Hi everybody! Aven Colony content drop 3 is now live! We've made a new video available to explain the new features; please check it out here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX6wBxJUWlQ

Here's a detailed list of the major new features and changes:

Major Changes

• New Governor Perks system! Select 1 of 15 perks when starting any new mission (see below for a full list).
• New Challenge Missions: Boreal Bay, Bluestone Falls, and Icebound Isle. These are very challenging missions designed for experienced players, but can be played at the same 7 difficulty settings as campaign missions.
• New sandbox maps: Boreal Bay, Bluestone Falls, and Icebound Isle are also now available as sandbox maps.
• Landing sites: all sandbox maps now have alternate "A" and "B" start locations (for the existing maps, "A" is the previous location, and "B" is the new one)
• Revised sandbox setup: completely overhauled the sandbox setup UI to better display all possible options, and added a few more sandbox setup options
• Revised difficulty setup: changed campaign mission difficulty to a list instead of a drop-down. Also, changing campaign mission difficulty now shows what options are impacted (note that unlike sandbox, these cannot be changed individually; all are determined by the difficulty setting)
• New building: Water Treatment Plant! The Water Treatment Plant recovers an amount of water that scales with the total inhabitants of any directly adjacent residential buildings. Note that each residential building can only be served by 1 Water Treatment Plant.
• New indicator: battery power! This indicator only appears at the bottom of the screen if your colony has Energy Batteries. It also doubles as a button and can be used to turn Battery Mode on or off.
• New overlays: Health, Turret Coverage, Lightning Tower Coverage (special thanks to streamer @SlimNasty2013 for suggesting these!)

Here's a full list of the new governor perks:

Governor Perks

• Arkitect: You have been chosen to build the Arks! Ark Launchers cost 50% as many Nanites, Ark vessels move 25% faster, and Expedition Centers and all remote installations cost 25% fewer Nanites.
• Boost Engineer: You have an unusual knack for getting the most out of colony boosts. Boosts drain power 33% more slowly and are researched 50% faster.
• Doctor: You specialize in keeping colonists healthy. Hospitals and Decontamination Units cost 33% fewer Nanites and plague spreads at 50% speed.
• Drone Tech: You are one with the drones. Construction drones build, repair, & upgrade 20% faster and you recover an additional 10% of the original Nanite cost when recycling a building. Scrubber & Police Drones are also 15% more effective.
• Electrician: You have a knack for optimizing a colony's electrical inputs. Geothermals, Zorium Plants, and Transceivers generate 6% more power and all electricity-generating structures can be produced for 10% fewer Nanites.
• Farmer: You have a green thumb. Potash is consumed 10% more slowly, and all farming structures are 6% more productive and cost 5% fewer Nanites.
• Industrialist: You are a captain of industry. Mills and Chemical Plants have a 20% lower Nanite cost and operate 10% faster.
• Miner: You specialize in mining. All Mines and Laser Mines recover minerals 8% faster, and Deep Core Mine installations outside your colony are 10% more productive.
• Pharmacist: You are unusually familiar with enhancement substances. Enhancer Bars consume enhancers 30% more slowly and cost 40% fewer Nanites to build. Enhancers are also manufactured 15% faster.
• Politican: You are unusually popular with everyone. Purpose morale is 1 point higher, Freedom morale penalties are 20% lower, and you can win elections with only 45% of the vote instead of 50%.
• Polymath: You're multi-talented! This perk allows you to select 2 other perks. Unfortunately, you're also unpopular: this reduces Purpose morale in your colony by 10. You must achieve the rank of High Commander or higher in the campaign to unlock this perk,
• Scientist: You are unusually talented with technological research. Research Centers and Artifact Containment Units cost 40% fewer Nanites, and your research efforts are 20% faster.
• Trader: You have a knack for trade. Trade Hubs cost 40% fewer Nanites, trade ships are 20% faster, and the maximum Nanite value of trade deals with remote settlements is 50% higher.
• Warrior: You are skilled in the arts of war. Plasma Turrets, Tier-2 Expedition Centers, and remote missile batteries cost 35% less to build. Plasma Turrets, remote missile batteries, and Tier-2 expedition ships fire 25% faster.
• Xeno Botanist: You have an advanced degree in extraterrestrial genetics! All farming structures are 6% more productive when growing alien crops, and you are able to process foods made from alien crops 7% faster.

Note that all Perks that give Nanite discounts also increase the construction speed of the related structures by the same percentage (i.e. 10% discount on a building = build it 10% faster).

Additional Changes

• Improved frame rates for larger colonies
• Mills and Chemical Plants now get a 75% production bonus at tier 2 instead of 60%
• Mills now cost 2 fewer Nanites and use 2 less power
• Imploding plague microbes now attempt to infect 1 colonist in any neighboring tile that has inhabitants or workers; this makes plague infections somewhat more challenging
• Fixed a broken mission objective related to trading Entari Oatmeal in Sandy Gulch
• It's now possible to delete unassigned custom trade contracts
• The "Go To" button on notifications now zooms out if needed
• The "Go To" button on notifications now properly exits cinematic camera mode
• Fixed issues with Ctrl-key highlighting for Nanite Processors toggling values on secondary Processors instead of setting them
• Ctrl-key highlighting now works for selecting/deselecting enhancers on all Enhancer Bars in the colony simultaneously
• Ark ships now work even when their Ark Bay is out of power
• Plasma Turrets no longer depend on a Research Center before they can be built
• Maximum Stadium Entertainment morale boost reduced from 36 to 34
• Maximum Earth History Center Entertainment morale boost reduced from 30 to 28
• There's now a unique icon on the selection pane when a building is shut down
• Sandbox options now have a higher amount of resources at the highest "Starting Resources" setting
• Improved target prioritization for plasma turrets -- now puts a lower priority on shards and sandworms
• There are now 5 different resource levels available in Sandbox instead of just 3
• Idle artifacts no longer say "Active (0%)" on the progress bar; they say "Idle" instead
• Fix for a rare bug with the Space Elevator capsule being seen in the wrong location
• The "Load Game" dialog now states whether the selected save is from a campaign, challenge, or sandbox map
• The "Mission Settings" pane in the Colony Control panel now states the current governor perk
• For sandbox missions, the "Mission Settings" pane in the Colony Control panel now states the landing site ("A" or "B")
• The old "Colonist Overlay" is now the "Morale Overlay" (since all the functionality related to health & plague infections has been moved into the new "Health Overlay")
• The productivity bonuses from multiple enhancer bars no longer stack
• Fixed a rare stability issue with renaming Ark vessels
• Lots of visual improvements to the outer menus
• Fixed lots of small localization issues

Thank you for your support and for bearing with us as we work continuously to make Aven Colony an even better game.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/484900/Aven_Colony/

We hope you enjoy all the new content, and we are very excited for all that's yet to come. We hope you are too!

Paul Tozour and the Mothership Entertainment team