The end of 5-year celebration: Thank you!

Hey Dealers!

The 5-year celebration is coming to an end. Huge thanks to everyone who played DDS for its 5th anniversary! Also, a big shout-out to all the console players - DDS1 was warmly welcomed by you on Xbox, and we are grateful. Updates are coming, and the game itself is coming also to PS5.

But, coming back to DDS1 PC…

Some 5-year celebration decorations will be removed:
• birthday cake in the main apartment
• birthday banner and flares on Two Towers

..but don’t worry - a few cool features will stay in the game:
• spray symbols
• posters for purchase in the furniture store in sector C

Stellaris 4.0.5 Patch Notes

① Improvement
• Converting a planet into a hive world or machine world now preserves the generator, mining and farming jobs. Known Issue: The special districts on these planets do not swap names or icons to rural districts.
• Void Dwellers, Aquatics and Cave Dwellers now grant their robots the relevant trait when they invent robots
• Updated multiple Databank articles, such as Buildings, Jobs, Housing, and Resettlement
• FE buildings have been made available to Wilderness empires (under the same restrictions as normal), and have received an additional biomass cost.
• The fallen materialist's Master Archive now grants additional research options
• The spiritualist fallen empire's shrine now offers improved shroud communing
• Font of Knowledge now includes all of the 4.0 research buildings

② Bugfix
• Fixed Pearl Divers not mentioning both a food and mineral upkeep in the tooltip
• Fixed some duplicated text on the strong and very strong traits
• Blocked Behemoths from laying eggs in combat
• Fixed the Artifact Relay decision for hive minds
• Fixed the Galactic Market Nomination decision
• Fixed Fanatical Purifiers and Devouring Swarm getting the 'Declare a Rival' Empire Focus
• Bio Titans built in GDF service should now be made of meat and not metal
• Fixes ethics divergence always switching the entire pop group instead of amount
• The Automated Curation Algorithms technology will no longer be offered to Wilderness Empires
• Colonization can not be started again if there's already a colony ship in progress.
• Increased the amount of workforce Wilderness pops gain to 99999, this way if you ever have more than 1000 of a job the wilderness won't start trying to employ pops like a normal empire
• Wilderness Empires will no longer be able to build the automation buildings only to destroy them at the start of the next month
• The Automation Buildings should only show up in a research option once now instead of four times.
• Fixed multiple pre-FTL buildings sticking around after their owners had been invaded
• Advanced AIs now start with some extra unity
• Genocidal Necrophage empires no longer start with a Chamber of Elevation
• Incompatible Cybernetic Creed buildings are removed from the building list when you embrace a Creed
• Finishing Biomorphosis while having 7 tradition trees shouldn't reward a ghost tradition tree
• Fixed the Planetary Supercomputer demanding paperclips
• Permanent Employment now correctly starts with 400 zombies
• Added missing loc from Sanctuary World designation tooltip
• Scavenger Bot is now named correctly in the Timeline Event.
• You can no longer ruin your game-start economy by focusing on astro-mining while using resource consolidation to have no mining stations in your home system (Resource Consolidation and Astro Mining Drones now exclude each other)
• Fix issue where fleet/ship stats were not updated correctly when modifiers changed
• Fix modifiers not having an effect on displayed Fleet Power
• Biomimetic now applies a 50% workforce bonus to roboticist and replicator jobs
• Bodysnatchers now may edit Population Controls, similar to Necrophages.
• The War Fragment will no longer ask you to declare war on empires you have branch offices on. Profit comes first.
• Officials can now get Architectural Focus trait from Resourceful Ascension event
• Eternal Vigilance now also generates Defense Platforms for Deep Space Citadels
• Planet and slave market tooltips will correctly include dystopian specialist jobs into the general specialists list.
• Fixed an issue where if you gained the jump drive tech before researching level 2 and 3 hyperdrives, your science ships and constructors would not be equipped with jump drives
• Fixed a bug that may have sometimes caused pop decline to be determined incorrectly on planets with multiple species.
• The Empire Focus "Build an Agricultural District" now requires food use to draw
• The Empire Focus "Finish First Contact" can now be completed
• The Empire Focuses "Have 1000 Consumer Goods" and "Have 1000 Food" have been blocked for ineligible empires
• The Empire Focus "Conquer a Homeworld" is blocked for empires that lack an interest in politics
• Empire Focus "Sign a Research Agreement" is blocked for homicidal empires
• Fatal Mutations no longer cause complete planetary extinction
• Pox Bombardment for some weird reason no longer works on mechanical beings
• Armageddon and Pox Bombardment are once again capable of bombing your enemies into the stone-age (tomb-world)
• Fixed the Identity Repository scaling at 100x the value it should
• Fixed a rare case of the Fallen Empire Building Received notification not telling you that you had unlocked the Sky Dome.
• Refugees have returned to their normal behavior, no longer will people flee from the devouring swarm by running back to the devouring swarm.
• Wilderness Biomass will no longer refuse to work simple drone jobs, back to work you malleable pile of goo!
• Fixed the size of the smaller Behemoths
• Fixes to the crystal manufactory system and event chain
• Fixed missing icon for the Truce End notification
• Bodysnatchers and Genesis Symbiotes are now properly incompatible
• Integrated Preservation and Instinctive Synchronization now share effects. Both now improve Automatic Resettlement Chance and increase Amenities from Logistic Drones
• Aquatic for Machine and Mote-Powered Tools tooltips no longer mention such outdated concepts such as job output modifiers
• Machine Worlds support basic generator and mining job buildings
• Fix to Planet Automation building upgrades
• Fixed a number of tooltips for Luminary traits
• Fixed some cases of leader trait picks not being given correctly.
• Evolutionary Predators now gain situation progress for Purging and keeping livestock pops. Happy hunting.
• Agrarian idyll Housing tech now correctly tells you what it does
• Buildings having sapient pop requirements will now list the number correctly
• The Management tab of planets is now visible if you can see planet features. World Consecrators rejoice!
• Behemoth now gets value properly from mutations
• Growth Penalty for bioships is now properly applied to naval capacity

③ Balance
• Reduced the biomass cost for planetary expansion for wilderness by roughly 50%
• Xenophobic Individualist Machines start with an Alloy Foundry instead of a Medical Center
• Void Dwellers now start with up to 3 hydroponics farms depending on food requirements
• Further tweaks to the ethics effects of civilians:
• Reduced the happiness for xenophobes and pop upkeep for xenophiles by 50%
• Increased the amenities for pacifists by 10x
• Doubled the trade for egalitarians.
• Habitats now have a Solar Farming Bay specialisation for their Reactor districts, this gives farmer jobs, turning the district into a hybrid energy/food producer.
• Knights OP:
• Halved the number of knight jobs from most sources
• Squires no longer grant the stability of soldiers
• Reduced the Bonus Pop Growth from the Lover's Pox
• Reduced the Stability from Memorialist job swaps
• Updated Scientist Expertise traits
• Assault armies now cost food instead of minerals for empires with biological ships
• The life support system on the Crashed Slaver Ship for Broken Shackles has been discovered to be working, granting +30% habitability
• Increased the Strategic Resource cost of Fallen Empire buildings from 100 to 300.
• Increased the amount of Trader Jobs from the Galactic Commerce Hub and the Interstellar Commerce Nexus from 100/200 to 600/1200
• Reduced the Dimensional Fabricator output from +5/+2 strategic resources to +4/+1
• The Shrinkspace Depot and the Extra-Dimensional depot now grant +500/1000 minor artifact storage capacity
• The Molecular Revitalization Institute and the Bioregeneration Institute now grant fewer jobs, from 400/600 Medical Workers to 200/300 Medical Workers.
• The Robot Manufacturing Nexus and the Robot Quantum Production Hub now grant fewer jobs, from 200/500 Roboticists to 150/300 Roboticists.
• The Quantum Innovation Nexus and the Transcendental Innovation Department now grant fewer jobs, from 400/400 of each researcher type to 200/400 of each researcher type. Politician jobs have been removed.
• Curator Councilors no longer grant nigh infinite amounts of trade production
• Synthetic Fertility pops now die off much slower

④ UI
• Changes to modifiers are now mirrored in the UI immediately, even when paused
• Re-added pop decline alert.
• Improvements to the Build District tooltip
• Now tells you it will Build a District if you can afford it and click on it
• The modifier tooltip on a district will now also account for the modifiers coming from the district specialization.

⑤ Stability
• Fixed a common OOS after hotjoining due to leader trait assignments
• Fix common OOS related to wrong cached data about planet profit
• Fixed crash happening because a fleet was marked to be killed when the country was destroyed in special circumstances
• Fix to a wilderness growth related CTD
• Fixed a circular dependency in the French localization that was causing a crash.
• Fix crash with paragon special project
• Fix crash when merging fleets in reinforcements system fail
• Fix crash in economy fetching data from invalid diplomatic contact
• Fix crash with defensive armies removing dead army
• Prevented crash happening on special conditions that allowed holdings to be in regular zones
• Fixed crash when orbital bombardment ruins building

⑥ Performance
• Make creation of unnecessary jobs more sparse to reduce amount of objects.
• Make creation of jobs more sparse to reduce amount of objects.

⑦ Modding
• Updated species_uses_bonus_growth game rule to match can_species_procreate

Free Major Content Update is Live!

Hello Citizens!

As we continue our commitment to developing Frostpunk 2, we’d like to turn up the generator’s heat a little and give you an overview of the new Free Major Content Update and what awaits you in New London - starting today.

But before we get into there is something more important we need to say. Your feedback not only gives us valuable insights into what we can improve, but also sparks new ideas in our creative furnace every day. Without you, it would never have been possible to expand the Frostpunk universe as far as we have today.

On top of all the DLCs that await you in the future, we are committed to delivering additional Free Major Content Updates for Frostpunk 2, creating new opportunities for the franchise - just as we did with the Artbook & Anthology Kickstarter, and of course, develop recently announced Frostpunk 1886. Each of these titles has its own dedicated team, pouring heart and effort into every detail.

So here’s a message from all of us to you:

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

We’re now reaching another milestone in Frostpunk 2’s journey with the release of Free Major Content Update. Once you’ve played it, don’t forget to leave your review on Steam!

This update introduces a tons of new content, including new heat mechanics, brand new map in utopia mode, and challenges with new quests and storylines (more information below).

Check out the new trailer on YouTube

Patch 1.3 Highlights

New Map: The Pit
Large map with distinctive "proto-crater" pit counted as mountain terrain, built around the remnants of a failed Generator project.

Sandbox location available in Utopia Builder mode as a starting location or a Frostland colonization site, offering more variation to the gameplay.

Tales from the Frostland
Narrative-driven optional challenges designed to deepen Utopia Builder’s replayability and storytelling.

Take part in new challenges, each introducing a unique quest and storyline. Multiple Tales can be combined in a single playthrough. Complete a Tale to unlock a unique Monument Hub to “decorate” your city, but be careful: failure results in game over!

Important: All Tales are designed to be easily expanded and modded by the community in the future!

Overhauled Heating System
The biggest systemic change since launch: localized heat management bringing deeper strategy and consequences.

Starting with a redesigned Generator UI for better control and feedback, now you can manage temperature by district, with unique local effects, and consequences when heat is lacking, such as sickness, injuries, or even death. Use the brand-new Heatmap View to visualize district temperature, insulation, heat sources, and proximity bonuses.

The changes affect more than just temperature, they also impact your citizens. They now react to heating shortages through negotiations, protests, or praise. Deaths are now tied to specific factions and communities.

We’ve expanded the Idea Tree and laws, adding:

• 9 new research topics
• 2 new buildings
• 3 rebalanced technologies
• 1 new law
• 5 reworked laws

Serenity Mode
A return of the beloved Frostpunk mode, offering a more relaxed playthrough.

We’ve brought back a well-loved mode for those who want to explore the Frostlands without too much stress. Serenity Mode includes:

• Gentler weather
• Abundant resources
• Shorter whiteouts
• No Fervour system (minimal protests, no faction conflict)

This mode is fully compatible with other difficulty presets (e.g., Survivor, Extreme).

Core Game Improvements
Subtle but impactful refinements across the board to improve playability.

We've rebalanced the prologue for smoother pacing, added a midpoint start option, and updated quests. Tutorials for key systems, such as District Temperature and Community Actions, have been improved.

City visuals now show a denser population, clearer building visibility, and better roadfinding. Districts have improved shapes, there's now an option for manual Plaza placement, and you can use a legacy urban layout if you prefer.

Frostkit 1.0: Modding Tools Leave Beta
A huge step forward for the modding community as Frostkit goes live!

For our final big change, we’ve saved the cherry on top - Frostkit. In close collaboration with our amazing modding community, we’ve developed a tool to simplify and empower your beautiful, creative work. We can't wait to see your creations, and how they will shape Frostpunk 2 in the future!

Now, we’re proud to announce that Frostkit is officially out of beta, with features such as:

• Search bar
• Mod menu visual overhaul
• Play-in-editor mode
• Improved loading times
• Tutorials

And much more!

Remember to share your feedback!

Join us on Discord and Reddit to discuss it with the community.

We hope you will enjoy the update!

Stay warm,
~ 11 bit studios team

Full Patch notes:

Gameplay

• Updated gameplay feature - Heat management. Heat management has been reworked with a focus on locality.

     ○ Districts now have local heat levels, replacing the global heat demand concept
     ○ Each district now has several basic heat levels. Freezing, Very Cold, Cold, Chilly, Livable, Warm, each with local effects.
     ○ Heat levels can be increased by distributing heat from the generator through Heat Allocation, with multiple levels of allocation available
     ○ District proximity effects now apply to one city cell individually; previously, 3 cells were required for the effect to apply
     ○ Each Housing District now have the exact number of people it can accommodate
     ○ Every Community and Faction can now occupy an individual district
     ○ New city overlay related to Heat Management
     ○ Revamped Laws and Researches which previously affected Heat demand, now relate to Heat Levels
     ○ New Researches are available in Research Institute to support reworked heating mechanics

• New Utopia Builder set of settings - Tales from the frostland. New challenges that expand the Utopia Builder experience, adding depth to both difficulty and narrative.

     ○ Beacon of Hope - Provide shelter and resources for all newcomers escaping their fallen city
     ○ Apocalyptic Whiteout - Survive a catastrophic and long Whiteout
     ○ Depleted Cores - Search the frostland to restore an unfinished IEC Core Factory

     ○ Beating each challenge unlocks a buildable Monument

• New Utopia Builder difficulty setting - Serenity mode. Relaxed mode with easier start, mild weather, abundant resources, shorter whiteouts and no faction wars.
• New Utopia Builder map - The Pit. Plan around a failed Generator construction site and try to create a thriving city
• The district area can now be readjusted after its construction, along with the Buildings placement

Balance

• The generator can now produce a limited amount of power. Additional power levels are unlocked via researches
• Adaptation cornerstone now nullifies the consequences of Chilly temperature
• Workers' Shifts and Apex Workers now reduce sickliness produced by non-housing districts
• Waste Heat Conversion now makes extraction districts generate heat proximity and disease
• Heatpipe Watch children's fallback allows activating additional Heatpipe Watch as an ability
• Rebalanced the early stages of Prologue, granting a smoother entry with an opening in the midpoint of the playthrough
• Expanded randomisation of frostland in Utopia Builder
• Frostbreaker cost is now counted per cell instead of per usage
• Housing district rebalance
• Removed 3rd tier upgrade
• Base Housing District now has an available Special Building slot

Interface

• District panels have been refreshed to follow gameplay changes
• Generator panel redesign
• Chapter selection settings menu redesign
• Updated the city needs top widget to reflect heat management changes, and put more emphasis on temperature
• New tutorial modals explaining District Temperature, District Abilities and Community Actions
• Clicking on the empty Building slot on the District Panel now brings up the Building construction panel
• Districts now have their unique names
• Deaths, injuries and absentees notifications are displayed over the affected districts
• Moved economy overlays from bottom right to top left
• Improved visibility of Hostile relations with Factions and Communities

Art

• Improved overall district visuals. Toggleable in settings, so Steward can choose between planned and organic urban layout
• Steward can now select where the Building slot will be placed within the constructed district
• Refreshed some of the Buildings visuals
• Improved visibility of Buildings in the district
• A lot of new artwork for narrative events
• New artwork for district panels to reflect the current heating level in the district
• Updated and expanded artwork for story mode faction/community frontmen
• Improved city life visuals
• Improved roads pathfinding logic
• New visual effect for cells selected for District construction

Other

• Upgraded game engine to Unreal Engine 5.4.3
• Optimized loading and saving times
• Game performance optimizations
• New achievements:

     ○ Guiding Light
     ○ Apocalypse Nah
     ○ Raiders of the Lost Cores
     ○ Born Ready
     ○ No One Left Behind
     ○ Seen Worse
     ○ Gotta Go Fast

Mods

• Play in Editor is now available in Frostkit
• Mod Menu visual overhaul
• Added a search bar
• Added Cook Mod button inside the Frostkit
• Significant optimizations to Frostkit loading times
• Added multiple tutorials and sample mods to lower the entry threshold for modding community beginners

Beta feedback fixes and improvements

• Fixed the empty input issue
• Proximity effects coming from previously expanded or rebuilt districts will no longer be displayed on city cells during the next district rebuild
• UI polish and improvements
• Replaced missing artwork for Cold Houses narrative event
• Randomization for finding Core Parts is now seeded
• You can now evade fatalities/injuries when exploring the Core Factory Parts Site by constructing buildings that reduce the Territory Threat Level
• Beacon of Hope upgrade now costs 300 Heatstamps and 250 Prefabs
• Utopia Builder Tales can now be randomized along with other settings
• Fixed no notification sounds for events in districts
• Fixed Serenity mode not using proper fervor setup, so Faction Wars could occur under certain circumstances
• Fixed game freeze caused by faulty modifier in Adaptation Generator
• Fixed crashes which could occur upon establishing the Progress cornerstone
• Fixed a rare Zoom Stories crash
• Fixed a rare crash related to Policies, which could occur on loading a save
• Fixed some other singular crashes
• Some other minor fixes and improvements

Hotfix | V 0.8.9260.23461 #451704b76

Survivors!

today we release a small hotfix consisting of bugfixes and stability improvements.

FIXED

• Achievements: Unlock the Beacon Achievements for those who built them outside of the event.
• Buildings: Prevented buildings that are under construction or in blueprints from being selected as event targets.
• System: Fixed issues when starting a new session while another session was still running.
• Buildings: Fixed ruin dismantle issue.
• Build Mode: Cell highlighting during building placement now works correctly at the margin of a zone for all zone dimensions.
• Events: Rain events no longer get canceled when the last zone in a sector dies. This ensures weather events can trigger again.
• Radiation: Radiation heatmap overlay now correctly displays buildings only for relevant buildings.

TWEAKED

• Buildings: Rebalanced "Decontaminator" and "Upgraded Decontaminator." Decreased maximum worker amount, increased field of influence, increased amount of radiation removed, "Upgraded Decontaminator" now only needs gloves and masks.
• Buildings: Decreased the 2nd and 3rd radius of the Decontaminator.
• Buildings: Changed the Field of Influence penalty of Decontaminators.
• Event: Statue and beacon events no longer highlight the UI.
• Trade Routes: Bridges must be open for traders to have transport quests to other traders.
• Events: Weed and beer events can no longer trigger if the player does not have at least one plantation.

Your Teams from Gentlymad & Assemble | 0.8.9260.23461 #451704b76

Stellaris 4.0.6 Patch

① Bugfix
• Fixed the preftl.180 event having no options for Ever Hungry empires.
• The Avatar Cortex building for wilderness should no longer delete itself upon being upgraded to max level.

② Stability
• Prevent CTD from a district containing less built Specializations than expected to
• Fixed crash when an event has no valid options.
• Fixed one more CTD in government view using invalid species data
• Fixed CTD when cleaning up armies on country being destroyed
• Modding
• CreatePopGroup effect no longer creates any pop group for invalid species.

Hotfix Patch 2.1.3f1 - Release Notes

• Fixed an issue where the High-Cost options toggle did not appropriately enable the high-cost options on shadow type and distance
• Rearranged the options menu

Crow Country turns One Year Old! Improved Keyboard Controls!

Hello everyone!

One year ago today, my brother Adam and I launched Crow Country here on Steam, and we were blown away by the response! We've been a 2-person company for nearly 13 years now, and have been making games together for over 20 years, but this has been our most successful year by far. So many people playing, sharing, streaming, recommending and reviewing the game, all around the world, has given us a huge boost of energy to take into our next games, so: thank you.

OK, on to the good stuff! One of the pieces of feedback we've received, here on Steam and elsewhere, is that the keyboard controls for Crow Country aren't as good as they could be. So I've been working to bring them up to the level of the gamepad controls (still our recommended way to play for now!).

That starts with a new default layout, which we've labelled CLASSIC in the settings. We took a good hard look at what other survival horror games do with their keyboard layouts, listened to comments about what's off about our old layout, and come up with something that I think should feel a lot better out of the box for new players.

Next we have a layout we've labelled MOUSE. This combines keyboard for movement/aiming and some actions, with mouse to rotate the camera, plus confirm/cancel and shoot/reload mapped to the mouse clicks (plus grenades on the wheel click, or E). Mouse support has been another requested feature, and this layout is similar to some of the Resident Evil HD layouts, so hopefully folks will find it useful.

Lastly, if you want, you can return to the old layout, now labelled ORIGINAL. Maybe you got really attached to it? Well, it's there for those who want it.

All three of these layouts can be selected in the Controls Settings menu from the title screen or pause menu. When using keyboard, you'll see the last two settings switch to keyboard-specific ones. You'll see we also added an option to use modern movement (rather than tank controls) on the keyboard - another requested feature.

One last (very minor) improvement is that if you have a controller plugged in, but start using the keyboard, you'll get keyboard controls shown. Previously controllers took priority over keyboard, now it just checks whatever you pressed last.

The requested keyboard feature we haven't finished yet is full key rebinding. With the way the game is built, it's a lot more work than we'd thought, but this update lays a lot of important groundwork to make things easier. I hope we can get it fully working soon!

A non-keyboard related update for this release - we've returned to compiling with mono rather than il2cpp. Thile il2cpp can result in slightly faster code execution, it doesn't have the mod and speedrunning tool support that mono does. So back we go! Sorry to the Crow Country speedrunning discord for having broken the autosplit for a while now, hopefully you can all enjoy running this up to date version at last.

That's it from me. Thanks again, until next time!

Tom-