at once
  
• Switch to a mode where you can see all stored items in this zone
  
• Open all section at once
  
• Close all section at once
  

Colonist Overview Menu Marker

You can also add now a custom mark to your colonists to identify them better for a certain job. (e.g. you want to mark the colonist with the highest charisma and a related trait for all barter and trading actions)

You only have to right click on the colonist's face in the colonist overview menu.

All Patch Notes

At last I have here a list which sums up nearly all patch notes of this update:

Important
all missing translations of the new stuff will come with the next patch (french, japanese, simplified chinese).

• added new background track (Impending, by Karam)
  
• added prisoners system
  
• added option to take immobilized hostile or neutral colonists as prisoners
  
• added new quest (prison brothers)
  
• added new event (bounty hunters)
  
• added 5 new events (related to prisoners)
  
• added new jobsection (prison guard)
  
• added 3 new jobsubsection (executer, conversation, provide with food)
  
• added 2 new constructions (prison bed, prison cell closed)
  
• added new construction (prison planning board)
  
• added 2 new constructions (prison door, prison window)
  
• added new technology (prison)
  
• added faction system (lite version)
  
• added new faction (wanderers)
  
• added new faction (general traders)
  
• added new faction (colonist traders)
  
• added new faction (raiders)
  
• added many impacts that relations to faction have
  
• added new weapon (modern crossbow)
  
• modern crossbow can be found under hightech machines at the moment
  
• sniper rifle is available with weaponsIII now
  
• price for colonists by colonists traders are reduced now
  
• captives of colonist traders can have better skills now
  
• captives of colonist traders can have up to 6 talent points now
  
• relationship partners cannot harm each other anymore (on player command)
  
• updated drunken wanderer name panel icon
  
• updated drunken wanderer name panel icon
  
• radio station supports now to call both trader factions
  
• kitchen and big kitchen increasing cooking speed no
  
• fixed some tutorial arrows were incorrect placed after last update
  
• blueprints can now deleted from their own menu too
  
• trees and plants respawn faster when more players on the map now
  
• storage zone menu has option to set all sections on & off now
  
• storage zone menu has option to open and close all sections now
  
• storage zone menu can show current items now
  
• extended equip job to steal items (for prisoners & enemies)
  
• fixed ui bug in bed menu
  
• balanced mood influences on room
  
• added panel to mark colonists in overview menu (right click on face)
  
• mood bar turns red on low mood in colonist overview menu now
  
• and many many smaller fixes
  

Plans for next Update

At first I had planned, that I will add the new and real factions (beside the general ones) in the next update to the game. But after thinking more about it, I have decided to add at first the animal taming mechanic. That is not only an interesting new functionality, but it would also allow me to create more individual and special factions later - which can spawn with certain pets / animals.

In addition, I also plan to bring new colonists clothes styles and skin colors with the next update.
Actually, I wanted to add them with this update, but unfortunately the time for that was running out.

But I've already started and here's a little preview of how new colonist styles might look like: (this is still a work in progress)



I hope you will enjoy this update,
Cheers!