Below & Beyond: Content Update #2 - Patch Notes

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Portable Grump

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Version number: 1010558

Main Focus:
In this second part, we focus on making the underground and asteroids more beneficial for your main colony and build further upon the improvements of Merbold part 1.
  • Buried Wonder Upgrades: each Buried Wonder has a new upgrade or building they unlock, which benefits your entire colony (Surface, Underground and Asteroids). The story of each Buried Wonder is also extended to include these upgrades.
    • Players that already (partially) completed buried wonder events still get access to these.
  • Rare Anomalies: These are special anomalies that can be found throughout the Underground which each give you a choice between multiple powerful rewards.
  • New Breakthrough Techs: 6 new breakthrough techs have been added that can be found on the Surface, in the Underground and on Asteroids.
  • 2 New Commander Profiles, The Spelunker and The Space Miner: The Spelunker gives easier access to the Underground and makes colonists regain Sanity while in the Underground instead of losing sanity. The Space Miner has an easier time getting to asteroids.
Gameplay Improvements:
  • Edit both sides of the Cargo UI: In the elevator cargo UI, you can now set requests or minimums for both sides of the elevator in the same screen. You no longer first have to switch maps to configure the other side.
  • The Cargo UI shows an explanation on how auto mode works for Asteroid Landers and the Elevator.
  • Waste Rock can now be transported.
  • Truly Universal Depot: The Universal Depot now includes the DLC resources, depending on which DLCs you have; Seeds if you have Green Planet and Exotic Minerals if you have Below & Beyond.
  • Asteroid Landers now visibly take off when they automatically launch at the very last second when an Asteroid goes out of range.
  • Changed the Recon & Expansion tech tree order; Underground Domes and the Recon Center are unlocked earlier, while the Drone Hub Extender is unlocked later.
  • Rovers and drones loaded into the Lander Rocket drop any resources they were still carrying.
  • Tunnels, Wonders and Food and Mystery depots can no longer be refabbed.
  • Added an asteroid specific skin for the RC Dozer.
Balance Changes:

Asteroids:
  • Greatly increase resources found on Asteroids.
  • 2 bars guarantees resources are present, 1 bar guarantees water, metals and exotic minerals.
  • Added metals to C-type asteroids (1 bar).
  • Reduced Recon Center Maintenance 4 > 1 Electronics.
  • Increase the odds of a Recon Center finding an asteroid, especially while you have no asteroids.
  • Decrease the odds of Recon discovery events, and each event can only occur once.
  • Generic Discoveries from the Recon Center now reward research progress.
  • Reduce Asteroid Lander price.
  • Slightly Increase Asteroid Lander cargo capacity.
  • Greatly increase the cargo module upgrade cargo bonus.
  • Increase polymer in the default Asteroid Lander loadout.
  • Highly increase resource extraction of the Micro-G Mining Station (with colonists).
  • Reduce maintenance frequency for Micro-G buildings (auto, water, station, habitat) and Electrolyzer.
  • Reduce power consumption of the Micro-G Auto Extractor, Micro-G Water Extractor, Electrolyzer and Micro-G Habitat.
  • Increase residence space in the Micro-G Habitat.

Underground:
  • Increased resource nodes in the underground.
  • Increased the buried wonder research costs.
  • Reduced maintenance costs of buried wonders.
  • Changed maintenance costs of the Support Strut to Metals (instead of Exotic Minerals).
  • Farms can no longer be built in the underground.
  • Fungal Farms can now be built in the underground.
  • Increased food production for Fungal Farm.
  • Slightly increased Sanity benefit of Psych Studies.
Bug Fixes
  • Fixed the lander rocket having the status “not enough full” even when the tank is full
  • Fixed fuel filling the lander rocket resetting to 0 when editing the payload
  • Fixed Micro-G mining buildings not taking resource grade into account
  • Fixed MDS lasers not working if the player is on another map
  • Fixed "Rocket can't land during dust storms" warning showing on Asteroids for Landers in orbit
  • Fixed cargo rockets duplicating if they are sent on an expedition and the launch is cancelled
  • Fixed cave-ins spawning on walls
  • Fixed cave-ins spawning at the same angle so that the player sees the pattern
  • Fixed cave-ins disappearing when cancelling the clear operation using the RC Dozer
  • Fixed colonists having the wrong group label (martian/earth born) when transported to another map
  • Fixed drones getting stuck on the Bottomless Pit after the Bottomless Pit Lab is salvaged
  • Fixed freezing when the Underground Marsquake is occurring in the mid and late-game stage
  • Fixed Colonist and Tourism top bar tooltip defining colonists as "stored"
  • Fixed the bottom textures of a Dome remaining after prefabbing
  • Fixed the Exotic Minerals icon not showing in the Production tab for the asteroid's extractors
  • Fixed Underground Domes not changing color when changing building colors
  • Fixed cave-ins falling on Buried Wonders and becoming unremovable
  • Fixed the "Signs of Organic Matter" event becoming blocked if another Asteroid goes out of range
  • Fixed colonists suffocating when a rocket returns from the Covert Ops (Space Race) and lands
  • Fixed earthsick colonists losing their earthsick status from getting sent to another Asteroid
  • Fixed uneven terrain blocking rovers in the underground
  • Fixed Bottomless Pit: "The Pit: Experiment requirements" event checking only the nearest Dumping Site
  • Fixed the RC Explorer and Elevator building appearing in different places in the Underground through the same Underground Entrance
  • Fixed colonists/tourists occasionally teleporting away from the elevator when using auto mode causing colonists to suffocate.
  • Fixed screen freeze when pressing the “tab” button while switching to another map
  • Fixed the RC Explorer not being able to reach a specific Anomaly in a Underground map
  • Fixed the bonus from the Stirling Generator Fault event not applying to the underground
  • Fixed the Buried Wonder Log not being able to close for the second time if optional tasks were completed after the main ones
  • Fixed the bottom rock asset emerging when a player makes a ramp over the Asteroid's pit in the donut shaped map
  • Fixed elevator's Auto Mode duplicating the request of objects
  • Fixed notifications from the recon center appearing in the underground map
  • Fixed hunger game rule disabling food transport for the elevator and lander rockets
  • Fixed the second anomaly in the Bottomless Pit event chain not reappearing if the requirements haven't been met
  • Fixed the Astrogeologist commander profile extractor production bonus not applying to the Asteroid's extractors
  • Fixed the elevator malfunction event being able to be bypassed by turning the elevator on or off or through a regular malfunction
  • Fixed save screenshot missing in load game on Mac and Linux
  • Fixed salvaging the bottomless Pit Research Center breaking the drones’ route
  • Fixed asteroid extractors still extracting a large number of resources if the breakthrough Nona Refinement is researched
  • Fixed a drone making one extra unnecessary move when repairing the elevator
  • Fixed rovers and buildings researched with the Global Support Breakthrough not being added to the Cargo lists
  • Fixed drones assigned to the malfunctioned elevator not being able to deliver resources while trying to repair the elevator.
  • Fixed Lander rocket being able to take off during Dust storms when using the Depart Now
  • Fixed requested Drones not departing with the Lander rocket if they were assigned to the a requested RC Commander
  • Fixed drones assigned to the RC Commander being reassigned to the command centers from the surface map after being transported to the underground
  • Fixed temporary anomalies appearing in unreachable places in the Underground with Mystery Metatron active
  • Fixed the Lander rocket occasionally getting a 'waiting for maintenance' status after a request and but being able to return to Mars if the asteroid goes out of range
Known issues
  • If the performance of the Recon Centre building is below 86, it does not contribute to the Recon Progress or help with Asteroid discoveries.
 
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Does this update also fix the game freezing and crashing at every auto save on PS5? After about 500 sols it just won't save anymore.
We cannot be sure if the issue has been completely fixed, however, an issue was identified with the auto-save system and it may rectify the problem!

If you continue to experience this issue, please report it again in the forums, I would also recommend exporting your save-game to USB, zip it up and attach it to the bug report. It will greatly help us in identifying what is happening.

Thanks,
Mark
 
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You are getting closer to a fleshed out DLC. I certainly love some of the changes :
- regular farms only above ground, underground only fungal ones. Now if you can make the fungal farms grow different kinds of fungi or allow ranches to have different animals underground. Great to differentiate between the two maps.
- resource management touched up. Can transport waste rock, universal depot accepting all types now and better elevator AI will allow for a lot more customization and less micromanagement of the logistics part.
- more resources available on asteroids and more options to use on them. This will allow for more long-term exploration or at least large scale operations on them.
- new breakthroughs and anomalies look interesting, have to play with them to better judge them.

Some suggestions/wishes :
- Geothermal nodes and powerplants. I would go for these to be both below and above ground, with more underground. Silva already created a mod 2-3 years ago adding geothermal power which was lovely.
- add underground and asteroid specific mysteries that are triggered once you start exploring those maps. Possibly part of a separate DLC that focuses on mysteries and narrative events ?
- allow us to terraform/marsform the underground layer as well with Seeds. Add rivers and some plants as time goes on. Or at least once you start terraforming the planet to have rain water be accumulated underground in aquifers and create underground rivers.
 
I love the new changes, but one particular one might be a bit unbalanced:
20 food production for a fungal farm is extremely high. According to the para wiki this puts fungal farms roughly on par with optimal corn farms (14 per sol + 50% soil bonus) but with constant production, much lower water requirements, and much lower tech requirements.
Perhaps something in the range of 10-15 (potato/soy at 50-100% soil) would be a bit more balanced?

Alternatively they could be available only underground to give an incentive for an early dome there.
 
A reminder of forum rules - no swearing!

And please don't quote posts that break any rule - just report them. 2 such posts deleted.

Thanks folks.
 
Every time you patch this abomination of a DLC you bug the hell out of save games for those that wisely did not buy it... especially expeditions.
Usually it is missions concerning drones, vehicles or suddenly creating multiple rockets on the same landing pad.
This time I am looking at over a dozen missions I can not do on the world map as the game keeps informing me that I do not have enough colonists... despite having over 200 of them.
:mad:

*edit* Since this DLC came out it has been nothing but a pain in the a$$... and I don't even own it!
It is hit or miss if disasters work... but you can almost be guaranteed you will have lots of dust devils, even if you specifically select maps with minimal of them.
If you do manage to get a map that has working disasters, they are almost continuous.
They surely must not wonder why all the recent reviews on Steam for this DLC are 'Overwhelmingly Negative'.
 
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@shpenka

Can you report an issue for this in the bug forum and attach the saves that are not working? I have checked several old saves that do not have B&B content and are 414 Sols in and they appear to be working.
Actually, I was saying about the saves WITH the B&B content (I have full DLC package). I have not progressed much - only 32 sols, yet this is not the first time when the saves are not being loaded. Only the earliest several saves can be loaded. Anyway, the more I play on one map the more annoying it becomes every time saves are not loaded. For this reason I mostly don't play but wait the game to be fixed finally to play without problem and not worrying that the next day I might need to start over.
No problem, I will create a bug report.
 
Actually, I was saying about the saves WITH the B&B content (I have full DLC package). I have not progressed much - only 32 sols, yet this is not the first time when the saves are not being loaded. Only the earliest several saves can be loaded. Anyway, the more I play on one map the more annoying it becomes every time saves are not loaded. For this reason I mostly don't play but wait the game to be fixed finally to play without problem and not worrying that the next day I might need to start over.
No problem, I will create a bug report.
Thanks for creating a bug report, I'll take a look at your saves to see if I can reproduce it.
 
I can confirm two issues -
a) Colonists will no longer board rockets for expedition missions.
b) When playing the new Underground specialist Commander Profile, the Pre Fab Elevator will not build and you cannot assign drones to manually build it. This is regardless of priority.
 
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