The Colonists 1.5.16.1

Hi everyone,

The Achievements update for The Colonists has just gone live! Here's all the info including new mechanics, fixes and tweaks:

Achievements
There are 27 achievements to collect including special speed-run challenges based on four of the campaign missions. Each challenge has a unique goal and each has three levels to achieve, Expert, Champion and Legendary, the last of which will require the smartest and most efficient colonies to complete!

Storage Yard Mechanics
Storage yards now creates 'demand' in the same way as other buildings. These demands are visible resource demands panel and can be moved up or down the priority list, again like demand types. The 'weight' of a storage demand is based on the fill percentage of the resource at the storage yard. For example, say you have a lumberjack hut and two storages yards ('A' and 'B') and 'A' has a rule for 5 Logs and 'B' for 10 Logs. The first Log will go to 'B' (wherever it is located), the second Log to 'A', the third to 'B', the fourth to 'B', the fifth to 'A' etc.

So in summary, the weight for each storage destination is determined by 1) fill percentage 2) total potential storage 3) distance. This new behaviour gives you a more even and controllable distribution of resources to multiple storage yards around your colony.

Storage Yard to Storage Yard
Utilising the new demand mechanic above, resources can now be sent from storage yard to storage yard. You can set this up by creating import or export rules on the relevant building.

Patch Notes

• Hotkeys (default [C] & [V]) for copying and pasting settings of buildings (export & import) and road posts (blacklists and whitelists)
• Small Storage Yard now only requires logs to build
• Added multi-selection to resource selection panels
• Added resource group presets to blacklist resource selection panels
• Added expedition resources to demand panels
• Changed idle port and station stackbots to prioritise load and unloads of vehicles first
• Items waiting at harbour or train station are now rechecked for optimal routes when a new route is added
• Adding an import rule now forces an resource export check at the targeted building if source building already had an import rule
• Fixed issue with resources being incorrectly routed in and out of large harbours
• Fixed salt being able to mined with L2 surface mine
• Fixed bug which occurs when placing a watchtower when the logs demand panel is open
• Fixed export from space port bug when selling rule is removed and resource are waiting to be loaded
• Fixed bug when clearing a boat route and assigning to an expedition while boat is docked at harbour
• Fixed bug with vegetables in vegetable plots displaying weirdly after a little while
• Fixed bug with vegetables not showing up on game load
• Fixed hit box on vegetable resource
• Fixed issue where sometimes a train wasn't created due to miscalculation of train route limits
• Fixed lumberjack pathfinding not being completely accurate in finding the nearest tree
• Fixed bug where, when a building's panel is open, the green in-world highlight markers weren't being created when a new resource was assigned to the building
• Fixed issue where multiple top left panels could be overlaid after entering and leaving the research or map screen
• Fixed not being able to set fuel consumption buildings as export on storage yards
• AI enemy can now cancel research if project has been idle for too long
• AI enemy has smarter placement of fletchers
• AI enemy has smarter upgrading of watchtowers
• Fixed bug with en route resource highlighters not always showing up correctly
• Fixed order of medals in mission goals panel
• Fixed internal tree count when if lumberjack chops a tree which leaves your territory during the chopping process
• For export and import building lists, disabled already existing options
• Vegetable Farm construction time and resources now same as Sheep Farm
• You can now sculpt tiles with trees on
• You can now sell Logs at the Space Port for a small amount of money
• Small storage yard and steel mill have an extra stackbot
• Bots are now printed in the order of oldest first instead of most recent first
• Improved accuracy of distance sorting for priority layer buildings (lumberjacks, foresters, miners)
• Removed rogue underwater clay deposit on 'Island Hopping' mission
• Added option to show the game tick alongside the day

NEW! Improved AI for enemies in military campaigns including a new Hard mode
New military campaign map
Added Christmas decorations! Spruce up your colony with some seasonal christmas trees, presents, candy canes and snowbots!
Fixed an issue in some instances with resources that are waiting at harbour not getting rerouted
Fixed storage yards not showing in storage panel for resource categories (food etc)
Fixed an error related to rerouting a boat that is currently queueing to same harbour

New Campaign MissionsThere are two new single player campaign missions where your goal is to earn money by buying and selling resources in the market as well as managing construction of your grand monuments.

Custom Map LeaderboardsEach custom map in Steam Workshop now has its own leaderboard where players can compete for the best time!

New Help & WikiWe have a new help site explaining more features and strategies in depth as well as a wiki containing the stats for all the buildings, resources, research, and more.
New help: https://www.notion.so/The-Colonists-Help-0f8b20f71a96426490fbfbff5511e3bb

Bug Fixes & ImprovementsThere have been bug fixes and small improvements too, you can check out the full patch notes here: https://www.notion.so/Patch-Notes-f0b271ceafc34a3a8330adf3034cb18f

Next Update & TranslationsFollow on Discord for the latest on the next updates which will include a brand new AI Hard mode as well as new AI campaign missions to challenge yourself against.

We've also been testing some localisations of the game - if you're interested in contributing to a community translation of a language then please get in touch, full info here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/677340/discussions/0/1735469327939468875/

Added best times leaderboards for campaign economy missions - optimise your colonies and compete for the fastest times.
Brand new robot model and animations for Forestry bot, Blast Furnace and Blacksmith bots and Baker bot.
Updated system for calculating how buildings are connected to road posts and other buildings. Each connection is now listed in a new building panel and can be visualised within the world. This refactoring also fixes some lags and freezing issues.
Forestries can now plant all types of tree available in the game with varying growth times and terrain requirements.
Updated Wheat Farm production stats and added animations for Wheat Farmer bot.
Fixed bug with Lumberbots and Minebots passing through rocks and potentially getting stuck on slopes.
Increased reputation gained per dollar transaction in the Sandbox Market.
Small improvements to tutorials in Mission 1 and 2.
[V1.2.1.1] Fixed loading old savegames which had other AI players
[V1.2.1.1] Fixed issue where building connections could get confused when removing roads
[V1.2.1.1] Fixed being able to sculpt a tile with a path on

Hi everyone,

The mid-week patch has just gone live, here's what's new:

ChangelogFixed resources waiting at harbour not rerouting properly if their next sea route is removed
Fixed bug where loading a game which had a new colony harbour with no watchtower would not let you build a watchtower
Fixed bug where carrybot would get stuck if resource it was carrying was manually destroyed during drop off phase
Fixed bug where harbours on steep slopes could have their entrance land connection to the road post broken causing stackbot routes to break
Fixed error caused by loading a game in which a expedition boat had had its original harbour destroyed
Fixed cancelling and restarting upgrade potentially causing overflow in the progress bar
Fixed error caused by destroying storage yard
Fixed best time display on scenario screen
Halved Bakery coal consumption
Added ability to set import whitelists for storage yards
Added hotkey for skipping destroy warning (default is Left Alt)
Fixed Engineering showing negative number
Adjusted Cow Farm so it only needs one starting field and is indicated more clearly in placement footprint
Road Posts can now be placed at harbour entrances if the original is accidentally removed
Mission 3 - added more stone to starting island
Mission 5 - added more stone, more gold, removed green terrain which was not fertile
Mission 6 - added Casual mode
Mission 7 - added more coal
Mission 9 - added more fertile land and more resources
Mission 10 - added Casual mode and infinite stone resource for AI
[V1.1.1.2] Fixed issue with placing fishing huts next to other fishing huts sometimes
[V1.1.1.2] Fixed destroying a boatyard not resetting tiles properly

Thanks to everyone who has been in touch providing feedback, suggestions and bug reports, they all really help.

We've got some exciting things entering testing tomorrow, please head over to Discord if you'd like to try them out!

Changelog- [NEW] Sandbox Phase 1 - Explore layouts and experiment with your Colonists on any current map with customisable options including auto-research, optional fog of war, optional territory and free construction mode
- [NEW] Harbour/Station Rules - Apply blacklisting and whitelisting rules to harbours and train stations in the same way you can with road posts
- Improved resource routing along roads - routing now takes better into account blocked carrybots and busyness of road posts
- Implemented 'collapsing' watchtower state - once captured, watchtower repairs must start within a certain time or the building will be lost
- Fixed weaponry and repair demands not being flagged as urgent on occasion
- Fixed repair demands not showing up on resource demand list
- Increased watchtower projectile range
- Fixed bug where destroying a road without affecting road posts was not clearing formerly attached building's routes to road posts
- Increased stackbot path delivery distance, preventing issue where resources were assigned along long paths but not delivered
- Fixed error where savegame would not load
- Fixed edge case where stackbot fetching a resource from a building when the destination building is destroyed
- Fixed issue where you could end up with an unremovable solitary flag if it was connected to a harbour on the starting island
- Fixed bug where direct delivery of expedition resources from storage yard were not being delivered
- Fixed boat and train names force-including worker bot name
- Fixed bug where road tile would not be removed correctly if sharing a track tile leading to prevention of building placement
- Fixed error with orchard field being lost leading to watchtower capture failing
- Fixed Weaponsmith sometimes causing a game freeze
- Fixed error when placing wheat field on edge of map
- Removing track now longer has the possibility of deforming roads
- Fixed burning VFX on residences
- When placing buildings, switching level of building remembers rotation and flippedness
- Added underground Coal Mine to Mission 2
- Enabled unusual aspect ratios
[V1.1.0.2]
- Enabled Sandbox button
- Fixed incorrect mission links in sandbox map selection

Fixed bug where clearing a boat route while boat is docked could prevent it from moving after new route is applied
Fixed bug where Harbour stackbots could become stuck if delivering resources to a boat whose route is cleared
Fixed bug where direct delivery of Harbour expedition resources from a Storage Yard could stall
Fixed bug where road post rules were ignored if road post was first node on route
Trains now wait until fully unloaded (if possible) before leaving station
When a Storage Yard's export building is destroyed, it is now automatically removed
Fixed incorrect Mission 10 scenario goal (applies to existing games)
Fixed water not being navigable in Mission 10 (new games)
Fixed camera angle for Large Monument mission completion
Added ability to customise last notification hotkey (middle mouse button)
Added Road Post advice when several roads are blocked
Added Steel to global resource icons
Fixed [No Resources] displaying on global Food and Alcohol resource icons

Fixed camera going to last notification on middle mouse down, rather than on click (action is rebindable in settings)

I'm continuing to look at the remaining issues, including a few military edge cases, and will be patching those up as quickly as possible.

SandboxWe also have the first of the Sandbox Mode under testing on our development branch so if you'd like to try it out, check our Discord channel for more info.

The FutureI really believe in the potential of The Colonists and that there's a lot scope to take the game further. I'd like your input on what you'd most like to see in a future update so there's now a feature vote where you can let me know your favourite ideas as well as a suggestions channel on Discord.

- Fixed bug where boats could leave a harbour while a stackbot was still interacting with it, causing the bot to get stuck
- Fixed cancelling colony expedition resource collection potentially causing an error
 

- Fixed HQ and cow farm resource ratio slider bug which could also halt production at that building
- Fixed issue where game wouldn't load if you were on a OS with an unusual calendar (e.g. Thai)
- Fixed Mission 3 location where harbour would not have enough room for queue buoys
- Fixed incorrect Mission 6 goal
- Fixed edge case bug where boatyard stackbot would not deliver the last Planks to the boat construction
- Fixed colony boat not immediately leaving boatyard if target harbour has only one boat and that boat is en route
- Fixed 'Find Coal' and 'Research Mining I' advice items not disappearing once completed
- Fixed sea animation speed carrying over from previous game
- Added more room in Mission 3 to the south east of the starting so a harbour has enough space for queueing boats

I've also begun working at getting a sandbox mode into the game - please see the pinned post in the Discussions for more info - and I'll be continuing to any look at any issues that get sent in.

- Fixed issue with listing savegames with PCs running certain regional calendar systems
- Fixed bug with storage yard being placed with shared path to harbour and then expedition resources being sourced from there
- Fixed bug when Residence completes upgrade and the stackbot happened to be delivering a resource into the residence, creating a chance it could stall later on
- Fixed harbour construction resources being incorrectly delivered to outgoing storage if delivered directly from another building
- Fixed edge case where boat would leave whilst harbour bot was on way to unload a resource, which could lead to issues
- Fixed Road Layer bot getting stuck sometimes when conflicting with another Road Layer bot
- Fixed Road Layer bot idle pose so it resets correctly after worker animation
- Fixed Salt description which had incorrect mine levels
- Fixed savegame not loading for people with unusual calendars [V1.0.2.1]
- Fixed situation where boat could stick [V1.0.2.1]
- Reduced maximum boat wait time [V1.0.2.1]