Thank you all for giving us a tremendous release for Green Planet - which has thrust Surviving Mars into the spotlight all across the internet and on Steam. We've had so many players come back to the game for this expansion!

We know there were some bugs, as is usual for any release, and we're happy to have squashed a bunch of them. If you're still having trouble playing the game, please go to our support forum or just click CTRL + F1 to send us a report from directly within the game!

Green Planet:

• Fixed several game freezes (reported by the community, related to RC transports in savegames, and Dozers)
  
• Fixed terraforming info showing in infopanels in savegames started without Green Planet
  
• Fixed Transport Optimization tech applying to RC Dozer
  
• Fixed Lakes to check local (actual) temperature to determine frozen state (not global temperature)
  
• Fixed terraforming buildings' Amplify upgrades to take into account Overcharge Amplifications breakthrough
  
• Fixed RC Transport interacting with Open Farm crops
  
• Fixed endless (toxic or water) rains
  
• Fixed Outdoor Farms harvest not being collected by Drones
  
• Added harvest information in tooltip of Open Farm
  
• Added check for breakthrough availability when terraforming is disabled

Space Race:

• Fixed flying Drones coming back to life after destruction
  
• Fixed flying Drones affected by explosions when too high
  
• Fixed Advanced Stirling Generator heat output in a cold area/during cold wave

Project Laika:

• Added Encyclopedia entries for Ranch and Outside Ranch

Main Game:

• Fixed crash when constructing buildings at the map border
  
• Fixed several game freezes related to wisps (St Elmo's Fire Mystery)
  
• Fixed game freeze occurring when a Drone is destroyed while embarked on a Rover
  
• Fixed old savegames not applying current logic when accepting trade offers/converting Landing Pads
  
• Fixed savegames displaying Seeds as farm crops in games without Green Planet
  
• Fixed Drones unloading resources from Expedition Rocket when resources are loaded by RC Transport
  
• Fixed events effects continuing when the event is completed (broken Drones in "Drone Prototypes")
  
• Fixed display of tooltip in "Clear" button in Infopanel
  
• Fixed display of dome radius
  
• Fixed camera issue while zooming out during an ongoing marsquake
  
• Fixed Drone behaviour when changing priority during construction (building is no longer cancelled)
  
• Fixed resource allocation when destroying buildings
  
• Fixed scripting logic choosing invalid events from planetary anomalies
  
• Fixed colonists living in the nursery (it's time to grow up!)
  
• Fixed Rocket cargo display when returning from expedition
  
• Fixed Landing Pads becoming unusable after rocket construction
  
• Fixed Trade Rockets accepting wrong amount of resources in automated mode
  
• Fixed Large Dumping Site infopanel slider behaviour for desired amount of waste rock (controller-only)
  
• Fixed UI scale not allowing passenger selection when set to maximum
  
• Added hover and click sounds to main menu news feed
  
• Added separate spots and fixed orientation of drones when constructing Rockets
  
• Latitude and longitude coordinates are no longer translated to allow coordinates sharing in non-English versions of the game

Modding:

• Added modding functionality for FX elements (sound, decal, light, colorization, particles)
  
• Added modding functionality for Animals & Vegetation
  
• Added Tech Field ModItem
  
• Added message to indicate if a detected scripting error is related to a mod
  
• Tables for Rival Colonies converted to global for easier modding
  
• Updated modding documentation

PS4 version specific:

• Fixed linking PDX account when exiting PSN and restarting console

Art asset fixes for the following additional content:

• Green Planet
  
• Space Race
  
• Project Laika
  
• Digital Deluxe Edition
  
• Colony Design Set

Thank you to all of our beta testers, you have been amazing.

New Features:

• 5 Landscaping tools/buildings - Flatten terrain, create Ramp, Change Surface texture and construct Small Rock Formation or medium Rock Formation. They're available since start and do not require research. The Flatten and Ramp tools consume a lot of drone time and require or produce excess of Waste Rock. The Rock Formations are constructed with Waste Rock. The Change Surface tool consumes drone time and damages the local soil quality.
  
• 3 Special Projects - Capture Meteors, launch High-Speed Comm Satellite and Launch SETI Satellite. They become available when the first batch of Planetary Anomalies gets discovered (Sol 10-15) and do not require previous research. These three act as alternative sources of raw materials (Capture Meteors), sponsor research (HGS Satellite) and funding (SETI Satellite).
  
• 2 new buildings - Large Dumping Site and Rocket construction site. The significantly larger dumping site is because we're now producing and consuming far more Waste Rock. The construction of Rockets was added as an alternative to the buying of Rockets, which is not possible when you lack Funding. The Large Dumping Site is not locked via research, the Rocket requires Advanced Rocketry to be researched. (Advanced Rocketry is a vanilla tech that now enables the construction of Rockets, as well.)
  
• Self-sufficient dome - you can now place a Basic Dome with minimal life-support buildings. You only need to connect it to a power source. Once constructed, the structures will act as independent buildings. International Mars Mission has a free prefab of the self-sufficient dome.
  
• New event chains - 19 for the base game, 1 for modding purposes, 9 for Space Race DLC
  
• New research UI with vertical flow replaced the old research UI

Other Fixes and Improvements:

• Added order-queuing for Rovers
  
• Added multi-selection of units for mouse and keyboard and hybrid control schemes. You can use lasso or double-click over a unit type to mass-select nearby units of the same type
  
• More informative reasons for unavailable diplomacy options
  
• Fix for proper show/hide behaviour of hex ranges of domes for outside workplaces
  
• Build Menu: Rovers are moved to separate sub-categories
  
• Added conditions where colonists can change dome regardless of home availability in other domes
  
• Double click or Controller Button (X) on items in the build menu, which require known but non-researched techs now open the Research UI
  
• Trade rockets to rivals are not automated by default
  
• New Photo Mode effect added - Motion Blur
  
• Added "-nomods" launch option, allowing to start the game without mods. To set this option, you need to open the game PROPERTIES from the menu in Steam (left-click on the game in Steam Library). In the first tab GENERAL open SET LAUNCH OPTIONS. A small popup window will open where you can enter text. You need to enter: -nomods

Special thanks to our closed-beta testers who helped us with this change! And also with the Modding-related fixes below

Modding-Related Fixes and Improvements:

• Documented the Lua loading procedure, mod versions and dependencies, creating mods for DLCs and other minor documentation updates
  
• Added a filter for mods compatible with the game version
  
• Build menu subcategories are now presets, which can be easily added with mods
  
• Added a set of mod items that add easily modifiable options to your mods
  
• Fixed 'copy from' field in building template mod items and mission logo mod items
  
• Unused tech field icon property removed
  
• Mod dependencies show if the mod they depend on is missing or incompatible (outdated)
  
• Added a sample story chain
  
• Improved mod upload - it provides status update, better UI flow, feedback about report upload problems
  
• [PDX modding] Fix to enable auto-update of mods from PDX modding backend
  
• [PDX modding] Fix for re-uploading mods to PDX modding backend to keep their dependencies entered in the web interface

• New resource and global parameters which track terraforming progress
  
• New terraforming buildings in a separate build menu section
  
• New special projects with global effects
  
• New tech field – Terraforming – which unlocks buildings, resources, special projects
  
• New breakthrough techs focused on terraforming
  
• New disasters – Toxic rain and Marsquake
  
• Vegetation on Mars – plant it, watch it thrive or wither and die
  
• New main menu background video and updated Surviving Mars logo
  
• New Green Planet wallpapers
  
• New terraforming milestones
  
• 10 new achievements / trophies

• Pets are coming to Mars: 25 different pets of 10 animal types will start living alongside colonists after Founders stage is over, there are enough colonists and comfort is high enough. Pets include cats, dogs, penguins, platypuses and more.
  
• 2 New buildings for in-dome and outside-of dome animal husbandry produce Food for the colonists
  
• Domesticated animals are coming to Mars too: 4 types of animals for each of the new buildings will provide different options

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwMMEWmKgGk
Green Planet is available now worldwide! Take on the greatest challenge of Mars with global terraforming by implementing new technology, buildings, and resources. Mars will soon be a second home for humankind

You've made it to Mars, you've landed your colonists and began a new home, but now it's time to take up the greatest challenge yet: making Mars feel like home. In Green Planet you will take on terraforming at a planetary scale with all new buildings, resources, technology, and special projects!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/952890/Surviving_Mars_Green_Planet/
Cost: $19.99 / €19.99


Project Laika is an animal pack that the community named for us, and it's releasing alongside Green Planet

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1042360/Surviving_Mars_Project_Laika/

• 25 different pets that will appear alongside your colonists
  
• Livestock and ranches to grow food for your colony
  
• Cost: $5.99 / €5.99

YES!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/802700/Surviving_Mars_Season_Pass/


If you purchase one of our bundles or Season Pass, you get a discount on the price!


Here on our forums!
Here on Steam!



Feature Breakdowns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ieYJrZuISk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bkzCLJb8yQ

Dev Diary #1 - Terraforming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtijP5PltXQ

Dev Diary #2 - New Buildings & Tech
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU1yP0VbsLc

Dev Diary #3 - Vegetation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keCzhazAeCE

Dev Diary #4 - Disasters & Special Projects
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRVJ_kT8A_4

Dev Diary #5 - Armstrong: FREE Update
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCxoupxnZjw

Hello fellow survivors!

We’re back with another dev diary for Green Planet. Today we will be discussing the awesome free update, which is going to be released together with Green Planet and Project Laika DLCs. We’ve added a bunch of new content and Quality of Life improvements in this update, the most notable new feature being landscaping. All owners of Surviving Mars will get new Special Projects, events, research UI, multiselect, rover orders queue, and new buildings as well.

The Armstrong update is going to add a new section in your Build Menu: Landscaping. This new section contains the following new tools Flatten terrain, create Ramp, Change Surface texture and an option to construct Small Rock Formation or bigger Rock Formation.



The Flatten terrain tool allows you to select a flat surface on Mars and protrude it, leveling the terrain where it passes. It allows you to fill craters, extend plateaus or clear rough terrain for construction. Once you select an area to flatten, the tool will create a new landscaping project which is visualized with a construction hologram on your display. Each landscaping project evaluates the underlying terrain and calculates how much soil is needed and if excess soil is present. Then your drones will deliver or remove the Waste Rock as needed to complete the project.



The Ramp tool works similar to the Flatten tool but it allows you to connect two flat surfaces with different elevations, creating walkable ground between them.



The Change Surface tool marks an area, which will be gradually reworked by your Drones. They will break the rocks to make sand, or replace sand with rocks.



Additionally, you can use your excess Waste Rock to construct various Rock Formations. These are purely decorative combinations of rocks, which can be placed on flat surface. They were created for those moments when you have made Mars too Earth-like and want to bring back some natural Martian landscape.



The Armstrong update comes with 3 free Special Projects: Capture Meteors, launch High-Speed Comm Satellite and Launch SETI Satellite. They’re marked on the Planetary View with blue icons and become available as soon as the first batch of Planetary Anomalies gets discovered. Usually, this happens at Sol 10-15.



The Capture Meteors mission tasks one Rocket to go and divert meteors towards Mars. The Meteors then fall as Meteor Storm, leaving Metals and Polymers deposits. Just bear in mind that the storm may hit your colony.

You can construct orbitals by sending a rocket loaded with resources to deploy either a High-Speed Comm Satellite or SETI Satellite. HSC Satellites grant you daily sponsor research, while SETI Satellites grant additional funding.

The Armstrong update comes with 20 new events, scripted specifically for the early days of your colony and will grant you various benefits that will boost your expansion early on.

We’ve added 2 new buildings in the Build Menu as well: Large Dumping Site and Rocket Construction Site. The Large Dumping Site allows you to store more Waste Rock in a tight area and you can now construct Rockets the same way you construct Rovers. But you’ll need to research Advanced Rocketry to construct Rockets.



As part of our on-going efforts to redesign Surviving Mars’ UI, the Armstrong update comes with a flashy new Research UI, better suited for our everlasting modding community.



Last but not least, the Armstrong update is going to introduce 2 long-since wanted features: multi-selection and rover orders queue.

You can now drag select colonists, drones or rovers and then assign them the same task. Relocating all colonists of a Dome to another one has never been quicker!

To queue orders, select a Rover and then hold Shift while clicking on various points of interest. You can now task your Explorer to scan all anomalies on the map in a given order and then return back to the safety of the colony.



The Armstrong update is coming with a long list of QoL improvements, optimizations, balance changes and bug fixes. Stay tuned for our next dev diary, which is dedicated to the ultimate goal of the terraforming initiative, making Mars hospitable for life outside of the dome.

Ivan Grozev,
Lead Designer,
Green Planet

https://store.steampowered.com/app/952890/Surviving_Mars_Green_Planet/
Hi Everyone!

We’re back with another dev diary for Green Planet. Today's topic is disasters, how to avoid them and how to cause them. We'll be discussing the new Special Projects in more detail, as well.

In Green Planet the climate gradually changes as you improve the atmosphere, temperature, and water levels of Mars. The raising global temperatures make the cold waves shorter and less likely to occur, the denser atmosphere burns more meteors before they hit the ground. Eventually, the once severe disasters become a thing of the past, but other ones arise.



In Green Planet your actions have global consequences, remember this the next time when you schedule a rocket to nuke the North Pole! As you pump greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and increase its temperature, you're creating the perfect conditions for ice to liquefy, evaporate, and then fall back to the ground as toxic rain.



Initially, toxic rains will pour for multiple sols, erode the soils, and potentially cause lichen and other wild plants to wither and die. Wide toxic pools form on the ground which will kill all vegetation and render the local soils unstable for construction of new buildings. Once the rains have ended you can send drones to clean the area. Making Mars' atmosphere, temperature, and water levels more Earth-like will result in less toxic rains and more normal rains. The clean water will improve the soils and it helps for the spreading of wild vegetation throughout the colony.

Occasional marsquakes will tremble the ground and destroy buildings near their epicenters. Marsquakes are direct consequence of the colony's efforts to create stronger magnetic field and they strike near Magnetic Field Generators. Endure the marsquake and then send your drones to fix the damaged buildings. Keep your Magnetic Field Generators away from vital infrastructure and remember that more MFGs equals more marsquakes.



Recurring toxic rains and marsquakes will happen as direct consequence of the on-going terraforming of Mars, but there're other ways to trigger them, like the Import Greenhouse Gases special project.



The Special Projects are new points of interest on various locations throughout the planet. They are visualized with special green or blue symbols on the Planetary View. The green ones are special terraforming projects and directly affect the overall progress of the terraforming initiative. There are 7 Terraforming Special Projects, listed below:

The Capture Ice Asteroids project dedicates one rocket to find and pull ice asteroids towards Mars. The melting ice increases the water levels of the planet.

As long as Mars can support liquid water and normal rains, the Cloud Seeding project triggers massive rainfalls, which improve the local soil quality and help plants to grow.



During the Import Greenhouse Gases mission, one rocket gets refurbished and sent back to Earth to collect greenhouse gases from its atmosphere. The compressed GHGs are then released on Mars, which can cause severe toxic rains.

The Launch Space Mirror project requires one rocket to be dismantled in orbit and turned into a highly reflective surface. The mirror focuses sunlight on the face of Mars and increases its temperature.

The Launch Magnetic Shield mission installs an artificial shield between the Sun and Mars, which counteracts the solar winds and decreases the loss of Atmosphere over time.

When Melting the Polar Caps, remember that this may cause prolonged Dust Storms. You can nuke the polar caps as many time as you wish, adding water vapors and greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. But each successive nuking of the shrinking polar caps will grant less terraforming progress. The release of heat during this special project will temporarily stop the cold waves.

Finally, when feeling ready to make Mars green, send Rockets full of Seeds to Seed Vegetation. They will carefully spread their cargo in the atmosphere and increase the vegetation coverage of the planet.



To enable the 7 Special Terraforming Projects on the Planetary View, research the related techs in the Terraforming field of the Research UI.



There are another 3 Special Projects, visualized with blue icons on the Planetary View, which do not require research and will be available when the first planetary anomalies are discovered on Mars. They are part of the free update and we will be talking about them in the next dev diary, which is dedicated to all the cool stuff we're giving away for free.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/952890/Surviving_Mars_Green_Planet/

Hi Everyone!

We’re back with another dev diary for Green Planet, this time focusing on the greener aspects of the expansion – plant life. So far we talked about global vegetation and the need to import, produce and spread huge amounts of seeds to cover the planet in flora. We briefly mentioned the Forestation Plant as the main way to engage with local forestation and the Open Farm as a way to produce food and seeds by planting various crops on a larger scale. It’s time to dig deeper into vegetation!

If I was to summarize what we did to make Mars green, I would have to use the phrase “we went crazy!”

The original vision for the surface of Mars was a silent, barren place, where the only objects that dotted the landscape were old, eroded rocks with otherworldly appearance. We imagined that the rocket you land and the vehicles that scurry around it would be the only thing that moves – aside from the occasional dust devil. Later you would construct domes that vastly contrast with the reddish sands with their lush green and bright lights during the night, which would appear as if someone placed a piece of Earth on the planet.



Then the ideas behind Green Mars came forth. We envisioned a completely different planet at the end of the process, a place where the previously contrasting borders between the lush-green domes and the outside world are blurred or non-existing. Dense forests dominate the horizon and lush-green grass spreads everywhere, with only the largest of rocks still remaining as an effigy of an age past.



And we wanted you to do all of this without melting your GPU… Praises to great programmers and their magic!

We started with a bunch of statements like “each hex of the colony could be populated with wild plant life”, or “plants should grow and wither according to terraforming progress” and “soils are important”, and then we worked on them until, finally, we had a working forestation system.

In the beginning there were the soils… We were inspired by “The Martian” and the possibility to sustain Earth vegetation on the seemingly barren sand. We did our research and designed the system. The soil quality of the original Martian soil is set to 0%, and the most fertile soil you can create is denoted as 100%, a rich Earth-like soil. This calculation is made for each hex of the colony every hour and is displayed on the screen as a Soil Quality overlay - the greener the hex the better the soil.



Now that we had the concept of soil, we needed to add factors that change its quality. So, the idea of rains and toxic rains was born. Of course, we all want rains to spread nutrients and meliorate the soil, but unless the planet has stable atmosphere, the falling rains would be toxic. They reduce the soils quality and create toxic pools that harm the growth of nearby plants.



As you add more water to the atmosphere, the toxic rains gradually end and clear water rains begin. They increase the local soil quality via erosion, create subterranean waters and water the plants. Additionally, artificially constructed Lakes leak water into their surrounding ground, improving significantly the local soils.



So, what can you plant on Mars?

Initially the soil quality is so low that you can only grow lichen. Lichen are famous for being very resistant and able to survive almost anywhere on Earth. You’ll be able to plant lichen pretty much from the start of the game. They do not require terraforming progress or soil quality and they improve the local soil quality over time. However, they will easily die during toxic rains.



As the terraforming initiative progresses, you will unlock other types of vegetation: grass, bushes, pine trees and mixed trees. Grass grows quick and also improves the soil quality, but it’s not as efficient as lichen and trees. However, it’ll spread on its-own over time, so it does some of your work on its own. Bushes grow slower but can be harvested for seeds, while Trees grow the slowest, provide the most seeds, and stabilize the local soils a lot.

Grass, trees, and bushes will spread on their own over time. The speed with which they spread is directly affected by the amount of vegetation around the colony and the global Vegetation coverage. The spread is initially slow but speeds up over time.



Vegetation booms will occur at certain terraforming thresholds. During vegetation booms, a lot of seeds are carried away by the winds and wild plants get seeded around the colony.

You’ll also be able to plant various crops in the Open Farm. These require good terraforming conditions, a lot of water, and high soil quality, but yield huge amounts of Food. Most crops significantly decrease the local soil quality, while others increase it. These crops do not spread on their own and are harvested by Drones to free space for new plants.

As mentioned, planting of crops or wild plants require some seeds to be spread around. The Seeds are a new resource in the game, which is initially imported from Earth and later produced in farms on Mars. They’re measured in tons and used as base material for the creation of substantial plant life on Mars.

This pretty much summarizes the basic principles of the vegetation system in Green Planet. See you next week, when we’ll be discussing the new Special Projects and disasters in more details.

We're also presenting Part 2 of our Feature Breakdown video, where you'll be able to hear from Haemimont and Paradox employees about the upcoming expansion: Green Planet!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bkzCLJb8yQ

Mark your calendars for the release of Green Planet on...
Terraforming, new buildings, vegetation, and more are coming to Mars. Transform the planet into a new home for humankind, a Green Planet

https://store.steampowered.com/app/952890/Surviving_Mars_Green_Planet/

PDXCON2019 is coming and we couldn’t be more excited to meet our community at the event - which takes place on October 18th - 20th, 2019. Tickets go on sale on May 7th, but we’ve got a secret to tell you…

If you head over to the PDXCON 2019 website at https://pdxcon.paradoxplaza.com/ you can sign up to the mailing list. Anyone that signs up will be given 8 HOURS early access before the public availability of the tickets to buy before everyone else! Sign up now and keep your eyes on the news we’ll be sending out because tickets will sell out.

Hi everyone!

Last time we talked about the terraforming process and what it means to turn the Red Planet Green, today we’ll take a look at two new tools to achieve this tremendous goal:


In Green Planet we’ve added 7 new buildings, which are dedicated to the terraforming efforts. Some of these buildings require specific planetary conditions to function properly. Three of these buildings appear much later in game and require significant research progress to even become available! They have the spatial dimensions and the construction costs of wonders but may be constructed more than once. There’s this rewarding feeling when you cover an area with huge smoking chimneys, knowing that you’re changing the planet on a large scale.



The terraforming buildings will be added to a new category of the build menu – Terraforming. Players are in complete control of when they choose to start the terraforming progress by deciding when to research the first tech in the chain. Every step in the chain unlocks new buildings and improvements which will help in your mission to terraform Mars.


Here’s the list of the buildings you will find inside:

The Forestation Plant (or the Sprinkler, as I love to call it) spreads seeds imported from Earth, or produced on Mars, to plant wild vegetation in its range. Initially, it plants only lichen, but later grass, bushes, and trees become available as the terraforming project progresses. As some of the seeds get carried away from the colony by the winds, each Forestation Plant helps for the increase of the global vegetation.



The GHG Factory (short for Greenhouse Gas) burns a mixture of fuel and locally extracted carbon to produce greenhouse gases, which are released into the atmosphere. Thus increasing the average temperature of the planet.



Similar to the GHG Factory, the Carbonate Processor converts waste rock into carbon dioxide. The release of CO2 in the atmosphere improves its density and creates the necessary circumstances for oxygen-producing bacteria to thrive and for rains to occur.

The Core Heat Convector is a system of pipes that go deep into the Martian crust. It uses water to transport heat from the planetary core and improves the atmospheric temperature, while heating its immediate surroundings.



The Magnetic Field Generator improves the magnetic field of the planet, decreasing the loss of atmospheric gasses. It has a secondary function as a science facility and generates research according to the current state of the atmosphere. As a side effect of the strong magnetic field, the MFG may trigger “marsquakes” in its immediate vicinity. So take care to place these far away from the heart of your colony.

There are several different sizes of lakes, each having different forms. Lake beds are dug up by drones and then gradually filled with water. If liquid water is not yet possible on Mars, the lake remains frozen. When the conditions allow for it, the water liquefies and the lakes start to gradually improve the global water levels through evaporation.



The Open Farm is a huge unmanned facility which grows various edible plants away from your domes. This open-air farm spreads a mixture of water and seeds, which grow or wither according to the local soil quality and the overall terraforming progress. Once fully-grown, plants are individually harvested by drones for food.



All terraforming buildings are unmanned and can be built as soon as you research their corresponding tech in the Terraforming field of the research UI. For those of you who intend to terraform Mars before sending the founders of the colony, we added one additional building, the Capital City.

The Capital City requires the atmosphere of Mars to be breathable and warm. It’s the most spacious dome design and it doesn’t have a cupola, or metallic frame. Instead, it’s surrounded by trees, doesn’t consume Oxygen and can be placed on rough terrain.




I’ll be looking forward to your screenshots!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ieYJrZuISk
Haemimont and Paradox Interactive present a feature breakdown about some of the new features, mechanics, and missions within Surviving Mars' upcoming expansion: Green Planet!

• Thursday: Dev Diary #2 - New Buildings and Wonders
  
• Friday: Tutorial Video by FeedbackGaming

Which feature are you most excited for?