Good to see you again, mayors.

It's been a while, and a lot has changed under the hood of NewCity. So much in fact that we've bundled it all together as the long-awaited "Art Update." We're not quite comfortable pushing it straight to the main game branch without some due diligence.

But that doesn't mean you have to wait to play it. Switch over to the "test" beta branch to give it a go while we smooth out the rough edges. Just like old times.

Patch notes below:

Version 0.0.58.15b ALPHA

[h2]1. The Art Update:[/h2]

• Building designs have been overhauled to present an all-new art style.
  
• Designs have been reworked as "Design Packages." Editing designs, assigning textures, and designs distribution are now more convenient and intuitive. (Additional changes to the Steam Workshop integration to support this are forthcoming.)
  
• Textures (albedo and illumination) can now be assigned to designs via an intuitive texture picker UI, and will "stick" to the design.
  
• The UI has been revamped for ease-of-access to tools and information.
  
• Load Menu now has options for "New Game," "New Scenario," and "New Design."
  
• Changed core game palette and mod decos.
  
• Changed terrain trees to be textured billboards (planes that always face the camera).
  
• Terrain trees are now visible from a longer distance.
  
• Polluted water is no longer shiny. Instead, it's as opaque and murky as 2020-2022.
  
• Several bugfixes and improvements to the tutorial system.
  

• The Config Panel now displays units.
  
• Corrected building height in the Design Organizer.
  
• Design Organizer now uses the pointOnLand function to place designs.
  
• Searching with the Deco tool has been improved.
  

• Some amenities have slight changes to their costs and effects
  
• Earthworks has been reworked to default to "Raise/Lower" mode. Hold LMB or Alt+LMB to Raise/Lower terrain respectively. You can still toggle back to "Level" mode via a button.
  
• Earthworks cost per tick has been greatly reduced (from 200 to 2).
  
• Hard mode is now easier. You start with more money, and there is less crime and traffic.
  
• Scrolling a list in the UI is now a bit slower. It is a user-modifiable variable (CScrollSpeed in data/constants.lua).
  
• Clicking on an achievement message now selects the responsible amenity.
  
• Traffic now provides less pollution by almost half, and pollution has half as much of an impact on health.
  
• Density now degrades Community
  
• All NewCitizens are now speedwalkers. Their walking speed has been buffed from 5 to 20m/s, which will positively impact the distance at which transit stops are viable.
  
• A small random factor has been added to routing to help break bad routes loose.
  

• Performance has been improved in situations where there are lots of visible vehicles.
  
• Various bug fixes and stability improvements.
  

• The initial load time for the game is longer in this version. It's due to a loading step for design textures. Improvements to this process are already in the pipeline.
  
• Due to the top-to-bottom change in designs and amenities, it will likely break compatibility with existing cities. YOU MAY EXPERIENCE A CRASH WHEN FIRST LAUNCHING THIS VERSION AS A RESULT. If this happens, select "Start a New Game" during the recovery launch. We advise making a new city for v58.15, and will offer a beta branch (pre-art-update) which will remain at v58.14 for backward compatibility.
  

In order to get NewCity to v1.0, were going to have to make judicious use of the cutting room floor. But that shouldnt be a scary thing. Freeing the team up to focus on improving the features weve already implemented will result in a better product. We dont want to be as wide as an ocean and as shallow as a puddle, after all. Expect to begin hearing us use the phrase out of scope more often. Its time to batten down the hatches and get this ship ready to sail.

Read the latest Friday Facts over at our website:
https://lonepine.io/2022/01/21/the-cutting-room-floor.html

Oh, hi! Its good to see you again. Took me a while to squeeze around the elephant in the room. But were back!

Read the latest Friday Facts over at our website:
https://lonepine.io/2022/01/14/new-year-newcity.html

Mayors,

Our Halloween modpack has been overhauled by Gainos and Lone Pine for maximum spooks. You'll find ghosts and witches roaming the land, a variety of new ambient sounds to send a chill down your spine, and even some surprises for you to discover! Keep an eye on the newspaper, and be prepared for your citizens to request a resting place for the dearly departed...

You can subscribe/download the modpack here: Halloween Modpack (2021)

If you are subscribed to (or had downloaded and unpacked) our previous Halloween modpack, be sure to either delete it or rename it to prevent issues. You can manually manage modpacks by navigating to your ./steamapps/common/NewCity/modpacks/ folder.

Happy haunting!
-Lone Pine Games

Announcing the NewCity Speedrun Spooktacular! Lone Pine Games is offering a prize of $50 Steam gift card for the fastest (earliest game date) speedrun of NewCity.

[h2]Rules:[/h2]

Mayors,

We come bearing an update! Version 0.0.58.14 ALPHA is now live on all branches. Details below:


1. Overhauled the Tutorial Experience:

• All New Tutorials covering basic gameplay, transit, expressways, economy, education, heatmaps, blueprints, and winning the game.
  
• Streamlined new player experience.
  
• Several bugfixes and improvements to the tutorial system.
  

• The toolbar is now positioned along the left edge of the screen, with labels for each tool, making it easier to navigate.
  

• Roads and rails are now always built at a height relative to the terrain.
  
• This may prevent certain bugs where roads didn't quite snap to one another, and were offset vertically.
  

• Pollution spreads further.
  
• Increased Community's protective effect on Health
  
• Neighboring cities will no longer affect the Density and Health heatmaps. Neighbors create less Crime and Pollution.
  

• Mixed Use zones can now spawn Residential, Retail, and Office buildings, in addition to Mixed Use buildings. Mixed Use zones cannot spawn Farms or Factories.
  
• Added the Summer Spectacular winner names to the list used for random citizen generation.
  
• Added many newspaper articles focused on you as the Mayor, funny characters in your city, and economics.
  
• Added a Design Organizer to help organize building designs by zone, density and value. The Design Organizer can be accessed from the Building Designer.
  
• Search in Controls Options.
  
• Markdown can now display charts and animated images.
  
• Various improvements to performance and stability.
  

• Fixed a memory leak when reading blueprints.
  
• Fixed a memory leak during building illumination texture cleanup when resetting textures.
  
• Fixed a memory leak when rendering multiline text in the UI.
  
• Fixed a memory leak when rendering span UI elements.
  
• Fixed a memory leak when caching building decoration information.
  
• Fixed a memory leak when reading the Designs directory.
  
• Fixed a memory leak when drawing the cursor.
  
• Fixed a memory leak during tree cleanup when resetting terrain.
  
• Fixed a memory leak for family members when resetting people.
  
• Fixed a memory leak when reading the RenumTable.
  
• Fixed a memory leak when finishing a RouteRequest.
  

• Fixed a bug where reading binary data from the input file would result in reading zero-length or invalid length data when copying to cache.
  
• Changed how Steam API functionality is shutdown to prevent race conditions and fully clean up state.
  
• Fixed a potential crash when attempting to load a preview image for a city or design that doesn't exist.
  
• Added some Windows specific error handling in certain situations to prevent CTDs (Crashes to desktop) unless absolutely necessary.
  
• Added better error checking to the isEntityActive check.
  
• Changed the frontBuffer flag to an atomic boolean to prevent certain bugs related to multithreading.
  

• Fixed a bug where the Route Inspector said citizens value their time at "$0.00 per hour."
  
• Fixed a bug in Planner Mode when building expressways that caused a "Bad Angle" error.
  
• Fixed the Traffic Infoview, which was not displaying correctly.
  

Happy Summer, Mayors!

It's been a while since the last game update, and we hope this small change will allow for a big difference in the way you play NewCity!

Patch notes:
[h2]Version 0.0.58.13 ALPHA[/h2]

And we're back! We've got a light update in terms of changelog items for v58.13, but expect to see that grow in the updates yet to come on the road to v1.0.

Improvements:

• Overhauled our input management system to use KeyBinds composed of Actions and Keys. These are gathered into a KeyMap which allows players to customize binds to suit their playstyle.
  
• UI buttons with an associated action now show the key assigned to their bind.
  
• Implemented a new binary file format for reading and writing data; it will be field tested first with the keymap and other input data.
  
  Fixes:
  
• Repositioned key labels to better suit new system.
  

Happy August, Mayors.

Let's start with the NewCity-sized elephant in the room. You have probably noticed a lack of updates in your library from us. Lone Pine Games is still dedicated to NewCity and its growth, but we have fallen behind expectations. We have a note from supersoup on that in this Steam Workshop post, and I will transpose it here as well:

This is our fault. We set an unsustainable pace with the first year of development. While weekly or bi-weekly releases are nice for players, for a small team they often lead to cut corners, more bugs, and more time spent putting out fires than focusing on forward motion. Perhaps this is why many indie teams stick to longer cycles or "when it's done" right out of the gate. But since this is our first game as a team we had to learn as we went.

I see your concern. But please understand that the game is not abandonware, nor have we given up in any sense. Future releases will generally be "when it's done," and as discussed here on the forums and on our Discord, not every release will have lots of front-facing content. Sometimes we need to spend a significant amount of time on backend systems. Sometimes we'll need to set up additional updates in the future. And while we weren't able to meaningfully or consistently do that with a weekly/bi-weekly release cycle, we're taking the time we need to do so now.

The next release will offer "just" keybindings, sure. A necessary if not flashy feature. But the system underlying it will represent a more robust save file system and other possible improvements in the future. All with the focus of working toward v1.0 by year's end and a more stable, playable NewCity. Thank you for your patience in the meantime.
[hr][/hr]
I am pleased to announce the results of the NewCity Summer Spectacular! We are so happy with the results and want to thank everyone who participated, voted, or even just sat there idly while the contest and thought it was neat.







Our winners will be receiving messages on Discord for their Steam keys and entries into our buildings and citizens' name database. And our header/thumbnail image are also courtesy of contest entrants u-train and 0kuu, and you can find a full writeup about the contest in the blog post below.

• Friday Facts #83: Spectacular Summer
  

The NewCity Summer Spectacular is ongoing from now through July 5th. We'll be running a contest with opportunities for you yes, you! to enter your very own slice of NewCity lime pie for a chance to win some prizes. Whether it's a mod, a building design, or a picture of you playing NewCity (or creating something NewCity inspired) in the real-world, every Mayor will have the chance to celebrate the summer season right along with us.

Contest Rules

• Create and share a piece of NewCity-related content! It can be a photo, video, music, building design, modded content or other piece of art celebrating NewCity in the summer!
  
• Entries will be accepted from June 22nd to July 5th. Submit your content here on Discord, @ us on Twitter, or post them to Reddit or the Steam Community! Use the hashtag #NewCitySummer to highlight it for us and community voting.
  
• Participants can enter up to 5 times(one per category)
  

• Live-Action Photo: A non-edited photograph of NewCity or city-building related content
  
• Multimedia(Audio and/or Video): Edited content including but not limited to music, video, photo manipulation, or any combination of the three.
  
• Mod/in-game content: File submission
  
• Screenshots
  
• Other
  

Happy Summer, Mayors!

Today's patch is on the small side for features. However, we are elated to announce a special summer event that will let you win some fabulous prizes! Stay tuned this weekend for more info.

These are the patch notes:
[h2]Version 0.0.58.12 ALPHA[/h2]

[h3]Development News[/h3]

• Starting next week, we'll be starting the NewCity Summer Spectacular! Pay attention to our social media to see how to participate and what prizes you can win!
  
  Improvements:
  
• The terrain grid has been updated. We're going back to dots for the smallest grid size, and there is a compass rose pointing North. The grid can easily be modified by editing or replacing textures/land.png
  
• Small cities can now support more density.
  
  Fixes:
  
• Autosave is now enabled by default.
  
• When generating terrain for a new game, if hills are turned off, the maximum height is now CSuperflatHeight. This fixes a visual glitch some players noticed.
  
• Fixed a crash-on-launch.
  

Good Morning Mayors,

To celebrate the beginning of the summer seasons, our game will be on sale for three days starting only 20 minutes from this post!

Here are the latest Friday Facts that have been posted on lonepine.io:

• Friday Facts #70: Show Me the Data
  
• Friday Facts #71: Colorful
  
• Friday Facts #72: Conference Call
  
• Friday Facts #73: Show Me the Data
  
• Friday Facts #74: Great Expectations
  
• Friday Facts #75: Demanding Specifications
  
• Friday Facts #76:Atomic Coding
  
• Friday Facts #77: Designer Workflow
  

Salutations, Mayors!

Today's patch is our first step towards addressing issues with early game zone demand. We streamed a bit of the progress on Twitch last night, where the VOD is still available for those interested.

[h2]
[/h2]
These are the patch notes:
[h2]Version 0.0.58.11 ALPHA[/h2]

[h3]Development News[/h3]

• Weve made significant improvements to the long standing issue with early game zone demand. The early game should now be much less frustrating and tedious.
  
  [h3]Features[/h3]
  
• Density now grows faster up to Density 3. Density 4-10 is unchanged.
  
• Workers now get jobs immediately when moving to the city. Workers also get a new job when they get laid off, and 90% of the time when losing a job due to a long commute. This dramatically reduces unemployment, and now unemployment matches the Target Unemployment Rate. More information on this will be detailed on the blog at lonepine.io
  
• Community, Health, Prosperity and Crime now influence population growth.
  
• Factories have zero demand until the city has 1,000 people.
  
• Offices have zero demand until the city has 10,000 people.
  
• Mixed Use has zero demand until the city has 20,000 people.
  
  [h3]Fixes[/h3]
  
• Fixed edge scrolling in all video modes.
  
• Fixed several issues that could cause population growth to stall in the early game.
  
• Fixed two situations which would cause a crash.
  
• Fixed a bug where statistics which count people by education level could be negative or inaccurate.
  
• Fixed an issue where houses turned gray when zooming out.
  
  [h3]Known issues[/h3]
  
• Mid-late game mass transit can be buggy and isn't where it should be.
  

Good to see you back, Mayor!

Today's patch is bringing a few new buildings and some new camera controls to toggle. Also, starting a few minutes from when this post is live, we'll be streaming NewCity on the Lone Pine Games Twitch Account! Tune in for some of that fresh patch.

[h2]
[/h2]
These are the patch notes:
[h2]Version 0.0.58.10 ALPHA[/h2]

[h3]Development News[/h3]

• You asked for it, and you got it: edge scrolling is now available!
  
  [h3]Features[/h3]
  
• Added toggles for edge scrolling and locking the mouse to the window in Options->General.
  
• Added new decorations (by group): pools and building components (structure), trees on the sidewalk (trees), and garbage trucks (vehicles).
  
• Added and modified a variety of designs.
  
• Farm demand variables have been slightly tuned. (CFarmNoEduPositions from 15 to 25, CFarmHSPositions from 0 to 5)
  
• Pollution now spreads farther.
  
  [h3]Changes[/h3]
  
• Reduced the size of the save file buffer. (Possible fix for long/infinite save issue)
  
• Zone demand is now updated more often.
  
• Payments from the Casino and Biffco Plant are now more consistent.
  
  [h3]Fixes[/h3]
  
• Fixed a bug that made Density 10 inordinately difficult to accomplish.
  
• Fixed a bug where starting a new game at a different difficulty within the same session didn't actually change the difficulty.
  
  [h3]Known issues[/h3]
  
• Mid-late game mass transit can be buggy and isn't where it should be.
  

Hey, Mayors! Welcome back to our channel.

To start, our latest Tourism Update promotional trailer is live now on YouTube.

[previewyoutube=fyzXB4QASbU;full][/previewyoutube]

Players who would like to visit Pacific City and join our Discord to download this game file! This update also includes new building designs for farms, houses, shops, factories, and government offices.

These are the patch notes:
[h2]Version 0.0.58.9 ALPHA[/h2]

[h3]Development News[/h3]

• Check out our new trailer for the Tourist Update!
  
  [h3]Features[/h3]
  
• Added the ability to add newline characters in text boxes by using Shift+Enter.
  
• Added and modified many Retail, Government, Industrial, Agricultural, and Residential designs.
  
  
  [h3]Changes[/h3]
  
• Changed the appearance of sidewalks. Thanks to qv on Discord for the suggestion!
  
• The transit stop radius has been buffed (From 30 to 40).
  
  [h3]Fixes[/h3]
  
• Fix for shader error "'return' with wrong type int".
  
• Fixed building texture assignment for police buildings.
  
  [h3]Known issues[/h3]
  
• Zone/demand balance tuning.
  

Happy Spring Break, Mayors!

Our test mode has become the Scenario Editor. Terraform to your hearts content and create your ultimate cityscape!

These are the patch notes:
[h2]Version 0.0.58.8 ALPHA[/h2]

[h3]Development News[/h3]

• Tourist Update and new trailer is coming more soon than previously!
  
• Want to make your own maps? Test Mode is now the Scenario Editor, and terrain editing (Bulldozer->Earthworks) therein are free! We're looking forward to seeing what you build.
  
  [h3]Features[/h3]
  
• Added a terrain seam hider to prevent certain situations where terrain seams were visible.
  
• Changed Test Mode to Scenario Editor, and made Earthworks free in the Scenario Editor to facilitate creating your own unique terrains. The process of converting Test Mode to the Scenario Editor is a work-in-progress, and subject to changes and bugs as we go. The Amenity tool is currently disabled in the Scenario Editor.
  
  [h3]Changes[/h3]
  
• Added/updated many designs including the new Gas Station, fixing shrubs in certain designs, wanderer spawn rates, and more.
  
• Added a queued satmap refresh shortly after loading a save, as well as satmap refreshes on using the Bulldozer tool.
  
• Changed the Transportation Tool to default to Link Mode.
  
• Nerfed tourism (CTouristsPerPoint to 200 down from 500).
  
• Reduced penalty for pedestrian walking time to get to transit. (CWalkingSpeed to 5 up from 2.5).
  
• Made lots reposition and reparent themselves more intelligently.
  
• Buffed density cap from health (CDensityCapHealth to 0.5 up from 0.25).
  
• Brightened the satmap.
  
• Moved daylight options to the Visual tab in the Options menu.
  
• Changed in-game FPS counter to display red under 20FPS.
  
  [h3]Fixes[/h3]
  
• Fixed a situation where transit stops would not properly reposition themselves.
  
• Fixed seasonal palette changing when rain and snow were disabled.
  
• Fixed appearance of leafless trees in the winter.
  
• Fixed vehicle illumination textures.
  
• Fixed transparent UI pixels in the palette.
  
• Fixed certain situations where lots would be created too close to the road.
  
• Fixed a situation where the framebuffer capture system would get stuck.
  
• Fixed some bugs in wanderer movement and vehicle interpolation.
  
• Fixed certain repeating designs.
  
• Fixed SetThreadDescription exception when running the game with Windows 7.
  
• Fixed pillars culling at the edge of the screen.
  
• Fixed road shine on suspension bridges.
  
• Ensured that the Zone tool only zones along roads.
  
• Orphaned buildings now clean themselves up if too far from a road.
  
• Removed transit stop debug logging left from development.
  
  [h3]Known issues[/h3]
  
• Occasionally saves or autosaves can take an extraordinary amount of time to complete. Under active investigation
  

Hello Mayors,

A new Friday Facts has been posted on lonepine.io:

• Friday Facts #67: The Logos of Logos
  

Welcome to Class, Mayors!

We have a revamped "work-in-progress" tutorial for building roads that will get your cities started. Feedback is greatly appreciated, as we hope to expand it to cover much more of the game.

These are the patch notes:
[h2]Version 0.0.58.7 ALPHA[/h2]

[h3]Development News[/h3]

• The new versioning system (Major.Minor.Build.Patch) is being delayed to minimize breaking changes.
  We're going to be updating the main/default branch to this patch at the same time the test patch goes live, to assist with ensuring we're working with up-to-date feedback and info on bugs.
  
• Tourist Update and new trailer coming soon!
  
  [h3]Features[/h3]
  
• Added the first flight of our new Tutorial system! With "Enable Tutorial" checked in Options, the Tutorial will initiate shortly after loading into an old or new city. It covers the basics for getting started in NewCity in an interactive way.
  
• Added the song "Tourist Trap" to the soundtrack.
  
  [h3]Changes[/h3]
  
• Improved shader error checking and logging for future debugging efforts.
  
• Improved recovery from startOggStream errors and issues loading songs.
  
• Slightly increased the number of routes processed in a batch to prevent some from being "forgotten."
  
• Reduced the number of factories in the Quarry Crusher design.
  
• Tweaked the global and land fragment shaders to add more definition to objects in shadow and minimize flat shading.
  
  [h3]Bugfixes[/h3]
  
• Fixed an issue where transit passengers would skip their ride on buses and trains.
  
• Fixed a visible seam on flat-roof buildings.
  
  [h3]Known issues[/h3]
  
• Occasionally saves or autosaves can take an extraordinary amount of time to complete.
  
• The first time enabling the Tutorial with an old save can result in hiding certain UI elements per the old system; quit the game with "Enable Tutorial" checked to reset.
  

Salutations, Mayors!

This week's patch focuses on fixes and optimizations as we prepare for another main branch launch. Our team is focusing on stability and quality of life improvements at the moment and we hope you'll notice the difference!

These are the patch notes:
[h2]Version 0.0.58.6 ALPHA[/h2]

[h3]Development News[/h3]

• We're going to start including a "Known issues section in the changelog, to better communicate issues that we're aware of and actively working on fixes for.
  
• NewCity will be transitioning to a new versioning system in the near future, likely as soon as the next patch. - Major.Minor.Build.Patch (e.g. 0.1.1.0)
  
  [h3]Features[/h3]
  
• Added additional animated decorations for the amusement park and beach (kites, flags).
  
• Added eagle, shark, and whale wanderers.
  
• Added structure, farm, park, industrial, and vehicle group decorations.
  
  [h3]Changes[/h3]
  
• Changed Planner mode to discard all plans on exiting the mode.
  
• Changed how activity probability is represented when querying a person.
  
• Changed factory and office demand to be enabled for low population cities.
  
  [h3]Bugfixes[/h3]
  
• Fixed an issue with the router that could cause softlocks in low population cities.
  
• Fixed an issue where amenity mandatory expenses were treated as amenity income.
  
• Fixed certain situations where roads in constructed blueprints would not connect properly.
  
• Fixed improper icon for activities when querying a person.
  
• Fixed situations where the NoteChart and NoteObject features could be set disabled when they should be enabled.
  
• Fixed a segfault when switching modpacks.
  
• Fixed two improperly named textures, which prevented them from being properly applied to designs.
  
• Possible fix for "procedure entry point SetThreadDescription could not be located" error on Windows.
  
• Fixed a large number of missing decorations which would cause console spam.
  
• Removed debug logging for rendering buoys.
  
  [h3]Known issues[/h3]
  
• In certain situations, UI text can render as splotchy or broken.
  
• Deleting a rail for a train transit system does not delete the train lines.
  
• Adding new stops to existing mass transit lines deletes all later stops.
  
• Large numbers of passengers may be left waiting at transit stations.
  

Hello Mayors,

A new Friday Facts has been posted on lonepine.io:

• Friday Facts #66: What Did You Learn
  

Welcome to March, Mayors!

Take a look at our recent beta branch update for some new tourism features. Building capacities have been rebalanced. And of course, bug fixes!

These are the patch notes:
[h2]Version 0.0.58.5 ALPHA[/h2]

[h3]Features[/h3]

• Added ability for amenities to provide positive cash flow.
  
• Added two positive cash flow amenities: the Casino and the Toxic Waste Plant.
  
• Added floor, industrial, pillar, park, residential, sign, and structure decorations; including decor specific to the Casino, Toxic Waste Plant, Zoo, and Museum.
  
• Added a new cost widget in the Building Designer configuration panel.
  
  [h3]Improvements[/h3]
  
• Major balancing was done for designs across the board, which will have a significant impact on gameplay. Be prepared to start a new save.
  
  [h3]Performance Improvements[/h3]
  
• Made changes to the compiler flags used for Windows-based builds, which may marginally improve performance.
  
  [h3]Changes[/h3]
  
• Changed the budget line item for police income to amenity income.
  
• Changed Test Mode/Building Designer to prevent city growth.
  
  [h3]Bugfixes[/h3]
  
• Fixed the autosave infinite loop bug.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused amenity maintenance costs to be four times higher than they should have been.
  

Hello Mayors,

A new Friday Facts has been posted on lonepine.io:

• Friday Facts #65: A Tale of Two Operating Systems
  

Hi Mayors,

We will be delaying this week's patch to next week Thursday night. March 4, 2021, will be the next update.

We will revert to the original schedule after that. The patch after that will still release on March 11.

Apologies for the delay. Check out some of our WIP buildings in the meantime!







Thank you,
Lone Pine Games

Happy Lunar New Year, Mayors!


Our patch available today in the test branch is all about stability. We have heard your requests; autosaves can be turned off now.

These are the patch notes:
[h2]Version 0.0.58.4 ALPHA[/h2]

[h3]Features[/h3]

• There is now a slider to control how often the game autosaves. Drag the slider all the way to the right to disable autosaving entirely.
  
• Link Mode - When building roads, click on the link button to build a chain of roads.
  
• When querying a building, there is now a button to open that building design in the designer.
  
• Modding: It is now possible to read and modify buildings and building designs in Lua. Also added Lua API calls to get the name of the city's newspaper. See the Lua API section of the Citipedia for more information.
  
  [h3]Improvements[/h3]
  
• Roads are slightly less shiny.
  
• Water is now completely flat, to improve the visuals of boats.
  
• Historical buildings are now shown in the roadmap, the transit view, and the underground view.
  
• General Performance Improvements
  
  [h3]Bugfixes[/h3]
  
• Fixed issues with flickering or reappearing UI elements.
  
• Linux: Changed the launch script (newcity-linux.sh) to improve compatibility across distros.
  

Howdy, Mayors!


Our patch available today in the test branch has a lot that we've been excited about internally. Let's get right to it!


These are the patch notes:
[h2]Version 0.0.58.3 ALPHA[/h2]

[h3]Features[/h3]

• Wanderers - The game now features birds, fish, boats, helicopters, balloons, and blimps. They all move about the map dynamically, and they are animated. Some buildings and amenities spawn wanderers.
  
• Modding - It is possible to make custom wanderers, and to control their movement in Lua. See the Lua API section of the Citipedia for more information.
  
• Modding - Vehicles and wanderers can now have sound effects.
  
• FPS Cap - In the video options menu, the FPS can be capped to reduce CPU usage.
  
• When the game autosaves, there is now an animated message box.
  
• Added sound effects for trains, buses, aircraft, boats, and birds.
  
  [h3]Improvements[/h3]
  
• The game has a new color scheme! Colors are now brighter and more consistent. Colors change with the season.
  
• The skybox has a new texture. The texture of the skybox clouds can be modified with texture/clouds.png
  
• To test the appearance of clouds, run the command "weather 4".
  
• The stadium amenity has been redesigned.
  
• When the UI is hidden, the selection cone is now hidden too. This makes it easier to make screenshots and videos while following vehicles and wanderers.
  
• UI: It is now easier to set sliders all the way to the left or the right.
  
• Aquatic buildings are now worth more and are more likely to spawn. Added some aquatic buildings.
  
• Vehicles and Wanderers are now included in the automatically generated images for cities and building designs.
  
• Natural beaches are smaller, to improve the spawn rate of aquatic buildings. This also fixes a visual glitch.
  
  [h3]Bugfixes[/h3]
  
• Building Designer: The land and water now renders properly for aquatic buildings.
  
• Fixed a bug where the convention center was shown as abandoned.
  
• Fixed a bug where hotel buildings sometimes would not have a hotel business inside.
  
• Fixed a memory leak. Fixed some crashes and glitches.
  
• Reduced visual glitches (far plane clipping) when the camera is high above the ground.
  

Hello Mayors,

Two new Friday Facts have been posted on lonepine.io:

• Friday Facts #62: Top Down
  
• Friday Facts #63: The Man Behind the Curtain
  

Hello Mayors,

A new Friday Facts has been posted on lonepine.io:

• Friday Facts #61: Macroeconomics
  

TGIF, Mayors!

We are elated to preview our latest addition to NewCity: Tourism!

Host citizens from neighboring areas! Watch them enjoy the latest amenities! Enjoy the visual updates! And of course, performance improvements. Take your next vacation in NewCity.

These are the patch notes:
[h2]Version 0.0.58.1 ALPHA[/h2]

[h3]Features[/h3]

• Tourism - NewCity now features a Tourism system. Once you build an amenity with Tourist points, tourists will start to visit your city. Every Tourist point gives +500 tourists per year. The city will be given a Tourism rating, based on tourists' experiences. The higher your rating is, the longer tourists will stay -- and the more money they spend!
  
• Tourists will only visit amenities which have at least one effect point in either Tourism or Prestige.
  
• Added new building designs, including hotels, motels and resorts. There are retail and mixed use zoned buildings. They will spawn when there is demand for hotel rooms, regardless of the retail zone demand.
  
• New Amenity: Police Operations Center
  
• New Amenity: Theater
  
• LUA - added timeNow(), which returns the time of day.
  
• When placing roads, there are now icons showing intersection points and upgrade plans.
  
• New Newspaper articles
  
  [h3]Improvements[/h3]
  
• Performance has been improved. You can see data about performance by setting CLogUpdateTime = true.
  
• Many Amenities now give Tourism points. Some other amenity effect points have been updated.
  
• The Public Beach Amenity is now always unlocked. The Ice Rink now only unlocks when the weather is cold enough. (Sorry, desert city players.)
  
• The Convention Center Amenity now contains hotel rooms.
  
• The total number of retail businesses in your city is now driven primarily by the total value of retail transactions per hour. More shopping => more retail.
  
• Hospitals are no longer "Limit one per city"
  
• Buildings now have an effect on the Value heatmap.
  
• Less traffic in small cities.
  
• Cars will now despawn when lost rather than rerouting.
  
• The Police Headquarters Amenity now gives more Order, less Law.
  
• In-game Amenity Info now covers all information about the amenity.
  
  [h3]Visual Updates[/h3]
  
• Shadows are now sharper. Fixed shadow acne and peter-panning.
  
• Light color is now sampled from the palette, in the same way that skybox color is. Light color is the first color patch of the three.
  
• Updated the appearance of water.
  
• Animations are now smoother.
  
• Off map roads are hidden again, except in the road map, traffic view and transit view. Fading roads heading off map are now longer and easier to see.
  
• Land Grain has been removed. It can be brought back by replacing textures/land-grain.png with textures/land-grain-alt.png
  
• Trees on boulevards are removed for now. They will be brought back when we improve road rendering in a future release.
  
• Added statues to university buildings.
  
• Known issue: there are some visual glitches such as UI elements reappearing after being hidden. To fix this, set CCullingAlgo = 0. Performance will be degraded slightly.
  
  [h3]Building Designer Updates[/h3]
  
• Designs can now have up to 2 billion families and businesses of each type.
  
• You can now disable spawning on particular designs, by unchecking the Spawnable box. Use this for in-progress, prototype and scratch designs to prevent them from appearing in game.
  
• Designs now have a default end year of 9999. Designs which previously had an end year of 2100 (the previous default) will now have an end year of 9999.
  
• Known issue: Playing NewCity for 8049 years will result in buildings not spawning, and is not recommended for your health.
  
  [h3]Bugfixes[/h3]
  
• Fixed several bugs related to families and family membership.
  
• Fixed flickering when placing a road.
  
• Fixed a bug when rotating or flipping blueprints.
  

Hello Mayors, and welcome to 2021.

As of now, NewCity has been released on Steam for over six months. Since our Indiegogo campaign just a year ago, our humble regional citybuilder has succeeded and grown into something we only dreamed of. To start the new year, we want to announce our plans going forward into the NewCity 1.0 release.

[h2]Company Updates[/h2]
When we launched the Indiegogo campaign in late 2019, Lone Pine games was a two-person development team. Were happy to say that weve since added two more employees to our roster. As the company expands, our priorities will shift a bit to accommodate for upcoming projects, including a new game but dont worry, were still moving forward at full speed on NewCity.

As we announced last month, the release schedule for NewCity updates will happen on a two-week cycle instead of the one-week that it was. Our major content updates will also shift to a development cycle of six to eight weeks.

Coming from my experience in the corporate software world, I was used to a weekly release cycle, what is sometimes called Agile development. Weekly releases are great for bug-fixing, polishing, and getting quick feedback from our great community.

However, it is difficult to implement big changes in a week-by-week way. Having a longer period of time to test different approaches and really polish new features will enable us to move faster, not slower.

Going forward, we might switch to an even longer release cycle. Then as we get closer to 1.0, we might return to the weekly cycle as we tighten things up for the big launch. Whatever we decide to do, well keep you informed.



[h2]Plans for NewCity[/h2]
We have five major planned features that we want to release before the end of the year.

[h3]Tourist System[/h3]
Buildings such as museums, beaches, and the amusement park will provide Tourism points that will attract visitors. They will stay in hotels and explore the amenities your city has to offer. Tourists will boost the economy with sales and theyll bring cherished memories home with them. If your city gets a good tourist rating, tourists will stay for longer and spend more money.

Can you make your city a vacation paradise? Will you create tourist-focused businesses like casinos? What will the consequences be?

[h3]Economic Model[/h3]
We want to add more complexity and depth to the current economic model. For example, a recession might bring an industrial bust, forcing you to refocus on offices or tourism. Your city might experience a fuel crisis, forcing you to build more mass transit or to bring workplaces and residences closer to the city. As the national economy evolves, and as you respond in kind, your city will grow and, hopefully rarely, decline. Can you combat this economic instability?

[h3]Full Mass Transit[/h3]
Build custom mass transit systems based on your citys unique needs. Design the appearance of trains, their power source (electric trains anybody?), their size (light or heavy), and more to meet the transportation needs of your growing workforce.

And the NewCity platform will allow modders to create transportation systems that we didnt even think of!

[h3]Municipality System[/h3]
Districts, counties, or prefectures? This update will let the map be divided into municipalities. Each municipality will have customizable budgets, taxes, amenities, and statistics. Municipalities can pass ordinances that give the player diverse district choices.

[/h3]Full Modding Support[/h3]
The NewCity modding features will be expanded to include as many aspects of the game as possible. This will allow modders to create brand-new gameplay mechanics and total overhaul mods.



In addition to these new features, you should expect to see continued performance improvements, general refactoring, and changes to game mechanics. Up until we launch 1.0, we may make changes that break existing save files they will become either unloadable or unplayable. This is necessary so that we can freely explore the possibilities and make the release version all it can be.

Is your most desired feature missing from this list? Dont despair. Theres so much we want to implement, such as freight rail and airports. These things might come post-1.0, or perhaps even before 1.0. The list of five features above is just the minimum we want to have before we say the number 1.0, not when we plan to stop expanding the game.

Our launch out of Early Access is targeted for the end of 2021, but we are not marrying ourselves to that date; if we need to take more time, we will. I hope this gives you all something to look forward to as we head into the new year.

Questions? Comments? Feedback on the game? Sound off on our Discord.

As always, were incredibly thankful for our great community across the web. We love seeing the hard work and attention to detail you pour into your cities, and it inspires us every day to keep building. Thank you again for your support.

If you want to play the game and havent got it yet, head over to our Steam page. Were also on Reddit and Twitter. Give us a follow if you havent, and well keep you up to date on whats new with NewCity!

Happy New Year, Mayors!

Our update for this final week of the year features preparation for tourism features on the horizon. Our official release now supports Steam Workshop!

Also, a big thank you to everyone who has supported us during this Winter Steam Sale. Our community is growing all the time, and we hope the stable branch supporting mods in a more robust fashion will help that along.

These are the patch notes:
[h2]Version 0.0.57.8 ALPHA[/h2]

[h3]Features[/h3]

• Neighboring cities have been revamped.
  
• There are now large and small neighboring cities.
  
• The game now populates neighboring cities when generating a new map, and it simulates five years of activity before the start.
  
• Neighboring cities now have NewTrack stations, allowing you to connect your train lines to your neighbors.
  The above changes only apply to newly generated maps.
  
  [h3]Improvements[/h3]
  
• Increased population growth.
  
• Freight deliveries are now more frequent.
  
• Improved performance when placing blueprints.
  
• Trains and buses now unload their passengers faster. The rate is controlled by CAlightingRate. This only applies to unloading; Passenger loading rate is unchanged.
  
• The statistic "National Stock Index" (National Economy > Macros) is now the "National Stock Market Index".
  
• Neighboring cities now have more educated people.
  
  [h3]Bugfixes[/h3]
  
• Lua API: Fixed an issue in getStatisticAvg() where it would return an incorrect value.
  
• Building Designer: Fixing some overlapping icons in the load menu preview image.
  
• Fixed a bug where routes without a possible mass transit solution would be recomputed rather than cached.
  

Seasons greetings, Mayors!

Apologies for the late release for this supposed-to-be Thursday night patch. Our update is another light one, as we head into the end of December.

These are the patch notes:
[h2]Version 0.0.57.7 ALPHA[/h2]

[h3]Features[/h3]

• It is now possible to pin charts from the National Economy or neighboring cities.
  
• Added some growable seaside buildings
  
  [h3]Improvements[/h3]
  
• Transit routes now have a bonus no matter how long they are. Previously, only transit routes shorter than 2 hours got the bonus.
  
• On Very Hard difficulty, Value is harder and more dependent on prosperity.
  
  [h3]Bugfixes[/h3]
  
• Fixing an issue that prevented upload to steam, related to image resolutions.
  
• Fixed an issue where always available designs were not available on new games (not loaded from a save.)
  

Welcome back, Mayors.

Our weekly update is on the smaller side this week, and we appreciate all of you reading these over the busy month.

These are the patch notes:
[h2]Version 0.0.57.6 ALPHA[/h2]

[h3]Improvements[/h3]

• Removed the density requirement for the Public Pool, Social Services, Central Library, Courthouse, Hospital, and Big Park.
  
• Building Designer: Added a line of buoys to represent low tide for aquatic buildings. Also adding some text explaining the purpose of low tide and high tide.
  
• When showing a price of $0, the game now says "Free" instead of "$0.00 cents."
  
• When budget items are pinned to the right, negative values are highlighted in red.
  
  [h3]Bugfixes[/h3]
  
• Fixed a crash related to message board achievement messages.
  
• Fixed an issue where always available designs were not available on new games (not loaded from a save.)
  
• Fixed a bug where water didn't quite connect with land in the building designer.
  
• Fixed a visual glitch on the water.
  
• Fixed a bug where trees would shift around as buildings were built. Terrain trees are no longer randomly rotated
  
  [h3]Schedule Update[/h3]
  
• We will be moving to a 2-week release cycle, starting next week. There will be a patch on December 17th, and every other week thereafter (ex. there will be no update on Christmas Eve, December 24th.) There will be a patch on December 31st.
  

Hello Mayors,

A new Friday Facts has been posted on lonepine.io:

• Friday Facts #58: Learning
  

Salutations, Mayors!

We have some sporty amenities arriving today on our latest patch. We've also added a new config option that we hope will make the game perfectly balanced, as all things should be.
Here are the patch notes:
[h2]Version 0.0.57.5 ALPHA[/h2]

[h3]Features[/h3]

• Adding Tennis Court, Basketball Court, and Ice Rink amenities.
  
• Added new statistics: Deaths and Average Age at Death
  
• Added powerful new cheat code: the_snap
  
  [h3]Improvements[/h3]
  
• Text and icons now have a shadow, improving legibility on bright backgrounds.
  
• The Amenity Tool UI has been changed.
  
• Reduced the rate of death.
  
• Accelerated Start is now the default for new cities.
  
• There is now more traffic in small cities. CTrafficRate0 defines the traffic in small villages and
• CTrafficRate1M defines the traffic in a city of 1 million people.
  
• Roads and Expressways now have a lighter color. Expressways are now lighter than roads.
  
• When loading and saving cities or design files, the menu now keeps it's scroll position better.
  
• Building design images now have an aspect ratio of 4:3, to better match the Steam Workshop.
  
• Amenities that are not unlocked are now shown in the Amenity Tool (4), but they are grayed out and cannot be built.
  
  [h3]Bug fixes[/h3]
  
• To prevent flicking and visual glitches, the new culling algorithm has been disabled by default for now.
  
• Fixed a crash on load.
  
• Fixed a bug where zoned lots would be visible when the game first loaded, even if the "Show Zoned
• Lots" option was unchecked.
  
• Fixed an issue in road building where a sloped road was "Too Steep" due to bad splitting.
  
• Fixing a bug where dead people remained members of their household. Households are now removed when all members are dead.
  
• Fixed a bug where a person didn't quit their job when they retired.
  
• The console has been moved to the bottom right.
  
• Fixed a bug where highlighting of roads, expressways and railroads was not visible when using the
• Query Tool (1>Q) or Transportation Tool (2).
  
• Fixed a bug where the beach had grass in the building designer.
  

Welcome Back, Mayors!

Citizen simulation improvements have developed in such a way that NewCity allows for those of the appropriate age to expire. What I mean to say is, your elder citizens might die now. Oh no!

On the plus side, they'll have a chance to enjoy their pensions at retirement age. Maybe there are some donut shops around that have a few senior citizen discounts...

Here are the patch notes:
[h2]Version 0.0.57.4 ALPHA[/h2]

[h3]Features[/h3]

• People now die based on age and health. This will cause a slight temporary reduction in population in existing cities.
  
• Retirement: people now retire when they reach age 65 (CRetirementAge).
  
• Always Night option. Daylight options moved to the Video tab in Options Menu.
  
• Toggle gridlines option.
  
• Added new building designs.
  
  [h3]Improvements[/h3]
  
• Cars are now less likely to take an offramp followed by an onramp.
  
• Education heatmap is now easier.
  
• Value is now more positively affected by education.
  
• Value is now more negatively affected by density.
  
• Value is now more negatively affected by cars and trucks.
  
• Value is now more negatively affected by crime, pollution.
  
• Value is now more difficult in Hard and Very Hard difficulty modes.
  
• Reduced pillar snapping distance when building roads.
  
• Now using higher-performance culling algo by default (CCullingAlgo=1).
  
  [h3]Bug fixes[/h3]
  
• Fixing visual corruption when building transit lines
  
• Fixed a bug in the Amenity Tool where colliding buildings were highlighted in red.
  
• Fixed a periodic flicker when generating the satmap.
  

Hello Mayors,

Happy Thanksgiving from everyone here on our team! Due to the festivities, our patch will be slightly delayed this week.

We hope those celebrating can enjoy this time with those closest to them. Also, we hope people outside of the US are excited about the holiday season as well!

The Steam Autumn Sale is running now until December 1st. We are not among the games on sale, but keep an eye out later this season!

Lastly, we'd like to ask for consideration in the Sit Back and Relax category for the Steam Awards for 2020. It was another phenomenal year for PC gaming and games like Hades, Paradise Killer, and Kentucky Route Zero are some of the best out there.

Thanks,
Lone Pine Games

Hello Mayors,

A new Friday Facts has been posted on lonepine.io:

• Friday Facts #57: Task Scheduling
  

Hello, Mayors!

Our update today has been something people have been hoping for. Optimizations in 57.3 should help the smallest villages and the largest metropolises. Internal testing has shown improvements in load times as well as frame-rate stability. Feedback at this time is especiallyappreciated.

Here are the patch notes:
[h2]Version 0.0.57.3 ALPHA[/h2]

[h3]Features[/h3]

• Task Scheduler: NewCity now has a frame-by-frame task scheduler to smooth out framerates and prevent lag spikes. All parts of the game update and user interface are broken up into tasks. The scheduler can delay tasks until future frames, mitigating long frames, and creating a smoother framerate. Learn more by setting CLogUpdateTime = true.
  
• (Experimental) New Culling Algorithm: Disabled by default, we are experimenting with a new high-performance culling algorithm. Culling is the process of filtering all the entities in the game scene to only those which are visible by the camera. With hundreds of thousands of buildings, this has a significant performance impact. We are experimenting with a new algorithm that is faster and can be run on a separate thread. Set CCullingAlgo to 1 or 2 to test this feature.
  
  
  [h3]Improvements[/h3]
  
• Several smaller performance improvements.
  
• Added tooltips to the Charts Panel and other places they were missing.
  
• Farms and factories now produce more freight.
  
• Police Headquarters and Police Stand are now easier to unlock.
  
• Preview images for cities are now zoomed closer. The zoom is controlled by CPreviewImageDistance.
  
• Roads are now slightly shiny.
  
• Water is now a darker color.
  
  
  [h3]Bug fixes[/h3]
  
• Fixed a bug where a new city would have the wrong amount of money
  
• Fixed a bug where game difficulty settings were loaded incorrectly
  
• Fixed a bug where the preview image was sometimes missing objects or terrain.
  

Ahoy, Mayors!

Our beta update today features some brand-new amenities that we hope you'll soak up the sun with. Also, performance improvements.



Here are the patch notes:
[h2]Version 0.0.57.2 ALPHA[/h2]

[h3]Features[/h3]

• Added new waterfront amenities: Beach, Marina and Waterfront Amusement Park.
  
• Neighborhood Affinity: People now prefer to work, shop, and visit friends close to home rather than across the map. When a person wants to engage in an activity, the Route Broker searches for a destination in a spiral pattern. CBrokerSearchDistance determines the maximum search distance.
  
• Very Hard difficulty now works. Money, density, crime, and pollution are harder, people can move out of the city and business can close in Very Hard difficulty.
  
• The Building Selection Panel now shows the minimum value and density for the design.
  
• The Modpack Menu now shows preview images.
  
  [h3]Improvements[/h3]
  
• The performance of terrain rendering has improved. This will speed up load times and speed up the game in large cities when unpaused.
  
• The newspaper now won't publish the same article day after day.
  
• Density is now easier and less car-dependent.
  
• Easy difficulty now has easier density, amenities are cheaper, and eminent domain is very cheap.
  
  [h3]Bug fixes[/h3]
  
• Fixed a bug where statues wouldn't render.
  
• Fixed a crash when opening the modpack menu.
  
• Fixed a bug where modpack and workshop designs would not show the preview panel in the load menu.
  
• Fixed a bug where the image in the preview panel would not update when saving a design.
  
• Fixed a bug where music didn't play.
  
• Farms no longer glow at night.
  

Good morning, Mayors!

Our beta update today will make it easier than ever to download mods, assets, and full modpacks. The Workshop tab is available now from your Steam library page.

[previewyoutube=Urqh_RvKNGc;full]
[/previewyoutube]
Here are the patch notes:
[h2]Version 0.0.57.1 ALPHA[/h2]

• Steam Workshop support for designs and modpacks. It is now possible to upload building designs and modpacks, as well as subscribe to them. Once you subscribe to a workshop item, the game will automatically download the item. You might have to restart the game.
  
• On Linux without Wine, the game now launches via a script that preloads OpenGL and the Steam API. This should improve Linux compatibility.
  
• Fixed a bug where the edge of the map didn't render.
  
• Fixed a crash when switching to the Building Designer
  
• When placing a blueprint in Test Mode, zones will now be applied.
  
• Added some newspaper articles related to soccer (aka non-American football).
  

Hello Mayors!

You might notice something on the horizon in your cities this morning. Here's the link to our Friday Facts #54, which introduces our latest team member and includes news on upcoming waterfront buildings!

Here are the patch notes:
[h2]Version 0.0.57.0 ALPHA[/h2]

• Added ambient fog and terrain fade-in.
  
• Added animated decorations using palette based animations.
  
• Added Park and Vfx group decorations.
  
• Remixed the Logging In music track for the vapor modpack.
  
• Fixed vehicles in vapor modpack.
  
• Fixed certain situations where the Steam Workshop thread would get stuck on an action and spam the console with an endless logging loop.
  
• Fixed bug where roads would clip on the edge of the screen.
  
• Broadened preview image capture in game mode.
  
• Added California cities to the list of neighboring cities.
  
• Added improved logging for missing building decorations.
  

Mayors,

The latest version of NewCity is now live on the Testing branch. Details below:

[h2]Version 0.0.56.6a ALPHA[/h2]

• Fixing a crash when loading 125x125 maps.
  
• New and improved Building Selection Panel. This is the panel that pops up when using the Query Tool (1) on a building.
  
• Added the Statue decoration. The statues are a reward for IndieGoGo contributors. To see the statues in action, open G6x6_terracotta_army in the building designer. The statues will be added to buildings next week.
  
• Fixing a bug where building designs with no structures would get an image of just grass.
  
• Water no longer rises and lowers due to tides. This is because tides make it difficult to place items on water.
  
• The Earthworks Tool (5 > E) now has a cost.
  
• Transit stops will now be removed when they have no transit lines.
  
• Removed the ability to shut down a transit system. If you accidentally shut down your train or bus system, they will be restored, although you will need to replace the lines and stops.
  

Mayors,

The latest version of NewCity is now live on the Testing branch. Details below:

[h2]Version 0.0.56.5 ALPHA[/h2]

• Improved Steam Workshop uploading to support four file types and proper tagging.
  
• Added placeholder text and a Steam Overlay redirect to Steam Workshop tabs that don't have unique functionality yet.
  
• Added staging area cleanup on launch for the Steam Workshop.
  
• Added Boat group decorations, like the sailboat, kayak, motorboat, and yacht.
  
• Added contributor statues as .obj files, with procedural placement in-game to come.
  
• Optimized the size of terrain render chunks and the tree simple distance (LOD) for improved performance.
  
• Changed the tree model to include multiple distinct trees, minimizing the number of tree entities needed and improving performance.
  
• The Lua API now has functions to read player input, control the game's camera, and read terrain elevation.
  
• Set the default Bulldozer subtool to the Destroy subtool.
  
• Made the Earthworks Bulldozer subtool unlockable with the Town achievement (5k population).
  

Mayors,

The latest version of NewCity is now live on the Testing branch. Details below:

[h2]Version 0.0.56.4 ALPHA[/h2]

• Steam Workshop Upload support. This is an early preview.
  
• The game now captures a preview image when saving a city or building design.
  
• When loading a city or building design, the preview image is shown. Extra info is displayed on building designs.
  
• Added the Memorial amenity and associated achievement.
  
• New aquatic building decorations.
  
• More work on vapor modpack.
  
• Metric units are now default for new players. This will not effect existing players.
  
• Capture a map of the city as a PNG file by running "capture 0 map.png" on the in-game console.
  
• Fixed a bug where the zoomed-out view, called the satmap, was too dark.
  

Mayors,

The latest version of NewCity is now live on the Testing branch. Details below:

[h2]Version 0.0.56.3 ALPHA[/h2]

• Added new UI sounds and a music track to the Vaporwave modpack
  
• Added the BART train model to the Vaporwave modpack, which replaces the diesel engine and passenger car.
  
• Added new textures to the Vaporwave modpack for government and mixed use buildings.
  
• Changed Vaporwave palette colors.
  
• Added new console commands: "songinfo" to display debug info for loaded songs, "songplay" to play a song by index, and "songshuffle" to shuffle the current song.
  
• Added documents on the Palette Texture File Format and the Building Textures File Format to the Citipedia.
  
• Added new Industrial and Residential designs and associated textures.
  
• Fixed backfaces with the satellite dish prop.
  
• Buildings placed in Test mode will no longer be set as Historical.
  

Mayors,

The latest version of NewCity is now live on the Testing branch. Details below:

[h2]Version 0.0.56.0 ALPHA[/h2]

• Added the Citipedia - Open it by clicking the Question Mark icon on the toolbar. It will be a dynamic and growing source of information for gameplay mechanics and FAQ style answers. NOTE: The Citipedia is in an early preview state and subject to significant change.
  
• Added the Newspaper - Once you have your first business, you'll start getting your city's newspaper once per day. It will have articles containing critical info to help you manage your city, as well as some more lighthearted and entertaining pieces. NOTE: The Newspaper is in an early preview state and subject to significant change.
  
• Added new Lua API constants for the Newspaper, as well as statistics available to modders for creating their own Newspaper articles with unique triggers.
  
• Added box delete to the Destroy Tool.
  
• Added a missing contributor to the list in the About Panel.
  
• Added new building decos for the Residential, Floor, Park, and Vehicle groups.
  
• Added new building designs for Residential and Retail.
  
• Added some hidden statistics formerly used for debugging to the Stats Panel.
  
• Added the ability to set a minimum year and a maximum year for designs in the Building Designer.
  
• Added the ability to hide lots visually.
  
• Achievements have migrated to Lua for easy modification.
  
• Building design can now have more than 50 homes or businesses.
  
• Changed the way saves are loaded with the Underground View active to prevent bugs with building visibility.
  
• Changed the amenity category Parks to Recreation to better reflect the variety available.
  
• Changed the Pavilion building design to require less density.
  
• Changed the 181 Fremont Skyscraper building design to be density 9, so it's properly considered a skyscraper by the game logic.
  
• Fixed a bug in how sales tax is applied to unemployment; the effect has been increased
  
• Fixed a bug in the Mass Transit Router.
  

Mayors,

The latest version of NewCity is now live on the Testing branch. Details below:

[h2]Version 0.0.55.7 ALPHA[/h2]

• Added new park decorative objects.
  
• Added new floor decorative objects.
  
• Added new residential decorative objects.
  
• Added new retail and residential designs.
  
• Added the currently playing song to the Options Audio tab.
  
• The save game menu now shows files with similar filenames to the current save.
  
• Fixed a crash related to undo and deleting objects in the Building Designer.
  
• Fixed an issue when connecting a road to the end of another road; the road now connects to the intersection properly.
  
• Fixed custom textures on giant apartment complexes.
  
• Fixed lot generation behavior by preventing it when the road is underground or otherwise shouldn't have lots associated.
  

Mayors,

The latest version of NewCity is now live on the Testing branch. Details below:

[h2]Version 0.0.55.6 ALPHA[/h2]

• Implemented a hashmap for the draw buffer as part of ongoing efforts to improve performance and memory usage.
  
• Added texture to snow cover on mountainous terrain.
  
• Added variance to land color and trees based on slope.
  
• Added new decorations, building textures, and palette changes.
  
• Fixed influences on Value heatmap so that Crime, Pollution, and Education have the appropriate positive and negative effects.
  
• Fixed culling of labels, the cursor, and nodes when they should be visible.
  
• Prevent scaling and rotating at the same time in the Building Designer.
  
• Removed unlock for pedestrian paths, as they are not fully implemented.
  
• Removed unnecessary entities from certain terrain chunks.
  

Mayors,

The latest version of NewCity is now live on the Testing branch. Details below:

[h2]Version 0.0.55.5 ALPHA[/h2]

• When hiding labels, the labels of neighboring cities are hidden too.
  
• New decorations and building designs, including a designed police station, police headquarters, police stand, new giant mansion, trailer homes and mobile homes.
  
• Building Designer: it is now possible to move entire building designs in the X and Y axis. Check the paint tab.
  
• Fixed an issue where unzoned lots were displaying in the building designer.
  
• Low value and low density buildings are less likely to spawn in high value, high density areas.
  

Mayors,

The latest version of NewCity is now live on the Testing branch. Details below:

[h2]Version 0.0.55.4 ALPHA[/h2]

• Tunnels and viaducts are now more expensive. Road tunnels now cannot be built under deep water, but train tunnels still can. Messages about problems building roads are now more visible.
  
• Water is now visible in the Transit View, Road Map View, and Underground View.
  
• The load game menu now has a search bar. This is particularly useful in the Building Designer. When loading a building design, you can now see building designs from only the modpack directory.
  
• Increased retail demand. Retail gives more prosperity.
  
• Reduced the amount of negative community from offices and retail.
  
• Colleges now give a bonus to the cap on bachelor's degrees and doctorates.
  
• Prevented a case where both tax locks would happen at the same time.
  
• The camera can now be zoomed using the plus and minus keys, for players that do not have a mouse with a scroll wheel.
  
• When the Zone Tool is selected, unzoned lots are displayed in red.
  
• Scrollboxes can now be controlled with the mouse.
  
• The maximum Level of Detail setting has been increased, allowing for maximum-quality screenshots.
  
• Vehicles are now visible from further away.
  
• New house designs, including shanties.
  
• The sun now comes from a higher angle in the summer.
  
• In the Building Designer, roof-only structures can be made, for bungalow-style porches. With the Decoration Tool open and a decoration selected, press G to move that decoration without needing to click the mouse. Decorations and structures can now be hidden, making complex designs easier to modify. The season can now be changed.
  

Mayors,

The latest version of NewCity is now live on the Testing branch. Details below:

[h2]Version 0.0.55.2 ALPHA[/h2]

• Added smooth scrolling to scrollboxes
  
• Added toggle for contour lines on terrain
  
• Added new art assets for decorations
  
• Added more color and variety to the building illumination textures
  
• Added the Federal Building amenity and associated achievement
  
• Added LOD simple meshes for vehicles
  
• Fixed certain situations where University Buildings wouldn't unlock
  
• Fixed improper calculation of economic statistics when reloading saves
  
• Fixed amenities disappearing in certain situations
  
• Fixed an issue where vehicles would get stuck at the end of lanes
  
• Fixed incorrect amenity maintanence display
  
• Fixed counting error in the People Sick statistic
  
• Fixed some situations around Building Highlights that would result in a crash
  
• Improved error handling and logging for OpenAL errors
  
• New and Improved Building Designs, including new Skyscrapers
  
• Removed the negative effect of vehicles on the Health heatmap
  

Mayors,

Our first major update for NewCity, the Architect Update, is now live on the Testing branch. Details below:

[h2]The Architect Update - Version 0.0.55.1 ALPHA[/h2]

• Major improvements to the Building Designer. Custom building decorations can be added to data/decos.lua. The Building Designer now features undo and redo.
  
• In the Building Designer, structures and decorations can now be individually selected. Once selected, they can be duplicated or deleted, and their parameters can be manipulated using the numerical inputs. Their type can be changed by clicking the pointer icons in the Structure Tool (2) or Decoration Tool (3).
  
• Structures and decorations can now be moved vertically (off the ground), by holding shift while dragging the green handle up or down. New decorations can be rotated and scaled (but legacy decorations cannot). The Building Designer now features a variety of new decorations, including modular pipes and catwalks. There are new building designs, and many designs have been updated.
  
• In the Building Designer, snap to grid can now be disabled with TAB, when the Structure Tool (2) or Decoration Tool (3) is open. With the Structure Tool (2) open, Change slope of structure roofs by holding shift and dragging on the green handle up or down.
  
• Gambrel roofs added.
  
• Graduate School - The "Tech Hub" achievement, which is unlocked with a Density 7 office building and a Technology score of 50, grants the Graduate School amenity, which provides college degrees and can be placed multiple times. It is the only unlimited source of college degrees.
  
• Buildings can now be marked as historical. Click "Mark Historical" after selecting a building with the Query Tool (1>Q). Historical buildings will not be destroyed by other buildings or roads, or due to abandonment, but they can still be bulldozed directly.
  
• The Options Panel is now organized into tabs.
  
• In the Zone Tool (3), overzone protection is now the TAB hotkey. Park zones are now the B hotkey. Density control no longer has a hotkey.
  

Mayors,

The latest version of NewCity is now live on the Testing branch. Details below:

[h2]Version 0.0.54.9 ALPHA[/h2]

• Accelerated Start - When starting a new game, select "Accelerated Start" to unlock all transportation features and zones from the start of the game.
  
• Map Seeds - When starting a new game, the map seed is shown and can be edited. The seed can be shared with friends or the fan community. The seed is also shown when clicking on the city name in the top left corner.
  
• Road Map - Click the road icon on the Infoview Toolbar (bottom of the screen) to see a road map.
  
• Create maps of custom sizes by setting CCustomLandSize.
  
• The right mouse button now always pans the camera. In the road tool, hold ctrl while clicking the right mouse button to copy a road type. In the zone tool, hold ctrl while clicking the right mouse button to copy a zone type.
  
• The performance of the perspective camera has been improved.
  
• Basic Dorms and the Dorm Tower are now cheaper.
  
• Citizens now visit the store less often, and amenities more often.
  
• Fixed a bug where transit time estimates didn't account for walking and waiting.
  
• The route inspector now states how long citizens are willing to wait to save one dollar.
  
• Snow no longer covers the land grid.
  
• Fixing a bug which would cause router threads to get stuck in an infinite loop.
  
• Fixing a bug where the game would quit if escape was pressed when an error message was showing.
  
• Fixed a crash related to vehicle physics.
  
• Fixed some instructional text that was out of date. Factories no longer require density, and the school is unlocked at 1,000 people, not 5,000.
  
• Various performance improvements.
  

Mayors,

The latest version of NewCity is now live on the Testing branch. Details below:

[h2]Version 0.0.54.8 ALPHA[/h2]

• Fixed a few building designs that were marked as agricultural zone but should have been industrial. Many players complained that this destroyed demand for retail, since both retail and industry uses high school educated workers.
  
• Buildings will now only spawn with designs that exist in the filesystem. If a design is deleted from the filesystem, it will not spawn again.
  
• The Transit View now shows transit coverage, so you can see which parts of your city can access transit.
  
• The catchment area of bus and train stops has been increased.
  
• It is now possible to prevent the zone tool from rezoning already zoned lots. Find the new button at the top of the zone tool.
  
• The Budget Panel now has tooltips explaining the purpose of each line of the budget.
  
• The Heatmap Toolbar buttons now open the Heatmap Tool, which displays helpful information about the Heatmap or Infoview.
  
• When querying a building, clicking on the heatmap block chart will open that heatmap. Tooltips have been added.
  
• The appearance of the sky has been improved.
  
• Contour lines now show on the terrain.
  
• Fixed a crash related to trains.
  
• Fixed a crash when launching the game.
  

Read the latest Friday Facts post on our website:
Friday Facts #37: The Journey Begins

Mayors,

We've got some piping hot patch notes for you regarding the latest version of NewCity, now live on the Testing branch. Details below:

[h2]Version 0.0.54.7 ALPHA[/h2]

• When building roads, grid snapping can now be disabled by pressing TAB. Road building is now smarter, allowing expressways to be built closer together. A road or railway can be built above another by elevating it (Z) and holding SHIFT while building it.
  
• Changed Viaduct/Tunnel hotkey to H. (Formerly TAB)
  
• It is now possible to remove a joint (aka node) between two road segments with the bulldozer tool, in certain circumstances.
  
• Updated instructions to reflect changes in hotkeys.
  
• The game now takes an image of the map from above. It uses this image to render buildings and roads from far away, which amounts to a significant performance improvement in the orthographic view. We are still actively investigating improvements to the Perspective camera, and hope to have a fix soon.
  
• Fixed a bug where very few people took transit, because transit was estimated to take too long. The Route Inspector (Query Tool(1) > Route Inspector (R)) now shows more information about how citizens decide between car and transit.
  
• Added drama modpack for cinematic camera movement. The same mod we used in creating our trailers!
  
• Updated vapor modpack.
  
• Fixed performance modpack; it helps when running on low-end machines.
  
• Fixed missing illumination textures for certain building textures.
  
• Added redistributable libraries to package. (OpenAL32.dll and libOpenGL.so.0)
  
• Improved logging in several ways: Removed scan on launch which was causing long load times. Set up clearing of old game_log data to prevent the accumulation of large game_log files. Changed behavior around creating numbered game_log copies to only do so if the sentinel file is present, indicating a crash.
  
• Improved OpenGL error handling and notifications.
  
• Updated our IndieGoGo contributor info and in-game citizen names in the About panel with all Visible contributors as of the end of the campaign. (PM supersoup on Discord if you have any questions)
  
• Updated About panel links.
  
• Vehicles are no longer slowed down by short segments of road. Vehicle speed is now shown when selected by the query tool.
  
• Integrated NewCity application icon on Windows.
  
• Increased agricultural demand.
  
• Added pollution visual effect, which is colored and intensified based on the time-of-day.
  
• Reorganized palette texture. The heatmap colors and sky colors are now fetched from the palette.
  
• The game now slows itself down to prevent the vehicle simulation from falling behind, to prevent unexpected behavior.
  
• Removed unexpected Zone tool behavior when right-clicking to scroll around the map.
  
• Disable autosaves with CAutosaveDisabled = true in Lua
  
• Various fixes for crashes and cleanup of leftover debug code.
  

Folks, it's been a long road to get here. NewCity is now live on Steam in Early Access!

We simply couldn't have done it without our incredible community, supporting us across IndieGoGo, Discord, and beyond, playing the Closed Alpha and offering feedback. We're so incredibly thankful for each and every one of you. But the journey isn't over yet.

We're just getting started.

To our mayors yet to come: NewCity is an Early Access game. As such, please expect bugs, crashes, and all the other fun things that come with building an airplane while it's soaring amidst the clouds. You have our promise that we'll do our best to keep making the citybuilder we want to play, bug fixes included.

We hope you enjoy! Now what are you waiting for, mayor? It's time to get out there and build prosperity for your citizens. They're already lining up to move in; best not to keep them waiting!

Thank you for your support and for playing our game. Let's keep building something New, together.
Lone Pine Games

We have exciting news! The Steam Early Access launch is locked and ready to go on June 12th, 2020.

It's been a long road we've walked to get hereand the road goes ever on and onbut we're inches away from putting the game live on Steam and throwing wide the doors to NewCity. We can't wait to see what you build, and we'll be looking forward to your feedback as we set off on the next leg of our journey.

Build Prosperity,
Lone Pine Games

You can read Friday Facts #34: Going Places and all the rest of our development updates over at lonepine.io

Hello Steam. It's been a while. We've been hard at work.

Meanwhile, we've been posting weekly Friday Facts posts with updates on development or whatever else strikes our fancy. Let's catch up with a Friday Facts elixir made from concentrate.

• Friday Facts #24: Business as Usual
  
• Friday Facts #25: Home Stretch
  
• Friday Facts #26: A Change of Perspective
  
• Friday Facts #27: Rhythm and Melody
  
• Friday Facts #28: Contracting
  
• Friday Facts #29: Router, Broker, Inspector, Pool
  
• Friday Facts #30: Community Health
  
• Friday Facts #31: On the Platform
  
• Friday Facts #32: Multithread Time Travel
  
• Friday Facts #33: The End of the Beginning
  

Hello mayors,

Ours is a creative and industrious community, and we couldn't be more excited to see what you're working on every day. Click though for our thoughts on the version 51 update (Available now on the test branch), and a showcase of some noteworthy content from mayors in the community:
Friday Facts #23: Mayors & Creators

Happy building!
-Lone Pine Games

Hello mayors,

Version 0.0.51.1 ALPHA is now live on the test branch. Full changelog below:

NOTICE: Version 51 contains major backend changes. We are still testing the new transportation system. Make sure to keep a version 50 save of your favorite cities.

• Implemented bus system. To use, open the road tool (2) and select the transit tab (T). Add a new bus line (Q) and select "Add Stops to Line" (F). Then start placing a chain of routes. Select a headway (or frequency) for day and night. Then return to "All Bus Lines" to set the ticket and transfer price.
  
• Implemented a new router which can handle transit routes.
  
• Buses bill the city based on time spent on the road. Passengers pay a player-selectable ticket price and transfer price. Passengers are less likely to take an expensive bus. The city's transit budget is multiplied by 90 to account for the fact that we only simulate 4 days out of 365. Income is further multiplied by 5 to account for the fraction of trips that are not simulated.
  
• Transit View was added to the infoview bar. Transit View now shows lines, stops, passengers waiting, and number of people inside buses.
  
• Adding a Console. Access console by pressing ` (the tick mark or tilde key). Type "help" to get a list of commands. Put a question mark before a command to learn more about it, like so: "?lua". The console is still a work-in-progress.
  
• Added Budget Controls. Player can now reduce spending on specific sectors, but those sectors will be less effective. It is also possible to shut down a sector entirely.\n \n
• Budget estimates and Line of Credit are now based on Year+1, for stability.
  
• People who spend more than a day traveling are now sent directly to their destination.
  
• Improved performance of budget, frustum culling. Buildings are updated less frequently, for performance.
  
• Building selection panel now shows the design filename.
  
• Building roofs accumulate snow again.
  
• Improved performance of transit.
  
• Fixed a crash related to pedestrian paths and zoning/buildings.
  

Hello mayors,

Friday Facts #22 is available (and has been for a few days now) over on lonepine.io. Click through to learn about the progress on Mass Transit, .obj importation, and more:
Friday Facts #22: Transit Oriented Development

Happy building!
-Lone Pine Games

Hello mayors,

Version 0.0.50.15 ALPHA is now live on the test branch. Full changelog below:

• Fixing an issue where some cities would stop developing at population 980.
  
• Fixing shadow acne on land
  
• Adding Police Headquarters
  
• When closing blueprints, messages are reopened
  
• Correct unlocking of First Farm achievement
  
• Correct unlocking of University Minor Schools achievement
  
• Correct unlocking of Eureka achievement
  
• Entire traffic light pole now waves in the wind
  
• There will be no residential demand when unemployment is too high.
  
• Improved the apperance of text, especially on Linux
  
• Buildings can be built up to 250 stories tall.
  
• Fixing a crash when using the bulldozer
  
• People now move into homes immediately, instead of being homeless for a period of time.
  
• Homelessness will be reduced.
  
• Crime will be increased.
  
• Prosperity will be reduced.
  
• Uneducated people will now have a higher unemployment rate.
  
• Fixing a bug where stores with no customers would stay closed indefinitely
  
• Fixing a bug where some people would sleep indefinitely
  
• People will visit stores less and friends and amenities more.
  
• Unemployment now has an effect on the education level of people moving to the city.
  
• Educated people will move to high Value, high Density areas.
  

Hello mayors,

Version 0.0.50.14 ALPHA is now live on the test branch. Full changelog below:

• Adding zones view, which allows the player to see the zoning underneath buildings.
  
• Adding toolbar buttons to show heatmaps, underground view, traffic view.
  
• Increased routing traffic awareness.
  
• Railroads and Pedestrian paths are now available in game mode.
  
• Pedestrian paths do not crash in test mode.
  
• Sidebar charts can be minimized to a bar.
  
• Hills will not disappear on the edge of the screen.
  
• Chart minimum values are now more accurate.
  
• Increased demand for retail.
  
• Snow and Rainfall are now less intense.
  

This week, supersoup explains the process behind the creation of New Cities' in-game console.

Read all about it on newcities.io: https://www.newcities.io/2020/02/21/consoling.html

Hello mayors,

Version 0.0.50.13 ALPHA is now live on the test branch. Full changelog below:

• Introducing tunnels. Build tunnels by pressing tab in the road tool. Visuals are preliminary.
  
• Introducing underground view, for building tunnels and underground infrastructure.
  
• Introducing viaducts. Build viaducts by pressing tab in the road tool.
  
• Above-ground roadways now have support pillars.
  
• Above-ground roadways and bridges now have sidewalks.
  
• Introducing railways and pedestrian paths. They are not functional at this time. Railways cannot be zoned. Pedestrian paths will be zone-able in the future, but are not zone-able in this release, for technical reasons.
  
• Significant performance improvements thanks to better frustum culling.
  
• Water is now transparent, and has a much better appearance.
  
• Shadows, vehicle headlights and building lights are all more intense.
  
• Vehicle headlights flicker on gradually rather than suddenly.
  
• Hard modpack: People will move out and businesses will close in response to bad economic situations. This is a test of recession mechanics and enhanced economic simulation.
  
• People will not move into a city with high unemployment.
  
• There will be more retail and office businesses and buildings. There will be a temporary spike of unemployment in existing cities.
  
• Abandoned buildings are brown in heatmaps.
  
• Updates to About Panel
  

It's time for IndieGoGo!

Check out the details over at our campaign page. Your support is critical to making New Cities the best it can be. And we'll make sure you have a few goodies as our own way of saying thanks.

Let's build something New, together.

What's a heatmap, how does it affect the balance of gameplay in New Cities, and what about modding? All that and more in this week's Friday Facts! Click through for the post:

New Cities Friday Facts #6: Quality

This week, we talk about Blueprintsa way to bring the tried-and-true with you between cities so you can focus on more important matters. Click through to read all about them!

New Cities Friday Facts #5: Planning for Success

This week, the Friday Facts blog is all about Scale. Map scale, city scale, traffic density scalebut how will bigger translate to better for New Cities? Click through to find out!

New Cities Friday Facts #4: Scale

Hello New Cities community!

My name is Mitch, and I'll be handling New Cities community business around the interwebs. I'm excited to join the Lone Pine team and help build a strong community for New Cities.

You can read my full introduction over on our subreddit. Expect to see more communication moving forward, as we enter this new season of development.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to send them my way. I look forward to hearing from you.

Happy building,
Mitch

The third installment of New Cities Friday Facts is live. Today's post features lots of video demonstrating road building features.

New Cities Friday Facts #3: Roads to Prosperity

This is the second installment of our new weekly series.

New Cities Friday Facts #2: Sound and Music

Im going to start posting weekly blog updates on the project to keep you guys informed of whats going on. This week we'll cover heatmaps and basic game mechanics. During the next few months, we'll cover all the features in detail, and there will be announcements related to the release of the game. Check it out!

We have decided to take extra time to develop New Cities before release. We are very proud of the game and we want everyone to have a high-quality launch day experience. New Cities will be available on early access sometime this summer.

Follow us on social media for more updates.

New Cities is a new take on the classic city builder. On May 30, you will be able to participate in New Cities Early Access, testing the game and shaping it's future with your feedback!