Its been about a month since the last patch and work continues! The headline of this update is a brand-new pollution loop, a major overhaul of the power and water grids (now with renewable generation), and a much richer view into how your residents are doing. With the Playtest now publicly available, the demo has been retired.
Added a new pollution system. Heavy industry now contaminates the ground around it, and that contamination spreads to nearby tiles and slowly cleans itself over time
Pollution affects your residents: dirty neighborhoods lower happiness, which in turn lowers the taxes those dwellings pay
Industry that produces wastewater must now route it somewhere
Added a Pollution overlay - a heat-map that shades the ground by how contaminated it is, so you can see at a glance where your city is dirtiest
Added renewable power generation
Added power storage and improved power transmission
Added water generation, water treatment, and improved water transmission
Reorganized the economy and added new service-based commodities and buildings
Added new Service related buildings
Rebalanced construction and operating costs across the building palette
UX: Added a detailed dwelling needs panel. Inspecting a home now shows each of its needs, how stocked each slot is, current happiness, expected daily tax, and its pollution tolerance
UX: Improved building inspection - selecting a building now highlights its area of effect more clearly with a dedicated overlay
UX: Added toggleable information overlays
UX: Improved and corrected building tooltips
UX: Added localization for several major languages
Optimized building materials for better performance
Significantly optimized the water shader for better performance
With the Playtest available, the demo will be disabled