Start here: this update wipes every save. Companies, maps, and market history
are all gone, and you'll create a new company on first launch. The economy
underneath changed too much to carry old worlds forward, and there was very
little progress on the beta world to lose.
Research used to be a flat list of things to buy. It's now a tree: 77 nodes
across eight branches — Agriculture, Extraction, Materials, Consumer, High
Tech, Services, Luxury, and Enterprise.
The rule that makes it interesting: bonuses get stronger the more specific
they are. A node that helps every building you own is worth 2 points. One
that helps a whole building family is worth 5. One aimed at a single recipe is
worth 12. So specializing genuinely beats spreading, but a broad node is never
wasted.
Each branch ends in a repeatable capstone that keeps getting more expensive, so
there's always something to spend on.
There are two ways to look at it. The RESEARCH panel lists only what you can
afford and buy right now, sorted by what actually pays off for the buildings you
own. The FULL TREE button opens the whole graph if you want to plan a route.
No building is locked behind research any more. The entire catalog is available
from your first minute. Research now buys efficiency and options — wider
input choices, better margins — never permission.
That means a researched material isn't strictly better; it's better at base
prices. The market still decides, and a price swing can flip the choice back.
The whole client has been rebuilt around a hardware-console look: a persistent
top rail with your treasury, GDP, plant load and housing; a floating outliner;
and a colour-coded button bar for the seven screens (keys 1-7).
The MONEY screen was rebuilt from scratch and now breaks your dividend income
down by which building types actually paid it.
World generation now uses real Earth data — actual elevation, real present-day
land cover for vegetation, and real mineral deposit locations. Districts look
like places instead of noise.
The LABOR and TRADE screens were rebuilt, the market screen reworked, and a
long list of smaller fixes landed.
Thanks for testing. Bug reports and "this felt wrong" notes are both useful —
the second kind especially.