Surviving Mars Update 1.20 Patch Notes for PS4, PC and Xbox One

Surviving Mars update 1.20 is now rolling out for PS4 and Xbox One players. According to Surviving Mars version 1.20 patch notes, the latest Bronze update added new changes, fixes, and gameplay improvements. Apart from this, Surviving Mars patch 1.20 also includes stability fixes.

Recently, a big update added in-Dome Buildings Pack with 8 brand new buildings and a host of technical additions to expand housing and community options in your colony. Recently, a hotfix was also released.

Unfortunately, since the release, players are experiencing several issues when trying to play the game online. Surviving Mars version 1.20 will fix a few of these issues.

What is new in Surviving Mars 1.20?

General​

Due to the changes made in this update, previous saves can no longer be continued. You should receive a warning if you try to load an older save.

Colony generation has now been greatly improved for both the soil and the deposits around the colony.

• Colony soil can still be fertile, normal or dry, but the areas themselves should now be bigger and more consistent.
• The starting area in the colony should always have at least normal soil or even fertile soil. This starting area is larger on the easier settings and smaller on the harder settings.
• The Fertility Overlay should now match the actual soil generation a lot better.
• Larger deposits around the colony should now be spawned into more of a cluster close to each other. Smaller deposits can still spawn all around the colony.
• The Pregame choices for both the soil and the deposit now have a bigger effect on the generation.

First version of the new Outpost functionality and Settlers have been implemented.

• After researching the tech Frontier Outposts from the Exploration category, you will be able to build the Outpost Depot in your colony.
• The depot can no longer store resources, instead it is used to create Settlers from your Specialists. Turning a Specialist into a Settler is an irreversible action. After selecting a Specialist to turn into a Settler, the Settler will be sent to the World Map where they can move, scout sectors and build an Outpost.
• The Outpost is used in a similar way as before, moving a Specialist or a Vehicle on top of it will create a convoy of resources that will be sent to the colony. Instead of being instant as before, the convoy will take some time to get to the colony. The resources will be added to the Campsite building in the colony.
• You will only be able to build one Outpost Depot in your colony and the entire building is now visually different as well.

The population softcap has been increased by 50 colonists.

• This means you should still get new survivor groups with colonists until you have around 150 colonists in your colony and new births can still happen until you have around 200 colonists.

You can now select one Construction Zone in your colony and make it a priority to be built next.

• There is a button in the info panel of all construction zones called Build Next. Selecting this will cause all colonists to focus on that construction zone and bring resources to it first. They will not stop what they are doing at the moment, but their next task should focus on this construction zone.
• You can only have one construction zone set with this. Selecting Build Next while the colonists are still working on the first one will show a popup to confirm the change in prioritization.
• You can also cancel the priority from the same button.
• The High to Low priority setting has been removed as it was not functioning properly.
• The colonist who brought the last resources to a construction zone should begin working on constructing it as well.

Major improvements on the colony logistics have been implemented.

• The colonists should now prefer to eat meals over raw food and try and fetch food located in a storage building closest to them. The colonists should also try and eat food that will balance their diet the best to avoid malnutrition.
• The colonists will now target resource boxes on the ground with priorities based on how soon the resource box is about to decay and how much of the resource is currently in storage. This should prevent resource boxes from decaying as often as before and ensure they focus more on the resources you need to have more in your storages.
• The colonists will now fill buildings that require resources to be stored in them at a much steadier rate. This change affects buildings like the Burner and the Sauna. The colonists should carry resources to these buildings until they are full but the priority of this task is lowered whenever the building is filled, ensuring they will not focus on only one building at a time but instead always on the emptiest one first.

Al lot of updates have been done to the mods and mod support. Because of these updates, all mods created before the update will need to be updated before they will work with the game.

• This includes the Steam Workshop that has now been integrated.

Gameplay​

• Fixed an issue that would result in a lot of colonists dying of old age when a save was loaded.
• Building upgrades that have an area of effect can now be built directly from the Build Menu after they have been unlocked from the Tech Tree. This includes the Large Transformer, the Boosted Burner, the Industrial Radiator and the Lightning Tower.
• Resources brought to the gate will no longer be spawned all in one place. They should be spawned in a neat line next to each other. This should make it easier to command your Specialists to pick specific resources up and take them to storages.
• Colonists working on a construction zone should now be highlighted when the construction zone is selected. This works in the same way as when a workplace building is selected.
• The Specialist Menu has been improved as well. The menu will now show a progress bar that shows the progress of the current action of that Specialist. If a Specialist has completed their action on the World Map, the icon shown in the Specialist Menu will now flash an exclamation point to indicate this. Hovering over the Specialists in the menu will show a tooltip that tells you the name and type of the Specialist and also their current location and action.
• Building info panels should now show more information about the current status of the building. This change affects the construction zone status of all buildings and the production status for buildings that require colonists to go out and gather resources to produce a resource. For example the Scrapper, the Trapper, the Logging camp etc.
• Both the Milestone Menu and the Societies Menu can be opened in the World Map. If you are using a controller, a small menu similar to the one in the colony view should open.
• The issue that would cause Specialists to become stuck on the World Map should now be fixed.
• Exiting the Society page on the World Map should no longer cause a white screen to flash.
• Fixed an issue that would cause the colonists to still show a green glow and be counted as Irradiated in the notification even though they did not have the condition. This issue would previously disappear by saving and loading the game.
• Fixed an issue that caused colonists to remain stuck for a moment after a construction zone was cancelled while it was being built.
• Colonists working in the Guard Posts and Medical buildings should now stop working immediately after being unassigned.
• Fixed an issue that would cause the bodies of dead colonists to remain on the ground and not get picked up.
• Colonists portraits should now always be updated to adult portraits after a child grows up.
• Fixed a navigation issue in the Overlay menu when using a controller.
• Fixed an issue that would cause the trade routes from the World Map be shown in the colony side as well.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Plastic and Metal tutorial to appear even after you had already built the Scrapper and the Recycler.
• Changed the settings on the keybindings for the Overlay Menu, Toggle Last Used Overlay and the Milestone Menu so that these keybindings can also be changed now.
• The Sand Worm will now attack only colonists that come close to it unless threatened.
• Production limits can now be set to all buildings that produce a resource.
• Fixed an issue that would cause some foods to be harvested immediately from open fields.
• Fixed an issue with the Food Consumption and Production values to make them show more accurate numbers.
  • Previously Production would show meals that were being produced in for example Cookhouses but Consumption would not take into account the food that was used to create the meals.
  • Consumption will now show these values correctly.
  • Fixed also another bug with the numbers that caused them to be calculated incorrectly.
  • Consumption values can still vary a bit depending on what food the colonists eat, but the numbers should now be much more accurate.
• The vehicle on the World Map transferring resources from Societies and Outposts should now have an animation in the World Map.

Graphics​

• New resource box graphics have been added to the game.
• The Berry Bushe models in the colony have also been redone.
• A lot of new objects for the colony have been added to make the colony appear visually more interesting.
• Notification shown when a milestone has been completed is now shown underneath the Specialist Menu and has a completely new visual look as well.
• The Milestone Menu button now has an animation showing if you have completed new milestones.
• Shadow Quality Setting has been adjusted so that changing it will now remove shadows from smaller items in the colony. This can greatly improve the performance on lower end hardware.
• The highlights shown when a Specialist is in combat with a Bandit on the World Map should be faded but visible at all times, not just when the Specialist is selected or hovered over.
• A new empty Specialist portrait has been added to the game.
• Pollution deposits have been tweaked visually.

Balance Adjustments​

• With the increase to the population softcap, the birth rate has also been slightly increased.
• The Cookhouse can no longer be used to make Insect Meals and Mixed Meals.
• The Mess Hall now produces food faster.
• Balance adjustments to the bandits on the World Map.
  • Their health has been increased slightly.
  • The damage they deal has been decreased slightly as well.
  • The damage they deal is now varied instead of a constant number.
• Reduced the amount of trees on different soils and increased the per-tree production of tree buildings.
  • Biggest difference in the amount of trees can be seen on the fertile soil.
  • Production change affects the Trapper, Lumber Yard and the Logging Camp and their upgrades.
  • Buildings such as the Sauna and the Burners use Firewood more efficiently as well.
• The amount of Planks in deposits around the colony has been slightly decreased.
• The Despair condition should no longer cause the colonists to stop working.
• Changes to the catastrophes have been made.
  • The Fallout catastrophe has been adjusted so that it affects a smaller amount of colonists.
  • The Heat Wave catastrophe will last longer.
  • If easy options are selected in pregame, the Pandemic catastrophe should be easier.
  • If more difficult options are selected in pregame, the Magnetic Storm and Meteor Shower should be more difficult.
• Water wells now require less fertile soil to be as effective.
• Clean water storages are slightly smaller than before.
• Increased the amount of shelter space in Tents, upgraded Tents and Emergency Shelters and Shanties.
• The durability and effect of tier 2 and 3 items have been increased.
  • The tier 2 and 3 versions of Tools will last longer and give a bigger boost to production speed.
  • The tier 2 and 3 versions of Clothes will last longer and give a better shielding against pollution.
  • The tier 2 and 3 versions of Weapons will also last longer and cause more damage when used.
• The recipe for Iodine Pills has been changed, they now need Milk instead of Pollution to be produced.
• The amount of Concrete needed to construct certain buildings has been decreased and the amount of Concrete in deposits around the colony has been increased.
• The campsite building now allows for more resources to be brought to it.

Download free Surviving Mars patch 1.20 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.