The update from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0 will be the biggest change to Colony Survival yet! It will add a lot of new content and change things you’re used to. It’s highly recommended to start a new colony in 0.4.0 – you’ll need new resources that will not spawn in areas that have already been generated before 0.4.0. Expandable banner safe zone Research technology to increase the area where monsters will not spawn. Currently, monsters will not spawn in an area around the banner the size of 22,500 square meter. (For the Americans; 1 block = 1 square meter) We are thinking of decreasing this area to 10,000 square meter. Then you can use the Scientist to research a bigger safe area. The max safe area will probably be somewhere between 40,000 and 90,000 square meter. Day and night guards When placing a guard in 0.4.0, you’ll have 8 options. Will the guard use a sling, bow, crossbow or musket, and will he work during the day or during the night? Colonies with long mazes or 24/7 monsters will certainly need guards during the day. In the future, ‘day guards’ will be useful when fighting other players as well. Decreased maze effectiveness A common strategy to defeat monsters is building long and winded mazes. Currently, most monsters will die because of the rising sun before they actually reach the castle. Stronger and faster monsters will make mazes less effective. But there is another big change we want to implement: the sun shouldn’t kill monsters anymore. Monsters will stop spawning earlier, so with a normal travel time they should still be dead when the day begins. But increasing their travel distance will not save you – you will have to kill each and every monster! Different ore spawns The first “orelayer” you encounter when digging down will only contain the first basic resources: tin and copper. To find iron and clay, you’ll have to dig deeper. Ores like galena (lead/silver) and saltpeter (gunpowder) will be hidden even deeper down. The depth of the ores will be determined based on the height of the world. This means it will actually become viable to build on top of a high hill or mountain. More complex production chains Bronze ingots require two different ores. Iron ingots will need charcoal as fuel, which will have to be produced in a kiln. Steel needs coal cokes as fuel. The cokes are created by burning coal in the kiln. Items like crates, beds and workbenches will have more complex recipes and they’ll require items like copper nails, bronze plates and wrought iron. Those last two items will have to be crafted by a metalsmith, who is recruited by placing an anvil. Use Sciencebags and scientists to unlock new weapons, new jobs, a more powerful banner and to increase the colonist limit and their recruitment cost! More consistent guards Currently, the guards actually have to hit approaching monsters. Monsters walking straight to the guard are easily hit, but guards often miss when monsters walk from the left to the right or vice versa. We’re working to make it more consistent by making the arrows pretty much ‘guided’. This allows us to determine the accuracy much more precisely.
Why one big update instead of multiple smaller updates? A lot of the features in the new update are either interdependent or incompatible with older colonies. The new guards, technologies, jobs and items require the new ore system. The new ores don’t spawn in areas that have been generated before 0.4.0. The new guard system makes quivers obsolete. We want to avoid breaking older worlds as much as possible. Sometimes it’s necessary, but we certainly don’t want to do it often. This means that the new update will take some time before it’s released, but it’s going to be a big improvement :) Minor reassurance: nobody will be forced to abandon his or her beloved colonies. It will always be possible to switch back to the 0.3.0 branch and load old colonies. It’s even possible to continue playing older worlds in 0.4.0. It’s just going to be pretty inconvenient (ores not spawning in old areas, items becoming obsolete, job-blocks that have to be removed) and we recommend most players to just start a new colony once 0.4.0 has been released. Thanks for reading this!