Update 0.15 is available for a public test right now! The core new feature is the top-down perspective. Unlock the Overseer’s Desk in the tech tree, place it in your colony, and click on it to switch to this perspective.
From the top-down view, you get access to the new Blueprints feature. There is a “Scanner” which allows you to select and save parts of your world. Right next to it is a “Placer” that opens a list of all saved blueprints that you can place back into your colony. A placed blueprint will start a construction project, and you need to assign construction workers to build the project.
Blueprints can also be exported to codes, or imported from them. This allows you to easily share buildings between worlds, with friends or with strangers.
To help navigate indoor and underground spaces from this new perspective, we’ve also added X-Ray vision as a toggleable option. When activated, it will make everything above the height of the Overseer’s Desk invisible. But it also comes with buttons that allow you to increase or decrease the height of this “slice”.
Like the mill we added last year, the Overseer’s Desk is a lot larger than one voxel. We like the consequences of that size, both visually and in terms of gameplay. So we’ve redesigned a bunch of meshes with this new philosophy. The merchant hub, grocery store, tool shop and sacred failsafe were all tiny and bland. They are now much larger and more lively and unique. This will not affect these blocks when they are pre-existing in your world, but each one placed while playing 0.15 will have the new shape.
That’s not the only visual change! The paint system has been expanded. Pillars, architraves, fences and planks are now all paintable. The berry bush switched from a textured voxel to a 3D mesh. Wheat and barley have new meshes. And last but not least: plaster has made it back into the game!
All these features should be working. The main things that are lacking are translations and controller support. But of course, we can’t test the blueprints and the X-Ray vision in all circumstances. And that’s why we need you! Have fun trying out all the new features of 0.15, and if you notice anything weird, let us know. We’ll be monitoring all channels, but Discord and the comments under this blog get checked most frequently. And apart from bug reports, general feedback about the update is also appreciated!
To get access to the beta:
- Right-click Colony Survival in your Steam Library, choose “Properties”
- Go the “Betas” tab, enter the code pleaseshareyourfeedback
- Select the 0.15.0 branch
The game will show the version number in the bottom-right corner in the main menu.
Have fun, and pleaseshareyourfeedback :D