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Aven Colony build 0.1.14287 is now posted!  Major new features include:

• The new Arido Mesa campaign mission!  This is our first timed mission, and it's also the only mission so far with only 1 mission objective in the main quest chain ... at this point in the campaign, we have completely stopped all hand-holding, and no longer guide the player through all the steps required to build a viable colony.  Other than trade and population objectives, the first mission objective you receive ("Accept 1000 immigrants") is the only one you need to complete to win the mission.
• We're completely overhauling "enhancers" and alcoholic beverages.  We'll be tying these to a new building that isn't in the game yet, but in the meantime, enhancers and alcoholic beverages do nothing when consumed (though they can still be manufactured and traded).  The tooltips for these resources now say "deprecated" to indicate that they are manufacturable but non-functional.
• As part of the same design refactoring, the "addiction" and "recovery" mechanic has been removed, and the Bar & Grill building has been simplified to only 2 operational modes.  Colonists can no longer get "addicted" to anything.  We've also eliminated the two social policies related to addiction.
• You now have the ability to rename colonists and buildings!  Just click the name and start typing.
• Added a new sandworm vomit attack.
• Lots of new sound effects are now in the game, and you should hear a lot of buildings doing their thing when you zoom in close to the colony.

Installation instructions are available here.

In other news, lots of exciting things are in the works!  Some regard surprising new features we plan to add; others involve even bigger announcements.  Please stay tuned!  We expect to have quite a bit to talk about in the coming months.

Here are the full, detailed update notes:
 

New Features:

• Added the Arido Mesa mission (campaign version).  This is the first mission with only 1 objective in the "main" quest line, and is also our first timed mission
• Various tweaks to make the harder difficulty settings (anything harder than Normal difficulty) significantly harder in the mid-game and late-game
• You can now edit the names of your buildings and colonists!  Just click on the name at the top of the selection pane and you will be able to modify it
• Added colonist voice-overs in response to being renamed
• Sandworms now spew huge saliva/vomit chunks when they emerge, which fly out in all directions
• Sandworms now properly appear randomly throughout the mission, with the % chance to appear based on difficulty settings and colony size
• Note that there are currently no notifications for Sandworms, and Plasma Turrets do not yet target them
• Added the ambient colonist VOs for reacting to a dead body
• Added "operational" sounds for the Chemical Plant, Mill, all Drone Hub types, Farm, Greenhouse, Nanite Factory, Water Pump, Storage Depot, Mini-Storage
• Added "operational" sounds for the Air Filter, Intake Fan, Mine, Laser Mine, Retail Center, VR Center, and Earth History Center
• Added door and elevator sounds for the Trade Hub
• New sound effects for the Lightning Tower
• Plague spore: implemented the "entered colony" and "infected" sounds
• New sounds for the Plasma Turret and the various shot impact effects
• New sounds for the Scrubber Drone when scrubbing
• The "Unemployment morale" tooltip now states the number of residents unemployed, or "Unemployed" for a single colonist
• The "Highlighting all of type (X)" text when you hold down the Ctrl key now also indicates the number of objects highlighted
• Added a new animated emoji to several of the SHIPE calls

Tuning / tweaking / design changes:

• Enhancers have been completely overhauled and will be tied to a new building that isn't in the game yet
• For the moment, Enhancers and alcoholic beverages do nothing when consumed.  You can still manufacture and trade them, but they are "deprecated," so consuming them does nothing
• The "addiction" and "recovery" mechanic has been fully removed
• The "Prohibition" and "Free Addiction Treatment" social policies have been removed
• Removed the "get people addicted" quest from Tenari Glacier since the concept of "addiction" no longer exists
• The Bar & Grill no longer has a 'Lounge' mode, only "Bar" and "Bistro"
• The Bar & Grill's "Bar" mode now increases Entertainment morale
• The Retail Center and VR Center now requires 20 workers; this makes them more useful in resolving unemployment issues in large colonies
• A Hospital now costs more nanites to build, but uses less electricity
• Removed the "organ" sound from some of the music tracks
• Replaced the annoying looping visor frost sound between Fall and Winter seasons with a sequence of much better-sounding one-shot visor frost sounds

Bug fixes:

• Addressed some issues with our texture streaming middleware that should fix some problems with poor performance when running the game while certain other apps were open
• Fixed the trade vessel's cargo pod hanging out in space when the vessel entered "orbit," causing a small black dot to be visible in the sky in Vanaar
• We now properly remove foliage around buildings under construction when loading a save game
• Fixes to Resupply Pod state causing it to have the wrong mesh when selected vs. not selected
• Fixed an occasional issue with the camera wonking out after the startup camera animation at the beginning of the mission completed
• Fixed build palette icons so they no longer animate while that submenu is open
• Reduced the amount of green on animating build palette icons so they no longer look so much like the selected state of those icons
• Fixed tunnels being set to the wrong shape when rotating the camera when placing a 2x2 (or larger) building
• Fix for a rare bug with the Water overlay being stuck in the active state even though the overlay was turned off
• Fixed the ambient sounds for all levels to have a new, customized "vertical attenuation" and fixed the ambient SFX on all maps
• Fixes to prevent issues with muted audio tracks when crossfading music
• Fixed the bug that made the game scroll when the cursor is outside of the window
• Fixed bugs with Ctrl-key highlighting not working properly with Cargo Pods, Steam Vents, and mineral deposits
• Fixed an art bug with Skyscrapers sometimes having the wrong base in certain biomes
• Fixed a few typos in Hyla's Crescent mission objectives
• Reduced the amount of light on the Plama Turret shots
• Lots of additional tweaks and bug fixes

Thank you for being part of the Aven Colony community!