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Sta Dev Diary Update 7: Law & Order

Hello all, hope you’re doing well!
In this update we’re bringing more variety and consequences to how you treat your colonists. Malnutrition adds a new layer to what food you produce and serve to your colony. Guards and Guard posts give more options to deal with threats both outside and within your colony. Colonists may now turn hostile on you if their Happiness sinks to the bottom, prompting quick action from the well-equipped Guards.

MS17_buildings.png


Until now you’ve been able to feed your people with pretty much anything at hand. With the new nutrition system - something requested by the community - meat, vegetables and other food must be served equally. One-sided diets result in malnutrition, a negative condition which takes a long time to cure. So tell the kids AND the adults to eat their veggies, crickets and fish!

MS_17_Malnutrition.png


Thus far, Guards have been restricted to serving at the Gate. Now you can build Guard Posts to increase the number of colonists turned protectors. They’ll patrol around their post to deal with all sorts of threats from raging bears to bandits. The new Gunsmith can provide weapons for these Guards, greatly increasing their effectiveness. Be sure to stockpile plenty of Parts, as reliable firearms are hard to manufacture. You can also find these valuable guns from the World Map or trade for them with Societies. Guards will now visually switch into heavy protective gear to tell them apart from regular colonists.

MS_17_Hostile.png


If and when things go rough, your people might start to unravel. Some might turn outright hostile on you, attacking colonists and buildings out of sheer desperation. Others can turn to dark thoughts and harm themselves. So keep an eye on colony Happiness and make sure people have buildings such as Memorials, Theaters or Arenas to spend their free time at.

MS_17_guards.png


This time we got Venla, our QA-turned-designer in the interview, who has done a lot of groundwork for malnutrition, the new guards and hostile colonists plus lots of other features for the future.

I originally started in QA, but had mentioned in my original job application that I’m interested in Game Design. So a bit later I was asked to join the design team and I was delighted to oblige! I have since learnt that the most intriguing parts of game design are to plan, research and present ideas that affect the very core of the game. There’s never a dull moment and it’s astonishing to see your designs realized in the game by our wonderful team.

For this update I did groundwork on malnutrition, going through our current Food types and planning how they could be used in this. This involved lots of writing, mainly through creating early design documents on how colonists get malnourished and what happens to those suffering from it, for example. This has involved some creative categorizing so we don’t create superfoods able to satisfy all needs. The goal after all is to have the colony thrive when its people are supplied with varied and nutritious Food from different sources.

While planning our new Hostile colonists I got to do a lot of research on how guards behave, different crime systems and planning for future features. What’s currently in the game is just a small sample of this. Guard Post was one of few ideas which was implemented pretty much as it was originally designed. As a designer you have to get comfortable with many of the planned features being trimmed, streamlined or completely cut out. That’s why it’s important to have alternatives and options to choose from. This allows the Lead Designer and Tech Lead to pick and choose the best ones to go forward with.

In addition, many of the colonies and screenshots you might see on streams and elsewhere are my responsibility. I try to find unique and varied perspectives to each one to highlight different aspects of the game and what the colony might overall look like.


The event system is being expanded yet again - this time with certain results spawning wild beasts or bandits in the colony! So consider carefully what you choose. Some enemies will now start burning down your buildings, so deal with them quickly. Hostile units in melee should also clump up less and fighting bandits should last a bit longer to give you time to react. Event resource amounts have also been tweaked to scale better with the player’s stockpile so you should have more choices available. New events have been added especially to the early game to keep it fresh and interesting.

MS_17_Less_unit_stacking.png


Other smaller improvements include limiting the way hostile units overlap during combat, increased wild animal visibility (goodbye black beetles on murky soil behind dark trees), colonist injuries from combat and so on. We’ve also redone the roads and now even the simple Dirt Road can be combined into bigger areas. Context-specific cursors, tooltips to the Tech Tree and Trade menu and better combat notifications (as requested by the community) should improve overall usability.

Keep safe and play games!
 
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Could you please stop spamming emails of these dev diaries to people that have marked in their subscription settings that they are not interested in Surviving the Aftermath?
 
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Can we please have an increase to the population cap? I know the soft cap is 100 right now and will increase as the game goes on. But with guard posts and new buildings that requires workers, it would be great if we can get an increase to 125 or 120.
 
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Can we please have an increase to the population cap? I know the soft cap is 100 right now and will increase as the game goes on. But with guard posts and new buildings that requires workers, it would be great if we can get an increase to 125 or 120.

Agreed, It is now very easy to run out of carriers just trying to man the new buildings.
 
It seems that the Guards building has fixed "work zone" around them ; so it's not possible to assign to a specific part of the colony ? we have to cover the whole colony with "guard towers" to ensure security ?
 
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It seems that the Guards building has fixed "work zone" around them ; so it's not possible to assign to a specific part of the colony ? we have to cover the whole colony with "guard towers" to ensure security ?
Well, let's hope that this particular aspect will be little bit closer to reality:)
 
I’m yet to try the new update due to work but I really hope that i don’t need to spam towers to give my base adequate protection :-/ hopefully the radius is not a literal invisible wall that guards won’t patrol past the boundary and they will venture further out from that tower
 
I’m yet to try the new update due to work but I really hope that i don’t need to spam towers to give my base adequate protection :-/ hopefully the radius is not a literal invisible wall that guards won’t patrol past the boundary and they will venture further out from that tower
Nope, that's exactly what is going on. Towers are useless.
 
My adult colonists were slaughtered at day 6 by a sand worm. Restart. Same at day 8 by four bandits with guns. Maybe I got unlucky but is it possible the hostile events are not perfectly balanced right now?

Or is there a way to get combat capabilities up early?
 
My adult colonists were slaughtered at day 6 by a sand worm. Restart. Same at day 8 by four bandits with guns. Maybe I got unlucky but is it possible the hostile events are not perfectly balanced right now?

Or is there a way to get combat capabilities up early?

A way to deal with this issue is to save your new game somewhat early during the first day of play. Day One or Two. This allows a 'reset' back to that point if you get whacked early on. Usually, I have found that getting your colonists killed is a result of pushing them too far out while gathering resources and into wild animal ranges.

As for what to name your saves? I have found that using the format of Colony Name and game day number to be fairly easy and clear to comprehend.

To deal with colonists being attacked, one merely needs to have a couple of Specialists in the Colony to send up to shoot the damned things. It is possible to 'drag' a box around a couple of Specialists and 'order' them both to the same spot on the Colony map.

Keep an eye on them, because they can be overwhelmed by multiple enemies and you might have to run away for a short distance, out of the 'zone of reaction' of the wildlife. This allows you to let your Specialists heal as they walk back to the Colony, and when they have recovered, return to finish off the wildlife that would attack your Gatherers.

It is ALWAYS a good idea to slow the game to a crawl, to lowest speed, or even to pause it, while you scroll around the Colony map. Doing so, lets you plan which groups of wildlife to attack, when, and from what direction. This can be important when drawing off a group of beetles and leaving the boars for a later attack run. It is also a good idea to do so early on, to plan where to send your gatherers so they won't be attacked. At least until you've dealt with the wildlife via Specialist 'kill teams'.

Someone above said Towers are useless. This is NOT true. You don't NEED towers everywhere in your Colony. But, you DO need them out at the outer edges to deal with sudden animal attacks, bandits, etc. Again, a couple of Specialists wandering the Colony helps a LOT in dealing with colonist uprisings, although I have seen in my games that the regular colonists swarm the perpetrator pretty quickly in any case.

After around turn sixty or so, you should have enough colonists to man your towers, man the gate, and still have gatherers to spare. I cannot stress how important the Remembrance is to colony happiness until you can progress down the Tech Tree enough to get the later items, like the Library, and such. At least two 'shrines' the Ancestors is needed to keep things fairly 'happy' until you can build the better stuff.

In my own games, I have found that keeping the higher attack value Specialists in the Colony to deal with wildlife and bandits is a good strategy, at least until I can put up Guard Posts. Then I switch them out for a pair of Scouts and use the pair of 'attack' Specialists to deal with Bandits on the World Map. The early to middle game is where your Scout Specialists are best at uncovering the World Map, even if you bypass resource sites.

If you get lucky enough to get half a dozen Specialists by mid-game, then you should grab those bypassed resources while at least one or two other Scouts keep exposing the Map. By mid-game, you should be considering exchanging a pair of Scouts for your Heavies in the Colony, and be looking to deal with the Bandit sites on the World map, since by then the Heavy Hitters have probably cleaned out the wildlife in the Colony.

If you get lucky enough to have several Heavy Hitters, then leave at least one in the Colony to deal with Bandits. Oh yes, and do NOT advance the Gate too fast! I have found that the last two upgrades to the Gate don't do all that much currently, and Bandits more often defeat the defenders and run rampant in your Colony... Which is why you should have Heavy Hitters in the Colony you can send to quickly kill them off.

In the early and mid game, the Gate and one upgrade is enough that the majority of the time your Colony wins the fight. Later on, I have found that having several Specialists roaming the Colony to be a good strategy to killing off the Bandits that break through the Gates, even the Fortress.
 
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A way to deal with this issue is to save your new game somewhat early during the first day of play. Day One or Two. This allows a 'reset' back to that point if you get whacked early on. Usually, I have found that getting your colonists killed is a result of pushing them too far out while gathering resources and into wild animal ranges.

As for what to name your saves? I have found that using the format of Colony Name and game day number to be fairly easy and clear to comprehend.

To deal with colonists being attacked, one merely needs to have a couple of Specialists in the Colony to send up to shoot the damned things. It is possible to 'drag' a box around a couple of Specialists and 'order' them both to the same spot on the Colony map.

Keep an eye on them, because they can be overwhelmed by multiple enemies and you might have to run away for a short distance, out of the 'zone of reaction' of the wildlife. This allows you to let your Specialists heal as they walk back to the Colony, and when they have recovered, return to finish off the wildlife that would attack your Gatherers.

It is ALWAYS a good idea to slow the game to a crawl, to lowest speed, or even to pause it, while you scroll around the Colony map. Doing so, lets you plan which groups of wildlife to attack, when, and from what direction. This can be important when drawing off a group of beetles and leaving the boars for a later attack run. It is also a good idea to do so early on, to plan where to send your gatherers so they won't be attacked. At least until you've dealt with the wildlife via Specialist 'kill teams'.

Someone above said Towers are useless. This is NOT true. You don't NEED towers everywhere in your Colony. But, you DO need them out at the outer edges to deal with sudden animal attacks, bandits, etc. Again, a couple of Specialists wandering the Colony helps a LOT in dealing with colonist uprisings, although I have seen in my games that the regular colonists swarm the perpetrator pretty quickly in any case.

After around turn sixty or so, you should have enough colonists to man your towers, man the gate, and still have gatherers to spare. I cannot stress how important the Remembrance is to colony happiness until you can progress down the Tech Tree enough to get the later items, like the Library, and such. At least two 'shrines' the Ancestors is needed to keep things fairly 'happy' until you can build the better stuff.

In my own games, I have found that keeping the higher attack value Specialists in the Colony to deal with wildlife and bandits is a good strategy, at least until I can put up Guard Posts. Then I switch them out for a pair of Scouts and use the pair of 'attack' Specialists to deal with Bandits on the World Map. The early to middle game is where your Scout Specialists are best at uncovering the World Map, even if you bypass resource sites.

If you get lucky enough to get half a dozen Specialists by mid-game, then you should grab those bypassed resources while at least one or two other Scouts keep exposing the Map. By mid-game, you should be considering exchanging a pair of Scouts for your Heavies in the Colony, and be looking to deal with the Bandit sites on the World map, since by then the Heavy Hitters have probably cleaned out the wildlife in the Colony.

If you get lucky enough to have several Heavy Hitters, then leave at least one in the Colony to deal with Bandits. Oh yes, and do NOT advance the Gate too fast! I have found that the last two upgrades to the Gate don't do all that much currently, and Bandits more often defeat the defenders and run rampant in your Colony... Which is why you should have Heavy Hitters in the Colony you can send to quickly kill them off.

In the early and mid game, the Gate and one upgrade is enough that the majority of the time your Colony wins the fight. Later on, I have found that having several Specialists roaming the Colony to be a good strategy to killing off the Bandits that break through the Gates, even the Fortress.

that strategy does work For pretty much any animal attacks true, However I’ve had 4(!!) Fighter specialists all with attacks skills at max Level all killed in one bandit attack and my “heavies” as you call them were pretty much mown down in the process too. The game has a lot going for it but balancing is still a huge issue.
 
that strategy does work For pretty much any animal attacks true, However I’ve had 4(!!) Fighter specialists all with attacks skills at max Level all killed in one bandit attack and my “heavies” as you call them were pretty much mown down in the process too. The game has a lot going for it but balancing is still a huge issue.

I can only address my own experiences in the game to date. I am saddened that RN-Jesus has be so unfair to you. I can only hope you persevere and keep on playing.
 
Anyone else notice guns disappearing? My colonists aren't even getting in any battles and the guns drop. I assign people to the posts and only 1 has a gun.

I notice colonists not assigned to Guard Posts or the Gate don't even have a slot for a weapon. If they're temporarily assigned another station, are their guns erased?

This game is great by the way!!! Thank you!!!

*** UPDATE: BUG CONFIRMED ***
Just tested it out. Confirmed. Once a colonist is assigned to another job, their guns disappear into the ether.

Will stop playing until this bug is fixed. Can't continue getting slaughtered with guns erasing. IRL guns last a very long time as long as they're maintained properly. I'll look into modding in the meantime.

Please do keep up the good work on this game! The stream of updates are what got me to finally purchase it.
 
Anyone else notice guns disappearing? My colonists aren't even getting in any battles and the guns drop. I assign people to the posts and only 1 has a gun.

I notice colonists not assigned to Guard Posts or the Gate don't even have a slot for a weapon. If they're temporarily assigned another station, are their guns erased?

This game is great by the way!!! Thank you!!!

*** UPDATE: BUG CONFIRMED ***
Just tested it out. Confirmed. Once a colonist is assigned to another job, their guns disappear into the ether.

Will stop playing until this bug is fixed. Can't continue getting slaughtered with guns erasing. IRL guns last a very long time as long as they're maintained properly. I'll look into modding in the meantime.

Please do keep up the good work on this game! The stream of updates are what got me to finally purchase it.

*** UPDATE 2: BUG CONFIRMED ***
I found a "cheat mode" mod to give myself back the disappearing rifles. Now it seems whenever anyone is released from guard duty, in that moment their rifle disappears.

Loggers need rifles too. I was hoping to get at least 50-80% of my colonists armed, but it seems their either on permanent guard duty, or they toss their weapons into the wasteland.

I think the rifles should first go to the guard posts, but also be distributed among the populace. Either way, they certainly shouldn't disappear.