Nova Patria Weekly Update

Ave Patricians!

Another week of steady progress across the Empire. This week’s work focused on expanding game settings, visual upgrades, and meaningful improvements to controls, UI, and performance.

Here’s what the team has been working on:

🎨 Art & Visuals

• Animated river tiles Steam post image

• Smoke/Steam updates:

  • Carts and trains no longer emit particles while stationary during unloading

  • Added smoke & steam effects to the Flavor Extractor

• City Label Updates:

  • Added masking to prevent overlap issues

  • Population circle now matches overall transparency, and have a stronger circular border Steam post image

• Smoothed out traveling resource movement transitions

🧠 Controls, Settings & UI

Keybind System

• Added a fully-featured Keybind Menu

  • Players can now customize hotkeys across the game

  • Default keybinds have been reworked to feel more intuitive and universal

Settings & Save Systems

• Added Yearly Autosave option (mutually exclusive with Monthly autosave)

• Vastly improved speed when reloading save/load menu after deleting saves

• Reorganized settings menu for better clarity and usability

UI Improvements

• Improved formatting for Population and Global Resource tooltips

• Tutorial blinks additional specific buttons to click, improving onboarding clarity

• Main menu now displays build version, map type, and map seed

⚙ Performance & Optimization

Several backend improvements were made to improve performance and scalability:

• Implemented compressed Sprite Atlases for reduced memory usage and lower rendering overhead

• Optimized sprite handling by removing unnecessary transparent padding

• Improved object pooling for traveling resources

• Reduced redundant list instantiations in simulation systems

• Travelers outside the camera view now only update position during simulation ticks (not every frame)

🛠 Bug Fixes

• Fixed residential zoning not cancelling correctly from City Center window when right-click is used to close window

• Fixed heatmap color issues affecting non-house buildings for the house-related heatmap options

Each week continues to strengthen Nova Patria - not just in how it looks, but in how it feels to play. The Empire is becoming more responsive, readable, and rewarding with every update.

To everyone following development and sharing feedback - thank you! Your input continues to shape the future of Nova Patria.

If you’re interested in becoming a part of our community, whether as a playtester or enthusiast, and follow development more closely, come hang out with us on Discord: https://discord.gg/jPsPvhMSYv

More soon!

Ad victoriam,

– The Nova Patria Team