Hello Commanders,
When Surviving Mars: Relaunched went live last November, we mentioned that it was the launch pad for a new era of Surviving Mars, with more to explore down the line. Tomorrow, we drop a free update that rebuilds two of the systems sitting closest to the heart of the game, alongside the first part of our Prime Mission - the content pack Feeding the Future.
Before we get to what's coming, it's worth taking a note of what's already here. If you last visited Mars around launch, the colony you'd land in today is a noticeably different place, and a lot of that is down to the reports, saves, and forum threads you've sent our way. Below are some highlights of what’s happened in the last few months, and if you want to get into the nitty-gritty details, check out the full patch notes log here: Complete Changlog for patch 1.0.1 to 1.0.7
- Asteroids -
Asteroids no longer expire. No timer, no scramble to evacuate before a rock slips out of orbit, access is something you build toward instead. They have more buildable ground and better-distributed deposits, and Micro-G extractors now come in dedicated Metals, Rare Metals, and Exotic Minerals variants.
Rockets can now fly directly between Earth, Mars, and asteroids in any combination with auto-depart logic, and Exotic Minerals are exportable to Earth. Under the hood, changes have been made to make them behave more consistently, and modders can now do considerably more with them.
- The Underground -
At launch, we got feedback that the Underground still felt like a separate game, and today it’s much more intertwined. The Elevator is no longer a resource-transfer puzzle - it's a Universal Storage existing on both maps at once, with per-resource controls telling drones which side to spend on. More importantly, a connected surface and underground share one power and life support grid instead of two trying to balance each other out. And special underground domes are gone: every regular dome can be built down there.
- Trains -
Martian Express has received several updates since its release. Tracks now build in groups of up to five like pipes and cables, and salvaging cancels the last element rather than the whole line. Stations can now be placed over an existing track and their radius has grown.
Tunnels and train tunnels are now merged into one Universal Tunnel that moves colonists, trains, power, and life support alike, and the trains can now carry twelve colonists instead of eight! Alongside that: dozens of fixes have been made for a better train service going forward.
- Colonists -
A theme running over the past patches has been to make colonists behave more like colonists. The core of it was to improve how colonists choose where to live: air, water and power supply, free residences, vacant workplaces and matching specialisation now all feed into the decision. The result is a population that settles sensibly on its own: moving into domes that can support them, taking jobs where they live, staying put instead of churning between workplaces. Commutes are more reliable, and tourists leave on schedule.
Individually, these are small things. But we hope that together they can be the difference between managing a colony and babysitting one.
- Everything else -
Mysteries had a deep pass and now run reliably from start to finish, though existing saves keep their old sequence, so a fresh save is the way to see it. Lighting is stable across the day/night cycle and between maps. Low storage warnings now fire at a tighter, more actionable window instead of flagging three days out. And modders have received many quality of life updates, if you want to know more about those, check out Patch 1.0.6,
(New Building Shrouded Wind Turbine - a large turbine that can be rotated, which was added in Patch 1.0.5)
A number of changes have been made to improve the overall balance of the game, tweaks have been made to resources, the politics system, resource production and much more, and more is to come in the update dropping tomorrow.
Underneath all of it, a substantial amount of stability and performance work, the kind you only notice by its absence.
(In patch 1.0.7 we added the ability to attach passages to the rims of the domes.)
Services and Science Free Update
Now we’ve looked at the past, time to look at the trajectory and into the big changes to the Base Game that is happening tomorrow! With the release of our Content Pack - Feeding the Future, there is also a free update: Services and Science.
- Research Redesign -
The old research list is gone, and with it the assumption that a long enough game unlocks everything. Research is now a map instead of being a queue, with around fifty (!) new technologies that fill out the board. Your labs produce Research Points each Sol, which accumulates into Tech Points. Every technology costs exactly one Tech Point, but each Tech Point costs more Research than the one before it.
Nothing gets researched without you personally picking the technology. When Tech Points aren't available yet, you can use the wishlist function, and the technology unlocks the moment you can afford it.
As mentioned, those technologies now sit on a map, where clusters extend outwards from your landing site, and you can pick different paths along the way. You can only spend on nodes adjacent to something you've already unlocked, which means every purchase is also a decision about where you aren't going. Travel far down one direction and the opposite side of the board quietly recedes. The Wonders sit at the outer edge, and reaching one takes a deliberate campaign.
We are also introducing something called Initiatives. These are larger nodes on the Research Tree, and if you hit a colony-wide goal, such as reaching a target number of Martianborn or enacting a particular Law, and a whole cluster you'd otherwise have to walk opens up on the spot.
Read more details in the "Lab Leaks" Dev Diary.
- Services Redesign -
Colonists no longer need to walk to the bar or the gym to feel the benefit. If a service exists in their Dome, it reaches them.
What matters now is whether you've built enough of it. Each service building looks after a limited number of people, and when a Dome outgrows what you've provided, everyone there feels the shortfall, rather than a handful of unlucky colonists missing out while their neighbours are fine. Coverage is what matters: if a category's combined capacity doesn't reach your population, the bonus scales down for everyone. The solution is simply to build more of that kind of building, which makes growing a Dome's population a prompt to grow its amenities too.
Services staffed by workers respond to how you run them: opening more shifts lets them look after more people, and a well-staffed, motivated building does more good than a neglected one. Domes also share what they don't use themselves, and the new Passage Hub makes linking several domes together easier, so one well-placed service building can support a whole cluster.
Work takes its toll, too. Different jobs wear on people in different ways, so what a Dome needs depends on what its residents do for a living. And wellbeing now shifts gradually rather than jumping, which means you'll see problems coming in time to do something about them.
A new Services section in the dome infopanel show how each service category impacts colonists and where you're falling short, so dome layouts become something you can now plan more actively to make sure your needs are covered.
Read more details in the “Being of Service” Dev Diary.
- Balance Changes -
With the introduction of the Feeding the Future Content Pack, we have also looked over the basic food system. Going forward a small share of food resources (and the Delicacies if you have the Feeding the Future) decays each Sol, so a full warehouse is great, but you will need a steady harvest to not run out.
Colonists now arrive with a natural variation in how content they are; comfort and morale have in general been re-tuned. Naturalist Habitats became a considerably better place to live, and the Capital City reaches further, bringing more workplaces into its radius. The Space Elevator is now in parity with the rocket changes in previous patches and Fungal Farms have moved underground (but can also be built on asteroids), while the Mohole Mine and the Excavator can now be built down there too. Landscaping now needs an RC Dozer (it was a bit too heavy lifting for the poor Drones). Tweaks have also been made to balance technologies, laws and sponsors.
There’s also a substantial list of bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements coming with this update. You can find all the details in the patch notes, which will be shared alongside the release tomorrow.
And if you’re looking for some extra tips and tricks when playing, you’ll be pleased to hear that tutorials have been reworked and there are also new events introduced in this update.
And with that, we’ve taken a look at the past, the present, and the future and we can’t wait to see you in the game tomorrow!
If you haven't made the jump yet, Surviving Mars: Relaunched is on sale right now, and free to play all weekend on Steam.
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More information will come!