Maia 0.51 is live! Here’s Simon playing the latest build:

64 bit Optimisation for Windows

Good news 64bit users! There’s been a change in how the game uses hardware. Maia now has both 32bit and 64bit versions on Windows, Steam will automatically detect players hardware which means those using 64bit can get improved performance and make better use of their systems RAM. Don’t worry, we’re still supporting and testing on 32bit and will be for the foreseeable future.

New Scenario Missions!

In addition to the existing sandbox, Maia now has three standalone scenario missions with directed gameplay. Fleshing out Maia’s hard science fiction narrative and lore, players now have several hours worth of missions with many more hours to be added in the upcoming months.

The current missions included in update 0.51:

Cassiopeia

An orbital habitation module has taken a direct hit from a cloud of micrometeroids. Build a sustainable colony to house the influx of survivors.

The Twilight Zone

Survive the arctic winter’s polar twilight in this remote research station. Battle with the cold and darkness to keep your colonists sane and alive





SN1572

Study the complex local ecosystem of a rapidly encroaching equatorial jungle.

Improved Chickens

Along with the addition of Avian Feeders, Uberhuhns are now a lot more intelligent. Now with their own wants and needs, chickens will feed, socialise and lay Microuberhuhns to repopulate. Slight changes have also been made to how colonists choose which chickens to eat. The avian feeders slowly supply food to the chickens as well was attracting them to certain parts of your livestock containment room with warm lighting.

Suit Refill Points

Aid your colonists expeditions across Maia’s surface with refill points. Colonists can replenish their vital needs at these stations so they can travel further out into the unknown landscape.

Solar Events

Solar events can cause your equipment to not work as intended. Players will now receive warning emails to alert them when a solar event is occuring.

Emails

Death, failure and mission emails now pop up as soon as you receive them to ensure players don’t miss important gameplay points.

UI Changes To Placing Blueprints

To simplify item creation, when the player right clicks in object building mode it will revert the mode to selection mode. Right clicking will also delete blueprints or set build objects for destruction.

Left clicking on a blueprint in selection mode will “grab” the blueprint reattaching it to the cursor and put the player back in to object build mode.

When placing objects, some items information will now show power requirements as well as current grid demand.

Info tips have now been fixed for many items including fossils, bulkhead doors, beds and plant pots.

Colonist Animation

More colonists animations to show emotional states and needs! Hungry Colonists will now grasp their stomachs to let the player know they are hungry.

Balanced Priorities

The order in which colonists will want to build atmosphere generators and doors has been changed to work smoother in emergencies, such as atmosphere loss. Research has also been broken up into over a dozen separate needs to allow the colonists to better prioritise data entry, collection and computation in the four research areas.

Utility Robots

The robots will now delegate tasks if they come across other robots. Lights have also been added to help you find them in the dark.

Support for El Capitan

We are now building and testing our OSX version of the game against El Capitan. We recommend Mac users make the free update to El Capitan for an optimum experience.

Other changes:

Fix for missing research.

Back buttons now go to menus a level above instead of the top level menu.

New technology research perks added.

All found start up and crash bugs fixed.

Blocked interaction points will no longer be advertised to the AI. (Less getting stuck in walls)

Small optimisations on world data, loading time.

Optimisation of pathfinding to save memory.

64 and 32 bit save interopability.

Tree research bugs fixed.

IV drip now provides food and water to colonists.

VO bug fixed. When stating the atmosphere is low, it’s now a lot more likely to say the room name rather than just “base”.

Seems the colonists if you worked them hard enough would get incredibly hot. They’d then start sweating so hard that they’d get drenched and rapidly cool to a dangerously low temperature. Their bodies would then burn all their energy reserves thermoregulating back up to a better temperature. They’d then starve to death. This is now fixed.

CPU optimisation for the colonists.

Building materials/minerals pick up bug fixed.

Fix to speed up AA a bit.

Code cleanup reducing memory footprint.

Cache optimisations.

Texture loading fixed.

Bugs removed from the email system.

Important emails now pop up.

Mission success and failure in sandbox.

Wind variation reduced and balanced.

Power usage and balancing tweaks.

Bugs due to new missions fixed.

We hope you enjoyed Maia’s Update, give us your feedback on the Steam Forum, on the Maia Forum or by mentioning #MaiaGame on twitter.

-Maia Team