Hey everyone, it's finally time for the big research update! So let's get started:

NEW Research system:

Your Tier 2 and upwards citizens will now generate research power based on their happiness.
The type of research power is based on their orientation (developers generate science research power, mechanics generate military research power).

There are two research trees, one for each orientation.

Each research tree contains custom and shared technologies. Custom technologies are only part of their specific tree, shared technologies will be researched in both trees.

There are also decision points where you have to choose between two technologies.

In the future we plan to expand and update this system by adding, changing, replacing or removing technologies based on your feedback as well as with new content additions like the military update.

NEW Tier 3 citizens:

• NEW Added researchers and military technicians as tier 3 citizens. You can now upgrade your developer residences to researcher residences and your mechanics residences to military technicians residences.
• NEW Added 22 new items:

• Limestone

• Wood

• Cellulose

• Construction cells

• Reinforced concrete

• Nickel

• Soy beans

• Corn

• Biopolymer

• Laboratory instruments

• Cars

• Ground meat

• Convenience food

• Protein powder

• Vitamin extract

• Cultivated meat

• Dye stuff

• Biofibers

• Silk

• Silk fabric

• Casual wear

• Suits

• NEW Added two new construction materials: Construction cells + Reinforced concrete. Construction cells are specific to science civilizations and reinforced concrete to military civilizations.
• NEW Added multiple new buildings and production chains

Buildings:

• Added a depot as a researchable building which increases the storage capacity by 50
• Added a charcoal kiln as a researchable building which produces coal
• Added a fracking tower as a researchable building which produces oil if placed on a coal deposit
• Added an offshore wind park as a researchable building which produces energy and must be placed on an ocean tile

• Spaceports and warehouses no longer grant additional storage capacity per building (The depot is the improved replacement)

Spaceship rebalancing:

We are rebalancing the speed of both spaceships in preparation for the military update. The current speed was way to high for future combat activities.

Explorer:
~ Speed: 400 -> 170
~ Upkeep: 50 -> 40

Small cargo spaceship:
~ Speed: 400 -> 150
~ Upkeep: 100 -> 75

Balancing:

We want to make it a bit easier to reach positive income with the first tier (workers) but make it a bit harder to have a positive balance at the end of tier 2.

Tier 1:
~ Vegetable farm: Upkeep 25 -> 20
~ Wind park: Upkeep 50 -> 40

Tier 2:
~ Gym: Upkeep 100 -> 200
~ Cinema: Upkeep 100 -> 200
~ Wheat mill: Upkeep 150 -> 200
~ Industrial bakery: Upkeep 200 -> 250

Quality of Life:

~ Farm building infos menus will now longer close when canceling farm field construction
~ Changed the icon for the production time in construction costs tooltips to increase visibility

• Added a multiplayer version mismatch error to prevent people from joining an incompatible lobby
• Added a progress indicator for power generators that require items
• The max speed of a spaceship is now displayed in the spaceship info menu
  ~ Made the blue faction color brighter
• Construction cost tooltips now show if a building has to be placed on coast/ocean tiles or resource deposits
• Added two tutorial steps (Achieve a positive balance + Unlock work wear)
  ~ The tutorial system will now skip tutorial steps if the intended order is violated
  ~ Disabled the building menu button when the planet is not owned by the local player
• Added a warning when trying to deconstruct the last spaceport / warehouse of a colony
• The enter key on the numpad can now be used as well
• Added a construction button in the info menu of a resource to quickly build a mine on it
  ~ Changed the behavior to hover and select buildings
  ~ Adjusted the orbit height to be closer on normal maps and higher on maps with tiny planets

Bug fixes:

• Fixed controllers being able to block UI input
• Fixed a possible desync caused by non-deterministic drone movement
• Fixed tile selection when the transfer menu is open
• Fixed an issue when transferring items
• Fixed broken savegame sorting in the savegame menu
• Fixed materials of old colonies being added to new colonies
• Fixed multiple trade route issues
• Fixed several visibility issues in the UI
• Fixed notification icons having no lighting
• Fixed multiplayer timeout timer being way too high
• Fixed several lobby issues including swapping slots
• Fixed a bug causing savegames to load improperly
• Fixed spaceship routing issues
• Fixed notification sounds being played after loading

Achievements:

• Added 6 new achievements related to research and tier 3

Music:

• Added two new soundstracks by Rochenreiter (one new menu, one new ingame soundtrack)

Engine:

~ The game will now switch to the lowest graphics preset on first start if your system has less than 2GB of graphics memory

Have fun with all the newly added content and we are looking forward to your feedback!

TeamJA