Steam News7 January 20265mo ago

Development Summary - December 2025

Hey there, the Monthly Summary for December is here! Because of Christmas, Holidays etc.

Full notes

Full The First Explorers® update

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Hey there, the Monthly Summary for December is here! Because of Christmas, Holidays etc. December wasn't as productive as other months, but still I got some stuff done:

What changed

1 fix1 addition1 change0 removals

Performance
Maps

changedCharacter Related🛠️ Carrier Logic refactored into State Trees for better robustness and refactorability 🛠️ Movement Logic now works with State Trees 🛠️ Timeout for path avoidance revamped 🛠️ Carriers walk away from spawnpoint after spawn 🛠️ Carriers make space after they finished task like e.g. delivering a good 🛠️ Settlers get pushed to building boundary after construction site was finished if needed

addedBuilding Preview🎨 Terrain Hilliness preview is now more robust 🎨 Blocking actors are now drawing a blocked area onto the landscape, so the player can quickly spot where buildings can be placed (this can be water bodies, harvestables, static environment objects, etc.) <- this was more work than it should be 🥵) 🎨 Preview of blocked areas is now also context aware, e.g. the ocean is visualized as non blocking for a harbor but shows as blocking for other buildings

fixedMore Stuff🛠️ A couple of fixes in the music subsystem 🛠️ Fixed a couple of bugs across the board 🛠️ Ship arrival at harbor check is now fps independent 🛠️ Ongoing performance improvements 🎨 Fix ocean foam flickering 🎨 Fix river surface & foam mismatch ✨ Secrets

TFE Development Summary - December 2025

🛠️ Carrier Logic refactored into State Trees for better robustness and refactorability 🛠️ Movement Logic now works with State Trees 🛠️ Timeout for path avoidance revamped 🛠️ Carriers walk away from spawnpoint after spawn 🛠️ Carriers make space after they finished task like e.g. delivering a good 🛠️ Settlers get pushed to building boundary after construction site was finished if needed

Building Preview

🎨 Terrain Hilliness preview is now more robust 🎨 Blocking actors are now drawing a blocked area onto the landscape, so the player can quickly spot where buildings can be placed (this can be water bodies, harvestables, static environment objects, etc.) <- this was more work than it should be 🥵) 🎨 Preview of blocked areas is now also context aware, e.g. the ocean is visualized as non blocking for a harbor but shows as blocking for other buildings

More Stuff

🛠️ A couple of fixes in the music subsystem 🛠️ Fixed a couple of bugs across the board 🛠️ Ship arrival at harbor check is now fps independent 🛠️ Ongoing performance improvements 🎨 Fix ocean foam flickering 🎨 Fix river surface & foam mismatch ✨ Secrets

Thanks for your attention and let me know in the comments what you think about the update! See you next time!

Best, Sebastian 🙂

Source

Steam News / 7 January 2026

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