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

1. The Art Update:

• 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.

2. Building Designer Changes:

• 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.

3. Gameplay Changes:

• 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.

4. Engine Changes:

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

5. Known issues:

• 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.

Since the patch isn't locked down for the main branch yet, expect to see this changelog change over time. Check out this update via the Betas tab. Right-click NewCity in your Steam Library and select Properties. Click the dropdown under the Betas tab and choose the "test - Testing branch". You can opt-out by choosing "NONE - Opt-out of all beta programs" instead. Going from one to the other will trigger an update as Steam fetches you the desired branch. We really appreciate all the feedback and bug reports here on Steam and Discord! Please keep posting your thoughts and touching base with us. All the best, Lone Pine Games