Greetings from the tier 5 exclusion zone! I hope this update finds you well, or at least alive.
Drop in on the Discord and let us know how you are doing.
[previewyoutube=QpL6J9QU1u8;full][/previewyoutube]
MAIA now features a brand new ray-marched voxelised shadow system allowing every light in your base to cast accurate dynamic shadows into the world. This system really augments a colonys atmosphere, doesnt require any ray-tracing specific hardware and also wont totally obliterate your frame rate.
Continuing the visual improvements, several new colonist head variations are now in the game, and the quality of many existing game textures has been increased. A multitude of small visual tweaks and polish improvements have been carefully worked in to improve the general feel and aesthetic.
Along with with the new lighting system and graphics improvements the game has been given a deep optimisation pass on the core game code and graphics pipeline. This means that densely populated maps with a mature ecosystem simulation and a large number of colonists, robots and creatures will see performance gains of up to 30-40% on a middle range CPU, which can lead to a much smoother frame rate.
On the GPU you may see up to a 15% increase in frames per second (with the new ray shadows switched off). The engine also now caches generated code, shaders and other data and will load the game several seconds faster.
The user interface was feeling a little left out so we gave it some love too. The middle click menu has now been extended to room placement to for those who prefer a list based selection. Many menu boxes, buttons and pop up texts have been given shadows and extra borders to improve readability in high contrast scenes.
Other changes:
Changing texture settings on the fly no longer causes glitches. MSAA settings changes are improved. Several menu options now require an apply click to help stop accidental changes. The game will now spawn a much lower number of threads and use them better. Screen space reflections straightened slightly. Support for OpenGL 4.5 added. The GUI now has a visual autosave notification. Text colours are fixed when on in-game colonist selection screens. The outbreaks of contagious colonist hypochondria have been reduced. Colonist needs balanced. The Utility bots will wait less for jobs. Colonists need to be a lot more fatigued to go AWOL. Colonist trauma will fade significantly faster. Colonists will now need to be closer to cave-ins to be traumatised by them. Room temperatures will now simulate more accurately. Game log files updated to newer more detailed format. Better shader loading verification. Lots of small AI tweaks. Intel 3000HD support dropped and fired into the sun. Instability caused by giant wildfires fixed. We'll be back soon with more features and fixes. Watch the updates as they happen on the dev site.
[ 2021-01-22 18:22:30 CET ] [ Original post ]
- Maia Linux [1.72 G]
About This Game
Maia is a strange and hostile alien world, toxic to humans, yet lush with new life. Your mission is to colonise this poison eden, survive it's dangers and establish humanity's first foothold in the stars. Created by independent developer Simon Roth, Maia is a space colony simulation game about surviving and thriving on another world.
Build your Base
Burrow into Maia's mineral rich crust to build and manage a complex base that fulfills your colonist's needs. They'll need somewhere to sleep, somewhere to build and a steady supply of food, water and energy.
An Enormous Procedurally-Generated World
Twelve light years from earth, the planet 3452C[Maia] circles Tau Ceti. Its atmosphere is toxic, its surface is ravaged by solar flares and meteor blasts and its unstable crust is constantly shifted by earthquakes. Nevertheless, it is theoretically habitable. Explore Maia through a series of vast procedurally generated mission areas, each one up to 2km by 2km in size.
Challenge Yourself
In addition to the sandbox mode players can take on four specific missions, with more to come in updates. Deal with an influx of refugees from a stricken space station in Cassiopeia, survive the perpetual night of arctic winter in The Twilight Zone, study Maia's local ecosystem in SN1572 and begin to terraform the planet in the shadow of an active volcano in Stratospheric Sulphates.
Research and Learn from the Planet to Survive
Maia is a hard science fiction game based on real or extrapolated technology. Some of the colonist's tools have been brought with them, but others must be fabricated from what they can find. Once your base is up and running colonists can begin to study the native environment researching new ways to use the flora and fauna of Maia to their advantage.
Dangerous Atmosphere
Maia's atmosphere is toxic to humans, so to keep safe you'll need carefully manage the atmosphere around your base with well placed airlocks, atmosphere generators, heaters and air vents. Air flow and heat circulation are realistically simulated, emulating the deadly challenge of surviving on an alien world.
Advanced Colonists AI
In Maia you don't have direct control of your colonists, they operate on their own initiative, fulfilling their wants and needs. You'll need to take care of both their bodies and minds if you want any of them to survive.
An Army of Robots
Colonising an alien world isn't something humanity can do alone, instead they've created robotic helpers to do the jobs they don't want to. The I.M.P. robot digs through Maia's crust and collects useful minerals, while the Utility Repair Robot takes care of all that routine maintenance humans can't be bothered with.
First Person Mode
Experience Maia through the eyes of your pet robots. Assume direct control and explore your base in first person, directly interacting with it by performing your robotic tasks. Become part of the world you've built.
Genetically Engineered Super Chickens
To survive, your colonists will need to create and manage new sources of food, thus the people of Earth designed the genetically engineered super chicken, the Uberhuhn. With enough time and diligent research you can even begin to collect and herd the native wildlife of Maia. Unfortunately most of it tastes terrible.
Custom Engine
Maia runs on a custom game engine made by independant developer Simon Roth. It is used exclusively in Maia and is purpose built specifically to support this game.
Immersive Soundtrack
Maia's immersive sci-fi soundtrack adapts and responds to in game events, ensuring it always reflects the mood of the game.The Inspiration
Maia was inspired by games such as Dungeon Keeper, Theme Hospital and The Sims. It mixes strategy, management and construction with dark gallows humour about the many dangers of an alien world. Maia also draws from the retro future style of 1970s sci-fi.To Come
- A full story driven campaign, several hours long.
- More rooms, and new base management systems.
- Multiple bases.
- More indigenous life forms and a functioning food chain.
- Somewhat sassy computers.
- Realistic water and lava simulation.
- Cats with bee suits.
Get Involved
One of the great things about early access is being able to have players follow along with the game’s creation. This immediate feedback is extremely valuable to the games development. You can see our updates and give us feedback on the game via Twitter or our Development Blog. If you need some help with getting started in the game, you can check out our guides, head over to the official wiki or sign up to the forum.
- OS: 64 bit
- Processor: Intel Core i3-10100 or AMD Ryzen 3 3100Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia 280 or ATI 5770 - or equivalent with 1GB VRAM
- Storage: 4 GB available spaceAdditional Notes: OpenGL 3.2 support is required.
- OS: 64 bit
- Processor: Intel i5-3570K or AMD Ryzen 3600Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia GTX 470 or ATI 5870 - or equivalent with 2GB VRAM
- Storage: 4 GB available spaceAdditional Notes: OpenGL 3.2 support is required.
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