This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain!

• Fixed soldiers initially being invisible after moving up a level via a teleporter.
  
• Fixed various visual issues with the Western Town biome, the largest being the long-running issue with the restaurant interior walls rendering black. However, there were several other (more subtle) rendering issues in this biome that we've also fixed that should clean up the visuals of Terror Sites.
  
• Fixed there being some "holes" in the walls of alien bases (this was just one particular wall tile not rendering correctly).
  
• Fixed some issues with the walls flickering in certain Farm barn buildings.
  
• Removed a filing cabinet that was obstructing an office window (but still allowing you to shoot through it) in a particular terror map.
  
• Fixed an issue with the text for a certain Geoscape anomaly in the German translation.

This month's dev update has been a bit delayed as we've been working on Milestone 5 patches (more below), but now that it's out the door I'll be taking this opportunity to talk about our plans for further updates and the eventual 1.0 release!

Almost all of last month was spent working on the long-awaited Milestone 5, and we finally released it onto the standard branches for everyone to play at the end of March. This is a major update that adds a lot of new content to the game, but also allows players to unlock the final mission and win a campaign (the full changelog can be seen here).

Overall, we're pleased with the way Milestone 5 turned out. I personally think that the addition of the Geoscape Supporters / Strategic Operations and the new Phase system have made the strategic layer a lot more engaging than before, and the new "UOO" missions add more variety to the second half of the game. We hope you all enjoy the update - many of these new systems are "extra" content (beyond what was in our original roadmap) that we've only been able to add because so many players have been willing to support an Early Access product!

The past couple of weeks have been focused on fixing problems that people have encountered in Milestone 5, and we'll likely continue doing this for the rest of April -- please keep reporting any bugs or gameplay issues you encounter and we'll do our best to fix them quickly.

In the meantime, we've also started work on Milestone 6. This was originally intended to be a single large update that would bring the game all the way to final release, but Milestone 5 had such a long development cycle that we've changed our plans so players don't have to go so long between updates.

The key goal for Milestone 6 is now to finish all the missing gameplay content - e.g. adding the final victory cinematic, adding all remaining research art, revamping the Air Combat to have an updated UI and a proper tutorial, and adding the Soviet Town biome. Essentially this represents completing the remaining content on our roadmap and finishing the areas of the game still marked as incomplete.

We're also going to be adding some new content that we've already completed but never made it into Milestone 5. For example, we've got a full set of updated Sebillian models that we need to set up, and we're currently working on upgraded models for the Cyberdrone and Heavy Cyberdrone that make the two types more visually distinct. There's also a lot of new terrain tiles that we need to set up and add into our existing maps.

Hopefully this means Milestone 6 will still feel like a substantial update, despite the changes to the game systems being largely limited to the air combat. Our aim is to have this update released on the public branches in three to four months.

We'll then spend a few more months polishing up the game as we transition to our final 1.0 release, as there will still be plenty of things we want to improve. We'd like to spend some more time testing and improving the AI. We'd like to do a pass over all the maps. We'd like to optimise performance and load times a bit more. We need to build the mod tools. There's also a lot of sensible and relatively straightforward community suggestions that would improve the game. We probably won't have time to do everything we want, but we'll get as much in as we can!

This means we're unlikely to add any major new features to the game beyond those already planned for Milestone 6, nor any large content additions like new mission types, aircraft or alien species. While it may still be possible to sneak in a few smaller pieces of content (such as a new weapon or two), with the second anniversary of our Early Access launch approaching we need to shift away from adding new content and focus on polishing what we have.

We're aiming for the 1.0 update to drop before the end of the year, but as always, we'll keep you posted. We'll have a better idea of the timetable once we're done with Milestone 6.

Thanks again, and we hope you're enjoying Milestone 5! Please do consider leaving reviews and feedback, as we're always reading them.

This is another hotfix for Milestone 5. As always, we're monitoring the bug report forums and we'll continue to release further hotfixes for crashes and gameplay issues reported by players.

• All aliens in the Terror Site around day 70 should now use Magnetic weapons (previously a couple of aliens were incorrectly using Plasma weapons).
  
• Made some small changes to the Endgame part 2 mission, ensuring the outer walls of the mission are indestructible and placing earth tiles in any of the internal voids in the map. Also fixed some misaligned floor tiles. These map changes mean that any existing save games from Endgame part 2 will now be broken!

• Fixed a crash that could occur when a Servitor fell down a level while also trying to perform autoheal.
  
• Fixed the Autopsy: Symbiote research project not unlocking correctly.
  
• Fixed the "Recovering" state of wounded soldiers incorrectly displaying as "<1 Day" in some situations.
  
• Fixed the western town double-sided chair tiles not correctly disappearing when destroyed.

This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain!

• All aliens in the Terror Site around day 70 should now use Magnetic weapons (previously a couple of aliens were incorrectly using Plasma weapons).
  
• Made some small changes to the Endgame part 2 mission, ensuring the outer walls of the mission are indestructible and placing earth tiles in any of the internal voids in the map. Also fixed some misaligned floor tiles. These map changes mean that any existing save games from Endgame part 2 will now be broken!

• Fixed a crash that could occur when a Servitor fell down a level while also trying to perform autoheal.
  
• Fixed the Autopsy: Symbiote research project not unlocking correctly.
  
• Fixed the "Recovering" state of wounded soldiers incorrectly displaying as "<1 Day" in some situations.
  
• Fixed the western town double-sided chair tiles not correctly disappearing when destroyed.

This is another quick hotfix for Milestone 5, fixing a second pathway for the Reflexes bug to occur that we missed in the last hotfix.

• Fixed a second variant of the bug where soldiers could permanently lose stats if a player loaded a tactical save in which their units had temporary debuffs from being Suppressed (Reflexes), causing the temporary debuff to become permanent. Unfortunately it's not possible for us to fix soldiers that have suffered this reduction with a patch, as the bug overwrites their original stat value - sorry about that!

This hotfix for Milestone 5 fixes a serious gameplay issue, so we're launching it straight onto the normal branches without letting people test it for a few days on the Experimental branches first. There's therefore a higher chance of stability issues than normal - we'll be watching the bug report forums closely over the weekend, so please let us know if you encounter any issues!

The critical bug we're fixing can cause soldiers to suffer permanent stat loss if you're saving / loading during combat, as well as potentially getting stuck in the wounded state on the strategy layer. However, we're also toning down Mind Control and fixing an issue with night missions getting out of sync with the Geoscape night shadow.

• Mind Control for Psyons no longer uses squad sight, so Psyons need to get direct vision on a Xenonaut before they can cast the ability (Eternals can still cast Mind Control using squad sight).
  
• Added new art for the Alien Antigravity Unit research project.
  
• Added new injury / death sounds for the Eternal.

• Fixed a bug where soldiers could permanently lose stats if a player loaded a tactical save in which their units had temporary debuffs from being Suppressed (Reflexes) or taking HP damage (Accuracy), as this caused the temporary debuffs to incorrectly become permanent. Unfortunately it's not possible for us to fix soldiers that have suffered from this issue - sorry about that!
  
• Fixed the day / night status of a mission on the Geoscape being set when it first spawns, rather than the time when the player actually begins the mission.
  
• Fixed a bug where smoke tiles and doors would sometimes appear invisible to the player, but still be present in gameplay terms.
  
• (Hopefully) fixed combat shields sometimes not disappearing when destroyed by enemy fire.
  
• Fixed the UOO Bridge Assault mission not allowing you to attempt it a second time if you abort the mission.
  
• Fixed soldiers getting stuck in the "airborne" state if you abort the Bridge Assault mission.
  
• Fixed the Geoscape objective text going off the edge of the screen on non-16:9 screens.

This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain!

• Mind Control for Psyons no longer uses squad sight, so Psyons need to get direct vision on a Xenonaut before they can cast the ability (Eternals can still cast Mind Control using squad sight).
  
• Added new injury / death sounds for the Eternal.

• Fixed a bug where soldiers could permanently lose stats if a player loaded a tactical save in which their units had temporary debuffs from being Suppressed (Reflexes) or taking HP damage (Accuracy), as this caused the temporary debuffs to incorrectly become permanent. Unfortunately it's not possible for us to "fix" soldiers that have suffered from this issue.
  
• Fixed a bug where smoke tiles and doors would sometimes appear invisible to the player, but still be present in gameplay terms.
  
• Fixed the Geoscape objective text going off the edge of the screen on non-16:9 screens.

This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain!

• Added new art for the Alien Antigravity Unit research project.

• Fixed the day / night status of a mission on the Geoscape being set when it spawns, rather than when you actually start the mission (a bug we accidentally introduced in the last hotfix).
  
• (Hopefully) fixed combat shields sometimes not disappearing when destroyed by enemy fire.
  
• Fixed the UOO Bridge Assault mission not allowing you to attempt it a second time if you abort the mission.
  
• Fixed soldiers getting stuck in the "airborne" state if you abort the Bridge Assault mission,

This is another hotfix for Milestone 5 that fixes a few crashes and other gameplay issues. We've got another hotfix planned for this week, so please do report any issues you encounter and we'll do our best to fix them!

• Mind Control success chance now reduces by -2% for each tile between the caster and target (rather than -1%).
  
• Abduction tubes now stop their humming sound when opened.

• Fixed a tactical crash that could occur at end of turn, or when alt+tabbing. 
  
• Fixed a crash that could occur when selling items on the strategy level.
  
• Fixed an issue that was preventing aliens from using Mind Control (introduced in the last build).
  
• Fixed aircraft armour plating sometimes not removing their +armour bonus when unequipped, causing the interceptor to incorrectly gain a permanent buff.
  
• Fixed the tactical UI soldier minitabs (at the top of the screen) displaying the name of a dead zombified soldier as "reaper Reaper Zombie".
  
• Fixed the crosshair / shot hit chance calculation not updating immediately if you're hovering over an enemy and then press "C" to crouch.
  
• Fixed some instances where some stacked shipping containers were not correctly destruction linked, occasionally causing floating containers and some other issues.

This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain!

• Mind Control success chance now reduces by -2% for each tile between the caster and target (rather than -1%).
  
• Abduction tubes now stop their humming sound when opened.

• Fixed a tactical crash that could occur at end of turn, or when alt+tabbing. 
  
• Fixed a crash that could occur when selling items on the strategy level.
  
• Fixed an issue that was preventing aliens from using Mind Control (introduced in the last build).
  
• Fixed aircraft armour plating sometimes not removing their +armour bonus when unequipped, causing the interceptor to incorrectly gain a permanent buff.
  
• Fixed the tactical UI soldier minitabs (at the top of the screen) displaying the name of a dead zombified soldier as "reaper Reaper Zombie".
  
• Fixed the crosshair / shot hit chance calculation not updating immediately if you're hovering over an enemy and then press "C" to crouch.
  
• Fixed some instances where some stacked shipping containers were not correctly destruction linked, occasionally causing floating containers and some other issues.