Just a quick clarification for the Season Pass/First Colony Edition holders as we have had a few questions.

1. You are, of course, getting all 3 pieces of DLC announced together as a part of your Season Pass.
2. There is more content left in the Season Pass. :)

We are super happy to announce our first expansion Space Race!

Space Race focuses on rival colonies and mission sponsors. It pits Earth’s greatest countries and most powerful companies against each other as they compete for the limited resources available on Mars. Whether it’s stealing key colonists or monopolizing crucial discoveries, be sure not to let your comrades in colonizing get the upper hand!

Space Race releases later this year.

Save 10% by pre-ordering it here: Space Race

EDIT: Just to clarify if you have the Season Pass you automatically get this content.

Hey!

We are currently running a closed beta testing the new paid DLC and a few new updates to the game.

If you are a Surviving Mars modder we would love for you to be involved.

There are 20 spots open - with the criteria that you have to have modded Surviving Mars.

If you would like to join the beta please email susan.mcbeth@paradoxplaza.com.

We will then send you an NDA which you will sign and return and after that, we will send you details on how to join the beta.

The beta is open until 14th!

Thanks
Susie

Senior Community Manager

What key stats about your colony, in extension to the information presented in the infobar, would you like to easily access and view? For example, in the Command Center screen (Z).

We are currently addressing the Command Centre UI and would like player feedback to know where to aim.

Please let us know your thoughts so we can make the game the best it can be and give you what you want :D

Hey everyone. Just a quick heads-up - we have just released a hot fix patch to address a couple of minor performance issues originating from the source code.

As always, if you find any bugs, please report them on the Surviving Mars bug forum: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?forums/surviving-mars-bug-reports.1003/

Tomorrow, at 5p.m. CEST Stockholm time, we'll host a Q&A stream!

Come by, ask us questions about the "Sagan" update, the game's future, present and stick around for some unexpected news later!

:D

New Feature: Challenges
Challenges are a new game mode where you have to accomplish a specific objective within a time limit. Mission parameters, game rules and colony coordinates are predetermined and unique for each challenge. A total of 24 challenges are now available.

Self-sufficient Rovers
Rovers no longer have batteries and there’s no need to recharge roves from Power cables. We reevaluated this mechanic and decided that the amount of micromanagement it required was more tedious than actually presenting a meaningful challenge. We are removing it as part of our initiative to reduce the unnecessary micromanagement in the game and allow the player to focus on more important tasks.

Rover Command AI tech now enables automated mode for Explorers and Transports.

Changes to Concrete Deposits
We have reworked the Concrete Extractor to work more in line with other extractors. Concrete Extractors have to be placed in the vicinity of the concrete deposit marker and no longer take into account the specific patch of terrain they cover. This way concrete deposits can be fully exploited even with a single extractor.

Changes to Maps
Due to the changes in concrete deposits, as well as other fixes to the random map generator, all maps have been generated again and will look different than previous versions. Environmental variety of maps has been improved.

Changes to Research
The randomization of research (both order of techs in the research tree and breakthroughs discovered from anomalies) is now tied to the random seed of the individual map. This means that techs are always the same on the same map but different between different maps. This change allows players to compete for score on even terms on the same map coordinates and to have the same experience with techs when attempting Challenges.

Changes to Messages
Popup messages will now arrive first as blinking notifications, which will pop up after some time has passed. This way popups will not interrupt your current actions like placing or managing buildings. Some important messages will still pop up without a notification.

Controller Support for the Infobar
"Resource Overview" buttons are removed from the HUD for both mouse and controller interfaces. The Infobar can now be navigated using controller. Rollover highlights have been added to the Infobar in the controller version of the UI.

Balance Changes

Reduced Mega Trigon Dome construction and maintenance costs
Trigon Dome now requires Polymers for maintenance
Dust generated from Building and Rocket sources has been increased

General Fixes and Improvements
Crystals in “The Philosopher’s Stone” mystery should now work properly
Resource deposit markers are now aligned to the building grid
Increased the range in which the Transport Rover looks for Transport Route resources to 25 hexes
Fixed the sound effect of the Artificial Sun
Rockets no longer require cargo to be launched towards Mars
Meteor Storm epicentre now moves during the disaster
Improved Pipe placement logic, related warnings and cost predictions
Price of Pipe segments placed over non-buildable or rough terrain is now properly calculated
Landing Pads are no longer being suspended by disasters
Deep scanning progress for sectors is now properly reset after surface scanning
Sub-surface Heater & Mohole Mine are now protected from freezing
Endless Supply game rule now disables achievements
Fixed the game not launching on some Linux distributions
General performance improvements

UI fixes and improvements:
Dust radii of Extractors and Rockets are now shown on placement and selection
New auto pin settings in Options > Gameplay, that allow customization of pinned objects
Key-bindings now properly appear in rollover hints
Added key-bindings for passages and passage ramps
Added warning sign over buildings that lack input resources
Settings for Photo mode are now properly saved
Added Reset button to Photo mode
Fix for Photo Mode, which removes black artefacts appearing on some buildings
Fix for the "Build Menu" shortcut to work as a toggle button instead of only opening the build menu
Various encyclopedia texts have been updated to reflect Sagan changes
Added description text for Health lost due to the "Infected" trait
Reworked the early warning notification for disasters to be more informative

Hello and thank you for checking out this shiny new dev diary dedicated to the upcoming update, codenamed Sagan. While our previous update (Da Vinci) catered mostly to our players that like to focus their efforts on city-building in Creative Mode, Sagan's main feature is targeted towards our more hardcore survivalist crowd. It introduces a new game mode meant to test your colony building skills as well as your mastery of not just surviving under the alien conditions, but being fast and efficient while doing so.

Challenges
How can you measure the skills of a player in a sandbox city-builder? Even in a survival-oriented one, like Surviving Mars, the difference between a very good player and merely a competent one is often in the efficiency and game time they need to accomplish their goals. While the existing Score system tries to evaluate this to some degree, it is far from perfect, and there is really no fair way to balance it for all possible play styles and game rules.

Challenges are meant to be our answer to this problem, introducing a new way to test your skills. Each Challenge presents a single objective before you that may be as simple as "complete the Founder stage" or more complex like "research all technologies". All Challenges are time-limited, so you have to optimize your approach and be efficient to pass the test.



You can read the dev diary in full here.