The Violent Frontier Update

Hey Prospectors,

Today, we're proud to share our second and biggest update yet for Dawn Apart. Over the past five months, we've worked incredibly hard to add new features and systems that bring the game closer to our original vision: a challenging yet rewarding blend of colony and automation sim, built around deep, interconnected systems and set in a dynamic, increasingly hostile world. Buckle up, Prospectors, because we stand today on the edge of a new violent frontier.

Let's dive right into the four cornerstones of this massive update: Combat, Loyalty, Weather, and Structural Integrity.

🔼Survive Raids

Starting with the second night, the It'ak - the native species of Sirius B 3 - will begin raiding your compound daily, attempting to steal your hard-earned Lucrum. To survive these escalating attacks, you'll need to fortify your colony with sandbags, palisades, and barbed-wire fences, and equip your colonists with the best weapons available through space trade.

When the It'ak arrive, you'll face a difficult choice: stand your ground and engage in firefights with the risk of casualties, or sound the alarm and send everyone to a designated safe zone, sacrificing resources in the process.

Prefer to build in peace? That's fine too. Simply disable combat in the game settings and expand your colony without hostile interference.

🔼Loyalty Over Everything

As outlined in our previous Steam post, keeping your colonists loyal now requires providing proper working and living conditions. If loyalty drops too low, workers may abandon your mining operation altogether. You'll need to monitor a variety of factors that affect wellbeing, including temperature, room quality, lighting, and pollution.

Depending on the season (more on that below), rooms must be kept at comfortable temperatures using AC units, bonfires, or stoves. They should also be well lit through artificial lighting or windows and protected from pollution by venting CO2 from furnaces through air vents and chimneys.

These systems aren't purely punitive and work both ways. Clean, bright, and comfortable rooms provide stat boosts that improve colonist productivity. Beyond that, dozens of additional perks and penalties interact with each other. A private bedroom might boost morale, while witnessing a coworker's tragic death can have the opposite effect. Discovering, balancing, and exploiting these systems is now a core part of running a successful colony.

🔼Weather the Storm

We've finally added four distinct seasons to Sirius B 3, each lasting three in-game days.

Every playthrough begins during the Hotdry season, where you'll need to cool living quarters to protect your colonists from the intense heat outside. This is followed by Colddry weather, requiring you to replace AC units with bonfires or ovens to keep everyone warm.

The real challenge arrives during the Coldwet and Hotwet seasons. Rain can now damage exposed machinery and flood furnaces, disrupting your production chain. The solution? Move critical infrastructure indoors. To support this, we've added a variety of new room utilities, i ncluding conveyor-belt inlets, vents, and chimneys, allowing you to safely operate production lines inside enclosed structures during the rainy months.

🔼Integrity or Collapse

The days of floating walls, suspended machinery, and gravity-defying structures are over. Buildings now require proper structural integrity or they will collapse. Construction follows a simple rule of thumb: start with floors, add walls, and finish with a roof. Walls can no longer be placed without floor support, and roofs require walls beneath them.

This creates a more realistic and deliberate building process while also introducing new vulnerabilities. During combat, destroying a single critical support wall may be enough to bring an entire structure crashing down.

We can't wait for all of you to make planetfall once again and experience this radically evolved version of Dawn Apart. The stakes have never been higher.

The Violent Frontier awaits!

The IT&W Team

Patch Notes (Dawn Apart v0.87.5.0)

Rooms:

• Rooms can now be built by enclosing a space with walls, a floor, and a roof

• Rooms have a temperature, illumination values, and air quality which must be controlled

  • Rooms stats have a direct impact on agents that are working in them. EX: In dark rooms they are slower at crafting, but sleep better. They will complain if the room is too hot or cold which affects their loyalty.

• Added Room Type designations based on what is placed within a room

• Added wall and roof plugs that are placed on top of existing walls and roofs

• Added vents which allow for transfer of temperature, air quality, and a little bit of illumination, between two adjacent rooms

• Added Air Conditioner which cools one room and heats up

• Added Campfire which heats an area, but can catch things on fire

• Added Stove which heats an area, but emits CO2

• Added Water Cooler which cools a room and requires water

• Added the ability to gather water from rivers for agents

• Added logic to heat, illuminate, and pollute rooms when converters are working in an enclosed room

  • Pollution of combustion now based on sqrt(MJ) of fuel used

  • Non combustion machines have a flat pollution amount (equivalent to 1 MJ)

• Added logic for burning voxels to heat a room

• Added small craft speed buff to workbenches that are placed inside a room

  • Added bonus list controller which gathers and displays entity bonuses (Only workstations at the moment are implemented)

• Added Conveyor Inlet half-wall which allows for conveyors to move items into an enclosed room

• Added logic for open doors to transfer temperature, air quality, and illumination

• Agents prefer to hang out in rooms while idle

• Agents will take damage in extremely hot rooms, or rooms with extreme levels of CO2

• Added help menu entries for loyalty, rooms, room lighting, room air quality, and room temperature

• Added quest step for building a room to the tutorial

Loyalty:

• Added Loyalty to agents which trends over time based on their current modifiers

  • There are lots of things that impact agent loyalty, bad working conditions have negative effects, while living in warm rooms, and doing things they are passionate about will have positive effects

• Added various loyalty modifiers. Here are some examples:

  • ːsteamthumbsdownː Eating standing / ːsteamthumbsupː Eating Sitting

    • Agents will look for chair to sit while eating

    • Fallback to eating standing if no chair available

    • Agents like eating in a chair near a table

    • Tables and chairs are now re-enabled in prod builds

  • ːsteamthumbsupː Having their needs met

  • ːsteamthumbsdownː Poor Hygiene

  • ːsteamthumbsdownː Hungry

  • ːsteamthumbsupː Working on their passion

  • ːsteamthumbsupː Sleeping in a private room

  • ːsteamthumbsupː Sleeping in the dark

  • ːsteamthumbsdownː Living in a freezing room

  • ːsteamthumbsupː Living in a comfortable room

  • ːsteamthumbsdownː Passing out on the ground

  • ːsteamthumbsdownː Being Hurt

  • ːsteamthumbsdownːːsteamthumbsdownːːsteamthumbsdownː Another agent is killed

• Added loyalty tooltip which shows trend and loyalty modifiers

• Added loyalty modifier to pioneer modal

• Agents which reach 0 loyalty have a chance to resigning after some time

  • Disloyal agents also can't be interacted with or given orders

• Added various speech bubbles which show display when agents get new loyalty modifiers applied

Structural Integrity:

• Added new logic for wall and floor placement (Walls can only be built on floors, floors can only be built in the air if they are supported by a wall or adjacent floor)

  • Certain walls, like the palisades and sandbags, can be placed off a wall, but still require to be supported by either the ground or the floor

• Added system which calculates structural support amounts based on distance from a support anchor

• Added logic to collapse walls/floors if they are not properly support

• Added sensor system which checks for structural support before building a blueprint. All non-mounted blueprints now require to be on the ground or supported in some way

• Fixed a number of half walls having incorrect padding in the vox files

Combat:

• Enemies are now enabled by default

• Spawn first wave on night of day 2, following waves every night

• Added event message when enemy waves are spawned

• Added toast message when enemy waves retreat

• Improved shooting accuracy

• Added minimum distance for shooting reposition (prevent units from getting too close to target)

• Enlisted agent show "Enlisted" in PioneerFace when Idle or None goal

• Added Gun icon under PioneerFace if drafted

• Added Gun icon under name of drafted agent in world space gui

• It`ak move slower when carrying stolen items

• Added permanent red outline to enemies

• Added new It`ak models depending on their weapon type

• Added new Weapons Display Category and added all weapons to it

• Added FearForLifeFleeThreshold for agents which are taking damage

• Slightly increased flee distance

• Adjusted movement and productivity modifiers from health

  • Min move speed 40% -> 60%

  • Reduction is on a curve instead of being linear based on current health percent

• Reduced the size of enemy health bars

• Updated logic of displaying non-unit health bars to only show if below the repair threshold

• Fixed attack start range when chasing to properly consider target speed

• Fixed FSM targeting own head

• Fixed enlisted agents fleeing when they take damage

• Fixed stationary drafted agents not shooting at target if not close enough

• Fixed nearby danger fleeing direction not being normalized

• Fixed units causing suppression on themselves or their faction

• Fixed auto deny being applied during alarm

• Fixed fear not degrading if agent stats degredation was disabled

Weather:

• Added ambient temperature to the world

• Added ambient lighting values to the world

• Added seasons to the world which affect temperature and weather events

• Updated the world clock to display the current season and year

• Added light and heavy rain weather events

  • Agents slightly dislike being out in the rain

  • Agents hygiene level is increased in the rain

  • Buildings using combustion power sources will flood if left in the rain for a period of time

• Added temperature scale options (Celsius, Fahrenheit, Kelvin) to settings menu (Default is Celsius)

Changes:

• Block interaction with SmartObjects through Walls/Floors

• Reduced interaction positions distance by half. 1 Tile -> .5f Tiles

• Added structure demolishing

• No longer force send all agents to do Haul To orders

  • Number of agents assigned depend on amount to haul

  • Only consider idle agents (non-idle agents can still help later once they finish the current task)

• Agents no longer flee when firefighting

• Added timed FleeImmunity during which agents won't flee

• Added AgentOwnershipUtility.IsSelfOwnedTarget which checks current agent target is part of their body or held to their body

• Added logic to visually repair voxels while repairing a damaged object

• Added a system to retry building connections from time to time (fix conveyor connections)

• Added logic to fix feeder issues

• Reduced wood cost for many walls

• Added skill based chance to get extra wood from chopping

• Added additional backer names to credits

• Optimized PioneerFaceController to not redraw text if their goal doesn't change

• Optimized AmbientZone logic with new AmbientZoneManager

• Optimized Tooltip update logic

• Added throttle to stat saving to avoid writing to a file every time an item is crafted/mined

• Updated look at logic to only look at a target if they are within 2 tiles

• Wood and Mined Items now get a base haul interaction

• Added SFX for all command buttons on engage/disengage

• Added SFX for deleting blueprints

• Added SFX for hauling in context menus

General Fixes:

• Added system which watches for nan values in dynamic physics object transforms and fixes them

• Fixed issue where disableing pioneer faces would cause them to be completely rebuilt when the next one is created

• Fixed potential infinite loop when placing walls/floors when building rooms

• Fixed room tiles connections being frame rate dependent

• Fixed debug terraforming modes being available in prod builds

• Added check to launch steam if it's not running (fixes black screen on load)

• Fixed resources not properly lining up with chunk world boundaries

• Added new world regions and fixed various issues within them

• Fixed premade spawning errors when chunked objects share names

• Fixed physics velocity not getting reset for dynamic objects which have invalid transforms

• Fixed issue where disabled pioneer faces were causing issues when re-enabled

• Fixed interaction position being based on Translation which causes issues with interactions with child entities

• Fixed fire extinguishing on child entities that may not have a collider

• Fixed BurningVoxels being duplicated in certain cases

• Fixed BurningVoxels burn timers not updating in certain cases

• Fixed some cases of extinguish not causing a VoxelObjectChanged action to be applied

• Fixed GroundFlora not properly being deserialized on load

• Fixed UI sometimes showing on new game landing animation

• Fixed some trees missing interaction nodes

• Fixed first item progression trade using 5x5 ship

• Fixed trader landing/departing animation timings

• Fixed pioneer detail view enlist button not being sticky

• Fixed tooltip not blocking raycasts

• Fixed pinned tooltips potentially being hidden while hovering entities in the world

• Fixed base building detail view locate button not having the correct on click action

• Fixed multi entity select not hiding main controls

• Fixed update timing causing walls to not block conveyors

• Fixed thin walls (wood walls) not blocking conveyor

• Fixed SolveConveyorTypeAction being added to non conveyor (ie. when wall gets placed on a conveyor already moving items)

• Fixed PioneerAvatarManager camera not properly being disabled in certain cases

• Fixed Magpie lights being sunken into walls

• Fixed agents moving 1 by 1 during Alarm

• Fixed ObjectWorldSpaceController potentially getting destroyed when going back to the main menu or loading the game

• Fixed blood decal pool not being fully released when going back to the main menu or loading

• Fixed Flora Palette Data compute buffer not being released

PS If you made it this far and went through all the patch notes: these diary entries were found in the ruins of a factory of Sirius B 3 and will give you a vivid impression how the update affected the colonists;)

Life on the Violent Frontier

Day 3, Year 0001: The Night We Lost Taro

Last night our colony was raided by a bunch of green-skinned bastards armed with crude spheres and sling stones. These It’aks as they call themselves came straight for the stockpiles, packed with the supplies we need to survive and prosper on Sirius B 3 Me and a couple of the other prospectors grabbed our basic pistols and tried to scare them off, but they couldn’t have cared less. They charged us immediately, and my pal Taro had his skull crushed by a rock.

Still, we managed to put one of the bastards down, and that finally broke their nerves. The rest turned and fled into the darkness.

I rushed over to Taro, hoping to drag him into a regeneration pod, but his soul had already left this godforsaken plane for good. Standing there beside him, I swore to myself that I would never let that happen again.

That very night we built palisades, strung up barbed wire, and stacked sandbags around the colony. We traded some of our resources with a passing space trader for MPs and shotguns. Next time we'll be ready. Let them come.

Day 6, Year 0001: Loyalty or Bust

Ok, I’m not gonna sugarcoat it - colony life is slowly taking a toll on me, and I don’t know how many days I’ve got left in this brutal environment. Sure, we quickly made sure to get a roof over our heads and the basic necessities in place. But the honeymoon phase ended just as fast.

First and foremost, these extreme temperatures are killing me. At first it was unbearably hot. We tried to cool our living quarters as best we could with wet towels, but crafting on the workbench in that heat was rough. A few days later it suddenly turned freezing cold, so we had no choice than to heat things indoors with a makeshift bonfire. That, in turn, filled our rooms with smoke, so we had to install chimneys just to stop ourselves from passing out on the job.

We also barely had any daylight coming into the workshop. It was only after we installed lights and put in a few windows that things finally got better.

These pencil-pushers from the Kobayashi Schwarz Corporation better make sure our living and working conditions improve fast - or I swear I’m taking the next trade ship out of here.

Day 7, Year 001: Weather the Storm

Will this rain ever stop? After a hot, dry season and a subsequent cold, dry one, it started pouring yesterday. You step one foot outside and you’re soaked instantly, the day ruined before it even begins.

Worse, the furnaces we placed outside are slowly getting flooded, endangering the whole mining operation. The good news is we’ve already come up with a fix: set up machine shops indoors and put a roof over all smelters. This will cause a massive CO₂ buildup, but that won’t be too bad once we install chimneys in the roofs.

We can also craft inlets that let conveyor belts pass through the walls, so ore drilled outside can still find its way into the smelters. If there is one lesson I’ve learned, adapt fast. I’ll be damned if we can’t make it through the rainy season.

Day 9, Year 001: Integrity or Collapse

Let me tell you, unlike other planets with their weird sense of gravity, Sirius B 3 actually adheres to basic principles of physics - and today we found that out the hard way.

When building a new canteen, we forgot to place the floor tiles first, and after trying to erect the walls and roof, the whole edifice came down like a house of cards. That’s when we realized that everything we construct here must be structurally integral - and built to last.

Because when we get another visit from those damn It’aks, just one destroyed wall could become a liability, and everything would come crashing down.

Overall, however, I’m feeling more confident with each day of turning this Lucrum mining operation into a success. Whatever this planet throws at us, there’s always a solution. Life on the Violent Frontier changes without warning, and so must we - swiftly, relentlessly, and without hesitation.