I haven't played Maia, maybe I will never play Maia, but I enjoy watching videos of Simon Roth explaining new and changed features, particularly when his game looks so relaxing and atmospheric. Update 0.44 , among other things, rethinks the research component, while adding earthquakes, loads of new haikus, and "creepy herbivorous underground dwellers", like what your mum is. Sorry, sorry—they're a new lifeform that will "destroy your solar panels and ruin your day". There aren't too many hilarious patch notes to take out of context, but "Amnesia issue fixed. Colonists will try to remember what they are doing when the world changes" did made me chuckle a bit. Full changelist, and that video, below.
Here's the skinny on version 0.44:
- New shrubberies and a more realistic procedural planting system.
- More ground detailing.
- Linux fixes. XDG compliance and a few windowing improvements.
- Fail states when you are terrible and should feel bad.
- Hopper functionality actually working. Efficient storage of building materials.
- Amnesia issue fixed. Colonists will try to remember what they are doing when the world changes.
- Text speed variation. Larger chunks of text are drawn faster to remove waiting for it to appear.
- Animation flickering fixed.
- Fixed creatures coming into the base to sniff things.
- Colonists are no longer compulsive eaters.
- Lots of sound tweaks. Atmosphere alarms are more obvious.
- IMP lockups eradicated.
- Temporary quicksave icons on the GUI because nobody ever remembers to look up how to save.
- Death reports are no longer sent twice.
- Colonists landing from orbit are less likely to land somewhere bad.
- Lots of other small glitches fixed.
Maia , in case you'd forgotten, is a sci-fi colony sim—Phillipa Warr went hands-on with the game last year.
