The first significant update since the 1.0 release. Not a massive update, but it does add a very useful new building - the geothermal power plant. Research this tech at the geology lab and expand your base to reach a geothermal vent, and you'll have a reliable source of power. Not a huge amount, but it won't run out like coal and doesn't require expensive factories like wind and solar, so ideal for the mid game.
Also, to make use of the additional power and to try and encourage bigger late-game builds, I've made the rocket quite a bit more expensive to research, build, and launch. Certainly still possible on day 3 though for the achievement - my first test game launched the rocket on day 3 hour 56.
Changelog
New features
- Geothermal vents placed semi-randomly on the map (new games only).
- Added the Geothermal Power Plant building, which can only be built on a geothermal vent.
- Geothermal Power project added to the geology lab to unlock the new building.
- Two projects to improve the output of the geothermal power plant also added to geology lab.
- Added checklist items for researching and building geothermal power plants.
Balancing
- The Hydrogen Fuel and Rocketry projects now take longer.
- Increased the cost of building a rocket.
- The rocket now takes more fuel to launch.
Fixes
- Fixed a bug in the settings menu causing sound and music volumes to be swapped.
- Fixed resource processor getting stuck if switched off while a colonist taking an item from it.
- Various minor UI and text fixes.
Optimisation
- Some changes to the way smoke works, to reduce CPU and GPU usage.
- No smoke and dust shadows if shadow detail is set to low in the settings.