A new Surviving the Aftermath update has arrived for the survival colony-building sim. Titled Nuclear Winter, update number 12 adds new seasonal mechanics, extra buildings, and new Specialist behaviors, among plenty of other things.
What's new in this Surviving the Aftermath update?
This news comes via the official Surviving the Aftermath website, where you can also check out the full patch notes. The new Winter Catastrophe features a shorter Fall and Spring time, with Winter coming in between. During Fall, your colonists can be afflicted by the Cold condition, which makes them more vulnerable to infection. Crops will wither, and if you're not heating your Ranches, your livestock will stop reproducing.
Winter itself comes after a few days of Fall. While it's going on, your colonists will be susceptible to the Hypothermia condition, which will kill them if you don't treat it. You can cure Hypothermia by sending your colonists to sleep in their homes, but only if their homes are heated. If the home isn't heated, you should send your colonists to a building that is, as this is the only way to cure the condition. To that end, there are two new buildings: the Burner and the Radiator. The Burner uses Firewood to warm housing surrounding it and can be built immediately after inviting colonists in. The Radiator uses energy to warm buildings, but you must unlock Powered Heater technology to build it.
After the Winter is over, Spring will arrive. During this season, colonists can no longer be afflicted by Hypothermia, but if they're carrying the condition over from Winter then they won't be able to cure it either. Fields will still be suffering from the cold, so you won't be able to use them during Spring. To help you keep track of what's going on, a new Temperature overlay has been added to the game which you can use to track the temperature of your colony.
What else has changed in Surviving the Aftermath?
Specialists have been reworked to make their scavenging actions smoother. You'll no longer need to command them one by one, and selecting a Specialist now shows floating displays above all the deposits in your colony that they can gather from. There are a whole bunch of other quality-of-life improvements to Specialists, too, including changes to action canceling and the unfortunate death of a Specialist. You can read the full patch notes to see what else has changed.
In addition to the Specialist changes, there are also a lot of gameplay and balance changes in this update. These won't necessarily make Surviving the Aftermath feel like a brand new game, but some of them - including UI changes, new Clothing, and Weapon tiers, and new tutorials - will feel pretty significant. You'll also notice some new graphical and visual updates to the game as well. Again, take a look at the full patch notes if you're looking for specifics.
You can get Surviving the Aftermath right now on PC and Xbox One via Game Preview. The Nuclear Winter update is live right now and should apply itself once you update the game.
Will you be heading into Surviving the Aftermath to check out Nuclear Winter? Let us know in the comments below!
