You heard right! Animals are coming to Mars. Not just farm animals, which will serve useful functions in your Mars colony, but also cute and fuzzy pets to keep your space-faring colonists company!
But what to name such a pack?
Give us your best suggestions below and tomorrow we'll put it to the vote!
It's finally here! The next expansion in the award winning game:
The next step in mankind's quest to becoming a multi-planetary species is coming! Prepare your colonists for their newest mission: turning the red wastes of Mars into a Green Planet, and a new home for the human race.
Last week we invited modders and asset creators to help us with a special project that is coming to Surviving Mars soon - and we have not been disappointed by our amazing community members! We have approximately 50 interested modders at this time (with 23 prizes to give out, that's good odds to win something!).
The deadline to participate in this project and contest is February 5th. So if you're interested in making any kind of mod/asset/UX/whatever please message us directly on Facebook or Twitter! The deadline for completion will be February 20th, when we announce the project to the world!
BUUUUUT that's not all!
Because we want to reward and encourage our modders (fancy way of saying "bribe") we've decided to up the stakes. Say HELLO to the new and improved contest rewards: - Three RTX 2080's - Three $300 Gift Cards to a Retailer of Your Choice - Twenty $20 PDX Gift Cards
The grand and runner-up prizes will have three distribution categories: - Chosen by Us - Chosen by You - Completely Random
Paradox Interactive has a new mission preparing for launch on February 5th.
We need top-secret creators to join our soon-to-be-revealed project and create a mod or asset for Surviving Mars. This will require a simple NDA, so Direct Message us on Facebook, Twitter, or contact Azurespecter on our forums here
What's in it for you?
Modding Contest Rewards include: 1 GeForce RTX 2080 3 $300 Gift Cards to a retailer of your choice 20 $50 Gift Cards to the Paradox Store
The Grand Prize and 3 Runner-Ups will be chosen by a panel at Paradox Interactive. The 20 Paradox Store Gift cards will be People's Choice Awards, chosen by the players!
Players from all games are welcome to try their hand at winning these amazing prizes and helping Paradox with our upcoming project.
So remember to message us if you'd like to create a mod or asset for our secret project, and we'll fill you in on the rules and details!
Haemimont Games and Paradox Interactive have been hard at work to bring you a fresh set of fixes, updates, and helpful additions!
One big thing you'll notice is a series of hint messages and helpful encyclopedia entries to assist you in Surviving Mars.
Kuiper Patch
General - Added videos in Hint messages - Added videos in Hints section of the Encyclopedia - Changed text alignment in Hint messages - Fix for Hint messages getting restarted when the selected object changes - Fix for screen remaining blurred in some cases - Fix for Black Cubes destroying passages - Fix for Find Water Milestone not being completed in some cases when Water is found - Fix for Amplify upgrade of Rare Metals Refinery to properly increase production per day - Fix for Waste Rock Dumps becoming irresponsive after loading of old save games - Fix for Triboelectric Scrubber no more cleaning stuff after change of its range
Gamepad - Fix for RB/LB control of sliders in info panels - Fix for unnecessary selection of "Basic Resources" and "Advanced Resources" rows in depots' info panel
Fixes in the following events - Fix for event-related techs missing in the absence of Space Race - Long Winter - Dust Sickness - Power Surge - Broken Dome - Frozen Batteries
Modding - Changed naming convention for "New" in mod editor toolbar to avoid ambiguousness - New Specialist msg now supplies the specialist - Fix for garbled file formats in drop-down list of the "open file" dialog
Space Race is out now! And if you don't have it already you can buy it here.
PATCH NOTES:
Reimagined Mission Sponsors - Each sponsor in Space Race has a new unique building and a unique new vehicle that may be a Rocket, Rover, Drone or even new type of Probe. All of these dramatically change the way the individual sponsor plays and develops their strategy.
New Sponsors - Brazil and Japan have entered the competition to carve a new home on the red planet! They come with their unique buildings and vehicles, sponsor goals and challenges for the colonization of Mars.
Rival Colonies – other Sponsors now set up their own Colonies and compete with the player for anomalies and events, engage in trade, covert ops and answer distress calls
You are no longer alone on Mars. With Space Race you have the option to start a new game with 1 to 3 rival colonies which will land on other coordinates on Mars.
You can contact other colonies and exchange technologies or open trade routes. You can also request help or provide aid to another colony.
All colonies on Mars compete with each other for milestones and planetary Anomalies – and only the first colony will reap the benefits.
You can steal their Drones and Tech, sabotage their buildings and even attract their best Colonists to your own colony! Be warned - your standing with the rival colony will plummet and as they tighten security measures, you might lose the covert ops team and even the Rocket!
Events, related to Space Race - Events are story elements that depict different situations arising in the colony and will play out randomly as your colony grows. Sometimes there will be difficult decisions to make, and sometimes your choice of Commander Profile and Mission Sponsor will affect the decision options you have.
There is a unique set of events that can unfold only if the Rival Colonies are present, and they require the Space Race add on to happen.
6 new Challenges – A set of 3 new challenges for each of the new sponsors, Japan and Brazil
New Decoration set – a set of out-of-dome decorations including flags and monuments
New Dome skins – a set of skins to add variety to your new colony
10 new Achievements:
Space Shopping - Play as USA and have a Geoscape Dome with a Megamall before Sol 100
Tao - Play as China and have Tai-chi Gardens in 10 Domes before Sol 100 Space Capitalism - Play as Blue Sun Corporation and produce $100,000 M Funding before Sol 100
Europa Universalis - Play as Europe and reach daily production of 10,000 Research before Sol 100
Waste Not, Want Not - Play as India and convert 3000 Waste Rock to useful materials before Sol 100
The Pace of Progress - Play as SpaceY and complete all Sponsor Goals on challenge rating 500% or higher
No Pain, No Gain - Play as Russia and have 500 colonists on challenge rating 500% or higher
The Garden of Eden - Play as Church of the new Ark and have 250 Colonists at 70+ Comfort before Sol 100
Bushido - Play as Japan and train 200 specialists before Sol 100 Gold Rush - Play as Brazil and convert 2000 Waste Rock to Rare Metals before Sol 100
New UI – The user interface of Surviving Mars has been completely updated to a new visual style
Sponsor Goals - Each sponsor now provides a set of five unique goals. Completing those goals awards various rewards – from Funding and Applicants to free prefabs of Domes and even free Rockets. The five goals have varying difficulty and can push you to play in a specific direction if you want to get their reward quickly. The more difficult sponsors have tougher goals which sometimes even have a time limit. Sponsor goals are an improvement and an overhaul of the current Mission Evaluation mechanic which is retired with the update.
Events – Events are story elements that depict different situations arising in the colony and will play out randomly as your colony grows. Sometimes there will be difficult decisions to make, and sometimes your choice of Commander Profile and Mission Sponsor will affect the decision options you have. There are more than a hundred Event chains, each telling a different story of life on Mars, with more than 250 individual Events. Perhaps a Dust Storm caused a major malfunction in a Fusion Reactor, or a Renegade sabotaged the launch of a Rocket returning to Earth... Once in a while it’s just interesting to see how people may relax and have fun on the red planet.
Planetary Anomalies and Expeditions – Martian Anomalies are no longer found only in your sector – now you can discover them all over the planet. To analyze such a planetary anomaly, you will need to send a rocket to its coordinates on Mars. You will also need Drones, Rovers or Colonists for the expedition. Planetary Anomalies can yield research points, new Techs and Breakthroughs as well as resources and offer bigger rewards than Anomalies in the immediate vicinity of your colony.
Supply Pods - You may need an urgent delivery from Earth every now and then, and your rockets can be on the far side of Mars now. Supply Pods are one-use delivery space vehicles that can transport a limited payload from Earth. They are faster than Rockets and can land in any conditions, even during Dust Storms, but incur $100 M extra cost on launch. Also, they can be salvaged after crash-landing.
New Points of Interest in your sector – new "Research site" and "Vista" locations can be now discovered in your sector map. They boost comfort and research (respectively) in nearby buildings and domes; they are revealed when a sector is scanned; those locations are randomly placed but depend on visible terrain features
Sponsor Logos – a set of new sponsor logos, based on the national flags of the sponsors
Important changes:
Completed Milestones now grant Research Points as reward Added a new building - Waste Rock Processor - unlocked by Waste Rock Liquefaction tech Unused research points now go to the cheapest tech if no assigned research exists Shuttles can transport waste rock Updated sensor tower infopanel UI to include information about working units and disaster early warning Added ability to enable/disable shuttle service for storage depots Black Cubes Mystery: Black cubes can no longer destroy passages or appear over deposits Buildings locked behind technologies will now list the tech field and name in their description Added new functionality to Shuttle Hub - switch transportation modes between "people", "cargo", and "everything" Removed Fuelled Extractor's upgrade from Concrete Plants Wildfire Mystery: fix for long-term consequences of not researching the Cure Mission Evaluation removed (replaced by Sponsor goals)
Other fixes:
Fix for factories to update Production per sol in real time Fix for "Charge" hint for RC Generator (fixed both description and controller shortcut) Fix for closed solar panels to not accumulate dust Fix for the timer of completed challenges - in-game Fix for RC Transport route creation when using overview map Fixes for manual control over a Drone for cable/pipe construction, RC Transport unloading, construction site clearance Fix for misleading text for pause/unpause Fix for game freeze when packing numerous drones over short period of time Fix for colonists migration and job allocation between connected domes - colonists now check if working in connected domes is forbidden when searching for a new dome Fix for load/unload functionality of RC Transport Fix for construction process to properly clear construction site when construction is on the edge of construction range Fix for occasional overlap of buildings Fix for passage placement to limit some invalid passage positions Fix for cable placement when outside of drone hub range, which shows cable lines in unbuildable places Fix for auto-pin option for exceptional colonists Fixed controller button info when using rename feature Fix for Crystals in Philosopher's stone mystery, to no longer spawn with a dome base Fix for Waste Rock Processor model, now does not intersect with pipes Fix for metal deposits placement to avoid inaccessible locations Fix for rocket launch failing because of disembarking transport Fix to keep new deposit positions fixed to map seed Living Quarters renamed to Living Complex to reflect building sizes naming convention Fix to remove concrete terrain once a concrete deposit has been depleted Fix to prevent drones being assigned to destroyed commanders Fix for drones idle movement while waiting to recharge Fix for Research screen tooltip to update cost for repeatable techs in queue Fix to allow sending an empty passenger rocket from Earth (also added a warning) Added on-screen notification for destroyed buildings Updated upgrade rollover text to show available resources Fix for scaling of particle of anomaly scanning Fix for construction rover to properly utilize/deal with resources on construction site Fix for loss of control when performing quick actions in the build menu with a controller Fix for Dome infopanel to better communicate comfort issues Fix for follow-up camera when units disappear Fix for setting traits in School/Sanatorium Fix for pathfinder, reported as automated rover not responding Removed old mission evaluation system and related notifications when loading pre-Gagarin saves Tutorial 3: added shield against player spending all money and unable to continue a tutorial step Various performance optimizations
PC – specific fixes:
[OSX] Fix for window resize and occasional crash after using Command+Tab [Linux] Fix for switch between Full screen and Windowed mode
Surviving Mars: Space Race Expansion has Launched!
Available now for download
Space Race has officially launched! Challenge rival sponsors in the race of the century with all new features and gameplay. Available now, so click here to play!
Gather your colonists, prepare your rocket, and descend upon the red planet to show those rival sponsors how it's done... the Space Race has begun!
A few of the major features you'll find include:
Rival colonies will compete to discover planetary anomalies and unlock the secrets of Mars
Negotiate with or terrorize your rivals with new diplomacy options
Unique buildings and vehicles for every sponsor
New events will shape your colonies progression - for better or worse!
Two new sponsors (Brazil and Japan)
Complete unique sponsor missions to help your colony succeed
Hello, fellow Martians! I am Boyan Ivanov and today I’m here to share some juicy details about the cool new features coming in Space Race - the first expansion for Surviving Mars.
New and Improved Sponsors (paid feature)
With Space Race, we wanted to improve upon the variety of each playthrough and make the choice of sponsor matter even more. Each sponsor in Space Race has a new unique building and a unique new vehicle that may be a Rocket, Rover, Drone or even new type of Probe. All of these dramatically change the way the individual sponsor plays and develops their strategy.
Instead of spoiling all the changes to existing sponsors, I’m going to showcase my favorite sponsor – the Blue Sun Corporation.
The Blue Sun Corporation is all about making money and having additional uses for Funding. Their new unique building is the Corporate Office – which generates funding each Sol based on the number of workers in the office. This provides a good alternative to mining Rare Metals, however working in an office is not really the life colonists imagined on Mars and they take Comfort penalties when stationed there. Of course, you can offset the Comfort loss with additional services.
***ALSO*** Join us for the Space Race Launch stream tomorrow at 17:00 CET. Susie and Niki will be joined by Haemimont on stream to take a good look at the expansion and celebrate its release (it will release at 18:00 CET and we have an awesome release trailer which we will also show off on the stream! You can watch the stream here: https://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive
