Hey everyone! It has been quiet here for a while. This update came straight out of looking at where players get stuck: which levels take longest, where people stop playing, and what they ask about most. Most of it is about making the colony easier to read and cheaper to experiment with.
Free Rebuilding
Removing a building now gives back exactly what you paid for it, whether it is finished or still under construction. Moving a building somewhere better costs nothing, so try a different layout whenever you like.
The old one-time "move permits" from the adjacency rework are gone, since every removal is now a full refund. A removed building also stops counting toward build goals, contracts, and challenge objectives, so building something and removing it again does not farm anything.
Why Did It Stop?
- Stall explainer. Tap a building that is waiting on an input and its panel shows "Why it stopped". It follows the missing resource back through your suppliers to the actual cause: nothing makes it yet, the supplier is still being built, it is paused, it has no power, or there are too few of them. You get a one-line fix and a button that opens the Building Finder or the deposit finder.
- Building status at a glance. The Building Finder shows how many of each building are running, how many are starved, how many have full storage, and how many are without power.
- Time estimates on objectives. Each unfinished level delivery shows roughly how long it will take at your current rate, or tells you that nothing is producing it or that your stock is not growing.
- Planning ahead. You can see what the next level asks for, and the Stock screen marks resources you will need soon. Selling a whole tier at once now keeps back what your level goals and contracts still need.
Market Imports
From Level 3 the Market has a Buy mode. If one missing resource is holding up a level or a contract, you can import it for Gold. Imports are expensive on purpose: they start at 3x the resource's value and climb to 6x the more you buy, then get cheaper again over time.
Shorter Mid-Game
A handful of levels were taking far longer than the rest, usually because of one big delivery. Those deliveries are smaller now:
- Level 10: Ice 1,560 -> 900
- Level 14: Silica Sand 3,000 -> 1,600, Clean Water 800 -> 600
- Level 15: Regolith 5,000 -> 3,200
- Level 16: Scrap 7,000 -> 4,200
- Level 17: Ice 8,000 -> 4,200, Steel Beams 380 -> 320
- Level 19: Outposts 4 -> 3, Robotics and Servo Actuators 48 -> 36, Carbon Fiber 145 -> 120, Electrical Circuits 420 -> 340
- Level 20: Gold cost 100,000 -> 60,000
A few things also unlock earlier. Contracts open at Level 5 instead of Level 8, and Survey Strength I opens at Level 2 instead of Level 5. You can also press and hold a fogged tile to keep surveying without tapping over and over.
Achievements
There are now 55 achievements across exploration, industry, construction, contracts, power, progression, and terraforming. Find them in the Colony menu. Each one shows a progress bar, you get a toast when one unlocks, and your total shows on your commander profile. Achievements track your main colony.
Daily Challenges, Now With Themes
Daily Challenges were starting to feel the same every day: a fresh Level 1 colony and a different number to hit. Now each day of the week plays a different kind of race:
- Monday - Sprint: the classic race, nothing changed.
- Tuesday - Head Start: extra starting Gold and deeper targets, so you can skip the usual opening.
- Wednesday - Lean Colony: only a few building permits but stronger supply chains. With free rebuilding, rearranging your layout is part of the puzzle.
- Thursday - Market Day: higher sale prices and a Gold target. What you sell, and when, decides the race.
- Friday - Storm Front: storms from the first minute and weak sunlight.
- Saturday - Weekend Haul: the long race of the week, with cheaper construction.
- Sunday - Wild Card: one random boon and one random bane.
The map changes every day and objectives do not repeat back to back. Most runs should take 5-12 minutes, except Saturday's. Some of the new targets are educated guesses, so I will be retuning them over the first week. If a day feels way off, tell me in Discord.
Community Events Are Back
Weekly community events start again on November 5 with Contract Rally III, followed by Nations of Mars II and the Mission Control Marathon II, rotating every week from there. Daily challenges and events are now scheduled well into next spring, so neither should go quiet again.
Thanks for playing, and for all the feedback that shaped this one. See you on Mars!